Reefer Madness - The Park

[x-penance.livejournal.com]

The New Mutants arrive at the Adirondack Park Preserve and (re)meet their supervisor for the day.



When the van pulled to a stop, Angel was one of the first ones out of it, popping out with surprising speed. "Man, it's like a clown car in there," she joked, stretching her various limbs as she looked around her. It was gorgeous countryside but the light smell of smoke laid over everything and it made her a bit nervous.

She knew it was on purpose but know there was that much fire, even controlled, in the woods pinged her alarms but good. Still, Angel shoved down the worry and waited for the others to get out, it was going to be an interesting weekend and she was really interested to see a controlled burn in action.

Julian wasn't the next person out of the van, but had heard what Angel had said. "Nah, clowns only wish they could fit that many people in their cars," he smirked and stretched, taking a deep breath of what he considered to be fresh air.

Sweet Freedom! Doreen burst out of the van, along with Monkey Joe, as soon as she was able. She detested being cooped up in any one place for very long, and the ride had bordered on unbearable. She had tried to keep herself occupied, but Doreen wouldn't be surprised if anyone was harboring thoughts of squirrel stew tonight.

"Oh, it's so nice to be out- MONKEY JOE GET BACK HERE!" her friend had ran for freedom too, but was intent on going a lot farther. Doreen took off after her red collared friend who started running circles around the van.

It was Klara's first outing with the others, and she wasn't certain of exactly what she could do to help. She was eager to help out the people who had shown her so much kindness and accepted her for who and what she was, though, so she would do her best to follow directions. She smiled just slightly once she had the chance to get out of the cramped van. Aside from the comfort it allowed her stiff legs, she didn't like to be squished in so close to others. Such close contact made her uncomfortable and felt inapprorpriate.


Catseye unfolded her purple feline form from the dashboard of the van, yawned and stretched, then trotted out to bare her teeth at the crazy squirrel and then shift into girlform. "Catseye is not even upset she could not drive the van," she muttered, sniffing the air. "She would have been squashed in girlform! Catform is much better for in the clown car." She'd spent the ride going from lap to lap but had begun to feel cramped even with the catform conserving much-needed space. The dashboard had been a welcome refuge, if a touch slippery at times. "Catseye smells the fire but does not see the fire. Which way is it?" It smelled as if it was coming from everywhere.


Nicholas Gleason had made his way to the back of the group as soon as he got out of the van, still feeling uncomfortable in such a big group, although he was doing much better than normal because he knew most of the people. He hadn't taken his eyes off of the purple cat since rolling out onto the dirt, and shaking himself off like a dog. "I think you or Angel may be the best ones at pointing us in the right direction Cats."


"Catseye thinks it smells like the direction is everywhere," she muttered, spinning slowly and sniffing. "Catseye thinks Angel is better than Catseye at knowing where we go."


Inez got out, twirling the keys around her finger. "I swear on the way back, whoever had that burrito? Getting strapped to the roof, yo."

Nori was not in a good mood. The close quarters in the van had been problematic at best, given she didn't exactly want to deal with accidentally shocking, well, everybody. She was small, though, and had curled up as tight as she could. Which had not led to a good trip, and now she just wanted to run, get the kinks out of her shoulders. Instead she glowered at the others. "Hai, hai, let's just moving..."

Doreen finally managed to snag Monkey Joe, "Got'ya!" she said, holding up the red collared squirrel happily. "Yeah! Let's get going! I could use the walk. So could my friend. He needs to lose weight," she said, with a hard stare at the squirrel in her hands.

"It looks like you've added a few new faces since last time I saw you," said Archie Wilson, approaching the group as they piled out of the van like the proverbial clown car. He was an older man with the weather-beaten complexion of someone who had spent a lifetime outdoors, tall and rangy-looking. He smiled as he took in the group. "For those who don't know me, my name's Archie Wilson and I'm the boss guy around here. I figure we'll have a quick orientation, explain what and where, and then we'll get out there. That sound good to you?"

Yvette, one of the last to climb out of the van from where she'd done pretty much as Nori had, curled up into as small a space as possible, nodded. "That would be good, yes," she replied, softly. "We are not to be fighting the fire so much as babysitting, yes?"

Fred, who had finally extricated himself from his prison in the back of the van, listened as Archie and Yvette talked. He chuckled a little at what the small European girl had to say, and said as he looked around, "I gotta feeling that the fire's not gonna care much what our intentions are..."

With a slight yawn, Julian clapped his roommate and friend on the shoulder, "Dude's right, Yvette." He straightened up and smiled, "But yeah, we're just making sure that the fire doesn't burn the rest of the forest down," he turned to Archie, "Right?"

"Nope. The rest of the fire team is going to make sure the whole forest doesn't burn down. You're going to see how they do it, and we're going to send you to one of our perimeter fire breaks. It likely won't get anywhere near it, but it will give you a chance to practice the techniques that some of our guys are going to show you about controlling fires, and in worst cases, stopping uncontrolled forest fires. No offense, but this kind of activity is dangerous unless you're well trained, so we're going to take it slow, and let you practice where we don't think the fire's going to get to." He made a quick calculation, pointing at each of them.

"Hmm, alright. I'm going to break out into a few teams to meet the guys, and practice some techniques with then. When that's done, you guys will get directions to the Lake burn line, and there's a site there to work. I'll come get you at the end of the day, and see how you've done. Tomorrow, our head arborist, Danny Kirkhope, is going to take you through some of the burn sites, show you how different trees react, and how you have to adapt to them in fighting a fire. If you need something, or something happens, you can raise either Danny or I on the radios that you're going to be issued. Any questions?"

Nick raised his hand for a second, looking around at the rest of the group for a second before deciding just to come out with his question. "Do you know if there's any wildlife left in the forest? Or what kind of animals we should be looking to contend with during the exercise?" He hoped it wasn't a stupid question, but it was something he wanted to know.

"Most of the wildlife tends to flee ahead of a fire, but you might see some in your area. The park does have small bear and wolf populations, but I don't think you'll need to worry too much about them. If you see one, just let it keep going in the direction it's going."



“So, there’s not like a stampede or anything?” Doreen asked, that was good. She had to admit, she was worried about the squirrels. Monkey Joe was still mildly freaked, now just from the smell of the fire as well as the car ride. It might have been best to leave him home, but she didn’t want to have anyone take care of him that might not be able to keep up with him or his moods. She wrinkled her nose, “I can smell the fire,” she muttered. It made her want to run too, now that she thought about it.




Run and get somewhere safe. That was what the animals were doing. “This is going to be really neat!” she said, trying to get pumped up for it. It was all about attitude. She wasn’t going to turn the other direction and run from the fire.


Nope. Head on. Totally.

Angel gave Doreen an encouraging smile from where she stood. "Nothing to worry about," she told her. "These guys have been doing this for ages, you know? And they've got drills drilled into their head of what to do. It'll be neat to watch, that's for sure." she also wanted to get some tips of general firefighting from some of the guys she'd be seeing after everything was said and done. The more she thought of watching and learning everything they'd been sent for, the more excited she got.

Then again, she was the last person to worry about personal fire safety so she could understand some trepidation on the parts of others.

Klara's concern was less for her own safety and more for that of the plants, as well as everyone else here. She didn't particularly like the idea of a controlled burn, because of what it involved, but after years of growing crops, she supposed she could understand why it was necessary.


Inez folded her arms and looked at Archie, then at the other New Mutants. "So, basically... practice something that could be dangerous, but do it safely so that something more dangerous doesn't happen? Sounds like it's right up our alley. Let's go."