It hadn't been that hard to deduce, after all, Artemis thought, never pausing in his careful trace of wires and circuits. He had plenty of enemies, but only a limited subset with access to both high technology and magic. Opal Koboi should have had access to neither... but given the woman had escaped from Haven's high security facilities while in a coma, he should have known that wouldn't stop her.

And really, this plan fit no one else. Who else would go to such lengths to involve two major powers of the human world - Doom and the Avengers - and deliberately set the stage for both their inexplicable deaths? Latveria would blame the Avengers and SHIELD, the rest of the world would pile in on either side, and Opal herself could move neatly into a power vacuum anywhere she wished once the bombs stopped falling. Framing his father would likely have been just icing on the cake.

Poisoned sweetness. I can turn that to our advantage.

"Ignore the drama queen," Holly said under her breath. "Bomb."

"I can't," Artemis said; barely a breath of air. "You don't think that timer is the only trigger?"

Her knuckles clenched, white.

Artemis stifled any urge to wince. He hadn't been there when Opal Koboi's sadistic trap had taken Julius Root's life. But he'd heard the technical details from Foaly. Opal had left Holly a choice to shoot that was no choice at all.

The moment she thinks we might escape, she'll kill us all. But so long as Father is alive, she can gloat.

And Opal so loved gloating.

Think! Where can the triggers be? The countdown is obvious. She'd wish to have another with her physical body as a last resort, but if she is still in Atlantis, then someone might search her cell while she is "out". A trigger they could find would be an unnecessary risk. So the most likely place another trigger could be is... of course.

The most easily accessible place Opal would have a trigger was on her host himself. She'd have others, Opal did know the value of a good backup plan, but the odds were those triggers would take at least a little time to reach.

But how much time? Artemis held his nerves in a grip of iron. Keep her talking.

"I admit to some curiosity," he said dryly. "Your plan to escape LEP custody in Haven was meticulous, and only unraveled because Foaly happened to invent the retimager."

"Happened to?" snarled over his comm.

"Foaly, you donkey, focus!" Holly hissed.

"But how did you manage to pull the wool over Atlantis LEP's collective eyes?" Artemis went on, as if it were a matter of mere intellectual interest. "Though I suppose in part it would simply be easier because it was Atlantis LEP, and not those of Haven. You would have had far more difficulty working your wiles under Trouble Kelp's watchful gaze."

"Trouble Kelp-!" Opal's borrowed lips curled in disdain. "That weak-willed supporter of all that is right and just in the Underground. As if it could ever be right to deny unequaled genius its due-"

...That should give us another five minutes.


"It would seem, Sir, that the maniacal monologue is a weakness that crosses species lines."

"Hey, we'll take what we can get." Tony arrowed up toward the lab windows, still smarting from the last three flying horror movie rejects he'd had to smash into the building. None of them had been as tough as, oh, say, a Chitauri space-whale, but dealing with them took time.

And time's something we don't have.

He was so, so glad Jarvis was a spying observant son of a program, and knew how to condense a lot of info into a very short briefing.

Our possessor's got a name, Artemis knows him-her-it and not in a good way, and Opal Koboi has an ego the size of Loki's.

An ego that Tony had to admit was at least partly justified. Bomb the Avengers? Psssh. Opal had just about managed to get them to bomb themselves.

But Artemis dropped invisibility the moment he knew about it, Tony thought. And he's using English, so Jarvis gets all the info he can pass on to us. He's not the enemy here.

...He's just facing down the enemy in his father. This is bad.

Very bad. Which was why he had to think instead of just rushing in there. If Jarvis' read on Artemis was right, and Opal really was carrying a trigger, then Artemis' tactic might be the best: stall. Let Opal gloat, long enough for the three in there to get the bomb to a point they could disarm it in seconds. At which point, given where Jarvis said Butler was hiding in the shadows, the bodyguard was going to down Fowl Sr. with a trank and the two on the bomb would work very damn fast.

That's a kid. And a little lady. Damn it, I don't want to leave this on them!

But Iron Man rushing in might be just the tip of the scales that made Opal decide hanging around wasn't worth the snickers.

Only problem is, Opal's not the only maniac up here.

Decision made, Tony smashed through the windows. In the corridor just outside the lab.

