xxxxx Group 3 : Canada, China, Romano, Italy - 4th floor xxxxx
The four nations had taken the stairs to the deepest part of the building, or so they thought. In their way, several bodies were found, animals but also 2 humans in uniform, their gun laying a few steps aside. They seemed to have fought, however, stairs weren't the best place to do so against so many creatures. But that was nothing compared to what they found in the 4th floor. Barely after they opened the door, they all felt nauseous at the sight and smell of the bloodshed. Dozens of rats, mouses, dogs and bats bodies from all sizes were laying against the walls, on the floors, and some were blocking the way of the armoured door that had been supposed to contain them.
Some had fought each other to death, some had degenerated, but most had been killed with guns. The four men prudently proceeded in between the heavy door and on the only opened corridor and discovered much more bodies in their way... Kumajiro started to growl at one point and something, to their dismay, answered. A weak shrill whine coming from the left side.
Putting his light toward the noise provenance, China gasped when discovering a bat the size of a german shepherd on the floor. One of its wings had been severely injured and it couldn't fly like it was intending to.
"Poor thing Ve…We can't let it like that…"
"No way we are adopting it Feliciano!" warned Lovino with an exasperated face.
"Pain." whispered Kumajiro in his usual calm tone, while looking at his master with expectant eyes.
"Pain." He repeated until Canada, shivering a bit, nodded.
"...We can't let it like that anyway."
Canada stepped forward to the agonizing creatures, and slowly, pointed the gun to its head.
Then, he shot and the whining ceased.
Turning to his companion, he stated, his imperturbable face on.
"He will not suffer anymore now…"
Looking at each other, his three companions didn't say anything as they followed him, looking a last time behind them. Then, they arrived at what seemed to be a restricted zone...if the doors weren't all opened. But not only the security doors were opened, all the cages that had contained an animal or several were too, as China noticed.
"The shortage opened all the doors..making every of their 'experiments' escape...for what I guess."
"No way. What kind of system would let all your experiments go away each time there's a shortage? That's dumb China! Someone obviously opened the cages THEN put the shortage, that's my guess!"
"Aru! I'm not permitting you to insult me, South Italy!" warned the oldest one, not liking the way he was addressed. It was a thing Romano was probably right about what he said, but he wasn't tolerating his ill habits of being bad-tempered toward him.
"Ve! Guys please stop fighting, I heard something!"
"Chigi! There's still some of them here!"
Indeed, some of the cages weren't empty, and they could see approximately 4 dogs and 2 rats hiding inside, terrorized by their arrival. One of the rats was in an acute degenerating attack, two of the dogs were wounded. Of course, there were corpses of animals and about three humans, 1 woman and 2 men. They had been slashed by teeths on vital regions. However, contrary to the ones in the stairs, two of them were wearing blouses.
"'Sonia Adams, assistant laboratory technician - confidentiality level 4' from what I read from her ID." Romano deciphered.
"Look, there seems to be an experimenting room here. And there are more animals…"
These ones though were normal or semi-normal sized mouse and rats in glass jars, more common sight in a research lab. And many alive!
"Ve..there are some green tubes with something in it...irck, it's look like embryos!" informed Italy, feeling extremely sick all of a sudden.
It was indeed animal embryos of the ones they had met and for some reason, Feliciano was shivering.
"Are you cold?" asked a concerned Canada, before the italian shook his head.
"No...but it's like...this one here...And this one...it's like they are reacting to me...like if they were my..citizens…? No, I can't define..."
"What? The fuck? Since when animals can be our citizens?" ranted Romano, angry at the nonsense he was hearing.
"Ve, I know that Fratello, that's not exactly...I can't explain what it feels because I've never felt like this before but look! They are moving when I'm near…and I'm feeling tickles too, in my hand."
The nation made a demonstration and China, Canada and Romano could see a few of the embryos reacting to it, wriggling at him.
