A/N: Temari insistred that I at least give you the first chapter of this story, since she begged for me to make it in the first place... This is also one of my series about Jeremy Belpois, but in a world from a more... mature series.
Disclaimer: Code Lyoko and Hellsing belong to MoonScoop and Kohta Hirano respectively, not to me.
A Frenchman in London
Chapter I – The Secret Forces
As soon as I exited the boarding tunnel, I entered the vast, open area of the London Royal Airport, which was very beautiful in terms of its architecture and its various portraits and statues. One thing that would not be beautiful to me would be to let my presence here be known. After all, a Frenchman going to England is all too often just asking for a quick and painful death.
In case you just tuned in to my little adventures, I'm Jeremy Belpois, better known by my escapades with a digital world known as Lyoko created by a scientist named Waldo Schaffer. I have also been dating his daughter, Aelita for a few months now, even though we met because of Lyoko about three years ago. What you might not know about me, if you never read my other chronicles, is that I am actually a member of France's national security force, better known as the Gendarme Nationalé. Not so long ago, I fought and conquered a ruthless organization that consisted of Nazis, Jihad Muslims, Soviet Communists, French Revolutionaries, and just about every political and religious zealot group in history that sought to conquer the world.
While taking down their assets, I noticed one that had been recently been sighted often in England, in connection with another secret coalition, so I decided to take a little trip there to see what was going down there, so to speak. However, I obviously had to disguise myself, as I did not want to be discovered as a Frenchman in England, since they don't take kindly to us "Frenchies." The feeling's mutual, of course.
So, there I was, minding my own business, wondering who I was sent to find, and where he or she would be, when I noticed that the airport was less, shall I say, dense than I expected. I say 'dense' because there was nobody there, except for the airport crew, which no one paid any close attention to. However, I noticed one of them paying very close attention to me. It was a woman at the airport deli, dressed in a flight attendant uniform, with long brown hair. But the strangest part was that, for a brief moment, I thought I saw here brown eyes flash a bright shade of red as she looked at me. Then again, I have seen stranger sights these past few months. Just then, at that moment, she waved at me in a way that invited me to the counter. So, reluctantly, I walked over to the deli and sat down in one of the bar chairs.
"What's up?" I asked her.
"How's about I get you a drink on the house, kid?" she asked me, in a somewhat seductive way.
"Um, I don't drink alcohol," I said, "but I would like some water."
With that, she smiled, in a rather creepy way, and said, while getting my beverage, "You new here?"
"Yes," I answered hesitantly. Just then, I smelled a stench I knew all too well: the stench of newly dead bodies and…of fresh blood. What was more was that I could tell that the smell of blood came from in front of me, but I couldn't believe what I thought.
Ridiculous, I thought to myself, she's just a deli counter waitress. Besides, blood doesn't show up on humans unless they're bleeding, and she's clearly fine. Unfortunately for me, I forgot to hide my Police badge, and the minute she saw it on my shirt, she dropped the glass and suddenly lunged at me, shouting,
"You dirty French street rat!"
I dodged just in time, and noticed her jumping over the counter to face me. It was then that I got a real shock. When she smiled again at me, her canines were suddenly longer and sharper than I saw before, and her eyes were red and bloodshot.
"No," I said, refusing to believe my eyes. "That's impossible! Vampires don't exist!" I admittedly panicked for a moment, falling to the floor, then did the one thing that anyone would have done, given the circumstances: fight like hell for my life. I quickly reached for the gun at my side and fired at her lung. But then, no sooner had the bullet pierced her skin, than the hole sealed up, as it had never been. The vampire laughed.
"Normal guns don't work on us vampires, you silly little boy," she said coolly. Suddenly, before either of us had a chance to think, a large hole ripped open in her chest, she gave out an unearthly shriek, and fell to the floor, dead (or re-dead, I suppose). I looked up to see who had fired that shot and noticed a tall figure, holding a smoking gun, by which I realized he was the shooter. He had a large red overcoat, a wide-brimmed hat in the same shade of red, and thick glasses that shone orange from my viewpoint.
