Guards with German Shepherds patrol the fence line. Searchlights sweep the surrounding woods. Super: BUREAU FOR PARANORMAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
A Christmas tree glows next to the fireplace; Mozart is playing on the aquarium's underwater speakers. Floating in warm water on a cloud of bubbles is Abe Sapien, lost in the music. A blurry figure approaches and raps a ring finger against the tank: It's Tom Manning, chief FBI liaison to the BPRD. Looking dyspeptic, he presses a folder against the glass: TOP SECRET.
"Hey, Fishstick- We gotta talk." Manning said. Abe exits his tank and joins Manning. Manning hands the file to Abe who opens to find that it is filled to the brim with pictures of HB.
"Undercover." Manning said. "Can't he get the meaning of the word? Look we are still government funded. We are still a secret, although a dirty secret if you ask me. Officially we do not exist, you see. So that's the problem when we get these." Manning started to point out where each picture was taken. "Subway, highway, park and he posed for this one and gave an autograph. I suppress each photo, cell phone videos cost me a fortune and the end up on you tube. God, I hate you tube."
"Well, he just wants the world outside to know what we do, what he does." Abe reasoned.
"I don't think so." Abe said, but Manning held up a shooting range target with his picture on it rattled with bullet holes.
"No?" Manning said. "Target practice and then he posts them around.
"Oh dear." Abe observed the bullet holes in Manning's head.
"Do you know how that makes me feel?" Manning and Abe start walking down the hall past a large blue monster surrounded by guards trying to pin it down. Ariel was with them shouting orders above the mayhem then she spotted Manning and Abe. Giving one final order she walked away and over to the men.
"Hey guys. What's wrong with you?" Ariel asked Manning running a hand through her now jaw length curly black white gold and silver streaked hair, her golden eyes with a silver starburst around the pupils looking between the two men curiously.
She still had the appearance of a Bengal cat with tattoo like spots along her back and strips on her legs as well as on her arms all colored black decorating her pale skin which was dusted in a soft peach fuz that couldn't be easily seen, but was like silk to the touch.
Her long thin peach colored tapered tail with a tuft of fur at the end colored like her hair had stripes of black going down it. She also had black stripes on her face two on each cheek and down along either side of her neck and her ears were pointed like an elf's tipped in black.
She took the file from Manning and began to flip through it, her hand causally brushing against Abe's both of them lingering against each other before Ariel focused on the file so Manning didn't noticed the interaction.
"Look at that- Each photo costs a fortune to suppress. And then, naturally, they pop up on the net." Manning complained. Ariel examined a photo of Hellboy bounding down a city street, brandishing his mighty, high-caliber Samaritan. He's looking straight at the camera lens.
"Oh, Lord- He's smiling in that one." Abe sighed as he spotted one of the pictures Ariel was holding.
"He posed for this one and signed an autograph." Manning complained showing her the picture he showed Abe earlier.
"That must have cost you guys a pretty penny." Ariel commented looking over the pictures shaking her head periodically in annoyance. Periodically as they walked Abe and Ariel's shoulder would brush against one another and they would glance at each other sending small loving looks.
"He does this out of spite. I tell you he hates me." Manning said as they continued to walk. "He's out to destroy me. My street cred it low."
"Street cred?" Abe asked as Ariel let out a snort.
"My mojo." Manning said. "Washington, they're wondering if I've got the stuff. You think I have an easy job, do you think I enjoy being the pain in the neck."
"Yes." Ariel said under her breath as she placed the pictures back into the file.
"I am medicated." Manning said taking a roll of antacids from his pocket.
"Those aren't even prescription, those are more like candy." Ariel said with a raised eyebrow. No one paid attention to a tan monster being restrained in the room behind them.
"This is not candy, this is…it's an antacid." Manning replied, but Ariel still looked non-plused. "Yes it's an over the counter medicine, but this is medicine." Manning continued to whine then popped some of them in his mouth. "You see I worry because you know, I mean, I am, we are, after all, we're just humble public servants."
Manning watched as a gremlin like creature was carried down the hall with mild interest.
"It's not about you. He's acting out." Abe said. "Things are a little tense with Liz."
"Tense? How tense? Tense how?" Manning asked as the descended some stairs into another hall.
"Well you know the usual, a new couple, making adjustments. They argue." Abe said as they entered a sort of trophy room hall.
"They argue huh?" Manning asked.
"Sometimes." Abe replied.
"How bad?" Manning asked.
"Oh, you know, the usual, since they moved in together- They have good days and bad days." Ariel said with a wave of her hand then cocked her head at a strange sound.
Manning Ariel and Abe hear it as well pausing as they all turn to the large metal door down the hall. Arguing can be heard from the other side of it as pressure starts to build causing it to buckle then an explosion rips it off its hinges sending down the hall.
Ariel pushed Manning out of the way at the same time Abe grabbed her pulling her to him and out of harm's way. Manning Ariel and Abe look down the hall looking at the remains and debris that filled hall. Once the explosion dies away- Hellboy's revealed, lying on the floor, his back smoking and in flames.
"Oh, hi Abe, Sis …" Hellboy looked to Manning with a sneer. "Manning- …"Hellboy grumbled as he put out a small flame on his forearm and steps into the room. "Watch it boys she's on fire today."
"Then again, there are the really bad days." Abe said as Ariel stepped up to her brother.
"What did you do now?" Ariel asked, patting out another flame on his back.
"I didn't do anything. Why do you always blame me?" Red replied checking himself over for any other fires.
"Because it usually is your fault." Ariel replied with a roll of her eyes.
"Whatever." Hellboy shook his head before heading back into his and Liz's room. "Well- I'm not afraid of you! You know?"
"She's going to kill him." Ariel said as she, Abe and Manning walked inside the torched room. HB stumbles around the rubble, wreathed in smoke. He holds a bunch of blackened LPs and 8-track cassettes.
"You should be. Look at this mess. Look around." Liz snapped.
"Look- I have one rule! One- "Don't touch my stuff…" Liz appears, shimmering in a halo of flame. HB's pulled a few LP albums out of the garbage bin.
"Oh, I get it. That's your rule. Okay." Liz said sarcastically.
"The one and only." He said. "I'm easy."
"How's that even possible, everything is your stuff. You have the same album on CD, LP and an 8 track- An 8 track!" Liz snapped in frustration.
"You can't listen to Al Green on a CD! You just can't!" HB said.
"And an 8 track Red? An eight track Red?!" Liz snapped again.
"Oh, and 8 track was the way to go- one day mankind will realize its mistake." Hellboy said wistfully as he walked over to the bed, lifted the blanket, and allowed a bunch of cats to run out from under the bed. "Come one kids, you can come out now. That's right, it's all over. That's right."
"What about me? I need some space! Not much, but just enough to find- to find-my- toothbrush." Liz said as she flares up, losing control.
"Is that what this is about? Your toothbrush's right there, behind you…" Hellboy said as Liz turns. "There- there- with the cat food!"
Wrinkling her nose in disgust, Liz plucks a toothbrush from a can of moist cat food.
"Damn it, Red- I can't live like this…" Liz started when suddenly, the alarm sounds. Hellboy is elated.
"Gotta go. We all gotta go. It's an emergency, right? Let's go!" He said happily making a quick exit.
"Coward." Ariel said in a sing song voice falling into step next to her brother. He went to pop her upside the head, but she easily dodged it with a grin making sure to stay out of arms reach.