5406/Fair Thee Well

Fair Thee Well
Date of Scene:	02 March 2021
Location:	Hell's Kitchen
Synopsis:	Hellboy has to kill a cursed father and tell the son that his son has that curse and has to live with it or...not. Jane sees another death.
Cast of Characters:	Hellboy, Jane Foster

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Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy is basically a hero, and does heroic things. But he also used to be very young, still is really but he started out fighting evil at a very young age and made some very Naive promises that he really never should have. And so he is now keeping a promise he made 20 years ago to check up on a 'friend' who is cursed.

He watches from the top of the building, only checking once a year, but he is sincerely hoping, as he does every year, not to have to keep his promise. He hasnt contacted the 'friend' in 15 years by mutual agreement since the arrangement is awkward to say the least. As it is, merely even checking is grim enough.

Jane Foster has posed:
Winter doesn't bring any advantages to a lookout. It's cold. Often it's wet. Nine times out of ten anything with glass steams up, and people running about in the same black puffy coat tend to all blend together. Really, it makes a lookout's job that much worse. How to tell someone apart from another person when they all wear the same general armour against the cold?

A man goes by and hurries to make a train. Another comes in the opposite direction, almost identical, a phone wedged to his ear. There's a woman in a knit hat that must be repeated six times in twenty minutes, the only distinguishing feature the colour of their face. Everyone has a place to be, and they're too wrapped up to pay much attention to their surroundings. Gotta hit the gym, reach the train station, escape the trouble of Hell's Kitchen. Some of them give glares or sharp elbowed jabs to anyone who gets too close, but it's all a bit of a blur.

Just another world brimming with so much life. Which is probably why a bystander invisible to it all is left struggling to take it all in, sidestepping even if it's not necessary.

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy knows the heightened senses the monster has, and knows that so far the Rougaru has always been able to eat human flesh, but there are some curses that can't be broken. Hellboy should know, he has tried and tried on some of them, TOO many of these lost causes including a certain soul that keeps him up at night. He has a better memory than most humans especially an emotional one and living long means more baggage if you let it happen. Not a problem for most of his kind but when you care?

A sense of dread balls up in the pit of his stomach as he activates the charm around his nec to hide his scent and cloak the sound he makes while he watches with Binocs, hoping he is Wrong and feeling this time he is not.

Jane Foster has posed:
A sweep of glass magnifies shapes and features neatly. The silhouette of a woman cradling her child in the window, trying to soothe away distress of teething, is easily caught. Several floors down, the teenaged couple having a fight: angry gestures, the girl throwing her mittens at the boy's back and sending him scurrying out to dodge further comments about "Sabina! You and her, I hope you're happy! Forever, you two-timing piece of--"

The door slinks shut. He dodges around the corner, cursing out everything, grabbing his phone from his coat. Precious moments spent wastefully leak into his body huddling lower, angry and shoulders down. It's not the best place to be but natives of the Kitchen know how to get from A to B safely enough. Barrelling down an alleyway has to be simple. Easy to nudge past someone getting too close, mumbling to himself as he keys in a text message.

A hand on the shoulder isn't a common gesture like it is in rural places, in older times. Not a part of town where people say "Hey, what's the rush?" or inquire nicely. So hackles are up when the boy turns, teenaged angst and self-condemnation a brutal flare. He shakes off the bystander, hissing, heading on.

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy doesnt want to be right. But he will stop Banders if he is able. That isnt what worries him in the depth of night; or the strain of vampire on Shiela in Vault 23 that hasnt been cured in 23 years, or the twins trapped in the Mirror of Mental Prowess or the people sent to the Upside Down Town....he shudders at the last. The fact is, working for W.A.N.D. has a lot of victories, a lot more grey areas and a handful of simply Cannot Win scenarios, and there are many members of W.A.N.D. that if they new about Mr. Natch would simply toss him in the Raft for who and what he was and throw away the key. Only a few people in the agency knew things like Rougaru even EXISTED since they were blindingly rare and skilled generations at a time....but there WAS no cure and goodness knows he had looked....

What worries him...wait, that isnt Banders....its...Bander's jr. That would explain why the tracking crystal was blinking oddly on and off. This was new.

Oh dear lord. Banders had had a child.

