A Laboratory in New Mexico

     “Have you seen the stuff that Patricia’s been working on?!” a man with a smartly styled goatee wearing a lab coat excitedly asked his female colleague during their lunch break.

     “No!” the blond scientist whined, “Chargoff’s completely cut off the biology team from any research news until we’ve completed the spore studies.”

     “Well,” the scientist said coyly, “If it’s Chargoff’s orders-“

     “Oh Come On, Greg! You can’t just tease a girl like that!”

     “Okay, okay. Just don’t tell Chargoff I told you,” Greg and his female associate leaned in closer to each other so that he could whisper it to her.

     “The word around the lab is that Patricia’s been getting closer and closer to discovering a way to solve the Wells Conjecture.”

     “What!” the female scientist shouted out loud, the two quickly backing away in case anyone had been watching them. A chubby looking Asian scientist did give them a sideways glance, before going back to looking at his phone. The two leaned close once again, “Are you telling me that Patricia’s getting closer to figuring out how to actually freaking time travel?”

     Greg nodded, “I’m not kidding you, Molly. And with how confidently she talks about everything, I think she might actually do it.”

     “But that’s impossible!” Molly took care to keep her voice lowered as she yelled at Greg.

     Greg remained undeterred, “Why? We’ve known for decades now that some of the strongest magic users from ancient times shot themselves forwards through time to escape the First Magic Dark Age.”

      “Yeah,” Molly said, “But we already know how they did it, and how it permanently destroys your magic reserves to do it. If Patricia’s getting closer to breaking the Wells Conjecture, that means she thinks there’s some way to travel backwards in time,” Greg nodded along, so Molly continued on, “Which is impossible Greg. We can’t travel back in time.”

     “But why not?” Greg asked.

     “Because of paradoxes!” Molly wanted to scream, but didn’t want to get in trouble from what she was being told, “Even assuming that traveling back in time doesn’t absolutely destroy your magic reserves, if you went back in time and messed with even one thing, then the world would turn out drastically different, and chances are you wouldn’t have been able to have traveled back in the first place.”

    “Hey, I’m just the messenger,” Greg shrugged, “if you’d want to know how Patricia thinks she’s going to solve it, you’d have to ask her yourself.”

     “Very funny Greg,” Molly sighed, leaning back in her seat, “you know as well as I do that Patricia’s been given the week off so that she can go watch that Howard guy’s big return this weekend.”

     “Really?” Greg asked, “And she actually agreed to go? That seems so unlike her.”

     “I know,” Molly finished the rest of her coffee, “Well, I’ve got to get back to the biology lab. Those spores aren’t going to study themselves,” she chuckled dryly.

     “Alright… Oh wait! Are you going to the watch party on Saturday?” Greg asked.

