Fire and rescue

by Ash505

My first story. Two girls who met when they were 8, flew with Dusty in the WAG when they were 10 are caught up in a whole new adventure. Join Dusty Crophopper, Crow Patterson and Ashley Jakins as they become firefighters and find out how Ashley got her curse mark.

4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: A Spark at Piston Peak

Because the airport was shut down, Dusty would need a different place to take off without having to go to another town. So we went out with Sparky, Chug, Skipper, Dottie, and Mayday to a section of highway outside of town. Cloudy was coming to keep an eye on Crow and me.

"One, two, three, lil' Jon-Jon, and five." Chug counted as a small herd of tractors crossed the highway to another pasture. "Okay, that's it! That's the morning rush. Highway's all clear, Duster!"

"Now, when you get to Piston Peak Air Attack, you're gonna ask for Blade Ranger." Mayday instructed.

"Blade Ranger." Dusty repeated.

"You got it." Mayday nodded. "Yeah. He's their chief of fire and rescue. He's an old friend of mine. He can train and certify you three."

"Consider it done, Mayday." Dusty agreed, starting up his propeller.

"And Dusty, be careful." Skipper said.

"I will." Dusty nodded.

"We'll see you guys at the Corn Fest." I assured as Dusty began taking off.

"Good luck, Dusty and girls! Mayday called.

"Take it easy out there!" Dottie chimed in.

"You can do it!" Skipper encouraged.

"We're proud of you guys!" Chug called.

Sparky cheered for us. "Good luck!"

Dusty was flying off west towards California with us so I was singing under my breath for the first verses of the song before sing the rest aloud.

Breathe it in

I'm gonna shine

It's my moment

Gotta live and live it right

I'm flyin

Flyin so strong

I'm movin'

I'm movin'

I'm movin' on

Never letting go

Gotta learn to grow

Watch me as I touch the sky

Still I fly

Now I know it's what I gotta do

Find a dream that's new

Give it all I got this time

Still I fly

Still I fly

"Your all-time favourite!" Dusty smirked.

"Yep" I answered.

When Crow and I finally saw the mountains and dense forests, we smiled broadly and sighed in relief, knowing the trip was almost over. We passed a train as we flew into the park, writing on the train's side reading "Muir" and "Piston Peak Railway." Crow and I waved and Dusty tipped a wing in greeting, the train smiling and blowing his whistle to greet back. We further into the park, staring in awe at the beautiful scenery. Tourists and campers streamed into the park, taking pictures and talking excitedly. We passed the entrance, where I noticed a sign that read "Welcome to Piston Peak National Park." As Dusty looped around, a geyser went off and shot water into the air. Us girls looked down at the magnificent lodge just below us.

"So where do you think the firefighters are?" I asked.

"No idea." Dusty admitted. "I guess we'll know them when we see them. Mayday said their base is on a mountain somewhere."

"Well that's specific." Crow muttered sarcastically.

The three of us ended up flying over fields, a canyon with a waterfall, and a huge lake before I spotted something in the cliff side ahead of us.

"Hey, I bet that's it!" I pointed.

Dusty looked to where I was pointing and discovered a runway and several buildings resting on a cliff. Lowering his landing gear, he made a smooth landing onto the runway and began taxiing towards the buildings. Us girls dropped off his wings. We looked around and realized everything was quieter than we expected. There were several hangers, a garage, a tower for traffic control and even a helipad or two. It certainly didn't look like a firefighting base. Mellow music played from the speakers on the tower, and the forklift inside was polishing the windows. A green Sikorsky/Erickson CH64 Skycrane sat on a platform next to what must've been his hanger, lifting a dozen logs as though they were barbells. A Native American dream catcher hung from the platform. Outside the hanger next to him, a bright yellow and red SuperScooper hummed to herself as she sunbathed.

"Argh! Stick shift!"

We glanced over to the garage, where a dark blue and grey forklift waved a wheel and groaned in pain, having apparently kicked some canisters. A Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar with the words "U.S. Air Force" printed on his side sat at his hanger, listening to a radio.

"You sure this is the right place?" Dusty whispered.

"Mayday said their base is on a mountain somewhere and this is the only base I have seen" I answered.

"Ripping!"

"Duck!" Crow yelped and Dusty quickly obeyed as a vehicle flew over their heads.

The vehicle landed on his treads and spun around, revealing to be a yellow and black skid street digger.

"Drip!" a female voice shouted right before a small ATV, also colored yellow and black, jumped out from behind the dirt ramp the street digger came off. A vehicle with a saw blade came up on the other side of who I suppose was Drip, and a bulldozer and a digger vehicle with a rake tool rolled up to sit on top of the jump.

Who are this lot? I wondered.

"What the heck is the matter with you?" the ATV snapped. "You nearly took off the guy's canopy!"

"Yeah, but Blackout said it was okay to go, dude." The street digger said.

"I did?" the saw bladed vehicle asked.

"He did?" the female car asked skeptically.

"Yeah, he was like, 'He's okay to go, dude.'" The digger said, using his claws to mimic a mouth talking.

