A/N: I've reposted this chapter after several people caught a few mistakes that made it really confusing. I corrected them and here's the revised chapter. Other than fixing those few mistakes, it's the same.
They parked outside an old building with boarded up windows and a vertical sign that was probably bright neon red once upon a time. Old movie posters were on the wall behind dirty glass and an old ticket booth sat in the middle. Dust covered the desk and old beat up chair inside the ticket booth. It looked like no one had touched this place for decades. Artemis half expected a decomposing skeleton to be slouched on the chair inside the booth.
"Captain Oak and I will go in," Holly said to Artemis, all of them still inside the van. "You and Butler will wait out here, just in case they slip past us outside." Holly handed Butler a walkie-talkie. "Butler, if one of us calls you, you come in. But not before."
"Got it," Butler said.
Holly opened the van doors and a startled Ettie fell to the pavement. "Ouch," she said, rubbing her back. "Careful there."
"What are you doing here?" Artemis said. "How did you get here?"
"I ran," Ettie said. "I hung on to the back of the van, you dork. How else would I get here?"
Artemis frowned. " 'Dork'...?"
"You hung on to the back of the van?" Holly said.
"Yeah, I said I would help, didn't I?"
Holly groaned, hitting herself in the forehead. "Just...stay outside, okay?" she said. "Stay here with Artemis and don't, whatever you do, do not come inside. It's unsafe for a mud girl like you?"
Ettie crossed her arms. " 'A mud girl like me'?" she said. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Holly didn't answer. She signaled for Chase to follow and they pried away the boards from the entryway. It was completely black inside. A musty smell came from the open doors. "At times like these," Chase said. "I wish that helmet was working."
Without looking back, both officers stepped into the darkness.
The cold black gloom surrounded them like a heavy blanket. The ancient floorboards creaked under their feet. Holly drew her manual dart gun. When the trigger was pulled, it would let loose a band that pushed a compartment forward and a dart would shoot out. It hadn't been used much before, due to it's inconvenience, but it was turning out to be a handy tool now that Foaly's equipment wasn't working.
Holly flicked on the light on her gun. It was still hard to see, but it was better than nothing. They were in a large lobby with a high ceiling. Two staircases, one on each side of the room, lead up to a balcony. Two doorways stood at the top of the stairs, and two more down in the lobby.
Holly turned her light downwards, scanning the ground. After all, they were after a dwarf. A few spiders scurried past, eager to get out of the light, but other than that there was no sign of life.
Chase pointed up at the balcony. A short, stout figure was perched up there. It was as still as a statue. Holly pointed her light up there. The figure seemed to be covered in tattered clothes with a head of bushy hair. It didn't move.
"Paralyzed probably," Holly whispered. "He's scared."
"Then let's put him out of his misery," Chase whispered back.
Holly pulled the trigger, and the figure flopped to the ground in a cloud of dust. Chase climbed the stairs, already unhooking a pair of handcuffs from his belt. He reached the top of the stairs and examined the figure. Something wasn't right. Bobb was splayed out on the floor, in a shape that was almost inhuman, like a pile of laundry. Chase's eyes widened.
"Holly," he said. "We have to get out of here. They're on to us!"
No answer.
"Holly!"
Chase wasted no time with stairs. He leaped over the railing, landing on the floor with a thud. Holly was lying face down on the ground, unconscious.
"Great," Chase muttered. He checked her pulse. Still alive. That was good.
He looked around. He saw nothing but black and heard nothing but his heartbeat. He drew his own dart gun. He didn't notice the dark figure coming up behind him.
Ettie heard a thump coming from inside. She heard Chase shout.
"What's going on in there?" she said. "We've got to help them!"
"No," Artemis said. "Stay out here. Butler will go in."
Ettie barely heard him. She ran inside. Artemis tried to catch her arm, but missed.
The dust was heavy inside the theater. It went up her nose and she had to hold her breath so as not to sneeze. She looked around. Nothing. All black. She wandered ahead and tripped over something, landing on her elbows. She looked and saw Chase sprawled out on the floor.
Ettie heard the whizzing sound of something traveling through air very fast and a loud thump. Butler. Man, Ettie thought. These guys are good.
