The car skidded up along the curb. The blond inside instantly stepped out and slammed the door. He glanced at his clock and swallowed. Shit he was going to be late to his own meeting (as usual) but today was different. Alfred hoped he would have time to mention that surprise he would be bringing up for Christmas. It was December 20th, 2012 and the weather followed suit. They were a dreadful pale white veil of clouds tinted with gray patches that let rain an invisible mist that Alfred's thick pilot jacket protected, like a stone wall, all but his face from the cool, crisp air that cut sharply across his cheeks.. He jogged up the steps of the estate cursing under his breath, (Russia needs to keep General Winter at his place!).
As he stepped inside the building he was greeted by Canada, his brother, and folded over on his knees to catch his breath.
"Hey, did they… lock you out of the meeting on accident, again?" Alfred asked, trying to sound concerned to hide some chuckles.
"No, you're surprisingly early." Matthew said.
"Really?!" The American glanced at his watch. "Oh yeahh… Haha I set my watch ahead of time last night-"
"And you forgot. Nice."
"Kiku taught me that trick. Wait till England sees I'm early." Alfred could barely contain the wide grin on his lips at the thought of it.
For a while they peered into the meeting rooms, where they were being used by America's government officials. When they peered into a particular room, the President and the Cabinet were sipping their glasses of water, giving each other quick glances, one wiped his forehead. The President would look at his watch, his foot tapping to the metronome of the second hand, and every few seconds he would look around instead.
"Ah Alfred, Matthew." The old man rejoiced seeing the Avatar of the Canadian nation. "Where's the Canadian Prime Minister?"
"Oh... he had to use the bathroom. We drove down here." Matthew pointed with his thumb down the hall.
The President let out a sigh of relief. A few minutes later the Canadian Prime Minister walked passed Matthew, and, to everyone's delight, Germany and his boss showed up right behind.
"Luddy, ya made it!" Alfred gave the German great big hug, which the other was prepared for, and was one of the few whose bones didn't crush under Alfred's eager grip.
"Ja- Of course I would be on time. I arrived here a day early."
Alfred gave out a knowing hearty laugh. He put Ludwig down and the German straightened the wrinkles of his uniform, returning it to its impeccable form. For a while the three chatted in a circle about recent affairs, how Prussia was doing, while the world leaders remarked on their children, their wives, and their state of affairs.
By the time thirty minutes passed they received a news update from the Secretary. Several flights across the whole of Europe had been delayed. Alfred snickered, because he could only imagine Arthur as a steaming red tea kettle for being late, clawing his armchair over minor turbulence. But the other two were a bit troubled.
"Well they'll be here eventually. You guys want to play some games at the lounge while we wait?"
"Nien, but thanks for the offer." Ludwig passed as he held up a book he'd brought, Mien Awesome Diary Vol. 24.
"I'll play." Matthew volunteered, though he felt a small pit at the base of his stomach. He sent a quick text to everyone asking what was going on and then noticed the signal was dead.
"Hey Al, what's up with the reception here? I can't seem to get any bars."
Alfred took out his phone and held it up. "Huh? That's weird."
Ludwig checked his and only the corners of his lips frowned. "Perhaps we should go outside." And so they did and tested out their theory but to no avail.
"Maybe the tower's down." Alfred whispered. Though he highly doubted this. When his gut started to roll and twist, he shook his head. "Ha-ha let's go back inside. It's getting nippy out here."
For the next few hours Alfred and Matthew played a bit of Call of Duty, leaning back on the nice plump bean bag chairs, while Ludwig sat on striped couch with a cup of coffee at his side in a quiet corner of the room. A secretary had brought five orders of Big Mac combos, which Alfred engorged in a manner of seconds and sipped on his soda, slurping all the little puddles at the bottom of the cup.
The knock on the door paused the game as the three turned their attention to the grim faces of their bosses appear. The President was angry and confused.
"I'm sorry to say, that the World Convention has been canceled. We called up the world leaders through the telephone line... they canceled at the last minute."
"Aw man!" Alfred got up and drank all of the soda in one gulp. "Stupid hurricane. I just reserved the best table at one of Italy's pizza parlors!" He said with pout.
"All of them?" Matthew couldn't believe it and Ludwig slammed his book shut, deep in thought and feeling
It was typical of that Italian, he probably forgot it and took a siesta. He'd have a word with him later. And France well he sometimes didn't feel like being involved. Russia was a flip of the coin as was China. But England and Japan would never do something like that, unless a far more important matter came up, and Ludwig highly doubted it. They'd all planned for this and at those two had better have a good excuse, all of them in fact.
