Tryout #17: Impact Lass

Name: Chu Hua Jin

Homeworld: Earth

Abilities: Telekinesis

Chu Hua stares down at the glowing screen, trying to fool herself into thinking the games on her phone will make her forget what she's about to do.

She's always had big plans, never wanting to stop looking past the horizon and thinking that she can somehow do better. And considering where she is now that should be enough, but as a possible Legionnaire she has a lot of expectations to live up to and she's not certain she can meet them all. Maybe she has a power that isn't creating chocolate or changing colors, but is that really enough?

Cacao Kid—at least that's what Chu Hua thinks his name is—storms out of the room, whatever he's yelling muffled by the chocolate bar stuffed in his mouth. There are a few words she can make out, like "Fine!" and "One day", but really nothing else.

Just remember Dad's advice, she tells herself. Think of something funny or something you like so you'll smile, make your introduction short, and show a demonstration they won't forget.

"Next!" They call, and Chu Hua shuffles into the room where she is greeted by more than a dozen pairs of eyes staring at her from above. She's tempted to look down where she won't have to look at the official Legionnaires but forces her head up so that they will recognize she wants to be on their level.

"My name is Chu Hua Jin." She forces herself to think of pancakes and cat plushies and snowboarding, anything to get her lips to tilt up.

One of them, a boy a little older than her with bright ginger hair and a mechanical arm, scans the clipboard. "Impact Lass, right? Says your ability is—."

"—Telekinesis. Yes, that's correct."

"Can you give us a demonstration?" This time it's a girl speaking, dressed in striking shades of black-and-white that make Chu Hua feel like a child compared to her.

"Of course." Quick, think. You need something that will make an impression, right?

"Throw something at me!" She blurts out.

"What?"

"…Just throw something at me!" The ginger-haired boy shrugs, but picks up his pen and throws it down toward her. It falls at a high speed, and just when its nib is about to land right on her face, Chu Hua raises a hand and stops it; the pen hovers in midair only a few centimeters away from her nose.

She looks up and makes the pen ricochet off the walls, causing loud pinging noises to reverberate throughout the room. And just for good measure, she propels the pen back into the air toward the boy who threw it at her.

Only this time, she doesn't stop it from hitting his face.

"Ow!" He rubs at his nose where the nib hit him.

"…So, how did I do?"

There are a few murmurs among some of the other Legionnaires as they speak. Chu Hua finally allows her gaze to drop to the floor, where she stares at a particularly noticeable smudge on her shoe. She braces herself for the dismissive "next" that might come.

Sprock. I think I messed up. I must have done something wrong, why else would they be talking about me like that?

Someone says her name but the rest of the words are lost on her. That happens a lot.

"'Scuse me?" She looks back up again, turning her eyes away from her shoe.

"Hmm?" She's probably getting dismissed, she concludes. "Sorry, I wasn't listening."

"We were asking if you could give us another demonstration of your abilities, Chu Hua."

Well, she hasn't been dismissed for the next applicant, which can't mean anything bad.

"Oh! Sure! Did you have anything in mind?" The girl dressed in black and white nods to her teammate, a petite, dignified young woman with pale blonde hair and pink earrings dangling from her ears.

"Are you ready?" The blonde girl asks her. Chu Hua nods her head, sweeping her braided black hair behind her shoulder.

The girl pushes a button that opens a hatch, and a band of three robots swarms out. She can feel the muscles in her fist clench and the first beads of sweat start to form on her forehead as they propel forward on mechanical legs. There's not much she has to do—

Chu Hua levitates the robot in front, bashing it against the ceiling and watching the nuts and bolts pop out and tumble to the floor. Watching the other two robots creep closer she steps back and lets the robot she previously held her focus on plummet to the ground in a clang of metal, slamming it into the other two robots and sending them spinning.

Her pulse throbs in her ears. The robots lie in a heap of scrap metal on the floor. She can still hear the clanging of scraping metal and crackling electricity and holds her hands together so she can't cover her ears like she usually would.

Pensive, the ginger-haired boy stares at his clipboard, scribbling something down with his pen.

"Thanks for the demonstration, Impact Lass. We have a few more people for try-outs, so if you wouldn't mind—"

"Sure, I'll wait outside. I need to call my dad anyways." Realizing what she's done, she smacks a hand to her mouth. "Sorry. I interrupt too much."

"Eh. It's fine."

Finally alone outside of the Legion Headquarters, Chu Hua slumps against the pristine white wall of the building. Just like she promised, she'll contact her dad.

She punches his number on her phone and the hologram flickers before forming a transparent image of her dad.

"Chu Hua?" She gives him a weak smile.

"Hi, Dad." Chu Hua quickly slips into Mandarin. "I just finished my tryout for the Legion."

