Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia, my I do own my OC in this chapter which is Australia's boss and anyone else who works in the Parliament house.
Thank you to all your support and lovely reviews! They mean so much to me and give me the motivation to keep writing for you guys.
Now when I first started this story I kept Australia's boss unnamed because I didn't want people to relate him to any actual Australian politician. For example, I wasn't going to name him Tony Abbot or Malcom Turnbull because my version of Australia's boss is very prejudice to personifications and hates them with a passion so I didn't want to cause a stir by naming him directly after one of the politicians and then there would be a whole debate on that politician (If my reasoning makes any sense, keeping in mind that I have been writing on lack of sleep and coffee). But back to my point, this chapter in particular I am regretting my decision of not giving the leader a name and I don't want to give him a name pretty much near the end of the story but he's never had so much screen time up until this point!
Anyway, enough of my waffling and on with the story! Important notes on Mick's Backstory at the end.
Australia's boss sat at his desk doing the mountain of paperwork that had seemed to appear overnight. He also had to do all of Australia's neglected work whilst he was gone, and there was a lot of it, a part of him wondered if Australia had left it for him on purpose. His emails were open on his computer screen, all twenty of them went unread. He already knew what they were going to be about, so there was no point in reading them. And quite frankly, the mere mention of that wayward personification was enough to leave a bitter taste in his mouth. Why did that man have to be so irresponsible?
Was the nation so inconsiderate of the fact that he was leaving his work for the country's leader, his superior to pick up? Australia was never meant to be gone this long, he was just supposed to drive out to Wolf Creek and catch Mick and then bring him in, no problem. Now he was dealing with a crashed car, which was government loaned which meant insurance was through the roof, and the other nations trying to get into contact with him.
He tried his best to ignore the excessive emails and phone calls from the other nations, but thankfully they seemed to have cease all together in the last few days. He guessed that Australia was wrong, it turned out that if he ignored them long enough they would eventually stop, which they did. He didn't understand what they were fussing over, they were practically immortal. If anything, they should be ringing to congratulate him on taking the necessary steps in taking a very dangerous criminal off the streets to protect their citizens, not asking where Australia was and if he was okay. The man stopped writing to flex his fingers, he took a deep breath as he looked at all the documents he had still yet to sign. All of this stress was just because Australia was taking his sweet time trying to bring just one human into custody.
A knock sounded on his office door before it creaked open slightly. The receptionist had stuck her head inside the gap and smiled brightly at him, her brown eyes held a twinkle of suppressed amusement. Something didn't sit right with Australia's boss. Those two receptionists out the front got along a little too well with Australia. Michael and Jenny, at least that's what he thinks their names are, were always helping Australia to prank him.
"What is it? Can't you see I'm busy?" The man said before going back to his work.
His rude tone of voice however, didn't deter Jenny's cheery smile. Her eyes sparkled with a sense that she knew something that her boss didn't.
"There's someone out here to see you sir," She explained very vaguely.
"Well can it wait? With Australia god knows where, doing god knows what with his time I am left to clean up his messes yet again."
"I believe it is fairly urgent sir," Jenny said, "They are friends of Australia."
This made him scoff, "Friends? I wasn't aware he had friends other than-"
He pauses mid-sentence as the reality finally set in. His eyes doubled in size as he felt his whole body stiffen in fear. "Oh no."
As soon as the words left his lips, he jumped to his feet with speeds that would even rival Australia himself when a new species of spider found its way into the building and the aussie nation couldn't wait to try and make friends with it. As if his life depended on it, which to him, he full heartedly believed that it did, he just blindly grabbed whatever paperwork was in arms reach and dumped them into his briefcase. He took a handful of pens from their holder and shoved them into his case as well. He didn't care that he was being unorganised, at the moment his priority was to try to escape the building without being seen.
"Uh… Just tell them I'm in a very important meeting and that I'm so sorry but it is unavoidable. That should keep those freaks busy for a while."
If was possible Jenny's smile got even wider, "Well you can actually tell them yourself sir, because they walked here with me."
Jenny pushed the door fully open to reveal a few unimpressed personifications, it was clear that they had overheard everything that Australia's boss had said about them. The poor man looked like a kangaroo caught in the headlights, he practically squeaked as his eyes widened. This was his first time with the nations alone, normally Australia spoke to them on his behalf or at the very least, was around in the same room as him. Australia had never trusted him alone with the nations, for fear of accidently saying something to offend them.
He watched as Jenny left, leaving him alone with the nations that were closest to Australia. If his memory served correct he could recognise the faces of the old allies and axis groups, along with a few others that he knew to be from Australia's family.
The prime minister cleared his throat and straightened his posture and placed his briefcase, that he was holding, back down on his desk. It was clear that he wouldn't be able to escape this meeting, his mind was running a mile a minute trying to come up with some believable excuse for why Australia was absent.
