L

The footsteps stopped. Wehrmacht stood up slowly, holding his wings still and above the ground to avoid making any brushing noises on the floor. It was so quiet he could hear his own breathing. Wehrmacht glanced at MA, putting a finger to his lips and mouthing "You keep searching". Then German tiptoed outside to join Mandara.

The hallway looked empty, but Mandara must've heard something to speak up like that. Since the corridor curved, Wehrmacht couldn't see all the way down the hall.

M

MA nodded and kept quiet, he turned back to the shiny object he saw earlier and moved a chest that was in front of it. He silently gasped he discovered the crown sitting there, hidden among crates and other antiques.

"Trigger. Trigger I found it." he whispered yelled to Mandara, but got no response.

Mandara was focused on listening for anymore footsteps like the ones he heard before. He whispered to Wehr, "There is someone here, I could hear them walking."

L

No more sounds came from the hallway. Wehrmacht grew skeptical. Perhaps Mandara had been hearing things? 

Nonetheless, Wehrmacht tilted his head back towards the room and whispered to Mandara, "MA found it. You go inside. I'll stand guard outside." 

 He kept his words brief. Someone needed to be stationed outside the room in case whoever was down the hall decided to show up and lock them in.

M

Mandara nodded and silently backed into the room, turning to MA once he passed the threshold. MA heard him come up behind him and held up the crown for his brother to see. Mandara knelt down beside MA, speechless to the fact that they found the crown, the real crown. 

 "You did Thunder." Mandara whispered, "You found it, father would be so proud." 

 MA smiled at Mandara and hugged him with his wing, "Thank you for believing in me brother." 

Mandara hugged back for a bit then stood up, helping MA up too before turning to Wehr. "Wehrmacht we have it, let's get out of here."

L

While MA showed Mandara what he had uncovered, Wehrmacht stood guard by the door. His eyes were fixed on the hallway. Patience. 

 The footsteps started again. Wehrmacht did not warn the Mandarians about it; he didn't want them to make any noise that could drive away those footsteps. 

 So when Mandara turned to speak to Wehrmacht, he was just in time. 

 A figure - no, three figures - came into view down the hall. Two were human soldiers; one held a gun while the other held a medium-sized bag. The person in the middle, standing momentarily frozen when he spotted Wehrmacht and the Mandarian brothers, was Bundeswehr. His eyes flickered to the crown that MA was holding. 

 All three newcomers turned and ran. 

M

MA couldn't believe what he just saw, but he wasn't going to let those three get away. 

"Trigger, stay here, keep the crown safe." he said to Mandara, placing the crown in his hand before darting past Wehr after them. "Wehrmacht hurry" he called behind his shoulder. 

 MA was fast, but with the Bundie and his friends head start, he knew he wasn't going to be able to catch up to them. But MA had a trick up his sleeve, his wings were elliptical and therefor slightly smaller than Wehr's and Mandara's, and he was lucky that the hallway was just big enough for him to spread his wings and give him a boost to tackle Bundeswehr to the ground. The force of the impact tore of the sling he was wearing, but that just allowed him to restrain Bundie further.

L

"Gah!" Bundeswehr cried out as he was knocked to the floor. His soldiers doubled back and the one with the rifle aimed his gun at MA. 

 "STOP!" Wehrmacht shouted, his command boomed through the hall like a cannon sound. The soldier stiffened; he was still in the habit of obeying his former General's orders. That hesitation was enough for Wehrmacht to leap forward, and they started wrestling with the gun. 

Bundeswehr struggled under MA's grip, throwing out some punches with his fists. He shouted at his soldiers, "GO!"

M

MA was really struggling keeping Bundie restrained, he was a trained soldier and was stronger that Iremacht in his Enhanced Mode. As he fought with Bundie, MA heard footsteps come up behind him and made the big mistake of turning to see who it was. He just barely caught a glimpse of Mandara's wings before Bundie took the opportunity and punched him in the shoulder, right where he was shot just yesterday. MA recoiled from the pain, and before he could recover, he was punched square in the face and knocked to the ground, hitting his head hard on the floor. 

"Derogan!" Mandara shouted, rushing over to his brother, who was lying motionless on the floor.

L

Wehrmacht was still fighting over control of the gun with the soldier when he heard Mandara's yell. The former militant flared up his wings to give the soldier a shock and wrested the gun out of the man's hands. Instead of pointing the rifle at the soldier, however, Wehrmacht spun around to check if MA was in danger. The two soldiers took the break to run down the hall and out of sight. 

