“Good morning, girls!” The familiar voice of Howard Weiss rang throughout the girls bedroom, awakening them early for the first time in over half of a week. “Before we begin this week’s elimination ceremony, I want all four of you to stop by my office so that I can talk to you about the past couple of days.”

~~~

Howard’s Office

     The four girls looked nervously at each other while they waited for Howard to get off the phone. He eventually put the phone down, and before he even had the chance to start talking, Annette spoke up, saying, “Mr. Weiss! I’d like to be the first to say that we are so sorry for what we did.”

     “For what you did?” Howard said in shock, “What did you do?”

     “Um…” Annette lightly bit her tongue, “D-Didn’t you watch the tapes of the last couple of days and were coming in to yell at us?”

     “Of course I did,” Howard said, confused, “I was going to thank you girls for being on your best behavior while Frankie and her spokeswomen were here. But now I need to know what exactly you did that made you think you were in trouble,” Howard narrowed his eyes.

     “Um… Well-“

     “We left the practice room a mess!” Sinopia interrupted.

     “Y-yeah!” Sable confirmed, “Trina and I often just left stuff lying out for the next group practicing to clean.”

     “Same here,” Maya chimed in.

     “O-okay…” Howard said, even more thrown off, “You girls do realize it’s a magic practice room that cleans itself between rehearsal..” He seemed genuinely concerned that they were not aware of this.

     Sinopia, continuing the charade, said, “Really? Oh! That’s why it’s always so clean when I come in!” The other girls nodded along, none wanting to confess to what they had actually been up to over the days that Howard was gone.

     “…Alright,” Howard said, continuing to stare at the girls weirdly, “Well… You don’t have to worry about that anymore. As for why I called you in,” Howard shook his head to clear his train of thought of that entire exchange, “I just wanted to say that you all behaved so well… I’m reinstating the ability to explore the city- Just so long as you properly disguise yourselves and don’t break any of the other rules of your contract!” Howard interrupted himself, foreseeing some of the girls’ potential questions.

     “Really!?” Annette said, grinning from ear to ear.

     “Absolutely!” Howard smiled, “Frankie’s girls were thoroughly impressed, and I’ve heard they’re notoriously hard to please. So, letting you girls have your exploration privileges again is the least I can do-“ Howard’s train of thought was interrupted by the phone ringing again. Taking a look at the caller ID, he rolled his eyes, “Sorry girls. I’ll have to take this. Just know that I’m proud of you, regardless of who gets sent off tonight. Head downstairs, I’ll be there in a little bit.”

     The contestants got up, making their way into the golden elevator in a state of shock that what they had thought was going to be a punishment turned out to be a reward.

~~~

Lobby

     The girls arrived downstairs, and were almost immediately attacked by Drake Bordignon. “Girls!” He hissed, “Come over here. I need to talk to you for a second!”

     The girls followed him to a corner of the room away from the cameras, although Drake’s lapel microphone still caught everything. “Alright. Listen girls. I’m the one who edited the footage Howard saw while he was away.”

     “Really?” Maya asked in amazement, “Why would you help us out like that?”

     “Many reasons. Some good, some bad, but mainly as a favor for an old friend. Now listen, I need whichever three of you are staying to go and talk to Nora tomorrow sometime at night. Don’t worry about being caught, I’m going to keep editing the tapes so that Howard doesn’t know what’s going on, and I’ve already made arrangements to distract her bellhop friend. Can I trust you girls to do this for me?” The girls nodded. “Excellent!” and Drake made to break from their group huddle.

     Before he could though, Sinopia asked, “Wait! If you’ve been editing the footage for Howard so that we don’t get in trouble, why didn’t you do it the first couple times we went to that floor?”

     “I had to make Howard believe that you girls were onboard with not going back to the floor,” Drake explained, “The geezer rightfully knew that you’d never simply abandon your chance at a new discovery… unless of course he thought you were nice, obeying assistants that would never go against his orders. Now get to your spots, according to the livestreams he’s on his way down!” Drake urged, heading back to his spot.

     And just in time, as Howard walked into the room, announcing, “Sorry I’m late. Had to deal with some last minute arrangement stuff. Let’s get on with the elimination ceremony!”

     The girls held their breath as the screen with a timer on it hit zero, a little pink card spitting out of the front of the device that held the monitor. Drake read the card, announcing, “The polls have just closed, and the results have been calculated. I’m sorry to announce that the contestant going home this week is… Sinopia.”

