✔ᵉⁿᵍˡⁱˢʰ Starscream [Top Gun Maverick]✔

18

It's as if certain people were just waiting for Admiral Kasanzky to die, and now, to take advantage of that opportunity. Mitchell was supposed to take time off to deal with the loss of his longtime friend and former wingman, but when he declined because there were more important things to mourn right now, it became a resignation. Now that Iceman was gone, there was no one to stand up for the captain. Training for Pete's plane would be handled by Admiral Simpson from now on.

Not long, not half an hour after Pete and Kim arrived at the academy, the captain was summoned to Simpson's office and it wasn't ten minutes before the man came back to her and said goodbye with the words 'I'm out'. If Mitchell was out, so was she. She only had this job because of him. On top of that, her job was to help him and if the person she was supposed to support was gone, there was nothing left for her to do.

What was odd and made Kim wonder was the 'I'm out'. Me and not you or us. Me.

"My dad believed in you," slowly walking Kim approached Penny's house a little later, causing Mitchell to immediately stand up from the sidewalk and look to the brown haired woman, "So others will continue to do so."

"There you hear it," confidently smiling, Penny placed a hand on Pete's arm and looked to Kim, "How are you doing?"

"Must be," Kim shrugged, wrestled a smile from herself and stopped at the stairs with the two of them, "We're already halfway down to hell, and you know the road there is paved with good intentions. Prove to them why Dad kept bringing you back. There's a reason it should be you and not Beau. So stop feeling sorry for yourself already."

"What do you want me to do?" that was Mitchell's job to figure out, not Kim's, nor anyone else's, "Orders are orders."

"Boring," Kim retorted in a matching, extra bored tone, "You're the one flying way too close to the tower, over and over again. Are you allowed to do that? No. Do you do it anyway? Yes. Since when, are you into rules? Or orders. You've been known to not follow anything and end up getting celebrated for it. So what's the dumbest thing a Maverick can pull off now?"

"So I have dumb ideas? Good to know. If we weren't running out of time, the group would have moved on by now. It's just....," but Maverick paused and began to think, "time. Didn't you say at some point that time is merely an illusion? 'A concept that we humans created ourselves and thus, made our own problem.' I might have something, and you won't like it.... Frost."

It had been the first time Pete had ever called Kim by that name, and it wasn't like when the pilot called her Kimmie.

•●•

With a person like Maverick, it didn't matter if he was fired or not, because there were people who liked the pilot. Others again, were impressed by what Pete had accomplished. Thus, no one needed much persuasion or any favors called in. Which was probably also because no one knew what the pilot was planning. The dumbest thing a Maverick could pull now applied to what the man was up to.

"There will be consequences," Kim's sing sang voice could be heard, flipping a switch on the wall and turning on one hangar ceiling light after another, "If you weren't fired long ago, you'd be fired now."

"Gotcha," Pete replied good-humoredly, walking straight toward the stationary F-18s, "No matter what it takes. I started it and I'm going to finish it like your dad would have wanted and that includes not letting Bradley down either."

"The kid is an adult. Four years older than me, to be clear. "So much for leaving the past behind, Kim thought, "So.... there's your F-18.One shot. Make the best of it."

The best. Make the best of it.

•●•

'Maverick to Range Control. On approach to point alpha. Request go for test range.'

'Um Maverick, this is Range Control. Test range is clear. However, I'm not showing a training flight for you, sir. Not even for two.'

'Never mind. We'll fly anyway. Timer to target. Two minutes, fifteen seconds. Final point of attack. Maverick and Kerberos inbound. So, stay close.'

'Don't worry, it won't happen.'