Absolute DC Part 7: The Eel Returns

We return now to Atlantis, the undersea kingdom of the sea-dwelling human off-shoot race called the Atlanteans. For a while now, a new form of narcotic has been hitting the black market of the undersea cities of the Atlanteans, one that cannot be detected in medical examinations. The King of Atlantis himself, Atlan Oryn Marius (aka the superhero Aquaman), has barged into a black market-controlled warehouse in the capital, flanked by his honor guard, to find and confiscate Atlantean military technology being sold to surface-world criminal cartels. Though the one controlling this gang of sea-dwelling criminals disappeared before the Atlan’s arrival, their identity remaining unknown to him, Aquaman and his guard do discover one of the perpetrators seemingly high and overdosing on something. And he is showing the same symptoms as the new narcotic, known on the streets as “Seaquake”. At a hospital, the overdosing victim they brought in is now stable. The doctors ran blood tests, and none of them test positive for any form of narcotic substance. Aquaman and Tempest, aka Atlan Orin’s former student Garth, discuss the problem of the Seaquake spread, and how it’s especially ending up in the hands of Atlantean children. Looking over the patient’s tests and scans with their best doctors, Garth noticed something in an x-ray of their brain. It appears to be plastic pieces of some miniature device lodged near the base of their ear canal. They managed to recreate a hypothetical blueprint of the device, and realize that it generates sonic waves. Seaquake is a device, not a drug! Aquaman and Tempest then request a list of all known plastic refineries in all Atlantean territories, as most likely a discontinued one is where the plastics needed to create the pill-sized device are being refined. They found one in the underwater city of Crastinus, where Garth was born. Aquaman, Tempest, and the peacekeepers organized and made their way to Crastinus. In the city of Crastinus, Aquaman’s forces encroached upon the old plastics facility and spied on the Seaquake production from afar. They discovered a crew of about 25 Atlantean criminals being led by none other than The Eel, a surface-world criminal that Aquaman battled in the past. The king gave the signal and the soldiers rushed the facility and began battling and arresting the cartel’s members. The Eel himself attacked the soldiers with the hydrokinetic technology in his suit, but Aquaman and Tempest intervened to battle him. With a lucky shot, Eel managed to fire a capsule of Seaquake into Aquaman’s ear canal, and it began affecting the king’s mental state. Tempest was left to battle the Eel and he attempted to escape through the waterways to the ocean. Garth attacked and cut open his suit, and Eel began drowning. Tempest dragged Eel back to the domed city and allowed him to breathe, but not before smashing his hydrokinetic tech. After all this, King Oryn managed to recover from the Seaquake in a hospital, the drug’s production was permanently shut down, and the Eel, aka Mortimer Coolidge, was sent back to the United States of America to await trial for his attempted to sink the city of San Diego, CA, a plot that was foiled by Aquaman in the past.

Notes:

* The name “Seaquake” comes from a robotic Golden Age enemy of Aquaman from the original comics.

* In a bit of world-building, the city of Crastinus is home to the Idyllists, a group of anti-big-government protesters who start rallying against the Atlantean peacekeepers once they arrive in Crastinus. Not to mention that Garth’s parents are members of the Idyllists, and they weren’t too fond of their son taking King Oryn’s offer to teach him when Garth was younger.