"How now? Why the rush?" Dark England demanded Dark America, who had ran past them hastily inside the Chicago Hideout.
Even though Dark England didn't hurt Italy, Italy had to be blindfolded temporarily so that he wouldn't know the exact location of the hideout. Now that they were inside, Dark England allowed Italy to remove the blindfold, but Italy regretted that; he would have preferred to keep it on.
There were so many doppelgangers that he had spotted on the way in that Italy was sure that he'd faint from the sight of it.
"The countries we held captive were trying to escape." Dark America scoffed. "And now water's flowing into their cells."
"With the power still on?" Dark England asked at once, abandoning his archaic English.
"I dunno. Germany's hatred is going to shut it off but the water spread to the other countries' cells and if they touch the water, ZAP!" Dark America's voice echoed in the hall. "They'd pretty much be electrocuted. That's not very good for them, even if they won't die from it."
"Why don't we leave them there?" Dark England asked incredulously. "If it won't kill them-I mean...I mean to say, t'is a problem not to fret abou-"
Dark America clapped a hand over Dark England's mouth and hissed, "Oh shut up already. You're going to have to wait a while before putting the new ones in. Besides, if we just leave them there, then we'd be leaving the hole there too. We don't want to flood this place."
Italy tugged his hands and Dark England glanced at him. "What, ho? Speak."
"Will you be serving pasta for lunch?"
Unfortunately for Italy, they weren't.
"What do you mean you're just going to leave us here, aru?" China demanded, shifting slightly in his place. He and his cellmates had raised themselves off the ground by pressing their hands and feet to the walls of the cell. The water had reached the other cells too and the other nations were scurrying up the walls, trying not get touch the water.
"Don't worry, the water will be gone and England's hatred will do all the cleaning with his magic tricks-" Dark America said, eyeing the waterline so that he too didn't touch it.
"A fool you are." Dark England scolded Dark America. "Tricks...a belittling name for a force-"
"I said stop it with the old English." Dark America interrupted irritably. "Just fix the damn hole, get rid of the water, and toss the other four in. And heal your original a little too. He's bleeding all over the floor." Dark America nodded to England, whose shoulders were still torn open from landing on the ground from a ninety foot throw.
"Trusting me with all the work? And what may I ask thee art to do?"
Dark America stared at Dark England for a moment. "You mean, what am I doing?"
"Ay." Dark England sounded impatient.
Dark America brandished his arm towards Italy, America, England, and France. "Watching after them; you're not going to waste your magic by making those copy things just to look after them. Besides, 75% of them are knocked out anyway. Just go and clean everything up, on the double."
Dark England glowered at Dark America, most likely because he was being ordered around by the likes of him. But he released Italy and the others, allowing Dark America to look over them, and allowed his copies to fade away.
Italy couldn't help but wonder if England used magic like this every day; Dark England cleaned up easily with a flick of the wrist and a mere point of the finger. The bricks in the cell where China, Finland, and Greece were in zoomed out of the water and fit themselves into the hole, sealing the hole up.
The water somehow evaporated within a minute, disappearing into the air without a trace; the air wasn't moist like they all (excluding Dark England, America, England, and France-the last three because they weren't even awake) expected.
The countries in the cells dropped to the ground, relieved. Their limbs were geting numb from holding themselves up for so long.
Dark England scanned the cells slowly, making sure that everything was in order before he snapped his fingers at Dark America. "Get them to a cell."
Dark America grabbed Italy's collar and pulled him up, forcing him to stand. Italy wished that Dark America was gentler in handling his prisoners; he felt like he would have choked.
The other countries wearily watched Italy and the others go by as Dark America pushed them towards one of the empty cells. Dark America had England and France heaved on one shoulder and his original on the other. Italy was scared out of his mind that he didn't even think of running away, despite him having remarkably fast feet.
The hum of the electric bars were off, and many of the countries neared their cell bars, trying to poke their heads out and see what was going on.
Dark America tossed in his original in first; Italy grimaced as America hit the floor limply like a doll. France went in next and before England could be tossed in like a sack of potatoes, Dark England barked, "Soft!"
Dark America paused and turned around to give Dark England a deeply annoyed expression. "Dude, the cell is not soft. How would you think that it's soft? It's solid cement and crap." Dark America stomped on the floor to demonstrate.
