A World Meeting was not a World Meeting without the countries, and Germany knew that everyone was supposed to meet at his house at exactly nine o'clock on the twenty-fourth of April. It was exactly 9:01 A.M and no one had shown up yet.
"Where are they?" he growled, glancing at his watch that blinked to 9:02. "They are two minutes late."
Somewhere, he heard a phone ring. Growling, he let it ring. There was no way he was going to miss a World Meeting due to a phone call. The phone stopped after a few seconds. He held his breath in the silence, and then released it with a sigh. He gritted his teeth when it rang again. "Calm," he instructed himself slowly. "Call back later, after the meeting."
The phone died and he relaxed again, waiting for the other countries to arrive. It was now 9:05, and he started to get ticked off. "Five minutes late..." he muttered bitterly. At exactly 9:07, his phone rang again. Angrily, he marched off from the conference room and into the hallway, searching out his phone with a certain look of distaste. He scooped up the phone and barked into the receiver, "What is it?"
"Germany! Germany!" Italy cried through the phone. "Help me! Help me! Please, Germany! Help me!"
Germany's eyes narrowed in frustration. Italy had always gotten into trouble multiple times, and it didn't surprise him if the calls from before were from Italy. "What is it Italy? Where are you? Aren't you supposed to be coming to the meeting?"
There was no answer. Instead, Germany heard Italy yell in terror in the background and the phone on the other line dropped to the ground, creating a thud loud enough for Germany to retract his own phone from his ear. "Italy!" Germany yelled into the phone after the phone line went dead. Although Italy got into trouble, he never quite heard Italy's yelling in terror so terrifying. Usually his pleas for help were more suited to be whines. This time, they sounded genuinely fearful.
Germany slowly put the phone down, stunned. Was Italy truly in trouble this time? What had happened? Normally he'd rush off towards Italy, but he had no idea where he was. The best thing to do was to go over to his house and check up on him, but before he could go find paper and leave a note for his absence, the phone rang again. Germany picked it up immediately. "Hello?"
"West, I need your damn help, NOW!" Prussia screamed into the phone.
Germany tensed. "Brother? What's wrong?"
"I-NO! Nooo!"
The phone went dead again, and Germany stood frozen as the dial tone blared at his ears with a single monotonous note. He hastily dialed in Prussia's number again and waited for his older brother to pick up, but an automatic female voice told him that the line was not in service.
"What is this madness?" he growled as he punched in Italy's number this time. The same voice recording played and he hung up. "Alright, what about Japan?" he muttered, starting to grow worried. He was relieved when Japan answered.
"Japan! Something's happened to Italy and Prussia." Germany said at once.
There was a small pause on the other side before Japan said uncertainly, "Please excuse me Germany, but there is some chaos with my people. I do not know what is-" Germany heard Japan stop mid sentence and then a louder, more fierce tone he never heard him use outside of the battlefield. "Who are you? What have you done to my people?"
Germany paled as he heard fighting take place on Japan's side and with every metal clang, he gritted his teeth. "Japan!" he yelled into the phone, gripping it tightly.
He heard someone pick the phone up and Japan's hurried voice panted, "Germany, tell as many nations as you can to meet at your house!"
Germany couldn't help but retort, "They should know by now, Japan! Today there is a World Meeting and no one has arrived."
"I am sorry but I haven't heard of a meeting today." he heard Japan murmur. "How strange." Japan sounded like he was running. Germany listened to his short breaths and fast quick footsteps hitting the wooden floor of his house.
"Alright," Germany grunted. "I will tell the others." He hung up on Japan and reached under the stand where the phone rested upon and heaved the phone book up onto the surface. Starting with the countries whose names started with the letter 'A', he found America's name and hastily dialed.
The dial tone rang three times before someone picked up. "What's up?" a cheerful voice chirped.
"America!" Germany yelled. He didn't mean to yell, but after Italy, Prussia, and even Japan's situation, he felt like it was a total emergency. "I got word from Italy, Prussia, and Japan. Something is happening in their countries. Japan called for everyone to meet at my house, now."
Germany fumed when he heard America chewing, as if he was eating food right then and there without a care in the world. After a long sip of a drink, America said, "Okay, dude, hold up. You said that those three are having some sort of issue? What, is their economy crashing or what?"
"How am I supposed to know?" Germany asked. "Japan requested for all of us to come to my house. Something bad happened to them." And he proceeded to explain what had happened with Italy and Prussia, how they called for help and suddenly their lines were cut. By the time he was finished, America was scared out of his mind.
"Dude, what if it's some sort of supernatural power that's here to kidnap us all?" he exclaimed, suddenly sounding alarmed.
"That's why you need to get here." Germany said quickly.
"I'm on it. See you in an hour."
They both hung up and Germany went down the line to Australia. He was down to Greece when Austria showed up, being the closest to Germany out of the other 'A' countries. Austria pushed his glasses into place with a finger when he approached Germany at the phone. "What is the meaning of this?" he asked. "I was busy writing a song for a violin duet."
"Have you heard anything about some countries in trouble?" Germany asked him. "Belgium, China, Denmark, and France were being attacked when I called them. Attacked by who, I don't know, but according to China, these attackers can bring out extreme hatred in a human and let it take over them."
Austria frowned in complete utter bemusement. "Wouldn't that lead to unnecessary violence?"
"I think that's the point." Germany growled, flipping the page. He and Austria glanced behind them when they felt an unusual dark presence. "Belarus," Germany said calmly. Austria stared at the female country's dark blue eyes and adverted his own gaze in slight fear.
Belarus walked up to Germany and glared at him. "What is so important that you must call me from my home?" she demanded in a low, quiet voice.
