Jubliee continued to remain deep in thought throughout her journey home. Fury was right and had known that something was going on and it irritated the hell out of her that she could not work out what it was. The pattern should be there, all human behavior fell into patterns, but she just could not put her finger on it. She was startled from her reverie by the sharp blast of a car horn as it shot past her
"Smart move Lee" she chastised herself, "Getting yourself killed sure 'aint gonna help anyone" focusing on her journey she pushed aside the puzzle of what the hell was going on with the so called riots and chose to keep a much closer eye on the traffic she was attempting to navigate her way through.
As soon as she had come into enough money her first large purchase had been her bike. She had spent weeks traveling back and forwards to Shield headquarters on the company mandated transport run. There had been the option for her to live on base, and in fact the powers that be actually encouraged a lot of the new recruits to say there, They liked to be able to keep an eye on them, but that had been too close to her past, so as soon as the opportunity arose she had headed off to get a place of her own.
The down side to this independence was had been the countless hours she had spent commuting and sitting in traffic jams. As fond as she was of her blades there was no way that she was gonna skate to and from work, so a bike had been the obvious answer. She had always had a thing about them even as a Californian Mall Rat, There was something primal about them. It was as though you rode a living thing and one if you did not concentrate for one moment then there was the risk that it would turn on you . When others asked her why she liked the bike the only thing she could compare it to was riding a wild stallion (although to her knowledge most horses could not top 100mph but hey metaphors can only go so far)
Slipping between cars she remembered her first day on the bike - she had managed to nearly kill herself. She had been showing off (and trying to disassociate her memories of other bike rides chipped in a small voice that she was determined to ignore) pushing herself and the bike well past her skill level. There was a sharp turn, she took it too quickly, a rookie mistake, and had ended up eating gravel. In the end it had only been her sharp reflexes that had saved her from more serious injuries than a dislocated wrist, a broken ankle and numerous cuts and bruises. Her reflexes however could not save her from the reaming out fury gave her. It contained a lot of words like foolish, dangerous, careless, something about the cost of training and understanding her limits. She had been given some fairly awesome pain meds and had not really been paying any attention. A broad smile split her face as she recalled the look that the Colonel had given her when she had asked him how her bike was on the back of his lecture. His face had turned an impressive shade of red that had reminded her at the time of Penance and he had splutterd shocked at her gaul before he marched out of the room. Two days later on her release from the med wing she had seen her bike outside in the main lot - shuffling her way over she had been astounded at the mess she had made of it. The paint work and lights looked to be trashed, the handlebars were a write off and go knows what else had been ruined. She had spent all that money and now all she was left with was a pile of junk mettle.
Taking great delight in wallowing in her misery, she had been unaware of the fact that she was being observed until a voice from behind had spoke "Its not as bad as it looks, a lot of the damage i superficial. By the time you are up and running again she will be good to go" Turning around as quickly as she could she had been surprised to see Nick Fury stood leaning against a wall - the the proverbial stogie clenched between his teeth.
"You think so?" had been her only response. There was no way that her bike would be up and running in that time. Shield had patched her up and with their technology healing as a much shorter process. In the time it would take her to recover she could not possibly raise the funds needed to repair all of the damage,
He had nodded "Sure - Gus thinks that he will have the paint match by next week and the body work will be complete by then" His words took a moment to sink in. Gus was the one of the engineers who looked after a lot of the transport for the company, Why would he be looking at her bike.
Before she could voice her confusion he had lifted a hand and pushed himself off the wall. Walking away he had called back over his shoulder " Don't open your mouth or say a word to anyone or that heap of junk will be at a scrap yard before you can sat jack rabbit Soldier" He had not seen her nod or the surprised smile on her face as he walked away, and for once in her life she had stayed quiet.
6 weeks later, bruises and cuts gone her bike had once again appeared in the lot, as good as new. Stood next to it was the Colonel.
"Your cleared for duty?"
"Yes Sir"
"you will be rota'd in from tomorrow" and with that he had thrown the keys to her as he walked back towards the main building, Fury had always been a man of few words, although this time he paused and turned back
"Your leathers were wrecked - don't ride it without new ones , these damned crotch rockets go too fast for you to risk it"
She had nodded an affirmative response, afraid to speak in case her emotions got the better of her.
Back in the present day she had pulled off the main road heading don side streets home loomed in front of her. Pushing a small button mounted on the handlebars she approached what looked like another storage unit. Slowly the door lifted to reveal a small but functional garage. Pulling the bike over and removing her helmet she wiped sweat from her forehead before putting the kick stand down. She had no idea why but Fury had always let her get away with more than she should and for that she was eternally grateful. She knew that a part of it was down to the fact that he felt some pity but she worked on pushing past that, Walking back through the still open door she pushed the concealed button to close it again - watching as the lights turned off automatically. She keyed in her security code on the small pad to the left of the door and waited to hear the beep signifying that lock down was complete before walking off to her flat.
