Author's Note;
Special mention must be made of the reviewers of the last chapter, because I thoroughly enjoyed your reviews :)!
Pokegeek151, FlawedSyntax, Elisarah, the last book keeper, Courage and Love, Foaly's techie (guest), and Saturn (guest) as well as everyone who's reading or following. Thank you for making my day.
Disclaimer: (I have been forgetting these oml I'm evil) I do not own AF or related characters.
Without further ado, let's get to chapter four! PS:- Do NOT skip paragraphs.
—•:;*—
CHAPTER FOUR: PORTAL
The market district of Haven City was an area mostly bustling with life and activity. It was the hub of grocery stores, small diners and tattoo parlors, even hosting a couple of clothing and accessory shops, and most of Haven's youth spent slouchy days around the pavements. This was where the ones kicked out of their homes immediately ended up. Usually, as soon as news reached their parents that they were trying to get ear tattoos, the LEP was called and asked to retrieve their "lost" children. Most officers found this a tad annoying, but the good part was that the location was near guaranteed.
Because of this reason, Root was explicitly familiar with the market district. Mentioned above is something of an urban tradition; he had had to go on these annoying missions during his rookie days.
Root walked alongside a nervous Foaly, whose eyes were fixed on some kind of tracking device. The rest of the squadron followed at a distance, keeping watch on the teenage fairies engaged in various dangerous activities. There was one sprite who was trying to fly from the top of a squat building with his wings clipped, cheered on by a group of friends. The squad's duty was to make sure none of said dangerous activities interfered with their mission, which was of utmost importance.
Foaly suddenly clopped to a halt.
"In a building down that alley," he pointed down what was luckily for them probably the darkest, most foul-smelling alley in the area. There was an open sewer somewhere nearby, and likely some unattended garbage bins. "One heat signature, and these," he showed Root the screen. "Are heat signatures generated by a number of computers. We've found our hacker, Julius. He's alone."
"Don't call me Julius," snapped Root almost instinctively. "And are you certain he's alone?"
"One hundred percent," said Foaly, sounding a little insulted. "Are you suggesting that my device doesn't have the best sensors in the market or anywhere else?"
The Commander promptly ignored him (years of practice. He was getting good at ignoring Foaly) and motioned to the squad of officers.
"I want you surrounding the building from all sides. Is it a big one, Foaly?"
"No. Very small. Two-storied."
"In that case, I'll go in alone, but I need every one of you on alert," Root upholstered his Neutrino blaster and pointed himself toward the alleyway. "Let's go."
.
Root kicked the door twice, but the rusted hinges refused to yield and all he got was a swirling cloud of musky dust that clouded up the whole room. He had taken the steps to the second floor of the completely abandoned tatto parlour; the flaking stickers on the wall were dead giveaway.
Grunting, he kicked at the door again. Their quarry would have realized his presence by now, but the building was surrounded. He had no escape.
"Fronddammit," swore Root, before pulling the trigger of his blaster. The result almost made him smile; he would've, if Holly's life hadn't been on the line. Wasting no time, the Commander walked in through the hole he'd just made and pointed his gun at the first thing he saw.
The man on the swivel chair was facing a collection of monitors, headphones over his ears. He hadn't even noticed him enter. Root grunted. That was fine. He did love the element of surprise.
The elf cocked the gun against the back of the hacker's head, but he didn't receive any sort of response. Root frowned.
How could you miss a gun against your head? Unless...
He kicked the chair once and it spun to face him.
The pixie's posture was slouched and his eyes were blank. Dead.
"D'Arvit," muttered Root. And that was before the door with the hole slammed shut on its own, and one of solid steel dropped down in front of it, sealing his exit. His eyes immediately darted toward the only window in the room and he found it covered with the exact material. Were it not for the ghostly blue light of the monitors, the room would be pitch dark.
Apparently the people behind this read his mind and the monitors powered down, shutting off.
He switched on his communicator and got Foaly on line. "Foaly? I want the team sent in."
There was no reply.
Root scowled. "Foaly?"
But why would he reply? After all, Root's communicator was the one that wasn't working.
"D'Arvit," breathed the Commander again, eyeing the blank screen with disdain. But that was fine. Surely they had noticed the window slam shut, or something. He couldn't be trapped in here for long.
Root didn't hesitate anyway. He fired a shot at the steel door, which bounced it right back at him. He was prepared, and shot it with another. His intention had been to make some noise. Alert the team outside.
Root froze to the sound of a familiar maniacal chuckling. Not lowering his neutrino, he slowly turned to the direction of the noise.
"Hello," managed a breathless Opal Koboi, whose face was on every monitor now. She had clearly been laughing a lot. "Hello, Commander. Have you missed me?"
