Disclaimer: All characters, names, etc. of Hellsing are the intellectual property of its respective owners. I do not own Hellsing or anything within it.
This story is set in the first Hellsing OVA series: The one that includes Incognito. In this story werewolves have three forms: Human, Werewolf (generally about 6 to 9 inches taller than their human form), and large wolf.
Also all conversations spoke in the werewolves' language will be in Bold lettering and thoughts will be in Italics.
Once again, my thanks to Chaos Sparda in beta reading and correcting this chapter. ^_^
Luke was in his full wolf-man form and was the spitting image of the Hellsing werewolf, Master Sergeant Harry. He was in the middle of the mop-up operation to clean out the last remaining armed resistance in the palace. Several noncombatants had already fled the place. The palace was too big for the eight imposters to fully control. Actually, their master, Lord Westcott, would probably be pleased. The escapees will carry the news that Hellsing attacked the Buckingham Palace.
In a minor hall that ran east-west in the north side of this gigantic building complex, Luke was hunting yet another group of foolish humans. All of them were about to die.
In front of the wolf-man, the hall was filled with doors on both sides. He sniffed the air and smelled human fear. He was carrying a short shotgun that fired slugs. He pointed it down the hall.
A male human's voice shouted, "NOW!"
Around the corners of four doorways, hands briefly flicked out and tossed four grenades at him. Luke grinned.
Like several on this mission, he was one of Lord Westcott's gladiators and therefore enhanced with a chip well beyond that of a normal-level-five-chipped werewolf. Faster than an average chipped vampire, he leapt backward and somersaulted down the hall, away from the defenders.
All four grenades detonated almost simultaneously. Debris and smoke filled the air, clouding it.
Six soldiers leapt out of the doorways and fired into the haze a continuous rain of fire. After fifteen seconds, one of the three cyborgs in the group of six called out, "Cease fire."
An instant later, there was the sound of a gun firing in the haze and their leader's head exploded.
Immediately, the remaining two cyborgs, one male and one female, started to fire. The slower humans began to squeeze the triggers of their weapons when Luke came at them. He was sliding toward them on the floor and under the line of the cyborgs' gunfire. His shotgun coughed once and put a large hole in the heart of the female cyborg. As the last mechanical man lowered his aim, Luke slid into him sending the man down on top of the wolf-man. Along with the tackle, Luke's left clawed hand lashed out and gouged the flesh of a standing human's legs. He went down with a howl.
Actually Luke was a bit disappointed. As he twisted the last cyborg's head off while sinking his fangs into the unwounded of the last two humans, he reflected on how poorly these guard were trained. Or was he that good? Well, to hell with modestly. Luke knew that he was great.
Delilah was bored. The killings of the roof's guards lightened her mood earlier, but now she was stuck babysitting a group of a dozen human servants. These people were going to be the witnesses to her killing their King.
She was disguised as some undead, Hellsing harlot named Seras Victoria and had to display herself before these wretches. At least one of her servants, Paige, was here. The tall-slim-male vampire with a wicked smile, that she so loved. Of course, she loved all of her servants. It was the creatures assigned to Luke whom she couldn't stand.
As much as she hated being disguised as Seras, she found Paige being dressed up as Alucard fascinating. Originally they had fifteen so-called witnesses, but Paige was a bit hungry, so now they only had twelve. Delilah smirked. Paige had impressed the remaining ones with his blood thirsty displays of violence.
As Paige locked eyes with another victim, Delilah didn't stop him. The male, chipped vampire emitted a sound that was halfway between a giggle and a laugh. She was going to need some more witnesses.
Delilah called out over the network, "Hunter, Gavin, please stop your killing sprees for a bit and round up some more witnesses. Paige killed a few of the scum and we need a couple more. And Vika, have you found our wayward King, yet?"
The female werewolf and Luke's ally, Vika, responded, "Yeah Del, some of his guards were trying to sneak him out the building. The guards are dead except for the King and one self-important lady. I like her. Can I go and find a bath now? Being around humans makes me feel grimy."
"No baths for you, yet. Bring them here, Vika. And if you are good then I'll give you a doggie treat. I'll even have one of my servants scratch you tummy. And never call me Del, again."
Vika's acid-filled response was cut short by a call from one of the two members of their team left outside next to the remaining truck. "Delilah! Luke! There is a lorry approaching mine and Landon's position. It has some Hellsing markings on it."
Luke growled, "Somehow they had found out about our mission. How?"
Delilah purred, "I don't care. We'll let our outside boys handle it. They should be good enough to blow the incoming lorry into ten thousand, little pieces."
"Sure."
In the Hellsing lorry approaching Buckingham Palace, Alucard was no longer bored. A grin was fixed on his face and he leaned his head a bit out of the passenger window to feel the night breeze. Across the cab from him was a squat cyborg, who was doing the driving. The man had short, gray hair along with a full beard and mustache and wore a Hellsing uniform. This man, whose name was Mac, was working hard to ignore the other two creatures in the cab.
Between the cyborg and Alucard sat Sandy in her full werewolf form. She was not pleased to be running errands for humans, and she was definitely not happy to be wearing a stretchy, Hellsing uniform. Her sitting between an undead leech and a wind-up-toy cyborg, a metal monstrosity that was created to destroy her kind, did nothing to improve her mood. She only wished that Christine was in the cab so that she could enjoy ripping apart the werewolf traitoress. It amused her just to close her eyes and imagine Christine begging for her mercy, which Christine will never receive. Dreaming is fun.
The sound of Alucard chuckling brought her back to reality. They were traveling on a tree-lined road in St. James Park. In the distance ahead of the lorry, a wall of a massive building could be seen. There were lights on in some of the windows but most were dark. Security flood lights lit the traffic circle in front of the palace. A large statue of an angel stood on top of a huge pedestal with other statues surrounding the main statue's base.
Behind and to the right of the display, a lorry with Hellsing markings was parked.
The cyborg reached for a microphone on the vehicle's dashboard as a grinning Alucard pulled his massive .454 caliber Casull into his left hand.
Before the cyborg could say a single word into the microphone, a single bullet embedded itself in the lorry's windshield right before the cyborg's eyes. The armored glass cracked. The cyborg, Mac, jerked the steering wheel hard to the right and another slug smashed into the glass. The windshield shattered. The remains of the second slug gashed the man's forehead, and allowed the metal that lay under his skin to show.
Alucard laughed out loud. "Have you spotted the maggot yet, puppy-girl?"
Sandy's eyes whipped around to the fake, Hellsing lorry and she saw an odd cylinder poking over its hood. The tube flared and from it a fiery object streaked straight toward them. It was one of those damnable-human-made-flying-missile thingies that go boom. In the past, it's always been bad news for a werewolf tribe when the humans brought those into battle.
Alucard was leaning out of the passenger window and his Casull barked twice. The first bullet flew straight and true at the incoming projectile. Two thirds of the way from the shell's firer and the real Hellsing lorry, the two projectiles met. Alucard's explosive round didn't make as large of a bang as the incoming shell did, but it served its purpose well.
Alucard's second shell didn't fly towards the foe armed with a hand-held missile launcher. No, it was aimed at the hidden sniper with the rifle. The slug found the chest and heart of the Hellsing-uniform-wearing-chipped vampire, and its explosion splattered parts of his undead flesh before he dissolved into dust.
Alucard fired a third shot that forced the missile carrier behind his lorry.
As the vehicle that Sandy was in came to a stop, she complained with a smirk, "You missed, blood sucker."
"No I didn't," replied the No-Life King. "Do you wish to deprive your owner of her meal, poochie-girl? Your hungry mistress has arrived."
Then a large black bird landed on the missile launcher werewolf's shoulder and the damn bird dug its beak into his ear. The wolf-man swiped at it with his clawed, left hand. He was rewarded with a shredded bird and some black ichor.
Then a cloud of the flying black beasts descended upon him and started to fill him full of holes. He screamed in pain as he was buried under a mountain of winged creatures.
Integra started to slowly climb out of the lorry's trailer, but the red werewolf, Christine, went to assist the elderly Hellsing. In Integra's opinion, the wolf-woman was making a nuisance out of herself, again. Integra kept slapping those furry hands away and told the creature to leave her alone, but Christine carefully lifted Integra out of the vehicle and gently placed her on the ground. The worst thing about the entire situation was Alucard grinning at his master's discomfort.
Integra surveyed her forces in preparation for the assault. The werewolves, Harry and Christine, along with two Hellsing cyborgs volunteers, named Mac and Kathy, were people she could depend on. The former enemies, David and Sandy, were ones she didn't really trust, but David had insisted on coming to repay some kind of weird, werewolf sense of debt that wasn't called debt. Sandy was a wildcard and probably will become trouble in the near future. It was Integra's idea for Sandy to ride in the cab with Alucard, to keep her from making mischief.
Then there was Sarafina. The mad paladiness was only controlled by threats and some promises to keep her brother safe from the other paladins. It would have required a battle to force the insane lady to stay behind at the Hellsing Headquarters. Still, the paladiness hovered near Integra to protect the elderly Hellsing from attack, and Christine hovered nearby to protect Integra from the paladiness. The mad woman was wearing her nun's habit and its missing sleeve had been replaced.
From the fake Hellsing vehicle, a somewhat drunk Seras called out, "Hey? Hey! Let's Attack! Fight! I want to go, NOW!"
From the tone of Seras' voice, it was easy to tell the vampiress' aggressive side had come out.
Delilah was furious. One of her handsome servants was just murdered by the Hellsing mob. It didn't matter if one of Luke's crowd was killed, only her people really mattered. Also, Luke's little tramp, Vika, hadn't herded the King back to Delilah, yet. All of Luke's people are useless and now one of her prized possessions was permanently dead.
Luke broadcast, "Hellsing's here. Our cover is blown."
Delilah snapped, "I'm not going to run. I've never run from human scum and certainly not from Hellsing. I will inflict my vengeance on them."
