Feeling melancholy and somewhat lethargic, Jubilation Lee punched in
her access code to the Danger Room, placing her palm on the flat square red
screen above the keypad. She felt a familiar tingle as the machinery
scanned her DNA. Seconds later, she heard a beep, then a loud whoosh as
the heavy metal doors swung open. The air in the room was several degrees
cooler than the air in the sub-basement, and she suppressed the urge to
shiver as she entered.
The wall adjacent to the door she'd just walked through had a small computer terminal built in. She held down a button and spoke the words "LA" into the microphone, after which she punched in another access code. Her voice sounded strange to her. Though Jubilee was known for her loud mouth, she didn't feel like saying much today. Strange, she thought. Must be the weather.
Finally she inserted a CD into an ordinary disc drive that seemed out of place on the alien looking computer. She turned around to see that mats and some structures had seemingly materialized out of nowhere. A song was starting, and through the power of the sound system, she couldn't determine its point of origin. It surrounded her, and she felt strangely comforted. Taking a deep breath, she pulled off her Massachusetts Academy sweatshirt to reveal a body-hugging navy blue tank top that strongly contrasted with her white cotton leggings.
Jubilee walked to the closest map, hurrying to avoid missing the song's chorus. Once there, she began her stretches. Keeping time with the music, she stretched her hamstrings, then moving on to jumping jacks, as her coach had taught her. She'd missed this.
Finally, she felt she was ready. She approached one of the structures the computer had generated, a set of uneven bars. Getting into position, she took a deep breath and started at run, which culminated in her jumping and grabbing the lowest bar.
As she put herself through the motions, Jubilee couldn't help but remember back in LA, when her life consisted of nothing but the gym. Her parents, devastated when their child brought home only average grades, had been ecstatic to find that she had some sort of talent, some sort of gift that they could help her develop. Actually, her Phys. Ed. teacher discovered her. She'd recommended a coach who trained with young beginner girls.
Jubilee loved the attention she got during sessions. Out of her group of ten girls, she learned splits and jumps and stretches the fastest. Her parents would sometimes sit in during class, and she'd be sure to throw in an extra move in the hopes of seeing their faces beam. She didn't always get what she wanted, but every so often. Eventually, Coach Jacobs asked her parents to stay after class. He told them that the group was holding Jubilation back. Their child, he continued, had real talent, and would definitely benefit from individual training sessions. And Jubilee felt her heart swell with satisfaction from his words and the proud expressions her parents wore.
Individual coaching was more expensive, but they would consider no other option now that the opportunity was before them. Jubilee attended classes five days a week. Eventually she began competing and won almost every tournament she entered. Her workouts became much more challenging, and she loved it. The local paper reported that her performance was as bright as the Fourth of July. By the age of 9, she was regarded as the area's newest Olympic hopeful.
At age 10 her parents died in a car accident that wasn't an accident at all.
Having no other family, Jubilee became a ward of the state. At the halfway house she was sent to, she searched for the gymnasium for almost an hour, until a social worker, Miss Lyonns, found her and informed her that the home had no such facility. She recommended that Jubilee use the gym at school. Then Miss Lyonns took away her privileges for a week for being in the basement without a pass.
At her new school, the gym was just an empty room. The mats were torn, the worst holes having been patched with duct tape. She did some stretches on them after school anyway. A custodian found her and chased her away, reprimanding her for still being in the building. When she arrived at the Home an hour later (she'd missed the bus), she found that her tardiness had earned her kitchen duty. Her protests only served to ensure that she would repeat the chore the next day.
She'd tried to practice some stretches in her room, but became the laughing stock of her roommates. Once, they cornered her and asked her if she thought she was better than them. Fed up and angry, she replied with a curt yes. Samantha, at 13 her oldest roommate, slapped her. No one had ever hit Jubilee before and she was rooted to the spot in shock, speechless for once in her life. Almost. She found herself sneering "What, can't take the truth?" at the older girl in a voice she didn't recognize as belonging to her. Samantha gave a sadistic smile. "I was hoping you'd say something like that!" Then she grabbed at Jubilee's hair.
