4. The Teamworking Chapter

...in which Germany takes the lead

Cuba took a gun into his hands and smiled. "Cool..."

"These really are old," Russia said and waved one rifle, carelessly testing it in his hand. He smiled and made a little laughing sound. "Brings back memories, da?"

"Umm..." answered Germany and tried to dodge the gun Russia pointed at him. "Yes, but try to remember we're on the same side this time, okay?"

"Can I have this?" they heard Switzerland asking and turned. The Swiss man in question was holding a sniper rifle, and aiming at some sort of target outside the window. His eyes were sparkling, although he clearly tried to hide it.

Germany turned to face him properly. "Do you want to be our sniper? I don't think anyone has any objections if you would like that."

"Definitely not," Spain smiled and played with two handguns before he ended up dropping one. "Swiss would make one helluva sniper."

"No objections," said England as he looked at Switzerland. "What do you say?"

Switzerland was suddenly wearing a grin no one had ever seen him make. "Say? Do I have to say something? I'll just keep this sniper rifle and kill them. Good enough?"

"Whee~ Swiss, you're scary," Italy smiled and peered down a rifle barrel.

In a split second, Germany had appeared beside the Italian and grabbed the gun from him, hitting him a little. "Have you forgotten how to hold a gun? Stop trying to shoot your brains into the backyard!"

"Hmm, but I take Switzerland's answer as a yes," commented France smiling behind his hand. "Looks like we have the first role in our shared play handed over, dears. Good process thus far, I'd say. And you really seem to like that rifle, Switzy."

"Call me that again and I'll test this on you," Switzerland answered as he took the rifle off its stand and nodded. "But yes, I like it. It's beautiful."

"Beautiful?" France asked and observed the rifle suspiciously. "You think so? Well, I guess that explains your hair style."

"Excuse me?" Switzerland answered roughly. Austria had to take the gun away from him because the war's first victim was about to come up soon.

"And you stay out of this!" Switzerland tried to take his gun back, and for a while he and Austria looked like kids arguing over a toy.

"Switzerland," Austria said somewhat calmly. "I know it has been a long while since you have been allied with someone in war, but try to remember that according to the common standards of cooperation you are not supposed to kill your own confederates."

"Like I'd care," answered the Swiss bluntly. "I'll kill those who get on my nerves."

"That is exactly what I'm talking about."

"Brother, calm down," Liechtenstein appeared beside them. "We need everyone to get home."

Switzerland reluctantly lowered his hands and relaxed a bit.

Austria continued, "Listen to Liechtenstein, if you do not wish to take advice from me. If you want to take your revenge after we get back, however, I'm not going to stop you."

"Austria, you're mean." Hungary smiled and France's expression told he thought the same.

Germany smiled a little, and then his face sharpened as he raised his voice. "Alright everyone. We now have our first back-up supplies, and it is time for us to plan how we're going to make it through this all. I suggest we take off to have a look on the terrain now and work together to form a tactic the enemy doesn't have chance beating in six days a least."

"About that," Iceland piped up from the corner, where he had been familiarizing himself with his new handgun. "Norway told me to remind you that he must not be disturbed if it isn't very serious. Needs a lot of silence to concentrate, I guess."

Germany nodded. "I don't think anyone has any objections, after all, he is the only one able to get us home and he wants to do it properly. But to make this clear to everyone one more time, I now proclaim; disturbing Norway or Estonia is strictly forbidden unless something requires their attention immediately, or there is a danger they must know about for their own safety. Is that clear?"

"Yes, captain!" Italy cheered and saluted.

Germany looked at him and sighed. "Would you stop doing that? Besides, you still do that wrong. Which reminds me, we should decide on one or two of us who take the command and supervise the whole situation. This is going to be difficult if we start arguing our opinions like we're in kindergarten. Any candidates?" He looked around him and then started to look slightly depressed when he noticed all thirty fingers pointing on him.

