UNTITLED HELLBOY FANFICTION
Chapter 3 – Adjustments
Moving from an independently owned business into a government-owned one did not an easy transition. The first few days were far too uncomfortable. It had begun the night after the Angela family had arrived to the Bureau. The very secure and underground feel to this place was already unnerving. Everything felt as if it were built in some kind of bomb shelter: no windows, no sunlight, nothing at all like their home in Italy. Lilianna, despite her warm and friendly demeanor, had begun to shift and fidget a lot more sense she arrived. It felt as though she was stepping into a prison. With Magdalena's upcoming transformation, the elder sister was already having issues getting comfortable with this place. The only one of the family who seemed to hide her discomfort the best was Holly. This was a new opportunity, after all. Any sign of weakness could make all of these businessmen regret their decision to hire her. It was time to don a poker face.
Within the first two nights, the girls were assigned positions in the BPRD. As a scientist, Holly was to spend her days in the laboratories, libraries, and other research divisions of the organization. Special Agent Johann Krauss was to train her to follow protocol as well as oversee her work. Lilianna was to be transferred to the medical unit in the BPRD's hospital wing. With her uncanny ability to heal the wounded with a touch, the doctors had feared that their job would be on the line. As it turns out, since Lilianna was still, in all respects, a child without any medical experience or skill, the doctors there were able to stay.
Magdalena had the hardest time adjusting in the first two nights. Before her transformation, Manning had briefed her on her role in this BPRD. Since the Bureau was missing three of it's field agents, she would be replacing one of them. She would be taking the place of former agent Hellboy and her business at hand would be centered more on "defense" rather than research. He did inform her that despite this, she would need an understanding of charms, talismans, and special weaponry, and should constantly brush up on any information regarding the paranormal. And then he led her to the secure wing of the Bureau.
Large steel doors slid open, horizontally parting as Manning and Magdalena approached the cell. It was a large square room, the walls made of steel: no windows, no doors, no possible way of escape. It was rather impersonal as well: despite her animalistic condition, there was nothing that looked as if it could possibly make a wolf comfortable. Perhaps they figured by the time she had changed, the only thing that could sate the animal wasn't the illusion of a wolf's habitat, but the bloody raw meat that was to be served. Either way, Mal shrugged and stepped into the cell. She had at least a half an hour until twilight, and the moment the full moon was high in the sky, the change would begin. When the large steel doors closed behind her, Magdalena peeled away her clothing, kicking off her boots and sliding her shirt up and over her head. She unclipped her bra and removed her pants and undergarments.
It was out of some level of modesty that Mal's arms folded around her to cover her breasts. She had spotted a camera in the middle of the room and the light was on. Clearly if these people were going to have a werewolf in their midst, they wanted to keep an eye on her at all times. Fair enough, although the thought did embarrass her. She walked across the room, found a secluded place in the corner, and sat there. She hugged her legs against her chest, her long hair covered her shoulders and arms, and she waited there.
Guess I should just relax… the change hurts less if I don't resist it.
The lab was very up to date, hi-tech, and the complete opposite to Holly's preferred line of work. The head of the Angela family stood over the corpses of a mummified goblin with an armful of parchment and a quill in her hand. Due to her aging eyes, a pair of half-moon glasses rested on the brim of her nose as she overlooked her notes. The other scientist around her had been typing their information into small computers and the sound of their keyboards was more than enough to distract Holly from her line of work. Several times she had to cross out misspelled or misplaced words due to her distractions, though she seemed to be keeping her irritation under control.
Before, she had the comfort of her own office, and it helped that it was also in her own cozy home. Now she was working in a facility: a loud, noisy, and crowded one. Adjusting was going to be difficult, especially when it came to her trainer.
Johann Krauss was an ectoplasmic entity that occupied a very large, robotic suit. His heavy boots clunked on the floor's tiles with every step he took, and the sound of the ectoplasma steaming out through the vents caused some distraction. When Holly had managed to jot down enough notes to satisfy herself, she slipped a pair of gloves onto her hands and approached the Mummy. Her trainer was standing behind her, a little too close for comfort, but she was good at ignoring him.
That is… until he spoke…
"Vat do you see, Miss Angela?" he asked, then followed it with, "Und vat are you laughing about?"
Holly's body was shaking slightly. She did her best to hold back her laughter. His German accent brought back many hilarious memories and stories, most of which would not be wise to share with him. She shook her head at pointed at the mummy.
"He looks funny, sir. I never saw one so puny, even for a goblin." was her response. A good save, for the most part. After regaining her composure, she moved to the mummy and began to look over the corpse. "Hrm…well it's cloaking device has weakened. Hasn't completely vanished, despite being… I want to suggest, 1500 years old? Give or take? Perhaps the wrappings have preserved it…"
The goblin's weakened cloaking device gave the remains of the creature the appearance of a ghoulish looking infant. Had this creature been alive and it's cloaking device completed, one would have easily confused it for a human child. Holly reached out and very carefully decided to peel away a portion of the wrapping, looking it over. Her lips thinned and her eyes narrowed as she turned the wrap over in her hand, then she offered her hand to the nearest scientist.
