With great effort, she opened her eyes. Her entire body felt sore and stiff.

Lactic acid. I was struggling for a while.

Twilight Sparkle and her allies stood over her. Twilight was looking particularly apologetic.

"Good to see that you're awake. I'm really sorry, Holly. You have to believe me," she whispered.

"Kind of too late to tell me I have to believe you," grunted the elf, rising to her feet.

"Are you… feeling all right?" asked Twilight.

"Better than I was. Just a little sick to my stomach."

"It'll probably go away," assured the unicorn.

"Well, now that… whatever that was is taken care of, I need to go."

"Need to go? Where?"

"I need to find Katniss. I need to apologize."

"Couldn't that wait until after the round?" said Alucard.

"No. I need to make sure she's okay, to make it up to her."

"Well, if you're going to go," said Ryuko, "you need to know about Dio."

"Dio? As in, the band, or the artist?"

"This Dio is a powerful vampire, and he's leading the Master's team. I was part of his new blood, he had me brainwashed. The other new-" Holly was raising her hand.

"…What?" sighed Ryuko.

"So, he's a vampire," Holly said, indicating Alucard, "Your sailor suit is a vampire, and this head honcho is a vampire? You know, you could have told me earlier, and I would have brought wooden stakes and garlic."

"While very interesting, I fail to find this relevant." Said Twilight, who motioned to Ryuko to continue.

"Anyway, you need to steer clear of him. He's incredibly strong, and can regenerate almost as fast as Alucard here. Plus, he can fire beams out of his eyes, and… well, I don't know what to call it. He can... make things happen. Just be careful."

"Okay, fine. I'll keep away from any vampires named Dio. Anything else?"

"Nothing as far as I know," said Twilight. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes. I made a vow to take care of Katniss, and that's exactl… ugh…" she groaned, clutching her stomach.

While Twilight and Ryuko closed in to find out what was wrong with their friend, Alucard took a step back, drawing his pistols. Twilight gave him a bewildered look.

"What are you doing?"

"The smart thing," he said, taking aim at the elf.

Holly doubled over, heaving. Having watched many horror movies in her day, she was at least a little relieved that she was feeling what was distinctly reverse peristalsis, and not something gouging its way out of her. She vomited up a thin, black liquid, which pooled in the cracks of the cobblestone below her. Thankfully, it didn't taste like much of anything.

"Oh, gross," said Ryuko and Twilight nearly simultaneously. Alucard merely shifted his aim toward the puddle. Holly stared down at the stuff intently, until it zipped away, running along the spaces between the stones and forming itself into another puddle on the far side of the street.

"That's… not good," whispered Twilight.

The puddle slowly began to take shape, rising up off the ground. Two trickling streams formed themselves into supporting limbs, and as the top of the geyser got broader, another two formed manipulating devices. The top bubbled into a distinctly round shape, and slowly, the liquid stopped looking like liquid at all.

"Really not good," reiterated Twilight.

A small, gracile hand reached up and swept a lock of hair out of its wide, almond-shaped eyes. It then examined the hand for a while, wiggling the slender fingers, touching its dainty nose and small chin. It looked down at its body, craning its neck to get a better view.

"D'Arvit," cursed Holly. "It's me."

Indeed, the creature that now stood before them was a near facsimile of the LEPrecon officer, down to the haircut. Quite distinctly, it was devoid of any of the elf's lively fairy color. Its skin, its clothes and its hair were all a flat gray. Except for the eyes, which seemed to be a color beyond comprehension, constantly shifting between unrecognizable hues.

"How interesting," it said softly.

Alucard fired at the creature, with his typical accuracy. The creature merely raised a hand, and the bullet tumbled to the ground, flattened.

"I wouldn't do that again, if I were you."

Alucard slowly put his weapons away.

"Now, I could take any form I wanted," it said. "But this does have a certain novelty to it, doesn't it?"

"What in Frond's name are you?" asked Holly, keeping her voice low to avoid incurring her doppelganger's wrath.

"Come on, we went over this. I'm the bomb," it said in Twilight's voice.

"Twilight, you don't have a spell that can kill that thing, do you?" asked Ryuko, panicked.

