4625/Salem Center And the Hill of Death

Salem Center And the Hill of Death
Date of Scene:	06 January 2021
Location:	Apple Park: Salem Center
Synopsis:	Jean, Rogue and Kitty brave a huge sledding hill and somehow manage to survive.
Cast of Characters:	Kitty Pryde, Rogue, Jean Grey

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Kitty Pryde has posed:
It's the kind of thing that's whispered about between Salem Center kindergarteners and first graders. The giant hill out at Apple Park. In warm weather it's a good place to look out over the park, a fun climb for hikers.

But in winter it becomes something more. So much more.

Stories are whispered back and forth amongst the youngest of school kids. Tales of the how the giant sled hill claims a life at least every other year. Two years ago it was a toboggan that crashed at the bottom, the three kids riding it strewn over the ground so their parents couldn't tell which parts were which kid except by their clothing.

Two years before that it, it was someone riding one of those metal disk sleds. The rider was ok, but the kids whisper about what happened when he fell off and the sled launched into the air over a snowy bump. Whisper, and make gestures across their throats.

Of course all of those stories are made up by the older kids who enjoy freaking out the young ones. But that doesn't mean it isn't a BIG, FAST sledding hill!

Kitty Pryde trudges to the top of it, pulling a toboggan on which are loaded a runner sled, and one of those metal disks with no way to steer them. There's a rope that runs up to help people make the climb, though she's fit enough she went without it. Still she's winded by the top, stopping and pulling off the skiing headband that is keeping her ears warm, and looking out over the hill with her sunglasses on. It's a sunny day, but cold!

Rogue has posed:
Rogue wasn't that worried about the perils of sledding down large inclines. For one, she can alter her gravitational field at-will, and for two, she's basically immune to pain and injury. But... she does like to go fast. Going fast is one of her vices, in fact, even if she rarely talks about it. Be it Carol's stolen lov eof jet fighters, or her own sense of rebelling against mundaneness, Rogue is all in for a sled down an infamouse slope.

So she walks beside / behind Kitty, carrying a metal disc sled that she got as a gift last Christmas. It's in the style of one of Wonder Woman's shields. She's holding it beside her in her left arm LIKE a shield, as they walk. Dressed in her black winter coat, a wool hat on her head and some snow-proofed pants and boots, Rogue is grinning as they ascend.

"Honestly, it's just nice t'get outside and do somethin'. It may not be a fancy ski trip, but hey, better than sittin' in the rec room the resta the damn day." It's busy in the school too, now that classes are back on.

Jean Grey has posed:
It's almost assuredly Rogue's fault that Jean has come along to join the outing, in the company with the school's arguably two most prominent non-student youngsters. She's outnumbered! Then again, as she will only occasionally let on, most of the school's dubious traditions and favorite entertainments date back to her and a certain four rowdy young fellas starting the whole mess.

So she's not REALLY an innocent!

Trudging behind the other two, Jean hasn't brought her own fancy custom sled like Rogue because, as an actual adult, she does not own such a thing. And Kitty has brought a few along, so it seems like they'll manage. Dressed for the weather like the other two, in her typical puffy green parka, dark thermal tights, snow boots, hat and inexplicably cutesy polar bear earmuffs, she's ready for whatever bitter Westchester has to offer!

Which isn't to say she's not breathing pretty hard by the time they reach the top. She's got that big brain of hers, but hardly Rogue's indomitable stamina.

"Phew. That's higher than I remember," she admits, with a laugh, putting her hands on her hips to look out over the view once they're up, her breath causing foggy puffs in the air. Then, a nod of agreement at Rogue's praise of the outdoors. "I don't know how I have so much paperwork only two days into things! I hate it. I already hate it," she admits, with a laugh. Kitty and Rogue she's comfortable being honest with, an honesty that includes her not always being the image of perfection that she by necessity puts on.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty flashes a grin over to the two other women as she settles her headband back in place. "I figured it would be a good chance to get away. And my contract is wrapping up at Fisk now my new upgrades went in on New Year's Eve," she says. "So I have a little more free time than before."

She walks over to look at the hill. "It does look kind of big, doesn't it?" she agrees. As Kitty stands watching, a third grader goes running past her, jumping off the top of the hill with a runner sled under him. He lands in the snow and shoots down the hill at a high speed. There are various bumps that amount to jumps at these speeds, each of the named by the local kids of course, even if Kitty doesn't know the names.

