This is Halloween

Collins shuffled up to the door and jammed his key in the lock, muttering incoherently as he twisted the key, listening to the rusty screech of Old Rusty as his gears went to work. Collins twisted the key again. And again. Finally, there was a click and the sigh- one noise from the door, one from Collins. He stepped back as the door swung open, stepped over the threshold. He shut the door behind him quietly, locked it. He looked up to examine his surroundings.

"Hey guys," he said, waving to the group of people talking in the middle of the vestibule.

"You know, I've enjoyed the night so far. The crazy-complex haunted house was fun, though I was slightly disturbed by the missing mobs and police on the streets after I made my exit from the haunted house. Do you guys know what's going on out there? It looked pretty serious." He took note of the newcomers, and tossed a polite wave their way. "Hello, new people. Enjoy Old Rusty, our mansion here. You'll love your stay, as long as you don't have any powers of interest, in which case the government will harass you until your ass freezes off and tries to crawl away."

He stretched back in an unusual happy mood, hearing his back pop.

"Ahh, that's the stuff. I was jumped a few times, you know. I need to get the scare out of my traitorous back, the asshole."

Lia glanced at the box nervously and back to Malachi before looking back at the box. She slowly picked up the cube and rolled it in her palms before turning back to Malachi, "Those...things, weren't from this reality were they? If not, do you know the name of the one they come fr-"
Before the Quarian could finish, there was the sound of the front door opening, followed by a very loud Collins. Panicking, the Quarian grabbed her gun and pointed it at Collins before she could see who he was.

And then?

Well, then Collins realized in a flash of understanding that the objects being pointed at him were not, in fact, empty beer bottles as he had suspected. The dim lighting combined with his lack of attention had both combined to an incorrect conclusion in his mind.

He quirked an eyebrow at the guns pointed at his chest as if he was the hero in some kind of movie, just caught sneaking through the bad guy's base by all his guards, who just so happened to be right here.

"Hey, I've had a nice night. I'm not in the mood to be punk'd or something." He said as he raised his hands in mock surrender.

"Then you didn't know about ... those things that attacked the main street about four hours ago?" Rathborne stammered, his .455 out and now aimed at the newest arrival.

"Right," Collins replied with an amused looks, "the things on Main Street. I suppose the logical conclusion is that those 'things' are the aggravating teenagers that roam the streets pantsing innocent people; they're the real monsters. And, either way, I was in the haunted house for a few hours, if you want my alibi."

He shrugged nonchalantly, walked over to the coat hanger standing against the wall. he took off his coat, put it on the coat hanger, jangled it for the sound of his keys. he looked back to see the silent, attentive looks of the group and was slightly disturbed.

"I'd just ignore the little kid for now. He was never very bright in imagination, and this is what the world is, right? All imagination. All this fake reality, all an illusion. Or something like that." The Servant shrugged, before leaning on a wall, a happy smile on her face despite the confusion and general disarray. He tone was of course, non-chalet, and over laid with genuine happiness and enthusiasm, in a non-dark way.

Lowering his Webley and holstering it, Rathborne glanced over to the happy-go-lucky robed woman leaning on the wall.

"And you are?" he asked.

"Servant Archer, not at your service, but my human Masters." The Servant smiled at him, before leaning once again onto the wall, planning to sit down when someone else questioned her. It didn't make sense; they had never met her before. Why would they ask her so many questions? Well, one question. But they would surely ask many, many, many more than that. It was pretty much guaranteed. It logically made sense; they'd never met her before...

Rathborne noded curteously. "Matthew Rathborne, of-"

He caught himself, correcting, "I WAS an Inspector from Scotland Yard."

Now, I have very little ideas as to WHAT I am, except for who I work for now. And what did she mean by "Master"? Who does she work for?

"So, what do you want Dead Apostle Anscestor?" The woman stood, intent on sitting down somewhere comfortable. But then, sitting down would be idiotic in a situation such as this. In fact, they all should've prepared the house for an attack....but then, what could she expect?

Rathborne shrugged at Lia. "Personally, I want to get out of this alive. As to who those things are, I have no ide-"

He stopped, snapping his fingers. "Do you know if there's a phone around here I can use? I need to get in touch with my superior."

She'll have my head if I don't report on the situation. And if it gets worse, I need to get additional help.

