The Julius Deception
Or, "A Factual Description of What on Earth Happened to the Commander"
"There's a way out of this, Commander. I just need to think."
- Cpt. Holly Short
Commander Julius Root of the LEPrecon police force was surrounded. He gritted his teeth and cocked the tri-barreled blaster upwards menacingly in an attempt to intimidate the enemy. No reaction. Not even a flicker.
Well, he'd been in worse than this. He could take on a couple of renegade fairies en route to Tara, no problem. His triple acorn insignia glinted as he stepped into a patch of light, momentarily calling to mind the strangeness of the situation. There was something wrong, something that was just beyond the edges of his vision…
No time for that now. They were drawing their weapons. Root backed up against a wall and bit his lip, calculating the options presented to him. One officer versus large gang: Not Good. It looked like the backup wasn't going to arrive in time either. D'Arvit, where was Holly?
WHACK!
Commander Julius Root woke up. For a moment, he looked disoriented, and then he remembered. Something creaked below him ominously and the shuttle shook. Merv and Scant were already racing around the booty box, though it was impossible to tell in the darkness whether they were investigating the damage or hiding their "snacks".
Still half-asleep, he mouthed her name. The stealth shuttle, however, didn't seem to care for his drowsy sentimentality. It crunched rather obnoxiously against the underground tunnel and began to shudder as the engine switched gears. Root gave in and abandoned his attempt to fall back asleep, deciding instead to take shelter behind the truffles. With his hands, arms, and legs still bound, it was difficult to move, but he managed to drag himself over to a strong-looking truffle stack.
A large gash in the shuttle wall and floor gaped open and seemed to widen before him.
"D'Arvit," he breathed as the shuttle's emergency lights bathed the booty box in a red glow.
Somewhere Over Germany, a few hours earlier:
This hadn't exactly been in the job description.
Sure, you could expect a few odd things when you worked at the LEP. You could expect even more if you worked under the command of Julius Root. However, there were limits, even for an elf, as to how far you could push abnormality.
Captain Holly Short was just feeling those limits as she speed faster than LEP precautions recommended over Germany. Was it Germany now? At first, Holly hadn't wanted to check her helmet's map system, thinking that the LEP techies would try to track her next moves based on the maps she used. Sure, it was being paranoid. A few years of Foaly could have that effect on you.
In a burst of inspiration, Holly brought up maps of the Arctic Circle, Kenya, South Asia, France, the Western United States, and some assorted islands and cities. She allowed herself to check for Germany once, then returned to pulling up random places. Even if the LEP could track where she was currently, at least they couldn't anticipate her movements.
How was she able to think so clearly? Julius was dead, she was on the run from the LEP, Artemis needed saving- Frond, what wasn't going to go wrong today?
She paused.
Something on the horizon was coming towards her. Alright, probably better not to have asked that question.
"D'Arvit…" Holly squinted at the object before resorting to her helmet's long range setting. If the LEP was already on her tail, then there was no point in concealing what she was doing.
There was something funny about it, though. It didn't look like a LEP shuttle. It didn't even look like a shuttle. Holly gunned her wings and earned herself a scolding from Lili Frond:
"Foaly kindly requests that you refrain from-"
Whatever was following her was picking up speed. With a quick flick to the wing motor, Holly kicked the speed up another notch and took a sharp turn. She saw something metal reflect the pale moonlight as it adjusted to her flight path.
Holly swerved again, this time in the opposite direction. Trained Recon jockey though she was, her breakneck speed and hairpin turns were starting to aggravate her stomach. She couldn't do this much longer. Ironically, her follower only continued to come closer and closer.
Frond, whoever's doing this has got to be pretty persistent. And really good with a shuttle. D'Arvit! Honestly, LEP shuttles don't even go this fast! Am I being followed by a bounty hunter, then? Could they have gotten word out that fast?
Now, she could see it clearly without her helmet's aid. It was…blue?
Blue?Wait…why in Frond's name aren't they shielded?
Standard LEP procedure dictates that, in the incredibly unlikely event that any shuttle is sent above ground, it must be covered in cam-foil and/or shielded from Mud Man eyes. Holly doubted that standard procedures would be followed in a case like hers (and in her case, they hardly were ever). Still, though, there was something not right with whatever was following her.
This is just like the old days, Holly thought. On the run from the enemy, high speed chases…then, she stopped. It wasn't at all like what she had experienced. People were dying; the stakes were higher. There was no commander anymore to come up with a last minute plan to save the day.
Looking back on her somewhat illustrious history at the LEP, she wondered how she hadn't noticed it before: how only one person would stand by her to bail her out of scrapes with the Council, to straighten out her record so that she wouldn't be stuck on drain duty forever, to help her be what she really wanted to be.
…What was she thinking?
Her breath caught as she realized what was following her.
D'Arvit. Concentrate on the mission, Short.
Trust Koboi to find her before the LEP did and bring along something to finish her off. A bio-bomb, too. Great, just great. Opal Koboi just keeps on making my day, she thought bitterly. And now, I'm all on my own…
Captain Holly Short sped off, hoping against hope to out-fly the bomb.
Stealth Shuttle- Cockpit, Uncharted Tunnel:
"What!"
"We're terribly sorry, Ms. Koboi, ma'am…The damage honestly isn't that bad."
"Yeah, yeah," piped up Scant helpfully, "It's only a three foot long hole in the booty box. We can-"
"No! It's all your fault for letting the shuttle go out of control while I was sleeping." She held up a hand as Merv was about to say something, "Do not interrupt Opal Koboi. Get down there now and try to patch it. And make sure that the commander doesn't escape!"
Merv and Scant left the control room and trudged back down the ladder into the booty box.
