Order 3: New Form
"So Miss Hellsing, any last words?"
"That the Queen brings back the cutting block for the two of you"
"If that's all you have to say..." the man with the gun said as he pointed it at Integra's head.
"Wait Jim, do you smell that? Smells like something's bur..." The man didn't have time to finish his sentence as he erupted into flames. There were no screams, just the sudden overpowering smell of burnt human flesh and smoke as the fire seemed to take on life and over took the man with the gun still aimed at Integra.
"If thou presumeth to flirt with spirts, then thou shall join them..." a voice echoed from the fires scattered in the room.
"Alucard?!"
There was silence for a moment, with the exception of anything that could catch fire burning. Suddenly the fire collected and took the vague shape of a man standing in the middle of the room. With a quick flick its arm extended toward the door, allowing the fire to bite down on the centuries old wood. "You should go, don't worry about the imposter."
Suddenly the door shattered outwards, as if the fire were an explosive. Before Integra could respond, the fire being ran through the door, black clothing taking form already on its body.
P-O3-NF/
Integra calmly walked down the hallway back into the ballroom. She had bumped into a few of the other knights on the way back but betrayed nothing of what she was thinking. As she entered the ballroom, she noticed Seras and an elderly gentleman seemed to be engaged in conversation. She also noticed that the elder man seemed to have made several attempts to get a little close for comfort to Seras.
"Oh, master, glad to see that you have returned. What was it that those gentlemen needed?" Seras said, physically relieved to see Integra was close enough to force the lecher to keep his hands to himself, she hoped anyway.
"Oh they just had something trivial to discuss. Is everything all right out here officer Victoria?" Integra asked with a questioning glance at the man.
"Yes, I was just telling Miss Victoria a little bit about her dance partner that seemed to have run out after you. Have you seen him by chance director Hellsing?" Williams said before Seras managed to reveal his vain attempts of getting close to her.
"No im afraid not, I believe that I will do down and mingle with the others for a bit longer before I talk with the queen. Good night Commander." Integra said as she started moving off toward the stair case. Williams was rubbing his ear as Integra and Seras began down the stair case.
"Oh director Hellsing, one other thing." Williams called out. Integra turned, a bit of annoyance was on her face before it quickly turned to shock. Several thin wires came flying toward her. Before she could blink or scream the wires had rapped themselves around her neck and severed her head. Before it registered to Seras the commander was running down the hallway.
P-O3-NF/
Kid could hear the shouting as he ran down the hallway, he was back in his human form complete with his arm blades and mask that he had summoned back from the nest.
"Kid, you better be around that corner!" Williams shouted over the earpiece.
"I am just keep coming, ill distract them." Kid replied calmly. No sooner that he spoke that Williams came around the corner and ran past, it was Kid's turn to play decoy. As he ran around the corner, he found a crowd of guards brandishing mini machine guns, being lead by Seras Victoria.
'Damn, why did she have to... well considering she thinks that William just decapitated director Hellsing I guess it makes sense.'
As the guards and seras came closer she instantly recognized who the man in their path was. "You?! What are you doing here?!"
"Greetings' gentlemen and lady, is there something I can help you with? Perhaps you are after an elderly man?"
"I don't have time for this!" Seras shouted as she fired her own hand gun. The bullet sped toward Kid only to suddenly melt as fire engulfed it, rendering Seras' attempt to remove her obstacle useless.
"Tisk tisk Seras, don't you remember what happened last time? On that note I cannot allow you and your companions to pass to kill an innocent man."
"Innocent!" before Seras could continue a wall of fire erupted between themselves and the man that seemed to control fire at will.
"Yes Seras, innocent. Your master as you like to call her is alive and well. Be thankful that my friend and I decided to attend the ball or else a possessed clone would be trying to take control of your organization. Until we meet again!" with that, Seras could see him running down the hall.
