Chapter 43

Originally posted on 25/7/2020.  

London was a hellhole. 

… 

Or rather, more of a hellhole than it usually was. 

Not only were Nazi Fallen Angel/Vampire Hybrids running amok throughout the city, ripping and tearing through any poor human that was unfortunate enough to have survived for this long into the night, but soldiers dressed in white hoods and carrying swords, shields and guns (all of which were adorned with crosses) were doing the exact same thing, except the aforementioned Nazi Fallen Angel/Vampires were also their enemies. 

And all the while, a madman in a tektite-reinforced glass box hung from helicopters far above the carnage was screaming through a microphone at his soldiers, the Nazis, those few who were still alive that weren't part of the first two factions, everyone who both would and wouldn't listen, honestly. 

"ENEMIES STAND TO OUR LEFT, ENEMIES STAND TO OUR RIGHT," Enrico Maxwell roared from on high. "ERADICATE ALL WHO STAND BEFORE YOU! EXCECUTE THEM ALL! KILL THEM! DESTROY THEM!" 

Among those who weren't listening were a certain pair of sons of Sparda, who fought close by each other against Nazi after Nazi. The red-coated Dante, who hummed a merry tune to himself as he stabbed a soldier through the head with Rebellion (the Demon Sword passed onto him as a keepsake by the late Sparda), swung it around his head to send the dead soldier crashing into three more of his allies, which stunned them for long enough to allow the blue-coated Vergil to slash at them so quickly with Yamato (the Demon Sword passed onto him as a keepsake by the late Sparda), that he didn't even look like he had moved from the spot he occupied a couple of paces away. 

"Man, that guy seems really full of himself, eh Verge?" Dante remarked over the din of battle to his elder twin brother. "And I think that makes us 39 to 38. I'm still up one!" 

"Where did you learn to count, brother?" Vergil replied, shooting Dante an annoyed look. "We're even." 

Holding up a finger and summoning a single, spectral sword out of demonic power, he threw it at another Millennium soldier that came close to them, impaling him through the chest. When this didn't prove enough to finish the soldier, however, Vergil simply summoned more spectral swords that continued impaling the soldier, who continued to run towards Vergil, mouth agape and bloodlust clear in his eyes. 

A disgusted expression formed on Vergil's face for a second as the soldier lunged at him, forcing him to dodge to the side and unsheathed Yamato, using it to vertically bisect the soldier before returning it to its sheath, just as Dante raised one of his guns to shoot the soldier. 

"And now I'm 'up one'." Vergil added, smirking at his younger brother, who simply rolled his eyes as he walked past. 

"Whatever." Dante replied, keeping his guns out as Vergil followed him. Turning left into the next street, they came across Dante's business partner Trish (who had a striking, yet coincidental, resemblance to the mother that Dante and Vergil had both lost), who looked to be having a great deal of fun taking on a few of Millennium's soldiers. 

Dashing right at one soldier, dodging the bullets that he fired at her one by one (bullets that flew at Dante and Vergil, but were deflected by a combination of Dante shooting said bullets with bullets out of his own guns, Ebony and Ivory, and Vergil swinging Yamato around with such speed that it looked like a circular barrier had been created in front of them) until she was standing right in front of him, and then grabbing him by the throat, then sending a powerful enough jolt of electricity through her hand into the soldier's body to fry said soldier to death, and then swinging around and kicking the head clean off another soldier's shoulders, before jumping into the air, flipping, and then bringing her hands together to conjure up another powerful bolt of yellow electric energy that vaporized another soldier in front of her upon contact. 

"Nice, Trish." Dante smirked as Trish landed on the ground. She looked up while brushing herself down and looking around. 

"Thanks." she replied. "Next two streets down from here are clear. Not sure about beyond that-" her words were interrupted by a sharp increase in the volume of simultaneous gunfire and screaming, coming from five streets to their east. "Well... I guess that's where the party's moved to." 

"Sweet." Dante jumped from the street up to the roof of the nearest (semi-destroyed) building. "It's been an hour, and I haven't even broken a sweat against these guys yet! Come on, Vergil!" 

Vergil sighed, and followed his younger brother to the top of the building, jogging after him once he made it there, with Trish bringing up the rear. It only took a moment for the three beings to reach the source of the screaming and gunfire, as they jumped down into a street that featured eight Millennium soldiers fighting a good twenty-four of the armoured soldiers (which could only be assumed to be from the Church), where the Millennium soldiers were winning handily. 

Though this wasn't what fazed Dante. At least not at first. 

"Damn it!" Dante shouted, pointing at the (completely destroyed) building that spanned half of the street that all thirteen soldiers fought on. "You guys totally wrecked my shop!" 

Trish growled, and fired a bolt of lightning at the first soldier to shoot her way (which just so happened to be one from the Church), electrifying him and knocking him down on the spot, before she moved onto the Millennium soldiers, with Dante's help. 

Meanwhile, the twenty-three remaining Church soldiers all converged on Vergil, with cries of "Kill the demon!", "Destroy anything that stands against us!", "He's way too old for me!", etc. etc. etc. 

The Strongest Knight simply sighed, adjusted his grip on the sheathed Yamato, narrowed his eyes at the closest soldier to him, and then simply dashed past him, unsheathing his sword to slash at the man and then returning the sword to his sheath so quickly that it looked like he hadn't moved his sword from its sheath at all in the first place. 

The only sign that the Church soldiers even knew that Vergil had attacked on of their own was the sight of their comrade falling to pieces, at which point Vergil had already moved onto them. 

Dashing forward and bisecting the first soldier with a single swing, as well as the next two with another swing, Vergil then threw the sheath of Yamato with such force that it flew straight through the chest of the third soldier (armour and all), hitting and destroying his heart along the way, while still travelling onwards towards the end of the street. 

