Hi people!
A bit shorter than last time. Hope you don't mind. :P
Sana blinked and looked around. It didn't look like they had gone anywhere. They had materialised in the study, and judging from the appearance of the room, it had not changed at all. Same thick wine red carpet, same arched windows. There was the large wooden desk, piled with papers, there was the door linking the study to Artemis' laboratory, there were the fireplace, dark and dusty from lack of use. Sana turned slowly, comparing the study to the one in the future. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Artemis the elder make his way to the wardrobe and dress. She was surprised at his clothing choice, which was more casual than his normal suit-and-tie attire. He left the room, nodding at something behind Sana, placed his finger over his lips to remind them to be silent before leaving the room quietly.
A guttural voice sounded from somewhere near the floor. "Seen any zombies?" Sana looked down and froze. A creature barely three feet tall with moon-grey skin stood, wiggling its sixteen fingers spookily. A red glow was slowly fading from squiggles that were swirling their way across its body from its forehead, finally settling in rune-like symbols that swirled in a dizzying design across the creature's chest, neck and head. Its eyes were eerily orange, and they were staring straight back at the girl. The two stared at each other, not backing down, until another voice, this time lighter but more horsey, as if it would break out in a whinny, interrupted their staring match, issuing from the large stereo speakers attached to the numerous television screens in the room. A long, horse-like, very hairy face was projected onto each screen, the body attached to the face hidden from the camera.
"Thank the gods!" it exclaimed jubilantly, speakers crackling as it sighed loudly, broad nostrils flaring. "That was the longest ten seconds of my life!" Then, anxiously, "Did you get the lemur?"
As if he understood that the face was talking about him, Jayjay scampered up to the nearest screen and licked it, small pink tongue crackling. He scrambled back, leaping into Sana's arms where he perched glaring at the face, holding it responsible for the static charges zapping his tongue.
"One lemur. No female?" The face asked, speakers crackling. Holly, standing next to Sana, shook her head.
"No. No female. You'll have to clone him." The face nodded, acknowledging the fact, then became larger as the being leaned closer to the camera, looming menacingly over the group as it tried to peer past Holly. Sana turned around, following its gaze, and noticed for the first time Artemis the younger shuddering on the floor. She swallowed hard, trying to suppress her laughter. The younger Artemis trembled, and then, mastering himself, sat up, still shivering slightly.
"That was quite uncomfortable," said Artemis, and stood up unsteadily. He leaned heavily on the chair behind him.
The face raised one eyebrow. "I see we have an – "
"Let's talk about that later," Holly interrupted, "For now we have work to do."
The face, nodding, speculated, "I'm guessing, from the look of things, that Artemis has a plan of some sort. Is that going to be a problem for us?"
"Only if we try to stop it."
Holly, catching sight of her reflection, went over to the mirror, gazing at her reflection with a relieved expression on her face. Artemis took Jayjay from Sana, stroking the little lemur, comforting him with clicks of his tongue.
"Time to see Mother," said Artemis, putting the primate down and making his way over to the wardrobe before selecting a suit. He began to put it on. "How much fluid should I administer?"
The face answered, "It's powerful stuff. Two cc's. No more. There is a syringe gun in Holly's medi-kit bedside table. Be very careful with the brain drain. There's an anaesthetic tab in there too. Give Jayjay a swab and he won't feel a thing."
"Very well," said Artemis. He took the kit and pocketed it. "I shall go in alone. I do hope Mother recognizes me."
"So do I," said Holly, nodding her head. "Or she may object to lemur brain juice being injected into her by a total stranger."
Jayjay leapt onto Artemis' shoulder. "Farewell," he said stiffly, formally, "I wish you all good luck." He exited the room, the lemur perched on his head picking through his hair.
Immediately after his departure, the grey-skinned creature pointed at Sana. "Who is she?" Holly looked around, and laughed as she noticed the girl standing awkwardly to one side.
"Sorry," she apologised, "I forgot all about you in all the excitement." Holly made her way over to Sana, addressing the face and the creature, "Foaly, No. 1, this is Sana." Gesturing to the creature on the floor, "Sana, this is No. 1, the demon warlock who was responsible for the magical side of things." She then pointed to the face on the screens. "And that is Foaly, a centaur who has led the way through all technological advances for a long, long time."
