Hey, I'm back! Sorry for the wait, I'll make up for it with four new OC's (let me know what you think of them?) adn a few extra-long chapters. How's that?
Skullduck: You know why she's late. It's because I wasn't there.
Me: *groans* He's back. There goes the tranquility.
Skullduck: Shut up. People missed me.
Me: yeah, right. *rolls eyes* Anyway, discalimer. I actually own stuff, whoop! The Guardian and the OC's are mine. The story idea belongs to AH4EVER, and everything else belongs to Eoin Colfer.
Six hours earlier
In the Ops Booth, Foaly was having a panic attack. He'd been monitoring Retrieval team's mission to Italy on the big screen, watching the normally calm Captain Vein completely lose his temper at Grub Kelp, who had apparently shot himself in the foot by accident. The centaur chuckled at the look on Grub's face. The Corporal uttered a string of excuses, the only word of which anyone could make out was 'Mummy'. This started Captain Vein off again, delivering a lecture about responsibility, intelligence, and Grub's lack thereof. Foaly decided at this point to leave them to it – the rest of the team would fill him in when they got back belowground – and check on Trouble and Holly. He had their data on a small side-screen, as they were only meeting Artemis. They were both professionals, and they were both armed to the teeth. What could go wrong?
Apparently, everything. As Foaly looked at the screen, all Trouble's vital signs flat-lined as one. Holly's stress levels spiked, then her life signs dropped to nothing also. Foaly was thrown back four years to the whole Zito-probe incident, and Julius's death. Not another Commander. Not Holly, not again. He snapped out of it, and pulled up the life-readings from their suits. Again, flat lines. A sob escaped his lips before he pulled himself together. They couldn't be gone, it wasn't possible. He reopened the channel to Captain Vein, who was still bellowing himself hoarse at Grub Kelp. Foaly interrupted him mid-rant, not caring about the breach of protocol and not even pausing to say hello. Vein jumped two feet in the air when the centaur began whinnying in his ear unexpectedly.
"Captain, we have a major problem. I need you and the entire Retrieval team to get over to Ireland, now!"
Captain Vein paled. The centaur was almost crying; what the hell had happened?
"Foaly? What's the emergency, what's going on?"
"If we're lucky, a major computer glitch."
Vein started his wings and led his troupe into the sky. This was not going to be good, he could feel it. If the technology-mad centaur was hoping that there was a fault in his system...
"And if we're not lucky?"
Foaly took two deep breaths to calm his nerves, then spoke almost in a whisper.
"The Commander's vital signs all just flat-lined. Captain Short's too."
The entire team sucked in a breath as one. This was bad; this was very, very bad.
LEP regulations stated that under no circumstances was a fairy to fly over any major human population. Nor were they supposed to fly too high or too quickly – the humans had radar now, and might mistake them for some sort of UFO. Vein ignored the rulebook completely and opened the throttle to maximum, streaking across the sky like lightning. The rest of the team followed, one of the junior elves comforting Grub, who had frozen at Foaly's words.
"It's going to be alright, it's probably just a computer glitch."
Grub looked at the elf with red eyes.
"Really?"
The elf nodded and pulled Grub across the sky faster. Vein noticed this and vowed to get the elf a promotion when they got back belowground. Anyone who could shut Grub up without tempting him to make a complaint deserved a higher rank than Corporal.
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Current time
Holly, Artemis, Butler, and Trouble all fell to their knees, gasping. The light had picked them up, but instead of knocking them out and destroying their clothes as it had before, it had flashed very brightly, blinding them even through their closed eyelids. Then there had been a feeling of compression, as if some giant hand was squeezing them. Then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. The quartet looked up from where the light had dropped them and found that they were no longer under the oak tree. It was doubtful that they were even still in Ireland. Trouble was the first to climb to his feet, looking around the room they were in. White walls, white ceiling, white floor. No windows, and one door opposite him, also white. He tried the handle, cursing when it wouldn't turn although he hadn't really expected it to be unlocked.
Butler was the next to move. He pulled Artemis to his feet, brushing nonexistent dirt off the boy's suit and checking for injuries. Artemis shrugged free of his bodyguard's grip and turned to Holly, who was still kneeling on the floor. She was staring at something on one of the walls; Artemis followed her gaze and sucked in a startled breath. The wall opposite the door was lined with framed photographs of elves, sprites, and even a couple of dwarves. All were smiling, and all were exhibiting some sort of elemental power. Holly's gaze was fixed on one particular picture. Artemis studied it also. The elf in the photo was female, twirling a fireball above her fist, and looked to be laughing. Artemis's eyes went wide. Apart from the fact that the elf in the photo had longer hair, he could have been looking at Holly. He turned to see that she had climbed to her feet, though her eyes had not left the image on the wall. She took a couple of steps and stroked the elf's face with her fingertips.
