Fang Yuan brought Atlanna and Arthur back to the boat.
"Something big just happened under the water," Bruce said.
"That was the Trench welcoming me."
Fang Yuan's relaxed tone told Bruce he'd succeeded.
"Queen Atlanna." He nodded to the woman behind Fang Yuan.
"Mom, this is Uncle Wayne!" Little Arthur volunteered.
"Wayne?"
Atlanna had lived on land long enough to know the name.
"Bruce Wayne." Batman introduced himself.
His eyes locked on the golden trident in Fang Yuan's hand; Fang Yuan twirled it knowingly.
"All smooth!"
With everything smooth, it was time for the next step.
First priority: get Arthur and Atlanna back to Amnesty Bay.
That was the foundation of their cooperation.
So Tom Curry, waiting at home as usual for Arthur's return from training, was stunned to see so many people today.
Ignoring the two strangers, Tom's gaze fixed on Atlanna—the figure he'd dreamed of.
Atlanna was equally emotional, even though Fang Yuan knew she'd been someone else's wife just last year.
He and Bruce didn't disturb the family reunion; they stepped outside to keep plotting.
"Got the golden trident, but controlling sea life is still tricky," Fang Yuan opened. "How about we expose Arthur's identity?"
Revealing Arthur would mean revealing Atlantis, sure to push Arthur's fame past 100.
Bruce shook his head. "Not suitable."
To surface dwellers, Atlantis might as well be aliens; humanity hadn't been hardened by big events yet.
"Atlantis works better as Earth's hidden ace, used at the critical moment," Bruce explained.
Fang Yuan understood.
Batman—always scheming in the shadows—unlike him, Black King, who was openly bad.
"We can build Arthur's fame other ways; it'll just take time," Bruce added.
Fang Yuan raised a brow. "Like making him Robin?"
"Teen superheroes are vital—they set a good example for underage supers," Bruce said.
"So we stall the plan?"
Since Fang Yuan said controlling sea life was risky, Batman wasn't going to gamble.
But Fang Yuan shook his head.
"I've got an idea—might be worth a shot."
He walked to the shore with the golden trident and released his gift for talking to sea life—plus Telepathy.
Fusing Professor X, White Queen, and Jean Grey's Telepathy made it so potent it could override anyone with lower psychic stats.
They could control humans, not animals, yet the Deep could talk to sea life—even a shrimp.
If you could talk, could Telepathy let you command them?
Thinking it, he did it; the golden trident acted like a Wi-Fi booster, widening his reach from close-range to the whole Amnesty Bay sea area.
For Aquaman, the range would be terrifying.
With a thought, myriad sea-creature voices flooded his mind.
Most offered simple phrases or instinctive syllables; dolphins and octopuses, though, spoke almost normally.
But Fang Yuan wasn't the Deep; memories of dolphins chasing him for heart-to-hearts were fresh, so he whipped out Telepathy.
"Hey!"
Fang Yuan chuckled and looked up; Bruce followed his gaze.
A pod of dolphins burst from the distance, leaping and circling in formation.
"Controllable, but tiny critters can't hold it and life-or-Death stress breaks it," Fang Yuan judged.
"Good enough to scare people," Bruce added; they exchanged knowing grins.
Just the two of them—plus an exiled queen—yet both felt mighty Atlantis was already in the bag.
Compared to surface politics, undersea politics were child-simple, ruled by the strong.
Forget Black Panther's messy duels; when Fisherman Kingdom balked at Orm's war, Orm simply killed their king and the rest obeyed at once.
And that council opposing Arthur in Aquaman 2? To Fang Yuan it was just the fallout of Atlanna's exile.
If Arthur with the trident could truly command loyalty, Atlanna would never have been dethroned.
With the golden trident Arthur should be the strongest in the sea—
—yet he has zero ambition and no wish to rule.
Classic Superhero: power and resources galore, zero interest—hence Fang Yuan's intervention.
All those goodies need someone to consume them.
Fang Yuan, ever the helpful soul.
Probably why Bruce preferred Fang Yuan ruling the seas over Arthur.
Wasting assets? Might as well hand Nightmare World to Darkseid on a platter.
"Timeline?" Bruce asked.
"One year," Fang Yuan answered.
Bruce nodded. "Enough time to build a seagoing fleet."
He'd act as Fang Yuan's front, managing his empire while Fang Yuan visited other worlds—an unspoken pact—so of course he needed ocean-capable craft.
Even the Batsuit would get an underwater variant.
For Batman, with all that tech, it wasn't hard.
One year, to be precise, after the Death of Atlantis's current king, Okwas.
They had to keep their hands clean and avoid any link to the old king's Death.
Soon Arthur's family found them; Tom Curry was extra warm—Poseidon this, Poseidon that, he didn't care; these men had brought his wife home.
So Tom insisted on throwing a family feast for them.
Fang Yuan and Bruce accepted.
But while Tom bustled about, Atlanna froze at Fang Yuan's words.
"After Okwas dies, Orm will need some alone-time before we move in," Fang Yuan said.
"Kill Okwas?" Atlanna whispered. "Do you know how many guards the king of Atlantis keeps?"
She'd considered assassinating Okwas, but saw no way to do it cleanly.
Fang Yuan and Bruce just smiled.
She had no idea how terrifying a Superhero could be when he decides to go bad.
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