Niki- Hi, everyone! ::greets anyone reading with a cheerful handshake:: I
hope there will be more people here eventually. But until then, let's do
the review thankings.
Vi- Thankings isn't a word.
Niki- I add it to my dictionary! ::clicks "Add":: NOW it is a word.
Vi- She's insane.
Niki- Why thank you.
DemonOfShadow: I believe I already explained it to you in a review of my own, but if you're still confused, please check out my profile page. Also, we removed her collar recently in this world, so she has more control now.
Rath Set-Seraph: Rath, my dear friend, I am very sorry that it took me so long. I have time management problems.
Raining Dreams: Thank you. You don't know how much praise means to me. Thank you for the cookie, too. Here. ::hands you cookie from me:: I gave them out all the time on the AOL boards. It feels so... nice to remember my friends there. Reese's Pieces are really good, aren't they? And your review mostly made sense, believe it or not.
Nameless One: I'll probably follow Laurie at some time or another, maybe in this one, maybe in the next. I'm still not sure where I'm going with this, though. Any ideas?
Holly Rox: I'm talking about him in this chapter, and I'm planning to include Holly in some chapters, too. This fic is going to be very, very long. I just wish my brain worked as fast enough to keep up with my typing.
Anyone who read the chapter but didn't review me: Please review this one! I worked hard on this.
Niki- I can't believe I got twenty reviews!
Vi- You wrote four of them.
Niki- I know, but still! I'm so happy! ::does a little I'm-so-happy dance::
Vi- That was creepy.
Niki- Yay! Let's type.
Cassidy was getting really worried. She had never seen anyone do this before, except maybe when they were asleep. Niki had been staring at the wall without moving for twenty minutes now. Cassidy waved her hand in front of her friend's face. Where was the breath? Panicked, she ran and found a mirror, and held it in front of Niki's mouth. There was almost nothing. Niki was barely breathing.
"NIKI! WAKE UP! DON'T DIE!" yelled Cassidy, terrified that she was witnessing her friend's death. She was about to see something even worse.
A head suddenly popped out of Niki's shoulder. "What are you doing?" asked Vi. "We're having a conversation in here."
"Aimumumumamamamemameumumimimum!" yelled Cassidy, recoiling in horror and fear.
"Relax, Cassidy, This doesn't hurt her. She's in a trance. It's kind of a psychic form of hibernation. The others are doing the same in the other room."
"What's going on? Why won't she answer?!" yelled Cass, freaking out.
"Everyone else came in. I don't think you'd enjoy seeing more demons, so I won't invite you in yet.
Artemis Fowl II stared at the screens in front of him. The video of the guest room hadn't changed for almost ten minutes, the four girls and two boys sitting in a circle, staring blankly into space. 'Are they even breathing?' he wondered, amazed and suspicious. After all, they had found their way into his home, which was guarded by the latest and most advanced technology. He wondered again about how they could have gotten in, and then his mind wandered to pondering the dilemma of whether they were still alive. He was so focused that when he heard a knock on the door to the surveillance room, he nearly jumped out of his pale, vampire-like skin.
"Um, hello? Artemis? Can I come in?" It was Juliet. The door muffled her voice, but the tones were unmistakable.
"Alright, Juliet, you may enter. Just don't step on the wires that I have laid across the floor. If they break, I won't be able to see the rooms properly."
"Thank you!" Juliet skipped into the room, a tray of sandwiches balanced precariously on her hands. The balance shouldn't have been precarious, but this is Juliet we're talking about here. And the skipping didn't help the situation one bit. Juliet hopped over the wires and held the tray out to Artemis. "Sandwiches?" she asked cheerfully.
Artemis almost laughed when he saw how many sandwiches were on the tray, but he managed to catch himself before the childish giggles escaped his mouth. This was happening more and more often. "Juliet," he said with a vampire-like smile, "you know I can't eat that many sandwiches all by myself. What did you expect me to do with all of these sandwiches? They will rot if I keep them here for as long as they'll last."
"Oh, um...Oops." She winced, knowing that Artemis was completely correct. What would they do with all of these sandwiches? She looked at the screens and an idea came into her head. "Artemis! What if we give them to the guest/prisoner people you're watching?"
