Harry looked out the window of Hellsing Manor as the sun began to slowly set, painting the sky in reds and oranges.
He and his team were on alert after Integra recently returned from a meeting with the Queen and a representative of the Vatican regarding the Nazi vampires, Millenium. And damned if thinking that he was now going to be facing Nazi vampires didn't make the absurdity of his life all the more apparent.
Integra informed them that they had received a message from the leader of Millenium, which they only knew by his rank of Major, essentially declaring war. Afterwards the British aircraft carrier HMS Eagle was reported as hijacked by the enemy. Integra stayed in the military war room to help coordinate, dispatched Alucard to the Eagle to remove the threat, and sent Seras and Pip back to the manor to guard against the inevitable attack they all knew was coming.
Harry and his team's orders were to be at the ready to move out to wherever Millenium attacked using Harry's portals if possible in order to deal with them. As such they had all prepared themselves for a fight in their own ways.
Harry turned and moved to where everybody sat around a large dining table, having a light meal to keep their energy up. The tension in the room was palpable, nobody saying anything as they waited for the upcoming fight to begin.
Picking up a sandwich he bit into it as his eyes roamed over the team, seeing the furrowed brows and set chins. Still, he felt the need to say something, especially to the Remnant teens.
"Are you all ready for what's coming?" He asked seriously. "You can stay here if you want. Me, BB, Lara and the Chief can go out and deal with the vampires."
"We're going." Ruby said, an undercurrent of unease in her firm tone. "From what Sir Integra said these people are monsters as bad as Grimm. It's what we've been training for."
"You know that decision means you'll have to fight to kill?" Chief asked sternly from where he stood to the side, helmet off as he calmly ate his own sandwich, but otherwise combat ready. "Your opponents won't have aura, though they'll likely be more powerful than a civilian. And they'll be aiming to kill."
Ruby went silent, but when Yang and Weiss set their hands on her shoulders she looked around at her friends, seeing their determined if nervous expressions. Then she turned back to the Chief and nodded. "Yeah, we know. We'll… we'll deal with it…"
Harry wasn't so sure, but he knew that their skills were too valuable to have them sit the fight out if they were determined to come. The enemy's number was unknown, but it was likely high, which combined with their combat capability as vampires, even if they were newly turned, meant this was going to be a hard fight.
Not long after the sun set and night fell they got the call, Pip acting as intermediary despite the fact that he and the Wild Geese would be staying with Seras and Alice to defend the manor. "A couple of minutes ago three zeppelins flew over London." The French mercenary said, disbelief in his voice. "They just launched a mass of missiles into the city. The entire damn place is burning."
Harry's eyes narrowed. "Somehow I'm not surprised they decided to mirror the Blitz." He turned to his team. "Alright people, we're moving out! First priority is eliminating any Millenium forces we find, but perform SAR when not in combat. Chief is in overall command. I'll try to deal with the zeppelins, but there's no telling what they've got up their sleeves. Ready?"
Everybody nodded, weapons in hand and Harry opened a portal to Trafalgar Square, everybody quickly rushing through it, out of the manor, and into hell.
Most of the team froze upon going through, heat and smoking ash assaulting their senses as their surroundings burned, bodies scattered everywhere, on fire and ripped to shreds by the explosions. Above them the night sky was becoming hidden by clouds of smoke as all of London burned.
"Oh my god…" Lara whispered, especially horrified considering how long she'd lived in London.
"Fucking Nazis…" Beast Boy growled.
"Focus." Harry said firmly as he reached into his ear, activating the UNSC earpiece in it. "Cortana, any direction in which we should concentrate our efforts?"
"Satellites are problematic due to the smoke and ash." Cortana responded into all their earpieces. "What little remains of the CCTV network is indicating that the bulk of the enemy forces are landing to the south. They're spreading out quickly, however, their enhancements letting them cover ground at higher speed than unenhanced infantry, through they're pausing to slaughter any survivors they come across." She said with disgust.
