Aquaman:
"Black Manta!" I shout as I look at the man with the sunglasses and the Insurgent members.
"Guards!"
With my guards getting to their feet, they all raise their spears and surround the gang.
"What!" Blue Beelte shouts. "This isn't us! We're not in league with Black Manta or anything."
"Lies!"
Getting up from my throne, another explosion shakes the building, almost forcing me back down. Now, cracks are forming in the walls, and the sound of metal bending echoes throughout the throne room. The throne room's doors swinging open, one of my guards runs inside.
"Your Highness," he shouts. "The city is under attack! Our domes are starting to fall!"
Slamming my trident onto the floor, I look the guard right in his eyes.
"Sound the alarm," I order, shooting my hand out. "All Atlanteans inside immediately! Send out the soldiers! I'll accompany them as soon as I can."
Nodding, my guard runs back outside the room. I follow him, but stop when another guard calls my name.
"Wait, your Highness. What about them?"
I turn and look at the man and the Insurgent members. Strangely, none of them have raised their weapons. They're all standing around, looking at me, with either arms crossed or at their sides.
"Take them to the prison," I answer.
"Yes, Highness!"
My guards all nod. Seeing this, I nod too before running off to get my battle armor.
The Man:
"Well, that was fun. Come on. We should see this."
I take a step, but the moment I do, a guard places the tip of his spear against my throat.
"Do not move," the guard orders, "Or I will be forced to--"
Before the guard can finish, I clap my hands and unleash a sonic boom. It knocks all the guards and even some of my allies off their feet and to the floor. Turning around, I run to help Harleen while Kara helps Cat up.
"Ahhh," Jason yells. "What was that?"
"Thunderclap," I answer, now helping Oliver back up. "It's an old 'acquaintance's' signature move. Eventually, I learned how to do it myself."
"You couldn't have given us a head-up," Slade shouts. "Before you deafen us. Ahhh!"
Still complaining, Slade rubs his ears and shakes his head. Helping the Professor, the final person, up, I hear moaning and turn. Knocked off the throne, on the floor, and also rubbing her ears, Queen Mera shakes her head before opening her eyes again.
"Guards? Guards!"
"Don't worry," I say, walking toward her. "They're fine. Unconscious, and maybe experiencing temporary hearing loss, but fine nonetheless."
Pushing herself up, Queen Mera looks around before pulling something out from behind her. Looking like a glass jar with water inside, Queen Mera throws the jar onto the floor. It shatters into a dozen pieces, and the water spills everywhere. Swinging her hands around, the water on the floor flies into the air and surrounds Queen Mera's hands.
"Queen Mera, please excuse my language, but calm down, will you!"
I ignore Queen Mera and walk over to Aquaman's throne. Dropping to one of my knees, I start examining it.
"What are you doing?" Flash asks.
"If I remember correctly, the button should be...here!"
Finding the hidden button underneath the throne's armrest, I push it, and part of the floor slides open, revealing a secret, circular pathway in front of the throne.
"What the heck?" Harleen screams, jumping away. "Oh, hey. Secret pathway. Neat."
"What is that?" Kara asks.
"Like Harleen said. It's a secret pathway."
I kneel over the ledge and look inside. I see a large, golden, glass tube that turns sharply toward the bottom.
"Atlantis had secret tubes connecting different parts."
"Tubes," Cold repeats, "What, like those hamster tubes?"
"Yes. Atlaneans of high authority use them in case of emergency. Come on!"
Moving, I place my legs over the ledge. About to jump in, Queen Mera stops me.
"Wait! How did you even know about the hidden pathway? No one outside Atlantis is supposed to know about them. And you also have schematics of our weapons and technology. And you can also talk to sea animals! How? How!"
I look at Queen Mera as the water drops from her hands and splashes all over the floor.
"Queen Mera. As much as I want to tell you, I cannot. All I can tell you is that, despite everything you, your husband, and Atlantians believe, we, the Insurgency, do want to help save Atlantis. This place is important to me for reasons that I cannot discuss, and I will not let it fall like Oa."
I nod before pushing myself off the ledge and into the tube.
"Hold on," I shout, crossing my arms and putting my hands on my shoulders. "And hold your breath!"
"Wait," Flash says. "What?"
Sliding down the tube, my back already hitting the glass, I close my mouth as I fall into the freezing ocean water. Sinking deeper into the tube, I reach the sharp turn before feeling a strong current. The current pushes me along the rest of the tube. Seeing more sharp turns incoming, I shoot out my hands and guide myself where I need to go. Reaching the surveillance room, I jump out of the water, spinning through the air before landing on a knee and foot.
Standing up, I set myself on fire, quickly drying myself off, before running to the surveillance room's controls. A control panel with hundreds of monitors installed on the wall, I start going through them. While going through all the cameras, I hear the others entering.
