Hetalia - Down the Rabbit Hole
Chapter 2! I am delighted with the positive response this story has gotten and am pleased to release the next chapter for you all.
Enjoy!
Terra City, Club District, Cleaver Street.
There was never a silent night in the city. The night the masked vigilante, Columbia raced up the busy road on his motorbike was no different. The familiar noises of blaring car horns and pulsating electro music bounced off the high-rise skyscrapers to create a chorus of chaos with the ripping spats of his bike engine. Soft green coloured lights whizzed past Columbia as he weaved between the cars and slowed to a stop when the traffic light changed to red. The Clubs district was as loud as it always was.
"So, how was your date with Kirkland?" His coordinator's voice crackled with static in his earpiece and Columbia rolled his aquamarine eyes.
"It wasn't a date, Matt. I was on an assignment from Bonnefoy to get some extra credit and got paired up with Arthur. It's no big deal."
"Uh, you two went alone to the most high class event in the city. I wouldn't call that nothing Alfred." Matthew Williams countered from the living room of their shared downtown apartment in the Spades district, surrounded by his laptop set up consisting of three screens and four keyboards.
"Yeah, yeah okay whatever. God, where the hell is all the action tonight?" Alfred Jones groaned in a loud, obnoxiously bored voice and tilted his head back up to the starry sky. The lorry driver in the next lane glanced over to him, and Alfred saw him silently gasp in recognition with a pointing finger. It wasn't hard to imagine what he saw. The up and coming hero Columbia, in his striped and starred dark navy suit and signature communication goggles, on his nightly patrol driving astride his red, white and blue motorbike. Alfred was used to people pointing and staring, and he still secretly got a thrill from it, but tonight the lack of criminal activity had left him in a somber mood. Another crackle of static cracked in his ear as Matthew open the channel to speak.
"There is a bank robbery in progress at the Clover Bank. The perpetuators are unknown but Britannia has been sighted there." Matthew suggested and Alfred felt his day instantly turn around.
"Britannia's there? Oh, I am beyond there." Alfred quipped as Matthew turned on his goggles' mini map and GPS to guide him there. Alfred's booted foot pushed down hard on the ignition and tore forward away from the still gaping lorry driver, and drove left at the crossroad.
"I was really hoping you'd have grown out of this little crush of your's." Matthew sighed at his brother and his very obvious infatuation with the most mysterious vigilante in Terra. It had started long before Alfred had created 'Columbia', back when Britannia had been the only fighter of crime in the city. His standalone efforts to keep the streets safe so inspiring that Alfred resolved to use his own abnormally strong strength to create his own heroic identity: Columbia. Matthew had hoped that his admiration had stopped there, but it was soon painfully clear that Alfred's quest for recognition from Britannia eluded to more romantic interests.
"It's not just some school girl crush, Matt. All I need is a chance to show Britannia how awesome I am, and then he'll definitely fall for me. And then we'll be a crime fighting duo!" Alfred grinned, beaming with such over confidence that he didn't seem capable of seeing the massive holes in his flimsy plan. From their small apartment, surrounded by his coordinator gear, Matthew smirked at the comic mental image of the aloof Britannia with huge hearts for eyes over his iconic gas mask. Still, he didn't quite have the heart to rain on Alfred's parade as he raced on the bank like an overexcited puppy.
Terra City, Clubs District, Clover Bank
With the skilled ease of a practised professional, Britannia slid open the ceiling vent cover and silently dropped down to the polished floor; landing behind a fat marble column in the main hall where the bank's vault was located. Remaining crouched, Britannia peeked out around his cover to observe the situation.
"Three men. Two in front of the vault with a drill, one by the west corridor" His mother's calm perceptive voice instructed within his mind and Britannia mentally nodded in response. Right, take out the one by the west corridor first, then confuse and apprehend the other two. Balancing stealthily on the balls of his feet, Britannia darted from his column to behind an office desk to begin creeping towards his target. As he drew nearer, he could hear the two men by the vault chattering to each other.
"Damn, we gonna be proper loaded after this job!" One of them chuckled and Britannia heard dull thud when he was only one desk length away from the west corridor.
