Author's note: Okay, school is finally over. Now I actually have time to write. That's the reason this chapter took so long. School + Job I hate life. So you guys can expect another chapter shortly. Woot! Here is chapter 10, it's going to be a good one.
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Jean skied down the slope towards Xavier who was waving her over. She slowed to a stop and planted her poles firmly in the soft ground. "What's up professor?"
"Have you seen Kitty or Fritz lately?" Xavier asked.
"No…" Jean replied shortly. "Have you tried calling Kitty's cell phone?"
"She let Rogue borrow it this morning when we got here." Xavier said furrowing his brow.
"Have you tried telepathy?" Jean asked.
"Yes, and I got nothing." Xavier replied.
"Why?" Jean was confused. Why wouldn't Xavier be able to use his telepathy to find two mutants?
"I don't know Jean." Xavier said.
"We should look for them!" Jean said as she reached for the straps on her boots to remove the skies.
"No, Jean. You're here to have fun. Leave this up to the Logan, Ororo, and myself. You have to promise me you won't tell the others. I don't want them to worry. They need this time to calm down and relax from all their training." Xavier trusted Jean would keep this to herself.
"Alright professor." Jean said unwillingly.
"Thank you. I'm going to talk to Logan and Ororo. You get back out there and have some fun." Xavier rolled down the path that led back to the lodge leaving two trails in the snow as he went.
Jean looked down the path at Xavier. "Sorry professor. We're a team," she turned and skied over to the group of X-men waiting by the ski lift.
Kitty looked at her surroundings for a way out of this mess. In front of her was Sabretooth. He was standing with his arms crossed and a smug grin on his face. Behind her was the trail she and Fritz came from, now blocked by Gambit holding a deck of cards. To her right were trees, thickly covering her view of the resort. A few feet to her left was an edge that dropped down a few hundred feet to a valley of more trees. "Great, stay here and deal with these two and end up dead or two of Magnetos experiments. Chance hiding in the trees but probably getting caught, or lose them for good in the trees but falling a hundred feet to do so leading to a horrible mangled death." Kitty thought.
"Fritz? Now would be a great time to wake up!" She whispered in Fritz's ear.
"…grrrhhg," Fritz grunted.
"Fritz, can you mutate?" Kitty asked quietly keeping her eyes on Sabretooth.
"…huh? …sure. Sleepy panda," Fritz wasn't quit sure what she was talking about, let alone what was going on; there was a loud ringing in his ears.
"Good," Kitty said. She slid her arms under Fritz's and clasped her hands across his chest. Kitty took one last look at Sabretooth before pushing as hard as she could towards the edge.
"Mutate Fritz! Now!" She said as the two rolled over the snowy edge and plummeted to the valley below.
"Now Fritz!" Kitty yelled again.
"…." Fritz was still slightly out of it. He was awake, but wasn't aware of much.
"Fritz!" Kitty yelled in his ear; they were getting closer to the ground below. Kitty was beginning to think this was a horrible idea. The cold wind stung her face like peroxide on an open cut. Kitty slapped Fritz in a desperate attempt to bring him back to reality leaving a red mark on his left cheek.
"Huh…what?" Fritz finally snapped out of it, he frantically glanced around. His skin darkened and his wings stretched to their fullest. Fritz's wings didn't slow them down enough for a nice landing though. They made it halfway to the ground from the tree tops when one of Fritz's wings hit a tree branch and bent backwards. Fritz and Kitty fell through the air once again, they fell about twenty feet before hitting the ground.
Fritz felt as though he hit every branch on the way down. He landed on his only good wing and bounced a little before landing on his stomach. Kitty however did her best to phase through all the branches and tried to land on her feet. She kind of hopped when she landed like a deflated basketball and came to rest on her back. The two lay there for what seemed like hours. Kitty was the first to move. She slowly pushed her self up feeling every bruise on her body as she moved. She stumbled over to Fritz to make sure he was all right.
Gambit and Sabretooth looked out over the ledge at the two mutants lying on the ground not moving. "Well, looks like our work here is finished," Sabretooth said. The two Acolytes turned and walked away feeling no pity.
"Fritz, are you alright? Fritz?" Fritz opened his eyes a little bit to see Kitty kneeling next to him. "Oh my god, like how do you feel?"
Fritz struggled to sit up. He had mutated back to normal right after the fall, something subconscious that he couldn't help. "Like someone pushed me over a cliff and then slapped me in the face," Fritz said nonchalantly.
"I'm so sorry. I panicked and this was the first thing that came to mind." Kitty stared at the ground. She hugged herself and sniffed. "You probably hate me now, don't you."
"No, I don't hate you, never." Fritz tried to stand but ended up falling. "If anything, you saved out lives. If you hadn't pushed us over the cliff, Sabretooth and Gambit would have, after they killed us." Fritz tried to stand again, and fell once more.
Kitty sniffed again. "Like, what do we do now?"
"I don't know. But let's get out of the open in case those two come after us," Fritz said.
He finally made it to his feet and helped Kitty up. They limped out of the clearing and made their way through the dense trees.
"So when was the last time the professor saw them?" Evan asked Jean after she told them all of the missing X-Men.
"About two hours ago," Jean replied. "Guys, we need to do something; they could be hurt."
"Then we should split up and search for them," Scott said. "Evan, you and Rogue search all the lifts and lodges down here. Jean and I will search all the lodges and lifts at the top. Kurt, you search anywhere and everywhere else you can think of."
