Fowl Manor
The redhead landed with a thump on the carpeted floor. Swearing angrily she rubbed her aching, possibly bruised body. The equally bruised Grub was threatening his watch to lodge a report…again. The centaur grinned cheekily. "It was Athena's idea," he said. "Energy saving and no traffic."
"Athena," Holly repeated. She missed the Fowls like crazy. Holly hadn't seen them in a year. They were busy and so was she. Their inventions were already enough to help the LEP anyway and life was so settled, meaning boring in Holly's dictionary.
The LEP captain shielded immediately as a reflex action to the heavy footsteps in Fowl Manor. She missed the time when she could just walk in and say "hi" to Juliet and her large Caucasian brother. Now they had other workers which had undergone training and had been with them for years without knowing the secrets of the fairies. Her stupid fairy friend was still yelling into the watch. Holly stretched cam foil over him which caused a few grunts of anger and annoyance.
It was evening, Amethyst and Will might be asleep. Holly flew to the all to familiar study where a once again pale man sat, crease line etched on his face. The slim tanned leg of Athena Hawk could be seen clearly as she leaned on the wall flipping through a com-book.
"Where is that Grub?" Holly thought angrily. Without bothering to look for the now shielded fairy she walked up to the desk where like a child she climbed the large armchair. She unshielded revealing herself to her old friends.
"Oh hello Holly," Artemis said. He closed his laptop. "What do you need?"
"We need your help Fowl."
"Back on Fowl are we. What did we do wrong?" Artemis smirked nonchalantly. "I believe we have fulfilled every requirement to keep our memories." He was careful to emphasise the word every without ruffling a few feathers. You'd think that fairies would just appreciate the friendship but no, to gain interest they keep your working.
"More sophisticated or something like that." Holly shrugged. "Waiting for my Major promotion, again, so we had better not screw this mission."
"It hasn't gone through yet? How about the last more than twenty missions, all successful?" Athena asked.
"I dunno." Holly shrugged again. "So can we get down to the mission?"
Simultaneously the Fowls shrugged and said, "Sure." Exchanging speculative looks they turned to Holly once again, "He's the one doing it," they both said, except Artemis said, "She's the one doing it." You don't really think that Artemis would get that simple thing wrong now would you. You did? The horror.
"Getting married must be weird for you two," Holly remarked.
"Hey," they protested.
"Okay…" Holly said sceptically. "Qasar and Percheron have escaped," she continued.
"Whoopee," Athena said, raising her arm in a mock cheer. "So what?"
"So what?" Holly repeated in surprise. "Qasar is a perfectly potential criminal mastermind."
"Not with Percheron. Those two together are as dumb as doornails."
"Well it's still an escape nevertheless," Artemis reminded Athena. "They might have a revenge plot against us and the LEP."
"Percheron? Okay…" said Athena, "I'm trying to believe this."
"Please remember the Qasar part."
"Teena, do not fail forget that there could be an ally. There always is but no one would want Percheron now, would they?"
"Precisely. I understand about Qasar but Percheron, where's Gareth when you need him? Maybe he has a clue on this bizarre thing. By the way I'm quite busy, you can borrow Amethyst and Artemis for this mission."
"I want to go though," the purple eyed adult said, in a childish manner.
Arty rolled his eyes. "I think that means I'm going."
"Duh."
Grub tumbled into the room being held by the scruff of his neck. Holmes was all over him. "Sir," he said in a military manner, "I caught this midget wandering in the hallway." He saw Holly sitting calmly in the armchair and started gaping, "I didn't see her get in."
That was when Grub made his mistake. He shielded, while being in the grasp of a strong bodyguard, which you can guess is a near impossible feat. Holmes stared in disbelief at his hand, still not letting go because he felt the fabric still tugging in his hand.
"Grub," Holly snarled. "Unshield."
Captain Kelp winced at the tone of Holly's voice. This was bad, that was exactly the tone she used when she threatened to report him. Which was why he was still not a major either. Holly wasn't going to let a guy best her in the first place anyway. He shimmered back into view with stares of anger all on him, except for Holmes Butler, who wore a mask of confusion.
"Holmes, you may leave now."
