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Flowers for Balaton, an RDNA-verse/Axis Powers Hetalia Fanfiction.
(Chapter 3: Through the Looking Glass)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, American Federation, April, 2023
"Last train to Neu Wein is arriving in 45 minutes, I repeat, last train arriving at 9.00 pm in approximately 45 minutes…"
Marcus walked to the platform of city's train station; he'd spent most of the whole day on a plane that had sent him from London to New York, then taking a 'short' drive to Philadelphia. His attempts to sleep throughout the trips had failed, leaving him in a tired and irritable state. Apart from the copious amounts of coffee that was currently coursing through his veins, one of the only things keeping him awake was the music blaring from his old Sony Walkman.
The young diplomat-turned-Agent looked around the old station, people of varying ethnicities and races were milling about the station on what seemed like a perfectly normal day, although this was somewhat betrayed by the fact that there was an undeniable sense of dread hanging in air…
Marcus had heard a lot about this city, with his version being destroyed on Doomsday; he had to quickly get up to speed on the layout of the city, finding his way around New York as especially a pain. Although he remembered hearing a few anecdotes from a few of his fellow Agents mentioning that this city was the US capital in another universe, but that didn't matter now.
Marcus fidgeted with the ticket that he had in his hands, waiting for the train that would take him across the border to New Austria. After hearing about his assignment to this… rather peculiar universe, he was surprised to discover that what he had known as Mexico in his timeline was settled by the Austrians of all people, he wondered if he might encounter this universe's version of himself, probably having been born in Britain, unlike himself...
"Not bloody likely…" he thought to himself, some of his counterpart's family were killed during the 'Terror' that he kept reading about, along with his grandfather, who'd managed to get himself killed during the attack on the British Isles in the 1940s.
Marcus sat on one of the benches, thinking about his previous experiences with the Americans in his own timeline, although many of them didn't call themselves American, they had the same ideals of liberty and freedom, something he could connect with on a political level. But then he also saw some of them with a bit of suspicion, being somewhat justified as it was the fault of the two former superpowers as why his universe was one big mess…
The Americans in this universe had taken their stereotype of being obnoxious to its ultimate extreme, along with a tinge of ignorance and maybe a little bit of prejudice thrown in for good measure, being quite similar to the culture of his universe's America, albite the one from the 1950s. This somewhat annoying attitude contrasted with Marcus's snarky, if a little pessimistic personality, although at most times he was a positive person.
-0-
The train arrived, almost on cue, Marcus had been reading through a comic book to pass the time. He quickly put the book back in his bag and walked onto the train. Marcus eventually found a seat to sit on and put his bag onto the seat adjacent to him. He looked over the timetable, reading the arrival times and stops that would be happening while en-route to Neu Wein, after being content with sleeping for most of the 27 hour trip, Marcus turned off his Walkman and fell into a much needed sleep…
Neu Austerlitz, Royal Dominion of New Austria, 13 and a-half-hours later…
"Grüß Gott, Willkommen in Neu Austerlitz. We will be stopping to stock up on more refreshments and allow passengers to disembark should they wish to do so; we will be stopped for around 2 hours…"
The droning voice of a young Magyar accented woman nearly jolted Marcus awake, he blinked for a moment, trying to gather his wits as he slowly got out of his seat. "Mein Gott…" he muttered to himself as he walked onto the platform, the blazing tropical sunlight disorientated his vision for a while as Marcus pulled out a pair of rarely used sunglasses and put them on.
He looked around for the nearest canteen or at the least, anywhere that served food. "Hopefully better than that bland schnitzel I got served on the train…" Marcus thought to himself. Marcus looked at one of the signs; thankfully he could read the German portion of it, pointing to the nearby foodcourt. Marcus felt like he hadn't eaten for days, probably due to the fact that he'd slept through breakfast and the only thing that he'd eaten was that rather bland tasting schnitzel…
Marcus was too busy thinking about what he was going to eat as he nearly bumped into a peculiar looking man who was walking in the opposite direction to him. "Hey! Watch it, pal!" the American accented man stared at him as Marcus lifted up his glasses to get a better look at him. "Sorry 'bout that… Verdammt Amerikaner…" Marcus looked at the young man as he stared at him for a moment, either wanting to size him up, or get something out of him. The American flashed him a grin as he walked over to another man who looked similar to him, although looking more quiet and reserved.
