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Isaac the Incomparable

Summary:

Original character story about a boy who can actually do magic and his best friend.

Chapter 1: The Talent Show

Chapter Text

 

 

     “Hey, dweeb!” a voice yelled.

     Isaac Penworth sighed and turned, ducking to avoid the fist aimed at his face.

     “Good morning, Rob,” he sighed.

     “Thought I told you to bring my money!” Rob growled, brandishing his fist.

     “Remind me what for?”

     “Better to be in my circle than out of it, and the only way you'll get in is with cash. I know your folks are loaded, so pay up!”

     Isaac sighed and turned out his pockets. They were empty.

     “You got one more shot, Penworth, or you're going to get it!” Rob pushed Isaac into the wall of lockers and stomped off down the hall.

     Isaac pulled himself together and stood back up. Looking at the bully casually walking away, he began to murmur to himself and raise his hands.

     “Are you okay?” asked someone behind him. The voice was kind and caring. Isaac put his hands to his sides as he turned to see a boy with fair sandy brown hair and a calm smile on his face.

     “Yeah,” sighed Isaac at last. “I just hate dealing with that guy.”

    “Don't worry about him,” grinned the boy. “He only bullies you if you let him. His circle begins and ends with its only member: himself. It's pretty pitiful, really.”

     Isaac smiled. “Isaac Penworth,” he said, reaching for the boy's hand.

     The boy grabbed Isaac's hand and shook it. “Hey, aren't your older brothers Colin and Lewis?”

     “Yeah, is that a problem?”

     “My sister won't shut up about Lewis!” chuckled the boy. “She has such a crush on him.”

     “... and you are?”

     “Call me Rudolf,” the boy replied. “Rudolf Jones. I'm in your class.”

     Isaac sighed and thought about his third grade class. He didn't talk much with the other students, but he was sure there was no one named Rudolf on the class list.

     “Are you sure?”

     “Well, my parents named me Jeffrey, but I'm totally a Rudolf. Isn't Jeffrey a hideous name?”

     “No.”

     Rudolf crossed his arms.

     “Well, it's not the right name for me. I should know. I'm me.”

     “But wouldn't your parents know the best name for you?”

     “Not in this case,” chuckled Rudolf. “I wanna get it legally changed when I grow up. Hey, what were you doing when I walked up?”

     Isaac sighed and thought a moment before answering with one single word.

     “Magic.”

     “Like the card game?” Rudolf asked.

     “No,” Isaac said. He waved his hand and his locker opened. His backpack levitated and put itself into the storage space and then the door closed and locked. “Magic.”

     Rudolf stared.

     “That is… so cool!” he said at last. “Can your brothers do it too?”

     “No,” Isaac replied, walking to the classroom. “I don't know anyone else who can.”

     “There's gotta be somebody,” Rudolf went on.

     “It's not as if it's something you'd want to ask someone right away. By the way, don't tell anyone.”

     “Why not? You'd be the coolest kid in the school!”

     “And whenever something goes wrong, everyone's gonna blame it on that magic kid.” He sighed. “And that's if they're all cool about it.”

     “Why wouldn't they be?”

     “It can get scary.”

     Rudolf looked up. They were just outside the classroom.

     “How about you come visit my house after school?”

     Isaac shrugged. “I'll have to okay it with my mom, but sure, I'd like that.”

 

     “So, why is it a secret?” Rudolf asked as they sat in his room.

     Isaac sighed. “It's just… Magic is strange, you know? It doesn't normally happen and when people see something strange, they're often afraid of it.”

     “Well, it's not like you hurt anyone, right?”

     Isaac looked at Rudolf, then at the floor.

     “You hurt someone with your magic?” Rudolf asked incredulously.

     “I… I don't know…” Isaac said after a moment. “I did something and told my mom, and she told me never to talk about magic again.”

     “What did you do?”

     Isaac looked down at his feet. “I don't wanna talk about it.” Rudolf shrugged.

     “Okay… hey, do you like comic books?”

     Isaac looked up, interested. “Well, yeah. I haven't seen a lot of them...”

