Hellboy and Indians [OPEN]

[hellboy]

Hope it's ok if I make up a mission. It's in the past, so shouldn't affect anything you guys had planned as far as present plotwise. Need me to change anything, let me know.

Date:June 6, 2008
Time Frame:
Place: BPRD Headquarters and then New Mexico desert.
Status: Open to any BPRD agents. Except maybe Abe, who probably wouldn't do well in the desert. He's welcome, though.



June 6, 2008
About a mile outside of White Rock, New Mexico

The desert sun shone brilliantly of of the creature's diamond encrusted chest, blinding Hellboy and forcing him to close his eyes and cover his face with his stone hand. "Damn..." He muttered through clenched teeth. The hard dry ground gave no dust to the wind created as the creature flapped it's gargantuan wings and reared up over the Paranormal Investigator. It's tail draped lazily across the ground, which gave proportion to both how tall this thing was and how high it was flying. As it circled, Hellboy was spared from the sun's rays for just long enough to get a good look at it. A rattlesnake with long horns of ivory, teeth like broadswords and wings like an eagle stared back down at him and Hellboy could've sworn it licked it's chops at the sight of a big red snack. "Yup...looks like a great serpent to me." His left hand went for the gun at his hip and prayed that bullets would hurt this thing.

---

June 4, 2008
Classified BPRD Headquarters, New Jersey

The slide clicked and the voice continued. "Awanyu, a guardian deity of the Tewa tribe of Pueblo American Indians, often connected to the Horned or Plumed Serpent often found in Native American mythos. Also Quetzalcoatl of Mexico, and Ningishzida of Mesopotamia." Featured upon the slide was a cave carving, a petroglyph, showing a very accurately, if crudely drawn horned serpent. A series of following slides showed similar images. All of this escaped Hellboy's notice, however, as he snored softly with his boots up on the table and arms crossed over his chest. Debriefings were, for the big red demon, a great time to catch up on his sleep. Not to mention, lately, sleep had eluded him for the most part. Not that he'd say anything to anyone about it.

He and Liz had been...well, he wouldn't say fighting. Talking. Lots and lots of talking. Tense, loud talking. Things just weren't the same without Professor Broom around. The place felt empty. And Hellboy's mood was generally sour because of it. And therefore, Liz having just recently moved in, things were...tense, he'd stick with tense.

So, instead of sleeping at night, when he was supposed to, HB slept during the mission debriefs and relied on his team mates to fill him in on things he may have missed out on. It was a brilliant plan, actually. At least, he thought so. That was, until, someone invariably noticed him sleeping. A rough hand knocked his boot from the table and jolted him from his dreams. "Whataya..." Hellboy blinked once, twice, and tried to figure out where the hell he was. It all came back to him as he shook off the sleepies, and HB wanted answers. The demon turned and glared at the culprit, and whispered harshly, "What's the deal, eh?" Taking on an air of indignation, Hellboy turned to the slides, as if his intention had, all along, been to pay the utmost attention and the waker had interrupted his preparation.

Seeing the drawings displayed, Hellboy cocked his head and clicked his tongue. "Looks like Quetzalcoatl." Irritated sighs erupted from those being briefed, who had already covered that little connection. "What? He does. But more pueblo than Aztec." Realization dawned on him. "The desert? Damn...better bring the sunblock."

The presenter cleared his throat, indicating he wished Hellboy to be silent. After a moment, the man clicked the slide and the presentation continued. "Over the past several months, there have been disappearances reported to Los Alamos County PD..."

"Los Alamos, like the Manhattan Project, right?" Annoyed glances came from out of the darkness. Sighing, Hellboy's big stone hand shot into the air, blocking off the light of the projector. With a weary sigh, the presenter pointed at the demon, indicating he could ask his question. "What kind of disappearances? We talkin' goats? Cows? People?" He chuckled. "Car stereos?" A small wave of laughter bubbled throughout the room.

