automatic stop, bradley bradshaw

six.

AFTER HANGING OUT AT THE BEACH, THE GROUP all went their own separate ways, mentally preparing for whatever mission they'd be tasked with the next day. katia and skye both ended up passing out on their couch, a tub of uneaten popcorn between them and captain america: civil war playing in the background. 

skye was the first to wake up, squinting at the bright contrast of the room now that the sun had begun to rise. "wake up." she mumbled, nudging katia, whose head was on the other end of the couch. "you're going to drool. wake up." 

the two eventually got their uniforms on and drove their motorcycles to the base, seeing that nearly everyone else was already there. "you two always seem to be late." phoenix said with a smile.

"fashionably so." skye shrugged, lifting her aviators to her head. "did deadzone give us our mission for today yet?" 

phoenix shook her head. "nope. my guess is he's gonna go a bit easier on us, you know, since only four people passed the last assignment." 

this made both skye and katia laugh, performing their handshake at their sides. "hopefully it's a bit easier, it's only eight am." skye joked, looking over at the monitor. 

the mission ended up being a bit easier, but skye, katia, and rooster were put up against hangman, phoenix, and fang. "we're up against your man, how do you feel, hav?" rooster teased, laughing as katia glared at him.

"did she tell you about that?" she looked over to skye, who pretended not to hear her. "that was confidential." 

skye laughed. "you guys should stop making googley eyes at each other, then!" she giggled as katia pretended to make a move as if to wrestle her. "okay, we need to stay a team. if phoenix and hangman have a disagreement, then their group is at a disadvantage, right. so we need to just all listen to each other and we should be good." 

rooster nodded as he grabbed his helmet. "yeah, sounds good. and if i make another stupid idea, stop me."

"no, your idea was good. we just know now that it won't work." skye replied as they walked towards their respective jets. "keep your comms on, we'll tell you if we come up with better ideas." 

he shook his head with a smile, putting his helmet on and watching as skye and katia helped each other into their jet. 

"stop staring, rooster." a voice sounded, and he looked over to see hangman standing with a smirk. "what's going on between you guys anyways?"

"none of your business." he responded, suddenly becoming stiffer. 

hangman shrugged. "just don't let it distract you, rooster. you're slow enough up there as it is."

his brows furrowed with anger. "what's that supposed to mean?"

"nothin." he smiled. "just that, if you're gonna have any hope at being one of the top five to graduate here, you're gonna have to pick up your speed. you stay there on your perch just.. waiting."

bradley rolled his eyes. "i don't have time for this. i have a mission to kick your ass in."

this made his sickly-sweet smile widen. "yeah? don't sound too confident. i remember what happened last time your group was confident about an exercise." 

rooster turned back around to him, pointing a finger at him. "hey, you keep that out of this, alright?"

"i'm not saying anything." hangman said, holding his hands up. "all i know is that, if riot hadn't choked, maybe you guys would've had a chance at beating me." 

the other man smiled. "so you wanna play dirty, huh? bring it." without another word, he walked over to his jet, climbing in. 

skye and katia had been watching the interaction with furrowed brows. "what do you think's going on over there?" katia asked.