Chapter 5
The two groups stared at each other in an awkward silence. Sealand broke the silence by running up to hug Finland and Sweden; he was devastated by how hurt his Nordic friends were. Finally Astrid asked the question everyone had been thinking,
"Takonna...who the hell is that?" she asked, pointing to the strange man behind him.
Artemis was supporting one of the Nordics, and apparently trying to hide behind her sister at the same time, all the while staring at the stranger with wide eyes. Takonna seemed to realize that the old man was still with them, so he turned and introduced him. "This is Mel, a man who's been hiding from the horrors of 4kids for seven years." he said, knowing what the next reaction would be.
"S-s-s-seven years?" everyone exclaimed, standing there looking stunned.
A silence followed before Artemis suddenly blurted out, "OH man! We need to go! Mom and Dad'll be wondering where we are! OH we're so screwed!"
"SHIT! We've been gone for almost two days! How are we supposed to explain this?" Astrid said frantically.
The sudden outburst had caught a guard's attention and he ran towards them. "Dudes, we better move!" America cried as Artemis scooped up Hanatamago and Mr. Puffin.
The group managed to make it out of the building without injuring the Nordics further as all the armed guards from around the building chased after them. They ran through the city, earning stares from people walking by. Everyone around them screamed and ducked in alarm as the guards began to shoot at the group.
"What IS it with these guys shooting at CHILDREN?" Astrid yelled.
As they neared the boat they knew that they had to move fast because the Nordics seemed to be on the brink of collapse from blood loss and running for their lives didn't seem to be helping (with the exception of Iceland who was still on America's back). As they arrived at the docks, Sealand, Wy and Takonna ran ahead to get the boat started so they could take off right away. The three kids leapt onto the boat and scrambled with the controls,
"Hurry up!" Wy yelled.
"We're hurrying!" Takonna yelled back.
Just as the rest of the group arrived, the boat roared to life. Astrid and Artemis started to take Norway and Denmark below deck along with Mel, Britain, Finland and Sweden. America was about to follow when a thump was heard behind him. Before he could react, he felt Iceland get yanked off his back. America whirled around to see that one of the 4Kids guards had managed to jump onto the boat before it had moved and now held Iceland in a tight headlock. The three siblings and Britain joined America on deck and their eyes widened in horror as they also spotted the rest of the guards chasing them on another boat. The guard holding Iceland didn't have a weapon on him, but he was so strong that he could probably easily snap Iceland's neck.
Ignoring her siblings' shouts of protest, Artemis jumped over the railing and onto the dock where Iceland was being held captive. She winced from the impact, but managed to stand in front of the guard. "Let him go right now you damned bastard!" Artemis shouted, grabbing a metal pole and charging at the man.
Above, her siblings were watching as Artemis swung the pole at the man over and over again, feeling a little helpless from where they were. Finally, America couldn't take watching Artemis fighting alone, so he jumped down onto the dock. He ran behind the guard and grabbed him from behind causing him to let go of Iceland. The weak nation collapsed to the ground and Artemis helped him up. "You okay?" Artemis asked Iceland and America.
"Yeah, what about you?" America asked. But before anyone could answer, the rest of the 4Kids guards charged towards them.
Meanwhile, Takonna and Sealand watched the fight continue. It became more and tedious as time went on, and Takonna felt virtually powerless against the 4Kids attackers. He looked over at Sealand, and whispered a plan into his ear. Sealand nodded,and Takonna nodded back, smiling. Sealand sprung up to the main control center and swerved the boat across the side of the dock in a 360 degree spin. The 4Kids guards lost their balance and fell down onto the deck of the boat.
"Sealand! Stop spinning, I'll take it from here, thanks!" yelled Takonna across the windy and treacherous deck.
Quickly, Takonna grabbed the lifesaver hanging from the side of the control deck wall and put it onto the guard, nearly unconscious at this point. The rope that was attached to the lifesaver was thrown onto the stern of the boat's pulling hook, and the attacker was thrown into the water, floating on a lifesaver behind the boat.
"Wimps, I can cut myself out from here easily! You childish fools are too remedial for my intelligence and training!" the attacker yelled proudly.
The two adolescent boys glared at each other, each with a malevolent grin.
Takonna pulled the boat into thrust, and Sealand steered the boat into the ocean, pulling the dock alongside. The guard was dragged through the water screaming, and then thrown out into the air by force after Takonna cut the rope from the back of the boat. They all sped off from the dock. Unfortunately, the sudden jolt from the boat caused Astrid to lose her balance and tumbled into the water.
