Er... sorry I haven't updated for a while... been slightly busy... looks nervously upwards and seesanother mountain of summer homework hanging above the desk RUN AWAY SCREAMING!
Disclaimer: Oh yeah, and I don't own AF - you just have to read this to know.
Chapter 17 – In which Foaly reveals a bit more for the intellectually challenged of the group
Artemis wasn't sure what hurt more – that Kat had managed to land in another punch in so many hours, or that some kind of information – important information, at that – had been successfully suppressed within his memory. After all, he had been mind-wiped before, but even then he had been able to control a small part of it.
It was small satisfaction to know that this time it was not the fairies' existence that was wiped from his head, but it was still chilling that some… some human had managed to suppress a memory, a significant one at that, the way Kat and Foaly had fretted about it.
They were on their way to Haven, seeing as they needed Foaly to remove the wipe, or at least bring out the memories again. He crossed the yellow lines dividing the cockpit and the piloting area. The shuttle was, by now, relatively stable. And I emphasise the slightly part.
"Holly, is this really that necessary? After all, we are partners, if not friends. Are you still so prejudiced against the Mud Men that you would try your hardest to make the G-Force tear the flesh off Butler and me?" He asked, yelling over the roar of the surrounding air of the chute as the shuttle tore through its layers.
Holly yelled something back, and it sounded suspiciously like 'shut your mouth, Artemis, Foaly sounded urgent!' Sighing in defeat, Fowl sank behind the yellow line. This was essential to something, and the ghosts of memories were coming back to haunt him, and the one persistent memory was of a pair of emerald green eyes. The eyes of a predator.
Eyes of a bird of prey.
The shuttle continued its amazing yet solitary journey down the E116 chute. (A/N: The Los Angeles one, you can check if you like)
Foaly was foaming. After all, it was a characteristic of horses, and centaurs were part horse, after all. He was grinding his teeth when the company arrived through the Plaza doors.
"Okay, where's Ivy? Where've you hidden her?" He seemed slightly agitated, and he wasn't even wearing his tin foil hat anymore.
Then he turned around and faced Julius, who sucked deeply on his cigar and puffed it deliberately into the centaur's face, "Hello, Foaly. Miss me?"
The centaur's eyes went wide, and his mouth opened almost as large as Mulch's did when he unhinged. If it were physically possible for a centaur to kick himself on the shin, then Foaly would have done it. It just wouldn't do to be having a mental breakdown whilst in the middle of a possible crisis…
"My mental health must be worse than a swear toad on truth serum if I'm seeing these sort of illusions… okay, will deal with it later. Hello, Julius, figment of my imagination. Now, let's get going!"
Artemis put out one arm to bar the centaur from literally galloping through Police Plaza and basically telling everyone there was something going on, and they would all come and investigate, of course.
And, due to the last B'wa Kell crisis, Foaly had installed two way windows in the Ops Booth, unbreakable, of course, but everyone would be able to see the two Mud Men in the Booth. And that was just inviting some sort of trouble. This Ivy must be very important if Foaly is being this irrational about the whole business, Artemis mused, and if he were his old self, he would be smirking, pleased that he was staying calm amidst the chaos.
Of course, that was his old self. This was the new.
"Foaly, kindly collect yourself, please. We did not come all this way to help you find this mysterious person that we cannot remember unless you give us a reasonably good explanation before we go galloping off on some half improvised plan of rescue. Now, what's going on?"
Foaly took a deep breath, and pulled out the statistics sheet on the computer. Artemis scanned it. The average for earthquakes, damage control, tectonic plate movement…
They had all gone up. In the past 24 hours.
"This…this is impossible… there's no way that these things could have risen so much in only 24 hours! It is geologically and physically impossible!"
"Mud Boy, I thought that you had known the People long enough to know that the human word 'impossible' really doesn't apply to us. Now, please, amend your sentence." Foaly grinned, almost enjoying the banter that only took place between two genii.
"I mean… highly unlikely that these figures can increase by over 60 in such a short time limit…"
"Exactly, the tectonic plates were being suppressed by superior authority, apparently, and they subsided their activities; how do you think the People hardly ever got damage from the tectonic plates above moving?" Snapped Foaly, ignoring the blinking gazes from the rest of the gathered crowd.
"Yes, but if you are so far beneath the Earth…" Artemis started, also ignorant of the gaping and uncomprehending faces around him.
Root, naturally, was the first to tire of the babble coming from both the genii, and gave up trying to distinguish the lines and squiggles displayed on the sheet.