"No… I-I don't."

"Relax," it said, walking away. "I'm not here for you anyway. I'm not here for any of you. My business is elsewhere."

And with those words, it vanished.

"Well, I'm feeling a lot better now," said Holly, who activated her wings and took off at maximum speed.

"What the hell just happened?" growled Ryuko.

Twilight scratched her mane with a hoof.

"I have no idea. But that's not the only thing."

Oh, great, thought Ryuko.

"Alucard, did you notice anything odd about Holly, even after… that?"

"The police elf did… smell odd."

"I was getting weird biometric readings as I was doing the spell, too. It's probably just some side effects of… that."

"Yes, let's leave it at that! Don't bother explaining to me!" screamed Ryuko.

"Ryuko, I know that negativity is providing you with some sort of emotional high, but I don't have time for such dramatics."

"Oh, one of these days…" she fumed as the group set off toward the center of town.

***

With a mighty slam, the jumpsuited young man hit the ground. This time, he didn't get back up. Adam walked back to his comrade, who sat against a building cleaning her weapon.

"Another one bites the dust!" chirped Ruby, loading another magazine into Crescent Rose.

Katniss vaulted herself over the roof and landed with a momentum-transferring roll, examining the body and removing a few arrows from the tattered jumpsuit.

"You know, you're not really much of a ninja if you wear such bright colors, and shout out the names of your attacks all of the time," Continued the girl, collapsing her weapon into its more compact form.

"Perhaps being a ninja is a more subjective concept," offered Adam. "Like a way of life."

"But if it was a way of life, why wouldn't everybody be ninjas?"

Katniss wiped off the arrows and slipped them back into her quiver.

"Because if everyone was a ninja, no one would be," she said flatly.

Ruby's eyes grew wide with amazement.

"Whoa. That's deep."

For a moment, the team stood silent, appreciating the profound wisdom on the concept of universal ninjutsu.

"We had better get moving," said Adam, breaking the quiet.

Ruby hopped to her feet.

"That's right. We're pretty close now, aren't we?"

"Adam, could you give me a boost back up?" asked Katniss. The huge man picked the girl up in one hand, lightly tossing her back onto the roof she had been perched on during the fight. Katniss found purchase on the shingles and pulled herself to her feet, examining the view from the rooftop. Only a block away stood the "mansion". It was quite the misnomer, as the sole governmental building was really more of a fortress. High ramparts rose over the other buildings, adorned by Spartan turrets. It didn't convey any sort of opulence at all, at least from the outside.

"Yes," she confirmed. "Very close."

"We brought Katniss on as a more technical member of the team," said Adam. "Since Ruby and I cover the 'brute-force' aspects of speed and power, I've developed a strategy that will allow us to capitalize on our individual strengths."

"I'm all ears," called Katniss, sitting on the rooftop's edge.

"The plan is very basic. If another team is occupying the mansion, which I have no doubt is the case, they will most likely have a majority of their forces defending the front gate. If Ruby and I attack there, we can probably draw out another section of their team. This would leave the interior lightly guarded at best. If you were to infiltrate by climbing over the ramparts, there would be little resistance for you to capture the building from the inside out."

"It sounds reasonable, I guess. Ruby, what do you think?"

"I just want a chance to use this new catchphrase I was working on," she replied.

"Then I think we're ready," said Katniss.

"Good. Then let us commence the operation." Adam swept Ruby into his arms and tossed her onto his shoulders. She wiggled her arms in an attempt to maintain balance.

"OK, then!" she giggled. "Let's go RAKE some leaves!"

Katniss gave her a blank stare. Adam turned his head to look at the girl perched on his back.

"I don't get it," he said softly.

"It's our team name! Ruby, Adam, and Katniss Everdeen! Because it's spelled with a 'K' and an 'E'! RAKE, like the garden-"

"I get it," said Katniss. "It's just not funny."

"It's not supposed to be funny," whined Ruby.

"It's not intimidating either."

"Fine. You come up with a better one."

