Disclaimer: I don't own it, I just write it.
Changing Path
Chapter 3 Discoveries
"Not human" She said as she aimed at the hunching humanoid shape moving towards her. The skin of the creature was sickly pale, the face had lost it last vestige of humanity. The only sign that it once had been a human was the tattered remains of a yellow blouse and green skirt.
Her hands were shacking, and as the creature took a step forward she took a step backwards. The creature tilted its head, showing pale watery eyes, no mind our soul was present behind does eyes.
"Not human" She whispered again, twin trail of tears falling from her blue eyes and down her cheeks.
She was scared beyond belief, her entire body was shacking. She couldn't aim properly with her weapon.
The creature took a step towards her, a viscous and hungry snarl on what remained of its face. She took a step backwards, but her foot got caught in a root and she fell down to the cold forest ground.
The creature slowly limped towards her, hissing as it craved the flesh of the living.
She tried to move away from the monster, a terrified look on her face. When the creature was two metres from her, it lifted its head to the sky and hissed viciously.
Out of its chest an arm was sticking out. The thing exploded in a cloud of dust and when it settled down she could see a tall form standing in front of her.
It was a man in red coat and wide brim hat, a pair of yellow shades was covering his eyes. The man had pale skin, almost as pale as the creatures.
He had an evil smirk on his face, showing his elongated canines
A cold shill went up her spine and she shivered. The man was dangerous, she just knew it. Victoria's instincts went into overdrive and told her to run like hell, but she couldn't she was too scared.
"A beautiful night isn't it?" The man said, his voice sounding amused, but still carrying a cold shill of death.
She shivered at the voice, barely able to stand up and run away. She needed to get away from him. Her mind was in turmoil, her squad was dead, killed by those things. Then later her dead squad had turned into those things.
She had run, running away from those things, far away. Through teary eyes she could see a building appear in front of her.
As she whipped the tears from her eyes she could see that it was a church. It was old and made of wood, and was in dire need of restoration. Some of the windows were broken, one of the doors was lying on the ground next to the stairs.
She heard something rustle behind her. She turned around, pistol in her hand, but she was still shacking so she wouldn't be able to get a proper shoot. She walked backwards, scanning the area for any sign of those creatures from hell. She felt her boot hit something and she looked back at what she had hit.
It was the first step of the stone stair leading into the church. She looked around and hesitantly walked up to the door. Ceres looked inside but couldn't see anyone.
She could hear something from behind her again, and yet she turned around and found nothing in the dark night.
She could hear some dry leaves crunch under her boot as she stepped back into the church. She sighed in relief and lowered her weapon as she turned around. In the moon light that entered the windows, she could se a man wearing a priests robe. He was standing in front of the altar.
He was standing with his back towards her.
She raised her weapon to make sure he wasn't a treat.
"wh... who are you?" She asked and tried to hide the fear in her voice.
The man turned around and looked straight at her, a smile across his lips. He held a bible in his hands, a cross was around his neck. The moonlight reflected on his glasses, making it impossible to see his eyes.
Now that she could see his face she knew who he was, the stained glass in the windows covering him crimson light.
"You're the one responsible for all lost people." She said and aimed her gun at the smiling priest.
"I merely take care of the lost souls that have strayed from god's path. Are you lost, child? The priest said in a calm voice, still smiling.
"What have you done with them?" She asked, the gun still aimed at the priest's chest.
"I have retrieved the lost sheep into the fold, making sure they will see god the saviours' glory." He said and his smile became broader.
"Wha... how? Why?" She asked, the fear once again ripping at her heart.
"Oh, I simply drank their life giving blood, but their blood was weak, only making them usable as mindless ghouls. You, on the other hand child..." He made gesture with his hand and Ceres felt as darkness fell over her mind, her arms falling limply to her side, the gun in her hand falling to the floor with a clatter.
She could feel as she was dragged across the floor by invisible hands and she was soon in the embrace of the man.
"You're blood is too valuable, it would be a waste to turn you into a mindless ghoul. Therefore you will be blessed with the gift of immortality child." He whispered into her ear.
She heard what he said, but didn't understand it in the haze her mind was in. She could feel as he licked along her neck and she shuddered in fear, but still unable to move.
In the haze of her mind she could see as the man she had meet earlier walked in through the doors. He said something but she couldn't hear. A smirk was playing on the mans lips.
She could hear the priest say something, but she couldn't understand, her mind was in darkness.
The man began to walk forward, heading straight towards the priest and her.
The priest laughed and then said something. From the rows of benches a huge amount of those creatures appeared. Some was wearing the clothes that identified them as members of D-11, members of her unit.
She could see as the creatures fired the rifles they were carrying, tearing apart the man in seconds.
The tears reappeared, falling unnoticed to the floor.
The mans body began to turn into black liquid, and soon reformed itself again. The man pulled out a gun from his coat and then began to successfully decimate the creatures. When the last of the creature fell and their bodies turned to ash, the man shifted his gaze upon the pair.
The priest lifted Ceres, and held her before him like a shield. His mouth only millimetres from her throat.
