I do not own Artemis Fowl

Chapter 28

Artemis woke up aching the next morning; Holly was lying next to him, absentmindedly and probably unconsciously – as Artemis was sure she was still asleep – rubbing his back. It wasn't hard enough to actually rub out the soreness, but the occaisional lazy spark would roll down her fingers and sink into his muscles, repairing the tiny micro-cracks that had appeared in them the night before.

Grudgingly, Artemis rolled over away from Holly, who responded by turning over and cuddling with the duvet, and slipped out of the bed. He rolled his shoulders as he walked to the bathroom, ignoring the small digital clock blinking 11:00AM at him in red. He stared at himself in the mirror, turning over his own face in his hands, several bruises and a black eye from the night before were gone; magicked away by Holly. His nose had been broken as well, Holly took care of that immediately. He gently turned and tweaked his nose, there was no pain, no clicking, nothing to indicate that the day before Constantine had turned it sideways.

Holly was quite good at this healing thing, probably second only to the warlocks, Artemis thought. It was just a pain that the amount of magic available was so limited. The gears in his head started turning, shaking away the blur of the morning, trying to think of ways to boost the input of magic into a fairy, and then store it in larger amounts.

"Aaartemis?" Holly groaned from the bed. The noise broke him from his thoughts and he turned around to see her rolling over, her petit, elfin frame still tangled in the beige and green bedsheets. "What are you doing up already? It's only..." She glanced at the clock. "11... Ok maybe we slept in.".

Artemis grinned at her; a grin reminiscent of a vampire. "Perhaps just a bit." He turned from her and grabbed his toothbrush from out his black travel bag. He was halfway through brushing his teeth when Holly came up and wrapped her arms around his waist and stomach, she started swaying her hips, semi-forcing his to move in the same serpentine motion with hers. Needless to say, Artemis was slightly taken aback by this. "Mmmhhhjmruumm?" he tried to say. His hands now in the air above his head, one still holding the toothbrush.

"Yes?" Holly was nuzzling against the small of his back, the sensation sent chills up his spine, in a good way.

Artemis spat the remainder of the toothpaste into the sink so he could speak. "What are you doing?"

"Hmmmm." All Holly gave in reply. He hand started circling under his white undershirt, with her fingers occasionally slipping under his waistband. Artemis' eyes widened, and he quickly washed the rest of the toothpaste out of his mouth.

"Holly, I hate to tell you this, but I am very sore and I'm not-" He was cutoff by Holly squeezing his abdomen so tightly that it cut off the rest of his sentence. He looked back at her with a very confused look on his face, a bit of a landmark moment for him. She stared back at him with angry, pouting eyes. He gulped.

Holly started dragging him by the back of his shirt, he managed to say "Oh-", and no doubt would have followed it with "dearie me", if he had been able to finish the sentence. As it was, he was thrown quite bodily down upon the still-mussed green and beige bedsheets, with Holly somehow ending up on top of him. Wide blue and hazel eyes stared into sultry mirrors of themselves. Both were silent for a moment.

"I want to show you something." Holly said, and then amber sparks started jumping around and off her skin, until she was glowing.

This is new, Artemis thought.

When Artemis and Holly – In her human form – arrived at the shooting range, which Constantine had rented out for another day, they had bagels and cream cheese for everyone. Unfortunately, "everyone" weren't really paying attention to them, as Butler and Constantine were fighting, full-tilt, in the same space Constantine had worked with Artemis the night before.

Juliet was crammed into a corner with the same table Butler and Constantine had been sitting at before, watching the scene before her, mouth agape. She had seen Butler go all-out once before, and that was up against Madam Ko. That match had ended in a draw, but her big brother seemed to have gotten even better since then, if it was possible, and Constantine was holding his own against him. Artemis and Holly both sat down next to Juliet without saying a word, Holly hadn't even let go of the bag of bagels yet. They both watched the fight intensely, Artemis steepled his fingers and tried to read the moves, to see ahead, the same way he would while watching a speed chess match.