     The camera cut to a shot of Sinopia, who looked absolutely downtrodden. From next to her, the cry of Sable squeaking, “No!” could be heard.

     The camera cut back to Drake, who continued solemnly, “Just like last week, your send-off will occur later tonight on our rooftop stage. If you want to say your goodbyes, make sure you get them done before then.”

~~~

Sinopia & Sable’s Room

     “Sin! Please say something!” Sable said, as Sinopia was busy packing up her personal belongings to be shipped back to their house. In contrast to what was probably expected, Sable was in tears, while Sinopia seemed to be rather focused. “Why won’t you talk to me? You know I can’t help unless you talk to me.” Sinopia kept going at it, packing things away, “Is it because I’m still in? Are you worried about Dad? Is it because you think just because you lost one competition, it means that you can’t be a magician’s assistant? Sin! Please-“

     “Sable,” Sinopia said solemnly, “I’ve made my mind up.”

     “Wha-“

     “Even if Dad would take me back… I’m not going back to him,” Sinopia said resolutely, “I’m going to move out, and prove that I can make it, just like Saffron- No! Better than Saffron!”

     “Sin…”

     “Sable,” Sinopia turned towards Sable, a fire in her eyes, “I want you to promise me right now that you’re going to give the competition everything you’ve got and win it!”

     “Wha- Sin I can’t-“

     “No quitter talk!” Sinopia said, grabbing Sable’s shoulders, “You’re one of the smartest people I know when it comes to using magic, and I’m certain you could magic circles around Annette and Mayaki together! Now promise me you’re going to give it your all and win!”

     “Sin… I…” Sable looked into Sinopia’s eyes, so full of hope and absolutely certain that Sable could do it. Caught in a corner, and uncertain of how her sister would react if she did otherwise, Sable said, “I’ll give it my all! I’m going to win!”

     “And then you and I are going to go home and save our other sisters,” Sinopia said.

     “Yeah!” Sable said, caught up in the emotion of the moment, tears starting to stream down her face, “And we’ll use my cash prize to buy a mansion, and we’ll all live in it together!”

     “Thanks, Sabe,” Sinopia turned around to hide her tears from her sister, Sable looking in shock at her sister’s usage of a nickname.

     “No problem, Sinopia,” Sable smiled, tears still rolling down her face.

~~~

Rooftop Stage

     The atmosphere on the rooftop stage was just as depressing as any of the other nights of elimination. All the girls had said their goodbyes to Sinopia, and now all that was left to do was wait for Howard to send her off.

     The curtains rose, and as expected Howard and Sinopia were on stage, Sinopia doing her best to keep up a brave face. “Well girls,” Howard said, “Once again, we must say goodbye to one of our wonderful contestants. And I must be the bringer of bad news, as I couldn’t get Sinopia exactly what she wanted,” Howard hung his head, “All I managed to get her was this keychain.”

     Howard held up the keychain. On it were three things: A small silver key, a car key, and a golden key with a little logo of a house on it. “You see,” Howard explained, a small smile cracking his facade, until her returned to his dour expression, “In her audition video, Sinopia wished to have a house of her own to live in and to invite her family, and all I managed to get her was a lousy keychain…” Sinopia accepted the keychain, her eyes opened wide in shock from the gift she had received.

     “I guess,” Howard rolled his eyes, exaggerating the words, “all I can offer is this conciliation prize.” From his pocket, he pulled out a brand new phone, an orange case around it with a picture of a tangerine on the back. “It’s the latest smartphone available on the market. As a bonus, I set it up with some friends, in case you get lonely. They’re some of my magician buddies who are in the market for an assistant. Oh! And I also wrote down a little scavenger hunt for you in case you want to do something with your younger siblings… Who knows, maybe they’ll make that keychain a little less useless?” Howard winked, handing Sinopia the phone.

     Sinopia could contain herself no longer, as she began openly crying on stage, walking over and hugging Howard as she cried into his shoulder. She was truly at a loss for words, only managing to mumble some unintelligible words of gratitude.

     After what felt like an eternity, Sinopia broke the hug, and after allowing her to recompose herself Howard asked“Now… I was going to perform the goodbye ceremony… But I heard that Sable and you prepared something for this eventuality?”

