The next morning, the real training begins.

"Good morning aviators, this is your captain speaking," Maverick starts off. The group had split into teams and one by one they were all going up against him.

"We're gonna do some basic fighter maneuvers. As briefed, today's exercise is dog fighting, guns only, no missiles. We do not go below the hard deck of 5000 feet, working as a team you have to shoot me down, or else," he trails off, not quite sure how to finish his thought.

Never one to back down, Payback asks, "Or else what sir?"

"Or else I shoot back," Maverick replies. "If I shoot either one of you down, you both lose."

Listening over the radio Phoenix and Bob look at each other while Hangman is playing with a model toy jet. "This guy needs an ego check." (Says the man with the biggest ego in the room.) 

"We'll see to that," two other aviators say, over by the Foosball table.

Back in the air, Payback has a proposition. "What do you say we put some skin in the game?"

"What do you have in mind?" Maverick asks. 

"Whoever gets shot down first has to do two hundred pushups," Payback proposes.

Rooster, knowing exactly what Maverick is like, tries to get them back on task and focusing. "Guys." He does not feel like losing. Again.

Maverick, flying directly below the pair of planes, replies. "That's a lot of pushups." He doesn't sound worried at all.

"Well they don't call it exercise for nothing sir," Fanboy replies cheekily.

"You've got yourselves a deal gentlemen," Maverick confirms. "Fight's on, let's turn and burn." He stops talking, gets into position, and aims straight for the other planes.

"Fanboy, you see him?" Payback calls out to his back seater.

He shakes his head, not seeing anything. "Nothing on the radar up ahead, he must be somewhere behind us."

Maverick comes right up between the two jets, Rooster going one way while Payback and Fanboy go the other.

All the others hear over the radio is:
"Jeez."
"Oh God."
"Shit."

All three men swear simultaneously. 

"Alright Maverick, let's try not to get fired on the first day," he says to himself. He flies around the others, confusing them as to where he is.

"Tally, tally, tally!" Fanboy calls out as he spots Maverick. "Break left!" he tells Payback as Maverick flies up from behind them.

"Breaking left," Payback confirms.

As he tries to lock in on them, Maverick questions, "Hey there, where's your wingman?"

"Rooster, where are you?" Payback calls out.

"I've got your back," Rooster answers. "I'll be there soon, hang in there, hang in there."

"Come on man, hurry up," Payback calls out as Maverick gets closer.

"Break right," Rooster calls out.

"Breaking right," Payback confirms.

"Rooster may have saved your lives, but it's gonna cost him," Maverick says trying to lock onto Rooster's plane. 

"Not this time old man," Rooster says angrily. Rooster dives down, taking them both lower.

"Rooster you're too low, pull up!" Payback informs him. "You're hitting the hard deck."

"Oh shit," Rooster realizes as his distance until the hard deck hits the 3000s. He pulls up to avoid it but allows Maverick to get a lock on him.

"That's a kill," Maverick says.

Rooster goes to Hondo, doing his push ups in view of the rec room where the others are waiting for their runs.

"Should be us down there," Fanboy says as he and Payback walk over the window where Phoenix is, observing Rooster doing his push ups.

"But it's not," Phoenix says. "And now you know a little something about Rooster." 

And thus begins the endless rounds of Maverick continuously beating every pilot in the group.

It goes, as follows:

"Kill," Maverick says, shooting down the second team. 

"Damn it," the pilot says.

"Smoked," Maverick says, taking out Hangman.

Meanwhile, Hondo is having his own game with the cocky pilots. "It was all fun and games till you messed up isn't it?" He says. "DOWN!"

"Hey Phoenix, why don't we tell everybody 'Bob' stands for something," Hangman goads in the air. "Other than Robert I mean." (Oh, Mal was gonna punch him.)

"Don't take the bait, Bob." Phoenix says. "Wanna know why we call him Hangman?"

"Oh wait, I got it. Baby on board," Hangman jokes as he laughs. (Okay, Malina might laugh at that one, but reluctantly.)

"Shit!" He says as Maverick flies between them. "Greetings aviators," Maverick says. "Fight's on."

"Alright Phoenix, let's take this guy out," Hangman says, getting into game mode. He was not gonna be taken out twice in one day.

Rooster is listening through the radio in the rec room. "Watch your back Phoenix," Rooster says to the radio.

"Breaking right," Phoenix calls out.

"Where's he going?" Bob asks as Hangman flies away.

"That's why we call him Hangman," Phoenix says pissed off. "He'll always leave you out to dry."

"Leaving your wingman," Maverick says. "There's a strategy I haven't seen in a while."

"He just called you a man Phoenix, you gonna take that?" Hangman asks

"As long as he doesn't call you a man," she fires back. (Oh Bob was not prepared for just how well Malina and Natasha are about to get along.)

"Where's Maverick," Phoenix asks Bob as they weave through the sky. "Jesus, he's right on us, coming around," he replies.

