There was a tense silence that seemed to creep throughout the small medical room the entire entourage of foreign creatures found themselves in. With the scheming genius and the magical captain incapacitated, the remaining members of the group shared a hostile truce for the sake of civility. The only creature that wasn’t present was the very creature Butler couldn’t wait to get his giant hands on. Even after bathing and having his clothes cleaned, the brute still smelled of defecation.
It had been several hours since the intervention of the orange pony by the apple orchards of her family’s farm, and still the urge to finish their fight all but consumed Juliet and Root. While their respective companions both seemed to be stable, the two factions couldn’t help but worry as they sat within arm’s reach.
It didn’t help the situation any that the room had been designed to hold ponies and not humanoids. Butler alone occupied most of the non-medical space in the room. Despite having witnessed their fight in the fields, Applejack had insisted that they all stay in the same room until some sort of agreement could be reached between them.
With the ‘leader’ of the Mud Men out cold thanks to Mulch Diggums’s sly trick, negotiation was virtually impossible. So, rather than make conversation or apologize for any transgressions brought on through their employer’s orders, the two humans simply sat in stale silence to await a time where they could act.
After roughly three hours of awkward and cramped silence with the equivalent of a pony arbiter monitoring them, Commander Root had reached the pinnacle of his patience. With a calm tone, he asked, “Why do you two listen to that kid? He could’ve gotten you both killed.”
Still angry that their battle had been cut short, Juliet simply snorted in refusal to acknowledge the fairy’s remark. Butler took the higher ground and sighed, “The Butlers have served the Fowls for generations. It’s simply tradition.” He took only a moment to consider everything that had happened in the last few days. “Master Artemis is a genius, and his schemes are always carefully planned to the minutest details. We’ve never been in any real danger before…”
Julius responded with a cold groan, “He didn’t plan our surrender very well, did he?”
Before either Butler sibling could reply, a drowsy voice called out through the room. “You have to remember that one can’t plan for something he doesn’t know exists, Commander.” Artemis slowly, lazily stirred awake, sitting upright with a hand pressed against his head. Bandages were wrapped all around the crown of his skull where the LEPrecon helmet had zapped him.
The fairy officer growled, “But even as we slept, you tried to make a plan that would turn everything on its head…” Taking a calming breath, he sighed, “And now, because of you foolish Mud Men, one of the single most annoying criminals in the history of the fairy people is loose in a whole other world!”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t be too sure of that one, Julius.”
A mocking, almost-gruff voice rang out in the room as the door burst open. Standing in perfect sight, clean and groomed, stood the dwarf that had single-hindedly incapacitated the largest human they’d ever met. In one hand he was holding the only functioning LEPrecon helmet that had been spared his dirty trick during the conflict near the orchards. In the other hand he held a large book with what appeared to be a picture of the sun and moon on the front.
Root half-snarled, “You’ve got some guts showing your face around me, Diggums!” At first it looked as if the officer were going to leap from his chair and bludgeon the dwarf, until the purple unicorn in the room used her magic to suspend him in midair.
“The whole point of me being here is to prevent violence. You really should learn to control your anger, sir.” Twilight Sparkle almost seemed to be enjoying her task as she scolded the now-beet-red fairy.
“Besides,” Mulch laughed, “I’m the one that gave you two a chance to get your stuff back. It’s not my fault you wasted it fighting a rather impressive Mud Girl!” The mocking man stopped to wink at the girl in question, who let out a choking noise in disgust.
Artemis chimed in with an impressed chuckle, “Yes, that stunt you pulled with mistranslating your people’s alphabet proved rather effective. I should have expected something of the sort from a known malcontent.” He rubbed the side of his head that looked to have taken the most damage from the electrical discharge.
Even Root had to concede, “You did well, Mulch. That doesn’t change the fact that you’re a criminal and I’m an officer.” Seeing he had settled down, Twilight released her magical grip on the fairy.