Punching Doom would have felt awesome, but a repulsor blast to knock him away from the lab door was just faster.

"You dare," the dictator snarled, getting to his feet with an agility Tony never would have believed if he wasn't wearing his own metal suit.

Yikes. Lightning!

Purple and weird at the edges, but lightning. Iron Man dodged back through the broken glass, letting the metal window-frame take the shock. And hoped it didn't spread back to the lab.

More glass shattered, as he dove back in to punch demons in the jaw. "Hey, metal mouth! Knock knock!"


Steve fought off demons, listened to Tony's half of the fight, and Jarvis' terse reports of what was going on in the lab, and thought some words that would have had the orphanage instructors washing his mouth out with soap.

"Portals are closing," Phil called out, peering up through binoculars. "Looks like even Doom has the sense not to leave open doors to Otherplace lying around." He lowered the lenses, taking a half-step back as Hulk bashed a demon into the asphalt just a hair too close to where he was standing. "Your call."

Yeah, Steve thought, tossing a demon into a tangle of those Clint had already shot, so Black Widow could shoot them all again and make them stay down. I hate that.

On the one hand, the situation up there was hair-trigger delicate, there was plenty to do down here, and Jarvis was very soberly convinced that if the bomb did go off, anyone in the Tower would be dead. On the other - Tony was up there. And Artemis wasn't stupid. If he and his people were still there, Artemis thought they had a chance to win.

But he's a kid. Kids always think they have a chance.

"Cap, they need my help." Repulsors were whining in the background as Tony fought, making a noise against something that didn't sound exactly solid. "If they know Opal then she's probably got something in her bomb's bag of tricks just for them. And Doom is cheating like a cheaty thing. He's got this blue-glowy forcefield that doesn't even read there to any sensors except the EM ones, and I can't get past him."

"Magical shield." Hawkeye dropped from his ledge and touched down by Phil. "Cap. If Artemis is right, I think I can get through it."

"Any day now, guys!" Tony gasped.

Damn it. This isn't just a trap for Artemis. It's a trap for us. "If we all go up there Opal will set the bomb off," Steve said grimly. "Hawkeye, if you and Agent Coulson are willing to go - how do we get you up there?"

Phil held up a radio, as rotors hovered into view between the buildings. "The boys in blue just offered us a helicopter."


"Still just a silly, stubborn little fool..."

That's rich, coming from a pixie, Holly thought, desperately trying to ignore Opal's ranting even as she had to yawn to crack the pressure in her ears. "Foaly, you'd better be getting all this on record. Doom's got a magical shield up even Iron Man can't break."

"We're not going to need a record," Foaly said frantically, "you're going to tell the Wing Commander yourself-"

"Save it," she bit out, even as her heart panged. How Artemis could listen enough to keep poking Opal into ranting longer and still work on the bomb she'd never know.

Yes, you do. That's who he is. Artemis Fowl II. Brain like a computer and a heart armored in ice. He's spent years making sure he can act, even when his soul is bleeding.

He may be a viper, Foaly. But he's our viper.

Yet even a viper's venom had limits. They'd already found and isolated three false leads and another "pull it and everything goes" circuit. One more distraction would probably be more than any of them could handle.

And here comes the distraction.

Doom stalked in like a dark lord out of human fairytales; the kind that made it hard for even a jaded Recon officer to really blame humans for driving the People underground. Steel gray armor, green cloak, a pair of demons stalking along with him like rabid guard dogs... Holly had to stifle a sudden urge to giggle. If someone put this in a movie, the Haven critics would shred the director and the actor for hammy overacting of Evil.

She pulled her Neutrino instead, concealing it from the door with her body. Thank goodness Section Eight made good flight suits. The camo effect should hide her weapon until the last moment. "Artemis-"

"Your aim is better." Her friend might as well have been observing the Arctic was a bit chilly, as he noted each of the wires she'd been holding and adjusted his circuit-tracing accordingly. "Doom's armor is supposed to be... very good."

Spoken in a tone that meant he suspected even Butler's Sig Sauer was unlikely to make a dent. Even if Butler had been willing to use it; between taking down a maniac and saving Fowl Sr.'s life, she'd pick waiting too.

