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“My King, I am still most uncertain…” Kaldur trailed off, his eyes darting between the tall skyscrapers of Star City and his mentor, Aquaman. The older Atlantean just laughed at his protégée’s uncommon anxiousness, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder, where Kaldur’s new tattoos stood out boldly from his skin.
“Why, Kaldur, there is nothing to be afraid of! This Green Arrow is much like I am, and has an apprentice close to your age. I’m sure you will get along just fine.” Orin was interrupted by a voice that came from behind the pair.
“I’m sure they’ll get along swimmingly, Arthur.” The Atlanteans whirled around, their eyes falling upon two people, dressed casually in jeans and jackets. Neither of them looked familiar to Kaldur, but his king simply let out a loud laugh, moving forward to clasp hands with the older blonde gentleman. “It’s good to see you out of that suit every once in a while. How is Mera? And this must be Aqualad.” At the last sentence the man who was presumable Green Arrow came forward to shake Kaldur’s hand. His grip was, unsurprisingly, very firm, and his hand was incredibly calloused. Kaldur’s hand was released and he snapped a small salute.
“I am honored to meet you, sir. My liege speaks very highly of you.” He dropped his hand from his brow, but stayed at attention with his hands clasped behind his back. The other man laughed again while the teenager shifted uncomfortably.
“Please, call me Oliver. Ollie for short. This is Roy over here.” He gestured to the red haired teen standing behind him. “C’mon Roy, come meet Aqualad.” Roy walked up to grip Kaldur’s hand, and Kaldur noted that his handshake was very similar to that of his mentor’s only that he was less mindful of the webbing joining Kaldur’s thumb and forefinger.
“My name is Kaldur’ahm, but my friends call me Kaldur.” Roy merely nodded, returning to Oliver’s side and slouching where he stood. Kaldur was unnerved by his behavior. This had been nothing like meeting Batman and his young apprentice Robin a matter of weeks ago. While the mentor had been imposing, Kaldur understood him as a soldier does a superior, and the boy had been alight with curiosity regarding his noticeably Atlantean traits, questioning Kaldur heavily about his tattoos, and what they meant in his culture.
Kaldur stood tall next to his king, watching as the two men exchanged more pleasantries before again addressing their younger companions. “Let us go for a walk, and learn more about each other, shall we?” Ever the diplomat, his king had suggested the perfect opportunity for Roy and Kaldur to be on even ground and uninterrupted as he brought Oliver ahead with him. Roy strode to stand next to Kaldur, and the two began to walk behind their mentors, who gave them ample space to talk without being overheard. Roy’s pace was easy, keeping time with Kaldur who was swiftly overcome by the noise and movement of downtown Star City. Casting his eyes about, the Atlantean teen could not seem to focus in on one occurrence, rather trying to simply process things as he saw them before moving on to the next thing. Roy interrupted his curious searching.
“So, first time on land? Because you look like a real fish out of water.” Kaldur flushed darkly, thoroughly embarrassed, and ceased his gazing, directing his eyes to his feet, where they were stuffed uncomfortably into sneakers.
“I have been on the surface before. However, I am unused to this amount of commotion. My apologies.” Kaldur tugged at the neck of his jacket, bringing it up even further, hoping his gills were not showing. Roy barked out a laugh, before bumping Kaldur with his shoulder.
“Don’t worry about it, man. You shoulda seen Kid Flash on his first trip here; he wouldn’t shut up about how different this was from Central. You’re already better company than he was.” Kaldur was confused. Was this Kid Flash another sidekick, like them? Where was the place called “Central” that Roy was speaking of?
“I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Kid Flash, nor his teacher. The only other sidekick I have met is Robin of Gotham.” Roy’s shoulder’s suddenly drew up and his face tightened.
“We aren’t sidekicks. We’re partners.” Kaldur was taken aback by the harshness of Roy’s tone, and wanted to remedy the situation.
“My apologies. I meant no insult.”
“It doesn’t matter. Just don’t say that word again.” Kaldur nodded his assurance quickly. He didn’t need to make an enemy on the surface, not with the many his king already had. Roy opened his mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by the sounds of screaming from a couple blocks ahead. Dashing forward, against the tide of people running the other way, Roy grabbed Kaldur’s hand to drag him forward with the archer. Stopping once he reached Oliver, he barked, “Ollie, who-?”, but Oliver was already moving, and with a call of “Vertigo!” tossed over his shoulder, he turned abruptly into an alleyway.
“Come on, Kaldur, let’s move.” Roy gripped his hand once again, disregarding the webbing once more, and ran to the alley his mentor had just disappeared into. However, upon entering, Oliver was nowhere to be found, and Green Arrow was walking out of a hole in the dead end brick wall. Roy tugged Kaldur forward, through the hole, with a short, “Weapons cache,” as explanation. Kaldur nodded, but Roy wasn’t looking at him anymore, dropping his hand and moving to a wall where numerous uniforms were hanging. Kaldur tugged at the zipper of his own jacket as he removed his water bearers from the inside pockets. Revealing his Aqualad uniform underneath the civilian clothing did not seem to surprise Roy in the slightest, who simply tugged on his own uniform and removed a quiver from its place on the wall, slinging it over his shoulder. By the time Kaldur had kicked off his sneakers Roy had grabbed his bow and was moving back towards the door, where Aquaman’s civvies lay, presumably thrown off in his haste to help the other hero.
