Author's Note: Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Hellsing: World War Chronicles. I know the last chapter was a little slow, but I hope you will forgive, since I'm trying to get back into the storyline of Hellsing and trying to keep the characters in character. And I hope it'll get me back into the series again, since I love the OVA version.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything of Hellsing. All rights go to Kohta Hirano. I only own my OCs.
XXXX
Rome - the city of Catholicism. The home of His Holiness, the Pope, and all those who breathe, eat and sleep Catholicism. One of the many holiest cities in the world; and home of the Vatican's holy guard. The city was beautiful, glowing brightly in white during the day, and shimmering almost a silver shine in the light of the moon. St. Fernidad's orphanage stood outside the holy city, quietly and nothing else. It was a grey building, built with stone and brick that cared for the orphans housed inside. The windows of the orphanage glowed brightly from the moonlight, cascading various shadows in between corners, nooks and crannies every now and then. The gardens glowed with different colored flowers, making the gardens almost a living, breathing vibrant form of the land. A Catholic priest wandered the sidewalk, making sure the grounds were uninhabited by anyone.
The priest was tall, taller than the average man. He stood at almost six foot seven; the man may have looked lanky, but he was also muscular beneath the outfit. He wore a large gray cassock with white trim and blue interior, a black shirt and matching pants. His black boots made a silent sound against the sidewalk, his white gloved hands at his side. A silver cross hung from his neck down to his chest; his round silver glasses slowed brightly in the moonlight. A heavy-set squared jaw, short spiky blond hair, a large wedge scar on the left cheek and stubble along his jawline and cheeks, Father Alexander Anderson was a noble Catholic priest.
He was a Scottish man, and a very young looking man, but appearances are deceiving to the human eye. Anderson wasn't just any priest, nor was he a normal priest beneath those robes. The priest was a trump card for the secret organization within the Catholic Church: Section XIII, the Iscariot Organization. He was a lethal weapon, a powerful arsenal in the church's pocket, a human regenerator. He could regenerate any part of his body and any amount of flesh. His green eyes scanned the grounds, looking for anyone that would dare have the gull to trespass along these sacred grounds. He heard a set of footsteps from behind him, and he was ready to brandish his bayonets out on the intruder. He turned around slowly, and saw Father Renaldo walking up to him, his white cassock flowing around him in the quiet breeze.
"Ta wha' do Ah owe this visit? Wha' brings ye here?" Anderson asked, his Scottish accent coming alive.
"I believe we have a situation that requires your presence, Anderson." Renaldo answered as he watched the lanky priest crack his neck once and rubbed his left shoulder.
"Oh, how so?" Anderson inquired, his curiosity piqued with the taunting answer that the older priest in front of him revealed.
"Hellsing is on the move." Renaldo said as he saw a grin spread across Anderson's face. He knew that the priest would like to have his shot with the Protestant organization that dared threaten their borders, and who better than to let Anderson challenge the trump card of Hellsing?
"Hellsing, ye say? Please, they ar' nothin' but a child's play compared ta us. We've been protectin' mankind fer centuries 'fore these amateurs were born. So why are ye here? Ah'm sure the English can handle their own." Anderson jested with a wicked smile on his face, speaking so down harden about the Protestants they've encountered in the past.
"If only it were in England, Anderson. There's been an attack in Badrick, a little town in Northern Ireland. A vampire attack has occurred within the past twenty four hours, and we will not stand here and watch any Protestant take their jurisdiction on Catholic soil." Renaldo stated as he walked past Anderson, giving the man all the information he knew of.
" 'Ow many agents did the bloody heathens deploy?"
"Two, and from the information I have gathered, there is one agent from the United States. But, as far as I am concerned, all three of them are en route Badrick at this very moment." Renaldo said as he watched Anderson smile his menacing smile when a hunt was nearby.
"The nerve o' them, ta sneak 'round on Catholic land, thinking tha' they are entitled ta do as they wish there. They are as shameless as ever. When da ye need me to leave?" Anderson asked as he turned around to meet Reinaldo's gaze.
"Right now, Anderson." Renaldo sternly said as he watched Anderson smile even more.
Renaldo left him, and walked down the sidewalk toward the back end of the orphanage. Anderson thought about the Hellsing agents; one male and one female agent. But the one agent from the United States - he would look into that one in particular. It was very uncommon for them to send only one agent across the ocean, so there had to be a reason for it. Of them all, he felt a strange feeling that he knew the agent from the United States from somewhere, given the descriptions of all three of them. He would definitely have a fun night hunting down these vile monsters, and perhaps convince the third agent to join him against the monsters in disguise.
