When Alakazam connected my mind to Mudkip's I listened for a good long while. I had been working out with Gurdurr, doing bicep curls. By the time Mudkip finished explaining, the weights were on the floor and I was out of the door, Gurdurr following.
Grace in her lab looked up as I stormed past, but I didn't speak to her. I just headed over to the door to the cave, putting my mask and coat on. Gurdurr hefted his I-Beam.
"Slugma!" when I called her, she poked her head out of the lava pit in the kitchen to look at me curiously. "I need you in your Pokeball. Worst comes to worst, you've got skills I can use."
"Slug!" she hopped out of the lava and ran over, smiling as I pulled her into her Pokeball.
As I left, Alakazam spoke in my mind.
"I will be ready, if you need me."
"If I need you, we might already be dead," I said bluntly. Depending on the universe, we might well be screwed either way.
I headed out to the beach, walking along it. For a moment, I felt a heck of a lot of deja vu. Me, walking down the beach to meet a DC character that Mudkip had found. Except this time, it wasn't a nice whale lady. It was a pair of badasses.
I stopped by the water, simply waiting. Gurdurr came up alongside me, stabbing his I-Beam into the beach and leaning next to me. We stood there for a moment.
"...To be honest dude, I'm getting kinda tired of all these big things happening."
"Gurdurr."
"I just want a routine. A routine. Maybe for a couple weeks. Even if the routine is just us attacking assholes."
He nodded. "Gurdurr."
"Our life has been so crazy recently. And I'll roll with it if I have too but… this needs to be the last crazy thing to pop up in our lives. Because if fucking Batman wakes me up in the middle of the night, or a Boom Tube opens in Honolulu and we have to fight off the forces of Apokolips, I'm going lose it."
Gurdurr sighed, nodding slowly.
"Kip!" a tiny blue dot appeared in the ocean, only visible if you were looking for that hint of orange on either side of his cheeks. Then he came out of the waves, running over to us. Mudkip smiled at me, then frowned. "Mudkip?"
"I'm okay," I lied, smiling.
He scowled. "Mu…"
An honest laugh left my lips. "Okay, yes, I was lying. But I'm just a little tired buddy. Once I have some rest, I'll be fine."
He gave me a skeptical look, but moved to sit beside me on his haunches.
They come out of the ocean side-by-side. Both men were tall, good looking, and muscular as Olympians. Not Olympic athletes. Olympians.
The taller of the men was Aquaman. Classic looking Aquaman, not the one from the movies. I was a fan of both, so it was super-weird to see the blonde man stride towards me in his orange costume, his beard neatly trimmed and water dripping off of him.
The other looked like Aqualad, but the second one, with short blonde hair cut extremely close to his head, his dark skin shining wetly. He wore the same red vest as the one from the comics I'd read, and had a pair of sword handles on his back.
The pair slowly came over to me, stopping a respectful distance away. "Hello," Aquaman said calmly, looking me up and down. "I suppose you would be the 'Master' of that little one."
He said the word 'Master' with a hint of scorn.
"Master as in teacher, trainer, coach. Not a slave thing," I said immediately. "Mudkip is my friend. Family."
"Kip!" the little guy agreed.
Aquaman and Aqualad shared a look, the former smiling. "So he said. But I wanted to be sure. I am Arthur Curry."
I cocked my head to the side. "Really? We're all gonna pretend like you're not one of the most famous figures on the planet?"
He grinned. "Honestly, most people don't seem to know much about me beyond that I talk to fish."
"Most people are stupid."
He shrugged. "And you?"
"You're king of 75 percent of the world, you can rip a car in half, control sharks, and you can box with Superman. I'm still stupid though, if we're being honest."
Kaldur smirked just a bit, while Aquaman seemed to relax.
"So," I said slowly. "I suppose I should ask why we're meeting?"
"A few reasons, to be honest," Aquaman looked around. "I don't suppose we have somewhere we can talk?"
