Author's Note: This is my first fanfiction and I sincerely hope I portray all the characters correctly. I own nothing but my OCs, the plot, and my own Awesome Sauce.
Rate, Review, & Enjoy.
Things were running amok at the BPRD. They were getting a new agent, or rather, hiring one to be precise. As most can imagine, and others could see, the four returnee agents weren't very pleased with this; Hellboy especially. He'd been pacing for about two hours in the room he shared with Liz (which was cleaner due to raising their twins, or messier actually—depended on how you looked at it). He'd been sent out of the room after the twins spontaneously combusted and ran out of their room, giggling. It'd taken three hours to catch them as no one could really help, what with not being fire-proof and all.
Manning had a fit when he the damage costs were tallied up; a grand $6,822. Apparently Manning's office was particularlyflammable. When he'd yelled at Hellboy, the twins had returned to Liz, who had scolded them with a smile on her face.
She didn't really like Manning either. The way people shunned them—she was used to that; all the pictures that seemed to end up on the Internet, Photobucket in particular—she was adjusting well to that; but the name-calling? Honestly. It was just so immature and becoming so annoying with his constant repetition of his favorite F word. Freak. She hated that term even more than "fire starter", and that was quite a lot. She'd asked him to stop using the word near the children—they didn't need that so early on. His reply? "Why should I do anything for you, freak? You know how much pressure I'm under?! Or mad Washington is with me right now?!" He had continued to rant until the twins had set themselves on fire to see the colors, which made Manning shriek quite femininely. He avoided her for a week after that.
Abe Sapien, or "Blue" as Hellboy affectionately called him, was worried about the already tense atmosphere. He'd been withdrawing from the others since the Golden Army incident. Especially from Red (Hellboy) since he kept trying to cheer him up and his emotions were pretty much going to hell in a hand basket anyway. Liz understood, to an extent; she'd almost lost Hellboy. She knew how scary and sad everything seemed when your lover had a serious chance of not making it. That was where her understanding ended. Hellboy had lived, they frequently expressed how they felt about one another (good or bad), and he had two beautiful children. Nuala had not survived, he had not ever really told her how he'd felt, and he would never see the children they might've had. Seeing Hellboy's children both warmed and saddened him for this reason. But sad though he may be, Abe could find some happiness in researching various for Dr. Krauss.
Johann Krauss never asked Abe how he felt or if he wanted to drink his troubles away. He didn't care about those things and, having lost his wife, had decided to let Abe mourn in his own way rather than try to intervene. He had intervened enough, he'd thought; his decision to wait and plan their next move had almost cost them Hellboy. Krauss was still a reasonably new member of the team and as such, was vaguely worried that a new addition to their already tipsy ((in the off balance sense, not the drunk sense)) team would just make things worse.
"Already have a nanny," Red muttered, arm crossed and a cigar already half-chewed through. Liz elbowed him the gut and handed him his daughter, who proceeded to set herself on fire—as was both of the twins' new favorite thing to do. His son was holding Liz's hand, finger really, and sucking on his thumb. Both twins loved that Daddy couldn't set himself on fire and hat Mommy could, but that Daddy was fire-proof and made funny faces at them while on fire.
"It's not a nanny, it's a kid," Manning said absently, reading through the newbie's file. Abe looked over his shoulder to read the file; Manning was oblivious to this and Krauss was facing the lift with ramrod posture.
Name: Ba'al, Tien, Sekhmet, Aiwaiwa, Lisha, Airi, Cara, Chandrakanta, Sarah-Maude, Ugra, Adimu, Anup, Kakahi, Agilolf, Bhairavi, Hiwahiwa, Devakanta, Perdita
Age: N/A
Gender: Female
Place of Origin: N/A
Skin Color: Pale
Eye Color: Gray
Hair Color: Dark Red
Height: 5 ft, 6 in
Weight: N/A
Hobbies: N/A
Power: Under Observation
Specialty: Ancient Myths & Folklore, Guns, finding the impossible
""finding the impossible"?" Abe asked, curiosity growing. "That's not a category of expertise," Manning said, becoming flustered and throwing the file at Abe, who fumbled but caught it without losing a page. "What idiot put that on there?!"