The dwarf snorted, “Whatever. This is for you.” He passed the LEP helmet to his acquaintance as if it were a basketball. He held the rather large book out as he turned toward the present pony. “Oh yeah, some little purple lizard asked me to bring this to you.”
“Spike? Why would he ask you to do that?” Despite her confusion, Twilight wrapped the book in her magic and set it on the human boy’s bedside table, right next to his suit. Smiling warmly, she added, “Thanks.”
“So what, did you just come here to be a pest? I figured you’d be out robbing everyone blind!” Root began to fiddle with the helmet, adjusting the casing so it would fit his head. It had been rigged for a comparatively small fairy—Captain Short—and therefore needed to be tweaked to work efficiently.
The dwarf, taking only a little offense to the commander’s suspicions, sheepishly cheered, “I already checked out a few houses! There’s nothing in this town worth stealing, honestly. Y’know, unless you really like dessert.” Right on cue, he reached into a small pocket on his shirt and pulled out a chocolate cookie wrapped in wax paper. With one fluid motion the cookie was gone, practically inhaled. With a wide grin he chuckled, “That one was on the house, though. I didn’t steal it.”
“Naturally…” the officer groaned, still fumbling around with his subordinate’s helmet.
Butler growled, “You were lucky to get away, dwarf. Had I not hesitated to wait for an answer, you would be taking a permanent dirt nap…” After he expressed his distaste for having allowed his humanity to shine through, the man relaxed.
“Yep, but you waited. Holly even told you not to let me open my mouth!” Letting another smug grin stretch across his face, he added, “Oh, sorry about the gas. Nothing personal, just doing what comes natural to us dwarves.”
Remembering the rancid scent of the gust of air that sent him flying several meters from the escapee’s escape route, the bodyguard was forced to swallow a gag. He halfheartedly offered, “No hard feelings, Mr. Diggums.”
“I’m afraid he doesn’t speak for the both of us, however.” Artemis, whose head was still throbbing, carried a sour expression. Though he was obviously going to hold a grudge, he chuckled, “Your swift thinking in dire situations could be very useful. Perhaps we could work out a deal?”
Commander Root hopped to his feet, the helmet held firmly in his grasp. He roared, “Not on any of our lives, Mud Boy! This dirt-munching crook is going back to the Lower Elements Prison where he belongs!” Not wasting any time for responses, he forced the slightly-adjusted helmet over his head and pushed the button on the earpiece just as Artemis had on the other one.
Except this time, he found the actual sequence of glyphs that really spelled out ‘Messages.’ Flower-squiggle, pinwheel, pinwheel, fish-squiggle, pinwheel. Selecting it from the series of menus he sifted through, a familiar voice filled his ears.
The familiar gruffness of the voice that usually teemed with arrogance was instead filled with desperation. “Communications lost. Manor now under self-generated time stop. Holly, Julius, if you get this, report back ASAP.” The message ended with a sharp burst of static, causing the commander to rip the helmet away in an instinctual reaction.
The other residents of the room had covered their ears, pained expressions on their faces. Mulch was the first to recover his senses, seemingly prepared for the sudden explosion of sound. He chuckled, “Sounds like the horsey misses you, Root.”
“This is no time for jokes, Diggums!” The officer reequipped the helmet after a short pause, shuffling through the many words scribbled out in gnomish glyphs. Finding the right one, he let out a desperate sigh. After a loud beep, he spoke, “This is Commander Root of the LEP. If you’re hearing this, respond immediately.”
Artemis examined the commander’s demeanor, sensing fear in his body language. The tone of his voice—while official and commanding—was filled with desperation and fatigue. “Is something the matter, Commander? Trouble in paradise, perhaps? Would you care to explain who the hoarse voice belongs to?” The boy adopted a tone of smug satisfaction, though even he had no idea why.
