(Author's Note: Please forgive me for not updating earlier, but as usual, school, my crappy life, and other such stuff got in the way. Thank you sheiro2, you little devil you, for your kind review and to kitsunia for your encouragement to continue my "saga". Were it not for you two, this all would have been a one shot. Looks into audience, pauses for a second, waiting for it… God damn it! Even the crickets have abandoned me! Oh they probably went to that sheiro2's fic, but I'll show them! I will right a fic so fic-y that all of fic-dom will tremble with my awesome fic-y-ness!)

Order 2: First Sortie

The next day, Marcus was awoken by a knock at his door. Getting out of bed, he stumbled over and was greeted by the face of Walter.

"Good morning Mr. Banks. Did you sleep well?" inquired the steward of Hellsing, a little too peppy for this early in the morning. What do they put in the tea here? thought Marcus.

"It was all right, thank you Walter," came his groggy reply.

"Wonderful, now if you will follow me, breakfast is served," said Walter happily, and they went downstairs once Marcus had put something on other than his pajama's. They entered the soldier's mess hall, which was much like a cafeteria, except that the furniture was nicer and there wasn't a lunch line. There were a few dozen soldiers there already, but they only nodded to him and sipped their coffee. Marcus chose to sit at a small round table in the corner. After ordering an omelet and some O.J. from the waitress who worked there, he grabbed the comics from one of the other soldiers and read about how hopeless Charlie Brown was.

He had only made it to Garfield when he heard someone sit down next to him. Glancing up from the paper, he almost choked on a bit of ham from his eggs, because Senior Officer Seras Victoria was sitting next to him, staring intently at him.

"Cough cough What are you doing here?" he asked the vampire.

"I only wanted to apologize for yesterday. I hope I didn't hurt you. Sorry…" she said and got up to go.

"Wait, I'm sorry to. I shouldn't have attacked you like that. I-I don't know what came over me. Sorry…"then to brighten the moment, he said "Do you want some toast? I never eat mine."

"Oh no, that's alright. I can't eat regular food," she came back and sat down. "I was wondering how your training was going with Pip."

"It's alright, but it's pretty hard. I never had to do anything like this in gym class," he said with a sigh. They continued to talk about his training, his weapon choice, how much Sir Integra looked like a man (with far too many jokes at her expense), and how Walter used to be gay.

"Really! I wouldn't have ever thought about that. Did he ever meet anyone?" asked Marcus.

"Yeah, I think he was once in love with my master. Oh right, he was the one that saved you from that freak!" she answered.

At this, Marcus's eyes widened and he shivered. "Alucard is your master? I learned about how that works yesterday with Pip. So… does that mean you have never…?"

"No, I still have yet to…drink," she answered in a quiet voice. She stared at the table for a second and Marcus realized this wasn't her favorite subject. He was spared the awkward-ness by Pip coming in and telling him it was time to get moving.

Marcus's life entered a sort of routing from that point on. At six o'clock Walter would come and wake him up from his room, he would have breakfast, followed by train with Pip, and then he would either be on guard duty or he would have some free-time before bed. During his next too weeks, he saw little of Sir Integra, who apparently spent her life doing paperwork, or Alucard, who make his presence know none the less. For instance, when Marcus was on guard duty, he and Pip would occasionally see bats flying around the grounds, or hear maniacal laughter from Sir Integra's office (usually followed by shouting and several gunshots).

"Do they always act like that?" asked Marcus.

"Only when Alucard is bored. He wants to get out and fight, but there is nothing for him to do except bother the boss."

It was September now, and some of the leaves were turning shades of red and orange. The rain was pouring on the two soldiers as they walked along the paths of the Hellsing family's property. They walked up to the fountain that they had seen Seras and Alucard at before and stopped for a break and cigarette.

"You know, you really shouldn't smoke those. Your lungs accumulate about a soda can's worth of tar with just one year of smoking," warned the fifteen year old.

"When I want to know your opinion kid, I'll ask for it. Besides, I've faced down worse than this." was the captains annoyed response. Neither of them noticed the fountain stop spouting water behind them. There was a cracking sound and the water started to freeze as the temperature dropped suddenly.

"Hey Pip, is it getting cold out here?" asked the young soldier. A breeze went through the air, making the trees sway hypnotically. Shivering, Marcus hugged his knees as the chill air swept through.

