SUMMARY: Trouble is brewing, in more ways than one.
RATING: R, Violence, and Language
DISCLAIMER: I'm feeling lazy, so just imagine one, please.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm still not 100% decided on how this is going to turn out, so your input counts. Ok, I'll stop wasting valuable space now.
"What?" She was dead serious, looking straight at him.
"What kind of problem?"
He turned his face away.
"Look he...He don't know whether or not he's right...but. From the looks of it I ain't stayin' this young forever."
"What?" The color drained from Jubilee's face. Her brain was buzzing. He couldn't be telling the truth. He must be lying to her.
"He said my body...It made me this young, but now it can't keep it up. But it can't just age me super fast either."
"Why not?"
"Why dontcha ask Hank?" He nearly yelled at her, then felt badly about it. His voice dropped.
"He said I've got a month. A month in a half at the least. An' then I'll start deterioratin'."
The image was so horrible to Jubilee her hands flew up to her mouth before she could stop herself.
"So he's figurin' out some machine that c'n help age me back to my normal self."
"He can't!"
"It's that or my life, darlin."
Jubilee swallowed hard. In the last twenty-four hours her life had been flip-flopped, turned upside down, and she could barely believe any of it was real. She shook her head, but she was all out of tears.
"Look, Jubes, I think we both need some time to think about this..."
"I need to get out," Was all she said, pushing past a protesting Logan, and into the surrounding woods.
* * *
Gambit had gone to get help. Or, at least Gambit tried to go get help. He straddled his motorcycle, started the ignition, and cursed when it died. Then he noticed the blinking FUEL light. He ducked back into the seedy bar, and fishing change out of his trench coat, dialed at the payphone in the back.
"Professor Xavier's School for the Gifted. Jean Grey speaking."
"Hello, chere."
"Remy? Hold on, let me get Rogue."
Gambit shook his head while Xavier's classical "hold" music played in his ear. First Rogue, now Jean. How did they do it? Did they read minds? Well...Maybe Jean.
"Hello? This is Rogue speakin'."
"Rogue, mon ami, you don' happen to know any'ting about my motorcycle bein' outta gas now, do you?"
There was an incriminating silence.
"Remy, now don't go blamin' this whole thing on me! I was low on gas this mornin' after ah had told you to fill up the tank yesterday. So I mighta taken some a yoahs. Are ya stuck, sugah?"
"You could say dat, chere. Mind if I ask where you be gettin' a gas siphon from?"
"Hey, hey Rogue! Is that the Cajun? Did he find out about the motorcycle?" Bobby's distinctive voice rang out in the background. Gambit ground his teeth.
"Never mind. I do need to tell de X-Men somet'ing very important, though. She plannin' to kidnap de june fille Jubilee."
"Who? What she?"
"Mystique."
"Oh mah god! Remy, where are you?"
He paused.
"1287 Off Broadway Blvd."
"Remy! What did ah tell you about hangin' out in that place? Ah..."
He could hear her huff of indignance over the phone.
"Fine. We're comin' ta get you."
* * *
Jubilee wandered the forest, stirring things around in her head. The day was a clear, cold February. She breathed in the clear air of the trees. Just then a shadow caught her eye. She stopped dead in her tracks and listened, looking around.
Getting paranoid, Jubes, she told herself.
She walked a few more feet, before she stopped. She'd heard it this time.
"Hello? Anybody home?"
Stillness and the rustling of leaves.
She moved closer to the sound, and again saw the shadow. Before she could scream, it leaped at her.
* * *
It was three O'clock when Jubilee got back from her walk. Logan was sitting with a beer by the television. Some stupid game show was on. Who really cared that much about winning a million dollars, anyway?
"Hey, Wolvie." She called. He lifted his eyes to her at this cheerful greeting. He smiled. If she had cheered up a little, he wasn't about to ruin it. She bounced over to him to sit beside him. That's when he smelled it. Instantly, his lip curled to bare his teeth in a vicious snarl.
"Myst--" Before he could get the words out, she threw herself on top of him and kissed him. He tossed her away yelling,
"Get off me, ya blue-skinned bitch!"
Emma Frost chose that time to walk by. She stopped for a moment and stared at them. At the expression of rage on Logan's face. At a seemingly frightened Jubilee sitting on the floor. She pointed to the beer on the table.
"Get rid of it before I come back."
The minute she had left the room, he grabbed her by the collar.
"Where is she?"
Jubilee's large eyes looked innocently up at him.
"Who, Wolvie?"
"Dammit, Raven, this is not the time to play games with me! Where is she? What'd you do with her?!"
"That's what I came here to tell you," She said, grinning Jubilee's smile, her eyes flashing. It was so disconcerting it made him blink.
"We have your precious little Jubilee."
"Who's we?"
"I'm sorry, Wolvie, I'm afraid I can't tell you that."
His claws were at her throat in an instant.
"You'll be a lot more afraid if you don't tell me."
She didn't even blink. Using one finger, she pushed the claws away.
"Uh-uh-uh. You hurt me..." She ran the finger across her throat. "And she dies. All I'm authorized to give you is the location."
There was nothing Wolverine wanted to do more right now than gut Mystique right then and there, but he wanted Jubilee's life even more. He didn't take his eyes of her, and he let his disgust show.
