Author's Note: Prompt by Bigbucks.


O is for Orange


There were few things that got one's oil pumping quite like Avalanche screaming bloody murder first thing in the morning.

One moment Blade was enjoying his first cup of coffee, then the high-pitched shriek attempted assaulted his eardrums leaving him wincing. The sound made his engine skip a beat, but the helicopter took a deep breath to steady his nerves then keyed his mike.

"Dynamite, what in the world just happened?"

"We had a bit of an accident." The smokejumper captain admitted so quietly that she was nearly completely drowned out by Avalanche's howls.

"Elaborate." Blade pressed, but he could already feel his systems starting to slow down. If the accident had involved injuries Dynamite would have already called for help.

"We were moving the new shipment of…" Dynamite started then her tone changed completely. "Drip…Drip, NO."

With that, the radio transmission cut off.

Blade didn't even bother stifling a groan as he pushed himself away from his coffee. Clearly, his peaceful morning was completely shattered so he probably should go and find out what in the world was going on. As he rolled out of his hangar, he discovered that he was clearly not the only vehicle whose morning routine had been interrupted by the smokejumpers' latest escapade. Both Dipper and Windlifter were staring, blurry-eyed, out of their hangars.

"What is going on?" Dipper asked as Blade passed by, but a gigantic yawn that sent a quiver down her entire body happened before the helicopter could reply.

"I don't know, I am going to find out."

"Good." Dipper replied blinking rapidly before giving another long yawn. "Well, call me if you need me to help with anything." The flying boat then retreated back into the darkness of her hangar without even bothering to close the hangar door behind her.

Blade resisted the urge to roll his eyes, as he knew that Dipper, like Windlifter, were fairly useless first thing in the morning. Instead of getting frustrated he focus on following the loud clatter that the smokejumpers were producing. Avalanche's screams had now turned to sobs, but the fact that there was a healthy amount of laughter mixed in prevented the Chief from getting too concerned. When he finally rolled in the back of the main hangar towards the storage sheds, he was able to see that his lack of concern was warranted.

The scene that greeted him could have easily been something straight out of a horror film. Avalanche and the tarmac were covered in a reddish-orange liquid that was roughly the same color and consistency as transmission fluid. If Blade hadn't known better, it would have looked like all of the smokejumpers had just had a catastrophic. Luckily one glance at the still dripping hose that Drip was holding and the torn open bag of retardant powder instantly told the helicopter what had actually happened.

"Ah, you finally arrived." Maru smirked at Blade as he pushed past balancing a first aid kit, a large bucket of baking soda, and a whole package of paper towels.

Blade just gave the mechanic a glare before turning his attention to Dynamite. "What happened?"

"Well…" The ATV chewed on her lip for a moment. "We were moving several of the bags of retardant from the latest shipment from storage to the mix station and we might have been a little ambitious with the number of bags we were trying to move at one time."

"And?" Blade pushed.

"And one of the bags that Avalanche was balancing ended up falling off." Dynamite rambled as fast as her mouth would allow.

"The POOF! It exploded everywhere!" Drip added excitedly.

"That explains the half of the mess." Blade allowed his eyes to scan the red pool on the tarmac. "Now tell me why everything is wet."

"Well…" Dynamite refused to meet Blade's eyes.

"Then Avalanche started to yell because retardant powder in your eyes hurts like slag, which caused Drip to grab the hose instead of grabbing a first aid kit…which caused the results you see here." Maru interjected without looking away from his patient. "Alright Avalanche, I need you to open your eyes so I can get things flushed out."

"BUT…" The dozer's lips trembled as he spoke, and he did an incredibly good impression of a kicked puppy. "IT HURTS."

"I know it hurts, but I can promise that it will hurt a whole lot less once we get all of the gunk off your windshields." Maru coaxed softly as he quietly got to work. The mechanic gave Blade a nod which let the Chief know that everything was going to be okay which allowed the helicopter to focus on the next problem at tire.

"Alright." Blade allowed his eyes to sweep across the remaining smokejumpers. "I need you to get this all cleaned up before the dye bakes into the tarmac." The little vehicles just looked up at him looking pitiful. Blade sighed and then change tack just a little bit. "If you have the tarmac cleaned up by the time that Cabbie gets back from his supply run there will be doughnuts."

The mention of doughnuts got a cheer out of all of the smokejumpers including Avalanche, who was chided by Maru to hold still. Resigned to his fate, Blade left the smokejumpers to their tasks and headed to the helipad by his hangar. Once he arrived, he hit the park's radio repeater and gave their cargo plane a call.

"Cabbie?"

"Yes." The C-119 replied almost instantly.

"Pick up doughnuts on your way back."

"What happened this time?" Cabbie sounded incredibly amused by the request.

"You will find out when you get home."

"Ah." Cabbie made a slight clicking sound over the airwaves that indicated that he completely understood where Blade was coming from. "Doughnuts it is."

"Thank you." Blade said as he signed off of the radio and headed back into his hangar to finish his unpalatably cold coffee.


End Note: Any ideas for the letter P?