Siege the Hive part 2

"Why can't I go with master?" Seras questioned, leaning over the glove compartment of the SUV.

"Because the bombs will destroy you in an instant!" Sir Integra replied, sighing and looking out of the window. "Alucard is the strongest and oldest of the vampires. He can't die by average human means, Seras. You know that."

Sir Integra was pinching her nose quite harshly to stop herself from shouting at everyone. Baron was driving the truck as far from the city as possible to avoid any sign of nuclear radiation, but he was strikingly silent and worried about his daughter. He should have known Len was the vampire hunter that Alucard had developed an attraction for, but there are more vampire hunting organizations now than before. Alucard, honestly, could have been talking about anyone, but it still should have been obvious when he mentioned the red armor! Alucard even hinted at the notion that Sloth may have been Len but he didn't listen. He didn't want to listen. That sort of brings him back to square one, unfortunately. What sort of vampire requires a high dose of solar radiation to kill it? It must be extremely dangerous or extremely old. Would Alucard even survive the blast? Len had a radiation suit and probably an escape route to get to the master vampire everyone was after. Baron hummed in thought while reaching for the glove compartment latch but instead grabbed Seras's left breast. The soft texture surprised him at first.

When he heard Seras let out a small gasp, he turned his head slightly to see what happened and then snatched his hand back and shouted, "Shit! I'm sorry, ma'am. I wanted my phone."

Seras jerked back, held her breasts, blushed and said, "I-I-it's okay, Mr. Baron. I'm sorry I got in the way."

"Watch the road!" Sir Integra shouted, pointing to a tree that was coming towards them fast.

"Fuck!" Baron shouted, stomping on the brake and then swerving away from the tree. "Did they have to close off the road to the interstate?"

"Tch! If you weren't so busy being a perverted old fool, you wouldn't have to swerve all over the damn place!" Integra argued.

"I wasn't trying to touch her on purpose! I even apologized!" Baron argued.

Integra harrumphed, turned back to Seras and said, "As I was saying, you're too young of a vampire to handle such advanced weaponry."

Seras then argued, "Nuclear warfare isn't an ordinary way to stop vampires! Master could get hurt!"

"I don't want to say it's possible, police girl..." Sir Integra sighed, worried about Alucard and...surprisingly, Len van Gouge. While Baron's daughter is a vampire hunter, she did forewarn that the nuclear radiation would be very damaging to vampires alike. "I want to say that he'll be in trouble if this warfare was meant to kill him... But if Baron's daughter is out there and is fully capable of handling these vampires, then maybe she'll help him. For now, we're allies... However, if she has Alucard harmed, we will have to seek compensation..."

"Compensation?" Baron questioned. When he felt a pluck on his nose, he turned to Integra and asked, "The hell are you doing?"

"You're in enough trouble as it is for not staying at our location," Integra replied.

"You wanted to stay around nukes!?" Baron questioned more than screamed.

"That's not the point!" Integra argued. "Your job, Mr. van Gouge, above all else is to follow orders. You are a Hellsing soldier and I expect you to act like one."

"With all due respect, Sir Integra, I prefer not to be around the strongest fucking radiation on this side of the planet," Baron retorted. "If following your orders means getting myself killed when it could've been avoided, I'd rather just be a useless butler."

"You're not useless, Mr. van Gouge," Seras piped up, sitting between his and Integra's arm rests. "I think Sir Integra was just shocked that you took your daughter's word over hers. I was surprised Sloth was someone you knew so well."

Integra hummed in thought as this reminder and gritted her teeth. She didn't think Baron just took his daughter's words over hers. The situation transpiring right now goes deeper than that. She just hoped Alucard wasn't making a fool out of himself and would survive whatever was happening.

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"Shit, these things just keep coming!"

Sloth was plowing through massive groups of ghouls just to get to her escape tunnel. Strategically, she was aiming at the ghouls and vampires with heavier artillery, but there were some vampires with prosthetic enhancements and Alucard was taking care of them. He was laughing uncontrollably at the new generation of vampires facing him. These prosthetics were nothing new, but it was new to see them on vampires. He fired at the flying vampires and the metal-clawed vampires mostly to take them out of the picture per Sloth's command. Normally, he would follow his own rules when it came to killing, but this vampire hunter had a thought-out plan that was unfolding more and more. She was aiming at the bigger targets and leaving the smaller ones behind as she tackled and fired and kicked and stabbed. It was strange but Alucard found that he enjoyed fighting to protect Sloth rather than fighting her because he wanted to. The master vampire out of nowhere fired one last bullet at a ghoul with an army rifle and then grabbed Sloth at the waist and forced her to retreat on the side. He pressed her back against the wall as a tanker fired a missile from its overhead cannon. The large blast lit up her lips, giving them a gold sheen as she gritted her teeth, and she took out her cannon to take out the tanker rolling through the streets.

