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"Ange, did you bring it?" Wrapped up in a thick duffel coat, Princess Charlotte had been waiting for Ange to show up for a while now, huddled under a tree in the corner of Queen's Mayfaire Academy's extensive gardens.
"Of course." Helping her up, Ange had just arrived, after coming under 'urgent orders' from the Princess. She too, was comfortably clothed in woolly scarves and gloves, despite being an alien from the Black Lizard Planet that supposedly didn't feel the cold. "But, I still don't think this is a good idea."
"Ange, don't be silly." Eagerly bouncing on the spot, Charlotte clapped her hands together as Ange began rooting about in her coat. "I've seen you use it. It's just one button, how hard can it be?"
After a moment, Ange pulled the C-Ball from the inside of her coat. Never without it, the C-Ball was an essential part of Ange's arsenal, and was half the reason she'd survived this long. "Well, there's a dial, too." Naturally, she didn't respond to well to Charlotte putting down her expertise.
"Just leave it to me." Sporting a cool phrase, Charlotte snatched the C-Ball from Ange's hands, and started playing with it. "Hm, it's surprisingly light, isn't it?"
Ange looked extremely uncomfortable as Princess made the C-Ball look like a toy. "Well, cavorite isn't very dense. Ah, Princess, don't touch that!" She took the thing back almost immediately, moments before Princess almost popped out the cavorite canister. "Honestly, Control's most valuable asset, and I just hand it over..."
"Don't be such a spoilsport, Charlotte!" Princess moaned as Ange held the C-Ball away from her, an accusatory look on her face. "If I break it, you can just send me the bill."
Ange gave Princess a good, hard look. "At least let me teach you how to use it first." She had to admit she was putty in Charlotte's hands. Gingerly holding it out again, she only let Charlotte watch as she pointed out the delicacies of the C-Ball's operation. "This button and this dial." With a grim seriousness, she pointed out the only two things Charlotte hadn't touched whilst she was playing with it earlier. "Are the only things you're allowed to touch."
"Hm, hm." Charlotte nodded in understanding, over exaggerating her interest in Ange's lecture.
"The button is the switch to turn it on, whilst the dial controls the strength." With a glance to Charlotte, Ange could tell she wasn't really listening, and was instead dreaming about how she would mess with her once she got her less-than-grubby hands on it. "Past this indent, you'll be in zero-gravity, but anything before it will just slow your descent. Got it?"
"Understood." Charlotte stood to attention. "Set it to the maximum setting immediately."
Ange sighed. "If you do that, you'll barely get a minute out of it." She tried not to imagine Charlotte breaking the Cavorite and plummeting back to Earth, or jumping too hard and finding herself in space. "At least try to be sensible, Princess. This thing is dangerous."
"Ange, how long did you train for this?" Charlotte couldn't hide the air of 'it seems easy to me' in her voice.
"Five months." Ange was still proud of herself, even if Charlotte thought it was easy. All part of her guise as the perfect spy. "But, there are good reasons why." She thought back to her training with the C-Ball. Broken bones, weeks of vertigo, and the constant presence of the side-effects.
"Well, two minutes isn't so bad after all." Charlotte held out her hand, ready to accept the C-Ball again. Ange didn't hand it over, though, and Charlotte feared for a second she might have insulted her. "Don't worry Ange, I just want to give it one go."
Against her better judgement, Ange let her have it. "One go."
Charlotte's face lit up as the weight of the C-Ball fell into her grip. Taking a few cautious steps away from Ange, she found herself a large enough clearing and began stretching.
"Princess, do you really need to warm up?" Ange was slightly afraid of what she was planning.
"You told me to take this seriously, didn't you?" After a few jumping jacks, Princess felt ready to go. "Charlotte, can I get a countdown?"
"A countdown?"
"As part of your mission, I command you to give me a countdown." Looking at the C-Ball, Princess realised she really hadn't picked up much of what Ange had said. The thing seemed covered in cryptic buttons and 'DANGER' symbols.
Ange sighed, humoring Charlotte. "Five..."
Princess settled into a jump, squatting and making mock measurements in the air.
"Four..."
She looked back at Ange. "You're too slow."
"Don't kill the tension." Charlotte seemed to be exercising a rather spoiled part of herself tonight. "Three..." Ange continued the countdown, wanting to both get it over with as soon as possible, but also let it never begin.
