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Crow's Note: I did it...I finally did it! After six months, I was able to put myself back in the chair and finish this chapter. Now I am posting it with my sincerest apologies, both to our readers and to Metropolis Kid for making him wait so long. To everyone reading this, I thank you for your patience and ask for your forgiveness. Hopefully I will not be so lazy in the future. Hopefully this chapter and the ones to follow are up to snuff!
Seras slumped to the elevator floor as what was left of her composure gave out. The smell of blood and the lingering fumes of poison gas were still thick in her nose, and the shame and regret was just now beginning to ebb at her mind.
Stupid Seras! She cursed herself. You never ran away from a fight since you joined Hellsing, but when the fate of the whole world is at stake, you run away from a lousy ninja and a ghost woman!
Her self-inflicted hatred threatened to squeeze bloody tears from her eyes. I'll bet Snake and Dr. Emmerich are probably dead by now because of you!
WHAM!
Zorin gave a gleeful jump as the ninja slammed painfully into the computer mainframes, courtesy of his blue-suited mercenary opponent.
She had tailed the sneaky agent ever since she had been drawn to the sound of Ocelot's gunfire in the Armory's second floor basement. As tempting as it had been to end his life, especially given the brain-breakingly long conversations he had with that now dead corporate suit and that wannabe Bond Woman, Zorin had stayed her hand and watch the human slip by his enemies like a ghost. It wasn't exactly Zorin's favorite modus operandi...
...but seeing the mercenary destroy an M1 Abrams tank with only a few carefully pitched grenades to the gunner's seat raised the vampire mesmerist's opinion of the soldier significantly. Fighting this ninja wasn't exactly a snoozefest either. When he realized the ninja could deflect any bullet he sent his way, the soldier had the audacity to merely run up to the machine and send a combo of punches and kicks into his face.
"That's good Snake..." She remembered the ninja hiss. "...now we can fight as warriors, hand to hand. It is the basis of all combat. Only a fool trusts his life to a weapon." The ninja had ditched his sword with that remark.
Now, after a rousing bit of fisticuffs, the once graceful killer was flat on his face, with the so-called "Solid Snake" standing poised for more. Both he and Zorin had noticed for the last third of the fight that the ninja had seemed to get a masochistic sexual thrill from his injuries, and would likely try to invite more pain on himself if he could help it.
Slowly, the ninja pushed itself up into a kneel. One devoid of the pristine motion it had once moved with.
"I felt that, Snake..." The cyborg groaned, summoning the strength to make itself stand and bring its single red 'eye' to meet his adversary's. "...Do you remember me now?"
Snake's eyes narrowed on his cryptic stalker. He could not deny that he was somehow familiar. The list of people he knew with such talent for CQC was short and most of its membership dead. Still, that voice, hoarse and synthesized as it was, stimulated memories of days he had tried to forg-...
Zorin heard Snake's breath freeze.
"It can't be!" The unflappable soldier Zorin had stalked seemed to vanish, his heart accelerating with a faint scent of fear on his breath. "...You were killed in Zanzibarland!"
This turn of events left the bloodsucker with a conundrum. Those last words the soldier had uttered spiked no small amount of curiosity in her, but after watching Snake just slither his way through the enemy's sights without so much as one exchange of gunfire, she would not be sated by these scant ten minutes of fisticuffs.
However, Zorin, being a Millennium officer, knew within a heartbeat what the best choice was.
The slimy sensation of the third eye opening in the palm of her right hand was followed by the warping and distorting of the numbers and letters tattooed across half her body. Being a ghost, she needed no real discretion to sneak up behind the otherwise alert ninja, but just to play it safe, made a point to place her palm upon the back of his armored head as gently as possible.
She felt it immediately, that bloodlust, that desire to make one's last moments a blaze of glory, and the desire to see those last moments as quickly as possible radiated to the faux-draculina's mind. They were so delicious, euphoric, and she was more than happy to spur them forth.
She could also feel memories, coherent, stable, but damaged beginning to dominate the man's inner warrior. She frowned, 'not on my watch... Herr Jaeger.'
Unseen, the characters flowed off of her muscular arm and across the cyborg's face, ready to 'remind' him why he was here, and to finish the job he started. She would bury the man underneath the armor, and let the 'ninja' smother him long enough to take down that wretched 'Snake.'
It worked too well.
