A Legion of Lawndale
Heroes 'Mini', written by Brother Grimace
Legion of Lawndale
Heroes created by James Bowman
Consider this the first entry in LLH – Volume Three, set directly at the end of the events of the Worldburner shared-world series.
"What can you do, little cat? WHAT CAN YOU DO?"
- from The Cat Club, by Merill Averill
There goes another jet, far
overhead.
The young man with blond hair stood on the beach next to Lewis Bay, looking out across the dark waters, and the light reflected from them by the light of the sun, just barely risen from over the horizon.
My name is James Stephen
White – 'Jaime', for you Lawndale and Carter County High football fans. Running
back. Pretty good, too – when that dumb-ass Thompson actually decides to throw
the ball instead of showboat and run it in himself.
Shame he couldn't cut it at Carter County, couldn't get any 'buys'
- and had to go to Polk High.
Yeah. Real shame.
Now, people see that it
wasn't all him. They see now the real reason LHS kicked so much ass on
the field was because Kevin had just enough under the hood to understand Mack's
plays – or, Mack was one hell of a team captain, because he could get blood
from a stone...in this case, miracle plays from a dumb-ass.
The young man picked up a small chuck of driftwood, and rolled it about in his left hand as he looked up at the jet, now directly overhead, many thousands of feet above the spot where he stood.
Look at the light the Sun
makes when it hits the plane. I wonder where the people aboard are going... at
least, they're going somewhere.
Jaime picked up a second, and then a third chunk of driftwood; as a chilling breeze swept in off the bay and through him, the young man began to juggle the three pieces of wood in an idle, almost bored manner, as if it were the easiest thing in the world to do.
I could have had a shot at
going somewhere decent for college with football giving me a ride – but that
all went up into smoke when those terrorists nuked Lawndale High. Now, I barely
get any time on the field at Carter County High – as far as that coach is
concerned, we're in the way of him building the area's new football dynasty.
The only one of us Lions
that he even had nice words for was Mack – now, with him in the Legion and
basically being 'home-schooled' by the Legion's tutors - and man, did that
tick off the coach – that just means players like me...we were just marking off
time and warming benches.
Jaime stopped juggling the chunks of driftwood, and let them fall to the ground.
The boy walked several paces closer to the water's edge, and his gaze fell upon a rather large chunk of driftwood, slightly larger than a soccer ball.
Until now.
A thin ring of luminescent orange energy, filled with tiny black bubbles, encircled the chunk of driftwood – and it floated up from the ground to his hand.
After looking it over for a moment, Jaime released his grip on the chunk – which simply stayed afloat, hovering gently in the air before him.
Not anymore.
Jaime turned away from the water; as the boy gazed toward the other end of the beach, where Legion Tower stood, the chunk of driftwood floated off several inches as a second breeze blew in from the bay.
I always liked you, Quinn. I'm not the smartest guy, or the best at sports, and I'm not a pretty boy – but I liked you, and I just wanted a chance to make you happy. If you'd let me, and let me do more than just take you out to dinner at the fancy restaurants.
Once you and your sister got into the Legion, I couldn't even do that – especially since Halloween night, and what I saw...
Memories flowed back to Jamie...images of a monstrous creature -
the upper body of a woman, entrails trailing beneath as her bat-like wings
carried her off over Lawndale – and Jane Lane, Sandi Griffin, Tom Sloane and
Quinn Morgendorffer, along with some really hot girl in a Princess Jasmine
costume who held onto Quinn's hand for dear life as they ran – until Jane held
out her arms and created a blue bubble that carried them all off into the air
after them...
I thought that I was the
only one. Yeah, there's the stuff you see on Sick, Sad World, and in
those weird papers in the line at Smarty-Mart, but until I saw Jane do
that, and when I followed them - flew after them, it still flips my head that I
can do that – I thought that it was just me.
The piece of driftwood began to drift away as Jamie kicked at a mound of sand.
I wonder if any of them ran into that pink poodle. After I saw it in the yard going through the trash, I gave it some food and water, and it licked my hand. Poor thing was half-starved – and my drunk-ass dad came out and chased it... he was so damned drunk that when he chased it to the pool, he never noticed that the poodle ran across the top of the water.
It's almost sad that he didn't drown.
Dad was so far in the bag -
he didn't even notice how I was able to lift him out of the water with one
hand. Thank God he also didn't notice the little orange ring that also appears
when I – oops!
Jaime whirled back around to notice that the chunk of driftwood was floating over the water, almost a hundred feet out and several hundred feet up in the air, visible only by the orange ring of energy.
Oh man! I need to take care
of that-!
He concentrated on the driftwood; the ring around the chunk reversed in color, becoming jet-black, with glistening orange bubbles percolating within –
A column of water over fifty feet high splashed up from where the driftwood chunk instantly dropped into the waters of the bay, as though an object much larger had just crashed into the water.
I hope nobody saw that – no, wait. Maybe I want someone to see this... and me.
An orange ring appeared around
a softball-sized piece of driftwood, and floated up to Jaime's outstretched
hand. Maybe I want someone – like the Legionnaires – to see
exactly what I can do.
Several orange rings appeared around Jaime's right arm; moving up and down the length of his arm repeatedly as they freely passed back and forth through one another. The movement of the rings became faster and faster as he drew his right arm back –
Jaime threw his best fastball – the one that he loved to throw, the one that could have made him a baseball god at Lawndale, if his father hadn't all but forced him to play football – and with a crack of sound, the chunk disappeared off into the distance, climbing higher and higher into the air...
Thank God I've got some control. I could kill
somebody with that 'heater'.
The contrails of another jet seemed to burn across the sky, high above the spot where Jaime had thrown the driftwood, and the boy stopped to watch it roar overhead.
There goes another one. Another plane, filled with people, all of them going somewhere.
Just like me. Now – I've got somewhere to go.
It all fits. All of the kids that are in Legion Chapter
Number One – Quinn and the other Fashion Club girls, Quinn's sister and
Jane – I know her from when she was a jock – Mack, even Jodie, and Brittany,
too... they must all have powers.
Just like me. That's why they're all getting tutored at the Tower, and live there, too – so they don't accidentally show anyone that they have powers. Now, I can understand all of the next-level weird stuff happening around town over the past couple of years.
The morning sun silhouetted Jaime as he turned back once again to look upon Legion Tower.
My name is Jamie White –
and today, I have somewhere to go. Somewhere that matters.
Today – I'm going to become
a Legionnaire.