"Okay, let's go." Rogue led the way down the path to the ski lodge.
"You ready?" Jean asked Scott before taking the lead.
"Let's go," Scott followed closely behind Jean as they made their way to the ski lifts.
"How far do you think we are from the resort?" Kitty asked Fritz as he helped her over a snow covered log.
"Not sure. I don't even know which way we're going." Fritz held a branch out of the way for Kitty. Fritz looked over at her as they walked through the forest. Kitty shivered as she hugged herself tighter. Fritz just now noticed she was missing her scarf and jacket. The only thing of warmth that she was wearing now was a thin long-sleeve shirt. Fritz slipped his jacket off and draped it over Kitty's shoulders.
Kitty stopped and looked up at Fritz. "Fritz, I'm fine. You're going to like, freeze without it. You only have a t-shirt on." She tried to take if off but Fritz shot out his hand and grabbed hers.
"And so will you," Fritz nudged her hand away. "Keep it Kitty, it'll make me feel better." Fritz noticed her expression soften. She lowered her hand and slipped it through the sleeve followed by the other.
"Thank you Fritz," Kitty zipped the jacket up to her chin and put her hands in the pockets.
"Always," Fritz said quietly.
Jean made it to a clearing. The snow on the ground was heavily disturbed; at least compared to the rest of the snow. There were two sets of tracks leading away from the clearing as well as two sets leading into the clearing. In front of Jean was a drop off. She made her way over to the edge and knelt down.
"Scott!" Jean yelled over her shoulder.
Scott hurriedly rushed to Jean's voice. He entered the clearing and saw Jean at the edge kneeling down. Jean stood up and faced Scott with a pink scarf in her outstretched hand.
"You don't think…," Scott walked to the edge and peered down. All Scott saw was white snow on the ground below.
"No, and you won't either." Jean grabbed his coaler and headed back the way they came.
Nightfall was coming and Fritz and Kitty had made no progress; they were still just as lost as they were when they started walking. Only now, Fritz was freezing because he didn't have a jacket. Kitty said she was doing fine every time Fritz asked, but he knew she was just as miserable as he was; with or without the jacket.
"We like, so should have waited at the bottom of the cliff for someone to find us." Kitty held the jacket tighter trying to cling to every last bit of warmth possible.
"Come on, it's not that bad…" a strong gust of wind caused Fritz to trail off as he wrapped his arms around his sides for warmth.
"Not that bad! Fritz, we're miles from the resort, it's dark, it's cold, and we don't even know if we're going the right direction!" The cold seemed to be making her really short tempered. Fritz couldn't really blame her for that though, he felt the same way. Kitty slumped against a tree and hugged her waist tightly.
"Alright alright, sorry. It is bad." Fritz looked at their surroundings. Snow covered the ground in all directions. Trees as far as he could see. "We defiantly are lost." He caught sight of something that was a little out of place.
Hidden by the dark, in all of the white, was a small patch of brown about fifty yards away. "Kitty, do you see that?" Fritz pointed. "Let's go check it out."
The two walked in the dark with the only light being the moon. They finally came to a stop. There, lying in front of them, was a fallen over tree. It's branches extending to the ground creating a canopy underneath where no snow had douched. Fritz looked up at kitty "well, at least it's dry."
Fritz reached down and held up a snow-covered branch. Kitty crouched underneath and crawled inside not feeling like arguing about getting dirty at this point. All she cared about was being warm and out of the snow. Fritz followed on his knees after her. It wasn't much warmer inside than it was outside. The only thing the tree helped to protect them against was the wind. Which in a way made it feel warmer.
The space was about the size of a big couch; big enough to be in and lye down, but not big enough to stand up. It was taller at the end where it had broken making a sloping roof. The dirt under them was dry but the coldness made if feel almost wet.
Fritz leaned back against the stump of the fallen tree and brought his knees up to his chest. He stayed there in silence expecting Kitty to move to the other side. He couldn't help but blame himself for their situation and he thought she blamed him as well. After all, if he had been able to spread his wings sooner, he could have flown them back to the resort and they wouldn't be in this mess, but now his wing was hurt and they weren't going anywhere on it.
Kitty however, sat down next to him and slid half of Fritz coat across his shoulders. She snuggled closer until their shoulders met. Fritz, a little surprised, reached around and placed his hand on her back. He slowly rubbed her back in an attempt to warm her up. He looked down at her as she stared off into space. "I'm s-sso cold," she said quietly.
"Ffffritz, do you mind if…" Kitty didn't give herself time to finish as she guiltily slid her hands under his shirt for further warmth. Fritz didn't seem to mind, barely getting out an audible answer.
Now that Kitty knew she was welcome, she took this opportunity to get comfortable and hugged his waist, placing her head on his chest. Fritz followere her lead and pulled her closer. A single tear made its was down Kitty's cheek, Fritz reached up with is other hand and wiped it from her face.
Every time Kitty tried to move, the cold bit her arms and stung her hands so she held tighter each time until eventually Fritz felt her stop. He looked down at her still body and could only hear the softness of her breathing; she was asleep. He wanted to sleep so much, but he couldn't let Kitty down, not again.
The hours passed bye and Fritz could feel the heaviness of sleep take over. He was too weak and didn't have the power to fight it. He had been walking all day and hadn't had a bite to eat since breakfast. He slowly, unwillingly closed his eyes and passed into the realm of darkness.
Author's note: Was it as good as I said? Did I even say it was going to be good? Aw-well. I'd appreciate any reviews. Flames are always welcome.
