aaaaaaaagh_sky | Grayditch

The scene that presents itself to the people arriving from Milliways is one of devastation old and new. The shattered, weathered remains of what had once been a city street spill out to either side, and half-standing, half-slumping outer walls are all that remain of most of the buildings. There are no people here, no animals, no life to be seen...

Well, no. That's not necessarily true. Here and there, fires burn merrily, and the occasional scratching scuttling sound can be heard on the sullen August winds that wind through the empty streets.

"This is it," Ellen says. "Welcome to Grayditch."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

bprd_agent_red

"At first my father didn't want me messin' with guns, but I grew up on a base so they were everywhere. Eventually he decided it was good for me to at least know how to handle one an' I was taught by some of the guys around. Never was good at aiming, though."

He gives her a smile and follows her lead.

"With all these bugs running around you're probably right."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Did they check which eye was the dominant one?" Ellen asks curiously. "Officer Gomez told me once that his son Freddy had a horrible time learning to shoot because he was right-handed but not right-eyed, and he couldn't deal with switching the hand he had to use to shoot. Sometimes that happens."

The alley is trash and ashes, for the most part, with the slumping, half-disintegrated remains of houses' back walls having long since sloughed down to street level. One or two of the buildings have dumpsters behind them. The majority of the dumpsters are open, but there's one with its lid firmly shut. Tongue in her cheek for a moment, Ellen considers.

"Think someone could hide in one of those?"

From:

bprd_agent_red

He pauses in his step a moment then resumes walking.

"You know... I don't think they ever did. Huh, maybe that's it."

He examines the alley, eyes settling on the closed dumpster.

"Could be, I'll check it out."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Ellen nods and returns the sniper rifle to its sling on her back. At this range she couldn't really use it, so she's switching back to the laser pistol she got off the Talon Company men and hoping for the best. Anything could come at them while Red's checking in there, after all.

From:

bprd_agent_red

He reaches for the lid with his flesh hand, the stone one drawn back so he can swing at anything that might come out. The lid doesn't budge though and he looks at it and sees a lock.

Figuring that's kind of weird, and hoping he's not going to find ancient garbage when he gets it open, he starts trying to pry it up.

A few swift hits with his stone hand dents the lid and he gets his fingers underneath and with a hard pull breaks it open.

"Hey!" Turning over his shoulder he waves over Ellen. "There's some stuff in here."

A gun and ammo and, Ooo, those look like some kind of grenades.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Ellen clambers over a nearby pile of rubble to get a good look inside. "Oh my," she says as she drops in to pick up the weaponry. "I don't think I've ever seen one of those before- I'd offer it to you, but it looks a little small for you... did you want the grenades?"

From:

bprd_agent_red

He watches her, offering a hand down to help pull her out.

"Sure, I'll take a couple." He's found that grenades can be handy for certain, special occasions.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Ellen hands four of them over, clipping the remainder onto her belt. "I haven't used these very much," she says, "but I have a good throwing arm, and I can put a baseball where I need it to be without much trying, so if worst comes to worst at least it won't come bouncing back at us." The gun gets checked for ammunition- you don't want to tote an unfamiliar firearm around when it might go off straight at your foot- and then stuck into her belt, and the bullets go into one of her pockets. "All right, I'm good... this must've been somebody's supply cache once."

With Hellboy's help, she scrambles out of the dumpster.

"Doubt they'll be coming back for it, though. Whoever they were."

From:

bprd_agent_red

Hellboy's method of grenade deployment sometimes involves him letting something big and nasty swallow him and blow the thing up from the inside, but he has no problem with Ellen's way of doing it.

The grenades she gives him gets tucked into his coat pockets and he shuts the lid after she's out again.

"Yeah, with these ants running around if someone didn't get this stuff by now I'm sure they aren't going to any time soon."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Speaking of the ants, one of them chitters angrily at Hellboy and Ellen from the end of the alleyway.

"Yeep!"

From:

bprd_agent_red

Hellboy turns to face the ant in an intimidating fashion (whether or not this display is lost on the ant doesn't seem to be something he's worried about) and starts moving forward.

He puts himself in front of Ellen but tries to give her a clear shot at it.

"C'mere, you."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

This strikes Ellen as an excellent time to find out whether that Magnum is going to be any good or not. Besides, it's faster to pop a couple of bullets into a revolver than to get out a sniper rifle and take aim from this distance-

We'd like to say she gets off three shots in quick succession, but let's be honest here. Who ever gets off three shots in quick succession their first time using a .44? Unless they have, like, adamantium wrists or something? At least the first bullet does strike it just shy of the antennae, setting it to flailing wildly.

