A/N: I am sooooooooooo sorry I didn't update sooner. I know I said I'd post the new chapter a week ago, but I've had a huge gigantic ton of homework and coursework to do, and I have had no time! I'm really sorry! I would have written in Devon, but the utter boredom made my brain shut down, and any story I tried to write was just written in a really waffly, boring, over-descriptive, annoying-to-read kinda way, and I thought you'd want the chapter how it should be, not some piece of long, boring crap, that was about 90% stuffing. (I've just been writing an English essay, so all the talk from my teacher about eradicating waffle and useless stuffing has crept into my vocabulary. Never, ever, write a GCSE English essay. They are hell. Believe me.)

For anyone that cares, Devon was like it always is in the months approaching winter. One day we had sunshine, blue skies, birds singing happily, then five minutes (literally – I'm really not kidding, that is how fast it changes sometimes) later, clouds, rain, gale-force winds, rain, hail, rain, thunder, lightening, and about 20 mini-power-cuts in one night. Ugh.

TO MY REVIEWERS: thanks to you all again! I love you I love you I love you! Thanks to Just a little critic, Sara :-), EMeraldQUeen, Da-xia Nariko, sindaaraniel, Luna Moon and Eleida. I love you all!!! And to EMeraldQUeen, I have put a little cameo for Trouble in this one, just for you! He may have tiny little bits for a while, and maybe he'll be involved in the finale… hmmmmmmmm… By the way, if you happen to think of another name for a chapter (my 'inspiration' for chapter names is fast leaving me) I would be very grateful. My darling editors are great at spotting mistakes (no they're not! You all cry! We spotted a ton of mistakes!) but they aren't good at thinking of chapter names for me. *sigh*. I would be grateful for your input. Thanks.

*****

Holly could see that something was distracting Foaly from the mission. Although she didn't want to, she knew she had to stop and sort it out as quickly as possible, so they could get on. She couldn't have his mind elsewhere during action.

"Out with it centaur." she snapped, pausing in the corridor. He blinked, not sure what she was talking about. Then he clicked.

"Well, the think I don't understand is, why we can't go in there, get a discrete number of officers, then do what we gotta do with a reasonable amount of back-up." he explained. "There could be hundreds of goblins in this manor. There are three of us. Three. One shortish elf in a dress, one techie untrained in combat, and one high-cholesterolled, sell-by-date-approaching commander. We don't stand a chance. We might as well just go jump down a pressure-elevator right now!"

Holly stared at him for a moment, trying to work out if this was some twisted joke of his to hold her up. Seeing his confusion was genuine, she shook her head slightly, staring at him in disbelief.

"Don't you get it Foaly?" she half-whispered, shock registering in her voice. "This whole thing stinks worse than an unwashed troll of a hostage situation. These goons aren't here to nick a few candlesticks! They're organised. They have to know we're out here by now. If they see us go back into that room on the surveillance they are bound to have in there, they are not going to like it. There could easily be mass-murder. Whatever happens, we can't go in there until we've depleted the goblin personnel count a bit. The people in there wouldn't stand a chance! At least this way there's a small one." She turned away, still shaking her head. "I thought you understood that."

Foaly stood still for a moment, his brain processing all possible alternatives. There weren't any. With a melodramatic sigh, he drew his weapon and fired it up. "Let's go." he drawled in his best tough-guy voice. Holly couldn't help but grin. Foaly had been watching way too many action movies lately. He needed to get out more.

*****

IN THE BALLROOM:

Trouble Kelp's eyes searched the room, trying to locate the diminutive form of Captain Short. He couldn't see her anywhere. Nor could he see Root or Foaly. He bit his lip. He just hoped they weren't killing each other. He was considering leaving the room to look for them, when he saw what his brother was up to. Grub was looking decidedly stoned, and was evidently making a fool of himself in front of the other guests. With the weary sigh if the ever-patient sufferer, Trouble gallantly stepped to the rescue of his little brother's pride. He was sure the three missing officers could look after themselves. Unlike the corporal.

~

Kobalde cursed silently to himself. D'Arvit! He hadn't expected her to be here. Of course, he'd known Root and Foaly, and many of the other officers were coming, but she had just been another name on the guest list, albeit one that had gently twanged a chord in his memory. He didn't want her getting involved, though he wasn't one-hundred-percent sure why he even cared. He refused to believe she still had any power over him. Gone were the days when he would have done anything for her. Weren't they?

IN THE CONNECTING CORRIDOR:

Holly and Foaly crept along the passage, careful not to make a single sound. They came to a sixty-degree turn that marked a corner of the hexagonal room.

They froze as they heard the gentle murmur of goblin voices coming from around the bend. Holly flattened herself against the wall, and raising her laser, slid stealthily along it. Using LEP hand code designed for non-verbal communication, the two fairies got into position for the attack.

"Three," Holly mouthed. "Two, one." She swung round the corner, finger pumping the trigger. Together, they managed to take out half of the squad before the goblin counter shots began to fly. They quickly retreated again, knowing that their adversaries' weapons were not set to stun; they were set to kill. Neither elf nor centaur had any desire to end their elongated lives to goblins.

Holly pressed her back to the plaster again, the adrenaline surging through her veins. A firefight had never failed to get her heart pumping, and this was certainly no exception. She darted from the shelter of the wall, squeezing off a few blasts before dodging back. She heard a thump. One of her shots must have found its target.

