Escapes:
Authors Note: Still Don't Own Artemis Fowl. And I'm sorry for those people, who wanted snippets, but I was too busy, and I'm not good at keeping promises. Right now, I'm busy constructing a shrine dedicated to everyone who has more than an average of 6 2/3 for their stories. Yes, slime frog and SHE-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, that means you.
OK, now for the honoraries!!! Dedicated (not that you care) to: Pink-Cherry-Blossom, J Catz, Liviania, Artemis Fowl the Second, slime frog (your shrine won't be done for a while), and crazygirly007 (THANK YOU You were 99th in line), and of course, TWICE kittlekat798, who reviewed twice, and got me to 100 reviews. I don't wonder if she didn't know that I wasn't planning to post a new chapter until I got 100 reviews. Sorry for taking so long!
UPDATE: ARG! This thing is taking me months to write! Writer's Block, writer's block! Or maybe I'll just change the chapters, make them longer . . . *laughs evilly* you guys deserve it! Oh, and thanks to Stardust Firebolt. Err-HEM! *Coughs with embarrassment* I didn't mean to have you catch me in a lack of reviews mood. Error detected!
OK, after careful revision, I have discovered that some people don't get what happened, and why Butler Sr. appeared. Ok, for those that I have not been clear enough, I'll try to explain better in the story. If it still doesn't work out, umm. I'll put it in the author's note next time.
Also, I've kind of lost my touch with Artemis. He refuses to be controlled, and won't do his lines properly. There probably isn't much humor in this chapter as there was before, and I'm sorry if you don't like that. Just, err, sorry.
Remembrance:
In a dark room:
Artemis groaned as he woke up, apparently alone, in the white room of nightmares that had had him recall his father in such agonizingly accurate details. Or WAS that his father? He blinked, cold blue eyes widening ever so slightly, recent events rushing back into his genius mind. So what, exactly, was he doing back in the Nightmare Room, which just, perhaps coincidentally was Underground? Don't be so sarcastic, his conscience, which sounded suspiciously like his mother, tutted. Where in (possibly) hell was Holly? What was he doing back Underground?
"Swearing again, Arty?" An amused voice said from near the doorway. He looked up, and up, and up . . . "Have you grown taller or something?" he asked, momentarily thrown off by his false father's height. Butler Sr. merely smirked. "How observant you are," said his manservant's uncle. "I've been re-testing my appearance-changing brews. As you can clearly see, they work rather well."
"I doubt it." Yawned Artemis lazily, hastily covering his dignity again. "All they seem to do is make you taller, which only makes you more conspicuous, which wouldn't be a good idea, if you're planning to sell it on the black market. And I thought you had more tact than to start a conversation with bragging. Also, I didn't think that you came in here to discuss your products. Let's start at the beginning. Why am I back Underground?" But before Butler Sr. could say anything, his mind began to speak to him again, in the voice that he had long ago learned to trust as his instincts.
Are you? His mind whispered conspiratorially. Look to the window. "What window-" began Artemis, looking annoyed that he was talking to himself again. Butler Sr. looked at him oddly, as if to say "Right, you're off your rocker then, but I need you to stay alive because otherwise your fairy friend might get me in trouble." Artemis ignored him and continued looking at the window. It was a simply carved window, with the usual glass in the windowpanes, and a slight ray of sunlight streaming through it. There was nothing special about it except . . . Sunlight that was it!
"There is no sunlight Underground." He said, reasoning it out aloud. "I can't be Underground! Butler Senior, what kind of perverted test is this?" he asked, turning to the older man. But the older man had frozen like a badly made hologram, and Artemis looked at him quizzically, for once in his life confused.
"What the-" he began to curse again, when suddenly the whole world turned upside down, and blurred before his eyes for a single second. It was enough. The world inverted and changed before his eyes, until he stood inside a completely different room, though still one that he remembered.
It was filled with computer screens and highly specialized equipment, and one strange looking invention that looked as if it had been pulled out of a high-tech Frankenstein story. Artemis shuddered on seeing it, although he was no longer sure why he did that.
It was empty at the moment, and seemed extremely dull, but Artemis wasn't fooled. He could almost remember the times he had spend in this very chamber, this chamber of horrors. It had been ghastly. He strained to recall why he thought so, strained to remember the many nightmares that had haunted him after he had stopped going to this place, strained to remember everything . . .
He felt his tired legs buckling under him, felt the world turning to meet him, and felt his head connect to the metallic floor with a bang. Soon he was unconscious, dead to the world.
(This part is supposed to have italics. How do you do them?!)
