Disclaimer: I do not own Legion.
A one-shot that might evolve into something more. Not in this, but another thing. Maybe. Still thinking it over.
LL/DS. Lightning Lad/Dawnstar. Hints at a pairing.
The machine kept going BEEP BEEP BEEP.
On the TV there was some stupid soap opera playing.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
The calendar read May 20th.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
The window was closed, to keep the rain out.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
Thunder boomed and lightning cracked the black sky like a broken pot.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
A stray feather had fallen on the floor.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
An ethereal form lay in the bed, chest rising and falling as breath exhaled outward.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
But how anyone could sleep with all that snoring going on was beyond me.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
The figure in the bed slowly started to rise out of her induced trance. Her eyelids flutter open, errant grains of sand encrypting her lashes.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
The one next to her was completely unaware of the trail of drool completely soaking the side of his chin and beard. He still snored on.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
Tanned skin and black hair started to rise in the darkness. Limbs out-stretched to welcome the waking world.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
Peach skin and red hair met soft, fluffy whiteness aimed on a beeline right at him. He snorted and rolled to face the other way.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
"Thank the Spirit. How long was I asleep?" The girl yawned. Her wings stretched out behind her.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
"You min' keeping iddown?" The boy asked. "Tryin to sleep here."
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
"Lightning Lad? Of course, I should have recognized that Lovecraftian howl." The girl said.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
"Nice to see you too, Dawny." The boy, Garth sat up in bed. "Whys it so dark?" Garth asked.
"I'll turn the light on." Dawny, or rather, Dawnstar got up.
"No prob." Garth lazily aimed his left hand at the control panel on the wall. A spark of lightning flew out and struck the panel. The lights flashed on.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
"Easy!" Dawnstar shielded her eyes, which were still not ready for the light.
"Sorry. My bad." Garth rubbed his eyes, but, noticed something peculiar.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
Dawnstar began to stretch her wings. They felt so stiff, so weak. She tried to remember what happened before she fell asleep. No, not fell asleep, blacked-
"Oh sprock!" Garth exclaimed.
"What is it?!" Dawny yelled, wanting to see what was wrong. But, nothing seemed wrong, according to the look on Garth's face. He was, happy.
"Look!" He told her. And raised up his arms.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
Both were in the air.
And both were made of flesh.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
Dawnstar couldn't believe her eyes.
"I got my arm back!" He cried to the heavens. He pinched himself to see if this was a dream. It wasn't. Ow.
"I can see." Dawnstar said.
How strange. How very strange that for these last few months Garth was flaunting that cybernetic piece of art designed by two of the Legion's resident super geniuses.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
But, Garth's smile started to fade.
"What's wrong?" Dawnstar asked.
"Now I can't blow stuff up as good as I could." He moaned.
"Boys." Dawny rolled her eyes.
"I wonder how Vi's taking it?" Garth asked.
"What I wonder is, how long we've been asleep?" Dawnstar asked, to either herself, to Garth, or no one at all.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
Garth's stomach growled like a dog. He put his left hand over his gut and blushed.
"Long enough, I guess." He said.
Dawnstar swung the blanket off of her legs and got up off the bed. She did another stretch, let her arms and wings bend freely in the air.
"I feel so strange." She said.
She tried to flap her wings. Garth turned, and blushed madly again when he saw her perfect butt uncovered by her hospital gown.
"R-really?" Garth asked.
"My wings feel so… awkward." Dawny explained as she walked around, to the calendar, flapping her wings as she did and sending a cool breeze forward.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
Her wings didn't feel as strong as they once did. They felt young and weak, like a newborn's. Her arms and legs ached, actually, which was probably from all that time she spent in bed. She had bed sores on her back. She spread her wings, spread them out wide, embracing the cool air, embracing the space in the room as she so often did with her wings displayed outward as she would fly through the open sky and space.
Garth flexed his right arm. No more metal, no more wires. Flesh, blood, and bone. The hair stood up on ends. He got goosebumps from the coolness in the room. It felt normal again. Electricity crackled between his fingertips. His nails needed to be trimmed. There was dirt under them. The spot where he pinched himself was red. But, his arm wasn't as well muscled as his left. It felt sore, awkward, foreign. He could relate to Dawny in that matter, and wondered how long he slept.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
"The calendar says that it's May 20th." Dawnstar informed her roommate.