Though she'd never been in a fight in her life, Jubilee found it easy to duck into a crouch. As the older girl tried to kick her, Jubilee managed to position her leg behind Samantha's, and performed a sweep that knocked her opponent to the ground. The move was based on a similar step from her last tumbling performance. Before Samantha had realized what had happened, Jubilee grabbed her greasy ponytail and growled "Toldya" into her ear. She kept her grip on the girl's hair, using her knee to keep Samantha pinned. Finally, when she felt her opponent stop struggling she let go, kicking the girl in anger as she got up.
She eyed the remaining girls, Samantha's groupies, who'd been watching the fight. "Anyone else have a problem?" she asked. No one would meet her gaze. Eventually Samantha got up, glared at her, and walked over to her bed. Jubilee expected to get into trouble for her involvement in the disagreement. She didn't. It was almost like a sense of honor among pre- teen girls. No one ran and told a counselor if there was a fight. No one would come to break up your battles. No one would come to your aid. You were all on your own at the Home.
But by beating Samantha, Jubilee had carved a place for herself. Samantha was one of the oldest and biggest girls in the facility. She was the self- proclaimed leader of the Chicks, a gang-like clique whose mission was to make life miserable for everyone who wasn't a member, and for some who were. But after the fight, they left Jubilee alone. Jubilee returned the favor by keeping her wisecracks to herself around them, which was probably the hardest thing she'd ever had to do. It was probably that repression that caused her to mouth off at authority figures. That never ended well for her.
As the months passed by, Jubilee began to miss gymnastics more and more. She still cried herself to sleep some nights thinking of her parents. Finally, the day came when she snapped at Miss Lyonns one too many times. The administration began to look into ways of getting rid of the young girl. Someone even heard Miss Lyonns shout "I don't care, send her back to China if you have to! I just don't want that little troublemaking firecracker HERE!"
Samantha herself related this to Jubilee with a huge smile. Jubilee maintained her cool telling the older girl that she hoped an ocean between them would help disperse some of Samantha's B.O.. Samantha flushed and glared at her. Jubilee glared back, unafraid. Finally, Samantha walked away muttering something about Jubilee and her feet.
Though she'd never let Samantha know, Jubilee was scared to death of being sent away. She'd never learned to speak Chinese. She remembered how happy her parents had been in America, going so far as to name her Jubilation because they were so glad she was born in their new country. To her young mind, China seemed to be an awful place. After lying awake for half of the night debating with herself, Jubilee packed a small bag and left the Home forever.
Sometime after that, she discovered she was a mutant. Later still, she joined the X-men. She even got the chance to practice gymnastics again. With a minimal effort, she was able to incorporate her acrobatics into her fighting style, just as she had in her battle with Samantha. She felt more useful for it. When she left the X-men to join Generation X, she found that the biosphere could even simulate gymnastic equipment, and she spent much of her free time practicing her favorite sport. She'd let it fall to the wayside when Generation X had disbanded and she'd moved back to LA with Angelo.
Then she'd died.
This was her first workout since Warren brought her back. She felt a bit rusty as she twirled around, leaping from bar to bar. When she slowed her pace to do a handstand on the top bar, she felt sweat seeping through the gauze on her arms. Her stigmata, the only scars from her ordeal (the only physical ones at least) began to sting, and she knew that the scabs must have torn. Still, she held her position.
Finally, she allowed gravity to take its course, and started swinging downwards. Slowly, she began to build up momentum for her dismount. Finally she let herself fly, gracefully performing two midair flips. For a brief second, while she was spinning in the air, she'd thought she'd nailed it. When her feet hit the mat, though, she realized her miscalculation. She fell forward, sticking her arms out to prevent herself from slamming face first to the ground.
For several seconds, she didn't try to get up, feeling more angry and disappointed in herself than hurt. Finally, with her lips pursed in an angry grimace, she rolled to her side and stood up. Small balls of light surrounded her clenched hands, belaying her feelings. Closing her eyes, she took several deep breaths and then counted slowly to ten until she felt them disappear.
Hoping for something that would distract her from the lingering disappointment she felt, she said "Computer, Scenario 3, Level 4. One student, Codename: Jubilee." She said this in what she hoped was a cockney accent. Giving the computer commands often made her feel like an extra in a sci-fi movie. To keep life from becoming too mundane, she tried to vary the style in which she delivered the command.
