Many thanks to Crystal-Wold-Guardian-967, ILoveReadingAndWriting, and BornToBeAWitch1989 for their lovely reviews. It's always so gratifying to hear the readership tell me in words how they think and feel about the story.
Again, pics of Sid and her style on my profile, under the When We're Dead section of course.
Enjoy!
"Sidney Marietta Fairbanks: BPRD special agent, firearms and munitions expert, and damn fine piece of ass if I do say so myself." I introduced myself to the small clearing of agents. Seemingly everyone stopped and took notice of me. I swallowed the tiniest of lumps that had formed in the back of my throat, "Call me Sid." I added a little lamely, spinning my pistol in my right hand.
"A self-proclaimed 'hot piece of ass' that asks us to call her 'Sid'. I don't exactly like that." A deep baritone questioned me. The owner of this manly man of a voice stepped into the light and my mind lit up with the electricity of elated recognition.
Everyone in the BPRD knew of Hellboy, but not many got the chance to shoot pixies in the face beside his Samaritan. He leaned said legendary pistol against his shoulder and gave me the ol' up-and-down before turning to what appeared to be a fish-man ironically wearing a wetsuit.
"Who's the girl?" Hellboy asked. I made a noise and half-smiled on the left corner of my mouth.
"I'm pretty sure I made that pretty clear." I quipped, "And to clarify: I said 'fine', not 'hot'... Red Hot."
"Red Hot?" His tone was disapproving but his demeanor responded almost positively, "Most people just call me the first half."
"Well consider that my personal touch, then." I said with an overly exaggerated wink, "And besides, 'Fireball' sounds like a name for a dog." Understanding crossed Hellboy's face.
"Red Hot like the candy." He muttered apparently to himself. Neither of us said anything for the span of five seconds, so the small task force of mostly normal people around us went from watching the entertainment to BPRD business, which basically meant unloading enough ammunition to supply an army.
I wandered over to the chest Hellboy was picking through to case the case.
"I don't think my big ol' bullets are gonna play nice with that pea-shooter ya got there." He grumbled lowly at me and swatted my grabby hands away from an interesting assortment of hollowpoints. I shrugged and instead reached into my own personal supply, which Maury had wisely wheeled my way.
"A girl never goes anywhere without her purse." I answered Hellboy and fish-man's wandering glances. I loaded up a clip or twelve, cocked my gun, and said, "Let's go make some pixie dust."
Well we may not have made pixie dust, exactly, but we did explode those suckers into a fine grade of ash. By the time the sun started to rise over the misty horizon, somewhere behind all those gleaming skyscrapers, Hellboy, Abe and I had racked up quite the body count. I snapped off a shot at one final toothy target, and holstered my pistols with extra showmanship. The other two watched me for a moment longer before we all turned away from the oozing honeycomb-like hive and toward the light coming from the cave entrance.
"We'll let you guys burn that stinking heap down." HB said to the group of agents waiting for us out in the watery morning light. No complaints. That's a nice touch.
When I didn't stop alongside Maury to instead continue walking beside Red and Blue, the former gave me a less than contemplative but more than curious look.
"Got some questions rattling around in that handsome red head?" I spoke up with a genuine smile; I was rewarded with the friendliest look from him so far, but it still wasn't much to speak of.
"Sure do, Sweetness-"
"Sweetness, huh?" I stopped him about as soon as he'd started, "Well at least you got the first letter right."
"Ok, Special Agent Sid." HB started out again, but with a sarcastic inflection bestowed on my name, "So you can shoot straight, I won't go denying that, but to be anything more than one of those shmucks back there breathing in burning pixie fumes, you'd have to be more than what you look like."
"And what do I look like, Red Hot?" I countered quickly, keeping up the, what I assumed to be, playful banter.
"A cute little gun-wielding nutjob." He clarified, "That shoots straight."
"He has a point." Blue added briefly, looking at me with intrigue.
"Well, there's all those individually fantastic things you just mentioned..." I stalled for time to think of something clever, "And I can also fold a piece of paper more than seven times."
That surprisingly got a nice laugh; at least, one that seemed real enough to me. I'd need some confirmation.
"Look out, Blue." HB obviously said to us both, however, "I may just be starting to like this one."
Confirmation received.
