A/N: Sorry to the fans of this story. This Chapter was eating me up trying to get it right. I went over it several time and did a few rewrites and it still feels off. I guess me just over thinking it. Well I hope you enjoy it, and please no flames thx.

Chapter VIII

-Wade-

Twice now in one day I had to just sit here and worry about my best friend. I had found out through my usual sources, that there was a team sent in to take care of the PDVI. As well as extract Ron and Shego. I also found out that the 52 strike was just a diversion to throw off the terrorist. It was meant to send them in such a panic to either flush them out or make them screw up so bad that the military could go in after them. There was also something else that my sources had mentioned. It seemed that GJ had a rouge agent in their ranks, and it was him that had sent up everything. They didn't say who it was. However it had to be someone high enough up in the ranks to be able to pull something like this off.

I knew well enough not to bring this information to the Colonel or Dr. Director. For all I know it could have been Doctor Director that was the rouge. Even though my gut instincts told me other wise. Of course bring this to light to soon could possibly lead to team being put at further risk then they where already. That was something I could just not live with if anything happened to them, especially Ron or Shego. Now before you even ask, I did find out that the team had located both of them. Ron, Shego and the entire team were making their way out of the mountain lair. I cannot tell you how relieved I was to hear this news. The hard part now was just sitting, and waiting to know if they made it our alright.

As I sat at my station and waited I got another text message from my source. I took a quick look around to see if anyone was looking over my shoulder before bring up the message. I didn't like what I was reading on my screen. It seemed that the handlers for the ground team had lost contact with the team. The source also told me that it could very well mean only one thing. However, I was not one to give up so easily. Too many year as Team Possible handler taught me to have faith in the team.

A/N: For the next while or so this is going to be narrative.

After not making contact with the AWACS, Ron had to dive for the mountain range below him. His plan was to use the mountains and canyons around the area to split up the three fighters. For the most part the plan was working. At least for now it was working. Once Ron dove into a canyon only one of the enemy fighters was tailing him. The other two where out of the fight right now and Ron paid them little heed.

Granted the plan had worked but it also left Ron six open to the guy behind him. It was only because of the twist and turns of the canyon walls that kept his dancing partner from getting a lock on him with missile. However what Ron was flying compared to the more nimble fighter behind him, allowed the enemy to slowly creep up into gun range. It was only a matter of time before he would be in gun range. So Ron knew he was going to have to do something fast.

Now while Ron was busy making sure that neither he nor Ryan becomes a permanent part of the canyon wall. Ryan was doing his part by keeping an eye on their six. Which by the way was difficult with all the twisting and turning that Ron was doing with their aircraft. It unsettled Ryan a little by how close Ron was getting to the canyon wall. Being in dangerous situation was nothing new for Ryan. It just left him a little on edge not being the one in control at the moment. However Ryan knew Ron was a capable pilot and had to put his trust in his friend's hands.

"Ryan, talk to me. Where's he at?" Ron said focused on his flying.

Ryan looked behind them as Ron made another turn around the canyon. He was able to see the guy chasing them. He was so close by now that Ryan could swear that he could see what color his eyes where. Way to close in Ryan book.

"Closing in fast Ron we need to move." Ryan said spotting something out the corner of his eye. He looked to his left he spotted something and was not happy what he was seeing. "Ron we need to get out of this canyon fast. Our friends buddies are coming in from eight o'clock high." Ryan exclaimed.

Ron knew better to doubt what Ryan was telling him. If Ryan said that they where about to get jumped, then he was going to take it as the gospel. The problem was that there was no where for Ron to go. Just about any move Ron could think of left him wide open for a kill shot from the enemy. They were boxing him in and it didn't look good at all. Now granted Ron had some aerial combat tactics taught to him during the academy, but he had not had to use much of them since getting into the JSF. The aircraft was stealth after all and the need to get into a down and dirty dog fighting never came up much.

'Think Ron, think.' Ron chided himself.

He was running out of room fast and need to do something or neither them where going to make it home alive. Then Ron thought of something he heard about from a older pilot one time. He was not sure that the L-29 could pull it off but at the moment he didn't have much choice but to try and hope for the best.

"Here goes nothing."

"Ron what are you going.....?"

Ryan didn't get a chance to finish asking what Ron was planning. He was suddenly thrown deep into his seat as Ron push the throttles to full and pulled straight back on the stick. This put their jet into a vertical climb. However Ron did not keep them in the climb. He kept the stick pulled back into his lap coming over the top and back down the other side. They where still inverted as he was coming back down the fighter was coming up after him in a head on. Ron knew he only had a few seconds to get off a short burst. The speed he was traveling didn't leave him time to line up the shot he would have liked. However, desperate times called for desperate measures. Ron would not be taken down with out a fight.

