Disclaimer: Come on, it's just round the corner. Oops, is that a grenade pin I heard fall just now...

Author's notes: I had fun with this one and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I know that chapters should be paced, but I just can't seem to stop – that rollercoaster thing. Thank you for the feed-back, it helps SO much. I can't seem to get Fanfiction to leave the paragrapg layout alone, so I'm sorry but it all runs together.

Kiki – nice to see you again. DemonWolf25 – glad you're liking it.

Chapter 25

Dark fingers of shadow raced across the ground as a tall form strode through the open gates and into the hospital grounds. The customary frocked coat and overly large hat had been replaced by scarlet leather, straps and hair that cascaded to his waist. He was wreathed in writhing shadows that followed along the ground while others draped over him like a cape and reared up like the hood of some hellish cobra.

Alucard paused in front of the entrance to the building, reaching outward with his senses. It was a rare occasion that Integra lifted most of the control art system and he wanted to take a moment to revel in the power that was coursing through him. It had been a long time since he felt this, too long.

A collection of vermillion eyes opened in the hood of shadows that he wore and with them, saw the beating hearts of the Hellsing troops, glowing in the darkness. Dismissing them instantly, he felt for his fledgling and located her on the roof of a faraway building. He could feel her excitement for the coming conflict and her delight in his presence.

Pulling his awareness back, he directed it towards the structure in front of him. Ferguson had been right; there was nothing human left in that building. He probed gently, not wanting to alert the maker to his presence just yet. It didn't take him long to find the collection of minds deep in the basement. He looked up at the night sky; it was a clear and filled with glimmering stars, uncaring of the drama below. He grinned and murmured to himself:

"What a perfect night."

He walked up the few steps and into the ground floor of the hospital. He didn't even pay the shambling ghouls a single look. Any of them that were unfortunate to get close to him, were immediately obliterated by the pool of darkness that surrounded him. He headed for the basement stairs, his fingers twitching and his eyes shining with dreadful anticipation.

While Alucard was letting himself in the front, the second demolition team were on the roof, prying open the door to the elevator maintenance hut. It would also afford them access to the whole shaft, provided that the elevator itself wasn't stuck between floors. Commander Frost stuck his head out into the open space and looked down.

"We got lucky boys." He grinned. "It looks like the cab is on the ground floor; so it'll be clear all the way to the middle."

While the commander had been taking a look, the others were busy anchoring the lines that they were going to use to rappel down the shaft. The first sets of troopers were already sliding their way down the cables to the fourth floor, where they waited for the order to open the doors. Tim moved separately to the others, planting explosives as he descended the shaft. Reaching the others, he nodded at Commander Frost who started barking out orders:

"Fire teams one and two, be ready to suppress targets. Jack, you're to follow team one like you're welded to them. They'll lead you to the left door, do your job and then you're going to move to the exit point. Tim, team two will keep the pillars clear long enough for you to plant the charges. They'll then clear a path through to the right door, with Jack and team one right behind you. Jack seals the door and then we'll fight our way down the stairs to meet up with the first demolition team. Same story, except Jack, you wait at the doors, because when we pile out, it's up to you to close that door behind us. Does everybody understand?"

Nods and grunts met his question and he drew in a deep breath and told Tim to pull the pin on the ball of hell. Immediately, two of the soldiers pried the doors open just enough for him to hurl the explosive out. They let the doors close and they waited for a few seconds when a thunderous sound roared on the other side.

"Alright men." shouted Frost. "Breach!"

Alucard stepped into the hall of basement cells and sneered. This was going to be too easy; they were all gathered in one spot. But his blood was boiling and he was itching for a good fight, so instead of taking the opportunity to efficiently kill them all with well placed gun shots, he let his natural inclinations take over.

Entering the cell, he grabbed bodies at random and threw them out of the room. It didn't take him long to empty the cell of all the fledglings. Then he took a long look at the maker, who had scuttled into a corner.

It had been a man once. But time and madness had twisted him into a hideous caricature of a man. His face was narrow with sharp features, mostly covered by lank brown hair. He was tall and slender, with a definitive hunch to one shoulder, and his limbs looked thin and weak. Alucard was not fooled by this apparent frailty – he could feel the power of the creature in front of him, it was old. Not as old as him but it had definitely walked the earth for at least a century.

"You have committed your final crime." He intoned with his deep voice managing to echo in the small room. "It's time to pay for your sins."