"Your not getting away this time..." Seras growled to herself as she ran to the wall, sunk her fingers into the old wood and crawled along the wall, avoiding the fire on the floor that the men, up to the point that she displayed her wall crawling abilities, were trying to put out.Returning to the floor, she sprinted down after Kid. A couple dozen feet later brought her to a broken window over looking a giant tree, its only occupant at the time was an impressive looking owl.
Looking down toward the snow-covered ground her vampirc eyes revealed no tracks. "How the hell then..." she looked back up at the tree, the owl still stood there, looking directly at her with its giant white eyes.
Seras cracked a smile as the realization hit her "so, you can shape shift..."
The owl responded by tilting its head and hooting, ironically the sound of the bird call indeed sounded like a "who" to Seras' ears.
"Yeah just keep saying that." She said as she leveled her weapon at the bird. Just as she pulled the trigger the owl flew out of the path of the bullets.
P-O3-NF/
'Hmm, she picks up quickly...' Kid thought to himself as he flapped his wings away from the palace. He hadn't expected her to shoot at an owl or even figure out that he could indeed change shapes.
The sound of more glass shattering caught his attention as turned his head to see a swarm of bats come flying out from the window that Seras was standing at a moment ago. 'Oh crap...'
He needed a place to set down, fast. This owl form that he had chosen unfortunately wasn't the fastest that he could have picked. The swarm of bats that was Seras would eventually over take him and, well he didn't want to think what she would do when that happened. They flew over several neighborhoods in the area, all the while Kid could hear the bat's constant squeaking, using their radar to track his every movement. The fact that his form was a silent flyer wouldn't hide him in this chase.
Then it happened, Kid felt the first bat bit down on his claw. Then another on his wing, moments later his was being brought down as the swarm of bats bit into his flesh and held on with their teeth.
P-O3-NF/
Being a swarm of bats was always strange, no matter how many times anyone did it no one could say they could get used to it. The first thing that is instantly noticeable is that you saw threw the eyes of all the bats, like it was some sort of compound eyesight. Second was that you felt what each bat felt, and tasted what each bat tasted. But the taste of feathers was like biting down on a pillow, dry and gaging.
Seras could feel the owl straining to continue to fly and try to shake off her attack, to no avail. More and more bats latched onto the owl, adding more and more weight to the owl, causing it to lose any chance of flight. Finally, the mass of owl and bats felt on top of a roof top. The remaining swarm of bats circled above the roof as they began to come together, before long Seras stood over the wounded bird, gun in hand. "Are you done with your facade?"
Slowly, the owl began to take shape, the sickening bone crunching sound escaped into the air as the bones began to collapse and reshape. Feathers matted down to the skin as the body started to grow, moments later the feathery tattoo design gave way black leather clothing. A few more minutes of this continued until finally there stood a man, blooded but still a man. "Congratulations, you're the first to actually harm to me, to some extent."
"I want answers, now."
Kid chuckled, then more memories flashed into his mind of her but he refused to allow his face to betray anything. "Hah, fine go ahead, I doubt ill be able to answer anything though."
Seras ignored the comment and asked her first and obvious question. "Are you undead?"
"Possibly, im not sure myself." Kid said with a smirk, he could feel his body rapidly repairing itself, just a few more minutes and he could easily leave her behind without her following.
"You either are or are not, what are you anyway?"
Kid thought about that for a moment, chances are he was undead, but he doubted it was the same definition that she thought. As for what he was he knew that perfectly. "A phoenix, a guardian of man commissioned by God himself."
"Great another Iscariot, this should be fun..."
"Iscariot?" genuine confusion played across his eyes, his mask hid the rest of his face. Before he could ask about the word Seras ran toward him gun in one hand, her other had contorted into a claw. Her delicate dress rippled as she ran at super human speeds. Any mortal would have been caught off guard at the sudden burst of speed. Kid dodged her with ease, however her claw caught his mask, ripping it from his face.
"Your fast, I hope that you still don't believe that my friend was responsible for killing the real director." Kid said, his voice and remaining face no longer hidden by the mask.
