DISCLAIMER:
**Holly is my friend,
She's an amazing fairy to know.
But I don't own her or her friends,
I just plan out the show!!**
AN: I'll make this quick, since I usually never read these. A couple warnings:
This story is not finished yet, and so, updates will probably not be even and frequent. Just stay with me, I promise to finish. I am writing with the help of my sister. I am a big A/H fan, but she doesn't do romance, so don't expect any. Note the lack of Romance in the Genre descriptions. This has original characters in it. One is a beautiful girl who is a big part in this adventure. However, this is NOT a Mary Sue. I dislike those kinds of stories, and this will NOT be one. I guarantee it.Chapter 2: LEPRecons Have Bad Days, Too
Holly had been unwillingly roped into being extra security for the goblin transport to Howler's Peak. She had to admit, however, it was the most exciting thing that had happened to her ever since she had returned from the surface.
And the most annoying.
"Gosh, do all goblins smell this bad?" Corporal Grub Kelp said, making no effort to keep his voice down. Holly sighed and looked at Grub's older brother, Captain Trouble Kelp. Trouble shrugged. Such help.
"Grub, could you just sit back and stay silent until we get there? You're not helping." Holly hissed. Grub pouted.
"But Captain, I was asked to do this because the LEP thought I was the right fairy for the job. After all, if I can face down a Mud Man, I can handle a couple of scrawny old goblins."
Holly leaned over to Trouble. "How do you handle him?"
Trouble motioned to a set of earplugs firmly in place. Captain Short resisted the urge to put her head in her hands. Never again. Grub was a bigger handful than these convicts.
Speaking of Grub…
"Trouble!" Holly snapped, tugging on his sleeve. "Where's Grub?"
"Hmm?"
Holly pointed at his ears, and then made a gesture for removing them. Trouble did so.
"Yes, Holly, what is it?"
"Grub is gone."
"WHAAATTTT??"
Holly winced. "It's okay. He was just here, he couldn't have gotten far. After all, this isn't a very big shuttle. It just has a couple holding cells. And the front pilot cockpit."
Trouble stood, scanning the area in front of him. "I'll go left; you go check out the cockpit. While we're up, check the cells and make sure all the occupants are there."
A snarl came from the right corridor. Then came a tinny voice: "I can take whatever you can dish, you stupid smelly…thing!"
"What did you call me?"
The two Captains looked at each other and then headed down the right hall. As they screeched to a halt in front of the last cell in that row, they were greeted with a horrible sight: one goblin had figured out some way to get free of his fireproof manacles and was slowly advancing on a now trembling Grub.
"Tr-Tr-Trouble…" he whimpered. Trouble pulled his laser, taking one step, then another.
"Don't move." Captain Kelp ordered. The goblin smiled stupidly. Maybe getting out of its manacles had been luck.
A fireball came blasting out of nowhere and narrowly missed Grub. He wailed and pressed himself to the wall, finally getting his laser out of its holster. The goblin sharing the cell with the first was also free, and his hands were smoking.
Holly leapt into action. As Trouble began firing, trying to hit one of the rogue prisoners, she also started shooting. As she shot, the elf ran over to a box on the wall. It had a sleeping gas release lever in it, with the sleeping gas engineered to goblin DNA. Like Koboi's DNA cannons, the gas would affect only goblins when activated. In theory. And Foaly had been wrong before.
She flipped over the cover, typing the code to gain access to the lever too fast and bungling it. She started over again.
"Grub!" she shouted over the din. "Don't just stand there, shoot!!"
The elf started firing hesitantly, aiming at absolutely nothing. One of the two goblins noticed the very slight threat he presented and began to work on another fireball. Grub didn't notice the goblin, though.
"Grub!" Holly yelled again, and missed a number again. "D'Arvit. Grub!" The younger elf ignored her. Trouble, however, didn't.
He noted Grub's position to where the goblin was aiming his fireball, realized the danger to his little brother, and acted accordingly.
He jumped in between.
The fireball enveloped him, finally gaining Grub's attention.
"NO!" Grub started firing harder, aiming at the two goblins instead of all over like before. He was shaking again, but it was from repressed anger. "TROUBLE!"
Holly punched the last number and was rewarded with a lever, which she yanked promptly. Blue gas flooded the halls. Goblin bodies began to thump to the floor.
As it cleared, Holly rushed back to Grub, who was at his brother's side. "Trouble." he whispered. "Are you okay?"
