Hello everyone! This is another one of my experimental attempts at a fic. As you hopefully know, this is an Artemis Fowl fic, which I have never written before, therefore you will all have to forgive me. I know I'm not great at Fanfics, therefore advice is great, give all you like.
However, flames... yeah, I dun take them too well. I can take a whole bunch of advice, even critical advice, really, I don't mind. But I'm warning you now, I'm not great at this stuff.
If I like the way this goes on, I will prolly write another two or three Artemis Fics, all of course with a different plot and so on.
Anyway, here is the story, I hope you all like.
This is based after the fourth book, btw.
PROLOGUE
Excerpt from Detective Holly Short Memory Documents File 3(Encrypted)
For the past two years I have been trying very hard to forget all that has happened, all that happened long ago. It seems my mind is not apt to do so, and I have many dreams during the hours that I bother to sleep filled with images of my lost Commander and friend.
I suppose, even though I know that I could have done nothing now, I feel the painful bite of guilt. I'm not sure what it is that I am guilty about. I did all that I could, my mind seems to have accepted that idea.
It's hard not to, when geniuses such as Artemis and Foaly and even damned Opal inform me of the impossibility of my helping Commander Root.
But even the last sentece I just typed says how hard it is for me to let go. I keep calling him Commander Root, as if he were still my superior and I still and officer... However those days are long past.
Mulch and I have been doing well, I don't understand why it is that I'm so unsettled. I'm actually happy most of the time, unless I am alone in my room to listen to the constant voices of my conscience and my reason arguing over past events that simply should not affect me anymore...
I content myself most of the time by keeping busy until I fall asleep from sheer exhaustion. Artemis has got wind of this somehow, a notion that annoys me greatly. I have my suspicions that Mulch informed the little Mud Boy of my late night researching into cases.
He's been rather persistant in his attempt to get me to stop me from staying up deep into the night. However, sinec he is unable to come down here and do anything physically I am safe for now.
No doubt the ingenius boy will come up with something to get me with later on when he sees his little lectures have done nothing. However, it is a good feeling to know that they care... That he cares.
He's changed so much in the past two years, I'm actually having a hard time keeping up with the changes.
Butler informed me that he is no longer going to that boarding school he was at before Opal's plan came into play. He's going to school somewhere near home, and his behaviour has changed.
I've watched him sometimes from Foaly's links... It's illegal, I know well, but that doesn't matter. Sometimes laws can be bent without anyone being hurt.
I've watched him while he's at school. I think I'm beginning to get used to the way Mud Men react to one another. If my suspicions are right, then I would say he is actually rather popular amongst his peers. Not overly so, Artemis likes his space... But I like the side of him that does not push everyone away.
Oh... it's late again, by human time I'd say Arty is in school already. Agh... by the gods, I just called him Arty. It only figures, I suppose.
One way or the other, I have cases to work on. All this thinking has made my brain finally wake up... Hmm, seems like a found a better way of waking one up without the use of caffeine infested coffee... How Mud Men drink that stuff is beyond me...
Fowl Manor, Outskirts of Dublin, Ireland
"How it is that you can drink that bitter chemical is beyond me, Juliet. For god's sake, you even know what it does to your body and yet you continue to-"
The younger Butler child groaned loudly, peeking over her coffee mug at the pale youth before her.
"Arty, I swear... if you start on one more lecture this early in the morning again I am going to have to use some of my wrestling moves on you." she threatened grumpily.
The young master Fowl found himself smirking at her smugly as he walked by the counter and to the cabinet, pulling out a tea cup like those of Chinese origin.
It was pale and smooth and looked overly like it came from a set that probably cost a fortune. In this particular case it did.
"I'm doing this for 'your' own good. Considering the threats I get each day..." he began, dipping a bag of Earl Grey into the hot water he had poured into the cup.
Butler still got up earlier than he did, making sure his charge had the water ready. Artemis might have changed drastically, however that did not mean he was capable of handling himself in the kitchen past simple things...
And simple things of course meant things that did not require as much effort and skillas making a sandwhich.
"My own good? It would be towards my own good that you stopped killing all my brain cells with your lectures." Juliet retorted mildly, downing the rest of what Artemis was determined was a putrid liquid.
"I'm sure that cells will be destroyed by something else sooner or later during your day anyway, Juliet, you won't miss them at all." was his soft teasing reply as he walked out the door.
Juliet sat up straight sharply, hearing justa soft mumur after having dozed off. "Eh? What's that? What did you say?"
"Nothing at all." Artemis smiled, his vampire smile had not disappeared as his personality changed. It seemed that smile was in fact genuine.
Juliet wrinkled her nose, effectively keeping herself from shivering, though barely.
