Suddenly the tracker in Mera's hand began blinking. She looked down at the coordinates before nodding. "We've reached the location."
Arthur immediately looked through the cockpit windows. Then looked again. All he saw was sand. No kingdom, no buildings, not even a single house.
"Umm..."
Before he could say anything, Mera unbuckled her seatbelt, walked to the aircraft door, and opened it. The desert wind rushed into the cabin. Then she jumped.
Arthur stared. "She is crazy." He stood up and walked to the open doorway, watching her fall toward what looked like certain death.
He was still processing what he had just witnessed when a foot connected with his backside.
The next moment he was falling through open air.
"FUCK YOU!"
Daniel leaned against the doorway and looked down. "No need to thank me." Arthur's reply was carried away by the wind.
Daniel turned toward Bruce. "You can leave now. The rest of this I can handle."
Bruce kept his hands on the controls. "That includes stopping the incoming war?"
"Yes."
Bruce studied him briefly. "You seem unusually invested in that."
"I don't like wars." Daniel's expression remained calm. "People talk about glory, justice, and victory, but in the end it's usually ordinary people paying the price. I prefer peace."
A faint smile appeared. "Besides, don't think I never noticed all those cameras you placed around my workplace."
Bruce remained silent. The lack of denial was answer enough.
Daniel laughed softly. "It seems the great Batman is just as curious as everyone else." He stepped toward the open doorway. "Anyway, goodbye, Bruce." Then he jumped.
The door slid shut behind him.
Bruce watched the desert through the windshield before returning to the controls.
Among all the strange events occurring around the world, Daniel remained the most difficult variable to understand. Most people followed predictable patterns — heroes had ideals, villains had objectives.
Daniel seemed to operate according to neither. One day running a hospital. The next threatening a king. Then spending the afternoon preventing a war he had no obligation to stop.
His powers were equally troublesome. Every encounter revealed something new. Bruce still didn't know where the limits actually were, and that uncertainty bothered him. A contingency plan was only useful when the threat could be understood.
Daniel was one of the few individuals for whom that wasn't currently possible. For now, all Bruce could do was continue observing and hope the man remained on humanity's side.
Daniel appeared on the desert below and immediately raised both arms toward the sky.
A moment later Mera came falling out of the air and landed neatly in his arms, the momentum simply vanishing.
One second she was falling hundreds of feet above the desert, the next she was safely supported in a princess carry. Mera instinctively grabbed his shoulder before realizing they were already standing on solid ground.
Then a familiar scream echoed overhead.
Unlike Mera, nobody caught Arthur.
He hit the sand hard enough to throw up a cloud of dust before tumbling several meters through the dune. Several seconds later he pushed himself upright and began spitting grit from his mouth.
Daniel turned around, still carrying Mera.
Arthur looked at the two of them — at Daniel, at Mera, at the princess carry — and the irritation on his face increased immediately. He stood up and started brushing sand from his clothes.
"What the hell was—"
Something dropped from above and struck him directly on the head.
Thud.
The object landed in the sand beside him. He looked down. It was his trident, apparently having slipped from his grip during the fall and arrived a few seconds late.
Arthur stared at it, then looked up at the sky, then back at the trident. Slowly he picked it up.
The entire situation somehow felt insulting.
Daniel watched the scene before looking back at Mera. "You know, normal people usually thank the person who catches them."
Mera immediately stepped out of Daniel's arms, checked the tracker, and began following the signal deeper into the desert. The others followed.
Ten minutes later they were still walking through endless dunes. No buildings, no ruins, no signs of civilization — nothing except sand stretching toward the horizon.
Arthur was reaching the end of his patience. "You see? There is no kingdom here." He spread his arms toward the surrounding desert.
"All I see is sand and a woman following a tracker into the middle of nowhere."
Mera ignored him and kept walking.
"We have no food, no water. Do you know how cold deserts get at night? If we don't find this place soon, we're going to become desert mummies."
Daniel nodded slightly. "His concerns aren't entirely wrong."
Atlanteans possessed stronger physiques than ordinary humans, but that advantage depended heavily on hydration. Their bodies were adapted to life around water — too long in the Sahara and they would gradually become weaker than normal humans in the same conditions.
Arthur immediately pointed at Daniel. "See? Even he agrees with me."
"But that's not our current problem." Daniel looked around before pointing at the ground. "We've already reached the destination."
Arthur frowned. "Where?"
"Take two steps to your left."
Arthur looked at him suspiciously, then took one step. Nothing happened. He took a second step.
The sand beneath him collapsed.
"What the fu—"
He vanished straight into the ground. A loud crash echoed from below.
Mera rushed toward the opening and looked down. Daniel casually walked over and peered in beside her.
Daniel nodded in satisfaction. "There." He pointed down the hole. "You found the entrance."
The only response was a long stream of Arthur's curses echoing from underground.
*****
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