Ski Resort

Cesca: WE ARE BACK WITH MORE! *Evil laughs* Thank you guys for the reviews! Eve and I totally appreciate it ^_^ you wanna say something, Eve? Hmm? *Raises eyebrow* Hehe. x) *Crow appears out of nowhere* D-D-DAMON? *Looks at crow* Eve, slap me now before I run after that imposter-crow…

Eve: *Slaps Cesca* It's and imposter Cesca! It's not the real thing! Well yes it is, but it's not Damon!

And thank you to everyone who reviewed! :D or favored or subscribed!

Chapter One

. . .

"This is ridiculous," Ash muttered as he slammed the dark brown mahogany door. He turned to Quinn, his roommate. "I can't believe Rashelis the only one with a room all for herself."

"I agree," Quinn said as he sighed. He was lying on his bed, with his arms and legs spread apart like a starfish. "I was hoping to be her roommate. Not yours."

"And I was hoping to have a room for myself. Not sharing with you—or anybody for that matter." Ash rubbed his head with one hand as he kicked his bags to his side of the room.

"But I guess it was reasonable to put a girl by herself. Thierry's sharing a room with Galen, you know. And Rashel's the only girl in our group, so it is pretty reasonable to let her have her own room."

Ash grumbled and heavily dropped on his bed, burying his face in his soft, white pillow. They're risking their lives because his, James, and Delos's mad great-grand uncle is on the loose—and yet they don't get their own rooms. How sweet.

"Stop complaining," Quinn said, sitting up and stretching. "Come on, we're meeting Thierry and the others down at the lobby."

Ash repressed a groan as he pushed himself off the bed. "What? We don't even get five minutes to settle in?"

"Hey, I'd love to lay around in the room and leave the door open to watch the chicks walk by, but we do need to get started on this mission ASAP."

"Since when did you become all professional?" Ash asked as he followed Quinn out of the door.

"This is just my agent mode. It's instinctive. One of my many modes actually. Not all of us are forever programmed on lazy you know?"

"No," Ash scoffed sarcastically. "I was too lazy to ever figure that out."

"Hey, don't bite my head off because—"

"Because I've got a laid back attitude?"

"Laid back?" Quinn repeated incredulously and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You know what, I'm not going to argue with you now."

"Good." Ash pushed past Quinn to take the lead. "Because you'd loose."

"Redfern!" Quinn growled.

Jez nudged Morgead. He grunted. She nudged him again. He grunted. That was the funny thing about man-speak. She couldn't tell if he was asking her to stop, warning her to stop, or telling her he needed to piss.

They were currently lounging down at the lobby with no apparent reason— in shorter words, loitering. They were sitting on the comfy sofas—they refused to call it loveseats—when they saw them. Well, when Jez saw them.

"What?" Morgead asked, looking up from the Motorcycle Consumer News issue he was reading.

"It's my cousin." She pointed to the guy with ash-blonde hair. "Ash. Remember him?"

Morgead snorted. "How can I not? I thought I was the only one to piss you off. But I guess I'm wrong."

Jez ignored his comment. She squinted. "Hmm. Who are those guys with him?"

"How should I know? I'm not related to him." Morgead lazily flipped the page in his magazine. "Aww yeah. Look at that amazing build. Oh, yeah. That is gorgeous. I'd love to ride that."

"And I'm not close to him." Jez pushed her fiery red hair out of her face. "Come on. Let's surprise him. And would you STOP making love to that damn magazine?"

"Why surprise? Why not ambush?" Morgead asked sarcastically, ignoring the comment about making love to the magazine.

Jez rolled her bluish silver eyes. "I'd say because there are people around to witness our ambush attack. Reasonable enough?"

Morgead rolled his green eyes and stared back at the group. Odd. One girl and the rest are guys. "Do you at least know why he's here?"

"Don't know," Jez answered thoughtfully as she pushed a fashion magazine she didn't really read off her lap, standing up. "But I'm about to find out."

Morgead sighed and leaned back on the couch, watching Jez carefully. She glanced back at him, mischievously. "What?" he asked for the second time in five minutes.

"You're coming with me. What else?" Jez asked sardonically.

"Why can't I just sit back and watch the show?"

