A/N
This chapter annoyed me so much. Ironically it's a lot sooner than the last update. But i suck at dialogue and i can't find a beta, any volenteers?
Please review, it will keep me uploading.
Foaly had lost Holly. She had no life signs. He could not pick up any reading from her shimmer suit or any of her other equipment. She was gone. Foaly wondered whether Artemis had done something to her or to her equipment. But it seemed unlikely. The two of them were good friends now.
He didn't even know how Artemis would have found out about the NBR. All information about it was kept on a highly secure terminal that he could not possibly access without directly interacting with the terminal. Foaly knew that he had to follow protocol and tell Commander Trouble that Holly was MIA possibly even KIA but that was a worst case scenario.
Foaly called the Commander from his op centre. The Commander answered.
"What is it, Foaly?" He said
"I've lost Holly," Foaly sighed, "I've no life signs or any signals from her equipment at all. Either she's been separated from her gear or…" He left the thought unfinished it was too painful to think that Holly could be dead, even if she had been having a strange amount of bad luck lately.
"Or dead?" Commander Trouble asked
"It's unlikely, but it is a possibility." Foaly sighed again. He ran a check for Holly's equipment again, he picked up nothing again. He ran a check on Fowl manor. He cracked into the security system and used Artemis's cameras to see what had happened in that house.
He saw Artemis being pushed into a kitchen chair by Holly. Butler was standing in the background with his back to a wall. Holly's lips moved but there was no sound. Artemis's lips moved in reply. He didn't see how Holly could have gone missing, Artemis was clearly cooperating.
He shifted to a different camera, all he saw was snow. He shifted again, Snow again. All of the cameras on the top floor showed nothing but snow. He switched back to the kitchen camera, he saw a blinding flash of light which obscured the scene. When the light was gone the camera showed nothing but snow.
"Foaly? You still there?" Trouble asked Foaly had left the line open.
"Yes, Trouble. You need to see this. I think that someone attacked Fowl manor."
"What? I'm coming down." He hung up
Foaly returned his attention to his screens and saw that the camera was now not showing snow. Instead Butler was slumped on the floor with his back against the wall, clearly unconscious. Holly and Artemis were gone.
Holly was awake. Artemis was still unconscious which she was thankful for because she was almost naked. Her shimmer suit had been removed, now she was in her underwear. So was Artemis. She was in a cell. It had cold concrete walls and floors, the single light bulb overhead was so bright it was almost blinding as it reflected from the walls into her eyes. It took seconds for her to develop a headache.
The cell door grates open and an elf walks in. It is only when she removes her helmet that Holly knows that it is a female elf. She has deep black hair that flows over her shoulders, she is the same height as Holly and her eyes are the exact same colour.
"Who are you?" Holly asked, "You can't kidnap an LEP officer." Holly looked down at the unconscious Artemis, "why did you bring him?" The elf was unresponsive; she simply presented Holly with a new shimmer suit and a new weapon. After she had quickly dressed she examined the rifle.
Holly had never seen its like before, it was a small blue rifle that fit tight to her shoulder as she held it up to test the sights. It seemed far more advanced than even the newest neutrino that the LEP were developing.
"Follow me," the elf said dropping a brand new suit on the floor of the cell, Holly assumed that it was for Artemis. Holly followed the elf sure that she would not have given a captive a weapon without knowing that there was no possible means of escape. Her suit felt amazing. She felt it as it sucked the lights for the surroundings. This explained the overly bright lights.
"Where did you get this tech?" Holly asked
"We made it. We've been waiting for this moment for some time." The elf waved her up a flight of stairs. Holly was intrigued, what was it that they had been waiting for? What did they want with Artemis and her? Even though they were captives Holly felt safe, it was a weird feeling for the captain as she was more accustomed to feeling fear and usually anger.
As the two elves climbed the stair case Holly tried asking more questions, but the elf leading her was tight lipped about everything that Holly asked. She had obviously earned her title of Commander. They came to the top of the stairs and instantly Holly saw the gigantic glass window that held back several thousand litres of water. She was astounded that she had never heard of this place, but then fairies were good at keeping secrets.
Holly only managed to pull her eyes from the window when she heard a familiar voice.
"Captain Holly Short!" Root boomed, "Welcome…"
"Root? But you're dead." Holly said, "I watched you die."
"Ah, that's a long story better saved for a later date." Root said, "Allow me to explain why you're here. We have been following Opal Koboi's movements-"
"She can't move, she in Atlantis"
"No, she isn't. Let me explain. Young Opal cloned Artemis and Butler. She then used Artemis to plan an escape for her older self. Artemis kidnapped the original Butler and replaced him with the clone.
"Wait, is Opal free or not, I haven't heard any of this."
"Opal is free, she has gone into hiding with her younger self and her clones." Holly escort said
"Felicity is right," Root said, "We-"
"Don't call me Felicity! Damn it! You know I hate it!"
Root continued, ignoring the interruption, "-have been tracking incidents that could be here doing. We were also keeping a eye on Artemis and the Clone in Fowl Manor. The reason you haven't heard about this that Opal is still in her cell as far as the LEP are concerned. We don't know how, but we believe that Artemis was able to inject a guard with something, the guard was left unconscious and his features began to resemble Opal almost instantly."
"Sounds like something Artemis would do." Holly said
At that moment Butler woke inside Fowl Manor. He instantly saw the bomb and knew that he could do nothing as he watched the counter tick down from 00:02 to 00:01. He was done, he knew it. But that didn't stop him from vaulting to his feet and attempting to run from the Manor.
He got a total of three steps before the bomb exploded and the manor was totally incinerated, Butler screamed as the Fire ball hit him. He was fired out of the manor as if from a cannon, His left arm was gone, his right leg was gone, his spinal cord was visible in his back, but he was still alive, somehow he had held on to the tiny amount of life he had left.
Foaly and Commander Trouble watched with horror as they saw the bomb explode on the camera, They saw Butler running and knew that he was as good as dead. The fireball engulfed the camera and they lost the feed.
"D'Arvit" Commander Trouble and Foaly said simultaneously