"It began with livestock, cattle, mainly, from a nearby ranch." The projector clicked and the slide changed, showing a mutilated carcass that one could assume used to be a cow. Any doubts that something otherworldly had done the attacking quickly flew out the window. "However, there have been several missing persons reports filed within the last two weeks." The lights came up and the presenter appeared, all seriousness. "Awanyu is a water deity, regarded as a guardian of life. Superstitions say it would only attack if provoked. Your mission is to figure out what woke up the dragon. Any questions?"

[Frankie Guidicini]

Still getting used to speaking English all of the time and writing Latin characters as opposed to Cyrillic, Frankie was one of those irritated sighs that sounded when Hellboy woke up and stated that the water deity looked like Quetzalcoatl. Her copper eyes rolled over to him and back down to her papers. Her eyes stayed there as Hellboy continued speaking/interrupting, and her irritation slightly bristled. Sure, Hellboy was the Bureau's best agent, but didn't anyone ever teach him manners?

The presenter asked if there were any questions and Frankie raised her hand. "Has there maybe been a drought in the area that could call for any to ask for Awanyu's help?" Sure, they were supposed to find out what woke up the dragon once they were there, but information about the availability of water in the area could narrow down the possibilities. Her eyes went back to Hellboy for a second and then to the presenter. It was an odd thing that a water deity would be awakened in a desert...

[hellboy]

The presenter smiled appreciatively at Frankie's question. "Ah, no, though it is New Mexico so rainfall this time of year is generally unheard of anyways..." The man shrugged, unable to give a definitive answer. "Unfortunately, our clues are few and far between at the moment. Which is why I'm sending you lot in. We need a team on the ground to figure out what we're missing here." The presenter stood, awkwardly, waiting to see if there were any other questions. Apparently, there were not. "Well..."

Hellboy rolled his eyes and mimed a puppet with his big hand, opening and shutting it several times as he spoke. "Blah blah blah, are we leavin' yet, or what?" He turned to those gathered, "Who's comin', show of hands?" The smaller of his two hands shot into the air and he stared at the room expectantly, waiting for other volunteers. As there was some slight hesitation, Red said, incredulously. "C'mon folks, its the desert. We'll work on our tans, maybe get bitten by a giant water snake thing..." He turned around, his point made. "It'll be a barrel o' monkeys."

[Frankie Guidicini]

"C'mon folks, its the desert. We'll work on our tans, maybe get bitten by a giant water snake thing...It'll be a barrel o' monkeys."

Frankie sighed softly and tapped her notes into an orderly pile and stood, refusing to simply raise her hand to volunteer. "More like a bucket of snakes." She murmured underneath her breath and shifted her weight to her right leg, her left hand straying to her hip. She wasn't really looking forward to going on a mission with someone who had slept through most of the briefing -- But after being in the damn cold of Russia for a few decades, a warmer and dryer climate sounded rather appealing.

"I'm in."

[hellboy]

Several hours later, somewhere over the American Midwest...

Chomping unsatisfactory on his candy bar, the wrapper crinkling in his hand, Hellboy tried not to let his boredom get the better of him. If he did, he might jump out of the plane just to see what it felt like. Not that he hadn't fallen several thousand feet before but...it wasn't necessarily an experience one wanted to repeat. Though response had been light in the briefing, he and Frankie had managed to grab a few more agents on their way out of HQ, and Hellboy would be glad for the company. It wasn't often that he had partners on his missions. He told everyone he preferred to work alone but that wasn't explicitly the case. Companionship was nice, to a certain degree. As long as they weren't annoying.

Hellboy stole a glance at the girl sitting to his left, across the cargo plane from him. Frankie, was her name. That was short for something though. Francine? Nah, that wasn't right. Whatever the case, HB didn't know her all that well. She'd been in Europe for the most part since joining the BPRD and while they'd met, cooperative missions they had not undertaken. She had a rep though, Red would give her that. "So..." He grumbled as he swallowed down the chocolatey goodness. "You got spikes, right?" Hellboy nodded appreciatively. "That's pretty cool, if you ask me." The boredom was creeping in. So much so, he actually found himself making small talk. Which was strange. "That job you did in the Ukraine. Kiev, '97. That was impressive. Vampires ain't a cake walk." Awkward. But Hellboy was desperate for conversation.

