As Lia was flying next to me, slightly behind me as we were just waiting for instructions, Maverick's voice came on the radio, and Val was checking the radar every couple of seconds.

"Good morning aviators. This is your captain speaking. Welcome to basic fighting maneuvers. As briefed, today's exercise us dogfighting. Guns only, no missiles. We do not go below the hard deck of 5,000 feet. Working as a team you have to shoot me down or else." Maverick said as I strapped the other side of my oxygen mask onto my helmet. 

"That means you don't go below 5000 feet Rebel." Val joked. I rolled my eyes.

"I know what that means Frosty. Just be a good WSO please so I can do my job as yours and Apollo's wingman." I said.

"Are you saying I'm a distraction to you?" Val teased.

"You're a distraction to everyone Frosty." Lia cut in.

"I'm asking Rebel, not you Apollo," Val said.

"Yes, Frosty, you are a distraction and definitely one of my favorite distractions sometimes," I said.

"Are you flirting with me Trace?" Val asked.

"I have a boyfriend Kazansky so make sure we don't lose the exercise." I said.

"Hey Mav, why don't we make this a little interesting." Lia said.

"Yeah, continuing our conversation. Or else what sir?" Val asked.

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

"Now that's some serious bull." I said and Lia and Val started laughing.

"How about we put some skin in the game Mav?" I asked.

"What are you thinking Rebel?" Maverick asked.

"God no, don't listen to her, or Lia either, both of them are problematic." Val cut in. 

"She's lying, we're not problematic." Lia cut in. 

"That's bullshit." I said.

"Anyways! Whoever gets shot down first, has to do 200 push ups." Lia said.

"That's a lot of push-ups." Maverick said. 

"They don't call it an exercise for nothing. Sir." Val said.

"You've got yourself a deal ladies. Fights on, let's turn and burn." Maverick said. I could just feel the smirk on his face through the radio. 

"V, you see him?" I asked as I flew next to the girls.

"There's nothing on the radar up ahead." Val said as we looked over at each other.

"He's probably below us or behind us." Lia said, knowing how her father flies. As if on cue, Mav flew in from below us in between our planes, causing us to all let out curse words and turn in different ways.

"Mav's coming, break left!" I yelled and we broke away from each other.

"Apollo, where's your wingman?" Maverick asked.

"Rebel, get him off me!" Lia yelled.

"I'm coming!!" I yelled back as I turned my plane to go after Lia and Mav. I flew right in front of Mav to shake him off Lia's tail.

"Break right Apollo!" I said.

"Breaking right." Lia said and she flew right while I flew left.

"Rebel just saved your life ladies, but's it's gonna cost her." Maverick said as he followed me.

"Not today Dad." I heard Lia mutter and I smiled. Lia and I flew as fast as we could, trying to shake Mav off of us, not realizing we were below the hard deck.

"PULL UP." our plane's automated voice said repeatedly. 

"Oh shit!" I said and I flew up with Lia following me. Maverick was behind us and had a clear shot, making the tone come on through our cockpits. 

"Son of a bitch!" I said as I ripped my mask off since we had leveled out. 

"Shit!" Lia said, her and Val doing the same thing as me.

"That's a kill ladies. Go do your push ups." Maverick said as he stayed in the air and we went to go land.

"Hey Rebel, remember how we weren't supposed to go below the hard deck?" Val asked.

"What's your point, Valerie?" I asked, annoyed that now we have to do 200 pushups. Whatever though.

"We went over 500 feet below the hard deck." Val said.

"I know. That's just how the three of us fly together and people can't handle us." I said.

"Hell yeah baby." Lia said and we landed our planes. We got out and went to Hondo and it didn't help that it was already hot out so he came over to us and we went in the shade that was there from our planes.

