Magic to Muggles ch. 3

Last time on Magic to Muggles…
A small note in a bottle floated towards the chair. Harry looked down and reached down and pulled it out of the water and took out the note. After reading it.
“Uh, Fulcon, you might wanna read this.”
Fulcon grabbed the note from Harry and read it.

Hi there Fulcon, I’m sorry I had to hit you with a ¼ cubic mile of water, but I couldn’t have you destroy the universe. To advance this episodes plot, I’m gonna make you a proposition. If you and Harry can make it across the room in 1 hour and 10 minutes from when I first launched my water attack, I’ll clean up all of the water and debris and continue the interview. If you fail, YOU have to clean up this water before the Today Show crew gets here or you will be doomed to the wrath of the Unemployment Lady!

Fulcon stared at the page with disbelief. Harry approached Fulcon. “Hey, you okay?”
Fulcon stared a bit more before responding.
He laughed at the paper and handed it back to Harry.
“The best she could come up with was firing me. I mean, come on.” Fulcon laughed a bit before Harry cut him off. “Uh, Fulcon, there’s another paragraph.” still laughing a bit, Fulcon took the paper, flipped over the other side, and read it.
He stopped laughing.

The Unemployment lady is me, and I have a nasty habit of losing my ex-co-hosts in my second pocket dimension. The one where I keep my mutant dog, Benji.
Keep this in mind.
-Ali Phantom
P.S. Don’t worry, the audience is safe.
_______________________________________________________________________
The clip finished and the nice and dry audience clapped while the camera zoomed in on Ali as she walked onto a stage with a wood floor. She stopped in the middle of it and faced her studio audience.
“Hey everyone, sorry about that. I hope no one was damaged during the teleportation.” Ali apologized.
She walked downstage(1) and sat behind a large wooden desk in a black chair. The walls of the studio were red and there were black shelves on them with various knick-knacks. Several potted plants lie in the corners and behind the desk was two cream colored armchairs and behind that, was an elevated step with a red carpet. And behind that was a city backdrop framed with a window with grass outside of it.
“As you probably already know,” Ali said moving the three mugs from the desk onto the floor. She replaced them by putting her elbows on the desk and intertwined her fingers under her chin.
“Fulcon and Harry were going to destroy the space-time continuum by watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire-” the audience clapped again. Ali raised an eyebrow.
“Which is bad.” The audience stopped clapping and gave a long and dramatic ooh.

"Riiight, anyways. While Fulcon and Harry try to get across the other studio, I have with me another co-host. Please welcome Em Phantom’s representative, Cassidy Peterson!”
The audience clapped as a girl appeared on the stage.
Her hair was a dirty blonde with lavender highlights tied back with a denim ribbon that criss-crossed until the end where it formed a bow. Her clothes consisted of a purple halter top and blue jeans with lavender colored sneakers.
“Um, what just happened?” She said confused. She turned around to where Ali sat.

“Hey, you’re Ali Phantom!" she said with wide eyes. "You write that show about you kidnapping Harry Potter characters on Fanfiction.net and Deviant Art!!"

Ali sighed. “Yes, that’s me. And it’s not kidnapping, it’s borrowing… But yeah, I don’t write the show, my human counter part Alison does. I’m just an online representative of her.”
“Cool, I’m a representative of Em Phantom, sooo -”

“No, you’re a representative of Em Phantom’s online counter part who’s a counter part for an offline version of Em Phantom.”

“So I’m a counter part of a counter part?”
“I think so…”

“Okay….”

“Anyways, let’s do a quick interview with Cassie here shall we?” said Ali to the audience who in response clapped as Cassie took a seat in a purple arm chair to the left of Ali.

“So Cassie, like Fulcon, the person you’re representing decided to give their online counter part a power. What is your power?” she said to Cassie.

“I can turn invisible.” said Cassie.

Ali gave an acknowledging nod “Sweet, now what’s some of your favorite stuff?”

