Order 5: Monster Mash
Time Stamp: Two days later (Present)
Location: Vampire hunting mission
Seras and her squad of commandos were running down a hill, weapons leveling the horde of ghouls that were standing in their way. These were her hand picked troops from the Hellsing pool, each one had seen more than their fair share of battle and trusted each other with their lives, Seras included. The result was a group of elite troops that after a while Integra would reassign to other squads, usually to lead them or perform special tasks that the typical Hellsing soldier couldn't or wouldn't handle.
The target was just past a few more ghouls, Seras's guns, the Redeemer and the Jackal firing in unison giving peace to the souls in the ghouls as they were finally released from the prison of flesh that was once their bodies. When she saw her first ghoul she didn't understand them, then she feared what they were. Now she knew that she was freeing those trapped in their bodies against their will, it gave her some comfort believing that if the fallen ghouls could speak, that they would thank her for her mercy.
The target vampire realized his final death was immanent as the last few ghouls fell under the fire of the Hellsing troops. Before the last of his slaves fell he began to retreat deeper into the graveyard at the base of the hills.
P-O5-MM/
The vampire ran as fast as the body would take him. They hated it, the lack of speed from the hosts body was only delaying the time for the old guardian to catch up to them. In a few moments she and her men would be on top of them though that didn't matter. These hunters didn't possess any form of banishing spells.
"Into the light I command the!" a voice boomed. Before they knew what had happened they felt the body being pulled under a lamp in the yard. They couldn't escape from the light, it was like some physical cage.
"Who's there!" vampire screamed out in a strange voice. It sounded deep and as if it was being fed threw a microphone. His eyes were darting from place to place looking for whoever or whatever commanded power over him. Both host and possessors knew that in the light they were easily seen, the fact that it now doubled as a cage only made things worse.
Without any sound a figure appeared in front of the possessed vampire. He was clad in a sleeveless black trench coat, grey armor under that. Along his arms were two blades attached to him by some gauntlets. His boots made no sound as he walked closer to the trapped vampire. "So, taking the old guard now, legion?"
The vampire hissed in response. "Phoenix, left hand of God. Release me!"
At that Nathan flicked his wrist, allowing the blades to switch into an attack stance, his right hand began to glow as fire erupted over it. "Any releasing I do legion will be sending you into the abyss, something that you have always feared if I recall."
The vampire merely growled in response. "I want information. Where are the clones that you and your kind are taking over, and why are you in possession of a vampire?"
The possessed vampire remained silent. "I see we have to do this the hard way."
Causally, Nathan stuck his flaming hand into the fire. Almost instantly the fire spread into all of the light. Demonic screams could be heard from within the flames and then almost instantly the fire returned to Nathan's hand, revealing a charred vampire.
"Are you talkative now legion?"
P-O5-MM/
Seras moved up the hill, her handguns at the ready. The smell of burnt flesh was just starting to reach her nose as she approached the source of light that had flashed not a moment ago. As she cleared the last bit of brush her vampirc sight showed her in crystal clarity what lay ahead of her, Nathan and her target. The vampire was badly burnt and was shrieking out in strange tongues at Nathan. Taking aim at the vampire she fired.
"NO!" Nathan screamed as the bullet ripped threw the vampires head, a smile on its face.
P-O5-MM/
Nathan couldn't believe it, the body of the vampire lay at his feet a moment before turning to ash.
"Seras!" Nathan shouted looking directly at her nearly a hundred feet away. Before either of them could say anything the ground began to rumble slightly.
"Oh shit…."
"Nathan? What's going on?" Seras said as she came up to him, unsure of what she had just done.
"You played into their hands. Get out of hear, now!"
"Why? What's happening?" The ground began to split open among the graves, a green light began to glow from the rivened ground. Nathan's swords flung into place as he began moving towards the graves, knowing what had happened.
"Did you ever read about a demon named legion? Well you just released them before I had a chance to send him into the abyss!"
"What? Where did he go?"