“Would someone care to explain what’s going on here? Where did that voice come from?” Twilight Sparkle, coming from a world like Equestria, couldn’t hope to understand the science behind a long-distance communication device like the LEP helmet. Even the boy genius was having trouble figuring out just how the helmet had been programmed with so much memory.
A memory of the sea of gnomish glyphs that had filled his vision just before his shock came back to him. Shuddering in residual pain, the boy explained, “One of the Commander’s colleagues sent him a message, which he received on the helmet. Think of it as a vocalized letter that can travel almost instantly in space…and time apparently.”
The still-energetic dwarf chuckled, “Whaddya mean ‘time,’ kid? Looks to me like we’re just a long way from home.” He pulled another cookie from a pocket on the opposite side of his shirt. This time there was no wax paper, and crumbs fell as the fairy inhaled the second confection just like the first. A guilty grin stretched across his face.
Before any of the present company could comment explanations or questions, the familiar voice whinnied, “Julius, is that you?! Thank God! We’ve got a situation on our hands, sir!” Unlike the prior message that cut out with an ear-wrenching burst of static, the line simply fell quiet.
Root looked around to finally notice that everyone else in the room could hear his helmet’s receiver. He grumbled angrily at the damage he seemed to have done to the device during his earlier tampering. He called back into the broadcaster by his mouth, “Don’t call me Julius, Foaly! What kind of situation are you talking about?”
Without hesitation, the centaur called back, “The entire area around Fowl Manor has been swallowed by a time stop being actively generated from the basement where Mulch and the Mud Boy were. Normally a time stop has a limited amount of energy and breaks down after so long, but this one just seems to keep producing more.” The voice crackled out with a heavy neigh.
The humans shot to attention, understanding enough of what had just been said to know that Fowl Manor was in trouble. Even Artemis adopted a look of fear, the fact that his mother hadn’t travelled with them opening a pit in his gut.
“That doesn’t sound like too much of a problem, Foaly. Can’t you just shut down whatever’s charging it?” The commander, for once, seemed to be one of the few relaxed members of the group.
“That’s a negative, sir. We sent a team into the time stop field to scout it out, and they reported that while the field was being projected from the manor basement, the power source kept fluctuating from spot to spot.” The clacking of keys filled the room as the centaur hastily did some digging in his computer. “It doesn’t seem that the generator is even within the manor. Our sensors can’t get a clear lock on any one spot stronger than the others.”
“D’Arvit!” Root kicked the chair he’d been sitting in. He clenched his fists and growled, “So if it’s not in the manor, where is it?”
More key-clacking ensued. After several voiceless moments, the techy finally whinnied, “I don’t know, sir. If we knew what the source of the original anomalies was, I would imagine it’d be the same thing.” Taking a second to think back to Holly’s readings from just before the energy surge Foaly gasped, “Is the Mud Boy with you, Commander?”
Root’s and Artemis’s eyes met, the latter silently willing the commander to respond. The former stood in silence, trying to decide if the human would be willing to cooperate for everyone’s sake. The silence felt like an eternity.
Artemis broke the silence with a simple, “Yes, I’m here with your commander.”
“…The helmet’s on Speaker isn’t it?” the centaur took a second to laugh at his superior officer’s lack of technical know-how. Suddenly falling serious again, he sighed, “Over the course of the last few days, our sensors picked up time-based anomalies originating from the lower levels of Fowl Manor. Can you explain what caused those anomalies?”
The boy raised his wrist in the air to show the room’s residents the small watch-like object he’d been wearing. He explained, “Through a complicated process that most anyone would find impossible, I created a device that’s able to open a hole in space. The hole acts as a portal between our world, Earth, and the one we are currently in—Equestria. It is the only thing I can imagine that would cause you to pick up abnormal readings from our manor.” He removed the device and placed it in front of him on the bed, examining it for anything unusual.
