Yes, I decided to repost this one as well. However, I'm making some changes in an attempt to reduce the content and get it a T rating. I also have an announcement for the few faithful readers I still have out there...
I recently started some polls on my account as well as a forum. My forum's first topic that I put up was a history of how "The Servant", my big FF crossover, was written. I'm not sure how many "The Servant" readers also read my "LXA" series, but this was the best way to get the word out. I mentioned in the forum that I had a "primordial" version of parts of "The Servant" that I based the new version off of, but with many changes. Just recently...I found a few old fragments of that original story, as well as a one-shot I did called "Brothers" which was the original version of the first Wyvern battle. I'm writing to ask how many people would like to actually see the old version. Odds are I'll fill myself with shame...but I'd like to show how the story evolved, at least in part. So if you'd like to see it, I'll construct a new poll for that purpose and feature it on my profile. Please respond. :(
Now, let's get the formalities out of the way, shall we?
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters, places, or devices that pertain to Tenchi Muyo, Vampire Hunter D, Hellsing, Akira, Wolf's Rain, Lupin the Third, Read Or Die, Spirited Away, or any of the countless other Animes that get cited over the course of the following fanfic...so please don't sue me. I have no money. :(
For those of you who don't know, this is a sequel to my earlier work, "The League of Extraordinary Anime".
First of all, I fear I contracted a severe case of "sequelitis", in which my sequel will be far more lackluster compared to the original. I hope you all enjoy it none the less.
Second, for those of you who are seeing this for the first time, you'll want to go back and read "The League of Extraordinary Anime". Don't worry if you didn't like the movie, because this story is more of a massive crossover than a parody or knock-off of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Third, for those of you that didn't see an Anime you liked in the original, you're in luck! A few new Animes debut in this story, particularly since there are a few vacancies in the League (see original story) that need to be filled. Some of the references will smack you over the head, while some are more subtle...
Fourth...there are a couple of particular Animes in this story of which I have very limited knowledge. I extensively referenced them, but the truth of the matter is most of my knowledge of these Animes are based off of clips I watched and online research. If you see some characters acting extremely OOC, tell me about it and I can change them to make them more accurate.
Fifth, this fanfiction was originally rated M. This is a more "sterilized" version, but it may still be borderline. You've been warned.
Sixth...to the VHD purists, D's story is muddled from the novels, and a certain relationship with a certain someone is very unlikely. Please bear with it.
That said...enjoy!
The League Reassembles
Chapter One
May 5, 2017 – Tokyo, Japan
The dhampire continued to run forward, never letting his quarry get out of his sight. Ahead of him, he could see the sloped, twisted figure of his prey hunched over, bearing a load behind him with some difficulty. Even holding it, and young as this one had to be, he was still incredibly fast. Anyone else would have long since given up. But D was a bit special…
D's long boots continued to slosh through the foul muck at his feet. Despite having waded through far worse, the dhampire still didn't enjoy going through the foul fecal remnants that seemed to linger in the nauseating place. But to an inexperienced vampire with no class and a primary motivation for self-preservation, darkness was dark. And in a sewer, the thing had easy access to his victims, or in this particular case victim. However, to D it was also the first place to look. Finding it had not been a problem, and sure enough his target had been waiting for him. Now, through the dark recesses of the public sewage system, both the hunter and prey were engaged in their race.
The monster turned a corner up ahead, vanishing temporarily from D's view. However, as he dashed forward, his keen ears picked up the sound of shifting metal overhead. After a moment, he heard it shift back as well. Obviously, the thing was trying to escape through a ceiling. D rounded the corner a moment later, and sure enough his target was gone. If the vampire hadn't been so sloppy, D's experience with more skilled vampires might have led him to search the shadows to see if he was in a trap. Among the very intelligent vampires, they might have been hiding there anyway and still have given D the impression they went through the ceiling. But D knew what he was dealing with. He looked up, and sure enough there was a small grating high overhead at the end of a rung ladder. Not wasting a second, the hunter seized the rungs and immediately ran up to the small grating.
Once there, D quickly pushed it out of the way with one punch from a gloved hand, and a moment later his tall, dark body was flying out of the opening and landing on the ground standing up. Emerging slowly would have been foolhardy. It could have been an ambush. Once again, however, D had overestimated his foe. The target was already gone. And so, D took in a moment to look at his surroundings instead.
It appeared to be an old, broken down warehouse. Not all that grand to one of the higher vampires, but to a lower one like this it would suffice. He had at least taken the precaution of finding a dark enough spot. The place was filled with trash. The walls had holes from rot and rats. The metal in the area was rusted, and traces of what had to be transient visitors were present. But all of the doors were well shut up. Rags had been stuffed in the cracks to prevent any chance of light entering. The windows were covered with boards and the cracks had been taped over. Most importantly, however, he saw a set of rusty, warped stairs leading up to a second level. And more importantly than that, he saw two sets of feet abruptly vanish up to that level, not making so much as a sound.
D didn't waste a moment. Immediately, he turned and began to rush up after the feet as well. He ran to the stairs and ascended. For any human, the stairs probably would have creaked and groaned terribly. But D too managed to climb without making a noise. He was not in time to see his quarry's feet vanish around the turn at the top of the stairs, but D sensed the vibrations in the wind as his wide-brimmed-hat-covered-head poked up into the second floor. Right to his left, in what appeared to be a closed-off room, D knew his prey had taken refuge. In no time at all, he was at the top of the stairs, and turning a corner. He went straight to the door, and as he reached back to seize his nodachi, he kicked it open freely with one swift thrust of his right boot.
Moments later, D entered the room. Just framed outside the doorway, he froze and surveyed his situation darkly. This room was even more filthy and infested than downstairs. All of the paint was peeling, and a large hole of rot and rat gnawing was growing in the back of the room. A single window was in the room, but it had been covered by thick, opaque, black blankets hanging from the curtain rod, effectively blotting out all but very dim light. He also saw an open coffin lying on the ground, brimming with dirt. So, he had found the vampire's "inner layer", if such a pathetic sight could even be called that. Looking at the coffin, he realized that it was a particular make from the 1970's. Hence, this one had to have been a vampire long enough to learn a few tricks of the trade, but wasn't nearly old enough to have their legendary wisdom. It was small wonder he had made so many obvious mistakes.
