A/N: Thanks to all those who reviewed and supported me with this fic, I hope you enjoy Chapter Two!!!
Artemis Fowl: The Enigma Complex
Chapter Two
A Rather Bad Day
Anger is a signal, and one worth listening to. ~Harriett Lerner
Trouble Kelp was having a bad day. A very bad day in fact, and as a commanding officer in the LEP, if he was having a bad day it normally meant several more poor creatures down the line were facing the repercussions of this fact. Right now the poor fairy facing his irritation was a rather lowly messenger pixie who had quailed upon coming in and seeing the look the Commander had shot him.
Trouble made no point in trying to hide the sigh that he heaved when the private refused to get to the point, "Look, er, Madill is it? I would like to get back to the report I was just reading about the recent Koboi investigations, so if you could please get to the point I'd very much appreciate it."
The pixie nodded eagerly and tried to stop quivering as he squirmed under the gaze. "Yes Commander, of course, I'm sorry," he squeaked, "I'm reporting on behalf of Captain Kelp, your brother sir. He says to let you know that something has happened in the chutes, sir, and that he would like to have someone else come in to investigate it sir. He also wanted you to know that he has a sprained ankle and will be filing for a weeks leave due to injury, sir."
Trouble sighed again, harshly this time and he felt his skin prickle with severe irritation at his younger brother. After all Trouble had done, helping Grub with his promotion on the promise that he'd change his ways, he still was proving to be a coward when it came to living up to his job. And on top of that he was trying to take leave when the LEP was in chaos, and they needed every hand they could get. But instead of expressing these problems to the poor pixie, he instead asked the obvious, "And why did Captain Kelp choose to send you to me instead of sending a message through his communicator? I don't give those things out for people to just ignore them."
"Well sir, you see, that's part of the problem. All the communications have been blocked off for some reason sir. Nothing in or out. I was coupled with him to do our rounds of the chutes when there was a crash and we found a cavern toward the surface had collapsed, probably one of the old landing bays. When we realized the communications were out, he sent me to stay here while he kept an eye on the other rocks."
This bit of information piqued the commander's interest, and he suddenly was very concerned about what had happened in the chutes. Communication didn't just go out; Foaly had made sure of that after everything Opal had done. Now it was almost impossible to lose connection, regardless of magma flares or location.
"What chute were you patrolling?" he asked the pixie, ignoring any mutterings he heard about his brother.
"E18, Stonehenge, sir. And if I may say so, whatever it was, was big. Quite the crash it made, we heard it all the way down the chute, sir," Madill said, the pixie looked quite proud he'd gotten the commander's attention and had brought noteworthy news. He might've looked a little less smug if he'd known just what kind of news he was bringing.
Trouble studied the private for a moment before nodding and dismissing him, he'd address a possible promotion later, mostly for dealing with his brother's idiotic demands. After the pixie marched out looking happy with himself, Trouble opened a private com channel with Foaly.
"Foaly!" he barked, thinking to himself of how Root would be proud of him, "Why in the name of Frond has communication gone out with our Stonehenge chute? You told me yourself that the new system you set up was a fail safe. So now you better explain to me why it's failing."
"Why hello Trouble, I've missed you too. I'm glad you're having such a good day," the centaur muttered, "You want the truth? Something is creating a form of static on our com links to Stonehenge, it isn't failing, it's just being overloaded."
Trouble glared at the screen and Foaly sighed heavily, "Something, or someone more likely, has jumped our link to E18 and overloaded it with white noise on such a low frequency that no one would notice it unless they tried to patch through to Police Plaza from the chute. We've been tricked by somebody who obviously wanted a warning before being found."
Trouble rubbed at his temples rather angrily, "Could it be Koboi? The one from the past?"
"It's possible," mused the technician, "But highly unlikely. She still doesn't have the ability to adapt to all the new things I've thrown up since her time. Though her break-in at Atlantis Penitentiary was surprisingly successful, so who knows what she can do? I wouldn't rule out the option."
Opal from the past had surprised everyone in the LEP when she'd broken into Atlantis Pen to find and free her future self. They'd obviously expected a break-in of some sort, but what they hadn't anticipated was her reaction. Foaly had the entire thing on a hidden camera tape.