"See..? It's reacting to me when I'm near, like if they were more...lively…"
"...Holy father, pray for those who have sinned..." Romano's trembling lips sprouted as understanding was sinking in him.
"...could it be...They used our cells and injected them in these animals? Why would they do such a thing?"
"Aru, I've seen a lot of crazy men and women studying us in the past...Searching for our immortality and regenerative properties. In the modern era, this search...it can lead to this."
They found after that material for injections or biopsies, cameras to register some experimental behaviours the scientists judged interesting, along with hour-glass shaped cages where they assumed they could study and experiment on the bigger animal . There were some serum bulbs too but that were too small to be used for 'I', and larger syringes were spilled and scattered on the floor, not enough for the whole menagerie though. They still took some with them. It was better than nothing!
"I think we have seen everything, there is no more room."
"Which resume the floor to this injecting and study room with hour-glass cages, the bigger cages and the corridor…"
"Mm, there is another entrance here, but it's smaller...I think the animals can pass by there."
The italians and the chinese man immediately glanced at the polar bear. Polar bear that took his time to notice he was observed but when noticed, answered with a decisive.
"No."
Canada took longer to understand, but when he did, retaliated.
" There is NO way I'm sending Kumagarou in there!"
"Ha, of course, we were kidding..don't be like that!" replied Romano, not completely honest here.
However, the project of Kumajiro the explorer was aborted, and they all agreed to catch up with the others. For the few animals still alive there, they couldn't bring them up and Canada didn't have the strength to end them all, seeing as they still seemed healthy for now. They prefered letting nature do her work until America came back with his troops to evacuate and clean the place….But when coming back on their steps, Italy stopped the procession.
"Hey...near the stairs we came from...I think it's a metal door no?"
From afar, it just looked like a metal part of the wall, but nearing it, they recognize a door. An old door, that looked very heavy. So heavy they couldn't open it, even after Romano tried to unlock it.
"Too heavy, we need that brainless bastard superman for that."
"Let's head to the meeting point and talk about it to him. It's not like the door will move…"
Agreeing, they finally took back the stairs, and at this moment, light came back.
xxxxx Group 2 : America, Germany, Japan - 2nd floor xxxxx
The 3rd floor was, for their greatest deception, empty of living beings, which was unfortunate since they thought they could capture one or two (or dozens) of belated employees to interrogate. America noted that all the cars/trunks and a LOT of the stuff he had seen packed two days ago had disappeared.
"Man...how fast have they been...I told you guys we should have been faster to act! Now they're gone!"
"Well to be honest America-san, I prefer not meeting with anyone, because that would mean fighting over numerous enemies."
"Let's be prudent, it might be a trap." warned Germany, gun already in hand when he moved forward, followed by the rest fo the trio.
They tried to explore everything but the main interest had been animal's bodies here and there, mostly agglutinated against a huge security door.
"That door wasn't there the last time I checked! Behind it, there's a road where trucks could drive in an underground path! " commented the superpowered country.
"Seems the security has been activated. One explanation could be they tried to contain the animals from escaping...or to be followed."
Despite this one oddity in the giant warehouse, there was nothing that caught their eyes. What had been left was basic materias, food stocks or lab disposables, along with camps for the soldiers to sleep apparently.
Seeing as this trip had been inconclusive, the group decided to head for the 2nd floor.
xxxxxxx
Even having been there before, the 2nd floor was still quite a maze for America, especially now that light was down, with only the green glowy emergency lights leading the way, giving an eerie ambiance to the seemingly abandoned facility.
"I swear it was more lively the last time I went there..like people running after me…" grumbled the superpower nation. He hated abandoned places, because it reminded him of haunted houses. He would even prefer the angry men after him compared to this.
" You said that they were in a hurry to leave the place when you came here America-san right?"
"Yes...in fact uh...I kinda showed myself on one of their cameras and they probably chickened a bit fearing I would come with the government or special forces...ya know. They were taking everything they could on the third floor to be evacuated in trucks."
