Disclaimer: Mike Mignola owns all but mousy. Yes, that does mean Mike Mignola owns the world. Flee; flee for your lives!
"Is this where we're going to live, Daddy?" the young girl spoke, barely audible. She squeezed her father's hand tighter, trying to hide behind him, "It feels… lifeless."
The girl's father smiled down at her, eyes twinkling, "That's because no body is living in it right now. But don't worry, I'm sure we will be able to brighten it up in no time. It really is a very nice house."
Christine held the fair-haired man's gaze for a moment before turning to look back up at the house. The house was a creamy off-white colour, not freshly painted but in a reasonable state of repair. The windows were consumed by darkness, like empty souls, as if the light could not penetrate through the glass.
"Come on," her father called, swinging open the wrought iron gate and ushering her inside the property. Christine followed close on her father's heels through the thick grass and winding stone pathway leading up to the front door.
Cobwebs occupied every little corner of the entrance. The door's yawning stained-glass windows were covered in a thick webbing of grey spider-silk. Christine's father dragged his fingers over the glass panes, sweeping most of the webs away. His hand slid lower onto the brass doorknob. Brushing aside even more cobwebs, he jammed the key in the lock and swung the door open.
Christine stepped back; the inside of the house seemed even more lifeless than the outside, "It's empty… cold…"
"I'll start a fire, then," her father replied absently, surveying the interior calmly.
"Daddy?"
"Yes sweetie?"
"…This house feels like death."
"Do you want a ride to the airport?" the baker offered nervously, standing in the open front door as he farewelled his new friend.
"No, he could be there… I'll walk to the airport, by myself," Melissa nodded, smiling.
"Are you sure? It's a long way to the airport…"
"It's alright. If I tire of walking, I will fly. If I tire of flying, then I will swim," the shape-shifter replied coyly.
The baker grinned, "Well, good luck to you, and thanks for telling your little rodent friends to stay away from here."
"No problem," Melissa laughed. She shuffled nervously up and down the man's hand, "Well, goodbye, I guess."
"I hope I don't see you later," the baker replied with a wink. He dipped his hand slightly and lifted it upwards, releasing the pigeon into the air with an extra burst of speed.
Melissa happily joined a flock of pigeons flying about the city as a guise until she could find a flock heading in the direction of the airport. For the first time since she had left the BPRD, she felt light-hearted, 'I can't believe it. He didn't find the baker! The baker will live! I have swept through somebody's life without leaving death and destruction in my wake!'
She followed the flock easily, passing by squares and parks, pecking the breadcrumbs off the ground that happy little children had scattered to draw the birds towards them. Melissa looked up into the sky. The sun was shining, for once.
Abe's webbed fingers fumbled with the specialised underwater keyboard as he tried to operate the search engine. He had the photo of young Melissa the agent had found on the screen. Using the BPRD's government-funded technology to match her face to any other photo recorded in the archives was a lengthy process, especially considering the time period he was looking at. Abe sighed disappointedly at the red text that flashed across the screen; No matches found.
'I need to age the photo… wait!' Abe brought up Melissa's video interview. After watching it through completely, twice, Abe took a still of the girl's face and entered it into the search engine.
The numbers of searched images began to rise, but the search gave no indication of how long it would take. Abe sighed, gills flaring, and set down the remote-control keyboard.
'What are they doing to her? Is she safe? Is she even alive?' Abe forced himself to think of something different, 'Hellboy and the others should be halfway to Russia by now. I wonder if Myers gets seasick… I should have checked that before he left.'
A chirpy little 'ding' sounded from the computer stationed before the medi-tank. Abe turned, curious. He clicked on the first result. Rubbish. The girl did not even resemble Melissa. The second and third were the same. Abe became nervous, only three photos remained. He clicked on the fourth result. It was Melissa.
'Something isn't right with this picture…' Abe wondered, 'And taken in—no, there must be an error.' Abe sought more information on the photo. The date was confirmed, several times. Even in the local newspaper at the time of the event. 'Impossible…'
Abe pressed a little red button in the corner of the medi-tank. A second later he heard feet pounding the floor and one of the nurses burst into the room. Abe smiled innocently, "Hello, Dorris. You wouldn't mind getting Agent Steel for me, would you? I have something urgent to discuss with him."
