Disclaimer: Hellboy and all related characters are the property of Mike Mignola not me. If they were mine I most certainly wouldn't be posting stories here would I?
A/N: While this is movie-verse fanfiction any gaps will be filled with comic information. Any further gaps will have to be filled with the twisted work of my imagination. Let's hope there are few gaps.
"So where exactly are we going?" Crystal Carlson asked, fidgeting in her seat.
Liz Sherman kept her eyes on the road. "Typical routine haunting, nothing big."
"Ah. Start the new girl off small and make sure she doesn't screw up, right?"
"Basically, yeah."
Liz hadn't believed Hellboy when he'd told her Crystal would be joining the team. Sure she trusted Abe's judgment and if he said someone was all right she had no reason not to believe him, but this seemed insane.
"And I'm guessing they paired me up with you so you can keep me in check. Fire beats ice you know."
"Crystal the bureau obviously trusts you enough to let you even come out here, I'm just here to show you the ropes that's all."
"But do you trust me?"
Liz didn't answer. The truth was that she didn't, no matter what Abe Sapien believed.
"It's okay," Crystal said. "I'd think you were crazy if you did. I have no problem earning everyone's trust and respect."
"That's good to hear."
"Oh, and call me Crys. Crystal is too… coincidental."
Finally Liz took her eyes from the road long enough to cast a confused glance in her partner's direction. "What?"
"Come on! Crystal? Ice crystals? It's stupid."
Liz smiled. "Maybe your parents knew you were going to be… special."
"Right. If they knew how special I was going to be why'd they ditch me the first time I froze a water pipe?"
Deciding it was best to remain silent Liz kept on driving. People had been comparing the two women a lot lately, which was part of the reason they were now working together. In truth the comparison made Liz ill. Yes so they both commanded basic natural elements, but that was where the similarities ended. Years ago Liz had killed innocent people including her parents in a tragic accident. Crys on the other hand controlled her killing and seemed to have no remorse for the death of her foster father.
"We're here," Liz said flatly, pulling into a long driveway. As they walked toward the door she had a thought. "Crys have you ever seen a ghost before?"
"No, I never really believed in them actually."
"You know, this is your job now. We fight monsters, there is no room for skeptics in our line of work."
"Hey relax. I never said I don't believe, I said I didn't. I can't say I believed in demons or fish men but that sure as hell changed."
"Good."
Liz knocked on the door and was greeted by an elderly woman who introduced herself as Pearl Thompson.
"You two must be the ones they said were coming to fix my… well my problem."
"Yes ma'am, my name is Liz Sherman and this is Crys Carlson my partner."
"Do come in, it's so nice to see you girls. I don't know why but I was expecting them to send someone a little less… normal."
Liz smiled and Crys stifled a laugh.
"I'm sorry, I hope I'm not offending you. It's just that I never believed in ghosts until my husband died."
"So is it your husband that's haunting you?" Liz asked.
Mrs. Thompson wrung her hands. "Well yes and no. He's here, but there's… there's something else." She whispered the last part as if she was afraid her ghostly visitor would hear.
"What do you mean?"
"After Edward died I could feel him here, and it helped me you know? I'm an old woman Miss Sherman, Edward was all I had. About a week later strange things started happening. Things would fly across the room, I'd hear strange sounds late ate night and one morning I got out of bed and found twenty six dead mice on my bedroom floor."
Crys's eyes widened. She'd heard of ghosts moving things and making noise before, that was all over the TV at Halloween. Dead mice however was a new one.
"Ma'am I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave for a few hours."
Mrs. Thompson nodded. "So you can help me? You can make this thing go away?"
"Yes ma'am, I believe we can."
Relief washed over the old woman's face. "Bless you child!"
Mrs. Thompson hurried out the door informing the two that she would be running errands in town. Once she was gone, Crys spoke up.
"So this is for real then, huh?"
"Sounds like it. Have you ever heard of a poltergeist before?" Liz asked.
"I saw the movie."
"Well I guess that's better than nothing. Typically a poltergeist is a mischief-making ghost, they can be dangerous but in my experience most of it isn't really malicious. There is a good chance this one was attracted by Mrs. Thompson's loss of her husband. It started by imitating her dead husband, eventually moving into more destructive behavior."
"So her husband's ghost isn't here after all?"
"Probably not. It was most likely the poltergeist all along."
"Alright… so how do you get rid of it?"
The words had barely left Crys's mouth when a small porcelain figure smacked her in the head.
"It didn't like that," Liz said, trying desperately to hide her amusement.
"What the hell? Stupid son of a –"
"Crys, angering it isn't the best idea."
Another porcelain figure narrowly missed the blonde's head, and then another hit her in the chest.
"Oh, now you tell me."
"I assumed it would be common sense."
Crys sighed heavily. "You have to remember that some of us have never done this before."
Liz opened her mouth to argue but stopped when she saw the rest of Mrs. Thompson's figurine collection slowly lift off the shelf. "Crys, you might want to get down."
"What are you talking -" Before she could finish the sentence Liz threw herself on top of her. Seconds later dozens of tiny porcelain children smashed into the wall.
"Okay, this is starting to get aggravating," Liz sad as she pulled something from her pocket. It looked to Crys like an ordinary coin, but she assumed it had to be more than that.
Liz held the trinket out in front of her and recited something Crys couldn't understand. The longer she spoke the more violent the poltergeist became until it suddenly just stopped. She looked around the room, feeling satisfied with herself. "That should take care of it."
"What did you just do?" Crys asked.
"Just your typical chant to ward off evil spirits, nothing special." She held up the coin. "And I'll have to thank HB for this."
Crys wasn't sure if Liz was purposely playing it cool to get some kind of reaction or if it really was no big deal. "And what's that?"
"HB has a whole collection of talismans and charms he's picked up over the years. This is one of them. Banishing that thing would have been a lot more difficult without it."
"So that's it then? It's over?"
"Should be."
"What about Mrs. Thompson? Do we tell her about her husband?"
Liz shook her head. "If it gives her peace to think he's here then let her. There's no reason to upset her further, she's been through enough."
"Yeah I guess that makes sense. So what about the mess?"
"Well that really isn't our area actually."
"Gotcha. We get rid of the ghosts and they clean up the mess."
"It's better than sending them a bill."
Crys laughed. "I guess you're right."
A/N: This is kind of boring, I know but I wanted to get Crys established a little bit. Truthfully I started this whole series in the middle after friendships had been established. I'm looking forward to posting that one but I figured I should write some things before it first.