Cassie grinned. “I like karate, acting, and chocolate chips, they’re the best things on earth!”
Ali raised an eyebrow. “You act and do karate?”

Cassie kept the grin. “Yep, I love acting.”

“Really? I’m an actress myself incase you or the audience didn’t check my profile.”

“Cool, and karate?”

“Did a year of it or two. I do some martial arts now though.”

“Cool, I can show you a few karate moves if you want.”

“Really? That sounds great! Audience, what do you think, do you guys wanna see some moves?” Clapping was heard. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

Cassie stood up and walked over to an area clear of chairs and garbage left by the crew from Live With Regis and Kelly. The camera zoomed in on Cassie as she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She took a stance and a dramatic music started playing from the speakers and- wait, music?

“Alright, who’s playing with my soundboard?” said an annoyed Ali (Hell hath no fury) as she turned around.
But nothing could be seen in the dark corners of the studio where the soundboard lie. Hence, nobody noticed a dark figure laugh softly. ‘Now the fun begins…’ and disappeared into a swirling vortex.

Seeing nothing, she turned back to the audience and her new guest host.

“Um, okay,“ Ali’s annoyed state disappeared (Thank goodness) “Anyways. Cassie, the moves?”

“Oh right.” She took another deep breath and a kick flew out at the empty air and she…stumbled slightly. “Eh heh.”

She regained composure and a wild flurry of punches and kicks flew into the air. A kick would lash out at the invisible opponent then be replaced with a punch- usually they would miss the target but still- and then the process would repeat itself. At the end of the sparing with… well, air, Cassie was drenched in sweat (it went on for a good four minutes), had lost one of her hair ties, and a shoe.

“Um, that wasn’t very good was it?” she asked sheepishly.

Ali stared then shrugged. “It’s okay, I’ve seen a worse. You should see me when I do Boxing on Wii Sports, I tire myself out the-”

“You have a Wii?!?” shouted a member of the audience standing in surprise.
Ali stared.
“If I say yes will you maul me with questions?”
A few nods and ‘yeahs’ from the audience was her answer.

“Theeen no…” The audience members shrugged and sat back down. ‘Whew, that was close’ She turned her attention back to Cassie. Ali studied the tired teen and clapped her hands twice.
“HAIR AND MAKE-UP NOW!” Ali yelled loudly. 8 seconds later, a stream of people came out from a copper colored door stage left. “Strange, that was slower then usual.” mused Ali as they came out.

The Hair and Make Up crew ran towards Ali and picked her up and started carrying her to the her dressing room.

“NOT ME, CASSIE!” she yelled at the crew. The crew dropped Ali and she landed on the ground with an ‘Oof’ while they swarmed Cassie.

“Hey, what are you-” Cassie panicked as they picked her up a good seven feet in the air and started towards the “Guest Host” dressing room.

“Don’t worry Cass, they’re just gonna fix your hair and stuff.” she yelled into the crowd as she got up again. She sighed as the crew disappeared with her guest host.

“That poor, poor girl…” she said shaking her head sadly.

Ali dusted herself off and sat back in her chair. Ali regained composure and got ready to continue the show as if her guest host wasn’t just hauled off by a rabid Hair and Make Up team.

“Eh hem, right… while Cassie gets fixed up, we’ll get back to Fulcon and Harry. As we saw in the clip, Fulcon and Harry are trying to get across the other studio within ten minutes from when we last heard from them which was…” she looked off stage at a queue card held by a red haired member of the crew. “2:38 PM, thank you Audrey.”
The Carrot top nodded and left to attend to something or another in need of attention.

“So, let’s get back to Fulcon and Harry back at studio 1.” A screen with the word LIVE in the upper-right corner was lowered to the left of Ali.

The camera zooms into the screen and see Fulcon and Harry still holding the letter.
Camera zooms back out and looks at Ali.

