Sammy pushed out a single box on rollers, her (probably dyed) hair the same crimson as her one-piece leotard. "Hello everyone!" she waved to the audience as she reached the center of the stage and stood in the spotlights. "Thank you all for coming, your patronage is appreciated." She leaned on the box, two feet cubed, and resting two feet off the ground on four posts. "Now this," she flipped open the box, allowing the top and the back to fold down, and the other three sides as well, "is going to be my little piece for the first trick."

She then folded the box back up, the sides, the flipped the top over. "Bippity Boppity Boo!" she intoned, and slapped the plan black box.

It unfolded, and from the previously empty space, the next Assistant rose in triumph! "Tah-dah!" Sammy said, standing on the platform, her red hair contrasting her blue leotard.

"Uh..." the Sammy in red looked up at the Sammy in Blue. "That was supposed to be Kimberly in there," she said.

The Sammy in Blue looked down at the Sammy in Red. "What are you talking about?" she replied as she hopped down, landing with a slight thump on the stage. "Kimmy was going to appear me in the box, not... me!"

"Excuse us for one moment," Red Sammy said to the audience. "Technical difficulties." She and Blue Sammy held a quick conference over the open box, then apparently reached a conclusion. If anyone thought this was unscripted, they weren't in the audience. Nothing happened by accident here. "OK," Red spoke to the audience. "We're going to try one more time and see if it works."

While she said this, Blue closed the box. As she carefully folded it up back into shape, she examined it to see if there were any tricks in play that weren't the intended ones. Apparently satisfied, she nodded to Red, who took to one side of the box, with Blue on the other. They made no show thing as they simultaneously knocked on the box, allowing all the sides to fall apart.

Sammy, with her red hair contrasting her green leotard, was tied up inside the box, sitting as she was with her legs and arms roped to her. She looked very confused even as she tried to spit out the gag in her mouth and wiggle her way out of her predicament.

"The fuck is this?" Blue swore as she pulled out the gag only to reveal a second gag under it. Red got to work helping Green as Blue found something in the gag to be odd and carefully unfolded it. "It's a note," she said as she read it. She read it again. She read it a third time, then traded off with Red, who read it while Blue worked on Green's bindings.

"Sammy!" Sammy-the-Red said aloud. "We decided that your boast of being able to do a whole show by yourself deserved a chance. To put your money where your mouth is. So, for tonight, we've arranged for you to be all the performers. Up to six though. See you later. Kimberly."

The three coloured Sammies took that in before Green sighed, her mouth freed up. "Well, that explains that," she said. "Huddle!"

The three had a quick chat, building and dismissing plans. Then they started to quietly argue before Blue ended the argument. "So!" she announced, turning back to the audience. "Slight change in plans, because I, We, need to be awesome," she said as she put one hand on her hip. "So, tonight, I, Sammy, shall be the lead magician! And I, Sammy, shall also be the assistants." She rolled her eyes and flicked her hair out of her face. "Let's get this show on the road, shall we?"

She clapped her hands together, if only to distract people from Red and Green running back stage for the next act. "We're going to start with the traditionally untraditional variation on an act," she said. "It's common enough for fake and real magicians to saw two assistants in half, and then switch the pieces." She drew one hand across her waist to indicate the cut. "And honestly, we've done that too. It's fun, simple and otherwise a great way to break the ice, so to speak." From behind, Red and Green returned, this time each of them pushing a large open-frame cage. Well, you could call it a cage if the only bars in it were around the height of the knees.

The two frames stopped to the sides of Blue, allowing Red and Green to climb into them. They put their legs through the bars to spread them out, while at the same time, both held on to the front bars of the frame.

Blue rolled them around to show there was no hidden effects. "Naturally, the unconventional part is this!" she said as she pulled out a long and wide mirror from one of the rear poles on each of the frames. "And no, I'm not talking about how these roll up into the frame for easy storage. Why would you think that?" She complained to no one as she took one of the thin mirrors and slotted it into the frame, top to bottom, right down the middle of Red's cage. She shoved it through, quickly and without fanfare, dividing Red into two, left and right!

"A vertical division!" Blue announced as she pulled the two halves of Red apart, walking down the middle. She turned the two halves around to show off how reflective they were, then left her facing each other as she turned her attention to Green. She repeated the process with her triplicate, the other Sammy smiling the whole time she was bisected with no further performance issues.

Blue pulled Green apart, and began to spin and twirl both women around her, clearly having fun dancing with the four halves. But, all good things must come to an end, and she stopped. To her left were the right sides of Red and Green, while to her right were their left sides. "Now," she said, "We can do this the boring way, or the fun way that I strongly implied when I started," she mimed pulling two halves together.