I thought about that.
"H-Here are your orders!" a very nervous young woman said, placing down orders of Garlic shrimp for us. She stared for a moment.
We were still outside, but had moved to a clearing next to the ocean. A food truck covered in names was sat there, where a pair of chefs were staring at us with wide eyes through the open windows they served food from. I'd moved us over to it, as it had great food and was very close by.
Mudkip was sitting on the table, eyes wide as he stared at his plate of food with drool at the edge of his mouth. Aquaman and Lad took their own plates and placed them in front of them. Gurdurr was sipping at a Bepsi, while I took out my wallet.
"D-Do you need anything else?" the waitress asked us.
"Just bring the other orders over when you're ready," I handed her five hundred dollar bills. She gaped at them. "Keep the change and don't upload anything to social media until we leave. If you do, they'll sign anything for you that you want."
When I gestured to an amused Aquaman and nonplussed Aqualad she nodded so fast her head was a blur. "Y-Yes!"
She ran back to the truck, speaking furiously to the chefs inside, while Aquaman arched his eyebrow. "Generous of you."
"Not really. I'm using an assholes bank account for it."
Aquaman snorted.
We chowed down for a moment, me lifting my mask the barest amount to slip the garlic shrimp into my mouth. Between all of us, we cleaned our plates of the food. Once done, Kaldur sighed happily. "That was very delicious. Reminds me of similar Atlantean dishes."
"It was great," I wiped my fingers on a napkin. "There's another place I hear is pretty good, but it was a bit far. And recommended by someone I'm half-sure was just messing with me."
"What was it called?" Kaldur asked.
"Giovanni's Shrimp Truck," and no, it wasn't a joke. Place existed. Just wasn't sure if the food there tasted good or if the former Rocket leader just thought he was funny. I looked over at the chefs and waitress. All three were still staring at us, but were too far to hear anything.
"Okay, so. Let's talk," I leaned forward.
"Yes, let's," Aquaman rubbed his beard. I felt a bit of jealousy at that. I missed my beard… "As you might know, I tend to come by Hawaii quite often. It's one of many islands I used to patrol in my younger days, and still somewhere where I come to aid those who need help. And recently, when I was preparing for a visit a week from now, I heard from some local sealife of an unusual blue creature hunting in the ocean nearby. Now, that was enough for me to look into things."
Fish are gossipy bitches, I swear.
Aquaman rubbed his chin. "It doesn't take the detective skill of Batman to find out about you. You've created quite a stir in the area. And more recently, a dolphin pod I know told me a strange version of their Orca cousins was seen in the waters. With that, as well as the news reports, I decided to speed up my visit and get the measure of you."
"Gonna bring me in for vigilantism?" I asked. I wasn't being sarcastic or anything, I genuinely wanted to know.
Aquaman smirked. "If I did, I would need to bring in many members of the League. We may be sanctioned to operate in certain countries under the UN Charter, but we all started by just helping who we could help."
Well shoot, that must have been useful.
"Chalk it up to curiosity I suppose," Aquaman said with a shrug. "I would like to believe that you are a hero. That you are trying to help people. But I have been fooled before."
The last was said in a bitter, almost dark tone.
Kaldur spoke up. "We were also wondering about the woman that the local sealife spoke of. An Orca Atlantean. Is she someone you met through Mudkip?"
"Yes, I met her through Mudkip. But she isn't Atlantean," I said slowly. "I'm not going to explain what she is or how things went down though. That's up to her to say."
Aquaman frowned, though he didn't seem too surprised. He'd likely seen much weirder. "May we meet her?"
I reached out mentally. Alakazam, currently hiding close by, relayed my message to Grace.
Of course I had Alakazam waiting nearby. Not a chance I wouldn't have my strongest ally waiting. If Aquaman had decided to arrest me, Alakazam would help us escape. Not beat him. Escape.
He was fucking Aquaman, no way would we win a fight with him.
