The team had made a mistake. Blasting away that demon with such a large weapon boomed so loudly, that it attracted almost every creature inside the bunker, drawing them closer to the HELLSING operatives' location. Feet could be heard marching their way, as could the screams and groaning of those who they were sent to remove. Wisely, the group began running while talking.
"Any ideas?" Alois asked. "I don't think we have the bullets for this!"
"I have to admit, I didn't think there would be this many, either!" his husband answered.
Furrowing his brow, he aimed his pistol ahead of them and fired, taking out a few of the supernaturals blocking the way while Alois and Sebastian took out the rest with their own projectiles. Even still, vampires and werewolves poured out of the adjoining hallways, swarming like ghouls normally would. The major difference, however, was also an unfortunate one. They were much faster than ghouls. Stronger, too.
Skinny, malnourished hands reached out toward them, trying to grab onto anything. It was terrible. They were crying out for help the only way they knew how, or simply trying to help themselves, yet they were shot down without mercy. Some were actively seeking out the group in order to devour them, while others were simply trying to escape being eaten, themselves. It did happen. Anyone unlucky enough to be trampled beneath the crowd was fair game. Those in front tried to grab the demons and Seras, while those at the back of the mob fought off each other.
Our group could not see this, however. They were too busy looking for a way out, themselves. Still, they could hear the roaring and screaming as a group of vampires descended upon one werewolf and bit him mercilessly. They were thrown off, only to latch back on until they wore him down enough that he couldn't fight back anymore.
"They're weak!" Seras finally let out, not meaning it in a cruel of arrogant sort of way. It was more of an observation. "I can probably fight them!"
"Likewise." Sebastian stated. "Master, let us tidy up. You and Alois go on!"
A moment of hesitance ran through the Watchdog as he mulled it over for much longer than he should. He knew that both Sebastian and Seras were more than capable of dispatching most threats, but still, he worried. He worried about them getting hurt and he worried about them not coming back. The butler was not used to this Ciel. This man was cautious and a worrier. He didn't run into things as carelessly as he once did. Now, however, he was thinking about it for far too long.
It was long enough that the decision was made for him when the image of a large, metal door became closer and closer. Ciel almost ran into it as he was forced to stop. He fiddled with buttons on the panel beside the door, but it wouldn't open, nor could he fit his fingers between it to pry it.
It was a dead end. Now they had to do something. Turning around, Ciel opened his mouth to speak. "Sebasti-"
His voice was drowned out by the booming sound of the Harkonnen going off, blasting massive holes in the crowd as a body, or two, or ten, was not enough to slow it down. Incredibly, is was like having a tank in Seras' hand. On her own, she managed to clear out most of the poor souls who thought it was wise to follow them. Supernaturals were missing limbs and blown in half when struck by her weapon, depending entirely on where they got hit. The hallway was littered with bodies by the time she finally stopped to speak.
"Three rounds left!" she informed, her eyes glancing at Sebastian for a moment in order to guess as to what he wanted to do next.
"Hold onto them." he instructed. "It's time for a little bit of hands-on action."
"I have bullets left." Alois chimed in while his husband continued to mash the button to open the door. At last, it finally did, but before either Phantomhive could say anything about it. Sebastian shoved them both inside as if he knew that the door would close immediately after. "Hey!" he shouted, banging his fist on the door. "Sebastian!"
"He kicked us in here for a reason." Ciel stated. Although he was uncertain, he tried his best to have faith in his butler. That said, he did worry immensely. "He'll be fine. If anything, he'll enjoy the room to let loose a bit."
"I guess..." the menace sighed, still not convinced. "How are we supposed to meet back up with them, though?"
"We'll figure it out. If they can wipe out that entire horde, then they can probably break down the door, if it comes to that. Let's see if we can complete the mission objective, for the time being."
"Right..." Honestly, Alois' spouse was unsure as to how he could console him. In truth, Ciel wasn't certain, himself. Yet, both of them knew that Sebastian was an almost unstoppable force and the same could be said about Miss Victoria. Seras was known to have taken out hordes of vampires that weren't weakened, and goodness knows just what Sebastian was capable of. All rational thought pointed to the others being perfectly fine, but when one's worry is irrational, it remains unaffected by logic and reason.
