"I've gotten better sleep on battlefields than I have here," Latvia grumbles to Sealand.

His friend pokes him playfully. "You don't mean that!"

"I do!" Latvia responds. "You're just too ecstatic about seeing the Power Rangers at the moment to even care about our current sleeping arrangements." By that, the Latvian meant the fact that they were sleeping- or attempting to- on a booth in Jungle Karma Pizza. He could recall how RJ had shrugged and apologetically told them that they didn't have any beds to accommodate the two of them, then tossed the two of them a blanket and two pillows and suggested that they sleep on the booths.

"You know…" Sealand begins. "You should always be sleep-deprived before you go into battle. You get really crabby at night, Raivis, and I think that you'd make a really good fighter!"

Latvia doesn't bother to correct his friend in the fact that he's just about always sleep-deprived, and it hasn't really affected his prowess in battle so far. It is true that he gets easily irritable late into the night (especially if something such as the day's events happened, which were unique in themselves but catastrophic in a way a nation must get used to.)

Instead, he asks, "America never showed up. You have your cell phone, right? Why don't you try calling him?" It was Latvia's way of distracting Sealand so he could get sleep, somewhat, but also because he himself was curious as to why America never showed.

Sealand nodded. "Great idea!" he says, a little too loudly. Latvia shushes him, reminding his friend that they are in someone else's "house" and they're probably trying to get some sleep.

Sealand shrugs and pulls out his cell phone. It wasn't an iPhone, or whatever the newest one was. Latvia had trouble remembering technological stuff. England had profusely refused to get Sealand the newest phone.

Latvia leans back as Sealand dials America's number and waits for their fellow nation to pick up. The Latvian's eyes began to slip closed as he leans his head back on the pillow, and only briefly hears Sealand remark, "Pick up…pick up…darn it…."

"Raivis?"

"Mm? Yeah?"

"America didn't pick up." Latvia rubbed his eyes, aware that he had dozed off, and sat up. "He could be sleeping."

"Yeah, but that doesn't explain why he forgot about it in the first place." Sealand shook his head. "Never mind. I'm going to try to call Finland and Sweden next." Latvia nods sleepily.

"Wake me if they say anything," he tells the micronation.

Sealand nods and calls his family. To his surprise, it's Norway who picks up, and not Finland or Sweden.

And what the normally emotionless nation told Sealand scared him more than anything he had seen that day.

Finland and Sweden were gone. Even though Norway was typically good at concealing his emotions, Sealand heard the clear confusion in his voice, as well as how panicked he was. Accordingly, they had just vanished. Since Norway hadn't been with the two of them- out walking Hanatamago- he had no idea how it happened. Just that the Scandinavian country couldn't trace either of them.

Sealand's hands tremble as he grips the phone and assures Norway that he and Latvia are fine and that they have a place to stay the night. He skirts around the topic of whether or not America came, because he doesn't want to worry his "uncle".

Sealand's hands still tremble as clicks "off" on the phone. What happened to his family? He looks over at Latvia, to tell him the shocking news. He is surprised to see the Latvian boy fast asleep, sprawled out on the booth.

Sealand considers waking him up to tell him the terrifying news, but can't bring himself to disturb Latvia when he has such a peaceful expression on his face, not after everything the micronation dragged him into that day. Besides, he figures that it would be better to tell him when the Power Rangers are around, so that they can plan a course of action- if the Jungle rangers would be willing to help them out, that is.

Sealand crawls over to Latvia, laying down on the booth next to him and prying the blanket out of his friend's hand so that they can share. He realizes that he's still shivering. There's still the thrill of meeting the Power Rangers in his mind whenever Sealand thinks about it, but he only now begins to consider what powerful allies they are- ones he's glad to have.

Sealand squeezes his eyes shut, preparing for a sleepless night when, in fact, sleep comes as quickly to him as it does to the boy next to him.

/ / /

When Sealand wakes up, it's to the sound of talking. He sits up, trying to remember where he is, when it all comes flooding back to him: Power Rangers. Huge Monsters. Pizza. Strange force kidnapping nations. It's quite a wake–up call.

Looking for the source of the noise, Sealand spots the rangers assembled at the counter, all talking, and, as far as he can tell, eating pizza. Despite everything he's been through, Sealand reverts back to his 12-year old mind and feels a flash of excitement at that. Would he and Latvia get pizza too? Finland and Sweden would never let him do that, although Denmark would always remark nostalgically, "It's like college again!" to which Norway would smack him on the head.

