Attack of the Bridzilla! Enjoy!
I don't own Hetalia!
Chapter 9 : Here Comes The Bride!
King Alex wondered what was taking so long for Alfred to come and wondered if he was hiding so deeply with Arthur and Matthew that the guards were having trouble finding them. Now that Princess Erica was gone, he could turn his attention to working out a new treaty to present to King Voss and salvage the situation. If King Voss wished to cut ties with him ….. well, that was unfortunate but Alex did not think it would come to that.
Wondering how long it would take for Alfred to surface, Alex turned to the knock on his study door and called. "Come in!" The door opened and, instead of seeing his nephew, a soldier walked through the door, closed it and approached the king with a salute.
"My apologies, Your Majesty," he said. "For interrupting you but I have concerning news." Alex stood up from the chair he was sat in, he had a bad feeling about this.
"What news?!" he demanded. The soldier took a deep breath.
"We have been unable to find Prince Alfred, Prince Matthew or Sir Arthur." he replied. "We have, however, found evidence of foul play in the gardens. There are signs of a struggle and we found this in the shrubbery." The soldier produced a sheathed dagger that looked like military issue and, there on the hilt, was the crest of Mertoris. Suddenly, Princess Erica's rapid departure made sense.
"Tell the navy to prepare a ship!" he ordered. "We have a kidnapping princess to capture!"
Arthur swam into Conclave and the summoning circle and began singing, praying that the Jokers would not take too long to answer but, like they were waiting for him, they were there almost immediately.
"Back to being a mer, Queen Arthur?" Gilbert commented. "Wunderbar! Although you should have called me to change you. Better than drowning."
"It wasn't voluntary," Arthur replied. "And we have a problem." Arthur explained about Alfred's near-engagement and his unstable almost-fiancée, as well as the events leading to the kidnapping of himself, Alfred and Matthew and his attempted murder. Gilbert and Peter listened intently as Arthur revealed everything that had happened to him since he went ashore and, soon they understood the situation.
"Totally unawesome!" Gilbert declared. "And you want help from the Awesome Jokers?"
"Whatever help I can get," Arthur replied. "And I need to get a message to my Jack to call out the Spadian army while I do what I can to delay the ship, we can't let them get away!"
"Don't worry," Peter said. "We'll help you out and we'll get the Ace and the king back."
"Ja," Gilbert agreed. "Peter, you take a message to the Jack of Spades while the Queen and I go and stop this unawesome kidnapping and put this land-dwelling shark in her place."
Alfred and Matthew were separated and Alfred was dragged away to be prepared for the wedding while Matthew was taken back to the brig so Matthew could not tell Alfred what he suspected. That Arthur had been thrown into the sea to die and, as unpleasant as it would be for him, Arthur would not die but return to his normal state. That's if he was just thrown into the sea and not killed first but there was a good chance that Arthur was still alive.
He paced the brig, thinking what Arthur would do once he was freed. He would come back for Alfred and himself, bringing the Spadian army with him, of that Matthew was sure but he needed to buy time for Arthur to do so. Arthur would probably go for help to the Jokers too so what could Matthew do to delay things?
He looked around his cell but all it had was a pallet and a bucket to use as a chamber pot, just like the others, not much he could use so he examined the bars and the cell door itself. Not revealing anything he could use until he examined the hinges. The way they were constructed, all he needed to do was lift the door high enough and the door would practically fall off by itself and there was a big enough gap between the badly-fitted door and the frame it did not fit but when he tried to lift the door it was too heavy for him. He needed some way to lift it.
He looked around again and, at first he could not see anything but then he noticed a length of rafter that was loose from the ceiling of his cell. He reached up and pulled, the rafter coming down a little so he pulled again with a little more strength and it came down further. Then Matthew put his whole weight on to it and the rafter broke away from the rest of the ceiling. Matthew examined the length of wood and found it to be sound and strong. It was the joins that had given way so Matthew had a lever to use on the door but now he need some thing to use as a fulcrum. He looked around again and spotted the bucket. He grabbed it and put it by the door upside down. He put the rafter on top of it and pushed one end of it under the door.
Knowing he needed a lot of pressure to lift the door, Matthew put his foot on the other end of the rafter and stepped on to it, using his whole body weight to lift the door. The door raised up and, when it had lifted up to pull the hinge pins clear of the brackets, it began to fall and Matthew jumped out of the way to avoid being flattened by the heavy door as it crashed to the floor.
Matthew scrambled over the door and out of the cell, to get out of sight before the noise brought anyone running and to find a safe, out-of-the-way spot to plot his next move.
