The next day, as the Rangers met up in Mick's workshop, Preston was noticeably down. He had just come from Principal Hasting's office, and it was clear that whatever had happened wasn't good.
"So, how bad was it?" Sarah asked sympathetically.
"After school detention for a week." Brody told them. "For both of us."
"That's...pretty light actually." Sarah commented. "I mean, don't get me wrong I'm glad but...one week?"
"She took into account the fact that there wasn't REALLY a panther, and so there was never any real danger." Brody told them.
"But there WAS a real panther." Calvin reminded them.
"Not as far as she thinks." Brody said, pressing the button on the projector and showing them the panther hologram. "Thanks to Mick making this, she thinks the whole thing was just a hoax."
"But still, both of you?" Hayley asked. "What did you do?"
"I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." Brody told them. "Hey, I don't mind much. I live at the school anyway; it doesn't really matter if I do my homework in the detention hall or here in the base."
"Still, you should take this as a lesson." Mick warned Preston sagely. "Your magic is a powerful weapon, but like any weapon, you need to use it responsibly."
"I just...I don't get why it worked with Slowgre and it didn't work in the school." Preston grumbled.
"Well...you know we're not meant to use our Ranger powers for personal gain right?" Sarah asked. "Well...maybe your magic works the same way."
"Yeah, you were kind of trying to show off." Calvin agreed.
"Yeah, I guess." Preston grumbled. "I guess it's back to trying to do my tricks the hard way."
"Well, maybe...but that doesn't mean you can't re-think how you do them." Brody stated. "You have learned other skills Preston, ones that could be used to make your tricks work a little better, with a little practice."
"What like?" Preston asked him. Brody looked to Mick, who just nodded and pulled out a top hat.
"Watch this." Brody said, going over to a bench. The others just watched as he stepped behind it, picking up the hat and showing it to them, allowing them to see it was empty. He even threw it in the air for good measure to show there was nothing weighing it down. He then put the hat down, rim-first on the table by his right hand.
He picked up a scarf and showed it to the Rangers, letting them see it and again, indicating there was nothing in the scarf, before laying it down on the table. He picked up the hat and put it on the scarf, before reaching inside and pulling out a rabbit. The others all smiled and applauded.
"How...how did you do that?" Preston asked him.
*"Come around here." He told him. Preston came around to his side of the table, seeing a hook just under the edge. He then reached into the hat, pulling out a handkerchief that hadn't been there before, one that had metal rings attached to it. He took the rabbit and placed it in the handkerchief, carefully wrapping it up and securing the handkerchief.
"Don't hurt her!" Sarah said, looking a little worried.
"Don't worry, a rabbit's natural instinct is to remain still, it's why magicians use them." Brody assured her, before picking up the bundle and hanging it on the hook. He then placed the hat on the table like he had before; it was then that they saw it was directly above where the rabbit was hanging.
"The rabbit wasn't in the hat before, it was hanging here." He told them. "I then just distracted you with the handkerchief and then when I picked up the hat..."
He picked up the hat, but also the bundle with the rabbit in it. The way he turned the hat, it blocked the view from the front of him swinging the bundle into the hat, so that when he righted the hat, the rabbit was now inside.
"Then when I reach into the hat, I just carefully unwrap the rabbit and..." He pulled it out. "Preston, it's just like a lot of my tricks."
"It is?" Preston asked him.
"Yeah, I can't really turn invisible or disappear. That's impossible." Brody assured him. "But what I can do is distract people, using things like smoke bombs or flash powder while I move."
"That way it only LOOKS like you can disappear!" Preston stated. He just nodded.
"In a lot of ways, being a magician and being a ninja aren't that dissimilar." He assured the Blue Ranger. "Then when people started talking about us being able to disappear and suchlike, we just...let them go on believing that we could."
"That's pretty cool!" Sarah answered.
"Now, we have a surprise for you!" Calvin told Brody as Hayley pulled out a scarf. "It's just this way."
"You guys, what did you do?" Brody asked as they blindfolded him.
"You don't get the concept of a surprise do you?" Sarah asked, waving her hand in front of his face to make sure he couldn't see. "Come on, it's just this way!"
The team led Brody out into the yard, before stopping.
"Why are we in the yard?" He asked them.
"Hey, no peeking!" Sarah reprimanded him.
"Sarah, I have a good sense of direction, and I trained to navigate blindfolded as a kid." Brody reminded her. "So what are we doing in the yard?"
"Well, there's only one way to find out isn't there?" Calvin asked him. "Go ahead, take a look!"
Brody pulled off the blindfold, and was amazed by what he saw.
"My dad's truck!" He called out excitedly, running over to check it out. "Guys, you fixed it!"
