Part 3

HellBoy let out a long, heavy sigh as he peeked into his daughter’s room. It had been over a week after her only friend, Cate had been killed and she still refused to say anything, even to him. It was very unlike his daughter to stay quiet for so long. Though… He couldn’t blame her. When his father had died, he remained quiet for at least three days. The only time she snuck out was to over look Cate’s funeral as it took place. Shaking his head, the large demon just turned and started to head back to his room. “Still nothing?” HellBoy jerked his head up to see a rather downcast Hadly pushing a cart of food towards May’s room. He just looked at the man with heavy eyes and shook his head before heading back to his room. The young man’s brow sunk as he watched HellBoy leave and continued to push the cart to May’s room.

“May?” Pushing the large door open, he almost jumped as he saw the demon child sitting at her computer desk, staring at a lit up screen blankly. “May…” Hadly pushed the cart further in, letting it stand next to her bed as he bent down to get to head level with May. “Are you okay?” Pulling her chair towards him lightly, he jumped as the red teen leaped into his arms and began to bawl on his shoulder. Her bandaged arms were locked around the young man’s neck as if she never wanted to let go. It took what seemed like hours for Hadly to react. “Oh May…” Placing his hand around her and one hand on the back of her head, he pressed her close to him. “It’s okay, let it all out…” May continued to cry her heart out as Hadly laid his forehead on her raven hair. Once the demon child was finished crying, she merely lay in Hadly’s arms, as if she never wanted to let go. The world was just too cruel to look at anymore. But there was one last thing she had to do… Avenge Cate’s death.

Pulling away from Hadly, she looked up into his deep brown eyes. “Hadly… We need to find where Anubis went.” The young man was drawn aback. “Anubis? What does he have to do with it?” May stood and sat down at her computer, grasping the mouse in her red hand and opening up several windows. “All this time I haven’t just been rotting away. I’ve been planning my revenge. Those assholes won’t get away for what they did.” Hadly started to scold her for using foul language, but kept his mouth shut. Now was not a time to correct her. She was right. Even though he didn’t personally know Cate, or how much May loved the one friend she had on the outside, he perfectly understood. Standing, he kneeled next to her and stared at the screen. “Wow… You’ve done your homework.” The several windows held all kinds of information about Anubis, the creatures know as Ammut, and all sorts of plans she had made herself. “The last thing I saw before I fell unconscious was Anubis. There was no mistaking it. The God of the Underworld who weighed the hearts to see which were worthy of the afterlife. The ones who didn’t weigh up were feed to Ammut, the hippo/ lion/ crocodile creature that attacked the museum and the park that night…” May started to shiver recalling the Christmas party gone dreadfully wrong, but caught herself.

Not shortly after explaining her reasoning to Hadly, she sent him off to gather the others up and meet her in the library where volumes and volumes of literature were stored on all paranormal and spiritual happenings. It was also the room where Abe was kept in a large tank. Most of the men Hadly told were utterly surprised to hear about May. She had been completely silent for over a week and now suddenly she had some excellent plan for revenge? That and the fact she was only a teenager. Most of the men, even though they didn’t think much of it, went to meet in the library anyway. HellBoy, however had a totally different reaction. This situation is all too familiar… When father died, this is exactly what happened. I wanted revenge. But this time what if it doesn’t work out? What if my daughter has to risk her life? He swallowed as he made his way to the library with Hadly in tow. Then again, she’ll do anything for revenge and I’ll have to be there to protect her.

Once most of the men, HellBoy, and Abe were in the library, they turned their attention to May, who was pacing the room and gathering all sorts of reading material from the large shelves of books. Getting everything she needed, she slammed the books down on the large oak table in front of her, making most of the men either jump or give her an odd look. This had to be the most serious look May had ever worn. “Alright. I think I know what’s going on with the whole Anubis, Ammut thing.” Her brown eyes glared upward at the men and she leaned on the table. “The last thing I saw before I passed out a few weeks ago was Anubis. That I’m certain. Now according to this-“ The red teen snatched a rather thick book from the stack she had acquired and opened it to page with both Anubis and Ammut pictured. “Anubis is the one who weighs the hearts of the pharaohs to see if they’re worthy of the afterlife. If they are, the go to heaven. If not, Ammut the hippo ended, lion fronted, crocodile headed monster eats the heart if it proves to be unworthy.” May moved her fingers across the page, indicating who and what she was talking about. “At the Christmas party, I noticed that some of the people there had their hearts eaten out and ONLY they’re hearts, nothing else. The rest of the people were merely mauled in random fashion. I believe that they only ate the hearts of the unworthy and merely killed the worthy ones. Why they killed the worthy, I still don’t know. I’m thinking some sort of power source.”