"Because you'd be tempted to go with me while I talk to them in hushed tones—figuring out what the hell Ash is doing here," Jez answered. Morgead gritted his teeth, knowing that she was right.

And he hates it when she proves him wrong. He hates it so much. And she always seemed to prove him wrong that bitch.

Jez smiled triumphantly and flipped her red hair over her shoulder. "Come on."

Rashel glanced around the room, looking around for Hunter, if he was still here. The walls of the lobby were decorated by wooden patterns—making it appear as if they were inside a cabin. Wooden beams supporting the high ceilings decorated the ceiling. It made sense that the ski resort would have that lush, comfy cabin feel to it.

The plush armchairs and sofas were neatly scattered in the waiting area—or lounging area—and there were small coffee table here and there.

As Rashel scanned the crowd looking for any sign of red or that they were being watched, a red head did appear in her vision. A red haired girl trailed by a dark haired male was walking towards them.

"Guys," Rashel said over her shoulder, her tone suggesting they be on high alert.

Six pairs of eyes looked at her as she glanced at the two strangers walking up to them.

"Ah, shit," someone muttered.

Quinn glanced amusedly at his roommate.

"Why are they—?" Ash began only to be cut off by Jez.

"Why, hello there, cousin." Jez smirked smugly at the look of pure annoyance on Ash's face.

"Jezebel." Ash gritted his teeth. Of all the times he had to see her. Why at this deathly mission? So she could laugh at him when he's on his deathbed? Hell no. "What are you doing here?"

"The same question that I was supposed to ask you," Jez answered, glaring at her cousin. He called her Jezebel. And he knows that she doesn't like it when she's called by her full name.

"I've got business to do," he answered in his laziest tone he knew Jez hated. "What about you?"

"Oh? What kind of business?" Jez asked, raising an eyebrow as she examined the other people in Ash's group and gritted her teeth. God, she hated that tone.

"Just business that Dad had me doing." Ash replied, looking thoroughly irritated. "What are you doing here?"

"You know," Jez examined her fingernails. "Just hanging out, doing some skiing. It was getting unbearably hot down in California." She sighed dramatically. "And I needed to get out of Uncle Bracken's hair."

"You needed to get out of his hear, or he needed you out of his hair?"

"Haha," Jez scowled. "Don't think that I don't think the same thing about you. You annoy everyone you meet."

Ash's upper lip curled angrily. "At least I'm not a controlling bitch, Jezebel."

Jez opened her mouth to reply with a very colorful message when James stepped in between the fighting cousins.

"Hey, why don't you two cool off for a sec? You're drawing a lot of attention." James emphasized the last point with a pointed look at Ash. They did not want any sort of attention at all right now.

"Oh, hey James." Jez said, wondering how she didn't recognize her other distant cousin sooner.

James looked rather exasperated as he said, "Hi Jez. Now we have business to do so I would greatly appreciate it if you and your friend let us work our financial transactions in peace."

Jez nodded. She said her snarky goodbye to Ash who returned it and she and Morgead walked away.

"What's bothering you?" Morgead asked once they were out of earshot of the group.

"Ash's dad and Uncle Jasper would never let Ash and James handle their financial transactions." Jez pulled on her heavy winter coat and went trudging out into the frigid snow. "Something's not right Morgead. Plus everyone in that group looked way too young to be dealing in finances."

"So, what do we do?" Morgead asked. "What can we do? There must be a reason they didn't tell you what they are doing."

"I don't know Morgead. But I'm going to get down to the bottom of it." Jez promised. And Jez always kept her promises.

Thea dragged her stuff into the lobby of the ski resort. Her blonde hair falling into her eyes as she struggled with the heavy wait of the duffle bag. "A little help here?" She asked over her shoulder to her best friend.

"I would, but my stuff is just as heavy as yours." Gillian laughed breathlessly and gave her bags one last good heave over the threshold and into the warmth of the lobby.

"Ah, finally." Thea laughed. "I thought we were never going to get her."

"I know." Gillian smiled. "Maybe we shouldn't bring so much stuff next time."

"Maybe." Thea smiled. "Thank you, our room is 203." She added to the bellhop who would take their bags up to their room for them.

"I can't believe it! An actual bellhop! I haven't seen on of those since the Suite Life of Zach and Cody!" Gillian giggled.

"I used to love that show!" Thea gushed. "It was so funny!"

