The Sun in the Shadows
A Now You See Me next generation fic.
xXxXx
"That was an impressive performance, Dylan. Are your Horsemen safe?"
"They're fine. Taking a bit of a vacation I suppose you could say." Dylan turned the page in his newspaper. "It's your turn next, isn't it?"
"Yup." A giggle escaped the figure sitting on the bench behind Dylan. "I think my plan might even cause more of a stir than yours did." The figure stood and readjusted the hood of their jacket. "I do hope that you get assigned the case. You are still with the Bureau, aren't you?"
Dylan smirked. "I am. Although I am not sure that they will put me on another case that involves magicians. I did make a rather impressive fool of myself." Dylan turned another page.
The figure looked across the park. "They'll choose you. They won't want to risk another agent being made a fool of. They can claim that you forced your way onto the case in order to redeem yourself. That way they'll save their own face." Another giggle escaped. "Be seeing you, Dylan." The figure walked away from the two benches and out of the park.
Long after the figure had disappeared, Dylan folded the paper and stood. "I suppose I'll be seeing you as well.
xXxXx
"Step right up! Step right on up! Come and see the incredible Golden Sparrow! Watch how she escapes from a terrible trap!"
A large crowd gathered in the big tent in the middle of the circus to see the resident escape artist.
"Hello everybody!" A pretty woman appeared in the area in front of a large curtain. "I am the Golden Sparrow and today I will be escaping from a straight jacket!" She looked at crowd and saw many unimpressed faces. "What? That not enough? Fine. How about I do it upside down? Better? Then what would you think about me doing it over a cauldron of boiling oil?"
The curtain behind her fell away to show large cauldron over an open fire. Fifty feet above it hung two chains connected by a metal trapeze. At the end of each chain was a shackle. The woman swiftly climbed to the top of the platform where two men were waiting, ready to secure her into the straightjacket. The woman looked back over the crowd as she was locked in. "Now, I will have three minutes to escape from the straightjacket and grab hold of the trapeze before the shackles release me and I fall into the cauldron. To my death."
The crowd murmured in anticipation as the woman was secured and left dangling from the chains. The clock started counting down as the woman struggled wildly to escape.
"She's not gonna make it!" Someone from the hushed crowd gasped when there was only thirty seconds left on the clock.
When the clock struck zero, smoke from the fire obscured the woman, and all the crowd could tell over their own screams was that something fell into the cauldron.
"Well, that was a bit close!" The crowd looked up shocked and saw the woman swinging on the trapeze with a bright smile on her face.
The crowd erupted into cheers.
xXxXx
Amaria Esperanza Valdez walked back into the tent she had performed in. she had been the last performance of the night, so they had only bothered to remove the cauldron so far.
She noticed something dangling from one of the shackles and quickly climbed the platform to investigate.
She finds the tarot card of Judgment. On the back of it are an address and a date.
xXxXx
"Now let me think." The young man held his hands over his eyes for a moment while he concentrated. "You have… a twin sister? No, a brother. You…" He looked at the woman in front of him. "You play the violin." The girl smiled. "And you… Are you part of the Philharmonic?"
"Yes!" The woman squealed. "Oh wow! How did you know all that?"
"Ah ah. It would ruin it all if I told you." The young man looked around at the crowd he had gathered and smiled. "Now who else wants to be read by the Lead Owl, hmm?"
The crowd clamored around him, all wanting a turn.
xXxXx
Brandon Page walked up to the manager of his apartments. "Hey, I have the rent for the month."
"Good. Oh, someone asked for this to be delivered to you." The surly man grunted and handed over an envelope.
Inside was the tarot card The Devil with an address on the back.
XxXxX
"Hmmm, you want to see some magic do you?" The older man looked out over the small crowd of children. "Well, then how about some dancing."
The crowd of children yowled their complaints.
"Hey now. I never said I would be the one dancing." He smiled. "Though me being able to dance would truly be magical. But no, I won't be even attempting to dance. However, my friend will." The man gestured to the side of his stage and suddenly a dancing skeleton with a silk top hat appeared. The man looked out and noticed that some of the children looked frightened. He looked back at the skeleton. "Bob, Bob, now wait. I think you're scaring some of the kids." The skeleton stopped dancing and drooped. "Say good bye now Bob." The skeleton gave a little wave. The man looked at it sternly. "Bob." The skeleton seemed to sigh, then, just as suddenly as it appeared, it vanished. All that was left was its top hat, floating in mid air. The man sighed. "Bob always forgets his top hat." Plucks the hat out of the air and places it on a boy's head. "Here you go birthday boy."