"Aaaaarrrrgh!" It was a reflex, Zorin ripped her hand away from the warrior as electricity suddenly burst from his body in conjunction with the hoarse and agonized scream that rung in her ears. Its body shook, five seconds of what could best be described as a seizure, and the ninja sank to its knees once more.
"The..." The ninja gasped through its pain. "...The mediciiiine!"
Whatever the lightning flashing across the ninja's body was, nothing in the room could take it. Any computer that was still on was wrecked. Control panels fizzled out, keyboards sparked, and one monitor after another exploded from the energy the man radiated.
Even after that, Snake was almost the perfect picture of serenity. Even Zorin had to confess that the spazz attack had thrown her off while the mercenary seemed only mildly perturbed.
She seemed to be doing better than the scientist she could hear whimpering in the locker, at least.
For whatever reason, even though the pain escalated, the ninja had stooped to banging its armored head against the hard floor.
"What's happening?!" Snake managed to ask through his own apprehension.
"I'm..." The ninja cried between slams. "...I-I'm losing myseeeeelf!"
And with that, the ninja's last headslam left it limp on the floor.
Zorin did nothing to break the silence that followed, her plan to prolong the fight had backfired, and her foul mood was starting to return. The whimpering from the locker didn't do anything to help, "Is...is it over?" She could hear that bespectacled nerd whisper.
However, as quickly as it came, the rage left when the ninja began to pull itself to its feet again.
About damn time!
Unfortunately, fate would yank Zorin's chain once more.
The ninja began to convulse even more, producing even a louder, painful wail than the first time around. No sooner did its seizure begin than it became invisible. Soon, blurs appeared around the room, leaving sparking gashes in the wall, exploding more monitors, blowing out the occasional ceiling light. The noise and chaos invited more terrified murmuring from the scientist and an increasingly startled Snake, who somehow had the nerve to keep his feet glued in place amidst the chaos.
And after what seemed like an eternity of destruction, everything just...stopped. Like the phantom she had become, Zorin could no longer sense the mechanized shinobi. She was alone with the Kurt Russell wannabe and that sniveling nerd, and no one to fight.
Still, she couldn't think of anything else to do. Deciding that the inevitable infodump would be worth it, she stood unseen in the room waiting for the inevitable torrent of exposition she'd no doubt hear.
It began when Snake snapped out of his shocked reverie, knelt, and activated his codec. Colonel Campbell's face had barely managed to appear onscreen before he could breathlessly announce his revelation.
"Gray Fox!" Snake yelled at the officer. "Colonel! That ninja is Gray Fox! No doubt about it!"
Seras hesitated to leave the elevator once the doors opened. The sight of elegant, polished hardwood walls and marble floors were a jarring change of scenery compared to the metallic, futuristic environments that she had encountered, but that's not what made her ill at ease.
As soon as the elevator doors had opened, a familiar, mellifluous, yet malevolent melody sang in her ears. That tune, that hymn, she had only heard it once, but she remembered it well enough to know it only meant one thing...
...Psycho Mantis was afoot.
Gee, out of the frying pan and into...another frying pan. It just gets better and better doesn't it? The sarcasm flooding her mind threatened to squirt right out of her ears. What else can spice your life up? Come on, it'll happen sooner or later
A soldier passed in front of the elevator, never speaking...
...but answering Seras' unasked question with a feminine wiggle of 'his' hips.
Before Seras could contemplate just how she had noticed that strange mannerism, a wave of scents assaulted her nose, old, but somewhat appetizing. It was blood, several hours old, but the nectar of unlife nonetheless. In fact, it was mixed with the fading scent of gunpowder, too weak for any human nose to pick up, but...
Seras stepped out of the elevator and took a peak at the person that had passed by the elevator. To the naked eye, this individual could pass for one of the bad guys easily, but she didn't even need her third eye to see through such a simple disguise.
However, she brought out her third eye once more, remembering the chilling melody weaving through her ears. The last time she heard that song, Integra had tried to kill her and her master, an incident that Seras didn't want to talk into a repeat of.
Convinced that she was safe for the time being, and that she was the only other "soldier" in the hallway, the police girl sprinted up behind the 'guard,' and greeted 'him' with a poke to the back...
...with the FAMAS' barrel.
"Can you be quiet?"
Of all the things to give her an answer, it was the bright exclamation point that had magically appeared above the guard's head as soon as she had spoken. Before she could make anything of it, however, the punctuation mark had vanished, just like the question mark at the relay station.
