Jean and the Jack-in-the-Box
Guess what? It's my birthday! Happy birthday me! I'm 14! Yay for me!
To celebrate i decided to put this story up. Hey, everyone has a slightly weird celebration.
Disclaimer - just in case any of you were worried, don't be. I don't own anything but my mad insane idea.
Okay. So, after 'Mind-bender' - well, Jean had gotten hypnotised by a jack-in-the-box. That had to leave some kind of impression on her. Since they didn't mention it, I guess it's up to us loyal and dedicated fans to figure out what might happen later.
This is set just after 'Shadowdance'.
"Well, that dance was interesting." Rogue commented.
"It's kinda sad how we can call dinosaurs from another dimension attacking our school dance as 'interesting'." Kitty replied.
"Hey, we got them back home." Scott shrugged.
"Just barely." Evan rolled his eyes.
"I'm just amazed no-one managed to figure out what wehad to do with it." Jean sighed. "Okay, it wasn't on purpose but…"
"But Kurt teleports through another dimension that involves dinosaurs." Rogue finished for her. "Speaking of which, where is Kurt?"
"He went out for ice-cream with that girl Amanda." Kitty shrugged. "At least that's what he texted me." She held up her mobile phone.
"As long as he's not in danger. Or in the same room as Forge." Jean groaned. "Why is it that every time the two of them are together, someone ends up in a different dimension?"
"Hey, that only happened once." Evan pointed out.
"Twice." Kitty corrected him.
Scott opened the door to the mansion. "Wonder what the media'll make of that?" He asked.
Jamie looked up from the table, putting a box down. "Oh, hi. How was your dance?"
"Lousy." Rogue rolled her eyes.
"We accidentally ripped a hole in the time-space continuum, got attacked by dinosaurs, and had to use a dimension-crossover device thingie to send them back into their home." Evan elaborated, slouching on a couch.
"So, same old?" The youngest X-Man raised an eyebrow.
"Pretty much." Kitty dropped herself onto the chair. "And we managed to do it without even wrecking our formal clothes."
"Man, I wish I was in your school." Jamie said wistfully. "You have the coolest adventures. At our school all we do at dances is dance."
"Lucky you." Scott told him.
"Hey, don't worry about it Jamie." Jean shrugged. "Just two more years and you'll be driven insane by the crazy things we do too. So what exactly have you got there?" She gestured to the box.
"Oh, just something I brought from an op-shop." Jamie shrugged. "Still works. I'm guessing that it was donated by someone who grew out of it. Or maybe their kids moved out or something."
"What is it?" Evan asked.
"Watch." Jamie began to spin the handle that the senior X-Men hadn't noticed before.
Music began to come.
Jean froze, her eyes wide.
"It's a jack-in-the-box." Scott stated, his mouth becoming dry.
"Yeah." Jamie nodded rapidly.
Boing!
A head sprung out from the box.
Jean shrieked.
Before their eyes the jack-in-the-box shot into the air. It hit Jamie, throwing him backwards against the floor.
Jamie yelped as five Jamie were suddenly looking up into the air, following the path of the jack-in-the-box as Multiple pulled himself back together.
It smashed hard into the roof, then dropped back to the ground, shattering some more. Then it repeated the process.
"Die!" Jean screamed. "Die! Die! Die!"
"Uh, Jean?" Kitty looked at her. "It's already dead."
"It was never alive." Evan pointed out.
"I don't care! Die! Die! Die!" Jean moved it to the centre of the room and began to telekinetically rip the jack-in-the-box to pieces.
"Okay, okay." Scott held up his hands. "It's dead, okay? Jean, you managed to kill it. It is totally dead. Stop attacking the Jamie's toy now."
"No!" Jean screamed. "It has to be obliterated."
"I don't believe this…" Kitty groaned.
"For the love of…" Scott stood up and took his glasses off.
