BACK HOME, TOP GUN: MAVERICK

SEVEN.

FIGHTERTOWN, SAN DIEGO

"ARE YOU NERVOUS AT ALL?" Ryan and Mickey were sitting on the floor of their shared living room. It was the middle of the night and neither of them had been able to sleep between Coyote, Bob, and Phoenix almost dying and their mission being pushed up. The record player in the corner of the room was playing some soft old school song.

Mickey had been the one to ask. Ryan looked up from the fidget cube he had been messing with.

"Nervous about..?" Ryan replied.

"The mission. Training. Everything. Nothing. I don't know," Mickey sighed.

"Are... you nervous?" Ryan frowned.

"I'm shitting bricks, Ry," Mickey scoffed. "I feel sick to my stomach just thinking about any of it. I'm terrified."

Ryan stared at Mickey for a moment before setting the fidget cube down and grabbing his hand. "We're going to be perfectly okay. We're gonna get through training, we're gonna go on this mission, and we're gonna come home, Mick."

"How are you so calm about this?" Mickey asked.

"I don't know," Ryan admit. "I just... I think about the bright side. I'm an optimist."

"I guess they don't call you Jubilee for nothin'," Mickey said.

Ryan laughed and shook his head before getting up. "Dance with me," he said.

"You always want to dance," Mickey said as he took Ryan's hand and pulled himself up off the ground.

"It eases the soul," Ryan grinned. Mickey laughed and rested his head on Ryan's shoulder as the two gently swayed to the music.

"We're gonna be okay," Ryan muttered, "I promise."

Mickey was silent for a few moments before speaking. "Ryan?"

"Hm?"

"Please don't break your promise," Mickey whispered.

🛩️

"CAPTAIN MITCHELL IS NO LONGER YOUR INSTRUCTOR," Cyclone said. The graduates were back in that room, the commercial flight chair occupied by them once again. "And as of today, there are new mission parameters. Time to target is now four minutes."

Ghost frowned a bit.

"You'll be entering the valley level at reduced speed. Not to exceed 420 knots," Cyclone said.

The graduates all looked at each other, baffled, confused, and half thinking this was a complete joke.

"Sir, won't we be giving their planes time to intercept?" Bob asked.

"Well, Lieutenant, you have a fighting chance against enemy aircraft," Cyclone said. "What are the odds of surviving a head-on collision with a mountain? You'll be attacking the target from a higher altitude, level with the north wall. Gonna be a little harder to keep your lase on target, but you will avoid the High-G climb out."

"We'll be sitting ducks for enemy missiles," Fanboy whispered to Jubilee and Payback.

The monitor beeped and the simulation showed that someone had began flying it in one of the F-18 singles.

"What the hell.." Bolt whispered.

"Who the hell is that?" Cyclone asked as everyone looked to the screen.

"Maverick to range control. Entering point Alpha," Maverick's voice came over the radio. "Confirm green range."

"Oh, shit," Joker said.