2012-07-27 Aquatic Encounters

Something is going on off the coast of Metropolis this afternoon. Several passing boats have spotted it, a few sightings from the air, but nobody is quite sure what it is yet. A swath of water has been turned a sickly green color, a viscous, dark hue that's floating up to the immediate surface. Authorities have yet to respond, but the word is getting around slowly but surely.
 
 
And on the beach is one of those people that just happens to have been on his way home. Jackson's stay in Metropolis is finished, his business done, and he was about to start the trip back to the Tower before the disturbance was spotted. He's watched it from the shore for a few minutes, assessed, and now it's time for a closer look. He cuts through the water like a knife, gills and webbing popping from his skin, propelling him onward.
 
While the US Government was hoping to put Aspen in DC, she nixed that pretty quickly. The Potomac river just wasn't a substitute for the ocean. They made a definite preference for her to be on the East Coast and so she's in Metropolis. After a long, tiring day of looking at potential sites for the Embassy, she's more than ready to slip into the water. Being out of it so long has made her even more exhausted than she might otherwise be. She's picked up on the disturbance in the water as well and Aqualad suddenly has someone swimming up on his side. No webbing or gills, but she moves through the water far faster than any swimmer should wearing some sort of bikini with reinforced plates of coral.
 
 
This is new. As far as he knows, Aquaman is the only Atlantean that ventures anywhere near the shore, let alone a populated human city. She's not immediate recognizable either, and, who knows, she might not even be from Atlantis. It's probably a credit to Aqualad that he doesn't stop dead in his tracks, even if he does lose a good deal of momentum when his head jerks toward the woman in the water. It's enough of a distracted that he almost moves into the radius of the discoloration in the water, but he does manage to stop himself before he crosses that threshold. "Are you?" And he waits, apparently for her to finish the rest.
 
 
Aspen is still new to the underwater life. Why wouldn't people in this ocean come near the shore? Aspen grins at Aqualad as he looks over at her, followed by eyes going a little wide with worried surprise as he jerks a bit. "Sorry! I didn't mean to startle you!" She quickly assures him. Then she's offering her hand in a rather normal surface-dweller fashion. "I'm Aspen."
 
 
"Hi." It's a bit awkward at first, if only because of how odd the situation is. To him, at least. Still, a handshake is given, which also happens to demonstrate the webbing of his fingers if it wasn't immediately obvious before. "You're not from around here." It's the first thing at comes to mind, at least. "Aqualad. Are you here for this?" A gesture is made at the off-color water, a wide circle tilted in that ugly shade of green.
 
 
Aspen shakes her head at the observation. "I'm not." She admits. "But I might be moving here. I'm Aspen." Nope, definitely no webbing on her hands. She looks over towards the sickly green water, and her good mood wanes, a frown touching her lips. "Yeah, I was in the area and picked up on it." She moves through the water, keeping an even distance from the... whatever it is. "I haven't seen anything like it before."
 
 
"I'm not sure what it is either. I was on my way out, I thought I'd take a look." He spends a moment more examining the woman, as if trying to place her. He can't. So: "Can you dive?" If she can swim, maybe she can dive! He doesn't really wait for the response. Down into the water he goes, sinking beneath the surface, propelling himself to the ocean floor below. Should she follow she'll see the source of the problem just as well as he does: It looks like a submarine, a very small one, oddly designed. One of the sides has been punctued, a gaping hole in the metal where the greenish liquip seeps through.
 
 
The question just gets a blink. And then a grin as he dives down and she follows, deeper and deeper without any ill effects. "This doesn't look good. We should get it out of the water so it stop spilling... whatever this is into the ocean."
 
 
"Agreed." It's a little heavy, though, even for someone as strong as Aqualad is. So he goes a different route. The two metal hilts on his back are tugged free, extended out toward the submarine. They start to glow first, but it doesn't stop there. Electric blue light travels up the tattoos that line his arms, extends all the way to his eyes after a few seconds. Then the sub starts to move. She can feel the currents of the water changing, applying pressure, starting to pry the metal loose. It's lodged in there pretty good, and he seems to be having a bit of a time of it.
 
