Author's Note: This Prompt was suggested by AnonymousCar300
C is for Catapult
The marshmallow catapult challenge had originally started as a 'fun' team building exercise, but after several of the smokejumpers had tried to one up each other it had quickly dissolved into a competition, much to Cabbie's annoyance. But even the plane couldn't blame the smokejumpers from trying to interject a little bit of fun into their day. They had after all been couped up on base due to heavy fog for the last 48 hours and Dynamite was quickly running out of housekeeping tasks to keep the busy…and everyone knew that an bored smokejumper was bound to find entertainment were it was least wanted.
The construction of marshmallow catapults was a simple enough activity that Cabbie had been able to easily gather up the materials…a tine full of paint sticks from Maru's shed, a bag of elastics from Patch's tower, and a couple bags of marshmallows from Windlifter's stash of things that he kept well out of reach of the ground pounders. Setting out all of the supplies, Cabbie had explained the requirements of the challenge to a group of smokejumpers that were nearly vibrating with pent up energy. The problems started the moment that Cabbie finished up his explanation.
"SO, ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS USE THE PAINT STICKS AND THE ELASTIC BANDS TO LANCH THE MARSHMALLOWS ACROSS THE ROPES YOU PUT OUT IN THE MAIN HANGER?" Avalanche summarized.
"Mostly correct, you also need to make sure that your catapult remains fixed to the…" Cabbie spoke, but at the corner of his eye he spotted some movement. By the time his brain processed what the movement was it was nearly too late. "DRIP, let go of those marshmallows this INSTANT."
Drip at least had the common sense to look a bit guilt when his was pinned by Cabbie's glare…but that didn't stop him from slowly closing his claw around the bag of marshmallows in the attempt to conceal them. It also didn't stop him from trying to slowly back a way from the clearly annoyed plane.
"That isn't going to work." Dynamite pinned her subordinate with a stare that finally convinced him to let go of the bag of fluffy sweets he had tried to hide in his shovel. One Drip had moved far enough away from the marshmallows that he couldn't try to sneak a couple again the ATV turned back to Cabbie. "Go ahead."
The old plane harrumphed, then looked all of his ground pounders in the eyes. "You build your marshmallow catapults out of the paint sticks and the elastic bands. They can look how ever you want them to look, but they have to remain fixed to the ground during the entire marshmallow launch. Understood?"
All the vehicles nodded and Cabbie was almost able to distribute the materials when, he was once again interrupted.
"So…how do we make this a competition?" Blackout asked glancing at his fellow jumpers.
"We could each build our own." Drip suggested.
"REMEMBER THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A TEAM BUILDING EXERCISE." Avalanche's words encouraged caused Blackout and Drip to stare back with a blank expression. A few moments later both vehicles opened their mouths to speak at the exact same time.
"We will divide into two teams and see which team is able to launch their marshmallows the furthest." Dynamite stopped the possibility of an argument by putting her tire down.
"Fine." Cabbie sighed with exasperation clearly annoyed by how off the rails this simple activity had managed to get.
"CABBIE WILL BE THE JUDGE!"
"Which mean's that he needs to not be here while we are building…" Drip added clearly mulling over the idea. "Also, I think the two teams should be in too separate places so no one can steal the other teams' ideas!"
"How should we split the teams?" Blackout pointed out the major issue in the plan so far.
"That is easy." Pinecone was clearly willing herself not to roll her eyes at her fellow smokejumper's antics. "Ladies vs Gentlemen."
"BUT THAT ISN'T FAIR, THE GIRL TEAM WILL HAVE ONE LESS PERSON."
Pinecone clearly wanted to say something, but Dynamite beat her to it. "We will add Patch to our team."
Everyone reluctantly agreed to this plan and Cabbie retreated to his hangers indicating that he would be back in 20 minutes and everyone better be ready to compete with their catapult. During the allotted time, the base was unusually quiet which of course only made Cabbie watch the clock even closer.
When the time was finally up, he peeked into the Smokejumper's hanger to inform Dynamite, Pinecone, and Patch that their time was up. There was a bit of grumbling that they needed just 5 more minutes to tinker with their design, but overall, Cabbie was pleased to see that they had built something that would work for competition.
Unfortunately, the Flying Box Car's day went downhill the moment that he rolled into the main hanger. The main hanger was…well the only word for it was a mess. Several of the paint sticks were broken and there were errant marshmallows everywhere. In the middle of the mess sat Avalanche, mouth wide open and mostly full of marshmallows. The three smokejumpers at least had enough common sense to look a little bit guilty as Cabbie surveyed the destruction…but that guilt didn't prevent Drip from sending the already loaded marshmallow straight into Avalanche's waiting mouth.
"I really should have known better than to leave you lot unsupervised." Cabbie sighed looked down at the chaos that the smokejumpers had created.
Avalanche tried to say something in the smokejumpers defense before Cabbie turned tails and retreated back to the safety of his hanger, but we will never know what it was because the dozers mouth was too full of marshmallows to be understood.
