The day Lexy learned about the paranormal world was the same day she would meet one of her life long friends, though she didn't know it then.
It all started one evening with a knock on the door.

Lexy looked at the clock above the television. "8 'o'clock, who could that be?" She wondered aloud. It certainly couldn't be her parents for they were currently one state up in Colorado visiting a friend in the hospital and wouldn't be back for a few days.
She grabbed the remote and paused her movie. Putting the bowl of popcorn on the ground, careful not to spill any, she stood and opened the door.
She was greeted by a woman with short dark brown hair, light brown eyes. She wore a gold choker around her neck and her features were quite youthful. Lexy determined that she was in her early to mid twenties, not much older than the sixteen year old herself.
"Can I help you?"

The woman smiled kindly. "Hopefully, are your parents around?"

Lexy shook her head. "Just me."

"My name is Elizabeth Sherman and I work for the Environmental Protection Agency. Have you seen or heard anything strange lately?"

"Strange? You mean like besides the crazy cat lady down the street?" She joked.

Elizabeth laughed and nodded. "Yeah besides that."

Lexy shook her head. "Um not much. Hmm well just a few days ago the farmer down the road reported that a three of his cattle had been killed, a neighbors dog had gone missing and some trash cans had been tipped over, but everyone says it's just a stray pack of Coyotes."

Elizabeth looked thoughtful then smiled. "Thanks, that's all I need to know. Would you mind if we had a look around your property?"

Lexy shrugged. "Knock yourself out." It was then that she noticed the black van with no visible logo or government insignia on it and the large garbage truck parked behind it.
Lexy gave Elizabeth a strange look. "Collecting roadkill?"

Elizabeth looked confused until she followed Lexy's line of sight. She smiled awkwardly. "Oh-well-sort of, coyotes have been killing a lot of animals in the area, we have no choice but to get rid of them and we don't their leftovers attracting any more unruly animals."

Lexy nodded, the story made sense but there was something off. She had the feeling that this Elizabeth was lying to her. Why would the EPA get involved with something as small as a pack of hungry coyotes, the local farmers usually dealt with them with wards and guns. She mentally shrugged. So what, they were here to deal with a problem for the farmers and civilians, why question it.
"Alright then, hope they don't give you to much trouble."

Elizabeth visibly relaxed. "Thank you, we'll be out of your property in a few hours, oh and don't mind the gunshots."

Lexy nodded and closed the door. She headed back for the couch and hit play.

Liz's POV

Liz mentally sighed when Lexy bought the story, the last thing they needed was more nosy locals. They had already tried the farmers down the road. They on the other hand were extremely nosy, and wouldn't let any of the agents out of sight, which meant they couldn't do any real investigating.
Lexy smiled and politely waved goodbye before shutting the door.
Now Liz physically sighed and headed back to the garbage truck. She banged on the side of the door, startling the driver.
"Are you mental, you nearly busted the whole operation! Why the hell did you park this thing in plain site?"

The driver was silent for a moment before speaking. "Sorry ma'am Manning wanted everyone to stay in formation."

Liz scowled at the driver. "Well Manning's not here, so next time you stay out of sight!"

"That's what I told 'em!" Came a gruff voice from the back.

"Actually you just yelled curses at him." Another, softer, voice came.

"Stow it, Liz can we get to work already?" The first voice asked.

Liz looked back at the house, she could still see a few lights on but most of the curtains were closed. "Yeah, you should be good."

The back of garbage truck opened. Hellboy stepped out first, waving his trademark revolver around like a child with a toy, and a cigar in his mouth.
"So what exactly are we dealing with this time?"

Abe Sapien stepped out last, carrying an old encyclopedia of Southern American Monsters. He flipped through a few pages. "Here it is. A Hodag."

Hellboy gave him a confused look. "The hell is a hodog?"

"A Ho-dag," Abe corrected. "Is an ancient creature native to New Mexico. They hibernate for eight years before becoming active to feed and mate. They are large, about the size of a large sheep, have fangs and sabers, two horns, a long tale, scales, fur and a row of spikes down their backs. Kind of like a cross between a cow, a lion and an alligator."