[Frankie Guidicini]

The hum of the plane engines was somewhat soothing. It wasn't outright annoying, but it helped Frankie think as she looked over the briefing for what must have been the eightieth time. She liked to be prepared, and sometimes she even translated words into Cyrillic to see if there could have been a double meaning to them. Usually there wasn't, but it passed the time, and Hellboy's crinkling candy wrapper was not much company.
She could remember when she first joined the Bureau and he was younger. Not much had really changed and they were never really buddies, what with her being in Russia for several decades, but he was pretty much half of the agents who had been there longer than her. So he wasn't an idiot. Maybe annoying and childish at times, but not an idiot.

"So... You got spikes, right? That's pretty cool, if you ask me."

Frankie looked up from her briefing. "I suppose you could call them that,yes. And thank you, I think it's rather handy." She looked back down at her papers. "It's not like you can lose your weapon in battle if it's attached to you." That was a lesson her opponents who relied on guns or blades learned too well when it ended in their death.

"That job you did in the Ukraine. Kiev, '97. That was impressive. Vampires ain't a cake walk."

She looked back up to meet Hellboy's yellow eyes with her copper ones. Wow, she didn't really expect anyone to bring up that mission or remember it too well. "I -- ... Thank you." She actually didn't sound condescending in her gratitude. She was a bit taken aback and impressed at Hellboy's memory and his compliment. "Well...I'm sure I had an element of surprise with the fact that I looked like a human and didn't acquiesce to their powers like a human."

Frankie suddenly found herself grasping at straws for something to say in return to the demon, which was surprising. She usually didn't try to make conversation with others, but she felt like she should pay him a compliment. "From what I hear, you weren't so bad yourself in that whole ordeal in that tomb outside of Moscow. I wish I could have joined you, it sounds like that was...quite a party."

[hellboy]

Hellboy sat back with a smile on his face, crumpling up the candy wrapper and stuffing it into a pocket of his over-sized, Bureau-issued trench coat. "Thanks. Did my best." Still awkward, and Hellboy was out of things to say about her. He wracked his memory, trying to recall something he'd heard about her, but nothing was coming. Resolving then and there to make sure, as he had countless times before, to get appraised of each of the Bureau's more elite agents, especially when he had a mission on one of them. Whatever he promised himself, he'd most likely forget before he got around to actually doing it.

He tapped the fingers of his stone hand against his thigh and caught himself in the act of it. His gaze fell over the fist, carved with symbols and cracked as if by a great force, yet strong as the day he'd been born. It had never failed him, and he doubted that it ever would. He knew exactly what Frankie meant when she spoke of the reliability of their natural weapons. Waggling his fingers at her, he grinned. "Guess we ain't so different, huh, Frankie?"

[Frankie Guidicini]

The crinkling of the wrapper as it was tucked into Hellboy's pocket was less grating on Frankie's ears than the crinkle had first been now that her mind was active with the conversation. She tapped her papers to ensure that they were straight once more before sliding them into her folio and placing it underneath her seat.

"Thanks. Did my best."

"From what I've heard, your best can be quite daunting." The woman nodded in recognition of his skill. Some of the stories that she heard of him would seem almost impossible to the inexperienced ear, such as him being swallowed by the huge monster in Moscow with a belt of grenades that then terminated the monster's life. Frankie was more than in awe of this, though she would not show it outwardly.

"Guess we ain't so different, huh, Frankie?"

A shadow of a smile crossed Frankie lips. "I suppose not. Birds of a feather do, after all, stick together." They had both been born with their powers, they had both been raised by fathers, and they both had long lives to live, if nothing else interfered. Frankie inhaled deeply. "I suppose the Bureau is good at attracting those like us. It gives us a hearth, a home to go to, and friends." Even though she could hardly call some of her fellow agents friends when they were so damn green. "I must say I find it refreshing to meet those older than me, though, take Abe for example." It may have been a joke or a compliment. The tone caused the hearer to be unsure.

She placed both of her hands on her knees, which were clad in her customary black jumpsuit with the slits for her thorns. "How much longer now? I'm itching for a bit of action, not sitting on a plane."