"Captain, you have five minutes to find shelter!" Aiden warned in Sloth's earpiece.

Sloth looked up from her location, spotting a few flares lighting the sky and swore under her breath. She turned to Alucard and soon barked, "Alucard, meet me on the roof! We're taking out City Hall!"

Sloth ran through the alleyway with the cannon on her shoulder and left Alucard to watch after her for a while. His eyes were glowing proudly at his newfound rival. She was incredibly intelligent, fast, and strong. A vampire appeared behind him as he watched Sloth disappear, but he cruelly twisted the vampire's neck with his psychic powers before walking a short distance forward and leaping high into the air to land atop a building. It looked like it might have been a souvenir shop or political meeting place. He could see the city's political office about a thousand feet away and several flags being blown about every which way from the snowy winds to the ammo blasts. Since Sloth mentioned that the target would be in that building, Alucard took the liberty of running across the rooftop and jumping across to reach another one. A flare almost hit him until he landed and turned slightly to see more flares going off. Why would Sloth need so many? Abruptly, a missile caught his attention as it raced through the air and collided with the ground, killing several vampires at once. The flares were lock-on signals! Alucard was soon staring a missile face to face before the air surrounding it reached his body. He grabbed at it, sinking his fingers in the projectile, and threw it at the last tanker on the vampire's side. Oh, this war was going to be good!

Sloth had finally reached the rooftop where Alucard was supposed to be until she saw him running off to the next roof. A lock-on flare caught him in its surrounding pick-up range and she panicked slightly at the missile that was sure to head his way. While Alucard was stronger than any other vampire she faced, she wasn't sure how strong he would be against a UV missile. She was just about to call his name when she saw him grab the thing and throw it.

Sloth smirked with interest and said, "Clever dick..."

"Are you going to just stand there and watch?" the master vampire soon asked, regenerating his burnt-off fingers. When they came back, he grinned evilly, "Or are you jumping in on this?"

Sloth took a step back and leapt across two rooftops before replying, "Shut up and let's go."

The two scaled rooftops side by side until they reached one final roof. The City Hall building still had vampire soldiers pouring out from the front doors, but they didn't have any more tankers from the looks of it. That was good for Sloth because it lessened the burden on her army. Sloth checked the timer on her wrist, seeing that she didn't have much time before the bombs went off. A bit more confident in Alucard's handling of UV radiation, she could smell that the fluid burning him was still injuring him slightly. He needed to follow her to the checkpoint location. Alucard watched Sloth tap the rooftop with her big toe in her boots and wondered what she was thinking. When she hummed in thought, she took a few steps back in almost a skipping motion and spread her feet a little.

"Hey, big shot, listen up," Sloth said, earning the vampire's full attention. She unzipped her radiation suit, revealing her scarf-like cloak, and took out her red cloak before zipping back up. It was nearly impossible for Alucard to admit to himself that he wasn't slightly disappointed that the woman wasn't shedding her clothes off in front of him, but he was still interested in where this new plan was going. Sloth then continued, "We have to touch ground to get to the sewer line behind City Hall, but the UV bomb I planted is directly below us and needs to be activated to take out the footmen down there. I'm gonna need you to jump at my signal."

Alucard's eyes narrowed a bit before saying, "Do you enjoy ordering me around, woman?"

"Your hand is still burning from the radiation in that missile you grabbed," Sloth said, pointing a finger at his hand still smoking. When Alucard looked down at his arm, he scoffed at the observation and almost made Sloth smirk a bit. Almost. She was more concerned with the bomb mentioned before this. She continued softly, "I don't think being covered in burns of that nature is gonna be all that appealing for you."

"Your little toy just burned my glove," Alucard said, holding out his hand to show his fingers were unharmed. While his healing rate was astounding, the burning itself hadn't stopped and Alucard wasn't about to give Sloth the pleasure of being right. He then said, "Only one person can make me follow orders and she's not you. I'll take out your little foot soldiers from here."

Sloth shrugged at his reply, tied her scarf around her neck, and reeled her arm back before saying, "You're on your own!"

With as much energy as she could muster, Sloth punched the roof below her and sent a surge of power through the building until it reached a UV bomb set on the first floor. A switch on the device turned green before it exploded and returned Sloth's energy upward. The vampires down below were more than shocked by this new development. Screaming was soon heard from them as the radiation burned through their skin and revealed nothing but bones later. This frightened some of the soldiers closer to the building. Alucard leapt from the rooftop and was firing shots from the air before landing on the City Hall's rooftop and turning back to see what would happen to Sloth. She was gone by the time he got a good look at the building collapsing and making the explosion more devastating than it would have been.

