Danger Zone - Rooster and Hangman

5

Flynn groaned at the sound her alarm ringing. Maverick offering her work experience had its perks but getting up at 5am certainly wasn't one of them. After getting dressed, she grabbed an apple from the counter before heading out to Phoenix who had offered her a ride. 

"Ready to go?" she asked. 

"Ready as I'll ever be," Flynn responded before Phoenix drove them to base. 

The two of them headed up to where Maverick was going to teach the aviators some more before heading out into the F-18's. Hangman was already sat at the front, and when he saw Flynn with her clipboard he offered her a smile which she didn't return.

"I'm going to sit with Bob, are you okay by yourself?" Phoenix asked. 

"Of course," Flynn reassure before taking a seat behind them. 

The chairs began to fill up with the aviators and is if by fate, the last chair was next to Flynn and Rooster was the last one to arrive. Rooster couldn't help but role his eyes at the irony before sitting down on the seat next to her and looking towards the front, not acknowledging her in the slightest. Luckily, it wasn't long until Maverick arrived. 

"Time is your greatest enemy," he began. 

He then went onto explain the mission that the selected aviators were going to face in a few weeks time. 

"The defence weapons were designed to protect the skies above not the canyon below" 

"That's because the enemy knows nobody is insane enough to try and fly below them," Rooster piped up. 

"That's exactly what I'm gonna train you to do" 

The reactions from the aviators varied. Rooster looked shocked, Phoenix and Bob shared concern glances however of course Hangman looked thrilled. 

Maverick then went onto to explain the rest of the dangers to the group and what they needed to do to succeed in the mission. Even Flynn was taken back and she wasn't going to be flying the damn thing. As he was explaining everything, Hangman couldn't help himself and turned to send a smirk towards Rooster who's face was blank. 

The aviators were then dismissed and training began. 

-

After the aviators came back they were all sent back to the training room where Maverick was going to critique every single mistake that they had all made. Maverick interrogated Phoenix, Bob and Coyote to begin with, ripping into their mistakes to try to get across how important it was that everything in this mission had to be perfect. It was then Hangman's turn. 

"What happened?" Maverick asked him. 

"Well I flew as fast as I could," he answered honestly,"Kinda like my ass depended on it" 

"And you put your team in danger and your wingman is dead," Rooster responded. 

"They couldn't keep up," Hangman tried to stifle a laugh, arrogance oozing out of every word. 

It was then Rooster's turn...

"Why are you dead? You're team leader up there, why are you, why is your team dead?"