Kurt saw her go flying
out of the jet, yanked backwards, glanced at the terror on the face
of the boy he had guessed was either her brother or her boyfriend. He
heard the horror-filled yell as she glided through the sky, and
without really thinking, stared long and hard at the horizon visible
through the damage the jet had sustained.
And then he teleported.
Kurt only briefly caught the gasps coming within the jet before he too was being hurled through the air, his jacket flaring out like wings, the wind rushing past his pointed ears as he squinted at the ground coming toward him and most importantly his target. He could see the flailing, panicked figure of Rogue falling toward the ground. Quickly, he stared at her, and teleported to her, wrapping his arms around her. He couldn't be sure how fast the ground was coming up; it was getting closer, slowly but surely, and he imagined in a few minutes, four, maybe five, they'd hit the ground.
It was basic fact that stationed across from someone, sky-diving, you would only be able to faintly hear them if they shouted at the top of their lungs, with the roar of the wind rushing past, and Kurt tried his best to communicate with the girl who had stared at him so earlier. "Guten tag, mein freund!" He shouted into her ear. Rogue without a doubt heard him, though was confused purely because he had just screamed something in German at her. They had less time left, the minutes flying past…
With a sickening
feeling, Kurt glanced behind him quickly at the jet soaring away from
them. It was too far away for Kurt to teleport to, and even then he
didn't know where he would be going. There was only one trick Kurt
had left. It was one he had used in the circus to lessen the impact
of his falls, when he was required to do so. He'd have to add a few
tricks of his own, of course.
Kurt flailed one of his arms for
Rogue to see, as though he was attempting to fly, and jerked his head
toward his jacket flaring out behind him. Rogue, looking a bit
puzzled, grabbed at the flapping ends of the clothing, and at once
the parachute-like effect she had created filled with air, and they
were jerked forward suddenly, having slowed down greatly. The ground
was coming closer and closer and Kurt's eyes were watering. He
blinked away tears and stared long and hard at the on-coming forest.
He only had one shot at this, and if he failed…
Kurt teleported them
closer toward the forest. The jacket snagged them upward again and
they slowed down greatly. He teleported them closer again. The jacket
filled with air again and Kurt's stomach jumped. He was thankful
that Rogue had an iron grip like she did; else they would probably
hit the trees too fast. He teleported them again and Rogue coughed,
lungs filled with the stale smell of brimstone, as they hit the tree
line.
Kurt had been clinging to Rogue from underneath, and so he
hit the trees before Rogue, still clinging to her rather bodily. He
grunted sharply as he slammed into the thick branches and they broke
under his sudden weight, the sharp pine needles scratching across his
skin and fur and breaking the skin, leaving behind little sappy
trails. The broken branches were catching on his jacket and ripping
holes in it as they fell downward. The entire world to Kurt was a
blur of green and blue and he squeezed his eyes shut, lest he lose an
eye.
Finally, he hit a branch that apparently was thick enough to hold his weight, and with searing pain both he and Rogue stopped falling through the trees abruptly. Kurt wondered absently how many ribs he had broken. The branch creaked dangerously under their combined weight, and Kurt dared not move, but did open his eyes.
"Ve're alive," was the first thing he gasped, looking around.
"Did we land in a tree?" Rogue asked faintly, pain clear in her voice. It suddenly occurred to Kurt that it was rather dark, and most of the sunlight was being blocked off by thick branches and pine needles. He didn't even notice his sight switch over to night vision.
"Smells like a tree, feels like a tree, looks like a tree. Yes, I believe ve're in a tree." Kurt confirmed, nodding his head. He winced. His noggin hurt terribly. "Ouch."
Rogue had never noticed before (possibly because she hadn't known Kurt for more then a good 15 minutes), but Kurt's yellow eyes seemed to be…glowing. That was the only way to describe the soft light coming from his cat-like eyes, and Rogue began to wonder if it was a trick of the light.
"Every mutant 'as talents 'zat are not fully…visible in 'ze daylight." Kurt said suddenly in the darkness, as if reading Rogue's mind, and she looked down at the mutant she happened to be lying on top of in surprise. It wasn't very comfortable, and rather awkward, but she didn't want to risk falling out of the tree, and didn't know how far down the ground was.
"Wha-?"
"I 'ave night vision, mein freund." Kurt replied simply. "Ech, if you could move off my shoulder, it hurts…" He shifted uncomfortably. Rogue looked down through the darkness at what she assumed was Kurt's shoulder, moving off of it, and felt it carefully. It felt stiff and bandaged, and the stale smell of blood reached her nose.
"Kurt, what did you do to your-…?" She asked slowly.
Kurt frowned. "I don't remember." He said, sounding rather eager to change the subject. Rogue complied, and frowned, glancing around them and squinting in the darkness.
"You can teleport?" She inquired, to which she could only tell Kurt was nodding by the soft sound of his hair brushing up against the pine needles. "That's…um…very useful."
"Extremely."
"Can you teleport us out of the tree?"
"No."
Rogue felt a swell of disappointment rise in the pit of her stomach, fighting the urge to let out a cry of frustration. "Why not?" She asked, almost bitterly.