And Neutrinos aren't meant to be lethal. Holly let out a slow breath. Pick the shot, Holly-girl. Make it count.

Doom barely glanced at them as he strode further in, eyeslits turning Opal's way in haughty disdain. "Your presence is no longer needed, Opal Koboi."

Holly froze, caught between a snicker and an odd desire to run screaming. Oh Frond. It's raining dueling megalomaniacs.

"Necessary?" Opal's chuckle was almost as deep and rich as Fowl Sr.'s own. "No. But entertaining."

"Oh yes, because your amusement is the axis mundi the remainder of the world is privileged to revolve around," Artemis said dryly. "Trite, Opal. Trite and unimaginative. Set Doom and the Avengers to destroy one another? The Avengers defeated an alien invasion. And it's well enough known that Tony Stark has almost blown himself up on more than one occasion. A rather large and lethal boom in Avengers tower? The only surprise will be that they didn't crush Doom before this." He tched. "Now, if you'd managed to set that arrogant pacifist Reed Richards up to look as if one of his inventions did them all in, then you might have had a truly frightening scenario. As it is-" A careless shrug.

"Says the ignorant little child who'll die with the rest of the pests," Opal sneered. "Short's no warlock, Fowl. She'll never break the shield in time to save you. Or even herself."

"Did you think a mere explosion would harm Doom?" Latveria's dictator strode toward Opal's borrowed body, demons circling out from him like hounds on the scent. "You overestimate your capabilities. And your usefulness. Once I have the mystical technology here-"

"Oh, believe me, I'm quite tempted to let you have it," Artemis mused. "So long as you managed to get... oh, at least half a mile from here before Opal becomes bored? She's very dangerous when she's bored. And she has had so very, very few opportunities to amuse herself, these past three years." His smile toward her was brilliant, like noon sun on glacial ice. "How is prison, Opal? A far cry from an Italian villa, I'm sure. Are you tired of fish yet?"

"You," Opal's voice dripped loathing, "you will crawl before you die. The fate you left me to... the indignity of being treated as a stupid peasant, and then... you and the LEP will die in flames." The thought seemed to calm her. "You really aren't as smart as you think, are you, Artemis? If you were, you would have told the Avengers everything. And then... well, then they would have been ready. And able to fight, instead of dying like the hopeless gnats they are. And you wouldn't be here."

A clank of armor, as Doom folded his arms; as if he had all the time in the world. "You think this child more dangerous than the Avengers?"

"Hey!" came Iron Man's oddly watery shout from the doorway. "Very dangerous here, you spinach-wrapped tin can!"

"In his way, yes," Opal smirked. "He's not nearly as much of a genius as I am. And he's nowhere near as powerful as even the weakest of the Avengers. But he knows that, so he thinks. And sometimes... sometimes he's almost brilliant." Teeth gleamed. "But you're not going to think your way out of this one, Fowl."

True, Holly thought, chilled. It's all true... Oh. Oh, what are you up to?

She didn't glance toward the door again. Barton was a shadow in the shadows as Iron Man was loud and obvious and obnoxiously banging on the shield; the archer drawing a bead on the doorway as slow and cautious as Butler stalking Fowl Sr.

Whatever the Avenger thought he could do, she hoped he'd hurry.

"You are empty, Opal." Artemis' voice was quiet. Almost calm. "You, and Doom with you. All you have is your intellect and your superiority. There is no core within you. No trace of human feeling, reaching out across the void to touch another life. You are an endless hall of mirrors, reflecting nothing." He let out a slow breath. "I was almost like that. Once." Slight shoulders shrugged. "If I had time, I might pity you. You have nothing to live for. How can you imagine there might be anything worth dying for?"

"Oh, the would-be hero," Opal gloated. "That's right! We met for the first time because you had to get past me to save..." Her borrowed hand gestured. "Well, him. What a pity. Save him for a few years, only to have him die here? With no idea what you went through for him. The goblin rebellion, the lava, the Russian Mafiya - oh yes, I did hear about the little human mob you had to deal with in Murmansk. With Julius' help, yes? You couldn't have done it on your own. But your father won't even know what you did manage. Such a pity."

"There are many things my father does not know about Murmansk," Artemis said deliberately. "Chief among them that to save his life, I first had him shot."


