Quieter things were happening in London, even in the same building as the HELLSING Intelligence Department, but people were certainly sweating bullets in the room where this particular operation was taking place. It was going to be a pivotal moment in the fight against Belmont. Not only were they gathering intelligence on the organization, they were also about to test the power of their skull mask wearing whisperer of irresistible suggestions.

After first discovering the Belmont organization, HELLSING had arranged to send in one of their undercover agents to infiltrate their ranks and gather information on those under their employ. It had to be a human, otherwise their psychics would have picked up any trace of demonity. So far, they hadn't turned up with much other than how people are getting tangled in this mess unwittingly. Many of them think that the Belmont organization is just a club for people who also have a fascination with "monsters." The lack of substantial intel was about to cease, however, for amoungst the troop of Belmont operatives that were sent to find out the status of the abandoned laboratory was this HELLSING operative, an agent known only as "White."

White, like most of HELLSING's other spies meant for deep operations, had no name. It had been erased long ago along with any other trace of his existence. The only thing he had to tell him apart from the other spies was the colour he was assigned. The rest is classified.

Yet he is the saviour of that group of Belmont operatives, as far as any of them knew. It was he who convinced the soldiers guarding the area to let them all go. It only further cemented the trust that the others felt for him. Today, the big boss man of the organisation had called their group to meet with him personally in order to speak with them about what they saw. There was even hinting at congratulations being in order for their important discovery of the soldiers. Yet, Mister White had to be prepared for the worst.

After all, this person that he was going to come face to face with could force anyone to do anything if he tells them to. There had to be a plan. If worst came to worst, he would not make it out of that room alive.

Back at headquarters sat a woman with a pair of headphones on her head while strapped to a chair. Around her were other agents attending to the equipment that picked up the sound from the wire that agent White was wearing. They could not hear what was being picked up and could only rely on the woman in the chair to tell them what was being said and to instruct them to make adjustments to the sound when needed. They didn't know if this power's influence could be transmitted through electronic devices, even if there appeared to be no logical reason that it would. Thus, they had to take precautions. This included tying the agent up so that she could not harm herself or others should their theory prove incorrect. Someone had to be the unlucky person to put it to the test! That person was one of HELLSING's bravest, Major Debra Harland.

She sat in the hot seat, ready to go. "Sounds like he's gotten out of the car."

Mister White couldn't hear anything on his comrade's end, as they had no microphone to talk to him with. He was on his own. He got out of the car joined by several other men and started heading toward an upscale apartment building. Just as any good spy doesn't, he didn't stand out in the slightest in the crowd, looking as generic as possible in a pair of blue jeans, a white t-shirt and a windbreaker.

"I'm starting to wish I wore a suit!" said one of the men with him. "This place looks too posh for the likes of us."

"A bit too late to turn back now, I'd say." laughed another while Mister White pushed the button for the elevator.

All he could do was chuckle along and play the part of a good sport while crushing down the part of him that was scared out of his mind. He knew what was going to happen should he talk too much. Yet, it was to be expected of a man of his position. Contrary to what Mister Bond would make one think, being a spy is not all Aston Martins and beautiful women. There was a very real risk of death and danger. The vast majority of the time, it was putting yourself as close to getting iced without revealing any secrets along the way.

Being as experienced and well-trained as he was, agent White was able to keep his heartrate calm while the group ascended to one of the upper floors. "Think there's a promotion in this?" he jested, earning a nudge to the shoulder.

"If anybody deserves a promotion, it's you." one of the guys answered. "You're the one who kept us all from getting arrested."

"It'd be nice, but that's up to the big boss man to decide. It's probably another mission or something."

"Why would he bring us here for that?"

"Maybe it's a higher ranked one? I dunno. I'm just throwing ideas around."

"Makes sense to me." piped up another from the group while stepping off. "Hope we're not in trouble, though. We didn't exactly look inside the bunker."

"Relax, Ken." Mister White spoke with a pat on his fellow Belmont operative's shoulder. "Everything will be fine."

"Yeah? What's the worst that could happen?"

Agent White, of course, could think of fifty right off the top of his head. There were countless ways that this could go wrong and few where it could go right. At this point, all he could do was hope that his skills could get him out of here again alive. They knocked on the door to indicate their arrival and waited a few moments for the person on the other side to look through the peephole and let them in. This was it. There was no turning back now.