Phoenix yells out to her supposed wingman. "Get him off me Hangman."

"Sure, for you folks at home this is how you bury a fossil," Hangman says while trying to get a lock on Maverick.

"Alright Hangman, time to teach you a lesson," Maverick says, just as he locks onto Phoenix. "You're out Phoenix."

"Son of a bitch," she says, slapping the front of her jet. 

"Alright Mav let's see what you've got," Hangman pushes, as cocky as ever.

"Come get me," Maverick replies as he kicks it into high gear.

"You won't be long, Hangman's coming," Hangman says.

"Yea, you're good, I'll give you that," Maverick says reluctantly as he pulls the level and shoots straight into the air, blinding Hangman with the sun.

"Shit! Phoenix I cant see him, how close am I?" Hangman asks. "Phoenix?!"

"I'm dead, dickhead," she says smugly.

"See you in the afterlife Bagman," Bob says snarkily. There's that personality Mal has been prying out of him for years.

"Where is he, where is he?" Hangman says as he looks around for Maverick.

Suddenly, Maverick locks onto his jet. "That's a kill."

Phoenix, Bob, and Hangman all have to do push ups, again, because of Hangman. And Phoenix doesn't hold back on her glare.

The final matchup of the day is Rooster and Hangman. Now, normally, this would result in some tension and conflict between the two men.

But this time, it's all from Rooster and Maverick. Let's just say, there was an incident that will never be repeated, if Cyclone has anything to say about it.

☽☆☾   ☽☆☾   ☽☆☾

While the aviators were in training, Malina was in a separate area of the base. Since getting the approval from Cyclone, Malina had been in a meeting to discuss where she was allowed on base. She always had an escort and needed clearance for specific areas.

Getting some shots of the jets on land was easy enough. She had even managed to convince some of the aviators nearby to be models of sorts. They would go about getting the aircraft ready and Mal would take the photos. Some of the pilots climbing in, others of people inspecting the outside of the plane.

As she was walking back to the area her husband and his detachment were in, a few jets were flying by. Quickly, Malina snapped her camera up and got some shots with a long range lense. (Hell, she even managed to get some photos of takeoff.)

But finally, she made it to the main hanger. Only to discover the team was done for the day and had already gone to change.

Still worked for her, as she went about getting some photos of the individual jets ones assigned to specific pilots and such.

What she was not expecting was a new voice to call out. "It's Malina, right?"

Mal almost dropped her camera.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." Mal turns around to find Natasha, aka Phoenix, standing there, freshly changed back into normal clothes.

She shakes off the initial nerves, having briefly met her the previous day. "Yea, but you can call me Mal. Or Lina. Most people do. I only hear Malina when I'm in trouble."

The women laugh at that, both knowing the feeling.

"Do you prefer Natasha or Phoenix? It's always a toss up when I meet pilots," Mal asks the other woman, wanting to get to know her husband's pilot better.

Natasha shrugs. "Honestly, it doesn't matter. Typically, if it's another pilot, I go by Phoenix, but my friends and family call me Natasha. Or Tasha. Or Nat. I have a lot of nicknames."

"Well, Natasha, we need to have a girl's night soon. I would love to get to know you more. It's not everyday I meet a female pilot in the Navy. Bob always introduces me when he meets one," Mal insists.

Natasha nods her head. "I'd like that. It gets hard being surrounded by all the testosterone all the time."

As if summoned by her statement, the men start to come out of the locker rooms, a few wandering over to the women. Bob clocks his wife immediately, heading right for her.

Mal and Natasha are just finishing up their conversation, so he only catches the tail end of it. But what he does hear, scares him, just a little bit.

"You kinda remind me of my best friend, Carter. All good, I promise. But I feel like you two would get along well, if you ever met."

Bob is quick to interject, with a slight jab at Carter. "But you are much prettier than he could ever be." Malina snickers at that statement.

(Clearly that's an inside joke between those 3 individuals that Natasha is not privy to.)

"Thanks Bob, I'll take that as a compliment," is all Natasha can really think to say. She hasn't had a lot of time with her WSO that wasn't in the air, so she's not quite familiar with his personality and sense of humor just yet.

And with that, the small group splits up, the couple wanting to get back home and play with their dogs.

But even as they leave, with Mal's arm around Bob's waist and his around her shoulders, the other aviators stare, still surprised that shy, quite, little Bob has a wife.

And one that is a firecracker at that.

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Word count: 1,798

Not really sure how I wanted to end this chapter so it kinda just.... Ended. Not that proud of it, but I wasn't sure what else to do.

Anyways, I am here for the future Malina/Natasha friendship!! And peep my quick preview at Carter!! Carter may be one of my fav OC's ever, no lie.

Also, as noted, some photos of the jets are mine. Taken at my Uncle's National Guard retirement in 2018.

That's all I got for you this time, so see you next chapter. Bye guys!!!