1Chapter Eight: Training Days
(Note: This chapter may be a little confusing. Basically, the parts written in normal text are when Dimitri is giving a speech to the Americans when he first arrives, then the stuff in underlined italics is what happened later.)
"Well, what do you think?" Sara asked.
The blond vampire glared at the mob in front of him. He didn't even bother calling it a group. Groups have some semblance of organization. This was just a bunch of men and women standing around talking.
"I think I'm going to die of shame if this is what you call an army. The only thing I can say for it is there are enough of you."
"You haven't seen them in battle."
"I highly doubt that I would be impressed."
Lui and Seras were talking with some other vampires to the right. Kyle and Johnny were over with more nosferatu, talking about sword fighting. The rest had formed clumps and cliques, talking about anything and everything.
That is, until Dimitri walked up, and grabbed two of them by the neck. He knocked their heads together, then tossed them to the ground, "Alright my little fledglings! Line up! I want rows ten across! And they had better be strait!"
The Americans stared at him. No one moved.
"NOW! BEFORE I SHOVE MY HAND DOWN YOUR THROAT AND PULL YOUR HEART OUT!"
The Americans scrambled, and they quickly formed the rows requested. Dimitri still wasn't satisfied. He walked up to one of the men, stopping a little behind him. Then the blond vampire whirled and delivered a hard punch to the small of the man's back.
"Stand up strait and at attention!"
The order was carried out emmediatly by everyone. Dimitri walked back in front of the group, stopping beside Sara.
"Was that necessary?"
Dimitri cast a sideways glance at her, then said, "Why are you over here?"
"What?"
The blond vampire grabbed her and roughly tossed Sara over to the group, at Lui's feet. He mumbled to her, "And you thanked him."
"Shut up! No one talks but me unless spoken to! And you, get in rank!"
Sara glared at him. He glared back, daring her to do something. She withered under the gaze, and took a spot in line.
"Alright." He told them, beginning to pace, "When I look at you it makes my stomach squirm. I haven't seen such a green, useless, incompetent group of fledglings since I joined Nomeriv's army. You are a lazy, sloppy, unorganized, undisciplined, untried mob! However, It's my job to change that."
He turned on his heel, glaring at them, "I am going to take you and make into proper nosferatu if it kills me! I don't care how harsh, how unfair, or how impossible you think this is. I'm not here to be your friend, I'm to teach you how to be soldiers!"
"You will learn speed!"
Sara and Lui were running as fast as their bodies would go. The landscape was a blur around them as they raced onward. They sprinted up a hill, and touched a white line on the top. Naturally Lui won, but Sara wasn't that far behind.
Dimitri glanced down at his stopwatch, then glared at them, "It took you thirty seconds to run a mile? Pathetic! Run it again, there and back, and it had better under twenty five seconds, or you are going to do this until you drop!"
Dimitri scanned the group, eyes narrowed, "You will learn strength!"
Johnny's eyes were squeezed shut, and his body trembled with the effort he was putting forth. Slowly, the thing he was bench pressing started to rise. He got it all the way, then his arms collapsed.
The blond vampire drill sergeant walked up, and lifted the big-rig easily, tossing it away as if it were nothing. He looked down at the slightly flattened, very tired Johnny. He smiled sadistically.
"You got fifty on a truck filled with rocks! Good! Next time it will be filled with lead!"
"You will learn endurance and stamina!"
Lui trudged along wearily. The rest of the vampires that were with him, including Kyle, had collapsed further back. He was moving in mindless automation now. Finally, his strength was sapped and he fell to his knees.
His pack was huge, and it was completely filled with lead. That crap is heavy!
Dimitri walked up to him, also wearing a pack, and asked, "Tired already?"
Lui looked up at him in shock. How could he still be so fresh looking? How could he not be tired?
"Come on lover boy. If you don't finish this I'll make that pretty girlfriend of yours run an extra five miles next time."
The American's face contorted with anger. He glared up at his overlord, his slave driver as it were, "I hate you." he muttered under his breath, " I hate you!"
"Good! Hate makes you strong! Come on Romeo, we still got twenty miles to go. You've only done four fifths of this!"
Dimitri jogged onward, and Lui struggled to his feet. He started moving again, and said, "Twenty miles, ya right. I'll show you twenty miles. My foot twenty miles up your butt you little arrogant..."
"You will learn agility!"
Seras wobbled dangerously. She was required to run across a very large area, without touching the ground. She had to do it running on metal poles that couldn't be more than half an inch thick, not very stiff, and with about a yard in between each one.
With all her gear on. There was no way.
Finally, she lost her balance and fell. It was a fairly long fall, and the hard ground didn't help.
Then she heard someone above her. A pain ripped through her body, and there was a loud hiss. She looked up, and saw Dimitri holding a small vile of holy water, "Get up princess, or you'll have to do this twice!"
"You will learn resistance to sunlight!"