"You are a pawn of the humans, and as that you can't kill this girl. What are you going to do now traitor?"
The man raised his gun and aimed it at Ceres chest. The haze from her mind lifted, but she still couldn't move.
"Police-girl I am going to shoot through you're chest and into the heart of the FREAK. This is you're choice, either you die or you come with me." The man said indifferently.
She was confused, but how... She didn't want to die here.
"I will come with you." She said in a whisper and then closed her eyes.
She could hear a loud bang as the mans gun fired, and she could feel as it slammed into her supposedly bullet-proof vest, went through her left chest and out of her back.
She fell to the floor without being able to move. She could hear a shriek behind her and a thud as something hit the floor.
She didn't care though, her body didn't obey any of her commands, she was going numb, her body feeling incredibly cold. Her vision began to fade and the last thing she saw before succumbing to darkness was a smirking face and a pair of crimson eyes.
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Ceres awoke sobbing, trying in to stop the tears that flowed down her cheeks. She hugged her pillow for dear life, tears flowing and drying on the soft material.
She had had the same nightmare about the night in Cheedar ever since she was turned. Every night she had to go through the same thing. The tears began to fade, and she whipped her eyes and tried to regain her composure. She turned around so that she was lying on her back, looking up at the red silk draping of her coffin lid.
Tears once again threatened to appear, but she fought them down. She clenched her fists, she had to remain strong. So thinking she fumbled with the lid of her coffin and finally managed to find the button to open it.
The room was dark, but thanks to her vampire eye-sight she could easily see the contours of the room, the dresser to the left of the door, the door to the small bathroom, two chairs standing around a table, and lying on the table was bucket filled with ice and the pack of medical blood.
She looked on the blood and fearfully walked towards the pack. Next to the bucket were a bowl and a spoon. She picked up the pack and opened it, pouring the red liquid into the bowl, and swirling the spoon in it. She looked in disgust at the bowl of blood. She had drunken blood during the Incognito incident, but that was just because she couldn't afford not to do it.
She knew she was a vampire and needed the blood to remain strong, but she couldn't drink it, even if it was from a medical pack, she just couldn't. She closed her eyes and tried to bring the bowl up to her lips, a couple of centimetres from her lips she stopped and put it back down on the table.
She opened her eyes and looked down on the bowl, she shock her head and then walked into the bathroom and flushed it down the toilet.
"Still to stubborn to drink blood Police-Girl? You will have to do it soon." She could hear her master's voice in her head. He was mocking her.
The far off wall seemed to turn into liquid darkness, and out stepped her master. He had his usual grin on his face.
"I just can't, I just can't bring me to do it, master." She said as she walked back to her coffin and sat down.
"Are you so weak you can't even drink the blood that is given to you freely? How disappointing."
That made her angry, he had hit a nerve, she didn't like being called weak.
"Leave me alone!" She yelled angry. Half a second later she understood her mistake, she had yelled at her master, one of the few people she had some sort of trust for.
"Very well Victoria, but remember if you don't drink then you will be of no use to me." His voice was cold, almost angry. His smirk was gone replaced by an ice-cold mask.
Victoria flinched at the way he talked to her, he never used her name unless he was serious.
His form turned to liquid darkness, disappearing back onto the wall.
"Don't forget that Police-Girl" The mocking tone was back.
She just sat back down on the coffin, head in her hands. She was just a small step from breaking down and crying.
The two last months had been rough on Ceres Victoria, being turned into a vampire, being recruited into Hellsing, the fight with Incognito, it was just too much. Not a single glimpse of hope, nothing that really made her want to go on.
Would this be her life, fighting ghouls during the night and being locked up in her coffin during the day? Nothing else, no hope for peace or love? Then Ceres hoped she would die soon.
Her hands where shacking, she had seen as her team mates from the D-11 was killed in Cheedar forest, and had seen the men and women from Hellsing fight and die regularly. She just couldn't take it anymore.
Even if she was a vampire she wasn't a cold-hearted killer, she still had feelings.
She needed some time to calm down and the dark, cold stone room wasn't the place. She quickly changed into a clean pair of clothes and headed out.
The lower levels of the mansion were empty, the only residence was Victoria's and her master, the rest of the rooms were storages.
The damp air in the lower levels usually made the light malfunction, but thanks to her vampire senses she could see as clear as the day.
The first place she walked too was the kitchen, she maybe didn't need human food anymore but she still enjoyed the smell. She sat at one of the tables and just stared out at the cloudless night. She just wanted some peace, just some time away from the constant fighting. Everyone had a pillar of sanity in the sea of madness.
She had her left elbow on the table supporting her head, and as she looked out of the window she sighed.
"Everyone but me." She thought sadly.
She looked back from the window at the kitchen personnel, and could see they were staring at her. They turned back to what they were doing, embarrassed that they were caught while looking at the vampire. Victoria knew that they were afraid of her and she decided to leave.
Walking outside she proceeded to the shooting-range. When she entered she could see that all the eyes were on her. She nervously walked over to the weapon storage and picked up a normal pistol, when she walked back she could see that everyone had left in a hurry.
