Hello, everyone! I am very pleased to bring you the next chapter in this story. It's been a while, though not nearly as long as the last interval between posts! I know I've had some people eagerly awaiting this, so it makes me happy knowing I'm making other people happy! (laugh)

Thank you very much to all those who reviewed, particularly TheVooDooFish, whose wonderful story, Fears and Hearts, should be read by all fans of this story! It's incredible!!! I highly recommend it. I also ask that you will review this chapter when you have finished reading it!

To fantasyaddict101 (and all others who have been thinking this but not telling me): I know this story hasn't really got a plot yet, but please hang in there and continue reading! This entire part is just set-up. I know it's taking a while, but that has more to do with my failure to update and continue writing than with the actual story! The main plot will begin in a few more chapters; I just really want all of you top get to know Cynthia well before then. Speaking of which, since there will be a very in-depth physical description of her in this chapter. There are two reasons for this, one of which is that I want all of you to be able to picture her clearly. I will most likely change my profile picture to a picture of her, either one that I've found or the one TheVooDooFish has promised to draw for me! (Did I mention how good her story is?) That is the other reason, in case you were wondering....

Anyway, now that that's out of the way, let's get to the story! Please enjoy, or at least try to... ^-^ By the way, it starts exactly where the last chapter left off, so you might want to go back and read the end of the last one.

Disclaimer: I do not own Hellboy or any of the characters from it. Abe would be fun to own, though.... too bad....

Chapter Three: Meet The Gang

"You've gotta be kidding me." The huge red man whose name Cynthia didn't know folded his arms, one human-looking, the hand and forearm of the other appearing to be made of stone, across his broad chest. "This is who you dragged us here to meet?"

"Be nice!" the black-haired woman snapped at him. She elbowed him hard in the chest; Cynthia noticed that balls of fire still surrounded both of the woman's hands.

"One of these days I'll have to help you learn correct social behavior," the man will blue skin and gills, with whom Cynthia had originally been talking before this interesting interruption, sighed from behind Cynthia. He walked up to stand beside her. "And you shouldn't assume things about people; she's quite kind, and very intelligent." Cynthia felt herself blush at these compliments.

"Yeah, Red, if we went by what you look like, nobody would ever get anywhere near you," the woman put in, "So even if she does have dyed blue hair, you can't assume anything about her personality."

"It isn't dyed," Cynthia said quietly. Everyone turned to look at her, including Manning, who had been attempting to interrupt the conversation. "And I prefer to call it aqua, not just plain blue."

"No matter what you call it, it's still pretty much blue," the red man said, clearly trying not to laugh. This remark earned him another jab in the ribs fro the black-haired woman.

"Am I correct in noticing that it's darker in the front?" the blue-skinned man asked.

"Yes, it gets lighter the farther back it gets on my head." Cynthia felt very uncomfortable having this much attention focused on her, but she also couldn't help noticing the humor in the situation. "I think it's funny that all of you find my appearance odd when your own appearances must also generally be categorized as.... unique."

"Hey!" the red man said loudly, pointing a finger of his stone hand at her, "Who're you calling unique?"

"Settle down, everyone!" Manning commanded, sounding like a pompous schoolteacher, "I need to make the proper introductions." He turned to face the black-haired woman. "Starting with you."

"Ooh, lucky me," the woman said sarcastically, but she moved a little closer to Cynthia so that they were facing each other.

"This," Manning said, indicating the black-haired woman, "is Elizabeth Sherman. As you may have noticed," his expression became a little disgruntled, "she is what we call 'pyrokinetic,' meaning she-"

"Can move or control fire, yes," Cynthia finished for him. She held out her hand to shake the woman's. The woman put out her hand; then seemed to notice for the first time that they were still surrounded by fire.

"Sorry," she muttered, and the flames vanished. She and Cynthia shook hands. "Call me Liz; it's what I like," the woman added.

"Sure," Cynthia answered with a little smile.

"Next," Manning went on, turning Cynthia so that she faced the blue-skinned man, "we have Abraham Sapien." The man flinched slightly when his name was said, but his overall expression remained pleasant. "He is the academic member of the team, so you will probably do quite a bit of work together."

"I look forward to it," Cynthia murmured, holding out her hand for him to shake. He looked slightly uncomfortable.

"Ah, about that..." he said, gesturing gracefully at her hand, "I'd... I'd rather not shake hands with you, if you don't mind. Not because of anything you've done," he explained hastily, "It's just... I have empathic and psychometric abilities, and I read things through my hands."

"Oh!" Cynthia swiftly withdrew her hand. "It's all right, I understand perfectly."