     “Are you kidding me?” Molly grinned back at him, “Of course I’m going. This show’s slated to be the best magic act of the century!”

~~~

A Convention Center on the East Coast

     Two teenaged girls stood in line among many other similar people. Behind them, two middle-aged men stood, each clearly a father to the young girls in front of them based on their similar appearances. The two seemed to be just as excited as their daughters, despite the fact that the two of them didn’t know who a majority of the people their daughters had dragged them to meet at this Youtube convention, both of them knew full well what Everyday Magic was, and who Elise and Cody were.

     “Ollie! I cannot believe that we’re going to meet Elise!” The redheaded girl shrieked.

     “I know Vera! Especially because Mr. Weiss’s big show is coming up soon!” her African American friend shrieked with her. “Do you think she’ll sign my magic wand?” she held up a pink wand.

     “I hope so!” Vera said, holding tightly on to her own baby blue wand.

     “*Psh*” a slightly older teenaged girl scoffed, turning around and looking down on the two girls, “You two still need to use training wands?”

     “Elise said it’s perfectly okay if you need a wand to help you start learning magic,” Ollie smiled at the stranger, “And you can get wands in so many cool colors!”.

     “Still looks pretty lame to me,” The girl laughed.

      “Hey,” the ginger haired father said seriously, “Please, don’t bully my little girl like that.”

     “Yeah,” the African American father argued, “How would you feel if a bigger kid talked down to you about your interests.”

     “*Psh*” the girl scoffed turning around and putting up her hoodie, “Whatever weirdos…”

     It was just the start of hour two for the line to get signatures from Elise and Cody. Security had came and closed off the line to any new interested people, much to some disgruntled parents and crying kids’ chagrin.

     The line had steadily been moving forwards, and their parents had encouraged Vera and Ollie to play a game to pass the time. The girls had decided to play a game where they tried to make the silliest face to get the other to laugh, and within a matter of minutes the two of them had decided to throw magic into the mix to make things more interesting. Using their wands, they cast spells to change their faces, the spells taking a physical manifestation thanks to the safety settings on the magical focus.

     They had shared a few laughs. Ollie had started out strong, making her tongue long like a dogs. Vera had followed that up by causing wings to sprout out of the sides of her head, her head completing two loops are Ollie’s before returning to her neck. Vera then disappeared her whole face, worrying her father slightly but when she gave a thumbs up to his questioning, he went back to talking with his friend.

     Soon enough though, the girls started using magic on the other to try and make them more funny looking, which of course would be the undoing of their little game, as one of Ollie’s spells hit the mean girl in front of them in the back of the head.

     The girl turned around, flipping her hoodie off and looking at the girls in anger. Replacing her nose and mouth was a pig’s snout. Ollie and Vera did their best to not laugh as she yelled, “Alright! Which one of you two brats did this?!”

     Seeing the pig’s snout move up and down caused the girl’s laughter to finally break through, and soon enough both girls were on the floor laughing, which didn’t do much to help the girl’s sour mood. Ollie’s dad, who was keeping an eye on the girls while talking with Vera’s dad, spoke up, holding his best to hold his own laughter back, “I’m sorry, miss. Ollie, could you please cast a restoration spell on her?”

     Ollie managed to calm down enough to say, “Alright, Daddy.”

     By the time she had heard the mean girl say, “No!” Ollie had cast the restoration spell, and her entire body glowed the same pink color.

     The entire group of four looked on in shock, as their bratty teenaged girl in front of them gradually grew stockier, her hair receding and her features changing, until a teenaged boy stood in front of them, wearing the same outfit his feminine self had been wearing. “Ah!” he squealed, his voice rather high pitched for a boy, He did his best to hide his face with his hoodie, and slumping to the ground.

     “Hey mister,” Vera finally spoke up after a bit of time had passed, “are you okay?”

     “Of course not!” the boy sobbed, “My mom casted that disguise for me, and now thanks to some stupid kids, people are going to know that I’m a boy!”

      “And what’s wrong with that?” Ollie asked.

     “Well, I can’t be a boy and be a fan of Everyday Magic!” He sulked, “If the kids back at school knew that I was a fan of such a girly channel, then they’d all make fun of me!”

     “Kid-“ Vera’s dad was about to intervene, as they were starting to hold up the line behind him, but Vera stopped him.

     “Mister,” Vera said, walking over and and putting her wand in his hands, “If you really want, Ollie and I can try to disguise you… but I don’t think you should be scared to like Everyday Magic just ‘cause you’re a boy.”

     “Yeah!” Ollie agreed walking over to him, “After all, Elise says that the reason she started it was so that she could celebrate magic Everday, Every way, and with Everyone!”

     The older kid sat there for a bit, staring at the blue plastic wand that was in his lap, before wiping his nose and standing up, letting his hood down. He handed Vera back her wand, saying, “Thank you for the offer… But I think you’re right… Would you two mind if I saw Elise with you girls?”

     Ollie’s dad was about to object, but he didn’t have time, as Ollie almost immediately said, “Of course! What’s your favorite episode of Everyday Magic?”

~~~

A House at an Undisclosed Location

     “Silvia? How come Sable and Sinopia get to go to this big fancy show on Saturday, but we don’t?” Shiroi asked her older sister. She was sucking on her thumb as Silvia struggled to cook some spaghetti on the stove. Their dad had shown her how to boil the water, but she was never sure when exactly she was supposed to pull the pot off the stove and strain it.

     In the living room, Sangria and Sepia were unsurprisingly arguing with each other over something (most likely about the results of their latest game of eight ball on the cellphones that Howard had been kind enough to buy the whole family so that they could stay connected). Isilynor (or Izzy, as the girls had affectionately taken to calling her) was off dozing in her normal spot above the fireplace, seemingly oblivious to the girls loud argument right in front of her. Meanwhile, Saratoga was crawling around on the ceiling. None of the sisters had known where she learned this talent from, and they all had a collective panic attack the first time it happened. But when it became clear that Saratoga wasn’t going to simply dislodge herself from the ceiling, they just decided to let her have her fun.