Jane Foster has posed:
The kid keeps hurrying. He texts at a furious pace. Fingers fly over the keyboard and send incriminating evidence to his teen girlfriend across the neighbourhood. Her unimpressed response pings back. He keeps texting, looking up periodically to avoid running into a fire escape or some piles of trash. Nothing so difficult for a rougaru to chase after him if it's in need of a tasty snack, someone young and vital and sixteen years old, running on hormones and fight over flight.

Could well be a fat, juicy meal. Banders indeed has a child, but Eduardo is too busy worrying about his side piece and his ex over his dad.

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy nearly misses it. Despite decades of hunting the unhuntable, Hellboy is sometimes clueless and sometimes remarkably insightful. He's definitely not even in the same LEAGUE as Batman and the like even in the supernatural, but tonight? Tonight he is 'lucky' because of course he is. He spots the feral shadow of the thing he does not want to see.

If it had been a kid, then he could have stopped the hunt. But if Banders is HUNTING....

Hellboy leaps across the rooftops. Even if he saves this potential victim, Banders has likely already crossed the line. Once made aware of the curse, the only safe bet was to lock themselves in a room that the creature could not escape. Yeah, sure, sure someone could let him out and Hellboy could be there to save the day. It wasnt as if it had never happened, but the odds....the odds were not good.

If the eyes were green, still human....there was hope. But red blood shot glowing eyes? He lept to a nearby roof. Either way, he wasnt about to let THIS kid get eaten.

Jane Foster has posed:
Eduardo taps furiously. He stares at his phone and then almost looks ready to hurl it, swearing up a storm in Spanish. Bad words but Mom and Dad aren't here to listen, so he scorches no one else's ears instead.

The quick steps cut away from the crossroads between the alley and a service lane leading back to the street. Better be faster for Banders to catch up with the teen by jumping him from behind, but he doesn't notice the guy sliding past him or the older man in pursuit. Nor Hellboy up above. Look, being riled and young gives a flat negative five to all perception rolls.

He might not be worth the effort, but it's a nice thought all the same. The kid rakes his fingers through his hair and stops long enough to gauge if that good El Salvadorean place is open. "Yeah, pupusas!"

The rallying cry to good spirits, at least until someone tries to eat him in three... two...

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy leaps from the roof down onto the Rugaru (or at least tries to) when he thinks that shooting would be merciful. He focuses like a laser beam, trying to grapple. It's a slim chance, but he is going to TRY. There are lost causes worth fighting for. Hell, if the reformed monster can't give other monsters a chance who can?

Even a single ounce of human flesh is all it will take. He dreads looking into Bander's eyes, but can.

And will.

Jane Foster has posed:
Things that move with swift, unexpected bursts of energy exist all across the animal kingdom and well into the stranger ones, too. What would the world be without surprises? Eduardo has no reason to assume the supernatural intersects his humdrum existence, but it's an open shut case when he hears the thud, the scrape of shoes moving too fast over the ground.

He whirls, fists up. That's Hell's Kitchen: fight or flight. That right hook is pretty nasty, the guard not great, but enough. Trying to clock someone in the temple with a follow up to the chest seems right... until it isn't.

Until it's his old man there, and not the guy shadowing him up the alley. "Holy shit, you scared me!" he shouts, too loud in a place weirdly distorting and amplifying his voice as alleys are. He's at the threshold of the world, but Banders just has to snatch him and haul him forward for the teen to yelp. "Hey! I said I was sorry!" No, he didn't, but that's a moot point when his father's lips curl, mouth parts.

A bigger, broader shadow falling into the gloom resolves itself and Eduardo's eyes go wide and whites showing. Fear catalyses the weird overlap between laughable and horrible, and he can't decide on the right direction. "Wha- what's that? Mierde, DAD!"

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy is glad he is able to stop the manbeast, smiling as he manages to do something right, seeing that Banders has not fully transformed and thinking everything is OK, about to make a pithy comment even if he has to beat Banders to a pulp and lock him in a room until he sees the eyes.

"Aw crap. Kid, get behind me. Now."

This, coming from a giant demon looking guy with a hulking gun over his shoulder might not be responded to, but Hellboy isnt taking chances. It's too late.

Too. Late.

