Chapter Four
Hellboy ran after the creature, jumping out of the window and landing on the ground. He groaned from the impact and the pain he felt throughout his body.
"Child…"
Hellboy's head snapped up at the voice and there stood a man in a black cloth, with sunglasses covering his eyes.
"All grown up, I see," the man said.
Hellboy stood up in confusion, his forehead wrinkling, "That voice…"
The bald-headed man nodded, "I sang the first lullaby you ever heard, my child. I ushered you into this world. I alone know your true calling, your true name."
"Don't tell me, it's Zeppo," Hellboy quipped as he spied his gun beside him.
He goes to get it, but before he could grab it, the creature, Sammael lands in front of him.
"I can see that you're still young and don't know your place," the man said. He turns to his pet creature, "Teach him."
Once again, Hellboy tried to lunge for his gun, but Sammael unleashes his tongue, 7 foot long, and wraps around Hellboy's arm. The demon grunts with effort as he pulls away, his knees falling to the ground. Suddenly, gunshots rang in the air and the creature screeches, his tongue riddled with holes, released Hellboy's arm. Hellboy rolls over to a garbage container and leans against it. He looks up to see Maizie grabbing his gun from the ground and coming to sit next to him.
"What do you think you're doing?" Hellboy demanded.
Maizie showed him his gun, "Helping you."
Hellboy yanks the gun out of her hand, "No one ever helps me. It's my job."
Maizie rolls her eyes at him, "Too bad."
Hellboy looked at her stunned, then shakes his head. Maizie smirks.
"Okay, here," Hellboy said as he gives back his gun to Maizie, not able to hold the gun with his injured arm.
Maizie takes the gun and a fresh clip from Hellboy. She loads it, and then Hellboy reaches into his coat to pull out a special bullet. She takes it from him and gives him a questioning look.
"It's a tracking bullet. Crack the pin then load it."
Maizie quickly and deftly cracks the pin and loads it. The second she closes the gun, the damaged tongue from the creature punches through between them and Maizie shrieks in alarm. They dodge it as it keeps punching through. It stops and they wait a moment. Maizie glances over to Hellboy and notices his arm.
"Jesus! What the hell is that?" Maizie said.
Hellboy looks down to see a thick, black stinger attached to his arm. He pulls it off and tosses it to Maizie. Out of reflex, she catches it and then frantically tries to toss it out of her hands.
"Lemme go ask," Hellboy said before he grabbed the gun from the ground and standing up.
"Damn you," Maizie hissed.
Hellboy grinned as he stepped away from the container. The creature jumps from behind the container and lands on it. He automatically shoots at it and Sammael avoids the bullets and bounds away. Hellboy follows it with his gun and before the creature disappears, the tracking bullet is shot and it catches the creature, staining it bright, neon green. Hellboy chases after it, leaving Maizie to scramble off the ground.
"Wait!"
Hellboy lands on the ground and sees the green substance from the bullet and follows it. Maizie lands on the ground with a grunt and follows Hellboy into the crowd of costumed people. She brought up a hand and pressed against the earpiece.
"We'll hit the street in a minute. We're heading towards civilians," Maizie spoke into the piece alerting the rest of the agents of the happenings.
She shoved her way through the throng of people, mindful of their shouts of enrage, shock, and fear at her and Hellboy.
"Yeah, yeah! Crazy costumes huh? Trick or treat!"
Just ahead, Hellboy sees the creature jump over the trick-or-treaters and into the busy streets. Cars honk their horns and some crash into others to avoid the creature. He thrusts himself into the street, ignoring the honks of the cars and Maizie comes onto the scene.
"Hellboy!" She hollers in horror.
She watches as he avoids a hit from a car and sees Sammael jump then land on the other side of the street.
"Oh, this is gonna be a bad idea…and dangerous," She said to herself.
She took a deep breath and as the onlookers watched, wisps of grey smoke came from the bottoms of her feet and up to envelop her. Then she disappeared to the shock of the others. The people looked around as they murmured.
"Look!" One cried and they all looked to see grey smoke appear in the middle of nowhere.
Maizie appeared and the smoke dissipated away. Without warning, the side mirror of a car caught her wrist and she whipped around as she cried in pain. Hellboy heard her cry out and he turned to see Maizie on the ground clutching her injured wrist. A honk caught their attention and they both looked to see a car heading towards the fallen agent. He headed towards her. Hellboy saw wisps of smoke appear around her feet and he stood in front of her, ignoring the strange sight.
He raises a hand, and when the car doesn't stop, he hollers, "Red means stop!"
He then slams his other, stoned hand down on the hood of the car and it flips over them. The car landed with a thud. Hellboy looked down at Maizie, her eyes wide and looking at him.
"You good?"
Maizie nodded.
"Good. Stay here," Hellboy said before he ran after the creature.
As he left Maizie behind, he followed the green glow to an alley and down an opened drainpipe. He jumps into the hole and landed on the ground. He looks around and spots the creature ahead of him.
"Waiting for me Sammy?" Hellboy said.
Beyond them, a train horn blares and Hellboy sees a light heading for them. He smiles.
"Uh-oh. Between a rock and a hard place-" Hellboy says before Sammael pulls a trick on him and heads for the oncoming train. "Aw...crap!"
As he chases after the creature, Sammael slams into the door of the train with his arm and breaks into it with a roar, scaring the passengers of the train. The creature continues through the train and leaps from it, landing on the tracks. The train continues on the tracks towards Hellboy and as it gets closer, Hellboy jumps. He lands on the platform of the train, his legs dangling over the edges. He holds onto the edge as the conductor of the train looks on. The conductor, terrified, grabs a fire extinguisher and slams it down on Hellboy's head.
"Hey! Hey!" Hellboy cries out as the conductor continues to hit him. "I'm on your side!"
The man pauses.
"Right," he says before he gives one last hit and Hellboy goes under.
Hellboy lays on the track as the train goes over him, hitting the edges of his shaved horns. Finally, the end of the train passes over him and he lies there a moment before he gets up. He touches his horns and hissed when he feels how hot it is. He turns around towards the direction the creature went to and looks for him. Sammael surprises him by landing on him from above. The long arms snaked around Hellboy and he breaks free. He grabs the creature by the jaws and snaps it open, breaking it. The creature pulls apart and as Hellboy watches, the creature knits back the jaw, as if it never broke in the first place. Then it leaps and lands on Hellboy, its jaws grabbing onto Hellboy's shoulder. The force of the impact threw them to the ground. Hellboy growls as the jaws dig deeper. He looks to the side to see the metal rail.
"Screw you."
He grabs the rail and they convulse. The electrical shocks go through their bodies and the creature smokes and burns until it finally dies. Hellboy pushes the crispy body of the creature off of his and stands up. He pulls a cigar from a pocket and lights it using the flames on his arm.
"I'm fireproof," Hellboy says to the dead body. "You weren't."