"Uh…Good Afternoon, please come in!" Australia's boss gestured hastily. He forced a smile on his face, trying to keep up the appearance of professionalism.
"I'm sorry I would have returned your calls as soon as I received them, but our phone lines are currently in need of repairs."
"And the computers too apparently," England added, referring to the ignored emails as well.
"Well our technology all needs an upgrade it seems," The human nervously laughed, "So what brings you to Australia? I can assure you that we are all hard at work here! Nothing out of the ordinary!"
"You mean Australia is at work, trying to catch some wayward criminal," England corrected.
New Zealand fidgeted from where he stood, he really hadn't wanted to cause his brother any more trouble by telling the others, but he knew his idiotic sibling had gotten himself into a tight spot and the others did have a right to know the truth if Australia's situation turned dire.
Australia's boss flinched at England's words, he tried to hang onto the last thread of hope that they didn't know the messy state his country was in at the moment. But it was clear that Australia just couldn't keep a secret.
"What do you mean? Everything is fine, there's no criminal running around," Australia's boss lied through gritted teeth trying to keep his smile on his face, "Australia is completely fine, he's taking one of his vacation days to go out camping somewhere out in the bush."
"You don't need to cover for him, he already told me that you sent him after Mick Taylor." New Zealand stated with growing annoyance at the whole situation that this man had gotten his brother into, "And you're just sitting here?"
New Zealand thought that the very least the man could do was look worried for his personification. But he clearly thought lying to them was the better option.
The human just blinked astounded at the remark, his own pride taking a hit. Who were these nations to think he was just sitting around and doing nothing?! They should feel sympathy for him! Afterall, he is the one stuck trying to clean up Australia's mess; the stacks of paper work and the insurance for the damaged vehicle. Not to mention that he has to deal with Australia disappearing when he should have been back, so he didn't have all of these nations on his office door step. He was the real victim in all of this!
But now it was confirmed that Australia had told the nations, despite his strict warning to the Australian nation not to. He was so ready to give Australia the biggest lecture when he returned.
"So, he told you?" Australia's boss commented clearly not surprised, "I'm sure he did it to spite me."
"Nien, he never spoke a word to us of what he was doing," Germany clarified coming to Australia's defence, "If it wasn't for New Zealand accidently finding out, we would still be in the dark."
The fact that he was willing to keep them all in the dark didn't sit well with the other nations. They had their experiences with leaders that liked to keep secrets from other nations and it never boded well. They knew that Australia wasn't fond of his current boss, but Australia was never the type to openly hate someone, so they hadn't really believed him whenever he complained about his boss every chance he got.
It wasn't uncommon for Australia to enjoy pranking his bosses, especially when one was way too strict for his liking and it would always irritate them to no end, so they had all just assumed that Australia was exaggerating when he said that his boss despised him.
"And it's a good thing that he did find out, because it doesn't seem like we'd get anything out of you." France said.
"Well I am handling things," Australia's boss commented, "So you don't need to worry yourselves about Australia, he's in good hands."
"That's what I'm afraid of," New Zealand deadpanned, "Look can you at least tell us where he is?"
If they knew Australia's whereabouts, then they could meet up with him at his closest capital city to check to see if he was alright.
The human leader hesitated, "…uh well, I'm not too sure about that right this moment."
Scotland scoffed and rolled his eyes, "Yeah the lad's in great hands."
His tone was mocking what Australia's boss had confirmed to them only mere seconds ago. It was protocol for a leader to always know where their personification was in case of a disaster or emergency. Because nine times out of ten the personification would always be the first to know if something was wrong.
"So, you don't have any idea where Australia is? You've basically lost your own personification?" America raised an eyebrow. This guy really was useless, they all thought that Australia was kidding.
"Well not exactly… We know he's in…some part of Western Australia at least. We lost signal with him a couple of days ago. However, we did receive a call from a random burner phone the other day! He never said where he was but he did ensure that he was completely fine!" The man tried to assure with a confident smile.
He reasoned that it was pretty much the truth anyway. Australia did say that he was fine, well more or less.
"Well do you know where Mick Taylor is at least?"
"Ah, now that I'm not too clear on. We assume it's somewhere in the middle of Western Australia based on Australia's last place of contact." He assured, his left eye twitching slightly.
England narrowed his eyes at the action. He recognised that sign anywhere, it's a common sign of lying. But he didn't voice his suspicion at that moment, he wanted to get as much information as possible before he spoke up.
Germany frowned, clearly not convinced at the human's confidence in Australia's wellbeing.
"And you believed Australia when he said he was fine? He thinks that he's still 'completely fine' after receiving a broken ankle and ribs." The blonde nation explained. He recalled his time when he had to fight Australia in the first war, when the aussie thought he was still completely fine to carry on fighting.