The jack-in-the-box disintegrated in a flash of red light. "Alright, Jean? It's dead. It's gone. Bye-bye jack-in-the-box." Scott put his glasses back on.
"It's… gone?" Jean asked, cautious.
"Yes." Scott said reassuringly. "Don't worry. It's not going to hurt you."
"Yep. The amazing X-Men – saving the world, one evil children's toy at a time." Rogue quipped.
"Is it dead?" Jean cautiously looked over at the dust.
The reasonably sane X-Men looked at each other. "Yes, Jean." Scott answered after a second. "Yes, it's dead. It has been disintegrated." He patted her back reassuringly. "It won't hurt… scare… surprise you anymore."
Jean shook her head. "Wait, did I just attack a…?"
The X-Men nodded.
"And asked if it was…?"
More nods.
"Umm…" Jean started to turn as red as her hair.
"Because of the whole 'Mesmero' thing?" Kitty asked. "When he hypnotised you using a jack-in-the-box?"
"Yes." Jean nodded. "Yes! That's the reason I acted like that. That's the completely logical reason behind why I attacked a jack-in-the-box. Because a jack-in-the-box managed to hypnotise me a few weeks ago. That's the only reason. Yes. That's the reason why. I have to go now." She raced up the stairs.
"So…" Kitty said. "Anyone else get the feeling that that's not the reason why?"
"No, I am not getting that feeling because there is no reason to feel that. Jean being hypnotised is the only reason she attacked that jack-in-the-box. The only reason. No other reason." Scott shook his head. "I'm going to bed now." He shot up the stairs too.
The four X-Men still in the room looked around at each other. "Okay then." Evan said after a moment. "Well, that was weird."
"And considering we were attacked by dinosaurs from another dimension three hours ago, that's not a word we use lightly." Kitty added.
"Is school on today?" Jean asked as she stepped down the stairs.
"I'm not sure how many times you want us to say this." Kitty raised an eyebrow. "Dinosaurs from another dimension."
"Right. Stupid question." Jean nodded.
"Hey, if that doesn't get you a day off from school, what will?" Rogue asked as they started to walk a little.
"Not to mention Alverz destroyed half the gym." Scott said.
"Hey! Lay off Lance!" Kitty snapped. "He was just doing what everyone else was doing – stopping the dinosaurs! And it was just a little crack in the ground."
"Little?" Kurt looked at her.
"Little by his standards. He's always blowing things up." Scott muttered.
"Oh, yeah. Because Lance's the only one who blows things up in Bayville!" Kitty snapped. "By the way, how many cars have you destroyed this month Scott?"
"Look, Scott, I know how much you hate Lance," Jean said, "But really? This was ourfault. And he did help."
"Yeah, but… where are we going?" Scott realised that the X-Men were slowly walking into the rec-room.
"Sit." Kitty pushed Jean down. Kurt pushed Scott down onto a chair as well. "Stay there."
"Uh… What's going on?" Scott asked.
"This is an intervention." Rogue told them.
"What?" Jean asked.
"Well, actually it's more for Jean than Scott," Kurt said with a shrug. "But still…"
"Does it have to be before breakfast?" Scott asked.
"That's what I said." Evan rolled his eyes.
"This is about the jack-in-the-box, right?" Jean raised an eyebrow.
"Yep." Rogue nodded.
"I don't believe this…" Jean groaned. "Okay, I overreacted a little. I admit that. But this is ridiculous."
"Probably." Kitty admitted. "But there's nothing better to do."
"What about eat?" Evan asked.
They ignored him.
"It's easy. All you have to do is not destroy the jack-in-the-box Jean." Kurt put the jack-in-the-box down.
"Yeah, that is pretty easy Jean." Scott nodded at her. "Just don't freak out. It's just a children's toy."
"I know what it is!" Jean snapped, glaring at Scott. She looked anxiously at the box. "It's a very scary and dangerous children's toy."
"Don't worry Jean." Scott said reassuringly. "It's not going to hurt you. Or posses you. Or hypnotise you. Or attack."
