Yes, it's me again. Once again, I'm really sorry for having such short chapters, but I don't really have much time to write at the moment. Please review, as it does encourage me to update faster. I do not own Artemis, and yes, I do support Artemis x Minerva. And my plot is probably not the most easy one to understand, so if anyone gets confused at any part of it, just ask, ok?
LEP, The Lower Elements
"It's inconceivable!" Foaly said, grinding his teeth,
"But it's still possible," Artemis replied, "so we have to check it out."
"Do you have any files on the history of Haven to look at?" Minerva asked, desperate to help out the People after she had caused so much trouble before.
"No," Foaly said, "None of my history files would help us explore this chain of events. We've never experienced a problem like this before. You'd have to go to the Haven Museum to look at the files."
"One problem," Butler reminded them, "Three Mud People are not going to be able to walk through Haven and into a museum, are they?"
"Don't worry," Holly replied, smirking, "We'll be able to fix that…"
Y2, The Lower Elements
After his meditation, Potestas stepped out of his chamber and went to see his general. He floated through the streets, looking at his Avionaters. Little children ran through the streets, hiding behind great sandstone buildings whilst playing a game, or practising their duelling. The city of Avion looked just as Egypt had before the empire had crumbled. It had similar buildings, and the population wore similar clothing to the time. In fact, the architects who had built the city had been captured from Egypt during the time of Cleopatra and Mark Antony (A.N: I needed some sort of link between Potestas and all the Latin in the story!). But the future of Avion would be very unlike Egypt, for Potestas had no intention of letting his own Empire crumble. He would take over all of the underground, and perhaps above the ground, with time. He smiled evilly as he thought of this and finally, he floated up to a high balcony of the miliary building, where his general was.
"General," Potestas greeted cheerfully, for he had the greatest respect for his commander of the armies.
"Yessir," the general replied, "the troops are ready for your inspection."
"Thankyou, General. Has my wife set out yet?"
"Yessir, she left just after you entered your chamber."
"Good, then let us see the troops!"
The general led Potestas over to the edge of the balcony on the other side to which he had come up. Standing on the ground were 50,000 Avionaters, and 1000 trolls, ready to fight. 51,000 was the entire population of Avion, so Potestas was taking quite a large risk by only leaving 1,000 in the city. But it was a risk that he was going to take, if it meant that he could take Haven.
The Avionaters were indeed the strongest force of magic imaginable. They had become so skilled with their magic, that they did not need wings to float, having learnt to levitate and fly without such objects. Neither did they need weapons through which to harness their magic, being able to use their powers directly from their hands. The Avionaters were also the only race to actually tame the trolls. They were able to command these beasts, which could destroy entire cities in minutes. But possibly the most formidable asset of the Avionaters was their ability to hold almost unlimited magic whilst in their own city. Unlike most fairies, which got their magic from the moon, the Avionaters had adapted to life underground, and had learnt to obtain magic from a certain gem. This certain gem was the ruby, and there were hundreds of them in every wall in the entire city of Avion. This meant that as long as they remained in Avion, the Avionaters could replenish their magic almost as quickly as they used it. If the People had known a little bit more about Avion and the Avionaters, they might have been a little more worried. The gem which Potestas had stolen from the Gem Enterprises was the biggest ruby known to the People…
LEP, The Lower Elements
Artemis and Minerva said simultaneously, "Will our ears go back to normal?" before Holly had even revealed her plan.
"How'd you know what I was going to do?" Holly asked in amazement.
"Genius," they both sighed, "we can't help it…"
Holly smiled and said, "Well yes, your ears will be back to normal. Foaly, will you get up?"
Foaly was in stitches on the ground, as he had just realised what Holly was planning. Only Butler wasn't quite certain what was about to happen.
"What are you going to do, Holly?" Butler queried.
"You'll see," Holly replied, as Foaly finally got up and went to his storage cupboard. The centaur pulled out a strange contraption which looked like a bike helmet with lots of glowing lights.
"This is a HelixObscurer, which can cause physical changes to seem to take place in someone. Far more safe than Opal's pituitary gland, which actually caused physical changes to occur. I suppose that this is the machine that you want, Holly?"
"Yes, thankyou Foaly," Holly said.
"So you'll change Minerva and my ears so that we look like elves?" Artemis asked, "and we may go to the museum in disguise?"
"And me," added Butler.
"No, old friend, not you," Artemis replied, "unfortunately your size could hardly pass off as a fairy, and it would be far too dangerous to arouse suspicion."
"There is no way that I would be willing to let you go around Haven unprotected. You are my charge, and I have a duty to protect you." Butler said, defiantly.
"Butler, you have to trust him," Holly told him gently, "I'll stay with them the whole time."
Every instinct told Butler not to let Artemis go out unprotected into an unknown territory, but thought better than to continue objecting. No doubt, Artemis would probably win in the end, and Butler had learnt over the years to trust Artemis' judgement.
"OK," Butler sighed, defeated, "But you must be careful. Do I have your word?"
"Yes," Artemis replied, "Now let's get on with this quickly."
Holly placed the machine of Artemis' head and pressed a button. Artemis was really surprised that he seemed to feel absolutely nothing. Before he knew it, Holly removed the helmet and did the same procedure to Minerva. When the helmet came of Minerva's head, Artemis was amazed to see that her ears were just like Holly's. Her hair was still the same lovely blonde curls though, and her eyes were still that beautiful blue shade which was constantly enticing him..."Got to concentrate!" he chided himself.
"Now, that's more like it!" Holly said, "Have a look in the mirror."
The two teenagers went over to a mirror and were stupefied by what they saw, as they had felt nothing when the HelixObsurer was on. Both their ears were now like Holly's, although the rest of their features were exactly the same. Artemis tried to run his hands over his new ears, but they ran straight through.
"Holograms?" Artemis asked, pleasantly surprised, "I thought that you could come up with something more creative than that, Foaly."
"They're cheap and efficient," Foaly replied, shrugging, "But we can go into that later. There's still one big step left before you and your girlfriend can go out into Haven."
Minerva and Artemis looked at each other nervously…
Twenty minutes later, Holly, Artemis and Minerva left Foaly's office. It had taken the good part of 15 minutes to convince Artemis to change out of his suit into something more appropriate of the People. Holly and Foaly had put Minerva into a very short white dress, which Artemis could barely take his eyes off. Then they had put Artemis into a Robin Hood styled outfit, which had sent everyone, even Minerva, into fits of laughter. Finally, everyone had calmed down, and Minerva, Artemis and Holly had finally set out for the museum.
"So what are we doing here whilst they are gone?" Butler asked Foaly after the three companions had left, worried that it might be something very complicated.
"We're going to work on my new invention, the Magicoder." Foaly said, proudly, "It is supposed to intercept messages sent via magic so that they can be decoded and we can defend against revolts or attacks. Nothing too difficult, just a little bit of quantum physics and chemistry."
Butler could only groan at the prospect, as he slumped down into a chair.
There ya go, another chapter! Please review, as usual! More reviews, faster updates!