XXXX
Katrina sat in the car for a while, looking out the window and thinking to herself. The ride to Badrick wasn't too bad, but being in the same car with two vampires was enough to drive one person to drink themselves to death. Her eyes were covered with silver tainted aviators, she was afraid of letting people see her eyes. She had bluish-green eyes, but she felt like they were the eyes of abomination; a child of the Earth that was damned by both heaven and hell.
Katrina turned around to look at Seras next to her. She looked bored, her blonde hair framing her face in a cute way, her large gun lying across her lap tenderly. Her and Seras had more in common than anyone else she encountered, but she was as close to her comrades in America as she was to Seras right now. The two young ladies talked along the way, though both were inexperienced when it came to hunting vampires. Katrina was more used to hunting demons such as poltergeists, possessed humans, werewolves and such. She had never hunted vampires or ghouls before, but she figured it wouldn't be hard as hunting the other monsters in the night.
Katrina felt her heart and nerves kicking into high gear, the adrenaline already coursing through her veins like liquid fire. It was a feeling that she was used to, but one that was also a part of her curse. She was branded a freak in the military's eyes, given a "gift", as they call it, to help balance the battle between humans and monsters. A super soldier, if you would call it; no matter how you look at the big picture, to Katrina, she was still a monster regardless. Being a guinea pig for their experiments, being tortured with countless hours of test after test, injected with a liquid substance that helped enhance physical, mental, psychological and emotional endurance throughout the human body. She began to quietly hyperventilate, not knowing how she would be able to handle herself if she lost control on the battlefield with two vampires.
"Katrina … Katrina, are you alright?" Seras asked as she shook the angel lightly on the shoulders, trying to snap her out of the trance she was in.
Katrina snapped out of the powerful trance she was in, her eyes stopped glowing almost white and returned to their blue green color. She stopped trembling and breathed normally. She looked at Seras, concern written all over the young vampire's face.
"Y-yeah. I'm fine, I just get tense once in a while."
"Well then, are you ready to tackle on the bumps in the night, my lady?" Alucard asked as the car stopped in front of their destination. He climbed out and offered a hand to Katrina, who kindly took it without any hesitation.
"Are you sure you're alright, Katrina? You seem a bit - jumpy?" Seras asked as she examined over the young lieutenant.
"I'm fine, Seras. I just get into my own thoughts when I'm about to go into a battle." Katrina answered as Seras closed the door to the car and walked with the other two agents up the steps and into the building.
The three agents looked around for anything suspicious, but nothing seemed out of place. Then Katrina heard the first groaning of the ghouls upstairs. She looked up sharply at the ceiling, and drew out her pistols, cocking them and ready to fire the bullets at her targets. Seras had her gun - well, more like a mini cannon, in both hands, while Alucard reached inside his coat, and pulled the Casual 454 out with a sinister smile on his face.
"This could actually be a lot of fun. The hunt has finally begun." Alucard said with a wicked smile on his face, his fangs glowing white as he floated up to the ceiling and phased through the wood up to the next floor, gunshots immediately firing off.
"He's such a show off." Seras said with annoyance in her tone, looking up at the ceiling with an agitated look.
"Mhm. Okay, here's the plan, Seras. We hit the stairs, take out the ghouls on the floor, and head up to the next floor to take out the vampire. Hopefully we should get the building cleared by an hour or two at most." Katrina said as she and Seras began to climb the stairs up to the second floor.
Both Katrina and Seras ran up the stairs, shooting a few ghouls in their path. The second floor was bombarded with more ghouls than Katrina nor Seras expected. Alucard fired his bullets, reloaded the gun with more bullets, and began to fire again. Katrina fired head shots at the ghouls, six at a time, her pistols never missing a target. Seras fired her round, and began to reload when a ghoul came up behind the young vampire. Katrina turned around and fired a single shot at the ghoul in the head. The body fell back onto the hardwood floor with a loud thud snapping Seras out from reloading her gun.
"Thanks." Seras said as she and Katrina ran down the hall looking for more ghouls.
Katrina felt her heart racing even more when she felt that same feeling in her chest again. She stopped midway and fell to her knees, gasping for breath. Her eyes dilated again, this time you couldn't see the pupil in either eye. Her chest constricted as she felt the adrenaline course through her again, only this time much stronger. She wasn't overexerting herself, like she would normally in a battle with the supernatural. She closed her eyes, struggling to breathe normally; of all times that she wanted to let loose, why now? Why was she feeling this so strongly? She was so good at keeping herself in check when it came to fighting with the enemy, so how come she felt like letting loose of all restraints and ready to rip everything to shreds?