"Mother," she whispered. Trouble put a hand on her shoulder, and she turned at his touch.
"Are you alright?"
She nodded and smiled.
"Yeah."
She sounded like she meant it, too. There was a brief silence, then she spoke again, walking away from her mother's image and looking around the room at the other photographs.
"Where did the voice go?"
"Right here."
Holly jumped and spun to face the door, which was now open. A figure stood in the shadows just beyond the room. It looked to be a fairy; it had the right proportions for an elf, or maybe a sprite. It spoke again, moving into the light.
"My name is not 'voice'. You may call me Guardian."
Butler eyed the diminutive figure before him. The Guardian was indeed a fairy, though what species was difficult to determine. It had pointed ears, gossamer wings like a sprite, the thin elfin figure, and the wide pixie brow. There was something of a dwarf about its teeth, and there were several small green scales visible around its deep brown eyes. It had long blonde hair, yet was still noticeably neither male nor female – its hair was in a rather unisex style, pulled back off its face in the low ponytail favoured by teenage girls and middle-aged bikers everywhere. It smiled and addressed the silent quartet.
"You are here to begin your training. The more effort you put in, the faster you can return to your lives on and under the Earth."
Artemis took a step forward, interested.
"You have taken us out of time? Another dimension possibly?"
The Guardian looked impressed.
"Correct. This place runs in a similar way to the demon Hybras, only without the uncontrollable time fluctuations."
"So we can return a few minutes after we left, regardless of how long we spend here," Artemis finished, looking satisfied. He saw the look that the elves were giving him, and shrugged.
"It wasn't hard to work out."
"Not for you, maybe. For us non-geniuses..." Trouble began. Artemis interrupted him with a correction.
"Genii."
Trouble glared at him.
"Whatever, Fowl. Could you explain why we are here, and where 'here' even is?"
"You are here to train, I have already said," the Guardian took over the narrative. "As to where we are – nowhere, and everywhere."
"Great," Holly muttered, "more riddles."
The Guardian narrowed its eyes at her before continuing.
"Your training will be on an individual and team basis, and will be intensive."
"When do we start?" Artemis asked, dreading the physical aspect that he assumed would make up part of this 'training'. The Guardian gestured through the doorway.
"Right now. Follow me."
The four glanced at each other. How much did they trust this Guardian? Enough to follow it? And, more to the point, what choice did they have? Holly was the first to move. She cast one more glance at her mother's picture and made to follow the Guardian out the door. Trouble grabbed her arm, thankful that her skin had resumed its normal temperature.
"What are you doing? After what that thing did, you don't trust it?"
"I trust my mother," she said simply, pulling free of his grip and leaving the room. Artemis followed her, Butler trailing behind his charge. Trouble growled, but shook his head and joined the strange procession. The door slammed shut behind him. He glanced back at it and swallowed. They were committed now, whatever happened.
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Four hours earlier
After breaking at least twenty LEP regulations into smithereens, the Retrieval team alighted at the oak tree Foaly had guided them to. There was nothing and nobody there, yet none of the team could shake the feeling that there was something else going on here. Something invisible. Vein scanned the area with every filter in his helmet, and got nothing. They were the only beings on site. Grub hiccupped. He'd been doing that the whole flight over from Italy. At least it was better than snivelling, crying, or complaining, though Vein was sure it would get annoying eventually. The team spread out, weapons raised and senses on red alert. This was the last known location of their Commander and Holly Short; there had to be some sort of evidence lying around somewhere. Abduction, murder – both left traces of their occurrence. There was no such thing as the perfect crime, not with Foaly's technology on your tail.
One of the team suddenly stopped dead, staring at a point in the sky.
"Captain?" he called, sounding very uncertain. Vein double-timed to his side.
"What is it, Corporal?"
The elf just gestured at the air with his Neutrino. There was a semi-visible shimmer, like when a fairy shields, only this had colour. It seemed to shift between red, green, blue and silver, but when Vein flew up to it he passed straight through it. He sighed and rejoined his men on the ground.
"Pack it up and let's head belowground, boys. We'll pick this up later."
It was almost dawn by now, and Foaly was sullenly ordering them back underground. It was regulation, but none of them liked it much. Trouble and Holly were on their own for another day, if they were still alive. Retrieval started up their wings and headed for Tara, ignoring Grub's whimpering and Foaly's badly-concealed sobs in their earpieces.