He was, of course, taking the stance of a vampire's classic last pose. The younger ones always did this in the end. He couldn't recall how many times he had seen them try this very move. The pale-skinned creature had backed up close to the wall, and had his hostage braced in front of him like a shield. He held her up with one powerful arm. The hostage was in fact D's client, a reasonably young woman, wearing part of a business suit. The jacket had been discarded and she wore only the shirt with the lower half. The short black hair was the most distinguishing thing about her. Her eyes were glazed over and empty, and her head hung loosely to one side. The foul creature behind her hovered its fangs over her neck over two somewhat scar-like teeth marks. It panted with exhaustion from the long chase, breathing its foul breath down on her.
"You take one step closer hunter…and I tear her throat out." The thing hissed in anger.
In response to this, an old laugh went out from the vicinity of D's left hand. "Oh for goodness sake, D...could it get any easier than this?"
D didn't answer, although the vampire's head turned to some irritation at that, and he pressed his teeth closer after hearing the rebuttle. Under the right circumstances, this might be a bad situation. Especially since the vampire had at least had the foresight to hypnotize his victim. Now she wouldn't resist or try to escape if an opening came. Aiming a good hit was hard if the vampire had enough skill. It wouldn't matter if its head was clear now; in another second it could easily bring its victim's head in front of the blow. Fortunately, for D's client, this would be easy.
D slowly loosened his fingers off of the hilt of his nodachi. Slowly, he began to pull them back down along his coat to rest at his side. The vampire grinned eagerly at this, thinking that it had actually managed to get the hunter to back down. However, that was far from what D was planning. The moment his hand was down, he grasped a small item tucked just inside one of the folds of his coat. A moment later, his hand shot out like a flash.
It was only due to the vampire's superior reflexes that he was even able to see what D did. In the blink of an eye, D had pulled out a small wooden needle and had thrown it at inconceivable speeds. The vampire paused and gagged, thinking for sure its head had just been impaled or that in a moment it would start bleeding from its neck or heart. However, it felt neither of those things. In fact, it felt rather fine. That was when it turned its head to the side, realizing he had seen the needle go that way. Moments later, his eyes rested on where it was. It had embedded itself in the curtain rod, having been flung so hard that it dented in the rod as well as the fixture it was on.
The thing grinned in delight and turned back to D. "You missed."
"I wouldn't be too sure about that." D calmly answered…as the curtain rod fell apart, dropping the black cloth and bathing the vampire in sunlight.
D watched calmly as he saw the monster throw its victim to the ground in agony, then spasmed wildly and screamed. Already, its flesh was beginning to peel and burn all over it. Its eyes turned red and black, and seemed to sink into its skull. Its hair was lit aflame, and the spreading heat lit its scanty clothes on fire as well. The flesh as well as the skin began to peel off his skeleton, and soon his skull was exposed with razor-sharp teeth embedded in the skull. Those bones too began to wither and grow brittle, collapsing and breaking off as the sunlight bathed it. The things arms and legs fell off yet, but still the sun bathed it. The death scream seemed to be dried out, and then vanished due to lack of vocal chords or even a spine. At last, the few remains of skeleton collapsed to the ground, and crumbled into dust. Only the clothing and dust remained now.
D calmly walked over to the curtain next, wincing a bit in the bright glare. The vampire hadn't even bothered keeping track of time. It was dawn for at least two hours now. It had almost been too easy. At any rate, D pulled his weapon out from the remains of the curtain rod and replaced it. As he did, he heard his client begin to stir and turn on the ground. The spell was broken over her, and D soon saw the scars of the bite vanish on her neck in the sunlight as well. Moments later, the woman got up to all fours, and then looked around in confusion. She turned and looked back to D at that, and gaped a little.
"You…"
"The vampire is dead, Ms. Ling." D calmly responded. "Your curse is broken."
The woman blinked and stared in stunned silence for a moment. But then, the reality of what happened, and what must have happened, settled in. She looked around in puzzlement for a while, gasping a bit at the place and the coffin. But then, she turned to the pile of still-smoldering ash on the ground. She gasped a bit louder at that, and quickly got to her feet and backed away from it…towards D.
"Is that…?"
"What's left of him." D answered.
The woman turned and stared at D blankly for a few moments. Her eyes were still frozen in shock at all that had transpired. But then, her eyes suddenly flooded with tears, and she dove forward and threw her arms around the hunter.
"Thank you… Oh, thank you…!" She sobbed. She held him for a moment and just cried against him, grateful to be alive, overjoyed that she was at last free. "You…I don't…oh, thank you!"
The old voice croaked again. "Lady, it wasn't that hard..."
D didn't react with the slightest bit of emotion to this display. He remained perfectly straight, tall, and cold. He allowed a few moments to pass as she sobbed against him and composed herself. In the end, she sniffled, wiped her eyes, and then leaned back away. She rubbed her nose and sniffled again, and then looked up to D. Seeing his cold demeanor, she was a bit unnerved. She couldn't understand why he wouldn't share her joy, or be responsive. It was probably because D had already seen it happen at least a hundred times. This made her uneasy, but then she nodded.
"Yes, of course. You want your fee…"
With that, the woman reached into her suit pocket. She fumbled around for a moment for the envelope she had placed there last night. A moment later, she drew it out, a bit wrinkled and swollen, and handed it to the hunter. D paused a moment, but then stretched out his gloved hand and took the envelope. Despite how genuine her gratitude seemed, D didn't always trust clients. He had been stiffed about 15 percent of the time. And so, he looked down, opened the top of the envelope, and began to ruffle through what was there. Ten thousand yen bills…fifty of them.
"Five hundred thousand yen?" The woman asked, seeing if there was a problem. "That was the agreed price, right?"
The old voice spoke again, under its breath this time, so even the lady couldn't hear it. "Technically we've been working on this two days, lady, so you owe us another five hundred thousand. Then again…that was one of the easiest ones we've ever done…"
"…Right."
With that, D closed the envelope and tucked it away inside his coat. He stood there like a statue afterward. The woman stared at him, and her joy continued to fade and be replaced with a new look. Her appearance, in some ways, soon seemed more glazed over than it had been while under the vampire's control. Her eyes seemed to focus on his face...waiting and hoping. But D gave her nothing. In the end, her eyes lowered, now showing a hint of disappointment... The woman swallowed, and looked around the room uneasily.
"So…um…how do we get out of here?"
"…Front door, downstairs. You should step out first."
"…Right."
A moment later, the woman began to back out. She didn't want to turn her back on D. She looked up to his face hopefully one or two more times, but he didn't change. Once she was close enough to the door, however, she turned and reluctantly walked away. She walked calmly at first, but soon her footsteps began to pick up speed. Moments later, D heard her creaking down the stairs.
