Meta Knight never slept in too late in the mornings, as he always had to make sure he felt on top of his day. Rising before the rest of the palace did along with Sword and Blade so they could get on with rounds was a habit of his. Well, Sword and Blade always decided to take longer to get ready so it was only Meta Knight who emerged earliest.
So imagine how surprised the knight was to bump into a fully dressed and awake Japan who was milling around outside his bedroom. The dark eyed country was looking at one of the Dedede statues sitting on a pedestal at the side of the corridor. When Kiku noticed the knight, he turned and made a small bow to greet the blue Star Warrior.
"Good morning, Sir Meta Knight," Japan nodded, looking at the knight before him. "So I see you are an early riser too? Hm." Japan resumed to looking at the Dedede statues.
Meta Knight cocked his head. "And a good morning to you too, Japan. Yes, I am strict with the timings of my day."
Japan looked further behind himself, down the corridor. "Normally, Germany would be out with me too," the Axis-aligned nation sighed. "Today he seems very tired. I do not wish to disturb him… Germany, after all, has hard days back at 'home'."
Meta Knight nodded to acknowledge this. "He is a strong character, very tough too. As well as wars, he's had his own struggles internally as a country so the others tell me."
"Wars," Japan sighed, seeming to groan slightly as he said it. "Even if we are warring now, war is a terrible thing. Why us countries throw ourselves into it just doesn't seem to be clear. The worst thing to happen to us apart from being totally destroyed is to have our people harmed. As for civil wars, I just can't take it. Russia-san, for example. He may seem fine around you people, but inside he's very scarred and greatly hurt mentally. I don't like to say it in front of him, but it is true, and nearly everyone notices."
Meta Knight paused to take this in, staying completely still but shifting his gaze away from the nation for a moment to think.
"Indeed, war is a horrid thing," Meta Knight agreed finally. "I myself have fought in a war as a soldier…"
Before anything more could be said, a blue and brown blur whizzed past, though not making either of them stagger back but Meta Knight certainly looked bemused after it had passed. Japan just stood there as he had seen this a thousand times before in Germany's house. And it was indeed Germany who the bubbly, hurrying Italian was seeking out.
The door at the far end of the corridor burst open with an excited cry of 'GOOD MORNING GERMANY!' shortly followed by 'WHAT THE HELL?!!' There was a sound which was like someone was bouncing on furniture came afterwards.
"Good morning Deutschland!" Italy said in a sing-song voice. "Did you sleep OK? It's our second day in Popstar!"
"Argh! Get the fu- Get off my bed!" Germany shouted, definitely sounding like someone was sitting/jumping on his chest. "Y-You're so heavy!"
"Let's have breakfast!" Italy whooped. "I can't wait for breakfast!"
Japan turned in the opposite direction of the scuffle, seeming totally unemotional about it.
***
"Qi lai! Qi lai! Qi lai! Qi lai!" sang China as he prepared Dedede's breakfast. The immortal country was happily and energetically doing his job with no fuss and working scarily fast. He chopped up the vegetables with speedy skill whilst stirring a pot of something with his free hand.
"Qian jing! Qian jing, qian jing jing!" China poured out some congee with a swipe of his ladle and held it aloft triumphantly as he finished before adding the other things to top off.
"Uh, Captain Waddle Doo?" he called, putting the filled bowl of Dedede's breakfast onto a tray. "I'm done in here." Some Waddle Dees went in and took the tray to deliver it to the king's table. China mopped his brow and smiled contentedly.
Meanwhile, Waddle Doo was busy briefing France on his new job. Well, he wasn't exactly a prison guard as Dedede never kept prisoners so Waddle Doo let him join the guard patrols which stayed around the basement.
"So remember the route," Waddle Doo finished off to the country. "Down the stairs, to the left and around, then up and make a zig-zag from right to left and you'll find yourself the stairs to back here. Got it?"
"Yes," confirmed France, though his eyes didn't say he was as enthusiastic as he sounded.
With that, Waddle Doo left off and France walked in the other direction to start his rounds.
"Ugh, why did that king listen to that idiot of a nation?" France muttered as he descended the stairs. "I can do much better than this. Much better."
As he came into the cellars/dungeons, France began to whistle to himself to keep him occupied. The dungeon was a total one way maze sure enough to drive someone crazy with the endless rows of jail cells.
"What a waste of space and time," France grumbled.
All of a sudden, he paused and looked at a small detour to his left side, next to the cell with the fake skeleton Dedede decided to decorate up with for a laugh.
