A/N: Hey, faithful followers! . . . oh right, I lost those by not updating for a year . . . Hey remaining Followers! I know its been a long time since I've updated this fic, I've been going through . . . a lot . . . between being suspended from my university and the long process of being readmitted, poor grades, suspected ADHD, high levels of stress, a new job, and several other factors, writing has had to take a back seat. I didn't forget though, I always remembered to write down ideas and have been outlining the story to come for the last year I've been silent.
I've also realized I said there wouldn't be a long wait before this chapter.
Most importantly, one more dark cloud has hung over my head recently. Monty Oum, animator and creator of one of my favourite shows of all time, RWBY, passed away a few days before this update, as I'm sure any of you who remotely know who he is already have heard. His friend and boss, "Burnie" Burns, has asked that instead of mourning and lamenting his loss, that his fans and supporters should go out and do something creative, as Monty would have, and as he would want us to do. So I have spent the last few days rekindling old projects. The biggest of these has been my writing. So, after much waiting, procrastinating, and forgetting, I have finally updated AF and the Necromancer.
So sit back, watch the show, share the popcorn.
Butler sank into a nearby chair, sleep and artificial age catching up to him.
"Explain this . . . cuff gun, again?" He said settling in to absorb as much tactical information as he could.
"It's an experiment Foaly and I have been working on," Artemis explained, taking a seat as well, Holly jumping to sit next to him, "An addition to Neutrino rifles, about the size of a masterkey shotgun, that fires a specialized mag-cuff, a simpler version of the ones Holly and I were bound with in the eleven wonders incident." He shuddered, remembering the smell of dust and trolls. "The cuff is designed for fleeing or evasive targets. In order to charge the cuffs and their collapsed technology, the rifle can only fire stun shots, which slow the target enough to attach a cuff to the wrist or ankle. Another cuff can then be shot onto any receptive target, an object, an officer, another suspect, you get the gist, and the two are electromagnetically linked, allowing for containment without having to get up close and personal."
"Foaly abandoned the project because the power drain meant you could only get a few shots off," Holly added, matter of factly, "And it takes a crack shot to hit with the cuffs. Overall, without a mounted battery on your back, you'd be lucky to take down one person, and you'd be left unarmed."
Butler rubbed the bridge of his nose as he though, a habit he picked up from his young charge. Tonight was becoming far to exciting for his tastes. He was capable in a combat situation, but he was hoping that his first time seeing Artemis was going to have more fireside chats and catching up than firefights and catching perps.
Crisis averted, the trio returned to bed, Butler stopping to tune the motion and camera sensors to the highest sensitivity from the security console in his room. He was tired of not having any forewarning of fairy attacks.
The next day came quickly, with Holly and Artemis rising early to make the most of their time with the Fowls. He was surprised to find the twins up, as he was certain Myles at least would follow in his footsteps as being a slow riser. They were wizzing around the kitchen, preparing themselves a balanced, albeit sugary breakfast. Butler had apparently trained them in cooking better than he had Artemis, as within minutes they had mounds of french toast, fruit, and eggs before them, with glasses of juice of a size to match.
"You two are certainly packing it in," Artemis noted, stealing a piece of apple from Beckett's plate, "Afraid Juliet and Butler won't feed you on your trip?"
"Of course they won't," Myles said, between bites of toast, "They expect us to feed ourselves. Being children, we thought it best if we had a store of calories before the trip just in case."
"Of course, Tomorrow we go light, to make sure we don't get used to an abundance of food handy." Beckett added, stealing his apple back from Artemis, who had it halfway to his mouth.
The rest of the morning passed in a blur, with Angeline and Arty Sr. joining the gang after a few minutes. Meals were had and greetings were exchanged, and after eating Arty Sr. regrettably had to retreat to his study to untangle a recent business problem. As the problem involved the donations for Angeline's newest environmentalist organization, she went with him, suggesting Artemis and Holly take the time to go for a ride.
Artemis led her to the stables, where he had a joyful reunion with his horse, Acorn, who seemed to have missed her absent master. He then outfitted Myles' pony, Napoleon, for Holly to ride, as she had little experience and Beckett's horse, Wellington, liked to challenge his rider.
