𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐱𝐢𝐯 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫

❝ 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 ❞













































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SOON ENOUGH, THEY WERE ALL BACK TO TRAINING, AND IT HAD BEEN MORE DIFFICULT THAN EVER.

The squad flew a minimum of three exercises everyday, then return to the hangar to report back and notice their faults.

Hurricane was not taking the fact that they could all fly lightly. The mentor knew they could fly.

He wanted to push them more, ensure they could fly, but with their teams. Right now, it seemed to every external examiner that they were flying to ensure their own survival, not to protect their country and throw their own lives in the line of fire.

That was the requirement of the job. Sure, people deemed putting your own lives in war 'reckless' at times, but isn't that exactly what they signed up for? But they also needed to come back home.

A limitless spiral of thoughts was shook out of Archer's head when she noticed the bogey right on her nose. Tango's voice had been weak for her not to be shaken out of her trance, but to everyone else in the Break Room, it was pretty loud.

Getting lost in her thoughts in the air with a fellow friend in the back was risky.

Shaking her mind out of the waves of seemingly scribbled 'what if' questions, she pushed throttle forward all of a sudden, climbing speeds at the same rate she seemed to climb the altitude.

Loud pants of air were let out by Archer and Tango as she ascended nose first, trying to shake the Admiral off her plane. But he followed her the entire way up, focusing on gaining missile lock on her.

"Hold on, Tango." Archer strains out as the pressure on her chest increases with every foot they ascend into the sky. Said WSO barely grunts out an answer before Archer inverted her plane before twisting the aircraft behind Hurricane's. From behind the 'bandit', she descends down towards the ground, leading him to play a game of Cat and Mouse.

Hurricane follows immediately, catching onto Archer's plane, inverting his own jet multiple times for the sake of showing off.

"Oh, you're on, old man." Archer challenges, wide smirk on her face.

"Well, I'm dying today." Tango throws a thumb up, sarcastic smirk on his face. Before he can even register, Archer splits the throttle, and the jet flies dead stick, descending multiple feet down, nearing the recently changed hard deck, 500 feet.

Hurricane shifts further below to find their jet, but they are nowhere to be seen. All of a sudden, he hears the toning beep, signifying that missile lock was captured, on him. Archer pulls the jet from under the belly of Hurricane's eyes set on the radar, before looking back at the tail end of his jet.

"That's a kill, sir." Archer and Tango wear wide smirks on their faces as they speak in unison. Archer puts her hand towards her back seater, who claps her hand back, whooping at their victory.

"Well done, kids. Go see Storm about those push ups." They could practically hear the large smirk on Hurricane's face as he said those words. Archer and Tango's groans are heard on the radio, not overpowering Hurricane's soft chuckles.















































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AFTER 200 PUSH UPS, ARCHER WAS BACK IN HER JET, PAIRED UP WITH HANGMAN.

This specific exercise was for single flyers, they were to fly a course which simulated previous missions of earlier candidates. This concept was particularly one not many instructors took up, but Hurricane wanted to push this squad to perform at their utmost best, since there were so many who showed true potential to be a great pilot.

Hangman flew in front of her, at high speeds as always, as the navigation course showed them the way up the heavy terrain around them. They followed the navigation system as it took them low, before pushing up high altitude as they simulated climbing a deep canyon. Grunts echoed on the radio from both of the pilots flying the course, the g-force pushing them back against their seats with their steady grips on the throttle faltering the tiniest bit. Black clouds appeared in both their eyes as they tried to fight it off and focus on staying on course.

"Hey Hangman? You good?" Archer's question echoes through the radio with no audible response to it for a few seconds before Hangman answers, "I'm good, Arch, I'm really good."

"Jeez, your ego is something you'll never leave on the ground, right, Bagman?" Archer shakes her head at the blonde's arrogance. He could be a real ass sometimes. Scratch that, all the time.