"Astrid!" Artemis screamed and America immediately jumped into the water after her.
However, storm clouds were rolling in once again; but this time they were real! The strong waves made it difficult for the two to stay afloat. Just then, they felt themselves being lifted out of the water. They looked down to see a huge white whale underneath them.
"Whale dude!" America said happily.
The whale let out a loud cry before swimming after the boat.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm glad America is friends with a whale," Britain said.
The whale swam up to the boat Artemis and Iceland were on and the two managed to jump on the whale before any other guards got to them. "This is awesome!" Artemis shouted, holding onto Iceland to keep both of them from falling off.
Astrid nodded her agreement as they sped towards Sealand's boat. They climbed on, and went below deck, where Artemis started taking care of the Nordics' wounds. "Mom and Dad are gonna kill us if they find out where we were! How are we gonna cover for being gone three days?" she asked.
"We'll think of something; in the meantime, get Iceland below deck with the other Nordics," Astrid said and her sister complied.
Just as things seemed to be going well, a helicopter carrying countless amounts of 4Kids accountants landed on the top on the deck, letting loose hundreds of attackers. Everybody under the deck heard clamping on the roof, and everybody on top of the deck saw the men rampage through the boat, destroying everything in their path.
Takonna peeked out from the control center. "Sealand, grab the harpoon, I have an idea..."
Sealand and Takonna walked out in front of all of the attackers, and Sealand, armed with a harpoon, pointed it directly at on of the attackers. Suddenly, a man on top of the helicopter zapped the two boys with some sort of paralysis beam, and the two fell to the ground with no control over their bodies.
"Help! HELP US!" screamed Takonna.
Just then, everybody under the deck peeked up, but were all tied up and stunned by the 4Kids rampaging attackers. As things became more and more hopeless, the deck started to shake and the boat started to break apart. Then, a man burst through the deck, leaving a gaping hole in the air chambers, allowing water to pour in.
Takonna looked up. "It's...it's..."
Sealand finished his sentence. "It's Mel!"
Mel, somehow resembling a ninja, landed on his feet on the deck. He started knocking out every attacker, and seemed to be invulnerable to the paralysis beams. After all of the attackers were knocked out, Mel untied all of them.
Sealand and Astrid simultaneously started to talk. "Thank...thank...thank you?"
Mel winked at the crew, and flew into the sky.
"Since when can he fly? What is he, god?" asked America.
They all stood on the deck mesmerized, but the boat was sinking rapidly after the deck collapsed.
Wy started to panic. "What do we do now? We'll drown if we stay on here, and we're in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean! There's no land here!"
Takonna looked at the water pouring through the air chambers, and then looked at the abandoned 4Kids helicopter. "Everybody, get in the helicopter! It's our only hope!"
As they all ran by, Sealand stopped. "It has the 4Kids logo on it, Takonna..."
Takonna grabbed a bucket of paint from the supply closet and painted over it in blue-green primer. "Not anymore!"
Sealand flew the helicopter away from the boat, as it split into two and sank to the bottom of the sea, never to be seen or salvaged again in the future.
Takonna gave Wy a comforting hug as she watched her boat sink. America then took the controls of the helicopter and piloted them towards home. Everyone else began treating the injured and traumatized Nordics until Astrid spoke up,
"Hey America, how do you and the other nations know where we live? The authors failed to explain that many chapters ago." she asked.
America and Britain's eyes widened, "Uhhh...the details aren't really that important..." America said nervously.
"Hey! I can see the port where we came in!" Artemis shouted, pointing ahead of them.
"It's about freakin' time! I hope Prussia's doing okay," Astrid said.
America flew the plane a few miles away from their house so the siblings wouldn't have to explain that either.
They snuck through the garage and got to the basement where the other countries were waiting for them. After a quick session of hugging and explaining, the other countries got the Nordics comfortable as the siblings went upstairs where their seething parents were waiting for them.
"Where the hell have you been! Missing for three days! Honestly! WE WERE WORRIED SICK! NO ANIME FOR THE THREE OF YOU FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? WE LIVE IN A VERY DANGEROUS NEIGHBORHOOD! ASTRID! I THOUGHT YOU KNEW BETTER THAN THIS! GOING OFF WITH YOUR SIBLINGS AND NOT LETTING US KNOW BEFOREHAND! DISAPPEARING FOR THREE DAYS! EXPLAIN YOURSELVES!" their mother could've kept going if she hadn't run out of breath.
