[Last Time, on Battle High: Some meddling kids and their ghost went looking for a battleground, only they couldn't go down. But Isaac found a stairway down, and all they have to do is get a big locked metal door open to go down further.] [We open where we left them, Isaac with his head stuck through said door, even though it was pretty hard to get his head through, in spite of being, y'know, a ghost.] [FIGHT!] * Karasu looks at the door. Bishonen stare, activate! * The door stares back at Karasu. .. so. Does anyone know how to pick locks or anything? * Karasu is unfazed. perk of being bishi. * There's a fairly nondescript stairwell behind the door, concrete or rock going down with iron railings, and a small envelope on teh floor at the top of the stairs. * Ao-Lang looks at Mariah. "By 'pick locks', do you mean 'blow the door down'?" ~Oooh, what's this?~ * Isaac reaches out for the envelope. * Isaac can't quite reach the envelope, the door doesnt' seem to want to let him any further through. I was thinking something that wouldn't make it totally obvious we were here. - hey, what *is* that? What's what? ~I can't reach it...~ There's something there... ~An envelope!~ An envelope? Anything we can do? * Ao-Lang shrugs. "Blow it open?" ~Isn't property damage bad?~ Well, yeah. But it's not like we're going to be down here later anyway. I dunno, I'd rather they not know we were here. But it's about the only option, so... Hmm... ~Yeah, but then we're gonna have to pay for it. And that's bad.~ Given that this is the first time I've encountered a sealed door to a fight room, one could only assume we're not supposed to see the room before the fight. That's a good point. ~Well, there is still an envelope there... And I wanna see what's inside!~ Likely a warning to anyone who breaks down the door. ~Or a congradulations on a job well done to see to your team's needs?~ ~I could completly see them doing that here. ~ * Mariah shrugs. "If you want to try and get it, we can't stop you." * Karasu shrugs. "Perhaps." * Karasu heads towards the library. "Well, I've lost interest, and since we're here anyway..." Yeah? * Karasu pushes the doors of the library open. "Might as well make use of this place, don't you think?" He heads in. That's a good point. * Mariah catches the library door and heads in as well. * Isaac bops his head out and looks around. ~OOooooh, BOOKS!~ * Ao-Lang frowns at the door. She doesn't seem interested in books. * Ao-Lang sighs, turning and walking after the rest of them. * In the library, Isaac is already pecking away at a keyboard, without the keys even pressing down. The letters just appear on the screen. Then he taps enter, and a list showing four entries about Battle High itself. * Mariah reads over Isaac's shoulder. "Huh. What's that?" * Battle High: A Complete History. * The Making of Battle High, The Game. * Ao-Lang looks around Mariah at that. Her eyes brighten. "Hey." * Isaac highlights it and prints out the call numbers. * Battle High 1998, The Prima Strategy Guide. * Battle High. (Architecture -> Maps and Blueprints) That should do nicely. ~I bet it's missing the sekrit rooms.~ * Karasu shrugs. "Probably. But it's a good place to start." It's a start, anyway... And better than breaking in, right? ~Yup! Assuming it's accurate.~ * Karasu nods. He takes the sheet Isaac printed out and searches for it. Actually, he looks for all of the books sans the strategy guide. * Battle High: A Complete History, is very, very easy to find. Mainly because it's gigantic. It's done in the style of a coffee table book, only it's about twelve feet from top to bottom and eight in width. ~Oooh, that's big.~ * Ao-Lang looks up at the thing. "How are you supposed to read it? Wouldn't your shoes smudge the pages?" .. how old *is* this place? * Karasu looks up at it. "... Quite big." ~Really old!~ * The print is really rather small, too. * The book is currently open somewhere in the middle, roughly. * Mariah scans the page that the book is open to. * Karasu probably does too. Hard to tell with the shades and all. ~I wonder how many trees went into this.~ * The current page appears to be a blow by blow account of a battle between someone by the name of "Haohmaru" and "Nakururu" * The account is excellently described, and it's almost as if you're there watching the battle unfold. .. ah, that's why it's so long. It's detailed. * Ao-Lang reads. "Really... detailed. Hey, want to skip to the beginning?" * Mariah eyes the number of pages which would have to be turned to get to the beginning. "Sure..." * Isaac nodnods. * The book preemptively flips to the beginning. .. that's convenient! * Mariah starts to read. ~Very, yeah.~ * Ao-Lang grins. "I think I like this thing." * The first page details the life of a group of monks known as the Waist-Down Fist, their day to day activities. It's a good bet these guys eventually became Battle High. Huh... * Flipping the page, it becomes painfully apparent why they were called the Waist-Down Fist. They focused very exclusively on immobilizing their opponents in the most brutal ways possible, attacking the ankles, knees, and... other places. * Mariah frowns. "I'd like to think we fight a little cleaner now." ~Not... really.~ * Ao-Lang snorts. "If I think I can take someone out by kicking him in the groin, I'd do it." Well, yeah, but it's not the only way. * Mariah keeps reading. ~Uh-huh.~ * The book goes into exhaustive detail about their training methods and techniques, so utterly crystal clear are the descriptions that if you tried, you could probably develop the techniques just from this book. * Karasu reads. ... maybe we should go find the plans? I mean, this is great, but it's not getting us anywhere right now. * Quite. It's a good bet that whatever you're looking for would be in here... but finding it would be a pain. ~I think this is important, though.