Disclaimer: .... You Get The Picture. I may have forgotten to include this in previous chapters, so to reassure you, this was simply because I'm in denial on who really owns this show. It's not me. That's what I'm in denial about. So just read this chapter, and please tell me you wish I owned it to!
Mind and Body Chapter 6: Many Shapes and a Single Purpose
Recap:
We were introduced to Rachel and Garfield as well as Cameron Cole and Ella.
We learned about the Khale orphanage.
We learned about the zoo and we learned a little bit about each of the characters.
We met Anthony and learned what happened to Phil.
Garfield and Rachel met.
Garfield had a run-in with Cameron.
We learned about Garfield's philosophy.
We heard of "The Chief".
Cameron nearly killed Rachel and broke his arm because of it.
Rachel abandoned the orphanage.
Rachel went to Anthony and was taken in for a while.
Cameron got some of what was coming to him and they got "Wilson" to help them search.
Wilson's team found them. However most of them were killed by the tiger-shaped Garfield. The rest disappeared. They were asked to leave.
Rachel and Garfield encountered Amanda Holder on the ferry and stayed with her for a while.
We learned the practicalities of mind reading.
Rachel and Garfield wrote a farewell letter to Amanda, and vanished into the night.
THREE YEARS LATER
The evening was icy cold and lightly snowing on the shore of Lake Michigan, and in an alley near the center of Chicago, a bum encountered some very strange beings. One, a nine-year-old girl that refused to let him see her face, was crouching behind the dumpster with her head leaning against it's side. She had her knees pulled up to her chest and was keeping them there with her hands while burrowing her face between them. However, the really strange one was the green Maine Coon that was staring at her from her side.
"What is it, Garfield?" the girl said with a dejected tone in her furry voice.
Although he couldn't see what just happened, the ragged old man could tell that she had gotten an answer because she immediately replied "Why should I cheer up? At first I thought I could support myself with that ability, but not after what happened. And without it, I'm no better than any bum."
With a blink, the man knew that she could read minds. It was obvious, really, since the cat hadn't said anything, but she didn't act like a nutcase. He smiled as the girl jerked up her head to stare at him.
"Why're you staring?" she asked sullenly, "and how did you figure out what my power was?"
Rachel stared suspiciously at the man as he sighed and sat across from her. "You were holding a conversation with a cat: how else is that possible?" he asked.
"I could be crazy," Rachel muttered.
"But you aren't, are you?" he asked pointedly. As Rachel let the silence stretch, he stood back up and stretched his muscles. "I have a nice fire going, if you would like to share?"
Rachel turned her back on him and snorted. "If I did that, it would be like I had given up trying to improve my lot."
He groaned in exasperation. "You have a lot of bitterness for this world, I see, and it must have at least something to do with your talent. I promise you that I won't hold anything against you unless you deserve it. Come: the cinders will have cooled before we return. Just because you haven't given up doesn't mean you can't take comfort when you find it."
Rachel snorted again and said, "but you haven't been anywhere near a fire for at least six hours: more than enough to lose all the heat in the coals when it's this cold."
He stood still as he processed the statement. The thought had never crossed his mind, so how had she figured it out?
"I may not have been able to read that part of your memories," Rachel said in response to his unspoken question, "But the smell of paper smoke clings to your clothes for a long time: Garfield smelled it about the same time as you arrived."
He laughed heartily at that and sat back down. "You are right of course, "
He said conversationally to Garfield, "Do you mind if I ask…what else does my scent say about me?" After waiting a little while, he turned to Rachel and asked, "What did he say?" as if having an intelligent conversation with a green cat and having a nine-year-old girl for a translator was commonplace.
Staring at the odd, red-and-silver-haired man in front of her, Rachel changed the subject swiftly. "I didn't catch your name?"
"It's Cael Baldwin," he said immediately, though it was clear he really wanted an answer to his question, "and if nothing else, you can trust me to keep your ability a secret."
Rachel groaned as she shook her head, "Fine. He says you're clearly having a more difficult time now than ever before and are prepared for things to get even worse. He says you are a kind and understanding man who knows when to leave things well enough alone but cannot resist helping where it is needed. He says you have had enough adventure to satisfy half-a-dozen other people and that you can take care of more than your fair share. He says also that there's a mysterious scent about you that he has never smelt before…." Her eyes widened as Garfield finished the thought, "He says that the closest thing he has ever smelt to it is me. Is that true, Garfield?"