"Sir, you haven't explained."
"Holmes," Artemis said, his tone in a warning.
Holmes glared at Artemis and left the room in a bow.
"You could be nicer to the poor fellow you know," Holly said her voice dropping to a whisper the same angry glare fixed on her face.
"Grub, you are so moronic, idiotic," Athena began to snarl, then began all the colourful language that was sure to be censored if I ever typed it down.
"Are you even capable of such language?" Artemis asked, speculatively. His lips twitched upwards. "If Amethyst ever heard you I bet you would still be the 'cooler' parent."
"Amethyst loves you, you just ignore too much," Grub said in his rather drowsy state.
"I do not," Artemis loudly protested. "Why does everyone keep-"
"Uh, Arty," Athena began, her innocent look back on her face in less than a nanosecond, "you do ignore her and you've disregarded her twice when Willy was in the same room."
"Who's Willy?" the Fowl owner asked oblivious to the fact that 'Willy' was his son's pet name and the fact that Willy longed for fatherly care as well.
"Artemis," Holly tried explaining since Athena had that look on her face, the fiery look. Oh women and their mood swings.
"Yes."
"Willy is Artemis," Holly said again.
"Oh, why does he have such a nickname."
"He likes it," Grub said intervening, this time he had luck on his side with no more fierce glares.
"So, what do you want to do about Holmes?" Artemis interrupted, changing the subject. "He's my best, next to Juliet and it isn't cheap to keep him around."
"Wipe-Out 3000, the very latest in mind wiping technology," Athena managed to say since her mood had swung yet again.
"Very well, I permit this mind wipe but any injuries and I would welcome a nice bit of gold from the fairies."
Holly and Grub drew in deep breaths. "Fine."
Security Room 2
Scrabbles. That was the first thing that entered Holmes mind as he swung across the room in the unfortunate chair. He pushed the small blue button at the side to view Amethyst Fowl's room which was where the noise was distinctly coming from. The girl wasn't sleeping but the LCD projections were certainly none of his business. He didn't care anyway being a Butler. Sometimes he wished the he was old enough to take care of Mr. Fowl when he was a teen. There was a great legend circulating the web about Butler. Domovoi Butler to be exact. The myth or fact that he had been all around the world with a vampire like Artemis, discovering great many things and regaining a massive fortune after being bankrupt. Lyle and Frank were stationed in their own rooms, watching over every sector, only two Butler siblings managed to rest, as Butler was a retired bodyguard and Juliet was not exactly there. Many wondered how she could juggle a job as dangerous, but lucrative, as the one she held while mothering a very emotional teen but then again she was not like most mothers. Her husband earned a rather miniscule salary next to hers being a mere professor.
Holmes calmed down. He wanted desperately to reach for that book he had been yearning to read all year, romance stories, yeah he liked those although he was a Butler. That noise, what was it anyway? Willy and Amethyst were in the same room and not fighting, this was interesting and actually very calming since those two had actually settled their differences. He did a heat scan and results came up but he saw nothing. He traced the source of the sound and the results were following it. "Might be rats," he speculated, "really big rats." His memory flashed back to the green suited midget he had found. What was Mr. Fowl hiding? Maybe Domovoi would know. Dom was like a father to Artemis, there would be no secrets anyway.
"You are going to sleep," he heard a deep voice say, bass and alto layered inside the hypnotic and calming sound. "You will not notice what is going to happen. You have never seen me before."
"Never seen, before," he repeated drowsily as he drooped off. The mesmer was not complete yet, he was only to awaken with a snap of two fingers, which hopefully someone will know.
The recorder inside the room did catch that and another one thing however after his eyelids closed tightly never to wake up again.
"She acts quickly does she not."
A crackle followed, also on the disc, this time higher and more feminine, "I am she not shut up and get to work. Thank God I made earlier plans."
Suddenly, a loud thud was heard. Holmes might be in deep slumber for a long time as a low, yet memorable chuckle followed full of terror enough to chill someone's heart.
Don't forget my threat. Five reviews or no update. So come one REVIEW! I might do it for 3 or 4 though. Depends. Hurry up if you want me to hurry up.