Hellsing Fan Fiction ❯ Dread Nothing ❯ The Specialist ( Chapter 2 )

“Devil Never Cry.”

The person on the other end of the line paused, then said, “There may be a problem.”

“Password?”

“Don’t give me that crap, Dante, it’s me.”

“…Sorry.”

“That’s okay.”

“So what’s up?”

“It’s these infestations in London… I think the problem might be bigger than I thought.”

“I’m on my way.”

“What? No, I don’t need… Hello?” The line clicked, then the static air was filled with a high, continuous tone. “… Damn it!” --- A slow drizzle was falling as the two vampires entered the narrow street. Their boots kicked up a thin spray, until they came to a halt before a large, rangy brick building. It looked derelict, and the gloomy, damp evening only added to the sense of ill-boding malice that it gave off.

“This is where we part,” he said.

Seras glanced up at him in surprise. “What? I thought we were carrying out this mission together?”

Alucard looked at her with a mildly scornful expression. “Really, police girl,” he said shaking his head. “My master may have sent us in place of her weak human soldiers, but that doesn’t mean that these creatures are any match for either one of us alone. There is no need for you to tag along after me.”

“But-” Seras began, but Alucard interrupted her.

“And there is no need for me to hold your hand, either.” He fixed the blonde with a penetrating look, peering out at her from above the rims of his glasses, and beneath the brim of his hat.

“Um… right,” Seras conceded. She was apprehensive, but in no mood to argue with Alucard. She would only lose, anyway.

“Remember what my master said,” he went on, already beginning to move away from her. “Find out what they are if you can, but be sure to wipe them out.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Seras sighed, casting her eyes toward the target building.

“…And Seras?”

“Hmm?” It was rare that he used her first name, and the sound of it caused her to glance back at him, blinking in surprise.

“Be careful.” He grinned, grey evening light highlighting his sharp teeth, then turned away, taking a few steps before fading, as was his wont, into the night.

She stared after him for a moment, her face a mask of confusion. A slight, self-conscious blush rose to her cheeks, and she shook his head.

“He isn’t half acting strange lately,” she muttered, and began to walk toward the building.

The front door was locked, so she kicked it until it gave up and opened. Gun already in her hands, and her cannon on her back, she surveyed the foyer with keen eyes. Something moved, seen just in the corner of her eye, and she swiftly swung her gun around to aim at it. She was able to catch only the briefest glimpse of it before it scuttled out of sight, disappearing into the shadows.

“Stop!” she yelled, despite the fact that whatever she was tailing was not human. Not even humanoid… She wasn’t even sure just what it was, but decided that now was not the best time to dwell on it. She had seen the suggestion of limbs, too many for something that large, and a gleaming skin or shell. She raised her gun again, but the thing had already skittered around another corner. Quietly she cursed, lowering her weapon and running after the thing. Her boots splashed in shallow puddles on the floor as they pounded along the ground; round that corner, along another narrow hall. She looked up just in time to see the creature’s shadow disappearing through a door at the end, the door swinging shut behind it. The girl narrowed her eyes, cleared the length of the hall in a few long strides, and kicked the door open. Her gun was up and aimed already, but to her frustration there was no sign of her quarry.

She felt like crying out in frustration. Before her was a dingy courtyard with several cardboard boxes and rubbish sacks strewn around the edges, a dead end apart from a spindly fire escape. She glanced up it hopefully, but was rewarded only with rain in her eyes. Overhead, thunder growled low, and the rain intensified, beating down on her head and plastering her hair to her face, her clothing to her body.

“Shit!” she exclaimed. She had been so close. She lowered her gun, holding it loosely in one hand as she surveyed the area in more detail, eyes narrowing in concentration. It had to have gone somewhere.

“There!” She felt like laughing when she saw the man hole cover, half covered by some sodden newspapers that had become dislodged from their pile by the rain. That had to be it; there was no other exit.

Wasting no further time, Seras crossed the stinking courtyard and knelt, peering into the impenetrable darkness of the tunnel beneath. Beneath the near deafening roar of the rain on the concrete ground, she could hear droplets of it hitting water just a few feet below. The smell that wafted up from that pitch black hole almost made her choke, but she took a moment to remind herself that inhalation was, for her, only optional.

She knew that the sewers formed a labyrinth of seemingly endless tunnels, and that if she were too careless or slow her quarry could easily escape her within that vast maze. It was with increased urgency, then, that she began to descend the ladder. Rust from the iron rungs flaked onto her gloves as she climbed, and when she finally dropped the short remaining distance to the ground, foul smelling fluid splashed up her boots and onto her stockings.

She had expected the aroma of the sewage to clog her sense of smell and overpower all other scents down there, but she was surprised by how quickly she was able to filter it out, strong as it was.

