Sorry it took me so long to post this update! It's been kind of a weird month or so- between my health, work, the holidays, a week long trip to Las Vegas, a new project I have no business working on- I meant to post this before the new year started, but I am just now getting to it. After this, I have to really get into gear and get to writing this again, since I am no longer ahead of what's posted here.

Anyways, sorry again for the delay, and I hope you all had a great holiday season and are off to a great start with the new year!

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The following morning the girls got up and got dressed as usual. Artemis had texted Diana asking the girls to meet him back at his place today. All three of them would be skipping their Monday classes, not that it was a problem since all three of them were doing well enough to miss a class without detriment to their education. The girls arrived at Artemis' room at about one, considering they had slept until damn near noon. It was unusually cold for this particular time of year so the girls showed up in jeans and hoodies. Something else unusual, Artemis himself was wearing jeans and a long sleeved brown thermal.

    "You guys don't have a problem with skipping, do you?" Artemis asked for probably the millionth time.

    Alex raised an eyebrow at Artemis as if he was a crazy person and Diana just giggled. "We don't mind," she assured.

    Artemis motioned for the girls to come in and Alex took her seat in her usual chair while Diana and Artemis chilled out on the bed. The rest of the day was filled with movie after movie, trying to kill some time. Alex spent most of the day sleeping awkwardly in the chair while Diana and Artemis stole kisses when they thought she wasn't looking. At about seven, Diana and Artemis fell asleep on the bed, Artemis spooning Diana. Alex was done with trying to get the two of them to behave; she remembered when she was young and in love.

    Dusk came and went as the three of them snoozed peacefully. Artemis had directed Alex to leave the window open just in case they did in fact fall asleep; despite her whiny protests about being cold, Alex did as she was asked. At about nine o'clock, two figures shimmered in through the window.

    Holly and Trouble came into full view and looked around at all the lazy humans. Alex was sleeping upside down in a chair while Diana and Artemis were cuddled up in each other's arms. Holly didn't know much about human sleeping habits but there was no way that Alex girl could be comfortable.

    "Wakey, wakey, kids! We've got business to attend to and I wanna catch the next flare down to Haven," Holly shouted and clapped her hands. All three of the humans awoke and sat up instantly, or in Alex's case almost falling out of the chair.

    "Good evening, Holly. Trouble," Artemis yawned.

    Holly removed her standard LEP helmet and shook out her auburn hair. "You better have some answers for me, Mud Boy."

    "There's a guy named Sebastian who is under the influence of another fairy and he stole the fairy king's gem from me while I was at the field," Artemis said in one breath.

    "You expect me to believe that load of troll dung?" Holly shouted impatiently.

    "He's actually telling the truth for once," Alex interjected.

    "Really?" Holly asked Alex more calmly.

    "Yup," Diana replied.

    "We know this guy because he has quite the crush on Alex over there," Artemis said. Alex waved as both Holly and Trouble looked at her.

    "Keep talking," Trouble prompted.

    Artemis cleared his throat and then continued. "When Alex left back to her room by herself, Sebastian was waiting for her. He tried to convince her to elope with him because he had recently just come into a lot of money from selling an artifact."

    "And I shoved him away because he was a creeper and had this glossy look in his eyes that weirded me out," Alex picked up.

    "And then Artemis explained to us about The People's ability to use mesmer and the blocks just fell into place," Diana finished it off.

    Holly began to think things over carefully. Her gut told her that these kids were in fact telling the truth and that this was much more than coincidence. She came to an abrupt decision.
    "Get yourselves ready because I'm taking you down town... quite literally," Holly said.

    The college kids got up and watched as Holly and Trouble went to the window. "Artemis, I trust you can drive to E1? We'll meet you there" Trouble said before he and Holly shielded themselves and left out the window.

    Artemis nodded, and then replied, "Let's go."

The three college kids slid their shoes on before exiting Artemis' room. Both the girls followed him out to his car; the whole time Alex was hoping Sebastian would show up again. She'd beat the answers they needed out of him.

    The roughly forty minute drive to E1 was rather silent. In retrospect, Artemis realized he should've explained to Alex how the chutes worked, but his mind was too busy racing at the time to concern himself with whether or not his girlfriend's friend knew what she was getting into. When they arrived at E1 in Tara, Holly and Trouble were already waiting for them, one of the titanium pods all ready to go for their journey to Haven.

    Artemis smiled. "Still riding in style I see."