"That would work," he said with the composure that befitted his character. "I shall have a few first."
He ate three sandwiches, delicately and carefully, without letting a crumb fall onto his expensive pants, chair, or equipment. Juliet marveled at his precision. "So...you're done?"
"Yes."
"Oh, and your mom says that you need to get some exercise. She doesn't want you sitting around all day."
"Once you give these other forty-seven sandwiches to our guests," he gestured to the screen, "please tell my mother that I am perfectly fine as I am."
Juliet nodded and went to leave.
Artemis looked back at his screen, not even flinching when Juliet accidentally slammed the door behind her. He looked back at the screens, watching for any sign that there could be a loop being fed him. After all, the girl who was moving seemed to be repeating the same movements over and over again. But his hypothesis was proven incorrect when he saw Juliet go into the first room and offer the three girls sandwiches. If you could even classify that cat-eared one as human. She looked more like a faerie or a demon to him. He had been doing research on faeries lately. Demons had not seemed as interesting, but he was beginning to reconsider this view as he watched Juliet try, in vain, to wake them. As he watched, he considered what the confident girl had said to him that had chilled him to the bone. He knew, somehow, that there was a disk. But he had no idea where.
Cristina and I had been right, as had Ruby's data. Rath had brought a CD player in there, and that was what the "reading that looks like a computer" was. Everyone except Cass was in my main room, and they were...talking...if you could call it that. Rath was arguing with Riyo about something trivial, and Set and Kenshin were yelling at each other for no apparent reason. Because Laurie was the only one not arguing, she spotted Cristina and me first.
"Do you know how to stop this?" she yelled, hoping Cristina or I would have an idea.
But an idea was not needed, because everyone stopped arguing and looked over. Except Vi, that is, because she began to slink away into a corner. Everyone came over and started talking at me at once. I shrunk back, not expecting so much attention. "Hello..." I said, freaked out. Everyone said "hi" in different ways and walked off in different directions, and I walked over to the corner where Vi was trying to press herself into the wall.
"What are you doing? Trying to break down my wall?" I said, in mock anger.
Vi relaxed a little at my joking tone. "But...I thought you'd..."
"Be mad at you? For what?" I knew, of course, but I also knew that if I let on that I knew, this would not go as well.
"For letting everybody in. You'd usually be mad, wouldn't you?"
"Yeah, but I decided to let Cristina give me a better idea. I'd thank her if I were you. The hyper genius girl is the reason I'm not mad right now. In fact, she helped me realize that I should thank you, because this is the best way for me to get ideas about how to escape."
Vi smiled happily at Cristina, then looked back at me. "You're very welcome."
I knew that that had been dealt with, and so I walked back over. It seemed that the arguments were still going on. They were getting a tad more violent as well, with insults like "Go f a Barbie" ringing across the room. Laurie walked over to me, and asked for help. They wouldn't listen to what she was saying because they couldn't hear it over their own racket. I responded confidently.
"Just watch." I closed my eyes, and Ruby understood exactly what I wanted. About forty pillows, all purple, all with different patterns, fell on top of the two girls and two demons arguing.
"How did you do that?" asked Laurie, amazed.
"I simply imagined what I wanted. It's easy enough, all you have to do is envision what you want to appear, and want it enough. Try it." Laurie closed her eyes, and her forehead wrinkled in concentration. "Don't try for the pillow. Just ask and it will be there."
She relaxed a bit, and her eyelids moved a little. As they moved, a pillow dropped down from above us, and fell towards her. She moved her arms to catch it without opening her eyes. She opened her eyes, saw the pillow, and a confused smile relit her face. "It worked! That's so cool!"
