Chapter author: YouAreNowIncognito

Shrapnel looked surprised up from the book he was reading as the door opened recklessly. No one seemed to care about the sign he had put the door: Careful with the doors please. A short figure was being shoved into his library by Neutron, the second in command for the gravity faction.

“Hi Shrapnel, this is Delmar. He needs to check up some different shifters in your archive. Give him everything asks for.” he said with a smile.

“I'm going to show Angi around in the building in the meantime. I bet she wants to see some fine shifter architecture.” Neutron closed the door behind the stranger who turned around towards door very upset.

“Jerk" the stranger said to the door where Neutron just had disappeared. The stranger, whose name obviously was Delmar, turned back to Nell. He had a long scarf wrapped up around his head and the only thing peeking out was two angry blue glowing eyes. Nell thought he could recognize the name Delmar from somewhere, but he couldn't remember from where.

“How can I help you?” he asked polite.

“Mmmmffm" Delmar mumbled through the scarf as he walked up to the desk Nell was sitting at.

“I'm sorry I can't hear what you're saying.” Delmar stopped to stare at Nell, then he looked around in the library like he was looking for someone. When he was done he removed the scarf from his head revealing a completely blue face with white markings under his eyes. Even though Delmar's behavior seemed a bit overkill could Nell understand why he acted like did. The chemical faction were well known for being bullies towards weaker shifters. This guy was obviously a thermal/mechanical grunt, probably a scout. But why was he accompanied by Gravity’s second in command?

“I need to do a check up on some shifters.” Delmar repeated crossly.

“Okay, what was the name? Delmar?” He started typing Delmar's name into the archive log.

“No! Don’t write my name into the record!” Nell stopped and looked up at him over the glasses.

“I need a name if you want to access the archive.” Nell said irritated.

“Write Radiation.” the small blue man answered grumpy.

“Radiation? Why in the god's names should I write Radiation? You are obviously not her.” This was getting weirder and weirder. A thermal grunt, shoved into his library by Gravity's second in command, claiming to be Radiation?

“No but she sent me."

“Do you really think I'm going to believe that? I need to hear that from herself to believe it I'm afraid.”

“Then write Neutron! You saw him! He told you to give me all the information I wanted.”

“Neutron is not here, is he? I need a name.”

Delmar stared furiously at Nell. But he was quiet and seemed to be thinking.

“Fine… write Ice.” So he was an ice shifter. That explained the blue color.

“That’s not very specific, is it?”

“No, but it's still my name.” Delmar smiled clever. Nell sighed, it was old fashioned, but still technically correct.

“So, who is it you want to do a check up on?” he asked while he typed in the three letters into the system. “Mr. Ice.”

“Wilfred, he's a jackal" Nell did a fast search on his computer.

“There are no jackals called Wilfred."

“Hm, I thought so…”

He thought so? Nell was seriously starting to consider someone was trying to screw with him.

“What about Cameron? Komodo dragon?” Delmar asked. Nell typed it in.

“No… are you making these names up?” he asked. The stranger looked insulted.

“Kaylin?”

“Which animal?”

“I don't know" Delmar answered. Nell shrugged and typed it in.

“I got four hits" Maybe this was finally getting somewhere? Delmar leaned over the desk looking at the search result.

“No it's neither of them.” he declared.

“Edgar?” Delmar asked. Nell didn't even bother to type it in.

“That is a very common name. You have some specifics or do you want all the 80 hits?”

“This is a matter of life and death!” Delmar said furiously.

“What are their elements? It might help finding your shifters.”

Delmar stood quiet for a while.

“Black hole, anti-matter, wormhole and dark matter" he said grumpy as he knew Nell was not going to believe him.

Nell was starting to see the connection. This guy had obviously lost a bet to Neutron who made him go around claiming to be Radiation and ask for non-existing shifters with impossible elements. It seemed like a typical thing Neutron would do. That explained his giant grin when he shoved this poor bastard into Nell’s library.

“Very funny…” Nell sighed and picked up his book again. This grunt was obviously not worth his time. Delmar snatched the book from his grip.

“Listen, you don't want me here and I definitely don't want to be here. Can you just check the name so I can leave you alone?”

“Mr. Ice, what you are looking for doesn’t exist. Trust me. I should have remembered written in any of those elements into the archives. Can I please get my book back?”

“Can I at least see all shifters called Edgar?” he gnarled. Nell sighed and turned the screen around and typed in the name. Delmar scrolled through the list.

“Damn it! Nothing!” Delmar stared at the screen for a while. “Is there a possibility the electrical faction could have hacked your system?”

“Wha…? Why would they want to do that?”

“Is it a possibility?”

“I guess they could, if they wanted to. But I doubt they go around changing entries in the books, which is way harder. So if you know their age you are welcome to read through some of the old books. Not that you’ll find anything.”

“No I have no clue how old they could be… The jackal didn’t seem to be so old though...”

“If you want to continue your little searching game you can look in the books” Nell pointed with the whole arm towards the giant shelves containing the record of all known shifters. “I guess you’ll have to look through them all since you don’t know their age. But it’s going to take you weeks. The library closes at seven.” Nell grabbed his book back and continued to read. He had decided to ignore this bastard. Neutron might think this was fun but Nell certainly did not.

Suddenly Radiation came into the library.

“Hi, Delmar did you find anything? We’re done talking with Chemical now.” Nell was surprised, maybe he hadn't been lying about that part with Radiation.

“No, nothing… Once again it’s like they don’t exist. Do you think Electrical could be behind all this?”

“No, I certainly don't think so. Where did you get that idea from?” she turned to Nell. “Thank you for your time Shrapnel.”

“No problem mistress.” He did a light bow.

“Where's Neutron?”

“He left me here. Said something about showing Angi architecture. It sounded like a quite bad excuse to not stay…”

“For heaven's sake, you can't trust that man with any kind of responsibility.” she sighed.

After they left did Nell a fast search on the name Delmar. The name was a bit too familiar.

“Delmar, Male, Age: 389 years, Element: Ice, Animal: Wolf, Faction: Thermal/Mechanical, Duties: Scout, Status: Outlaw. Several suspected cases of murders. Reckless use of powers. Several suspected cases of assault.” Two portraits were attached to the profile. One of the man who had just left and one of his gray blue wolf form.

“Oh, it's that Delmar…” Reed had been going on about this guy several times, complaining over the fact Chemical wouldn't let him go after him because there was more important things do. It was not just the fact Delmar was a criminal, Reed seemed to have a personal vendetta towards him. But why had he been in company of both Neutron and Radiation? And why did he ask about impossible shifters if it wasn't all a big joke?

“What the fuck just happened?”