The victim's heads had been ripped off. Messages were scrawled on the walls in blood. Entire families were slaughtered. Men, women, elders and even children suffered the torment. All of this for what? For no other purpose than to write anti-Christian messages on the walls.
"HELL'S GATE OPENS!" the message said, "FROM DEEP DARKNESS TO THE NO-LIFE KING"
The messages were surrounded the picture of an upside-down cross. It was a declaration of war on Christianity and on God.
"Pointless, cheap and pathetic acts of barbarism." Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing grumbled aloud, while looking at the crime scene. Walter stood silently by her side, at perfect attention, with his hands behind his back. "They mock our church, our country and Hellsing itself." She declared. "Dispatch a message to Alucard, Johan and our newest recruit. They are to destroy all of them. Tell them to not leave a single freak standing."
Walter's wrinkled lips curled up in a smile and he bowed. "Of course, Sir." He said.
It was nighttime in the neighborhood when yet another family of five were brutally slaughtered by two vampires. A man and a woman. Their names were Leif and Jessica they were fledgling vampires who had gotten the idea of a NBK-style killing spree. They did not think of themselves as Mickey and Malory Knox, but instead as Bonnie and Clyde.
They had already slaughtered four families with the plan of killing nine more. Then they would be truly invulnerable. They thought so anyway.
"So, both of us will have eternal life." Leif said while holding Jessica's body close to his own with one arm. The other held a submachine gun.
"Invincible vampires forever and ever." Jessica said.
The two of them were about to join their bloodstained lips together but the doorbell sounded, irritating them both. It brought a smile to Leif's face, exposing his crimson fangs. Another person at the door meant another person to tear apart. He figured he would play a game with the guest for a while before finally killing him.
"Don't go away now." Leif said as he walked up with the gun raised.
The fledgling vampire swaggered over to the door and stared out the peephole. His red eyes widened when he saw someone in a dark red trench coat, hat and reflective sunglasses pointing a pistol at the door.
BANG!
A bullet pierced the door and Leif's body, followed by more rounds. They flew through the wood and imbedded themselves into Leif's flesh and blood spewed out of the wounds.
The thing to know about pistols is that when somebody is shot then they don't usually fly back like in the movies. Their bodies collapse to the ground like a stack of cards. This was no ordinary pistol, however. The bullets and firepower were enough to send the vampire flying backwards, scraping his back on the hardwood floor.
The door was shredded by the gunfire, revealing the assailant.
Alucard's tall and imposing figure stepped out of the shadows, his white fangs and the red lenses of his glasses glinting in the light of his sadistic smile. He raised his pistol and Leif aimed his submachine gun as well.
Leif let out a battle cry on the ground as he pulled the trigger. Lead bullets went flying and they pierced Alucard's body, but he didn't react. He just stood there and took the bullets as if they were merely wind blowing in his direction on an autumn night. He didn't even try to block them.
Leif didn't notice something was wrong until he had run out of bullets and Alucard began speaking without any trace of pain or anguish in his voice. There was only a lack of patience.
"You cannot transform into mist or a bat. You cannot heal any of your gunshot wounds. And now that you are out of bullets, you cannot even defend yourself. And you dare to call yourselves nosferatu? You disgust me!" Alucard said as he approached Leif slowly, his heavy boots thumping on the ground with every step he took.
A few hours prior to Alucard's attack, Johan and Seras were walking through the outskirts of the neighborhood looking for ghouls.
Johan was outside of the house the vampires were in with the police girl, Seras Victoria, behind him. They had looked around to see the ghouls wandering about, groaning and moaning in pain and hunger all the way.
Sudden horrific memories permeated Seras' mind. She remembered her comrades, the looks of horror on their faces as they became these monsters. She remembered the vampire priest who tracked her down with the intention of violating and killing her. She normally did not let fear control her, that's why she became a police officer, but now that she had seen something so horrific, she allowed herself to be consumed by anxiety. She froze and began to shiver a little at the thought of what had happened. She was already dead, and the world was very quickly becoming Hell. What had she done to deserve this?
"Police girl." Johan said, snapping Seras out of her state of remembrance.
"Y-Yes sir." She said.
"This isn't the time for flashbacks," Johan told her while pulling his shotgun from where it rested against his back. "When you're in this situation you need to be 100% focused. This is your first lesson and it could be vital,"
"Y-Yes master." She said.
"Master?" Johan thought, while looking ahead at the enemy, "Well, that makes me feel old for some reason."
"Alright, listen up," Johan said, "Vampire Hunting 101: These guys are known as ghouls and right now they're taking over the entire neighborhood."
