This story takes place in an alternate universe, outside of the Blood Brothers and Dead Zone episodes from the Hellsing Anime and Manga chapters. The Valentine Brothers, Hellsing, and its characters, etc. do not belong to me. Caution: Strong language (from Jan)
Watching Big Brother
Part 2
Just Cause
Inside the large sector that enclosed Luke, it was lonely. The gleaming silver sector's main usage was as a storage locker for missiles and jeep vehicles, but made empty to contain the newly large vampire. The sector's 100 feet in length left enough legroom for Luke to stretch out his legs so that he would not always sit cross-legged. His head was a foot from the heavily lighted ceiling. A catwalk and staircase perched at his left side, opposite from a control room panel and its window case. Even though the ceiling lights shown above his head, it was dim by the end of the sector at his feet, a screen door only reaching the arch of his shoe heel.
Luke already knew what it would be like. His nightmares proved it. They might as well put me in a cage he bitterly thought, he felt like a monster, a stupid beast guarded so as not to harm the public. That image of a stupid beast made his large hands clench, especially the word "stupid". Right now, he only had time to reflect on the past that destroyed his future.
When Jan finally returned to the house, Doc and a group of Millennium soldiers trailed behind him. The soldiers stood guard for any sudden attacks as Jan trembled, pointing in the direction of the "monster" he saw earlier. Doc looked at his younger nephew with a look of astonishment at his own stupidity. Doc knew that the limbs hanging from the openings belonged to Luke; he then smiled conspiratorially. Jan stared in confusion at him, already baffled by what was going on.
Doc approached the house and called out to Luke. Inside, Doc was the last person Luke wanted to see after his brother ratted on him. The only thing he remembered hearing was Doc telling him that they were going to use him for the raid instead of Jan and leave immediately. For that reason, Luke refused a couple of times, saying he was not going to make a spectacle of himself, not as Jan would.
The soldiers slightly muffled outside and were set to open fire. Their guns poised and designed to pierce through buildings like missiles on hundreds of buildings. Doc gave him a warning to either surrender or perish as Hellsing conquest would go on without him. Once again, Luke faced frustration and now to a higher degree as he felt like a crab not used to its shell.
The tension triggered the earlier sensations once again as Luke was beginning to break out. He lowered his neck to accommodate the slow growth as it finally escalated, his weight growing heavier. Floors he sat on collapsed and crushed the lower level rooms, reenacting the climatic scene in Carrie, when the heroine's house was sucked into the ground, breaking and cracking everything inside.
Luke's limbs snaked their way out and his legs collided with the dozen or so soldiers that stood by there. Jan appeared in almost sobbing awe from behind the safety of the stone fence he laid on before, as Doc stood right in the middle of the disaster; no harm seemed to be in his way as if he was surveying the chaos from afar. He was the captain whose coat swayed by the breeze of dust and debris, his hands clenched as he wanted to fight his nephew's unintended carnage. Luke could tell all this was going on as his head made its way out of the roof and the walls were already gone. He let his knees stretch before he bent them high above the little people below. Luke was ready to attack if that was what Doc truly wanted from him. However, Luke was not able to manifest his attack as he heard a click inside his head and lost consciousness.
Luke knew that it was the Freak Chip that knocked him out. He was not conscious when his body toppled, crushing expendable soldiers with his left side alone. It was only then that when he felt his chest where the heart is normally located in a human that he could feel it beating, rhythmically to the feel of his excitement when he recounted what happened. He then stroked the right side of his head and could feel the stitches. For him, it felt like barbed wire and probably took as many to stitch. He remembered the first time the Freak Chip nestled there that turned him into a Freak Vampire.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a little image of Doc staring at him from the control room panel of headquarters. At Luke's eye level, he could look straight at him and express even more disgust at his uncle.
"You said you were going to use Jan! Why me!" His words expressed pain, but was overshadowed by his accentuated, higher decibel voice.
In the same huff that Luke learned, Doc calmly and sadistically answered from far away, "Well, I lied. I knew you proved a far better success when you were ten. Besides, how many adult sized ten-year-old boys do you know of, hhmmm?"
"You wanted to use me all along. Since it was so much easier to do so than starting fresh."