Alfred did nothing to resist the Mertorian servants who were dressing him for this forced wedding and just allowed himself to be pulled and prodded as they adjusted the wedding suit (that Princess Erica just happened to have brought with her, nothing premeditated or stalker-ish in that). He just felt numb after Princess Erica made her little announcement of Artie's demise and now she held the brother that he had just got back. He had to find a way to free Matthew and make Erica pay for what she did to Artie and he only hoped it would not take long for Uncle Alex to discover that he and Matthew were missing and come after them. If he knew that Princess Erica had a hand in it.
"Finished, Your Highness," the seamstress said and began to remove the jacket that she had been fitting to him. "I'll have the adjustments done within an hour."
"Take as long as you like," Alfred snapped. "Take years!" The seamstress curtsied, nervously, knowing full well that the Sea Prince of Altheia was not here of his own free will but she had no power to gainsay the Princess, although her heart went out to the Prince, and she left as quickly as possible but met the Princess on the way out.
"Have you not started yet?" she snapped. The seamstress curtsied to her mistress.
"I'm starting the adjustments now, Your Highness," she replied while keeping her eyes low.
"Well, get on with it!" Erica replied, coldly. "I want to begin the ceremony as soon as possible!" The seamstress curtsied again and left quickly.
"Wow!" Alfred said. "You treat everyone like crap!" Erica turned her gaze to her... ahem...fiancé.
"Why such a bad mood?" she asked, as if this was a normal situation. "Cheer up, Alfred, this is our wedding day."
"I wish it was your funeral," Alfred muttered. Erica pouted.
"Alfred," she whined. "How can you say that?" Alfred turned to glare at her, hostilely.
"You kidnapped me," he accused. "You're threatening the life of my twin brother and you've murdered the one I actually wanted to marry. To say nothing of the fact that your obsessive and spoilt behaviour might start a war between Mertoris and Altheia! Do you seriously think that forcing a marriage will stop all that? You're a fool! A marriage won't stop anything and it's not just Altheia you'll have to answer to. When Spades finds out you've killed their …..."
"Why should I care about this Spades?" Erica sneered. "I've never heard of it, it probably doesn't exist."
"Oh, it exists," Alfred said with confidence. "So does Vynlande and I know you've heard of that. I don't think your brother's gonna be too pleased with this can of worms you've opened. Three kingdoms declaring war on Mertoris and that doesn't include any allies Spades might have. If you care about Mertoris at all, you'll turn the ship around and take us back to Altheia. Although, how you'll make peace with the Kingdom of Spades for murdering one of their rulers is another matter..."
"You're just trying to scare me out of this marriage," Erica interrupted. "Well, it won't work. And if you don't go through with the ceremony, your brother will join Sir Artie in the ocean but, as he's your brother, I'll be a little more merciful. I'll have his throat cut before I have him thrown into the sea so he doesn't suffer drowning." She turned and walked back to the door and opened it.
"Just think of your brother's life as my wedding gift to you," she smirked and left, locking the door.
Yao swam through the Coral Palace, wondering how Matthew was doing in his search for Arthur and the next King and thinking of the dressing down he would give Arthur when he arrived back in the palace. He was just thinking of a particular series of phrases to convey his displeasure when he almost collided with a small mer. He almost yelled at the young child until he realised that it was the Black Joker.
"Your eminence!" he exclaimed. "What brings you here?"
"A message from the Queen of Spades," Peter replied. "He orders that you mobilise the army. The Ace and the next King are in danger."
Matthew had found some clothes that would make him look like a member of the crew with a knife and he tied a bandanna around his hair to hide the blonde and snuck on to the deck. No one paid any attention to an extra crewman but Matthew ducked behind the anchor wheel when Princess Erica came out on deck and a soldier ran across the deck to report something bad to her.
"Your Highness," he said. "Prince Matthew has escaped. Somehow, he managed to lever the door of his cell off its hinges and he's disappeared."
"Well, find him!" she snapped. "This is a ship, he can't be far. We need to find him before the ceremony, he's my only way of controlling Prince Alfred. I don't know how you'll do it and I don't care but find him now! I'm going to get ready for the ceremony."
Matthew had to get out of view quickly as he would be spotted if he stayed where he was and he looked up at the rigging that went up to the crossbar of the main mast. That gave him a hiding place and an idea to slow the ship down and he made his way to the rigging and began to climb up to the main mast. When he reached the top, he made his way carefully across the crossbar to the crow's nest on the main mast and a man, wearing a cork hat in the crow's nest looked round at him.
"What are you doing up here?" he said. Matthew climbed into the Crow's nest beside him.
"Checking the sails," he replied. "There might be some damage."
"From what?" the man asked and he was rendered unconscious by a punch from Matthew.
"Me," he replied and he took off his bandanna and put on the man's hat. He took his bandanna and used it to tie the man's hands together and gagged him with a handkerchief he found in the man's pocket, put him on the floor of the Crow's Nest and sat there, waiting for the perfect moment.
