A/N I'll just leave this to calm the natives…

Ch. 8 Help

Deep beneath the surface of the earth, a certain centaur was typing furiously on a keyboard. Words rapidly appeared before him of a large screen, the document in focus, as opposed to several other screens pushed off to the side.

These various different screens displayed surveillance cameras' feed from around the LEPrecon office (for this was our beloved Foaly we're talking about), as well as one surveillance camera displaying feed from right outside Foaly's lab's door.

The centaur muttered under his breath as he revised the document his was typing (a new article on the subject of world-dominating pixies and why centaurs were smarter than them for his blog) and was just looking up the definition of a word in his files (in his brain of course!), when Foaly noticed movement outside his lab door on the surveillance camera.

Foaly, being as paranoid as he is, immediately pulled up the screen displaying the camera, and squinted closely at the source of the movement. It looked like a black and blurry LEP officer, but he couldn't tell who it was. Suddenly, the object moved, stealthily creeping toward the lab doors. Foaly leaned in closer to the plasma screen, careful not to singe his hair off.

He watched as the figure crept closer to the doors and realized that the black shape looked oddly like his best friend, the only woman officer in the whole of Haven, Holly Short. In fact, as he looked closer it was the infamous elf. The centaur cackled gleefully and decided that it was a perfect time to test out his new security system.

Outside the centaur's lab, Holly Short, the only woman Captain of the whole force of LEPrecon, crept up closer to tech consultant Foaly's lab. She knew Foaly saw her, and she was well aware he was going to pull some security zap thingy on her, but Holly continued to press onward.

Holly was almost to the door when she heard a whir and a squeak. Her heightened soldier sense told her that the sound was coming from overhead. Holly's head shot up and her mismatched eyes widened in surprise. Foaly snickered inside his lab as he twiddled his fingers, and pressed a few buttons that activated the system.

The centaur listened, silently laughing as he heard Holly yell in surprise and fury. "D'ARVIT! FOALY, YOU CAN'T ESCAPE FROM ME! I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH!" He couldn't help laughing even harder, collapsing onto the table and banging his fist loudly on the top. Holly, knowing very well the centaur would do her bidding when she was furious, yelled at the camera, "OPEN THIS DOOR, CENTAUR!"

The doors slid open almost immediately and the elf stomped into her friend's lab. She glared at the centaur half sprawled on a table, shoulders shaking with what she knew was laughter. "Oh, sure, laugh all you want! You wouldn't be laughing if you were covered in this MUCK Foaly!" Holly stomped over to the centaur and slugged him hard in the shoulder, earning an "OW!" from him.

The centaur sat up, rubbing his shoulder. "Well, you got to admit Holly," He said, snorting in effort to stop laughing. "This is pretty funny!" Holly growled, fists clenching even tighter, daring her centaur friend to continue talking. Foaly got the idea and shut his mouth quicker than you could say "D'arvit!" Holly, still glaring unmercifully at Foaly, grabbed a rag from the table and began to try to clean herself off.

It was silent until Foaly cleared his throat cautiously. "So, uh, Holly." The female elf didn't say anything so the centaur took the chance and continued to talk. "What brings you to my humble lab?" Holly looked up finally, rag clenched in her fist and still trying to remove dung from herself. "Well, I don't know, I just decided I would check in on my favorite centaur today." She answered sarcastically.

Foaly caught the meaning and nodded. "Ooohhh, alright. But really, why are you here, Holls?" The elf made one final attempt to clean her arm before sighing and tossing the rag into a wastebasket. "First of all, don't call me 'Holls'. Second, to answer your question, I was bored."

"And you just happened to decide to try to sneak into my lab because you were bored?" Foaly asked. Holly nodded. "Yep." "Wow. You really are bored." The centaur said in mock awe. Holly slugged him again. "I have a perfectly good reason to be bored, and you very well know that I hate doing paperwork!" "Yes, yes I do. I know perfectly well that Miss Holly Short would rather be flying around on the surface and visiting her boyfriend, Arty Fowl."

Anyone standing down the hall and across the building from Foaly's lab would still be able to hear the centaur's screams and Holly Short's furious yells without even trying to listen. In fact, other LEP officers did. They weren't concerned and just tried to ignore it until it ended several minutes later. By this time, Foaly was well covered in already forming bruises and Holly was panting heavily, having chased the centaur around the small room several times.

"You know something Holly?" Foaly panted, rubbing his nose, shoulders, and backside gingerly. Holly didn't say anything and the centaur just continued. "You should really take up wrestling with Juliet sometime. I'm serious, it could do you some good!" The elf's breathing was back to normal now and she just stared at her friend before bursting into laughter.

Foaly didn't like not knowing what was funny. "What? What is it? What'd I say?" Holly, still laughing, managed to say, "That was probably the smartest thing I have heard you say in the last 10 minutes, Foaly!" She continued laughing as the centaur pouted. His interest, however, was placed in a different place as an incoming call popped up on his plasma screen. The screen displayed that the call was coming from Fowl Manor.