Matthew pat Alfred on the back. "We can still go for pizza."
"Nah, I lost my appetite for it. Let's just get some kebabs." The gleam in Alfred's eyes was gone, and for the rest of the day his head would be facing the floor.
Ludwig made a guttural grunt as he cleared this throat. As inexcusable as this news was he pushed it aside and put a hand on Alfred's shoulder. He gave him a smile.
They changed out of their stiff suits and put on some casual wear for the evening with light jackets to protect them from the cold. The night was quiet and the sky a purple mucky blob, tinted orange by the faint glow of New York's buzzing lights. Not a single star accompanied the trio that night as they walked around with kabobs wrapped in cheap wax paper, which in a few moments ended up in the trash.
"So Al, what's the surprise you were gonna mention today?" Matthew brought up, it had been on his mind for some time.
Alfred turned his attention from looking at his sneakers. "Oh, I was hoping you know that-"Their stroll through the crowded metropolis was broken by the crying sound of bagpipes.
"Op- That's Artie." Alfred slipped the phone out of his jean pocket and put it to his ear.
"Hello~!"
"Alfred. Look there's not time – "Alfred heard some buzzing in his phone. He cleaned his ear quickly and put it back on. "I need you to – as fast as you can and –"
"Yo Artie, speak up!"
"-with you. Just LISTEN to ME! I'm sorry – time is of –"The call hung up.
"How good is your signal?" Matthew asked.
"It's pitiful." Alfred scowled. He smacked his phone, as if it misbehaved and madly twiddled his thumbs on the screen, going to the settings, and even resetting the phone. He called Arthur again.
"Put it on speaker." Ludwig suggested. The two leaned their heads close to Alfred as he held it out. It ringed three times before an ear splitting sound came from Alfred's phone. All three of them covered their ears, and a nearby car skidded on the turn. Next all they heard were three shots of gunfire and then the line went dead.
When Ludwig and Matthew turned their heads, Alfred already stood in the middle of the street and whistled. A taxi stopped dead in its tracks and if Alfred were human it would've flung his body on impact.
Instead of scolding Alfred for his recklessness, the two instantly got into the back seat of the car and Alfred slammed into the passengers.
"Hey look if choo want to die man..." The taxi driver began, rather nervous as to how any person would almost commit suicide.
"Just shut up and get us to JFK Airport on the double!" A wad of cash was in Alfred's hands.
"You got it boss." The man happily stomped on the gas pedal.
When they arrived, Alfred quickly flung bills to the driver like a poker dealer and left. All three of them sprinted across the tarmac to Alfred's private hangar with ease and turned on the light.
"We'll take the G6."
The tank was full, Ludwig and Alfred ran some quick specs to make sure everything was ship shape before they got inside. Matthew brought a small crew to help them, and they got the plane out in no time.
"I'll tell our leaders we're gonna get home on our own." Matthew said as he got out his phone and began sending text messages.
"Just hang on back there, it's gonna be a wild ride." In the distance they could see the tall storm clouds that rumbled over the Atlantic Ocean. Matthew buckled himself down.
"We'll manage be there in about five hours." Ludwig remarked.
Alfred bit his tongue. As he increased the speed. "Let's make that four and a half."
The engines whined but the American coaxed the plane and she managed to pull through as he was pushing her to her limits and into the fray.
It was 3:15 in the morning at London City Airport. Thunder bellowed, banging the drum of the sky as it rained chaotically, the wind flinging downpours to and fro. That didn't hinder the three nations as they hailed another taxi all the way to the Kirkland Manor.
The lights in the manor were on. The car came to a slow but Alfred couldn't wait as he left the moving car at the right moment and sprinted up toward the house. Ludwig barked, running behind him when the car stopped, and Matthew handed their driver a couple pounds.
The husky squeaks of Alfred's sneakers echoed throughout the manor before coming to a halt, where a huge puddle formed all over the polished mahogany.
"Arthur?!" His voice echoed throughout the whole house. When no one replied Alfred ran upstairs and tried to open the double doors to the second floor. The knob jingled, but it wouldn't budge. He banged on the wood. "Artie open up goddammit! It's me Alfred!"
Alfred stood back, tapped his foot on the floor before lifting it, ready for a good kick.
"Don't Alfred!" Matthew stood in front and managed to stop him.
"He's got to be upstairs I know it!"
"Then why is it locked?!" Matthew yelled.