Yes, it's true, you ninny, why would I ever lie to you? He widened his eyes so as to look like a kitten and mockingly let his ears and tail go limp. Little old me? LIE? To you? I'm hurt. Rachel couldn't help but chuckle, unknowingly setting all the loose pebbles in the alley to vibrating within cloaks of black energy.
Finally, Garfield said in satisfaction as Cael stood up with a curse. He was staring in consternation at the rocks around them. Her cheeks glowing with shame, Rachel curled up even tighter as the rocks rose up to about five feet from the ground. Cael was quivering with something on the verge of excitement as he stared around him. "Remarkable," he murmured, "Your power is greater than I thought."
He saw Rachel trying to disappear and smiled affectionately. "You don't have to be frightened of me, my dear. Didn't your friend tell you that I help above all else?" Rachel didn't answer. A tic appeared in the man's forehead. "Listen," he said darkly, "the way I see it, you can continue to mope while your power develops to the point that you rip a house up from it's foundations every time you're startled, or you can learn to control it."
Startled at his harsh words, Rachel looked up sharply as the rocks shattered, as if to prove Cael's point. They were contained explosions though, so all that left the patches of black were thin streams of sand that drifted down on the small breeze. Then the patches faded. Her natural instinct to strike at anything threatening her turned dire in that instant as Cael himself was the next thing to be wrapped in black energy. Luckily for the suddenly terror-stricken old man, Garfield's frantic yowl brought her to her senses.
Rachel gently let Cael down as they both shuddered at how close she had been to killing him. Cael was sweating as he stared at her. "I-I'm sorry…for what I said." He murmured.
"No," Rachel replied, "I'm sorry: you were trying to get me to see sense." She hugged herself tightly as she said, "You don't know how many I've killed accidentally that way in the past three years. I…I," she shuddered and sniffed thickly, "I killed them for almost nothing, I'm horrible!" She started to cry, biting her lip in a failed attempt to hold the flood back. Her eyes were squeezed nearly shut as she forced herself to continue, "I'm worse than Garfield was when I first met him!" She hardly noticed Cael's arms encircling her comfortingly as she poured her heart out to the man she had just met.
"How come I can tell you all this?" she asked in a hushed tone among her tears, "I've just met you, yet I'm telling you things that I didn't tell the people I knew for years…." Cael shifted so that his left arm was free and his right rested soothingly on her shoulders. He took a deep breath as he shook his arm in preparation to leap off the proverbial deep end.
"It's because…I know how you feel." Rachel stared at him wide-eyed as he stretched his hand out in front of them. Garfield started violently when the trash immediately to his right burst into flame. He leaped out of the way into Rachels lap and suddenly morphed into a mouse, shocking Cael in turn, at which point he crawled into the collar of Rachel's hood, trembling.
"The cat has a power too," Cael murmered in a hushed, amazed tone. "I am truly among those who understand."
Garfield quickly changed from mouse form to ferret form and peered out at Cael from on top of Rachel's head. He sensed that Rachel was surprised, but not scared, so he slowly slid out from inside of the hood to sit directly on top of her head.
He stared with beady green eyes at Cael, who nodded that the flame was meant to aid, not harm. Garfield slid off of Rachel entirely, and dashed to the basement window across from them. Using his teeth he impressed Cael by opening the lock and sliding stealthily down to the basement.
As the two of them stared down after him, Rachel asked, "How did you become a bum? If you can do such an amazing thing?"
Cael sighed and shook his head. "How come you became one?" he asked. Rachel stiffened in anger and Cael was quick to pat her on the shoulder. "I didn't mean that as an insult. I am merely saying that our kind…" he slowly looked at the small fire he had started, and extended his hand again to wrap a large tendril of flame around his hand. It spun around and through his fingers as agilely as Garfield would have in his ferret form. "Our kind are not generally accepted by the world at large."
"You think I don't know that?" Rachel said sullenly.
"Of course not." Cael said quietly, "Some years after I had discovered my ability, when I was 39, I tried to save a family with my power. I had hoped to restrict the flames burning their house to only around myself, as I had learned I was immune to it, but my concentration shattered when a man rose from the ashes to attack me with a knife. On instinct I thrust the entire fire into the man's face, incinerating him in an instant. I later learned that the man had been the father of those I was trying to save." Rachel stiffened in horror.
"In court the next week, all my worldly possessions were handed over to the bereaved, and I was shattered at what I had done. Accidentally, maybe, but I had still done it. I couldn't summon up the strength of purpose that would have prevented me from becoming like this." At that moment, when the two of them had suddenly understood the other clearly, Garfield popped back up from the nearby basement.