"You do?" The man looked surprised. "Most people don't know what either of those mean." Cynthia grinned.

"Being empathic means that you can sense emotions and some thoughts from others," she stated, "And psychometry is the ability to touch an object or person and... well, read information about it or them. Where it's been, what's happened to it, that sort of thing."

"Oh, no; a little Blue," the red man groaned behind her.

"Shh!" Liz hissed at him.

"Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you, Abraham," Cynthia concluded. After a second, she asked, "Or would you prefer being called... um, your last name?" He winced again.

"Please, call me Abe," he said hurriedly, "I don't like my full name much, but I rather like the nickname."

"All right." Cynthia grinned again. "But I was going to suggest your first and last name for your revised species name..."

"Let's not and say we did," Abe suggested with an only partially faked shudder. Cynthia laughed and nodded.

"And finally," Manning interrupted, now looking extremely annoyed, "The final member of the team is-"

"Me," the red man finished, coming up behind Cynthia. She turned to face him.

"This is..." Manning paused before saying the name. "....Hellboy." Cynthia's eyes widened. She knew the name well, but not just from the media.

"I thought you might be," she said softly, putting out her hand for the third time in as many minutes. Hellboy paused before grabbing and shaking her hand with his stone one. Cynthia knew that she had rather large hands with long fingers, but her hand was engulfed by Hellboy's. "Professor Broom mentioned you to me," she added when she'd got her hand back. Hellboy's eyebrows went up.

"You... you knew Father?" he asked, sounding a bit disbelieving. Cynthia smiled.

"Yes, I met him. That's how I'm able to be here now; he asked me to come." Hellboy gave her an appraising look; then seemed to relax slightly.

"You might actually be ok, then," he said rather gruffly, "I thought he'd brought you." He jerked his thumb at Manning, who swelled and spluttered in indignation. Cynthia laughed aloud.

"Well, technically I brought myself, but I wouldn't have known about this place if Broom hadn't come to see me." She suddenly remembered that Broom was dead, and that he and Hellboy had been extremely close, like father and son. Her throat felt tight again. "I'm terribly sorry for your loss, " she said in a near whisper, "I liked Professor Broom very much, even though I only met him once." She swallowed hard. "You were with him all the time, so I don't even think I can imagine how you must be feeling."

There was a very awkward silence after this statement of Cynthia's. Eventually, Manning, the ever-obnoxious, broke it.

"Well, now that you've all met each other, I think we should give Miss Livingston a tour, don't you?" He rubbed his hands together, as though he was expecting a huge cheer of assent. No one answered, and the smile slid off Manning's face. Just when Cynthia was getting light-headed from the tension, Myers walked into the room. He looked around at all of their solemn faces.

"Great party," he commented, grinning, "Mind if I join in?" Cynthia couldn't help laughing, Liz let out a little snort, Abe's eyes lit up with amusement, and even Hellboy grinned, revealing extremely large, white teeth. Only Manning still looked unhappy, but then he always did.

"Sure, Myers," Hellboy clapped his human hand onto Myer's shoulder. "Bring us a can of those little sausage thingies and a box of Kleenex to wipe off our tears, and we'll be all set."

"I'm fresh out of Vienna sausages, but I think I can find the Kleenex," Myers said with a straight face and an innocent tone. Cynthia covered her mouth with her hand to keep from laughing louder.

"What about the tour?" Manning's voice reminded Cynthia of a glacier: it was cold and you couldn't get rid of it.

"I would be interested in seeing the rest of this place," she answered calmly.

"I could come along, if you would like," Abe suggested.

"We'll all go," Liz stated, "Right?" She looked pointedly at Hellboy. He shrugged.

"Why not?" he said, a hint of sarcasm in his tone, "There's nothing on TV."

"Very well," Manning said, disgruntled as usual, "Myers, I'd like you to lead this tour; I have paperwork to fill out for Miss Livingston." He turned and stalked out of the room. As soon as he was out of earshot, Cynthia asked something she'd been wanting to know for a while.

"Had he always acted as though he had something shoved in one of his orifices, or did one of you cause that behavior?" This brought smiles out of more than one person; Hellboy in particular grinned broadly.

"Nah, Manning's always been like that," he explained. His grin, if possible, grew wider. "I just like to help him shove it higher."

"Yeah, sometimes you help a little too much," Liz pointed out. "Not that he doesn't deserve it," she added, "He's so... oh, what's the word..."

"Cynical?" Abe prompted, "Overbearing? Pompous?"

"Hmmm..." Liz thought for a moment. "Well, all of those work, i guess, but I was kinda thinking of just plain 'annoying.'" Everyone,. even Myers, nodded their agreement.

