Opposites of a Different Kind

“I am guessing so sir. But I couldn’t tell you what happened to our tank for sure.”



“Please continue” Manning urged softly.



“The next thing I know I’m hanging from a wall in some dusty ol’ basement with the remainder of my unit. We were tortured day and night for military secrets. But we never gave them what they wanted. They were brave, those men deserve something for what they went through. But I guess it’s too late for that now isn’t it.” She paused for a moment to take a deep shaky breath and continued, “We were starved, sometimes only getting a slice of bread and a cup of water every three days. I lost track of time it seemed we were there for years. We were threatened with death daily. Sometimes I wished for it. The last thing I remember was a few days ago. Our time had finally run out. The one they called Mohammad came down and informed the men who had been “taking care” of us that it was time to move on. They started shooting my men one by one in front of me. All I can remember was getting extremely hot my vision started to blur. They were on my lieutenant finishing him off with a shot to the face point blank. And that’s all I remember before I woke up outside the building covered in blood everyone in the building dead. The metal cuffs were still around my wrists but the metal chains that had connected me to the wall looked like they had ripped as if they were wet paper.” Tears were streaming down her face by now the bowl of soup forgotten her hand ran through her red hair nervously.



Myers could see her visibly shaking from the stress of remembering and turned to Manning. “I think that’s enough for one day don’t you think?”



Manning nodded closing his notepad. Before he departed Manning placed his large hand on her good shoulder and closed his eyes. He sat there for only a moment and left the room.



“Come on Anessa I’ll show you to your room.” Myers helped her from the med bed and wrapped a white robe around her thin frame.



Looking around the huge hallways the walls were adorned with many historic and mystical objects. They were knickknacks from all eras and cultures. Most she had never seen before and some she recognized from books. The floors were black marble with tiny flecks of silver and the walls seemed to be of heavy silver metal. As if to keep things out or possibly in.



“Am I stuck here?” she asked calmly stopping and turning to the young man.



Myers laughed at her innocent question, “No my dear not unless you are a threat to this world. This facility helps people like you control and put your …talents to good use. And I mean good, we help people here, save people. If all goes well we’d like to offer you a position at the B.P.R.D. We only have a few talented people like you and we would love to have you on the team. That is if you want to. We will not keep you here against your will. You don’t have to make the decision right now. In a few days we’ll introduce you to the rest of the team. We will have to run some tests just to make sure you don’t have a blackout again.”



Anessa nodded understanding their concern, they continued down the hallway, along the way he pointed out artifacts and informed her where they were from and their purpose. After a minute or two of walking they came to a normal oak door. Myers turned the knob and opened the door to reveal a large but rather empty room softly lit by a lap in the corner of the room. The bed was a queen with a white down comforter on it. Across the bed was a large TV in the corner next to it was a large bookcase littered with books.



“If you need anything, anything at all please don’t hesitate to ask. I am just down the hall on the right. The gym if you choose to use it is down that hall and is the second door on the left. Also the kitchen is open 24 hours. If you get hungry help yourself, but remember to clean up after yourself.” He winked and with that he left closing the door behind him. Anessa sat on the large bed and sighed, it was comfortable and soft. Pulling back the covers she slide beneath the downy blankets careful not to hit her injured arm, robe and all and drifted into a deep sleep.



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Two giant wings encased him, white wings peppered with black feathers wrapped around. A warm presence, a soft voice, a smooth caress it felt safe. Hellboy did nothing to try and escape the soft enclosure. He welcomed it, needed it. He couldn’t see her face but could feel her sweet breathe on his cheeks. Soft wet kisses scattered across his body. Smooth hands ran up and down his arms tracing the hard lines of his stone hand. He could feel her all around him. Then a soft blow to his stomach and a slight scratch to his cheek.



“What the…..”



Meow



“Damn cat! You had to wake me up from THAT dream didn’t you?” It was the dream he’d been having for months. The one that had got him out of his room after his brake up with Liz. It was always the same, her wings, her breathe, her soft touches. It left him yearning for something he knew nothing about. He never saw her face, the dream was too dark. But he knew she was for him. A glace at the clock by his bed flashed three am in bright red digits.



It had been a week since she had arrived and they still hadn’t introduced the new girl to the rest of the team and staff. What was so special about her why were they keeping her from them? Hellboy stumbled from his bed and found himself in front of the mirror. Running his human hand over his sleep stricken face and decided a nice work out would do him good.



Making his way down the darkened hall he noticed the gym light on and the door slightly ajar. Peeking his head into the room he noticed a woman running on the treadmill. She was wearing tight black cotton pants with a pink tank top. Her long hair was up in a loose ponytail and pink running shoes slapped impatiently in the treadmills track. Who ever she was her back side was smoking. Then he noticed the color of her hair, crimson, several strands had escaped the binder and fell softly down her back like thin rivers of blood. It had to be the new girl but she looked healthy and her arm was no longer in a cast. Could she regenerate rapidly like him?



“I know you’re there.” Her soft voice broke him from his thoughts. She was still running but she had managed to hear him at the door?



“How?” he coughed.



Turning off the machine she turned to face him. Slight shock ran through her face but it was gone as soon as it appeared. She pulled the Ipod headphones from her ears and stepped off the track making her way to the tall red demon. She had filled in nicely since the last time he had seen her. No longer skin and bones she had plumed up in all the right places. Her face was the most unusual beauty he had never seen. Not immaculately beautiful like an airbrushed model on a magazine but different in a very good way. Her hips swayed just slightly as she neared him. Her shockingly purple eyes bore into his practically making him loose all cognitive thought for a moment. She stopped a few inches in front of him the top of her head coming to the tip of his nose in height.



“So you are real? Thought demons were only a fairy tail to make little boys and girls go to church?”