 
Aspen tilts her head to the side a bit, watching Aqualad. She drifts closer as the hilts start to glow, and then slips around him to watch the light travel up the tattoos, making it all the way around him as his eyes light up as well. Only after finishing that appraisal does she seem to remember the sub, feeling the ocean bending to his will and turns her attention over to it. A kick of her foot and she swims over to the other side of the sub and stretches her hands out towards it. She has no tattoos, but her eyes start to glow similarly, and Aqualad can feel the shift in the ocean as she lends her strength to his to try to lift the sub from the ocean floor.
 
 
If there's one thing that Aqualad does well, it's keeping his mind on business. It's probably a good thing, or he'd drop the sub right back in place when Aspen performs her own trick. Now he knows she's definitely not from Atlantis. He doesn't spare time to piece together the rest, instead keeps working on the task at hand. With the combined effort the metal begins to rise, water ferrying it up, pushing it along toward shore and up onto a beach. It leaves a trail of greenish ooze behind, but at least it's out of the water. Then, finally: "How do you do that?"
 
 
Once the sub is up and out of the water, Aspen turns her attention to the trail it's left, the water starting a slow spin to keep it contained and funnel it back to the rest of the mess. She moves through the water easily, not so much swimming as controlling the water so it moves *her*. She looks back towards him at the question, black hair floating about her face like a halo. "Do... control the water?" There's a slight furrow of her brow. "The same way you do? You're Atlantean, right?" She glides back over closer to him. "I'm Blue."
 
 
"Yeah, I guess that's a dumb question." He remains in the water, no need to alarm anyone by being a man-fish. Not that the sub hasn't already sent anyone on the beach either running away or staring dumbstruck. He's more interested in Aspen though, and what he introduces herself as. It takes some thought to place the name, but it rings a bell somewhere. "I'm from there," He agrees. "And you aren't. I've never seen anyone else who could do that." He seems impressed, to say the least.
 
 
"I haven't heard much about Atlanteans." Aspen seems a bit apologetic. Well the underwater peoples are probably all aware of each other, the Blue at least have been exceptionally insular and Aspen hasn't had the time to learn a lot of the things that normal Blue would have learned growing up. Like that Atlanteans don't control water the same way Blue do. "Most Blue can control water to some extent." They aren't super-strong and super-tough like Atlanteans. It's what lets them live at such deep pressures. Aspen just has a hell of a lot more oomph than most Blue. She glides closer towards him, her attention obviously on his gills and he can see one hand rise up, just a bit, like she'd touch them but restrains herself. "What are those?" She asks, nodding to the hilts in his hands, since they lit up as well as his tattoos.
 
 
He seems to recognize the curiosity about the gills, it's not like it's a thing most people miss. He's even gotten used to it, more or less. His head is craned to the side, just for a moment, and then he turns attention to the weapons in hand. "Oh." A moment to decide how best to phrase it, and he settles on: "A gift. They help control the water, and they can harden it if I need to. You probably won't find too many Atlanteans with that." There's not really any pride in his tone, merely fact. "But, I haven't met any of you before. Aquaman said something once, but I never figured I'd meet any of you." Pause. "So all of you can control water? I'm one of the few, at least over on this side."
 
 
Aspen gives her head a bit of a bob, her body moving rising and falling in the current as she floats there. "I didn't really grow up with the Blue, but they've kept to themselves a lot. I'm not surprised you haven't met any. Most Blue can control it to some extent. Usually at a sort of unconscious level? To take the pressure, to move easily. Some have better control, able to shape it and move it." And of course those tend to be the more affluent people in the society. The hilts get another curious look before her attention turns back to the sickly-looking water. "If there's a container somewhere, we could put this."
 
 
"I didn't grow up in Atlantis either. I'm actually kind of new at this. We tend to swim there." A hand is splayed outward, as if in explanation. When his attention moves back to the stained water his lips press into a thin line, short nod after. "I can try and find something. Can you hold it, or should I?"
 
 
"The Blue are mostly in the Pacific." Aspen says with a nod. She's a long way from 'home'. The woman gives a grin as he says he's new at it. "Me too." She admits. At the question, she looks back to the water and nods. "I should be able to hold this." She assures him. Her eyes start to glow again as she raises her hands towards it and the greenish water starts to turn in a slow circle, keeping it contained.
 
 
And off he goes. It takes a few minutes, but soon enough there's a splash, and the Atlantean has returned with a barrel. Probably something from the docks, something hastily emptied out to serve as container for the liquid. He points the opening in the direction of the goop, chimes, "When you're ready."
 
