Hi! I'm sorry for updating sooner, but it was Christmas and all that jazz… but anyway here I am with a new chapter :) I think there's too much speech but please review and tell me what you think. Have a nice day!

On the pitch Commander Root looked up at the roof. The fluorescent lights were dimmed to make the evening as authentic as possible and clouds of smoke swirled around and choked the air conditioning vents as they tried to make the air pure.

"Commander?" Grub Kelp coughed and sat up from the grass. I've done something awful, I have to tell you!"

"Not now," the Commander got up distractedly. "I am going to Police Plaza to sort this situation. Two fires in as many days is preposterous and I'm going to search the culprit out." He strode away purposefully across the dark grass.

"With respect Commander, I don't think that you know who you're up against," Grub called to his receding figure, revealing that maybe he had an idea –vague or definite- of who the arsonists were.

"Exactly. But I intend to find out." Replied Root ominously, leaving the corporal to shiver in front of the empty stands.

Trouble led the mod through the park, it was nearly pitch-black but the fiery glow that the blaze was giving off wasn't exactly hard to miss. In the flickering half light he could see that some of the followers were actually concerned about the fate of Recon's best and only female officer –and others were just looking for a bit of excitement after what had been a mostly uneventful match- As they got nearer it got harder to find some clean air to breathe and bits of scorched leaves blew into their faces.

"I called the fire brigade!" Yelled Chix from the back. Trouble stopped, shocked, in his tracks.

"A lot of good that's going to do now," he whispered. His eyes followed the flames from their root up, up tens of feet the sooty sky and as they licked what was left of the wooden shack all hope (even if it had been tiny) of Holly being alive died inside him, just as he thought Holly had.

Root marched through the streets as quick as his rather podgy legs would carry him. Anything to get away from the fire. Thoughts and voices swirled meaninglessly around his head as he tried to make sense of the situation.

"Forget it Trouble." Had been Holly's last words. Her last words, Julius never thought he'd live to say that sentence –he had always imagined her outliving him by at least five hundred years-

"The changing rooms!" What a comedown, the Eleven Wonders Apartments to some scrappy changing rooms in the middle of a suburban park; unless the two incidents weren't related at all. Boy was this confusing.

"Holly!" She was just an officer. Officers get killed all the time, so why then did Holly's 'demise' hit him so badly? Root rushed up the steps of Police Plaza and ran to his office. It felt like the silence was closing in on him so he switched on the TV.

"Oh Frond!" He had been hoping to find refuge from fires in a junky game show or a mediocre soap, he had had enough for one day, maybe even two, but it seemed his wish wasn't going to be fulfilled. On the TV screen a news bulletin was broadcasting and the head fireman Chief Scarlet was being interviewed.

"Has the fire been taken under control yet?" Asked the reporter.

"No, not yet, however one of my crew has very bravely been inside the changing rooms and managed to recover this." Chief Scarlet held out something in his grimy hand, Julius sank back into his desk chair. It was the Recon acorns that he had given to Holly himself. Trouble Kelp pushed his way forward from the crowd onscreen and took the half-melted badge. The Commander had never seen him look so deathly pale and upset.

Julius sat in silence for what seemed like hours, although it couldn't have been more than a few minutes; his world was falling apart and there was nothing that he could do to stop it. Julius had always fancied himself as some kind of superhero, but now he was just an old man who couldn't do anything to turn back time and stop what had happened. Suddenly he heard a sniff coming from the corner of the room. He threw the piles of mission reports that were littering the floor around and uncovered a speaker that was connected to the microphone in the Ops Booth. Who else could be such a workaholic as to be here at this time of day? Someone so paranoid about his job he couldn't bear to leave?

"Foaly." Root marched to the Ops Booth, inside the TV was tuned in to the same news show that that he had been watching. The room was dark so Julius could hardly make out Foaly's hunched form on a chair turned away from the television, as if he didn't watch the set then it wouldn't be real and Holly would walk confidently into the room any minute now.

"You left the microphone on," Root gently switched it off and patted Foaly comfortingly on the shoulder. He didn't know what to say, being nice and supportive to people wasn't normally his area of expertise. "It's ok," he murmured.

"No it's not!" Cried Foaly, his shoulders shaking as tears streamed down his face. He felt silly and embarrassed at the Commander seeing him so upset.

"Yes I know, I didn't know what else to say," admitted Root. Foaly snorted weakly. In the doorway Trouble cleared his throat. He looked pityingly at Foaly although he didn't look much better himself, his face dirty and streaked where sweat and tears had dripped.

"Grub has something he wants to tell you Commander, don't you Grub?" He said pointedly.

"Ye…yes," his younger brother stammered.

"Very well," sighed Root, pretending he had nothing better to do.

"Go on then," prompted Trouble and Grub swallowed nervously.

"Um, well, I've been really stupid Commander…"

"Yes?" Root sat down as he realised this was going to take a long time.

"I was on prison duty a few days ago, I've been doing that shift for a few weeks now. I got chatting to one of the prisoners." Grub screwed up his eyes. "You know how I like to take good care of my belongings?" Trouble rolled his eyes. "Well this guy was going on about how what was his got taken away from him…and he convinced me that it would be ok for me to set him and two of his friends free. Er, so I did." Grub covered his eyes shamefully.

"Right," thought Commander Root. "Well, it isn't so bad if they were just petty criminals. Who were they?" He asked. Grub squeaked and ran from the room.

"Turnball Root your brother, and his cronies," Trouble replied for Grub, "sorry sir."

"This day gets better and better," Root complained sarcastically as he massaged his temples tiredly.

"I get it now!" Foaly exclaimed.

"What?"

"Well the apartments and the changing rooms. Revenge! One of the apartments was yours and you were watching the Crunchball match and you used to play!"

"Nasty!" Trouble was rummaging in his pockets. "So it was definitely Turnball then?"

"Absolutely." Root replied, "and I'll tell you something for nothing: he is not going to get away with this –noone kills my officer and goes free, especially my brother."

"I thought you might like this sir," Trouble pulled Holly's Recon badge from his pocket and handed it to Commander Root.

"COMMANDER!" Grub Kelp hurtled into the room and slid to a halt. "Your office! Quick!"

"Don't tell me, someone's set my office on fire?" Called Root as he sprinted after Grub down the corridor. "I'm getting good at this." He smirked as he fingered the badge in his hand. "Maybe not."

His eyes widened as he entered the room and saw the TV screen. The news programme was gone and in its place was a crackly black and white transmission.

"Hello Julius." Root glanced worriedly around; he recognized that voice with its smug lacing.

"Yes it's me, your darling brother –and guess who's with me?" The camera turned to show a slim framed fairy swamped in a giant orange boiler suit which kind of matched the person's auburn hair.

"Holly!" At the sound of her name the Holly on the screen stirred and promptly coughed out a pool of blood.

"At least she's alive," commented Trouble optimistically.

"If I was her I'd much rather be dead," Grub remarked as he saw the tight shackles around her thin wrists and ankles.

"Shut it Kelp!" Root snarled. "You are the one that got her in this mess in the first place." Grub lowered his head. Trouble tried to recognize where Holly was being held a prisoner but it was no use, he had never seen the place before and it wasn't like it was anywhere remarkable. Just plain grey walls and a dusty floor.

"I'm going to get you Turnball, just you wait and see!" Seeing Holly lying there so helplessly cut Julius deeply, and his heart ached to give her some kind of comfort.

"Well, you may or may not have noticed this little brother, but I am holding the upper hand. Now you can get Ms Short here back –but, you're not going to like it." Turnball stopped to cackle wickedly for a second. "Oh no, you're not going to like it one bit."