"Weak scum." Vergil intoned, coldly, rushing forward and slashing through three more soldiers, impaling another on the end of Yamato before flicking the helpless soldier away like a fly, and then throwing Yamato around like a boomerang, where it spun around and around, cutting another five more soldiers down seemingly of its own will, before the demonic katana was back in Vergil's hand in time for the previously-thrown sheath to slide onto the sword. 

The older son of Sparda observed his handiwork for a second or two just as Dante and Trish finished killing the last of the eight Millennium soldiers. If one were to watch them, Vergil was sure that they would get more enjoyment out of watching Dante and Trish killing the soldiers, as their way of fighting involving a lot of casual taunts, switching between sword and guns, and what some would call 'smoking sexy style'. 

But that wasn't Vergil's kind of fighting. His kind involved focus. 

And motivation. 

And power. 

LOTS of power. 

Line Break  

Another fifteen seconds of tense silence passed between Roxas and the eight Avengers, with all of them looking from each other to Roxas and back again, before Steve spoke up. 

"I don't think any of us want any more unnecessary bloodshed today, Roxas." he spoke. "And none of us really hold a grudge about New York. We all messed up, to an extent." He looked to Tony (who had exited the Hulk-sized armour in a more regular-sized armour, and then hopped out of said regular-sized armour), Thor and Clint, who all gave grunts or nods of agreement. "Fighting you wouldn't solve anything, and if your Rating Game with those two Devil Clan Heirs from a month or two ago taught us anything, we'd all go down, or worse be killed, within at most a minute, with the exceptions of Vision and Thor." He shot a sideways glance at Red Dude, which Roxas semi-ignored. 

"Glad to know some people here have a lick of sense." Roxas remarked in reply. "Though it's worth pointing out that if you somehow all kicked the bucket during this shitshow of a night, a sizeable chunk of the world's population would be throwing a week-long celebration. You guys have as bad a reputation as the U.S. Army at this point in time, and that's quite an achievement." he added, chuckling as he did so. 

Black Iron Man with Guns seemed to be offended, as he took a step towards Roxas. 

"Was that last bit really necessary?" he spoke up. "I know some bad choices have been made in the past, but we're not-" 

"Ooh, trying to scare me, are you?" Roxas smirked, holding out his hand to re-summon Clarent Galatine. "Because news flash, side-kick looking guy. it's not working. I doubt anyone worth a damn in the grand scheme of things would ever be afraid of you. Or any of you, for that- actually, I take that back." he then pointed at Vision. "You do interest me. At least a little bit." 

"Rhodes, that's enough." Steve spoke up, as Black Iron Man with Guns looked ready to attempt to throw down with Roxas. "Do another sweep of the city and see if there're any more forces coming in. Sam, you might want to join him. More eyes in the air are never a bad thing." 

Rhodes and the newly-named Sam nodded, and both took to the skies, flying out of sight as Clint spoke up. 

"I think I get why, Roxas." 

Roxas turned around, blinking. 

"Why we'd be celebrated if we all disappeared, that is." Clint continued. "Wherever we go, we save countless people, and I think we've made the world a marginally safer place than if we didn't exist, but that's always come at some kind of cost. Something as small as a building getting destroyed, or something as large as the entire population of a city rendered without a home, injured, or worse, dead. And nowadays, things have leant towards the latter end of the spectrum." 

Tony looked particularly awkward. Roxas shoved his hands in his pockets, raising an eyebrow, silently inviting Clint to keep going, which he did. 

"Every big event that we've been involved in: Tony fighting his crazy-ass former business partner in L.A, Bruce fighting that special-ops commando-turned-Ugly Hulk in Harlem, Tony, again, fighting those Hammer drones at that Stark Expo, the whole thing with that Extremis fire-guy that caused Tony, again, to destroy all his suits, the whole outing of HYDRA thanks to Steve, Nat and Sam, all get progressively more and more destructive, and the entire Sokovia situation with a murderous AI that Tony created being the star of the shitshow... it must have been the last straw for many people. The families of all the innocents who are dead thanks to us... I can't imagine what they must have thought, and still think." 

"That's not even considering all the death I profited from when my company's weapons division was still going." Tony added. 

"And this." Steve continued, gesturing around the largely-destroyed capital of the USA. 

Roxas nodded, a smaller version of his earlier smirk returning to his face. 

"Well, you just summed it up pretty well, Arrow Guy." the Nephalem remarked. "Congrats on being the fourth Avenger that I can actually respect, to a degree." 

Clint looked down, a neutral expression on his face, from the praise that Roxas tossed his way as Tony cleared his throat." 

"I guess Cap, Wanda and Vision are the first three?" he asked. "I know you and Steve made up a while back when he got on that SSPCH thing, Wanda's a friend of a friend of one of your girlfriends, and you did say you were interested in Vision." he shared a look with Vision himself, before looking back at Roxas. "Why is that, by the-" 

"I have my reasons." Roxas cut across Tony, raising his voice slightly, before taking a breath. "But yeah, you're right. They are." 

"Knew it." Tony replied, as he continued walking towards Roxas, only stopping to shake one of his shoes as free of blood as he could, after he stepped in a puddle of it. After stopping in front of Roxas, he inclined his head to the silver-haired Nephalem. "I'm sorry." 

Roxas blinked, again. 

"...Excuse me?" 

"The fight we had at New York." Tony replied, looking up at Roxas. "I'm the one who started it. I'm sorry." He then stuck out a hand to Roxas, who blinked yet again as he recollected the fight that Tony mentioned, then remembering that he was right. 

"Apology accepted." Roxas replied, grasping Tony's hand and shaking it. Clint and Thor then stepped forward and offered their own apologies for their involvement in the New York incident, as Roxas casually took a water-bottle out of a pocket-dimension, took a couple of gulps and tossed it back in. 