Sana looked at them, and then back at Holly. She looked at them again, reaching for a pen. Hi Foaly, No. 1. Why are you called No. 1? The fairies stared at the paper, until one of Foaly's programs finished the translation.
The centaur laughed. "It's a long story. You're taking this quite well, aren't you?" He inspected Sana. "Gosh, you're small! You're no-talking phase's started already? Your older self…" Foaly trailed off, catching Holly's warning glance.
"So is this what you looked like when you were younger?" No. 1 enquired. "You've changed a lot, haven't you?"
Sana listened bemusedly. So you all know the older me? What's she like? She waited for them to translate her question into Gnommish.
"Can't tell you," Holly responded. She winked at Sana. "It might affect your growth. And from what you're going to grow up to be like, I don't think you want that to happen."
Sana swallowed her curiosity with difficulty. Was that a compliment?
Holly turned back to the others and began sketching out Artemis' theory. The two fairy creatures sat gobsmacked throughout the whole explanation. A few seconds after Holly finished talking, No. 1 recovered enough to ask,
"That's it? You're not forgetting some crucial detail? Like the part that makes sense?"
Foaly joined in. "The whole thing is ridiculous! Come on, fairies. We've done our bit. Time to head below ground."
"Soon. Let's just give Artemis five minutes to check it out. All we need to do is be alert," reasoned Holly.
Foaly sighed, the sound sputtering through the speakers. "Well, at least let me raise the shuttle. The troops are holding at Tara waiting for a call-back."
"That's good. You do that. Whatever happens, we need to be ready to move out. And when you're finished do a sweep of the estate – see where that nurse is."
Foaly looked away, presumably calling the troops at Tara. Wherever that was. Sana felt a bit overwhelmed over everything that had happened in the last few days. First she went to the park, where the animals went ballistic and Artemis stole a lemur, then a fairy contacted her and told her she had magic, then she went to Morocco and that same fairy got kidnapped and she went to a compound and met up with another Artemis and saw an evil fat dude and then fell through flames and met a psychotic but beautiful pixie and then escaped riding a bear and then flew all the way from Morocco back to Ireland and entered a time stream with a lemur and two Artemises and a fairy. It all felt so unreal. Sana pinched herself hard. It hurt.
Holly was pointing at No. 1. "You just have a little of that signature magic dancing on your fingertips in case we need it. I won't fell completely safe until Angeline is well, and we're drinking sim-coffee in a Haven bar."
No. 1 raised his hands, and red light soon enveloped the little demon's hands. "No problem, Holly. I'm ready for anything."
Immediately after he said it, the monitors all blacked out, the speakers began whining with white noise, and the door burst open, the doorknob sinking into the wall like a knife into butter. Butler stood there, holding a gun and wearing mirrored sunglasses. Sana immediately shielded, vibrating out of the visible spectrum. Holly went for her gun, strapped to her hip, but Butler ripped it away, sending it skittling across the floor of the study. No. 1's eyes began to glow red, the markings on his body turning red, and he shot a bolt of energy at Butler, who was dragging a heavy steel drum filled with some slimy liquid into the room. All along the edges of the barrel were markings similar to the ones on No. 1. The bolt of energy hit Butler, scorching his shirt, sending Butler back, but the bodyguard used this as an opportunity to slingshot the drum into the room. Some of the liquid landed on the little warlock, smothering the magic floating from each fingertip.
The demon groaned. "I don't feel so great." He keeled over. Sana wanted to run over and help, but she did not dare. Not with Butler so close to the fairy. Butler turned his attention to Holly, who had unfurled the wings from her suit and was attempting to fly away, and grabbed her ankle, flipping and dunking the elf into the barrel. Butler then reached down and grabbed No. 1, squashing him into the barrel next to Holly. The gunk rose and covered their heads. Sana could see Holly's face rise up, just before Butler slammed the barrel lid shut. The bodyguard left the room.
