Aboard the SS. Melinda, the Magician didn't roll up his sleeves to show he had nothing up them because as it was a tropical cruise, he wore a very open shirt regardless. "And thank you all!" he called out to his audience, the cruise-goers enjoying the embers of their vacation. "Today, at the end of our vacation, I have one performance for you all that I hope you will all enjoy!"

He stood before the ship's pool, which some people were using. "And so, may I introduce my lovely assistant?" he asked as he took a bow and gestured to the side where the Beautiful Assistant approached in her elegant two-piece bikini that sparkled in the bright sunlight. The crown applauded her approach, and she smiled and waved back at them.

"Thank you!" she said. "Mister Magician?" she turned to him, "you asked for this?" she reached behind her back and pulled out a Hula Hoop, the plastic ring appearing effectively out of nowhere. It shared the same colour as her clothing.

"I did, I did!" the Magician repeated himself. "Pass it over," he asked her and she did. "My performance for you all today is quite simple," he informed his audience. "I shall perform my own version of the quick-change for your entertainment!"

The Assistant looked at her perfectly fine swimwear. "Ah...? Really?" she asked.

"Of course!" The Magician replied. "Not that," he indicated her stunning choice of apparel. "Rather, I shall change you into something a little more suitable for the occasion."

The Assistant gave him a wary look, one she then shared with the Audience. It screamed out 'Are you kidding me?' to all. The audience on the other hand, enjoyed the implications and encouraged her to participate. Not that she wouldn't after all, she was the Assistant. "I reserve the right to chastise you if you do something improper!" she replied. "This is a family friendly environment!"

"Agreed!" the Magician said. Perhaps too quickly, but he said it none the less. He flipped the hula-hoop over his head and gave it a couple twirls around his body. He wasn't that great at it, and the audience found his efforts amusing. "Sorry, had to make sure it worked," he told them. "Good news, it does! Bad news, not for me," he added sadly.

The audience laughed with him. Not at him. That would be rude.

He stepped out of the Hoop and then gestured at it to his assistant. "Are you ready?" he asked.

"Of course," she replied. "What do you want me to do?"

"Why, step into the hoop and lit it up to your waist," the Magician instructed her.

She did just that, stepping in and then bending down with her knees to grab the hoop. She stood up, bringing the hoop to her waist. "That it?" she asked, looking down. "Nothing changed. Not even the color."

The Magician objected. "HEY! Who's the magician around here?"

"Not you, if this keeps up," she snarked back at him. As he grumbled, she gave the hoop a couple of experimental swirls, and she was much better than the Magician, that was for sure. "Nice!" she complimented herself as her hips swung back and forth with grace and style.

"When you're done entertaining the audience," he told her, "I would like to get on with the show."

"But I am the show!" the Assistant called back, earning more laughter from everyone, including the Magician himself.

"Fine, you have me there," he had to agree. "But I do need that back," he indicated the hoop still in motion around her stomach. "Unless this is no longer a magic show, but a Beach Babe Episode?"

"Why can't it be both?" she asked.

He thought about it for a moment. "Because I didn't think that far ahead, and it's too late to change the scene now," he admitted.

"pft," she smiled and stopped her gyrating to allow the hoop to fall down to her waiting hands. She stepped out of it and handed it over to the Magician. "Happy now?"

"Only when I get paid. But on a more happy note, tah-dah!" the Magician held the hoop up over his head to show that there was nothing untoward about it. "My quick changer!" He stepped up to the edge of the pool and held it out sideways, facing the pool. "And soon, a Quick Change!"

"I hope you're not expecting me to dive through that," the Assistant said, pointing at the hoop. "We tried that. It doesn't work."

"Which is why I'm going to levitate you first!" the Magician smiled at that. "Just relax."

"Relax he says," the Assistant rolled her eyes as she took a deep breath and let her arms fall to her sides. "Relax... relax..."

