Grey skies and soaked earth filled the English countryside. As it were, England was in one of its notorious raining spouts. Almost every other day it poured, refreshing or downright drowning the inhabitants of the land that were caught in such a rise of moisture. Large meadows glistened as blades of grass displayed their captured water droplets. It was these kinds of mornings that Hellsing Manor was used to seeing during this season.
The Hellsing Manor had undergone extensive rebuilding in the past two years, recovering and renewing itself as many private contractors came and went, adding their own touch to the mansion's long list of secrets. The broken walls and exteriors had been repaired perfectly, and the interior was again shining with the same ancient feeling that the mansion had for many years. Traps were reset, passages re-managed, and new technologies and safety procedures were now present.
It had been a lot of work, for a lot more money. However, finances were not the Hellsing Organizations trouble; its numbers of Soldier were.
In the past two years, vampire attacks had decreased dramatically, but still had been present world wide. Even within the first year after the defeat of the Millennium organization, only ten attacks occurred. Alucard and Seras had to make up for the Vatican's loss of Iscariot, section 13. Without the help of the Catholics fending the rest of the world from 'unholy' creatures, the two signature vampires had been tossed to all over the world with guns blazing. Alucard on one occasion admitted to being homesick over the phone. Later, when his master asked for clarification on his words, he swore he never said such nonsense.
With the lack of additional firepower, four months ago the Organization began recruitment. Under the permission of Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing and monitored by Hellsing retainer Walter C. Dornez, they began to sift through the ranks of the worlds fighters, for the absolute best they could get their hands on. The results would be coming that day.
Walter C. Dornez had of late found little important to do with himself, and was looking through the library. It was nearly a miracle for the old man, who in the past twenty years could barely recall a time when he had to search for chores to busy himself with. Without any untidy individuals living in the manor, with exception to Seras, his skills had become generally unneeded of late. He was sure the library would have something for him to do; a book misplaced here or a particular area needed dusting there. He would occupy himself just long enough to remind him that the Hellsing family was still in need of his services.
Passing one shelf and entering the center of the library, he spotted a stack of books that were piled up on the center table.
Walter smiled, glad to have something to do. "Now, where do you go?" he checked the side of the book, only to discover that they didn't belong to the Hellsing Library. "Hmm… just who do you lot belong to then?"
Checking the titles and then the back summaries, he immediately knew that these were in Seras's collection. Integra did not read such graphic 'romance' novels, nor would she ever dare to leave them out in the open.
"I believe I should remind Miss Victoria to keep such material in her personal quarters," Walter mumbled to himself. He collected the books, being a little careful not to memorize any of the titles, just for the sake of dignity. Just as he started for the exit, he caught the sound of another heading his way in great haste. Gerald Wishfield, one of the few remaining employees of Hellsing, also the communications and information handler of Hellsing, was running into the Library.
"Gerald, are you alright?" Walter asked the the man ran in. The middle-aged man in front of Walter now was a person of average build, about five eight, and slightly balding head. His dark brown eyes were wide with exhaustion.
"W-Walter!" the middle-aged fellow gasped. He finally stopped by Walter, out of breath. Grabbing his knees, he heaved for air.
"If you came running about another lost phone call-" Walter sighed with an air of warning. Gerald was known in Hellsing for overreacting when it came to 'possibly' important things. He once had burst into Integra's private quarters when receiving a call; the caller turned out to have the wrong phone number and quickly hung up. Integra had not been pleased in the slightest, and Gerald had learned of her wrath very quickly.
"The information for the 'auditions' for Hellsing," the balding man took a long breath, "is done. I thought you wanted to know." He handed a large folder, packed with several files on certain individuals. "I thought you should present them to Sir Hellsing, rather than me."
"That is a good idea, mister Wishfield," Walter nodded in approval, and moved past the other man. As he walked out of the room, he briefly paused. "Take a break, would you?"
"Sir?"
"Read a book. They can be very relaxing," Walter passed him the books in his arms, then passed from sight of the Library, leaving Gerald to think about taking his suggestion seriously, uncertain to the exact genre of books he was holding.
