In Haven

Foaly was sitting in the operations booth, playing around with his latest invention. It was a machine to help the LEP officers when they were out on jobs, a multitasking device. Having already written up the plans for it he had begun playing around to see if it would really work, but as of yet it had no-name.

This was how Holly found him, sitting in the ops booth playing with screwdrivers and a small gadget, muttering something to himself about multi-power or something similar.

"BOO"………… Foaly nearly fell off his chair and there was a lot of banging as screwdrivers flew everywhere and the gadget fell of the desk. "Holly! Don't you ever do that to me again, I could have broken my newest invention"

Suddenly the room went quiet and cold. Slowly turning Foaly began to feel that something wasn't quite right in the room. Why wasn't Holly laughing at him? Foaly also hated to be cold, so it was very unusual that his booth would be at such a low temperature. The supercomputer would have alerted him if there was an error in the heating system. A shadow then fell over Foaly; this he was definitely not used to, being surrounded by short fairies most of the time. And a sound of movement that sounded like Holly drawing a weapon. The dread began to set in as he looked up to see what was creating the large ominous shadow. A loud battle cry escaped Holly as she tried to prevent the unfolding scene from happening. The next thing Foaly knew was darkness as someone struck him over the head with something that felt like a hammer and all the noise stopped.

Opening his eyes all Foaly could see was a large empty room, with a tall beautiful human woman standing in the middle leaning over what appeared to be a large pot hanging over an open fire. Not noticing that Foaly had awoken, she carried on muttering some strange language that Foaly had never heard before, and as he didn't wear a translator unless it was absolutely necessary, he would have to continue not knowing what she was saying.

"Necto itaque subnecto iuxta itaque signum confuto nunquam deruptus" The same phrase repeated over and over again completed with a dance that Foaly found hard to take his eyes from. After this small show he felt weak unlike anything he had ever felt before it was an almost bone weary tiredness and lethargy, he tried to call out for help but found he couldn't utter a single word or sound. In a last effort he made a move to stand but once again all went black.

Holly ran and ran until she found Root and stammered everything she had seen in the ops booth. "Iscaredfoalyandmadehimdropeverythingandididntmeantobutthenaprettyhumanladyappearedhithimovertheheadandvanishedwithhimitrietostopherbutshedisappearedtoofastwhatarewegoingtodo?" Root not understanding a word she had babbled at him shouted some orders, and in no time they were both seated with a warm glass of sludge to calm the nerves.

"Now explain s l o w l y so I understand what you are trying to tell me."

After explaining again, more slowly this time what had happened, the colour slowly drained from Root's face making him turn a very horrible shade of pale green making him nearly unrecognisable. Without Foaly's technical know how Haven would become a mess in a small number of days.

Then uttered one sentence

"We need Artemis Fowl!"

Back at Damon's School for Gifted and Talented Children

"Holly! What are you doing here?" asked Artemis looking truly shocked. "How did you get in?" Holly being the short-tempered fairy she always was (no pun intended) snapped back.

"Looking for you, I thought you were a genius? Getting in was easy no-one locks doors in this place"

"Yes but what about the fairy law of needing to be invited in?"

"Oh that one is easy the door mat outside the front door says "Welcome, come inside!" on it and obviously it's enough of an invite for the fairy magic to accept."

Beginning to explain the situation Haven had suddenly found themselves in and getting more upset by the minute Holly, even with her fairy senses didn't notice when someone crept through the door, and hid in the blind spot of Artemis and Holly's view line. Artemis obviously hadn't noticed either, whilst trying to calm Holly down and his genius brain already thinking about ways to fix Haven's problem.

Nearing the end of her sorry tale Holly say on Artemis' bed, at the exact moment she made contact with the sheets on the bed, a violent sneeze erupted.

Shielding, Holly jumped off the bed while Artemis went in search of the person, to whom the sneeze belonged to. It didn't take him long to find me, Phoenix, hiding in the shadows. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE!" he shouted with an uncharacteristic anger.