Germany felt a pat on his shoulder and a cheerful voice trying to encourage him.

"Don't worry about it too much. Just think of this as a long war. You are an expert at winning against odds in a beginning of long wars, aren't you."

"England, that doesn't help me one bit, you know."

"Fight for it, captain."

"Shut it, Russia."

.*** *** ***

"Finland," England said and smiled a little.

The addressed nation turned to him, still hugging the old Finnish-style rifle with sparkling eyes.

"You're still in the backup group."

Finland's face fell as he realised he wouldn't be able to use his old WWII partner again. He looked at Germany, seemingly trying to look like a cute little puppy.

Germany frowned, grunting. "Finland, that expression doesn't really have any effect when you're holding a rifle."

Finland sighed and let the gun fall. "Okay, I got it, I'm in the backup group, okay..."

Germany smiled a little and prevented the Nordic from putting the gun back to the table. "But you can keep the gun. No one knows if you're going to have trouble at some point too."

"Ahoy, Germany!" Spain shouted from outside of the hut. "The expedition is missing its leader!"

"So by this vote, we now declare Germany as our commanding officer," England said.

"Coming!" shouted Germany back and then gestured for the others to follow him outside.

"We'll come after you as soon as we have our own get-together in order," Hungary yelled after him and Germany waved his hand, silently saying that they'd be waiting for them.

"Hungary and Finland share the lead of the back-up group, Hungary as its supreme commander and Finland as head medic," England continued. "Finland, Liechtenstein, Latvia and Seychelles will be regular members of the back-up group; other members, including Hungary, change according to need."

"What kind of commander is late for his first task?" asked Switzerland bitterly and rested his sniper rifle against his shoulder, showing his readiness to depart.

"Switzerland will retreat from the front line and work as a sniper from behind the actual front as a primary back-up." the Brit nodded to the sniper. "The one assisting him in this job if necessary will be Lithuania."

"Then let's depart," Germany announced, starting to walk in the direction where, according to their map, was their enemy's territory.

Sweden took Sealand's hand and pulled him close. "Remem'er to be alert. Ya've a job, 'kay?"

Sealand saluted. "Yes Pap– umm sir."

Sweden's expression softened and they followed the others into the forest.

England coughed once. "Northern Italy and Sealand will be our messengers. You're in charge of communication between the groups," he sighed deeply, "since the concept of communication technology seems to be unknown to our allies. Funny, I haven't even thought about using telepathy on a battlefield."

"Well then," Germany said when they had walked a little while and turned to look at those following him over his shoulder. "We need all your experience right now if we want to win this. Please bring any ideas you have so we can consider and develop our plans. Remember that we need to last for six days and we don't know exactly what we are up against."

"From this point, we're all on the same side for the first time in war history. For this following week, we all are after the same goal." England straightened. "Our main task is to protect Norway and that way ensure us all a safe homecoming. If no one has objections to that, let's head out and prepare to kick some ass. Well? Objections? No? Good."

.*** *** ***

"A sickle tactic?"

China nodded. "That could work, I guess. Though our numbers are pretty limited."

"We can turn it into one more suitable for this situation," Japan said and turned to look at Germany. "Is it possible to actually make a formation that prevents them from surrounding us even when there are so few of us?"

Russia answered. "What if we make the sickle a double-bladed one, da?"

"Excuse me for being stupid," Spain interrupted and tilted his head questionably. "But what is a 'sickle tactic'?"

"It's the way Germany invaded me during the second world war," France answered, shivering. "He marched with his army through Belgium and encircled my troops stationed on the border."

Germany shook his head. "It was a ridiculous idea. It might have worked, but it was bluntly stupid. We stood for days in a fine long line on a Belgian road, in the open, waiting for an order to move forward. We were practically waiting for you to notice what we were doing and shoot at us."

"Well we didn't," answered England. "Because we didn't think you would be so stupid as to try that way. Do you think the same would work now?"

