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42 ‎ ‎ ‎ The Goo Goo Dolls

COLOMBIA
Romania wasn't deceitful. Switzerland was honest when he needed to be. Vietnam hated to tell white lies. And all three were extremely intelligent.

So I have every reason to trust them, she thought nervously to herself, trying fervently to make eye contact with Brazil from across the Microcosm Library. It was a means of comfort, to trust the trio that had given her this risky order, but when things got bad ⎯ maybe it would be the lifeline that kept her tethered to her conscience.

Brazil caught her gaze, green eyes flaring like a siren in the silent atmosphere, and she cocked her head as he gave her a nod. She had gotten too used to wordless exchanges by now.

"Go!" she mouthed to Peru, who sent a towering stack of books tumbling to the ground. Heads turned and attention went astray. Unnoticed, Colombia and Argentina slipped into the small trapdoor that had opened when they pulled Point Veritas. It had taken them the better part of three hours to find the small red book; let alone get enough friends on standby to ensure that they were able to pull it and open an entire room without raising suspicious looks.

Argentina let out a cough he had been holding once they were safely into the spiral confines of stone stairs and gossamer cobwebs, the door closing shut behind them. "They were serious," he said, but the tone of his voice implied that he had never doubted it. "So what... could've this been for?"

"It takes us to Congress," Colombia reminded. The same three things Romania had shook her and reminded her of were imprinted permanently into her memory: Point Veritas, Congress, and a portal. "If this is just a thirty-hour walk to the other side of our dimension I'm not going to be happy about it," she joked. Argentina did not let a smile slip.

The stairwell and the floor of the basement had no difference in texture or temperature; the same, leaden walls of crumbling interior all around. Small chalk drawings littered the walls, but there were no clear pattern within them either...

Argentina slid a finger across one of the pictures, gathering white on his fingers. "A leaderboard," he frowned. "These initials seem to belong to America and Russia."

Colombia's eyes widened. "Let me see that."

She squinted. Argentina was right. 'Global Leaderboard,' the drawing said, the recognizable bits of the scrawled messily handwriting. "Romania said that France mentioned something in the video about America being intent on turning something back to normal."

"You're going to drop this bomb on me now?"  Argentina complained. "What exactly did they tell you? I know they called you again to tell you to jot this down, but you should've told us too first chance you got."

"They don't know much either," Colombia sighed. "I've got it all on my notebooks at home. That video, plus what we can surmise from the tests they did on Vietnam, and the information Switzerland took from UN's office the first time he was sent there⎯ may be all we know for now. Romania wasn't told a single shred of insider detail from the Axis."

"But⎯" Argentina began, but she stopped him again.

"I just remembered," she muttered, grasping locks of her scarlet hair in her hands. "A war. A war happened. France said she left her things in the safebases. These things must be safebases."

Argentina looked he was about to go unconscious. "Why did you not tell us any of this?" he said slowly.

"I didn't have time to!" Colombia retaliated. "We left Ecuador's old house late at night yesterday, and we barely had two hours to breathe before we're here. I'm sorry. I'm getting overwhelmed by the weight."

Heaving a breath, Argentina shook his head. "It's alright. Take it easy, alright? Our goal in here is to find that portal."

Five minutes passed fitfully and their attempts were futile. The so-called 'safebase' had not a single trace of a portal, only writing on walls and collecting dust as far as anyone could see.