She watches him shooting down the hill, steering back and forth. "Ah the joys of sleds that steer," she says with a laugh. "Though you two can steer anything you want. Totally not fair," she jokingly harrumphs, crossing her arms for emphasis.

Rogue has posed:
At the peak, Rogue is looking back to Puffy Jean when she joins them, dressed up in her big huge winter jacket. The Belle grins at the Headmistress. "I dunno how you handle it at all." She quietly states, her eyes covered in a pair of sporty sunglasses. "But if ya need help, just lemme know. I'll forge your signature on stuff, or whatever. I got beautiful hand writin' ya know?" She grins at Jean again before her eyes go over to Kitty.

She has to look away though as the 3rd grader goes down the hill ahead of them. "Ya know, Prydeful--" Rogue starts, clearing her throat and shifting her weight from one knee-high booted foot to the other. "It's a little less intimidatin' than ya described it on the way over here, when ya got a kid smaller than a french poodle boundin' down the hill---" Rogue winces as the kid bites it and goes tumbling with arms and legs flailing. "Hoooo--- shit. Ouch. Okay, yeah, now we're talkin'."

Jean Grey has posed:
"Oh, that's good to know. I'm sure we can find you some ways to fill your time around school if you end up with TOO much free time on your hands..." Yes, it's no surprise that Jean immediately pounces on the good news about Kitty's schedule, and takes the natural subsequent step of plotting how she can fill up that extra time with more work at Xavier's!

Also, she seems way more interested in recruiting Kitty to help than Rogue, expert forger.

"I think you'll be fine sticking to your current set of assignments." Which are, themselves, somewhat new. "Besides, you've got the truck now, so there's all kinds of things we can have you do that need getting done around the school grounds. And errands into town. We'll keep you busy, don't you fret."

With this promise-slash-threat, she turns her eyes down the hill and to the kid first flying, and then bouncing their way down. "Don't underestimate it! It's pretty challenging, if you don't cheat."And then she promptly looks back to Kitty. "Ok, which one do I get?"

Kitty Pryde has posed:
As Rogue starts to question the Hill, the Hill strikes back! Kitty stands at the top of the hill, gesturing down at the elementary schooler now pinwheeling down through the snow like Kitty were Vanna White revealing the answer.

"Your pick, Jean. I'll take the other. We can save the toboggan for a group run," she says as she moves over to pull the two other sleds off of the long wooden one. The disk is just silver, no paint job on it. Though after Rogue's, you can bet Kitty is going to sweet talk Thomas into painting it for her.

The other sled has red metal runners, with wooden slats to lay on, and can be steered with the wooden slat at the front connected to the runners. It reads "Red Racer" on the wood and has fanciful flames decorating it.

"Just remember, no broken bones!" Kitty says as she glances at the hill again, rubbing her hands together in anticipation instead of fear.

Rogue has posed:
Jean had gotten Rogue a truck, at least in Rogue's eyes, an 'assigned school vehicle' that she could use to do the errands for the school. She'd be very appreciative of it and looked forward to exploiting the fuck outt--- er, using it for wholesome purposes. "Grocery Bitch, that's my job, I know." She says with a grin as she adjusts her shield-sled and drops it on the ground unceremoniously. Her left booted foot goes down on to its center to keep it stable as she adjusts her glove straps around her wrists, her eyes down while Jean and Kitty talk.

"I ain't gonna cheat, I only cheat if I'm tryin' t'get away with not embarrass myself, like at my job last summah."

When she looks up again she raises her hands to adjust her hat on top of her head, then swipe the long white bangs out of her face some before she huffs out a breath and then sits down on her sled.

She does cheat a bit, in that she gets herself in to position by gliding the sled to the edge of the hill. "All right, I'mma go check on that little crash-dummy, see if he's okay." She says before she just takes off down the hill, her metal WW Shield bouncing over the slope's varying degrees of steepness, her loose hair flowing behind her shoulders as she goes!

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean's pick? The Red Racer.

There's probably something in the 'traditional' look of the old fashioned runner sled that appeals to the woman. Not that she's OLD (those things date back to Xavier's time!), but still, it fits the local aesthetic, the familiar imagery of the snow-blanketed Hudson valley. And frozen lake or sled hill alike, she reliably eats that stuff up.

Or maybe it's just the name and flame paintjob!

