I know I said I'd be slowing it down, but fear not! My studies will not suffer. Too much.
Song of the day: Merry-Go-Round by Tatsuro Yamashita
In reply to a privated comment about Ranma's pronouns: I feel like the core of 'his' character is still male, she's simply decided to accept being a girl in an effort to adapt to her new situation. That said, the decision to do so was a hasty one, and the brashness of that decision will be reflected upon particularly in this chapter. It might come across as a retcon of sorts, but I'd rather clarify previously unclear elements than rewrite them as it sits now. This chapter and the previous particularly, see Ranma properly processing her trauma.
The few moments shared with Seras to lift some of the weights on Ranma's mind did wonders for her confidence. While those feelings had been brought forward and were still sitting there, taunting her, she felt it was better that she had started to acknowledge them at least. It was like choosing to be blind versus having one eye poked out - so not great, but definitely better. Trying to force herself to adapt simply wasn't going to work. She wanted to impress Alucard, and she understood his sentiments towards preservation of humanity as a vampire, however she wasn't just going to throw away her old self just like that. She was still herself, for now. Only time would tell how that could change. She could see her own struggle in the Seras, even if she was slightly more opposed to becoming inhuman. She seemed like a strong girl though, Ranma was sure she'd pull through alongside her.
After the younger draculina changed into her new uniform, she was swiftly shown to the armoury by Walter, being provided with a high-calibre rifle. Considering her slightly broad shoulders it was a good fit for her. They didn't have much time to sit around, since reports had come in that the demonic threat this time was actually two vampires: a young couple who had started to wreak havoc in a small town. They weren't making ghouls, suggesting they were killing their victims rather than simply feeding from them, or were perhaps even unable like the pseudo-vampire in Japan.
In the shuttle, while in transit to the scene, Ranma sat beside Seras. This was her second mission, and her younger sister's first, so while she was only barely more experienced, she felt the responsibility fell to her to see that everything went smoothly. Alucard had decided to sit this one out, allowing his progeny to take care of it, only stepping in if things went wrong. Seras seemed to have cultivated a frustrated resolve that she didn't seem initially capable of, she squeezed the barrel of the rifle as it sat upright by her side, making her knuckles turn white under her squeaking leather gloves. Ranma but a palm gently on her shoulder, "This'll be a walk in the park. I'll storm the building, and you pick off any of 'em that show through the windows or make a run for it. Sound good?" Seras looked her in the eyes with steely eyes. "Yes. Okay. I can do it."
Parking a mile or so away from where the vampires were situated, Seras found a vantage point on top of a pillared building overlooking the road running alongside the target house. She settled in a relatively level part of the roofing tiles, went into a prone position and readied her rifle, training the - there weren't any sights? Suddenly she was slightly less confident she could do this. How could she hit a target over 800 metres away without using sights? It was ludicrous. Oh, well there was no point moaning about it now, nothing could be done, she'd just have to try.
Ranma began her sprint towards the location, moving faster than she had ever known to be possible on foot. She felt the cool night's air brushing against her skin on her face, almost forgetting herself just as she arrived within 50m of the house. She listened closely for sounds inside, finding that she could pick up three people, one of which had a heartbeat which was slow and arrhythmic. The heartbeat then came to a stop with the rattle of what sounded like a sub-machine gun. She began to eavesdrop on the conversation of the two remaining. "We'll be able to live forever, as invincible vampires..." A male voice purred, followed by a wet, smacking sound that was probably some pretty intense kissing between the undead couple. She stopped listening, feeling somehow dirty with how she'd overheard that. Although, it was the perfect opportunity to get the jump on them.
