Police Plaza

Approx 3 months ago

"I can't say today has been the most entertaining day in my life."
"Paperwork is not entertaining" Holly replied, looking up from the stack of it she was sorting through. "You didn't have to be here."
"Just because this isn't entertaining, doesn't mean it would be more entertaining if I were doing something different. Anyway, I want to be here with you."
"I want you here with me" Holly said quietly. "Besides, you still scare at least 70% of the people in here."
"You would think they would get used to me by now" Artemis said, "But their core fear of humanity is so ingrained, they'll always be wary of me. I know you still are sometimes."
"I try not to be."
"You'll never get rid of it. It's an evolutionary trait, so don't bother fighting it."
Holly looked at the time. "5 more minutes and we can get out of here."
"Oh good."
"I've just got to input a few files into the database, then we'll head out and grab something to eat. There's a new place that just opened not far from here, I was thinking of trying it out."
"I won't disagree" Artemis said, leaning back in his chair, so much that Holly wondered how it hadn't snapped yet. She went back to her computer, and began sorting the different file numbers. It wasn't fun, but it was necessary. She was just about to submit the database amendments...

And then her computer crashed. And then the computer next to her crashed too. And then the next one. Within 15 seconds, the entire system had gone down. Most of the officers filled the air with their groans and complaints about the inconvenience. But Artemis was now sat upright in his seat, taking notice.
"How unusual" He began. "Too unusual. This is an attack."
"An attack?" Holly questioned. Artemis scooted over to her computer and began tapping away.
"Somebody has hacked the entire LEP framework and brought the system crashing down. The question is why? They haven't stolen any data, haven't deleted any either. They haven't used any of the framework's systems. They've just crashed everything, made the computers unusable. Which is great if you want to put everyone in the dark, metaphorically, but why? Unless... Of course! It's a distraction. Everyone here is running around like headless animals, it's exactly what they want."
"Artemis, what are you talking about?" Holly asked, unable to decipher half of what he was saying to himself.
"This entire thing is a distraction so they can attack Police Plaza. Where is the safest place here?"
"Foaly's ops booth, of course."
"Good" Artemis said, practically picking Holly off the floor- despite her protests- and carrying her over there. Everyone else, despite being in a certain amount of disarray, saw Artemis run for the hills and started to figure out that this wasn't just an inconvenience, but a problem. They knew something was now badly wrong.

That was when the doors blew off their hinges.

Everyone except for Artemis stopped in their tracks as the masked fairies began to pour into the bullpen. Most managed to regain their senses quick enough to return fire, but the entire room was now lit up in a deadly firefight. It took just seconds for the entire place to descend into chaos. Holly unclipped her gun from her waist and began firing into the crowd, but they were now too far away from the main action. Artemis kept running, and running, until he almost ran straight into a group of attackers coming from the other end of Police Plaza. Only a sudden veer right into a weapon locker room stopped them from being seen.
"What in Frond's name is going on?" Holly asked, once they were inside and had barricaded the door.
"Not sure" Artemis replied. "I don't know who these people are or what they want, but this was orchestrated very well. Almost too well not to have had help from the inside."
"Great, more corrupt cops."
"On the inside does not necessarily mean officers. There are plenty of different jobs within a police station, especially one as big as-"
A loud bang shattered the atmosphere, as well as blowing out one of the walls to the room. A burst of gunfire emerged from the smoke, hitting Artemis not once or twice, but 3 times. Holly instantly returned fire, but by the time the attackers that had blown through the door had all retreated to cover, Artemis was already up. Holly looked at him briefly, with a half confused, half relived expression.
"Would you believe me if I told you that my suit is Neutrino resistant?"
"Considering you're still standing, yes."
Holly then moved to pull over a rack of equipment, her own makeshift cover. Artemis followed suit, though he required a rather substantially larger filing cabinet to shield himself.
"I'm going to need your help to hold them off" Holly said in Artemis' direction, exchanging fire with several fairies camped behind the giant hole in the wall. Holly knew Artemis hated using guns, but even he would know they were too outnumbered for him not to.
"There are substantially more of them than I thought" Artemis said, expertly picking a couple of brave attackers who had tried to enter the room. They may have been outnumbered, but now Holly and Artemis were beginning to thin the herd somewhat.
"You're actually quite good at this" Holly replied, something of a smile creeping onto her face. They were pushing the invasive forces back.