The minute Butler closed the door behind him, Sana unshielded and ran over to the barrel. Up close the barrel seemed to be a lot bigger than she expected, reaching to above her waist and wider than two of her placed side to side. Planting her feet firmly on the floor, Sana pushed with as much strength as she could muster, willing the lid to move, but to no avail. The lid was sealed like Houdini in his escape attempts. Two spouts of the gunk sprayed from the lid. Sana looked up, standing on her toes to see the top of the drum clearly. The slime had issued from two holes had been bored through the lid. She doubled her efforts. Looking around the room, she found a metal poker lying in the fireplace and began to try prying the lid open, leaning on the poker until her feet left the ground. Finally, a sliver of a gap appeared between lid and barrel, until the lid lifted enough for the ten-year-old to push off away from the barrel. The lid fell to the floor with a thud. Holly's face resurfaced, as did No. 1's, gasping for breath.
Are you okay? Sana asked, sending a probe into Holly's brain.
After a few more moments, Holly responded. Yeah. We're alive. Not happy, but alive.
Let me get you out of here.
Get No. 1 out first. He's suffered more than I have. Sana reached into the barrel and put her hands around his upper arms, slowly pulling him up as Holly pushed him from behind. After what seemed like an eternity, the gluggy mass surrendered. No. 1 popped out of the mass like a cork. Sana hugged the little demon, and then placed him gently onto the floor of the study. Going back to the barrel, she grabbed Holly and pulled. Finally, she too slid out of the gloop, falling onto the carpet. Sana got up.
I'm going to check my parent's bedroom and see if it's all good. Then you can go to the bathroom in it and rinse off the fat. Breaking the contact, Sana opened the door and peered out cautiously. There was no one visible in the corridor. Good. She walked quickly and silently down the hallway, making her way towards the bedroom. She opened the door just enough for her to see what was going on, and saw Butler lying on the floor shirtless with marks on his chest, but apart from that, everything looked normal. She ran back to the study, giving them a thumbs up. Holly and No. 1 staggered to their feet and the trio slowly made their way towards the bedroom, leaving behind trails of gloop behind them. Sana ran ahead and opened the door for them. They tottered into the room, following Sana as she opened the bathroom door. They got into the shower, leaning against the wall for support.
"Thank you," rasped Holly. No. 1 nodded in agreement. Sana took hold of the showerhead, turned the tap on and aimed it at the pair. They stood like this for a while until Sana's hand was covered by a massive hand.
"Let me do this," said Butler. Sana nodded, and let go of the shower head, stepping out of the way. At the sound of his voice Holly cracked open an eyelid.
"Hello, Butler." Only Holly could have made those four syllables sound so threatening.
"Please forgive me," said Butler. He bowed deeply. "Opal ambushed me on my way to the airport and mesmerized me. I tried to fight against her commands, but I don't think I did that very well."
No. 1 spoke up for the first time since coming out of the barrel. "Don't worry about it. From what I've heard, Opal's a very crazy fairy anyway." No. 1's voice strengthened as he spoke. "And without you combating it, you wouldn't have put the two tubes into the fat, and instead of two unhappy, weak, fat-covered fairies you'd have two dead fairies. So thank you for that."
"Thanks for that." Holly nodded at Butler. By now both fairies were strong enough to stand steadily on their feet. "And most people can't do anything of their own free will after being mesmerized at all. So your will power must've been extremely strong to be able to do that."
"So am I forgiven?"
Both fairies nodded. Then Holly grinned wickedly. "But as payback…"
Holly leapt forward and grabbed the showerhead from Butler, turning it onto the bodyguard. Caught by surprise, he had no time to dodge away and so caught the full blast from the jet of water shooting out from the showerhead. The two fairies laughed, cackling wildly. After his initial surprise, Butler joined in, a deep, booming, infectious laugh. Sana looked at him in surprise. Throughout all her years of playing with Butler, she had never heard him laugh. She had seen him smile a lot, but never laugh. Not even a chuckle. And now here he was, laughing like he did so every day. Sana smiled. Eight years could change a person greatly. Artemis and Butler were changing for the better.
This one didn't really have a lot of Artemis-related action. If you like it this way, then review and tell me. If you want heaps of Artemis in each chapter, then review and tell me. Either way, just review and tell me what you think. XD
When I wrote about Butler laughing, I thought about what Butler (Dom) would've been like as a kid. And this is what I got...
1. Mother: Dom, it's dinner time!
Butler: Wait, let me perfect this spinning kick!
2. Mother: I thought I told you not to play with firearms at the table, Dom.
Butler: But I only need to fit this piece in and then I will finish putting this .38 revolver together!
and so on...