A scream can be heard from outside, as a light flashes. A girl that looks to be about 18 is suddenly laying on the floor, apparently asleep. She has long brown hair, and is wearing a t-shirt with the inscription "Hunterian Laboratories - Making Everyone's Day Better!". She blinks before sitting up.

"Huh? Where am I?"

Eventually coming across a phone, Rathborne lifted the reciever and, ensuring he was not watched, began to quickly dial the number to Hellsing HQ.

"Operator?"

"Yes, this is Mr Rathborne. I need to get in contact with a Hellsing Manor."

"One moment, please..."

Tapping hi foot, Rathborne waited for what eemed a good five minutes vefore the operator returned. "I'm sorry, sir, but we don't have that location on record."

Angered, Matthew was on the verge of crushing the handset with his hand, but at the last second, he breather out and cordally, "Right. I understand. Thank you." and hung up.

A scream rang outside, a light flashed. And, holy Jesus in the sky, there was a girl on the floor.

Collins head swiveled to the body on the floor as a single eyebrow quirked up in question.

Using his tactful, fluid wording, he said, "What the fuck."

Then he turned his head to everyone else in the room.

"Also, I believe you guys. About the whole monster thing. And am officially scared like hell now. Way to go."

He stepped over to one of the dusty, antique chairs pushed up against the wall and plopped into it. There was a puff of white dust that he didn't notice; later he would find white all over his ass an be extremely confused about what had really happened during the night. The smallest of occurrences can change an entire understanding of a situation drastically.

His hand pushed its way through his mop of thick brown hair and then he promptly stumbled up and walked a few feet to the girl on the ground.

"Where are my manners?" he said as he offered a hand toward her, "You're in a mansion near Raccoon City, mid-west United States. Enjoy your stay, I'm sure you'll love it. Free food and beer."

The approaching sound of a horse, making an extreme and unnatural amount of noise with each stamp was now unmistakable. The area outside the house was now dark; dark enough for little to see. But down the hill a ways, a single light could be seen....bobbing up and down, fast approaching the house at extreme speeds. Of course, the main window showed no view of this; but it was there, none the less. Servant class Archer stood on the top of the roof now, a gold and black bow in her right hand, as she watched this light approaching the group.

With each step closer it took, was one step closer it got to engagement range. It certainly wasn't using guns, or bows, so there was no range. As it hadn't shot at her yet; thus it meant it was going to get close. And when something got close, despite the fact that her group had modern weapons....that honestly didn't matter, as she wasn't worried about their lives, though she was ordered to protect them. But, de facto, if it thought it could get close despite the group having guns....that wasn't a good thing. Meant it had to be powerful.

Starting to hear what sounded like horse hooves coming up the path outside, Rathborne withdrew his Webly again and placed hi back againt the section of wall closest to the door.

Trying to peer through the peephole, he could see next to nothing outside, but a chill was running through his spine - amething was definatly out there.

Lia sighed and gave up on Malachi helping her situation. She turned back to the puzzle box before her and twisted it slowly in her hand before noticing that one of the areas looked like button. Her finger covered the area and she was about to press it when she heard a clomping sound in the distance. Looking up, she took her attention off the box and moved to the window to look out.

"To answer your question lia, they come from their own dimension, which is connected to most others, just like the dreamlands. They are cenobites, creatures that torture whoever opens that puzzle box and those around them. Its a form of extreme Sadomasochism, going beyond the senses of pain and pleasure... though you die in the process..." He said he looked out the window with her.

"What now? the headless horseman of sleepy hollow?" He grumbled.

Carter jumped onto the window sill to see what all the fuss was about.
_

Charles and his men continued their search, looking for pepsi, she was somewhere in the city. The men were starting to get nervous, not only where the cenobites on the loose, but they could hear the faint braying of what sounded like a large hound...

Lia turned back as Malachi finally answered her and returned to the seat. She brought up her omni tool and quickly searched cenobites, before using what she found to trace them back to their series of origin. All of this took no more than two minutes before she found a way to work the puzzle box. With that knowledge and the surprise that the box was so easy to work, Lia pressed the button she had found before, causing a section of the box to open and extend before returning to where it was previously. She then spun the box again and spun a round dial-like section, causing half of the box to raise before she spun the raised section and pressed it back down.