P-O3-NF/
Seras was shocked, now that the mask was gone the voice was crystal clear. Turning to face him she felt like her heart had started to beat once again. Nathan, it was Nathan standing in front of her now.
"You look like you've seen a ghost." Nathan asked, oblivious to the feelings and memories that were coursing threw Seras' mind. All the memories of Seras and his life as a human had been dammed up, but that was slowly starting to break allowing fractions of memories, images and so forth to become accessible.
"N-Nathan..." Seras stammered.
"What? Did you know who I..." the dam broke. Memories of what had happened came flooding back into his mind simply because she had called out his name. The assault of memories played physically on his body as he grabbed at his head, the pain of it all was intense. So much that he collapsed onto his knees, still clutching his head.
Seras approached carefully, it might not have been him, he could change his shape, it was entirely possible that he could invade her mind and learn about Nathan from her mind. Slowly she reached for him, as if to prove to herself that he was indeed Nathan. As her figures brushed through his hair, he jumped back several feet away from Seras.
"I don't believe it, this is some sort of trick." His voice was shaky, as if he himself had a hard time swallowing his own words. Taking a step back he fell off the ledge, Seras ran toward the ledge and looked down in time to see the last bits of flame go out in the snow.
Time stamp: one week later (present)
location: streets of London
They had arrived in London nearly two weeks ago, this was their last refuge before going to the black market and purchasing green cards and passports to America, something that they would rather avoid. It wasn't that they disliked the idea of eventually heading to the States but they would rather try to avoid collecting any more sin's sense their "escape" from their employers.
Both had been surprised by the ferocity that the organization had used in thus far a vain attempt to bring them back. Both were responsible for putting down former coworkers and in other cases close friends that the organization had sent after them. The first time was in Ljubljana, the capital city of the Republic of Slovenia. They had failed to report in at the appointed time and two days later an armed team of Iscariot agents had stormed their room, luckily neither were in the hotel at the time and they had only heard about it in passing. They were on a train out of the country an hour later, luckily they had secured their favored possessions before hand.
The second attack had come in Berlin Germany, Heinkel's home country. This time instead of a team of agents, they had used co-workers that were friends of theirs. Things were going for the agents until one of them slipped their tongue and said more than they should have. The agents returned to Section thirteen in boxes and Heinkel and Yumiko were on the run again. It was the final attack in Cherbourg, a city in France that they both agreed to head to England, both had taken separate routes and had met in London and were now trying to figure out their next move. Technically the Iscariot couldn't come after them here, but that hadn't stopped Maxwell in the past from sending in agents to take out undead and periodically hassle the Hellsing organization.
It was night time as both sat at a local pub, they had long abandoned their priest and nun clothing in an attempt to blend in with the majority of the population.
"Can I get you girls another round?" The barkeep asked. For the most part the pub was empty and understandingly the man was trying to keep his customers happy on this cold winter night. He was an elderly, jolly man, an old tattoo on his arm and the various war memorabilia strongly hinted that he served in the second world war.
"No were fine right now." Yumiko said with a forced smile, even with recent events she tried to make everyone around her feel at ease, at least the best a berserker ex agent of a secret undead hunting organization could.
"All right, let me know when you need something." The man said before walking away and turning his attention to one of the screens to watch the local news report.
"Do you think we may have lost them this time Heinkel?" Yumiko asked as soon as the man was out of ear shot. Heinkel merely shook her head, the same pattern had been followed ever sense they ran. Just as soon as they started to let their guard down or take a breath their former comrades would be right behind them trying to either drag them back or in last times case, run them threw with swords.
"We should think about our next move, we may be out of Iscariot's territory but I doubt that they would give a care. Im quite sure that they figured out that we know what their plans are, or else they would still be trying to get us to come back." Heinkel said as she idly ran her finger along the rim of her mug of beer.
The two continued talking about their plans, oblivious to the door opening or that the new comer was approaching them. "Anything I can get for you son?"