This caught HellBoy’s attention, “Power source? What would they need power for?” At this point, the demon child snatched another book off of her pile and skimmed the pages. Upon finding what she wanted, she set the book down on top of the other one and turned it so the others could see. “For this. This was the only thing missing from the museum after Anubis awoke and attacked it.” May pointed to an urn that had hieroglyphics written along the sides. “The urn was said to hold the key to reviving all the other Egyptian Gods. If this is true and Anubis stole it, I believe that he might be trying to gather worthy souls to help him unlock the door which unlocks the spirits of the Egyptian Gods.” The demon child stood up and folded her arms, waiting for her father to speak up since she had a feeling he would probably be wanting to speak up right about… Now. “So Anubis is using an army of Ammut’s the gather worthy souls of the living and devouring the unworthy ones while he’s at it. Once he gets enough power from the souls, he’ll some how open a door to let all the other Egyptian Gods out of imprisonment so they can rule over the land like the did before…” HellBoy paused and put his hand to his chin as he looked up to his daughter. “So where is this door located anyway?” May smirked, “I thought you’d never ask…”

“Alright, so we have to get to Egypt, seal Anubis and his army of Ammut’s back where they came from and get out in one piece, right?” HellBoy lifted his shoulders to adjust his large, leather trench coat. “Shouldn’t be that hard, right?” Garett rolled his eyes and let out a heavy sigh as he cocked his gun. “Whatever you say, Red.” May walked out of her room, clad in a battle outfit she had apparently made herself earlier for missions and such. “Alright, lets kick some Egyptian ass.” Pulling up on one of her gloves, she snatched a gun off her dresser and turned to Hadly, who was leaning against the doorway. “Well, how do I look?” The demon child grinned and stroke a pose. Hadly’s left eye twitched, “Awesome, can we get with the others now?” May huffed and stormed forward, grabbing her caretaker by the collar and dragging him forward with her. Hadly choked and quickly got in step with May, sputtering for her to let go the whole way to the large garbage truck that was waiting outside.

“It’s going to be hard trying to get past the borders.” HellBoy growled as his head made contact with the top of the crate him and his daughter were riding in. “How come? Don’t they know The B.P.R.D exists?” May was on her back; legs leaned up against the wall of the crate as she stared at the top. “Of course not, only the United States government knows about it. If everybody knew, then it wouldn’t be a secret.” HellBoy rubbed the top of his head and looked down at his daughter. “Ohhhh, I see now… Were all a secret?” May winced as the pickup truck lugging the large crate with both of them inside hit a bump, causing her head to slam against the wood on the bottom. “You two doin’ okay back there?” Hadly’s voice rang out on the communicator latched onto May’s belt. The demon snatched it up and pressed the button on the side before speaking into it. “That’s a big no-no, ten four, one niner.” May grinned, giggling at the long awkward silence at the other end of the communicator. “… Yeah. What?” Hadly raised and eyebrow, glancing over to Garett who was driving the pickup and also snorting at Hadly’s look and May’s remarks. “It means no. Can you slow down at least a little bit so I don’t have a concussion by the time we get there?” The teen frowned at the portable walkie-talkie in her hand. “Sorry, Red princess. Gotta keep up the speed if were to make it in time.”