Luke said in a serious note, "If we run and they have cyborgs capable of vision-enhanced-long-range sniping with them, we could die with bullets in our backs. That is not what I plan to do. Eliminating the Hellsing dogs will be our main priority, followed by reacquiring our last working vehicle."
"How about using the remote control and ramming our remaining lorry into theirs? It's a Great Idea! Start working on it now!"
"And without our vehicle, you want us to walk out through human controlled territory? No thank you." Then Luke considered the Hellsing vehicle. "There can't be too many Hellsing agents. They only came in one lorry. Any one of our soldiers is worth two or three of theirs, but they will use tactics to change the odds. We must break up any formation that they set up."
Delilah laughed. "That's easy. They're only humans and their pets, so leave it to me."
Integra reined in Seras before the young vampiress could attack the palace alone. Normally, she would just tell Alucard to go in and kill all the blasphemies he could find, present company excluded. But the King's life was involved, so it was prudent to be careful.
Kathy, the female cyborg, suggested, "I have a remote sensor. Maybe Mac and I should take the lead."
Both David and Sandy immediately complained, but since Integra didn't understand the werewolf language, she ignored them. The elderly Hellsing glanced at Master Sergeant Harry and the largest of all the werewolves remained quiet.
Integra agreed, "Yes, the two cyborgs will lead. I will brook no more disagreement."
That elicited even more complaints. Even Christine touched her own nose to signal to Integra that she could track the enemy by the scent. Sir Hellsing only frowned slightly with a note of disapproval. Alucard's grin widened. Sarafina maintained her mad smile, and Harry nodded in approval of their leader's resolve.
The group advanced with the palace as their destination. There was a wrought iron fence between them and the open area in front of Buckingham Palace. Bodies of the palace guards were strewn across the blood-soaked ground and in the middle of it were the smothering burnt-out remains of the imposter's second lorry.
Seras sniffled with a bit of drunken grief, "I'll never be able to see the Palace's Changing of the Guard, anymore. They're all dead."
Part of the fence was smashed flat. It probably was the last act of the destroyed lorry. It was through this gap that the Hellsing members were heading.
The two cyborgs reached the side of the palace first. They positioned themselves left of the main entry archway. This tunnel through the wall looked like it was built to allow the passage of a horse drawn carriage.
Integra moved at her own slow pace. Even though she no longer required a cane, she still carried it out of habit. It had it uses, like beating obnoxious vampires and werewolves on their heads when they ignore her. And here comes the wolf-girl who ignored her the most.
With speed being essential, Christine scooped up the elderly Hellsing and ran to the wall. Integra rewarded the protective werewolf with a knock to the side of her snout. Normally the elderly Hellsing would scold the overly helpful wolf-woman but the current situation demanded everyone to be silent.
With their rifles in hand, Kathy and Mac inched their way up next to the archway. The female cyborg pulled out a sphere that was two inches across. She tossed the object around the corner and down the hall. The orb followed its flight path until it went outside the far end of the passageway and hit the ground in a courtyard where it rolled for a bit more.
The courtyard was a large open square and the palace with it halls and rooms were constructed around it.
The little ball came to a stop. The object was a hollow transparent sphere with a kind of contraption within it. The device flipped around within to reveal an artificial eye that slowly moved from left to right to scan the area. Four great walls surrounded the area, with three levels of windows embedded in them. There were three entryways on the far side of the yard and one each to the left and right walls. The ball rolled again to get a different view of the area.
Back at the Hellsing group, Kathy whispered to them, "The courtyard appears vacant. I'm moving my remote now."
With the cyborgs at the front near the passageway and with them being crowded by the male werewolves, two vampires, an elderly lady and a mad paladiness, there were two female werewolves in the rear of the group.
Tribe of Five Roses member and new Hellsing werewolf recruit, Sandy was keeping an eye on the leading members of the group when a large red furry hand came to rest on her lagging shoulder. She spun around to see Christine standing there.
Sandy snapped in an angry whisper, "Want do you want, Red?"
Christine voice dripped with false sweetness. "Hi, Blondie. Normally, you start out our little talks with death threats. Well, it's my turn now. If the upcoming fight looks to be an easy one, how about you and I disappear into this castle, find a room and get to know each other a bit better? The only condition is that only one of us will survive."
Sandy growled sourly, "I can't. You and I are pack-sisters, bitch."
Christine said with a deadly tone, "You and I can never be sisters of any kind. You've killed some of my people, and I've killed some of yours."
Sandy smirked. "Then you better make a reservation at a cemetery because I'm going to make sure that you will be taking a very long dirt-nap."
In the front of the group, Kathy said softly as she looked through her remote viewing sphere, "The courtyard is clear. I'll move my sensor into one of-"
From within the courtyard, a shot rang out.
Kathy cursed. "Damn it! My viewer's been destroyed."
The other cyborg, Mac, simply said, "We'll toss in a grenade and-"
Then the sound of gunfire rang out. It came from a large doorway across the courtyard and echoed in the tunnel. It was followed by the sounds of humans screaming in pain and fear, as more shots were added to the din.
"Bloody Hell," cursed Integra. "They're killing any captives."
Both the cyborgs lunged forward, but their speed didn't match that of Seras. The vampiress ran ahead of everyone else into the tunnel. Both David and Harry followed in a full run and the two lady werewolves sprinted to keep up. Sarafina lost her smile as she tried to work out what to do. Stay with Integra, who protected her brother, or join in the carnage.
Alucard merely strode after the others and said with a satisfied tone, "What a marvelous challenge. I hope that this will be entertaining."
Seras charged forward, her thoughts clouded with rage and excess blood. The thought of drawing out any form of firearm hadn't crossed her mind.
The Hellsing vampiress darted out of the passage and she was immediately fired upon from three directions.
To her right was a single massive werewolf that looked like a mirror image of Hellsing's Harry. The imposter was firing dum-dums from a short-barrel shotgun.
On Seras' left were five individuals. Two of these were humans who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. One was a slim, redheaded male around twenty-five years in age, and this beardless man was in a blue bathrobe. The other human was a healthy-looking woman who had her long, brown hair woven into a single braid that ran down most of her back. The color of her bathrobe was pink. Both of their hands were tied behind their backs.
The other three on Seras' left were a male vampire and two werewolves, one of each gender, and all three of these chipped creatures wore Hellsing uniforms. The vampire had his dark hair slicked down tightly to his skull and was carrying a machine pistol.
The second enemy in this group was a tall thin gray werewolf and he carried a heavy bore rifle that was modified to fit his large werewolf hands.
And the last enemy on the left-side-shooting club was a fake Christine. This red-furred werewolf carried a single pistol. The only difference between the real Christine and her were the strange white gloves that she wore. Those gloves each had a single flat box that tightly covered most of the back sides of the gloves.
Then there was the third pocket of hostile gunfire. It came from the magnificent entry directly across the courtyard from Seras. Up a short, shallow set of steps, were two being that almost made her hesitate. The first one was an Alucard look-a-like. This monster was dressed in a blood-spattered-red trench coat and wore a red-wide-brim fedora, but he was missing the red bowtie and the glasses were a silver color. He carried two large caliber guns that broke the illusion. They were definitely not Casull and Jackal. Even the smile looked fake, not like one Alucard wore, but it was close.
Standing next to him was a copy of herself. This woman was dressed exactly like Seras. This replica's hair was identical to her own and so were the Hellsing patches on her blood-soaked-black trench coat. The mirrored glasses matched Seras', too. She carried two pistols. Someone went through a lot of work to create such a look. The fake Seras looked a bit shocked, which, Seras could imagine, probably mirrored her own expression.
Seras continued charging across the open square towards the other side while she zigzagged to avoid the incoming rounds from either side of her. The two directly in front of her, the fake Alucard and her replica, weren't shooting, yet. The imposter No-Life-King leapt high into the air on a path that carried him well above her and landed him amongst Seras' friends and allies.
Seras avoided all of the enormous slugs fired by the Harry look-a-like, but a few of the ones sprayed by the other side found there mark. One slammed into her left shoulder and another pierced her thigh on the same side. Seras' left elbow erupted into a spray of blood and dark fragments. None of these silver-laced rounds did anything to slow her dash, nor to prevent her two hands from drawing out two pistols from under her coat.
The fake Seras was smiling, showing off her blood soaked fangs. Seras wondered, "Do I look like that? Do I look like that right now?"
Delilah broadcast to her associates as Seras approached her, "This one is MINE! Only I'm allowed to kill her."
She charged her opponent and they began to discharge their weapons into each other. Delilah dodged to Seras' left, jumping into an aerial flip, then she started to cartwheel past Seras. Seras twisted her upper torso to face her opponent as they travel past each other. With Delilah still upside down in the air, both females continued to empty their clips into their respective foe.
The pistols emptied and they both stop came to a stop, turned and regarded each other from a distance of twenty feet. Of the two, Seras had the worst damage. Seven of Delilah's shots had hit including one that left a single wound right between Seras' eyes. Delilah had been hit by five bullets. Her chips worked over time to repair the damage.
Delilah still maintained her aggressive smile. "You're still moving after all those bullets? Good! If you had died easily, the game would have ended too soon."
Seras' smile was filled with her vampiric need for battle. "You're fun," was the only thing she said.
Delilah pressed the clip ejection buttons in the pistols' handles and the empty clips fell out. She started to place her left pistol back in her holster to free a hand to grab a full clip of ammo, when Seras telekinetically picked up her off the ground and pulled the Southwark agent straight at Seras.
Delilah said softly, "You're fun, too."
Paige was in absolute glee. Their little hunting trip for the Westminster King had become a bit more interesting. The people who they were impersonating had shown up and Delilah had just received the Hellsing vampiress as her latest plaything. He guessed that most of his side's ammunition had been spent in the capture of the palace, and the barrage of gunfire at Seras depleted it even further. Yes, interesting.
