"aw that's cute, he really cares for you"

~~~~~

"captain mitchell is no longer your instructor, as of today there are new mission parameters" the admiral informed us "time to target is now 4 minutes"

i scoffed at his poor attempt of teaching us

"you'll be entering the valley level at reduced speed, not to exceed 420 knots" he continued

i rolled my eyes, and said out loud what i was thinking " won't we die?" the admiral and all the other eyes in the room looked at me "well i mean i know everyone eles is thinking it, their planes are much better than ares. which is what you and mav have been telling us, so they shoot us down right?" i said with an attitude

once i walked into this room this morning i've had an attitude, i ignored everyone and i think everyone noticed it

"you have a fighting chance against enemy aircraft, more than the odds of surviving a head in collision with a mountain" he responded to my question

"we don't have a fighting chance against their aircraft if they are fifth generation fighters and they aren't flying f-18s" i stated "sorry sir, but how is this gonna teach us"

i felt a hand on my shoulder, i looked beside me and saw rooster with a face that read 'wtf is up'

i shrugged his hand off and leaned back in my chair "captain mitchell taught his way, i teach a different one"

"yeah one that's gonna kill us all" i mumbled to myself, and rooster kicked the leg if my chair

"you'll be attacking the target from a higher altitude. level with north wall" i shook my head in disbelief at his words

a couple beeping noises came from the screen, i meander my elbows against the table, confused until i heard his voice

"maverick to range control, entering point alpha. confirm green range" mavericks voice came out of the speakers

"range control to maverick. green range is confirmed, but i don't see an event scheduled for you sir"

"well im going anyway" mav said

a smirk had appeared on my face, what a badass

"nice" she heard phoenix from behind her

"seeing time to target, 2 minutes and 15 seconds"

"2 minutes and 15 seconds?" payback deleted mags words "that impossible"

"mavericks inbound"

the time started and that when everything started to feel real. i started to bounce my leg. i didn't even realize that rooster had put his hand on the middle of my thigh

i leaned more in my seat when the timer hit 1 minute and 30 seconds

he started to go a bit faster, when he was about to release the bombs we all stood up

"come on mav" i mumbled

this determined if the mission is able to be done

"bombs away" we heard his voice say, he did it. he was now struggling with the deep mountain, pulling 10 gs

then the timer went off

"holy shit" we were all shocked and stunned

he did it. it's possible

~~~~~

"hey woah, woah" bradley chased me out of the building "what's wrong? why are you walking so fast?"

he ran in front of me, stopping me with his hands on my shoulders

"what's wrong" he asked me softly, worried spreader out in his face

this is exactly what i didn't want

i shrugged, pretending like i didn't know what was he was talking about "i don't know what mean" i moved his hands off me and i started walking again

"are you mad at me? did i do something?" he called out, i kept walking "did something happen with your mom?"

i stopped walking, i didn't turn to look at him though. i couldn't, i'd break

i heard him walking up to me "nothing is wrong bradshaw" i said "just leave me alone"