Artemis Fowl and the Master Experimentation

Chapter 23

Hey guys! Bet you thought this would take a lot longer ;3 But here it is!

The sprite started towards Holly, his grin reminding her of a cat that knows it’s got the mouse. Come on, she thought to herself, get in the game. What’s he going to do first?

She watched his eyes, seeing the cold delight in them. She dodged to the right just in time as his fist hit the wall where her head had been moments before. She took the moment of his shock as an opportunity, swinging herself around and planting a kick on the small of his back, pushing him forwards, his skull bouncing off the wall with a sickening crack. He slid to the floor and didn’t move again. She allowed herself a tiny moment of relief but it was short lived as she saw a second pair of boots appearing in the hatchway. She quickly crouched by the body of her would be assailant and searched his pockets and belt, coming up with nothing. He had come in here unarmed, probably thinking this would be easy.

“Great,” she muttered, “I’m naked and fighting an unknown unit. Could this get worse?”

Yes, said the little, treacherous voice in the back of her mind.

The next fairy was sliding down the rope, but she was ready for him, bringing a fist around to connect with his crotch as soon as he was low enough, knowing that there was no chance of hitting his head when he had his visor on. He kicked out and caught her on the shoulder, making her stumble backwards, but was too busy falling to the floor in a fetal position to do much else.

The unseen men above began to shout at her, but her heart was pounding so hard she barely head what they said. She saw something sleek and silver drop into the room and bounce. It was ticking. In seconds she slid across the floor, snatching the helmet off of the fairy she’d punched and shoved it on her head, shouting into the sealing visor.

“Stunner!”

Instantly the helmet responded, blacking out the visor and the gel inside expanded to cover her ears. Just in case, she squeezed her eyes shut. She felt the burst of hot light against her skin and once it had passed she opened her eyes, lifting the visor to look about the room. The fairy she’d stolen the helmet from was definitely out for the count now and she was fairly sure that the first fairy wouldn’t wake up anyway. The gel shrank back and she heard the voices of the fairies above through the noise filters.

“Do you think it’s safe to go down now?”

“Yeah, she couldn’t have got away from that, right?”

“Right.”

“But just in case, you can go first…”

“How about we all go and take turns?”

“Yeah, sure. But you can go down first.”

“Alright then!”

Another pair of boots appeared at the entrance and quickly Holly made up her mind, laying down on the floor beside the second fairy that had entered the room, leaving the visor up to look like she hadn’t managed it in time. She closed her eyes tightly, willing herself to breath slowly. She heard someone slip down the rope and land heavily on the floor.

“Yeah, she’s out,” he shouted up at his comrades, looks like she went down trying to stop herself from being subjected to the grenade. Guess she just wasn’t fast enough.”

“Who cares?” shouted down another, sliding into the room too.

“I suppose,” said the first, “but I just thought she was better than that. All the stories we heard. Ah well.”

“You sound like you admired her,” sneered the second.

“Well, you know, first female officer… And an attractive one at that…”