"You two can duke it out on your slick flying saucers," she suggests, turning to take a look at Rogue's. "Although I think it's always a bad sign where your opponent shows up to the amateur competition with their fancy custom gear. Is that thing even regulation?" Obviously there are no actual regulations! But the question is moot as Rogue soon makes for the edge and heads over it.

Jean's turn!

In theory, there's two ways to ride such a thing- seated with your feet on the steering bar, or laying on your belly, face forward, hands on the bars. The latter, obviously, is way more likely to get you murdered, or at least, put your head into a snowbank. So Jean sits herself down the cowardly way, after getting it to the edge. One downside is that there's no particular way to -launch- such a sled, you just have to kind of get it balanced and then lean forward until you start sliding. Or have someone push you! OR USE YOUR MIND. Either way, it takes just a moment, before the sled teeters over the edge and then starts going, quickly picking up speed as the metal runners provide slick, minimal surface contact. Behind, her fluttering hair does the paint job justice!

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde picks up the silvery disk, saying, "Darn it. I knew I should have had Hank invent the frictionless stuff from Christmas Vacation." She carries the disk over to the edge of the hill while Rogue is propelling herself over there and Jean is carrying the Red Racer.

"See, we'll be ok though," Kitty says of the unsteerable sled of broken limbs. "Because we already sacrificed an elementary school kid to the hill. Should be smooth sledding from here," she says, using her hand to make a smooth motion forward.

Kitty watches Rogue start down and she yells at her, "Be careful of Skeleton's Jump!" Ok, someone besides the young kids know the names of the hill's more impressive contours. Skeleton's Jump is a big depression, the far lip of which is great for launching you into the air. If you wanted it to do that.

If you didn't? Uh oh.

Kitty grins at Jean and then sets the round sled down on the edge. As Jean starts sliding down the hill, Kitty backs up and then runs and jumps on the sled on her belly to push it forward like her head was late for a date with a snowbank!

Rogue has posed:
"Not even slightly!" Rogue shouts back to Jean about the 'regulations' of her shield-sled. She'd never even used it last year, had just left it on a hook in her closet and remembered it this year. Being a big Wonder Woman fan, Rogue was eager to use it but not beat it to hell... but hey, it's metal, it should be fine righ---!

Rogue hits 'skeleton's jump' and launches in to the air! Now without cheating, SHE is the one losing her sled out from under her and going all flail-y armed! She sails through the air, with a screaming yelp unlike anything she normally expresses herself!

Landing on her ass on the hill, Rogue starts sliding down without a sled under her! On to her back now and rolling toward her right side she just ends up on her stomach gliding down the snow until she comes to a stop by that kid who was at the base of the hill on their knees.

"Ugh..." Rogue says, as her shield-sled glides/slides down the rest of the way and bumps in to her legs.

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean is definitely the fancy one, with her steerable sled. And she puts on a pretty good show, guiding it in a mostly straight path down the hill, only taking turns to avoid some of those more noteworthy 'obstacles' and other features of the hill, slaloming around them. The only problem is that her mostly straight and not bumpy course means that she does accumulate speed very, very quickly. She's also getting blasted in the face with cold air, as her upright position isn't great for aerodynamics.

By the time she's made it about halfway down, it's obvious that she is relying on the sled's own mechanics to steer... because she's very clearly fighting to keep control, having more difficulty making it make those turns the faster she goes. Her course wasn't straight down after Rogue, but some of the contours have a way of directing people toward that fateful jump. Jean fights to avoid it! So much so that she's both pulling on the rope that connects to the steering bar AND trying to turn it with her feet, fighting it like it was a wild animal.

She does manage to avoid the jump.

But she's pulling so hard to one side by the end to do it that the sled comes up on one runner for a moment, causing a high pitched "Eeeeeeee!" as Jean feels the loss of control, nearlly tossing her over. Then the runner hits the packed snow again, and... somehow, things are miraculously OK. No Phoenix resurrections required!

Ultimately, she ends up going on well past where Rogue ends up (because you go a lot faster ON your sled not rolling down the hill), skidding out a ways until the ground finally flattens enough that she can slow and stop. Eventually, she gets up and starts walking back, dragging the sled behind and going toward where Rogue ended up. "Cool jump!" she teases, grinning. "Ooh, here comes Kitty-"

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty lets out a tremendous whoop as her sled starts down the hill. One might even call it a barbaric yalp! She starts out with her head facing forward as she lies on the rudderless sled, but it doesn't take too long before she's starting to gradually turn about.