"Sounds interesting. Well lets not keep him waiting, he's already eaten about a dozen cows already."

Hellboy, Liz, Abe and five other agents loaded their weapons before heading off into the New Mexican forest that bordered the small town.

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Abe's POV

Three hours had gone by and so far their had only been two sightings of the Hodag. Two sightings in an area of two-hundred acres with eight of their top agents spread out. Abe did the calculations and he didn't like the results. A creature of this size and appearance should have been relatively easy to spot, even in the dense brush. It was as if the Hodag was toying with them.

A twig snapped to his left. Abe drew his gun, he hated guns and he had terrible aim. He was an intellectual not a fighter like Hellboy.
Stiffening and aiming he waited. A rabbit hopped out of the shrub, causing him to jump.
Abe sighed in relief. "Only a rabbit." He mentally smirked. "Go on now, shoo."

The rabbit stared at him for a moment before scampering back into the underbrush.

Replacing his gun to his holster and clasping the strap Abe laughed at himself for being so easily frightened by a bunny. A low growl cut his laughter short and fear consumed him. He slowly turned around. Two large red eyes glared at him from the trees. Abe quickly tried for his gun.

Lexy's POV

Lexy's second movie had just ended. She stood stretching and gave a big yawn. It was now well past eleven o'clock and she decided it was time to go to bed. She turned off the TV, brought the empty popcorn bowl to the kitchen sink and headed into the bathroom. The window was opened and Lexy enjoyed the warm night breeze as she washed her face.

BAM!

Lexy froze, holding the wash clothe inches from her face. The sound of a gunshot shattered the peaceful night.

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

'Well,' she thought trying to ignore her own anxiety. 'Elizabeth did say they would be shooting.'

The sound that followed finally broke her resolve. A scream of pain and desperation, she knew immediately that the man was in trouble.

Lexy ran back into the living room and grabbed her father's rifle off the wall and a flashlight from a drawer. She ran out the back door in the direction of the scream.

Lexy was expecting a ranger or a policeman holding down a wild coyote, or a local hunter. What she wasn't expecting when she found the man was that he was dressed in a strange attire of black leather, she wasn't expecting the strange device wrapped around his neck. But most of all she wasn't expecting him to be a blue fish-man.

He was lying on his back in the small clearing, his eyes were open but he didn't look conscious, he wasn't moving. His mouth hung open, his chest rose as he inhaled but he exhaled in raspy gasps that made it sounded like he was choking. His uniform and blue skin was slashed in what looked like enormous claw marks, two inches wide and six inches long and dark blue blood seeped from the gashes, staining the grass. Whatever had done this to him was large, much bigger than a coyote.

She looked around, there was no sign of any animals or any other people. Carefully, cautiously she approached the strange humanoid. She lifted her hands, wanting to do something, anything but her mind was frozen.
'Think!' She thought to herself. 'You know first aid. What's the first thing you do? Check for a pulse.' She nodded to herself. "Right, a pulse."

There was a large circular devise surrounding his neck that was cracked and leaking what looked like water, so she placed a hand on his chest. The first thing she noticed was how cool to the touch he felt, she wasn't sure if that was good or bad.
She couldn't feel anything beneath his left side so she checked the right. She felt a steady but strange 'bump bump boom' that she assumed was a normal heart beat for him-it? She still wasn't sure what this strange being was doing out here like this. But she knew one thing, that if his wounds weren't treated he would most likely die tonight.

Lexy didn't know who or what he was, but she knew she couldn't leave him to his death. Shouldering her father's rifle, she wrapped her arms around his shoulder and waist, gathered her strength she hoisted him over her right shoulder (now very grateful that her father had made her become a volunteer fire fighter).
He was lighter than she expected but heavier than she would've liked. Now slowly she made her way back to the house.

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When she got inside she faced another dilemma, where would she put him? She settled on the couch for now, figuring she could wash out any blood stains later, and as gently as she could set him down.
She got a better look at him in the light. His skin was a light sky blue hues of whiter lights and darker aquas, pale pink lips, his eyes, she realized now, had something like a transparent film over them that she thought must be eyelids. He was about 6'3 and lean but with muscle too. His hands were perhaps the strangest, pale and webbed with small yellowish pads on his palms.