The enemy plane was just a little off his center line s Ron kicked the rudder and got him lined up. He pulled the trigger for a quick three second burst. As the round of his gun pod ripped through the air at the enemy plane the enemy fighter made a quick move to avoid the oncoming rounds. Both Ron and Ryan where amazed at how stupid the guy was in trying to avoid Ron shots. The enemy pilot must have just reacted to the incoming round and forgot what his surrounding where. The plane did a quick snap roll right into the canyon wall next to it and exploded.

"Okay, that was odd." Ron said in a shocked tone.

"That guy had to have been an idiot to do something like that." Ryan said looking down at the burning wreckage.

The kill had taken both by surprise so much that Ron forgot about the other two fighters coming in after him. That was until his proximity alarm started going off. Ron quickly rolled back to normal leveled flight and then pitched away from the canyon only missing the wall himself by mere feet.

'Crap, how could I have been so stupid?' Ron thought as he slammed the throttle forward.

"That was a close one. Please don't do that again." Ryan commented in the back seat.

Ron knew what Ryan meant but did say anything. He was too pissed at himself for his laps of concentration. He had gotten fixated on what had just happened that he forgot a basic rule of dog fighting and that is never stop your head from turning. Now once again Ron was on the defensive. He knew better then to take the fight down low again if he could help it. It would be too easy for either fighter to get a line on him while trying to fend off the other one and take a shot ending their day in a hurry. He had to fight his fight one that his aircraft could do and not get into the enemy fighter fight.

So the only thing Ron could do was take these guys head on. It was the best defensive slash Offensive moves Ron could think of at the moment. He pointed the nose of his jet right between the two on coming planes. He was trying to split them apart and take them one on one. This was still risky in itself being that anyone that he would go after the other could come around on him and take his shot.

At more then two miles out from the other fighter, Ron was shocked to her his own missile accusation system start going off. One of his Two Aim-7Sparow missiles had gotten a lock on one of the fighter. He didn't even hesitate and pulled the trigger. Both Ron and Ryan watched as the missile streaked off the rail and to it intended target at over mach 4. Only mere seconds later came a huge fireball of an exploding aircraft.

"Nice splash Two." Ryan said.

The other aircraft didn't break off from it head to head run on them, and neither did Ron. By now they where to close for missiles. So he decided to just pass him head on and try to get in behind him quickly or get out for enough for another shot.

The two aircraft passed each other at close range and as soon as Ron was passed him. Ron pulled another reversal and got in behind his next target. The bigger an hevery jet that the enemy was flying could not turn around as quickly as Ron could in his slower trainer. So soon Ron was on this guys six in a turning fight.

"Alright be a good little terrorist and line up for me nice a pretty."

"You really think talking to them like that will help." Ryan said in a sarcastic tone.

"At this point buddy, it couldn't hurt." Ron said back.

The two jets danced through that sky one trying to gain a good shooting salutation while the other did its best to try and stay alive. The heat seeking sensor on Ron's AIM-9 sidewinder started growling in his headset letting Ron know that the missile had gained a lock on the target in front of it. The enemy pilot must have known that Ron was about to take a shot. He jerked his plane over trying to do a split S and throw Ron off. However the maneuver did not detour Ron one bit. He rolled with the enemy plane and held his fire.

"What the hell you had him?"

"No I didn't the missile would have lost track as soon as he dove. Then he we would have been one missile short. I'm not sure about you but I think we need everything we have and not waste it." Ron responded.

Ron expected something in return from Ryan however he didn't get anything from the man sitting in the back seat. For Ryan this was Ron's element and not his. So there was no point in arguing with him. They were in a hairy enough situation as it was. They need every advantage that they could get right now. So every shot had to count. One had already been taken out now there was only one left.

Ryan looked up from his dashboard radar display keeping an eye both on where the fighter in front of him. He was keeping an eye one the progress of his team. He breathed a sigh of relief when it looked that they where out of the target zone and making there was back to base. Now it was up to Ron to get them out of this mess. He looked up out past Ron's head and noticed that he was still hot on the tail of the enemy fighter.

Once again the growl of the sidewinder radar could be heard in their headset. This time Ron had the perfect shot and squeezed the trigger. Both of the men watched another missile slid off the rail it was housed on and scream its way towards its target. Seconds late the missile exploded right next to the aircraft exhaust. The blast took out the tail section of the plane. This caused it to start a quick spiral towards the earth below.

"Nice shooting Ron!"

"We can celebrate after we get home." Ron said in a very serious tone.

