Author's note: No one loves me. :( I haven't received a single review, in like...ever. But hey, that's cool. I'm going to tough it out and continue on; cause i'm just that awesome. Now get on your knees and bow down to my radiating awesomenessnessness! I will rule you all one day. My power will spread like B.O. from my armpits. But until that day comes, read chapter eleven!
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Jean's snowmobile left a deep groove in the snow behind her as she sped through the dense trees. The engine whined and the gears groaned ass he pushed the rented machine to its max. Behind her, Scott steered left and right avoiding the oncoming trees.
The X-Men had spent one day already searching for their lost friends. This time however, they had plenty of light to go by. Logan thought it would be best to rent snowmobiles for everyone so they could cover more ground. She and Scott had been riding for three hours now and hadn't found a single sign of neither Kitty nor Fritz.
Jean scanned the area for the hundredth time. Scott didn't get a chance to ask what she picked up before Jean hooked a sharp left and sped away in that direction. Scott had to fight to keep control of his snowmobile as he quickly turned and followed Jean over a hill.
"KITTY!" Jean yelled. In the distance, Kitty was jumping up and down waving her hand in the air.
Jean's snowmobile slid to a stop. Before she could get off her seat Kitty had her arms around the telepath, "Jean!"
"Kitty, what happened to you?" Jean tried to pull her away with no luck.
"We ran into Sabretooth and—" Kitty started but was cut off by Scott.
"We? You mean Fritz is with you?" Scott couldn't believe they had found both Kitty and Fritz.
"Oh my god! Fritz! Jean, he needs help…" Kitty let go of Jean and ran towards the fallen tree she and Fritz had slept under.
Jean jumped of her seat and ran after Kitty, followed by Scott.
"I couldn't wake him up," Kitty lifted as many branches as she could to reveal a sleeping Fritz.
"How long has he been asleep?" Jean asked as he bent down and checked the kid for a pulse.
"Well, I guess since last night." Kitty bit her lip hoping Jean knew what was wrong with their friend.
"Did he sleep all night without a coat?" Scott seemed worried. After making the necessary precautions, Jean used her powers to lift Fritz off the ground
"Yeah…he gave it to me yesterday." Kitty didn't like where this was going; a small tear ran down the side of her face.
"Scott, Fritz has hypothermia!" Jean quickly removed her jacket and rapped it around Fritz's body. "We have to get him back to the lodge and get him warm before he goes into cardiac arrest!" Jean climbed onto her snowmobile while trying to balance Fritz at the same time.
Scott ran up and grabbed Fritz, "Jean you take Kitty, I'll get Fritz."
"Thanks Scott. Let's go!" Jean waved Kitty over. Kitty jumped on the back of Jean's snowmobile and they took off speeding towards the lodge. "Professor, we found them both. But Fritz needs help bad, he has hypothermia. We need to get him warm. We'll all meet you back at the lodge. Tell the others." Jean said telepathically.
"Thank you Jean, I will." The professor echoed back in her head.
Scott held onto Fritz with his left hand as he steered with his right, he followed closely behind Jean and Kitty.
Jean could feel Kitty's fear for Fritz. "He'll be okay Kitty, don't worry," Jean said.
"It's all my fault Jean!" Kitty broke into tears and hugged Jean harder.
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An hour later, Fritz was stable and on the X-Jet on the way back to the mansion. Kitty explained what happened the previous day and night, starting from when she and Fritz went cross-country skiing. Kitty was still wearing Fritz's coat when she finished her story.
"Well, no sense staying inside on a beautiful day like this. Every one outside and enjoy yourselves. Leave the rest of this up to Logan, Ororo, and myself." Xavier waited for the kids to file out side. Kitty however, stayed behind.
"It's my fault we got lost, don't be mad at Fritz." Kitty seemed to find the floor very interesting.
"No one ever said you were in trouble my dear." Ororo stepped forward and embraced Kitty. "You two are safe now and that's all that matters."
Kitty thanked the three of them and ran outside to join the others.