**FLASHBACK**
/ The metal cuffs bit into his hands, the same way the chain around his waist did, a cold tang of metallic flavor pierced through his mind, as he struggled to free enough of his hand to grab the key that was lying on the floor not too far away. He heard footsteps coming. Hastily, he moved uncomfortably against his chains, and was unappreciative of the fact that his father, the only man who could protect him from the lab, kept going away every week, just in time for the next lab session. Or maybe his father wanted him in the lab. The footfalls got closer and closer, echoing in the dank air of the dungeons. He knew it was merely a taunt; bait set for the obedient lab rat, yet he could not help reaching for it all the same.
"Almost there . . ." he murmured encouragingly to himself, as he worked his bony hands free, ignoring the blood that trickled down his arms freely, uninhibited by signs of care such as band-aids. There! He dropped the handcuffs to the floor, where they echoed a metallic clang! Now if only his arms were long enough in the first place to reach the keys . . . They had calculated the distance for him to reach the keys carefully, so that occasionally, if he stretched hard enough, his fingers would brush against them.
Then it struck him. "Of course, idiot!" he snapped to himself, and picked the handcuffs up again. He spun it wildly, but with carefully aimed precision, at the keys, and kept on pushing them towards the left, until finally, he was able to stretch and grab them. Just as his fingers closed around the cold iron of the ring of keys, a man entered.
"Hello, Master Artemis." His voice was mocking, a parody of the respect a Butler was supposed to show his employer. "Back again for another taste of pain?"
His words got through Artemis' skin. "You know perfectly well that I'm not here of my own accord. Every week, you WILL insist on sending two thugs to beat me up and bring me here. Frankly, I don't see the point anymore."
The older man leered at him in a greedy sort of way, sort of the way a moneygrubber looks when he has been offered a million dollars. "Well, Master Artemis, we have to make it look convincing, don't we?" He replied evenly to Artemis' question. "I can't risk having you escape or something, although I doubt you will. If you run away, it would be a terrible ordeal for your mother, an ordeal from which she might not be able to survive." Here Artemis flinched, but Butler Sr. continued. "And your father would be sad, of course, so sad that he might waste away. Then, there wouldn't be anyone to inherit the Fowl Fortune, now would there?"
"Except for you." Finished Artemis softly. Butler Senior nodded, mockingly understanding. "So you see, Artemis, until the lab ray finally works the way it's supposed to, I'm afraid I can't stop the sessions. And I don't think that you should run away, either. Adios, dear boy." He flipped the familiar and hated switch that had worn away the paint from being used so much. At first, only two volts jolted up Artemis' arm. Then, the power surges got stronger and stronger, stopping just short of killing him.
A slightly smoking six-year-old Artemis was released from his chains by an automatic button that Butler Senior carried with him at all times. He was looked over, like he always was, by Butler Senior. But this time was unlike any of the other times. Butler Senior actually looked pleased, for once, which transformed his giant slab of a face, that Butler had luckily not gotten, into an even more nasty looking visage.
"Perfection, at last . . ." he sighed. "Now I can begin testing appearances."/
**END FLASHBACK**
Artemis blinked. He was lying facedown in the Lab Room. He sat up and looked around. His body screamed in protest at the sudden return to the fight against gravity, but he ignored it as best he could. His vision, up to then still blurry with the sudden unconsciousness, suddenly kicked back in, and he saw something that made him immediately wish he hadn't remembered the lab room after all. It seemed too late.
"Oh damn."
************************************************************** ********
Holly blinked, and sat up. She was still in the Weapon Room. But where was Artemis, the Mud Boy of the Moment? She tried to think back to what had happened. There had been much quaking, of the earth-shaking type, and then a hole had opened up through the floor. Now that she thought about it, it had probably been a trap. The hole was much too well cut to be an accident of an earthquake. And where was she now, anyway? She recalled falling through the hole, so why was she still in the room? There were too many things that just weren't adding up.
"OK. Start with the basics, make sure nothing's rattled in there." She told herself, and started. "One plus one makes a window, two plus two makes five . . ." she trailed off, scowling. She was pretty sure that was right, but in that path had doubt. And the loud squawking noises outside the room helped distract her a bit too. Commander Holly Short frowned again. The squawking sounded vaguely familiar. And then it hit her. Whose voice was it that always raked her over the coals for being late to her cubicle? Whose was it always blamed her for the spitball attacks during Practice? Whose was it was raking a certain centaur over the coals for drooling over Opal Koboi, and in the process, drooling all over the commander's shoes?
Holly grinned slightly over the last detail, and tucked it neatly away in the back of her mind, along with the mystery of why she had still been in the room while Artemis had disappeared. This wasn't a time for philosophy. This was a time for Really Cunning Plans. She hoped Foaly had some. Root was a notoriously bad planner.
Author's Note:
OK, our favorite pair has been separated, and some MORE mysteries have come to light. I know this probably isn't worth the month's wait, but it's what I came up with. Hopefully, there will be a better next chapter. And maybe some reviews? *hint hint, wink wink* See you later, if you still remember me by then!
