A/N - Yeah, it's been way too long on this. Yeah, I was entirely and utterly derailed by 2020 and the plague. No, I haven't caught it yet, and I'm actively trying to not to. No, I don't have my writing mojo back yet, but I'm also actively trying to do that thing. New meds, new docs, and a freshly stubborn decision just to do the damn things. All of them. So. Yeah it's been over a year. Sorry bout that. Go back, re-read and when you get done here, take a sec and tell me what you're thinking. There is still room for speculation, friends.

Chapter 12 - Distractions

Noh being distracted during an actual battle wasn't good for his continued fight or his nerves. On one hand, not knowing where Jubilee was at had him losing his mind with worry, fueling him to tear through Shi'ar faster and more ruthlessly than even he was trained to do. On the other hand, without being able to utilize a white run, he was wearing down and fully aware of each and every injury he'd accumulated while he ripped through Shi'ar warriors and elite forces without enough awareness to know who was who. He could not continue the path he was on, though. There was no way.

He was nearly out of steam when the Shi'ar began firing up a massive cargo ship - obviously to remove their most valued assets from Hala … namely their slave population since Hala's riches had long ago been pilfered. All that was left was the people.

Noh was sure his heart was going to leap into his throat as the panic he felt spiked. He didn't make it more than a few miles before Iron Man was on top of it - and being incredibly precise with his attack on the engines. It was grounded before it could lift off, which was good. There was no way Noh could have reached them in time to search through the slaves - and the very thought of Jubilee captive by those … those parasitic chnitt … it was enough to re-energize him.

And while Noh was diving in again freshly, and the bulk of the X-Men were finding themselves in more and more dire straits. Lilandra and Charles were doing their utmost to keep the good fight going with Charles attacking those around them telepathically and Lilandra shooting those she knew to be in charge in an effort to stem the loss of life and limb on both sides. Her spies had done their best to help direct the flow of Shi'ar fighters toward them to capture Lilandra as planned… it was the only way she knew for sure she'd be able to get the device that Tony had rigged close rough to do damage to her brother and his closest followers on the other side of the planet in the Capital city where D'Ken was holding court.

She was not, however expecting to have to deal with her sister, Cal'syee - Deathbird to those who feared her. What's more, Lilandra found herself almost without support in her battle. The Kree who had come to help their cause were in their own fights and Charles had to put all of his considerable skill in the telepathic realm into holding back the droves of Shi'ar, which left Lilandra to deal with Deathbird alone.

Charles was able to offer encouragement … and when the battle found itself underway, the X-Men closest to them were able to keep other Shi'ar who weren't in Charles' net of deception away … but that didn't give her the kind of support she truly needed. Fierce as she was, Lilandra was not the warrior that Deathbird was. But she was a better shot.

While the Shi'ar princesses duked it out between battle cries and screeches - the likes of which Noh-Varr had not known was possible - the X-Men continued to fight and Tony finally got the results in from his intensive scan of the planet … and the ships nearest it.

"Hey guys, I know we already discussed our little friends not being here, but I did see something I'm not excited about on the scans," Tony said into his comm.

"Let me guess," Scott said, locking his jaw down tightly before he doled out a nasty blast that leveled a platoon of Shi'ar headed toward Charles and Lilandra. "Bigger forces than we're already dealing with. Not exactly a news flash, Stark."

"Nope," Tony said. "No, you're dealing with what they have here … this is something else."

"What now?" Charles asked in a tone that made it clear how not-amused he was.

"The Shi'ar have a bomb in place. Looks like its big enough to crack the planet in half. We gotta get our guys and get outta here."

"We're not leaving without Jubilee," Scott said firmly.

"No, we most certainly are not," Noh-Varr agreed with some heat - enough that Scott took the chance to glance over at him and get a show on how vicious this oe particular Kree could be. The very thought of leaving her had Noh all sorts of riled up.

"Good news on that front," Tony said. "I do have a bead on her."

"Tell me where she is and I will ensure that any Shi'ar blocking my path to her find themselves cursing their own piteous birthright as they meet their gods," Noh said, sounding more ferocious than they'd seen … still.

"You got it," Tony said before Scott could ask for the intel himself.

As much as they all knew Noh had a huge crush on Jubilee, he didn't know what kinds of traditions Noh's variety of Kree had - or what that might mean for Jubilee. Scott did not want to be the one to have to explain to Logan that Jubilee had been accidentally married off to a Kree warrior when he protected her virtue and rescued her from a warzone by some loophole of a Kree spoils of war scenario. "Stark!"

"Yeah, yeah - keep your shirt on and check your comm," Tony said. "I'm not sending him in alone - or at least … I'm not sending him in without someone that can play backup. Besides … she's coming our way. Fast."

"Damnit, Stark," Scott grumbled with a curse, rerouting himself to follow Noh and keep their crew from being captured or worse.