"No problem, you guys." he replied. "Now all that's left is for your pet Russian sex slave to apologize. Where the hell is she, anyway?" 

"Safe." Tony replied. "She got hit by a few too many bullets from those Nazi fucks to be able to keep fighting without being a deadweight, so Wanda warped her back to the compound where she's getting treatment." 

Roxas nodded, humming in a non-committal manner. 

"I notice that a certain green rage monster isn't with you either." he remarked. "Where the hell's he?" 

"Missing." Steve replied. "Has been ever since Sokovia. Been some rumoured sightings near Nepal, what's left of SHIELD sent some agents over there to investigate, nothing came of it." 

"I see." Roxas replied. "Hmm." 

"What's on your mind?" Tony asked. 

"Was just thinking." Roxas replied. "I got a hunch that Hulk might have gotten involved with the Hin-" 

Roxas' words were interrupted by the sounds of Rhodes and Sam flying back towards them, and touching down closeby. 

"Anything?" Steve spoke. 

"Yes." Sam replied. "There's a crowd of several thousand zombie-like guys headed this way. And several dozen more Nazis leading them." 

"Well." Steve took a breath as Tony got back into his armour, which then got back into the Hulk-sized armour. "Looks like our job's not done yet. Lead the way." he said the last three words to Rhodes and Sam in particular, who took to the skies again and led the Avengers to where they saw the few thousand zombie-like guys, which were (as they said) led by a few Millennium soldiers, coming for them. 

"-dus." Roxas muttered, finishing his answer to Tony under his breath as he spread his ten wings and followed them. As he did so, he felt a magic-circle popping up by his ear. 

"Hello?" 

"Roxas?" Roxas heard Lavinia's worried voice in his ear. "That you?" 

"The one and only." Roxas replied. "What's up, Lavinia?" 

"I n-need backup at the Hellsing Manor!" Lavinia cried, just before letting out a yell of pain as something impacted her. "I'm stuck against some super-fast blond guy, and I'm getting- AHH! -fucked over by him!" 

Another yell of pain was heard, which was all Roxas really needed to hear. 

"I'm on my way." he replied. "Hang in there, Lavinia!" He then hung up and landed on the ground, between Wanda and Clint. 

"Who was that call from?" Wanda, who had engaged in similar magical calls with Imogen, asked. 

"Friend of mine." Roxas replied. "Needs help. I'm gonna go help her. Fancy tagging along?" 

"I..." Wanda clearly looked to be in two minds about Roxas' offer. Luckily, Tony chose that moment to speak up. 

"Wanda, you can go if you want!" he called. "We can handle these guys easily! Roxas, make sure to bring her home by tomorrow!" 

"You know I'm the 'your daughter calls me daddy too' type, right Tony?" Roxas joked in reply. "But sure." he then looked over at Steve. "You wanna come too, Steve?" 

Steve simply nodded, and jogged over to Roxas as he opened a transportation-circle. As the two of them (plus Wanda) disappeared seconds later, the remaining six Avengers proceeded to engage the remaining Millennium soldiers, as well as the few thousand Ghouls nigh-mindlessly following them. 

Tony and Vision firing powerful lasers from his suit's hands and his head (respectively) did comparable damage to the oncoming horde from the front to Rhodes and Thor raining down destruction and death to the Ghouls from above, while Clint and Sam's damage output against the Ghouls was minimal at best. 

It was a good thing too that that was the last of Millennium's forces in Washington D.C... 

Line Break  

Back at the Hellsing Manor, there was almost-complete silence among the manor's defenders as they listened to the din going on outside. Gunfire, boots on the ground, explosions, the sound of magical spells being cast, the screams of Millennium's forces as they were killed, it was hard to listen to for even the most hardened of soldiers. 

Never mind the fact that the combination of those noises made for an overall noise so loud that no one soldier could even hear themselves thinking about what would happen if the Manor was breached. 

Even if the plan for what would happen was relatively simple: a front-line of soldiers would bombard any enemy forces that set even a goddamn pinky-toe inside the Manor with a hail of magically-enhanced bullets, backed up by a back-line of soldiers that found strength in pure spellcasting rather than weapons-wielding. Hopefully the combination of spells and magical bullets would be enough to put down anything that came through the door. 

Except Tobio and Lavinia, understandably. They were just insane in terms of their power level in comparison to the Wild Geese... as well as on the same side as said Wild Geese. 

If all else failed, however, they would retreat upstairs into hallways and rooms, far tighter spaces in which all the soldiers knew like the backs of their hands. It would be far easier to set up defensive positions back there and pick any enemies that came at them one by one, rather than allow them an open space like the main hall. 

However, that came at the cost of more chance of the Hellsing Manor's destruction, which was definitely NOT a desirable outcome. So, the best choice was this: set up the best defence position that they could and hope that anything that stepped into the manor got blasted to pieces. 

That theory was soon to be put to the test, however, as both of the Manor's huge double-doors were suddenly blown off their hinges. As the sound of footsteps could be heard getting louder and louder, the second-in-command Wild Goose, B. Wing, called out to his men. 

"ON MY COMMAND!" he shouted, as the footsteps continued. "READY... FIRE!" 

Every member of the Wild Geese opened fire on the Manor's doorway. Bullets and offensive spells whizzed at the doorway, creating an overall noise that seemed to dwarf whatever was now going on outside (which was now strangely quieter than just a few minutes ago), and blasting out the doorway to such an extent that said doorway was nearly three times as large as before the firing began, within just a few seconds of B. Wing ordering his troops to open fire. 

"KEEP FIRING!" B. Wing roared. "DON'T STOP FOR ANYTHING!" 