"Take a wild guess Seras, now get the hell out of here! Get your men away from here!" As if on cue a arm shot out of the ground and grabbed onto Seras's leg. The surprise of the event forced the battle-hardened vampire to scream out. In a fluid motion Nathan swung his blade, neatly cutting the limb off forcing it to release its grip on Seras's leg.
"Ghouls!"
"No, worse. Zombies."
"Your kidding right!" Seras said as she tried to regain her composer.
"Do they look like I'm kidding?" Nathan said as he pointed out the mass of reanimated decomposing corpses coming out of their places of rest. "When you shot that vampire your released legion, now they are taking over the dead."
Just then another zombie pulled itself up from the ground only to be decapitated by one of Nathan's blades. Seras began shooting at the undead monsters only to be shocked to see that none of her bullets, even the ones in the head, caused damage. "They die if you take their heads, if you can aim for the neck and shoot until it comes off."
"Lads pull back, its too hot over here, seal the gates and ensure nothing escapes. Aim for the neck until you decapitate the monsters!" Seras shouted over her headset.
"Roger that squad leader… GOOD SWEAT LORD!" The line went dead. Seras didn't bother to check the comm's, she heard the sound of distant gunfire and could only hope that the horrific sight of the zombies wasn't enough to catch her troops off guard.
"Nathan…."
"Don't worry, they wont turn into zombies, that's just Hollywood myth, its just going to hurt like hell if they get bit." That didn't help ease Seras's concern for her men.
A zombie bit down on her leg, the monster must have snuck up to her when she wasn't paying attention. Letting out a scream she fired at the undead's neck, three shoots were all that it took to decapitate it. She felt her right leg go numb a few moments later. "You on the other hand need to watch out for them!"
It was madness; the zombies just came coming and coming. They were being controlled by legion, every time they killed one of the zombies the demon in it would leave to take another still in the grave to replace the one it exited. Eventually Seras had ran out of ammo for her guns and was using one of Nathan's arm blades to defend herself.
Every now and then Nathan would summon fire and release it on some of the undead, but that only served to slow them down, the host bodies didn't die. Eventually they would be overwhelmed. It wasn't something that Nathan looked forward to but he knew he could survive it or easily escape, but that would leave the undead zombies to walk the earth terrorizing the local population. Not only that but Seras was susceptible to the zombies bite and no matter what had happened to them, he wouldn't leave her to such a horrific fate as to be eaten alive.
Nathan could almost hear the insane laughter coming from the zombies as legion watched from their eyes with glee. Binding wouldn't do too much good either with such a large number and he had guessed that they had only stopped a third of zombies in the large graveyard. The gun reports from the entrance seemed to have died down a while ago; the fate of the Hellsing troops was anyone's guess. He heard Seras scream again, this time a group of zombies was upon her, that was it.
A feeling of anger overwhelmed Nathan as he felt power surge into him. Time slowed to a crawl and then finally stopped as he felt his body burst into fire. The flames burnt a brilliant blue hue as they spread across the graveyard latching on to every zombie and corpse still in the grave. The fire instantly burnt the bodies to a crisp leaving nothing but black ash. The fire quickly returned to the center of the yard where Seras lay in mid air, like a status depicting her attempt to ward off what was no longer there. The fire recombined and took on human form before Nathan's humanly featured overtook the fire. Time resumed, the action would have seen like in a blink of an eye the zombies had simply disappeared.
Seras lay on the ground, shivering as all her limbs went limp and numb. She was unconscious as Nathan bent down and scooped her up into his arms. The warmth of his body seeping into hers, she slowly stopped shivering. "Don't you die again…" Nathan mumbled as he opened a gateway to the Hellsing Mansion and walked in, legion could wait.
P-O5-MM/
Nathan laid Seras down in her coffin bed. The moment their bodies lost contact she began to shiver again. Taking his last blade he carefully sliced his wrist and put the bleeding limb to Seras's mouth. The scent of blood spurred her body to latch on. The affect was instantaneous, he body stopped shivering and she fell asleep. Nathan brought his limb back and looked at it, the blood was still flowing as he ran his hand across the wound. Looking at it again he smiled as no trace of the cut or blood remained. He watched her for a few minutes, she was sleeping peacefully now, the phoenix blood in her system did its job. Snapping his fingers a flaming portal opened up to his nest. As he walked in he turned and looked at her, to many things to say, not enough time to say them crossed his mind. He wondered what was going to happen in the future for them as he turned and continued walking in the portal, closing it behind him.
