fandomhigh | Tricks, Cons and Bamboozles | Wednesday

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tricks & cons

Tricks, Cons and Bamboozles | Wednesday | Period 1

Neal had only gotten back to Fandom half an hour before class today was supposed to start. Which meant he hadn't yet seen his office, so he was still in a reasonably good mood. Lucky students.

Becase he had spent a grand total of no time planning today's lesson, and because Peter Burke had a habit of making sarcastic suggestions that actually sounded like really good ideas, class met in the Danger Shop. Where students would find a dark room without any furniture, but with two red buttons on opposite walls.

"So part of pulling off a good con is stealth," Neal said, which would've sounded much cooler except that he was kind of exhausted and had to yawn on that last part. Oops. "You have to be fast and move very carefully to avoid being seen or caught. So we're going to work on that today."

He hit a switch, and suddenly the room was filled with bright green laser beams, starting just feet away from where the students were standing. "The object is to get all the way from here to the other side, and hit that button there, without touching any of the lasers," he explained. "Meanwhile, for every twenty seconds you spend past a certain time, five more lasers will go up near the back wall. So you want to be fast, you want to be precise, and... you probably want to take off any jackets or loose jewelry you have."

If asked, he would run through the maze wearing the fedora and still not touch a single laser. But that was just bragging.

"The board up there will keep track of high scores," he added. "You can run through as many times as you want to to beat your time. Oh, and guys? Don't zap the lasers for your classmates while they're going through. That's just obnoxious."

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Stealthily.

Really can't call these lectures anymore.

Let's say average time is about two minutes, and then the extra lasers start going up.

Who wishes he took this class as a kid, omg.

Who is probably thrilled by this.

I suck so bad at laser mazes. Did one at Six Flags once and it was not pretty.

Bart Allen

Lex Luthor

Jack Carter

Jack suddenly flashed back to a room with no floor and a voice telling him to repeatedly press a red button.

"Oh. This can't be good."

When Jack was pretty sure that the floor wasn't going to drop out from underneath him or that he was going to have to use a deck of cards and a bunch of straws to press a button, he was actually pretty stoked about this assignment.

Dodging lasers? Hell that used to be his day job.

And he was able to make it through just under two minutes before making it to the other side. At which point he started whooping and doing a victory dance.

Because despite his objections to Miley's newscast, yes, he was immature.

Kenzi

SQUEE!!!

One minute forty seconds, WOO!

Kenzi immediately turned around. "And again!"

Kenzi nudged Neal's arm and then offered him coffee. "Did it take you a while to set this up, or were you having fun last night?" She grinned. "And did you see? I got all the chickens out of your office before I left!"

...not that it mattered now, even if she didn't know it yet.

"Hey Kenzi?" Bart looked from the laser maze to his roommate and back at the laser maze.

"I kinda feel like Max would tell me to do this at normal speed, but it's timed and I know I can do this really fast but I probably shouldn't let *more* people know about my powers and I don't want to make people feel bad because I'm going real fast so I don't know because it's a timed thing for a class and..."

He was conflicted. When Bart's conflicted he talks in run on sentences. Well, more so than when he's not conflicted.

"Oh, awesome," Neal said, visibly impressed as he took the coffee. "Nah, this was Peter's idea."

His sarcastic, sarcastic idea.

"How'd you get them out?"

Kenzi clapped a hand on Bart's shoulder. "Breathe, bud. Let's think this through." She paused. "Let's see how fast you can do it at normal speed. That way, you can know how to fake it if you need to. Then, after everybody else leaves, we can have you do it at ultra-fast speed, so we know your real time. Work for you?"

And now she was wildly curious about that herself.

"A little help from my friends," Kenzi said, looking mysterious. "And a wheelbarrow. And some art installations around town. They're a statement, you know."

"That... is an awesome idea. You're the best roommate ever!" Considering she's the only roommate he's ever had with the exception of Wesley roomming with him in Canada, that wasn't saying a whole lot.

He looked at the maze. It would be easy at superspeed, but navigating it while concentrating on being slow? That would be a challenge.

Awww. Bart was so easily impressed. Kenzi grinned. "I wonder, do cameras even register you're there, when you zoom by?"

No reason to ask!

Bart looked at the maze and stretched. This was going to take some work.

He reached back and tapped the button and... jogged at a relatively normal pace to the lasers. He was actually going a little slower than his classmates.

Stepping very deliberately over one of the beams, he twisted under another and was clearly concentrating very hard on getting this right. Grife. Max had better be proud.

