Holly Short's Diary

That was perhaps, the longest year of my life. Wonderful yes, but long, so long. I'm so excited to be back in Haven! Artemis is coming down with me, he'll leave to go back to the surface once I'm settled in. We're taking the flairs, although Arty isn't too happy about that idea, he knows it'll be the easiest. It's strange though, it's been over a year and I haven't heard from the LEP at all…

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Artemis and Holly climbed out of the cramped, sweaty pod. Artemis stood and stretched his back while Holly clicked her neck to release the stiffness. The tunnel's lights were low, even though it should've been around noon in Haven. Not a soul was in sight.

"Holly, Have you had any recent contact with Haven?" Holly walked over to the brushed steel door that led to the rest of the underground city, she took her time answering.

"About a week ago was the last time I heard from anyone. It was Foaly, he told me to come down in a week, that the shuttle would be waiting. No one was supposed to contact me until two days prior to my return" she opened the door, Artemis came up behind her and held her shoulder. Holly's hand immediately went to her Neutrino but of course, it wasn't there. So she clenched her fist and stepped forward.

The light strips were on their lowest setting. The pair stared at what was left of the police plaza. The building appeared vacant; there was no sign of life anywhere.

"What in the world happened?" Holly was amazed; she stepped out even further but felt the hand on her shoulder holding her back.

"There might be trolls, remember the Nine Wonders?"

Holly shrugged him off harder then was necessary as if she was also shrugging off the idea of trolls attacking them here. This was her home, a week could not turn it to troll waste land, and seven days ago all was fine.

"I'm willing to take that chance. We need to find a weapon first off, just in case we run into trouble." Artemis sighed heavily. Holly was right, but he would have liked to go above ground first to get the Neutrino he had stashed away, it would have been safer then getting one here, but not quicker, and he had a feeling that time would be a factor here.

"Alright, but be on your guard, as you always are. You find the weapons; I'll find the Ops lab and see what I can salvage." Holly turned around and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek she knew he could stitch together something of use.

"You be careful" she said and started towards the deserted building, hoping it was, in fact, deserted. She kept to the shadows and stopped to make sure there was no one anywhere near them. They creeped to the front door. The words " Lower Elements Police" where written across it with the multiple ways of contact etched underneath. The shining white of the words seemed to be the only proud thing left for a thousand meters.

Holly felt naked without a weapon, but Artemis was used to it by now. They wordlessly slipped into the door. Artemis's hopes for the Ops room fell, he took note that every single camera had been ripped out, along with a bit of the wall, and the alarm system had been rendered useless by what appeared to be ice pick sized punctures. It was a sad waste of such innovative technologies.

Artemis and Holly split up. They both doubted they would find anything that would be of use to them now.

Artemis found the Ops lab, the doors had been smashed back and a small electrical fire was burning in the corner. It quickly spread to a discarded computer shell and crackled as it devoured the hard, dark, plastic. He stripped off his jacket and smothered the flame. There was one computer left somewhat intact. The wires had been cut but at least they were there, that was a start.

Artemis stripped back the plastic and reattached the wires, praying that he was doing it right in this half-light. The screen flickered on, the audio had been destroyed beyond repair. Artemis tapped the screen to rewind the footage, as he suspected, there had been no feed for about an hour. He rewound to minutes before all the cameras went off line, perhaps whoever did this left a thumbprint.

He was watching four shots, one shot of the entrance, one of the Ops room, and the other two were halls.

Nothing drastic had happened, but elves and pixies where dashing through the halls, grabbing helmets and Neutrinos. Then it went blank, he backed up to milliseconds before the picture cut, hoping to find evidence of a cover, or hacking, or just simply destroying; but as he scrutinized the last to screens it seemed as if everything had faded out. Unfortunately, because of the lack of audio, he didn't know what was going on, or who was the cause of the pandemonium. He shut off the ruined computer once and for all and set off to find Holly.