"Agent Wagner, report."
Blue fingers touched his ear-bud as he walked along the aisles and rows of books of the Bookshop. At the moment he was wearing his plainclothes while investigating the possibility of a page of merlin in the location. As it was he could feel he was already in an extra-dimensional space, like his skin was stretched just a little as the magic tried to make more of him than there already was. Borrowing from the outer limits, 'someone controlling your horizontal and vertical' was a way he described the sensation to others.
"This is Magnus, permission to-"
"Denied, no gimmicks, we don't know what will happen in the presence of a page."
He turned left and knew he was in the right place as this little bookstore was suddenly quite the massive library. Now he had a new problem as it was now looking for a needle in a stack of needles, blindfolded, while wearing work gloves. Time to take the gloves off.
He took a random book from he shelf to test a theory and held it over a candle's flame, nothing happened, Next he put his hand to the flickering flame... no heat. Perhaps an illusion or a ward. Lastly he took out a book of matches from his pocket and lit the whole set of redheads with a slips of flashpaper before holding it under the pages.
"STOP!"
Just as he hoped, a bookimp familiar, about three feet tall with skin of tough leather hide and a tome fused to its spine for wings. This thing, as a wizards familiar, would be a living encyclopedia to the library he was in. He just hoped the damn thing didn't speak only in quotes of the books it had read like most do.
"I'm here for a page of Merlin."
It looked at him close, craning head from side to side and sniffing about. Magnus had no ability to teleport unless he was ha horseman of war, a thing he hoped to never be again, so he didn't stink of brimstone like his father or hellfire father before him. He put the book away and blew out the matches to show he meant no harm to the bibliophile's bitches.
"Yu t'ink we wuld 'wn a dinky sh'p like t'is used b'k st're if we 'ad a page of Merlin?"
Magnus frowned while he squatted down to its level as his spaded tail swung behind him like a metronome, something the imp seemed to lack and perhaps that is how the wizard procured its services. He shielded his thought with the mental image of a dojo, the one from the matrix does fine, he superimposed the dojo over him and it while closing off the rest of the doors in magnus' mind to keep out the lightest of probes. Back and forth the mutant slid his blue palms over fingerless gloves in time with his tail as he tried to decide just how much to tell this creature.
"This 'dinky place' is hundreds of feet long, I can tell. So let's talk plain, I want to see your boss. Take me to him now and I'll see about getting your tail back."
It blinked in startle before looking at him more intently, then looking behind it and back to him again with only one eye. The other eye was sweeping the library for other guests as it put a hand on the bookshelf to steady its weight. More incredulous than ever that he should know such things, it leaned close and spoke in low tones.
"Uw d' yu kn'w ab'ut imps tails?"
Magnus reached out with a hand suddenly holding a palmed silver coin, rolling it back and forth over knuckles to try and keep his attention on the coin and not the tail moving in the shadow of his arm to loop around its ankle as he says a single word. "Neyaphem."
*FLUTTER*
The imp tried to escape using its power to travel between the pages of books, even cover to cover. In a less organized place, as long as two pages touched it could be anywhere like a current of lightning. In here it was limited to one end of a bookshelf to the other unless the books on one shelf touched the next shelf on the other side, in a library like this it could all but run through the walls at an alarming pace and Magnus was along for the ride.
He used his agility along with spatial relations to keep from getting fatigued like his father would do to other foes so often to weaken them. Up and down then through and through the three foot imp took the demon child for a rampant ride until he managed to grab the imp in a scissor-hold with his legs and the banister of the second floor with his tail to heave them both out into the open air. The two twisted and tumbled with wings beating furiously to dislodge him before-
*WHAM*
The sound of a book being dropped two stories to slap closed on cold marble floor echoed through the great halls. The imp had retreated into himself as a great book two feet on a side by half a foot thick with the demon-spawn squatted atop, even with superhuman agility his legs still trembled from the impact. It was like a turtle in its shell now, so Magnus took this chance to slip off his sling thong from his thigh holster and tied up the little bastard with great care and took a seat at a table to ponder what to do next. Perhaps a familiar in trouble might have the true librarian emerge, for now he was going to do card tricks while he waited.
"This is Magnus, asset acquired, target not, standing by to stand by."