She carefully dashed to the front door, keeping the noise of her footsteps to a frighteningly quiet minimum. It didn't seem like there was going to be a better way into the house than through the front, since that was the closest entrance, and any other attempt to infiltrate would just make noise that they'd detect. She'd just have to bust in, using the momentary surprise against them. She went back a few paces, then threw herself, right leg outstretched, into the door. It snapped open with a loud CRACK. She maintained her momentum, sliding through the corridor while drawing her twinspears from the new holsters attached to her thighs. The male vampire jerked his head to the side, alerted evil eyes wide from shock. He jolted his MAC-10 in her direction, instantly pulling the trigger, but Ranma had already shifted into hyperfocus. To her this guy was anything but fast - he was faster than a human, that's for sure, but she could see exactly where he was aiming. She bounced off the walls like a pinball, even kicking off the ceiling. She quickly realising the vampire's aim wasn't actually half bad, she was simply able to dodge the fire quickly enough not to get hit, or so she thought before closer inspection. She had been hit in the shoulder and the calf once each. The bullets weren't silver cased or blessed, so they weren't going to do any lasting damage, but they'd hit her nonetheless. Too bad his clip had been emptied, or he might've been able to hit her a few more times. Realising he was out of ammo, his sadistic smile turned to a panicked grimace as the redhead dived towards him, scarlet dyed eyes full of rage. She let out a guttural growl as she stabbed him in the stomach with one spear, and directly in the heart with the second.
The female vampire of the couple stood, petrified, having just watched her boyfriend get slaughtered. Fight or flight took over, and she chose the latter, making a break for it by smashing through the window. Ranma would have been able to catch her, but found her shot calf prevented her from using her leg to its full potential temporarily. She collapsed onto her backside next to the pile of dust and clothes that used to be the male vampire, trusting that Seras would be able to take out the escaped female. Her bullet wounds slowly healed before her eyes, pushing out the small lumps of metal that had caused them as they closed up. Neat. Testing her ability to put weight on the leg, she found it was good as new and stood up. The uniform was going to need some patching up though. She wondered how her master was able to regenerate not only his body, but his clothes with him. That would be quite convenient, but she had just shrugged off gunshots like it was nothing, so the trouble a couple of holes in her uniform was pretty insignificant compared to that.
Seras watched attentively over the building that she had just seen Ranma break in to, keeping an eye out for any of the two vampires making an escape. She was especially alert now, since she'd just plainly heard gunshots emanating from inside. She was still having to watch with her eyes alone, having no sights or optics attached to her rifle. She'd already had a strange realisation that she could see perfectly well despite it being around 9pm, which was usually completely dark in England. The thought of seeing in the dark distracted her from realising that she could also see every detail of the building despite the vast distance she was viewing it from. The excessive detail she could make out was soon put to use, when she spied a young girl bursting from a window to the side of the house, landing on all fours on the pavement. The girl began to belt down the road, away from the vantage point, putting further inordinate distance between Seras and her target. She squinted, trying her hardest to line up her barrel with the shrinking silhouette.
A voice reverberated in her head as she began to question the reasonability of being able to land this shot without a scope. 'If you aim like a human, you'll miss like one, police girl.'
Without even questioning the circumstances of her hearing of the voice she recognised to be Alucard's, she replied with a thought, 'But, master, I don't even have a reference to aim off of.'
Alucard advised her, 'Imagine you have a third eye in the centre of your forehead, that can see the trajectory of the bullet. If you can see it, you can't miss. You won't miss.'
Trying her master's suggestion, she felt something click inside of her as her eyes tinted bloody. She could see, no - feel, the girl's exact position on the road, and she knew exactly where to shift the barrel to land a clean shot through her heart. Making the adjustments flawlessly, she squeezed the trigger. Seras watched carefully as her shot flew through the back of the girl, creating a confetti blast of blood while they fell to the tarmac. She had done it, perfectly. The rifle didn't even feel like it had recoiled at all, and she had just had a telepathic conversation as she shot a target over a kilometre away without even a mere iron sight. Shaking slightly from astonishment, she blew out a sigh, collecting herself. Was Ranma alright? She hadn't emerged from the house yet. 'I'm fine, Seras. Just coming out now.' A voice echoed in her head that sounded exactly like the tomboy. That was going to take some getting used to. The redhead came clearly into view a few seconds later, making the hand signal for 'building clear' to the Hellsing operatives while flashing a smile directly at Seras. She probably looked a little crazy to anyone that couldn't understand that despite being 800m apart, the two vampire siblings could see each other without issue.
Alucard seemed to materialise behind Seras, gleefully grinning at the achievement his newest fledgling had claimed. "You're beginning to get the hang of it, police girl."
Seras looked up at the radiant full moon, deep in thought. "I've really changed into something else haven't I?"
"You're not there yet. You still have a long way to go, and a long way further after that." He stated, before dematerialising into the breeze.