The speaker crackled in and out of life as if the sender of the message were trying to say something. Finally, the gruff centaur chuckled, “I’m speaking with Artemis Fowl II, correct? The twelve-year-old Mud Boy? You expect me to believe you opened a portal to another world?” The condescending tone of the voice was not lost on Artemis, who had to swallow the urge to retaliate.
As much as it pained him to do it, Commander Root confirmed the boy’s achievements. “Wherever we are certainly isn’t Earth, Foaly. You said yourself that there was an energy fluctuation when Artemis appeared on Holly’s radar. It’s safe to assume that everything is related, and the boy’s device is the best bet we have to go on.” He continued to stare at the human in question; absolutely dumbfounded by the sheer intelligence the Mud Boy had to hold to create such a powerful device.
The technical centaur whinnied, “If that’s all we have to work with, then so be it.” After a period of keyboard clacking, a data file arrived on the commander’s helmet with a soft ‘ping.’ “Things are pretty crazy in Haven, sir. The Council wants answers, and news of the time stop has gotten most of the citizens in a tizzy.”
“Whaddya want me to do about it? I’m…wherever this is…” Root’s voice lost its angry flare, the fairy slowly losing his spirit.
“The file I sent you explains the situation in full, sir. The Council wants to send in a team to investigate the focal point of the time stop…” Foaly slowly faded out, certain the commander understood where the explanation was going.
“But they can’t because of the Rule of Dwelling…” Root sighed half-heartedly. Then, with a burst of understanding, he turned back toward Artemis with a fire in his eyes. Adopting a tone fitting of the title of Commander, Root ordered, “Fowl, give your permission for our LEP teams to enter your home!”
Taken aback by the sudden command, the boy simply stared blankly at the now-respectable commander. Mulch burst into laughter, “You sure have a way with words, Julius!” The superior fairy sent daggers at the dwarf with his eyes.
The centaur on the other end of the com-link chuckled, “You could use a lesson in ‘tact,’ Commander. Mr. Fowl, it would help us figure out how to fix the situation at hand if you would let us in your house.” The voice crackled out, the centaur returning to work on his computer.
The genius didn’t even try to hide his confusion as he groaned, “You certainly are polite considering there’s nothing I can do to stop you from entering. Why are you wasting time asking for permission?” The two conscious fairies sent him disbelieving looks, almost as if they pitied his ignorance.
The dwarf spoke slowly, as if to mock the boy, “We fairies have a code of conduct written by one of our old kings and enforced by magic curses. Those little books you stole from these two elves hold our rules. One rule is called the Rule of Dwelling.” He waved a hand at the commander, ushering him to continue the explanation.
More than happy to oblige that particular request, Root explained, “The Rule of Dwelling states that no fairy may enter a human building without an invitation by the owner. Because of that, we need you to give our officers permission so they can study the inside of the time stop thoroughly.” A bit of life started to return to the commander, things not looking as train-wrecked as they did before.
The boy looked to his bodyguard for advice on this matter. The brute, half concerned for the nature of the ‘time stop’ and half concerned for their ability to return home, decided to follow the logical path on this matter. “We should allow them access to the labs, Artemis. Perhaps they can find a way to fix whatever has gone wrong.”
“Don’t forget about your mother, Artemis!” Juliet gasped, suddenly realizing that Angeline had most definitely not come with them to the new world.
The gruff centaur neighed, “We’re only going in to investigate the point of origin. We won’t disturb anything else; you have my word.” They could hear shouting in the background of that particular transmission.
All eyes, even those that weren’t certain what was going on, turned toward Artemis, the final say so being his. After a few tense seconds of contemplation, he sighed, “You and your officers may enter the building for research purposes only. Just make certain that my mother is safe while you work.” The mood of the room immediately lightened up, most of the present company sighing in relief.
Foaly cheered through the crackling com-link, “You won’t regret it, Mr. Fowl! The sooner we can get this figured out, the sooner with can----!”
