Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Artemis Fowl Series, be it characters or plot, I do not own it, so please do not sue me. ;;
Reviewer Replies:
me, obviously( ): Thanks for the review, it made me think. I was already planning to put in this chapter, I just wasn't sure where. So voila: the Fairies are here!
aperfectattitude: Thanks for the review, and this is considered updating soon, right?
Chapter Two
The Bombing
Lower Elements Police Plaza: Haven
Holly stalked through the Plaza, bypassing the noisy guards. They were all talk, besides, everyone knew Holly, even though she was not a LEPrecon Officer anymore, who dared to tell her where she could not go? She finally reached Foaly's command center and Holly swung open the door to reveal the eccentric centaur hunched over his multiple keyboards with his tin-foil helmet donned on once again and his wide eyes darting from screen to screen.
"This had better be important Foaly. You know I hate it here," she finally called, making Foaly away of her presence. He jerked upright and spun around his specially made swivel chair.
"I knew it would happen!" he exclaimed as she walked in. "I told you it would happen!" he added.
"What? What's happened? Calm down," Holly demanded as she finally reached him. He spun the chair around, almost knocking Holly to the ground and pointed at the monitors.
"Look!" he ordered, and for once, Holly complied without question. There was something about Foaly's utterly panicked voice that unnerved her. On all screens were Mud Man television broadcast, news reports to be specific. Over a dozen different stations were represented, and they were all saying the same thing: Atomic bomb dropped on New York City; over 8,000,000 dead. Holly's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "I told you the Mud Men would end up killing each other!" Foaly cried.
"Hold on - wait - why!" was all Holly could muster.
"Those ignorant Mud Men have started a world wide war and now they've started dropping atomic bombs left and right! This is just the beginning! Now that the Empire has actually used a nuclear weapon, the Protectorate is going to start counterattacking with nuclear weapons on the Empire!" Foaly gasped, "and they're aren't going to stop until they're all dead and the surface is a radioactive wasteland!" he finally finished, although his breathing had yet to return to its normal speed.
"I don't believe this," Holly muttered. "How stupid can they be!" she yelled and turned away from the screens and towards Foaly. "We've got to stop them," she concluded.
"Stop them? How are we going to stop them? Something tells me the Tribunal won't like you going up there and whacking the world leaders upside the head," Foaly stated as he turned his chair to face her.
"Well, I'll sure you'll take care of that," Holly put her hands on her hips.
"What? Me? No! They'll cut my budget! Besides, they won't listen to me? Since when does anybody listen to me?" Foaly stomped one of his front hooves.
"We could do it in secret," Holly suggested.
"Oh like that will work," Foaly rolled his eyes. "Have fun at Howler's Peak afterwards," he added.
"But we can't just let the Mud Men destroy the surface," Holly argued. "Besides, if you didn't want to do anything about it, then why did you call me?" she retorted and Foaly pouted.
"I want you to go take a look for me," he said quietly while pouting.
"You're kidding."
"No, why does everyone ask me that? All the other LEP Officers have refused, can you believe that?" he slipped off the chair and trotted to the other side of the on the pretense of checking some other monitors.
"The Tribunal won't approve; and anyway, I'm not going up there! The radiation will kill me," she shook her head and Foaly glanced at her over his shoulder.
"Since when did we start listening to them?" he used Holly's phrase from before; that caught her attention. "Besides, we have rad-suits; you won't feel a thing," he pulled an odd green suit out from a foot locker. It was almost like a second skin, except it looked a lot like plastic. "A matching rad-blanket, just in case you get a rip in your suit, which won't happen because the suits are indestructible, any way, a matching rad-blanket that protects from radiation, heat, and most weapons. Just pull this string here to release and then wrap it around whatever needs protection," he handed her something that resembled a folded up tarp. "And the upgraded LEP helmets protect you too as long as you keep your visor down and the helmet fully sealed," he threw her a new helmet. She looked at it for a moment before looking back up at Foaly.
"Foaly, I'm not a LEP officer anymore; I can't use this stuff," she closed her eyes and started to set the helmet back down.
"No wait, how would you like to be a LEP officer again?" Foaly hopped up to her.