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Current time
The Guardian led the four elves and humans down a long corridor with many doors branching off it. The walls were, again, plain white, but the doors were painted a variety of colours: gold, red, blue, green, silver, purple, and many more that even Artemis didn't have names for. Eventually, the Guardian stopped. They were at the end of the corridor, and facing them was a large black door. Even Butler would fit though this with room to spare. Currently, his head was millimetres from touching the ceiling, but at least he could stand upright. Artemis wasn't certain how a door at least five metres tall sat at the end of a corridor barely two metres high without the ceiling having any sort of slant whatsoever, but he wasn't going to admit this. It was probably just more inter-dimensional physics that he had yet to comprehend. The Guardian appraised them all silently for several moments, then pushed the door open.
"Welcome to your future," it said, waving for them to enter. Trouble rolled his eyes. Talk about melodrama. Still, he followed the other three through the doorway.
They emerged into a large, circular room with intricate mosaics on the ceiling and floor. The Guardian shut the door behind them and stood with them in the centre of the room. Suddenly, flame torches sprang into life around the walls, casting a golden glow. Trouble, Artemis, and Butler looked at Holly, who shook her head.
"Wasn't me."
"No, it was me," said a distinctly masculine voice from behind them. They all jumped and turned to see a young, very handsome elf standing three metres away from them. He smiled at Holly, showing very white, even teeth, and strode over to her side, hand extended. She shook it hesitantly. The Guardian sighed.
"Holly, this is Edan. He will be your tutor."
"Tutor?" Holly asked. Edan smiled and nodded, not letting go of her hand.
"I'm going to help you control and refine your abilities, Holly. I trained with your mother also; you are every bit as beautiful as she." He bent down and kissed the back of her hand lightly, eyes rolled up to see her reaction. The look on her face was halfway between confusion and enchantment. He smiled and straightened. "It will be a pleasure to work with you."
Both Trouble and Artemis noticed Holly's reaction to Edan, and gritted their teeth as one. Butler chuckled, bringing all of them out of their reveries. Holly blushed, Edan loosed her hand, and the Guardian sighed again.
"Domovoi, this is Terran. She will be your tutor."
It gestured behind Butler. He turned to see a tiny female dwarf smiling at him appraisingly. She was also young looking, and not as hairy as one would imagine a dwarf to be. But of course, females of any species are generally smoother than their male counterparts, especially when Mulch is the only specimen you have for comparison. Artemis nodded knowingly, forcibly removing his mind from Holly. Of course, the Earth tutor would be a dwarf.
The Guardian pointed to the opposite side of the room, where a sprite hovered two feet above the ground. Air tutor, Artemis guessed correctly.
"Trouble, this is Caitir. She will be your tutor."
Trouble nodded to the pretty sprite, who nodded back, smiling widely. Maybe this wouldn't be such a bad experience after all. Suddenly Trouble could appreciate Holly's blush – his matched it and he glanced down. Holly noticed and smirked. Commander or not, she was going to rib him for that later.
Artemis ignored the not-so-surreptitious flirting going on, and looked around the room for his tutor. There was a figure standing behind Edan, but the muscular elf was blocking too much of the light for the boy to make out who, or what, it was. The Guardian gestured to the shadowy figure, beckoning them to step out of the only shade in the room. Another elf stepped out, appraising Artemis from head to toe.
"Artemis, this is Kelby. He will be your tutor."
Artemis took a step towards the skinny elf and extended a hand. Kelby shook it grudgingly, glaring at the boy. Artemis wasn't sure what he'd done to elicit this reaction – people didn't normally dislike him until he'd spoken to them. He removed his hand as soon as was polite. The Guardian either didn't notice the hostility between the two or didn't much care, for it spoke, addressing all eight of the others at once.
"Now that you have all been introduced to your respective partners, I would like to re-establish the rules. Meals will be held in here twice daily, at noon and at eight o'clock at night. For the eight hours in between, you will be training with your partners. The other time is social and you may spend it as you wish. Time moves here the same way as on Earth, but you can spend up to a year in these halls without more than ten seconds passing in the mortal world. You will remain until you are all competent enough to take on the task facing you back on Earth. Good luck."
Training begins next chapter, complete with aches, pains and a very unhappy Artemis.
Skullduck: Becasue she likes to torture the characters.
Me: It's fun!
Skullduck: And she calles me evil.
Me: You are. Anyway, don't forget about the poll thing - You've got one more chapter to vote. H/T is currently winning by one vote. In the event of a tie, the desicion falls to RLD, because she's the most awesome beta ever. Thanks for putting up with my ramblings.
Liris (and Skullduck)
xxx