DISCLAIMER: I do not own Hellboy or any of the original BPRD characters. I just own the plot and the OCs. I do not think I own Ruddy either, he has a kind of life on his own.
I don noty own anything referring to H P Lovecraft works, except the inspiration.
Sorry for the terrible delay in the updates, ladies and gentlemen. University is swallowing increasing parts of my time and leaving me drained.
I cannot promise that there would be no more such gaps in updating, since it is exams time, but I promise you that I am not over with this yet and that there is much more coming.
Thanks to Hoodoo, Armoured Soul and sesshy81 for their kind reviews and thanks to all that have read and appreciated this story so far.
The challenge's still up, anyways. You know the deal by now.
Enjoy!
As long as he lived, Ruddy would always remember with a smile his first meeting with the boss. Even in his sleep, his lips curled at the memory.
After the voice from the inside of the room allowed them in, the cold metallic doors started to open with a pneumatic sound.
Ruddy pricked up his ears in recognition: a steam-powered machine, probably, like the ones projected by Hero of Alexandria.
These automatic doors were impressive for their sheer size - he had to admit - wondering where the big boiler required to open such heavy doors would be hidden.
He was betting it was underground, much to the dismay of the slaves – no, he mentally corrected himself, they were not called so in this country – well, much to the dismay of the labourers who had to build the fire to make it all work.
He straightened himself, sitting majestically upright, and tried to act as if he was just fine with being carried about inside a not-glass cage.
The boss was seated on a big and seemingly comfortable leather chair, probably new, judging from the nice smell pervading the room.
In front of him stood a remarkably big table, completely covered by sheets and books, on which rested various strange devices with buttons and little lights stuck on their surface, the function of which he could not begin to imagine.
Humans had become really amazing since the last time he had seen them, he mused.
Despite the myriad of questions he had in mind, ready to be asked, he tried to contain his curiosity: he had to favourably impress and convince the officer, and acting like a child would not be useful to his strategy.
Even if the rest of the room was quite interesting, especially the strange devices, the boss was not so.
Since the man was the leader of such brave and valiant soldiers, he had expected him to be a soldier too, perhaps an old retired veteran or a general, and, well, silly as it seems, he had expected a more distinguished appearance, some decorations, medals, whatever, to tell him apart from his troops.
The man behind the table, instead, did not keep up with his expectations: first of all he was a portly, balding man well over his fifties and had a dull look, he didn't look like a warrior at all. Secondarily, he wore the same black-on-white outfit, complete with a ridiculous and useless strip of dark cloth tied around his neck, exactly like the ones his agents wore.
Maybe he was just unpretentious, he thought next, like Hanniba'al Barak, the brave Carthaginian general.
The thought brought a smile to his muzzle, he had a feeling this man was nothing like a soldier.
Maybe he was a nobleman or a bureaucrat, put in this place of power by the court.
Yes, judging from what he had heard from the agents, that could be the case.
Ruddy tried to concentrate and sense his aura, to assess whatever powers he possessed and was not surprised to conclude he had none.
However unremarkable, the boss looked angry, his initially pale countenance growing steadily more flushed with every step that brought the cage further into the room.
The man's face had almost the same colour of a beetroot when he jumped up and started to yell.
"What is this?" he asked, pointing his finger towards the transparent cage and its occupant.
"The creature we found in Texas." Abe the triton replied, with his usual calm voice.
"Why do you seem to think you have to bring to the HQ every single weird creature you catch around?" the man continued, passionately.
Wanting to intervene, but not knowing if it would be prejudicial to his cause, Ruddy cast a circular glance at the agents, who were calm and impassive, seemingly waiting for the boss' temper to abate.
He caught Ash's eye and the boy signaled him to wait with a discreet gesture of a hand, smiling wickedly.
Ruddy acquiesced and turned back to the shouting man.
"This is not a Monster Sanctuary!" the man admonished, raising a supposedly menacing finger to point at Hellboy.
The demon stared impassively at the smaller man, until he withdrew his finger and stopped yelling.
"You'd get an infarction one of these days, boss." the demon said calmly, while the boss seated himself back on the leathery chair and wiped the sweat off his face with a piece of white cloth.
"I hope you have a good reason to bring this beast here." he grumbled.
Ash tapped discreetly on the lid of the cage, as if encouraging him to intervene, but Ruddy needed no encouragement as there were few things he hated more than being called a beast.
"I am no beast!" he burst out, quite loudly.
The boss turned so fast that his neck must have creaked with the effort and stared at Ruddy in disbelief, mouth agape.
"The dog speaks." he muttered seconds after.
"Yes I speak, but I am not a dog." Ruddy confirmed, repressing a smile; sometimes he loved having this effect on people.
"Boss, this is Ruddy, - Ash performed the due introductions with a wide smile on his youthful face – Ruddy, this is our boss, Director Thomas Manning."
