A/N: w00t second chapter up before I leave! I'm sooooo proud. R&R lovelies.

Midnight, Tokyo, Japan

"Go."

A simple command, but the only one needed. The door of the large black SUV shut with a sound halfway between a slam and a click as a pale youth slid across the seat, clutched in his slim fingers was a long thin gold chain. A sizable ruby hung at the end in the shape of a crescent moon. As the SUV took off through the street, taking a short cut through a tight alleyway, the boy wiped the slightest hints of sweat from his brow and smirked. But really…to call him a boy would be insulting. Not only was he nearly 19 years old, but he had the IQ and general life knowledge to put almost any adult to shame.

"Well done Artemis, I do believe that that was your best time to date." The large man driving the SUV commented after several moments of silence. The pale teen in the back seat smirked again and held the ruby up at eye level, his sapphire eyes contrasting violently with the stone.

"Yes Butler, I do agree that this was a particularly well executed heist. Everything went off without a hitch. I am pleased." Artemis ran his fingers over the crimson gem thoughtfully. "Perhaps…too well. Are you sure that we weren't bugged…or followed?"

Butler looked his principal over in the rearview mirror, looking slightly hurt at this comment. "Yes Master Artemis, I'm positive."

"Right…of course. Sorry old friend, for questioning your skills, I suppose I'm just a tad paranoid with all the press coverage about me."

Now, seeing as how the press coverage was of criminal activity, no one but himself and Butler knew that Artemis was the one committing the heists. Well with the exception of Juliet, who was much too clever a girl to stay in the dark very long. The newspapers had dubbed him "Heistdini" for his…unusual manner of thievery.

Around the age of 15 Artemis Fowl the second had awoken with a terrible headache, and feeling of loss. Strangely both his man servant Butler, and his maid Juliet, had awoken with the same odd feelings. To make this event odder, certain memories and recollections between the three seemed to be missing, out of order, and contradictory. After months of research into this strange phenomenon Artemis had put it on hiatus. Never one to give up on anything, he just felt it was useless at the time to continue pondering what seemed to be a cold case.

After this memory loss Artemis found himself fascinated with magic, obviously for reasons unknown. Even more peculiar since Artemis had always rather loathed magicians for "making a mockery of science" as he put it. Beginning small with amateur card tricks, the young genius moved up quickly till he rivaled Harry Houdini in the art of illusion. With his newfound skills and love of slight of hand tricks, Artemis took his magic show to the bank…literally. His first major, magic crime was robbing a bank blind right before the eyes of the teller. When they locked up that night they found more than 3 million dollars missing without a trance.

Artemis used his magic skills again only a week later to pilfer a priceless painting from a large museum in Egypt. Several months later, and a few more pinches Artemis' string was linked together because they all had the same unusual trademark of magic. Of course only highly trained magicians spotted the fact that the crimes were pulled off by use of slight of hand, but no matter. It resulted in the nickname "Heistdini".

At first Artemis had been annoyed at this silly name but after a couple of weeks he grew fond of the title and began using even more magic in his crimes. This ruby lifting was no exception. He'd pulled out all the stunts to trick the cameras, pressure sensors, heat sensitive room, and laser linked alarms. It had been the hardest to date and Artemis had had to improvise after, embarrassingly, running short on mirrors which were a major part of the illusions he was making for the cameras. But ever the resourceful criminal mastermind Artemis pulled off the trick and escaped with the ruby in a record ten minutes, not bad, not bad at all.

The SUV pulled into the driveway of Fowl Manor at 1:00am sharp, and Artemis slipped the ruby into the pocket of his Armani suit, striding up the stairs and through the oak doors and smug grin pulling at the corner of his mouth ever so slightly.

Tomorrow would be a good day, he thought as he climbed into bed the ruby hidden away in his safe under his bed. A big show…a big crowd, and a big pay off.

A/N: gone to the beach be back later. Ja Ne!