The next morning, Matthew awoke with slightly less of a headache. He hauled himself out of bed, trying to keep last nights failure pushed at least somewhat to the back of his mind. Sleep was usually a good escape for him. It was like a reset button got pressed, and all the stresses of the previous day were dropped. If he remembered why he had been pissed at a given individual, he no longer remembered why it pissed him off. Though it felt as if no time had passed. Last night was still there, standing next to him and punching him in the shoulder. Matthew found a note on the table, next to a bucket of ice. He picked up the note. It was from Seras.

Matthew:

No time to rest, I'm afraid. Let me know when you're up. Sir Integra is holding a briefing as soon as we're recovered.

Seras

Matthew nodded. He'd expected a fast turn around time for their next mission. They needed to take out Shalrik as soon as possible. 'But how we're gonna do that… I have no clue.' Matt grabbed the bag of blood out from the bucket and left, holding the bag under his jacket. He knew where Seras would be; in her room.

Minutes later he was outside her door. He knocked. "Just a minute," she called. A few moments later, she spoke again, "Come in."

Matthew opened the door and walked inside. "Good morning, fearless leader." That got a bit of a chuckle. "You all right?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing. How's your head?"

"Eh, it hurts a little. Nothing I can't ignore." He pulled the bag of blood out from under his jacket. "Shall we?"

She nodded, walking over to her table to grab the bag from the bucket. In near unison, they each opened and drank their bag's contents. The empty bags soon flew into the bucket. "Now that that's over with," Matthew said, "shall we go let Integra know we're alive? Umm… You know what I mean."

Her expression was still somewhat somber, but Matthew could tell the comment helped her mood slightly. "Yes, let's." She gestured to the door, and the two departed.

A few minutes later they were in a familiar scene, all be it with one absence. Sir Integra sat as Fargason and Alucard stood around the desk. Seras stood next to Alucard and Matthew next to her. This time, however, Integra spoke first. "Jemeth, I've read the reports of last night's mission. The loss of Johnson is regrettable, but you did all you could to save him."

Matthew paused. He hadn't expected to hear that from her. "Thank you, Sir Integra. That's good to hear."

"I only told you that to keep you from moping about it later. I will not have that in my organization." She turned to Fargason. "Go ahead."

Matthew was even more stunned, and was glad the resulting nervous chuckle stayed within the confines of his brain where it belonged. "Thank you, Sir Integra," Fargason started. "We got one last good piece of information from the data you two collected which Iscariot was able to confirm." He grabbed a map of the local counties. "There is a central data storage facility here, about fifteen kilometers outside of London. The good news is that they won't be able to remotely delete their data. The bad news, they are far better defended and probably know we'll be coming. This will be another large-scale mission. I will be on scene, but Harison will be leading. Jemeth and Victoria will escort. Also, we'll have a full computer team there. If there is anything worth finding, they'll find it. As we are in need of this information as soon as possible, we will be launching immediately rather than wait for nightfall."

Sir Integra nodded. "Very well. Proceed on your mission. May God and her Majesty be with you. Amen."

Fargason replied. "Amen."

Seras and Matthew once again headed to the armory after the briefing. Knowing they would be arriving, Walter was standing in his usual place as they entered. "Greetings, Ms. Victoria. Mr. Jemeth. I trust you are both well?"

"We're fine, Walter," Seras replied.

"I'll need Mr. Jemeth for a few minutes, so it might be best if I ask you what you need first."

"I need some more ammunition for my Harkonnen." Wordlessly, Walter grabbed an ammo case and set it on the table. "Thank you, Walter."

"You're quite welcome, Ms. Victoria. Now, Mr. Jemeth, I have something I think you'll like." Matthew raised an eyebrow. "Oh, don't worry, it's not another cannon." Matthew gave a mock sigh of relief, wiping his forehead. Seras chuckled. Walter grabbed a decent sized case and hefted it onto the table. He unlocked it, swung the lid open, and produced a strange twin-barreled rifle. "This is the Spitfire Assault Rifle. It is a combination 223 caliber assault rifle / 12 gauge shotgun anti-freak weapon." He passed it to Matthew. Matthew quickly found the magazine port, under the weapon in front of the trigger group, and a loading gate for an internal shotgun shell magazine, on the right side of the weapon just above and a bit behind the shotgun slide. The upper barrel was smaller, for the rifle. The lower was larger, and behind it was pump-action shotgun slide, with a button trigger on its left side. On the weapon's left side were the ejection ports for both the assault rifle cartridges and shotgun shells. Housing the two weapons was a mostly plastic casing. The whole weapon was the length of his arm.

"It's impressive, Walter." Matthew held the weapon to his left shoulder and aimed at a nearby wall. "Fits perfectly." He set Spitfire on its case. "I'll be able to test it out on this mission. What does it shoot?"

