Here's chapter 3. Again, I hope you like it.
I DON't OWN ARTEMIS FOWL OR ANY OTHER RELATED CHARACTERS © Eoin Colfer
Chapter 3: Double the doubled trouble
Section Eight, Downtown Haven
Holly Short was on her way to Section Eight's operation room, or more precisely, Foaly's office, accompanied by Mulch Diggums. She had just recieved a message from him on her helmet a few moments ago. The message said it was urgent, but Holly doubted it was urgent. Maybe the paranoid centaur just wanted her to see a new invention, or maybe just wanted a box of fresh carrots, but she learned to never ignore him, because ignoring him would mean chaos of everyone. Holly turned a corner and saw Wing Commander Vinyaya also walking in the same direction Holly was. She reached up to her.
"Did you get a message from Foaly too?" Holly asked, looking at her.
"Yes Captain," Said Wing Commander Vinyaya, looking extremely grave. "I just hope it isn't what I think it is."
"What happ-" Holly began, but was cut short by the sound of trotting hoofs, and realized that Foaly the centaur joined them.
"Hey Foaly," She said, waving at the centaur. "What happened?"
"Oh, hi Holly." He said, looking flabbergasted. "I'll explain when we're at my office..."
Mulch spoke up. "It would be nice to explain now, pony boy."
Foaly ignored him. The four of them turned another corner and arrived at Foaly's place. The office was full of gadgets of nanotechnology and a few boxes with carrots. Clearly there was something seriously wrong because once Holly looked at Foaly's screens, she saw that there was a message that filled the whole room. Breakout from Howler's Peak was what the screen read. Holly thought her breath had run out. A breakout? How could there be? No one had ever broken out from Howler's Peak...
"So, is that it?" Holly asked, pointing at the screens.
"Yeah, and more than that, I'm afraid." Foaly said, firing up his computers.
"Who broke out, Foaly?" Wing Commander Vinyaya said, sitting on a nearby chair.
"You won't believe who. I'm so amazed that person managed to get out of that place and flee,... I can't believe they outsmarted me!"
"Get on with it," Mulch muttered.
"Foaly!" Both females said loudly.
"Fine! Sorry. The escaped convicts are Opal Koboi and those twins, the Brill brothers."
"What!" Holly exploded, slamming her fist on a nearby computer.
"Whoa! watch it with these beauties! Especially that one!" Foaly exclaimed, shielding his computer from Holly's fist.
"Captain Short, please do calm yourself!" The Commander said, looking scandalized, but Holly could tell that she was approving of her reaction.
"Yeah, Holly. You haven't had lunch yet and already angry!" Mulch exclaimed.
"Are you sure she broke out? Because I just can't see how she did it." Holly said, taking deep breaths, ignoring Mulch. "We're talking about Howler's Peak!"
"Yes, she did, but I'm still amazed that she managed to do it, and especially because of her state. But I bet you that she didn't use any magic, ans she can't have because after taking the Human Growth Hormone, she lost her magic humanizing herself."
"I know that, but how did she do it without using magic? For all we know, she could." Holly mused, still angry.
"I have a theory, but I don't even believe it!" Foaly turned to his computers and looked at a empty cell.
"Do me a favor, and do mention it."
"I wouldn't believe it too, Foaly, but I trust you now, unless you believe me that I never took your hoof moistureizer..." Mulch grinned.
"Shut up, Mulch!" Holly hissed.
"So what's the unbelievable theory, Mr. Foaly?" The Wing Commander asked, ignoring Mulch's jibe.
"You two remember when Chix Verbil was made to guard Opal's cell since she was arrested after finding her in Italy?" He mused.
"Yes."
"Well, I think he had something to do with this..."
"Chix, help Opal?" Holly snorted. "Chix would never betray us, would he?"
"No, he would never, but he might have helped her against his own will, if you actually think about it." Foaly resumed, turning to both females.
"So you think that..." Holly began.
"Opal somehow managed to mesmer Chix. And she knows it's against the rules of the Book." Foaly finished for her, looking unhappy.
"But, Foaly, didn't you say that she didn't have a drop of magic left?" Wing Commander Vinyaya contemplated, biting her lower lip.
"At first, that's what everyone thought, even Opal herself, but apparently she had some stored magic hidden in her that she didn't realize she had until she mesmered Chix." Foaly explained. "But it wasn't much left. She's completely drained."
"So Koboi mesmerised Verbil to free her and the Brill brothers without being unnoticed? Please tell me your cameras got that." The Commander said hopefully.
"Yep, I got that on tape, and you can see it one frame per second!"
