I own no characters organizations, etc.
Chapter Five
"Are you sure it was a good idea to make him the leader of his launch group? He obviously doesn't know the first thing about dealing with subservient soldiers"
"He doesn't need to, he will earn respect and when he has that he won't have subservient soldiers."
"I don't think it actually works like that sir"
"Why so skeptical? It is a proven training method I will have you know"
"But you came up with it yourself"
"And I have proved that it works, now let me do my job or I will never get a commander for the fleet ready in time!"
"... You better pray this works"
"I leave the praying to you, I'm putting my trust in those boys"
It took Artemis several minutes to find his friends back in their room, Kurt was sitting on his bed talking to Iris who was perched on the far side of Artemis' bed, obviously waiting for him to get back. He raised his eyebrow at them as they grew silent once he entered the room. "With you sitting next to the door like that, someone may think your waiting for someone."
"All the other spots were taken" Iris replied as if it were a matter-of-fact.
Artemis glanced around the near barren room and nodded as if he agreed, "So I see... Where is everybody?" He asked somewhat serious.
Iris sighed "Straight to the point huh? We guessed that they are probably in the games room fooling around with the games like most of the other kids." She said rolling her eyes, which she was unusually good at Artemis noted. What was this game room she was talking about though? Did it have anything to do with the fantasy game on their desks? Artemis only raised his eyebrow to convey his lack of understanding. "You know... the-games-room..." Iris said it slow as if she were an adult talking to a child "Did you honestly do no exploring the whole time we have been here?" she asked after Artemis did not lower his eyebrow.
"No... that is why I followed Kurt to the Lunch room earlier. I spent my time on my desk; I like to make sure I am secure before I start learning our environment."
"Well I am not much for computers myself, I prefer the physical world. My dad's military so I grew up learning how to fight and being pumped full of testosterone with the marines" Holly winked at him.
Artemis began laughing and had to sit down on the other end of his bed "Wait your a military brat? Here I thought Hawkins was Military and it turns out the only girl in our group is Military? What am I going to do?"He asked dramatically "My only friends are an orphan and a fighter." Artemis' mind went back to the Marines he had bunked with back on earth, it was hard to imagine this small six-year old girl next to the giants he had seen then.
Holly grinned "I am going to go ahead and take that as a compliment fighting can be pretty useful. You know I could knock out a few more for you if you want." She pretended to box an invisible opponent.
Artemis shook his head "No, I'm afraid you can't do that again, I don't want to be considered the leader here because everyone doesn't want you to beat them up. That is just asking for trouble." Artemis admitted to himself that he probably couldn't handle that trouble if it ever came.
They all talked for a few more minutes and Artemis even though he was getting the hang of talking to children his age normally when some of the other children began to start coming back into the room cutting their conversation short. Iris went back to her bunk and took out her desk leaving Artemis alone with Kurt who also took out his desk and started exploring the various programs on it. It was about this time that Greg Finch walked into the room, alone Artemis noted; his friends had likely not stuck with him when they realized that even a girl could beat him up, granted a very special girl. Greg barely glanced around the room when his eyes landed on Iris, but he quickly glanced away when she looked up from her desk and met his eyes. Greg then turned to Artemis who was watching him intently, he held out a small slip of paper to Artemis. "I am supposed to give this to you I guess" Gregory said with obvious contempt.
Artemis took the paper, it had a couple sentences on it explaining that Greg had bruised one of his ribs and might have some difficulty breathing for a little while. "How are you feeling?" Artemis asked trying to sound concerned.
"I'm fine" Gregory sneered back at him as he turned and walked to the far side of the room where his bunk was located.
Well that went well. Artemis thought to himself, he supposed that he had probably sounded fake when he was trying to sound concerned, of course he only thought this because he was in fact faking it. But he really found it hard to care about someone who had clearly made himself his enemy, How were you supposed to love someone like that? Artemis glanced over at Kurt but he just pretended he hadn't seen anything so Artemis didn't bother trying to talk to him. Eventually everyone else came back as the warning before lights out sounded. It took Artemis a long time to fall asleep that night as he listened to several voices around the room silently sob or whisper their mom or dad's name. Artemis had no such problems, he had gotten any such sentiments out of his system back on earth and fell asleep long before Ben came by to check on them. Coincidentally the only ones in the room who did not need the comforting touch of Ben's hand that night was Artemis and his two friends.
The next few day seemed to go by in a blur for Artemis, the classes weren't that difficult for him as he had been tutored at this level for his entire life, however for the others in his launch group it was the first time they had been challenged by their schoolwork. Iris and Kurt showed Artemis around the station on some of their free time, the game room they told him about was on the outermost decks where the gravity was lessened. Artemis found the gravity combined with the curve of the floor and roof very disorienting though and only went there with Kurt and Iris.
He also did try to learn more about the rest of his launch group in the mean time, he had a hard time with it though. He couldn't understand why he had to try to get these boys to like him so badly though, it wasn't like he asked to be their leader. Who decided to make him their leader anyway? Did they really think he was that much smarter than the rest of his launch group, though they were probably right, making him the leader right off the bat just separated him from the rest of the group. Artemis tried talking to Ben about it one time, but Ben just acted like he didn't know what he was talking about and didn't remember their prior conversation. The message was clear 'It never happened', Artemis was on his own.
