Matthew wasn't sure if taking the normal Hellsing transport had been the best of ideas. The loud rumble of its diesel engine would give away their arrival far in advance. But his thoughts jumped elsewhere soon after as he remembered something else he wanted to ask about. "Hey, Seras. I just remembered something I wanted to ask."

Seras snapped out of her trance. "Yeah? What is that?"

"I've been thinking about how long it took for all the vampire enhancements to take form. Did it take long for your eyes and muscles to improve?"

She shook her head. "No, it pretty much happened overnight."

"Hmm…" He thought for a moment. "The night you turned me. How long had it been since you'd had any blood before then?"

She paused. Either she was surprised he was bringing that night up, or she still wasn't completely past what she'd done. "About a week, maybe a little longer."

Matthew nodded. "Yep, that might be it. You were in a weakened state when you turned me, so it must have taken longer for your blood to take full effect."

Seras was silent for a time, probably debating over the best answer. "I'm sorry."

He held up a hand to stop her. "Don't. You've got nothing to apologize for. I was just curious what was taking me so long. Now, I won't worry. As much, at least."

With that thought no longer hanging over him, he could continue worrying about the transport's noisy engine. After a while longer, he spoke up about it. Seras agreed with his thoughts, so the left the transport a few blocks away and went the rest of the distance on foot. Luckily there weren't many people out at that hour, so the artillery didn't draw any attention.

Alucard sat on the steps to the residence as Matthew and Seras walked up. It was pretty typical; narrow, long, with at least a couple stories. The windows were dark. "There is no need for silence," he said. "They know we are here."

Matthew shrugged. "Eh, it seemed like a good idea at the time. In through the front door?"

Alucard grinned. "Yes. I hope this 'master' vampire actually poses a challenge. It's been so long since I've had a real fight." The word 'master' had been nearly drowning with sarcasm. "In the name of God," he said, in keeping with Hellsing tradition, "impure souls of the living dead shall be banished into eternal damnation. Amen." With no further word, he turned and started in, reaching into his trench coat for a pair of huge pistols, one nickel plated and one black.

The place was dark inside as well. Hallways stretched into the blackness, with few details visible. Some furniture sat around, but all the doors in the place were closed. He wasn't sure where the stairs were. Alucard started down the main hall for the back of the building. Seras moved to the right, claiming the double doors on that side of the hall.

That left the left study for Matthew. He grabbed both brownings, snapped them into the belt rails, and cycled them both. He gently lowered the hammers on each pistol so they wouldn't go off in their holsters. Sliding them back into the belt, he brought Valkyrie up and loaded a shot cartridge into it. He held it to his shoulder, approached the door, and gave it a hard side kick where the double doors met. It flew open, and Matthew rushed in. Several bookcases lined the walls, with a latter allowing access to the higher ones. A single desk lit by a lamp sat in the center of the room. Behind it a vampire stood, a large book in hand and seemingly unimpressed at the entrance. Bringing Valkyrie to bear, he shouted, "Freeze! Don't move!" If Matthew could get any information out of this vampire, he would.

The vampire lazily closed his book and set it down, still unimpressed. He looked at Matthew. "Ah, you must be one of Hellsing's pets. I'll deal with you, then go help the others with Alucard. I might even have some fun tonight." He drew a small pistol from under his coat.

"Put the weapon down or I will fire!" The vampire sneered and pointed the pistol at Matthew. "I warned you." He fired. Unfortunately, with the loaded shell Valkyrie was pretty much a sawn-off shotgun. The silver shot spread too much before reaching the vampire. While some of it hit, it didn't do damage in the right place to drop him.

"Is that the best you've got?" The vampire fired. Matthew flung himself to the side, but felt a bullet slice against his left flank. He grabbed the right mounted browning, pulled it out, and thumbed back the hammer. He landed on his feet, aimed, and let loose a volley of three bullets. All hit the target in the chest. The mercury released, and a moment later the vampire lay on the ground, a pile of ash.

He drew in a breath and slowly released it. That had to be luck… From then on, he would have to make his own luck. He lowered the browning's hammer and slid it back into its holster. It was certainly proving its value quickly. He loaded a slug round into Valkyrie. Suddenly, there was movement above him. Matthew snapped up his aim and fired, catching a second vampire square in the stomach in mid drop and launching him into the far wall. He had a fair sized hole in his stomach, but he wasn't dead. The browning came out again, sending another volley at the vampire before he could get up. He stayed down as a pile of ash.