Bundeswehr stared at his fist, unable to believe that he had just punched MA in the face. Then he realized that his soldiers had run off and he scrambled to his feet, preparing to escape. He froze when he heard a gun click behind him. 

 "On the ground," Wehrmacht growled, pointing the gun. "You've got a lot of explaining to do."

M

Mandara dropped to the ground next to MA, who was knocked unconscious from the two blows to his head. 

"Thunder! Thunder can you hear me, wake up!" Mandara said worriedly, trying to shake MA awake. MA let out a soft groan but didn't wake up, which scared Mandara even more. He turned around to Bundie, "Bundeswehr, why did you do this, what were you doing down here with armed solders?"

L

"I - I didn't mean to hit him that hard!" Bundeswehr protested. 

 "ON THE GROUND," Wehrmacht roared. 

 Bundeswehr instantly dropped to his knees and clasped his hands behind his head. With his gun still pointed at Bundeswehr, Wehrmacht walked around him until he stood closer to the Mandarians. "Now answer Mandara's question." 

"I-I thought you left the storage room," Bundeswehr stammered. "I came to investigate the back hallway, j-just like you guys." His shoulders quivered as he spoke.

M

Mandara glared at him, "Bullshit", he snapped, beyond angry that Bundie would lie, "you wouldn't of run if you were just searching, and why would you need two soldiers with you, with one armed with a rifle and the other holding a bag" he pointed to the bag that one of the soldiers dropped when they ran. "Your as bad a liar as you are keeping secrets, so tell us the truth." 

 Mandara had his wings half flared to try and intimidate the truth out of Bundie.

L

Bundeswehr shrank back. He looked pleadingly at Wehrmacht, his former mentor, but Wehrmacht's red eyes flashed with as much anger as Mandara. The young militant's eyes darted from Mandara to Wehrmacht and back again. He didn't know what to do or what to say. So he didn't do or say anything at all. He simply hung his head and refused to speak. 

 'Be a good militant' he thought to himself, closing his eyes. 'Don't spill anything during interrogation.'

M

Mandara growled in his throat at Bundie's refusal to talk, his eye was glowing brighter by the second and his feathers bristled as high as they could go, then did something unexpected, he grabbed Bundeswehr by the collar and lifted him up to eye level. 

"That wasn't a question soldier, I am demanding you to tell us what is going on, otherwise I can let Thunder deal with you when he wakes up, and if you thought he was scary when he went feral then you should see him when he is thinking straight."

L

"I - I won't tell you anything!" Bundeswehr choked from Mandara's grip on his shirt. 

 While Mandara had a hold of their captive, Wehrmacht checked on MA. He was worried about internal damage since Bundeswehr had punched MA in the head area and knocked him out. 

Wehrmacht gave MA's shoulder a shake like Mandara did and murmured, "Come on, MA. Wake up. Wake up before I have to torture my own apprentice." 

He really wasn't looking forward to that - he was rather glad Mandara was taking over the interrogation right now because Wehrmacht wasn't sure he could bring himself to harm Bundeswehr without being overwhelmed by guilt.

M

MA groaned a little louder than before and opened his eye slightly, his vision was blurry from being unconscious so all he saw was a blurry red face looking at him. 

"D-dad?" he muttered, but groaned again at the throbbing pain in his head an shoulder. 

Mandara on the other hand had shoved Bundeswehr up against the wall of the hallway. "I don't want to hurt you Bundeswehr, but you are leaving me with few choices, so I am giving you one more chance, tell us what we want to know, and we will let you go unharmed." 

 Deep down, Mandara felt awful that he was threatening to hurt Bundie, considering he knew all to well what it felt like to be on the wrong end of a beating, but he stoically held firm and waited for Bundie's answer.

L

Wehrmacht paused in surprise. He wondered if Mandoria had a red flag when he was alive but quickly dismissed the thought for the more urgent matter at hand. 

 "MA, it's me, Wehrmcaht. How is your head? Can you see straight?" he asked. He held up two fingers. "How many fingers is this?" 

Bundeswehr winced when his back hit the wall. The moment he saw that Wehrmacht was distracted, Bundeswehr started struggling in Mandara's grip, kicking at his adversary. His fear drove his actions; he didn't want to imagine what Mandara - or all three of them - could do to him.

M

MA blinked a few times while squinting, "F-four?" 

He didn't know why Wehr was doing that, but he focused on trying to pick himself off the floor, only to find himself too dizzy to even lift his head up. 

 Mandara struggled to keep his hold on Bundeswehr, he wasn't as strong as MA was so it took quite a bit of effort to not let go. Still not wanting to hurt Bundie, Mandara changed tactics and turned him around so he was facing the wall, albeit squished up against it. 