"Ummmm would you believe me if I said I was looking for some socks?" I said with an angelic face.

"No I would not, how long have you been there? What did you see?" Artemis' voice was tight with anger. In the past six months I had never seen him this angry before, he almost had some colour in his cheeks, this was serious, and so I decided to tell him the truth.

"I don't know how long I have been there but I heard and saw everything" she answered with an almost hidden hint of fear in her voice. Sighing Artemis turned to where he could see the faint shimmer of the now shielded Holly and told her to come down but not show herself. At this point I began to look confused I thought that the girl sitting on Artemis' bed had just hidden to avoid being caught in the boy's dormitory. When now I look back on it Holly had shielded at the exact moment my eyes were closed in a sneeze. I looked back at Artemis who merely said "Breathe a word to anyone and you will wish you had never met Artemis Fowl II"

Nodding furiously my eyes opened in surprise as Holly materialised in front of my eyes.

"Everyone sit."

The stress filled sharp voice of Artemis sounded. Both of us did as he asked and sat on the bed (we both knew what he was capable of under stress) but then it was Artemis' turn to look shocked as I declared "Hey Artemis isn't this the girl you described from your dreams?" Artemis' usually pale face lost any colour he had gained from the last few minutes of stress. Holly's mouth had dropped open and her eyes were wide with disbelief and Artemis said abruptly "NO", but the swiftness of this one spoken word proved otherwise to both of us. I couldn't hide my smug grin at finally having worked out who the mysterious dream girl was; well that was one mystery down.

"Did you really dream about me?"

The disbelief still on Holly's face

"Maybe, maybe not its none of your business"

"I disagree; if you were having dreams about me then it has got to do with me hasn't it? Why were you dreaming about me?"

Artemis didn't no how to answer the question and was surprised when he looked into Holly's eyes and saw a deep; well hidden, look of longing, but he instantly shook it off as him being mistaken, but when was he ever wrong? This was getting too confusing for Artemis and he ran as fast as he could (which wasn't fast enough) to the first place he could think of that would calm his nerves. Half an hour later Holly and myself with Holly shielded of course found him sitting in the darkest corner of the library researching something in Latin. He looked like he had been crying but was hiding it well and acted like nothing had happened when we found him. I pulled him to his feet, pulled the book out of his hands and dragged him back to his dorm so Holly could talk to him while everyone was still busy elsewhere.

Having got back without incident, Holly re-appeared and just smiled at Artemis before returning to the subject of the predicament back in Haven.

"As I already explained Artemis, Foaly has been kidnapped and we have no way of getting him back, we don't know where he was taken but we think we know who it was that took him. Also no-one else knows how to use Foaly's technology so pretty soon, if you don't help us we will have Haven in a lockdown and thousands of fairies will be without power and so will the LEP. Crime and destruction will rise and we won't be able to stop it."

My mouth at this point had fallen to the floor at what I was hearing; and I was even more shocked that Artemis didn't even look worried at what Holly had been saying. There were so many questions I wanted to ask, what was Haven? Nobody had even told me who Holly was. All I knew was that she could fly and make herself invisible, guessing from Holly's ears she must be a fairy of some sort. The more I thought about it the more crazy it sounded, but it must be true I could see it with my own two eyes. "Ouch" nope I'm defiantly not dreaming and hearing my outcry of pain as I pinched myself Artemis and Holly turned their attention back to me.

"What happened?"

"I just pinched myself that's all, to see if I was dreaming or not"

"Oh ok, well I think its time we explain to you what's happening and why Holly is here. I assume we have permission to tell you?"

Artemis turned for Holly's confirmation; she nodded her head slowly letting herself calm down. She was wound like a spring, but Artemis could always get them out of a tight spot especially if Butler was there to help. Realising she hadn't heard a word of what Artemis was saying she snapped out of her memories to hear Artemis saying

"When we tell you the truth you must promise that after we have told you, you will not tell a soul and that you will try to just accept it or we may have to do something which we will later regret. Can you promise?"

