Captain Holly Short had decided to take them out to eat before the set them on the Mud Boy.

Of course, she had not called Artemis yet. But she assumed he would take the children. It wasn't hard to look after two kids if you had that kind of money, right?

She had chosen to take them to eat at Spud's Spud Emporium just for convenience's sake. They were kids; they could eat anything. And they could pass as extremely tall pixies inside restaurant. From a distance.

So that's how she ended up sitting in a booth across from the human girl that was devouring everything in sight, mystery meat, papery salad and all. The boy was also eating, but not as fast. A cardinal and a blue jay pecked the crumbs off the table top.

The fairies that were already in the restaurant were staring at the trio, pointing and whispering. The Captain slouched a little in her seat.

"Hey, you guys want to take it easy on the food? You know, so you don't choke to death?" she whispered to them while drinking from a nettle shake she bought from an outside vendor.

"Nurmfrankoo," the girl responded while the boy just shook his head.

She exhaled, flapping her lips as she watched the show. In her peripheral vision, she saw one particular elf lady approach their table with a delighted smile. Older Holly did not like that look.

"Oh, are these real birds? How did you manage to get them down here! I haven't seen these critters in so long!" she gushed in Gnommish, looking at the kids' dæmons. She reached out a hand to touch the blue jay. Big mistake, it turns out.

The dæmon the boy called Shirkissa flapped her wings and squawked wildly at the elf's intrusion. She turned into a snake and wrapped herself around her human's neck. The boy had stopped eating and dropped his fork onto his plate. It clanged very loudly.

The restaurant had fallen silent when they started watching the event unfold. Captain Holly felt nervous for the lady; what would a kid that was the counterpart of the infamous Artemis Fowl do to her?

He looked up slowly, one hand caressing the snake around his neck while the other was clenched in a tight fist on the table top. His blue eyes seemed to bore into her in rage, even though the rest of his face was expressionless.

"What do you think you are doing?" he spoke quietly, dangerously.

Tread carefully, lady. She thought, her hand straying to her hip just in case something went wrong. Better yet, run away as fast as you can.

"I…um…wanted to s-see that delightful-ful…bird of yours…but…it…never m-mind. I'm s-s-sorry…not what I thought, ob-obviously," she stammered in English as she backed away slowly. When she felt like she was at a far enough distance, she turned around and belted out of the eatery.

The patrons stared after her abrupt exit, then back at the children. The boy had went back to eating as if nothing had happened, the blue jay back on the table, pecking. The girl had paused from her meal for a little to glance at the lady, but other than that, she did not react to the occurrence. The silence was deafening to the Captain.

"What just happened?" she whispered to the little girl.

The girl swallowed before she answered. "You're not supposed to touch another person's dæmon. It's wrong. Actually, it's taboo in our world." She shrugged. "And it's real disrespectful."

The Captain studied the boy. He kept on eating, the blue jay pecking on the crumbs. He looked so much like the Artemis she knew that it was kind of creepy.

"Who is this 'human friend' you spoke of earlier?" The boy asked abruptly and for a crazy moment, she thought he had read her mind. The entire restaurant seemed to be listening into their little conversation.

"He's one of the few humans that know about the People. I guess you can say we're good friends." Captain Short pursed her lips, wondering if she should say it. Yeah, why not. "He would be your parallel in this world. You have the same name as him."

The boy seemed to contemplate that piece of information for a long time. The girl seemed excited.

"Which reminds me. I have to call and tell him you guys are staying there." The Captain took out her communicator and pressed the button to contact Artemis.

"Why not surprise him?" the girl asked, bouncing in her seat. She noticed that all the food was gone. She had spent almost two grams of gold on that food!

"I don't know about the customs in your world, but showing up unannounced with news that you have two children to take care of from now on can be perceived as rude."

Captain Short stood up and walked out of Spud's Spud Emporium, followed by the two children. The fairies started talking to each other as soon as they got up. She overheard some of the comments they whispered.

"That Fowl kid–"

"Looks exactly like her–"

"Younger than I thought–"

"Girly captain–"

They were cut off when she closed the door behind them. She headed down the street back to LEP Headquarters while the two humans examined everything they saw.

On the third ring, Artemis picked up. "Hello, Holly. To whom do I owe this pleasure of being woken up at three in the morning?"

She sighed. "So formal, so early."

"I have to keep up the professional persona somehow." She could practically hear the smirk through the communicator.

"Well, Artemis, I've actually called you to ask something," she said, suddenly nervous. What happens if he says no?

"Umm, you think you can…take-care-of-two-kids-until-they-grow-up?" She ran her words together, but she was sure he would still be able understand.

There was an awkward pause over the communicator until he said, hesitantly, "What kind of kids and why?"