Blue fingers touched his ear-bud as he walked along the aisles and rows of books of the Bookshop. At the moment he was wearing his plainclothes while investigating the possibility of a page of merlin in the location. As it was he could feel he was already in an extra-dimensional space, like his skin was stretched just a little as the magic tried to make more of him than there already was. Borrowing from the outer limits, 'someone controlling your horizontal and vertical' was a way he described the sensation to others.
"This is Magnus, permission to-"
"Denied, no gimmicks, we don't know what will happen in the presence of a page."
He turned left and knew he was in the right place as this little bookstore was suddenly quite the massive library. Now he had a new problem as it was now looking for a needle in a stack of needles, blindfolded, while wearing work gloves. Time to take the gloves off.
He took a random book from he shelf to test a theory and held it over a candle's flame, nothing happened, Next he put his hand to the flickering flame... no heat. Perhaps an illusion or a ward. Lastly he took out a book of matches from his pocket and lit the whole set of redheads with a slips of flashpaper before holding it under the pages.
"STOP!"
Just as he hoped, a bookimp familiar, about three feet tall with skin of tough leather hide and a tome fused to its spine for wings. This thing, as a wizards familiar, would be a living encyclopedia to the library he was in. He just hoped the damn thing didn't speak only in quotes of the books it had read like most do.
"I'm here for a page of Merlin."
It looked at him close, craning head from side to side and sniffing about. Magnus had no ability to teleport unless he was ha horseman of war, a thing he hoped to never be again, so he didn't stink of brimstone like his father or hellfire father before him. He put the book away and blew out the matches to show he meant no harm to the bibliophile's bitches.
"Yu t'ink we wuld 'wn a dinky sh'p like t'is used b'k st're if we 'ad a page of Merlin?"
Magnus frowned while he squatted down to its level as his spaded tail swung behind him like a metronome, something the imp seemed to lack and perhaps that is how the wizard procured its services. He shielded his thought with the mental image of a dojo, the one from the matrix does fine, he superimposed the dojo over him and it while closing off the rest of the doors in magnus' mind to keep out the lightest of probes. Back and forth the mutant slid his blue palms over fingerless gloves in time with his tail as he tried to decide just how much to tell this creature.
"This 'dinky place' is hundreds of feet long, I can tell. So let's talk plain, I want to see your boss. Take me to him now and I'll see about getting your tail back."
It blinked in startle before looking at him more intently, then looking behind it and back to him again with only one eye. The other eye was sweeping the library for other guests as it put a hand on the bookshelf to steady its weight. More incredulous than ever that he should know such things, it leaned close and spoke in low tones.
"Uw d' yu kn'w ab'ut imps tails?"
Magnus reached out with a hand suddenly holding a palmed silver coin, rolling it back and forth over knuckles to try and keep his attention on the coin and not the tail moving in the shadow of his arm to loop around its ankle as he says a single word. "Neyaphem."
*FLUTTER*
The imp tried to escape using its power to travel between the pages of books, even cover to cover. In a less organized place, as long as two pages touched it could be anywhere like a current of lightning. In here it was limited to one end of a bookshelf to the other unless the books on one shelf touched the next shelf on the other side, in a library like this it could all but run through the walls at an alarming pace and Magnus was along for the ride.
He used his agility along with spatial relations to keep from getting fatigued like his father would do to other foes so often to weaken them. Up and down then through and through the three foot imp took the demon child for a rampant ride until he managed to grab the imp in a scissor-hold with his legs and the banister of the second floor with his tail to heave them both out into the open air. The two twisted and tumbled with wings beating furiously to dislodge him before-
*WHAM*
The sound of a book being dropped two stories to slap closed on cold marble floor echoed through the great halls. The imp had retreated into himself as a great book two feet on a side by half a foot thick with the demon-spawn squatted atop, even with superhuman agility his legs still trembled from the impact. It was like a turtle in its shell now, so Magnus took this chance to slip off his sling thong from his thigh holster and tied up the little bastard with great care and took a seat at a table to ponder what to do next. Perhaps a familiar in trouble might have the true librarian emerge, for now he was going to do card tricks while he waited.
"This is Magnus, asset acquired, target not, standing by to stand by."