"Ruhig sein!" Ludwig barked. The two brothers were tangled and in the midst of pulling each other's hair, Alfred's leg under one of Matthew's arms. They froze in this position
Ludwig turned on his heels and began scanning. All that could be heard now was the echo of a tick-tock from the grandfather clock. It created a beat. A rumble from the storm outside followed at certain intervals. The rain filled the gaps. Ludwig's eyes squinted before smelling something he was all too familiar with and stormed in that direction. Matthew and Alfred stumbled down the grand stair case before following after the German.
The trio walked into a corridor of Arthur's library, before heading into his large study. The gun shots echoed in Alfred's mind. The sound of anything unpleasant happening to Arthur, made Alfred take one large step and then a small hesitant one. What was the worst that could happen to him? (They turned the corner.) He'd been through two world wars and a blitz and was as old as Stone Henge, nothing could be far worse-
"What the fu–"
Puke filled Alfred's gaping mouth as he leaned against the wall, and spewed out everything he'd eaten that day. Matthew's lips twitched and Ludwig felt he'd seen this somewhere before.
Pieces of thin skin and black fabric floated like paper, chunks of raw meat lying in the bloody soup, along with some snaky looking things Alfred hoped weren't intestines. There was a gaping hole in the man's gut, where something had gnawed away at it like it was picking the good parts to eat of what was left of the Brit's head butler. You could see the start of the spine and part of his skull. The rest had been obliterated and drenched in blood.
Cold beads sweat down Ludwig's forehead. He brought forth the hard trained soldier within, knelt down, and began investigating.
"Hmm... interesting."
Alfred wiped his lip gripping on the slippery polished wood. "Artie?!" He croaked. With a good swallow he cleared his throat and began to frantically search, doors trembled open and slammed closed before his wake. He needed to find the Brit more than ever before. "Pops?!" (Damn that didn't work?)
The Canadian broke out of his stone figure. He walked around the study. Arthur's gun was on the floor. Picking it up he pressed the release and the magazine slipped onto the desk.
"Sorry." Matthew said, but Ludwig didn't seem to hear him.
As his hand reached for the magazine, his eye caught sight of the broken fountain pen that spilled its own black blood all over. The nib broke off completely. Right beside it was a letter where the calligraphy looked more like the sharp violent scratches of a seismograph.
He picked it up and began to read.
"Dear Alfred, Matthew, and Ludwig,
If you are reading this letter, then I've been– "A splatter of ink covered up the word.
"I hoped to call you soon in order to explain all this in person. My destiny fast approaches, the Ancients work at hand, and I must pass the torch unto you three. You are our last hope."
"Ludwig...I found something."
Hearing these key words, the German immediately turned his attention to the letter while Matthew called Alfred back.
"What the hell are you guys doing looking at...?" A green wave passed over Alfred as he saw the puddle of blood before he just told himself to stare away.
"A letter from Arthur."
All three of them read it together.
"My apologies that we never told any of you of the burden we carried, but it was on a need to know basis, and we'd hoped that this day would never come, much to our fruitful efforts.
The other nations have been captured, and as I write this to you, these forces set their sights on London.
Find my enchanting room. It's in the library behind the –. There you will find your answers as to what has befallen me and what awaits you. Until you have seen beyond the veil, I cannot describe or even mention what you will find. Know this: The fate of the World depends on it.
Monsters will come once you've read the book. Things will change.
Alfred be strong. No matter what you might see, hear, or feel be strong.
Matthew keep your wits about and your brother under your wing. For me. And remember our incantation lessons.
You boys are my pride and joy.
And Ludwig you have my gratitude. If Gilbert were here, he'd tell you, 'It is your time to be Awesome.'
We..."
The letter remained unfinished.
ESD9001: Alright this fic, unlike the other one I posted, is more bout adventure WE GOT TO SAVE THE WORLD (MURICA FUCK YEAH) lols... kinda thing.
I was playing this video game and I thought... wow... you could totally do Hetalia to this. And actually I really want to know where this'll go since it's not focused on just a pairing, but more like all the well known characters of Hetalia.
If anyone does know the game then I guess this'll be an interesting take since I chose the guys to be Nations rather than Human AU. Also... idk how I'm gonna write the ending XDD compared to the awesome videogame ending... but I got a few ideas.
Another change I made was instead of just having one hero (even though technically there are 12), Alexandra was split into three, because I highly doubt someone except with a lot of nerve and intelligence like England could figure this out all on their own.
There will be graphic scenes with blood. Idk if I shoulda made it T or M since when it comes to gore it's not as black and white as porn. People react differently to violent or graphic scenes. Just read carefully and know there will be that stuff if you don't like that stuff.
Enjoy~!