Rescue of Kate and Mindy (from "Hellboy's Family")

Rescue of Kate and Mindy (from "Hellboy's Family")

Part One

The Rescue of Kate and Mindy
(excerpted and adapted from Hellboy’s Family)

From “Chapter Five: Abe Sapien: Sibling Rivalry”

Previous to this, Kate Corrigan and Mindy Carlton had been kidnapped from a Manhattan diner by giant walking rats. Their demonic captor in this scene is wearing a dark brown three-piece suit that makes him look like Hellboy's adoptive father, Trevor Broom, and is smoking a cigarette in a fancy holder. His way of speaking also imitates Trevor Broom.

This excerpt ends with a cliffhanger at the end of Part One with Hellboy appearing to be trapped in an impossible situation. Go on to Part Two for the dénoument of this conflict with a seemingly unbeatable foe.

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Kate Corrigan was more than infuriated with both the absurdity of her situation and with having to put up with the ridiculous blather that was being uttered by her rat-like captor. Rather than paying much attention to that creature droning on in that mock Trevor Broom accent, Kate pictured to herself what it would look like after Hellboy ripped it to shreds.

Although she understood that Mindy Carlton, her fellow prisoner, was understandably fearful, Kate had absolutely no uncertainty as to the eventual outcome of this situation. Hellboy wasn't one to sit around and do nothing while monsters or other demonic creatures terrorized innocent people; he was even more protective of his intimate friends and acquaintances.

Suddenly, in the midst of some idiotic nonsense about the 'human male who calls himself his father', an unfamiliar blue-gray fish-man clad in Bureau issued clothing and equipment unexpectedly rose up in front of Kate.

Shifting to confront this newcomer, the rat turned away from the entrance to the underground chamber, which it considered secure. There were many small animals and animal-like demonic creatures guarding this doorway and the tunnel leading to it. In addition, the aboveground access to this passage was in an essentially concealed enclosure in a seldom-visited section of the park.

"How did you manage to get in here? I did not realize there was another passable entrance." Confident it could deal with this lone intruder on its own, the giant rat moved to seize the fish-man.

However, as the rat moved in, the fish-man unexpectedly faded into nothingness. At that very same moment, there was a huge crash as the door to the chamber burst open. The chair Kate was bound to faced away from this entrance and she could not turn around far enough to see what was going on, but she was sure this new intrusion was finally Hellboy come to the rescue.

Mindy Carlton was bound facing the opposite direction. Unlike Kate, she could see the obviously locked door into the chamber.

At almost the same time that their captor was distracted by the intruder, Mindy saw a giant red fist, apparently made of solid stone, smash through the cement door. Two figures forced their way through the ruins. The first of these, Mindy recognized right away as the man who had been the guest of honor at that Halloween costume party where she had tended bar.

Mindy was too startled to even scream. Her heart practically stopped beating at the impression of bristling, fuming rage radiating out from this gigantic individual. In his more normal-sized left hand was the enormous handgun she had seen at the party and thought merely a well-constructed fake. The sheer awareness of his presence was larger than life; how could she have ever thought he was nothing more than a large man in a funny red costume?

The other being, which was directly behind, was a smaller-built fish-man. Oddly mottled, dolphin-gray skin showed from under his tight-fitting black outfit. He was armed with some type of harpoon gun. Even though more slender, he appeared just as dangerously angry as his colossal-sized partner.

Hellboy's heart really only had eyes for one person in that room; the one person he couldn't see from the vantage point of his entrance. Yet, he was more than aware, from his many decades of experience in dealing with monsters and demons, of what was truly important—the giant black rat turning in confusion toward its no longer existent door. His heart-wrenching concern for Kate Corrigan had to wait until he dealt with this creature that oddly was clad in a way that reminded him of Trevor Broom.

"All right, fur face," snarled Hellboy through gritted teeth, "you've got someone more your own size to pick on now. Why not do it the easy way and just let the girls go?"