"Abe; that is an emergency button, not a service bell," the nurse growled lightly.
"Thank you Dorris, dear," Abe smiled, continuing on with his research.
'Two more photos…' Abe clicked on the link to the fifth result, 'No…' then the sixth photo. Abe sighed, 'What can this mean? It's not possible… not possible. The dates…'
"You wanted to see me, Blue?"
"Agent Steel—" Abe broke off upon touching the man's mind, "What happened? What did you find?"
Agent Steel blinked, "What? Oh, right. There have been a number of murders reported in lately, relating to that Dr Kroenen. It's hard to miss a tall guy dressed in black with knives and a gas mask."
Abe reeled in disgust, seeing second-hand the murder scenes in Steel's memories; "Rabbit paw-prints… in blood? He must have injured her…" Abe's voice was quaking.
"Hey, at least she got away," Steel offered hopefully.
"But for how long?" Abe sighed, 'She may not yet know. Or she might have rejected the thought of knowing someone like Karl Kroenen… would he kill her if she did?' "What did you tell the victims' families?"
"That it was an isolated case and that we were arresting the offender as we spoke," Steel shrugged, "Except for the last case, the man working at the corner bakery, he didn't have any family."
Abe nodded solemnly, "All this death…"
"What did you want to talk to me about?"
"I found a photo; it may need some investigating at the archives. I do not believe that the dates match up correctly," Abe explained, "And I also have an idea of where Dr Feilding's laboratory could be located."
"I swear, I saw the damn thing right there! It was a filthy little rat! This big!" the large lady exclaimed, motioning at her open bag. Melissa stood hidden around a corner from them, coughing the last of the flowery perfume out of her lungs. German blared over the airport intercom, announcing arrivals and departures. The shape-shifter blearily wondered why it hadn't occurred to her before to escape by plane.
Germany, the place she had spent most of her life, and quite a bit of her death, residing in. The home town of her father and, unfortunately, the assassin. 'That must mean that he is following me for a reason connected with my former life… perhaps he had ties with my father? Was it his job to make sure that Dr Feilding's science project never wandered too far from home?' Melissa shuddered at the thought.
The shape-shifter looked down at her human attire, filthy and unkempt. 'Well, at least I didn't get that much blood on my clothes.'
"And my wallet! My wallet is gone!" the woman talking to the policeman wailed.
Melissa forced herself not to blush or look nervous, 'I shouldn't be stealing, I know, but…' the shape-shifter shook her head, 'No point. I have to get out of here.'
Melissa wandered over to a nearby tourist shop, flicking through the free pamphlets until she found a good map of the city.
"Paß?"
"What?" Melissa turned around to come face to face with a German officer, 'Passport?' "I… I'm just here to meet a friend. Ich bin hier, einen Freund zu treffen."
The officer looked sceptical. Melissa winced, 'I hope my German isn't too rusty…'
"Wer sind Sie hier zum Treffen?" the officer asked slowly.
"Who am I meeting? Um, uh… Großmutter, my Granny," the shape-shifter replied innocently. She looked over the man's shoulder, "Dort ist sie!"
The officer looked over his shoulder to where the girl had said she had seen her grandmother, but he didn't see any old ladies. Scowling, the officer turned around. The scruffy individual had disappeared. The guard whipped his walkie-talkie out of his pocket and began shouting into it in rapid German, his eyes scanning the surrounding area. The officer turned off the walkie-talkie and cursed, swatting at an annoying fly buzzing by his ear.
"Taxi!" Melissa called, jumping about on the footpath beside the road, waving her arm enthusiastically. The shape-shifter grinned ear to ear as a taxicab pulled up beside her. She hopped into the taxi, "Guten tag!"
"You from America?" the German taxi driver asked wryly.
"Ja," Melissa blushed, 'Perhaps I was a little over-zealous with the taxi-hailing.'
"Okay. Where would you like to go?"
Melissa pulled out her map, "Städtisches Krankenhaus München, Thalkirchner Straße."
The driver turned around, concerned, "The hospital?"
Melissa looked up from the map, "Ja. I'm… visiting a friend."
"Turn on your locaters. Anyone sees anything…"
"Marco."