Katniss shrugged and took off over the rooftops. The roofs were all packed so close together that it was almost child's play to dart along on top of them. She turned left, planning to circle toward the mansion's south side. She had noticed a small outer building to the structure that seemed to have been a late addition, an armory, perhaps. It was shorter than the ramparts it edged up against, but taller than the civilian buildings that surrounded it.

I guess I'm not that good with team names, either.

She leapt onto the next building and continued to pick up speed, launching from rooftop to rooftop, closing in on the armory. She was close. Three roofs, two, one. A narrow alley separated the building she stood on from the armory. It was a comparatively easy jump. Katniss took a few steps back, ran forward, and jumped upward, her fingers locking over the edge of the armory's roof.

Good. Now to swing myself up.

She rocked her legs to the left, and then to the right, her foot gaining purchase on the roof. Katniss pulled herself up, and rolled onto the roof of the armory. She was greeted by a high heel to the face. Instinctually, she contorted her body the other way- only to fall off the roof.

That was going just a little too well, wasn't it?

With a desperate grab, Katniss managed to snag the corner of a window to slow her descent. She let go and fell to her feet, wincing against the pain of impact. She slipped her bow into her hand and strung an arrow, scanning above for her attacker.

With a well-executed somersault, her assailant landed in front of her. It was an unusual amount of athleticism for someone dressed so formally. A well-tailored suit and medium-length skirt didn't seem at home on the battlefield. Neither did the small nametag that read "Janice Starling, CEO".

"A… businesswoman? What?" Katniss was a little bewildered.

"Sorry, do you have a problem with that?" she said. Katniss detected something off about her. She had the voice of an adult, but certainly looked a lot younger. Far too young, in fact.

Plastic surgeries? Probably.

"No, no problems. I've got no issues with killing whoever gets in my way. I just expected some sort of swordfighter, alien, or undead creature."

"Oh, don't worry, Katniss. I'm far worse than those." Her grin certainly was worrying.

"You know my name?"

"Of course. Lord Dio made sure we got ahold of some recommended reading."

Oh. Of course she has.

"Lord Dio… is he a friend of yours?"

"He's the leader of our team, yes. And if I recall correctly, he's beating the life out of your little buddies right now. If you ran, you could probably make it to them on time, to beg for mercy."

"But you won't let it be so easy, will you?"

"Oh, you're smart. Your father wasn't kidding about you."

Katniss felt her hands involuntarily clench around her weapons far more tightly than normal. She raised her bow at the woman.

"Hit a sore spot there? Excellent," she oiled, raising her hands into what seemed to be a poorly-formed karate stance.

She's clearly no martial artist, unless she's hustling.

Katniss released her grip on the arrow, the projectile ripping through the woman's thigh. She screamed like she had hardly felt pain before, falling to the ground and desperately trying to pull it out.

"Sorry, ma'am. I need to keep moving. Maybe you can crawl back to Lord Dio and tell him to get better team members. I'm not sure what he was thinking when he-"

The woman wasn't screaming anymore. In fact, she was now laughing, albeit through gritted teeth. She wrenched the arrow out of her leg and stood, with some effort.

"I was looking forward to fighting you, Everdeen," her smile unnerving for someone in such pain. Katniss took a cautious step back.

"I… I just put an arrow through your leg. Don't tell me that you're not human."

"Katniss, are you familiar with the story of the Fountain of Youth?"

"Yeah… did you find it or something?"

The woman's head jerked violently to one side, her gaze remaining fixed on the girl.

"Not quite. Of course, a real Fountain of Youth is just a fairy tale, but with a little ingenuity, you can derive similar results from nature."

"I don't like where this is going," whimpered Katniss.

"No, you don't." she confirmed, accentuated by more erratic movements. Something squelched, something else made stretching sounds.

"What… are you doing?"

"I find it very interesting," grunted the woman, as she tumbled onto the ground. She caught herself with her hands, heaving with every breath. "That you have had traumatic experiences…"

Katniss saw something shift under her clothing. The woman tossed away her suit jacket, and pulled her shirt off. Two huge, transparent wings erupted out of her back.

"…with wasps."

