𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐱 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫

❝ 𝐡𝐨𝐩 𝟑𝟏❞































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TODAY WAS A BIT CHAOTIC, TO SAY THE LEAST.

First thing in the morning, Faith woke up to Hulk hurling all over the floor, trying to get a hairball out. She had cleaned it up as fast as she could, not even taking a bath before she left for the academy.

She had slept in an hour more, losing her time to get ready and even have breakfast. Also, Bradley had been sleeping over since a few days because he accidentally lit his house up on fire.

Hulk didn't mind at all, taking the time with Bradley to torture him, but Faith swore she found him in Bradley's arms when she went out to the grocery store the other day.

She had woken up Bradley and practically thrown his uniform at his face and a toothbrush and some other toiletries, before setting a coffee mug and some pancakes on the table by the couch, his temporary bed. He had woken up, cursing like a sailor before he ran into the bathroom. Faith took the time to feed Hulk, before changing herself out of her pajamas she wanted to stay in all day.

Faith drove Bradley and herself to the base, and they had sprinted out of her car the second she had parked it. Two minutes late, the two were running through the hallways, trying not to get punished.

Everyone had turned their attention to the tardy pair, some with smirks, others with disappointment. Smirks, mostly by their fellow squad, and disappointment, the Admiral and Captain. Thankfully, they were just supposed to do a hundred push-ups and ten laps of the entire base, no biggie.

The Admiral began to give his brief on today's mission as the two found their empty seats right beside each other, "Okay, kids, this is Hop 19. Fifteen weeks to graduation. TOPGUN trophy is still up for grabs, so every point counts." Hurricane looked around with a stern gaze, lingering on the top two students, the women, Archer and Phoenix.

Hurricane continues, "We've put together some names in a list, you'll be flying together today, sorry to break your hearts, solos.", Hurricane rolls his eyes.

"It seems there have been multiple bandits scouring the base since nearly two weeks now, and we need you to check it out. We realize you're still months away from graduation, but you've been training long enough for your first dogfight experience. Wheels up in fifteen minutes, grab your gear, and get on that tarmac. And remember, come back home." The Admiral ends with a sharp nod.

The Captain starts calling out the pairs put together, "Phoenix, with Hangman as her WSO." The two stand up, looking to each other in disgust before Jake makes a double take between Natasha and the Captain, as everyone else chuckles underneath their breath at the odd pairing.

The Captain continues, "Archer, with Rooster as her WSO." A chorus of 'ooh's' and 'wows' fill the silence, and the mentioned two look at each other, before looking down at their shoes, desperately hiding the flush rising up their faces.

Looking back up at Bradley, she finds his hazel green eyes, "Let's go?" She inquires, and he moves ahead of her, opening the door that leads into the hallway to stand before it, letting her exit first. Faith chuckles, looking up at him with a soft smile on her face, and he looks back at her with his natural smirk, eyes shining with a spark he always felt around her.





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WHEN THE ARCHER WAS FLYING, SHE WAS INCREDIBLE.

She was so fantastic, people felt her flying was reckless. But she wasn't. She didn't make mistakes. She just made choices, which the regular person would not make. Simple as that.

Archer had always liked to fly alone. Just herself and the jet. But now, as Rooster sat behind as her WSO, she could not help but feel like she had another life on her hands. If anything happens, it would be on her. Her fault.

Bradley.

Though she met him nearly a month and a half ago, she felt so close to him. She could tell him anything. Be herself. Sing her heart out and he would sing with her. She could cry, and he'd cry as he'd help her calm down. She could laugh so much around him. She could do anything if he was by her side.

And now, she was sitting ahead of him, and he was her WSO.

Shaking her difficult thoughts from her head, she looks over to Phoenix who was right beside her as they searched the sky for bandits.

"You up for this one, Archer? " Hangman's voice was clear on the radio. Archer rolled her eyes, and Rooster groaned to himself, able to picture Hangman's annoying smirk.