By the time Seras had noticed the guard had thrown 'his' hands into the air in surrender, she decided it wasn't a detail worth dwelling on.
It was then that she remembered her surroundings. She was in an open hallway, and any conversation she could hold with this soldier would be compromised as soon as another of their number waltzed into the corridor. The girl looked around quickly and, conveniently, down the hall, was a large hardwood column fit for hiding behind.
"The pillar," she whispered into her 'hostage's' ear, "...move behind it."
The 'soldier' immediately complied, and Seras lowered her rifle in return for the compliance. Once they were behind the pillar, Seras let the gun fall to her side entirely. Her lips began to part to send her a barrage of weapons before...
"Silverburgh, Meryl," the individual announced abruptly, her voice immediately confirming Seras' suspicions on her gender. "...Private First Class, serial number--..." she didn't get to finish.
"I'm sorry?"
"Geneva Convention, asshole." The professional tone she had spoken in slipped away immediately. "Name, rank, serial number. Terrorist or not, that's all you're getting!"
"No, no," Seras hissed, trying to shush the masked woman. "I'm not with them!...Look, just turn around!"
The woman didn't make things more complicated. She quickly pivoted on her heel to face Seras. In return, the vampire tore off her balaclava for just a few seconds to assure her new 'friend' that she wasn't with the terrorists.
Surprise registered in the masked woman's brown eyes, but she was able to stay composed rather easily. In fact...
"Would you put that thing back on?!" She hissed. "What if somebody sees you?"
"Oh...of course," Seras complied, remembering that she had dragged the stranger down here in the first place to avoid being seen.
"Now..." the new woman began more calmly. "What question do I ask first?"
"I suppose I should cover the basics then..." she rubbed the back of her head, hoping the anxious gesture reassured the young woman of her harmlessness. "The name's Seras Victoria, and I'm...not from around here."
"Uh-huh," she dragged out the second syllable a bit to accent her skepticism. "...Would you define 'around here' as the entire North American continent?" She had obviously noticed Seras' Englishness.
"...Would you believe I'm terribly lost?" She chuckled nervously.
"...and here I thought we women were smart enough to stop and ask for directions." At last, the woman—Meryl, if Seras remembered right—relaxed her stance. "Don't worry, I believe you, but I want to know how you knew who I was?"
Seras opened her mouth, but paused carefully. There were so many things that could go wrong by telling her that she had paid just a little too much attention to her rear.
"...I just have an eye for detail." It wasn't a lie, just a very broad truth, she assured herself.
To her relief, it was a satisfactory answer.
"Well, in that case, I'm sure you've noticed World War III is going to start in less than 15 hours unless someone does something about it." Despite the weight of her statement, she seemed to relax. "Lucky for us that Solid Snake is on the loose somewhere."
Seras winced inwardly. The last time she had seen Snake, he had been facing down that crazy-skilled ninja. His fate no doubt sealed by its mere presence. What was she to do? Dash this woman's hopes that the only agent on the island was a smear on the wall, or keep her blissfully unaware of Snake's demise.
She hadn't expected Meryl to add "...I just hope he went easy on that ninja. He hasn't called for my input in a while, so I guess that's a good sign."
"Good...good sign?!" Seras' voice leapt back and forth a few octaves with her befuddlement. "That ninja's killed at least a dozen people I know of! What do you mean 'go easy on him?!'"
"Huh," Seras could almost see her smirk through her mask "I guess you really are new around here."
Seras and her old master arrived at the Meresti Trainyard. There were a few feral ghouls by the entrance, but they posed little threat. Seras simply brought her Chinese Assault rifle to bare; and, with a couple of three round bursts into each of the ghouls' heads, their dead bodies quickly fell to the dirt.
Alucard didn't even lift a finger. He just hung back and watched his former fledgling- not quite as… bloody as he would've been, but their was no doubt that the girl was efficient. The elder vampire kept his two main guns holstered and his acquired, makeshift stake projector slung across his back as he followed Seras into the waiting 'mouth' of the train tunnel.
Inside, the pair encountered a few more small groups of ferals, but they fell just as quickly as the ones outside the tunnel had. There were also a number of traps- mostly of the trip wire variety. However, the vampires' third eye powers would've put Spiderman's spidysense to shame, and Seras disarmed each trap without incident.
