Author's Note/Disclaimer: This chapter proved tricky; some of these characters are difficult to write. If any of the characters seem a little too OOC, let me know. Also, though I always check for accuracy, there may still be mistakes in the foreign phrases. Correct me if you see any mistakes.
Hetalia does not belong to me. Enjoy.
Germany had received no word from England before turning in for the night. After a quick breakfast that morning, Germany tried one last time to contact the Englishman. He was disappointed, but strangely not surprised when he got no reply yet again. And, as he reluctantly put his phone away, he couldn't help but wonder if England really was in serious trouble. England had said he would keep in touch with regular updates, but so far Germany hadn't heard a word. Then there was Japan's suggestion last night that England could probably be in danger. And, despite his idiotic hero complex, America might have had the right idea in suggesting they rescue England.
The only problem was that no one had any idea where England was. Germany only had a vague idea himself, and he wasn't sure how much good that would do. At the moment, however, Germany figured that a vague idea was better than none at all, and that he and the other nations couldn't waste any more time. It was time to make a few phone calls. Germany punched in France's number and waited for the Frenchman to pick up.
"Oui, is this Germany?"
"Hello, France. I still haven't got any word from England. I'm calling everyone that was with us at that pub last night; we're going to go looking for him."
"Very well. Where are we meeting up?"
"Back at the world meeting building."
"Trés bien."
"Oh, and France?"
"What is it?"
"Have England's brothers been notified yet?"
"I'm not sure. I haven't called them, that's all I know."
"Right. Could you call them for me? I need to contact everyone else."
"All right…" France hung up.
As soon as France had hung up, Germany called America, telling him to meet up at the world meeting building. After America, Germany called Canada next, and told him the same thing. Germany went through the list of everyone else that had been at the pub, and eventually, he got through them all. The only one left was Prussia, but the albino was still sleeping in his hotel room bed. Germany would talk to him as soon as he got up for breakfast. In the meantime, Germany would use the time to think of a strategy for finding England. He pulled out some spare paper and a pen, and jotted down ideas.
Several minutes into the exercise, Prussia slowly rose from his bed, groaning slightly. The Prussian was a little hung over, although he would never have admitted it. He changed clothes with some difficulty, and left the room to get breakfast. Germany continued to focus on his paper and his ideas. He'd talk to Prussia when he returned.
Germany finished jotting down ideas, but Prussia still hadn't returned from breakfast. Tapping his pen idly on the table, Germany read and reread the paper. His mind raced; he was sure he had come up with the best possible plan given the circumstances, but it would require the cooperation of all the countries involved. It was that last part that had him the most worried. He knew very well how some of the countries that would be joining him didn't get along. No matter how responsibilities were divided among them, someone was bound to cause problems. America and Prussia sprang to mind immediately; as both were notoriously conceited and overly enthusiastic. It would take a miracle to keep both egos under control during this operation.
Muffled footsteps sounded from the hallway outside Germany's room. There was a thud, followed by Prussia's voice saying something in slurred German. A few seconds later, the door opened, and Prussia walked in. The albino seemed to have recovered from his hangover quite fast; he looked perfectly fine now, whereas earlier that morning, he hadn't.
"Guten morgen, bruder," Germany said.
Prussia nodded. "Guten morgen." He walked over to where Germany was sitting. "What is that?"
"I'm trying to draw up a strategy for rescuing England," Germany replied.
Prussia picked up the paper and looked it over. He nodded thoughtfully, returning the paper to Germany. "Good, but not as awesome as my plan," Prussia said.
"Your plan?" Germany said, taken aback that Prussia had even bothered to think of a plan, given how drunk the albino had been the night before.
"It's simple," Prussia replied. "Because I am so awesome, I could just go in by myself and…"
"No."
"What?"
"That's not going to work, and you know it won't."
Prussia briefly looked offended, but then his expression suddenly looked more thoughtful. "You're right," he said. "Perhaps I could use a little backup…"
"You hang out with America too much. You're starting to sound like him."
Prussia laughed. "Oh, don't be silly. America's much worse than I am."
It was Germany's turn to laugh. "Not by much," he muttered. He stood up, looking serious once more. "Come on, we have to get to the world meeting building."
"What for?"
"That's where I told everyone to meet up."
Germany tucked the paper into his coat pocket and left the room, Prussia following right behind. They headed down the hall, into the hotel lobby, then outside. From there, they took a cab to the world meeting building. When they arrived, only half of the countries Germany had called earlier were already there waiting. Germany surveyed the group; the Italy brothers and the North American brothers were the ones absent.
The door opened, and Germany turned around, expecting to see either the Italys or the North American brothers. It turned out to be neither, as Scotland walked in instead, a cigarette sticking out of the corner of his mouth.
"Scotland?" Germany asked, nonplussed.
"Mr. Frenchie here told me that England was in trouble, and that you told him to tell me," Scotland replied.
