The conversation between Sir Integra and General Oscar had been a short one. Both agreed; there was only one course of action they could take. Hellsing's troops would be moving to South America. Columbia might've proven a bit too hostile for a good base of operations, so they decided to go to northwest Brazil and find somewhere near the border. Using larger transports to move personnel and equipment to Manaus, the capitol of Amazonas in Brazil, they used Vultures and Ospreys to ferry everything the remaining distance to a clearing in the rainforest they'd chosen as their temporary base. With Columbia just a stone's throw away, everyone kept their guard up.
Seras walked across the base, pretty much a tent city right then. Vehicles were kept in one corner of the base, personnel in another. She was headed for the other corner, administration and most of the equipment storage. While she walked… she practiced.
On the way down, Alucard had instructed her in how to quietly probe people's minds. She was hesitant at first, feeling she was violating their privacy, but she quickly found ways to keep from hitting any… overly personal spots. She focused on what they were thinking, feeling, doing, etc.
All in all, it was getting easier to access her power. It's not that the bind she had on it was getting any weaker. She was learning how much of her energy to loose for a specific task. But she was wary, still certain that Matthew's inexperienced overuse of his power caused his spiral to darkness.
Ahead, in one of the main tents, people started to gather for the next briefing. This was the largest joint venture between Hellsing and the DPSD, and everyone wanted it to go right. Sir Integra and General Oscar were present, along with Walter, Roland, and a number of officers from both organizations. Alucard was standing nearby.
She paused in mid step. Did he just look at her like she thought he'd just looked at her?
///
The Global Fang forces were about as well put together as Matthew could make them. Soon after getting to Columbia and setting up shop, he'd realized his blunder in joining them. They were weak, with few exceptions. He'd tried to mold them into something of a fighting force, but even if his plans had worked as he'd wanted they wouldn't have been enough.
Yes, he knew that Hellsing had arrived as well. At that point, their only real chance was a full on preemptive strike. Hit them before they've organized too well. Their defenses would be; those were set up before their forces even moved into the area. But if they hit right they'd take out enough of the combined force to, maybe, drive them away.
But Matthew was pretty sure that was a futile gesture. Good thing he already had an escape plan set up if this scheme of his failed.
///
"We've been able to get some intel on the area," the DPSD officer noted, "but we're still a little light. For example, while we know the general area they might be in," he gestured to a region of a map of Columbia, "we don't know their exact location, strength, and so on."
Fargason was next up. He hadn't been with them in the States, but he'd been flown out for this mission. "For the moment, we have fields of overlapping fire surrounding the base. If the Global Fangs try to move in, we should have sufficient time to gather our forces and repel the attack."
Now the DPSD officer spoke again. "But it would be a good idea that we move fast once the intel gets in. They might start using the natives in this area to fill their ghoul ranks. We're not sure how many they brought with them."
Suddenly, Alucard, who'd been leaning against a tree near the tent, looked up fast and quickly moved to Sir Integra's side. He muttered something into her ear, then moved toward Seras. Sir Integra, in turn, turned to General Oscar and spoke with him. Alucard reached Seras quickly. "We're about to come under attack. Prepare yourself." Not waiting for a reply, he continued on into the base. Sir Integra caught Seras's eyes, and the young vampress knew what her orders were. She started for the armory. She would need her pistols very soon.
Calmly, Sir Integra and General Oscar ordered all troops be made ready for combat, but to keep their movements hidden. It seemed they wouldn't have to look for the Global Fangs after all.
Seras beat the rush, and started moving to where she sensed Alucard… back near Sir Integra. Before she arrived though, gunfire pierced the air. Ghouls somehow placed close to the base rose from the bushes while vampires seemed to fly through the trees above them. Hellsing and DPSD forces, mostly already in position, quickly returned fire.
Seras found herself on the only weakly defended wall of the whole base.
The hastily constructed fence was torn down quickly, and at least fifty ghouls and ten vampires started to sweep in to the base. Human troops were still moving in to defensive positions. The only thing standing in their way was Seras.
She thumbed back Joshua's hammer. It was time to get to work.
///
Sure, these were just simple ghouls and vampires hardly worthy of a 'D' rating, but Alucard still tried to enjoy the simple combat. All this skulking around looking for Jemeth had left him with few opportunities to fight anything. Though he had to admit, it had finally given him a chance to get the Police Girl into some actual decent fighting form. He knew she would be at that part of the base when the fence fell. Time to see how well that fledgling of his could do.
Alucard was back in the briefing tent. Sir Integra was behind him, shooting at any target in range with her Beretta. "Angel of Death" Walter was on the other side of her, his monofilament wires slicing through the small herds of ghouls sent that way. General Oscar was nearby, having been passed an M-4 by the other DPSD troops, and was easily holding back another group of ghouls with Roland Mitchell and a couple other troops at his side.
The attack was being repulsed almost too easily… What was Jemeth thinking?
