Chapter 5.

"... In the Vault"

By OldScout

At the end of a narrow hallway a large vault stood open. The door was nearly two meters thick and made of massive steal plates and locking rods. The aroma of bacon, eggs, pancakes, and cat litter wafted out of the giant vault. An agent stood outside the door waiting for the group to approach.

"So Myers, is this your little vampire hunter?" The tall clean cut agent asked.

"Agent Schumer, this is Faith."

"She going to meet the big guy?"

Faith stepped up real close to the agent and rubbed against him. "No, Johnny was telling me all about you and I just had to check you out for myself." Faith declared in a silky voice.

The agent blushed and loosened his tie. "Well you know..."

Faith backed away and turned to Meyers. "You're right, he is a jerk." She headed to the door. "Come on lets go meet your pet." As she spoke, Faith handed Meyers an agency issued automatic.

"What's this?"

"Mister Doorman doesn't know how to keep it in its holster."

Hellboy's quarters were an old vault. The room was filled with stuff. Old televisions sat everywhere. Small televisions hung from the ceiling, several old council televisions lined the far wall piled high with other things, TVs were perched on top of old refrigerators and every one was turned on. Most ran cartoons; one had a news channel on and some hissed static. A homemade workout bench welded from angle iron and set of barbells and dumbbells dominated the center of the room. The far side of the room to the right was the bed of a pickup truck made into a couch and next to it was an unmade platform bed probably half again the size of king sized bed. The walls were covered with posters, pictures and other artifacts and every available space had something in it or on. The room was the lair of an unrepentant pack rat. Wandering among the clutter was a countless number of cats. Finally, sitting on carts and on any available table space were large serving bowls of food; scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon and pancakes, lots of pancakes.

"Well, Meyers, who's your little friend?"

Liz groaned to herself looking at H.B.; when she'd left him just minutes before he was lounging on the couch reading a comic book waiting for Meyers to bring the vampire hunter in. Now he stood with his shirt off doing one armed curls with a very heavy dumbbell. Boys will be boys.

Faith looked at the tall heavily muscled demon with shaved off horns. He had his shirt exposing the intricate patterns carved into his red skin; the stub of an unlit cigar was jammed in the corner of his mouth and he was doing one armed curls with a very heavy dumbbell. She walked across the room, grabbing a pancake out of one of the bowls as she went. "Nice place ya' got here."

"Ah Faith, that's for.." Meyers started as Faith rolled up the pancake and took a bite. Too late.

The welcoming smirk turned into a frown as Faith took a bite of the pancake, then another. Hellboy couldn't believe it, nobody touched his food, it just wasn't done. The woman walked across the room and it looked like she was headed for his custom made recliner.

"Nice chair." Faith said as she approached the recliner.

"I'd offer you a seat." Hellboy replied as he dropped the dumbbell on the chair with a very solid thud. "But it seems there's not any place available." He said the last with almost a growl.

"Hey, no problem." Faith smiled, picked up the dumbbell, tossed it ten feet into the truck bed couch and hopped up in to the chair. "This will do fine." As she reclined back she touched the floor with her toe and spun the chair to look at Hellboy. "Pretty comfy chair ya' got here Red." Faith finished her pancake then spied a Baby Ruth candy bar on a table next to the chair.

Hellboy noticed Faith eye the candy bar and reached for it as she did. The candy bar was open and had its first bite taken out before he realized she'd gotten to it first. A low growl voiced his displeasure.

"So, H." Faith asked after swallowing the first bite of candy. "What kind of demon are you?" She watched his rock encased right hand twitch and raise a little as she took another bite.

Why was she deliberately baiting Hellboy? Liz watched in disbelief as Faith sat in Hellboy's chair, ate his favorite treat and asked him blunt questions about who or what he was. She had to ask "So Faith, why are you trying to antagonizing Hellboy? You just met him. Do you want him to pound you into a little spot of grease?"

Faith rolled her head back and looked at Liz. "He could try." She smiled and looked back at Hellboy. "My guess is that you're some kind of apocalypse demon. I really hope that little adventure has come and gone, I've had my share of apocalypses, ah, apocalie, ah, whatever, for a while."

Hellboy clutched his fists, growled and turned to Director Manning. "Who is she? Get her out of my chair and tell her to stop eating my food."

"Ah, Faith," Agent Meyers said. "We find it best not to deliberately irritate Hellboy, he tends to get destructive."