Once again Alucard just hung back. He stared appraisingly at his former fledgling. So far she hadn't needed his help once. She'd even spotted the bomb within the 'crying' baby carriage- something that he felt sure the Seras of his time would've been too overcome by feelings of maternal sympathy to notice. Yes, so far, his former fledgling was doing very well without his assistance. And that caused both a spark of pride and a pang of… something akin to loss to shoot through the ancient monster, as he realized that his little Police Girl was (nearly) all grown up.
Soon the pair came to a fenced in area, and a guard raised his gun. "What do you think you're doing down here? This is Family territory. You'd better be going while you can."
Seras's hand started towards her Chinese rifle as her mouth opened up for 'negotiations'. However both things proved unnecessary.
The guard saw the look that Alucard was giving him and quickly recognized the hungry glint in the monster's eyes. "Oh… so it's like that?" The guard chuckled. "Sorry, mate- didn't know you felt the… call too." The man stepped aside. "Welcome to Meresti. You'll find Vance inside."
Seras's brow furrowed. What 'call' was this loony referring to? But she wasn't about to cause a scene… not yet. This guy was obviously low man on the totem poll- leaders and VIPs seldom stooped to guard duty. And it would be better to find out more before cutting loose with her guns- maybe, just maybe, violence could even be avoided all together. She still doubted it- someone had to pay for what happened to the Wests. But, she was a firm believer in getting all the information she could before acting- a combination of a hold over from her police training and the years she'd spent in the post apocalyptic wasteland, years that had shown her things were seldom clear cut black and white.
The two vampires continued on a short distance and soon came to a large, open area of the underground train tunnels. This was obviously some sort of gathering place for members of the 'Family'- though the spacious area was far from full. Seras estimated that there were about a dozen people moving around the gathering place- pretty small gang to have caused so much trouble, in her opinion. Then again, Arfu was a pretty small 'town', so she supposed it balanced out.
The two vampires' presence did not go unnoticed, and soon a woman walked over to them. Her clothes were dirty, and she looked a little… loose- with her low cut front and completely exposed mid-section. However, the expression on the woman's face was pleasant enough.
"Hello there strangers," she greeted in a platonically friendly tone. "I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Holly, Vance's wife."
"Ah… hello," Seras replied a little taken back by the civil… and somewhat welcoming greeting. This was not what she'd expected from a blood thirsty gang, and it was certainly different from the greeting she'd received from the guard outside. "I'm Seras," she replied once she'd recovered from her surprise. "What is this place?"
"This is Meresti, the home of the Family. It's the only safe place for these poor people."
Seras's face took on a confused look. 'These poor people'? What was going on here? This Holly certainly wasn't talking like a gang member. "Ah… could you give me any information on your… ah, 'family'?"
Holly seemed only too happy to comply with the request. "My husband started this group not long ago. He was trying to save them from a life of hardship and ridicule. They come from all over the wasteland now, to find us and become part of the Family."
'They come from all over the wasteland…'? And just who were they?! "Um… and just who, exactly, would 'they' be?" Seras asked in her usually pleasant tone, a tone that belied the frustration she was feeling.
"Oh… people like your friend back there," Holly answered as she cast a look over at Alucard.
Once again Seras's brow furrowed. Like her old master? Now what was that suppose to mean? Vampires? The people around her were definitely human- though their auras did seem a little… odd. But the energy they were giving off was completely different from that of vampires… not to mention the fact that in over two hundred years Seras had yet to find another vampire in the remnants of what was once the United States. So how else could 'they' be like her 'friend back there'? Killers? Psychopaths? Those terms could be used to accurately describe more than half the people in the Wasteland, and this group seemed to be far more… exclusive than that. Although this Holly woman was pleasant enough, Seras quickly decided that the information she was giving was incomplete and had little value. But perhaps she could get somewhere with a more direct question? "Oh… okay. I'm looking for Ian West. Is he around here anywhere?"
"I'm afraid Vance has him in isolation, and there's no way I'm going to override Vance's orders. He's a good kid. I think Vance will set him on the correct path soon… like he did for all of us."
Finally- there was a piece of information she could use! So, Ian was here- apparently in some kind of solitary confinement. And Vance was the one to talk to about the boy… or the first one who needed to be 'taken out'- should a peaceful solution not be possible.