Ah, good times…ones that make Sealand's chest hurt.

Next to him, Latvia is sitting up as well. He spots the rangers and hurriedly pulls the blanket away. "We should probably go over there." he says to Sealand, who nods in agreement. All the micronation does is adjust his cap. Latvia's hair is sort of naturally tousled, so Sealand assumes that his friend won't have many problems.

"Good morning!" Lily, the yellow ranger, greets them as the two come over to where they're all gathered around the counter. Theo nods, Casey waves a piece of pizza, and RJ simply says, "Mornin'."

"Good morning!" Sealand tells her back, cheerfully even though he's feeling slightly down. It seems hard not to around Lily. Latvia says a "G-good morning," that has his typical stutter but is quite loud for him.

"Pizza?" Dominic, the Rhino ranger offers. Sealand nods and reaches for a cold slice. Eating pizza with the Power Rangers- only in his wildest dreams, even though it's not exactly the most ideal situation at the moment. Latvia takes ones as well.

Glancing around, Sealand acknowledges how strange the situation was. There were 5 rangers and two nations (because he was a nation, no matter what Jerkland said!) all eating pizza together. Of course, the normal onlooker wouldn't know any of that, so maybe it wasn't as bizarre as Sealand thought it to be.

"So," RJ says, swallowing a bite of pizza. "You two," he casts a look at Latvia and Sealand, "will be training with us this morning. Let me assure you, it is a very strict regimen, and if you can't keep up you, take note of the fact that there will be punishment!"

"Yeah, okay." Casey says, rolling his eyes behind his mentors back. Lily giggles, covering her mouth with her hand. Latvia doesn't know if he can take RJ seriously or not, for after he reprimands the two of them, he walks into the back room, zigzagging slightly. Sealand isn't sure whether to disregard RJ or not, but turns his attention to the Red Ranger. "What can you two do?" Casey asks.

"Well, I can do a Rocket Punch and other really cool stuff!" Sealand offers up the information excitedly. "Did you see that yesterday? Anyway, I'm not very good at doing the martial arts stuff like you guys, even though I tried it one time. That's sort of Japan's thing."

"What's a rocket punch?" Lily asks curiously, taking a bite of her pizza. Theo answers for her, the barely concealed annoyance in his voice.

"It doesn't exist. It's not a real move," he says pointedly, looking at the younger boys. "At least not a move the Pai Zhuq masters would've taught us."

"Neither is lot of other things," Casey reminds Theo, glancing back at the door RJ just went through.

Sealand feels slightly disappointed at Theo's contradiction. In his opinion the rocket punch was pretty awesome- but then again, it wasn't like he hadn't already been told that it didn't exist from Japan (which had resulted in very loud, one-ended phone conversations).

"Well, anyway, I can do that…I don't know about Latvia," Sealand looks over at his friend, who appears to timid to contribute anything about his abilities. "He can use weapons, though. And he's very durable!" Latvia nods rapidly, although he looks a little pale, so Sealand decides to stop elaborating there.

"Well then. Let's test this out," Theo proposes. Casey nods while Lily looks a little hesitant.

"Guys, shouldn't we let them get used to everything first? Training can come later."

"Not for you, I'm afraid," RJ breaks in, stumbling out from the back room. They all crane their necks to see what's the cause of RJ's limp. He waves away their concerns as he addresses the rangers.

"Seeing as Grizzaka has made an appearance for the first time in a few days, I think that we should be training harder now. We don't have any idea what they're up to, which isn't good, so to the training room." He turns around after beckoning the others to follow him. Casey and Theo shrug and get up from their seats to follow RJ. Lily takes her time and comes over to the two nations. She takes both of their hands and leads them through the back room.

"Come on. You can watch us train and maybe even pick up a few things for yourselves," she encourages them beaming and trying to make them feel more comfortable, seeing as her friends aren't making much of an effort. She actually feels a little bad for them-to be thrust into such a new world, full of such strange and unexplainable things, what must that feel like?

Well, she's already been through that, so maybe she knows how they feel.

Latvia smiles at her, still not saying anything but a little more relieved since she's acting so friendly. Sealand takes note of her friendliness as well and decides maybe this is the time to tell both Lily and Latvia about what he learned last night.