"Two, one, Blast off!" Charlotte finished the countdown herself, flicking the button ON. Suddenly dressed in a chrome green throbbing, she giggled as her body lost the embrace of gravity. "Albion Space Program, commence launch!" With that, Charlotte leapt.
And leap she did. Ange managed a laugh as she accepted the absurdity of watching Princess Charlotte soar into the air, her limbs slowly losing definition as she was eaten up by the sky, until she was not much but an ominous green star.
"Princess!" Ange knew she couldn't hear her, but calling out to her helped Ange set her heart at ease. "You've gone high enough already! Come down!"
As if she had heard her, the green pulsar in the star began to grow again. Slightly losing the intensity of it's glow, it began to fall towards the ground. Ange breathed a sigh of relief. That was, until she realised Charlotte was falling a bit too quickly. Alarm spread across her face quickly, and she hurried about, trying to think of a way to cushion her fall.
"Charlotte!!" As Princess' voice returned to earshot, it was obvious she was falling just a bit too fast. She hadn't properly understood how the C-Ball works. Or, at least, how inertia worked. Once she reached a certain speed, even if she turned off the gravity, there was no way of slowing herself down.
"Princess!" Not finding any other way, Ange simply held out her arms, and began running about the clearing in an attempt to catch her.
As Charlotte properly came into view, Ange managed to calm down slightly. Her velocity wasn't life-threatening, but as her bodyguard, and as her turtledove, she still ought to do her best to protect her. "Charlotte! How-- How do I slow down?!"
"You don't! Just try to land in my arms!" Ange remembered why it had taken five months to learn how to use it. She began a countdown of her own, steeling herself for her impending impact with the Princess.
Five...
Four...
Three...
Two...
One...
Flumpfh! With perfect timing, Charlotte landed in Ange's arms, and they collapsed into the grass together. Ange yelped as Charlotte stuck the landing, and engulfed her in the green light as well.
"Oof..." Rubbing her grazed elbow, Charlotte looked up at her saviour from inside her arms. With the C-Ball still activated, her hair started to float again, along with the tails of her coat. Ange didn't reply for a moment.
"Princess..." Ange groaned in pain as Charlotte pinned her to the floor. Regaining her composure, she stretched up to give her a smile. "So, how did the Kingdom's first Space Mission go?" Thankful that she was safe, Ange entertained Charlotte's fantasy.
"Tsshk..." Charlotte began to speak into a balled fist. "It seems I've landed on an alien planet." Giving Ange a sceptical look, there was a hint of cheeriness to her face. "And I am now talking to a gigantic Black Lizard."
Ange faked a scandalous gasp. "I'll have you know I'm rather petite, for a Black Lizard."
"Tsshhk... For a Lizard, she is incredibly beautiful." Her cynical look melted into a smile, and Charlotte began to nuzzle into Ange as she turned off the C-Ball. "As a representative of Albion, I'll have to teach them our culture."
Ange made another breathless noise as the entirety of Charlotte's weight came to rest in her arms. "Your culture?" Her own grin grew wider. "You mean... The culture of love?"
Charlotte couldn't hold back her laughter any longer. "Tsshhk... I think I may be staying here a little longer than planned, after all." With that, she gave up the act and launched herself into Ange's chest. They both burst into laughter in the middle of the clearing, folded neatly on top of one another.
Ange stood up, with Charlotte still cradled in her arms. "I think that's enough of the C-Ball for one day, Princess." Upon getting to her feet, though, she found a slight problem. "Well, perhaps you could set it to the first degree, just until we get back..."
Charlotte gasped. "I'll have you know I'm rather petite, for a Princess!" She huffed as Ange pretended to struggle to carry her. "If you can't carry me, then why don't we just switch places?"
Ange considered it, for a moment, but chose her dignity instead.
Back in Charlotte's room, Ange set her down on the bed with a loving care. Even if carrying Charlotte wasn't a problem, taking her half a kilometre and up three stairs to her room had completely exhausted her. Collapsing into a chair, she kept her eyes on the Princess. Relief wafted over her as she tried not to think of all the ways the evening could have gone wrong. As both girls took their coats off, a calm mood washed over the room.
But, not everything was right. "Ch-Ch-Ch-Charlotte..." Sitting on the bed, Charlotte's arms and back began to tremble. "Wh-Wh-What's g-g-going on?" The shaking slowly overtook her whole body. "I c-c-can't stop shak--ing!"