"Uh, I'm sorry." Dusty piped up, catching everyone's attention. "I know you're busy, but we are looking for Piston Peak Air Attack."

"You are there!" the digger cheered.

"Copy that, jefe!" The saw vehicle cheered, the two of them tapped their tools together.

"Serving beautiful V6 Valley since 1958." The small ATV said, looping around us. "You three must be the SEAT and rookie. We heard you were comin'."

The ATV rolled back over to the street digger and saw vehicle.

The car smirked back. "I'm Dynamite. This is Blackout, Pinecone, Avalanche…."

"HELLO!" the bulldozer shouted.

"…and Evel Ke-numbskull over there is Drip." Dynamite finished as Drip spun around and flipped himself to stand on his canopy.

"Did you guys see that?" Drip asked, smiling broadly.

"Nice to meet you." I nodded in greeting. "I'm Ashley Jakins."

"I'm Crow Patterson."

"I'm Dusty Crophopper" Dusty introduced.

"Dusty Crophopper? Dusty Crophopper!"

Dynamite, Blackout, and Drip hurried out of the way as the SuperScooper from before suddenly barrelled forward, a huge smile on her face.

"The air racer?" she squealed, making Dusty flinch. "Shut the hanger door! And you're Ashley Jakins and Crow Patterson! Wow!"

I gave Crow an odd look. How freaky!

"That's so amazing!" the SuperScooper cried happily. "I mean, I'm your biggest fan! I have seen every single one of your races on RSN!" She gave Dusty a quick once-over. "You're smaller than I thought. But that's okay!"

"Um, thanks." Dusty said, a little freaked out by how freakishly huge the SuperScooper was compared to him.

"So what are a set of world-famous racing superstars doing here?" the SuperScooper asked.

"Yeah, uh, we're here because we're between races right now." Dusty explained, trying to not look intimidated by the SuperScooper. "So we're helping out some friends….."

"Oh, that's so sweet!" the SuperScooper cooed. "I'm Dipper. That's what everyone calls me, so you can too."

"Okay, Mrs.…." Dusty started.

"'Miss.'" Dipper corrected.

"Miss."

"Miss, yeah."

"Dipper."

"Dipper."

"Yep."

"Yep. Rawr!"

Crow and I hide our giggles at Dusty's clear discomfort in front of Dipper. We had seen quite a few fan girls fawn over Dusty, but never like this.

"Great to meet you." Dusty said before turning his attention to the rest of the team. "We're looking for Blade Ranger."

"He's out scouting for spot fires." Dynamite said. "He should be back in a few."

"Thanks." Dusty said gratefully.

"The one the Lakota call Haokah beats his drum with the wind to make thunder." The Skycrane spoke, his deep voice surprising us. "With thunder comes lightning, and with lightning comes fire."

Silence for a beat.

He's defiantly gotta be Native American, I thought.

"Okay….." Dusty cleared his throat. "Yeah, very nice."

"Windlifter!" Dipper said hurriedly. "Stop scaring our guests! I don't hear any drums."

"Kilawu." Windlifter looked towards the tower. Everyone followed his gaze.

After a moment, an alarm blared out across the base and a woman's voice spoke over the speakers.

"All aircraft, we've got a report of a wildfire."

"Come on, boys!" the gray tug from the garage called. "Let's load up!" He looked to the forklift in the tower. "Patch! Drop the needle!" After a moment, rock music began blaring from the speakers.

"It's an actual fire?" Dusty asked as the team suddenly sprang into action.

"Oh yeah!" Dipper nodded. "It happens all the time. You guys only hear about the big ones!"

"Fire is due to an unattended campfire." Patch reported. "Location: 10 clicks northwest heading two-niner-seven. Slow rate of spread. Ten acres with a northerly wind on it."

Before our eyes, the laid-back vehicles began darting around and preparing to go to work. The Smokejumpers hurried into their garage and loaded parachutes onto them, speeding out to the Fairchild starting up his engines on the runway. The gray tug sped over to Dipper and locked a hose onto a nozzle on her side, loading retardant into the SuperScooper. Windlifter started up his rotors, waiting for the tug to push over a large cargo container before hooking it on and taking off. The Smokejumpers loaded into the Flying Boxcar, and he and Dipper took off, following Windlifter out into the park.

"We gotta see this!" Dusty said excitedly.

"Yeah, let's go!" I urged, hopping back onto Dusty and he took off after the firefighters.

We flew a safe distance behind the aircraft, not wanting to get in the way. Soon, a huge column of smoke could be seen in the valley.

"There she burn's fellas" Dipper called.

As we came closer we noticed another aircraft already at the scene. The craft disappeared, only to reappear as he burst out of the smoke from the fire. The aircraft, a red and white AgustaWestland AW139 helicopter could only be Chief Blade Ranger. I suddenly an odd tug that felt like my curse mark pulling, at the sight of Blade, but I shook it off. Blade looped up and around, dropping a load of red retardant around the edge of the fire. His icy blue eyes, alert and focused, scanned every inch of the blaze.