I gulped wondering what they would do to me if I broke this promise, but I was curious as to what was happening, Artemis knew this Holly girl and pretty well by the looks of things, this might even be some fun, whatever this was.

"I promise"

"Well where do we begin? Introductions, I suppose would be a good start. This is Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon unit in Lower Haven, she is obviously a fairy. Haven is situated underground where all of the fairy creatures live. Recently an evil human enchantress that goes by the name of Callista re-appeared in Haven, it has been her dream for a long time to have complete control of the fairy world. Until now she hasn't been seen for over 4000 years, the fairies no longer believed her to be a threat as they guessed she was dead. Obviously they were mistaken, she must have found some extreme power to be human and have lived for so long, well she has just struck Haven a mighty blow by kidnapping their technical genius Foaly, who is a centaur, all of Haven runs from his supercomputer and all the weaponry the LEP force use are run by this. You may think that this is no big problem they just have to find another centaur right?"

At this point I nodded her head not quite sure where this story was going, Artemis continued explaining whilst softly pacing back and forth in his Armani loafers. Holly sat on the bed nodding her head in agreement to what he was saying.

"Well you see, centaurs are very rare creatures, they don't all have the abilities that Foaly possesses. Also Foaly is very paranoid about security as a long time rival caused chaos not so long ago by accessing all of his systems from the inside but that's another story, Foaly was already a very paranoid centaur and after this incident it appears he has tightened his security measures." Artemis was beginning to tire and he wanted to think of a plan so he gestured that Holly continue the explanation.

"That's where Artemis comes in, he is the only person, known to the fairies, that has discovered our civilisation without aid and got past an LEP bio-bomb, he is the only person who can break Foaly's security and gain access into the supercomputer, we also need someone who can come up with a plan to help us recover our fallen friend. I have just received permission to take you with us. Would you agree to accompany Artemis on this trip underground?"

I only had to consider this for a moment before nodding my head in agreement. My only doubt however,

"Won't they miss us here at school?"

"It's the Easter break tomorrow remember! Well that makes it easier for us we don't have to arrange any Mesmers or anything!"

I didn't even want to ask what a Mesmer was it sounded scary enough for me not to want to know any more.

So that night the two of us packed up all of our belongings and at midnight Holly returned to each of our dormitory's and covered us in a sheet of cam foil and clipped us both to her moon belt. Me, squealing with delight and Artemis huffing about being tied to this 'annoying belt' again

Of we flew through the night sky to Fowl Manor, Artemis had said as we left,

"We can't leave Butler behind we may be in need of his knowledge or skills."

"Who is this Butler person, is he err your butler?"

I know it sounded stupid but I had to know

With a little snort of indignation Artemis replied.

"No, he is not my butler, his name is Butler and he is my bodyguard, except I wasn't allowed to bring him to Damon's with me so he stayed back at the manor to protect my mother and father."

Well that solved another mystery if Artemis had gone on adventures like this before with Holly but with a bodyguard at his shoulder no wonder he was looking around when in wide open spaces he must have felt pretty vulnerable.

After a slight detour the four of us were soon on a LEP shuttle hurtling towards the middle of the earth.

The journey awed me to silence as the shuttle flew through the earth towards Haven. Not a single sound came out of my mouth for the whole journey. I think Artemis was finding it hard to suppress a chuckle at my silence; as most of the time people have a hard job of shutting me up. When we reached the Haven shuttle port there was a reception party waiting for us made up of (or so I was told) Commander Root, LEP officer Trouble and LEP officer Chix Verbil, all of them here to welcome us to Haven. Artemis greeted Root with a respectful nod of the head and shook his hand

"Nice to see you again Commander"

Then it was Butler's turn, he shook Root's hand in greeting and promptly began to check the area for danger. Not everyone in Haven liked Artemis, even if he had made his peace with the LEP.

Updated 13/12/07 Hmm I decided that having chapter 2 and 3 separate was silly as chapter 2 was so short so I have joined them together reviews earn cookies…….