This was rather inconvenient. Sebastian reported his findings to the proper authorities and it was decided that a team of soldiers from the Manchester branch would not be sufficient to combat the forces at hand. Thus, a special squad from headquarters was assembled to deal with the threat. All of them were supernaturals, but two of them were somewhat reluctant to go.
Ciel and Alois had essentially been on hiatus for a while after the incident with Blackwood. It extended for a short time after Ciel's recovery from the mission and this upcoming one would take place only two days after their first anniversary. Neither of them felt done with celebrating, but when duty calls, they are not able to refuse. Begrudgingly, they traveled to Manchester in order to meet their butler via helicopter. Accompanying them was Seras Victoria, a massively powerful vampire who was Sir Integra's right hand.
The blonde-haired woman sat across from them and casually chatted with them about this, that, and the other. Alois was much more invested in the conversation than his husband was, but after years of knowing Ciel, Seras had no hurt feelings over it. That was simply who Ciel Phantomhive was.
Needless to say, the woman had her own strangeness about her. As of that moment, she was the only Draculian vampire in the world, meaning that she is the only vampire in existence who was bitten by Dracula himself. She was a very cheerful and good person, however, though frightening when she needed to be. Where her left arm should be was an enigmatic mass of some sort of shadow-like energy stemming from the stump. She lost it in during the Zeppelin Incident of 1999. It didn't bother her, however. It could change shape, becoming a weapon, a wing, or even a replacement arm. Bubbly, cheerful, and helpful, she was one of the few people who could openly joke with Sir Integra. That was no easy feat. In truth, Ciel was somewhat afraid of her. She was far stronger than him and he didn't much care for that. Alois didn't pay much attention to this detail, however, and was more interested in Sera's impression of her mistress.
The bluenette thoughts were filled with other ideas, however. He worried about the danger of this mission. Yes, Ciel Phantomhive was concerned about being hurt! Even then as they rode in the helicopter, he wondered what would happen if he accidentally got stuck in the blades.
Charlotte and Amelie stayed behind, as it is always best to keep a few supernatural agents still at base. Ordinarily, they would have sent August as well, but she was dead and disposed of. The research department strangely didn't take anything from her corpse like they do to their fallen enemies. Instead, she was sent off like a HELLSING soldier. Ciel wondered if he would be granted the same respect if he was dead for good- not that Alois would ever allow that. He knew he would be resurrected shortly. If that were to happen, however, he wanted the older body to be buried in the family cemetery. There was an empty grave with his name on it next to his parents'. The last born Phantomhive should be placed there.
The idea of things coming to that scared him, however. It wasn't death that scared him, it was what he would be leaving behind in his short absence. Alois was a mess when he saw that he had lost an arm. Imagining how his husband would react to losing his life physically pained him. He didn't want Alois to feel that kind of sorrow.
They landed in the clearing where Sebastian killed the bat creature and began hiking to meet the man at the coordinates given to them. It was daytime, so not too many supernatural beings that were threatening would be active. Seras had a bit of trouble, but with hefty amounts of shade gel, she would be alright for several hours. When the group got close, they could sense Sebastian and when they saw him, greetings ensued.
"Sebastian!" smiled the menace, trotting over to the butler before offering him a hug. Needless to say, Alois was quite fond of Sebastian. All of the Macken kids were. Sebastian was the closest thing to a parent they had, so they saw him as such. They were perhaps even more familiar with him than Ciel was, at time. "We missed you!"
"Admittedly, I missed all of you as well." replied the eldest of the demons with a smile, very briefly returning the gesture before releasing Alois. "How is everything holding up?"
"The house is still standing, although it's probably not up to your standards." the bluenette chimed in as he approached the others, his hands in his pockets.
"Hello, Sebastian." politely greeted Seras, making herself known.
"Good to see you, Miss Victoria." the butler acknowledged. "It's rare for you to join us on a mission."
"It's rare for you to join us, too." added the Watchdog, earning an eyeroll. "So, how about this underground bunker-thing? Know what all's down there?"
"I have a pretty good idea, species-wise, although I'm drawing a blank in some places." Sebastian answered. "As for everything else, I haven't the foggiest idea. I'm not even sure if it's a bunker."