"I've asked her," I said calmly.
"Thank you," Aquaman then leaned forward. "Now… The Silicon Dragons."
Kaldur frowned. "My king, have you fought them before?"
"Rarely. Despite my best efforts, my focus has needed to be spread across the ocean," he said regretfully. "I've taken down some of their larger operations, but I've always needed to put my attention on larger issues."
I scowled. "Damnit. I don't blame you. Just wish the problem didn't exist in the first place."
"Sorry," Aquaman said with some guilt. "I do have to ask. While I wasn't familiar with their policy of escalation before, the news has started talking about it obsessively. And the Dragons creating a monster, hiring a villain, specifically to attack you? That's worrying."
"I'll have to deal with it either way. That's what this stuff is like. Bad guys do things, heroes stop them, bad guys try to kill heroes, fail, upgrade and try again, rinse and repeat," I rubbed the back of my head. "The Silicon Dragons try to claim their rule makes them special. But every two-bit bad guy with a grudge and just a hint of intelligence would do shit like this. You can't tell me Black Manta hasn't been upgrading himself from the second he first fought you."
"...Who are you?"
I blinked at Aquaman. He smiled just a bit. "Who are you, Kahu Kia'i? Not your secret identity. I mean who are you? Why are you in Hawaii, trying to be a hero? Where did you, and these friends of yours," he looked at Gurdurr and Mudkip. "Come from?"
I thought about that. I didn't want to tell him everything. That I came from a world where he was are a couple of things people shouldn't share, if only to have an advantage others couldn't predict. But… just a bit should be okay.
"I come from a world of Pokemon. Where creatures like these are as common as animals are here. More so really. And in that world, I was hunting down a group of villains known as 'Team Rainbow Rocket'."
Aquaman quirked an eye at that.
"Yeah, dumb name, I know. But they were causing issues and they had something I wanted. So I didn't feel bad about hunting them down where I could and shutting them down. However, at one point, I got shoved into this world through a dimensional portal they made."
"Oh, so, world as in an alternate universe, not another planet," Aquaman clarified.
"Ah, yeah, alternate universe. Sorry, forgot to specify. Anyways, they dropped me here. And my plan, to tell the selfish truth, was to keep my head down. I didn't want to cause trouble if I could help it. It didn't work though, because we ended up fighting crime again anyways," I sighed. "Right now, one of our goals is to find a way back home. But I don't want to go without making sure to take out the bunch of assholes that are literally killing children."
Both men's faces became stone, anger flickering in their eyes. Kaldur shook his head. "In that case, I would like to help you. My king?"
"I agree," Aquaman smiled at me. "If you wish for assistance, you can ask for it."
"I'm good for now," I said, surprising the two. "Right now, the Silicon Dragons don't know what I can really do. They think they do, and they're preparing for that, but the fact they underestimate me is keeping them from being as much of a threat as they could be. But you two are somewhat known quantities. If they find out Aquaman and Aqualad are available to help me, then I might end up dealing with things way over our power level before we can be ready to hit it."
"You may be overestimating how well known I am, though," Kaldur said humbly.
"You have a fansite dedicated to your abs."
He blinked, staring at me. "...I do?"
"I looked up every superhero I could when I got here. You may not be super famous, but you do have a couple of fans," I frowned thoughtfully. "I'll think about it though."
"You realize I could simply start fighting them on my own?" Aquaman pointed out.
"Have at it," I said with a shrug. "But I'm likely going to be the permanent presence in Hawaii, so let's avoid the Silicon Dragons dropping A-List threats on my D-List ass."
Kaldur snorted at that, but otherwise nodded.
"She says she would like to meet them," Alakazam whispered to me mentally.
"My Orca friend would like to meet you," I got up from my seat, Mudkip hopping onto my shoulder. "We'll teleport over to my base."
"You have a base?" Kaldur asked.
"It's honestly just a cave," I admitted.