When the extra lasers started going up, he was almost within reach of the other button. He almost fell on his face, narrowly missing one of the laser beams, but managed to roll under a third one. Finally, he reached up and tapped the button.

He looked up at the board to see his time. "Two minutes thirty three seconds," he panted. He looked across the room and leaned against the wall to catch his breath. "Tim would be laughing at me about now."

"Oh, so that explains that scarecrow I saw on the way into town," Neal joked.

Oh, Kenzi.

"Erm... I think it depends on the camera." He thought about it for a second, seeing no ulterior motives in her questions.

"I know in the future they can and some of the really good cameras can, but most just record a blur." He nodded. "Sometimes there's a streak of light that Max says comes from our Speed Force trail or something. I wasn't really listening."

Kenzi gave him a grin. "We need to become vegetarians! Or something." She leaned against the desk and sipped her own coffee contentedly. "So, did you go back to New York for break? Tell Peter I was really really good while I was away from school."

"SO cool," Kenzi said admiringly. "Speeeeed force. Do you want Mr. Caffrey to know what your top score is? It's cool if you don't, I won't tell."

"Oh. Um. Well, he's a teacher, right? But he's also not a superhero. So he should know because I'm in his class and that's the right thing. But he can't know because that would let him know about my super speed. But if I keep it from him then he'll think I'm some regular kid. But if I tell him then Max will be more upset with me. But if I don't tell him then I might get a bad grade. But if I do tell him, then I might get too good a grade and people might ask questions..."

He really could go back and forth like that for hours unless someone stopped him.

"BREATHE!" Kenzi repeated. "Why don't I tell him you did way better, but not tell him exactly, 'kay? You gotta go with Max's requirements, you know? This is one of those times we were talking about!" she suddenly realized, beaming. "When it's okay to tell a little lie. Swear."

"Yep, I helped Peter out with some stuff." At that last part, Neal smirked. "So does that mean you weren't?" he verified, amused. "You didn't end up in jail or facilitating underage tattooing, or anything?"

Miley Ray Stewart

"We were doing Habitat for Humanity," Kenzi said virtuously. "...and then there was a lot of visiting bars with fake ID's, but hey. It's Newfoundland. There's not a lot else to do there, and the music was awesome."

"Can't say I've ever been," Neal replied. Which just said a lot about how highly he thought of the place. "Did you have fun?"

"It was cooool. The spa was majorly expensive, and so was the cruise ship. The life for meeee," Kenzi sang happily. "I'm going to make sure I don't get thrown out of school so I can see where they take us on Spring Break!"

"Oh. Yeah. That could work." He looked at her, thinking for a second.

"I guess if you say it's okay... And Max always says it's for everyone's safety if they don't know about my powers and stuff."

He sighed. "This is just like that time he wanted me to try out for the sports team at school."

"He wanted you to try out but not go your fastest?" Kenzi guessed. "Max is a sadist, isn't he?"

Bart gave a half-smile. "Yeah. He's always wanting me to clean up at normal speed and do my homework at normal speed. It's like he doesn't like being fast and doesn't want me to like it either."

He shrugged. "I keep hearing stories about Max when he was younger, like in the old west and stuff, like how he was a hero and an adventurer. I think he just got old."

"You can always, always clean our room at extra-fast speed," Kenzi assured him. "And yeah. Old. It's not like there's any side-effects from being speedy, are there?"

"Hang on," Neal said, making sure he was following. "You built houses... and stayed in a spa and on a cruise ship."

What the hell.

"I know!" Kenzi was totally unfazed at that complete contradiction. "I painted the baby's room in red and black with cute little vampires."

Grow them up right!

He thought about that for more than a second, looking serious, then a bit sad, then shook his head to get the thoughts out.

"Not from being speedy, no. Though... Cousin Wally says that Grandpa Barry ran so fast that he died, but that was to save the world, or worlds, I'm not really sure. But Grandpa was faster than any of us and no one really knows what happened to him."

"Aww. I'm sorry," Kenzi said, thinking about that, then poked him. "Don't do that. Not ever."

Bart smiled. "Don't worry about that. I don't plan on running that fast anyways."

Neal snorted. "Of course you did."

Kenzi grinned. "But this, today, ahh, it's good to be back. And hey, did you know the assistants have their own lounge (http://fandomassistant.livejournal.com/18616.html)?"

Or, as Kenzi called it, her New Secret Lair.

Bruce Wayne

Considering Bruce's size and build, it may have been surprising how he pretty much flew through the maze in only a minute thirty. He had trained very well.

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Tricks, Cons and Bamboozles | Wednesday | Period 1

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