Alucard fired his handguns about three times and made a hole in the roof to escape the sweep of radiation coming at him. When he landed with a feathery thud from one of his feet, he was met with silence for a brief moment before he walked to the middle of the room. The windows soon shattered and made him question the delayed timing of the UV bomb. It looked like it just destroyed the ground floor soldiers and barely touched the top. A surge of heat then caressed his back, alerting him to his arm and hand. His arm was still tingling from the missile which made him a little angry but intrigued by the sheer power a little liquid contained. Sloth's army knew a little too much to handle vampires of this caliber. When that man on the broadcast said they were going to purge the city, he damn well meant it.

"Your armor is different from the so-called Red Shield," a voice hissed.

"No, brother, it is the Red Scare III now. Didn't you hear the changes they made to the name?" another voice growled.

Alucard turned to see two young vampires with hair dyed purple and blue, respectively. They were boys from the looks of it and hid within the shadows or some type of chamber furthest away from the broken windows with radioactive fumes pouring inside. Another significant detail Alucard noticed was that the boys had metal arms and lower jaws. One good bite from them would take out a decent-sized chunk of flesh.

"I am not with the Red Scare III army," Alucard responded, walking towards the boys. "I am with Hellsing. Where is your master?"

"Our master sent us to take care of you, Hellsing soldier," the purple-haired boy replied with an evil grin. "Your blood wreaks of power. Let's have the first bite, brother!"

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Sloth had escaped to the sewer line just in time before the building's walls and windows reached the manhole she descended into. She pulled the manhole cover over her and leapt down in some fecal matter mixed with water. If her boots didn't have good-gripping soles, she more than likely would have slipped in whatever was underneath them. That would have been horribly unpleasant. The tunnel was impressively dark. Humming quietly, Sloth unzipped her radiation suit and pulled out a flashlight and a submachine handgun. Pushing a button with on the side of her visor, she got a quick scan of the tunnel to see if there were any attackers nearby playing shadow games. It looked like the average age of the vampires within this particular hive was 52.31 years old from what Aiden and Pride were able to gather. That meant on average these vampires were about 20.16 years old from the time they were turned into fledglings. At that age, a fledgling's ability to mask itself within the shadows would be commonplace. Seeing no threats, Sloth turned on the flashlight and proceeded on foot to the heart of the vampire hive.

She crossed her arms at the wrists and aimed at the ground and walls to get a view of where she was headed. Taking careful steps so she wouldn't slip in the contents of the floor, she made a left from where she stood and followed the trail of widening fluid until she hit a vein of blood. That would let her know she was entering the hive. The smell was putrid as she travelled a little over a hundred feet. When she came to an intersecting tunnel, she spotted laser pointers coming out. Her muscles tensed a bit at the notion of ghouls or vampires carrying sniper rifles in dark tunnels. She would have to toss a flash bomb to distract them. While she was supposed to enter an intersecting tunnel, it wasn't this one but the next one ahead of it. For a moment, she put away her handgun and reached into her pocket for a flasher. Once she pulled it out, she took a deep breath to steady herself, pointed the flashlight in the direction of the lasers to reveal several vampires and ghouls, and threw the bomb directly in the center of the group. When it went off, Sloth took out her handgun and fired at the distracted group to kill several of them before running the rest of the way.

Minutes pass by and a big explosion rattles the underground tunnel. Sloth hurries to the intersecting tunnel and enters it. When she points her flashlight at the ground to check for blood veins, she spots a stream of bloodied water coming towards her and a few bodies that have been dead for some time lying about on the ground. Angered, Sloth proceeds with caution until she sees a row of overhead lights. Pulling up a mouth cover from the chin strap of her helmet, she jogs a bit down the tunnel with her face completely covered. As she passes one particular overhead light, shadows above catch her attention and she looks up to see if soldiers were going to get the drop on her. The shadowy figure in question was not here for her, though. When she backs up and watches the thing land, she recognizes the red riding coat and black, wispy hair.

"Alucard?" she questioned. "What the fuck happened?"

The master vampire turns at her voice and says, "Should've known you'd survive the explosion."

"If I'm supposed to be the one to kill you," Sloth started, going around the overhead light so as not to be spotted by anything above ground, "I should be on my game, right?"

Alucard grinned at this and said, "Undoubtedly."