"Polo," Hellboy paused, "Just a warning, they could be using Mousy as bait, so just… just know that," Hellboy announced loudly.
"Don't worry Red, we'll get her back," Liz replied into the walkie-talkie.
"We'd better get her back; or Abe's gonna kill me," Hellboy chuckled.
Myers took up the walkie-talkie, "Are you sure about this?"
Hellboy looked about the dingy tunnels, "On a scale of one to ten: two. But… she'll take care of you, Myers. She's a tough one."
Liz tried to hide her obvious smirk.
Melissa stood on the concrete path staring up in awe at the impressive glass-panel hospital entrance-way, "Wow, they really have done the place up since I was away," Melissa paused, "…I think." 'I'm pretty sure this is the hospital I woke up in.'
Melissa walked awkwardly into the hospital foyer and up to the main help desk. A lady at the desk looked up at her through thick-rimmed glasses, "Ja, wie kann ich Ihnen helfen?"
"Help me? Um… how do I say this," Melissa murmured to herself, trying to shake the cobwebs from her head, 'German… How does it go, again?'
"I speak English," the desk lady smiled kindly.
"Oh, thank you. I don't know how to say this… I woke up here."
The desk lady grimaced; thinking that either she had not heard the girl correctly or she did not understand as much English as she thought she did.
"I had amnesia," Melissa specified.
"Oh, yes," the desk lady nodded, "What date did you… wake up?"
"February 13th, 1998," Melissa explained slowly, watching the lady type the information into the computer.
"And name?"
"Melissa. Well, that's my current name," the shape-shifter blushed.
"Ja, here it is," the lady pulled the medical file up on the computer.
Melissa bit her lip hesitantly, "I was wondering if the doctor that treated me, found me, is he still working here?"
"Dr Schnitt? He works here still, would you like an appointment?" the lady asked politely.
"Yes please!" Melissa grinned breathlessly, "When is the earliest I can see him?"
"…7:35pm," they both looked up at the clock on the wall, the appointment was almost three hours away.
"It's alright, I'll wait in the waiting room. Thank you," Melissa smiled, nodding.
Melissa flopped down in the plush waiting room chair. Something on the news caught her attention; a security break at the airport she had recently arrived from, 'Oh no…'
"Hey Abe, there's been something on the news in Munich I think we should take a look at. Vanishing act, they caught it on security tape."
Abe opened his luminous blue eyes, blinking both sets of lids, "Hmm?"
Agent Pipes flicked on the television set up in front of Abe's tank. The old 90s television took its time warming up, the sound coming into focus faster than the picture.
"…At around seven o'clock, 9am US time, a mysterious traveller was seen appearing and then, mysteriously, disappearing in what is now being called the 'ghost girl' case." The picture showed the security footage of the German officer confronting a girl in a scruffy, torn black dress. The girl pointed over the guard's shoulder, and while his head was turned the blurry figure seemingly shrunk into nothing.
Abe ran his webbed hand gently over the surface of the tank glass; "Its Melissa, she's in Germany."
"At least she's not in Russia. We tried getting through to HB and the others to warn them, but they were already out of range," Pipes sighed.
"She's gone home to find out who she is," Abe stared at the screen, pained, "If she finds out before we can reach her…"
"Should we send out a team to contact her in Germany?"
"We are working with a skeleton crew as it is. If anything were to go wrong in Russia it would not be wise for us to be unorganised and scattered about the globe. All we can do is hope that she stays safe throughout the night. Once the eclipse is over, we will be able to focus on finding Melissa," Abe murmured reluctantly.
"Okay," Pipes nodded, "You'd better get some rest, if we're going to be all organised tonight."
Abe nodded impatiently, "Yes, yes, I will."
"What do you think they've done with Melissa?" Liz asked John, breaking the brooding silence.
John squinted as Liz shone her flashlight at him; "Probably tied her up or something to use either as bait or as a hostage."
Liz turned her flashlight away, sighing sadly, "I hope she's all right…"
"Yeah," Myers murmured, 'Then again, if she does know Kroenen…'
"Hey, what's that?"
"What?" Myers lined his flashlight beam up with Liz's. The two saw a small flash of brown fur. Liz stepped after the rodent quickly, trying not to loose it.