     “*sniff* Yeah,” Sinopia smiled, “When we both found out we were going to be on the show together, we agreed it’s the only way to have a proper sendoff.”

     “Well. Far be it from me to break you two up,” Howard raised up his hands, “Sable, come on up here and give your sister a proper goodbye!”

     Sable walked out from the side of the stage that Howard was exiting from, walking up to Sinopia and giving her another goodbye hug. “Alright… Are you ready?”

     “…As I’ll ever be,” Sinopia commented, before looking directly at the camera, “Saffron! This tricks for you! Come over and visit me when I finally settle in to my new place!”

     Sable pulled out an orange potion from her pocket, giving it a shake and causing it to bubble up. Sable then went about detaching Sinopia at some key points, leaving her as her arms, legs, hips, torso, and head, placing them stump side down on the stage. She then went about pouring the bubbling orange potion over each one of Sinopia’s body parts, taking a step back as the potion took effect.

     Her body parts started to turn bright red, the stump expanding outwards slightly, until the pressure exploded outwards! Sinopia shouted out a scream of joy, as her parts flew skyward. Once her parts could no longer be visible, even by the zoom functions of the camera, the empty night sky lit up with seven points, creating the shape of a smiley face of orange lights in the night sky.

     “See, Ron?” the voice of Sable could be heard as a whisper, as the camera kept focus on the smiley face in the sky, “You might have been a star, but Sin’s a whole constellation.”

~~~

Challenge Delivery

     “Let’s give a round of applause for Sable,” Drake said, clapping his hands briefly before he continued, “Now, it’s time to move on, because we’ve got yet another celebrity guest to introduce, and another challenge to tackle.”

     “This amazing assistant from the International Shared Assistants Guild has worked with some of the highest profile names in the industry, as well as some of the most aspiring amateurs. In fact, it’s hard to find someone in the industry with whom they haven’t worked with, or a location she hasn’t performed at. Known far and wide as the assistant who’s willing to try any trick once, Contestants, please put your hands together for the one, the only, Natasha!” The curtains rose, and the girls gave an appropriate amount of applause.

     Posing in the center of the stage was a pretty looking brunette wearing one of the most revealing outfits the entire season thus far. It was a pink two piece swimsuit, the upper half of which was giving a valiant effort in trying to contain her large breasts. She was posing in such a way to accentuate the curves of her body, looking towards the girls and in a sultry voice saying, “Hello girls.”

     From off-stage, Howard Weiss walked on stage in his classic get-up with an added top hat. He looked very nervous and sweaty as he shook Natasha’s hand, doing a valiant effort to not look at her body. He handed her a sealed, brown envelope, before excusing himself off the stage once more.

     Natasha, in a single long gesture, opened up the envelop and unfolded the contents within, announcing in her sultry tone, “Here’s your challenge this week. ‘Create and perform a trick where you, the contestant, are the center of attention. The performance is this Saturday’”

     “That’s right,” Howard said, not even looking at Natasha as he walked back out onstage, “as my assistant, it is your job to misdirect the audience’s attention. So, the name of the game is being eye-catching, how you want to go about doing that is completely up to you.”

     “For instance, maybe pulling off a stunt like this may be your way to go,” Natasha purred, gesturing towards her body.

     “Ah yes!” Howard said, “Which reminds me, let’s remove those distractions shall we?” Howard walked over to Natasha, and with a single swipe of his hands, completely removed her two piece swimsuit.

     The girls sat in horror in the audience, Natasha quickly covering her bits as best she could with one arm covering her breasts and the other covering her privates, “Howard!” She shouted, “How dare-“

     “My dear, there’s no reason to complain,” Howard cooed, “After all, there’s nothing inappropriate there to cover up.” Natasha quickly looked for herself, before she lowered her arms to her side, revealing that, much like Howard had said, where her privates should have been was simply plain, pale skin, the censors giving a sigh of relief in the background.

     “You know, you could have warned a girl, Howard,” she adjusted her body so as to make up for the lack of support for her large breasts.

     “Well, my dear, it was you who said you wanted me to do something extra raunchy. I’m afraid that this is as raunchy as I can get without the television network getting on my back.”

     “It wasn’t the being naked part I was annoyed with,” Natasha said, “it was the not warning me part.”

     “Well. i didn’t want to distract you from delivering the challenge,” Howard grinned.

     Natasha just gave him a dirty look, before she also grinned, “You know Howard, you didn’t get rid of all the distractions on the stage.”

