He cried out in pain and after his vision returned to order looked up again, "Ow, that hurt." He said rubbing his nose and looking at himself. Then he sighed, stood up and said, "There are only two reasons why I would be looking at myself, one this is a clone or two, Captain Short and I have switched bodies. Since this Artemis is taller, I assumed I am now in Captain Short's body." He said all this while he listened to Holly's voice.
"You bet your annoying behind I'm in your body and it's all your fault!" His body shouted at him, besides the voice thoroughly sounding like Captain Short.
"I have a question, how did this happen?" Commander Root asked.
"Its quite simple Commander, you see the device created by Opal was not a deneuronizer, it was a…you could call it a body swapper if you must. I assume Opal was making backup plans, just in case her and Cudgeon's little scheme didn't work. I think she was going to switch out of her body as a last resort, but she was captured before she was able to complete the swap with someone else. Unfortunately when I was trying to repair the damage made by Foaly or someone else retrieving the device, I wasn't electrocuted, because whatever powered the thing wasn't electricity. I assume the power source was actually the beam itself. Thus, the beam was hitting me through one of the wires. Captain Short, trying to save my life, also was affected by the beam, causing our neurons to be switched and thus our consciousnesses." Artemis told all of them.
"Oh." Was all Commander Root said.
"It's quite a predicament, but fascinating none the less." Artemis said.
"Fascinating! Fascinating! Oh, I'll show you fascinating." Holly shouted through his body, raising her fist again.
Butler grabbed her arm and said, "I have to protect both of you now since Artemis's mind is in your body and you are in Artemis's body. I cannot allow you to harm Artemis in any way and that includes your body right now."
Holly frowned and then lowered her arm, "Fine."
Just as soon as she did Foaly came galloping in, medics scampering after him a few seconds later.
"I have the medics! I have the medics!" Foaly shouted.
"About time." Commander Root commented.
" They were playing stinkworm poker and they had their communicators off." He told everyone and then glaring at the three warlocks.
"We were busy." One of them said huffy.
"Yeah, you were busy losing." Another one said, grinning.
"I was not losing, I was just putting your guard down before I could come in and collect the entire pot." The first one replied.
"Yeah, sure, that's why you lost every hand." The third one said.
The first one pouted and was about to say something when Root bellowed, "Will you shut up!"
"Sorry Commander." They said in unison.
Foaly looked around and saw, who he thought was Holly, was on her feet. He ran over and scooped her up into his arms.
"Oh Holly, I thought you were dead!" He shouted.
Holly made a grunting noise associated with loss of oxygen.
Artemis behind him said, "Foaly, I didn't know you cared so much."
Foaly let Holly drop to the ground where she gasped for air. Then he whirled around to face Artemis, anger on his face.
"Oh, I don't care much about you mud boy. You, once again, almost got Holly here killed." He said.
Artemis's eyes widened as if he had never been talked to in such a way before and then said, "Foaly I'm…"
Butler cut Artemis or actually Holly off and said, "Commander, we're sorry, but we need to ask the medics to leave at this moment. As you can see, everyone here is…fine, but we have some private business to discuss. Business that should not reach the ears of the general public."
Foaly looked at Butler confused and Commander Root paused for only a moment until he said, "Yes, you're right. Medics, out, get out!"
The medics looked annoyed and offended, but they left just the same, most likely to return to their poker game.
Foaly turned to the Commander and then asked, "What was all that about?"
The Commander looked at Artemis and said, "Maybe you should explain."
"Not me, Artemis is the one who knows the exact details. I'm just the victim." Artemis said.
Foaly was now completely confused, "Wait, what?"
Holly stood up after regaining her breadth and then looked at Foaly, there was something in her eyes that hadn't been there before, something…bad.
"Quite simply Foaly, the device that I was fooling around with was not deneuronizer, it was a body swapper. I believe that Opal was going to use it for her escape if necessary, but that's another story. Anyway, when I was trying to repair it I was hit by the beam and so was Captain Short. Therefore our consciousnesses were switched, which is to say our minds." Holly said, sounding a lot like Artemis.
Foaly's mouth opened wide, but no sound came out for several moments, then he said, "So…you swapped bodies. So you're Artemis." He then pointed to Holly's body.
"Yes, that is correct." Artemis in Holly said.
Foaly turned to Artemis's body and said, "And you're Holly."
Holly nodded and said, "Yeah, unfortunately."
Foaly looked at the two of them wide eyed for several moments and then burst out laughing.