"I think that's her!" Liz hissed, dragging Myers along.
"It could be a trap," the agent warned.
"Melissa?" Liz called, "It's all right, it's us, John and Liz," the pyrokinetic called, turning into a dark corner, "Oh—"
Myers ran up behind her and almost jumped himself. In the small crevasse they could see at least fifty brown mice running about in and out of holes in the wall. Myers quickly backed off, looking pale.
Liz frowned, "What's wrong?"
"Hate… rats…"
Liz rolled her eyes, 'Men.' "Melissa? Come on, which one are you? John, come here, I'll need some help with this…"
"Can't we radio Hellboy?"
"Oh for the love of—you then, come here. I'll need you to hold some of these rats for me," Liz turned to another of the agents.
"Um…"
"Great help you two are," Liz muttered. She turned her head back the nest of swarming rats, "Hang on, Melissa, we'll come back when we've found H.B, okay?" The rats gave no response.
Melissa checked the clock of the waiting room, still another hour to go. The shape-shifter slumped, restless, into her seat. At least she was wearing new clothes, the tattered black dress she had been wearing since that fateful night at the bureau wasn't durable enough to live up to what Melissa had to go through to escape from her hunter. She had managed to use the rest of the money from the woman's wallet to buy dinner and a new set of clothes. Jeans, a shirt and a cord jacket, nothing fancy.
A heavy set of double doors swung open to reveal a nurse pushing an old man in a wheelchair. Melissa's dark eyes swivelled to the IV tube sticking out of the man's arm; her blood went cold.
Through her bleary vision she could just make out the shape of her left arm, a multitude of dark red tubes sprouting from her arms, neck, sides… tubes dug into every exposed part of her, tapping into her veins, drawing blood out of her and pumping it back in. Melissa's stiff body writhed in agony; every tube burned with a searing pain. The blood flowing through her felt alien and chilled, she could hear noises in her head that she knew were not really there. Animal cries of fear and anguish. Souls of a thousand frightened animals were flowing into her, driving her mad.
Melissa was uttering small gasps, forcing her lungs to breathe again. Her skin burned, burned and itched as if her body was convinced that the tubes were still stuck inside of her. She raised a trembling hand to wipe away the cold sweat forming on her forehead.
"Are you all right?" the desk lady asked timidly.
Melissa's head snapped about, her dizzy brain protesting painfully, "Yes," she croaked.
"You are pale."
"I know… I'm just very tired," Melissa replied softly.
The desk lady frowned thoughtfully, "Wait, I will see what I can do."
Melissa nodded slowly as to not upset her fragile head.
The lady returned five minutes later, smiling; "I shifted some appointments around. Dr Schnitt will see you now."
Melissa nodded, following the blonde lady like a lost puppy. The lady led her through the winding corridors, past a maze of wooden doors adorned with brass lettering. They came to a door labelled, 'Schnitt' and the blonde opened the door.
Inside the small office sat a short, balding man with a thick, white walrus moustache. The elderly man swivelled around on the computer desk chair to face them, "Melissa!" Dr Schnitt exclaimed in astonishment.
"Guten naben," Melissa smiled gently.
Dr Schnitt grinned back, "Hello to you too! It has been a long time; how are you?"
"Good," Melissa sighed, taking a seat. The office lady shut the door behind her, "I actually came here to ask a few questions."
Schnitt nodded, "Yes?"
"Where did you find me, exactly?"
Dr Schnitt hesitated; "I… we found you in the East Wing. Someone had left you there—well, actually, someone had broken into the hospital and left you there."
Melissa was pale, "I thought you said you found me lying unconscious across the road."
"No. The truth is, someone had broken through the window and left you on one of the beds wrapped in a bed sheet. You were dead, Melissa," the elderly doctor whispered gravely.
The shape-shifter nodded, eyes cast down.
Dr Schnitt sighed; "We were able to bring you back with the shock paddles. The electricity was enough to jolt your heart into action. You lived," he smiled, "Then… something strange happened to you. You changed…"
"Into an animal."
"Several animals, actually. You gave my nurse quite a fright," Dr Schnitt chuckled, "After that you fell unconscious… Tell me, can you control those changes?"
