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Jacob was lost. Utterly and hopelessly lost. They had a rather difficult mission in the previous days, trying to defeat an evil scientist. Flynn and Cassandra took care of the destroying the world plan, while he and Baird fought his subordinates, which resulted in more bruises than they would have liked. So they decided to take a couple of days off, and where would Jacob Stone spend his free time if not in the largest collection of books in the whole Universe?
He’d been wandering around the Library for hours, never bothering to memorize a way back. He’d left the Large Collections Annex behind quite a while ago and the last time he looked up from a book, he’d been in the Mythical Creatures Section. After that? Corridors leading to weird rooms, followed by other corridors, never coming to an end. The room he was currently in, had an unusual amount of computers in it, both old and new models. It seemed to be something Jenkins or Jones would be interested in.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, he heard clicking from a few rows away. Jacob gently lowered the stack of books he’d been carrying around and approached the noise.
“What are you doing here, Jones?”
“Hi, Cowboy! Just learning some Stone Age computer programming.” Came Ezekiel’s response, his eyes never leaving the screen. “After what happened in the sub, I realized that I never want to swim that much. Like, ever again. So I’m learning about old programming languages.”
“Ezekiel Jones, World Class Thief working on his day off? That really is something” commented Stone.
“And what is the oh-so famous Art Historian doing in the Computers Room? Thought you didn’t know how to use them?” retorted Ezekiel.
“I kind of got lost…” admitted Jacob.
“Wow, never thought I’d hear that from you. Let me guess. Now you’d appreciate if I showed you the way to the Annex.”
“Or the Reading Room.”
“Haven’t been there since we worked out the new security system.” shrugged Jones “Tell you what, Cowboy. Let me wrap up here and I’ll lead you back.”
“Or you could just point the path, I can handle it from there.” Stone was starting to get frustrated.
“Yeah, that worked out so well last time you tried it. I must be talking to your ghost, since you’re already in the Annex.” Replied Ezekiel, shaking his head.
“Alright, alright! No need to be so mean. I’ll just be reading this” Jacob held up a book as he took a seat.
It didn’t take long for Ezekiel to finish whatever he was working on.
“Ready to go?” he asked.
Jacob nodded and stood up. They started walking, presumably towards the Annex, Ezekiel a few steps ahead of his friend. They passed multiple rooms, some looking rather weird, some quite regular, none of them inside out, thankfully.
“Are you sure we’re going in the right direction?” inquired Jacob after a while, when their surroundings kept getting more and more peculiar.
“Absolutely. Two more turns and we’re back in the Annex.” Said Ezekiel picking up his pace.
Stone sighed and followed him, accelerating slightly, his eyes scanning the shelves.
“And here we…” started to say Ezekiel as they rounded the last corner, stopping suddenly.
Jacob, who wasn’t aware of Jones’s impromptu halt, smashed into him with full force.
“What the hell, Jones?”
“No, no, no, this isn’t right. We should be in the Annex!” the thief rambled.
“Where are we?” voiced the question Jacob, looking around, paying more attention to the artifacts surrounding them.
They were in a pretty big room, shelves reaching the ceiling, artifacts scattered everywhere. The Librarians shared a glance, then split up to explore. Jacob passed several shelves, until a little figurine caught his eyes. Just as he approached it, heard Ezekiel yelling his name a couple rows away.
“Stone, you’ve got to see this. It’s awesome!”
“What are you doing, Jones?” demanded Stone, when he finally saw the thief.
“Trying it out, obviously.” Replied Ezekiel, already bolting towards the middle of the room.
A few steps ahead of him, on a stage, stood a jetpack. It looked like it had seen better days, like it had crashed several times (of course Flynn had nothing to with it). Ezekiel stopped in front of it, making sure it wasn’t protected by any spells, then climbed onto the stage, turning around and backing into it. Jacob observed the scene slightly annoyed, partly because he was certain the thief would slam into the nearest shelf, leaving an indescribable mess, they would be cleaning for a week, and partly because he wanted to try it first.
“This is fantastic, mate” Jones exclaimed, grasping the handgrips, pushing the right buttons. He gently lifted off the floor, grinning from ear to ear.
Jacob watched in amazement as the other Librarian flew around the room, maneuvering around the countless shelves. He gradually sped up as he became accustomed to the machine.
“This is officially the coolest thing in the Library” screamed Ezekiel as he flew by Jacob.
“Of course it is.” grumbled Jacob, sounding more jealous than disagreeing.
“Alright, time to land, Peter Pan, before you fly away for good. Not to say that would be a bad thing.” He added for good measure.
“God, you sound like Baird.” Groaned Ezekiel, but he slowed down and navigated back to the stage. He turned off the engine, climbing down and standing next to Jacob. “Want to give it a try, Cowboy?”
“You bet. I’m gonna rock it!”
“Sure you will. Just don’t break anything.” Smirked Ezekiel, watching Jacob inspect the jetpack.
“Think I know how to handle it, Jones.” Countered Stone, positioning himself before the engine. He grabbed the handles, ready to take off. He pushed the buttons. Nothing happened.
“What the…” he muttered, trying again. Still, nothing.
Jacob’s face became redder and redder, trying over and over again, cursing audibly. Ezekiel was watching with growing amusement, debating how long should he leave the other suffer.
“What have you done with it?” asked Jacob, sounding furious.
“Me? Not a thing.” Ezekiel was still grinning.
“Well, you must have done something, ‘cause it ain’t starting!” Jacob was close to exploding.
“Calm down, mate. No need to be so touchy.” Began Ezekiel, but a glare coming from his teammate was enough to steer him in the right direction. “Have you checked the safety lock?”
“Of course I ha- What? There’s a safety lock? Where?” Jacob said, fumbling with the machine, searching for the safety. “Jones!”
“Okay, okay! It’s at the bottom. Thought you said you knew how to use it.”
“I do. In theory. Anyway, since when are you careful enough to turn on the safety?”
“Since I knew you wouldn’t check it.” Replied Ezekiel, looking very smug.
“Oh, here it is!” with that Jacob lifted off the floor, triumphantly.
His joy was short-lived, though. He sped up, suddenly taking a sharp turn, knocking down a bunch of books.
“Aaaaaah!” he screamed as he tried to reestablish his control.
Ezekiel watched the scene with an amused expression. “Careful there, you don’t want to destroy your precious books.”
“Either shut up or tell me how to stop this thing!” Shouted Jacob, struggling not to turn upside down.
“All I can tell you is don’t touch the red button.”
“Shut up!”
It seemed like the jetpack took complete control, flying around the room with great speed, dragging Jacob along. Books and artifacts scattered to the floor behind them, banging loudly. Even Ezekiel started to look worried.
“I got it!” exclaimed Jake as he pushed something on the handle, stopping abruptly in mid-air. He made sure the jetpack ran out of ideas to torture him, then lowered himself and the machine to the ground, taking a deep breath after landing.
“I’m never doing that again!” remarked Jacob, eyeing the machine suspiciously. “Let’s get out of here.”
“I don’t think so, mate.” Spoke up Ezekiel, a grin tugging at his lips already, “Look around. There are tons of books on the ground. Good luck cleaning it up!” with that he started towards the door, but was stopped by Stone’s voice:
“You don’t know the way out of here either! Looks like you’ve got to help me.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes. Then we’ll figure out a way back to the Annex together.” Confirmed it Jacob, and started piling up books.
Ezekiel groaned, but followed suit.