Australia's leader's expression faltered slightly, "I can assure you that I'm just as worried about Australia's safety as you. But since I can't reach him, we just have to wait until he returns." He tried to stress to the other nations, "It shouldn't be much longer."
If he knows what's good for him, He thought disdainfully in his mind. If he has to spend even a second longer with these weirdos then he would surely crack.
"Well then I guess you won't mind if we wait for him with you da?" Russia smiled. To him it was a reasonable request that he asked in a polite manner. But to Australia's boss it came across as very intimidating to the human leader. He tried his best to suppress a shudder.
"Well actually-"
Australia's boss tried to protest but he was cut off by England.
"Wonderful, in the meantime you can tell us all about this Mick Taylor fellow. After all, it must have been important for you to send Australia out. As I'm sure that you are well aware of the risks; if humans were to find out what we are, it wouldn't go pleasantly, and it would cause an public uproar over your deception." England explained.
"Send Australia out? I'll have you know that he agreed to the terms, all of your blame shouldn't be put onto me entirely!"
New Zealand frowned at the lie, "That's not what Australia told me. He said that you told him, that if he didn't go willingly then you would just give him an official order to go anyway."
As one could imagine, this didn't sit well with the other nations. Particularly Australia's family and closest friends. England's older siblings were practically fuming in the corner of the room. America was sending a cold glare directly at Australia's boss which practically matched the look that New Zealand was giving.
England on the other hand, kept his emotions hidden from his face, his cold and calculating eyes kept on the human, almost like he was trying to put pieces of a hidden puzzle together. He didn't expect the others to get the clues that he was picking up on, then again, all the best detectives did come from his home if he did say so himself.
The human leader's face flushed crimson, he was practically redder than Spain's ripest tomato plant. His skin burnt hot with the embarrassment at getting caught out by what Australia's former caretaker had said about sending Australia out. He chose to ignore that and focus on defending himself from what New Zealand had said about him. The other human leaders thought of him in a high regard, so his pride wouldn't allow for the personifications to go running back to their leaders and badmouthing him and his capabilities as a leader.
"H-He must have heard me wrong. I would never say such things to my own personification!"
His feeble attempt to cover up his lie just made the others roll their eyes. Australia's boss sank down back in his chair, he opted for the awkward silence that fell over the room, silence was better than their accusations and harsh judgment. He let out a breath, trying to release the tension from his shoulders. It was going to be a long wait. He could already feel a migraine coming on, he definitely has had enough interaction with personifications to last him a lifetime. He couldn't wait for them to leave, once again he was dealing with the consequences of Australia's tardiness, playing nice for these idiots was just becoming too hard. If he didn't have these nations unnecessarily worrying about Australia, then maybe he could actually get some work down.
"So about this Mick dude?.." America questioned. Australia's boss was meant to tell them about him, but he had gotten side-tracked. He and the others had never heard about him before, apart from what New Zealand told them about him being the one that killed their people when they went backpacking around Australia.
They were all curious why Australia's boss felt the need to send Australia, who was an immortal, to take down a single human. A simple murderer wouldn't require a personification to intervene would it?
"Uh right…Mick Taylor, of course," Australia's boss stuttered out. This was the part of the conversation that he was dreading. They already weren't happy as it is, they would only overreact once they know the details about Mick Taylor.
"I read over his files and he's up for a number of charges. There's some of the lessor extent of crimes such as poaching, sabotage of vehicles and theft. But we have reason to believe that he's guilty with over eighty counts of first-degree murder, mutilation and torture of not just tourists but also Australian citizens. Mick in particular has been known to completely despise the British and New Zealanders, we've gathered that information from the very few survivors that encounter him and live to tell the tale."
The other nations were stunned when they heard the details. They had no idea that the death count had been that high or that his crimes had been so severe.
"But then why send Australia? Catching criminals isn't exactly in our job description," England questioned.
He had been watching their interaction with Australia's boss the moment they entered the room. England had seen the look of disdain and heard the annoyance in his voice when the leader mentioned Australia. He always went twitchy and his posture stiffened when he would try to deflect the conversation away whenever the topic of Australia's whereabouts, or his wellbeing came up. England's investigative skills put the puzzle together quicker than Sherlock Holmes ever could.
"Based on how you speak about him you only would have turned to him if you were desperate. But what made you that desperate? Surely if you sent a few police cars after him then they would be bound to catch up with him. Unless, there's something that you are hiding." England analysed.
Australia's boss swallowed thickly, his left eye twitched. The other nations in the room turned to look at Australia's boss expectantly.
"I have no idea what you're going on about! You're all crazy if you think-"
"Alas, mon amie is correct," France frowned, "I never thought I'd see the day that I agree with him, but you've been acting strange all day no?"