"Hand me those glasses."
The scientist seemed to understand. He moved towards a cabinet and found one of the last surviving pairs of Emil Schufftein goggles. When he handed her such a large device, Holly jumped back in surprise.
"What the hell are those?" she asked.
The scientist looked surprise. "The…the goggles, ma'am." He stammered.
"Jesus Christ…" Holly placed the wrapping onto the table and removed her half-moon spectacles. "It looks like some kind of torture device, you mean with all the technology you have here, you people haven't updated these?"
Holly sighed, gave the man a quiet "thank you," then placed the goggles onto her head. Unfortunately, due to her curly hair, the straps had become very tangled in it. "Oh damn… oww.."
"Vait, vait!" she heard Johann from behind her and felt his cold, metal fingers at the back of her head. "I can fix it, stand still!"
Holly's hands then moved to the huge lenses over her eyes, holding them still so Johann could assist her. "Gosh, I guess I was right about it being a torture device."
Johann chuckle. "No, no, no, Fraulein. It's is really a useful device vonce you get used to it! Aha, zere ve are!" after a moment, he stepped away and Holly lifted her head, no longer feeling her hair being tugged on. "Better?"
She adjusted the goggles and then turned to look at him. Clearly, despite all the struggle she had in putting them on, the glasses certainly were handy. Through the lenses, she saw that Johann no longer wore his large, metal suit. Instead, he consisted entirely of a smoky, white substance that took on a cloudy, humanoid form. Indeed, this was his true nature. She gave him a smile and nodded to him.
"Much better, thank you." Then she returned to her work, looking over the wrappings.
With the glasses on, she saw several strange symbols glowing on the cloth, and then requested a book of runes and hieroglyphics. This mummy had come from near the Mediterranean. She wanted to believe it was Egyptian at first, but soon discovered that these symbols seemed to greatly resemble the Greek alphabet. After viewing a few pages of the book and taking an hour or so to translate what she was seeing, she filed her report to Johann.
"Nothing too serious, actually." She said as she removed the goggles. "The wrappings had a charm that would keep the cloaking device from fading, so the goblins could bury their dead in a more human-like form. That way, should the mummified remains be discovered, they would resembled mummified human children instead of goblins." She said, shaking her head. "My guess is that we tampered with this one a bit too much and the cloaking device was beginning to wear off."
"I vas told you vere ze brains of your team, und I must say I'm impressed." Was his reply and Holly chuckled.
"Well, it would be silly if I weren't. Had to be smart enough to take care of my girls. Would be embarrassing if they were the ones who had to take care of me." She said, then cracked her neck. "Though honestly… I'm going to have to work on those goggles and make a more comfortable pair. I'm getting too old to be having those heavy things on me."
"Vell zen, if you believe it is necessary in order to make your vork easier, you have my permission. Ve don't vant you hurting yourself! Gute nacht, Ms. Angela." And after a theatrical bow from the ectoplasmic creature, he watched as Holly smiled and turned away.
"Avere una notte buona." She said over her shoulder.
Dawn was approaching. Already, Lilianna wasn't sure if she was going to be able to stand this new job. Staying up at such long hours without any rest, sleeping during the day, working so hard during the night. When she applied to be a medic, she certainly didn't expect this kind of labor. Perhaps it was naïve of her to believe that she would only be taking care of wounded BPRD agents. When she came into the hospital wing and saw that a large squid-like monster was going into labor, her heart nearly stopped. At least five grown men were restraining the creature, who's limbs and tentacles were whipping about the room out of sheer agony. At least five doctors were trying to sedate her, and when that didn't work, they asked Lili to see if she could relax the creature.
With a pale face and a pounding heart, the young girl approached the monster, duking and dodging the swinging limbs before she approached the monster's head. The doctors immediately felt pity for the small creature: the moment she laid eyes on the creature's face, with it's large eyes, several rows of large, sharp teeth, and it's strange, sac-like head, Lilianna looked simply petrified. The doctor shook his head and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Make it quick. We won't let her hurt you." He reassured her.
Lilianna swallowed down a huge knot in her throat and removed the gloves from her hand. After feeling a bit squimish and nervous, she rushed for the creature's head and screamed when it whipped it's head to the side and snapped it's teeth in her direction. The doctors stayed true to their word and restrained the monster's head, keeping her from biting anyone else while Lilianna thrust her hands forward, palms flat on the creature's head. After a few minutes, her flailing arms and limbs slowed and her struggling came to a halt. At that time, Lili was clearly too afraid to move, let alone say anything, and kept her position while the doctor went through with the childbirth.
All Lili wanted to do when her shift was over was go right to sleep and forget everything that had just happened in that room. Her eyes were large, her face was still very pale, her mind was blank for a few moments, and she was moving very quickly. It wasn't until she bumped into another person that she felt her thoughts return to her. By then, she was on the floor, sitting up and looking into the face of a rather unusual creature.
"I'm sorry," a male voice spoke as a dark blue, human-like hand reached out towards her. "You're not hurt, are you?"