"Ha-ha." she grumped. Artemis grinned, this time not the least menacingly. "Indeed."
And with that the boy walked out the door. Boy, though is hardly a suitable name for the Irish prodigy.
He was already 16 years of age and with the intellectual capacity to outsmarta large percentage of the world... about 99.9 of it, as it were.
Several years back that capacity was what had led him on his sudden change of heart from set on criminal to a soft hearted modern Robin Hood with an artistic flair.
His main hobby at the time was to find valuable paintings held by greedy selfish little billionaires, outsmart their security and then send the prized possesion to a chosen museum somewhere in the world, generally where the painting first originated, unless of course there was a danger of it being stolen there.
This of course still put him on the wrong side f the law. Even though his family was said to have gone straight the moment his father returned from being kidnapped in Russia three years prior.
However, Artemis had found that at times 'straight' did not mean straight with the law, but with oneself. He was happy, many other people were happy, and those that were not were billionaires who indeed should be well content with what they had.
And of course, this was all true and factual, as Artemis Fowl tended to be.
"Artermis? We really should be going, your fencing practice begins in less than 10 minutes." a deep voice said, drawing young Arty from his dep thoughts.
Artemis turned slowly towards Butler, shadowed by the bodyguards huge bulk.
"Right.." He murmured, putting the tea cup down. A maid would eventually find it and put it where it belonged.
"I'll be right out." he muttered. Butler nodded, curious for the moment of what it was that his young friend had been thinking about, his expression had been rather deep, and when Artemis Fowl starts to think deep it's either a gray matter or a good matter. Before it had been a black matter.
Happily, the odds had changed in Butler's favour.
It seemed, as though things were usual about the manor as they had been for the last two years since their return trip from Haven.
Butler, unable to resist the simple instinct scanned the room, and glanced out each window before heading out the door to the car.
You could never be too careful. Surpisingly enough, the threats on his way were all invisible. So invisible even Foaly was unable to detect a thing. No one could.
The drive to school was rather silent, as usual. Artemis kept his eyes carefully located on a book he was reading idly while they drove through Dublin, ignoring the increasingly familiar stares of the teenage crowds.
It seemed that their vehicles never really went without notice.
Butler drove up to the school's entrance, where seveal other high rate cars were waiting patiently for their occupants to get out.
Well groomed snobbish boys and girls climbed out, wearing the uniform of St. Jame's Academy for Young Gentlemen and Ladies.
The building was large, resembling what looked like a gothic style manor, made of stone, marble and expensive metal. Everything had to be expensive in high rate academies.
The bodyguard glanced at Artemis as he quietly climbed out of the car, heaving the heavy book on his arm before slipping it into his book bag.
"Da Vinci? Please don't tell me-"
"Later, Butler. I'm sure it will make sense to you later." The boy replied, forcing a weak smile at his old friend. "Do not worry yourself, you know I don't do things on a whim."
Butler cocked an eyebrow at him thoughtfully. "I'm not sure, I've had my suspicions about that for a time now."
Artemis laughed and shut the door, waving him off as he pulled his suit jacket on.
And so, the bodyguard drove off, glancing curiously at the review mirror while his charge walked steadily up the steps to the school, ignoring, or at least pretending to ignore him as he left.
He was planning something, Butler was certain of it. His senses were never wrong... Or, at least not usually.
As it so happened, Artemis was indeed pretending to ignore his friend as he drove away, focusing instead on the stone steps he was carefully climbing towards the school.
His peers walked all around him in little bundles, talking to each other with words he found to be a level too low for students their age.
He hardly thought of these kids as his peers. It was difficult, being a genius. No one of his age really bothered to try and understand him, and Artemis didn't bother to understand others of his age because it was all too obvious that understanding them would be all too easy.
Such were the woes of the teenage prodigy.
Fancy though, as he walked up to the pillars holding up the grand entrance to the damnably great institution something caught his attention. It was a soft buzzing at the base of his neck which he felt often, but not as strongly as he was at that very moment.
It was the buzzign that meant someone was watching him... he was so used to the sensation that he hardly ever paid it any attention, in this instance, however, he felt it much more powerfully than usual.
Glancing curiously over his shoulder, he caught a girl out of the corner of his eye looking away sharply and into a laptop she held on her legs as she sat on the stone railings of the staircase. Her typing resumed, much faster than the average teen, and by the lack of use of the backspace key, she was typing correctly as well.
Artemis turned away and continued up the stairs, wearing the smallest of frowns on his face. He had never seen her before... though he didn't presume to know all the faces of all the students at the academy. There were probably 500 or so too many for him to bother memorizing each face.
