Author's Note:

Hello! If you've been following this story for sometime, first I'd like to thank you. And then, IMMEDIATELY apologize.

The last time I updated this bit it was some time ago. Like all of you, I've come to love a story on here that's half finished, or gets on so well that you harbor some resentment when it's left unfinished. I'm trying NOT to be that person, so I appreciate your patience. At the same time I'll understand if you never come back to this again. I'll keep at it, and again like any other author on here, it'll be intermittent as life comes at us.

Thanks for the big love everyone's shared so far. If you can't tell, I love these characters, and I love these girls. So if you're still here reading this, again, thank you. I hope you keep enjoying this.

Jubilee had to give herself some credit - the girl looked like absolute shit. The entire right side of Boom Boom's face was black and bruised, and the swelling from the hematoma from her cheek bone to her temple had mostly gone down. Her eye, sporting a broken blood vessel that had consumed all the white around the iris, still glittered with malice.

She made a note to make sure she hit her harder.

The next few seconds were chaos.

There were flashes of light, heat, the sound of small explosives going off, shouting, and bodies slamming into each other. To Jubilee's surprise, it was Marie who threw the first punch. The crunch she heard was Boom Boom's nose breaking, who dropped the handful of the glowing, marble sized orbs that earned her that stupid code name.

The explosive power of each one was minimal, from what Jubilee had seen, but in a batch?

She had been thrown backward, expecting to crash into Kitty - who only phased through it, and charged Boom Boom next. The two went sprawling along the walkway, a tangle of limbs. Marie dived after them, and Jubilee was left staring in awe.

She supposed this is what men imagined when they hear the words "mud wrestling" when women are involved. It's like they all forgot their training, pulling and twisting and blindly striking at each other. Jubilee should have probably let them have at it - Marie was owed far more than any of them, really - but she could already feel the bone-splintering cold of Professor Ororo's glare and leapt to her feet.

Marie was easy to rip away, Jubilee expertly catching a cocked-back fist and twisting it behind the girl's back, forcing her up. It was even easier to break the attacking stance she took to counter the hold, Jubilee positioning herself between her friend and the other two.

"Enough," Jubilee growled, deflecting Marie's attempt to shove her off. The girl was too angry.

"She doesn't deserve -"

"I know what she doesn't deserve," Jubilee snapped, her tone so cold it stopped Marie dead in her tracks. "This isn't the time or place to do this. Protect each other," Jubilee raised a finger to Marie's face, who scowled so deeply it looked like she wanted to cut the hand from her friend's wrist. "Who said that? I'm pretty sure we were both there for that."

They held each other's glares for a moment longer before she turned away.

Kitty had more of her bearings than Marie, because she had Boom Boom straddled in a dominant Jiu-Jitsu pin. This was problematic for Jubilee, who knew this pin only got tighter if you didn't pull the right way.

She reached for Kitty's shoulder.

And phased through it.

"Oh you bitch," Jubilee growled, "You let her go right now! Come on! I can't do shit if you do that!"

"Get off of me you crazy -"

Kitty cut off Boom Boom with an open handed slap that made Jubilee cry out in horror.

She jumped at Kitty, who couldn't phase her entire body without losing her hold on Boom Boom, and managed to wedge her away from the flailing girl. There was a moment where she wasn't sure if she could actually keep them apart, but strong, gloved hands reached down and plucked Kitty up.

"Ow! Owowowowow - "

"Did you know that Colosus can bench press 600lb without a spotter?"

Kitty froze, hearing the blatant threat in Marie's honey smooth voice.

Jubilee managed to jump to her feet at the same time as Boom Boom, who lashed out with a kick she easily blocked.

"Stop - "

"You fucking freaks - "

Jubilee had no more patience. The blow she delivered against Boom Boom's blind jab caused the girl to stumble back with a strangled shout, cradling her shoulder. Good. Logan's boxing lessons were actually paying off.

"Rats, huh?" She growled, unable to hide her disgust. "I guess you just want to rack up trips to the infirmary, talking all that shit."