"It's a trap."
She ran her hands over his face and snaked them around his shoulders. He shuddered at her touch, half out of revulsion, while the other half tried to remember it wasn't really Jubilee.
"Of course it's a trap, Wolvie."
"Don't call me that!" He spat at her, then tried to calm himself down. She brought her lips to his ear. He bit his own lip hard enough to bleed. She dies, Jubilee dies, he reminded himself.
"The point is to see if you can get past it," she whispered, her breath tickling the hairs on the back of his neck. "Get off the freeway, go down K, take a left and they'll be a long stretch of road. Near the end of it you'll see--"
"A warehouse." He said, eyes dawning with knowledge. "I know where it is."
"Good," She hissed. "My job is done. See you later, Wolvie."
Mystique giggled and it was purely Jubilee. Then she walked out the door. Logan grabbed his jacket, and burst out after her. She was already gone. The motorcycle left dark tire marks as it roared away into the distance.
* * *
BING-BONG.
The doorbell rang.
BING-BONG
"I'm coming!" Paige yelled, putting down the Ben & Jerry's ice cream. She opened the door and stood there for a minute.
"Hey, guys."
All the X-Men stood assembled and in uniform-- Phoenix, Cyclops, Gambit, Rogue, Storm, and the Professor.
"Is Jubilee dere?" Gambit asked, stepping to the front. Paige realized at that moment her hair looked really bad. And it was too late to fix it.
"No, she left a little while ago," She said. "Why?"
He ignored the question. All of them looked so...serious.
"Something wrong?" She was beginning to get concerned.
"Is Logan dere?"
"No...He took off a minute ago. And I do mean took off. That guy was pullin' outta here like all the hounds of hell were on 'em. I heard it all the way from the kitchen."
"Dammit!" Gambit swore so fervently that Paige dropped the ice cream spoon.
"It ain't yoah fault, sugah," Rogue said, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"It's no one's fault," Scott said, "But if we're going to find them at all we've got to hurry. Thank you for the information, Ms.Guthrie."
The door was slammed in her face.
* * *
Despite his taste for danger, he didn't think he'd ever driven this fast before. The wind was ripping at his face, tearing up his eyes, and the lights, red, yellow, and green alike, were a blur. He had to get to her. Get to her before they could do anything to her. Before...
Jubilee, Jubilee, Jubilee,
He took a sharp corner and the tires squealed. His acute hearing caught phrases of.
"--You crazy---drivers that---so fast----stay on yer own--" But he wasn't even listening. At last he realized he was on the stretch of road. He was geared up for a fight, as the warehouse loomed in the distance. He slammed on the brakes, nearly flipping the cycle, didn't even bother with the kickstand, and sprinted.
* * *
"Ain't there any way we can hurry this up, Scott?" Rogue was leaning anxiously over Scott's shoulder. They were in the blackbird, and he was piloting. Jean was on the other side.
"I told you, Rogue, it isn't a matter of speed. It's a matter of not knowing where he is."
"Isn't the professor using Cerebro?" Storm asked.
"He is," Jean answered. "But so far he can't get a clear fix. I'm scanning, too," She added.
"Scott, if the radar picked him up, wouldn't show up as a little yellow dot?" Rogue asked.
"Yes, it would."
Rogue pointed to the radar screen. Scott took one look at the flashing point, then cleared his throat.
"Uh…ahem…It appears we have found Logan."
"How can ya be such a dumbass?" Rogue yelled, uncharacteristically and unexpectedly. She covered her mouth.
"Ahm so sorry, Scott. It's just that ah feel sorta responsible for this, stealin' Remy's gas so he couldn't get here sooner an' all."
"No offense taken," Scott said, his face unreadable under ruby quartz.
"Chere, all is forgiven. Come to Remy," Gambit said soothingly. Rogue, if anything, looked more enraged.
"Can't you do anythin' right!" She yelled at him, then left to talk with Storm in the back of the plane.
The blackbird swooped, turned 90 degrees, and headed towards the coordinates, where Logan was a blinking light on a map.
Remy shook his head. He would never understand women.
* * *
The door was barred. He didn't even pause. Still using his speed, he lowered his shoulder and rammed it. He felt the door, and his humorous, splinter. He paused a split second to let the bone knit, then charged inside.
"Get out here an show yourselves, ya--"
He let out a long, unrepeatable sentence. He didn't have to wait long.
With a yell, a wave of uniformly camouflaged men jumped over the broken crates and ran at him. He growled, his claws shooting out.
She wasn't kidding when she'd said it was a trap.
They were armed, but before they had a chance to fire he took out the first wave with a long left-handed hook. It opened the man in front of him open, so that he spilled open like a sack of meat. At the sharp, coppery scent of blood, he felt the red behind his eyes begin to show. He took out the next three men, taking a slug in the chest and shoulder. He ran his claws through the man's stomach, not even giving him a chance to scream. He threw his head back and howled, scaring the third enough that he dropped the gun and ran. But as soon as the initial attack was over, more appeared.
Where the hell're they all coming from?
He didn't have time to answer his own question. He was so busy taking out the men in front of him that he neglected to look behind until he felt something reach around his neck and snap. He growled and whipped around, but the genoshan collar was already on. He felt a hard blow to the back of his head, and was down before he could strike.