HOME | DD

Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

"I hope everyone is having a wonderful time at Magic Con." The music stopped playing just before the announcer began to talk. People were coming into the area and taking their seats. "Welcome to stage two staring in fifteen minutes is the What's New panel where magicians and inventors alike will be showing off never before seen tricks and devices. Remember that the front rows are reserved for premium pass members and audience participation may be required. A Reminder; restoration boxes are available directly across from the stage exits." The music started up again.

"Ladies, Gentlemen and everyone in between, welcome to the What's New panel," the announcer greeted as he walked on stage. He was dressed like a typical magician, with a tuxedo, a top hat and a goatee. "I'm Sebastian and I'll be the MC for this panel. I must warn you that some of these devices are still in testing so I cannot promise your safety. Though if anything does go wrong there are restorers directly across from the exits." He walked over to a couple of chairs set up for an interview. "Our first guest for the panel is Larry Carlson, a brilliant inventor of a new way to cut assistants into pieces. Larry," Sebastian gestured for Larry to come up on stage.

Larry didn't look like a magician at all, instead he looked more like a factory worker. He was wearing large gloves, steel cap boots, safety googles, and overalls. He also looked like he needed a bath. Larry waved to the audience as he walked over Sebastian. "Hi, hi, wonderful to be here," Larry spoke with a strong Eastern European accent.

"Welcome, Larry." Sebastian shook his hand and then gestured to take a seat. "So I understand you have a new cutting instrument do show us."

"Yes," Larry nodded as he pulled out a small laser pointer. "When you are magician, you must use large boxes and tools to do tricks. With laser tricks are simple and can be done anywhere."

"So this laser pointer is able to cut people in half?" Sebastian took the laser off Larry and examined it. He aimed to towards the front row and pressed the button, intending to slice the unsuspecting premium ticket holder in half. However the laser was more powerful than he was expecting and he ended up cutting the entire row of audience members, as well as the back wall and a few people that weren't even attending the panel in half.

"Very powerful, still working on the strength," Larry took the laser off Sebastian and pocketed it away. "When ready it can make shows more exciting. Use lasers from anywhere."

"Well thank you for that Larry. If it can do this now, I can't wait to see what it can do when properly finished," Sebastian shook Larry's hand as he left. Sebastian turned his attention to the audience, particularly the ones he just cut in half. "Sorry about that, I told you this panel can be unpredictable. We'll have staff to take you to the restorers at the end of the panel." He got up off the seat again and had a worker put them aside. "Now please welcome Alastair and his new take on the Mismade box trick."

Alastair came out wearing a penguin tail tuxedo. He had long red hair down down to his chest and was clean shaven. A tall glass box made up of four cubes, followed behind him. It had no wheels and nothing was tied to it, it just slide across the stage ignoring physics. "A pleasure," Alastair tilted his head towards Sebastian and gave him a hand shake. "Before you stands the impossible box, a mismade box that no magician can solve in time or assistant can get out of." He wasn't interested in Sebastian at all as he turned his attention towards the audience. "Anyone brave enough to give it a go?" He searched the front row for his victim and saw an eager sandy blonde haired woman, sitting next to the first person to be sliced in half by the laser. "How about you?"

Penny grabbed Jean's hand and gave her a kiss on the cheek as she got up onto the stage and climbed into the glass box before Alastair was fully ready. She smiled as he closed the box on her and as the three blades sliced through her, dividing her into four equal cubes. Alastair made each box float in the air as he grabbed some stained glass panels. The panels had slight notches so they were made up of nine squares each. There were also four of each colour, which consisted of red, blue, green, yellow, orange and white. The panels were put on the sides of the boxes and Penny felt her body get divided into grids. A moment later her body was shuffled inside as the panels on the outside shuffled as well, turning each cube into an unsolved Rubik's cube.

"Each panel slides around easy," Alastair demonstrated as he continued to shuffle the cubes around. "Our daring assistant can even shuffle them around herself, with any of her moving parts, like her fingers or toes, even her tongue can shuffle it around." Alastair made twenty-four more panels appear, though this time they were made of metal. The metal panels had weird engravings, buttons, levers and other mechanisms and locked together on the edges. "This is where the impossible part comes, in. Either the magician has to solve the puzzle box then each Rubik's cube or the assistant needs to do it in the reverse order. However there's a ten minute timer on it, if it's not completed by then, well let me show you." Alastair finished attaching the puzzle box panels on the outside.

Even though there was no natural light, the stained glass panels glowed in the dark, allowing Penny to make out the colours. Though in the other three boxes she was trapped in she would just need to try and guess by how shuffled up she was. She managed to get a few panels moving and almost completed an entire side of one when the time limit was over. A flash of heat washed over Penny before she knew what was happening as the four cubes disintegrated turning completely into ash. Penny was left in a pile on the stage floor but soon felt her body reforming.

"Ta-dah!" Alastair exclaimed as he presented Penny rising form the ashes like a phoenix, completely unharmed. "I'll let you all on a little secret, this trick isn't meant to be solved. Sure it's possible but it'll take forever, the wow factor is in the failure."

"I'd like to try and solve it," Penny stated.

"Brave girl, are you sure you could handle being inside the box for hours?" Alastair approached Penny as he restored the box and panels.

"Easily, I've done endurance training for that sort of thing. Though I'd like to solve it with the ten minute timer," Penny clarified.

Alastair stood there for a second, not sure what to say. "I guess you could borrow my box for a week or so, though if you do somehow manage to beat it, I'd like you to give me feedback on how to make it more impossible."

"Deal," Penny gave Alastair a huge grin as she shook his hand the returned to Jean so they could watch the rest of the panel.