Faster and faster she goes, missing the spot that launched Rogue, but then sliding over a spot where some kids have built a snow ramp. Because the Hill of Death didn't have quite enough jumps on it apparently!

Kitty flies over it feet first, and ends up rotating head over feet. She hits down again and begins tumbling, sending up a plume of fresh powder over at the side of the sled run.

Like a surfer emerging from the tube of a wave, Kitty suddenly emerges from the snowy spray. Somehow she's back on the disc sled. If someone wanted to guess she phased it to keep hold of it while tumbling, that would be a very good guess!

She reaches the bottom, and the others get a better look at her. It's not so much Kitty now as it is a Kitty-like snow-woman. Covered with snow, she jumps up and begins dancing. "Ah! Ah! Ah! It's down my back!" she says, dancing around and shaking while pulling the back of her top out so the snow can fall out.

Rogue has posed:
"Are you okay?" Rogue asks the kid with a strained voice, laying there on her stomach in front of them. But the kid is just grinning at her and laughing. "Are you?" They ask back in their squeaky kid-voice. This, of course, just makes Rogue laugh back at him. "Yeah." She replies.

It's about then that Jean goes speeding by and the Belle looks over to watch the Puffy Headmistress just soar on by all perfect-like. "Of course." She says as she rolls over on to her back then and just lays there, white hair draping over her face. When Jean approaches her, Rogue's eyes open up and she blows out some exhaled breath, making the white hair flow away from her mouth. "Is she gonna run me over?" Rogue asks about incoming-Kitty. "She's gonna me over isn't s--"

but Kitty arrives and starts her jumpy-jumpin. Rogue looks over at her and just laughs a little more before she offers Jean one of her gloved hands. "Help me up! Cause I'm not cheatin' one bit!"

"Just phase outta your clothes, Prydeful." Rogue teases there-after too.

Jean Grey has posed:
"After a wipeout like that, I believe you." Jean readily offers Rogue a hand, while her gaze tracks Kitty to her ultimate destination. The snow-woman routine is definitely a winner with the kids, earning the attention of all the children from the far more boring 'just crashed normally' Rogue and 'rides her old people sled like an old person' Jean.

"It's just about the worst when you get it down your back," she offers a little more sympathetically. "Or, well, inside anywhere really." Snow in the boots. Snow in your glove. Snow down your pants! None of these are happy things at all. Snow is best on the outside, all fluffy and fun! "I forgot just how fast that hill is," she admits, once they've managed to reassemble their group a bit in the aftermath. "Do you want to trade, Kitty? I'm sure this is the easier one to ride."

Rogue doesn't get the offer because Rogue has her fancy non-regulation WonderSled!

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty's dance comes to an end as the snow either falls out or melts enough that the worst of the cold is passed. "It's tough to separate wet from the rest of me," Kitty tells Rogue with a grin. She begins dusting off her head and body of the extra snow.

"I told you, right?" Kitty says to Rogue, grinning at her. "Even better than Bobby's ice slides down to the lake in winter. But don't tell him I said that. With his, you know you aren't actually taking your life into your hands. Just have to worry about frostbite on your behind."

Kitty picks up the disc sled and grins at Jean. "If you want, we could swap, or all three of us could ride the toboggan together?" she suggests.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue walks over to her fancy non-regulation Wonder Sled and picks it up by the leather handles on the back of it. Once straightened up again she grins to Kitty and shakes her head. "I dunno if it's BETTER than Bobbeh's slides, but it's certainly fun in its own cute little way." She walks past the kid that had initially wiped out ahead of them and picks up their sled too to offer it to the kid.

"Ya'll wanna a lift back up t'the top?" She then asks. "If we're sharin' one, we're gonna have t'record it somehow so we can put that shit online and earn some internet clout. All our adorin' fans will wanna see us ride one together after all." She says in that /way/ that they all know she does.

Dusting herself off, Rogue slings her Wonder Sled over her back via a strap on it's backside, and then offers them gloved hands if they wanna 'fast way' back up to the top!

Jean Grey has posed:
Challenging Bobby's slides is a tall order! And Jean looks like she's contemplating whether it's actually quite true. Ultimately, that OG X-Men solidarity may win out on this one, and she echoes Rogue: "Yeah, I don't know about better exactly. Although safer and slightly more sane? Absolutely. 'Course if he were here, he could juice the hill so we'd get some extra speed." Which is just what they definitely do not need, at least not if they don't want to rely on their powers all the way down.

