Chapter 2
Commander Root was not happy. He usually isn't, but this time he wasn't furious. He wasn't going to yell, it wasn't in the plan, anyway. But the night was young and Foaly, the genius centaur wasn't going to miss an opportunity to show off his brain power.
"All right. I've blown up an image from the olden days, managed to make it clear as day, and for our purposes I gathered up all the old reports in under a minute. How about that Julius?" Commander grinded his teeth on his cigar. Using an incredible amount of willpower, he didn't scream in Foaly's face.
"Don't call me Julius. In case you've been too busy playing with your genius inventions. We have a situation on our hands."
"I sense your sarcasm Commander. You should really consider-" Holly then entered the room. Commander Root gestured at a chair. "Sit down, it's going to be a long story." Captain Short (surprisingly) did as she was told, and sat down. Commander Root began.
"All right. First off, people like that girl haven't existed since before my time. There's only a few dozen reports on them. I'm surprised there's any images at all." Holly and Foaly listened intensely. The picture on the screen showed a Mud Man, he stared curiously at them.
"Some Mud Men aren't effected by the Mesmer. Flat out, nothing. They show absolutely no sign of bending, no matter how hard you push." Holly nodded.
"Second, they see through our shields. They don't just notice the glimmer, they see us. These reasons may seem unimportant. Who's going to believe the lunatic raving about fairies? Well, a few of the reports say something quite interesting. In the presence of one of these Mud Men, other people can see us as well. I don't know if they have to be in direct contact, or something, it's unclear. As for the Mesmer, it's believed that other people can become immune to it as well. How? We don't know, all we know is that these people have something to do with it. Again, our ancestors were too busy figuring out what to do."
"What did they do?" Holly asked. Commander Root sighed. "What could they do? The best they managed was to stay away from these humans as much as possible. They were rare back then, and we became more cautious. There's a bunch of theories that they actually had magic. Not very realistic of course. And for the past few hundreds of years there have been none of these Mud Men. So we had no chance to come up with a better plan. No we have start fresh. But what I wanna know Holly, is why you didn't pick her up on the motion sensor?" Holly sat right up, ready to defend herself.
"The helmet didn't pick her up." Foaly snorted.
"Sure, blame it on the equipment. Holly you were too busy enjoying the breeze aboveground."
"And why didn't you warn me?" Holly asked. Foaly had actually been too busy watching a human soap opera. He shuffled uncomfortably. He make up an excuse saying that the girl wasn't moving sufficiently enough for the sensors to pick it up. Which Commander Root would surely have a laugh about, especially considering how much time Foaly spent bragging about his inventions. Or, he could tell the truth.
"Isn't paying attention supposed to be your job Holly?" It was a weak come back. Holly snorted.
"Aren't you the brilliant technical genius? Keeping tabs on everything?" Commander Root stepped in.
"All right enough you too. I want no mention of this to anyone. Foaly, the only reason you knew about this before hand was because you were shoving your face in the classified files. And Holly, you just got lucky. You're gonna be the one to keep tabs on this girl. You have permission to speak to her, but make sure she never suspects the truth. If possible convince her she's dreaming. Make her trust you. Now I'm trusting you to obey orders."
Commander Root then sat back in his chair, he groaned. He just realized what he said. Holly sat straight up in her chair, she would show Commander Root just what she was made of.