A glimpse of a red fedora being worn by a tall person deep in the entry passageway drew his attention. He wondered, "Could it be Alucard? Is he the one who I'm disguised as?"
Paige leapt away from his mistress' side and soared over the incoming Seras.
He smirked. "That bit of fluff will find out that she's merely recreation for Delilah," he thought.
As Paige landed before the tunnel, he saw several of the Hellsing attackers, including two cyborgs out front of them. The half-metal people had taken up positions at the passageway's mouth with each one taking a corner of the exit. The female one was aiming at Luke while the male one brought his rifle to bear upon Vika, Gavin and Hunter.
"Too slow," was his thought about the reaction times of the Hellsing soldiers.
Paige dashed between the two cyborgs at a speed that they couldn't believe. Then he dodged like a blur around the four Hellsing werewolves. Paige didn't attack any of these folks. These he will leave for his comrades-in-arms to play with. No, his target was the big, red guy, Alucard.
Paige depended upon his ultra-fast speed to surprise the Hellsing vampire. Hell, it surprised most other creatures he had battled in earlier years.
Paige came to an abrupt stop directly before the No-Life-King with the barrel of one of Paige's pistols pressed to the underside of Alucard's jaw, while the other one was against Alucard's sternum. Paige chuckled as he pulled the triggers of his two guns. Four shots were fired; with two of them belonging to Paige and two of them were Alucard's. It seemed that the Hellsing vampire had already prepared his own weaponry.
The No-Life-King's head erupted with gore and the round that ripped through his chest barely missed Integra, but some of the splatter didn't. Alucard's body sank to his knees.
Alucard's two rounds had pierced Paige's spine at both the base of his neck and just above his hip. He, too, fell to his knees and then to the ground.
Sandy growled, "I'll take him."
Christine disagreed, "No, he's my prey."
Integra, not understanding what was being said in the werewolves' tongue, commanded, "Christine! Sandy! Move to the front! The Catholic will dispose of this undead doppelganger."
Sandy snapped, "I'll obey no female, especially a human one."
Christine merely responded to Integra with a happy tone meant to annoy Sandy, "Yes, my mistress' master's mistress."
The red werewolf turned to help the cyborgs and the male werewolves. Sandy growled, snorted and then followed Christine. Sandy was going to assist David, while Christine was going to backup Harry.
As Alucard flowed his head back together and started to chuckle, Sarafina leapt upon the downed Paige.
Integra briefly wondered if the mad paladiness was going to tear into the chipped vampire with her fist, feet, and teeth, but Sarafina dispelled that by picking up one of Paige's pistols. The crazy lady pressed the muzzle against the chipped vampire's head and pulled the trigger. Paige was no more.
Sarafina scanned for more victims. Integra decided to put some control in the paladiness' actions. She ordered, "Catholic, go and find the King. You will protect His Majesty."
Luke ran forward as he took his aim, his chips coordinating his movements and at times reacting at speeds that his brain and nerves couldn't cope with.
The female cyborg was waiting at the archway's corner. She was lying prone and the strange double-barrel rifle in her hands was aimed at him. Standing next to her was the werewolf that Luke was disguised as, Hellsing agent Harry. Harry had a high-caliber pistol that he was bringing to bear. The real, werewolf beast was much too slow, as far as Luke was concerned. It was the female cyborg that bothered Luke. Up close, Luke could easily tear apart a toy-man (or toy-woman in this case), but the mechanical bastards and bitches tended to be very accurate with their firearms.
Harry fired a single shot. Luke's chips didn't react as they plotted the slug's trajectory in the first few milliseconds of it flight. They were waiting for the cyborg to fire, so that they could start Luke's body-twisting dodge to avoid the shots from both Hellsing soldiers. The cyborg held her fire.
Another two milliseconds later, Harry's slug was approaching closer to Luke. Luke's chips had to commit to a course of action or he would be hit. The electronic commands were given, and the chipped werewolf's body obeyed. He dodged to the right as he continued to approach his foes.
Luke fired his gun's last round in the same instant that Kathy fired her weapon. From her gun came two darts with thin wires trailing them. Her gun was a type of weapon that chipped creatures despised. It was a high-voltage taser designed to blow out the chips buried deep within artificial monsters like Luke and Delilah.
Luke's high speed bullet struck first. The cyborg's electronic reflexes jerked her head to the left, but the slug glanced off of her metallic skull, while it dug a rift through her skin and hair. The bullet's path carried it past Kathy's head and it wound up deep in her right shoulder. She collapsed.
Luke avoided Harry's shot, but he twisted unsuccessfully to evade the darts. He used his left arm to block the darts from his body. Immediately, electricity flowed through those small missiles. The chip in Luke's left elbow shorted out and the ones in his left shoulder, wrist and hand reset with some damage done to them. They signaled to the werewolf of their reduced functionality. His chips started to reroute control of his elbow to backup circuits.
Before Harry fired a second shot, Luke was before him. The chipped werewolf dropped his rifle and cruelly plunged his clawed hand straight at Harry's heart. Harry was a bit faster than the ordinary werewolf and he shifted his body. Sad to said, Harry moved in the wrong direction. Luke's hand lanced through Harry's sternum and backbone and came out of Harry's back.
Luke paused to enjoy the moment. He said to his foe, "That was quick. You're a weakling and a disappointment."
Harry coughed out some blood. He no longer had control over his legs. With his left hand, he grabbed Luke's right elbow and trapped Luke's forearm in his chest. The Hellsing werewolf grinned as he pulled on his blood link to Seras for the vitality to remain alive and continue fighting.
Approaching from behind the male Hellsing werewolf, Christine's snout went agape as she was horrified by the clawed hand protruding out of her friend's back. Her instant thought was that Harry was dead. Strangely, Harry still struggled with his foe by trying to point the gun in his right hand at Luke's head. Luke wrestled with Harry's gun hand by restraining the wrist with his left hand.
Harry's body twisted back and forth as it pivoted on Luke's arm. As the two struggled, Christine aimed her pistol at Harry's tormentor. Before she could pull the trigger, Alucard's white-gloved hand reached around her and gripped the top of her gun.
Alucard said in a note of amusement, "This one looks like fun. Puppy-girl, go and play with your girlfriend and David. I'll send Harry to you shortly."
Christine didn't bother to take the time to think that Alucard was referring to Sandy as her friend. Her thoughts were only on Harry. "Will Harry be alive?"
Alucard smirked, "Unless Seras dies or decides to devour Master Sergeant Harry, he will most likely live long past your demise."
"Is that a threat?"
"No… Do you wish it to be?"
On the opposite lip of the tunnel's entranceway into the courtyard, the werewolves David and Sandy, along with the Hellsing cyborg Mac, were engaging in battle. Being on the other side of the opening, their backs were toward Harry and Christine who were eight feet away. It was toward these three that Vika and Hunter were charging. Neither of these incoming chipped werewolves were as quick as their leaders, Delilah and Luke, but they were still faster than most of their kind.
From Vika's viewpoint, she wanted to attack either David or Mac with the artificial claws of her gloves. Sure, she had real, natural claws, but the gloves with quicksilver injecting claws caused so much more agony. The female-blond-enemy werewolf looked mostly harmless and it was so much fun to dissect a male opponent. It was always a big blow to their masculine egos when cute, little Vika was dominating the battle.
Then Sandy tossed aside her pistol and threw out a silvered dagger. The blond werewolf said with a sneer, "Red bitch! I'll kill you."
Suddenly, the idea of cutting up the blond she-wolf was very appealing to Vika.
As Hunter charged David, they emptied their weapons at each other. It was a messy form of werewolvish greeting and both received several wounds. This was just the beginning of their claw versus claw and fang versus fang fight. Sandy and Vika collided in a blur of artificial claws and a slashing dagger. Sandy scored a major cut across Vika's side while the tough Hellsing uniform protected Sandy from most of Vika's artificial claw attacks, but a few still got through.
The male combatants hit the ground in a wild melee. The two females also were on the ground, frozen in a contest of strength. Vika's left hand restrained the wrist of Sandy's dagger hand and Sandy had a hold on Vika's right wrist. They both continued to sink their claws into each other's wrist. Sandy was on top of her foe and their eyes were locked in a glare.
To Sandy, it was obvious who was going to win. It was going to be an easy victory for Sandy. Then the few minor wounds that the blond werewolf had received became painful. Then they burned and that burning sensation began to creep though her flesh.
"POISON", accused Sandy.
Vika responded with a sneering smile, "It's quicksilver. My pretty-pretty-silver claws have injected you with that delightful liquid. You'll die soon."
"Not before I tear you apart."
With an insane smile fixed to her face, Sarafina wandered out of the passageway. To her right were Alucard, Harry, Christine, and Luke with a down female cyborg struggling to breathe. On her left were two pairs of battling werewolves in the process of mauling each other. This was a perfectly fine activity for the mutts, as far as the paladiness was concerned. All werewolves should be exterminated.
From the hallway corner near the paladiness, a male cyborg was exchanging shots with a chipped vampire who was halfway across the square against the left wall. The chipped one had partially concealed himself from bullets in a doorway. This didn't interest Sarafina much. What did interest her were the two hostages near the fake vampire. One was a red-haired male and the other was a brown-haired female. Both of them were in bathrobes and their hands were tied behind their backs. The mad paladiness' eyes focused on a person who could be the King that she was ordered to protect.
Suddenly the chipped vampire interested her. From her silent lips, a voiceless prayer was chanted. It was her teleportation chant.
Gavin, the enemy vampire who controlled the two humans, had found a good spot to shoot from, a door way that offered some cover from Hellsing fire. His two prisoners had their hands tied behind their backs and from each rope binding a short bit strap extended and was held in the vampire's left hand. He used these two as human shields. He was exchanging gunfire with the male cyborg. The battling werewolves between them caused some interference with their aim. The sight of an armed paladiness near the cyborg didn't distract him because the praying Vatican agent wasn't aiming her handgun at anyone, while the cyborg still had a bead on him.
