Chapter 4-Below the Cliff
"Oww!" Artemis said aloud, while rubbing his, now swollen arm.
Artemis' arm's severe swelling, was obviously caused by his dangerous jump off the cliff. Luckily, no bones were broken, but his left arm had taken a shot. He'd also broken the fall with the same arm. Artemis collapsed, clutching his arm painfully.
It was around seven in the morning, when Artemis awoke. It was a timely appearance as well, for a special someone was waiting for him.
"Hmph, the kid is finally awake!" The short dwarf exclaimed, with jocial annoyance.
"Well, well. I mean, Good Morning! Mulch!" Artemis greeted his old dwarf friend, Mulch who had played a role along with him in many of his adventures.
A concise grumble was the only answer. Looking at the dwarf, Artemis came close to what resembled confuse. The sight that he saw was unusual and remarkable. Clearly the element of surprise was present at that particular moment. The audacious, agile and recognizably short, former thief was clad deeply in green. Mulch wore a pale green jumpsuit, much like Holly's and extremely familiar. Without needing to squint, Artemis envisioned three letters on a patch, which in turn sat on the bulky creature's left arm. The letters LEP were lined with thick silver string and emphasized a strong sense of authority. The dwarf was also wearing a LEP Spec Ops helmet, of which was identical tom Holly's
"No, it's not camouflage, Artemis, he's joined the LEP, and over the past two years, he's already joined the darned Special Ops. of LEPretriveal." Holly said. But Holly hadn't stopped, she continued her line of complaint, "All in two years too..."
A large toothy smile stretched from his red, puffy cheeks as Mulch spoke, "I worked undercover at first and then I went from digging to this. Though I can't do any magic, assault and battery is my main and only tactic. I gotta say it feels pretty dang good to be in LEP, compared to stealing. Once I joined the Special Operations unit, boy the adventures were AWESOME!"
Artemis was happy for his friend, but Holly seemed to be upset. Artemis noticed several gold stripes on Holly's thin shoulder.
"How's life, Major Holly Short?"
"Great observation, Mr. Fowl! But life is very boring. I'm stuck on a chair for hours!" sighed Holly.
"Ah, I see..."
"Do you?" a sharp, enthusiastic voice said, with glee. It was a spectacular moment. The warlock eased himself from a small gap in between two very small boulders. The imp warlock spoke with a firm, but childish voice. He seemed happy underground, but even happier on top of the Earth itself. He smiled, and so did Artemis.
The demon, also clad in green was now slightly settled, compared to five years ago, when he was first "immigrated" to Earth. Yet, No 1 was still very jumpy. But, he'd adapted and learned human manners as well. He was also, learning very quickly. No 1 was wearing a light green robe, the sleeves were lined with silver. No 1 was wearing no helmet, but he matched with the rest of the group wearing green gloves and pointy shoes as well.
Smiling, Artemis held his hand out towards No 1, the demon. They shook hands. It was an unusual sight. Human and demon, very queer.
No 1 was the spokesman for the briefing. He told Artemis much of what happened. Foaly was on a date with his centaur girlfriend at around 18:32 military time, which is 6:30 PM. It was a warm evening, as described by Belleza, Foaly's girlfriend. They were strolling, and were walking towards a diner, when a mudman (forgive me Artemis, but you aren't much of a mudman now anyhow…) obviously from Ireland used a foreign weapon, which I presume is called a sniper and fired at Foaly. At that time, Foaly gave up his tin hat, due to the fact that he was dating and thus, Foaly is no longer alive.
Artemis studied the situation. No 1 described the scene with a very intense tone of voice and spoke quickly, but Artemis' ears adapted to the steady pace of each word. Artemis understood that Foaly was simply murdered and so will the rest of the fairy world in a matter of time.
"Luckily, the sniper was taken down by a shot from Holly's Neutrino 2000." No 1 continued to explain. "After Foaly's death, the LEP Recon Spec. Ops. LEPretrieval. rudely interrupted a lesson from Master Qwan. Taking a look at Holly, Artemis noticed that her face reddened heavily. No 1 continued onwards. Some members of the LEP Recon secretly developed a small tactical and administrative unit unnoticed by the daft Commander and named it the Masters One Brigade. The Masters One Brigade's members were trained with tough severity. They were trained much harsher and in Wing Commander Vinyáya's opinion, probably trained more exceptionally skillful than LEPretrieval One. LEPretrieval one is known to be every young fairy's dream. Many dreamed of joining LEPretrieval One and don the stealth black jumpsuit. LEPretrival is responsible for performing mind wipes to humans who may have seen a fairy, retrieve rogue fairies, search and destroy trolls who have made their way to the surface and other various tasks. Holly, Mulch and Vinyáya joined the Masters One Brigade Team Alpha, along with some other trusted co-workers of Vinyáya. Soon, I was invited to join Masters One Brigade, but my apprenticeship was not yet completed with Master Qwan, so I had to deny the invitation." No 1 took a deep breath.
