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Suspicion loomed over the rescue group's head like a teetering grand piano. There was no telling when it would fall but when it did, the damage would be severe and their end would be a crunching discord. Matthew felt the worst of this pressure. The staring continued. Beyond being nerve-wreckingly creepy, he gained a sinking sensation of worry from the figure's attention.

The normal response to a creepy person staring at you would be to get the hell out of the room. Since Matthew couldn't do that, he chose to stare right back.

What little else the figure had said, made a greater impact than their words. The hooded figure made no further mention of their obvious nationhood. Anything underneath that hood looked like it was erased by a thick black sharpie marker, so there was really no telling who it was.

After a few more minutes of staring back at the figure, which was a half-assed attempt at out creeping the figure, he turned his head upwards to watch the other two nations hit against China's chamber. Hurriedly, they both whacked at the glass with magic to get it shatter. America had taken a while to get out and they were left with less time to spare. When the troll had to return, they would be forced to cut their losses.

Navy Blue continued to stare. Two steps to the side. Two steps the left. 180 degrees around. Like an eerie painting, the eyes followed the Canadian around.

Matthew was at the end of his nerves and finally hissed, "What are you planning?"

In reply, the figure laughed at him for a good while. Then nothing.

So much for coming right out and saying it.

Crack! Whoosh! China was the next one out. Lightweights were prioritized to make dropping them into the portal faster and easier. Norway continued getting to hammer away while Romania brought him down.

Open and loud yawns were let out. Matthew slapped himself in the face to remind himself to keep it together. He was already a dead weight at this point because magic was much more effective against the chambers. Again, he yawned and raised his hand to cover his mouth.

A stinging pain spread on his cheek and he looked around as he soothingly rubbed at it. Again it came and he stared at his hand. Why was he slapping himself again?

Immediately, he snatched at his wrist with his other hand. He shook as he struggled to maintain control of the other. Accusingly, he glared back at Navy Blue who did what the figure always did, blankly stare back.

"Are you okay?" Romania asked as he passed him to get back up the stairs.

Matthew's hands stopped fighting and he relaxed them with ease, "Uh...yeah…How much time do we have left?"

"Twenty-seven." Norway shouted from above.

Romania gave the younger nation a look, "Relax."

Quickly, Matthew stashed his now normal hands behind him and nodded. The Navy Blue figure remained relatively still as he stood there like a cardboard cut-out. Matthew was really only acting like an alarm system to signal them when they shod all start booking it out. As he leaned against the wall, the nation debated whether he should just jump into the portal.

He shook his head again to shoo away the thought. Relax did not mean sleep. He still had a purpose here…in the eyes of the freak.

"CAN YOU PLEASE STOP LOOKING AT ME!" He ran up to the Navy Blue figure and quite nearly yanked the hood off. "WHAT IS THAT YOU WANT?"

"Canada?" Norway shouted below. The blond sheepishly shrugged and scratched the back of his head. Awkwardly, he told them it was his own outburst and the older nation went back to work.

When the attention was gone, Matthew neared his face close and harshly whispered, "You're just trying to get on my nerves aren't you?"

At last he got a reply, "Whose nerves?"

"My nerves."

"Ah, but you see...whatever-your-name-is" Matthew's eye twitched and his hands slowly curled into fists, "We aren't on your nerves. We have your nerves, ever last neuron. "

"We?" but before he could interrogate further he realized someone was calling him.

"Hey!" Romania said as he climbed down and at last pulled him away from Navy Blue.

"To keep your mind off of his stare, head up there and help Norway. I need to rest to keep from overusing my magic."

The nation ran off gratefully. Romania stared at Navy blue. He hadn't heard what conversation they were having but he kept an nice distance away.

Whack! Whack! Matthew's focus remained on the chambers. Totally not at the hooded figure that was certainly still staring at him from all the way up here. No, don't continue being a whiny brat. Whack! Crack! Whoosh! It was just someone staring. Someone very suspicious was staring. Someone very suspicious was staring and never stopping doing so. Whack!

"Canada! You can stop now!"

The younger nation stopped in mid-swing right as he was about to slash himself on the broken glass of the chamber.

"Sorry," He mumbled as Norway picked Italy up.

"It's okay...but wow...You should've used this strength earlier."

"Ah, yeah…" He sloshed away to Greece's chamber as the biotic liquid started to pool. He hammered away, determined not to let his mind wander. The sound of the liquid as it fell off the platform reminded him of a waterfall...where salmon would be jumping. There they would fight against the current…the delicious fish…He could really use a snack right about now.

Clang! The sledgehammer he had been swinging slipped from his grasp. He eeped back as it fell dangerous close to his toes.