Ranma, who had run all the way back to the Hellsing encampment and Seras' vantage point, jumped up onto the roof with her, sitting next to her on the roof tiles. "You doin' alright, Seras?"
Seras continued to stare into the moonlight, "I'm okay. This whole thing, it's amazing... but also frightening."
Ranma joined her in looking up into the night sky. Sitting with a girl like this reminded her of Akane. She was a confusing girl; she hadn't always been the easiest to understand. This English girl though, despite having lived on the opposite side of the world, and having lived an entirely different life, she felt she could connect with. It could've just been the situation they shared, or the innate vampiric sibling bond, but the feeling was still there. Ranma had tried to rush the process towards assuming the identity of draculina, probably due to her immaturity, but Seras was staying true to herself. Regardless of her status as an older vampire, she was still younger than Seras in human years. The redhead did feel like she probably had come to grips with vampirism more than her sister, but Seras had definitely approached it with greater honesty. Even the decision to accept being female wasn't quite something she had wrapped her head around yet. She'd stopped arguing about her gender, and didn't mind being a 'she', although it was more a practical choice than personal one. She wasn't really a girl deep down, but thought she might as well front as one, even if it was artificial. The sudden extreme change of both her gender and her actual species weren't something that she could easily reconcile straightaway, but at least acknowledging that struggle would surely help her along the way.
Realising they were dawdling, Ranma got up, "C'mon let's get goin'."
Seras snapped out of her moonlit trance, shooting upright, "Yes! Of course, let's go."
As they walked back to the shuttle, Ranma posed a question to her blonde partner, "Seras, what kinda impression do you have of me so far?"
"Uhhhm, that's a difficult question. If I had to say something though, I'd say it definitely makes sense that you used to be a boy from the way you talk and carry yourself, but that's not an insult. You're boyish and brash but you're also quite kind. I can tell."
"Would a kind person force their family to forget about them? Or abandon their mother and fiancée without tellin' them anything? I just- I just feel like..." She trailed off, at a loss for words for a few seconds, "I did it for their sakes, 'cuz I'm dead, and a girl now, but... I tried to keep movin' forward, but now after meeting you, it feels like the life I left behind is haunting me."
Seras had a surprised expression which shifted to a melancholic smile, "I think you did the right thing, you had no choice. It's only been a day, and I can tell being a vampire is no joke. Whether you're a girl or boy doesn't really matter to me, but you had a fiancée?"
"Yeah." Akane's face flashed through her mind. "It wasn't even really my decision to marry her, my dad set it all up. I 'spose it wasn't a massive thing to break off. I'm glad my gender situation doesn't bother you though. I think I'm still gonna call myself a tomboy rather than a guy. Seems to fit better, even if I'm still the same guy inside. I kinda got used to being in a girl's body before with the whole curse thing anyways."
"Your dad set it up without asking? All while you were suffering from a gender-swap curse? Wow. Besides that, what you call yourself is your choice. To me, you're just Ranma."
"I appreciate that." She blushed slightly as they boarded the shuttle. "Anyway, I'm sorry for throwin' that on you suddenly. I'm complainin' about my whole family situation when you... ugh I'm such an arsehole." Akane would've hit him for saying something like that to her.
"It's okay, I understand, but really it's okay. Having no family is something I've come to terms with a long time ago." She reassured Ranma, who looked quite ashamed. "I lost my family before I could even really understand what was happening. Yours is still an open wound. I suppose we've both reached the same point, it's just a lot more painful for you right now in the moment."
"I guess so. I'm sorry either way, I'm quite careless with my words sometimes." Wanting to elevate the mood, Ranma remembered something she hadn't told Seras yet. "Speaking of my past with my family, would ya believe my dad turned into a panda as well?"
"What? You're pulling my leg." She began to crack up.
"It's true! He used to communicate by writing out signs." The redhead began to laugh just thinking about it.
"No way, you've got to be making this up." She snickered, trying to hold in her laughter.
Integra called out from the front of the shuttle, interrupting their giggling, "Have some professionalism will you! You just killed a couple of serial murderer vampires and you're acting like a pair of schoolgirls!" They stopped quickly, trying their best to calm down. The other Hellsing operatives sitting in the shuttle glared at them, whether it was with curiosity or hostility wasn't clear behind their military faceguards.