With that, D began to calmly walk out as well, not minding the coffin or the ashes. He had doubts that anyone would ever do anything with them again, other than smash them to bits when the building was condemned. Soon, however, he had exited the room and made his own way to the stairs. He began to calmly descend it soon after, and reached the bottom silently. He turned and began to make his own way to the front door.
It was there, however, that he stopped. His client was still there. She had managed to get the front door open, but now she was frozen in the morning daylight. D didn't see immediately what had made her stop, but he soon heard chatter from outside. It sounded like police radios, and he thought he could see several lights turning around out there. From the looks of it, the police had surrounded the place. And now Ms. Ling was frozen in the doorway, wondering what was going on. No commands were being sent out, however, so obviously whoever was outside hadn't made a move yet.
"Hmph. Guess it's back to the sewer with us…" The old voice muttered.
"…You can go if you want. I'm going out the front door." D simply answered.
"What? Now wait a minute, D. There could be cops out there. You know how they always ask questions about us vampire hunters. They may want to know what we did with the body. And it's always such a pain to break out of prison…"
"…After that encounter, I'm a little bored."
And so, D calmly approached the doorway as well. More light spilled in as he neared, and the burning orb glanced him in the face. D winced and lowered his hat slightly to keep it out, but he also kept looking forward at what was going on outside. As he drew nearer, he began to make out more distinct shapes and people around. Yet he wasn't able to get the full picture until he finally got right behind Ms. Ling and surveyed the situation for himself.
The area was indeed filled with some kind of officers. They were all heavily armored, looking to be able to stand up to severe attacks and pressure. There were severely armored wagons and cars surrounding the area, looking to not be merely the local police. Many of the officers were hiding behind their vehicles, and had guns out and pointed at the entrance. However, they weren't any normal weapons. D noticed that they were especially high powered…weapons designed so that someone like him would feel them and probably be killed by them before he could regenerate. The street had already been cleared of traffic. There were at least twenty people out here, and eight cars, in addition to one helicopter having landed. If all of this wasn't enough, there were people behind the rows of officers that seemed to be regarding everything pretty casually. D's eyes went straight for two of them in particular. Both of them were dressed in long coats, although the male of the two was far more flamboyant and colorful looking. A pair of yellow sunglasses were pushed hard against his face, and a wide red hat was pushed low on his head. To his side, a bit older woman with pale blond hair, circular lens glasses, and a cold, calm demeanor was discussing things. However, on seeing D exit, she immediately froze in the middle of what she was doing.
Ms. Ling was paralyzed with shock and fear. She stood there frozen in the doorway, unable to move. D, however, calmly lowered a hand and touched her shoulder. His strong grip snapped her out of it, and in a flash of fear she turned and saw D towering over her.
"…Go home."
Ms. Ling paused and blinked for a moment, a longing now in her eyes that she saw him at her side again, but D's voice was not to be denied. Swallowing, she turned and immediately ran down the steps and ran off down the street. Several of the officers looked up to her in puzzlement at this, and turned a bit to their leader. The pale-haired woman leveled an annoyed gaze at D, as if she knew he had done that on purpose. After that, she said something to her side to one of the men around her. This one nodded, and immediately turned and set about having a car meet that woman at the end of the block, take her in, and make sure there wasn't so much as a vampire's hair on her.
The woman inhaled sharply and continued to glare at D. The hunter, on his part, lowered his head a little, and tipped his hat slightly to her.
"…Integra Wingates Hellsing."
The woman paused in response to that, and at last spoke back coldly. "Aren't we forgetting something?" She asked.
D paused a moment, and then added one more thing.
"…Madame."
A cackle of glee went out from D's left hand as Integra struggled with all her might not to turn a shade red. There weren't many men alive who would dare not call her "Sir". Her red-clothed companion grinned at seeing her bulster, revealing much sharper and more monstrous fangs than those of the creature he had just killed.
"Whenever something goes wrong, I should have known you'd be behind it." Integra murmured to the dhampire. "You have a knack for ruining a perfectly planned operation. I don't suppose you have a reason why I shouldn't have you restrained and incarcerated instead?"
"…You're a long way from Britain, Madame." D calmly replied. One of the few things he was glad that he could hold over the red suited figure was that he didn't have to answer to her…unlike him. He saw her bristle again as he gave her that name. "When last I looked, you had no legal authority in Japan."
Before Integra could respond, the red suited man calmly raised a hand to his own hat and gave a tip to D. "Good morning, D." He calmly addressed. "We've actually run into each other twice in one decade." He grinned his massive, monstrous teeth again. "People are going to start talking…"
"I have enough to act on behalf of the Japanese government concerning cases such as yourself." Integra continued. "Which is more than I can say for you. Last I looked, you don't have legal authority anywhere. And technically you're still committing murders."
But neither D nor Integra's friend were paying her any mind. In another situation, Alucard, the man in red, would have been content to stand by and allow Integra to handle this. After all, he was the subordinate. But not with this particular case. Alucard had a particular interest in him, and deep down inside, he knew that D had that same interest back at him. They made a rather interesting pair.
"…I see Ms. Seras has decided to let you handle this one yourself." D spoke up, ignoring Integra again.
"This time of the day can be so bad for her youthful complexion." Alucard answered with that same insidious smile.
Integra looked to her subordinate, and then back at D. She was still struggling to suppress her anger and keep her cool demeanor, but if even Alucard was intent on driving her up the wall, she wasn't going to take it. She turned back to D and scowled, then waved at him. "I don't have time for this sh't. Take him."
Before the nearest officer could move a single foot toward the dhampire, D spoke up again. This time, he did address the woman. "…I was just doing my job, and your job for you, I might add. There wasn't much time for you to worry about breaking in slowly and countering him. And if your friend had his way…" D turned slightly to Alucard, but then back to Integra. "…I'm sure that he would have been content to put a bullet through Ms. Ling's heart en route to the vampire's."
Alucard grinned again. "Probably."
"So now you think of yourself as the hero?" Integra darkly answered, crossing her arms and glaring at him. "I don't know how many years you've been at this, but times have changed since Feudal Japan and the Wild West. A vigilante isn't much more than just a common thug nowadays. If you feel like being a law man, then do what everyone else does and join your local service. Anything else, and I don't care if you parked illegally to get to a vampire. You're a criminal as well. You stick with the law or you face the consequences. I don't care if you're a dhampire or not, I'm not letting you dictate the rules to me just to accommodate your thoughts on what's the right thing to do."
D paused for a brief moment in response to this diatribe. However, in the end, he responded calmly.
"…I wonder if you would have said the same thing to Martin Luther."