"Attack?" Kitty repeated.
"Don't ask." Scott told her, standing up and moving behind Jean. "Now Jean, we're just going to turn the handle. Okay? And then it's going to pop up. It won't hurt you. Just jump up."
"How do you know the plan?" Jean snapped at him, her breathing getting quicker.
"It's pretty easy to figure out." Scott told her. He gently stroked her hair. "Now don't worry. We're all here. We won't let the jack-in-the-box hurt you."
"Anyone else realise how ridiculous that sounds?" Rogue asked.
"Yes." Jean nodded. "It's just a children's toy. It won't hurt me. Will it?" She looked up at Scott like a scared little girl.
"No." Scott reassured her.
"Now, Jean, if you're up to it, ve're going to begin to turn it." Kurt said slowly.
Jean slowly nodded, her eyes wide and fearful.
Kurt turned it once. Music began to play. He stopped after one turn and looked at Jean. She swallowed and nodded. He turned it again, stopped, then turned it again.
Halfway through the fourth turn…
Boing!
Jean screamed and telekinetically threw the Jack-In-The-Box. Kurt teleported straight out of the way as it smashed past with all the speed of a cannonball.
Rogue ducked as it shattered into a thousand pieces.
"Kill it! Kill it! KILL IT!" Jean screamed.
"You already did that." Evan told her.
"It's dead?"
"Yes Jean. It's dead." Scott told her.
"So… why did you kill it?" Rogue asked.
"Because it jumped out and scared me!" Jean shouted. "It's evil and terrifying and it needs to die! They all need to die! Kill them!"
"So when was the first time that it scared you?" Kitty asked, prying slightly.
Jean hesitated. "Scott viciously attacked me with one." She whimpered, curling up on the couch.
"What?" Rogue started.
"I didn't!" Scott protested. "That's way out of context!"
"Okay zen. Vat did happen?" Kurt asked.
"Nothing that bad. I just-" Scott began.
"Nothing that bad?" Jean shrilled. "You scared me half to death!"
"It was just a game." Scott sighed. "A few weeks earlier Jean had snuck into my room in my sleep and put a spider on my face. A really really big one." He spread his hand to demonstrate how big it was.
"It was already dead!" Jean shouted. "That's no excuse for what you did!"
"Jean, I'm sorry about that, but it was a long time ago…" Scott began.
"I'm not talking to you! Not now, not ever!" Jean shrieked. She turned over and buried her face in the couch.
"So… what happened?" Evan asked.
"Well…" Scott began.
Flashback.
"I have to go to a meeting for a few hours." The Professor looked at little Scott and little Jean. "But Logan's already on the open road somewhere, and Ororo's busy back in Africa. Therefore, you two are going to be alone for a while."
"Okay professor." Little Jean nodded.
"Yeah, we'll be fine." Little Scott agreed.
"Good. I'll be back at five o'clock." The professor nodded. "I hope you'll use this time to get to know each other better."
"No problem professor." Little Jean shrugged. "We'll just watch a movie or something."
"Right." Professor X. looked at his watch. "I'm sorry. I have to go." He left.
"So what do you want to watch?" Scott asked Jean.
"I don't know. How about Spiderman?" Little Jean suggested with a wicked smile. "Or maybe Fangs and Venom? Or how about The Attack of the Arachnids? Or should we watch – what?" She said sweetly when she saw that Scott was glaring at her behind his glasses.
"Okay, okay. Yeesh. You're so easy Scott." Jean shook her head. "How about… Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets instead?"
"Okay." Scott said cautiously, putting the DVD in. "You get the popcorn, I'll set it up."
"Will do!" Jean nodded, leaving.
Everything was going fine until they reached the time when Harry and Ron were in the forbidden forest, looking up to see giant spiders crawling down.
Scott yelped. Jean roared with laughter.
"Jean!" Scott protested. "You did that on purpose!"