They sedately explored the grounds, Artemis giving Holly the tour she had never had the time for. He showed her the orchards, once decorative, but now in full production mode to help deal with the backlash of Opal's havoc on the world's infrastructures. There were also pastures and meadows now tilled under for use as farmland by local growers, the extra space helping to feed the nearby city of Dublin, though fewer and fewer plots were being utilized, as the area recovered. He also lead her past old landmarks, such as the grove where Mulch first gained access to the manor, and the rose garden now growing from the spot of his ressurection.
Eventually though, they decided to return to the house, Holly deciding that the bouncy, jolting mode of transportation was most certainly not for her. She liked smooth, enertially-dampened shuttles. Shortly after returning, they received a call from Foaly.
"Watch this." Artemis said, gesturing to his ring. Rather than twisting it to the inside of his hand, as usual, he pressed two disguised studs on either side, causing the stone to glow, before a hologram of Foaly was projected before them, chair and all. "To what do we owe the pleasure?" He asked cordially.
"Oh, just thought I'd say hi, see how the surface is." Foaly said, sarcastically, "Oh, and talk about the fact that you two were attacked last night, using technology that I abandoned, not to mention classified!" He finished his short rant, breathing heavily.
Continuing to prod the centaur, Artemis responded casually. "The surface is nice, family's happy to see me, the twins are doing well. Oh yeah, and I've got one of the gun's cuffs and scans of its blast signature. I can send them along now." He pulled out his phone, and after a few taps it beeped, followed by a corresponding beep on Foaly's side a moment later.
"Oh," the centaur said, looking out of the hologram's view field at the data no doubt streaming across his monitors, "Well that's better. I'm still trying to track down how someone managed to get access to military hardware and get to the surface without my knowing about it until your sensors picked up the gunfire last night."
"If you had access to his sensors last night, why did you wait until now to contact us?" Holly asked, cocking her head.
"I was, erm, busy, last night." Foaly said, suddenly sheepish. "Cabbaline and I were . . . otherwise engaged."
Artemis grinned and turned to Holly. "Clearly effecting his work, I think he should go back to involuntary celibacy." Holly elbowed him, but there was little force behind it, and she was grinning.
"Coming from the elves who were late three times in the last week," Foaly said, taking the bait, "Despite that fact that on one of those occasions, surveillance shows you both in Holly's office several minutes before your shifts started."
Holly turned bright red while Artemis grinned. "I thought you disabled the hall cameras!" She said in a harsh whisper.
"Oh he did," Foaly said, "But Grub was making me run diagnostics on his helmet cam most of the morning, said it was making a buzzing noise that gave him a headache. His footage shows a giggling major and a grinning mud man entering your office."
Holly through a nearby pen through the hologram, causing it to shimmer and Foaly to whinny in amusement. Artemis quickly changed the subject before she decided to fly back to Haven to try again.
"That's all the data I have on the attack, I'll go through it again when we get back and we can analyze the cuff. Talk to you soon." He rose from his chair and put his hand to his ring. With another press, Foaly shimmered and dissipated, the stone fading back to normal.
"Well, now that that's out of the way, I wonder if Butler has lunch prepared."
Holly was snapped out of her indignation about being caught in a tryst by her stomach rumbling, and followed Artemis down to the kitchen, where Butler was preparing sandwiches. Handing one to each of them, He motioned to the back door. "I believe Myles and Beckett were looking for you," He said, wiping his hands on a cloth, "Something about their ridiculous rocket experiment."
Food in hand, the couple wandered out onto the lawn, where the twins had set up a launch pad near the boundary wall. There, on a surprisingly advanced gantry, sat an almost comical looking rocket, complete with pilot's seat and windscreen, looking like it had just flown out of a comic book or cartoon.
"I told you, the angle needs to be shallower!" Beckett said, indicating the rocket, "If you go too high, then the sensors with certainly pick you up, and the landing will be much harder."
"And I told you," Myles answered, gesturing to the wall, " That if we don't go up and over the wall as quickly as possible, the extended flight time will give Butler enough time to ensure countermeasures."
The two were head to head, and Beckett looked ready to fight his smaller sibling, when Artemis loudly cleared his throat.
"The problem is neither angle nor flight time." He said knowingly, "the problem is design. Butler will be looking for anything remotely similar to conventional aircraft, so the answer is in the unconventional. A mass launcher capable of putting you over the wall, and a modified wingsuit, will be much more successful in evading his countermeasures."