Scenario 3 was a common program in the system that varied to match the total number of users. Although the actual sequence varied, it pitted combatants against armies of robot Sentinels. Within seconds, the remains of a futuristic American city surrounded Jubilee. It looked like St. Louis, thought she'd only been there twice and couldn't be sure. Keeping to the shadows and moving slowly, Jubilee began to explore.
The wall adjacent to the door she'd just walked through had a small computer terminal built in. She held down a button and spoke the words "LA" into the microphone, after which she punched in another access code. Her voice sounded strange to her. Though Jubilee was known for her loud mouth, she didn't feel like saying much today. Strange, she thought. Must be the weather.
Finally she inserted a CD into an ordinary disc drive that seemed out of place on the alien looking computer. She turned around to see that mats and some structures had seemingly materialized out of nowhere. A song was starting, and through the power of the sound system, she couldn't determine its point of origin. It surrounded her, and she felt strangely comforted. Taking a deep breath, she pulled off her Massachusetts Academy sweatshirt to reveal a body-hugging navy blue tank top that strongly contrasted with her white cotton leggings.
Jubilee walked to the closest map, hurrying to avoid missing the song's chorus. Once there, she began her stretches. Keeping time with the music, she stretched her hamstrings, then moving on to jumping jacks, as her coach had taught her. She'd missed this.
Finally, she felt she was ready. She approached one of the structures the computer had generated, a set of uneven bars. Getting into position, she took a deep breath and started at run, which culminated in her jumping and grabbing the lowest bar.
As she put herself through the motions, Jubilee couldn't help but remember back in LA, when her life consisted of nothing but the gym. Her parents, devastated when their child brought home only average grades, had been ecstatic to find that she had some sort of talent, some sort of gift that they could help her develop. Actually, her Phys. Ed. teacher discovered her. She'd recommended a coach who trained with young beginner girls.
Jubilee loved the attention she got during sessions. Out of her group of ten girls, she learned splits and jumps and stretches the fastest. Her parents would sometimes sit in during class, and she'd be sure to throw in an extra move in the hopes of seeing their faces beam. She didn't always get what she wanted, but every so often. Eventually, Coach Jacobs asked her parents to stay after class. He told them that the group was holding Jubilation back. Their child, he continued, had real talent, and would definitely benefit from individual training sessions. And Jubilee felt her heart swell with satisfaction from his words and the proud expressions her parents wore.
Individual coaching was more expensive, but they would consider no other option now that the opportunity was before them. Jubilee attended classes five days a week. Eventually she began competing and won almost every tournament she entered. Her workouts became much more challenging, and she loved it. The local paper reported that her performance was as bright as the Fourth of July. By the age of 9, she was regarded as the area's newest Olympic hopeful.
At age 10 her parents died in a car accident that wasn't an accident at all.
Having no other family, Jubilee became a ward of the state. At the halfway house she was sent to, she searched for the gymnasium for almost an hour, until a social worker, Miss Lyonns, found her and informed her that the home had no such facility. She recommended that Jubilee use the gym at school. Then Miss Lyonns took away her privileges for a week for being in the basement without a pass.
At her new school, the gym was just an empty room. The mats were torn, the worst holes having been patched with duct tape. She did some stretches on them after school anyway. A custodian found her and chased her away, reprimanding her for still being in the building. When she arrived at the Home an hour later (she'd missed the bus), she found that her tardiness had earned her kitchen duty. Her protests only served to ensure that she would repeat the chore the next day.
She'd tried to practice some stretches in her room, but became the laughing stock of her roommates. Once, they cornered her and asked her if she thought she was better than them. Fed up and angry, she replied with a curt yes. Samantha, at 13 her oldest roommate, slapped her. No one had ever hit Jubilee before and she was rooted to the spot in shock, speechless for once in her life. Almost. She found herself sneering "What, can't take the truth?" at the older girl in a voice she didn't recognize as belonging to her. Samantha gave a sadistic smile. "I was hoping you'd say something like that!" Then she grabbed at Jubilee's hair.
Though she'd never been in a fight in her life, Jubilee found it easy to duck into a crouch. As the older girl tried to kick her, Jubilee managed to position her leg behind Samantha's, and performed a sweep that knocked her opponent to the ground. The move was based on a similar step from her last tumbling performance. Before Samantha had realized what had happened, Jubilee grabbed her greasy ponytail and growled "Toldya" into her ear. She kept her grip on the girl's hair, using her knee to keep Samantha pinned. Finally, when she felt her opponent stop struggling she let go, kicking the girl in anger as she got up.
