'Hellboy' and all of it's affiliates belong to Mike Mignola and the Dark Horse Company. This is also co-written by TheCheetoBandito.


Fortune stepped off the bus and took a deep breath. She tugged at the grey tank top over her jean shorts nervously. She always felt nervous before a recon. She also hated to dress for it. Her hair felt unnatural hanging in loose waves down her back, her arms and legs felt too exposed, and her gold flip-flops made too much noise when they smacked her heels as she walked. A Nikon D90 camera hung around her neck. Her father walked next to her, dressed in a Hawaiian shirt shorts and a matching camera on his neck.

"Make a circulation around the other exhibits first." He said as he paid for entrance. "Don't take any people pictures this time." She blushed, remembering the Oedipal Sword heist, the day before taking three different pictures of a couple talking about the Caveman Display. She was really interested in the way they acted around each other, like one couldn't live without the other. She had gotten knocked around for that one. She still had a scar from where the dining room table caught her in the fall. She nodded and wandered off. She was rounding a corner a couple of hours later when she saw the Thor's hammer Display. It stood in the middle, looking older than anything in the gallery. The gem seemed to pulse as she got near world dissolved and all she could see was the blood-red light of the gem. Suddenly, she caught her reflection in the glass cover. She gasped and the world re-appeared. She blinked and took a few snapshots. Her father walked in and made a beeline for her.

"We need to leave." He snapped, grabbing her arm.

"Why?" She asked as he pulled her out of the museum.

"Undercover Agents are all over the place. They know we're here and that we're after the gem."

"Its not like this is the first time they've caught up with us." She said as they waited at the bus stop. "I've lifted things that were surrounded by guards" Her father said nothing, ignoring her as he stepped onto the bus.

"I hope you're right" He muttered to her finally.

As Fortunate gazed upon that ancient hammer a portly gentleman with a receding hairline, a fairly unimpressive individual, stepped behind a corner and brought a finger to his ear. "This is agent Marston. I have visual confirmation. This is our girl." "Remain as you are. Agents are at the ready when she exits the building." A voice replied. Marston simply went about looking boring as ever.

A little time passed as Fortune was alerted by her father they were being watched. Even as they made their way out, agents in plain clothes were updating the strike team. As her father stepped onto the bus, three agents leaped out of hiding, each holding a massive flood light. Before she moved too quickly, each of them turned their lights on, hitting her with blinding, overpowering light, to catch her off guard and make certain she had no shadows to sneak into. As those agents kept the lights upon her, she would see the contour of a man running at her, lifting something in his hands. He took aim and as he approached it was clear it was a Taser. As soon as he got close enough he fired it at her.

Fortune saw everything in super-slow motion: The agent coming at her, the blinding white light that cut her off from her shadows, her father shoving her out of the circle of light. He got hit, his body jerking with spasms.

"Father!" She cried.

"GO!" He roared, still conscious. With a final look back, she sank into the thin shadow of a light pole. From her safety in the shadow dimension, she saw them haul her father into a white van and drive off.

'Jason, follow that van.' She told him. The fox-demon chirped curiously.

'Why? Father mean.'

'He's the only one I've got.' She snapped. 'Follow him.' With a snuff of indignity, he did as she asked.

Abe was trying to ignore Hellboy. They were stuck in the white surveillance van for three days, getting on each others nerves. If HB asked him one more time if he swam in his own pee...he probably wouldn't do anything, but he would think some very insulting things. Suddenly the radio crackled to life.

"This is Agent Marston. I have visual confirmation. This is our girl."

"Very good, Agent." Abe said into the mike. He pulled up the security camera feed and turned to Hellboy. "Is that her?" He asked, pointing to a girl in front of the Thor's hammer Display. The father was an unexpected bonus. They didn't know what he looked like and as they shone the lights on Fortune to disable her, his cries at her were the only hint they needed to take him in. Unknowing of what exactly to do about Fortune now that she vanished, they simple decided to secure the area. "Every one scour the area, make sure she's not hiding anywhere nearby! If she shows take her in!" They did have the father though, that was something.

Meanwhile, back in the van, Hellboy was getting on Abe's last nerve. "I'm just saying buddy, I don't see a bathroom in that tank of yours and if I had to drain the snake in the middle of the night I wouldn't wanna drag myself outta the tank, put on all my gear, then walk down to the bathroom." Hellboy was a really deep guy. His mind was always on the important things. It was no wonder he was such a valued agent. Surely it had nothing to do with the fact he was pretty much invincible and could hit like a Mack truck. As Abe got the feed from Marston, HB leaned over Abe to look at the feed and gave a nod. "That's our girl. The guys managed to put her out of commission with the lights? That was a pretty clever idea I had if I do say so myself, ya know, hitting her with those big ass lights so she couldn't get away and all. I'm some kinda genius." The demon gave a very proud, very satisfied with his own 'genius' look.

