"Ooh, that's very good. Now the captain and co-captain of the enemy is gone, aru." China said excitedly, eyes gleaming with excitement.
The other half of the team joined him on the bridge with New Zealand and the Philippines with news that brought a grin to his face. Now that his doppelganger was tied up, they had the captain of the doppelganger's division taken care of. And the co-captain was still in Germany's basement.
"He won't stay tied there for long." Australia said, squinting towards the tree where Dark China's figure swung gently in the air. "He's a doppelganger. He's bound to escape somehow."
"But we bought ourselves time." Malaysia said wearily. "That's a good thing. The bad thing, when he escapes, he'll alert everyone, and then we'll have everyone after us."
"So let's stop talking and start looking!" the Philippines said hastily. "China thinks that there's some sort of hideout under the water."
China was staring out into the lake when she said that. When a silence followed her words, China glanced behind him to see what was going on, only to be greeted somewhat exasperatedly by skeptical looks. "It happened in Chicago, it can happen here too, aru." he said defensively.
The stares continued.
China crossed his arms and leaned back on the wooden rail. "Well does anyone else have a good idea about where this hideout might be, aru?"
That was when the eyes adverted and looked a different direction sheepishly. China nodded. "That's what I thought." Then he turned his head to look at the lake again. "Try looking for the entrance. Or if you wouldn't, try swimming and tell us what you see, aru."
Australia peered over the rails by China's side. "Are there any crocodiles or alligators in there?" he mused.
"No, aru." China said slowly.
Wy cocked her head at Australia for a while and then she face palmed herself. "New Zealand, can't you stop him?" Wy asked him as Australia shrugged off his backpack, kicking off his shoes.
New Zealand sighed to himself as Australia started to climb the over the rails, tossing his shirt onto his backpack. "Once his mind is made up, it's hard to convince him otherwise."
"No kidding." Wy said, crossing her arms in disapproval. "This isn't the time to go for a swim."
But China was supportive of Australia's enthusiasm. "We'll watch over your stuff, you can go find the entrance, aru." he was saying.
"Just wait for a little while. I'll be back." Australia said, grinning. He dipped a foot into the water cautiously, and then jumped in.
China and the Philippines, who were closer to the rails, stepped back from the water that splashed onto them. Australia's head popped up for a moment, floating in the water to remark how cold it was, and dipped back down.
The others cautiously made their way to the rail again, peering down. "Do you think he'll find it?" Malaysia asked, moving Australia's belongings away from the edge of the bridge.
"He has to, aru." China said. "If he doesn't, we're done."
Australia knew from many challenges and just plain boredom that he could hold his breath for quite a long time. Two and a half minutes to three. Maybe three and a half minutes if he really tried.
Now if only the water is clearer. Australia thought as he kicked through the water, propelling himself deeper into the lake. The water was somewhat of a faded green, and rocks in the distance were fuzzy. Blades of grass and leaves floated in the water as Australia swam on, turning his head to scan the lake.
Nothing to the left. Nothing to the right. Anything below him?
Australia tipped his head over and balanced himself to take a good look of the floor.
Nope.
The lake was smaller than he thought. When China said 'lake', he thought about wide open land surrounding a vast body of water. The 'lake' he was swimming in was more of a pond, but a rather big pond that possibly could be called a lake.
A 'pondlake'? A 'lakepond'? A 'pake'? A 'lond'?
Why am I thinking about names for this lake, pond thing when I should be looking? Australia mused to himself. He would have let out a laugh but seeing that he was underwater, it would shorten his air supply considerably.
Speaking of air...
Australia paddled himself upwards, poked his head out of the water, took a big breath, and dipped back in.
The only way to look now was to go forward. That or venture to the sides a little more, but he felt that going forward would bring him better luck.
Eventually, the cold water grew onto him and he easily swam through the lake-pond-thing, no longer stiff from the drop in temperature. In fact, his swimming became more relaxed and free that he actually wondered how fast he could swim if he tried.
It would benefit both the team and him; the team would benefit by him searching faster, he'd benefit from that and the extreme joy and fun he'd get out of it.
Why not? Australia thought with a small grin. He propelled himself forward and performed small turns and twists to add in some more amusement.
Only, his fun ended promptly when he swam right into glass. The small collision made him grunt, precious air escaping his lungs. He was left short on air, and even though he believed he found something that was crucial, he had to swim back up and take a big breath.
What did I swim into? Australia thought as he dove deeper into the water. His hand brushed into the glass again and he landed on it, feeling around. The glass was domed shape apparently, because the glass was rounded on the top. Australia half-floated, half-climbed to the top of the glass dome and tried to look past the glass.
Nothing.
He stayed there for a while, wondering what to do from there on. A flash of light flickered on from inside the glass dome and he swam away in a hurry, only to return to see what was going on.
Huh. Well what do you know? China was right after all. Australia thought as he watched Dark India and Dark Thailand walk into the room below him. The room was circular, one to fit the dome ceiling, and the walls were lined with bookshelves. Australia wasn't sure why they were looking at books, but Dark Thailand pointed to a shelf and Dark India went over to take a few books from it.