Integra Hellsing stood outside of a balcony overlooking her spacious lands. Her very long blond hair stirred slightly in a gust of wind that whipped past her. She wore her usual dark olive suit, and being outside while the rain lessened, she wore a dark grey trench jacket. Only a black umbrella kept the gentle rain from putting out the cigar between her lips.
She, for a long time, had been stuck inside her office. When the seemingly endless paperwork was finished and complete, it seemed like an frightening anomaly. If work was done, something hadn't been accounted for usually. In these recent days, that sense of objective- known only as a long-term-assignments- seemed a distant memory. Being in her office with nothing getting finished or done seemed like a fruitless waste, and so she took herself outside more frequently. Even outside, in the rain, she seemed to feel like something was accomplished, as apposed to the inside office where she sat, waiting for anything.
"You can't stop the rain," Integra told herself, peering into the dark clouds of grey. Only after she said this did a section of clouds clear, far off in the distance, creating a moment of sunlight to burst through, illuminating that area.
"Alucard… what is taking you so long…" she whispered to herself. The patch of sunlight faded as the clouds closed around it shortly after. She comforted herself with a drag on her cigar, still curious as to what could be taking her strongest agents so much time.
"Sir Integra?" a voice called behind her. Turning, Integra found herself looking at Walter, half-bowed and just inside of the building.
"What is it?" she asked to the retainer and butler of Hellsing. He bent up, to speak, and stalled himself with a glance to the clouds.
"Perhaps you would like to seat yourself in your office? As much as I ask you to get time outdoors-" Walter began, motioning inside.
"What do you have?" She saw the large folder tucked in on arm, "Are those the-"
"The new employee information is in," he confirmed. Integra took one final glance at the cool meadows surrounding the front of the mansion, and then walked for the doors to the office. She handed the umbrella to her butler as he took off her coat, and walked over to her desk. She pulled out the seat, and neatly sat herself. Her office chambers were a magnificent and posh exhibition: a massive row of bookshelves covered the walls to her left and the walls by her door, a single large fireplace sat between a section of bookshelves with a large painting above it bearing the liking of Hellsings previous leader; Integra's father, Arthur Hellsing.
"The results?" she asked, watching him neatly placing the coat and umbrella by a stand over by the door.
"These files contain full information on the forty members coming in two weeks time," Walter reiterated as he placed each item away, and strode over to the desk.
"Forty? And we set up-"
"Forty audition posts around the world," He finished her assessment, still a pleasant smile with him.
"That… is a small number for a job of such importance," Integra bluntly put. In her mind she would not dare to directly insult the butler's capability, but the small numeral had her hopes slightly crushed. Only forty? How could they possibly expect to do a better job with forty human additions? Integra thought with uncertainty.
"Well, of the actually account that signed up for us, the number was over three hundred and fifty. We certainly drew attention, which was most prominent in America," Walter explained. He placed the folder in front of her. Her eyes however stayed to his figure, intent on finding the purpose on such a low number.
"Still, twenty five doesn't come close to the needed numbers-"
"On the contrary, I believe at the moment, these numbers in particular are just what we are looking for." She eyed him through her glasses, which she just realized still had drops of water hanging on the lenses. She took them off to clean the water off.
"Oh? How so?"
"Considering," he handed her a clean handkerchief for the glasses," that the majority of those who asked for part were simple citizens who knew what a gun looked like, rather than knowing how to use one with expertise, we had to filter more than half. Counting those out, others could use a gun properly had little combat experiance or training, and thus were also excluded."
Integra sighed and opened up the folder. Inside, the first page she came across was that of stats for the numbers; how many showed up, how many had experience, who was the best, and reasons for not entering.
"Still, half of that-"
"Then, considering the geological differences, religious practices, medical exceptions-" Walter added.
"That lowers it down to… forty." Integra spotted the number and her eyebrows tightened. Her finger was located by the number, indicated the number that were qualified to enter.
"Correct," Walter nodded, his smile going strong.
"Forty… Only forty?"
"Sir Integra," he politely smiled again," I made it so that only the best would ever make it into our ranks. Not that we aren't allowing less experienced men and women to enter, but from the last encounters with enemies, simple numbers aren't enough against what we're up against. I based this off of our last hired group of men, as you recall were simple mercenaries; they went from around sixty to three in one night. We needed individual ability to enhance our own collective strength."
