One down, three to go. Yet before the Emissary could roar in triumph at Carol's fall it rocked backwards, partly because It had just gotten a dimension-slicing thorn deep in the sole of Its foot courtesy of Kuwabara, partly because the Right Hand of Doom had just smashed a pulped, quivering, jellylike dent in Its face, and partly because Iron Man was unloading Armageddon into Its body.

Waves foamed around Its legs as It took a step backwards into the ocean. As It did, the hand around Hellboy released him- accepting for the moment that this lesser red demon was not going to be an easy meal, the Emissary simply let him fall.

One last barrage of energy blasts, missiles, and other Iron Man ordnance rippled a series of explosions across Its torso. The Emissary was still for a second then, steam hissing from Its body, vile green and yellow fluids from Its wounds tainting the ocean around It. For a moment, It was stopped.

Then the slobbering began again, and the creature took a great bounding step out of the water and onto the land of the City. Water dripped off Its body and showered the shore beneath It as the Emissary continued striding forward away from the ocean.