Chapter 11

Haven City Hospital, Waiting Room.

"As you can see behind me..." said the TV journalist "...The whole of Haven City has been locked down. Only absolute necessaries are getting power. This includes the Haven City Police Plaza and the City's Hospital in which two members of the LEP are being treated for 'forced magic removal'. The LEP commander has not given a statement at the current time. The two LEP officers' names are unknown, however there are rumours that the famous Major Short is one of the officers involved, there are no guesses to the other LEP officer. I'm John Picktail reporting for Atlantis News 24." The reporter only had time to finish what he was saying before Trouble Kelp turned off the TV.

Artemis Fowl and Holly Short were in hospital. Both still unconscious even though about seven hours had passed since all of the weird stuff had started to happen.

The two LEP officers that the news reporter was referring to were actually Holly and Artemis even though the reporter didn't know it. No-one knew really who the two 'officers' were with the exception of Trouble, Foaly, Grub and the warlocks treating the 'officers'.

Trouble walked back to his seat. "How long have we been waiting?" Foaly looked up.

"Seven hours, thirty-seven minutes and seven seconds."

"No, come on, the real time." said Grub.

"Seven hours, thirty-seven minutes and twelve seconds." Foaly replied, very getting irritated.

Trouble was known for his short patience. "D'Arvit!" Foaly and Grub jumped. "When are we going to hear any news?" And as if by chance, a warlock nurse walked into the room.

Every one sat up hoping for the good news they had been waiting for. The nurse cleared her throught. "Mr Fowl has just come into conscious, however Mrs Short has no-"

"Miss Short!" Trouble Interrupted.

"I'm sorry. Miss Short has not, there are good signs for her though, she is stable and slowly her magic is being restored. Would you like to see them?"

"Ur... yes please." Trouble replied.

"Follow me then." Said the nurse as she led them down a small white corridor with light brown coloured doors all along it. The nurse stopped at the seventh door on the left. About half way up the door was a small bronze placard saying: Major H Short & Captain A Fowl of LEPrecon. Grub stopped in his tracks as he saw the placard.

"Artemis isn't a captain, and he's not in LEPrecon!" Grub blurted who then looked at Foaly. "Is he?"

Foaly looked round the corridor nervously. "Not so loud." whispered Foaly, "All will be explained." The nurse opened the door and Trouble and Foaly walked through it. Leaving a very confused Lieutenant behind.

Just Minutes Before...

Haven City Hospital, Room 7; Major H Short & Captain A Fowl

"Artemis?" Called a small voice next to him. "Artemis? Are you okay? Artemis!"

Artemis sat up. "Holly?"

"Who else! What's going on?" Holly asked.

"I really don't know, and what's with these drab curtains! You city obviously has not heard of art!" Artemis pulled them back to revival, one, Holly Short who was lying in a white hover bed which was the same height as his. "Now, that's a better view." He said as he looked straight into her eyes. He turned away though. "Holly, I need to tell you something."

"What's that then?"

"I lo-" Artemis was cut off in mid-sentence by the opening of the door to revival a purple faced commander and the cheery faced Foaly. They obviously hadn't seen Holly as she dropped back into the bed and gave Artemis a wink and a smile. Artemis knew what she was up to and played along but what he didn't know was about to happen...

"Ah...captain" said Trouble

"I'm sorry did you just call me captain?" asked Artemis.

"I'm sorry it's been a long day." The commander replied.

"Have you been waiting long?" asked Artemis.

"No. Not really. ONLY 7 HOURS, THRITY-EIGHT MINUTES AND FIFTY-SEVEN SECONDS!" Shouted Foaly at the top of his voice, making everyone in the room jump out of their skins.

"FOALY! Take a pill now! That's an order!" Trouble ordered.

"Pills?" Questioned Artemis.

"Foaly has to take some pills to calm him down, it's an old man's thing, you know."