"Should we get going?" Cynthia asked.

"Whatever you'd like," Myers answered, "You're the new one around here. Right this way," he added with a little smirk, gesturing for her to walk with him through the door. The others followed after.

BPRDBPRDBPRDBPRD

Nearly an hour later, Cynthia found herself walking back towards what she called "the study", her head awhirl with all of the things she had seen.

"This place is bigger than it looks on the outside," she thought, "Much, much bigger...."

"That's pretty much it," Myers was saying, "There's a few storerooms we skipped, and all the private quarters, of course, but I think we covered everything else."

"I know I haven't been a lot of those places," Liz commented. She was walking on Cynthia's left. "I mean, a swimming pool? Why do we even need one?"

"I didn't know about that, either," Abe said from Cynthia's right, "I suppose the agents originally from the FBI use it for training; swimming is very good exercise, you know."

"Yeah, you would know," Hellboy called to him from the other side of Liz.

"Aaaanyway," Myers cut back in, "We'll have to arrange quarters for you, Cynthia, and I'll see if I can find someone to do the training for the physical side of your.... um, new job."

"Thank you, Myers," Cynthia said gratefully, "I appreciate it." Myers shook him head, looking embarrassed.

"It's not a problem," he said hurriedly,"Don't worry about it."

"I have a question," Liz said suddenly, "I've been trying to figure it out, but I haven't been able to.... What exactly are you going to do around here? Or maybe I should put it this way: what can you do?"

"You mean, what are the abilities I possess that sat me apart from others?" Cynthia clarified.

"Yeah, exactly."

"I've been trying to figure that out, too," Hellboy growled. He gave Cynthia a slightly suspicious look over Liz's head. "Cuz, if you don't mind me sayin', the only weird thing I've seen about you is your hair."

"I've seen more," Abe put in, raising his right hand slightly. It fell back to his side as he muttered, "Wait, I didn't word that quite right..." Cynthia snickered to herself. "What i mean is, I've seen what she can do."

"That wasn't everything I can do," Cynthia said, shaking her head, "In fact, that was me just playing around. I can do much more than that."

"And I've seen that?" Myers asked. Cynthia shook her head again, a smile quirking her lips upward.

"No, that wasn't much, either." She stopped, looking around her. They were in a wide, open corridor, and no-one else was about. The others stopped, as well, curious about her actions. "Here, I can show you a little more," Cynthia said, raising her right hand, "I promise not to break anything..." And suddenly, at her silent command, a wall of water, nearly as tall as the corridor, came rushing at them from the other end of the hall. It wasn't touching the walls or the ceiling, only the floor. All of her companions cried out, and she saw them brace themselves for the impact of this great torrent, but, on another silent command on her part, the wave vanished just before it reached them. There was no sign it had ever been there; the floor was perfectly dry. "And then there's this," Cynthia added, raising her hand again. At this movement, she and her companions were caught in a furiously strong wind, hard enough to make all of them, except her, stagger, but it didn't seem to be affecting any other part of the corridor. After maybe ten seconds, Cynthia stopped the wind. Silence followed. It was nearly fifteen seconds later that Hellboy spoke.

"Wow," he said, obviously impressed, "That wind'll come in handy."

"And the water," Abe added, "That much at once can be very.... overpowering, to say the least."

"Makes you wish we'd had her around when we were dealing with Rasputin's gang," Liz murmured, "I'm still not sure I got all of those hell-hound things."

"Don't say that," Hellboy said with the tiniest of shudders, "That's the last thing we need: a reunion with Sammael!"

"Sammael..." Cynthia repeated, wondering why the name sounded familiar to her. Had she read it somewhere...?

"Long story," Hellboy stated shortly, "Don't ask."

"So is that everything you can do, or is there anything more?" Myers asked, sounding a little guarded.

"I can change the temperature of the water and air and the amount and strength of them, but that's about it," Cynthia answered. She paused before adding slowly, "There is something else, but it isn't something I can control. It's... it's more like something that happens to me, rather than something I do to it."

"What is it?" Abe asked, looking interested. Cynthia glanced around uneasily.

"I'd rather not show you here; it's too.... open. But if we go back to that first room we were in, I wouldn't mind demonstrating."

"Let's go, then," Liz prompted, "You've got me curious."

"Yeah," Hellboy added, "You might be as weird as us, after all." Cynthia laughed.

"Actually, I'm probably stranger… but let's not talk about that now." Cynthia felt the usual surge of strange sensations flow over her as she thought, or tried to think, about her past. "How far is that room from here?"

