LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! XD Holy crap, five reviews! Yes, I was planning on posting with the first four reviews in the first place, but my computer was being stupid... and then when it wasn't being stupid anymore, so I checked my email, and VOILAH! A FIFTH REVIEW!! So, today I shall dedicate my love to HollowSerenity, The Mayor's Daughter, SilverMoon Gypsy, Mandya1313, and Applene! Thank you my lovelies! :D
Chapter Twenty-Four
Warren stared in shock at the monster standing a few feet away from him with a protective hold on Marissa's arm. Whatever he was, he let go of Marissa's arm and stepped in front of her, then reaching into his pocket for something. Warren tensed up and got ready to burst into fire at any moment, but the thing pulled a cigar and a lighter out of his pocket, placing the upper-class cancer-stick between his lips and lighting it. He shoved his lighter back in his pocket and inhaled deeply, breathing out the smoke and glaring at Warren with yellow eyes.
"I've been watching you kid, and I know what you can do. So take my advice when I say you shouldn't do it." Warren glared at him and set his arms on fire, which only caused the red-skinned man to raise an eyebrow. "Ooh, scary. My wife does that." Warren snorted.
"You're married? To who?" The man bared his teeth and growled angrily, reaching under his trenchcoat towards one of his guns.
"Stop!" They both turned their heads and looked at Marissa, who no longer showed any surprise at the sight of the strange man. Instead, her eyes were alight with fury.
"Y'know, you look just like your mother right now..." he said to her, which made her glare harder and stalk past him, walking over and standing in front of Warren before crossing her arms.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She snarled at him.
"Yep." He sighed, taking another drag from his cigar. "Exactly like your mother."
"I asked you a question!" He sighed, breathing out the smoke.
"Keeping an eye on you." Warren had been watching the exchange with mild curiosity, but jumped in surprise when Marissa's entire body suddenly became consumed with fire.
"You haven't even looked at me in five fucking years! What gives you the right to just barge over and interrupt something like that?" She snarled, her entire body tensing and the flames growing as her anger level increased, along with a Jersey accent.
"More and more like your mother with every passing second. It's starting to scare me." He shoved his free hand in his pocket. "But since you're not your mother, I would get mad at you for using that tone with me if you weren't right." Warren tensed when he came to a realization.
"Marissa?" She gasped softly and her flames extinguished immediately, before she turned to Warren with fear and worry in her eyes.
"Oh my God, Warren... I'm sorry, I didn't want you to find out like this-"
"Marissa." She stopped immediately and bit her lip. "Is this your father?" Marissa was silent, lowering her gaze to the ground. She didn't move for a second, but then her head bobbed up and down a few times. Warren looked between the two, noticing that her father hadn't moved, not even taking another drag from his still-smoking cigar.
"I didn't know how to tell you." She said softly. "Only a few guys have ever found out, and they all freaked and ran away." She lifted her eyes to his. "And I didn't want you to do that, too." Warren shifted nervously.
"I can see why." Marissa flinched and he could hear her father growl off to the side, as a warning. "Marissa, I trust you." She gasped softly and looked up at him, her eyes wide. "And I know there are more things that you want to tell me, but you don't know how to tell me just yet, and I can accept that." Her face lit up with a smile, but it vanished when his arm lit up with fire. "Now, let me do this really quick-" He yelled with anger and spun around, chucking a ball of fire at the older man. The ball of fire hit him in the face, but he didn't flinch. When the smoke died down, his fingers were still in front of his face where he had been holding his cigar, but now there was a bit of ash clinging to his hand, and the cigar was gone. "Where the hell do you get off doing that?" He snarled at him. "You haven't talked to her in five years, you haven't said anything to her, and then you decide to jump out of nowhere and try to be the overprotective father that you used to be, expecting that she'll be daddy's little girl again? What the hell?" He snarled, relaxing when Marissa grabbed his arm, but still glaring at her father. He raised his hand slowly and pointed at Warren, his yellow eyes still narrowed dangerously.
"I would walk over there and snap you like a twig, punk." He growled, but then lowered his arm. "But you're right, I did screw up." He sighed and his glare faded, into a sad and regretful look. "And I'm sorry, Marissa, but..." He hesitated and eyed Warren. "But, that's something that's strictly a father-daughter conversation." Marissa turned and looked up at Warren.
"Warren, I'm sorry-"
"Don't be." He told her. "I should get home anyway."
"Can I walk you to your car?" She offered. Warren paused a moment, glancing at her father. She saw where his eyes went and looked back at him. "He won't follow us." She turned and glared at him. "At least, he'd better not." He held up his hands and sighed.
"Fine, I'll leave you two lovebirds alone." He turned to walk back into the trees, but hesitated and looked over his shoulder at Warren. "But don't try any funny stuff, hotshot." With that, he jumped up and disappeared into the trees.
"Warren, I'm so sorry." Marissa whispered as they walked down the sidewalk, nearing the parking garage. Warren shook his head.
"Don't worry. I can understand completely why you don't tell anyone about your father." Marissa lowered her head again, watching her feet. "Marissa?"
"It's not that I don't tell anyone about my father... My reasons for keeping it a secret is because of who he is." Warren raised an eyebrow. "I like to say that he was the National Enquirer poster-child before I was born. And he started back up again when I was around ten. Y'know, when I first got that power from him?" Warren froze in mid-step, thinking back to every National Enquirer-related story he had ever heard. Seven years ago, seven years ago...
And then it hit him.
"You're father is Hellboy?"
Yes, some people found it 'curious' that I put Hellboy in my story (The Mayor's Daughter(I love her stories... LASHMYKFOREVER! XD))... And I will say quickly: I am obsessed with the Hellboy movies. Hell, I would be obsessed with the comics if there weren't so many! Hellboy is my favorite comic hero! Hell, someday if I have a job that accepts tattoos and I can take the pain, I'm planning on dedicating an arm to characters from Hellboy! That's how obsessed I am with it!
Oh, yeah... and I have a cool storyline that can fit in with this. Something else you guys might want to know is that sometimes I'm in the middle of a story and I suddenly have many realizations that I either a) screwed something up and ideas that I b) should have done but didn't, so I try to find some way to work them in... I also try to fix certain mistakes in secretive ways... I have yet to show what I mean about 'b', but you'll find out soon. Brownie points to whoever spots it first when I actually do it! XD