"I re-built practically the whole engine from parts I found here in the shop." Calvin told him proudly.
"And, we all helped to give it a good clean and make it as good as new." Hayley told him as Brody bounded excitedly around the truck, inspecting it.
"Guys, this is EPIC!" He called out.
"Now, everywhere you go, you'll have a little bit of your dad with you!" Sarah told him. That was when Brody stopped smiling for a moment.
"Yeah...about that...um...I doubt I'll be going anywhere in it." He told them. They all just looked a little confused for a moment. "I was kidnapped when I was eight, remember? I don't have a licence!"
"Oh...wow...I really should have thought of that." Sarah said as she started to think about it. "Well, Calvin's been driving his truck for a while, maybe he could teach you!"
"Oh...um..." Calvin started to stammer, before looking around rather nervously. Hayley just sighed.
"Go ahead Calvin, you can tell them." Hayley stated. "They're your friends; they won't make fun of you."
"Make fun of you for what?" Preston asked.
"I...I don't know how to drive." Calvin admitted. This totally confused all of the Rangers.
"Hold on, you drive your truck all the time!" Preston stated.
"Actually, I'm his personal chauffeur." Hayley told them. "It's just that none of you noticed."
"So THAT'S why Hayley drives YOUR truck!" Mick said, finally figuring out a nagging mystery from the first time he had met them.
"I don't get it; you love to work on engines so much. Why wouldn't you learn how to drive?" Brody asked him. Calvin took a deep breath and looked to Hayley, who took his hand in a comforting gesture. He had only ever told her this story in full.
"One time when I was little, my parents took me to a go-kart track." Calvin said as he thought about the story. "I had nagged them about it for weeks, I just loved the thought of racing around the track...only when I did, I lost control and...next thing I know, I'm in a duck pond."
The others could see that this was serious for Calvin, and tried hard not to start laughing hearing this. Hayley gave them a warning stare as she stood with her boyfriend.
"The whole thing went over on top of me; it trapped me at the bottom." Calvin told them. "The next thing I know...my dad's hunched over me dripping wet. I was told afterwards I had stopped breathing for almost a minute. They were worried that if it had been much longer that I might have been brain damaged."
"Wow!" Sarah said, no longer feeling in the mood to laugh. The story had taken a hard turn from a funny mental image of a young Calvin speeding into a duck pond into the territory of decidedly not funny in the slightest. "Cal...I'm so sorry!"
"Ever since then I've been terrified of driving." Calvin admitted. "I'm also not too fond of duck ponds."
"I'm not surprised." Preston agreed sympathetically.
"Calvin, you can't let fear rule your life. Maybe...maybe it's time you learned." Brody suggested.
"I'm not sure..."
"Hey, maybe it won't be as scary if we do it together." Brody suggested. "I mean...I literally know nothing about driving. It's a little scary for me too; I'm starting from square one. What do you say? You and I both take driving lessons together?"
"I happen to know drivers' ed. Has a few open spaces." Mick suggested. Calvin didn't seem completely convinced, but seeing his friends gathered around him, he took a deep breath.
"I guess...I could give it a try." He answered. The very thought of getting behind the wheel terrified him. He felt his heart seizing up just thinking about it, but he could see the way his friends were looking at him, and knew that they were there for him. The thought of getting his hands on the wheel and being ultimately in control of a car was terrifying, but the thought of letting them down when they were willing to support him in whatever he decided to do was more frightening. He looked to Hayley, who gave him that same look he fell in love with, the one that let him know that she would be happy whether he went through with it or whether she had to drive him everywhere they went from now until the end of their days. It didn't matter to Hayley that he had this phobia.
"When do we start?" he asked.
Up on the Warrior Dome, Madame Odious was making her way around the ship, dealing with a few matters of business before she came into an abandoned corridor. She looked around, making sure she was on her own, before pulling out a hammer-like device. She waved it in the direction of a Galvanax poster, at which it opened up, revealing a passage behind it. As the poster closed over again, leaving the passage seemingly empty, Wrench de-activated a cloaking device and appeared in the corner. He made his way over to the poster, running a hand over it, finding it solid. It wasn't as though it was just a poster; there was something significantly more substantial behind it, like some kind of security door.
"Well, now I know how you keep disappearing." He remarked as he ran a hand over it. "Now the only question is, what are you up to?"
Back at the school, it was lunch time and the kids were busy with their food. Victor was sitting across from Monty, who pulled out a Tupperware, opening it up.
"So, what's on the menu today?" He asked.
"Cow tongue, red cabbage and horseradish!" Monty said, pulling out his sandwich with a look of delight on his face. "Mom, you picked a real winner today!"