"My plan has been fresh since the beginning. At first, it seemed like a failure when you stopped showing further growth spurts after puberty. But, according to my files, you've had extra growth hormones inside of you, your stress level finally triggering the lost hope for my project. When your brother told me in a frightened manner, it was the perfect opportunity to transfer the GH from you unto the other freaks. You could say the GH in your body was like a. . . storage supply.
"And I already trust that you found out the chip is long gone. Now that you've become something else, I figured there was no point in keeping the Freak Chip in there any longer."
Luke learned that the truth could not get any worse; the truth was already devastating and became so.
"So that's what I've been this whole time," he scowled. "A monster waiting to be a lab rat."
Doc requited in a harsh tone, "You don't have a say in this. All I heard from you as a child was your inexcusable fears of, 'I don't want to become a giant! I don't want to turn into a monster!' Well, you are like everyone and everything else the day you and your brother became my responsibility after your godforsaken parents left you. And you will do this for the good of Millennium, do you understand, boy?"
Luke only turned away, finally giving in to a lost argument.
"I'll take that as a yes." Doc walked away, the only sounds left were from his footsteps echoing behind the glass observation window and a door shutting in a lost soul's misery. It left Luke cold inside for some time, until, almost as invisible if viewed from a distance but wet to the cheeks, the warmth of tears streamed and escaped down Luke's face, fogging his glasses and everything in the world.
A Brother's Ransom
The testing began the next day. Doc took Luke's measurements; originally, Luke stood 6 feet, 3 inches tall, his blonde hair reached his hips around 4 feet. He now measured 60 feet in height as his hair was a staggering 38.7 feet exact in length. Luke underwent blood tests, neurological tests, his blood pressure was tested and his EKG heart rate measured. He went through psychological tests and monitoring of brain activity for any abnormal change in his sanity; he performed tests of physical strength by lifting the various assortment of heavy-duty weapons, jeeps and abandoned tanks picked up from over the years on the black market and transferred after World War II.
All the while, Doc transfused 10 pints worth of the growth hormones from Luke's plasma every two days, as that was how much Luke produced for enough pints needed. The Hellsing raid would now take place in 30 days instead of a week as Luke became stubborn and sometimes refused the transfusions and left the compound a few miles away to get away from the outdoor training. Even though Luke now belonged to Millennium as a weapon, he tried to stand on his own as if he was a normal sized man among a land of insane toys.
At the same time and for 20 days after, Luke saw none of the members of Millennium or the Major; his only contacts came from Doc and two lab assistants for routine testing and GH transfusions. He did not see or hear from Jan at all during those days. He wondered what he was doing then. How did he take the situation? Was he angry that Luke became gigantic instead of him? He would not admit it, but his brother's well being nagged at his thoughts. A true pain that Jan was at times, it was his juvenile humor that always made him laugh. Luke admired the spark Jan possessed in himself that he lacked outside of his cunningness and intelligence. Jan's wild nature that made life less boring was an important balance as much as Luke's sense of control and responsibility was in their lives. Their sense of duo ship Luke knew was true.
One day, after Doc finished the day's testing and then motioned for his one assistant that day to follow him out; the lights went out in the control room where Doc finished last minute details of the experiments. Luke tried to shift his body into a lying down position. The sector provided little space for him to make himself comfortable; he couldn't stand getting comfortable by sleeping against the wall for some nights on end. This was his second try as he finally laid down and rested his head on his arm.
Cold steps approached the catwalk's doorway. Slowly the door opened and the slight creaking perked Luke's ears. He thought it was another lab crony of Doc's making a late night status check, one of Doc's paranoid habits because he believed that his test subjects might "suddenly" disappear. Luke knew he was not going anywhere in a trillion light years at his state even if he wanted to.
It was not a crony that came on the catwalk but Jan himself, his eyes and multiple piercing glowed in the hallway backdrop of ceiling lights. The one person Luke wanted to see actually came as he tried to see what was under Jan's arms.
"Hey, bro!" His voice was as smarmy and cheerful as ever.
"Jan," Luke called. "It's you?"