"What I want to know, is why you couldn't find them last night professor? And why Jean did so easily today" Logan asked at last.
"I'm concerned myself old friend…it was like they didn't even exist." Xavier looked out the window at the falling snow.
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Fritz was taken back to the institute, via the X-jet and beasts help. Beast managed to warm Fritz up to a safe temperature; but, he and the professor thought it would be best to take him back to the mansion so Beast could monitor him for twenty-four hours.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Fritz woke up to the beeping of a heart monitor, "what the?" Fritz sat up and took in his surroundings; white walls, sterile tables, electronics and machines for monitory body functions. "What am I doing in the Infirmary?"
Fritz slid off of the table and landed on weak legs. He would have fallen over had he not grabbed for the side of the pathetic excuse for a bed. "Whoa, head rush." He wandered out into the corridor supporting himself on the walls as he walked. He was completely drained of energy and he didn't know why. He turned a corner and ran head first into a big blue wall.
"Aaaah!" Beast yelled spilling his coffee over the both of them. Luckily Fritz was only wearing clothes that weren't his. They were the normal white hospital sleep clothes, only these had a red "X" over the left breast. Beast however, wasn't as fortunate. He was wearing a blue shirt with a black and yellow tie. Beast's shirt now sported a rather large brown spot on his stomach.
"Uh, I'm really sorry Mr. McCoy." Fritz was expecting a talking about being more careful, because it was obviously his fault.
"Shoot, Ororo's going to kill me. This is the third time this week." Beast knew Fritz had been having a bad day so far. So he did his best to help him out. That shirt was actually a present from an old friend in college.
"So…you're not mad about the huge stain?" Fritz suddenly gained a lot more respect for Hank McCoy.
"No sweat, it's an old shirt anyways. You can hardly notice it. Did you sleep well?" Beast tried his best to straighten his now damp shirt. He bent down and picked up the broken coffee mug.
"Yeah, why was I in the infirmary?" the two started walking back to the medical wing; Fritz still using the wall for support every other step.
"I didn't think you would remember," Beast said. He grabbed a plain white shirt off of a hook on the wall near his desk in the medical wing. He changed the clean dry one for the old wet on and slipped on a whit lab coat as well. "Fritz, you had hypothermia. You're still recovering, I see you're doing well. You do need more sleep though."
"How did I…" but as Fritz was about to ask, memories flooded back to him in a rush. "I gave Kitty my Jacket cause she was cold." Fritz almost whispered this.
"That would explain it Fritz. No Jacket in freezing weather will do that to a person." Beast said with a slight chuckle.
"Kitty! How's Kitty?" Fritz asked in a rush.
"From what I hear, she was well enough to stay the rest of the trip." Beast shuffled some papers on his desk to make it look as if he was busy.
"That's good…"Fritz said quietly.
"Your jacket probably saved her life Fritz." Beast said.
"Yeah," Fritz seamed distracted.
The two sat in elative silence. The only noise was coming form Beast's random shuffling and stacking of papers.
"Hey Mr. McCoy? When you've got time, can you look at my wing? I hurt it when I fell off the cliff." Fritz finally spoke up, after noticing a defined pattern in Beast's monotonous shuffling.
"You fell off of a cliff?" Beast stood up from his desk and walked to Fritz's side.
"Not so much fell as was pushed." Fritz saw the shocked looked on Beast's face and added, "it's a long story. I'll tell you later." Fritz mutated and tried to extend his injured wing, but winced and sharply pulled it back.
"Don't your injuries heal on there own once you mutate?" Beast asked while pulling Fritz's wind out a bit to examine.
"They did, haven't for a while though." Fritz said between gasps as Beast poked and prodded his hurt wing.
"Interesting, well, your wing is fractured." Beast said and released Fritz's wing gently. "I'm going to have to make you a cast if you want it to heal right."
"Fine with me," Fritz said. "I can still use it right?"
"Not until it heals, unless you want to cause more damage." Beast got out the necessary materials to make a cast.