Now Integra's face really did turn a shade red. That was the straw that broke the camel's back, and Alucard had to struggle not to let out a small chuckle at it. The fierce woman turned her head down to the officers, and immediately extended out to point at the dhampire. "Kill him."
Immediately, everyone zeroed in on D's heart and fired their weapons. However, D was a bit faster than that. The mere time it took for a command to reach a human's brain and the signal to reach an effector muscle was more than enough for him. In one nimble movement, he crouched to the ground and then leapt straight up into the air. Huge bullets ripped apart the doorway and bricks behind him, soon tearing the front of the building into rubble. A few of the shots followed him up as he leapt into the air, but they were too slow. Besides, many of the people were unfamiliar with dhampires. They were expecting a mostly human opponent…not one that easily leapt three stories into the sky. As D sailed past the roof, he nimbly performed a midair back flip, and a second later landed right on top of the building. As he did, the gunmen turned their heads up and began to fire, but it was too late. He turned and vanished over the building edge almost the moment that they began.
"Same old Integra, eh D?"
D ignored the hand as he proceeded to use his superhuman speed to carry him along the roof to the edge of it. Once there, he quickly leapt over and jumped onto the next roof. He ran along this, and moments after he leapt again, this time sailing over a four lane urban street. But he cleared it as easily, and soon was running on the next roof to repeat the process.
In modern times, the profession of vampire hunting was not only non-lucrative, but it was quickly becoming regimentalized. Case in point was Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing. She was the head of the Hellsing Agency in Britain, an organization that dated back decades that was devoted to keeping the government safe from supernatural creatures such as vampires and ghouls. They had quickly and effectively exterminated every non-migrant vampire on the island shortly after becoming mainstream…quick being a relative term for an immortal like D. However, they had quickly shown low tolerance for the dhampire's own line of work. He too was in the vampire hunting trade, but just as law men disdained bounty hunters for taking justice into their own hands, so had the Hellsing Agency tried to drive him permanently off the island for his occupation. He couldn't confirm it, but he might have actually been a wanted man in that country.
Yet D knew that their success was due largely to the efforts of one particular member: a ridiculously powerful vampire named Alucard. He was one of the most vicious, arrogant, merciless, and sadistic vampires D had ever met. But so long as he kept that homicidal path toward killing members of his own kind, and somehow remained under the thumb of Hellsing, Integra didn't mind having him along doing the dirty work. Control, D knew, was the key issue in why Integra hadn't turned those officers on Alucard long ago. More than being good at what he did, the vampire remained Hellsing's servant. If it was simply a matter of good intentions, Alucard would have been out long ago. D knew for a fact that the vampire had killed more than his share of innocents in the line of duty…some of them, perhaps, even intentionally… No…D knew the real reason that he was on one end of Integra's barrel and Alucard was on the other was because she couldn't control the dhampire the way she did Alucard. And for a dhampire like him to be on the loose, that was a potential liability.
Now, it seemed, with the original objective completed, Hellsing was expanding its borders. It was moving into other countries now, being brought in by the governments to control vampire problems as well. That made D's job harder as well. Integra could be a hard woman. If she didn't have a vampire under control, she didn't want it around at all. The fact that Ms. Seras was under Alucard himself was probably the reason why the young vampress was still alive. D, however, knew that while they might be fighting for the same cause, he could never risk exchanging more than a few words with Sir Hellsing, and had to avoid as much contact as possible.
After running for five minutes, D had put about three miles between him and the Hellsing Agency. He was still on the roofs at this point, and hadn't alerted anyone besides a few pigeons. He felt himself start to get winded at that. Luckily it was still early, but doing this much physical activity in the sun began to weigh down on him. As a dhampire, he could tolerate broad daylight, but not indefinitely. Unlike other vampires, he was not tied to his native soil. But if he spent too much time in the sun, he too would have to bury himself just like his more bloodsucking half-brethren. He decided he had exerted himself enough. He came to the edge of one building, and found that it conveniently was close enough to the other to make a rather dark alley. He paused and looked down it for a moment, seeing that other than trash, a dumpster, and several shadows, there was nothing down there. He paused for a moment, but then squatted again, and moments later his black trench coat unfurled as he fluttered down into the alleyway.
D silently hit the ground a moment later. He crouched for a moment…and froze. He sensed something here. A cold…icy feeling… He could almost smell the death on the air. He did not gulp or show any signs of anything, but after a moment he slowly stood up, aware that a prickling sensation was already touching his neck.
"…Hello again, D."
D didn't express anything, but he didn't need to. He didn't even bother turning around or looking surprised. He already knew what was there. Sure enough, out of one of the especially dark shadows, the tall, red-suited form of Alucard slowly emerged. D didn't bother turning around immediately. He held where he was, before he finally responded calmly and slowly.
"…I wasn't aware that you could move that fast in daylight."
"The Hellsing organization has been working on a special chemical that creates the effect of simulated darkness and simulated daylight." Alucard calmly explained. "Obviously, it works. Then again, I wasn't foolish enough to run across the rooftops, but I stayed low where the shadows are."
D at last turned around. As he did, he indeed saw that the tall, red-dressed vampire stood before him. He was a good head taller than D. However, if one stared and got a good look at both of their faces, they would realize something strange. It was almost as if they were looking at two sides of the same coin. Both of them had faces that were remarkably similar to one another's. But while D's face was calm, composed, and cool, Alucard's face flashed with maliciousness, bloodlust, and violence.
"I thought you'd at least want to talk with me, after last time." Alucard finally stated.
"Are you really interested in what else a…'mere dhampire'…has to say?" D simply answered.
Alucard grinned. "Don't worry. I still think dhampires are perversions of my race, if you thought I was beginning to respect you."
D stared coldly back. "Humans…dhampires…even lesser vampires… Is there anything in the world you do respect?"
"Only myself." Alucard answered plainly, not at all miffed by D. "You never did approve of me, D. That much is clear from your lifestyle. But I get the impression there's something else that has made you upset. Enlighten me."
D stared silently back in response. Alucard, who frightened all living and good creatures, didn't so much as make his heart accelerate. He paused for a brief moment, looking over the thing before him, and finally spoke. "…You shouldn't have done that to her."
Alucard hesitated only the slightest moment, before he remembered their last encounter. He then knew what D was talking about, and answered simply. "I gave her the choice, same as always."
"You knew what she would pick."
"Perhaps."
"You knew she was too young to have an appreciation for death, and so you knew she would choose your twisted version of life."
"It's a little late for regrets now, isn't it?" Alucard answered with another malicious grin. "Why do you care?"