Using the leashes in one hand, he jerked the prisoners to his left and he fired his pistol. A round from his foe tore through his hip, but at the same instant, his slug blew through Mac's right arm and embedded itself in his right shoulder. The cyborg collapsed.
His eyes instantly shifted to where the paladiness was. The Vatican warrior was gone. His eyes frantically scanned the area before him. The paladiness was nowhere to be seen.
Then the warm barrel of a recently discharged pistol was pressed against the back of his head. The holder of the weapon didn't give the chipped vampire enough time to turn or dodge. The weapon went bang, and his remains turned into dust.
The shooter, Sarafina, grinned even wider.
As Delilah was being quickly hauled telekinetically toward Seras, the enemy vampiress had a decision to make. If she took the time to reload one of her pistols, Seras would be upon her before she could fire a shot. She came to a decision. Delilah threw her right pistol straight at Seras' throat. As that gun was in mid-flight, she pitched her left pistol at her enemy's heart while her right hand reached inside her coat for the hilt of a cursed, silver throwing dagger.
An aggressively drunk Seras bared her fangs in a smile, as she telekinetically pulled Delilah toward her. She caught the first pistol with her right hand and her left hand grabbed the second, thrown gun out of the air. Her eyes briefly glanced to admire the weapons. They were beautifully crafted.
"Nice," she thought.
A flash of movement before her brought Seras' eyes back up. She had a glimpse of the dagger flying at her face just before she could react. The knife's blade buried itself deep into Seras' forehead.
She froze as her eyes tried to focus on the offending object's hilt. The blade hissed angrily as her flesh bubbled around it. Pain ripped throughout her being and her smile vanished only to be replaced by a shocked grimace.
"Aaah," was all that escaped her lips before Delilah made her presence known, again.
In midflight, the Southwark vampiress flipped over and landed a solid kick to the base of the dagger's hilt, driving the blade in deeper. The force of the attack sent Seras backwards head-over-heel. The Hellsing agent came to a stop, prone, on the ground. She didn't move.
"That was easy," muttered Delilah. "Not really a challenge." She whirled about to survey the battle scene. It wasn't going well for her side.
Suddenly, Seras was on Delilah's back with her arms locked in a bear hug around her torso. The dagger still protruded out of Seras' head. The Hellsing agent's pain was only dulled by her drunkenness, induced by her earlier feedings. She asked Delilah, "Have you forgotten me?"
Seras bared her fangs. Before she could sink them into her opponent's neck, Delilah kicked her right foot forward and arched it up. In a move that only an extremely limber person could do, Delilah's leg pointed straight up. Her foot shot over her right shoulder and slammed the boot's toe into Seras' face just below the hilt.
A stunned Seras loosened her hold and the Southwark vampiress spun around to deliver another boot to the side of Seras' head. Delilah whirled in the other direction and aimed her other foot at Seras' jaw, but this time Seras single handedly caught it with her right. The only problem for the young Hellsing vampiress was that she didn't see the other simultaneous attack until Delilah sank her fingers deep into Seras' abdomen to jab into her spine.
Although both female vampires were inhumanly quick, Seras was obviously faster, while Delilah was much more skillful. The Southwark agent maintained a professional attitude, while Seras was quickly losing her drunken outlook to one of vampiric anger.
Delilah's attack would have slowed any other chipped vampire, but that was not the case here. She had to withdraw her fingers and in that instant Seras' left fist slammed into her side. The hit imparted enough impact to send the enemy vampiress through the air on a short flight. The chips within Delilah cut out the pain, and she flipped in mid-air to land upon her feet.
Seras pulled the dagger from her forehead and tossed it to one side. The weapon landed in the grass. A nasty-dark-purple steam boiled off of its blade.
Seras quietly growled out, "Nice moves. Show me what else you can do."
"Gladly," responded Delilah with a sneer.
Seras charged, but Delilah didn't advance. She took up a defensive stance and waited. In the grass, Delilah's dagger started to quiver.
The two collided in a flurry of violence. Delilah turned and bent backwards to avoid Seras' faster assaulting right hand that was aimed at her throat. Before she could attack, the Southwark vampiress was forced to single handedly parry Seras' left fist away from her side. But being bent backwards, Delilah's midsection was left unprotected. Seras bared fangs and plunged them at this new target.
With her attention so fixed on this attack, Seras didn't see one of Delilah's knees arcing around towards her head. The knee smashed into the Hellsing agent's skull and interrupted her attempt to bite through clothing and flesh. Seras struggled as she lost her balance.
Delilah had already lost her balance, too, but she didn't care. She grabbed Seras' collar with her right hand, while placing her left behind her back and out of sight. The quivering dagger leapt from the grass and was pulled telekinetically by Delilah to her hidden left hand. Seras didn't notice it. All she knew was that she and her foe were falling toward the ground.
Delilah's back landed on the ground with Seras on top of her. The chipped vampiress twisted her grip on Seras' collar and drove her thumb deep into the flesh of her opponent's neck.
Any pain that Seras might have felt was washed away by her glee, as she drove her right hand's fingers deep into the skin and bone of Delilah's right shoulder. The chipped vampiress' right arm went limp.
They froze and stared into each other's eyes.
Seras whispered, "You lose."
Delilah responded, "You talk too much."
Delilah's right knee swung up and around. It was aimed at Seras' side but was caught by the Hellsing vampiress' left hand. Seras' eyes were shifted to look at the weak attack and briefly felt a bit annoyed that the battle with her look-a-like was over so quickly. But Seras didn't know that the knee was just a diversion. With Seras' eyes looking the wrong way, Delilah's left hand stealthily moved out from behind her back and it still held the dagger. Before the Hellsing agent knew something was amiss, Delilah's dagger plunged into the side of Seras' neck and its tip protruded out the other side.
A shocked expression spread across Seras' face. A gurgling noise had replaced her voice and black blood flowed freely from her lips and from each side of her impaled neck. Her body went limp and lay heavily on top of her foe.
Delilah smirked. "See. I told you that you talk too much. I've severed your spine, my victim. Now stay here. I simply must kill off your bastard friends before I dine upon your-"
What cut Delilah's voice off was Seras' blood. Some of it had dripped down upon the Southwark vampiress' lips and then leak down onto her tongue.
It burned. Seras' blood burned the inside of her mouth and then her throat.
Delilah had never tasted the blood of a true vampire. Her meals consisted of humans, werewolves (both natural and chipped) and some chipped vampires. But Seras' blood was that of a true vampiress, with additional kick from the mixture of angelic and demonic essences blended in. It was instantly addicting and at the same time poisonous. It was the fiery fluid that must be consumed.
Any thoughts Delilah had of fighting the rest of the Hellsing gang were overwhelmed with the need to feed. Her hunger was uncontrollable. With her left hand, she pulled Seras' neck down to her and then she sank her fangs into it. She growled with pain as the Hellsing vampiress' blood flowed into her teeth, but that didn't slow her at all. Her cheek rested against her dagger's silver hilt and it was scorning her undead flesh.
After the dagger pierced Seras' neck and succeeded in severing her spine, she lost all sensation in her body. Her vampiric lust for battle was replaced by a very human feeling of panic. She tried to roll away from her foe. She tried to push her away, but her hands and feet, arms and legs, refused to budge. And being draped over Delilah's body didn't add to her comfort at all. In fact, it was embarrassing.
When Seras' enemy wrapped her legs and remaining functional arm around her, a frantic Seras redoubled her efforts to escape. She failed to move, not even to twitch a finger. When Delilah bared her fangs, Seras froze in her attempts to move.
Seras wondered, "Is this what my meals feel when I bare my teeth? The dark glasses and trench coat make her seem much more terrifying."
Then there came the pain of fangs being driven into her throat and that was followed by the slurping sounds of Delilah's feeding on her blood. Sure, the teeth hurt, but nowhere near that of a silver bullet. She gave up trying to move her useless limbs as she sank into the depths of apathy.
From across the square, Integra's voice called out, "Stop playing with that undead maggot, Officer Victoria. Finish your meal NOW! Then push her carcass off and attend to me immediately."
"Oh great," thought Seras sarcastically. "Now Integra thinks my foe is me. I've been replaced by a fake."
"Ha, ha, ha, Police Girl." Alucard made his presence known. "Are you enjoying being a meal? I'm sure that your look-a-like will serve Sir Hellsing better than you can."
Alucard's biting tone made his disapproval obvious.
Seras complained, "Master! She severed my neck! I can't move! Help me! Please!"
"Police Girl, losing one's head will not stop a true vampire. It is only an inconvenience. When that damn, catholic Anderson parted my head from my shoulders, I was not defeated. But you, Police Girl, are only human."
With her master's mocking voice fading, fury drowned out Seras' panic. Her Master's taunts were not well received. A maniacal laughter filled her mind. Seras couldn't figure out who was laughing until she recognized it was her own voice. Her vampiric side was seeping out and it was time to let go of her former human self. The only thing that checked a full release of her power was the tiny voice of her fading humanity. It pleaded, "Don't frighten the humans."
Seras' eyes flared bright red, and again, her teeth were broadly showing. She briefly considered telekinetically yanking the offending dagger from her neck, but that didn't seem to be worth the bother. Her body stiffened as she resumed control over her form. Seras tested this by flexing her fingers. Her fingers weren't moved by her muscles; They were moved by the force of her will alone.
To say that Delilah was displeased by the movement of the body covering her would have been conservative. Even though her mouth was filled with Seras's neck and blood, Delilah started growling louder. Seras responded by emitting a continuous growl of her own.
Both angry vampires were tense and snarling loudly. There was violence to be done.