"I heard that!" Shouted Foaly from somewhere in the background.

"So Artemis how's our major?"

"I really don't know but her pulse looks good and her MTOPM is about normal but that's all I understand at the moment. I learnt most of it from No.1, the demon warlock, he's our Doctor." Artemis explained. "So all in all she seams fine. Anyway why the hells are we in here?"

"Well what is the last thing you remember before waking up in this horrid place?"

"Blue."

"What?" Foaly asked. "What do you mean by 'Blue'?"

Artemis rolled his eyes. "The last thing I remember prior to waking was a lighting blue light."

Foaly took a small cube from his pocket. Artemis' mind flashed back to his time with Mr Spiro and the C-Cube, then Artemis remembered what Foaly's computer had replied; "Computer, where is the hacking computer?" asked Foaly. "Spiro Needle." The Computer replied.

"Now Artemis maybe you would like to see what happened." said Foaly as a small projection of Kelp's office opened up.

Through the tinny speakers it was hard to make out what was being said, but the hologram was amazing quality.

"Huh? Oh I'm fine, I just feel a bit light headed, that's all." Replied Artemis, but promptly fell to the fall. Unconscious. But without warning his eye open but with a lighting blue light that was so strong that it made Holly, Trouble and Foaly turn away and cover their eyes.

"D'Arvit!" Shouted Foaly as the light disappeared.

"Foaly what the hell was that?" Asked Holly as she knelt at Artemis' head, took off her jumper and placed it under Artemis' head, she stayed keeling as Foaly started to examine him. Artemis' eyes were still open but he was unconscious. But when Holly looked into them they went blue again. No-where near as powerful though. Holly tried to move back but she couldn't, she fixed, she felt like all her magic was being sucked out of her, which it was.

"Major Short! Stand back...?" Shouted the commander, but he didn't say any more because of what his eyes were telling him. He was horrified along with Foaly. It looked like all of Holly's magic was being sucked out of her by the blue eyes of Artemis. The magic was moving from Holly to Artemis in wavy blue lines. The commander tried to walk over to the but when he got half way he found he couldn't move forward any more, it was like an invisible barrier between himself and the 'blue' couple. He tried to shout some thing to Foaly but found there was too much noise of something he couldn't hear.

Everything went clam as Holly collapsed on top of Artemis. She too was now unconscious.

Artemis' mouth was hanging, "so what was that all about?" but before anyone had a chance to respond; Artemis had found the answer to his very own question. "DNA change, so that first 'blast' was my own magic but it was cut short by me not having enough, then Holly made eye contact, which allowed my unconscious self to steal her magic, but I must have drained all her magic which would come under 'forced magic removal'. The TV guy got it right then, but I didn't have any magic removed by force and I'm not a member of the LEP. So this is a bit confusing, I'm tired, and I bet you are to." Artemis turned on to his side allowing him to see the beautiful sleeping major, she seamed so peaceful, but she wasn't sleeping. Not that Artemis knew that.

Before anyone could scream for help, alarms started to ring over Holly's bed. Artemis sat up, Trouble looked round and Foaly screamed with surprise. "Can we get some help over here!" shouted No.1 who appeared out of nowhere, letting Foaly have another little wail.

"I told you he was powerful" said Quan as he ran passed Foaly with five nurses trailing behind him.

"Okay her MTOPM is dropping, dropping fast we need to get her up to EMR theatre, NOW!" No.1 shouted who pressed two buttons on the side of the bed. The bed released its self from the wall allowing the five nurses to push the bed put of the room. And within one minute all was calm in the room. The only differences were that now there was only one bed (Artemis') and the other difference was that everyone looked like they had been slapped with a wet fish...

Two hours later

Artemis was feeling better, much better. He had left his bed and now was pacing the length of the room. Foaly was chomping on a carrot again; it was his seventeen in five minutes. Trouble was making another compliant about the amount of news they had heard, which was no news. Trouble walked back into the room. Artemis stopped pacing and looked at the commander. "Any news yet?" Artemis asked.

