The first serious chapter of the story. South Germany is still the main character. The new OC featured in this is Mikhail Bragovski, a Russian territory and the leader of a group of the Soviet army that wants to take control of Europe. He has spiky white hair, black eyes, square glasses, and a dark, cruel personality.
South Germany passed Austria's house, pausing to glower at Prussia, who was busy plotting in the bushes beside the manor. Inside, Roderich had returned to his music, and Hungary was standing beside the piano and listening. Gilbert yelled, "I will seize this land in the name of AWESOME!" and climbed in through the window. "How DARE you interrupt Mr. Austria's work!" a po'd Hungary screamed, pounding Prussia's face in with a pan. With a dismissive sigh, Asche walked on, ignoring her brother's ridiculous campaign to claim random lands. She stomped past Poland, who was grooming a pony and talking on the phone in his annoying voice... She wanted to punch him, but then again, hitting anybody would be fine with her. Trying to suppress her anger, South Germany focused on her plan of action for the campaign against the USSR. She meant to take the group by surprise, perhaps in the middle of a regimen, and planned to use a few grenades as a starter. By the time she'd decided on an attack from the South of wherever their camp was (not knowng that made it a little difficult) she found herself in Ukraine's neighborhood.
Despite her suspicions of Russia, Asche quite liked Ukraine. The girl was sweet, friendly, and not Belarus, which made her one of the best people to talk to at a time like this. To her surprise, she was not working her tail off, but was instead relaxing in a swing on the front lawn. When she spotted Asche, she waved, calling, "South Germany, what brings you here?" Deciding against antagonizing her by badmouthing her brother or his possible 'friends,' Asche replied, "I needed to talk to you. My day's been pretty crappy." Ukraine urger her to sit, then ran inside to retrieve a tray of food. "Would you like some borsch? Or maybe vareniki?" After requesting some of the latter, South Germany asked, "Why is it that you're finally getting a break from work?" Ukraine's smile drooped, and she wailed, "South, it's disastrous! I hurt my back the other day and now I can't work or my boss will get in trouble for medical negligence or something!" Asche burst out laughing, "How is that disastrous? I've never seen you so free. You could finally visit your brother, or catch up on your sleep, or train..."
"Train for what?" Ukraine giggled, forcing South to sputter, "Uh, anything! You could train in classical theater. You'd make a great actress!" With a relieved sigh as the other girl pondered it, she resolved to leave before she admitted the real reason she was in the vicinity; there was no way Russia's sister would let her go off and fight at his home, especially if she believed it was dangerous. Ukraine, the sister she'd never had, protested as she got up to leave. "Oh, don't go! What if you forget where I live and we can never meet again?" Now it was Asche's turn to laugh, and she chuckled, "I'll be back later today... I'm actually, uh, visiting Russia soon." At the happily surprised, "Oh," this comment earned, she turned to go, taking a quick bite of the vareniki she'd been offered and giving the nation a thumbs up. But as she turned around, a small piece of metal struck her cheek, and Asche glanced down to see the pin of a grenade next to her foot. South picked up the projectile and studied it.
"Romano! West told me about this habit of yours!" She heard a snicker from behind the bushes at the edge of Ukraine's property, and then a whispered, "See? The kid thinks we're that tomato-throwing guy." Glaring toward where the sound came from, she stomped over to see about 20 men crouched in a semicircle behind the plants and whispering. "Good thing that grenade was a dud, or you guys would've blown up by now," she growled, grabbing one of the guys by the back of his shirt. "What are you doing here?" The somewhat nervous man stuttered, "W-we are correspondents from the country of Soviet Russia, and-" The German nation rolled her eyes, stating, "It isn't a country anymore. Russia's no longer part of your little alliance, anyway." One of them laughed in a way very similar to Ivan's characteristic, "Kolkolkol," and stood, beckoning for her to set his soldier down. He had spiky, hair that was uncharacteristically white for his age, and cold, black eyes. Evidently, he was the leader of this group that was, by Asche's standards, piteously small. "Russia is no longer a nation, as our syndicate rises to power. We've taken Russia already, and intend to reclaim his sister countries within the week. When the rest of our army gets mobilized, we'll start to claim the rest of Europe."
South Germany doubled over laughing, finally dropping the Soviet she'd been restraining. "One week?! That's ridiculous. First of all, Russia is too strong a nation to allow a feeble dictator to control him, and second..." Asche straightened up, drawing her revolver and pointing it straight at the leader. In a serious voice accompanied by her battle-ready glare, she stated, "I've been training to take you guys down. You won't lay a hand on Ukraine as long as I live." The ringleader of the team ignored the gun, adding, "We don't need to solve things through violence, child. My name is Mikhail Bragovski. I'm a territory of Russia, for now. You are-?" He extended a hand to Asche, who ignored it and stated, "I am South Germany. You needn't know my full name." With that, she thumbed the action of her revolver. "Will you be leaving, or do I have to kill you?" she asked, not wavering as the others produced assorted weapons from beneath their coats. "Good. I could use a warm-up." South fired once at his shoulder, drawing a flash grenade from her pocket and pulling the pin. As she dropped it, spinning to kick her opponent in the gut, something swept past her ear and back, and she seized one enemy's weapon, a bludgeon of some sort, by its business end, pulling it toward her and knocking its owner off balance. She kicked at what she hoped was his face, and moved on to another enemy.
