Mera Captures Black Manta

It took some time and a lot of patience, but he finally got there. Atlantis was working on a new experimental prototype of a sea-to-air hybrid fighter ship, and Black Manta wanted to get his hands on it. Although most of Atlantis's technology was water-based, there was still an occasional need for airships to fly over the water, mostly around the oceans they controlled, but they were always working on how to make them better and stronger.

If Manta's intel was from an unusual source, but if it was correct, the hybrid ship they were working on could rival the weaponry of the world's leading governments. Not only would it be the best submarine in the Atlantean fleet, it would suddenly be converted to an air fighter jet that could reach large territory over land at incredible speeds. And to top it off, the ship was designed to carry the latest in Atlantean weaponry.

Manta wanted that hybrid ship for himself as a means to replicate it for his own army, which he is working on creating. He took some of his best henchmen down to the sea in the best deep sea marine fighter suits that he designed himself, got past Atlantis's security, killed several guards, forced a scientist to unlock the security codes of the ship before killing him as well, and managed to take the ship.

He did it all while he knew that Aquaman was away on the other side of the world helping the Justice League on another mission, so it was perfect timing. As much as he would have liked to fight Aquaman again, he needed to focus on getting that ship first. When he gets his army to use those ships, the first thing he'll do is destroy Aquaman and Atlantis once and for all.

The ship was massive and far more impressive than he had hoped it would be. He fired up the engines and set a course for the surface. There, he would navigate the ship to his secret base. As they escaped with the ship from the underwater military base, Manta's henchmen celebrated a successful mission. That celebration was short lived as they heard explosions all around them, rocking the ship. They were discovered taking the ship and were now under attack by Atlantis.

Manta ordered his men to man their stations and prepare for battle. They managed to destroy several Atlantean fighters, but were taking heavy damage themselves. After an immense battle, Manta got the ship to the surface, converted it to an air fighter jet, and set off into the sky.

The henchmen celebrated again, but that was short-lived as the cockpit was invaded by several Atlantean guardsmen. In front of them, standing tall with her trident pointing towards Manta, was Mera, the queen of Atlantis and wife of Aquaman.

"Hello, Mera," said Manta. "Good to see you again."

"Tell your men to stand down, Manta," Mera ordered.

"You know, I can't do that," he replied. "ATTACK!"

A fierce battle took place in the cockpit as Mera faced Manta while her guardsmen fought the henchmen. Manta wanted to use the energy blast he could fire from his large helmet but was afraid it would cause too much damage to the hybrid ship, so he fought Mera hand to hand. His armor fought well against Aquaman on several occasions, and he assumed he could do much better against a woman. Although she was not as strong as her husband, Mera fought well against Manta.

The guardsmen quickly defeated the henchmen, and Mera defeated Manta. Manta felt immensely embarrassed to have been defeated by a woman. Against his better judgement, he fired his energy blast at its highest intensity straight at Mera. She saw it coming and moved out of the way, letting the blast hit the wall behind her, causing a lot of damage to the ship's systems.

The ship began to spin around uncontrollably; all of the henchmen and guardsmen fell out of the large hole and into the ocean. Mera knew her men would, of course, be safe falling into the ocean; the henchmen, however, would not be so lucky.

The ship was getting out of control as Manta tried to take control of the systems.

"You're doing it all wrong, you idiot!" Mera yelled at him.

"Shut up, woman, I've got this," he yelled.

Manta obviously didn't know what he was doing, and Mera pushed him out of the way to try to stabilize the ship. Manta took offense to it and fought her for the controls, causing damage to the systems.

Mera didn't know how, but the ship began flying at incredible speeds and high up into the sky, miles away from the ocean. Neither one of them had an idea of where it was going. All they could do now was to hold on to something tight as the ship was going out of control.

The ship stopped flying up and began going downwards. The computer alerted them that they were on the verge of crashing into land; but due to the damaged navigation systems, the ship didn't know the location of where they were going to crash.

"This is your fault," Manta yelled at her.

"You better hope this crash kills you before I do," she yelled back at him.

