"Kaldur!" Was the first thing he heard in the morning. Then footsteps, loud footsteps, someone was running through the cave.
"Kaldur!" The voice repeated, sounding panicked but now out of breath. In seconds they were beating on his door, threatening to punch it off its hinges.
"Kaldur, I'm coming in." The voice stated, as the door opened and the person loudly stomped over to his bed.
"Kaldur?" It said, bending down next to him.
"Garth?" Kaldur didn't have to open his eyes, he could recognize that voice anywhere. But the tone suggested this wasn't something to be ignored.
"Kaldur, something's wrong." Garth stated, trying to catch his breath in short gasps.
"Figured," Kaldur nodded sleepily.
"Kaldur, the sky changed color." Garth relayed, helping Kaldur get out of bed.
"What?" Kaldur asked, still tiered, but pretty sure he had heard that correctly.
"The sky changed colors. It's not supposed to do that, right?" Garth asked nervously, biting his lower lip.
"Garth, I already told you, on the surface, it gets darker at certain hours, then it will turn light again." Kaldur sank back onto his bed, somewhat upset Garth would get him up for something so inconsequential.
"But it changed," Garth persisted.
"Yes, it goes from light blue to really dark blue, almost black, with white and yellow speckles." Kaldur tried to explain day and night again to his old friend.
"It's not blue." Garth said seriously.
"Then you're probably seeing it at sunrise or sunset, when it changes different colors, it's perfectly normal. There's nothing to worry about." Kaldur tried to lay back down, before he was forcefully yanked back up by Garth.
"No, it's not normal! It's not like a sunrise or sunset! It's different! You have to come see!" Garth shouted, pulling Kaldur towards the door. Kaldur sighed, thinking this all to be much too childish, but complied, knowing Garth wasn't about to let him get back to bed.
Kaldur was practically dragged through the cave, only to find himself being dragged to the hanger.
"Where're we going?" Kaldur asked sleepily.
"Somewhere where you can actually see the sky." Garth stated. Just then, Kaldur caught a glimpse of Tula, standing at the edge, looking just as worried.
"Oh good, you got him!" Tula shouted, running over to them. She grabbed Kaldur's other side and brought him to the edge of the hanger.
"See!" Tula squeaked, pointing at the sky. "It's not blue, or sparkly black, or even that weird pink orangey-purple color. It's white!"
"Is this normal? Are we being attacked?" Garth asked, just as panicked from his other side. Kaldur sighed, trying his hardest not to laugh.
They're new up here… he kept having to remind himself. They've never seen this before.
"Kaldur?" Garth asked again, snapping the spoken back to reality.
"No, we're not being attacked, and yes, this is normal. It's called a raincloud." Kaldur said gently.
"It's not a cloud! It's covering the whole sky!" Garth yelled, throwing his arms out to emphasize the vastness. Kaldur mentally sighed again.
"Yes, clouds can do that, especially when there's a lot of them." Kaldur nodded.
"But… but we will get the blue back, right?" Tula asked fearfully, her little freckled nose wrinkling.
"Yes, the sky will turn blue again. We just have to wait." Kaldur said confidently.
It was quiet for a short while, as the three just looked up at the endless white sky.
"What do clouds do? Where do they come from?" Garth suddenly asked.
Kaldur sighed, out loud this time, looking over at his two Atlantean friends, who really didn't have a clue about the surface in general. He couldn't help but feeling he had to take care of the two of them, at least until they could get back on their feet.
"Clouds are made when something boils, and turns into steam. That's all clouds are, giant balls of steam." Kaldur tried his best to explain.
"So they're hot?" Tula asked.
"No, I don't think so. I haven't actually touched one." Kaldur confessed, glancing down at Tula.
"Do they just stay up there forever?" Garth asked, "Because if they do, how do we have any spots in the world without 'clouds'." He put clouds in with finger quotation marks. "Steam is being made every day!"
"No, clouds don't stay up forever, they get smaller by a process called raining." Kaldur tried to explain, only to be met with blank stares. So he tried to clarify a little bit more. "It's when water drops from the sky."
Both their faces dropped, they exchanged glanced, and Kaldur was very sure they were having a closed telepathic conversation.
"Okay, seriously, how do they get smaller?" Tula said, using her, don't even try to mess with me voice.
"Hey," A new voice sounded as another person entered the room. "What are my three favorite mer-people talking about today?"
"Wally, perfect. You explain how clouds shrink." Tula demanded, pointing at the Speedster.
"Wait, you mean to tell me you almost graduated college and you still don't know how clouds work?" Wally asked, but then looked at the two atlanteans and re-thought about what he had just said.
"Tula, it's okay, I can just research it later." Garth suggested softly, but had a finger jabbed in his face.
"Uh-ah, I'm curious, and we're going to find out. Wally's going to tell us." Tula said, talking to Garth but staring at Wally.
"Um… Through rain?" Wally scratched his head, never having had to explain rain to anything but a science test before.
"And that is?" Tula prodded.
"When water falls from the sky..." Wally moved his hands up and down, as if to suggest a torrential downpour.
"And it is hot water?" Tula asked.
"No," Wally said slowly.
"Then why were you fanning yourself just thinking about it?" Tula raised an eyebrow.
"What? NO! I wasn't… augh!" Wally eventually threw his hands into his face.
Suddenly, they heard a gentle pattering sound as it started to rain, and they saw it right outside the hanger. Garth and Tula both scooted away from the opening, staring at the falling water.
"Man, with that reaction, you'd think you were cats or something." Wally laughed, only to get a glare from all three Atlanteans. Honestly, Tula's scared him the most, it reminded him of Artemis. "Okay, okay, I get it, I'm going. I'll just, uh, see myself out." He said, slipping out of the room.
The atlanteans turned back the hanger door, and the two younger ones peered out cautiously. Suddenly, Kaldur pushed them both out into the rain. Both jumped, and for a second, were completely panicked before they realized they could not only still breath, but be soaked as if underwater at the same time.
The two looked at each other, then back at Kaldur. Within a millisecond Kaldur was dragged outside with the others.
Hours later,
"Coffee…" Robin muttered, stumbling into the kitchen and pouring himself a cup.
"Hey, Wingster, when did you get the kid addicted?" Rocket asked Nightwing, who was nursing his own cup.
"Since he started working with batman and became an insomniac like me." Nightwing mumbled, yawning.
"Hey, those things are (yawn) contagious!" Zatanna complained.
"Well it's a good thing you (yawn) set him straight." Artemis smirked.
"Were are Atlantean trio?" Conner asked, looking around at the group.
"Out-(Yawn) Side." Wally answered, then scowled at Nightwing, "Thanks, Rob."
"It's down pouring out there!" Meagan squeaked, flying out to the hanger, where she got a good view of the Atlanteans, who were currently on the beach.
Meagan though she had never seen the three happier, as they were currently, playing on the beach. Kaldur was bending the water both in the sky and in the ocean as his weapon, while Garth was boiling and freezing the water around him, making a pretty good steam screen. Tula just seemed to be having a good time bounding from one boy to the other, trying to get a couple good punches in.
"Hmm…" Roy said, suddenly appearing beside Meagan. "It's raining."
Okay, Okay, so this was more of a Young Justice Team/Atlantean Trio fic, but I thought it was Kaldur centric enough for the challenge.