And with that melodramatic end, Foaly showed both female elfs the triple escape. At first, there was Chix, showing off to Koboi, who apparently seemed to be enjoying it, even though she was acting. Then for a second, Chix stopped doing whatever he was doing and looked at Opal as if he were being hipnotized. Apparently, Opal attempted the mesmer, and it seemed it was doing effect on him, and after two second, he pressed the code to her cell,and before she got out, she shielded. Holly could see she was doing that because of some little haze of sparkles that surrounded her silhoutte, and then they headed to the Brills' cell, which was right next to hers. Verbil did the same thing as he did with Koboi's and they were free.
"Foaly..." Holly began, never taking her eyes off Opal. "Why didn't she notice the cameras?"
"Talking about that..."
Unexpectedly, Opal took a set of Hummingbird wings and a Neutrino from Chix's back, and flew to where the cameras were. She looked at one of them, smiled nastily, waved at it, and fired a single shot from the Neutrino, directed at the lens. They lost visual.
"Smooth, Pony boy." Mulch grinned.
"Well...for the question now is, where is she?" Vinyaya asked, folding her arms.
"Well, there are two shutes that left around the time after she escaped," He opened another program on his precious computers, and his eyes scanned aound a list. "Yeah, chutes E17 and E39."
"And those lead to..." Mulch waved his hands.
"E17 goes to Mexico, E39 heads to Austria. Happy?"
"It doesn't really help." Holly exclaimed.
"Well, I hope this does," Foaly tapped a few keys. "I take you know our favorite criminal mastermind, now a nice Mud Boy, Artemis Fowl won a trip to Mexico?" He raised his eyebrows.
"Oh dear." Mulch whistled.
"That helps now." Vinyaya explained, getting to her feet. "Well, I have to go now. And keep me informed about this, Foaly."
With that, she waved at them, and left, holsting her Neutrino.
"Anyway, that was the easy part, but the problem is that chute E17 is divided."
The elf and dwarf looked confused.
"You see, once the chute arrives somewhere near the country, it takes two separate ways, one that lead to the Federal District, where Mexico City is, and the other is Cancún."
"Why?"
"Well, everybody loves Cancún. Those blissful beaches, and the sun... It's paradise for fairies there who're looking for some relaxation."
"No," Holly explained. "Why is it divided in two?"
"Oh, according to some of the information I know, the chute was divided about two hundred years ago, in the XIV century, when that chute was created. The blueprints to that specifically instructed Mexico City as the target, but apperently, as a joke, some funny dwarf,," He shot a nasty look at Mulch, who looked guilty. "Thought it's be funny if he made another fake blueprint, directed to Cancún. Obviously, people fell for it, and the next thing they know, there are two separate paths to that country, and it makes the chute's functions go haywire, which is way I constructed a navigating system on all the chutes that leave to that country."
"So it was all part of a prank?" Holly looked astounded. "And you were behind it?" She looked at Mulch, who nodded.
"I was just wondering if your techies would notice that the blueprint was a fake, and besides, didn't they check the numbers? They were all a bunch of random calculations, and they fell for it."
"And they didn't help at all." Foaly reasoned.
"So, where is she? and Artemis?"Holly said.
"I'm not exactly sure, Artemis didn't leave any traces at all, but I might have an idea." Foaly sighed. "There were two chutes that went into those two ways. And maybe one of them was a decoy, judging her style, but I can't be sure. It'll take me a few moments to figure it out, but I think that little guy would help me out a bit. If only our communications wasn't cut..."
"What little guy?"
"Oh, I must've forgotten to mention it, but Opal kidnapped No1, that little adorable warlock."
"Oh great, now who's going to save him with a megalomaniac killer on the loose?" Holly wondered.
Judging by the look on their faces looking knowingly at her made her know who the savior was going to be. She wasn't looking at them directly, but she felt their eyes over her.
"You've got to be kidding!" She answered sarcastically. "You want me to save No1 and save Artemis too?"
"Well, not at the same time, maybe, but yes, they're connected in this mess, but don't worry, I'll help you out as soon as I know where they're at. But for now, I think that Fowl is in Cancún, so that's probably where she is. Hiding, at any rate."
Holly wasn't happy about the idea. She always had to save the Mud Boy, but this time, it wasn't because of something he did, and he was in danger again. She remembered rather vividly when Opal had tried to kill Artemis with a bio-bomb, almost killing him and his manservant, Butler, but thankfully, she had been there to heal Artemis's broken ribs, and filled him with the memories he had lost because of Foaly's memory wipe. Holly had to admit, but it had been a close one. She wasn't even sure she could save them this time.
