AN: My first fan-fiction. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider or any of Anthony Horowitz's characters.
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Alex looked down. The ski lift was exceptionally high, at least twice the height of the trees below. It was cold, but he felt somewhat warm in his paint-ball suit. Several MI6 agents were also on the lift for training. Fox, or Ben Daniels, sat beside Alex. Unlike Alex, Fox was wearing skis. Alex swung his snowboard back and forth as he waited for the lift to reach the area near the top.
"It's going to be a long ride down," Fox commented. Forests and bumpy terrain that would easily pass for Black Diamond littered the mountainside. For some reason, there was a large fence wrapped around the mountain about halfway down.
"Depends how you do it," Alex replied. He pointed to a large rock that was far above the fence and somewhat close to the lift.
"You'd have to be crazy to jump off that!"
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A burly sergeant stood at the top of the lift and spoke once everyone was off the lift. "Listen up, ladies! You may be MI6, but today you are sitting ducks. In a few minutes, our SAS trainees are going to practice sniping moving targets with paint balls. That's you. You are going to pair up and then get to the bottom of the mountain while trying not to get hit. You and your partner can communicate with these." He held up an ear bud and what looked like a hollow tooth. "Speak into the tooth-cap and listen to each other with the bud. Are we clear?"
Seeing as no one else moved to question the sergeant, Alex raised his hand. "What about the fence, sir?"
The sergeant wheeled around to glare at the youngster. "You'll have to figure that out on your own, kid. Now move!"
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The groups were leaving at half-hour time intervals. Fox and Alex were last. They discussed their strategy for crossing the fence without getting shot. "We can climb," suggested Fox.
"No, I think we should jump from the rock into the forest below. That way we have cover for most of the journey and can cross quickly."
"Cub, that was way too far from the fence and you know it! We'll just have to climb over the fence into the forest." They both knew it was going to be the hardest part, since the SAS trainees were in helicopters. With the SAS trainee's sky-bird view, climbing would most certainly get the pair shot. Still, what other choice did they have?
The last pair of agents before them left. Alex and Fox looked at each other and sat for about 15 minutes in silence, until Alex's sixth sense kicked in.
"Fox, we need to leave now." He couldn't explain it, but he knew something was wrong. He turned his head side to side, trying to find what was bugging him. At the bottom of the mountain, the second-to-last pair had just arrived, much sooner than expected. Even so, Alex and Fox were supposed to wait for the next interval.
Fox was puzzled. "We've got 15 minutes. What's the rush?"
"Something is wrong." Alex felt like his body was screaming at him to begin the descent. "We should go now." But in their off-white paintball suits, it would be like cheating, and they both knew it. Plus, the sergeant would never let them live it down.
"Cub…" Fox's voice trailed off. Alex shook his head as if to say it didn't matter.
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Seven minutes before they had to leave, a loud rumbling startled both of them. Alex looked up and saw why his sixth sense had been so alarmed before. The top most part of the mountain had started to fall. A massive avalanche was flowing gracefully toward them at an alarming rate.
Without another thought, Fox and Alex whipped on their gear and began their descent down the mountain. If they didn't make it to the bottom before the avalanche caught up with them, they knew that in their almost-white gear they would suffocate before they were found, even with the SAS trainees telling the rescue party where to look. Knowing the forest would slow the avalanche a little, they headed into it.
Pine tree needles whipped into Alex's face as he weaved left and right around the tree trunks. Behind him, a white wall met the forest edge and continued chasing him. Being the quicker of the two, he had managed to get a head start and was nearly twenty yards into the forest when Fox entered. Fox was about thirty yards in when the avalanche reached the forest. Alex knew that if he and Fox didn't cross the fence quickly, they would be crushed by the trees falling at the front of the avalanche, and the avalanche was gaining. Time was of the essence.
"Fox, what do we do?" Alex spoke calmly into the tooth-cap, despite his pumped-up state. Fox was silent for a moment.
"I don't know." Fox wasn't getting closer to Alex, and the avalanche was closing in. The fence was some distance ahead; they would reach it in about a minute. If they didn't cross immediately, they had no chance. Alex brainstormed: their options were exceedingly slim. They could climb or jump, but there was no telling if they could make the leap - the rock had been far from the fence, but they might not make it to the fence now. Fox was starting to get pelted with small snowballs already.
The ski lift, the rock- Alex formed the only plan he could think of and told Fox. Fox didn't like it for a number of reasons, but at this point there was no choice. Looking up, they saw the ski lift and estimated the rock's location. Alex headed in that direction, straightening out more and more to pick up speed.
The rock jutted out from the mountainside like an upside down candy cane. Even if they stopped at the top, the avalanche would knock them off. Alex picked the clearest path to the rock and leaned forward, increasing his speed to dangerous levels with Fox following close behind. He hit the rock and jumped. Reaching down with his right hand, he unclipped his front boot from the snowboard and began executing a back flip. Fox copied his jump, but was slightly lower as he had been going a bit slower in the forest, and dropped his ski poles.
