Artemis inspected the small vial in his hand, and gave it a swirl, spinning the dark black liquid inside of it around the edges of the vial. He gave a nod to himself, and set the vial into a rack that held twenty vials of the same liquid. He turned, and walked briskly outside of the large laboratory in the part of the house that most people would call a basement, and would normally be used for the storage of many, many useless items. This "basement" wasn't useless; in fact, it held more value than some entire towns, cities, or possibly even countries.

Well, value isn't always good… In fact, when something of such amazing value is put into the hands of the ignorant, it can be very catastrophic. Remember such a lesson that, as you will see, is a matter of life and death.

… Literally.

Anyway, the next one to visit the basement was Butler. He had on a chef's hat, and even an apron with "Kiss The Cook" embroidered onto the front of it. He, personally, adored the apron, but Artemis never let him hear the end of it. Well, Butler walked around the laboratory looking very confused, and picked up one of the small vials filled with a dark black liquid in it, and took it up to the kitchen, thinking it was a fine-smelling barbeque sauce that Artemis had prepared for him to put on the dinner this evening.

Little did he know that he had just made a very fatal mistake. Either way, he carried the sauce up to the kitchen, and slathered it all over the chicken breasts that Butler had prepared for Artemis and himself. Butler took his finger, and slid it across the top of his chicken breast, and licked the "sauce" off of the finger. It tasted slightly strange to him, but he thought it better of him to accost Artemis for trying to help with dinner for once. He called from the bottom of the staircase for Artemis to come down from his room for dinner, but he said that he was going to shower first. Butler merely shrugged, and walked back into the kitchen, used to Artemis not coming down for dinner immediately, if even at all. Just in case, though, he threw Artemis's plate into the oven, and set it on warm.

Butler sat at the table, utensils in hand, and began eating his dinner. He had decided that the sauce was actually pretty good with the taste of the chicken, and put as much more as he could from the vial, and even took a lick from inside the bottle, laughing at himself for being so childish. At least Artemis wasn't watching, or else he would've had blackmail material for a year. But, then, a sudden, immense hunger befell him. He turned to the oven, his sense of smell highly elevated…

Then, Butler almost leapt across the room, and to the oven. He opened the oven door, and looked at the piece of chicken sitting right there in the oven, begging him to eat it. Or at least, that's how he thought of it. He was spurred by his hunger, and he reached his hand into the oven, and grabbed the chicken breast bare-handed. He, of course, badly burned his hand, but he didn't care about that at the moment. He ate the chicken breast as though he hadn't eaten in weeks. But the strange thing was, he felt that way, despite eating practically thirty seconds earlier.

Once Butler had devoured the chicken, he turned his head around the room, sniffing for any more food, and dove for the refrigerator. He flung the door open, and his hands grabbed any piece of meat they could find, and shoved them into his mouth, wrappers and all.

Suddenly, Artemis called down from the upper level,"Butler! What is all that noise about down there?"

Butler's head bolted towards the hallway that led to the stairs. Then, a wicked grin emerged from his face, exposing a full set of perfectly aligned teeth that were normally a bleached white, but were now covered in small pieces of meat, as well as the blood that ways in the raw pieces.

He smelt some more food…

He sprinted-not ran, sprinted- to the stairs, and locked eyes with Artemis.

"Butler, are… Are you okay?" Asked Artemis hesitantly.

Butler simply responded with a guttural roar, and ran up the stairs, fumbling over his own ankles, but still moving somewhat quickly. Artemis ran down the hallway, and to his room. He slammed the door shut, and hit a switch on the back, locking the door with an inch thick plate of steel that slide from the frame, through the door, and back into the frame onto the other side. Artemis stepped back, his eyes locked on the door. He heard a loud thud as Butler's body slammed against the door.

Artemis closed his eyes, and breathed deeply. He opened his eyes back up to see Butler, punching his way through the door, steel plate and all. Artemis looked around the room, and grabbed the keys to his car. He turned to the French doors that led to his balcony, and then looked around, looking for something to use…

His eyes landed on an industrial extension cord, and he pulled it from the wall, and pulled the cord that was attached to it off of it. He grabbed the end, and ran out to the balcony. He wrapped the extension cord around the top of his balcony's concrete railing, making sure it as tight as it could be. He then pulled the rest of the extension cord's length over to the ledge, and tossed it down to the ground. He sighed a sigh of relief when he saw that it reached the ground.

Artemis turned around, and saw that Butler was almost through the door. He turned back to the railing, and simply said," D'arvit…" and went over the railing, standing on the ledge with the very top of the extension cord in his hand. He turned back one last time, and saw Butler barreling towards him. He looked back down, and stepped off of the ledge, sliding down the extension cord as if it were a fireman's pole. He sighed again out of relief when he fell the ground beneath his feet once again, and looked up at a very angry Butler. He seemed so tempted to jump over the railing, simply because it would take less time getting to his food; but the iota of sense Butler had left told him to go in, and go down the stairs.

In the meantime, Artemis took off running. He got to the garage in no time, and got into his car- A midnight black Lamborghini Murcielago. He turned it on, and hit the accelerator just as Butler had reached him. He stood before the car, and Artemis hit the accelerator, plowing Butler over the car altogether. When Butler hit the ground, Artemis saw him getting up in his rear view mirror. He sighed, and turned on the built-in-communicator.

On the other end, a small, but somewhat deep female voice answered.

"Hey Artemis. How are things going?"

"Not as well as I would've expected…" he said, flooring the accelerator, heading for E1: Tara.

"Uh-oh… What did you do now?"