Library Encounters

"Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy!" Pyro giggled in anticipation as he merrily skipped down the sidewalk.

"Would you stop doing that?" Remy sighed as he and Piotr walked along with him. "If you keep it up someone's going to call the guys in white coats with nets and straightjackets."

"But I can't help it!" Pyro whined. "This'll be the first time I'll get to see all of my novels together in print. And in public!"

"Pyro, it's just the library. Not a grand release at a big bookstore or something," Remy explained.

"Well, it is a special occasion for him," Piotr noted. "But why haven't you been able to view them all together before?"

"Oh, I get a finished copy of each book from the publisher when they're first printed," Pyro waved. "But to go somewhere and see your own stories on a shelf, just waiting to be picked up and read. You can't substitute a moment like that! Besides, they're always coming up with new covers I haven't seen."

"Yes, I can understand that," Piotr said. "But couldn't you just go to a bookstore to see them?"

"Uh, not really," Pyro whistled. "I'm kinda banned from all the bookstores in town. And the rest of New York. And a couple other states."

"Gee, there's a shock," Remy drawled.

"It wasn't my fault!" Pyro protested. "That cash register burst into flames all on its own. Probably because of some electrical short and shoddy workmanship. I even tried to save the money by taking it out of the register but the stupid cashier jumped me and I kinda got excited and…"

"Okay, I think we get the picture," Remy cut him off. "Just promise us you won't burn down the library while we're in it, alright?"

"Or burn anything else for that matter," Piotr added.

"No problem mates. I'd never burn a book unless it did something first," Pyro smiled. "Well, come on! Hurry up! On to the library! Hey, maybe I'll be asked to sign stuff! Wohoo!" Pyro laughed maniacally as he happily skipped away.

"Are you sure we can trust him in there?" Piotr asked Remy.

"We frisked him for lighters, matches and thermite before we came, didn't we?" Remy replied. "What could he possibly do? Don't answer that."

Hurrying to catch up to Pyro, the three Acolytes soon entered the Bayville Public Library. "Alright. Catch you blokes later!" Pyro chirped before being shushed by a librarian and running off.

"I am going to find the art section," Piotr said. "Do you want to come with?"

"Nah. I'll find something else to do," Remy waved.

"Okay. See you later," Piotr shrugged as he and Remy split up.

Pyro hurried up and down the rows of bookshelves while getting a few odd looks from the other library patrons. He finally found the genre he was seeking tucked away in a secluded part of the library.

"Aha!" He stopped in front of a bookshelf filled with gothic fiction titles. "Where are they? Where are they?" He quickly skimmed down the row of books. "Yes!" He pulled out several thick, hardcover novels and proudly gazed at them. "Ah, ya gotta love 'em."

"Hey, can ya keep it down…you?!" A sharp voice from behind caught his attention.

"Huh?" Pyro turned around and saw Rogue seated at a small table with a book in her hands and a notebook next to her. "Hey, you're that X-Man shelia. How ya doing?"

"What are you doing here?" Rogue demanded, getting to her feet and preparing for a fight.

"Whoa, now calm down shelia," Pyro awkwardly tried to hold up his hands while juggling his books. "I'm not here to cause trouble."

"Yeah right. Want me to find out the hard way?" Rogue began to remove one of her gloves.

"It's true! Honest!" Pyro insisted. "I just came to see my novels in print!"

"Huh?" Rogue blinked. "Your novels?"

"Yep," Pyro indicated the books in his hands. "I wrote these."

"Nice try," Rogue snorted, taking a closer look at the books. "But I've read all those and you don't look like Jane Gertrude to me."

"But I am! Jane Gertrude is one of my pseudonyms," Pyro flipped to the inner dust jacket of one book and showed it to Rogue. "See? If you have a pen I can show you that my signature matches this one."

"And prove that you're good at forging signatures? Forget it," Rogue snapped.

"Okay, then. Here!" Pyro slowly set the books down on the table and pulled out a black notebook. "I'm working a new novel. It's gonna be a sequel to 'Flaming Hearts of Inmoor'. Take a decko…er, a look at it and compare the writing styles. They're exactly the same."

"Well," Rogue was beginning to consider the possibility that Pyro was telling the truth. She glanced at the notebook questioningly.

"Go ahead. I'm not gonna cause trouble," Pyro said taking a seat across from her and holding out the notebook. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood. Usually I never let anyone see any part of my stories before they're finished. Don't want some bloody crook to come along and steal my ideas."

