Wow, how long has it been since an update? Sorry that the first thing since that long break is a rather insignificant chapter. It's like a transition stage chapter. Thank you to everyone who reviewed though and I hope you stick with this!
Welcome to the world 07
XX
Canada was only barely able to dodge the axe as it swung straight for his head. The blade buried itself in the side of the wall and Germany clicked his tongue in annoyance, as if he had really been planning on severing Canada's neck.
Canada jumped clear of the second swing, landing expertly on the broad side of Germany's blade and rushing at him with a well-timed kick to the head, which staggered but did not really hurt him. In fact, Canada was unsure how to finish this fight off quickly before the mods found them. It was true that he had far better speed, but Germany's endurance was proving to be a problem, coupled with the heavy armor he wore as though it were silk cloth.
Another blow slashed at his torso. Canada easily avoided it but the wind force blew him backwards, causing him to slightly lose his balance. Germany took instant advantage and charged him, connecting his heavy-plated shoulder against his chest.
Canada flew back into the wall, leaving a dent in the side as he collapsed. Germany lifted his axe above his head, his shadow towering and drowning Canada within it. Could he dodge in time? Surely his speed stats were good enough to easily jump clear but -
"Germany, wait!"
Italy's cry caused Germany to stop just as the blow was about to be delivered.
Canada secretly breathed a sigh of relief. For once, it seemed as though he would be lucky.
It seemed Germany's inability to say no to Italy had not changed since the old days. The man looked at his comrade with a mixture of exasperation and defeat. He understood Italy's look perfectly and could never say no.
However, it was with reluctance that he sheathed his axe again. Looking decidedly uneasy, Germany glanced at Canada and then back at Italy, muttering. "Get him out of here!"
The sirens were still wailing.
"Come on!" Italy pulled him along, through the hole in the door that Germany had created with his axe.
"No, I'm not going to - " Canada resisted but Italy could be strangely forceful when needed to.
"Please, Canada? Hey, please?" he implored , tugging him further and further towards the door.
"Italy…" Canada glanced back at Germany, who scowled in return, and to the sirens blazing over head. There really was not much time before the mods and administrators would find them.
Italy pulled him away with more force than Canada thought possible. Before he could truly comprehend the situation, he was dragged down the hallways, fleeing from every sound that could possibly be an administrator
Canada struggled to remove his arm from Italy's grip but a part of him also acknowledged the futility in returning to where Germany was. Though it felt as though he were leaving behind a comrade – if he could still consider Germany a comrade after all this time – due to his own cowardice, he knew that there was not much that could be done. In fact, more would be accomplished if he left now and returned to where England and Russia were.
They broke out from the building and continued running through the dense woods that surrounded the mod's territory. Canada glanced back furtively and was surprised to see how come it appeared on the outside when, inside the halls, it had been the very picture of chaos.
As soon as they were at a safe distance, Italy released Canada's hand, breathing hard. However, he hardly gave himself a moment to catch his breath before he turned his worried gaze to the building where they had left Germany to proceed alone.
"I need to get back to Germany," Italy hastily apologised and began to run back the way they had come.
"Wait, Italy that's suicide!" Canada tried to grab him but he slipped from his grip without a glance back at him.
It was known that Italy had a profound dislike of conflict, even to the extent that one could call him a coward, but whenever someone he cared for was in danger he seemed strangely oblivious to his own safety.
"Damn!" Canada let an uncharacteristic curse pass his lips as he watched Italy return into the depths of that terrifying place. His feet hesitated torn between following Italy back inside and reporting back to England and the others. Eventually, the latter side won and he started to run as far away from the mods as possible.
XX
Despite how angry England had seemed, America had been sure that it would all be forgotten about by the next morning. However, when he was woken by a swift knock to his door and the sight of Belarus bringing food, he had to wonder – firstly, whether she had poisoned it – and secondly if England had truly been hurt by his words.
No, surely he had to know that America had simply been joking. If not, then the guy had no sense of humor and deserved to be in a foul mood.
Or, so he thought at first, but a day passed and then two without seeing hide or hair of the grumpy mage. At this point, even the sight of those disastrously fuzzy eyebrows would have been welcome.
He tried talking to Belarus instead but she never answered him with anything but curt words and frosty glares. When he had asked where England had gone she had threatened to cut his tongue off.
Thus for the second day in a row, he was left to stare at the ceiling, counting the lines that he was convinced that he could see in the slightly discoloured paint.
He managed to reach twenty three lines when a sudden shout from the hallway startled him. The shout was followed by the marching of feet and the general hubbub of excitement. A moment later he heard footsteps hurrying towards him and his room door was shoved open.
"England? What's going on?" America glanced at him curiously.
Engl;and, flushed and breathing slightly harder than usual, seemed to have forgotten all about the previous incident, in which he had sworn never to talk to America again. With a strangely animated look on his face, he announced; "Canada's back."