"Alright." Harry said before turning to the others. "I'll head up to see about dealing with their air support. Stay safe." Then he shot upwards, long coat flapping.
Chief turned to the team, who were all looking horrified but focusing as best they could. "We're going to split up into two man teams and make our way south, covering as much ground as possible. You all go with your Beacon partners. Beast Boy is with me. Lara, Penny, stay here and defend this location. We'll send any survivors here and use it as a FOB. When Harry returns we'll have him start evacuating survivors someplace safe. Understood?" When the teams nodded, steeling their expressions, he checked his weapon before nodding as well. "Good. Move out."
With that, the teams each took separate streets and began winding their way south.
Ruby and Weiss slowly made their way through the burning, rubble strewn streets of the once great city, aghast but trying to remain focused. They looked everywhere they could for survivors, Ruby dashing through buildings to search as Weiss used her Dust to clear her path and deal with the many fires.
Thankfully she'd figured out that she didn't need to shout out the element she wanted so much as have a different mental trigger for each one. She was still adjusting, but was making progress thanks to the constant training at the Hellsing HQ.
Within the first fifteen minutes of travel they only managed to find three survivors. Two of them they'd managed to direct to the FOB, watching them limp away, but the last man hadn't seemed to hear anything they said, simply rocking in place and sobbing as blood covered his face, holding a small bundle to his chest, a young woman laying dead beside him, an overturned baby stroller not far away.
They gave up on the man after a few minutes of trying to get him to move, seeing the futility in it, and they continued on their way, shaken but doing their best to push it aside for the moment in order to focus on the mission, no matter how much they wanted to just break down at the horrors they were witnessing.
"I believe I will be taking up Alice's services when this is all over." Weiss said, face paler than usual. Ruby made a noise of agreement before it turned into a yelp as they were fired upon by automatic weapons once they reached an intersection. Scrambling for cover as their auras flickered, they reached cover before peeking over to see a group of vampires rushing their position. They'd just encountered the enemy.
Four Nazis were rushing forward, firing their weapons with abandon at the two girls as they advanced. Ruby glanced at Weiss, who nodded, before rushing out in a blur of rose petals, Crescent Rose extended and ready.
The vampires were caught off guard, obviously not expecting to encounter someone displaying such speed. The one in the lead wasn't able to react in time as Ruby swung her scythe, the blade hitting his waist before she fired, the recoil helping it cut the Nazi in half with a burst of gore even as the high calliber bullet slammed into another, punching a large hole in him.
Ruby froze when she saw what she'd done. She'd never fought a humanlike being that didn't have their aura unlocked, so she'd never seen what her weapon could do to a body in person, even if she intellectually knew what it was capable of. The sight of one of the vampires falling to the ground in two pieces, blood everywhere, shocked her into stillness. It didn't matter that it was a homicidal monster, it was still human enough to get through the defences she thought she'd prepared.
"Ruby, move!" Weiss called as she saw her partner freeze, not seeming to notice the other two vampires raising their weapons to take her out. The heiress quickly launched two spears of ice at the vampires. One avoided the attack, but the other was gored by the large icicle, making him drop.
Weiss swallowed the bile that rose in her throat and focused on the remaining threat, which couldn't seem to decide which girl to attack first. He didn't get a chance as Crescent Rose came around in a blur, removing his head.
With the death of the last of the group of Nazis the street became still but for the flickering flames before Weiss approached her leader. "Ruby?"
Ruby wiped her eyes before looking at Weiss firmly. "C'mon. We need to keep moving." Then she turned and began walking.
Weiss closed her eyes briefly before following, leaving the remains of their innocence behind.
Yang looked around at her burning surroundings, her eyes taking in the many bodies that littered the street. They'd been planning on taking a day off to head into London and have fun before this all happened. She'd been looking forward to it. Now she couldn't even imagine how it used to look before it was turned into hell on earth.