It was a large flat with an amazing view of the city down below through massive windows that covered the entirety of one wall. The house was decorated in a modern fashion with straight lines and clean surfaces, but with soundproof foam covering several walls when they connected to other apartments. Never a good sign. The others didn't seem to notice, however, and were instead distracted by everything being so grand. They were soon led into a living room and were greeted by a man seated in a chair with two others at his side.

His shirt had a loud pattern on it while his pants, gloves, and jackets were solid black. It wasn't the most distracting feature on him, however, as half of his face was concealed with a mask in the shape of a skull, revealing only his lower jaw. Lazily, he sat in his chair, only stirring when the others walked in.

"Morning." he greeted with a smile. "How are you lot doin'?"

There was hesitance before anyone spoke at the sight. It was rather unexpected, so none of them really knew how to respond until one of them asked the obligatory question: "Who're you?"

"Me? Why, I'm the leader of this fine orginasation..." answered the man in the skull mask. "Big Boss! Just kidding. I'm pulling your leg. I can't exactly give you my name right now, but in the mean time, call me 'Skully'."

"Okay?" Now, the Belmont operatives were significantly more confused than those at HELLSING due to their lack of insight, but White did his best to blend in with the others. He knew who this person was and so did the people who were listening through his wire.

"The man in the skull mask has appeared." Major Harland said to those transcribing the information. "The operatives with White are confused."

"Anything else?" questioned agent Canary.

"He told them to call him 'Skully.'" Harland replied. "Wait, there's more, actually… He's asking them:"

"What did you see in the forest?" inquired a now standing Skully while pacing back and forth. His eyes could be seen through his mask and never left the eyes of his subordinates. "You, in the green jacket with the mole on his face; tell me." he instructed.

Now standing at attention, words suddenly went flying out of the mouth of the man he addressed. "We saw several soldiers near the entrance of the bunker. Some of them had guns."

"What did they look like?"

"Green uniforms that don't all match, had maroon berets. All of them had a patch on them with a shield on it."

"What kind?"

"It was red and black, sir. I didn't get to see real close."

Continuing to look over his crew, the head of the organisation asked: "Did anyone get a good look at it?" He stopped to look into the eyes of the first person he saw. "Tell me."

"No, sir. It was red and black." answered the man before him. Then, he moved onto the next.

"What about you?"

"No, sir."

Unsatisfied with this, he continued on, stopping directly in front of agent White. The double agent could see directly into his narrowed eyes through his mask. "What about you?" he interrogated, running a genuine chill down the agent's spine. When the hulking man opened his mouth again, White braced for the worst. This was it. As soon as he ordered the agent to tell him, the charade would be over.

"Look me in the eyes while I'm talking to you." he ordered, causing White to struggle to contain his relief.

"No, sir." the HELLSING agent lied. Somehow, the man in the skull mask seemed satisfied with this answer.

"Alright." he said, taking a step back. His voice was calm now, as opposed to the gruff tone he used before. "But let me ask you all this: why not? Hmm?" Everyone sort of looked at each other, hoping that someone had an answer.

"Y'know, for a group that really wants to be professionals at this, you really don't seem that perceptive of your surroundings." the boss continued. "Why is that? That's not a really good trait to have. While it's true that you made an important discovery, what was the risk? Were you seen? Tell me."

"Yes." the group said in unison with a slight delay on agent White's part. Just as he realised his mistake, Skully whipped his head around to spot the source of the disruption. His eyes carefully scanned the group, searching for any sign of distress.

"Were you asked any questions? Tell me..." the man inquired further, this time, carefully watching them.

"Yes." they said again, this time with Mister White joining the group.

"Let me guess… 'who are you?' and 'what are you doing here?' Things like that?"

"Yes."

Turning to one man in particular, he asked. "And what did you say?"

There was obvious hesitance, as the man was very uncomfortable. He had no idea what this strange man wearing a mask was going to do to him if he answered. Since he wasn't instructed to, he had to answer of his own free will.

"I-I…" the underling began. "I… We… We told them that we were in a club and were… looking for… uhm… monsters?"

"And why did you do that?"

"Well, we didn't think they'd believe us." piped up another, immediately directing the boss' wrath upon himself. He stalked up to the unfortunate soul, staring him down like a predator.