The voice suddenly fizzled out, a loud screeching sound flooding the room. For the second time that day, the present company slapped hands to their ears in overwhelming pain as Root slammed the helmet to the ground. A few pain-filled seconds later, the LEP helmet fizzled out with a quiet crack of static.
Butler held a small pistol up, the sights locked onto where the earpiece of the now-silent machine had been. He’d been almost too prepared to destroy their only means of communicating with the outside world. Not missing a beat, he holstered the gun before even the military-trained officer could react. It took several moments for everything that had just happened to sink in.
Mulch groaned, “There goes the horseman…”
“And,” Root started with a growl, “our only outside contact! The blasted thing’s dead!” Seeing the smile on the dwarf’s face he roared, “And it’s mostly your fault!”
“Me?!” the accused fairy gasped. “What else did you want me to do? Had to get the Mud Boy out of the picture somehow, didn’t I? I was just trying to help!”
A quiet, barely audible voice scoffed, “Yeah right, Diggums…” Captain Short struggled to sit upright; her body was still limp from whatever had incapacitated her earlier. She yawned, “You took off before you even knew we were safe—which we weren’t.”
“Good to have you back, Captain,” the commander sighed, another burden being lifted from his shoulders.
Mulch laughed, “It just wasn’t the same without you snapping at me every few seconds!”
“Not gonna lie,” Juliet chimed in, “a couple more seconds and you would’ve had me down.”
The memory of Holly’s last few seconds of consciousness came flooding back. She gasped, “Where’s our stuff, Commander?!” She remembered holding the Neutrino 2000 in her hands when the orange pony’s lasso brought her to the ground.
Twilight cleared her throat and explained, “After seeing how you fought, Applejack insisted your machines be confiscated and taken someplace they can’t be used to hurt anypony. So that’s what we did.” What she had just said washed over the purple unicorn. She snapped at the dwarf, “So how’d you get that helmet back?!”
Another guilty grin stretched across Mulch’s face. He turned his back and shrugged, “What can I say? I see something shiny and I take it! I told you I went looking through some houses, didn’t I?” Thinking back to the moment he had found the LEP equipment, he chuckled, “That’s also when the purple lizard gave me the book.”
Commander Root groaned, “So you take a helmet but just ignore the dangerous guns? How does that make any sense?” The officer’s attention returned to the silent and dim mess of a helmet.
“Darn!” the dwarf cried out, snapping his fingers, “You totally figured me out, Julius!” With a smile, he reached into a pocket on the rear of his pants—thankfully not the waste-disposal flap—and pulled out both of the LEP firearms, in almost perfect condition despite everything that had happened.
“You aren’t supposed to have those!” the unicorn snapped, annoyance filling her features.
The still-waking Captain Short tittered, “Diggums isn’t supposed to have half the things you’ll see him with…” Letting out another yawn, the fairy tried to get out of bed. Despite her determination to stand, her legs gave out under her weight and she fell right back to sitting on the mattress. With an annoyed groan she asked, “What did that friend of yours hit me with?”
“Some kind of sedative…” Twilight responded bluntly.
Commander Root couldn’t help but chuckle, “You’ve done well, Mulch. I might even be willing to get your sentence cut short when we get back to the Lower Elements!” He reached out a hand as if asking for one of the Neutrinos.
The dwarf laughed in response, “You think I’m gonna give you the guns? You’ll probably just shoot me with ‘em!” He skipped over to the genius’s bedside and placed both guns at his feet. “No, I think this kid will be a little kinder!”
“You forget you almost fried his brain.” Butler slowly, ominously spoke, no anger in his voice at all. The dwarf couldn’t hold back a frightened shiver.
“Y-yeah, but Artemis ain’t the type to hold a grudge!” he cheered. Then, turning to see the look on the boy’s face, he asked, “Right, buddy?”
Staring off into space, the boy barely heard the question. In fact, he’d been zoned out for quite some time, considering everything that had happened since his creation of the device at the foot of his bed. Without even thinking about it, he picked up one of the Neutrinos and pointed it directly at the dwarf’s head.
