America: 50☆Stars (Vol. 2)

Episode 44: Water. Earth. Fire. Air.

"Wahahahaha!" A human personification of Hurricane Marco appeared all smug, standing before Louisiana. "Be prepared! I'm about to pummel you with tornadoes, torrential rain, and storm surges!"

"Bring it on! You don't scare me!" She got her fists up, ready for a fight.

He let out an arrogant laugh. "Very well. Take this!" He blew a gust of wind, and Louisiana dodged the attack with ease.

The gust of wind ended up hitting Mississippi when she wasn't looking. "Ooh! That tickles!" she giggled.

"What the hell? Why was my attack so weak?" Hurricane Marco complained. "That attack should've caused some damage at 75 mph (120 km/h)."

"Ha!" Louisiana placed on a scouter. "According to my doppler radar, your wind power level is only 38 mph (61 km/h). That's a 36 mph (58 km) drop from a Category 1 hurricane."

"Impossible!" he growled. "Very well. If I can't blow you away, I'll drown you with flash floods!" He drew out a long scream as he summoned a blue sphere between his palms. "Taaaake this! Kyaaah!" He pushed his palms and the blue sphere toward her, expecting to take her away with a turbulent torrent.

Instead, all his attack did was splash a bucket's worth of water at her face. She didn't even flinch, still appearing unimpressed. "That was pretty pathetic."

He collapsed on his knees and cried, "Curse this increase in wind shear! I was given the power of a hurricane for only a day!"

"In the end, you turned out to be a weak tropical storm." She smirked.

"S-Shut up!" He got back on his feet. 

She snickered, "You can't defeat me."

"I know," he gritted his teeth, "but she can!" He pointed to Hurricane Laura coming into the Gulf of Mexico.

"Oh, come on!" Louisiana groaned at the bigger storm. "Fuck this! Fuck 2020! I'm fucking done! I'm fucking done with this shit!" She stomped back inside her house and slammed the door shut.

☆☆☆☆☆

With a warm coffee mug in hand, North Carolina leaned against the balcony railing, watching the cardinals fly around the nearby forest. Far from the city, there were no obnoxious sounds to be heard. Only the sounds of nature permeated her ears, filling her head with wholesome chirps and wind chimes from gentle gusts of wind.

She breathed in the roasted aroma coming from within her mug. "What a peaceful morning to go with a cup of Joe." She drank her coffee and softly smiled. "You know. Despite the state of the world, I think things are calming down and getting better. I mean, what else can go wrong?"

R~U~M~B~L~E!

"W-Whoa!" North Carolina dropped her coffee mug by accident, and it shattered into a hundred fragments onto the patio below. Her hands clung to the wooden railing tightly as though it were the metal bar on a shaky roller coaster as she endured the sudden quake. "I-I take e-everything back!" she stuttered. "Everything that could go wrong will go wrong in 2020!"

~ H-Hetalia! ~

On the other side of the United States, Arizona and Oregon broke into a burning house, calling out in-between coughs, "California! Where are you? Cough! Cough! We're here to help you! Cough!"

It took them a while to find her until Oregon broke through the door to the dining area with a hatchet after multiple blows. What they found was hellfire contained in a single room. The ceiling was blackened by dense clouds of charcoal-black smoke. The copper-colored carpet was blackened by bright flames that nearly covered the entire floor. What had yet to be turned into ash and soot was a calm Californian sitting in a chair next to an untarnished table with a coffee mug in hand.