Family Reunion (HB/Open)

[Aislynn White]

It was a lovely day in the BPRD, if Shifter didn't say so herself.

The Hive had not reared their ugly heads in several days, the sun was shining, and Shift was laid out in the middle of it all. She was in her lioness form, the second-largest of all her feline morphs, and taking up every bit of space in the sun she could reach. She was stretched out in the center of the “lawn,” with her head tilted so the sun beat down just so on the side of her face.

It had been far too long, truthfully. She hadn't had a true moment's peace in weeks, since the Hive had begun appearing. The rain had pouring down like hell, blocking her precious sun, which meant she simply had no time to relax. Now that the rain was gone and the sun was out... She could just be lazy. After all, a good rest wasn't called a “cat nap” for no reason.

But, of course, nothing could go like it was supposed to. She had barely gotten halfway to dreamland when a most familiar scent reached her nose. Even half asleep, Aislynn would have known that particular scent anywhere, no matter the situation. Hellboy was out and about. More importantly, he was out and about near her.

Her bones creaking in sleepy protest, Shifter lifted her head so she could looked around. Her eyes rested on the form of her oldest brother, and a smile formed on her cat muzzle. A quiet purr rumbled in her throat.

“Well, well, look what the dog dragged in. Or, out, as the case may be.”

[Hellboy]

Hellboy was somewhat bored.

Liz had both the kids, because he was supposed to be on duty at the time. So far, however, there was absolutely nothing out there to kill. Or "take care of", seeing as he wasn't exactly supposed to kill everything on sight. Anything that did need to be handled had been low-level stuff and had been assigned to other squads. So Red was just... bored.

So, he'd decided to go outside until he was needed. Maybe those damn Hive would show up again and he could kick their sorry asses before they even got inside.


“Well, well, look what the dog dragged in. Or, out, as the case may be.”

The half-demon turned his head in the direction of a large lioness- a talking large lioness- who could only be one person at the compound. He chuckled. "Hey, there, Shift," he said, beginning to fumble in his pockets for his pack of cigars and a lighter. "Seen any action today?"

[Aislynn White]

The smile on her muzzle only widened when Hellboy spoke, and Shifter felt her tail give a little swish. Even if she was mainly feline inside, she still had a few traits of the other animals that occupied her mind, and it was the canine - a yappy poodle, to be exact - that caused her tail to wag. She rolled over onto her belly, then pushed her onto her feet. Shifter made her way towards him.

In the process, her body morphed and changed. She shifted from lioness to a beautiful Burmese Cat, and then rubbed her side against the lower part of his leg. A soft purr escaped her throat.

"Action?"[/b] She murmured, tilting her head to the side. Her yellow eyes stared up at him, amusement sparkling, "Bro, you know as well as I do that a cat wants nothing more than to curl up and bathe in the sun. That being said, no, I haven't seen a bit of action. I've been lazy an' lovin' it all day."[/i]

Her tail wrapped neatly around her four paws as she sat at his feet.

[Hellboy]

Hellboy grinned, leaning down to scratch between her ears before straightening again and pulling out the cigar and lighter he'd been fumbling for. He took a puff from the stick of tobacco, mulling things over for a moment before looking back down at her.

"Bah, you know me, Shift," Red said, winking in an amused manner. "Can't go a day without punching something. And it's been a terrible slow week for punching."

[Aislynn White]

Shifter's shoulders trembled as a very amused sound came from the mind-link, a sound that basically meant the cat was chuckling. She flicked the end of her tail and stared up at him, yellow eyes looking him over. "Well so long as I'm not on the wrong end of you're punching,"[/i] her voice grinned inside his head, "then I'm perfectly okay with that. Otherwise, let me get a good headstart. The cheetah's achin' to run."[/i]

God knew it was true. She had not run in weeks, and the cheetah in her blood was dying to chase something, or perhaps even hunt. The lioness enjoyed sleeping, since all they ever did was hunt, and all her housecat morphs were lazy as could be. But the cheetah was different. The cheetah enjoyed the exercise, and was slightly annoyed Aislynn wasn't paying her any attention. She made a mental note to resolve that problem later.

Shifter watched as he lit his cigar, then sighed, shaking her head. Before anything else could be said, she morphed from cat to human. Without much effort, she leapt to her feet, though it did little good. At five foot six, Aislynn was still a good foot and a half shorter than Hellboy, though she had long since stopped caring about the height difference. He was a demon. She was the crazy cat lady. Height didn't matter in a messed up brother/sister relationship like that.

So she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and looked up at him, "Why don't you go find a nice Hive member to punch? I'm sure, given the right scent, I can find one for you. Been a while since I tracked anything."

Jeez, how lazy had she become?

Granted, the offer was made as a half-joke, but there was still that part of her that meant it. The feline in her loved lazy days. The kid inside just wanted to run around with a Pixie Stick screaming "WEEEEEEEEEEEE!" as she hunted down a few nasty enemies.

[Hellboy]

"Why don't you go find a nice Hive member to punch? I'm sure, given the right scent, I can find one for you. Been a while since I tracked anything."

Hellboy gave her an amused grin, taking another drag off of his cigar. He flicked the ash from the end on to the grass. "You know Liz'd fry me if she knew I'd gone out looking for trouble like that," he said. "Those things travel in packs. Like chihuahuas.