"Uh, thanks, I guess," I said, getting to my feet. He didn't say anything in response, but from the left, a baggage handler suddenly charged at me, with a drawn gun, shouting,
"You'll pay for that, you little brat!"
Before I fully knew what was happening, his whole head exploded before he got within a meter (or three feet) of me. I turned again and saw a young woman in a yellow skintight uniform with a large gun, which was really more like a cannon than a gun, and I knew that she had shot the baggage handler. Since he also had sharpened canines and a smell of blood about him, I realized he was also a vampire.
"Sorry," the woman stated to the second dead body, "but it seems I fired my warning shot into your head."
The tall one turned to her and lowered his head as if he was scolding her. "No time for pounding yourself on the chest, police girl," he said, in a very low-pitched voice, which was almost as dark as the night itself. She furrowed her brow at that comment, and then both of them turned to me.
"Are you all right there, boy?" the woman asked, with a British accent.
"Uh, just fine," I said, still struggling to come to grips with my present situation.
"Don't worry," she said, "I was like that with my first vampire. You'll get used to it eventually."
"Huh?" I raised my eyebrow. "How did you know it was a vampire?"
"Well, killing 'em is kinda our job, kid," she answered. "Why do you ask?"
Just then, I noticed the crest on the left sleeve of the woman's uniform. It was a red coat of arms with the words, "HELLSING: ON A MISSION FROM GOD" on it. I then remembered the details of my mission.
"You're agents of the Hellsing organization, are you not?" I barked. "I need to see Sir Hellsing at once!"
The tall one looked down at me and furrowed his brow. "What business would you have with my master, child?"
I looked at him sharply, because I don't take kindly to being called 'kid', given that I'm now fifteen years old. "I have a business concerning the safety of your country and mine, as well as the rest of the world, so I'd like it if you could lead me to Sir Hellsing as quickly as possible, mister…"
"Alucard," he finished for me. "What makes you think we need or want your help, Jeremiah Marquis Belpois?"
I jumped. "How do you know my name?"
He grinned. "Because it's on your luggage, and you just told me it was."
"What's with the attitude to the kid, master?" the woman asked her companion.
"He's a Frenchman, police girl," he replied, "and they don't come here for vacation, they come here for war."
"That's partially right, Mister Alucard," I said, "but I came here to prevent a war, not start one. Now could you please take me to Sir Hellsing? There is an enigmatic group that comes up with the Hellsing organization and I need to know more about how Hellsing is connected with this organization and how they connect with a very infamous criminal enterprise in my country."
"What's it called?" the woman asked.
"I heard that it's called…Millennium." I answered.
The woman looked shaken when I said this, and Alucard cocked his head at me.
"All right, there's no way some street kid would know all this." he growled. "You're not just some plain old kid, so who exactly are you?"
I narrowed my eyes as he said that, but I controlled myself. "You're right. I'm not. I am Captain Jeremiah Marquis Belpois, of the Gendarme Nationalé. I was sent here to investigate a connection between this Millennium and a group of criminals called the Black Cobras."
"Black Cobras?" the woman said, raising an eyebrow.
"It's a long story, miss…" I started.
"It's Seras," she said, "Seras Victoria."
"Seras," I repeated. "My agency has had a history with a criminal syndicate known as the Black Cobras, which consist of almost every sinister group in history and in the present all mashed up into one. Ever since World War II, they've been involved with the worst of the worst: Nazis, Communists, Taliban Muslims, you name it."
"Whoa," she remarked. "They sound pretty dangerous."
"They are," I confirmed, "but we have stopped them every time, though it was never easy. While I was freezing off their assets after I stopped them for the fourth time about half a year ago, I traced one of their assets to this location. That asset is Millennium. I noticed its connections with Hellsing, which I had heard of in my spare time, so I decided to ask for your master's assistance in this little matter."
Alucard smirked. "Well, well, well. A Frenchman with honor and a sense of duty. Not a very common sight in these times, particularly in this place. Very well, I will take you to my master Hellsing. I hope, for your sake, that you are correct I your assumptions about this organization's connection with Millennium."
