Library Discussions (Edward, Yusuke, Axel, & Open)

[Axel]

Axel shook his head, his red locks swaying back and forth.

"I have no idea why we're here. But...I doubt that means that either of your worlds were destroyed by Heartless." At this Axel threw a look to Yusuke. "Trust me, even if you were a complete moron you would have known if Heartless were on your world. But my question is...did someone BRING us here or has something else happpened?"

Axel crossed his fingers in front of his face. "I wonder if there's a way to find out."

Axel chuckled. "Heh, we COULD always do it the old fashioned way I supposed. Bash in some heads to collect information, yo."

As Axel laughed something in his brain clicked. "Did I just say what I think I said? I DID didn't I? Man, I haven't said yo since I was...Reno."

[Yusuke Urameshi]

Yusuke laughed out loud. "Now that sounds like a plan I could get into." he said, cracking his knuckles. "Only problem is, we gotta find somebody who seems to know what's going on, more than we do. And then, if they don't wanna talk, we make them talk, by force if neccasary."

He looked over at Edward. "Hey Ed, you said you had a friend from your world that works at this library. From what Axel was telling me on the way here, this library not only has books from lot of other worlds, but also some that seem to be from here. Think she'd be able to help us find something useful?"

[Edward Elric]

Ed scowled at Yusuke. "You think I haven't already asked her that? I've been searching for a while now myself and haven't found anything either."

Then, he remembered something. "Although...there's a large back room full of books that only those with special permission can get into. I don't know if Sheska would have the power to get us in there, but I just KNOW she's been in there reading them. With her photographic memory, if there was anything in there, she'd know it."

[Axel]

Axel blinked. "Photographic memory? Well damn, that's a good skill to have handy."

"Well I guess we should go ask her then. That's the only thing I can think of. For as long as I've been here everyone's been confused when they've gotten here. Though...I did just realize something very creepy and odd...."

Axel noticed Ed and Yusuke look at him.

"Most of the people that end up here in The Pathways...are kids. Ever notice why there aren't any parents around? Hell, there aren't even enough teachers at the school...but they keep running it anyway. There aren't parents, there aren't adults...actually...I'm the oldest person I've seen here. Though, I did see one guy that looked like he might have been in his fifties or so...he had gray hair...but that could have been his natural color I dunno. In any case, this place is FULL of kids, but that doesn't mean it's a paradise with no crime either. There's some bad people here, I've run into a few of them...but thankfully some of the very few adults that ARE here seem to have a liking for kids."

[Yusuke Urameshi]

Yusuke frowned. "I don't like that, not one bit. Whatever's going on here obviously isn't for kids, not normal ones anyway. We need to figure out what's going on and quick."

[Edward Elric]

"True but...I don't know how normal anyone here probably is." Ed responded. "I mean, alchemy is normal science for me, but I'm sure it's bizarre for a lot of people here. Just like I don't know how you do what you do, or came back to life without giving anything up. At any rate, I'd say there's probably not a lot of "normal" people here."

At that, Ed eyed Axel a little. Hmm...I wonder what he does then?

"Anyway, follow me, we'll see if we can get into that back-section."

[Axel]

Axel noticed Ed give him a look before he got up and started towards the back of the library.

Axel chuckled and shoved his hands in his black jean pockets as he stood up. Heh, the kid's probably trying to figure out what's up with me.

Axel followed Yusuke and Ed glancing at the people around them occasionally. "I agree, this place, while it's relatively peaceful, is definitely NOT for kids. Especially lately...this place has been...changing."

Axel noticed Yusuke throw him a look of puzzlement. "It's...hard to explain. Imagine evil personified as a force that you could feel...well...I can feel it, and all it's been doing lately is growing. There was a report this morning of some strange creature that looked like a red blob rampaging through the outskirts of town and destroying everything in its path. Nothing could stop it...but then it just disappeared."

Axel chuckled and rubbed his hand through his hair. "I know...a giant red blob doesn't sound very scary but when weapons can't stop the thing it has me wondering if something else is up with this place."

[Edward Elric]

Ed listened carefully to Axel as they walked to the desk. "A red blob? Hmm...there are these things called Golems from my world too, maybe one of those? But why would someone here make one..."

Getting to the desk, Ed called Sheska over. "Hey Sheska, any chance you could get us the key to go to the reference room? I think we're on to something here."

"Sure thing Ed." Sheska said smiling, reaching under the counter and pulling out the key. "Here you go."

"Thanks." Unlocking the door, Ed led his two new comrades inside. Shutting the door behind him, he gaped at how large the room was. "Dammit, when they said it had the largest collection ever seen, they weren't kidding! Guess we'll have to just start looking manually."