Seras stopped and turned around as she saw her fellow comrade on the floor, breathing heavily and clutching her chest painfully. She ran over to Katrina, and shook her shoulders lightly.
"Katrina! Katrina! What is it? Are you hurt anywhere?!" Seras asked as she watched Katrina look up at the young vampiress, but with eyes that made Seras gasp out in shock. Her eyes glowed a bright white, no pupils in sight, almost as if she were possessed or under a powerful trance. Seras moved her hand slowly from Katrina's shoulder, only for the young woman to grasp her wrist in her hand, a grip so strong it could've easily broken the bones into pieces. The vampiress looked at her comrade as she continued to space out in front of her, the hold on her wrist slowly letting up. Katrina gasped hard, her eyes slowly fading back to bluish-green orbs, a white fog still cast over her gaze. Her hand falling limply to her side; it was so unusual that Seras had no words to ask about it.
"S-Seras … you have to run. You have to … g-get away …" Katrina stuttered as she shook slightly from the cold in the air as well as keeping herself in check.
"Damn it, Katrina! Snap out of it!" Seras yelled as she slapped her across the face hard, hoping to not hurt her too badly.
Katrina snapped out of the trance completely, her eyes adjusting back to their original color. Her breathing returned to normal, her skin softly glistened with sweat. She looked at Seras bewildered, almost as if she were really a ghost from the past. She had almost lost control, and it was all from just shooting up ghouls on her first mission, a very strange experience it was for the young soldier.
"Katrina … wha-" Seras asked but was cut off by a bayonet through the throat.
"SERAS!" Katrina yelled as she caught her fallen comrade and looked at the end of the hallway in fear.
XXXX
Alucard had shot the last bullet into a ghoul's head, completely blowing it off when he felt the presence of a barrier. Golden sheets of paper with holy words and scripture written on them scattered across the hall while pinning themselves onto the wooden wall. He glared at the golden paper, noticing the words were written in Latin. He couldn't decipher it other than that, but there was something else about these words that made him uneasy.
"A barrier?" Alucard questioned aloud as he turned toward the end of the hallway where Katrina looked at.
He smelled something within the hallway before it ascended its way down the stairwell. The smell of holy water, and incense burned slightly in Alucard's senses. He smiled with a sinister glee as he heard large footsteps descending down the stairs at the end of the hallway.
"This is going to be interesting. Miss Sebastian, the target is above us. You go and eliminate it. I will deal with our new guest." Alucard said wickedly as he walked up to where Katrina was tending to Seras.
"Are you fucking crazy? You can't deal with whoever it is coming here on your own."
"What strong language from a young woman such as yourself. I didn't expect you to talk like that." Alucard smiled as he reprimanded her for her choice of words.
"Damn it, Alucard! I'm not leaving you and Seras alone with –"
"Miss Sebastian, I'm not asking. I'm ordering you to take the target out and stay upstairs until this is settled. Are we clear?" Alucard calmly asked through clenched teeth. Katrina stared at him for a moment, then down at Seras and finally at the end of the hallway. She didn't want to leave the both of them unprotected from whatever or whoever it was coming their way, but he was right. She had to eliminate the main target in the building
"Alright. But I mean it, Alucard. I don't want you in a million pieces. You take care of Seras while I deal with the main target." Katrina finally gave in as she stood up and looked Alucard in the eyes. Well, in the lens of his glasses.
"You have my word, Miss Sebastian." Alucard said as he watched Katrina hesitate for a moment before she ran behind him and down to the other end of the hallway.
Katrina stopped at the corner before the stairs, looking at the back of Alucard's red coat, hesitating as to whether it was a wise idea to leave him and Seras alone. But she already gave her word to him, and breathed through her nose, and looked up the stairs. She held both pistols in each hand, and quickly ran up the stairs to find the vampire responsible for all the ghouls within the building.
Alucard smiled as the footsteps came down heavier onto the floor, and the figure walked into the moonlight. It was a large, lanky figure. From what he could make out, spiky blonde hair, Catholic priest clothes, bayonets hanging in each hand, glasses glowing white and a maniacal smile on his face.
"We are servants of God, and the messengers of His justice. We are the instruments of His divine punishment on Earth. We are called upon to cleanse his kingdom, and bring ash from the flesh of thy enemies. You will praise to Our Lord. Amen," the Catholic priest said as he brought his bayonets up in the form of a cross, and smiled wickedly at Seras and Alucard.
XXXX
Author's Note: Hello, darlings! I'm sorry for the long delay on this, but I had a lot of things going on between work and holidays and getting ready to go back to school. I hope you will forgive me, and I do hope I didn't butcher Anderson's accent too badly. So, please stay in tune for the next chapter. Reviews are welcomed as always :)