A magical act of theft that's lacking in prestige. (Double xp, invite)

A mall in Chicago was hosting a bit of a magician's contest with top prize being $500. The show would start at 5pm on Saturday and each participant would be given up to five minutes to perform. In order to prevent everybody and their long lost second cousin twice removed from entering, all of the participants had to sign up for and pass a private audition held a few days before the actual show would take place. One of the people that had passed the audition was some girl who was at the mall a couple of hours in advance with some friends and was struggling to maintain any confidence for their upcoming performance.

"Aah, I'm going to embarrass myself out there. Why did I sign up for this?" Alisa asked with pronounced worry in her tone.

"Why did you sign up for this?" Patricia asked her almost sounding like she wasn't that interested.

"Don't worry, you'll do great out there." John said reassuringly, and was immediately interrupted.

"I mean you got dance class tonight anyways." Patricia said as if she hadn't even heard John say a word.

"I don't want to go to those anymore." Alisa replied sadly.

"But you have to. You are my dancing queen." Patricia said now sounding interested in this conversation.

"Young and sweet, only seventeen." John chimed in with amusement.

"You got to feel the beat from the tambourine." Patricia continued, now speaking in a sing-song voice.

"Oh come on now, really?" Alisa said in disbelief as the other two began to laugh.

"Sorry, we're just trying to help you relax." John said apologetically.

"Yeah girl, go wow the crowd and kick some ass." Patricia said to encourage her friend.

A few hours later, the time of the contest rolls around. A stage is set up in one of the lobbies. The hosts of this little event make their way onto the stage with a briefcase in hand. The speaker grabs ahold of a microphone and steps forward. "Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the show. We have nine contestants ready to compete and the winner will be determined by audience reaction. Top prize will be $500." He said and pointed to the briefcase which was opened, and revealed to be empty. The crowd seemed to be under the impression that this was part of the show, but the people on stage looked generally concerned right now. Just what was the deal here?

Finn went to Chicago when he heard from his brother there was a magic contest there. His brother wanted to compete but was too busy too do it. He asked Finn to replace him as a contestant. Finn didn't want to do it, as he couldn't even do a simple card trick. Luckily his sister, Talia, was a great magician and would gladly replace his brother for the contest. Finn accompanied his sister to the mall.

"You know, it's a little weird that the contest is in a mall and not some weird place in the middle of no where" Finn said jokingly.

"Come on, don't comment anything badly, you'll ruin my "mojo" and we won't be able to get mom a new computer." Talia said to his brother nervously.

"Hehe, fine. Go win it for mom! Pretty sure everyone's gonna mistake you as an assistant with that dress though." Finn jokingly said while laughing at his sister's dress.

"Haha , very funny. At least I could do magic!" Talia replied with annoyance.

"Oh, you just hurt my heart, sis!" Finn sarcastically said while his sister laughed at him.

"You mean like those girls you turned down? Oh, the contestants are being called. Wish me luck bro!" Talia said excitedly to his brother.

"Go win this, Talia! You could do it!" Finn rooting his sister.

Finn looked at the magic contest from the balcony, observing the contestants for any suspicious behavior. Finn drank his coffee with a look full of thought. As he had met a lot of criminal magicians, there could be no possible way a magic contest could go well. At least, at the present, where crime is really high right now. But he shrugged the feeling of suspicion off while drinking coffee, thinking he might be wrong right now. He dumps his coffee to the bin when the host started opening the show, not wanting to miss a single second of it, as he was a fan of magic and supernatural stuff. When the host carried his briefcase, Finn felt weird again this time it really might be true. The host opened his briefcase and find that it is empty, Finn knew his suspicious feeling was true. He quickly went to the bathroom and changed his clothes to his vigilante outfit and jumped down the balcony and right beside the stage. He approached the host while calming the audience down.

"Okay folks, do not be afraid, Waveformer is here! Now, mister host, is there anything I could do to help?" Waveformer asked the host, who was also in a state of shock seeing as a theft had happened there.

This was looking like one of those moments where things were just bound to go poorly. The empty briefcase did not look like it was part of the act. Something was amiss and-

"Hey, let me know when it is Alisa's turn. I don't want to actually watch any of this." Patricia told John as she checked her phone. The complete disinterest was practically visible from space.

"Seriously? There might not be a show if what's going on now isn't part of it." John told her with a look of disbelief present on his face.

"Why, what's going on? Did someone fall flat on their face during their overly elaborate act or something?" Patricia asked as she partially laughed at her own comment.

"No, the briefcase they said had the money in it is empty, and before you say it's just part of the act, they've been standing up there looking concerned and keeping quiet for awhile now. Even the audience is starting to think that something is wrong." John informed her while trying to not sound completely rude. That finally got a certain somebody to actually pay attention. The hosts on the stage were attempting to regroup and pass this off as just a part of the show, but they just weren't fooling anybody. Then somebody headed to the stage to do something about this situation, whatever that was.

This person was dressed up in a costume of sorts and by all accounts was probably a superhero trying to figure out what was going on here. One of the hosts took him aside and quietly spoke to him. "We don't know what's going on here. The only people who have been near the prize besides us are the contestants. We're going to let the contest happen and keep a close eye on all of them to see who might have taken the money. We could use your assistance." The host would tell the masked man that introduced himself as Waveformer.