Chapter 2 - Abbot

Check again. This game was probably Artemis’ toughest challenge yet. And that was saying something about his opponent. Artemis always destroyed his opponents in chess. However, against this one, he always won by the skin of his teeth. He took about three minutes before he made his move. “Check…” he paused, making sure he didn’t miss a thing, “…mate.”

“Darn,” came a young girl’s voice from his computer. “I was sure I had you this time.” The young girl’s face was visible by webcam and she had a frustrated look on her face. The fifteen year old was twirling her curly blonde hair with her forefinger. “I’ve never won a match yet!”

“Don’t worry Minerva.” Artemis replied modestly. Modesty however was not one of the black haired Irish boy’s strong points.

“But I do!” Minerva said exasperated. “This is the tenth game in a row you’ve won. Even if you were saving demons from a timeless warp, three years past and I still can’t compete with you.”

Artemis’ ring on his middle finger began to vibrate. “Please hold. I must take this,” and then he removed the ring and placed it on his palm. He then held his three middle fingers on the ring and extended his pinky and his thumb. He then held his hand so that the thumb was positioned next to his ear, and his pinky next to his mouth. By all appearances, he looked like a silly teenager with a fake phone.

However, Artemis Fowl was far from a silly teenager, neither was this a phony phone. It was his own invention really. The ring is able to receive any communication signals that are trying to make contact. The caller’s voice is then sent to his thumb and the sound vibrations are able to travel to his ear like a regular speaker. Artemis is then able to send his voice into his pinky finger, and then the vibrations are sent through his hand, into his ring, and sent to the other phone. This type of technology was decades, maybe centuries ahead of his time. Artemis answered the call. “Hello?”

“Hey Artemis,” came another woman’s voice. “I see your still using that ring of yours.”

Artemis chuckled. “Whatever do you mean by that Holly?”

Holly smirked on the other side, “You know exactly what I mean Mud-Boy.”


Holly was not normal either. At least, not to the average person. In fact, she lived in a place with people no one has ever seen before. Not for millions of years. Holly was an elf. She had brown skin, auburn hair, and hazel eyes. Well, one of them was hazel. The other was blue, because she had switched eyes with Artemis after an incident with the entire demon race.

When the humans (or, the Mud-Men) first came into creation, they had forced the magical creatures of the world to hide deep beneath the Earth’s crust, and the demons into a time warp.

She was standing behind a centaur who was typing furiously at his computer.
“You know, if it weren’t for the fact that you helped save the world and the People four times in a row, we’d arrest you right now for stealing technology.”

It was true. Artemis was only able to create his ring by reverse engineering a couple of LEPrecon helmets he obtained while he was still a criminal genius. Yes LEPrecon. Apparently, being a leprechaun is a job, not a species. And Artemis was one of the extremely few people in the world that knew this.

“Please, even if you were to try to capture me, I have escaped from the LEP before.” Artemis replied.

The centaur scoffed. “Please! We have created sensors and scanners that can locate a specific spec of dust any where on the planet. There is nowhere on Earth that you can run Mud-Boy!”

Here we go, Thought Artemis. Same old Foaly. Foaly the centaur was a technological maniac. He’s the sole reason the LEP has all of the weapons, consoles, suits, vehicles, you name it. He could conquer the world if he wasn’t careful. What was most annoying about Foaly was that he would always brag and rant about his new toys. “So why have you called Holly?” asked Artemis. “I assume you didn’t call to reminisce.”

“Sharp as usual.” Holly replied. “We’d like you to keep an eye out. Nothing serious, but I want you on the look out nonetheless. Abbot escaped.”

“Leon Abbot?” Artemis almost burst out laughing. “A guinea pig got out of your dear centaur’s sensors?” Well, Abbot was technically a guinea pig because he was forced there. He was originally a cruel demon whose consciousness took over the body of another demon by accident. Once he was caught, his mind was sent to a guinea pig as his punishment.

Foaly fumed. He never liked to be teased about his toys. “It wasn’t the sensors d’arvit! He just vanished!”

“A rodent Houdini Foaly?” Artemis was clearly enjoying this, and poking fun at Foaly was too easy for him. “I assume your special scanners and sensors are saying that Abbot is no longer on this planet?” Foaly fell silent, “Your silence speaks volumes my friend,” Artemis said while smiling his creepy vampire smile that only he could.

“Leave him alone,” Holly, said, “You know he has superiority issues.”

Foaly was about to say something when his sensors went ballistic. Foaly turned his attention to his console and tried to find the problem. It was a breach. One of the fairy people somehow got onto the surface. What’s more, he was standing close to Fowl manor. Foaly was dumbstruck. According to his readings, it was a demon. “Look alive, Mud-Boy, there’s a demon right around your house!”

Artemis could not help but chuckle. “A demon, Foaly?”

Just then, a large, seven-foot man burst into the room, and he did not look happy. Of course, he rarely ever was any way. Butler had served as Artemis’ bodyguard for all of his life. And keeping a criminal mastermind safe was never an easy job. “Artemis,” Butler heaved. He was getting too old for this. Artemis could tell he ran all the way from the security room. “There’s a demon that just barged onto the manor.”

Minerva was startled, “A demon? What could one be doing over there? I thought they were all in haven.”

“Believe me now Mud-Boy?” Foaly had neighed.

Artemis couldn’t. For one thing, if Foaly was right, and he did just appear out of nowhere, then that would mean that this demon was probably a warlock. “Foaly,” Artemis asked, “where are N°1, Qwan, and Qweffor?”

Foaly checked. N°1, Qwan, and Qweffor were the only three known demon warlocks. These warlocks had enough power to move whole mountains if they wanted. “All three of them are with us at the LEP. Why?”

Impossible, Artemis thought. If they are there, then we never met this demon before. Moreover, demons cannot just become warlocks. The thing about demons is that either they are born as warlocks, or they are just regular imps that warp into demons. They cannot just learn magic. “Butler, do we know this demon?”

Butler stared out the window. “Quite possible.”

Artemis looked out of the window. His eyes opened wide, the color drained from his face. Outside the window, in full view, was a demon with the same curved horns, the same-layered plates on his limbs, and that same cruel, deranged face. Standing outside, was Leon Abbot.

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