Seras and Lui both looked extremely haggard. They looked up at the noon day sun, which was blinding them, and burning their skin. Especially since they both had to wear tank tops, and were forced to sit in a wide, open area with nothing to protect them whatsoever.
Dimitri was sitting in the comfortable shade of a tree, and waved to them. He took off his shirt, and pulled out a bottle of sun-screen. He rubbed it on his skin, and both of the younger vampires stared dumbstruck at his cruelty.
"You will learn to shrug off blessed, silver, and mercury enhanced weapons as if they were nothing but lead and steel!"
Kyle's jaw dropped, his eyebrow twitched, and he took a step back, "You're going to what?"
"If you move, I'm going to shoot in the head! Stand there, and don't even think about leaving that spot!"
Dimitri walked a few steps away, then cocked the pistol in his hand. He turned, and fired a shot right into Kyle's stomach. Not a lethal shot, but it would hurt like heck. The bullet hissed as it burned the undead flesh. He fell to his knees, holding the wound.
"Get him out of here! Next!"
"You will be proficient in every weapon from pistols, to muskets, to knives, to swords, to bows, to the sticks and rocks at your feet!"
Lui dashed across the training area, firing his pistol madly. The weapons and bullets weren't silver, but even lead hurts when it's flying at who knows how many miles an hour.
He reached his objective, a bunker, and jumped over it, drawing a short sword from a sheath on his back. After a few seconds he had hit the vampires on the other side enough for them to be considered out.
Two more opposing nosferatu tried to attack him from behind, but found shurikens buried in their bodies.
A bullet whizzed by Lui's head, so he reached down, picked up a rock, and chucked it as hard as he could. It connected with a satisfying 'thump' against the attacking vampire's head.
Lui walked over to see who it was, to find none other than Dimitri sitting on the ground, rubbing his head. He looked up at Lui, grinning, then told him, "Nice work. Now give me twenty laps around the field! NOW!"
"You will learn to act as individual units, in small groups, and as an army!"
"Covering fire!"
"Copy that!"
Lui fired his pistols in a maelstrom of lead, as Johnny and Kyle ran forward to another position. The buildings around them were real, made specifically for this kind of training. It was almost big enough to be considered a city. Bullets streaked towards the two vampires, so they dove behind some rubble, and Johnny pulled out a charge of plastic explosive. He set the timer for ten seconds, then tossed it over the rubble.
Both vampires ran for their lives, and the force of the blast knocked them off their feet. They looked back hurriedly, to make sure it had been effective.
"Incoming! Twelve o' clock high!" Lui yelled, trying to fire at the figure on the roof.
A female voice yelled out, "Engaging the target!"
A gunshot, followed by an explosion. Lui had felt the heat off the flames of that one. He continued to fire haphazardly, hoping to get lucky. Suddenly he felt an arm around his throat, and a knife was pointed at his eye.
"You've been flanked Lui." Sara told him.
"You will learn to survive off almost no blood, and still control your bloodlust!"
Seras licked her lips, trying to dispel the burning desire in her body. She had gone without a drink of blood for three days. She was literally starving.
Dimitri walked up, taking a huge drink from a flask he always carried, letting a little of the red liquid spill out and flow down his face in a small trickle. He wiped it away on his sleeve, and smiled sadistically at her.
"I am going to train to survive! I am going to train you to fight! I am going to train you to live off lizard blood while you make your way across a desert! You will learn to go days without sleep, and not feel in the least tired from it! You will learn to see the things most look over! I am going to train your minds, bodies, and souls into the ultimate in discipline and toughness. The average time it takes to train a soldier in Vincent Nomeriv's army is two decades. You have two years. If you fail to keep up, you will be left behind. If you fall, you will be abandoned to lay there until you get up! This is not a summer vacation! If you wish to leave, do so now."
One poor idiot actually started to move away. Dimitri shot him the legs, "Where do you think you're going? No one quits! If you try to quit, I shoot you! But I'm not going to aim for lethal areas. I'm not going to take it that easy on you. Soldier, get up, and run! I don't care if you have bullets in your legs! And don't stop until I tell you to!"
Dimitri turned back to them, "If you cross me, I shoot you. If you disobey an order, I shoot you. If you cause a disturbance, I shoot you. If you look at me funny, I shoot you. If I don't think your shoes are shiny enough in the morning, I shoot your feet, and you are going to sprint quarter miles until they heal, at which point them again and you keep running! Do I make myself clear? ANSWER ME!"
"Yes sir!" The all answered in unison.
"Good, there's hope for you yet. Now, a challenge. If any of you can hit me, you graduate now. Any takers?"
Lui smiled, and sprinted forward, fist raised. He brought his fist around in a punch that would have shattered a man's entire skeletal system.
Dimitri reached up and caught the punch. His eyebrows were raised slightly, "You're fast, but predictable. If I know what you're going to do it doesn't matter how fast you do it. Lesson one. Failed."
Lui gasped in pain as a solid series of punches caught him in the stomach. He started coughing up blood, and slumped over to the ground.