Simultaneously they attacked each other. Seras' right fist slammed into the left side of her opponent's jaw, while Delilah jabbed her fingers, like a spear, at her enemy's right armpit. Delilah would have liked to aim for the head, but the path of Seras' fist interfered with that. Delilah ended up with a shattered jaw while Seras' shoulder was fragmented as Delilah's fingers punched holes through muscle, bone and sinew. Delilah could no longer maintain her bite, while Seras ended up only being slightly amused.
Delilah attempted to withdraw her hand from the Hellsing agent's shoulder and tuck what remained of her chin down tight to her collar bone, in order to prevent easy access for her foe's fangs to her arteries. All of this proved futile. Seras had a vise-like grip on Delilah's left elbow which trapped that arm and prevented the freeing of her hand. Seras' palm impacted on the side of the Southwark agent's head and the impact jerked Delilah's head to one side.
Delilah didn't have time to consider how life had suddenly become very unfair to her. Or how an undead tramp with a shattered shoulder and a cursed, silver dagger in her neck was winning a fight that should be rightfully Delilah's. Seras' fangs sinking into her neck ended all such thoughts. Escape was what dominated Delilah's mind.
The chipped vampiress tried to buck off her attacker and to twist away, but Seras had solidly wrapped Delilah's frame in her arms and an instant later, Delilah's legs were locked up by Seras'.
Seras drank deeply. She always found drinking the blood of chipped, vampiric foes to be the most satisfying meals, with werewolves being a close second. And with this adversary, she was getting the bonus of retrieving her own misappropriated blood. With her victim subdued, Seras' aggression faded back into drunken happiness. Life was good. As she continued to drain her enemy, Delilah's thoughts started to filter through. Seras closed her eyes and dove into Delilah's consciousness to listen.
Delilah broadcast on her network, "Westcott, you bastard. You've sent me to my death!"
A male voice responded, "Delilah, my servant, it was never my intention to sacrifice you. Has your attacker breached your mind? Has she tried to break into your network connection?"
"Damn IT! The she-leech has latched herself on my neck and you're worried about network security? Damn you to Hell!"
For an inebriated Seras, this was entertainment. It was like she was dining in a restaurant with a floor show and her table was next to the stage.
"My lovely Delilah, there is no way I can save you, but I can assure you that vengeance will be done."
"NO! DON'T DO IT!"
Now Seras was intrigued. What were the two villains talking about?
"Bye, my sweet Delilah."
"I regret the day you inserted some of those old time chips in me!"
Then Seras heard a mental scream of pain from her meal. The expressed agony almost made the Hellsing agent feel sympathetic toward this blood-thirsty killer of humans. She briefly wondered about the source of her foe's distress. Seras didn't have long to wait. Searing pain racked her body, and it didn't let up.
Seras snapped open her eyes. Her opponent was burning with a fire that was strong enough to threaten to incinerate Seras. Instantly, Seras' blood drunk state of mind was gone. Her human side was panicking and fleeing was its goal. But her vampiric side was royally pissed off. From that side came demands to retrieve her stolen blood, the need to not allow her prey to use death as a method of escape. It was the berserker feelings that finally dominated Seras' mind.
As Delilah burned, Seras bit down harder and drank with renewed vigor. Darkness leaked off of Seras to mix with Delilah's raging fire. Red and black swirled as if they were in combat. For Seras, the remainder of the fight seemed to last an hour, but in fact, it lasted for only a few seconds. Being burned hurt. Being an undead monster means that you get to experience normally mortal wounds over and over and over again.
Slowly, Delilah's body dissolved into ash and her soul slipped into the depths of the Hellsing's agent spirit. Seras was almost tempted to swallow. She had an urge to leave the real world and find out more about her latest spiritual captive; except the sounds of Hellsing versus Southwark battles still going on appealed to her more.
Alucard grinned. Here before the vampire, Harry and another werewolf fought. It was obvious who was going to win. The Southwark doggie had plunged his clawed hand into Harry's chest and out the backside. That should have ended the fight, but Master Sergeant Harry didn't surrender. He didn't surrender to his enemy and didn't surrender to death. With one hand Harry had trapped the impaling arm in his chest while with the other he wielded a pistol over which both werewolves wrestled for control.
"Ah, what a marvelous creature this cur of Seras' is," mused the No-Life-King of Harry.
Harry and his imposter, Luke, snapped their fangs at each other, and both succeeded in drawing a minor amount of blood. The main object of contention was the pistol clutched in Harry's right hand. Harry wrestled to twist its barrel to point at Luke's head. While Luke's right hand gripped Harry's wrist, and he fought to turn the gun away.
While Luke's left arm stuck in Harry's chest had weakened the Hellsing werewolf, he still had a vise-like grip on Luke's elbow, keeping his arm trapped. A normal werewolf would have succumbed to such a wound, but Harry wasn't a normal one anymore. He drew dark energies through his link to Seras. It was that energy that sustained his life and gave him strength. But Luke's hand had severed Harry's spine, which made his legs were useless.
Luke also had problems. His good arm was stuck in the Hellsing mutt, and the arm he wrestled for the gun with was the one that had a few of its chips blown out. If he focused his attention on using his fangs to seek his foe's throat, he was sure that the pistol would find its way to his skull.
They continued their contest of strength. Both of the lycanthropes were easily stronger than a vampire. So Alucard didn't bother trying to pry the two apart. That wasn't his style. From under the flaps of his coat, the No-Life-King pulled out two of his old friends: Jackal and Casull. Both massive pistol looked as new as they were sixty years ago. A feral grin was pasted on the elder vampire's face. This will be most amusing.
The first thing that clued the warring werewolves that a new player had join their game was the cannon-like explosion of a gun. Harry's right shoulder erupted with blood as one of Alucard's rounds torn through it. Harry's lost his grip on Luke's elbow and the Southwark werewolf yanked his trapped arm free. Without any support, Harry slumped. The only reason he wasn't lying on the ground was that Luke still held the wrist of Harry's gun wielding hand. Luke's free hand sank its claws deep into Harry's wounded shoulder. Harry let out a pain filled growled.
Alucard's Casull fired. It's slug flew true and dug out a fragment from Harry's pistol. The pistol was torn from Harry's grasp. The slug's blessed quicksilver contents sprayed on both combatants. It burned their flesh like acid. With lightly smoking fur, Luke dropped Harry and turned to face the person who had dare to interfere in a fight between berserk werewolves. Harry tried to roll towards his foe, but having a severed spine and one disabled arm made him more than a little a bit slow.
Standing ten feet away from Luke was Alucard. The elder vampire was grinning like a madman. The undead Hellsing agent held his pistols lazily pointed at the ground.
Alucard said with an arrogant note in his voice, "You worthless piece of chipped shit. Can a slave of some undead maggots dare to provide me with some slight relief to my eternal boredom? Or are you just-"
Luke didn't give Alucard a chance to finish his last question. The hulking werewolf darted forward with speed that Alucard didn't anticipate. He never seen a dog-man who was as quick as this one. A shock look covered Alucard's face. This expression wasn't one of stunned fear. It was a dumbfounded slack jaw look of disbelief.
Luke dashed up to the vampire and then grabbed and twisted the Casull around to point at Alucard's chest. As Luke pulled the trigger, he could had sworn that the stupid vampire smiled.
The gun let out a noisy explosion as it expelled its slug. The projectile carved a hole that stared just below Alucard's sternum and exited out the undead monster's back. Droplets of darkness showered out from the exit wound. The elder vampire's limbs went slack and he fell.
Luke yanked the Casull from its owner's grasp. He turned to regard the ongoing battles and took aim at Christine's back.
Then Alucard spoke up with a mixture of amusement and slight admiration. "You're not totally worthless."
The Southwark werewolf's eyes went wide in shock. The dead vampire wasn't completely dead. He whirled around just in time to see the muzzle flash from Alucard's Jackal. The slug blew through Luke's left shoulder and pain radiated from the wound. Luke's chips dulled the agony but they couldn't immediately replace the missing muscle tissue, but they did control his legs and waist muscles enough to keep the werewolf from spinning from the impact.
The Jackal expelled the spent cartridge and lifted a new one from its clip into the firing chamber. But this took time. As the Alucard's pistol re-cocked itself, Luke had already aimed the Casull right at the base of Alucard's throat. As the No-Life King squeezed on his trigger, Luke fired. A wide hole was blown through Alucard at the base of his neck and if the sun was out, you would have been able to see light through it. That should had ended the battle; the firing of Alucard's Jackal convinced Luke otherwise. Alucard leered as the werewolf's other shoulder erupted in in bone and bone fragments. The Casull fell from limp fingers and smacked into the ground.
With both of Luke's arms disabled, the battle paused. With the hole in Alucard's upper chest and through his spine, Alucard's head should flopped over, but it didn't.
Alucard said in a mocking tone, "Your arms are unless, puppy dog. Using one of my stolen guns is no longer an option for you. What are you going to do? Are you going to savage my flesh with your fangs, punk, or are you going to surrender, lay down and die? Which will it be? Hurry and show me!"
Luke bared his fangs with a growl. Alucard waited and grinned with anticipation. Luke attacked. The werewolf didn't lunge at Alucard with his fangs snapping. Luke spun and launched a kick to the No-Life-King's chin. Alucard's head was knocked backwards and since it was only attached to his body by the flesh of his shoulders and not by the muscles and bones of his back, Alucard's head ended up dangling behind his back upside down. His red wide brim fedora floated down to the grass.
Luke stared at the headless undead body that still stood. Alucard's head dangling behind the No-Life King's back, and was hidden from view. The wolf-man growled defiantly at this partially destroyed immortal.
Then he heard Alucard's voice.
"Marvelous, my precious foe. Marvelous."
The werewolf lunged forward and sank his fangs deep into the Hellsing minion's shoulder. He rocked his head violently to rip undead flesh. All of that came to a stop when Alucard's Jackal barked three times. Two bullets shattered the thigh bone in each of Luke's legs and the third one put a hole in the werewolf's stomach.