"How so? What sort of individuals did we get?" Her eyes thinned as she stared at Walter. "These numbers are almost indecently low, so why, Walter, did you come to face me with this information? Unless…" she stared at him some more, giving him reason to smile at her thoughts, "you haven't told me something."
The butler's smirk came close to being mischievous. "If you would turn the page to number three…"
She looked to the files, and flipped past the contents page, and to the first on the list.
The first thing her eyes were drawn to was a picture of a man, in his late mid or late twenties, slightly long brown hair, reaching past his right eye. He had blue eyes, and hard, experience look about him. He was a veteran of conflicts, she could tell.
Leon Scott Kennedy
Birth Date 1979
Height 5'11"
Weight 165 lbs
Skills and Experience- Started Career in Raccoon City Police Department on the day of infamous RaccoonCity viral outbreak. Survived to gain experience and work for American Special services to protect newly elected president's family. Noted for search and rescue of Ashley Graham, discovery and eradication of Los Illuminados terrorist group, and alerting the American Government of former Umbrella Corporation involvement of said incident. Noted practice with almost any firearm (legal and otherwise) and knife combat. Impressive athletic skills and acrobatic/combative ability.
"Leon Kennedy?" she looked back up at him, a stare of slight disbelief in the form of a smirk. Her privilege of massive amounts of world-wide information at her fingertips allowed her to know about this man in detail. It also didn't help that her organization had very briefly assisted with a case in America he had been involved with. "So, Leon Kennedy turned up for our 'auditions'?"
"A funny thing," Walter Adjusted his monocle," about him. Apparently, he caused a little too much collateral damage during his most recent assignment, which as you recall we helped him with, and the American government simply discontinued his work with them. At least that's what he told me."
"They fired him… of all people. They must be more thick-headed than I thought." She glanced down at his record again. This was definitely throwing off her initial disappointment. Although they hadn't received the number she had been hoping for, gaining Leon Scott Kennedy as a subordinate felt like a charm. He was experienced, well trained, adaptive, and... not bad looking. Even if they had gotten ten new trainees and Kennedy, she would have been happy with the selection.
"Walter, I can't believe I doubted you in the first place," Integra said as she graced her butler with a soft grin. His smile widened at her comment, but he pointed again at the paper.
"We aren't done yet," Walter told her as his eyes sparkled. She flipped the paper as he directed, but instead of finding another agent from another country, she saw another face.
A young man's portrait was in the same area that Leon's had been. Rather than a Kennedy's face however, an unknown man stared back at her. Unorganized yet straight dark blond hair, almost resembling Leon Kennedy's, roughly fell over half the man's face. A patch of stubble grew over the man's semi-pointed chin. He seemed disorganized and uncaring for his image, but he held the grace of the norther European bloodline.
What caught Integra's attention were not these features, but rather the eyes of the man before her. They were bright green and intense: wild, fierce, and full of life. Even as one was partially hidden behind some fallen bangs of hair, the hidden eye seemed to penetrate the dark blond hair, as if light were shining from the eye itself.
Zohall Mercer
Born 1984
Height 6'
Weight 171 lbs
Skills and experience- Noted for assisting Leon Kennedy during the R.C. outbreak; a noted sharpshooter. Has demonstrated potential pistol skills and a mastered art of the sword. Weapon of choice: modern .357 modified desert eagle firearm (10 inches long), and a double sided long sword. Blade 48 inches long, 12 inch curved handle boasting one and two handed grip.
Walter's notes gave the pictured man a name: Zohall Mercer. Integra let her eyes fall back to the picture. What on earth kind of name was Zohall? she asked herself mentally. She then shook her head- she had been looking a little too long at this man and Integra wondered why she seemed fascinated with this young man.
"Walter… tell me about him," she asked after a moment.
Walter's grin finally faded as he looked around. He appeared to search his mind for an appropriate answer. "He's," Walter started, "a strange case."
"Oh? How so?" She lifted the picture out of the files, holding it up to her eyes.