The battle of Hala was turning into a nightmare for anyone that wasn't in the air. The ground fight was rough - rougher for certain X-Men who were not so secretly used to having an intergalactic firebird as backup. But Scott was doing well. If for no other reason than he was not going to allow Charles to end up a casualty in a Shi'ar war over his romantic entanglements.

And it was getting tangled pretty badly.

Lilandra and Deathbird were in an epic battle and the men following Deathbird were going toe to toe with those that were with Lilandra - but much of that was being accented on both sides with cries of 'traitor' - more so when the Kree freedom fighters stepped in to Lilandra's aid. It was a small war in itself just with those two groups, but the Kree leadership that were alongside the Majestrix's forces were already half worn down and beaten from trying to evade Shi'ar slavedrivers. They weren't anywhere near the peak form the Shi'ar were, and it wasn't long before the tides of that battle were turning squarely against Lilandra.

Across the battlefield, Noh was rushing toward where Stark had directed him - saying he could find his Jubilee there in the worst of the battle. And he wasn't wrong. What Noh wasn't expecting, however, was that Jubilee was leading a massive battalion of freshly freed Kree fighters and slaves. All of them were ready to die for Hala, and all of them were emboldened by the little Terran with fire and explosions at her finger tips.

Jubilee herself had a cut just over one eye and a bruise blooming up in a dark purple across her cheek and several on her arms that matched hand prints from being dragged exactly. The rage Noh felt on seeing his Jubilee injured … was enough to tip him right into the white run he'd been trying to find for the whole battle. Anyone who might have touched her - anyone who made the rush for her in battle - they were all going down hard.

Not that Jubilee needed the backup yet. She was supercharged in space and something about the atmosphere on Hala seemed … more explosive than what Jubilee was accustomed to on Earth or near to it. Not that she was complaining. She'd been sure to load up on sugar before the fight, after all - and her hip pack had plenty of taffy and pixie sticks to fuel her sugar high while she was setting off sub atomic explosions to colorful, sparkling effect - effects which were blinding the Shi'ar and Kree alike who were foolish enough to look her way while she was detonating the matter in the Kree atmosphere closest to her.

Scott crested a hill on his way to help them right about the time that Jubilee seemed to find exactly the sequence she had been searching for … and one errant screaming hot pink sparkle replaced a yellow one, then shifted into two… then three … then five … eight … thirteen … spiraling in sequence into a curling waterfall of sparkles higher up above them that suddenly collapsed in on themselves, sucking the air and the soldiers toward her just before it exploded out. A shockwave hit the battle field with Jubilee at the center of it, flattening everything around her well beyond the kind of firepower the Kree slaves or even the Shi'ar soldiers had at their command. The reach was enough that Scott, still far across the field from her, was blown off his feet as well.

He was reasonably lucky though and had only gotten the wind knocked out of him where many of the Shi'ar around him had fallen on their swords or those of others … there were a great many injuries from them crashing into rocks or ships … grenades had gone off at their hips as well, and their energy guns had been rendered no more than blunt objects in the after effect of the blast. But Scott's shock at seeing the damage was eclipsed when he heard Jubilee's delighted whoop and giggle.

"I told you to keep your hands to yourself, you slimy scavengers!" Jubilee shouted, one hand on her hip and the lone lifeform on her feet in the center of the wreckage. Which was about when she seemed to realize the extent of the damage she'd done. "Woah." She hopped down from where she'd been standing above the level of the ground on part of a wrecked ship and tiptoed around a few downed soldiers, her arms tight to her body and her hands clenched under her chin. She just didn't know for sure which way she was supposed to go now. Direction really never had been her strong point.

"Jubilee!" Scott called out as he got to his feet, one arm raised to hail her.

"Ooh! There you are!" She jumped over the first Shi'ar in her way as they were all either knocked out, severely injured, or worse and started toward Scott. Though she paused when she saw Noh laid out just as solidly as the soldiers around him. "Um … I might need some help, oh, fearless one!"

Scott shook his head and started toward her - intent on moving quickly to get them both off the field of battle before they could wake up … even if their guns didn't work, Scott knew better than to discount Shi'ar fighters. Even if Noh thought they were horribly subpar. When the two of them met up by Noh, Jubilee wasn't bouncing on her feet quite as actively as a few minutes prior. "Nice work back there," Scott told her as he heaved Noh up in a fireman's carry. "Do you know how you did it?"

"Um … kind of?" Jubilee said, one eye closed as she fell into step with Scott, stepping over bodies as he directed them back toward their ship. "But I can't explain it right…."

"Right now."

"That's what I said!"

Scott shook his head, looking far ahead of them as they navigated the alien terrain. The area they were in was flattened, but there was still fighting in the direction they'd left as evidenced by the artillery fire they were hearing from Tony and the energy rifles trying hard to tag him. "You ready to get back to work?" Scott asked, and Jubilee replied with a solemn nod as she cracked her knuckles.

"It'll be easier if we get Noh involved too … can we try to wake him up before it's a rush to his ship? I don't know if it'll let us in without him being awake."

Scott set Noh down with a grunt, then straightened up and tried to stretch as he let Jubilee try to wake him up.