"Fuck you - "

"Let me guess," Jubilee sighed, trying to expel the hot air in her chest, "They dumped you in here with us and the first thing you did was go underground to wait it out. Weird. Could've sworn that's what rats do."

"That's not - "

"Calling a spade a spade, sweetheart," Marie snarled from behind.

"You know I hate this place," Jubilee pushed back at the stinking wet hair hanging in her eyes. "How is it that I'm treated as a child but expected to perform and make decisions in stressful situations as if I were an adult? Who said anything about me joining a team of soldiers? I just want hot food and a roof over my head. But no. It feels like we're in the Hunger Games right now. But I don't think we were placed here to actually kill each other. Throw some insults? Sure, I guess, but that's a waste of time. I want to get out of here. I'll take Ororo's stupid papers on the deconstruction of Tibetan religion in China over THIS. Don't you want to get out of here? Don't you want to keep the shape of your ugly face?"

Boom Boom managed to straighten up, and Jubilee could feel the piercing glare in the dark. Blue eyes glittered at her. "I am not ugly."

"That's a matter of debate I guess."

"I wasn't hiding, I was navigating undetected - which you idiots clearly didn't think of while you ran around topside like tourists."

Kitty gave an ugly cackle, "Who does she think she sounds like, 'I was navigating UNDETECTED-'"

"Wait," Marie had moved just behind Jubilee, "Tourists? How many times have they put you through this exercise?"

Boom Boom squared her shoulders, chin up. "Enough times to know my way around."

Kitty scoffed, still a ways behind the other two girls. "Enough times? You mean you failed this exercise badly enough they won't let you advance."

Boom Boom recoiled, "Big talk from the same bitch who has to train extra and brown nose her way to a team leader sleeve, huh?"

Jubilee could practically feel Kitty swell in rage behind her, and heard Marie hiss a warning to the girl.

"How many times?"

"What?"

"How many times have you done this?"

Boom Boom regarded Jubilee with a steady gaze. "Twelve."

Kitty stifled a groan. Jubilee ignored it, and the dread that sat in the pit of her stomach.

"What's the point of this? How do we get out?"

"It's different each time. A safe zone to reach. A sentinel to take down. A base to protect," Boom Boom shrugged, "Sometimes we have to take each other out."

Jubilee shook her head, "And how do you know what the goal is?"

"You're supposed to figure it out."

The three girls exclaimed in variations of grief.

"If she has that arm band on, that means she's team leader," Boom Boom jabbed a finger at Kitty. "That means all decisions are supposed to come down to her."

Jubilee glanced back at Kitty, "Is that true?"

The girl seemed to balk, "Well...it's what they talk about in class."

"Where's your team leader?" Marie's voice was carefully neutral and low.

It was Boom Boom's turn to falter. "I've been alone since I woke up."

"How long have you been awake?"

"Maybe 12 hours?"

Another round of exasperated sighs and moans escaped the girls.

"What if I have to pee."

"What if I have to eat."

"What if we die, how about that."

"How? Because they let us kill each other out of spite?"

"Stop."

Everyone's eyes shifted to Jubilee.

She turned to Kitty, "I know you're supposed to make decisions, but like, I want to get out of here really bad and I want to propose an idea."

Eyes shifted to Kitty, who seemed to shrink under their stares. She huffed, hands on her hips. "I'm open to options."

"So we make Boom Boom come with -" She ignored the simultaneous eruptions of protests from both Marie and Boom Boom, "Try and find an exit."

Kitty narrowed her eyes, "Use Boom Boom's prior knowledge. Okay, but what if there isn't a way out?"

They turned to Boom Boom, who shrugged, "I've never actually EXITED this place. There was always some kind of mission or goal."

"So there's no exit," Marie's tone was one that Jubilee recognized. Leave her, Marie said, cut our losses and look out for only each other.

"Then we make one," Jubilee pressed. "We find a crack in the boundaries and blast or punch or phase or what the fuck ever, out of here. The four strongest students are standing right here."

