"At last. It's working again. We of Architect Deco House succeeded!" Fiorina said, looking in awe at the art installation piece and wiping a bit of sweat from her brow. She chugged the rest of an energy drink and tossed the can behind her, which flew precisely into the recycle bin without her looking back. She had slightly tanned skin, sometimes a bit sunburnt and more often with scars, with mid-back length strawberry blonde hair with peaked bangs and turquoise eyes, and wore a studded brown vest with turquoise jeans, well-worn black combat boots, a black button-down shirt, and black fingerless gloves.
Her shirt sleeves were rolled down. She had an athletic frame and was on the taller side. The lenses of her glasses, and the metal on her nose ring reflected the harsh lighting of the large garage that she and her friends were in.
"That always impresses me! How much practice did you need to do for that?" Felicity said; she looked back as Fiorina tossed that last energy drink can in the recycle bin. She was shorter than Fiorina, at about average height and a curvier build, and had dark skin with magenta eyes and curly dark blue hair.
She was wearing a short-sleeved white blouse with a magenta collar and cuffs; her blouse had a green stripe down the middle with yellow buttons, and along the collar she wore a silver oval-shaped brooch with a light yellow gem in the middle. The brooch had wing-shaped ornamentation on its sides and it was a family heirloom. She wore a lilac skirt with a magenta stripe along the hem with a metallic blue belt with a large circular buckle, and wore mauve tights with magenta dress shoes.
"Quite a bit." Fiorina said in a deadpan but boastful way.
"I think I can use another one for the event." Felicity said, yawning.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll get it." Fiorina said and walked over to the mini-fridge; the stock ran low after another night of rebuilding the art installation piece and testing that its machinery worked, but there were still a few cans left. She walked back over and handed Felicity one of them.
"Thanks for handing it over this time!" Felicity cheerfully said. She immediately opened the can and took a large gulp of its energizing contents.
"You're welcome." Fiorina said.
The art installation piece was a sculpture made mostly of metal; the centerpiece of it was a large brass 5-point star that was a few inches deep with a middle section that lit up. Rivets were on each of the interior corners of the star shape. The middle section of the centerpiece had a glass panel that showed the light and other materials inside. When the art piece was powered on, the gears inside the centerpiece could be seen moving, and the crystals and glitter in it reflected the light at many angles. This centerpiece was being held up by a humanoid figure but also looked to be levitating in its hands; a pair of thick metal tubes lifted it up; when the installation was powered on, a line that ran through the length of each tube also glowed.
The humanoid figure was standing and was wearing an outfit with a vest, boots, a pleated skirt and gloves. Aside from the plastic tubes for arms, this figure was made of pieces of scrap metal. It was standing on a platform that had a wooden panel and a metal panel on the top side and a row of rivets along its sides. Also on the platform but behind the humanoid figure was a cylindrical column with segments in toroidal, spherical and rounded cube shapes. The top shape was a glass sphere, and near the middle of the column was a rounded metal cube with the power button on the front.
After gazing in awe of success, Fiorina powered down the installation. "Hey Melody, my arm isn't fully healed from that brawl I got into- the one that gave us those last replacement parts we needed. Could you use your magic to help lift this thing up into the dolly?" She asked, looking towards another of her friends in the garage. Melody was the shortest of the group and had light tawny skin with straight black hair with short blunt bangs. Her hair was shoulder-length and tied into a ponytail. She had purple eyes and was wearing a hippie-style outfit a long skirt and a hat; her hat had a green ribbon with a bow, and had peonies in different colors attached to it.
Melody sighed. "I can, but you really need to be more careful." She said before she brought her magic wand from her tote bag. She then focused her attention on the installation piece and reached out her hand towards it. A glowing magic circle appeared under it and it levitated off the ground enough to be placed where it was needed. Melody moved her hand holding a wand a little bit to move the installation piece onto the dolly and set it down.
"Thanks, I can take it from here." Fiorina said, holding onto the handles of the dolly in front of her to cart the installation to its next destination. Felicity went to open the front door of the shop. Its door lifted up and Fiorina stepped outside. A small trailer truck was in front of the shop, and another of her friends was standing outside.
"So, I take it that you didn't toss any drink cans that exploded. I didn't hear any swearing." Alfbern said with a smile and chuckled. He was slightly shorter than Fiorina, and a pale complexion with dark purple hair and purple eyes, and he wore rectangular glasses with black frames. His hair was slightly longer than chin-length in a scruffy style and he was wearing a black tie with gray slacks, black dress shoes and a plaid button-down shirt and a blue blazer. Immediately after he chuckled, his expression turned serious. "I wasn't going to clean it up if you threw it and it spilled again."