 
Aspen gives a nod and as her hands move the goop moves with it, funneling into the barrel that Aqualad has found. She's keeping an eye out to see if there are any dead fish either in the stuff or nearby it. "Were there any markings on the sub?"
 
 
"Nothing that I could see." She might recall the ship, though there's nothing too special about it. Very round, unpainted metal, no identifying marks. "We can take another look." In the meantime the barrel is ferried above ground, planted in the sand and capped. Then, back into the water again. "So why are you out this far, if you're people are on the other coast?"
 
 
With the potential problem taken care of, Aspen feels a lot better. "We're establishing diplomatic ties with the United States and we're going to be helping them with some defenses against aquatic attacks." She frowns. "We had a... terrorist group, basically, that attacked and we don't want that to happen again. Since I grew up on the surface, the Blue felt I'd be the best option to spearhead relations and the US wants me close to DC."
 
 
He nods, slow dip of his head that sends dreadlocks all a-bob in the water around him. The explanation of the attack seems to strike some chord, Aqualad's eyes narrowing into a pensive glare at nothing in particular. "That's good." Another nod, firmer after. "You're doing the right thing. There's so many things down here that we all had no idea about. Not even a clue." Now his voice changes, placid tones replaced with a tinge of irritation. "Not even a little. We need to set up some kind of embassy of our own so we're not alone down here."
 
 
Aspen nods in agreement. She's not really a politician. She's interested in what's best for her people. Above and below. "Does Atlantis have an Embassy with the United States? The Blue are *just* starting to be willing to talk to other groups. If there's someone that can speak for Atlantis, I'd love to be able to talk to them."
 
 
"We don't have one," He replies. "I can't speak for them, Aquaman might be able to. Both of us are busy, though. Like I said, there's a lot of stuff. You know." His tone returns to what it used to be, lips lifting into a wan smile over at the woman. "If you're on this side of the ocean, though, we could always use help. And if we're on that side, we'll give it."
 
 
Aspen gives a sharp nod of her head. "Totally." She agrees. "One of the things I was saying to the US was that yeah, we had a group that attacked and we don't condone that, but they did have *reasons* that concern our people very deeply. They've ignored that the ocean deserves respect. That needs to change." There's a pause and then an almost sheepish sort of grin. "I'd give you my phone number but uh..." She looks down at her minimal outfit. "I left it in my pants." Since it doesn't like salt water. "I know you're busy but you're the only way to contact Atlantis I have." She says, giving him a grin.
 
 
"I know a few people like that. I know more that don't have good reasons." Somber thoughts, though, are put out of mind at the mention of phones. That draws a genuine grin, a puff of laughter that sends a few bubbles floating to the surface. "Man, you have that problem too?" One day Atlanteans will have to figure out that phone thing. One day. "I come around here now and then. You said you're setting up an embassy, right? I'll stop by, I'd like to learn a bit more about you. I don't want to be the only fish in the sea, right?"
 
 
Aspen bobs her head in another nod. Which.. kind of makes her whole body bob in the water. "I'd like that. One of the things I've asked is that someone figure out how to make Surface technology and Blue technology talk enough that I can have my 'phone' back." She says dryly. "We shouldn't be hard to find. I figure once we start setting up shop, we'll get our share of rubberneckers."
 
 
"Some of us can talk long-distance, but I can't do it alone. I'm a little different." A helpless shrug follows, arms spread out to the side before he tucks them together again. "You'll be hard to miss," He agrees, "And I'll stop by. Maybe we can work out some way to get messages between us there, I always miss things when I'm out working."
 
 
"That would be great." Aspen says with another of those easy smiles of hers. "I look forward to seeing you soon, Aqualad." At this rate, Aspen's going to think she needs to append 'lass' or 'woman' or girl' to her name or something!
 
 
"Thanks for the help." Then he's floating away, further from shore. "We'll talk again soon." And they will, if he has anything to say about it. Whoever the Blues are, they seem like they might have at least one thing in common with him that Atlanteans don't. He turns after a minute, rolling in the water and setting himself in the right direction. A sharp kick of feet and he's off, speeding down into the water, vanishing from sight as he skims across the ocean floor.
 
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