    "You know that I have to have top of the line when it comes to flying Fowl," Holly retorted, hopping into the vehicle.

    "Flyboy grandstanding at its best," Artemis commented sarcastically, and then boarded the pod, Diana following closely behind him.

"All aboard who's goin' aboard," Trouble said, looking to Alex.

    Alex studied the strange vehicle."What do you guys call these things?"

    "They're called pods. Much better than the transportation you humans have," Holly said before disappearing through the door.

    "Where exactly are we going?" Alex asked.

    "Underground, just before the center of the Earth," Trouble briefly explained.

    "I'm in!" Alex shouted and then rushed in behind Artemis and Diana.

Trouble took up the rear and closed the door behind them. Holly sat in the driver's seat, Trouble took shotgun, while the three humans took their seats in the passenger area.

"You guys are going to want to buckle your seatbelts; it's gonna get really bumpy real fast," Holly warned as she flipped some switches. She took her glove off and pressed her thumb to a small red pad that turned green instantly and the shuttle hummed to life. The three humans did as they were told and not a moment too soon.

    Holly lowered the ship into the hole, the camouflage moving back into place above their heads. She checked to make sure her helmet's microphone was active and then she spoke. "Alright, Foaly. I'm heading back. We have our favorite Mud Men in here with us, so be prepared for that."

Anything Holly may have said after that dissolved under the sound of the pod beginning to shake violently. A heat flare from the earth's core was right under them. The velocity of it made everyone's teeth rattle.

    Suddenly they began to drop, riding the top of the flare all the way back down. Gravity made their butts come off of the seats as they plummeted to the center of the earth. Trouble and Holly were silent but Diana had her eyes closed tightly, Artemis was pushing himself into his seat from the ceiling, and Alex was howling like she was on a roller coaster.

    Just as soon as the ride had started it was over. Holly pulled out of the flare and into a small opening to their left. Holly docked the pod in a small port just outside the small opening. She shut the engine down and engaged the docking mechanisms.

    Alex was laughing hysterically in her seat. "Let's go again!"

    Artemis undid his seatbelt and composed himself as he helped a shaking Diana up. "I truly hate riding flares," he muttered.

    Holly and Trouble were the first off of the shuttle. Artemis and Diana wobbled off next and Alex fought to keep her knees from buckling but felt better than ever. Holly threw the remote to another fairy in a green uniform, who caught it easily.

    "Take it back to HQ for me," she said and then motioned for the others to follow her. The three of them followed Trouble and Holly to a green and white police cruiser labeled LEPrecon Unit.

    "So you're from the LEPrecon Unit?" Alex asked with a giggle.

Diana and Artemis both knew where this was going but didn't caution their friend.

    "Yes... Why is that funny?" Holly asked.

    "Because it practically spells leprechaun," Alex laughed lightly.

    "Yeah we get that a lot," Trouble said seriously as Alex, Artemis, and Diana filed into the back of the cruiser and Holly and Trouble took the front.

    The entire way to Haven, Holly kept ragging on Trouble for his driving. Their constant bickering was enough to drive anyone crazy. They fought like an old married couple. Honestly it was shocking that they were merely coworkers. It only took a few minutes of this before Artemis lost his cool, and snapped. Holly and Trouble were silent the rest of the way to the station.
    Everyone filed out of the cruiser upon arrival, into the building, and into a small conference room. Trouble was commander so he sat at the head of the table. Everyone else just filed into empty chairs surrounding him. The commander waited for just a moment before he started to speak.

Trouble slammed a large file onto the table. "Okay, we have no physical proof that this Sebastian kid stole the fairy king's jewel. So I'm going to have to detain Artemis until we do."

    "What?" everyone shouted at once.

    "There's no way that everything that we explained to you is just a coincidence," Diana protested, even though she was sure her word alone wasn't going to keep Artemis from prison.

    "I know that, but I have no physical proof to go on," Trouble continued. "Besides, Artemis' track record isn't that great anyways. People have been wanting him detained for years."

"There's no way Artemis' ass can take prison," Alex chimed in, barely hiding a laugh.

    "You can feel it in your gut that they're right, Trouble. Go with your instincts," Holly added, standing and leaning against the table.

    "I'm the commander and what I say goes!" Trouble argued. Holly was not happy that he said that. She gave him the look of death that scared even Artemis, who was already not too keen on the idea of fairy prison. Trouble lost his bravado. Holly was the only one who could influence any of his commander decisions and she was persistent. "Sorry."