"From what I know, he's only been recorded in one incident; the Raccoon City Outbreak, as he also told us. We know that the few survivors of that horrible incident have either moved on to battle against Biological mutations, or have developed acute cases of PTSD. He was only fourteen when this happened, and he showed no signs of trauma. Much like the late Pip Bernadotte- A young man still to have grown up," Walter said, and he looked back to Integra, focus in his eyes. "Yet, when he 'performed', I doubt I've ever seen such speed from an individual on tape. His skill with a sword is almost beyond belief, again for someone so young or without training.
"He has never been trained?" Integra barked at Walter, who nodded with wide eyes.
"His skill would have incited pause with Paladin Alexander Anderson's vigor, that is if he were still alive. The recording of mister Mercer's 'audition' was astounding to the point where I knew he was a must, so I added him to the list," Walter finished.
"Is he really that good?" She had rarely heard Walter give such praise of someone's skill. Even when it came to Alucard, it was hard to get Walter to make anyone sound that impressive. He might compliment on their abilities informally, but for this level of credit, Integra wondered if there was a draw back.
"He will be a powerful ally," Walter told her, quieting her worries.
"Walter, I'm not sure how you got these two men on our side, but I'm glad I let you take care of it," Integra sighed She placed the picture back in the files, however with a twinge separation by doing so. "What of the others?"
"Among the new men and woman we have, the two I have just shown you are with out a doubt the most impressive," Walter again indicated the files. "However, the others too are impressive. For example, Jack Willson, and another, Amber Fiona Nichols, both specialize in certain weaponry, and are far worthy of being in this organization."
"Walter-" she started, entirely loosing her stern approach, and relaxing to thank her Butler.
"No thanks are necessary, Sir Integra. I am just a butler after all."
"…thank you, Walter. I don't think I could have produced such results," Integra admitted as she closed the folder.
"Don't doubt you own capabilities. You might have tried a different way, but I think you would have found similar results," Walter said as he scratched his chin absent mindedly, "besides, I, as you reminded me, had much to do at the time than hiring rookies for our use. But, I just happened to get lucky, and then-"
"Hire some of the most skilled humans on this earth?" she smiled, just as he shook his head jokingly.
"Well, I'm not so sure about that. However, quality over quantity has been my motto in this field."
Integra closed the files, now filled with pride in what her organization was about to receive. Alucard and Seras were incredible, and now they had even more ability at their backs. Finally, she felt like her old organization had returned to its importance and glory, not a small fighting group it had become over the past two years.
"When do they arrive?" Integra asked suddenly, looking to Walter.
"Ma'am?"
"The 'recruits'. One week?" Integra asked
"Much less," Walter corrected, and he glanced at a clock in the room, "In two hours actually. I'm afraid I will have to leave and pick them up, being that one just arrived-"
"All arrive today?" she jumped up, startled at the news, "Walter, are we prepared to accommodate-"
"Only two, yes."
"Two?"
He held out two fingers. "Just two. Those two," he started for the door," are the same who you first saw within those files."
"You mean- Kennedy and Mercer?"
"Quiet so." He finally opened the door. "Before I leave, I should probably tell the non-essential members that we will be expecting some new faces around here," just as he started to leave, and Integra started to rise form her chair, he stopped, and looked back in. "You should try some of the new tea that came in yesterday- I hear it is quite effervescent. I will bring some up before I leave." Finally Walter left the room, and Integra was able to stir her thoughts.
"So, we have more members. Finally some company of that other than blood drinkers," She smirked, and turned for the balcony, and saw that outside the rain had stalled. "…Why not." She walked back outside, and took in the afternoon sight. Sure, the gray clouds still permiated the sky, and the cold breeze drifted around her, but it all just made her feel alive.
Zohall Mercer… Leon Kennedy… all of you… I hope you know what you get yourself into by joining us. She thought to the faces in her mind. Yet then another, more humorous image danced in her head, as the thought of Alucard being carried piggy-back style by Seras, danced around her head as the two nosferatu shot at a fleeing vampire. I wonder what sorts of trouble Alucard and Seras have gotten into. Integra chuckled aloud and she smiled. The clouds parted again, giving birth to another ray of golden sunshine.
The Hellsing Organization was finally back, and she would lead it to cleanse the earth of evil; one monster at a time.