D hesitated only a moment. "…Because I feel you plan to do the same thing to her that you did to Mina."
Alucard did pause at this. He seemed to stew over these words for a few moments, and his smile toned down a bit though it would not vanish. After a moment, he stared harder at D through his yellow lenses. "…I think I preferred you when you were emotionless, D. You're beginning to whine like they do."
"Your master knows that you're far worse than the ones you've hunted." D continued. "When this is all over, she'll be the first to stab you through the heart."
"And since when have you cared?" Alucard calmly answered, not at all threatened by this premonition. "I know full well that if one ever hired you for it, you'd gladly find me and finish me in record time. At least…you'd try." He hinted this last part with an especially strong air of challenge.
"…I don't know about you." D said after a bit of a pause, in an air of finality.
"Oh?" Alucard calmly answered. "How so?"
"You work for Hellsing. You hunt your own kind. Until now, I accepted the excuse that you were doing it out of your own selfish arrogance that not only did humans deserve to die at your hand, but all lesser vampires as well. I also perhaps thought that somehow the Hellsing family had managed to enslave you. However, that seems unlikely, as your own pride would make you die before you were forced to serve a human. I've captured several vampires much lesser than you alive, and each one impaled themselves through the heart rather than allowed themselves to be the sport of humanity. If I had to guess, based on what I know about you, I'd say you are content to be the servant of a human for now, but that you feel that they are currently headed on a path toward self-destruction. You believe their whole society will collapse within the next hundred years or so. And when it does, you'll be ready to pick up the pieces and establish yourself as the new world order."
Alucard didn't shift in the least to this accusation…or prediction. He merely stared back calmly at D, still smiling. "…Now that sounds like a good idea." He answered at long last. "I don't suppose you care to do something about it, do you?"
D did nothing in response. However, his fists slowly tightened. A cold silence went between the two of them. The air seemed to suddenly grow far more dangerous.
Alucard grinned a bit wider. "You don't honestly think you can beat me in a fight, do you D?"
"…In terms of matching your power, I am outclassed." D calmly answered. "But I still know all your moves, and how to get around them."
Alucard paused in response, but then slowly raised a gloved hand to his glasses and pulled them down slightly, revealing his monstrous, ravenous yellow eyes. "Only because I taught you how." He finally answered. "It would be an interesting match. I haven't encountered anyone who has even come close to killing me in almost one hundred and fifty years. However, I have a different plan in mind." He paused for a moment at this, and then turned his head slightly to the side. "How would you like to hang out with 'dear old dad' for a little while?"
D stared darkly back in response, but remained silent and tensed. "…Why would I care to do that?"
"Because I know you, D, far better than you know, or think you know, me." Alucard responded smoothly. "You've painted a lovely picture of me. And perhaps that's what you believe. But you don't believe it all together. Something isn't right to you. I can see the uncertainty in your eyes and hear it on your voice. Much as you mask it, it exudes forth like water from an old barrel. It makes you even more sickeningly human than I thought. But never the less, it fills you with curiosity. You want to know if your suspicions are correct. You want to know if I'm really the monster that you think I am, and if I have purely selfish reasons for aiding Hellsing. You want to see if there's another motive underneath."
D said nothing in response for a moment. "…Are you so sure?"
"I know it." Alucard answered. "Because you're wondering if I had the exact same motivation concerning your mother."
D did not answer that. He stayed silent and emotionless under his hat. However, Alucard knew he had struck a note with that, and his white fangs glistened in delight at sensing the change within D's stoic exterior.
"…What about Sir Hellsing?"
Alucard's grin faded into a smile, and he snorted. "She ordered me to bring you back dead or alive. She didn't specify when. So it really is up to you, dhampire. Either we go off together…or we begin the process of 'negotiating' your surrender." As if to accentuate this last part, Alucard began to dip one of his hands down to his side.
However, there was no need for that. D paused for only a moment longer to this. But then, he reached a decision. His fists relaxed, and he calmly stepped over to one side. He never changed his expression once. Alucard cracked another grin at this, and promptly raised his hand off his side, letting his gigantic pistol remain within his coat for the time being. With that done, he took another step out of the shadows, and gestured onward.
"Shall we be off?"
The universe's most reknown genius continued to type furiously in her lab. Her latest experiment was nearly ready.
The small girl swiveled around on what appeared to be an invisible chair made of energy that hovered in midair. She encircled and slowly descended around a particularly large object in her lab. Smooth blue metal floors and ceilings surrounded her, but quite a few large cables and bits of machinery snaked around from everywhere else into the room center. There, suspended inside a great yellow sphere of energy, was what appeared to be nearly a full grown tree. However, the tree wasn't growing in any soil. Rather, the roots were suspended in midair as well, as if there was an invisible medium that they were penetrating. Nevertheless, there was ample room for the tree to grow up and out and fan in all directions. Of particular interest to the girl scientist encircling the tree, however, was a large natural hole that appeared to have grown into the center of the tree for one or another reasons. It obviously led only into the tree's interior, but it was so black and open at the moment that it appeared to almost lead to oblivion.
A screen and a keyboard were also suspended in front of the scientist, although there were no signs of a monitor or cords leading to the main keyboard. As she continued to type furiously, she frequently looked up and over to the tree, as if expecting the strange organism to do something unexpected. However, seeing nothing, she went back down and typed further. At last, her hovering chair reached ground level, and after a few more moments, she stopped her work. A large set of alien characters suddenly came up on her screen, as well as two options. However, Chibi Washu was quite fluent in Jurai, and could read them easily.
Commit? Yes/No
Washu grinned, exposing small fangs, and then like a gleeful child reached up and snapped her fingers. In a flash, goggles seemed to materialize out of thin air over her head, and she quickly grasped them and pulled them down. Then, she quickly entered 'yes' and leaned back to watch the fun.
Immediately, a great humming went out throughout the chamber. It began to get louder and more frequent as time went on. As it did, small lights began to travel through the conduits and the machinery that surrounded the room. They too grew in light and brilliance as time continued to pass. All of this created an interesting effect around the tree. Abruptly, small waves appeared to radiate off of it. They started at the trunk, traveled down the branches, and all the way to the leaves before casting off light. They did so again and again, and each time the light grew a bit stronger. It wasn't long before rays of light were cascading off the tree, and growing brighter each time. The humming grew louder, and the lights grew bigger and bigger. But Washu, through it all, stared eagerly into the center of the tree, right into the black spots. She balled her hands into eager fists, and clenched her teeth in anticipation.