The unlucky elf coughed soot. His skin was badly burned and he was deadly pale beneath multiple lacerations. His hair, however, had escaped totally unscathed and unsinged. Holly decided to muse on that oddity later.
Trouble looked up at her. "I-I've been better. But I'll be okay. How are you doing?"
"Trouble, lie still." Holly interrupted. Contrary to what the elf was saying, he was badly hurt. "I'm going to try to heal you." At her words, Trouble began to sit up.
"Don't worry about it, H-Holly. I'm fine."
"Right. And I'm Foaly's new girlfriend." Holly muttered, pushing him back down. "Hold still!" The fairy laid her hands on the captain's chest.
"Heal." she breathed. Blue sparks began to travel up and down Trouble's body, joining the ones that had been rushing to his help earlier.
After a few minutes, Trouble was breathing deeply, in a heavy sleep. His skin was much better, and he looked almost as good as new. Holly, on the other hand, was as pale and trembling as Grub had been earlier.
After that incident, the goblins slept the rest of the way to Howler's Peak, as did Trouble. Holly didn't sleep; she just sat and conserved her energy. As she did, she watched Grub out of the corner of her eye. He sat stiffly, and just a little taller than before. Seeing his brother almost die for him had been a moving experience. He would never be the same. Holly knew it.
They got the goblins delivered safely, and headed back quietly. After arriving, Holly headed to Root's office.
"Sir," she said, snapping to attention, "Section 15 of the goblin prisoners has been transported to Howler's Peak. There was a light disturbance, but we released the DNA sleeping gas on board. The gas worked effectively, and we brought everything back under control. All in all, it was okay."
"Sit." Root commanded. Holly sank into a chair. "Captain," Root began, "you look awful. What really happened?"
"Captain Kelp got caught in a fireball protecting Corporal Kelp. I had to heal him." Holly tried unsuccessfully to shield a yawn. "Sorry, sir."
Root studied her for a few more seconds, then leaned forward and typed something.
"There." he said. "You have clearance to go up to the surface and perform the Ritual. Judging from your complexion, you need it."
"Sir, I'm fine. Really. I can go without the Ritual for-"
"For what? Four years? Like last time? Did you really believe I was going to let you pull that again? Go do the Ritual, and do it now." Root's face was starting to turn a deep red. Holly decided it was better to agree than to fight.
"Yes, sir." She saluted and walked out. As Root watched her leave, he noticed that she wasn't walking in a straight line. "Yep, she needs that magic." he murmured.
Holly climbed onto the shuttle and dozed through the ride to the surface. After arriving, she again chose to skip over Tara and head to the spot she had approached a few years ago, where it had all started. The spot where Artemis Fowl Junior first found a fairy. Her. Such an honor.
"Well, let's get this over with." she whispered as she shouldered her wings.
***********
Artemis Fowl and Butler were wedged into a small spot, watching the tree in front of them intently. They had brought an older invention of Artemis's, a blind that conserved heat energy from sensors. If any animal that came by depended on sensing heat to pinpoint other animals, they would be safe. That included fairy technology.
Butler studied his charge. The teenager was quiet, and looked slightly strained. Gently, he laid a hand on his shoulder. It almost felt as if he'd done it before.
"Artemis," he said, words automatically leaping to his lips, I realize it's not my place, but I know there's something wrong. And if there's anything I can do to help…"
Artemis looked up at Butler, and unbidden, words came to his mind. It's my mother, Butler. I'm beginning to wonder if she'll ever...
The young teen frowned. But he wasn't worried about his mother. She was perfectly fine.
"Actually, Butler, there is. I feel like this is so familiar. Almost like we've tried to capture a fairy before. But, if we had, I would have remembered it. So why is this so confusing?"
Butler opened his mouth to answer when a beep interrupted him. He turned to see a figure coming in. It was vibrating so quickly it was invisible, like Artemis had thought, but the heat sensors in the shielding tent informed them of the approaching fairy.
"Here we go." he whispered to the boy. Artemis smirked slightly.
The figure set down gently in front of the tree and stopped vibrating. It was short, but it had the wrong proportions for a child. Definitely not human.
The fairy didn't do anything. It just stood there and stared at the moon. It seemed to be thinking of something. Artemis nodded to Butler. The bodyguard picked up the tranquilizer gun and steadied it at the figure. For some reason, he kept expecting the fairy to bend down when he fired. Thinking it through completely, he realized that waiting would allow the fairy to get away. But it looked so human…
Pushing away the misgivings, and the feelings of déjà vu, he pulled the trigger.