A Very Eventful Summer
Chapter 11
by Freya
They survived everything so far so how hard can a little rock climbing be?

Bobby turned to the smooth rock and punched it at head height. *crack* Once he cleared out the broken stone he had a handhold. He lifted himself up by it and punched higher. In this fashion he slowed ascended. They would climb single file of necessity.

"You next Maria. I'll go last," Rick gestured her ahead of him. She nodded and started climbing.

"If we fall and you try to catch us you'll most likely end up falling yourself," she was concentrating on her footing but couldn't help worrying about him and about Rhonda on her back.

Rick shrugged, "I guess I'm busted. I thought you'd just accuse me of wanting to go last so I could ogle."

Maria chuckled, "I doubt I look that appetizing at the moment and I smell even worse, besides I've gotten to know you and you feel responsible for us even though we're older than you, even Bobby by a month or two, and you don't have any more experience at this than we do."

"Well I am responsible for you if I'm in charge," he replied, "That's one thing I learned from my dad before he died."

"I am sure he'd be proud of you Rick, you're doing a great job." She chuckled, "And if you can climb well enough to ogle while you climb I won't even complain."

"What?" he said startled.

She laughed, "You're fun to tease." She started to shrug then thought better of it, "I told you in the cave I think I'm fresh out of embarassment where you guys are concerned." Her voice took on a teasing tone once more, "As long as it's me you're ogling and not Rhonda and her big, white, sandy butt." That got protests from all three of the others and she laughed again.

"Her butt isn't fat!" Bobby called down, "It's just right, J. Lo quality at least. Even if it is pale it's..." he trailed off and Rick was sure he was blushing as well as his complexion allowed.

Rhonda giggled, "Thank you. That's quite a compliment."

They continued climbing in the hot sun and Rick had to replace the sand on Rhonda a few times but it seemed like his makeshift was working. As they neared the top though he noticed Maria's arms were shaking as she climbed and for the last few steps her legs were too.

Rhonda noticed and once they'd reached the flat ridgetop she said, "I shouldn't have asked you to do that. Now you might not have the energy to get yourself down." She was frowning, "I'd offer to switch but unless the trip down is much shorter than the trip up I don't think I can."

Bobby had been lying flat on the smooth rock but at that he rolled up on to one elbow, "It would be my honor to carry you down Rhonda. May I?" He was looking her in the eyes as he said it so he saw her blush a bit as she nodded.

"I'll agree but please don't tease me because while Maria may have run out of embarrassment I've still got a whole bunch. Okay?"

Bobby nodded, "I won't tease if you don't. Deal?" He sat up and stuck out a hand.

"Deal," she replied and shook on it.

Rick sat up, "Maria? May I carry you down? I am glad you helped Rhonda but I think she's right in saying you'll need help getting down."

She stayed laying down but looked at him and raised an eyebrow, "You can carry me down?"

"Yeah," he replied, "I may not be as strong as Bobby but I'm still far stronger than a baseline. I can carry you easily and it will be my pleasure. I won't promise not to tease though. You've got some teasing coming." He smiled though to show he was mostly joking about that.

Maria gave a tired chuckle and held out her hand, "Deal."

Rick shook it with a smile on his face. "We'll rest here a bit I think then go down. I'll go check to see if we'll need Boby to make handholds down like he did on our way up." Rick got up and walked the few paces to the place where the ridge started sloping down.

"I hope not, Bobby replied, "it'll be harder to do going down."

Rick called back, "Well my friend you need not worry. This side has natural handholds all the way down to the Inn's back fence and it evens out to a walkable slope halfway down."

"Good," called Maria. Can you see if the place is open or closed for the summer?"

"I can," Rick replied, "It's open. I see people by a big pool but I can't make out too much from up here. Let's get down and get this over with hopefully by tomorrow we'll be at the Academy or back in NYC at least and dressed."

"Oh man, I so want a shower. I smell like a goat and I can't wait to get all this sand off," Rhonda said as she climbed on Bobby's back.

"We all smell like goats Rhonda, it's okay." She turned to Rick, "How do we do this? I mean with me being taller."

Rick thought briefly then replied, "I think you'll have to lift your feet until I'm over the side than it shouldn't matter anymore. At least not until we get all the down."

"Alright," she wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned her weight forward then lifted her feet off the floor, "I'm ready."

They started climbing down but soon they switched to walking down the sandy slope. Bobby had no trouble switching but Rick needed to use a fair bit of dexterity. He ended up with her arms still around his neck and a hand under each of Maria's knees as he walked down the slippery slope to the back fence.