 "Bundeswehr please," he pleaded, letting the anger disappear from his voice. "I really don't want to hurt you, I couldn't do that when I myself have been put through it by Ussr, please just tell us, I don't want to see you get hurt over this."

L

"I - I can't - " Bundeswehr's words trailed away. Mandara sounded so sincere. The German wavered, increasingly tempted to just give in. But then he remembered the last time he'd talked to Mandara, in front of the hospital, where Mandara had gotten the upper hand while Bundeswehr had been a stuttering mess. He was determined to make up for that time. He couldn't give in and fail as a militant before he even started. Bundeswehr shook his head, though it was slightly difficult since his face was being pushed against the wall.

M

Mandara sighed and rested his forehead on Bundie's back, "You don't understand Bundie, I'm trying to save you from suffering the same fate I did. Remember when I told you I got my scar from a surprise attack, that was a lie, I got it because I was captured just like you are right now, and when I wouldn't do what I was told Ussr sliced my eye, along with breaking my wings." 

Mandara lifted his head to look at Bundie. "I wouldn't wish that on my worse enemy let alone you, so please for both our sakes, just tell us what's going on."   

L

Bundeswehr's eyes widened as Mandara revealed the history behind his scar. He trembled at the idea that he'd risk a similar fate if this dragged on. Maybe his soldiers would arrive with reinforcements if he stalled? 

 "You were enemies..." Bundeswehr said shakily, trying to buy time. "Of c-course you wouldn't obey, for the safety of your country. W-Why should I?" He shook his head again and growled as firmly as he could, "I won't tell you anything."

M

Mandara was silent, Bundeswehr was a lot more stubborn then he gave him credit for, and there was no possible way to get him to talk willingly. At a loss for ideas, Mandara turned to Wehr to ask how MA was when he spotted MA's cloth sling that came off during the fight, and with a defeated sigh, he pulled Bundeswehr off the wall and brought him over so Mandara could grab the cloth to tie Bundie's hands behind his back. Once he did that, he sat Bundie against the wall, and in turn sat across from him. 

 "Wehrmacht, is Thunder ok?" Mandara asked, half turning to Wehr but still kept Bundie in his sights.

L

"Well, er, at least he sees double and not triple," Wehrmacht said. 

He noticed MA trying to lift himself, so Wehrmacht slipped his hand under MA's head to ease him upright. "When I taught Bundeswehr to punch hard, I didn't think this would happen. Then again, I didn't think any of this would happen." 

Wehrmacht glowered at Bundeswehr, who slumped shamefully against the wall with his hands tied. The older German then said to Mandara, "Is the Crown safe?" 

He kept his question vague so as not to alert Bundeswehr of the Crown's exact location. 

M

"Yes, it's safe, I hid it again just in case." Mandara answered, glancing at him as he tried to help MA sit up. 

 MA on his end was shaking slightly as he leaned on his hands for support, his body wasn't used to being knocked out so it was slow to recover from the shock. Mandara desperately wanted to help his brother, but he was stuck on prisoner duty, something that he never thought he would have to do. 

 "You have a very strong punch Bundeswehr." Mandara said, "the last time I saw Thunder get knocked out was when Russia got too drunk a decade ago and decided to fight him, I hope to god he doesn't end up in the hospital for a week like he did before."

L

Bundeswehr felt a twinge of pride at the compliment but stayed silent. He suspected MA was trying to build up trust and refused to let anything get in his head. 

Wehrmacht patted MA's shoulder and murmured, "Hear that? Don't end up in the hospital again. Remember how boring it was?" He looked back at Bundeswehr, then said to Mandara, "I don't know what to do with him. We can't let him go but we also can't charge blindly out of the storage room without a heads-up of what's going on. Those soldiers might be bringing reinforcements too."

M

Mandara shrugged, "I don't know either, Bundie's being incredibly stubborn and won't say anything. We can't call Germany because I bet my eye patch he is the one who sent him here, for whatever reason that may be. And I also bet Iremacht isn't going to help us since we accused Ireland and Germany, I guess we're pretty much on our own." 

 Mandara stared at Bundeswehr for a moment before shaking his head, "Figures that we are sitting here because of my father's crown, what a cruel irony." 

 With that said, Mandara slipped his eye patch off his blind eye to gaze at it, softly rubbing his thumb over the shield crest. "I can only imagine what father would think if he saw us, we tried to make peace with the country that defeated him, and yet we too have been defeated, guess it runs in the family."