Ranma picked at the hole in the shoulder of her uniform, around which the fabric was a little reddened from her short lived bleeding from the gunshot. "You got shot?" Seras asked, concern furrowing her brows.
"Yeah, a couple times, but I'm fine. The bullets just fell out when they healed."
"You mean you've healed up already? I had no idea vampire regeneration was that fast."
"Hah. You don't know the half of it, I got my back burnt to a crisp on the plane before leavin' for England. Wasn't pretty, and it didn't heal straightaway either."
"That sounds painful. You're all fine now right?"
"Yup, good as new."
"And... you had to drink blood?" Seras hesitantly asked, looking down at her knees.
"Yeah, but it's not like I sucked it outta someone's neck or anythin', just a transfusion bag." The draculina raised her eyebrow.
"Wait, really? I didn't realise that was an option. I'm still not sure I could do it though."
"If you're able to keep goin' without it, that's your choice, but if you get badly injured it might be difficult."
"I'll keep that in mind. For now, I'm going to see how sleeping in a coffin treats me."
"I saw Walter workin' on it earlier, actually looked pretty comfortable."
"I really do hope so." The blonde sighed, dreading the possibility of claustrophobia.
When the shuttle arrived back at the Hellsing grounds, Integra took to her desk again, laying out all the collected evidence from the past 2 weeks of vampire attacks globally. They had started slowly, with pseudo-vampires in Japan, embedded with a type of monitoring chip that was later found in the more complete vampires in England. The ones in England could make ghouls, although some of the incidents didn't record any ghoul sightings, though this seemed to be due to the vampires simply going on a killing rather than blood-sucking rampage. She evaluated a display of the locations in England and the UK where vampires had been appearing, and when. They were happening around 4 times the usual rate, and they weren't anything but lower rate weak vampires, not to mention the chips found in all of the locations dealt with directly by Hellsing. This had to be a large organisation, capable of making vampires, that were specifically testing their capabilities on Hellsing as they experimented. The one question swirling in her head, was who? Who would do this, and why?
The ringing of the phone at her side broke her train of thought, picking up, she found it was a correspondent in Northern Ireland on the line. They detailed sighting of a town, Badrick, being attacked by a vampire in a large-scale takeover, most if not all of the inhabitants of the town being turned into ghouls within hours due to the small size of the population. It was like she was being taunted. First vampire incidents start increasing in quantity, now severity too. The incident in Cheddar was bad enough with the amount of inhabitants that had been turned into ghouls, but this seemed to be even worse. There was no time for hesitation, she'd have to send in Alucard and his two fledglings post-haste. There were still plenty of hours left in the night, they'd have to start moving now, or the draculinas' performances would suffer. Integra called out, "Walter. I'm going to need you to tell the two of Alucard's progeny they're to ready themselves again. Now."
Walter courteously bowed. "Of course, Sir Integra. I will service their weapons during the journey."
"It's going to need to be the helicopters. This time it's in Northern Ireland. Badrick."
"I will inform the pilot." Walter briskly left to complete his tasks as Integra picked up her holster and coat.
Ranma was back in her room, splayed out on her bed while reading a book about international defense organisations again, when she heard a hurried knock at her door. She knew it was Walter by the footsteps already. "What's up Walter?"
He answered firmly through the closed door, "Another incident has appeared. You and Miss Victoria are to mobilise at the helipad forthwith." She groaned in exasperation. She couldn't even use being tired as an excuse with her enhanced stamina.
"Welp, looks like we're off again Seras." Ranma spoke aloud whilst telepathically broadcasting to Seras.
She had started to get the hang of broadcasting her thoughts, so she replied in kind. 'Again? I suppose I did basically sit around just now. Maybe I'll get to move about this time.'
"Sounds serious this time by Walter's urgency, so yeah I'd bet on that." She grabbed her holsters and tied her boots, meeting Seras as they both emerged from their rooms at the same time. "I know where the helipad is, follow me."
Arriving outside, behind the main Hellsing mansion building, Ranma looked up at the helicopter in awe. First it was the jet, but a helicopter was going to be another level of cool. They were ushered hurriedly onto the copter and fitted with headsets as the rotors began to spin. Walter boarded with them in the passenger section, sitting opposite the two girls. He fitted his headset, "If you please, young ladies, I'll service your weapons."
