Blameless: A Seras Victoria story
Chapter 1: Introductions
Our story takes place in England, more specifically at the Hellsing manor. The date is September 21st, a Thursday. Time is 8:45 a.m.
It has been almost two weeks since the attack on the Hellsing Organization by the Valentine brothers. Even though Alucard had stopped the older and the younger surrendered himself to death, problems still lingered.
Last week, Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing, accompanied by Ferguson, Senior Officer Seras Victoria, and troops from Hellsing, had attended the formalized funeral of the Hellsing men who had died during the invasion of the Valentine Brothers.
Sir Integra had for days afterwards locked herself in her office, not even bothering to retire to her bedchamber to sleep. Twice had Alucard entered through the walls in an attempt to console (or harass...hard to tell) his master, and twice had been thrown out. Eventually, Sir Integra recovered from her grief enough to begin normal procedings again and the first order of business on the list was to replenish the ranks of the Organization that were severely thinned by the attack.
Along with the standard British military, police, and SAS members, a man named Victor Lockbane and his soldier-for-hire team attended try-outs. Calling themselves, "The Black Tigers", they excelled in every area of the tests and were offered positions by Integra to become part of the squad at Hellsing, which they accepted.
The five members of Black Tigers, including Lockbane, moved into the barracks of Hellsing to begin settling in. In total, 42 men including the Black Tigers were hired on. Sir Integra informed the new recruits to be dressed and in the back lawn of the Mansion at precisely 9 am else look for new lines of work.
At present, the men were busily running around the barracks, pulling on or lacing up boots, straightening uniforms, running combs through hair and brushing teeth, all trying to hurry so as to keep their newly acquired jobs.
The door opened and Ferguson stepped into the room. "Alright then, time is 8:50 am, you have 10 minutes be assembled in the back lawn of the manor. Any man who is late is dismissed from the Organization. This morning we will be going over ground rules for the Hellsing Organization as well as important need-to-know information".
He cleared his throat and continued, "Some of the information might be uneasy for some of you, but do recall that it is part of your job. You are expected to get with the program if you want to stay here. That is all". Ferguson nodded to the recruits and left, shutting the door behind him.
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At the same time, below the barracks in the sub-basements, two other members of Hellsing were attempting to get dressed, quite against their natural cycle. The Police Girl Seras Victoria and her master, Alucard, had also been ordered to make appearences. Alucard had yawned lazily when Integra had come to his room to make such an annoucement, he had had to do this with the last group of recruits.
Seras was a nervous wreck, both at exposing her nature in front of all these people, and at standing around in sunlight.
Alucard laughed off her concerns. "This is not a fairy tale Police Girl, we are uncomfortable in sunlight but it will not hurt us", he had told her. Yet and still she was taking no chances.
She has gotten up this morning with little complaint when Walter arrived to wake her. Even though the news was sudden, she consider it part and parcel with her job, so she did not complain, even though it was the equivilent of keeping a human up until 5 am. She couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed that Alucard knew in advance and simply kept it from her,
So she got up this morning, showered and dressed herself accordingly. It was only when 9 am started coming around she became nervous. What would these men think of her? Would she be rejected by them? Captain Garreth had always treated her respectfully, but she was not so ready to assume these men would do the same.
The night before, just in case the "Sunlight doesn't hurt us" by Alucard had been another of his pranks, she obtained from Walter a small bottle of high SPF sunscreen and a pair of darkly tinted sunglasses.
Now dressed and showered, she ran a brush through her hair then, upon finishing, reached for her sunblock. She rubbed a thin layer of sunblock on her face, legs, neck, arms, and hands as a precaution. She slipped her new glasses on, much perferring the sport look to hers as opposed to Alucards red-tinted vintage glasses
Time was now 8:56 a.m. Alucard walked soundlessly through her wall, interrupting her admiring herself in her new glasses in front of the mirror. "Police Girl, you don't have time for this nonsense", he scoffed.
Seras gave him a look of annoyance, "Alright master, I'm ready. But why do we have to do this?".
"Most humans would deny the very existance of Vampires. How can you expect those men to fight something they do not believe in? We are here to MAKE them believe", Alucard said with a subtle grin on his face. "And...how do we do that?" Seras asked.
Alucard just laughed, and his laughter stayed with Seras as he vanished into shadow. She took one last look at her Hellsing uniform and glasses before running out the door and up the stairs, headed for the back lawn.
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At 9:00 am sharp, Sir Integra walked from one of the back doors to the mansion outside to the lawn, where her new recruits were assembled. A podium had been prepared beforehand by Walter for her to speak from. Standing just inside the house, peering through a small window at Sir Integra as she began giving instructions to the new men.
"You already know where the barracks are I trust. The kitchen, dining room, most of the bathrooms, tea parlor, and entrance to the basements are on first floor. Second floor is additional kitchen and dining areas, library, a gym, and a few more bathrooms. Third floor houses my office, Walters room, and various other rooms to which you will have no need of. It is not off-limits but I warn against unwarrented visitation".
Integra cleared her through and continued. "In the basement are the armory and indoor firing range. There are two doors in the basement, one clearly marked, the other with a simple nameplate. These rooms are OFF LIMITS to all personnel except myself, Walter, and Mr. Ferguson. I repeat, they are OFF LIMITS. If I catch you near them you will suffer the consequences!" she said, making sure to put emphasis to the fact the man were not allowed near or in them.