She moved swiftly, glad of her thick soled boots as she sloshed through the murky liquid. To her further surprise, she did not have to travel far. Approaching a turn off from the main tunnel she heard a familiar buzzing, twittering noise, and the sound of multi-jointed legs clacking. She tightened her hold on her gun and held it before her as she edged around the corner.

Suddenly a female voice overlaid the sounds of the creatures (for there were surely more than just the one, from what she could hear).

“Well, where’s the party?” The voice was soft, and Seras was surprised to hear an American accent.

Seras frowned and dared to glance around the corner, pressing her back against the wall. The only light in the chamber came from a small electric torch, held by a small woman with dark hair standing in the room’s centre, and a few thin, filtered rays leaking in from a drain high above. Seras was glad for the darkness; it meant that she could see without being easily seen.

The strange woman held a pistol in her free hand, and stood, ankle deep in sewage, in the centre of the cave-like room. Various smaller tunnels opened into this chamber, and the persistent splashing as they trickled their contents into the pool on the floor provided a backdrop of white noise to the dark haired woman’s words. Seras waited, silent, waiting to see just who or what the woman was addressing.

Then she saw tem. Crawling out of the shadows of the smaller tunnels, lurching with ghastly, slow fearlessness. Things resembling the one she had chased down there, some of them slightly different, most of them larger. The creatures gave the impression of oversized insects, their gleaming shells shimmering like an oil slick where they weren’t coated with sewage. Their eyes were round and multifaceted, and appeared to glow a dull red. Razor-like mandibles extended from their nightmarish faces, jagged and dripping with filth.

Seras shrank back, cocking her gun and clutching it tightly.

“What are these things?” she thought silently to herself.

The young woman ahead of her appeared unfazed. Tucking the torch into her belt, she drew a second gun, though she held both weapons loosely, apparently making no attempt to defend herself against the attack that Seras felt was inevitable. The vampire was about to step forward and offer her help when the dark haired woman spoke again.

“That’s better,” she said, and as she turned her head slightly Seras could see a small smile on her lips. “Now… let’s rock!” She aimed her weapons.

One of the creatures, apparently emboldened by the woman’s hesitancy up to this point, made a distorted, shrieking cry and leapt from its perch.

“Look out!” Seras yelled, stepping forward; she was already too late, though.

The woman did not even look round, instead firing a string of bullets at the airborne creature, cracking and piercing its exoskeleton. It was dead before it hit the floor. It landed with a squelching crunch, splattering sewage and hitting the stone beneath.

As if spurred into action by this one’s death, the other monsters launched themselves at the woman as one, their lethal jaws snapping. Some of them lifted their shells, beetle-like, to reveal glassy, flickering wings, and buzzed toward her head.

The display that followed left Seras in a state of awe. The woman launched herself forward, leaping with stunning speed and placing one pink booted foot on the head of a creature flying straight toward her. The monster screamed as its face was crushed by her boot. Then, using her momentum and the creature’s head as a springboard, the woman flung herself backward, flipping in the air with the agility of a gymnast while firing round after explosive round from her pistols. When she landed, six of the monsters were already dead, and of those left three were wounded, all of them flightless. Without pausing for a second, the woman levelled her weapons at the nearest threats and felled them with a bullet each.

One monster, scuttling with startling speed, dived for her legs with its sharp mandibles poised. Another bounced off a wall and went for her midsection. The woman jumped straight up, bringing her feet heavily down on top of the first creature before raising a leg and delivering a kick that sent the second sailing across the chamber. It hit the wall behind her with a crunch. She twisted and fired two bullets into its head. Still standing on the wounded creature that snapped and snarled under her feet, she fired quick shots at the remaining monsters who were now hanging back. Satisfied, she pointed her guns downwards and shot several bullets into the head of the creature beneath her feet until it stopped twitching.

Seras was momentarily speechless. The woman turned and walked towards her. Seras hastily lowered her weapon, but the dark haired woman was advancing, raising her gun, aiming it at Seras’ head. The vampire didn’t know what kind of bullets this stranger was using, but she was fairly sure that, blessed silver or not, a blow to the head would hurt like hell. She raised her hands before her in a defensive if ineffectual gesture, then closed her eyes and heard the crack as the other woman squeezed the trigger.

Then she felt the bullet whistle past her head.

Opening her eyes, she turned in time to see another insect creature drop to the floor. It writhed for a moment in the sewage before curling its legs beneath itself and dying.

“Who are you?”

Seras turned back. The dark haired woman had returned both her weapons to her belt, and Seras hastened to do the same with hers.

“S-Seras Victoria,” she replied. “I’m an agent of the Hellsing Organisation.”

The other woman raised her eyebrows. “Never heard of you,” she said.

“I get that a lot,” Seras said. “I was sent here to find and kill these… things… but it seems you’ve already done the job for me,” she added sheepishly.

The other woman smiled. “It’s no problem. Just doing my job.” She moved forward and offered her hand. “I’m Lady.” ---