Rushing out of the alleyway, Kaldur and Roy sprinted up a few blocks to where a clearing had formed around the two superheroes and one other person, who Kaldur assumed was Vertigo. Roy stopped short, pulling Kaldur close to inform him of the villain’s abilities, before dashing off to join Green Arrow in his onslaught of projectiles and explosions. Moving to stand beside his king, Aqualad directed his water bearers at a nearby fire hydrant, feeling the call of the water and pulling it to bend to his will. The top of the hydrant burst off, sending water flooding into the street, pooling around the pair’s feet.
Aquaman rushed forward, engaging Count Vertigo in hand to hand combat, but stumbled in the middle of a combination, leaving himself vulnerable to the other’s fast jabs and punches. Kaldur moved to go to his king’s aid, but was stopped by a wave of disorientation caused by the Count and worsened by how unsteady Kaldur already felt on land. He dropped to his knees and jammed his hands into his temples, his water bearers clattering as they hit the pavement. He heard footsteps approaching, but he couldn’t bring any of his senses into clarity, and he was defenseless to any opponent. Forcing his hand down to grasp at where he thought his water bearer might be, his hand hit pavement. Panic flared before he felt the tool being shoved into his hand by a familiarly calloused one. An explosion went off nearby and the horrible feeling went away, and Kaldur was able to regain his bearings.
Standing up, Kaldur drew the water close to him once more, and hardened the water present in his bearers to swords, running at Count Vertigo, who was also regaining his stance after being disrupted by Roy’s explosive arrow. Holding steady, Kaldur felt an arrow whistle past his ear, and morphed the water into a shield, guarding himself against yet another explosion, while still barreling forward. Angling his shoulder to slam into Count Vertigo’s chest, he formed his water into a hook, taking the Count’s feet out form under him, the momentum from Kaldur’s body slam forcing him to the ground. Flipping away, Roy’s arrow took his place, exploding on contact with the pavement into a reddish foam, easing everything but Count Vertigo’s shoulders and head, letting Roy stroll forward and take the hearing aids from the villain’s ears, leaving him powerless. Kaldur turned from the archer and his captive, his eyes landing on where Aquaman lay unconscious on the ground. Rushing forward to help his liege, Kaldur also saw Green Arrow lying a ways away, who was just coming to consciousness himself. Shaking Aquaman, who stirred slightly, Kaldur’s attention was drawn to the sound of sirens in the distance, but coming ever closer. Roy came up behind him.
“We should probably get these two out of here before the press shows up and has a field day with how Vertigo beat both of them.” Kaldur nodded his assent, and leaned down to put one of Orin’s arms around his shoulders. Pulling the noble to his feet, Kaldur saw Roy do the same for Oliver. Pointing his head towards the way they had initially come from, Kaldur understood that he was to bring Aquaman back to the weapons cache in the alleyway. “I’ll see if I can get him on his own feet, then meet you there.” Kaldur nodded and set his shoulders, half dragging his king to the safe hideout.
It took him about twenty minutes and several attempts to wake his king, but Kaldur eventually got to the cache, where Roy was already waiting with a semi-alert Green Arrow. Oliver rushed forward to help the teen with his burden, and Kaldur accepted the help gratefully. Roy had set up a cot, in case the Atlantean king was still out when Kaldur reached them, and the pair deposited Aquaman onto it. Kaldur then went to the small sink that was set into the wall and turned on the tap, drawing one of his water bearers to pick up the water. Holding it as an orb, he turned the tap off and returned to his king, letting the water cover Aquaman in a thin film, before forcing as much magic as he could into the element, healing his king using the arts he was taught.
After a couple minutes of this, Orin awoke with a start, his hand coming up to rub at his temple. Kaldur withdrew the water covering his king, and deposited it back in the sink, hearing it run down the drain.
“What happened? Why am I here? What happened to Count Vertigo?” Arthur was looking at Kaldur, but it was Oliver who answered the string of questions.
“You got Vertigo’d and he knocked you out, Kaldur brought you back here so the reporters wouldn’t find you, and our little protégées got him, don’t worry. He’s not gonna do time for it, but at least they’ll send him back to Vlatava.” Oliver sat down on the cot, careful not to jostle Aquaman, who was still lying down. “You’d better get back to Atlantis, buddy. Kaldur healed you, but it probably won’t do you much good staying here. Go home.” Arthur sat up at those words, his feet coming to rest against the concrete floor. Kaldur went to help him stand, but was waved off as his king rose from the bed. Orin turned to Oliver and began to say goodbye, which Kaldur took as a cue to do the same to Roy.
“It was an honor to fight alongside you, Roy. I hope we may meet again, under more favorable circumstances.” Kaldur dipped his head in a short bow, and brought his hand up to clasp the other’s forearm.
“Same to you, fish sticks. Hopefully we’ll leave the masks at home next time.” Roy smiled, and Kaldur returned it, in a way that felt much more natural now than it had when they first met. Turning to thank Oliver for his invitation to meet, Kaldur let go of Roy, and was confused by the feeling of loss that went through him. That would warrant further studying, once he was home. After thanking the hero of Star City, Kaldur went with his king back to Atlantis, where Tula and Garth were no doubt waiting to hear about his adventures on the surface.
Roy, on the other hand, was in a state of minor panic at the departure of the pair. Turning to his mentor, he said,
“Ollie, help, he’s really cute. What do I do?” Roy ended up having to punch him in the arm to make him stop laughing.