Both men had their weapons drawn, as they could both sense many more supernatural beings not too far up ahead. In fact, they had the distinct feeling that they were being watched. It would appear that they were surrounded, but something was very much different about the people they were sensing. They weren't like the others out in the hallway. No, they were troubled, yes, but not yet shattered. This would be a very positive sign, had it not also been for the demon they were sensing as well.
"Any survivors to whatever happened here?" Alois called out, earning a look from the bluenette. "What? We don't wanna hurt anybody who's not trying to kill us. An explanation as to what the hell happened here would be nice."
Oddly, when Alois presented that piece of information, the pair heard whispering as the supernaturals who were just out of their field of vision seemed to entertain the idea. Curious, the duo's heads whipped around, trying to catch a glimpse of anyone, but the group remained hidden very well. Without much else to do, Alois continued to pose questions.
"What kind of place is this, anyway? Some kind of facility?" he asked. "Who's been hurting the supernaturals to the point where they're vicious like that?"
Suddenly, the whispers stopped. Thinking he had just ruined everything, the blonde grimaced, mentally scrambling for an idea as to how to fix it. Yet, after a few moments, a voice piped up.
"Belmont." it said, alone at first, but then it was joined by others.
"Belmont!" they declared.
"The people in white coats!"
"They're monsters."
"They poked my brain."
"They scraped my flesh."
"They toyed with us!"
"Monsters!"
"Belmont did this?!" the blonde Phantomhive let out, partially asking for clarification, but also expressing astonishment. It was unthinkable! For such a group of amateurs, how on earth could Belmont create a place like this if they couldn't even form proficient groups to track down specimens? By all means, it didn't make sense. Yet Alois believed them, whole-heartedly.
"Belmont has been giving us trouble for a while as well." Ciel added, announcing their ambition. "We are working to eradicate the group due to the dangers they pose to others. If you would please tell us everything you know, that would be of great help to our cause."
"We should get all of you out of here, first." added the menace with a nod, but their audience seemed less than convinced. The angry shouting ceased and quieted into a soft murmur.
"And how do you expect to do that?" called out a voice as its owner stepped out of the shadows. It was a woman who appeared to be in her late to mid-thirties, with a tired face and dirty blonde hair. Somehow, the menace felt it would be appropriate if she came out with a cigarette her hand and told them to get off her lawn. She gestured behind her for someone behind her to stay hidden.
"You're the other demon." the bluendette observed, earning a bit of a scoff from the woman.
"Aye, I'm a demon." she answered. "Not like poor Kathy, out there. Hope you're not planning on shooting me, too."
"Something was wrong with her." Ciel replied. "Something is wrong with everyone out there."
"That's why we're all stuck in here." she stated. "We're not exactly having a picnic. In here is everyone in the facility who either can't fight the threat outside, or is sane enough not to try."
"What happened to them?"
"Same thing as everyone else. Tortured beyond what they could bear. You don't really know what this place is, do you?"
"Well, that's why we asked." Alois said, earning a bit of a look from the woman.
"The Belmont Organization is a convoluted scheme to toy with supernatural beings and conditions, pushing the limits of what can be done." the woman informed, walking over to a computer. "All of their data is on here, but we don't turn it on to conserve what little power we have left. It's a mess that doesn't seem to benefit anybody. Hell, they aren't keeping humans safe, here! They experiment on them, too! Infecting them with lycanthropy or vampirism, turning them into ghouls or poking needles in their brains to see if they can give them psychic abilities."
"That doesn't make sense..." Ciel pondered aloud. "Then why are they organizing monster hunters on the outside, if this is what they're doing?"
"Maybe it's to manage the subjects that escaped?" the menace suggested.
"At least someone is getting out of here..." the demoness sighed. "Well, if you're going to get us out, you better do it fast. We're almost completely out of food and we're not going to last much longer. You got enough of those bullets for all of them?"
