Chapter Twelve: Dusty in Trouble

Sky stared at the doors to Dusty's hanger, unsure how she would go about this. She tried to rehearse what she would say on the way to the hanger, but nothing came out right. Now she stood before the doors without any idea what she would or could say to Dusty. Still, she was the daughter of Skipper Riley, and she wasn't about to turn back now. She raised her fist and knocked on the doors. Dusty jolted a bit, accidentally backing into a shelf and knocking a box onto his head. Sky winced at the commotion, listening as Dusty made his way to the doors and opened them. He blinked in surprised to see Sky standing outside.

"Sky." Dusty said, jerking the box off his canopy.

"Dusty." Sky said.

A pause.

"Uh, good morning." Sky said.

"Yeah, good morning." Dusty greeted.

Another awkward pause.

"Kinda warm this morning, huh?" Dusty said.

"Yeah." Sky shrugged.

Yet another awkward pause.

Sky sighed. "Look, Dusty—"

"Propwash Junction to Dusty and Sky."

"Dad?" Sky cocked her head to one side in confusion, staring at the radio. Her and Dusty's eyes widened. "The gearbox!"

Dusty hurried over to the radio, Sky right beside him. "Hey Skip! What's up?"

"Hey Dad!" Sky greeted warmly.

"Hey there, sweetheart." Skipper greeted, sounding tired.

"The gearbox came in, didn't it?" Dusty asked excitedly.

"How's it look?" Sky chimed in, bouncing a bit.

There was some static before Skipper came on. "Well, we…we…."

Dusty's and Sky's faces fell, staring in concern at the radio. "Skipper?" Sky asked.

"What is it?" Dusty asked.

"So…..Dust…." Sparky said.

"Sparky, I'll….I'll tell them." Chug's voice lacked all joy, something very unusual for the fuel truck. Sky's brain raced with the reasons for this rather dismal call. Did the TMST agent return? Did another accident happen? Oh Chrysler, did Mayday die? But somehow, Chug's reveal seemed to be worse than any of those scenarios. "It was the wrong one. The crate was mislabeled. We've called every parts supplier, repair shop, and junkyard in the country. Nobody has your gearbox."

Words could not describe how crushed Dusty and Sky felt at that moment. Nobody….not one person in the entire country…..had another gearbox for Dusty. He was stuck with a busted gearbox. He would never be able to redline it.

He'd never get to race ever again.

"Dusty?" Skipper asked, the Propwash residents having received no answer from the pair.

Dusty took in a ragged breath. "I'm here."

"I'm sorry." Skipper said.

Dusty didn't answer, all his energy being put forth to keep his tears at bay. Sky stepped up, forcing a smile. "I-it's okay, Dad. You guys did your best. Way to go." She took a breath, trying to keep her voice steady. "We, uh, have to go take care of some firefighting business. We'll call you later, okay?"

A pause. "Okay, Sky. Talk to you soon." Skipper said.

"Bye." Sky said. Dusty released the talk pedal, ending the call. Sky's face fell to a dejected frown, and she leaned back to rest against Dusty's wing. She sighed heavily, looking to the…former…..racer beside her. His eyes were shut, desperately trying to hold back tears. Sky reached a hand out, but hesitated. Dusty suddenly moved to lean into her touch, and Sky hugged the plane. "Dusty." She sighed. "You'll be okay. I have no idea how but we're going to get through this. I promise."

Dusty didn't answer, trying to absorb all the comfort he could get. Their fight from last night didn't even matter anymore. He didn't care about Sky's Soul Connection or his jealousy about it. All that mattered is Sky was still there for him, and he would always be there for her. Sky sighed, both dejected over the news and relieved Dusty didn't seem to hate her anymore. Any hints of leftover anger from last night washed away with the unshed tears of the racers.

The alarm going off made Sky jolt. "Oh, now what?"

"Hey guys!" Maru called as he popped up in the doorway. "Get this: Cad's fancy jet VIPs flew in too low over the burn area last night. Blew embers in all directions."