The children erupt into laughter and cries of amazement, calling for more magic to be performed.
xXxXx
"Thank you so much for performing today."
The man turned and smiled at the couple. "It's what I do. I bring magic to this world, and often the most appreciative audience is one full of children."
A bike messenger rode up to the fence. "Excuse me, are you Neal Marco Shultz?"
"When I'm working, I go by the Silver Hawk." At the messenger's bored look, Neal sighed. "Yes, I'm Neal Schultz."
"This is for you." The messenger handed him an envelope and rode off.
Neal frowned and opened it. Inside was the Tower tarot card with an address on the back.
XxXxX
"Come on guys! The Mute Butterfly is performing!" The young boy ran towards the park to an area where a teenage girl was pulling scarves out of thin air.
Swiftly, a group of young children had surrounded the girl. They watched as the scarves appeared and disappeared, as cards fell into perfect stacks or formed flowers on the ground.
She pulled flowers from behind girls' ears and tucked them into their hair. She had the boys close their hands and when they opened them, a coin was there. For her grand finale, she seemed to breathe butterflies into existence. They swirled around the teenager and the children for a moment before flying off into the park.
xXxXx
"Farasha, Farasha!" A little girl came up to the silent magician, who knelt down to look her in the eye. "Is it true that you won't be performing for a while?" Other children came over to watch the 'conversation'.
The teenager smiled at the child.
An older child sighed. "We know Farasha. We need to be good and stay safe. You're acting a bit like you are leaving."
Farasha looked at the other children, sadness tingeing her pale jade eyes.
"Then you have to stay safe wherever you go!" The girl gave Farasha a tight hug.
Farasha quickly gave each of the children a hug before shooing them away.
"That was impressive as always, Farasha. I still haven't figured out how the kids are able to understand you without you signing or writing anything down." A male teenager stood leaning against a tree spoke up after the children had left.
Farasha's shoulders shook slightly. The boy smiled. "I do know that that means you're laughing." The boy bent down and retrieved a scarf for her. "So are you really leaving? What about school?"
Farasha pulled out a notebook and swiftly wrote something down. I qualified for early graduation.
"Oh. It's just that I…" The boy began, but she put a finger to his lips and looked at him. He sighed. "You think I'm sweet, but that I can do better than you. I finally figure out what you're saying and it's when you turn me down." She patted his cheek.
"FARASHA AVINA!" Someone yelled from across the park. A couple of burly men were coming towards the two teens.
The teen pushed Farasha away. "Run!"
Farasha grabbed the last scarf and took off towards a small grove of trees. When she reached them, she seemed to vanish.
The men pushed the boy out of their way and pursued her. The boy ran off to get a police man.
The men stood in the grove looking around for any sign of where the girl had gone.
"Damnit! You lost her you fool!" The older of the two men shouted.
"You were the one who called out and alerted her!" The other replied.
A butterfly landed on the younger's neck, causing him to screech. Up in the tree Farasha silently laughed.
She looked to the side and noticed a butterfly had landed on something. Taking a closer look, she realized it was a tarot card with an address on the back.
She looked at the front. Wheel of Fortune…
XxXxX
Amaria got out of the cab in the suburb area that the address on the back of her card had led her to. At age 25, standing at 5'6" with wavy blond hair reaching her mid back and caramel brown eyes, she was pretty but able to blend in to the crowd.
"Hello there beautiful." A voice said from behind her. She turned to see who spoke. A man of approximately 28 years old, 5'10", ocean blue eyes and brown hair just long enough to hang in his eyes greeted her. His hair looked like he had just rolled out of bed. "Name's Brandon Page." He smiled charmingly at her. "What's yours?"
She ignored him and continued down the street. He followed, continuing to attempt to get her name. When she stopped at the designated house and he stopped too, she turned to yell at him. At the genuine surprise written on his face she stopped.
"You were heading here too?" He asked shock quite apparent in his voice.
She looked him over one more time. "Mentalist?" He nodded. "My name is Amaria Valdez. I'm an escape artist."
"Mind if I introduce myself as well?" A low voice spoke from the sidewalk behind them. They turned to see a man around 43. He stood at 6'0". He had storm grey eyes and longish black hair that he pushed back out of his face. His hair had a decent about of silver running through it. "My name's Neal Schultz. My stage name is the Silver Hawk. I'm an illusionist."