"You're not upset about us killing them?" questioned Alois. "Wait, how do you know about our bullets?"
"I was watching the security cameras. For some reason, your weapons work." Extending her hand, she gestured for the menace to shake. "I'm Rue, by the way. Might be good to know each other's names."
"Alois." nodded the menace, taking her up on her offer to shake hands before gesturing to his partner with his free one. "This is Ciel. We're agents of the HELLSING organisation. It might sound scary, but I actually specialise in relocating supernatural beings to safe locations where they won't be bothered."
"I don't know if I like that..." Rue replied, taking her hand away. "We would be escaping one organization to be under the supervision of another?"
"Yeah. I can understand that. It doesn't sound too great when you put it that way."
"The city of metal springing up from the grass is just beyond our reach." Arching his eyebrow, the menace turned his head, soon followed by his husband to look at another girl coming out of hiding. She was much younger than Rue, appearing around Revy's apparent age, but it was hard to tell. Her head was wrapped in bandages and she was so skinny that she looked ill. Small cuts riddled her bare feet, no doubt from stepping in broken glass. "Here are the shepherds to lead us there."
"What?"
"Martyr! I told you not to move!" Rue said, gently scolding the girl before quickly walking over to her. She crouched, getting on the girl's level before addressing her further. "What are you saying?"
"'Martyr?'" questioned the menace.
"She won't tell us her name, but that's what she is entered in as in the computer." Rue replied. "She's one of those 'psychics' that Belmont was trying to make. She's the real deal. She was talking about how something was coming, and here you are. Unfortunately, she sometimes isn't quite 'there'. I don't know what's wrong with her or where her mind goes. It must be something that the doctors did to her."
"Huh… Not the weirdest thing I've seen." observed Alois with his hands on his hips. In truth, it didn't really matter what the girl was. All he knew was that he needed to somehow get these people out of there without putting them in harms way. It seemed almost impossible. Scratching his head, he thought while his husband did the same.
"Is there a map of this place somewhere?" inquired the bluenette. "If so, I'd like to know where exactly we are and where the dangerous areas around us are."
"Is the door we came in the only way out of this area?"
"No, but we don't know if the entrance on the other side works. No one has been out there." Rue answered.
"Not even you?"
"Son, I'm too weak to go out there." the demoness stated while sitting down. "I didn't exactly escape the shit everyone else was going through. They got me too. Just like they got Kathy out there. Fuckers essentially raped her with that stick they used to fertilize her with vampire DNA. Just to see if they could."
"You mean that hybrid bat-monster?" Ciel inquired. "It's dead. My butler killed it."
Raising her eyebrows, Rue looked surprised for a moment. Then, her face relaxed back into a somewhat cocky smile. "Heh. I hate to say it, but good. She would've wanted it that way. It turned her into that creature you saw, tearing her apart and warping her mind with hatred until there was nothing else left. Unfortunately, it's thinking like this that made me a demon in the first place."
"I don't mean to be rude, but we need to start getting out of here, now." the Watchdog said, stopping her before she could delve into her life's story. "I've radioed HELLSING to bring in people to extract the computers." Turning to his beau, he added: "I'm going to radio them again to tell them that we have survivors. In the meantime, Jim, I want you to think of a way out of here."
"Me?!" gawked his husband.
"You're better with people than I am. You're also better at planning around them." Ciel informed. "Keep them calm, and keep them trusting."
"I can still hear you, you know." Rue chimed in, reminding them that she could hear them conspiring about her and her comrades. "I still don't quite trust you."
"Don't worry, he's a lover of humans and nonhumans." alerted Martyr, looking up at her while dispensing her usual brand of wisdom. "And he's lover to a dog."
"Huh?"
"Hey, don't make it sound weird..." Alois sternly scolded. "I can just leave you down here, you know… I'm happily married to that guy over there."
Following his finger as he pointed, Martyr's eyes landed on the bluenette while the man talked on the radio. Her eyebrows pointed upwards and her face scrunched slightly. "You have bad taste."
"Right! Everybody but Martyr is getting out of here!"