"Okay, fine," Rogue gave in and slowly sank back into her chair. "Anything to shut you up." She took the notebook from Pyro and opened it. She gave him a warning look. "I still got my eye on ya, so you'd better not try anything."

"As long as you give me back my notebook in one piece," Pyro agreed. "And not mention anything you're about to read to anyone. At least until I get it published."

"Fine, whatever," Rogue gave him one last cautionary glance and began to read.

Meanwhile, Piotr had found the art and architecture section and was casually pulling out books and flipping through the pages. Ah, Franz Marc, he sighed while looking at a large book called "Der Blaue Reiter". So many works. 'Siberian Alsatians', 'Fate of the Animals', 'The Large Blue Horses'. Too bad he died so young…

"Excuse me," someone said next to him, trying to get by.

"Oh, I am sorry," Piotr closed the book and stepped out of the way. He then got a good look at the person. Uh oh…

"Thanks. Just have to get in here for like a second," Kitty nodded to him before turning towards the shelf.

"N-no problem," Piotr managed to get out as he frantically tried to make sense of the situation. She is one of the X-Men. We fought each other, but she does not seem to recognize me. Why doesn't she recognize me? Maybe because she has only seen me when I was armored up? And I never said a word in her presence before. Yes, that must be it. She must not know what I normally look like. I hope that is the case. Unless Wolverine told her or took my picture when we fought …

"Oh come on. There's got to be a book about Van Gogh in here somewhere," Kitty grumbled as she browsed through the books.

"Um," Piotr began to speak before realizing it might not be a very good idea.

"Oh sorry, did you like say something?" Kitty asked him, looking up.

"Uh, yes," Piotr gulped and held out one of the books tucked under his arm. "I did not mean to listen in, but here is a book you might be looking for."

"Really? Let me see it," Kitty took the book from his hand and glanced at it. "Oh wow. The complete works of Vincent Van Gogh. This is perfect. Are you sure you didn't want to check it out yourself?" She asked looking straight at him.

"Yes. I am done with it," Piotr said while trying to hide the nervousness in his voice. This is it. Will she recognize me?

"Oh, this is great," Kitty said before blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes. "I have to write like this dumb seven page art report about one of his works and I have to analyze it and explain its meaning and everything. I don't even like any of his works."

"I see," Piotr thought for a moment. "You might try 'Starry Night'. It is considered to be his greatest painting."

"Really? Which one is it?" Kitty opened the book and looked up 'Starry Night' in the index. She then turned to the appropriate page. "Hmmm, not much to look at, but it does have a lot of stuff written about it. And he painted it while he was in an asylum so I can pretty much say anything I want about his motives. It's perfect. Thank you sooo much!"

"You are very welcome," Piotr nodded, relieved at the outcome. At least we did not fight each other this time.

Remy absently wandered up and down the rows and rows of books, trying to find anything that looked remotely interesting. This is so boring, he sighed to himself. There's nothing here worth stealing and all the femmes are either shorter than my knee or over forty years old. Maybe I'll go break into the copy machine or something. That is if Pyro isn't playing with it. He turned the corner and nearly ran into someone. "Hey, watch where you're going."

"Oops, sorry mister," Jamie apologized and looked up at him. "Hey, I remember you. You were the guy at the park who helped me with my kite."

"Well, hey there kid," Remy said recognizing him. "Long time, no see. How'd that kite work for you?"

"Oh, it was great! I didn't have any problems after you looked at it," Jamie smiled. "Thanks a lot."

"No problem," Remy shrugged modestly. "Is that femme you were with here too?"

"Huh? Oh, you mean Rogue? Yeah, she's here," Jamie said. "She and some other friends are here doing research for school projects or something. I just came to find something good to read."

"Really? Well that's interesting," Remy grinned mischievously. "I think I'll go find her and say hello. Hmmm, now which section would she be in?"

"Hey before you go, could you help me find a good book series?" Jamie asked innocently.

"Uh," Remy's initial impulse was to lightly brush him off, but didn't want Jamie to get a bad impression and tell Rogue about it later. "Sure kid."

"Thanks mister Benny," Jamie said and headed down the bookshelf.

"It's Remy, not Benny," Remy corrected, slightly annoyed as he followed after Jamie.

"Well, whaddya think?" Pyro asked anxiously.

