Halo Squad

Chapter 10

Meanwhile, Baby and Lavinia were walking around the library, looking for him. "Ugh, we're never gonna find him. This place is a labyrinth" complained Lavinia, to which Baby replied "If by labyrinth you mean chaotic, confusing and hard to navigate, then no. It isn't. Being a library, it's a fairly structured place, organised into aisles and sections. However, if you are referring to the classic labyrinth of greek mythology, designed by Daedalus, which is literally endless, then yes. This place is a labyrinth. Containing all the books that ever have been written and ever will be written, it literally goes on for ever. Even dead people write books, this is an afterlife after all". Lavinia stared at her "You know who you sound like, right? Dominic always talks like that when he wants to show off that he knows more than us" "Ugh, I know. I spend too much time with that idiot. But yeah. He could literally be anywhere, in theory. In reality, there are only two places he could be. The teen fiction section, or the children's books section. Or I guess the adult crime novel section, but I doubt it. The real problem, is that there are endless aisles of those sections" "Well, the way I see it, the only real way to find him would be to figure out exactly what book he went for. Shouldn't be too hard, we know him better than anyone else".

The two girls spent the next hour or so, trying to figure out which book Dominic was reading. They had compiled a massive list of all the books and series', and writers that Dominic enjoyed. The had managed to narrow it down by eliminating all completed series', and all the books that he wouldn't want to re-read. "Okay, Lav, we've narrowed it down to the Artemis Fowl series, the Lorien Legacies series, the original Percy Jackson series and the Magnus Chase series. Any idea which it is?" "No, he finished all those a couple weeks ago during maths lessons. And he wouldn't re-read Percy Jackson or Artemis Fowl because like, there are so many books he hasn't read, so many books that don't even exist on earth yet. He would definitely take advantage" "Okay so, what-" "I got it! Rick Riordan is writing a new series. It carries on from Heroes of Olympus. Trials of Apollo. He'll be reading that!" "Okay then! Let's go find that".

They went to the library catalogue computer and found the aisle they needed for the Trials of Apollo books. They walked down the aisle, looking for the title they wanted, Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle. They found it quite quickly. "Um Baby, it's here. So he's reading something else" "I don't think so. Look around. There are nine of each book, apart from this one. There are only eight here, so he must have taken one" "Okay, so where is he? We thought he'd be here reading it, but all the beanbags are empty. And all 9 are here aswell" "Yeah, um, lemme th-" Baby stopped dead in the middle of the word. She walked down to the end of the aisle, towards a small blue and white cuboid on the floor "Lav, come see this". Lavinia walked over to Baby and looked down to see the ninth copy of The Hidden Oracle.

"Um, what the hell? Dominic would never just drop a book on the floor, and even he doesn't read fast enough to have already finished it. That means..." "Something scared him off" "Do you really think he was attacked? That can't be, this place has got to be safe. It must be something else" "But what? There aren't any other clues around. Also, now I'm thinking about it, he couldn't have left the aisle without us seeing him" "Oh my word, you're right, this makes zero sense. What on earth could've happened?" "Let's call the others, see if they have any ideas" "How do we do that? We don't have our phones" "We can use our haloes to call each other, Dominic showed me when I came to the hospital last night" "Oh, okay! Let's do that then". Baby pulled her halo down from her head, and Lavinia noticed a wispy golden line keeping the halo connected to her head. Upon further inspection, Lavinia also saw the word 'Zelda' inscribed on the halo's underside, but thought nothing of it.

Baby was facing the wall and as she began to swipe at an invisible display, Lavinia saw that a second golden line attached to the halo from the wall "Baby, wait!" she exclaimed. "What's up?" asked Baby, to which Lavinia replied "Pass me your halo for a second", Baby looked confused but passed her halo to Lavinia nevertheless. Lavinia moved the halo towards the wall, and pressed it against the spot where the golden line originated from. A voice then spoke in both their heads "Halo identified. Baby Dragowaz, vice captain angel of monster hunting squadron. Access granted". "Yooo, that was cool. How did you know about that?" Baby asked, "There's this golden line that links the halo to your head, and a second one appeared linking it to the wall. I wanted to see if anything would happen" "Woah. Wait, why can't I see it?" "I have no idea. Maybe it's an angel thing that's taking longer to activate in you or something".

As if on cue, Baby suddenly saw a golden line between Lavinia's head and her halo. "Lav, I see it now" "That's great!". Baby then realised that the wall now had a doorway in it, leading to a room full of shelves, with books all over the ground "Let's go in, Lav". The two of them walked in, stepping over books everywhere. Suddenly, they heard the sound of pages being flipped through rapidly, and looked over to the source of the noise. "Dom!" exclaimed Lavinia walking over to where he was sat on the ground. However, he did not respond. He just flipped through book after book, taking them all from a rapidly decreasing stack. "Is he actually reading them?" Lavinia questioned to Baby, who just shrugged. About thirty seconds later, Dominic put down the final book and looked up at them, in his eyes a quickly diminishing white glow. "Why, hello there you two. I was beginning to think you wouldn't find me. I even gave you both Blessed Sight to help. But I'm glad you made it" Dominic said with a smile. "You knew we were coming?" asked Baby, "Why, of course! I stomped off in a fit of anger, it's only natural that you two would be the ones to try to calm me down and talk to me about it. I actually found this room by accident when you entered the library and I tried to hide from you. But all these books have both calmed me down and taught me so much. I wanted to share it with my two favourite people in the world, so I created the link between the wall and your haloes, essentially giving you both permission to enter" "How were you reading so fast?" "It's a blessing I found in the same book that gave me Blessed Sight. It lets me read at like, crazy speeds. So I collected all the books that interested me and read them all".

Lavinia then spoke "A blessing? What's that?" "It's like a spell, but it doesn't use magic. It comes from the same energy used for miracles, something I've nicknamed the Spirit Force, like the speed force. It comes from the Holy Spirit and angels have a basic ability to harness and use it. Obviously nothing as powerful as Jesus' miracles, but these books hold many blessings that we cannot conjure ourselves" "Woah. This is crazy. Have you learnt a load of 'blessings' then?" "Nah, my research has been based around something else" "What?" "I'll show you". Dominic leant over to a piece of A3 paper just beyond where the stack of books had been. The sheet of paper was covered in scribbles, drawings and strange symbols.

Baby reacted first "What the hell is that?". Dominic smiled and displayed it to them "Your eyes will adjust and translate in a second". Both Baby and Lavinia's eyes suddenly went watery and blurry, and they rubbed them instinctually. Suddenly, all the writing on the paper made sense to them. It was covered with equations and structures. "It's a blueprint for something I'm designing. It's a combination of blessings and aviation engineering, with a lot of basis in the work of Daedalus", Baby's eyes widened "Angel magic, flying, and that ancient greek inventor dude. The one who made those Icarus wings. You're trying to make us wings, because Gabriel won't give us them" "Well done Baby. I'm a little frustrated though, because for some reason I can't get it working. And that blessing I used is only for reading. It won't help me make them. This sheet is just a collection of all my research".

Lavinia sat down next to him and leant on his shoulder "Dom, you truly are one of a kind. I have no doubt that you'll figure it out eventually. But let's get back to the others now", Dominic sighed but stood up with her "Fine, I guess you're right. Let's get out of here".