Well not completely on his own, Artemis grinned to himself as he watched Kurt destroying Iris at a game. It was a simple game where each player controlled 5 pieces each with a unique ability, and would try to destroy the opponents 5 pieces to win the game. Iris was too predictable though, she always preferred using the close-combat pieces and would get lured into Kurt's traps because of it. Artemis had played against them both a few times but when they realized he could beat them every time they refused to let him play any more, which suited Artemis fine, he learned more by watching than he did by playing. The game was wrapping up as Kurt had destroyed all but one of Iris' pieces, another two turns and it would be over and Iris knew it.
"Darn it" She cried in frustration as her last piece was taken "This is just not my game I think" She said sounding clearly exasperated.
"So you want to go again then?" Kurt replied with a grin playing across his face.
Iris unfortunately was far too competitive to actually reject a challenge, another part of her predictability. "Your on!" She grinned back as the lights of the game started flashing and making sounds. Iris had the first move this time so she quickly moved her piece, impatient as usual she only waited a moment before shouting at Kurt to hurry up "C'mon make your mo..." she stopped in mid sentence. Kurt was staring off into the game room, a serious look on his face. Artemis also noticing the look on Kurt's face turned to look where he was staring.
Not far from where they were Artemis spotted Gregory Finch, normally this by itself was no cause for alarm but Greg was not alone. Judging by their pale green jump suits they were launchies, judging by their size they probably would be put into armies soon, and judging by the way the look on Greg's face they were not his friends. Artemis could just barely hear Greg's voice as he confronted the two larger boy's "Just go away... What did I..." The older boys wore smirks on their faces and one of them gave Greg a little shove with a laugh at his obvious discomfort. Artemis only had to glance over at Kurt and Iris to know what they expected him to do, so without a word between them he turned and walked over towards the older boys with Iris and Kurt close on his heels.
Artemis coughed to get the older boys' attention when they were close enough "Is something wrong?" He asked them calmly as they turned to look at him, the taller of the boys was a red-head with freckles dancing across his nose and cheeks, the other was Asian and gave Artemis a scowl as he looked down at him.
"Not 'less you got a problem midget" the Asian spat at Artemis still scowling down his nose at him. "You know our friend here or something?"
"My name is Artemis Fowl, I am Greg's launch leader. Can I do something to help you two?" Artemis replied still calmly. He was hardly going to rise to the older boy's taunts.
"Fowl eh?" The red head jibed "Do they call you that for your smell or cause your the size of a hummingbird?" Both the older boys laughed at the joke.
Artemis leveled a look at them that suggested how low on the food chain he thought of them, the older boys however ignored him and looked over him to Kurt and Iris. When the Asian boy set his eyes on Iris he laughed again and pointing a finger at her turned to Gregory "This the girl that kicked your butt into orbit?" Greg looked down at his shoes and tried to avoid Artemis' gaze. "Haha she's puny! You got no balls or something kid?"
Artemis calmly waited for them to stop laughing before looking over at Iris "Iris, these boys seem to think themselves tough. Would you fix that please?" Iris grinned at him and took a step towards them in answer.
"Whoa you want to fight little sista?" The big red-head smirked "We ain't a couple little six year olds ya' know, why don't you just back off before you get hurt" He reached out to push her shoulder but his hand never made contact as Iris stepped out of the way while simultaneously grabbing his elbow, pulling, and putting a foot in front of his. This had a slightly enhanced effect due to the lessened gravity as the older boy sailed several feet before crashing into the gaming console that Kurt and Iris had been playing only moments before. Iris calmly then turned to the other boy whose eyes had widened into saucers.
"Freak!" he cursed taking a step away from Iris "You just threw him"
That's not how I saw it" Kurt grinned looking at Artemis.
"Me neither" Artemis agreed leveling another look at the boy "He just tripped, right Greg?"
Greg glanced between Artemis and the older boy. "Umm... ya" he agreed after a moment.
The Asian boy just looked between Greg and Artemis incredulously until Artemis tilted his head towards the red head who was trying to collect himself off the floor and staring venomously at them "I think your friend needs some help" The Asian seemed to agree cause in a moment and a few short words the boys both disappeared into the crowd. "We probably shouldn't stay around long enough for them to get reinforcements" Artemis remarked watching them disappear into the crowd. "Come'on Greg" he turned to the larger boy and started walking out of the room with Iris and Kurt on his heels, after a moment Greg followed.
It wasn't until they got a few floors down that Greg said anything "I didn't need your help you know" He muttered "I could have handled myself"
Artemis glanced back at him "I know, we didn't doubt you could handle yourself." Artemis turned back forwards to watch where he was walking "But we are a team, and we look out for each other." He glanced behind himself again "Understood?" Greg nodded but didn't say anything in return so they walked back to their room in silence.
End Chapter
Sorry it took so long this time and the chapter isn't as good as normal but I kind of pieced it together in just the past couple of days so... Hope you enjoyed it!
TFM