Even though it always happened, she still almost fell down crying. She hated that everyone was scared and tried everything to avoid her. She felt so alienated from the rest of Hellsing.
So deep it thought was she that she didn't even notice that she had emptied the clip. She frowned and put the weapon back in the storage. This wasn't the thing to clear her mind.
She walked back into the mansion, just walking through it without a goal.
"Miss Victoria" She could hear the voice of Walter say from behind her.
"Yes?" She said and turned around.
"Sir Hellsing wishes to speak with you." He said.
Victoria nodded and began to climb the stairs to Sir Hellsings office, Walter walking next to her. In his hands he had a silver-tray with tea and scones.
She opened the massive door to Sir Hellsings office.
Sir Integra Fairbrooks Wingates van Hellsing, the leader of Hellsing institution, was sitting behind her massive oak desk and smoking one of her expensive cigars. She had an cold look on her face.
She was going through another report, flipping the pages at a fast tempo.
Walter placed the tray on the desk, and left with a bow.
"Sir?" Victoria asked as she stood before the desk.
Integra shifted her eyes from the report to the blonde vampire. Tired crimson orbs meting ice cold blue ones. Ceres shivered a little
"Victoria, have a seat." Integra said as she put the report in her desk. Her tone made it clear it was a command and not a wish.
She did as she was told and took a seat in the black leather chair in front of the desk. Victoria wondered why she had been called to her office.
"Victoria what is it that's bothering you." Integra said her voice was as emotionless as ever.
"Nothing." She said and looked down at her feet.
"Well, then please explain to me why your superior officers say you are becoming more of a burden then asset?" She said to the young vampire, her voice having a little bit of irritation in it.
She kept quiet and didn't answer the question.
"Well?" She asked again, this time with a little more sharp in her voice.
Once again she was quiet, her head looking down on the floor so as not to show Integra the tears that was threatening to come forth. Her hand where holding the hem of her skirt tightly, wrinkling the material.
"You're tired of the fighting aren't you?" She said without a hint of emotion in her voice.
"Yes." She said in barely a whisper.
"You are of no use to Hellsing if you cant fight, and there isn't any reports about freak-attacks so you can take the night off."
"Sir?" She asked confused.
"That's an order Ceres." Integra said as she picked up the report and slowly began to read it again. She puffed absentmindedly on her cigar. After a while she looked back on Ceres again.
"Is it something you want?" She asked with a stern voice.
"Nothing sir" Seras said as she stood up and left the room.
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"Well then the night is still young, want to go and do something?" The man said with a roguish smile, and she couldn't do anything but blush.
"Su...sure why not." She said, this time there was shyness in her voice.
He stood up from his seat and bowed and offered his arm as a true gentleman, but the smile showed her he was joking.
She grabbed his arm and let him escort her, for the first time in a long while a genuine smile played across her lips, she couldn't do anything else at the mans attics.
"By the way what is your name?" She asked, not wanting to walk with a complete stranger.
"Ranma Saotome, what is yours?" He asked in return.
"Ceres Victoria." She answered.
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Ranma awoke with a groan, the alarm had gone off, so he groggily tried to reach it to turn it off. Still being used to sleep on a futon he fell out of the bed and hit the floor with a loud thud.
With his face planted into the floor he cursed the alarm, its creator and his mother, while trying to regain his senses.
He looked at the alarm and his rational-mind tried to tell himself that it hadn't done anything bad, but his stomach argued otherwise, it had waked him up from a food filled dream.
In the end his stomach won the argument and the offending clock went flying through the room, hit the wall and then fell into a trashcan.
His stomach growled in victory and then decided it wanted real food. Ranma didn't have the willpower to argue with the true master of his body so he obliged and half walked/dragged himself into the kitchen.
He walked over to the toaster and stared at it.
After five minutes of staring his rational-mind butted in and told him that it wouldn't just appear toast in it, he had to do it himself.
His stomach answered in affirmative and commanded him to get toast. He walked over to the fridge and placed two pieces of bread in the toast.
After another five minutes his rational-mind told him to put the plug in. His stomach agreed and soon he was finally able to get some breakfast.
He looked at the watch on the far wall and told him it was time to get to work.
He took a quick shower and then was in his usual clothes, black shoes, brown suit with blue tie. He grabbed the books and then was off towards his work.
The top had found out that he tried to learn Chinese and had asked him if he wanted lessons. It turned out that it wasn't just martial arts they taught, it was everything from math to languages, so he decided to see if he could get a collage diploma.
The top had said it wouldn't be a problem and so he began to go to classes.
After he was done with the martial arts classes he had an hour language, followed by math, physics/chemistry/biology, and then computer science.
He was average to good in most of the areas, the only one he had problems with was the computer classes. The first time he had tried to use the computers he had almost thrown it out the window in frustration.
The one thing he had excelled in was language, he had learned to speak Chinese fluently in less then a month, but his accent was horrible his teachers told him. The only drawback with learning Chinese so fast was that he needed to choose an additional class to fill the gap.
It was between another language, or further study in computer skills. For him it wasn't a hard choice, he now had Russian as fourth language.