The firing continued, as whatever seemed to come into the room kept walking forward, seemingly unfazed by the bullets and spells flying her way. Whatever was coming at the Wild Geese then threw their giant scythe, which whizzed to the left of the Wild Geese like a boomerang (their left, her right). As enhanced as the reaction times of the mercenary troops had become, they weren't enhanced enough to stop firing and dodge the enormous goddamn scythe, which unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) resulted in their deaths being bloody... but at the very least fast. 

"What the fuck?!" B. Wing yelled, looking to his left as the scythe travelled around the back of the Geese, taking out some of their back spellcasters, as well as some of the soldiers on the far right of the flank that the Wild Geese had created, before landing back in her hand. 

At this point, the rest of the soldiers had ceased their firing and spellcasting, with the smoke from both clearing to reveal a slightly-bloodied, slightly-bruised, still-smirking Zorin Blitz. To the horror of the Geese, they could see her wounds closing before their very eyes. 

There was silence, again, for a full moment. 

… 

"Congratulations." Zorin remarked, a smirk forming on her dark face. "That almost hurt." 

"RETREAT!" B. Wing shouted, the first to make it up the main staircase of the Hellsing Manor. "FALL BACK, NOW!" 

And the Wild Geese retreated, splitting up into groups and rushing through the nearest doors and not even looking back to see Zorin following them at a slow walk, not even bothering to make any visible effort to chase them. 

She was stronger than all of the soldiers in that little circus-show that was apparently known as a mercenary group, and she knew it. Though some of them knew magical arts, it wouldn't be enough to phase her. And even if they retreated like gutless pussies, that just left her with free reign to do what she came here to do. 

Zorin's smirk increased as she made her way up the stairs and kicked down the first door she saw, walking through it straight into a hail of bullets that was slightly less potent than the one she had walked into moments ago. 

Simply closing her eyes as some bullets came slightly too close to them, she bent down and placed her hand on the floor, and subconsciously commanded a dark mass of energy to flow from her hand across the floor. When said dark mass of energy made contact with the soldiers that fruitlessly fired her way, the soldiers slowly stopped firing, having been transported into personal illusions of painful past memories. 

That provided her hundreds of times longer than the couple of seconds she needed to dash forward and swing her scythe at the soldiers, bisecting and killing them. Zorin casually stuck out her tongue and caught some of the soldier's blood on the tongue, savouring the taste as she walked through the piles of bloodied pieces of what were once bodies. 

"Hmm." Zorin mused, as she continued down the hall. "A bit flat. Would be way better carbonated." 

Almost immediately, a door at the end of the hallway burst open, with two individuals stepping through the doorway: one being a certain big-titted Police Girl with dual anti-tank rifles in hand, and a French guy pulling a cavalry-sabre out of a scabbard, and tossing said scabbard aside. 

"Not used to this kind of sword as much as a gun." Pip Bernadotte remarked, twirling the sword around in hand as he looked to the big-titted Police Girl beside him. "Regardless, should do at least some damage to the bitch in front of us, eh Mon Cher?" 

"It was laced with powerful light-magic from the Fallen Angels themselves, Pip." Seras Victoria replied, adjusting her grip on her dual anti-tank rifles. "I think it should at least slow her down." 

"Sweet." Pip replied, smirking as he dashed towards Zorin, sabre in hand, while Seras aimed her dual rifles at Zorin, ready to fire at a second's notice. 

Growling at the AUDACITY Pip had to dash straight at her, Zorin readied her scythe, preparing to cut Pip in half. As Pip reached perfect scythe-cutting range. Zorin began her swing. Though at the same time, Pip dived forward into a roll, easily avoiding the razor-sharp edge of Zorin's scythe and ending up behind her. As Pip jumped to his feet, Seras began firing her anti-tank rifles, her strong and steady hands being enough to keep her aim solely on Zorin, and preventing any bullets from going anywhere near Pip. 

Zorin growled harder as the bullets impacted her, doing far more damage and hurting considerably more than the bullets that hit her earlier. As she raised her scythe to deflect at least some of the bullets flying her way, Pip got to his feet and dashed at Zorin's undefended back, swinging his sword at her back and catching a good, long hit on her back, eliciting a scream of pain from the dark-skinned Millennium operative. 

Zorin swung around and extended her free hand towards Pip, fully intent on reading his mind in order to construct the most painful, torturous illusion possible, but Pip's reaction time was faster. Leaning back to avoid Zorin's hand and swinging his sword right at her wrist, cutting her free hand clean off. 

The shock that Zorin initially felt at the sight of one of her own hands falling off her body from being cut by a HUMAN was replaced, within seconds, by incredible anger. 

"YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" Zorin screamed, fully focusing on Pip in spite of the bullets fired by Seras hitting her back, and dashing at him, anger levels rising extremely quickly. Her swinging at Pip hard and fast forced the Wild Geese leader to go on the defensive. Backing away and raising his sword in opposition to parry Zorin's own scythe-swings as she continued to advance. 

"Well, my mother wasn't married to my father when I was born." Pip replied, jumping backward to put enough distance between himself and Zorin (whose hand was beginning to regenerate) that her next couple of scythe-swings missed his flesh. "Don't see why that's much of a point, though." 

Growling again, Zorin swung at Pip, with the blade coming so close this time that it cut through a small portion of his uniform. Pip looked back for a split-second, realising that he was only a few paces away from the door to the corridor that Zorin initially appeared through. As an idea popped into his mind, he fully turned tail and dashed through the door into the main (mostly destroyed) foyer. 

Zorin followed, with Seras following Zorin. By the time the two Vampiresses reached the foyer, Pip had already headed down the semi-destroyed stairs, and had taken up a more defensive position on the ground floor. Zorin immediately jumped down and began dashing and slashing at Pip, who had far more room to manoeuvre around and dodge Zorin's attacks. 