~ I don't think this book will go anywhere. Well, we don't have to stick together. I'll go find the plans if you want to stay and read about the racking monks. * Ao-Lang eyes it. "Yeah. We can come back and read later." * Karasu nods. He searches for the book on the architecture. * Mariah follows Karasu. ~Plans are good! Just remember the book, okay?~ * THe school's blueprints are kept in a large cardboard tube in a rack of other, similar tubes. * Mariah is now known as Mariah-AFK * Karasu takes a look. * There is a large table, almost twenty feet long, with clamps in several places, ready to hold blueprints. * Ao-Lang points that out. "Let's take them over there." * Karasu does just that. * Spreading out the plans, it becomes evident that the secret doors and rooms -are- shown. * At least, all the ones you know of. * Karasu points it out. "Not much of a secret." * Isaac giggles in your heads. * The level you're looking for, sub-basement 5, is... immense. That's the only way to put it. The blueprint sheets are five feet wide and three feet tall, on a relatively small scale of an inch equaling ten feet, and sub-basement five takes up one full sheet. ~Wooooow.~ * It's also quite evidently a maze of some sort, complete with secret passages, pits, oubliettes, and a number of other oddities. Interesting. * Ao-Lang peers. "We can use this. We can totally use this." That's the plan. Do you think we can get a copy of this thing? * Karasu looks for... a ... giant copy machine? ~.. Training?~ * There definitely not a copy machine big enough to handle the entire blueprint, but maybe the peps have something. * Mariah-AFK is now known as Mariah Wow. This is... something. Now how do we make copies? * Ao-Lang looks around, then clears her throat and says, somewhat loudly (at least for a library), "If there are any peps listening, I would like a copy of this blueprint." * Ao gets the oddest feeling that she's being watched by someone very close behind her. * Ao-Lang starts and spins, one closed tessen flicking into her right hand. We could always draw one out if -- * Mariah looks in Ao's direction. * Standing behind Ao-Lang, bowing slightly and holding out a large cardboard tube, is a pep. * Ao-Lang blinks, then smiles and takes it, bowing back. The tessen has vanished. "Thank you." -- hey. Prompt! Thank you! * The pep straightens and you get the odd feeling that it's grinning mischeviously behind its mask, then it disappears. * Ao-Lang opens the tube and pulls out whatever's inside. * Inside is a complete copy fo the Battle High blueprints. They lack the normal "checked out return by" sticker, as far as she can tell. * Ao-Lang grins. She checks the basement with the one on the master copy. ~That's so COOL!~ * It appears in every way identical, save only that it's printed on slightly lower quality paper. Wow. Sometimes I just love this place, you know? ~I'll take a look at'em when we get back.~ ^^ We should check them out together. You know, for strategy? * Karasu searches for the Making of Battle High. "There's plenty of work to be done," he comments as he goes. * In the video games section is the documentary video about the making of the very first Battle High video game. * Karasu grabs it. * Oddly enough, the video's description on the back cover makes no mention whatsoever of the school itself, and gives no indication that the people in the game really exist. * Ao-Lang rolls the blueprints up and puts them back, thoughtfully, before following the rest with cardboard tube in hand. * Karasu takes it anyway! * Mariah looks the video over. "Probably have to do that for legal reasons or whatever." More like nobody wants to know someone can kick their asses while being under legal age. * Isaac zips around and looks for some videos of fights. That too. Lots of reasons. Now, I wonder if there's an abridged history of this place. I bet it skips all the good stuff. * In the video room, which is an immense vault showing quite well why the library is underground, most of the room is dedicated to fight tapes, arranged from latest at the front to the oldest at the back. ~Hey, guys! Lookit this!~ Yeah? * Karasu looks at that. ~Fights, lots've them! I bet we can learn a ton from these, espically the sophmore, junior, and senior fights. Hmmm...~ * Isaac checks for last year's High Noon High vs Battle High tapes. * Ao-Lang laughs. "Yeah, we can. That gives something to do with our TV." Besides Charlie Chaplin? * They're right where they should be, all four tapes, one for each level. Oh, yeah! It'd be good to know what the sophomores are doing... and yeah, we should be planning and not just watching movies. Yeah, besides Charlie Chaplin. You got the television all night anyway, Karasu. ~Not if I steal it!~ * Karasu shrugs. "Regardless, it looks like we have a great deal of information at our disposal. Let's use it. * Ao-Lang thinks. I wonder if any of these fights took place in that basement. * Mariah nods. "Yeah, and if we play our cards right, it's gonna make a big difference." .. I wonder... any way we could find out? I bet they're not organized by location... No, but perhaps they're organized by type. If we look for group battles we might find it. * Mariah nods. "Yeah, I figured we were going to have to brute-force it. Story of our lives, right? Might as well start looking." * Karasu starts looking. * Mariah gets on the brute-force looking. * Isaac hmms... * Isaac starts typin' away at the nearby computer. * Ao-Lang thinks. "I'm gonna check the first book for it. Lemme know if you guys find it." * Ao-Lang walks off to do that. [Fight... WIN BY INFORMATION]