"The rifle ammunition is solid silver. Unfortunately, I couldn't make true anti-vampire bullets for it. The shotgun shells are silver shot. As you had said they will slow down a vampire, so I left it in the design. The trigger fires the rifle, and the button on the slide's side fires the shotgun when a shell is loaded."

Matthew nodded. "Yep, this'll do fine. I like the size and power, too. Strong enough to be dangerous, but small enough that I can easily control it. Thanks, Walter."

"You're welcome, Mr. Jemeth. Oh, I also have a new backpack for you." He grabbed a backpack from the wall and set it on the table.

"Wow… Different…"

It was. Along the top was a rail about an inch in diameter. The left side had a snap railing system on it, possibly to hold the Spitfire in place. The Valkyrie's ammo dispensers had been moved to accommodate the Spitfire's presence. "The new rail is for Valkyrie. It'll allow you to hold it across your back rather than on your shoulder and to move it from one side to the other so you can store it at your right shoulder and fire it on your left. The side rails are for Spitfire. You can snap it in and out relatively easily, but only from a certain angle. Put it on." Matthew complied, adjusting it to comfort. "Now, take Spitfire and swing it over your shoulder into the rails." He did so, and the rifle stayed in place. "Now, Ms. Victoria, try to pull the rifle off." She grabbed it and yanked. The rifle didn't move, but Matthew did.

After making sure he wouldn't fall, he grabbed the rifle by its stock, which was sticking over his shoulder, and yanked forward. The rifle popped out, rolled over his shoulder, and landed in his waiting hands. "Nice." He smiled, and set it on the table before taking off the backpack.

Walter handed him a belt holding about forty shotgun shells, twenty on opposing sides with some blank space at either end. Matthew took off his jacket and draped the belt over his torso: from right shoulder to left waist. Next, he handed a pair of shorter belts. Each held four magazines of rifle ammunition. They had two straps each, which connected with snaps. Positioning them on his thighs, he snapped their straps, holding them in place. "Excellent, Mr. Jemeth. I need to make some modifications to Valkyrie. If you leave it here, I will have them finished within a day or two. Do you think you can manage with your brownings and Spitfire?"

Matthew paused. "Well, I suppose I'll have to." He snapped Spitfire into place.

"Good luck to you both."

In unison, the vampires replied, "Thank you, Walter." After a questioning glance at each other and a shrug from Matt, they left for the assembly area.

Fargason had gotten the troops assembled, but from the looks of things they needed a big victory, and they needed it soon. The loss of Johnson weight heavily on them. Some threw glares at Matthew, while others, like Martha and William, actually came up to him and thanked him for his efforts. Having already given his briefing, Fargason ordered the troops into transports soon after the arrival of Seras and Matthew.

It was a long, quiet trip. This time, as it was daylight, there was something to see. Matthew was able to get his eyes to a viewport and watch the city and later country go by. When he sat, soon before their arrival, Seras chuckled at his behavior. He shrugged. 'Eh,' he thought to her, 'it helps the headache.'

The transports stopped a kilometer from the building pegged as the data storage facility. From that distance, it looked like little more than a farmhouse, but a lucky glance through a window caught a vampire in the eyes of Seras and Matthew. "This is the place," Fargason said. "Move out."

The troops moved within a couple hundred meters of the house with great stealth. On the way, Matthew fed five shells into Spitfire, its maximum load. He then grabbed a thirty round magazine and loaded it. Yanking back the bolt, he set the rifle's safety and snapped it back in place. Once in position near the farmhouse Harison took a final look at the situation, then ordered a charge. The troops of Hellsing got up in a run, sprinting for the front and back doors of the house. Seras charged ahead to take point, with Matthew hot on her heels. He yanked Spitfire out of its rails and brought it back around, landing its shotgun slide in his waiting right hand and grabbing the trigger group with his left. He would bring it to his shoulder later. Seras barely stopped to kick open the door. A few feet in, she took aim and fired her cannon. Its recoil slid her back a few inches and sent a trio of ghouls to the ground. Seras moved to find a firing position as Matthew moved up to fire.

He brought Spitfire to his shoulder, aimed, and fired at what he figured to be an enhanced ghoul. With a loud 'braaap' from Spitfire, the ghoul dropped. He cycled the shotgun, took aim at a nearby pack of ghouls and pushed the button. The shotgun fired, sending the ghouls to the floor. Without a thought, he started into the house, taking aim at another ghoul and firing off a quick burst of fire. The vampire he'd spotted before attacked from Matthew's left. He swiveled out of the vampire's way, then took aim and fired a long burst of fire. The bullets penetrated the vampire's heart, and the vampire turned to ash.