He had hated to learn Chinese and he hated to learn Russian even more, but it was still better then computers.
The teachers wasn't happy about his choice, the first time he had tried to say "How is the weather?" he had managed to insult the teacher, his mother, father and younger sister.
He would be back about eight this evening, so he should have enough time to meet Victoria later.
It was a little over two months since he had meet her, and he found out he enjoyed her company. They always meet in the evenings, his schedule didn't allow anything else. Fortunately she understood and told him she also was busy during the day because of her work.
He grumbled as he made his way out of the subway, how he hated the crowd in the morning.
He walked quickly and showed his ID-badge to the guard, and was soon on his way to the fourteenth floor.
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He threw the bag of books into the corner of the room, he may have started a new life but school was still one of those things he rather been without.
Ranma threw his coat on a chair with a groan and then changed into a white training gi. He opened the window and used the umi-sen-ken to hide his aura and blend into the background.
He was soon hoping around the roofs, doing complicated katas and modifying them as he did them.
He used the umi-sen-ken for two purposes, to stay invisible from the people on the street and to build up his ki reserves. He could easily use the technique for over an hour.
He made a final back-flip across the street and landed silently on his roof, making sure that no one heard him.
He dropped down to his open window and entered his apartment, taking a quick shower before meeting up with Victoria at the pub.
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Victoria walked through Hellsing mansion with a bounce, whistling a happy tune. There wasn't any reported freak attacks, so she had gotten the day... night off and decided to meet with Ranma.
When she was with Ranma it felt like she was far away from Hellsing, vampires and ghouls, when she was with him it was like all her problems disappeared.
With him she was Ceres Victoria the young woman, not Ceres Victoria the vampire. She liked him a lot, especially his carefree nature and roguish smile...
As she though about that she got a far away look in her eyes, and the Hellsing personnel that paid more attention could see a demure blush on her cheeks.
They were a bit freaked out, if a vampire looked happy it was bad news. When Alucard was happy you better run for nearest bomb-shelter or risk being maimed, killed or worse, so why should it be different with the other one? She was probably thinking of exotic ways of killing people in painful ways.
...Then there was the way he treated her, like a gentleman but without being ridiculous, and the fact he was good-looking wasn't a minus either...
When her face then broke out into a broad smile, and they could see one of her fangs they decided that leaving the better part of valour behind and run for their lives would be a good idea.
If the Hellsing personnel had been able to read the vampires mind the reaction would have been quite different.
The males would have probably fainted because of a major nosebleed, and the women's faces would have turned atomic rouge.
Ceres didn't care about the looks she received from the retreating Hellsing personnel, she was too deep in her own little world to notice.
She was brought out of her day dream as she walked into some ones back and fell backwards on her butt.
"Ouch! Sorry" She said as she stood up and dusted off her skirt, she didn't want to turn up with dirty clothes to her meting with Ranma. Making sure that there wasn't any dust or any wrinkles she then looked at the person she bumped into.
Standing before her was Integra Hellsing, with a rather annoyed look on her face. Seras gulped and then took a step back, she really didn't want to piss Integra off.
"Miss Victoria care to explain why you aren't paying attention?" She said in a rather dangerous voice.
"Umm... sorry?" She said in attempt to calm down Integra, but it apparently wasn't working.
Integra looked her up and down and then raised an eyebrow. The annoyed look was replaced by one of mild curiosity, but the irritation was still present.
"And why aren't you in your uniform? Any special reason you aren't following dress code regulation?" She asked the vampire rather annoyed. She didn't like it when the regulation was broken.
Seras fidgeted with her fingers and looked down on the floor. Should she tell Integra that she met a normal human regularly, and what if she told Alucard? He would probably go about and destroy the relationship with her only friend.
"Nothing, absolutely nothing." She said and smiled nervously.
"Nothing?" Integra asked unconvinced at the nervous Ceres.
"Nothing! I am, umm... I am going to party, yeah that's it. I am going to a party." Ceres said and nodded fast.
Integra nodded and then walked away, muttering something about vampires and bad liars. She had been on her way to get a new cigar, the box in her office was empty.
Ceres sighed in relief and then quickly walked out of the mansion, making sure not to bump into any more people on her way.
Soon she was whistling again.
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Integra watched as Ceres left the mansion grounds. She frowned a little, anyone could tell Ceres was hiding something, or tried to hide something.
Most of Hellsing didn't care what the vampires did as long as they didn't bother them but Integra was a little curious what Ceres was doing, she wanted to keep an eye on the Alucards fledgling so she didn't get into trouble. If Ceres got into trouble it would in the end be Hellsing that got the blame and Integra didn't want that.
During the last two months Ceres had been quite happy and during the missions she had been calm and collected, so whatever she did seemed to make her happy. She knew that whatever made a vampire happy was bad for humans, just take Alucard and his hobby of blowing things and/or people up for fun. She also knew that Ceres wasn't really acting as vampires should.
In the end Integra's curiosity got the better off her and she decided to send out someone to check what the damn vampire was doing. She briefly considered Alucard but he would probably just walk in and demand that Ceres tell him what she was doing.