This time he was in the form of a spider monkey, with a dowel clutched tightly in his tail that had six plump rats stuck on it. He whipped himself into his original shape so as to drop the stick in front of Cael. Then he turned into a lemur and hopped up behind Rachel's head, keeping a tight grip on her ears. "Well," Cael said, as he set up the dowel to roast the result, "just how many forms do you have?"
Whoah there, how come I understood the words out of your mouth as well as you body language? Garfield said nervously with a combination of low-volume hoots, yips and tail twitches. Cael chuckled and replied, "I didn't mention that I can speak primate? Silly me."
Well then, we should have an interesting conversation. Rachel, do you mind if Cael and I go off on our own for a little while to have a chat? Rachel's eyes showed that she felt a little betrayed, but Garfield walked over to her with a look of such kindness that Cael's breath caught. He morphed into a puma, causing Cael to leap back for the fourth time that afternoon, but all he did was sit next to Rachel and shove his forehead against Rachel's cheek, purring thunderously in the back of his throat. I am never going to leave your side, Rachel. Garfield said flatly, and don't you ever doubt that. Outcasts have to look out for each other, right?
"Right," Rachel said, and grabbed him around the neck. She shoved her head into Garfield's shoulder and shuddered again. Amazed at the connection between them, Cael said, "You know, the way I control my power has actually been used by priests of the Far East for thousands of years with good results. Do you think you might want to learn?"
"Oh, could I?" Rachel asked in joy, accidentally crumbling a number of bricks from both buildings in an instant. Ignoring Garfield's pleas for a vocal conversation, Cael began immediately.
"All right, the first thing I want you to do is cross your legs and put your hands together. It doesn't matter how you do it, as long as it's comfortable." Rachel nodded and took that position. Her hands seemed to fall easily into place in the shape of fists facing one another. "All right," Cael continued once that was done, but he was interrupted by a repeated muffled thump from where Garfield was.
Garfield fidgeted in the form of the puma, bounding from side to side in impatience as Cael focused on Rachel. Come on, come on, come on! He said in the same whiny tone of an 8-year-old who really wants to go to the beach, It's finally my chance to be a main character in our little life story! I don't want to miss it!
Cael scoffed in frustration. "Oh be quiet, it'll take longer with all that yowling until I can have that conversation with you." When Garfield paused and Rachel explained, Cael said, "Besides, haven't you been Rachel's companion since basically the beginning?" At Garfield's shrug he said, "Well I would think that would make you a main character in your life story already, wouldn't it?"
Awkwardly laughing at the image he must have been giving, Garfield sat down with all four paws and said Understood, making a fool of myself is not on the program. At Rachel's laugh, Cael asked what it was, and when it was explained he chuckled as well.
Turning back to Rachel he said, "All right, I want you to close your eyes and rid your mind of all the surrounding interference except my voice: that will be the only thing you let through." Rachel was sweating as she furrowed her brow. "No, no," Cael corrected, "That's not the right way to go about it. Relax, breathe deeply and let it go. Let blackness cover everything in a peaceful blanket. Remember you are looking for the state of mind where my voice is the only thing that exists. Nothing else."
She sighed a long, deep sigh as everything vanished like the morning dew. The only thing was Cael's occasionally harsh voice. Her breathing became more full and smooth as she felt the temperature fall away, and the harsh stone below her melted away. She was swimming in a comfortingly warm darkness. It enveloped her like a mother would her child.
Outside Rachel's mind, Garfield and Cael stared in astonishment as Rachel's body slowly rose from the ground. "How do you feel?" Cael said quietly.
"Excellent," she whispered.
With a smile, Cael went on. "Now I want you to take all the things within your mind and separate them from each other. Take everything that fuels your anger and set them aside. I want you to create an image of yourself which you think demonstrates your rage the best, and pour all your hateful thoughts into that image." Rachel sighed again when she did that. "Now do that for the rest of your thoughts: what makes you sad? What makes you happy? What have you done without thinking about it? Take it all and lock them in separate images of yourself. I want you to give each person an identifying mark, so you can easily choose which one to let guide you in different situations. Have you done that?"
At her nod Cael stood quietly. "Now all that's left is to continue developing the differences between those images. Continue doing that whenever you can and you will have control of your powers at the other times. Eventually it won't be necessary, but it's always good to keep a little meditation in your schedule."
He turned to leave, but halted when he remembered something. "Oh, by the way, if it starts to get difficult, you can use a phrase to focus on and aid in the separation process."
Rachel felt three seemingly nonsense words rise from the depths of her mind. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos.