Dark Thailand nodded and they both left, turning off the lights before they leave.
Back at the bridge, China's reaction was triumphant and smug. "I told you, and you didn't listen, aru." he said to the others. "I knew there was one underground!"
"Okay, okay, there's one underground." Vietnam said, sighing. "Australia, did you find a way in?"
Australia bobbed up and down in the water, nodding. "I did, but you gotta swim to get in." Australia had anticipated some complaining, but he never imagined that it would be so bad.
"Aiya, and get my clothes wet?" China groaned.
"In there? There aren't any seas monsters in there, are there? N-not that I'm scared." Wy said quickly, but she peered anxiously into the water as Australia pulled himself out of the water and onto the bridge.
"We can't use our guns if the gun powder is wet. There has to be another way." Malaysia murmured.
"If this is a hideout where they store loads of weapons, there has to be another way in so that the weapons don't get wet." the Philippines reasoned. "Um...do you think you can go find another way?" she asked Australia nervously.
Australia didn't mind at all. He grinned and said, "Don't worry about it. Another adventure, right? I'll be happy to find another way."
China glanced at his watch. "We don't have much time before the sun is high in the sky. We'll be able to stay hidden for a little while longer but when the sun's out we're easy targets, aru."
"I'll help him." Malaysia said, stripping down. "Hold this." He handed his gun over to New Zealand while kicking his shoes towards the Philippines. He handed over his backpack to Vietnam before climbing over the rails of the bridge to join Australia.
"What about your shirt, mate?" Australia asked.
Malaysia waved the concern away. "It's going to get wet anyway if we can't find another entrance. Come on, we better hurry."
Australia nodded and the two jumped off from the bridge, diving deeper into the water.
"My arms hurt, Japan." Taiwan sighed as the chandelier swung back across the room.
"Same here." Greece said. "There are a lot of people lying on the ground. Do you think it's safe to make a run for it now?"
Japan was silent. They've been a human/country wrecking ball for the last three minutes and by now, he was sure that someone was going to be alerted. He knew his doppelganger was back at Germany's but the co-captain of the doppelgangers in Kawasaki was still here. Dark Mongolia was sure to send people after him, and Japan knew that Mongolia used to have one of the largest empires of all time.
Maybe it was the largest. Japan wasn't sure; it was so long ago and his memory was starting to fail on him.
"Japan, the last of them are down, da-ze."
Japan glanced at Korea as Korea hopped down, landing on a young man around the age of twenty-five. "Please don't use my people as landing pads." Japan said wearily, but the others have already let go of the chandelier before he could finish.
"Aha, sorry." Seychelles said to Japan as she landed on a woman.
"What she said." Hong Kong murmured, adjusting the glasses of a man he jumped on.
Japan looked around and saw that he was the only one hanging onto the chandelier. He dropped to an empty spot on the ground and scanned the lobby. He had a crazy urge to bow to the ground and apologize, and he probably would have done that if it weren't for the alarmed voices of countries.
"They're coming, ana!" Thailand said quickly. And he was right.
Hasty, echoing footsteps came from the halls on the left and the right. Shouts arose and they were getting closer, close to the point where Japan and the others could already see their shadows dancing along the walls.
"What do we do?" Taiwan asked nervously.
"Run." Japan said, and he made a run for the stairs, the others on his tail.
It was a matter of time when the doppelgangers would find the lobby littered with people that they felled by whacking them away with a chandelier. They'd be after them in no time; no, in fact, they probably already knew.
The rats in the vents...that wasn't an accident at all. Japan had a sinking, gnawing feeling in his stomach that the doppelgangers sent the rats up there on purpose.
"Which way now?" Greece asked when they got to the top of the stairs. They could either go to the left or they could go to the right.
Well, the right hall was closer and the doppelgangers from behind were nearly upon them anyway. Japan beckoned for everyone to follow him to the right. He ran with one hand gripping the hilt of his katana, glancing behind at the others. "Weapons out!"
As they ran along the hall, weaving in and out of more corrupted people and possibly doppelgangers, Japan tried to remember the room he marked out as the most likely to be the control center. He couldn't exactly remember where it was so he told Korea to get the map out.
"And I thought you were reliable, bro." Korea mused, slinging his gun across his back with the strap. He fanned out the map so it would open and studied it intently as they rounded a corner.
"They're behind us." Hong Kong said to Japan, throwing a look behind his shoulders.
"Shoot them."
"Will do." Hong Kong turned around, walking backwards, and shot down the hall. Several bullets hit the wall and the floor, but some pierced the doppelgangers and their blood spewed onto the wall.
Some used others as a shield and advanced forward.
"Hong Kong, let's go!" Taiwan yelled, beckoning for her brother.
"Like, hang on. They've got shields." Hong Kong said exasperatedly. "Can they, like, do that?"
Greece ran back, grabbed Hong Kong's arm, and dragged him back. "We'll lose them another way." he said hastily.
