HELLSING WITCH HUNTER 1616
DIANAPRINCE31
Ch. 23: Up, up and Away
Disclaimer: I do not own Hellsing
The Hunters and the two butlers stood in front of Integra's desk, glancing at each other as they tried to process what Philip just told them.
"How the hell did a bunch of rebels get magic weapons?" asked Sam.
"Actually there is no law that says that anyone can't have magical weapons" stated Walter. "People have access to such weapons; it's just in rare occurrences. Many of these weapons are in protected collections or were lost. Whoever these people are must have found them."
"Is it possible they bought them?" asked Seras.
Walter shook his head; "Most likely not, it would have cost them a lot of money and it is very rare these days to find anyone who can craft them."
"More like any demon who can craft them" purred Alucard. "A mere human cannot make such powerful weapons. Take Casull for example, that beautiful blade was mine before I became a slave."
"You made that sword?" asked Sam.
"It was made for me; a part of my essence is in that blade."
"So the people that are robbing airships are using weapons like that?!"said Seras excitedly, she was not particularly fond of Casull's ability to turn living flesh into silver.
"Not necessarily" said Walter, "I do know that all four abysmal demons had a special magical weapon, but I also know that the location for the other three is secure. No ordinary bunch of robbers would be able to get their hands on them. So we are probably dealing with some low level magic, but do still be careful because even if the magic does not affect you, there will be passengers on the airship."
"The only thing we know so far is that these pirates are targeting only the Luxury Airships" said Integra.
"It can't be random attacks, they would have to know hours that the Luxury Airships are flying and if they wanted a bigger payload, they would have to know which ship is carrying more passengers or passengers that are more affluent" said Sam.
"And to that, they would need help from the inside. Someone who has access to the books and manifests. Someone from the staff or crew could be in on it"
"That's a lot of people we might have to interview, Baby Cakes." The assassin turned to Seras and said "You know that old coot, maybe he saw someone going somewhere they aren't supposed to be."
Seras nodded emphatically; "That's a great idea Sam and he's not an 'old coot'".
The Hunters went to King's Landing Airfield to talk to the supervisor while Seras talked to Samuel. They had decided that talking to everyone would not only take forever but would also scare the suspect into changing tactics. The supervisor wasn't that much help, being overworked and underpaid; he preferred to whine about his plight instead of giving them any possible suspects of such a crime, hoping that the Hunters would let the king know of his situation. They left after Integra let the man know that they had nothing to do with that nor did she give a damn. The old man proved to be useful as he told them about a man named Todd Manly. "He was a good worker until he got caught stealing maps and copying manifests" said Samuel sadly. "We didn't know but he had been doing it for several years. He was laid off before the robberies began." Other staff members corroborated Samuel's story of Manly's firing. After hearing this, the police were sent to arrest Todd Manly at his home, only to find him swinging from the rafters.
"Well there goes our suspect" said Sam. "Maybe he found out that he was going to prison and hanged himself."
"No. this man's been dead for some time" said Integra "and he's not the one who has been robbing the airships."
"How do you know?" asked Seras. "Samuel told…" Integra held up a piece of paper with writing on it. It told the story of a sad man who had lost his wife and child in a restaurant fire a couple of months back and his job was the only thing that kept him going, without that he had no reason to live. "He committed suicide on the day he was fired."
"Damn it!" swore Sam. "So we are back at the beginning."
"Not exactly. I believe that Samuel is the inside man for the airship robberies."
"What!?" shrieked Seras. "Sir! This is crazy! Samuel would never do that. Why would he do that?"
While interrogating the employees about Manly's termination, Integra found out that the other employees had no idea why he was fired and even the supervisor seemed to have forgotten, as he was too busy whining to the Hunters to have the King change the wages.
"So why would some old clerk have more information about someone's termination, unless he set him up to fall" speculated Sam, who was beginning to understand Integra's reasoning. But Seras refused to believe that someone like Samuel, who was caring and kind would do something like robbing people. "What is the motive? What would Samuel hope to achieve?"
"We'll ask him, when we see him" replied Integra.