"Sorry, sorry." Jean managed to choke out. "It's just…" She dissolved into laughter.
Scott glared at her and left, Jean still cracking up.
"I can't believe her!" Scott muttered in his room, kicking at a box. It started to make music. Scott ducked down and realised that it was a jack-in-the-box.
An idea began to form in his head.
As the movie finished Jean turned off the T.V. "Honestly, he took that worse than I thought he would." She mused to herself. "Maybe I should go look for him?"
That's when a skate-board rolled into the room with a box on it. Jean stopped and looked at the box cautiously. She knew the smart thing to do would be to leave, but… she sat down and telekinetically pulled the box onto her lap.
Was it making music?
She pulled it up closer to her head and started to listen.
Boing!
A snake exploded up.
It twisted around her neck and began to tighten, getting caught.
Jean screamed bloody murder, trying to pull the snake off but only succeeding in making it tighter.
Behind her Scott was laughing. "Don't like a taste of your own medicine, do you Jean?" He laughed.
With his glasses on, he couldn't tell she was turning blue.
Jean shouted again, trying to pull the snake off. Again, it only became tighter. She made a strangled rasp.
That's when Scott realised something was wrong when she started to faint. He raced over and pulled the snake off her neck.
Jean gasped, breath coming back into her.
End Flashback.
"I swear I didn't mean for the snake to choke her." Scott explained, looking at the crying girl lying on the couch. "I just thought it would freak her out – you know, what with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and all?"
"Right." Rogue nodded. "So… how do we fix her?"
"Alright." Scott walked around to the front of the chair. "Jean?"
"Go away." Jean glared at him. "I'm not talking to you. I'm never talking to you again!"
"Jean, that incident was years ago…"
"Three hours ago!" She snapped.
For a second there was silence.
"I'm sorry?" Scott asked.
"Apologizing won't help! You tried to kill me with a snake!"
Scott looked at the others for help. Kurt shrugged.
"Okay, Jean, I'm… sorry. I'm really sorry. I really didn't know that the snake was going to choke you… I just wanted to get you back for what you did." Scott said after a moment.
"You laughed! You were laughing!"
"Jean, I wasn't used to my glasses back then. I really didn't know you were choking. I'm really sorry."
"Back then? So, what? In the past three hours you've gotten used to them?" Jean demanded.
"Oh boy. Uh, no… lousy word choice. Jean, I'm sorry. I was an idiot. But I was… I am apparently a ten year old boy. I made a few dumb mistakes. I'm really sorry."
"This day just keeps getting weirder." Rogue stared at Scott and Jean.
"Tell me about it." He groaned.
Just as suddenly Jean sat up. "Okay, sorry about that. But jack-in-the-boxes really freak me out." She explained. Then she blinked. "Uh, Scott… weren't you behind me a moment before?"
"Well, yeah but…" Scott looked at her. "Jean? How old are you?"
Jean blinked. "Eighteen… why?"
"Just checking. And I'm really really sorry about the snake thing." He added.
"It was an accident." Jean shrugged.
"Okay, now things can't get any weirder." Evan commented.
"Well, Jean, if you're up to it, let's try that again." Kurt said.
Bamf!
Bamf!
Kurt reappeared holding another jack-in-the-box.
"How many did you get?" Scott asked.
"About two hundred or so." Rogue shrugged.
"Where did you find two hundred jack-in-the-boxes in a night?" Jean asked cautiously, leaning back slowly away from the jack-in-the-box.
"It's amazing what you can find on the internet these days." Kitty grinned. "And they get a lot cheaper if you buy in bulk."
"Jean? Do you think you're up to it?" Scott asked.
"Uh-huh." Jean nodded slowly.
'Pop Goes the Weasel' began to play as Rogue slowly turned the handle.
Boing!
"Aaiieee!" Jean shrieked, throwing the jack-in-tha-box as hard as she could against the wall. It shattered into a thousand pieces. "Die! Die! Die!"