She crawled over to where she had heard the thump. Butler was on the ground. Four darts in his arm and one in his neck.
So they've taken Captain Short's gun.
She could almost feel the fire in Artemis' scowl burning a hole in her skull. "Well," Artemis said, "I think that was one of the absolute stupidest things anyone could have ever done. Two police officers unconscious, and you decide to run in and save the day. Congratulations, Miss Jeffreys, I think you get the grand prize for the stupidest action ever."
Ettie glared right back up at Artemis, even though she knew he was right. "Maybe we should stop expressing how stupid I am and start trying to get ourselves out of here." She stood, brushing the dust from her knees and walked purposefully toward the door.
"You're not going anywhere," said a voice. The voice was awfully childlike to be saying a sentence like that one.
A tiny little man with green skin and wings was standing in the doorway, holding a gun. A slightly shorter, but stouter, person with a big bushy beard stood next to him. Both were grinning.
Artemis and Ettie started backing away. "Now you've done it, Loretta," Artemis said.
Ettie looked sharply at him. "Done what? What exactly did I do? How is any of this my fault?"
"Well," Artemis said, "for one, you alerted them that we were here by running in like a maniac. Two, you stayed here when you should have just left after seeing Captain Oak unconscious. Three—"
"Okay, okay," Ettie said. "So I'm a bad, disobedient little girl. But what do we do now, Mr. Genius?"
Artemis frowned. He wasn't used to being talked to in such a manner. The only other person who talked to him like that was Holly, and she was a friend. Ettie, however, had only known him for a few days, not including times when they were infants, and was already being disrespectful.
He heard the click of a gun being cocked.
"Run," he said.
And they did.
Artemis ran into one of the theaters and looked around. He didn't get to look long because Ettie bumped into him, sending them both crashing to the ground.
"God, Artemis," she said. "You shouldn't stop so suddenly."
"It's not my fault you're practically blind," Artemis said.
Ettie quickly shut the door and pressed her back up against it, and not a second too soon, for immediately someone on the other side started pounding on the heavy door. Ettie leaned harder against it and said, "A little help here?"
Artemis swallowed and leaned against the door too. It barely made a difference though. Artemis wasn't known for being able to keep doors closed while two armed criminals were pounding on the other side.
"What are we going to do when they get inside?" Ettie said.
"Try to get past them and out of the building," Artemis said. "We'd stand more of a chance out in the open. Dwarves don't like being outside, even if it's dark out, and sprites don't blend in well with humans."
"Why not?"
Artemis raised an eyebrow at her. "How many humans do you know have green skin?"
"Oh."
Suddenly the pounding stopped. It was quiet. All Ettie could hear was their breathing. "What are they doing now?"
Her question was answered, for right then the door fell with a bang. Ettie and Artemis were thrown away from the door and landed on their backsides. The two fairies advanced on them. They tried to scramble away, but the other two were too fast. Before she knew it, the stout, burly man had her by the throat. She felt a cool, hard circle pressed against her head.
"Back away," the burly man told Artemis. Ettie supposed he was Bobb. He was the one that looked more like a dwarf. "You leave, and take the giant and cops with you, or I shoot her."
"Please," Artemis said. "I'll be willing to bargain with you."
"No!" Bobb said. "Leave, and take your sidekicks with you."
Artemis continued. "How about this. I take the girl and my 'sidekicks' and we leave, giving you a three day head start before the LEP tracks you down again. How does that sound?"
Artemis knew the guns weren't "real". He knew what the dart gun looked like, and the darts weren't fatal. But a dart at point blank, he knew, would be more than just painful.
Bobb pretended to think about it. "Hm...Three day head start. Right! What kind of idiot do you take me for?"
Artemis sniggered. "You have no i—"
Unix hit Artemis hard on the head with the butt of his gun. Artemis slumped the floor.
Ettie gasped. She decided to take a chance. She rammed her elbow into Bobb's belly and he fell back.
She got to her feet and ran. There was a door below the stairs. It was open. She rushed in. Even in the dim lighting, she could see that she had run into a bathroom. Even if she hadn't been able to make out the stalls and sinks, she would have been able to tell from the smell. Gross, she thought. Even after a decade the smell never goes away.
