Li Yue couldn't help but be surprised when he heard these two names. But now wasn't the time to ponder about that. He needed to finish the magic show first.
"Mister Ben, this magic would not be dangerous. I simply need him to do a little favor, and then I will return him to you in a single piece." Li Yue once again nodded at the man and brought the little boy to the stage, ready to start the performance.
The stage didn't have much else other than the pair of big boxes. Both of the boxes' doors faced the audience, and they were separated about ten meters away.
"What is he gonna do? Hey, have you seen this kind of magic?" Amidst the rowdy theater audience, a black man asked his friend, but his friend shook their head.
"Please welcome my new assistant, Peter Parker," Li Yue introduced Peter Parker to the audience while holding the boy's hand.
Peter Parker blushed a little. This was the first time he had stood in front of so many people. He was shy and nervous.
Li Yue squeezed Peter's little hand to comfort him before squatting down and saying something in the little boy's ear. Peter nodded to show that he understood.
Li Yue began the magic performance. The audience stared at the action on the stage, their eyes unblinking, as if afraid that they would miss the magical moment in the blink of an eye.
On the stage, Li Yue asked Peter to open both boxes and show everyone that the boxes were empty. Li Yue then told Peter to close the box on the right.
"Next, I would ask my assistant Peter to tie my hands behind my back and then my legs." Li Yue turned around with hands behind his back.
As instructed, Peter wrapped a rope around Li Yue's wrist several times and tied it tight. He did the same with the legs.
Li Yue wiggled his hands a little to show that he couldn't break free. He bounced with his tied leg to the box on the left and turned around with difficulty to face the audience again. "Now, Peter, can you please close the box and count to three before opening it again?"
"I understand, mister." Peter nodded and closed the box.
"Three! Two! One!" Peter counted loudly after closing the door, along with the audience. Everyone eagerly looked forward to what would happen next.
As Peter counted down to one, his little hand yanked the box's door open, only to find it empty.
"How is this possible?!" Peter exclaimed in surprise. He could not believe that the person inside the box had disappeared into thin air.
From the audience's perspective, a slightly different scene occurred. Right when Peter opened the box on his side, the other box opened, revealing Li Yue, who bounced out of the box with his hand and legs still tightly bound by rope.
"Oh my God, how did he do it?"
"That's incredible! He entered one box and exited from the other, even though the doors were ten meters away!"
"And with his hands and feet tied up too! Just within three seconds, incredible!"
Almost all of the audience felt disbelief and shock at the impossible feat. It was truly magical. The few seconds of stunned ruckus were followed by thunderous applause, even standing ovations. They felt that it was only fitting, given such an amazing performance.
Li Yue stood on the stage, still bound, for the dozen seconds that the audience continued their applause; he didn't dare to interrupt their excitement. The applause gradually subsided, but the incredulous expression still filled their faces.
Li Yue waited until the audience quieted down before addressing Peter, "Peter, please repeat what you just did." Li Yue jumped back into the box.
Little Peter snapped out of his amazement; he felt a deeper shock than the audience since he was directly involved with the magic performance. He had no idea how Li Yue had performed the trick. He quickly ran towards Li Yue.
"I must say, Li Yue, sir. This is really incredible," Peter commented before quickly closing the box again.
"Three! Two!" Peter counted down again, but the audience didn't follow along with him.
When Peter ran towards Li Yue, he forgot to close the other box, leaving it wide open for the audience to see. The audience held their breath as they stared at the open box, curious about how Li Yue would transfer himself.
Behind the stage, the tension was high for a different reason. John, Barry, and Iris were all sweating as they watched the mishap on the stage. They had no idea how Li Yue had teleported between the box, but they knew that magic performance depended on hidden deceptions. If the audience finds out about the trick, the performance becomes worthless.
"What should we do? The box is still open. If we let the performance continue, Li Yue's magic would be exposed! Uncle John, you should stop the show now!" Iris urged anxiously, worried about Li Yue. For an incredible show to end with such failure would be a tragedy.
Uncle John already rushed to the stage before Iris finished speaking, but there wasn't much he could do within three seconds. Little Peter had finished counting down to one before Uncle John reached the stage, and he could only watch helplessly as Peter opened the box that Li Yue had just entered.
The audience stared intently at the open box, but Li Yue didn't appear inside even after Peter finished counting down. Confusion spread among them; did the magic fail?
Almost in unison, the audience turned to look at the box that Peter had just opened. To their surprise, that box was also empty. All of them scanned every nook and cranny of the stage, but they could not find Li Yue.
"He's here! Oh my God, Li Yue is here! This is incredible; how did he get here?!"
Suddenly, an exclamation came from one corner of the audience, the voice filled with disbelief.
Ben and May Parker in the audience could only watch as the situation on the stage unfolded. They didn't want Li Yue's magic performance to end with a mistake, but they had no way of stopping it either. They could only watch and pray silently for Li Yue.
When they heard the sudden exclamation from the seat behind them, they tried to look behind them as well; but just as Ben Parker started to turn his head, he found the seat between him and May Parker where little Peter just said moments ago was occupied by someone else.
Yes, the seat was occupied by Li Yue, the magician. Li Yue smiled at the couple and said, "Can you help me untie the ropes? In the middle of these audiences, not even I could escape."
Li Yue's joke garnered laughter from the audience.
Li Yue realized that the other box was not closed right as Peter rushed to close his box; his mental strength and perception allowed him to grasp everything within ten meters radius from him, which was coincidentally also the radius of objects that he could carry through teleportation. Within three seconds, Li Yue decided that the best location to reappear was Little Peter's seat. The audience's attention was focused on the open box on the stage, so nobody would immediately find him, not even Ben and May Parker beside him.
A few seconds later, a back-row audience recognized his hat and then exclaimed, turning everyone's attention to him.
Needless to say, Li Yue's wonderful performance conquered the audience's heart and earned him deafening applause. His first magic show ended perfectly.
At the same time, in a certain casino not far from Li Yue's theater, the famous military arms dealer Tony Stark was rolling dice on a gambling table while surrounded by beautiful women...