[Center][Color=FFA500][H1]Justice League Origins[/H1][/Color][/Center]

[B]The Castle Foyer
The Lost City of Atlantis[/B]

The glossy orange scale mail Orin was wearing immediately registered in his mind as the poorest choice for a stealth mission. But fortunately, this was not the time for stealth, he'd already taken back his fortress, now was the time for action, to repel whatever invaders had come to his home. Hopefully, the colorful garb of an Atlantean military general in chief would inspire his troops rather than paint a target on his back.

"King Orin, the surface dwellers are outside the castle walls, the royal guard is holding them back as best they can, but they've quickly become overwhelmed and have had several casualties."

The King thought for a tense moment before opting to preserve the lives of his men. [Color=FFA500]"Tell them all they have permission to retreat without penalty,"[/Color] he said, balancing his trident in hand before peeking through the peephole of his giant door.

The courtyard was a mess of clustered comrades landing endlessly fruitless strokes against the titanic machines. They were developed for the subaquatic conditions. Rather than having legs to stand on, they resembled mechanical 'mermen' with tails covered by sturdy yet flexible overlapping plates that trailed their slender, powerful torsos with tentacles and bulbous heads on their shoulders.

[Color=FFA500]"Garth, execute the beached whale maneuver as many times as it will work,"[/Color] he confidently commanded his younger associate as he cracked the door, slipping through it and into his courtyard.

[Color=Firebrick]"Yes, my lord,"[/Color] he uttered as he closely matched the path of his king.

The two of them swam right up to the most exhausted looking lone guardsman, Arthur laid a heavy hand on his shoulder, relieving him of the battle. The behemoths' tentacles swished around Arthur, preparing to wrap him like an a boa would to a rabbit. But the efforts were countered by Orin thrusting his trident and snagging the tentacles in the spaces between it's points. To limit it's use of them, he spun his trident's handle, with the appendages reduced to spaghetti on a fork when the king forced the weapon into the soil beneath his feet. Taking advantage of the opening, Garth began to summon a skyward column of light that touched down on the grounded machine before spreading out into a bubble, trapping it in a pocket of air that proved debilitating to the aquatic war machine.

As it squirmed on the coral that took place of the grass found outside surface castles, the fight was made easier when by the fact that it was being crushed by its own weight. Focusing the power his whole soul into his fists, with every bit of resolve he could scrounge up, Arthur broke the hull of the machine, plunging his fist into its core and ripping out everything that felt important. Naturally, the jagged edges left scratches on his gloves, but they were designed for extreme protection. In a matter of seconds, a black stream of oil began to leak, so Orin stopped. One of the very reasons that Atlanteans despised surface dwellers, with complete rationality when you're unbiased about the subject, was the plague of black blood that had left a trail of death wherever the current would take it. He couldn't have that. So with the utmost haste, he snatched a nearby sponge from the seafloor and packed it into the breech.

As the sponge blackened, it still bled out like it was a bottle tipped upside down. A few of the royal guardsmen had their battle mages perform the same feat to the best of their ability. But they all were horrified by the liquid death that spouted from the metal corpses. Even though the tide had turned in their favor, Arthur was unwilling to be responsible for any amount of his subjects dying from toxic ingestion.

[Color=Orange]"Garth, you are now the leader of Atlantis. Forget my palace, find Vulko, and protect my people. I have to go,"[/Color] to protect the denizens of the deep, he was willing to risk his throne, even his life. [Color=Orange]"With Atlantis under attack, I have no choice but to get help. Metropolis' Superman would even be appreciated,"[/Color] he said, not realizing how much of the world was being razed by the invaders. But, at that, Orin pressed off, bursting through the water like a giant bullet. Within hours, he'd be on the coast of America.

Watching the king swim away, Garth was confused and shocked. He'd never set foot on dry land and hadn't a clue what Metropolis or a Superman was.