     “I already told you, Shiroi,” Silvia said, “Sinopia and Sable needed a bit of a vacation away from us since they’ve been looking after us since they got back. So I told them that I could handle taking care of you all so that they could go see Howard’s new show and start pitching their show around.”

     Sable and Sinopia had steadily been working a routine together since Sable had gotten back from the show. The idea was that they would spend two months planning a sister act for the two of them, Sable taking on the role of magician while Sinopia could act as the assistant, so that they could help train up Sinopia’s magic reserves, and keep Sable’s creativity and skills up for when her contract with Howard finally kicked in.

     The additional income that they would be able to funnel back into their family was really just seen as an added bonus on top of all that.

     “But why couldn’t we come with them then?” Shiroi asked, “We could go see the show with them and then just stay in the hotel room!”

     “Well… You know Sable and Sinopia, Shiroi,” Silvia sighed, “They care way too much about all of us. If we came with them, the only thing they’d be able to think about is how we’d be up in the room making each other crazy.”

     “Silvia! Tell Sangria that ninja’s didn’t have the technology to go to space!” Sepia shouted from the living room.

     “They knew how to make fireworks back then! A rocket is just a massive firework!” Sangria shouted back. They continued to argue this point, until Silvia had finally had enough and told them to go to their rooms until dinner was ready.

     “Alright! Soup’s on!” Silvia shouted, using a technique that Sable had taught her to project her voice throughout the whole house. The girls were quick to all gather at their large table that could comfortably seat a family twice as large as their own.

     “Alright,” Silvia said, placing the spaghetti pot on the table, “I think I might have overcooked it a bit… But it should still taste pretty good!” The girls were just about to dig in, when suddenly the front doorbell rang. Silvia looked around the table, double checking that she had given a proper headcount of her sisters. “Are any of you expecting someone?” she asked. Her younger sisters shook their heads no practically in unison, the look of fear on their face starting to grow as they theorized who could have been behind the door.

     Silvia, as the adult in the situation, walked by the fireplace, Izzy having woken up from the unusual circumstance. “Do you need my help protecting our home?” She asked, as Silvia grabbed the fireplace poker.

     “Just stay on stand-by for now Izzy,” Silvia said, approaching the door, “It could just be the postman.” The doorbell rang again, and Silvia braced herself to open the door, her younger sisters hiding underneath the large table.

     Silvia opened the door, and the sight on the other side caused her to drop her poker in shock.

     It was simply two women. One had bright red hair and was wearing a bright red pantsuit similar to what she wore when she was busy interviewing people for her job. The other had impossibly blue hair, and was wearing a bright blue dinner gown. “Hello, Silvia,” the blue haired woman managed to say, the red haired one nervously shuffling and not looking Silvia in the face, “Long time no see.”

     The slightly older sisters peeked their heads out from underneath the table at hearing the women’s recognizable voices. The younger ones had heard their voices too, but they only recognized them from their multiple TV appearances. Silvia clutched her fist tightly obscuring her eyes with her hair, as she said, “Scarlet… Sapphire… Ever since you two left… I’ve been thinking of what I would say to you two if I ever got the chance to see you again…”

     Scarlet and Sapphire looked with concern at their younger sister, afraid that she might lash out at them, but to their surprise, she simply walked forwards, wrapping her arms around the two women in one large hug, her hair flipping out of her face and revealing her tears as she cried out,

     “Please! Don’t leave our family ever again!”

     The younger sisters, now certain of the identity of the two women at their door, similarly ran outside, crying as they surrounded their oldest sisters in a group hug, begging them to come inside and not leave them again.