They held tightly on to whatever they could as the ship crashed onto land. It didn't stop right away, instead it kept skipping around the land, slowing down before it finally hit something on the outside and stopped. Both Mera and Manta lost control of what they were holding onto and flew around the cockpit, banging their bodies against the walls very hard.

They were out for a while; it took some time for Manta to remember where he was and what had happened. His armor was heavily damaged, and he had to take it all off, leaving him in just his undershirt and boxers. He looked around the ship, trying to see what could be salvaged.

On the floor, he found Mera, unconscious. He looked at the young woman with long red hair as she lied there on the floor. She wore her famous green uniform that hugged her curvy body and showed a decent amount of cleavage on top. He didn't know why she would show that much cleavage, but he wasn't complaining about it. In fact, he liked it a lot.

Manta grabbed a broken piece of pipe that had a sharp, jagged edge on its end. He stood over her and held the pipe over his head with both hands, getting ready to impale her with it.

"Nice tits," he said as he looked at her intently. "Too bad I gotta shove this pipe between them to stab you in the heart."

Just as he was about to bring down the jagged pipe, Mera's eyes opened, shocked to see Manta without his armor standing over her. She saw the jagged pipe coming down at her, and in an instant, she used her hydro-kinetic abilities to use the water that was all around her to form an ice shield over her torso. The ice shield stopped the pipe from impaling her and held it in place.

Manta tried to pull the pipe from the ice, but wasn't strong enough. While he was distracted, Mera was in a good position to kick her foot right into Manta's groin, making him fall over in pain. Mera turned the ice shield back into water and got off the floor. Just as Manta got back up to face her, Mera used her abilities again to encase Manta in a thick block of ice, leaving just his head free.

"Let me go, you bitch!" he yelled at her.

"Not going to happen," Mera replied.

Mera grabbed the same pipe that Manta tried to use to kill her. She then swung it really hard against his head with the dull end of the pipe, knocking Manta out instantly.

Manta woke up sometime later with a massive headache and found himself unable to move. He soon realized that he was tied up with several feet of electrical wire that Mera was able to cut out of the ship to use on him. He saw her at the helm of the ship, doing her best to fix the communication system.

"Let me go!" he yelled at her.

Mera got out of her chair and walked over to Manta and punched him hard in the face.

"What was that for?" he asked.

"You tried to kill me, asshole," she replied.

She punched him hard in the face again before returning to the communication system.

"Where are we anyway?" he asked.

"In the middle of the Mongolian desert," she replied.

"Seriously?" he responded. "That's way off course."

"That's what you get for damaging the navigation system, shithead."

"At least we're nowhere near the water," he said. "You're weak here."

Just then, blobs of water started flying all around him. Mera was demonstrating the use of her hydrokinetic abilities to him; the power gave her complete control over water and the ability to use it in any way she wanted. She turned some of the water into a big icicle and pointed it right at Manta's jugular.

"I guess that blow to your head made you forget how I defeated you before I knocked you out," said Mera. "There's still plenty of water left over from the ocean that's splashed all around the ship and in the engine, so don't start thinking I'm that defenseless."

"At least we have plenty of water if we're going to be stuck in the desert," said Manta.

Manta saw how much she was struggling to get the communicator working; she got some of it fixed, but she didn't know much about the technology to get it working perfectly.

"Let me fix that thing, I know what to do," he told her.

"No," she responded.

"I'm an expert in Atlantean technology. You only know how to order people to fix it," said Manta. "I can fix it much faster if you let me go."

"There's no way I'm doing that."

"Why the hell not?" He demanded to know.

"Are you serious?" she asked. "Over the years, you have tried to kill me or Aquaman hundreds of times, including today. Why the hell would I trust you to not try anything again if I let you go?"

At that moment, Manta realized he wasn't getting anywhere with Mera and dropped the subject, at least for now.

Two days later, it was obvious that Atlantis, the Justice League, or anybody else, had no idea where Mera and Manta were. During that time, Mera tried and failed countless times to fix the communicator. She managed to get some sound coming from it, but had no way to call anybody for help.