"Who the fuck else, man? And look." He brought out what he carried: a braided sweet bread roll. "I confiscated it from the kitchen. Man, it's great that we get decent meals and a place to stay after you . . ." He held back at that last line. Then swung his legs through the grates of the walk imitating a prison inmate. "Well anyway, sorry I didn't come to see you. Doc's all gung ho on keeping everyone outta here." Jan offered half of the braided roll to his older brother. "Here. I guess you're probably hungry." Luke took the gesture as a sort of joke, he knew this was not Jan's sense of humor.
Turning away in a huff, he scuffed, "Forget it. What do you think I am a mouse? That crumb won't do any good let alone satisfy any hunger I have."
Sensing he was already no longer welcomed, Jan stood up and was about to leave. "I guess you think you're better now that you're the big guy on campus. Excuse little old Jan for being the good guy!"
"Jan!" Luke familiar heightened cry shook his brother unintentionally. He realized he was being selfish because of his crabby mood and did not want Jan to leave, not when Jan finally took the time to come to his side. "I'm sorry. I'm stupid, okay? I really can't stand this. I can't take being treated and tested like some animal. You probably wouldn't understand."
"What the fuck's that suppose to mean? We're already fuckin' lab rats to Doc."
"I meant being a giant."
"Okay, I wouldn't understand then. But at least take this stupid bread. Makes no sense to just fuckin' waste it. Probably better than what you're getting."
"Getting what, Jan? We're vampires."
"Well, when there's no liquids, you get solids."
Not wanting to delve further into Jan's unusual quip, Luke outstretched his hand and Jan let the roll drop down, which dwarfed the bread to pea size. Luke swallowed the tiny lump, thinking to himself hopefully and naïvely that it was the mushroom that would make him smaller. As if his wish was granted, Luke immediately noticed the sudden and awesome change. The catwalk rose above him and the sector's walls expanded and fled away; he became smaller and smaller, passing his normal size and becoming as tall as when he was a kid and smaller still.
Luke shrank down to 5 inches, lost amid a futuristic Lewis Carroll wonderland of cold silver, frozen not by his fear but shock that he was free to move but sensed the act as unreal. It was a dream that altered Luke as he wanted to stay like this forever, wanting to sleep but was awake. He was now a tiny man, staring up at his little brother who now stood tall over him like a Easter Island god. Luke was now easier and light enough for Jan to pick up and be placed inside his shirt pocket.
Outside the secret compound, it was pitch black except for some faint search lamps hanging across the walls of the sector Luke stayed in. This atmosphere was perfect for Jan to sneak away as he carried a brown knap sack as if he planned the escape from the beginning. Spotting a working jeep hiding among a wreckage piled up from Luke's training, Jan tossed the sack into the adjacent seat and hopped in the driver's seat. Strange as it was to be abandoned by soldiers on look-out, it was again a perfect notch for the already smoothly planned escape.
Ruffling under the bag's flap like a mouse under a sheet, Luke popped his head out and balanced the heavy flap with his right arm. He surveyed his surroundings as best he could and found his younger brother, on the floor of the jeep attempting to hot wire the vehicle.
"Jan," Luke quietly called, hoping his brother can hear him. "Jan," calling again, "How did we escape? What the hell are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing? We're getting outta here."
"Where are we going to go? It's blind to just speed off anywhere, unless this makes it easier for the Major to send after us!"
"We're going back to America, bro! I'm sick of living in the fuckin' hot jungle. Man, it'll be great. I can't fuckin' wait! And there's something' waitin' for us there too!"
Luke thought Jan was delusional and was not eager enough to trust his driving skills. The brothers have not been in the United States in over four months, ever since the Major pulled the brothers out after they "involuntarily" left Millennium without proper notice of departure. Needless to say, their uncle was extremely upset for his own personal reasons that Luke never discovered.
The engine coughed and started to rumble, signaling that Jan got it to work. He put it in gear when the sound of a bang startled the two, Luke more so since he was five inches tall and the sound similar to a cannon. The mindless Freak soldiers came from the horizon in the rear view mirror; muttering another swear word under his breath, Jan stepped on the gas and sped like a bullet. Guns kept firing and pummeling at them. Jan kept revving the engine, forcing more power from the jeep to hopefully get out of the main acre of the Millennium lot. Soldiers appeared from the shadowed plant life, poised ready to aim at the car. Making a sharp turn, Jan maneuvered the jeep out the crossing bullets and managed to knock two soldiers off their feet.