I followed her over to everyone else, which now included Cristina, who had been clutching her ears and trying to whack them with a lunchbox that she hadn't until now wondered how she had gotten it. Xandria and Riyo looked over and, seeing the pillow in Laurie's arms, started laughing again. It was a beautifully ornate green pillow, with gold thread embroidering a pattern of leaves, branches, and Celtic-looking runes. Cristina, following their gazes, saw the pillow and, seemingly forgetting all about the lunchbox, rushed over to look at this new development. Once again, I was left out in the bustle of my friends' lives, but this time it was different. This time, we had all the time in the world. Or so I thought. Actually, just as I was thinking this, Ruby sent up a large screen in front of us, which showed the view from my eyes and the audio from my ears. It appeared that Juliet was trying to wake me up. I decided to ask Vi for a favor, and approached her.
"Vi?" I asked, tentatively. "You know how you're so good at taking over for me?"
She saw through it right away. "You want me to stall for time because you're worried that that bodyguard girl is about to use some wrestling move on us?"
I nodded, and she disappeared with an animated poof.
"What's going on?" asked Xandria, walking over.
"Vi's taking over so that I can talk to you guys without Juliet," I pointed at the screen, "disturbing us."
"So Juliet's that girl out there with the sandwiches?"
"Yeah." Seeing Xandria's 'how come she has muscles, too?' look directed at Juliet, I added: "Juliet trained with the best to be a bodyguard, but she failed the final test, so she's decided to focus on wrestling, which is something she really likes."
"Interesting..." I recognized that look, but had no idea what it meant, so I decided to change the subject randomly.
"If you could have anything in the world, what would you want?"
"Power." Her reply reflected exactly what I had predicted.
"Would you want androids or robots that do exactly what you tell them to?" I asked, wondering what she would answer to that.
"Well, yeah, I guess." Xandria replied.
"Well, if you want robots or anything else, all you have to do is ask. Not out loud, but mentally. You simply have to ask my brain."
Xandria raised an eyebrow at this last part, and then closed her eyes. Suddenly, Cassidy burst through the door and screamed, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!"
Xandria's eyes snapped open in shock. "Did I let her in?" she asked, confused. "That's not what I asked for..."
"I doubt it. It must have been Vi. Cass must have bugged her enough to get Vi to snap and let her in."
Cass' eyes widened a little more with the sight of each of the two demons in her midst. "Wh-Wh-What is THAT? I-Is that Set?! A-And is that Kenshin?! They're real, too?!"
She looked ready to faint as she let out her characteristic mutated-sheep yell: "Aimumumumamamamemameumumimimum!"
Set and Kenshin started laughing simultaneously, stopped, stared at each other for a second, and then resumed laughing. Xandria and Riyo walked over to their yamis and began to speak angrily to them. Laurie and I went over to Cass, and Cristina rediscovered the golden lunchbox she had dropped and began examining it.
"Cass, I've already told you that they won't hurt you." (Me)
"They haven't said so!" (Cass)
"I'll make sure they don't hurt you, okay?" (Laurie)
Cass relaxed at that, and I went over to Xandria and Riyo to talk to them. I received a purple pillow from a very hyper little creature, which then alighted on Xandria's shoulder and began giving her a shoulder massage. The creature, black with red stripes and purple eyes, was shaped like a small puppy/monkey/vampire-like thing, with fangs, fur, and a long tail. I supposed that Xandria must have conjured it.
"Is that your...whatever it is, Xandria?" I asked.
"I think so. It appeared when I got angry at Set. I guess it came when my mental energy was strongest, because I had already asked for it, it just hadn't come yet."
"It's cute!" said Riyo, holding food out to it. "Wait, where did I get the food?"
"You wanted it, right?" I responded. Riyo nodded. "The food came because you wanted it. Anything anyone wants will appear. It depends on how strong your will is at the time, and if you have a strong will and aren't too overly focused, it will come."
"That explains the lunchbox!" yelled Cristina, excited at this new concept. "But...is this physically possible? It isn't is it? That's so great!" She began bouncing at this point, literally. I began to wonder how she would survive without being sedated, and then remembered Ruby's capabilities.
This would be a wonderful new world for all of us.
Niki- Wow, six pages. There would be more, but I couldn't remember everything that got deleted.
Vi- You're not crying this time. That's good.
Niki- I know. I got over it. No one should dwell on anything like that.
Vi- Good. I'm glad you got something out of this after all. Besides not being brutally murdered by your impatient friends, that is.