Reholstering the browning, he reached back for another slug round when he suddenly felt something beside him. Without hesitation, he swung Valkyrie's shoulder stock into the figure, a vampress. She was knocked back to the floor, but not far enough away. No time to reload, he slid Valkyrie along his leg to the floor and reached for his pistols. The vampress, armed with a pair of knives, advanced quickly. Matthew tried to fall back, but got slashed across his chest and impaled in the arm for his trouble. His unharmed right arm brought one browning up and pulled the trigger, sending a mercury charged silver bullet into the vampress's head. She fell to ashes.

Time to assess damage. Carefully reholstering his brownings, he pulled the thankfully steel knife from his arm and pulled back the fabric of the sleeve. The puncture wound was already closing, but for the moment it still oozed red. He stared at it, thinking, 'Hmm… I wonder what I taste like?' He brought his arm up to his mouth and gave it a fast lick. After a moment to consider the flavor, his reaction was, "Meh."

He redrew the right browning and punched its magazine release. The empty magazine clattered to the floor. Stuffing in a new magazine, he flipped the slide release, allowing the slide to shoot forward and lock into place. Lowering its hammer, he reholstered it.

A feeling entered his mind… 'Seras is in trouble…' He tried to confirm, but a new voice entered his mind.

It was Alucard. 'Young Jemeth, your master is in trouble. Perhaps you should help her?'

There was no further delay. Matthew ran, picking Valkyrie up from the floor and shoving his way through the door. He reloaded Valkyrie with another slug round, then lowered his right shoulder as he crossed the hall and said a rather violent 'hello' to the other double doors. The doors nearly exploded with the force he put into them. He brought Valkyire around in front of him. There, on the floor, lay Seras with a vampire above her. Matthew yelled to distract the vampire, aimed, and fired. The slug caught the vampire's middle and sent him flying across the room. Matthew grabbed the right browning, thumbed its hammer, and fired three shots. One missed, the others hit. The first vampire was down.

He pulled Valkyrie off his shoulder and slid it onto a nearby table, knowing there'd be no time to reload. He grabbed the second browning, thumbed its hammer, and brought both pistols to bear on a vampire leaping down from the upper level of the study. He fired three rounds from each. The first two missed, but the last four connected. The last vampire fell in a pile of ash. Matthew gave a quick look around the room, then slid the pistol in his right browning into its holster. He jogged over to Seras, who was pulling herself to her feet. "You ok?"

"Yeah," she said. "I got the first vampire, but the second hit me from behind before I could react…" Her eyes went wide. "Look out!"

Matthew spun around, bringing his still out left browning to bear. The vampire was almost upon him…

…And was suddenly launched across the room. It slammed into the wall, ash. Imbedded in the wall was a sword with the strangest grip he'd ever seen. It was more like a handle than a grip. Seras screamed. Matthew turned and understood why.

There stood the tallest man he'd ever seen in his life; at least seven feet tall. He had dark tanned skin and short light blonde hair with piercing green eyes staring out from a pair of glasses and a scar along his left cheek. He wore a long trench coat and had a huge silver cross hanging from his neck. His white gloves had writing on them, but Matthew couldn't read it. Saying he had an imposing figure would've been an understatement. Matthew snatched up his other browning and pointed both at him. If Seras was getting freaked, then there was something to fear from this man.

He had two more swords out, but held them defensively. Though something told Matthew he wasn't used to that stance. "That could've been you, vampire," he said with a Scottish accent, "and it still could be before this night is over. I've got some information for ya, and much as I'd rather silence ya where you stand, I've got my orders." He set one sword on the table before him, then reached into his trench coat and pulled out an envelope. Setting it on the table, he grabbed his sword, slipped it into the trench coat, and walked to the far wall where his other weapon still stuck. "That'll give ya all ya should need to know. If ya agree with what it says, it also shows how to contact us." He grabbed the sword from the wall. "If not, I'll deal with it myself." With that, he left the room.

Matthew's guns tracked him as he left the room, then waited at the door for several moments before he lowered them and turned back to Seras. She had her hand to her throat, and looked like she'd just seen a ghost… Hell, after the whole being a vampire and killing ghouls thing, Matthew wouldn't be at all surprised if they had to fight a ghost next week! To try and pull her back to the here and now, he spoke. "Ok, who was that guy?"