Alex reached the ski lift's cord and slipped his right foot around the wire that was matching his trajectory. Forming a ball, he reached down for his feet and clipped his boot back onto the snowboard. Then he extended both of his bare hands toward Fox. He was now upside-down while facing the summit, hanging from his snowboard like a trapeze artist waiting for his partner, but sliding down the rope at the same time. Alex grimaced as the blood rushed to his head. If he passed out now, Fox would fall.
Fox removed his gloves as Alex had done in the forest and gripped Alex's right hand. He swung his left hand around and gripped Alex's other wrist in his hand, while Alex held Fox's wrists tightly. All of this had taken place in a matter of seconds. They were safe from the avalanche now, but moving dangerously fast down the ski lift cable.
"Fox, I can't see behind me. When do we hit a chair?" Alex inquired. He never heard the answer as the back of his head crashed into the first chair, and he blacked out.
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On the plane ride home, Alex and Fox sat beside each other. Alex had a bandage around his head, but otherwise the pair was unhurt- in fact, that was the only injury sustained by the entire SAS trainee and MI6 group. The people at the bottom of the mountain had gotten into shelters, and the trainees in the helicopters stayed in the air until it was safe to land. After Alex had blacked out, Fox had climbed into the seat and removed Alex from his make-shift trapeze. Once the avalanche had passed, the people at the bottom of the mountain started the lift and brought the lucky pair to safety.
The reactions they had gotten for their stunt varied from amused to shocked to impressed. The MI6 agents had not seen the stunt from the bottom of the mountain and could not believe their ears. The SAS trainees had begun to congratulate Fox on his quick thinking during their evening break in the mess hall. "That was one heck of a stunt you thought up! Lucky the kid didn't screw it up."
"Actually, Cub was the one who thought of and executed most of the plan. He's an amazing kid." To the men's knowledge, Alex was still in the infirmary, and the doctors were checking for a concussion.
One of the other MI6 agents snorted at this. "Right. You're telling us that Cub thought of that on his own? In your dreams." Fox shrugged, unsure of how to reply.
A voice with a Scottish accent spoke up. "I'm not surprised, and Fox isn't dreaming. That kid completed most of the SAS training schedule in a fortnight- that's a lot more than you can say."
"Snake! What are you doing here?" cried Fox.
"Just an instructor, now." Alex had walked into the mess hall then, as if on cue, with a fresh bandage around his head, to the surprise and startling of most of the trainees and agents. He had taken the seat next to Fox and placed his head down in his arms, despite all the stares.
Snake had broken the ensuing temporary silence with a question: "How are you?"
Alex didn't bother looking up. "Fine, but I have a splitting headache." That had earned a few chuckles, but Alex was still tired of the others' incredulous stares. He had had to tell the infuriated doctors repeatedly not to grill Fox, as it had not been Fox's idea, and he still wasn't sure they believed him. He turned his head in his arms to face Fox and said, "You might want to look out for the doctors. They're hopping mad because they think you endangered my health by making me the receiver."
Fox sighed through a grin, exasperated and amused at the same time. "Please tell me you told them otherwise?" Alex simply smiled and said they didn't believe it was Alex's idea, to the embarrassment, amusement, and disbelief of the crowd around them. Just then, the sergeant walked into the mess hall, so everyone stood to attention.
"At ease." As the sergeant walked to Alex and Fox's table, some of the newer trainees shyly backed away to partake in background conversations. The sergeant paused, looking the special pair over. "Good to see you're okay," he said in a gruff voice. "We thought we were going to lose you two." The sergeant looked at Alex, who was deliberately sitting up straighter and trying not to show his discomfort. "Nice job back there, Cub. We were listening in on your conversation," he explained, to the shock of the agents and trainees who were eavesdropping. One of them even tripped from sheer surprise.
"Thank you, sir," Alex replied emotionlessly. The sergeant nodded solemnly, then got his food; it was the cue for everyone else to start eating, too. After dinner, the trainees and agents alike packed up for the return home.
"So, Cub, what did you think of it all?" Fox asked, bring Alex's thoughts to the present airplane ride.
"The view was nice, but it went downhill from there." Alex was a bit mad that MI6 had unnecessarily endangered his life with training. He yawned, exhausted from the previous day's adventure.
"Here," Fox smiled, while gesturing to his shoulder. Alex nodded his thanks and leaned against Fox. They were both asleep in a few minutes.
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THE END
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AN: Thanks for reading!
NienkevHoof, thanks for reading and reviewing!
Thanks to Wolfmonster for the sarcastic comment at the end!
Sorry, Nylah, I don't know where they should be- maybe the Rockies? Thanks for reviewing!
I'm going to try, talking-and-walking-thesaurous- thank you for your suggestion!