killshot (bradley bradshaw)

XXI

4 DAYS UNTIL THE MISSION

Jenna was already in the locker room the morning after Iceman's funeral when Phoenix walked in. 

"Hey Killshot!" Phoenix said. "I've been meaning to thank you for picking Bob and I up at the hospital the other morning."

"Of course!" Jenna replied. "Obviously, I would have been there that night if you hadn't texted me that they weren't allowing visitors. I'm just glad that you two ended up being okay. How are you feeling, though?"

"I was a little shaken up, and I think Bob was too," Phoenix explained. "I've never had to eject out of my plane before and I hope I never have to again. But we both got cleared to continue training so that's all that matters. How's Maverick doing after yesterday?"

"I think as well as can be expected," Jenna said. "I haven't heard from him since we left the cemetery yesterday. I'm trying to give him some space to grieve."

"That makes sense," Phoenix replied, shoving her bag into her locker. 

The two girls walked upstairs to the briefing room together. Upon entering, Jenna noticed that Cyclone was standing at the front of the room but as she looked around for her dad, he was nowhere to be found. Phoenix noticed too, shooting Jenna a confused look as they sat down. Jenna just shrugged her shoulders as she slid into her seat next to Rooster. 

"Good morning," Cyclone started. "As of today, Captain Mitchell is no longer going to be your instructor." 

"What?!" Jenna asked as she sat up in her seat. A wave of confusion rippled through the pilots in the room.

"I am replacing him as your instructor," Cyclone continued. "We have only four days left until the mission and your training has not yet yielded the desired results. In light of this, we are going to give you different mission parameters. The new time to target is four minutes and your airspeed is going to be a lot slower." The new parameters flashed on the screen behind the admiral.

Rooster groaned in his seat beside Jenna as she let out a sigh. She could sense the disgruntlement as the other pilots murmured amongst themselves. 

Cyclone opened his mouth to continue speaking when the simulation system lit up on the screen behind him as a single blue plane moved across the grey background. He turned quickly.

"Who is that?" Cyclone asked, confused. 

The radio crackled and then Maverick's voice came over the coms. 

"Range control, this is Maverick."

Jenna and Rooster looked at each other in disbelief and sat up straight in their seats as he continued speaking on the radio.

"I'm entering point alpha now. Confirm green range."

"Maverick, this is Range Control, green range is confirmed," a man replied. "But uh, I don't see a run scheduled for anyone."

"Put my name down for right now," Maverick said. "I'm going." Everyone in the room sat up at Maverick's response.

"Nice," Jenna heard Phoenix whisper in front of her.

"I'm setting the time to target as 2 minutes, 15 seconds," Maverick continued. The time on the screen flashed red and then turned green when it changed to 2:15. Cyclone shook his head in disbelief, but could do nothing to stop Maverick. 

"We haven't even been able to do it in two and a half, there's no way he does it in less," Coyote said. 

"Coming up on the attack point. Maverick's inbound." 

Hangman smirked as he sat back in his chair, watching comfortably from the front row. The other pilots watched eagerly in their seats, not at all surprised at the insubordination from their instructor.

Jenna's eyes were glued to the screen as she watched the blue plane maneuver through the simulated canyons with incredible speed and precision as the clock ticked lower and lower. 

"Popping now," Maverick grunted, and the blue plane moved vertically on the screen. Jenna took a quick glance at the timer, seeing less than forty seconds left. She watched as the plane began the inverted dive and then righted itself. As the aircraft descended, Jenna sucked in a breath, reaching over and squeezing Rooster's hand tightly as he leaned forwards. She didn't dare look at the timer again, for fear of missing the final part of Mav's run.

"Bomb's away!" Maverick grunted, the final seconds ticking away. His breathing turned heavy and strained over the radio as he began the steep climb out of the valley. The pilots stood up slowly as the displayed G-force Maverick experienced continued to increase as he pulled vertical. Jenna stood up as the timer hit five seconds, silently urging the bombs to hit the target faster.

The timer stopped and began flashing as a ringing sound filled the room, indicating that the bombs had made contact with the ground. Jenna's eyes shot to the timer and she stared in disbelief as she read the amount of time left on the clock. 00:00.16s flashed in green. 

"Holy fuck he got bullseye," Fanboy breathed. Jenna let out the breath she was holding as a smile spread across her face.

"He actually did it," Rooster said, incredulous. "He actually fucking did it." 

Phoenix turned around and raised her hand up to high five Jenna.

"Your dad is awesome," she said as Jenna slapped her hand laughing. Phoenix's eyes darted between Rooster and Jenna, noticing that Jenna was still holding his hand. She smirked at Jenna as she turned back around to talk to Bob.

"Oh, sorry," Jenna said, blush creeping up her neck as she released Rooster's hand. 

"Don't worry about it, Kill," Rooster said with a wink. Jenna smiled at him and then turned her attention back to the front of the room. Cyclone was still standing with his back to the pilots, frozen in place.

"Uh, Cyclone, sir?" Jenna said, trying to get his attention. Cyclone snapped out of whatever daze he was in and turned around to face the room. He opened his mouth to say something, then shut it and stalked down the pathway between desks and out of the room. 

Warlock stood up from his seat and cleared his throat, a hint of a smile on his face. "Stay here," he said and then followed Cyclone. The pilots all looked at each other and then collectively sat back down in their seats. Silence fell over the room as they all realized the same thing: this mission was indeed possible. And in four days' time, six of them would have to do exactly what Maverick had just done. 

After a few moments, Phoenix and Bob had turned around in their seats and struck up a conversation with Rooster and Jenna. The door slammed open when Jenna was mid sentence, and all the eyes in the room followed Maverick as he strolled down the middle of the desks to the front of the room. The pilots sat on the edges of their seats, waiting for him to say something, anything.

Maverick stood before the screen, drawing out the moment for as long as possible. He looked over at Jenna and smiled, then locked eyes with Rooster.

"It's not the plane, it's the pilot." He grinned, echoing the words Rooster said to him days earlier. Rooster grinned back at Maverick, but before he could respond, Warlock came back into the room.

"Maverick." He said grimly. Maverick walked over to Warlock and the two men engaged in a discussion with hushed voices. When they finished, Maverick cleared his throat, preparing to speak.

"For the rest of the day, you all will be assigned a different instructor. Practice flying the low level course. I want you all to listen to me," Maverick said. "You've seen that this mission can be flown successfully. I've taught you the skills you need. Use them."

"Yes, sir," the pilots said together.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get yelled at," he said nonchalantly. Warlock gave him an annoyed look, to which Maverick replied with a "What?" and walked out of the room, Warlock hot on his heels. 

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AN: Thanks for reading!! Drop a vote/comment to let me know what you think!! Love y'all!