Now You See Me (Movie)
Daniel shuffles the cards over and over, eyes travelling over the crowd. Henley, Jack and Merritt are buying supplies, each of them being much better at sneaking than he is. Disappearance is a part of all of their acts but he is used to being the centre of attention, to have everyone's eyes on him, until he specifically wants them to look at something else. Even when they are looking away, they are still focused on him.
A playing card, the Queen of Diamonds, flies towards him, landing on top of his deck. Henley's delicate scrawl is written on top. On the back, Jack and Merritt have drawn rude pictures in an attempt to annoy him.
'When are they going to grow up?' Elenchos says, slithering down his arm towards the card. 'We're meant to be professionals.'
'You can't control everything, El.' He sighs, tucking the cards into his pocket and starting to walk home. 'They do want they want.'
The snake hisses, muttering under her breath about 'magicians' and 'professionals'. Danny gets back to the apartment in record time, going through their notes once again.
'Do you think Sphuranus likes me?' Elenchos mutters as they rest on the sofa, flicking through the channels on the TV. 'He won't talk to me.'
'You set him on fire once.' Danny reminds her. 'And chucked him into a river.'
'That was a trick.' Elenchos frowns. 'He knew what was happening.'
Danny laughs, taking his cards out and beginning to shuffle them again.
Sphuranus glares at Elenchos as the snake slivers out of the door after her human. The bee turns his gaze to Mana and Kinyit until they both hurry their men out of the apartment, giving Sphuranus and Henley some much needed alone time.
'I thought they'd never leave.' Henley mutters, pulling off her gloves and sighing. The scars, a reminder of a trick gone wrong, still hurt, but she doesn't like guilt tripping Atlas. It wasn't really his fault anyway.
'Boys.' The bee mutters, as if that explains everything. Henley smiles, allowing him to land on her wrist, just next to her scars.
'Sphur, you're a boy.' She laughs
'But you're not so it doesn't count.' He scowls, buzzing slightly. 'Besides, it's the boy's girls that a more annoying and I'm a girl's boy.'
Henley smirks. 'You know that made no sense, right?'
Sphuranus flies off, whizzing around her head and making her laugh. She slides her gloves back on, hand darting up to grab him as he passes her eyes. He squirms for a bit, cursing her lightly and she laughs again, letting him go and smiling as he flies just out of the way. She watches him slowly, waiting for him to come back into reach before moving both hands around him, giggling as he wiggles, eventually slumping down in her fingers and glaring at her
'Don't do that.' He mutters, wings fluttering against her skin. 'I hate it.'
'Come on, Sphuranus.' She smiles. 'You're an escape artist.'
Mana scuttles towards the bigger dæmon, watching Kinyit fidget as she does so. Merritt has hypnotised Jack, but that doesn't mean his puppy dæmon is under yet. That's the crab's job.
Kinyit jumps as Mana places a claw on the link between her and Jack. She twists the claw slightly, watching the puppy blink a few times before collapsing against the table. Elenchos and Sphuranus look up as Mana tries to push the bigger dæmon towards her man. In the end, the crab gives up, letting Merritt pick her up and head for the door.
'Hey.' Atlas says, looking between the other three magicians. 'Are you just going to leave him there?'
Merritt smiles. 'Of course. Jackie wants to learn to throw off hypnotism. If he isn't normal in two hours, give me a ring.'
He winks, opening the door with his free hand and keeping Mana close to his chest. She moves slightly so she can see him properly. 'You think he'll do it.'
'No.' Merritt laughs, heading to the nearest bar. 'We've got two hours to have fun.'
Mana chuckles, letting Merritt lift her to his shoulder. If he gets too drunk, she'll get down. Well, if she has enough sense to do so at the time. Merritt walks into the bar, his most frequent spot, and just grins, dozens shouting his name.
'Drinks on me!'
Merritt spends the night drinking and laughing with strangers. His phone rings six times over four hours and he misses each one.
Kinyit jumps on top of Jack's back as Atlas pushes him off the sofa. Sphuranus shouts as she jumps past him and Jack spins as she lands, making her fall to the floor. The springer spaniel puppy gets to her feet, watching her man with a smile. She leaps at him and he grabs her under his arm, spinning around as she squeals, Elenchos and Mana laughing at her while Sphuranus chuckles on Henley's shoulder.
Finally, Jack lets her down, scratching behind her ear with a smile. 'Looks like I won that one Kin.'
The dæmon shakes herself off, glaring at him. 'I'll win next time. I'm getting better.'
Jack smirks as she jumps up onto the sofa frame, barely missing Atlas's head. He sits down in front of Kinyit, smiling up at her. 'Maybe, but it's still fifty eight to six. You need to get a lot better.'
Kinyit huffs, slumping down on the back on the sofa and pretending to snap at Jack's head. Henley giggles and Merritt, sat on the armchair, angles his head to see better. Atlas and Elenchos merely shake their heads, picking up some cards and starting to shuffle.
'Anyone for a game?' Kinyit says, placing her paws on Jack's shoulder.
'With or without magic?' Mana says from the arm of Merritt's sofa.
