A/N: Told you I'd be back soon! Well, here it is, chapter 7 already! I'm not gonna bother doing a 'TO MY REVIEWERS' this time, because what would be the point when I'm uploading this chap at the same time as the previous one! And I have finally gotten my format fixed (ish)!!! Yay!!! *dances* I'm so happy…

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The three LEP personnel got to work. Actually, to be more accurate, two did. Foaly settled himself down in a corner, and began to dismantle three of the earpieces that they had collected, saying that if he could just … do this, then it just might be possible to… do that…

Holly and Root, meanwhile, got on with tying up their adversaries. They really didn't need them waking up and causing trouble again. They had already de-activated their communication devices (a simple tweak of a wire here and a wire there, and the all other end would receive would be static) and had confiscated the weaponry each grunt had been supplied with.

As Holly looked at the assorted armaments, she felt her unease swell like a balloon inside her chest. This wasn't just the work of some over ambitious scum from the back streets of Haven, who'd pulled together any stolen or retired weaponry they could lay their dirty hands on. This one had excellent connections – these guns were like nothing she'd ever seen before. Obviously they were very new, and were still being tested at the weapons manufacturers, or Foaly would have bored her with the technical details long ago.

She hefted a particularly mean looking laser, and took aim at the corner of the roof. She flicked the setting down as low as it could go, and gently, squeezed the trigger. It responded beautifully to her command, heading straight and true to the vertex, emitting a pale blue glow. It chipped a tiny bit of the plaster from the exact point where the walls and ceiling met, and she watched it as it floated slowly down to the ground. Incredible. Not a nanometre out, even at this distance.

She gave a low whistle as she ran her fingers over the barrel and settings gauge. This thing could be pretty nasty. It could easily sustain enough power to vaporise a stampeding bull-troll with one shot, and could sink the charge emitted to barely enough to knock a leaf of a bush. That was an incredible range. It was a dream gun. As soon as this came out, Holly knew what would be on her wilderness list. And on the LEP's too, she was sure.

She weighed it in her palm. It was amazingly light, but seemed to be made of a heavy-duty metal like titanium, which wasn't exactly featherweight. Holly was just about to check the power source it used when it was snatched from her.

"What were you doing?" asked the commander's dangerously calm voice in her ear. She jumped.

"I was just testing it out, and seeing if we… could make... use of… them…" she trailed off, and blushed as Root raised an eyebrow.

"Just warn us next time you want to start shooting dangerous firearms you've only just encountered, and know nothing about, would you?"

Holly nodded, cringing slightly at the sarcasm in his tone. She should have known he'd give her stick for doing something spontaneous. It wasn't as though she hadn't considered the risks. She had made sure that the setting wouldn't cause any damage, and had aimed it well away from them. But the commander just couldn't seem to see that she had been careful, and went ahead and blamed her anyway. Holly sighed. Would it ever change?

He handed her back the gun, and took another from the pile, completing his own examination of the weapon. Although he tried hard to hid it, Holly could see that he was as impressed as she had been. It took a recon officer to fully appreciate these things.

He selected a holster, and threw two others to her and Foaly. Holly fastened the strap round her waist, and fitted the laser into its position. She felt her confidence and security flow back like a flood of warmth. D'Arvit, it felt good to have a gun at her hip again…

Suddenly, Foaly gave a small exclamation of triumph. "Yes!" he hissed, grinning like a Cheshire cat, obviously very proud of himself. "I have a little present for the two of you. And I think you are going to like it very much!"

Holly and Root exchanged a look. They weren't impressed.

Foaly brushed away their failure to react properly, and held up one of the earpieces he had been fiddling with. They looked at him, unswayed.

"Yeah, and?" asked Holly incredulously. "It looks exactly the same as when we gave it to you half an hour ago. What have you been doing techie-boy?" She winked cheekily at him, while he swished his tail in annoyance. It was always these two…

He sighed patiently. "I know it looks the same. But it's what it does that's different. I've altered the frequency modulators so that these three only are on a unique Closed Area Network. It can't be traced, as it isn't being broadcast to anywhere else. None of the other headsets can pick up the signal." He looked at them expectantly. Holly and Root both looked thoroughly confused. He sighed again. "I've made you three unhackable walkie-talkies."

He rolled his eyes, and shook his head. Holly grinned. She'd known what he'd meant all along.

"Not bad, centaur! How the hell did you do that?" Root asked, impressed in-spite of himself.