Ranma offered up her revolver, since she had no experience in cleaning or taking care of firearms at all, but Seras held on to her rifle. "I can deal with the rifle, Walter. I learned as part of my police force training."
"Very well, Miss Victoria. I have the tools laid out here if you feel so inclined."
That was impressive. Ranma had forgotten that Seras was part of the rare armed police force in England. She watched intently as Seras took apart the weapon part by part, laying them out on a piece of fabric, all while they took off into the air. The parts of the rifle seemed so complicated, fitting together in an elaborate, 3-dimensional puzzle that the redhead quickly lost track of. The revolver was quite simple, however Walter appeared to be cleaning it with surgical precision, even despite the fact it had been fired only 6 times, he was rigorously scraping every inch of the barrel and hammer mechanism. Seras seemed to be applying a similar level of rigour to her process, if not a tad slower. Ranma began to wonder why a butler like Walter would know so much about weapons, but it was already clear he wasn't any regular old butler by how he was in charge of the Hellsing armoury. His footsteps did always sound like they were hiding something too. It was like he was somehow faking his gait to appear more normal. Surely he was hiding some sort of well refined skill, only time would tell exactly what. Around half an hour into the journey the two were both done with the weapons, and had put them back together. Walter offered the revolver back, which was now so shiny she could almost see herself in its reflection. After that, Ranma watched out of the window, as the countryside of England flew by below them at high speed.
The remainder of the journey took around an hour and a half, faster than Ranma thought it would take considering the distance, which she only knew well enough to estimate due to her recent studying of UK geography. They landed in the middle of a clearing just outside of the village alongside a couple of other helicopters, one of which contained Alucard and Integra. A pop-up communications tent was erected as the draculinas met with Alucard to discuss the operation. "It appears the vampire has taken to hiding like a coward." Their master outstretched his pointing arm directly at a three story, square building around 600m away. The two flicked their near-telescopic eyes onto the scene, spying a dense assemblage of ghouls wandering into view through the windows.
The three vampires leisurely made their way to the building front, or at least Alucard strolled at his own pace and the two others followed him obediently. Upon reaching the large first floor doors, their master effortlessly kicked them open, immediately opening fire on some ghouls wandering aimlessly in the corridors. He hit them all square in the head, making their heads more or less explode with the power of his Casull handgun. "Seems as if our little rat of a vampire target isn't taking much control of his slaves. Go on." He gestured for the girls to begin.
Taking a knee slightly ahead of Alucard, Seras took aim at a stumbling group of ghouls. 'They're not human.' She told herself, as they ambled closer. 'They're just puppets.' She took four shots deliberately, all hitting the zombified victims in the chest or head. Being a higher calibre bullet type than even Alucard's gun, her shots eviscerated the ghouls before her, allowing her to pass. She jogged further into the building, turning to head up a flight of stairs and finding an armed ghoul blocking them. It raised its arm slowly, already firing before it had even taken proper aim. It was sloppy. She quickly ran through it, blowing its head off as she climbed the stairs.
Meanwhile, Ranma was scouting out the opposite wing of the building, taking out ghouls casually with powerful kicks and twirls of her spears as she jogged through the corridors. After her experience in the Cheddar incident, she had gotten a rough idea as to the capabilities of ghouls, and they were completely lacking compared to even the fourth-rate vampire he took out just recently. This wasn't even particularly exciting for her really. After years of martial arts training involving intense and expeditious movement to merely stay in the fight, let alone win it, killing ghouls was barely a training exercise, especially with enhanced vampire senses. The smell of blood did start to get to her a little though, even if it was stale and tainted.
A floor up, the blonde former police girl had begun to fall into a rhythm, landing one headshot after another, reducing the ghouls to piles of flesh one by one. She felt... powerful, in control. As she started to speed up, getting more confident, her eyes took on the same incandescent crimson hue they had earlier on the roof. It began to feel, not only satisfying, but fun. A sadistic grin crept onto her face as she finished off the remaining ghouls on the floor. She sprinted towards the final group emerging from around the corner, shifting into a slide as she reloaded, then firing at them all at near point-blank range, causing blood to splatter all over her.