"I wouldn't! Not under that Commander Sool, I won't!" Holly bristled but Foaly held up a hairy hand.
"But what about a Commander Kelp?" he asked and Holly froze.
"What? Commander Kelp?"
"I asked Sool to send a team to check out the surface, but he wouldn't, and I brought him all the way to the Tribunal. I told them that we need to know how badly the Mud Men are going to mess up the surface with their war. I also told them that the er… radiation might possibly leak down here through uh… water… and… cracks in the earth…" Foaly smirked.
"Is that true?" Holly asked with an arched eyebrow and Foaly's smirk widened.
"Not really," he admitted meekly. "I mean, there is some possibility if the Mud Men managed to soak every square inch of the surface with tons of radiation…" he added quickly and Holly had to smile; same old Foaly. "So, the whole Tribunal chewed Sool out on how he was putting the Fairy People in danger and yada-yada-yada. Then they brought up how the LEP efficiency had gone down thirty percent within the past few years, and how loads of LEP officers had left to work on their own, like you. He was so embarrassed he resigned right away, and they made Trouble commander. I, of course, humbly suggested you for the job, but since you weren't actively participating in the force, they wouldn't hear of it," Foaly explained.
"You are something, Foaly," she muttered.
"Huh?" he cupped a hand to his ear with a broad smile and Holly rolled her large hazel eyes.
"Well, your FULL of something, that's for sure," she said and Foaly pouted again.
"Are you rejoining or do I have to stomp on you until you come to my senses?"
"Alright, I'll rejoin… but don't I need Trouble's permission?" she asked and Foaly, with a sly smile pushed a button and barely a few seconds later the door opened and Trouble walked in.
"Already done!" Foaly exclaimed while clapping his hands together.
"So you've agreed to come back, Holly?" Trouble asked and Holly nodded. "Good, because I've already filed your papers," he smiled and handed her a LEP badge.
"Trouble!" Foaly squealed.
"Foaly," Holly's voice was low and menacing as she turned narrowed eyes to the centaur who smiled and thrust the rad-suit at her.
"Here you go! Courtesy of the handsome and brilliant centaur! Have a nice trip, see you later!" he waved frantically.
"Foaly! What am I supposed to be doing? Just going up there and being exposed to radiation? I don't think so," Holly pointed and accusing finger at the centaur.
"Ask your commander; leave me alone; I didn't do anything!" he yelped and pushed them out the door, closing it behind them. There was a stunned silence.
"Ahem," Trouble coughed into his hand, "your mission, Captain Short," he started.
"Yessir!" Holly snapped to attention, the rad-suit folded over one arm and her helmet cradled in the crook of her elbow.
"Your mission, is to find out how many nuclear weapons the Mud Men have in their immediate possession and how many, if at all, they plan on producing, and using," Trouble informed. "You should start in the remains of New York City; Foaly has intercepted some telephone calls informing us that whichever of the alliances that the city is in will have loads of men cleaning it up and even a science and intelligence division there to investigate. Go see if you can pick any useful information from them. After they leave, follow them to their headquarters and await instructions," Trouble finished and Holly gave a smart salute.
"I'm on it," she said and then almost cringed at having said a very clichéd phrase. "And I won't, say that again," she added and ran to tunnel, pausing only at the annoyed gate attendant. "This is LEP business, I need you to cancel all shuttles to the surface except the one I'm about to use, and get everybody on the surface, back down here, got that?" Holly ordered.
"What? I can't do that to all these fairies, let me get a hold of my-" he did not get to finish his protest as Holly brushed past him and commandeered a shuttle.
New York City: USA
Holly turned off her wings and stared around the ruins of the once towering human city. Behind her sealed helmet she came to her senses and closed her open mouth. The buildings were in ruins and disfigured, dead humans were everywhere in the rubble. Holly was never more grateful than at that moment for the filters in her helmet. Even the stale air from within the helmet had to be better than that outside for once. She jerked out of her reverie as she heard movement. She quickly shielded and hopped behind a pile of debris.