"I swear, I have no idea how you can eat like you do and still not grow." Victor said with a little chuckle. Monty just held up a hand and pulled out a lab report, sliding it to Victor.
"Oh, I did your chemistry homework." Monty told him. Victor took a cursory glance at it and smiled.
"Nice!" He said, before slipping it into his bag. Sarah just let out a groan and rolled her eyes. "What a surprise, you have something to say!"
"Don't you get a little sick of coasting by on work that isn't yours?" Sarah asked him. Victor just shrugged.
"Hey, as long as I get into Princeton on that basketball scholarship, I'm good." He replied with an arrogant little smirk. "My dad's a legacy there. He was Sigma Tau, if I get there, I'll be on easy street."
"Aren't you even a little curious to see how you would do if you just gave your school work an honest shot?" She asked him. "What about you Monty? Why do you let him push you around like that? Aren't you sick of him getting by on your hard work?"
"He doesn't push me around, he's the only one that doesn't." Monty mumbled through a mouthful of his sandwich. He gulped it down, before reaching for his juice box. "I give him a helping hand."
"You do his work for him! It demeans the efforts of people like you and me that actually EARN our grades!" Sarah told him.
"So what? You going to rat me out to Principal Hastings?" Victor asked her.
"I should!" Sarah stated.
"I'll take that as a no then!" He answered high-fiving Monty. Sarah just shook her head and went back to her lunch, feeling like this was a lost cause. She wasn't the kind of person to taddle, not unless someone's actions put them or others in danger at least. Victor seemed to know that. "Oh, what now?"
"Ladies and Gentlemen! Prepare to be amazed by my latest and greatest act of daring!" Preston announced, beginning to unpack his latest trick. He had five disks of wood, one of which had a large, six inch steel nail sticking up through it. He also had five paper cups. "Now, if I could have someone verify that this nail is indeed real!"
He handed the nail block to Sarah, who touched it and nodded to verify it was indeed real. Preston took it back and put the cups over the disks so that there was no way to see which one had the nail in it. "Now, would someone like to mix these up for me?"
He turned his back, at which another student started mixing up the cups. When he turned back around, Preston lined the cups all in a row.
"Now, please remain completely silent. I need complete concentration while I use my mental powers to locate the nail." He told them. "Oh, and please...don't try this at...HOME!"
He brought his hand down hard and fast on one of the cups, crushing it. Everyone jumped, even Sarah looked nervous about this latest trick he was attempting.
"Uh...Preston, that is..." She closed her eyes tightly as he brought his hand down again, crushing another cup. She didn't hear any screams, so she felt like she could safely open her eyes and confirm that Preston hadn't managed to impale himself.
"Two down, two to go!" Preston stated, waving his hands above the remaining cups.
"Um...Preston? Maybe you should quit while you're ahead." Sarah suggested. Preston just smiled.
"Quit? Why would I do that?" Preston asked. "Why when I could go...DOUBLE OR NOTHING!"
He slammed down two hands at once, crushing two of the remaining cups, fortunately with no accompanying bloodshed. Preston stepped away, throwing away the cups.
"Oh come ON!" Victor called out. "Like any of us believe you'd really have the nerve to do that if there was any chance of you getting it wrong."
"If you don't believe me..."
"Well, I don't!" Victor said, swiping Preston's hand away. "I'll give you the head's up everyone, there never was a nail! Presto LAMO here palmed it when he put the cups over them."
"Victor, that's not how..."
"And I'll prove it too!" He announced, bringing his hand down.
"VICTOR NO!" Preston screamed. Unfortunately, he was way too late. It took a moment for Victor to register what had happened, but he just stared down in horror. Sarah brought her hands over her face staring, unable to look away. Victor lifted up his hand, which had the wood and the nail stuck to it, the nail having gone straight through his hand.
"Oh my God!" Monty screamed, grabbing Victor and ushering him away as he stared at his hand, making unintelligible noises that never quite made it into full screams. "What did you do?"
"I warned him that wasn't how the trick was done!" Preston protested as he went with them. Sarah realised that in their haste to leave, Victor had left his bag behind. She tried to pick it up, but ended up spilling some of the contents on the floor.
As she hurried to put the contents of his bag back inside, she noticed something odd. She found the Victor's chemistry lab report, but she also found another one!
"What the hell?" She asked, looking confused. "Why does Victor have two copies of the same lab report?"
A/N: Again, I won't always be able to do this, as I don't know a lot of tricks, but the passage beginning with a * is one of the methods by which the rabbit out of a hat trick is actually done. Oh, and I will explain the cup trick...and yes, Victor DID find out the hard way that there IS a VERY real nail involved so...yeah...don't try that!