Hellboy: Odd Jobs Read Free Page A

a few more figures that could have gone either way and which bore attachments that represented creatures from Grecian mythology, including the thick, delicately sculpted body of a headless serpent.
    " Come closer ... Hellboy."
    "Damn," Hellboy grumbled to himself. "I really hate it when they know my name."
    Hellboy obeyed not because the voice commanded it but because he wanted to; keeping his eyes safely focused on the floor was easy because it was a necessity. The place was littered with rocks and stones from the fight
    if he didn't watch where he was walking, he'd likely end up with something stuck in one of his hooves like the lion with the pebble between his paws in that stupid fairy tale. "This is as far as I'm going to go," Hellboy said flatly and stopped at the third pew from the front. "You want to tell me what's going on here?"
    " Isn't it obvious? " the voice hissed. " I've finally been releassssed. "
    The last word was long and drawn out, like the sound the tongue of a snake a very big snake
    might
    make when it flicks out to taste the air.
    "Pardon me for pointing this out," Hellboy retorted. "But last I heard you were missing the bottom part of your mobility."
    "But I am still powerful."
    There was an almost amiable tone to the voice that made Hellboy's eyes narrow with suspicion. He wasn't about to say so, but it only took a quick look around to realize that he had to agree with the power part.
    "Must be hard when you have to depend on someone else for a ride all the time," he said blandly.
    "Perhaps. But there are always those willing to serve."
    Hellboy glanced around, but the faces of the stone statues were just that, cold rock, totally unreadable. Were they watching him
    could they tell he was considering a blind rush on the podium? Through all this, there had been no movement behind it, and Hellboy thought it was a pretty good bet that the shield with Medusas head on it had been stashed back there before the rest of her stone cronies had surged forward to fight him. If he could leap to the podium and bring his stone hand down and over, give it one good blow, the shield and
    presumably the biggest problem this picturesque Grecian village had might be obliterated.
    " What about you, Hellboy? Would you serve?" The voice of Medusa paused, as if contemplating. " The other gods have long gone, and they no longer concern themselves with the puny distresses of mortals. With your special ... talents ... we could rule this pathetic world."
    Hellboy looked again at the figures around him, but he was just as clueless about what was going on in their
    'minds' as he had been before.
    "Me rule something?" He shook his head nonchalantly, hoping that whatever attention span existed in these rock-headed warriors would be drawn by that movement and away from the minute tensing of his massive leg muscles. "Nah, I never was the management type. The only thing I want to do in that respect is
    "Rule you out! "
    Hellboy sprang.
    He rolled into the wooden podium like a bowling ball and it shattered. Too late he realized how distorted sound had been in this closed-up building with its high, peaked roof. His stone fist swiped downward at empty air and then he fell, landing face-first on the floor hard enough to make his eyes water, tiles cool against the always over-warm red skin of his face. Something moved just out of view on his right side and Hellboy rolled and came to his feet in an instinctive fighting stance, leaning forward with his shoulders hunched and his fists up, hooves planted firmly a shoulder's width apart. But the only thing in front of him was the smooth backside of another statue, this one with most of her upper body, including the right half of her head, missing.
    Damn. Where had Medusa's voice been coming from?
    "An unfortunate choice, Hellboy," she said, and then the fragmented statue spun, much faster than Hellboy would have ever expected
    and he was facing the head of Medusa straight on.
    His eyes met hers