"Foaly, if you don't tell me what is going on right now, I may have to prove to you that I am indeed not an hallucination by demonstrating how my fist can connect with your nose." The ex-commander's voice was deadly still and calm, just as in the eye of the storm. "And would somebody please fill me in with what has happened in the past three months or so when I have been recuperating and thinking that the entire Lower Elements was in the control of Opal Koboi?"
Foaly stared at the commander, then at Holly and Kelp, and finally to Artemis, who nodded his agreement. His curiosity could wait another ten minutes or so.
"Go ahead, Foaly, you should start to explain things for the intellectually challenged of the group." It took Root about twenty seconds to figure out that Fowl had just insulted him. After shooting a glare that could have peeled the skin off Artemis's flesh as effectively as a blue rinse would have, he nodded to Foaly to continue.
"Now that you two have finished the usual exchange of insults and such, I need to upload the Fowl Files…" He risked a glance at Artemis. D'Arvit, the Mud Adolescent was still as unperturbed as anything; obviously he expected to a have a file compiled on him, even though he knows we are, in a sense, friends.
"Okay, starting from when you …er… were presumed dead." Foaly finished lamely. After all, who could say that Root was, indeed, dead? "Okay, so anyway, Holly went to look for Fowl, who was narrowly escaping a bio-bomb sent by Koboi, and Holly picked him up on the way. Anyway, long story cut short, they managed to detain Koboi and…" Here, Foaly broke off and started to shuffle around. He turned to Holly.
"Er… does he know about the you-know-what yet?"
"What? About Short quitting? Yeah, I know. And about Sool? Yes, I also know, and just as soon as I get the document saying that I am alive, I will personally defenestrate him…"
"No, I mean… the other thing…"
And that was when Mulch knocked on the door, whilst shouting several rude things to Holly, one of which being,
"D'Arvit, Holly, are we partners or not? You said that I wasn't the sidekick, but I still seem to be getting it…"
It was at this point that Foaly was glad that LEP officers always carried medical equipment with them in case of emergencies, because it looked like the office pool on the condition of Root's heart coronary was about to be reactivated and won by somebody.
Meanwhile, Ivy was drifting in and out of consciousness. She was in the darkness, then a man's voice was commenting on how she had managed to survive for the journey, as battered as she was.
Then she saw Artemis in the gym again, punching at the punch bag.
And back to that comforting, male voice that soothed her, as a father would do…
Artemis arguing with her about possibilities for a computer program.
The voice…
And all the while, Ivy unconsciously muttered the Fowl heir's name over and over again, whilst her slender fingers continued to tap on the mattress. No form of Morse Code, or Koboi Code. Just random tapping of the fingers, not always in seemingly different positions. Duke Kestrel sighed. Perhaps it was best to send for the Fowl family now.
When Julius Root came to, he was greeted by one of the more nightmarish faces that haunted his nights. One past convict, Mulch Diggums.
"Convict! Why aren't you in your cell right now? I don't want any kind of excuse – I want an explanation, or you'll be spending the next decade in Howler's Peak and…"
Here, the ex-commander had to stop for breath. Of course, his face had turned purple by now, seeing as his body still hadn't made complete recuperation and his heart was already pretty weak already. That and he had become used to helmet stored oxygen – he hadn't held his breath for longer than five seconds, and that was during the Goblin Uprising, when Holly's finger was being reattached.
And Frond knew that that was the longest five seconds of his life. And over six centuries is a pretty impressive life, you've got to admit.
"Tut, tut, Julius, you're getting behind. I'm not a 'convict' anymore – I'm cleared of all charges." Mulch's face was grinning now, and Artemis was only just managing to keep a straight face. "Somehow, your search warrant wasn't valid for imprisoning me, so I got let out."
Foaly put his sizeable haunch in front of ex-convict and ex-commander, to prevent any further injury, "Okay, you two, now is not the time. We need to find Ivy, and fast. You know, before our civilisation collapses due to some unpredicted magma flares…"
"I thought that magma flares were your specialty, Foaly?" Distracted for a rare minute, Root's eyes now focussed on the centaur, and Foaly started fervently cursing in several different languages. Artemis understood five of them. Something about saving an ungrateful life.
Of course, the version above is the politer version of what Foaly was saying.
"Okay, I admit, most of the time it was due to Kestrel's information that I could predict those magma flares. She said that she needed to let the Earth have some releases from time to time and that she would warn me when that happened…"
"Foaly, I believe that you are going too fast for most of us to bear in mind. Would you care to explain to the people who have had these memories suppressed? I would certainly like to clarify why this girl is able to help you with predicting magma flares. Especially since I doubt that she has access to any kind of equipment."
