Author's Note; Ok, first things first! A very big thanks going out to the people who followed, favourited and especially those who reviewed as well :D Your support is awesome, guys! And I will reply to comments. I'm extremely sorry that I haven't PMed a reply yet. I've just found the time.

Chapter Note;

In reality, my writing is actually very descriptive and I tend to use a lot of details, but time is an essential factor for that and I apologize in advance if you don't think there's enough description to go about. But I shall try my best, and feel free to leave constructive criticism in your comments! The reviews so far have been very good ;)

On with it!

—•:—

CHAPTER TWO: SITUATION

.

Holly had got her invitation from one of the dumber-looking guards. She'd pulled a bunny hoodie over her ears and draped herself in an oversize sweater, running over to them like a lost little child.

"Mommy went in there," she'd insisted, until the smarter of the two rolled his eyes and went back to his doughnut, and the dumber one gave up and opened the back entrance for her.

Holly had flashed him a salute before sprinting in.

The back entrance, built into a stiff wall behind the hotel, gave way to an empty space of garden and the area behind the first-floor kitchens; but then one would be met with the back wall of the building itself, which contrasted the rest of the hotel sharply. The walls were bleached white and colonial-looking, but the windows and balconies were steel blue and the uppermost set of rooms, occupying the area of half a floor each, had three-sixty degree bulletproof windows for one to appreciate the whole of the dazzling city from. But this approach had been out of the question. The windows were obviously unbreakable. And a break-in from the very front of the building would be noticed way too easily. Yeah, Fowl had one of these penthouses. Very typical for a guy who was trying to save electricity.

It was a convenient surprise that Butler had agreed to a room in the corner; those were usually the most vulnerable to this kind of break-in. Well, it was a surprise Butler had agreed to windows at all. Foaly had been mistaken initially, somehow managing to get the layouts of some other hotel they'd stayed in. He'd been pretty miffed when Holly had pointed out that the penthouse suites were probably the big ones with the windscreens. He'd promptly come up with the bathroom-window access point.

Holly looked up and realized that the twenty-third floor was a long, long way up. She had earlier been perched on one of the lower roofs, close enough to catch a clear glimpse of his face. Now she could only make the accessible window out as less than a dot some impossible height away.

So here she was, about to pull an actual Tom Cruise stunt. With wings. And invisibility. Okay, maybe it wasn't impressive enough to pass for a stunt.

Holly discarded the jacket and the hoodie, pulling her helmet over hear head and switching on communications. "Advice, Foaly?"

"Remember to fly slow, Holly," reminded the centaur in her earpiece.

"Yeah," replied the elf, eyes still directed upwards, activating the wings. "Wish me luck."

"Remember. Just mesmerize him and get some answers. Physically bringing him down to Haven is just an extra."

"Ok," Holly squinted up at the building. Most of the lights were off, save for a few corridors.

The wind howled wildly in her face and puffed at her cheeks.

This was the thrill she lived for.

Holly activated her shield and sped upwards.

—••—

Julius Root was having the time of his life.

In the bad sense.

In the sense that he was hanging onto the dreadlocks of a rampant bull troll that was just about done charging through the sewers of Haven City and was now in the very center of the main plaza.

"A little help..." he grunted, knuckles white. "Would be nice, Kelp."

The city square was a blur of excitement, panic and fear in the form of civilians clustered around the scene at generously safe distances. The LEP Retrieval squad had their guns pointed at the creature; also from a relatively safe distance. Trouble was supposed to have the best aim. Trouble was being quite useless at the moment.

The troll howled, rearing on its hind legs, screeching at the air with shaggy arms as it tried to violently shake the fly off its back. It stretched its back painfully and reached over for Root with blunt but lethal talons, who barely managed to maneuver the troll's bulky frame away from him. At the price of getting sucked further into its drenched furs. Despite the situation, Root tried not to gag. The scent of centuries-old sewer water squirmed into his nostrils and threatened his entire being. He couldn't let go. Bull troll. Long way down.

"Hold on, Commander," called Trouble, adjusting his aim with the troll's movement. Root gripped the creature's locks a little tighter and tried not to barf at the smell as he was forced to hug himself onto the shaking troll for the sake of dear life.

Worst experience as Commander? At least he could answer the press.