"It's something." Squatting down in front of the grey-coloured slab of metal on the ground, Alois grabbed the handle. "Should we go down, then?"
"I see all of you in days, and you're trying to get to business?"
"The sooner we're done, the sooner you can come home." the menace replied. "Luka really misses you."
"We should hurry, then." Reaching down, the butler gripped the handle to the door and pulled, opening the entrance to the underground. With that, the group began their descent.
This was not going to be a quiet entry, giving how the stairs loudly complained about being stepped on. Guns were drawn and at the ready in case they needed to fight. From the looks of things, they might have to. This place was abandoned and abandoned recently. The lights were still on and only flickered when they were visibly damaged. More disturbing was the presence of corpses on the ground.
"An elf." Ciel observed about the body before them. "Bite to the neck suggests vampire, but it also looks like something else started eating it. It isn't decomposed at all, so I'd say that this was withing the last day or so."
"Fantastic. They eat each other down here." his husband sarcastically replied.
"Well, if the humans evacuated and they all can't get out, then they're going to have to do something to survive." the bluenette stated. "Stay on your toes. There could still be threats nearby."
"You mean like the one coming up to the left?"
"Precisely."
The duo turned the corner with guns ready to fire while the other two watched their backs. They took a second to decide if it was indeed a threat that they were facing. What they saw was a man with torn clothes, that revealed rashy, cracked skin. His hair was matted and blood surrounded his mouth. As soon as he spotted the group, he began growling and backing away like a frightened animal. His lips curled into a snarl and he gnashed his teeth at the group. Poor man. Something had happened to him to cause this, certainly, and they would get to the bottom of it. Unfortunately, the duo decided it was for the best if they put him down. Obviously, he was suffering greatly.
They could tell he was a werewolf, despite his mangy appearance. Werewolves have the ability to regenerate. Even limbs could be replaced if they are developed enough, so there was no reason whatesoever that this man should have been that sick. What weakened him so greatly that he could not heal? They would find out eventually. Perhaps they would take his body back for analysis on their way out. Thus, the werewolf fell without dignity. The group stepped over him, moving on.
"These supernaturals are fucked up." stated the blonde. "Think it's some kind of experiment gone wrong?"
"I had the same theory." chimed in Sebastian. "That bat creature I sent in tipped me off to it. It's an incredibly rare breed. They aren't supposed to exist."
"What was it?"
"A hybrid between a demon and a vampire, I suspect." he continued. "Those it attacked lost their souls and the ghouls it left behind were abnormal."
"Those exist?!"
"Not normally. Most demons don't have much of a sexual appetite, nor to they have a naturally occurring desire to take care of children. Furthermore, female vampires can't carry children. So a male vampire would have to mate with a female demon, decreasing the chance even further."
"This appears to be some kind of facility." Ciel observed before announcing his own suspicions. "Artificial insemination?"
"Possibly. The pressing part is 'why'?" Sebastian mused. "Why would you bother? Hybrids between our species are extremely volatile and have a nasty tendency of killing anything that moves."
"Maybe we'll find out." chimed in Seras. "Where there's a lab, there's usually data. We should take everything we can."
"Think we can haul it up the stairs?" questioned the menace.
"If we clear this place out, we can bring in more people to help." the woman answered. "Right now, it's still too dangerous for the others."
"Vampires up ahead." alerted Sebastian while reaching into his jacket. Sure enough, in the darkness hallways where the lights were smashed to pieces, red eyes could be visible staring back at the group.
A/N: For some reason, uploading now takes me restarting my computer twice and crossing my fingers. Nice.
The transfer to AO3 is going better than I thought. I'm getting hits, but not a lot of comments. Same as on here. I did get a question, though.
"Hate-senpai, would there be appearances of characters from the Bayonetta series(since you seem to bring up Bayonetta quite a few times)? And what about Devil May Cry as well?" by Hideyoshi Noir
No. I don't know how I would fit the rules of that universe into this one, so I can't make it make sense for that to happen. I don't know anything about Devil May Cry, though. If it's similar, then probably not. I just really like Bayonetta.
That's all I've got for now. Sorry for the long wait, though! What was it? Four days to update? Yikes. Sorry, y'all.
Until the next chapter, my duckies~!