"Um, Lily…" Sealand begins hesitantly. "Before we go up, can I tell you about something? It may be important, but I'm not sure."

Lily halts at the foot of the stairs. Latvia pauses too, once Sealand nods at him to assure him that it involves him as well. "Sure," she says, sounding mildly curious.

Sealand pauses, unsure of how to begin. If what he guessed was right, it was a meshing of two worlds- the power ranger world and the nation world. If that were to happen, learning the different names of the nations would have to be something Lily and the other Rangers would have to get used to.

At Lily's indication to speak, Sealand began.

"So, we were here originally to visit our friend, like we told you- but our friend is actually America. He was late in picking us up, which is how we got involved in all of this. He never came, though. Last night I called him, and his voice mail said something along the lines of, 'Canada, if that's you, I'm looking like crazy for you! Where are you?"

Sealand notices how Latvia looks surprised, since he had been asleep and Sealand didn't have time to share the information with him. Lily looks interested as well. A little confused, yes, but still intrigued.

"Anyway, after that I tried to call Finland and Sweden." Glancing at Lily, he adds for her benefit, "Those are the two countries I live with. Instead of talking to them, though, I ended up talking to Norway. He told me that Finland and Sweden had disappeared."

Latvia's eyes widen at this. Lily raises her eyebrows. "Go on," she says.

"Well, I don't know…it's just that, it seems like something happened to Canada, and definitely to Finland and Sweden. And you guys were attacked by Grizzaka, which is weird. So maybe there's a connection there? I'm not sure how things work between the Power Rangers world and the nation one, but there could be a link." He finishes and looks to Lily, wondering what she will say to it.

"I see," she says evenly, seeing where he was coming from. Although she still didn't really get the whole 'nations' thing, she had enough sense to know that something was definitely off.

"Well, let's tell the others after we get some practice in. It's probably going to help. And knowing Theo, he's going to want to prove to you guys there's no such thing as 'rocket punch', so you're going to have to do something about that." She gives them a smile and starts up the stairs, still dragging their hands behind her.

Even with the seriousness of the situation, Sealand finds himself smiling as well. There definitely is a rocket punch! As he thinks this to himself, he notices Latvia trying to catch his eye. Although the small nation doesn't say anything, Sealand knows he's asking if he's okay after hearing about Sweden and Finland.

All Sealand can do is flash a smile at him. He isn't really all that okay, but it's better to put on a brave face for his friend. He'd make it through. Besides, Sealand knows that Latvia would be slightly upset by the news as well. After gaining independence from Russia, Latvia would always tag along with Estonia to see the Nordics, and spent a lot of time with Sealand in his home with them. Consequentially, Sealand knew he liked them both.

Entering the training room, the three of them see Casey and Theo preparing to spar. Dominic is sitting on the stairs leading down to the wide open floor while RJ is leaning back in his chair. His face is a look of contentment, despite the dangers lying ahead. Lily, Sealand, and Latvia go over to join Dominic.

Suddenly, the Red and Blue Rangers move into action after standing still for so long. Theo lunges at Casey, but he manages to dodge it and sweeps a leg under Theo's, knocking him off his feet. The Blue Ranger lands on his back, but springs up instantly, skirting around Casey and giving him a sharp but for the most part harmless blow to the back. Apart from the fact, of course, that it knocks him to the ground.

Latvia is surprised by their speed and grace, which looks incredibly hard to reciprocate. It sort of reminds him of the time when Italy tried to hug Japan during a World Meeting. Refusing to be violated again, Japan broke out in martial arts not unlike the ones that were being done by the two Rangers. He's a little surprised that they're not using their Morphers, but puts it down to the fact that they probably only save those for real battles.

Casey is back on his feet, and he and Theo are exchanging hits and blocks. Occasionally the other tries to break through his opponent's defense, but they seemed to have reached a stalemate.

That is, until Casey manages to sneak a blow under Theo's defending arms, pushing him backwards until Theo landed on his backside. "Give up?" Casey asked. There are a few trickles of sweat down both his and the Blue Ranger's faces, but other than that they look relatively fresh.

Still, Theo concedes and Casey helps him up. From the sidelines, Lily congratulates Casey, telling him good job with a bright smile.

