"Mikos Base this is Ibis, online and ready to lift," Luca stated, tapping at the controls.

"Ibis, this is Mikos Base, you are cleared to lift."

"Roger, Ibis lifting," Luca took a deep breath, "Ibis passing exit gate Yankee, dropping to 200 feet, requesting change to tactical comms."

"Roger Ibis, tactical in 10 seconds on my mark. MARK."

Flying in the helicopter at night was completely different to the ground run they had done that morning.

First off, they were in the middle of the desert so the multitude of stars were completely visible! It was as if they had become one with the cosmos. Bay ‘oohed’ and ‘ahhed’ in delight as he plastered his face to the glass.

At one point his breath fogged up the surface and he drew a smiley face before turning to Luca who looked wholly unimpressed. That was fair, Bay figured the pilot was probably wondering why they had let someone who clearly had the mental age of a toddler be his systems operator.

Bay shrugged to himself, it wasn’t like he had ever had a chance impressing a guy like Luca anyway, so he might as well just enjoy himself.

"Let's see how fast we can get this baby to go," Luca almost purred beside Bay in a voice so low it sent shivers up Bay’s already tingly spine.

Command crackled over the radio, "Ibis please note Bobcat is presently coming up your ass."

"Roger that," Luca replied, causing Bay to burst into a fit of schoolboy giggles.

Luca looked vaguely smug then sat back in the seat.

Perhaps Bay wasn’t the only immature one in the cockpit after all?

"Looks like we're hanging here for a while guys, got to wait our turn," Luca announced with a sigh.

Bay grinned, he had no objections to hanging out there for a while at all. He peered avidly out the cockpit.

"Full moon tonight," Bay declared gleefully to the others, "Let’s hope things don’t get too hairy up here.”

Bay received a kind-of chuckle from Aziz. Bay liked Aziz.

"So, how did you end up in this unit?" Bay asked glancing round, happy for either to answer. He was met with silence so decided to tack on a name, "...Aziz?"

"I was transferred here."

No shit Sherlock.

"Well what a coincidence Aziz! Would you believe it I was transferred here too!"

Bay flicked his eyes to the pilot's seat, Luca was concentrating on the lit up display but there was a smirk ghosting his lips.

"Luca?"

There was a pause then, "I requested this unit."

Okay, now that was unusual. People never 'requested' black ops units because the whole point is that you didn't know about them unless you were in them.

Bay guessed Luca knew about the project because of his brother, and as for being compatible with the cerebral link, well that would have just been luck.

"And then I got transferred," Luca continued.

Bay looked up, okay Luca was definitely grinning now.

"Ibis come in, come in Ibis, this Bobcat Hart," Lily’s voice came across the static.

Bay looked out into the darkness but couldn’t spot the second aircraft, which was to be expected of a stealth helicopter. However, he could see the blipping light on the display, signalling that they were close.

"Roger that Bobcat, this is Ibis Jeong," Luca replied, the illuminated display shifting.

"Fancy a race Luca?" Lily’s voice had a sharp teasing edge to it that made Bay grin and turn to his crewmates.

Aziz chuckled, shaking his head but Luca narrowed his eyes. Bay snorted in amusement, it came as a surprise to exactly no one that the pilot would be ultra competitive.

"Roger that Bobcat, how about twice round the Base? Engines in silenced mode," Luca suggested, cracking his neck from side to side.

"Oh it's on," Lily replied cackling.

"Seriously?" Bay asked excitedly, looking at Luca. "We're going into stealth mode?"

"Well unless you want to alert the entire Base to the presence of two racing prototype helicopters?" Luca raised an eyebrow.

Bay grinned, okay stealth mode, that was his division - advanced systems operations. Bay leaned forwards and started moving things around on the touch screen in front of him and flicking switches down on the ceiling.

"Woah," Aziz breathed quietly. The engine had been silenced, it was as if the rotors weren't even spinning above them.

The Ibis Team radioed in for Command's approval, it was given.

'Only in black ops,' Bay thought to himself. His last squadron was nowhere near this awesome, plus his pilot there hadn't even bothered to learn his name, insisted on just calling him 'Geek'.

Luca might have seemed a bit stand-offish but he had definitely referred to Bay by his first name at least twice so far.

"Ready Ibis?" Lily practically sing-songed into their headsets. Bay knew that they couldn't underestimate her, she may have been five inches shorter than Bay's pilot, she may also have been a mass of perfectly polished blonde curls in a flight suit, but up here, Bay could sense she was going to be a real spitfire.

Bay tapped frantically at the systems controls, adapting them for maximum speed, let it be understood that Bay Pereira may have had a history of being a little competitive. It was compensation for every single sports lesson he had ever endured in high school.

Bay glanced across at Luca, an expression of grim resolution, good, he wasn’t the only one taking this seriously. Bay half wondered if the other man had actually ever lost at anything in his life.

"You gonna floor the gas?" Aziz asked, holding onto the straps either side of him and grinning.

"Ready Bobcat," Luca growled in a way that did something to Bay’s insides.

And they were off, streaks of mechanical lightening across the desert sky.

You don't understand speed until you are travelling in a stealth aircraft at 250 knots. Keanu Reeves could keep his bus, Bay had an Ibis.

Admittedly you didn't feel the acceleration, you could be standing still for all your body knew, but that was the beauty of it.

This was why Bay had spent four years in the library at college, this was why, when drafted into the US Air Force, he had spent a year in flight training, why he had been holed up in a lab for the past six months studying the MD-SAADARS software so it came as naturally to him as Word or Excel.

This feeling of streaming across the desert, the lights of the camp whirling below, and not a soul, not a freaking soul down there knew they were up there, watching over them. It was like being some celestial being or Greek deity.