Jane Foster has posed:
"That's my dad! No way am I going behind a whatever you are!" The kid spits the words out with an effort. He grimaces, hands still up, ready for a fight. Any fight. Sometimes it's better just to get that. Banders might be ready to intercede with some way, that's at least what the pivot suggests. Protecting his firstborn from the hulking red monster lurking over them, even if it's futile.

Eduardo is ready to back up into the street, bisected by a dim sulphur glow from a motion light. It captures his profile, darkening the shadow. Doesn't make up for the speed in which Banders drives into him, half-turning to grab his raised arm and pull him close. An effective, protective snatch like the teen is in trouble.

He is.

One.

Bite.

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy unslings his gun. He had hoped, even if he had to kill Banders he could have given him time to put his affairs in order during the day. This...was the worst of all possible scenarios. Active Rougaru skipped generations but a potential infectable could be converted with a single bite, and his son had every chance of never knowing the horror his father had endured for 20 years...

His son would never understand. And Hellboy didn't care to try, despite the red knots that slowly bolted out as bones and cartlidge as Banders grew and grew, protective and yet so hungry....

Hellboy saw faint recognition in Bander's eyes finally.

That helped. A bit, Hellboy slowly aimed, "Kid. Get out of the way."

Jane Foster has posed:
Banders has the knotted flesh, the purposeful gaze. My father, how big and wide your eyes are. Eduardo flails around but he hasn't quite the strength of the older man, not until the bite. The shout becomes louder, painful, angry as he whips his arm away.

Bloody. Mildly, a chunk taken out. Red streams flow.

"Jesucristo, what did-- what did you do?" Stuttering words bleed to a halt as pain kicks in. His hand convulses as Hellboy steps in and the details blur together, facts crashing into a single visible realization. Big Red Monster is going after his dad, the man who just bit.

He can't fathom it, throwing his hands up at the gun. "Whoa. Whoa! We can work it out, this can be fixed. You want... you want money? I got some? I know a girl." His ex deserves it. She'll understand.

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy curses in rage at the futility of it all. He shoots the gun, and does so with deadly accuracy. It's full of dragonfire ammo, the magical alchemical version of ita s the gun roars a trail of fire slamming into the thing that was Banders likely setting him ablaze with molton magma, "Step back kid. That thing isnt your dad anymore."

He almost shoots the kid. Almost....but he refrains. He deserves a chance, just like his father.

Jane Foster has posed:
Like the father, like the son.

The boy hesitates. The boy damn well thinks but staggers away. He clutches his bleeding arm, pain a good solution for any other heroism. Teeth marks tear dirty and he clutches at his skin as best he can. "What're you talking about! It's my da---"

Eduardo can't scream when his father is suddenly engulfed in flames. He can only open his mouth and fall back a step. He collapses onto the dirty sidewalk, breath stopped in his throat. For Banders it's another matter altogether, the primal instinct of survival fighting the transformation under the skin and beneath the muscles. Wriggling tendrils of fire urge him to flee, and run he does, not standing still but racing for the sidewalk as the hyper-violent holocaust devours flesh and bone with equal efficiency. His mouth cannot utter the scream it shapes, teeth prominent and gnashing for a sense. Screams still signal some sentience, the pinnacle of nature.

<<I'll always be his dad,>> he coughs out through smoke in the lungs and alchemy rotting holes into his chest as a glowing web consumes his shirt and everything caged in bone.

<<You will. Nothing will take that from you.>> The words are meant to be a balm somewhat, though they never fall perfectly. She's learned that by now.

<<He'll know after this, when it stops. God, please, it was just a moment. I let his ma raise him right, and he'll understand. Please.>> The heap crumpling to the sidewalk melts the top layer of concrete, leaving sooted streaks where bent limbs stretch for the teen.

<<You did the best you could.>> Words that seal over a horror, a breach to the last gasps of immolated humanity. A woman shudders in a coalescing flames still dancing on her skin, a small fragmented soul clutching at her pale fingers. Ashes blow, and then there is nothing but a demon, a young man, and a corpse of what should not be.

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy says, "I got crap news and worse news kid. I am an agent of W.A.N.D., not some rando monster that killed your dad" he flash a badge putting the gun away, "I've known your dad for 20 years. I've checked him every year...his request...in case his curse went too far. In case he turned into what you just saw. His. Request."

He pauses an lets that set in, "The curse he just passed on to you."