A recruit at this time raised his hand, "Sir Hellsing, I wondered if we may ask whats in these rooms thats so important?". Integra smirked a bit, "Glad you asked. Gentlemen, I wish to introduce to you Senior Officer Seras Victoria". The door to the outside opened and Seras walked out. Her short skirt and good looks elicited quite a number of wolf whistles from the man. She walked next to Sir Integra and stood beside her.
"Good morning Miss Victoria", Integra said without turning her head. "Good Morning Sir Integra", Seras answered back, smiling at her. Integra turned to the crowd of recruits, "You all must have at least heard rumors your job is to hunt and kill the living dead, specifically Vampires". The group uttered sounds of acknowledgement. "I have brought Miss Victoria and one other here this morning to prove the existance of Vampires to you, so as to assure any doubts about your work".
The men broke into loud laughter at this, "Her? A Vampire?" one shouted, causing more laughter. When a haunting voice began laughing with them, however, they suddenly silenced.
"Alucard! Stop playing games!" Integra yelled. A mass of black shadows formed next to Integra and Alucard appeared, dressed in his fedora, glasses, and coat. The men gasped, several of them taking steps backwards.
Alucard walked up to the closest man in the front row, causing the others in the row to back away. "You find it funny to laugh at my fledgling?" Alucard asked in a sickeningly sweet voice. He grinned widely at the recruit, showing off his gleaming fangs.
The man paled and began backing away, causing Alucard to vanish and appear right behind the man, amist a crowd of soldiers. Alucard seized the man by the back of the uniform and hoisted him into the air, laughing insanely.
"ENOUGH Alucard! Put him down this instant!" Integra yelled. Alucard complied, dropping the man like a rock. He laughed again and walked over to his master, taking his place beside her.
The men stood there in silence for a moment. "So, shes a Vampire too?" one man asked. Integra ordered Seras to remove her sunglasses. She did so, exposing her blood-red eyes to the men. She opened her mouth wide, also demonstrating her own fangs for them.
"These two work for me. They have orders (Integra looked sharply at Alucard at this statement) not to harm you. However, should you decide to provoke them (another look in Alucards direction), I will turn a blind eye to your resulting condition. Do we all understand?" Integra asked. A chorus of "Yes ma'ams" answered her.
"Miss Victoria will be on your squad. She may be a Vampire and a soldier but she is also a lady. I expect all of you men to conduct yourselves as gentlemen around her", Integra continued.
"She means, do not attempt to get into her pants", Alucard said with a hideously evil grin, causing several men to clamp their hands over their mouths to avoid laughing. Seras blushed furiously at this, looking at the ground. Integra looked from Seras to Alucard, obviously she did not approve.
"Alucard, don't you have somewhere to be right now?" Integra hissed at him. "Why, I believe I do. Thank you master", he purred before vanishing into shadow. Integra rubbed her forehead for a moment and continued, "Miss Victoria, that is all I require of you". Seras nodded with a smile and walked back into the house, headed straight for her room.
"I'll be waiting for you, Police Girl" , Alucard cooed in her mind. She growled and quickened her pace, determined to let him have it for embarassing her.
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"Do you HAVE to embarass me at every chance?!", Seras was yelling at him. She had stormed into her room, finding her master relaxing as if he was on vacation. She knew it was hopeless, he never listened to her objections or complaints before, no reason to start now.
Alucard just grinned, his feet propped on the table. "Why...yes Police Girl, I believe I do". Seras growled in frustration, plopping down on her coffin-bed, "You don't have to, you know? Sometimes I swear you do it just to get a rise out of me."
The even wider grin he gave her only confirmed she was correct.
"Try not to let it worry you Police Girl. Besides, if they become unprofessional with you, you could always drink from them", Alucard said with an all-too-familiar grin.
"No!", Seras yelled, "I am perfectly happy with transfusion blood and I don't want to feed off people. I'm not like you!".
Alucard stretched like a lazy cat, "You don't want to now, but you will oneday Police Girl.."
"And would you stop calling me that! I told you already I have a name!" Seras said. Alucard leaned over until his face was barely apart from hers, ruby eyes looking into ruby eyes.
"No", he said, grinning wildly at her. Seras growled, baring her fangs slightly and swung her fist at her master. It sailed through thin air as Alucard vanished, laughing the entire time at her.
She sat there in silence, sighing. "What am I going to do with you master?" she said as she laid back in her bed, closing the lid to try and catch up on a bit of sleep before tonights mission.
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Back in his own room, Alucard had removed his hat, glasses, boots, and coat and was doing exactly the same thing. He closed the lid to his coffin-bed and sighed, stretching out for a rest before he would wake at sunset to prepare for the mission.
An orphanage in Wales her reported that several of the children from inside had gone missing. What attracted Integra was the fact that at least one child had been reported to be seen stumbling around in the surrounding forest as if in a daze. Integra immediently suspected he had become a ghoul and decided to investigate.
Tonight, Police Girl would be taking herself, 10 new members and a few of the older ones to Wales to investigate the orphanage. Alucard had more or less invited himself, eventually winning out over Integras protesting that he stay.
Alucard made himself comfortable in his coffin, thinking over his strategy for tonight.
He replayed the incident with the troops over in his mind, laughing internally at the scare he gave the human. As he started to doze off, he remembered something else... that smell! He could swear he'd smelled it somewhere before.
'Probably cheap human cologne' he thought to himself as he drifted off to sleep...