Call Sign Elvis - Top Gun: Maverick

009

"Captain Mitchell will no longer be your instructor for this mission."

It was like a punch to the gut. "What?" 

"I will be taking over from here." 

"B-but, my dad - Admiral Kazansky's - orders were-"

"I am well aware of Admiral Kazansky's request, and my apologies, Lieutenant, but Admiral Kazansky is unfortunately no longer here."

This was also like a punch, but not to the gut, but to her heart. Her jaw tightened. "Yes I'm well aware of that, Sir. But he wanted-"

"Yes, and I am well aware of what he wanted, but Captain Mitchell was not achieving what we needed him to." And that was that, or so it seemed very clear.

She scoffed. "This is bullshit." She racked her brain for a solution to this, to continue to fulfill one of her father's final wishes, but her mind came up blank.

They all took their seats and faced the screen. In her seat next to Bradley, Shannon was chewing hard on her gum. She was so distracted by her thoughts that she missed Simpson's introduction. 

Suddenly, the screen blinked, showing a jet inbound on the course - someone was out there.

"Who the hell is that?" asked Simpson, clearly annoyed and confused in equal measure.

Suddenly, Shannon grinned.  "Maverick."

He was running the course - Mav was flying the course.

"Maverick to Range Control."

"Uh, Maverick, Range Control. I don't see an event scheduled for you at this time, Sir."

"Well, I'm going anyway."

"Nice," declared Phoenix.

"Setting time to target: two minutes, fifteen seconds."

"Two-fifteen, that's impossible," said Payback.

But 'impossible' was Mav's middle name. 

"And - mark!" And he was off. The timer immediately began its decent, ticking down closer and closer to 00:00 with each passing second, literally. 

It was both the longest and the shortest two minutes ever while they sat there, watching his jet zip through the course, listening to his updates over the radio.

"He's gonna make it," breathed Fanboy, the first to break the shocked, tense silence.  "He's gonna make it!"

Now Mav was coming up on the target. Team members were rising to their feet expectantly. 

Shannon was perched on the edge of her seat.  "Holy fuck-" 

"Bombs away-"

BLAST!

"Direct hit!"

"Bull's-eye! Holy shit!"

And just like that, the course ended - and with sixteen whole seconds left to spare. 

"YES!" Shannon launched to her feet, pumping her fist into the air. 

"Damn."

"Shit."

Everyone was in awe - including Simpson.

"That was freakin' amazing!" Shannon threw her arms around Mav as soon as he stepped out of the Admiral's office.

"Well I had some inspiration." He returned the  hug. "Thanks Shan."

"No need to thank me, you did this."