"Attention on deck!" A voice calls out, prompting everyone to stand at attention.

Admirals Warlock and Cyclone walk into the hangar to start the official mission debrief.

"Morning, welcome to your special training detachment," Warlock starts, "Be seated.
You're all Top Gun graduates, elite, the best of the best."

Hangman has a toothpick in his mouth, smirking proudly at that.

"That was yesterday," Warlock brings them all back to reality.

Everyone's faces fall in realization of what he just said.

"The enemy’s new fifth generation fighter has leveled the playing field. Details are few, but you can be sure we no longer possess the technological advantage. Success now more than ever comes down to the man or woman in the box," Warlock continues, making sure they all understand the severity of the situation.

Hangman looks patronizingly over at Phoenix as he says this. And without missing a beat, she subtly scratches her face, giving him the middle finger.

"Half of you will make the cut. One of you will be named mission leader." Hangman simply smirks at Rooster when the mission leader is mentioned. "The other half will remain in reserve."

Warlock continues looking out at the twelve pilots, "Your instructor is a Top Gun graduate with real world experience in every mission aspect you will be expected to master. His exploits are legendary."

Footsteps are heard as Maverick begins walking toward them from the back of the hanger.

"He is considered to be one of the finest pilots this program has ever produced," Warlock continues his praise of Maverick.

Everyone looks back at the man walking through the chairs. Hangman,Coyote, and Payback all realize just who Maverick is. They sink in their chairs, finally realizing their instructor is the same man they threw out of the Hard Deck the night previous.

Oh, Jia was going to have a field day with this one. She would never let him forget this, and he's sure Mickey wouldn't either.

"What he has to teach you may very well mean the difference between life and death," Warlock states in a serious tone. "I give you Captain Pete Mitchell, callsign Maverick."

Rooster glances at him before looking back down, jaw clenched in anger.

Maverick stands at the podium Warlock just left, looking out at his students for the next few weeks. His eyes linger on Rooster before he composes himself and addresses the room.

"Good morning," he begins. Hangman nodded with an embarrassed smile as Maverick looked forward. Rooster looks away immediately, trying with everything in his power to not look Maverick in the eyes.

"The F-18 NATOPS," he says, holding up the manual. "Contains everything they want you to know about your aircraft," he indicated to the Admirals. Patting the book, he continues, "I'm assuming you know the book inside and out." He knows, just as he was once a long time ago, that these pilots are the best and they know it.

And the responses he gets back prove exactly that.

"Damn right," Payback calls out.
"Damn straight," Hangman, without hesitation.
"You got it," another one states.

Maverick takes the book and throws it right into the trash. Everyone looks slightly shocked, checking around to make sure he just did that.

"So does your enemy," Maverick says seriously. All he is trying to do is make sure these pilots, no matter how good they are, know that someone with superior technology is out there.

"And we're off," Hondo whispers from the sidelines.

"But what the enemy doesn't know is your limits," Maverick informs them all. "I intend to find them, test them, push beyond," he continues. "So today, we'll start with what you only think you know. You show me what you're made of."

And with that, everyone gets ready to take to the air.

☽☆☾   ☽☆☾   ☽☆☾

"Good morning aviators, this is your captain speaking," Maverick starts off. The group had split into teams, and one by one, they were all going up against him.

Up first were Rooster, Payback, and Fanboy. This was certainly going to be interesting. Payback and Fanboy had flown together before, but they had never flown with Rooster.

"We're gonna do some basic fighter maneuvers. As briefed, today's exercise is dog fighting, guns only, no missiles. We do not go below the hard deck of 5000 feet, working as a team you have to shoot me down, or else," he trails off.

Never one to back down from an obvious challenge, Payback asks, "Or else what, sir?"

"Or else I shoot back," Maverick replies. "If I shoot either one of you down, you both lose."

Listening over the radio, Phoenix and Bob look at each other while Hangman is playing with a model toy jet. "This guy needs an ego check." 

(Says the guy with the biggest ego in that room).

"We’ll see to that," two other aviators say, over by the Foosball table. Natasha can only roll her eyes at the testosterone filled room.

Back in the air, Payback has a proposition. "What do you say we put some skin in the game?" He always was one for betting. It's kinda how he got his callsign in the first place.

He would make bets and lose, telling the person he would pay them back later. Although the other story is that he always promised payback when he lost or was pranked. He's never disputed either of them.

"What do you have in mind?" Maverick asks. 

"Whoever gets shot down first has to do two hundred pushups," Payback proposes.

(His body was going to hate him for this one, alright).

Rooster, knowing exactly what Maverick is like, tries to get them back on task and focusing. "Guys."

