Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Eliza drives through the asphalt of the Piston Peak Air Attack base one bright, sunny morning. The bright yellow Tesla looks around the quiet base; There was a maroon tug in a garage busy making repairs, a bright yellow and red Super Scooper sunbathing outside her hangar, a Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar listening to a radio with his headphones one, a green Sikorsky lifting tree trunks, and a red tug listening to music in a tall tower while cleaning the interior windows. She could even hear noises akin to boisterous yelling along with some tire screeching in the near distance.

Eliza hums to herself and drives up to the nearest aircraft she set her eyes on; The Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar. "Um, hello?" The Boxcar notices her immediately, because he slowly takes off his headphones and looks down at her. He was bigger than her, taller than her. She backs up slightly. "Hi, I'm Eliza. What's your name, sir?"

"I'm Cabbie." Cabbie introduces himself to her. "How can I help you, miss?"

"I'm looking for Blade Ranger. My chief from the firefighting academy in the Philippines sent me here to Piston Peak, because it's one of the best firefighting stations in the world. He said to talk to Blade Ranger about an opening in the Smokejumper position here." Eliza explains to him. "Do you know where I can find him?" 

Cabbie looks at her real hard for a moment while thinking to himself. "Oh, yes. Blade mentioned something about that the other day. He's out scouting for spot fires right now, but he should be back soon. But in the meantime, you can get yourself acquainted with the rest of the team." He slowly rolls out of his hangar, and she could see some faint military markings on him that were faded into his paint. "Hey everyone! Listen up! We got a rookie over here! Come here and introduce yourselves!"

"Oh, wait. You don't have to do that-" But before she knew it, everyone that she saw around the base were now here, looking at her like she was fresh meat, which she was.

"Eliza, this is Windlifter, who is our lieutenant." The Sikorsky hums at her with a nod. "He is second-in-command to Blade, so when our chief is ever out of commission - which is almost never - he takes command as chief. Next, we have Dipper, one of our firefighting planes. She can be a bit on the hyper and enthusiastic side, but don't be too overwhelmed by her, because she means well."

Dipper waves a wing at her while spinning her propellers excitedly. "Hi!"

"Hi." Ember replies back meekly.

"Then there's Maru, our only team mechanic." Cabbie gestures to the tug, who waves at a tine at her with a tooth-gap grin.

"Why is he the only one?" She asks him.

"Because I am the only one around her who can anybody better than new!" Maru chuckles at her. "I'm Maru, kid. I do regular maintenance, repairs, you name it. If anything's wrong with ya, I can fix it, no problemo. That and because I'm the only guy who can knock some real sense into these nutjobs to take it easy every now and then when they're sick or injured. Especially to Blade. I'm also the only one who knows how to knock some sense into the guy, no one else."

"Then there is Patch. Our team dispatcher." Patch smiles kindly at Eliza. "She reports us of any fires that's going on out there in the park. She also does it when Blade reports back to her when he comes back from his daily scouting." Cabbie then moves onto the Smokejumpers. "Then we have the little rascals a.k.a the Smokejumpers."

"Serving beautiful Piston Peak since 1958!" A yellow ATV with orange and black stripes comes up to her and circles around her to examine her carefully. "You must be the new one aiming for the Smokejumper position. Blade warned us you were coming. I'm Dynamite. This is Blackout, Pinecone, Avalanche-"

"HELLO!" Avalanche spoke in a very loud voice.

"And Drip."

Drip flips onto his roof and spins on it in a complete 360. He laughs loudly. "You guys see that?"

"And you already met me." Cabbie tells Eliza. "I'm Cabbie. I'm a firefighter, but I don't do the jobs Windlifters, Dipper or the Jumpers do everyday. My job is to escort the Jumpers to their drop point."

"You mean like land down on the ground and let the Jumpers do their thing, right?" Eliza asks for clarification. The Smokejumpers look at each other and chuckle quietly to themselves. She becomes confused. "What?"

When Drip recovers from his laughter, he says "Pops doesn't land us down at the drop point or anything, because that takes up too much valuable time on the field."

"We're called the Smokejumpers, because we're firefighters who work on the ground. We clear debris and the like from the fire site. That and-"

Avalanche cuts Pinecone off. "WE JUMP OUT OF CABBIE!"

This takes Eliza by surprise. "What?!"

"We jump out of Cabbie and parachute down to the drop point near the fire, is what Avalanche meant." Dynamite explains to her. "That's why we're called Smokejumpers. Part of that is jumping out of Cabbie and parachuting down. It's a whole lot quicker that way than him landing there."

