"I'll do whatever I want! It's the internet! A thing that came from me, if I'm not mistaken. And who are you to tell me what to do?" he practically yelled, shutting his laptop roughly.

"I practically raised you! I have every say in what you can and can't do while you're supposed to be acting like an adult, but you can't get past the teenager that you look like!" England countered, making to grab the electronic on the table. Before he could get there, however, a hand clamped painfully around his wrist. He looked up to see what used to be light blue eyes, now visibly darkened. They flashed and... pixilated?, before going back to normal once more.

"I would advise against that, Arthur," he said, voice dead and echoing.

"That is enough, America," Russia cut in, removing the other's hand by the wrist and taking up his free hand, holding them against the table. "Calm down."

Alfred turned his once again warped gaze onto him, blinking slowly, no human emotion present. Unsettled by the sight, Russia stepped back and let go, holding everyone else back with an arm.

"Alfred? Are you okay?" spoke up a small voice. The countries right behind Russia all turned to look at Canada, who had just appeared

Alfred took off his glasses and set them down lightly on the table. He tapped the computer three times, then right below his right eye once, before looking to his brother. Matthew nodded in understanding. "Can you make it there?" he asked. Alfred shook his head no.

"Do it here."

Matthew looked nervous. "But, Alfie, what about everyone else? This is still to developmental for others to be trying to buy." He motioned to the other inhabitants of the room. America's warped gaze fell across all of them, focusing on each nation in turn, before sliding back to the other once more.

"Let them watch. It's about time they found out anyways, right?" He laughed. The sound was almost mechanical; harsh, sharp, without the natural ease of anyone else.

Canada left, and a tense silence fell across them all. Alfred did nothing but stare at the wall, tapping his pen against the arm of the chair slowly, evenly, making the atmosphere far more eerie than it needed to be.

Eventually, Russia stepped forward again, the only one not paralyzed by some kind of fear, subconscious or otherwise. "Fedya, w-"

"America," he corrected sharply, turning to face him.

"...Right. America, what's going on? Where is your brother going? And what's going on with your eyes?" he asked, inching closer and crouching down so they were at eye level with each other.

Alfred sighed, the only thing truly human that he's done since anyone had seen him this morning. "I will explain this all to you in due time, hopefully with a little help." He paused. "And as for my eyes? Well, it's just a slight... glitch in my programming." Alfred smirked. But before Ivan could ask for clarification, Matthew came back into the room carrying what looked like a pure white, metal brief case. He came around to the other side of the chair, opposite of the Russian, and opened it.

Ivan looked at it's contents in awe. Never before had he seen so much advanced technology all together like this all at once. On the side that stood straight up, there was a dark screen, and the bottom housed a small keyboard with foreign characters on each key, several buttons and switches, and what looked like a housing station for cables.

"What in the bloody hell is that?" England whispered.

"I'm not sure," came the accented reply, "But I don't trust it. Especially around my Mattheu or Alfred."

Canada worked through their chatter, booting up the screen and typing a few things in. As much as they tried, no one else could decipher what was being typed. Once he entered the information, he straightened his back and pulled up two cords, attaching one to an invisible port at the base of Alfred's neck, and the other to a smaller port under a panel under his left eye.

He closed his eyes, which were dark and pixilated still, and relaxed into the chair a little more. Matthew finished with what he was doing on the screen, flipped two of the switches, and pressed a purple button near the corner of the case.

"Would someone please explain what's going on?" China called from the back of the group. Surprisingly, Germany stepped forward, reaching out as if to touch the young nation, but stopping just short.

"Is this..." he began, but trailed off almost immediately. His hand dropped limply to his side. "How many of you have actually touched America?" he asked the assembled group. They all looked to each other, glancing around and waiting for someone to come forward.

"I did when he came to my house to play video games a few nights ago," Japan offered.

"Did you touch his skin or just his clothes?" Germany pressed.

"Just his clothes, but Ludwig, what does this have to do with anything?"

"Come here," the German held out his hand, which the other took cautiously. "He trusts you, right?" Japan nodded. "Matthew, is this what I think it is?"

"If you're referring to the project we asked to borrow your best scientists and engineers for, then yes, it is," he replied, not looking away from the other's peaceful, almost sleepy face.

Gently, Germany placed the raven-haired man's hand on the skin just under Alfred's collar. Kiku flushed slightly, "Ludwig I don't think-"

"Just wait a second," he cut in. Kiku looked to him, a mixture of despiration and unease dancing across his face.

Then, out of nowhere, he felt the familiar jolt of electricity shoot through his hand and up his forearm. He jumped back with an audible gasp, shocking the few left behind him and making them step back a few feet, too. "What was that?"

"I'd like to know as well," Ivan added, rising from his crouched position. "This is now a matter of international security."

At the words 'international security', the pseudo-peaceful quiet broke, and several cries of fear, confusion, and outrage rang out across the small room.

"Someone please explain what's going on!"

"Is there some kind of terrorist plot?"

"What is sticking out of America's neck?"

"Would you all shut up!" Germany yelled over the quickly evolving chaos. The room fell to a relative, tattered silence, so he continued. "I know only a little of what has transpired here, and what led to this, but I do know that there's no harm that will come from this. To you or your citizens."

"But what about Alfred?" Arthur asked a little forcefully, the first person to show any kind of concern for him rather than themselves. "What's going on with him? Why does he have-have cables sticking out of him for god's sake?!"

"Let me try to explain to you before he wakes up completely," the North American began. "We've been working with Tony's race, and some of the best scientists in the entire world, to, um, 'enhance the physical and psychological abilities of the most elite among our society'."

"And we chose us to start with," Alfred cut in, having regained consciousness at some point while Matthew was explaining, "Because we are both immortal, so long as our countries and our people stand. This way, if the tech killed us, we'd just come back and make changes. Make it better." He unplugged the two wires from him, laid them back down in the case, and stood behind his brother.

"You all know that I'm a superpower," he continued, "And that I'm far too young to have this much power without it having adverse effects on me. Canada is very similar, but on a slightly smaller scale." The country in question nodded in agreement. "So, having things to help out with this are... nice."

"What he means is that we have ways to be able to separately store certain memories, thoughts, and skills on physical storage devices and softwares specifically designed to hold these things." He paused. "However..."

"Sometimes the program glitches," Germany finished for them, light blue eyes wide in amazement. "How did you two accomplish so much so quickly?"

"And without anyone here knowing?" Ivan dropped one hand to his side, and the other made its way behind his back, gripping at the pipe that hadn't been there before. "That sounds more than a little untrustworthy to me."

Canada smiled darkly. "You never asked."

~*~*~*~
holy fuck this is long and awesome
my editing is probably shit but i tried and i just took half of my classes' finals so my brain is dead