"Keep yourself together," he muttered to himself and went to work. Clang! Clang! A few minutespass and then hand touched his shoulder. In surprise, he jumped, swung the hammer and nearly knocked Norway's head off of his shoulders.

"Whoa!"

Matthew kept the hammer to his side, "Sorry, sorry."

"I was about to tell you that you're slamming the railing and not the chamber."

"Whoops sorry I-" In a motion that he had meant to drag the hammer along, he swung again at Norway, "Sorry...I didn't mean to do that" He swung again and his voice's pitch raised a little, nearing panic, "Or that."

In an instant of realization, Norway ran down the stairs and glared at Navy blue, "You did this didn't you?"

Silence.

Romania looked at him and at the Canadian, "Why are you swinging that around?"

"My body is doing this on its own!" The young nation said in his defense as he came rushing down and then jumped off. High and heavy, the hammer prepared to come crashing down on them. Bam! They both dispersed as cracks formed in the concrete floor.

There was a laugh from Navy Blue.

"It seems that poor Canada just can't...help himself." The figure said and revealed a piece of fish underneath his coat. He tossed it to the other side where Matthew ran after it. He hunched over it on all fours.

"No no no no" The northern nation repeated as he arms did their best to keep his mouth away from it.

His indigo-purple faced off into the glassy raw dead fish eyes. With a straining amount of effort, he knocked the thing away from him into the corner with the frozen humans. A disgusting gushy trail was left as it slid across and an even more disgusting hungry growl came from his stomach in disappointment.

Through another surge of effort, he forced his head to turn around to Navy Blue with furious anger. So this is what that hooded nation had planned.

"Knock me out! Hurry!" The Canadian shouted at Romania and Norway with desperation.

Fire rushed at Matthew. Norway tried to create a few small ice spells with what little regenerated power he had in him. Shame, the troll didn't work on nations. Instinctively, Matthew's body dodged and ran across the room.

"Hold still!"

"Can't!" He passed Navy Blue who handed him a syringe and pointed. "No no no," He tried to toss it to the ground instead of pointing it to the nation.

"Keep that away from me!" Romania shouted.

"Sorry!" Barely, Romania dodged away from it and Matthew crashed into the wall.

Ow! Romania massaged at a part his head as conjured another fire spell. His magic was giving him a headache...crap...that only meant overexertion. Norway was busy dodging a now active Navy Blue, with no ice spells on his part. He eyed the portal.

Matthew noticed the Romanian's plan and cheered for him to go for it. Unfortunately, so did the other part of him that controlled the syringe. Mid-jump into the portal, the Canadian nation cut him off.

"Sorry" He whispered futilely as he stabbed the man with the sleeping drug.

"AND CUT!" The northern nation's body stiffen. So did Navy Blue.

In the midst of the chaos, no one had noticed a new person enter in. The leader of the New World Order appeared from the door they were leaning against and applauded the sight.

Loftily, the man walked into the center of the room with everyone's attention on him. The Canadian had lost his control of his body, Norway was stuck in the hold Navy Blue while Navy Blue tapped his foot impatiently. No one could punch that proud grin off this power-crazed leader.

With the smirk, the man looked around as he gauged the destruction, "Impressive. I wonder, oh, I wonder, how you've managed to do all this." His eyes glanced at the portal, "Ah, I see. Back to those old magic tricks."

"How?" Norway said. He was certain that his troll was keeping everyone away. There should be a strong persuasive sickening feeling imposed upon people who strayed near this area. People would just naturally be more inclined to go elsewhere.

The leader laughed, "I suppose you had cast some spell to keep humans like me from wanting to be here. Even now, I feel sick to my stomach for being here. Oh well." He snapped his fingers and pointed to a spot beside him where Navy blue, who curiously did so begrudgingly, walked to it.

"Has it ever occurred to you-," The man continued on, "-That one by one, nations came here to challenge you and not, let's say all at once?" They bit their lip. "Of course the thought wouldn't hit you that once we lost communication with this room and the nation in it was not coming out, that we would suspect anything. "

"Aren't you supposed to be busy at Italy's government building?" Matthew snapped, exercising the only thing he had control right now.

"Blame a little furious Italian meddling and an unexpected weapon malfunction." He let out a snort, "Worry not, all the other governments takeover squads have been given the warning message and have gotten back up plans. Which reminds me Norway, would you be so kind as to release my workers? They have an awful lot to do."

"And why should I?" Norway snapped back.

Navy Blue slowly took off something from their mouth. A small electronic gas mask hit the floor. "Because, big brother, I'm asking you." The nation flicked off their hood.

