Hi everyone! I got this done super quick, so here you go! I have 2 or 3 chapters left in this story after this one, so it will all be over soon. I still hope to have it done before the movie releases to Disney+ and that seems like it should definitely still happen! Hope you all enjoy!
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"This is so clichéd it makes me want to throw up," Alex chimed into the silence that had befallen the group. The laser hummed menacingly before them, the power gage rising more and more as it prepared to incinerate them.

Diana tried to find a little bit of humor in the situation before their lives ended. "All we're missing is the distracting monologue."

Diana's comment gave Artemis a brilliant idea. "I think we deserve to know why you're doing this, considering that there's no way to get out of it," he suggested.

Ortherion turned with an evil look that sent chills up their spines. "Why? You humans are selfish and ungrateful! All you do is take, take, take from mother earth and never give anything back!"

    He continued this rant for several minutes and Diana felt as though her brain was surely going to fall out of her ear. She blew a stray lock of hair from her eyes and began maneuvering the small, hidden object that was stashed in the back of her pants. She grabbed the small pen like object and positioned it so that the tip faced her plastic cuffs. Diana quickly braced herself for a scalding pain and the terrible smell of burning plastic and pressed a small button on the side of the pen.

The pen activated, creating a tiny pin-sized laser that began to cut through the cuffs silently. The smell of burning plastic began to swirl up to her nose as she moved the pen across the plastic surface. Heat traveled through the plastic cuffs, burning Diana's wrists. She fought against the pain and soon the cuffs were cut loose.

Artemis was in the process of insulting the sprite's plan and fortunately, Ortherion was completely oblivious to the burning plastic smell. Diana brought her hands in front of her slowly, and aimed her tiny laser pointer at an exposed wire that looked important enough and cut right through it easily. The large laser aimed at her and her friends went into a sputtering fit and then shut down. The six of them all breathed a sigh of relief as the major threat on their lives had ended.

"Ah! What in the name of Mother Earth?" Ortherion turned around and screamed in frustration. His green skin had taken on a reddish hue as a small vein popped out of his neck and forehead. He turned his attention to the laser, trying to figure out exactly what had gone wrong with his perfect plan.

Diana quickly turned and used the laser pointer on Artemis' cuffs. Once her boyfriend was free, Diana freed Alex quickly before she handed the laser pointed to Alex so she could free Sebastian. Holly and Trouble had already managed to slice through their bindings with special attachments in their LEP issue gloves.

Ortherion fumbled around with the laser for a moment longer and the group was thankful that their weapons had been put on a table right behind them. Sebastian and Holly easily choked out the two goblins that were guarding the equipment. Ortherion turned around to find a number of Neutrino barrels pointed right at him.

"You can't kill me," Ortherion asserted, a devious smile on his face. "It's against LEP regulations, and those guns are set to stun. Not to mention the final phase of human extinction has already begun and I'm the only one who knows how to reverse it."

"Maybe those guns can't kill you," Alex sassed, and then cocked her very human gun, aiming right between Otherion's eyes, "but this one can and I'm just dying to use it."

"Plus, if you think you're smarter than Artemis, you're very wrong," Diana assured. "He'd figure out your doomsday machine here without any issue."

"And last, but certainly not least," Artemis said, hardly resisting a smirk, "Holly and Trouble are with the LEP and they can't kill you-"

"-but we're not," Sebastian finished, smiling sinfully.

"Face it Ortherion; you're done for either way." Holly pointed out.

"Perhaps," Ortherion admitted, his eyes ablaze with a ferocious intensity, "but even if you kill me there is absolutely no way you're going to just waltz out of here alive and unharmed."

As if on cue, another mass of minions flooded into the room. The small group of heroes glanced around the room, never letting their barrels move from Ortherion in the slightest. Alex made an impatient groan and used all of her self control to not pull the trigger in frustration.

"It would seem that we have ourselves quite the conundrum here," Ortherion replied, his evil smile back. "Give up and I'll kill you all quickly."

The group looked at one another in a joint understanding.

    Finally Artemis spoke up. "I guess we'll see you in hell then."

    And then he pulled the trigger, clipping Ortherion in the shoulder, the horrible shot he was. The hovering sprite did several aerial spins as he shouted countless Gnommish profanities, before grabbing the gem from its setting on his way back towards a doorway.

"Don't just stand there you useless idiots! Get them!" the injured sprite shouted just before he disappeared through the doorway.

