6541/It's not always Pacific Electric's fault

It's not always Pacific Electric's fault
Date of Scene:	13 June 2021
Location:	Sacramento area, California
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	Hellboy, Jessica Drew

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Hellboy has posed:
Another wildfire in California is barely enough to even make the evening news now - they happen so often that the TV news doesn't even cover them now unless they are huge and threatening thousands of homes. But Hellboy HAS been paying attention to Things Happening around certain locations the BPRD has flagged as 'important', and a new wildfire cropping up suspiciously right at the edge of a nature preserve is enough to get him out to check on it personally, after sending a short message out about where he was going along with a cryptic 'gonna deal with an arsonist'.
Which is why the truck is parked at the end of a fire trail and Big Red is kneeling down in the still-smouldering burnt grass, sniffing the air and grumbling, "I knew it..."

Jessica Drew has posed:
Jessica can count on two fingers the number of times she has had a chance to get away from SHIELD. A moment's guilt was but not enough to stop her. Visiting her friends in San Fransisco reminded her that she didn't laugh very often since the HYDRA takeover.

The last leg of her journey was a camping trip with an old friend. The friend begged off at the last moment. She had already rented a car, packed it with camping gear and driven to their rendezvous spot. After sitting in her car for fifteen minutes looking at the trail map, Jessica decides to hike up to the trailhead to spend the night.

An hour into her hike, smoke tickles her nostrils. It doesn't take spider senses to smell it. Through the dense trees, she can see there is a haze beginning to obscure the blue sky.

Hellboy has posed:
From a much better vantage point, its clear where the fire probably started, as there is a burned swath from the eastern side of the valley, west towards Jessica's spot, and she can see that the fire seems to be concentrated on about 9-10 little bright points that seem animated. Perhaps demonic. And then far at the back, would be the odd truck and the more familiar jacket-covered Red one starting their way at a speedy, loping gait, swearing under his breath as he runs, "Always gotta be someone messing with demons. Never understand what yer playin with..."

Jessica Drew has posed:
After a little frowned consultation of her map, Jessica decides to take a branch that brings her to the crest of a hill. Through swirls of smoke from what looks like campfires, all independent of each other, she wonders whether she has happened on a Girl Scout Jamboree at a hot springs, gone wrong - there is an undercurrent of sulphur in the air. Binoculars bring it more into focus, her gaze sweeps the area, whips past a man built like a huge red fireplug galloping toward the fire and returns.

"I can't believe it," she says to a squirrel who has stopped its flight on the side of a tree next to her. It flips its tail and runs from the fire. Jessica skirts the fires at a run toward the figure she had seen.

Hellboy has posed:
Following one the scorch paths like an odd bloodhound, Hellboy makes a sprinted beeline to one of the rampaging demonic types. Really not much bigger than he is, with molten glowing appendages that spread their little bits of hellfire around to push the blaze onward...the first one doesn't even see him coming when he leaps at its back and knocks it down, that big red fist punching it in the back of the head rather unsportsmanlike and all.
He's not paying very close attention to the rest of his surroundings, so might easily miss the approach of a specific spider person when he finally steps punching and bends down to sniff at the body, "I know you didnt come here on your own...where's ya boss?"

Jessica Drew has posed:
And here she thought she had gotten away from work. Jessica slows to a stop behind the two in time for her to witness an astute punch to the back of a thing's head. The smell of sulphur is enough to choke her. She didn't know that demons squealed like children. She swallows and narrows her eyes in discomfort.

Readjusting her pack, she circles the two, not wishing to startle her fellow agent. "Uh, we have to stop meeting like this. You know? What is going on?" She turns in place taking in the scene. Now, the demons leaping next to the fires come into focus. "Did magic do that? Make me not see them?"

Hellboy has posed:
The demon casually disintegrates underneath him as he stands up and looks around, its essence having been sent back from Whence It Came. He takes a moment to eye Jessica and grunts, "Huh. You keep popping up places I don't expect to see ya. You sure you aren't stalkin me? I got fans that'd pay you to do it, M'sure."
With that said, he jumps clear of the pile of hellfire ash and sighs, "So this aint natural, s'you c'n tell. And Fido here didnt get outta the yard on his own. So we gotta find Daddy and put a stop on em or he'll just call up more, and I get tired of punching these things over and over. You see anything on the way over here?"

Jessica Drew has posed:
Jessica could pretend it is the smoke making her squint. Shaking her head in disbelief, a habit, she suspects when around Hellboy, the spider woman walks over to the ash and toes it with her hiking boot. "They have a boss, do they? /We/ do, do we? Um. You want some help with this then I take it," she replies in a flat tone of resignation.

"No, not a thing beyond animals taking the high road out of here."

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy grunts softly, "Well, yanno, since yer here, right? I didn't get to ask you yer name when we were dealing with the huge undead fish thing. But...yeah. Im smelling em off this way..." He pauses to guesture to the north with that huge red fist of his, "The stink is stronger that way. You in or not?" He's not REALLY waiting, he's already turning to lope off in that direction, assuming she's going to keep up if she's really interested in coming with.