As she said that, the Magician gestured with his free hand and the Assistant started floating up! The crowd politely applauded as she came to a stop at the height of the hoop and slowly rotated to be face-up, and her head toward the hoop. "And one!" The Magician said as he gestured to bring the Assistant to the Hoop and she obligingly floated in that direction. "And two!" She reached the hoop, and there, the Magician paused for a moment to build up the tension. "And three!"

The Assistant shot through the hoop and landed with a splash in the pool! The Magician lowered the hoop and looked into the water. "Hey!" he called out over the rippling water.

A pair of hands reached out from the water and grasped the lip of the pool. "There you are!" the Magician said as the Assistant pulled herself out of the water. "A mermaid!"

The Assistant finished pulling herself out of the water... but she wasn't a Mermaid. Oh, she was half fish, half woman, but it was the top half of her that was the fish! A large fish head emerged from the woman's waist, with her arms sticking out the sides above the gills! The Audience reacted with shock and surprise and the Magician looked down at his Assistant... "Ooops?" he rubbed the back of his head in shame. "I'll need to fix that, won't I?"

The fish-woman Assistant ducked under water for a moment to wet her gills then came back up to nod her... head. Or upper body as the case may be. "OK, Ok," the Magician knelt down and put the hoop to the edge of the water. "Come through," he told her.

The Assistant reached out and grabbed the hoop with her human arms and pulled herself into the hoop. On the other side, her human top emerged, head first. "Ah!" she gasped as she drank in the air rather than the water. "That's not funny!" she complained as she held herself in the hoop and the Magician stifled his chuckles.

The Magician disagreed. "Yes it was," he told her. "Now, fish coming through and we'll try again."

"Fish or Finish?" the Assistant asked for clarification before she moved.

"Finish," he told her. "Definitely finish."

With a grunt, the Assistant reset her grip and pulled herself through the hoop, her top half restored to its condition before without issue.

Her bottom half however, was changed.

"What?" she yelled as she looked down past her waist. Where there had been perfectly normal legs now were eight blue-grey octopus tentacles.

The Magician stood up with the hoop in his hand. "And now we have the actress who has been cast as Ursula in the Next Little Mermaid mov...!" Whatever he was about to say was stopped when the Assistant wrapped a tentacle around his mouth. The audience watched as the tables were turned on the man as she glared at him, holding herself up with four, grabbing him with three appendages, and then removing the hoop from his hand with the last.

"It appears..." she said with slight annoyance, "that you can't be trusted with this any more," she passed the hoop from tentacle to hand and she waved it around to emphasize the point. "So I'm going to do this properly. On the first try. Do you have any objections?"

This was said with the obvious expectation that if he said anything other than 'No', something bad would happen.

The smart man that he was, he shook his head in the negative. There would be no problems.

"Excellent!" the Assistant said, slowly letting him go. "Sorry about this," she apologized to the audience. "But good help can be so hard to find." She gave the Magician a slight push and crawled over to the edge of the pool. "Now, to do this right!" she held the hula-hoop over her head and settled it down over her. It passed over her upper body without changing anything, but when it reached her waist, the dark octopus form changed.

Instead, she pulled herself through the hoop to reveal the shimmering green scales of a mermaid's lower half, the long tail replacing the less complimentary form with ease as she slipped through the hoop to the applause and appreciation of the audience. "Thank you!" she called out happily before she dove into the water with a large leap to show off her new look.

She took the hoop with her.

"Well," the Magician said sadly as he looked into the large pool. "I'll need to get my assistant back." He sighed and pulled the hat off his head. "If you'll give me a few minutes," he added as he pulled a large fishing rod from the hat. This, he set aside then reached into his hat again, this time producing a large saw. "The best bait for an assistant!" he announced as he tied the handle of the saw to his fishing line. With a flick of his wrist, he cast out into the pool. "Now, to wait. I'll let you all know when the next act begins!"