She shook away her thoughts, right now he needed his wounds tended to. She decided to start by removing the large ring from around his neck. Gently she traced the object looking for a switch or something, after a bit of fumbling she found a small latch. The ring unclasped outward and she set it aside on the table. What she saw startled her, gills, he had gills. Then did that mean he needed water to breathe? She looked at the ring and realized that it must have allowed him to breathe out of water. But he was sill inhaling and exhaling, so did that mean he could do both? Perhaps he only needed his gills to be wet? But with both sides of the device cracked and leaking it was virtually useless. But he still needed water.

She jogged to the bathroom, laid a few folded towels in an turned on the water. She decided room temperature would do and turned the shower on. Jogging back she looked at him again, his gear and outfit would be a problem too.
She removed the utility belt next, placing it aside, along with a few more things that could be removed from the immediate uniform. His suit was torn in multiple places and she wouldn't be able to treat his gashes with it in the way. She found a zipper on the collar at the back and after about five minutes had managed to carefully work his limbs out of the ruined garment, she was especially gratefully to find that he was wearing a pair of boxers on underneath.

She shouldered him again and carried him to the bathroom. By now a quarter of the tub was filled. Carefully she placed him into the lukewarm water beneath the shower's rain.
She went and grabbed the first aid kit from beneath the kitchen sink, returned to the bathroom and shuffled through it and picked out what she would need. Antiseptic solution and cream, waterproof bandages and gauze, a needle and light weight seven pound tested line.

She reached up and angled the shower head so the spray was still on his gills but didn't wash over his cuts. Pouring some antiseptic onto a clothe She sterilized his wounds, then threaded the needle and sterilized both as well. Carefully and slowly she began closing the wide cuts, then when one was closed she applied some antiseptic cream to a bandage or length of gauze and applied them before moving on to the next.
After about twenty minutes she was finished.

He still showed no signs of coming too, but his breathing had eased. His exhales were no longer ragged, but smooth, as if he were asleep. And his heart rate, when she checked it again, felt stronger too.
Lexy sighed and decided to go and look again at his things, maybe he had a cell phone that friends of his would try to call. She knew how ridiculous this sounded but was at a loss for what else to do.

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Abe's POV

The first thing Abe noticed when he came too was the feeling of water. He thought that Hellboy and Liz had found him and brought him back to headquarters, that he was in his own tank. But when he opened his eyes he soon realized that he was neither in his tank nor at headquarters. Instead he found himself laying in a bathtub with the shower head raining warm water over him.
He tried to remember what had happened. The Hodag launched itself at him from the trees and he'd fired and managed to hit it and dodge it's attack. But the creature had gotten back up and turned on him, he remembered firing four more shots before the Hodag had knocked into him.

He gripped the side of the tub and tried to lift himself out when searing pain tore across his arms and chest. He gasped in pain and tried to catch his breathe. He looked down and came across an astounding realization, he was no longer in his uniform and his chest and arms were covered in bandages and gauze. Gently removing one he saw that sutures had been made. Someone had treated his wounds.

He raised his hand to try and sense what had happened here. He could make out the echo of someone, they had treated his wounds here and he could sense they were still in the immediate area.
Abe decided that they would help him or had wanted to or else they wouldn't have taken care to treat his wounds or put him in water.

"Hello?" He called trying to get their attention. He could sense the person's surprise and they began getting closer. Soon footsteps could be heard and in a moment a young woman stood in the doorway. She had shoulder length black hair, pale skin and very rich chestnut brown eyes.
He immediately expected to sense a wave of fear, but instead he could only pick up curiosity, mild caution and a bit of worry that seemed to be more directed at his wounds than at him himself.

They both stared at each other for a long moment as they didn't know what came next, neither had ever been in a situation quite like this one.
Finally Abe broke the awkward silence and thought of something to say.
"Uh-could you help me up please?" Not the best introduction, but it was all he could think of in the awkward situation.