The goblins didn't have a clue what was going on at first. Three of them were immobilised before they actually realised they were under fire. Their attackers managed to take out two more before they got it into their thick skulls that now might be a good time to use those guns of theirs. Honestly. Dur.

But by the time their fumbling digits had found the triggers, the elf and the centaur had disappeared round the corner again. Another few seconds later, a particularly smart goblin came up with the notion to follow them. It promptly did, only to stop after a few steps, clutching its head as pain bathed every nerve-end. The order to stay by the entrance had been burned like a brand into its head – the All-Seeing-Eye had wanted to make sure they did their job properly and didn't wander off. And he wasn't in a good position to reset the mind-controls just then. He was already busy with the feedback on the three breakouts.

The other three goblins, unimpressed by their comrade's plight, ignored the warning laid bare before them, and shoved ahead, only to be stopped in their tracks with whimpers of pain.

Foaly shot Holly a puzzled look, and she stuck her head around the corner to see what was going on. The goblins were backing away from the invisible barrier that held them off, then, finding their pain completely gone (and forgotten), charging at it again, only to fall back cradling their ugly heads.

Holly beckoned to Foaly, who peeked nervously round the edge, head feeling exposed without its foil bonnet. He shrugged in response to her unspoken question, and waved his gun meaningfully at her. She nodded and they sprang round the corner, weapons up again. The goblins were too pre-occupied with their little dilemma to remember why they were attempting what they were, and hardly noticed that their attackers were shooting at them again. They were scarcely aware their own fall from consciousness.

Holly and Foaly quickly disarmed, disconnected and secured them with the plastic cable-ties found on one of the goblins' persons. A further examination revealed that every member of the squad had a whole cache of the lightweight securers. It looked like they had come prepared to detain a large number of people. A roomful maybe. Not a good sign.

They split the ties between them, Foaly stashing his away in numerous pockets, and Holly, who was not lucky enough to be blessed with that particular commodity in her outfit, stuck them in the holster strap at her waist, where they were held securely in place. They were just starting to disable the goblin weaponry, when the hardware in their ears crackled, and the commander's strained voice filtered through.

"Could do with a little help here!" he grunted, and they heard the sound of laser shots in the background. "Now, if you're not too busy, Captain Short!"

Holly winced. Looked like she was getting herself into trouble again. "I'm coming right now sir. Just hold on for about half a minute while I get to you." She drew her handgun again, and jacked the power back up to 'stun'. "Be a good boy while I'm away, centaur." she said, winking at Foaly. "Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone." And with that, she sprinted off towards the commander.

~

It was ten to one. Not great odds, even for one of recon's most successful officers. These goblins had been more alert than the rest. They had obviously received a warning. Root had only managed to take out two before he had been forced to retreat, and only one more by squeezing off bursts on the run.

They hadn't been expecting an attack from behind, though. Root couldn't help but smirk as Holly suddenly appeared, big grin on her face, deadly gun in her hand. She got two more before they even turned around. As soon as their backs were to him, the commander left the safety of the bend, and started carefully picking them off. He couldn't afford to blast his way outta this one. There was always the risk that he could hit Holly, and then where would they be? They didn't stand a chance in hell with Foaly as his only back up.

There were only five left now. No match for two full-trained LEPrecon officers. The whole lot lay snoring on the floor in a matter of seconds. No contest.

After securing the perps, Root and Holly made their way back to where Foaly was crouching next to a goblin, looking thoughtful.

"Theory?" Holly inquired, leaning against the wall, arms crossed over her chest.

"It's the behaviour." Foaly said, frowning. "Obviously something that affected only them was stopping them from leaving the area near the door. I've only ever seen goblins behave like that once before. They were under mind-control. Very rare. Less than a handful of fairies have the skill today, and we keep tabs on all of them. Mostly, they just make a living from fobbing off customers by reading their minds, and making up a prediction based on what they stole from their heads. It can be very convincing. The others just don't use it. Its can be more trouble than it's worth. None of those fairies could have done this. They're not powerful enough, and I doubt they'd do it anyway. This is the work of an unregistered mind-warlock. And a powerful one at that."

The commander raised an eyebrow. "And you can tell all that from your brief observance of their behaviour? Pardon me for saying so, but isn't that jumping a little too rapidly to conclusions?"

Foaly sighed patiently. "I'm not finished yet Julius. When a fairy has been put, or is under mind control, their eyes start to glaze over. You get a milky film forming on the iris, which fades after about an hour of the controls being released. That lot had white irises. They've been under MC – mind control - for a very long time, a few days maybe. That takes a very powerful mind-warlock."

Holly groaned. So now they were up against a powerful warlock with strange powers, very sophisticated technology, and a potentially large army of thugs armed to the teeth. This was just getting better and better.

*****

I hope that was alright, and that it wasn't too short. I was gonna add a weenie bit more about… ooh, can't tell you, but I decided I'd shove it in at the beginning of the next chapter. Hope that was ok. It would only have been a couple of paragraphs more anyway.

As usual, I implore you, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLLLLLEEEEEEEAAAAAAASSSSSSEEEEEEEE!!! review, 'cos I will love you forever, and ever, and ever… and if you have any questions at all about what has happened so far – I have a feeling that only I actually understand over half of this, and I really need everyone to know what I'm talking about, so just email me, OK? My address (for those that are too lazy/can't go to my author page) is flyingpurpletreefrog@hotmail.com. or just leave it in the review if you want, and I'll try and get back to you. I'm more likely to do it if it's an email though. Just thought I'd say all that.

Have a nice week/however long it takes me to update! Bye!

Luv slime xxxx