'With, of course.' Jack grins. Everyone nods and smiles, Atlas dealing the cards, with as much complexity as possible.
Kinyit snuggles more up to Jack, getting ready to win this game.
Nzuza tilts her head, watching the video tapes over and over again. They are about to go out, but she wants to see Atlas, Reeves, McKinley and Wilder in action one more time. Just wants to make sure everything will go smoothly.
Dylan, having just returned from setting the house up, pokes his head into the room, smiling at his tiger dæmon. 'Done, Zu? We've got to get going.'
She nods, getting to her feet and following him outside. Rhodes closes the door to their rented house, set up for a several week stay, and sits down on the steps, wrapping an arm around her neck and hugging her tightly.
'Dylan, we have to go.' She mutters, pressing her head against his.
'I know.' He smiles, loosening his grip. 'It's just...we did it.'
Nzuza pushes him to his feet, shaking herself off and starting down the street. He shakes his head, following her with a smile. They have spent their whole lives, every moment since their father died, wanting this, hoping they could one day finish what he started. Rhodes steps into the park, walking across the grass to where the tiger is waiting.
'They found it.' She whispers as he steps up to her.
He nods, watching them walk up to him and relaxing slightly. Nzuza laughs at their shocked expressions and takes a hesitant step towards their dæmons.
Dylan just smiles, happy they can finally finish what their father started, happy it's over.
'Welcome to the Eye.'
Kwenkwe looks down at all the notes his human has made, raising his eyebrows slightly. The bobcat turns to face his girl, face full of exasperation. 'Magic, Alma? Really?' He says in French.
The frenchwoman finished her seventh cup of coffee that evening. 'If the criminals believe in it, we need to learn about it, Kwen. All of it.'
Kwenkwe raises an eyebrow. 'All of it? You know magic has been around for thousands of years, right? It'll take forever to read all of it.'
They both raise their heads as Dylan runs through the room, shouting to the other detectives. Nzuza runs after him, snarling at their dæmons when they don't react instantly.
'Maybe.' Alma allows, glaring at the Americans surrounding her. 'But at least I will know more than them.'
'They're American, Alma.' The bobcat smirks. 'We already know more than them.'
Alma laughs, drawing the attention of Dylan and Nzuza. Alma looks straight at them and Dylan blushes lightly, turning back to his work. Nzuza stays watching Kwenkwe but he glares and she turns away.
'Stupid tiger.' Alma whispers, although her voice is fond. 'Don't know what you see in her.'
Kwenkwe splutters and Nzuza looks up again briefly, before burying her face in Dylan's side. The bobcat glares at tiger, man then woman, the latter raising an eyebrow. Her dæmon practically snarls. 'I don't see anything in her.'
'That's good.' Alma smiles. She glances around, checking no French speaker is near. 'Because I think she's involved.'
Tressler screams the second he is alone, Ogaranya letting out a similar screech. He hears the guards pause outside his room but a quick snarl from his rat dæmon sends them running. She may be small but they know that if Ogaranya is angry, so is Tressler and he will happily fire them if he's in a bad mood.
'They stole my money!' Tressler shouts, knocking something off the table. He doesn't stop to look at what it is. 'They stole it and, somehow, they're getting away with it.'
'The bank has all forms of identification needed to give over the money.' Ogaranya scowls, chasing her own tail in mimicry of his pacing. 'Unless we can concretely reveal that they did it, that money is lost to us.'
Tressler's hands ball into fists and he knocks something else over, narrowly missing his dæmon on the mantelpiece. The money isn't that important, barely half of all the cash he owns but it's a matter of pride. Those stupid showmen tricked him and humiliated him in front of thousands of people, then left him standing there, chained on stage, with all those people watching. All those people he hadn't given money too.
'We'll get them back, Ranya.' He mutters, placing a hand on her back gently. 'We'll reveal them and get them jailed. We might even be able to swing for high security, separate states and solitary.'
Ogaranya rolls her eyes. 'We'd need a detective.
'No.' Tressler smirks. 'We'd need a magician.'
Bradley sits in his cell, watching as Ugha flies around the room. There is no way to convince anyone that they didn't do it, that they were framed but they might be able to plant a seed of doubt. If he can convince the detective, or the French agent, that there must be spy among them, they might offer him his freedom for assistance.
'But how to convince them? How did those magicians do it?'
The beetle dæmon flies towards him, twirling several times before resting on his forehead. Bradley rolls his eyes, but smiles at the display. 'I already told you. Besides, you know magicians, they'll pull whatever tricks they need to, if it gets them their show.'
Ugha jumps slightly, as if to remind Bradley that they were once magicians themselves. 'But how are we going to convince the policemen? What if we try to convince one of them, and they're the double agent?'
Bradley snorts slightly and smirks. 'Please. The only ones who will talk to us are Rhodes or Dray. The chances of her getting assigned here were minimal so it won't be her and he's too stuck up and disbelieving to have anything to do with this.'
There's a noise down the hall, like a rusty door creeping open. They stuck them in the dingiest, oldest cell they could find, so no one could be persuaded to help him. Rhodes is walking towards him, tiger at his side.
'Alright then.' Bradley says, smiling. 'Show time.'