To Latvia, it didn't seem like a big deal- just a teammate congratulating a teammate for a few good hits. But he could feel a certain tension in the air in the way Casey returns her smile widely and Theo looks put-out and rather sullen as he watches the two.

Latvia could definitely feel some sort of romantic tension there between those three, and glancing at RJ and Dominic and the looks on their faces he guesses that there's nothing new about it. Of course Sealand, being oblivious like he always is, just remarks on how that was "cool!"

From the looks Casey and Theo cast the two of them, Sealand could tell they were waiting to see if they wanted to join in. Sealand desperately wanted to volunteer, but he decided to watch another sparring match, and maybe some other cool Power Rangers training exercise before actually trying it for himself.

"We'll go next," Lily volunteers herself and Dominic. Nodding, Theo and Casey step over to the wall where the others are. Lily faces Dominic in the center of the room, her eyes sparkling with a friendly sort of light, although still showing a certain fierceness that made Sealand think her a formidable opponent in battle.

Dominic was obviously no pushover either. As the sparring match started, he blocks Lily's first blow and then all her others. She backs up, then flips, launching herself over Dominic, and upon landing, spins and kicks him in the back.

Dominic falls forward, but manages to push himself back up and turns to face Lily, just in time. She tries to kick but Dominic manages to get his leg up in time to bar her way. Locked in that position, the two break out of it and continue sparring, both equally matched.

Latvia watches, fascinated. Like Lily had said, they could pick up techniques from watching training. In a war, it probably wouldn't make much of a difference in the long run, but it was still useful to know for close combat. He is impressed by both of their skills.

The two are evenly matched enough to the point where they are both panting, but neither can pin the other. "Shall we call a tie?" Lily says, wiping the sweat of her forehead with the back of her hand.

"Fine by me," Dominic replies, but he's smiling. Lily heads over to where the others are sitting on the stairs and surrounding areas and plops down beside them. Dominic however, he lays down right where he is, sprawled on the large mat covering the wooden floor.

"Good j-job, Lily," Latvia says, feeling confident for once. Lily smiles, sensing he's coming out of his shell.

"Yeah!" Sealand says enthusiastically. "You too Dominic."

Lily grin grows larger and Dominic too has a small smile on his lips, although his eyes are closed. "Do you two want to try it now?" he asks.

"Sure!" Sealand responds, although Latvia knows that a simple 'sure' doesn't quite cover how excited he is to do it. In a way, Latvia hopes it distracts his friend from the problem of Finland and Sweden disappearing.

RJ stands up from his chair. "How about this," he begins dramatically. "The two of you spar with me- because you'd need two to fight the master, and that might not even be enough."

Latvia notices the playful eye-rolling from Theo, Lily, Casey, and Dominic, but he also notices how none of them seem to doubt that their mentor can take down both him and Latvia with ease. In a way he's slightly nervous because he himself isn't that good of a fighter. Latvia is a rather small country, and even though he's fought before, it's usually with weapons, typically swords or guns, none of which he has. In terms of physical fighting his small stance lack of skill are fairly damaging. The most practice Latvia had ever had was at Russia's house, and that really didn't go down well.

Sealand, meanwhile, looks determined and declares, "Challenge accepted!" Latvia nods, while hoping it wasn't a silly-little-nations/kids-what-are-you-getting-yourselves-into look passing amongst the Rangers.

The three of them stood in the center of the room. "Oh, RJ," calls Lily. "Shouldn't you wear a blindfold for this?" The smirk in her voice is evident, as the amusement is showing on the others' faces as well.

RJ casts her an approving glance. "That's a good idea." He finds a piece of cloth from behind the television set and ties it around his head, successfully covering his eyes. Latvia doesn't know whether to take this as a warning sign or not.

Then, before he can contemplate on that anymore, Sealand has launched into action. He tries to land a blow on RJ, but somehow the blindfolded Purple Ranger senses it and knocks him away, straight into Latvia.

Somehow RJ could hear that as well, because before long he's onto them and landing hits on the both of them faster than Latvia's eyes can follow. He and Sealand manage to block most of them but it proves close to impossible to get their own jabs in.

Sealand finally manages to duck under a blow and pushes RJ away from them. Latvia stumbles back by him as RJ straightens and finds his bearings. One look at Sealand and Latvia has a feeling he knows what's going to occur before it happens.