"A little to the right, Trubs!" cheered Grub, who promptly earned a death glare from his brother and in turn sank further into the safe haven that was the squad van.

Trouble fired a shot and it hit the troll right on the nose.

The creature howled and reflexively tossed Root all the way across the street and onto the roof of the van like a rodeo bull would a rag doll. Grub dashed out squealing.

Root groaned, bringing himself to sit up. The world was spinning before him. He couldn't make out what was going on, except for the considerable crater he'd made in the roof and how it would be nice to just lie there.

Trouble fired at the troll again, hit it partially in the shoulder, and cursed. It turned to growl at him. The rest of the squad immediately backed away.

"Aim!" barked Trouble, annoyed.

The squad raised their weapons and took aim, each one of the junior officers attempting to look their best intimidating.

"Three," started Trouble, his fingers held up. "Two-"

The officers steadied their aim. The civilians bit their nails.

Then the lights went off and the troll was in its favourite habitat.

It was quiet. There was nothing but pitch darkness and quiet for the first couple of moments in which fairies gasped, and the troll came to term with its new surroundings.

And so came the screaming.

"To the pavements!" shouted Root, immediately on his feet. "To the pavements, now!"

Frantic feet scurried in crowds to the instructed direction, but they weren't fast enough. The troll had already started charging down the street, and Trouble's officers were saved in the nick of time by the fact that the troll had set its sights on another target.

The Council building.

"It's just a troll!" yelled Trouble, immediately taking after the beast. "One troll! Surround it!"

Root took a moment to nod his approval, but was soon enough ushering panicked citizens away from the action. There was still a lot of screaming and toddlers crying. Root hated crying.

But the troll was upon the building in no time and it was still a challenge for Trouble's squad to navigate through the dark. The moment they did get their bearings and come to an acceptable formation, though, it had already scaled the roof of the building with unheard-of skill for a troll.

Trouble slowly lifted his visor.

"What the-"

Raine Vinyayà popped up next to him from thin air. "That's no ordinary troll," she observed.

Trouble snapped his head back. "Where did you-"

"Was in the area. I suggest you hit it so it looses its grip before-"

The troll shrieked and brought a shaggy arm down on the overhead tank.

•••

"...unacceptable," finished Root, addressing the Council members gathered in the still dark LEP Situations Room. "It could have been a controversy, Chairman, but it was a badly planned one."

"It worked," bristled Cahartez, glaring from his spot sunken in the chair, as if the day's events had taken their toll on him.

"I don't see any one of you dead," the Commander pointed out. "The troll managed to flood the building, but most of you were on leave and the minor staff inside had plenty of time to evacuate. It was not an intelligent attack. It was just a dumb troll."

Rodent, a gnome whose scraggy looks suited his name well, scratched his bristles with stick-like fingers. "But it definitely had some guidance."

Vinyayà almost dared to snort. "In all due respect, Councilman, are you saying that the troll was trained to do what it did?"

"I'm asking for the hundredth time where the hell that centaur is," growled Rodent. "Do we have reason to believe you are giving priority above the Council? Or that you know more than you let on?"

Trouble, who'd maintained stoic silence by the doors throughout the impromptu discussion, couldn't control an outburst of, "That is ridiculous."

"In which case that accursed donkey would be in this room by now!" piped up one of the Sprites from the Council. "Or are you a part of this as well, Major?"

Trouble appeared startled. "What?"

"Gentlemen, please," called Cahartez, tapping on the table in front of them. "These accusations are rising too fast and too far. I speak for the Council when I say that an attempt has been made on our lives, but then again we have no reason to point fingers at the LEP."

Root rubbed his forehead tiredly. The three Councilmen present here right now, who hadn't taken the public holiday, coincidentally happened to be the worst and the first ones to crack under pressure. Special mention must be made of Rodent himself. Root honestly wondered how he hadn't gone into retirement yet. Fairies like that drove him utterly insane.

"So where is Foaly?" asked Rodent casually.

"Currently engaged in assisting a live mission, Councilman," replied Root, keeping his temper successfully in check and being as respectful as the title deserved. "He should be available soon."

But Vinyayà glanced at him from a corner of her eye, having instantly recognized dodging.

"Live mission?" echoed the Sprite on the Council.

"Confidential."

"We were just attacked and we suspect a controversy. We deserve to know a little, do we not?"