Germany glanced over at France.
"I did what you told me to, Allemagne," France said. "Did you expect England's brothers to do nothing?"
Given how much they hate him, I wouldn't be surprised, Germany thought. "Um, alright, but where are Wales and Northern Ireland?"
"Busy," Scotland said curtly.
Germany arched an eyebrow. "Fine," he said. "Then we're just waiting on the Italys and America."
"I think you're missing one," France said, starting to count on his fingers. "Yes, Canada is also missing."
"Oh," Germany said, resisting the urge to facepalm. "How did I forget? I remembered to call him earlier…"
"That's all right, it happens a lot…"
Everyone turned to face the door, where the voice had come from. Canada had just walked in. America walked in immediately after his brother.
"Hello, Canada," Germany said. "I really am sorry about that."
"No, really, it's fine," Canada insisted.
America decided to abruptly change the subject. "So, Germany," he said. "What's the plan?"
"The plan," Germany began, feeling his exasperation rising already. "Is to wait for everyone to show up first."
America shot the German a double take. "All right then," the American said. He walked over to the table and sat. Canada remained standing, looking slightly confused. He shrugged, then sat next to his brother. Minutes later, the Italy brothers walked in the door.
With everyone finally present, they all took their seats at the table. Germany withdrew some documents, including the paper he'd written on earlier, and set them on the table. He cleared his throat, ready to begin the meeting.
"These are the profiles I was talking about last night," Germany said, pushing the documents to the center of the table, allowing everyone a closer look.
America grabbed the profile on himself, looking through it. The first page contained a photo of him, and underneath it was a brief description of his physical appearance. Above the photo was the label: "The United States of America". America looked the page over on both sides, furrowing his brow as he did so. The back of the page was blank, so he looked back at the front. Underneath his description were some additional tidbits of information. In particular, he noticed this bit on his birthdate:
Official Date of Birth: 4 July 1776
Actual Date of Birth: Unknown (1607?)
America couldn't help but stare at the two dates in slight bemusement. No one ever really knew exactly when a country was born, but America was well aware that even his own government insisted on his birthdate being the 1776 date, despite knowing that he had been around since the early colonial period. Apparently, this group – whoever they were – was aware of this.
How much more do these people know? America thought, now looking through the rest of the document. The remaining pages consisted of long walls of text, occasionally separated by headings. Realizing it would take too long to try to read everything, America put the pages back in their manila folder, and handed it to Canada. Canada glanced over it, keeping his face unreadable as he did so. The folders were slowly passed around the table, and eventually they all ended up back in Germany's hands.
"As you can see, these profiles are very thorough," Germany said. "I don't know how they got this information, and I'm not sure what they plan on doing with it, but…"
"Wait a second, Germany, could I double check the profiles?" Japan asked.
"Certainly." Germany passed them down to Japan. Japan selected one, and looked through it. There was a few minutes' silence while everyone waited for Japan to find whatever it was he was looking for. When Japan finished looking through it, he looked slightly surprised, then proceeded to look through the next one. He went through that one slightly faster than he did the first one, then finally he looked through the last one. When he finished, he put the papers down.
"What is it, Japan?" Spain asked.
"These profiles are missing one piece of information on us," Japan said.
"And what piece is that?" France asked.
"Our human names."
"Seriously?" America said, reaching over and grabbing his profile again. He skimmed through it, looking for one mention of his human name, Alfred F. Jones. The name did not appear anywhere in the text. There wasn't even mention of him having any other name than his nation name.
"Ve, that is odd," Italy said.
"That doesn't guarantee that they don't know about them," Germany said.
"I don't think so, aru," China said. "If they were this thorough, why would they leave that out?"
"Point taken," Germany said. "But then, how did they miss that?"
"It's not like our human names are a bigger secret than anything else in those folders," Spain said.
"The stupid bastards probably didn't even notice while they were spying on us," Romano said.
"Of all things to overlook…" Spain continued, shaking his head. "Perhaps they didn't realize the names were connected to us specifically?"
"What do you mean?" Prussia asked.
"Could they have mistakenly assumed that Alfred F. Jones, Ludwig Beilschmidt, and Ivan Braginsky were just government officials or something? As in, they worked closely with the nations, but were not the nations themselves?" Spain said, holding up each country's respective folder when he said their names.
"It's possible," France said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "So far, that's the only thing I can think of that makes any sense, apart from them somehow never even hearing those names in the first place."
"Which is unlikely at best," Germany added.
"In any case, it seems they do not know about our human names," Japan said. "Which could prove useful. When we go looking for England, we will address each other by our human names."
Germany still looked skeptical. "Well, it's less risky than using our nation names," he admitted. "Let's do it. Now, as for how we to actually go about looking for our fellow nation…"
"What's your plan?" Prussia asked.
Germany showed everyone the paper with his handwritten plan on it. "I wrote some ideas down earlier," he said. "Here's what I've got…"