And that, Foaly realised, was the heart of the matter. This world simply couldn't survive without Kestrel – it was like a deep-fried pit slug without the rainwater sauce.
Artemis Fowl was a shady character, as humans went. Usually, they were much more open than the People. Kestrel (Senior, not Ivy) was, indeed, intrigued by him, especially since his school scores almost surpassed those of centaurs ten times his age (which was entirely possible, of course). However, the boy standing before him now…
The piercing blue eyes were sharp, shrewd, smirking. The features that framed it may have passed for aristocratic. The boy's build was tall, but not gangly, as many humans were during puberty. The mountainous bulk of muscle that followed him around, Domovoi Butler, as the boy called him, looked as if he could snap anyone and anything in half. Excluding trolls, of course, although one was never sure of facts until proven.
"What is it that my lord," Artemis Fowl seemed to have his double edged sword tongue in both worlds, "would have me do with your recently acquired daughter?"
Kestrel didn't even bother asking how the boy knew about the status of the delirious girl on the bed. The vast majority of the household staff (and a fair number of Secret Service people as well) knew that Fowl's surveillance equipment was genius, and were whisper sensitive.
The fairy sighed. Things were so much easier when they were only fighting against each other, not acting as diplomatic envoys.
And the girl's muttering immediately started again, this time a one sided argument taking place.
"No, Artemis, the hormonal structure and DNA structure are linked, as is everything in your body. Most people in Nursery would be able to tell you that…"
The sentence was punctuated in short gasps, as if the girl's lungs were struggling to survive.
"Now listen here, Fowl, you know me well enough, but this is my daughter. She is my flesh and blood; I need you to revive her. The Healers are simply not strong enough for her." The equally piercing green eyes of Duke Kestrel were boring into Artemis. "As of yet, I do not even know of her eye colour, whether they are mine or not. My wife is still in a coma – I do not know why this girl is still able to speak!" His voice was wild, untamed and hoarse. He knew that the Fowl would see this as a chink in his armour, but he was beyond caring – all he wanted was his daughter and wife back.
The Fowl family's sole heir frowned slightly, "My only gift is with balance. I make sure those who die are meant to die and those who live are meant to be living. I make sure who wins the battle and who wins the war. If you like, I am the middle of the grey area between black and white." He shrugged nonchalantly as if this was any old power, such as healing or compulsion. "It was the task dictated to me from birth, so it is the task that I take unto my own grave, when the time comes."
"So you can't do anything? Not until the girl is dead?" Dismay rolled through every fibre of the elf's being.
"Oh no, my lord, I can do a lot before. Just as soon as she finishes typing that message." A slim, pianist finger pointed imperiously at the furiously moving digits.
Even in unconsciousness, Ivy Kestrel would hold onto self-control and simply order her body to do something, no matter what the pain.
A reality away, four pairs of unbelieving eyes stared at Foaly and the several video discs of Ivy's various tried and failed attempts of mastering her own powers.
"Well, this is interesting. So how do we still not remember, Foaly, when you've shown us enough stimuli for us to practically know the girl anyway?" Asked Artemis, his perfectly manicured nails drumming the work surface. Now it was Foaly's turn to be shocked. How could this much information penetrate and still not get through to their locked memories?
He typed a few instructions into the computer, and a few minutes later, a few of his underlings arrived with four sets of fine tune memory wipe material. Artemis recoiled - was he about to be wiped again?
A/N: Dun dun dun! What's Foaly doing? And what are Ivy's instructions?
Ivy: What are you looking at me for? I don't know what you're going to do with me! In fact, readers, I doubt that she even knows what she's going to write for the next chapter.
AmethystNox: Are you the author or am I?
Ivy: You, obviously, although how you managed to create such an intelligent creature such as me, I don't know.
AmethystNox: Egocentric, much?
Ivy: You created me like that!
AmethystNox: Whatever. Anyway, ahem, as I was saying...
Ivy: Ha! I knew it! You don't even have a plot! You're making it up as you go along!
AmethystNox: Then you'd better be very, VERY nice to me to avoid me putting in any mention of your death. Smiles sweetly whilst stepping on Ivy's foot, only to be thrown off chair
Ivy: Empty threats, the lot of them. Anyway, read and review, and any criticism had better be constructive!
AmethystNox: Those were NOT empty threats! Takes out handy radioactive bar Ha! I now have a weapon! Please R&R!