Blake landed beside her partner, shaking her head to indicate she hadn't found any survivors beyond the few they'd already sent back to Trafalgar Square. She silently noted that the blonde's eyes were crimson, but didn't comment. She didn't exactly feel any differently.
She wondered if this was what the Fall of Beacon would have been like if Harry and his team hadn't intervened. They'd seen it in the animated show, but there was a difference between a tv show that wasn't trying to traumatize its viewers for life, and the real thing. Really, all that was missing was the Grimm to make things horrifyingly complete.
They continued making their way through the streets, working around obstructions and making sure they were still heading south. They froze, however, when they heard automatic gunfire from somewhere nearby, before quickly beginning to run towards it. Turning a corner they arrived just in time to see someone in a long coat and helmet laughing as they shot a teenage girl in the head as she tried to crawl away.
Blake and Yang froze momentarily at the sight of the casual brutality before the blonde launched herself forward with a roar of rage, eyes deep crimson and hair burning brightly. The vampire only had time to turn his head at the sound, surprised, before said head went flying due to an uppercut from Yang, blood spraying out and covering part of the enraged blonde's face as she snarled with rage.
More gunfire came from the side impacting Yang, who didn't bother to dodge away, her aura flickering from the hits. Instead she turned her glare on her new assailants, muscles tensing in preparation to attack.
There were two vampires left, and as one fired at her with his assault rifle, the other was running towards Yang to engage her in hand to hand. Yang eagerly launched herself towards the rushing Nazi, ready to give him a beatdown and trusting Blake to have her back.
When the two met they began trading punches. The vampire was faster than Yang was, dodging her attacks and launching ones of his own. The blonde didn't bother dodging, tanking the hits like they were pillows being thrown at her, each hit increasing her own strength bit by bit thanks to her semblance. All she needed was one hit.
As Yang traded punches with her opponent the vampire that had been shooting at her busied himself with reloading, having not noticed the catgirl that was approaching till the ribbon of Gambol Shroud wrapped around the barrel of his gun and yanked it out of his hands. He turned in time to see the katana and cleaver of the faunus' weapons held in each of the girl's hands, ready to be used. She shot at him as she approached with her pistol before swinging the cleaver down. The attack was dodged, but she quickly followed up with the katana, slicing off her opponent's arm.
The vampire tried to retaliate, ignoring his wound, and managed to slam a punch into Blake, only to be surprised when it passed through the image as she used her semblance to leave a clone behind and come around from his armless side. Quickly swinging her weapons in a scissoring motion she removed his head.
Turning from the falling corpse she saw Yang finally catch her opponent in the chest after a feint, the crunch of shattering bones audible over the flames as the Nazi was launched away, chest caved in, not even able to scream as he landed in a burning building, disappearing into the flames.
The two girls were silent for a moment after the brief fight before Blake glanced at Yang. "You could have used your shotguns."
Yang clenched and unclenched her fist before wiping some of the blood from her face. "I wanted to see what they're capable of. Now I know." She then began walking again, eyes roving as she searched for enemies.
Blake sighed and sheathed her weapon before following, hoping things would improve, though not expecting them to.
"This is horrible…" Pyrrha, said as she held Milo in rifle form, her gaze lingering on the couple of children they'd sent limping to Trafalgar Square after helping them out from under their mother's dead body.
Jaune clenched his jaw, doing his best to be strong for her despite how much he could feel the nightmare he was in was wearing on him. He was her leader, after all. The hand clutching Crocea Mors clenched tighter. "We need to stop these monsters as soon as possible." He said. "So we need to keep moving." He saw Pyrrha was still staring after the children. "Pyrrha, come on, we need to keep moving. There are probably still people that need help." He said softly.
Pyrrha took a shuddering breath before turning towards him before nodding, eyes firm. Said eyes then widened as they saw something behind him, which was Jaune's only warning as something slammed into his back like a truck, sending him to the floor with a yelp.