"I cannot teleport vere I cannot see." Kurt explained calmly, though there was a pang of pain in his voice. "I could end up in a wall or the ground or some'sing, vich vould be most disagreeable." He paused, then added; "Granted, if I know a place vell enough and if it's vit-in two miles of vere I am, I'm fairly sure I vould be able to teleport there vit-out many problems." He was hoping to raise Rogue's spirits, which he wasn't doing a very good job at. "Ah…If I could ju-" He froze, head perking up quickly, and Rogue was once again surprised when she felt the slight tickle of fur against her face as Kurt attempted to sit up as far as he could go without throwing her out of the tree. A man with such mysterious and unique physical features must have been a mysterious man with many odd stories to tell.
"What?" She asked.
"Shh!" Kurt hissed
back. "I thought I 'eard some'sing…"
Rogue strained her
ears to listen past the chirp of crickets, and after a second she
heard it too; the crunch of dry pine needles under someone's, or
something's, foot.
"Bobby, be reasonable." Storm's soft voice said, breaking the silence between the two in the tree. "We've been searching for a while now. Maybe they landed somewhere else or…or Kurt teleported Rogue and himself somewhere."
"But what if Rogue's ihurt?/i" The whine of Bobby Drake's voice replied back, echoing up to Kurt and Rogue in the tree. "What if she's lying somewhere with a broken leg or something? Don't iyou/i wanna find Kurt, too?" He added. After a pause, Storm spoke up again, her voice closer to the tree then before.
"What's that supposed to mean?" She wondered.
"Oh, nothing." Bobby replied, bitterness in his voice. "I just couldn't help but notice the way you were admiring his a-"
"Well," the gruff voice of Logan cut in suddenly. "I got a whiff of 'em over here and it ain't easy mistakin' the smell of your elf, Storm. He smells like brimstone."
Kurt wrinkled his nose.
"Personally," Logan continued. "I'm glad the little blue guy is gone. He was-"
"'Ze little blue guy can 'ear you, joo' know." Kurt said suddenly and rather loudly. The footsteps stopped abruptly as their owners paused.
"…Kurt?" Storm was the first to speak after a few minutes.
"Ja, mein lieber?" Kurt replied.
"Is Rogue with you?" Bobby shouted up to the blue elf, cutting off whatever Storm had to say.
Kurt blinked his yellow eyes up at Rogue. "Ja, she is." He said after a second, as if confirming she was still there, or at least alive, since the weight against his chest had not lessened. He winced a bit, wondering again absently if he had suffered any broken ribs. "Ve're both alive, too, in case you vere vondering. Rogue, please say hallo."
"Um…hi." Rogue said, a bit stupidly. Bobby's relieved sigh could be heard even all the way up there.
A bright light flashed up into Kurt's eyes, and he winced, closing them tightly. "Oops, sorry Kurt." Storm said apologetically, apparently having found a gap in the branches. "Oh, hm, that looks uncomfortable. Are you two injured at all?" She inquired.
"Um…I'm fine." Rogue assured them. "But I think Kurt's a little…" She trailed off.
"A little what?" Storm asked.
Rogue looked down at Kurt, who had a simple, modest look on his face. "He, uh, landed in the tree on his back, and broke a few branches on the way down; including the one we're on right now."
"'Zey vere very thick branches," Kurt added with a dramatic flare. "Is Miss Grey vit you, Miss Munroe?"
"No, she's not. Please call me Storm, or Ororo, Kurt. Can you get down?" Storm wondered.
"Vell…I can try…" Kurt said quietly. "It von't be pretty, 'zose." He added.
"Whatever it takes, Kurt. It would take too long to get Jean for you. Besides, we'll have Logan catch you." Storm added a smirk in her voice. That wasn't exactly the most comforting thing for Kurt to hear. He sighed.
"Hold on tight, please, and don't hold down my arms." He said to Rogue, like a flight attendant telling his passengers how to work a seatbelt. Rogue obeyed and wrapped her arms around him again, careful not to put much pressure on him, lest he had received any injuries beside bruises and perhaps broken pride.
Kurt squeezed his eyes shut, and wincing arched his back, before slamming it down on the branch they were on. The reaction was instant; the branch under they fell away and they fell through the tree again, snapping sticks under them, pine needles whizzing past them, scratching into their skin.
Rather blindly, feeling
panicked, Kurt reached out with his arms and grabbed at the passing
branches blindly. He managed to tear some off, and as they hit and
broke one jarring branch, he felt Rogue's grip on him slipping.
They were both getting further away from each other, and Kurt reached
out and grabbed her hands with his own. He knew they had mere seconds
left before they hit the ground…he grabbed a thick-feeling branch
with his tail and hung on for dear life, grunting as they descended,
with the sickening feeling that his tail would be ripped out.
It
stood up to the test; Kurt ended up upside-down, his tail the only
thing holding them up, holding Rogue's hands, and her feet dangling
inches from the ground.
Feeling the blood rush to his head, Kurt looked over at the stunned Storm, Logan and Bobby.
"Um…ta-da!"