"But what if they did? Don't you think you should account for that? Don't tell me you left your names and addresses."

Several members of the group looked down, suddenly finding their shoes extremely interesting. This made the boss angry. Standing up straight and puffing out his chest, he took a deep breath and attempted to remain calm. Unfortunately, he was not a very patient man and his patience was wearing thin. Whoever these soldiers were, they had the addresses and names of his subordinates and his subordinates could lead them to this very apartment under pressure.

"So these soldiers..." A chuckle escaped him while he tried to regain his composure. "They can contact you at any time? Is that what I'm getting?"

"What else were we supposed to do?" defiantly huffed a younger member of the group. With his hands in his pockets, he shrugged. Unaware of the danger, he didn't think it was fair that they were in trouble. After all, they had made an important discovery! What more could the boss want? "We only got bats and a few knives. They had machine guns. Were we supposed to get mowed down or something?"

"Good point. I'll have to give you that one." smiled Skully, prompting the young man to return the gesture. "One more question, though: Did any of you see a girl?"

"Well, there were a lot of lady soldiers..."

"I mean a girl. A girl! A teenager, to be exact, but a bit on the young side..." he specified, only to get blank looks from the group. With a roll of his eyes, he then addressed the young man before him personally. "Tell me."

"No." his poor underling replied, his voice breaking a little from the sudden stress. "We didn't see a girl like that. She wasn't there. There was no one but us and those soldiers."

Ah, so that is how it was. The prize that the head of the Belmont organisation sought was not there. Since that was the case, where was she? How was he going to find her? Nevermind the fact that he was the one who erased her from official existence by removing any trace of her. Identifying her would be impossible for the police, so any records of a missing child being found would be almost impossible to sift through. The only way to really make sure would be to search every single police station in that area personally. But what if these soldiers had her? Who were they? Where was he going to find them? If only his subordinates weren't incompetent and got the name of the group!

In a burst of rage, the man's fist collided with his underling's teeth, forcing him to the ground while clutching his face. As the younger of the two looked down, he could see blood droplets hit the floor and realised that he was missing a tooth. The next thing he saw was a flash of a boot before hearing a loud snap. This time, his nose was the victim in this attack.

"What good are you if you can't fulfill the orders I give you!?" Skully growled. Looking toward the group, he snarled. "Who knows who these soldiers were?! Tell me!"

"I don't know." the group said in unison. The man's will forced them to speak despite their fear. One person, however, failed the test.

"You..." he growled. Pointing a finger at agent White, he smiled. "You stay here. Everyone else, follow the man in the purple shirt through that door."

After the man was pointed out to them, their bodies moved against their wishes. Their movements were sluggish and painful as they tried to fight back, but there was nothing they could do. The only one who could was agent White, who stood while staring into the eyes of the man before him. The boss stared back in return for a moment before they shifted to turn to his remaining flunkies.

"Go with them and keep an eye on them." he told them, and soon enough, the head of the Belmont organisation and the secret agent were alone.

"Why'd you get your men to leave?" finally asked White. "Don't you need to make sure you're protected?"

"You gonna fight me, then? Can you even hear me?"

"Loud and clear, sir."

"Good. Tell me why you're so slow to answer me." ordered the man in the skull mask. The hesitation while the agent thought of an answer was answer enough. "I get it. You're able to resist me… but why?"

"I don't know what you mean..."

Instead of replying to White with his words, the leader of the Belmont organisation chose to answer him with his fists, taking a swing that was easily dodged and countered by the seasoned agent. However, his opponent was sturdy. He hardly flinched at the White's punch, prompting a cocky chuckle before he swung again. This time, he actually struck the side of White's head, knocking him off balance as he clutched at his inner ear. It was killing him, now, as the device that was placed inside of it earlier was forced further in. All White could do was take the few seconds while his opponent sauntered over to him in order to dig it out.

"Oh, I get it..." deviously grinned the man in the skull mask. "You used an electronic device as a buffer. Smart. You just took it out, though, for some reason. That wasn't a very good idea."

Quickly, the agent shoved the device back in before he could be ordered to do something. The action only caused his foe to put up his hands and shake his head with a laugh. "Relax for a minute. I'm actually impressed. That was really clever. As a reward, I'll offer you a deal..."

