![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
John sighed and looked down at his desk when he began talking, “Our parents disappeared, drove off and were never seen again, no trace ever found. We were split up. Frank and Phil are the oldest; they were sent to Chicago and our Uncle Henry. Jake and Ben went to Minnesota, cousin on Dad's side. My sisters, Martha and Abby got sent to Aunt Edna in Kansas. Uncle Thad took me in, Oklahoma. There were letters sometimes; Frank wrote for the both of them. Ben wrote long letters while Jake added a couple of words. Sometimes, I was able to see my sisters, but not much. I was ten when Frank's letters stopped. I heard both joined the Military, but I never really learned anything after that. Neither came to Uncle Thad's funeral either.”
Natasha carefully thought everything over. She didn't know Coulson's reason for no family contact. With the joining of SHIELD, she could understand disconnecting for safety, but he changed his last name for that effect. It would have been simple to set up a home life for the original Phil Myers. She caught Clint's expression tightening and laid a hand on his arm to try and stop his show of reaction. It wasn't like Barney, betrayed and left for dead, but it was abandonment by family. He might come off as distant the next time they saw him. Coulson would become suspicious.
An alarm blared through the building, prompting the two to jump up and ready weapons. John grimaced, “We're not under attack. That's the call out. I've got to go. Do you want to come out with us so you won't have to sneak in?”
“We didn't sneak,” Clint pointed out, “We walked in.”
“Fine, would you like to walk out so no one realized you illegally entered the building?” he changed. Clint smirked, partially amused at the backtalk.
Once outside the BPRD and heading to their vehicles, Natasha's phone started ringing. “Yes,” she answered.
“You and Barton need to come in,” Coulson reported, “Assignments, both pertain to HYDRA.”
“Understood, sir,” she said, hanging up and turning to Clint, “HYDRA assignments.”
“Damn it,” he cursed, “I hate those.”
Coulson hung up on his end and looked over to the file that Fury had left just after he started calling Natasha. He picked it up to start flipping through it and became increasingly interested in the wrong way. What the hell was his youngest brother doing in the BPRD?
=
John walked down the alleyway, gun in front of him as he approached the side entrance of the warehouse they were entering. The callout was about a possible demon and people that were helping said demon. They had several agents ready to break in the front. He was needed to keep people from escaping.
He heard the yells of helpers and a couple of inhuman growls and he waited for the first people to come out. However, the first out was the demon. And he wasn't very pleased to see John. “Freeze,” he shouted on instinct. The very male demon was annoyed at the puny human, and didn't listen. Instead, he grabbed the gun and crushed it before throwing John against the wall and holding him up by his neck.
“Annoying human,” he grumbled. Then the wind carried his scent to his nose and he smelt the twining of familiar smells in the wind. A memory of years past, of screaming, fear, blood and chaos, and he felt glad that this little human had tried to stop him. He would be perfect. “We bring him with us,” he commanded.
“Yes, master,” a human obeyed. Three had followed the demon out. One pulled out rope and they tied John's hands behind his back.
“Master, this is the escape route,” another motioned. The demon nodded and was led down the alley to a tunnel. His grip had changed from the hold on John's neck to his arm to drag him quickly. The last two provided cover, fog and spells that acted as projectiles shot at the BPRD men at the end that tried to follow.
John's attempts to fight back were half-hearted and minor. He knew the demon was too strong for him. He hoped that he would get annoyed and dropped him somewhere during his escape. But he held on as they moved through the tunnel and ended up somewhere underground. Through more tunnels and larger drain rooms, where the last agent was lost among the twists and turns, they ended up exiting to a street a couple of blocks away from the warehouse. A large van pulled up just as they became viewable from the street.
The driver stayed behind the wheel while someone else opened a side door. “Master,” the woman greeted, bowing in his presence. He passed John over to her and she forced him into the van, which he could see out of, but no one would be able to see in. Great, they planned on moving him. This is more organized for the normal occult members we’re used to dealing with. The demon took the large seat while the rest took the surrounding ones. Someone threw a bag over his head as they drove off, making sure he couldn't see where they were going.
=
Coulson had the bare information from the file Fury passed along. A couple of passes into the BPRD servers didn't pick up anything else. The organization probably relied on a closed server or paperwork for the majority of their information. Similar paranoia levels at SHIELD made it harder for enemies to gather information, but stopped him from getting a more complete picture of John's work. He was going to have to talk to someone within their ranks for more information.