"Just a walk in the park, Seresin. Like last time, remember?" Archer glances at Hangman with a confident smirk on her face. His smirk falters, reminded of the time she defeated him.

"Oof, you need some ice for that burn, Bagman?" Rooster glances to Hangman, his usual smirk and confidence on his face, proud at Archer for defeating him. Rooster puts his fist from the back to the front, right beside Archer's face, as she brings her own fist to bump his, chuckling to themselves.

Archer's gaze turns firm as she spots the bogeys Hurricane was talking about, stern voice heard through the radio, "Contact, multiple bogies, 165. Two miles, looks like they're going away from us."

Phoenix looks around to find the bogeys too, calling out on the radio, "Yeah, I see 'em too, right, two o'clock. I'm in."

"Going in, hang on Roos." Archer warns before she twists the yoke to her right, knife-edging to get closer to the bandits, Phoenix follows her, as they pull into the attack formation right behind the bogeys.

The bogeys seem to notice them, as they move in the opposite directions to shake the squad off.

"Phoenix, take the one on the right, I'll take the one on the left, copy?" Archer waits for Phoenix to reply, hand gripping the yoke and ready to make a move the second she hears a reply.

"Copy, Arch, be careful." Phoenix says, drifting to the right to catch the target.

"I'm always careful, 'Nix. Watch your six." Archer utters before making a sharp twist of the yoke to her left, going after the bogey.

Archer follows the bandit, as he too makes turns and knife-edges to kick her off his back, cutting her off and ascending higher into the sky, disappearing within the clouds.

Archer frowns, closing her eyes in disbelief, "That son of a bitch cut me off." She shakes her head in disapproval of the bandit's moves, ready to intercept him.

She closes in behind him, and the bogey falls back to the pattern of sharp twists and inverted maneuvers in an attempt to shake her off.

"Holy shit, someone's scared off their trails." Archer narrows her eyes at the bogey's seemingly idiotic moves.

Phoenix follows, between the bandit and Archer, "This guy's off his rails, Jesus." She shakes her head in disbelief, frown deepening.

"Phoenix, take the shot." Archer suggests, trying to capture tone on the bandit, who was now ascending higher into the sky, making inverted twists as he does so.

"Holy shit." Archer adds, shaking her head as she focuses her eyes between the radar and the bogey, surprised by the high altitude they were at.

"Come on, 'Nix, get the hell outta there, I'll take it." Rooster speaks, tired of the bandit's various tricks, ready to aim and fire.

"I can't get the angle, I'm too close for missiles. Switching to guns." Phoenix announces, making her move, and pushing down the button to shift to arms.

"Phoenix, fire or clear." Archer announces, ready to take the shot herself. She waited twenty seconds for Phoenix's reply, before jumping up to the challenge herself, "I'm moving in, 'Nix, I have the shot." Archer maneuvers the jet beside Phoenix's, looking to her and giving a curt nod. "C'mon, Arch, let's get in there! Come on, Archer!" Rooster exclaims, clear shot on his radar.

Phoenix moves the jet up, as Hangman exclaims at the sudden force as she moves out of Archer's way to let her get the shot, "Get it, Arch, you have it!" Phoenix encourages, voice full of hope as she hears Rooster, "I have lock on him!"

But suddenly, an alarm goes off in Archer's jet, alerting them that they've flown into the bogey's trail.

"Oh, shit, we're in his jet wash! Hang on, Roos! Holy shit!" The alarm gets louder and louder in her mind as she swerves to the side to rush out of the bandit's jet wash. She inverts the jet to descend down out of the jet wash, heart racing at the speed of light.

"Shit, we got a flame out, Arch! Engine one is out!" Rooster warns in a strained voice, g-force hitting hard, he lets out multiple grunts and short breaths of air.

"Oh god, engine two is out!" Rooster warns even louder, breathing in a steady rhythm as Archer descends down heavily.