Time Stamp: Present
Location: Hellsing Mansion, Seras's room
Seras awoke in her bed with a start. The last thing she remembered was the zombies tackling her and the feeling of teeth digging into her flesh. Looking around she realized she was back in her room, how she got there she had no idea. Her limbs still hurt somewhat but they were no longer cold. Looking at her clock she realized that it was several hours since her mission, with a groan she got up. Looking at the table she noticed something was out of place. A bucket with ice and blood had been freshly placed and a candle was burning in the center of the table.
A note rested neatly folded on the table, opening it she read the contents.
Seras, good work on the mission though Walter informs me that you have not awakened for some time I have ordered him to leave a fresh bucket of blood every night for you when you do. The troops returned later tonight reporting something about ghouls that had to be decapitated; I expect a full report from you when you finally awake.
Looking at the date Seras went pail, "three days ago?" she mumbled.
Taking the blood packet she drained it quickly, wanting to report to her master of the events that happened with the zombies and Nathan. As she walked out of her room and closed the heavy metal door the candlelight flickered momentarily revealing an ice blue eye in the flame before the candles fire went out.
Time Stamp: Present
Location: Nathan's Nest
Yumiko awoke with a start. The last thing she remembered was seeing Anderson fighting someone in the distance. Looking around she quickly noticed her glasses were on, she was sure that she had lost them and that Yumi had awakened. Looking around she instantly realized that this place wasn't familiar to her. That was alarming, had she been captured? Where was Heinkel?
Getting up out of the bed she felt some wires pull at her, looking to where the wires lead she realized that they were monitoring her vitals. Whoever they were though concerned her more than why she was here. Then the realization hit her like a Mack truck, one of her arms was missing, in its place was a bandaged stump.
It strangely didn't scare her, she waited for her body and mind to realize that a part of her physical being was now and forever torn from her but nothing came. It was like her body had already accepted the fact but failed to even mention the loss of the limb to her mind. Walking out of the room in the same cloths that she had been wearing for lord knew how long she was greeted by a odd sight.
The interior was undoubtedly a warehouse and judging by the smell in the air, close to the sea or river. Loud music was playing at one end, something that one would have heard during the 70's. Walking over to the source of the music she started to hear other sounds as well. The pounding of metal, the sound of something hot coming in contact with cool water, a gush of steam.
Emerging from the walkway Yumiko found herself watching an elderly looking man pounding on a sword and dipping it back into some water every now and then. Another man was with him, his back to her, he was leaning against a desk, seemingly bored with the others presence.
"Okay kid, give it another blast." The elderly man said as he placed the sword on the anvil again. The one named kid merely grunted and said something Yumiko couldn't pick up.
"Hey, you're the one that decided to mess with legion when you should have finally sent that group to where they belonged. You ended up having to pay the price now give me a blast!" the old man said over the music.
Yumiko watched as the younger man raised his hand, palm out towards the weapon and a stream of fire seemingly exploded from his hand straight to the weapon. The fire streamed up and down the weapon for a few moments, turning the metal bright red. "There, was that hard?"
"No, but would you rather have had zombies walking around London?"
"… The girl is awake." The elderly man said, not looking up from his work. The young man turned around and looked straight into Yumiko's eyes. Yumiko stood there frozen. Looking at her was Nathan.
Time Stamp: Present
Location: Hellsing Mansion, Integra's office
Seras stood in front of Integra, she had long ago got over her fear of her commander and master. Though that still didn't make it any easier to explain the zombies and her resurrected boyfriend. Alucard would have been on the floor laughing, she was sure of it. "Officer Victoria, are you positive of what you are saying, that Nathan West is back among the living?"
"I wouldn't say that he is alive, I sensed a different heat from him, and I still do now..."
"You still do? What do you mean by that Victoria?" Integra asked, she had bit off the end of one of her cigars and began smoking it. The scent of the burnt leaves and drugs drifted from the smoke into the air, leaving a semi sweet smell.