She crouched behind the door, hiding in the shadows. She held her breath. She was there for what seemed like a century, but could have been no more than ten seconds. She heard footsteps on the other side of the door and saw a light on the ground.
Someone walked in. Whoever it was shone the light in the stalls, under the sinks, but finally thought to look behind the door.
Damn, Ettie thought.
When the light hit her, the person on the other side gave a small cry of surprise. This gave Ettie the opening she needed. She darted into a stall. Looking around for something to use as a weapon, her eyes rested upon the toilet lid. It had broken off and was now just lying on top of the seat.
She picked it up and held it in front of her like a shield.
The fairy found her quickly, but had no time to realize it, because Ettie hit him over the head with the toilet lid. He crumpled to the floor, unconscious.
Ettie smiled, satisfied. She took the dart gun from his hand and shot him in the arm with it. A tad unnecessarily, but she couldn't take any chances.
She left the bathroom on tiptoes, holding the toilet lid shied up to protect herself and keeping the dart gun up and ready. Better find the dwarf, she thought. Save Captain Short the trouble, get a medal, probably get myself killed.
There were two theaters on the ground floor. She decided to try those first.
In its day, this theater had been one of the largest in the city, with four theaters, all considerably big. Most theaters could only play one or two movies at a time, but this one had four going, twenty-four/seven. Tickets had been cheap, and it was very successful for a long time. But then other theaters got jealous. They forced this one to close down and it had been boarded up ever since.
Ettie crept into the nearest theater. The seats were worn down and torn and where there was once a screen, there was now just an empty wall. She heard a rustling.
Shining the light in that direction, she saw what looked like a pile of hair. "Oh, gross," she said. And fired two darts at it. It missed both times, but now the "it" knew she was there. He turned around and Ettie came face to face with a mouthful of tombstone-like teeth. She fired several more times, but they all missed.
The gun made a click when she pulled the trigger again. "Wonderful," Ettie said. "Out of darts."
The dwarf was coming closer, knowing Ettie wouldn't be able to hold him off long without a weapon. Ettie threw the gun at him. It flew past three feet above his head. The dwarf kept on coming.
She backed away, but her back hit a wall. She was cornered. She felt the wall for anything that might help her, but there was nothing. All plaster and a small hole, no bigger than her fist, filled with dirt.
Ettie turned to run but then remembered something. She looked down at the toilet lid she held in her hand. She shifted her hold on it and tossed it like a Frisbee. It hit Bobb right in the stomach. He let out all his air and crashed into a seat. Ettie rushed forward and picked up the toilet lid.
Bobb's eyelids fluttered open, but quickly closed again when Ettie hit him over the head.
Something fell out of his pocket and onto the floor. Ettie picked it up and turned it over and over in her hand. Ettie jumped when she heard a voice behind her.
"Impressive, mud girl," Captain Short said. "Was that just luck, did you mean to knock both convicts out with a toilet lid?"
"Wasn't that the plan?" Ettie said. "I thought it said very clearly on the blueprints 'incapacitate both convicts with toilet lid.'"
"Might as well have," Holly said. "It worked. Nice job hitting Bobb in the stomach like that. Knocked the wind right out of him."
Ettie shrugged. "No big deal. It was a big target."
"May I congratulate you too?" said a voice from the door. "Good job knocking out my buddy. But can you do the same to me?"
Unix stood in the doorway, legs spread and a smug smile on his green face. There was already a bump forming on his head. Ettie sighed. Wouldn't these guys ever give up?
Holly reached to her belt for her gun, but her fist grasped nothing but air.
"Looking for your gun?" Unix said. "I'd give it to you, but the mud girl here already took it from me. And seeing that she doesn't have it anymore, I'm guessing it ran out of darts."
"Why don't you tell us your whole evil plan like a good criminal," Holly said. "So we can use it against you and arrest both of you."
The sprite laughed. "That's just what you'd want me to do, huh?" He took a small pen knife out of his pocket. "You wish."
