The meeting was put on hold for about a week. During this period of time, nations, after the first shock, clumped together and spent time together, trying to comfort each other.
Some of the countries, which preferred spending time alone or disliked showing emotion openly, hid in their rooms or went on long walks (even though the weather was usually horrible).
Several nations kept moving between being in a group and spending time alone.
And others went into denial. They tried not to think about it. They did everything to not think about it. They cleaned and tidied the house, they rearranged objects, they did the cooking and cleaning and went shopping for food regularly.
They watched plenty of films, read newspapers and books, played games and a number of other things.
... And America got fed up and bored.
Don't get him wrong, it wasn't that he thought the others were behaving stupidly or anything. He himself still felt bitter sadness inside of him (so he wasn't in denial, like some others).
No, the reason he felt fed up, was because he'd been trying to comfort everyone, only it seemed that no matter how hard he tried to be a comforter (well, he called it being a hero), it backfired on him.
He tried comforting England, and they'd ended up arguing.
He tried comforting Canada, and the result of that was that Canada was angry with him and he felt very demoralized.
He tried comforting Japan, but Japan pushed him away, telling the nation he was too young to really understand and that he'd be OK.
He even tried with Iraq and quite frankly, why had he thought he'd even succeed there? Sure, the relations between the USA and Iraq had gotten amazingly better in the last fifty or so years, but it didn't mean he and Iraq were quite best buddies yet.
He sighed, and sat at the bottom of the stairs. Germany and America had both agreed that on Monday, i.e. tomorrow, they'd continue the meeting, seeing as crying over the dead wouldn't help them rescue the ones that weren't dead yet.
The more time they wasted in letting their emotions take over, the more time they were spending in letting the HCS run wild and hurt more people than necessary.
He looked up when he heard someone coming down the stairs.
It was Liechtenstein. Her eyes were still a bit red from crying and her nose had turned pink and runny, but she looked better than she had in the last few days. She smiled politely at America and walked down to him.
"Are you OK Mr America?" She asked, standing next to him. He shrugged in reply.
"It feels like half my friends went off and died, and I'm not just talking about the ones that really did go and do that." he said after a pause. Sadly, the truth in his words were far too true for his liking. Everyone walked around like they had become ghosts, their faces etched with unspoken sadness and untouchable pain.
It was how everyone had looked after both World War 1 and 2. Even the winners had looked like all life had been drained from them.
Nothing should make the world ever look so dead ever again.
And yet it did.
The HCS.
"... I guess losing so many of us all at once is just very shocking. I-I mean, we always expected them to be with us for centuries... To just suddenly disappear..." Liechtenstein said after a while.
"E-especially if... If their people are still around. I always thought it was impossible for one of us to die, while leaving our people behind by themselves. I guess I was wrong..."
America nodded in agreement and Liechtenstein wandered off, having noted that America probably wanted to be alone for the moment.
America paused and thought. (Something dangerous for the American to be doing.)
Liechtenstein is right. How is it possible to kill one of us and leave their people without that person? It's not... If you kill a nation, a new one would appear to take his or her place, though it's very difficult to kill one of us, unless their time was coming, i.e. someone appeared a while ago to take over the place, such as with me and Mamerica or with, as I'm told, the Italies and Rome.
And then there's the Titanic incident. Even though England and Ireland were reported as one of the missing, presumed dead people, they still turned up again alive and breathing. Of course, this could be because they nation-hopped, but there are many factors which could have stopped them from escaping the ship. And we have a tendency to forget we can nation-hop when we're in danger... So whenever we're "Missing in Action", we always turn up at home again.
So how is it possible...
America shook his head. He didn't know. None of them did. He got off the stairs and walked up, deciding to seek out Korea. Maybe he could talk to someone about this, like with Japan or er... what's his name? Oh yeah, Canulia. Canulia, yeah.
No wait...
Isn't it...
Canada? Nah...
Tick... Tick... Tick...
1234°5'67890 S /123456°7'890 E/W
Tick... Tick... Tick...
76°543'21 S/102°329'56 E
Tick... Tick... Tick...
70°4165'21 S/166°2329'55 E
Tick... Tick... Tick...
70°41'65.2" S/166°55'23.9" E
Tick... Tick... Tick...
70° 41' 00.0" S/166° 55' 00.0" E
OK, that's the second pair of coordinates... Hm... The second base is on Unger Island. Interesting.
Tick... Tick... Tick...
I should put that clock somewhere else. It's getting really distracting.
Tick... Tick... Tick...
Germany massaged his head. Fighting. From left, right, up, down and center.