"Korea, are there any paths we can take to shake them off?" Japan asked him.
"Geez, first you ask me to locate the control center and now you're wanting to shake them off?" Korea asked, turning the map sideways, and then upside-down. "That's too much work, Japan, da-ze."
"Korea!"
"Okay, okay, fine. Let me see." Korea narrowed his eyes as he stared at the map. He brightened and said, "Go left, then take the elevator-"
"The elevator?" Seychelles asked from behind. "Do we have the time to take the elevator?"
"Well we'll never know unless we try, da-ze."
"But the doppelgangers can cut off the power and we'd be stuck there, ana." Thailand reasoned.
"He's got a point." Japan panted. They passed the hall that led the the elevators and continued running on. "Where else?"
As Korea frowned at the map, turning it upside-down again, Thailand fished for a grenade in his pocket and pulled the pin. "Duck, ana!" he yelled at Hong Kong and Greece, who brought up the rear.
The two countries glanced at him in confusion at first, but when they saw the grenade in his hand and the pin the other, they bent over and Thailand threw the explosive over their heads.
The doppelgangers literally hissed and cursed as the grenade landed right in front of them. They disappeared in a small cloud of smoke as the grenade blew up, sending shrapnel flying in the air, ready to cut through anything in its way.
"Great, that will buy us some time." Japan sighed in relief.
"Okay, I got it! At the end of this hallway, there will be some stairs. We can go to the next floor, da-ze." Korea said, folding the map back up.
"Keep the map in your hand." Japan said hastily when Korea tried to pass it back to him. "Just in case. Everyone, keep it up! You're all doing great!"
The seven of them reached the stairwell at the end of the hall and thundered up the steps, shooting anxious looks behind them. "No, don't look behind you." Greece said hastily. "That will slow you down."
"Yeah, it kills you." Korea said seriously. "Especially in games, da-ze."
"This isn't the time to be talking about games!" Seychelles chided.
"Yeah, but it happens in real life too, da-ze!"
"Korea, where do we go on this floor?" Japan asked, reaching the top.
"Huh?" Korea glanced from Seychelles to Japan. "Oh, um...I forgot, da-ze."
"And you called him unreliable?" Taiwan sighed wearily.
Before Korea could say something back, Hong Kong raced up to Japan and said, "Over there. Do you, like, think that we can use that room to hide in?"
Japan followed Hong Kong's finger to a door with a golden plaque nailed into the wood. It was the only door with a plaque, and Japan wondered if that was the control center.
But then again, knowing the doppelgangers, they probably reasoned that they, the countries, would probably make it this far and think that the room was a control center because of the plaque. There would barely be anytime to think otherwise if they were being chased, which they were, and they'd fall into a trap.
Japan slowed to a halt outside the door and inspected it. "Control room." he read the plaque. "This is a trap, it has to be."
"Maybe that's what they want you to think, da-ze." Korea said solemnly.
Silence. Japan was suspicious of the sudden quietness in the halls. Surely the doppelgangers would have caught up by now. While the others stared at the door in thought, he scanned the hall and the ceiling tiles, wondering what they were up to.
"We can blow the door up." Greece suggested.
"Let's not get in a hurry." Japan said. "If we blow it up, it will attract the other doppelgangers around the building and we might accidentally set something off."
"We can climb into the vents again and look inside the room from there." Seychelles suggested.
"We don't have the time to." Japan said. "And now that they know the vents are a good way of sneaking around, they'll surely set up another trap."
"Why don't we risk a chance and open the door?" Taiwan asked.
"What if the room activated a bomb and explode us all up?" Japan asked her. "If we knew that would happen, would you still risk it?"
Korea stared at Japan. "Do you really think there's a bomb in there, da-ze?"
"It could be possible."
"I think you've lost it, da-ze."
"Stop arguing and listen." Greece said suddenly, turning his head to stare down the hall, towards the stirs where they came from.
The group froze and paled as voices surrounded them from all the hallways that led to them. The floor they were on had hallways that made a 'T', and they were at the intersection of the two halls. There were three ways they could run to, but there were also three ways the enemy could get to them.
"Japan, now or never." Hong Kong said quickly. "We're surrounded, there's a door that says 'Control room', and there are other doors here that lead to, like, who knows what. What do we do?"
Japan could stand there all day and think things through. He could think and think and think and narrow down the possibilities based on what little information he had. He could have Korea unfold the map and study it a little closely before picking a room to hide in.
But what he lacked was time. And if he had time, he'd feel more at ease.
He didn't have time on his side, and so he had to act on instinct or adrenaline or luck or maybe all three.
He disregarded the golden plaque and led the others to a normal door on the opposite side of the hall right before the doppelgangers and the corrupted people could get to them.
And he picked a path that was much more different than the path he would have gone through if he chose the door with the golden plaque. What might have happened if he picked the door with the golden plaque, only fate would know. We only know what really did happen, and we know that Japan guided Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Greece, and Seychelles through the normal door, and that decision made all the difference.