A/N: Characters may be OOC

The White House, USA

Opal couldn't believe her luck. Her new adopted father of three years, Arthur Brown, was not only rich and interested only in spoiling her, but won the presidential election a year after she had been adopted. He had won by a landslide. Actually, a landslide was a bit of an overstatement. The Republican candidate had won only three electoral votes, all from Alaska, ironically the only state he had avoided on the campaign trail. Opal's genius brain had no problem understanding why; the candidate's wife managed to offend basically everyone.

Brown, the President, proved very easily manipulated, Opal's favorite quality of the loathsome thing that acted as her "father".

Mud schools were horrible. The President couldn't have a daughter who didn't go to school. Opal was originally placed in the fourth grade, even though she worked hard to appear physically seven or eight years old; the President had insisted she was one of the genii in the world, much less D.C. So she was in with the stupid ten-year-olds, watching them do partial-products multiplication. Several times she fell asleep in class, so bored was she. Eventually the foolish Mud teacher noticed and sent her in for testing: was she getting enough sleep? Would she still learn asleep?
Opal had insisted she could do the curriculum, so the teacher set up a "difficult" test. Passing that within seconds, Opal asked for something slightly more challenging. The teacher, thinking she was very clever, set up a code for Opal to crack. It was a simple enough algebraic formula, except for it was in the binary system. Opal still cracked that in under five minutes. The teacher had some mental issues after that. A seven-year-old doing algebra - - in the binary system? Opal wasn't too worried. She hadn't impressed anyone yet. Her biggest plan was yet to come.

The Lower Elements, Somewhere

An average-height elf paced her small apartment. She twirled a longish strand of her cropped auburn hair with a sharply contrasting bronze finger. She bit her lip, her proportionately large eyes closed. One of them was hazel, the color she had been born with. The other was a brilliant blue. It did not belong to her by birth. It was the person to whom this eye belonged about whom she had been worrying.

Holly Short looked longingly at the fairy communicator on the table. For days, she had debated with herself about contacting Artemis. She had a feeling that he was about to become very involved in something much bigger than himself; she wanted him to be safe. Holly knew she was one of Artemis' only friends, and she didn't want him to be hurt. Plus, Opal Koboi was on the loose and would want Artemis. Whether as an ally or an enemy, Holly did not know. But they both knew that if Holly tried to help Artemis, the new head of the LEP would find her. And kill her. Yet...

Holly picked up the communicator and began to dial.

D.C., U.S.A.; An inconspicuous, but clean, motel

Artemis was in the shower, enjoying the steady, refreshing drumming of the water against his back. He started singing in a high, clear voice, one that nobody ever heard outside the shower (He was an alto still; his voice should have broken by now). He and Butler were in a cheap motel room, waiting. For what? He wasn't quite sure yet. He finished singing a song in Gaelic, and began a festive holiday song in Hungarian. . Aran sal tollackaal rebdesh mint, egg anyal. Ingo bingo zolld fuzaal... A clanging noise came from outside the steamy bathroom, as if someone had thrown a metal pan through the open window. Artemis immediately shut off the water and his voice. He grabbed a clean towel and began drying off. He quietly tied the towel around his waist with an intricate knot that would not come undone by itself. Artemis' coal-black hair had grown longer of late, now almost to the middle of his neck. He pulled his dripping hair now in frustration. That noise was not caused by something harmless. And he wondered briefly what it could be. His ring communicator vibrated slightly, which encouraged Artemis to focus on the task at hand: getting dressed, especially if Foaly or- - God forbid- - Holly, should decide to use the video feature. He had his pants on and was beginning to button up his blue shirt when an impatient voice sounded from outside the door.

"Artemis? You've been long enough in there. Are you all right?" Artemis paused in his buttoning. The voice was female and familiar, but muffled enough for identification to be very difficult.

"Juliet?" he asked.

"Nope."

"Err..."

"Go on,"

"Who else could it be?"

"Perhaps a fairy friend of yours,"

"Holly?" Artemis asked, hardly daring to hope. The silence encouraged him to open the bathroom door, letting out a cloud of steam and Artemis himself, for once without a tie or suit jacket.

The elf sat on Artemis' bed, her feet hanging a few centimetres off the ground. She looks wonderful, Artemis thought. He mentally shook himself. Stupid puberty. He stood staring at her, astonished that she would be here. Then... crash!

Butler burst through the closet door. Artemis, in a rare show of astonishment, watched as his bodyguard studied Holly, who smiled at him sweetly. She greeted him by name. Butler studied her face, then horrified Artemis by lunging at the elf's throat. What horrified Artemis even more was...

Butler grabbed at where Holly's collarbone should have been. Instead, his fingers closed around empty air. It was a holo. Butler wrenched his hand down quickly, shattering the holo momentarily and bringing in his fist a tiny wire. He gave Artemis a significant look. Artemis shook his head to clear it. Who knows what could have happened? There was a severe risk in letting anybody know that he knew the LE.

Artemis was so focused on the holo that he didn't see something dragging his personally upgraded phone from his jacket pocket in the bathroom through the opened vent and out of the room.

The boy took the wire from his bodyguard's hand, hoping to find some clue as to who was the perpetrator of this scheme. He found none, even after days of searching. This nemesis knew quite a lot. He must be silenced. But who was it?