She quickly discarded Pip, she needed someone that could blend in with the surroundings.
Walter walked in carrying a silver tray with the usual tea and biscuits. She looked at Walter closely and then smiled.
"Perfect." She said.
Walter just looked at her with a confusion written over his face.
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Walter was following Ceres as she walked down one of the many streets in London, he felt a little stupid tracing one of their own men but Integra had told him she wanted to find out if Ceres made something stupid, and he couldn't argue with Integra.
He could see as she entered a small pub "The hanged man" and he decided to follow.
Stepping in he took a seat so he could se Ceres out of the corner of his eye. She ordered something, probably coffee or tea and then took a seat at a one of the tables, three tables from him.
She just sat and sipped on her tea, and looked on the door. Two minutes later a man wearing a grey coat walked through the door and looked around the pub. He spotted Victoria and walked over.
"Good evening Victoria, sorry I'm late, I had some work to do." The man said, and when he removed his coat Walter could see he was of Asian descendant, but it didn't notice in his voice, in fact his accent was nonexistent. Walter couldn't tell if he was British, American or had it as second language.
"Don't worry, I just arrived." Victoria said with a smile.
They continued their conversation, but Walter couldn't gain any information from the talk. Walter looked closely on Ceres and could see she was smiling a happy, genuine smile. She seemed to be extremely relaxed, totally different from how she usually was.
They both stood up and left the pub, the man holding the door open for Ceres. They walked slowly down the street. Walter immediately noticed something about the man, he walked with a grace only an experienced fighter would have.
Walter decided to ask the bartender about Ceres and the unknown man. He ordered a whisky and then pointed at the table where the two had been sitting.
"Who was that young man sitting at the table together with the young lady?" Walter asked as he sipped at his whiskey.
The bartender looked at the empty table and then at Walter.
"Ya mean Ranma."
"Ranma? Hmm... the name sounds familiar if I don't remember wrongly a old friend of mine had a boy named Ranma, but my memory isn't the best nowadays. Can you tell me more about him?" Walter said in an attempt to get more information from the man.
"He is a good lad the boy, polite, honest and open. Has been a guest her at my pub for four months. The boy is quite helpful and he doesn't like trouble, stopped a fight awhile back and then helped clean up the mess."
The bartender made a pause in his talk to serve a customer. He then walked back to Walter
"Where were we?" He asked as he returned.
"Something about a fight I think." Walter said.
"Yes, well he took stopped a couple of men that tried to start a brawl, took them down without breaking a sweat, used some kind of fancy kung-fu, but it worked."
The bartender looked up at Walter.
"He plays dart with a couple of other guests here regularly and usually meet with the girl, Victoria I think her name is, for a couple of weeks now. His last name is Saotome if that helps you anything."
"Saotome? hmm... No I am quite sure that I don't know anyone by that name, my old friend had Johnson as last name, it was a mistake from my side." Walter said and played the forgetful old man. He finished his whiskey and thanked the bartender for his help.
He quickly followed the way he had seen Victoria take and caught up with them shortly after that.
The rest of the evening he followed them around, going from club to club and then finally they began to walk back to the pub they began from.
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They had left the last club and decided that it was time to go home. She had really enjoyed the night, and was beginning to get tired.
She had a tight hold on Ranmas left arm and without thinking was leaning her head against his shoulder. She shivered a little and, both from the cold and from the contact to Ranma.
Ranma stopped and looked down on her. She blushed a little when Ranma took his coat and placed it over her shoulder.
"Thanks" She said and pulled the coat tightly around her body, making sure it sheltered her from the cold.
"No problems" He said with a shrug.
She leaned close to his body again and was surprised as Ranma laid his left arm around her shoulders. She just leaned even closer and sighed happily.
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M walked through the different halls of the British Secret Service main office. Next to her on her left an older lady listened closely to what she was saying. Next to her on her right her best agent James Bond a.k.a. 007 was walking.
"Your Majesty I don't want to be rude but it would be in England's best interest. What happened during that night?" M asked as she tried to gain any form of information from the woman.
"Something that must be kept a secret even from you M. I hardly believe you are prepared for it." The Queen of England said.
"Your Majesty how will we be able to counter such a threat if we don't know what it is?" M said and tried to reason with her.
"Do not worry, it is being dealt with by capable hands." She said.
M sighed.
"I lost thirty of my best agents that night, including two 00s, it will take considerable time to get the agency back in working order. We are lacking experienced people and I have had to call in retired agents and relocate many instructors to active duty, and we aren't even near on filling the gaps. And we still don't have a single trail on what happened during the attack on London tower, you your Majesty is the only person who was there and still is alive."
"I can only show my deepest respect for the people that died, but I must insist that you keep out of the incident. It is for your best and as I already said, it is being dealt with by capable hands." She said.
M opened her mouth to try and convince her otherwise but then closed it again. Her Majesty seemed quite determined in this matter and she thought it was best not to argue any further.
"I understand your Majesty." she finally said.
"Well then M, lets continue the tour shall we." She said.