May twitched as HellBoy snorted and let out a deep chuckle. “Red princess, that’s a good one.” The small demon child just stuck her tongue out at her large father and flicked an imaginary rock at his forehead. “So how are we gonna get past the boarder anyway?” May sat up and pulled her knees to her chest, hugging them tightly so they wouldn’t separate from her body during all the bumps and holes the pickup truck hit. “Well, it’s probably going to be the hardest part of this mission. We can’t let them know who we are, so-“ HellBoy was cut off as May’s walkie talkie gave a loud ring. “Were coming up to the toll, get ready and tell us when you’re hidden.” Hadly’s voice cut off abruptly before May could ask any more questions. “Well, when you ask I suppose you get an answer.” The large demon lifted his daughter up with his large, brick like hand and pulled the floorboard up with his free hand. Stepping inside a narrow opening, he lay down and set his daughter directly on top of his chest. “So we have to hide?” HellBoy merely nodded and snatched the floorboard once more before resting it on top of both of them. “Ready.” Switching the walkie-talkie off, he moved around until May had as much room as she could get… Which wasn’t that much at all. The demon child gasped and pressed herself tighter between her father and the wooden board above her. “I can’t… breath…” The hidden compartment had just been made to hide HellBoy, not him and his daughter. Luckily she was rather small and thin for her age. The demon reached his red hand up and placed two fingers on May’s mouth to keep her from breathing too hard or speaking.

The small demon child could hear muffled conversing in another language immediately after they stopped. What would happen if they found them? Then again it wasn’t like they were armed with machine guns and had an army waiting over the sand dunes… Right? May started to shudder but was stopped once she felt her father’s free arm move from her lips to pat her cheek. The crate they were in then started to be hit with what seemed like sticks or touched and prodded as the people at the toll inspected it. It seemed like forever before the banging and conversing stopped. The pickup then began to move again but whenever May started to push on the wood above her, HellBoy immediately stopped her. Then finally, the walkie-talkie rang out. “Were clear, nice job guys.” May jumped at the chance and lifted the floorboard, sitting cross-legged on her father’s chest. Taking in a deep breath, she rolled to the side and flopped on the floor as the demon underneath her stood up. “Jeeze, thought I was gonna pass out in there!” May was lifted off the ground once more as her father replaced the floorboard. “You guys need to make that thing bigger.”

The pickup and the black car in front of them drove on for hours until they stopped again. Having used HellBoy’s large, brick hand as a makeshift pillow, May snorted and rolled into the opposite wall once the pickup stopped and let out a growl. Rubbing her head, she sat up, still half asleep. “Nnnn, we there yet?” HellBoy opened one side of the crate, stepping out into the dark, Egyptian night. May shivered and peeked outside. “Why’d we stop? Camping for the night?” The large demon snorted and lifted his daughter off the back of the truck. “Not likely, we just can’t take the trucks any further. We’ll have to go by camel and foot from here on.” The teen paused, Camel? Giving a huge grin, she spotted a number of camels. Most were set up to carry large guns and other such equipment. Two were set up for riding. “Which ones mine?!” May let out a squeal and ran over to pat the lead camel on the nose, petting up and down it’s brow and muzzle like a horse.

After getting everything set up, May was placed on a camel with Hadly and another man was on the camel in front of them. It wasn’t long until the small demon had quickly fallen asleep, arms wrapped around her caretaker’s waist to keep her from sliding off the camel’s one large hump. HellBoy walked behind them, his hand clenching the camel reigns tightly. Most of the men were on foot leading the camels with equipment as they walked. It was true May was getting pampered, but that was probably because she was the youngest and the only female on the whole mission. Plus, she had been the one who had gotten the whole trip going. Hadly smiled down at the small teen as she slept. He had grown to love the little red ball of terror. He recalled the first time he was assigned to take care of her…

May was only about 14 years old when Hadly had been assigned to be HellGirl’s caretaker. It turned out to be nothing like he expected. “You know HellBoy, right?” Hadly blinked at Sam, the young girl’s current caretaker. “Well… Yeah, but I didn’t think he was really real.” The 21-year-old man shivered, remembering the encounter with the legendary HellBoy just a few moments ago. Sam snorted and opened up the door leading to May’s room. Before a word could be said, a small suction dart shot out and stuck directly to Hadly’s forehead. The young man screamed and fell back in surprise. A small, red child stood at the doorway, dart gun in hand. “Heeeey, your not Sam!” The older caretaker laughed and snatched the gun from the girl’s red hand. “I thought we got that away from you. You sneaky little thing.” May frowned but quickly drew her attention to the man on the floor, leaned up and staring at her from his position on the floor. Crawling over, the small demon yanked the suction dart from Hadly’s forehead and smiled. “Hello! I’m May, who’re you?” Sam made his way into the small room that was May’s and gathered up the darts that were stuck on the walls. “That is Hadly. He’ll be your new caretaker, okay?” The demon child shifted her gaze to her former caretaker and frowned. “W-What? What about you?” Sam smiled half-heartedly. “Sammie’s getting’ a little old, hun.” Hadly had stood up and moved so that Sam could get past him. Not much later, Sam had died of a heart attack. May was devastated and at times even blamed her caretaker for Sam’s death. They then quickly became extremely close and have been friend ever since. Hadly was sort of her older brother of sorts.