The rest of the troops piled in through the front and back doors, catching the vampires by surprise. Hellsing had needed a crushing victory, and they got it that day. Matthew suddenly found himself surrounded by ash and ghoul remains. Rather than aim aimlessly at air, he swung Spitfire back into its mount. Suddenly, Seras was beside him. "Are you all right, Matthew?"

He struggled with the answer for a moment. "Uhh… Yeah. I'm fine. Why?"

"You look like you just snapped out of a trance, or something."

"Sorry. Just lost in thought for a moment. That battle seemed pretty easy."

She nodded. "It was easy. There weren't as many vampires or ghouls as we'd anticipated."

Matthew paused. "And I'm pretty sure the vampires around here weren't greater fledglings like the one a couple nights back." Seras nodded again. "Well, this can only mean a few things. One: the rest are hiding. Unlikely. Two: reinforcements are on the way. Possible. Three: Shalrik has called the rest of the troops to him. That itself can mean two things. One: Shalrik's figured we're gonna find him eventually, so why bother defending this place. Better to work on his on defense. Two: Shalrik has decided he can take us, so he wants us to find him. If that's the case, things aren't that good."

"Why not?"

"'Cause if he figures he's ready, he might be. He probably knows our forces pretty well at this point."

Seras smiled. Matthew gave her a confused look. "I'd figured all that out after the battle finished. Wanted to see how perceptive you were."

Matthew chuckled. "Yeah, you used to be a cop, I know. So, did I pass?"

"Indeed. The computer teams are working now. They're just going to download the data and worry about decrypting it back at HQ, just in case reinforcements are coming."

Matthew nodded his reply. "Well, now that my brain is working again, wanna go run some security?"

She smiled. "That's next on my agenda."

"All right." Matthew yanked the almost empty magazine from the Spitfire and loaded a new one. "Let's go." The two started for the door.

Matthew felt just fine about the mission the next day. According to Fargason's debriefing, they'd gotten a large amount of data. It would take a good couple days to decrypt it all, giving Hellsing a couple days of stand down they really needed. The only non-routine thing going on was the line of communication set up with Iscariot at the Vatican to keep them appraised. It was still in the air whether or not they would bring in Paladin Anderson, but depending on how things looked it might be better to have him around, even if just as a human shield as Alucard suggested.

One of the more routine parts of the day was training. Hellsing was still recouping from the losses of the Valentine brothers' attack. Lacking experienced people Seras had been asked to help train, and she in turn asked Matthew if he wanted to join in on the fun. Hence why Matthew now approached Seras's door and gave it a good knock. She opened it and gave him a smile. "Ah, Matthew. Good to see you. Ready to see how the new recruits do?"

Matthew smiled back and nodded. "Sure am. Let's hope they do better than I did at the start."

"Oh, cut yourself some slack. You did just fine." She exited and shut the door behind her. "Shall we?"

Matthew gestured down the corridor. "After you."

Half an hour's helicopter flight away was one of Hellsing's training facilities. It was an open topped complex of random hallways, rooms, and doors. The idea was to move through, break open doors, and clear out "hostile targets" while leaving "non-threats" alone. One room at the "start" of the course was the final briefing room. Candidates would have already received weapon instruction and basic target information. Now was a quick refresher and time to go.

Matthew stood at the door to the briefing room watching Seras as she gathered a group. "All right, group three. Let's move on to you lot." She paused a moment as they gathered around her. "As you heard in the earlier briefing, when you encounter a target shoot only for the head. Hits to other parts of the target won't be counted. If you shoot a non-threat target you will fail immediately and the test will end. The arrows will help guide you through the course. Questions, anyone?"

A man spoke up. To Matthew he had no accent, meaning he was possibly from the United States. Matt disliked him after his first words. "Hey, girl."

Seras was annoyed as well. "What is it, then?"

"We heard some crap about there being a real vampire in this unit."

Still irritated, Seras coolly replied, "Have you?" The response from the group was laughter. Seras walked towards the man. "Oh, it seems there is something wrong with your MP5." She reached up and grabbed his weapon's barrel.

"Uh… What do you mean?" the man replied.

Effortlessly, Seras twisted her hand and bent the barrel nearly ninety degrees. "It seems that the barrel it bent." The man looked at his weapon and at Seras unbelievingly. Seras stepped back, smiling. "You'd better have it replaced quickly or you'll miss your chance to test." She started walking to the door to where Matthew stood, his arms crossed across his chest.

Matthew shook ever so slightly as he tried to contain his laughter. He strained to keep the smile off his face. Seras stood next to him. Matthew lowered his left arm, holding out his hand next to her. "Nice," he complemented. Seras smacked his hand with hers in a low-five and Matthew moved his arm back to his chest.