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Chapter Three

"Now what did I tell you Anderson? Does that look like a psychopath to you?"

"I do admit sir, seeing him smile is a little... shocking."

"He does smile like a vampire doesn't he?"

"Actually sir I meant that I was expecting him to be a little more cold and calculating than he was. Perhaps that time with the Marines down on earth changed him a little?"

"Oh he is calculating Anderson, but cold? No and why should he be? He is only six and it's not like his father has been kidnapped by the Russian Mafia or anything."

"Was that a chuckle sir? Are you attempting at humor?"

"Never mind Anderson, I forgot that you were a robot."

"More humor sir? What has gotten you in such a good mood?"

"Oh I don't know, just something about corrupting little boys always seems to make me smile, or perhaps its this one in particular..."

"Hmph. Well Graff we have your tool up here, what are we going to do now?"

"Sharpen him of course, bring out his genius and make him into a fine arrowhead, then we'll see if we want him at the head of our fleet"

"I hope he is the one, we are running out of time. So how are you going to go about bringing out his genius?"

"Isolation is the key, if he is isolated he will be forced to adapt on his own. I have already sent orders to start isolating him from the other launchies, his superior attitude will do the rest."

"Already sir? Why don't you just start on the shuttle ride up?"

"You know what Anderson? That is a good idea, I think I will try that next time..."

When all the children arrived they were shown to a door through which they found someone waiting for them in the room, it was an older boy, he waited for them all to arrive in the room before he held up his hand to silence them. "Hello Boys..." The boy started to say but was interrupted by a cough "Oh, we have a girl launchie in this group neh? You'll find that girls are uncommon up here in Battle School." He focused back upon the group as a whole "Welcome to battle school, for the next several months you will all be hearing some words that are new to you so I will explain them now; Launchies are all new boys... er... kids... who have just arrived at the battle school, because you just launched up here you see. You'll be called launchies until you're all put into armies in a year or two. An army is a group of students who together play a game called the Battle Room that you will learn much more about as you stay here." He paused for a moment as if trying to remember something "Oh and finally my name is Ben, and I'm your mom." A bunch of the boys snorted and giggled "Ya go ahead and laugh, I laughed too, but just remember that means I'm the one in charge of you all, you do good and I look good, you do something wrong and I am going to hear about it." He looked menacingly at some of the taller boys. "Now then your Groups colors are Red Blue Red. Can everyone remember that?" Most of the children nodded. "Good then, your color will light up a path for where you are supposed to go, and if you get lost just tell someone your color and they will light up a path for you, or if you get in trouble you can tell them that your mum's name is John." A few of the boys laughed getting the joke. "So launchies what is your color?"

"Red Blue Red" They all chanted in unison.

"And whats your mum's name?" the all shouted 'Ben' except a few who said John which caused much of the group to start giggling again. "Well, we got some cannon fodder in this group by the sound of it" Ben grinned "Now then normally at this point you would vote on your leader but the teachers have already assigned someone to be your leader. Is Artemis Fowl here?" Artemis' Stomach sank, why would they pick him to be the leader? It didn't make any sense. He confidently took a step forward. "There you are, Artemis you have been assigned as group leader, your bunk is the bottom one by the door, the rest of you can pick whichever bunk you want.

"Why is he the leader?" One of the children wanted to know.

Ben shrugged "Dunno, maybe he is the only one here who has any brains, or maybe the teachers are grooming him for command. Either way you all are to listen to his orders to you."

Artemis went and sat on his new bed as the other children all chose their bunks and Ben went through with them all how to open their lockers and log onto their desks, it was all a haze to Artemis. Why would they make him the leader? Even now he could see some of the other kids glancing over at him, sizing him up. Some had contempt in their eyes, others curiosity. It just didn't make any sense.

"Is she sleeping in here too?" One of the boys broke Artemis out of his contemplation, pointing towards the girl in their group who was palming open her locker.

Ben looked towards the boy, then towards the girl, and back towards the boy. "Yup, using the same bathroom too, is there a problem soldier?" The boy opened his mouth to protest but Ben held up his hand to silence him, he then glanced around the room at all the boys. "Know this boys, here in battle school there is no such thing as gender, we are all just soldiers. No one is treated differently based upon gender, nationality, race, or even species." Ben grinned "And I can tell you that you will meet people who make you question their species." The boys were all silenced, Artemis stared at Ben for a moment. He reminded him of his father, but why? Ben was nothing like Artemis' father, what was it that reminded him of his father? Then it dawned on him, it was the authority by which he spoke, Ben spoke with authority that people recognized and obeyed, that's what reminded him of his father.