Abe opened the file to read it again, to be certain. It was a good five minutes of silence before the others looked at him in concern. "Agent Sapien, what is the matter?" Krauss asked. "Her names," Abe stated simply, reading them and trying to translate all of them. "I can't translate them all, but most are old and they seem to come from everywhere!"
"Whoa, names?!" Hellboy said, just tuning into the conversation then. "As in, more than one?" His daughter was currently seeing if she could burn his hair, but no avail. "That is the general meaning of a plural, Agent Hellboy," Krauss stated offhand, looking at the file with Abe. Hellboy glared at the nanny and muttered some words that weren't for use in polite society. Liz elbowed him again. "Not around the kids," she hissed at him, narrowing her eyes slightly.
"Ah ha!" Abe exclaimed, sitting down in a conveniently placed cushy couch (uncommon for the lobby but not unappreciated, as there were a few of them there). He found a crumpled up note that looked like something had tried to eat it and decided not to. Bite marks included. Thankfully, Abe didn't get anything the note—too old, but he did not that it was in Egyptian hieroglyphics which had been translated on another, newer page behind it. "What is it, Agent Sapien?" Krauss asked, turning to look at him as he refused to leave his spot, wanting to be ready to greet the new agent.
"There's a crumpled up page with its translations on a newer page here. Her names!" He proceeded to list them off to the others. After a few moments, Hellboy got an excited look on his face. "Perdita? Off 101 Dalmatians!? I used to love that movie!" he exclaimed. Liz gave him a look. "Thought you were a cat lover," she said, raising an eyebrow at him. "Uh, I am, I just… like the movie… Ow!" His daughter had gotten bored with trying set him on fire and had moved on to hair pulling, the all-time favorite of children everywhere.
"What her many names mean, Agent Sapien?" Krauss asked, being too polite to just take the paper from him as Manning was currently tempted to. Abe looked down at the page again and cleared his throat.
Ba'al – Male – Phoenician – Creator, Possessor
Tien – Female – Vietnamese – A fairy from Vietnamese mythology
Sekhmet – Female – Ancient Egyptian – She who is powerful
Aiwaiwa – Female – Hawaiian – Inexplicable, Mysterious, Marvelous
Lisha – Female – African – Full of mystery
Airi – Female – Japanese – Beloved Jasmine
Cara – Female – Gaelic – Friend (Abe paused at reading 'Gaelic' as the origin)
Chandrakanta – Female – Sanskrit – Beloved of the Moon; Moonstone
Sarah-Maude – Female – Hebrew – Princess
Ugra – Unisex – Sanskrit – Terrible; Powerful
Adimu – Female – Swahili – Unique, Rare, Scarce
Anup– Male – Sanskrit – Incomparable, unequalled; unique; pond (Hellboy cracked up at the last translation of the girl's twelfth name)
Kakahi – Unisex – Hawaiian – Unique, Outstanding, solitary
Agilolf– Male – Germanic – To be feared like the Wolf (this peeked Krauss's interest)
Bhairavi – Female – Sanskrit – Fear-Inspiring
Hiwahiwa – Unisex – Hawaiian – Precious, Beloved; Esteemed; Favorite
Devakanta – Male – Sanskrit – Beloved of the Gods
Perdita– Female – Latin – Lost (Hellboy perked up at the name and Liz frowned at the meaning)
After a moment of mastering the art of being flabbergasted, Manning cleared his throat. "Eighteen names?!" he roared, his face turning red as he bore down on Abe, who was just blinked at him. "Who has eighteen names?! What are we supposed to call her?! Ba'?!?! Or maybe BTSALACCS-MUAAKABHDP?!"
"I have eighteen names," a voice answered, echoing through the halls. It was soft and had a silky-feeling sound to it, with a hint of amusement mixed in. "And you may call me Kingdom."
The new agent had arrived.