Root's face turned an angry colour of red. He resisted the urge to shoot her image in the face.
"What do you want, Koboi?"
Opal smiled sweetly. "You are very smart, Commander. Alerting your peers with sound. I hate to break it to you, but they aren't going to get in easily. Not until you're long gone anyway. Perhaps then I'll invite them."
"So you plan on killing me. Very original."
The pixie wagged a finger. "Oh no, Commander. Why would I do such a brutal, easy thing? I am a mastermind. A genius. I have better plans."
Root could feel himself start to lose it. He cocked the gun and put his finger in the trigger guard.
"And what plans are those, you freak?"
"That's not how we talk to a lady."
"You a hardly a lady. More on the megalomaniac side."
Opal sighed. "Oh dear. I fear you do have a point. But let's get back to my little plan, Julius. I'm not going to kill you; just whisk you far, far away from here. And you will be desperately trying to find your way back home while Haven City burns."
Root frowned. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to take away all their heroes. There won't be anyone left to save the day," Opal teasingly held a finger over a big, exaggerated button on her console. "And don't worry, you don't have to bid me goodbye. You're going to be seeing a lot of me in the near future."
"At least tell me what you did with Holly."
"Holly?" Opal acted surprised. "Oh, I'd nearly forgotten. Don't fret, dear Commander. She's enjoying a luxury cruise in the Atlantic as we speak. She will be joining you shortly, but don't take any hope in that. Where I'm sending you is a place worse than the depths of Atlantis. More akin to the depths of hell."
The communicator in his hand started to vibrate, and it took him less than a second to realize it was Foaly calling. He hit the answer button, but it was too late. Koboi's digit was already on the important-looking button.
"Good luck, Julius," she said, before slamming her fist down on it and erupting into shards of ear-splitting laughter as Root felt his entire being shudder slowly, slowly out of its realm.
••
9:30 A.M, the Atlantic.
Holly was glad that this time she woke up without a Mud Man to share the same blanket with, but her joy was only momentary; because she looked to the floor on her right, and her horrible Hawaiian shirt was not there.
She growled low in her throat. Someone was going to get hurt really bad the next time she saw him.
Holly groggily sat up, trying to ignore the intense anger she felt that now she only had the underwear she'd slept in and the brown shorts she'd woken up with the previous day. Alright, it wasn't so bad; after all, coupled with the shorts her one-piece wouldn't make for an altogether indecent getup, but there was still the fact that...ugh, Fronddamn shirt-stealing Mud Man.
She threw off the blankets she'd wrapped herself in, slipped on the shorts and stood up, looking around the cabin. There was no sign of Artemis save for the place he'd slept in. Which was also quite neatly arranged. Holly sighed a quiet sigh of relief. Well, no kidnapper would give him the time to make his bed, so that shirt thief was alright for now.
She walked out onto the deck, where the party had already started; Holly spent a couple of minutes searching for Fowl's face in the crowd. She spotted the female elves from earlier, but no sign of shirt thief.
She frowned to herself and proceeded to the upper deck, hoping it wouldn't be too difficult tracking him down. She was already in a bad mood as it was.
Holly winced as the music blared in her sensitive ears, wondering how no other fairy on-board was complaining. Too drunk. She passed the captain's room and even more throngs of wildly partying fairies, each which she had to spend time making doubly sure did not include Artemis.
Things could not get any worse, she grumbled to herself, and fate promptly decided she come across a bunch of drunk sprites with nil respect for personal space.
"Heyyy babe," slurred one, slinging a skinny green arm around her shoulder. "Wanna be my...hic...wanna be my spring flower?"
Holly scowled. She didn't understand the expression, but she wasn't going to find out anyway. "I'm warning you once."
"Mmm, baby, you smell so–"
Without a second thought, Holly lifted her elbow and smashed it into his face, which sent the poor fairy reeling backwards, stumbling over his feet.
Unfortunately, this clique was heavily drunk, so this didn't seem to bother the others in the slightest bit and it apparently made her appear even more attractive.
"I'm a better guy than I look," bragged one of the sprites, hovering over to her. "Wanna–"
Holly proceeded to smack him the jaw, and it was enough to make him crumple to the floor of the deck.
An elf among them whistled. "Wow! Gimme some of that, will y–"
With pleasure, thought Holly, kicking him in the side. This seemed to do the trick; the other guys immediately backed off, shrinking behind a table.
She trudged on forward, ignoring the gawking faces of the other fairies who'd seen the fight.
Half an hour passed with no sign of the infuriating human, and Holly admitted to herself that she was growing worried. And just as she did, on the highest deck, she bumped into a disturbingly familiar hairy behind.
