America remembered the Space Race—the first one, anyways. He remembered the febrile excitement of it, the fear-fueled pissing contest between he and Russia. Rockets, satellites, shuttles. Dog, monkey, man. It had been an exciting time.
And then, of course, the interest in space waned. America's Bosses stopped looking at the stars and toward the other nations. The various space missions—2020, 2060, 2097—languished in debt and postponements.
The Space Race was left in America's text books and his movies.
Nothing in particular crossed America's mind when he read about England's sojourn into space. As the date loomed nearer and nearer, various speculations about the futility of the exploration slowly crept through the news and Internet. During world meetings, England would stay quiet about the event, despite America's and, later, Russia's questions.
America was one of the few thousand who tuned in to watch the space shuttle—The Conqueror—take off.
Then it all but disappeared off the news.
The headline that appeared five years later rocked the world.
ＥＮＧＬＡＮＤ ＣＬＡＩＭＳ ＨＹＤＲＯＧＥＮ ＰＬＡＮＥＴ； ＰＲＩＣＥ ＯＦ Ｈ ＥＸＰＥＣＴＥＤ ＴＯ ＰＬＵＭＥＴ， ＥＮＧＬＡＮＤ ＲＡＭＰＳ ＵＰ ＰＲＯＤＵＣＴＩＯＮ
Not fifteen minutes later, America's Boss called.
America was proud to say he was one of the first on the space shuttle, and it was he who had hit the warp button. When he wasn't in the cockpit, setting the course for bigger and better planets, America had his face in a porthole, watching as galaxies and stars zoomed by.
It was some of the most incredible things he had ever seen; planets made of diamonds, planets darker than coal that suck up light, planets covered in dry ice, planets covered in black forests. Of course, England had gotten all of those planets.
It was infuriating. Every time his shuttle neared a new sun, any planet of value had dozens of satellites orbiting them, all bearing the words: Ｐｒｏｐｅｒｔｙ ｏｆ Ｔｈｅ Ｕｎｉｔｅｄ Ｋｉｎｇｄｏｍ ｏｆ Ｇｒｅａｔ Ｂｒｉｔａｉｎ
Once, just to see if England meant business, America had tried to land on one of the habitable planets. As soon as the ship had crossed the satellites' orbits, one of England's warships had warped over, and had demanded an official apology for trespassing on English planetary gains.
Two could play at that game.
America had used the gravity around one of the major galaxy black holes to whip ahead of England's fleet of shuttles, claiming all of the planets England had set his eyes on. The planet full of fish? Property of the United States of America. The planet full of fresh, clean water? Property of the United States of America. Planet with an atmosphere of helium? Property of the United Fucking States of America.
This was fair in America's opinion. England had developed some weird sonar that allowed him to find habitable planets. Whenever England's shuttle shifted to a new galaxy, America would warp nearby, snatching whatever planets were of value.
It took a good month of this behavior before England finally requested a video chat.
America spun in his chair, psyching himself up before accepting the call.
"England," America greeted, grinning, "How you been, buddy?"
England's camera was above him, showing the cockpit and the various holograms of planets scattered around his head. The nation himself crossed his arms, looking up at the hologram of America's face with a look of faint amusement.
"I see you've been following me," England smirked, raising an eyebrow. "Should have started developing your own shuttle when I did, instead of trailing after me through the universe like a lost puppy."
America shrugged, "Well, you went for power, while I went for speed." His eyes fell on one of the planets drifting around England's head in the hologram. "I bet I can take over these planets before you can, slowpoke!"
England scoffed, a competitive gleam shining in his eyes. "Please, I've been doing this for centuries. I know—"
"You know that pretty little brown planet, with no vegetation on it?" America grinned, winking at England. "I'm going to grow tea on that planet. And then," America leaned closer to the hologram projection of England. "I'm gonna jack up the price on it like no one's business."
England swore colorfully under his breath, but he couldn't stop that look of excitement spreading across his face. "I'm going to find a nice little patch of vegetation somewhere in this galaxy and then raise a whole monopoly of beef, and you're not going to see any of it. Then we'll see who regrets withholding tea."
America laughed into his hand, spinning around so that he could recover. As soon as he was composed, he spun back around in his chair, immediately breaking back down into giggles. "Thank you for going back into space," he managed to gasp out, "I've missed it. I've missed this."