I nodded, and followed the pair to a military-grade vehicle that was waiting outside the airport. After a long and quiet drive, I noticed a house - no, more like a small castle - in the distance. Alucard sighed deeply. "Home sweet home, boy." By this, i ealize that this was the headquarters of the Hellsing organization, as well as the home of the Hellsing family. There were two surprises that awaited me at the Hellsing HQ.
First, combining all the buildings together, the whole headquarters was as big as the main headquarters for the Gendarme Nationalé. I noticed a large plaque in front of the main building with the words, "HELLSING CREED: IN THE NAME OF GOD, IMPURE SOULS OF THE LIVING DEAD SHALL BE BANISHED TO ETERNAL DAMNATION. AMEN." The flag of England, the Union Jack, flew on the top the main building's flagstaff, and the Hellsing flag flew below it. It was a deep shade of crimson, and the crest I saw on Seras' uniform was the crest on the flag. I saw countless soldiers marching over almost every square inch of the property, all armed to the teeth and following strict commanders. These guys clearly were not just a small rag-tag militia. These were an extremely well trained and highly organized people dedicated to this grand plan of theirs that was still unclear to me.
Secondly, when I looked at Alucard during our trip to this location, I noticed his teeth were elongated in a similar manner to the vampires that attacked me at the station. I turned to Seras, and she nodded.
"Yes, Jeremy," she said, "He's a vampire, too. So am I." She showed me her set of fangs as well. "He's my master. He saved me by turning me into a vampire after I was attacked by a priest-turned-vampire." I decided, based by her dejected look after she said this, that I should not bring up the subject again.
Finally, when I actually met 'sir Hellsing,' I discovered that 'he' was only called such because of 'his' command of the organization. The leader of Hellsing, Integra, was in fact a woman, but the casual observer would think of her as a man because of her steel-hard expression that conveyed an iron will. I observed all of this as she looked at me coldly from behind her desk.
"Yes, I know of these Black Cobras," she said. "So, you say they have a connection with Millennium."
I struggled with the words, due to my awkwardness about the whole paranormal situation, but I nodded my head. She sighed and took out a cigar, lighted it, gave off a puff of smoke, and continued to look over my report, which was laid out on her desk.
"Captain Jeremiah Marquis Belpois," she read the résumé aloud, "special agent of the French Department of INTERPOL, 6th Division, 216th order of King St. Louis, Second-in-Command of the French National Guard, also known as the French Secret Service, or Gendarme Nationalé. First joined military service at age 10, succeeded in crippling the enemy's power in what was referred to as the Third Cobra War in 2003, rejoined service four years later to engage in the Fourth Cobra War of 2007, which resulted in the deaths of both the Cobra's founder, Kirk Fromm, and its current leader, Geraldo Danzkhi."
She leaned back in her chair and puffed another cloud of smoke. "Sending children to war," she sighed, "what is this world coming to?"
"I joined the force to save my father and my country," I stated, "so please save your pity."
She looked up at me, and then grinned. "Quite the spirit. I like that. I just might, son." She added under her breath, "He's kind of like me," but I made no visible reamrk to this.
I decided to ask her, "Sir Integra, concerning your, er, 'employment', how do you ensure that they are properly ministered?"
She raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"To put it bluntly," I said, motioning to Alucard who was behind me with his back turned, "how do you feed him?"
In response, he turned and I saw him drinking a bag of medicinal blood with a yellow plastic drinking straw. As soon as he noticed my gawking at him, he stopped and said, "What?"
"Question answered," Integra said.
At that moment I heard a voice ring out, with a heavy French accent,
"Monsieur Hellsing! We have completed our mission, and zoze phony-baloney vampires are all dead-" the person saying this stopped when he saw me. I noticed that the speaker was a tall man, in his early twenties, with an untidy mop of brown hair, and an eye patch over his left eye. I took another look at his uniform, which was not like the other Hellsing agents', and then suddenly realized who he was.