Intent is magic.

In the space between heartbeats, Clint loosed.

The translucent shield shattered like ringing crystal, bringing Doom's head around and almost covering the quiet cough of a trank rifle. Fowl Sr. swayed, as an armored dictator snarled at the arrow jutting out from one of the places even the most knightly armor had to have a joint. Which left Doom good and distracted as Iron Man dove through the doorway to head for the spaghetti-tangle of wires Artemis and Holly had pulled out of the bomb.

Clint was already through, a tumble that took him up on his feet again near Fowl Sr. as he collapsed. For two reasons. One, he had to dodge somewhere, and near someone Doom considered a potential ally against all things sane was as good a place as any. Two - sometimes mind-controlled people didn't go down as easy as they should. He should know. Butler might need a little help.

...Then again, that might be like saying a mountain needed a little help with an avalanche. The bodyguard's expression as he pinned the elder Fowl to the floor had the narrowed eyes and slightly pinched look Clint knew all too well from Black Widow in a Bad Mood.

Somebody has done something stupid, and someone I'm protecting almost paid the price, Clint translated that look. Fowl, I wouldn't be you for all the money in Tony's bank accounts.

He came up firing, because there were still two cranky demons, even if Doom was-

Not distracted anymore, Clint realized, dodging a bolt of purple light. Must have some kind of mental painblock, he should at least be limping- that idiot, he just shot at the bomb-!


Artemis tried to breathe through the static prickling through his nerves. He'd had to drop the wires. Wouldn't do to conduct a bolt of whatever energy that was straight into Opal's bomb when it hit him. And he could see it would hit him; Holly was busy shooting demons, Barton had just dodged, Butler was busy pinning his father down long enough for the trank to take hold, and Stark was currently getting a helmet full of Foaly's sputtering about nonsensical human wiring as Jarvis patched LEP communications into Iron Man's ears.

There's no one left but me.

He'd seen that, even as he'd felt reality twist to clear the way for Doom's magic. Lightning traveled from ground to sky, electrons blasting through flesh and metal too fast for humans to see anything but the sky striking them down. This shock was traveling from Doom to him, against the grain of every aggravated electron in the way-

Perhaps he did have trouble grasping kinetics. But electricity and magic, he knew.

Like poles repel.

Left-handed, Artemis slashed across and down. And hoped there wasn't anything vital in the floor.

...Well. Hopefully not. His hand was reddened, as if it'd passed too close to a flame. The hole in the floor was smoking. And Doom was staring at him like Briar Cudgeon had at rebellious goblin generals.

"How dare you object to my attempt to destroy you." Oh, this is not going to be good-

The world blazed violet fire.


Later he was going to punch Doom in the face. He really, really was. Right now, gauntleted hands buried in a rat's nest of crazy circuits, Tony was a bit too busy to work up a really good mad about having his back watched by a fifteen-year-old kid and a gun-slinging lady too small to pass the kiddie bar at the rollercoaster. And Doom deserved a good mad. The amount of charge being thrown around was enough to make his hair stand on end even inside his suit, and if Artemis missed just once, everyone and his fish would be going to that big saltwater tank in the sky.

Not to mention having someone Holly's size shooting the demons along with Clint because he was too damn busy to do it himself was just embarrassing.

Mini-Pepper and mini-Widow. Artemis can sure pick 'em. "What do you mean, the current doesn't flow that way?"

"It's obviously inefficient!" the fussbudget on the other end of his comm shot back, throwing in a few words that sounded like cowpóg in there.

"Speaking as a guy who makes things go boom, efficiency is kind of the last thing on people's minds," Tony said firmly, eyeing the circuit in question. "What you want is something that goes boom when you want, and doesn't go boom until you want. Opal had this on some kind of timer, so either it had a really long fuse to cover all the time before we dragged it out of the water, or... aha."

"Ionic sensor!" A heavy-breathed harrumph. "Of course. As long as it was in seawater-"

"Timer stays off," Tony concluded, tracking that back now that he knew this circuit had to lead to the ignition. "Start desalinating it, or let it dry out - Artemis might have set it off a little sooner, but it was going to go boom in here- got you!"

He pounced. Spun the nifty little magnetic unlocking tools Artemis had had to leave behind.

