The Library of Powers

Chapter 15: Airplane

Their plan had gone off without a hitch. In fact, the rest of Jackson's week had gone off without a hitch, and now he had a whole week off to relax without fear of his secret being uncovered. Midwinter break.

Although, he wasn't exactly relaxing. It was Saturday night, and instead of spending his night in The Library he was crouched low on a downtown rooftop, surveying his next job as Stopwatch. Ivy sat next to him as Urbanity, glancing between the skyline and her phone, waiting for the go-ahead signal.

"It will buzz when we're needed, you don't need to wind yourself up about it. Chill out," He told her.

She turned her head to look at him, perplexed. "Who are you and what did you do with Jackson?"

"I'm just in a good mood. Everything is insane, but I'm feeling fine. Isn't that strange?"

"Honestly, yeah," She set her phone down next to her.

"Oh well."

Ivy hesitated. She was thinking back to her encounter with Phoebe Winter. "Jackson, I..."

In less than an instant her phone buzzed, Jackson stood up, grabbed her phone, read the message, handed Ivory back her phone, and donned his sunglasses. The light it gave off gave him headaches if he wore it for too long, so he had decided against wearing it until the job started. Who knows how long he'd need them on for.

For Ivory, Jackson went from on the metal roof to ready for action in less time then it took her to blink. She looked down and found her phone back in her hand. "It's the rightmost entrance. Three supervillains, but two are being held back by the Nobodies. One slipped past them, they're for us."

Ivory finally blinked. Her red eyes ripped into the night, daring it to come closer. She stood up and was a superhero. Jackson felt smaller in comparison, like a phony. It wasn't like she became a different person. This persona had been next to her the entire time, like the shadow around a tight corner. Only sometimes did it come into full view. And when it did, it scared Jackson just a little.

He extended his hand. She grasped it, and they were no longer in Vera City. It looked the same, for sure. It had the telltale buildings and street lamps and traffic. But it was still now, too still to be a real city. The cars stopped. The light from the streetlamps hung in midair like it was tangible. The buildings were already pretty unmoving, but if they did move they would have surely stopped.

But that was not the biggest change to the world of half-entering The Library of Powers. No, when The Library door was held just slightly open, it bled into the world. In many places, it represented itself with bookshelves. They would appear, on walls and in furniture. These places were inclosed, they looked like The Library. The Library of Powers did not have any open spaces, so it did its best to fill the room. Instead of shelves there were simply books, stacked upon one another until they fully replaced what was once metal and glass buildings. The city looked like one large rummage pile, from the dustiest corner of a used book store.

"What are we waiting for?" Ivory asked him.

Instead of responding, he started to climb down a fire escape. This was the tricky part. He had to keep hold of Ivy's hand while he slowed time, or she would revert back to normal time and they'd have to start all over again. Not that they had to rush.

Down the building, through an alley, and across the street they went. They eventually reached the entrance in question, an unassuming glass door into an office building. It was in the middle of opening, a supervillain dressed in a red suit and red mask running through. Or, well, would have been running through if time was acting normal.

"Take off his mask, I'll snap a photo," Ivy told him.

Jackson chuckled, before realizing she wasn't joking. He stopped and stared.

"What? It's not illegal, it's a supervillain," She protested.

"Does that make it okay to do? Still, I literally can't. I can't affect people while slowing downtime, or anything they're touching. They're like marble statues. I thought I had told you this already?" He was slightly peeved that she kept asking him to hit and run enemies. It felt wrong.

"I always forget that all this," She gestured her free hand at the paper city, "It's all a side effect. Not intentional. You're very lucky, to have something so powerful that's not even your true power."

He waved it off. "Plenty of planar superpowers come from a side effect of having the plane."

"Time manipulation? That's rare enough already..." Ivy paused, pulling back as far as their linked hands would allow. "Why are you so insistent on pretending you're not important?"

He hung his head low. "I knew you wouldn't understand."

"Then let me try to. You've already let me in on it all, so to speak. I doubt you have any bigger secrets. Unless you're the love-child of the mayor and Dr. Qwick."

"Ivory..." he let the tension build. "I.. Am your father."

She burst with laughter. "Oh no! That's where you've been all these years! Pretending to be a teenager!"

"I'm sorry to hide it from you, but I've been too ashamed. I mean, look at me," He couldn't help but snicker too. Here they were, about to go to town on some evildoer, and they were making jokes and prying into personal insecurities. Jackson liked this friendship thing.

"But for real," He continued, "I'm not really sure what to tell you. I just really don't think I'm important. Or maybe I don't want to be. This probably isn't the place to talk, plus my hand is getting sweaty, So maybe-"

She interrupted him. "Jackson."

"Yeah?"

"Did that guy move?"

"Relax, we're almost 90% inside The Library," He shrugged it off, but looked at the man in red. It did appear as if he had moved, just a little. Probably a trick of the light.

And as soon as he thought it, he knew he had fucked up. You don't think something that inane and get away with it. The universe was going to punish him for being cocky. Jackson took a step back, prepared for the worst. The man still did not move, but Jackson did not fall back into a lull. He forcefully ripped himself from his earlier jovial mood, settled into suspicion.

The man in the red mask blinked.