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ROMANIA
The tips of the map at the edges of her hands, she laid it across the table, feeling the weight of Switzerland and Vietnam's eyes on her. The two had seemed to be getting along, at least better than she did with Switzerland, a one-man workforce tasked to join them by blackmail.

"Alright," she said. "Now if it makes this super knotted up web of whoever's in the real world and whoever's still in Neo less labyrinthine, I think it's best if we consider it as four different operations. Us, Colombia's, America's, and Reich's. Towards a common goal."

Switzerland stood up abruptly, scraping his chair across the dark wooden floors with a shriek. "This isn't going to work."

"What?"  Vietnam said hoarsely, and then fumbled with his pencil after nearly dropping it.

Romania felt her muscles tense up. "What?" she repeated.

"There is no communication," Switzerland said angrily. "Listen. The essence of every good operation is good communication between members. There is no way for us to reach anyone in the real world, and now, it'll be difficult to reach Colombia without the information we relay being leaked via UN's tracking. You said it yourself, Romania. We're running out of time, and we could double the efficiency by pooling our information with Reich's quarter and America's."

"And how the hell would we do that?" Romania slouched.

"I don't know," Switzerland shook his head, dour. "That's the problem."

"Mm," Vietnam muttered, scrutinizing them in thought. "Have any of you done any sort of online hacking?"

Romania's jaw dropped. Switzerland looked at him blankly.

"No," he said curtly.

"There's this computer in UN's room," Vietnam explained. "The only uncensored computer in Neo is in UN's office, but the reason we've never gone for it is because it requires a passkey that only he knows. If either one of you had wasted time trying to get through it, it would lose the opportunity you had to sift through the documents. If we could... bypass that, maybe there's some mention of where to start to contact either one of the Axis or the 10. And, maybe, some information we need."

"It's so risky," Romania said reluctantly. "The Central Tower probably has more security than anything now."

"I'm not saying get into it through the computer itself. You can hack computers through... other computers, you know? We need to save any sneak-in chance for the time we go to the meeting room."

Switzerland rubbed his temples. "It'll take some time."

"With much benefit," Vietnam rebutted enthusiastically. He watched the other two exchange glances. And eventually—

"We'll give it a go," Romania conceded.

★

CHINA
"Okay, maybe a change of location was nice," he breathed out, taking in the fresh air much unlike the murky feel of inside the small room — and when he looked back to the rest of the group, all of the lethargy was wiped clean from their expressions.

"This is so crazy," America exclaimed, jumping up and down using an extremely reticent South's shoulders (he normally wasn't this tight-lipped). "So crazy. There is so much out there. So much to discover. My name was Jackson? That is just so cool."

"I worked in fashion?" Japan asked, chewing her upper lip.

"You did," Canada said softly.