Now that she had a steady flow of cash and more on the way with the new products, Penny could relax a little and have fun. Most people would spend the money on luxuries like new appliances, phone, computer, maybe even a luxury car to show their success. Penny wasn’t most people. While waiting for Jenny’s schedule to open up so they could go on a date, she made 3 new bodies for A.I.C.A. and 2 new identities. One was going to be her new assistant and bodyguard, 1 was for when she traveled on her secret vacations and doing her hobbies and the last body was going to be used to help her with the pranks and with stealing stuff, so it didn’t need an identity. She made everything she needed to register the identities and make them as legitimate as possible and then got ready to have some fun. She fabricated a few props and a classic illusionist’s suit with the cape, hat and wand, then arranged for a show in a magicians club.

And while she waited, she prepared a room in Valentina Santiago’s new building where she could present the virtual training system to the military before they decided if they wanted it or not. She browsed her available supercomputers and selected one of the more backwards models, but that was still times more powerful than the best one available today and could be contained in a single room. Of course the military didn’t need to know that and would simply be told it was the computer running the simulations and it would still be the truth. She installed a number of holographic projectors all over the room, covered the floor with holographic boards and prepared haptic suits, AR/VR glasses and fake guns that weighted and felt like the real deal and programmed a dozen different scenarios.

The next day when the liaison came with a high ranking military man and someone that looked like he just walked from the set of a G.I. Joe movie, she walked them to the simulation room to show it to them.

-Which one of you wants to try it out? It would work better if I explain how the system works at the same time you see how it works.-

-This is Gareth Ingram, specialist in the U.S. army in charge of testing new technologies. He will be the one trying it out.-

-There is a changing room in the corner. Use it to change into the haptic suit. If you want to simulate a mission with the TBRES, put on the glasses as well. We will wait in the next room and program the simulation.-

Valentina led the two other men into the next room with the supercomputer and opened her laptop. The next moment all monitors in the room lit up.

-What scenario would you like to test first? I have breaching a building, ambush in the open, hostage situations. Something more specific will take me half an hour to program.-

-Let’s go with building breach. Team of five, specialist Ingram wearing TBRES and the others standard army gear.-

-How many enemy combatants, entrances and exits in the building?-

When Valentina had all the parameters for the simulation, she entered them and activated the holographic projectors. One monitor showed what was on the glasses display, another the inside of the building, a third showed specialist Gareth Ingram, which Valentina called G.I. Joe in her mind and another showed what the room looked like without the holograms. There were a few more, but these ones were the more important ones. When the simulations started, so did the images on the monitors and five seconds after the start there was gunshots and G.I. Joe was shot twice before finding cover.

-What happened? Why was he shot before the start of the simulation?-

-Because the simulation already began and your man didn’t find cover, so the sentries spotted him and shot at him. Like the real world you don’t wait for someone to shout ‘begin’ before storming the castle.-

Valentina left the simulation to run its course and in the end G.I. Joe was victorious, but all the people in his team died in the process. The evaluation of the mission was very low and was deemed a failure.

-Does your man not know how to use the TBRES? Why didn’t he use the scanners to find his targets? Why didn’t he use himself as a shield for the other soldiers when breaching? Why didn’t he call for tactical support?-

-Because we have no idea what your system is capable of! Run the simulation again after I have a word with specialist Ingram.-

And Valentina did, but most of the results were the same with maybe one or two times when they were marginally better. In the end she was tired of seeing them misuse her system and instead told Aica to show them how it is done.

-Is he really part of the army? Did he not read the instruction manual of the TBRES?-

When Aica put on the haptic suit and glasses, she immediately activated the scanning functions of the TBRES and the monitor showing her display showed the outlines of the people in the building. G.I. Joe also had the same display, but unlike him, Aica activated the prediction algorithms of the suit and could clearly see where the gazes of the people inside were pointed. She and her team slowly narrowed the distance to the building, hiding behind cover when they were outside the enemy’s sight and when they were close enough, Aica breached the door with the strength of the TBRES and acted as a shield for the rest of her squad. When they cleared the first room the squad started clearing the rest of the house and Aica still acted as the forward position, opening doors and tanking bullets even thought she could see their predicted path.