"We've never trained together," Kitty countered.

"Welp, better now than never."

"We also don't know our own limits," Marie chimed in. Her gaze was hard, "We also don't know each other's."

Jubilee inwardly winced at the low blow, but it was a valid point. "If we don't try, we fail. And I do not want to know what that looks like."

Silence fell between them. It seemed like they were each doing their own sort of calculating.

"Let's do it." Kitty finally had all of her bearings, taking a step forward. She leveled a cool and composed mask at each of them. "We team up. Find a way out. Put aside our differences, and come together - "

"Yeah, okay, got it, follow me."

Boom Boom surged past the girls, stalking back from the way which they came. Kitty let go of a snarl, and Jubilee put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

Marie sighed, "You'll have another chance to inspire us with your words."

It was mostly the sound of running water and the clipping of their boots striking pavement that filled the quiet that settled in the group. Boom Boom moved with the confidence of someone who knew those sewers well, never pausing, just moving and taking each turn without a glance around the corner, holding a handful of her glowing orbs. Marie followed close behind, fists clenched tightly at her sides. Kitty huffed just behind Marie, and Jubilee took up the end, holding her own small light, burning on the end of her index finger.

"Why are you on my ass?" Boom Boom growled back at Marie. She wasn't out of pocket - Marie was literally on her heels.

"I have a question I've been meaning to ask you," Marie replied, but the drawl in her words made Jubilee tense.

"Maybe we can get to know each other when we don't smell like shit," Jubilee cast an edge to her own words.

They rounded another corner, and Jubilee found herself having to pick up her pace by a half step. Boom Boom's light was either getting dimmer, or she was moving faster ahead.

Marie pressed, "As someone who takes time out of their day to bully her peers -"

"Marie -" Jubilee sprinted forward, shouldering past Kitty.

"What's your stance on the anti-human movement led by Erik Lehnsherr?"

They came to a sudden halt, Jubilee almost losing her footing on the wet walkway.

Boom Boom rounded on Marie, her face twisted in anger, "What are you asking me, rat?"

Marie didn't falter, "Add it up, Tabitha."

Jubilee started as Kitty walked through her and Marie, placing herself between the girl and Boom Boom.

"Save it for after we get out," Kitty growled.

"I don't trust her," Marie snapped.

"Back off," Boom Boom spat.

"Marie," Kitty begged, "We can't do this right now."

"You deserve more than what you got from Jubilee," Marie snarled, "And not just for what you said about her parents -"

"Marie -"

"Not just for the burns you left on Kitty -"

"MARIE -"

"And not just for the things you have said and done to me since I first got here -"

"Go on then," Boom Boom leered, "Quit talking and do what you do best," her voice dropped an octave, "Go on you black dike, steal my powers like you and your kind steal everything else -"

Jubilee had never thought to ask who else Marie had ever come into contact with, skin to skin. Marie never talked about it, and other than seeing her own power reflected in her - and those insane lifts she pulled off, courtesy of the Russian Bull himself, Colossus - Jubilee thought anything else had drained itself away.

This was the moment Jubilee realized why Magma was never in the same room as Marie.

The stench of sulfur filled her nose, and she shouted for Kitty, who was already moving, shoving Marie into the stream of the sewer. It was like throwing a sizzling pan into a sink of cold water. Scalding hot steam hit her skin, burning her eyes, but Jubilee was ready, her hands lashing out and catching Boom Boom by the shoulders and slamming her into the wall. She took a blind jab to the ribs, snatching up each of the girl's wrists.

It was easy to break her stance and thrust Boom Boom's hands against her own chest, pinning her to the wall. Behind Jubilee, Marie roared. She looked back to see Kitty had managed a standing arm bar on the girl, using her smaller size to mount Marie's shoulders and lock an arm straight up, pulling it back sharply.

"I will phase us so deep into the ground you will not have enough of anyone's power to get out, do you understand?"

Marie yelped, swatting at Kitty's leg hooked around her neck with her free hand.