Alfred was stuffed into the wedding suit that Erica had brought for him to wear and pulled on deck where Erica was waiting in a wedding dress, in front of a priest (she was certainly prepared). Alfred was brought up to stand beside Erica who smiled at him like a normal blushing bride and not a kidnapper, orchestrating a shotgun wedding and then she turned and nodded to the priest.
"We are gathered here today," the priest began. "To witness the marriage of..."
"Where's Matthew?" Alfred demanded. Erica cursed that the so-called twin had not been found but she was hoping that she would be able to push through with the ceremony without Alfred knowing that Matthew had escaped.
"In the brig," she lied. "So don't make a fuss and he'll stay safe and well." She nodded to the priest again.
"The marriage of..." he began again but, once again, Alfred butted in.
"I don't believe you!" he declared. "Prove it, bring him on deck!" Erica had to think fast.
"Continue this, Alfred," she hissed. "And I'll have his corpse brought up." Alfred just smirked.
"Then you wouldn't have any hold on me," he replied. "I think you won't bring Matthew up because you don't have him, do you? He got away!" The look Erica tried to hide told Alfred everything.
"Way to go, bro!" Alfred cheered but Erica was not giving up that easily and she indicated to two soldiers who grabbed Alfred by his arms.
"With or without that fake brother of yours," she snapped. "This wedding will go ahead and you will marry m..." There was a sound above them, a ruffling and flapping noise and everyone looked up at the main sail that was flapping in the wind as a figure moved across the crossbar, cutting the ropes holding the sail and letting it fall free. When there was not enough rope holding the weighty canvas, the sail ripped free and fell down toward the deck. The soldiers let go of Alfred to escape the falling canvas and he ran as well.
He jumped and rolled across the deck, the canvas missing him by inches and he was sorry to see that Princess Erica had been missed as well, pulled out of the way by one of her guards and Alfred looked up at the figure on the crossbar, a head of blonde hair blowing in the wind and he knew exactly where his brother was as Matthew scrambled to the edge of the crossbar and began to descend the rigging and Alfred ran to meet him.
"Nice work, Mattie!" he said as Matthew made it to the deck but now, the sailors and guards had recovered from the shock of the sail almost landing on them. But without the main sail, the ship was no longer moving as fast as it had been so Matthew and Alfred had to find a way to stay out of Mertorian hands until help could get to them but it was two against who knew how many.
The odds were not good.
Arthur and Gilbert swam in the direction that Arthur knew the ship had been in and began swimming on the surface to keep the ship in sight which was in the distance but they were making slow progress catching up but then, the ship seemed to lose speed and Arthur and Gilbert began to gain on the ship. As they got closer, they saw that the ship seemed to be missing a sail and soon, they were swimming alongside the vessel and they began to climb up ropes that were hanging down the side of the ship.
Alfred and Matthew stood shoulder to shoulder and Matthew had passed the knife to Alfred as he was not well versed with fighting with one and move to hand-to-hand combat. Alfred had been trained in most forms of combat and, although he would have preferred a sword, he knew how to used the knife. Princess Erica ordering them to be taken alive also helped as their opponents hesitated to use deadly force.
Alfred had taken down another sailor, injuring him just enough to take him out of the fight but, as soon as he dropped, another two took his place. Matthew took on the unarmed combatants and used his legs a lot, giving powerful kicks to anyone who got too close. Mers tended to use their tails a lot in combat, hitting each other as they wrestled to get the upper hand and Matthew adapted this particular form of combat to his legs which, in the lower resistance of air, rather than water, were quite powerful, as anyone unfortunate enough to be hit by them could attest.
But they were two men against a whole ship of sailors and guards and it all came crashing down when a sailor used a net to block a kick from Matthew and tangled him up in it. Without his twin backing him up, Alfred was soon overwhelmed and the fight was over. Matthew was dragged over to Princess Erica by the railing and held by one of her guards with a knife to his throat while Erica held a pistol that she pointed at Alfred.
"Now, now, Prince Alfred," she said. "You've had your fun, now it's time to behave. If you don't want your brother to die!"
"Kill Matthew and there will be war!" Alfred replied. "I guarantee it!" Something caught his eye at the railing, a webbed hand rose over the railing and grabbed it and another came into view and grabbed hold of a rope nearby and a blonde head appeared.
"Just do as you're told!" she snapped and pointed the gun away from Alfred and at Matthew's head. "You might believe that this man is your brother but I don't believe that he is Prince Matthew so I will shoot him if you continue to challenge me." And, for emphasis, she pulled back the hammer on the pistol.
Only to be slapped in the face by something hard and wet, knocking her over the railing and sending her, screaming into the sea below.
YES! Finally Erica got slapped and I think you can guess who did the slapping! And with King Alex and the army of Spades coming at them, a battle is brewing but will Alfred make the transformation and become the King of Spades.
Stay tuned.
Hasta la Pasta!