Seras thanked the woman for her help and then began to look around for Vance. Of course, not knowing who 'Vance' was, Seras quickly decided that she'd need to ask someone. This proved unnecessary since her old master tapped her lightly on the shoulder and pointed towards the man looking down at them from the overpass.
Now how could he… Seras thought and then stopped as she remembered her old master's mind reading powers. But, hadn't he said he wasn't going to help her out unless she asked for it… or her life was in danger?
"It was a simple enough matter. You could've easily gotten the information from anyone here. This just saved us a little bit of time," Alucard offered up in answer to his former fledgling's unspoken question, and Seras glared at him- knowing that he was reading her once again. Alucard seemed amused by the glare. He chuckled lightly then responded, "You were projecting… You can hardly blame someone for eavesdropping if you're shouting something at the top of your lungs."
Seras made a little huff in reply but recognized that her old master had a point. So, she dropped her objection and continued on to Vance. As the former fledgling began to ascend the steps she turned back to Alucard and noticed that her old master was casting veiled, yet offended looks at most of the humans around them.
Seras paused halfway up the flight of stairs and whispered, "Something wrong?"
Alucard let out a little sigh, but did not elaborate on his discomfort… other than saying that Seras would find out soon enough.
Alucard- having taken the form of a buxomy twenty something year old woman and clad in nineteenth century 'hooker' garb - still felt a little embarrassed as he walked the London streets. The plan was that he would act as bait and (hopefully) lure Jack out of hiding. However, so far the only people who'd paid him any serious interest were obviously NOT psychotic killers. As one himself- even had it not been for the vampire's sixth sense -he could recognize the trait in others.
There was just something about the eyes… always the eyes. They were, after all, the windows to the soul. And so far, none of the men who'd attempted to proposition 'him' had that killer look, though a few did get rather upset at the 'professional girl's' rebuttals to their clumsy advances. However, some twisted wrists… and a couple of dislocated shoulders did wonders to convince even the most amorous 'suitors' that their time and energy would be better invested elsewhere.
While Alucard- uncomfortable… and feeling somewhat embarrassed -continued to attract… and repel men who were definitely NOT Jack the Ripper, Integra watched from the concealment of a nearby roof top- her lip curling at each unwanted 'pass' her future pet fended off. It was quite amusing to see him like that- so different from his usual demeanor. In her time, even when her pet did assume the guise of a female, he was still confident, manipulative, devious- in short, he was himself. But now- at this earlier point in time -he was somewhat off balance, a little clumsy, less confident. And that made her smile- to think of her servant in a situation where he was… more human.
However, Integra's enjoyment was interrupted as a voice called out to her from behind. "Well, well… what have we here?" Integra turned and found herself staring at the dark silhouette of a tall man- who was mostly shaded by the shadow of the overhang of a nearby and higher roof top.
The man chuckled- a deep, throaty chuckle. "Just as I thought," he continued. "Your dress may be that of a man, but your figure was obviously a woman's. Tell me, why would a flower like you wrap your petals in such masculine garb?"
Integra's eyes narrowed. "My reasons are my own. Mr.?"
"My, my- so defiant too. It's been a long time since I took a woman of your obvious fire." The man laughed- an eerie, half crazed sort of laugh. And then, as he stepped out from the shadows, Integra saw the sick smile on his face and the unholy flash of insanity in his eyes. "I'm known by many names, but you, you may call me… Jack."
Integra's hand instantly reached for her gun, but she found herself unable to grasp the weapon. Her hand simply wouldn't obey her thoughts. It just hung there by her side, unable to close- pried open by what felt like another human… though very cold hand. She tried to scream; but as soon as her mouth opened, she felt another cold hand clamp down over it.
Yet, the worst thing was not that she couldn't pull her gun. Nor was it that she was unable to call for help. No, the worst thing was that despite feeling him holding her hand open and her mouth shut, 'Jack' was still over five yards away- he had yet to move from where he'd been standing during his… 'introduction'. And for the first time in many years, Sir Integra's eyes actually went wide with fear.
"Are you beginning to understand now, Lass? You're mine now. I will take you, and there's not a thing you can do about it. Come along now," the 'man' continued as he motioned his hand upwards and Integra lifted into the air and floated over to him. "It's time for us to… get to know each other better, and I don't want that vampire of yours interfering in my fun."
Integra tried one last thing. She tried to contact her servant through their mental link. However that thing… 'Jack' seemed to have- somehow -blocked that as well.
