Holly took a step, and came out at Chute E7. It was just the same as she remembered it; a short tunnel which meets a larger vertical tunnel that goes deep down, towards the inner core of the earth, and the other end stretching miles upward to the surface. Right then, she saw an earlier version of herself and Commander Root just starting to walk into the chute. Holly instinctively shielded.
Holly grumbled to herself and prepared herself to search for Sool. "How am I supposed to accomplish a mission with no equipment? No Neutrinos, no wings, no nothing. Except for a mini plastic water gun. A water gun! And what does Foaly expect me to do with it? Really smart." Holly said sarcastically.
"To spray water everywhere and if the water hits Sool, the cam-foil will short out," Foaly replied.
Holly blushed as she remembered that she was also wearing a mini microphone. "Oops!" She took out the water gun, drew out a hydrosion shell, pried it open, and quickly dropped it in the water gun. It instantly filled with water. "Do you actually expect me to find him with this stupid water gun?"
"No, it's for shorting out the octo-bonds. Yes, of course it's for finding Sool!"
"What time is it?"
"Why?" Foaly questioned.
"I was just wondering. Is Sool even here yet? He should be just arriving. Theoretically, I should see him coming out of the time machine. He won't be wearing the cam-foil yet, wouldn't he? I would be able to see him for a split second before he puts it on."
"Hmm…I think you're actually right! He'll be arriving in (Foaly checked the time) ten seconds ..…nine …..eight ..…seven …..six …..five …..four …..three …..two …..one .….now!"
Sool arrive, seeming to be suddenly appearing out of nowhere. So Holly unshielded and grabbed Sool. "Hey!" He exclaimed, "What are you doing?"
"Rescuing you. In a few minutes, you're going to be blown up. Come on." She started to drag him away.
As he followed, the commander looked thoughtful. "Since we're here anyway, why don't we save a few other people before we leave?"
Proper Time, Foaly's Lab, LEP HQ, Downtown Haven"Holly, have you got Sool yet?" asked Foaly.
"Yup."
"So we could transport you back now."
"No, not yet. Give me another fifteen minutes."
"Why?"
Holly told Foaly about Sool's suggestion.
"Are you crazy? You can't bring back someone who's already dead! That's necromancy!"
"If we can bring back Sool, why can't be also bring back Root and even Scalene?""That's different though…" Foaly protested.
Holly was already trying to form a plan. "If you keep disagreeing, I'll terminate the link."
"No, I rather you'd not. You'd need all the help you can get."
6 Months ago, chute E7, HavenHolly paced back and forth. Plans are hard to think up, they don't come out of thin air. She didn't even know how she was going to rescue Root and Scalene. She also had to come up with a plan quickly too. She looked around the shuttleport. On her left, there was the chute. Nothing that could be of help in there. She screened the scene in front of her. Next to that was the docks. A ship might come in handy. There might be tools inside, or an emergency bag, but the docks were empty, since this shuttleport was deserted. The area on her right was fenced off with flouescent pink tape. That was where there were making the new movie on the goblin invasion. Holly thought back to where Root died (or forward, for that matter). "First, they were walking and they saw Scalene. Second, Opal appeared on the smokescreen. Then, the doors closed and communication was cut off. After, Root took Scalene, and the octo-bonds reversed and I learned there was a proximity trigger, which would have blown up if I had gotten up close. And after that, Opal said there was a sweet spot on the octo-bonds, so I fired at it. Lastly, there was no sweet spot and Root blew up in under ten seconds. Curious…" Holly mused. "So, what if they took Scalene, what if we took him first? Then, there will be no trap, Root would not die, and everything will be okay."
"Too late for that," Foaly remarked. "Listen."
Holly heard her commander point out, "There." They had spotted Scalene already. Holly cannot steal Scalene away without being seen herself. It wont work out because one moment she'll have her own memories, and in another, new ones will pop out. She also realised the plan wouldn't work anyway, since removing Scalene will also change her original memories. Somehow, she had to take Scalene and Root without herself noticing.