She blinked and was broken from her frozen position, Abe suddenly sensed her embarrassment at her own starring. She moved to the side of the tub and turned off the water.
"Here take my arm." She offered her right while her left went around to his other shoulder to help lift him. He reached up and when their hands touched she felt a zap go up her arm, like a static shock but stronger. She was mildly surprised but quickly brushed it off.

In that moment Abe was able to view her memories, though he didn't dig very deep, just about how he came to be here. He saw her hearing the gunshots and his scream and her rushing out to help. Her finding him unconscious and taking him back to her home, then treating his wounds. He found that her over all feelings towards him were a mix of confusion and concern. Not what he expected but he was glad she was not terrified of him.

Carefully, gently she helped him get to his feet and step out of the tub. At first his head was swimming and he was a bit unsteady.
She worried he would topple over, but after a few moments his head cleared and was able to steady himself.
"Are you alright- I mean how are you feeling?" She asked rather awkwardly.

He looked down at her, as she was a little on the short side at 5'5.
"Much better than I would have been if you hadn't found me. I owe you my thanks, though I don't know your name." Not completely true, he found her name in her memories but thought it might frighten her if she knew he'd read her mind.

She blushed realizing she hadn't introduced herself. "Oh right, my name's Lexy, Lexy Tanner."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Lexy. I'm Abraham Sapien and I am very grateful to have met you. I probably would have bled to death if you hadn't treated my wounds." He gently touched a bandage on his arm.

She nodded. "I did what I could. What attacked you out there anyway if I may ask?"

That's when Abe remembered the Hodag and that his friends were still out there hunting it. If his eyes could widen any more they would have.
"It was a dangerous creature that I believe is still at large in the forest. Please it's very important Lexy, my things where are they?"

"In the kitchen." Lexy said and led the way down the hall and to the kitchen where his suit and gear were laid out neatly on the table. "I wasn't sure about any of it so I thought it best to leave them be."

Abe quickly went to his belt and found his locator, though it was smashed pretty bad. He cursed under his breath and turned to Lexy.
"Lexy do have a phone I could use?"

She nodded and fetched the house phone from the outlet.

He thanked her and quickly dialed Liz's cell phone number.

Liz's Pov:

The night was not going well. In fact it was going as far from well as it could possibly go. Things began to go bad as soon as they had decided to separate. First the Hodag was a very illusive creature and they had only seen twice in the first three hours. Next was the lack of communication between the new recruits. Although she had ordered that everyone report in every half hour, some had forgotten or hadn't thought it important enough to do so. So it was up too Hellboy, Liz and Abe to keep everyone up to date on the situation.

Speaking of Abe, he had gone missing more than forty-five minutes ago and everyone was rather panicked. They had heard the gunshots from their position almost a mile away. They had tried calling Abe through his locator but there was no reply. When they had reached the area where he had last checked they began a search of the area, the Hodag forgotten more or less.
Eventually they found the place where Abe was attacked, knew he was attacked by the blood that surrounded flattened grass where someone had laid. But Abe was no where to be found. Right now they feared that the Hodag had taken him to it's den for it's next meal, and they were now searching for said den while Hellboy searched for the beast itself.

Liz and a few of the other agents were searching through the thicker brush towards the East when Liz felt her cell phone vibrate. She didn't recognize the number which already made her suspicious. But seeing no immediate threat answered it cautiously.
"Hello?"

"Liz, good you answered."

If Liz was surprised by the unfamiliar number she was even more surprised when she heard Abe's voice from the other end.
"Abe! Where the hell are you?" She nearly shouted in astonishment.

The other agents and Hellboy who had their locators on an open channel all turned.
Hellboy in particular was very surprised. "Is that Abe? You found him, where is he?" He asked quickly.

Liz shushed him. "I'm not sure, he called my cellphone." She said into her locator, then turned back to her phone. "Abe what happened, where are you?"
She suddenly heard a voice in the background. "Is some with you?"

Abe nodded though she couldn't tell. "Yes, after I was attacked by the Hodag Lexy, the young woman from the house we stopped at earlier, found me and brought me back to her house."

There was silence as Liz tried to process this. "And she wasn't freaked out or scared?" Liz asked cautiously as she knew civilians often didn't handle meeting any of them rather well.