    They dragged the two older women indoors, closing the door. After all, there was Spaghetti to eat, and a lot of catching up to do.

~~~

In a City Underneath the Water

     The underwater city of Priseour, Michigan was one of the largest underwater cities in the continental United States, even though it technically straddled over the border a little bit into Canada’s waters, and was the single city with the largest population of freshwater merpeople in the world.

     “Mom!” One happy looking mermaid shouted out. Like most freshwater mermaids, she looked like the poster definition of a hemihuman, with a human upper half that merged into her glorious pink tail fin and some gills on her neck. She had been eagerly awaiting the delivery of package ever since they had announced that they were going to be releasing it the day before Howard Weiss’s big return to the stage. “I think my package’s finally here!”

     “Alright Urma,” a slightly older looking mermaid said. She had the same hot pink fish tail, although her tail started to form at around where her belly button should have been.

     Urma swam upstairs. The apartment building she and her mother lived in was truly an architectural marvel, and had been a joint venture between Priseour’s Expansion Project and many architects and engineers. The basic process had been to build it floor by floor over the water on a special barge that would allow them to drop their completed slice onto the foundation that the merpeople had built at the bottom of Lake Superior.

     Urma opened the door onto the roof. Unlike most places on Earth, in underwater cities, most exits were on the roof to buildings, since a large amount of merpeople business was conducted with people above water. Urma swam over to where their local mail person was busy unloading that day’s shipment of mail. It had arrived in a weighted container, same as it always did, and when she had removed all of the contents, she used the nearby air pump to send it back upwards.

     “Hello Mrs. Kelly!” Urma smiled, “Did my package finally come in?”

     “You know Urma,” Mrs. Kelly smiled, stuffing her large sack as best she could with that day’s mail. “I think I did spot something that might match that description…” She reached into her sack, and without even looking pushed a box through the water to her. “Of course, I’ll need you to sign for it first,” she grinned.

     “Mom! It finally came!” Urma said as she swam back into their apartment. She began hungrily opening the box, her mother looking on with concern. Urma pulled the contents out of the package, and with a flick of her wrist, the various parts all rearranged themselves magically into the proper places.

     The device she had ordered was a simple wooden frame that seemed like it could stretch outwards with enough force on it. Attached was a handle, and when Urma pulled on the handle, a large blade popped out that could easily fill out the whole frame. On the side of the frame, a pair of eyes was printed, one the distinctly simplistic design of Mono-I’s brand, the other one being Maya’s distinct Eye that she had put on all of her enchanted tricks. Underneath, a green fish tail was present. The three logos put together made it look like the world’s weirdest smiley face was printed on the side of the box.

     Urma couldn’t contain herself. She repeated the actions she had seen on TV, swimming through the wooden frame so that it was lined up with her fishy seam, and sliding the knife like butter through the slit in the frame. Using her arms, she pushed on the water, her upper half separating from her tail, giving her the appearance of a normal human (well, a normal human with gills) for the first time in her life. “Mom! Look!”

     Her Mom looked over, a look of concern on her face, “Urma… What did you do?”

     “Mom! With this kit, I’ll finally be able to go see Dad on the surface without people giving me weird looks!” Urma smiled, “Now they’ll just think I’m some girl who’s really into magic and cut off her legs!”

     “Urma. Why would you want to do something silly like that? You should be proud to be a mermaid!”

     “But Mom! I want to be a magician’s assistant! And you know there aren’t particularly many magicians out there looking for a lame mermaid like myself…”

     “Oh, Dear,” Urma’s mom said, walking over and giving her a hug, “I know that you want to be a magician’s assistant. That’s why I bought you that trick in the first place… but giving up on your identity just to live your dream is only going to lead to heartache. Let me tell you a story.

     You see, I know that you probably think our family has been mostly freshwater mermaids our entire lives, but the truth is that all freshwater mermaids have their origins in the sea. You see, many, many years ago, much older than even the oldest point you can think of, a certain species of fish evolved and developed human-like attributes, including an intelligence that lasts longer than just a few minutes.

     Then, one day a very brave merperson encountered a human for the very first time, and humans and merpeople have been friends ever since. In fact, in some cases they were more than friends, and several generations of halfbreed merpeople formed. When these generations became human enough, they found that the salt in saltwater was beginning to affect the more human halves of their bodies negatively, and it was these merpeople that would eventually become the freshwater merpeople that we know of now.

     So, you see, if you decide to give up on your identity as a mermaid, you are giving up on hundreds, if not thousands of years of history and struggle to become another bob-standard assistant. I will continue to support your dream, Urma, but all I ask is that you remain true to yourself while you do so.”

     Urma sat in silence as her Mom spun this yarn. Eventually she swam her upper body back to where her tail had been simply floating in the water, connecting it back to her body. “Alright Mom!” She smiled, pulling out the blade again and lining up her midsection once again. “I’m going to practice hard so that I can be the world’s first mermaid assistant!”

~~~

Backstage of the Hotel Weiss Rooftop Stage

     “Howard, you ned to calm down,” Annette said for probably the hundredth time that evening. He was pacing around backstage nervously, and really had been so since he had woke up. Rocky was watching him, letting out a small whimper of concern.