"We could break in but I think it's best if we just follow this around to a door and ask to be let in. We can pay as long as it's not an astronomical amount so there's really no reason they shouldn't let us stay until Dr. Thunder can send someone for us." He started around the fence to their right, "Come on. We're almost to showers and room service!"

When they reached the doors they caused a huge commotion. the others let Rick do the talking, "We can pay," he panted. "I have a credit card number to give you but we need a phone, a meal, and a room or two. We need to call our guardians to come get us."

Arms helped them to seats in the lobby and a bellhop brought them all glasses of water clinking with ice. "Bless you for this," Rick said after draining the glass in one long drink.

The people clustered around had been asking questions rapid fire and he used the time he spent drinking to think. He also noticed that he and his friends weren't the only ones naked. The staff was dressed but the patrons weren't. Oh, most had sunhats and a few had shoes and fannypacks but none had on clothes. 'This will make it both better and worse,' he thought. He didn't want to mention mutants if he didn't have to but he didn't want to make them suspicious with a story that couldn't be checked out either.

"Maria's grandmother lives nearby and we were visiting during the summer. We'd heard of this place and wanted to come see it," not technically true but hopefully they'd give Maria a chance to talk to her Grandma before they asked her anything. "We were driving a dune buggy and it turned over but we knew we were much closer to here than there so we walked in."

"You could have been killed you crazy kids!" seemed to be the gist of what everyone was shouting but at least nobody was shouting for the cops, or worse the MCO. Once Rick gave them a credit card # that checked out and signed for a two bedroom suite they were allowed to go and rest. They did have to promise to call Maria's grandma before they fell asleep and Rick truthfully promised they would.

They moved up to the two bedroom suite where Bobby and Rhonda headed for the showers while Maria and Rick headed for the phones. Rick called the ECG from one bedroom and Maria called her grandma from another.

The Empire City Guard was shocked but pleased to hear from us. The guards had been thrust also naked through a different one way portal and landed in Denali National Park in Alaska two days ago. They'd fortunately landed in sight of a Ranger station and were fine now but they'd assumed the teens had landed in the same park but further away. There was a large search going on both near where the plane was found and in the Alaskan park. However after two days of no traces found and no contact it was assumed they'd perished in some particularly brutal test.

Rick was surprised two whole days had passed. He was suddenly feeling much more tired knowing that. He told Dr. Thunder the basics of their situation and she agreed that not coming out and announcing they were mutants was a good idea. She sighed at the fact that they were in a nudist resort but agreed they'd had little choice. She okayed his use of the emergency funds and told him he could use it further as necessary but to be ready to explain each purchase. She would send actual cards and some clothes by fast messenger to the resort and asked that they stay there until collected. She wasn't planning on taking any further chances with transportation. She was planning to drive the ECG's specially Hummer to get them personally but there was a current crisis the team had to take care of first. Since they were safe it would be best if they stayed at the resort incognito until the team could collect them. He had a sudden flash of them getting on a Greyhound bus and finding John the traitorous pilot behind the wheel so he agreed to wait right where they until someone from the team arrived to collect them.

After his talk with her he took a cold shower to keep himself awake long enough to eat and head back to the main room with a towel around his waist. Maria was just entering wearing a larger towel wrapped to cover her from cleavage to mid-thigh. She smiled as she hung up, "I ordered food for all of us from Room Service. My grandma is willing to cover for us but I'll have to give her the whole story this Christmas. She offered to come pick us up but I don't want to get her any more involved in this. Those bastards are still out there somewhere. Did you get through?"

"Yeah, I did. Dr. Thunder is shipping us some clothes and some credit cards. We can charge things to the room until then but only necessary purchases please. I'll have to account for them when we get back to New York. She is coming for us in person and says it may take a few days so we should sit tight until then." He thought about telling them there was a crisis but he decided they had enough to worry about without adding to it.

After a huge meal they all slept about twelve hours, the girls in one bed, Rick in the other and Bobby on the couch. The girls giggled at them but neither boy felt comfortable sleeping naked in the same bed.

The next morning after breakfast they hit the gift shop looking for anything to wear or at least some sunscreen. They found lots of sunscreen but no actual clothing. They ended up getting SPF 45, and four sets of sun hats, flip-flops, fannypacks, and cellphones with the resort's logo on them and charging it to their room. Attired as well as possible they went and explored the resort for the remainder of the day. The promised cards and new clothes arrived the next day via express courier and they were happy to see them even if they couldn't wear them yet. Something else arrived that day however that they weren't happy to see, not at all. Criminals intent on robbing the resort!