Meanwhile, Seras discarded her dual anti-tank rifles (for the purposes of movement) and dropped down, deciding that assisting Pip in getting in close would be a good idea, and help the fight against the scythe-wielding Millennium operative (with both hands fully operational once again) end faster. Evidently, Pip thought so too, as his next dodge-roll around Zorin's scythe planted him right in front of Seras. A light layer of sweat covered his face, and his breath was slightly faster than before the fight began, but he looked unhurt otherwise. 

That was good to know, at least. 

After a second-long standoff, Seras and Pip sprang forward at the same time. Growling, Zorin swung at them: aiming at both but hitting neither as Seras jumped over her and Pip rolled under, with both ending up on the other side. Zorin turned around and made to dash at Pip and Seras, specifically aiming at Seras, but she rolled under Zorin's next swing, leaving Pip the chance to slash at her face. Though his blade only nicked Zorin's cheek, it still stung harshly, causing Zorin more pain and anger. 

As she clutched at her face for a moment, Seras flipped over her again, jumping aside as Pip swung his sword at Zorin, now on the offensive. Zorin was forced to raise her scythe to block Pip's two sword-swings before noticing an opening, which she tried to exploit by swinging directly downwards, where the tip of the scythe was then slightly embedded in the ground. Pip dodged to the side and then rolled backwards, giving Seras the chance to jump ONTO Zorin's scythe, embedding it further in the ground, and then jump over her and kick her in the back of the head, sending her stumbling forward into a sword-slash from Pip that would have rendered Zorin headless had she not ducked. 

Zorin yanked her scythe out of the ground and righted herself, raising her scythe to block Pip as he came at her again before shoving him aside but leaving herself open to a punch and a kick from Seras, which sent her stumbling backward a few paces. 

Growling again, she rushed at Pip, ducking under his swing at her neck and dropping her scythe entirely in lieu of grabbing hold of the Wild Geese leader by the front of his mildly-cut uniform, and throwing him aside into the nearest wall. As Pip slid down, momentarily dazed, Zorin picked up the bottom end of her scythe (which was still decently sharp) and rammed it through Pip's body, impaling him through the stomach, eliciting a yell of pain from Pip that was similar to Zorin's own yell of pain when Pip cut her back (which was still stinging quite a bit). 

"Fucking bug, buzzing around like little shit bugs do." Zorin mused, ignoring Seras' scream of "PIP!" before yanking her scythe out of Pip's body and turning around. "Now, let's fight Vampire to Vampire. Or rather, former Olympic bodybuilder to useless Police Girl." 

Seras growled, and wished that she had brought her anti-tank rifles with her. They would've done her a world of good right about now. 

But she couldn't get to them without Zorin rapidly closing the distance between the two of them and killing her, or just turning around and finishing Pip off. So, her only option was to keep Zorin distracted, or better yet damage her to the point that regenerating would take a while, and then get to Pip and help him as best she could. 

However, before she could put any plan into action, several doors on the first floor burst open, and the remaining Wild Geese soldiers flooded through, immediately aiming their guns/spells at Zorin. 

"We got you, Seras!" one of the soldiers, known as Jaffe, cried, before opening fire on Zorin. Seras rolled out of the way so the soldiers could have a better shot at Zorin. "Just save the Captain! Do whatever you have to do, just please save him!" 

Seras looked over at Pip, who was losing blood extremely quickly and gasping for air. Feeling suddenly reminded of the situation that she herself was in before Alucard had stepped in and saved her from that one Vampire who decided to dress up as a priest (the fuck was up with that, anyway?), she dashed over to him, raised him up, and, after a couple of seconds to psyche her up for what she was about to do... sank her fangs into his neck. 

The effect of Seras sinking her Vampiric fangs into Pip's neck, willingly taking human blood for the first time, and injecting him with the agent needed to transform him into a fellow Vampire, was almost instantaneous. Both she and Pip began to be enveloped in a blood-red aura, Pip's blood began to, of its own accord, return to him, and his stomach-wound began to slowly close. 

Zorin only noticed this when she turned around, gritting her teeth so hard that she swore one of them cracked in her mouth from the constant barrage of bullets and spells she was getting. Under normal circumstances, she would've laughed off the minor pain and slaughtered every last soldier that dared fire her way, but with how PISSED OFF she was, she wasn't exactly thinking logically. 

Even if the logic-ship had sailed at the port of her being an artificially-created scythe-wielding Vampire made by a secret organisation that used to be under the control of a failed Austrian artist with one testicle. 

When the red aura fully enveloped both Pip and Seras, it cleared away as soon as it was gone, leaving them looking relatively the same as before, apart from a few small changes to Pip: those being that he looked slightly paler than before, his eyes were flickering between dark red and their natural green, and he didn't have a deep wound in his chest. 

Seras, however, looked massively different: her hair had lightened to an almost platinum-blonde colour, her eyes had shifted from their light blue to a permanent dark red, and her uniform had switched in colour from yellow to burgundy-red. 

"Pip?" Seras spoke, as Pip shakily stood up, and picked up his cavalry-sabre. "You alright? Can you still hold that thing, or-?" 

"I can hold it just fine, Mon Cher." Pip replied, seemingly unfazed by the fact that he wasn't Human anymore. "Can't deny that I'm inwardly sweating just holding this damn thing, but it's something I can power through if it means fucking this Nazi bitch up!" 

Zorin gave a scream of rage and lunged at Pip, not even caring that her trusty scythe was on the ground instead of in her hand, but her focus on Pip left her open to Seras, who swung her arm and called forth a kind of black and orange shadow-matter that wrapped itself around Zorin, holding her in place. The former Olympic bodybuilder let out another scream and writhed against it, trying to break free. 