"Mulch?" exclaimed the elf, backing off few paces, putting as much distance between herself and that nightmarish bumflab as possible. "I...what are you doing here?"
Mulch turned to her and nodded in greeting. "Good day to you too, Captain."
"Major," corrected Holly automatically, before she noticed Artemis beside Mulch, looking down at her with an amused expression. "You'd better explain things fast, Fowl."
"Good morning, Holly," Artemis turned his gaze toward the sea, and she would've noticed those ridiculously gorgeous, sculpted collarbones if she wasn't too busy with the fact that he was indeed wearing her shirt. She would have her revenge soon. Nobody stole Holly Short's shirt and lived to tell the tale. "Nice weather, isn't it?"
Holly still hadn't got over her initial shock of bumping into Mulch, and her next words came out a little uncertainly. "What's going on? And did you just call me Holly?"
"I gave this to our pungent friend here," Artemis held up a single gold coin, the infuriating smug look that she hadn't seen in all of six years once more on his face. Or rather, a minidisc, judging by the way it glinted colours in the sun. She distinctly recognized it, but not quite; it had been a long time ago. "The recall trigger I mentioned before. I have my memories back, Holly, and I remember exactly who Opal Koboi is."
"All thanks to yours truly," Mulch accepted his own compliment with a gracious bow. "You're most welcome."
The elf spent a moment staring agape, her eyes wide in disbelief over the unexpected turn of events.
"You...he...what?"
Mulch sighed. "You look smarter than you actually are."
This comment was enough for her to recover, and she promptly side-kicked him in rear. "Watch it, convict. I'm already in a bad mood today."
"Ow," Mulch looked hurt. "And I'm not a convict anymore. Mud Boy here worked a miracle with my–"
Artemis raised an eyebrow at him. Mulch froze.
"Oh right. She's a cop."
Luckily for him, Holly had other concerns. "All I care is how he turned up and how you got your memories back. And I want to hear it clearly."
Artemis nodded. "It's quite simple, although Mr Diggumms' presence here is an utter coincidence. I presented this disc to Mulch under the guise of the coin you gave me after Russia. It was the recall trigger, Major. Contained within are a series of video clips addressed to Butler and myself. Mulch found me today and showed me the disc. I decrypted it and watched the videos on one of the on-board computers."
Holly stared at the dwarf. "And does he know how we ended up here?"
"I have told him everything. He wasn't put here by Koboi."
"I snuck on board," admitted Mulch shamelessly. "Their security was the worst. Dope, like they were mesmerized or something."
Artemis frowned. "Yes, about that. The Mesmer cannot be used on fairies, but...I have feeling everyone aboard this yacht is under the influence of it."
"Because nobody cares you're human?" asked Holly.
"Precisely. These fairies have been asked beforehand to ignore that and enjoy themselves. My question is why Koboi would go that extent– perhaps a certain location is needed for her plans?"
Mulch raised a hand. "Then what's the party for?"
"Exactly. My best bet would be as distraction from something we would have noticed otherwise..." Artemis paused. "The ship is crowded and loud so that we won't see or hear some kind of ambush. That's the likeliest explanation."
Holly cast a weary glance over the crowded third deck. It wasn't a nice thing waiting to be ambushed.
"We need to get off this ship," she said, something setting her elfin intuition alight. She met Artemis's eyes. "Now."
It was at that moment that the entire yacht rocked, tossed and battered by some huge wave, but none of the reveling fairies reacted in any way but excited screams. Holly ran over to the railing, the Mud Man and dwarf following suit.
She gasped.
There, less than a kilometer off from the yacht's hull, the mouth of a massive tornado that led to the depths of the deep sea, a whirlwind, a tear leading to an abyss that could very well pass off as a black hole. And the ship was caught in its spurring radius. And now she could hear it, and it was loud, drowning out the loud music and sounding like someone had removed the plug off the hole in the sink; gurgling, growling, and very, very loud.
Another massive wave tossed the ship further towards its doom, and it spun faster in the whirlwind. Fairies aboard screamed in elation, rushing over to the railings so they could see and feel the thrill of the ride. A pang of hopeless dread dropped itself on Holly's shoulders. All of these people were mesmerized. None of them had any clue how dangerously close they were to a terrible death.
Artemis stuttered something that she didn't quite catch.
Frond, did he actually stutter?
That's how bad the situation is.
"We need to come up with a plan, Fowl," said Holly, looking at him.
"Plan," Artemis blinked. "Yes, of course. A plan. Lifeboats?"
"On it," said Mulch, running over to the steps of the deck. "I'll get one ready, hurry up."
