Chapter 14:

Something Wicked this way Flies

"Davros?" echoed Mulch. "As in the freaky, 'Doctor Frankenstein' loon you just…"

"Mulch, shut UP!" Holly rasped, enforcing her opinion with another punch.

Davros smiled, or rather, his hologram smiled. "I'm so pleased to see that you still remembered me, Doctor. Most other people try to put their murders out of their mind."

The Doctor stood his ground, grinding his teeth. Every instinct in his body told him to run, to get everyone in the TARDIS and take off. But he stood firm.

"You look healthy, Davros. Better than we last met. Less, uh, 'wizened'" he said, putting on his brave face.

Davros seemed to find that amusing. "Always the bravado, Doctor. Does sit ever get tiring? Having to pretend for the humans?"

Artemis straightened his back, and cleared his throat. "Speaking as one of the humans" he said, "perhaps you could enlighten me as to why you are currently making your way towards my manor."

Davros faux-smiled again. "Ahh, the genius; always so inquisitive." The hologram shifted, and it floated down from the center of the table to in front of Artemis. "Tell me, boy, why would I come to such an insignificant spot? Why would I waste my time? What great value can I find in such a worthless place?"

Artemis raised his hand in a mock yawn. "Don't tell me; you're one of those villains who like to taunt people with riddles. Quite cliché, I find."

Davros chuckled. "See it that way, if you like. I thought an intellect like yours would have figured it out by now."

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint-." Artemis stopped mid-sentence. "How…how do you know about my intelligence?"

Again, Davros just chuckled. "All will be quite clear soon, Master Fowl. And until then," the hologram turned to face The Doctor, "farewell, Time Lord." And with that, the hologram disappeared and the machine went dead.

Foaly whinnied, and clomped his feet. "I've decided that I don't like him all that much."

"He said 'all will be quite clear soon'," Butler said, ignoring Foaly. "I assume that means something bad."

"Who knows," said Juliet. "Maybe he's planning a party for all of us…."

It was at that moment that Trouble's radio went off, causing everyone to jump a good few inches off the ground. Trouble cursed, and unhooked the radio from his belt. "This is Commander Kelp," he barked, "What the hell is going on?!"

A garble of different sounds emitted from the speaker, until; "Sir, we don't KZZZZZZZZZZZZZZK he got loose, but KZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ tearing us apaKZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ He's going for the shuttle KZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Need assistance ImmediaKZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH HHHHHHZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZ.

A resounding BOOOM shook the manor and Holly rushed towards the French windows to see what was going on. What she saw was Ghor, surrounded by LEP officers lying on the ground, ripping chunks out of a shuttle.

She spun on her heels, facing the commander. "Troll's out," she said, trying to control her urge to rush and help. "Half of Retrieval is down, and it looks like he's trying to strand us here."

Artemis Sr. butted in. "Sorry, did you say troll?"

CRRSSH! A LEP officer suddenly flew through the window, crashing into Butler's chest, arguably breaking more bones in the process. Both of the Butler's immediately got on their knees, and began checking the officer.

"Eye's forward, soldier" Butler grumbled, slapping the gremlin on the cheeks. Said gremlin looked like he was about to say something, but he just let out a shuddering breath, and his eyes rolled back. He was dead. Juliet took the time to close his eyes and fold his hands, before turning to her brother. "We need to get out of here, Dom."

Butler nodded. "Mrs. Fowl," he said, "go get the twins from their room. I'll check to see if there's a clear exit route."

The Doctor faked a cough. "Perhaps you are forgetting, but I have a super-duper spaceship in your guest room, that would technically be the safest exit choice."

Artemis nodded. "He's right; we need to get every one inside the Doctor's ship." He turned to the door. "I'll go and get the twins; get everyone one into the-"

CLICK. Artemis opened the door to see the barrels of two pistols pointed in his face. Agent Stockard gave him a cold look. "I don't think that escape is in your best interest right now, Master Fowl." Before Butler or Holly could react, Stockard had put Artemis in a chokehold, cutting off his air, pointing one pistol at the boy's head and the other firmly trained at the group.

The Doctor immediately stepped up. "I don't think you want to do that, Agent. No need to cause anymore trouble; just hand over the boy and…"

"Good god, you never do stop preaching, do you?" Stockard growled. Before anyone else could react, he dropped the pistol that he had pointed at Artemis, and revealed a small device he had in that hand. It looked like a small disk, with a strange symbol engraved in the middle. He pressed it against Artemis' chest, and it began to whine.

"NO!" Butler yelled, instinctively knowing what would happen next would be bad. He and Holly rushed at Stockard, but then…

Where Artemis and Stockard once stood, there was nothing but a fading after image and the disk, now on the floor. The whining the disk made stopped, and it opened like a clam.

