Legacies •Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw•

Chapter 4

Silver and Winter got out of their jets along with Rooster and Hangman. "Well... not our finest training moment," Xavier mumbled, his heart was still racing from the fact that they almost just died twice today. "You're telling me," Rooster added. "You got something to say to me, Bradshaw?" Lani said. "You tell me, Kazansky because from the looks of it you have a lot to say and deadly intentions." Lani clenched her fist, but before anything further happened Rooster, Winter, and Silver were called to the Admiral's office.

They were told to wait outside of the office, as they waited Maverick came walking out and shot them a "good luck" look before walking off with Warlock. Once they were called into the office, they stood up straight in front of the Admiral. "What the hell were you two thinking? Pulling a move like that. It was reckless and I never want to see that shit again," Cyclone informed as he waited for a response. "It won't happen again, sir," Lani said. "It better not. You two both have names in this Navy. Hell Winter, you are the daughter of Admiral Kazansky, and you Rooster is the son of Nick Bradshaw. You both need to be doing it better than the other guy. I expect better," he added. The three pilots responded with "yes, sir."

"We are here to build a team. There is no room for selfishness, and you Kazansky have an RIO to think about. I know you haven't exactly flown with a team since your accident and that is why you were given a backseater but I will not allow that to affect this mission. Do you understand, Lieutenant?" Lani tensed up and clenched her jaw at the mention of the accident. Rooster glanced at her with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Out of nowhere, she felt a burning sensation at the back of her throat, but she cleared her throat and answered, "yes, sir." Cyclone nodded, "dismissed."

The second they were all out, Lani speed walked as fast as she could with her head down as tears threatened to fall. Rooster knew something was off, so he called out to her, but she only walked faster. "Let her go, man, she needs some space," Silver said from behind him. "What was the Admiral talking about?" he asked. "It's not my story to tell," Xavier said before beginning to walk away. "Wait, can you...make sure she is alright?" Bradley asked him and Silver nodded.

Lani made it to the women's locker room that was only being used by her and Phoenix. She went over to her locker, aggressively opening it before zipping her flight suit halfway down. She took a deep breath and punched her locker before running her hands through her hair and sliding down to the floor, resting her back against the other lockers. Winter shut her eyes, taking in deep breaths, she wasn't one to cry. She hated crying and did anything to avoid it.

Meanwhile, a few of the other pilots were in one of the break rooms that held all the pictures of the previous Top Gun graduates. Hangman was looking at the class of '86 that contained Iceman, Wipeout, Maverick, Goose, and Blaze, with the rest of their class. As he was going to turn to leave two other pictures beside it caught his eye, it was Lani's class and the picture next to it was Rooster's. "Hey, Coyote. Take a look at this," Hangman said as Coyote walked over, scanning the three pictures. "Well, what have we here? Winter and Rooster children of two legends," Coyote said. "I thought maybe Winter and Rooster graduated the same class. Figured that's how they know each other, but I guess not," Hangman added." Coyote thought about it for a moment, "maybe they met in deployment?" Jake shook his head, "no, what they got going on is too personal to be deployment."

Once Lani finally calmed down, she showered and made her way back to the mini house she shared with her RIO. When she walked through the door Silver was waiting for her on the couch. "Hey, X," she said. "Hey, you're here. Wasn't sure if you went to your parent's place," he responded. "Nope just needed a minute." He nodded, "you, okay? You were pretty shaken up at the mention of-" Lani closed her eyes and cut him off, "don't... I don't want to talk about it."

"You haven't in a long time. Maybe that's why you still have dreams about it," Silver added. "Look... I just want to apologize. I put us in danger twice today. I shouldn't have I know better than that and I'm sorry," Lani said. "Come here," he said as he patted the seat next to him on the couch, "the first run wasn't so bad. You're the best pilot I know, I trust your judgment and flying. But that cobra move Winter... with Rooster." Lani nodded, "I know, that was a stupid move. I'm sorry you had to be in there while we got lectured too." A small smile came across Xavier's face, "I don't care about us getting called into the office... We've done worse things." Winter rolled her eyes, "what could be worse than almost getting us killed?" He shrugged, "oh you know, we always find something that's worse. So, Bradshaw..."

"No. Absolutely not," she said as she crossed her arms. "You're going to have to work things out with him sooner or later."

"Or I could just ignore him." Silver shook his head, "uh huh yeah sure. He asked about the thing by the way." Lani bit her lip, "what did you say?"

"Told him it wasn't my story to tell. He wanted me to check on you," Xavier continued. "Great. Now he cares," she rolled her eyes and got up. "Would that be such a bad thing?" Silver asked. "Yes, it would. Why, because it would mean I would have to talk to him about the past. I just want to focus on this mission, X." He got up and followed her to the kitchen, "well, my dear Winter, you may be as cold as ice, but I still bid you good luck."

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In their next class, they were briefed on the mission's parameters. "Phase one of the mission will be a low-level ingress attacking in two-plane teams. You'll fly along this narrow canyon to your target. Radar-guided surface-to-air missiles defend the area. These SAMs, they're lethal. But they were designed to protect the skies above, not the canyon below," Maverick informed them. "That's because the enemy knows no one is insane enough to try and fly below them," Rooster said from his seat. Lani let out a sarcastic laugh, "scared, Bradshaw?" Bradley didn't say anything in response, he only glared at her. Hangman watched the interaction with a smirk on his face. Maverick cleared his throat before continuing, "I am going to train you to fly below them. On the day, your altitude will be 100 feet maximum. If you exceed this altitude the radar will spot you and you're dead. Your airspeed will be 660 knots minimum. Time to target: two and a half minutes." Lani and Xavier shared a look as their Captain continued. "That's because fifth-generation fighters wait at an air base nearby. In a head-to-head with these planes in your F-18s, you're dead. That's why you need to get in, hit your target, and be gone before these planes even have a chance of catching you. This makes time your greatest adversary."

When they were all dismissed to their jets Maverick pulled Lani and Rooster aside. Once the room was cleared, he spoke to the two, "my favorite niece and nephew... Why can't you two get along?"

"I don't know, why don't we ask Kazansky that Uncle Mav," Rooster said. "Seriously, going to pin this all on me? Real mature Bradshaw," Lani said in response. "Alright, let's not start. Look, you two need to figure out how to put whatever is going on between you guys behind you. This team will not work like this. That understood because I will call your parents," Maverick asked. Winter smirked at Rooster, "crystal, uncle P." Bradley only nodded. "Okay. Shake hands, I will see you on the tarmac," Maverick said once more before they shook hands and went off to prepare for their flight training.

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A/N:

I'm so sorry I meant to post yesterday but plans changed, and I wasn't home the whole day. I also most likely won't be posting over the weekend this week because I am having family over. But I should be posting on Monday!

Anywho! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Maverick about to pull the I know your parents' card.