Germany frowned. "Maybe. But I wouldn't trust that tactic too much."

"Germany!"

They turned and saw Turkey waving to them from afar.

"Come 'ere for a sec!" the Mediterranean nation shouted, and gestured for their commander. "Lokee 'ere what've we found!"

Germany went and the others followed him. Waiting for them was an already familiar view.

"That makes it the third one," Germany kneeled and prodded at the soil. "Some battle really has been going on here in history."

"But to tell you the truth, pal, they're pretty pathetic," Turkey raised his arms to his sides briefly. "Even if they were just old, they'd still have been only scratches when they were new."

"But they do come in handy," China noted. "Now we do not have build so much ourselves, which would have been a complete waste of energy."

Germany took the map he had held onto, and a pen they'd gotten from their allies as well, and started to draw a neat line across the paper. It was the third old trench they had found in the woods. They were all made to defend in the same direction, north. The hut, or in other words, their headquarters, seemed to have some defences ready for them after all.

"We have to ask our allies about these trenches. Maybe they have fought against our enemy here, or someone they know has," Japan said and tried lying down behind one embankment. He pointed his rifle through the underbrush to the awaiting forest. "I think these really need some brushing up, but I think we can easily do that much."

"It is not the biggest problem we have right now after all," Germany answered, and then spotted Sweden walking in the forest Japan was aiming. "Japan, stay in that position for a while. Sweden!"

The Nordic turned when he heard his name called. Germany waved his hand once and continued. "Look here from the spot you're at now and tell me; do you see Japan?"

Sweden frowned and searched for the Asian with his eyes. Then he saw the rifle within the brush, and pointed at the location.

Germany nodded. "Okay, so try and take cover yourself, and then look again,"

Sweden disappeared behind the trees and pushes. Japan stayed in his stance waiting. After a while they saw Sweden rising up again (from a totally different place he had disappeared in). He shook his head. Germany smiled a little and shouted a thank you to the Nordic before giving Japan permission to break his stance. Now he knew how much the trenches needed to be improved at least. And to his relief, it was not much.

Suddenly Switzerland appeared beside him, with Lithuania behind him. "Germany, I have a suggestion."

"Yes?" Germany turned and everyone gave their attention to their sniper. Japan rose up to listen as well.

"Considering your test just now." Switzerland nodded towards Sweden who was coming towards them now. "And my job. I'm going to climb to a tree."

"Does that not make you a perfect target to almost anything?" China noted.

"I was getting to that," Switzerland gave a look to France. "You said it was 'our shared play', didn't you?" He turned back to Germany, who had already got the point and nodded.

"Let's act a little."

.*** *** ***

Switzerland shifted on a branch and tried balancing his rifle between two smaller ones. Lithuania moved below him trying to make himself comfortable. When the sniper was ready he gave Lithuania a nod. His assistant nodded back, raised his hand to his side and started waving a small, white piece of paper. Immediately, similar white pieces rose all around the forest. These sad, quickly-made excuses for flags had been made by tearing apart most of their current supply of paper that they had borrowed from Norway's share of their backup supplies. Originally, it had been meant for writing their ideas and tactics down, but they needed to adapt to their needs.

Switzerland frowned. "How many do you see?" he asked Lithuania.

Lithuania grunted and observed the forest for a while. "Seven. No, wait, eight."

Switzerland huffed. "That's too many. I was sure this would be a good place... I see fifteen people from where I currently am."

"So you would be able to shoot seven without being noticed?" Germany confirmed below him and made a note to his papers. "Who would be dead by now?"

"Italy, Austria, Poland, Cuba, France, Iceland and Korea," Switzerland listed. "And then there's eight more that could also shoot me; Sweden, Belgium, Greece, Hong Kong, China, Turkey, Belarus and Sealand."

