New Weaponry

Disclaimer: Hellsing belongs to people who are not me. I am making £0.00 out of this fic; it is written purely because I have a burning need to create. Although I would like to own Alucard . . . then he'd be mine.

Rating: PG-13

Set: Just after Brazil.

Authoress note: I originally had this idea waaaay back in 2005, I was looking through my old stuff and when I came across this one, I couldn't let it continue to sit gathering dust.

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Alucard often found himself wondering about Walter.

As far a human went, he wasn't physically remarkable, he was strong and still incredibly limber despite his advancing years, but not supernaturally so. He was fairly ordinary really, at least if you only looked at him physically. His mind, however, was anything but. His mental versatility was astounding, he had been everything he could possibly be in his lifetime, an impish child, a vampire killer, an underage smoker, a surrogate father, a butler, a friend. There were too many labels to give to the man, Alucard had stopped adding them by the time Integra had turned 13 years old, the list was ridiculous.

Recently Walter had turned his versatile mind to the task of preserving the mercenary army. They were good fighters, the vampire had to admit, at least against human targets and their leader was adaptable and quick on his feet. But the fact still remained that they were green when it came to vampire hunting and they were expensive. Extremely expensive so well worth preserving. At least preserving long enough for them to gain some much-needed experience.

Walter had been developing weapons for as long as Alucard had known him, he had always been something of a tinkerer. The new addition of the untried mercenaries had given Walter the perfect excuse to develop some of the ideas gathering dust on his workbench.

He had announced a demonstration this morning and Alucard had found himself avoiding his coffin in favour of attending. He remained hidden upon entering the firing range, least he ends up the focus of the mercenaries and not Walter and his new gizmos. Though the temptation to head to the front and have a fiddle with the array of new 'toys' was difficult to resist. He'd always enjoyed 'new' things, it was part of what made him so successful as a vampire (not counting his current imprisonment) he'd met younger vampires than himself who seemed older, growing stagnant, living in the past, a healthy curiosity for the new and shiny technologies kept Alucard young, at least he liked to think so.

He resisted his temptation and instead focused on the men waiting for the demonstration. He smiled noting Seras had also attended, and that the mercenaries were giving her something of a wide birth which her body language said she did not appreciate. She slumped towards the back of the group looking dejected and lonely.

He found himself moving unconsciously closer to her until his darkness was spreading out behind her. She sensed him quickly and turned to look at the shadows, Alucard smiled at her progress, not only had she noted him faster than usual, she had located him quickly and had stopped flinching every time she saw him. She was improving and the pride he felt was undeniable.

"Master," she actually sounded pleased.

"Hush," he kept his voice low. But allowed himself to form out of the darkness and stand behind her, her back pressing against his front. She leaned back against him, taking comfort from his presence in a room filled with people who feared her. Alucard smiled wider, remembering when he had done much the same with Walter, the man, then a child had been the only one in Hellsing (including Arthur) who had not been afraid of him and it had been a comfort.

"Gentlemen" Walter spoke snapping Alucard out of his thoughts. "Thank you for coming to this little display. Recently it has become necessary to expand our arsenal and it is my hope that you will find today both instructional and invigorating." He met Alucard's gaze and grinned, Alucard matched his expression.

"Invigorating?" Seras said. Again, Alucard hushed her as Walter picked up a flashlight.

"This is small, lightweight and effective. It emits a concentrated UV ray and is a far step up from the last model introduced longer ago than I would like to admit." Walter smiled triumphantly flicking the light on and off a few times, showing the brightness.

The soldiers just stared, none speaking.

Alucard bit down on the inside of his mouth to stop himself snarling, he hated it when genius was unappreciated or not understood, the flashlight had been around for a long time, but it had been woefully ineffective, the beam too weak to do more than irritate. The brief flash Walter had just demonstrated had left spots in the vampire's vision, even from this distance. No doubt the ray would burn when close. An effective weapon, one that would injury the enemy and leave your comrades unharmed. Glancing down at Seras still rubbing her eyes Alucard corrected himself on the unharmed aspect.

Walter put the 'flashlight' down and lifted a small round silver ball.

"This is similar," he said. "It operates in the same fashion as a hand grenade and when triggered will emit a powerful UV blast" the men looked perplexed obviously they didn't understand that not all weapons went boom and blew people or in this case ghouls into little itty bits.

Alucard snorted at Walter's frustrated expression, he clearly did not like the lacklustre response he was receiving. He slammed the light grenade down onto the table and lifted a glass jug.

"We have all seen what happens to vampires when they come in contact with blessed silver, your guns currently hold silver ammunition so you've had a good enough demonstration of that." a few of the men started sniggering, one or two whispering about the effect they'd seen the silver have. "Bullets are all well and good gentlemen but after a trial testing I have found that liquid silver has a far more dramatic effect."

"How on earth can we use that?" Pip spoke up. "We can hardly carry a jug around."

"I'm in the process of creating a transport technique that should allow you to launch it from a distance. You may have noticed that all of these new additions allow you to keep your distance."

"This all sounds ridiculous," a voice in the crowd spoke up. "Flashlights and flashbangs. Just give me a gun." Walter let out a long sigh before meeting Alucard's gaze again. The ageing man suddenly smiled and Alucard felt his stomach tighten, he could predict what was going to happen.

"Perhaps a more demonstrative demonstration," Walter grinned. "If I could have a lovely assistant." He held out a hand in the direction of the two vampires. Seras instantly tensed, but relaxed when Alucard settled hands on her shoulders.

"Stay here," he leaned down to speak to her. "I'll take care of this." He slid into shadows remerging at Walter's side.

"Ahh, my glamorous assistant," Walter purred.

"I'm going to get shot at, aren't I?" Alucard asked looking at Walter who grinned, a strange excitement had moved through the men watching

"of course not," Walter said with mock distaste. "I'd never shoot you."

"You know what I meant," Alucard sighed. Sometimes fast regeneration was a bitch. Just because he healed fast didn't mean this wasn't going to hurt like hell.

"Gentlemen, now that I have your undivided attention, this" Walter lifted the flashlight. "This emits a concentrated UV ray, able to burn the flesh from vampiric bones."

"Hey, you leave my bones alone . . ." Alucard began but was cut off as Walter flashed the light at him for a moment before turning it off, "HEY!" the vampire leaned beck shielding his face with his hands when he was sure the light was off he slowly removed his glasses

"As you can see the skin is blistering and . . ." Walter began but was interrupted

"You made my eyes bleed," Alucard snapped,

"Yet despite the extremely strong effect it has on vampires," Walter was interrupted with a snort from Alucard but continued. "It has no effect on humans." He shone the light at himself for a moment before turning it back to Alucard, who yelped and snatched the light out of his hands, holding it above Walter's reach.

"Ha!" he snapped triumphantly, scratching at the burnt skin on his face which was starting to heal.

"We've got more on order," Walter said, completely straight-faced

"Mean," Alucard mumbled under his breath as his face completely healed

"Next item," Walter smirked at Alucard's quiet groan.

The End

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