About ten minutes later, Alucard sighed as he sent another (lightly) injured man running away. Never before had the vampire stopped to consider just how much stupidity the average… 'street walker' had to put up with. Not only were most of the men who sought them out incredibly foolish; they were often drunk and very… 'forward' as well. And the vampire wondered why any woman would resort to such a profession. Surely there had to be another way to put food on the table- even for the poorest, most down on her luck girl. Alucard had no idea what that profession might be of course, but by his way of thinking there just HAD to be something better than dealing with all these idiots night after night.
Finally, Alucard sighed; and- for the fifth time that night -he thought to Integra and asked her if they could 'pack it up' and go home yet. However, this time something unexpected happened. Integra didn't reply.
Alucard's eyebrows arched, and he tried again. And once again there was no reply. Becoming worried, he tried one last time to make mental contact- this time forgetting the question about leaving and just asking the woman, he'd come to call "master", if she could hear him. When this too failed to provoke any kind of reply, Alucard abandoned his post and flew up to the roof top where Integra had been waiting and watching that whole night.
But there was no sign of her. Confusion, anger and… concern all played across the monster's face. They, each of them, battled for control; yet it was a battle none of them could win. Driven to a near panic, Alucard's concentration wandered, causing his form and clothing to return to their normal- Count Dracula -appearance as he almost franticly looked around, scanning all nearby roof tops. Still, the creature could find no trace of his master, and something was blocking their mental connection as well.
Yet, the vampire still had one… 'talent' at his disposal. Before night fell Integra had just started a new… 'cycle'. And every time the wind had blown her upwind of him that night, he'd caught a whiff of her exotic, virgin blood. The vampire bent his head back and inhaled deeply several times, and then recognition flashed on his face as a familiar scent caught his attention.
Alucard grinned and took off- leaping from roof top to roof top -following the thin trail of his master's blood upon the air. The first orange rays of sunrise were just starting to peak over the horizon- sapping a portion of the ancient vampire's power. But it didn't matter. The Count was- once more -loose in London. He would find his Countess… and he would deal with whoever it was that had attempted to take her from him.
Silence was the only reply Seras could muster.
It gave Meryl a chance to glance back down the hall, just in time to see one of the guard's enter the men's bathroom at the opposite end from where they conversed. As soon as he crossed through the door, the disguised human produced something small and grey from her front breast pocket.
"Here..."
Seras snapped out of her dumbstruck stupor to see Meryl offer her a tiny handheld cylinder.
"What's this for?"
"It's a laser pointer..." Meryl explained patiently. "If we get separated, try using it to signal me. Not the most discreet means of contact, I know, but at least if someone other than me sees you, all you'll get is a tongue lashing."
The pointer slipped out of the redhead's hand and into Seras' pocket.
"I guess it's the thought that counts," Seras thought it was best not to tell Meryl she could just sniff her out. Today's events were probably enough of a burden on the rookie without her learning vampires were real.
"What if I run into Snake?" Seras realized that her uniform might not be the best way to avoid the operative's eyes (no doubt some sort of cosmic joke, given that the man was trying to stay out of sight himself). Meryl had explained the man had braved a tank less than an hour ago, and it had made it easy for the Police Girl to forget that she could shrug off any mortal wound.
"Hey, as long as he knows I'm up here, he probably won't be as trigger-happy," Meryl reassured, "and even if I wasn't, I think he might want to keep the bloodstains to a mum. If he's in a good mood, you'll probably never know he's there."
That wasn't very reassuring.
Meryl jumped, causing the vampire to tense. She didn't sense any danger (save for the unsettling music no doubt produced by the absent Psycho Mantis), but Meryl's reaction...
"What is it?"
"It's my Codec..." she trailed off as she examined the small wrist device. There was a new importance in her voice, but Seras could make out the relaxing formations of a smile "...It's him!"
Him? Did she mean Snake? How did she know he was contacting her? Come to think of it, what was that gizmo on her wrist? She opened her mouth to voice her questions before Meryl lifted her balaclava off her head, revealing the same red-headed woman Seras saw doing crunches in the jail cells in the Tank Hangar basement.
"Meryl, the engineer's okay." Snake's voice echoed in Meryl's ears.
"That's a relief." Meryl kept her statement laconic.
"I want you to look after him. Where are you now?"
"Very close."
"There she is!"