Hadly shook the thoughts from his mind and let out a yawn. “Hey.” The young man jumped and turned his head to look back at HellBoy. “Take care of my little girl when I’m not around. Your all she’s got.” The large demon gave him a slight smile from his position behind him. “Of course. I’ll protect her with my life.” Hadly put his hand on May’s head. “No need to worry…” Not too much longer they arrived at The Valley of the Kings. After setting up camp, they all turned in to get some sleep. They would probably head in sometime tomorrow evening.

“Hey May, wake up!” Hadly peeked into her tent and snatched the blankets off of her sleeping form to get her up. The red demon let out a growl that was muffled by the pillow, which was firmly planted under her face. “C’mon, we have to start getting ready to head in. I know your more anxious then anyone else here.” May let out a loud yawn and sat up, still in the clothes she had been wearing the day before. “I’m up. I’ll be dressed and ready in a minute.” The caretaker smiled and shut the drape of her tent before heading off to get ready himself. The small teen let out another yawn and reached for a bag she had brought with her. [I]I’ll kill Anubis for what he did… And send him to an eternity of imprisoned solitude.[/I] She let out a growl and opened up the bag, which kept all of her equipment, and the outfit she had made for the mission. May slipped off her clothes and put on a pair of skater shorts, a tank top, a hooded cloak, gloves, and combat boots that reached to her shin. Finally, she stood and snapped her belt, communicator, gun, and bullets latched onto it. “Ready.” The demon stepped from her tent and headed to the largest tent that had been set up for the meeting before they charged into the underground pyramid they believed held the key.

“Alright, were not sure if Anubis is already in there so we have to be careful. Also, this pyramid might be riddled with traps. We’ll try and stick together the best we can. If we get split up, try and stay as close to others as possible.” HellBoy loaded his gun and stuck it in his halter after finishing his speech. Most of the men were doing the same. “Lets go.” The large demon stormed out of the tent, May following directly behind. Upon reaching the hidden entrance, everyone drew they’re guns and followed each other inside. “Jesus, it’s like a maze in here…” Hadly looked along the walls with his flashlight, silently admiring the hieroglyphics that lined the walls. “Yeah, they designed it so that robbers would die trying to steal from the mummies.” May looked back at her caretaker, flashlight pointed at her father’s large bulk in front of her. “See anything, Daddy?” HellBoy paused, causing everyone to try to keep from running into each other. “Theirs a split… Since we need to find out where Anubis is, we’ll have to split up into two teams.” The red teen started to shiver, knowing she would have to part from her father. At this time she wished Abe had been able to come along, but he would have died in such a hot environment even with the equipment used to keep him out of water for long periods of time. That way they could just tell which direction Anubis was.

It was decided shortly that HellBoy, Garett, and two others would go to the right and May, Hadly, and three others would go to the left. Hadly forced himself past May so he would be first, despite her wishes. The group of five seemed to be walking on forever and getting nowhere. Finally, Hadly spoke up. “Maybe this is just a dead end hallw-“ He was cut short as he stepped on a loose brick and a sharp spike shot from the wall, slitting across the outside of the young man’s stomach. Hadly fell back, May immediately caught in May’s arms who drug him back as another spike shot through the floor and in between his feet. Hadly clenched his stomach, blood smearing onto his palm. “Danm… Luckily it only grazed me.” A thin, slanted cut bleed showed under the sliced shirt that Hadly was wearing. After patching the wound up the best they could, they looked to the problem at hand. The hallway ahead of them was riddled with hundreds of spikes shooting out in every direction. “Were gonna have to crawl over them one by one.” May was the first to dive forward onto a spike and to start crawling her way through them. As she neared the end, one of the spikes sliced through her arm causing her to yelp. Ignoring it, she went the whole way through before whipping the blood from her arm. “Okay, now you guys come through and bring the equipment with you.”