Niki- Well, hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please click that little button at the bottom of the screen and review me. Thank you! Bye!
Vi- Thankings isn't a word.
Niki- I add it to my dictionary! ::clicks "Add":: NOW it is a word.
Vi- She's insane.
Niki- Why thank you.
DemonOfShadow: I believe I already explained it to you in a review of my own, but if you're still confused, please check out my profile page. Also, we removed her collar recently in this world, so she has more control now.
Rath Set-Seraph: Rath, my dear friend, I am very sorry that it took me so long. I have time management problems.
Raining Dreams: Thank you. You don't know how much praise means to me. Thank you for the cookie, too. Here. ::hands you cookie from me:: I gave them out all the time on the AOL boards. It feels so... nice to remember my friends there. Reese's Pieces are really good, aren't they? And your review mostly made sense, believe it or not.
Nameless One: I'll probably follow Laurie at some time or another, maybe in this one, maybe in the next. I'm still not sure where I'm going with this, though. Any ideas?
Holly Rox: I'm talking about him in this chapter, and I'm planning to include Holly in some chapters, too. This fic is going to be very, very long. I just wish my brain worked as fast enough to keep up with my typing.
Anyone who read the chapter but didn't review me: Please review this one! I worked hard on this.
Niki- I can't believe I got twenty reviews!
Vi- You wrote four of them.
Niki- I know, but still! I'm so happy! ::does a little I'm-so-happy dance::
Vi- That was creepy.
Niki- Yay! Let's type.
Cassidy was getting really worried. She had never seen anyone do this before, except maybe when they were asleep. Niki had been staring at the wall without moving for twenty minutes now. Cassidy waved her hand in front of her friend's face. Where was the breath? Panicked, she ran and found a mirror, and held it in front of Niki's mouth. There was almost nothing. Niki was barely breathing.
"NIKI! WAKE UP! DON'T DIE!" yelled Cassidy, terrified that she was witnessing her friend's death. She was about to see something even worse.
A head suddenly popped out of Niki's shoulder. "What are you doing?" asked Vi. "We're having a conversation in here."
"Aimumumumamamamemameumumimimum!" yelled Cassidy, recoiling in horror and fear.
"Relax, Cassidy, This doesn't hurt her. She's in a trance. It's kind of a psychic form of hibernation. The others are doing the same in the other room."
"What's going on? Why won't she answer?!" yelled Cass, freaking out.
"Everyone else came in. I don't think you'd enjoy seeing more demons, so I won't invite you in yet.
Artemis Fowl II stared at the screens in front of him. The video of the guest room hadn't changed for almost ten minutes, the four girls and two boys sitting in a circle, staring blankly into space. 'Are they even breathing?' he wondered, amazed and suspicious. After all, they had found their way into his home, which was guarded by the latest and most advanced technology. He wondered again about how they could have gotten in, and then his mind wandered to pondering the dilemma of whether they were still alive. He was so focused that when he heard a knock on the door to the surveillance room, he nearly jumped out of his pale, vampire-like skin.
"Um, hello? Artemis? Can I come in?" It was Juliet. The door muffled her voice, but the tones were unmistakable.
"Alright, Juliet, you may enter. Just don't step on the wires that I have laid across the floor. If they break, I won't be able to see the rooms properly."
"Thank you!" Juliet skipped into the room, a tray of sandwiches balanced precariously on her hands. The balance shouldn't have been precarious, but this is Juliet we're talking about here. And the skipping didn't help the situation one bit. Juliet hopped over the wires and held the tray out to Artemis. "Sandwiches?" she asked cheerfully.
Artemis almost laughed when he saw how many sandwiches were on the tray, but he managed to catch himself before the childish giggles escaped his mouth. This was happening more and more often. "Juliet," he said with a vampire-like smile, "you know I can't eat that many sandwiches all by myself. What did you expect me to do with all of these sandwiches? They will rot if I keep them here for as long as they'll last."
"Oh, um...Oops." She winced, knowing that Artemis was completely correct. What would they do with all of these sandwiches? She looked at the screens and an idea came into her head. "Artemis! What if we give them to the guest/prisoner people you're watching?"
