Chapter 23: Looking for Trouble

Haven City

'Idiots!' Hani yelled, releasing a few shots at the goblins further down the street. 'Get lost, you idiots!'

Fairies cowered behind her, with Laurel and Rook attending to them, giving them shots of healing sparks and overseeing minor injuries. Rook tossed his gun over to Hani, keeping his hands free to heal several of the fairies who had been hurt by the fireballs from the goblins. Laurel was trying to console the children among them, who were crying in fear and pain.

'I need the back-up,' said Hani, running swiftly down the street after the goblins. 'Iris?'

'Stay where you are,' Iris replied hurriedly. 'Stay with Rook and Laurel, Hani. Please. Bloom's coming up –'

'They threw fireballs at kids!' Hani said, skidding down the next junction. 'Laurel's out of magic, Rook doesn't have much left.'

'What happened to the healing packs?'

'Out, all out. We met so many on the way – all hurt by explosives.' Hani choked down a sob and turned the next corner, her quarry still ahead of her. 'I'm going to kill those bastards. Where's the damn LEP?'

'Stay where you are, Hani,' said Iris. 'Frond, don't go after them on your own!'

'Hani, stop it.' It was Bloom's gravelly voice. 'I'm sending others after those goblins.'

'I still have the guns – '

'Stay where you are. That's an order.'

'Bloom – '

'Hani!' Iris screamed down the earpiece. 'Stop!'

The pixie came to a halt, falling to her hands and knees. But it wasn't because of Iris or Bloom – she had turned the corner and came face-to-face with a band of LEP officers. They had their weapons with them – Cahartez had authorized weapons to be returned to all officers – and they were staring at her.

'Back away,' said Bloom in her earpiece. 'Put down your weapons and back away. That's it.'

Hani put both guns down on the road and stood up slowly, hands raised palms up. The officers watched her without moving, without lowering their weapons. She shuffled backwards, hoping that none of the officers would try to take a shot at her. That was the difficult part about going against the LEP this time – you didn't know if they were on your side or not. Earlier efforts to rescue civilians had thrown the vigilantes against LEP officers who were doing the same themselves, and arguments had arisen when both sides had accused the other for causing the mayhem and casualties.

One officer came towards her, his gun still raised. She kept going back, hoping she wouldn't trip over her own feet. He reached out and grasped her arm. He raised the visor of her helmet, meeting her terrified eyes.

'Going somewhere?' he said, towing her over to the rest of the group.

She dug in her heels, pulling back her arm roughly. Then she was sprinting down the way she had come by, hearing the sound of feet hitting tarmac behind her. The officers were closing in on her.

'Hani, listen carefully,' said Iris, struggling to keep her voice calm. 'Bloom wants you to take the next corner – head for Police Plaza.'

'It's suicide!' Hani vaulted the low wall and came down in a narrow alley. She knew this place well, having done stakeout here when she wasn't busy selling desserts and watching Holly at the same time.

'Yes, there,' said Iris. 'Get there and head straight for Trouble Kelp's office. Or the Ops Booth, although you have to be really careful on that, because we know how paranoid Foaly can be, and it'll be silly for you to be killed when you've been so far –'

'You're blabbering,' said Hani, cutting off Iris's near hysterical chatter as she ran through the open door of an empty shop. The windows had been smashed recently, judging by the glass on the road and inside the shop. The shelves looked as though looters or thieves had ransacked them. But she knew that LEP officers had done this, having seen them herself.

What a mad world this is, she thought, leaping over the wall into someone's backyard. And I thought this was better than selling cendol.

'Have you lost them?' said Iris shakily. She had never encountered anything like this before – the previous confrontations the vigilantes had with the LEP officers paled in comparison with the events she was witnessing on the monitors from the safety of Ys Street. With weapons restored to the officers, the officers on Cahartez's side were going all out to follow their orders. It seemed that the news that Trouble Kelp had arrested their leader hadn't reached them yet.

'I think so,' said Hani. She landed lightly on the back road leading to Police Plaza, her legs aching with the run. 'Trouble Kelp.'

'What?' said Iris, giggling nervously. 'Still need back-up?'

Hani's reply stayed unspoken. Half the officers had caught up with her, their guns trained on her. She edged towards one of the back doors of Police Plaza, her breath catching in her throat. So close, so close…

The door swung open, knocking her on the shoulder. She jumped back, waiting for the shot to come from behind the door.

It was Grub Kelp, Trouble's little brother. He rubbed his eyes blearily and stared at her. 'What are you doing here?' he said. And then he saw the other officers.

'Are you trying to shoot me?' he said indignantly. 'What the D'Arvit do you think you're doing?'

'What?' said Hani in confusion.

'You're trying to shoot me, aren't you?' said Grub, raising his own gun. 'Yeah?'

'Yeah.' Hani edged nearer to him, watching the other officers out of the corner of her eye. They were moving closer, but warily this time.

'I knew it – '

Grub Kelp never got the chance to finish that sentence, because Hani tackled him and wrenched the Neutrino out of his hand. She pulled him into Police Plaza with her and slammed the door.

'Oh my Frond,' Iris breathed. 'You could've been killed, you idiot.'

'Shut up,' said Hani, dragging Grub up the passage with her. She kicked the buzz baton out of Grub's hand and pushed him against the wall. 'Take me to your brother. Commander Kelp. I need to see him.'

'Are you going to kill me?' Grub quavered, staring at the crazy pixie pinning him to the wall.

'No,' she laughed, releasing him. 'Come on.'

She heard the blasts from outside, and the voices of officers as they broke down the door she had slammed in their faces.