A shiver of something akin to exultation crawled up Cael's spine. "What made you think that?" he asked in a tone he hoped sounded casual.
"I…don't know." Rachel muttered in confusion, "They just kinda…came to me." She shook her head and settled back into the rhythm.
Quaking, Cael left, and Garfield took the form of a colobus monkey to ride on his shoulders.
Outside of the alley, Garfield asked him why were you so excited by that gibberish? Cael jumped and muttered "None of your business."
I think it is my business, if it is important to Rachel. Garfield said seriously.
"Well I'm sorry, but I can't tell you."
Fine, be that way.
After they had been traveling in companionable silence for a time, with Garfield on Cael's shoulder while still in the form of the Colobus, the older man suddenly shoved one of his horny hands into a deep pocket. "I just remembered something I've been saving for a while," he said quietly, and brought out an odd little wheel of white with red stripes swirling out from the center.
What is it? Garfield asked in curiosity as Cael handed it over.
"It's candy."
Candy, huh? You mean like to eat? he was turning the candy over and over in his small green hands and inspecting it closely.
"Exactly." Cael answered. Garfield's eyes brightened and he quickly nibble a little bit of an edge. His tail stuck straight up and frizzed when the sugar hit his system. Whoah! He said in reaction, it's tingly! It may look fake, but damn does it taste good! Cael couldn't help but laugh at the reaction.
"Those are perhaps the cheapest things on the market: only a nickel each."
You're joking. They're so good, but you can get them for so little?
Cael grinned inwardly. He was right: Garfield's mind was far from ordinary as well, if he could understand money so well. They were walking past a stall that sold many sweets when Garfield srang down from his shoulder. He dashed to the counter, hopped up to the right corner, and sat down abruptly. A young boy was at the window, staring wide-eyed at the strange animal on his father's counter. With a giggle he dashed out and started inspecting Garfield.
Hooting slightly, Garfield held up half of the sweet to show the boy. The boy grinned and ducked under the counter to bring out a small bag. He opened it to give one to Garfield, but Garfield took the bag and set it down on the counter. As he crouched, Garfield started staring at the boy's nose. Giggling, the boy stretched his hand out and started petting him. Garfield started belting out low, deep hoots to surprise him. Needless to say, it worked.
Chattering with laughter at the surprise on the kid's face, Garfield reached out with a hand and lightly grabbed the boy's nose.
He grabbed the bag and bounded away from the boy's grasp. "Hey!" the kid said, "I was only gonna give you one!"
No way, kid, Garfield said with amusement, I am not about to give these up. He looked at the kid with deliberately cute eyes, and the kid melted. "Oh, all right. But no more!"
Garfield hooted with gratitude.
The next thing Cael showed him was a small book about animals. "I wanted to know the extent of your power," he said quietly.
Oh is that all? Garfield said cheekily, well it's like this: any animal I see, I can then become. However, I will always be green. That's it: that's all there is to it.
"And what if you saw a picture?" Cael asked. Garfield sat up straight at that. Hmm, I've never tried. After all, I might forget to put the heart in there.
Cael blinked, and then said in disbelief, "You mean you have to remember everything about the animal in order to turn into it?"
Well, not exactly. Garfield said hesitantly.
"What do you mean?"
Well…instinct kinda fills in the gaps. I only need to see the surface.
"Then pictures should be no different."
I guess I could try it, Garfield said reluctantly, but not now. There are too many people around.
"Oh, right, I'd forgotten." Cael said in embarrassment. But then he remembered the other idea he had had. "Well, can't you take on the form of a human?"
Garfield was very still at that comment. Every muscle stiffened and froze, so it was almost like he was staring at a snake. Cael couldn't help but think he had stepped into a major issue for the shape shifter.
Yes, Garfield said quietly, yes, I can change into a human. But not for long, because holding that shape is extremely painful.
"Really?" Cael asked in surprise.
Yes, it hurts far too much to hold the shape of a human. It's as if a dozen foxes are slowly eating me alive.
Cael winced at the graphic metaphor, and how it must feel, then continued. "How about if you only changed the voice box to correspond with a human's?" Garfield grinned slowly as the potentials dawned. You mean so I can speak English? He said, carefully keeping his other thoughts hidden.
"Yes, precisely."
Let's try it right now! He said with a great show of enthusiasm, It's really annoying to only be able to talk to Rachel, or…I mean she's great, but other people have things to offer too, you know?
"Yes, I guessed that." Cael said in amusement as he stopped at the park. He lay down on the grass and Garfield concentrated momentarily, but after a couple minutes he shook his head. I'm sorry, but it looks like I can only have one form for the entire body.
