Animal Instincts
Psycho Llama
Disclaimer: Mike Mignola owns all but mousy. Yes, that does mean Mike Mignola owns the world. Flee; flee for your lives!
The girl in the video interview shifted slightly on the stool, trying to get comfortable. Someone from behind the camera asked her if she's ready, the interview began.
"Ready? Yeah… but the little red light is already on," Melissa stated blankly, pointing at the camera. She looked a lot healthier than when she first arrived at the bureau. The dark circles of sleepless nights under her eyes were beginning to fade, her cheeks looking a little less pinched from her lack of nutrition. Her hair had been seen to and now shone in its full, chestnutty glory. And wearing some nice clothes for once, she looked frighteningly normal.
"Don't worry, we can edit that out. Now, could you please state your name and personal information," the disembodied voice asks calmly.
"Okay," Melissa grinned at the camera, "My name is Melissa and it has been for the past five years since I woke up with amnesia in some hospital in the middle of Europe. Um… I don't have that much personal info because I have no memory and no clue as to who I was before… well I refer to that as my 'previous life' because the doctors that found me claimed I had no pulse." Melissa chuckled, "They shocked me back to life with one of those electric thingies…"
The interviewer then asked her why she was joining the BPRD and about her 'abilities'. Melissa snapped back to reality, apparently pulled back into the memory of waking up with no idea where or even who she was.
"Oh yeah. Well, I'm a shape-shifter, sort of. I can shift into almost any type of animal, but only certain forms. Um, I don't know how to explain this… It's like templates. I mean, I can turn into a tabby cat; but only a specific tabby cat, which I can't change the appearance of." Melissa looked flustered, her hands waving about in gestures to try and help her speech as she went, "It's some long and boring thing to do with DNA. Don't ask. But the most disturbing thing is that I know I wasn't a shape-shifter in the 'before'; in my 'previous life'."
"I joined the BPRD mainly for sanctuary from… the outside world. Not so much 'fitting in' but the fact that I was being hunted," the girl shuffled uncomfortably on her stool.
"Can you define what you mean by 'hunted'?" the interviewer requested, knowing the full story but needing it on the camera.
"Hunted, pursued, stalked… call it what you like. There's this evil assassin after me. I don't know why. I came to the BPRD for protection and they were nice enough to offer me a job here, helping out with missions and stuff," Melissa's eyes glimmered with happiness, "It's been really great so far. I've made a lot of really nice friends too…"
The video interview clip came to an end. Abe tapped the mouse over the play button and watched the video again. He used computers very rarely, as he had to be careful about water around them, but he decided to face them for the task of writing up a report on the shape-shifter Melissa. The report was mainly statistics of how far she had run over the years of trying to escape from Kroenen.
Manning had insisted on a list of all the forms she could take and a photograph of every one so they could identify her until Abe and Broom pointed out how many years of constant work that would take and how expensive it would be.
"How's the report coming, Abe?" Broom's aged voice drifted into the room.
"Slowly, professor, slowly," Abe replied, searching for where the D key was located.
"Perhaps we should get a waterproof keyboard in that case… I wonder how much one would cost," sighed Broom, quite aware of how their funding was being scrutinised.
"No need, I am almost finished," the ichthyoid announced distantly. He turned his large eyes on the professor, "How is Melissa?" Abe knew better than to invade Broom's mind after the polite request not to.
"Good, she's with Hellboy presently, talking with his cats again. She's made quite a recovery over the past few weeks. Have you made any progress with her memories of 'the before'?"
"Some progress. Flashes… images from her past. I managed to find a short memory of her father, but nothing of her mother. Her father was a scientist, that is all I have managed to gather," Abe reflected quietly, thinking of the long, meditative sessions spent trying to free the locked memories in Melissa's mind; her ecstatic glee as she remembered an image of her father's face…
"I managed to find some memories of your father… but none of your mother I'm afraid."
"I know. She died when I was young."
Abe gave the girl a startled look, searching her mind for the evidence of that fact, but found nothing. Melissa met his searching eyes; "It's not up there," she stated quietly, "I can feel it instinctively, here," she touched where her heart was a smirk tugging at her lips, "Not everything is in the mind. I just know… my father raised me alone…"
"At least she is making progress," Broom smiled, interrupting Abe's thoughts, "I am sure she is very grateful for your help."
"I do what I can," Abe inclined his head politely.
Broom nodded, "Make sure you re-hydrate when you're finished with the report, Abe."
"I will, professor."
"Wow, you've been to Russia? What was that like?" Melissa asked in fascination, her tail twitching from side to side.
"Good. Cold," Hellboy muttered around the cigar in his mouth. Melissa's liquid amber eyes went back to the TV screens, each showing an array of slightly interesting cartoons. Her cat form, as she had stated in the interview, was a tabby cat; a black and grey tabby cat that shared Melissa's eye colour with her human form.