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-As you can see the simulation is very close to reality. Even the reactions of the enemy and friendlies is simulated with accuracy in mind. The haptic suit transmits every touch the holograms make with the body to simulate real interactions. If she had a knife and stabbed her enemy with it, she would feel the resistance of the body as she plunged it. In a hand to hand fight the suit can transmit punches to the hit areas and even hamper movement to simulate you holding someone in a choke hold or punching something solid. With a little more room for installation, we could integrate mechanical stairs in the floor that work with the holograms to increase the realism, but for now this is our product.-

To prove her point, Valentina ran a few more simulations and repeated scenarios and none were exactly the same. The reactions of the enemies and friendlies were different every time. In the end the army agreed to purchase the system and arranged for a date, time and place for Valentina to install it for them.

The next day Penny did her morning routine, started lifting a little weights and folding origami to train her dexterity, then she did a little work on her projects, studied for her PhDs and wrote a paper or two. And at 5 o’clock she disguised herself with the same identity she took her vacation, dressed in the illusionist suit, put all her props in her pocket dimension and teleported to the club where she would perform.

Penny hadn’t studied any stage magic in her life, but she was ready to fake it till she made it with the help of real magic. And wouldn’t it be a great prank to show the world real magic and make them think it is all fake like all the other magic acts in the world? She got ready for her performance in the dressing room until an assistant came and called her. Penny or the spectacular Magini or some other stage name that may or may not be proposed in the future, walked on stage with confidence and got ready to astound and amaze them.

First Penny took of her hat, bowed to the audience and then made sure there was nothing in the hat by holding it with the opening to the stage and tapping the top a few times. Then she turned the hat around and put her hand to the shoulder in the opening searching for her magic wand. Of course her hand wasn’t in the hat, but in her pocket dimension where she took her wand and removed her hand from the hat. She didn’t leave her hat on a platform or pedestal or something, so the trick was different from others, but few people in the audience noted the difference and fewer still knew what it meant.

For her next illusion Penny needed a volunteer from the audience and one was quickly found for her and escorted to the stage. She took a deck of normal cards from her pocket dimension, giving the illusion she just materialized them from thin air and shuffled the deck. She then asked someone from the audience to also shuffle the deck and then give it to a random other audience member, who then returned it to her. Then she asked the volunteer to pick a card, any card and remember it, then show it to the audience and return it to the deck. And here was the trick, Penny immediately teleported the card into her pocket, before shuffling the deck and again giving it to the audience to shuffle. Next she did something that comedy magicians loved to perform, she asked the volunteer to thing about the card, put her fingers on his forehead and teleported and stuck the card there. The whole audience could see the card and knew the magicians had already found it and separated from the others, but Penny continued with her performance. She started picking card after card and asking if that was the one, then changing the card when the answer turned to be no. To the volunteer she looked like a lousy magician, but the audience had fun. Penny changed cards until she had presented almost all of them, then asked him to find his card in the deck, but he couldn’t, until she asked him what was that on his forehead and he finally found his card.

For her next magic trick, Penny asked for a female volunteer from the audience, because she needed someone not as heavy as most men in the audience were. She greeted her new volunteer and asked her if she believed in hypnosis and the answer was obviously ‘No’. Penny took a watch on a chain from her pocket dimension and started swinging it in front of her volunteer, telling her to go to sleep and at the same time using telekinesis to slowly make levitate above the stage. Every time she asked if her volunteer was sleepy and feeling light, she levitated her five or ten centimeters above the stage without her finding anything amiss, until she asked why she was suddenly so tall.

-Are you sure you are not hypnotized? The magic usually doesn’t work unless the subject is hypnotized, asleep and rigid as a board. Oh well, might as well send you home as you are.-

The whole audience exploded in laughter, while penny continued swinging the watch and this time telling the volunteer she was waking up and feeling grounded, while using her telekinesis to land her.

Her next and last magic trick on stage was the disappearing magicians. She took down her cloak and swung it around herself and at half a rotation, when her back was to the audience she teleported behind the furthest seats and started booing.

-Boo, that is so fake. The worst magician ever. Boo, go home.-

Penny approached the stage and using her telekinesis she levitated her cloak to her and put it around her shoulders, then she took a big magician’s case from her pocket dimension and made it look like it came from her cloak. She entered the case, asked someone to check on her after ten seconds, then she closed it and teleported to her waiting room. When the staff member came to check on her, she was relaxing in a chair while doing a crossword puzzle.

-If you want me to perform again, you can contact me at this address.-

Then Penny threw a smoke bomb and immediately teleported back home, where she took a long, relaxing shower and then went to bed.