"Oh?" Aquaman grinned. "You know, you remind me of a friend of mine."
I refrained from joking about how my cave wasn't as sweet as Bruce's. After all, how would a random dude like me know that?
"I just need to introduce you to someone," I looked to my left. From the woods, Alakazam floated down to join us. His eyes were on Aquaman and Kaldur, nodding to them. "This is Alakazam."
"Good morning," Alakazam said in our minds. Kaldur flinched, not used to the sensation, but Aquaman only cocked his head to the side.
"Interesting. Psychic?"
"Indeed I am," Alakazam bowed grandly. "A pleasure to meet you both."
"I suppose you have your own Justice League," Aquaman joked as Alakazam joined us.
"Kip," the little guy said proudly.
"You haven't shown up in any footage seen of Kahu," Aquaman noted, looking over at me. "Why is that?"
" Same reason you don't show your trump cards in Poker."
"That's not how poker works," Aquaman said.
"Point is, he's a trump card that kicks ass," one of a few I had. "Alakazam," I said. "Port us in please."
"Of course," he looked Aquaman and Kaldur over. "I assume you both are familiar with the discomfort similar transportation can cause?"
"A little bit," Kaldur said.
"Then be prepared," he closed his eyes. And we disappeared, leaving a very confused group of food truck employees.
When we reappeared in the cave, Aquaman blinked. "Huh. Martian Manhunter hasn't done anything like that."
"He may have remarkable raw power as a psychic, but I believe I match him in terms of flexibility," Alakazam said with a hint of smugness.
I rolled my eyes at that. Then I remembered something and cursed aloud. "Damnit, I forgot the orders I asked for for everyone else!"
Everyone turned to look at me. Alakazam smugly raised a bag he had been holding behind his back, the smell of Hawaiian delicacies coming from it strong. "What would you do without me?"
"Walk a lot more. Maybe get a helicopter," I said, trying to poke his ego a bit. The uncaring way he continued walking told me I'd failed.
"Mudkip!" the little guy told Aquaman and I before running off.
"Not a bad base," Aquaman said casually, looking around as he did, noting the kitchen and the pool of lava within. "Reminds me of an old one the League worked out of. Just smaller."
"I'm probably going to expand at some point," I said, nodding to Gurdurr, who gave Kaldur and Aquaman a look. Then, to my amusement, he pointed at his eyes with two fingers, pointed them at the two Atlantean-human hybrids, and walked away.
"Does he not like us?" Kaldur asked me.
"He doesn't like people he doesn't trust. As far as he knows, you two are unknown superhumans walking around our base. Can you blame his paranoia?" I asked Kaldur.
"And you don't feel the same?" Aquaman asked me.
"I do for most people. But I'm going to guess joining the surface world, kicking ass for the side of good, joining the League, was not all some long, convoluted, over the top plan to somehow gain my trust," I thought for a sec. "Which is a long way of saying your rep precedes you."
As I'd been saying that, Mudkip was coming back. And Grace followed him. "Kahu, Mudkip pulled me over here. Did you need something...? Oh. Wow."
Aquaman and Kaldur turned to see the tall Orca woman enter. They didn't seem shocked by her appearance, instead smiling just a bit. Grace was wearing a plus-size purple sweater and jeans. She walked up nervously. "H-Hello."
"Greetings," Aquaman said, stepping forward and holding out his hand. "I am-"
"A-Aquaman!" she grabbed his hand, shaking it up and down. "I know! I'm such a huge fan! I based a lot of my work off of theories on Atlantean evolution!"
"Your work?" Aquaman asked.
"Grace is a scientist, working on her doctorate," I said. "And a smart as fuck one, too."
"A scientist," Kaldur walked over to shake hands with Grace as well. "Is that how…?"