"I cant explain it Sir, all I know is that the link that I once formed between us is open again. It's a little different, I only know where he is, I cant read his thoughts or even communicate with him."
"Hmm, form a search party officer Victoria, bring him in. We cannot afford to have another undead walking about. I doubt that he is still affiliated with Section thirteen but don't let your guard down."
"Yes sir!" Seras said as she turned and left the room.
Time Stamp: two hours later, Present
Location: Warehouse district
Seras and her team drove between the dilapidated warehouses of the district. In the time of their prime most functioned as factories during the two world wars, in later years they were converted to storage for the shipping industry. Now, they sat here, the population of England trying to forget the district even existed for some reason or another.
Gangs, undead, animals, normal everyday people and police all avoided the area, something in the air put everything on edge. It might have been the history of the area, a feeling that time had simply forgot that this district existed and urged the rest of the population to follow suit. Seras ignored the tension, she remembered Alucard had brought her to this place one time, the moment they entered the area Seras just wanted to run, Alucard held her fast though and commanded her to accept that there indeed places worse than this. When she asked him why the area gave off this feeling he merely shrugged and said "Some things that man create will echo the tragedy of the events their creations affect. Just imagine, police girl how many weapons of war passed threw this district that brought pain and despair to others."
Seras looked around the cabin of the transport, even those these were her select troops she could tell that they were just within a breath of cracking under the pressure the area was producing. Seras wondered why she felt Nathan was in this area. Were what Nathan hunted not affected by this feeling? She guessed that demons might even thrive here, though she had to admit, she knew next to nothing about demons. Only what she saw and had heard about, that was hardly enough to call herself an expert.
"Stop here, were going to go the rest by foot." Seras called out to the drive, she didn't want to alarm Nathan to their presence; he seemed to have a habit of disappearing when he saw her. He could hear the troop groan and they jumped out of the transport; they were defiantly fighting against their instincts to run from this place. As they rounded the corner of a warehouse they instantly saw light in the windows of one of the storage facilities not that far from where they were standing.
Seras pondered for a moment if Nathan was indeed in battle, if he was she may very well be leading her men into a dangerous situation. She had a hard time dealing with the resurrected zombies, and was no match for her first demon encounter; she doubted that the soldiers would even stand a remote chance of coming out alive. As they neared the structure, the exact opposite of what Seras and her team imagined happened. The tension in the air started to slack, as if the area surrounding the targeted warehouse was an oasis in the desert.
'Maybe this isn't what we thought what it was…' Seras thought to herself. "Move in."
Time Stamp: Present
Location: Warehouse district, Nathan's Nest
Yumiko sat in a chair near Nathan and the elder man named William. Heinkel, as Yumiko had been informed, was merely out shopping for food. For the most part, Yumiko kept an eye on Nathan, she wanted to except that he was alive, but she knew better. Those that returned from death came back changed one way or another. So, she decided to probe, its not like she could do anything else in her current condition.
"So, what happened to you Nathan, how did you… come back?"
Nathan turned to face her; every now and then William needed Nathan's talent for fire to heat up his weapons for repair. "Its still a blur really, all I remember is making a deal with someone, he had asked me to return to earth for five hundred years and in return… I cant remember what I asked for. As for my new abilities, you should really ask William, he knows more about me than I do."
Yumiko looked over at Williams, he was busy working on what looked like to be a katana mounted on some sort of shackle, he didn't seem to notice they were talking about him until Nathan threw a scrap of metal over to him.
"What!" William exclaimed in an American accent. "Nathan says you know more about what he is than he does."
"Ah, that. Your catholic right?" William asked as he dipped the sword weapon into some water.
"Yes, what does that have to do with anything?"
"Ever hear about the legend of the phoenix?"
"Of course, its supposed to be some mythical bird. Early Christians used it as a symbol of immortality, resurrections and so forth."
"That's the general idea, but like all legend there is truth at the core. Your friend here is a true blue Phoenix, the second guardian of man. Kid, I need another shot of fire here."
"Second guardian of man, what do you mean?"