"You blonker! Remember, we only get a third of the dosh. Hardly anything in comparison what we're stealing now" A different voice scolded, presumably the leader of this gang from the superiority he expressed. Britannia paused when he was a mere metre from the man guarding the west corridor, and lingered for his moment. The man carried a tommy gun with both hands and every five seconds he would glance over his shoulder back to the talking men. Britannia waited for the man to turn before he took a small coin from his pouch and threw it whistling over to the other side of the room. It cluttered soundly and the all of the men's heads snapped around at the echoing ring of metal against stone. With perfect timing, Britannia lunged and pulled down the west guard behind the desk to lock him into a smothering chokehold. The man's screams came out muffled as he frantically struggled against Britannia's grip, his legs kicking out uselessly and squeaked against the smooth floor. His body slumped when he finally blacked out, and Britannia gently set it down beside him before peeking out from behind the desk. Excellent, things were going exactly as plann-.
Without any warning, both the main doors and skyline burst open in their frames; wooden chips and glass shards rained in as two new parties erupted into the previously still hall. At the double door, the newbie hero Columbia stood panting for breath as he scanned his chaotic surroundings, his arms raised ready to fight while from the ceiling, three black clad figures with masks zipped down from wires to land behind the two men beside the vault and slammed the butt of their guns into the back of their heads.
What the bloody hell was this?! Britannia silently cursed as he straightened out of his crouch, his mind whirring with the overwhelming barrage of new information; the movements, the sensations, smells and sounds all a blended mess that he couldn't process in time.
"Stop the ones in black! They must not enter that vault!" His mother's voiced jarred him back into reality and kicked his brain back into action. As he saw Columbia charge at one of the figures, Britannia hurtled over his desk and beelined for the figure on the left who was pulling open the freed security door. A shot rang out and had Britannia's reactions not been as quick as they were, a bullet would of embedded itself into his foot. He twisted and was forced to throw himself into a roll to avoid the other follow up shot.
"Sniper on the roof." His mother warned him, and Britannia grunted as he came up from his roll and kited around the edge to position himself below the sniper, efficiently cutting himself off from their line of sight. Over a distance, Columbia is wrestling with one of the black clad figures, seemingly beginning to overpower the figure with his rumoured super strength. The remaining figure with a womanly form was not watching Columbia but rather Britannia, an air of professionalism and challenge about them as though they secretly wanted Britannia to engage with them. This person knew what they were doing, Britannia thought to himself as he cautiously lowered himself into a defensive stance; his hand itching for the Dylan's prototype light sabre that would have hung at his belt had his brother not taken it back to adjust.
"Britannia! I got your back bro!" Columbia's shout rang and Britannia felt the urge to roll his eyes as the idiot threw down his unconscious opponent and ran over to charge at the woman's back. The woman, very much aware of Columbia from his shout, spun and lashed out with a roundhouse kick. The strike slammed hard into Columbia's side with such force that the hero was knocked sideways and slid a distance back hunched over wheezing. The idiot didn't know what the hell he was doing, Britannia groaned and at the vault, the other figure who had ventured in reemerged with a steel briefcase in his hand.
"The package is secure!" He yelled to the woman before him and Britannia got the sense that there was a victorious smile on her face as she spun and ran back to the wires she descended from. The man passed her the case as she clipped herself in and Britannia felt his body instantly bolt after her. It didn't matter what was being stolen, they were not getting away with it.
"Stop in the name of the law!" He heard Columbia shout hot on his heels, but the woman was already out of sight, and as Britannia leapt up, his feet shot out and he used Columbia as a spring board to launch himself higher. His gloved hand stretched out and clamped on the skylight ledge, a wheezed breath escaped him as he heaved himself up. The woman was now a distance away, leaping from concrete rooftop to rooftop towards an occupied helicopter landing pad; Britannia saw that the railed door was held open and inside, the sniper that had taken a shot at him was aiming their way.
"Uh- Okay, I'll- I'll just catch up with you later" Columbia's fading voice echoed from below him though Britannia had already darted after the woman, the night's air whistling and whipped back his suit's hooded jacket and neck scarf. His feet drummed against the gravel roof of an apartment complex as Britannia reached out and enclosed his telepathic grip on the case. With a sharp mental yank, the case was ripped free from the woman's grasp. The woman immediately skidded and pivoted to reclaim her treasure, unable to even react as Britannia jumped and straightened out midair horizontal to the roof. His kick connected and the woman was thrown back to fall onto the next lower rooftop. With a quick glance down to fallen case as he dashed past it, Britannia continued his running momentum and vaulted off the roof after her.