"I'm not bugging you at all, am I?"
Hellboy blinked, "Not unless you've got a little spy camera in your fur. Nah, I don't get company often. It's good to have someone to talk to. Hey, maybe Pops could even adopt you too," Hellboy laughed.
"Is that possible? I mean, I don't even know who I am… what if my old father is still alive?" Melissa asked hollowly, something in her gut telling her that he wasn't.
"Pops adopted me," Hellboy shrugged, "Can't be that hard."
Melissa shrugged her furry shoulders and went about licking a paw and cleaning her face.
"So why do you think Kroenen's after you?"
Melissa gave Hellboy a sharp glare, but shrugged it off, "I don't know."
"Yeah, but you gotta have some idea," Hellboy pressed.
"Maybe it's a pride thing. Like some obsession about 'the one that got away'…" Melissa emitted a scared, whining noise, "As of late I haven't been making it away with that much of a margin. If I had not seen the two of you and followed you here… I could be dead."
"Insane bastard… yeah, that could be it. Or he could want you for some sciencey thing."
"Don't say that."
"Why not?"
"That's the fate I fear the most…" Melissa's fur stood on end, "The thought of being some specimen to be cut up and observed under a microscope…"
"Oh, sorry…" Hellboy went silent, a little embarrassed on how blunt he had been. It didn't last for long, "So what's with your past life? Abe said that you got an image of your father back. Remember anything about him?"
"Only what Abe managed to find. He was a scientist, that's all I can remember." Another long silence followed that, the two beings watching the cartoons on the televisions without much attention to the show.
"So what's your favourite animal?" Hellboy asked, clearly bored.
"The mouse," Melissa smiled distantly, "No, not because I'm a cat right now. My mouse form has saved me on more occasions than any other; the mouse is small and silent, it goes unnoticed… My favourite mouse is my golden-brown fieldmouse. Cute little thing, I'd show you but the other cats might get jealous," the shape-shifter chuckled.
"Mouse, eh? Makes a good nickname," Hellboy smirked, " 'Mousy'."
"And then there's the flamingo; lovely thing, but very few opportunities to be a flamingo. The best time I had was in Berlin where I hid in the city zoo as a flamingo for over a week…"
"What happened?"
"Breeding program. Had to get the hell out of there," Melissa muttered, blushing furiously. Hellboy roared with laughter, startling some of the cats around him.
Melissa groaned, "And I had to pick the worst possible time to make my escape… I tried to get out at night, when nobody was watching. I decided to make my escape as a flamingo instead of a human, big mistake. I trotted down the road at a reasonable pace, bright pink and covered in feathers, straight into this strange lady. She looked mean. Evil-mean…"
"Stupid little bird, what are you doing out of your cage?" Ilsa scowled in annoyance.
Melissa was in no mood to pretend, "Oh I'm just out for a little midnight stroll. Would you mind kindly getting out of my way?" Melissa bit out, glaring with all her pink, feathery might at the blonde.
Ilsa stared in shock at the talking flamingo. She stepped back slightly and called to someone in the adjacent alleyway, "Kroenen, I think you should see this…"
"And at this point I really didn't know the assassin's name, so I wasn't all that worried," Melissa told Hellboy, briefly interrupting her story.
Melissa scowled and kept walking. Kroenen appeared out of the shadows, looking with confusion from Ilsa to the flamingo. Melissa froze in her tracks. Ilsa was the one to give her away, she waved at the shape-shifter vaguely, "Talking flamingo."
Melissa gulped; she could practically imagine the gears turning in the assassin's head and realisation hit, even though the assassin wore a mask. In a fit of panic and denial, the girl whimpered quietly, "…No I'm not."
Twin blades shot out of Kroenen's sleeves. Ilsa looked confused. Melissa fled, abandoning the graceful strides of the flamingo to embrace the wobbling sprint of the gangly bird. Back to her little pen, back with the other flamingoes, back in time to blend in before her pursuer caught up with her.
"I used the flamingo's instincts to blend in with the others. He followed…" Melissa stared unseeing at the wall ahead, Hellboy hanging on her every word. "I'm not sure if he could tell me apart from the others. He looked confused… then he pointed a gun at me," Melissa shuddered, "You see, flamingoes don't know what a gun is. He didn't appear threatening enough for a flamingo to move or respond in any way. If I had, he would have known that I was not a flamingo…"
"What happened?" asked Hellboy, riveted.
"I was scared… I briefly wondered how it would be to die…" Melissa frowned, "That feeling felt familiar, like I had accepted death before, which is worrying."
"Why didn't he shoot? I mean, no offence—"
"Another mystery. Maybe he wanted me to die a slow and painful death for being such an annoying target," Melissa snorted, "I made a run for it. I heard the blonde coming, cursing and yelling at him. He turned away for one second, one tiny second, which was all I needed… I became a mouse and ran away, far away. I hid in a church on the other side of the city."