The girl sits up, looking around the room, and pointedly ignoring Collins. At the sound from outside she picks herself up, trying to look out past Rathborne. Unable to see, she asks: "What the hell is that?"

After a short amount of time, the girl on the floor spurned Collins help.

"Fair enough," he said as he backed up, pulling his hands behind his head. "Fair enough."

He sat back on the chair he'd only just escaped, once again raising a puff of dust.

He heard the clip-clop of an approaching horse. Thoughts:

1) A horse? Out here? Preposterous!

2) Maybe a monster? No, no. That's the gait of a horse.

3) Well, Collins ol' buddy, I've got a bad feeling about this. Wadda ya say we go hide in the closet again?

And although Collins recognized hiding as the safest option, he didn't believe it was the smartest. If he was to believe his comrades, then he was under attack simply by being near them. Or something. And, hi-ho, no one had gotten the balls to tell him what the fuck he was up against. He overheard Malachi mention Sadomachosism. He vaguely recognized the word, but that vague recognition was all he needed to be creeped the hell out. Machosism normally meant, to Collins, an emo teenager or some such shit, but when combined with "from another dimension"...

So, they were fighting emo monster teenagers from another dimension?

"Holy fuck," Collins whispered aloud.

Suddenly the wall exploded spraying masonry and plaster and broken pieces of wood and shards of glass all over the fucking room, a Hummer vehicle with a beautifully painted American flag coming to a halt in the middle of the room, a large burly African American at the wheel whom replied, "Fuck you lookin' at?" Dressed in combat boots with a pair of camo fatigues, Elijah Hurrst looked like one tough motherfucker, the man eased out of the vehicle, a semi-automatic handgun on his belt, he scratched his head as he surveyed the group, well more accurately he scratched his bandanna which wrapped around his shaved head. "Yo, git out yo asses outta the truck."

On cue, a blonde man and a young woman in a Spartan-helmet hopped out of the back of the Hummer. The blonde was armed with a 9mm handgun and was clad in leather pants and a fish-net shirt, obviously, he was gay. His partner, who had her service tag B-312 tattooed across her lower back just above her too short pants which revealed just a bit too much thong, had a Glock 18C machine pistol shoved down the front of her pants and a SPAS-12 combat shotgun in her grip, because every single person on the face of the planet is armed with a SPAS-12, and just like every other person on the planet, she forgot it was a semi-automatic weapon and instead left it set to pump. Cross her chest she wore a pair of shotgun bandoleers of shells which conviently crisscrossed to prevent her breasts from being exposed because she wore no shirt, shirts being for lesser individuals.

"Leon, get your queer ass back to the truck and git the guys, m'kay?"

"Oookay," Leon replied, skipping back to the truck.

"Ava, git yer half-naked ass dressed so these muthafuckas quit starin'," Hurrst ordered.

Ava sighed dramatically before heading back to the truck to get a shirt.

"Sorry you folks had to see that, you bitches okay?"

Lia was staring at the puzzle box in her hand. It didn't seem like it had done anything, but just as she was about to say something about the box, a large vehicle crashed through the wall, destroying the once lavish wall of the mansion. Out stepped a black man, a somewhat off and homosexual looking blonde man and a top-less Spartan super soldier. The black man started to shout orders at the others, but before she could comment, once again being cut off as she opened her mouth, the Quarian heard a deep, metallic, psychotic laugh from deep in the woods. So far, everything that could go wrong was going wrong, so she assumed that this was another threat or a nuisance. Her suspicions were confirmed by the echo of high (higher than any modern weapon) caliber weapon fire and a scream of pain and fear. She hated that this was the second or third threat, that she knew of, was lurking in the woods and, from the sound of things, were very large.

Rathborne was forced to shield his face as an armoured vehicle crashed through one of the walls, missing him by mere inches.

As the cufuffle died down, Webley raised, Rathborne bellowed over his ringing ears, "Who the hell are you people?!"

Archer had not seen the hummer coming, meaning that it must've teleported into the house. Otherwise, she would've blewn the fucker up. But no matter, as she could hear fighting in the forest. And while she was in an exposed position, being a A rank in Magic, she could handle a few bullets. She had a shield up already, though not to powerful. She didn't want to waste her prana, though she had a medium rank in independent action. She simply looked into the forest, a bow appearing at her side, as she raised it, ready for a fight.