Asche shouted to Ukraine to get inside as she took down two more men in the chaos of the flash that left everyone either momentarily blinded or with their eyes closed. She reached out and took hold of a coat, throwing the person wearing it back and risking opening her eyes. Everything had settled, and now about 7 men lay on the ground, stunned, out cold, or dead. She really hoped some of them were dead. They were a pain... When she returned her thoughts to the fight, South noticed that Mikhail was not among either the fallen or her remaining enemies. Puzzled, she fired randomly into the ragtag crowd in an attempt to distract her opponents, and spun to search for the leader. She finally spotted him creeping toward the house where she'd sent Ukraine. "No #%$@!%# way is he going in there," she vowed, sprinting to cut him off and pointing her revolver at his face. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she asked, giving him the glare that would send a more feeble foe scurrying off to hide. "Come now, don't get in my way," he reasoned, raising the arm in which he held a lead pipe-Ivan's pipe- and smirking. "Do we have to get rid of you while you're just starting out as a nation, Asche?" She glowered and demanded, "How the hell do you know my name?!" With another snicker, he intoned, "The taller Italian was glad to tell me everything about you when I threatened his insignificant brother."
"What did you do to Italy!?" South shouted, more than pissed off now. "If you caused him even an iota of pain, so help me I will kill you! What kind of a leader are you, attacking innocent kids?!" Mikhail sighed and rolled his eyes. "Honestly, calm down. It's no wonder everyone we 'met' today was eager to sell you out." Asche couldn't stand someone as arrogant and heartless as her opponent, and snarled, "Who else did you attack, Mikhail?" The Soviet murmured, "Let's see..." and began counting on his fingers. "When we found out you were going to move against us, we decided to check up on you. First was the loudmouth with the silver hair, then the Italians. After that we 'visited' Austria and that cute little girlfriend of his, and now we're here." South Germany was ready to kill Mikhail as she realized how many people he'd gone through just to bring down her small resistance and gain Ukraine. She shuddered, muttered, "You're disgusting," and pulled the trigger... but there was only a feeble 'click' as the hammer struck an empty cylinder.
Asche froze for a second, then dropped the weapon, drawing another handgun from her coat as the Soviet swung his pipe. The attack clipped her arm and she dropped the pistol she'd just held, recoiling and swinging her left fist at Mikhail. Her punch connected, sending the man reeling back about a foot, and she pulled a knife from her belt, dashing forward to attack again. By now the despicable Russian's allies had joined him, regrouping, and she struggled to fend off sporadic attacks as she dueled wth their leader. "A man with any honor would fight his own battles," she growled, swiping at his abdomen with her knife. He ducked back, arguing, "Not unless he wants to risk losing. Without allies to recognize and respect that honor, a soldier is nothing but a loner with knowledge of battle." Ignoring that last remark, Asche leapt to deliver a strong blow with her fist and set up a finishing move, but one of Mikhail's followers halted her with a kick to her back. She lurched forward, tumbling off balance as another fighter knocked the knife from her grasp.
Trying not to trip, she spun, reaching for her next weapon, and stopped as something crashed into the side of her head. She felt herself sinking, could feel warm blood leaking into her hair, but couldn't react. When her sense returned a few moments later, she was lying on her side, facing her attacker, who smirked and stroked the pipe he had stolen from Ivan. "I'm... going to kill... you," she whispered, earning a wider grin from Mikhail. "What was that?" he asked, taking a step toward her. "Do speak up now, Asche. Give us those final words that we'll remember you by." One word came to mind as everything else faded. "Bastard," she replied, passing out. Unconsciously she heard a collective laugh as her enemies celebrated their 'victory' and congratulated their boss on his work. She heard footsteps coming closer as Mikhail no doubt approached to finish her off, and the sounds of someone else moving about... There were some curses and gasps, the scuffling of an altercation, and voices, different from the ones she'd been hearing. Ukraine's grateful weeping, saying, "Thank you, thank you for coming. I thought maybe you wouldn't get here in time." Asche wanted desperately to know who she was talking to, and what had happened, as she forced her eyes to open as far as she could (which was only enough to make out who was who.)
She recognized her brothers standing by Ukraine, assuring her that they would have come even if she hadn't begged, and the Vargas brothers standing side-by-side. Feliciano was waving a white flag and Romano was furiously kicking a fallen Soviet, shouting every profanity he knew. Hungary stood in front of Austria, wielding her frying pan and demanding that her enemies 'never touch Mr. Austria again.' She sighed, glad that everyone Mikhail had claimed to have attacked was safe. There was another person, this one right beside her, but she couldn't tell who it was. Asche couldn't keep her ees open any longer, but she wasn't quite out yet. She heard his knees (he was wearing men's boots, so she figured it was a guy) hit the grass as he knelt next to her, asking, "South, are you alright?" Other voices joined his in asking this. She heard Ludwig threaten that if anything happened to her, Mikhail was worse than dead, and Gil proclaim that this was 'not awesome.' The last thought crossing her mind before everything went black was that she had the greatest brothers ever...