Having finished cleaning up the east wing of the first floor, Ranma decided to check on Seras, remembering having felt her hesitance to shoot at first when they entered the building. She relocated the flight of stairs she'd passed earlier, lightly trotting up to the second floor. Looking around it seemed like most of the floor had been cleared by Seras, with the amount of pulverised ghoul corpses strewn about. She had heard quite a lot of gun shots, so maybe it was completely dealt with it already. Turning the corner, she found Alucard standing next to Seras, looking impressed and excited by the blonde's progress. She appeared to be panting, her shoulders rising and falling from behind. Walking around her master, she saw her vampire sibling in a state she didn't expect. She was holding out her gloved hand, staring longingly at the blood that covered it, with her pointed tongue slowly elongating out of her mouth. The new draculina hadn't fed yet at all, so it was no wonder that she was so strongly affected by the blood.
Just as her tongue was about to scoop up a few drops of blood, Seras was suddenly pierced by countless blades, sending her face first into the floor with a winded groan. The blades didn't seem rudimentary, they were actually bayonets, which had handles that glowed with some sort of energy. "Seras!" Ranma rushed to her side, checking if she was still conscious.
Then Alucard's expression turned from alerted to sour as a flurry of luminous, spectral paper sheets with some sort of inscription flew down the corridors, nailing themselves to the wall somehow. "A spiritual barrier, eh?" A set of heavy footsteps began to echo from down the hallway, emanating from the stairs up to the third floor. From around the corner emerged a giant figure, even taller than Alucard, wearing what appeared to be religious robes that had been adapted for ease of movement, a golden crucifix around their neck, with gloved hands at their side that held a pair of shining, bloody bayonets. With a face enshrouded with darkness, their eyes were obscured by round glasses that shone with reflected moonlight, leaving the only obvious feature of their face left to be their spiky, short, sandy blond hair.
Standing imposingly around 20m in front of the vampire group, the shadowed figure raised their head. "We are agents of god. We act only as instruments of his divine will, delivering punishment to all those that oppose him by wiping out every last ounce of their foolish flesh." He had a distinct Scottish accent. The man slowly raised his twin bayonets into a cross in front of his face, as he paused, before twisting them together, making a light show of sparks that illuminated his face, revealing his twisted grin. "AMEN!" The man lowered his bayonets after finishing his theatrics, and slowly came closer to face Alucard. "It's a lovely evening, don't you think? You abominations." Seras had begun to make her way to her feet, bayonets still lodged in her back, with the help of Ranma. "You're a hardy one young woman, although I'm not foolish enough to think you'd die of that. I made sure that not a single one of my daggers pierced your heart, otherwise the fun would have already ended."
Alucard, unflinchingly spoke to the sinister preacher, "You're Vatican 13th division. Special Operations: Iscariot Organisation. Am I right?"
He replied, equally implacably, "That's right, you unholy dogs. So, you're the Hellsing garbage disposal unit, the hunter of vampires, the great Alucard, eh?"
They began to walk closer to each other as they spoke. "What did you do with the vampire here?"
"I dealt with him. Wasn't even any fun with how easily he fell to my blade." They stopped, face to face. "All that's left is you three."
"Is that so?" Alucard drew his handgun as the Iscariot agent thrust his bayonets towards him at breakneck speed. To the draculina pair's alarm the bayonets pierced each side of their master's shoulders, but he seemed unaffected as he raised the barrel towards his attacker's forehead and blasted him away into the wall, where he slumped, apparently already dead. He looked down at the corpse, "What a brave man you were, to take on a vampire head on at night, but you were also a fool." He pulled out the bayonets smoothly, dropping them to the floor.
"Is Seras going to be okay, master? Those things look dangerous." Ranma asked, still holding her up by supporting her under her arm.
Seras tried to speak but was interrupted as he turned towards her, "Don't try to speak. They're holy bayonets. The wounds they leave will be troublesome to recover from without having fed-"
Ranma suddenly went wide eyed as the dark figure of the man Alucard had just 'killed' rose into view behind him. She shouted, "MASTER LOOK OUT!" but it was already too late, as the cackling shadow pierced her master from behind. "What?!" Alucard blurted, as he jumped away, turning in mid-air to shoot several holes into the seemingly resurrected priest. The man looked to be damaged by the shots, but simply wouldn't stop moving no matter how serious his injuries looked.