The humming finally grew very loud, and the light became blinding. Then, abruptly, the humming stopped, and instead a great blasting sound erupted that sounded almost like ripping. Immediately, the black space in the center of the tree was destroyed as pure, radiant, white light erupted from it. A tremendous blast shot out and bathed Washu in light, and soon despite the goggles she was blinded. She recoiled a bit and winced, and nearly raised her arms up to shield herself as the huge eruption took place. But then, as soon as it had come, the eruption vanished. The light dimmed back down. Her machinery hummed again, but this time was slowing down, showing that it was calming back to its original state.
Washu recoiled a moment later, but then opened her eyes and looked back. After a pause, she reached up to her head and pulled off her goggles. Then she got a clear look at what had happened.
"Ugh…where the hell…!"
Suspended in the yellow sphere now, just outside the black opening, was a young-man with yellow bestial eyes, long gray dog-like hair, pointed animal ears, and a long red kimono. He opened his fanged mouth and groaned, looking quite disgruntled, bewildered, and confused as to why he was suddenly there. In fact, it looked as if he was about to get rather angry that he was floating in midair and nowhere around where he was a moment ago. But then, he looked up and out, and saw the small scientist seated at her desk. Immediately, both of their eyes widened at the sight of each other, although the young man's eyes widened much larger.
"Oh shoot!" Washu griped.
"Oh no!" Inuyasha, the young man, whined. "Not you again! Anything but you again!"
Washu seemed to ignore the hanyou and turned down to her keyboard. She began to type a few things on it, and look at the information. "Hmm…everything seemed to work ok. My calculations held out…"
"What in God's name am I doing here!" Inuyasha angrily bellowed, immediately throwing his arms about madly within his suspended prison. "What are you doing here! You're supposed to be two hundred years in the future!"
"Oh, I am, Fido." Washu calmly answered from her workstation, never looking up. On hearing her old pet name for him, Inuyasha bristled with rage and began to fume and boil over. He hated that name. "You're the stray dog in this case. You came into the present. Or at least, my present. Time can be so relative once your race invents time travel…"
"Alright…what am I doing here!" Inuyasha soon scowled in response. "I was minding my own damn business listening to that stupid girl complain about me working her too hard, and all of the sudden I'm weightless and in this damn…" He turned and looked around a bit at the area, and soon he realized he had no idea what anything was. That only made him madder. "Where the hell am I, anyway?"
Washu frowned at her screen again, and gave a sigh. "Well, nuts." She finally admitted. "I guess this experiment is a failure."
Inuyasha picked up on this, and immediately his face grew red as a beet. Clenching his teeth in anger, he seethed out another question. "What do you mean, 'experiment'…?"
Washu held a moment, but then cheerfully turned back to Inuyasha, looking as if she hadn't minded…or heard…any of his angry insults or bits of rage. "It seems I've run into a scientific stumbling block!" She announced merrily. "You see, I was fumbling through some of my samples when I noticed leaf matter that I picked up off your kimono years ago when we worked together. I realized in no time that it was from that 'time tree' that you spoke about, so I figured it would make a nice afternoon project to try and make one of my own. So I got the old cloning mechanisms out…synthesized a seed based on DNA evidence…provided ample growing conditions…spliced in my patented accelerated growth gene…yadda yadda yadda… In short, I finally had this brand new time tree grown. But apparently it doesn't work. You see, the time tree seems to take a bit from you when it goes to work and primes you to return to your original time period for the return journey. So instead of opening a portal back in time, I seemed to have made a gateway that pulled just you into the future." She paused a moment at this, then smiled and gave a shrug. "Oh well! Kalatog made 54,724 warp engines that didn't work before he finally made something living travel past the speed of light…"
Inuyasha only seethed in anger again, and soon was thrashing about madly in midair. "Look, I don't care how you got me here, just put me back!"
Washu was now calmly typing away at her computer again. "Oh, no can do, Rover." She simply responded. "Seems this tree is only a one way exit. I could try to send you back, but the chronaton flux could rip you apart or make you exist at all frames of time speed at once in one second. There's only a one in forty-eight dodecillion chance of that other option happening, but if it does it will cause a temporal collapse that will rip apart the very fabric of the universe, so I think we won't take that chance…"
"You can't send me back?" Inuyasha blasted in shock and rage.
Washu paused long enough to turn to Inuyasha and held up a finger in self pride. "There is nothing the great Chibi Washu cannot do!" She held a moment, but then put her finger down and gave an innocent shrug. "It'll just take me a few days to get it right."
"Then just take me to Kagome's house and I'll use the time tree there!" Inuyasha screamed in response.
Washu shook her head, and turned back to her work once again. "Sorry, Ol' Redder, but that won't work either. I told you already. If you're going to be traveling from a time that's not your time of origin to another time, you have to be primed by the tree to make the trip. If you don't, it won't work. We bypassed that step in our little demonstration today, so I'm going to have to find a way to reproduce it artificially to send you back."
Inuyasha looked ready to tear Washu's head off. He was practically foaming at the mouth, and a blood vessel looked like it had burst in his eye. He grit his teeth almost to the point of grinding them as he gazed bloody murder at Washu. Meanwhile, the scientist merely began to hum a tune to herself as she typed along on her computer.
"Can you at least get me down from here!" He blasted in fury.
Washu looked up at this. "Huh?" She said, as if she was noticing it for the first time. But on seeing Inuyasha's predicament, she smiled. "Oh, certainly!" With that, she reached over and pressed a single button on her keyboard. The moment she did, Inuyasha's weight returned, and in a flash he dropped to the ground like a stone, sailing down a good twenty feet before smashing face flat against the ground with a considerably loud thud.
Washu smiled in response, and turned back to her work. In the meantime, Inuyasha slowly peeled himself off the ground and struggled not to tear Washu limb from limb.
It was a normal day on the busy streets of Tokyo. People were crowding and pushing as always, and generally making a large mess of things. Cars were running by and the occasional honk went out, creating loud noises to complement the already loud atmosphere created by the surrounding masses of advertisement that constantly blasted the public. The sun was high now, and the people were at their busiest. Yet it was getting close to lunchtime at this point, and so some were beginning to step out of their offices for the time being. That, of course, only made the streets busier and more chaotic. If two tourists had been planning a meeting anywhere in the town at that point, they would find it impossible. There were far too many citizens already running around to find one in the crowd, and far too many loud noises to be able to sort anything out if someone tried to call. On the average business day, too many people were running around their own businesses to be able to care much about anyone else.
That was what the one woman hoped as she slid into a chair at the outdoor table.