Once all the men had reached the other side, one of the men lead the way even though May still thought she should. “Big Red said we have to protect you above all else, so that’s what were doing.” The red teen let out a heavy sigh and looked down at the small purple light glowing on her belt that kept track of her location. It wasn’t long before they stumbled onto another trap. This time the floor opened up and the leading man fell into the pit, getting caught on tons of spikes at the bottom. It wasn’t long until only Hadly and May were left, each person getting caught by numerous traps. The small demon’s eyes were brimmed with tears. Her father had seen to much death and now his daughter was experiencing the same thing. This wasn’t the job she’d thought it’d be. [I]I wonder how Daddy is doing…[/I] May’s eyes went to the ground, [I]I hope he’s okay…[/I]

HellBoy and his group had had the same fate at May’s. Only HellBoy, Garett, and one other man had survived the traps set for them. The large demon paused and pressed his ear to try and contact his daughter. “May? May do you read?” The demon child stopped abruptly and snatched the back of Hadly’s coat to force him to stop. “Dad’s calling!” May pressed the communicator in her ear. “Yeah Dad. I can hear you but it’s faint. The walls must be blocking the signals.” HellBoy nodded, “How is your team? Is everyone still okay?” The small teen paused and the hallway was in silence until May finally got it together to reply. “No, only Hadly and I are left and he’s got a wound on his torso.” The large demon winced, picturing his daughter only having Hadly to protect her and all the other men that had died. “What about you? … Daddy?” HellBoy snapped out of it to reply. “Only Garett, Victor, and I are left.” May could feel tears start to well up behind her eye sockets but quickly put them at bay. “Did you find anything?” She could hear her father sigh on the other end of the communicator. “Nope. You?” Her heart sank, “Nothing. I’ll keep in touch.” After both said their goodbyes, May looked back at Hadly who patted her shoulder. “Your dad’ll be fine… He’s a strong one.” The small demon tried to nod and give a weak smile as both of them continued on.

The two continued on in silence until it was abruptly broken by a slight rumble. “That… Doesn’t sound good…” Hadly stopped and pointed his flashlight forward. “What’s… RUN!” Hadly grabbed May’s hand before she had time to react and started to take off in the opposite direction. A large boulder rolled after them at full speed directly behind them. The demon let out a cry and ran faster. “What is this?! An Indiana Jones movie?!” Both of them ran until Hadly spotted a small source of light peeking out from one of the rocks on the wall ahead of them. [I]That it! It’s our only hope![/I] Hadly brought May to his side and pressed her tightly to him before slamming his shoulder into the wall where the source of light shown. The wall suddenly spun around and both landed face first into the hard ground on the other side just as the large boulder rolled past on the other side of the wall. The red demon reached for her head and coughed. “Ow…” She then realized she was in a brightly lit room with tons of decorations. “W-Where are we…?”

May looked over to Hadly who was leaned against a wall gripping his right shoulder and gritting his teeth and quickly crawled over to him. “What wrong?!” The caretaker gave her a weak smile. “It’s nothing… I just hurt my shoulder ramming into the wall…” Glaring, the teen inspected his shoulder. “It’s broken. You should stay here and I’ll go find Anubis. I’m pretty sure he should be somewhere in here.” Hadly, even though in extreme pain, glared at her and stood. “Yeah, right.” May huffed and both of the looked at their surroundings. “It looks like Anubis has to be around here somewhere…” The demon child looked left and right until her caretaker snatched her shoulder with his working arm and forced her down so both were hidden. May’s rear crashed on the hard ground and she started to yelp in protest but was silenced by Hadly’s palm over her mouth. Both peeked above the block they hid behind and sure enough, Anubis was approaching a large alter like door.