"Actually she's handling it rather well."

Liz paused to rub her head where a headache began to form. "Okay, okay. Um just stay there and we'll be over soon."

"Alright, just be careful out there. The Hodag is very dangerous. It took four bullets straight on but didn't go down and those claws are nothing to joke at believe me."

"Right, see you in a bit." Liz hung up and put the phone back in her pocket.

"What happened? Where's Abe?" Hellboy asked impatiently.

"Calm down Red, Abe's fine. The girl from the house back there found him and brought him back."

There was a pause. "And she wasn't freaked out or anything?"

"Apparently not. Red me and the other agents are gonna start heading back towards the house. Can you handle the Hodag?"

"Yeah sure Liz, just make sure he really is safe. I don't exactly trust the locals."

Abe's Pov:

Abe hit the end button and handed the phone back to Lexy. "Thank you Lexy, I expect my friends should be on their way in little while."

Lexy nodded and put the phone back on the receiver. "I heard you mention the Hodag, you don't mean the mythical creature do you?"

Abe thought and decided that there was no point to keep the truth from her, she'd already seen him and he didn't sense anything closely resembling malevolent from her, she was overall kind and curious.
Abe nodded. "Actually I do. Lexy the people who you met earlier, Liz and those vehicles with her, well we're apart of a secret organization called the B.P.R.D. or the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. We're a government agency that protects the world from what you would call unnatural forces. The Hodag was our latest assignment."

Lexy nodded trying to take all of it in. "So the Hodag has been what's killing the local livestock."

Abe nodded. "We were trying to hunt it down. We decided to separate but as you can see things didn't go exactly as planned." Abe suddenly paused and gripped his head as a wave of nausea swept over him.

Lexy quickly pulled out a chair for him. "Here you should sit, you've lost a lot of blood. Can I get you anything?"

"Orange juice please, or anything with sugar." He said politely as he sat down.
Seconds later a tall glass of orange juice was placed in from of him. He sipped it gratefully.

After a long moment he looked up at the young woman who had taken a seat herself and was now curiously observing him and his gear.
"Lexy may I ask you a question."

She shrugged. "Go for it."

"You don't seem too unsettled by me, I mean aren't you freaked out by me?"

She shrugged again. "Maybe a little bit, but you don't seem threatening. Don't take this the wrong way Abe but your not an intimidating figure. Your far too polite."

Abe sensed that she meant it. She wasn't threatened by him, a little cautious, but more because he was a complete stranger.
He nodded. "But have you had any encounters with the paranormal before?"

"Sorta yes and sorta no. My dad's on again off again hobby is to collect books on paranormal or any kind para-science and psychology, so it wasn't all that strange to hear him talking about Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster or something like that. But honestly none of us really took it seriously, not even him, it was just something that he found entertaining but would loose interest in after a couple of weeks."

There was a knock at the door that stopped their conversation from going any further.

Lexy got up and quickly opened the door. A very frazzled looking Liz stood there with five other suited agents.
Lexy stepped aside for them to enter. "Come in."

Liz gave an awkward nod and entered with the other agents.

"Uh Abe's in the kitchen." The young lady said and led the way.

Liz was extremely relieved and a bit bewildered when she saw him sitting at the kitchen table in only his boxers and nursing a tall glass of orange juice.

When he saw her he did his version of a smile and tried to stand, which only caused his vision to blur and for him to stumble. Liz was quick to catch his shoulder and help steady him.
"Abe are you alright?" Liz asked, she saw the amount of gauze and bandages and became very worried for her friend.

He nodded. "Yes more or less. Just a bit dizzy. Lexy did a good job on my wounds, I believe the bleeding has already stopped."

Liz sighed and rolled her eyes. "Well you seem okay." She looked back to the younger woman who was politely offering the other agents something to drink.

Abe nodded as he read her thoughts. "Strange maybe, but without her I would most likely be dead."

There was suddenly the sound of three very loud gunshots from the woods.

"Sounds like Red's found the Hodag." Liz said, and to prove her correct her locator beeped on.