Dark England pursed his lips tightly, forming a thin line. "'Soft' means 'wait'."
Dark America clicked his tongue and turned back to the cell. "Then say wait next time, alright? Geez..." But he didn't throw England in yet. Instead he gave Italy a small push towards the cell, and Italy went in without hesitation.
Dark England went to heal England's shoulder a little bit, because he left a trail of crimson in his path and Dark England murmured that he'd only clean it up once before making anyone else clean it with a brush. "Germany's hatred is finicky over cleanliness." Dark England murmured, propping his original up by the wall.
The doppelgangers slammed their cell shut and left them there. The electricity didn't come back up yet and the other countries demanded that Italy should tell them what had happened.
"Ve...it's a long story." Italy said.
"It's not like we're going anywhere, da-ze." Korea said from far away. "What happened?"
Italy took a deep breath and told them everything he knew (which was pretty much everything he knew).
Dark Japan started to get suspicious. On several occasions, he had heard countries from the second floor gasp in surprise. Just a second before, he heard a small, high pitched scream but it was barely noticeable. The 'scream' was merely a scream about to escape someone's lips, and if he was correct, the voice belonged to Liechtenstein.
And yet, the almost scream should have been loud enough to cause some other countries yet to be captured to stir, even if a little. The silence that followed Liechtenstein's almost scream was nearly unbearable, seeing that nothing had happened after that.
It was suspicious because after all of that noise (which really wasn't much, but then again, anything can happen), no country had risen from his or her bed and checked things out.
So far, they had gotten Austria, Switzerland, Prussia, Cameroon, Hong Kong, Hungary, Turkey, and just now Liechtenstein. There were still quite a few to get and it was almost four in the morning.
"Such a slow process." Dark Japan murmured as he finished sweeping the ground floor. There weren't many bedrooms on the ground floor; the other rooms were casual rooms like living rooms, dining rooms, a library, rooms like those. Dark Vietnam and Dark South Korea had made trips up and down the stairs everytime they captured another country, but it took time because they tried not to make a sound.
"You two can do much better than that." Dark Japan scolded them on his way up.
Dark Vietnam, who had Liechtenstein draped over her right shoulder gave Dark Japan a cold glare. "I never thought I'd hear something like that from you, Mr. We-have-to-be-extra-careful."
Dark South Korea gave Dark Japan an equally hostile glare while shifting Cuba to his other shoulder. "I'd like to see you try too."
Dark Japan watched as the two descended before he continued up.
All the doors were closed and he couldn't tell which rooms Dark Vietnam and Dark South Korea had tried. He tried the first few doors, turning the doorknob. If it turned, he left it there and moved on; it was obvious that the room had already been searched.
When he finally came to a door that wasn't unlocked, Dark Vietnam and Dark South Korea returned, but this time they brought back Dark North Korea and Dark Estonia.
"And all this time he hasn't even tried to escape." Dark North Korea scowled, shooting Dark Estonia a look.
"There wasn't a need to." Dark Estonia said in a business-like tone, pushing his glasses further up his nose. "I was rather comfortable there."
"Whatever, just help us do this, da-ze." Dark South Korea murmured, passing Dark Japan and trying out the next door.
Dark Japan slipped into the room after he picked at its lock. He heard Dark South Korea open the door next to the room he was in and he also heard the others passing by quietly from behind. While everyone else was busy with their own thing, Dark Japan silently moved along the walls, eyes trained on the bed in the middle of the room.
He couldn't see who was in the bed; the covers were thrown over the head. Dark Japan frowned. He was suspicious again. Who slept like that? He wondered if it was a habit for a certain country to sleep with the covers thrown all the way over their head and he threw the covers back a little so that he could see who he was dealing with.
No one; only multiple sheets rolled up to take form of a 'human-like' shape.
Dark Japan spun around in alarm, realizing he was tricked. He couldn't do anything, however, because a flash of silver pierced his throat and pinned him to the wall. Dark Japan's blood spilled over the carpet, and he tried to spat at his original for catching him off guard.
Japan had heard noises from below earlier and had looked outside the window where the noise was coming from. He had seen Vietnam throw Austria outside near the bushes and wondered what had gotten into her. That was when he realized that it wasn't Vietnam he was seeing, but Dark Vietnam.