"Are you sure of that?"
What do you mean?
"What if you do have to remember everything for a specific body part?" Cael sat up and brought out yet another book from his seemingly-endless pockets. He opened it to a certain page and showed it to Garfield. "If you can remember all this, I suspect you will be able to do it.
Garfield leapt into study excitedly. Luckily there were many images, and he had picked up a lot of reading from Rachel reading him Wicked, so he actually got through it with decent speed.
Feeling that he was embarking into the unknown, Garfield slowly digested the new information. He looked to the voice box first, immersing himself into a study of his own body. After he had made a few slight adjustments he felt his form slide into the one most familiar to him: the Maine Coon. After that he found it easier to alter his lips slightly so they could operate separately from his jaw, and reduced the little flap of skin hanging in his throat so that it wouldn't interfere.
Slowly, as he felt a little weak from such detailed and deliberate work, he opened his eyes and looked slowly looked at Cael staring expectantly at him. Coughing experimentally, he asked….
"Did it work?"
He started in shock at the sound of his own voice. Then he pulled his ears back in fear that he got it wrong, but after a couple seconds he realized that it hadn't been a fluke.
"It worked…." He said in a hush as Cael's smile slowly grew to encompass his entire face. Then he said it again to savor it. "It worked." It had a carefree, silly quality to it that somehow didn't make it sound stupid. It fit him perfectly.
"It worked! It worked! IT worked! It WORKED!" he shouted for joy as he bounded back and forth around Cael. He stopped in front of the surprising old man and shoved his head against Cael's arm. "Thank you." He said with unadulterated joy.
Cael petted him. "Congratulations," he said proudly, "I honestly didn't know if it would work."
Garfield bounded back and shifted from Maine Coon to another type of house cat, and tried again. "Does it work in other forms?" he asked himself, and danced when he found out that after the first time, changing the voice box—or not changing it, as the case may be—was easy pickings afterward. "I have got to tell Raven about this—" he said before being interrupted.
"Wait, who?" Cael said.
"Raven, of course…wait, I mean I need to tell Rav--, I mean Ra…. Rash…. Rachen…UGH! Rachel! Why was that so hard?"
"I'm not sure," said Cael, "But that does make a good code name."
"Code Name?" Garfield asked in curiosity as they both walked back to the ally.
"Yes," Cael said mildly, "There are a lot of people around the world with powers, actually, and many of them become heroes or villains on a wide scope. These people acquire code names to keep their identity a secret."
"You mean like in the Superman comics?"
"Yes, except that Superman's a real person."
"NO WAY!"
"Oh yes way, but he's the only one who has let people make his adventures into a comic strip."
"Then what about Batman?"
"Batman, and the others like him, hate the publicity, but for the sake of having people believe it's fiction, they leave it alone."
"I thought that Superman and Batman were the only "Super Hero" comics?"
"Yes, but they have friends or associates that share their views. No one has heard of most of them."
Garfield stared at him suspiciously. "And you know about them?" he asked suspiciously.
"Oh yes, I do, I was once asked to join one of their teams."
Garfield couldn't help but shiver at the reality. Then he paused and said, "If you were asked to join the supporters of Superman, then why the hell are you a bum? Shouldn't you at least have a space in their lookout? And wouldn't the public be glad to welcome you?"
Cael sighed and shook his head. "Certain circumstances prevented me from joining, and when it comes to prejudice it hardly matters what you do to help someone. They will usually find a reason to blame you."
Rachel was adrift in the blank expanse of her mind, but she wasn't alone: she had made sure of that herself. She was accompanied by many copies of herself; she hadn't made any differences in them yet, but she felt she could get to that later: the sheer relaxation that meditation brought to her was amazing.
"Rachel!" A voice shouted in the distance, surprising her. "Rachel!" it repeated "It's so amazing! Rachel, guess what happened to me!" It was warm and friendly, but also extremely child-like.
Rachel reluctantly started to back out of the meditative state.
As Garfield dashed over to her, he noticed that her hooded sweatshirt was limper than before. Worried, he slowed down and approached her, with Cael walking behind him. The next thing he noticed was that the fire had vanished, but the faint smell of smoke still hung in the air….
It was damp.
Someone in one of the apartments above them had seen fit to dump cold water over Rachel and the fire. In this weather it was practically a death sentence.
With a hiss and a snarl he dashed over to Rachel, who jerked awake at his approach. She said "Hi" in a dreamy voice before realizing that she was chilled to the bone.