"Nay..." before the barkeep could respond a sword was imbedded in his chest. He looked down at the metal sticking in his chest before hoarsely asking why and collapsing behind the counter. The two girls remained still, both knowing exactly who it was and what he wanted.
"Are ye not goin to say anythin to ye old brother?" Anderson asked, the two remained silent, Heinkel slowly snaked her hand toward one of her hidden firearms. Suddenly the sharp edge of a blade found itself a fraction away from her neck.
"I wouldn't recommend that lass."
"What do you want Anderson?"
"Ye know what I want Heinkel, ye either come back with me to Iscariot or I send ye home to the father, its ye choice."
"Go to hell."
"Sorry, I don't plan on goin there, you on the other hand for betrayin us..." Before he could make the point of his intended action a gunshot resounded in the small pub. The bullet sent Anderson flying away from the girls, leaving his sword behind harmlessly in Heinkel's lap. Looking at the far end of the pub the two were shocked to see the bartender on his belly with the sword still threw his torso. In his hand was an old war riffle.
"Wha...what are you two waiting for? Run!" The wounded bartender said as he shot another round into Anderson.
"Thank you..." Yumiko said before she and Heinkel ran from the pub. Anderson slowly got up only to be shot down again by the bartender who was now lying in a pool of his own blood.
"I don't know what you are, but I sure as hell wont let you harm those two girls." The bartender said as he fired another round. He was shocked that he couldn't kill whatever this thing was. Anderson got up once again, annoyance on his face at the man for delaying his mission.
"Stay down!" The bartender shouted, took aim, pulled the trigger, and watched as nothing happened. Anderson smirked as he walked towards the dying man, a new sword in hand.
P-O3-NF/
The two girls ran down the abandoned road, fresh snow had been falling all day and most of the night, they knew that the trail they were leaving could be easily followed but that didn't hinder the old bartender's instructions. They paused for only a second when the gunshots ended, they knew the reason for the silence.
"Take this, lose the glasses." Heinkel said, throwing a gun towards Yumiko. As Yumiko loaded the newly acquired weapon, a sword went flying past, slicing a few strands of hair.
"Prepare ye selves for judgement!"
The girls opened fire, both knew it was a futile effort, but to simply give up and die would be worse than committing suicide. Anderson just smiled and continued to walk forward, the bullets impacting his skin just bounced off, never puncturing his body and causing damage. Every now and then Anderson would tap his swords together, creating a rather unnerving clicking sound.
"Ye are only putting off the inevitable..." Anderson said as he approached, the clicking had increased the closer he came to the two. That didn't deter Yumi though, having removed her glasses Yumiko had awakened the berserker within her. She ran towards Anderson, her gun firing its rounds straight into her targets face. The tattoos along his cheeks glowed slightly as the bullets impacted into his flesh, only to bounce off.
"You bastard!" Yumi shouted, she was using her gun as a block to Anderson's left sword, oblivious to the other.
"Wrong move, we lass." Anderson said to the Berserker Yumi. In a flash of light and a splash of blood Yumi laid in front of Anderson, her right arm severed from her body lay a few feet from her.
"Receive ye punishment now with grace!" Anderson pointed the tip of his sword straight at Yumi's face, with a quick thrust, the blade came down only to be hit by a wall of fire. Before anyone could speak Anderson was thrown several feet from his prey.
"What is this?!" Anderson shouted, thoughts of Alucard suddenly raced through his mind, had the demon overcome the confines of running water and blessed chains? Was it Draculina and her little human friends from Hellsing?
"You sicken me. Claiming to be a man of God and dressed as a paladin no less. You should be out hunting vampires and aiding your fellow man, not butchering them." A voice called out from a flame that had appeared in the middle of the road.
"Such men like you have no right to call yourself protector's of the church!" the voice from the flame said, the fire itself began to grown larger, turning into a small column of fire.
"What manor of evil is this!" Anderson shouted at the fire, his swords at the ready.