     Rudolf went to his closet and pulled out a box.

     “Here, take a look, I think you'll like them.”

     Isaac thumbed through the box of comic books. Rudolf had all types. Archie, Superman, Fantastic Four, Justice League, Amazing Spider-Man, Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck, Kevin Keller, Teen Titans, Batman, The Avengers, and a few issues of Zatanna.

     “Nice...” Isaac said, thumbing through a comic. “My mom doesn't like me reading a lot of fiction. Says I need to keep my head out of the clouds.”

     “Yeah, whatever, my mom and dad say reading's good for you. How about you come over every day? You can read all my comics.”

     Isaac shrugged. “Mom says I need to make more friends. She'll probably be fine with it.”

 

     As it turned out, Mrs. Penworth was fine with her son visiting his friend every day after school, particularly one so athletic as “Jeffrey.” She assumed that he'd be a good influence on Isaac and make him forget all about this magic nonsense he kept talking about.

     Isaac and Rudolf did keep active together and became fast friends, but Isaac loved reading Rudolf's comics, and in time, they began reading novels together as well. The Oz books, the Harry Potter series, they loved them. Together, their imaginations continued to grow and become more complex.

     Isaac's older brothers Colin and Lewis soon made Rudolf's acquaintance and they liked him. They knew Isaac needed a friend, and he'd finally found one. Isaac's younger sister Robyn, however, was a little more reserved, but wound up befriending Rudolf's sister Abigail.

     One day, Rudolf made a suggestion while they were looking over comics in his room.

     “So, the school talent show is coming up,” he said.

     “Yeah, what about it?” Isaac asked.

     “We should be in it.”

     “Doing what?”

     “A magic act! You can do magic for real, remember?” Isaac nodded.

     “Well, yeah, but...” he sighed. “I don't want to do that.”

     Rudolf grabbed an issue of Zatanna and held it up. “Come on! We can be just like Zatanna!”

     Isaac shrugged.

     “Look, every kid dreams of doing something really, really cool,” Rudolf went on. “But you're different! You can actually do it!”

     “I don't want to get in trouble.”

     “We won't do anything that doesn't look like it could be a trick, but they won't know it isn't.”

     “You think I should pretend I'm tricking everyone when I'm actually doing real magic?” Isaac asked. “That's… crazy.”

     “It's showmanship!”

     Isaac sighed and looked down at Rudolf's box of comics. New ones had been added over time, old ones were looking a little more worn now. But they told stories about characters who did incredible things, characters who were larger than life. Isaac realized he could be just like them. Okay, sure, none of them were a dorky kid with magic powers—except maybe Zatanna—but still… he could do it.

     “Okay, we'll do it!” Isaac said at last. “Just you have to be my assistant.”

     “As if I'd be doing anything else!” Rudolf cheered, hugging his friend. “We're going to make it spectacular! Just, what are we going to do? Card tricks are old.”

     Isaac looked at the box of comics. “I bet we can find some ideas in here...”

     He pulled up an old issue of The Atom: “The Fate of the Flattened-Out Atom.” He smiled. “Yeah...”

 

     The talent show was faring as well as one would expect. Sylvia Martin had sung a rousing song that no one remembered by the end of the night, Donnie Eaton had done a little comedy routine, and a few students had even gotten together to act out a few sketches. To say the audience was restless was an understatement. Many parents would have left after their child had performed if it hadn't looked rude.

     The principal got back onstage and looked at her sheet. “All right, closing out our show is… Isaac Penworth and Jeffrey Jones doing a magic act.”

     Isaac stepped out onstage. He was dressed in his best suit that he'd wear for special occasions.

     “That's Isaac the Incomparable and Rudolf,” he said.

     The principal shot him a blank look and went back to her seat. Just what, five minutes? And they could send everyone home, sweep up, and she could go home.

     Isaac looked out across the crowd. “Hey, everyone,” he said loud and clearly. “Um… I did some research and found some tricks that I think you'll like… so enjoy the show.”