The boy was having supreme fun at the expenses of his own boss, which presently was utterly flabbergasted.
"Pleased to meet such an honorable officer." Ruddy greeted formally and a little stiffly, but this caused a great bursts of hilarity in his companions.
Uncomprehending, he turned towards his companions, and gave them a quizzical look to which they did not respond, occupied as they were with laughing their asses off.
The only serious people in the room were the German spirit and the boss himself, who wore a deeply annoyed expression.
"Did I say something wrong?" Ruddy asked, to nobody in particular.
"I think you tickled their sense of the absurd." the spirit replied dryly.
"Ah, well..." he commented, thoughtfully.
He felt a pang of pity for the director as it must be very hard when your subordinates do not respect you, but then, he mused, it must be hard working for a superior which is not worthy of one's respect and submission.
As he simply hated submitting to most people, he could sympathize more easily with the agents.
"Thank you very much for putting me to shame in front of the prisoner." the director said, bitterly, when the laughter subsided enough for his words to be heard.
"Sorry, boss." Hellboy grinned.
Manning waved a hand in impatience and gave him a hard look.
"Let's return to business, agent. - he said coldly – Would you explain me exactly why you brought this creature here, except for making fun of me?"
"I thought the twins would love a pet." Hellboy replied, brass-faced as ever, eliciting an indignant growl and a shower of sparks from Ruddy.
"Just kidding, doggy." the demon smirked: he really loved mocking him, but it could prove dangerous for his health, the red-furred salaawa mused.
The demon ignored his hateful stare and turned back to his boss. "It is better that we tell you everything from the beginning. Sit down, because there's much to hear."
"If you must..." Manning said, quite defeated.
The demon retold him the whole expedition, aided by his companions.
Thus Ruddy finally understood how they had found him after he had so carefully concealed his tracks: the triton was a touch sensitive, how interesting.
He had underestimated him, maybe because of his peaceful voice and calm behaviour.
When it came to narrating their fight at the lonely hill, which the humans called Gallows Hill, Ruddy also chimed in, mainly to argue about the beginning of the fight.
"I thought Margarita had attacked me and I just acted accordingly with the situation." he said, wanting to make his point.
Manning gave the cryptozoologist a black look.
She blushed and tried to explain herself. "I was unarmed, director Manning, and was merely taking a photo. Unfortunately he misinterpreted the flash as a weapon."
The director moved his stare to Ruddy.
"I stand as accused. I thought it was a trick to dazzle me. - he acknowledged candidly – It has worked just fine in previous occasions."
His thoughts drifted to the brass mirror-polished shield of the annoying blue-eyed brat and the way he shifted the thing to reflect sunlight in his eyes just before trying to gut him.
Ruddy shook his head, ears flopping in an undignified manner, but he really had to erase that thought from his mind in order to remain calm throughout the questioning.
"Well, and then?" the director asked, quite bored.
"And then he almost beat the crap out of us." Hellboy replied calmly, as if it was the most commonplace thing on heart.
"You are kidding." the balding man said in disbelief, looking from the Hellboy to the cage and then back again.
"Was this dog-thing so hard to defeat?" he asked, wide-eyed, afterwards.
"Well, let's see... – the demon explained, counting on his normal hand – He knocked unconscious both Rajeev and Ash, broke Scottie's arm, wounded me and Abe..." he made a pause, just to let his words sink in.
"Did I mention that he shot lightings all over the place?" the demon asked, rhetorically, and the boss went so wide-eyed that Ruddy thought his eyeballs were going to fall from their sockets.
"And that he would have killed professor Krauss, had he been corporeal?" he concluded, gesturing towards the shredded not-skin of the German.
Ruddy snorted and chimed in: "I was not aiming to kill, really. I figured that he was no human, though I was betting he was one of those creatures with their faces on their chests."
He looked at the uncomprehending faces of his captors and felt compelled to explain "You know, the ones described also by Plinius, I cannot quite remember their name though..." he added, losing his surety as he talked, since no light of comprehension dawned on their faces.
There was a moment of strained and embarrassed silence, before Abe slapped his forehead and exclaimed victoriously: "The Akefaloi!"
"Yeah, that's it! The Headless Ones." Ruddy agreed, tail unconsciously wagging in satisfaction.
He was managing to find common ground between himself and this people and this boded well for his endeavours.
"I thought it had no head or neck to speak of, so it would only scare him, if I went for his throat... - he tried to explain, not sounding much convincing even to himself – As I have already told you, I was not aiming to kill."
"That's why you tried to fry me on the spot, right, doggy?" Hellboy argued, reasonably.
The boss gave him a questioning look.
"Oh, well... - Ruddy had the good grace to feel embarrassed – I thought you had poisoned me and that I was going to die... - he actually smiled and that human gesture looked unnatural on his muzzle – And for sure I was not going to Hell unavenged."
His answer baffled Hellboy, he would have never allowed using poison on an enemy, was not honorable, for lack of a better term.