"I know! Let's go up to our room and get settled." Gillian took Thea's arm and they made their way up to their room.

"Wow, this place is amazing." Gillian said as she took in the room's dark wood paneling, amazing architecture, and the snack bar.

"I know! This month is going to go by so fast!" Thea practically ran over to the window to take in the view. "Come look at the mountains! And the trees! And all that snow!"

Gillian went to stand by her best friend. "Yes, it looks amazing. Too bad all places can't look like this. All pure and not totally polluted."

"Please, you think Phoenix is totally polluted. I've been to Detroit and New York City. We have very different ideas on polluted." Thea teased.

"Why do you travel so much anyway?" Gillian asked.

"Because." Thea turned to bag and started putting her clothes away in the dresser. "My cousin Blaise keeps getting us expelled from high schools. And I never even do anything. Its all Blaise, I just take the blame for it too, like a tool!" Thea angrily slammed the drawer. She took a deep breath and counted to ten three times. "I'm sorry. Blaise and I haven't exactly been on the best terms lately. She keeps disappearing at random intervals. Like, I'll wake up in the middle of the night to go get a drink of water and she'll be gone. And then she never tells me anything. We're supposed to be like sister's and she won't tell me anything!"

Gillian watched Thea cautiously as the taller girl began to angrily toss her clothes in the drawer, not caring about folding them or put them in any kind of order.

"I'm sorry. I know that's tough." Gillian winced, remembering her 'friend' who always used to forget her when she was supposed to pick her up for school or take her home.

"Yeah… At least I don't have to deal with Blaise anymore." Thea sighed in relief and put her empty bags into the corner of the room. "And at least we have each other!"

"Yeah! We do!" Gillian perked up instantly.

Thea glanced at Gillian's untouched bags. She looked at her with a small smile. "Need some help with that?"

Gillian looked down at her bag, shaking her head. "It'll be quick." With that said, she pulled out her clothes and began folding them neatly before placing them in the drawer.

"You want to go skiing first thing tomorrow morning?" Thea asked as she sat on her bed, smoothing out the nonexistent wrinkles of the white sheets.

"Of course!" Gillian exclaimed with great enthusiasm. "But I don't really know how to ski…" she added almost dejectedly, putting the last of her trimly folded-clothes in the drawer.

"I don't either," Thea admitted. She plopped down on her bed, tiredly. "I'm pretty sure we're not the only ones who are from the West Coast. I mean, it gets really hot there."

Gillian shook off her shoes, dropping down on her bed as well. "I guess so." She yawned, rubbing her eyes.

Both girls shrugged out of their clothes and pulled on their pajama's. Tomorrow was going to be an exciting day.

Thea switched their lamp off. "Good night, Jill."

"Sweet dreams, Thea," Gillian said, already pulling the covers on her body.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

"You good there, David?" Eric asked as stealthily crouched beside David, reloading his handgun.

"Same old, same old," David replied as he fired his handgun again. They were practicing their aims in the dark "abandoned" room—part of their training. "You?"

Eric smirked and shot one of the dummies perfectly in the stomach. Had it been a real person, it would be enough to stop and wound a suspect but it wouldn't kill them. "Just about to save your butt."

"Hey, I can survive on my own." Bang.

"You're taking too long. We only have ten minutes here, you know."

"I know." Bang, bang. "Finished," David announced as he wiped a light coat of sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. "Whew, that was tiring."

Eric looked around warily, expecting more dummies to pop out. He stood up and stretched. "Come on. We've got to run back down."

"No elevators," David muttered with a sigh.

"Becoming an agent is never easy, anyways," Eric said as he headed out of the dimly lit room. He placed his handgun in his holster and continued to walk out of the room.

David quickly followed, also putting his handgun in his holster. He jogged lightly until he reached Eric—who was brisk-walking down the "abandoned" hallways. "We should start running if we want to have a decent time record." He didn't wait for Eric's reply and just began running down the emergency staircase.

Eric chuckled lightly and jogged after David.

They reached the staircase and they both pulled out their guns again, both on high alert.

David slowly opened the door, his eyes scanning the landing up and down for any signs of the practice dummies. He motioned for Eric to come closer with and of his brown head.

Eric inched towards the door, adrenaline pumping hard in his veins. He didn't need to be an agent not to like this silence. His ears pricked at every breath take and minute movement.