"Not far. The main junction's just ahead," Myers answered, pointing ahead to where the passage grew wider and taller. His tone was still guarded; Cynthia wondered if she had put him on edge by demonstrating her abilities.

"I wonder if he's still adjusting to the strangeness of this place," she thought, "It must take a lot of getting used to for someone normal… someone like him, I should say."

"All right," she said aloud, trying her best to sound as though she hadn't noticed Myer's edginess, "Let's go." She started walking towards the junction, and the others moved to follow her. She had a feeling that they were all looking at her; though with curiosity, not fear.

"I can't really blame them," Cynthia thought, walking slightly faster, "Especially since I'd very much like to do the same to them…"

Cynthia stepped out of the corridor into the wide open space of the main junction. The now-familiar metal doors were off to her left; Cynthia walked swiftly across to them. She put out her hand to open one of the doors, but stopped herself just before she touched it.

"What's wrong?" both Abe and Myers asked from right behind her. Cynthia jumped slightly and drew her hand back, glancing over her shoulder as she did so.

"Um, nothing," she murmured, "It… it just has to do with the thing I'm going to show you."

"What, you can't open doors?" Hellboy said sarcastically, "That'll get old fast."

"No, that's not it," Cynthia said hastily, her voice even quieter than before, "It's… um… "She glanced at the doors. "Could… could someone…?" she whispered, gesturing at them. Liz brushed past her and pushed the left-hand door open. Cynthia nodded her thanks; then walked though the door and down the shallow steps to the main floor of the room. The others filed in, and when Liz, the last one, stepped onto the main level, Cynthia cleared her throat softly before she spoke.

"All right," Cynthia said slightly nervously, "Um…" She glanced around the room, looking for something she could demonstrate with. When she didn't see anything, she asked, "Do any of you have something small and made of metal?"

"My necklace," Liz suggested after a few moments of silence had passed.

"That would work well," Cynthia answered, looking at the cross pendant and the metal band that served as a chain. Liz reached up to remove it and, after a few seconds, held it out to Cynthia. "Uh, not the chain part," Cynthia said hurriedly, "Chains are… dangerous." Liz gave Cynthia an odd look, but she slid the pendant off the band.

"Is that better?" she asked.

"Yes, thank you. But I think I'd better explain this a little more before I take that." Cynthia took a deep breath before stating, "Metal… likes me."

There was a fairly long pause while all of them thought the over. Then,

"It likes you?" Hellboy repeated her words incredulously.

"Do you mean it has a magnetic attraction to you?" Abe queried.

"No, not really." Cynthia shook her head. "It… well, it likes me. Here, let me show you…" She held out her left hand for Liz to give her the pendant.

"Do you want to take your glove off first?" Liz asked. Cynthia looked at her hand. Sure enough, her glove was there, just as she had put it on that morning.

"Oh, I forgot," she said, "I guess it's just such a habit to have them on, I didn't notice…" She slid her hand out of the glove; then presented her bare palm to Liz. "Watch," she instructed, and then Liz placed the pendant on her hand.

The pendant lay on Cynthia's palm, unmoving and perfectly normal-looking. But only for a second. Then it began to wiggle, as though it was trying to embed itself into Cynthia's hand. When that didn't work, it started to slide around her hand from front to back. Everyone watched as it clung to the underside of Cynthia's hand, defying gravity. It slid back up to her palm around the other side of her hand; then, quite suddenly, it started moving determinedly towards her wrist.

"Get it off!" Cynthia cried, "Quick!" Abe's hand darted out and grabbed the pendant just before it went up her sleeve. He examined it, looking fascinated.

"How was it able to do that?" he asked.

"I told you," Cynthia answered, "Metal likes me. It.... it loves me. It can't get enough of me. I don't know why, but it's always been like that." She glanced at Liz, grinning slightly. "Now you know why I said chains are dangerous."

"Yeah, they probably try to love you to death," Hellboy snickered. Cynthia laughed too, pleased that he had given such a serious idea a humorous twist.

"A very apt description," she replied when she'd finished laughing, "I'm just glad I haven't met my metal true love yet."

"Does the metal only like your outer skin, or does it try to go in your mouth or nose?" Abe queried, sounding curious yet grossed out at his daring to ask. Cynthia grimaced.

"Well, I really try not to let it get that far," she explained, "But the few times it has, that hasn't been its destination. It always winds up going for my neck... or as close to my heart as it can get."

"So is that what the gloves are for, to keep metal from getting on your hands?" Liz asked.