"Ghouls, Master?" Seras asked him.
"Yep, a ghoul is what "deflowered" humans who are bitten by a vampire turn into." Johan said, "They're basically zombies under the vampire's complete control. Also, they can't be killed by normal bullets, as you've learned firsthand. People like us however, suffer what some would consider a worse fate. If a human who is a virgin is bitten by a vampire of the opposite gender, then a new vampire is created."
Seras remembered that night. Alucard's voice came up in her memories.
"Are you a virgin, my dear?"
It made sense then. Another realization came over her.
"F-Forgive me, sir." Seras said, "But does that mean… that you're… you know…?"
"Yeah yeah yeah, I died a virgin." Johan said, rolling his red eyes, "Ha-ha. Hilarious. Now let's focus on the matter at hand."
"Y-Yessir!" Seras said with a massive blush on her face. "Sorry sir. I didn't…"
"Forget it." Johan sighed impatiently, "Now pay attention. All these ghouls tell us one thing; that there is a vampire in this neighborhood. More than one actually. And that is where we come in. We're being sent in to terminate the vampires."
"So… we're vampires… that kill other vampires?" Seras asked.
"Pretty much." Johan responded, "The Hellsing organization is a largely secretive organization, charged by the Queen herself, to eliminate all supernatural and satanic threats to the Protestant church and the English crown. Our job is mostly to handle the 'messy' work. Alucard is bound to the Hellsing organization, and by default you and I are bound to him as his disciples."
"So why isn't he teaching me these things?" Seras asked.
"I can't say for certain." Johan said, "Perhaps he couldn't be bothered. But that isn't the important question that we should be asking. The important question to ask is why he decided to turn us into vampires in the first place?"
Seras went silent, her blue eyes gazing at the ground. What her master had just said was a painful reminder of the monster that she had become. She figured she needed to take her mind off it somehow and looked to Johan again.
"So… why does our master hunt his own kind?" Seras asked.
"He doesn't really like to talk about his past that much." Johan responded. "I think he lost a bet or something like that. Every time I ask, he just says, 'it doesn't matter,' or he'll just ignore me. So, don't bother asking him."
"I guess it's pretty painful to think about." Seras said, "If it's not too much to ask, Master… are you the same way? When it comes to the past I mean."
It was now Johan's turn to go silent. His crimson eyes fell to his Converse shoes, he reached up with a gloved hand to pull down the bill of his baseball cap and then his gaze returned to the ghouls.
"I suppose." Johan said quietly. "We should get started. They've suffered enough."
With that, Johan reached behind him and got ahold of his shotgun. There were at least six or seven ghouls. Johan loaded the firearm, took aim, and fired. The bullet flew through the air and the ghoul who used to be a friendly old man was blown to bits.
That got the rest of the ghouls' attention and they made their way to Johan. He moved about with the speed and efficiency that one wouldn't expect with a shot gun. Seras watched in awe as he executed all of the ghouls. After he shot one down with his right hand, he tossed the weapon into the air and gunned another down with his left hand. He didn't seem to be experiencing any kind of recoil from the heavy gun. He was even leaping through the air and almost teleporting closer to enemies. That "teleportation" was actually him speeding about but she couldn't seem to pinpoint where he was until she heard a shot firing. More lead was flying and more blood was spilling. The ghouls' bodies fell onto the grass and the pavement with loud thuds and from them oozed the crimson blood. The currency of the soul, as Alucard had called it.
After all of the ghouls were dead, Seras had finally made it to Johan's side.
"Um… Master?" She said, hesitantly, "I can't help but notice that you didn't leave any for me."
"Exactly," Johan said, "You're going to kill one of the vampires."
Seras almost dropped her own gun. The gun she had was a very large one-shot sniper rifle but it had no scope and had a blast range of about 1000 meters. It was a military grade gun and if she had dropped it on the ground while it was loaded, it would not have been good.
"M-Master?" Seras said, "D-Don't you think that would be a bad idea? I mean, I just got started with all of this… shouldn't I…?"
"There's no better practice than to kill off a stronger enemy." Johan told his student, "There's a reason a lot of human vampire hunters fail before they can officially begin. Killing a ghoul is easy but killing a vampire is an entirely different can of worms. Vampires have more of a presence of mind than a ghoul does. Vampire hunters have gotten the idea that killing a vampire would be easy after killing all of its ghouls and vastly underestimate the vampire's powers. Then they get drained of blood, skinned and their skulls are bashed in. Or something like that."
