The Librarian's: The Beginning

Alana's eyes widened. In a sudden desperate moment, she picked up the racket and tried to par the blow.

The racket seemed to jump to a start as she took a hold of it. It quickly latched onto her conscious, and started to draw on her mind, bringing her to think she was a cold, hungry orphan in old England.

Excalibur continued on it's path towards her.

Alana shivered and jumped out of the way. "Hey! Watch it 'mister!" She stood, not bothering to dust of her clothing, and shook a fist at it.

Excalibur came to a short stop at the end of the aisle before coming back around and starting for her again. Of course, it was about this time that Alvin started to get a guilty conscious for letting Alana wander around alone, knowing the dangers of the Archives, and went looking for her. He heard her shouting at something and his brow furrowed. "Oh great, she touched something," he muttered and broke into a run.

"Oh, I outta!" She swung at it, moving out of its path and trying to substitute the racket as a sword. "You think just cause you're rich you can push me around, eh? Well I'll show you." This time, she chased /it/, letting out a war howl.

Alvin rounded the corner just as Excalibur was headed back at her. His eyes widened, seeing her charge the sword and he quickly ran towards her, ducking under Excalibur and tackling her to the ground just in time. He quickly straddled her and pinned her arms as he attempted to pry the racket from her hand without getting to caught up in its powers, all the while keeping an eye on the sword which had now reached the edge of the aisle.

Alana's eyes widened and she struggled. "GUARDS, GUARDS. APPREHEND HIM. THIEF! I FOUND THIS FR-... I mean- THIS IS MINE. THIEF!" She attempted to knee him and escape down a narrow alleywa- I mean: aisle.

Alvin groaned as he got kneed and stumbled to his feet, cursing as he did so. He reached out to take hold of Anne Bonny's Cutlass, but decided it was probably not a good idea to put her in the hospital, no matter how badly he wanted to. He started to jog after her, the pain in his groin still there though starting to lessen slightly as he got moving again.

Moving like one adapt street rat, Alana quickly scurried up a set of boxes, jumping across them like roof tops. A grin spread across her face, exhilaration filling her. "YOU'LL NEVER CATCH ME~"

"Why the hell did I not grab the cutlass?" Alvin growled to himself before picking up his speed. He ducked behind a few shelves and cut her off, tackling her to the ground. He pinned her again, this time ripping the racket from her hand and tossing it to the side. "Damn you, I told you not to touch anything!"

"HEY, THIE-" She blinked once, twice, three times, understanding slow to follow. "What the-..." Her cheeks turned red and she shoved him off. "I thought you said no raping!" She knew that wasn't his intention, but it sure as hell looked that way and it took the heat off her for a moment, to try and make sense of what jsut happened.

Alvin's face grew red with anger. "Don't flatter yourself," he growled again and pointed to the racket. "I told you not to touch anything! You know how deadly that thing is?! Do you?! You could have gone mental if you held onto it for to long!"

Alana stared at him for another dumb moment, then stepped back. "How was I suppose to know? I was just trying to save my head! That sword-" realization filled her "-That sword was /flying/"

Alvin

"No shit, Sherlock!" I said as I glared at her, my insides fuming. It was hard to not come uncorked on her, but I thought I Was managing quiet well. "I told you not to touch anything, and to scream if you needed help! Just duck and run! Excalibur just likes to intimidate people! Try and fight him and he's gonna think you're playing. He's like a dog. Gosh. Listen next time!"

Alana had no retort, embarrassed, overwhelmed, and just plain sick of being talked down to by him. "...Which way to the elevator?" she asked, in a surprisingly even tone.

Alvin

I took a deep breath and looked around, my brow furrowing. "I don't know. You got me all turned around in here now, thanks to you and that racket." I stared at her then turned and started walking. "Follow me and keep up, this time don't touch anything. I mean it. Hell only knows what you might get your hands on that'll kill you. That racket, and all the rest of this stuff, is why we exist. So people don't go runnin' around stealing and killing and dying."

"We," I murmur wryly, finding that pronoun ironic, coming out of his mouth. I follow without touching anything, thoughts already locked on my suitcase upstairs. Thankfully, I haven't unpacked yet. Now I just need a cab. Damn, I should of saved their number on my phone.

Alvin

I roll my eyes. "Well ya, we. Me, and you. Trainer and assistant. Not partners, definitely not partners," I corrected quickly. "But hells bells you're gonna get your ass kicked out in the real world if you keep this up." I kept my eyes peeled for something that I remembered shelving. I know I'd shelved a good portion of these things, or re-shelved them thanks to Cristy who had it out for me in the beginning. But there were only a few I remembered, like Ab's top hat.. that had been a bad thing. I'd found Cristy and was trying to liberate her from the Director, calling her a slave driver. .. .as you can imagine Cristy wasn't to happy about that, being black and all. But it just comes with the territory. I glanced over my shoulder slightly, realizing how much like Cristy I was acting at the moment, what with all the work I'd been giving her and frowned slightly. "If it makes you feel any better I once found Abe Lincoln's top hat.. . made me want to fight for civil rights. ..called the Director a slave driver because my partner at the time was black." I gave a slight smirk as relayed the story. I knew Alana probably wouldn't appreciate it, but I guess this was the only good thing that would come out of having her around. Someone to talk about the Archives with again.

"Are you trying to comfort me, Partner?" I ask skeptically, wondering where his alterior motive is.

Alvin

I gritted my teeth at her calling me partner and stopped, slowly turning to face her as I tried to keep myself calm. "First of all, /Assistant/," I said as I watched her. "You are not at the same skill level to be able to call me a partner. You are more like an apprentice. Second of all, I'm just giving you an example of how some of this stuff can really mess with you so don't touch it!" Well...there went my attempt at being nice. She just had to strike those nerves, didn't she? Gah! Women....how I loath you...

I rolled my eyes, clamping my mouth shut and falling silent again. Rome. Think ROme. 43 hours and you could be there. Think about it.

Alvin

I stalked through the Archives, leading her everywhere but the elevator. I knew the Director would kill me if Alana left without getting the grand tour. So, arbitrarily I managed to show her a good handful of artifacts, giving just enough information to spike her interest. Not that I wanted her to stay, but I wasn't going to slack on my duties as head Librarian.

I had to admit, he was spinning a wild tail. Why this place was here was beyound me. But he was crazy. he had to be. I studyied everything skeptically, folding my hands over my chest at the last one. "that's great, but wheres the elevator?"

Alvin

I glanced at Alana, almost dubious that she wasn't interested in the slightest. "Over there," I said pointing towards the statue of Athena from the Parthenon. "Don't look Athena in the eye though, alright? She doesn't like being disrespected." Well, at least the Director couldn't say I didn't try.

"It's a /statue/." I remark, looking her dead on, just to prove him wrong. "Stop personifying things. It's creepy."