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"This is the hand to hand training facility, the instructor is a young man quite skilled in martial arts as you can see." M said and pointed to the area where the students and trainer where standing. The training area was huge, a hundred meter long hall with seats for hundreds of people.
Thirty or so students were standing in a row, each holding a long staff about six feet in length. Everyone was wearing a simple white gi, and they where keenly listening to the instructor.
In front of them a single man in white gi with black belt was standing, twirling a staff in his right hand.
"You have progressed a far way in martial arts, and now I will begin to teach how to incorporate weapons when fighting in melee-combat. We will begin with the staff for two reasons. First it is relatively easy to use when you compare with other weapons, a relatively inexperienced fighter can become quite dangerous with a staff in his hands. And two, the fact that a staff is easily made or found, a broom, mop, stick or and a multitude of other sources can quickly become a dangerous weapon that your opponents don't suspect."
He quickly made sure he had the students focus. And then began a slow kata so the others could follow.
A low left strike, high right strike, quick stab, slash towards left of the neck, sweep against the feet of the opponent, block, and then holding the staff vertically with both hands in front of him in a neutral stance.
He let the students do the kata for a couple of minutes, walking between them to make sure they were doing it right. He corrected some and after making sure they could it he split them into pairs.
"Now you will do the same kata against your partner. Do it slowly and try to both block and attack. After awhile it will come naturally. Begin!" He said and began to survey the trainees, giving advice and commenting on good work.
So it continued, the instructor going through a couple of different katas and then made sure they could the ones he had already taught.
"That was all for today, hit the showers." The instructor said as he clapped his hands to make gain the students attention.
"I would like to talk with the instructor if you wouldn't mind." The Queen said as she made a gesture towards the man. The reason of her visit was to inspect the training facilities and see how they worked, and talking with the instructor usually gave her some good insights.
They walked down a couple of stairs so that they were on the same level and then walked over to the instructor.
He was currently gathering up all the staffs into a neat pile and was about to leave when he was done, when he heard a voice from behind him.
He looked up and spotted M walking towards him with a man in his late thirties to early forties and an old lady in her late fifties-early sixties. The three where accompanied by two people in black suites and shades.
M was about to introduce Ranma to the Queen when something unsuspected happened. Something that made her quite shocked. Ranma threw himself and tackled the Queen to the floor. At the same time 007 threw himself too the floor and brought up his pistol.
Ranma only got a short glimpse before he reacted and did three things at once.
First: He tackled the lady to the floor with his shoulder as fast as he could.
Second: He hooked his foot around the knee of M and took her down to the floor with him.
Third: He threw the staff he was holding as hard as he could towards the six people in white lab-coats and carrying rifles pointed at them.
Well, it was four things if you count the loud "Bloody Hell!" leaving his mouth.
Half a second after he began to move he could hear multiply shoots being fired, ant the wood floor behind him and the lady turned into splinters. He could hear the bullets hit and penetrate the small row of benches he had pushed the lady behind, spraying them with a hail of wood splinters.
He covered the lady as the bullets hit the floor around them, she was holding onto him like her life depended on it. And it did. He managed to drag the lady to a place where they where protected by a layer of concrete, but the bullets still flew over their heads with only decimetres to spare.
James had been able to drag M into cover, but if the young man hadn't brought M down to the floor she would have had resembled red Switz-cheese. He had his pistol out and was shooting back on the people.
The two guards hadn't been so lucky, one had gotten hit on his leg and arm but he had been able to drag himself into cover behind a concrete pillar.
The other had gotten hit in the chest and was lying on his back on the floor and was trying to regain his breath. The bullets were carving holes around him sending up geysers of splintered wood, but miraculously no one hit the wounded man.
Ranma took a deep breath and then threw himself and grabbed the neck of the man. Ranma dragged the man behind the cover of the concrete, bullets ripping apart the floor were the man had been only moments before.
James pulled the trigger and could see as one of the men dropped his rifle and fell to the floor clutching his stomach. The three left was taking cover behind some benches, shooting blindly at their random direction.
Ranma could see as the doors to the hall opened and a heavily armed security team entered and opened fire on the would-be-assassins.
He decided that he couldn't help decided to see too the injured security guards wound. He quickly pressed a couple of pressure points to decrease the bleeding and make it easier for the man to breath.
He then fixed a provisory bandage to stop the bleeding completely and tied it tightly across the mans chest. He silently thanked Doc Tofu for the medical lessons and then sighed, somehow chaos seemed to be a constant part in his life.
Right when he thought that he finally was rid of it, Karma seemed to come and give him a hard kick in the ass.
The fight with the assassins was short and brutal, ending almost the instant the armed security entered the room.
He could see as a couple of medics entered the through the doors and began to patch up the wounded. Ranma made sure the old lady was okay and then helped her to her feet. He sighed and then quickly left the scene, the security and medical personnel had begun to swarm inside the now crowded hall.
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He walked fast through the halls of the building, wearing a white lab-coat, and hidden underneath a M4-automatic rifle.
Following him was another five people, wearing the same clothes and carrying the same weapons. Getting the men into the building was hard but he had managed to fool the guards into letting them in. Unfortunately he would blow his cover he had managed to build up, but it was small price compared to the gain they would get when there objective was finished.