When they continued the meeting, peace was kept for about ten seconds. Sure, it was longer than Germany had admittedly expected, however, it still didn't change the fact that his headache was returning.
Again.
Oh, if only England had stayed quiet. But no, the Brit had to reveal that he had knowledge on where every single HCS base on the planet was.
It also didn't help that everyone had gone from Denial and(/or) Depression into Anger mode.
"I want justice!"
"We all do, idiota!"
"Hey, I suggest we nuke them!"
"I second that!"
"Wait guys, we need to approach this rationally-"
"Who cares about rationality? Humans behave irrationally all the time; I say we just let our feelings tell us how to behave!"
"Second!"
"Thriced!"
"Thriced isn't a word..."
"Fourthed!"
"Neither is fourthed..."
"Stop telling us which words exist. Language changes all the time, those words exist from now on!"
"Second!"
"Hey, hey; slow down. We need to come up with the best method of revenge. They took away what we love, we should take away what they love."
"Send their research up in flames!"
"Completely destroy their bases!"
"Kill their families!"
"What was that?"
"We can't just go and kill innocents, just because one person committed a crime."
"I want justice!"
"We all do, idiota. And you've already said that!"
Oh my head... Germany thought. Even when it came to blood-thirsty revenge, no one could agree with each other. And they were missing the point of this meeting.
The further topics that were supposed to be talked about were a: Most personifications won't be able to take back their role as a nation and b: How to rescue the still-living nations that are imprisoned by the HCS. There was also the minor matter of convincing the government that yes, nations were important for the world, but that could be discussed later.
It seemed the only topic being discussed currently was revenge, or rather, as it is written on the topics-to-discuss-sheet, The HCS' Punishment. Did no one care about the other problems?
At least he wasn't the only one trying to contain his own wrathful feelings.
At first at least half of everyone had tried to be rational, but irrationality spread like wildfire among the nations. Germany was pretty sure that Japan, China and Liechtenstein were keeping their heads together. He wasn't sure about the rest.
"I suggest we lock them in a house with an insanely angry and psychotic nation, with whom no one can speak rationally, and let them be man-slaughtered one by one. It'd be the closest we'd get to trapping them inside a room with a monster." Liechtenstein suggested to a South American nation, who actually paused to consider the option.
Well, there goes Liechtenstein's sanity. Just Japan and China left, who are definitely thinking calmly. Meine Güte, I hope there are more than just us three... Germany thought calmly, slightly worried about Liechtenstein and her trail of thoughts.
It seemed Liechtenstein had spent too much time with Belarus alone. Oh, he had told Russia that making Liechtenstein and Belarus friends wouldn't make Belarus a nicer person, but rather vice versa, but did that make his "comrade" listen? No~...
Germany took another deep breath, hoping it'd stop him exploding at the gathering; mostly because it'd make no difference if he was yelling at them. They'd probably just argue back.
Or they might physically attack him. He was pretty sure that by now, that England, Prussia and Spain had gone into Pirate-mode. Or at least, England and Spain had. It was always more difficult to tell with Prussia.
America had gone into Southerner-mode, Italy and Romano were definitely acting like they were the bosses of the Mafia again, the South Americans had this blood-thirsty look about them, Ireland was talking like he was part of the old IRA again and... Yeah, you get the picture. Everyone was becoming more and more aggressive by the second, many starting to remind Germany of certain time periods, in which nations were constantly causing another one pain and enjoying it.
Bleib ruhig Deutschland... Don't lose your temper. Stay calm, don't lost your temper...
However, it seemed no matter how hard he tried, the resolution to stay calm and collected was fading fast.
"That's enough! Everyone shut up! We're wasting time like this!" Germany snapped, standing up.
But sadly, barely anyone heard him, because his voice was drowned out by the noise. The nations that actually heard him, turned their heads to snap at him, but were quickly distracted by the majority of the attendees of the meeting, who were currently "discussing" which death sentence was more painful (such as being burnt at the stake or being hung, drawn and quartered)
"I said Shut up! We can deal with Revenge later! While you sit here arguing, we waste precious time we could spend on more important things!" Germany finally shouted, some how louder than even Korea or America. There was a long silence, as everyone either glared at Germany, looked at him confused or looked at him with fear. Germany mentally smiled, pleased that everyone had shut up long enough for him to continue.
"Yeah? Like what?" Someone suddenly piped up, somewhat arrogantly. Germany twitched, but didn't raise his voice. In fact, he stayed eerily calm.
"There are plenty of nations out there that are still HCS prisoners." was all he said, deciding to sit down again.
