Not Quite Ordinary

AN: As always, I only own Amelia. The rest of them are not mine. Please give only *NICE* feedback or reviews please...


Chapter Two: Meet and Greet
(Mia’s POV)

“Sawyer, I assume your long departure means that you’ve found your friend?”

“Yes, I have. Everyone, I would like you to meet Amelia Renaldi. She will be joining us in the League.”

As he said this, he stepped to the side and I was formally introduced and inducted into their crazy cult. I looked among the group gathered around the table. *They certainly are an assorted bunch* The old man who had addressed Tom earlier *Quartermain was it?* was staring at me with a look that said,

“You are too young and too stupid to know what you’ve gotten yourself into.”

Next to him sat an aristocratic looking man with high cheekbones, pale creamy skin and dark eyes that pierced through me. He was dressed in a fine gray suit and one of his hands gripped the handle of his cane, which I suspected was more than just an ordinary cane. He gave me a brief once over and then plastered on a sneer that he seemed to have a lot of practice at giving.

Standing behind Quartermain was a thickly bearded Indian man dressed in a deep blue captain’s uniform edged in silver, his head wrapped in a turquoise turban and fastened with a seashell pin. He carried no gun but instead had a long sleek saber, sheathed in an intricately detailed silver scabbard. The quiet clink of glass on glass drew my attention to the next member. A man with a black hat and black leather trench coat. At first it almost seemed as if he was normal…But wait! As I looked closer, I noticed that his skin was utterly pale, much like fresh snow in the street in early morning. He was pouring a glass of scotch when he noticed me noticing him and gently lifted his glass in my direction. I rolled my eyes and suddenly noticed a figure in the shadows, a woman. Her eyes were glued to mine as I studied her features.

Her tall slender form was accentuated by the dark dress she wore, and although it was not overly provocative, her dress was extremely beautiful, especially on a form like hers. Her russet strands of hair were pulled up on top of her head and tucked beneath a hat. Her eyes were partially shielded, but I noticed that they were a pale shade of green, reminding me of grass frosted over each morning. This woman had an air of respectable-ness and dignity, and yet at the same time, she gave off the feeling of wild, uncontrollable fury, just as I felt so many times in my life. I was forced to act like a prim and proper lady, always grace and politeness, and yet I was never allowed to show my true self, the side of me that just wanted to say “Fuck the rules, this is who I AM!” I sensed a kindred spirit in this woman.

“Well Sawyer, is your friend a mute of does she just not have the capacity for forming words?”

My eyes sprung to meet the man who had insulted me, surprise surprise it was Haughty-Man. He smirked at me, daring me to respond. Well, if he wanted to play, then I’d play.

“When I’m through with you, we’ll see who has the capacity for making any kind of noise,” I growled under my breath as I prepared to meet his challenge.

Suddenly I felt a warm hand on my shoulder shaking me out of my angriness. It was Tom. Damn him!

“Easy now Mia, these are our friends. We don’t need a fight before the mission has even begun,” Tom whispered to me quietly.

“He started it,” I whined.

“Enough Mia,” Tom said forcefully.

“Yes, I do agree with Mr. Sawyer here, enough with this childish bickering.”

A new voice said from up above on the stairwell. Quick as a flash, everyone in the room had jumped up from their seats to face the new speaker. I looked up to see a man dressed in a large fur coat. He had a silver mask covering his face, the reason being the severe scarring around his eye and mouth. I heard other people forming around him, other men, guns aimed down at each of us downstairs. Next to me, Tom fingered his pistol by his side, the Captain had his hand on his saber, and Haughty-Man was gripping his cane tightly.

“Grey?” Quartermain asked.”

“They’re not mine.” He replied.

“They’re mine.” Said the masked man at the top of the stairs.

“First meetings usually warrant introductions,” Quartermain said.

“Of course. I am the Fantom, You are the League of so-called extraordinary gentlemen. Introductions made. Oh, and I’m scarred, Mr. Quartermain, not blind. Drop the gun.”

The sound of Quartermain’s gun hitting the floor prompted me to start moving quietly and slowly towards the bookcases.

“Your mission is to stop me. That, of course, I cannot permit. So I give to you all special one time invitation. Join me.”

“Keep him talking Mr. Q,” I muttered under my breath. “Just a few more steps…”

Quartermain kept him talking about the Fantom’s war, meanwhile I was trying to inch myself towards the dark space behind me. Finally, I stepped into the shadows behind the bookcase. From there I took note of the shooter’s positions around the group. I looked among the shooters to see Tom’s face suddenly appear. He aimed his gun at the people below, but not before catching my eyes from the shadows and winking at me.

*Clever man*

Now that I was sufficiently hidden, I began to shift and change into my feline form. I let my fury take over me and I felt a tingling sensation begin to pulse within my blood. My head and jaw rounded and lengthened to form the cat-like head and nose while my teeth sharpened inside my mouth. My arms and legs shortened until they were short, powerful limbs, paws tipped with razor-sharp claws. Eyes lightening to become a glowing shade of amber while my skin rippled and darkened to the sleek black fur of a jaguar. I shuddered once to loosen my powerful new cat muscles and stepped out into the light and the scene quickly unfolding in the library.

