Chapter X: It's Far from Over

Amanda tried to walk as slowly as possible in order to delay her arrival at wherever Venice's uncle was taking her. Well, rephrase, where his cronies were taking her. The white-suited man had radioed them when he realized that they weren't going to have much of a conversation and was now leading the way to the place where he wanted to conduct his experiment, flipping the globe pin into the air and catching it tauntingly as he walked.

"Almost there..." he sneered -

- only to give a surprised exclamation when a very familiar man charged around the corner and bowled him over with a single punch to the gut.

"I'M HERE, AMANDA!"

"Dad!" as soon as they saw their employer in trouble the muscle-men in charge of Amanda immediately began to retreat, preferring to follow their orders of not letting the girl go instead of helping Venice's uncle.

"I can watch this man," a dark-skinned woman, followed by a pair of men, spoke softly in heavily accented English. The three new arrivals all wore more traditional African costumes that looked well-worn, but didn't have shoes.

Her companions nodded in agreement. Amanda vaguely recognized one of the men, but now wasn't the time to ask who he was. She struggled as much as she could but wasn't able to make much headway until Samuel finally caught up to and apprehended the guards.

_-Hetalia-*'

"Ve vere SO close! Not awesome!" Prussia shouted angrily as he squirmed out from the pile of nations. Just when he was about to pull an awesomely silent flying-tackle on the rear-guard of the group holding Amanda hostage he (and everyone else) had wound up back in the globe pin.

China quickly jumped out of Russia's lap. "You mean you found her-aru~?"

"Yes, but then we wound up back here." Amer- no...well, maybe America said it but no one was sure.

"Ja, but then we all came back into the pin!" Prussia huffed angrily.

Germany thumped his elder brother's back with a hand. "At least we know she's safe."

"Hai." Japan nodded in agreement, only half-listening because he was trying to calm a shocked and crying Italy. The sudden change of surroundings seemed to have been too much for the ditzy Italian...

...too bad the other one hadn't been affected. Romano quickly stalked over and shook his little brother. "Shaddap! I'll start crying if you keep it up!"

"Awwwww Lovi~!"

"WHY THE HELL DO YOU HAVE TO BE MY STALKER!?"

"UWAAAH~!"

"Prrease move away, you two are too noisy." Japan cringed and covered his ears, accent thickening slightly.

"Hello?"

The countries paused. They could tell the voice was coming from outside, but it wasn't Amanda's...

"...Cairo?" England hazarded.

"Yes. I see you are back."

France pouted. "Why? I wanted to see dear Amanda~"

"I...agree with -yaawn- France, a...although I need another nap..."

The Sudan siblings sweatdropped at Greece's comment - the Mediterranean nation had just been asleep...

"My companions and I will do our best to help Amanda. It may be the only way to get you out of there for good."

For good? The nations chattered anxiously, shouting down America and on occasion and being badgered into explaining what Cairo meant by Sealand.

"I hope the process doesn't take too long - I want my capital!"

_-Hetalia-*'

"Mr. D.C., I have the globe pin." The man that Amanda found familiar held up the object in question. "The countries are inside it again, and unharmed."

"That's mine! You've no right to take it from me!"

"We have every right. It belongs to us capitals."

Amanda blinked. "They are?"

The elderly man nodded. "We must move forward and conduct the ceremony that will make you a capital if we want them to come out for good."

"Then let's do it."

That's my girl! Onward, to...wherever White-Suit was gonna take you!"

"My name's Gregory, and I'm not leading you anywhere!"

...

"That was not so hard, now was it?"

"Shut up - ow!" Gregory hissed as the dark-skinned woman, who'd introduced herself as N'Djamena, smacked him with a stick that she claimed she used to help herd cattle.

Amanda managed too swallow the lump in her throat as she looked around. "We don't have to use all of the space...let's do this."

[Edited 6/8/15]