"Come on, Major Tom," Jubilee almost sang out as she gently tried to rouse him … and when that didn't work, she tried something a little more along the way she was raised and pinched the daylights out of his inner thigh … maybe a little close to delicate, precious tidbits - but it got Noh to wake up with a shout, startling backward as Jubilee toppled back from her crouch cackling at his reaction.

"Jubilee!" Noh said breathlessly, one hand over his heart as he stared at her while he gathered his senses. "I thought you were captive!"

"Well I was … until I rallied the Kree they had captive? Turns out they were willing to follow a terran that burned the retinas out of four Shi'ar guards at the same time." Jubilee grinned. "They so had it coming."

For just a moment, Noh simply stared at her in disbelief, then took a chance and stole a kiss that had Jubilee giggling all over again - and Scott quickly turning his back to hem. For a moment anyhow. When it was clear the young people were going to let things get away from them, Scott cleared his throat. "Guys. Kinda fighting a war here."

"They can't possibly withstand Jubilee," Noh said, grinning at her.

"Darn tootin'," Jubilee agreed, then dropped her sunglasses down onto the bridge of her nose. "So let's go get 'em."

"We'll send them running back to Chandiliar," Noh replied with a cocky smile before he started showing off with intricate flips and acrobatic flourishes that he absolutely had not been doing earlier.

Scott took just a moment to put a hand on Jubilee's shoulder when he saw the delighted grin on her face as she tried to run after him. "Jubilation … please. When we get your parents back, I would appreciate it if things weren't going to lead to us having to clean up a lot of interdimensional Kree blood."

She rolled her eyes. "Dude. Chillax. We are just … we're in a war, right? We're just doing our jobs and trying not to be too bored in the process."

"Don't get captured again."

"As if. That's totally not a thing, I hit my quota for this mission," Jubilee replied, then grinned brightly and turned in time to see that Noh had stopped to see if she'd been watching - if the way he was posing was any indicator.

And what he wasn't expecting was for Jubilee to launch into her own acrobatic gymnastic routine as she dove into the fight as well.

"Damn," Scott said under his breath as he started to run back to the fight. "It's like they're made for each other."

Natasha was bothered with what she wasn't finding in interrogation - and in going through the steel-lined suitcase she'd lifted from the intended Hydra hand-off. Nothing seemed out of place and the contents of the suitcase were so … innocuous that she couldn't figure out what the big deal was. At all.

She sent the contents to the lab where she knew some eager lab rats would dig hard to find something under Bobbi Morse's watchful eye. There was so much to be discovered after all … chemical analysis of everything there, radiation measuring, toxins, poisons … any number of means to hide intel … All of which Bobbi would be able to decipher.

Right about the time she was truly becoming frustrated with her spotless interrogations, though, Natasha found herself accompanied by a new partner … another red-head with a talent for finding what people refused to discuss or even think about.

Jean stepped into interrogation with Natasha dressed in a SHIELD uniform - or at least, the man being interrogated thought she was in a SHIELD uniform. It was a simple little act of deception intended to throw the man off, and Natasha was at the edge of beating the guy's head in. So, Jean figured that it might be better to dig around in his head before he did something to kill himself as captive Hydra agents often did.

She smiled tightly when she stepped in the room and handed Natasha a file that contained exactly nothing useful, then used the moment to dive into the Hydra agent's head seamlessly - even going so far as to make him think the two women were chatting and on the wrong track while she dug into his memories.

"They were going to use the controls on the Howletts … all of them."

"You mean both," Natasha said, but Jean turned her way with a distressed expression.

"We need to get to the school. Right now."

Natasha looked doubtful, but it wasn't more than a few moments later that the distress call came in from the school asking for help. After that, Jean had no use for the Hydra agent and she turned toward him with fire in her eyes as she pulled him back into reality. He blinked twice, then his eyes went wide as he realized who exactly Jean was with flames licking out around her hair and ghosting her fingertips. When she spoke, it was with a tritone that made the room reverberate.

"You will tell the nice SHIELD agent everything you know, everything you suspect, and then you will wait for me to return. You will not even consider harming yourself. Is that clear?" Jean said. The Hydra agent nodded numbly and Jean turned to leave with Natasha. "Stay close to me - I'm much faster than a jet."

"Alright, but you know that guy is going to crack his cyanide tooth, right?"

"It's just sugar water now," Jean said, then turned to look at Natasha. "I may have bent a few cosmic rules, but I don't want him to get off too easy."

"What happened?" Natasha asked, tired, but seamlessly switching to recon since she knew they were going in for something awful at the school.

"The school was hit. No one died, but several kids are missing. Including mine, Logan's, two of Tony's, and …" Jean paused, but knew she shouldn't hold back from Natasha. "They also took Lexi."

Natasha pursed her lips. "Okay. I'm just going to start killing people then."

"That's what I thought, too," Jean agreed, and as soon as they were on the flight deck, Jean pulled Natasha with her in a giant flaming firebird headed for Westchester.