Foaly had become very secretive over the past few months. He was rarely seen outside of his labs, allowed no-one else in there and only ever came out for coffee. Everyone was puzzling over what he was doing in there.

Six months after Foaly’s unusual behaviour began, he called Holly into his lab.

“Get ready for this, Holly. It’s going to blow your mind!”

Holly was singularly unimpressed. He crossed the room to a panel of the wall that was just slightly different to the rest. He pushed aside a pinup photograph of himself and Caballine at a theme park, revealing a number pad and screen. He keyed in a series of numbers - Holly saw the order. 5…1…9…4…4…2…3…6…7…6…8.

The wall slid aside, revealing a narrow corridor lined with pipes and wires. There was a single walkway down the middle of it, only just large enough for single file movement. He led her down a series of networked tunnels, some of them so fresh that the earth was still visible through patches of the wall. After they had walked for what seemed like an eternity, they finally emerged in a cavernous chamber. The walls were lined with computer screens running diagnostics and various programs. The floor was metal hexagons and the roof was barely visible. Cables and pipes as thick as Holly’s entire body stretched off into the far end of the room.

In the centre of the cavernous room was a single fairy storage unit, used by the LEP to store seriously injured officers until a warlock could administer to them. This one, however, was radically different. It was angled at a forty-five degree angle and had a myriad of pipes and cables feeding into it.

“Holly, may I present to you…”

Foaly typed on a Gnommish keyboard next to the storage pod, and a loud hissing followed by a release of white gas told Holly that the pod was opening.

“LEP-centurion zero zero one.” completed the centaur. Holly’s jaw dropped.

The figure before her was more machine than fairy. He had been an agent on a mission with her, and he had unfortuneatly been caught in a magma flare and critically injured. She hadn’t seen him for…

Six months.

To describe him properly, one must begin at the feet. They were clad in iron boots with slightly curved shin guards. The thigh armour was layered, like a demon’s plates, to allow ease of movement. Both of the legs had pistons on the outside of them to boost their performance. His torso was covered in inch-thick armour plating lined with kevlar. His belly was armoured with plates that moved easily over one another. His shoulders had large, protruding greaves on them, and the right arm was heavily armoured, ending in a huge fist that crackled with raw energy. His left arm had been burnt off at the elbow, so the forelimb had been replaced by a Neutrino-X gauss cannon, which had an aura of green-blue energy. The weapon was used specifically for breaching armoured doors.

But worst of all was his head. His right eye was covered by a target-finder, built into the flesh and bone itself. His hair had been regrown, but was grey and aged. A vicious scar ran from the side of his mouth to his temple, showing his teeth and gum on one side. His remaining eye flashed different colours - now blue, now red, now white. His grey hair stuck up in tufts, not like bedhead but like it crackled with silver energy. Every inch of bare skin was a pale blue-grey, making him look like a corpse.

“He’ll revolutionise the way the LEP operate. Isn’t it brilliant? Holly?”

Holly looked Foaly in the eye, a solitary tear running down her nut-brown cheek.

“Oh, Foaly… what have you become? You’ve sinned against nature.”

And with that last word, she turned and ran. She regretted not paying more attention when they were coming down - she was lost in moments. She heard the clang of hooves on metal, followed by the noticeably louder clang of iron boots. She did not know where she was going, only that she had to escape. She turned several corners, and ran for what seemed like an age. Finally she collapsed, her knees up to her chest, sobbing.

“Foaly, what have you become?”

Suddenly, she heard a trickle of water. She turned and saw the glow of moonlight on water reflected on the tunnel wall ahead of her - she had left the metal pipes behind long ago, and was running through tunnels carved out by her ancestors. She moved ahead, and saw it.

The spring at Tara. It was closed to the general public, because mud people were known to hang around here. She also knew that Artemis drank bottled water taken from the spring. Logically, if she waited here, she would eventually see Artemis.

She heard his voice from above. Unfortunately, she also heard, from the tunnel behind her, the clump of iron boots on compacted earth. She turned and saw LEP-centurion001 advancing towards her, charging the weapon that he wielded. At this range it was powerful enough to completely obliterate every last atom of her being. Foaly was yelling into her earpiece.

“He’s gone rampant! Get out of there!”

She didn’t need telling twice. She turned and executed a flawless swan dive into the icy water. Behind her, the blast from the gauss cannon blasted out from the tunnel entrance, quite literally carving a hole four feet wide and high in the wall on the other side.

Artemis was busy in the bentley, on the laptop moving funds around, when he heard the splash followed by the ffffccchooooooooooommmm of the gauss cannon. Butler spoke into his ear piece.

“Artemis. It’s Holly. She’s under fire!”

end of part one

Some other stories by LEP-recon124:

• Probably the coolest thing ever (Part one of a series that I have no idea when will finish)
• World War 3 (Part 1)
• LEP-centurion001 part two
• Pariah (a dreams and nightmares spin-off)
• Death (alternate ending)