"Oh, but he looks like such a little pussy cat." Faith cooed. She jumped out of the chair and stepped up to Hellboy. "So tell me, is the size of a demon's tail related to the size of any other parts?" Faith smiled. She didn't know something with red skin could blush

"Hey!" Liz exclaimed. "That's enough!"

"Oh." Faith looked over at Liz. "I guess we can save that question for some girl talk later."

Small blue flames erupted from the tips of Liz's fingers.

"Control yourself." Director Manning ordered. "She's just trying to push people's buttons so she knows where we stand."

"Is she joining the team?" Hellboy practically growled. "Why?"

"She's a Slayer." Manning admitted.

"A Slayer, ah?" Hellboy looked at the little brunette standing less then an arm length away. "Are you sure?"

Both Manning and Faith nodded.

"What's a Slay..." Meyers didn't get a chance to finish repeating his question before Hellboy hit Faith with a powerful left handed punch.

Faith saw the punch coming and could have ducked it but knew she had to take it and it was going to hurt.

He wasn't actually expecting to connect with the Slayer so Hellboy had put more strength into the upper cut punch then he needed. The hit landed squarely to Faith's jaw and she flew across the room hitting the self covered metal vault wall with a solid thud. Hellboy grimaced. If he hit a normal human that hard he'd kill her, he knew it. He really hoped they weren't wrong about her being The Slayer.

"Christ, H.B. what'd you do?" Meyers exclaimed as he rushed after Faith.

Liz was in shock she'd never seen him hit a human like that before. Sure Faith was being annoying but she really wasn't that bad.

Faith bounced off the wall and hit the floor with a perfect three point landing followed by a shower of debris from the shelves there were just destoryed. After coughing up a wad of blood, she stood up and pointed a loaded crossbow at Hellboy. "You get one freebie." She said. "Next one you're going to have to earn."

"Well hot damn!" Hellboy smiled and turned to Director Manning enthusiastically "You really recruited yourself The Slayer? Too bad Father wasn't here, he'd be thrilled."

"Okay," Meyers had stopped halfway to Faith. "Would somebody please tell me exactly what a Slayer is?"

"Yea, this I gotta hear." Liz added.

"This is great." Hellboy said to Faith. "It never even occurred to me he was talking about The Slayer when Meyers was describing you last night. Father only found the legend of the Slayer a few years ago and thought it was just a myth."

"Yea, I get that a lot." Faith replied as she put her crossbow away.

"What." John asked.

"Is." Liz added.

"The Slayer?" They both said at the same time.

"Mind if I tell them?" Hellboy asked Faith.

"This I gotta hear." Faith replied.

"Okay, it goes something like this." Hellboy said. "Into each generation, a girl is born. One girl in the entire world with the strength and speed to fight the vampires, demons and other forces of evil; she is The Slayer." He straightened his shoulders proud he remembered the whole thing.

"Yep, that's pretty much it except there being only one part." Faith said. "It's a long story but now there are whole bunch of us."

"Wait a minute." John interrupted. "You mean to say you fight demons for a living?"

"Dieing is much of a living." Faith responded and took another bite of her candy bar.

"Dieing?" Liz asked.

"Slayers have a notoriously short life span." Director Manning supplied. "According to my sources, Faith is one of the longer living Slayers."

"It helped that I was on ice for a couple of years."

"What do you mean?" Liz looked at the woman.

"You know, coma, prison stuff like that."

"Okay people." Director Manning interrupted. "We have work to do and I'm sure Faith here would like to get home and think about what she's seen here today."

"Yea, about that." Faith said. "How exactly do I get home from here?"

"I'll pay for a cab." Manning said. "He'll take you were ever you want."

It was time to make her escape. Faith knew it. She was tired and now hurting, she had to get out of here and call B. A hot shower and long soak in the Jacuzzi were also in order. After popping the last bite of the candy bar in her mouth, Faith grabbed another pancake and wrapped it around some bacon while listening to Hellboy growl about his food. "Okay, I'm ready. I'll call in a couple of days and let you know of our decision."

By the time Faith made off the lift, she could barely stand. The punch along with lack of any real food and no sleep was really starting to take its toll. The second she cleared the gate and was standing on the street waiting for her cab she was dialing international long distance to London.

"Hey B. it's me." Faith said quietly as she walked a few steps away from the gate. "Where's the Scythe?"

To be continued......