Fortune flitted from shadow to shadow, following Jason as closely as possible. Finally, they stopped at the Waste Management Facility of Newark, New Jersey.

'This is it?' She asked.

'Yep. Father there.'

'Take me to him. But be discreet.' He chirped and took off again. They rose up in a dusty, old room filled with rotting furniture.

'What is this?' She demanded, kicking the nearest brittle chair. It collapsed into dust. He whined and pointed at the only piece of furniture not collapsing.

'Basement. Loki there. Freya there. Get first.' She stared at him curiously and walked towards the chest. It was made like a giant rectangular Chinese puzzle box. Different sections were moving slowly, the wood sections sliding against each other noiselessly. As soon as she reached it, though, the sections started to move with rapidly increasing speed. Finally, they aligned to create the different sections of a lid and container. It popped open to reveal two rotting leather bags. She reached in and pulled them out. The bags crumbled to reveal two gems. One glowed a mischievous yellow; the other glinted a cold ice blue. 'Yours now.' Jason said, resting a paw on her knee. 'Not mad?'

'No, I'm not mad.' She said, the gems pulsing in her hand. She tucked them into the pockets of her jeans and sank out of sight. 'Now take me to...the demon's room.' She changed her mind quickly. Jason whined curiously, but flitted to the giant red man's room. It was a mess. Food wrappers and paraphernalia from the last century were scattered everywhere. Cats were lounging on the over-sized bed in a slapdash manner; along with questionably clean black shirts.

'What now?' Jason asked.

'Talk to one of the cats. Ask them where the big cute red monkey hides his smoke-sticks.'

'Cute?' Jason sneezed in embarrassment, but did what she said. When she found them, she shoved the box into the waistline of her jeans and grabbed a piece of paper.

*You'll get your cigars back when I get my father back. Peace, Fortune* She scribbled out a note and left it where the box used to be. Suddenly, the giant vault door started to open. With one glance at the demon's surprised face, she dissipated into the dresser shadow.

Richard Mason sat in the cold, sterile interrogation room at the BPRD, smelling of jail cell and old sweat. His shirt was wrinkled and he kept scratching his 5'o'clock shadow in a furious manner. He had been sitting there for hours. His knock-off Rolex told him that. Fine. Let these government pigs do what they would. After Fortune got all of the gems, they'd be sorry...The door finally opened and an attractive woman with black-framed glasses stepped in. She sat down, setting a file and a tape recorder down on the table. She casually switched the tape recorder on.

"Hello, Mr. Goodchild. I'm Agent Munn. As you can see, this conversation will be recorded. It says here in the file that you have already been read you're Miranda Rights. I assume you know why you're here."

"Can't say I do. Ma'am," he said with a condescending sneer. "And my last name's Mason."

"Very well, Mr. Mason. You are under arrest for conspiracy to commit a federal crime, harboring a fugitive, withholding information, obstruction of justice, and carrying a concealed weapon in a government funded building without a permit."

"Under the 5th Amendment, I'm not required to give you any information that may lead to my eventual prosecution. Because I have allegedly 'harbored a fugitive' and am 'conspiring to commit a federal crime', giving you any information concerning the whereabouts of my teen-aged daughter could possibly incriminate me."

"Very well. That would be true if you were guilty. If you were innocent, you would have no reason to keep the information from us, especially since your daughter is missing. I would have thought that you, being concerned for her safety, like any decent father would be, would be more than willing to help us bring her safely home. However, since you insist that you can not share that information with us, we have what is called 'reasonable suspicion', which gives us the right to detain you for as long as necessary."

"She's a big girl. She can handle herself in the big, wide world."

"Very well, Mr. Mason. We have no choice but to detain you until she is found, especially considering the fact that you refuse to provide us with updated contact information so we could reach you in the event that she is found." She coolly picked up the file and recorder from the table and started to leave.

"That's not going to matter, once she gets all of them," he said cryptically. "There's going to be a whole new world once I take it over."

Hellboy was more than relieved to be off duty and off this assignment. He hated being on dispatch. Hellboy was a mover, a doer, not a waiter! It didn't fit his style to be cooped up in a van for days. But the crew got their hands on the thief's father, which Abe believed to be the real mastermind behind the thefts, so he figured he could rest easy for at least a little while. There was a back to back showing of the Ghostbusters movies on cable and those and about 20 to 30 cheeseburgers sounded like HB's hot date for the evening.