"You are kidding me." Sky groaned.

"Not kidding!" Blade called as he hovered briefly in front of the doors. "Let's load and go!"

"Let's go, Dusty!" Sky hurried to the doors, but paused when Dusty didn't follow. "Dusty?" Still, the plane didn't move. Sky hurried back to his side. "Dusty, listen. Mayday is still counting on us. W-we'll talk about this later, okay? We got a job to do."

Dusty opened his eyes, staring at Sky for a moment before nodding.

"Fire broke containment and split in two." Blade explained as he, Dusty, Windlifter, and Dipper flew towards the blazes. "Windlifter, you and Dipper take the Coil Springs fire. Me, Raven, and the SEAT will take Whitewall Rapids."

"Windlifter copies." Windlifter said.

Sky could only assume Windlifter and Dipper broke off already. Blade insisted on keeping the hoist hatch door shut for the time being, so she was left in almost complete darkness. Unable to stand it, Sky placed a hand to the metal wall behind her and focused her powers. It only took a second for her consciousness to connect with Blade's, allowing her to see through his eyes. The helicopter weaved his way through the smoke of the fire, which had grown greatly. But Sky noticed something else.

"Blade, aren't these hills near the lodge?" Sky said into the radio.

Blade looked ahead, picking up speed. Once he and Dusty made it over the crest of the ridge, he saw Sky was right: the lodge was just down the hill. Oh great. "Maru, come in."

"Yeah, Blade?" Maru asked.

"It's worse than we thought." Blade reported. "Get on the horn down to the lodge. That fire is about four hours from their front door. They're gonna have to evacuate."

As if Cad will listen. Sky thought bitterly.

She didn't realize Blade heard her thoughts. He knew, deep down, there's no way Cad would evacuate them all in time. He could only hold onto a small hope that Maru's warning would buy them some time. "If we're gonna save the lodge, we've gotta keep this fire from cresting the ridge." Blade told Sky and Dusty before turning most of his attention to the latter. "I'll drop, then you tag on and extend with a split load. That way we can double up and widen it downwind of the ridge for structure protection. There's not much time so we need to move fast. Copy that?" Dusty didn't respond. "Hey! You copy that?"

"Yes. Yes! Copy that." Dusty replied.

Come on, Dusty. Focus. Sky couldn't put too much blame on Dusty; he was probably still thinking about the gearbox. But this wasn't the time for that. She kept looking at everything from Blade's eyes, watching him drop his share of retardant on the fire before moving and allowing Dusty to drop his load. But, to Blade's irritation and Sky's horror, Dusty dropped his entire tank's worth of retardant.

"You gotta be kidding me." Blade growled.

"Blade…" Sky tried to calm the helicopter, but he already flew up alongside Dusty and glared at the plane.

"Was that your whole tank?" Blade demanded.

"Yeah." Dusty confirmed.

"You just wasted all of it!" Blade yelled.

"I was following your orders!" Dusty protested.

"I said 'split load.'" Blade corrected.

Dusty glared in determination. "It'll be fine. I can reload at the lake."

We can't afford any mistakes from him. Blade thought, not knowing Sky could hear it this time.

"Oh boy." Sky gulped.

"Negative!" Blade snapped. "Return to base."

"No, there's no time. Let's just get this fire out!" Dusty suddenly dived down towards the lake.

"Hey!" Blade called. "You need to listen to me!" Blade muttered something under his breath along the lines of "stupid boy gonna get himself killed" and dived down after Dusty. "These crosswinds are too strong. Return to base!"

"This is what you trained me to do!" Dusty protested, speaking into the radio.

"Not under these conditions!" Blade countered.

"Dusty, pull up before you hurt yourself!" Sky called worriedly into the radio.

"If I reload here, we can get that fire out." Dusty was getting closer to the surface of the lake.

"Pull up!" Blade shouted. "That's an order!"

