Disgrace Revenge?
Yea, sucky title. If anyone can think of a better, non clichéd one, call me. Metaphorically.
Characters: Goodies: Holly, Arty, Butler, Foaly, etc. Baddies: Sool, maybe Koboi, etc.
Set sometime after The time paradox, but don't worry, little, if any spoilers.
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Artemis sat at his computer desk, musing on whether or not to hack into the Interpol mainframe. So nothing unusual there. Although he had decided to stop his criminal adventures – except the ones that involved stealing from thieves – he had never resolved to stay out of restricted files. Besides, he wouldn't touch anything.
His decision was made up for him when Butler knocked on his door, entering without a reply.
"Artemis," Rumbled Butler. "The twins want to know where their parents are. What should I tell them?"
They stood/sat in silence for a few seconds, before Artemis replied "certainly not that they have taken the week off to visit Paris, Butler. We can't tell them the truth, you know what they'll be like; 'why didn't they take us…'. Have Juliet take them down to the Lodge for a week until Mother and Father get back."
Butler nodded. "Good idea. I'll get on it." He turned to the door, but stopped with his hand on the handle. "Artemis…"
Internaly, Artemis groaned. "Yes?" He replied wearily, knowing what was coming.
"Have you taken it?" The tone of his voice made the question sound like he knew it was a 'no'.
Artemis sighed. "No, I haven't."
"Do it." Stated Butler, giving his charge a rare order. He left the room, shutting the door with a snap.
From the desk, Artemis sighed, knuckling his eyes. He was getting tired earlier and earlier these days. He stood, leaving the study and returning to his room. Once inside he shut the door and reached for a small, black case. Inside were four vials and a syringe. Sighing again, Artemis injected some of the fluid into his arm.
Minutes later he was asleep.
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At exactly the same time, Holly Short was sitting in the Council Room of the LEP, listening to yet another recruit prattle on about life –long achievements and goals. This was either the 29th, or the 34th 'I have always dreamed of being in the LEP, ever since I was a little kid…' blah blah blah.
Holly sighed, sitting straighter in her chair in an attempt do seem interested.
"Excuse me, Mr. Nevans was it?"
"Yes, Captain!" A salute. Frond, she hated salutes.
"You stated that before requesting this position, you also applied for a job at the GMA."(Gnomish Memorial Archives; collections of everything from mindwiped humans, all the way up to Frond's family line. BTW, I made it up. Duh.) "But they turned you down?"
"Yes, Captain." He replied, almost sheepish.
"Why is that."
"Erm, because I have a tendency to speak my mind, and writing accurate portfolios without adding what I think into them, I just couldn't do it."
"I see. Well, today is your lucky day, because you need to speak your mind to be in this line of work, so I'll send you up to Rosemary on the third floor and she'll put your name down for eligible recon attendants."
"Thankyou, Sir! I mean, Captain!" He saluted, again.
"Yes, you're welcome." Grumbled Holly absently. At least her job was done now. No more recruitments.
She left the interview room, taking the traveled path through the throngs of LEP hopefuls, down to the bottom floor: Mission ops.
"Honey? I'm home!" She called, grinning. (A/N: Not SERIOUSLY honey! Mockery! Duh!)
"Holly!" Said a delighted Foaly, clopping over to her from what resembled three different pieces of alien technology. "Finished recruitment?"
"Finally." She grinned. "You said I had to go topside, so what's up?"
"Nothing major, obviously. There's a blip in one of the HMF's out in lower England, it's causing a bit of interference with sat-navs, humans and fairies alike. Plus it's leaking like a bullet through a bucket, so anyone with intelligence can pick it up. Not likely to happen though, humans couldn't be bother investigating anything themselves. But we gotta replace it anyway."
"Right. That's all?"
"Sure, nothing much this week. A bit too slow if you ask me, but that may be my paranoid streak talking." He pouted.
"Fine, I'll stop calling you paranoid." She said. "So what have you got for me?"
"Not much really. Standard Recon gear; gun, wings, suit, helmet. But this," He said proudly, hefting a small, coin-sized panel, complete with tiny mike and buttons. "Is my newest innovation. This little beauty will replace the old com-screens in a years time. They have 100 percent updated land shapes, upgraded mikes, a faster working time, and it has a tracker, so that if you end up dropping your helmet and losing your suit, ending up pretty much naked on the way, we can still find you if you have this. I call it the G-screen"
Holly took the device, flipping it around to examine the back. "Nice. But won't it overheat? It's too small to have a fan."
Foaly grinned, retrieving the G-screen. "That's the best part. Porous metal, so 100 percent breathable, not to mention water cant get into any external air vents anymore, so totally waterproof. You could use this from here to Atlantis."
"Great, when do I go?"
Foaly glanced at the screen. "You've got five minutes 'til the next flare, so get done up and let's go."
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Holly returned from the mission three hours later. She wasn't too much of a happy elf.
"You said I was CLEAR! That's when I nearly get hit by the worlds biggest aircraft! D'arvit! Aren't you monitoring all frequencies?"
"Sorry, Holly. The plane was unscheduled."
"You sensors still picked it up, didn't they? That's why they're, isn't it?"
Foaly opened his mouth to reply, but was litteraly saved by the bell. That bell was the message alert. An icon flashed red. Emergency.
Foaly manipulated some buttons, bringing up a picture of Commander Kelp. He seemed to be standing outside a factory.
"Hey Trouble, what's going on?" Inquired Foaly.
"Nothing good." Replied Kelp grimly. "A routine grunt mission to one of the old Koboi labs picked up emissions. Nothing major, so they didn't alert your sensors. But when we got in, all the old Koboi hardware under lockup had gone."
"So you mean all of the illegal weaponry, high-tech suits and a large stash of wings just went missing?" Said Holly, butting into the screen.
"Not totally, they –whoever they are- didn't get any weapons, but most of the suits and a large chunk of the wings are gone."
"And they were supposed to be under guard. With your technology if I'm not mistaken, Foaly." Stated Holly.
"Could this be related to the other incidents?" Asked Trouble.
"What incidents?" Asked Holly. They both ignored her.
"It's possible, but that means someone is messing with my technology, and only two people have ever been able to do that. One is locked up, and the other is supposed to be a friend."
"D'arvit tell me!" Yelled Holly.
Foaly sighed. "For a few weeks now, there have been minor glitches in my security and surveillance. Nothing major, but small things like missing alerts could mean potentially dangerous items being stolen, like in this case."
"And I didn't know this, why?"
"Because it didn't concern you. Besides, we couldn't confirm anything. Until now."
"What do you mean?" Asked Holly, frowning.
"Unique traces left by hacking or tampering with the technology has pointed to the same source, like a signature. Unfortunately, nothing definite, like a name. Just the same guy."
"Is it bad?"
"It may be." Butted in Trouble. "But we don't know for sure."
Just then a light started pulsing on a reference box. Foaly brought up a screen, and both he and Holly groaned.
"What?" Demanded Trouble.
Foaly grimaced and sent the file to the Commander's helmet. There was a brief period of silence, then;
"This is not good. Not good at all."