She eyed the remaining girls, Samantha's groupies, who'd been watching the fight. "Anyone else have a problem?" she asked. No one would meet her gaze. Eventually Samantha got up, glared at her, and walked over to her bed. Jubilee expected to get into trouble for her involvement in the disagreement. She didn't. It was almost like a sense of honor among pre- teen girls. No one ran and told a counselor if there was a fight. No one would come to break up your battles. No one would come to your aid. You were all on your own at the Home.
But by beating Samantha, Jubilee had carved a place for herself. Samantha was one of the oldest and biggest girls in the facility. She was the self- proclaimed leader of the Chicks, a gang-like clique whose mission was to make life miserable for everyone who wasn't a member, and for some who were. But after the fight, they left Jubilee alone. Jubilee returned the favor by keeping her wisecracks to herself around them, which was probably the hardest thing she'd ever had to do. It was probably that repression that caused her to mouth off at authority figures. That never ended well for her.
As the months passed by, Jubilee began to miss gymnastics more and more. She still cried herself to sleep some nights thinking of her parents. Finally, the day came when she snapped at Miss Lyonns one too many times. The administration began to look into ways of getting rid of the young girl. Someone even heard Miss Lyonns shout "I don't care, send her back to China if you have to! I just don't want that little troublemaking firecracker HERE!"
Samantha herself related this to Jubilee with a huge smile. Jubilee maintained her cool telling the older girl that she hoped an ocean between them would help disperse some of Samantha's B.O.. Samantha flushed and glared at her. Jubilee glared back, unafraid. Finally, Samantha walked away muttering something about Jubilee and her feet.
Though she'd never let Samantha know, Jubilee was scared to death of being sent away. She'd never learned to speak Chinese. She remembered how happy her parents had been in America, going so far as to name her Jubilation because they were so glad she was born in their new country. To her young mind, China seemed to be an awful place. After lying awake for half of the night debating with herself, Jubilee packed a small bag and left the Home forever.
Sometime after that, she discovered she was a mutant. Later still, she joined the X-men. She even got the chance to practice gymnastics again. With a minimal effort, she was able to incorporate her acrobatics into her fighting style, just as she had in her battle with Samantha. She felt more useful for it. When she left the X-men to join Generation X, she found that the biosphere could even simulate gymnastic equipment, and she spent much of her free time practicing her favorite sport. She'd let it fall to the wayside when Generation X had disbanded and she'd moved back to LA with Angelo.
Then she'd died.
This was her first workout since Warren brought her back. She felt a bit rusty as she twirled around, leaping from bar to bar. When she slowed her pace to do a handstand on the top bar, she felt sweat seeping through the gauze on her arms. Her stigmata, the only scars from her ordeal (the only physical ones at least) began to sting, and she knew that the scabs must have torn. Still, she held her position.
Finally, she allowed gravity to take its course, and started swinging downwards. Slowly, she began to build up momentum for her dismount. Finally she let herself fly, gracefully performing two midair flips. For a brief second, while she was spinning in the air, she'd thought she'd nailed it. When her feet hit the mat, though, she realized her miscalculation. She fell forward, sticking her arms out to prevent herself from slamming face first to the ground.
For several seconds, she didn't try to get up, feeling more angry and disappointed in herself than hurt. Finally, with her lips pursed in an angry grimace, she rolled to her side and stood up. Small balls of light surrounded her clenched hands, belaying her feelings. Closing her eyes, she took several deep breaths and then counted slowly to ten until she felt them disappear.
Hoping for something that would distract her from the lingering disappointment she felt, she said "Computer, Scenario 3, Level 4. One student, Codename: Jubilee." She said this in what she hoped was a cockney accent. Giving the computer commands often made her feel like an extra in a sci-fi movie. To keep life from becoming too mundane, she tried to vary the style in which she delivered the command.
Scenario 3 was a common program in the system that varied to match the total number of users. Although the actual sequence varied, it pitted combatants against armies of robot Sentinels. Within seconds, the remains of a futuristic American city surrounded Jubilee. It looked like St. Louis, thought she'd only been there twice and couldn't be sure. Keeping to the shadows and moving slowly, Jubilee began to explore.