"Well, after the flood, God needed a new guardian of man. Not to police them but rather to protect them from the fallen. Demons, humans that meddle in the supernatural and the first guardians that stray from the original mission are what the Phoenix protects the rest of the world from. You know how Hitler committed suicide at the end of the war?"
"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?"
"Well, towards the end he began meddling with the supernatural and that was all the Phoenix needed to go after him." William said as he took a cigarette from his pocket and lit it with the red metal.
"Are you saying that Nathan here killed Hitler?" Yumiko said in disbelief.
At this Nathan chuckled as William continued. "No, Nathan here is about twenty years old, I think that was Cat who executed Hitler, it's a shame really that the bastard didn't start messing with the supernatural earlier, if he had then the war would have ended much sooner.
"Wait, I'm confused. I thought the legend said that there was only one phoenix, your talking like you know this Cat."
"I do know her, that's one of the things that the legend didn't say, mainly to hide the idea of a race of guardians, she went in and made it look like a suicide. From what her nest relayed he was within minutes of becoming some sort of walking lich."
"Walking lich?"
"The Term means corpse gate, can you imagine what such a being could do just by what that name implies?" Yumiko thought for a moment and then shuddered at the prospect of what could have happened if that mad man went threw with his plans. "Yeah, scary isn't it."
"I can understand why Nathan is doing this, but why are you here William?" For the first time, the man seemed to think if he should answer or not. Before he said anything an alarm went off in the warehouse.
"That should be Heinkel, we have alarms all over the place to detect if anyone comes near." William said as he moved to a pillar with a red button bolted to the side.
"Is it uncommon for anyone to come here?" Yumiko said when the alarm died.
"Well, outside these walls the surrounding area isn't to kind to any soul, if you get my drift." William said as he turned around to face her, a moment later the lights died.
"William?" Nathan asked in an alarmed tone.
"Then again it might not be Heinkel..."
P-O5-MM/
Seras watched as the soldier cut the power line leading to the warehouse, they lost the advantage of surprise when they heard the alarm so they would gain the advantage of darkness. Even if they had some form of night vision darkness could still hide them to some extent. "Right, lets move in. Do not shoot to kill."
Silently Seras and the soldiers moved into the warehouse, the feeling of dread and tension was completely gone once they were inside the buildings walls. Was what they felt some sort of ward hiding this place? No, Alucard would have known about this place long ago, wouldn't he? Slowly the team searched the area, one of them found a glowing red piece of metal, signs that Nathan and possibly others were still in the area. "Spread out, teams of three, report anything out of the ordinary." Seras said over the radio.
Silently above them in the catwalks, Nathan, William and Yumiko watched as the soldiers below searched for them.
"Hellsing…" Nathan commented idly.
"And what makes you say that Kid?" William said sarcastically, both him and Yumiko were looking at him suspiciously.
"Seras may have…. Needed some of my blood." Nathan confessed.
"Oh that's great, just great. You gave a vampire some of your blood. Your vampire girlfriend no less!"
"We can fight about this later, right now we have to figure out what to do."
"What to do? Kid she knows where you are by blood! Its not like we can relocate!"
"You two can fight about this all you want, but Heinkel will be back any minute now, how do you think she will react to seeing Hellsing here?" Yumiko finally said to shut William up; he was just going to give away their location if he kept talking.
"Just leave it up to me."
P-O5-MM/
Nathan watched from the shadows as a team of three soldiers headed towards the sleeping area. 'No killing, just incapacitate them, simple.'
Dropping down he landed without making a sound, the darkness hid him perfectly, even if they looked in his direction they wouldn't be able to easily see him, he wouldn't be much of a guardian would he? He was right behind two of them; before they noticed him he slammed their head together, knocking them out. The resulting sound of heads hitting each other alarmed the lead soldier. Turning he saw his men behind him slump the ground before a fist connected forcefully with his chest, winding him. As he flew back his finger squeezed the trigger of his gun, sending a loud gun report into the air. "crap…"
"Did you hear that?"
"It came from over there, lets go!"
"Who fired? Report!"