Scant began to vent on the way down: "After all that, you think that she might take responsibility for the crash. Especially, since she was the one-"
"Steering the shuttle," completed Merv with a sigh. "Oh well. It's probably not a good idea to provoke her anyway." Scant grudgingly agreed, and Merv offered some brotherly consolation: "Look on the bright side. Soon as we get out of here, I want to take a nice, relaxing trip to Atlantis. I think we need a break."
And with that, the twins entered the booty box and began the repair work.
Or so they would have, had they not been hit with a blast of heat as they came through the door.
Booty Box, Stealth Shuttle:
"Oh, Frond…"
The commander peered cautiously across, and then down into the rift before him. Because the shuttle was still in the underground chutes, he wasn't surprised when he saw a deep, yawning hole beneath the craft.
He was surprised, though, to see the glowing inferno at the bottom of the hole.
Fire below anything- with the exception of food – is generally a not a good thing. It is especially not good when the fire in question is nothing other than the hot magma of the earth's mantle.
The heat from the magma was already starting to lazily meander through the booty box. Chocolate truffles began to liquefy slowly and brown puddles emerged below some of the larger piles. Root made an effort to free one of his hands so that he could fan himself, but was unsuccessful.
He saw Merv and Scant take one glance at the gap, and then watched as they scurried back up to the cockpit. Root sighed. Wonderful. Here he had the perfect chance to escape: no guards, big, elf-sized hole, and some slight mobility. But where did this hole lead? To the centre of the earth. The expansive, burning mass that would definitely incinerate him.
Frond, why did everything want to incinerate him these days?
Maybe the world just hated him or something.
Then again, it might have been fate trying to tell him to give up. If Holly really was dead, and Koboi had a plan to hold him as a hostage, then him merely staying alive put the People in jeopardy. He could end the entire conflict now if he just…He shook that thought from his head.
There was still a chance. There was always a chance. Even if the world did hate him and his wonder suit was defective, he couldn't give up. Not after surviving the blast back in E37. Not after Holly hadn't been willing to leave him, even if she was…
Root backed away from the hole and reclined (as best he could) against an intact shuttle wall to consider his next move. Koboi would have to get the shuttle out of the chute and get it to safety before she could begin preparations for repairs. That put him in a very advantageous position, depending on where she took the shuttle.
He decided to wait it out. After all, the hole certainly wasn't going anywhere.
Cockpit, Stealth Shuttle:
The Brill brothers visited Opal to report the extent of the damage, but the conversation tat ensued between the two parties was much too violent to be recorded in full. It began with Opal saying:
"What happened to the booty box? Come on, now. You can tell me, Merv. Naturally, I anticipated that there would be some damage, but it shouldn't be anything too serious..."
And then later:
"Excuse me, what exactly was destroyed by the heat? You need to speak up, Scant. It's terribly rude to whisper at the end of your sentences."
Then, Scant spoke and there came a long, horrible silence. After that, the exchange became too emotionally scarring for it to be written down.
For the story to proceed, it is necessary to know couple things: Merv and Scant did end up escaping alive, the remaining truffles (which were mostly soup) were being refrozen in the ship's refrigerator, and once Opal calmed down, she was able to think clearly and plot evilly again.
While she was checking on a box of truffles in the freezer, Opal began to muse, "We need to fix the ship, but we can't risk flying back through the tunnels. We'll burn. And the elf isn't going to last long if we go much further down. We need raw materials…"
Scant pretended to be paying very close attention, but something more interesting out the window caught his eye.
"…but I can't get to any of my warehouses without losing altitude. But where else is there stealth ore?"
Panting, Merv entered the cockpit with a dripping box of truffles and made his way towards the freezer.
"Miss…Koboi... This is the only…other one that wasn't," he took a deep breath, "…completely melted."
Opal turned around.
"You fool! My very expensive truffles are dripping on my very expensive flooring! Clean it immediately!" She quickly returned to her previous idea. "…though, he may have some. And he may have metal. It would make sense that there would be extra…"
Whatever Scant was watching evidently had become extremely intriguing. He no longer hid the fact that he hadn't been paying attention to Koboi's erratic thought process. Instead, he pressed his nose up to the side of the glass window with his mouth open.
"And then…there's that elf, too…" Merv tried to catch Opal's attention, "He's…still down there."
Opal faced Merv angrily and gave him a disgusted glare. "You smell. Whatever have you been doing? I refuse to tolerate smelly underlings. It's bad for my image. You will fix that stench as soon as the floor has been mopped. As for Julius," she paused and frowned. "What is he doing, anyway? Groveling for mercy and begging to come into the air-conditioned cockpit, I hope?"
Merv shook his head.
"He just…put on that...helmet and went as…far away from the hole…as possible."
"The broken helmet?"
Merv nodded. Scant yelped.
"And why exactly are you spoiling my air with that atrocious noise?" Opal glanced at the floor. "Merv! I told you to clean that spill!"
Scant turned, lily-white and shaking, from the window. "M-Miss Koboi? It's gotten really cold, hasn't it?"
"So? We're in air-conditioning, you imbecile."
"I meant, o-outside…"
Opal sighed. "Fine. Yes, the thermostat readings from the outside are a lot colder."
"W-Well, we're in a m-magma chute, right?"
"Yes, Scant, we are in a magma chute. Merv, you missed a spot. Get to the point."
Scant twiddled his thumbs. "Isn't the c-coldest t-time in a magma chute…"
"…right before…the next flare?" Merv finished.
A low, rumbling tremor from below was their answer.
At the same time, a resounding "D'Arvit!" echoed up from the booty box.
Author's Note: Sorry to everyone who waited forever for this to come out. (forgive me!) I'm already working on Chapter 6 now that mid-terms are over and my computer's being okay. Thanks for all your support and reviews! I hope this was worth the wait.
--Trypt
