Bay held the cold metal of his gun tightly with shaking fingers. There was a feeling of, how would he describe it? Absolute terror - creeping down his spine.

Bay was shadowing Aziz, or 'the human version of a transformer'. Aziz currently looked like he could take on all the cast members of the Expendables single-handedly.

"I feel naked without being covered in Engineer's steel," Aziz had shrugged, grinning at Bay as they had exited the aircraft. Bay could feel the helicopter physically tipping back from the weight-loss as the winch-man had jumped off covered in guns, ammo and experimental weaponry.

Fine by Bay, Aziz was on their team.

Luca was only carrying a single gun, same as Bay, but at least he looked like he knew how to use the damn thing. Luca wasn't much taller than Bay, but he was certainly a lot more buff and capable looking.

Bay felt a strong hand on his shoulder.

"Stay in between me and Aziz," Luca ordered.

This was the one and only time Bay Pereira would admit to being totally fine with being in the middle of a man sandwich.

They crept up on the edge of the village. There were two RVs parked off to one side and Bay could see a couple of guys with rifles sat on plastic chairs.

"So where's the target?" Aziz whispered as they crouched down behind a line of desiccated shrubs.

"Coordinates point to that big building to the left, with the green tin roof," Bay hissed, glancing down at the GPS. He looked over to the two men, "Reckon they're hostile?"

"Don't want to take any chances," Luca growled, "Aziz - smoke grenades?"

"Check."

"Okay, Bay and I will cut across by the Jeeps, I saw a back entrance to that shack, that's our point of entry. Aziz will cover us, we'll find the pilot, Bay you have the Nectar?"

"Affirm," Bay felt for the syringe of amber drug in his vest pocket.

"Reconvene back at the aircraft. In, out. Okay?" Luca fixed his eyes firmly on the two of them.

Aziz nodded and Bay swallowed, Luca tugged on his sleeve, "Bay. Okay?"

"Y...yes. Okay," Bay managed to find the words.

“Bay,” Luca reach out to squeeze the back of Bay’s neck, bleeding some of the tension out of the smaller man, “just breathe.”

“Yup,” Bay nodded awkwardly. Luca gave him another hard look as if searching for something before sighing and turning away.

"Right then, let's go."

***

"Shit! Holy shit!" Bay cried out as he stumbled over a loose patch of rubble. He was supporting half of an unconscious pilot and he was pretty sure he could hear gunfire. Oh the jolly situations I get myself into.

"Bay focus! Get him inside the aircraft," Luca's orders cut across the sound of...yup, definitely gunfire.

Bay glanced up ahead of them, sweat dripping down his forehead. The Ibis was actually still there, he had half feared that Base would have deemed them compromised and activated the self destruct already, leaving them stranded.

"Go! Go!" Aziz yelled behind them, oh good, Aziz had caught up...wait, where were the gun shots coming from then?

"Bay! Get him in the fucking back of the fucking aircraft!" Luca snarled.

Oh shit shit.

Bay scrambled at the cabin door gasping, the drugged pilot wasn't particularly big but you try lifting an unconscious adult into a helicopter door...oh okay… Aziz just did it in one go.

You see - this was why Bay was the 'lab-guy'.

"Bay get the fuck in the chopper!" Luca was practically screaming at him now.

Bay felt Luca’s rough hands on his chest hauling him into the cockpit.

"Get us in the air Luca!" Aziz was shouting too as he swung the cabin door open again and proceeded to fire rounds of ammo into the darkness.

"That is the plan." Luca grunted, but he seemed to be having difficulty reattaching his helmet.

Bay jerked his hands out and helped pull it down. There was a faint click as the grooves slot into place.

"Thanks," Luca said through gritted teeth.

"Oh anytime!" Bay trilled, hopefully never ever again.

"Mikos Base, this is Ibis, we are airborne and Camp-bound with extra passenger, I repeat with extra passenger," Luca rasped into the comms.

Radio silence.

Bay squirmed, this was not a good time for Base to be having technical difficulties, or worse to have ditched them.

"Mikos Base do you copy? Over," Luca tried again.

More silence.

"Bay how long until we re-enter friendly air?" Luca asked.

Bay looked down at the systems display, "Twenty-three minutes now."

Suddenly the realisation sank in. If they entered friendly air without authorization and an unregistered aircraft....

"Oh shit! They're not gonna know who we are," Bay gasped.

Luca grunted beside him.

It was called Aeolus. The massive aircraft that hovered above the desert like some kind of mothership.

It was responsible for tracking all aircraft in and out of known American and 'friendlies' airspace and woe betide anyone trying to enter that space without a mission authorisation. Which they didn't have, or in a 'doesn't exist' prototype aircraft which would confuse the fuck out of Aeolus's radar, which they did have.

As if on cue a voice crackled through the radio, gotta love airborne warning control systems.

"You are an unidentified aircraft approaching American airspace, this is Aeolus, please identify yourself. Over."

Luca exhaled sharply through his nose, because well yeah, what the hell were they going to identify themselves as?

"Aeolus this is Aircraft Ibis, origin Camp Mikos, we're just done from carrying out a special ops rescue mission under the orders of Major Jenkins. Over," Luca stated authoritatively.

Okay, he's stretching the truth a little, let's see if it takes.