As he approached that massive vault door, he cracked his fingers, then his neck, then his spine. Here a crack, there a crack, everywhere a crick-crack. Putting in a thick key then pulling a lever caused the thick door to unlatch and slowly open as a red light spun. You'd have thought a ship was sinking or something. Walking into the room, he got ready to say hello to his cats when he caught just the briefest glimpse of that girl.

"Oh HELL NO!" But soon as he got halfway through that sentence she was gone. She already was on his bad side after making a fool of out of him at the museum. Now she was stalking him? "Alight chicky-mama! I'm gonna give you to the count of ten before I reach into the nearest shadow and give you the spanking of a lifetime!" He shouted in no particular direction, assuming she was lurking in some dark corner of nowhere. He cats responded to his harsh tone and a few of them darted off into hiding, while a few of the older ones simply continued lounging, used to their father's fervor. The demon walked further into his sanctuary, his golden gaze slowly darting this way and that, looking for some sort of sign she was nearby. Moving in slowly, he quirked his head as he saw a note where his cigar box typically was. Taking a look at it, he rolled his eyes in frustration and said "Seriously?" He closed his eyes then took a deep breath. He remembered what Munn had said to him earlier. Taking a moment to think, Red suddenly had an idea.

He casually wandered over to his bed and sat at the foot of it, glancing at the note again. "I get it... ya wanna see your daddy. I know what that's like. When my father was alive I'd have done hell of a lot more than sneak around and snag cigars if someone was keeping him. I'd be breaking noses... but that's just me." His words were directed nowhere in particular, but he could hope she was hearing him at that moment. "...Abe tells me your eh... father ain't the nicest fella..."

Fortune hid under the bed, her arm around a quivering Jason. At first, it was funny to see the demon lose his cool. But now he was sitting above her, talking like she was there. He had a dad? It was a little odd. She sank into the shadows and switched to the ceiling so she could see well. Her dad wasn't the nicest that was for sure. But why did he care? It was just a trick to get her to come out. With a huff at her own stupidity, she pulled out one cigar and let it drop it on his head as she followed Jason to her father. He was in a cement interrogation room, like in one of those crime dramas. She sidled up to the table shadow and poked her head out under him.

"Father," she whispered. "I've come to rescue you." He said nothing, not even acknowledging her. "Father-"

"I can hear you, Fortune." He whispered, not looking at her, lips barely moving. "Why did you come here?"

"I came to get you."

"You don't need me to get the other gems."

"But-"

"Listen to what I say, Fortune. The best thing you can do is to get those gems and then break me out. Leave me here for now until then. I can take care of myself." She stared at her father's slightly bored expression.

"Ok. I will." Her father's hand came up and rested on her head for a moment.

"We're going to change the world once you get them all, Fortune. Wait and see." With a final pat, Fortune disappeared.

Abe sat at a small worktable in the library, re reading Fortune Goodchild's file and nursing another cup of coffee. With a flick of the wrist, he turned to the most recent contact information of the listed mother, Lydia Garret-Mason. He picked up the phone from the cradle and dialed the number he found. The phone rang twice before it was picked up.

"Hello, Garret residence. Alice Garret speaking." A small child's voice said.

"Hello, Alice Garret. May I please speak to your mother?" Abe asked.

"Ok. MOMMY! THERE"S SOMEONE ON THE TELEPHONE FOR YOU!" Abe winced at the screech of five-year-old girl. There was shuffling sounds and a muffled conversation.

"Hello?" A woman's voice finally said.

"Hello, Mrs. Lydia Garret-Mason?"

"Yes, speaking?"

"My name is Abraham Saipan and I was wondering if you would talk to me about your daughter, Fortune Goodchild?" Her tone turned harsh.

"Did Richard get arrested again? Where do you want me to pick her up? Honestly, it's about time! He's skipped out on every visitation that BY LEGAL RIGHT he owes me."

"Are you saying you don't know where she is?"

"I haven't known where she is since she was ten. Her father keeps her from me on purpose. He's vicious like that. He wanted full custody when we got divorced, saying that 'only he knows her destiny' or some crap like that. I've always hated homeschooling her. I know she's a little odd, with the hiding and finding all of those foxes and the weird languages, but she'd have been a lot better if her father just let me raise her and not filled her head with all of those Norse fairy tales." There was a pause. "You don't have her, do you?"

"No, Ma'am. She's missing and we need some background information."

"I thought as much." She sighed. "Well, Richard and I adopted her about five years into our marriage. It was a little odd, not filing any paperwork or not getting a social worker. Richard's friends just seemed to hand her over to us. If you find her, tell her George is walking and Alice misses her very much. Will you do that?"

"I will, ma'am. Thank you." He hung up, then cradled his head in his hands. "This is getting way too complicated."