The hairs on the back of Eric neck prickled, and he slowly turned around. A dummy had suddenly appeared in the hallway behind them, without thinking, Eric shot.

"Go!" He snapped at David and they both threw themselves into the staircase and began sprinting down the steps, their adrenaline pumping faster than ever.

Around the turn they went, meeting more dummies they shot without hesitation.

Finally they reached the bottom landing. David threw himself through the door.

"David- wait!" Eric snapped. Sure enough there was a dummy, carried by wires on the ceiling, making its way toward David.

Eric shot. Bang!

David, spun around, startled for a moment before beginning to scan the perimeter too.

Eric came out of the stairwell, quietly closing the door behind him. "C'mon, let's get back to the training room."

"Sounds good to me." The two boys set off down the hall.

"Well done. Eight minutes is a respectable time." Their mentor and fellow agent, Keller told them.

Eric and David exchanged a celebratory high five, grinning at each other.

"However," their smiles faltered. "Did you take into consideration who you were shooting? Did you take a couple seconds to process who you were shooting?"

They exchanged uneasy glances.

"When you are in a building full of many dangerous criminals, you two are not going to be the only ones going in. You do not want to shoot your comrades on accident." Keller said sternly, her gray eyes looking like steel.

"Well… I'm sure in a real situation we would be able to distinguish between the other agents and our targets." Eric said.

"Will you? I remember an agent saying just that and when we made him and his partner go through this again, they shot just as many agents as they did suspects."

"Well there was no difference between one dummy and another!" David exclaimed.

Keller just calmly raised her black eyebrows. "But if there was would you see it?"

"Well let us back in there with distinguished dummies and let's see how well we do!" David demanded hotly.

"Dude." Eric stomped on David's foot. "Calm down." He hissed.

David slumped into a nearby chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'll let you two rest up for two days before sending you back into the practice course. With distinguished dummies." Keller cast an almost amused glance at David before exiting the room.

"What the hell was that?" Eric exploded once she was gone.

"It was our first time going through that thing and we don't even get a good job?"

"We got a respectable time! And we are supposed to get helpful criticism. That's what the whole thing is about! To get better!"

"I'm sorry." David slumped lower in his seat. "It's just I wish we got a 'good job' or a 'nice work' here and there. We are learning to put our asses on the line after all."

"I know what you mean, I do. But it comes with the territory, you know? Well get the highest of praises once we finally get our killing licenses." Eric said with a bit of sarcasm at the end.

"Yeah." David sighed.

"Well I have to get back to the K9 unit. It's time to feed Bud again." Eric checked his watch. "I'll see you tomorrow, partner."

"Hey, before you go, who do you think are the other partners Keller was talking about earlier?"

"I dunno… Probably Ash and Quinn."

David shrugged. "Probably. Yeah, I'll see you later man."

"Later." Eric walked out of the room to go attend to his other partner, Bud the German Shepard.

"So Mr. Redfern, did you have a good day?"

"Yes… I had a very interesting day."

"Interesting? Does that mean something was not to your liking?"

"Yes… I believe I saw one of Thierry Descoudres's agents. A tall dark haired male with a muscular build."

"Sir, I don't mean to rain on your parade, but that general description fits more than one person at the resort."

"So it may, but I wish everyone to be on their utmost vigilance."

"Yes, sir, always sir."

"Are you positive there are still no leads on my whereabouts?"

"Yes, absolutely."

"Wonderful." The smile of a madman crossed Hunter Redfern's lips. "I should give you a raise, Blaise."

"That is very generous of you sir, but not necessary. Any updates I receive will be told to you immediately." Blaise Harman backed out of Hunter's office, her stomach churning. She faintly heard the sound of glass slamming against wood as she rounded the corner.

This was a dangerous job, no matter whose side she was on.

Eve: Well here you have it! :D Chapter numero uno of Ski Resort! We hoped you enjoyed it as mush as we enjoyed writing it! Please review! Thanks for reading!

Cesca: Thank you, thank you, thank you guys for the reviews :D We really, really appreciate them! And yes, we had fun writing this (although I think Eve was the one to write most of this chapter—so double your gratitude for her! ^_^)! We even did research! That's how much we love this story. LOL. And do review please :)