Manta didn't offer his help those two days; he wanted to wait to see if she asked him for help instead. She did untie him for brief moments to let him eat or go to the bathroom, each time having a series of large icicles pointing at various parts of his body ready to stab him. He was impressed at how she managed to keep the icicles cold and solid in the immense heat of the desert they were in.

He had thought of how to escape and kill Mera several times, but without his Manta armor, there was no way he could get past her. He was a very physically fit person, and could normally take on a regular-sized human woman, but Mera was Atlantean and not just stronger than your average human woman, but stronger than most male humans as well.

On the third day, while they were eating, Manta finally decided to say something.

"Let me help you fix this ship, and you have my word that I won't try to kill you," said Manta.

"Not going to happen," she replied.

"Listen to me, we have to work together on this," said Manta. "I know I tried to kill you, but we've been here for three days now. Aquaman obviously doesn't know where we are or how to find us, and you don't know how to fix that thing."

"No, you'll just try to kill me again," said Mera.

"I'm sorry for that, but we can't keep going like this forever," said Manta. "How much longer can we survive here on military rations."

Mera thought about it for a moment and considered whether or not he was sincere. It was hard to tell with supervillains; they were expert liars.

She began to say, "I need to ask you something that I have always wanted to know. If you ever manage to destroy Aquaman and Atlantis, then what? What happens next?"

"I don't know," he said. "I never really thought about what I should do next. All I can think about is getting revenge on Aquaman for letting my father die and not giving a damn about it."

Mera gave an awkward pause when he said that last part. She tried to hide it by continuing eating her meal, but Manta saw it.

"What? What was that?" he asked. "I mentioned how he let my father die, and you gave that weird look."

"It's nothing," she said. It's just something my husband told me a long time ago, but it's nothing."

"What is it?" he asked again. "Is it about my father?"

Mera thought about it for a moment, trying to think about what to say next.

"Aquaman told me that he regrets letting your father die," he said. "As bad as he was, he felt he should've helped him when he had the chance."

"Seriously?"

"Not everyone can let go of death that easily like you," she said. "That moment had an effect on him. Not right away, but over time, he realized how wrong he was and wished he had done more to help him."

Manta was stunned by that revelation; he always thought Aquaman never cared about letting his father die, but now he had just heard how he felt sorry about it. He felt a small sense of relief after hearing that.

On the fourth day, Mera continued to fail at fixing the communicator. Manta tried to offer advice on how to fix it; he thought if he couldn't fix it himself, then maybe he could tell her what to do. But telling someone how to fix a sophisticated piece of technology was a lot harder than he imagined. She did get it working a little with his help, but it still wasn't enough.

"Listen to me, you have to let me get my hands on that machine," he said. "I know you don't trust me, and I don't blame you, but we can't keep doing this."

"I'll think about it," she replied.

Manta felt a little better that she said that because it was a lot better than hearing her say no.

She took a break and brought them food to eat. She was lucky that the ship was filled with military rations; the food was terrible, but it was still food nonetheless.

Manta managed to get some small talk out of her, even making her laugh a little. Mera got Manta to talk a little more about himself, and she saw a change in his personality. Instead of the crazed man she was fighting days earlier, she could see that deep down he was a normal guy.

The next day, when Manta wasn't trying to convince Mera to let him fix the communicator, they made some more small talk. Mera told him some funny stories about the Justice League that made him laugh.

They tried one more time, with Manta telling her what to do to fix the machine, but it was getting more and more frustrating. With their food rations and water running low and no hope in sight of being rescued, she finally decided to give Manta a chance.

"Ok, I'll let you try to fix it on your own," she said.

Manta was very much relieved to hear her say that.

"Oh, thank you," he said. "I won't let you down."

"You better not if you know what's good for you."

"Don't worry, I know what will happen if I do," he replied. "You can keep the floating icicles on me as long as you want."

"I'm hoping that won't be necessary," she said.