Marcus continued walking over to where the food courts were located, looking at whatever there was to eat, he wasn't that picky with his food choices, but he could definitely settle for some fish and chips... "Here so soon, are we?" Claude flashed Marcus a cocky grin as he turned around to see his fellow Agent standing behind him.
"I hope this food is to your liking…" Claude smiled as he handed Marcus a paper bag. "You know me too well…" Marcus chuckled as he pulled out a burrito from the paper bag and started eating it. "How was the trip? Hopefully it wasn't too stressful…" Claude replied in accented English. Marcus finished his mouthful before replying "It was fine, although we still have another 12 hours to go before we get to Neu Wein"
"Good thing the higher-ups sent you here, America hasn't the best place to be for some of our other German speaking Agents…" Claude deadpanned, Marcus knew what he was talking about, the incidents that he'd faced in London seemed tame to what he was exposed too while on the streets of Philadelphia, no matter how much he tried, he just couldn't hide his German accent well enough to be seen as an ordinary Brit, leading to a few awkward moments.
"Anyway, the train is going to leave in an hour or so, so we gotta get going soon." Marcus said as he finished eating his burrito. Claude nodded in agreement as the pair started to walk back to the train. Marcus noticed the same man that he'd bumped into while walking to the foodcourt, the young man didn't notice the pair as they walked past him, but Marcus knew that he'd seen the man somewhere before…
Marcus walked back onto the train and sat down on his seat, moving his bag to allow Claude to sit next to him. Marcus pulled out the comic book he was reading earlier from his bag and started reading as the train started to move again.
Claude glanced over to see what Marcus was reading; the comic looked quite new, definitely not belonging to this universe, another thing he noticed, was that Marcus was wearing a pair of probably Agency-issued reading glasses, something that he hadn't noticed him wearing before. "Who knew that he was into that stuff…" Claude mused to himself as he pulled out his own book and began reading it…
Neu Wein, Royal Dominion of New Austria,12 hours later…
After dumping their bags at their designated safe-house, Marcus and Claude decided to hit one of the nearby bars at Marcus's request. The pair walked into packed establishment, and sat at one of the nearby tables. Marcus began to read over the menu, hoping that there was any Scotch whiskey available…
Marcus was surprised about how much the city had reminded him of Linz and the other Austrian cities that he'd visited during his time in the Confederation, especially the time he'd spent with her.
Yet it still had the same atmosphere that he felt when he travelled to Mexico City on one of his first diplomatic missions with the League of Nations. The climate was more or less the same, but the people had brought back memories of both his home country and the rest of Mittleeuropa.
"I'll get the drinks; I assume that you want a glass of Scotch, ja?" Claude looked at Marcus as he was perusing the menu. "Ja" he nodded in confirmation as Claude walked over to the bar get the drinks.
Marcus' his attention was suddenly brought to the now-open door of the bar. He saw a young man, bearing a passing resemblance to himself, sans the glasses and temporary stubble, which he'd, received from one-too-many-nights of studying, along with having swapped out his leather jacket for a normal suit jacket/tie combo.
The man was followed by a young blonde haired woman who very much resembled Lina, right down to the coat and her innocent looking façade, which probably hid the same strong-willed and somewhat perverted personality that he was accustomed to. He watched the pair walk over to the other end of the building and sat themselves down at one of the tables.
Claude walked back from the bar with a glass of whiskey in one hand and beer in the other. He sat down at the table and put the glass of whiskey in front of Marcus, who was looking at the young couple that were sitting at the other end of the building. Claude noticed this and tapped Marcus on the shoulder to get his attention.
Marcus jolted for a moment as he looked over to Claude. "It seems that you've found your counterpart." The Liechtensteiner smirked as his fellow Agent started to sip from his glass of whiskey, occasionally glancing over his shoulder to the other side of the building…
Marcus heard another familiar voice, this time it was a more familiar one. Marcus watched the same bespectacled American that he'd bumped into a few hours ago walk past the building, followed by another similar looking man.
"Keep my drink safe, will you?" Marcus gave Claude a somewhat disturbing grin as he walked out of the building, the Agent knew that something had caused him to snap from within. Although by the time he could snap himself out of his inner thoughts, Marcus had disappeared from view. Claude felt a lump in his throat as he rushed outside of the building; hoping that he could find Marcus before anything happened to him, or anyone else…