Luke's bite loosen as he continued to lose blood. Alucard's Head moved back up on top of the vampire's shoulders. Luke couldn't tell if the head rolled up or if it had crawled its way back to its perch.
Alucard grinned. "Puppy-dog, playtime is over."
The undead lord tilted his head forward and pierced Luke's arteries with his incisors. It was feeding time.
Christine charged the short distance across the yard. She had a choice to join in one of two battles. In each of the battles was a member of her so-called allies, The Tribe of Five Roses. The black-furred David was in a furious, fang-filled fray with a male chipped werewolf that was interspersed large amounts of flesh-rending slashes of their claws. Both had what looked to be bullets wounds peppering their bodies. Christine guessed that both males had emptied their pistols into one another, without any attempts to dodge. As far was she was concerned, that was a stupid male werewolf ego type of act that didn't make any sense at all, but she mused that it was those illogical macho acts of the he-wolves that endeared those male idiots to the she-wolves.
Then there was the second fight, Sandy versus the fake Christine. These were two females that Christine desired to see dead immediately. In fact, she was tempted to join in on the chipped she-wolf's side, kill Sandy, and then turn against the imposter. Part of the situation that swayed her opinion of who she was going to assault was the noticeable tremors in Sandy's limbs. She could see that both combatants had received several wounds in the fight, but the imposter seemed to be more energetic, while Sandy was more lethargic. The fake Christine danced away from Sandy's snapping jaws and delivered two more swipes with her artificial claws. Sandy staggered.
Vika growled, "Will you hurry up and die? I can't waste all of my time on you!"
That decided Christine's course of action. She couldn't risk that the imposter's next victim could be the elderly Integra, the wounded Harry, or even one of her downed comrade-in-arms cyborgs.
Christine challenged with, "I'll kill you." This wasn't very a creative challenge, but it was pretty much standard wording for wolf-kind.
Vika was certain that the newcomer was referring to her, and Sandy considered herself to be the target of the threat. Maybe they were both right.
Christine leaped forward as Vika turned and the collision took both of them to the ground. Christine fastened her fangs upon Vika's right arm while her hands gripped the chipped she-wolf's snout and left wrist.
"This is going to be real easy," thought the Hellsing female werewolf.
Then, in their thrashing about, on the ground Vika's left set of claws raked Christine's thigh. The cuts were minor for a werewolf and Christine didn't pay it any attention. As far as Christine was concerned, this battle would end up in an easy victory for herself against the already tired and wounded foe. Then a burning sensation coursed from the wound and into rest of her leg. Obviously, the artificial claws contained more than just silver.
Christine released her grip on Vika's snout and reached for the handle of her holstered pistol. With Vika's jaws freed and Christine having her gun in hand, the situation got very messy for both ladies.
Sandy rested on the ground. With poisonous quicksilver coursing through her veins, she was having difficulty remaining conscious. The fight between Red and Fake-Red was entertaining. Bits and pieces of flesh flew as the two rolled on the ground with fangs savaging, claws slicing and a pistol firing. Normally Sandy would've expected Red to destroy her weakened opponent, but Fake-Red's quicksilver was nasty stuff.
So, Sandy waited. Whichever red furred werewolf, Christine or the imposter, wins this little bit of carnage will be coming after her, and Sandy would be prepared to fight.
Tribe of Five Roses member David was in the fight of his life. He couldn't believe that he was dumb enough to have stood still and exchanged gunfire with his foe. The only person who was as stupid as him was his opponent, who had done pretty much the same thing. David rationalized it wasn't an irrational act; it was merely a reaction to the mood of the moment.
His foe, Hunter, was the faster of the two, while David was the stronger. Both were in pain, but Hunter had the advantage of his chips dulling the agony. As Hunter approached David in a run, he threw his empty pistol at his opponent's head. David had a chance to dodge the projectile, but that would have put him off balance and made him an easy target for Hunter's next attack. David tilted his head slightly to the right, and the thrown gun made a glancing blow off of the left side of David's face. Sure, it hurt, but David acted like the impact had stunned him. Hunter, filled with confidence, lashed out with his claws at his opponent's throat. Instantly, David snapped out of his stunned act, caught Hunter's wrist and used the chipped werewolf's momentum to shoulder throw the surprised Hunter into the ground hard.
David followed his foe down and started to rend flesh. With his berserk clouded mind, David didn't notice that Hunter was returning every slash and rip he received. As flesh and blood flew, both fighters howled with rage.
Christine knew that she was in trouble. Poisonous quicksilver coursed throughout her veins. Unlike her chipped opponent, Christine hadn't slipped into a crazed berserk state of mind that was so common to werewolves. This was due to her early growing years with her adopted human parents. Growing up with non-werewolves meant that she had to practice controlling her wild side.
Both Vika and Christine were in a furious tangle on the ground. Christine still held her emptied pistol and all of its silver rounds were embedded in eight of Vika's newest wounds. The metallic weapon also proved to be a nice club. Their legs were locked in a struggle of strength while their fangs and claws continued their bloody work. Finally Vika clamped her teeth down upon Christine's snout and refused to release it. They twisted and rolled in their fight, and their turning bodies rolled onto Sandy and off the other side.
Sandy weakly growled, "I'll kill them both! I'll decorate the ground with their guts!"
Vika shook her head back and forth in an effort to dig her fangs deeper into the foe's snout and maybe to rip that part of Christine's snout off.
Pain racked Christine's face. With an act that most werewolves would consider only worthy of a human, she smashed the barrel of her emptied pistol into Vika's fangs and shattered a few of them. With the business end of the possibly loaded gun in her mouth, Vika release her bite on her foe's snout, in an attempt to deal with the weapon before it could blow her brains out. Since the deceitful gun was actually empty, Christine swiped the claws of her now freed hand across Vika's throat. Blood sprayed.
Christine turned and ended up on top of the dying Vika. Christine whispered to the red imposter, "Hey, Fan-girl. Have a taste of your own medicine. It's good."
The Hellsing agent grabbed one of the chipped werewolf's hands and shoved its quicksilver dripping claws into Vika's side. She had a hard time coordinating her movements. The thick mental haze of mercury ate away at her consciousness.
Even though Vika stopped moving, Christine brought her fangs near the Southwark werewolf's throat.
Then Sandy called out, "Hey idiot. Finish the bitch off and come over here so that I can kill you... And bring me a blade to stab you with..."
Christine froze. Her most hated enemy and favorite chew toy had distracted her. Slowly, she rolled off Vika and laid on the ground. She didn't have much strength or energy left. Still when she locked eyes with Blondie, she found a little bit of energy. Maybe it was enough to finish Sandy off.
Christine painfully rolled again and she ended up with a distance of two feet between their snouts.
Suddenly, Vika came unsteadily to her feet and roared. She flung her arms open and both sets of her metallic claws dripped with mercury.
Sandy growled weakly to Christine, "She's still alive. You've screwed up."
Before Vika could strike, Seras leapt upon the chipped werewolf's back with her arms and legs looped around the massive torso. With her fangs next to Vika's right ear, the vampiress said loudly with a drunken slur, "Hi! I'm Seras! You must be Vika!"
Then without waiting for a response, Seras sank her teeth into Vika's throat. Vika weakly jabbed her poisonous nails deep into the vampiress' thighs. Mercury flowed into the vampiress. The two fell away and out of sight of the prone Christine and Sandy.
Christine labored out the words, "Hey, Tramp. What were you saying before we were so rudely interrupted, Blondie?"
Sandy said with an angry rumble, "I'll kill you, you want-to-be human. Your throat will be ripped out... I hate you, traitor-to-all-werewolves!"
Their eyes locked again with renewed malice. A weak sneer crossed Christine's face as she said, "You're so sweet. Here I'm dying and my future looks bleak. And now you say that you hate me. Stop trying to cheer me up... Besides, you can't tear out my throat... because your ugly neck will be between my teeth, Yellow Fur."
Slowly, they each reached a hand toward each other. Christine's left hand looped around to grasp the back of Sandy's neck and Sandy used her right to grab the back of Christine's neck. Their eyes were hate-filled and a weak growl emitted by each. So intense was their attention fixed upon each other, that they didn't hear Vika's final death sigh as Seras drank away her life and soul.
With almost imperceptible slow speed, the two she-wolves pulled the face of her foe closer. Both ladies planned a last second of flurry activity that will some how get her fangs underneath those of her opponent and to sink those teeth into an unprotected neck. Each knew that she'd only get one chance. And it had to be done before the quicksilver poison finally ends both their lives.
Then they paused to exchange one last glance of pure venom. Their arms tensed up to pull hard and their fangs lunged forward.
Seras inebriated voice shouted, "My Girls! I Won!"
The surprise announcement messed up the duo's attacks. Their noses slammed together and remained jammed against each other. For werewolves, such contact was considered to be a show of affection, like a pair of human ladies exchanging social kisses on their cheeks. But Seras didn't see it that way.
Seras slurred out, "Oh?... Kissing? My Girls are Kissing?"
Now the she-wolves exchanged looks of blame. It was like they were saying to each other that this was all your fault. With renewed vigor, they pulled again. Sandy turned her fangs to her left to get around Christine's snout, and unfortunately, Christine turned her fangs in the same direction. The result was that they slammed the sides of their heads together, and the sides of their snouts were pressed against each other. This was becoming much more of a wrestling contest than either lady werewolf had anticipated. Still they didn't release their grips on their foe's neck.
Then a much more powerful set of arms wrapped around the pair. Normally Seras was physically weaker than either she-wolf, but the muscle strength of the she-wolves had been vastly drained away.
As they were partially picked off of the ground by a much shorter Seras, the blood drunk vampiress shouted, "Group Hug!"
Seras jammed her face between the two and held them tight. Any easy path for the she-wolves to reach the other's throat was now blocked.