"I became Shamu?" Grace joked, though there was a hint of bitterness to it. "Yeah. Before this I was trying to use samples of Orca tissue in my research on spinal cord regeneration. But then,"
She gave the duo a breakdown of how everything went, explaining how the Dragons had attacked and forced her to use her serum to keep it out of their hands. I let her talk while I went to the kitchen and released Slugma from her Pokeball. She looked up curiously at me.
"Slugma?"
"I don't think so. But stay near just in case," I'll be honest. Even as I said that, I felt like a heel. Aquaman was a hero. And here I was getting ready to have Slugma hit him with fire if need be.
I pushed that thought away. Even if it made me feel like scum, I'd need to be prepared. Better safe.
Aquaman's reputation did precede him. The reputation of the multiverse, including the ones where he declared war on mankind. And the ones where he was just kind of a dick. This one seemed nice, but better not to take chances.
I made coffee as Slugma watched calmly.
"May I help you?" Kaldur asked behind me.
"FUCK!" I jumped, spinning to look at him. "Dude! Don't sneak up on people."
To his credit, he did look a little chagrined. "My apologies. I was hoping I could aid you in making the coffee."
"Yeah… yeah, sure thing," I pointed at the drawers we'd gotten. "If you can grab the cups and what not, that would be great."
He nodded seriously and walked over to do as I asked. It was interesting, watching him out of the corner of my eye. He was around my body's age, but he felt more mature than that. And the way he moved reminded me of some friends who had gone on tour after high school. Still young, but hardened, disciplined by a life of battle.
Soon enough, I had the coffee fixed up, as well as tea, since Grace preferred it. After setting up the table, Kaldur went to get everyone. As he left, Mudkip entered. He hopped up onto the counter and looked at me.
"You seem pleased," I said with some sarcasm.
He shrugged. "Kip."
"Yeah, I guess they were looking for you. And if you tried to run, they'd follow," I mused. "Still. Maybe next time, direct them somewhere other than the beach and hold back on the info you give."
Mudkip frowned, pursing his lips. Finally nodded. "Mud."
"Are we interrupting?" Aquaman said, walking in with Kaldur, Grace, and Alakazam.
"Nope," I gestured towards the table, which they all sat at. I joined them, taking a cup for myself. "So. What's the verdict?"
"As of right now, none," Aquaman said with a sardonic grin. "I'm not a scientist or a magician, so I'm not sure what to make of Ms. Balin's transformation. Still. I do know some people who are currently doing research on the methods Atlanteans used originally to transform us to our current forms."
"I'd like to meet them," Grace told me. "Maybe, if we can get our heads together, not only can we get a cure for me, but a cure for anyone that the Silicon Dragons turn into monsters! I might even be able to complete my previous research!"
She had a wide and pure smile on her face as she spoke, before a hint of nervousness appeared in her eyes. "But um, we might need to invite them here? Or I would have to go to Atlantis."
"Hn," I grunted, taking a sip of my coffee. "More people in my cave… I don't like it. Even if you guys don't technically know where it is."
"You really do remind me of Batman," Aquaman said humorously.
"Batman could beat me like a rented drum and steal my girlfriend while he's at it," I snarked, placing my drink down. "Look, we'll set up some way to pass information then. Maybe meet at a secondary location. Worst comes to worse, we can have your people visit here. I guess," I grumbled. "What do you want in return?"
"Mostly to help," Aquaman said, getting serious. "I don't really need anything in particular. If you two are part of the effort to protect Hawaii, then this is part of it now."
Hn. Fine, that was fair.
"Well, if you end up running into any cool swords or anything you feel like tossing my way, let me know," I joked lightly.
"Mudkip!" the little guy said.
"I don't know if we have guns like that," Aquaman said while I glared at Mudkip. He chuckled. "I'll let you know if something comes up."
Alakazam spoke up then. "We may need to trade some lines of communication. Do you have access to the surface's internet?"
"We do," Kaldur said. "I can give you my email and other information. And of course," he looked over at Aquaman, who nodded. "Feel free to call on me, if you ever have need of someone on a mission."