The results were overwhelmingly in favor of her keeping her promise, so Blue yielded to the will of the people. She pulled Red's left and Green's right together, then their respective other halves to be side-by-side. They were beside each other, with Green's halves in the middle, Red's on the outsides. Blue then strolled behind the two of them and with a sharp 'twang!' of metal on metal, pulled the dividing mirrors out!

"Ah!" Red-Green said as she was restored, a sentiment echoed by Green-Red.

"The best part about this is," Blue said as she took a bow, "that with everyone being me, I don't have to worry about mismatched heights!"

R-G and G-R took a hand, and joined Blue in a bow. "Now," Blue announced, "Five minute break as I get a plan in gear. Until then, these two fine ladies, and I know this intimately, will entertain you."

*  *  *

Blue strode back onto the stage, pushing a different box, one that was fully enclosed. "Hey, me and me!" she called out to R-G and G-R. "I'm ready!" She reached the central platform as the other two returned from their tour of the audience. "Thanks for waiting!" she said as she locked the box in place.

The other two looked at each other, recognizing what was in front of them. They moved without being told to open the front of the box, revealing the dark interior. "This," Blue stated clearly, is the ASMC Sword Box Special," she spun around in front of it. "Normal swordboxes have fixed slots to put their dangerous implements in, all the better to let the not-so-helpless assistant within dodge. " she pretended to show that off to the audience. "However, ours has a nice fine mesh cover on all sides."

R-G and G-R each displayed the swords that they held in their hands. Where they came from was ignored in favor of their existence now. They each repeatedly stabbed the box from all sides as Blue kept explaining. "This fabric will part at any point, and is stiff enough to hold the blades in place wherever they are, no matter what angle," she said and the other two demonstrated, stabbing through the box with the swords at odd angles and leaving them in place before pulling them back out and doing so again from a different angle.

"Because of that, once I step inside," Blue said as she backed in, and put her hands on the sides of the box, where they pushed out of the fabric a little," I won't know what's coming or from where, so it's not like I can't dodge or get out of the way." As the door was closed in front of her, she waved. "I think you can all guess where this is going," she said, then was sealed in darkness.

R-G and G-R each nodded at each other, and stabbed the fabric sides of the box. "The real trick," R-G announced loudly as more swords appeared in their hands, "is is delaying the inevitable."

G-R spoke next. "There's a titillation and expectation when you make obvious misses," she said, doing just that, "but in doing so, we reduce the amount of space that our victim can hide in."

They did just that, producing and using swords as they pressed inward from the edges of the fabric-lined box closer and closer towards the middle. They were true to their implied promise, making sure that they were drawing things out for as long as they could.

Then Blue walked out of the back with a new prop. Everyone stopped to look at her, but she put a single finger to her lips as she put the large rectangle into the light. A large rectangle that was the same shape and size as the fabric-covered box. Except it was covered in spikes, sword and other sharp implements in a chaotic mess of non-organization. What they all had in common was that they were pointed straight at the box.

"Hrm, I think we need to start over," R-G said with a perfectly straight face. "I think we're out of blades."

"I think you're right," G-R added with a sigh, and the two of them quickly pulled blade after blade after blade out of the fabric box until it was empty.

"Try again, suckers!" the Sammy inside the box called out.

"OK!" Blue said, as she finished lining everything up perfectly.

The three of them braced themselves against the safe back of what could only be called a spiker if you were generous and half blind. "Now!" Blue yelled, and the three of them shoved!

There was no chance for the person on the inside to react as the front exploded with dozens of sharp objects, from points to curved edges to blades with acute corners.

Silence fell as the three Sammies stepped back and looked at the fabric-box with apprehensive looks. "What colour do you think?" R-G asked the others.

"Yellow," Blue said. "Primary."

"Pink," G-R offered.

"I bet on Black," R-G finished.

"Well, how about we roll up the sides and see?" Blue asked her others and the audience. Everyone agreed with her suggestion and the two half-and-half women took to the sides as the front and back were pinned in place. Blue counted down silently with her fingers, and at the end of the countdown, the sides were lowered to reveal the woman within.

A White-clad Sammy was visibly impaled from front to back, with no way for her to have escaped any of the blades.

"Well, that's a thing," Blue said somberly as they finished rotating White around for all to see. "Shall we release her now?"

The other two agreed and so Blue put her hands on the spiker while R-G and G-R held the frame itself. Blue slowly pulled, removing the bric and brac from White and letting her do such things and breath and move, rather than be pinned in place.

With a single yank, she pulled the last of it out of White, who was finally able to step out to the side of the box, her leotard in tatters. "What's going on?" she demanded.

"We'll explain," R-G and G-R told her. "Blue here will clean up while we get the next trick set up."