Suddenly, her eyes fell onto a shuttle. The exact one that she had flown two and a half years ago. It belonged to the Atlantian ambassador. After the goblin invasion, the shuttle was so battered and ruined that the LEP gave a pile of fairy gold to the ambassador for getting a new ship. The old ship was bought from the filming company who is filming the goblin invasion. That very ship is now laying at Holly's right. "Now what could I do with it?" Holly wondered. "And why didn't the proximity alarm explode when I shot it? The bullet should have set it off when it got close too. Unless it was just a fake alarm…" Something sparked in her mind.
Holly sprinted towards the shuttle, wrenched open the door, leapt inside, and tried to turn on the engine. Then she remembered that she didn't have the key. Sool walked into the cockpit. "Forgot something?" he said, as he dropped a key into Holly's hands.
"Hey! Where did you find this?" Holly looked up at Sool, amazed.
Sool shrugged. "I found this on the floor. I'm not even sure this is the right key." Holly inserted the key and the engine buzzed to life. She pressed a button, and it activated the ship's invisibility shield. Holly gently pulled on the throttle, and the shuttle slowly rose upward. She skilfully manoeuvred it into the shuttleport entrance, behind where Root was standing. She still had her touch, after having not flown a ship in half a year.
"Release port clamps," Holly ordered (The ship was voice activated). Through the windows, she could see the clamps coming out from under she ship. They almost looked like giant lobster claws. She also watched the scene in front of her. Holly had to make sure to move at the right moment, so she won't change her own memories. She saw Root was on his knees, struggling, wrapped inside the octo-bonds.
"Forty-five minutes till explosion," said Foaly from his lab. "Better get Scalene first. Then there is one less fairy to worry about."
Holly extended one port clamp, and gently closed the clamp around Scalene's body. Not too hard that she squished him, though. As the clamp touched him, Scalene turned invisible too. (One of Foaly's designs, very handy for some stealth missions.) The other Holly (the one on the ground) was concentrating too hard on Root and didn't see Scalene disappear. Holly moved the clamp to the starboard side of the ship so he was right beside the door. Sool opened the sliding doors and pulled Scalene in. The clamps moved back in front of the ship.
"Thirty seconds left," warned Foaly.
"Not yet, I'm waiting for the right time." Holly focused on the scene.
Ten seconds. Now, Holly (the younger one) was firing at the bomb.
Seven. Holly (in the ship) extended the left port clamp. She could hear the proximity alarm beeping. She was now seven feet away. She inched the clamp closer.
"Hurry up, Holly. Five seconds left!"
"Alright!"
"Four!"
Holly manoeuvred the right port clamp, ready to grab Root when he is released.
"Three!"
Holly concentrated.
"Two!"
Holly poked the octo-bonds with the clamps. Nothing exploded. The octo-bonds reversed themselves and wrapped every arm around the mouth of the clamp. Holly used the other clamp to grab Root.
"One!"
Holly was about to detatch the left port clamp and drop the bomb/octo-bonds into the chute, but she realized she couldn't do that, since E7 was full of ships and people, and if she got rid of the bomb, other people might be harmed. Holly had less that a second to think up a solution.
"Zero!"
Holly flung the clamp away from the shuttleport entrance. It exploded.
The explosion blossomed into a giant fireball, filling up the bottom the tunnel. It quickly rushed in towards the Atlantian shuttle and would incinerate it. The shuttle was located inside the port, and the port was a tunnel that gets thinner and thinner the farther in you get. So simply speaking, it was a dead-end.
"Foaly! Get us out of here!" Sool screamed. Holly gunned the throttle, and the shot through the tunnel. Moving the ship as far as she could might buy them some time. The fire was hot (pardon the pun) on their heels. They could almost see the fire starting to consume the ship.
Just in time, the time machine began to take the rescuers (and the rescued ) back to present time.
Author's Note:
Hmmm…maybe this is my best adventure chapter so far. One of my longest though! I'm so glad I updated it! I'm so pleased with myself! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! dances Please! Some reviews. I haven't got any since….who knows when…and I don't know how (bad) I'm doing. Thanks for reading. I hope you keep reading! Enjoy.