Seras rattled out, "I'm so glad that you two have made up... and are now friends... and-"
Sandy growled out the word, "crap" before her head flopped over backwards.
Seras looked puzzled and then a bit panicked. "Uh? What happened? What's going on?"
Christine growled softly, "She's dying. Just like I am... The chipped witch injected us with too much quicksilver. Will you please release the blond bimbo? You hugging us together is not comfortable... and I feel like I need a flea bath after touching her."
Seras was in shock. "You two can't die... We've only begun to know each other."
Christine was fading. She was leaving her friends, the Hellsings, and this wacky undead pack leader of hers. The one she'll miss the most will be Harry. She had plans for a future with Harry in her life... Harry... Harry, who had survived the demon's poison with Seras' help...
The red she-wolf spoke up, "Seras, do you remember... purifying Harry of that bone demon's poison? Can you do the... same with my little quicksilver problem?"
Seras' face showed not even the slightest note of comprehension. Blood-drunk minds and thinking didn't mix much.
Christine tried to reason with her. "Seras, the poison-"
Seras interrupted with, "Ah Ha!"
With a wide, beaming, fang-filled smile, the undead agent sank her teeth deep into Sandy's exposed neck. Sandy's blood flowed into the vampiress, then some of it flowed back in mixed with some of Seras' undead essence.
The blond werewolf's frame jerked and then trembled. Her arms twitted and she mumbled out a word that might be the werewolf equivalent of 'no'.
As Sandy started to stir, a fading Christine whispered, "No... It's not fair."
Sandy began convulsing with Seras still attached to her throat.
With one last burst of effort, Christine whispered, "Leader... Seras... I'm dying, too..."
Instantly, Seras released both her bite and grip upon the blond she-wolf. Sandy fell like a sack of flour to the ground and weak groans came from her snout. The groans slowly grew in volume.
Seras turned her face to regard her next patient/victim. Christine was still supported by the vampiress' left arm. Christine saw the look in Seras' face and fear crept in. The pleasant drunken smile was replaced by a predatory one. The look in Seras' eyes was not one you would give a friend. It was one you would give to a prized pet.
Christine's certainty of this plan of action faded as the vampiress approached her neck. Having a brushy head of hair against the side of her face felt weird. Then came the slight pair of pin-pricks as Seras drove in her fangs. Christine's flesh felt numb due to all the mercury in it.
Then Christine knew something was very wrong. The Hellsing vampiress had begun to drain the she-wolf's blood. Christine could feel that not only her blood was going, but also a part of her soul. She tried to complain, to tell her leader not to do this, but all that could escape her was a small gasp. Then the draining was replaced by something flowing out of those fangs. Whatever the liquid was, it spread out into her veins. The red she-wolf's immune system fought against this foreign undead invader, but her immune response was so weak that it was quickly overwhelmed.
Then came the unseen presence. Christine felt it moving throughout her flesh. She made a guess that Seras was the one who was the invader. Then the dullness moved. The numb feeling was being pushed away from her skin. Instantly, pain burned in the newly awaken flesh. Some kind of essence was creating torment as it bound itself to her and imprinted a mental leash firmly upon her brain.
Christine tried to whisper, "Get Out!", but it only came out as a groan. She was trembling with agony.
The mercury rich dullness flowed away from the she-wolf's limbs and head and moved in the direction of her stomach.
Nausea swept all over her. Christine shifted her eyes to spy Sandy retching as the blond she-wolf laid on the ground. The red werewolf grumbled to Seras' buried head, "Drop me on Blondie, so that I can spew on her. It will improve her looks."
Sandy growled, but her convulsions prevented a verbal response.
Seras withdrew from Christine's neck. With a drunk laugh and a sunny face, she replied, "You're funny."
The vampiress tried to carefully lay the werewolf down on the grass and said "Oopsie" when Christine's head hit the ground with a thump.
It was at this time, Christine's stomach had decided that it had enough abuse. The contents of her stomach was determined to exit. It succeeded. Out came a vile mixture that contained the poisonous quicksilver. This should have made the lady werewolf better, but then her stomach attempted to follow the same path up her throat. Dry heaves wracked her body.
From her position on the ground, the red she-wolf couldn't see where where Seras had waltzed off to, but Sandy was well within her field of vision. Each lady took comfort in the other one's misery. The only difference between the two was the blond werewolf was starting to regain a small measure of control over her own body.
Seras' voice came from a spot out of Christine's view. "Hey, it's Mr. David and... and... Whoever David is fighting..."
Slowly, Sandy propped up her upper body with her elbow against the ground. She weakly bared her fangs at Christine. This was more effort than Christine could muster in the middle of her stomach's convulsions.
Seras spoke again, "Mr. David? Are you and Mr. What's-his-name really fighting? I see a lot of chewing... Ah! Between all you guys' ripped fur and bloody gashes, I see lots and lots of bullets holes... hic... I don't feel very well... Don't let go of those wrists or you'll get sliced. Oooh, that has got to hurt... And that, too."
Sandy worked her way off of the ground with her hands and knees supporting her frame. She paused to pant from the effort. Christine frantically attempted to moved her limbs, for a twitch and a tremor in any of her muscles, but whatever Seras had pumped into her bloodstream hadn't healed her enough to move. At least the stomach pains were going away.
Sandy shifted her gaze to the red werewolf and said softly, "It... sucks to... be... you... Red." Then she bared her fangs at Christine.
Seras' voice piped up, "Oh, hi Master. You'll never guess... HEY! I was saving Mr. What's-his-name for later! Don't eat him!"
Alucard spoke in a deep timbre, "Seras Victoria, with such a banquet surrounding us, don't you consider yourself a bit too covetous with the feast? Besides, you have your pet dog David to see to. Doesn't he bleed well?"
Christine felt a dark sinister force start to grow within her. She was sure that her opponent, Sandy, had already experienced the same thing. She desperately pulled on that invading undead force to bring some kind of 'life' back into her limbs. Her right hand flexed slightly. The burning sensation in her flesh lessened and feeling came back to her limbs. Muscles began to obey her, but they fought against being used with weakness and a dull, throbbing, body-wide pain.
On her hands and knees, Sandy slowly approached Christine. The red she-wolf was still on her back and wasn't able to roll off of it yet. Both of them had their teeth exposed, but the situation didn't look good for the red one.
David voice came from the side, "Seras! No! I can heal from these wounds. I-"
Then he softly groaned.
Both Sandy and Christine froze with their eyes locked. Sandy asked, "David?"
All they heard was a vampire's sucking noise.
"DAVID!" called out Sandy as she lunged away from her downed foe.
Christine weakly turned her head so that her eyes followed Sandy, which brought more people into view. Just ten feet away, Alucard was feeding on one of the chipped werewolves. His red trench-coat-covered form looked tiny against his huge victim. Both of them stood, but the hapless werewolf was supported by Alucard's arms.
And then her eyes spotted David to the right of Alucard. The black-furred werewolf was down on the ground with Seras kneeling over him. The vampiress' head was next to the wolf-man's head, but Christine could only see the back of the undead woman's blood- spattered hair. Sandy was desperately crawling in their direction.
With a slow surge of energy, Christine rolled to her side. Her strength crept back into her muscles at an agonizingly slow pace. She had a grand view of the tail end of the leaving Sandy. She had full intention to lunge after her blond furred foe and take her from behind, but Christine's body was to sluggish to lunge. Pity, it would have been fun to bite down on the back of Sandy's neck and to hear her shocked howl.
Then from the area to the left of Alucard, Master Sergeant Harry weakly waved from where he laid on the ground. Upon seeing the sitting male werewolf with a large bloody wound in the center of his abdomen, Christine's priorities changed and she slowly scooted/rolled in his direction. Her pace hastened when she spotted one of the damaged cyborgs lying still next to him.
Seras had buried her head into David's fur and her fangs into his neck. Her mind spun with her blood-drunken state and there was an ache from where the fake Christine had injected poisonous quicksilver into her flesh. David had uttered something, but the buzz in her head had drowned him out. She had already sucked in some of his blood and was now reversing the flow in her fangs to enrich his blood with her essence.
"Strange," she thought. "David is struggling more than Harry, Christine and Sandy did when I helped them... What does that mean? ... It's so hard to think..."
Then a large-blond-fur-covered hand grabbed Seras' right shoulder. Seras pulled her teeth out from David so that she could turn her head to see who was behind her. She caught a glimpse of Sandy before the female werewolf's yank sent the vampiress tumbling backwards.
"How dare she treats me so!" were the words that pierced Seras' drunken mind.
As Seras sulked, Sandy was frantic. The she-wolf grabbed David's arm.
"What's wrong, David?" Sandy practically shouted the question at him, "What has Seras done to you? Answer me! Does it hurt?"
The dark-furred David quivered as he laid on the ground. A gurgling noise came from his foaming mouth. He wasn't well at all. The male werewolf's health wasn't weakened enough to be easily overwhelmed by Seras' blood. His immune system was fighting back and immense pain coursed throughout David.
Seras' face fell as her anger deflated. Events didn't go the way she had expected. The world was so unfair to her. She looked around for her master. At least with him, there was no surprises with his taunts.
Then she had a dull stomach ache. The mercury that Vika had earlier injected into Seras's thighs was now being pushes though her blood veins and into her stomach. The pain increased.
"Must find Master," Seras thought.
Integra advanced slowly and steadily. By the time she had traversed the tunnel and come to the edge of the inner courtyard, Alucard had finish off Luke, and Seras was beginning to take interest in the Vika versus Christine fight. The elderly Hellsing's path swung wide of the current brawls. She was absolutely confident that her vampire servants would not fail with their assignment, but a frown showed that some concerns did weigh upon her mind. These were concerns that Alucard may allow some of her troops to die as he admires their enemies' bravery, or that a drunken Seras may mistake a friend for a foe.