"That would work," he said with the composure that befitted his character. "I shall have a few first."
He ate three sandwiches, delicately and carefully, without letting a crumb fall onto his expensive pants, chair, or equipment. Juliet marveled at his precision. "So...you're done?"
"Yes."
"Oh, and your mom says that you need to get some exercise. She doesn't want you sitting around all day."
"Once you give these other forty-seven sandwiches to our guests," he gestured to the screen, "please tell my mother that I am perfectly fine as I am."
Juliet nodded and went to leave.
Artemis looked back at his screen, not even flinching when Juliet accidentally slammed the door behind her. He looked back at the screens, watching for any sign that there could be a loop being fed him. After all, the girl who was moving seemed to be repeating the same movements over and over again. But his hypothesis was proven incorrect when he saw Juliet go into the first room and offer the three girls sandwiches. If you could even classify that cat-eared one as human. She looked more like a faerie or a demon to him. He had been doing research on faeries lately. Demons had not seemed as interesting, but he was beginning to reconsider this view as he watched Juliet try, in vain, to wake them. As he watched, he considered what the confident girl had said to him that had chilled him to the bone. He knew, somehow, that there was a disk. But he had no idea where.
Cristina and I had been right, as had Ruby's data. Rath had brought a CD player in there, and that was what the "reading that looks like a computer" was. Everyone except Cass was in my main room, and they were...talking...if you could call it that. Rath was arguing with Riyo about something trivial, and Set and Kenshin were yelling at each other for no apparent reason. Because Laurie was the only one not arguing, she spotted Cristina and me first.
"Do you know how to stop this?" she yelled, hoping Cristina or I would have an idea.
But an idea was not needed, because everyone stopped arguing and looked over. Except Vi, that is, because she began to slink away into a corner. Everyone came over and started talking at me at once. I shrunk back, not expecting so much attention. "Hello..." I said, freaked out. Everyone said "hi" in different ways and walked off in different directions, and I walked over to the corner where Vi was trying to press herself into the wall.
"What are you doing? Trying to break down my wall?" I said, in mock anger.
Vi relaxed a little at my joking tone. "But...I thought you'd..."
"Be mad at you? For what?" I knew, of course, but I also knew that if I let on that I knew, this would not go as well.
"For letting everybody in. You'd usually be mad, wouldn't you?"
"Yeah, but I decided to let Cristina give me a better idea. I'd thank her if I were you. The hyper genius girl is the reason I'm not mad right now. In fact, she helped me realize that I should thank you, because this is the best way for me to get ideas about how to escape."
Vi smiled happily at Cristina, then looked back at me. "You're very welcome."
I knew that that had been dealt with, and so I walked back over. It seemed that the arguments were still going on. They were getting a tad more violent as well, with insults like "Go f a Barbie" ringing across the room. Laurie walked over to me, and asked for help. They wouldn't listen to what she was saying because they couldn't hear it over their own racket. I responded confidently.
"Just watch." I closed my eyes, and Ruby understood exactly what I wanted. About forty pillows, all purple, all with different patterns, fell on top of the two girls and two demons arguing.
"How did you do that?" asked Laurie, amazed.
"I simply imagined what I wanted. It's easy enough, all you have to do is envision what you want to appear, and want it enough. Try it." Laurie closed her eyes, and her forehead wrinkled in concentration. "Don't try for the pillow. Just ask and it will be there."
She relaxed a bit, and her eyelids moved a little. As they moved, a pillow dropped down from above us, and fell towards her. She moved her arms to catch it without opening her eyes. She opened her eyes, saw the pillow, and a confused smile relit her face. "It worked! That's so cool!"
I followed her over to everyone else, which now included Cristina, who had been clutching her ears and trying to whack them with a lunchbox that she hadn't until now wondered how she had gotten it. Xandria and Riyo looked over and, seeing the pillow in Laurie's arms, started laughing again. It was a beautifully ornate green pillow, with gold thread embroidering a pattern of leaves, branches, and Celtic-looking runes. Cristina, following their gazes, saw the pillow and, seemingly forgetting all about the lunchbox, rushed over to look at this new development. Once again, I was left out in the bustle of my friends' lives, but this time it was different. This time, we had all the time in the world. Or so I thought. Actually, just as I was thinking this, Ruby sent up a large screen in front of us, which showed the view from my eyes and the audio from my ears. It appeared that Juliet was trying to wake me up. I decided to ask Vi for a favor, and approached her.
