Hellboy: The God Machine by Thomas E. Sniegoski

stomach cavity. "Well, well, what do we have here?" he muttered as he snatched a funky-looking tool from a stainless-steel tray nearby and spread the creature's stomach wider. His hands disappeared inside the corpse and withdrew a cylindrical object. "Come to poppa," he said, his protective eye gear reflecting the glow from the object.
    "What'd you find?" Hellboy asked, craning his neck for a look. He'd always felt a bit left out around these science guys.
    "Looks like some kind of crude storage cell," Larry said, adjusting his safety glasses.
    "But for what kind of energy?" Curly asked, reaching out to tap at the thick glass body of the cylinder. "I've never seen anything like it."
    The energy inside the battery moved around like something alive--like a puppy in a pet store window, responding to the lab technicians' attentions.
    Wires dripping with moisture trailed from the bottom of the cylinder, leading back into the body. Moe reached behind him, feeling the tray for another tool. "I'll disconnect these wires and we can begin our analysis on..."
    The body bolted upright upon the table.
    "Yaaggh!" Hellboy yelled, jumping back.
    The Stooges stared in awe, watching as the reanimated corpse turned its dead eyes upon them. It lashed out at the technicians with one of its razor-fingered hands. All but Moe managed to get away. The creature slashed his face, and he stumbled, letting the glowing cylinder fall from his grasp.
    Hellboy grimaced as he grabbed the dead thing, restraining it. "Sorry about that, guys. I thought they were pretty much dead."
    The creature bucked Hellboy off and pushed away, falling from the table, scattering various pieces of zombie robot in its wake.
    "It's getting away!" Moe screamed, a towel pressed to the wounds on his face.
    "Hey, get back here!" Hellboy snapped, moving around the table in pursuit.
    Missing its left arm and right leg, the creature skittered across the linoleum floor, heading toward the open door.
    "Oh no you don't," Abe said. He ran forward and threw his body against the door, slamming it shut.
    The mechanized corpse reared back like a cobra ready to strike, looking frantically around the basement lab for another means of escape.
    "Got anything I can use to kill this thing for good?" Hellboy shouted at the lab techs.
    Larry and Curly rummaged through drawers and open cabinets.
    The zombie robot fixed its gaze upon an upper window. In a flash, the creature crawled across the floor and scaled the cinder-block wall like some sort of twisted insect.
    "Anytime now," Hellboy said, running to the wall.
    The creature was pulling on the black metal screen that covered the window, removing the bottom screws from the frame with its razor claws.
    "Here!" Curly called, and Hellboy turned.
    He caught the glinting metal object and gazed down into his hand with disbelief. "What the hell am I supposed to do with this?" he asked, waving a scalpel around in the air. It looked ridiculously small in his large hand.
    The third screw broke free from the window frame, and the zombie robot lashed out, smashing the window behind it. It started to wiggle its body through the opening.
    Tossing the scalpel aside, Hellboy leaped and grabbed hold of the automaton's ankle, giving it a good yank.
    "Where do you think you're going?"
    The creature tumbled from its perch, and he threw it violently to the floor.
    The zombie robot lay there, its power source pulsing at the end of a braid of multicolored wires, almost convincing Hellboy that this time it was down for the count.
    But then the animated corpse sprang up from the floor, propelled by its one good leg, its mouth open in a silent scream of rage as it attached itself to him. Hellboy stumbled backward, almost knocked off his feet, and crashed into a desk in the corner of the room.
    "God damn it!" he growled, peeling the thrashing creature away, its clawed hand raking ineffectually down his chest.
    Abe stood over by the Stooges, checking the lacerations on Moe's