Holly was eating a sandwich.
Only joking!
Holly was flying as fast as she could.
She willed her Hummingbird wings to fly faster. There was no time to waste. The LEP officers were probably staring at their buzzing headsets in confusion right now. Protocol called for them to enter the unauthorized shuttle. Holly only hoped she reached them in time.
She flew past the everyday drone of Haven to the outskirts, where the shuttle was hidden. A couple of artificial pine trees and a few shanties obscured her vision, so she flew higher.
There. The shuttle was now in plain view, only visible at twenty feet, no more, no less. The structure of the faux trees made sure of that, just as she knew they would.
Two LEP officers were near the shuttle. Grub Kelp and another whom Holly didn't know or care to know at the moment. They seemed to be having a conversation.
Holly flew down to the ground, glad of her ability to shield. She had completed the Ritual barely a day ago. This close, she could now hear their conversation perfectly.
"This better not take long," Grub was saying importantly, sitting cross-legged on a plastic log. "There's a new episode of Hannah Montana on this afternoon."
The other officer, previously looking bored out of his mind, perked up at this. "You watch Hannah Montana?"
Grub stuck out his lip in a pout. "So?"
The officer made the wise decision not to act surprised. "No reason. But when we go inside the shuttle, take caution. The Ops Booth didn't give us the go-ahead, and it sounded like a scuffle had gone down in there. We might have a situation on our hands."
Holly chose this moment to unshield.
Grub let out a yelp and tumbled backwards on his log, legs sticking into the air. Holly would have grinned in different circumstances.
"Captain?" the other officer asked with mild confusion, ignoring his partner. "Is something wrong?"
"Yes," Holly said authoritatively. "Foaly brought down communications. He's been working on a new project, wreaking havoc on the network as always. He sent me here to deliver the news."
The officer frowned skeptically. "What about the noises we heard on the line? It sounded like a stampede of elephants trampled the place."
Holly really needed to talk to the LEP trainers about teaching their officers better similes. "Foaly just crossed some wires with a television network," she said. "Everyone on the force got an audio of a dwarf bathing ritual. Very messy."
The officer didn't look convinced, but Grub interjected, "Does that mean we can go? I have some things to say to the Council about how they seal their envelopes. It took me four whole minutes to open my letter."
The other officer groaned. He would do anything to part ways with Corporal Kelp. "Fine. I could use a few hours off." He paused. "But before we leave⦠What's an unauthorized shuttle doing here?"
Finally, something Holly didn't have to lie about. "It's mine," she said.
The officer shrugged. "Okay, then." He activated his wings, shielded, and took off.
Grub scrambled off his log. "Wait for me!" he cried, running in the general direction of Haven and forgetting to shield.
Holly watched them go with a calm expression. Only when the tail end of Grub's clunky gear disappeared from her view did she bolt for the shuttle.
She wrenched open the door, casting her gaze upon the inside. No one was there.
"Oh, gods," she breathed, panicking. "Where did they go?"
Max
"We're right here," I said.
Holly's gaze snapped up to the low ceiling. I supposed we made for a shocking sight: three teenage girls of varying ages strapped to the top of the shuttle, painted the beige of the ceiling. Except it wasn't paint.
"What did you do?" she whispered.
I pretended to think. "Well, let's see. We played a little get-to-know-you game, lost Annabeth, and found your police officer friends outside. It didn't take a genius to figure out that they were trouble, so we came up with a way to hide just in case they managed to get inside."
"You came up with a plan just like that?" she wondered.
I grinned. "We were still pretty noticeable, so Hermit turned us beige."
"It's Hermione," Hermione murmured crossly.
"Whatever." I swung down from the ceiling, feeling the blood reach to my toes again. Emma and Hermione came down carefully behind me, and Hermione preformed the counter spell thing. There was no way I was getting used to that.
Holly blinked. Then all of what I had said seeped in.
"You lost Annabeth?" she echoed.
"They didn't lose me."
We all pretty much jumped with surprise. Behind Holly in the doorway, Annabeth stood with her arms crossed.
"I just wanted to see Haven," she said simply. To Holly, she added sincerely, "You have a spectacular home. Thanks for showing up on time, too."
Holly seemed to smile then. She shook it off.
"Okay, Mud Maids," she said, climbing into the pilot's seat. "We have to get out of here. I'll give you the lowdown, and then we have to talk to the others."
