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For the next month Sapphire works to reestablish something approaching normality. She's not really comfortable being as important to the world as she's become but she isn't alone, she has the support of the league. She finds an apartment, sends applications to schools, and helps. She meets with the team from Star Labs, researches infectious diseases and starts working on what she can, researches hospitals and makes plans for how to improve them and she pays attention to the news and goes to help with earthquakes, tornados, and floods. There's a particularly bad flood in Pakistan and also a series of wildfires in Russia. Batman also sends a few requests for scans, she doesn't like the cloak and dagger work but she understands it's important and she helps. That doesn't stop her from keeping meticulous records and tries to understand his plan. She keeps herself very busy and at some point she decides she needs a break. She reaches out to Atlantis about visiting. It's amazing that it's real here.
Atlanteans don't really do vegetarianism, possibly due to the lack of good vegetables, but she can get an algae sampler plate. Atlantean currency consists mostly of small copper coins, which Sapphire fortunately did stock up on before visiting.
The algae tastes... surprisingly bland. Perhaps it doesn't help that she can't really smell anything.
Ring, can you allow aromatic compounds to filter through the environmental shield in safe amounts?
"Compliance."
She can now smell some things, but it's still much less than she'd normally be able to. The algae tastes a little better, but it still seems off, like it's missing something.
Ring create a pocket of the surrounding water about twice the volume of the solid food to accompany each piece I bring through the environmental shield. Release it when it's inside my mouth and my mouth is closed. She tries eating again.
Ring evaluate the following instructions and assess any risks: allow the water to touch my face and create a barrier to ensure the water doesn't go down my windpipe.
"Course of action likely to result in suffocation of user unless windpipe is also supplied with fresh air."
Amend the previous instruction to include supplying air and then execute. And more food.
"Compliance."
Once Sapphire's nose and mouth fill with water, she it at last able to taste this food as it was meant to be tasted! Aromatic compounds only soluble in water rise up from the algae and stimulate her olfactory nerves in ways they have never been stimulated before! Each bite is an explosion of flavors which can scarcely be described by the english language!
From outside the restaurant she hears several dull thumps that sound like... explosions?
She savors the flavor for the few bites she manages before the explosions start.
Ring store the remaining food and five liters of the surrounding water then return the environmental shield to the state it was in before I started eating. Maintain the protection of my windpipe until it's no longer necessary. She moves outside to try to see what's happening.
"Compliance."
In the streets outside, guardsmen are fighting people dressed in full-body black armor, wielding some sort of underwater stun guns.
Ring scan those in black armor and recommend means of non-lethally subduing them.
"Compliance. Recommend targeted electrical stimulus to central nervous system or application of tranquilizing drugs."
She debates with herself for a few moments then If you're confident in safe doses then tranquilize all those wearing the same type of armor in range. She can tell this is going to be hard so she focuses on her compassion for all these people seeing their city attacked. She does her best to push away her distress at the line she's crossing here. She doesn't see a good alternative.
"Compliance."
Tendrils of Indigo Light leaps out from her ring to eat away some nearby fish, then again to touch each of the attackers. After a moment, they go still, floating limply in the water.
"All targets within range determined by current Compassion output tranquilized."
The guardsmen look around in shock when their opponents are disabled, then stare at her.
She floats over. "Hello, do you know who those people were or why they were attacking?"
"These men are from Black Manta's crew. They're pirates and raiders. I don't know why they'd set off bombs in Poseidonis, it looks like it's just senseless violence."
"Or it was meant as a distraction," says another guard.
Ring how far did the tranquilizing reach? Also run a scan and tell me how many more are in the city and still awake.
"All targets within a radius of 48.42 meters tranquilized."
"Compliance. 32 targets match specified parameters."
"I'm pretty sure I didn't get them all. What I did only reached about 50 meters out from here."