Seras and Meryl both turned their heads to the other end of the hall, where a trio of guards had materialized. From this distance, Seras could see a flash of new alertness and adrenaline spike through them as they raised their assault rifles.
Fortunately, Seras was quicker to the draw and before anyone could aim, the guard in the middle of their number dropped to the floor with a bullet squarely between the eyes.
"Oh no, damn! They spotted me!" She yelled before a stray bullet hitting the pillar next to her made her drop her Codec. She ducked behind it and checked the clip in her FAMAS as Seras placed one more shot between each surviving guard's eyes.
"The coast is clear for now!" Seras kept calm as he kept her eyes trained on the hall and the surrounding doors for any more guards. "Put your bloody mask on and keep blending in!"
Meryl put her mask back on and paused at the vampire's side, nodding acknowledgement.
"I'll try to stay on this floor," she warned. "I'll keep my lips zipped until I get a hold of Snake!"
Without letting her give a word of acknowledgement, Meryl ran ahead and ducked into a pair of double doors across the hall from the elevator.
Seras waited for another rifle report. It never came. However, she knew a security detail would be on this floor like white on rice in minutes.
Securing her grip on her gun, Seras cleared her throat. "Testing..."
She grimaced under her mask as her very manly guard voice returned. There were so many shades of wrong in that, but at least it would make unlife easier around her.
She bounded after Meryl, leaving the hall empty...
...She felt compelled to ignore the strange distortion in the air hovering over the corpses...
He watched, and had been watching since the second imposter had stepped out of the elevator. Watched how she had immediately identified the other woman and drew her to a less than discreet hiding place. It was so intriguing that he just had to give them a few "suggestions" on how to converse.
With his pervasive song, he had made them drop the ball more than a few times where common sense was concerned. He had pried the redhead's sense of trust to make her more open to the crazier of the two women. He had also suggested that she keep the single PAL key she had on her person a secret. No need for anyone other than Snake to know about it. He had even persuaded her to take off her mask where any passing guard could see it and be alerted immediately.
Stupid, stupid girl...and a good little one, an informative one.
It had been that other woman that irked him though.
For starters, she was a woman after all.
That his pride could tolerate. It was certain other surface thoughts he could pick from her brain that had disturbed him. This woman was still convinced she was a vampire, and that Octopus' restless spirit had begun stalking her, along with a curious assortment of war-mongering magical Nazi ghosts.
Mantis was intrigued, what earlier memories he could extract from the woman's head seemed disturbingly consistent with her more recent experiences. Real vampires? Real werewolves?
If they existed, why didn't they do their jobs and keep these vermin culled?!
It's not like anyone could see him well with his optic-camouflage suit active, but even if they could, they would never be able to guess what was going on in Mantis' mind. His expression—already hidden by a mask—and his body language remained unchanged as he pondered the implications the girl's thoughts created.
These "vampire ghosts," if they weren't just the figment of an overactive imagination, could be a lot more helpful given their supposed involvement in the 1999 London Conflagration. After all the vermin they had snuffed out, one would think they'd give FOXHOUND a more helping hand. They probably didn't know or care about "Outer Heaven," Mantis sure as hell didn't either...
...He just wanted an excuse to kill as many of those wastes of oxygen as he could. If Liquid had to plunge the world into chaos to do it, more power to him.
Of course, if that woman really was the vampire she thought she was, Mantis and Liquid's already risky gambit to get Snake to "help" them was already in Jeopardy.
Speaking of Snake, it was about then that Mantis decided to retreat back to the Commander's Office down the hall. The ex-FOXHOUND operative would probably be here any minute to rescue his commander's niece. He already had a perfectly good ambush prepared, and he didn't want Snake to catch him with his pants down, even though he'd be more than able to counter him.
'Yes...' Mantis thought to himself as he drifted through the office entrance. 'Ghosts or not, I still have an act to keep up.' He mentally reviewed his scheme and found himself questioning his own ingenuity. '...Can't have Snake think we're going easy on him.'
Of course, Mantis had failed to take into account one detail...
...Once Snake reached him, how could he avoid suspicion while convincing his adversary that he had bested a telepath?
Somewhere, someone with a game controller was laughing...
Well, he hope you enjoyed the new chapter, sorry about the long wait. :( Let us know what you thought of it, okay? And hopefully we'll get the next update to you guys and gals a little bit faster. :P
Have a good day, God bless and Merry Christmas.
Crow T. R0bot and Metropolis Kid.