[Yusuke Urameshi]

"Damn." Yusuke said. "That is one hell of a lot of books."

Looking around the room, he watched Ed and Axel dig into the books. He laughed a bit darkly. "Well isn't this just loads of fun. Sorry, but books aren't my thing, so I'll just stay out of the way. Maybe go find some comics in here or something."

Walking down one of the rows of books, Yusuke's shoulder accidentally knocked one out of the shelf. "Crap." Bending down to pick it up and put it back where it was, he noticed the title. "Logbook of the Absolution - T.O.M.'s Captain Diary. Huh. Sounds like an adventure novel." Sighing and leaning against another shelf, Yusuke flipped it open and started to flip through the pages. "Maybe if the words are small enough it won't be too much of a pain in the ass to read."

[Axel]

Axel chuckled at Yusuke's comment.

"That's one hell of a lot of books is right. This place must have hundreds of thousands of books."

As Axel picked up a couple of hefty tombs dust cascaded forth into his face.

Axel coughed and waved his free hand infront of his face. "Oh God...no one's been in here in FOREVER." Hacking and coughing, Axel set his books down on a table near Yusuke and Ed.

"Guys...I don't think we're going to get anywhere with this place anytime soon. But we might as well try to put a dent in all these books I guess."

Axel opened one and glanced through the pages. "Well this one's no good...it's an adventure novel. 'Moby Dick' huh? Wonder what it's about?"

As Axel set "Moby Dick" aside he noticed the book Yusuke was reading. "Hey Yusuke, buddy...find anything interesting?"

[Yusuke Urameshi]

"Not sure yet." Yusuke said, opening the book. Automatically, he was stuck by what looked like a button where a page should be. "What the hell? This some kind of audio-book? Works for me, I hate reading anyway." He pressed the button, and a bright light shone into his face. "Whoa!?"

He dropped the book in the middle of the room as he darted away. The light began to form a picture, and before them stood (in hologram) a robot. Though it had no mouth, it began to talk. "Yo beautiful friends. T.O.M. here, and it's another un-eventful day on board the Absolution. So you know what that means..." The recording sighed. "Yup. Another storm knocked the viewer screens off-kilter. We're currently stuck viewing the same world across all of them, though during different time periods. It's cool, I love the adventures of Goku and friends, but still...seeing the same stuff I've seen a hundred times before can get a bit old. Ah well. T.O.M. out."

The light and image disappeared, leaving Yusuke blinking.

[Edward Elric]

Ed had found a book titled 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' by mere chance, and pulled it out with a hungry look in his eyes. After a few pages though, flipping through, he threw it down disgusted. "What the hell!? Who wrote this crap, that's alchemy not 'magic'! And it doesn't sound like a Philosopher's Stone at all! Argh!" He had started to pull his hair out when a bright light flashed, reminding him of alchemy. "Hmm?" Turning around, his eyes grew wide as, between Axel and Yusuke, a book lay on the floor, with a see-through image above it.

After listening to the 'book' talk, Edward walked forward and poked it with his foot. "...Is it done now? Um...what was that? What'd you do Yusuke?"

[Axel]

"What'd you do indeed..."

Axel finished as the light from the "book" faded and he blinked the spots from his eyes. The room was far too dark, where the hell were all the windows? As far as he could see and feel, gas lamps were the only source of light in this room.

Axel stepped forward and looked down at the "book" with the other two.

"I think we need to shed some light on this situation."

Concentrating Axel held out his hand and formed a fist. The gas lamps throughout the room flickered as if their flames were going to be blown out by an invisible wind. Suddenly, the lights all disappeared only to collect in one long tendril of fire and energy slowly snaking its way to Axel's outstretched hand.

Axel clenched his fist, only to open it again seconds later holding a floating ball of flame. He moved his hand over the "book" to see what it was.

"Well that's interesting..." He poked it with his other hand and tilted his head to the side. They'd used good old fashioned pen and paper in his world, though they did also use computers and there were some early forms of datapads...maybe this was something like those?

"What exactly did you do Yusuke? I mean...when it started playing. Did you touch anything?"

[Yusuke Urameshi]

"All I did was hit this button here." He said, picking it up and pointing to the button he'd hit. "I've never seen an audio and video book though. Holograms are kind of expensive where I come from."

Looking the book over back and forth, he couldn't tell what it was still, not for sure anyway. "Could either of you make any sense out of what the thing said?"

[Edward Elric]

"Button?" Ed said, stepping over next to Yusuke to get a better look at the device. "So, this is some kind of electronic device?" He'd never seen something this fancy and powerful from that kind of technology.

"It sounded like he was talking about...watching people, but like he wasn't really a part of it." Putting his hand over his mouth, he thought to himself. "Maybe...from the 'Other Side' of the Gate..."