The attack at London tower had failed, and Integra was almost impossible to get near with her pet vampire Alucard following her around, but the Queen was another matter and they had decided to strike today when she had a relatively small guard. The death of Incognito was a setback, but in the end it was only a minor one.
They would kill her using silver bullets, and maybe they would blame Hellsing for her death, but it wasn't the main objective. That was to kill the Queen, they would disappear in the chaos that followed the Queens death.
He opened the door to the training hall and peeked inside, the Queen was walking down the stairs and heading towards a man picking up staffs.
He walked in and raised the rifle, aiming at the head of the Queen. At this distance he couldn't miss.
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"007 please take a look at this." M said.
James stood up from where he was examining a pool of blood. He walked up to were M was standing and looked at where she was pointing.
On the floor two pieces of a six foot long staff was lying, broken in the middle.
"The security team found two of the attacker's unconscious here." M said and gestured towards the floor.
"May I ask how that is possible? We didn't even get near them." James said.
"See the staff?" M said and pointed two the broken pieces.
"Yes" James said and raised an eyebrow.
"Do you remember what the trainer did shortly before the first bullets hit?"
"Yes, he tackled the Queen to the floor, felled you, and threw away his sta..." James stopped and looked down on the piece of wood lying on the floor. Then he looked back at where they had been standing when the attack began, it was a good sixty metres away.
"He threw away his staff on the attackers?" He asked a little shocked, to throw a staff sixty metres and then hit needed an immense skill.
Then he though about the fact how he had reacted to the attack. The surprise on his face appeared at the same moment he began to move, he reacted instantaneous. He had not been standing still in shock like most people would have done.
"Yes, and he remained calm during the entire fight, covering the Queen from bullets with his own body. And when she was in safety he pulled out the guard from the line of fire and took care of his wounds. The doctors said that he had patched up the guard like an expert would." Q said and stood up from were he was sitting.
"Impressive when you think about the fact that he is only a trainer in hand to hand." James said as he walked next to M.
"Well I don't know for how long he will be that." M said and sighed.
"What do you mean?"
"I am seriously thinking about letting him begin the training to field agent. He is showing extreme promise, and with the fact we are running short on personnel I don't see how we can pass up this opportunity." M answered his question.
"Isn't he a bit young to become a member of the Secret Service?" James said and looked at M.
"You aren't the person to talk 007, if I remember correctly you where only two years older then him when you began active duty." M said with an amused voice.
James grinned a little sheepishly and scratched his neck.
"Guess your right."
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"So, Walter what is our vampire doing on her nights off?" Integra asked as he entered with the usual silver tray and tea. She was reading a report on the current freak-activity.
Ever since the Incognito incident the attacks had being coming less frequent, but they where getting worse for each time. She then quickly looked through the report about the new recruits. Hellsing was still severely undermanned, having only about ¼ of the strength before Incognito.
Walter looked at Integra and thought on how he should proceed.
"It appears as Miss Victoria is meeting a man, which if the information I gained was correct she has done for the last two months." Walter said as he poured Integra a cup of tea.
"A man? Hmm... I wonder what Alucard will say when he finds out his fledgling is meeting a human?"
"Sir may I give you an advice regarding this matter?" Walter said.
"Yes Walter."
"If I were you I would not interfere with it, just pretend you never knew about it. Miss Victoria seemed quite happy when she was with the man, and telling Alucard would only result into two things. Either it will lead to one of his practical jokes, which I highly doubt Victoria will find amusing. Or Alucard will simply forbid Victoria to meet him, because it wouldn't be fit for a vampire to meet with a normal human, and both would have the same result, Victoria would blame you for it." Walter finished with a bow.
"As long as she doesn't do anything to threaten Hellsing I will not interfere in any way." Integra said simply.
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Ranma had barely enough time to get home and get a shower, and then patched up his right arm where he had been hit with some splinters. The wound would be gone by tomorrow, so he only covered it by a simple bandage.
He shock the incident out of his head, he had been through worse back in Japan. But the fact that they had used guns had put him a little on the edge, the only purpose they fulfilled was to kill another human.
He thought back on his time in Nerima and remembered all the times Kuno had tried to be-head him with his katana, Ryoga kill him with his umbrella or Mousse blow him apart with his egg-bombs. That happened daily.
Who was he kidding, this was a real vacation compared to Nerima.
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Once again Ceres leaned against Ranmas shoulder and sighed happily, and once again she was wearing Ranmas coat. As she snuggled closer she detected the faint smell of blood coming from his arm together with two other scents, scents she knew she should know but couldn't quite put the finger on them. She gently brushed her hand over his arm and could fell the bumps from a bandage.
"Are you injured?" She said a little worriedly, she as a vampire could heal a wound in seconds, but a normal human like Ranma needed much time.
"A little accident at work" He said with a shrug, and it wasn't really a lie.
She nodded in understanding, and didn't pry anymore in the issue. Had she known that the two other scents she picked up was gun smoke and that of silver she would have been plainly alarmed.
She just shrugged it of and snuggled closer. Ranma didn't notice.