She sneezed violently, starting to tremble in reaction. Cael's face went white at the sight, and Garfield started to tremble as well. "Don't worry Rachel," he whispered in English unconsciously, "I'll fix this." He turned and ran off, leaving Cael in the dust as he scrambled up the fire escape, still in his original form. When he reached the top he turned into a mountain lion and started leaping from roof to roof.
Cael sighed in exasperation. "Kids these days."
Garfield's was enraged as he leapt the twenty feet to the next roof. Someone had wanted to kill Rachel. His Rachel. And he wasn't just going to curl up at their feet and let that go unpunished. But first, he had a job to do. I need some sort of blanket. He thought.
Suddenly, at the next alley, Garfield was confronted by a forest of thin strings stretching parallel to each other from building to building. All the lines had clothes hanging from them. Ah, laundry, he thought, just what I need.
He shifted immediately into a chimpanzee and gripped a pair of strings. Swinging he gripped another two strings with his feet and swung upside down. Another string just below him had the perfect example of the subject of his search.
It was a large, blue blanket that had the feel of flannel to his hands. Easing down next to it, hanging by one hand, he was too focused on the blanket to see the silver-haired woman staring at him at eyelevel.
Keeping one hand on the string, he pulled the blanket off the string with his feet and gripped it in one of them as his free hand helped the other foot fold it into a more manageable size. The first fold over with, he transferred the task entirely to his feet, bringing them together and gripping both corners with the same foot. He repeated the process three more times, and wrapped it around his neck.
The woman shrieked, causing him to turn around violently, and she brought out, of all things, a shotgun!
She heaved it up into line with the stunned Garfield, who had frozen, and fired. She was so creeped out, however, that the shot missed a fatal spot and instead pierced his shoulder. Garfield screamed and swung, barely keeping his grip as the woman loaded another shell with shaking hands and warm green blood dripped down his right arm.
Many neighbors poked their heads out at the commotion, and were amazed at the sight. However, what happened next amazed them even more as the old lady prepared to fire again. She aimed…and fired.
Suddenly a small dagger-shaped white flame darted from below and to Garfield's left, melting the bullet as it left the gun's muzzle. The red hot liquid metal lost its velocity against the force of the flame, and everyone's heads turned to the white-haired source.
Cael stood there, an expression of implacable anger clear on his face. He then extended a large snake of orange flame to the window, and had it collect itself directly in front of the glass pane, preventing any projectiles or sight from penetrating it.
In relief, Garfield awkwardly swung down the strings until he had reached the alley floor. "I can see why Superman may have welcomed your help," he said wryly. Ignoring the compliment, Cael opted instead to chew him out.
"Are you insane?" he hissed, "Going off on your own into unfamiliar territory, staring a shotgun down the barrel in order to get a blanket? You didn't even know what you were looking for at first!" Then he abruptly collected himself and murmered, almost to himself, "Although that is the right mentality for a guardian of justice." He shrugged and rushed off, beckoning Garfield to follow him back.
Back at the violently shivering Rachel, Garfield limped up to her, sat down, put her in a large bear hug, and wrapped the flannel blanket tightly around her body. "Th-th-thank y-you, Garfield," she said quietly as she sniffed violently. Cael shook his head in concern.
"Hypothermia," he murmured, "I see it quite often in this area, and it's fatal a large amount of the time. We need a fire." He said over Garfield's whimper of concern. He immediately rubbed his hands together and created a ball of fire three inches across, which he tossed underhand into a metal trash bin at one end of the alley.
He dragged the bin over as the contents caught on fire, and had Garfield bring Rachel closer while still holding her in his arms. Rachel was wrapped so tightly she might as well have been a giant's newborn baby, but that, combined with Garfield's warmth and the fire's warmth was what was helping her recover.
Cael's eyes were narrow in thought when Garfield thanked him. I need something to warm her up from the inside, he thought, then snapped his fingers. "I got it!" he said with a smile through his bushy beard. He rummaged in his giant pockets and brought out three things: a small grate that seemed to have its spars melted to the correct length to fit right on top of a trash bin, a pair of wooden prongs, and a can of soup. "This always helps."
He set it up and, when the soup was ready, brought out a pad and a spoon. Handing these to Garfield, he watched yet again in wonder at the worry Garfield was radiating as he fed a Rachel that was shivering too violently to hold the spoon.
After she had finished off the can, Rachel grumbled quietly into Garfield's fur. "This was the worst one yet."
"Yeah," Garfield said sadly, and held her a little more tightly. Rachel blinked and looked at his face.