I raised an eyebrow. That could be useful… I'd do my best not to though. Like I'd said earlier. The second the Dragons thought Atlantis was at my side, they'd upgun enough that I really might need to call the League for help. Better to keep to my original team for now.
Still, if some other fuckers showed up that we couldn't handle, Kaldur was first on my list.
"There is also something else," Alakazam said. "We may have a lead on our other project…"
Grace Balin/Orca
Earlier, while Kahu and Kaldur were making coffee
"I'm glad, Mrs. Balin, that you are doing well," Aquaman said with kindness in his eyes.
AQUAMAN. Grace had to physically stop herself from freaking out. He was a superhero! A celebrity! And his pecs were screaming at her to stare at them.
She kept her cool as best as she could though. "I am. It took a lot of getting used to. But Kahu and everyone else have helped me a lot."
He raised a hand to his chin, scratching at his beard. "Yeah… about that. Do you want to stay here?"
"Huh?"
Aquaman lowered his hand from his beard. "I wouldn't mind having you in Atlantis, if you wanted? We have more than enough experience in housing those with mammalian mutations, so you don't need to worry about breathing underwater. You can stay, research, and keep out of fighting."
Grace stared at him. What he was offering her was an immense opportunity. Marine biologists had dreamed of visiting Atlantis ever since it became confirmed fact. Working with Atlantean scientists, living under the ocean and seeing the wonders of an ancient city of creatures and people no one ever had!
She wanted to say yes so badly. But…
"I'd like to visit," Grace said diplomatically.
"Not live there?" Aquaman immediately understood.
Grace shook her head with a small upturn of her lips. "I have to stay here. I'm going to fight. Hawaii may not be where I was born, but it's my home now. Plus, the Silicon Dragons are using my formula to make supersoldiers."
"You know that's not-" Aquaman began to protest, only for Grace to chuckle.
"Sorry. It's just, everyone has been telling me that for a while. Kahu, Alakazam, Gio-A friend of ours," she cut herself off before she finished Giovanni's name. "They all say I shouldn't blame myself. But even if I didn't feel responsible, I'd still want to help. And Kahu is the only one who is really fighting them."
She lifted her hands and clenched them into fists, looking down at them. "So I'll stay here. Do my research and fight until the Dragons are finished."
Aquaman looked at her. For just a moment, Grace felt like she was standing in front of her professors. Getting judged in some way she couldn't understand. She straightened up, something he seemed to notice. Aquaman smiled.
"Well, that's fine. Open invitation for now. If I have Kahu Kiaʻi read right, he's probably going to be willing to work with me," he smiled just a bit. "He's a bit… rough around the edges, isn't he? Especially for someone who looks like they should be in high school, or college."
"He is," Grace said fondly. "But he's a lot nicer than he pretends to be."
"So Mudkip told me," Aquaman chuckled.
Before they could continue speaking, Alakazam entered the room. He walked in, rather than doing that floating meditative stance he seemed to prefer for movement. He looked up at Grace and Aquaman.
"Is there something you need, Alakazam?" Grace asked curiously.
"...Perhaps," he said mysteriously. "Aquaman. Do you have any familiarity with interdimensional travel? Or know of anyone who does?"
Aquaman raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "I might know a guy."
Alakazam slowly smiled, a hint of satisfaction in his eyes.
Author's Note: So yeah, Aquaman! To be fair, he and Kaldur won't be regulars. The story's focus is still going to be relatively tight, but they'll show up a bit, especially to give Kahu backup if the worst happens.
This is good for Kahu and team, but will also have some unintended consequences they can't see just yet.
Next chapters, some rest and routine. Kahu has had way too many revelations recently. Time for some version of normal.
In the meantime, please consider supporting me on . I'll have the next chapter up there asap, as well as my Bowser SI and Ben 10 SI stories. Thanks for everything.