Danger Zone • Top Gun: Maverick

• Chapter Nine •

"Good morning, aviators. This is your captain speaking." The confident voice of Pete Mitchell rang out over the radio in the break room. "Welcome to Basic Fighter Maneuvers. As briefed, today's exercise is dogfighting. Guns only, no missiles. We do not go below the hard deck of five thousand feet. Working as a team, you have to shoot me down, or else."

"Or else what, sir?" Reuben's voice echoed in response. The first team up in the air were Bradley with Reuben and Mickey as his wingmen.

"Or else I shoot back." The Captain answered coolly.

"This guy needs an ego check." Jake said as he stared at a model F18 in his hands.

Emerson rolled her eyes and turned her attention back out towards the window as Skye released a scoff.

"Said the guy with the biggest ego here." The blonde muttered only for the cocky pilot to shift his green gaze towards her as a smirk tugged at his lips.

"What say we put some skin in the game?" Reuben offered, only for the brunette to shake her head lightly.

That was a mistake.

"What do you have in mind?" Pete asked, entertaining the idea.

"Whoever gets shot down first has to do two hundred push-ups." The pilot answered.

This was not going to end well.

"Guys.." Bradley warned but it was already too late.

"That's a lot of push-ups." Pete stated.

"Well, they don't call it an exercise for nothing, sir." Mickey chimed in, a grin clearly evident in his tone.

"You've got yourselves a deal, gentlemen. Fight's on." The Captain replied. "Lets turn and burn."

With that, Emerson tore her gaze away from the window and towards the radio just as she had heard numerous exclamations of shock as her father's ingenuity with his jet, separating Bradley, Reuben and Mickey in the air.

She listened intently as her father had begun to chase after the dual F18 in attempt to get them in missile lock, only for her best friend to fly in between them to take the heat off of them. It seemed that the tension between the godson and godfather on the ground had followed in the air as it was now Bradley vs Pete - with both planes taking a steep dive.

It wasn't until Reuben had warned Bradley that he was going below the hard deck, which had forced him to pull his plane up and ultimately got in Pete's missile lock, resulting in him being 'shot down'.

The brunette pilot stood by the window as she watched Bradley do his push-ups out on the tarmac, which was overlooked by Hondo.

"That should be us down there." Mickey stated glumly as he and Reuben stood beside her.

"But its not." Natasha replied, she too watching her friend fulfill the punishment under the hot Californian sun. "And now you know a little something about Rooster."

Emerson glanced over at the guilty pilot and WSO and gave them a small, soft, reassuring smile before she looked back out of the window only to find Billy 'Fritz' Avalone, Logan 'Yale' Lee and Brigham 'Harvard' Lennox taking a selfie with Bradley doing his pushups in the background.

She glared at the three confident pilots and, despite her not getting along with her father at the moment, prayed that he would take them down quickly just to give them a taste of their own medicine.

And true to her word, her prayer had been answered and they had been 'shot down' within minutes - soon replacing Bradley out on the tarmac to fulfill their two hundred push-ups.