The short nation-er stood before them. But could the young nordic be called a nation anymore? Black and white bird feathers covered one half of his face and it trailed down his neck. Some jutted out through his silver hair which explained the taller height he seemed to have had under the hood. His face was a little more rounded. A red bow tie was pinned just below his neck and it clashed heavily with his casual attire. The eyes were just as Matthew remembered.

One Purple and One black. The nation had become Half Puffin. Half Iceland.

"I-Iceland? What have they done to you?"

"Made me better that's what!" Iceland screamed with a grating metal voice. "I RULE THIS WORLD!" A crazier scream-filled laughter was let out, as if the nation had been holding it back all this time. The strain on the voice was evident and rough.

The leader coughed, "You'll have to excuse him. We hadn't expected his puffin to have this kind of behaviour and effect. We're still finding ways to subdue it."

"AHAHAHA! IT FEELS WONDERFUL! helpmenorway YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN YOUR FACE! THIS STUFF IS THRILLING! helpmeAHAHAAHAHA!help NOW THAT'S WHAT LIFE IS MADE FOR!"

Norway gritted his teeth. "Of course," he whispered.

Oblivious to the hidden conversation, the leader gave another laugh, "You really will have to ignore him. He really does go off and says what he wants. A little annoying at times...but I guess things can't be perfect."

Ten minutes, his troll reminded him. Norway tsked.

"Liechtenstein and Sealand were definitely the easiest to sway. Give them a couple of threats whispered into their dreams and those micronations go scrambling for whatever may save them. Mindless children, those two were. And look where they are now? Waste of time, it seems."

"But what did you do to Iceland?" Norway demanded.

The leader shrugged, "Nothing much. Just played a little with the connection between nations and their pets." He turned to smile smugly at Canada, "Looks like we finally caught you that way." He turned back to Norway, "The animal's personalities appear to fuse as well. So, we had to take about a week to stabilize him but that's just another boring step."

At this remark, Norway went to tackle at the leader, fueled with steaming anger at the man's disregard. Iceland caught his arms before Norway could and locked them behind Norway's back. Matthew tried to think about the green vision and activate it. Fur grew on his hands as a result. Nothing green glowed in his eyes. Crap. The spell was probably cancelled with whatever the Company was doing to him.

"When? When? When?" Norway shouted as he squirmed in his little brother's strong grip. He glared at the leader.

"For a month now. The feathers are a new symptom, trust me. Truth of the matter is that no one noticed any of these nations coming and going. Perhaps, they were just too young to pay mind."

"But…"

"Honestly, you should pay more attention to what's going around you."

At the end of the leader's response, a needle bit into nation flesh as it did with many of the nations in the room. Norway gasped at pain of the sudden sting. Iceland eyes flickered purple for a moment, a deep frown on grew his face, but his hand pushed harder. Then, Norway was tossed over away and the Iceland-Puffin hybrid refocused its attention on the Canadian.

The leader sighed as he pivoted over, "Still, I can't imagine how you could have possibly gotten through to Latvia. He was the hardest to break and if he hadn't rejected the forget-me-serum, we would have given up on him." With a smile on his face, he looked up at the nations left. "He did such great work for us too. And then you go on to convince him to stab his own arm with the syringe. You somehow have undermined countless hours of conditioning. Just. Like. That."

Step. Step. Step.

Leaning in very close to the other's face, the leader spat, "You really like to piss me off. Master Canada."

He leaned away and whistled at Navy Blue. The poor nation dragged himself over, clearly trying to fight orders. Clearly failing, "Now, that you're in our grasp. Tell me, what you did you do that cut our connections with India? Use your final state? No, from the looks of it, you still don't have that power. What is your secret then?"

Tight-lipped, the Canadian merely glared.

"Oh come on. Spill it!" The leader said with a tone that made it seem like Matthew was keeping some sort of gossip secret. "It takes quite a bit of effort to collect historical objects with just the right properties to affect a nation. Then you go off ruining the connection just like that. Do you know how much planning went into stealing from that display in China? Ah ha! From the look on your face, you must know what I'm talking about."

"Jade..pins…"Matthew whispered then snapped his mouth shut. Was he losing control over his voice now too?

"Yes, Jade pins and a whole sorts of other knick knacks. Researched a bit with them then set Phase 1 of our plan in motion. Had to stash a bit in a hello-kitty doll to really see the extent of effect. Traitor Japan really did some great work in the beginning."

"Traitor Japan?"

"Yes, stupid nation went off rescuing some of the patients. He is probably regretting his decision now-" The man straightened as he looked at Matthew, "as will you. Unless you do have something to say?"

"..."

Canada blacked out as the needle's sleeping drug entered his veins. A cry of a mournful polar bear in the distance echoed in his ears. All across the world, the snow storms ceased to rage, as General Winter gave up. The nations had failed.

A/N:

Next time: One word to describe it: Canada.