"Vi?" I asked, tentatively. "You know how you're so good at taking over for me?"
She saw through it right away. "You want me to stall for time because you're worried that that bodyguard girl is about to use some wrestling move on us?"
I nodded, and she disappeared with an animated poof.
"What's going on?" asked Xandria, walking over.
"Vi's taking over so that I can talk to you guys without Juliet," I pointed at the screen, "disturbing us."
"So Juliet's that girl out there with the sandwiches?"
"Yeah." Seeing Xandria's 'how come she has muscles, too?' look directed at Juliet, I added: "Juliet trained with the best to be a bodyguard, but she failed the final test, so she's decided to focus on wrestling, which is something she really likes."
"Interesting..." I recognized that look, but had no idea what it meant, so I decided to change the subject randomly.
"If you could have anything in the world, what would you want?"
"Power." Her reply reflected exactly what I had predicted.
"Would you want androids or robots that do exactly what you tell them to?" I asked, wondering what she would answer to that.
"Well, yeah, I guess." Xandria replied.
"Well, if you want robots or anything else, all you have to do is ask. Not out loud, but mentally. You simply have to ask my brain."
Xandria raised an eyebrow at this last part, and then closed her eyes. Suddenly, Cassidy burst through the door and screamed, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!"
Xandria's eyes snapped open in shock. "Did I let her in?" she asked, confused. "That's not what I asked for..."
"I doubt it. It must have been Vi. Cass must have bugged her enough to get Vi to snap and let her in."
Cass' eyes widened a little more with the sight of each of the two demons in her midst. "Wh-Wh-What is THAT? I-Is that Set?! A-And is that Kenshin?! They're real, too?!"
She looked ready to faint as she let out her characteristic mutated-sheep yell: "Aimumumumamamamemameumumimimum!"
Set and Kenshin started laughing simultaneously, stopped, stared at each other for a second, and then resumed laughing. Xandria and Riyo walked over to their yamis and began to speak angrily to them. Laurie and I went over to Cass, and Cristina rediscovered the golden lunchbox she had dropped and began examining it.
"Cass, I've already told you that they won't hurt you." (Me)
"They haven't said so!" (Cass)
"I'll make sure they don't hurt you, okay?" (Laurie)
Cass relaxed at that, and I went over to Xandria and Riyo to talk to them. I received a purple pillow from a very hyper little creature, which then alighted on Xandria's shoulder and began giving her a shoulder massage. The creature, black with red stripes and purple eyes, was shaped like a small puppy/monkey/vampire-like thing, with fangs, fur, and a long tail. I supposed that Xandria must have conjured it.
"Is that your...whatever it is, Xandria?" I asked.
"I think so. It appeared when I got angry at Set. I guess it came when my mental energy was strongest, because I had already asked for it, it just hadn't come yet."
"It's cute!" said Riyo, holding food out to it. "Wait, where did I get the food?"
"You wanted it, right?" I responded. Riyo nodded. "The food came because you wanted it. Anything anyone wants will appear. It depends on how strong your will is at the time, and if you have a strong will and aren't too overly focused, it will come."
"That explains the lunchbox!" yelled Cristina, excited at this new concept. "But...is this physically possible? It isn't is it? That's so great!" She began bouncing at this point, literally. I began to wonder how she would survive without being sedated, and then remembered Ruby's capabilities.
This would be a wonderful new world for all of us.
Niki- Wow, six pages. There would be more, but I couldn't remember everything that got deleted.
Vi- You're not crying this time. That's good.
Niki- I know. I got over it. No one should dwell on anything like that.
Vi- Good. I'm glad you got something out of this after all. Besides not being brutally murdered by your impatient friends, that is.
Niki- Well, hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please click that little button at the bottom of the screen and review me. Thank you! Bye!