OKay, so here's the first official chapter. I think I got them all in character, but I'm not 100% certain, so let me know. Before we get into the whole disclaimer bit...
Skullduck: Oh, so you're actually going to do one this time then? That makes a change.
Me: Shut up and stop interrupting. Like I was saying, I have to thank Northern Grunge for agreeing to check this for me. Unfortunately, I'm posting this before I hear back from her...
Skullduck: Because you're too impatient.
Me: Yes, thank you. That's enough from the muse. Back to what I was saying, any faults are mine and mine alone. Well, mine and Skullduck's.
Skullduck: Hey!
Me: Moving on. I don't own Artemis Fowl or any of the characters in this story.
Skullduck: But I own Liris's soul.
Me: What!? When did we make that arrangement?
Skullduck: It was in the contract.
Me: *glares* I didn't sign anything...
Skullduck: Anyway, please, R&R. We both appreciate it.

Holly flashed her badge at the young officer guarding the door. The sprite waved her through with a sad smile. She pushed open the glass door and stood next to the elf at the viewing station. The IC unit at Haven General Hospital was overrun. Among the many injured faces, she could see Ms Peat, several serving pixies, and one LEP officer. Grub was hooked up to an IV drip, and his vital signs were weak. No one had yet died of their wounds, but then again, the wounds weren't the problem.

Holly hesitated for a second, glancing at the face of her companion. Trouble's eyes were riveted on his brother's form. He wasn't allowed into the IC unit itself until the tests were completed, so he'd stood out here, on this side of the glass partition for the last six hours. As the only senior officer in on time that morning, the heavy duties had fallen to Holly, so she'd spent the day filling the Commander's shoes as best she could. She was exhausted. Foaly had taken one look at her and demanded that she take a break, so she'd decided to check in on Grub. And, more accurately, on Trouble. He was taking the incident particularly badly.

"Any news?" she asked quietly. Trouble blinked but didn't reply. He didn't need to. The severity of the situation was written all over his expression.

The glass doors opened, and both elves turned to face the entrant. The doctor nodded courteously to Holly, then spoke to Trouble.

"They're secured now. If you'll use the disinfectant spray, you can go in and see your brother."

Trouble nodded and smiled bravely at Holly.

"It'll be alright."

Her heart broke for him. He entered the spray booth, where a disinfectant would be applied to his clothing and skin to kill any bugs he may be carrying on his person. Holly left him to it. She didn't much like hospitals. This whole situation reminded her too much of her mother.

She returned to Police Plaza. It was as busy as ever, but the atmosphere was much more subdued. Their Commander was having a minor breakdown, and one of their own was in a critical condition in HGH. To top it all off, the blast walls around Haven had been lowered. The city was in official quarantine.

Holly strode into the Ops Booth without knocking. Foaly was sitting in his specially customised swivel chair, tapping away at his computer.

"Tell me we have something" Holly said, praying to whatever gods were listening that it was something good. Something curable.

"Hello Foaly, how are you? Carrot, Foaly? Why, yes, thank you, don't mind if I do" he retorted, standing and trotting over to her side. She massaged her temples.

"I don't have time to babysit your ego right now Foaly."

The centaur snorted.

"No Commander ever does."

Holly looked up sharply at his words.

"Commander?"

He nodded.

"In view of current circumstances, the Council has granted Kelp compassionate leave. They've elected you Acting Commander."

He pressed the golden badge into her palm.

"Congratulations."

Holly stared at the pin in her hand. Commander. True, she'd fantasized about this, about showing those corporate high-ups that females could be just as good LEP officers as males, but now she found that she didn't want it. Not like this, not under these circumstances. Not if it meant that this nightmare situation was actually real. She gulped and pinned the badge to her lapel. It was about what was best for the People, wasn't that what Root had said? Right now, the People needed someone in charge. She hoped it got easier. If it continued at the breakneck pace she'd been improvising with all morning, she thought she'd snap under the pressure. Maybe that was why Root had yelled so much. Stress-relief.

She took a deep breath and looked at Foaly. He smiled and nodded at her proudly.

"What do we have?" she asked again. If he noticed the slight crack in her voice, he didn't comment on it.

"I've got the blood test results from Grub and the others."

He opened the file on the computer and transferred the feed to the large plasma screen. Holly read it twice quickly, then swore under her breath.

"Get me a shuttle to the surface, Foaly. Now."

"Where?"

She looked at him exasperatedly.

"Where do you think?"

Artemis was bored. Ever since the time-travelling fiasco three months ago, his life had been incredibly dull. His mother, after hearing exactly what he had been up to for the last six years, had refused to let him out of her sight. It was stifling.

When it got to the point where you needed to risk your life to have fun, thought Artemis, you needed to re-evaluate your priorities. He checkmated the computer easily. It was on the hardest mode. Really. Myles could beat it. He set up the game again, and sacrificed a few pawns on purpose in an attempt to make the game harder. It didn't work. It still wasn't enough to distract him from his thoughts.

It wasn't the risk he was missing. He was quite happy without the danger he had been in periodically for the last few years. It was the adventure he wanted, and the company that it brought. Or maybe it was just the company.

Holly had been stuck belowground since the whole Opal-escaping-the-kraken incident, so he hadn't seen her in months. He'd attempted to call her a few times, and had managed to discern that she'd been promoted to Major, but she was so busy that none of their conversations had lasted longer than two minutes. All the major events in his teenage years had involved Holly in some way or other. She was his best friend, and he missed her.

