Artemis Fowl: The Unpredictable Future

Chapter 5: Confessions

Artemis released Holly's hand a few feet before approaching a middle-aged man who was now standing up. "Excuse me sir?" he said in his midwestern accent.

The man turned to Artemis. "What can I do for ya kid?"

"Could you perhaps inform me of the date today?"

"Sure, it's uh... it's May twenty-second."

Artemis straightened his tie, trying to look somewhat professional in his ragged suit, "I am quite aware that today is May twenty-second. I am inquiring as to the current year." The older man eyed down at this poor-looking rich kid for a moment then hesitated with his answer, "Umm... it's the year twenty-one fifty-seven. Honestly, I don't know what kind of game you kids are playing but surely you can keep track of the damn year. You should get out of here before the mythical beasts return, they probably won't be happy to see the likes of you."

The man turned and walked away, leaving Artemis slightly awestruck. "Twenty-one fifty-seven..." Artemis mumbled as he stroked his chin.

Holly walked up behind Artemis, still holding Rachel's hand, "What's that about?"

Artemis kept his focused gaze towards the ground, "The year, Holly."

"Oh Frond..." said Holly. "That's not possible. Even with the most powerful magic available, we couldn't just jump forward a century." There was an eerie silence before the sound of a raspy laughter emitted behind them, coming from the cursed catacombs.

Fulton was alone and slowly approaching, "I'm actually very impressed. I didn't think you both would've made it out, but it doesn't matter now."
The three of them immediately turned around. Artemis walked forward to stand between him and the girls. Although he was unsure what kind of protection he could offer them. Holly narrowed his eyes and thought to herself, What do you think you're doing? Now isn't the time for the brave act. She noticed that Artemis was straightening his tie once again. She assumed it had become a habit for him to do so when he was nervous or annoyed. She wondered which one it was when he was approached by Fulton.

Artemis looked up at the centaur, "I'm more interested in how this came to happen. I only thought it theoretical, but somehow you managed to achieve the impossible. If I were to guess, there must have been a combination of science and magic involved somewhere inside the catacomb that we all had to encounter at least once, probably the entryway. So that would mean that once you had me and Holly tied up, you infused the entryway with magic and, what I could only assume is plutonium, to create a sort of time passage. Or perhaps this is all a stress induced dream."

Fulton chuckled a little, "Very clever. I'll have you know there's no way back. We only had enough power to sustain a two-way trip. We used the first one to travel to your time to act out our plan. You just had to get involved and now, you're trapped with the rest of these filthy mud people. Make yourself comfortable Master Fowl this will be your new home. I know it goes without saying, but everyone you have ever cared for, your family, friends, hell even your gardener, are now nothing but dust lost in time... The original plan was to just capture Captain Short and bring her to the future, then we'd return her to the LEP for the reward they had issued for her. It's a shame you had to make yourself a casualty." He flashed a flyer in front of Artemis' face, showing a photo of Holly in her LEP uniform and some words in Gnommish, "She's worth about two and a half tons of gold right now. Wanted found dead or alive. Lucky for you, I am not a fan of hurting little girls."

Artemis scowled, "So that is how you knew where we would be. You are from this time period. It seems like the People have returned to the surface and are revered as deities by the humans. Surely that means the fairy folk and humans are coexisting in some sort of harmony, correct?"

Fulton smirked then circled around to Rachel, ignoring Artemis for the time being. "So this is the gratitude you show after all I've done to protect you and your father. Had to go and choose the losing team didn't you."

She flew up to Fulton's face. "I refuse to believe anything you've done has been for the benefit of any fairy else. You're nothing more than a money hungry tyrant!"

Fulton grabbed her by the throat and threw her back towards Holly. He chuckled. "If it weren't for that stump of a sprite father of yours, you probably would've been disposed of or maybe even given to Brayfer as a gift. I may have unfavorable goals, but I am not the bad guy here."

Rachel coughed as Holly helped her up to her feet. "Sure as hell could've fooled me. Let me guess, 'you're' the victim here, right? That's why you so kindly asked permission to kidnap us."

Artemis glared at the centaur, "Clearly you don't know who you are dealing with. Underestimate us if you'd like, but know that you will regret it." He backed away towards Holly and Rachel, still staying between them and Fulton while keeping eye contact with their hostile enemy.

"We have complete superiority here. Resources, weapons," he looked disgustingly at Holly and Rachel, "but we don't have weak little girls to cause any problems."

Holly growled, "I'll show you weak you pompous, pony, prick." She balled up a fist but was restrained by Artemis holding her by the shoulder.

"So long as you are stuck in this gods forsaken time period, there is no where you can go where we can't get to you. I'll even give you a little bit of a head start to see if you can fully grasp the situation you are in." Fulton turned towards the catacomb entrance, "For what it's worth, I only wanted the elf. I am truly sorry for taking you away from your family, Master Fowl." He returned into the dark abyss of the catacombs.

Artemis released his hold of Holly's shoulder. She was red in the face, but she failed trying to calm herself down. "What I would give to have a blaster in my hand right now."

Artemis smoothed back Holly's hair. "The time will come when he will regret his words. I certainly wouldn't want to invoke the wrath of a beautiful warrior."

Holly turned from red to a rose pink, blushing. "Artemis Fowl," Holly chuckled and looked up into his eyes. "You don't have to use your poetic words to impress me. I like you just the way you are."

Rachel giggled, "Holly, I thought you said you and Artemis were just friends?"

Both Holly and Artemis snapped out of the mesmer-love spell they were falling into.
"We... we are," said Artemis, taking his hand off of Holly's hair and holding them behind his back.

"Strange that he came out just to berate and insult us. Let alone give a head start", Rachel said. "He could very easily have just taken us all again."

"It's a power play. He believes without a doubt that he'll win no matter what we do." Artemis pinched the bridge of his nose, "Apologizing for my inconvenience was strange however. I don't completely understand his character quite yet, but one thing is for certain. He'll be back for Holly and that should make him a bit more predictable."

Holly nodded, "The head start is just adding salt to the wound." She turned while stroking her chin, "First thing we should do is find somewhere to... Good Frond, what is that?!"