Legion of Lawndale Heroes v1

2.4 - The Show Must Go On

"And as you can see, I have nothing up my sleeves!" Quinn kicked off her shoes, and grabbed the first man by the hand. "Are you ready?" The men nodded.

Quinn put her hand up to her ears. "I cannnnn't heeearrr yoooo-oooo!!" The men happily shouted that they were ready, and the lights went down.

Quinn sent a small jolt which went through all of the men. The light bulb blew out as the men in the chain yelped and jumped (the light bulb had been specially primed to glow brilliantly and pop loudly). Everyone in the audience laughed as the six men looked stunned, but each enjoyed the wild applause from the audience.

"That goes to show you...never trust a girl!" More laughter as Quinn took her bows.

"And so that you don't think I'm cheating, you can come up on the stage...if you dare to!!" The audience sat still as the lights went down and Quinn let forth a fusillade of electrical effects from her own body. They were all eating out of the palm of Quinn's hand after that.

When Quinn began destroying thrown clay targets, she got more applause. Quinn drank in the attention, asking other wealthy men to "throw up a pidgeon", asking them about names and businesses, joking with them as if she had done this for years. Each man did his part and Daria could watch the audience members chatting with each other as if they were so filled with awe that they couldn't wait to share the experience with others.

Jane came out next, wearing her dark red Legion scrubs. "Ahem -- are there any more of those six strong men?"

A few hands went up.

"Cool. I have some work for you to do. And I'm too lazy to do it, so get up here."

Even Daria was amused by the next stunt. There were cannonballs, weights, all kinds of heavy lifting things. The lightest of the objects was a good three hundred pounds, guaranteeing that the only way they could be lifted was in combination.

"I thought you guys were strong. Geez, they sure don't need you for famine relief." Jane would then come along and "help" the guys, by grabbing some ridiculously heavy object and "lifting" it with her magnetic powers. At one point, she grabbed an item in each hand, and sarcastically asked, "do you want me to help you with this one...or this one?"

The six "strong men" faced good natured catcalls from their friends in industry. A charity event merely to be tolerated had become an informal get together among friends. Daria could almost feel the party atmosphere build up.

Jane levitated silverware, "threw" knives with uncanny accuracy, but the crowd stood and applauded when they brought out the "bars". It was a gigantic jungle gym, but Jane's magnetic abilities allowed her to master the gym (Jane's 'instructor' at Utah had already worked with her using a similar training device). Jane could "leap" from bar to bar and twirl rapidly.

At the end of her act, Jane "juggled" two three-hundred pound steel spheres. Two crates were brought out, obstensibly to support the spheres when she finished. Instead, Jane let the spheres fall and the crates were splintered into kindling.

Daria could feel the creeping sensation of anxiety set in. She tugged at the sleeves of her dark blue scrubs.

"Daria?"

Daria was surprised. It was Dawn Hall.

"Don't be anxious. Trust me, these people are ready for anything. There's no way you can screw this up. They'll eat up anything you do. Just be yourself."

Thank you, Dale Carnegie.

The props were cleared out of the way as Jane met Daria. "You okay?"