    "You don't have to send an army," Holly said calmly.

    Alex had a sudden thought. "Just send us."

    "Send you? A bunch of ill equipped and untrained Mud Men?" Trouble asked.

    "Hey, hey," Alex interjected. "We may be ill equipped but we're all pretty brilliant Mud Men, if I do say so myself. Even though I have no idea what that even means. And we're the only chance you've got in the human world."

"Mud Men is the Peoples' collective, sometimes- well, mostly- derogatory term for us humans," Artemis explained to her briefly.

"Well that's rude," Alex muttered, the happy tone in her voice gone.

"With all of your technology, I'm sure you can manage to scrounge up a few gadgets to keep us in touch with you guys," Diana added, diverting the topic back to the possible plan.

    "The three of us could bring you the lost fairy artifact and the fairy culprit behind it," Artemis said, matter-of-factly. "And we could execute this operation completely under the table."

    Trouble thought the proposal over for a few minutes, keeping everyone on the edge of their seats. "Major, take the humans down to Foaly. Get them geared up for the mission and I want it to remain exclusive so keep the press at bay. I want full reports every twelve hours on the status of the mission; no excuse."

    "Yes sir," Holly said with a smile.

    "You leave at 2300, I don't want you resurfacing in the middle of the day. Good luck Mud Men," Trouble sighed.

    Holly motioned for everyone to follow her. They made their way through an array of short cubicles. Elves, pixies, dwarves, and other fairies were running around everywhere with mounds of papers and files in their arms as phones rang off the hook. They made their way to an elevator which took them to the basement.

The elevator doors opened to reveal a wide-open space with tables of devices that were unfamiliar. Computer monitors were everywhere displaying maps and areas that were under surveillance. At the central hub there was a half-man, half-horse figure typing away at his computer. Two other half-man, half-horse creatures that were smaller in size and looked to be only children were running around the space creating havoc.

    "This is Foaly the centaur. He's our technological wizard and go-to IT guy," Holly introduced him.
    The oldest centaur looked up from his monitor. "Seems Artemis has gotten us into trouble yet again. And he's brought friends?"

    "The ginger is Alex and of course you already know Diana from the last adventure," Holly explained.

    "So what kind of mission is it this time? Abduction, thievery, crazy pixie, demons in another dimension, or maybe just a good old fashioned goblin rebellion?" Foaly asked. "I mean, my theory is still that you stole the gem, Artemis."

    "We are going to the surface to kidnap and interrogate a Mud Boy who stole the king's jewel from Artemis, who stole it from us, and hopefully find out who the fairy mastermind is in the process," Holly briefed.

    "So I was right! You did take it!" Foaly clarified, exasperated. "Another save the world mission." Suddenly, red lights started flashing and an alarm sounded. Foaly frowned as a vein popped out the side of his head in frustration. "Buttons are not toys!" he shouted, as he pressed a button on his keyboard stopping the alarm.

    "Sorry dad," the two small centaurs said in unison.

    "It was 'bring your child to work day' and the wife insisted upon it," Foaly explained. He watched his kids pull out two gadgets and turn them on, making sure they didn't break anything. "How do you intend to find the Mud Boy?"

    "Well," Alex said, fishing around in her satchel, pulling out the scrap piece of paper with Sebastian's number. "I figured I'd just call him and set up a fake rendezvous"

    "This chick is a genius," Holly retorted.

    "We'll kidnap him and interrogate him about his little fairy friend and be back before supper tomorrow," Artemis chided.

    Alex pulled out her cell phone and checked reception. "For being underground you guys get really great service."

    "It's my signal adapter-intensifier," Foaly bragged with a smile.

    "Nobody cares about your inventions, Foaly," Artemis teased, smirking at his friend.

    "My inventions have saved your behind quite a few times, thank you very much," Foaly snorted. "And they will probably do it again."

Alex dialed the number that was on the scrap piece of paper and urged everyone to be silent as she put him on speakerphone. After three or four rings, someone picked up.

"Hello?" Sebastian's voice answered.   

"Hey Sebastian; it's Alex," she replied.   

"I knew you'd call sooner or later." She could hear the smile in his voice.   

"I'm sorry about hitting you in the face and all. I'm just not used to such persistent male attention," Alex fakely apologized.   

"You call to take me up on my offer?" Sebastian asked.   

Alex smiled deviously. "Just tell me when and where to meet you."