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"Hawk! Break left!" Riley exclaimed over comms as she broke out of what would be Maverick's line of fire. They had been up for a total of five minutes, dodging Maverick like he was the plague as he tried to get a lock on them. Riley wasn't planning on getting 'killed' on that day, not after the prior compliment that had come from Maverick; she wanted to prove that it wasn't just a fluke, that she really was that good.
"Breaking left!" Luke repeated, veering off of Maverick's missile lock.
"Good teamwork, aviators," Maverick praised, "Let's turn up the heat." He then pulled up, soaring between Riley and Luke at such an incredible speed it blew both of their jets out of the way.
"Holy shit!" Luke exclaimed through comms as they both steadied their jets and looked around for where Maverick had gone. It was like he had disappeared into thin air—but Riley knew that wasn't possible. He was there somewhere; she just had to find out where.
"Where is he, Karma?!" Luke was yelling, sounding out of breath as Riley looked all around her, trying her best to figure out where Maverick had gone. He had gone upwards and so he wasn't below them. He also wasn't anywhere around or behind them. That only left one option.
Riley squinted her eyes, staring directly into the warm sun above them, "He's using the sun as a cover! Drop fast, Hawk! Drop down!" Riley exclaimed with sudden urgency. Just then, just as she had suspected, Maverick's jet appeared as a shadow, coming out of where he had been hiding in the sunlight, the perfect cover. Although it wasn't easy to use the sun to your advantage, it was easy to get lost and disorientated in it. But Maverick didn't seem to have that problem.
Both pilots dropped their jets into a nose dive, plummeting towards the ground to get away from Maverick. He was quick and so they had to be, "We're not going fast enough, Hawk! He's gonna get a clear shot on us!" Riley yelled, out of breath, her skin clammy as she held onto the joy stick for dear life.
"Sure am. So, what you gonna do about it?" Came Maverick's taunting tone.
Riley gritted her teeth, thinking it over as the ground beneath them got closer through her window. They hadn't broke the hard deck by any means but they were still accelerating quickly. She glanced backwards, Luke was right behind her and Maverick was right behind him. She looked back out the window and then down to the controls in front of her and her eyes locked onto the engine off and on switch.
"Hawk, I've got an idea," Riley spoke up, reaching out, her gloved finger hovering over the switch, "Turn off your engine—"