The twins looked at him, then at each other, before immediately beginning a heated debate about the pros and cons of trebuchets, catapults, and other ways of flinging themselves over the wall.
"Why are you trying?" Holly asked, examining the cockpit of the rocket and noting the controls, one of the few things she had any knowledge about with the ridiculous contraption, "Surely you're not limited to the grounds, and you'll be spending a week practically on your own in the wildness starting Tomorrow evening."
"It's the principle of the thing!" The twins said in unison, before continuing in half sentences finished by their counterpart.
"By choosing a difficult problem -,"
"Such as getting around Butler's security -"
"We've set ourselves up with a challenge that changes difficulty -"
"Every time we solve it."
"According to Butler's updates," Artemis explained to the confused elf, "They started with ladders, then when that failed, moved on to more complicated means, such as grappling guns, tunneling, and even once phase-shifting the wall. That attempt was partially successful, in that it collapsed that section of wall, but the repair costs came out of the twins' allowances, and the device was so bulky that by the time they got it in position and working, Butler was standing on the other side waiting for them. According to Juliet, the score is Butler: 7, Twins: 6."
"She's keeping score?" Holly asked, incredulously.
"And taking bets," Artemis added, "I've got two ounces of gold on the twins, and she's got an equivalent amount on Butler. Father encourages them by raising their allowance a bit every time they succeed, and though mother outwardly disapproves, she took quite a bit of money in from the pole-vaulting caper."
Holly thought this over for a moment, before reaching for the pocket of her pants. She pulled out a number of gold coins, and handed them to Artemis. "Three ounces on Butler, and another ounce that someone breaks a bone during the course of all this."
Artemis took the gold put it in his jacket pocket, shaking hands with the elf before turning to return to the house. He stopped when he noticed Holly had not joined him. Looking back, he saw her staring at the rocket.
"Are you coming, love?" He asked, returning to her side.
"They spent so long on this," She said, absently, "It'd be a shame to waste it."
The twins, upon hearing this, got matching grins, and before she knew it, she was strapped in, a red helmet decorated with yellow and orange flames on her head.
"Okay, now that I'm in this thing, really having second thoughts." She said, frantically looking around for the off switch. Her face drained of colour when Myles hit the activation switch, and the rocket roared to life beneath her. "Third thoughts! Third thoughts! Arty you get me out of this thing or I swear to Frond I will -"
Her threat was cut off as Beckett pressed the launch button, sending her arcing over the wall. Artemis became worried when he realized that the launch angle truly was too steep, and that the landing would likely be rather rough. He rushed to a nearby ladder, the remains of the twins' first attempt, and quickly scaled the wall, reaching the top as the elf's scream of exhilaration and fear cut the afternoon air. Quickly pulling up the ladder and descending the opposite side, he began running for the projected landing site, ideas running through his head.
He needn't have bothered. When he arrived, he found an idling ATV and Butler, still wearing his cooking apron and holding a long, strange tube. On the ground was an enormous, gelatinous mass, similar to ballistics gel, but with a texture suggesting it had expanded from a central point. Stuck in the gel was the rocket, swearing elf safe inside, engine still smoking.
"Amazing Butler," Artemis said, catching his breath as the adrenaline left him, "How did you know?"
"I stole a bit of their fuel and tested the yield, calculated the average weight of the rocket with an occupant, and worked out the supposed landing area as soon as they finished their launch platform." He said, lowering the tube, now shown to be the launcher for the expanding gel, "I had the ATV ready to go in case of a launch, and the launcher was designed to as an emergency measure for formula one car accidents, to stop a high-speed crash safely from a distance. I had it sent to me by a contact in Monaco. Wasn't expecting Holly to be the payload though."
"Yes, well, it's fortunate no one knows about this launch," Artemis noted, as Holly extricated herself from the unexpected flight vehicle, "I doubt the authorities would approve of us launching weapons of mass destruction."
Had he been any other man, the glare he received would have killed him.
A/N:
Leaving off their for now. Tune in next time for the conclusion to their trip, and their return to Haven for more fun with magic, zombies, and necromancy!
Lastly,
For Monty.
"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee. "
Pyrrha Nikos
RWBY