Hellsing Fan Fiction ❯ Old and New ❯ Chapter 16 - Hostages ( Chapter 16 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Disclaimer: I do not own Hellsing, but I do have the pleasure of owning Adrian.

Author's Note: Last chapter stirred something in my veins, and I must heed the call to write. One of the reviewers complimented me on not rushing Pip's and Seras' relationship. It made me think of Alucard's and Integra's. I feel a little trepidation trying to write out the scenes with them. Mainly because I want to do their relationship RIGHT. So things are going awfully slow with them as I try to piece everything together.

Old and New

Chapter 16 - Hostages

A grim silence hung over the office. It was broken only by Integra's voice, reading the facts off the report sheet in a dull, detached monotone. "Forty dead, twenty-nine injured, thirty-one still being held hostage… Number of FREAKs: 50."

Their next target was a hospital located in the southern section of London. The FREAKS were discovered setting up shop there by the police. Carnage ensued. Now the entire building was closed off. Whatever patients still alive were being held hostage.

"Your main mission objective: Seek out and destroy the twenty FREAKS that have holed up there. Secondary mission objective: Protect the hostages and get them out." Integra's eyes glanced over the paper, flicking to Alucard briefly, then to Seras.

"Team One shall comprise solely of Alucard. Team Two will be Seras and Adrian. Captain Bernadotte and the Wild Geese will relieve the police of securing the perimeter." The three other occupants in the room nodded.

***

A window on the second story shattered. An automatic rifle poked out of it, raining fire down on the squad cars parked haphazardly below. Cops ducked out of the way as holes appeared in their cars and glass splintered into a thousand tiny fragments.

Police scrambled out of the way as a small, egg shaped object flew out of the window. It made contact with a fire truck and detonated. Fire and twisted metal showered over everything with a deafening racket. After the sound of the explosion had died down, the noise was hardly diminished. It was now replaced by the sound of screaming and car alarms.

Several large, heavily armored trucks drove up to the scene. Before they were even parked, men in combat gear poured out of the backs. Alucard, Seras, and Adrian exited out of the first one. No one else did, it seemed that no one else wanted to ride with the vampires.

Seras was setting up when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Pip, an odd expression of concern in his eyes. "Yes?" She asked.

He dropped his hand. "Nothing. Don't destroy the whole building." He grinned at her.

She frowned at him. "You're one to talk, at least I can aim a gun straight."

He scowled. "At least I can tell one target from another. How many `innocent' targets did you take down last practice?"

Seras' frown deepened. "Three, and that was only that one time!" She hefted her Halcannon up onto one shoulder, then pushed past him.

She stopped in front of Adrian, who appeared to be unarmed. "Don't you have any weapons?" She asked.

"I've never needed them." He grinned ferally. "But my, that is a big gun." He looked over the Halcannon.

"The bigger, the better." Seras said simply.

Adrian's grin widened, showing fangs. "Ah, you're one of THOSE kinds of girls." He chuckled lightly as Seras walked past him, blushing.

Pip walked up to him, his expression dark. "This isn't a game, this is a mission. People's lives are at stake."

Adrian looked at him soberly. "I am aware of that. Look, I don't care about any of those hostages. All I care about is killing the FREAKs." Adrian turned his back on Pip and started walking away. "I'll make sure your girlfriend stays out of trouble too." He called over his shoulder.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Was she?

***

All figures except one ducked as another grenade flew out of the window. The explosion rocked the street and sent dust sweeping over the area, cutting off all visibility. Out of the cloud of dust and smoke, the one figure that hadn't sought cover emerged, Jackal in one hand, Cassul in the other. His long crimson coat flapped behind him in the wind. He looked up at the hospital over his glasses, wine red eyes surveying it hungrily. His fangs were bared in a bloodthirsty grin.

He walked right up to the front entrance. Gunfire exploded all around him, many shots scoring on his flesh. He moved on unheeding, intent on only one thing. The desire to kill.

He was truly a monster.

***

"Team two, has entered the facility! Fending off minimal resistance!" A stray bullet whizzed by her, whipping the radio from her hand and shattering it to pieces. "Shit!" Seras brought up her Halcannon, sighting her enemy. Before she even got ready to shoot, a figure leaped over her and landed on the FREAK. One swipe tore its head from its body, the second spilled it guts out onto the floor.

Adrian shook the excess gore from his hands and continued on down the hall. He ran in long loping gates that Seras had a hard time keeping up with. Also, he moved much more silently than she did, hardly making a sound on the tiled linoleum floor.

They met resistance around the next corner. Five FREAKs with rifles. "Adrian, DUCK!" Seras shouted at him. She slid to the floor as gunfire blasted over head. A split second before the group could react she brought up her Halcannon and fired an explosive round. Smoke and noise assaulted her senses. Blood and gore rained down on the pair.

Adrian let out a low whistle from his position on the floor.

***

"Team two! Team two, do you copy?" Pip slammed the radio receiver into the wall. Seras wasn't responding and Alucard didn't carry a radio. He had no idea what was going on in there and it frustrated him to no end.

His lieutenant looked at him. "Do we bust in yet?"

"No, tell the men to hold their position." Pip looked at the front of the hospital trying to draw answers from its blank surface.

***

Alucard moved swiftly, leaving mangled corpses in his wake. They had tried to overwhelm him with numbers. But no matter how many came at him, he brought them all down. He did not waste any effort on this low-level scum. He was after the ringleader.

And he would find him, as long as the coward didn't flee.

***

Seras picked herself up off the floor. A quiet whimpering caught her ear. Seras hunted down the noise. She flung open a door marked `Supply Closet'. A small girl wearing a hospital gown lay curled up on the floor, weeping silently. Her head snapped up. She tried to scramble away from Seras, fright etched into her face. "No, no." Seras held up her hands. "I won't hurt you. I'm here to help."