Upon arriving at her future cell, Opal opened the door to the solitary confinement chamber and found to her surprise a human instead of a pixie. The Opal from the past had tried to leave quietly, but was disrupted by her future human self. The human girl sat up, hair short but the same color, nails brittle and chipped, eyes weary; she looked at the small pixie version of herself and smiled darkly, thinking herself saved. But instead the tiny pixie was too vain for this, and she sneered ant the human she was to become, "I can't possibly be you. I'm so much prettier than that. Please tell that stupid centaur his ruse didn't fool me, as I'm sure my future beautiful self couldn't be contained for long; Let alone become a Mud Maid."
With that said, the tiny pixie Opal walked out the same way she'd come, locking up behind her. The future human one sat on the bed for the next several days, staring into a void from losing all hope. When Foaly looked it over again, it was only a deep hatred from the death of Julius Root that had kept him from feeling sorry for her.
"So what you're telling me Foaly is that we have a possibly unknown enemy here, and you had no idea your infallible system was being duped by a simple white noise frequency?"
Foaly was distressed on his end too, but he tried his best not to let it show. In truth, in order to hack an LEP channel and create the block would take much more time and effort than it sounded if it was to go undetected, and would be very near impossible should one want to go undetected with the security system Foaly had set up. But Foaly knew better than to bother Trouble with explaining these things to him and wasting precious time, so in the end he just nodded in slight shame.
The link was quiet for a moment, and Trouble weighed his options before asking, "If I send in Holly to investigate, will I regret it?"
Foaly took a moment to think as well, but he replied more sure of himself, "Holly is the best as far as field work goes, but her record does show a slight increase in the chance that something may go horribly and world threateningly wrong."
Trouble smiled, the two of them both knew about the Captain's various adventures and how they'd started out so simply and yet managed to change everything drastically. They assumed that if it had already happened that many times than it couldn't happen that many more times. They were wrong. Very wrong. Trouble unknowingly put himself on the list for many more difficult days the moment he hit the transfer button on his communicator.
…
Holly Short was studying herself in the mirror in the few moments before Commander Kelp called her, something she rarely ever did. It was odd staring at herself now though; she had changed after going through the time stream so many times. It was like her features had blended together with bits of her past, and now she felt unsure of her own age. If she had to guess, she'd say she was around her early seventies, which took ten years off her age. In a sense she supposed most people would envy her for, but she herself saw it as yet another thing she'd had forced on her.
As the beep of her LEP issue communicator went of, she caught herself with that cold blue eye as she turned and felt a shroud of guilt pass over her. Holly had been ignoring Artemis for weeks now, nursing a grudge that was growing old quickly.
"Hey Trouble," she said, banishing all thoughts of the Mud Boy, "What's wrong? If I may remind you, I am off duty right now."
Trouble smiled at her with some effort, and she could tell that recent events were weighing on him heavily. He looked as if he hadn't slept in days. "I know you're off duty Holly, but I need a favor. Something's exploded in the Stonehenge landing bay, which has been off duty for quite awhile now. Problem is, Grub's up there to stare at the rocks and Foaly had his communication system trumped. You're the only fairy I trust to fly there fast enough to get my brother and check everything out before someone gets whiff of this story."
This new partly surprised Holly, "Someone trumped Foaly's new system? I thought it was supposed to work no matter what. Foolproof, or something like that."
"Yeah, me too, but someone obviously was able to beat it enough that they'd have plenty of warning before anyone came to investigate. So, will you help me out Holly?"
Holly tossed around the idea in her head, knowing she'd accept it whether or not it was convenient for her. After toying with the idea for a minute she accepted, "Yeah Trub, of course I'll go. But I want Sunday off."
Recently she'd been forced to work seven days a week and the work amount was dragging her down with the constant search for the past Opal and any signs of a change in the timeline. Not that they'd know if there was one. Holly couldn't even imagine the hell Trouble was going through on a daily basis.
Trouble didn't even bother weighing options, though he did wince at the nickname, "Deal. Not get going, I'd say I have about another two hours before somebody leaks word to the press for some extra gold. Maybe less than that, so hurry and get Grub and get back. I'll send men later to perform a clean up of the area and a full look over of what happened."
Holly didn't need to be told twice.
Half an hour later she was ready to go with a shimmer suit and helmet donned, a pod docked, and Foaly's quirky voice in her ear. Strapping herself in and gunning up the small craft she questioned Foaly further about what had happened.
"So I'm going to take it that you got your systems over here working again from the fact that we're still talking," she remarked, thrusting upward and out of the dock, the feel of flying putting her in good spirits.