“I’m demon by blood not by nature.” Hellboy snapped he didn’t like being called a demon. His father had taught him that he was nothing like the creature that had shaped him.



Anessa pulled a towel from the rack and began to pat herself dry, “I’ll have to admit you’re not what I expected.”



“What you expected? You had expectations on meeting me?” Hellboy lowered his voice an octave folding his massive arms in front of his chest. Trying to seem more menacing, she seemed too sure of the situation.



“When they told me of a demon I guess I wasn’t expecting you so…..big and…….red.” without warning her hand came out and touched the red skin on his forearm. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”



Hellboy quickly pulled away from her warm touch, “Yeah well your in my territorial bubble little missy no touchy on the first date.”



Almost laughing she tucked her hands into her pockets, “Crabby I see. Well the name is Anessa, Anessa Davis. We haven’t been introduced yet. I’m sure for a good reason.”



“Hellboy.”



Adjusting her self on her feet Anessa raised an eyebrow, “That it? Just Hellboy no last name?”



“Nope just Hellboy….. you got a problem with that?”



“No… I guess not.”



“Now can you explain how you regained your body weight and mended your broken arm in a matter of days?”



Anessa ran her hands down the side of her body as if to make sure the pounds were still there and made a quick assessment of her arm, “Well….actually I can’t. You see this has never happened to me before. But of course I’ve never broken a bone in my body before or had such a drastic weight lose in my life. I woke up three days ago and my arm was better. The doc x-rayed it and the break was completely healed. And the weight had come back gradually but I didn’t reach my normal weight until today. None of the docs can figure it out.”



Hellboy made his way past her and sat down on the weight bench picking up a 200lb free weight and started doing curls, “So they figure out what your deal is?”



Anessa put the used towel in the hamper and turned to the red demon, “Deal? What do you mean, deal?”



“You know why you’re here? They didn’t ship you here because you got detention little lady. You’re here cause there’s something up with you. You got some sort of power or ability that can come in use to the Bureau. You know besides the healing part”

“They seem to think I got some sort of super strength, but you think I would have noticed it before. You know picking up random cars looking for small change and such.”



Finishing his rep Hellboy switched arms, a thin sheen of sweat now covering his red muscled body. “You never know something could of triggered it like a tragic event. Or a stressful situation?”



“Hey do you know if they have a pool around here?” Anessa quickly tried to change the subject she didn’t want to get into that. “I would love to swim a few laps.”



Before he answered he thought about his response and the fun he could have. You know she hadn’t met Abe yet. What a perfect opportunity. Trying to keep himself from snickering Hellboy nodded, “Oh yeah there’s one in the library just down the hall on the left. Go take a dip.”



“In a library? That’s a strange place to put a pool?”



“Yeah well I guess they thought it would be soothing, lapping water and all while your reading. Just jump in and swim.” Hellboy set down the massive weight and stood making his way to her. Patting Anessa on the shoulder he led her out the gym door.



Anessa started back towards her room and looked back at the giant demon smiling and waving. What an odd creature? After changing into her new swimsuit a female agent had bought her and wrapped a towel around her waist she made her way to the door marked “Professor Broom/ Library” pushing the giant gold doors open she gasped at the huge beautiful library. Large leather chairs were strewn around the room for reading and also one was placed in front of the giant weird pool. It looked more like an enormous tank more then a swimming pool. But yet again how strange was it to have a pool in a library? A flash of something made her search the water but quickly gave up and made her way up the stairs to the top of the pool. Dropping the towel that was wrapped around her she dipped her foot into the water. It was perfect not too cold but not too warm. Without anymore hesitation she dove in. Letting out a stream of bubbles as she rose to the surface she opened her eyes. Again something caught her eye but it was gone before she could get a good look at it. Breaking the surface Anessa brushed the stray hairs from her face and searched the water.



Abe watched the beautiful woman enter the library and stare wide eyed at the vast amount of books that adorned the walls of the large room. Then her eyes turned to his tank and a look of uncertainty crossed her face. Taking a dip into her thoughts he found out she thought his tank was a swimming pool. He should of guessed that by the towel wrapped around her and the lack of showers in the particular room. Keeping out of sight he giggled.



“Red you dirty devil.” He thought to himself as she made her way to the top of his tank. She must have gotten on Reds bad side or he was having fun with the new girl. He made her believe his tank was a swimming pool. Manning would hear of this one for sure. But who was he to spoil Red’s fun? He watched her dive in after testing the water. Now he had a better look at her physic. She had healed rather quickly he had just noticed her arm was no longer restricted by the breakage. Also she had regained a healthy body type no longer thin and frail. It was defiantly an improvement since the last time he had saw her. She was rather attractive. Moving from the far corner of the tank he slowly made his way towards her.



After a second Anessa saw the dark object she had been searching for. And it was coming towards her. Backing up into the side of the tank she let out a short scream as a weird looking blue man popped up in front of her.



“Holy shit! You scared the crap out of me!”



Abe cocked his head and smiled, “Sorry about that I couldn’t help myself. But you should be happy I didn’t do the Jaws shark fin on you. I’m guessing Red told you there was a swimming pool in here?”



Out of danger she let her self tread away from the side of the tank, “Yeah the big red asshole has got something coming to him for this one. Not that it’s not nice to finally meet you but he could have told me I wasn’t going to be alone in the “pool”.”



“Well that’s Red for ya Anessa, he’s one of a kind.” Abe laughed.



Anessa’s smile faded, “How’d you know my name?”



“I’m telekinetic I can read peoples minds and I can tell what has happened to an object by touching it. That’s the reason I’m here……well also the fact that I’m blue and have gills.”



The tension broken once again Anessa started to laugh, “Sorry I’m not use to this yet, people with powers and all.”