America stood up immediately. Canada – that person who people claimed looked so much like him – where had he been all this time. Without a word, America followed England down the narrow hallway into main room where he had once found himself tied up and kidnapped. It felt like an eternity since that day.
"I can't believe you guys really forgot about me!" Canada was sitting, through but was more like a squat, between the unopened crates that made the room such a hazard as though he needed time to catch his breath.
"There, there," Russia was sympathetically patting Canada's back, much to Belarus' silent rage, though Russia's pats were more like painful slaps to his back.
"Well, while I was there I did do some digging," Canada coughed and looked at Russia with watery eyes, who simply smiled and "patted" him more encouragingly.
"What did you find out?" England, ignoring Canada's plight – perhaps he was simply not aware of it - asked with arms stubbornly crossed over his chest. It took one glance for America to discern that he was not in the best of moods.
XX
"I still can't get in contact with him," Japan sighed despairingly as he closed his email, slamming the hatch shut on his little blue pigeonhole.
"Then let's just leave the bastard!" Romano snorted as he wandered around the Forums, looking for topics that interested him. He was having enough trouble on his own. Another tournament entered and another time in which he had just fallen short of earning the first prize. He was sick of ranking second or third all of the time.
"Something is wrong."
"I'm sure the mods will sort it out in time," he insisted.
Japan shook his head. Unlike Romano, he could not simply let the mods handle everything. Something was strange; something crept his way up his spine and tickled his nerves uncomfortably, but it was an itch that was proving hard to scratch.
"But if what you told me about the incident at the tavern was correct, something seems to be going on," he muttered, more to himself as Romano had made it more than obvious that he was moe interested in finding more tournaments then listening to Japan's conspiracy theories.
"What are you going to do?" he grunted.
Japan shook his head. Was now the time to play nice? America's disappearance worried him too. Though he was not typically the type to intrude on something that might be none of his business, he had no time to waste thinking any more. "I'm going to take a look."
Romano jerked his head away from the notices pasted along one of the many pillars. Whenever Japan said something like that it usually meant only one thing…
"You're going to hack?!" he hissed, his eyes darting this way and that surreptitiously in case a mod should pass by at any moment. "You're hacking!? But I thought - "
"I have a great respect for the rules and fair play, which is why I have never attempted it before but this calls for desperate measures, Romano-san," Japan said sternly.
Romano snorted. When they had first met on Terra, another online rpg which had since closed down, Japan had been a minor but very successful cheater, hacking sporadically by competently in order to upgrade his statistics. However, that was in the past. He had gone the straight and narrow path now, probably due more to America's heroic ideals than he even realized.
"But if you're caught," Romano looked reproachful.
"Don't worry," Japan smiled with just a hint of satisfaction, "I am sure I will be fine."
Romano sighed. He had always had enough trouble dealing with America's idiocy, but he had never expected Japan to start going crazy as well. What could he possibly fid by hacking? Could he even hack well enough to find anything. Cheating a little to upgrade your character was one thing but this – this was a whole different ball game, and the mods would be sure to be merciless if they caught him.
Stupidity must be contagious.
He was ready with an arsenal of other discouragements but, as Romano began loading the first one the forums came alive with a dozen bright blue holographic screens popping into the air around them with an urgent announcement. Romano started with surprise, almost crying out. His eyes whipped round, bewildered, to the holographic blue boards surrounding him.
"What is it?!" he asked, trying not to sound too unnerved.
"Something about a virus," Japan murmured, leaning in to read the bright white lettering. For a moment he was silent, his eyes swiftly scanned the message for anything important when he suddenly straightened and pulled at Romano's sleeve. "Romano-san, take a look at this!"
XX
"They're calling it the moonflower virus," Canada explained when he had finally settled down long enough to catch his breath – and Russia finally allayed his "help". For once everyone was paying rapt attention to him, though he was unfortunately too tired to appreciate it. "Cases of those unable to log-out started five months ago," he explained.
"That long?" America was shocked. If it had been something that long ago surely he would have heard of it by now. Why was this the first time he had caught news of this?
"At first, it was only one incident so Atlas Corp could keep it all hush hush," England said, understanding America's surprised expression. "They quarantined the victim and then attempted a forced log-out by deleting the player's character but…" he looked mournful, "it ended in a death for the player both in this and in the other world."
America shuddered.
"The incident would have created such a scandal, driven Atlas Corp bankrupt and closed the game but they paid everyone to keep it silent and, over the previous five months nothing happened. The case was written off as a one-time freak accident."
"But now it's starting again and it's spreading to more than one person, right?" America murmured. He was starting to feel uncomfortable standing there – especially with Russia behind him – it felt as if he too would be deleted at any moment. He shook his head. Foolish thoughts…
Canada nodded. "Yes, they are currently keeping all infected players quarantined. They should be launching an announcement right now about the virus, advising players to change their settings so that they cannot receive smell."