"Ahhhh!" Jason yells.
"Aannnn..."
"Bbhhhh--"
"Is everyone okay?" I ask, my eyes still focused on the screens.
"Nope."
"No!"
"We couldn't just run over here?"
"Hey, do I smell like fish to you?"
"Get away from me!"
Feeling a cold hand on my shoulder, I turn and see a soaking-wet Kara looking at me.
"Are you okay?" I ask.
"Uhh...yeah," Kara answers and nods. "What are you looking for?"
"Aquaman, and I found him. Look here!"
Pointing to one screen, Kara and I zoom in and watch as Aquaman and his soldiers attack Black Manta's submarine relentlessly. Firing from all sides, Black Manta's submarine fires back with missiles and machine guns.
"Hey, what are you two looking at? Can we see? Move!"
With the rest of the Insurgency crowding around us, I push them back and adjust a few settings. The monitors all switch and now show the same feed.
"Aquaman is winning," Dinah says. "Black Manta's sub won't last much longer."
"You're right," I say, nodding. "Black Manta's sub won't last much longer."
As I keep watching, Black Manta's sub starts breaking off. Layers and layers of hulls keep peeling off, and most of the propellers in the back are smoking.
"Something is off."
"Something is off," Oliver repeats. "What's off? Aquaman is winning. That sub won't last any five minutes."
"Yeah. It won't. It won't! That's it!"
Moving fast, I pull out my phone and a cable from one of my jacket pockets. Linking my phone to the control with the cable, I start uploading a program.
"What are you doing?" Oliver asks.
"I'm installing a scanner program from my phone to the control panel."
"A scanner program? Scanning for what?"
"Viruses."
"Viruses?"
When the download is finished, I start scanning Black Manta's sub. My scan detects something, and I check it against the program's virus register.
"Oh no. Oh no, oh no!"
"What?" Kara asks. "What is it?"
"We need to warn Aquaman. He cannot destroy that sub!"
"Why not?"
I don't have time to explain it to Kara. Closing my eyes and putting my fingers on my forehead, I try to communicate with Aquaman telepathically.
"Aquaman! Aquaman! I know you can hear me! Answer me!"
"Leave me alone," the bastard answers. "I don't have time for you!"
"No, you have to listen to me! You cannot--"
"Destroy that submarine!"
"Noooo!"
My eyes snap open, and the first thing I do is look at the screens. Black Manta's sub is reaching Atlantis's protective dome. It's smoking, and much of the outer layer is destroyed, but the sub is still going.
"He's going to crash into the glass dome!" Harleen yells.
"That's the plan."
"But why?" Barry asks. "Why crash into the glass dome? What is Black Manta planning?"
"To flood all of Atlantis."
"Atlantis is already flooded," Cold says. "The whole place is underwater!"
I don't get the time to explain everything to Cold. Instead, I just point at the screen as, at the very last moment, before impact, a small black and blue escape pod shoots out of the back of the sub. Despite its high speed and all the bubbles surrounding it, I can still see clearly that the escape pod is built differently from the sub. Unlike the sub, the escape pod is built to last.
The whole room shakes as Black Manta's submarine hits the glass dome. Most of the screens either turn off or break right off. Dropping to one of my knees, I keep watching as some of Aquaman's guards are thrown back by the shockwaves. Still watching, water from the outside floods into the room. It kicks down the rooms' doors before running down a hallway and into other rooms.
"Where is that? Where is that!"
Pushing myself up, I run over to the screen and start checking where the damaged room is. Bringing up a map of the kingdom, I see a blinking room near the surveillance room.
"Of course it's nearby."
Hearing the sound of rushing water, I turn and look at the door as something starts hitting it. I turn away from the doors and look at the Insurgents. Moving as fast as I can, I start grabbing them, the first two being Slade and Beetle.
"Hey!" Slade shouts. "What are you doing!"
"Que?" Beetle asks.
Pulling them to their feet, I slam the discs of their excellneno-suits. Their suits start changing, a yellow rubber taking over. Doing the same for Selina, Ivy, Reverse-Flash, and everyone else, I tap the final disc on Kara's suit just as the door opens and ocean water rushes in.
"Okay," Cheetah says, scratching her hazmat suit. "What was all of that about?"
Holding my hand over my nose and mouth, I turn back to the screen.
"That. That is what this is all about."
Everyone turns to look back at the screen.
"What the heck?"
"What is going on?"
On the screens, we see many of Aquaman's guards unconscious in the water. The unconscious guards are covered in rashes, millions and millions of red dots all over their heads, arms, and bodies. Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I turn around.
"What is happening?" Kara asks.
"Smallpox."