He closed the chess programme and opened his email account. Holly may not have time to talk, but perhaps she'd find time to write. To his surprise, there was an email waiting for him. It was off Holly, labelled 'Urgent'. He suppressed a groan. Why did she only contact him when the whole of civilisation was under threat?

The message read:

'Artemis,

I need your help. I'm on my way up to you now; I should be there in an hour or so. Get that big brain of yours warmed up, this may be beyond even your capabilities.

Holly.'

Artemis sat back in his chair. That did not sound good. He glanced at the computer clock. Holly had sent the email an hour ago. She'd be here soon. He stood and checked his reflection in the window. His hair was a mess. He ran his fingers through it, trying to flatten it a little, and made it worse.

"Vanity, Mud Boy?"

He span around too quickly, and caught himself on the desk to stop from falling over.

"Holly. How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough."

Her tone was teasing, but her expression was tired. Artemis frowned.

"Holly? Are you alright?"

She sighed and fingered her lapel.

"No, Artemis, I'm not. But that's the least of our worries. Where's Butler? I don't want to explain this twice."

"He's in the kitchen, but..."

Holly turned her back and left before he could finish. He stood stunned for a couple of seconds, wondering what was wrong. What could be this bad? He hadn't seen Holly look this exhausted since Root had died. He followed her downstairs and found Butler handing her a steaming cup of camomile tea. She thanked him and sank into the nearest chair. Butler sat opposite her and gestured to the badge on her lapel.

"Promotion, Captain?"

"Major" Artemis interceded. In the fuss his mother had created, he'd forgotten to tell Butler.

"Commander" Holly said quietly. Both humans stared at her.

"Congratulations" Butler said warily. She hadn't sounded happy when she'd made the announcement. She nodded.

"Thanks."

There was silence for several seconds. Artemis leant against the kitchen table facing Holly.

"What's wrong?"

She sighed and pushed the untouched tea onto the table.

"Gentlemen, we have a problem."

Trouble entered the IC unit and sat gingerly on the end of his brother's bed. Grub didn't stir, probably due to the IV drip sending sedative into his bloodstream. Trouble touched his hand gently.

Holly finished explaining about the party and the attack, and sat back. She took a long drink of her tea, which by now was barely lukewarm. Artemis sat in the chair to her left.

"I still don't know why you need me. Surely the magic will heal them?"

Holly shook her head miserably.

"The beings that attacked them were carrying a virus."

She ran a hand through her hair, mussing it almost as badly as Artemis's.

"The virus feeds on magic. It drains the host's powers, giving them severe withdrawal symptoms. One of these is anaemia."

Trouble brushed his thumb down the back of his brother's hand. It turned out that he kind of liked it when Grub whined.

"The host's biology changes as the virus takes over. When the magic is all but gone, it drives the host to infect someone else."

The IV drip in Grubs wrist came loose under Trouble's touch. Grub shifted slightly.

"It's passed on via a bite."

Artemis was looking at Holly oddly. She frowned.

"What?"

"This sounds a lot like a human myth."

"So does San D'Klass."

"Fair point Ca...Commander. But this one is more disturbing."

Grub's eyes opened. His pupils focussed on the figure sitting by his knees.

"Vampirism" Holly interrupted, nodding. "It's the human term for it."

Artemis took a breath and leaned forward in his chair.

"What do you need from me?"

Holly stared straight into his mismatched eyes. Under different circumstances, it might have been romantic.

"Up until now, there hasn't been any real need for a cure. Not that there is one. Even Koboi couldn't find one. But it hasn't really been an issue, a few isolated incidents, no real prevalence."

"But now you have an Intensive Care unit full of infected fairies, and it is a problem" Butler comprehended.

"A huge problem" Holly agreed. "They're all sedated, and are being given sim-blood to slow the progression of the infection, but it's not going to help ultimately. The virus is fatal."

Trouble stood to leave. He couldn't sit here all day and watch his brother sleep. He didn't notice the misplaced IV drip until he'd moved, and by then it was too late. Grub launched himself at his brother, growling. His irises had turned red.

"Fatal" Artemis repeated.

"Yes, Mud Boy, fatal. As in, they will all die" Holly snapped at him. Artemis realised only then how badly she was taking this. She'd called him 'Mud Boy', which she only did when she was teasing him or when she was mad at him. Right now, judging by the spite in her voice, it was definitely the latter. He decided not to take it personally. She'd had a lot of pressure heaped on her with this incident occurring and she had an officer in the IC unit, dying. She didn't mean to be cruel to him. At least, he hoped she didn't.

"In the human myths, vampires are immortal."

"I didn't say they'd die quickly, did I? They can live for up to a decade with this, though the withdrawal symptoms start immediately. Add into that that the fairy longevity prevents us from aging and you have the origins of your myth."

Artemis got up and started pacing. This was partly because it helped him think better, and partly to get out of range of Holly's fists. She hadn't hit him yet, but from her tone she soon would be. Butler decided to leave them to it, and took Holly's now empty cup to the sink. He couldn't help much in this situation until they actually got down to action. Besides, sometimes he thought that Holly's fists were the only things keeping Artemis's ego within normal bounds.

Trouble had always beaten Grub at any physical activity, but this time was different. Trouble was pinned to the floor under his brother's weight, and he couldn't move. He struggled, and got a cuff to the head for his efforts. Seeing stars, he was helpless to prevent Grub's teeth from closing around his shoulder.

Yeah, okay, so this was kind of just setting the scene, but I tried to put a little action in there for you as well. Let me know what you think about the split paragraph technique, and I can change it if you don't like it or if it's confusing.
Love Liris and Skullduck
xxx