Butler was wearing his specially-tailored suit (tailored so he could have a full range of motion, beat the crap out of you and still look professional while doing it), and having the size advantage, but by such a mass that he had an agility disadvantage, hestayed in one spot for the most part, pivoting on his back foot to defend and counter from a solid base. Occasionally he would move, to kick or attempt a takedown, and when he did it was with such a tenacity and speed that the two of them appeared a tangle of flailing limbs and crushing blows till one of them, usually Constantine, got thrown back. Speaking of Constantine, he was just as enthralling to watch as Butler: flying around like one of those ridiculous characters in manga, he was taking advantage of his prodigious endurance and considerable acrobatic skill to try to find an opening in Butler's armor. He would jump off a wall, bench, gun stand, anything to try to get withing striking range of the giant.

Constantine tried to backflip is way under Butler's guard and land a kick to the big man's chin, but Butler was too quick, catching the kick in his palm, and thrusting outward, sending Constantine's body flying towards a near wall. Everyone watching winced waiting for the impact, except Artemis, who noticed the slight shift in Constantine's center of gravity. At the last minute, Constantine twisted his body, and landed feet first against the wall. If someone had a camera, and took a picture at the precise moment, it would look like he was standing sideways, for he next launched himself at Butler, who batted the missile-like figure to the side. Constantine, however, grabbed one of Butler's forearms, and managed to engage the man in a Wing-Chung Kung Fu battle. To close for kicks now, each of their arms was flying, trying to trap and punch the other. Artemis watched closely, and read ahead, he saw each and every punch as if it were in slow motion now, he saw the trap by Constantine, he saw the spinning back-fist, he saw Butler being knocked out by a hard right...

But that didn't happen, both Constantine and Artemis underestimated how quick Butler really was, and he surprised them both by catching Constantine's arm. With a firm grip, he spun once, twirling Constantine like a rag-doll, and tossed him to the far end of the room, right towards the group watching, But this time, there was no shift of Constantine's body, he hit the ground. Hard. He tumbled thrice and came to a stop on his back, looking at Artemis through his legs in a way that would look comical if it didn't look like it hurt so much.

"Well," He groaned. "that's new." He coiled up from that position, putting his hands on either side of his head, palms on the ground, and jumped to his feet. He looked at Butler, who took a defensive stance, and raised his hand in defeat. "You win, big man. I'm done." A sheepish smile played across Constantine's face, and Butler stood up straight, answering with a curt bow. Constantine bowed his head and walked towards Butler, they both shook hands, and broke apart.

Juliet and Holly started clapping with astonished expression, even Artemis was clapping lightly, looking amused.

"Well done!" he congratulated. He opened his mouth to continue, but was cut off by a cry from Juliet, who jumped up and hung from Butler's neck in an affectionate hug.

"Oh my god! That was amazing." She shrieked, but before a shocked Butler could return the gesture, she had already dropped down, grabbing Constantine and kissing him on the cheek. "You too, I've never seen anyone go toe to toe with my big brother like that." She bounced away and out the door to the entrance section of the shooting range, leaving a stunned group of people, and a particularly red Constantine, who was wide-eyed and holding his cheek. He turned his attention to Artemis and Holly.

"You two are up late." He pointed out with a grin.

"Yes, well you know how women are with their hair." Artemis replied cooly with an equally devious smile.

"Yes well my hair wouldn't have taken so long if YOU -" Holly stopped and quickly turned a bright shade of pink, which was quite impressive for an elf-turned-human with chestnut colored skin.

"What was that, my dear?" Artemis asked, his grin becoming more and more vampire-like, Holly just thought he looked like the devil.

"Nothing." She mumbled.

"What? I did not quite catch that, my dear." Holly shot him a deadly stare, and Artemis, considering his..erm..precarious.. position with her, decided to back off. She glared at him for a moment more, then turned to Butler and Constantine.

"What started all that anyway?"

Constantine shrugged. "We got bored waiting for you, so we decided to spar."

"That was sparring?"

Butler shrugged this time. "Of a sort. I guess we may have gotten into it a bit."

"No matter," Constantine cut in. "We should start planning out a route of entry into the compound."

"Actually, Ive been thinking about that." Everyone looked at him. Holly looked particularly surprised.

"When did you find the time to do that?" Artemis gave her his vampire smile.

"A good magician never reveals his tricks, Holly, but I do have a plan."

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