A/N: Please note that any and all guards disabled, dismembered, knock unconscious, forced into a permanent sleep, or otherwise harmed within the making of this plot were nameless, parentless, unmarried, childless, friendless, and completely unknown to the world. In essence, they leave behind no one to miss them. Though their regular lives may not have contributed anything to society, their misfortunes have greatly added to the plot of this story.

Chapter 6

Saving the Parents

Butler was racing down the hallway towards the Fowl couple's room. He was out of breath and his chest was heaving, throwing sharps pains through the skin around the place where the Kevlar vest had been magical attached to him two years before. He had ran faster than fast to get down two flights of steps and four hallways in time to stop any harm to the Fowl matriarch and patriarch. Now, he was just outside their door and still running full speed. He pulled his Sig Sauer from its holster while running and shot half of its round into the weak porous stone around the frame of the door, and that, with Butler's momentum from running, caused the frame to shatter and the door to open. Butler's momentum continued to carry him, but after a quick glance around the room, he fired five quick shots at the guards. Five men died that day. Butler came to a halt in the middle of the room and collapsed on the floor trying to catch his breath and holding his chest.

He looked up after a minute or so to survey the damage that had been done. The man, Vannar, was sprawled out on the ground by Artemis Senior's feet, still grasping a strange contraption in one hand; the other hand was stiffly covering the bullet wound to no effect. The Fowl patriarch was gazing at Vannar with a look of disgust on his face. After a few more minutes, he finally got back the ability to speak and said, "That man was going to torture me! I'd already said I'd do what he wanted, but he was still going to torture us."

Angeline Fowl had already fainted. The combined stress of the threatened torture then death and then seeing Butler collapse to the ground (she believed him to be having a heart attack as she was unaware of the Kelvar that restricted his breathing) had made her mind pick the only available outlet and caused her to black out.

Butler cut the bonds holding the couple to the chairs. Artemis Senior stood up and limped to the adjacent bathroom and retrieved a wet wash cloth to revive his wife. Butler had recovered from his run and stood at the door as lookout. Butler was now glad that he had never replaced the weak rock around the door frames like he had planned to do. (He had discovered the door's weakness during Artemis' fairy kidnapping stage.)

After Angeline had been revived and convinced that Butler was not having a heart attack, the Eurasian man led them through the Manor and up to the control room. Butler expected to meet someone at every turn, yet at every turn his fears proved unfounded. The body guard was sure someone had heard his shots while rescuing the Fowl couple, though, he reasoned with himself, it was likely that the other guards believed the shots to be the couple's execution. In fact, being the Mafiya, they were probably used to it.

The trio came to a halt outside the control room and Butler had the other two stand back as he passed the tests for entrance once more. Angeline and Timmy were surprised to find this room having such security. They hadn't visited this part of the Manor in years and had believed this particular room to be a linen closet.

Butler opened the door for the couple and greeted, "Welcome to the security control room of Fowl Manor."

Artemis Senior glanced around at the various technologies then raised a quizzical brow at Butler.

The man servant saw this and answered the unasked question, "Your son knew he had enemies and so designed most of this himself to protect you. I think he was most proud of his Sky Eye." The man servant pointed out a monitor with a black screen and simple colored lines on it.

Butler glanced at the Sky Eye's screen. His eyes widen in shock as he noticed all the yellow dots outside the manor had disappeared. "Did that mean they were inside the manor?" thought Butler while frantically searching around for the remote to the screen so that he could find out what level of the house they were on. After searching the surrounding desks, tables, chairs, and even floors, Butler finally realized that he had stuck the remote in his pocket. He pulled it out and began flicking through the different stories of the Manor. Each level flickered by but there only seemed to be two guards in the house, the two guarding the exits.

Butler once again noticed the button that said "detonate all." In his mind's eye, he could see himself accidentally hitting it before unceremoniously shoving the remote in his pocket. After all, his finger had been hovering over that option seconds before he had to rush out of the room to save the Fowl couple.

He glanced back at the screen and noticed that the outlines of the ranges of the sonix grenades had also vanished. Had Artemis been there, he could've quickly concluded that Butler had indeed accidentally pressed the "detonate all" button which made the range lines disappear and knocked out all of the guards which, in turn, had prevented the guards from moving, therefore, the Sky Eye wouldn't pick up their movement and label them with a yellow dot on the screen.

Artemis was not there, however, so Butler just settled with the fact that the outside guards were longer an issue and that there were only two remaining guards inside and a Plan B to be dealt with.

"You two stay here and don't come out for any reason," Butler warned the Fowl couple. They nodded as Butler left the room and shut the door securely behind him. The man servant went to his room and searched through his selection of "tricks." He came out of his room with an empty fabric bag and a bag of plastic ties.

Butler then went down to the front entrance and dealt the guard, who was staring out of the window in awe at the devastation of unconscious bodies, a sharp jab to his spinal cord, knocking him into instant oblivion. Butler leaned down to the guard and restrained his hands and feet with the plastic ties. He then searched through the man's pockets until he found his cell phone. He stuck the cell phone in the fabric bag.

Butler then headed toward the back entrance. He stopped just out of view and quickly peered around the corner. He pulled his head back quickly because the guard was facing his direction. Butler cast his glance around him, looking for something to distract the guard with. There, a flower arrangement on a pedestal. Butler picked the flowers up, vase and all, and chucked it around the corner. The resultant crash caused the guard to jump, his eyes focused on the vase. The poor guard didn't even see Butler before he was unconscious. Butler used the plastic ties to restrain him and then once again searched for a cell phone. Having found it, Butler put it in the bag and proceeded outside to restrain all the unconscious guards already out there. He came back in the manor with a full bag of cell phones and, after stopping by the Fowl couple's room the retrieve the cell phones from the bodies in that room, Butler took the tests to enter the control room once more.

As soon as he was in the room, Artemis Senior nodded his head towards the bag in Butler's hands and asked, "Why do you need all those?"

Butler assumed the Fowl patriarch had been watching his actions in the house cameras and so answered, "It's all part of Artemis' plan: I collect all the cell phones so that when Britva calls to confirm that you two are dead, I can answer the phone and make a trade with him: Artemis for his men and the tapes of his crimes here at Fowl Manor."

"It makes sense, but do you need every single one of those phones?" inquired Artemis the First. After all, there were about 40 cell phones in one bag in Butler's hands, a very curious sight to say the least.

"Yes, I do not know which guard Britva will call to confirm your deaths. It's better for me to have all of them together so I don't lose my chance to get the upper hand. And, like I said before, it's all according to Artemis' plan," explained the Eurasian man.

"My son knew he would be taken away by that evil man?" asked Angeline, speaking for the first time since Butler had saved her.

"Apparently, ma'am." Butler answered. He heard Angeline whimper and knew she was fearing for her son's life.

"Now, we must all just wait here," Butler continued, "It could still be some time before Britva reaches Russia and calls. Could be hours, in fact."

Needless to say, they all started when a cell phone suddenly started ringing.

Butler mused to himself, "That's odd. It's too soon." Butler held the bag of phones to his ear. "It's not coming from here," he said.

Butler looked around for the source of the sound and soon discovered that it was none other than his own cell phone.

He pulled out his phone and exclaimed, "It's a text message..." there was a pause while Butler read it. He looked back up from the phone with a smile, "...from Artemis!"

A/N: I love cliff-hangers...not that you hadn't already noticed that. Well, I'll get the next chapter up soon...hopefully. I've been having trouble getting this site to come up recently. Oh well, drop a line in the review box on your way out please.

Thanks for reading.