Holly stopped laughing abruptly as she too, noticed the call. She glanced worriedly at Foaly as he moved to the screen, peering at the caller ID. "What do you think is wrong?" She asked. Foaly shook his head. "I don't know. Knowing Artemis, something big probably happened." "Yeah," agreed Holly, "Something big and bad."

Foaly looked down at his keyboard and swiftly answered the call. He spoke into the microphone on the consul. "Hello, Foaly speaking." There was a muffled sound, then centaur and elf heard Butler speak. "Hello Foaly. By any chance is Holly there too?" Foaly glanced sideways at the elf beside him and gestured to the microphone.

Holly swallowed nervously and stepped up. "I'm here with the centaur, big guy." There was a muffled sound again that sounded vaguely like a sigh of relief. "Oh good. I might as well tell you what happened then." Holly's mismatched eyes got wide and both she and Foaly shared a wide-eyed look. "Alllriiight, go ahead." Foaly said nervously.

"You remember when you told me that Artemis's emotions control his powers?" Holly groaned and Foaly clasped a hand to his head. "Oh no, please no…" he muttered. Butler continued, "Well, he may or may not have got a little nervous about being around his parents and siblings. And he may have accidently almost killed his mother by hitting a chandelier and making it fall."

"I'm almost afraid to ask what happened next." moaned Holly, banging her head down on the table in anger and frustration. Butler gave a short, stressed laugh. "I knew you would say something like that Holly." Foaly cleared his throat and said, "Well, I for one would like to know what happened next." Holly could almost hear Butler nod as he continued to talk.

"After the chandelier almost fell on Madame Fowl, Mister Fowl started almost yelling at Artemis. He was angry for that spilt second after almost seeing his wife be killed. Artemis felt overwhelmed I guess, and left. We can't find him anywhere on or near the manor grounds." Foaly nodded. "That sounds about right. He probably doesn't want to be anywhere near the people he cares about after almost killing one of them."

"Mister and Madame Fowl are searching in towns and cities nearby." The centaur shook his head. "Oh, they won't find Artemis there. He'll want to head to the most isolated place right now, the way he's feeling about his powers." Holly stopped banging her head and quickly grabbed to microphone away from Foaly, much to his protest.

"Butler! I'm coming up there to help you guys search! He could be anywhere by now." "Yeah, but Holly? There's one little problem." "What's that?" "When Artemis left, he still couldn't control his ice powers." Next to her, Foaly groaned, muttering something under his breath as he collapsed on the consul table, head in hands.

Holly glanced at him, bewildered, before she asked, "What's wrong up there?" She heard Butler sigh and almost begin to speak, before Foaly interrupted. "It's frozen, isn't it?" "What?" Holly exclaimed. Foaly brought his head up, and his friend could see a frightened look in his brown eyes. Butler let out another breath. "Yes." He said quietly. "Oh d'arvit." muttered Foaly. Holly stared at him, then at the screen displaying Butler's call. "Wait, wait. Butler, are you saying Artemis froze Ireland?" There was a pause, then, "Yes."

"So you mean to tell me it's covered in ice, snow, and more snow this very instant?" Holly asked again. "Yes." "Oh, man, Arty." The elf muttered. "What did you do?" Foaly placed a hand on her shoulder, then said to Butler, "We're coming up to Fowl Manor." "Wait, 'we're' going, Foaly?" Holly said surprised. The centaur nodded. "Just don't drive to recklessly."

Holly saluted stiffly, grinning. "Well, it seems like you'll be having two visitors at Fowl Manor in about 20 minutes." Butler, she could tell, nodded. He asked, "Would you like me to come pick you to up? It's pretty cold out." Holly shivered. Just thinking about all that snow made her cold.

Foaly responded, "Yes, that would great. We'll see you at Tara soon, big guy." "Bye." The call ended after that, and Holly immediately started to the lab door. "I'll meet you here in a few minutes, Foaly. I've got a few things to grab. Oh, could you get the suit ready?" Foaly nodded, and set about his work.

20 minutes later, a centaur and an elf emerged into Ireland's snowy land. Both shivering and wrapped in parkas, gloves, and scarfs, they hurried to a car on the road and slid inside. "Glad you could make it." a deep voice said from the front. "Hey Butler." greeted Holly, teeth still chattering, but smiling nonetheless. The manservant turned back and grinned at both of them before starting the car down the snowy road.

"So you said that Artemis ran away?" asked Foaly, shifting on the seat, trying to get comfortable. Mudman cars were not fun for a centaur to be in. Butler nodded. "Yeah, he went off somewhere after the chandelier incident. At first we thought he was somewhere in the house. But then after we searched and couldn't find him, and Juliet looked outside and it was snowing, we assumed he left."

Foaly grimly nodded. "One thing's for sure," he said, "We've got to find Artemis before something really bad happens." Holly was absolutely sure she didn't want to know what that really bad thing was. If Ireland being covered in ice and snow during the summer was bad, what was really bad?

"Oh Arty." She whispered, staring out the window at the endless white snow. "Where are you?"