FLYBY (b. bradshaw)

𝙁𝙊𝙐𝙍

"Shit, do you see him?" Payback yelled. "Rooster, respond!"

"Where they hell did he go!" Rooster shouted.

Everyone was screaming different commands. Lilah tried to block it all out and focus on getting herself out of there with getting shot. 

Lilah followed the two, dropping underneath them. 1,000 feet from the hard deck.

"There he is!" she screamed, watching him bolt out of the covers of the mountains. He was flying straight at them. She zoomed up, saving Fanboy and Payback.

"Hurricane just saved your life." Maverick shouted. "But it's gonna cost her."

"That's what you think, old man." she said, breaking left.

Maverick was on her. Shit.

"Where's your wingman?" Maverick asked.

"Yeah, where the hell is my wingman!" she grunted, struggling to say out of Maverick's range.

"Coming!" Rooster piped up. He put himself in between the two, giving her time that she didn't need to break downwards.

Then it was a dogfight between Rooster and Maverick. Rooster engaged, immediately, screwing himself over. Lilah watched him get dangerously close to the hard deck.

"Rooster, pull up!" she yelled.

"Oh, shit!" he slammed upwards, making him loose all of his momentum. He was dead in seconds.

"That's a kill." Maverick said.

"Fuck!" Rooster shouted.

"Go home." was all Maverick mustered up to say.

The game field was now two to one. Lilah dipped down lower.

800 feet from the hard deck.

"Hurricane, do you see him?"

Payback was flying the same direction Maverick had last come from, giving him the perfect shot to take him out if Maverick was still around.

"Negative." Lilah replied, scanning the sky.

And then she saw him. Under Payback and Fanboy.

"He's under you!" she yelled, but it was too late.

The beeping filled the comm. "That's a kill."

One on one.

She'd given Maverick her position when she'd tried to save Payback and Fanboy. She swooped down lower.

500 feet from the hard deck.

She streaked across the sky, trying to find Maverick. He'd disappeared again.

And then she saw him. Out of the corner of her eye. Coming at her from the side.

"Dammit!" she shrieked, pulling up quickly.

She shot straight up through the cloud, before leveling out. And then they were chasing each other. Once she had some distance, she hit the control stick down.

600 feet.

450.

300.

150.

She had him then. He hadn't see her

"That's a kill, Mav." she said softly.

She knew that this would mean. She's killed him. Bradley hadn't.

"Shit." he cursed quietly.

She heard an explosion of cheers from the other side of the comms. She switched channels. She didn't want to hear it.