Following his brief pause, No 1 said, "Later I received news about Foaly's death and how the plan was to revive him but modifying the time tunnel. Master Qwan was unable to come and help, but judging by the circumstances, I believe we can unravel the time tunnel and also recover some of Captain Mulch's magic, not to mention strengthen your magical capabilities."
"Brilliant, just brilliant," said Artemis "I have bad news though." Holly and Mulch gave Artemis a questioning look. Artemis continued speaking, with a frown steadily growing on his face. Butler and I were attacked by a sniper and possibly other units around this area. I pinpointed the approximate location of the sniper and dove down the cliff. I broke the fall with my arm and took a bullet, but I used my magic to heal it. I was knocked out and exhausted for a couple of hours, then you guys found me."
"So you have no idea where Butler is." Holly assumed. When there was a nod meaning "no" from Artemis she continued. "You idiot! Butler may be tough and trustworthy, but we're dealing with a society far more dangerous than the Russain Mafia, Spiro, possibly Opal Koboi and the demons of Hybras themselves! They're not simply armed, they've gotten access to Underground and have killed Foaly! How could you have Butler face a whole organization!" Holly smacked herself in the head.
Mulch then spoke after a few seconds of silence. "Well, it's true that Artemis shouldn't have abandoned Butler, but I confide in him. After all, Butler once took down LEPretrieval One and a troll single-handedly. As for Artemis, neither him or us had any idea that the Organisation des Libérateurs would be one step ahead of us."
"Hold on. What is all this nonsense. Organisation des Liberateurs? That's French, and translated to English, that would be the Organization of Deliverers or Liberators… What does that have to do with the fairy world?" Artemis was dearly confused.
"That's part two of the briefing. You, Artemis will soon be the cause for the end of the fairy world, so it seems." No. 1 proceeded.
"What? How!? It's impossible." Artemis said. "Mulch, or No. 1 please explain. I am confused, but I do have an idea about what this whole scandal is about. Here's my hypothesis. This organization, Organisation des Libérateurs tracked one of us, presumably me (though, I use multi types of wipes to destroy all data collected on me) and attacked the fairy world, underground. Foaly was murdered by a sniper, but the sniper was eliminated. Then, in fear of any chances of harm being done to the Underground civilians and all the fairies, the new Spec Ops division called the Masters Brigade sent Team Alpha. Due to the fact that I hacked into the LEPrecon's mission briefing files and made a copy of the system, I noticed something about the time tunnel. Then, I was called by Holly, very suddenly to come here. Butler and I were then attacked, which means that Butler's life is in danger and soon our's will be too. I'm assuming that Team Alpha is put together to unravel the time tunnel."
"You are very correct, Master Fowl." No. 1 said, very pleased. Then, he continued "We are very pleased to present you, Master's Brigade Team Alpha!"
On that note, Holly, Mulch and No. 1 bowed. But, more was to come. Artemis looked around. His eye was twitching and sparks flicked off his finger tips. "Was it danger? No. A friendly unit? Artemis blinked. Nerve cells immediately seemed to start morphing. These nerve cells rushed up to Artemis' brain. His cerebellum received these nerves and embraced them. Suddenly, Artemis' sight was enhanced by much more than a lot. It seemed indescribable. It was like a very powerful thermo sensor built into his eyes, but with many more functions implanted. One, two, three. Three fairies seemed to be leaping into the small space shielded from the naked eye under the cliff. Artemis' hands were now trembling, violently. Something, some magic seemed to want to be release. To be free. Artemis could not control his hands. Sparks immediately flew from his fingers.
These were powerful sparks. None to be underestimated. A single moment of contact with a small spark could kill. The sparks were critical to change in any body, fairy or human. They were also a double edged sword. These sparks could rush into a powerful human's bodily fluids and provide him or her magical abilities or instantly strike one dead.
No. 1 noticed these sparks before anyone else. He stepped forward. Sensing magic unleashed, No. 1 rushed into action. A small orb of magical substance was immediately pushed together. The orb grew in size gradually. No. 1 held it in the palm of his hand or claw (as some call it) and seemed to let it charge. Then, No. 1 stopped the flow of magic to his hand by clutching his wrist tightly, stopping blood flow as well. He dashed up to Artemis and released the orb of magic.
"Gah!" Artemis struggled with the magic. There was a loud buzzing in his ears. The buzzing seemed to be like a swarm of bees. Soon, the audio began to attack with full rage. It came like a heat wave, getting warmer and warmer as time progressed. In seconds, Artemis overheated then he fainted.