“Ummm, just a second folks.” She said as she got up and the screen went back into the ceiling. She walked past ‘ex-battle field’ used by Cassie moments ago and into the wings backstage.

“Hello? Hey Alison, unfreeze them, we’re done with the introduction and stuff. Come on!” said Ali attempting to contact her offline self.
_______________________________________________

A girl offline was coming down the stairs and saw a computer on.
“What the, I was sure I turned that thing off.” she muttered under her breath. As she neared the appliance and realized that an unknown force was using Microsoft word.
She sat on the stool in front of the computer and watched the words form… Unfortunately, the words were made up of strange symbols like presents and stop signs... (2)
“What the heck?” Alison said. She looked up at the font type in the corner and frowned. ’Webdings, so that‘s what this stuff is…. ’ She opened the font menu and changed it to Arial then looked back at the screen.
More (now legible) words appeared on the screen.

Alison, bring up the M2M file and unfreeze Fulcon and Harry, we finished
the flashback a while ago and the audience was looking at a frozen “Live
Feed” scene of the boys.

Alison looked up the file and opened it, then stared at the text she last typed.
“The camera zooms into the screen and see Fulcon and Harry still holding the letter.”

‘So that's what you mean't'

Yeah, now unfreeze them.

‘Okay, that was creepy’ thought Alison with wide eyes.

Whatever, now type!
Alison raised an eyebrow and reached towards the keyboard...
_______________________________________________________________________
“That’s better,” said Ali as she walked back to the stage and the audience clapped again. Ali’s turn to raise her eyebrow.
“You know, you don’t have to clap whenever I come onstage…” A silence swept through the studio.
“Uh, right… restart the feed!” she yelled towards backstage. Right on queue, the screen lowered again and the boys were visible once more.

"Oh dang," said Fulcon. "Harry, what time is it?" Harry felt his pants pocket and his eyes widened. "Fulcon," said Harry. "My wand is missing." He turned around and shoved his arm in between the cushion and the arm of the chair.
"What!?!" yelled Fulcon. "You can't have lost your wand, that was like, our only chance to get to the other side of the room before Ali kills us!" Harry glared at Fulcon.

"What about you?" he said loudly. "Mr. I-can-turn-into-energy-and-am-all-powerful. What about that?"

Fulcon sighed. "I can only turn into my all powerful mode when I'm in space. Or else the Earth's gravitational field will tear me apart."

Harry sighed as well. "Well then, I guess we're doomed..." Suddenly, Harry's expression lit up. Fulcon raised an eyebrow. "What's going on with you?"
Harry grinned.
"I just realized," he said smugly. "Ali can't shove me in her evil Pocket Dimension. I'm a star, her ratings will fall so low, her show will shut down and my fans will demand that I be released."
Fulcon smirked. "Clever dude, very clever."
Harry looked away. "I, uh, I never said that you would be okay..." he laughed nervously. Fulcon stared blankly at the boy.

Then he snapped.

Fulcon lunged at Potter with such ferocity, Voldemort seemed almost tame to Harry at the moment. After a few seconds, Fulcon had one foot on Harry's chest and a bright beam emitting from his fist.

Harry's eyes widened. "Whu- what the heck is that thing?" he said panicked.

"What, this?" said Fulcon calmly examining his limb. "This, my famous little friend, is the light power that I do have in my teen form. Not only can I bend light, but I can concentrate it so there is light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation in my very hand."

Harry frowned forgetting the situation he was in. "What?"

Fulcon rolled his eyes. "It’s a LASER you moron."

Harry glared. "Hey man, I only have a 5th grade education."

Fulcon raised an eyebrow. "5th grade, I thought you were still in school at Hogwarts."
He took his foot off the star.

"Yeah," continued Harry. "I am still in school, a wizarding school. Wizards don't care about lasers and such, if they need light or something blown up they use magic."

Fulcon nodded. "I see." he said thoughtfully... "Oh wait," he said suddenly. "I'm still mad at you." he said pointing at Harry with his glowing weapon.

