Gunslingers

"I kind of like the name he came up with," Johnny said and placed the mask over his face. "It's a good name."

Flicking on some of the cockpit switches, I pulled on my own mask. "It's not bad. Plus, it sounds metal."

We started up the plane and taxied to the runway. We were supposed to do a straight vertical takeoff. Essentially that meant we weren't rolling to a start, we were going straight into a takeoff. The exact opposite of what commercial airplanes did.

"Gates, Christ, you're cleared for take off."

As soon as we completed take off, Johnny and I would start a dog fight with Jimmy and his new co-pilot. Jimbo was the only pilot that could beat us. Then again, he had unique capabilities.

We took off and flew to the zone for the dog fight. In a normal dog fight, the two pilots took off at the same time. In ours, one surprised the other. Normally, John and I were the element of surprise, but with Jimmy, you never knew.

"We've got a boogey on our left, coming in hot." Johnny turned his head to try to get the exact position.

I corrected our direction and flew toward Jimmy's plane. Jim blasted past us and in a total Top Gun move flipped the plane and brought it nearly on top of ours. He smiled and waved. His co-pilot held a barf bag over their face.

Jimmy turned his plane again then shot past us, jetting away. That's when Johnny and I heard a crackle over our radio.

"Just a spoon full of Jimmy helps the whole world burn down! Gotcha again, boys!"
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John grabbed his helmet and jumped out of the cockpit. He smirked at me. "We should go see Jimmy's poor co-pilot."

Hopping out of the cockpit, I sent short shit a loo. "You just want to laugh at him."

He nodded and took off to find the other pair. To be fair to the little gnome, it was fun to make fun of his co. Although, our boss had made it a guideline that we hall had to co for Jimmy in order to sympathize. So far, we'd all puked except Johnny Boy. He was just used to G-Force, I guess.

Maeve, my favorite mechanic, walked over to my plane. She was like a little sister to me. She opened up the cockpit to jump inside and started checking that everything was working.

"Maeve, you ever think about being a pilot?" I put my aviators over my eyes.

She snorted. "Women aren't fighter pilots, though, I'd love to be one."

"You could be the first! I mean, there was that one chick Marine who became the first female in combat."

"Shut up, Haner." She flicked the plane on and listened to it purr. Man, I loved that sound.

"Well, don't let the dream die, Maeve. You already know everything about planes."

"Just because I know the mechanics doesn't determine how good I'd do in real world scenarios. No one knows until the situation is presented," she said, "Now, go away."

I smiled and left her with my plane. She was the only mechanic I trusted to touch my baby. She was a genius.

Johnny and Jimmy came up to me laughing. Jimbo's arm was around the little guy. Jimmy threw his other arm around me and guided us to the cafeteria. Dog fights always made those two hungry.

"So, Bri, have you seen Laura since your first date?" Christ asked me with a grin.

A smile appeared on my face. "Yeah, we've gone out for the last week. She's awesome."

"So, you gonna actually date this one, dickwad?" Jimmy put a bunch of grapes on his plate. "Cause I like Laura."

"I like her." I grabbed a Sprite. "I don't know if I'll keep around though."

Johnny turned to look at me but kept his mouth shut. He'd never been a fan of my history with women. Granted, I was a bit of an asshole, but I couldn't drag a woman into this lifestyle. Women always wanted babies too, and I sure as shit didn't want those. Women just ruined all my plans.

"You're still a dick, Haner." Jimmy went to sit down. "Be nice to Laura!"
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I played a little flourish on the guitar, waiting for Matt to start singing. He'd been in a funk all afternoon, barely singing at all. He was just mumbling his own lyrics.

"What's up with muscle man?" I asked Zach.

"He got reprimanded by Rae Martinez in front of our entire team. We all did really, but they had sex so worse for him." Zach played a cool melody.

Matt paced the courtyard, pulling at his short hair. He looked a little bit like a madman. Jimmy and Johnny watched him. It was like we were all watching a caged beast. Clearly this was eating at him.

"Look, Matt, we go on tour soon. Are we playing or what?" Zach asked.

"Shit, sorry. I can't believe we have to go on tour with Marines." He walked over to us and picked up his pad of paper. "Sorry guys."

We all nodded and started playing the tune Jimmy and Zach had come up with. The five of us really were meshing well together. If the while military thing didn't work out, we could totally five this a shot.

Notes

Brian chapter again. It's not great... sorry.

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