"But wouldn't he run off now that he knows that we are on to him?" asked Sam.
"He doesn't know that Manly is dead, we could use that to stay one step ahead of him."
The Hunters rode back to the airport and seeing Samuel's post knew that he was going to flee, but one which airship? Or did he flee already? Another clerk approached and asked Seras is she was looking for Samuel.
"Yes, I am, do you know where he is?"
"I saw him signing one of the manifests as if he was a passenger on one of the airships."
"And which airship was that?"
The clerk showed them the manifest and it showed that Samuel's name was on it as a passenger on the airship called Mystic Wonders. So confident was the old man in thinking that the Hunters would be searching for Todd Manly that he didn't even bother to fly under a false name. Sam took this as an insult. "Damn that old coot! Does he think we are stupid?" the Hunter growled.
"I think he was hoping to play towards Seras' feelings" said Integra, glancing over at Seras who looked forlorn.
Seras had always thought that that she was a good judge of character, but this betrayal proved her wrong. She would have never guessed that kind, old Samuel would be behind such crimes. Perhaps he was being forced to do this, after all he was close to retiring, and there was no reason for him to risk spending the rest of his life in a cold, filthy prison. Samuel could spend his retirement flying on any airship, what was the rush? The petite Hunter would have to ponder that later as they now raced towards the airship, but even on horseback, they saw the would not make it, as the Mystic Wonder was now taking off. Integra turned to Seras and said "I want you to toss me through one of those windows!"
Seras' face went blank; "You want what?"
"Just do it!'
"How?"
"You're the one with the freaky arm!"
"But Sir…"
"NOW!"
"Fine!" Seras took the taller woman and with a great heave tossed her towards the airship. "Sorry!"
Sam laughed; "What are you apologizing for? She literally asked you to do that." Seras shook her head; "Maybe I should throw you next."
"No thanks, I got the freaky legs, remember?"
As Integra crashed through the window, she knew that it was pretty stupid and painful idea. It was a good thing that no one was sitting by the windows at the moment of her landing, because Integra knew that she would be looking at several lawsuits. A couple of seconds later, Seras and Sam came through the same window and with more grace might I add. Sam couldn't help but chuckle at Integra picking herself off the ground and dusting glass off herself.
"You had the take off right; ya just couldn't stick the landing, huh?"
Integra jabbed Sam in the ribs and said; "I am thinking of several painful places to shove these glass shards into, care to guess?"
"Uh guys, I think we interrupted something" said Seras pointing to several masked figures that had weapons out threatening people to give up their valuables. The two groups stared at each other for a few seconds before one of the robbers said; "You can't just pretend that you didn't see anything and just jump out the window you came through?"
"How about you pissants jump out and stop robbing these nice people?" suggested Sam.
"Well that ain't going to happen, so we're at an impasse aren't we, ladies?" said the leader, who now pulled out a pistol? "How'd you know find us anyway?"
"It was the old man, boss" piped up a third robber. "Saw him writing something before he boarded."
The leader turned towards Samuel and sneered; "Well how unfortunate for you, old man because I thought we had a deal."
"I...I didn't tell them anything!" sputtered the elderly man, but the bandit didn't believe him and put a bullet through his chest.
"No!" cried Seras as she tried to stop the bleeding. "Why did you do it, Samuel?"
"I...wanted to see the clouds...it was not... supposed to be this way...sorry Seras…" The blonde Hunter could only watch pitifully as the man died in her arms.
"So who's next?" asked the leader. "I'm eager to try out my new toy on some chump Hunters." With that he pulled out a large ax from the sheath on his back. The others followed their leader, taking out an assortment of weapons including a spear, a large mace and even scythe with a blade made of energy when it was activated. Sam grinned at the scythe bearing pirate; "When you're dead, I'll be taking your weapon." The passengers on the airship scrambled to remove themselves from the dangerous situation. The robbers charged towards the Hunters, the spearman hoping to drive his blade into Seras while she was distracted by the death of Samuel. However it didn't go as planned; as her demon infused arm transformed in blade of red and black energy, slicing the spear and its wielder in half and getting anyone in close proximity a blood shower.