"Jaune!" Pyrrha cried as the vampire on top of her partner began futilely biting at him, the blonde's aura flashing with each hit as he tried to get up. She brought her weapon up and began to fire, prompting her enemy to look up from his prey and launch himself at her.
The redhead wasn't the best fighter amongst the Beacon first years for nothing, however, dodging the lunge with contemptuous ease, her weapon shifting into sword form and coming around to cut into the monster's back, severing his spine and making him drop with a cry. "You bitch!"
Pyrrha hesitated for a moment, but then forced herself to follow through, the blade coming back down and removing the Nazi's head from his shoulders.
She looked down at what she'd done for a moment too long, jumping slightly when gunfire rang out. Suddenly Jaune was in front of her, shield up and blocking most of the stream of bullets. "Pyrrha, focus!"
The champion shook her head briefly before shifting her weapon back into rifle form, firing at the assailants, now seeing that there were five of them, advancing slowly as they kept shooting. Reaching out with her hand she heard shouts of surprise as the guns suddenly jerked out of their owners' hands. She quickly tossed them over the buildings, catapulting them out of reach.
Once the vampires were disarmed Jaune rushed forward, sword at the ready. He swung at one of the vampires, who dodged into a shield bash which made him stumble backwards from the force. Jaune quickly stabbed forward, the blade slipping into the vampire's throat, the blonde then swinging out, decapitating the monster but for some flesh keeping the head connected.
While this was happening Pyrrha engaged the other four, shooting her rifle as she ran forward before beginning a deadly dance. Her enemies, expecting an easy win due to their superior numbers, were caught off guard when she held all four of them off, inflicting multiple wounds while avoiding any hits.
The tides turned further against the Nazis when Jaune joined the fight, swinging his blade at a distracted opponent and removing an arm, which Pyrrha followed up by stabbing her spear upwards through his mouth and into his brain.
From there the remaining three vampires didn't stand a chance, not matching up to the combined might of Jaune and Pyrrha, no matter how enhanced they were.
Once the last Nazi was dead the two teens began to breathe deeply, coming down from the rush of battle. Then Pyrrha stumbled over to some rubble, bent over, and began to be noisily sick.
Jaune blinked, shocked, before quickly making his way over to her, holding her hair back and rubbing gentle circles on her back. She looked at him gratefully before standing back up and washing her mouth out with the small canteen they'd each been designated in case needed. "Sorry, it's just…"
"I get it." Jaune said. "Trust me, it's taking all I've got to not do the same thing." He gave her a quick hug before letting her go. "Ready to keep going?"
Pyrrha nodded silently, switching Milo back to rifle form, and followed her leader through the burning streets of London, steeling herself for further conflict.
Ren was very, very grateful to Harry at the moment.
Now that the Remnant teens' weapons didn't use Dust ammunition Harry had decided to experiment. It took some trial and error, but he'd managed to figure out how to enchant clips to hold infinite, self replicating ammo, meaning that his team would never have to reload. He'd even done the same thing for Lara's quiver.
This was especially helpful for Ren, as he was the only one of his friends that used weapons that fired on full auto, so he tended to eat through ammo quickly if he wasn't careful. Now that he didn't have to be worried about that he could be far less restrained.
Something that was very helpful as he and Nora fought a group of five vampires that were trying to keep the two pinned down. Not that it'd done much good, as Nora had simply began launching grenades into the mass of monsters, an uncharacteristically dark look on her face.
Ren was right there with her, however. The atrocities they'd witnessed so far were chilling, especially to the two of them. It was like what happened in his hometown of Kuroyuri when they were children, except a thousand times worse. It brought old, painful memories to the surface, for both of them.
One of the vampires, having enough of dodging explosions, began rushing at Nora, fanged mouth open and eager to bite down on the orangettes slim neck. Ren didn't bother trying to defend her, instead continuing to fire his SMGs to keep the other Nazis pinned.
