On the stage as a magician's assistant.

Mackenzie worked as the assistant to her friend and professional magician, Amanda, or Amanda the Amazing as she was called on stage. While she was technically Amanda's assistant, the energetic blonde had never made Mackenzie feel like anything less than an equal partner. Amanda was the mastermind behind the tricks and illusions, but Mackenzie was practically the centerpiece of the show as the person most of said tricks and illusions were performed on.

Even the duo's outfits were nearly equal. Fishnet stockings, stylish black shoes, black briefs, and a top that was a mix of a classic magician's tux and modern fashion. Mackenzie felt like the outfits made the two of them look like comic book characters, but Amanda always insisted that that was the whole point: they were characters to some extent when they were on stage.

After a brief struggle with traffic Mackenzie made her way to the preparation room of the theater where she and Amanda were performing tonight. Just as Mackenzie had feared, Amanda was in a less than stellar mood. Recently there had been a series of negative reviews of their show, calling out Amanda's tricks as predictable, stale, and easily seen through.

"Hey Amanda, don't let that stuff get to you." Mackenzie said as she closed the door behind her. "It's not worth getting worked up over some stupid critic. Besides, we've got plenty of positive reviews to balance it out."

"It's the principle of the thing, Mack!" Amanda snapped. "This jerk goes around printing whatever he wants, calling my act all sorts of things he'd never have the balls to say to my face! It's humiliating! I've gotta... I've gotta show him how good I am!"

This is what Mackenzie was worried about. Amanda took incredible pride in her work, and any perceived insult to her skills were met with frustration and anger like what was on display. What made things worse was that Amanda would always push herself to prove her detractors wrong, sometimes without running the plan by Mackenzie first. It had always worked out in the end, of course, but the redhead couldn't help but worry that one of these days Amanda's luck with pushing the limits would run out.

"I've got a trick that'll blow that idiot critic out of the water. We're gonna show everyone tonight just how damn good I am!" Amanda declared.