"You crazy bitch! You stupid ni -"

Jubilee pressed her face so close to Boom Boom's that the girl fell silent, "You've just be learning all kinds of fun things to call people, huh?"

"Get OFF of -"

She tightened her grip on Boom Boom until the girl cried out, "I will acknowledge my friend's lapse in judgement, but you say another disgusting thing I will GLADLY tell Kitty to let Marie finish what she started."

Boom Boom glared, "You think you're so fucking good, you think you're better than the rest of us, you think you can really take ME?"

Jubilee shoved herself off of Boom Boom, "You can exit anytime you want, dude. You hate it here with us? No one is making you stay. But if this is supposed to work, you keep that shit in check and we'll keep our shit in check. Right, guys?"

"No problem," Kitty gasped.

Marie scowled at Jubilee in a way that tore at the thread between them. She hated it, but this just couldn't happen right now.

"I'm tired of the back and forth, dude, I smell like shit, my roommates smell like shit, and you want to stand there, smelling like shit, worrying about who's the best. Do you even actually know how to get out of here?"

"Fuck you," Jubilee rolled her eyes as Boom Boom jabbed a finger at her, "Fuck you," that finger moved to Kitty, "And fuck YOU."

A shout of objection erupted from Kitty as Marie struggled against her, "Jubilation, I cannot keep this up."

"What's it gonna be, Tabitha?"

"We're done here."

Jubilee bit back an objection, swallowing down anger as she watched Boom Boom stalk around the corner. She turned to Marie, who was glaring daggers up at her, Kitty somehow still keeping her in check, but a tremor of exhaustion was there in her ragged breaths.

"Are you going to chase her if Kitty lets go?"

Marie remained silent.

"What was that, anyway?" Jubilee pushed wet hair out of her face. "Now your standing waist deep in sewage like COME ON DAMMIT."

Kitty gasped, "Get to the part where we're all friends again, and make it quick, Jubilee."

Jubilee chewed on the inside of her cheek, glaring back at Marie. "If you chase after her, we're not backing you up. Professor Ororo made it clear that we can't go looking for fights, and I don't know how many times I have to say this but I am fucking tired, dude."

"That makes two of us," Kitty grunted.

"You know what, let her go."

Kitty didn't need to be told twice, dismounting with practiced ease, sliding into the water slowly as she released Marie.

They watched Marie roll her shoulder, wary of the fist her fingers curled into. "Next time - and I assure you, Jubilation, there will be a next time - neither of you better lift so much as a finger to stop me."

Kitty scoffed, "As if you could take us both."

"I'm pretty sure she can," Jubilee corrected. She shook her head, "It's not worth it, Marie."

"Easy coming from someone who already threw her punches."

Jubilee scowled, "I did that for YOU - I couldn't give a damn about her or what she does - "

"That's your problem, Jubilation." Marie's tone had become so cold that even Kitty was quick to distance herself further from her. "Nothing bothers you until it's right in your face. It can be a problem for everyone else but if it's not a problem for you, why should you care? I have EVERY right to confront her. I have endured her GARBAGE for MUCH LONGER than both of you. I don't care that we're in the middle of an exercise - she doesn't make it out on two legs if she crosses my path again."

Jubilee had no reply. She watched Marie climb back onto the platform with resignation, moving only to lend Kitty a hand as she pulled herself out of the sewage.

"What's the plan?" Kitty asked the obvious question. "We have no guide. We have no idea what the objective is. We have no visibility of our threat -"

"Please, Kitty, continue to list all of our immediate problems," Jubilee sighed. They stood there, separate from each other in silence.

She didn't see any of them getting out of this successfully. Not like this. Jubilee turned to Marie.

"I'm sorry."

Marie had her back to them, arms folded over her chest.

"You're right. Boom Boom deserves whatever she has coming to her. And you have the right to confront her about what she's done to you. And yes, I'm selfish and I struggle with managing my relationships. Because I'm scared of letting people in close and if that's not obvious to either of you, well now I've spelled it out."