"Before I forget..." Foaly said, looking at her. "Arty has some company. The Butler sibling, some American cousin, and two girlfriends." He snickered at the last two words.
"Who are the last three people?" She asked, ignoring the word 'girlfriends'.
"Again, I hacked into innocent Arty's computer and I figured out who the people were. Okay," He breathed and opened a window with the picture of a teenage boy with dirty blond hair and green eyes. "This is Gregory Paradizo, 14, and he's an American teen visiting Minerva," He showed a picture of Minerva. "Who happens to be his cousin. And then," He tapped another key, and a teen girl with black-brown hair and dark brown eyes appeared, smiling a dazzling smile. "There's Alison Gallegos. 14 also. Another American, but born out of Mexican parents, of mixed heritage between Spanish and Mexican. It rather explains her looks." He looked at the girl. "She's rather pretty,"
"For once, I agree with you, donkey boy," Mulch summarized. "She's pretty for a Mud Girl."
"Too pretty, in fact," Holly reacted, looking at the girl. There was something about her eyes that made Holly look at her for more than ten seconds. It seemed familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on it. "But who cares if we got Opal on the loose?"
"You got a point on that."
"Do Greg and Alison know each other?" Holly wondered after a few seconds of consideration.
"Now that you mention it, they do." Foaly looked impressed. "You see, they both go to the same school since seventh grade, and they live in a little town called Marthasville, somewhere in Missouri, back in the States."
"Okay, that was just something I was wondering. So when is the next flare ready?"
"The next one is programmed for tomorrow, but I'll make sure you get one before tomorrow, how about that? Tonight at the latest."
"Yeah, that's great," Holly looked depressed for a second.
"Something wrong?" Foaly looked at her with concerned eyes.
"Facing Koboi again just makes me feel..." Holly tried to explain, but she couldn't. She felt that thirst for vengeance she felt when Koboi had assasinated Commander Julius Root, but at the same time, she felt a mixture of anger and, could it be? Fear? No, it couldn't be fear. Hollly Short was known for not fearing fear. Holly just couldn't explain it to herself, so she didn't need to finish her sentence. Foaly seemed to know what was going on her mind.
"Holly, you'll be alright. I know you. You're strong, both inside and out. You'll beat her again, don't worry..." He patted her gently on the shoulder, walking out of his office, leaving Holly. Foaly looked back from his office door. "Sorry, but I have to go and warn the techies about this. I'll see you later." He left, trotting.
"Hey, Holly, don't worry, I'll go with you if it makes you feel any better!" Mulch said excitedly.
Holly smiled.
"Are you sure you're feeling better, Holly?" Foaly whispered to Holly.
"Yeah, I'm better, thanks." Holly responded, looking fierce.
She was on her way to chute E17 with the company of Mulch and Foaly, and some pizza-crazed goblin had held her up mere moments ago, offering her a piece of pizza. The impudent goblin wouldn't let her go until she punched him on the nose. She didn't want to do it but she had to, as seeing this was an emergency, but hopefully, with Mulch at her side (Doodah Day had taken a little vacation to the city of Atlantis as a reward for doing a great job on his duties.) she hoped that things would become easier. The goblin looked annoyed and left, giving her dark looks, and nasty swear words were followed, and then did he began to sing the pizza song after being thirty feet away.
As Holly and Mulch neared closer, they could get a glimpse of a pod sitting in a clamp. The pod seemed to be bigger than the normal ones, but it was probably made for Section Eight workers. The black matté color might have given it away.
"Yeah, it's supposed to look like that," Foaly quipped after Holly asked him why it was rather large. "It's made for two people, and you're going with..." He wrinkled his nose.
"Foaly, when are you going to understand that I'm a healthy essence of a male for the females? I am rather attractive after all." Mulch responded, huffing his chest.
"Yes, but next time, please take a shower!" Foaly erupted sarcastically. "If you even know what that is!"
Holly chuckled. Mulch and Foaly. You never got tired of their babbling.
"Yeah, but he smells worst than last time," He murmured, eyeing the dwarf. "Just make sure that you don't throw up on him on your way."
"Hey, I heard that!" Mulch glanced at both of them reproachfully.
Holly burst out laughing, and looked the pod. Well, she thought, time for me to save Artemis and the world...again.
They got in, and Foaly helped them with the strappings of their seats. Well, he didn't help Mulch, as seing that he smelled so bad for the People to get close to him.
"Well, are you two ready?"