"Huh?" Rogue looked up, having become engrossed in Pyro's notebook. "Oh, uh it's…it's good. I, um, guess you really are Jane Gertrude after all."

"Told ya," Pyro grinned and slid over a piece of paper he had borrowed and doodled on while waiting for Rogue to read his work. "And he's my signature to prove it."

"Uh, right," Rogue looked and saw it was the same as the one on the dust jacket. The signature was also surrounded by doodles of flames, burning houses, a platypus, lots of random squiggles and a surprisingly good depiction of what looked like Magneto being eaten by piranhas. "Never thought one of Magneto's goons would turn out to be a writer."

"Hey, we aren't goons," Pyro protested, offended. "Okay, Sabes is a goon but the rest of aren't. We're just poor, lonely guys who are mistreated and misunderstood."

"You're lonely alright," Rogue gave him a look. "Lonely in the head."

"Yeah, exactly," Pyro nodded, misinterpreting Rogue's comment. "Anyway, let me have my notebook."

"What? Already?" Rogue blinked. "But I've only read the first chapter or two."

"Oh, that's okay. I'm not done with it yet so you won't be able to read the whole thing anyway," Pyro explained. "And I don't like sharing my work before it's done."

"But can't I read just a little more?" Rogue asked, trying to stall. "Not that I'm really interested or anything. I just wanna find out if Sirona manages to lure Baron Gisco into the garden and…"

"Shhh, don't give away everything!" Pyro shushed her, despite the fact no one else was around. "A writer's work is top secret. Don't want other people to steal my ideas."

"Right, I forgot," Rogue sighed and reluctantly handed back Pyro's notebook.

"So, you've read all my novels huh?" Pyro mentioned, pocketing his notebook. "What were some of your favorite parts?"

"Hey, I said I had read them. I never said I actually liked any of them," Rogue replied quickly and somewhat unconvincingly.

"Oh come on. If you didn't like the stories you wouldn't have read 'em all," Pyro pointed out. "So which parts did you really like? Huh? Huh?"

"Nothing. There wasn't anything that really stood out," Rogue attempted to end the conversation.

"There must have been something! Tell me!" Pyro pleaded. "Please? I really like to get feedback. That way I can try and make my next stories better."

"Look, I really don't have anything to say about them," Rogue tried to shut him up.

"Please?" Pyro whined. "You must have some opinion! I'll take anything! Questions! Comments! Concerns! Critiques! Criticisms! Queries! Other nouns beginning with the letter 'C' or 'Q'!"

"Enough already!" Rogue exclaimed. "Alright, I'll tell you my favorite parts, but you better promise never to tell anyone about this."

"No worries, shelia. Me lips are zipped," Pyro make a zipping motion with his hand.

"If only," Rogue sighed. "Well, there was this one scene where Etain was fighting against Duke Lorg and…

"What about this one?" Remy asked pulling out a book. "A series about two brothers and their sock-eating plants."

"No, I already have those," Jamie replied. "The books are good. They're really funny. I'm just looking for something new."

"Right," Remy sighed, putting the book back. He and Jamie had slowly made their way through the Teen and Young Adult sections, trying to find an interesting book series Jamie hadn't read yet. "Man, we must have checked out nearly three dozen different series. How could you have possibly read them all?"

"Well, I'm home schooled so I have a lot of free time," Jamie looked at his feet uncomfortably. "I do get to do a train…uh, gym session with an adult once in a while, but after the first few times they never seem to want to do one again."

"Really," Remy muttered absently. The book search was taking much longer than he anticipated and he was getting anxious to take off and go in search of Rogue. "There's gonna be something you haven't read yet…ah ha! I got it!" He stopped and pulled out a book. "How about 'Animorphs'?"

"What?" Jamie asked looking at the book.

"'Animorphs'," Remy repeating showing him the book. "It's about a group of kids who get the power to turn into different animals and fight off an alien invasion."

"Really?" Jamie's eyes grew wide. "Neat! I haven't read this series yet. And their powers make them seem a lot like mutants. Thanks mister Remy!"

"You're welcome, kid," Remy sighed, relieved to be free. "Now if you excuse me, I'm gonna go see if I can find that femme."

"Uh huh," Jamie ignored him, having already begun to read the book.

"Thank goodness that's over," Remy grumbled as he made his way down the rows of bookshelves. "Now, where or where could that lovely Rogue be?" He wondered as he headed for the adult fiction sections.