He had been raised in a military base after all, and something of the military crap must have stuck on him.
"I could have killed you on my own without the need to employ such a trick." he said, offended.
"Oh,no... - Ruddy retorted, temper raising to match the demon's – You just drugged me up to the ears, it is so much honorable..."
"Oh, please, cut the ultimate- macho-warrior crap, you two. - Liz snapped, really annoyed – It is standard procedure when dealing with an unknown creature to try and stun it, to study it further here in the HQ."
Ruddy was going to protest again about being called a creature and an "it", since it was clear that he was a male, but the pyromancer stopped him on his tracks with a gesture of her hand.
"I know now that you are not a beast, but when we started the hunt we did not know about it."
At this point Margarita stepped in, faithful to her self-imposed role of peace keeper.
"I know that it is not nice to be drugged and caged, Ruddy, but had we not done it, we would have never had the occasion of talking, probably."
"And you would have never known where was this place." Abe added.
The two of them were in synch, it looked, already completing each other's sentences, he noted, amusingly.
"Yes, yes, all's well what ends well, I know the deal." Ruddy concluded, snorting.
"You could have spared yourself much of the trouble if you had behaved like an intelligent being from the beginning, instead of charging us with no apparent reason." The German ectoplasm couldn't leave well enough alone and had to add a caustic remark, in his irritating, heavily accented voice.
"No apparent reason?! - he bellowed, outraged, jumping to his feet, the ridge on his back was standing on edge again - You had been following me for days and were trying to sneak upon me in my sleep and I had no reason of judging this an hostile behaviour?! Are you joking?"
"You were expecting us, admit it, creature. - the German pressed on , calm unwavering – You were trying to get to us from the beginning."
Ruddy stared at him in wonder. "Are you delirious, spirit?" he asked, others gave him eloquent stares, mutely asking more or less the same question.
"I have a theory, Director, if you allow me to explain myself." the spirit continued.
Having received a nod of consent from the increasingly baffled Director Manning, he went on.
"This creature probably comes from Middle East, am I right, Doctor Marsh?" he asked.
"Well, the saalawa's areal of distribution goes from Egypt to Pakistan, including the Central Asian plains and..."
"Enough, enough. - he interrupted he explanation – Egypt, Pakistan, Central Asia. And he had not given us a plausible explanation for his presence on American soil. I wonder if he is more than we account for."
A thrill of fear coursed Ruddy's spine, could the spirit have already busted his cover.
Crap, he thought, it was not so hard after all, there were not so much people looking like him around.
"He could as well be a kind supernatural of Islamic terrorist." the spirit concluded, among amused snorts from his companions.
"Oh, come on, professor, this is a little too paranoid and far-fetched." Liz protested.
"I could be a what?!" Ruddy asked, suddenly relieved.
His fears had been unfounded, his cover still held fast.
"An islamic terrorist, a mujaheddin, something like that. - Ash explained but Ruddy's confused expression did not change – Well, I guess you have no idea of what any of these words mean."
"No, no I can guess what a terrorist is, something like a zealot, isn't it? A sectarian assassin. - Ruddy replied - Is the Islamic part that I cannot place. What is Islamic?"
"Nevermind. So you are not here to blast some strategic installation of the government, like, well, uhmm... this place?" Hellboy asked, laughter blinking in his yellow eyes.
"No, Hell, why would I? - Ruddy protested – I was content with roaming with the pack, until you came hunting for me."
"And by the way, - he added, just to make it clear – as I first saw you three: a demon, a triton-like creature and a weird thing with a vase on top, coming after me, I thought you were followers of one the Great Demons."
This was the agents' turn to look at him in disbelief.
"Followers of what?" Hellboy said, cautiously, as if fearing the answer.
"The Great Demons - Ruddy explained slowly, as if to a child – You know, the Great Old Ones, the Ogru Jahad, the creatures of the Void, the slimy bastards who want to eat the world. Call them what you will, the name won't change the substance."
"What do you know about them?" the demon asked, aggressively, his stone hand contracting into a fist.
"Enough, I guess, - Ruddy answered haughtily, straightening up and giving him a cold stare (the demon couldn't be suspecting about him, could he?) – since I was born and raised to hunt and fight them."
Hellboy and the rest of the team looked at him as if he saw him for the first time, then the demon erupted in a roaring laughter, in which he was promptly joined by the rest of the team, well, except the director, who looked quite resigned instead, as if he was going to have to do something he wished he did not, and, obviously, the spirit.
"What's so funny?" Ruddy asked, angrily.
"Nothing. - the demon smiled – I think you just got the job you wanted, doggy."
Ruddy stared at him with a very stupid look of incomprehension on his muzzle.
"Welcome to the team, buddy!" Ash exclaimed, slamming the cage open.
Did you like / hate/ enjoy it.
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Please make yourselves heard. (well, read.)
I need reviewes, even the bad ones, to improve.
