Standard Disclaimer: I don’t own the Dirty Pair. I don’t claim to either, so don’t sue me. Sakura Tenjo and Natsumi Ogawa are original characters who may not be used without my approval. Thanks, and enjoy the show.

Cycle Two

When the Lovely Angel took off from the hanger at the 3WA Central Field Office, everyone who saw breathed a mental sigh of relief. Where the Dirty Pair went, chaos and destruction followed closely, like scantily clad horsewomen of the Apocalypse. And the rumor was, there were two more of them now. This rumor had spread so quickly that a number of 3WA executives had applied for emotional leave or flat out resigned at the very thought. Two Lovely Angels was a lot, but four of them implied destruction on a level that would make most cataclysms blush.

Sakura Tenjo and Natsumi Ogawa, sitting side by side on a take-off couch on the Lovely Angel, sneezed almost simultaneously. They glanced at each other and shrugged, followed closely by the trademark tensing of the muscles as the ship’s interior switched over from normal-G to Low-G, or microgravity, used during takeoff from planets with an especially powerful gravitational pull. Once the gravity had diminished as much as it was going to, the two girls released the shoulder harnesses holding them to their seats and floated into the middle of the room, doing slow flips in the air as they went.

Sakura twisted gently so she was hanging upside-down in the air, and folded her arms across her chest. For several seconds she floated this way, looking pensively at the wall. Silence reigned until Natsumi moved across the room in slow, loopy somersaults, giggling all the way. She poked her friend with her foot and asked, "What’s chewing on you? You look like a wet-headed trainee on your first time in Low-G training. Whoop..!" She began flailing madly as she accidentally upended herself, ending up floating upside down like Sakura, if not looking as graceful.

The pink-haired girl smirked at her wobbling friend. "Says you, Wingnut." She grew more serious. "Natsumi, I’ve been thinking…and I’m a little concerned. This is it, you know. No more training. Now we’re really doing this, going out on patrol and getting the bad guys. When we screwed up in training, we just looked silly. Now if we screw up, someone could die, most likely us."

Natsumi took on a thoughtful expression and began to rotate backwards head over heels. Finally, she said, "So what you’re saying is that you’re scared."

Sakura kicked at her lightly and answered, "Am not! I’m just being serious. One of us has to, after all…God knows that Kei and Yuri will be…"

She trailed off at the sounds of combat from the hallway. Both girls instinctively looked for a weapon. But before they could do more than consider what could be swung hard enough to do damage, the airlock shot open and the Lovely Angels tumbled through, locked in a fierce tangle of flailing limbs and blunt objects. After a brief squall of activity, they broke apart and revealed their weapons: matching flight couch pillows. Kei smacked Yuri hard enough to bounce her head over heels across the room. Kei stuck her tongue out at her and taunted, "That’ll teach you to goose me, you pervert!"

Yuri flipped Kei off and shot back, "Don’t flatter yourself! I mistook your butt for a grav-couch and tried to hang on!"

The red-haired Angel raised her pillow threateningly. "You saying I have a big butt?"

Yuri pulled one lower eyelid down and stuck her tongue out again. "Are you kidding? When you walk it looks like two mastiffs fighting over a steak in a canvas sack!"

Both girls raised their pillows for another round. Before they could do more, Sakura cleared her throat nervously. Kei and Yuri paused, looked at them, and smiled sheepishly. Yuri flipped her hair out of her face and said, "Oh, sorry about that…we sort of forgot about you two. This is how most of our trips start out, y’see…"