Before Nathan had a chance to do anything several soldiers appeared in various locations, blocking a traditional exit. "Hey guys, how's it going?" Nathan asked nonchalantly.
His attempts to act like someone caught in the middle didn't work as the soldiers looked down their fallen comrades, several of them cocked their guns in response. "Relax, their unconscious. Besides, your weapons are useless against me."
In unison, the men fired at Nathan. Now Nathan was in a bit of a situation, while the bullets did hurt, even though the blessed silver did anything but damage his body he couldn't move. Doing so might result in one of the soldiers being hit by friendly fire, something that he could be indirectly responsible for, and as these were humans, that wasn't acceptable.
However, before he had to react, several metal strips of wire flew down and made contact with the bare skin of the soldiers. A moment later and electrical current strong enough to knock them out pulsed threw their bodies. "Thank's William..." Nathan said under his breath as he continued on.
Letting his senses expand he felt all the soldiers were quite unconscious, Williams and Yumiko were still hiding in catwalks, William most likely explaining his talent with electrical wire to Yumiko. He felt Heinkel wasn't that far away, most likely she had discovered the Hellsing troops transports. Something wasn't right though as he continued searching the warehouse, where was Seras...
Nathan jumped as a large shelf came crashing down, nearly crushing him. As he landed on the ground, naturally not making a sound, he looked at the only being capable of pushing such a heavy object with little effort. Like the dam breaking all the emotions and confusion burst threw his mental barriers as his gaze settled on Seras. "I see that your back on your feet, im glad."
Seras didn't say anything, only leveling the redeemer at Nathan. The pain of having to aim her weapon at him played across her face but she had no choice. She knew that the weapon wouldn't kill him, but it would at least slow him down. "My men."
"Are human, no harm came to them though I did have to knock them unconscious. You don't have to have that gun trained on my Seras, I have no reason to harm you." Seras didn't lower the weapon.
"I take it that you're here by order of Integra to bring me in."
"Yes, don't make this any harder than it has to be Nathan, just come in quietly."
Nathan chuckled, "You still sound like a copper, mean kitten. What am I guilty of?"
Nathan wasn't making this easy for Seras, he toying, though innocent, was indeed distracting her of her orders. God, he was so much like she remembered. "Your not guilty... we just cant have someone running around claiming to be working for God."
"Yes, I know about Section thirteen, and what they did. In time they will answer for their crimes, but I cant let you stop me though I cant allow to track me either. An interesting problem wouldn't you say, Seras?"
Time Stamp: Present, hour an hour later
Location: Hellsing mansion, Integra's office
"Where is he now?" Integra asked Seras.
"Nathan and his group are waiting in the lobby, he's agreed to answer anything that you ask." Seras replied.
"Good, it should be interesting to hear what he has to say."
'Yes, it should be indeed.' Seras thought to herself as Nathan walked into her masters office.
"Good evening lady Hellsing, please ask your questions of me so I may continue my work."
Time Stamp: eight months ago
Location: Vatican City, Section thirteen secret lab four
"Do it, these orders come from the pope himself." Maxwell demanded. The scientists were cowering in fearof their commander. Never in the history of the church had such an order been passed down. It was one of the ultimate betrayals of God, to cross into his territory of creation. How could the pope order such a twisted command.
"Let me put it this way, if you don't than I will show you something worse than hell." Maxwell threatened. The scientists wouldn't put it past him, ever since his meeting with the Hellsing organization, Maxwell had seemed to have taken on a darker persona. One wondered why, in his present condition, the pope hadn't ordered him removed.
Reluctantly the scientists bent to the will of their commander and prayed that they would be forgiven one day for the mortal sins they would about to commit.
Authors Note: Hey guys, tell me why this one doesn't have nearly as many reviews as the last two did when they reached chapter four? No really, is it how the story has been going? Is it too slow compared to the others? The story will be finished but depending on how many reviews I get when its done I don't know if I will continue the saga.
Well, in the next chapter you will learn of Maxwell's intentions, why William seems to have nearly the same abilities as Walter and hopefully I will be able to open up more of the promised romance between Seras and Nathan. (Man, that's going to be interesting to see how I play it out.)