"'Sides," here, he looked relieved and annoyed at the same time, if that was even possible, "there hasn't been in attack in a couple months. Maybe they finally moved on. Then again, y'know what they say about the calm before the storm..."

[Aislynn White]

Aislynn grinned up at him when he mentioned chihuahuas, and reached up to bat at the cat ear that...simply wasn't there. She realized it too late and huffed, lowering her arms, "Well, I've heard their packs are getting smaller. With the way the economy is lately, people can't afford to feed Floppy and Mopsy. They can only keep Fluffy, Floofy, Jo and Fluffy II. Anything else is above their spending range."

She gave him another crooked grin, one that made her appear to be far younger than she actually was, and leaned against him slightly. His comment about storms however made her sigh, and Shifter shook her head.

"The calm before the storm is peaceful. The storm after the calm kicks your ass. The calm after the storm after the calm... Well, we'll cross that bridge once we've burned this one to the ground."

[Hellboy]

Hellboy couldn't help but snort. "Yeah, close enough." He looked down, giving his "sister" a small smile. It was the type of smile he reserved for his "siblings", Liz, and the children; and it wasn't a smile he gave often.

"Bah, we'll sort everything out with the Hive eventually." He dropped the finished cigar to the ground and stomped it out with a cloven-hoofed foot. "Hopefully we'll squash the little bugs. Splash says it's the collars that do it to them, but I don't trust 'em..."

[Chika]

Chika had been taking a long cat nap. She was curled up on her bed, her ear twitching rhythmically in her sleep. Then a nightmare had come creeping on her. She woke up with a start, tears starting to run in her eyes. In the dream, everyone had been killed by the Hive, leaving her all alone. Again.

Panicked she flew out of her bed, wearing her skirt and a wrinkled white button-up top. She ran through the base, but either everyone was out, in another room, or just missed her by a few seconds as she ran down the halls, flying outside, her golden eyes looking around. She broke out into a smile when she saw Red and Shifter--though she tended to shy away from the latter because she was a bigger cat. She ran over and clung to his legs, holding back a sob. "Red!" she yelled, well spoke. She sniffled. "I had a bad dream where everyone was dead..."

[Aislynn White]

At the site of his smile, Aislynn felt an involuntary purr rumble in her chest, though as human it sounded rather weak. With a frown, she smacked her fist against her chest, then coughed. Well, so much for being a cat 100% of the time. She gave him a sheepish smile, then tilted her head to the side.

"I don't trust 'em either, though..." She broke off for just a moment, tearing her gaze from his face to look away. The Hive were part cat, among other sort of animals. Even if they had been created in a lab, they still had DNA, thought patterns... She could get herself a morph, find out what was behind their thoughts...

It would certainly be a unique form, once they were wiped out.

Aislynn returned to the present, and looked up at her brother. Before she could open her mouth to convey the thought, however, a black blue zoomed back. Shifter leapt back, arching her back and hissing as her form shifted from human to a Savannah Cat. When she saw who it was, however, the young woman sighed, snorted, and morphed back.

"Chika." She placed a hand over her chest, "I've fought demons - evil ones, mind you - monsters and... And who knows what else, and yet you've managed to startle me. Congradulations."

A light smile formed on her lips.

[Hellboy]

Hellboy was more then a little surprised when something ran up and attached itself to his leg. He was used to it, though, so he knew it was one of three things. Trevor, Teo... or Chika. Judging from the voice, it was option three.

"Red! I had a bad dream where everyone was dead..."

The half-demon looked down at her and picked her up, snorting in Shifter's direction for a brief second before hoisting Chika up into his arms. "Hey," he murmured to her, gruff voice becoming soothing in its quietness. "It's okay, Chik. No one's dead, everyone's okay... It's fine."

[Chika]

She sniffed, snuggling into his arms. "Sorry..." she murmured to Shifter, hoping the other cat wasn't mad. She didn't seem to be, but that didn't make her feel any better. She looked up at Hellboy. "You promise...?" she asked. "But...what if my dream comes true?" Tears started flowing again. "I don't want to lose everyone again!"

[Aislynn White]

Shifter decided it was her turn to play Momma Cat, and reached over. Gently, she began to run her hand through Chika's hair in a soothing way, almost like she was "petting" the kitten. A smile formed on her lips, "Chika, honey... We aren't normal humans, and Cigar-Breath over here isn't even human. We're gunna be a lot harder to kill than normal people."

She reached up, gently rubbing the top of Chika's head, "And by that I mean: we are practically impossible to kill, and all of us are just too damned stubborn to DIE. You don't gotta worry about us."

[Hellboy]

Red couldn't help but chuckle. "Not to mention, Chik, I don't think you have the power of prophetic dreams." He ran his normal, left hand through her hair. "Electricity, maybe, but not everything you dream is gonna come true.

"I mean, one time I had a dream me and Liz--" He stopped himself suddenly. "You don't need to hear about that dream. Um... Okay, one time I dreamed it was raining cats. It hasn't rained down cats recently, has it?"

[Chika]

She leaned into Shifter's hand, letting out something that resembled a purr. She calmed down, her eyes closing. "Oh, ok..." she said, sounding a little reassured.

She opened her eyes, looking at Hellboy in confusion. "Raining cats?" She giggled. "Did you take any home with you? I bet Liz would have been mad. But I would like it to rain cats instead of water." She made a face, her ear twitching. She sort of leaned towards Shifter more, since she was petting her.