"Yes," Melissa raised a hand, letting the different DNA flow through her veins and change her hand. Claws grew, feathers sprouted and thinned into dark, glossy fur. The fur flattened and merged into scales, which faded into light peach coloured skin.
"Goodness," Schnitt coughed, "That is impressive."
Melissa looked away, blushing.
"There is something else, though. When we found you… you were covered with tubes. Thin plastic tubes running into your veins, all up your arms, legs, sides, and back… they were everywhere. We removed them after you fell unconscious and bandaged you up. You were very weak; there were serious doubts that you would survive the night."
'The operation… the blood transfusion,' Melissa squirmed uncomfortably on her seat, "Damn…"
"Have you been able to remember anything from your past yet?"
"Oh, yes…" an image of Abe sitting with her in the library, trying to coax her memories back to her flashed through her mind, "There have been some fragments, a lot of them very frightening."
Dr Schnitt nodded reverently.
"I remember the tubes," Melissa whispered, "They burned."
Dr Schnitt looked pained, "I am so sorry you have to go through with this…"
"I have to find out who I am," Melissa murmured, "When I left this hospital I went in search of the picture you had found of me. I found it, but…"
"You didn't find the only one."
Melissa blinked, "What?"
"There were a lot of those photos… in many different towns. I found some more information out after you left. The photos were from 'missing' posters. You had gone missing; someone had been looking for you. Your father," Dr Schnitt smiled kindly.
'No. No, that doesn't make sense…' Melissa paled.
"Apparently, after you had gone missing he posted those photos everywhere, hoping that someone would see them and you would be found. I found out who you were," Dr Schnitt told her in a gentle tone.
"Christine."
"Christine Fielding, daughter of Doktor Fielding."
"He's dead, isn't he?" Melissa whispered.
"Yes… how do you—"
"I can feel it. I know I'm alone," tears stung Melissa's eyes, "I know he's gone." 'Why did he put up those posters? He was the one who did this to me! Was he covering his own hide? Pretending that I had been kidnapped or had run away, playing the victim, getting sympathy while I was dying in his laboratory.' "And I know that I'm old," she whispered.
"Older than you can imagine," Dr Schnitt replied sympathetically.
Melissa shook her head; she didn't want to imagine, "I have to find my home… see if there's anything left. Do you know where it is?"
"In Gauting. It is a little lake side village south west from here, I have the address on my computer."
"Thank you Dr Schnitt," Melissa whispered, embracing the doctor tightly, "I don't know what I would have done without you."
Manning trudged clumsily after Hellboy through the dank corridors, squinting in the pitiful lighting. Ahead he could hear the muffled melodies of opera music playing, "Music?"
Curious, Manning poked his head out to the side, weary of the rusty daggers aligning the walls. In the glowing yellow light he could see the macabre scene of the clockwork assassin nodding his head attentively to the opera music. Manning leaned further to the side to see around Hellboy. His hand caught on the sharp spike of a dagger jutting out from the wall, "Ouch!"
Hellboy whipped around, scowling. The red daemon turned back to Kroenen's chamber, but the Nazi was gone. Hellboy silently raised the samaritan. The two crept into the chamber.
"Hey," Manning started. Hellboy whipped around, tensed and ready to attack.
"It really went deep," Manning stated, holding up his bleeding finger.
Hellboy rolled his eyes.
Kroenen darted silently out from the blind spot of the entrance, blades drawn.
Abe's watery gaze wandered up the clock face; "The eclipse should occur in the next few hours."
"Hmm. I wouldn't worry; I personally don't believe that there is a force on Earth capable of getting to Hellboy. They'll be fine," Pipes reassured the ichthyoid.
Abe swam up to the tank's thick glass window, "Try searching the archives for articles relating to amnesia patients in Munich."
Agent Pipes typed the information into the search engine and was flooded by results; "We might have to narrow it down."
Abe closed both sets of eyelids, trying to picture Melissa's memories in his head. Fractured images of bright white rooms, artificial lighting, a metallic clock hanging on the wall. Abe looked around inside the images, searching for clues.
"Try 1998."
"Friday the thirteenth, February. Mysterious lady discovered at the side of the road. Complete amnesia. I'll just hack into the server…" Pipes grinned, "Named 'Melissa'."