Like a blessing, the gathering nearly immediately was chocked with guilt and really shut up. Anyone that had been ablaze with the ideas of revenge and filled with anger had quietened at the thought that they still had friends out there, suffering, who became forgotten ghosts, just because the idea of revenge looked so much sweeter than anything else.
When it became clear that no one would speak, Germany cleared his throat and continued.
"I would have suggested we split-up, in order to cover the bases more quickly, and therefore find still missing nations faster, however, I do not want any of us to confront the HCS, seeing as they seem to know everything about us... Including weaknesses that not even we knew existed. Since America, Japan and I have gathered enough evidence to prove the HCS guilty of multiple crimes throughout the last century, we can get our governments to back us up in searching the bases." Germany explained, having had a week to do a lot of thinking.
"That will mean we have a total of seventeen governments supporting us, which is more than enough, right?"
"Ja."
"But isn't doing this risky? Couldn't this lead to everyone knowing about us?"
"It is a distinct possibility, but I doubt anything worse than the HCS could possibly happen."
"... I suppose, for a potato bastard, the plan's not too bad."
"Ve~"
"It sounds reasonable I suppose."
"Doesn't the entire search of the Bases also mean we automatically capture the HCS?"
"Yes."
"This plan has just gone from OK to best thing ever da-ze!"
"Does anyone have a different suggestion aru?" China's question was met with silence. "Is anyone against Germany's idea?" Japan asked. There were a few murmurs, but no one clearly said they were against it.
"Then let us discuss the details of the plan..."
And in other news, rumours have spread that several communist states have gotten their hands on High-Tech Weaponry from a source suspected to be the HCS, a criminal organization and probably a terrorist group, that has been recently discovered.
Per chance, a secret informant with the pseudonym Black Mirror managed to catch the trade between a man with some sort of logo and a dictator. This information has caused the World to go into high-alert.
With the communist states having made recent alliances unconnected with the UN, such as the recent Korean-Chinese Alliance or the Korean-Irish Alliance, Germany's chancellor, Mrs. Nina Adelberg was caught saying "It seems World War 3 may be waiting at our doorsteps. Gentlemen, the decisions we make in the next few months may decide whether the world will remain at peace or go to war."
With the Oil- and Nuclear Power Crisis going from bad to worse, many Economists and Politicians are forced to agree with this statement.
Politically everything is tensing up. As Ruby Smith said in one of her articles a few days ago "The World is a glass sheet that is cracking up. All that is needed for the glass to shatter is the gentlest touch of the lightest of breezes."
Remember that this is set in the 22nd century, i.e. tensions between Ireland and the UK? Fictional. USA and Iraq having better relations? Hopefully will start becoming reality soon, but still fictional, as far as I understood the article I read about the USA and Iraq. PS, Iraq was one of the nations that the HCS never got their hands on.
And about "Mamerica"... Well, there's Grandpa Rome, so now we have Mamerica (= cross between Mama and America) :P I know it's the most clichéed and sickening thing ever, but writer's have got to have some fun now and then.
Ticking clock and coordinate recovery scene is pointless ticking clock and coordinate recovery scene.
I've heard of a LiechtensteinxBelarus pairing. While I don't support the pairing, I do support the two having a good friendship. It just sounds very interesting and also somehow sweet. This is why there's a reference to it in the chapter.
Why in all the world does America get a Southerner-accent when he's angry? Dunno. Probably because my mind's telling me that guys from the Southern states of the USA are kick-ass. I dunno either. o_O I... Really dunno.
IRA = Irish Republican Army. The reason I refer to it as "old", is because er... It's changed since the early 20th century? Something along those lines. My history isn't that good you see... =.=; And I hate explaining stuff.
Why did I use "Potential Superpower" instead of "Superpower"? Because currently, no country or union on Earth is a superpower. Mostly because of the fact that all nations are dependent on other nations, no matter how rich they are. While there are a few potential Superpowers around ( the EU, India, China, USA, Russia and Brazil), there are currently no countries (or unions) which qualify as a superpower. This may be a bit confusing, since a lot of people still think the USA is a superpower... But it's not. It really isn't any more. Sorry. :(
Why is World War 3 becoming a minor plot line? I can assure you this is completely unintentional, I just kinda thought "Hey, since I've written this, I think I'll add this, and then this, etc." It just kinda happened, you know? Maybe I just enjoy adding in random plot to build up an open ending which can lead to a sequel. ^^;
Also note that I usually write in British English. This means that the grammar will be slightly different (American English: Color; British English: Colour)
I am sorry this chapter is so short. I couldn't think of anything else to write. It's embarrassing that most of this chapter is made of footnotes. I hope you still enjoyed this chapter, even if it did take forever to write and ended up being... short...
Review? Anyone?