"I don't think we should be doing this, Myles." Beckett reminded his brother quietly. They were walking through the Manor, trying to not bump into Butler nor Juliet on the way.
Myles rolled his eyes, "Don't be so dense." He said, not even looking back as he kept walking through the dim hallway.
"Mom and Dad don't like is going to this part of the Manor, where Artemis' room and study are."
Myles sighed, stopping in his tracks and whirling around to face Beckett, who was looking at the floor at that time, almost ran right into the young genius.
"Like I said before," Myles started, "Mother and Father aren't here. Anyway, is it really our fault that we want to see if we can find where our brother is? We haven't seen him in two years."
The blonde looked away thoughtfully for a moment. Myles was right, but was that really worth the risk of getting caught? What if they couldn't find anything into where their older brother was? In the end, Beckett sighed and nodded, looking up into his brother's eyes. "Alright, let's go."
Myles nodded and turned back around, the two of them continuing their path to the study. It was silent the rest of the way, the two not wanting anyone to know that they were there. Finally, they reached the dark wood door, Myles looking around before opening it.
Beckett had expected to see cobwebs and dust everywhere, just like in the movies with haunted houses in them. Without the murdering for trespassing of course.
...Well, maybe...that;s why he let Myles go in first. The ebony-headed genius wasn't much into those movies anyway...Couldn't see it coming, and gave Beckett enough time to run.
However, the 7 year old untouched room was just like Artemis had left it, the wood on the desk shining like it had been freshly polished hours before. Well, with the team of Butler and Juliet, what could you expect?
Either way, Beckett shrugged to himself and began his search, Myles already starting it a few moments before. The blond searched every nook and cranny of the room while Myles went on the computer and tried to crack it.
"There's this one particular file…" Myles murmured, examining the firewall that blocked one part of the computer.
"What do you want me to do?" The other said, examining a pen on Artemis' desk.
"Nothing. I was thinking to myself." Myles said, typing a few keys and not bothering to look in Beckett's direction.
The blonde pouted, "Well, my question was parmorital…" He countered, putting the pen down.
Myles sighed, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. "It's rhetorical."
"Exactly. Either way, what do you expect me to do?"
"I expect both of you to get out of this room." A stern voice came from the direction of the door behind them. The two whirled around to face Juliet, hands on her hips and her eyebrows raised.
"J-Juliet." Beckett said nervously. "How've you been? It's been so long...have you lost weight, looking great!" Then suddenly, the two bolted out the door, but Juliet caught the two of them and stopped them nonetheless.
"It seems as though you two forget I am an ex-wrestler." She said, crossing her arms and looking down at the two. "Now, what were you doing in your brother's study?"
"Nothing!" The jock tried again, only to wilt under the woman's glare. "Alright, alright! We were looking for something to help us find Artemis! No one knows where he is and...please, PLEASE don't tell Butler! Or Mom and Dad! Please!" He begged, giving her full puppy dog eyes.
"Ugh, that's so pathetic!" Myles and Juliet both said at the same time. Then Juliet shook her head and sighed.
"Fine. I guess it was the right measure given you haven't seen Artemis in so long. However, you were told not to go into his study nor room while he was away. Therefore, I want you two to go to your room. Beckett, you aren't allowed on your phone for the rest of the weekend, and Myles no computer."
"But-" The twins said.
"No buts! Unless you want me to go tell Do-Butler."
The two teenagers looked at each other and sighed, nodding their agreement.
"Alright then, go to your room. We'll talk more about this later."
The two solemnly walked to their room in silence. They didn't have anything to say, at least, not until the bedroom door was closed.
"Look what I downloaded!" Myles quietly, yet excitedly jumped up and down, revealing a flash drive that was hidden in his hand. "I downloaded that strange file from Artemis' computer on this."
"But you aren't allowed to go the computer until Monday." Beckett countered.
"Yes...But that doesn't mean you can't go on." The black-haired boy said sneakily.
It took a moment, but it finally clicked into the jock's head. "Ooh, Ok." He exclaimed, then scrunched his face in confusion. "But...how am I going to get past the security around the file."
"I'll help." Myles said exasperatedly, rolling his eyes.
"Oh...Alright." Beckett mumbled, snatching the drive away from his brother's hand and plugging it into the computer. The blonde sat in the desk chair and turned to glare at Myles. "What now?"
An hour later, and a whole lot of arguing from the twins, they finally sat back and sighed.
"I give up." Beckett groaned, getting up from the desk chair and plopping down into the beanbag chair a few feet away. "We've tried almost everything, right down to that Simpleton's middle name."
"He's not a simpleton if we can't figure out the password." Myles called to him absently from the closet. He was currently digging though, growing frustrated as he tried to find something. "Ugh, Beckett! Your clutter is everywhere in here! I can't believe-Ah! Found it!"
"Found what?" The blonde asked impatiently, sitting up in the low chair anxiously.
Myles came out of the closet, holding up a disc. "This has an anti-encryption code on it."
Beckett cocked his head in confusion and Myles sighed. "It will help us get into the file." The genius said slowly, "That's all you need to know."
Beckett sighed, "Fine." He grumbled, putting the disc in the computer. After a long, tense, and silent moment, the two finally had results.
gotten
"Domovoi...what's Domovoi…?"
Myles fought the urge to roll his eyes. Surprisingly, he hadn't gotten used to his brother's incompetent sentences. "Obviously it's something that Butler and Juliet are trying to hide from us. Butler's first name."