Holly was quiet, thinking. If she shielded, she could sneak up behind him and knock him out, using Ettie as a distraction. Of course, she wouldn't wait long enough for the mud girl to get hurt. Holly tried to shield, she really did, but she couldn't.
"D'Arvit, Ettie!" she said. "If you had given me that acorn when you were supposed to we might not have been in this situation."
"Take it then," Ettie said, holding it out to her. "I had it in my pocket. Take it."
"It's too late now," Holly said. "It's no use. There's no dirt around for me to bury it in. Nice going, mud girl. You've doomed us all."
"No I haven't," Ettie said. "There's a community garden behind the theater and a small hole in the plaster near the far right corner of this room. You could bury it there. I'm sure it's big enough."
Without answering, Holly activated her wings and flew back.
"Hey!" Unix said. "Come back here! You too scared?"
Holly felt the wall, searching for the hole. Nothing...just plaster. "D'Arvit," she said, and pulled back her fist, punching the plaster hard. It did as she had intended. A crack appeared. Holly tore at it with her fingers until it came away in a sheet the size of her head.
The dirt was soft and moist, recently watered. A small pink earthworm poked his innocent little head out of the dirt. Seeing the fairy, he quickly retreated.
Holly fumbled for the acorn. She dug a small hole in the dirt and put the acorn inside, layering it with earth again. "I return you to the earth," she said hurriedly, out of breath, "and claim the gift that is my right."
The magic sped up her arms and entered her skin. She clentched her teeth and waited for the magic to hold still.
Ettie turned her gaze back to the sprite. He was smiling, holding the knife in his hand. "Okay, fairy," she said. "This is strictly between you and me. I'm the one who hit you on the head with a toilet seat."
"Yes, you're a funny human aren't you?" Unix said. He took three steps forward. "I doubt you'll be feeling like passing a humorous remark after this blade is in your stomach."
"Ew," Ettie said, making a face. "That's just gross. Please. That kind of thing belongs in the movies."
Unix shrugged. "We are in a theater."
Ettie backed up more. Now that she was empty handed, she had nothing to hit him with. To knock him out or something.
"But I'm not going to kill you just yet," the sprite said. "A hostage would always come in handy."
If it were any other situation, Ettie would have felt scared. But coming from someone more than two and a half feet shorter than her, it just seemed like a joke.
It took a while to drag both criminals and Butler into the van. Especially since Chase was still pretty dizzy and could barely stand. Ettie sat down in the van, out of breath. "It was a lot more work to drag Butler in here than it was to knock out Bobb and Unix," Ettie said.
"Captain, you okay?" Holly said.
Chase nodded. "I'm fine," he said, but his eyes were still rolling and he held his head.
Ettie brought out what she had taken from Bobb. "Look at this," she said. "Any idea what it is?"
Holly peered down at the little device in Lauryn's hand. It was about the size of a second generation iPod Nano and it was covered with little buttons and switches and three tiny screens.
She took it from Ettie and looked it over closely. "Where did you get this?"
"It fell out of Bobb's pocket."
"Artemis, you know what this is?" Holly said, holding it out to Artemis. He gasped a little.
"What?" Holly said. "You okay?"
"Yes," Artemis said. "I'm fine."
He looked at it closely. He flicked the large button in the center. The four of them held their breaths.
Nothing happened.
After a few moments Ettie spoke up. "It didn't do anything."
"I don't get it," Holly said.
Artemis flicked it back so the orange side was up. Something buzzed in Holly's pocket. She took out her communicator. Foaly's face appeared on the screen.
"Hey, Holly!" he said. "I've been trying to get ahold of you forever!"
"What is it?"
"My stuff is working," Foaly said. "Duh. How else would I be talking to you? They turned on." He snapped his fingers. "Just like that."
Holly looked thoughtful for a moment. "Artemis," she said at last. "Flick the switch again." He did so, and the screen was reduced to static. "Do it again." When he did, the screen turned on again.
"Holly!" Foaly said. "What just happened?"
She smiled. "I think, Foaly, we've just found the answer to our problem."
A/N: Keep watching for next chapter! You all know the drill. Do I have to repeat it?
-(editor-less) Demented Cookies
(Teresa! I need you to revise my chapters!!! You wouldn't mind?)