~Trisani
Authors Note: Still Don't Own Artemis Fowl. And I'm sorry for those people, who wanted snippets, but I was too busy, and I'm not good at keeping promises. Right now, I'm busy constructing a shrine dedicated to everyone who has more than an average of 6 2/3 for their stories. Yes, slime frog and SHE-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, that means you.
OK, now for the honoraries!!! Dedicated (not that you care) to: Pink-Cherry-Blossom, J Catz, Liviania, Artemis Fowl the Second, slime frog (your shrine won't be done for a while), and crazygirly007 (THANK YOU You were 99th in line), and of course, TWICE kittlekat798, who reviewed twice, and got me to 100 reviews. I don't wonder if she didn't know that I wasn't planning to post a new chapter until I got 100 reviews. Sorry for taking so long!
UPDATE: ARG! This thing is taking me months to write! Writer's Block, writer's block! Or maybe I'll just change the chapters, make them longer . . . *laughs evilly* you guys deserve it! Oh, and thanks to Stardust Firebolt. Err-HEM! *Coughs with embarrassment* I didn't mean to have you catch me in a lack of reviews mood. Error detected!
OK, after careful revision, I have discovered that some people don't get what happened, and why Butler Sr. appeared. Ok, for those that I have not been clear enough, I'll try to explain better in the story. If it still doesn't work out, umm. I'll put it in the author's note next time.
Also, I've kind of lost my touch with Artemis. He refuses to be controlled, and won't do his lines properly. There probably isn't much humor in this chapter as there was before, and I'm sorry if you don't like that. Just, err, sorry.
Remembrance:
In a dark room:
Artemis groaned as he woke up, apparently alone, in the white room of nightmares that had had him recall his father in such agonizingly accurate details. Or WAS that his father? He blinked, cold blue eyes widening ever so slightly, recent events rushing back into his genius mind. So what, exactly, was he doing back in the Nightmare Room, which just, perhaps coincidentally was Underground? Don't be so sarcastic, his conscience, which sounded suspiciously like his mother, tutted. Where in (possibly) hell was Holly? What was he doing back Underground?
"Swearing again, Arty?" An amused voice said from near the doorway. He looked up, and up, and up . . . "Have you grown taller or something?" he asked, momentarily thrown off by his false father's height. Butler Sr. merely smirked. "How observant you are," said his manservant's uncle. "I've been re-testing my appearance-changing brews. As you can clearly see, they work rather well."
"I doubt it." Yawned Artemis lazily, hastily covering his dignity again. "All they seem to do is make you taller, which only makes you more conspicuous, which wouldn't be a good idea, if you're planning to sell it on the black market. And I thought you had more tact than to start a conversation with bragging. Also, I didn't think that you came in here to discuss your products. Let's start at the beginning. Why am I back Underground?" But before Butler Sr. could say anything, his mind began to speak to him again, in the voice that he had long ago learned to trust as his instincts.
Are you? His mind whispered conspiratorially. Look to the window. "What window-" began Artemis, looking annoyed that he was talking to himself again. Butler Sr. looked at him oddly, as if to say "Right, you're off your rocker then, but I need you to stay alive because otherwise your fairy friend might get me in trouble." Artemis ignored him and continued looking at the window. It was a simply carved window, with the usual glass in the windowpanes, and a slight ray of sunlight streaming through it. There was nothing special about it except . . . Sunlight that was it!
"There is no sunlight Underground." He said, reasoning it out aloud. "I can't be Underground! Butler Senior, what kind of perverted test is this?" he asked, turning to the older man. But the older man had frozen like a badly made hologram, and Artemis looked at him quizzically, for once in his life confused.
"What the-" he began to curse again, when suddenly the whole world turned upside down, and blurred before his eyes for a single second. It was enough. The world inverted and changed before his eyes, until he stood inside a completely different room, though still one that he remembered.
It was filled with computer screens and highly specialized equipment, and one strange looking invention that looked as if it had been pulled out of a high-tech Frankenstein story. Artemis shuddered on seeing it, although he was no longer sure why he did that.
It was empty at the moment, and seemed extremely dull, but Artemis wasn't fooled. He could almost remember the times he had spend in this very chamber, this chamber of horrors. It had been ghastly. He strained to recall why he thought so, strained to remember the many nightmares that had haunted him after he had stopped going to this place, strained to remember everything . . .
He felt his tired legs buckling under him, felt the world turning to meet him, and felt his head connect to the metallic floor with a bang. Soon he was unconscious, dead to the world.
(This part is supposed to have italics. How do you do them?!)