Had she enough time, she probably would have, but unfortunately (or fortunately. It was a matter of perspective, really), Pip had adjusted his grip on the cavalry-sabre he pulled out at the start of the night's battle, and used it to quickly and cleanly chop off Zorin's head, at which point Seras finally let her go. 

Zorin's head hit the ground, followed by her body, which was now limp, soon after. A full moment passed, where no-one moved, before Pip and Seras looked at each other... and then kissed. 

The kiss would have been wonderful for both of them, a moment that both Pip and Seras would have treasured for the rest of their now-EXTREMELY long lifespans... 

If a scream of "PIETRO!" and a loud blast of magical energy made them both jump apart from shock, and look at the now-blown-out windows to see what was going on outside. 

Meanwhile...  

A transportation-circle opened up in the grounds of the Hellsing Manor, with Roxas, Steve and Wanda popping out of it a second later, landing in the destroyed manor grounds. Immediately summoning Clarent Galatine to himself in case himself, Steve and Wanda were suddenly attacked, Roxas looked around, searching for where Lavinia was at. 

It didn't take him long to pin down where he figured she was at, as the three-metre tall Demise Dolly was a hard figure to miss, and it took even less time for he, Steve and Wanda to begin running (with Wanda herself using her own psionic abilities to keep up with the super soldier and top-class Nephalem) towards said Demise Dolly. 

"Lavinia?" Roxas called. "You here?" 

"H-here!" Lavinia's voice was heard several paces to Roxas' right. When Roxas, Steve and Wanda turned, they saw the gorgeous blonde Demise Girl looking significantly less gorgeous than normal, with bruises covering her face and body, blood trickling out of wounds on her left cheek and right arm, and a black eye. "I'm alright." 

"You don't look it." Roxas remarked, jogging over to Lavinia and helping her to her feet. "You alright?" 

Lavinia's answer was to point to something behind Roxas, which Roxas didn't even get the chance to turn around to face before it smacked into him with such force that it sent him flying backwards into the ground. A small bruise forming on his own face, Roxas looked up, spitting dirt out of his mouth as he narrowed his eyes at a haze of blue energy that was zipping around the manor grounds, barely faster than Roxas could keep up. 

Roxas fired off a bolt of Twilight energy at the haze of energy (which he presumed was what attacked him), which, while missing, did get whatever was dashing around to stop and reveal themselves as they looked at the silver bolt of energy, and then back at Roxas. 

It took half a second for Wanda (who was standing next to Steve) to recognise the figure for who he truly was when he stopped. And another quarter of a second for tears to form in her eyes at that recognition truly set into her mind, since as far as she knew, the man standing in front of her had been killed a month ago… 

"PIETRO!" Wanda screamed, letting out a blast of energy that knocked Roxas, Steve, Pietro and Lavinia all on their asses. Steve was the first to get to his feet, regarding the other of the Maximoff twins who had turned against Ultron and helped him and the Avengers out during the Sokovia situation with a look of shock. 

Roxas was the next to get to his feet, half-dragging Lavinia with him as it seemed Pietro had turned his attention to Wanda and Steve. After getting her a safe distance away from what was going on, he gently set her down close to the manor, looking up with curiosity as something seemed to burst into blue flames just inside the foyer. 

"Stay here, alright?" Roxas calmly urged Lavinia. "I'll be back as soon as I can." 

Lavinia nodded as Roxas quickly headed inside the Hellsing Manor, expecting to see a miniature version of World War 3 reigning inside. Instead, what he got was a burning headless corpse of a dark-skinned woman, Seras and Pip looking out of the window, and most of the Wild Geese doing the exact same. 

"Glad to see that you're okay." Roxas remarked, using magic to put out the blue fire. "Or at least, most of you." 

"Yeah, we're good here, Roxas." Pip remarked. "Mon Cher had to turn moi into a Vampire in order to stop me from dying to that bitch." he kicked Zorin's mostly-charred corpse. "Well, at least I can last as long as her in bed." 

"Spoken like a true Frenchman." Roxas chuckled. "Just sit tight here, I've brought a couple of friends to try and take care of the shitshow that's going on outside." 

Roxas received murmurs of ascent from the Wild Geese. 

"Do you know if Sir Integra's okay, Roxas?" Seras asked, stepping forward. "She's supposed to be coming back soon, and I doubt she'll be happy to see the manor in the state that it's in. At least the damage isn't as bad anywhere else as it is here in the foyer." 

"Last time I saw her, she was sitting pretty in a military base in... Portsmouth? Devonport?" Roxas shrugged. "I dunno, but chances are she's safe. If you wanna find her yourself, your work might be cut out for you since I doubt you'll be getting phone signal on a night like this." 

Seras giggled. 

"True." she replied. "But I think I'll be okay." 

"Cool, cool." Roxas replied, offering a wave to the bigger-titted Police Girl and turning away as Seras used her newfound shadow-matter-powers to create a single shadowy wing that sprouted from her back, which she used to take off out of the Manor, with Pip going with her. 

Roxas himself simply walked out of the Manor, then jogged over to where Lavinia was. 

Meanwhile, Wanda was trying her damn hardest to track her older brother and catch him with her psionic powers, hoping with all her heart that she could end things without hurting him, prevent the merciless hands of Death from taking her older brother from her a second time. However, that was proving to be difficult when Pietro was dashing around far faster than she could see, and rushing at her just as fast as she could react. 

As Pietro dashed to the right of the magical shield that Wanda erected in front of herself with her right hand (his right, her left), she quickly extended her left hand out towards him, hoping to catch him in telekinetic bonds and raise him off the ground (where he could more easily be immobilized). However, she missed, and ended up grabbing a portion of the ground instead. 

"Fuck." she thought, aiming at the front of the blue haze of energy that was her brother, following him with her hand before focusing, attempting to raise him up. However, again, she missed, and left herself open to a hard punch in the head from Pietro that she wasn't able to block with the shield that she had erected, causing her to fall backwards and land on her ass. 

