A/N: As I am having (per usual) a bear of a time trying to get the next chapter together. Have a sneak peek at a future scene from Sidesteps.

Roy clenches his hands as he impatiently waits for the elevator to deliver Skull-1 to the flight deck of the Prometheus. It had already been ten minutes since the last contact with Vermillion flight and the Cats Eye, and optical monitoring tracked potential weapons fire from near their patrol route. Kicking himself for not insisting that he lead the initial patrol himself, Fokker goes over his pre-flight checklist once again, biting back his initial reaction to snap at the deck crew to move faster.

"Skull lead, pit crew here. Bad news."

Roy clenches his jaw "What's the problem Pit Crew?"

"Oh five is only putting out 30% thrust from her starboard engine. And I think we have a leak in the RCS. Gotta down check her. Next bird we could get ready'll take 20 mikes. You going to wait?"

"Negative on that. Break. Gunsight, this is Skull lead."

Roy takes some solace in hearing Claudia's voice come through the radio "Skull lead, Gunsight one. Send traffic."

"Pit crew informed me that we are down one bird. We are launching with the other 5. How copy?"

"Solid copy on that fly boy. Go bring our lost chicks home."

Roy grins widely as his shoulders relax, the anxiety bleeding away from the calm demeanor of his paramour "I intend to. Didn't you set up a blind date for Lisa tomorrow? can't have her miss that."

"Good hunting Skull. Cleared to launch."

Roy swaps back to Prometheus' flight control as he cycles the flaps and ailerons to allow the crew to give him the go ahead to prepare as the Valkyrie is loaded onto the port most catapult. With a thumbs up from the deck chief, and flight control giving him the go ahead, Fokker grabs onto the brace handles and clamps his teeth together in anticipation of the cat stroke that would hurl his plane into the dark black.

As the Valkyrie hurtles off the deck, Roy sinks into the thin padding of his seat. Once the inertia evens out between him and the plane, he keys over to the squadron frequency, "OK. Four, Six, it's just you two for now. Be extra careful watching each other's backs. Two and Three, you both know the drill. Stay on me, and let's go get our people home."