It started with breakfast.
It was probably Coulson's fault, since the week previously, he had enforced a mandatory team breakfast at 7am sharp. Skye and Hunter were the most vocal about this, saying that their sleep was being cut too short by this breakfast.
So, it was no surprise to anyone that someone had put all the drinks in the freezer, leaving Fitz and Mack without their milk for their cereal, May and Simmons without their OJ, and Coulson without his favorite apple juice. And, that morning, Skye and Hunter showed up to breakfast late.
This was when the unofficial prank war started.
Everyone knew that FitzSimmons were "famous" for their pranks, which always inevitably failed or turned against them. But, now that they teamed up with Mack, their pranks were slightly better. The FitzMackSimmons team (as Skye had started calling them) were known for highly elaborate scare tactics. They had covered Lola with wrapping paper one day and then rigged the holotable to project their team name onto the car when Coulson walked in. Needless to say, Coulson practically had a heart attack when he saw his precious baby completely covered in wrapping paper.
Meanwhile, Team TripSkyeHunter went with the strategy of "confuse the shit out of everyone". One of their most famous pranks was printing out giant faces of Nicolas Cage and posting them all over the Playground while everyone was asleep. Imagine waking up to Nick Cage staring down at you. It was not fun for anyone, except for, of course, Skye, Trip, and Hunter.
Meanwhile, Team MorseMayCoulson (Skye really wasn't good at creating names; her plan was just combine all the last names=profit!) bonded over their love for the classic pranks. Shaving cream on hands always produced great results. May was a master at short-sheeting beds. Bobbi was the one in charge of the great salting toothbrushes disaster that left everyone not talking to her for a week. During that week, Hunter enforced that she really was a hell-demon, because only hell-demons would come up with this cruel of a prank.
It all came down to the final week, (even though no one knew it was the final week) and everyone put their all into the pranks to see who would win.
Team FitzMackSimmons ended up creating this elaborate mechanism that went from the lab to the dining areas, which, when triggered, would cause a bucket of ice water to fall over each person's head. ("Take that for forcing me to do the Ice Bucket Challenge, Skye!" Fitz exclaimed. He really was not happy that he was forced to do that fad. He preferred to stay dry, thank you very much.)
Meanwhile, Team TripSkyeHunter brought up their confusing factor. Over the course of the entire prank war, they had slowly stolen every mug and cup that they could find on the base. And on one of the very last days, when the only mug left was the Grumpy Cat one, and when everyone needed their early morning coffee/tea, there was a note in the cabinet that read "Look in the entertainment room!"
In the entertainment room, they found that all the couches and chairs were pushed to the side, and in the middle were all the mugs and cups that spelled out "TripSkyeHunter". And the said pranksters were standing over their handiwork, smirking. And if that wasn't enough, all the mugs were glued to the floor with some of Mack's Mega-Glue. ("Guys, that doesn't come off unless we burn it!" Cue a glance to Coulson, to which he responded with "No fire inside the base! Not after last time.")
Team MorseMayCoulson pulled one of the classic high school pranks, covering the floor outside the bunks in paper cups full of water. There may or may not have been an incident when Coulson got stranded in the middle of all of the full paper cups and couldn't get out, so they had to start over again. When Hunter walked out of his bunk for the mandatory 7am breakfast (which was currently more like a half-hour of epic staredowns and forced polite conversation), he didn't notice the cups on the ground, and ended up tripping over them and knocking over about 2 dozen of them. Skye only wished she had her phone out to record it.
The war ended over breakfast. Funny how everything came full circle.
Hunter was holding an ice pack to his leg, moaning about how the stupid cups injured his leg and now he won't be able to walk for a week. Meanwhile, Simmons interjected saying it was probably just a bruise and he'll be up and running in a couple minutes and to stop overexaggerating.
Meanwhile, Skye and Fitz were having an argument over who's prank was better: the Nicolas Cage one or the ice bucket one. Mack was obviously taking Fitz's side, while Trip was backing up Skye. But there was one thing that they could agree on: that Bobbi's pranks were just awful. So, that got her involved in this fight.
This ended up with everyone screaming at each other until May finally put an end to it.
"ENOUGH!" This was probably the loudest they've ever heard May talk before. "No more pranks. This was fun when it was harmless—"
"Say that to my gums," Hunter mumbled, glancing at Bobbi while he did. He immediately shut up when May glared at him.
"But now it's just making everyone mad," May continued. "Let's just clean everything up from the pranks and get back to work."
Everyone begrudgingly agreed and finished up their breakfast.
Although it was short-lived, the Great Prank War of the Playground was a time to be remembered.