He went through names, trying to figure if he could use old connections to get information when an alert went through the BPRD system. The abduction of John Myers was being reported to all branches. He had been out to stop a power spell for a Berockh demon and several humans had been helping out. They had no way of tracking either the demon or the humans helping him, and anything that could have been used to track John had been destroyed. There was chatter of contacting a couple of former employees, but no one wanted to go that far.
He wasn't happy they weren't going to try that line. He started looking up the former employees they were talking about. He found two, Abraham Sapien and Elizabeth Sherman. The third was blocked, only to be uncovered through a BPRD terminal. Tom Manning could try to yell at him after all this shit was done; if they weren't going to call these people, he would. The way they contacted these people however wasn't listed in the files. SHIELD searches yielded no results for either of them.
He needed to figure out who the third person was, and he needed to find out everything about the Berockh demon. He went back to his search of individuals that could possibly help him out.
=
Liz kept getting the alert that someone was searching for them. Abe knew how to figure out who was chasing them a lot better. Most were BPRD rookies that were tasked with trying to get the trio back to the organization. “Hey, Abe?” she called.
The aforementioned man climbed out of the bathtub and carefully dried off before coming over to the computer. She leaned back so he could see the monitor. “Ahh,” he said, “I will find out who it is. Who calls this time?”
“Red wanted the next BPRD agent,” Liz told him.
He finished the back trace, and employing the evasive maneuvers, he found out where the search was coming from. Or at the very least where it wasn't coming from. “It is not the BPRD,” he frowned.
“It wouldn't be the first time someone else though they could win us over. So who is it?”
It took a few more minutes to find a familiar signature that he hadn't seen in a few years. “I believe it is SHIELD.”
“That Director Fury said he wasn't going to bug us again after his attempt.”
“I do not think it is Director Fury. High ranking member of SHIELD, but not him.”
“Can you contact them through the internet?”
Abe sought out who was conducting the searches and managed to get an email. “What should we tell this person?” he inquired.
“We don't want to join SHIELD,” Liz dictated, “Short.”
“Who don't we want to join now?” a new voice grumbled. Hellboy walked into the room, two young children following in his footsteps.
“Mom!” The two shot out and almost bowled her over. The two stared up at her when she hugged them back. The twins carried some of the more unusual marks of their father's demon genetics, yellow eyes on both, slightly red tint of the skin that always made it look like they had a bad sunburn and birthmarks that matched his markings. Both parents had been surprised that neither had been born with horns or tails. Abe remarked they must have been recessive traits.
Smart ass.
Clay Bryan and Trevor Mason were set to start second grade at a school that knew a little about being different. While it wasn't Westerville, like Abe had suggested, the place they picked out would alert them if anything strange happened around them. Both wondered if they would possibly get Liz's fire generation or Hellboy's heightened and paranormal senses.
“Hey, how was the carnival?” she inquired
“Dad made one of the guys mad when he kept winning stuff for us,” Clay told her.
“And then he bought out a few food stands,” Trevor added.
She wanted to spend more time with them, but they needed to talk with the man that was searching them out. Abe must have sent the email during their chat, because he tapped her shoulder and pointed at a reply. “Hey, we've got some work to do. Your Dad, Uncle Abe and me need to talk to someone,” she insisted, “Why don't you watch TV or play in the backyard? Only our backyard, not anyone elses'.”
The two looked to each other and decided on something after a minute. “We'll be outside,” Trevor decided, running with Clay.
“That sounds ominous,” Hellboy muttered.
Liz went back to the email Abe had up. “This isn't a recruitment. A Berockh demon has kidnapped John Myers,” she read, “The BPRD won't contact you.” The so I am was left to everyone to fill in.
“Oh my,” Abe whispered.
“What the hell is he doing back from Antarctica?” he fumed.
“I don't remember encountering a Berockh demon,” Liz confessed.
“Last time was in the early eighties. Cult had two sacrifices, neither survived. Damn bastard almost succeeded in getting enough power to take over the western hemisphere before I interrupted,” he summarized.
“So, another one of these guys has come back with help,” she stated.
“Likely the same demon. I didn't get to finish him off,” he grumbled, “Would he need two sacrifices like last time?”
“Without knowing the spell or power he is trying to raise, it is unknown,” Abe voiced.
“So, what should we tell this guy?” Liz wrangled back on track, “He's not Bureau. Probably not able to deal with a demon, especially one that could be powerful.”
“What is he?”
“SHIELD.”
“They deal with humans and aliens. Demon wouldn't be too hard for them,” Hellboy mentioned, “But they have no information on how to properly kill this guy.”