Ortherion's faithless handymen began rushing towards the small human/elf group. Alex wasted no time in firing on them, taking much pleasure in taking them out. Diana did the same, and began shooting the fairies and kicking anything that got too close. Artemis was shooting and throwing punches as he made his way through the crowd and towards where Ortherion had vanished too. Sebastian made it a point to end anyone who got too close. Holly and Trouble simply used everything in their arsenal which left trigger happy Holly shooting at everything with an acute accuracy.

Diana was finding herself a much better shot than she remembered. She often went to the range with her friend Serena and her uncle when she was back home, but it had been some time since she had practiced, despite Butler's wishes that she and Artemis both learn. Not to mention she had never used a fairy weapon before now. Butler was going to be beyond livid about this when this was all over. If they survived, that is.

    She found herself mildly confused, as she was always the squeamish one, that she felt no remorse for shooting her assailants. Though she didn't feel joy either. She only felt a strong determination to protect herself and her friends. As more minions charged her, the more she grew comfortable with taking aim and shooting with scary good accuracy. She'd have time to reflect on her actions later, but for now she needed to focus on taking these bad guys out.

She glanced over and saw Sebastian literally had two or three goblins hanging off of him as he dealt with another one. She turned to shoot them off of him, but he quickly grabbed the one off his back and swung it at the one dangling from his leg, sending them both flying into the small crowd of remaining minions. She gave him an impressed look, although he didn't see it, before she resumed firing on the nearest fairy adversaries.

The fight continued for what seemed like an eternity to Diana. She knew they were making progress, but the waves just seemed to keep coming. Eventually, there were no more enemies left to fight, and she could take a breath. They regrouped in the center of the incapacitated minions, all dead or too wounded to pose a threat. Holly and Trouble were bent over gasping for air as Sebastian walked up with Alex's arm around the back of his neck and his arm around her waist, supporting her as she limped alongside him.

Diana stood a few feet away, looking around the room, her concern growing by the second. Artemis was nowhere to be found. This wasn't good.

    Diana rushed up to the exhausted group. "Has anyone seen Artemis?" she asked, unable to hide the panic in her voice.

    "Last I saw... he was rushing after Ortherion," Alex said with some difficulty.

    "And you didn't bother to tell anyone?" Holly questioned, definitely annoyed.

    "I was kinda... busy not dying," Alex muttered.

    It was then Diana took notice of her friend's right leg. A dark, wet spot had manifested on the side of her lower thigh, inches above her knee. It looked like it was a pretty serious injury, and Diana frowned at the sight. Sebastian laid Alex gently on the ground and Holly was there in seconds.

    "Did it get the artery?" Alex asked as Holly removed her boot and ripped the one leg of her pants off.

    "It missed it, but the wound looks worse than it is," Holly explained, as she began ripping Alex's removed pant leg into thin strips. "The bullet is still lodged in your leg so I can't heal it right now. We're going to have to wait and get you into surgery as soon as possible."

    "What happened?" Diana asked as she swallowed the urge to throw up at the sight of all the blood. Ah, there it was. Of all times for her queasiness to come back.

Alex attempted a smile, though her face clearly displayed the pain she was feeling. "Stupid pixie got a lucky shot at me."

Sebastian sat with Alex's head in his lap, letting her clench his hand as Holly began tying the cloth strips around Alex's leg tightly. When it was all said and done Alex had managed to find a way to stand on her own, but Sebastian was close at her side just in case. Diana knew Alex was trying to put on a brave face, but she knew her friend was in a lot of pain. She would ultimately be fine, and right now, that was the least of Diana's worries.

"You need to be careful," Holly cautioned. "Normally I wouldn't even let you stand after an injury like that, but this is a dire circumstance."

"Not to take any importance away from your injury, but we still need to find Artemis," Diana reminded, growing more impatient and worried. "If he ran after Ortherion, he's in danger."

    "Right," Holly responded, as she pulled up his signal on her helmet screen. "Found him. Follow me."

    The five of them left the ballroom and began heading down the short hallway as quickly as they could, given the state of Alex's leg. When they were merely feet from the room where Artemis was, they heard a gut-wrenching male yell. Diana's heart sank as she instantly knew Artemis was in an ungodly amount of pain. She pushed her way to the front of the group, needing to get to him first and no longer caring about the danger she was going to put herself in.

    When they burst through the double doors of the dining hall, what they saw made all of them shudder.