She untied him and he stood up from the chair he was being held in and stretched his body. As he did that, Mera saw the rippling of his body and was impressed with how well toned he was. Manta was a tall, African-American male with good-looking features, and she couldn't help thinking how sexy he looked; when he wasn't trying to kill her, that is.

Manta began working on the communicator, and he was doing it a lot faster than Mera expected. She watched and she could see how he was working on the various components of the machine, realizing the things she had done wrong when she tried it herself.

After a few hours, Manta was done working on it, and they tested the machine. Mera sent out a signal to Atlantis with a secret communication code that she had to use; Manta agreed to look the other way as she used it. She sent out a message letting her people know she was alive and that she needed help.

It took some time, but they finally got a signal.

"Mera, is that you?" said a voice.

"Yes, it's me," said Mera. "Who is this?"

"It's Vulko," he replied. "We've been searching for you everywhere."

Mera was ecstatic to hear it was Vulko, one of Aquaman's senior advisors and closest confidant.

"Can you locate me?" Mera asked.

"Yes, now that we got a signal on the hybrid ship, we can send out another one to get you," he replied.

"Wait, you have more of these ships?" Manta asked.

"A few, but they're lesser versions of this one actually," she replied.

"I'll let Aquaman know where you are," said Vulko's voice. "We should be there in a few hours."

They turned off the communicator and celebrated with a big hug. Unbeknownst to the other person, they were enjoying the feel of each other's bodies as they hugged.

"I've got something for us," she said.

Mera went to the back of the cockpit, opened a cabinet, and pulled out a bottle of 200-year-old Atlantean wine.

"One of the guardsmen must've snuck it on this ship," said Mera. "It's ours now."

She found two cups for them and poured the wine for both of them. They clinked their cups and made a toast to finally getting rescued. Manta didn't know what was going to happen to him when Aquaman arrived; with his Manta armor severely damaged, he couldn't fight his way out and he had nowhere to go in that Mongolian desert. His best option was to surrender when Aquaman and the Atlantean guardsman arrived. There was no death penalty in Atlantis, so he could bide his time while in prison to make his escape.

They drank more of that wine, with Manta asking for more of it. Mera gave him the bottle, saying he could have the rest of the bottle, and he began drinking straight from it.

"Damn, this is good stuff," said Manta.

"Can you imagine if you ever managed to destroy Atlantis? Then you wouldn't be able to get this anywhere."

"I seriously need to reconsider my priorities when it comes to Atlantis," he replied, and drank some more.

Manta began feeling woozy and needed to sit down.

"Aww, you can't handle our wine?" said Mera. "Maybe I can find you some milk, that would be more your speed."

"I can handle my booze, lady," he told her. "I have been able to outdrink everyone in the Legion of Doom. Especially Bane."

They both drank some more and had a good time laughing and telling stories about the adventures they had had around the world. Mera was impressed with how much wine he was able to drink throughout their good time together.

"I have to apologize. I guess you can handle Atlantean wine," Mera said sarcastically.

"I told you, lady, I can handle anything you throw at me," he said.

"Anything, you say?" she asked, with a wicked smile on her face. "Can you handle me?"

"What do you mean by that?" Manta asked.

Mera pushed Manta to the ground, which was very easy considering how much stronger she was. She got right on top of him, straddling his pelvic area. Briefly, Manta thought that this was a trap, that she was finally going to kill him. He was about to fight her off before he noticed she had taken her top off.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Getting something, I've been wanting for a few days now," she replied.

She took off his shirt and was impressed with his broad chest and shoulders; not as big as her husband's, but it was still good enough to arouse her. She began kissing him, which took him by surprise; by the time he got a grip on what was happening, they were holding each other tightly as they began rolling around the floor, making out with each other. Manta grabbed at her breasts, kneading them softly in his hands; he had never felt an Atlantean woman's breasts before; they somehow felt so much better than those of a human woman.

They both got fully undressed, and Mera was impressed with the size of his erection. She got a good idea of how big he was from the outline of his boxers, which she made him only wear during his captivity, but didn't think it would be that big when it got erect.