Kitty huffed behind her, "Are we just airing out our shit in the dark right now?"

Jubilee turned to her, "Might as well dude, because we're not going anywhere like this."

"I'm sorry."

Kitty's jaw dropped, and Jubilee turned slowly to find Marie facing them. There were no tears in her eyes, but her hands were balled into tight fists at her sides.

"I know you're both just trying to look out for me, and I'm not used to people doing that. Also, Kitty, if you pull that arm bar shit again, I will make sure you regret it."

Jubilee and Kitty nodded in unison.

A beat passed.

"Well," Kitty pressed her hands against her messy hair, clearing her throat. "I don't have anything to apologize for so -"

"Dude, seriously?"

" - SO I will take this moment INSTEAD to share gratitude - "

"Really, Kitty?"

" - GRATITUDE for being placed on a team with the two of you. There, I said it. I'm happy to have both of you watching my back."

Marie and Jubilee just stared at her.

"Okay," Jubilee clapped once, "We'll revisit this later, hopefully after we've found a way out of here, or maybe never and we just scrub this part from our memory and carry on like nothing happened."

The girls were coming to terms with their situation. Kitty was right. They had no guide, no objective, and no idea what to do next.

"At this rate, Boom Boom has put a lot of distance between her and us. She could even be topside," Kitty offered. "We could try to find the next exit and get our bearings on the street."

Marie shook her head, "I don't trust myself to hold back if we run into her again. I'd rather we keep to the original plan - find the edge, blast our way out."

"We could just find that sentinel and have Kitty put it into a sick arm bar - " Jubilee started, wincing when her shoulder took a hard slap.

"Serious planning only," Kitty growled.

Marie paused, "Speaking of, who even taught you how to do that? I thought you were going to snap off my arm."

Kitty sputtered, "Uh…well…Logan of course."

"Liar," Jubilee and Marie chorused.

"What - what do you mean? Who else knows how to fight like that?"

"You've been doing all of these private lessons, and we know Logan doesn't spare extra time for anyone," Jubilee pressed.

Marie joined in, "Do tell, Kitty. We'd like to learn that too - who's your tutor?"

"Guys, I don't think this is a good time -"

"What do you say, Jubilee? She'll tell us now or keep thinking about it until she blurts it out at some other inopportune time?"

Jubilee appraised Kitty in mock disgust, "I wouldn't go that far, she'll be begging to tell us everything if we drop it now."

"Okay, okay!" Kitty was near frantic, and Jubilee couldn't help feel something warm and tender for the girl who was becoming less and less insufferable.

"I just - I need you guys to keep it a secret, okay?"

"Okay," Marie and Jubilee replied.

"Piotr."

The two girls only stared at Kitty.

"Peter?"

The two girls exchanged blank expressions.

Kitty threw up her hands in disbelief. "Do you guys seriously not know Colossus by any other name?"

"Dude, WHAT?"

"You know Colossus! He's Russian and turns into steel and - "

"Katherine, we know who Colossus is!"

"And we're dating."

Both Jubilee and Marie froze in shock.

Kitty couldn't look at them, back turned and her arms folded over her chest. For a moment, all that could be heard was the soft splash of sewage water in the corridor. It was the snickering that spun Kitty back around.

"Are you…are you two LAUGHING?"

The cackle that burst from Jubilee echoed off the grimy walls. "We didn't think you were so funny!"

"What - "

"Oh sweet heart," Marie's giggles left her almost breathless, "If you didn't want to tell us, you didn't have to, I'm so…I'm so sorry!"

Kitty stomped her foot on the ground, hands balled into little fists at her sides, "I'm not JOKING -"

"Oh, look at her selling it!"

Marie and Jubilee clung to each other, shaking with laughter. Kitty growled, barging through them and stalking away. The girls staggered after her, gasping and struggling to suppress more giggles.

"Where - where are you going?" Jubilee choked out, dragging Marie alongside her.

"I figure we can just keep going in the direction Boom Boom was taking us and see how far we get."

