CHAPTER 2: THE SNEAK OUT

The next day went by pretty quickly and boring. Nova and Sprx played video games the whole day. Gibson worked in his lab, while Otto worked on something in his workshop. Antari mainly meditated (as usual), but occasionally checked in on Chiro.

And Chiro stayed in his room all day, he only came out to eat or go for a bathroom break, and never spoke to anyone. Every time Antari checked on him, Chiro was pacing. And when Antari would ask him if anything was wrong, he would just grunt ignorantly.

That night, everyone went to bed as usual. When they were long asleep, Chiro came out of his room. He went through the main room and exited the robot, quickly and quietly.

Otto heard Chiro's door open and close, so he went to investigate. He noticed Chiro was gone and wasn't anywhere in the Super Robot, so he left, too.

He finally spotted Chiro at the side of Saint Shugazoom. Curious, he hid and quietly followed Chiro. Chiro looked around, and then went in through the side window, Otto quickly followed.

Chiro slowed to a walk once he was inside the library, so did Otto. Chiro went to the back of the library—almost like he was lead—and searched through the book cases. He soon found the book he was looking for. It was dark brown, hard-cover, and leather. It also had a slightly glowing orb in its center—the colors of blue, green, extremely light blue, and red.

Chiro flipped through some of its pages and started reading them. A few moments later, the orb started glowing more and more. Once he noticed the floor by his feet was glowing, he closed the book to see why. The instant he looked at the orb, his eyes became very dull. Seconds later, Otto could see a green, blue, very light blue, and red color lightly phase from the orb to Chiro's eyes.

Chiro soon passed out, dropping the book in the process. Otto ran over to him.

"Chiro! Are you okay?" Otto asked.

No answer. Otto lifted him up and started walking out. But before he left, he took the book with them.

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"He should be fine. He just passed out, for some unknown…Otto, what happened?" Gibson said as he left med bay.

It had been one hour since the incident at the library.

"I'm not sure. I followed Chiro to the library, and then he read this weird book…" Otto held up the book Chiro read at the library. Gibson took it and studied it.

"It looks like…An ancient book. It's labeled: Elements of the Ancients. Very interesting…"

"Is that all that happened, Otto?" Antari asked.

Otto was debating on whether or not to tell them about the glowing orb and lights. The orb isn't glowing at all anymore, so he decided not to.

"No. That's all."

Chiro grunted and everyone went to his side. He sat up, but kept his eyes tightly shut, like he was in pain.

"Are you alright, Chiro?" Antari asked.

"Yeah," Chiro answered.

"Can you open your eyes?"

Chiro opened his eyes. As soon as he did, they flashed a mix of blue, red, really light blue, and green, then went back to their original sapphire blue. "Yeah, why?"

"Oh, cool! Your eyes looked pretty!" Otto said. Nova nudged him in his side to keep him quiet. "Ow…"

"Huh? What do you mean? And what happened?"

"You passed out," Otto said.

Chiro thought for a few seconds, and then started to remember everything.

"The book…" He was silent for a bit longer, and then his eyes lit up. "Where's the book?"

Gibson walked up to him holding the book. "Right here."

"Let me see it,"

Gibson started to hand Chiro the book, but before he did, Antari grabbed it. "I do not think you need to read that now. It is the reason you passed out. We should probably keep it away from you until further notice."

"C'mon, Antari…"

"No. Now, it is late. Everyone may go back to bed."

Everyone went to bed. Well, everyone except Antari and Chiro.

"You should go to bed, too, Chiro,"

"I want the book first," Chiro said, motioning to the book in Antari's hands (or paws, whatever).

"Why do you want this book so badly?" Antari asked.

Chiro hesitated. "Nothing, never mind. Goodnight." With that, Chiro went to bed. Antari went shortly after.