At last, everything was calm, and the act could begin. Alison sighed and rubbed her hands together.

"Well now. Hopefully we'll have no more Tarzan wannabes swinging from the ceiling." she grinned.

"My name is Alison, my interests in the magic arts consist of illusion and escapology." some of my many obsessions as an escapologist, are ropes and knots." she explained as she fiddled idly with the rope in her hand, and then holding it straight out and pulling it tight, to show it was in fact, just an ordinary piece of rope.

"Knots are strange things." Alison said. "Some seem to have no middle, and no end. This makes it half the fun as an escapologist to work out the workings of these knots." she explained, as consantinad the rope in to three loops in her hands. With a flick of her wrist, out popped a pair of scissors.

Layton, Luke and Emmy watched, extremely intrigued. However, one of them would occasionally look around to see if the nut case from before hand was lurking somewhere.

Alison cut the rope in to three, different sized pieces.

"Knots are both useful, and hindering. I could go in to a whole history of knots, but that would just be completely boring." She said, as she began to knot the cut pieces of rope back together.

"But sometimes... Knots can be fascinating." She smirked, as she took both ends of the rope and held it out.

With one, simple tug, the knots unraveled themselves, and the rope was once again intact. Emmy and Luke gave some amazed gasps, while Layton sat and watched, keeping a close eye on Alisons hands. Again, he was losing track of this magicians pace.

"However, this trick is slightly boring, and a bit anticlimactic for the last act, so I'm having the boys bring out something a little more heavy duty!" she suddenly grinned, as the stage hands rolled out a person sized box, and a rack of swords to follow.

"I will need a volounteer. Will the dapper bloke in the top hat kindly come up to the stage?" she asked, meaning Layton, as she pulled out one of the swords, and patting the palm of her hand with the flat side of the blade, while patiently awaiting Layton.

"Well, here we go." Layton smiled. He hoped this one would be less grim than Kozmos's performance. He hastily hopped up on stage.

"Here, we have the traditional magicians cabinet. Professor, being an observant man, would you kindly examine the interior and exteriorr ways of escape than the obvious door?" Alison requested.

"Why certainly." Layton said, as he opened the cabinet. It had a red, velvet cushioned interior. Layton pushed, and prodded at each wall of the cabinet. He then looked outside for any hidden hatches. It just looked like a regular cabinet.

"It all looks pretty solid." Layton confirmed. "You don't want me in there do you?" he asked with a joking smile.

"Certainly not. Because I'm going in there, and I'm also giving you a second job." Alison responded, handing the sword to Layton. "I'm going to be tied and straight jacketed. Then I am going to step in to the cabinet and the door will be closed. As soon as I give the signal,I want you to put these swords straight through the cabinet. Simple enough. Don't hesitate. Straight through. Use all five swords on the rack." She instructed as the stage hands started to bind her with rope.

The straight Jacket was applied and Alison stepped backwards in to the cabinet and the door was shut.

"On your marks professor." She called out. Layton took a fencing stance and readied the sword, choosing the target side of the cabinet.

"Go!"

On cue, Layton impaled the first sword, straight through the cabinet! The blade tip stuck out on the other end.

"And the other!" Alison called out. Layton chose his mark, and put it straight through again.

"Good! Again!"

Layton took the sword, he guessed his next spot, and put it through.

"Two more! Be daring!" Alison called out from the cupboard.

Luke and Emmy watched in awe as Layton put the swords straight through. The way he did it made it look like he was in fact the magician, a part of the act. He had such flare when brandishing each of the swords.

In true fact, Layton had absolutely no Idea what he was doing.

"Last one! Put it straight through the door!"

Layton hesitated. He had put the previous four in the sides of the cabinet randomly, with some knowledge that he would have less chance of striking her. The door was different. He would be targeting the wider surface area.

Alison detected the pause.

"Trust me Professor. I'm a magician!" she reassured.

With that, Layton closed his eyes, and put the sword through.

Suddenly, he heard an all mighty 'FWOOSH!' from next to the cabinet. He turned to see the purple smoke explode from nowhere before his very eyes.

"Now, careful where you were putting the last one. You almost got my kidney." Said Alison, as she stepped out of the clearing smoke, dusting off her clothes. She held the rope and straight jacket in one hand.

"My goodness!" Layton laughed. "I admit, you gave me quite a scare!"

Alison grinned at Layton in amusement. "Oh come now. It all worked out fine." Alison responded. "Thank you for your help Professor. You may go and sit down."

Layton nodded, and joined the other two.

"Another extremely impressive act. Bravo." Layton applauded. "Now, I have a feeling Phoenix sent his two best until last. I can't fathom how your trick was done, even though I was right up on stage." Layton admitted. "You're very well disciplined in your art."

Alison bowed again. "Thank you."

Her props were wheeled off, and she followed them without a word.

Phoenix stepped out again. "Dear Professor. Would you and your friends like to inspect the stage?" he asked.

The stage! Layton would finally get a good look at the stage. This was what he wanted to examine the most. He wanted to figure out some certain trap door related tricks.

"Gladly Phoenix." Layton responded, jumping up. Luke and Emmy followed.

Layton began to search for any seams, as did Luke and Emmy. Luke even searched up on the lighting bridge.

"Nothing!" Emmy gasped. "How did they do it?"

Layton stood back up. "Well. I suppose the best tricks are the ones that are the hardest to work out." he said. "A good thing too. Learning how they work would only ruin the wonders of them anyway."

"I suppose that's true." Emmy said, sounding a bit defeated that they couldn't work out all of the tricks.

Luke returned back from the light rigging.

"Nothing. Why don't we explore back stage, and see if anyone knows about that man that tried to grab Emmy?" Luke suggested.

Layton nodded. "That sounds like a good course of action, maybe talk with some of the other magicians and stage crew."

"That's our new target then. We can make up by solving this mystery instead!" Emmy said, rearing to go.

The three nodded, and disappeared back stage.