A figure emerged from the fire clad in black, a pair of swords fastened to his arms. His black hair seemed to remain partly aflame before completely turning back to normal. A mask covered his mouth as well as one of his eyes. "Leave now and never return, pray that you might repent for the sin of murder." The man growled.
"Hellsing puppet, ye think that I will be fooled that easily?" Anderson chuckled before breaking into a mad laugh as charged the man. The stranger remained perfectly still, not showing any indication that he would move or defend himself from the rapidly approaching priest. Twenty feet, fifteen feet, ten feet, five, at three feet a wall of fire erupted between the two. Anderson ran head first into the wall, expecting to pass right through it, only to find the wall held him back.
"What the..." almost the moment after speaking those words he was thrown back by the force of the firewall. "Hmm, so ye can control fire as well? This should be fun..."
Throwing one oh his swords to the side, Anderson ripped at the sleeve of his shirt, exposing the extensive Latin Tattoos along his arm. Aiming his hand at his opponent he felt the tingle of the spells along his arm activate. The result was a steam of fire from his hand straight to his target. He began to laugh insanely as the flames bit down on the man's clothing, engulfing him.
"You fool! Do you honestly think that a Phoenix would be hurt by fire?!" Anderson's laughter slowly subsided as he watched the being seemingly absorb the fire into his body. Now it was his turn to attack. The swords along his arms quickly lowered themselves past his arms as he entered into a disturbingly familiar stance. With impressive speed he was upon the regenerator, all Anderson had time to do was raise his swords in defense.
Both were pressing against the other with their respective weaponry, neither willing to allow the other the upper hand. Finally the stranger kicked Anderson, sending them both several feet apart.
P-O3-NF/
Heinkel was cradling Yumi in her arms, trying to keep her awake and at the same time watched the fight between the two men. "Come on, stay with me! Yumi!"
Yumi was losing a lot of blood from the loss of her arm. All that Heinkel could do was keep the lost wound above Yumi's heart and bandaged it with some of her jacket. If things didn't swing in their favor soon, she would bleed to death.
"Wh...where's Anderson?" Yumi asked weakly, the blood loss was making her drowsy.
"He's over there, someone is fighting him, and holding him off." Heinkel said, pointing in the direction of the two fighters.
Yumi struggled to turn to see the fight, it took a lot of effort but she managed. "Strange, th..that stance...I, I'm the only one who knows it, except...." Yumi couldn't finish her sentience as her body finally gave in to shock.
P-O3-NF/
The stranger could feel someone's life was in danger, one of the women was bleeding to death and had just entered shock. He had to send this crazed man away before he could help them. As they charged at each other again the man focused on a small fire off in the distance, the scent of tobacco was strong to his nose even though the stick was burning several miles away.
Just as their swords clashed he used his free hands and grabbed hold of Anderson. Instantly the paladin was engulfed in flame before being sent away. Turning he looked at the two, the one that had lost her arm was being cradled by the other.
"Stay back!" the one called Heinkel said, she was holding a gun at him, not that it would matter.
"Unless we get her some help, your friend will die." The man stated in a calm flat voice. That fact had not escaped Heinkel nor did she allow the fact that this man had just destroyed Anderson escape her as well.
"Do you think we would trust you? Someone that is able to take out someone like Anderson?"
"I didn't 'take him out' as you put it, I just sent him away. Look, we can talk about this later, every second that passes is a second less that your friend has." Heinkel refused to take the gun off their supposed savor.
"God you haven't changed one bit!" the man exclaimed as he took off his mask, revealing the rest of his features.
P-O3-NF/
Heinkel couldn't believe it, Nathan was standing in front of her. "Filthy undead vermin!" she shouted, firing a round from her gun straight at Nathan's head only for the bullet to melt as it hit a wall of fire.
"Do you see fangs in this mouth? We can debate my status among the living or dead later!" Nathan said before promptly grabbing both of them by the shoulder. A moment later the trio disappeared in a burst of flame.