Agent Pipes almost jumped at the loud thud of Abe connecting with glass, "Open up the file."
"Sure thing, boss."
Abe read the file through agent Pipe's eyes. Pipes could hear Abe's voice in his head, 'Find Dr Schnitt. She would have gone to him. We need his phone number.'
"Doktor Schnitt," the elderly man answered.
"Good evening Dr Schnitt. My name is agent Pipes, I'm with the FBI in America and I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me."
"Certainly, what about?"
"A friend of ours is in danger and we are trying to locate her. Do you know a lady by the name of Melissa?"
Dr Schnitt smirked, "Does she have a last name?"
There was a pause on the phone line. A new, clearer voice spoke, "Dr Schnitt, the Melissa we are discussing does not know her last name, but we are working on recovering it for her. Do you know where she is?" the new voice sounded a lot more concerned.
The doctor sighed, rubbing his weary face, "She has just left."
"Where did she go?"
"Home," Dr Schnitt replied simply, "Her home, her old home."
There was a sharp intake of breath "You have to stop her. If she remembers too much too fast… With the horrors she has witnessed, Dr Schnitt, it could be too much for her."
"Melissa is a strong girl, sir. She wants to know who she is and what happened to her. My only regret is that she went alone," Schnitt scowled, "For some reason, she greatly fears a person that is stalking her…"
"We know who that is. My colleagues are working on that problem as we speak," Abe smiled.
Hellboy fended off Kroenen's blows with strong, deliberate blocks; fragments of red stone chipping away with every blow of Kroenen's blades. Kroenen brought his blades around, trying to find a weak spot. The assassin swung both blades together to block, Hellboy grabbed the baton swords, "You killed my father, your ass is mine."
Through the dirty, grimy lenses of his mask, Kroenen only saw a brief flash of red before his head was jolted backwards with the force of Hellboy's fist, repeatedly. The metal mask buckled under the blows; the dents stabbing into Kroenen's already scarred face. Hellboy's stone fist flew at the Nazi assassin, catching him full in the face and throwing him backwards. The wall crashed into his back and heavy glass shards rained down on his shoulders.
"Where's Mousy, pin-head?"
Once the planet had stopped spinning, Kroenen noted with a vengeance where the red daemon was standing. The assassin cackled dryly, reaching behind his back for the pulley system.
Hellboy sneered, "What are you laughing at you Nazi son of a bit—" the air rushed out of his lungs as the floor dropped out from under him. His arm waved around in space until it snagged on the dangling ropes. Hellboy caught himself, looking down to see the base of the octagonal pit sprout glittering knives, tearing through the unfortunate chair and gramophone that had fallen in.
Manning pulled himself over the edge of the pit, having narrowly avoided falling completely in.
Kroenen wandered leisurely up to the side of the pit, swinging his baton swords in the air almost tauntingly near the lone rope suspending Hellboy from the pit of knives. He knew his Lord did not wish for the demon to be killed, but hanging by a thread over a mass of deadly blades did put the red ape in his place. Nobody owned Karl Ruprecht Kroenen's ass.
Something hard struck Kroenen's face; he looked over at the man that had accompanied Hellboy. Rasputin may have instructed Kroenen to leave Hellboy alive, but that was not the case for any of the demon's companions.
Kroenen had dropped his guard for too long. Hellboy threw a coil of rope at the distracted Nazi, hooking him around the neck, and pulled. Kroenen drove his blades into the wooden floor to stop himself from falling in, sinking to his knees. Hellboy used the clockwork Nazi as leverage to pull himself out of the pit. Hellboy grabbed hold of the assassin's leg and flipped him over, driving him into the pit of daggers.
Kroenen fell backwards onto the knives, gravity impaling him. One blade pierced his middle, another his left knee and another other his arm. Dust pooled around the wounds.
Kroenen heard something heavy moving and his head darted skywards to see that red ape rolling one of the larger gears over to the side of the pit. If Kroenen still had his eyelids, his eyes would have widened substantially.
Hellboy leaned casually against the gear, both of them knowing exactly where the daemon was planning to throw it. "Tell me where Mousy is. Melissa."