Nora then demonstrated why Ren didn't need to worry about her when she unfolded Magnhild into war hammer mode and swung down with all her strength. The vampire's eyes went wide with shock at the unexpected sight, not able to react in time as the hammer dropped, pulping his head despite the helmet.
The other four vampires apparently believed that they now knew enough about their enemies to charge out at them. All four ran at Nora, ignoring the wounds Ren inflicted with Stormflower in their desire to rip the hammer wielder to shreds. Nora began expertly swinging and twirling her hammer around, keeping them at bay.
Ren took advantage of their distraction to move behind one of them. As Nora pushed that particular enemy back Ren brought the blades of Stormflower around from behind to stab into the vampire's throat, dragging them around to tear his neck open till less of it was attached than not.
Letting that vampire drop, gurgling, Ren launched himself at another even as Nora sent yet another flying with a crushed ribcage, beginning to attack one of the remaining Nazis with all his considerable martial arts skill. Despite the vampire's enhancements, if was exceedingly one sided, and ended with him pumping a couple of clips worth of bullets into his opponent's heart.
Looking over at Nora he saw the last vampire on the ground, looking up as the hammer came down on his head.
Ren sighed once the action stopped, feeling a bit tired. Stamina had always been his greatest weakness. "You okay, Nora?"
Nora stared blankly at decapitated body below her before slumping. "Fine, Renny…"
Ren moved over to her, giving the normally bubbly girl a hug as she shook in his arms, a few tears escaping her. When she pulled back he gave her a reassuring look. "Come on. There are people counting on us."
Nora sniffed before nodding, following along as Ren led the way.
"Lara is reporting that they have a couple dozen survivors at the FOB secured." Cortana informed Chief and Beast Boy as the two finished annihilating a group of seven vampires. "It's progress, but…"
"Considering the hundreds, if not thousands of people there probably were in the area our team has covered, it's a tiny amount." Beast Boy growled. "I swear to any god listening that when I find these assholes' boss…" An animalistic snarl escaped him.
"Anything new to report from Sir Integra or Hellsing HQ?" Chief asked as he checked his weapon out of habit.
"Nothing new from HQ, but the military command centre Sir Integra is coordinating things from was attacked by Millenium forces planted among the staff. Walter eliminated them handily, however, so there were no casualties among our people."
Beast Boy blinked. "Huh, didn't expect that out of an old butler. You'd think I'd know better than to judge a book by the cover anymore…"
Chief resumed walking, eyes scanning his surroundings with the practiced ease of somebody that had experienced almost the exact same thing more times than could be counted. London burning was depressingly similar to Covenant attacks he'd helped fight.
Beast Boy wasn't handling things nearly as well, but he was maintaining his composure to the best of his capabilities. He'd seen some bad things before, but this was a bit much for him. He was pretty sure it could have only been worse if Millenium had outright nuked the city.
Wordlessly the two warriors continued their task with grim determination.
An arrow flew from Lara's bow into the eye of an approaching vampire, the young woman's gaze hard with determination and anger as she did her best to defend the civilians and hold the enemy off for Penny to eliminate.
Said mechanical girl's blades flew everywhere, removing enemy heads and limbs, Penny herself standing protectively before the mass of civilians, face firm despite her grim work as she dealt with the large group that had somehow stumbled upon their FOB.
Lara felt her heart break for the girl, however. Penny was a very innocent, kind girl. She'd been created to protect people and fight Grimm. Outright killing humanlike opponents was not something she'd ever expected to have to do, though she went about her task with admirable determination.
It wasn't right that a girl like her had been forced into such a role.
Eventually the last of the vampires fell, limb and headless, and Penny retracted her blades as the civilians stood up from where they were cowering, staring around in shock at the carnage their two defenders had caused.
"Are the bad men gone?" A child asked, his large brown eyes dull as he looked around.
