5I own no characters organizations, etc.
Chapter Seven
"So what is the reason for this meeting Anderson?"
"Artemis Fowl, Sir."
"Fowl? I left him in your care months ago, I told you that I don't have time for failed experiments."
"But sir you did watch those tapes I gave you correct? Well those were just his first time in combat and he was coming up with strategies like that! In the last six months he has only continued to get better and better, every new strategy he comes up with is as brilliant as it is simple."
"And in how many of those strategies has he so much as froze another player? In how many has he been part of the game?"
"If the strategy is brilliant enough, he won't need to be in it will he?"
"Well what about this situation with the older launchies? They are still hurting from when the Byrne girl sent them flying, and are out for revenge right?"
"And here I thought you weren't paying attention."
"Don't get smart with me Anderson, I am always paying attention. But you have to agree the day will come when Artemis won't have his little bodyguard on hand. How will his strategy save him then?"
Artemis looked up from the fantasy game he was playing as laughter came from the bunk next to his, Kurt was laughing with a few of the other launchies presumably to some joke one of them had said. Their launch group had become close in the last few months, since the first time they practiced in the battle room everyone had quietly accepted Artemis' leadership and since then he had proved his leadership capabilities repeatedly. So what was this strange feeling in his stomach? Watching Kurt joke around with the other boys from their group mad him feel... jealous? no not jealous... he didn't want to trade places with Kurt. He felt... excluded. That was the feeling... while the group had gotten closer, Artemis wasn't part of the group, he was their pale, brilliant, but silent leader with the Vampire-like smile. The boys would never walk up to him and joke like they would with Kurt, or ask for help learning battle room movements like they did with Iris. Artemis could remember all of the boys by name, he knew what they were good at, what their weaknesses were, and what they could do if they were pushed, but that didn't make them his friends...
Artemis' chain of thought was interrupted when a sudden weight bumped into his shoulder gently as Iris sat down next to him. "What's with the sour look on your face Arty? You got indigestion?" She prodded playfully. She had recently started calling him 'Arty' like Kurt did, and Artemis was thankful that it hadn't spread to the rest of the group. 'Arty' was the pet name his mother had always used and it tended to catch him off guard.
Artemis paused for a moment to collect his thoughts before answering Iris "No I don't have indigestion, why are you asking?"
"Well we're friends right? Friends look out for each other." Iris smiled with an unusually girly giggle. Artemis silently stared at her, that was right, Artemis wasn't alone, Iris and Kurt were still his friends and that was more that he wanted wasn't it? When he first got to the battle school he didn't even want them as his friends and here he was wanting even more friends. The thought was so amusing to Artemis that he chuckled, catching Iris by surprise. "Huh? Whats funny about that?"
Artemis opened hi mouth to explain, but suddenly closed it as his eyes fell upon one of his launchies who had just walked in the door. It was a small Hispanic boy from Oaxaca named Bruno who normally stuck around Greg, his eyes were downcast causing his face to be shadowed. From Artemis' lower bunk he could still make out the bright red line where his lip had recently been split and the tell-tale purple on his cheekbone where a bruise had started to form. It had been going on for a several weeks now where Members of their group had started showing signs of being bullied, but it had never been so obvious before. Bruno was a proud person, so he probably fought back and got it worse in return.
Iris must have noticed Artemis' face suddenly go blank because she let out a small gasp as she turned and saw what he was looking at. "That's going too far" She whispered to Artemis "I mean how are they going to explain that? He fell down the stairs? Not exactly many stairs in this station neh?"
"Ya, we are going to have to get this to stop." Artemis was staring off into space "After all this is our problem, not their's" Artemis gestured to the rest of the group. Iris frowned to show she didn't understand what he meant. "You'll understand soon enough" He smiled and pulled out his desk again starting up the fantasy game. Iris didn't bother saying anything else, she knew he wanted to think, but that didn't mean she had to leave so she just sat there, the warmth of her back pressed up against Artemis' leg.
