Sorry if this took a little while longer than usual. I was working on another fic on a different account... Sorry if this chapter sucks, by the way..
"The Council meeting is now in session," the elderly elf said, sitting down in his head position as The Council Chairman at the table filled with a bunch of other older fairies. They were wearing the oddest robe-like things Sheldon had ever seen, and he was a major sci-fi fan.
They were currently sitting in a room that looked a little bit like a human courtroom, but with measurements for fairy heights. Sheldon's knees were at about chest level in the chair he was currently sitting in. There was a large raised table at the head of the room which was designed for the Council members to sit at. There was a much smaller and shorter table across from them that was designed for the people they were meeting with to sit at which was where Holly, Artemis, and Sheldon sat. At the back of the room there was plenty of room for an audience to come and watch.
"So, Mr. Cooper," began the elderly elf. Sheldon bit back the urge to correct him on his title. He could do that to a traffic judge, but to these non-human Council members he figured it would most likely be a very bad idea. "You have been accused of hacking into LEP satellite channels."
Sheldon nodded. "Yes, to that I do not deny." They had decided that simple truth was much better than complicated lies, especially since Sheldon could not lie to save his life.
"We are here to decide if Sheldon Cooper is an asset and someone to be kept in order to help the People, or if he is somebody who is a danger to us and needs to be wiped and relocated."
Sheldon tensed. They had not mentioned anything about relocation. What did that mean, exactly? Were they going to remove him from his current life and send him away? Oh, dear Lord.
"Here to defend the case of the Mud Man is the unruly elf of the LEP, Holly Short, and the Mud Boy criminal, Artemis Fowl," the elf continued.
Sheldon did not like the way this was going already. His defenders were not well-liked by the Council and the stakes were very high. If he lost it would not be good.
Artemis stood up. "As you well know, Mr. Cahartez, I have much redeemed myself in the eyes of your People. I have been quite a help to you, and the actions of my people astonish me daily."
"Yes, yes, we know all of this, Master Fowl," grumbled the head elf, scratching his gray hair. "But you constantly worry us and we wonder whether a grown version of you is a good idea to have with about the People in his way-too-brilliant mind."
Sheldon decided that it was a good time for him to step in. "I did not kidnap an elf and did not steal fairy gold. I am superior to most humans in that I know that they are ruining the Earth, and I have a much higher intellect than most of them. And most of all, I didn't mean to hack into the satellite waves; I just came upon them on one of my experiments."
One of the other members of the Council, a pixie with a large, silvery mustache, sat up in his chair. "You scientist types bother me. You think that because you're all smart you can do whatever you want to nature for the sake of science," he said, putting air quotes around the word science. "You are all ignorant fools who destroy the environment and have no idea what is really going on around you."
Sheldon puffed up a little bit. "I am a theoretical physicist. All work that I do does not directly affect the environment."
The pixie with the mustache sat back in his chair. "Still don't like your type," he grumbled, crossing his arms.
"Now, Mr. Cooper, if we were to allow you to continue on knowing that fairies exist you would not be able to tell anyone about this," said the head elf. "How good are you at keeping secrets?"
Sheldon fidgeted. Holly stood up. "We could help him along in this aspect. I'm sure a man confronted with the possibility of losing his memories and being relocated would make anyone a good liar."
"I don't know if we can risk it," said another one of the elves on the Council. "Do we really want to put the People in danger just because we have a soft spot for Mud Man geniuses?"
"I have an IQ of 187. I could be of assistance to you," Sheldon said, his voice quavering slightly. He figured that it was not a good time to mention that he was also an honorary graduate of Starfleet Academy.
"I say we put this down to a final vote," said the head elf, turning to his fellow Council members. They all nodded. Oh, dear Lord.
Sheldon's cellphone rang.
XxX
"Hey, Leonard, don't you think it is about time to go looking for Sheldon before he gets killed or something?" Penny asked Leonard as they all sat around eating Thai food.
"Yeah, probably," Leonard said, not making a move to do anything. "But what are we supposed to do if he was taken to Ireland? We can't very well fly there."
"Wow, Sheldon actually got in trouble with the authorities of another country," Howard said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I was wondering when that was going to happen."
They all nodded and finished their meal discussing everything that Sheldon had ever done that was against the law. The list was pretty long.