VVVVVVVVVVVVSSSSSSSSSSHHHH! A bright, searing light emitted from the tiny device, physically blowing everyone in the room five feet into the air.

When Holly finally woke up, the entire room was decimated. The walls were gone, revealing the hallway, the outside, and to the left, the room of Myles and Beckett, who were very much awake and very much terrified. The ceiling had been vaporized, letting in the night sky.

And no sign of Artemis.

"Artemis!" she yelled, not knowing why, as if her voice could bring him back. A hand clasped her shoulder. It was Juliet. "He's…gone" she said, still not believing it.

Everyone else began to wake up. Butler was rubbing his head, if from pain or the shame of letting Artemis get kidnapped, no one knew. Artemis Sr. was comforting Angeline, who in turn was trying to comfort the twins, who had ran to their mother, asking what happened. Mulch, Trouble and Luskar were trying to untangle Foaly from a pile of wreckage.

And the Doctor…the Doctor was sitting on the edge of where the wall used to be, dangling his feet over the edge while surveying the carnage. Ghor was no where to be found, but the camp was in ruins. Medical fairies where running this way and that, treating the wounded.

Foaly finally got to his feet. "…I feel the need to babble" he said randomly. "If anyone doesn't mind, I think I'll just talk. Relieve my stress."

The Doctor limply waved his hand. "By all means."

"That was one hell of a bomb. To me, it seemed like pure energy. I mean, light can't pick me up and throw me, so maybe it was some sort of thermal energy, like our bio-bombs. But what's interesting is that it didn't actually harm us, it just-"

"Okay, Foaly. Now you can stop talking." Butler said hoarsely. And for once, Foaly did.

Angeline looked like she was going to cry. "What happened?" she said, eye's wandering to the Doctor.

The Doctor, in turn, simply did a small shrug. "Simple teleportation. To where, I can only assume it's where Davros is."

Holly walked right up to the man. "Well, can't you do something?"

"What do you expect me to do?"

"Anything!" Holly exploded, letting her anger get the better of her. "You're so smart, so think of something! You're just going to let him take Artemis!?"

"You think I wanted this?! Planned for it?!" The Doctor shot back. "What am I supposed to do, eh? Find a kidnapped boy, when I don't know where he is, when he is, where he could have gone, and the kidnapper is a man who hates every fiber of my being, and I have thought to be dead for the last three hundred years, which frankly gives him a bit of a on-up on me."

Holly opened her mouth to say more, but she just closed it and sat down, head in hands, having exhausted all her anger. The Doctor could see that she was upset, and changed the tone of his voice.

"I will try, you know."

"Yeah, I know. I'll be right behind you."

"As will I" said Butler, brushing himself off.

"Same here" said Juliet. Foaly gave a nod, as did Mulch, who than poked Trouble in the ribs until he did the same. Luskar blew a soft stream of smoke from his nostrils, the goblin sign of agreement.

Myles stepped up to Doctor, putting on a brave face. "Me too" he said. Beckett nodded in agreement.

The Doctor chuckled. "Sorry, but you might want to ask your mother first."

Angeline came up and took the twins by the hands. "He's right boys. We're going to have to stay in Auntie Juliet's cabin for the next while." She led them away, presumably to go to Juliet's cabin. She passed by the Doctor, pausing only momentarily to whisper something in his ear.

"Please, get my boy back."

Artemis Sr. took Beckett from his wife, and giving a curt nod, followed his family out the door.

"Now what? Let me guess; we come up with a plan that involves putting me in a life-threatening situation" said Mulch. "I've come to expect that, you know. And I don't think that's a good thing."

"Considering what little we know," said Luskar, ignoring the dwarf, "perhaps it's best that we focus on information."

The Doctor nodded. "I'll tell you everything I know, but I don't know what good it'll do unless we have an idea of where Davros is. I mean, it's not like he's going to just magically appear-"

And at that exact moment, a large BOOOOOOOM shook the manor.

Everyone looked up to see that the object that had started this little misadventure was now no longer in the sky, because it was now suspended in the sky above the manor, and coming closer, and closer. But it didn't look like a meteor, or even a ship. It looked almost like…."

"Dear God" Butler whispered.

The horrible thing came to rest above the manor's roof, hovering with a dull droning noise that could be heard for miles around, and did indeed shatter windows as far as Dublin. The sight could be seen as well; costal towns as far as five miles saw a dark, bulbous shape floating over the Fowl estate.

Holly tried to swallow the fear she felt, but for the first time in her life, she just couldn't. She turned to the Doctor, to see something that did not assuage her fear; the man had turned a pale shade of ashen grey, with a bead of sweat going down his forehead. He was shaking, as if what he saw made him want t run.

"Wh... you know what this is, don't you?" Holly asked, secretly hoping the answer was 'no'.

But the Doctor nodded his head. His mouth was dry, and his answer came out like a hoarse whisper.

"It's the Nightmare Child."