"Whoa!" Dusty breathed, banking off to one side to watch but stay out of the way.

Blade caught sight of his team. "All right, mud droppers! Watch your altitude! Too low, and you'll spread the embers. Dipper set up for a drop and vee the head of the fire."

"Copy that! I'm away!" Dipper called, flying down and dropping her own load of retardant.

"Windlifter, you're clear to maneuver." Blade said.

"Windlifter copies." The Skycrane said, flying in and dropping retardant.

Blade flew over the green helicopter, making sure the entire fire had been circled with retardant. "All right, Cabbie! Let's get some wheels on the ground!"

Cabbie, the Fairchild carrier, flew a short distance from the fire. "Jumpers, South Meadow looks clear. Should put you approximately 100 yards below the fire."

Dynamite rolled out as Cabbie lowered his hatch, and she looked down to the clear meadow below. "Looks good, Cabbie!"

"Let's ride the silk elevator, boys!" Drip called.

"I will never understand why you gravel crunchers would want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane!" Cabbie jibed.

"We're not!" Dynamite called. "We're jumpin' out of you!" She and the Smokejumpers leaped out, diving down towards the ground. After a few seconds, they released their parachutes and smoothly glided down the rest of the way, detaching their chutes and landing a little hard in the meadow.

"Everyone's down. We're good." Dynamite reported.

"Cabbie copies." Cabbie said, looping around to get out of the way. "Be careful out there."

"Dynamite, use that creek bed as a natural barrier to create a fire break!" Blade ordered.

Dynamite drove off towards the edge of the fire, barking her own orders to her team. "All right! Jumpers, let's anchor it to the bed and start building a line!" The Smokejumpers got to work, cutting logs and dragging dry pieces of wood away from the flames to prevent spreading.

Blade, keeping an eye on everything, suddenly spotted a herd of deer desperately trying to escape the fire. One of the males was falling behind, in danger of being cut off from the herd and possibly killed. Swooping down, a door slid open on Blade's side to reveal a winch and hook. Flying down smoothly and swiftly, he let out the cable and caught the deer's antler rack in the hook. Blade pulled up, taking the animal with him just as a burning tree hit the spot the animal previously occupied. The helicopter dropped the deer with the rest of the herd, reeling in the hoist.

"Awesome!" Dusty breathed.

I looked ahead and gasped. "Dusty, watch out!"

Too late. Dusty was so focused on what was happening he didn't realize how close he was flying into Blade's path until he accidentally cut off the fire chief.

Blade's surprised expression to the shock fell into a glare as he realized us. "Get out of this airspace!" he ordered.

"Oh, sorry!" Dusty called. Suddenly, he flew right through the retardant Dipper had been dropping, coating us in the red stuff.

"Aw, Dusty!" Crow whined.

"Now we are in trouble!" I groaned.

Dusty looked up and caught sight of Blade as he flew away. The red and white helicopter glared at him with a look that spelled certain doom. Oh great. We're dead.

###################

Dusty yelped as the grey tug hosed us down to get the retardant off. Unfortunately, while it did make us clean, it also left us girls sopping wet and a little cold.

The tug nodded in satisfaction. "That ought to do it. Well, back to work. I gotta mix up a fresh batch of retardant."

He rolled off into the garage to get to work. I pulled off the jumper I was wearing and wrung the water out of it. Blade stood nearby, casting the us a very uninterested and stern glare.

"And once you three dry out, you can wing it on back to the lodge with the rest of the tourists." Blade ordered, beginning to roll off.

"We're not tourists." I protested as I spread my jumper on Dusty's wing to dry.

"Actually, we're the ones that May—" Dusty started, stumbling a bit over his words.

"They're the trainees." Windlifter said.

Blade paused, turning to stare at us. "You're the ones Mayday radioed about? Oh for the love of—"

"Oh come on, Blade!" Dipper said excitedly. "They're not just anyone. It's Dusty Crophopper, Ashley Jakins and Crow Patterson!" Dusty tried to warn Dipper against it, but she continued. "The champion air racers!"

"'Champion.'" Dusty scoffed modestly. "No big deal."

"Don't be shy, come on!" Dipper encouraged. "Tell him! They raced all the way around the world!

Dusty chuckled nervously, not liking the deadpan, unblinking expression in Blade's eyes. "Well, I mean…."

Blade glared.

"We did." Dusty finally nodded. "We did do that."

Blade rolled up a little closer to us. Staring. "The world wasn't on fire though, was it?"

Us girls blinked. So did Dusty. "Was the whole world on fire?"

Us girls and Dusty shared a look. "No" we answered at the same time, Dusty a little more nervous.

Blade stared at them for a moment, making a "hmm" sound. Finally, he turned to the tug in the garage. "Maru!"

"What?" Maru shouted indignantly.

"Rip off his landing gear!" Blade ordered.

"Uh, wait, what?" Dusty gasped.

Maru chuckled deviously, dropping his welding mask and firing up his torch.

A/N: Having fun writing this fanfic. I've decided to tell you which chapter you will find out about Ashley's curse mark. It's chapter fourteen. Please review.