[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/HS4Hboq.png[/img][/center]
[b]New Atlantis, Atlantis[/b]

[color=#ffffff]There was a broad smile across Sue Storm’s face. The man she loved with her whole was about to propose. At least, she presumed as much – why else would Reed Richards be on one knee with ring box in hand? There was a bashful grin on his face, prouder than any she had ever seen on it before, as he tried to summon up the strength to speak the words he’d clearly rehearsed a thousand times, if not more. The quiet corner of Central Park they had carved out for themselves was so quiet that even at a near-whisper Reed’s voice was still audible.[/color]

[color=#3d85c6]“Susan Victoria Richards, over the past four years, we have shared more adventures than I can remember and in that time you have proved to be the best friend – and though Ben and Johnny [i]certainly[/i] wouldn’t thank me for this – the best teammate that I could have ever asked f-”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]A sudden blast shook the park. In the distance a blinding light shone. Sue looked towards it and let out a gasp as its light came charging towards them. She looked towards her fiance, who was scrambling around for the ring box he had dropped the ground, and let out a piercing scream as Reed’s face was torn apart by the blast as if his skin were made of ash. She was still screaming in her dream when her eyes awoke.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]She was no longer in Central Park and Reed Richards was nowhere to be seen. In his place was a figure that was as discomforting as the thought of Reed was comforting. It took only one glance at the man’s purple and grey armour to identify him. For whatever reason, however she had ended up there, Orm Marius was standing guard over Sue Storm’s hospital room. He did not look at all happy to have been relegated to such a lowly duty but he stood sentinel still all the same.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Sue stole a glance at him through eyes that were bruised and blackened. Her whole body hurt. Orm glanced over his shoulder in her direction and Sue’s eyes shut again. She couldn’t bear to feel the weight of the general’s gaze on her – there was something about him that made Sue feel comfortable, something that she knew to distrust, and those orange lenses did little to convince her otherwise.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]A voice devoid of emotion forced its way through Orm’s paper-thin lips and slithered across the room.[/color][color=#9900ff] “I know you are awake, surface-dweller.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Sue’s blood ran cold at the sound of Orm’s voice. Her body was still so battered that she could barely keep her eyes open long enough to see the Atlantean general skulk from across the room towards her bedside. Yet she could feel his shadow looming over her and feel the sound of his armour moving gently as he breathed.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Her eyes still closed, Sue tried to summon up the strength to speak. When she did, her wavering voice was coarse and quiet. [/color][color=#9fc5e8]“Where am I?”[/color]

[color=#9900ff]“You are safe,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Orm sneered. Sue didn't need to see his face to feel the contempt dripping from his every word.[/color][color=#9900ff] “Sixty-two Atlanteans lost their lives in the attack, the princess’s life hangs in the balance, but it appears that your powers shielded you from the worst of the explosion.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The number struck Sue in the chest like a sledgehammer and she felt wet on her cheeks. It took her a few moments to realise she was crying. The tears stung against the scratch marks on her face. Sue began to try to piece together what had happened but her memories were hazy.[/color]

[color=#9fc5e8]“I’m sorry, Orm,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Sue murmured as she forced upon her teary eyes to look up at the Atlantean. [/color][color=#9fc5e8]“I’m [i]so[/i] sorry.”[/color]

[color=#9900ff]“General Marius,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Orm responded icily.[/color]

[color=#9fc5e8]“The girl,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Sue whispered almost to herself rather than the general.[/color][color=#9fc5e8] “One moment she was smiling and then the next she … she [i]exploded[/i]? Who was she? None of this makes any sense.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]From behind the orange lenses set into his helmet, Orm’s eyes narrowed. There was no anger in them, only a steely, emotionless judgement. The large gauntlets wrapped around his hands wrapped around the edge of Sue Storm’s bed tightly and he leant towards her ever so slightly. He was close enough now for Sue to see the shoots of black hair beneath his helm and to make out the beady, brown eyes locked on her.[/color]

[color=#9900ff]“Of course it doesn’t make sense to you. Why would it? This is not your world. You know nothing[i] [/i]of our people. The history of Atlantis is not in your blood, as it is in mine and [i]was[/i] in theirs, and [i]still[/i] you presume yourself qualified to advise our king on the affairs of the Atlantean state.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]One of Orm’s gauntleted hands released its clutch on the side of Sue’s bed and reached towards her frail form. She felt the Atlantean’s armoured fingers wrap tight around the collar of her bedgown and tug her slightly towards him. Her heart raced and her palms grew sweaty with shock. She was too weak to stop him, she knew that, and her powers seemed to have been sapped by protecting her from the explosion.[/color]

