The Library of Powers

Chapter 12 - part 4

"Doing the things normal people can't do my ass."

Ivory looked up from her phone. She stood across the alcove from Jackson, a glass case in between them. "Huh?" she responded, "It's not glamorous, but the AHB needs two supers stationed here every night."

When the two of them had arrived (by rooftop, which was quite the ordeal for Jackson), there had been another hero clad in red waiting for them. Ivory, now Urbanity, had told him he could go home.

"What's so important about this button anyways?" Jackson asked. He peered into the glass case, where an old but large red button laid on a pillow, seemingly unattached from any device it would operate.

"Jackson, it's the reset button," Ivory said in disbelief, "You know, the mayor's?"

"Oh. I didn't think it would look so, well..." He knew what the reset button was. Another creation of Jin Takeshi's, like the Writing Well. It was passed down from mayor to mayor, who could press it to reset any damage done to Very City in the past 24 hours. The catch, similar to the Writing Well, is that it couldn't be used for an amount of time after being pressed. A month. In the city's early days it was used quite often, but recently an informal rule has been established. If the amount of money lost from the construction of various buildings that day is more then the destruction caused, the mayor won't press it. Since the 50's it had been used maybe five times. It hadn't been used once since Mayor Winter took office.

"Nondescript?" Ivory prodded.

"More like 'out of place'. Why isn't it with the mayor?"

"Putting it here kills two birds with one stone. Protects the museum, and the button."

All around the two of them were paintings of Vera City's most famous heroes. The museum wasn't all superhero themed, but this wing was. If Jackson was being completely honest, he could have guessed most of what she said. But it was good to have confirmation, and Ivory seemed to enjoy teaching him things, even if his questioning sometimes wore thin on her.

"I guess I had just never seen a photo. Only read about it in, well, you know."

Ivory put her phone away. "Man, you need to get out of that library."

"Not like I have a choice. And could we please not talk about you know what in here? Where there could easily be security cameras everywhere?"

"No security cameras, I promise. Mayor's rule."

Jackson pondered that for a while. "So if any superhero brawls in here get a little too nasty, there's nothing to be leaked?"

"Yeah, that's what I think. If a scandal happened here even once, no super would take the job. It has to pay pretty well anyway since it's so boring."

At that very moment, the two of them heard a heavy clank coming from a few rooms down. Followed by swearing. Jackson and Ivory looked at each other at the same moment. Jackson started to slow down time, and as he did so, heard Ivory whisper in slow motion, "Checkkkk itttt ooouuut aaannnnddd ccoommeee bbbaaaacccccckkkkkkkk." Time almost ground to a halt, Jackson left to do so without a word.

Once out of the small hall they were in, he took a left towards the sound. It was silent again, but that was probably due to the time scale. Headed into a much larger area, with a half-cylinder glass roof, he noticed a rope unfurled from one of the glass panes overhead. And nearby, two costume-clad thieves, having just dropped a large painting. Next to them was a canvas bag, filled with rolled up pieces of canvas Jackson could only assume were paintings already cut from their frames.

Jackson ran back to Ivory and returned to normal time. "Two art thieves. Just one room over."

"What did they look like?" Ivory asked, "Supervillains or just criminals?"

"Do criminals wear spandex, or is that  just Supervillains?" Jackson half joked. He wasn't exactly sure, but knew well enough to know asking the question straight would make him the butt of that joke.

Ivory chucked and started walking towards the noise. Jackson followed. "So I'm assuming you can't just taze them while in slow-mo, right?" she asked.

"Nah. Can't affect people if I'm not basically in real time."

"Okay, then run ahead in slow-mo right before we enter the room they're in. Wait for me to attack, then taze one of them. To the left, right?"

"Yeah. Do you have a tazer?"

Ivory reached into her pocket and handed him a stick of gum. "You know those gum shock pranks?"

"Yep."

"Well, pull a stick out from this side," she said, pointing to the edge where the prank would normally occur, "And then jab the other end into one of 'em."

"Got it."

They reached the end of the hallway, right on the cusp of being seen by the thieves. Jackson thought that the criminals not having heard the two of them yet was a small miracle. Ivory seemed unconcerned. She held out a hand, and then made a circling motion with her pointer finger. Jackson took that as he should get ready. He started entering The Library, stopped at just the right threshold, and then ran into the room.

And as he did, he thought of a better idea. He lept back into the cover of the hallway, restarted time, grabbed Ivory's hand, and then went back into his half entered state. He wasn't exactly sure if it would work, but when Ivory shook her head in confusion, and then looked at the semi-opaque bookshelves surrounding them, Jackson knew his plan had been a success.

"Why don't you come get in position with me," he asked, keeping his hand on her wrist. He was pretty sure if he let go she wouldn't be able to stay partially entered.

Ivory peeked her head around the corner, then acquiesced, "Okay, good idea."

They walked over and behind the two villains, who were frozen over a bag filled with paintings. As they got in position, Ivory groped for he bag with her free hand, and after a few unsuccessful attempts, slid it behind the two of them. "Don't want to get them wet," she explained.

"Don't want to what?"

"Just unfreeze, you'll see."

Jackson hesitantly brought the pendulum of time back to full swing, and after only a moments notice jabbed the gum into the back of one of the thieves. The thief, a short male, writhed around before collapsing to the ground. Jackson looked at the stick of gum, a little confused. He had expected it to be a little more flashy, but it seemed to do the job. On the other hand, what Ivory did both did the job and left Jackson in awe.

She grabbed the umbrella strapped to her back and pointed it at the other thief, a tall female. Jackson wasn't sure what he was expecting when the umbrella opened. Maybe something to shoot out of it, or for her to hit the criminal with it. Certainly not for water to come rushing at the umbrella. For the first moment, there was nothing. The second moment, rain was splashing the thief, pushing them to the ground under the torrential downpour. The third moment, the water had reached the umbrella, where it disappeared. The effect looked like a thick line of gravity-defying water, from some unseen point to Ivory. After a few seconds of this Ivory closed the umbrella, and the excess water fell limply to the floor.

The two criminals were both now down for the count, in the span of maybe ten seconds. Jackson took a closer look at them. They were young, about the same age as him, which surprised him. What were the odds? Their costumes were matching black catsuits, the man's much more provocative with a front zipper undone showing a physique Jackson had to admit he was jealous of. They both wore bandana-esc masks, both glittery, the man's red and the woman's orange.

Almost unconsciously, Jackson reached down to unmask one of them. As he kneeled, Ivory yelled out "Wait, don't!" but it was too late. Jackson took off the mask.

"You don't do that! That's law enforcement's job."

"Ivory."

"Put that back on now. We need to call the cops and report the robbery."

"Ivory."

"Let's just pretend this didn't happen, alright? You never took off the mask."

"Ivory, we need to pretend this didn't ever happen."

"What?"

Jackson pointed at the unmasked criminal. It was Chase.