"Yup, this sure looks like a supervillain's evil lair," Claudia muttered as they entered the volcano. The air was so thick and heavy now she made sure her helmet and mask were once more securely in place. "You sure this is dormant?"
Before Arthur could answer, they spotted another minion with a gun up ahead with their back to them. Just their luck.
"You wanna take this one?" Arthur asked her.
"Hell yeah!"
He cupped his hands around his mouth. "Caw caw!"
She slammed the guy and they scurried upwards towards the control centre.
When the door slid open, a guard jumped upon seeing them standing there. Arthur turned to Claudia, who turned to Orm, who shrugged, and back into action they jumped.
Arthur knocked down the last of the guards - in here at least - and then swiped a hand across his chest. "Sasa!"
Now with the space all to themselves, they looked around for clues, namely the centre of the volcano.
"It's an orichalcum furnace. All that stolen orichalcum - they're just burning it up," Orm cried.
"So then he's heating the atmosphere on purpose," Arthur reasoned.
"This is catastrophic." Orm leaned against the control panel to see out the window further. "This whole place must be heat shielded to protect it from the Surface's thermal satellites."
"But how do we stop them?" Claudia sked.
"To take out the reactor we would have to crater the entire island-"
Orm was cut off by a man's voice behind them. They turned to see another one of Manta's minions holding a gun. "Get away from there, now! This blaster may be ancient but it was built for killing Atlanteans."
"Good thing I'm human then," she muttered.
The man hit the button on the side panel and the door slid closed behind him, sealing them in.
But as soon as the door closed, he threw down the weapon and a huge grin broke out over his face. "Okay, I am so sorry, I didn't mean that! I just didn't want you to break me in half before I could surrender." Now he raised his hands in said surrender. "Please take me with you."
Arthur just stared back. Then, "Claudie, knock him out. Bro, help me move these bodies."
"No, no, wait, please!" the man begged as she stepped forward. "I didn't want any of this! All I wanted was to see Atlantis with my own eyes, I thought I could share its wonders with the world. I'm a scientist and I just wanted to be taken seriously. David Kane said he could help me but now he won't let me leave."
"You expect us to believe you have nothing to do with this?" Orm demanded.
"Classic," Claudia added.
"I know, I've done things I'm not proud of. But he would have killed me if I hadn't."
Arthur scoffed. "Knock him out, Claudie."
"No!" cried Orm as she stepped forward once again.
"Okay, I'll knock him out." Now Arthur moved to step forward.
"No!"
"You wanna knock him out?"
"No," Orm insisted.
The two pouted.
"Fine," groaned Arthur. "You can come with us."
The guy glowed. "Oh, thank you-"
"But you'd better start talking, or I'm going to give you one sasa." Arthur held up his hand in a backhand motion for emphasis.
The guy didn't need any more convincing. "Okay, okay - it's the Black Trident. It's a direct link to some ancient evil. It gives Kane great powers and in return-"
But he didn't get to finish, for they were all blasted back - literally.
An explosion hit the control centre and the trio were blasted through the window, crashing hard to the ground below in a spray of glass. Claudia was once again thankful for her suit.
"Incoming!" Bad guys with guns were headed their way!
She jumped when there was a smash behind her, and she turned to see Orm taking down a minion before he could reach her.
"Thanks!"
"Ttay alert," was all he said before rushing off.
"Right - you go and flex your own muscles!" she called after him. What the hell?
She grabbed the blaster from the downed guy and started firing - and firing back as it turned out, cause shots were raining down from above.
It was chaos - she lost track of both brothers. Finally, she found Arthur engaged in a duel with a machine, hitting back with some gold cases of orichalcum.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Orm cried. "Not the orichalcum! You wanna blow us up?!"
"This stuff blows up?" cried Arthur.
"Yes!"
"Cool!" said Claudia.
"No, not cool!" Orm fired back.
"My bad!" Arthur said, but kept using the orichalcum.
"Then stop using it!" Orm raged.
She had to agree.
"Just shut up and let me save your ass - again!"
Okay, solid burn. One point for Arthur.
"Move," Orm ordered her.
"Beg pardon?"
"Out of the way!" He grabbed a huge-ass chain and she quickly saw what he meant - and got the hell out of the way.
He began swinging it around - with little effort it seemed - before releasing it and launching it at the machine, trapping the legs and taking it down.
"Whoo!" Claudia cheered, then jumped when another blast fired. A figure in a dark suit was moving towards them. "That's Manta I'm assuming?"
"Yup."
Orm scoffed. "He's going to fight us without the power suit I gave him?"
"I told you, he's stronger now."
Another scoff. "He's still just a Surface Dweller."
"Hey!" said Claudia, in defense of other Surface Dwellers.
Orm stepped forward and Arthur tried to stop him. "Bro-"
But Orm just waved him away and approached.
"I never expected to see you two fighting side-by-side." Manta's voice had an automated-sounding quality thanks to the helmet.
"We're making a special exception just for you-" Orm raised his fist.
PUNCH!
Only he didn't get to throw his punch. Manta beat him to it, delivering a punch right in the face which sent Orm sailing backward. Arthur and Claudia just stared down at him.
"No one hits my brother but me," Arthur declared.
"Yeah!" Claudia cheered him on. "Siblings."
While Arthur approached Manta, she knelt down. "Hey, Orm-" She patted his arm. "You good?" He just groaned. "Yeah, yeah, he's good." Then she jumped in to help Arthur.
At some point, Orm regained his footing and joined in the fight as well, and just like that the three were fighting Manta together.
Claudia cried out as Manta whipped his trident at them - the Black Trident the guy from earlier had been talking about. It sliced through the air between her and Orm, embedding itself in the rock behind them.
Orm smirked and took up the weapon, however, he let out a scream as soon as he picked it up. Manta took this opportunity to fire a blast at him, which struck him right in the chest.
Claudia had been so shocked by the close call, and everything happened so quickly.
"Claudie, help him!" Arthur's voice snapped her back to the moment at hand. He attacked Manta while she dropped to her knees beside Orm once more.
The whole front of his suit was burned, down to the skin. "Hey, hey, you good?" Another groan, only worse this time. "Oh, oh no, that's bad, this is bad..."
What was worse was that an alarm was suddenly blaring, and the whole volcano seemed to be shaking around them. It had better not be erupting.
However, as it turned out, maybe this was to their advantage.
"Blurp!" A glowing blue head popped out of the water beside them.
"Topo!"
"Blurp blurp!" Her octopus - okay, cephalopod - friend replied.
"It's okay Orm," she reassured him, though she wasn't sure he could even hear her. "We're in good hands - uh, good tentacles - now."
(So many golden sibling moments! ;)
Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))