Germany made fast but accurate markings to the map China had quickly illustrated for this specific area. "That's almost everyone. Seven you see and eight who also see you so... It leaves five who are completely hidden,"

Switzerland took his gun and huffed again. "Yeah. I'll pick another spot and we'll try again. Lithuania will try that other tree we marked,"

"Yes, sir," his assistant replied, and they both started climbing down.

Germany moved forward and raised his voice to tell everyone the results. He told everyone, except those who had remained unseen, to move their positions and reminded them that they were now attackers. Excluding helping Switzerland plan his positions, doing this would also gain more knowledge from the grounds they would be battling on. By crawling and hiding in the underbrush, they could think up and memorize the spots an average attacker would use. Then they could make them useless.

Next they had to hope that their enemy would be as straightforward their allies had claimed; that they would attack head on from south and not creep around them, like England and Russia noted they might do. Their numbers weren't quite enough to keep up with an encircling.

.*** *** ***

"I just hope we're not being deceived," Netherlands said as he dusted off a piece of cloth he had used to clean the benches, while carefully listening to everything Hungary came up with. "If this is just part of their plan, this is going to be a tough one."

"I've been thinking about that," Hungary answered and put her pen down. Although she had complained first about being in the backup group, she was now having fun thinking up how everything would work behind the scenes. After all, the actors couldn't do their jobs well if the staging wasn't done properly. Now they were discussing about where the supplies and ammo would be placed in the small hut. "But why would they sent us medicine and guns before killing us, when they could have just got on with it?"

"Maybe it's local custom?" Finland suggested, coming from the little room America was sleeping in. He wiggled his fingers, trying to make up a good reason. "Something like... A ritual before sacrificing an offering to an ancient god of a family."

"...W-what kind of a family deity needs forty nation offerings before it's satisfied?" Latvia wondered, wrinkling a stack of papers with his fingers.

"Well..."

"Don't answer that," Hungary warned.

"How is America?" Seychelles asked politely.

"Mumbling something about being a hero, so I think he currently isn't dying."

Liechtenstein tilted her head and joined the conversation. "Isn't the moment before your death the moment you start telling everyone about your dreams?"

"Then America has been dying for a century already."

"Oh yes, that's right..."

.*** *** ***

Estonia sat quietly, looking at Norway, who was sitting on the floor and mumbling something Estonia couldn't understand. He was also writing and drawing something on his papers that Estonia swore even Norway himself couldn't understand. Seven papers were already full of something that looked like ancient runes, and the one Norway was using right at that moment looked like some kind of a geometrical disorder.

"Estonia." Norway stopped drawing a triangle. "What do ye get when ye divide 26 by three and raise it to the third power?"

Estonia frowned and grunted, closing his eyes. He took a while to calculate. "Six hundred... fifty point... ninety?"

"Round it up. An' if we assume tha's a diameter of a circle, wha's the surface area?" Norway continued, tapping his pen on the floor.

Estonia's frown deepened and he grabbed some paper, taking up his own pen. He massaged his temples, trying to multiply a number with pi in his head. While he was drawing numbers on his paper, Norway waited for an answer more or less patiently. They both knew they had to careful with their calculations.

Estonia bit his lip. "How accurate of a figure do you want?"

"As accurate as possible, but it I woul' prefer ye'd be sure 'bout the answer and not jes guess," Norway answered, tapping the pen on the floor again.

Estonia returned to his calculations. After a moment, he spoke again. "Something around 332 850. I can't get it more accurate."

"Enough, thanks."

"Norway, what are you planning? That's one hell of a circle."

"Tha's square centimetres."

"Oh... It's still quite big."

"I can't make it much smaller. Actually, I think I have to make bigger. Now help me with this paper."

"Got it."

A/N: Sorry for the lateness, thanks for everything else.

Fai'swingedchronicles: You think so? Well it is quite choatic in the beginning, I admit. I can't say if the ending is the same way, but that's up to you to decide.