A deafening shot rang out, and Britannia screamed as his shoulder exploded in pain. His body instantly crumpled pain and all strength left him as he crashed down on the gravel hard on his right side; the air in his lungs forcibly expelled as his rag doll form bounced and ground to a stop. Paralytic, numb shock replaced the pain and the echoes of the shot reverberated in Britannia's ear, his vision fuzzy and a nauseating blur of colours through his gas mask. As he lay there still with limbs of lead, his muddled mind was vaguely aware of noises of movement from the helicopter, the grainy scuffling of gravel as a number of footsteps drew closer.
A weak choke slipped from him as a muscular forearm snaked around his neck from behind and he felt himself be wrenched up into a kneeling position before a broad, tall man silhouetted by the helipad's floodlights; the only detail Britannia was foggily able to make out was the obscurely piercing violet eyes that observed him as a scientist would observe a specimen.
"That was embarrassing little sister. I'm starting to think you're incapable without my support" A female voice sneered, and a woman carrying a sniper rifle stepped out from behind the male's silhouette; her shape curvy and busty under her kevlar. The forearm constricting Britannia's windpipe sharply tightened and another choked sound escaped him.
"I wasn't expecting him to be one of them" The woman at his back hissed back and the man that loomed over them stepped forward. With a quick motion, a hand reached out and knocked the hood off Britannia's head to reveal a choppy thick globe of gold. An amused chuckle pealed the air.
"It has been a long" He softly remarked, and somewhere within his mess of a mind, Britannia recognised that that was the second time that night that phrase had been said to him; only he couldn't quite put his finger on where. Both women looked to him suspiciously.
"What?" The one that held the rifle asked and Britannia felt his heart hammer inside his ribcage as the man continued to leer down at him.
"Sisters, what you see before you, is none other than the infamous Britannia Angel'. Britannia immediately felt the woman behind him tense up and hear her gasp faintly.
"Finally" Her breathless voice sighed in his ear and finally, Britannia's brain registered just how much danger he was in right now; a fresh new wave of adrenaline surged through him.
"Subdue and restrain him. Administer a suitable long term sedative the first chance you have" The man ordered with clinical coldness, all earlier amusement gone. Both women nodded at their brother and Britannia's hands flew to the constricting forearm when the woman began to apply increasing pressure. They clearly were aware of who he was, and they were intending to abduct him.
"The blood jar!," His mother's voice shrieked inside his mind and with difficulty, Britannia forced his hand to stop pulling at the forearm and reach down into his pocket to grip the small jam jar inside,"break it!". No one even had a second to register what happened as Britannia crushed the jar, and blinked out of existence.
CRACK!
Life was good for Seamus Kirkland. TV on, feet propped up, and a bowl of Lucky Charms on his lap. Ah yes, life could not be sweeter, Seamus thought to himself as he leant forward for the remote, and a hissing noise filled the open plan penthouse. It was coming from over head, and when Seamus looked up above the low table, he saw a large rune slowly burn itself on the ceiling. He stared at in confusion at first, and then in alarm when he remembered what it mean't. Oh shit-
CRACK!
Britannia snapped into existence with an explosive thunderclap. He hovered, suspended mid-air for the briefest of moments, before gravity reclaimed him, and brought him down onto the glass table; the fragile glass smashing beneath the force into tiny pieces. The shattering of glass echoed throughout the penthouse, and eerie silence followed after. Seamus stared at Britannia in shock before panic slammed into him like a bus.
"Shite! Allistor! Dylan!" Seamus bellowed at the top of his lungs as he pushed off the party couch and knelt down. His stomach twisted into a knot when he saw that the vigilante's right shoulder was soaked in blood. There was a hail of heavy footfall and Allistor and Dylan Kirkland emerged from downstairs. Their eyes, narrow and alarmed, widened in horror when they saw the sight before them.
"Fuckin' hell! Dylan, prep the med room!" Allistor shouted without a glance at the brother, and crossed the room to also kneel at Britannia's side; not caring of the tiny shards of glass littered on the cream carpeted floor and grimaced at bloody rips in his suit.
"What the fuck happened?!" He demanded from Seamus as he leant down, felt for a pulse, and found it weak.
"I don't know! He just appeared out of nowhere!," Seamus cried and watched as Allistor gently eased the gas mask off to reveal Arthur Kirkland's unconscious face, "literally out of nowhere. One second he wasn't here, the next, he was!".
Allistor took charge and moved to lift Arthur bridal style, Seamus backing up to make way as Allistor rushed him to his room. The door was kicked open and Dylan looked over from laying out a pair of tweezers and bandages on a trolley as Allistor lay Arthur on the grey operation table. Seamus was in behind them and watched as Allistor began to hastily undress Arthur of the Britannia suit, exposing his bleeding shoulder and cuts.