     Isaac glanced out towards where his family sat. There were his parents. His dad looked a little suspicious. Mom was frowning. Robyn leaned against her mother. Colin and Lewis were sitting on the edge of their seats to get a better look. Next to Lewis was a tall gentleman who Isaac recognized, but couldn't quite place. Oh, well, on with the show!

     Isaac pulled a top hat out of his jacket. No one batted an eye. Although there hadn't been room for such a hat, everyone assumed it was collapsible.

     “Introducing my wonderful assistant, Rudolf!” called Isaac. He put the hat on the stage and pulled it up. Rudolf appeared under the hat, dressed in tank top and jeans, seemingly appearing from underneath it.

     Okay, that was impressive. The audience began to perk up.

     “Smoke and mirrors,” someone muttered.

     Isaac chuckled and made the hat disappear in a puff of smoke. The audience was now watching intently. This was actually interesting!

     Isaac walked to one end of the stage and pulled out a long box on wheels. It was divided in the middle and opened up into two flaps on the top.

     “Since we're at school, let's go over the basics of division,” Isaac said as Rudolf climbed into the box, his feet sticking out of one end and his head out of the other.

     Isaac pulled a blade from underneath the box and put it right where the box split.

     “You have one item, and then you cut it in half,” Isaac continued, and lowered the blade between the two boxes forcefully. He slipped the blade back under the box and pushed the two halves apart.

     “Now, you have two!” he finished.

     Rudolf smiled and opened the flap of the half of his box near his head. He hopped out, completely in one piece.

     “Hah!” someone snorted. “I knew it was baloney!” Isaac grinned as he and Rudolf opened the other half. Out of it rose an exact duplicate of Rudolf.

     “He's twins!” the snorter called.

     “Oh no, he's not,” responded a woman. “And being his mother, I'd certainly know that!” The two Rudolfs smiled and turned the box on its side. Now it had four sections. They put it upright and opened it up.

     Isaac stepped into the box and chuckled. “Hope I don't go to pieces.”

     The two Rudolfs closed the box, except for the top one, showing Isaac's face. They each pulled one of the two middle sections to two different sides. Isaac peered out. The top section was seemingly floating in air, and just below it, the next section was also floating to the left. The one underneath was over to the right, while the bottom part was still on the ground.

     By this time, the audience was applauding. Finally, something interesting was going on!

     Isaac chuckled. “Hey, I thought you two were my friends!”

     “Sometimes friends have a way of doing that,” the Rudolfs said before pushing Isaac back together. Isaac stepped out of the box in one piece and bowed to more applause.

     “And now for our finale!” called Isaac.

     The two Rudolfs lifted the box back on its back, where it stood on wheels again. They climbed into it. Now, there was a wringer at the end.

     “That is one fancy prop...” someone muttered.

     The two Rudolfs climbed into the box and Isaac began turning the wringer. The audience watched as a single, flattened Rudolf rolled out of the wringer. Isaac held him up for the audience to see. They clapped and laughed.

     “And you're thinking, 'He's still inside the box,' but you'd be wrong.” Isaac touched a latch and the box fell open, revealing nothing. “This is really him!”

     Isaac then folded Rudolf like a paper airplane and hurled him to the back of the audience. There was a flash of light and Rudolf, single and three-dimensional, stood back there, smiling, his arms crossed. The audience applauded and Isaac pushed the box off the stage, where it vanished behind a curtain, but unseen to the audience, it also vanished into thin air.

     Isaac stepped offstage, beaming. Rudolf ran up to him and hugged him. Isaac glanced at his family. His mother was scowling, his father looked disappointed, Robyn was smiling, Colin and Lewis were excitedly whispering to each other, but the familiar man got up and walked to Isaac.

     “Hey there,” he said.

     “Hey,” Isaac replied.

     “I'd like to have a word with you, if I may… Bring your friend, too.”

     “Wait, who are you?” Rudolf asked.

     The man looked surprised.

     “Isaac, you don't recognize your uncle Edwin?”

     Isaac looked up. “Oh, right!” he said and smiled. “It's you. But what do you want to talk to me for?”

     “It's obvious, isn't it?” Edwin said. “You're the latest man of magic in the family.”