Chapter Five: Firefighters…NOT
Crow and I sat off to one side, watching Maru work. Once Dusty got over his moment of shock, he allowed Maru to remove the tip tanks from his wings and attach a set of pontoons. Maru sang softly as he worked, putting the finishing touches on the modifications.
"Still, it does feel kind of weird. You know, without the tip tanks." Dusty mention
"Tip tanks?" Maru scoffed. "You couldn't exactly go flying into fire with fuel tanks on your wings. Ka-boom! Nope, you're gonna need these pontoons. They may be old—"
"Old?" Dusty blinked in surprise.
"—but they'll let you scoop water right off the lake." Maru finished.
"You're goofing on me." Dusty said hopefully. "You have any new ones?"
"New?" Maru laughed as he flipped his welding mask up. "We don't even know what that word means around here!" He tapped the pontoons, kicking up dust and making Dusty cough. "I rebuilt these babies myself. They're better than new. Give 'em a go."
"Huh?" Dusty tentatively began rocking on the pontoons, tilting and swaying. "All right. Let me just get this…..this….."
He began muttering and yelping a bit as he found he had no control over his movements. Us girls ducked and crouched down as Dusty's wing flew over our heads, smacking Maru's welding visor back down.
"Pop the wheels, genius." Maru droned.
"The whee…..yeah, pop the wheels!" Dusty rolled his eyes, unable to believe he didn't think of that. He popped out the wheels, allowing him to bounce up a few inches and roll around. "Oh! That's it!"
"Yeah, you think?" Maru smirked as he put his mask and torch away.
"Yeah, I'm tall! Look at this." Dusty smiled. "What do you think you two?"
"I think you'd make a clumsy boat if we put you on the ocean." I teased, laughing as I retrieved my jumper from where it landed and tied it round my waist.
Dusty mimicked my laughter, but he caught sight of something on the wall across from him. "Hey! You guys have a Wall of Fame, just like the Jolly Wrenches!"
"Oh, awesome!" Crow said, as we joined Dusty to see a section of the wall featuring photos of aerial firefighters and a couple newspaper clippings.
"So what's the deal?" Dusty asked. "What do you have to do to get your picture up here?"
Maru paused, staring at the ground. "Crash."
Dusty's face fell saying "Oh" in a soft voice.
"Yeah, dangerous work." Maru said, organizing the garage. "But that's the job of a firefighter. Risking their lives for people they don't even know. They fly in when others are flying out." He paused. "Takes a special kind of plane. And immense bravery on your part girls."
"Come again?" I asked still staring at the newspaper clippings.
"Humans who become firefighters are at a greater risk than vehicles." Maru explained. Which is why you two coming here might prove to be a challenge."
"And that why you three need to learn to obey orders."
The four of us turned to see Blade, having quite suddenly appeared in front of the garage.
"I also believe that you girls know this thing" Blade glared and moved back to reveal three terrified male smokejumpers and a pretty angry Cloudy.
"Yeah she's mine" Crow answered.
"Then calm her down" Blade growled.
"Ok Mr Sour Puss" I snapped and matched his glare.
No one said anything as Crow and I went and calmed Cloudy down.
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"Fighting wildfire means flying low. And that's why we have Augerin Canyon, our own little obstacle course." Blade instructed, as we flew over the canyon to begin training. Crow and I tightened our grip on Dusty's wings. We had to admit, the canyon was rather majestic.
"All you gotta do is stay below the rim and when you get to the bridge, fly under and pull out." Blade told us.
"Flying low. No problem." Dusty assured in a somewhat cocky manor.
"Overconfidence. The kind of attitude that could get you killed." Blade growled, breaking off and flying up as Dusty dove down.
"Ready, co-pilots?" Dusty asked, diving down and beginning to weave his way through the rocks of the canyon.
Blade watched from above, keeping at the same pace as Dusty.
Blade noted how close we were getting to the end. "Okay, now let's see you make it under that bridge." He saw Dusty speed up, but suddenly pull back again and bail out of the maneuver. "Why did you pull power? You gotta firewall it!"
"The bridge. It's too close to the falls." Dusty said.
"No excuses." Blade barked. "If there had been a downdraft, you'd be dead."
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Dusty watched carefully as Dipper demonstrated the next lesson: how to scoop up water, this time off the lake.
"Make a normal seaplane approach." Blade instructed. "Stay on the step while collecting water through the scoops. Climb out loaded, return to your holding orbit, and drop as directed. Copy that?"
"Copy that!" Dusty said, lowering his scoops on the pontoons.
Crow and I yelped a bit when Dusty bounced off the surface of the lake.
"Okay, you've got twelve to fifteen seconds to scoop then fifty feet to climb out." Blade said, watching with some disappointment as Dusty skipped across the lake like a stone. "And watch out for the tree line!" He rolled his eyes as Dusty quickly pulled up and narrowly avoided the trees.
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Thankfully, for both Blade and us, the next lesson involved a lecture from Blade about the rules of firefighting and different techniques for dropping water and retardant. Maru joined us with a chalkboard and pointer. We did their best to pay attention. But we were not fully prepared for the amount of information thrown at us.
"Indirect attack, parallel attack, direct attack."
"Know what your fire is doing at all times."
"Wind speed and direction."
"Temperature and relative humidity."
"Finally, all aircraft must be on the ground thirty minutes after sunset." Blade finished. "Flying low at night is the fastest way to get your picture on the Wall."
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Dusty found himself rather bad at dropping water. He at first attributed it to lack of practice crop dusting, but at least when he worked with Leadbottom he wasn't working with a target. Or, in this case, a line of flaming barrels set up on the runway by Blade. Blade hovered near the barrels, watching Dusty try and put out the fires.
Round one: "Too early!"
Round two: "Too high!"
Round three: "Too low."
"Those crops of yours, they die a lot?" Blade asked.
Dusty glared in irritation. Oh I'll show you.
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Dynamite and the rest of the Smokejumpers decided to take Crow and me out to teach us how to be one of them.
"What we do is help build a line and clear debris so that the fire can't spread as quickly." Dynamite explained. "It requires quick and hard work to do this."
Dynamite showed us how to do it and then got us to have a try. I managed to do it with Crow without activating my curse mark even though it would be easier. I did not want the base to find out I was cursed until I needed to use it. Also I did not want to freak anyone out and any way is I had to do ground work I would not need it. Hopefully!
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The second time we went out to Augerin Canyon, we did ok until we got to the bridge.
"Approach looks good." Blade said over the radio. "Now, increase your airspeed. Redline it."
"Let's do it this time, Dust Storm." I encouraged.
"Go to max torque." Blade ordered. Dusty began picking up speed, but his alarm instantly went off.
"Don't back off." Blade warned. "Don't back off!"
Dusty pulled up and out of the canyon.
"Ah, why did you bail out again?" Blade growled. "If you don't push it, you're not gonna make it. And you won't be certified!"
A/N: Sorry if i confused you a bit in the part where the smokejmpers took us out to teach us. I confused myself a bit with it to. Please review. Chapter 6 coming soon.