"Please don't get any of that blood on me, these clothes are expensive and custom made" said Integra. A large man replied to Integra; "Don't worry, I won't get any blood on you, look what my hammer can do" as he gave his hammer a hefty swing. Integra jumped out of the way and saw that the spot she had been in mere seconds ago was now a thick sheet of ice. Mr. Hammer (as we'll call him) grinned a yellow crooked tooth smile and leered; "Ya going to be my pretty ice statue." Integra's only response to the man's comment was; "Disgusting." Meanwhile Mr. Scythe had managed to slash Sam's shirt. "That is no way to get a girl out of her clothes" said Sam feigning shock before kicking the man through the door of the airship. Unfortunately the scythe went along with the man. Sam cursed when she realized her loss and Integra said; "Unless you're going to do some farming, walking around with that thing would have made you look stupid."
"Don't get distracted, my Ice Princess" said Mr. Hammer lustily. "I want to see the look of fear on your face when I make you mine."
"Friend of yours?" asked Sam.
"Bloody no" replied Integra disgustedly as she took one of the food carts and pushed it towards the bandit causing him to trip over it when it barreled into his stomach. The bandit toppled over the cart and smacked his head on his giant hammer turning him into ice instantly. Sam laughed at the luckless man's misfortune. "That's what they get for trying to use powers beyond their comprehension." Things were looking bad for the bandits, all they wanted was to rob a couple of rich people and go on their merry way, but of course their luck had run out. Only three of the six bandits were alive-make that two, because one just got a crossbow bolt to the head and was then thrown out the window. "Umm, shouldn't we keep at least one alive?" asked Seras. The other Hunters shrugged, no one ever surrendered before; usually they fought for their life or ran away. The leader of the bandits grabbed one of the pilots and said; "Put down your weapons and…" He was unable to finish his sentence because of the throwing knife that became lodged in his throat, a gift from Sam. Integra sighed: "We do not need any cliché hostage taking now." Sam turned and grinned to the last bandit, who wielded a mace and said; "Looks like you're the lucky winner, you get to live."
"Well long enough to get hanged" drawled Integra. Hearing this the man ran for the door of the vessel with the intentions of jumping out, but ink black tendrils grabbed him and the bandit found himself face to face with a pale demon. "We can't have you trying to fly, now can we?" purred Alucard. As the bandit pleaded pathetically for a quick death, Integra instructed the pilots to fly the airship back to King's Landing where the police were waiting to take the last remaining bandit into custody. The good news was that the bodies of the others could be located seeing as they were not over any body of water when they fell to their deaths, the bad news was scraping their bodies off the ground was a waste of good shovels, but at least the magical weapons could be recovered as well. And the sole surviving robber would sing like a lark about where the stolen goods were in hopes of getting some leniency. "All of this could have been prevented if the old coot just bought a damn ticket like normal people." Seras sighed, as insensitive as Sam sounded she was right. Samuel could have even gone to her for help if he needed it so badly.
As the Huntresses rode home, Sam stretched and yawned; "I'm just glad I can go home and take a nap"
"Speaking of 'home', your rent is due" said Integra.
"Aww come on, you're still on that?"
"We haven't been paying rent for some time" said Seras.
"Actually I've been taking it out of your pay. I'm merely telling you this as a courtesy."
"You've been stealing from us?"
"That's not nice, Sir."
"How is it stealing if you've been living in my house, eating my food, bathing in my water…"
"You can stop rubbing our faces in it."
"We had this conversation last month as well. You two seemed to have forgotten it."
"I thought since we were all getting along so well…"
"It doesn't work that way, Seras".
"How about you stop charging us rent?"
"How about you stop living in my house?"
Seras decided to let Sam and Integra argue amongst themselves, she just wanted to get home and crawl into bed, even if she did have a foreboding feel that Sam would mostly like piss off Integra and she would throw them out.
Chapter End
Author's Notes: A lot of stuff happening, including job, but I'm glad I finally was able to finish typing this. It's hard to type when they won't let you do it at work. (Joke's on them). Ok see ya in the next chapter.