"Hey Liz," Came his voice. "You guys don't have to worry about the Hodag any longer. He went down like a-" There was a ferocious roar. "Hold on a sec."
Five more gunshots range through both from the forest and from the locator.
"Okay now it's dead."

"Red quit kidding and come on back to the house." Liz said tiredly.

"Already on my way." And the locator beeped off.

"He killed it?" Lexy asked rather amazed. Seeing the wounds on Abe she was rather uncertain a gun would do the trick against the fierce creature.

"Overkill is more the sound of it." Liz nodded. "He probably blew the thing in half."

This only added to Lexy's amazement. "With only a gun?"

"Yes well his gun is more like a small cannon and Red's a bit trigger happy, or else he just punches whatever is in his way." Abe answered. He suddenly sensed her confusion at the person Red's tactics. He decided to elaborate. "You see Red as we call him is not what you'd expect." He didn't have to read her mind to know what she was thinking, that this whole night wasn't what she expected. "Um, what I mean is, oh well I guess you'll see when he arrives."

Liz nodded. "More or less. Lexy do you by chance read comics?"

Now this question confused Lexy more than the events of the entire night did. She nodded uncertainly.

"Do read the Hell-" A knock at the front door interrupted her.

"Be right back." Lexy said as she went to answer it and very unsure of what or who she'd meet.

Her own guesses certainly came no where near to what or who she received.
She turned the brass nob and pulled the door open and was greeted by a very large, very red man. And a man she miraculously recognized. Poor Lexy could only stare in awe for a long moment, until her mind finally snapped back. Though she could only manage to for two words at that moment.
"You're...Hellboy."

Hellboy smiled. "You read the comics?"

She could only nod in amazement.

"Yeah, I hate those comics, they always get the eyes wrong." He motioned with his stone hand to his yellow eyes "Mind if I come in?" He asked after another awkward moment.

Lexy snapped back to reality. "Oh yeah of course, sorry." She stepped aside to let him in. "Everyone's in the kitchen."

Liz stood smiling in amusement as Abe, who was now sitting again, had been telling of Lexy's reaction to Hellboy.

Hellboy seeing his friends walked over to Abe and gave him a good pat on the shoulder, which caused Abe to visibly wince at his friends rough treatment.
"Hey Abe how ya' doing?"

"Fine Hellboy, thank you."

The red man eyed the many gauze and bandages, then the ruined suit and gear. "Damn. That thing really tore you up, didn't it."

Abe nodded. "I was very lucky that Lexy found me." He motioned to the young woman.

Hellboy turned and strode over to the young woman. He eyed her for a moment before holding out his stone hand.

Lexy smiled and shook his hand. "I'm Lexy Tanner, it's nice to meet you."

Hellboy smiled seeing as how she wasn't intimidated by him. "It's nice to meet you too Lexy, I'm Hellboy."

"I know," She continued to smile. "Your comics are so awesome. Both my brother and me read them."

He chuckled. "Well only about half of them really happened, though I appreciate the support. I don't get to meet many people who appreciate what I do, mostly stuck up government people. But more importantly I want to thank you for patching up my friend Abe here." He gave a friendly smile. "We need more people like you in the world."

Lexy blushed and nodded politely.

"Uh agent Liz," One of the other agents interrupted. "Manning's on the phone he wants to know how the assignments going."

"Crap." Liz said remembering their annoying boss. "Well this is going to be fun to explain. Tell him we're just wrapping things up. We'd better get going, he's gonna want a full report by tomorrow morning. "

"Hey Lexy, think you can keep tonight a secret? Manning's our boss and he gets all pissed when we're seen by civilians."

Lexy smiled. "Yeah sure, no problem."

Hellboy ruffled her hair. "Thanks kid, your doing me a huge favor."

The other agents headed out. Liz helped Abe and they said their goodbyes.
"Lexy thank you again for saving my life."

"Of course. It was really cool to meet you, all of you."

"And thanks for not telling others." Added Liz and she helped Abe out the door followed by Hellboy who gave one last 'see ya'.

Lexy didn't know it but it was on that night that her life was never to be the same again, and for better or for worse it was going to change.