"God she's fast," Luca growled beside him. Bay wasn't sure if Luca was referring to Lily or the aircraft, probably both.

"Come on Luca, we have to establish ourselves as the superior team here!” Bay shot a cheeky grin at the pilot, "Want to try the advanced controls?"

Luca glanced at Bay with a curious look, "You could have put those on before the race started Bay."

Bay beamed, "C'mon dude, save the best till last!" He reached forward and started pressing buttons in a sequence that he had memorised better than the back of his hand.

Bay turned on the automatic flight stabilisation, a red light flicked up somewhere on Bay’s eye line, he knew all systems controls were being monitored closely by Ops, they were testing prototypes after all.

Just, most test drives didn't always involve the potential for fiery exploding death. Unless you were Bay's 11th grade driving instructor that was, but hey, another story, another time.

Luca knew what was happening, he had also been in six months of specialised flight training for this specific model. If Luca had actually wanted the advanced controls activated earlier he would have asked for them. Bay knew the other man was having fun experimenting with his new toy.

Luca eased off the yaw pedals that directed the aircraft left and right whilst in the hover, they were not needed anymore, stabilisation took care of all that, it kept the aircraft balanced, even in combat turns.

They swept low around the far east side of the camp, it was a smooth systems transition, Bay couldn't help but feel a little smug as everyone let out a collective breath.

He tried to memorise every detail of what he was feeling. Bay knew that Sydney was going to want an in-depth account as soon as he got back, after all, part of the stabilisation software was hers.

Clever girl.

Bay glanced at the positions of the aircraft on the radar, the other team were right on their tail, not that you would know it, both helicopters were invisible, both travelling at supersonic speeds. It was going to take a lot for Bay to not start tossing about the phrase, 'Cloaking device'.

"This is the beginning of our working relationship, so I've got to ask this, where do you two stand on Star Trek jokes?" Bay peered round at Aziz and then Luca, who briefly replicated the expression he had worn when Bay had explained he had forgotten his I.D.

That was probably a no then.

"Nice flying there Ibis," Lily's voice came across the comms.

"Thank you Bobcat, not so bad yourself," Luca smirked out into the blackness.

Bay rolled his eyes, this was so typical with pilots. It was like they had a checklist for:

-Immortality complex

-Problem with authority

-Narcissistic egos that could rival the hubris of an entire cast of an Ancient Greek tragedy

-Obligatory sexual tension that you could cut with a knife, often directed towards themselves, because they were narcissists, did Bay mention that already?

"Nice systems operating Bay!" Bay grouched, jabbing at the display.

"Nice systems operating Bay," Luca said softly beside him.

Bay jerked his head up to squint suspiciously at the pilot, but Luca was concentrating on adjusting his helmet. Aziz chuckled behind them.

"Teams come in, teams come in this is Base. Over"

"Roger that, this is Ibis. Over," Luca spoke quickly into the helmet's mic. A moment later Lily could be heard,

"Roger that, this is Bobcat. Over."

"Teams, just alerting you to a situation before you head back to Base, we had three choppers fly out of Mikos on a scouting mission three hours ago and only two have returned. Looks like one went down at the coordinates you can now see on your screens. We're getting the incident report in as we speak."

"Survivors? Over," Luca's face had turned grim.

"That's a negative on the crew Ibis."

Bay let out air through his teeth and scrunched up his face. He didn't know the other helicopter crews at the base personally, they were standard operations and worked in broad daylight. In fact, they probably didn't even know Bay worked with helicopters, what with the 'listening station' black ops cover.

However, Bay had seen some of them around camp. It was always messed up to hear people didn't make it back. A few moments later Jenkins's voice came across the radio.

"The situation with the downed chopper has been updated, looks like the pilot survived, but it's just him in hostile territory."

Luca cut in almost immediately, "Are you initiating rescue ops Sir? Over."

Bay’s heart caught in his chest, an active mission on only their second test flight, now that would be something.

"That's another negative Ibis. Political bullshit I'm afraid. Sensitive area. Can't compromise our position."

Bay sighed and slumped back. He had heard of this before, people got stranded and no one could go in for them because the big chiefs wouldn’t give authorisation, it was not deemed a ‘tactically advisable’ move.

"Base this is Bobcat. So we're leaving the pilot there? Over," Lily sounded slightly strained. Bay wondered if she was thinking the same as him.

"That's the way it is Bobcat," Jenkins announced into their headsets. "You guys are only here on trial, we can't risk exposing the technology. Return to Base now. I repeat return to Base, and Bobcat please initiate your stabilisation systems, we need to know how it functions for you guys. Ibis - you are cleared to make your approach. Over."

Bay pulled at his flight suit, he wasn’t used to it being this uncomfortably tight.

"This is bullshit," a muttering voice announced to Bay’s right.

Bay jerked his head up in surprise, Luca was staring out of the window, his hand gripping the cyclic lever tightly, making them hover on the spot.

Bay turned round to look at Aziz who shrugged back.

"Luca?" Bay asked.

"Just forty-five minutes. That's what it would take us to get to that pilot in this aircraft," Luca growled.

Bay sighed, "I know, it fucking sucks. But you heard Jenkins."

Luca's jaw clenched. Bay sighed again, he knew how he sounded, he sounded like that guy, god he hated being that guy, but it wasn’t like there was much they could do about it.

"Plus he'll have been taken hostage by now. He won't be by the aircraft, he'll be at the village." Bay added pathetically.

"We have a winch-man for a reason," Luca retorted through gritted teeth.

And yes, fair enough, winch-men were also there to help recover and rescue people from the ground but seriously? Was Luca seriously suggesting they...

"We're ignoring Command," Luca announced firmly.

Oh god.