Jessica Drew has posed:
The spider woman barely gets her name out, "Jessica Drew. I thought you knew." She gestures futilely to his retreating back, shifts the pack on her back. Something tells her that she won't have it at the end of this adventure. "Um. Lead on!"

Someone watching would see a huge red man kicking up demon dust into the determined face of a woman in a plaid shirt, jeans and hiking boots as the two of them run toward the thickest smoke.

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy mehs, "Unless yer on the news every week, its hard to keep track of th'names." But indeed he's off, that jacket and tail fluttering out behind him as he bounds over smouldering, burnt grass and tree trunks. Clearing one hill, another source of the burnination can be seen spreading its love around the countryside, enough for Hellboy to slow down and point at with that big red hand, "Batter up. You wanna try this one, or we goin' high low on him?"

Jessica Drew has posed:
Jessica stops in a spout of dust and coughs. She follows the line of that ham-sized hand down to a group of unburned trees and wipes the hair back from her face, leaving a streak of soot on her cheek. Her green eyes, reddened by the smoke, narrow as she looks at what is setting fires back to Hellboy.

"You're joking, right? I don't do magic. I blast things. I thought your gig was magical things? I mean..." She looks again. "I can grab him or blast him but what will keep it from setting me on fire?"

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy sizes Jessica up for a moment and asks with a bit of curiosity, "A little flame's good for ya! I tell you what, I'll go piss him off, you see if you can tie him up so I can take him out faster. Deal?" He doesn't really WAIT for an answer, he simply leaps off charging at the demon, singsonging, "Someone's been a bad BOOOOY!" looking for all the world like he's winding that fist up to knock the thing off the planet.

Jessica Drew has posed:
If looks could kill, Hellboy would be dead from the way Jessica drills his retreating back.

"Unnnnggggg," she growls, dropping the pack behind her into the ash. "Damn him to hell," she mutters and giggles as she lopes down the hill. "Like he hasn't already been there."

The demons's attention is on Big Red. It doesn't see the woman disappear behind a tree which she scales or hear her drop on him from behind, hands extended in a bio-electric blast.

Hellboy has posed:
For all of his bravado, Hellboy is rewarded by the demon turning to look, then growling and giving him a faceful of molten hellfire fist, enough to elicit an 'Oof' from Big Red and stagger him back a step, falling on his ass with a thud, "You play rough!" a momentary pause, "But I brought friends!" He squints his eyes just before Jessica lands, expecting something suitably flashy...and isnt disappointed! The charged blast knocks the demon off it's feet and blows an arm off in little smouldering chunks.
Not waiting to see if that was enough to finish the thing off of not, Hellboy lunges forward and brings that big red fist down on the demon's head, resulting in either a satisfying or a disgusting crunh, depending on your point of view. The stench of sulfur is THICK around the body as it slowly disintegrates.

Jessica Drew has posed:
"Lord in heaven, the smell!" Jess waves her hand in front of her face, trying to fend off the worst of the odor. Matter-of-factly, she observes, "For something that can set things on fire, he is rather fragile. Don't you think?" One would think she was discussing a teacup.

Frowning as she looks around at the growing smoke, "This could take all day. If they do anymore and the wind shifts, the little town near here is going to be in big trouble. Is there a boss demon?"

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy handwaves at the concern about the fragility, "Well, if these are all a summoned horde, its like popcorn - each one's not that tough, its the fact that you have a bunch of em spreading the fun around. And yep. Thisn's for sure, there's a summoner and I bet he has a minor lord in his circle directing these pricks. If we take him out, the others SHOULD get sent back, but you never know. Lets go, eh?" He turns to head off, but pauses and winks, pointing that big red finger at Jessica, "Nice moves, by the way..." and then he's bounding off in the direction the demon had been coming from.

Jessica Drew has posed:
"Nice moves," she sputters, jogging behind him, skipping over downed trees toward the thickening smoke. "I'll show him nice moves."

Hellboy has posed:
Indeed the run isn't that far - after all, they both responded to the fire outbreak pretty quickly to begin with - as he bounds up to a hillcrest and skids to a stop, squinting at the clearing below. One of the reserves many available campsites to rent has been taken over by a singular individual in LL Bean reject clothing holding a flaming knife in one hand and his other, outstretched palm, currently sliced and cauterized open. In front of him is a circle of stones to make a good firepit, but what is IN the circle is no little cooking fire. A shaft of bright, hellish flame maybe three feet tall spits and roars inside it, surging and bending as if it was trying to get out. Hellboy sighs, "Idjits never understand what they're playin with." He glances back at Jessica, "A'ight. Real important he don't cut anyone else with that dagger. You think you can hit him with that sparkly magic shit?"

Jessica Drew has posed:
Jess subvocalizes the growl, instead, focusing on the scene before her: bloodletting demons with knives, getting ready to roast marshmallows on a column of fire that if someone could patent, would make a lot of money. Of course. Why did she want to take a little vacation and go camping?

"It.isn't.magic." Reddened green eyes glare at the big man. "But, yes. I can. While you do what, if I may ask?"

