Disclaimer: Taralei, Tam and Petro are of my own creation, however the Legion of Superheroes and anything related to it are not.

Chapter One - Taralei and Tam

At the sound of his doorbell ringing the green-skinned boy sighed. He ran a hand through his messy blonde hair and stood up to answer the door. Pretending to ignore the odd look he received, no doubt due to his disgruntled appearance, Querl paid the delivery man, took the pizza, and shut the door in the man's face. He wandered back into the main room of his small apartment and threw the pizza box on the coffee table. Sighing once more he then sat down on the couch with the television remote, all set for another night of nothing but slightly burned pizza and terrible sitcoms.

After a few minutes, Querl turned the television off and stared at the ceiling. This was pathetic! He had only left the Legion a mere two weeks ago, and he was already terribly lonely and depressed. He wished more than anything that he could just go back, but he couldn't, not after -

"What do you mean you can't remember?"

"Exactly what I said pinehead, I can't remember!"

Just as Querl was beginning to replay the whole incident in his head for the fourth time that day, the sound of two voices arguing loudly outside his door distracted him. Grumbling, Querl got up and opened the door again, intending to tell the owners of the voices off.

Standing just outside the apartment across from Querl's were two boys that looked about his age. They were both tall, with tanned skin and shaggy green hair, but while the elder was thin and lanky, much like Querl himself, the younger was of a more athletic build. Their eyes were also different; one had muddy brown eyes, the other a brilliant shade of green. Suitcases were scattered on the floor around them and they appeared to be arguing over something. At least that's what Querl assumed; they were trading insults more than actually debating over a particular topic.

Querl was about to intervene, all the while cursing internally that he had to end up with these people as neighbours, when movement at the end of the hallway caught his eye. It was a girl, most likely the two arguing idiots' sister, if her tanned skin and green hair was anything to go by. Her wavy hair was long and pulled back into a ponytail, and she had glowing gold eyes. She was about Querl's height, rather petite and dressed in the latest fashion, her over sized metal boots the only exception. She was also struggling to haul a massive suitcase off of the teleporter.

Figuring her brothers weren't likely to help her, Querl went to do so himself, "Excuse me, would you like some assistance?"

At the sound of his voice the girl's head shot up, obviously surprised, but she quickly relaxed and turned to him with a small smile, "That would be great."

Upon seeing her face, Querl froze. A feeling he couldn't explain, and certainly hadn't experienced before, shot straight through him. This girl, there was something about her, but he wasn't sure what.

"Um, that would be great? Uh, are you okay?"

Shaking his head, Querl snapped back to reality, "Oh, yes, sorry. I was distracted by an odd- uh, never mind." He quickly grabbed the suitcase's handle and glanced at the still arguing brothers, "I'll carry this for you, and perhaps you could do something about the noise?"

The girl smiled again, "I'll try."

As she stomped down the hall towards the two boys, Querl followed slowly with the heavy suitcase, still trying to shake off the odd feeling.

"What are you two arguing over now?"

"Pet forgot the door code." The younger brother whined.

"You can't remember it either, little shrub." The elder grumbled.

The girl sighed and stomped over to the door, punching the code in and stepping aside as the door opened. "Show-off," both boys grumbled as they began to drag their bags inside.

Querl shook his head again and went to head back into his apartment when the girl turned to him. "Sorry about the noise. I'd say it won't happen again, but with these idiots around, you never know." She said with an apologetic smile.

"Hey!" One of the boys' voices called from inside the apartment.

Querl half-smiled back; "They're your brothers I assume?"

"Unfortunately."

"Aw Tara, not cool," The younger brother joined them at the door, "Don't make us sound bad to the new neighbour!"

"You already achieved that on your own." Querl mumbled.

"What?"

"Oh nothing. I'm Querl, it's, uh, nice to meet you."

The boy shook his offered hand, "Querl huh? That's weird."

"I am, uh, not really from around here."

"Neither are we, we're from Flora." Tara added.

That explains the green hair and different coloured eyes. Querl thought.

Flora was a planet over in the next solar system, named after the huge amounts of plants covering almost every inch of it. Its inhabitants were well known for their different shades of green and brown hair, as well as their abilities to either control plants or heal. It was easy to tell which ability a Florian had just by looking at their eyes. Green eyes indicated a plant-manipulator, while gold eyes, such as Tara's, were the sign of a healer. Brown meant the person was either unable or chose not to use their abilities.

"Pity you brought half the planet with you," The green-eyed boy quipped, waving his hand at the bag Querl had dragged to the door, "It used to be so pretty."

"Oh shut up, I didn't have that much luggage." His sister complained.

"Uh, you had to get the weird green kid to help you."

"Whatever."

Grinning victoriously, the boy turned to Querl; "The name's Tam and this is Taralei."

"It's, uh, nice to meet you." Querl said once more.

Still grinning, Tam began to push his sister inside. "Pet said if you don't start dinner soon, he will and we all know how that will end."

Both siblings shuddered.

"Yeah, okay. Bye Querl." Taralei called out as she was once again pushed inside.

"Bye Querl." Tam echoed, shutting the door behind him.