Not flying would be hard for Fritz. It was one of his only Joys of being able to mutate.
"Wait, what will happen when I mutate? What will happen to the cast?" Fritz asked.
"Humph, good question." Beast thought for a moment. "I could put a few screws in it. If I'm right, when you mutate, your body will think the cast is a part of you. It may work."
"Gaah…okay. I feel like a guinea pig." Fritz wasn't sure about it but he didn't have any better ideas.
The pins were set and the cast was laid and now Fritz could move his wing with much less pain. "That should do well," Beast said. He wandered back of to his seat.
"I can't mutate back," Fritz said blatantly.
"Why not?" Beast looked up from his papers a little surprised.
"I was hoping you could tell me," Fritz said. Fritz wasn't that worried because this had happened many times. "This isn't the first time I haven't been able to."
"Really?" Beast turned around and pulled out some files from a cabinet behind him. "Tell me every time this has happened."
Fritz told him about the time after the danger room session, the time it mad him late for school in them morning, and when they finished cleaning up the brotherhoods mess.
"Interesting, very interesting." Beast checked the charts again. "I think all I'll need are some x-rays…"
Fritz was glad that was all. No needles involved; he hated needles. He would gladly except any form of medicine as long as it didn't involve needles, any form.
"…and a blood sample." Beast finally said.
All of Fritz's hopes crashed. "I hope with all of the technology this institute has, you've developed another way of drawing blood besides needles." Fritz cringed at the thought of the answer.
"Nope, just old fashioned needles." Beast held up a syringe.
The light gleamed off the point taunting Fritz. He knew this wasn't going to be easy.
"I'll examine these, you need some more rest." Beast said sternly.
"Thanks Mr. McCoy," Fritz climbed onto the hard bed and finally realizing how tired he truly was, laid his head down and fell asleep.
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Xavier had called a meeting in his office when everyone got back to the mansion at 9:30pm. "As far as Fritz's well being, he is doing fine and will be able to leave the infirmary soon. I believe Logan has something to say to you."
"You kids have done really good these past few weeks. I know it's hard to put up with unexpected training, but it has to be done, right?" Logan was referring to all the times he had called the mutants out of bed at three in the morning to run a DR session. This is concerning who I've picked to be leader of the X-men should I not be there." At this, everyone perked up. "Scott, you are a fine leader, you have shown us your ability in combat and your tactics." Scott had a big grin on his face. "However, Jean, you demonstrated today that you can keep it cool when under the most stressful circumstances. You detected your fallen teammates, you determined the problem, and you set up proper evac. to ensure their safety. On that note, I have decided to put you in charge."
Scott sighed but knew it was the right decision and joined everyone else in congratulating her. "Thank you Logan. I'll do my best." Jean said with a sense of authority.
"Now, there is cake and pizza in the kitchen for all of you." Xavier said seeing everyone jump to their feet.
"Can I ask to keep the adults a little longer?" Beast asked after the last kid left.
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When Fritz finally woke up, the infirmary was dark and Beast was gone. The only light in the room was coming from Beast's computer. Fritz checked his watch, 10:17pm. "The rest of the X-men should be back by now," Fritz thought. He jumped off of his bed and made his way out of the infirmary passing by Beast's computer. Fritz glanced at the screen for a moment but didn't pay much attention to it.
Diagrams and formulas flashed across the screen. In the top left corner, the screen read, "Advancing Genetic Mutation: unstable?"
Fritz walked down the dark hallway of the subbasement feeling a little better than before. He took the elevator up to the ground floor and met Rogue walking down the hall.
"Fritz!" Rogue ran up to him and wrapped him in a hug. "How are you feeling? Beast and the Professor are worried."
"Worried? I just talked to Beast a little while ago and he seemed like everything was fine." Fritz was confused. Then again, the adults didn't seem to like to tell the students a lot of things.
"Oh, well maybe I heard wrong. They're in the Professor's office if you want to talk to them." She put her hand on his shoulder, "I'm glad you're okay Fritz. You had us all worried."
