Head in the Clouds

Dogfight

Two pissed off admirals and an F18 instruction manual in the garbage later, Maverick had the teams in the air to practise dogfighting. Payback and Fanboy, and Rooster and Fitz pulled the short straw and took off into the air after Maverick while the rest of the team sat by the radio to listen to the action. 

"Good morning aviators, this is your captain speaking. Welcome to basic fighting maneuvers. As briefed, today's exercise is dogfighting. Guns only, no missiles, and no one go below the hard deck of 5000ft. Work as a team and shoot me down or else." 

"Or else what, sir?" Payback chimed over the coms. 

"Or else I shoot back. If I shoot any of you down you all lose."

There was a rumble of laughter from the team listening in, Maverick by himself going up against four members of this group? He may be a Top Gun legend but these pilots were the best of the best, and he had been out of the game for a long time. Hangman seemed to have the same idea.

"Someone's ego is a little too big," he said. 

"Yeah yours," Wren replied. Hangman scoff and rolled his eyes. Then noise over the radio drew everyone's attention back to the air.

"Sir how about we put some skin in the game?" 

"What do you have in mind?"

"Whoever gets shot down first has to do 200 pushups?"

"That's a lot of pushups."

"That's why they call it an exercise, sir." Fanboy's voice could be heard over the radio laughing.

"It's a deal," Maverick said. "Let's turn and burn."

Just as he said that there were confused shouts over the radio. Maverick must have come up from nowhere and surprised the guys. Listening in from the ground was painful, all they could hear was: where is he, do you see him, where's your wingman. Clearly it was not going well for the younger pilots. Rooster was the first to get shot down and Wren felt sorry for him as they watched out the window while he did his pushups. 

"Atlas, we're up. Let's show these kids how to play," Hangman said tossing Wren's helmet towards her before strutting away. 

"He's got to be kidding, did he not just hear the other team get destroyed in minutes. Does he really think he's that much better?" Bob said coming up with Phoenix to stand beside Wren. 

"No," Wren said with a smirk, "we're that much better." 

Bob looked to Phoenix as Wren followed after Hangman. Phoenix just rolled her eyes.

"Come on," she said grabbing Bob by the arm and dragging him after the pair. 

Dropping down into the seat behind Hangman, Wren flexed her hands reaching across the various knobs, switches, and joysticks that she she could navigate from muscle memory alone. She immediately felt more relaxed. This is one area that she had control over and she was damn good at it too. Wren knocked on the back seat in front of her and Hangman responded in turn with a knock back. A little ritual they had picked up to remind each other that they had got this.

 Through her headset she heard the confirmation that they were cleared to taxi. The canopy lowered down overtop of them, sealing them in, as Hangman pulled away from the hangar. The familiar heaviness in the pit of her stomach formed as they picked up speed on the runway. Then when the force built up enough that it was uncomfortably pushing her back into her seat, it just as quickly let up and she felt weightless for a moment as they took to the sky. There was no better feeling. 

Pulling up alongside Phoenix and Bob, they received the green light from Maverick that the exercise had started. 

"Talk to me Atlas, do you see anything?" Hangman said. The monitors in front of Wren remained blank, indicating that Maverick was somewhere out of radar. 

"Not yet Hangman. Bob anything on your system?"

"Negative Atlas, he must be underneath us." 

"A+ Bob," Maverick said, suddenly popping up between the two planes. Hangman took off out of range of Maverick's guns leaving Phoenix and Bob to fend for themselves while he get in better position to take down the captain. "Sacrificing your wingman is one I haven't seen in a while."

"Now you see why they call him Hangman, he always leaves you hanging," Phoenix said sarcastically through the coms. 

"Don't get your tail in a twist Phoenix, I'm just setting Atlas up to take down the old timer. You keep flying pretty for a moment, unless you're not good enough." 

"Damn you Hangman," Phoenix replied. 

"Look out, look out, look out, he's approaching on our right," Bob said. 

"Hangman pick it up," Wren urged, "it's going to look bad if we've just offered them up as bait."

"But it will look real good when we are the first to shoot Maverick down. Now sit tight and get ready to do what you do best. Look pretty and kick some ass."

The tone sounded, indicating that Bob and Phoenix had been shot down. Curses directed towards Hangman and Atlas came over the radio but Hangman just smirked.

"Atlas, lock on the jet, we're about to finalize our position as team leader." Hangman sped up to follow behind Maverick who had put himself in a vulnerable position taking down their wingman. Then without warning, Maverick sharply pulled up, rocketing towards the clouds. Hangman followed close after but the sun shone brightly in his face. 

"Atlas where the heck is he?"

"I can't see shit Hangman, you're flying us directly into the sun and he's not showing up on radar."

"Phoenix, Bob, where is he?"

"We're dead dickhead," Phoenix said.

"See you in hell," Bob chimed in.

Wren wrenched her head around trying to see where Maverick had gone, determined not to lose the dogfight, but the dreaded tone sounded through her radio. Maverick appeared flying alongside their plane. 

"Head down for your pushups hot shots." 

Wren's head hit her seat as she slumped back in defeat.