The black-haired young woman adjusted her glasses a bit more, and then lowered her arms to attempt to lengthen her rather revealing dress. She hated wearing such trashy outfits, but she had learned with experience that while spying this kind of attire actually helped out. It did make her stick out a bit more from the common crowd, but luckily such a thing was counter-intuitive. Anyone who was on the lookout for her wasn't expecting her to be conspicuous, but to try and blend in with the locals. What more…the more "loose" a person looked, the less inclined the surrounding people were to believe she was all that dangerous. And so, the unusually short and attractive dress stayed. However, she kept her sunglasses close over her eyes, and brushed back her recently cut hair. She found after all missions when she needed to be secretive, especially when she was being looked for, cutting one's hair was an easy way to throw off witnesses.
Fortunately, her target was just across the street from a local outdoor café. It was a rather warm day, so she had little trouble getting an outdoor table that was close to the street, so that nothing blocked her from seeing clear across it. She knew the waiter would be a few moments before she could order a drink, so she had time to look across the way to the building. The new Tokyo Metropolitan Library was just across the street, rather picturesque from Kei's location. It had been completed just last year. At the moment, however, what was of notice was that it was hosting its first major event. A collection of rare works recently discovered from a hidden vault in Italy, including one from Leonardo Da Vinci, was going to be on display starting today. That in and of itself wasn't all that shocking, but there was something else Kei had managed to pick up on recently…
Apparently, the books weren't the only interesting things in town from Europe. Two major, and rather classified, organizations had been heading into town as well. Through a bit of spy work and rubbing elbows with the right people, Kei had managed to pick up their names at least. One was the Hellsing Agency, although she had little idea of their intentions. The other, however, was obviously a dummy company, because their name was allegedly the Royal British Library's Division of Special Operations. That seemed utterly ridiculous to the woman. Why would a library need a special ops force? How stupid was the agent who thought up that code name? At any rate, the code name went well with whatever real mission concerned them. Some of their higher agents were supposed to be attending the Library today during the book unveiling.
Nothing about this boded well with Kei. Both of these organizations were supposedly filled with supernatural characters. This gave the woman the impression that her 'friend' from two years ago, a man named Gendo, was interested in reforming another little special group of operatives. And since she was well aware that she was one of the most dangerous women alive, she had small wonder who the target would be…
So preoccupied was the spy that she hardly noticed a more gangly man wander into the café area. She didn't see him stroll around with his lewd and cool mannerisms until he finally rested his eyes on her. When he did, a smile brightened his face, and enthusiasm seemed to course through him. In a flash, the man dashed over to her. He made enough noise in doing so that the spy heard him approach. Or rather…the woman sensed the air's charge begin to change as he entered near her own field of thoughts. Abruptly, she broke off of her stare at the Metropolitan Library and turned around as the man came to a stop behind her.
Immediately, she saw a sly looking man open his arms wide in front of her as if to embrace her. "Keity-pie!"
Kei's stoic face abruptly turned into a groaning look, as she rolled her eyes and felt sick to her stomach. She recognized that man all too well. "Oh no…" She groaned aloud, bringing a hand to her face and clutching her nasal bridge. "Not you…"
"Hey! Is that any way to greet your old pal Arsene Lupin?" The man chided in response. Immediately, without waiting for her to ask, or even for her to stop hanging her head down with a tired expression rubbing her forehead, he swirled himself around the table and practically leapt down into the chair. Once there, he immediately leaned over, folded his hands together, and then propped his head up on his elbows and hands as he leaned over and gazed dreamily at the spy. "So, how's my favorite psychic agent?"
Kei felt her teeth grit as her nausea was replaced by anger. She wheeled around to him angrily and struggled not to raise her voice above a harsh whisper. "Would you please not call me that! In case you haven't looked at the news for more than two minutes in the past two years, you'd realize I'm the most wanted person alive! Now go away before you blow my cover!"
"Oh, come on…" Lupin teased calmly, leaning back and giving an innocent shrug. "Don't be so cold. I kept my promise, didn't I? I got your husband out of the joint, and I even taught you some English."
"Yes, I remember." Kei moaned angrily in reply. "I also remember how I paid you back for that by busting out your friends, during which we both got thrown into jail, shocked half to death by their sadistic security guards, nearly blown up during the escape, and then ran from every officer in the country before having to disguise ourselves as senior citizens to get on a flight out of Japan, which got nearly shot down, redirected to Afghanistan, where we nearly got killed by the ethnic tribes and went three days without food or water through a burning desert before we finally reached a tapped phone that sent another army of police down on us, and I got shot twice before we managed to replace some Red Cross workers and get out of the country!"
Lupin merely grinned and shrugged. "So things went a little wrong. But wasn't it a swell ride?"
Kei bristled with so much anger that her powers began to cast off a bit. Despite her amount of control…one of her sunglass lenses abruptly cracked. Lupin's cocky looked turned white as a sheet, and he gulped nervously.
"I took one of the shots meant for you. Would you like it back?"
Lupin swallowed again, and put up his hands defensively. "Eh, no thanks. The doctor said I have enough iron in my diet as it is."
"Then get out of here before you screw this mission up." Kei angrily responded, and then turned back to the library.
However, before anything else could happen, the waiter finally arrived. Kei felt herself moan inside. She couldn't get rid of Lupin while he was nearby. If she did, she would no doubt find a way to get conspicuous, and right now she wanted to play it incognito. As for the rogue, however, he seemed to see this as an opportunity. Instantly, he brightened up and turned to the waiter.
"Ah! There you are, my good man! I'll be handling the lady's drinks for this afternoon. I'll have a nice iced tea." With that, he turned to Kei next, who groaned under her breath that Lupin had just said that. It made him even harder to get rid of now without arousing suspicion. In truth, it wasn't just because of the complications with their last mission that made Kei despise Lupin. It was the fact that he was the most obnoxious, lewd, and egotistical man alive. His manners may have worked in the 70's, but she had a feeling he still didn't get it was the 10's. At any rate, he soon popped the inevitable. "And for you, miss?"
Kei grit her teeth and struggled to sound normal, and failed miserably.
"…Beer."
The waiter looked a bit unsettled at that response. He eyed the shaded woman with some apprehension, but then turned around and went about his business. Kei sighed loudly in response to this, and slumped down in her seat as if she was about to endure an hour lecture on grass growing. Lupin, on his part, casually leaned back, turned back to Kei, and grinned.
"Could you please leave?" Kei finally asked after a period of silence, not caring that her voice nearly sounded like begging at this point.
"Aw, come on." Lupin pressed in with a beaming smile. "You have to admit, I was a little fun to hang around with."