Suddenly, the familiar voice of Alucard interrupted Johan's lecture. "Your turn, police girl." He said. This told them that one of the two vampires was dead.
"Y-Yes sir." Seras said aloud, while looking around for the one who turned her but he was nowhere to be found.
"Alright, first we'll have to get up on the roof." Johan said. Seras was once again taken aback in awe when Johan squatted down slightly and then jumped up and his Converse sneakers clapped onto the shingles. "Coming?" He said while looking down.
"Uh… Yes sir." Seras said, unsure of how in the hell he expected her to get up there.
On the 30th of January in 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg. Albert and Angelika Gruber were more occupied with their four-year-old son at the time Hitler was making power grabs, but they were slowly becoming engrossed in the politics. None more so than Albert Gruber.
Albert Gruber had gotten there early so he could get closer to the front. Unfortunately, the soldiers would not let him get too close out of fear of a potential assassination. It did not matter though. He was just happy to be there.
Albert Gruber was dressed in the party's signature brown button-up shirt with the black tie. Strapped on his right arm was the red band with the white circle and swastika. At his side was none other than his little boy, Johan Gruber. The boy was also dressed in a small brown shirt button-up shirt, black tie, dark brown shorts, and the swastika arm band. Johan did not completely understand why he was there other than because his father wanted to be there. Young Johan did not entirely care either, he just wanted the chance to do something with his father.
His mother wanted them to bond and Johan jumped at the chance to do something like this with the parent he did not see all day until well into the evening. In a way that the boy could not understand, his mother was reluctant to let him go to the rally with his father but eventually she said, "Alright, just don't let him do any Nazi stuff in the house."
He was excited to be at the rally not only because of his father but because it was an event largely attended by adults. It made him feel like a man.
"Johan," Albert said, looking down at his son, "Remember what I told you to do when the Herr Hitler comes out on stage."
Johan nodded proudly. He stuck out his left arm and said, "Sieg Heil."
Albert nodded with a wide smile of his own and said, "Good boy. But remember, it's your right arm."
"Oh, right." Johan said, embarrassed that he forgot that again, "Sorry."
"It's alright, but make sure you remember. And never do it at home. You know how your Mama feels about that."
"Why, Daddy?" Johan asked.
"Mama's just got to get used to all the changes our nation is going through." Albert explained, "Herr Hitler wants to take care of Germany and make it a better place, but he does it in a way that Mama does not agree with."
"Like what?" Johan asked. The boy was very curious and did not completely understand what was going on. Albert found that very helpful for ensuring that his son could be pointed in the right direction in life. His wife would eventually come around, but his son was starting to see that glory was possible for Germany again.
"Oh, here he comes." Albert said, "Remember, right arm."
He strutted over to the microphones, his polished jackboots thumping on the stage. He wore brown clothing which looked tan in the light. His long and narrow face in a seemingly permanent scowl. A toothbrush mustache under his nose made him look all the more sinister. This man was Chancellor Adolf Hitler.
"SIEG HEIL!" The crowd yelled. Johan felt proud of himself at that moment, because this time, he had remembered to raise his right arm. Once Adolf Hitler had begun to speak, Johan found himself a bit confused but was still absorbing the Chancellor's words like a sponge.
"It is up to us, the German Workers, to ensure the pages in history that bear witness to our disintegration are torn in half!" Hitler said.
He would then go on to say, "Reichspräsident von Hindenburg has called upon us to bring about the revival of the German nation. Unity is our tool. Therefore, we now appeal to the German people to support this reconciliation. The National Government wishes to work, and it will work. It did not ruin the German nation for fourteen years, but now it will lead the nation back to health. It is determined to make well in four years the ills of fourteen years. But the National Government cannot make the work of reconstruction dependent upon the approval of those who wrought destruction. The Marxist parties and their lackeys have had fourteen years to show what they can do. The result is a heap of ruins.
"Now, people of Germany, give us four years and then pass judgment upon us. In accordance with Field Marshal von Hindenburg's command we shall begin now. May God Almighty give our work His blessing, strengthen our purpose, and endow us with wisdom and the trust of our people, for we are fighting not for ourselves but for Germany."
Johan observed his new idol with admiration as the crowd around him cheered. He saw how beloved he was by the supporters and knew that this was how he wanted to be. He wanted to be admired and looked up to. He wanted to be respected. He wanted to be what someone like Hitler could notice and someone his parents could be proud of.
This seemed to be the ultimate way to do that.
He could not have known that but this innocent dream would lead to his worst nightmare and finally his damnation.