“And the Bureau does not play nice with information. If they haven't contacted us by now, they most likely will not,” Abe pointed out, “They are going to get him killed.”
“And the demon's going to go on a power trip,” Liz finished.
“I'm gonna yell at Manning,” Hellboy growled, grabbing his specifically made cell phone and dialing.
“What about this person?” Abe inquired.
Liz asked, “I want to know why he knows about John being kidnapped. And why he cares.”
He pondered, “Perhaps we should arrange a meet. Give him the requisite information and find out why. And offer our services.”
“Hey, Red, you wanna meet this guy?” All she received was a wave in return as he continued to yell at the other end. “Set up a meeting, Abe.”
Coulson wondered what exactly he should do when the people he had been writing to suggested a meeting. This rightfully should have been the BPRD's case. But they were doing nothing of worth to track the demon or John. If these people were the ones that could find the demon and possibly get John back safely, he would go with them instead.
They had a date set, but they wanted someplace more remote than he was considering. Hiding was what they wanted, but the place wouldn't be as easy to control if anything went wrong. He suggested semi-public places so they could hide among the crowd if someone attacked. They were insistent on privacy. He needed a private place that would have security for their meeting. He wondered if Stark wouldn't mind loaning him a floor for the meeting.
Or he could always ask Pepper. She would argue for him if it was important.
Better to have it in advance, he placed a call to Pepper. “Hi, Phil,” she answered.
“Hello,” he greeted, “I need to meet with some people that isn't SHIELD territory. Is there any way I can use one of the floors in the tower?”
=
John was in the dark as they drove for a few hours. The demon kept silent and everyone followed his lead, unwilling to make conversation unless something came up. He was disoriented when they finally came to a stop. Two people pulled him out, and he dropped to his knees before they dragged him back up and pushed him forward.
They must have driven inside a structure, because there was no outside noises for him to figure out if he was in the country or a city or town. There was a little bit of a chill and he wondered if he was in a warehouse or factory. Three more turns and he was pushed into a room before someone shut and locked the door.
He sighed, “Couldn't they have taken off the bag before they left?” He carefully felt his way around before coming across a wall. He felt it and hoped that the concrete would snag on the cloth so he could drag it off. It took a few attempts before it finally fell on the ground and he was able to see where he was, a concrete room with one metal door that he couldn't do anything about. There wasn't a single thing in the room; nothing he could use to possibly cut or snag the ropes on so get himself free.
He kicked the bag over to the corner and slid down so he was sitting on top of it, providing very little protection from the cold floor. “It's times like these I wish they still had Hellboy, Abe and Liz,” he complained.
Previous | Masterpost | Next
Natasha carefully thought everything over. She didn't know Coulson's reason for no family contact. With the joining of SHIELD, she could understand disconnecting for safety, but he changed his last name for that effect. It would have been simple to set up a home life for the original Phil Myers. She caught Clint's expression tightening and laid a hand on his arm to try and stop his show of reaction. It wasn't like Barney, betrayed and left for dead, but it was abandonment by family. He might come off as distant the next time they saw him. Coulson would become suspicious.
An alarm blared through the building, prompting the two to jump up and ready weapons. John grimaced, “We're not under attack. That's the call out. I've got to go. Do you want to come out with us so you won't have to sneak in?”
“We didn't sneak,” Clint pointed out, “We walked in.”
“Fine, would you like to walk out so no one realized you illegally entered the building?” he changed. Clint smirked, partially amused at the backtalk.
Once outside the BPRD and heading to their vehicles, Natasha's phone started ringing. “Yes,” she answered.
“You and Barton need to come in,” Coulson reported, “Assignments, both pertain to HYDRA.”
“Understood, sir,” she said, hanging up and turning to Clint, “HYDRA assignments.”
“Damn it,” he cursed, “I hate those.”
Coulson hung up on his end and looked over to the file that Fury had left just after he started calling Natasha. He picked it up to start flipping through it and became increasingly interested in the wrong way. What the hell was his youngest brother doing in the BPRD?
=
John walked down the alleyway, gun in front of him as he approached the side entrance of the warehouse they were entering. The callout was about a possible demon and people that were helping said demon. They had several agents ready to break in the front. He was needed to keep people from escaping.
He heard the yells of helpers and a couple of inhuman growls and he waited for the first people to come out. However, the first out was the demon. And he wasn't very pleased to see John. “Freeze,” he shouted on instinct. The very male demon was annoyed at the puny human, and didn't listen. Instead, he grabbed the gun and crushed it before throwing John against the wall and holding him up by his neck.
