14th February 2013
16:20 GMT -2
The stygian depths of the Atlantic are unusually atramentous today, with the floating continent blocking out what little light might ordinarily reach the ocean floor. Though I'm being guided by the illusionary display on Sunset's stuff detector, the fact that Atlantis has pretty much been sheared off the bedrock means that the perfectly flat plain in front of me is almost entirely free of loose sediment or other subaquatic detritus.
"Grayven here. Depositing the last
Argoribble."
I step away from the closest bunch of rocks and take out my spade. Normally I wouldn't bother, but Ahri'ahn strikes me as the sort of person who could probably track power ring activation. So manual digging is the order of the day.
"Why are you calling it that?"
Dig, and make sure that I keep each different sea floor layer separate so that I don't leave some sort of obvious sign to anyone who comes looking.
"Reality.. Generating Orb.. Radiating Baseline Earth?"
"You obviously just made that up."
"Fine, it's from an animated series I watched when I was a boy. The second time around."
"I gave it a perfectly good name."
"No, you gave it a literal description. I didn't call Wilson 'Intelligent Quadruped Planet', did I?"
"No-?"
"And that's literally what it is. No other planet in the universe has as many intelligent quadrupeds as your world." Okay, that's deep enough. I detach the last Argoribble from my harness and drop it in the hole, then put my back into covering it up. "Which is better, Argoribble or Iq'p?"
"Actually, Iq'p is a pretty close to an actual Equestrian word."
"What does it mean?"
"A plain with clear lines of sight."
Darn, that would actually work.
"Except it's not exactly 'Iq'p', it's a snort followed by an inhalation that would sound a
bit like 'Iq'p' if you were trying to write Equestrian phonemes with English characters."
Someone's been spending too much time with Twilight. "Does it work in languages other than Modern Equestrian?"
"Ah… No."
"So when you get something that the diamond dogs, griffons, sphinxes and dragons all agree on, you can toss 'Wilson' out." I attach my spade back to my harness. "It's in. Stepping back now."
"Understood. Powering them up-"
"If the continent lands on me, tell Luna that I love her."
"-now and that
won't happen. Returning Atlantis to normal won't be anything
like that easy. And, ah… I haven't calculated it
exactly, but I don't think you'd die if it landed on you."
"Yeah, but I'd get embedded in the upper sediment and digging myself out would be a
huge pain, because the boom tube aperture needs-."
"Turning them on
now."
Curious, I watch the desolate aquatic plain. There's no light down here, so…
Huh.
Felt something just then, but didn't see a thing. Though if I felt it, Ahri'ahn certainly did. Guess now's the time to start the active infiltration part.
"Moon of my heart, are you prepared?"
"We
are. We have the location of a somnolent mind, and shall begin Our ingress at once."
"Good show. See you up there."
And communication
off, because I can pretty much guarantee that Ahri'ahn will have a way of listening in on it. Swimming is even worse, because between the weight of water above me and my own non-existent buoyancy I'd have to kick up a mountain of silt to get up there.
Mother Box, Hush Tube to Lex's airport.
Ping.
I Am Conquest.
And I walk through, into a faint snowfall onto an ice-slicked runway.
I Am Conquest.
The only part of Atlantis to stick up though the ocean surface is now adding its name to the list of the world's tallest mountains at approximately seven kilometres in height.
Mountain.
Air's thin enough that most people would struggle to breathe without assistance and the slippery coating is a fairly good way to get into extreme tobogganing.
Air.
The view would be amazing if I could see anything through the fog.
Fog.
I close my eyes for a moment
and try to get a feel for the magic warping this place. Honestly, it doesn't really feel like anything; snow is snow and air is air.
Snow.
Wait, what?
Snow.
I bend down and scoop up a handful of crystals of solidified water.
Since when does snow know what it is?
Snow.
I close my right fist, and wait for the warmth of my body to melt the snow trapped between my fingers.
Snow.
It doesn't melt.
Snow.
Doesn't necessarily prove anything; the air is extremely cold here. And while I could take shelter in one of the buildings and turn on a heater to see what happened, it's not exactly of primary importance anyway. Speaking of…
Snow.
I drop the snow and march towards the small air traffic control building. Since this was only a small airport for relatively small volumes of freight, there should only be seven non-Atlantean people stationed here.
The door is magnetically locked, but the only resistance as I push it open comes from the ice that has worked its way into the crack.
"Hello? I'm here to rescue you."
Authority and Order.
"Mister Grayven, sir?" A man wrapped in multiple layers of clothing and at least two coats waddles in from the employee break room. "Oh, thank
God. What the hell's going on?"
"Evil wizard refloated Atlantis. Is it just you?"
"Short of-. Short of breath. They're laying down around the heater."
I nod approvingly. "Good plan." I walk towards the break room, picking up the man as I go. As he said, the other six are huddled up against the cold around a large electronic heater. Interesting that the generator is still working. "The airport is closed indefinitely, so I'm sending you back to LexCorp's Metropolis office."
Muffled thanks greets the pronouncement.
Mother Box, hush tube.
Ping.
Since it's not visible, I just toss the man I'm carrying through before repeating the process with the rest of them before closing the tube.
"They could have walked."
I turn to Luna… Who is dressed in the manner of an Atlantean royal, hints of the armour I made for her poking through her dress here and there. Looks good on her, actually. And she's having no trouble standing upright or breathing.
"Are you managing?"
"Honestly, this is the most comfortable I have felt in this realm. I am curious to see whether that will remain true when we visit with Queen Clea."
I nod. "You and me both."