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M was quite shocked to see Ranma walk in through the door like nothing had happened. Most of the staff was looking at him with respect. Everyone had heard about the fire-fight in the training hall, but no one knew for sure what had happened.
There were some rumours, one said that the new hand-to-hand instructor had taken some bullets aimed at the Queen, another rumour said he had beaten the crap out of ten men trying to attack the Queen.
But the one most believed in was the one from one of the security guards that said that he had pushed the Queen and their boss out of the way of some bullets, covered the Queen from the incoming bullets with his own body and then later walking through the fire from numerous attackers to drag a wounded guard out of harms way.
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"So let me get this straight. You want me to become a spy?" Ranma asked unbelievingly.
"We prefer the terms "agent" or "field operative", but in simple terms, yes" M said as she looked at the young man.
"Why me?" Ranma asked again.
"Well, you appear to be extremely promising, you can speak four languages..."
"Three languages, Japanese, Chinese, and English, I am still learning Russian." Ranma said.
"You have learned things at an incredible speed. And the fact you are extremely fit, makes you a first hand choice to become a trainee." M continued like Ranma hadn't said anything.
Ranma just sat there, staring at the ceiling. Him an agent? He mentally chuckled at the thought. But still, the thought wasn't unappealing...
"Why not, I will try my best. But just so you know." Ranma said.
"Yes?" M said and raised an eyebrow.
"I am a horrible lair." He said and his face broke out into a grin.
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Ranma left eye twitched. Violently.
"You mean that the lady I saved was the Queen of England? Ranma said shocked.
"You mean you didn't know?" M said surprised.
"Nope" Ranma said and got a sheepish grin and scratched his neck nervously. M knew that she reminded him of someone but he couldn't put his finger on whom. The stance, the sheepish grin, the scratching of the neck it was... she just couldn't remember who it was.
"Well, in either case she wanted to thank you that you saved her and her guard's life. And she wanted me to invite you to dinner so she could thank you personally." M said.
"You should know that the one thing that's worse then my lying abilities is my table manners." Ranma said with dread in his voice.
M just chuckled at that.
He had the felling Ranma would become a quite good agent, and maybe perhaps even a 00, but he still had a long way to go before that.
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He sighed as he left the room, he had been a little nervous during the entire evening.
"How did I do?" He asked M as they left the huge dinning room.
"You handled yourself perfectly fine. I think you made a good impression on them" She said to the obviously nervous agent-in-training.
A loud sigh escaped the young mans lips. He had been worried he might "fuck-up" as one of his dart friends would have put it, but being confirmed he didn't he relaxed a little.
But he still didn't like the fact he was the attention of so many people. If he had the choice between going through the fire-fight, or the dining with the Queen again he would have chosen the fire-fight without second thought.
"Wait." A voice said from behind him.
Ranma turned around and could see a man wearing a suit and with his left arm in a sling walk towards them.
"Didn't get the proper opportunity to thank you." The man said and held out his hand.
Ranma recognised the man now, it was the security guard he had saved. Ranma shock the mans hand and shrugged.
"No problem." He said.
"Well my wife and children would disagree if they heard you say that." The man said and smiled.
"It was nothing, just glad I could help." Ranma said and shrugged again.
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Ranma walked out of his apartment, shouldering a small backpack and then mentally went through the list.
He had cut all electricity, made sure there wasn't any food in the refrigerator, he had paid the rent for an additional two months and told the house owner he would leave for some time, and he had told Ceres that he would be out of country for a month.
Everything had been taken care off. He picked up his suit-case and then locked the door, heading down the stairs. At the airport he checked in his luggage and then took his seat.
Looking out he wondered if he should contact his aunt. His mother had told him he should probably seek her up, there were things she would tell him, but she also said he was in no hurry.
From the beginning he had decided to get an apartment and a job before meeting his aunt, he didn't want to turn up at her doorstep as a homeless beggar. Maybe when he got back he would go to his aunt.
He leaned back in his chair, sitting in the first class apartment, the MI6 had paid the ticket.
He chuckled as he thought about the first time he flew, hanging onto the wing of the plane because Genma was too greedy to pay the ticket. He might just get used to the life of an agent, the MI6 at least knew how to treat their personnel.
"Ranma Saotome, agent in Her Majesty's British Secret Service." He said in a low voice
He chuckled to himself, he liked the sound of that.
Well it was Ranma Saotome, agent-in-training in Her Majesty's British Secret Service, but it didn't really matter to him.
He would be out of country for about a month, continuing his training with a couple of others agents-in-training.
Without a reason a picture of Ceres popped in his head. He would sure miss his best friends.
At the same time at Hellsing manor a certain vampire lying in her coffin sneezed in her sleep. If she had heard what he had though she would have frowned at the term "friend", but she didn't and continued her non-perverted dream of her and Ranma and hugged her pillow while a smile spread across her face.
Ranma felt as the mother of all chills went up his spine and he looked around to make sure there wasn't any fiancées in the area. Making sure the area was clear he quickly settled back into his seat.
Authors Notes
Hmm... can't come up with something to write.