     “Really? What did I miss?” Howard barely got time to finish his sentence, as Natasha reached up, grabbing the rim of his top hat and pulling down, the hat effortlessly swinging down to the bottom of the stage.

     Natasha lifted the hat off from the floor, placing it on her head as she grinned and waved saying, “Best of luck girls!” The curtains closing, leaving the contestants nervous for another week of mystery solving, act planning, and having to deal with the curveballs that were sure to happen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

& Question Corner &

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     To Maya: “Great work with your trick, not just restoring yourself so quickly, but managing to accurately present your transformations while they stacked on top of each other without looking. Getting that to work and look effortless is much harder than it appears, and I commend you on that.” -@@WanderTones

     Thank you so much Penny! It’s still crazy for me to think that only a few days ago, a restoration like that would have me probably taken me like two weeks to actually undo all those effects. I mean, yesterday it still took me over an hour to restore myself the first time we actually switched off of the props helping me. I really owe so much to Patricia for teaching me how to enchant objects to help myself train, so I hope that if I win I can get her something she really wants.

     To Sinopia: “Some of us would prefer to think of the "mistakes" as an unintended bonus, and not a disaster. I do have to ask, more out of curiosity than it having any impact on my personal evaluation of this trick: was that a second Zig-Zag prop to replace a pre-broken cabinet, or did you also reconstruct the cabinet while inside the Disaster Machine?” -@@WanderTones

     It was also a cabinet reconstruction, but no matter how much we tried I just couldn’t seem to get the magic to work out without some sort of obscuring of the magic.

     I’m really glad that you caught on to the fact that the mistakes were intentional. JJ and I were really nervous, since we both probably had the least experience of any of the teams, that they would just come off as amateur mistakes. That’s why we tried to really escalate the bad luck to the extreme, and even had the disaster machine in the first place (well… and for the obscuring factor)

     To Annette: “I think at this point we can call you the star of your little duo with Rocky, as you've demonstrated an incredible capability of recreating his magic. Also, I know you said your desired specialisation in magic was beasts, but I think your personal magical talents really highlight an affinity towards twinning magic. You should really keep working in that area, because I see great potential there.” -@@WanderTones

     Thank you so much Penny! I knew that with Rocky working hard to keep his form as an assistant, I was going to have to work hard to take over his role. I thought I managed to do a pretty good job all things considered, minus the fact that Rocky could do everything I did nearly instantaneously.

     Also, Twinning was extremely hard! I really don’t know how Rocky manages to do it so easily! I was absolutely terrified the whole performance that when my saw body cuts through my box body that my pieces would accidentally fuse back together again from exhaustion. I’d definitely be interested in trying to keep learning it, but I might just leave the actual casting and maintaining of the spell to Rocky.

     To Sable: “Becoming clay was a brave move, especially with your stage fright. Being shaped at the whim of someone else, practically exposing vulnerability in front of thousands of people, is a real achievement, and you pulled it off near-flawlessly. I don't think you need to feel quite as intimidated now that you've had such an experience, but I know it's impossible to rid yourself of anxiety and fear, so I hope that your stage anxiety turns from an imposing obstacle into a fuel to your fire.” -@@WanderTones

     *blushes* Thanks Penny! It was absolutely nerve-wracking, but I’m so happy that I managed to do it! I’m going to tackle my stage anxiety one performance at a time. I have to! For Sin!

     To everyone: “Impressive as always and I encourage you girls to try to go extreme sometimes! At least to your limit and not to dangerous levels. I do like how far you girls go in transfiguring yourselves. However, Sinopia. I felt that your zig-zag seems off for some reason. Not to say it's bad but it could have been better. On a side note, like the idea and theme you got there Maya. Annette and Sable, I appreciate the effort between you two.” -Rei

     Sinopia: Well, I would hope that you thought the zig-zag was off, since that wasn’t the focus of the trick, the amazing awful luck of the whole act was. I’m glad that you at least partially enjoyed it though!

     Maya: Thank you, Rei! Jess and I worked hard in order to make sure that both of the elements that we wanted managed to shine through.

     Annette: Thanks!

     Sable: Thanks, I hope you enjoyed the magic too.