Six or seven humans clad in what looked like space suits appeared, picking their way through the rubble of the city. Holly heard them talking through microphones built into their helmets. At least they were smart enough to wear protective gear, even though it probably was not enough. Holly looked down at her own suit and decided to actually thank Foaly for creating such ingenious and life saving technology, she barely felt any evidence of the radiation that surrounded her.
The humans continued picking their way through, all except one. Holly peeked out from behind the rubble, still shielded, but then a thought occurred to her that froze her to the spot: what if they had heat vision goggles on underneath those helmets? Then they would see right through her shield. Holly's mind race as she prepared for quick thinking; wait, she thought and looked around. There were still flames from the aftermath of the bomb, many of which several human teams were attempting to quell. The flames would through off any heat goggles. Holly let herself breathe again and relaxed a bit, but the one human remained in place. Holly had decided he was preoccupied with something else and was ready to move, when the human turned right towards her and stared. D'arvit…
"Why hello there," a muffled and scratchy voice came quietly over the suit's speakers. Holly moved, the human had seen her, there was no use pretending it had not. She got out her neutrino and made sure it was set for stun: it would have to be memory-wiped. "Going to shoot me? And here I thought we were friends, tsk, tsk. I was beginning to think you'd forgotten me. You haven't called in a while," the human chided. Holly's ears perked. I know that tone, she thought.
"Artemis?"
"Well, you do remember. I thought I'd made a rather large impression upon you; rather hard to forget," he laughed a sarcastic laugh and Holly could just picture the vampire smile.
"What in hell are you doing here?" Holly beckoned for him to move closer to the rubble and out of the semi-open space that was once a street.
"My job," he replied simply. Holly was about to ask, when the group of humans returned. Holly hopped back behind the rubble, and was very glad that she had remained shielded.
"Doctor Fowl," one called, "it was definitely an atom bomb," the man reported and Artemis turned slowly towards him.
"Thank you for informing me of what I already knew," Artemis' sincere sounding yet cutting remark bit through the air. "Can you tell me what type? No? I didn't think so. It was an implosion-type. How do I know? You wonder. I know because on recordings of the drop the sheer size was too large for a uranium gun-triggered, and the amount of destruction correlates with that of an plutonium implosion-type. Now, are you going to tell me any other incredibly obvious facts?" a stunned silence greeted him. "No? Good," Artemis went to walk away when another of the humans called him back.
"Doctor; the radiation levels? You're the only one with a rad-reading device," the voice was obviously that of a mature female, even over the static of the speakers. A small 'ah' was all that was issued from Artemis' suit as he reached in a small pack that hung from his shoulder. He brought out a small device that looked oddly like one of those electrical planners with two antenna attached to the top and a wire connecting the two. He held it up at arms length and pressed a few buttons with his thumb, then waited a few minutes.
"Highly elevated, recording the precise levels on the automatic memory now. We'll look at them at the base," Artemis pocketed the thing and looked at the others. "What do you say we get back on our plane and actually get to where we're supposed to go?" he asked and most others silently agreed and began their way back out of the decimated city and towards their jet. Artemis glanced at the charred ground momentarily then returned his obvious stare towards Holly. "I didn't get a chance to ask what you were doing here."
"Something tells me you didn't come here for a field trip. You said you were working. I smell one of your schemes, Fowl; what are you really up to?" Holly took a step forwards but stopped in her next stride as Artemis actually chuckled.
"Am I that bad?" he asked. "I was investigating the damage, as I'm sure you were doing as well, but I really must get going and get showered with rad-gel," he sighed and took a step away as things began to click in Holly's mind.
"Wait a minute there Fowl! Rad-gel? That's-"
"Fairy technology? Yes, and very useful I might add," he admitted. "Tell Foaly thank you for me," he added and took another step.
"Who were those other people Artemis?" Holly called. "Scientists?" Artemis froze this time and returned his gaze towards her. Holly nodded in comprehension. "You're in the Science Division of the Military now, aren't you?" Holly blurted out.
Back in Haven Foaly munched on a carrot quite excitedly watching the events through Holly's cameras.
"Yes, is there anything wrong with that?" Artemis' voice was stiff and Holly narrowed her eyes, realizing she had struck upon a chink in his armor.