The entire party of creatures let out shocked gasps, even Butler unprepared for his charge to act so rash. For some unexplainable reason, it never occurred to Twilight to take the gun with her magic.
“Bang,” Artemis chuckled, smugness in his tone. He rocked the gun as if he had fired it, and watched as the color slowly returned to the fairy criminal. “I don’t hold grudges, Mr. Diggums. Quite the contrary actually; I’m still willing to enter into a business agreement with you.”
“I’ll…think about it…?” the dwarf slowly stepped away, still shaken by the thought of being blasted point-blank by one of the LEP-standard weapons.
Without waiting for anyone else to begin a pointless conversation, the genius spoke, “While this is more fun than I can bear to stomach, I’m afraid that there is business to attend to.” With looks of utter uncertainty, the entire room locked their sights on the boy. “While we may be stuck in this world for some time—the battery of my inter-dimensional device seems to have ticked out, you see—I fully intend to follow through with my original plan.” He looked the unicorn directly in the eyes and sighed, “Despite the trauma of the last few hours, I do still wish to meet with your Princess Celestia.”
“Well, I’m sure that can be--”
Juliet cried out, “Wait, wait, wait! Rewind! What did you just say?!”
Root growled, “Are you telling us we’re stuck here because your machine died?! Why would you even use a battery for something like that?” The officer’s face was once again a deep shade of red, an angry scowl plastered on his face at this point.
Even Butler opposed the notion of ignoring the situation. He sighed, “Don’t you think it’s more important to be able to get home than it is to be diplomatic?” It wasn’t often Butler questioned Artemis’s ideas or ambitions. Even when travelling throughout the world looking for clues on the fairy people, Butler never once questioned his charge. Until now, he never felt the need to.
Holly scoffed, “I knew Mud Men were stupid, but I had no clue it went this far.”
“I’m afraid there isn’t much I can do to help,” the boy sighed. He lifted his device into the air to shine some light on it. “Unless one of you has a fragment of refined plutonium-244 the exact shape and size of an American penny, there’s nothing I can do.”
“Plutonium? That thing’s radioactive?!” Julius fell back against the wall of the room, a sudden fear consuming him. Though unable to move from her bed, Holly’s face filled with a sad horror at the boy’s comment.
Even Mulch had to swallow the lump in his throat. He chuckled sheepishly, “I guess that explains why you two couldn’t shield, eh?” Even his face began to pale, despite his less-than-concerned tone.
“What’s wrong with that? It doesn’t give off enough radiation to affect anyone on such a short term.” He admired his handiwork for a short moment before adding, “On top of that, it’s encased in lead. The radiation hasn’t been leaking out at all.”
Commander Root kept his distance as he growled, “Unlike you Mud Men who’ve been wallowing in your own filth for centuries, we Fairies have stayed clean and pure! Even the slightest bit of radiation can throw us for a loop!”
Holly stammered, “P-Plus it basically drains our magic… Even a little radiation can damage our skin, and our magic automatically heals our wounds…” She trailed off, urging her legs to move through the numbness.
“So radiation can cause you to use your magic too quickly…” Butler mused, understanding the fairies’ predicaments.
Artemis reiterated with an annoyed tone, “I told you already: not a single bit of radiation has escaped this device since its manufacture. Not even the wormholes it opened have given signs of radiation.” He set the device back down on the bed, wondering just why it had died so quickly.
“But doesn’t plutonium-244 have a half-life of like eighty-million years? How’d it die so quickly?” Captain Short asked, remembering her lessons on radioactive elements before joining the force. After all, it pays to know your weaknesses extensively.
The boy sighed in confusion, “That’s where the problem comes in. I can’t begin to understand why it would deplete so quickly. Even if the wormholes did release radiation, which they don’t, there’s no reason for the battery to have decayed so exponentially.” He pushed the activation button on the device only to receive a simple clicking noise that faded after a few seconds.