"No, not yet, but I need to speak to Foaly...Alone." replied Trouble.

"What about, sir?"

"You know what Foaly you showed me. Remember."

"Oh... that!"

"Yes Foaly, that!"

Trouble and Foaly walked out into the corridor, closely being missed by a remote hover bed, leaving Artemis on his own in the room...again.

About three minutes later Foaly and Trouble walked back in the room. "Err...Artemis..." Began Trouble, as Foaly retrieved a small piece of paper from his pocket. "Take a look at this for me would you." Foaly handed the paper to Artemis. He read it and as he did his eyes widened.

After a while Artemis spoke "So in other words, Root doesn't want an elf -I.e. me- swanning around aboveground like a headless chicken. Right?"

"Right" said Foaly and Trouble in perfect unison.

"And I will have to work in LEPrecon?"

"Yeah!" shouted Foaly.

"Oh I get it!" said a small voice from one corner, it was Grub. No-one knew he was there! Not even now he had spoken

"Okay, I guess I can't argue with the dead."

"Did you hear that Foaly?! Did you hear that?!" said Trouble

"Yes I did, the recorder did too!" said Foaly excitedly

"Any way Artemis you're not arguing with the dead, you're arguing with the council!"

"Okay! Okay! I'll work for you! What about my family? My friends?"

"Friends?! Artemis Fowl has friends?!"

"Never mind I'll sort it out, after all I am the one with an IQ of... bigger than you can think of!"

"Nice use of exaggeration for effect!" said Foaly.

Everyone when quiet as No.1 walked in to the room looking very glum. "I'm...erm...sorry to say that we couldn't give Mrs Short enough magic. Mainly because she requires her own magic of which she has none, she need to complete a ritual but if she leaves this building...she...wi...I'm sorry. If she leaves this building I'm sorry to say it but she will die in minutes. Not just that, we can't keep her going without her magic so I'm afraid she will die in a very short time anyway, maybe a few hours at the best. I'm sorry; we did the best we could. I would start saying your goodbyes. I'm Sorry." And with that he left the room.

Everyone in the room had at least one tear roll down their cheek if not more. The loss of a friend was too much to bare. The loss of a friend, the loss of a college, the loss of a hero. Artemis had the tears flowing. Not a sound was made. Foaly beckoned Artemis over to him, were he gave Artemis an LEP jump suit, a helmet, and a gun holster but no gun. "Put them on, that gown makes me feel depressed even more." Foaly said in a low voice and between sniffs.

Artemis walked over to the wash room. (Hospitals were the only buildings that had toilets in the building itself because you couldn't expect someone to go outside when they are supposed to stay indoors.) He opened the door went in and changed. Meanwhile, Trouble was ordering the flags back at the Police Plaza to be flying at half mast; "YES ALL OF THE FLAGS!" The commander shouted down the communicator.

"What even the council's?" asked the voice at the end

"YES CHIX! EVEN THE COUNCIL'S!"

"Why? What's happened?" asked Chix again

"Because Major Short has...Major Short has only hours to live, SO GET TO IT!"

"Yes sir, right on it!"

Trouble closed the communicator which in turn closed the link. A tear rolled down his cheek as he though about how this all came about. He though about when Holly first joined the LEP, the good time they had shared and somehow they had only just friends. But he thought it better not to go further.

Foaly was fiddling with Artemis' LEP badge when he found it taken out of his hands by Artemis who had also taken a Neutrino 4000 out of they bag with all the tech stuff in it. Over the three years Foaly had made the new Neutrino. But at the time he was making the new gun in the series: The Neutrino 5000.

Before anyone had even moved Artemis was out of the room and heading for E1: Tara, what was left of it anyway. He would then go to where he had first met Holly, he would see if his plan would work. He would see if he could save his best friend