Is this the end for our melodramatic heroes- No no, that won't work...
Will Fulcon destroy the Potter boy and- No the ratings will drop...
How about-

"Wait a second," Yelled Fulcon to the ceiling. "What's going on here?"
Um, nothing

"No wait," shouted Harry. "Who are you?"

-sigh-, I'm the cliffhanger. You're not supposed to be able to hear me.

"The cliffhanger, what do you mean cliffhanger?" said Fulcon angrily taking away his weapon.

Wuh oh, ALI!

"Ali," said Harry. "Is Ali in on this?" He stood up and stared upwards.
Uh, ALI, help please!

A rumbling was heard and Fulcon and Harry stared at the ceiling trying to find source of the noise and hopefully an explanation.

What's going on he- said a female voice.

Wait a sec. READER, why is the microphone hooked up to the WRONG STUDIO?!? The boys looked at each other and back to the ceiling.

Well I uh, you see we uh- Started the cliffhanger.

AUGH, never mind. Where's the technician?

Um, Jeremy is backstage fixing the air conditioning.

-sigh- Get him over here so he can fix thi- WHY IS THIS THING STILL ON?!?

There was a click and silence flowed everywhere.
Harry looked at Fulcon who was waiting for something more to happen. “Well, that was different..."
_________________________________________________________________
As the screen retracted, the audience clapped, and an annoyed Ali stepped out from backstage. She sighed and walked to sit in her chair behind the desk.

"Uh, we're having some technical difficulties back here as you saw on the feed. So Magic to Muggles will have a commercial break which shouldn't be to painstakingly long."

CRASH!

A large metal gear rolled out from backstage where Ali came from moments ago.

Ali forced a smile. "Depending on how much construction needs to be done, I will get this show back on the road, please be patient..."

CLANG CRASH BOOM!

Behind the hostess, the stage lights fell and went up in small flames.
She turned around and shot  a small stream of water from her fingers to put out the growing inferno.

Ali turned her head as far back as she could.

"Uh, on second thought, maybe you guys should grab some lunch or something."
People in the audience shrugged and filed out of the studio one by one until they were gone.

Ali sighed and looked back at the drenched lighting system. Wordlessly, she walked off screen and came back a few moments later with a yellow hard hat and a construction belt with tools on it. Some of the stage crew came up behind her with determination etched on their face.

"Alright gang," said Ali with the same look on her face. "Let's do this.”
_________________________________________________________________

(1) Downstage means away from the audience and towards the back of the stage.
(2) I did have Webdings on the page but the site changed it so it no longer exists.

I hope you enjoyed it. Forgive me for the long wait for this? Cassie is okay, she'll return probably next chapter.
But I do need another co-host if anyone's interested. Note me if you are.
The more co-hosts the better.
Read submission instructions in my fan fiction.net profile.
Later plot involves all co-host's taking on, well, you'll see...

Oh what the heck. I'll give you a quick peek at what will happen after everything is done.


SNEAKPEEK--
Ali ended the episode with a smile. Everything was great, nothing could go wrong now. She walked off stage and went outside. New York sure was amazing. But it was getting late so she turned to go home. She felt the warm energy flow through her veins telling her that Alison was ready to send her home.
'Home' she thought happily. She closed her eyes when suddenly, something rammed into her side she gasped in surprise. 'What the...' She looked to her left to face her attacker when a bright light enveloped her body obscuring her vision. All she saw was a dark figure with an aura that suggested anger and hate.
There was another light and Ali stood in the middle of a silvery metal looking building. It looked almost like the inside of a huge spacecraft. "Where am I?" she said quietly.
"Hello Ali Phantom." said a cold voice from behind her. Ali turned and saw her. "Y-you, but I thought-"
"Yes." said the mysterious girl angrily. "You all thought many things but apparently you didn't expect me, to come back..."