And then there was another explosion.

Holly had been camped not only behind an ammo rack, but beside one of the side walls. The blast tore through that wall, propelling Holly through the air at a great velocity. She collided straight into Artemis, knocking them both to the floor, but also knocking Holly unconscious. Artemis, though groggy, managed to put his body between Holly and the new wave of attackers, but with them now coming from two different angles, Artemis knew their time was running out. He managed to take two more out before being blinded by a bright light. There was a scream, a crash, and suddenly the light was gone, and there was someone reaching out to him. An old ally.
"We have to get out of here" He said, nervously glancing around.
"I know, Salt" Artemis replied. "But we have to get Holly to a hospital, she might be hurt."
Chriton Salt hesitated a minute, before coming over to them. He put his fingers to Holly's neck.
"She still got a decent pulse, and her breathing is good. She's just unconscious, we can deal with her later."
"I'm afraid it's a little more complicated than that" Artemis replied. "She's pregnant."
"Oh" Salt said, shaking his head. "Well I have to hand it to you Artemis, you do know how to complicate a situation. Hospital it is."
Salt led Artemis out of the room. They met very little resistance as they moved back through the LEP building, out the rear entrance and into a waiting vehicle. That was mainly because most of what would have been the resistance were laying on the floor, very, very dead.
"Your work I take it?" Artemis asked as he secured Holly into the back seat, whilst Chriton jumped into the driver's seat up front.
"Nasty little device Flower gave me" Salt replied, starting the ion drive engine. "Hadn't had to use that in a long time before today."
"Why are you even here?" Artemis asked, growing even more serious. "You should be enjoying the retirement I helped you attain."
"I was" Salt said, flooring it. Even as he spoke to Artemis, he kept his full concentration on the road ahead. "And once this is over, I will go straight back. But I'm still dialled in to all of the only channels I used to frequent, usually because I enjoy laughing at some fool's deluded plan to get rich or similar. But this, the chatter on this was big, and it was building. I owe a lot to you and Holly for getting me out of the mess I put myself in, so I thought to myself that I would repay the favour this one time. I can see that you needed it."
"Yes" Artemis said, holding on as Salt threw the vehicle round a corner.
"Now onto more pressing matters. Holly is pregnant? I take it that was your work?"
"Yes..." Artemis said warily. "Though I do not see how that is a more pressing matter."
"How does it even work?" Salt continued, completely ignoring him. "I mean you're like 2 and a half feet taller than her, how do you-"
"Please stop talking and drive faster" Artemis interrupted him.
"No need" Salt said. "We're here." He slammed on the brakes so hard it almost flung Artemis through the back of the seat infront of him, but just about managed to stop himself. He scooped Holly out of her seat and went to get out of the vehicle, but before he left;
"Are you going back to Police Plaza?" Artemis asked.
"No" Salt replied definitively. "I'm going back to drinking cocktails and letting everyone believe that I'm dead. This is your fight now."

Artemis had to wait 3 hours for any news. 3 hours of sitting, thinking over the possibilities. News had filtered through in that time, the LEP had managed to defeat the group that had attacked Police Plaza. Most of them were either dead or incapacitated, and those that survived had run away. It was a shallow victory, because the damage had already been done. Eventually, once everything else had calmed down, a single elfin doctor walked out of Holly's room. Artemis stood up; He was sure that going to his full height intimidated the already nervous looking doctor, but at that moment in time he didn't care.
"How are they?"
"Holly is fine" The doctor replied, as professionally as he could manage. "She'll have plenty of bruises and aches, but otherwise she is OK."
The doctor paused. Artemis' heart sank, he knew exactly what was coming next. The way the doctor looked at him, he knew that Artemis knew.
"I'm really, really sorry to have to tell you this. She lost the baby."
Artemis didn't let his face betray his emotions, something the doctor seemed eternally grateful for.
"I'll let you know when you can see her" The doctor near whispered, retreating very quickly back into Holly's hospital room. Now alone, Artemis turned around, put his fist through the glass window behind him and then walked straight out of the hospital. He knew that when he came back, things would never be the same again.