Vinyayà laid two fingers on his forearm before Root could start shouting. "Of course, Councilman. May I speak to the Commander for a moment?"

Cahartez waved a hand dismissively, interrupting an incoming protest from the other two. "Go ahead. But the majority of us want an answer."

The elf nodded appreciatively, then turned to face Root some distance out of their earshot.

"This is not your division–" started Root, but he was cut off.

"I know it's not my division, Commander, but I remember someone asking for assistance," said Vinyayà. "And why exactly are you reluctant to bring Foaly into this? The Council are an impatient lot, Julius. They'll stop at nothing to get their revenge if we don't play along with this controversy theory. And it's going to look really bad on the LEP once the press starts printing red headlines."

Root was about to snap something about his lack of concern over the press, but a strange feeling of conscience suddenly dawned on him and he decided to go with the truth. A bit of the truth.

"Foaly's busy."

The Wing Commander crossed her arms. "Elaborate."

"Like I told them, he's assisting a mission. A potentially dangerous one. I might lose my best officer if I make the Council's theory a priority."

Despite everything, a smile tugged on Vinyayà's lips. "Major Short?"

Root nodded, grateful for the understanding. "It's regarding the shipments of weaponry."

The other elf squinted. "The shipments?"

Alright. Maybe that had revealed a little too much.

"Precautionary," Root caught himself. "But it's alright. I can tell them to wait until it's done–"

"I think, Julius, that this is too much of confidentiality to maintain over a precautionary mission," Vinyayà tapped her chin thoughtfully. "If I remember correctly, the moment this case turned up, your assumption was–"

"It was a baseless assumption. Foaly refused to act on it."

"Yet here is this otherwise needless confidentiality. At the moment Major Short is currently under Foaly's guidance to apprehend our long-forgotten enemy Artemis Fowl. Isn't she?"

Root was taken aback. That had been fast. He made a mental note to himself that in future he would be a little more careful with his words around the Wing Commander lest she divulge further information. With the computing ability of her memory...

"You said it was a baseless assumption."

Root nearly groaned. "Yes, Wing Commander, it was. But precautions must be taken in cases that smell of Fowl, unless we want the existence of fairykind under threat again."

"It's been six years since the mindwipe."

"We'll never be safe from him."

Vinyayà sighed, then shrugged. "If you must. But if nothing goes horribly wrong in Holly's mission, the Council gets Foaly to sort out their fears and as of now, you need to tell them exactly why our resident genius is unavailable."

"The truth?" asked Root, frowning.

Vinyayà rolled her eyes, already walking back to the table. "Of course not. Rodent would go into shock."

–••_•–

London, England.

"OK, OK and OK," muttered Holly into her helmet earpiece. "Yes, Foaly, I'm flying the slowest I can, Okay?"

The centaur on the other end snorted. "You slowed down when I screamed at you for the sixth time."

Holly smiled without a hint of apology as she neared the ledge of the penthouse window. "Shush now," she said a little quietly. "Don't want Fowl to hear a horse outside his window, now do we? I think it'd be worse than an elf."

Foaly snorted the softest he could. "Just apprehend the Mud Boy, for heaven's sake."

Holly smiled against the feeling of the wind. "Mud Man."

"Oh yes, he's Mud Man now. Forgive me. Didn't mean to offend."

"Shut up, Foaly," said Holly casually, turning towards the window. "You're going to-"

The elf froze. The bathroom lights were on. And while that was more than expected...she had never for the briefest moment considered the possibility of the shower being in use. Which would've been stupid of her if it wasn't perfectly reasonable to assume people would be asleep at twelve. Even someone as active a mastermind as Fowl. The window was glazed, but the sound of running water was loud against the howling wind. She couldn't get in this way.

"I think you're at the wrong window," whispered Foaly. "D'Arvit, Holly, I think you're outside Butler's window."

The elf winced. Time to get away from here as fast as...

"Which means Artemis is alone."

Holly's ears almost perked up. Had the danger level of her mission just dropped like that? "Really?"

"But you're on a serious time limit because there's still the risk of him coming to check."

Holly bit her lip. Not in the I'm-a-little-nervous way, but rather in the I-may-not-look-it-but-I-am-terrified-of-Butler way. She shook herself. Time to do this. She was a professional.