"How did you do?" He raises an eyebrow at her, shifting in his chair.

"I think they liked me. I haven't found out yet, but I think they might like me."

The corners of his eyes crinkle up into a smile. "Who wouldn't like you? You're a natural charmer."

"Dad." She shakes her head to feign disapproval, but the huge smile on her face probably gives her away.

"There's not much I can do now, but I wish you luck. You've come so far to get here."

Chu Hua wishes that she could hug her dad from here, but for now, he's just a hologram.

"Thank you so much, Dad." There's something else she wants to say, just on the tip of her tongue—

"Jin Chu Hua, please enter Legionnaire headquarters!"

"Well, looks like the Legion is calling me in!" She says to her dad. "I'm gonna see the official results and find out if I become a Legionnaire!"

He gives her one last smile, hugging her even if his arms slip through her and she can't hug him back. "Good luck, sweetheart."

The hologram flickers and vanishes. Chu Hua looks one last time at the spot her dad previously occupied and then steps back into the Legion's headquarters.

"Congratulations, Impact Lass. You're an official member of the Legion."

A boy dressed in purple and grey steps down from the podium and shakes her hand. She accepts the handshake, not sure where to focus her eyes.

"Thank you so much for the acceptance, um…"

"Cosmic Boy," he answers.

"Thank you so much, Cosmic Boy." It is only when she looks down that Chu Hua realizes that she is still shaking Cosmic Boy's hand, and immediately she releases her grasp. "It's really an honor to become a member of the Legion."

"It's an honor to accept you as a new Legionnaire, Impact Lass. We're about to begin the initiation of the new Legionnaires in a few minutes." A hologram pops up with a short list of names; after a few moments of scanning Chu Hua recognizes them as the codenames of some of the applicants before her. Her name, Impact Lass, is at the bottom of the list—number five.

"Anywhere I should go before it's my turn?"

"Here." Cosmic Boy gestures her to a small set of chairs just off the podium, where the four other soon-to-be Legionnaires are seated. One of them, a girl with a flowing magenta cape, abruptly stands up and strolls over to the podium. Chu Hua watches the girl present herself in the center of a clustered circle of the other Legionnaires, raising one hand up as she begins to recite the pledge.

"To the Legion of Superheroes, I make this solemn pledge to use my powers for good…"

"She looks so calm and dignified," Chu Hua remarks to no one in particular.

"Yeah, she does, doesn't she? That's Princess Projectra." The blue-skinned girl next to her shifts a little in her seat. "I hear she can create illusions."

"Hmm." The two of them remain silent for a few moments, carefully listening to every word of the Legionnaire pledge that Princess Projectra recites. They'll need to remember it once it's their turn to say it out loud.

"I am Princess Projectra."

"That's my cue!" The blue-skinned girl says, hopping up from her seat and dashing toward the podium.

She seems pretty nice. I wonder what her name is and what her powers are?

It seems like it would take a lot of effort to actually open her mouth and say something, so she stays quiet and simply waits as one by one the other new Legionnaires stand up to recite the pledge until she is left alone.

"I am Wildfire." He finishes and steps off the podium in a flickering blaze of orange and red flames.

"It's my turn," Chu Hua whispers to herself.

Every step toward the center of the podium feels shaky and uneven, just like the feeling she's gotten whenever she steps out of an anti-gravity chamber. She is handed her flight ring and belt, slipping the ring on her finger and buckling the belt around her waist.

They watch her again, but this time their eyes are not so prying. She raises her hand.

"I am happy to announce the last one of our newest Legionnaires," she can hear Cosmic Boy say.

"To the Legion of Superheroes, I make this solemn pledge to use my powers for good, and to protect the innocent, to aid my fellow Legionnaires in times of peril and…" She swallows. "To keep their secrets safe."

"I choose a new name to honor the heroes of the past. I am Impact Lass."

She steps off the podium, only this time she joins her fellow teammates. They raise their hands, the brass of their flight rings glimmering against their fingers as they chant.

She is one of them, she realizes. She is now a Legionnaire.

"Long live the Legion!"

A/N: As an avid watcher of the Legion of Superheroes show when I was a kid, just imagine how disappointed I was when I realized that there wasn't a third season! So I took the liberty to write up that supposed third season. I will try to remain as faithful to what I can hear was originally going to happen, with each 'episode' spanning to be around 5-7 chapters.

This 'episode', "An Impact" focuses on the newbie Chu Hua Jin, my OC, or Impact Lass, and her first experiences in the Legion of Superheroes. Funny enough, I actually based the relationship between Chu Hua and her father on my own relationship with my dad. I guess that's unavoidable—we authors have a tendency to let a little of ourselves seep into all of our characters, whether that's intended or not.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and reviews are welcome!