"I'm losing control, Roos, I'm losing control!" Archer tries to pull the yoke into equilibrium, but it kept dashing right and left, "It won't recover. Shit!" Archer lets out heavy pants as she tries to stop the jet from descending at such fast rate.

The plane falls into circular motion, completely out of control. Archer and Rooster's heavy pants are heard on the radio to Phoenix and Hangman, who constantly advise them the eject out.

"You have to eject, Arch, Rooster, eject!" Hangman yells out through his jet, helpless as he watches Archer and Rooster couple out, losing altitude fast.

"Altitude, 8000, 7000, 6000, oh god," Rooster announces loudly, desperately yelling and grunting for his breaths, as Archer still tries to control the yoke with deep strained breaths of her own.

"Mayday, mayday, Archer's in trouble, they're in a flat spin, headed to sea!" Phoenix tries to grab the attention of main controls.

"5, we're at 5000 feet, Arch, we gotta eject!" Rooster yells loudly, trying to grab his ejection handles.

"I'm pinned forward, Roos, you need to eject! I can't reach the ejection handle, it's too far." Archer loses complete control of the yoke, trying to grab at the ejection handles herself, but the G-force was just too much for her to move.

"Roos, you need to go! I can't reach the handles, go, Rooster!" Archer yells back, closing her eyes with her hands to her chest, just wanting him to be safe.

"I'm not going without you, Fae, I'm not- I- I'll punch us out!" Bradley tries to pull the ejection handles once again.

"Watch the canopy, Rooster, eject! Go, go, eject!" Faith yells again for him to go, but he just wouldn't.

The canopy finally opens with sparks flaming around it, as Bradley is ejected out first, and by barely a few nanoseconds, Faith is too. She hears a loud crash, hoping nothing happened to him, and it was just the jet's noise, as she turns her gaze up to see Bradley hitting the canopy, and cracking his helmet.

The only thing Bradley heard before the beautiful orange sun he had learnt to love for her went out was a yell of his own name.



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ALL FAITH COULD DO WAS WATCH AS SHE SAW HIM HIT THE WATER FIRST.

She was trying to pull her handles to make her reach into the waters as quick as possible to get to him, but god, did it felt like hours.

Seeing him go down first, she felt the tiniest bit of relief. But as Faith got closer and closer down to him, she couldn't see his chest rise up and down for breaths. Her own breath was caught in her throat.

He wasn't breathing.

"Roos! Rooster!" She tries to wake him, but there was no reply.

"Bradley, hey, hey, talk to me, Bradley." Faith reaches her hands out to him as soon as she hits the water, keeping the parachute on in hopes that it would keep them afloat until Search and Rescue comes for them.

"Bradley, oh god, stay with me."

That's when she saw the blood dripping down his neck. Pulling his body up and away from floating down, she brings him towards her on the parachute.

Faith takes off his helmet, cradling his head close, as she gently slaps his cheek as if she was awakening him this morning from his deep slumber on her couch.

"Don't leave me, Bradley. Don't leave me, honey, please." She closes her eyes, as she rests her head against his bleeding head, whispering, crying.

"Bradshaw, don't leave me, listen to my voice, alright, don't go. You're all I have." She lets out a sob she wasn't aware she was holding in.

"I don't know what I would do without you. How I'd live without you." She whispers, holding him tighter and closer. She moves her hand down to his wrist to get a pulse.

Faint, but still there.

A sudden cough rings out into the silence, filled with just the crashing of waves against them and each other. Bradley was breathing again.

"That's it, honey, keep breathing, keep breathing." Faith's tears halt, as she moves her hand to rest on his chest, feeling it rise up and down, she places her other hand on his forehead she holds close to her chest, breathing warm breaths into the crook of his neck.

The helicopter's rumbling all of a sudden, making Faith look up and open her eyes, looking at it, before looking down at Bradley, who was slowly trying to open his own as he hears the rumbling of the helicopter.



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author's note:

PLEASE DON'T KILL ME.