Bullets had now begun to fly from both parties, Quartermain and Tom shooting at the assassins while the Captain and Haughty-Man were facing off two opponents with their swords. I spied the woman moving to hide behind one of the bookcases, much like I had done earlier for my transformation. I couldn’t see the pale man but using my keen sense of smell, I knew he was in the far corner.

I was suddenly brought out of my observations to be faced by one of the shooters from above, grinning at me like one of the drunken idiots who frequented my tavern. I pounced on him, growling low as my claws sinking deep into the soft, vulnerable skin of his neck, an area not protected by his armor. The metallic tang of blood filled the air and my nose, spurring on my need to kill and banishing all logical thought from my head.

I chose to ignore the men’s appalling stares at my violent behavior, and instead unleashed my fury at a man charging at me with a sword poised menacingly above his head.

In the brief pauses between my kills, I was able to observe the fighting. Captain was fighting an assassin with his saber while Mr. No-Sunshine had punched another in the face, knocking him out clean. Haughty-Man had run a man through despite the fact that he had just gotten shot with a gun several times and I spied Mina behind a bookcase. I did not see the Fantom, Tom or Quartermain, but I assume that the two of them had gone looking for the Fantom.

No sooner had the fight began, that it ended, pages from books fluttering through the air and several bodies were scattered on the floor. I picked my head up from my most recent kill, gaining rational thought once again. Haughty-Man, or should I say Mr. Complicated pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and was cleaning the blade of his sword. Captain had sheathed his saber and was currently adjusting his uniform. Tom came down the stairs, trying to catch his breath, obviously the Fantom had gotten away from him.

“Where’s Mina?” Haughty-Man asked.

“Oh, probably hip-deep in some sort of trouble,” Quartermain replied.

“Don’t be such an alarmist Mr. Q,” Mina responded, emerging from the shadows wrapping her scarf around her neck and fixing her hair. “And my hips are none of your business.”

I turned around to change back to human form when almost immediately after I heard a gasp from Mina. She was stiffly being held hostage by one of the assassins who had eluded us with a knife to her throat.

“Put your weapons down!” He ordered.

I heard the clatter of guns and sabers behind me as I concentrated on Mina and her friend.

“I figured as much. That they would do anything to protect you” He whispered into Mina's ear.

“See that’s where you’re wrong, thinking that I need them to protect me,” she responded to him, her eyes shifting to a blood red color as she turned within his arms and bit down hard into the tender flesh of his neck with previously sheathed fangs, much as I had done with the first assassin.

*So I guess that’s where she gets her fiery spirit*

I took the time as Mina was feasting to pad back into the shadows and transform back in to my human figure. Tom took notice of me and once I emerged from the shadows in woman form, he stepped closer to me and took appraisal of my injuries, which were few. Once he had finished with his inspection, I turned back to where the rest of the League was ogling Mina, who was currently touching up her make-up.

“Missed a spot,” I heard Tom say next to me.

“Thank you,” she responded politely, closing her compact.

“So now that all the festivities are over with, where are we off to now?” I asked Quartermain.

“We still have to go find one more member. From there we’ll be given more instructions regarding the conference. Now, if Nemo would kindly show us out to the docks, we’ll begin our quest for the last member.”

“How wonderful, a wild goose chase,” I remarked.

“It’s not a wild goose chase, Ms. Renaldi, he’s currently terrorizing Paris and it’s just a matter of persuading him to come with us.”

“Persuading him, or catching him?” I retorted.

“What are you talking about, Mia?” Tom interjected.

“Several years ago, Mr. Quartermain was in the Amazon rain forest, trying to rid the locals of a particularly nasty problem they’d been having with one of the jungle cats terrorizing their animals. Being the hunter that he was, he accepted and tracked down the bothersome cat. He killed it and only later discovered that the cat he had killed was not actually a cat, but a shape-shifter like myself, my brother, in fact. When later I confronted him about the murder, he simply said, “It was my brother’s own fault that he was stupid enough to terrorize the natives animals and he was better off dead.”

“You and I both know that he was better off dead. Your brother was insane,” Quartermain argued.

“So you think it’s fine to go off and shoot some animal, who doesn’t know any better? And let me ask you this, why didn’t you just trap him, instead of killing him?”

“Because I’m a hunter Ms. Renaldi, killing is what I do!”

“It seems that you are also heartless, stupid and a bastard at that!”

“Enough! I am finished with this conversation with you! What’s done is done, there is no bringing him back!” Quartermain ordered.

I stood my ground for a few seconds, completely silent, before looking away, trying not to let him see that small tears were forming in my eyes. Quartermain stalked off to board Nemo’s Nautilus, the others following behind him on to the ship.

Tom slowed behind the others to walk next to me, wiping my tears away from my eyes with his thumb and giving me a warm hug...