"Oh, I see. Well, hello everyone. I'm Eliza, but everyone back in the academy called me Ember, because I-"

"Started a fire in your own fire house." A cold, stern voice spoke behind her. Everyone immediately tenses up at the sound of his voice, and Eliza whips around to find Blade Ranger - a red and white Agusta Westland with black chevron stripes - staring down at her as he rolls up to the group.

"Yes, that's correct. Although no one knows how I did it, even me. It's a complete mystery." She chuckles, but he doesn't smile at her own joke. She extends a front right tire out at him in greeting. "Like I was saying, my name is Eliza. Nice to meet you."

Blade looks down at the gesture for a long moment while everyone on the team just looked at Eliza like she did something wrong. No one had ever greeted their own Chief like that, not even the new rookies. But what took them all by surprise was that he slowly rolls forward and bumps against her extended tire with his muzzle. "Nice to meet you, too. I'm Blade Ranger. Your fire chief radioed me about you. I hear you're aiming for the Smokejumper position."

"Yes, I am, Chief Ranger! I'll do whatever it takes!"

He looks down at her skeptically before he scoffs to himself. "We shall see about that." He rolls off to his hangar to get some paperwork done. She smiles at the team.

Dynamite opens the empty hangar and leads Eliza inside. "This will be your new hangar."

Eliza smiles as she rolls inside it. "Wow! It looks so nice." Then she faces her. "Hey, thanks for showing me around, Dynamite. You've been nothing but kind to me since I got here."

"It's no problem, Eliza. Now, if there is anything you need, let any of us know." Before Dynamite leaves, she stops in her tracks. "Oh, there's a dinner we're having in a few hours. It's so that everyone gets to know you a bit better, Blade especially. You do not want to mess that up."

"Why? He seems like a nice guy. In fact, everyone does."

"Well, it's just important you don't mess this up for yourself. You're gonna be living with us for a long time. First impressions are everything." Dynamite turns around and makes her leave. "I'll see you tonight! You'll do great!"

Right before dinner, Eliza put on her casual silver tire rims, her smooth and sleek tires, and a bit of eyeshadow. She had even showered to make herself more clean. She checks herself in the mirror one more time, before nodding and driving out of her hangar to the mess hall. She was able to find the mess hall with ease, and when she gets in there, she sees the whole team. Dynamite was trailing behind her, and Eliza makes the immediate move to draw out the lead Smokejumper's seat. "After you."

Dynamite smiles and takes her seat. "Thanks, Eliza. You're such a gentleman." Eliza smiles back and takes her seat next to her. "You look nice tonight."

"Thanks. You made this dinner tonight sound very important, so I want to look my best for everyone."

"Well, I think you look great!" Dipper tells her happily.

Blade looks at Eliza up and down once, before humming to himself. "So, Eliza. Your file says you're from the Philippines."

She nods firmly. "I was born and raised there with my dad and my older sister. My mom was around, but she passed away from a terminal illness when I was a kid."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Drip tells her sympathetically. 

"Thanks Drip. I appreciate that. I barely remember her now. Carmie knew her longer than I did, despite us being two years apart. But I can tell my dad misses her a lot, 'cuz he knew her the most."

Blade knew how that felt. "I'm sorry, too, Eliza." She smiles kindly at him. "Top of your class as the academy, huh?"

"Well, my dad always said that if you want something bad enough, you find a way to make it happen. He's always encouraging me and my sister to do better, and is always pushing us to be our very best. I worked hard at the firefighting academy and even harder to get to the top."

The Chief smiles slightly. "I'm just surprised. You're our first top-of-the-academy firefighter in a long time."

"It's true!" Maru nods. "Before you came along, Blade was the last one to be top of the academy here at Piston Peaks Air Attack. Part of the reason why he became Chief." He chuckles, while Blade blushes slightly. As the Chief talked to Eliza more and more, he found that she was quite easy to get along with and she made quick friends with everyone throughout dinner. Even Windlifter, who was little for words, gave one of his once-in-a-lifetime smiles. The Smokejumpers like her and were happy to have a new addition to their team, and Cabbie was just elated to have another kid to look after.

After the success of a dinner, Blade found Eliza roll up to Dynamite's side. "Allow me to escort you back to your hangar, madam." 

Dynamite chuckles softly, and says with a slight bit of playfulness in her voice, "Such a gentleman, how chivalrous of you."

"I’m not a gentleman. I’m a gentle lady."

She laughs again, and says with a slight smirk. "Alright then, gentle lady. I appreciate the escort though, thank you. You flatter me, gentle lady. I don't think you're too bad yourself though, top of the class~"