'Take me to your brother,' she whispered, pulling him by the collar up the passage to the main part of the building.

'Oh my Frond,' said Iris again. But Hani wasn't listening to her.

Operations Booth

'Kelp?' Foaly shook the commander by the shoulder, rousing the elf out of a deep sleep.

'Whark?' Trouble opened his eyes and raised his head a few inches off the table. 'What?' he said, sitting up. There was a blinder of a headache coming on – he needed coffee. Lots of it. Enough to drive a pixie completely insane with caffeine. But there was no coffee in sight.

'Coffee,' said Foaly, shoving a full cup into Trouble's hand. 'Vigilante. Outside. Grub.'

Trouble gulped down half the cup before his eyes focused on the spectacle outside the window of the Ops Booth. There was a pixie in some grey uniform outside, holding Grub hostage. Trouble groaned and finished the coffee.

'Said she wants to speak to you.' Foaly hiding a snigger behind his hand as Trouble staggered out of his seat. 'Poor Grub.'

'He's my brother, pony,' said Trouble, knocking the tin-foil hat off the centaur's head. 'Let me out.'

Foaly buzzed the door open and picked up the hat, muttering darkly under his breath.

'Yes?' Trouble looked from his little brother to the pixie. Amazing. And she was half a head shorter than him. Grub would be ironing his shirts for the next ten years or so.

'We need you to order all LEP weapons to be disabled,' said the pixie. 'We know about –'

'We?'

'We've been helping the LEP against rogue officers. We know you arrested Cahartez.'

'All right, go on,' said Trouble.

'Now with all weapons returned to the officers, they're doing what they like out there, those who're working for Cahartez. They haven't heard about the arrest yet, I think. But they're working with the goblins. And it's not good.'

'So you want me to tell the officers to put down the weapons and go about their business unarmed? While you and those with illegal weapons run around with your own?'

The pixie hesitated. 'It's better than having all of them shoot at civilians. And the explosives are injuring so many people, Commander.'

'I don't have the authority,' said Trouble slowly. 'Although I see what you mean. But that's not the best way.'

'Maybe Vinyáya can help?' The pixie held out her phone to Trouble. 'I can get her on the line.'

'Vinyáya's in on this?' Trouble stared from the pixie, and back to Grub. Grub's incredulous look mirrored his own.

'Go on, Trubs,' said Grub, twisting in the pixie's hold. 'She's going to break my neck. Ow. I think I sprained it already.'

'You can't sprain your neck,' the pixie snapped. 'And stop whining.' She let him go and gave him a push in the commander's direction. 'Are you sure you're Retrieval?'

'Yes!' Grub rubbed his neck and pouted. 'Hurry up, Trubs.'

'Don't call me Trubs,' said Trouble, raising the phone to his ear. 'Wing Commander Vinyáya?'

'Hello, Trouble.' It was Vinyáya, her voice calm despite the noise Trouble could hear in the background. Voices. People.

'Where were you at the meeting?'

'I was…busy. Listen to me, Trouble. I want you to get one of the spokespeople to announce the news of Cahartez's arrests. Call up the TV stations if you can. Publicity, we need publicity. It should scare the officers who are working for him.'

'It might just backfire,' he said.

'You've got to do it, Kelp,' said Foaly, speaking in his other ear. 'Holly just arrested Opal Koboi, but we don't know what else Koboi's planned.'

'Koboi? What does she have to do with this?'

'Everything, Trouble. She helped Cahartez to plan it.'

Trouble mulled over Vinyáya's words for a few seconds or so. With Koboi involved in this, things could turn ugly very soon. 'All right, I'll do it. Call up the TV stations, Foaly. I need to speak with those clowns.'

'Anything,' said Hani, 'as long as it makes things better.'

Ys Street

Iris was sobbing, hiding under the table with a full pot of coffee with her. Artemis could only sit and watch her cry her eyes out from the monitors, where he was helping to supervise the group's movements across Haven City.

'I didn't think it'd be that bad,' she was saying, hiccupping slightly as she poured more coffee. 'I didn't think it'd be that bloody. And when Hani ran in there, I thought she'd be dead for sure – ' Iris put down the cup and covered her face with her hands, her shoulders shaking with fresh sobs.

'I thought you were in the Academy,' said Artemis, his fingers busily at work on the keyboard.

'I dropped out because – don't tell anyone – I couldn't stand the blood!' Iris lay down on her side and wept with the utter futility of her past. 'I thought this was something I could do for fun, you know, like Batman or something. But it's all gone wrong.'

'Rook's out,' Artemis announced. One by one, the group's members were running out of magic. LEP medics and warlocks were doing all they could to help the injured, but in the confusion and panic, there was bound to be a few fairies who were missed or who didn't know where to go.

'And that's another thing,' said Iris, choking on her sobs. 'I should have sent them to complete the Ritual before all this happened – I'm so stupid –'

'Don't blame yourself for this,' said Artemis. He left the computers and came to sit on the floor beside her. 'You've been doing a good job so far.'

Iris gave a sniff and sat up, her face blotchy and wet with tears. 'I can't believe you're talking to me like that.'

'What?'

'You're actually being nice.'

Artemis shrugged. 'They need you, and you're the only one who knows the systems fully. You need to stop crying to help them. So I'm helping you to.'

Iris's mouth fell open. 'You actually mean that.'

'Yes.'

'You heartless Mud Boy!' She pushed him away and marched over to the computers. 'Stay away from me and my computers, okay? Get out!'

Artemis shook his head in amusement. Women.