Hellboy: On Earth as It Is in Hell Read Online Free
Author: Brian Hodge
Tags: Fiction, General, Science-Fiction, Media Tie-In
spewing fire. Exactly how they went about this is unknown, as there are no other witnesses, but the attached photos of the damage inflicted upon that section of the Archives is testament to their efficiency.
One observation: The process by which these entities created fire from their own bodies is, by all available evidence, different from that shown by the BPRD's resident pyrokinetic, Liz Sherman. Although Ms. Sherman's abilities are still not fully understood, she appears to be the fire's conduit, rather than its creator.
On the other hand, the beings at the Vatican Archives appear, to some extent, to be subject to the laws of physics and thermodynamics. They evidently did not generate their flames out of nothing, but instead, immediately prior to their attack, drew the required energy from the air temperature in the vicinity and from the power grid.
Because I'm preaching to the converted here, I shouldn't have to remind you of the oft-reported phenomenon that certain spiritual manifestations are sometimes accompanied by temperature drops and electrical disturbances. The most widely accepted rationale for this occurrence is that the spirit entity requires energy to make itself visible, and uses the process of convection to obtain that energy from the nearest sources: warm air, electricity, etc.
A similar phenomenon appears to have happened at the Vatican Archives, only the siphoned energy was weaponized. The expended energy had to have been far greater than what was drawn from the local environment, leading one of our physics consultants to speculate--at the risk of making an obvious paranormal event sound overly mechanical--that the attackers also functioned as their own transformers.
Completion pending conclusion of on-site investigation...
Chapter 2
H ellboy got as much of the background from Kate Corrigan as seemed relevant--he would skim the reports later, maybe--then decided to push on and inspect the wreckage for himself.
Stone columns and archways, fluted ceiling joists, old oak cabinets and tables...most of it had probably looked much the same for centuries, and the only way he could tell it had once been beautiful was by context, the hallways and the rooms he and Abe had passed through to get here. There was nothing beautiful about it now; it was like the inside of a kiln that had been used too many times without cleaning. They'd be scraping this place out for weeks. Even the lighting was harsh now, most of the normal fixtures destroyed and, for the time being, replaced with cable-fed portables with the same harsh glare as a mechanic's garage.
"How hot would you say it got in here?" he asked.
"You can cremate a body in half an hour at 1300 degrees or so," Abe said. "So in excess of that. Because these look more like flash fires. They don't seem to have burned for long. They cooked everything in their path, but..." With a gray-green hand mostly concealed within the sleeve of his topcoat, he pointed to the ceiling, the floor. "They didn't spread beyond this section of the Archives. Those kinds of temperatures, for any duration...this could've been worse."
As they walked along a row of oak cabinets charred down to kindling, Hellboy felt, heard things grind underfoot. They could be walking on bones, or what remained of them, and never know.
"Spontaneous human combustion," he said. "That's what it reminds me of. I've seen it twice. Not while it was happening, but after. There's some freaky selectivity in that kind of fire. One guy burned so hot it melted candles in their stands across the room, but the easy chair he was sitting in...give it a good cleaning and you might've been able to use it again."
"What it reminds me of is gang warfare," Abe said. "An assassination, except they were using fire instead of bullets. And weren't a bit concerned who got caught up in it."
Hellboy nodded. Some of that, yeah, he thought...but part spree killing, too. Like the guy who walks into the place where he used to work
One observation: The process by which these entities created fire from their own bodies is, by all available evidence, different from that shown by the BPRD's resident pyrokinetic, Liz Sherman. Although Ms. Sherman's abilities are still not fully understood, she appears to be the fire's conduit, rather than its creator.
On the other hand, the beings at the Vatican Archives appear, to some extent, to be subject to the laws of physics and thermodynamics. They evidently did not generate their flames out of nothing, but instead, immediately prior to their attack, drew the required energy from the air temperature in the vicinity and from the power grid.
Because I'm preaching to the converted here, I shouldn't have to remind you of the oft-reported phenomenon that certain spiritual manifestations are sometimes accompanied by temperature drops and electrical disturbances. The most widely accepted rationale for this occurrence is that the spirit entity requires energy to make itself visible, and uses the process of convection to obtain that energy from the nearest sources: warm air, electricity, etc.
A similar phenomenon appears to have happened at the Vatican Archives, only the siphoned energy was weaponized. The expended energy had to have been far greater than what was drawn from the local environment, leading one of our physics consultants to speculate--at the risk of making an obvious paranormal event sound overly mechanical--that the attackers also functioned as their own transformers.
Completion pending conclusion of on-site investigation...
Chapter 2
H ellboy got as much of the background from Kate Corrigan as seemed relevant--he would skim the reports later, maybe--then decided to push on and inspect the wreckage for himself.
Stone columns and archways, fluted ceiling joists, old oak cabinets and tables...most of it had probably looked much the same for centuries, and the only way he could tell it had once been beautiful was by context, the hallways and the rooms he and Abe had passed through to get here. There was nothing beautiful about it now; it was like the inside of a kiln that had been used too many times without cleaning. They'd be scraping this place out for weeks. Even the lighting was harsh now, most of the normal fixtures destroyed and, for the time being, replaced with cable-fed portables with the same harsh glare as a mechanic's garage.
"How hot would you say it got in here?" he asked.
"You can cremate a body in half an hour at 1300 degrees or so," Abe said. "So in excess of that. Because these look more like flash fires. They don't seem to have burned for long. They cooked everything in their path, but..." With a gray-green hand mostly concealed within the sleeve of his topcoat, he pointed to the ceiling, the floor. "They didn't spread beyond this section of the Archives. Those kinds of temperatures, for any duration...this could've been worse."
As they walked along a row of oak cabinets charred down to kindling, Hellboy felt, heard things grind underfoot. They could be walking on bones, or what remained of them, and never know.
"Spontaneous human combustion," he said. "That's what it reminds me of. I've seen it twice. Not while it was happening, but after. There's some freaky selectivity in that kind of fire. One guy burned so hot it melted candles in their stands across the room, but the easy chair he was sitting in...give it a good cleaning and you might've been able to use it again."
"What it reminds me of is gang warfare," Abe said. "An assassination, except they were using fire instead of bullets. And weren't a bit concerned who got caught up in it."
Hellboy nodded. Some of that, yeah, he thought...but part spree killing, too. Like the guy who walks into the place where he used to work
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