Germany, unfazed by her tough, cold demeanor, said without skipping a beat, "There is chaos around the world. Some countries are attacked by someone. Or something to be honest." Then he bent down so that he was on her eye level and said in a low voice, "Have you heard from Russia lately?"
Belarus looked uncertain. She snatched the phone from Germany and dialed in Russia's number.
"Brother," she said sharply. "Why have you not come to visit me?" There was a long pause, and then Belarus' expression changed into shock. "Brother! Russia!" she screamed into the receiver. "Brother!"
Germany took the phone away from Belarus and shouted, "Russia! Meet me at my house!" Belarus made a grab for the phone but Germany held it up high above her head.
She snarled and flicked her hand. A blade flipped up from under her the sleeve of her dress and the metal gleamed hungrily in the light. "Give me the phone. Let me talk to brother." she said.
Germany scowled at her. "There is nothing we can do now, Belarus. His phone line is dead."
Belarus jumped up and successfully took the phone away from Germany. "Brother, answer me!" she demanded at the phone. But she was silenced at once at the dead line. She hung up and redialed, only to hear the same female voice Germany heard earlier with Italy and Prussia's phone numbers.
"Give it back," Germany snapped. She handed the phone over and leaned against the wall, sliding down until she sat on the ground, staring blankly across the hall. Germany ignored her and muttered to Austria to answer the door, which had been knocked on by someone.
One by one, countries appeared at Germany's house, confused, concerned, or frightened. Many had no idea what happened. Some had experienced the horror and just escaped it. Some had heard rumors about it but weren't sure what was really going on.
Once Germany finished his phone calls, he located Japan with his family. Everyone had gathered in the conference room; it was the only room in Germany's house that could sit everybody. As if they were at the World Meeting (that everyone had supposedly forgotten much to Germany's depression), they all sat in their usual seats aside from a handful of missing countries.
"What is this about, Germany?" England demanded from his seat. "I was enjoying my morning tea until people started calling me about helping them. I thought you were going to ask me for help too until you mentioned you were getting calls like that."
"I know as much as you do." Germany said calmly. "Japan, please explain what had happened at your country."
Japan looked worn and tired. He sported a bruise on his cheek and a cut on the side of his neck. China, Hong Kong, and Macao were missing from the Asian group, and Japan had explained that any land in China was most likely attacked and missing. "They are exact copies of ourselves." he said grimly. "But they can be distinguished from the original. Their eyes are red."
"So you're saying that these bloody attackers are doppelgangers?" England exclaimed.
"Yes,"
America interrupted by laughing. "And here I thought they were ghosts!"
"Are you afraid of ghosts, America, daze?" Korea laughed. "Ghosts aren't scary at all!"
America grimaced and said tentatively, "But they're supposed to be dead...and they haunt you, stalk you, go everywhere...dude, it's creepy."
"Silence!" Germany yelled before Korea could say anything. "Japan, continue."
Japan spent roughly nine minutes (of course, Germany was timing him) telling everyone how this 'Dark Japan' (it was America's idea to call the doppelgangers 'Dark' and then whatever country the doppelganger took form of) intruded into his house and fought him with the exact same skill and moves of the real Japan. Only, Dark Japan was stronger and his endurance lasted much longer than Japan's. After Japan got off the phone with Germany and fled into the city, he saw that Dark Japan had brought out hatred in his people and they became disturbingly violent.
"I had to order my army to round up my people and evacuate to the countryside where there are not as many people living around." Japan said quietly. "My soldiers whom had not made contact with this darker counterpart of myself are looking after the ones...infected."
America let out a low whistle. "Have you tried anger management with them?" he suggested.
"This is a serious situation," England scolded America curtly. "For once could you be less like yourself?"
America gave England a brief sour look and then his expression changed back to an eager one. "Hey, hey, I have an idea! If these doppelgangers are out there somewhere, why don't we just round them up and send them to the moon? Maybe they'll colonize the moon and stuff! Wouldn't that be totally awesome?"
America found himself being stared at from every nation present in the room, and he found that he didn't like that sort of attention. He would have preferred them cheering on his genius plan, but instead, an awkward silence caused him to back down and add weakly, "Uh, just kidding?"
"We could still 'round them up'." Spain piped up. "Send out search parties. There's roughly two hundred of us, so it might take a while but if we all work together-"
"Wait, wait, wait. Hold on, we all have to work together?" Romano exclaimed incredulously. "What kind of bullsh-"
Germany stood up at once and exclaimed, "Wait a second, Romano? What the hell are you doing here?"
Romano gave Germany an offended look. "Aren't I a country too?"
"But what about Italy?" Germany demanded. "Don't you two live in the same house? How are you here and he isn't?"
Romano scoffed at Germany. "I don't stay home all the time you potato loving bastard. I was enjoying my day at a cafe when all of this bullshit started."
Japan cleared his throat uncomfortably at Romano's tendency to curse. "Um, well, in order to capture our copies, we must work together or-"
Other countries started speaking over Japan, having their own little arguments. Japan meekly stood there watching as the murmurs became heated shouts. All too soon, the sound of a shotgun startled everyone and drew their attention to Switzerland. He had a scowl on his face as he barked, "Everyone, shut up! This will only make matters worse!"
The nations sheepishly looked away from him, adjusting themselves back into position. Germany glanced around the huge table and asked Switzerland, "Where is your sister, Liechtenstein?"
Switzerland gripped his shotgun tightly. The countries around him grimaced, as if he was about to shoot again. "I don't know." he muttered.
Germany decided not to bother the country and cleared his throat, addressing everyone else. "According to Japan, these doppelgangers can bring out hatred in humans, correct?"
"Yes," Japan confirmed. "And they start fighting. It is horrible."
Germany folded his arms. "Well then, wouldn't it be even worse if two hundred of them were out loose in the world turning everyone else like that?"