**FLASHBACK**
/ The metal cuffs bit into his hands, the same way the chain around his waist did, a cold tang of metallic flavor pierced through his mind, as he struggled to free enough of his hand to grab the key that was lying on the floor not too far away. He heard footsteps coming. Hastily, he moved uncomfortably against his chains, and was unappreciative of the fact that his father, the only man who could protect him from the lab, kept going away every week, just in time for the next lab session. Or maybe his father wanted him in the lab. The footfalls got closer and closer, echoing in the dank air of the dungeons. He knew it was merely a taunt; bait set for the obedient lab rat, yet he could not help reaching for it all the same.
"Almost there . . ." he murmured encouragingly to himself, as he worked his bony hands free, ignoring the blood that trickled down his arms freely, uninhibited by signs of care such as band-aids. There! He dropped the handcuffs to the floor, where they echoed a metallic clang! Now if only his arms were long enough in the first place to reach the keys . . . They had calculated the distance for him to reach the keys carefully, so that occasionally, if he stretched hard enough, his fingers would brush against them.
Then it struck him. "Of course, idiot!" he snapped to himself, and picked the handcuffs up again. He spun it wildly, but with carefully aimed precision, at the keys, and kept on pushing them towards the left, until finally, he was able to stretch and grab them. Just as his fingers closed around the cold iron of the ring of keys, a man entered.
"Hello, Master Artemis." His voice was mocking, a parody of the respect a Butler was supposed to show his employer. "Back again for another taste of pain?"
His words got through Artemis' skin. "You know perfectly well that I'm not here of my own accord. Every week, you WILL insist on sending two thugs to beat me up and bring me here. Frankly, I don't see the point anymore."
The older man leered at him in a greedy sort of way, sort of the way a moneygrubber looks when he has been offered a million dollars. "Well, Master Artemis, we have to make it look convincing, don't we?" He replied evenly to Artemis' question. "I can't risk having you escape or something, although I doubt you will. If you run away, it would be a terrible ordeal for your mother, an ordeal from which she might not be able to survive." Here Artemis flinched, but Butler Sr. continued. "And your father would be sad, of course, so sad that he might waste away. Then, there wouldn't be anyone to inherit the Fowl Fortune, now would there?"
"Except for you." Finished Artemis softly. Butler Senior nodded, mockingly understanding. "So you see, Artemis, until the lab ray finally works the way it's supposed to, I'm afraid I can't stop the sessions. And I don't think that you should run away, either. Adios, dear boy." He flipped the familiar and hated switch that had worn away the paint from being used so much. At first, only two volts jolted up Artemis' arm. Then, the power surges got stronger and stronger, stopping just short of killing him.
A slightly smoking six-year-old Artemis was released from his chains by an automatic button that Butler Senior carried with him at all times. He was looked over, like he always was, by Butler Senior. But this time was unlike any of the other times. Butler Senior actually looked pleased, for once, which transformed his giant slab of a face, that Butler had luckily not gotten, into an even more nasty looking visage.
"Perfection, at last . . ." he sighed. "Now I can begin testing appearances."/
**END FLASHBACK**
Artemis blinked. He was lying facedown in the Lab Room. He sat up and looked around. His body screamed in protest at the sudden return to the fight against gravity, but he ignored it as best he could. His vision, up to then still blurry with the sudden unconsciousness, suddenly kicked back in, and he saw something that made him immediately wish he hadn't remembered the lab room after all. It seemed too late.
"Oh damn."
************************************************************** ********
Holly blinked, and sat up. She was still in the Weapon Room. But where was Artemis, the Mud Boy of the Moment? She tried to think back to what had happened. There had been much quaking, of the earth-shaking type, and then a hole had opened up through the floor. Now that she thought about it, it had probably been a trap. The hole was much too well cut to be an accident of an earthquake. And where was she now, anyway? She recalled falling through the hole, so why was she still in the room? There were too many things that just weren't adding up.
"OK. Start with the basics, make sure nothing's rattled in there." She told herself, and started. "One plus one makes a window, two plus two makes five . . ." she trailed off, scowling. She was pretty sure that was right, but in that path had doubt. And the loud squawking noises outside the room helped distract her a bit too. Commander Holly Short frowned again. The squawking sounded vaguely familiar. And then it hit her. Whose voice was it that always raked her over the coals for being late to her cubicle? Whose was it always blamed her for the spitball attacks during Practice? Whose was it was raking a certain centaur over the coals for drooling over Opal Koboi, and in the process, drooling all over the commander's shoes?
Holly grinned slightly over the last detail, and tucked it neatly away in the back of her mind, along with the mystery of why she had still been in the room while Artemis had disappeared. This wasn't a time for philosophy. This was a time for Really Cunning Plans. She hoped Foaly had some. Root was a notoriously bad planner.
Author's Note:
OK, our favorite pair has been separated, and some MORE mysteries have come to light. I know this probably isn't worth the month's wait, but it's what I came up with. Hopefully, there will be a better next chapter. And maybe some reviews? *hint hint, wink wink* See you later, if you still remember me by then!
~Trisani