"Artemis, do you realize what you're doing? What you're going to do, being involved in that division, in this time?" Holly took a few more steps forwards, while Artemis remained still.
"Yes, and I am quite prepared to do all I can," he replied.
"For what Artemis?"
"I am afraid that is top secret information, Captain Short," he said curtly and Holly recoiled, as if she were burnt.
"And here I thought we were friends…" Holly repeated his own words with a laugh, but Artemis remained unmoved.
"This has nothing to do with being friends Holly. I will do what I can, to help the Science Division of the Protectorate get ahead, and win this war," Artemis stated firmly. I do not know exactly what you are doing here Holly, but I do not have time to deal with Haven right now. I have my own problems," he said quietly, turned and left. Holly scampered out to the edge of the decrepit street and her eyes widened. In what had once been an open square was a sleek new jet with rotating engines. There were a lot more people in suits around the craft, including all the ones Holly had seen before, with Artemis. Holly's ear pricked as a whining became audible in her ear, and then this:
"HOLLY, UP!" Foaly's frantic voice came over the communicator and immediately she looked up, and back. Coming from the opposite direction that Artemis' plane was in, were more jets, fighter jets surrounding a carrier jet.
"D'arvit!" this time she voiced her opinion as she heard the humans behind her yell as they too saw the approaching planes.
"Those aren't ours!"
"Oh my god, another bomb!"
"Into the jet! Take off! Take off!"
Artemis whirled around to see the jets with his own eyes.
"The jet will never get off the ground in time!" one of the panicked voices cried. A suited man with a commanding voice grabbed hold of two of the scientists, including Artemis.
"We have a truck, we have to get you out of here," he ordered and the feeble geniuses had nothing to resist with as the man bodily lifted them into the back of an army truck.
"You can't outrun jets in a truck," Artemis scoffed, was amazed at the situation and, realizing his life was in danger, still could not seem to comprehend the sheer lack of common sense some people had. The man hefted a few more of the protesting scientists into the back of the truck before the driver decided he could not watch the approaching planes anymore and took off as fast as possible. Artemis was send head-long into the rear panel of the truck's bed. Dizzy stars circled his head while a slight whistling sound reached his ear and he felt a breeze against his forehead.
Holly took off at full tilt following the truck. She heard the screeching of bombs and knew the jets had begun their bombardment. The jets loomed closer and the explosions began. She had just about reached the truck when the jets screamed over head, dropping small bombs all the way. The truck ran into the explosion of one and was thrown backwards and sideways. The few scientists were scattered in all directions, but Holly went for Artemis, the only one with a pack. She landed next to where he had been thrown, against a wall of a skyscraper, he groaned as she rolled him over.
"Holly?" his voice was barely audible over the commotion overhead and around.
"Don't worry Artemis, just stand still," Holly commanded as she took out the rad-blanket and pulled the string. It immediately unfolded and she threw it over the both of them as Artemis pointed behind her. "What?" she asked and glanced over her shoulder; her eyes widened as an enormous spherical capsule dropped from the carrier jet.
"That's too big not to be an implosion-bomb," he observed feebly. Holly snapped back into action, yanked back his arm, huddled over him and pulled the blanket tight around them. The bomb hit and there was silence for a moment. Then a huge shock wave swept over them. Blocks from the buildings, cars, Artemis' jet and the like all went flying past them and the gargantuan building they crouched behind. The heat was intense, but Holly knew that the blanket was canceling most of it, as many things burst into flame around them. Then there was a pause, yet then a second wave swept back over them, this time in the opposite direction, back towards where the bomb had struck. Already beaten buildings began to bend and crumble. When will it end, was the last thing Holly remembered thinking before blacking out underneath the blanket.
Author's Note: Mwahaha, another chapter within 24 hours of the last! I'm on a roll! This is also significantly longer than the others and more my usual length; I'm sorry about how short I've been making the chapters, I just want to update fast ; .
On a research note, I've done several projects on Atomic Bombs, but I still had to go look back in my notes for some things. I hope you guys don't mind cliffies. Tehe, I'll try and update soon.