All that said, Kitty's counter suggestion of them all doing the group run wins out almost immediately. How would it not? "Ooh, that's a great idea." And then Rogue immediately turns it into a would-be social media event. "Not sure how we'll manage a good angle if we're all in the sled. Unless you wanna try and ask one of the kids to do it?"

She's happy for a lazy ride to the top, even if she could do it herself - why not make Rogue do all the work if she's offering!

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty seems to agree about the filming of it. "Maybe you can get your buddy there to do it?" Kitty says of the kid who plummeted down the hill ahead of Rogue. "If nothing else it'll be fun to have them play it at our funeral," she jokes.

Kitty readily takes Rogue's hand for the easy trip up to the top. She leaves her sled at the bottom so they won't have to go back up to get it. "Now the person in the front is the one who gets all the snow in the face. So I nominate Jean, as the most mature one. Plus she's gorgeous and can handle a few clumps of snow in the face without hurting her dating chances tonight," she teases.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue just grins at the two of them as she nods her head slowly. She steps over ot the kid then (who was watching them anyway, because they're cool older girls!) "Hey." She says as she kneels down and pulls out a wad of money and a fast food receipt from earlier that day. "Twenty bucks if you take your phone and record us on our next trip down?" She asks the kid. "You got a phone ri--" The kid WHIPS IT OUT and holds it up proudly. "Yeah, of course ya do." Kids in 2021 all have phones. "Get us a good video and you got yourself twenty large." She tells him with a lopsided grin as she stands up again.

Now the Belle takes hold of her friends' hands and she flies them up the hill. Which... this alone is met with 'Woah' from the kid as he watches the ladies vanish up the hill, not having his phone ready to record yet so he misses that part!

Once they're back at the top, however, Rogue just settles the two down gently enough, then drops down between them. "I got middle seat then." She cheerily announces. "I've wanted t'be between two hot people, like yourselves, my whole adult life..." She has to make it weird.

Following their lead, she'll board the sled just-so and prepare, adjusting her hat again, along with her sunglasses being put up on to her forehead.

Jean Grey has posed:
It is somewhat fitting that the glorious figurehead take, well, the figurehead position at the front of the vehicle. It's the burden of leadership, after all, and she accepts it with a sigh of resignation that argument on the topic will likely be pointless. At least it means she gets to steer, so much as such things can be steered (poorly) and how well it went the first time (also poorly). Even still, she doesn't trust ROGUE'S steering, that's for sure!

So Jean climbs in, and tucks herself into the front as much as she can, unsure exactly how tight a fit the whole thing is going to be. Then she STARTS to say, "Rogue should probably be in back to push, that's usually the strongest-"

This isn't the Olympics, Jean. It's a cheap toboggan not a fancy bobsled, and you're the X-men not a pro team. Not even the Jamaicans!

So attempts at high grade professional teamwork are quickly abandonned in favor of Rogue's ambition to be the meat in a Kitty-Jean sandwich. None of them are really all that heavy, so presumably, outside that naturally competitive instinct, it doesn't REALLY matter who sits where. They can all just kinda push with their arms like a funny centipede and get the show on the road. And STILL! Still, Jean puts a bit of effort into it: "Alright, c'mon now, and one, two-"

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Once the other two ladies are seated, Kitty takes a seat beside Rogue, her legs to either side of her as Kitty gets friendly, sliding up and wrapping her arms around Rogue's waist.

She lets go though to begin pushing with her hands against the snow, the motion almost like padding in a boat. Slowly the sled nears the edge of the hill, and then gravity takes over and starts to pull the sled forward!

Kitty grabs ahold of Rogue then, tucked in behind her so they make an aerodynamic group tucked in behind the front of the sled. "We're totally going to die. This is going to be worse than Juggernaut!" she says. Though if so, why does she say it in an elated voice?

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is down on the sled in position and wrapping her legs and arms around whoever is in front of her. She makes it weird, again.

"Okay down there!" Rogue calls out to the kid at the base of Death Mountain. "We're on our way!" And the little kid raises their phone up and holds it sideways even as he starts to record them. "Okay!" his squeaky little voice can be heard far away.

