A/N: Look! A second update in as many days! I really AM getting time to write!
This chapter is dedicated to the new reviewer, Courage and Love. I'm glad you were excited to see Myles. I was too, to tell you the truth. He just wouldn't stay in the mansion, even though I left him there. Oh well.
I hope you all enjoy this chapter!
"Uh . . . hi Holly." The small boy looked up at her, then reached one slender hand towards her face. The helmet. Not her face. Coming back to herself with a jerk, Holly brought her fists up to her hips and had the helmet's visor raised so that she could look the Mud boy in the eyes.
"Myles." The boy shrunk back a little bit before seeming to remember himself and jutting his chin out in a display of defiance. "You had better have a good reason as to why you're here. How did you get here?" There was no other human in the area, Myles had been the largest heat signature.
"Do you want the why or the how?"
"How first. Then why."
"Artemis' been working on a teleportation device. He says it's 'unsteady', except that's not true. He just doesn't want anyone using it." The boy stopped for a moment, sending a critiquing look at Holly, as if wondering whether he should trust her. What was with this boy? He had trusted her just fine a day ago. "Also, he hasn't tested it on living things yet. Just inanimate matter. And computer simulations, but the last fifteen computer simulations have all worked with organic matter, so . . . I tried it. And it worked. Obviously."
Holly arched an eyebrow. "And the why?"
The boy deflated a bit, so that he didn't look quite so defiant. "I didn't know you'd be here," he muttered. "I just came to see if I could find that fairy again." Holly felt her other eyebrow shoot up to join the other one. "I wasn't gonna do anything!" the boy said quickly. "I just thought, maybe if . . . ." But there it was. The slight widening of eyes, the conscious stilling of fingers, the slight stiffening of the shoulders that could almost be classified as defensive. Ticks. Artemis' ticks. When he was lying. Oh, but the Fowls were a piece of work.
"The truth, Myles. I don't have time for anything else, and neither does your brother."
The boy's blue eyes widened almost comically. "How . . .?" Holly made an impatient gesture. She felt a bit bad, treating the boy that way, but he had brought himself into danger, and she'd be damned if he got himself (or anyone else) hurt. Myles cleared his throat. "Ah, I heard you talking about the plan in the control room. So . . . yeah, I knew you were going to be here. Also, I was thinking that I could help."
"How?"
"I know where I was when I found the fairy."
"I can find that gateway with my helmet's magic sensors." Holly said, narrowing her eyes at the boy. "And as you know, Artemis would never make a plan with a hole that large in it."
"I know. I just . . . okay. I just wanted to help. He's my brother and he got hurt because of something I did. Plus, he was treating me like a baby. I'm not a baby anymore. I can help."
"And what about Beckett?"
"Oh, he is a baby."
"He's the same age as you," Holly said, exasperated.
"Not mentally," the boy tapped his own head with smile on his face. Holly rolled her eyes as she closed her visor, blinking at the icon for scanning and selecting magic with another double-blink. There were flares of the stuff all around. Some from the stones themselves, but she filtered that out simply by selecting an origin time more recent than a few centuries ago. That was another thing the centaur had added in. He was getting nostalgic, wanted to keep all the old programs, just changed them a bit. Which was fine by Holly.
With the older, residual magic wiped out, it is much easier to pinpoint the area of the gateway spell. The back door into Glimmer's cave. It appeared as a kind of vortex, throwing off occasional flares of magic as it spun. "Myles, you are going to stay back here. You are going to do nothing." Her peripheral vision could see the argument forming on his face, but she stopped him. "Or I could use magic, precious magic that I may need to help your brother, to keep you here." He pouted, but said nothing, folding his arms and crouching down between two stones.
The icon that was Artemis (which was in a group that included Butler, Mulch, and Number One) opened, displaying information on his vitals, all of which were a little more active than normal. He was close. It was at that moment that the mic was activated. A harsh whisper came through.
"Remember Holly. I have no earpiece, so I will not hear anything you say, but the others will. Also. The pain sensor that I added in to this mic gives your helmet my vitals and such, so you have the authority to change the plan if you think I may be compromised. And all of you, remember plan B. If Holly notices my magic being drained enough that it has to be that spell, you are to stop it at all costs. All costs. I'm counting on you to keep not me, but my family safe."
Yes, Artemis needed to get better at pep talks. This was seriously not helping Holly's concentration. Well, Myles sitting and pouting not far from her wasn't exactly a good thing either. Artemis was silent for a while, and Holly opened the other icons, so that she could speak with the others. "You all heard that."
"Mudboy's makin' me nervous." That was Mulch, who was most likely already secreted away a few feet below Glimmer's cave.
"He is good at that," Holly admitted. "But everyone stay focused. We've done harder things than this. This is just stopping a winged Opal Koboi. That's all this is."
"If Opal Koboi had a hold on Artemis' mind before we sent him in alone, then it would be like stopping a winged Opal Koboi." Holly had to agree a bit with Butler's logic, but ignored that fact. It wasn't a helpful one.
"Ah, Butler, I've got a little Mudboy out here right next to me, by the way."
"Send him away," came the grunted response.
"It's Myles."
The silence on the other end was punctuated only by Number One's small gasp of worry, and Mulch's groan.
"Keep him safe, and as far from the gate as you can get him."
"Will do. Everyone be safe, and keep to the plan as much as possible. Remember, I'm backup, call if you need me. And don't let her see Number One."
"We all know the plan, Holly."
"Shut up, Mulch. I'm nervous."
"Thought little Arty was the one who repeated the plan when he was nervous."
"Shut up, Mulch." Oh gods, she was turning into Artemis.
Holly could swear the dwarf was grinning as he spoke once more. "Mission save-the-world number twenty-something is go."