[color=#9900ff]“The girl was with the Drowned,"[/color] Orm spat the last word like its presence in his mouth disgusted him. [color=#9900ff]"Manta struck at the heart of Atlantis – at our [i]very [/i]capital – and because of your weakness, our kingdom is shaken to its very core. All of Atlantis saw you bid the king invite the girl onto the stage. And yet while freeborn Atlantean men lie dead, you still draw breath. Where is the [i]justice [/i]in that?”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Sue fought through the pain to lift one of her hands towards her collar and attempt to prize Orm away from it. [/color][color=#9fc5e8]“I want to speak to the king.”[/color]

[color=#9900ff]“No, I think you have done [i]enough[/i] damage," [/color][color=#ffffff]the general sneered as he slapped Sue’s hand away like a gnat.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Something seemed to turn on in Orm’s brain. The brown orbs behind the general’s lensed helmet lost their frigid cold and instead became fiery hot. He lifted his other hand from the side of the bed and clamped it around Sue’s neck. She let out a pained sob as it tightened around his throat. Orm reinforced it with his other hand and began to squeeze until Sue’s already-bruised face began to turn red.[/color]

[color=#9900ff]“Once I am done scalding Manta and his adherents from the face of our kingdom, your[i] [/i]world will be next, [i]Susan[/i]. Know that your actions have guided the king’s hand towards war with the surface world more readily than any of my treatises ever could. Even now, my men make their way towards Maine to destroy that [i]pretender[/i] to the thr-”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Sue’s nails were busy scratching helplessly against Orm’s gauntlets when a sudden knock on the door made the general release his hold on her neck. She took a sudden, desperate breath of air as the Atlantean let her body flop weakly back onto the bed. Orm sneered down at her as the door crept open and a young woman, no older than seventeen or eighteen from the look of her, appeared in the doorway of the room.[/color]

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Srjstaj.jpg[/img][/center]
[color=#ffffff]Her fiery red hair seemed to have a life of its own. Atop her head was rested what looked like a crown, though Sue had never seen any princess other than Namora since arriving in Atlantis, nor heard talk of one, but from the way the girl carried herself it was clear she was nobility – or at least used to be. Upon noticing Sue struggling for breath she pursed her lips and looked towards the ground, perhaps afraid of incurring the general’s wrath.[/color]

[color=#ff9900]“General Marius, the king requests your presence.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]A flicker of annoyance crossed Orm’s face. He stepped back from Sue’s bed and his eyes seemed to revert back to their usual emotionless state. Sue rubbed at her sore throat as she watched the general match across the room towards the messenger girl. He stopped in front of her and looked her up and down. [/color]

[color=#9900ff]“Xebellian vermin,” [/color][color=#ffffff]he muttered and let out a mouthful of spit that landed loudly at the red-haired young woman’s feet before exiting the room.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The young woman until Orm was out of earshot before making her way towards Sue’s bed. Without asking she pulled up a seat beside Sue and began inspecting the choke marks around her neck. Once the Xebellian had seen enough, her fingers began to glow with a blue energy that Sue didn’t recognise. The Invisible Woman drew back in her bed somewhat but the young girl reassured her with a smile and slowly the bruising on Sue’s neck disappeared.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]With that the girl turned to leave. She was halfway across the room when something that Orm had said seemed to stick in Sue’s mind. [i]Maine[/i]. [/color]

[color=#9fc5e8]“Orm said you were from Xebel?” [/color][color=#ffffff]Sue called out to the young woman.[/color][color=#9fc5e8] “Is that right?”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The girl turned to face Sue and nodded guilty in her direction. [/color][color=#ff9900]“Yes, I am.”[/color]

[color=#9fc5e8]“I didn’t realise that there were any Xebellians left.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The softness in Sue’s voice seemed to catch the red-haired woman off guard. It was almost as if she was suspicious that Sue’s interest was a trap of some sort. When she spoke next she adopted a posture and a tone of voice that seemed to indicate that she was simply going through the motions – as if she had been forced to account for her people for many years.[/color]

[color=#ff9900]“My people were [i]rightly [/i]punished for siding with the traitor Atlan during the Glorious Reclama-”[/color]

[color=#9fc5e8]“Stop it,” [/color][color=#ffffff]Sue said firmly. She beckoned the girl to return to the seat at her bedside with a smile.[/color][color=#9fc5e8] “You don’t have to do that. Not with me.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Hearing the words leave Sue’s mouth was like a weight lifted off the young woman’s shoulders. She sunk into the seat by Sue’s bed and let out a heavy sigh of relief at not having to live a lie for the briefest of moments. Sue pulled herself to the edge of the bed and placed her hand on the girl’s shoulder with a maternal squeeze.[/color]

[color=#9fc5e8]“What’s your name?”[/color]

From the way that the young girl looked at her it was clear that no-one had thought to ask her name in a very long time. [color=#ff9900]“My name is Mera.”[/color]