The Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, Newark, New Jersey 10:46 PM

Hellboy and Liz are just settling down to a night of movies and popcorn and Abe is in his tank just finishing up reading his latest set of books when the klaxons go off full tilt.

"CODE RED! CODE RED! CODE RED!" A female voice says over and over again.

"Hey, hey, hey," Liz starts.

"They're playin' our song," Hellboy finishes.

Within minutes, Hellboy and Abe are climbing into the back of a specially designed garbage truck. Abe is carrying a manila folder in his gloved hand.

"What have we got this time, Brother Blue?" Hellboy asks around the butt of a cigar.

"Goblins," Abe answers.

"Excuse me?" the large red demon questions as he takes a drag.

"Sarah Williams, age twenty-four, aspiring actress," the merman starts to read from the folder. "It seems a rather concerned neighbor heard the young woman scream, when the neighbor knocked on the door to investigate, there was a strange man and a young boy in the apartment, but not the young lady in question. The neighbor called the police. When the police arrived, the man was gone, but the boy was there with something that caused the authorities to call us."

"And that something would be…?" Hellboy prompts not really wanting the answer.

"Goblins," Abe answers.

"Of course," Hellboy responds sending out a puff of smoke. "How'd the cops know that the things were goblins?"

"The boy told them," was the answer.

"Great," he says sarcastically.

Hellboy settles back for the ride while Abe continues to go over the case file. After a few minutes, Abe opens the box containing various texts. Pulling out a likely one, he sits down and reads. After several minutes of fruitless searching, he puts it back and selects another. This process repeats several times.

"Ah," Abe finally says. "I believe I have found something."

"Great," Hellboy grumbles as he opens his glowing yellow eyes. "So how do I kill goblins?"

"Actually, goblins are fairly indestructible," Abe responds. "They're also pretty harmless. They can cause great damage in large numbers, but singly or in small groups they can do little more than cause a bit of mischief. Their king, however, is another story."

"They have king?" HB asks disbelievingly.

"Yes," Abe answers. Reading from the book, he continues. "He has considerable powers. He is able to grant wishes and dreams, create hallucinations and he can manipulate time up to a certain point, usually by speeding it up. He rules over the goblins and something called The Labyrinth. When something is wished away to the Goblin King, the person who makes the wish is given a chance to win the item back by solving The Labyrinth."

"Sounds like fun," Red comments. "So how do I tell which goblin is their king? Do I look for a crown or something?"

"While there are no descriptions of him," Abe explains, "there is mention that he's not a goblin himself, but some other being."

"Swell," Hellboy grumbles. "Any idea why they're in this lady's apartment?"

"I think someone may have wished her away," Abe answers.

A short time later, a Squeaky Clean garbage truck pulls into the alley behind the apartment building that Sarah Williams lives in.