"The air isn't supposed to be this cold this time of year," said Pip, drawing his revolver and pulling the hammer back. "Draw your weapon kid, there's something out there."

He got up off the bench and surveyed the woods around them. The wind blew his braid around near his shoulder. Marcus watched him walk around the fountain, looking in the trees for something. Behind him, the now frozen fountain reflected the light of the moon. It threw a shadow of the fountain across the pool of water. Marcus turned to look at it. Something wasn't right about it. As he leaned in to inspect it a pair of red eyes shone out of the shadow.

"Captain! Captain! There is something in the fountain!" he yelled, which brought Pip running over. He unloaded a round of bullets into the ice, but they only bounced off. From the shadow arose a tall woman dressed in white. Her brunette hair fluttered behind as she stepped out of the fountain. She was wearing a skin tight body suit that did nothing by the way of hiding her large breasts, a small blue jewel around her neck, and high heeled boots. In her gloved hand she held a long white spear that she now used to stab at Marcus. As he dodged the attack, he caught a glimpse of her face. It was like it was chiseled out of white marble, with only her red eyes showing she was nosferatu.

Drawing his Archangels, Marcus pulled back the hammer and unloaded two rounds at her head, but they only bounced off her skin. She swung with the butt end of the spear, but Marcus ducked and sliced at her legs, only managing to cut open one of her boots. He heard Pip radio for help, but the distraction only brought him a kick to the jaw that sent him flying back. Spitting out a tooth, he shot off three more bullets, but she wasn't there. Looking up, he saw with horror the vampires falling out of a leap with her spear headed straight for him. Throwing his arms up to defend himself, he heard a sound that sounded like a cannon. The vampire had been knocked out of the air by an exploding shell and was lying on the ground to his left. He looked with amazement to see Seras loading another shell into her Harkonnen cannon.

"Don't just stand there Marcus! Finish her off!" she yelled to him. Nodding he broke into a sprint to the now standing vampire. He crossed his arms in front of him and swung his silver blades in a double slash and shot her in the head as the barrels of his weapons came in front of her skull.

Backing up, he waited for what she was going to do next, but she just stood there, glaring at him. Then, with the sound of paper being torn in two, her body suit fell apart and she fell to the ground, dead. Pip looked at the now naked body of the vampire before them, and grinned.

"Mon ami, that was a job well done. It looks like I've taught you well. If you were old enough, I'd buy you a drink," said the Frenchman.

Seras found it less amusing, and shot it with another Harkonnen blast, blowing it to smithereens. Pip was mortified.

"Seras! Why did you do that! That was a beautiful specimen of the vampiric body! We could have used that in resear-" he began but was cut off.

"Don't you start with me, you barmy Frenchman. You just wanted to stare at her chest for hours on end!" she shouted back, now thoroughly pissed off. "And you!" she went on, pointing at Marcus. "You should know better than to do that!"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to do that." said Marcus replied, blushing madly. "Let's just get back to the mansion and make our report."

They walked back, Seras grumbling about stupid perverts, Marcus still thoroughly embarrassed about accidentally slicing off a woman's clothes, and Pip congratulating Marcus on a good kill.

When they got back to the mansion, Sir Integra was coming down the stairs to meet them.

"Are you all right Mr. Banks? I just heard about the attack." she said with an impassive gaze.

"I'm alright sir, just a bruised jaw. Thank you," Marcus answered.

"Senior Officer Seras Victoria, report." ordered Sir Integra.

"Yes sir. I was going about my… duties when Captain Bernadette radioed for backup. I gathered my Harkonnen and arrived in time to stop the target from impaling Private Banks, though he seemed to be doing a good job on his own." Marcus swelled with pride and waited for the compliments on how well he had trained, about how he was so awesome in battle. "According to Captain Bernadette, she froze the fountain and rose out of it. She wasn't that powerful though…"

"And why do you say that Seras?" inquired the knight. Marcus looked at Seras intently.

"Because a private in our army was able to defeat her with little help. She can't have been that powerful, sir." answered Seras. Marcus started banging his head on a nearby wall. Sir Integra sweatdropped and walked back to her office.

"How come you said that?" whined Marcus. "I think that I did a very good job for my first time."

Seras looked at him, and they should take care of his jaw. He took the hint to shut up and followed her to the infirmary.