From there he waited with his katana in the corner of his room, expecting a doppelganger to come in and take him. It was about time they came, and he was glad Prussia had found a temporary way to stop a doppelganger; stabbing them through the throat and holding them there.
Japan thought that the throat was a good place because not only can the doppelganger not speak, but because of the constant pain or reaction to pain at the throat, it made it difficult for the doppelganger to reach up and grab the sword and take it out before their arms and hands would flinch away.
Dark Japan grimaced and jumped violently every few seconds, as if his wound tried to close up but the sword prevented it to, and instead caused a reaction. Japan wasn't sure if the sword would hold for long though, and he stabbed the doppelganger's wrists to the wall as well with backup katanas he carried.
It was an uncomfortable thing to do; Japan wasn't sure how to respond to a doppelganger of himself pinned to the wall while everlasting blood flowed out from it.
Dark Japan tried to hiss something but a small raspy sound escaped his mouth. Japan looked him over wearily and noticed he had normal eyes, not red.
"Contacts?" he whispered to himself. Then Japan glanced towards the slightly opened door of his room. An idea sprung up and he glanced back at his doppelganger, who was struggling to remove the swords but to no avail.
Deeming it safe to leave Dark Japan there, Japan hurried to dress in the same clothes Dark Japan had (being a doppelganger, Dark Japan had clothes exactly like his original). When he was fully clothed, he left the room and closed the door, hoping he could pass off as one of them.
The realization of coming out of a room without a country slung over his shoulders came a second too late and he glanced down the hall worriedly, waiting for one of the doppelgangers to question why he didn't take the country out. But none of them were in the hallway; they were all in a room.
Japan quietly passed by the rooms, peering into them quickly as he did. Dark South Korea was slumping Denmark's body over his shoulder and Dark North Korea, who was in the room opposite of Dark South Korea, was busy dealing with Canada.
Japan skipped several doors; he only had one room in mind and that was Germany's, who was sleeping in the very last room of the hall.
His room was locked, and Japan didn't know how to pick the lock. He sighed at himself, and he wondered how his doppelganger could pick locks and he couldn't. Japan shot an uneasy sideways glance towards the other rooms where the doppelgangers were. If he didn't hurry, they'd see him there.
Of course, he could yell and wake up the rest of the house, but that would alarm the doppelgangers and he'd have to hold the three of them off (Dark Japan would still be left undiscovered until one of the doppelgangers find him) before the others wake up.
But that would cause a fight, and fighting in a hallway in Germany's house was something Japan could not allow. Germany was very clean and orderly; he'd go into cleaning mode instead of fighting mode, Japan was sure. That or he'd be troubled by the mess and half heartedly fight.
Japan lightly knocked on Germany's door, hoping that the other doppelgangers didn't hear.
Silence. No answer. Japan really didn't expect Germany to wake up after a tiny rap on the wood but it wished that Germany heard him and tried again, daring to be slightly louder.
No answer.
Japan was about to quickly return to his room and wait for the doppelgangers to carry their captives down the stairs before trying again, but the door finally opened to his relief and Germany glanced down at Japan, rubbing his eyes. "What is it, Japan?" Germany asked roughly.
Japan hushed Germany and ushered him back into his room, following him. He closed the door softly from behind, determined not to attract attention from the others.
"What's going on Japan?" Germany asked, frowning.
"Doppelgangers." Japan whispered urgently. "I heard them come in." he added as Germany gave him an alarmed look.
The German raced to his window and glanced outside. Japan heard him curse and he knew that Germany had seen the pile of unconscious countries by the bushes. "Dark Japan is in my room right now but I temporarily disabled him. Dark North and South Korea is here and so is Dark Vietnam." Japan said. "I heard that Dark North Korea freed Dark Estonia as well."
Germany was grim for a while. Then he walked to his closet and pulled the door open. Japan shifted his weight from one foot to the other as Germany rummaged through his belongings. Japan nearly lost his balance in shock when Germany emerged back out with a shotgun.
"But they can't be wounded." Japan said as Germany loaded the gun. "At least, not permanently."
"No, but they still react to it." Germany growled. "And with this, we'll wake the rest of the countries. There's still quite a bit of us left and we can hold them off. Plus, we can capture them." Germany nodded to his closet. "Go on. Pick a gun and go."