"How. Dare. You." Australia's boss stood up with a scowl on his face, "You freaks come into my office and accuse me of being untruthful? I've tried to be nice and welcoming, but I won't stand here and let you put all of this blame onto me! I think it would be better for everyone if you would leave, I'll have Australia call you once he gets back."
The fact that Australia's boss was going so far to defend himself and try to get them to leave only proved their point more. If Australia was here, he would be over the moon with how much trouble his boss was getting himself into.
"So, you mean to tell me that we are all wrong? That we are all lying?" England kept his voice calm and level, "Because I can assure you that if I still had a say in Australia's politics, that I'd never let you anywhere near this office. So how about you start telling us the truth."
Nobody really expected Australia's boss to go silent like he did, which meant that England's words had finally made him crack.
"Alright fine," Australia's boss spoke through a clenched jaw, "I have an idea on where Australia is yes, we had an idea that Mick Taylor was somewhere in the wolf creek area, but we couldn't be sure. So I had sent out police to find him and bring him in, but all the officers that were sent, went missing and haven't returned, presumably killed. But Australia can't die. So instead of sending out humans that would only be killed, I sent Australia. He knows the land and if anyone was able to find that psycho, it would be him."
"You knew all along? And yet you lied," New Zealand stated.
"You don't understand, Australian citizens and even your own people were dying at an alarming rate. I wasn't going to lead anymore people to their death trying to bring this man in," He took a breath before continuing, "We needed something to tip the scales back into our favour. Mick is impossibly fast and strong, he has proven that he is more than durable in a fight. We needed someone like that to track him down and finally bring him in, and who better than a nation that has fought in many wars, that knows the land and that can't die?"
The nations were fuming at the bomb shell that had just been dropped. He basically used Australia as cannon fodder, and they were sure that Australia didn't know of this secret ulterior motive that his boss had.
"Trust me, if I told him the truth then he would have gone running to you lot. Although I see that now he would have regardless."
"Dude you are never going to be re-elected." America swore. He was beyond irritated that this man could just put his best friend into danger like that, this was supposed to be a person that Australia could trust and vice versa.
If what Australia's boss had said about Mick's heightened abilities was right, then Australia would be in trouble if he went in unprepared. If Australia made one wrong move then their whole cover could be blown, and if something like that was revealed to Mick Taylor then the outcome might not be so great. The man apparently had no trouble with torturing and playing with his prey, and if something happened that revealed Australia's immortality, then nothing was going to stop him from finding out just what exactly Australia was.
Before Australia's boss could respond, England had approached him further. His emerald green eyes darkened considerably.
"I can assure you that if anything happens to Australia then I will be holding you personally responsible."
I actually did a lot of research for this chapter! So with all the books, movies and the two tv series combined I have calculated that Mick has made approximately over 73 kills, including his little sister even though he didn't intend to kill her I'm still including her in the death count. My story takes place just after the second tv season (the last instalment as of yet, until Wolf Creek 3 comes out!) so it makes sense that he would have killed since. To be honest, I wasn't expecting his kill count to be that high…
If you want to read more on Mick's backstory then I definitely recommend checking out Mick Taylor on 'Villains Wiki' it's where I've been going. And on that page it even stated under his powers/skills – Brute Strength, Torture skills, speed, high durability, high intelligence, combat efficiency, great stamina, ruthlessness and many more. And I think it was revealed in one of the Wolf Creek books that Mick Taylor dabbled in some kind of black magic. He had killed some people and he believed that he saw their ghosts telling him the mine used to be a place for sacrifices. The ghost's apparently stated that if Mick killed people, the spirits would give Mick superhuman speed and strength
And I mean come on! In the first Wolf Creek Movie Mick had been shot in the neck and then he got up like nothing happened, he obviously did get superhuman abilities somehow. And then again in the second series two Aboriginal men started singing this ritual song that made Mick seemingly collapse dead, but he ended getting back up and killed both of them. And he also survived a mine explosion so he definitely has some sort of inhuman enhancements.
And Mick Taylor is extremely racist! That's something I have been trying to avoid as much as possible when it comes to writing him because it's uncomfortable as someone that hates racism, I know I should stick to writing him as cannon as possible but I really just hate writing racial slurs like that, even if it is just for a character. So even if I do put some in where Mick would use it, it will be very downplayed to what he actually says on screen. But it is true, Mick Taylor completely hates the British over any other type of nationality. One particular scene in the second series of Wolf Creek made me believe that New Zealanders could be his second least favourite. When he basically half buried the kiwi tourist alive and then shoved a termite nest over the rest of him and left him for dead (fortunately I did spare the rest of the gory details in that brief description, trust me it was hard to watch that particular scene and I'm still trying to forget that I even saw it XD). He basically thinks that New Zealanders are a 'second hand knock-off version' of an Australian.