"They probably accelerated the pace when they saw you had already scouted the area…" sighed Germany. He had told many times to the big country he had to be more discreet while acting, but America had something about being in the spotlight. He just couldn't help himself sometimes to do the show.
"Well...they might have forgotten many things then! They couldn't have the time to erase everything!"
"Indeed."
They proceeded in the corridors, until reaching what seemed to be the medical aisle, with a room containing an MRI.
"Ffff! They even constructed THAT here! Cutting-edge technology for a secret underground study about forest's local fauna, sure! "
There were scattered documents, and from what Japan read, it looked like parts of summary of MRI findings about regular checking of 'P's brain. Not very interesting as they were judged normal. Two pages were about 'C's brain damages, the last MRI the experiment had before his disappearance.
Alongside this, there were notes about the check ups of the clones, their constants mostly, which wasn't useful for their investigation. 3 rooms not far from the MRI's one, there was another machine with seemingly giant magnets and the nations recognized the one 'I' had described to them.
"There's instructions to use the machine. It seemed to deal electromagnetic waves at a certain frequency. I don't know for what purpose though…"
"Nothing explains it here, and we can't access the computer's data either…"
"If only electricity was restored we could maybe discover somethings…" pouted America. He had brought about 2 special hacking USB to steal information and had been expecting to use one of them other had been given to England for the 1srt floor.
"Let's search for what can be found without datas. We will then try to turn on the electrical current. If it was intentionally severed, we might be able to restore it. But we need to find the generator."
Next to the medical aisle, they discovered what seemed a more ancient series of corridors, as if the medical aisle had been added afterward. These corridors seemed like living places...And places to raise children. They found the playroom, the restroom, the study room, Ms Miller's office, and then the numeroted rooms. They were all opened and were mostly empty, except for the one where 'I' and 'P' had been living in. For 'R' and 'C's room, it seemed to have been cleaned entirely.
"Have you noticed how all these books are centered about the history of their respective nations? 'I's shelves is full of italian landscapes or cooking books. And 'P' have story books in german too."
"If they could implement memories directly to them, I don't see why they would put so much effort in them studying…."
"Oww, nice an unmanned helicopter! Uh...don't look at me like that… I was just thinking about bringing it back to 'P'! He will be super happy about it!"
"Now that I think about it, we should find them names. Real names. It gives me an odd feeling calling them with only letters.."
"Oh yeah totally! Let's ask them what they want as a name! How about Tony and Steve.. "
"NO!" yelled the ex-member of the Axis in unison when hearing the last name. They didn't know why, but it gave them shills behind their spine. Definitely not Steve. Cursed name.
Suddenly, a clicking noise was heard, and the nations had to run outside the room as the power had been restored. Systems were reinitializing and lights were finally on, to America's pleasure.
" It seems like some of the others have found the generator!" Germany stated, looking above himself although he didn't know where it had been repaired exactly.
"YES! So we can go back to the medical aisle and try to take some datas now!"
When Alfred was grinning like that, there was no way to change his mind, and all three took the direction they had come from to return to the medical aisle, even if there was probably not much information about the project in itself.
At least America would have a surprise for the albinos when he would come back at the rendezvous point!
xxxxxx Group 1 : Russia, France, Spain, England, 'I', 'P' - 1rst floor xxxxxx
"Mm, there's a lot of staff room in here, I'm not sure it is wise to explore them all..." whispered France as the larger group entered a corridor with red dirty carpet as the floor and sneaked in some of the first rooms, following 'P' who was leading the way not too far from the adults.
"Ja! Adults love chairs and tables here!"
France was picking up papers on the floor and in the rooms they were exploring, but not much was found on them. Would have been too simple uh?
"Seems like administrative documents, about security and organization of the factory...I would need more time to read this, but it seems as boring as our job..." the old man sighed. Let's remember they were initially on vacation and he didn't intend to see a piece of paper in a while!