"Thanks, didn't mean to." Fritz gave her a slight grin and walked on down the hall towards the professor's office.
Fritz passed by the kitchen and decided he should have a snack first. He walked in and was greeted by the rest of the X-men finishing up there dinner apparently. There was a third of a cake sitting on the counter and almost a full pizza along with many empty pizza boxes spread around the kitchen.
Kitty ran from the table and literally jumped onto Fritz wrapping her arms around him, she almost tripped on him doing it. "Fritz, your okay! I was like, so worried. How do you feel. You like, look good." Kitty was talking to fast for Fritz to understand all of it.
"Kitty, slow down. I'm fine. I'm just tired." Fritz hugged her back not wanting to make a big deal about it. He hated attention. He didn't like everyone focusing on him. Which was hard when you fall off a cliff and then get hypothermia. "Beast said I'll live."
"Good, we don't want you dying. You still owe me two bucks," Scott said from the table with a laugh.
"Maybe I'd rather die," Fritz smiled back. He said his goodbyes, received a kiss on the cheek from Kitty, grabbed a slice of pizza and sauntered out of the Kitchen to find Beast.
He approached the door to the office and gave a small knock. "Come in Fritz," the professor said telepathically.
Fritz opened the door and walked in noticing the sudden seriousness in the air. "Hello, professor, Logan, Ororo, Mr. McCoy," Fritz said addressing each adult individually. "What's going on?"
"Fritz, why don't you sit down?" Xavier pointed to a chair in the middle of all of the older mutants.
Fritz did so and suddenly became very worried and confused. "Did something happen to my parents?" It just dawned on Fritz that he hadn't heard from his Dad, or Mom, for a long time.
"No no, they're both fine." Xavier looked over at Beast who was standing to the side of Fritz. "We've been discussing your mutation, Fritz."
"What's wrong with my mutation?" Fritz remembered that Beast had taken x-rays and a blood sample. Was this serious?
"Your mutation is advancing, Fritz." Xavier paused for a moment. "This happens to every mutant. It's just another step in evolution."
"So this is a good thing?" Fritz asked.
"Unfortunately, your mutation is advancing in a different way. Fritz, every time you mutate, your mutant form gets a chance to further mutate. Are you following me?" Xavier asked.
"This body," Fritz gestured to himself, "is staying the same, while my mutated body mutates?"
"Something like that kid," Logan said from the window seat.
"Yes, exactly. Hank has told us that you've had problems mutating back from your mutant form. That's because your body is adapting to your mutant form. It's going to get harder and harder to mutate back until one day….you can't." Xavier was sad to tell Fritz this but someone had to before it was too late.
"Wait, so someday I'll be stuck in my mutant form forever?" Fritz's heart sank.
"Yes, I'm sorry. But, Hank thinks he can find a way to stop it." Xavier said.
"I may be able to make a formula that will suppress your mutant powers from advancing. Same way I stopped my mutation from coming out for so long. I just need time to work on it." Beast spoke up.
"So what, I'm just supposed to not mutate until then?" Fritz asked angrily. He knew it wasn't any of their faults, but he couldn't help but hate them right now.
"More or less. Just do it sparingly and everything should be fine." Xavier said.
"Great, I'm a mutant who can't use his powers. I'm going to be a big help to the team!" Fritz swore and stormed out of the room.
"Fritz." Ororo called after him.
"Let him go, he needs to think," Xavier said. "Hank, get started on that formula as soon as you can. Logan, see that Fritz refrains from mutating if it isn't necessary. Ororo, our young lad needs more moral support now than every, see what you can do; tell the others." Xavier rolled over to the window and stared out at the falling rain, "I feel the worst is going to happen my friends."
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Author's note: Yay, finished. Finally after hours of writing and editing stuff, I have delivered the perfect transition to the climax of the story. SWEET! Sorry if this chapter seemed a bit rushed because it was. I wrote most of it on my vacation and wanted to get it over with so I can start the finally. Next chapter, Fritz angst, Lance bashing. Please leave a review.