"I'd get my ex-boyfriend to knock that stupid grin off your face if I didn't want to do it myself." Kei groaned.
"Hey, that's not very lady like." Lupin scolded playfully. "Besides, maybe I can help out. You should know I'm the best at this kind of business."
"Why are you in town anyway?" Kei finally asked, leaned up and looking tiredly at him. "You thinking of stealing those rare books?"
"Tempting as that is, it wouldn't really be fair." Lupin simply responded. "You see, when it comes to stealing priceless items, the real joy is in sidestepping all the security measures they have set up. That's the main thing that got me devoted to the biz. But when I've been undercover for so long, no one has had the chance to set up a really sophisticated trap to bypass. Before I get back to doing what I do best, I'm going to need to steal a few little things first in order to let them know who's back in town. But I can't really make my triumphant return without my old buddies."
Kei, for the first time, had her anger subsided by puzzlement. "What do you mean? We broke them out."
"Yeah…" Lupin nervously replied, rubbing the back of his head. "But, in case you haven't noticed, my boys were a little out of practice and into rheumatoid arthritis. I'm at my best, but they've gone on aging for forty years. And although I don't want to give them a sip from the ol' Fountain of Youth so that they've gone from Depends to Huggies, I still would like to find a way to get their youth back. I was researching a possible lead to a milder form of youth restoration today. I just stopped by to refresh myself when, low and behold, who should I find but everyone's favorite ESPer."
And who should I find but the world's biggest louse. Kei dismally thought. "Well then, it would be a shame to keep you." The spy responded. "Now please get out of here. I'm not going to tempt fate into hoping that two of the most wanted people on Earth can stay undercover for long if they sit together."
"Aw, come on!" Lupin whined in a boyish tone. "Can't you at least tell me what's going on?"
Kei paused and sighed again for a moment. She was silent for a second, looking back over to the front of the library. As she did, she was just in time to see something new. A motorcade was coming up the street. It had several dark luxury cars in it, but also quite a sizable escort including both regular police cars and motorcycles. The woman tensed up at this. It looked as if her targets were there at last. She was more than ready to get rid of Lupin now, but realized that if she tried to push him away he'd be more suspicious in an instant. And so, in the end, she turned back to him and tried to appease him.
"If you must know, then this is the thing. For some reason, two agencies from Britain are in town today. Both of them are dripping with signs of being dummy corporations, and I haven't been able to find them, or their objectives, listed anywhere. I did find that they supposedly have some sort of special agents working for them…ones with supernatural powers. And for some reason, both of them show up to Japan at the same time."
Lupin held his tongue for once and allowed Kei to describe this. He took in the words and regarded them with some genuine amazement. There was a time when he probably would have laughed the supernatural part off, but after tangling with a group of pseudo-monsters two years ago, he was a bit more of a believer. He turned and looked out to where Kei's interest had been led, and soon saw the motorcade. It was pulling right up to the library, and was coming to a stop there. Immediately, he turned back to Kei. "Oh, I get it." He replied with a knowing tone. "You think this exhibit is some sort of set-up for a meeting of these guys. And you're thinking our old pal Gendo is making another team of experts. But why would he be doing that? What target is as dangerous as Akira?"
Kei frowned and turned back to the thief. "…I think we're looking at them right now."
Lupin paused a moment, not getting this drift. But eventually it sank in, and he suddenly winced. Immediately, he began to gulp and sweat. However, Kei had to suppress a smile. It seemed to have the desired effect. Moments later, Lupin grinned sheepishly and nervously, and quickly began to rise from his chair. "Oh well…so sorry to get going so soon! I hate to cut meetings so short, you know." He spoke quickly. "Be a dear and pick up my tab, and I'll gladly compensate you next time I run into you spying on another organization…"
Kei began to sigh in relief, thinking she had finally got rid of the meddlesome thief. However, just as he began to rise and started to turn to leave…something happened that soon put Lupin and the agencies out of her mind.
A fat rocket shot through the air and struck the front of the library, and moments later a massive explosion went off.
Kei and Lupin were both suddenly thrown to the ground as a rush of heat, wind, and power bathed over them. The agents in front of the library were thrown down as well, and soon flaming pieces of stone debris began to rain down on them. The citizenry screamed in terror as they were flung down, and the moment they were free of the explosion they picked themselves off the street and began to flee away from the shot. The street was soon clearing itself as panicking individuals ran away as fast as they could. As for the library, fire and smoke bellowed forth from the explosion sight. As it cleared, it revealed a great gaping hole in the roof of it, exposing the two top floors and rows of bookcases filled to capacity. A few people ran in panic from the exposed area. It looked like one of those children books that had cross sections to allow the kids to see the details inside the building. As rocks continued to rain down, and the sounds of fire began to burn, the street went strangely silent from the sudden attack.
Kei grunted a bit from the ground, for the landing had been rough, and she slowly pushed herself up off of it. She didn't bother to look at Lupin, bent over himself and looking dazzled, but instead looked up to see what had happened. She didn't get long to, however, before she began to hear something else. A great whirring was coming from down the street. It was quickly getting louder…and Kei soon realized she had heard it before. It was the unmistakable sound of a tank. Immediately, she turned to see it, and gasped at the sight.
Kei was just in time to see an abandoned car turned into a pancake as a street-sized tread ran it over. More treads continued to roll forward, bearing along a massive obtuse cone-shaped tank. The device was huge. It filled the entire street, and still the edges of it dug into the buildings on the side, tearing huge rifts into them. It had to be at least four stories tall. Anything unfortunate enough to get in its path was routinely obliterated. It seemed to be sheer and without any openings. However, Kei soon saw this wasn't the case. A massive hatch opened from one side, and moments later not one, but six barrels came out arranged in a honeycomb formation. They rotated like a massive revolver and fired again. Moments later, a huge rocket tore out, this time sailing for the motorcade. Kei turned back, and saw that many of the people had already fled it. But those that didn't were soon trapped in another massive explosion. In one blast, each of the vehicles were cast aside like paper, and the central ones were obliterated. A geyser of broken pavement erupted from the latest fireball.
The massive tank didn't seem to mind any manner of resistance. It eventually reached the remains of the motorcade. A large crater was blasted into the ground by now, but it easily passed over it while grinding the rest of the cars into scrap. The huge weapon blocked Kei's view of the library, and ground to a halt. Huge steam vents blasted out as it stopped, and then the massive machine lumbered on and idled there.
Kei blinked in confusion at this, wondering why such a huge machine was stopped right in front of a library. Then, she began to wonder something else…
…That Library Special Ops force wasn't for real…was it?
To be continued...