Good Morning Aviators

Sparrow hummed as she sat next to Rooster. "You good there Sparrow?" Rooster asked her. "Yeah, just things on my mind, but I'll be fine." Sparrow said with a slight smile.

"Attention on Deck!" A woman yells as all the pilots stood as Admirals and Hondo made their way in.

"Good morning. Welcome to your special training detachment, sit down." Following the Admiral's order and the aviators took their seat. "I am Admiral Bates, call sign Warlock. You are all Top Gun graduates, the best of the best but that was yesterday. The enemy's new fifth generation fighter jet levels the playing field. We no longer possess the technological advantage. Success depends on the man or woman in the box. Half of you will make the cut and only one of you will be named mission leader. The rest will attend to any reverse roles necessary." Warlock explained,

"Your instructor is one of the finest pilots this program has ever produced. His exploits are legendary. What he has to teach you may very well mean the difference between life and death." Warlock remarked. "I give you Captain Pete Mitchell, call sign, "Maverick." Warlock concluded and stepped away from the podium. Sparrow shook her head as she bit the inside of her cheek. She hasn't seen Maverick since she was a kid.

Maverick took Warlock's place at the podium. "Good morning." He held up the F/A-18 manual. "This book contains everything they expect you to know about your aircraft. I assume you all know it well?" He questioned. Sparrow chose to stay silent while he earn a few verbal response while mostly earning some nods. He tossed the book into the trash bin beside him.

"And we're off." Hondo muttered.

"So does your enemy. But what the enemy doesn't know is your limits. I intend to find those limits and push beyond them. So today, we will start with what you think you know." He dismissed the group, Sparrow fled as they all went to grab their gear to head to their planes.

Sparrow felt the tension from Rooster the whole time Maverick was talking.

..............

As she approached her plane, she will be going up with Rooster, Fanboy and Payback. She saw Maverick talking with Rooster. "Seems Rooster has issues with this guy." Hangman said to her. "Yeah well, what's going on between them is nobody's business and definitely not yours as well." Sparrow told Hangman. Sparrow knows because she was the one who calm him down after Maverick did that to Rooster.

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"Good morning, aviators. This is your captain speaking. Welcome to basic fighting maneuvers. As you were briefed, today's exercise is dogfighting. No missiles. Guns only and no going below the hard deck of five thousand feet. Work as a team to shoot me down or else." Maverick said to everyone.

"Or else what, sir?" Fanboy asked into the comms. "Or I shoot back." Maverick respond. Listening from the radio on base.

"How about we put skin in the game." Payback countered. "What do you have in mind?" Maverick asked him. "Whoever gets shot down first has to do two hundred pushups." He responded.

"Good grief Payback." Sparrow called out. "You have nothing worry about there Sparrow." Payback called back. She smirked. He was right... Maverick was going to have an adventure with her.

"That's a lot of push ups." Maverick commented. "They don't call it exercise for nothing, sir." Fanboy responded. "You've got yourself a deal. Let's turn and burn!" Maverick's jet soared between the jets of Payback and Rooster, catching them both off guard. "Holy shit!" Sparrow said.

Sparrow stay back as she kept an eye on Maverick. Her father may have told her some Maverick tricks.

Then he got a lock on Rooster. "Well well Maverick, that's leaves me, have fun." Sparrow said as she took off. "You got this Sparrow!" Fanboy called out. As she is flying, "Break right Sparrow!" Payback called out. "Breaking right!" She exclaimed.

She noticed he wasn't budging then something came to mind, she slowed down a bit, as he got closer, she pulled the maneuver that he pulled on Rooster, which she got a lock on him. "That's a kill." Sparrow said with a smile.

Fanboy was in absolute shock. "Have fun with those push ups." Sparrow said as they all flew back to base.

.............................

Sparrow sat in the break room, she held up a picture of her mom. "You okay there, Sparrow?" She looked up to see it was Fanboy. She smiled."Somewhat." She replied.

Then he saw the picture, "Who's that... if it's alright if I asked?" Fanboy questioned her. "Your fine, It's my late mother, she passed away giving birth to me, so I never gotten to meet her." Sparrow said as she sighed and looked back at the photo.

"I'm so sorry, You look like her though." Fanboy said which put a smile on the woman's face. "So I have been told." Sparrow said with a smile. "You know I would've gave anything to have met her, I hear stories all the time from my dad... but it's not the same you know. I love hearing the beautiful memories that my dad made with her, but I wish gotten to make memories with her. I know i'm making my dad proud, am I making her proud." Sparrow said. She looked over to see he was still listening to her.

"Thanks for listening, you didn't have to." Sparrow said. "Of course." Fanboy said. The two of sat in silence before he broke the silence.

"Your flying is amazing." Fanboy said. "Thanks, it's comes naturally, but thanks." Sparrow said with a smile.

"We should hang out sometime." Fanboy said which caused Sparrow to look at him confusedly. "Isn't that what we're doing right now?" She questioned him. "Yeah, but somewhere else." Fanboy said. "Yeah... I would like that, just let me know when." Sparrow said. Then Harvard came in the room. "Hey Harvard, what's up?" She asked. "Maverick needs you, you are going in the air with Rooster and Hangman." Harvard said. She nodded. "Well, I'll see you around." She said and Fanboy nodded. "Thanks for letting know Harvard." She said and Harvard nodded.

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Sparrow sat in her plane after chaos she experienced. "Hey Sparrow, you good?" She turned to Hondo. "Yeah. Yeah, just chaos up there, that's all... wish Maverick never did what he did to Rooster." Sparrow said. "But that was dangerous." Hondo said. "Yeah, they both wasn't thinking." Sparrow said as she hopped out of her plane.

She saw Rooster on the ground with Phoenix. "See you tomorrow Sparrow." Hondo said as he patted the woman on the shoulder. She nodded then walked over to Rooster and Phoenix. "You cooled off now?" Sparrow asked him. "Yeah, sorry about that." Rooster said.

"I won't forgive you, if got kicked out and leave us with Hangman." Sparrow said. Phoenix grinned. "Kind of funny Phoenix mentioned that." Rooster said. "Look Rooster, I don't like what Maverick did, but maybe you can ask him why he did it most importantly don't take it out on him on the field." Sparrow said. Rooster nodded at her.

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