Forgetting her own tiredness, Ange leapt out of the chair, and hurried to Charlotte's side. "You're not just cold, are you?"
"Of c-c-c-ourse I--I'm not, Char--Charlotte!" Wrapping her arms around her shoulders, as if that would stop it, she started to look slightly scared.
Ange sighed as her memory booted up. "Don't worry, Princess."
"I-I-I am worryyyyying!" It was unusual of Charlotte to interrupt Ange.
"It's just the side-effects." Ange recalled her first meeting with them, and the week-long state of sleep deprivation. "The C-Ball stimulates your muscles, and if you overuse it, the leftover energy forces your muscles to move sporadically."
Charlotte didn't care for Ange's over-scientific explanation. "Wha-a-a-at?" Charlotte grabbed onto Ange, as if she could anchor her. "B-b-but I have a meeting with- with the public to-tom-tomorrow!"
Ange eagerly reciprocated her hold, letting her nuzzle her way into her shoulder. "It should only last a little while longer." She felt terribly guilty for letting Charlotte use the C-Ball so irresponsibly. At the least, she should've warned her this would have happened. "I'll stay with you until it goes away." She racked her brain for some way to calm her down. "Oh!" pinning down something that could be called a 'solution', Ange peeled Charlotte off of her. "Princess, just lay down and try to stay calm. I'll bring something that will help."
Charlotte whimpered as Ange pulled away, as if she had been disconnected from a lifeline. She laid down on the bed, taking long, shaky breaths. "Are yo--ooou s-s-sure?"
"Yes, Princess. I'll only be five minutes. Try not to bite your tongue." With that, Ange dashed out.
"M-m-my-- by founge?" Obeying Ange's instructions with an unhealthy degree of terror, she swallowed her tongue. Charlotte lay stock still, watching Ange leave with a defeated look.
"You did what?!" Spluttering through her gin, Dorothy lurched off her bed. "No, no way. This has got to be another lie. There's no way you're actually just that stupid." She gave Ange a dumbfounded look, and desperately searched for the lie in her eyes.
"Unfortunately, not. I need some strong alcohol to calm the side-effects." Ange, too, could barely believe herself.
"Do you have any idea how many regulations you just broke?" If Dorothy wasn't already mildly buzzed from her drinking, she surely would have knocked Ange out by now.
"I'm perfectly aware." Even in the face of Dorothy's blind, half-drunken rage, Ange could stay cool for Charlotte. "But that isn't what matters. I need a drink."
"You mention a word- A word of this- to Control, and you'll be wishing you were on the bloody Black Lizard Planet." Handing over a spare tumbler and filling it with the amber cordial, she couldn't even look her in the eye.
Ange nodded her thanks, and then was already gone, leaving Dorothy to consider how quickly her evening had been ruined.
"Ch-ch-charlott-t-te!" Princess Charlotte was practically giddy to see Ange again. But, once she saw what she had clutched preciously in her hand, her enthusiasm died. "Charlotte!" Managing, for once, not to stutter, she felt her reason escape her. "I'm on-only sev-ev-ev-enteen! I can't d-drink!"
"You're going to have to if you want to attend that meeting tomorrow." Sitting down next to her on the bed, Ange gave the Princess as sympathetic a look as she could. "To be honest, you did get yourself into this."
Charlotte couldn't argue. Her mouth creaked shakily open. "What-t-t-t is it?"
"Gin? I think?" Ange gave the tumbler a sceptical eye. "Either way, you'll sleep well." Afraid of Charlotte spilling it, Ange took it upon herself to apply it to the Princess.
Charlotte's face screwed up as she endured it. A terrible taste, that she was sure Dorothy would appreciate much more than her. It baffled her that she would be expected to enjoy this kind of thing in a few years' time. Taking it a sip at a time, Charlotte's face began to flush with warmth, and she felt herself instantly calm, even if that was just the taste blinding her senses.
"Do you feel any better?" Setting the glass to the side, Ange placed a hand on Charlotte's shoulder, happy to find the shaking had calmed.
"No." Even if the C-Ball's terrible side-effects had eased up, her entire mouth was now burning, so Charlotte couldn't say her overall condition had improved much.
Ange looked genuinely defeated. "It worked for me." No longer knowing what to do, she surrendered and did the only thing she could. Crawling across the bed, she joined Charlotte next to her, squeezing her hand in her own. "How about now?"
"Much better."