Chapter 2
When Artemis walked through Haven, he realized that almost everyone was Holly's height. Looking at them, he felt extremely tall which made him feel extremely proud that he was of a larger race. They way that they looked, he could probably break them with his bare hands. As much as he felt proud to be taller than The People however, he hated the fact that they looked at him with such fear and hatred for being who he was and he was pretty sure that they didn't know he was looking them up yet.
Then he felt something hit his back. He touched the area and his hand came back with something red and gooey on it. He smelled it, just to confirm his suspicions. And it was. He had just been thrown at with a tomato. His eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared. He looked at Holly, who seemed to not know what was going on. "Who did that?" he snarled to her. Holly looked at him inquisitively. "Who did what?" she asked back with what Artemis saw was a genuine expression. "Who-" he was cut off when another tomato hit him smack in the middle of his face. Holy laughed and Artemis glared at her. "That is not Funny, Captain Short. This is the most disrespectful and humiliating thing I have ever been through," he all but yelled at her. Of all places, he had to have been embarrassed in front of a completely different species in a place where he didn't even know. He couldn't wait for this little adventure to be over and to return to his perfectly respectable, honorable life as a criminal mastermind. Ok, well more like a not so respectable, honorable life but he was doing what all Fowls did before him. He didn't regret it one bit. He did what he needed to do to keep his family name flying high.
Suddenly he was surrounded by an onslaught of tiny, Holly-sized people throwing hundreds of tomatoes at him, slowing crowding closer around him until he was completely surrounded by them. Then the attack stopped. They all just stood there and stared at him like statues. He didn't move. He barely dared to breathe. Then the dumbest thing that he has ever spoken in his entire life came out of his lips, "Hello." Then everything was in a giant uproar. All the The People in the group surrounding him attacked. Artemis felt probably thousands of slaps, punches, kicks and even the occasional tackle to the floor. 'Dear God,' he thought, 'would this hell ever end?'
Holly was dumbfounded. Right here in the middle of Haven was almost all of the people tackling the Mudboy. And their only actual valid reason was that he was human and that they needed to prove that they were not an insignificant race. Even that excuse was on shaky ground and everyone was definitely going to take a few days in the slammer at least. Then she got back all her sense and ran at the crowd, intending to get them off Artemis. Which was almost impossible considering the fact that she was one person and there was about two hundred people there. So she did the only thing that an LEP Recon officer who is outnumbered can do. She pulled out a whistle, blew it and yelled, "Get off the Mudboy now or all of you are serving a life sentence!" then, before she could blink, the place was a ghost town with only her and Artemis. He looked at her. "Well, I learned my lesson for thinking that I could snap them in two with my bare hands, didn't I ?" he said, grinning foolishly. He looked like he had a nosebleed and his clothes was ruined but aside from that, he seemed fine. Holly laughed. Even though he was injured, he still had his humour intact so she was guessing his mind was working just fine. She winked at him and said, " We are pretty feisty people."
Then off they went. A few twists, turns and roads later, they arrived at the LEP Recon building. Holly took in a deep breath. She put on a serious face and said in a comically polite voice, " Artemis Fowl, prepare for your doom." He tensed and looked at her with a face full of pure business, even though his eyes belied his fear. Her face softened and she said in a gentle voice, 'Don't worry. I'm sure Commander Root wont actually kill you."
He gave her a tight lipped smile and he said, " I'm not worried. I am one of the smartest humans on earth and believe me, if I can survive humans, I can definitely survive what you throw at me."
Even though Holly seriously doubted it, she just nodded her head and opened the door to the LEP Recon building feeling way more apprehensive about Artemis meeting Commander Root than Artemis was about meeting his 'doom'.