Maverick, flying directly below the pair of planes, replies. "That's a lot of pushups." He doesn't sound worried at all.

"Well, they don't call it exercise for nothing, sir," Fanboy replies cheekily. He never helped, often Payback's wingman in life as well. Always egging him on and often losing himself.

"You've got yourselves a deal, gentlemen," Maverick confirms. "Fight’s on. Let's turn and burn." He stops talking, gets into position, and aims straight for the other planes.

"Fanboy, you see him?" Payback calls out to his back seater and friend.

He shakes his head, not seeing anything. "Nothing on the radar up ahead. He must be somewhere behind us."

Maverick comes right up between the two jets, Rooster going one way while Payback and Fanboy go the other.

"Jeez."
"Oh God."
"Shit."
All three men swear simultaneously. 

"Alright, Maverick, let's try not to get fired on the first day," he mutters to himself. He flies around the others, confusing them as to where he is.

"Tally, tally, tally!" Fanboy calls out as he spots Maverick. "Break left!" he tells Payback as Maverick flies up from behind them.

"Breaking left," Payback confirms, as he tilts the plane.

As he tries to lock in on them, Maverick questions, "Hey there, where's your wingman?"

"Rooster, where are you?" Payback calls out.

"I've got your back," Rooster answers. "I'll be there soon, hang in there, hang in there."

"Come on, man, hurry up," Payback calls out as Maverick gets closer.

"Break right," Rooster calls out.

"Breaking right," Payback confirms.

"Rooster may have saved your lives, but it's gonna cost him," Maverick says, trying to lock onto Rooster's plane. 

"Not this time, old man," Rooster says angrily. Rooster dives down, taking them both lower.

"Rooster, you're too low, pull up!" Payback informs him. "You're hitting the hard deck."

"Oh shit," Rooster realizes as his distance til hard deck hits the 3000s. He pulls up to avoid the hard deck but allows Maverick to get a lock on him.

"That's a kill," Maverick says.

Back in the break room, Fanboy and Payback walk up to the window, looking out at Rooster doing the push-ups. "Should be us down there," Fanboy says.

"But it's not," Phoenix says. "And now you know a little something about Rooster."

Soon after, everyone had done at least one round of push-ups. Maverick was taking everyone down with little to no effort on his part.

Even on the last run of the day, when he and Rooster ended up in a Cobra Maneuver, he took Rooster out for another round.

Needless to say, every aviator in that detachment got extremely humbled that day.

☽☆☾   ☽☆☾   ☽☆☾

The detachment had been dismissed for the day, spirits not the highest.

To be honest, the best pilots in the world had gotten their asses beat by someone many consider a fossil.

"Want to go drown our sorrows in alcohol?" Mickey asks his pilot as they walk out to their cars.

Reuben shakes his head. "Nah. I'm thinking of a hot shower and some good tunes. Besides, I don't know if Jia is done for the day, so I might call her once I'm eating."

Mickey gets that. "Alright. See you tomorrow, man."

They do their special handshake before departing to their houses.

But Reuben isn't expecting the surprise that is awaiting him at home. He opens the front door, putting his keys in the bowl by the light switch. But turning on the lights, he stops short.

Because sitting on the couch is Jia.

She quickly stands up, rushing to his waiting, open arms. "Surprise!"

Reuben laughs, squeezing her tightly. He even lifted her off the ground, just enough for her to kick her feet up, laughing herself.

"I didn't think you could make it so fast! I figured it would be a few more days before you could join me."

Jia shook her head. "We wrapped a few of the major scenes yesterday and today, so we've later call times for the next few days."

They made their way into the kitchen as they continued to talk.

"So, how was your day? What's this super secret mission about?"

So Reuben fills her in on what he can. Obviously, he can't tell her everything, and she knows that. But she gets the gist of it.

"So what you're saying is that this is a super dangerous mission, and you all got smoked by an instructor who is old as dirt."

Okay, girl, you didn't have to come for Maverick like that, damn!)

Reuben shrugs. "Basically, yes. You've got it."

Now, it was Jia's turn to shake her head. "In that case, we've definitely got to have Mickey over at some point. I need to see him too, make sure he's good."

The rest of the night went by pretty quietly. The couple didn't need lots to be going on. They could just enjoy the other being there, watching shows they needed to catch up on.

After all, if this mission was as dangerous as they had been told, these nights were not guaranteed for long.

✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈✈

Word count: 1,802

Jia is here!! A little surprise for Reuben and a happy one at that. But now she knows about the mission, so be on the lookout for her true feelings and worries.

They will be covered more in future chapters. So stay tuned.

Bye guys!!

(Gif by me)