“Annoying human,” he grumbled. Then the wind carried his scent to his nose and he smelt the twining of familiar smells in the wind. A memory of years past, of screaming, fear, blood and chaos, and he felt glad that this little human had tried to stop him. He would be perfect. “We bring him with us,” he commanded.
“Yes, master,” a human obeyed. Three had followed the demon out. One pulled out rope and they tied John's hands behind his back.
“Master, this is the escape route,” another motioned. The demon nodded and was led down the alley to a tunnel. His grip had changed from the hold on John's neck to his arm to drag him quickly. The last two provided cover, fog and spells that acted as projectiles shot at the BPRD men at the end that tried to follow.
John's attempts to fight back were half-hearted and minor. He knew the demon was too strong for him. He hoped that he would get annoyed and dropped him somewhere during his escape. But he held on as they moved through the tunnel and ended up somewhere underground. Through more tunnels and larger drain rooms, where the last agent was lost among the twists and turns, they ended up exiting to a street a couple of blocks away from the warehouse. A large van pulled up just as they became viewable from the street.
The driver stayed behind the wheel while someone else opened a side door. “Master,” the woman greeted, bowing in his presence. He passed John over to her and she forced him into the van, which he could see out of, but no one would be able to see in. Great, they planned on moving him. This is more organized for the normal occult members we’re used to dealing with. The demon took the large seat while the rest took the surrounding ones. Someone threw a bag over his head as they drove off, making sure he couldn't see where they were going.
=
Coulson had the bare information from the file Fury passed along. A couple of passes into the BPRD servers didn't pick up anything else. The organization probably relied on a closed server or paperwork for the majority of their information. Similar paranoia levels at SHIELD made it harder for enemies to gather information, but stopped him from getting a more complete picture of John's work. He was going to have to talk to someone within their ranks for more information.
He went through names, trying to figure if he could use old connections to get information when an alert went through the BPRD system. The abduction of John Myers was being reported to all branches. He had been out to stop a power spell for a Berockh demon and several humans had been helping out. They had no way of tracking either the demon or the humans helping him, and anything that could have been used to track John had been destroyed. There was chatter of contacting a couple of former employees, but no one wanted to go that far.
He wasn't happy they weren't going to try that line. He started looking up the former employees they were talking about. He found two, Abraham Sapien and Elizabeth Sherman. The third was blocked, only to be uncovered through a BPRD terminal. Tom Manning could try to yell at him after all this shit was done; if they weren't going to call these people, he would. The way they contacted these people however wasn't listed in the files. SHIELD searches yielded no results for either of them.
He needed to figure out who the third person was, and he needed to find out everything about the Berockh demon. He went back to his search of individuals that could possibly help him out.
=
Liz kept getting the alert that someone was searching for them. Abe knew how to figure out who was chasing them a lot better. Most were BPRD rookies that were tasked with trying to get the trio back to the organization. “Hey, Abe?” she called.
The aforementioned man climbed out of the bathtub and carefully dried off before coming over to the computer. She leaned back so he could see the monitor. “Ahh,” he said, “I will find out who it is. Who calls this time?”
“Red wanted the next BPRD agent,” Liz told him.
He finished the back trace, and employing the evasive maneuvers, he found out where the search was coming from. Or at the very least where it wasn't coming from. “It is not the BPRD,” he frowned.
“It wouldn't be the first time someone else though they could win us over. So who is it?”
It took a few more minutes to find a familiar signature that he hadn't seen in a few years. “I believe it is SHIELD.”
“That Director Fury said he wasn't going to bug us again after his attempt.”
“I do not think it is Director Fury. High ranking member of SHIELD, but not him.”
“Can you contact them through the internet?”
Abe sought out who was conducting the searches and managed to get an email. “What should we tell this person?” he inquired.
“We don't want to join SHIELD,” Liz dictated, “Short.”
“Who don't we want to join now?” a new voice grumbled. Hellboy walked into the room, two young children following in his footsteps.
“Mom!” The two shot out and almost bowled her over. The two stared up at her when she hugged them back. The twins carried some of the more unusual marks of their father's demon genetics, yellow eyes on both, slightly red tint of the skin that always made it look like they had a bad sunburn and birthmarks that matched his markings. Both parents had been surprised that neither had been born with horns or tails. Abe remarked they must have been recessive traits.
Smart ass.
Clay Bryan and Trevor Mason were set to start second grade at a school that knew a little about being different. While it wasn't Westerville, like Abe had suggested, the place they picked out would alert them if anything strange happened around them. Both wondered if they would possibly get Liz's fire generation or Hellboy's heightened and paranormal senses.