L

"It's different," Wehrmacht reassured Mandara. "Remember, I'm on your side. And this time, you have the upper hand. The Crown is in your possession. You haven't been defeated, you're winning." Wehrmacht narrowed his eyes at Bundeswehr. "But you're right that we're on our own now. So we need all the information we can get." 

 Wehrmacht leaned MA against the opposite wall so he could recover. Then he sauntered over to Bundeswehr and crouched in front of him. Bundeswehr flinched, trying not to shiver. 

 "I never got to teach you the art of interrogation before EU cut our training short," said Wehrmacht. "But if you don't open up, I'm about to give you your first lesson." 

 Bundeswehr gulped. He shook his head. Wehrmacht sighed.Without further hesitation, he punched Bundeswehr in the face. The younger militant yelped as the back of his head collided with the wall, making him dizzy but still conscious. Wehrmacht was about to give him the same treatment MA got. 

M

Mandara gasped then grabbed Wehr's arm before he could punch Bundie again.

"Wehrmacht, don't hurt him!" he said, he couldn't bare to see someone else get hurt because of his fathers crown, but because Wehr was both bigger and stronger, there wasn't a lot he could do. MA heard Mandara shout and opened his eye's to see what was going on. His vision wasn't blurry anymore, so he could clearly see that Wehr was kneeling in front of someone, who he assumed was Bundeswehr, and Mandara was griping on to Wehr's arm. He knew exactly what was going on, he too wanted to stop it but he was still pretty dizzy, so he had no choice but to watch.

L

Wehrmacht was surprised that Mandara was restraining him. 

"Weren't you the one who wanted to know what was going on? We've tried the good cop method already," he said. He pulled his arm out of Mandara's grasp. "I know this isn't pleasant. I'm quite proud of Bundeswehr for holding out this long. So I'm going to give him plenty of chances in between to answer our questions." 

 Wehrmacht turned back to Bundeswehr. He grimaced at the bruise forming on Bundeswehr's face and his pained expression. 

 "Let's do this again. Tell us what is going on. Is..." Wehrmacht breathed in. "Is Germany part of this?" 

 Bundeswehr stiffened and squeezed his eyes shut. He still refused to speak but his silence and posture answered Wehrmacht's question. Wehrmacht, however, needed to hear the words from Bundeswehr's mouth to believe it.

 Another punch was delivered. This time Bundeswehr's mouth started bleeding, along with the back of his head that hit the wall a second time. He trembled in pain and fear.

M

Mandara whipped his head around when Wehr delivered the second blow, and when he turned back he was horrified to see Bundie bleeding. The way poor Bundeswehr was cowering in fear reminded him of when he was captured by Ussr and put through similar treatment. Mandara desperately wanted to stop Wehrmacht, but he was scared to try, so he instead tried to plea with Bundie again, "Bundeswehr please, only you can stop this madness, please just tell us, save yourself from the pain."

L

"I can't," Bundeswehr said, though it sounded more like a whimper. "I can't tell you anything, I just - please d-don't make me." 

 Wehrmacht opened and closed his fist. He really didn't want to hit Bundeswehr anymore, especially not now that he'd drawn blood. The sight of his apprentice like this broke his heart as much as seeing Iremacht cry. Wehrmacht looked helplessly towards Mandara, then at MA. "Any suggestions?"

M

Mandara breathed in a huge sigh of relief that Wehr had stopped hurting Bundie, then turned to MA as well. MA was recovering from his dizziness and was trying to stand up, Mandara rushed over to help him, and once he was semi steady on his feet, he looked towards Bundie and Wehr. MA knew a lot of methods of getting prisoners to talk, but none of them he was comfortable mentioning in front of his brother. 

 He then eyed the rifle that Wehr had dropped from before, and kicked it towards the two Germans, but didn't say anything, just giving Bundie an apologetic stare.

L

Wehrmacht and Bundeswehr both eyed the rifle; the former looked grim while the latter look horrified. As Wehrmacht picked up the gun, Bundeswehr tried to scoot away but his back just hit the wall. He was trapped and he was too dizzy to get up and run. 

 The gun clicked in Wehrmacht's hands. He pointed it at Bundeswehr's leg so the wound wouldn't be fatal if he were to open fire. At least it was better than using his own hands.Bundeswehr curled his legs close to himself even though it was no use. 

"Please, please don't," he begged. "Wehr...Wehr please, sir!" 

 Wehrmacht glanced back at MA. "Are you sure?" he asked quietly. "Do you...want to have a go at questioning before I..."