"May 20th?" Garth asked. "Then we've been out of it…" Garth started to count the dates on his fingers.
"14 Days." Dawny flat out said.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
"14 Days?!" Garth yelled.
"We're in a hospital. Keep your voice down." Dawnstar shushed him.
"But-! But what happened?" Garth said. "Two weeks. Without a shower, I'm guessing."
"I don't think so." Dawnstar didn't pick up any foul stench. "I think we've had company." Dawn pointed to the a table on the other side of the room. It was piled with Get Well cards and tokens of appreciation from their comrades and family.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
"And that's fourteen days without eating, too." Garth's eyes rolled over to a big basket of muffins perched near a bouquet of near dying roses.
From Dirk, to My Favorite Star in the Sky.
Get Well Soon, Guys! Love Brin and Tinya.
Dawn tossed the roses away into the trash. Apparently Dirk didn't have enough self respect to not hit on a woman who was unconscious.
Garth guessed Tinya used whatever blackmailing powers she had tucked away to get Brin to make this care basket. But judging from the way he just ripped it open, he didn't care. Pluberries, from the scent. His favorite.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
Dawn was trying to so hard to remember what happened since they were last awake. It was hard when she had to listen to the way Garth ate.
"Do you mind?" She agitatedly asked him.
"'orry." He replied with a full mouth.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
She massaged her temples, thinking.
The last mission, it was against…
The Justice League of Earth. Angry, rejected Legion applicants, and racists. All of them from Earth, trying to launch a smear campaign, labeling the rest as exclusive alien invaders.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
There was Golden Boy, Storm Boy, Spider Girl, Tusker, Eyeful-Ethel, Absorbency Boy, wait, he called himself Earth-Man. All bitter, all lashing out, taking it out on anyone in their way, even the children from his own planet. They lied about Superman's history. Tried to twist it. No proof, but people listened anyway. And believed. I'm offended that we come from the same planet.
Dawnstar's people originated from Earth, a race that was fractured all over North America, before they emigrated to the Starhaven colony. Over centuries their people started to evolve new abilities as hunters and trackers. Like her wings. She felt a chill go down her spine as she thought about the JLE. Her wings fluttered.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
Garth wiped a crumb from his mouth. He started to think.
Colossal Boy's mom. Mrs. Allon. She was worried about how some of the kids were acting at her apartment building. Some after-school program their parents had them in. About Superman. Already dealing with a bunch of hate crimes against aliens. Total luck. Bastards. Manipulating kids. People are such morons.
Discrimination isn't something that stops the minute you leave Earth. Lots of planets have dealt with it. Winath in particular. Something about the natives that make's them give birth to twins. Any twist of fate that might result in a singular birth earns fear and suspicion. Such as Garth's brother. His arm twitched when thinking about it.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
The memories started to come. Dawnstar started to get a clear picture.
The Educational Center. We'd followed them back. They still had a clear path. Kids. We didn't know they still had kids. But, I did. Had to get out as many as I could. With Drake.
Wildfire. Drake Burroughs. Dawnstar's paramour. Antimatter energy in a containment suit that had once been a human. Poor, poor Drake. To never know an intimate touch without hurting her. Whatever they could have had would've been platonic at best. But haunted by an old love, Dawnstar said the wrong thing, and Drake took the hint. Like a gentleman. Like the bigger man.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
Garth remembered the frightened looks on the children's faces when they saw their heroes, the Justice League, when they saw them for what they were.
All that screaming, the crying. Those bastards willing to kill them to get to us. Had to get them out. Imra. She calmed them. Told them it was alright. Protected them. Imra.
Saturn Girl. Imra Ardeen. The object of Garth's affection. Pulsing telepathic abilities housed in the body a teenage girl from Saturn's moon Titan. Always so afraid to admit his feelings but the loudest when it comes to it. And jealous of his best friend. That cost him. That cost him a lot. Imra wasn't speaking to him because of that stunt he pulled. A black eye on Cos. He rues that day, when he should've been the bigger man.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
The images played back. From behind. Hit from behind. She was hit from behind.
