The Second Half of the Battle

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After watching Hellboy II: The Golden Army, I couldn't find any fics that addressed this all too obvious opportunity. So I wrote one. Warning: light smut and heavy fluff ahead.

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As they sat in the back of the garbage truck, Agent North stitched up some of the worst of Hellboy's gashes sustained in the fight with the troll and then the forest god, or the "plant monster" as most people were calling it.

Liz leaned on Hellboy's shoulder, kissing his closest ear and massaging his neck. "Please, girl. Not here in front of the others," he complained when her hands slipped under his shirt. Her mood had taken a strange hundred and eighty degree turn since the end of the battle and the subsequent confrontation with the local populace.

"Oh, they don't mind, do they?" she asked, winking at the three others.

"I don't," said North, who had finished with needle and thread and was now bandaging up the big man.

"See?" Liz asked silkily. "And it's a long ride home, you know."

"No, go right ahead," North continued. "You don't mind if I watch, do you?"

"Want to help out?" she asked him, her arms wrapping about the red demon.

Agent North was about to reply positively, but the sudden angry glare she received from Hellboy cautioned against it. "Liz? What's with you? Just worried I wasn't going to make it? You know some overgrown garden gnome and a rampant compost heap aren't going to do me in."

"Just feeling ...needy," she explained, pushing her lips against his.

"Needy?" he asked, his lips still connected with hers.

She broke the kiss and looked over at Abraham and Nuala, sitting there looking rather awkward. The look on Nuala's face said that the awkward was only just beginning. "How about you two? You don't mind Red and I getting a little frisky on the ride home, do you?"

Abe fumbled for words and couldn't quite come up with anything. Nuala's awkward expression suddenly seemed to be one of guilt.

Picking up the medical kit, Agent North came over to Nuala and sat beside her on the bench. "May I check you over for any injuries?" he asked, leaning in perhaps a little too closely. "You may also have been hurt in tonight's engagements."

"I'm fine," she insisted.

"May I at least look at you? You're so different...and so exotically beautiful," he said, leaning in even closer.

Abe couldn't understand Agent North's sudden interest in the Elven princess. Until now he'd barely looked at her.

"Perhaps another time. Now...isn't the best," she said diplomatically.

"Are you sure?" He took her hand and began to stroke it. "If there's anything I can do for you... or to you..."

Nuala rose and went to sit on the other side of Abraham, leaving North looking into the fishman's glare. When he rose to pursue, Abe raised a hand to block him. "Agent North, must I remind you that you are behaving inappropriately." Of course Liz was already behaving quite inappropriately on the other bench. Was she really trying to unbuckle Red's pants?

"It's not his fault," said Nuala suddenly. "It's the forest elemental that the demon defeated."

"What? What did I do?" Hellboy choked defensively, his attention turning away from Liz for a moment.

"It's another ability," she said hesitantly. "If the god is defeated, the pollen not only fructifies the garden, it gives us a chance to escape."

"Escape? What does that pollen do?"

"My kind is immune to it, but for most other races, if they come into contact with it, they will be consumed with only thoughts of carnal passion."

"Well that explains a few things," chuckled Hellboy, looking down at Liz fighting with his belt buckle. He'd pushed out his stomach to make it impossible for her to get it undone, but that hadn't deterred her from trying.

"I see," said Abe.

"So that's why Agent Sherman and I are acting this way..." North said, leaning around Abe to gaze again at Nuala, but then his attention was caught by a gasp and a giggle from Liz.

"Whoa, girl!" Hellboy quickly shielded her with his coat, hiding what she was doing.

"And you don't feel it?" North asked the princess.

"No. Not at all."

"That's a shame, because I sure do." He looked again at Liz, but knew she was also unavailable. "What about you, Blue? You feeling it? You were once human."

"Once," he replied "Once, long ago."

Suddenly the garbage truck pulled to the side of the road and parked. "Hey, you guys okay back there?" came the driver's voice over the intercom.

"Yes. All is well," responded Abe with some hesitation.

"Hey, Agent North. You want to drive the truck back? We're making a bit of a stop-off on the way home."

"A stop off?" Three of the passengers in the back tensed. Had they been affected too?

"Yeah. Probably will take about an hour or so."

"For what?" Abe questioned.

"Just need to go get an itch scratched."

They heard the front doors open and close, and looking to the external cameras, Abe and North saw the two agents from up front heading toward a cluster of suggestively dressed women leaning up against the building.

"What! They're getting some hookers?" North stammered. He grabbed his jacket and followed after them.

Abraham sighed, then went around to the front of the truck and took the driver's seat. To his surprise, Nuala followed and took a place in the cab as well.

"Your highness, you don't have to sit here."

"I thought the demon and his companion would like a bit of privacy," she said.

"Oh. I see."

Abe buckled his seatbelt and started up the vehicle again. As much as he liked the pale princess, he had hoped to spend the rest of the drive alone. He'd answered Agent North's question with a non-answer, not wanting to reveal his state. Yes, he was feeling it too, the strange poison in the forest elemental's pollen—not to the same degree as Liz and the other agents were, but he found it there trying desperately to sway his thoughts. His unusual state must be slowing or dampening the effects, but it definitely had a hold of whatever humanity remained in him.

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"The Second Half of the Battle" continues in Chapter 2.

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Hellboy and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of artist Mike Mignola. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.

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