For the rest of the day Artemis didn't talk about what happened to Bruno, and Iris didn't ask. Bruno tried his best to hide his injuries but by the last meal everyone knew, the tension at the table occupied by his launch group nearly drove Artemis nuts. He felt like everyone was depending on him to do something about it, he was trying to keep everyone else calm by being calm himself but he really wasn't acting any different than he normally did. He worried that maybe they all just thought he didn't care about what was going on. But he did care, he was pretty sure he knew who was behind it too, none of the boys had spoken to him about it, but he could see on their faces as they would glance towards certain tables or grow quiet as someone walked by. It was the group that the boys from the game room belonged to, but even knowing this didn't help.
If Artemis went to the teachers he couldn't pin the blame on any one of them, but if he tried talking to the group as a whole he wouldn't be taken seriously, and he couldn't approach a random one because anyone other than the leader in the group wouldn't have the authority to stop the mistreatment anyway. He had to talk to their leader but just watching them didn't tell him who that was, maybe their leader didn't eat with them? Or maybe nobody else respected his authority? That would be bad, because then Artemis was unsure what would stop them.
Artemis had his questions answered the following day. It happened during free time, Iris and Kurt had gone up to the game room to play the five piece game that they normally did. Artemis normally went to watch, but he just didn't feel like it today. Iris was getting better at it but she still lost to Kurt seventy percent of the time. Instead Artemis decided to go watch another group practice in the battle room, the platform where you could watch the proceedings was normally vacant except for one or two older soldiers. Artemis assumed that the others were commanders who were scouting for potential recruits into their armies but he had never verified this, nobody every said anything to him while he watched and he never said anything to them.
Today when Artemis arrived no one else occupied the platform so Artemis chose a spot with a good view and leaned up against the bar. In the room there was an army using their free time to practice some maneuvers, it was rare to see an army practicing, normally they only practiced on scheduled times when no one else could watch. The army was practicing taking a star going at it in waves, it was effective, but too costly in Artemis' opinion; losing eight men to take a star held by three would weaken your army too much.
Musing about this Artemis didn't even notice the footsteps behind him until he could practically feel their body warmth. The boy leaned on the rail next to Artemis, his body turned towards Artemis and a fiendish grin on his face. "Hard to find you alone, little one." The boy's grin widened and some other people behind Artemis chuckled.
Artemis turned to face the boy and out of the corner of his eye he surveyed the rest of the room, there were just two others guarding the door, the other two Artemis recognized immediately from the game room. "I've been wondering when you would come." Artemis replied keeping his face straight "Been almost six months since I last met your boys."
This answer only seemed to please the other boy as he waved his hand to the other two "Who? Them? That's all in the past, what happened between you and them isn't my problem."
"Then why have you been bothering my group?" Artemis chose his words carefully, the other boy was trying to catch him off guard and was succeeding. "Wasn't this about revenge?"
"When two dogs get in a fight, do the masters shoot each other?" The boy asked sarcastically "I don't care about your little puppies, torturing them was just the easiest way to get you to take my request seriously."
"And what is your request?"
"Leave." The boy said with gusto "Get yourself iced and go home, it really isn't that uncommon for a launchie to break down and decide they can't live up here any longer."
Artemis had never even thought about going home, after six months on the battle station he didn't even know that he still had a home. "Why me?"
The other boy grinned as he mistook Artemis' words for a plea "Because you bother me." He paused before continuing "never trying to just fit in, always walking around like your better than everyone else, and having your launch group treat you like some kind of king." The boy shifted his stance so that he had his back front turned towards the door. "It annoys me just watching you, so I don't want to watch you any more." Artemis turned back to the battle room and remained silent. The boy sighed and pushed off the rail "Think it over" He began walking away "But don't take too long or one of your puppies might get seriously hurt."
Artemis listened to the boys chuckle as they walked away. Soon he was alone again, the army down below had moved on to new things but Artemis wasn't paying attention anymore, he had other things on his mind.
Chapter End
Sorry everyone, I know this chapter isn't nearly as long as normal but that's just how it is. The next chapter will be significantly longer but I won't have time to write it this week so it will be published in two weeks instead of one.
In case you have forgotten the two boys from the game room that are mentioned here are the asian and the red-head that Iris umm... helped fly... from back in chapter 5.
Also before I go I was wondering what you all do for inspiration when writing your stories? I read other fanfics but have decided that is bad because I always end up thinking "Oh, this person is such a better writer than me..." and then I get really into their story and never end up writing anything down... D:
So send me a PM if you have any suggestions for me or for the story, have a good two weeks!