     “I know I need to calm down, Annette!” Howard pulled out a handkerchief, dabbing at the sweat on his forehead, “But, you understand, with the expectations on my return, and the tricks we’re going to perform, and the-“

     “Howard,” Annette put her arm on his, smiling as she said, “I know that all your jitters are about that trick. You really don’t have to worry. We’ve already practiced it more than enough times. If you really don’t want to do it-“

     “No, no,” Howard interrupted, not really listening to Annette “you’re right. I can’t back down now. Not when we’re so close to start working on making Howard Weiss a household name once again. It doesn’t matter what I want to do, I need to do that trick!”

     From further backstage, their pale skinned back-up assistant walked out, pulling behind her a large wooden frame. She had on a dazzling white ballgown, which complimented her neatly styled black hair.

     “Hey Dad?” Nora asked, “Where am I supposed to set this up again?”

     The morning after the after party, Howard and Nora had talked with each other about what she wanted to do in the future. She knew that she eventually wanted to join the ISAG, but she wasn’t sure if she had the chops or professional knowledge to do such. Howard likewise shared his feelings that seeing her leave would be painful, but that he truly loved her, and wanted to see the dreams he had been trying to squash for so long become a reality.

     Howard helped walk Nora through the process of signing up for the ISAG, handling things like her initial membership dues and magician preferences. Despite the fact that she had been worried about qualifying, she had managed to exceed the minimum requirements by quite a bit, and the father-daughter group had gone out that night to celebrate at a local sushi place.

     When Howard had contacted the ISAG with his request for a temporary assistant so that Annette could continue to hone her teamwork skills for when Sable’s contract could finally go into effect, he was surprised when the ISAG responded quickly that they could set him up with an assistant who was willing to stay for the entire year.

     The night his semi-temporary assistant was supposed to arrive, and in the front door walked Nora, he immediately thought that it was some sort of prank pulled by her. When she produced the paperwork she had signed proving otherwise, Howard broke into tears, hugging his daughter, and relieved that he would get to help ease her into her dream profession.

     “Just keep it near the edge of the stage,” Howard explained, already back to pacing.

     Nora hefted it over, setting it down before telling Howard, “Dad, you really need to calm down.”

     Howard sighed, “Yes, that’s what Annette has been telling me.”

     Nora walked over, hugging her dad and causing him to finally stop pacing, “Dad. I know you’re going to do great. I’m sure that if Mom were still here… She’d be really happy to see how much you’ve changed.”

     Howard smiled, doing his best to hold back tears “You don’t have to worry, Nora,” Howard patted Nora’s head affectionately, looking up at the overhead sky, “I’m sure that Mom’s smiling down on both of us right now.”

     “A minute until curtain, Howard,” Drake said, taking his spot in preparation.

     “Well girls,” Howard grinned, breaking his hug with Nora and steeling himself, “You’ve both grown wonderfully over the past two months, but I think it’s finally time that I did some growing of my own.”

     “Ladies! And! Gentlemen!” Drake shouted, the audience cheering loudly. The back row of seats had been made available to the public, but Howard had made sure that all of the prior contestants, the wonderful celebrities who had helped made the season what it was, and anyone they wanted to bring along just for the sake of it had seats in the front row. “Today! It is my pleasure to re-introduce, for his very first public show in over twenty years, the Enigmatic Howard Weiss and his three wonderful assistants: Annette Calhoun, Rocky, and the ever Beautiful Nora Weiss!” Drake shouted over the thunder of the applause. As he walked offstage, the curtain opened up at the same pace, making it look like he was pulling it apart.

     Howard Weiss stood alone in the center of the stage alone. For the first time since he had re-entered the public eye, he looked uncomfortable as he said, “Hello everyone.

     Many years ago, probably older than some of you in the audience, I had to break the golden rule of show business. I had to cancel a performance midway through due to complications that had arose beyond my control. It may not mean much to you, but I fear that the only way I shall be able to get true closure is if I can finally conquer the trick that has plagued my mind for these past twenty odd years.

     So, without further delay, I would like to introduce to you the first of my three amazing assistants: Rocky!”

      From stage right, Rocky wheeled out a large tank filled with water and multicolored piranhas, chomping at the bit to eat something. Rocky reached up, and with an impressive display of athleticism, hoisted himself up onto the rim of the container. “The following three will be acts that would be impossible for the average person. But with a bit of magic, the impossible is possible!”