Querl stood there blinking for a moment, wondering what had just happened. Shaking his head, he returned to his apartment and, now cold, pizza.

Later the next day Tam was sitting at the kitchen table surrounded by suitcases and boxes as Taralei cooked pancakes in their new kitchen. They were discussing what they were going to do later that afternoon; well Tam was making suggestions and Taralei was turning them all down. He had suggested trying out the new potato launchers he and Petro had bought, but Taralei refused. He had suggested filling the study with water and swimming in it, but Taralei had refused. He had suggested taking his pet plant Frenzy out for a walk, but Taralei had refused. He swore that girl had no sense of adventure.

Just as he was about to suggest they be boring and go hang out at this new arcade, there was a loud bang from outside. Taralei instantly span around, spatula at the ready, "What did you break this time?"

Purely out of habit, Tam began to wrack his brain for an excuse until... "Hey wait, I didn't do anything, that came from outside!"

Both twins rushed outside, Tam tripping over a chair in the process, only to find smoke slipping out of the apartment across from theirs and alarms beginning to go off.

"Holy grife!"

The twins burst through the door and found the green kid from the day before smacking at a flaming stove with a damp tea towel. The rest of his kitchen didn't look much better. Tam was amazed: "Hey Tara, he's done more damage than I did the time I accidentally smashed half the fridge!"

"You mean the 'spider-on-the-door' incident, or your 'does-the-light-really-turn-off' experiment?"

Tam thought for a moment, "I dunno, both?"

"You're an idiot, you know that right?"

"Yeah I know. If I'd used a piranha plant, I'd have smashed the whole fridge. Oh and maybe gotten that stupid spider too..."

Tam's rambling was cut short as he was smacked over the head by his sister and yelled at to find water. He wished she'd stop doing that; one day it was going to really hurt. Turning to see her caressing a bruised hand, he found today was in fact that day. But before he could even open his mouth to say 'I told you so', she aimed her very best death glare at him and he ran in fear towards the green kid's bathroom.

As he opened the door, the green-haired boy began to search for something he could carry water in. "Let's see…sponge? Nah, too small. And pink. Shampoo bottle? It's full of shampoo. Seriously, who keeps a completely full bottle of shampoo? Uh…tiny toothbrush-holding cup? This kid is so weird!"

Tam continued digging through Querl's bathroom cabinet, but couldn't find anything useful. "Okay, think Tammy, think. There's gotta be some other way to get the water to the kitchen."

That's when it dawned on him. It was a crazy plan, that would most likely get him yelled at again later, but it would probably work. Closing his eyes, the young Florian mentally searched for the nearest plant life he could find and willed it to grow and shoot towards him.

Massive roots shot out of a pot plant a few feet away from his sister and the green kid, scaring the pansies out of both of them, and smashed through the wall into the bathroom. Whoops. Oh well, maneuvering them through the door would have wasted time anyway.

Tam then aimed the roots at the sink, causing them to wrap around it and smash it into a million pieces. "Ah, should have used smaller roots." He mumbled.

Once the dust had cleared, Tam quickly searched the wreckage. He knew exactly what he was looking for; he'd seen it once before when he tried to melt the shower in his old apartment with a flame-spitting shrub. Needless to say, Petro and Taralei had not been impressed. Maybe if he'd used a piranha plant instead…

Bingo! Tam had found what he was after.

Tam stepped out of the bathroom holding in his hand a part of the sink. Water spilled out of it, not unlike a hose. The Florian then aimed his make-shift hose at the fire and began to soak the flames (and the rest of the apartment), all the while thinking about what a genius he was. Oh and piranha plants. Let's not forget piranha plants.

Four hours later found Querl lying in bed awake. He was used to restless nights, but it was usually guilt or homesickness that kept him up. Tonight however, he had other things to think about; like his culinary failure. It irritated him to no end that he had been unable to remember something as simple as a stir fry recipe ('Note to self, human memories are far too small; buy a recipe book.'), and that he'd needed assistance from his insane neighbours. Honestly, Tam had managed four, long, disturbing stories regarding objects he had destroyed before Querl finally convinced (read: forced) him to leave. Taralei was almost as bad. She had healed the same burn on his arm not once, not even twice, but seven times before she deemed it okay for him to be left alone, and even then, she made him promise to keep an icepack on it for a few hours! At least he'd learned he'd been correct in assuming she was a healer.

Speaking of Taralei, Querl was also mulling over that strange feeling he'd experienced when he first saw her. He had never experienced anything quite like it and was having trouble putting a name to the sensation. He figured it was some form of human emotion that his robot brain had been unable to recreate, and therefore he was unused to it. He decided the next time he met a sane person he'd ask them about it.

However, the last and most irritating thing that was bothering Querl, couldn't be solved by a cook book or sane person. In fact, he wasn't sure anyone could solve it, which made it all the more annoying. How on earth had Tam managed to soak only the roof above Querl's bed (the rest of the bedroom was dry) while the bedroom door was closed?

Wiping another drop of water off of his face and covering his head with a pillow, Querl vowed that Tam would never enter his apartment again.

Last edited: Sunday 18th April.

Last re-write I promise!