M

When Wehr asked him that, MA turned to Mandara, who had a horrified expression plastered to his face. Mandara mouthed "no" to MA, but he ignored his pleas and slowly walked over to the Germans. 

 "Bundeswehr, your stubbornness is admirable, but I can tell you that you are fighting an unnecessary battle. It's not like we are asking you to give up weapons plans or locations of important people, all we're asking is that you tell us who sent you and why, that's it. Just tell us that and we will not only let you go, but we will also not harm you employer, otherwise, we will have to resort to drastic measures."

L

"You...you promise you won't harm him?" Bundeswehr asked. 

 MA's words had caught his attention; it was what he'd been fearing the most but now that MA was offering not to hurt his employer, he felt hopeful. 

Bundeswehr lowered his eyes. "If I tell you...promise me that you won't hurt him, that you won't blame him. That everything will go back to normal after this." His next words scared him the most. "I-I don't want to go to war."

M

MA thought for a second, he knew that Bundie would break if he promised not to hurt anyone, but he wasn't sure if he could promise, not to blame the mystery person. He actually had a relatively good idea who sent Bundie, considering he said he didn't want to go to war. 

 With a sigh, MA said "Bundeswehr, I swear on my wings I will not bring any harm to your employer, and that my brother and I will not declare war on you." 

 MA then turned to Mandara, who nodded in agreement, "I also swear on my wings I won't hurt him or declare war on you, I promise everything will go back to normal." 

 With Mandara also promising, MA turned to Wehrmacht, giving him an expecting look.

L

Wehrmacht lowered the rifle and crouched down next to Bundeswehr. The younger militant wished the wall would move back because he pressed against it even more to distance himself from Wehrmacht. 

 "I, too, swear on my wings that I won't hurt him," Wehrmacht said. "But I cannot promise I won't blame him. Other than that, everything can go back to the way it was." 

 Bundeswehr thought about those promises for a moment. With blame being the exception, everything else reassured him. He took a deep breath. 

 "Okay," he said softly. "I-It's Germany. He doesn't want to return the Crown to you. We really thought that you three had left the storage room already, so Germany sent me down here to retrieve the Crown. I-I brought an armed soldier just in case, for defense, because I was...I was scared." 

He hung his head in shame and his eyes stung with tears. A militant entity openly crying was humiliating.

M

MA and Mandara looked at each other, both thinking the same thing; that they shouldn't have been so quick to trust Germany. When MA turned back to Bundie and saw him crying, it filled him with guilt, because it takes a lot to make a militant cry, and was usually seen as showing weakness. 

 MA walked closer to Bundie and crouched down in front of him, "You did the right thing Bundeswehr, now that we know that Germany is behind this, we can go and question him in a calm manner. As for you, we will let you go after we've talked to Germany and you can get your wounds treated. And if it makes you feel better, you did a very good job trying to protect your country, and I have no doubt you will b a great militant one day." With that said, MA stood up and looked to Wehr, "Shall we bring him with us?"

L

"Ja," Wehrmacht agreed. "We may have to keep his hands tied until we sort things out with Germany." 

 Wehrmacht took Bundeswehr's arm to pull him up but Bundeswehr immediately flinched away. It was as if he was afraid of his own mentor - or he was just ashamed that he'd let him down. Wehrmacht wanted to tell him that he was really really proud of his apprentice despite his poor choices, but Bundeswehr had already wobbled to his feet on his own. 

 "Where is Germany right now?" Wehrmacht asked instead. 

 "He's at his estate," replied Bundeswehr. "He should be making a call to United Nations about our militant connection." He looked at the floor as he said that. He didn't feel worthy. 

Wehrmacht turned to Mandara. "Will you be taking the Crown with us or leaving it in its hiding spot?"

M

Mandara thought for a second, "I think I'll bring it, I definitely don't want to let it out of my sight longer then it should be." 

He rushed off towards the room that he left the crown in and returned with it a minute later. When MA saw the crown, a thought crossed his mind, "Wait, we can't just waltz out of this museum carrying the crown, if someone sees us with it, it's going to make people suspicious." 

Mandara frowned, he didn't think of that, but then his eye's landed on the bag that Bundie's guard dropped when he ran. "Well, I still have the keys to Germany's car that I drove us here in, all we have to do is cover the crown with that bag Bundeswehr's guard dropped and take it to the car, simple." 

 MA thought over the plan, it was pretty full proof, so he nodded in agreement and went to pick up the discarded bag, Mandara carefully placed the crown in the bag, then the brothers turned to the Germans to signal they were ready to go.