Matthew, injured, sat on the floor and, with quickly growing fear, tried to figure out how to heal the massive damage. Nothing seemed to work. His abilities seemed to have been cut away from him in the blast…

Suddenly, another voice cut though. 'Jemeth, you must use your demon.'

Still in shock, Matthew started looking around. "Alucard?" he said. "Where are you? I thought you were fighting Breka."

'Of course I am. Where else would I be? Tibet? Jemeth, use your demon.'

"But I don't like it…" he moaned. "It's… dark and… icky."

'You must, Jemeth. Now!'

Alucard's sudden commanding bellow made Matthew shrink back. "Ok… ok… I will…" Matthew looked inside his mind, to where he'd locked away his dark energy and, with admitted reluctance, unlocked it. He could feel it flow through him, then concentrate in his torso. Then, he watched as the hole filled with a strange, dark red goo. As suddenly as it started, he was healed; a hole in his shirt the only sign of damage.

In the periphery of his vision, Matthew though he saw a dark form take shape. He heard a low growl… But when he turned to look it had vanished, and the dark energy had gone back to that corner of his mind. Shaken by what had happened, Matthew buried himself back in his mission. He grabbed his fallen brownings, got back to his feet, and started back down the corridor.

Matthew approached to a large double door and flung it open. He was on the second level of what appeared to be some sort of trophy room. Weapons of many kinds hung from the walls. A desk, broken, laid in the center of the room, its decorations scattered on the floor nearby. Curves staircases were on either side of him, leading to the lower level. Along the higher parts of two walls were bookshelves, but no apparent ladder leading to them. Some were damaged, their books fallen to the floor. Seras stood to one side, watching on with Joshua drawn for a good opportunity to assist Alucard in his fight.

Alucard and Breka were on the move, each holding their pistols. They had healing injuries from the last volley of bullets. Alucard gave fast looks at Seras and Matthew, and the two knew what he had in mind. Matthew drew his auto-mag, and Seras lowered Joshua from aim. The battle swung near where they stood, and they threw their large pistols at Alucard. A second pair of arms appeared, new sleeves forming in his trenchcoat. They grabbed Joshua and the auto-mag from the air, and gave him a serious firepower advantage.

A battle against a tough foe armed with four high-powered pistols. It had to be Alucard's dream come true.

Matthew didn't have long to take in their battle, as things quickly became very complicated. From another door, Charlie burst into the room. Almost instantly he was on the defensive, as Seras aimed her twin full-auto glocks at his right leg. She sprinted at him, keeping him away from Alucard. And suddenly, Matthew realized there was someone behind him. He spun around, and found himself looking straight at the insane smile of Paladin Alexander Anderson.

Matthew moved immediately, leaping in a back flip over the rail. He landed, dropping his backpack and drawing his sword and shield. Moments later, Anderson landed before him, both of his blessed blades slamming into his shield. Matthew stepped back, bringing Amenthyl through an overhead arc, blocked by Anderson. Anderson's other blade came in a horizontal slice, stopped by Matthew snapping his shield out to the right.

Seras and Charlie's fight had moved to the far side of the room, moving around a cluster of columns. Charlie's goal was to help Breka, and he took aim at Alucard when he could. Seras continued firing her glocks at him whenever he paused. He took aim again, and jumped back behind cover as more bullets ricocheted near him. He scowled in Seras's direction, knowing she was toying with him. "Bitch!"

Breka leapt to another shelf, firing another volley at the fast moving, Alucard, then leapt again as four streams of bullets came back at her. Alucard held on to the self a moment, smirking at her. "Come on, stop trying to shoot me and shoot me!" He started off after her again.

Anderson's blades crashed into Matthew's shield again as Matthew took another step back. His win last time was due to his dark energy, and he wasn't going to let it out again so soon; not until his mental shielding was back in place… and he simply didn't have the time to concentrate on them at that moment. So, he parried and blocked the incoming strikes, arcing Amenthyl at Anderson whenever the chance came to keep the Paladin from getting too frisky.

Alucard managed to score a hit on Breka, the exploding bullet taking out a chunk of leg. She managed to regenerate it before she hit the ground, and returned fire that grazed Alucard's arm. He smirked. Finally, he had the challenge he'd been waiting for.

Charlie had gotten a shot at Seras, and her minor arm wound was taking its time healing. She would manage, though. She took another shot at Charlie, her glocks spitting out a trio of rounds each. A pair hit him in the foot. They detonated, blowing his foot apart. Not nearly as skilled as Breka, he couldn't regenerate nearly as effectively. But he managed to turn his falling over into a roll that took him behind the broken desk. Seras would have to be careful how she attacked him next.