"Any other takers? No? Good, you learn fast. You may think I'm brutal. Well, I am. Welcome to Hell fledglings, I hope you enjoy your stay."
ALUCARD
The tall vampire lord sighed as he looked around him. It wasn't an exasperated sigh, it was a happy one. He was finally home again.
He strode up the path that he had walked up so many times before. Almost nothing had changed. However, when he rounded a final corner, his heart sank.
His home, the castle he had lived in for so long, the great fortress Castle Dracula, was little more than a pile of rubble now. Without him there to keep it together, the old fort had finally been reclaimed by the rock and snow of the mountains.
A small sound brought his attention away from his fallen home back to the small bundle in his arms. He had to smile at this sight of pure innocence.
His daughter, who wasn't bothered much by the cold (Being half vampire, her body temperature was very low comparative to a humans) had worked her arms free of the cloth. And she was watching the snow flakes drift by with awe and amazement in her eyes. Luna reached up with her hands, trying to catch one of the white, fluffy crystals. Her eyes lit up when one landed on her finger, and she giggled when it dissapeared.
Alucard laughed at this. He held his child a little tighter against him, aware that though she was half vampire she was still capable of getting sick, and wrapped the cloth around her again. She sighed and nuzzled her head against him.
His sadness at the loss of his home was gone now. He realized that he wouldn't have been able to stay there anyway, if other vampires and such creatures of the night hadn't infested it already something would have. And he couldn't risk anything with his daughter so young and defenseless.
Besides, if it was still as dusty and full of cobwebs as he remembered, Integra would come back from the grave again, just to shoot him.
"Well my little blue moon," Alucard said, looking down to his daughter. She seemed to know he was talking to her, and looked up at him, "Where do we go now? I had hoped to raise you here, away from the world's prying eyes. But I don't think you would have been happy with that. So then, where do you want to live?"
She looked up at him, not understanding what he was saying at all. He smiled at his own idiocy, asking his baby girl a question and actually expecting an answer. Alucard was actually at a loss for once. He had no idea where to go. Then it hit him.
"We'll live in the land of the Czars. Russian vampires are scattered, we will go unnoticed there. And besides, it looks as if you like the snow."
Luna yawned and closed her eyes, snuggling into the warmth around her.
"Still, I believe I should see if there is any of my riches left in there. We will need money for our new lives."
Alucard used his powers to call forth some servants. There was a howl in the distance.
A few minutes later wolves appeared from the forest, dashing to the master vampire's call. The alpha of the pack walked forward.
The crimson clad vampire knelt down, scratching the wolf behind the ears with one hand, telling it what to do with his telepathy. It barked in acknowledgment.
The noise woke the formerly asleep Luna up, and she began to cry. It only intensified when she saw the wolf mere inches away.
Alucard sent gentle emotions into her, calming the child down slightly, but he couldn't quell her fear. The wolf did that for him, when it walked up and licked the child's face. It must have tickled her, because she started to laugh and squirm. She looked at the wolf, with wonder instead of fear.
The no-life king set his daughter on the ground gently, then stood, patting the wolf on the head one last time before phasing into the castle.
"I don't see why people nowadays think it's so barbaric to be raised by wolves. They are such noble creatures..."
He began to shift through the rubble, making his way to the inner chambers, where he kept his huge stockpiles of gold and jewels.
Luna watched as the wolf paced around her a few times. Then it laid down next to her, keeping it's ears up and alert. The rest of the pack were patrolling the area.
The small Hellsing girl snuggled against the warm, fuzzy animal next to her. She felt safe, no matter what was happening, because she knew that HE would never let anything hurt her. Not the cold white things or the furry warm things. HE was always there, she could feel HIM even then. Always watching, always protecting.
With these thought, Luna Sapphire Hellsing fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.
When Alucard returned, he laughed at his daughter. She had worked her arms free again and had wrapped them around the wolf that had laid down next to her. Well, as much as she could.
He gently picked her up, wrapping the cloth around her once again, "I see you've made a friend Luna." He whispered, so as not to wake her up. He told the wolf it could go with his telepathic powers.
He had found that many of his riches were still there, protected by the remains of the castle. He began to walk again, knowing exactly where he was going to go.
And all the while Luna dreamt of furry things and cold things.
End chapter eight
Alright, I was going to leave the last part about Alucard and Luna out until later, but you guy insisted, so that's where he was going.
Omega Z, thank you for pointing that out. I know that my beginnings are sort of rough (If you remember, you said something to the same effect about American Visitors), it's a weakness I have to get over.
But come on guys, what about the rest of it? Oh, and how do you like the new characters I'm adding in (Vincent mostly). I know I do a lot of that...
And i know this chapter might not be up to par with the others. If you were wondering what that first little bit was, Dimitri was giving a speech to the Americans, describing what he was going to do and stuff. 'You will learn to be proficient in all forms of weaponry', then it fast forwarded to what actually happened in training. It's confusing, and may have detracted a bit, but i thought it would be an interesting thing to try. How did it work?
Later.