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy points at the column of flame, "When you knock him out, Sparky there is gonna try to get loose since Dummy there is the one keeping him all contained. Hey, you're the one that said you don't like flame. I can put Dummy to sleep if you'd rather trade places?" He smiles, "And Fine. Magic, Technology, little blue sprites from Mars...it works. S'long as you can do it, let him have it. You read?"

Jessica Drew has posed:
From under lowered eyebrows, Spider-Woman gazes at him, "I'll give you the abridged answer. Yes, dammit. I will get the knife out of his hand and knock him into tomorrow if that is what you mean?" She tugs at her shirt and nods toward the fiery scene below, "Well. Go ahead."

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy grins, "Great!" and then he's bounding down the hill, taht jacket fluttering behind him, humming something under his breath as he zeroes in on that column of flame, expecting the warding that holds the minor lord in place to drop the moment Jessica deals with the summoner's trinkets and casting, "Time to dance. Yer going back home, Buddy..."

Jessica Drew has posed:
And they do dance. Spider-woman puts a foot on a wide trunked oak tree, part of a grove native to the area that saw the advent of motor cars and acid rain as the people who revered them were driven away, to scamper up its side with the nimbleness of her namesake. She leaps to the next in tree, the rough grey bark giving her ample places to cling. The trees are some of the oldest in the forest. No doubt the reason that Dummy picked it to do his magic.

Poised above their target, she peeks around the trunk and gives Hellboy a thumbs up. Concentrating her venom, she blasts the hand holding the dagger making it spasm open. The dagger arcs into the air to fall ten feet away in a pile of leaves.

Hellboy has posed:
When the dagger goes flying, a lot of things kinda happen at once. The very human sorcerer screams in surprise and frustration, immediately turning to look after the blade as it goes flying out of his hand, starting a despairing, "NOOOOOOO..." while the flame straining inside it's confinement flashes for a moment, mystical warding immediately buckling under the strain now that there's no more mystical energy to hold it up. The flame grows in size and takes on a vaguely humanoid shape, hissing with an inhuman voice that sounds more like a million beetles screeching together, "YOU WILL PAAAAAY..." and gets cut off by Big Red stepping in and grunting, "Not quite!" before swinging that huge red fist at the flame, reaching out and trying to grab hold of the insubstantiability of it. He glances back at the Summoner then Jessica and grunts, "You got him??"

Jessica Drew has posed:
The Summoner, too stunned at losing control of his spell, doesn't react fast enough. Jessica might later admit to being impatient with the whole thing. Stepping forward, hands held before her, light coalesces in the palms; she throws twin balls of bio-electric energy at the man's head. She is playing for keeps. The stun knocks him backward, he staggers, spins in place and drops face first into a blackberry bush. Scratchy.

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy gives Jessica an enthusiastic thumbs up with his normal hand, grins at her, then refocuses his attention on the flaming one, "Ah, no you don't. C'MERE!" Flame erupts around his form as he punches the creature hard, knocing it back into that flame pit, "And yer goin back and STAYIN there..." There's some sort of struggle going on as Hellboy pushes with that big red hand - whatever its made out of starting to glow a little from the heat it's pushing against, as if the stone might actally become molten in a moment, "Get...back...in there!"

Jessica Drew has posed:
Magic on this level is beyond her mutant abilities. Jessica looks around the clearing for something she can use to bash the thing. She rejects the old fallen tree trunk. Flammable. A glance at Hellboy tells her that his 'speshul' hand is changing color. One of the stones circling the thing has rolled out of place. Jessica bends to pick it up and hefts it in one hand, then takes three perfect cricket pitch steps and lobs it overhanded at the flame.

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy continues his struggle and LOOKS like he might be succeding, but the stone being lobbed comes out of nowhere and, rather than just passing through the flame, hits it and brightly explodes into sharp little bits and pieces. It is, however, enough to help Hellboy growl and push forward, shoving that flame back into the circle where it gutters and suddenly winks out of existence with a flash and a stink of sulfur that might make one wonder if Hellboy jut had chili tonight instead.
The big guy offers a loud, "WOOO! Lets not do THAT again," before looking over to confirm that yes, the Summoner is indeed down, then to Jessica with a sigh and a thumbs up, "Nice throw..."

Jessica Drew has posed:
"Yes, rather," she drawls, looking around the clearing. "Where is Superman when you need him, I ask you?" She stiffens, listening. "The fire brigade is on the way. We should probably get going. It will be hard to explain how we got into the middle of this. Well. Hard for you."

Waving her hand rapidly in front of her face, "And the smell! Never ask me to pull your little finger. Come on. Let's go."

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy nahs, "The kids love me. But then I gotta explain to the guys that pay for the office 'why was I sneaking out when I know Im not supposed to go out on.." and he even does the air quotes, " 'non-auithorized supernatural actions'. Whatever." He just grins, "Thanks for the help. Come by the place some time. Say hi to the cats." He makes a point to scoop up that dropped dagger and glances around, before leaping off, bounding towards the hill and PROBABLY towards that vehicle she originally saw him show up in.
Indeed, when the fire trucks arrive in a bit, this is going to look like perhaps an attempted arson that started the wildfire, but at least no more traces of demonic influence remain.