"Wanda!" Steve shouted, rushing over to her and helping her to her feet. "You alright?" 

"I'm fine." Wanda replied, feeling at least a couple of teeth knocked loose inside her mouth from Pietro's punch. "Just... hard to concentrate." 

"Yeah, I can imagine." Steve replied. "Hey, watch out!" His call was all that alerted Wanda to Pietro dashing at her again, and she was barely able to get her shield between herself and her brother. As Pietro bounced backwards and dashed off, Wanda attempted to catch him again, but only barely missed. The red hazy energy that her main power took the form of came so close to Pietro that he had to make a quicker-than-what-was-usual turn for him in order to avoid it, which almost caused him to trip over himself. However, he managed to dash out of Wanda's range. 

"Think I got an idea." Steve replied. "I'll try and get him to come to me. You learned how to cast shields long-range, right?" 

Wanda nodded, not entirely sure of what Steve was getting at. 

"Right." the formerly 41-kilogram no-longer-asthmatic nodded in return. "Cast one in front of me when he comes at me, then try and catch him with your other hand. You already seem to be good enough at casting shields with one hand and using your other powers with the other. Since that's the case, and if this works, you can aim close to me in order to catch Pietro." 

"S-sounds like a plan to me." Wanda, still slightly unsure in Steve's planning, but knowing that it was better than just being a sitting duck that waited for Pietro to come at her and fuck up her day. "But what if I hit you? You took a pretty bad hit from that Fallen Angel woman back in D.C." 

"Don't worry about me." Steve looked back to Wanda, giving her a reassuring smile for a second or two, before his expression turned steely once again. "Just worry about catching Pietro, okay?" 

Wanda nodded, and watched as Steve then dashed forward in an attempt to catch Pietro's attention. It worked: As he was closer to the blond speedster than Wanda, Pietro switched from attacking his younger sister (by twelve minutes) to Steve, who was still ready to fight, keep fighting and never stop fighting, in spite of the loss of his shield. 

Pietro's first attack came seconds later, after he swerved behind Steve to try and get in a better shot at the super-soldier. Fortunately, Steve noticed the haze of energy approaching his left side, guessed what was about to happen, and rolled away from Pietro, leaving him to punch nothing and stumble for a second. However, that second- that single second- was all Wanda needed. 

The second that she managed to wrap at least a portion of her telekinetic power around Pietro's arm, she thrust her arm upwards in order to send her older brother spinning up into the air, away from the ground on which he was most dangerous. 

As Steve jumped back to his feet after his roll, he looked up at Pietro's suspended body, complete with the look of shock on Pietro's face that came with being caught like this. Before he could say anything, a spell hit Pietro in the back of the head with pinpoint precision, knocking him clean unconscious. Steve jumped slightly from how fast the spell came, and looked over to where it came from, where he saw Roxas and Lavinia standing a dozen or so feet away. 

Lavinia looked significantly better than she did when Roxas, Steve and Wanda had dropped through their transport-circle into the manor grounds: she wasn't bleeding anymore, her bruises were gone, and her black eye was healed. The only thing that took away from the supermodel-tier Magician image that Lavinia usually gave off were that her clothes were muddy and bloody as all fuck. 

That and the fact that eight white Devil wings had emerged from Lavinia's back, indicating that she was the newest member of Roxas' peerage. 

"What piece?" Steve asked, figuring this out in an instant. 

"Pawn." Roxas replied. "Took two of them. Chances are her Longinus had something to do with it." 

"Is Pietro okay?!" Wanda, who had dropped her unconscious brother on the ground from the shock that came with said brother being knocked out, cried, as she dashed over to Pietro. 

"If you consider him being knocked out via a zap of Twilight energy before being dropped on the ground 'okay', then yeah, he is." Roxas replied. "Though he shouldn't be, considering he's from Millennium." he extended his hand to summon Clarent Galatine, but a concentrated ball of whatever the hell Wanda's powers took the form of came dangerously close to Roxas' hand, fired by Wanda herself. 

"That's my brother, you prick." Wanda whispered, her eyes beginning to glow red. "He must have been brainwashed." 

Roxas shrugged, but backed down. 

"Right." he replied. "Sorry. Didn't know. Lavinia?" 

Lavinia looked up. 

"Yes?" 

"Take this guy to the nearest Sitri hospital." Roxas ordered, opening his hand and conjuring up a little card with writing on it, before handing it to Lavinia. "Show that to anyone who asks." 

"Got it." Lavinia replied, conjuring up magical binds and wrapping them around Pietro, before lifting him into the air. She opened a transport-circle and walked through it, with Wanda jogging through the circle a second later without saying a word, before the circle closed behind the three of them. Roxas blinked, then shrugged. 

"Makes sense that she'd go." he remarked, before opening a transportation-circle of his own and turning back to Steve. "I'm gonna head to London and see what's going on there. You wanna come, Steve? Hopefully there's no closely-related sibling or best friend of yours that's been brainwashed by Millennium in the same way Wanda's brother presumably was." 

Steve blinked at Roxas' offer, before nodding. 

"Sure thing." he replied, following Roxas through his transport-circle, just as Wanda had followed Lavinia through hers just a moment before. 

Line Break  

Integra Hellsing was... not having the best night of her life. 

After an emergency meeting with high-up officers of the British Army about the small matter of the capital of the country she had been born and raised in being wrecked by Nazi Vampires and Fallen Angels, her trip back to the Hellsing Manor had been interrupted by someone (who, judging by Walter's reaction to him, was a high-up member of Millennium) blocking their path, forcing her to take the wheel and find another way home. 

Never mind the fact that she wasn't the best driver (having had only a couple of driving lessons in her late-teens, and having been driven everywhere by Walter since she was ten years old), the car had been totalled only ten or so minutes after she began driving again by a group of Millennium operatives that thought it would be a good idea to pursue her. 