Artemis was about to follow him, but she caught his arm. "Artemis, what about all these people? We can't just let them–"
"No." He suddenly sounded like his usual calm, collected self again. Had she imagined that relapse? "We can't let them die, Holly, but under their current states they won't feel a thing."
Holly shook her head. "No. There has to be some way. You're a genius. Think."
"This can't be it," said Fowl. "Opal obviously has bigger parts of her plan, and there has to be someone to stop her. We need to get off this ship. Trust me, Major, we can save more lives that way."
Holly was about to retort angrily when they shuddered even closer to the suction. The whirling masses of water picked them up and turned the yacht on its path even faster than before, and Holly would have found herself overboard if her human counterpart hadn't caught her hand in time.
"We're too close to the stern," he explained, and, without letting her speak, dragged her onwards and then down the steps hurriedly, making a dash for where Mulch should be waiting with a lifeboat.
All they found was Mulch.
"No boats," said the dwarf miserably. "We're actually gonna die this time."
The abyss made a loud suction noise again, and Holly groaned. "On the plus side, I don't think a boat could've saved us anyway."
Her hand was still in Artemis's, but she let it stay that way. It was good to have a friend at a time like this. Then there was also the dwarf she'd shared many adventures with, although technically he wasn't part of Opal's plan.
Then Artemis suddenly frowned in thought, released her, and took several risky steps toward the railing despite the tremendous speeds they had reacted. Holly and Mulch followed, daring to hope the Mud Boy had an idea. This time, the elf clutched the railing like her life depended on it (it very much did) and followed his gaze toward the deadly plughole.
"It isn't real," said Artemis suddenly.
"What?" spluttered Holly.
"It's an artificially generated one," he explained, and even Mulch was listening this time. "The windspeed isn't up to the speed of the whirlwind, don't you think?"
Mulch lifted both eyebrows in surprise. "How did I not notice?"
"I am asking myself the same question. The effect of getting drowned in there when the boat capsizes is going to be as real as it looks, but there may be a possibility to turn the generator off."
"How?" asked Holly, a nervous sense of urgency creeping into her voice. She couldn't imagine how they were just standing here talking when the yacht was being tossed around like an errant toddler's rubber duck. "It's probably planted at the bottom of the sea."
"I have studied these kind of machines of fairy make," Artemis gritted his teeth against the rough spraying of the sea and the sickness that came with the boat's spinning. "That generator can be destroyed in an emergency with the right amount of pressure."
"Pressure?" repeated Holly.
"That's where our friend Mr Diggumms comes in, but I fear it is going to be risky."
Mulch gaped. "What? Are you honestly...dwarf gas? Yes but...how?"
"Once we reach the eye," said Artemis wearily.
"I have to...to dive in and..."
"This is madness," snapped Holly. "It isn't going to work, it's only going to get him killed sooner!"
Artemis closed his eyes. "If you want to save everyone..."
"The dwarf always gets it," muttered Mulch. "Am I being given a choice?"
"I'm sorry, old friend."
"And now you start talking to me like I'm going to die."
"You aren't," persisted Artemis. "If you can generate enough–"
The fairies on-board screamed in elation as the yacht violently jerked into the path of the fastest, and last segment of the whirlwind before the eye, and the speed was too much now. If any of them released so much as a finger, they would be whisked away to the sea and drown the fastest. Their heads spun and threatened to roll off their shoulders. Many fairies puked. It was a blessing Mulch didn't.
"Are...you going to do t-this?" Holly managed through clenched teeth. "I'll...actually give you a medal, I swear."
Mulch somehow managed to roll his eyes. "I deserve total amnesty," he muttered. "For future crimes as well."
The yacht shuddered and jerked up on a wave, sending everyone sliding violently backwards. Mulch was thrown into Holly, who was in turn pummeled into Artemis. The Mud Man, by some miracle, could retain his grip on the railing and saved them a painful ride smashing into the glass of the cabin. Not everyone was that lucky, though, but the mesmerized crowd didn't care and found unprecedented excitement in it all.
"Mulch," grunted Holly, getting to her feet with slow difficulty. Her knees buckled under her, and they felt cold. "Do it."
But they had entered the circumference of the eye and there was no time to be wasted, and while the yacht spun at windbreaking speeds in its last stand against the current, Mulch cursed, and, making a truly heroic decision, let loose a spur of dwarf gas that propelled him over the railing and towards the eye.
The last thing Holly could remember was screaming for him, immediately regretting his part in the plan, before the yacht capsized completely and was spiraled fast into the depths of the merciless Atlantic.
•••
Author's Note; Short chapter because CLIFFHANGER!
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