Charmed

     It was an abysmal Monday afternoon and Amrit had nothing but time on his hands.  The money he got from the jewelry he pawned off actually gave him enough to get a membership at the local gym, for about nine months.  He put on his sweat suit and tennis shoes, grabbed his custom made MP3 player, and headed out of his apartment.  He knew that if he were going to stand a chance at one day meeting up with one of the big name heroes or villains, he was going to have to stay in shape.  He was far from being a slouch or scrawny, but he knew that a bit more muscle and a hell of a lot more cardio in his life right now would only improve his chances of survival.  The bruises he got when his magic failed him while chasing the car had stopped hurting and the discoloration was starting to fade away.  This was his chance to forget about everything and just focus on him.  He set his MP3 player to the Linkin Park folder he programmed into it and started to jog.

     By the time he got to the gym, most of the machines were taken.  The only equipment available was the treadmill.  He walked over to it, wiped the handles down with a towel, and was about to step one it, when a guy came over and pushed him out the way.  The guy looked as if he were a giant walking ad for steroids.  Amrit could have sworn that this guy's muscles had muscles.

"Hey, little man, make way for the people who truly need the equipment," the guy said as he smirked at Amrit.
"I was here first; you need to wait your turn."
"Yeah, and who's gonna make me, little man?  You?"
"No.  I couldn't beat you in a fight and we both know it."
"You're smart for a little runt.  Now go sit down somewhere while the real men get a work out."
"Sure thing, bro.  Just calm down."

     As he walks away, Amrit chants a spell of hastening.  A faint shimmer in the air is the only tell-tale sign of the magic at play.  The shimmer travels to the treadmill and as soon as the muscle man starts it, the treadmill speeds up, causing the man to fall face first on the machine.  As soon as he hits the tread, the machine speeds up again and throws him ten feet away from it, right into a rack stacked with weights.  One of the five pound barbells hits him in the head and knocks the guy out.  Amrit, feigning ignorance, goes to him to "see" if he's alright.

"Looks like the machine is busted.  Thanks for taking the fall for me."  Leaning in closer, Amrit whispers in the unconscious man's ear, "You're lucky that's all you got for messing with me."

     Amrit walks away to find other equipment to work out on; not knowing that the whole time someone did witness what was going on.  Finding some free equipment, Amrit places his headphones on and begins his exercises, oblivious to the jade green eyes that have been watching him this whole time.  When he finished with his routine, he hit the showers.  After drying off and getting redressed, he decided to take a walk thru the park.  Maybe the two girls who often played their music would be out there again today.

Amrit thought to himself, "Who knows, maybe they'll play a new song that I can add to my collection."

     As soon as he walked out the door of the gym, he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.  When he turned to see who was tapping him, he found himself face to face with; what he thought was one of the most beautiful women alive.  At first he thought that she was going to tell him that she made a mistake.  That she thought he was someone she knew growing up.  Any reason for her to just leave him standing there; with only the image of her beauty flickering across his mind, like so many others before her.  The thought was enough to send Amrit into a depressed state of mind.  He was so into his self-pity that he didn't even realize that she was talking to him.

"Um, hello, anybody home?  Are you alright?"
"Uh huh."
"Hey!  Are you even listening to me?"
"Uh huh."

     The girl rolled her eyes and sighed in frustration.  This guy was truly annoying, but she had to have the answer to the question that was in her head.  

"If you say 'Uh huh' again, I'm gonna slap the taste out your mouth."
"Uh huh."

     The slap that landed on Amrit's face had just enough force in it to turn his head to the left and wake him out of his self-pity.  Once back in the land of reality, he finally got a good look at the exotic beauty that was standing before him.  She had on a pair of grey sweat pants, a t-shirt, and low top running shoes on.  The clothes, while loose, still showed the curves of her body.  Even though he could have spent the rest of the day looking at her body, Amrit was drawn to her eyes.  They were the color of jade with a thin ring of grey around the iris.  He had never seen such a phenomenon as that before and it almost made him lose his grip on reality again.  Only the thought of being hit by this girl again kept him focused.

"Now that I have your attention, I take it I won't have to hit you again?" the girl asked impatiently.
"No, it normally takes me just once to get something down."
"Good.  Now we can talk about what you did in the gym."
"I don't know what you're talking about.  I didn't do anything."
"I saw you release something that went over to the treadmill that jock got on right before it went haywire."
"Look, ma'am, I don't know what you think you saw, but I had nothing to do with that machine's malfunction."
"So, you're gonna play the stupid route, huh?"
"I truly don't know what you mean."
"Well, let me break it down for you.  I heard you muttering something, see a 'ripple' in the air come from your fingers and go to the treadmill, and when jock-boy gets on the treadmill, it goes berserk.  That pretty much simplifies it for you?"

     Amrit realizing that he's in a tough spot knows he has two choices to make.  One, try to lie his way out of it and risk having her stalk him til she discovers the truth.  Or, two, tell her the truth and be done with the whole thing.  He opted for the first option.  He couldn't let a stranger know of his abilities and it would probably improve his reputation to have a beautiful woman stalking him.  Why, with a few well-placed fibs, he could turn this whole situation to his advantage.  