Roy. Radiation Roy. That's it. That ugly containment suit leaking out nuclear steam. I wonder what he looks like under there?
He zapped her from behind as she had Tusker in her grasp. It burned. Sizzled. The smell of flesh cooking and burning. Burning. Her wings. That's it. Her wings had taken the brunt of the blast. He…
Burned her wings off.
She shivered.
"Oh Spirit. He clipped me." She whispered.
Her wings. Singed by a radiation-wielding sociopath. But here they were. It still frightened her. Gone for however long. A part of her, destroyed so easily.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
Hit forward. Charged at. Looking out for Imra.
Tusker. Guy smells as bad as my socks. Twice as ugly. Guy used to have tusks. What the hell happened? My bet's on roids. And-
Garth's train of thought was lost. He felt his shoulder.
Teeth marks. He had teeth marks.
Tusker… ATE his arm. No, he ripped it off. With his teeth. He could remember the sound of his teeth chewing through the metal.
Before Dawny had managed to get him off.
"I hope the guy gets indigestion." Garth smirked to himself.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
He turned to Dawnstar. She was shivering.
"Dawny? You okay?" He asked. She left the train.
"Garth?" She turned her head. "I'm sorry. I'm-"
"OUT OF BED!"
"Dr. Gym'll!" They said in united surprise.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
There stood the diminutive, purple skinned Dr. Gym'll. All extra arms included.
"Back in bed, both of you." He ordered. "You two have gone through a very delicate operation and you need rest."
"What operation?" Garth asked.
"Was this with or without our consent?" Dawnstar fumed.
"Obviously you can't get permission from unconscious people. I'm talking about limb regeneration." He explained.
Dawnstar gasped. It was true. They really were cut off. Garth held her hand.
"Your friends gave the consent. Cosmic Boy, I believe." Gym'll said.
"But, I was happy with my metal arm." Garth said.
"Yes, but he was worried if it could keep getting rebuilt, what with Brainiac 5 no longer a member. We used a brand new operation, pioneered by Dr. Lars Hascomb. But, you'll notice they aren't quite the same as they were. Still young."
"I'll say." Dawnstar said to herself.
"Which is why you two will be going through extensive physical therapy until you get back to normal." Gym'll said.
"How long?" Garth asked.
"You've both been given a two month leave of absence from the Legion."
"WHAT?!" They both screamed.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
"You can't do that!" Garth yelled.
"We have duties! We can't take a vacation!"
"You have no say in the matter. It would be best for the Legion and the United Planets to get you two back to top physical form as soon as possible."
Garth thought, yes, that is important. But two months.
Two months off duty, with Lightning Lad? She would've preferred a girl Legionnaire like Monstress or Projectra, not hormone-crazed Garth Ranzz.
"The person assigned to watch over your therapy is one Mr. Kent Shakespeare. I believe you know him?" Gym'll asked.
"Yeah, Impulse." Garth explained.
"Since you're awake, I'll schedule a meeting tomorrow. Your friends should be happy, too. Until then, back in bed, both of you."
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
They got shooed back into bed.
Garth started channel surfing.
Dawny was flexing her wings.
One of the nurses brought in lunch for them. The smell hit her nostrils like a punch in the face.
Dawnstar couldn't believe what was on that tray. It looked like Grant Morrison and Pablo Picasso threw up. What she really couldn't believe, was that Garth was devouring the tray whole.
"How can you eat that?" Dawnstar asked.
"Like this." He started shoveling it in.
Dawnstar let out a sound of disgust, which was amplified when her food started to crawl. Her stomach growled.
"Hey Dawny."
She looked over to Garth's direction.
"Catch."
He tossed her three remaining muffins from the basket.
"Oh. Thank you." Dawn said, touched by his little bit of compassion.
"No prob."
Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
She returned the favor. It went out the window.
"Finally! I thought that thing would never stop." Garth expressed his thanks.
"No problem."
No, it wouldn't be bad at all.