"Of course. Once I noticed the flaw I quickly flushed out the system and re-established contact as soon as I could. I still haven't gotten anything back from Grub though."
Holly frowned, knowing that more than likely the Captain had fallen asleep at his post and was napping in his pod. Part of her envied him, and part of her was severely irritated at his lack of discipline, "You know Grub, he's probably napping on the job."
Foaly snorted, "That's more than likely the case, but be careful anyway Holly."
She smiled to herself, having heard the concern in her friend's voice, and agreed as she pulled herself up into the dusty area of a landing bay. Clouds and fog seemed to form out of dust, but she could see the other LEP pod a few yards away, with its hatch wide open.
"D'Arvit," she muttered, "Curse Grub."
She looked around the cavern, trying to filter out the dust as she glanced around, but Trouble was nowhere to be found. Sighing, Holly clambered out of her pod and sealed her helmet, taking precautions by slipping on a pair of Hummingbird wings.
She performed a quick scan of the rest of the surrounding areas and found an even less satisfying answer. Obviously something had caught Grub's interest and he had clambered through the wreckage to get to the other side of the room, where the majority of the landing space was.
Holly shielded and followed his clumsily made path through a hole and to the other side. Along the wall just to Holly's left sat Grub Kelp, Neutrino raised and hands shaking, though they were pointed at something other than Holly.
When he saw Holly unshield, relief echoed across his expression. But though he was facing Holly and beckoning her over to him, his Neutrino was pointed at an object still unclear in the heavy dust and debris.
Turning on the speakers in her helmet as she walked over to him, she heard Foaly's omniscient voice in her ear, "Something isn't right Holly."
Grub was so enthusiastic about greeting Holly that he almost hugged her, and his smiled looked to be enough to break his face. Holly had to ruin his good mood though, because the whole scene was drowned in a sense of unreality, "Captain Kelp, what made you draw your weapon? What's going on here?"
Grub's mood suddenly seemed to drain away at the mention of that, and his face went a bit pale. Holly saw that the hand holding the Neutrino was still shaking and his knuckles were white.
"Oh Holly, you wouldn't believe it, we landed to patrol for a few minutes, but then there was this awful earthquake and an explosion of some sort. So I sent Madill back when I couldn't patch a line down, and I had just gotten cozy when I saw this creature shuffling through the remains and over to this side. So even though my ankle hurt like crazy I got out and followed it, but I think it heard me because it started calling out. But then it rushed at me and I stunned it."
Holly listened halfheartedly. She knew Grub was being a drama queen and that a lot was destined to be exaggeration. But when he finished talking she nodded and got up, drawing her own gun and walking over to Grub's stunned victim. Waves of dust subsided as she got further from the ruined Landing bay, and she saw a huddle of a creature breathing slowly in unconsciousness. As she approached it, she took in everything she could about it, until she finally was where she could see its front.
"Oh Frond," Holly breathed. But what she saw wasn't even the half of it.
Foaly's surprisingly weak-sounding voice came through her ear, and despite the fact that what was in front of her defied everything she knew, she listened intently, "Holly, look up."
She did. And in front of her was the thing that had come from the earthquakes, a huge gaping hole in the middle of the bay, straight through solid granite. A hole bigger than any she'd ever seen before, and she was surprised it didn't reach the surface. Inside, it clicked, though she wished she didn't have to understand it. Not only was it a hole, but it was a testing site. Someone had a bomb, and they knew how to use it.
Hauling up the creature that defied her beliefs, Holly ran back to Grub, yelling for him to get into the pod and get them back to Haven. While he was distracted she pulled out her communicator that she shared with Artemis, and Foaly made no objections as she sent off the message.
Holy hell that took forever, might I say. Though it is much longer than the last chapter, and way more interesting in my opinion. So now we're up to speed on what has happened on either side of this, though a lot more led up to this part. Man, now I'm tired, it's about 3:30 in the morning now. I've been typing since midnight. I'm trying my best to get this done since I got such fabulous reviews. Thanks to everyone who gave their support! I hope this holds up to what you expected from it and more. My notes: Minerva will come in eventually, though no time soon, and she does have a purpose. Trouble is and will continue to be a major part of this fic. I also understand what a Mary-Sue is and my OCs that will play a part will not be Mary-Sues. I promise. So please believe me on that fact. More soon, I hope I didn't disappoint!
~Tamdiu