Danger Zone - Top Gun: Maverick

1. Where It All Goes Down

"You've got to be fucking-" Nova starts mumbling as she tries to yank the gas pump out of her car. She was called into work on her day off, and told to be on base quite promptly. It wasn't until after she left her house that she noticed the little arrow on her dashboard angling towards the empty symbol. The small girl uses all of her force to try and pull the stuck pump out of her gas tank, but fails, only making her more frustrated.

"Need some help there?" She hears the voice of a man next to her and practically jumps out of her skin.

"Jesus!" She looks up at the tall man, who seemed to have no problem filling his blue Ford Bronco up with gas. Her lungs tighten at the sight of him. His face is one she's seen before.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you."

He looks almost too familiar to her. He looks just like...

"You okay? You look like you just saw a ghost or something." The man asks. Nova finds it ironic that he said that, because she really does feel like she's looking at a dead man. Her eyes shift between his until she notices how confused he looks.

"Sorry! You just looked really familiar." She laughs it off, trying to shake the thought away. "I'm kind of in a hurry. I could really use a wingman right now." She nods towards her gas tank and makes a pilot joke, realizing that this random guy probably won't get it.

"You got your pump stuck?" He reaches for her gas pump, and shakes it before yanking it out of the car. Nova almost feels jealous of the fact that he could so easily do that. Maybe she should stop skipping arm day.

"Thank you so much." She says.

"Of course. I couldn't leave my wingman hanging." He smirks at her.

Nova smiles at the fact that he returned the joke, glad she didn't make herself look stupid. She's usually a confident girl, but something about this guy made her nervous. In a good way, of course.

"What's your name?" She asks the man.

"Rooster." He answers.

"Did your mother not love you or something?" She giggles slightly.

"It's a call sign." He laughs.

"Where'd you get that from?"

"Long story." He shakes his head.

"Alright, you just looked kinda familiar to me for some reason."

"You know, you look kinda familiar too. Have we met before?" He asks the girl.

"I don't think so, no. I just swore you were...shit! I gotta go!" She realizes that she's talking way too long to get to work, and Cyclone isn't fond of tardies.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry?"

"Fightertown." Nova answer shortly.

"Top Gun?" He asks, just to confirm.

"Yeah, you've heard of it?" She gives him a smirk.

"Oh baby, I was top of my class." He tells her, revealing that he's in the Navy.

"I should've known you were a pilot." She gathers, releasing a defeated sigh.

"Is that a bad thing?" He asks the woman.

"Sort of a red flag." She shrugs.

"Ahh. Here's an idea..." He starts to think.

"I'm listening." She nods for him to continue, suddenly more interested in what this man has to say than what Cyclone will say when she arrives late to the base.