"Oh, so he keeps wine now, does he?" Francis chuckled to himself, walking into the wine store and looking at the bottles on the criss-cross rack. He tutted and shook his head. "How improper to store them in such a damp area." He looked about at the dank area, musty with dampness on the walls.
"If that's how he wants to abuse such a wonderful beverage," France shrugged, turning away from the wine cellar. "So be it. But I wonder if he'll listen if I advise him on the subject… Surely the tres bien moi can only know the most about wine?" France looked back and took a bottle out of the rack and read the label. He then sniffed the corked up top.
"Mm, this one's OK," the long-haired country smirked. He put the bottle into his coat for later, personal consumption and moved away to get on with his job.
Just upstairs, England was standing around with Escargon, seeing as their jobs were almost the same. The snail decided it was best to start informing England on what to do in the common occasions of Dedede losing his temper for different reasons.
"If his meal is late, which shouldn't be a problem now China is there but anyway," Escargon briefed. "He tends to lunge at you if you're right next to him on either side, with his elbows. So if that is so, you have to edge back, because edging forwards would only provoke him to throw something at you."
"OK…" England nodded. He wasn't noting anything down, but he was definitely listening carefully. "Sheesh, your job seems to require a lot of reflexes. Why do you do it even if it risks your health?"
Escargon raised his shoulders. "Even if he's not so bright, I care for His Majesty. Well, what's it like to have your boss back where you come from?"
Arthur paused to think about his answer carefully. He raised a thick eyebrow in thought. "Uh, well it's not that I care for my boss, but I care for my country since I am its represent. You see, our bosses are in control of us as a country and decide what we do. I don't think that we sort of… look after them but in advisory terms, we are allowed to object to decisions for the sake of our people."
"Hmf, well that is a bit different," Escargon replied, stroking his goatee. "Well, in this kingdom, every citizen is themselves though not many of them, not even I, get say in imposed rules by His Majesty. All the same, I still work for him."
England nodded understandingly. "I see. So… What if something bad, say something fell on his foot happened. What then?"
"Ah," Escargon answered, knowing the answer to that question. "He'll get mad and most probably pound you on the head. He does it to me, but you're taller, so he may just shove you or something."
Dedede had long since finished breakfast while that was going on, and had gone to seek Russia to do a job on the delivery system, which had broken itself overnight.
"OK, Russia!" Dedede bellowed when the gray-haired nation appeared from his bedroom. "You can do it for me, I know you can. The teleporter is broken, so just fix it up for me whilst I track down that America for some weapons. Got it?"
Russia smiled. "Right away, Your Majesty!" He gave a small salute and disappeared to fetch his 'toolbox'.
Little while later…
"Latvia, please can you get on that big pad for a moment and put this under the circuit board on the right?" Russia asked, holding out a small component of the repair kit. He was holding a long sheet which contained instructions on how to fix the delivery system when it was faulty.
The smallest of the Baltic Trio nodded meekly and took the bulb from Ivan's gloved hand and scrambled onto the pad to carry out his task. Lithuania was busy diddling with the connections under the huge thing and Estonia was fixing up the buttons on the throne.
"This stuff is so strange," Lithuania muttered as he came out from his place covered in wires. "I've never seen this kind of stuff, even in Japan's place."
"Speaking of Japan," Estonia said, looking up at Russia, "why are we fixing this? I thought Japan is now supplying Dedede with stuff so there is no need for this to be used."
Russia adjusted his scarf a bit. "He still wants to get those animals from that Holy Nightmare, whatever he uses them for. Japan can't quite do that yet." The tall country stepped towards the main body of the system, which Latvia was still working on with trembling hands.
"It says that this little button here is the test signal, to make sure the thing can receive and send signals from base," Russia read out loud, pointing to a small thing on the side of the pad, hidden in the main frame. "Let's see…"
Without warning, Ivan pressed the tiny button and there was a quick buzz, a flash and a short scream of shock.
"LATVIA—A!" yelled Lithuania as his friend disappeared in a flare of white energy.
Holy Nightmare base…
Customer Service was leaning back in his chair, having a bit of a rest. Perhaps deliberately crashing the system was a bit mean, but since Dedede wouldn't really want to buy too much and his bill was way over the limit it was normally at, he might as well get himself some time to have a break.
All at once, his own delivery system powered up, making him jump up and stand on his chair in fright. There was a crack of electrical discharge and Latvia of the trembling trio was standing, living up to his nickname on the teleporter, blue eyes darting around the new place he'd arrived in.