He reached for the madman in the corner, but was thrown off balance when one of the fledglings hurled themselves through the door and onto his back. Alucard reached back and dragged it off him and flung it to the floor at his feet. It was male and was already trying to scramble to its feet when a large boot caught it in the chest and slammed it back down to the floor. Alucard continued to apply force, hearing bones creak and then snap. Eventually the thing stopped moving and lay there on the floor – its entire chest crushed.

Turning back to the corner he wasn't surprised to see that the madman had taken the opportunity to leave the cell. He strode out into the corridor and found the rest of the fledglings waiting for him. Their master was nowhere to be seen. They kept their distance from him, showing fangs in defiance and aggression.

"You've all been very naughty children." He smirked, turning in a slow circle to get a full count of them. "I think a spanking is in order!"

He rushed at the woman directly in front of him and with a graceful turn, was suddenly behind her. He wrapped his hands around her neck and lifted her off the floor. A vicious twist of his hands snapped her neck in short order. Dropping her at his feet, he crushed her head for good measure as he walked towards his next target. The two he had just killed had barely been a warm-up and the darkness inside of him cried for blood and violence – which he was more than happy to provide. His shadows exploded through the hall, which was suddenly filled with wails of pain and despair.

Down below in the sub-basement, Oliver had finished placing his charges and was leaving the room when he heard the noise above him. Turning to Commander Ives he said:

"Sounds like Big Red's here."

"Which means we don't have much time." Said Commander Ives crisply, "So shall we crack on then?"

The ground team left the sub-basement and pushed on past the basement itself, trying to ignore the sounds coming from there. They paused at the head of the stairway door that opened on the ground floor. Oliver came to the front, the round explosive in his hands.

"Say the word Commander." He grinned. "It's ready."

A curt nod was all the signal needed for one man to open the door while Oliver pulled the pin and tossed the explosive out as far as he could. The door slammed and they retreated a few steps down, to avoid any accidents. The blast of the explosion hadn't even faded before they burst through the doorway and into insanity.

Up on the roof, Seras had watched her master cross the front grounds and enter the building. She had never seen him in his released form before and her eyes took in every detail, while her vampiric senses were awed by the sheer power she could feel, even at half a kilometre away. Then he vanished and her attention turned back to sweeping the grounds for loose ghouls and any being driven back by the perimeter patrols. Josh was performing the same task, although he was using his rifle-scope.

The entrance to hospital was made entirely of glass and so watching for ghouls coming out was an easy task. She had just finished a sweep of the surrounding bushes and landscape, when Josh said urgently to her.

"Look at the ground floor, quick!"

She turned her attention to where he was indicating and for a moment didn't understand what he was wanting her to see when a sudden roar of high explosive reached her and she watched as a concussive wave, coupled with shrapnel did a fantastic job of fragmenting the windows and sending glass flying into the night, creating a brief glittering spray that was, in all honesty, quite pretty.

"Wow."

"I was hoping that would happen, just hope the camera caught it."

"Camera?"

Josh pointed a very small camera mounted on his scope. It was small enough that it wouldn't interfere with the usage of the weapon but she still didn't understand its purpose and said so.

"Jane likes to get as much information as she can so she can correct any faults or make improvements. Since she can't see it in real life, she mounted this for me."

Seras thought about it for a moment and then nodded.

"That makes sense in a Jane kind of way."

They shared a brief snigger and then turned serious as they directed all their attention to the ground floor. They now had live men down there and they needed to be ready to lend some long distance aid where necessary.

The silence of the hospital had been replaced by complete insanity. Men rushed in from outside and fought their way through crowd after crowd of the ravenous ghouls in order to clear the stairs for their comrades. They fired as fast they could pull the trigger and reloaded in record time – but there were still casualties and losses. Since there was no time to lose, the lightly wounded fell back, dragging some of the more seriously wounded with them. The dead were left where they had fallen, distracting some of the innumerable ghouls – performing service even after death.

Alucard stood in the hallway, blood dripping off him and gore encrusted on his hands. None of the fledglings were left standing and some weren't even recognisable as a human form. He could feel that their master was running, making his way along a subterranean tunnel. This didn't worry him; he would chase him down in a moment.

He cocked his head and listened to the chaos raging above him, then looked around at the carnage surrounding him. He threw back his head and laughed.

"Just like old times."