Beep.

The display went to the odd little symbols Jarvis said were zero.

Silence.

Tony took a deep breath, and let himself clatter down to a sitting pose on the floor. Coulson was in the doorway talking into his radio, two demons were dissolving seared arrow-pincushions on the floor, Butler was shaking out bruised knuckles, Artemis was reciting complex square roots as he moved some kind of blue-gold glow over seared fingers, and Clint was in position to keep Doom staring down the barrel of Holly's gun.

Yeah. We did good. "So, now that it looks like we're all going to live... what's your name, anyway?"

"Foaly-"

"You... pathetic little ignoramuses..."

Tony stared. Hadn't Fowl Sr. taken a trank straight to the shoulder? Yes, he had. So what the hey?

Blue sparks flaring at the wound, the man scrabbled for something in his pocket. "Did you really think-"

"Opal Koboi!" Jarvis' voice boomed from every lab speaker that was still intact. "By the authority vested in me as Tower security, your invitation to this and every demesne I control is hereby rescinded!"

The scream made Tony clap his hands over his ears, helmet and all. Something glowed about Fowl Sr., a sickly green light that seemed to gather in one pocket-

And winked out, gone.

"Neatly done," Artemis said raggedly. "That should buy us a few more minutes, let us use them well..."

"You, in no shape to be fiddling with this," Tony said firmly as the kid did his game best to stagger over. "Just tell me what to take out."

"The glowing blue cylinder in the center," Foaly stated. "Careful, careful - that's solinium, don't ask, big booms. Just get it loose from anything with a connection, we should be into the standard circuitry by now... good. Good. Keep going-"

Click. And it was out.

"Oh thank Frond," Foaly breathed.

"I'll take that, if you don't mind." Holly held up a hand, face grim under her helmet. "Foaly, tell me we've got a disposal team on the way?"

"ETA two minutes," Foaly said promptly.

No fool, Tony handed it to the little lady. "Maybe you want to go meet them," he suggested.

"That'd be wise," Agent Coulson spoke up, looking over the wrecked lab before meeting Holly's visored gaze. "Just in case we might have a few overenthusiastic agents who didn't get the word that we couldn't stop you from taking it."

"Good idea," Holly said wryly. Touched something on her wrist, and-

Ooo. Ooo! She has wings! Tony almost danced in glee, as they unfolded from the back of her camo-suit. Translucent kind of dragonfly-like- oo, I want that design!

Hovering, she hesitated. "Artemis-"

"Lethal explosive first," the teenager said firmly. "I'm fine."

Shimmering out of sight, Holly took off.

Breathing still a bit ragged, Artemis walked over to Butler, and started running sparks over his bodyguard's bruises. "Agent Coulson," he said, voice remarkably level. "I'm in no position to give lectures to SHIELD. But if I were to lecture them... or anyone else..."

Tony glared at Doom. Who was probably only silent by way of the dents in his helmet, and the arrow pointed somewhere even nastier than the shaft sticking out of his gluteus maximus.

"...I might strongly suggest that you reexamine the veracity of your sources," Artemis went on. "Especially whoever gave you the information to find this particular... cargo. That was the equivalent of a nuclear hand grenade. And the pin had been pulled for a very long time."

Ooof. Tony watched the kid pick up his tools, neatly sliding each and every one into a little kit with the kind of scuffmarks that meant it'd been bounced around a dozen odd hostile locales. "So. You do this often?"

"In point of fact, this was the third time I've faced down a blue rinse," Artemis said, voice distracted in a way Tony knew meant he was that far from faceplanting the tiles. "It does not appear to get easier."

Fowl Sr. coughed, gingerly sitting up. "The third time? Artemis, what are you doing playing with bombs?"

For a breath, Artemis stood stock-still.

Oh, not good...

"Father." Each syllable was precise as diamond-cut gears, with an angry Irish brogue thicker than Tony had heard from Artemis yet. "At the risk of sounding horribly crass, I am; but as our American acquaintances might say, I have but the one nerve left. And you're getting on it."


A/N: Based on bits I've heard from YouTube, Artemis usually speaks like an educated upper-class Anglo-Irish noble... but he does have a brogue, and it gets thicker under stress. Which leads to interesting word-patterns.