Chapter 2:
After three long years the day finally came when now twenty-two year old Lexy would complete her final tests and become a full fledged field agent. She would be testing with a handful of officers from other government agencies who were looking to transfer over to the B.P.R.D.
The test would consist of three parts. First their marksmanship would be tested in the B.P.R.D.'s personal shooting range where not only their aim would be tested, but their ability to identify paranormal situations.
The second test would involve them tracking down and keeping up with a paranormal entity, keeping within a specified radius for a specific amount of time.
The third and last test would be a set crime scene where the agents would find a damaged relic and be asked to define it's culture, history and why it was tampered with. They then would try to figure out who exactly would want to tamper with it and identify their perp.
After all three tests were completed the agents would be evaluated and only three out of the twenty applying officers would make the cut, so Lexy knew she had to be at her very best to get noticed. What she didn't know was that Professor Broom had already chosen her to be a field agent and was only having her perform the tests as an initiation.
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The day of the first test came Lexy was in her room making sure she was absolutely prepared and going over her notes when there was a knock at the door.
"Come in." She called.
Abe entered with a 'smile'. "It's time."
She nodded, her heart was pounding and her hands shook.
He must've sensed her nervousness because he put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You're going to do amazing. You're ready for this."
She nodded again and smiled nervously. "Right, okay. Let's go."
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Abe led her down the hall and through the complex to a room just outside the shooting range where the other officers and Professor Broom were waiting. Hellboy and Liz were waiting in the separate room.
All three smiled at her.
"Well this is where I leave you." Abe said going to stand with the others.
"You're going to do great." Liz smiled and wished her luck.
"Yeah," Hellboy nodded. "Just remember everything I taught you."
Lexy smiled at her friends, well more family than friends now. "I'll try to do my very best."
"That's all anyone's asking." Abe nodded.
Lexy left the room and entered the shooting range where she went in stood in line with the other officers.
Professor Broom smiled and shot her a wink before he began to speak.
"Welcome everyone to the B.P.R.D. My name if Professor Trevor Broom and I'm chairman of this organization. You are all here because you are the best and brightest of your fields. Today you will all be tested to see which of the few of you will be chosen to join the B.P.R.D. and become official agents."
He paused to allow the lights over the target range to turn on and a recreation of a city street to be illuminated. Manning went around and handed out a handgun to everyone.
"Today your marksmanship will be tested along with your ability to recognize abnormal situations. Remember an agent must be able to analyze the situation before acting. These specialized guns fire a laser signal that we will use to track your score. When the buzzard rings you may begin."
The officers stepped up to the edge of the fake city and held their guns at the ready position. The buzzard rang and cutouts of figures popped up on the scene. Shots rang as all the officers began firing, all but Lexy, who was looking over all the fake figures until she identified her target and fired.
The buzzard rang again minutes later, the cutouts disappeared and the officers stopped firing.
A large screen to the side displayed the officers and scores based on what they hit and the number of kills. Most of the officers had scores of thirty or above, excluding Lexy who had a grand total of three shots fired, three hits but no kills.
Manning went to the controls and brought up the targets from their housing.
"Miss Tanner, would you care to explain why you thought shooting little Susie was a good idea?" He pointed to the cut out of a little girl with pig tails in a yellow shirt and blue skirt.
Lexy stepped forward. "Yes sir, because she was the only suspicious looking one in the situation."
"Explain." Manning ordered.
Lexy looked ahead at the rest of the cut outs that were all of different creatures, many looking like monsters. "Well sir the others don't seem dangerous."
Manning raised an eyebrow, he then pointed to a large green creature who's face was twisted in a grimace and it's mouth was open wide revealing many sharp teeth. "That doesn't seem dangerous to you?"
"At first he did, but then I saw that." She pointed to it's hand that was holding a crumpled piece of white paper. "And I realized he's just sneezing."
The second in command shook his head. "Oh, and what about that fellow there? Not even threatening?" He pointed to a brown slug looking monster with enormous arms but no legs hanging from a jungle gym.
Lexy shook her head. "No sir, he's wearing head and wrist bands, looks to me like he's just working out."
"And how among all these creatures how did you come to the conclusion that Susie was the only dangerous one here?"
"Well the first and most obvious, a little girl wandering around in a street full of creatures and she's not freaking out. Secondly the clock tower reads two AM, what's she doing out this late in the first place, and lastly she's carrying a quantum physics textbook. That's way to advanced for an eight year old girl. If you ask me sir, little Susie's about to start some trouble."
"Very well." Professor Broom nodded. "This will end the marksman portion of the test. Tomorrow will be your physical tracking and hunting test."
Many of the other officers snickered at Lexy and one even ruffled her hair saying 'better luck next time.' as he exited.
Lexy didn't follow the other officers out, instead heading to the other room.
"How do you think I did?" She asked nervously as soon as she entered.
Hellboy went over and clasped her on the shoulders. "Kid you passed with flying colors."
"And you stood your ground, which was very bold of you. Sometimes you need to question your superior's choices." Abe added excited that she'd passed with a perfect score, but new he couldn't tell everything just yet.
Liz went and grabbed Lexy in a tight hug. "Believe me your going to pass top of the class. Now tomorrow's your tracking test so be prepared for some serious exercise."
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The morning soon came and Lexy was awake and wide eyed by five o'clock ready to go. Most of the other officers would be having their test later in the day, but hers was unique. At around seven in the morning Lexy was escorted out to an abandoned town where her test would take place. They arrived at ten and headed straight for a large parking complex.
Broom, Liz, Hellboy and Abe were there and ready for her.
"Good morning Lexy, I trust you slept well?" Professor Broom asked with a smile.
"As well as I could. I won't lie, I'm pretty nervous." She smiled awkwardly.