The demon child breathed in deeply, moving one of her boots back, colliding with a small rock which make slight noise as it rolled back. May flinched and looked up to see Anubis turn his maw and sniff in her direction. Raising his hand, four Ammut’s appeared out of thin air and started to lumber towards the block that Hadly and May were using as cover. Both of them sank lower, falling on their rears with their backs pressed against the cold concrete. The caretaker then looked to the demon child, “Call your father on the communicator if you can. I’ll deal with these.” Before May could protest on how stupid an idea that was, the young man spun around the block and began shooting wildly at the Ammuts who continued to charge at him. The demon child screamed as she could hear Hadly cry out. Quickly she grabbed her communicator and tried her best to reach her father. [I]Come on… Come on![/I] HellBoy paused, putting a finger to the earpiece of his communicator. “May? May is that you?” Her could make out something in his daughter’s voice. She was panicking and screaming something about Hadly. “Hadly! Found… Ammuts! … Anubis!” The com then fuzzed out. The large demon took in a deep breath, trying to stay calm. He had to find some sort of way to get to his daughter…

May tried to best to keep from crying as the com fuzzed out. Quickly, she threw it on the ground and rolled out from her hiding place, pulling her gun from its halter as she did so. Getting on one knee, she began shooting at the large creatures that were surrounding her caretaker. As the Ammuts backed off a bit, Hadly fell to the ground just long enough for May to grab his collar and yank him to safety behind the block they had hidden behind earlier. Most of his shirt had been ripped off; revealing his blood covered flesh with hundreds of bruises and open wounds. Three claw marks bleed across Hadly’s face causing him to close his eye in a desperate attempt to keep the blood out. The red demon held her caretaker’s face in her red hands, tears streaming down her face. “Hadly, you dumbass! You better stay alive or I’ll hate you!” The young man just gave her a weary smile before falling limp in her arms. May quickly felt his pulse before setting him against the block. [I]He’s still alive… But I don’t know for how long…[/I]

Raven locks covered the red teen’s face, as she looked down, kneeled before Hadly. “You won’t… Won’t…” She clenched her blood-covered hands into fists before slamming the ground. “I WON’T LET YOU KILL ANYONE ELSE!” Leaping up, she came down on one of the Ammut’s foreheads with the heel of her boot before spinning around until the four creatures surrounding her toppled over, front legs kicked out from under them. Standing, she began to use the strength she never thought she had and started to snap the monsters jaws and legs at every chance they leapt at her. But of course, no matter how many times she killed then they would merely get back on their feet. May continued the same routine the best she could until six Ammuts surrounded her and smothered her in their immense weight. In a futile attempt, the demon child tried to use her arms to cover her face only to have her arms ripped to shreds by the massive claws that kept coming down to strike her at every possible chance they got. [I]I’m going to die here… I’m going to fail… Cate and Hadly aren’t going to get revenge…[/I] May’s eyes popped open to reveal a startling yellow exactly like her fathers. [I]No… I’m not going to let them kill me. It’s not over yet… I can’t leave dad alone…[/I] With one last bit of energy, her entire body burst into blue flames. [I]I’m not going to die![/I] Her body spasmed as the fire radiating off of her shot out and covered the entire room, burning anything that got in her path…

[b]A month later…[/b]

[I]Apparently I had whipped out all the Ammuts with the fire blast I gave off before I fainted and only had wounded Anubis. While I was out, Dad had found us and somehow had sealed Anubis away. It took me three days to wake up and took Hadly about a week. I’m glad he’s okay but has to take leave from The B.P.R.D until he recovers. I went to visit him the other day and he looked like… Well, shit to be blunt. They said he’d recover fully so I don’t really have to worry. But I feel bad that he has to wear those three long claw scars across his face just so that I could get revenge. Of course, he denies all fact that it was my fault and we always end up arguing over it. He always wins. Heh… When I came to I could barely remember anything from the point of where I started the fire. I guess I have Mom to thank for the little gift she unwillingly passed down to me. I still can’t force myself to start the fire or anything; it just seems to come as a last resort. The funny thing, though? My right eye stayed yellow even after I woke up. It’s kinda like you can tell I’m half of my Mom and half of my Dad when you look into each of my eyes. Heh, sorry I guess… Getting too mushy. In the end, I think everything that happened had a purpose… Now I just have to figure out what it was.[/I]

May closed the small red diary to where it showed ‘HellGirl’ written in black letters on the front cover and looked out over the city of New York from the top of The B.P.R.D building. The black shirt she wore adorned the logo for the building itself as she pushed herself to a standing position with a painful grunt. Despite everyone’s wishes, she had ventured out with all her injuries to the roof. Placing one foot on the edge, she looked over the city once more. Her raven hair swept behind her like black silk strings and over her differently coloured eyes. “Saften your seat belts, New York City… HellGirl’s keeping an eye on you…”