Title: Cloud
Girl
Fandom: Legion of Superheroes (tv)
Rating: G
Summary:
Life as a cloud was different from life as a girl. Ayla muses about
her brothers, the legion and her life. Please note this has not been
beta'd though I did run it through a grammar/spell checker.
Spoilers:
Through Season 2 of the cartoon.
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Cloud Girl
Life as a cloud was different from life as a girl. Ayla still had dreams about her time as a lightning cloud. She has a more natural feel and aptitude with her lightning abilities than both of her brother's. Garth insists it's because she's a genius.
Probably it's because lightning feels more real than skin to her and sometimes she has problems remembering that she's tactile and solid now and then she'll bump into something and be reminded.
Garth called the bruises badges of courage.
Garth tries to come and visit whenever he can, which has gotten more infrequent as Imperiex has gotten more aggressive. He likes to read the letters she sends to Mekt and always offers to read the responses.
Ayla gets the impression sometimes that he doesn't quite trust Mekt and she remembers the time with the Lightning Beasts and the sound of Mekt's stick on the ground and shivers.
Garth is missing his left arm. It's the arm he lost fighting Mekt over her. It's smooth and hard and cold and hot after he channels lightning through it and Ayla is both afraid of and fascinated by it. Ayla feels guilty that Garth lost his arm. Garth says he feels guilty that he's two-and-a-half feet taller than her.
Ayla knows the height difference between them. They measured.
Everyone in the Legion is taller than her except for Shrinking Violet. Vi is really nice but sometimes she'll talk and Ayla just isn't able to follow what she says. She felt bad about this until she caught Garth looking just as confused and perplexed as she felt and then she understood it's just something with Vi.
Once Garth brought her to the Legion sickbay and introduced her to Saturn Girl. He got a funny look on his face when he looked at the beautiful blonde on the bed and when Ayla asked him, he'd only say she was important. He also told her to be careful what she says around Saturn Girl even though she's unconscious. She might still be able to understand.
Garth's face was shadowed with a look he'd never given Ayla then and a tiny bit of her was jealous of the unconscious girl for being responsible for that look. She felt guilty for that though and wondered if Saturn Girl could read minds while unconscious too so she went ahead and said "hello" and "I hope you feel better soon," and then she thought it really hard too.
Ayla doesn't much care for Brainiac 5, mostly because he's always trying to poke her, or prod her, or put sticky bits of wires on her to check her. She puts up with it because Garth asks him to do it.
She like Clark Superman, he's nice and will tell her stories about a place called The Kansas from Earth's distant past. She's not so sure how she feels about the other Superman though. He can be mean and always has a dark and cold voice, like the deeps of space, but that voice sometimes makes Ayla's stomach tighten and then she misses the pull of the vast emptiness of space.
Triplicate Girl and Phantom Girl like to take her shopping and have threatened to shave off Garth's goatee and dress him up like Ayla. They told her that they didn't much care for Garth's facial hair and thought he looked much more handsome without it, but made her promise not to tell him.
Privately Ayla agreed with them and she didn't tell Garth what they said, even when he asked three times.
Sometimes Chameleon Boy will play with her though usually he'll say he's too old for games. Alya thinks he's just pretending so he'll look cool in front of the other Legion members.
Timberwolf does play with her and he says that a person should never be too old to have fun. She likes Timberwolf, though sometimes he doesn't like to get near her. Ayla understands that sometimes people are just having bad days, though the growling does intimidate her a little.
Bouncing Boy will sometimes offer to give her rides and that's a lot of fun, being cuddled in his arms while they ricochet across the room, though one time she threw up afterwards and then Garth yelled at him.
She had to remind Garth that she's ten years old and not a little kid only Garth kind of gave her this look that was the same look her parents would give her when they were kids together and she said the same thing to them.
Only Garth's not a kid anymore and Ayla still is and sometimes she really wishes they'd never gotten on that ship with Mekt and more times she just wishes she was two-and-a-half feet taller.
Lately her skin has been itching and her bones have ached. Garth swears she's grown two whole inches since the last time he saw her and when they measured she'd grown three!
That seemed to worry him a lot and Brainiac 5 too and they ran a lot more tests than usual on her. It wasn't too bad though because Shrinking Violet came over and talked to her a while.
Ayla knows Garth is worried though, by the frown he keeps wearing and she's worried too. When she was a cloud there were no books to read and no classes to take. She's trying to catch up now, but it feels like it'll take forever to be as smart as her brother and sometimes she wakes up from her dreams feeling anxious, her fingers clutching the sheets.
The day before Garth took her to get new clothes and shoes and other accessories. He was nice enough to take her to a special store too, to get items that told her that her body really is changing. He told her to ask Mom how to use them, or he'd ask Vi or Trip or Phantom Girl to explain it to her.
His face was red and mottled and it made her laugh.
Sometimes Ayla thinks it might have been better if she'd stayed a cloud, than Garth wouldn't be so worried about her and her bones wouldn't ache and her body wouldn't be changing so fast. Garth tells her to never, ever think thoughts like that and then he holds her too tightly, but she lets him because she knows he's just scared.
Truthfully Ayla was scared too.
When Ayla slept that night she dreamt she was a cloud again, floating in the vastness of space searching for her brother's.
Life as a girl was different from life as a cloud.