Though it was a nice move for the group of Exorcists, led by Alexander Anderson, to make their timely arrival and kill the Millennium soldiers that had pursued her, the fact that they attempted to take her into custody did put a slight damper on that. 

However, her slightly more twisted side (which she kept on the inside as much as possible) found it incredibly funny that she had managed to convince all those Catholic papists to escort her home, in absence of her car. She was certain that, if Roxas were here, he'd be rolling on the floor, probably dying with laughter. 

However again, the crazed voice of Enrico Maxwell could be heard from on high, his deafeningly loud ramblings becoming more and more crazed with each moment. 

"DIE, DIE, DIE!" Maxwell roared. "KILL THEM ALL! FILTHY VERMIN, FEEL THE FULL FORCE OF OUR WRATH. THE POWER OF THE VATICAN! THE ONLY GOOD PROTESTANT IS A DEAD PROTESTANT!" 

"You have betrayed us all, Maxwell..." Integra whispered, clenching her fists in fury. She had never gotten along with the Bishop-turned-Archbishop, but she never figured that he would end up at THIS level of insanity. 

"Sneak attacks and betrayals are just par for the course in war." Alexander Anderson dryly remarked as he stepped up alongside her. "In some circumstances, I'd even say praiseworthy. Especially against heathens such as yourself." 

Integra was too angry at Maxwell to retort. 

"However, this... this is different." Anderson replied, looking down. "I cannot let this pass. Maxwell... he's become enraptured by his own authority. Intoxicated by his new power." 

"YOU DO NOT DESERVE GOD'S MERCY!" Maxwell screamed. "IF HE WILL NOT TURN YOU TO THE AFTERLIFE, THEN I WILL!" 

"We are meant to be instruments of a higher power." Anderson continued, though a small bead of sweat formed on his head at Maxwell's last remark. "I am but a blade, wielded from on high. A guillotine blade, in the service of God. But what Maxwell is doing tonight... it's not in the service of God. It's in the service of power!" 

"SINNERS WILL BE ALLOWED NO QUARTER!" Maxwell continued to yell, seemingly loving the sound of his own manic voice projected over miles and miles of area. "KILL THEM ALL! LET GOD SORT THEM OUT!" 

Anderson then looked to the sky, where the helicopters carrying Maxwell's glass skybox could be faintly seen. 

"You, Maxwell!" Anderson cried. "You've turned your back on God-" 

"I SHALL BE THE NEW GOD OF THIS WORLD!" Maxwell screamed, bursting into maniacal laughter again. There was silence among everyone for a few seconds before, as was the fate of all silences, the silence was broken. 

"Father Anderson!" A young woman with straw-coloured hair and classes spoke up. "You need to focus on your mission, your orders. Maxwell wants Sir Integra Hellsing taken into custody immediately. 

Almost instantly, all the other Exorcists drew their guns and pointed them at Integra, who didn't flinch, or even move at all for that matter. 

"I know, but..." Anderson muttered. "I don't like this." the woman who had spoken earlier, Heinkel Wolfe, looked taken aback. 

"What you like doesn't enter into it, Anderson!" she spoke, her voice raising. "Understand?!" 

"Yes, but I still don't like this!" Anderson replied, his voice raising too. As a certain presence made itself known above him, he jumped back as what seemed like a black and red bullet flew down into the small gap between Integra and the Exorcists, and exploded around them, protecting Integra and sending all the gun-wielding Exorcists flying backwards. 

Heinkel jumped, pointing her guns at whatever was now protecting Integra, which revealed itself seconds later to be Seras Victoria and Pip Bernadotte, the latter of whom had his sabre out, ready to fight. 

"You alright, Sir Integra?" Seras spoke up, seemingly undeterred by the fact that twenty Exorcists were now pointing guns at HER rather than at Integra. "Any injuries?" 

"I'm adequate." Integra replied. "How's the headquarters?" 

"Alright, all things considered." Pip replied. "The foyer's in a bit of a merde  state, though." 

"We were attacked by enemy soldiers." Seras continued. "We managed to kill them all. There were some casualties on our side, though. I had to turn Mr. Bernadotte into a Vampire, Sir." 

"Yes, I see." Integra replied, her eyes flicking between Pip and Seras. "You drank from him, didn't you? You've finally become a Vampire." 

Seras let out a small giggle, and turned around to smile at her boss. 

"Yes, I have." she replied. As Heinkel, and a black-haired Exorcist wielding a katana, Yumie, drew their weapons, Anderson spoke up. 

"Stand down, both of you!" he ordered. "Even with both your powers combined, that girl is way too much for you to handle." he stepped forward, and regarded Seras calmly as she turned back to him. "Seras Victoria the Vampire, huh? Has a nice ring to it... I've got to say, you're starting to become quite the fearsome creature." 

"Yes, Father." Seras replied. "And I'm getting stronger all the time. "I don't think I'll be afraid of anything, ever again." 

"It's as if your eyes have become windows to a bottomless abyss." Anderson observed. "It's striking, considering how human you look otherwise." 

And then, it happened. 

A blaring horn from a ship to the east, which Seras and Anderson both turned towards. 

As everyone else looked east as well, they could faintly see, through the fog that had formed while all of this was going on, what looked like a ship that was one or two knocks away from collapsing completely. 

It looked more like a ghost ship than anything. 

As the ship manoeuvred through London Bridge (which had, indeed, fallen down), Seras and Anderson could both see (with their respective vampire/technologically enhanced visions) a single figure, standing on the port of the ship, seemingly guiding it with his mind. 

A tall, black-haired figure, with long red coat, and a sadistic, battle-hungry grin on his face… 

Alucard had joined the battle.