"So that's how the virus is transmitted; through smell," England tapped the side of his nose, smiling wryly as if to say 'isn't that ironic?' but America was not sure where the irony was.
"Do they know how to get rid of it?" he asked.
England simply shrugged and Canada pushed a hand through his dirty, sweat-stained hair with a look that should probably have been read as 'long-suffering', though America took it as a look of impatience.
"Right now they're busy just containing it but I imagine that they are working on a way to remove the virus…"
XX
"So we just change our settings and we should be safe, right?" Romano leaned back after he had scanned the message. "Japan?"
"Smell," Japan's eyes moved restlessly over the smooth floor of the Forums. "When we met America last time, I smelt something weird around him…"
"Yeah, that's doesn't mean you have the virus. You know you're safe right?" Romano snorted but Japan did not answer; he only pales slightly and started running.
"Excuse me!" he darted past Romano, almost knocking him over as he ran.
XX
"Wow, you know your stuff," America leaned back. He hated to admit it, but he was slightly impressed. Only slightly though.
"Of course," Canada replied. "We have been around since before Atlas corp took over, since the very beginning when The World was created by Gran - err, Mr Rome," he blushed.
"Really? Wow!" Now America really was impressed. The original version of The World, the one created by Rome and Germania corps had been a short lived venture brought to its end by the untimely death of one of its creators. It had not been until a few years ago that Atlas corp had revived and revamped the project. Finding players of the original was as rare as finding Pandora's bracelet in a stack of Tiffany jewelry.
England moved away from the table. "America, we would like to keep you for observation. There is the possibility of the virus mutating."
"As in it will turn me into a lizard monster?"
"As in it might be able to overcome the smell block and infect people in other ways," he replied, coughing impatiently.
America stiffened. Turning into a lizard monster was pretty horrifying but possibly infecting many more people was just as scary. "That's dangerous! Are you sure that I shouldn't be quarantined?" he asked anxiously.
"For now you're fine. As long as people follow the mods advice, you can't infect them…yet." England's warning remained coiled on the tail end of his darkly spoken 'yet.'
"Ah, but Germany and Italy will change their plans too then," Canada pointed.
America looked between the two players. Why did it feel as if he had been dropped in the middle of some novel? Who were these people? What was going on? There were at least fifteen chapters of back-story he had missed and he was flummoxing to get a grip of the events that were revolving around him.
"Germany? Italy? Who are they?" he asked.
England pinned him with a look that said that he should have figured out that much by himself already. It was an expression that America did not appreciate. He would have liked to see England handle all the things that he was going through.
"The ones who are spreading the virus," he explained.
"Eh?"
England sighed. There would be a lot of explaining to do.
XX
America breathed out deeply. In again. Out. He slowly regulated his breathing until it felt as if he had a grip on his thoughts.
"So let me get this straight," he began. "Germany and Italy are two users who are spreading the virus."
"That's correct," England nodded, surveying him with the strict air of a teacher waiting for his fumbling student to make a mistake.
"You you guys used to be friends with them so you wanna find them and convince them to stop before the mods get them and punish them," he continued. "However, in case you can't stop them. You're working on a cure for this virus," America began ticking off his fingers. He was getting all A's so far.
"I'll start analysing the sample you gave us immediately," Canada grabbed the vial of America's blood – America's had almost forgotten about that traumatic experience - and retreated to his room.
England watched him go for a moment before turning back to address the gunner.
"Look, America, you can stay and help us by letting us observe your virus and its effects on you. We won't let your virus spread to others. You can't infect anyone for now as long as they've changed their settings as the mods suggest anyway. Or you can go back to the mods and let them put you in a cell until they figure something out, which will be God knows how long."
"What's happened to me in the real world?" he asked.
England shrugged with cruel nonchalance. "You're probably in a coma."
"A coma?!" America yelped, jumping to his feet. A coma? How could he be in a coma? What about his parents? Had they found his body and been worried when he refused to wake up? What about school? His friends? He loved The World but he loved the real world as well. He did not want to be separated from it.
England reaction to his shock was mercilessly nonchalant. "You'll be fine," he said, and America bet that England would have said exactly the same thing if he had been standing at that moment with a hacked off limb or half his brains blown out on the floor.
"What do you say?" England asked. "Will you join us?"
"By the way, the answer 'no' ends in death!" Russia piped in, readying his blade hopefully.
America struggled for the right words to vocalize the million and one thoughts running parallel through his head. Unable to grasp a single word, he finally surrendered with a sigh. "Alright. I'll help you," he conceded, though he was hardly happy about this unexpected turn of events.
I think most people can guess what the deal is with England and his group but I'm trying my best to unravel things slowly. Thanks for reading!
