Disclaimer: Most characters, settings, etc. belong to Eoin Colfer
Author's Note:
Thanks to Christopher the caveham4003, Moon Vampire and fantasyfinder06 my first reviewers! Yay for them and thank you for every one that is reading this! By the way Happy Easter! ;)
Chapter 2
/ Frozen /
Recap
Mulch was standing next to the desk, frozen stiff and his hand was frozen while miming throwing something up into the air. How about the muffin?
Well, that was hanging in mid-air.
End Recap
Holy looked carefully at Mulch, wanting to make sure that he wasn't just being an idiot. But knowing Mulch, and if that muffin was really hanging in mid air, he would've been jumping up and down trying to reach it. Still, Holly poked him a few times before turning. He was frozen with the muffin then. On her way out, Holly grabbed the muffin and started eating it herself. She raced out side the PI office to find everyone else on the street was frozen as well. Now this was getting really strange…
What is happening? She wondered. Running around for a minute and waving her hand in front of random people's faces. There's that guy that tried to hit on her at Spud's Emporium… his face still looked a little bruised. There was one of the maintenance workers that she knew at the LEP… he had once been put on probation by Foaly because he had pointed out an error in one of his programs. Holly smiled. She knew a lot of these people… but she repressed trying to remember everyone's past.
The more people she ran past, the more worried she got. What was happening here? This was getting very stupid. There was someone frozen just as they were trying to pick a pocket of an elderly elf that was looking through a shop window. There was a young sprite that had his nose pressed viciously against a window that was displaying the latest design of toy laser guns. There was a mother that was trying to poke a spoonful of green mush into her baby's mouth. Holly felt rather sorry for the little thing; that mossy stuff didn't look edible. Who could know what was doing this? Then… TING! A light bulb appeared above her head.
FOALY! He better know what was happening.
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Meanwhile at Ops Booth
Foaly was on one of his spare computers playing solitaire when he saw Holly outside his office, waving her hand frantically at the camera and looking extremely impatient. Knowing that leaving Holly in that mood by herself wouldn't be with casualties, Foaly buzzed her in. He then decided to check the security cameras since he was already out of his comfortable specially adjusted chair anyway… he clicked through the screens, so fast that he was back to the first one within seconds. He was just about to get back to his game when he noticed something strange.
Why is everyone standing still? He thought. His brow creased when something – actually, someone – sprung to mind. Foaly started screaming, "OPAL!" He ran out of the Ops Booth to see everyone still frozen in the same actions that he had seen them in on his monitors. He clattered around on the tiles, not used to such a sudden need to gallop, trying to get a reaction out of people. Usually, no one would've stopped from laughing at his hectic state, but now people were either looking harassed, tense or every other state of mind except humorous.
As Foaly twiddled his thumbs, waiting for the elevator door to open, he ran any references he had that caused 'Complete stationary of People' that he might have, that was stored in the tiny little nooks of his brain that he had yet not discovered. The doors slid open, and Foaly saw a coffee skinned, auburn haired someone running towards him. Well, at least he wasn't the only one frozen. There was one of his techies throwing his lunch in the bin, and the rubbish was floating in mid air, stopped halfway in their descent to the recycling bin. No one was moving on this floor either, except Holly. That is, Holly with a face that even Beetroot would have been proud of.
Holly skidded to a stop in front of him, and Foaly didn't even have time to say anything before she opened her mouth first. "FOALY! WHAT DID YOU DO?" screamed Holly on the top of her lungs. She looked really mad. Foaly imagined her hair crackling with static behind her like hair does in cartoons. However, his little mental cartoon was scrubbed out pretty quickly by the current Holly that was standing in front of him.
"Whoa! Calm down Captain! I didn't do anything." Foaly said hastily, holding up his hands and looking warily at Holly's raised fists. He had yet to suffer under contact with them, but from what he had heard from convicts and the male population alike, it didn't feel nice. It really was a blow to your pride too, walking around with a golf ball shaped lump and a bruise the size of a tennis ball, and saying that it was from a girl. He saw Holly calm herself down, before trying to speak again.
"Foaly, the whole, entire city is frozen. What happened?"
Stuttering, the only thing on Foaly's mind was to supply a satisfactory answer that wouldn't get Holly roused up again. Therefore, he wasn't thinking when he said, "I don't know!" The complete 'Once-in-a-Lifetime' moment made Holly freeze in he's next round of shouting freeze in her throat. A shocked silence hung in the air between them, and if the current situation hadn't been so serious, Holly would've burst out laughing and goaded for weeks. However, one particular office root interrupted the silence.
"Another world record and even captured on film! I guess you really are learning the limit of your mental capabilities, donkey." Julius cackled, waving around his completely up to date camera that Foaly didn't remember giving him a prototype of. Actually, Foaly was pretty sure that he had locked his prototypes in his hidden safe… But when Julius had started playing the recording of him running out of the Ops Booth yelling 'Opal', and then cowering under Holly's gaze (actually over. He wasn't short enough to cower under), even being practically twice her height, Foaly almost forgot about everything, even the fact that only he, Holly and Julius seemed to be able to move. Holly watched Foaly run after Root clutching her sides, laughing so hard that she completely forgot about everything.
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Meanwhile at Fowl Manor
Artemis was standing in front of his mother, but was getting a little worried about her mental state of mind when she had been stooping to kiss his cheek for more than the regular time. He was also wondering why his father didn't question Angeline's strange behaviour. Artemis started to get extremely worried when he could no longer feel his mother's breath on his cheek. After another say, half a second, Artemis pulled away, staring strangely at his parents. They didn't even look at him. In fact, Angeline was frozen stiff while kissing him on the cheek. Even her lips were still puckered.
Artemis instantly knew the caller had something to do with this, so he called Butler to contact Holly. He would need to think up of a way to get out of this… Artemis would've thought that he was in a time-stop again, but his parents would still be conscious… walking away quickly, Artemis headed towards his room, feeling the urge to do some researching, and he'd trace that call while he was at it. Artemis didn't know even if he knew everything in the world, he would still never be able to escape from… the god.
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Author's Note:
Cliffhangers, love making them, hate reading them. Review please. I know it is so melodramatic but I need to know people are reading this then I will keep writing. Now I'm going to eat chocolate eggs. Yay!
/Brizo/
Note from Beta: Well, I've turned this a-little-bit-longer-than-the-previous-chapter chapter of 300 words to 1250 –jumps up and down- lol. Anyway, grammar checks, and everything else should be better now, and I've tried my best to stick to the original story, but I've added a few things, more detail, etc. … I'm such a nice friend :-) 25.08.2006