"I'm listening..." replied Mister White, still extremely skeptical of the other man's intentions.

"We'll have a gentlemanly duel." Skully explained. "If I beat you into submission, you tell me what you know. To make things easier on you, you'll just have to take off my mask. If you can do that, I'll let you out of this room. I won't even order you to do anything. How 'bout tha?"

Flexing his hand, he cracked his joints while the agent decided. White knew better. There was something more to this. There was no way in hell that the leader of this organisation would be so foolish as to challenge a highly trained secret agent one on one. Or was he? What other choice did he have?

"Fine." White agreed, taking fighting stance. "I'll play your game."

Without another word, Skully attacked. He threw his first punch with a mighty roar, only for his opponent to swipe his hand out of the way while using his own force against him. White had a clear shot of the mask now, and he made a grab for it, only for the boss to swing his arm at him and shove him away. That wasn't going to work, it would seem. Both men would have to rethink their strategies.

Skully brought himself inward, putting his tight-bound fists near his face. Yet, his his feet were still firmly planted on the ground with his knees bent. It was a powerful stance, despite how it made him look only slightly smaller. He was a big enough man that it only made him look like his fists were going to explode out at any moment. White's eyes narrowed at the change. It meant that those fists, that could knock out teeth without hardly trying were going to hit a lot harder from then on.

Regardless, he had to keep going. This time, White advanced, going low with a punch to the gut, bypassing the defenses that the other man had put in place. The idea was to knock the wind out of him and cause him to reel back, but although he heard a grunt from his foe, he still stood firm. With a cocky smile, the boss pushed down on the agent's back and brought his knee up, doing exactly what White hoped to do to him! Was this man even human?!

That was the thought that filled the agent's mind as he found himself flying through the air and colliding with a wall. He had to very quickly get up from the ground before he was stomped into the floor. Narrowly, he escaped just that and managed to uppercut Skully. Following that, he proceeded to take advantage of the surprise and punch him in the nose, but before he could he remembered the goal. Thus, his hand opened, and he gripped his enemy by his face. He took in a fistful of fabric before giving it a swift yank. Once the mask was off, he had a good glimpse of the leader of the Belmont organisation.

Luckily, he has a very distinct face. He had beady eyes and a scar on his left eyebrow. They were a different colour than that of his hair, which was poorly bleached so that it has a nasty fake yellow tint instead of being blond. In that moment, the agent's eyes lit up. He had seen this face before! It was in a file that he had seen.

"You're-" he started to let out, only to be swiftly punched in the jaw. The pain was joined by a snapping sound, followed by the feeling of weightlessness. He wasn't able to process anything from how fast everything was moving, but the next thing he saw was broken glass and city scenery. The sound of the window breaking still rang in his ears during his long descent down until the moment that everything went black and all sound ceased.

The one who remained looked down through the hole that was left and contemplated the effect that his actions were going to have. Behind him, he heard footsteps as one of his underlings approached him. He did not turn to face him. Only his eyes moved so that he could prepare himself for the worst case scenario.

"You could push me, you know." he said. "Then you'd all be free."

"You would just order me to jump out the window myself." replied the flunkie, having lost the will to fight back. "What's the plan now?"

With a chuckle, the boss instructed: "Send those guys to one of the other labs and get ready to move all our stuff. It's too noisy 'round here. It's gonna get even louder if we stay."

"Yes, sir." his subordinate answered. "Is there anything else that I can do for you?"

Pausing, the taller of the two finally looked back over his shoulder. "Pink lemonade." he said. "I'm parched."


A/N: Just a few hundred shy of 4,000 words. Sorry it took so long. It got lengthy. I didn't want to leave a cliffhanger, because I want to move on to the next thing with the next chapter. I need to find my notes... Doesn't help that I put them all in three different notebooks.

I still REALLY want to know what you guys think about this baddie... I'm doing my best with him. He's just... complicated. There's so many parts to this character that I actually had to write down what he was about for my own sake. I didn't want to confuse MYSELF! He could totally flop. If he does, I have a backup plan. One that's even WORSE.

And this guy gets pretty bad...

Feedback helps me enhance the experience for you all. What do I need to do to make this story BETTER? It's good, but how to I dial things up? Tell me your thoughts.

Until the next chapter my duckies~!