Her body writhed under the changes, her human skin rapidly swallowed by chitinous exoskeleton. Segments spread over her limbs as they thinned into clawed appendages. Mandibles clicked together below soulless compound eyes while antennae twitched back and forth, feeling and smelling and hearing simultaneously. The terror that had replaced the seemingly harmless woman was far more wasp than human. A comparatively delicate looking female torso was the only clue remaining as to what the creature had been, as some soft, pink flesh still peeked out from underneath the insect's armor. Four murderous-looking legs supported her weight, while the woman's arms hung limply at her sides, twisted into armored claws. A massive abdomen trailed behind the creature, tipped with a foot-long stinger.

Katniss found herself struggling to find words as her mind raced between fear and disgust, staggering backward down the alley. At first, she was relieved that it stayed still… until she felt a wall behind her back. The creature tilted its head, almost as if it was regarding a child asking it a stupid question.

Condescending… it thinks it is better than me. She's still in there somewhere, pulling the strings. It's not some dumb animal. I need to see what it can do before I can plan out a strategy.

Katniss strung another arrow, letting herself slip to the fight side of fight-or-flight. She fired, and as she expected, the tip could not pierce the thick, insectoid armor. The creature began to advance, its stilt-like legs scraping across the stones.

"Man, Janice, is it a bad day to be you," said Katniss quietly.

The creature stopped, and made a few clicking noises that Katniss interpreted as "Why?"

"Because if I can't shoot through that armor of yours, I'll just have to squish you," she finished, popping her knuckles and slipping her bow over her shoulder. She wrung out her arms and crossed them over her body, bouncing on her toes. Janice's wings buzzed to life, propelling the giant wasp down the alley. Katniss ducked under the creature as it slammed into the wall behind her, and flowed directly into a leg sweep, knocking the wasp's two left legs out from under it. She rolled to the right as the insect lost its footing, smacking into the alley's left wall.

If I keep this up, it'll practically kill itself.

The creature scrabbled for purchase to right itself, but its small, more-human arms weren't large enough to support the weight of its own lower body. Katniss took advantage of such vulnerability by placing a foot on its exposed thorax and shoving as hard as she could. The exoskeleton buckled underneath the force, and Janice let out a shrill wail that was all too human. Enraged, it swung its body to the right, managing to slip its legs back beneath itself.

Katniss ducked into the creature's blind spot, kneeling just next to its abdomen. Janice swung her head around, her compound eyes glittering in the dark. Katniss leapt into the air, swinging her foot outward.

"Shinrin-Kisai kyaku!"

Her heel gutted one of the glistening eyes, and the wasp raised a hand to its face as it howled in pain. Katniss slipped her bow back into her hand, notching an arrow into place. She aimed for the space between the creature's fingers, where she could get a shot into its nervous tissue. She levelled the bow, took a controlled breath, and felt something tear into her stomach. She looked down at the stinger impaling her.

"Oh," she gasped, and fell onto her back.

The wasp creature slowly advanced to her fallen foe, still holding her wounded eye. Katniss tried to get up, but it seemed that her arms and legs were frozen in place. For the wasted effort, she was rewarded by coughing up a thin stream of blood.

It paralyzed me. I can't get away.

The edges of her vision darkened as she watched Janice's segmented free arm reach toward her neck. Katniss let her eyes close, considering whether or not she was going to be eaten, or just mauled to death. She exhaled slowly, as her vision filled with fluttering blue sparks. At least she would see something pretty before she died.

Wait. Those aren't a hallucination.

The sparks congealed in a flash of blue light, and a young man suddenly stood between Katniss and the wasp. Janice scuttled backward in surprise. Similar to her pre-transformation, he was clothed in formal attire, with an exceptionally-well tailored black suit. He also donned a pair of dark, reflective sunglasses. The only thing about his outfit that seemed out of place was a silver cuff unceremoniously clipped over his suit's left arm.

"Excuse me, madam," he said with a lilt in his voice. Katniss thought the accent sounded familiar, almost like Holly's.

"I am afraid you will have to leave the girl alone."

Janice twisted her wounded, bleeding head in defiance.

"I think you'll find it in your best interest to cooperate, Starling." He tapped something on the cuff, and in another flash of blue sparks, a hulking bald man, dressed in similar garb, appeared behind him.