     Rocky jumped into the tank, and within moments the piranhas were frenzying around him. The piranhas ripped chunks off his body, a black ooze diluting into the tank, obscuring what was happening. Eventually though the water settled, and the piranhas looked content, just floating in the darkened water, no other signs of Rocky remaining.

     Of course, if that was the trick, it would not have been that impressive. However, the audience began to realize that the multi-colored piranhas were beginning to turn black themselves, their orange fish eyes brightening up into a distinctive yellow color. The piranhas swarmed once more, hopping out of the water in a single coordinated movement, their bodies squashing together, and within moments, Rocky, in his assistant form once more was standing on the edge of the tank, massive applause ringing out.

     Rocky made to jump down, but Howard said, “Oh no, Rocky! You know what comes next. Spit out the piranhas.” Rocky looked annoyed, but acquiesced, bending over the tank and splitting his head open like a flower, the piranhas sliding out and landing in the clear water once again. If it was possible, the killer fish looked traumatized from their experience.

     “Next,” Howard said, gesturing towards stage left, where Nora was already lugging out the large post she had been carrying earlier, “I’d like to introduce my daughter, Nora, who will be joining Annette and I on tour until Sable’s contract can finally come into effect.” The audience clapped, as Howard tied a rope around her body, making sure that she was firmly attached to the post.

     Next, he took another stretch of rope, tying it around her wrists and ankles, and then connecting each of those to a central knot. Howard walked over to Rocky, who instinctively began morphing his body in preparation of the trick. Soon enough, Rocky had transformed himself into a black stallion, and Howard tied the other end of the rope around his large midsection.

     Howard slapped Rocky on the rear, giving a cowboy’s, “H’yah!” Rocky reared on his back legs, before running full speed ahead, Nora’s body giving little resistance as her limbs were ripped from her torso, which was still being supported by the ropes that Howard had wrapped around her body, the audience applauding the effect. “You know,” Howard grinned, “I think that very few parents can say that they got the chance to quarter their child live on-stage before.” Eliciting a few laughs from the crowd.

     Finally, it was time for the trick that Howard had been dreading. The backstage curtain rose, and from it Annette was rolled forwards, already tied down to a large stone slab. Howard gulped, announcing, “And I’m sure I don’t need to introduce you all to Annette, the winner of the Second Season of ANGA.” The crowd cheered, as a pendulum like saw slowly lowered from the ceiling, aimed directly above Annette’s neck.

    “F-for this final part,” Howard announced nervously, “This saw shall cut through Annette’s neck… and- Well, you can probably guess what’s supposed to happen.” Howard reached up, and set the blade on its path.

     Howard watched in agony as the blade edged ever closer to Annette’s neck, already preparing healing spells and how he’d stop the blade at the first sign of blood. The blade’s journey only took forty seconds, but to Howard, it truly felt like an eternity.

     The blade passed through Annette’s neck, her severed head falling to the floor. There was no sign of blood, but Howard was still concerned that the less than a foot drop might have caused a concussion or something bad. He scrambled to pick up her head, looking at the head in fear. Her eyes were rolled back in her head, and her tongue was lazily flopping out. He turned her head around towards the audience, some screams coming from the audience.

     Suddenly, the head he was holding snickered, and soon enough Annette couldn’t contain her laughter any longer. Howard, in surprise, nearly dropped her, as she said, “I’m sorry Howard. After everything you’ve put me through though, I couldn’t help but play a little joke on you.” The audience, for the most part, laughed along with Annette.

     Howard chuckled along with everyone else. “Well then,” he composed himself, “if you’re fine with it then, I guess we can continue the show.”

     “Do your worst, Howard,” Annette grinned.

     “Gladly,” Howard threw Annette’s head impossibly high up in the air, high above the scaffolding of the stage“Rocky! Fetch!” Rocky’s body came running from off stage, hopping into the air his body opening up like a blanket and wrapping up Annette’s head with ease.

     While the audience was looking up in the sky, Howard had already cleared off most of the stage, holding Nora’s body with Annette’s body resting a hand on his shoulder. Rocky landed on the ground like a cat, and the performers gave a little bow for the completion of their very first trick of the evening.

     The rest of the performance that Howard gave that night would not only help in re-establishing Howard Weiss’s name into the public eye, but helped establish him as one of the most influential magicians of all time. His reach would be felt in the people he had helped, and the people they would help in kind.

     But once again … That’s a story for another time.

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

& END OF SEASON 2 &

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