"Juggernaut... I look forward t'kickin' his ass some day." Rogue mutters as they start their second run down the hill. Rogue's steamy breath puffs out in to the cold air as she looks over at Kitty and grins at her. "We're goin' for coffee after this right, t'warm up?" She asks before looking then to Jean. "Steer away from the skele-TON!" They're off, down the hill at crazy speeds again, Rogue actually closing her eyes as free-falling without her gravity-defying powers is a bit intimidating, even for her!

Jean Grey has posed:
"He's a pushover once you get the helmet off," Jean opines, ever so fancy telepath-like. "Though God help us if he ever figures out how to like, superglue that thing on so it really sticks." A dark day indeed.

Juggernaut commentary aside, Jean has little to offer the endeavor but to hold on and wait while the others propel them over the edge. "Here, weeeee-" She doesn't make it to go. Clutching the little ropes that are as much 'steering' as the tobbogan has, she makes her attempt to guide them down the mountain while the wind, as promise, buffets her in the face. It is far less responsive than the old fashioned yet surprisingly mechanically ingenious sled she was piloting before, however. All she can really do is tug one way or the other, pulling the semi-flexible body of the sled up enough to cause a friction differential on one side or the other.

At the least, they're not headed for that same jump as before, but that doesn't make the trip easy. The less-agile toboggan hits a bump here, launching them briefly, then another that proves a big less packed down, the snow simply exploding as they hit it, instead. This throws up a huge cloud of the stuff into Jean's face, so she -really- doesn't know where they're going.

"I can't see, I can't-" They hit something else, and flyyyyyy-

-and land. More or less. Maybe less. On their side, possibly minus a passenger or two, less.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty lets out another whoop. What is it with her and those yells? She peeks over Rogue's shoulder to see where they are going, but otherwise mostly ducked in behind Rogue to be aerodynamic. So they reach speeds that will make identification of their bodies difficult. Probably requiring dental records.

The first time they catch some air Kitty lets out a second whoop, then an, "Ouch!" as her bottom hits the wooden sled again. But it doesn't stop her grinning. Or her... is she laughing!?

They plow through the snow and go airborne again. When the sled comes back down, Kitty Pryde is no longer on it. No, she's sliding down the hill in her snow pants and top, sans a sled.

On Monday, in Mrs. Perkipsie's kindergarten class, the story of the toboggan ride and the lost girl will be told. And some say she's still sliding down the hill to this day.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is right up there against the driver of this sled to try and leach some of Jean's good luck in life off of her (without resorting to skin touches of course!) So throughout the ride, Rogue is shouting things in English, and in French... her curse words are mostly in french though, right up to the point where they hit that last killer air jump and it sends her torn right out from behind the redheaded driver! Gone is the feeling of the Belle behind her and what's to follow is a distancing sound of the young southerner's cries of fear, and laughter!

Kitty's fate seems to be similar, but how could it not be with Rogue as her lifeline to the sled, less she'd PHASED through Rogue! But it all ends with Rogue once more rolling down the hill, over and over and over until finally the Belle gives in to temptation and Matrix-style comes out of the last roll up in to the air, then falls down to her booted feet to stick the landing!

"Wow...." The little kid with the camera says at the girls and their sled antics, still holding his phone up between his bright orange gloves.

"That's right." Rogue says with a breathless exhale. "World of Warcraft." She exhales the word before turning to go toward the others. "I got snow inside every part'a my clothes!" She announces on her way. "I blame Deerfield for this!"

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean is miraculously still attached to the sled, but that's about all that can be said for her. The sled is on its side, and Jean is, well, in a similar position. The front of the toboggan seemed to push up a bit of a mound of snow as it slowed to a stop, and Jean's feet and lower half, being tucked in that front spot, are also semi-burried.

There is no Matrix-like recovery, nor a dramatic Phoenix rising from the snowy ashes imagery. There is just a puffy green coat slowly emerging, slowly wriggling free of the snow-pile and dragging herself to her feet, dusting snow off of everywhere. It has no doubt made some uncomfortable inroads in her pants. Still, for all she's rosey-cheeked and frosty, Jean is beaming, obviously every bit as thrilled with their adventure.

Her first move after emerging is to locate her scattered friends, laughing as Rogue blames it on Kitty. "Personally, I blame the lack of advanced steering. Anyway, let's grab all the sleds and head back. I prescribe getting out of these wet clothes and getting some warm cocoa in us, ASAP."