Ranma decided to take action. She slowly lowered Seras to her knees against the wall and muttered, "Sorry, I'll be right back." The seemingly unstoppable man was in determined pursuit of their master, nearly completely ignoring her and Seras behind him. As he drew closer, Ranma drew and joined her twinspears, then slid fluidly out in front of Alucard who was still firing continuous shots into him to no effect. The man's holy bayonets were brought to an unexpected halt around two metres before his crimson-clad target, by the shorter, redhead draculina.
He towered over her, bringing his face closer towards her as she held back his blades with the twinspear staff. "You're quite the slippery one, eh, little girl?"
She stared up at him with resolute, reddened eyes, "Ya could say that."
Alucard raised his freshly reloaded handgun to shoot the man over Ranma's head, leading to him being shot squarely between the eyes. The man fell to the floor in front of them, only staying down for a few seconds before menacingly raising his head to reveal the bullet wound closing on his forehead, and pushing out the bullet similarly to how it had done for Ranma's gunshot wound earlier in the night. "A regenerator?" Alucard questioned as the man rose to his feet once again.
"Right again. A race specially engineered to stand on equal footing with you monsters!" He threw a sudden barrage of bayonets towards the two standing vampires, catching them off guard as he spoke. Ranma managed to deflect a few of them, but not all of them. She was hit by a couple that made it through, one in her shoulder and one in her lung. She spat out a glob of blood, still standing in defence of her master with her staff held out in front of her.
Alucard put a hand on her shoulder as she stood, panting and wheezing slightly. "You shouldn't be the one to face this enemy, tomboy."
Ranma pulled out the bayonet that had pierced her lung with a whimper, throwing it to the floor and spitting out the remaining blood sitting in her throat. "I can... do this... master."
"Fool! You won't just recover like that!" Her master pushed her aside, moving forward to face the regenerating Scotsman. Her wound was closing, but slowly and painfully, leaving her still struggling to breathe well enough to keep going. Heeding her master's word, she holstered her spears and stumbled over to Seras again, taking her weight so they could escape to somewhere safer. She heard the sounds of Alucard and the holy man fighting continue as she turned the corner. She rested the blonde on the windowsill as she took a moment to pull out the remaining bayonet in her shoulder. "Agh. This is quite the situation, eh, Seras? Master will take care of it though, I know it." Seras looked up at her hopefully, still wheezing from the multitude of holy bayonets still sticking out of her back like a porcupine's spines. Suddenly the gunfire stopped completely, so Ranma hesitantly checked around the corner. What she saw was something that chilled her. Rolling on the ground towards her was Alucard's severed head, his body nailed to the wall next to the one who decapitated it. The Iscariot agent laughed maniacally, before snapping his head in her direction with murderous green eyes. Oh shit.
Shaking slightly from shock, Ranma paused for a second before scooping up her master's head, and then grabbing Seras under the other arm. She ran down the hallway, only to find a dead end. Looking to the windows, she put down Seras and moved to punch the glass, but found her hand repelled then shocked by a mysterious force. The barrier!
"That's a spiritual barrier, girl." Her pursuer stated, appearing from around the corner. "Midians like you cannot penetrate it."
She was beginning to panic now. He was about fifty metres away, slowly approaching. Alucard's head was suddenly torn from her arms as a thrown bayonet pierced it and nailed it to the wall behind her. There was no running any further. She would have to fight. Seras had begun to squeal behind her as she plucked the bayonets from her back one by one. "I wont... let you fight him... alone." She wheezed as the wounds slowly closed.
Alucard's head, still nailed to wall, suddenly started to call out to the fledgling pair. Turning to look, they saw the dead-eyed head melt away, the features blending into a blob of red. The head had converted itself into a pool of moving blood. Their master's voice echoed in their heads, 'Take my blood... and you shall no longer walk as a slave, you shall truly become one of our kind... Drink my blood, and take onto yourselves the power to defeat your opponent. Do it, Seras, Ranma. You must.'
Seras watched on, hesitantly, still healing her wounds, as Ranma knelt by the pool of Alucard's blood. The redhead reached out, feeling a magnetic pull towards the luminous, crimson pool.