The girl studied Seras' closely. Taking in the blood staining her outfit. At the Halcannon propped up by the door. She looked up into Seras eyes and slowly stood up.

"Uhm, Seras." Adrian said from behind her. "We've got company." He was looking down the hall. No less that ten FREAKs were making their way towards them, all armed.

Seras grabbed her Halcannon and stepped in front of Adrian and the girl. She opened fire on the group. These belonged to a tough breed of FREAK, for it took her several shots to take them all down.

A scream from behind startled her. She spun around to see the girl writhing while Adrian held her up by her neck. He pulled out a silver dagger and plunged it into the girls' chest. Seras stared at him, her eyes wide with horror. "She's been turned." Adrian said simply, retrieving his dagger and letting the girls' body fall to the floor. "I'd shoot her once, just to make sure she stays down."

Seras knelt down by the girl. She pulled open her mouth revealing tiny fangs. The blood that poured from the wound was black ichor and her skin was cold. Seras bowed her head, then pulled out her handgun. She cocked it and sent a silver bullet through the girl's skull.

Seras stood up, her eyes in shadow. A twinkling line of fluid ran down her cheek. "Let's go." She said, her voice thick with rage. Adrian followed her silently, knowing better than to say anything right now.

***

Alucard faced off against his foe. A tall, pale man dressed in dirty clothes and wielding a long spiked chain. "What are you going to say?" The FREAK asked him. "Resistance is futile?"

Alucard smiled his fang-baring grin. "Oh, nothing of the sort." He whipped out Jackal and opened fire on the FREAK ringleader.

His foe dodged the massive bullets. He swung his chain out, wrapping around Jackal. With a fierce tug Jackal was pulled from Alucard's hand and skittered across the floor. While that was happening, the FREAK swung the other end of the chain around Alucard's neck. Another fierce pull and a jump had Alucard to his knees, the spikes on the chain gouging the flesh of his neck. The ringleader stood over him, holding onto the chain tightly.

Alucard's smile never left as he pulled out Cassul and shot the FREAK in the chest. A wide hole appeared in the ringleader's chest and he screamed shrilly as he died.

Alucard stood up, unwinding the chain from around his throat. The small wounds left behind sealed up almost immediately. "You might have caused me more trouble, had this been a silver chain." He said to the corpse. "You were just an easy kill, like all the others."

***

Seras tore through the FREAKs with such rage and fervor it made Adrian nervous. They found no living soul in the hospital, all were turned into FREAKs. All trace of humanity was gone from her features. When the last one had been slaughtered, that vampiric rage still held her. Her eyes were vacant and her breathing was hard.

"Seras, snap out of it!" Adrian said, his hands on her shoulders. She reacted violently to this, swinging at him. He tried to restrain her. She hurled him into the wall, cracking it. "Sorry about this, partner." He said softly. Moving swiftly, he appeared in front of her and buried his fist into her stomach. Her eyes widened. She made a strangled noise, then passed out. She slumped over him. He hefted her up over one shoulder and picked up her fallen Halcannon. He then proceeded out of the hospital.

***

Alucard was rounding up the last of the FREAKs. He was running low on ammo so he fired rarely. He was herding them, like so many sheep, out the front of the building, where the Wild Geese immediately opened fire on them.

Pip's mouth was a thin line as he watched Adrian walking toward him, Seras over one shoulder. "What happened?" He asked. Adrian read the words behind it. `What did you do to her?'

"Relax, she's just been knocked out." Adrian entered the back of the truck. He dropped the Halcannon with a heavy THUNK and laid Seras down on the bench. Pip immediately took over. He placed a cold compress on Seras' forehead and began reviving her. "I don't think you want to do that." Adrian cautioned. Seras' eyes sprang open. "Too late."

The first thing Seras saw was Pip. She lunged at him, knocking him to the floor, screaming ferally. "Shit!" Adrian cursed as he tried to pull Seras off of Pip.

It took all of his willpower to squelch the fear rising up inside of him. She kept trying to claw at him, luckily Adrian was holding back her hands. She snarled and spit at him and he got a good look at her fangs. She was totally foreign, inhuman. No, this was SERAS. Seras would never hurt him. "Seras, snap out of it!" Her eyes didn't see him though; they just saw enemies. "Adrian, let her go! Go get a blood pack!"

Adrian looked at him in surprise. "Do you have a death wish? If I let her go, she'll tear you apart!" It was true; even Adrian couldn't match Seras raw strength.

"Just do it!" Pip yelled at him.

Adrian gave him a look that said `Your funeral' and let go of Seras arms. Pip had his hands on her shoulders, braced to hold her away from him. But it was like trying to hold back a river whose dam had burst. His strength was waning fast as she tried to bite at his throat.

Adrian grabbed a blood pack and ripped it open with his teeth. Smelling the blood, Seras head snapped up. Adrian held the pack up. "Come on." He said. She lunged at him, grabbing the blood pack from him, spilling about half of it in the process. The other half she started drinking as quickly as possible. Twin lines of crimson spilled from the corners of her mouth. She sank down to the floor still drinking.

Pip sat up and wrapped his arms around her, rocking her gently. After the blood was gone she just lay there drowsily. One of his men popped his head into the truck. "Captain! All FREAKS have been terminated. Your orders?"

"Pack up, the police can handle clean up. We're going home. And have someone clean up this mess." He indicated the spill medical blood.

"Sure thing, Captain." The merc said, grinning.

Adrian looked down at Seras. "Think we should move her?"

"She'll be fine. We have to report back to Integra."