"Copy that Aircraft Ibis, what's your authorization code? Over."

It's not going to take.

"We don't have an authorization code Aeolus, I repeat, we are special ops. Over," Luca replied.

Bay glanced at Luca, who was scrunching up his eyes slightly as if bracing himself.

"Aircraft Ibis, this is Aeolus, you are not authorized to enter American airspace, please re-direct your current course or we will open fire."

"Oh shit," Bay announced, wheeling round to look at Aziz and the unconscious pilot.

"There's no way they'll let us through!" Bay exclaimed, "We've got no authorisation, we're supposedly bringing back a pilot but we've got no way of proving it, we are travelling at 250 knots, which, may I point out is way too fast for Aeolus's radars, meaning right now they are probably thinking what the hell is this freaky unknown inbound heading directly for an American base? We're going to die, under friendly fire."

"Radio Base again?" Aziz suggested.

"Deniability," Luca replied grimly. They were on their own.

"Okay, brace yourselves. Looks like we've got some fix-wings on our tail," Luca added breathily.

Bay jumped forward in the seat, straining to see the display but it was moving so fast on the glass he couldn’t take it all in.

Bay looked up at Luca, "Think you can slow the cerebral link down there for a moment buddy?"

Luca huffed and a clear fixed display appeared in front of Bay, it showed the position of the approaching aircraft behind them, they were gaining on Ibis and...

"We're under fire!" Bay cried out as Luca barrelled to the left.

"Fuck," Bay cursed as a wave of nausea hit him like a brick wall. There was an explosion of light behind them, missiles thankfully not hitting their target, because if there was anything the aircraft was built for, it was being invisible.

Bay looked down at the systems controls, he ran his fingers across the glass, changing the display in front of him, he could now see what Luca was controlling cerebrally, he noted that the pilot was currently ordering a shot of adrenalin intravenously through his flight suit.

"Seriously? You need more adrenalin right now?" Bay tried to turn incredulously to Luca but the G -force of the current turn pinned him back in the seat.

"Boosts performance," Luca yelled across the roar of another explosion.

"Okay! Take as many shots as you need!" Bay cried back as they started to climb to 1000 feet. They were very nearly home free, well as free as you could get with a sizeable portion of the American military on your ass.

"We really need to be more invisible Bay!" Luca ordered, slamming on the pedals violently as they spun into another turn.

"Shit, shit okay." Bay started pawing at the controls trying to remember his training, it should have been second nature to him by now...but what the hell was first nature? Breathing? Oh god, breathing, okay breathe Bay, breathe!

The software was a veritable labyrinth, so just call Bay 'Theseus' because he was born to navigate this stuff. Moments later and Bay checked the display, they were finally losing the fix-wings from their tail.

Bay breathed out deeply and fell back in the seat. His flight suit was now about 98.5 % sweat, 1% actual fabric and potentially 0.5% urine.

"Nice systems operating Bay."

Bay looked up and while Luca wasn't quite smiling, his face looked perhaps slightly less grim than it had five minutes ago.

"Thanks," Bay smiled weakly, raising his hand to wipe his face and hitting the rim of his visor.

"We're approaching Mikos Base now. Eta five minutes," Luca told them.

"Um...guys?" Aziz said behind them, "This pilot is starting to wake up."

"Oh shit!" Bay reached round to see the rescued pilot moan and scrunch up his eyes. He looked about Bay's age and had short red hair and tanned skin. There was a cut across his chin, but it didn't seem like he had sustained any major injuries from the crash.

"Well...don't let him see our faces. Or the aircraft, don't let him see the aircraft," Bay flapped in a panic.

"So basically don't let him open his eyes?" Aziz asked sardonically, raising an eyebrow.

"Pretty much, yup. We're in enough trouble as it is," Bay groaned.

"I'll take full responsibility," Luca stated quietly, looking at the controls.

"Oh sure you will you big hero," Bay grinned at Luca and yes, there it was, the faint lip curve.

Bay could see the approaching camp now. He never thought he would be so relieved to set eyes on a pile of huts in a desert as was at that moment.

"Ibis. Ibis this is Base do you read me?" the radio staticed into action.

"Base this is Ibis, I read you," Luca replied.

"Holy crap Ibis! Where the Jesus have you guys been? Jenkins had been on the phone with Aeolus, there's been reports of an unidentified aircraft travelling at untraceable speeds, an unauthorised assault, it's a real shit storm and you guys just figured you'd fly out the other side of it?"

Bay glanced at Luca.

"That's an affirm Base," Luca replies.

Big - Steel -Balls

"Okay Ibis, did you retrieve the stranded pilot?"

"That's another affirm Base."

A moment's silence.

"Well thank fuck. Over."

Bay grinned at Luca, who shot him a sideways glance. Suddenly there was another voice on the line, louder and angrier sounding,

"Ibis, this is Jenkins, is the rescued pilot drugged?"

"Yes Sir."

"Jesus, okay, well at least you did one fucking sensible thing tonight, okay land outside Base, drop him over the fence, then get your sorry asses back here so I can go to town on them."

Bay swallowed, he kind of wanted to laugh at that, but he also kind of wanted to find a deep dark hole somewhere, shrivel up and die.

"Affirm. Over."