Ron never did like taking a life but he also knew it was part of his job as a military pilot. Sometimes the job required him to take another humans life like he just did three times now. It always left him feeling empty inside. Like another part of him died along with that life. However this was the life that he had chosen and he was going to do it to the best of his ability. Beside now he knew he had someone waiting for him back home. Even if he didn't want to admit it to himself that he loved the woman.

With the third target gone Ryan glanced down at the radar screen in front of him. He was no REO by any means. However he knew enough about radars to know how to read the one. It was that this one was at least twenty years old and it was not the type he had any training on. So he was giving Ron his best guess when it came to the information.

"Ron I'm seeing one more contact on the radar. It's heading to the east and trying to bug out. Think we should go after him?"

Ron didn't say anything at first. This kind of worried his rider in the back seat.

"Looks like this guy was waiting to see what was going on up here. Now that we took care of his buddies he's escaping. So what do you think?"

"That's what got me worried old friend." Ron finally spoke up. "Something tells me that if he gets away that he'll tell his buddies and come after me again or even worse."

With that said Ron peeled his bird off to the east and gave the engine every bit of fuel they could take in hopes to catch the fighter. Ryan in the back didn't say a word. He knew Ron was worried about his family back home and he could not fault him for that. Ryan would have done the same thing if the roles were reversed.

Ron thoughts were not so much of himself but his family back home. He knew if this guy got away and went back to his buddies. That they would do everything they could to make Ron pay. That didn't mean that they would come after him directly. People like these guys didn't have any honor to do something like that. Instead they would go after his family and friends. If anything happened to them because he let this guy slip away then he would never forgive himself.

So Ron pushed the throttles as hard as they would go trying to catch up to this bastard. It was working and he was slowly but surely catching up to the last fighter. So far the last fighter had not noticed Ron sneaking up on it. It flew a straight and level path towards the east. Bugging out of the area as fast as his wings would take him. However he had a predator closing him on him fast by the name of Ron Stoppable.

Ron got close enough for another missile shot. He checked his stores to see what he had left, one AIM-7 Sparrow left. It was a long shot at the range he was at now but he had to take the chance before the guy escaped into foreign airspace. China was only three hundred miles away and at the speeds they where traveling that would take no time to cross.

RON POV

I closed in as close as I could to the last guy. I was just inside the Sparrows range of fire. It was a long shot at best but I had to do something and fast. If he crossed into Chinese airspace it was all over, and I would have lost him. This only would have him or his group to come after me thru my family.

So with nothing left to lose at this point but everyone I held dear to my heart. I armed the last Sparrow I had left and waited to see if it would get a lock. The time from when I armed the weapon to I finally get a tone from it tracker seemed like forever. Yet I got a strong growl in my headset and said a quick pray before squeezing the trigger.

I didn't even look as it slid off the rail and headed it way toward the last plane. With it the safety of everyone in my life ridding along with the missile. All I could was close my eyes and pray and try to will the missile to strike true. Once again time seemed to slow to a crawl as I waited for the sound of the explosion.

"Splash Four." Ryan exclaimed form the back seat. "Nice work Ron four for four and we're still alive."

I opened my eye to the site of burning wreckage falling to the desert floor. I just sat there letting out a breath that I didn't even know I was holding. I had done it, three to one odd in a fighter that was designed to be used as a flight trainer. Then at the last minute one last fighter at a range that I thought I would never hit him at. I had beat four fighters that could out fly me and out gun me. Yet for some reason God was smiling down on Ryan and me today and we came out unhurt.

"Ron, are you alright up there?" Ryan said bring me out of my thoughts

"Yeah buddy, let go home." I said quietly

I banked the jet hard right heading back towards the southwest and the base. Along the way Ryan informed me that Shego and his team had made it out and where more then likely already at the base waiting for us. I was relieved to hear that they had made it back to the base safe and sound. However the mission was still not over. There was still a spy in GJ which was still a big threat to everyone and I was bound and determined to get to the bottom of who this traitor was.

"Colonel we've got an inbound aircraft coming in from the northwest." Radar Officer spoke up

"Do we know who they are?"

"Sir, I'm getting a call from AWACS. They say the pilot is one of ours, call sign Naco?" Another officer spoke up

'Thank god they made it out.' Wade thought.

"Naco to Command, requesting clearance for landing. I'm BINGO on fuel and don't have much time to circle." Ron said over the radio

Wade let out a small chuckle, despite everything that Ron had been through in the past forty eight or so hours he still had his sense of humor, if you could call it that. The control room broke out into applauds. For the Colonel he just let out a sigh of relief that one of his boys had made it home safe and sound. He picked up a radio and answered him back.

"Permission granted Naco, and welcome home."