Sloth silently kept marching on but slowed down when she noticed the stream of blood getting wider and dead bodies growing in number. The smell was getting worse, even the mask was beginning to fail at blocking it. Maggots were crawling along the walls feasting on the dead flesh. It was disgusting! Of course, her superiors would give her the nastiest and most difficult task to complete in a siege mission but she had company this time. She didn't bother looking back at Alucard, though; in fact, he was the least of her concerns. As long as the vampire remained quiet, her mission would probably be fairly successful. Just as she reached a corner where the tunnels were filling up with blood, she caught sight of a few ghouls lumbering about. She killed her flashlight for a moment and clipped it to a holster on her left hip. Strapped to her thigh was a unique silencer handgun that Alucard was surprised to see. There was a slot where you could see yellow fluid being drained into something and yellow strips on the gun were glowing a bit. However, he could feel that the fluid traveling through his rival's weapon was harboring the power of the sun in it. This gun had UV radiation laced throughout it. A very formidable weapon for the beauty leading him to his prey. He was beginning to wonder if he should just watch her fight the master vampire here. Activating her visor's scanner, Sloth aimed, took another breath to steady herself, and fired her gun to down the ghouls.

She then remarked, "Looks like the hive might be worse than predicted."

"What hive?" Alucard questioned.

"Your boss never gave you a siege mission?" Sloth asked, moving through the tunnels a bit slower as the fluid's levels were getting higher.

Alucard was tempted to grab the woman by her arm and push her against the wall for an explanation, but he grunted at her in response instead and said, "'Fraid not."

"Master vampires like yourself tend to make a sort of nest as they get older and stronger. We call 'em hives," Sloth informed in a whispering tone, taking slower steps through the tunnels under City Hall. She now pushed on with two guns in hand. She then continued, stepping over a few bodies, "When a vampire is newly formed, they are weak to many things like sunlight, stakes to the heart, holy water, travelling over oceans, and anything religious by nature like hymns or crosses. You should remember what it was like as a young G."

"If you know I'm a master vampire, why do you trust me around you?" Alucard questioned with genuine curiosity.

"I don't," Sloth answered honestly. "Fact, I'd rather kill you now and get it over with. This mission takes precedence over you, though. Sorry, mi principe."

"What language is that you're speaking?" Alucard asked.

Before Sloth could answer his question, she put a hand out to stop him and led him to hide in the shadows as the tunnel led to an upward incline leading to an upper level beneath City Hall. A flashlight beamed through the tunnel from above; meaning, they were getting closer to the hive. Sloth reasoned she would have to slip into stealth tactics from here. The flashlight carriers above were vampires, so she would need the silencer gun this time. There was a ladder to her right that she planned to use to climb up, but it was a bit too far from the edge of the level. Lucky for her, the flashlight carriers were ordered to search below so she took the liberty of downing them. They plunged to the ground, alerting other nearby followers and she and Alucard opened fire on them. There were only about nine or ten around the opening. Sloth led the way up the incline, ignoring the bodies being burned from the inside. Alucard was tempted to drink the blood of the fallen, but he had a feeling Sloth would stop him because of the radiation. He was thinking he shouldn't for that reason alone anyway. When the tunnel leading to the first floor was beginning to empty up, Sloth continued her previous conversation.

"Spanish," she said, earning Alucard's attention. "It's my first language. Portuguese is my second. English, my third. Sounds like you're from old Europe based on your accent. Jesus, it stinks!"

Sloth directed Alucard to another incline going to the first floor, but the ground was shaking uncontrollably for some reason. Abruptly, two vampires were coming at her and Alucard with drool coming from their teeth. Sloth caught one of the vampire's knife-hand rushing at her, dropping her silencer handgun in the process, and elbows the vampire into the tunnel walls. She picks up her handgun to shoot the other vampire in the head simultaneously with Alucard's gunshot. The master vampire hears one of the vampire brothers screaming from the hole at the loss of his brother and purrs with anticipation.

"You keep going!" Alucard demands. "I want this one."

The floor crumbles again until a large crack is heard along the surface and forces the two hunters to lose their balance for a brief moment. When the vampire brother comes lunging at Alucard with bloody tears trickling from his eyes, the ceiling collapses under the weight of a tanker and crushes the other vampire, leaving a splatter of blood and bone jetting out from underneath the flooring. The weight nearly misses the two vampire hunters but forces the floor to give. The last thing either vampire hunter see is the tanker firing a blast, killing its own men and taking the hunters down to the sublevels of the vampire hive.

Only Alucard hears Sloth's voice screaming, "Oooohhhh sssshhhhhiiiittt!"