"Alright, get ready to start." Hondo said and we got into pushup position. We had unbuttoned the top of our suits so we wouldn't die of heat. It's over 80 degrees outside and over 100 degrees inside our planes so it gets hot fast. Our sleeves were tied around our waist, leaving our legs still in our flight suit and our chest and arms in our tank tops that we wear underneath.

"Down! One!" Hondo started. We went down and up. 

"Down! Two!" Hondo said. 

"Down! Three!" Hondo continued counting our pushups. We went down and up, repeating the movement over and over again. Around 100 pushups, Yale, Omaha and Fritz stood in front of us and took a selfie and started laughing before they walked away to go do their exercise.

"Down! 199!" Hondo yelled.

"Down! 200!" Hondo yelled and we collapsed on the ground. 

"Alright, go cool off guys. Apollo and Frosty, you're done, for now, Rebel you have one more run later on." Hondo said as we stood up. 

"Thanks Hondo." We said as we stood up and headed inside. 

"Why did we make that bet?" I asked, barely feeling my arms. 

"Because we are idiots when we fly together, and if we didn't pull up, we could've had a chance of shooting down Mav but things happen." Val said. We headed inside and went to the break room to join whatever pilots aren't up in the air right now. A bit of time passed and it was the last round and everyone had down at least 200 pushups, all of us losing the exercise. 

"Rebel, Hangman, and Rooster. Your up." Maverick said over the comms system. I got up and did my handshake with Lia before following Bradley and Jake outside to the tarmac. We all went to our planes, checked them over, and got ready to take off. Once we were in the air, we were all flying next to each other, Jake in the middle of Bradley and me. 

"Hey Rooster, mind if I ask you a personal question?" Jake asked. I rolled my eyes, knowing where Jake was going with this. 

"Would I matter if I did?" Bradley shot back.

"So what's the story between you and Maverick. It seems to me that he has you a little rattled and it seems like Rebel knows why, same with Apollo and Frosty." Jake said.

"Give him a break Jake, Jesus." I said.

"That's none of your business. Now where the hell is he?" Bradley asked. 

"Been here the whole time. Come on, let's get it over with." Maverick said as he was now inverted over Bradley. I looked at them with Jake in his plane next to me. 

"Fight's on!" Bradley yelled before they started doing a cobra maneuver, heading down towards the hard deck. Jake and I were just watching what was going on and neither of them was going to stop so I flew down. 

"Hard deck is 5000 feet fellas. You're running out of room." Jake said. 

"You guys need to pull up!" I yelled but neither of them did anything. 

"Jesus Christ, I can't believe I have to save your asses." I muttered but I'm pretty sure everyone heard me. I flew down below them and Maverick pulled up so he wouldn't crash into me, and Rooster followed after. Rooster followed Mav while I flew below the hard deck still doing some slow flying tricks while I was watching what was going on. 

"Take the shot Rooster!" Jake yelled. 

"I'm too low." Rooster said, letting Maverick get tone on Rooster since he hit his brakes and pulled up and got behind him. 

"That's a kill Rooster." Maverick's voice sounded throughout the comms and I flew right back over and next to Jake and I didn't bother to look at him, knowing that his reaction to me breaking the hard deck and doing stupid shit for someone I don't even know, wouldn't be a good reaction.  

"Go see Hondo about your pushups. You too Rebel." Maverick said. 

"What? You didn't get tone on me!" I said annoyed. 

"No, but you flew below the hard deck twice, and don't think I didn't see you doing those dangerous maneuvers and you pulled below Rooster and me which is pretty dangerous and you could've gotten killed if neither of us pulled up." Maverick scolded. I didn't respond and just landed my plane before Rooster, Jake, and Mav and I got out and stormed over to where Hondo was and I got ready to do my pushups. Rooster joined me as Jake and Mav went inside and everyone went home beside Nat, Reuben, Rooster, and me. Training was over so they could go home if they wanted to but they decided to stay. We finished our pushups, but Rooster kept going so I just started to head inside but I was met with my sister and Reuben.