Sealand punches RJ- except he doesn't make it, because, miraculously, RJ stops it cold with his fist, without seeing it. Latvia appreciates that, because he'd seen Sealand's punch knock Denmark cold once- by accident, of course. No wonder RJ is the mentor of the Jungle Fury Power Rangers.

Of course, Sealand looks frustrated, and isn't anticipating the hit that Latvia sees coming his way. So the Latvian nation puts himself in front of his friend, taking the punch with his upraised arm. Sealand pulls away, and Latvia feels pleased enough that he managed to take a blow for his friend. It's too late, of course, to see RJ's leg come up and knock him off his feet, landing him on the ground.

Rather winded, Latvia tries to rise again when RJ grabs his arm and yanks him up in a most uncomfortable way, and it isn't much better the way he's holding him. Latvia tries to struggle free but he's no match for RJ and he knows it.

"Surrender?" RJ asks.

"Ah…y-yes…" Latvia says. It's embarrassing, but he knows he can't beat RJ and the way he's holding his arm is awkward and hurts. If he were Italy, he probably would've broken out a white flag by then.

Releasing Latvia, RJ looks to Sealand. "I guess it's just you and me now," he says. How RJ can tell where Sealand is while blindfolded, Latvia has no idea, but his gaze is straight at Sealand, so he must have so effective method.

"Okay!" Sealand says, and the two leap into action.

Latvia walks painstakingly slow over to the others, not caring about how weak he must look in front of them. Theo is barely keeping his face blank as the others are a little more successful. Lily puts her arm around Latvia and although he stiffens up, he doesn't pull away. He sense that she's genuinely sincere and he…likes that. He likes that someone actually cares about him. He first experienced that with Sealand. Even though he, Lithuania, and Estonia were often paired together, and Latvia cared for them and vice-versa, they weren't as close as one would think and most of the time they spent together, at Russia's house, was silent and stiff as not to incur the northern nation's wrath.

"That was a good first try," Lily comforts him. Noticing his unconvinced expression, she laughs lightly. "Don't worry, Casey and I were terrible at first when we fought him blindfolded too. It all works out in the end, you'll see." Latvia just nods, not quite trusting himself to speak.

To Latvia, it is flurry of hurried hits and punches while Sealand tries to keep up with RJ's quick moves. Apparently watching hours of Power Rangers pays off, though, because Sealand looks a lot better than Latvia knew he himself had.

While Latvia is focusing intently on the sparring match going on, Lily turns her gaze away from that and over to the TV by RJ's chair, which was left on. She's surprised to see a flashing news report. Looking closer, she sees that there a bunch of Rinshi attacking town, along with…Jellica?

Lily looks around at Theo, Casey, and Dominic, and sees that they all see the danger as well. She looks over to where Sealand and RJ are fighting. RJ has Sealand pinned- as they all knew he inevitably would. It was surprising he hadn't gone down with Latvia.

"RJ!" Lily calls. RJ looked up. "Yes?" he says smoothly.

"Um...there's trouble," Lily glances back at the TV. "Rinshi in town, and Jellica there's too." RJ realizes the seriousness of the situation and lets Sealand up.

"Let's go," he says. Sealand looks a little miffed but also quite relieved to be let up from his doomed sparring match with RJ. Instead of voicing that, he asks, "Can we come as well?"

Lily exchanges a glance with her fellow Rangers. On one hand, Sealand has proved to be a fairly decent fighter, if not hyperactive and in need of better training. Still, he doesn't seem to understand how dangerous things can get and is still physically around 12 years old. Latvia, on the other hand, knew all that and appeared a little wiser but was timid and not much of a fighter.

Then again, there wasn't time to decide. The two nations would be coming with them.

Even though Sealand's inwardly excited, it is dulled by the serious feeling that this could have something to do with the disappearance of nations. He sees his expression mirrored around by all of the Rangers.

"Come on," Casey says, taking control like the Red Ranger he is. And they head out to another fight, not knowing the dire consequences that would await this decision.

A/N: Hi, ForestFireSong again :D Wow, I think this was one of the longest chapters I've written for anything. (Is that sad?) Anyway, things are really starting to get action-packed, unless you consider this a filler chapter.

Well, enough nerdy ramblings. I hope you enjoy, and please read and review! (Although, if you're this far, you've probably already read it, so one step left!)