If

Deceptions - 5

Holly's Journal

Foaly told me to write down a log here, since the files on this probably won't be accurate. Alright, Just for him. So a while back, before any of whatever the heck this is was going on, I was on another recon mission. I missed being in the field. I was assigned to bring in a rouge bull troll, like the good old days. I put on some of the new Hummingbirds. Finally, we have some decent equipment. I entered the chute. For some reason, the Mach 2 force no longer terrified me. 'Well well, Commandore,'  I thought to myself. I landed the shuttle and quickly zipped toward the bull troll's blip on the tracking system. I landed like a cat and stealthily snuck over to where the troll was supposed to be. Foaly came over the com's 'Holly, we're detecting an unknown signal from the troll. Get out of there now!' The troll chuckled. It melted like dust. It reassembled itself into something. I cannot remember it now. Foaly even scoured my mind for it. It mind-wiped my memory of it, somehow. It became some sort of menacing figure, and from there, my mind draws a blank.  Hang on dumb log, Artemis is coming in. 

"Hi Artemis." I said.

"Hi Holly." He said. The look in his crystal eyes worried me. His expression was new and different. Then I realized something. One of his eyes was hazel. I blanched, but didn't tell him why. Something was wrong. Very wrong. "Holly come with me. I need to show you something." He was uncharacteristically vague. And he hardly ever talked about his inventions. The-thing-that-was-not-artemis looked at me.

"You know something, don't you." He grinned. His eyes flickered. I saw through the illusion. I saw a void. I saw hunger. But I saw a flicker too. Something that was trapped. The shifters weren't evil, I realized, for that was what the creature pretending to be Artemis was, they were being controlled by greed. Their emotions. Or perhaps something else. The void was so thick, the absence of light was almost tangible. I felt myself warping to it and looked away. I hated to knock out Artemis. But this isn't Artemis, I chided myself. I knocked him out swiftly. I carried him to Foaly. He was working busily at his desk, hooves bouncing nervously. "Foaly, I found a shifter." I told him. 
"Really?!" He said excitedly. "This will be perfect for study and experiments, as well as-" 
"Foaly." I reprimanded him, "Where will we keep it? Foaly?" 

Foaly was staring at the unconscious being, transfixed.

"Snap out of it Foaly." I said. "Seriously. Where is it going to be kept?" 

"Why contain it?" He suggested. 

"Foaly, for a centaur as smart as you, that is the most absolute sh** I have ever heard you say." 

"But it needs to be free. It is going to help the world and technology. Its going to save us!"

"FOALY, SNAP OUT OF IT

"No," Foaly said in a raspy new voice. "I have him now. The centaur is under my power. I am Simon...and what I say...goes."

"Like that silly mud man game?" 

"Yes, ARGH. Stupid centaur! you cannot fight back against my power! I have returned!"

"Who ARE you??" 

"What do YOU think short? Don't you remember me?" 

"Turnball root?" I guessed.

"NO YOU IDIOT, OPAL!" Foaly shrieked.

I stifled a laugh. A shrieking centaur is extremely comical. 

A black cloud seemed to consume Foaly and the Fake Artemis.

"What is this?" I yelled. I grabbed my Neutrino 2000 ( I still prefer older models ) and started blasting. It penetrated the dark fog but it just melted back together.

I kept blasting. The fog began to dissipate, but the Fake Artemis and Foaly were gone.

I looked at where the fog had been. "Ok then Opal. I think you'd like to meet my friend, Mister Gun."

I dashed out of the room to find Artemis. Time to assemble the troops.

My only thought as I rushed out was, How many times am I going to have to save the world?