Mulch laughed, “Look at us getting all worked up! If the thing’s dead, it can’t hurt us anyway!” He looked back down at the dead helmet, wondering just what Foaly would say at a time like this. “So even if they fix the mess with the time stop, we still can’t get home. Can’t say I’m excited to be in a cell, but at least there’s stuff to steal back home,” the dwarf sighed.
“Don’t forget we’re only in this because of you, Diggums!” the commander growled.
Flinching at the sight of the still-angry officer, the dwarf gasped, “I’ve been meaning to ask you about that one, Julius! What made you decide to come after me? Couldn’t leave it to Captain Short?”
The superior officer scoffed, “Don’t call me Julius, convict! And besides, didn’t you get arrested just a few hours before? If my officers can’t handle you, of course I’m gonna step in.” Taking a second to think back to what went through his head when he stormed out of Foaly’s box, he chuckled, “Besides, I wanted some fresh air. Stuck on a shuttle with a troll and then cramped up in the office, I needed to clean my lungs.”
“Didn’t you say the last time you arrested me you were gonna retire from active duty? What happened to that?” Mulch carried a big grin as he thought back to the last time he’d seen Root in person. There was a lot of money involved.
The commander barked, “You’re insane! Why would I do that?”
“This is all wonderful fun, really,” the genius with the dead inter-dimensional portal interjected into the two enemies’ reminiscing, “but I truly must get back to work. I have a princess to meet with.”
Captain Short finally managed to stand up from her bed. She groaned, “Hold on just a second, Mud Boy. You built a machine that opens holes in space, right? You think you could fix this hunk o’ junk?” She tapped the dead helmet with a foot. “If anyone can help us fix your mess, it’s Foaly.”
Getting up from his bed and removing his suit from the bedside table where it was folded, the boy shrugged. “I can attempt it. I’ll make no promises, considering how advanced the technology is. If it simply shorted out like the overload on the other one, it shouldn’t be too terribly difficult to fix,” he spoke calmly, as if his sudden urgency had passed mysteriously.
Twilight finally decided to speak up. She cheered, “So you’re all okay now? No more fighting? That’s great!” She headed for the door to the room and giggled, “I’ll go tell Nurse Redheart that her patients have recovered!”
The second she was out the door, Root closed it carefully and growled quietly, “Make no mistakes, Mud Boy, we aren’t friends by any means…”
“I agree Commander. So long as we are in the presence of such powerful creatures, we have nothing to gain from hostile interaction; they can disable us with a thought. Besides, how am I to be diplomatic if I try to harm another creature in their eyes?” The boy proceeded into the small bathroom on the far side of the medical room and began to change back to his usual attire.
Captain Short placed a hand on her head and scoffed, “I don’t know what you’re trying to do in this world, Mud Men, but I’m certain it’s no good. Don’t think you can just drain this place like you did your world.” She examined the two supporting humans extensively, wondering just why they would follow such a dangerous idea to the finish.
Butler stood from his seat for the first time since arriving in the room and advanced toward the door. The comparatively-tiny fairies all moved to the side to allow him unhindered passage, certain he wouldn’t hesitate to remove them himself.
As he passed he whispered, “His methods are despicable, but at its roots, it’s for a noble cause.” Before the magic creatures could respond, the brute was out the door and walking the halls of the seemingly-cramped hospital. Juliet followed him out the door, not stopping to say a word.
Artemis exited the bathroom with his stylistic suit on and tossed his patient gown on his bed. As he stepped from the room, the genius picked up the LEPrecon helmet and nodded affirmatively at the two officers. The officers reacquired their weapons as the dwarf took off. By the time Nurse Redheart and Twilight Sparkle had returned to the room, all six foreigners were gone, exploring their surroundings at their own leisure.
The two patient gowns were left hanging on a hook on the back of the door.