"Maybe you should call his cellphone again," Penny suggested.
"Good idea." Leonard grabbed the telephone that was sitting on the table next to the chair he was sitting in. He dialed the number and waited as it rang.
Sheldon answered on the second ring and he sounded a little flustered. "What do you want, Leonard?"
"Sheldon, where the hell are you? You have been gone for a whole day now!"
"That is none of your business, Leonard. Get off my back!" Sheldon huffed, sounding like he was hiding something. It was easy to tell when Sheldon was hiding something.
"Sheldon, we're just worried about you. Does this have anything to do with that Irish boy that came to speak to you yesterday?"
Sheldon paused, and Leonard heard him speaking to somebody that was on the other end. "Leonard, if you must know I am attending a conference with a very secretive community that Ireland has for its top scientists. The boy that was here the other day was one of them and came to formally invite me. I cannot divulge any more information as this is a very secretive society and you are not a top scientist."
"Well then… When will you be back?" Leonard responded, feeling a little baffled.
"I have no idea, Leonard, now please keep to yourself and refrain from calling me," Sheldon snapped and the line went dead.
Leonard stared at the phone in his hand. "That was odd," he said, placing the phone back down on the receiver.
"What did he say?" Penny asked.
"He told me that he is at a conference for the best scientists in Ireland and he was invited, though he sounded like he wasn't telling me something," Leonard said slowly, trying to figure out exactly why Sheldon had sounded odd. There had been fear in his voice, like something was frightening him.
"I have a feeling he is in trouble of some sort," Leonard grumbled. He then had an idea. His smartphone had the ability to track other smartphones. He pulled out his cellphone, opened the app, and chose Sheldon's phone. There was a beep and an error code came up. He was somewhere that couldn't be tracked. Yup, Sheldon was in some sort of trouble.
"Well, Sheldon is untrackable, in trouble, and probably in Ireland somewhere with some creepy genius kid. Great," Leonard mumbled, and for once nobody made any cracks at Sheldon. They were all genuinely worried about the guy.
"What do we do?" asked Howard.
"We should all put our brains together and see if we can come up with any ideas. Howard, you call Bernadette, I'll call Amy, and we can brainstorm something," Leonard said, pulling up the dial screen on his phone to call Amy Farrah Fowler.
Raj whispered something in Howard's ear. "He wants us to call it Mission Geek Retrieval," Howard grumbled. Raj nodded, a smile on his face.
Leonard rolled his eyes. "Whatever, Sheldon is in trouble and we have to find him. He may be irritating, but we are the only ones allowed to pick on the guy." They all nodded in agreement. Sheldon was their friend and they had to get him back. Things were just not the same without him…
XxX
"Now that you are done with your little phone call we need to vote on your future," said the Chairman, and Sheldon almost passed out then and there.
"Before you vote," Artemis said. "You really need to think about how helpful it would be to have a grown Mud Man who just happens to be a genius on your side. There is only so much help I can be considering I am only a teenager, and Sheldon Cooper may just find you again considering how smart he is. And people will really miss him and Mud Men will start asking questions. Do you want that?"
"Those in favor of wiping the Mud Man and relocating him to a new place," said the Chairman, ignoring Artemis completely. Five out of the twelve fairies raised their hands. "All those in favor of allowing him to keep his memories in order to help the People." The other seven fairies raised their hands. Sheldon breathed out in relief. Of course, now he had no idea what they would want with him. They could want to do experiments on him, or harvest his organs. Sheldon shuddered.
"Guess what, little theoretical physicist Cooper? You get to keep your little memories," the head elf said, frowning slightly. He had voted for a mind-wipe.
"We will be keeping in contact with you, but you must go back up to the surface. We do not like that you are spoiling our air with your Mud Man scent. You and Fowl here will be on the next shuttle out."
"What about me, sir?" Holly asked.
"You can escort them to their respective homes, but after that we need you back here. Too much time spent with Mud Men can rot your brains."
"But these Mud Men just happen to be genii," Holly grumbled.
The Council members were already clearing out, talking about some sport that they would all be playing that afternoon. They left Sheldon, Holly, and Artemis all alone in the room.
"Well, that actually went a lot better than I thought it would," Holly said, smiling. "I thought you were done for sure."
Sheldon twitched.
Please review or I shall bring out my mind-wiping equipment and go crazy...