Dusty hit the surface of the lake, only for his hard landing and the crosswinds to jerk him off balance. He shouted in surprise, ending up taking a nosedive before his pontoons forced him up again. Luckily, the buoyancy of the pontoons kept him afloat.

"Dusty!" Sky broke her connection with Blade, hurrying to the small window and staring out worriedly.

"I've taken in too much water. My engine stalled." Dusty reported.

"Stalled?" Blade groaned.

Sky stared out the window, her eyes widening at the side of the currents dragging Dusty into the rapids. "Oh no."

"Keep your pontoons downstream." Blade instructed as he flew over Dusty. "I'll keep ahead of you."

"I'll get out on my own." Dusty said. "I'll restart my engine."

"No, don't restart your engine!" Sky said hurriedly as Blade's hatch door opened. "The hoist will get caught."

"Just hang on." Blade called. "I'm gonna pull you to shore."

Dusty furiously revved his engine, and his propellers began spinning again. "Got it!"

Blade narrowed his eyes, hovering down closer. He threw the hoist, but Dusty hit a rock and his nose dipped below the water. His engine stalled again, and Blade's hoist didn't wrap around his tail enough to hook on. Dusty was swept away again, down a small drop as the current carried him along. The orange and white plane shouted a bit in surprise, starting to get a little freaked out over the lack of control he had in the water.

"Are you all right?" Blade called, noting the number of fallen trees hanging over the water.

"I'm okay!" Dusty confirmed.

"There's too much coverage. Don't worry! I'll get you at the next clearing." Blade called, flying ahead to find a clear spot downriver.

"Right!" Dusty coughed a bit as water splashed into his mouth.

Sky tensed up, staring worriedly at Dusty as he bobbed along the rapids. "Hang on, Dusty!"

"Sky, stay up there!" Dusty called.

"But—" Sky started.

"It's too dangerous." Blade said. "You go down there you could get caught in the debris. Just stay up there and I'll take care of it."

"Right." Sky nodded reluctantly, keeping her eyes on Dusty. Finally, Blade managed to find a clear area and readied the hoist again. Taking aim, he threw the hook and cable. Dusty's pontoon hooked onto a log in the river, forcing his front half below the water and causing the hook to bounce off him. Blade tried to move, but the cable tightened as the hook caught onto a log part of a small dam in the river.

"The hoist! It's caught!" Blade struggled to pull the hoist free, finding himself anchored to the ground.

"I got it!" Sky grabbed the hoist cable and slid down, landing a bit hard on the logs. She grabbed the hook and tried to pull it, but even when Blade gave it a little slack she couldn't free the hook. "It's stuck tight! The cable wrapped around a log!"

Dusty stared up at Blade with fear in his eyes, and suddenly the current pushed him along and away from his supposed saviors. "Sky!"

"Dusty!" Sky called, desperately trying to breaking the piece of log the hook caught onto.

"Blade!" Dusty called, fear in his tone. "Blade!"

"Oh, come on." Blade gave another tug, but the hoist was caught tight and Sky wasn't making any progress in pulling it loose. "Champ, start your engine. You got clear water ahead. Take off before the falls."

Dusty spun around and saw with horror that a significant-sized waterfall dropped off only a couple hundred yards away. Oh Chevy.

"It's your only chance!" Blade shouted. Dusty hurriedly started up his engine, his propellers spinning. "Now redline it! Push your engine!"

Dusty pushed, as hard and as fast as he could to get his speed up. The edge of the falls grew closer.

"Redline it!" Blade shouted. "You need more lift, redline it! Redline it!"

"Dusty, just this once, redline it!" Sky called, having moved to sit on the log and start kicking at the hoist.

Dusty's alarm began blaring, and Dottie's warning about him crashing rang in his head.

"Why are you holding back?"

He only had a hundred feet left, not nearly enough time to increase power.

"Redline it!"

"Dusty!"

He was going to crash. Either way, he was going to crash.