Matthew had managed to knock one of Anderson's blades away, but the Paladin simply threw the other one at Matthew and drew a fresh pair from under his coat. Anderson whipped his blades in low rising arcs, pushing Matthew's sword and shield away. He moved to chop Matthew's arms off, when Alucard landed in front of Matthew and blocked Anderson's swords with his four pistols. A properly timed smirk got Anderson's attention focused on the elder vampire when Alucard moved away, dropping the undamaged pistols and grabbing four swords off the nearest wall. The Paladin took chase, deciding to go after the more challenging foe.

Matthew got to his feet, watching as Breka landed nearby. "Well, fine," she said, irritated. "If you're going to distract my fun for the night, you'll have to replace him." She dropped her guns and reached out. From the walls, a great sword and a morning star detached and flew to her hands. She swung the great sword though an arc like a saber and brought it straight at him. It took both Matthew's sword and shield to stop it, then a great deal of luck to get his shield out in time to stop the morning star. Matthew knew he was in serious trouble.

Charlie had gotten a fast peak, seeing that Breka was in no trouble. He could focus his attention on the little bitch Victoria. He slid a fresh magazine into his Colt 45 and cycled it, then looked back at the columns for Victoria. He saw a flash of her jacket, and fired. The jacket… fell to the floor. He spun around, and there stood Victoria in a red undershirt. She fired, her bullet finding its mark in his chest. He fell to ash.

Alucard always enjoyed a battle against Anderson. The Paladin would keep fighting so long as he had the limbs to continue, meaning Alucard got all the exercise he felt like having. But that particular night he didn't have the time to give the Paladin a proper verbal thrashing before ending things. Young Jemeth would only last to long against Breka. So, he took his upper swords through high arcs, the Paladin blocking them with his blades. Before he could react, Alucard brought his lower swords up, slicing off his arms at the armpit. The Paladin winced; even as a Regenerator, loosing limbs hurt. With a final growl of, "This isn't the end, Hellsing mongrel," he loosed his holy magic and teleported away.

Matthew had done an admirable job holding on as Breka mercilessly struck at him. The cuts over his body and blood oozing from him showed his strength was failing; he couldn't hold back her attacks as well anymore. Suddenly, his sword was knocked away, sliding across the floor to the corner. He fell back, bringing his shield up in an effort to hold on until Alucard could get there. She hit it once again with her morning star, and the severely weakened shield cracked. Another hit from her sword broke it in two. It fell in pieces at his side. She smirked at him, dropping the morning star and bringing her other hand to the sword's grip. "If I see you in Hell, you can have a rematch." She brought her sword up high, then started it down towards Matthew's head.

Suddenly, Matthew's head shot up, his eyes wide open. They had turned completely black. All of his wounds were healed. Breka's sword stopped in mid swing, and she suddenly found herself unable to move. She was lifted from the ground, Matthew's eyes locked on her every move. Seras, who had just turned to help Matthew, froze in mid step with her jaw wide open. Alucard, who had been about to speed up and save Matthew yet again, came to a stop, intrigued with what was happening.

Breka's sword was ripped from her grip. It moved several feet away, spun around, and shot back, piercing through her stomach and out her back. Her face, able to move, contorted in pain. Several swords still on the wall started to vibrate, then broke free of their mountings and flew at Breka, stabbing into her from many directions. The four swords Alucard held were ripped from his hands and joined the swarm. But every sword intentionally missed the vital targets. Breka's face was even further contorted in pain. Matthew's gaze turned to one of the walls, and Breka's floating form followed. It was an external wall of the base, and Breka broke through all three feet of stone about ten feet up.

Matthew's eyes went back to normal, then rolled back into his head as they closed and he fell limp to the floor. Alucard and Seras's eyes met. Seras then ran to Matthew to figure out what had happened to him. Alucard reached out, the four pistols leaping from the floor to his hands. He turned to the hole in the wall and leapt out after Breka. She laid on the rocks in the growing dawn, most of the swords still piercing her. Alucard took aim at her heart with all four pistols. "Though you lost, I do applaud your skills as a grade A vampire." Breka scowled in reply, simply wanting him to end it. He fired, the four bullets breaking through the heart's armor plate and into the organ. She fell to ash.

Alucard rejoined Seras, who had gotten Matthew conscious and back on his feet. He claimed he would be fine, but that was the standard response of any Hellsing soldier. All the Global Fang forces were scattered or silenced, so it was time to rejoin the others for the flight back.

They walked out the front door, starting for the nearby Vultures. Matthew winced a bit more than usual. Seras looked back at him, the question in her eyes. "I'm fine," he said. "Just a little weakened from the fight. Makes it a little harder to ignore the headache." She accepted the answer, turning her attention back to a conversation with Alucard, telling each other about their separate battles.

Meanwhile, behind them, Matthew's eyes flashed to solid black, then back to normal. He fell back into step behind them, following them to the Vultures for the start of the long flight home.

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And that's a wrap for Global Conflict, though not the end of the story. I don't plan a major rewrite to this one, as I don't think it really needs it, but if I many any other upgrades I'll make note of them.

Head on over to Demon Force, then to my newest: Strong Blood.