"Well, at least you got away," Hellboy smiled.
"Not really. I read in the newspaper that eight animals were shot and killed at the zoo that night. I don't know if he thought I was still there or sending a warning… I managed to get out of town the following night, but he was hot on my trail by the following Monday," Melissa explained moodily, "And that façade lasted for two weeks before I finally got away in the sewers."
"Ouch…" the red demon sympathised.
"Yeah… Well, I'm going to see if Abe needs any more pages turned," Melissa smiled, leaving her couch-potato friend to the cartoons on the TV.
"See ya," he said, and waved with his gigantic right hand.
Abe pressed the stop button on the interview recording, sensing Melissa's approach. He closed the program down, saving his finished work on the shape-shifter's report.
"Welcome back," Abe smiled invitingly, watching the girl enter out of the corner of his eye. He was surprised to see Melissa in her human form.
"Hi, what are you up to?" Melissa asked curiously, the sight of the fish-man sitting cross-legged on a computer chair and fumbling with the keyboard quite entertaining.
"Updating reports," Abe answered simply.
"I see… need any pages turned?" the girl asked hopefully.
"Not really, but thank you for offering."
"Oh, okay…"
"You're still worried about those memories, aren't you? And the dream you had…"
"Yes," Melissa nodded solemnly, "And the little boy with the blue eyes…" Melissa stated, staring into Abe's own blue depths, "I want to know who he is… who I am… why he is so important to me."
"I understand that your past is very important, but you must also realise that your future is important too," Abe murmured.
"But—"
"I have no memory of anything prior to being woken up in the bureau. I had been found in an abandoned laboratory in St. Trinian's Foundling Hospital, Washington," Abe explained with absolute calm.
Melissa blinked, stunned, "Oh, I'm sorry…"
"You have nothing to be sorry for," Abe smiled, "I will continue to do as much as I can to restore your memory, just as long as you do not obsess yourself with past events. And you are not to worry about Kroenen stalking you either."
"Why would I worry about him when I have you protecting me?" the shape-shifter grinned, half-chuckling.
"Me, Melissa? I thought you were still worried that I would be reduced to sushi if I ever tried to protect you from the knife-wielding Nazi."
"Ooh, don't talk about raw fish, I'm starving!"
"…"
"Um…"
The blaring alarm cut her off, drowning out any other sound in the room. Melissa leapt from the bookstand to a nearby table; curling up into the form of a rattlesnake, "What is that?" she, the snake hissed, rattling her tail.
"The alarm. Hellboy and I have to leave now, we have a mission to attend," Abe announced, disappearing to get his 'work' dry-suit on.
Melissa shrank back into her coils in fear, 'Leave? Go? He won't come back… I won't be safe… I'll be trapped here, something bad will happen…'
'You're becoming paranoid,' Abe's mind warned lightly.
'I have a lot to be paranoid about.'
'That is true…' Melissa could almost detect a sigh in his thoughts, 'Would you like to come with us?'
'Oh, yes, of course!' Melissa's mind replied excitedly.
"Wonderful, Professor Broom will be pleased to hear that."
Melissa's head snapped up, seeing Abe enter the library. She watched Abe don his respirator curiously; the ichthyoid already attired in his black dry-suit he wore out of the tank. Abe cocked his head; "Are you coming?" he smiled.
Melissa slid off the table, pausing briefly on the ground to morph into a different animal. A white tiger with eyes the colour of molten amber padded alongside the psychic merman as the pair made their way down the corridors. Melissa did her best to ignore the stares and worried murmurs she received along the walk to the garage, walking closer to Abe.
When Hellboy saw the white tigress he grinned, looking up at Abe he motioned at Melissa; "Hey, big cat."
"I roar," Melissa answered flatly, her canines inhibiting her speech slightly.
"Professor Broom has allowed her to come along with us," Abe confirmed, his tone a little distant as he focused on the conversation with the professor in his mind.
"Good," Hellboy murmured gruffly, turning to get into the garbage truck.
"So… where are we going?" the shape-shifter asked excitedly.
"Museum. Someone let a monster loose, killed a lot of guards," Hellboy muttered, chewing on the cigar in his mouth.
"Well, what do you want me to, uh, be?" Melissa asked sheepishly. She suddenly felt more of a burden to them rather than help.
"Anything you like," Abe smiled good-naturedly.
"The tiger was cool."
Melissa smiled shyly, "Thank you." It had been such a long time since anyone had bothered to hold a conversation with her, let alone talk to her kindly.
'I'm afraid you will have to get used to it, Melissa,' Abe joked in her mind.
A/N: Thank you to FlyingFish15 again! great reviews.