"No." Cynthia pulled up her right sleeve to display the glove on that hand; then pulled on her left-hand glove and tugged that sleeve up as well. The gloves were different from each other; the left one came up to her elbow and was fingerless, the right one reached about halfway up her forearm and had half fingers. Both, however, were black and made of a very fine leather. "I wear these," Cynthia raised her hands, "because my hands get very cold when i manipulate water and air. They don't really help much with the metal because my fingers are still exposed."

"Why don't you wear gloves with fingers then?" Myers said, the first noise he'd made in a while. Cynthia shrugged.

"I like to be able to move my hands well," she answered, "Full gloves get annoying." As if summoned by the word that best described him, the doors swung open and Manning strode into the room. Cynthia jumped slightly, and she was fairly sure that the others did, too.

"Oh, here you are," Manning said. He sounded slightly more pleasant than he had earlier, which surprised Cynthia.

"Maybe he's not as bad as I thought," Cynthia thought, "Maybe he's just, oh, overworked or something..."

"Did you actually go anywhere, or did you just stand there the whole time?" Manning went on.

"I take it back...."

"The tour went quite well," Cynthia said aloud, "I enjoyed it very much."

"Good." Manning got a little smirk. "Good. Now that that's over with, you can fill out the paperwork I've designed for you."

"Can he get any worse?"

"As you wish," Cynthia answered, walking over to him. Manning nodded his approval of her obedience; then opened the doors again and walked out. Cynthia turned back and gave her new companions a smile and an ironic salute; then followed Manning out.

BPRDBPRDBPRDBPRD

It was nearly four hours after she had left the study that Cynthia found herself sitting on the end of the bed in her new quarters, staring tiredly around her. The room, which had been assigned to her, was about 12 feet my 15 feet, and it contained a double bed, a chest of drawers a small desk, an even smaller table, a single rickety-looking chair, and two plain floor lamps. Altogether, it reminded Cynthia very strongly of a rather small, cramped hotel room.

"maybe they'll let me bring in the furniture from my apartment," Cynthia thought, "If I'm allowed to stay, that is..."

The paperwork she had filled out with Manning had been extremely complicated. She had wound up having to give Manning a lot more of her backstory, which she had disliked. She didn't enjoy knowing her own backstory much, the little that she did know, but she liked divulging it even less. All of this intense thought and uncomfortable sharing had led to Cynthia's current state, which was exhausted. It took her a long time to convince herself to get up and explore the bath part of her room.

The bathroom was exactly like the rest of the room in that it made Cynthia think of an extremely plain hotel room bathroom. It contained a sink, a toilet, a mirror, and a wall cabinet. There wasn't a tub or a shower; the only showers in the entire complex were the ones by the gym and they were used by everyone. However, Cynthia knew from experience that, because of her abilities with water, she could take a shower anywhere she wanted. She was about to go back into the main room when something caught her eye. She turned to see what it was.

It wound up being her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Cynthia nearly dismissed it, but then she decided to take a closer look. She didn't often examine herself, so it was almost as if she was looking carefully at a person she barely knew. She cataloged her appearance systematically: Aqua-blue hair that got lighter as it moved back on her head, so that it was dark cerulean in the front and light, almost silvery-blue in the back. It was parted down the middle and it reached to the small of her back, but the two darkest pieces in the front were cut to a few inches below her collarbones. The eyes – "My eyes," Cynthia reminded herself-- were a light green-blue, surrounded by long black lashes. Her eyebrows were black, as well, which contrasted strongly with the other hair on her head. Her skin was so pale and translucent that the veins showed though, giving it a slight bluish tint. Her face was a carefully balanced equation of angles and curves; the rather long nose was evened out by the slightly full lips, the high cheekbones and pointed chin were kept under control by the delicate almond-shaped eyes.

"I wonder if this is how others see me," Cynthia thought, "Or do they only think of me as a weird girl with blue hair?"

"The people you met today see more," another part of her answered, "They didn't think you were all that odd." This though made Cynthia smile, the barest quirk of one corner of her mouth, and continue her examination. She was fairly tall and rather slim. Her body also contained the angle and curve equation; the overall form was streamlined, but the feminine shapes weren't entirely lost. She had large hands with long fingers, and average-sized feet....

"Nothing mush to look at," Cynthia said aloud, stepping back and away from the mirror. "No need to scrutinize myself that much, especially since no-one else does," she added in a thought, "They see the hair and go no further." Suddenly feeling overwhelmingly worn out, Cynthia left the bathroom and collapsed onto the bed. She pulled her boots off; then curled up on her left side, pulling a pillow under her head. She debated getting back up turn off the lamps, but she drifted off to sleep before she could do so....

I hope that was interesting and fun for you to read! It kinda wanders around as far as plot, but I promise this will not be the case in most later chapters! Please review, and continue to read this story. Thank you for reading!