"You look pretty strange as a chimp: I don't think you got the lips quite right. And why was your voice echoing?"
"Could it be because I'm speaking English?" Garfield said impudently, and grinned at her expression of astonishment.
"Really?" she asked quietly. Garfield nodded and Rachel smiled sleepily. "Wow, I guess shape-shifting makes it possible." She yawned hugely and whispered "Good night," before sinking into a dreamless sleep.
The next morning Rachel woke up in a pair of giant, green, furry arms. For a second she panicked, then she remembered last night and immediately worried that she had hurt Garfield. Instead, she saw that nothing happened. This in itself was surprising, so she decided to test an experiment before waking him up. She glanced around her disturbingly narrow point of view, realizing that a giant blanket was what blocked her sight, and chose a stone about the size of her fist.
She focused on the stone and kept her eyes open as she imagined I trising from the ground. She couldn't restrain a chuckle of delight when the stone really did rise, cloaked in the same black energy that always appeared. Happily she sent the stone a full four inches into the brick wall she could see.
She retracted an arm from the blue, all-encompassing folds of the blanket and gripped Garfield's right shoulder, hoping to shake him awake. He woke up all right, but it was with a hiss of pain that also woke Cael.
"What's wrong?" she asked urgently, as she didn't want him hurt.
"My arm aches." He said.
Rachel frowned in sadness, but then realized that he had just spoken English. She tried and failed to struggle out of his arms in shock. "Since when have you spoken English?" She asked.
"Since the moment before you went unconscious," he said cheerfully, then took a shaky breath. "The reason I can do so fluently is because I've been listening to you speak it for three years."
Rachel bit her lip at the sight of the green blood, then stared at him. "Why didn't you tell me I'd hurt you?" she asked loudly.
"You didn't," Garfield said quietly, "I was shot at while going for the blanket."
She gasped and instantly climbed up to the wound to inspect it. "You idiot!" She shouted, and heard an echo of a chuckle from across the fire, "How dare you let yourself get shot at just for me? You can't be hurt!" she was totally freaked out at the possibility of losing him.
Suddenly she felt warmth on her hands, and when she looked at them a new energy was glowing around them. This energy was silver, and seemed almost cheerful. She had a fleeting image of a white cloak in the back of her mind and realized she should put her hands to the wound.
When she did so, she could sense that the shotgun bullet was still lodged in the bone of his shoulder. She winced at the idea and used her right hand to draw the bullet out, coated in black energy, and shatter it. Her left hand continued to shine with silver energy and, when she drew it over the shoulder, it caused the dead bone around the dent to revive, then grow back at great speed until it filled the space the bullet had left.
Trying to mask her shock at what she had done, Rachel continued to hold her hand to the wound, letting the silver light now light up the muscle. She almost threw up at the sight of the twisted muscle, but the feeling faded to be replaced by a fascination with how quickly the muscles reattached to each other, and the skin grew over the raw patch. After she was done, Garfield may have had a bald patch, but he was as healthy as he was before his desperate run.
In a curiously synchronized motion, they both collapsed and took a deep breath. Suddenly, Garfield reverted to his Maine Coon form and was barely able to stumble out of the way of Rachel's fall.
Quickly Cael hurried over and propped Rachel up, putting the exhausted Garfield in her lap. "It seems this new gift of yours uses both your life energy and the patient's life energy to heal wounds at an accelerated rate." He said to Rachel. Rachel nodded.
"Every time before when Garfield's been this exhausted he's reverted immediately to his default form, why do you think it was delayed this time?" She asked Cael.
Furrowing his brow furiously, Cael stroked his chin. Then his gaze cleared as he figured it out. "It must have been the bullet," he told the two of them, "My guess is that you cannot change shape if an object over a certain size is inside you: Garfield's body rejects the attempt because it would shift into an organ, mess up how it works and kill you."
Shuddering, Garfield weakly quipped, "Thank God for instincts, huh?"
"Instinct?" Rachel murmured, remembering the white cloak, "Yes. Cael? Do you think you could help me make this blanket into a cloak? With a hood, I mean."
"Sure," Cael said, puzzled, "But why would you want to do that?"
"Because I haven't been able to separate those other mes that you had me think up because I never wear anything but black, but if this was a cloak, then blue could be my default and the other colors would be for the other mes."
"Well," Cael said mildly, "I don't think 'mes' is a word, but it's a good idea."
"You know what I mean," she answered, "The other versions of myself that'll be in my head after this is done."
"Ah yes, I understand now." Cael replied.
"And the white cloak will be my Instinct." Rachel said firmly.
