There was barely enough time for Italy to loose a scream before they landed
The hole closed above them, plunging them into darkness. The air was thick and chemical scented, and it choked them whenever they opened their mouths. So they breathed through their noses and lay there in the silence, feeling vulnerable.
Italy crawled around patting faces until he found a face that felt like Germany's. He grabbed the other nation's arm. A moment passed, and then Japan felt his hand being gathered up by Italy's. Normally, he would pull away after a moment, but in the oppressive darkness, any comfort was welcome.
Someone sneezed, and then started gagging on the air. There was the muffled sound of someone hitting that someone on the back to help them clear their lungs. Then all was silent again, aside from the drip of water off of cold faces and the shuffling sounds of people moving about.
Suddenly, the floor moved with the same mechanical sounds, pulling them along until there was a clang and they were ungracefully deposited into a room. The lights were blinding after their time in the dark, and China shielded his eyes with one hand as he tried to make sense of their surroundings.
It's much too bright, aru! he thought. As his eyes adjusted, he picked out four tall figures. Four, he thought, and shivered. The number of death. And that was before he even truly saw them.
The aliens were tall, with shark-belly pale skin. Six unfeeling, cold black eyes were located on the oblong, hairless head, and a thin scorpion-like tail with a wicked-looking stinger bent over one shoulder. Their mouths were even more freakish. A downwards-facing V of dark crimson, with needle-like teeth and two horizontal mandibles clacking in front of them. Their arms reached to their knees, and were tipped with ebony claws that scraped the floor. As he watched, one alien who was obviously in command stepped forwards and sheathed one claw, drawing it back into the center of its palm and onwards up its arm. It gestured at a burly pair of aliens, who were much taller than the one remaining in the group. Then the claw shot out again.
They were horrible. And yet they moved with a feline grace that belied their size. These things were at least seven feet tall, and the ones he'd begun to think of as guards were even taller.
The nations all stood, gaping. A bead of water rolled off of England's face and spattered on the floor. America reacted first, rage in his blood.
"Why'd you kidnap us, you weirdos? What dud we do?" He rushed them, fists swinging.
The tail of the leading alien snapped out with a whip crack of sound. By the merest of inches, America ducked and missed it.
So it swung past and collided with Japan. The whole thing took only a second. Maybe less.
Japan's eyes widened, and then turned white and rolled up. Something akin to silver, viscous pus dribbled out of his mouth as he made gagging sounds. And then he fell, spared a hard face-plant by China catching him awkwardly.
"America! You've killed him, aru!" He proceeded to kick the taller nation where the sun don't shine. It looked like a fight was about to break out.
The alien's recaptured their attention by speaking. Their language was a complex mish-mash of clicks and cracking sounds, as well as a few pops and snaps.
They stared at the aliens again. "What did you just say?" asked England cautiously. He knew these creatures were dangerous, and he didn't want to provoke them.
Italy tiptoed over to Japan and poked him in the face. "Japan? Japan, did you die? Japan?" Getting no response, he took out a white flag and started wiping the silver stuff off of Japan's face.
Germany stepped forward and offered a crisp salute. "I represent the country of Germany. What can I do for you?"
Everyone switched from staring at the aliens to staring at Germany.
The aliens conferred amongst themselves with quiet clicks and pops. Eventually, they turned back to face the gathered nations and made sounds that might have been approval.
Of course, they also might have been of laughter, thought England pessimistically.
The tallest alien stepped forwards and clumsily copied the salute, triple-jointed arms bending awkwardly to meet the forehead above the unnerving eyes. Then it bent its arm again, to a different position, sheathing one claw and meeting the inner second elbow in a spiral. After a second, it returned to its original position, face unreadable.
"Well," said Germany, "I think we've made some headway."
A meeting was convened on the ship, but this time, it was deadly serious.
"Now what do we do?" asked France, who'd somehow gotten his hair back to normal, though the rest of him was still sopping wet.
"Try to communicate?" asked China.
"We should kill them!" stated America. "You saw what they did to Japan!"
"And whose fault was that?" shot back China.
"Da, we should," smiled Russia, completely ignoring china. He brandished his pipe.
"And if we fail?" asked Germany severely. "We'll have made them our enemies, dummkopf. We'll all be tortured or something equally terrible."
"I can stand anything they can dish out!" declared America. "Because I'm the hero!"
China smacked himself in the head with the torn strap of his bag.
"What about you, England?" asked Germany, turning to face him. "What do you have to s-"
England was smiling and patting the air around waist level. As they watched he turned his focus to a patch of air circling his head.
America flushed. "England, how about not embarrassing the crap out of me for being raised by you? Stay in the world of the living, here. Not all of us can see your hallucinations."
No response.
"England!" America threw half a hamburger at him, shoving the other half in his mouth. Through the chewed up food, he said, "You'd better have something to say worth my last hamburger."
England glared at him. "What? Why the bloody hell is everyone staring at me?"
"You were, ah-" began Germany, but he was cut off by a stinger to the temple. He fell, streams of silver dripping out the sides of his mouth.
It took them a moment to realize what had happened, and then Italy, running to Germany's side, got struck down as well.
Then the nations that were left were scrambling wildly around the circular room, avoiding the aliens and the bodies of the fallen.
China tripped over Japan's foot and knocked over France. Both were stung and began convulsing.
Russia was beating the fourth alien- the one that wasn't the leader or the guards- with his pipe till the skull dented and burst and black blood like rivers flowed art.
"They can be killed~!" he called, swinging at the next one, one of the burly aliens. The pipe was no match for this one, the largest, who appeared to be in a rage at the death of the other alien.
Inside, Russia was afraid. Fear wasn't an emotion he was used it. It rekindled older memories, of when he was child and being chased by the other nations. But now he was grown up. He shouldn't be afraid. Nobody would believe him if he said he was afraid. So he wasn't. Or that's what he told himself.
The alien flung the pipe across the room, and Russia fell, the force of the sting tearing a hole in his jacket.
England slid in a slick of the black blood and did a painful split, giving the leader alien enough time to sting him.
"England!" shouted America, angrier now. He lunged for the alien, tackling it backwards and dealing two solid blows before the tail snaked out and stung him.
Right as he blacked out, he thought he heard the alien speak, mangling the words badly, but getting them out;
"You will never be the hero."
And then, again, everything was dark.
A/N: I shall attempt to update once a week, but I will fail miserably. Just watch me ;)