Artemis and Takonna were hiding behind Astrid, stammering a nonsensical explanation until their older sister finally stepped in.
"It was my fault!" she said loudly, cutting off her stuttering siblings. The nations, who were listening from the hallway, froze at Astrid's words.
Their father crossed his arms, "Really Astrid?" he asked with uncertainty and Astrid nodded.
"Sis, what're you doing?" Artemis whispered, but Astrid shushed her.
"Y-you see, I left a note saying we were at the docks right?" she asked. Her parents nodded.
"W-well, Takonna wanted to see the new boats they had. So when we got there Artemis thought they were pretty cool and wanted to get closer. We got permission to actually go on the boat, but it was bigger than we thought. I got distracted and the next thing I knew, Takonna and Artemis had wandered off. By the time I found them, the boat had accidentally been set adrift and we were in the middle of the ocean. The coast guard sent a boat after us, but a storm blew up and swept the boat further away. Since the storm lasted all night long they couldn't send any more boats after us until it was clear. The boat had plenty of supplies for us so we didn't starve but there was no way to contact you. We waited around for another two days until another boat came and took the boat back to shore. We snuck off and then we made it home. But if I hadn't gotten distracted we would've been home sooner. I'm sorry and it was all my fault. Punish me all you like but please don't blame Artemis and Takonna for all this." Astrid said.
Their parents looked at Astrid who looked sincere enough. Their father shook his head. "We'll let you off the hook this time, but if all three of you go missing without word again, there could be some serious consequences, okay?" he said.
The three siblings nodded, and dashed upstairs into Astrid's bedroom, closely followed by the rest of the countries. Prussia and Germany were the last to get up the stairs, seeing how Prussia needed to be assisted. Finally when everybody was in the room, Artemis turned to her sister. "Why'd you cover for us? You didn't really have anything to do with it. Well, you did...but still..." she trailed off.
Astrid smiled, "Well one, I AM responsible for you two so any incident involving all of us would eventually point to me anyway. Two, I haven't been the greatest sibling lately. Throughout this entire adventure, you two have been put in danger more than once,"
She knelt down to their eye-level, "I could never forgive myself if I let you two get hurt or worse and so far I haven't been there for you when you needed me. You know how much I love you and you both are growing up fast. Before long, we'll all be adults in our own separate lives; I want to make sure you have an innocent childhood that you'll always cherish. The least I could do was take the blame for the whole boat thing. It's my obligation as your big sister, and I'll gladly do it again should the time come."
Her little sister and brother smiled, then Artemis shifted her weight, grimaced, and shifted it back again. "Damn...it's worse." she muttered, looking down at the floor.
Astrid looked at her curiously. "What's wrong?" she asked, looking a little concerned.
"Er...um...remember when I jumped off the boat onto the deck of the other boat? I landed funny and...may or may not have hurt my ankle."
Astrid frowned and lifted Artemis onto her bed before removing her shoes. She carefully examined the small ankle and bent it different ways to see where it hurt. Artemis winced and tried to pull away, but Astrid gently pulled her back. "It's okay, I'll have mom and dad look at it a little more closely later, alright? Just try not to stress it." she said, smiling.
Artemis smiled back at her. "I didn't even see you limping, how was it okay earlier?" America asked, looking at her sideways.
"It wasn't okay, I was gonna say something, but those guards came out, and I didn't want anyone to make a huge fuss about it." Artemis replied.
"She was limping a little when she thought nobody was looking." Britain said, patting her on the head.
"Alright, but the next time something like that happens, tell us. Though I doubt we'll ever be chased by men with guns again." Astrid said and everyone laughed.
The nations had probably never seen siblings who were so close as a family. They've never experienced kindness, love, and fun that these three had provided for them. They really owed them a lot for everything they've done. They had taken them in, protected them from 4Kids, and rescued their friends and family more than once. They didn't think that they could ever repay them for all that they've done.
Artemis was looking around at everyone. Secretly, she never wanted the countries to go back home so that they could stay with them, but she knew that this wouldn't happen. It was a short rest period, and the nations and the siblings were hoping that they were through the worst of it. Sadly, this wasn't the case. The worst for the siblings had yet to come.
Ooooooh boy! We're reaching the climax! I know, we're still missing a few countries but I think we're done infiltrating studios...for now.
Well, at least we got the Nordics out of there! Poor Icy, being taken hostage, but he'll be fine now! On another subject, Hooray for Whale dude! :)
Review if you want moar!