Both nodded, and Holly asked one last question.
"I just remembered, is that navigating system connected to your computers?"
"Oh yes, I didn't forget that detail. With this system and a few fixer uppers, you'll get to Cancún safe and sound. I'll directly order the pod to go that way, but you'll have to work the controls, since it can get a little rough."
"Impresssive," Holly commented.
"I know." Foaly breathed.
"Well, I don't care how impressive that is," Mulch said. "You said Cancún is a beach. And beaches usually have a bright sun shining over them."
"So?" Holly and Foaly repeated together.
"The sun! Dwarf skin is very sensible! I can't get sunburned! I need sun block!" He started to look for some histerically.
"Oh yes, I wouldn't want to ruin your chances with the ladies. Here," He said, throwing him a black suit. "Instead of using that ghastly thing you call sun block, you can use the suit. It protects you from anything your skin is sensible to. What it does is memorize your flesh and it works only for your type of skin, and works useless for anyone else that wears it,"
"Oh, joy!" Mulch put on the black suit.
"I think you're supposed to say something to me, Mulchie." Foaly said.
"Oh, yeah, go away, we're in a hurry," Mulch grinned. The centaur pouted.
"You're welcome." He responded unhappily. "Bye Holly." Saying that, he left in a trot. Holly knew he was on his way to his precious computers, ready to lead them on the way.
In ten minutes, Foaly spoke to them through the speakers in front of Holly.
"Okay, you two ready?" He asked, his voice sounding as if though he were still next to Holly.
"Yes."
"Alrighty, you two better put on your helmets, there might be a bit of pressure on your way, but I doubt you'll need them, but still, let's not take any risks. Especially brain fluid risks."
Both Mulch and Holly did as asked and in less than a second, the pod moved downward. Holly could have sworn that her stomach had moved out of place for a second.
"Oops, sorry," Foaly said. "Didn't mean to. Okay, here we go. Holly, take the controls, you'll be doing the first part."
Holly took hold of the joysticks. Again,out of nowhere, the pod moved, but this time it fell into the magma flares below them. Holly could feel the force of gravity as it pulled them downward. Holly thought that they might not make it upward, as seeing this was a lot faster than the usual pods.
"Okay Holly," Foaly yelled. "Now!"
Holly moved the joysticks to her desired direction, and at that moments, a surge of magma and pyroclastic material forced them upward. Holly moved to the right at the sight of a gigantic rock. They almost clashed with it, but thank God Holly was the best for this kind of job.
"Sweetums, you're almost there!" Foaly presented.
She would've responded, but she could barely move her lips. All her skin was being pulled to the back of her head, looking almost comical.
At last, they felt themselves slowing down. They were being carried by hot air and some small amount of gas. Holly could see that there were two ways upward, one to the right, the other to the left. She thought that slowing down wouldn't help, and then she heard Foaly, but couldn't distinguish what he was saying due to the roar. All she heard was 'turning to the left.' and indeed he did. The pod took a fierce pull toward the left side and again, they were pushed upward by the hot gas and rock particles.
In less than five minutes they reached the landing bay.
"Never again am I riding that hell of a thing!" Mulch said as soon as they got out. "Too much force."
"Well, your force is slightly stronger than that." Holly chuckled.
"Yes, but I can control mine if I want to. Anyway, halfway I could've sworn my skin was being pulled out of my face!"
"I can imagine, Mulch." Holly stared at the flatulent dwarf. He looked rather annoyed.
They arrived at some sort of minijungle without the wild animals and plants. Not so far away they could notice a building with blinding lights in the dark night. Very few stars covered the night.
"Holly, can you hear me?" A voice came to her earpiece.
"Yeah, Foaly, copy," She responded, looking around. "Where exactly are we?"
"Isla Mujeres. It's not far from Cancún, like right next to it. All you have to do is fly and warn little Arty. Not too difficult."
"I know, it's so simple I can't believe how easy it is!" She answered sarcastically. "What do we do now?"
"Well, just wait for a few hours till I get some info." Foaly suggested. "You can camp out if you want, but you might have to tell him no earlier than tomorrow. Don't worry, I'll warn you."
"Okay, thanks Foaly." She answered back, and cut him off. She needed some sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day. Especially saving six humans and a warlock from three pixies, one which happened to be an assasin.
So? Are you liking it? Who knows what Opal plans and how No1 is involved, but if you'd like to find out, keep reading and waiting for later chapters.
Again, thank you for taking your time into reading my work and please do RATE and REVIEW, as that would get my motivation going into putting my best effort to please the readers of this fic.