Driving through a South American jungle was tough. Even though it was night out, it was slightly humid and muggy, not a comfortable temperature for Jan. He was thinking after they escaped for good that he would dunk himself in cold water, where ever he thought it would be.
Eventually, the jeep skid to a stop at a paved airport, a running passenger airplane waiting for them. Taking the bag and his brother inside along for the ride, Jan approached the copter door. Awaiting his arrival, the door opened and stood a gigantic looking feminine person. She brandished a short cropped haircut, packed muscles and half a body worth of strange and taboo tattoos. The pilot was named Joleen Britz, one of their comrades of Millennium. Her intentions seemed to gesture that she could pound Jan into a gelatin paste or slice him just the same with a scythe that was nestled next to her on the co-pilot seat.
"You ready," her gruff voice asked, a cigarette under her lip.
The engine hummed and the blades started turning, puttering and buzzing into working gear. The wheels were soon tucked away and the plane soared above the ground and into the air. As Joleen steered with her arm cropped and the rest of her almost looking relaxed, Jan was ready to do the same as he slumped down on his seat, the seat belt pinching above his stomach. Luke was trapped among the belt strap in a comedic pose, a 5-inch tall man looking like an action figure and treated like a real person.
"You know you can grow back up whenever you want, bro."
Luke turned up to his brother. He knew it was his brother was talking to him, but Jan's appearance in the dark area made him look like a demon cat feared among Christians.
"It's the bread isn't it? What exactly was in it?"
Jan explained to him that it was Luke's extracted growth hormones that Doc reverted to shrinking hormones. It was part of another idea Doc had: shrinking soldiers to microscopic size and attacking a specific person, possibly as a way to journeying into the Hellsing Nosferatu and attacking from the inside. The brothers knew that, if anything, that idea was not going to go so smoothly.
"You should of seen it, Luke," he babbled on. "His little rat labbers was in a puddle when I threatened to blow his brains out if he didn't inject the hormone stuff. Man, what a rush, man."
"As great as your moment was, that still doesn't explain everything."
"Well, I thought you were the smart one. I already told you. I overheard that you can, but nobody said nothin'. You wouldn't have believed me if I told you. I mean you were ready to squash me. But so what, you're not locked away anymore."
"So, I can revert back to my normal size this whole time? Why wasn't I told this?" Luke spent a lot of time crying and feeling sorry for himself that his feelings now reverted back to anger against his uncle. He should have known better than to believe everything Doc had said.
"And what, have Millennium lose its 'greatest weapon'? Oh God, that would have been a field day, wouldn't it?"
"Well, they didn't."
They both turned to Joleen, who was hawk-eyeing them from the pilot seat.
"Hey, hey wait now," Jan tried to deter. "We had a deal, Britz. You get us the hell out of here . . ."
"And take you to America so that you can make up for screwing us over, right?"
Jan knew not to cross the burly woman, instead and not in his fashion, he tried to compensate for what he said.
"Exactly. No sense Millennium losing a weapon, right?" He embarrassingly spread a smile to try and fool Joleen as much as possible. She grinned back and returned to her position. Luke faced his larger brother again, this time he was puzzled by Jan's change of words.
"Hey, she's doing us a favor," Jan whispered. "If is wasn't for her, we'd be in deeper shit than this."
The rest of the trip was nervously quiet. The battering of Jan was not to be heard, which kept surprising Luke since they were first reunited. He thought to himself what kind of dream he was in. Nothing was making sense. His younger brother was able to mastermind a plan as fool proof as it was, Joleen granting a favor on their behalf when she took the brothers as privileged brats because they were Doc's nephews. Maybe he wanted all this to be a dream; it was not good enough to be taken seriously yet the nightmares of experiments and the exploitation of his size were still too real and he wanted to escape. His last waking thoughts pondered the realm of freedom, normalcy, his parents (?), Alucard, what might have been and its true cost.
TO BE CONTINUED, PART 3