"As you wish," Cael said with his tongue in his cheek. "And I think I will travel with you two for a while."
"What do you mean?" Rachel asked. It wasn't as if she didn't like the idea of another traveling companion, and his ability was remarkable, but she didn't want to think that she was forcing him to this.
"Oh I move around a lot anyway. Besides, that little adventure I had with you, Garfield, got my old blood moving again: I've begun dreaming about the good old days when I fought the evils of injustice rather than succumbed to them." He smiled, "You two children are the future: I can feel it."
Agatha Moore waved her hands as she shrieked out the story once more to her neighbors. They were no longer friends, as the "Green Chimp" nonsense was all she would talk about since the missing blanket situation two weeks before.
"I'm telling you that chimp was huge! And a vivid emerald green to boot!"
"Yes, you did tell us," her first neighbor said in defeat, "About 500 times already."
"Seriously," another neighbor said, "If you're so serious about this, call the guy who specializes in the unexplainable stuff."
"Oh, you mean that guy who's on the lookout for people with strange abilities?" Agatha asked.
"Well that is the guy, but it's not just people with strange abilities, it's any inexplicable trouble." The second neighbor said, relieved that Agatha seemed to be acting sensible for once.
"All right, I will!" she decided, and immediately went into her house for the phone. After she picked it up she stared at the key pad with her finger hovering above it. Silence permeated her apartment, then a blush slowly rose on her cheeks. She scurried over to the neighbor's apartment and asked, "What was the number again?"
He sighed, gave it to her, and shut the door.
Back on the phone, Agatha tapped her foot impatiently on the floor until the other end was picked up. "Hello? Is this the man called the Chief? Well? Is it?" She asked hurriedly.
"Yes," the warm voice on the other end said cautiously, "I am the one known as the Chief, I specialize in handling unexplainable trouble."
"Well I have an explanation, but no one believes me." Agatha snorted.
"What is it?"
"Well," the old lady said, "About two weeks ago my laundry was hanging out to dry and a giant green chimpanzee just popped up out of no where as I was washing the dishes. Then this monster ape snatched up my nice blue blanket with its feet, folded it and went off, though I did manage to get a shotgun shell into it. But then the second shocking thing happened: I was about to get a second shell into it when a fire simply appeared and melted it before it could reach. Then a wall of fire appeared outside the window! I was so scared! But it seems the missing sheet was the only damage. Can you come up with an explanation for that?" She stopped, breathless, and waited for an answer.
On the other side of the line, away from the speaker, a woman spoke to the man. "What do you think?" She asked him.
The white-haired man with a trimmed beard covered the mouthpiece with a hand and murmured, "You are right, it seems our little cat has escaped the bag."
"That's not entirely what I meant, Niles," she interrupted him, "Aren't you worried about the bullet? How it will affect him? And what about the fire?"
"Niles" stroked his short beard thoughtfully. "Hmm, I suspect he has found a fellow mutant that wishes to be a friend: that would explain the fire. But you are right, the bullet may have messed something up…though I doubt it." He uncovered the mouthpiece and said to the woman. "It's nothing for you to worry about," he said politely, only to be interrupted.
"Nothing to worry about?!" Agatha said in outrage, "Green chimpanzee! Missing blanket! Was my grandmother's! Nothing to worry about?!"
Niles rubbed the bridge of his nose in exasperation. Didn't this woman ever shut up? "It won't happen again, ma'am, there's only one green animal in the states and it is always traveling. It is perfectly probable that it will never do anything that affects you again, even without my team searching for it."
Agatha "hmmphed" and said, "Thank you then, I guess," and hung up.
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Sorry for the delay, but I've been packing to go off to college. Just to let you know, age won't stop me from writing this fanfiction or later ones. Besides, you get a chapter that is twice as long as the next longest. So, read and enjoy. Is it savory? Sweet? Bitter? Or is it filling? Please tell me what you think of this chapter, and look for the next entry. And actually, it wasn't the only thing stopping me: for a while there my computer couldn't upload this chapter. It could do everything else, it just couldn't upload one measly chapter. It WAS able to upload it once I changed the name, so I'm guessing someone among the thousands of other subscribers to this site had the same idea for a chapter. He or she only used it before I did. Ah well, great minds think alike, right?
But please, please review.
By the way, anyone else a fan of the website/webcomic ? Satire, cat people, no "furry" intention, just silly? If you haven't, maybe you'd be interested. Not everyone's part cat though. And this is the first time I've thought of blood and gore as silly. Some of the strips are just nuts.