Foaly's ego inflated just a little more. "It was simple really. All I had to do was disconnect the transmitter, fry the connections to the other headsets, then re-align the frequency modulators to read only the other two, and you're done. Easy as skinning a stink worm."

"So if it was so easy, why didn't you have time to help the commander and I secure the perps?" Holly asked, thoroughly enjoying Foaly's annoyance.

Foaly shot her an evil glare and explained loftily that it was a delicate procedure that took time and skill, and couldn't be rushed. Holly just tossed him one of the guns. She'd known that as well.

Carefully, Foaly handed out his precious 'walkie-talkies' and they all hooked them onto their ears, making sure they wouldn't come off. Holly reclaimed her shoe, buckling it up tightly this time. Next, she stuffed her hand down one of the goblins' boots, and sure enough, found a small knife. It seemed that no matter how much fancy equipment you gave a thug, they always took a blade just in case.

Gripping it in her right hand, Holly yanked her dress taught, and held the knife over her leg. Root seeing what she was doing, grabbed her wrist quickly, thinking she was about to try and cut herself.

Holly's head whipped round, and she looked at him, puzzled. "What are you doing?" he asked quietly, sounding shocked.

Holly stared at him, amazed by his reaction. "I'm just going to lengthen the slits in my dress! You saw what happened before! I can't fight with it like this!"

The commander's eyes searched her face, trying to decide if she was telling the truth. He saw that she was. Reluctantly, he let go of her wrist.

"Sorry." Holly was looking at him as though he was mad. "I didn't know what to think!" he said defensively. "You looked exactly like you were about to sink that knife into your calf. Any one could have made the mistake. Just be careful. I can't afford for one of my two officers to be out of action!"

Holly just shook her head slightly, and bent over her leg again. She pulled the knife thorough the fabric, wincing as she thought of what Carmen would do to her for ruining one of her favourite dresses. She withdrew the blade when it reached about halfway up her thigh, and moved to the other side, doing the same. Finally, she hacked off the bottom of the dress, so that it now came almost to her knees, and ended in a shredded edge. She hadn't exactly been neat. At one point, the bottom came well up her thigh, while in another, reached halfway down her calf. It would have to do though. They needed to get moving.

"Right. Here's the plan." Root said, rubbing his hands together in a business-like fashion. "There is at least one other squad of goblins here in the manor. Now, as we found this one directly outside the ballroom, guarding this exit, it seems, then it stands to reason that there will be two other squads guarding the other two exits. Our first priority is to take them out. I seriously doubt those will be the last. This whole situation looks as though they are planning something concerning the people in the ballroom. I have a feeling that if we warn those people, we will regret it. There are civilians in there who don't know how to behave in a crisis like this. They would panic. And when people panic right next to you, you have a tendency to follow suit. There would be mass hysteria." He paused to let this sink in. It sank. Nice and deep.

"Once we have taken out the squads positioned by the doors," he continued, "We meet back here again, and decide on where we go next. To get this done quickly, we need to split into two groups. Holly, you and Foaly team up, and take the passage to the right. I'll go through to the left. We meet in the middle."

Holly opened her mouth to protest about not being allowed to go on her own, but Root held up a hand, and shook his head to keep her quiet.

"You are at a slight disadvantage to myself as you have the handicap of a dress, and heeled shoes. Just trust me on this one. We'll probably have to split up into three groups after this, but for now Foaly could do with someone to keep his head attached to his neck. Now lets get going. We've got work to do."

He held out his hand, and Holly and Foaly covered it with theirs. They stood like that for a moment, drawing strength and courage from each other.

Foaly grinned. "Keep in touch Julius. See you on the other side." Root looked like he was about to comment on Foaly's address of him, but didn't. He simply smiled back, then turned and disappeared round the corner.

Holly and Foaly exchanged a look, and headed in the other direction.

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dun, dun, dunnnnnnnnn!!! Well. At last. *sigh* two chapters in one day. Just to tell you all that the next chapter will probably be up in 2 weeks, on Friday. That's the 1st of November. It's likely to be a bit late though, and highly unlikely to be early. But I shall try. Anyway, hope you all have lovely lives while I am banished to the wetness, and coldness of *shudder* Devon and I'll see you all in two weeks. Bye!

Oh, yeah, and please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please review, 'cos I will love you forever! Honest! And one more thing…

POWER TO THE MUSHROOMS AND THE GREEN AND YELLOW PAINT!

Bye! ^_~

slime xxxx