Suddenly, a ghoul went flying past his head to strike a nearby tree and fall to pieces. Allowing his eyes to leave the battle for a moment, he looked over his shoulder at the ghoul's origin.
And there was Seras. And, oh, how she flowed through the battle! She hadn't taken on that demonesque form she'd once used, but he could feel her power surging through her. Impossibly accurate shots flew from Joshua, catching vampires that could barely be seen in the trees. Other shots took out lines of ghouls, and if they got too close she spun around and launched them with a powerful roundhouse kick before pumping a .454 casull round into them as they flew.
Smirking, he turned back to the battle at hand. He still had his master to defend. And even though Walter could more than handle the job, he wanted to see Seras Victoria finally understand what it meant to be a Hellsing vampire.
///
The combined forces of Hellsing and the DPSD drove their attackers back, pushing into the rainforest near the base. Human losses had been few, and enemy forces had been many. Some of the troops felt they could push these demons back across the whole of Columbia and into the Pacific.
Seras, caught up in the fighting, suddenly found herself out in the rainforest as well. She quickly figured out the way back to base, and got ready to run back. But something stopped her… 'Matthew!' He was somewhere nearby!
Stretching out her senses, she tried to locate him. Maybe she could put a stop to this before he again slipped from their grasp?
///
Matt really had no idea what this place was he'd found himself locked in. He had given it a name, the mindscape, but that did little to comfort him. The best description he could make for it was the various thoughts and emotions that made up 'him' being locked in his subconscious and expressed by his imagination, but even then that was a guess. Though right now it wasn't too unpleasant. He'd wound up in a forest of some kind. Cool, but bright and sunny. The mental form of himself had found a nice log to sit on while he figured out his next move.
Matt had been separated from his body ever since the 'other' had taken over. He'd drifted around, catching bits of information now and then from conversations or whenever the other was in battle. He could even affect things now and then… kinda… Matt knew what had happened with Akira, how the other had tried to kill her to hurt him. He couldn't stop the fight from happening, but he had been able to throw off the other's aim. No one died that night, as far as he could tell.
But after that, Matt had found himself there. And now, he had far too much time to think. Eventually, he'd even started thinking of himself as Matt and the darkness that had taken over his body the 'other' just so he'd easily tell all the various thoughts apart.
He wasn't sure how to get rid of the other. But he knew it had to be done. "For one, he's ruining my name with all this fighting and maiming. And using a G'Kar quote to promote something evil? Come on! He's gotta go down for that alone!"
Sometimes, keeping his spirits up was a little difficult…
But something was different that night. There was a battle of some sort, but he wasn't involved in it… And there was a familiar presence in the corner of his mind… 'Seras!' The other had been sapping his energy bit by bit. He didn't have enough left to really affect anything the other did with his body. But maybe… he could draw some strength from his master?
There was a hole in the other's defenses. Matt reached out through it, gently grasping onto the mental signature of Seras floating around the hidden peripheries. He gently borrowed energy from her, fueling the images he sent back along the line…
///
Seras ran through the dark, damp rainforest trying to find where Matthew had gone. Suddenly, she felt something draining her energy from afar. She tried to stop it when…
Suddenly she saw a green field of some kind. She looked around, and then Matthew was before her. He was waving frantically for her attention. "Help me!" he cried out. "Please help!"
… And just as suddenly the vision ended. She stopped in her tracks, rubbing her head to clear the dull ache she felt. Matthew's presence was gone from her mind. But now she had proof. Getting Matthew back would have been better, but proof that she was right would work too. Now she would get the others squarely on her side… She started back to base, ramping up to a run as she heard new gunfire.
///
Walter's wires made another pass through the ghouls, thinning out the group by a fair margin. Sir Integra had taken to joining his side of the defense, shooting what she could see while he wound up for another pass.
Alucard's Jackal and Titan were falling many ghouls, but their combined efforts seemed to be failing. A new, and rather large, group of ghouls were wading in from the rainforest. Turned natives, just as predicted.
He didn't need to tell Integra. She already saw. "Alucard, situation A. The Cromwell approval is now in effect. Release level one," she said calmly before turning back to fire at the ghouls.
Alucard smirked. It wasn't every day he got to drop the binds, so he was going to enjoy every moment of it. His pistols disappeared into his trench coat. "Releasing control art restriction to level three… level two… level one. Situation A. The Cromwell approval is now in effect. Hold release until the targets are silenced." His arms… in fact most of his body… dissolved into something akin to black plasma covered in red eyes. Only his head and feet remained. He smirked again. "You might want to duck."
The words were for effect. No one would respond to them. But, moments later, the roiling dark energies exploded in all directions, tentacles of black lancing through the rainforest and piercing ghoul and vampire flesh. The Hellsing troops had something of an idea what was happening, but the DPSD troops nearly opened fire before seeing for themselves.
As suddenly as it started, Alucard's fun came to a far too soon end. He pulled the tendrils of himself back in, his body returning to normal. Once he was solid, he leaned down to grab his wide-brimmed hat from where it had fallen and return it to its place on his head.
This battle was over.