Holly hovered over to the next window located a convenient five meters away. The bathroom lights were on, but an instinctive x-ray/thermal scan proved that the door was open and the bathroom was empty. Holly raised an eyebrow. Wasting electricity now? Niiiiiice, eco-genius.

"Safe?" she whispered into her helmet.

"Relatively. Hold on, I'm sending you the layout."

Her communicator beeped and projected the image before her visor. There was a short corridor from the bathroom door, which turned onto a broader corridor and only after it was the room itself. A king-sized bed, a mini sofa set, a desk and a walk-in closet.

"And Fowl?"

"He won't see you approach."

"Here we go," said Holly, mostly to herself, holding her breath in as she worked her omnitool on the window lock. She pushed it in cautiously and stepped through. Alright, it would more accurately be defined as ducked and crawled through. Anyway, the window was a few meters away from the floor, so an elf of her height had to be especially careful in hopping down from it.

Foaly made a comment about San D' Klass through a chimney, but Holly had the sense not to make a noise snapping at him. She was still invisible but she had a feeling that anything was enough to set Fowl off.

The bathroom itself was several laps of luxury ahead of anything she had seen below ground. While a generous portion of it was clean white space, a cubicle, a jacuzzi built into a wooden floor and was that a...sauna? What?

Can we please focus here?

Holly blinked herself back to reality. Right. Time to apprehend the Mud Man.

"It's a good thing to assess your surroundings," commented Foaly, failing to sound serious.

"Zip it," said Holly, walking over to where the door was still wide open.

Holly checked for the umpteenth time whether her shield was good enough and she wasn't running out of magic. Then, taking cautious steps sticking close to the walls, she made her way through the smaller corridor and turned onto the wide on. A couple more steps on the Madagascan teak floor, past three large impressionist paintings, and simply turning her head round the corner gave her a clear view of their latest suspect.

Holly didn't look at once; she first clarified that he was merely on a phone call and not by any chance conversing with Butler. Then she turned her head and looked.

She immediately regretted it.

Earlier, from the rooftop, she had barely caught a glimpse of a pale boy...man, whatever, in a formal bespoke suit complete with a black tie and a briefcase, looking rather annoyed at all the attention that was being shoved in his face. The human she saw right now did look rather irate, perched on the corner of the bed, with a thin phone pasted to his ear; but minus the bespoke and tie, minus anything really. Anything but dripping wet hair and a short white towel clutching his waist. And the hint of slight muscles along both arms and the very obvious outline of a perfect six-pack–

"Like I said, quite the specimen," sniggered the centaur in her ear, though she imagined he was having great difficulty with holding back an eruption of laughter.

At such a close range, Holly couldn't reply even if she wanted to.

As if reading the question on her mind, Foaly said, "Now we wait. Just stay still until he's done with the call–no, sorry, Holly, you can't wait for him to get dressed lest Butler decides to turn up. Lock the door after you've made your presence known. You don't want to alert him..."

But at the moment she wasn't keeping quiet for fear of alerting their subject. At the moment she was quiet with the realization that he had probably already been alerted, seeing as his gaze was fixed steadily in her direction.

"Holly?" asked Foaly. She muted him at once.

"No, it's not a worthwhile investment," Fowl was telling the caller, although his eyes didn't shift from their chosen spot. "Yes, I can handle it. The problem is really with the officials. I've noticed a particular disliking for Fowl Industries and considering the lack of security of the location–absolutely not. In that case the profits would only start to come in a long time after my death. I have neither the time nor money to waste."

Holly cursed under her breath. Now she really did hope he was behind the weaponry. If that was the case, at least she wouldn't be the reason behind his remembering of the People.

"Can I call you back? I'm not giving you a choice. Alright." Fowl cut the line and put his phone down.

The elf prepared herself for the worst. He'd probably already alerted Butler.

But instead he stood up and walked into the closet, giving her a moment to raise an eyebrow before he again emerged dressed in a casual shirt and a pair of pants.

Holly almost rolled her eyes.

"It is interesting, really," said Artemis, a smirk playing on his lips. "How a little bit of refracted light can foil your fairy technology."

Paying absolutely no attention to Foaly's reconnection and the following warnings that came from him, Holly stepped out of the corridor and dropped her shield.

"Hello, Fowl," she said.

•

Author's Note;

Next up; interrogation, action and explosions.

I promise you, things are going to get exciting. XD