Crossing the bureaucratic area quite fastly (they could search there later),they noticed that walking further was leading them to a more technical aisle the albinos hadn't explored, including 3 laboratories adjacent to each other.
"That's the place I saw when I was in the conduit! There was a lot of serum here..." signaled 'I' as he recognized the laboratory white benches.
"Maybe we can find some, let's search for it big brother!" jumped excitedly 'P' as he ran into the room and tried opening every closet and cupboards.
"Don't run boy and stay close to us will you? We don't know who or what can be found here.." warned England moving after the impatient kid.
But there wasn't anything anymore. Contrary to other places in the factory, this one had been evacuated and cleaned with peculiar care and 'I' felt more and more depressed as they found nothing in the fridges.
"The serum seems to be a well guarded secret they didn't want to abandon that easily.." growled Arthur as they left and turned right at the end of the aisle.
There the corridor was turning right and they proceeded, ending up in a maze of corridors and rooms which the only purpose seemed to be to lose intruders inside. Russia felt more and more impatient, playing with his beloved pipe as his sharp eyes were looking in the dark spots, expecting (and hoping) someone or something would jump on them so he could have some action.
Instead, he found something else.
"Ohh! Look at that darkish red liquid on the floor...if that's not blood! And there's trails of it!" he smiled delighted .
The trail, which was actually shoeprints, was emerging from a door. Children moved far behind, Russia opened it and discovered what seemed to be the Control room with multiple screens, desks and computers for the workers.
Inside it was dark, but by using their flashlights, they found the body of a man, an arm on a platform with multiple buttons. He had been shot with a gun, before someone actioned the device it seemed. For what it did, they had no clue, but they saw a key turned in a sort of lock to action the device in question.
"To think we would find ourself with a murder case of all thing, that place is full of surprises…"
The group left the room after finding nothing else conclusive and decided to follow the bloody footprints.
They seemed to lead in a precise direction so they would no longer be lost it seemed. But what were they going to find at the end was a mystery...
It's Spain who discovered the generator's room on their way.
And inside, they found two other human bodies wearing security uniforms.
"...these guys were shot with a gun too, from behind." whispered France to Spain as they entered the room, England and Russia staying outside with the children and avoiding them to watch over their shoulders.
"Do you think it's their father who've done all that Francis ? If he shot these guys, then he could be dangerous...and dead."
"Let's not tell them that for now. Could try restoring the current 'Tonio?"
"I will try amigo!"
The brown-haired country looked at the generator and, helped with France's flashlight, proceeded to try repairing it.
Meanwhile, the others guarded the door, looking as the red trails were continuing and turning left at the deep end.
" Brother, it's scary here…" complained 'P', hugging the brunette's leg in search for comfort.
"Yes..I..I'm scared too 'P'.." said a shivering 'I'. He was only 3 years older and was also afraid in the unsettling dark place. The staff's rooms had been fine, but here it looked more ancient, dirty, and eerie with the light shut. Sometimes, shadows looked like they were moving too.
Fortunately, like if their thought had been heard, a multiple clicking noises were heard and suddenly, light went back, flickering a bit.
Not a minute after, Spain and France were proudly exiting the room with smiles on their face.
"Haha, 'Tonio you're the best!"
"Haha well... In fact, some of the wires had been cut and someone shot at the main generator to broke it but there is a smaller emergency generator alongside, probably the one lighting up the green lights. I've changed the connection for the emergency generator to act as the main one. However, he isn't as powerful and I'm not sure he will last very long…"
"Well then, let's hurry before all the batteries are drained." stated England, and the group moved forward at a faster pace.
The trails were disappearing as blood had dried, but still led them to a close heavy metallic door with a big "confidential sign" on it.
How delighted was Russia to find some more stimulating activity to do!