"Oh! I'm the Lead Owl. Nice to meet you both." Brandon shook their hands. "Shall we see what's behind this mystery door?" He tried to turn the knob. "Drat. It's locked."
Amaria rolled her eyes and pushed him out of the way. Swiftly, she unlocked the door. "Escape artist remember? Locks are my specialty as the Golden Sparrow."
They opened the door and stopped in surprise.
An obviously teenage girl had swung through an open window just as the opened the door and stopped, clutching the window sill for a moment, before hopping into the room and holding up the Wheel of Fortune tarot card.
Neal was the first to recover. "You're the Mute Butterfly right?" The girl nodded.
Brandon glanced at Neal as he took the girl in. "You know her?"
The girl stood around 5'4" tall. She had pale jade eyes and vivid soft red curls that hung to her shoulders.
Neal nodded. "She's an illusionist like me. She usually performs for the local orphans and foster kids, though she has done a few ticketed shows. I managed to make it to one once."
"Too busy to make it to the others?" Amaria was carefully examining the room they all had entered.
"No." Neal huffed out a laugh. "Her shows sold out fairly quickly."
The other two glanced at him sharply before giving the girl another going over.
Brandon frowned. "Mute? As in can't talk? That's-"
A soft laugh interrupted him. He looked at the girl.
"I'm only mute when I'm performing. Or at my high school." She smiled. "Name's Farasha Avina."
"That can't be your real name." Amaria looked at her carefully. "How old are you anyways?"
"It's not, but I have my reasons. And would you believe me if I said I was 18?"
"No." All three of them chorused at once.
Farasha sighed. "I'll be 17 in a few days. Can we move on and check out the other room of this fine establishment?" She wandered over to the only door that was closed.
"Who are you on the run from? The fake name, the way you entered through the window…" Brandon asked, slightly blocking her way.
She sighed again. "I changed my name for reasons that are none of your business. I'm on the run from social services. Since I left school, I no longer have an adult guardian, so they are trying to put me back in foster care."
The other three froze and Farasha rolled her eyes. "Yes, I'm an orphan. Let's go ahead and get the pity and the 'sorry for your losses' out of the way, shall we?"
Amaria looked at her and spoke quietly. "How long?"
Farasha looked out the window. "Since I was twelve. The counselor at my high school has been doing what he can for me since I got there two years ago. Before you guys start worrying about me being in school, I qualified for early graduation. According to my IQ, I am a bonafide genius. Once I find someone who social services will accept as a guardian, they'll leave me alone."
Neal leaned against the wall. "What does it take to be a guardian?"
"Legal age and a steadyish income." The girl shrugged. "Why?"
"Because all four of us seem to have been brought together. Meaning we'll be stuck together for a while. It would probably be helpful if one of us was your guardian."
The girl looked him over, but before she could say anything, Amaria called out from the other room. "Guys, you have got to see this."
The three of them wandered into the room and froze, amazed at what they saw.
Before them was large amount of sand. Written in it and made into sand castles were plans and designs.
"Whoever did this must have sprayed it with some kind of glue. It doesn't seem overly strong, but it is certainly strong enough for us to be able to walk around the room without it collapsing."
"It says here, that once we memorize it, we should destroy it. No pictures." Farasha read from the sand. "How did they get such tiny writing without the sand collapsing?"
"Magic? That's about all I can think of." Brandon joked, only paying half attention to what he was saying. "This is incredible. If we managed to pull this off, we would be bigger than the Four Horsemen!"
"Then why don't we do it?" Farasha's voice was quiet, almost silent when she spoke.
Amaria slowly smiled. "I see no reason not to. This seems like incredible fun."
Neal frowned. "Well, someone has to watch out for you kids, and it looks like I was chosen to do it. First things first though. We have to get social services off of Farasha's back."
"That would be helpful. It would also allow me to go and get the few things I left at my high school that I had planned to take with me when I left." Her voice was louder this time.
"You know, you are completely different from your stage persona. She's all soft quiet sweetness, you're all tart with sharp edges."
"The Mute Butterfly is just that. My stage persona. But then again, butterflies can start hurricanes if they flap their wings just right." She grinned, danger in her eyes.
xXxXx
Author's note: This is the start of a grand story! (Not really- well, I hope it is but…) Tell me what you think.
It may take me a while to get more written/posted but there will be more…I have a plan…No, really I do! *looks away*
I am not a writer! I am a puppet controlled by fictional characters!