Lara approached, slinging her bow over her shoulder. "For now. But there are more. So stay here with everyone else so we can protect you, alright?"
After the boy nodded she gently patted his head before moving to where Penny stood, green eyes scanning the surroundings methodically. "Are you alright, Penny?" She asked.
"Fine, Miss Croft…" Penny said dully. "I just… I feel so angry and sad… What's the point of this?"
"I don't think there is one, besides carnage for carnage's sake." Lara said sadly.
"...I think I hate them." Penny said, surprised at herself.
Lara rested a hand on the android's shoulder. "I can understand why, but try not to hold on to it. It can poison you." Then she turned and began handing out some food and water from the supplies they'd brought along.
Penny hummed as she thought about what she'd been told, before going back to scanning the streets for threats.
Harry flew above the clouds of smoke that rose from the burning city, pausing once he'd reached sufficient height in order to take in the full scope of the damage.
Everywhere he could see, even from his position, was burning. He could make out landmarks such as Big Ben and the Tower of London going up in flames. The London Eye had fallen into the Thames. And that was just what he could see through the smoke.
He growled angrily to himself at the sight of the carnage the Nazis had wrought for no other reason than for their need for a war to fight. The rage he was beginning to feel was impressive, but he made sure to channel it appropriately rather than lash out needlessly.
Once he'd had enough of the scenery he turned around, searching for his targets. They were surprisingly hard to spot despite their size thanks to the smoke and ash, but eventually he caught sight of two of the zeppelins that were part of the attack and made his way towards them.
He briefly paused once he was closer, trying to decide what his next step should be, but knowing he couldn't wait too long. Even as he watched vampires continued to launch themselves out of the aircraft and down into London, eager to cause more chaos.
In the end he decided to go for the direct approach and made his way towards the smaller zeppelin, as it was closer. Once he was close enough he raised his hands, focusing before sending two beams of burning fire into the balloon portion. The reaction was immediate, the beams punching through before igniting the gas inside, which went up in a truly massive explosion. The shockwave of the blast was enough to make the larger zeppelin be pushed to the side, further from Harry.
Harry smirked, satisfied as he watched the burning wreck drop down to the ground below, part of it splashing into the Thames. Then he turned his gaze to the remaining zeppelin, which he guessed was the command craft. Eager to put an end to things he began making his way towards it, only to be waylaid as something suddenly slammed into him with enormous force, claws digging into his flesh as the something screeched in his face.
Crying out in pain and surprise he quickly punched out, slamming his fist into the thing's head, making it screech again. He punched it again, this time coating his fist with energy, and the thing let go, falling back enough that Harry instinctively blasted it, blowing it in half. It began to turn to ash, but Harry had enough time to see what it was.
A griffon type Grimm.
"Fuck." He said as he looked around, now able to spot numerous flying Grimm such as manticores, nevermores and lancers beginning to fill the skies. "Salem sent more Grimm over than we thought." As he saw a large group of them begin making their way over to him he keyed his earpiece. "Alert, we have Grimm in the skies. I repeat, we have Grimm in the skies. Get ready for a fight." He sighed even as he blasted the first nevermore to approach.
"Things just got a lot more needlessly complicated…"
It's kind of appropriate that the last update of the year is for Brightest.
Looking back on it, I never expected this story to have gotten as big as it has in terms of readership. You all have my deepest thanks for sticking with me for these forty chapters.
I hope I did a good job in showing moments with each of the members of the team. I'm trying to balance the large cast as best I can, and showing snapshots of what everyone is doing during certain events is one of the better methods I've thought up. Please let me know what you think.
As always, please keep in mind that you can have a say in what I write by donating to my Pat A Ron. Each dollar is a vote in the monthly poll. That's Pat A Ron dotcom /athanmortis.
Not much else to really say. I hope everybody enjoyed their holidays, and you all have a Happy New Year.
Please review. Till next time!