Amusing and irritating at the same time, though it was, he found that little glance intruiging. Her expression had not changed in the least as his eyes shifted to her, almost as if she didn't care.
Generally he didn't have to sort of an effect on people, and that reaction had implanted several theories in his mind as to why she would be different.
Over all, he found nothing that really mattered, and so continued on towards his fencing practice. He glanced absently at his watch and smirked.
5 minutes left. Butler always worried a little too much.
"Careful with how you wave that thing, Mr. Kougan- you're going to impale yourself rather than the opponent one day!" Professor Adrey snapped, walking around the two sparring boys.
He was a tall lithe man, with powerful muscles, a tiny gray mustache and an explosive temper that Artemis had a tendency to trigger...though, not as much as Kougan seemed to.
"For the love of god, boy!" The professor snapped, waving a hand for them to stop. He walked over to Kougan and rapped his helmet with the hilt of his sword. "Use your head!"
While the professor went into one of his rants, Artemis pulled off his own helmet, panting slightly from the exertion.
After his episode in the Eleven Wonders underground with the trolls had promised himself to keep in shape, and it had taken him quite a while to find that place in his physique. Fencing seemed to be the answer, as his father was rather proud of his little boyfinally learning to use a weapon.
Still, Artemis wasn't one to like it all too much. He liked to think better than to run, but he wasn't bad either.
A fellow classmate who was standing by huffed slightly beside him. "Kougan's one of our team's better players... I don't understand why the old wart has to go after him all the time." the boy muttered. Artemis blinked slowly, knowing well why the boy was the Professor's target. He was good enough to lead their team to victory against the opposing academies, he had to work him hard.
Instead, he said. "Perhaps with time he will cool off. Or, Kougan will finally loose it and quit... which I presume will have as much as a cooling off affect anyway."
The boy smirked widely and nodded. "I'd like to see Professor Mustache put up with Kougan's parents, they've enough lawers to drag away his teaching license."
"Fowl!" The professor snapped suddenly, dragging Artemis back to the fight. Kougan was walking away, a frown on his pale face, blonde locks of hair shoved angrily out of his way as he settled on a nearby bench to watch.
"Yes?" Artemis replied testily, walking towards the mats. A new opponent had come up, following the Professor as he walked towards him, but his face was hidden by the helmet, and so Artemis didn't bother checking who it was. It didn't matter anyway.
"Keep sparring, Kougan and I are going for a little chat." the professor snapped, turning to leave.
Artemis blinked and then turned to the fighter, strapping his helmet on without a word. He didn't feel like triggering his teacher's temperal bomb that morning for some reason, it wasn't satisfying if Kougan was to be the one to take the full force of it.
Without a word in his direction, the opponent flicked the sword expertly and fell into fighting stance, facing him.
Artemis frowned, disliking this lack of vocabulary, but deciding against a comment. When someone held a blade at you, dull or not, you just didn't bother being even remotely sarcastic.
He came at him without the smallest singal, making Artemis step backwards rapidly, keeping the blows off by mere instinct. Professor Adrey's drills were apperantly coming in handy.
Gasping, Artemis tried, he really did to keep that blade from crashing down on him faster than it should have, but he knew, you could not fight skill with brains when things were moving faster than his mind was able to process.
He was actually hating it everytime he blinked, it ending with him getting jabbed in the chest by that bloody blade.
Grunting, as he felt the dull sword prick his chest for the fifth billioth time in the last three minutes, he felt his sword tumble from his hand and the opposing fighter press the blade near his neck.
If Artemis had had an ego left, he would have thought it was wounded... As it so happened, it felt close to what being completely destroyed felt like.
The gym was silent, even Professor Adrey had stopped snarling in Kougan's direction.
Without a word, and with little regard to Artemis, the figure turned, grabbed his sword, shoved it in his hand and walked away towards the bench.
The Professor stuttered for a moment, and then said.
"McLee, Hastoph, get out there. Fowl, take a break."
Artemis was speechless, and goodness knows that simply does not happen by chance. He hadn't stood a chance, and though he didn't much care for fencing, his brain was still having trouble realizing that he had been beaten... quite badly, as a matter of fact.
He finally unfroze, as he walked towards the bench, and scanned the line of fighters to see who it was that he had been destroyed by.
However, the other boys, and a handful of girls were staring at him in as much shock as he seemed to be. The mystery fighter was gone.
He didn't know what he should think... instead, he didn't.
That was possibly the first time Artemis Fowl decided not to think.
Anyway, there is the first chapter to my experimental fic. Please R&R, I really need to know if I've screwed up bad or not. Advice is great, critique me all you like, no flames, it's not fair to give flames to someone unsure of the story in the first place.
So, yeah... Lots of reviews! Thank ya!
- White Scribe