"Oh boy." Kitty groaned.
"Jean? You okay?" Scott asked slowly.
"Uh-huh. Oh… I did it again?" Jean sighed.
"Yep." Evan nodded.
"At least she's not ten years old again this time." Rogue said.
"Something tells me this is going to take a lot of jack-in-the-boxes." Scott rubbed his eyes behind his sunglasses.
"Nothing better to do anyway." Kurt shrugged, vanishing and reappearing with another jack-in-the-box.
"Seriously, I'm really sorry about everything that happened yesterday." Forge said.
"No problem kid." Logan shrugged. "Not your fault. Besides, it was fun."
"Yeah, fun." Forge rolled his eyes. "Where's Kurt? I wanted to apologize again for sending him into that dimension."
"He's in the living room." Ororo said, stepping over to them. "They've been working on something all day."
"Kay. I'll just pop in and say… what the…?" Forge froze.
Logan and Ororo followed him. "What on earth…?" Storm began.
"Well, that's not something you'll see every day." Wolverine said.
Scott was stroking Jean's hair as she sat on a couch, staring at a box. Kitty was slowly winding the jack-in-the-box. Rogue and Evan were holding clipboards each. Kurt was waiting in the background.
"Okay, kids. What's going on-" Logan began.
Boing!
Jean screamed. Scott's hand tightened around her own as she leaped back from the clown face that popped out from the box. The jack-in-the-box fell over.
"Good girl Jean." Scott said reassuringly. "See, that's not that bad is it? Okay? It's just a toy."
"I don't believe this." Logan blinked.
"Okay, that one managed to survive three boing outs." Rogue ticked off the clipboard. "Four including that last one. You're really getting better Jean."
"Well, I didn't expect to see this." Forge commented.
"Oh, hi." Kurt looked over.
"What are you doing, elf?" Logan growled.
"We're trying to help Jean get over her phobia of jack-in-the-boxes." Kurt explained.
"Jean has a phobia of…?" Forge began.
"Alright, we'll try again." Kitty said kindly, pushing the clown head back into the box. "This time we'll go a little faster."
"So… I came to apologize about what happened last yesterday Kurt." Forge said, looking at the fuzzy mutant. "I'm really sorry about…"
"Don't worry about it." Kurt waved. "We've been through worse. And weirder."
Boing!
"Aaaiieee!" Jean screamed.
The jack-in-the-box shot fast into the air. "Hit the deck!" Evan yelled, crashing to the ground. Rogue and Scott followed his example as the pieces exploded around the room. Kurt vanished and Kitty phased.
Forge yelped. "Man! What are you trying to do around here?"
"Get Jean over her phobia." Kurt answered as he reappeared.
"You weren't kidding when you said that you've had weirder, were you?" Forge said to Kurt.
"Course I wasn't." Kurt shrugged. "I'll get another one, should I?" He glanced over to his teammakes and then vanished.
"Well, if it's okay with all you, I'd better split." Forge said.
"Okay." Kitty said distractedly as he left.
"There's a danger room session for the new recruits on in a few minutes after their last one was cancelled." Logan said. "You coming 'Ro?"
"Yes." Ororo nodded gratefully.
"Suit yourself." Rogue shrugged as the two adults left.
"Da dun, da dun, da dadadada, da dun, da dun, da daaaa dun." Kitty murmured softly as the jack-in-the-box moved.
Boing!
"Aaiieee!" Jean shrieked. It shattered in half, the pieces running around. Kitty simply phased and Kurt teleported out of the way. Scott, Rogue and Evan dove to the ground.
"Ow!" Evan muttered as he rubbed his head.
"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry Evan! Are you okay?" Jean looked over at him as he stood up.
"I'm fine. But I'm beginning to realise why some people can be afraid of jack-in-the-boxes." Evan said.
"You think that's bad?" Scott rolled his eyes behind his glasses. "You should see her when there's a real clown about."