"Butler here has a dartgun equipped with a variety of serums prepared specifically for this situation. He has one that will turn you back into a human; this will cause you to die of blood loss from your wound. He has another that will turn you into something more awful, but the explosive growth of new tissue will leave you completely immobile."

Janice hissed angrily, fluttering her wings.

"If you would like to make things more difficult, he is also armed with three pistols, a garrote, two combat knives, a nunchaku, and a custom-built oversized Neutrino blaster. That's not counting the ways he can kill you with his bare hands, which I calculate to be exponentially more than a normal human thanks to all of those extra limbs."

The wasp rushed toward the duo, bending its abdomen ahead of it and brandishing the stinger as a battering ram. The young man sidestepped the attack, while his colossal servant threw an overhead punch powerful enough that it stopped the creature in its tracks when it connected with her chest. The exoskeleton snapped and buckled, thick yellow blood oozing from the ruined armor. Janice was stunned by the attack, clutching her new wound as she wailed in agony.

The huge man chained together a cannonade of strikes, each one smashing through the insect's armor and punctuated by a battle cry.

"ORAORAORAORAORAORA!"

When he finished, Janice was a spiny, bloody mess. Her limbs twitched helplessly at her sides, their own armored skin now inhibiting their movement. Butler turned to his charge.

"Shall I?"

"If you please," said the young man. With what seemed like very little effort, Butler tore off Janice's head, tossing it aside. The two walked to Katniss' fallen body, kneeling at her side. The young man drew a small flashlight, shining it in the girl's eyes.

"Good. It hasn't gotten to her nervous system. Butler, inject her with the anti-venom. I'll apply the medkit."

Katniss felt something slip under the skin of her arm, and slowly feeling returned to her body. Unfortunately, the feeling was pain. She tensed up, struggling to sit up. The young man pushed her back down.

"Don't try anything yet," he said firmly. "You've still got quite the hole in your stomach."

He pressed something up against her wound, and the deep, gouging pain began to subside. Katniss caught a glimpse of blue sparks fluttering across her stomach.

"M...magic?" she stuttered.

"Yes. That's a fairy medkit. Concentrated warlock magic, stored in crystals with a crush-activated trigger. Looks like it's about done stitching you up."

Katniss cautiously placed a hand on the injury, finding only a scar left behind.

"A fairy medkit? Like-"

"Holly? Yes," he chuckled, removing his sunglasses and tucking them inside his jacket. One of his eyes was a pale blue, the other a bright hazel. Katniss had seen those eyes before.

"Nice to meet you, Katniss Everdeen. My name is Artemis Fowl." He extended a hand, and helped the girl to her feet.

"So… you know Holly?"

"That's right. Holly and I are good friends. And that's what I heard about you, too."

Katniss didn't really appreciate being talked to like a kid, but considering that he had just saved her life, she wasn't going to complain.

"Well, we were friends. She sort-of betrayed me. I'm not really sure you could say we're on the best of terms."

Artemis slipped his hands into his jacket pockets, shrugging.

"I know that this is all terribly familiar for you. Fighting for your life, in a world made to torment you. But it's not like that for everyone. Holly didn't live in a world like this, and people can do bad things under the pressure. I know it sounds selfish, but you need to forgive her."

"After what she did? I'm not sure."

"I'm sorry, Katniss, but I'm afraid that I have to go. You'll have to come to a decision on your own about that. Before I leave, I have to tell you something important."

"Okay," muttered Katniss, not really sure what to expect.

"One. Holly cannot know that you saw me here. Two. If you see someone that looks like Holly, and is not Holly, don't trust them."

With that, he tapped a button on the silver cuff, and both he and his bodyguard disappeared in a shower of sparks.

What the hell was that all about?

For a moment, she sat down in the alley, trying to puzzle it out. She looked over at the broken giant wasp remains, shuddering. For that man to be able to kill her so quickly…

Oh, crap. My team!

Katniss hopped to her feet, snagged the arrows she had fired off the ground, and took off in the opposite direction.

I just hope I can get there in time.