"Russia! Russia-san it's working!" Latvia screamed, tears flying from his eyes as he shook. "Send me back now!"
It appeared so that Russia knew his 'friend' was somewhere, because the system powered up again and Latvia vanished in white. Customer Service paused, stared and rubbed his eyes before the computer behind him bleeped to announce an incoming call from Dreamland. He pushed a button to answer it
"Oh, hello sir," Russia's ever smiling (menacingly) face greeted on the screen. "I'm sorry if I startled you, but I needed to check if it was working. My comrade, Latvia, here, was the one you just met." Ivan held up the quivering country, who was as limp as a ragdoll with fear. Latvia just whimpered.
"Uh… That's fine, thank you…" the salesman replied. "Have a good day then."
"OK! Goodbye!" Russia waved, and the screen went black.
***
"America!" Dedede barked, waving for the nation to come to his side. The two of them, king and country were 'plotting' in the basement of Castle Dedede where the monarch kept all of his important equipment and toys which he'd obtained over the years. America inspected a telescope poking up through the ceiling before joining his employer.
"Now, you have the bombs, I have the brains," Dedede stated, seating himself on a randomly big chair. "Let's begin some plans. I'm not usually one for big explosions but your things could be nice to use in case of quick disposal of demons or a certain pink ball…"
However, America wasn't listening and was busy looking at a huge computer which was tucked away in a dark corner. "Wow! This is massive!" Alfred cried, spreading his hands. "My country could benefit from some technology like this! What does it do? Does it have a battery? No! It hasn't got one!" He bolted off to find this 'missing' battery.
Dedede opened his mouth and stood to tell the nation to get back to work, but as soon as he did, America was across the room and was lifting up a huge cage to look for the computer part. Not finding it there, he dropped the cage and searched on.
"That was a one-ton reinforced steel cage specially treated to contain demon beasts!" Dedede gawked. "How can you just pick it up like it was made of plastic?"
"Did any of us forget to mention that America has super-strength?" England asked, appearing with Escargon. "He's been like this since he was a little kid. After I adopted him, he picked up a wild buffalo and whirled it in the air."
The king looked astounded at the hyper nation running amok in his basement, calling 'Here Mr. Battery?' "If that's so, he's like a super-hero, right?" the monarch asked.
America heard this and stopped his hunt for computer parts, turning to Dedede and striking his 'hero' pose. "Haha! I am but THE Hero of the Allied Forces, sir! Oh, England! Can you see a computer battery lying around here anywhere?"
England looked about from where he was standing and Escargon tapped his shoulder.
"It's here," the snail whispered, pointing to a car-sized grey box which was underneath the telescope platform. "His majesty thought it was far too ugly to stay around, but that's it."
England nodded and called over to America. "Under there!"
Alfred was on it in a zip and had it soon in his arms, running over to the computer's main terminal and shoving the battery into the conveniently open housing slot for it. All at once the machine came to life and America punched the air.
"The Hero has fixed your computer, Your Majesty!" he declared.
"You lot are far too amazing!" gasped Dedede. "I'll certainly benefit from you lot being here with me!"
What he didn't notice was that America had immediately gone onto the computer to play a huge game of Asteroids and was making a high score in minutes.
"Just wait till Japan sees me on this!" America whooped, mashing the buttons on the keyboard. "Then his darn Nintendo industry can suck it!"
All at once the screen exploded and his sprite exploded, leaving the letters 'Game Over' on it.
"What?!" screamed the country, jumping up. "I had three lives left! There's an error in your system, Your Majesty!"
Before they all knew it, Japan's face appeared on the large screen, the backdrop revealing that he was currently in Meta Knight's room, where the TV was by the looks of it.
"Sorry to terminate your game, America," the country apologized, though his expression remained normal. "But I've just given all televisions a channel to watch everything around the castle, and a webcam and microphone. Meta Knight requested it to make the castle guards' jobs easier."
In the background, Sword and Blade were sitting behind the country, looking in awe at his handiwork. Germany was present too, fully dressed and looking as stern as always, though his hair was a bit on the messy side.
"The picture and sound quality is very clear," commented Sword from his place.
"Thank you very much Japan," Blade added.
"And by the way America," Japan informed, some sort of glint coming into his usually expressionless eyes, "Nintendo is mine and you will never gain the rights to Mario and Zelda."
On that, the screen blanked out.
It's not that America want to own Nintendo, but I heard many people when I was in pre-school think it is American owned. It's not, Japan will be the god of all games.
Kiku: Ha.