The group tried to open them with some of the ID card they had taken from the bodies they had met, but it wasn't working so, seeing the door was barely open, he put his finger in and pulled it open enough for his pipe to be inserted. He then used it as a lever until the door slided to the side in loud metallic noises.
"Not much resistance for such a secret place!" he exhaled with ferocious contentment, letting the others enter with a reverence.
The room they entered was the archives and had distincts parts : on the right part of the room were shelves with paper documents that had been half emptied.
On the left side near the wall, a wooden office alongside tiny drawers, where were laying two computers, one older connected to a cassette player.
"Alright, I can use the USB America gave me for one of the computers. Spain you look at the tapes and see if there's something interesting..let's hurry before the current die…." started England, turning on the computers , seeing here the chances to finally get some information.
Russia and France decided to wander in the rooms and to search in the paper documents, sharing their findings from here and there.
"Ah! There's a document about a ...Project DOPPLEGANGER...Oh! It's a document from 1973! " exclaimed France, not believing what he was reading.
"Really? Bloody hell, they were doing this under America's nose for this long?!"
"Not exactly...this document talks about rabbits cloning. I don't know since when they have been interested in us especially…"
"Argg this computer is so long to load! I'm not used to it anymore…" sighed Spain, clicking impatiently with the mouse to the dark screen filling with codes.
"Hihi, it's the weird screen that does electricity when I touch it! How does it work? "
All adults just stopped what they were doing to watch the 2 kids looking at the screens and touching it with amazement like cats with a cardboard box.
"Don't tell me…"
"You've never seen a computer before."
"Yes we've seen some! The weird professor was using one when we were having our check-ups but..me and 'P' never saw one from this close..."
How he wanted to touch the keyboard and try copying adult fast typing with the characteristic noises! But the simili-italy didn't want to disturb the adult so he refrained 'P' to just slam his fingers on it at random.
"Everyone! There's another door that opens with a special key here…" yelled Russia, already trying to open it by breaking the lock.
"Amigos! The tapes seem to work...and I've found some interesting ones." replied Spain, reminding them that everything involved electricity.
"Gentlemen, I've collected some data thanks to the pirate USB…"
"..Bien, et moi, I've found olds documents mentioning theories about us…"
This place was a jackpot and all 4 adults had found something.
They decided to explore the digital documents and the tapes first before the current shut down again and plunged into the past of the facility.
Author's note :
Hi there! I wanted to answer some reviews I have received! (Also I discovered how to do author's note, as I'm a fellow beginner on as a writer posting stuff . Thanks youtube!OuO)
First of all, thanks for reading my fanfiction, it means a lot to me and I'm glad you appreciate it (or maybe less now, but well, we can't please everyone right?)!
This story exists since a LONG time, like more than 8 years ago, inspired by Hetahazard (an hetagame about zombie and clones) and the reason it took so long is that initially I wanted to draw it on a comic strip. But well, I don't have the time or the bravery to go that far, even though I'm able to draw important sceneries happening in it.
Now, talking about the updates. You probably remarked it's fast paced and understood the reason being: I've wrote everything already. I've took about 2 months to write it down and to correct its defaults, as I knew posting everytime I finished a chapter would lead to incoherences between chapters (I'm pretty sure I can't avoid them all, but I've corrected a lot by this means!) AND might have been difficult for my motivation (And I would have hated to just leave something unfinished as many of stories on the site I've been hoping to see updated one day ;u;).
My story is thus complete already but I didn't post it directly for reasons, them being my lack of time to do so, the little revisions I do in chapters when I spot a mistake, but also to let people digest it.
For the schedule, it depends of if I have the time but also the way chapters are linked between them (generally by 2 or 3). I'm the kind of person that don't like putting people in cliffhangers that last for seven years with 6 months between chapters.
However, we're entering the final part of it. There will not be more than 3 updates I believe, so the story might end in the next few days. I'm not telling you when though, I'm letting the surprise! OuO