The Captain felt a little relieved. At least it wasn't an absolute no. "You remember what I told you a couple weeks ago? About the forest near your house?"

"Yes, the portal and the multiverse theory."

"Yeah, well, instead of the regular weird stuff, two kids popped out this time. And they…look a lot like us."

Another pause. "'Us' as in fairies or 'us' as in you and me?"

"'Us' as in you and me. They even have the same names as us."

A sigh sounded through. "I suppose it would be our parallels that would be the ones to go through. Are you sure there are no other alternatives?"

"They can't stay in Haven or out in some random human city, that's for sure." A thought occurred to her. "The boy seems to be as smart as you, so I'm bet you won't have to take care of them for long. They're tough ones. They just need to hide out in our world for a while, and then they'll go back. I just couldn't think of anyone else to turn to, and they're in a situation. Something about running away."

"Alright, bring them up here. I'm afraid I will have to keep them hidden from the twins and my parents, though," he said thoughtfully. "Wait, are they even human?"

"Yes, but they still…need to be kept out of sight…I'll explain and you can see for yourself when we get up there."

"Hmm, then perhaps one of the private properties…"

"Yeah, yeah whatever works, Mud Boy. Thanks. See you in about a couple hours." She hung up and looked for the children.

She saw both of them kneeling around something in the alley. The birds were replaced with a panther and a tiger that were crouching next to them, inching forward with their humans.

The Captain approached cautiously, her hand drifting to her Neutrino again. "Hey guys? What're you looking at there?"

She saw the girl poke at something with her finger, and then heard an exclamation of "D'arvit!"

The girl screamed, "Catch it, Arty!" while a green blob sprung up into the air.

The boy lunged for it in a not-so-graceful way, but caught the swear toad nonetheless. It continued to cuss out the children as it struggled vainly in their hands. The girl poked it relentlessly until it bit her finger. Younger Holly spouted some profanity of her own as her digit began to swell. Her dæmon began howling, and anyone with the Gift of Tongues understood that it was a string of curses in the Tiger.

"Oh my gods, are you serious," the Captain grumbled as she slapped the swear toad out of Younger Artemis's hands. She grabbed enlarged finger and gave it some blue sparks. When it shrank back to its normal size, she marched back to street, towing the children with her.

They say kids can brighten up any day with anybody. Captain Short did not think that rule pertained to these particular kids. They touched everything that didn't exist in their world, which was practically everything in sight, and the boy would ask her detailed questions about it. The girl would want to examine everything and everyone personally and would drag the protesting boy by his arm everywhere she went. Older Holly never felt more embarrassed in her life when she had to tug the younger version of herself from the first sprite she saw.

"He flies!" the human girl said in delight. Her dæmon turned into a falcon to glide next to the unfortunate fairy.

"Holly, leave the man alone," the boy said crossly. All he received was a whack to the side of head.

"Hey missy, keep your giant kids on a leash!" the sprite yelled at the Captain as he tried to out-maneuver the persistent girl and her crazy bird.

"Ms. Short, is he a mutant?" she asked before the sprite was even out of earshot. Older Holly apologized profusely to the irate fairy. He still continued to throw them dirty looks as he flapped away.

"Judging by his anatomy, the People evolved on the surface. Is that correct, Captain Short?" the boy asked.

"Uh, yeah that's right."

"So why do you need to live underneath the Earth?"

"Because thousands of years ago, there was a war between the fairies and humans. The fairies decided to retreat instead of fighting."

"Why not live in harmony? Why was there a war in the first place?"

"I don't know about the humans you know, but in this world, they're volatile and not even their own species is safe from each other. Most aren't the compromising, share-and-help type of people. They kill things for fun and decoration without a second thought. They've ruined the surface with their pollutants and wastes and they won't stop until it turns into radioactive slop." She stopped her ranting, suddenly aware she just went on a tirade about the child's species. "No offense to you guys, of course."

"None taken," he replied smoothly. "But I've seen a little bit of technology your police force has at their disposal. I bet your weapons are even more powerful. You can probably easily take down any current opposition from above."

"Yeah we can," the Captain admitted. "But we just aren't that type of people. We don't conquer and destroy. It's just not the People's style."

"But you love the surface, do you not?"

"Yeah, I do." She unconsciously tilted her face upward, but all she saw was the stalactites and sun strips.

"Total angst-fest," the little girl decided to put in. Then she ran off to ask a particularly hairy dwarf why his beard was wiggling, dragging her complaining friend by the hand behind her. Holly heaved a sigh, jogging to catch up with them before the dwarf decided to eat them. The whole cycle began again.

That was pretty much the scene until they finally reached the Headquarters.