The pair level out their jets, falling into the hard deck of 200 feet. They twist their jets to the side after every meter they cross, trying to shake off the g-force how much they could. Archer takes deep breaths and grunts them out as she tries not to get fazed by the heavy force on her body, Jake doing the same.

The radar in Jake's peripheral goes green, depicting a bogey entering their radius. Immediately, he notifies, "Tally, six o'clock, bogey spotted. What's the verdict, Archer?"

"Stay on course, we're just a minute from ending it." Archer suggests, when Hurricane's voice is heard, "Red team, you've been spotted." Hurricane brings his plane between the two flyers who were by each other's sides, ascending altitude multiple feet in a second.

Archer and Hangman twist their jets in opposite sides, narrowly missing hitting the jet which flew in between them. Hangman takes another look at the bogey, before moving off course and following after him, hoping to shoot him down, "Fight's on!" He says as he disappears out of Archer's sight, trailing after Hurricane.

Archer catches his movement through the corner of her eye, shaking her head at Hangman's recklessness. "Hangman, get back on course, it's a distraction. Stay on course!" Archer yells out, keeping her jet in line on the course.

Hangman is caught by Hurricane as he flies over him, getting missile lock within seconds. "That's a kill, Hangman. Knock it off." Hurricane says, sighing in disappointment at Hangman's absent-minded moves.

"Copy kill." Hangman takes his mask off, surrendering to Hurricane's wrath as he levels out and turns back to fly to base.

"Damn it." Archer sighs, taking her own mask off, and leveling out on her way back to base.

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BACK ON THE TARMAC, AS ARCHER LINES HER JET UP TO STOP IT, SHE FEELS DISAPPOINTED.

If Jake hadn't been his arrogant self, and gone after Hurricane, they wouldn't have to do two hundred push ups all over again. As she takes her helmet off and steps off the ladder, she stops before Jake's jet, waiting for him to follow and jump down.

Jake hops down off the ladder, helmet in his hands. He looks at Faith who just shakes her head at him, before making her way to base. Jake follows behind her, saying nothing as he does so, deciding to keep quiet and get the silent treatment instead of having to face Faith's wrath.

Faith stops in her tracks, turning around to look at Jake who suddenly finds the tarmac weird, shifting his eyes down to not meet hers'.

Faith shakes her head again, opening her mouth to speak out, no, yell out, "What is wrong with you? We were briefed about this, Jake, we were told to stay on course. And what do you do?" Faith crosses her arms over her chest, waiting for Jake to answer.

"I went off course and followed the bandit." Jake sighs out in a low voice, not at all wanting to get yelled at by Faith.

He keeps his eyes on the ground, not even daring to meet her eyes.

"You went off course! Damn it, Jake. We could've made it to target." With another shake of her head, Faith leaves Jake to slowly follow her back to base like a kicked puppy, head down and eyes focused on the tarmac.

When they're back in the break room, Faith grabs a pair of water bottles, throwing one at Jake's head, which falls back into his arms. He just grunts in response. Faith takes her seat between Bradley and Natasha on the couch, sliding down into a seemingly comfortable position. She loops her arms around Natasha's, leaning her forehead against Bradley's shoulder as they await Hurricane's arrival.

Bradley's breath hitches in his throat at the sudden contact with Faith, before relaxing himself and sighing a deep breath as he places his head on Faith's resting on his shoulder.

Faith's eyes pass around to everyone around the room. Her and Jake were the last pair to fly before Hurricane dismissed everyone. Each trainee looked extremely tired, their shoulders sagged down, not even bothering to cheer every time someone would score two balls into the pits as they played nine-ball.

She takes a sip of water, passing the bottle to Bradley, who takes a few sips, before passing it back to her. She hands the bottle to Natasha, who gulps a few sips and finishes the water.

Payback calls out in a tired voice, "Hey, how 'bout we all get some drinks?" And immediately, the room lights up with bright smiles and cheers as everyone agrees to the genius plan. A drink was something all of them could use today.

It's a good thing everyone's off to their homes for the weekend before finals week.