The professor chuckled. "Humility is the sign of those truly prepared, though in this case you may want to hold a little more confidence in yourself. In this test you will be tracking and chasing a paranormal entity, namely Hellboy."
"Aww come on father, can't you give her a break?" Hellboy laughed jokingly.
Broom ignored his comment and continued. "He will have a head start of ten minutes then you will track him down. Once you're near him your locator will activate. You need to stay within ten yards of him for fifteen minutes. If your farther than that distance for more than ten seconds you will be ordered to stop and the test will start over again. This will go on until you have completed your fifteen minutes. Any questions?"
"No sir." Lexy shook her head.
"Alright, now Hellboy I trust you'll give Lexy a good run? I won't have any cheating on your part."
"Course' not. Lex, no offense, but your gonna be here all day." He goaded.
Lexy smiled smartly. "We'll see."
"Good. Now Hellboy you go off now. Your ten minutes begin now."
Hellboy turned and leaped from the third floor parking platform onto the building adjacent and headed off into the distance.
(Ten minutes later)
"Alright Lexy your test begins now."
Lexy ran and leaped from the platform just as Hellboy had and headed in the same direction as she'd last seen him go.
It took her a good six minutes to get onto his trail, but after a few minutes she spotted a dirty boot print on one of the brick sides and knew she was headed in the right direction. There were other signs to, bits of crumbled wall or bent metal where his stone hand had grabbed and lifted himself up, or a trail of flattened grass where he'd abandon the rooftops for the ground bellow.
After another several minutes her locator beeped which meant he was within twenty yards of her position. That's when she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye and saw something dangle from the side of a building momentarily before pulling itself up and disappearing over the edge. Lexy took off at a sprint, in less than a minute her locator beeped again, but with Broom's voice.
"Your within ten yards. Your fifteen minutes start now." Then beeped off.
Lexy hit her locator button to start tracking her signal, at the same time she saw Hellboy leap from behind the wall and started running West trying to get distance, as his locator let him know how close she was.
Lexy dashed after him determined not to let him get away. She chased over rooftops, through emptied buildings and down through alley ways and opened areas.
Ten of her fifteen minutes were up and she still had Hellboy in her sights. They were on the rooftops again, coming to the edge separating the current building from the next.
Hellboy leaped and cleared the gap easily.
Lexy wasn't to far behind, running and leaping she nearly missed the edge but managed to grab hold and dangled there. She heard Hellboy's loud footsteps stop.
"You okay kid?" She heard his concerned voice.
"Fine, keep going!" She ordered not willing to let him help. She had to do this on her own. She heard his footsteps start up again heading away.
After a moment she managed to pull herself up onto the roof and paused to catch her breathe. Suddenly her locator beeped.
"Your no longer within ten yards of Hellboy." Came Broom's voice. "You have ten seconds to catch up him starting now or you'll have to repeat the test."
Lexy jumped to her feet and hurried off, only ten seconds. Ten seconds and she'd have to repeat the whole thing. She could still make out Hellboy's figure in the distance and she leaped down to the level below the roof. The inside of the warehouse was empty and free of any obstacles allowing her to run the straight distance that Hellboy would have to par-core.
She jumped through a broken window onto the landing on the next building.
"Five seconds." Came the professor's voice.
She climbed upwards to the top of the building, caught sight of Hellboy directly in front and took off as fast as she could all the while counting the seconds in her head. Five. Four. Three.
"Good work Lexy, you have five minutes left to go."
She mentally released a breathe. Good she was back within ten yards. Hellboy still didn't show any signs of slowing down, but the rooftops ahead looked clear of most obstacles.
And just as she expected the run ahead was relatively smooth, and soon after both their locators let out a loud beep and they both stopped.
"Congratulations Lexy." Came professor Broom's upbeat voice. "You and Hellboy can come back now."
Hellboy was already at her side. He put one arm around her shoulders and used his stone hand to ruffle her hair. "You did kid! Come on let's get something to eat."
The 'walk' back was easy compared to acrobatics she'd been doing for the past half hour and as they leaped from the roof of the neighboring building back into the parking lot they were greeted with smiles and snacks.
Hellboy made quick to wolf down a few energy bars while Liz went up and hugged her.
"You did amazing out there Lexy!" She congratulated.
"Thanks. But I nearly lost him for a while." She panted the exhaustion now setting in.
"Ten seconds isn't a while. And you did it on your first try too." Abe encouraged her and passed her a bottle of water which she accepted gratefully.
"Kid, your something else." Clay agreed in amazement. "I've never met anyone who could keep up with Hellboy."
"And I wasn't even going easy on her either. Your damn fast L." Hellboy nodded and addressed her with a new nickname.
"I agree." Broom said stepping forward. "Young Lexy is proving to be quite the wonder." He smiled like a proud father at her.
A look that made her feel both pride and a bit sad, she wished her own family had been here with her through this journey.
"Now," The Professor said and headed for the vans. "Let's get back to headquarters. It's nearly noon and no doubt you both have worked up an appetite." He chuckled.
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When they arrived back Lexy indulged in a large meal of steamed vegetables with a fruit and almond salad and a dessert of dairy free chocolate pudding, while Hellboy inhaled multiple plates of chicken wings and two pizzas.
Two tests down and one left to go. After lunch Abe advised her to get to sleep right away. She was going to ask why so early, when she tried to stand up and found the reason on her own. It had only been two hours since her return from chasing Hellboy and already her muscles were locking up and a deep ache was setting in.
Hellboy nodded and told her that the only way to get rid of the 'after-mission aches' as he called them was to get a full day's sleep, and since her final test wouldn't be until the afternoon that would leave her a nice chunk of time to recover.
Lexy did as they told but was worried she wouldn't be able to sleep, but as soon as her head touched her pillow she was out.