"Don't be maaaaaaaaad," Jubilee crooned, still laughing. "You keep stomping around like that you'll bring the Morlocks."

"Morlocks aren't real," Kitty snapped, not bothering to look back at them.

"Wanna guess what else isn't real?" Jubilee sputtered into a fit again, Marie falling after her.

Kitty shook her head, mumbling to herself as she took another corner.

"Seriously, slow down," Jubilee called, "We don't want to have to go looking for you and split up like in some dumb horror movie and get separated - "

"What did you say?"

Marie and Jubilee let out pitched shouts as Kitty nearly collided into them from around the corner.

"Katherine, do not ever do that again," Marie snarled, the humor gone from her.

It was Kitty's turn to utter a laugh, slapping a hand onto each of their shoulders. "I can't believe we didn't realize it earlier!"

Jubilee frowned, "Okay, realize what?"

The hand on her shoulder moved to Jubilee's face, pinching a cheek and making her growl, "The mission! The goal of the exercise!"

"Waiting," Marie drawled, brushing off Kitty's hand on her own shoulder.

"Finding each other," Kitty was talking fast now, walking away from them again. The two girls started after her. "It's just dumb luck we found each other, but considering how we blindly ran into Boom Boom, I think everyone who's in the exercise is just scattered all over. If we can clear the whole map -"

Jubilee had finally caught up to Kitty, snatching her by the arm. "Whole map? Scattered? Dude, what are you even saying? That we comb through every building in this place WHILE dodging sentinels and Morlocks?"

Kitty sighed, "Jubilee, Morlocks are NOT real."

"I think our captain is onto something," Marie chimed in.

Jubilee rubbed her forehead, "Okay, so let's assume that's the point of all of this. I'm not fond of splitting up, but this place is too big to go as a group so -"

"Let's improvise," Marie offered, "I can try to find them."

Kitty narrowed her brown eyes, "I thought we weren't splitting up."

Marie's mouth worked against a frown, "Don't be dense, Kitty." She tapped her temple, "Courtesy of Jean Grey."

Jubilee nodded, "Okay, so how does this work? You cast a net or page them like a kid lost in Walmart or what?"

They watched Marie lower herself to a sitting position on the platform, folding her legs into a loose lotus, hands resting on her knees. "Jean uses it like a muscle. It's just about flexing it. I think I can at least determine how many others are out there, and find the ones closest to us."

Jubilee and Kitty just stared at her. While they'd witnessed Marie call on a short list of abilities, it was too rare for them to see this kind of calculated composure regarding her power. Beneath her constant anxiety, Marie was always assessing what seemed like a massive collection of mutants she'd touched. Neither had no way of knowing how many. It was possible Marie didn't know either.

They waited, Kitty settled in a crouch facing away, taking a kind of watch. Jubilee watched her finger the blue band around her bicep with mild curiosity as she sat herself next to Marie, who held out a hand. It was easy to slide her own hand into it, as she had many a time. She would walk in on Marie sat on the floor of their dorm room, burning a stick a of Jubilee's incense, meditating. Jubilee never cared for the practice, it was just impossible to sit still. She gave Marie's hand a gentle squeeze, and the girl replied in kind.

"I can…I can feel them?" Marie murmured, her fingers loosening around Jubilee's hand. They suddenly tightened and Marie went rigid, sitting up. "Six," her tone had also changed, almost strained. Her eyes moved back and forth behind closed lids, and she began talking fast, "Canon Ball, Sun Spot, Magma, Boom Boom, Cypher, Elixer."

"I'm sorry, are those people or Pokémon because - "

"Marie, who's the closest?" Kitty was standing now.

A pause. "Cypher."

"I honestly was hoping for the Cuckoos because that's literally three birds, one stone - "

"Who's after Cypher?" Kitty continued to ignore Jubilee.

"Sun Spot."

"And the rest?"

Marie's eyes opened, "They're fighting something BIG."

Kitty nodded, "Alright, let's get back on the street."

Jubilee shot to her feet, pulling up Marie with her. "Fantastic. I love parties."