“Hey, how was the carnival?” she inquired
“Dad made one of the guys mad when he kept winning stuff for us,” Clay told her.
“And then he bought out a few food stands,” Trevor added.
She wanted to spend more time with them, but they needed to talk with the man that was searching them out. Abe must have sent the email during their chat, because he tapped her shoulder and pointed at a reply. “Hey, we've got some work to do. Your Dad, Uncle Abe and me need to talk to someone,” she insisted, “Why don't you watch TV or play in the backyard? Only our backyard, not anyone elses'.”
The two looked to each other and decided on something after a minute. “We'll be outside,” Trevor decided, running with Clay.
“That sounds ominous,” Hellboy muttered.
Liz went back to the email Abe had up. “This isn't a recruitment. A Berockh demon has kidnapped John Myers,” she read, “The BPRD won't contact you.” The so I am was left to everyone to fill in.
“Oh my,” Abe whispered.
“What the hell is he doing back from Antarctica?” he fumed.
“I don't remember encountering a Berockh demon,” Liz confessed.
“Last time was in the early eighties. Cult had two sacrifices, neither survived. Damn bastard almost succeeded in getting enough power to take over the western hemisphere before I interrupted,” he summarized.
“So, another one of these guys has come back with help,” she stated.
“Likely the same demon. I didn't get to finish him off,” he grumbled, “Would he need two sacrifices like last time?”
“Without knowing the spell or power he is trying to raise, it is unknown,” Abe voiced.
“So, what should we tell this guy?” Liz wrangled back on track, “He's not Bureau. Probably not able to deal with a demon, especially one that could be powerful.”
“What is he?”
“SHIELD.”
“They deal with humans and aliens. Demon wouldn't be too hard for them,” Hellboy mentioned, “But they have no information on how to properly kill this guy.”
“And the Bureau does not play nice with information. If they haven't contacted us by now, they most likely will not,” Abe pointed out, “They are going to get him killed.”
“And the demon's going to go on a power trip,” Liz finished.
“I'm gonna yell at Manning,” Hellboy growled, grabbing his specifically made cell phone and dialing.
“What about this person?” Abe inquired.
Liz asked, “I want to know why he knows about John being kidnapped. And why he cares.”
He pondered, “Perhaps we should arrange a meet. Give him the requisite information and find out why. And offer our services.”
“Hey, Red, you wanna meet this guy?” All she received was a wave in return as he continued to yell at the other end. “Set up a meeting, Abe.”
Coulson wondered what exactly he should do when the people he had been writing to suggested a meeting. This rightfully should have been the BPRD's case. But they were doing nothing of worth to track the demon or John. If these people were the ones that could find the demon and possibly get John back safely, he would go with them instead.
They had a date set, but they wanted someplace more remote than he was considering. Hiding was what they wanted, but the place wouldn't be as easy to control if anything went wrong. He suggested semi-public places so they could hide among the crowd if someone attacked. They were insistent on privacy. He needed a private place that would have security for their meeting. He wondered if Stark wouldn't mind loaning him a floor for the meeting.
Or he could always ask Pepper. She would argue for him if it was important.
Better to have it in advance, he placed a call to Pepper. “Hi, Phil,” she answered.
“Hello,” he greeted, “I need to meet with some people that isn't SHIELD territory. Is there any way I can use one of the floors in the tower?”
=
John was in the dark as they drove for a few hours. The demon kept silent and everyone followed his lead, unwilling to make conversation unless something came up. He was disoriented when they finally came to a stop. Two people pulled him out, and he dropped to his knees before they dragged him back up and pushed him forward.
They must have driven inside a structure, because there was no outside noises for him to figure out if he was in the country or a city or town. There was a little bit of a chill and he wondered if he was in a warehouse or factory. Three more turns and he was pushed into a room before someone shut and locked the door.
He sighed, “Couldn't they have taken off the bag before they left?” He carefully felt his way around before coming across a wall. He felt it and hoped that the concrete would snag on the cloth so he could drag it off. It took a few attempts before it finally fell on the ground and he was able to see where he was, a concrete room with one metal door that he couldn't do anything about. There wasn't a single thing in the room; nothing he could use to possibly cut or snag the ropes on so get himself free.
He kicked the bag over to the corner and slid down so he was sitting on top of it, providing very little protection from the cold floor. “It's times like these I wish they still had Hellboy, Abe and Liz,” he complained.
Previous | Masterpost | Next