"Ot last name."
Myles facepalmed, shaking his head and trying not to explode at his brother. "Why did I have to get all of your brain cells in the womb?"
"Whatever." Beckett mumbled, looking over the file. "What does this say?"
"Well, get out of the chair and I'll read it!" Myles said sternly.
Beckett rolled his eyes, but nonetheless got up from the wooden desk chair. "Now, what does it say?" He asked after a few seconds.
Myles sighed. "One, give me more than three and a half seconds to read all this. Two, why didn't you skim it like you do your reading assignments in school when you were sitting here?"
"Well...why don't you push me off the chair next time? Oh yeah, that's right...You don't have any upper arm strength."
"Like you would say: 'whatever.' Now, lets just focus…on this…Whoa." Myles said, reading the rest of one document.
"What? Find anything interesting?"
Myles turned in the chair to face his brother, eyes wide in excitement and amazement. "This is evidence that Artemis actually discovered a different species…"
"Cool!" Beckett said, nodding his head and smirking. "Like aliens?"
Myles scoffed, "A lot more interesting than aliens, Beckett." The young genius kept reading over the documents.
"Well, what is it? Do they have purple skin and blue hair? Is their heart in their stomach?" Beckett said, excitement rising in his voice with each guess.
"That's boorishness, Becket, completely idiotic on so many levels. However, you might find this amusing…"
The blonde's eyes widened, "What?"
Myles smirked, looking at his twin in a sideways glance. "These people that Artemis discovered...they're elves."
"Elves?" Beckett asked in surprise.
Myles waved it off, "Yes, well...one of the kind. It seems to be a selection of mythological creatures, from elves to trolls…"
"That's what you would call, 'stupendous.'" Beckett mocked him.
The ebony haired genius sent a glare his way, the blonde only crossing his arms and smirking more, as to say: 'What are you gonna do about it?' In the end, Myles just sighed, and went back to the documents, them proving to be much more interesting that his idiot brother.
"So, how do we use this information to find Artemis?" Beckett asked after a while, looking out the window of their room. The night was as clear as their mother's glass, shining and twinkling with stars. However, as Myles mumbled what he was reading, Beckett didn't notice the stars, or the sky at that time. No, he wondered about the depth that everyone on the earth knew, about a whole other species living near them, and no one ever knew.
"Hold on a minute...There's something not right about this file…" Beckett sprung up from his seat on the carpet to look at what Myles was looking at. However, the blonde couldn't figure out what was wrong. So, in the end, he just asked."
"It seems as though there is a tracker on this file…" Myles answered, immediately removing the drive and disc afterwards. "Probably put there from The People."
"The People?"
"That's what they call themselves: The People...Strange, but makes sense all at the same time, no?"
Beckett shook his head. "No." He told him. He didn't understand. "So, did you read enough of the files?"
The genius smirked, something his brother could call beyond creepy. "Enough to capture one. Also, I am willing to bet that one is coming up to respond to the tracker signal we sent out."
Beckett nodded, but still didn't understand completely. "So, what does that mean?"
"It means that we are going to have a fairy to help us find Artemis very, very soon." A moment of silence passed before Myles muttered, "Go back to the study, I'll get the tranquilizer."
Beckett nodded again, but before Myles could leave to get to his lab-Artemis' old one-he spoke up. "I thought Jules told us not to go into Arty's study?"
Myles looked at his brother and blinked a few times in frustration, staring at the blonde. "Since the signal went through Artemis' computer, then that is where we will get the best results. Juliet just cleaned up the room, so no one else will be in there for the rest of the day, most likely. It was a mistake not to think about the sporadic cleaning schedules she does."
Beckett shrugged, realizing that he was getting his brother mad with his questions. "Alright, don't blow my head of." He muttered, shuffling out of the room.
Hours later, and a whole lot of hiding and some more arguing, a sound came from the outside. Myles and Beckett both jumped a bit from the other side of the desk, away from the window.
"What was that?!" Beckett whispered anxiously, starting to look from the side of the desk, but Myles slapped him on his side.
"Don't do that!" He hissed, "Now, on the count of three, we jump out and jump him."
Beckett nodded, "Alright."
"1…" Myles whispered.
"2…" Beckett continued.
"3!"
The twins jumped up just as a figure climbed in through the window. It was night time already, and with the lights turned off in the study, the boys could only see silhouettes.
However, without much struggle for Beckett-athletic already, the intruder was subdued. Myles shot the serum into whatever skin and flesh was available, and after the creature went limp, Beckett got up from the floor, letting go of the person, and going to turn on the study lights. What they saw was...surprising.
"It's a girl?" Beckett asked, crossing the path of the unconscious fairy to go over to where Myles was contemplating her.
"It would so appear that it was a female." Myles murmured, "An elf as well, telling from the skin color, bone structure, and pointed ears." The genius shrugged, "Ah well, no matter. The creature is no use to us unless it is awake, so the most logical action is to move 'her' down to the basement cell. Conduct a few tests as we wait as well."
"I take it I'm dragging her down there?"
Myles smirked, "what do you think?" He headed for the door, but not before turning to say one more thing to his brother.
"Oh, and if he does wake up...I would run, it might be mad."
Beckett 's eyes widened as he slowly turned his head to glance at the unconscious creature, taking a deep breath before lifting it up and heading to the basement, praying that it would not wake up.