Sir Hellsing continued past the conflicts. The target of her travel were the two persons near the paladiness.
One was a slim, redheaded male around twenty-five years in age and this beardless man was in a blue bathrobe. The other human was a healthy looking woman who had her long brown hair woven into a single braid that ran down most of her back. The color of her bathrobe was pink. Both of their hands were tied behind their backs. Sarafina stood behind the two with her right hand grasping the man's bindings while her left held the woman's shoulder.
The man desperately demanded, "Release us, Lassie! For God's sake, let us leave!"
Sarafina flinched upon hearing the words, "For God's Sake," then her smile returned.
Integra slowly ambled her way before the two, and Alucard leisurely waltzed up to her right. The elderly Hellsing still carried her walking cane, but now it was more out of habit than for its support.
"Monsters," snapped out the woman in the pink robe.
Integra frowned. She thought, "This man said the word 'Lassie'. Obviously, he doesn't speak proper English. He's probably just a peasant. He and this woman must have snuck away from their posts and into one of the palace's several bedrooms for an illicit affair. Still, I must protect the citizenry, whether they be high born, or fools like these."
Before Sir Hellsing spoke, Alucard said in a loud mocking tone as he drew forth his hand-cannons, "Monster? You insignificant worms dare call my Master a Monster?"
The man shouted angrily, "Ya Bas!" as the Undead King brought his weapons to bear on the duo.
Integra said in a commanding voice, "Alucard! Stop It!"
Everyone froze. Then Alucard slowly lowered his guns. He turned to his master and bowed. "Yes, My Master," he said with a insanely wide smile.
With a slight frown, Integra's eyes examined the man. His use of the phrase, "Ya Bas," which meant, "You Bastard," indicated him to be of Scottish origin. She said to the pair, "I am Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, former knight of the Round Table. I am here to ascertain if our king is safe and unharmed. Perhaps, one of you two may have knowledge of his majesty's current location."
The woman blurted out, "The second floor! The King is on the second floor!"
Integra said, "Good. Now-"
The red-headed man interrupted, "What's ya havering about? An dinnieken that sending-"
The woman broke in, "Ignore him. You'll hear just an angry man's ravings."
Integra squinted her eyes at the interrupting imbeciles. She snapped, "Silent woman! And you Sir, use the Queens English or even what passes as modern English! Now, what are you blathering about?"
The man paused as if to collect his thoughts. He grumbled, "Scottish English is perfectly fine... As I was saying: What are you speaking nonsense about? I don't know that sending these filthy creatures to the second floor will gain us anything. They're guan to murder us anyway and now yur guan... going to set these monster after any poor bastards still hiding up on the second floor. That's not right, Tammy. Not right at all!"
Sir Hellsing was annoyed once again. She interrogated in a strained voice, "Are you implying that our king is NOT on the second floor?"
And then, without waiting for a reply, Integra continued, "You Will Inform Me Of WHERE His Majesty Is! And Make Sure That Your Answer Is PROMPT And ACCURATE!"
The woman, Tammy, started to draw in a breath which to respond with, but the red-haired man spoke first.
"As you say in your English, I am the Bloody King."
Everyone around Integra went quiet.
Then Alucard started to chuckling, and it was followed by his deep laughter, which had a chilling effect on most of those around. "Marvelous," he barked out condescendingly, "A King in his finest robe and his appropriately dressed mistress.
Integra's eyes briefly closed as her headache doubled and then tripled. "Surely, you jest," she half said, half questioned, in a pained voice.
"It is a fact, auld granny," was the tense reply by this self proclaimed king. "Just ask the Vatican witch who is holding my leash. Now murder me if you must, but release Tammy and dinnae send yur goons tae kill any poor fool still hiding in this cursed palace!"
"And where have you met Paladiness Sarafina before?" asked the elderly Hellsing. Her eyes sharply studied this buffoon.
"Ah dinnae speak... I did not speak tae her. I saw her when that bastard Paladin Moore brought his thugs to pay a visit tae me. He called me a heathen, an unconverted animal, and threatened tae kill me if I dinnae bark like a dog. Aye, I remember Moore and all his gang."
Integra's eyes focused upon the captor of the two. She asked the mute paladiness, "Sarafina, is this man the king?"
Without the slightest hesitation, Sarafina nodded affirmatively with exaggerated swings of her head. Her normal fixed smile widened to show that she was enjoying the situation.
Integra paled and was shocked, but she did not show it. Years of training kept the unseemly expression away from her face.
"Now that is settle, Release Tammy!" demanded the man.
Integra shook off the shocked and snapped out, "Sarafina! Release his Majesty and the lady! Untie the King immediately!"
The Paladiness looked disappointed, then she grinned as she released her hold on the woman's shoulder and started to untie the King and the woman.
Then the red-headed King in the blue bathrobe started to rant, "Are Yer Satisfied, Now! I... demand... What are you doing?"
Integra had knelt before him. Beneath her calm exterior, anger fought against confusion and her discipline. "This isn't a descendant of my Queen. He can't be," she thought.
Integra asked in a firm voice, "May I inquire to the name of Your Royal Highness?"
The man was not amused. "What is guan on here? Too many good people are dead and yur playing sick games, Missy!"
Integra said in a tired tone, "As I said before: I am Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, former Knight of the Round Table. The threat to you is over, Your Majesty."
Tammy spoke up and demanded, "Why were we attacked? And why was there a battle between the monsters?"
Integra said firmly and evenly, "Chipped freaks and curs dared to impersonate Hellsing personnel and accosted Your Royal Majesty in an effort to discredit the Hellsing Organization. We have arrived and vanquished the foul beasts from Your Majesty's dwelling. May I inquire again as to the name of Your Royal Highness?"
The King asked, "So the killing is over?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Seras's blood-drunken voice drifted in, "Master. Maaaaster. Everyone is sooo mean to me. Sandy has been naughty."
Integra glanced over her shoulder and saw a depressed Seras stumbling closer. A pair of blood-red tears streaked down her face.
Alucard mocked, "Are you amused with your undisciplined pets, Police Girl?"
The king snapped, "Keep that thing away from us!"
Tammy added, "She looks rabid!"
Integra stood as she commanded, "Seras, leave-". She didn't have a chance to complete her sentence. Seras moved up at blinding fast speed to the elderly Hellsing's side and whined, "Sir, Master is being mean to me again... And my tummy hurts..."
The king tried to back away and only succeeded in falling down along with Tammy.
Integra's face twitched as she considered using her cane to beat some sense into the young vampiress. But that wouldn't be proper in front of this improbable king. She still had her doubts. Integra only ordered, "Kneel down before the King, Seras."
Seras attempted to focus on those around her. The man and woman dressed in bathrobes cringed. The vampiress blurted out in confusion, "What? Huh? Him? Is that the Queen? She doesn't look like the Queen Mum."
Integra warned, "Seras, kneel."
Tammy said with a faint glimmer of hope, "This one doesn't act like one of the attackers..."
Seras was about kneel when the last comment sent her mind off in a totally different direction. She focused on Tammy, which didn't thrill Tammy at all, and said, "Hi Miss Queen. I fought myself over there... I think I won... I'm not sure..."
"Seras!" said Integra to get Seras' attention.
"Oh," was Seras' response.
The vampiress slowly knelt and successfully didn't topple over, but this position put additional pressure on her very queasy stomach.
As the King and Tammy picked themselves up off of the ground, Integra informed them, "As you can see, I have the situation well under control."
"Sir Hellsing," Seras whined. Her stomach, filled with poisonous quicksilver, was starting to convulse. Alucard only smirked and waited for the upcoming commotion.
Integra quickly said to Seras, "Seras, be quiet and stay kneeling." Then she turned her attention to the King. "Your Majesty, even though I am a former Knight of the Round Table, I am still a loyal servant of the Crown."
"Sir Hellsing," Seras gasped out.
"I said for you to remain quiet!"
The King sighed and spoke up, "Since you seem tae be not the raiders and these are probably the Hellsing monsters that I have heard so much about, I will answer your question. I am Stephen Stewart."
"Stewart?" questioned Integra. "The House of Stewart has taken the Crown?"
"No... Yes..." replied King Stewart. "Well, I was tricked into taking it. The Round Table sent request for an alliance to the Scottish Parliament, and they needed a king. The last one didn't survive. My brother Duff spoke some real fancy words to me, and I was dumb enough tae agree. I thought that I could help my beloved Scotland if I were the king here. Ah dinnaeken (I do not know) that all the Round Table wanted was a figurehead for their city."
"Sir," pleaded Seras. She was ignored.
"That can't be true," were Integra's words.
Tammy cut in, "Yes, what he said is true. I am Thomasina Gibson, the Round Table Lady of Agriculture."
"Sir.. Hellsing..." Seras was trembling.
The elderly Hellsing demanded, "WHAT?"
"Buuungggh," was the noise the young vampiress made as she powerfully spewed out her stomach's contents. The King and Tammy were fortunate enough to be barely out of range of the splatter; Integra wasn't that lucky.
As the undead Hellsing agent continued throwing up, the King remarked, "Seeing the monster like this, it's kind of hard tae be afraid of her. Now the big red guy or the paladiness behind me are two entirely different matters."
Integra quickly informed, "King Stewart, no person or creature working under the Hellsing name will harm you. Our organization will protect you."
The King thought for a second and then said, "I see. Ah must say that this is a surprise... And by the way, I dinnae need titles. So, just call me Stevie, OK?"
Finally, Integra's face showed shock. "No," she said. "That is not proper... It is disrespectful of our heritage... and of our ancestors."
Stephen Stewart shook his head. "Well, if yur guan to keep calling me Yur Highest, then I will keep calling you Auld Granny."
Seras, on the ground with her hand and knees, had just completed emptying her stomach and sighed out, "I feel better now."
"Oh, Be Quiet," snapped Integra.