Kroenen looked blankly up at him, 'He lost that black-haired girl already? …I was sure Rasputin called her something different…'
"Don't look at me like that. Where is she," Hellboy growled, "Melissa. Christine."
"Who's Christine?" Manning frowned.
"Melissa's real name."
"Ah."
Hellboy looked back down at the stuck Nazi. He couldn't really tell if Kroenen was looking more surprised than he was previously or not. "I'm giving you to the count of ten to tell me where she is, pin-head."
Kroenen did not respond, but he knew where she was. If she had not returned to the bureau already, then there really was only one other place she would go. Germany. And he knew exactly where.
"Ten," Hellboy grunted. He hefted the gear up onto his shoulders and chucked it down into the pit, atop the screeching assassin.
A/N: Liked the long chapter? Don't worry, there's plenty more where that came from –taps head- just have to extract it, first. The plot thickens! What has Abe so terribly worried? Will Myers ever get over his fear of rodents? What will Melissa find at her old home? Stay tuned for the next episode of Animal Instincts!
Cheesy? My job.
Forensic Photographer711: Yeah, FFN can be such a great source of entertainment! It's just sad when the category you're looking at is pretty empty… especially with the pairing you're interested in, lol. :D I always seem to pick the crazy couples! I agree, those Nazis were evil little buggers. Hehe, Abe's getting a little attached! Thank you for your long review!
boogalaga: Exactly! Which sets the scene for memories transferred by the experiment. Hehe, you have got to wonder if she's got male genes in there. Man, that's weird. Thank you for the review, hope you like the update!
Haku: Oops! I was wondering how to spell that word… and I was offline at the time so I couldn't check. I can never get those fiddly little occult names right! Yeah, poor Kroenen… once upon a time he was probably just a cute little kid at one time. Aw:) Thanks for the review!
theshadowcat: ;) I do what I need to do to write my little character into the script, tee-hee. Thank you for the kind words!
blade assin: Hey, hey, dun worry about it:) I was very much flattered, lol. Names are hard, and they both start with M, lol. Thanks for the reviews! It's you guys that keep me going!
Thrior: Wait no longer! Well, uh, for that chapter up there that you've just read. Hoped you liked it, thanks for the review!
epalladino: Okay, now I'm sorry I didn't write the time-frames in or the time-difference, but apart from Hellboy talking to Abe about Mousy (It could possibly work, if you think about it) There are possible time gaps to slot each scene into with out screwing the movie up too badly. I stopped myself short of drawing up a calender for all these dates! And there are going to be even more dates in the coming chapters! It's absolute madness! At least after this chapter the movie is over, so I can mess with the characters as much as I like, Hehehe. Thanks for the review!
ToTaKeKe13: Thank you for the favourites! Good to see more and more people coming on to Deviant Art! We've got quite a little community going on there. Aw, I wish Deviant Art would start Deviant Fan Fiction or something similar. It would be so great to see a Devious layout to the fanfiction site… where you can actually reply to the reviews and so forth! Woots for your review! Thank you!
Gestalt: Another Deviant! (Lol, I wonder how many people here are on Deviant Art!) Yep, she's in Germany! Llama's Germany where nearly everyone is sprecken English so most of the readers can understand what they say! (And so I don't have to do Google Translator for every sentence) And I used maps and did a little research to get my German places right! Lol, I forgot Kroenen was born in Munich! Ah well, this little village is just on the outskirts! Danke for the review, Gestalt!
Lucy: Ehehehe… Chasing a Shooting Star… um, I'm working on it! Just a little story block with the characters, I'll try and sort it out without making Klorel to seem too OOC. Aliens, go fig. Thank you for the compliments!
FlyingFish15: Oh, the autopsy room was the most fun to write! Went nuts with my OC, got to inject a little humour into the story (har-har) But it's pretty hard to try and tell someone that you grew up with them when you don't have lips and they keep getting away, but you never know ;) Aw, I loved the fangirls fic! Movie Kroenen's lack of lips is his biggest downfall. It really does cut any possible romance short; it's so frustrating! It's hard enough finding actual Kroenen/OC romances without having to worry about the fact that he's missing a lot of his face! Hehe, what's worse is that the autopsy dummy was missing other vital parts, too. But I'm sure that was just budget restraints. They can't take away all my fun!