"Tweezers," Allistor barked to Dylan, whom immediately handed over the tool, "Seamus, wake him and find out what happened". Seamus gave a shaky nod and knelt beside Arthur's head to begin repetitively and insistently smacking his cheek.
"Arthur! Arthur! Arthur wake up!" He cried and choked back a cry of relief when he saw Arthur's pale lids flutter and crack open. Working on his shoulder and back, Allistor carefully fished for the bullet, pulled it out and dropped it in a Dylan-provided dish before moving onto the piece of glass; the blood already beginning to crust around the bullet wound. Once all the pieces were out, he motioned for Dylan to pass him the antiseptic just as Arthur fully opened his eyes. The blond dazedly stared at Seamus' worried face, confused at what he was seeing when the memories came back as a torrent. His pupils shrank and he made to buck like a frightened animal, but Allistor was quicker and pinned him down as he struggled.
"Arthur, Arthur it's alright we're here. You're safe." Seamus frantically reassured and smiled reassuringly when the startled look calmed when he realised where he was. All the tension left him as he relaxed against the hard table.
"Bloody hell that was close," He sighed and hissed as Allistor tipped the antiseptic over his shoulder, "Argh- ah! Allistor! Warning, please!".
"Oh ma apologises, I was a wee bit more concerned that ya were bleedin' out!" Allistor sarcastically yelled, accepting the bandages from Dylan and began to swiftly bandage up his back and shoulders. Once he had finished, Allistor stepped back as Arthur sat up, gripping the table's edge and not meeting any of their eyes.
"What happened Arthur?" Dylan asked dejectedly, exhaustion clear in his voice now that the hysteria had calmed. Arthur's gaze remained firmly glued to the table in shame before he clicked his tongue at himself.
"I screwed up. Heard a robbery was in progress and tried to bite off more than I could chew. Got shot for it." He gingerly confessed and all brothers shared quick looks of concern. Arthur was stubborn as he was prideful. For him to actually admit he was incapable, was extremely rare.
"But who shot at you? And how did you teleport into the living room?" Seamus asked and Arthur shook his head slightly.
"There was a sniper, she shot me while I was trying to stop another woman from stealing a brief case from the bank vault. There was a man with them that recognised me…" Arthur softly answered and winced when they all stood up straighter in alarm.
"What?!" Allistor demanded but Arthur hasn't listening anymore, he muttering to himself while his eyes stared unseeingly at his knees.
"'One of them' they called me. Could they know about magic?"
"Arthur! Oi!," Allistor barked with a snap of his fingers in front of his brother's face, "Ya said they knew who ya were?!".
"Yes, and from the way they said it, it sounded like they had been looking for me. I had to use mother's blood jar to escape." Arthur distantly explained, his thick brows furrowed deep in thought, not reading the effect his morbid words had on his audience. Seamus felt the blood drain from his face and at his side, he saw Allistor take in a deep, tense breath and go for the cigarette pack in his pocket. Holy hell, what was Arthur getting himself into? The blond in question stumblingly got himself got the table and Seamus darted forward to steady him.
"Dylan, would you help him to bed? And make sure he stays there?" Seamus asked with a meaningful, directed look and Dylan gave a short nod before moving around to support Arthur by his uninjured shoulder. The two shuffled out of the room with the door giving a soft click behind them and Seamus sighed heavily when he heard the sound of a lighter ignite and knew what he would see before he looked; and Allistor was doing so well…
"You shouldn't smoke in an operating room, y'know." He teased in a weak attempt to ease the tension as he turned to Allistor, only to be shot a dark look.
"Trust me, I need it." Allistor growled around the cancer stick, taking a deep inhale and looked drained as he roughly ran his hand down his tired, grizzled face.
"What are we going to do?" Seamus asked seriously with a cross of his arms,and Allistor gave a shake of his head in despair.
"What can we do? Artie's too stubborn for his own good to accept help an' we all made a promise ta his ma. All we can is be his support and knit him back together when he gets hurt."
"But- but we're talking about Arthur's life here Allistor, with Saxony we'd-"
"We made a promise, Seamus. One, I do not intend ta break." Allistor snarled and Seamus was taken aback at how bitter of a bite there was to it. An awkward silence followed after until it was broken by Allistor's drained sigh.
"We keep an eye on him. A very close eye."
The plot thickens...
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Until next time folks!