From:

bprd_agent_red

Since the shot doesn't finish the job Hellboy moves in. He's running before he gets to the end of the alley and jumps, aiming for the ant's back with his stone fist drawn to lay a good ol' smackdown.

There are guts, but he's pretty well used to it by now.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

You know how, once upon a time, it was considered very funny to imitate the Pink Panther movie theme by singing the words 'dead ant, dead ant, dead ant dead ant dead ant" to the tune?

... well, it was if you were about six or seven. Shut up.

Anyway. Point is. That is one very dead ant there.

From:

bprd_agent_red

Red makes sure it's actually dead before straightening up and walking back over to Ellen.

"Let's keep lookin'." He nods the way they were going when they first came across the dumpster, picking ant mess off the back of his hand.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Fine with me," says Ellen. "Thank you, by the way."

As they emerge from the alley, the nearest ants are quite some distance away- far enough that they don't seem to have seen either of the two upright figures. Ellen starts to reach for her rifle, but pauses, putting a hand to her ear instead. "Getting something on the headset," she reports. "Hang on... I'm here. I guess he doesn't have a name tag, huh?"

She glances up at Hellboy and murmurs quietly, "I think Tanya and Val might've found Bryan's father."

From:

bprd_agent_red

While she talks to the others he keeps an eye on the ants.

"Damn."

He wasn't really expecting for them to find the guy alive, but that doesn't mean he wasn't hoping.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Ellen nods a little, one hand still at her ear. "I think you're right," she says into the radio. "Hellboy and I will go let Bryan know. After that I'll call Spoon and Yuuno. I think it might not be a bad idea to track these things back to their source, before anybody else gets hurt."

She glances up at Hellboy as she says that, just to make sure she's not overstepping her bounds.

From:

bprd_agent_red

He looks over and gives her a nod.

It's a good idea, and he has no problem going along.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Ellen nods and murmurs a few other things into the headset, then turns back to Hellboy. "Bryan's right this way," she says, and turns back towards the other end of the alley. "He, um, might think you're some kind of a mutant. We don't have a lot of large red people here."

From:

bprd_agent_red

Taking the first few steps backwards Red keeps an eye on the ants before turning around to walk with Ellen.

"Eh, that's all right. Not many like me back home, either."

As long as Bryan gets over the staring reaction real quick and doesn't do anything stupid they'll be fine.

Of course, Red could always wait outside or something but that idea isn't going to come from him and if Ellen is suggesting it she'll have to be very clear. Hellboy doesn't really do subtle.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"You're better off than the ghouls, at least," Ellen notes as they make their way out of the alley. "Gob says they mostly look like raw Brahmin meat, even though they're walking around on two legs like every other human."

It hasn't really occurred to Ellen to make the suggestion, if it comes right down to it. Between Hellboy, and Lorne, and some of the other people she's met at Milliways, she's half-forgotten that other people haven't had the chance to meet strange-looking people in a controlled environment and take the edge off the encounter. And anyway, the Pulowski Preservation Shelter she mentioned? Basically looks like a tall round phone booth designed to hold, tops, two people for about three hours. Everywhere is waiting outside, really.

She raps on the steel outer wall and calls out, "Bryan? You can open the door now..."

The door slides open to reveal a small child with dirty blond hair and woefully oversized overalls. As he rubs his nose on the back of his forearm he says, "Did you find my Dad?"... and then his eyes get really, really wide.

From:

bprd_agent_red

"Sounds kinda like this thing I ran into in a slaughter house once," He comments.

The structure gets a curious look over and when it opens he looks down at the child.

"Hey, kid. Name's Red."

He offers a small smile and glances at Ellen, figuring it's better for her to deliver the news.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Well, I mean they're people- it's just that they didn't die of advanced radiation poisoning and they're still walking around anyway," Ellen says. "They look kind of like old zombie movies, only for real. Gob is one of them. He's a bartender in Megaton."

Bryan gulps at Red's words and looks to Ellen silently. "It's okay," Ellen says. "He's a person, not a monster. He's not going to eat you."

"Okay," Bryan says in a small voice. Then, a little louder, he says, "Did you find my dad?"

Ellen winces, and nods slowly. "I'm sorry," she says. "The ants got him."

Bryan wraps his arms around himself and looks down at the ground the way small boys often do when they're trying not to look as if they're about to cry.

From:

bprd_agent_red

Red's thoughts to all of that is to wonder if the guy makes a good drink.

Looking at the kid trying not to cry Hellboy's features soften.

"I'm sorry, Bryan."