"Look, lady…"
"The name's Shelli-Donna, but you can call me by my stage name, Serpensa."
"Stage name?  Are you, by chance, a…"
"Stripper?  Yes.  You got a problem with that?"
"Me?  Oh no.  I actually support your area of employment.  I love 'contributing to the arts'."
"Good, now, are you going to tell me what I want to know?"
"Look, Serpensa, I'm sorry that you seem to be confused by what you thought you saw, but I am in no way, shape, or form a magic person.  In fact, I'm quite the opposite.  I'm an engineer.  That means I'm a man of the sciences and science tells us that there is simply no such thing as magic."
"First of all, I never said anything about magic, but now that you've brought it up, let's talk about that."
"Um…while that would be nice, I really have to go.  I have an appointment that I have to get to.  Nice meeting you, Serpensa."
"I'll let it go for now, but trust me when I say I'll get to the truth of things really quickly."

     Amrit rushed off, hoping that he would never have to run into Serpensa again.  Truth be told, he really didn't mind the fact that a beauty like her took an interest in him.  Even if it was because she was prying into his personal business.  Maybe she just wanted to be his friend.  She did seem the friendly type of person.  Besides, there could be some benefits to having a stripper as a friend.  A thought of lots of free lap dances ran thru his mind and he started to get a goofy grin across his face.  He didn't realize how long he fantasized about Serpensa, but he knew that the tree he ran into brought him back to reality really quickly.

"Stupid tree," Amrit muttered to himself while rubbing his face.

     Taking in everything for the first time, Amrit realized that he made it to the park sooner than he expected to.  Looking at his watch, he noticed that the two girls that normally performed here would be setting up at this time.  He decided to go over to the usual spot and wait for them to start their performance.  As he watched them getting ready, he debated on whether or not to go over to them and ask if he could be their manager, but he decided against it.  It was one thing to be a fan of their music, but another thing to be their manager.  He realized, that while he liked their music, he didn't really want to get involved in their personal careers.  He felt that if they were satisfied with where they were, who was he to complicate matters.  Besides; he really didn't know much about the music industry.  After a few minutes, the girls started to perform and they had three new songs to add to their lineup.  He thought about going over and talking to the girls, but as usual, he lost his nerve and started to head home.  He had walked about ten feet from where he stood when he heard someone addressing him.

"They're good.  Maybe someone should try and get them a record deal."

     Turning around, Amrit saw that the voice belonged to Serpensa.  He was trying not to look surprised, but failed miserably.  He knew that this girl could be real trouble, but there was a part of him that was excited to have her following him around.  It was like she was his own personal fan club.

"Yeah, they're pretty good.  If I knew how the industry worked or even knew someone in the industry, I'd try to hook them up with a good deal."
"I know a few people in the industry, I could put in a word for them.  Hell, they may even let me be their manager."
"That may be a good thing; I know I wouldn't make a good manager…wait, what the hell are you doing here?  Are you following me around or something?"
"No, I always come to the park after I work out.  It's the one place in the city that I can feel at peace.  Everything else just seems to be on fast forward."
"Yeah, I know how you feel.  Well, I gotta go.  Maybe I'll see you around."
"Maybe you will."

     As Amrit was walking away, he failed to see the smile that crossed Serpensa's lips.  If he could have read her mind, he would have realized that she had just mapped out the near future for the girls that performed here, herself, and Amrit.  

"You have no idea at how interesting things are gonna get, honey", she thought as she watched him walk off.

     Later that evening, Amrit realized that he was going to need a bit more money in order to do some grocery shopping.  He checked his refrigerator and found he only had enough food for two more days.  As much as he really didn't want to, he realized that it was time for Miscast to pay another visit to the city of Angel Falls.  As he suited up for his "night out", Amrit could have sworn he heard a voice.  He looked around the apartment and verified that he was the only one there.  Chalking it up to an overactive imagination, he finished putting his "work attire" on and headed out into the city.

     It wasn't too long before Miscast found some thugs who were robbing a convenience store.  He cancelled his flight spell, angled his decent, and landed on the face of one of the thugs.  The other three, upon seeing their friend get taken out, turn their guns on Miscast.  Without even thinking about it, the helmet showed Miscast a spell that would render the guns useless and disarm the thugs at the same time.  Casting the spell, the guns suddenly locked into the safety position and flew out of the hands of their owners.  Miscast knew that he had to put these guys out of commission as soon as possible, so he thought about a taser spell.  The helmet quickly displayed the spell he wanted.  As soon as he cast the spell, he could tell something was wrong.  Instead of a stunning taser spell, he had cast a potentially fatal lightning spell.  To make matters worse, the helmet's spell listing seemed to suddenly switch off.  With no way to recall or stop the lightning, Miscast could only watch as the lightning danced from one thug to the next.  Once the last thug was incapacitated, the helmet's display suddenly switched back on.  Checking to see if the thugs were still alive, Miscast decided to use his teleportation spell on some of the money in the bags the thugs had on them.

     After he was sure his spell did its job, Miscast ran out of the store and cast a flight spell before the police could arrive.  Once he made it home, he took off the helmet, made a mental note to check it later, and began to count the money to see how much he made.  It seemed that fate was on his side.  He managed to get near three hundred dollars off of this act of heroism.  He took off the rest of his Miscast outfit and put on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and went to go program the newest songs into his hologram mp3 player.  He completed the upload and began to play the music back to make sure the sound quality wasn't corrupted.  Just as he sat down and the music started to relax him, the light in the next room turned on.  Quickly putting on the gauntlets that allow his magic to work, Amrit runs into the room only to find himself face to face with Serpensa.

"SERPENSA!  How the hell did you get in here?"

     Serpensa looks at Amrit, smiles very seductively, and says, "Looks like we've both got some explanations ahead of us."

To Be Continued………..