He continuing searching for a short while until pausing momentarily, having heard a familiar female drawl. "Ah ha." He grinned and closed in on its source. He finally pinpointed her position and prepared to smoothly appear from around the corner. "Bonjour chérie. Fancy meeting you here…" He trailed off and stopped dead at the sight that met his eyes.

Rogue and Pyro were casually sitting at the same table while laughing about something Rogue had just said. "Well, that's one way to get rid of a vampire!" Pyro giggled. "Mind if I use that in my next novel?"

"Sure, go ahead," Rogue chuckled.

"Huh?" Remy blinked at them in shock.

"Hey, maybe the werewolves will steal the remains and turn it into sausages," Pyro laughed happily.

"Depends if they like them with lots of garlic," Rogue smirked.

"Huh?!" Remy's jaw was somewhere near his ankles.

"Oh, hey Gambit!" Pyro saw him and gave a big grin. "Having a good time?"

"Ga?" Remy was unable to give a coherent reply.

"Looks like he's impersonating the Carlsbad Caverns with his mouth open like that," Rogue noted getting up. "Think I'll take off before he starts attracting flies."

"But we haven't finishing our conversation yet," Pyro protested.

"Be glad we had any conversation. It'll probably never happen again," Rogue said while gathering up her books. "Don't try anything funny on the way out." She gave one last warning and left.

"Oh well," Pyro sighed and leaned back in his chair. "So much for being asked for my autograph."

"There you are," Piotr rounded the corner and spotted them. "I have been looking everywhere for you. We should start heading back to the base and…why is Remy standing with his mouth open like that?"

"Don't know mate," Pyro shrugged getting up. "I think he's trying to impersonate a statue or something."

"Eh?" Remy was clearly still in shock.

"Come on Gambit," Pyro said as he and Piotr each gently took an arm and headed for the exit. "You can practice your gargoyle impression later."

"Are you alright? You look like you have seen a ghost," Piotr frowned worryingly at Remy.

"He…she was…and they were…" Remy finally managed to string together some form of intelligible response.

"What?" Piotr gave him a confused look.

"Sitting…Pyro said…and she made…" Remy continued to utter small collections of syllables.

"Who is 'she'?" Piotr asked inquiringly.

"Oh, he must mean that shelia with the white stripe in her hair," Pyro said and they left the library. "She left right after he turned up."

"Both of them…laughing…and…and she was smiling…" Remy struggled to make sense of what he had witnessed.

"Okay," Piotr blinked, still not sure why Remy was acting so oddly. "Did she do anything to him?"

"Nope, not a bloody thing," Pyro shook his head. "Go figure. So, what did you do in there? Have a good time?"

"Huh? Oh, yes," Piotr nodded. "I looked at some nice books and briefly talked to someone about art."

"Hey, that's great. Always nice to find someone and have a chinwag about something you both like," Pyro said and pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket.

"What is that?" Piotr asked.

"Oh, that white-striped hair shelia gave it to me," Pyro said. "She scribbled something down on it before she left."

"What?!" Remy blinked, snapping out of his daze. "It's not a phone number, is it?"

"Of course not," Pyro snorted. "Like she'd ever give out something like that."

"Thank goodness," Remy grumbled.

"It's an email address. She wants me to send her the chapters of my new novel as I finish them," Pyro explained. "She promised not to share them with anyone, but I dunno if I can trust her…"

"WHAT?!" Remy shouted. "MINE!"

"Hey, watch it!" Pyro yelled, letting go of Remy's flailing arm and moving out of range. "You'll tear the paper in half!"

"LET ME SEE IT!" Remy screamed, breaking free of Piotr and chasing after Pyro.

"Calm down mate!" Pyro shouted, trying to stay ahead of Remy. "What the heck's gotten into you?"

"GIVE ME THAT PAPER!" Remy yelled.

"Oh dear," Piotr sighed as Remy chased Pyro down the sidewalk. "Well, at least we finally went somewhere outside the base without wrecking anything."

CRASH!

BOOM!

"GET AWAY FROM ME!"

"MY EMAIL ADDRESS! MINE!"

SMASH!

"On the other hand," Piotr groaned as he saw Remy chase Pyro into a furniture store while causing various amounts of damage. "Why break with tradition?"

Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men: Evolution or the book series Animorphs.