Just down from her lock up was another inconspicuous set of stairs which lead up to her apartment. It was the lack of anything out of the ordinary that had lead her to choose this particular location. She hated the idea of being watched and spied on and some how she had figured that the less obvious the place, the less likely that was to happen. After she had left the mansion - privacy had been everything to her. Somewhere to lick her wounds and recover. It had also helped that they place had been fairly cheep which meant that she could afford to buy it.
At the top of the stairs was a heavy duty security door - without a key hole. She had spoken to some of the guys at Shield and they had provided her with some state of the art security - with the understanding that they would be rewarded with free drink. Placing both feet on the pressure sensitive security pad positioned slightly off centre to the left she tapped her left boot twice in rapid succession - to anyone watching it would look like she was tapping her foot in irritation. A click sounded as a small crevice appeared at the other side of the door. Sliding her hand into the slot she stepped forward. She could feel the slightly unpleasant buzzing sensation as a scan was taken of her her palm along with a DNA sample to confirm her identity. A second scan was then taken of her retina by the remote scanner above her door - better safe than sorry had become her motto. Both of the scans were quickly followed by the soft sound of the dead-blots dropping and the door quietly swinging open. Striding into her sanctuary she pushed the door closed - it was surprisingly light, lords only knew what it was made of, they had refused to tell her - and listened to the bolts fall back into place.
"Primary and secondary authentication protocols passed, welcome home Jubilation" The slightly mechanical voice called out in greeting . Jubilee winced, she really should turn that off. As she walked up the lit corridor the voice activated again " Tertiary authentication required"
Not slowing she spoke one word "Sparkler"
"Tertiary authentication confirmed, access granted"
Walking into her apartment proper (after using a key to access the second door) Jubilee threw her jacket onto the couch and walked into the kitchen to grab a beer. Taking a long draw from the bottle she pondered all of the security she had installed. She knew it seemed excessive but as a valued employee of Shield they had been happy to provide it all for her - they wanted her kept safe. Chucking herself on to the couch in the much the same way she had her jacket she sighed. She was kidding herself that she was leading an ordinary life.
To this day she remembered being called in to see Emma in her office. She had sat on a seat smiling at her old headmistress - maintaining the illusion that she was not nervous. Emma had not smiled back - which was not unusual in and of its self, but her demeanor was off. She had been direct, as was her way, and gotten straight to the point. It was not possible for Jubilee to stay here, this was a mutant academy and she was not a mutant and as such posed a clear and present danger to the other students who remained. To this end she was to leave immediately. There was a small fund set up by the Professor, she could keep that to use as she wanted, but she had to be out of the mansion in 2 days.
Tears fell from her blue eyes even now as she remembered her pain that day. Emma had turned away and picked up a paper on her desk effectively dismissing Jubilee from her presence. Jubilee on the other had had not been able to move. Her family, the only thing she had left in her world was throwing her out.
"Wolvie..." was a all she could get out through her constricted throat. She was so sure that her protector and friend would not allow this to happen. He would come to her side as he had always done.
"Miss Lee. I have asked you to leave. The X-Men have had this discussion as a group and a unanimous decision has been made - there will be no changing it"
That had twisted the knife. A group decision she was out, Logan had sided with the others against her. Anger flared, she stood and walked over to the desk. Emma ignored her. Leaning down she spoke quietly, giving no sign of the fury that raged within her
"Do I really scare you all that much, is that it, when you look at me do you feel fear that this could be you? This is it you know, the end of the mutant age and in the end you were brought down to your knees by one of your own. I hope you all rot in hell with you fear to keep you company"
She had left that day consigning most of her gear into storage until he found a place to stay. Completely loss she had hiked her way into town with questions running round her head. How would she live, sure she had the account Emma had mentioned and some savings but that was it. The only thing she had been good at was being a superhero and now that was gone. It was then that Nick Fury had sprung to mind. It had taken her a few months, and a few really sucky jobs but she had approached him and made the move to Shield. At first she had lived on base, along side all of the other recruits. She had learnt the hard way that free food and lodging was a luxury, and the training had been hard going leaving her with no time to do anything other than sleep. It had been later when everything stabilized she had bought her own place, determined that she would never be dependent on another sole for the rest of her days
Wiping tears from her cheeks she sat still lost in thought and old memories - it was the beep of the phone alarm that roused her back to the here and now. Pulling herself to her feet she checked the time realizing that she was running out of time to get ready. Moving with more purpose than she felt she wondered into the bathroom and looked at her face in the mirror. Her eyes were overly bright showing still unshed tears. A somewhat wry smile bloomed on her face. "You have survived Lee, you are stronger than they ever imagined you could be. It is time to put the past behind you. The only one you need to worry about now is you"
