[ti]complete[/ti]Winter Egg Hunt 2

Zac shot down the slopes like a greased marble across hotel linoleum. His hunkered form carved a straight line down the mountain, which should have been the first sign that something was wrong.

Professionals weaved and curved, modulating their speed to maintain control.

Zac had other ideas.

He hurtled straight towards the biggest jump on the mountain: The Widowmaker II

"Ve are go'in much tu' fast!" said the Vulpix clinging to his back. Buzzster tried to shake his head, but the speed kept him looking straight ahead.

"It's fine!" he said through gritted teeth. "I'm gonna hit the jump!"

"No it's not! Yu don' no' 'ow to slow down, do you!" La Trixxia accused. Her dainty claws dug into Zac's shoulder. Aero loomed into view, a bright, breakable form on the otherwise clear runway of Zac's Icarus-esque flight. "Careful! Zere iz a kid!"

Zac tried to turn, but ended up just flipping around so that he was now hurtling towards the young trainer backwards.

Frantic, La Trixxia bit Zac's ear and he crumpled in pain. The pair hit the hard packed ground in a tangle of skis, red fur, and rental gear, tumbling past Aero and landing straight in a huge snow bank off to the side of the slope.

Zac was stuck deep in the snowbank. Thankfully, La Trixxia was having no more of his bullshit today, and with a burst of flame she burned a dainty hole and escaped back into the Winter sunlight. "I"m all good!" Buzzster called to Aero through the little hole in the snowbank. "Sorry for the near miss there bud."

He crawled through the hole of molten snow, digging a path to accommodate a man of his size. Buzzster character had set the height and shoulder-width sliders to maximum. Not out of a vain attempt to appear bigger than he was in real life, but because he was just that big. To be honest, his tech skills weren't quite Bill Gates level, and he had accepted the default model created from his mental body image.

This is all to say that Zac was a hell of a lot bigger than his Vulpix, and there was a lot of digging and muffled swearing before he was free of the snow. Once he was free he lay on the snow, catching his simulated breath. He looked up at Aero. "So what brings you out here?" he asked nonchalantly.

"This was a bad idea." Cleo looks down the hill, stomach buried somewhere several feet deep in the snow underfoot. Under ski-fitted feet. What had she been thinking?

She watches as people zip past with incredible speed. Right. That. She'd been thinking about the speed. She could cover so much ground with these skis! Such a brilliant plan! Just happened to forget the very important part of needing to know how. Was it really so foolish to assume that maybe, maybe, whichever coworker had coded this event had coded in the magical ability to ski for every visiting player?

At least she'd managed to scoot some ways away from the lift to stay out of others' way, but… "The only way out is down. And the only way down is…" She swallows. Logically, rationally, the slope isn't too bad. But her brain can't connect that logic to the mind-spinning nausea that the little specks of people at the bottom of the hill evoke.

"Maybe… maybe in a bit. I just need to adjust! Acclimate!" She barks out a nervous laugh and leans back, letting her rump fall into the snow.

And what better way to acclimate than to pull out her newly acquired egg?

She holds the icy egg in her gloved palms, staring it down. "You're an egg. A snowy kinda egg, even. This is just your sorta place. So… so, snowy egg friend. You think like an egg – surely you know where an egg would hide in all this, right?" Her teeth chatter all through her rambling. The egg in her hands does nothing, says nothing – simply exists, colder than even the wintery wonderland all around them. "Right…"

Maybe if she's really lucky, the egg will be right here! She gives the nearby surroundings a half-hearted pat down.

All right, all right, she was here, she bit, let's move on.

"I don't want an egg," Jade groused for the umpteenth time, staying a couple steps away from Roger. The Torchic would kick her shins every time she tried to hang back, so she'd gotten pretty good at outpacing him. She glanced back to gauge the distance, feeling ungainly in her snow pants and heavy down jacket. "Too risky. Could hatch into anything. Good, bad, big teeth, small teeth."

<It's part of the experience,> Roger said. The snow on the ski path sizzled beneath his talons. Despite the freezing weather, the Torchic radiated warmth and calm. Jade wanted to strap him to her chest like one of those dads with the backwards baby backpacks, but someone had to keep her on her toes.

When Jade had heard about this place, it had seemed insane. A huge tower with a giant nest at the top? And all these Pokemon apparently came here to lay eggs? And it was winter-themed? Get out.

"Actually, I ain't a bad skiier," the green-haired woman said once she had her skis on. "Maybe I'll actually have some fun."

<You do that. Be back in ten minutes or I'm coming after you,> said Roger, settling down at the top of the slope. His head lolled, beak sinking into the bright orange feathers of his chest. Is he seriously dozing off?

How the hell was she supposed to get back anyway? There was no chairlift. Was this a spawn point at the top of the Rookery Tower?

Well, she'd just have to watch everyone else and figure it out along the way. "Here we go," Jade muttered, adjusting her goggles, then pushed off with both poles.