Weakly, she replied, "Paladin Alexander Anderson of the Iscariot organization, Vatican special section thirteen."

Now he pointed his thumb over his shoulder at the door. "And I take is that's not really his usual thing."

"It's not."

Matthew walked over to the envelope. He carefully grabbed it, made sure it was unlikely a bomb, and stuffed it into his jacket. "Well, we'll worry about him later." Gunfire rang from another part of the building. Alucard was still in battle… and Matthew was getting curious. He smiled at Seras, then grabbed Valkyrie and started for the door. Seras ran after him.

Valkyrie hung from his shoulder and both brownings were holstered as he passed through the destroyed door to the library. It was like the studies, only larger. And the combat within was certainly more… energetic. Alucard stood in the center of the room, holding his large nickel-plated pistol. Now having a better look at it, Matthew noted it looked like a casull.

The other vampire had a pair of uzis, and zipped across the room faster than Matthew could track, avoiding Alucard's fire while sending bursts of his own.

Alucard was about as impressed as the first vampire Matthew had faced. No… worse than that. He looked… bored? "Come on!" Alucard yelled. "I've dealt with this trick before! Show me something new before I just silence you out of spite!"

"I'm just getting warmed up!" the vampire replied. He coiled his legs, apparently getting ready to zip directly past Alucard and slap him or something. He pushed off, quickly crossing the gap between them.

Alucard simply drew his black pistol, which was even larger than the nickel-plated one. He waited for the vampire to hit point-blank range and fired. His opponent found himself disarmed… literally. Alucard watched for a moment, but as the other grew a look of fear and desperation, Alucard simply shot him through the skull. He gave a vexing sigh as the supposed master fell to ash. "Some 'master'," he said. Shaking his head, he walked off through the nearest wall.

Matthew looked to Seras. "Wow… He's good."

"That's an understatement. You should see him at full power," she replied. Watching Alucard fight seemed to pull Seras back from her vapor lock.

"Full power?" He lightly shuddered. "I'm not sure I want to know… Anyway," he said, trying to change the subject, "I think we've done enough damage around here. You all right?"

"I will be. Let's move."

Thirty minutes and another noisy transport ride later, they arrived back at the Hellsing headquarters. They'd passed the clean-up teams on the way, heading out to clear the area and make sure no one knew the truth of what had happened there. They dropped off their weapons on the armory and went back to Fargason's office to give their report. He gave them the overall mission results. "Final tally shows all targets were silenced. Our teams are currently looking over the master vampire's notes and trying to determine what he was up to. The Iscariot information is also being gone over, but we don't expect any results for a day or two. For now, get some rest. You've earned it."

"Thank you, sir," Seras replied. Matthew nodded and repeated her. Exchanging salutes with Fargason, the two vampires left the room and started down the corridor.

"A question, if I may," Matthew began. Seras gestured for him to continue. "What's with that Alexander guy? Why'd he freak you out so much?"

"I've fought him before. Well, more accurately, he's attacked me before and Alucard saved me. I got a sword through my neck for my trouble the first time." She rocked her head back to show the scar.

"Ouch…" They made the turn onto the stairs, starting for the lower levels.

"You can say that again. His swords are blessed, so they tend to hurt a great deal. I think that one was silver plated, else it wouldn't have been so effective against that one vampire."

"Yeah." Something in his mind clicked. "Wait… Alucard fought him, and he's still alive?"

"That's the thing. It seems that Alexander cannot die. He is a human regenerator. He can recover body parts like Alucard can, all be it not as quickly in some cases. Considering his condition now, it definitely seems like he can regrow lost limbs."

"Ack… Let's hope we don't have to fight him anytime soon."

Seras sighed. "We can only hope… Anyway, what are your plans for the night?"

Matthew yawned. "Bed. Lost a good amount of rest to that nightmare, so I'm really in need of some sleep."

Seras smiled. "Pleasant dreams, then. I'll see you in the morning."

"Thanks." He turned, starting toward his room. As he entered, he stripped the damaged jacket and tossed it onto a nearby chair. He'd have to get it repaired soon. Slipping off his shoes, he flopped onto his bed and was asleep in moments.