"You're Pip Bernadotte, right?" I asked. "From the Flying Geese?"
"Oui," he responded. "And you must be…?"
"Jeremy Belpois," I answered, at which he snapped his fingers.
"Zat's it!" he said. "I remember! You're Michael's boy! Good to see you again, mon capitan."
"That's right," I said, and added irritably, "You 'borrowed' my dad's private military helicopter five years ago, and you never mentioned it again, much less gave it back."
"Oh," his face fell. "I suppose you want it back now, right?"
"Yes." I said icily.
"Well," he shrugged, with his hand behind his back, "it kinda got blown up a teensy little bit on my last mission."
I stamped my foot, ran over to him, and grabbed his jacket. "YOU IDIOT! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH THOSE PRIVATE MILITARY-GRADE HELICOPTERS COST?" I shouted, shaking him fiercely.
"Uh…" he said, blankly, "two mercenary jobs?"
"Yes." I said, with my face tight. Alucard chuckled.
"I'm starting to take a liking to you, Frenchie," he said. "You've got quite the spunk."
Just then, a middle-aged man in a white dress shirt and a black vest, with a monocle in his left eye came up and presented a sheet of paper to Integra and said,
"There is a situation in Cambridge, Sir Integra. An artificial vampire has been sighted there, amassing an army of ghouls to take the school and the city. Reports indicate that Section XIII of the Vatican has also been informed of this and has already sent an agent to Cambridge without authorization of Her Majesty or His Holiness."
Integra tensed, and then pounded her fist on the desk. "Damn those Iscariots. They've gone too far this time. Cambridge is English territory, and I will not have those Catholic scum in Protestant land." As I was Catholic myself, I cringed a little at this. Alucard, however, grinned wildly.
"What are your orders, my master?" I looked at him, and I was starting to become very terrified, because something about him suddenly seemed very different. He seemed…older and darker. "Shall I kill them? Wipe them from the earth? Ground them to dust? Just give me the orders…Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing."
Those words alone filled me with unease like I had never felt before. Integra got up out of her chair and responded, with the same solid look,
"Search and destroy. Leave no trace behind. And if the Vatican is truly there…then your orders remain the same."
Alucard laughed like a maniac. "Of course, my master. Your wish is my command."
Integra held her hand up. "Also, take the boy with you. He needs the exercise, and he needs to know about Millennium and these idiotic creations of theirs."
Noticing me, the old man turned and bowed. "Forgive me for intruding on an introduction, master Integra."
"You're just fine, Walter," Integra assured. "Jeremy, this is my family butler and a former Hellsing operative, Walter C. Dornez. Walter, this is Jeremy, a French military genius and an agent sent here by his agency to cut ties with his land and Millennium."
Walter grinned. "Well then, I wish you the best of luck, master Jeremy."
"Thank you, Mr. Dornez," I bowed in return. I turned to Alucard and Seras, nodded, and turned to Pip.
"Sir Hellsing, if I may, I would like one request for my joining Alucard and Miss Victoria on this mission."
"And that is?" she asked.
"I want his private helicopter." I said, pointing at Pip. He gasped, and looked at Integra, shocked, but Integra nodded.
"Not fair!" he shrieked. "Do you have any idea how much it cost to make zat thing?"
I looked at him intently. "A military expedition?" I said, mimicking him.
"Oui," he glowered, in a small voice.
"Very well, then." Integra confirmed, and then pressed a button on her office phone's voice system.
"Get Monsieur Pip's helicopter ready for transport to Cambridge," she said.
"At once, Sir Hellsing," the agent at the other line responded.
With that, the three of us charged out the doors to Integra's office, and I was about to embark on my first mission for the famous Hellsing organization. And, for the sake of my land and theirs, I was determined to succeed.
Here's for Hellsing and Code Lyoko! Sorry, but I don't have Chapter 2 ready yet, and I want the others to be done before that, so this'll have to do for now. But look on the bright side: I'll have that moch more in store for you when I finish my other stories! So, until next time...
-JeremyX out!