Ben left shortly after that, which left Artemis alone with the rest of the boys some of which quickly surrounded his bunk. Artemis glanced up from his desk for a second, four of them, One of them, who was slightly taller than the rest, stepped forward and grabbed onto the top bunk with one hand as he leaned forward, the leader. Artemis turned off his desk and turned to face the leader of this gang of children, The boy grinned as if he found something funny "So why are you the leader Whitey?" Artemis didn't say anything he just shrugged. "Maybe its cause your better than the rest of us? You think that Whitey? You think your better than me?" Artemis thought to himself that he probably was better than this boy but once again he said nothing, he did nothing just looked the boy in the eyes, daring him to do something.

"Leave him alone" A voice called out from the other side of the room, it was the girl, standing defiantly from her spot next to her bunk. Artemis wasn't sure what this girl was doing, did she have something in mind? Or was she just stupid?

"What are you gonna do about it Ball-less?" The boys friends chuckled and started chanting 'ball-less'.

The girl wasn't done yet though "Did it take you all day to come up with that one? I thought this was a school for geniuses, but i guess if all it has to offer is no-name half-wits like you I'll be running the place in a couple weeks."

Her target got very red in the face and was clearly thinking of all the things he could do to her. "Hey listen up, my name is Greg Finch, I ain't just some no-name half-wit, and if you weren't a girl I would cream you."

The girl just smiled "Don't you know up here I'm just a soldier, and who cares if your name is Greg? You trying to Prove that your just a regular old half-wit?" That put the boy over the edge, egged on by his peers he charged the girl. Artemis almost closed his eyes, Greg was at least six inches taller than the girl and probably 20 pounds heavier. The girl however just watched him come towards her, at the last second she brought her hand up and smacked his ear causing Greg to raise his hands to protect his head. At this point she brought her knee up into his crotch, Greg doubled over in pain. He was on his knees now, the girl calmly walked around him until she stood on one side of him. He looked up at her, but only for a moment as she knocked him flat on his back winding him. "Your size counts for nothing up here Greg. We are all soldiers here." She stood back up and looked over at the other three boys "Anyone else?" The boys said nothing and stood there waiting for her to step away before retrieving their friend and dragging him from the room to find the nurses office.

Artemis was impressed, he wasn't sure how he felt about the use of violence to deal with the situation, but he was definitely impressed with the skill, Butler would be proud had this girl been his student. "Hey Arms. Psst. Hey Kid." It took Artemis a moment to realize that this voice was talking to him, he glanced over towards the voice. It was the boy from the shuttle, the one that had been mouthing the words of the movie, he was sitting on the bottom bunk next to Artemis'. "Ya you Arms kid" He said waving Artemis towards himself.

"Artemis Fowl" was all Artemis could think to say, he realized he was losing his cool and that if he wasn't careful this would end up like back at the clinic with the questions. He lied down on his bed and went through a calming exercise, he was having trouble concentrating though, probably too much stress he decided. He did his best to block it out of his mind. There was a weight on his bed next to him, he opened his eyes and looked over. The boy was sitting next to him looking down at him "Something you need?" Artemis asked in a calm voice.

The boy frowned and looked off into space "No, I don't think so, but then again I don't got bullies breathing down my neck and little girls beating them up for me." Artemis glared at the boy, but he had nothing to say back and so remained silent. The boy caught his glare and held up his hands in defense "I don't mean to offend of course, just offer a little advice to a fellow genius."

"What advice would that be?" Artemis wasn't sure how he felt about this boy, was he on his side?

The boy leaned in close to Artemis and spoke in a hushed tone "Your supposed to be the leader of these boys, right? Now I don't know why they picked a scrawny little Gothic kid like you to be our leader, but you better start acting like a leader before these guys eat you for breakfast"

Artemis frowned "I don't think I know how to be a leader." he had given orders before, but that wasn't really leading, was it? "What do you do when your the leader?"

The boy smiled "I dunno, do I look like a leader to you? You got to figure out on your own how your going to lead these guys." He tapped his forehead "Your thinking about it so your on the right track. You just got to put that big brain of yours to work is all."

The boy got off Artemis' bed and sat back down on his own bed, Artemis sat up and called after him. "Hey, what's your name?"

The boy glanced back at Artemis and smiled "Name's Kurt Hawkins" Artemis smiled back, he wasn't completely sure, but did he just make a friend? Artemis had never really made any friends before, so he didn't know what it would be like to have one. Hawkins seemed like a good guy though, having him as a friend might be kinda nice.

End Chapter