"Yes, this time I just handed Felicity the drink. Everything has gone right since this morning." Fiorina said.
"Very well." Alfbern smiled again. He briefly examined the art installation and nodded. The installation was secure on it, but he looked worried when he looked at the controls. "The lifting mechanism hasn't been entirely reliable lately and this might need to be fixed soon." He said, and sighed. "That's the only one that's still available now."
"We just need it to last us through today." Fiorina moved the dolly into position and activated its lift. The platform smoothly lifted off of the base, lifting the art installation closer to the open back door of the truck.
The onlookers looked in anticipation; not just Fiorina and Alfbern, but also Melody, Felicity, the truck driver and people who were walking nearby as the art installation caught their attention.
"With all of these people watching, is Murphy's Law more or less likely to happen?" Fiorina said to Alfbern.
"Do you want to place any bets?" He asked, but before there could be an answer, clanging noises could be heard. "Dammit!" He said as he glanced back at the art installation; the mechanism lifting it up was creaking. "Just a little more to--" His pleas were ignored by the machine's malfunction.
"What now?" Felicity worried. "Awwwwww!" A crowd of onlookers said.
"We don't need your pity!" Fiorina blurted out. "Darn." Someone in the crowd audibly said and the crowd dispersed.
Alfbern sighed. "I should tell Kayla this." He said and brought out his phone. "We got the art installation working but Murphy's Law still won. If there's any way we can still get it to the show, I'll message you again." He sent the message.
"We should've asked them for help!" Felicity said, annoyed, but she felt that arguing would be pointless.
"Too late now." Fiorina said and sighed. Everyone else sighed too.
"Did Kayla tell any of you when she'd be coming back?" Melody asked. She looked at her phone to check for any more messages. "She still hasn't."
"If we can get this to the event, she's going to miss out if she doesn't come back soon." Felicity said.
"I can help you!" The truck driver said; she was standing by the front of the truck but walked over to the group of friends and waved to them.
"Hi Rita, you're the truck driver? I didn't know you'd be here instead of at the show!" Felicity said, happy to meet Rita, but surprised she'd be here. Rita was about the same height as Melody but with an athletic build with straight shoulder-length, slightly wavy light turquoise hair and purple eyes and a slight olive complexion; her hair had blunt bangs and was untied, but had a large yellow ribbon on top that was about the same color as daffodil flowers. She wore a sleeveless white gown with a yellow sailor collar and a matching belt with long white gloves, a yellow bow on the front of her dress, white dress shoes and Art Nouveau-style jewelry; her necklace was silver was adorned with a pendant that was based on a cluster of three yellow and orange daffodils.
"Don't worry about it!" Rita said and assured. "Nick is there and he filled out the paperwork for your spot in the show!"
"It's nice to meet you, but look at this. We're going to be a no call no show if we can't haul our art installation there." Alfbern said, directing Rita to look at the dolly and its lifting mechanism that became stuck in place. Rita looked at it closely and quickly devised a plan. She lowered the ramp from the back of the truck and walked up it.
"Could you please hold on to these for me?" She said, taking off her gloves and tossing them to Felicity. "They're real silk." She said.
Felicity caught them. "Alright." She nodded.
"And this, shall be as smooth as silk!" Rita boasted. "I'll need someone to hold up the other end when I drag this off the platform, but we can do this." She said. Alfbern volunteered and walked up the ramp. Rita easily but carefully lifted up one end of the art installation, and Alfbern carried the other. Looking down on the floor and towards the ceiling with each step, they carried it to the end of the storage. The top of the installation just missed the ceiling. They placed it on the floor without a scratch. They, along with Fiorina, Felicity and Melody sighed with relief.
"Thank you so much! We might not have been able to take it there without you!" Felicity cheered and walked over to the back of the truck to hand Rita's gloves back to her.
"You're welcome and it was no problem!" Rita said and picked up her gloves, putting them back on again. She, Felicity and Alfbern walked down the ramp. While she headed to the front of the truck, the other two talked with each other, with Fiorina and Melody. They were talking about something with each other and checked their phones again.
"I got a reply from Kayla, and I'll tell her that Rita helped us." Alfbern said.
"So, how fancy do I need to dress for this?" Fiorina asked Felicity. "If it's not too fancy, I can roll down my sleeves and put on my dress shoes." She chuckled.
"It's at the local art center that's free admission so we don't have to dress formally, but because of you know who will be there, I'd recommend it."
