Disclaimer: Peter Lee is mine

Disclaimer: Peter Lee is mine...everyone else belongs to Marvel.

A/N: Um..sorry about this taking so long. My muses refused to show up and then I heard that they had taken a vacation (and in the summer too!). My beta reader hasn't had a chance to read this so please excuse all of the inevitable spelling and grammer mistakes you're sure to find. PG-13 for language.

Return of the Dragon

3

Time: Three weeks after Peter Lee's departure

"MAIL CALL!" Sean's voice boomed through the school, sending the team running into a sliding, colliding halt in the front room foyer. Monet had flown in, calmly making her way to Sean when Angelo had hit her from the back and sent the both of them flying on the newly waxed floors. Covered in flour, stirring a bowl of dough and looking slightly distracted, Paige had walked in, tripped over Angelo's arm and sent a wad of cake batter towards Sean who had ducked, managing to hit the wall in spectacular explosion. Not to be outdone Jono had strolled up from the basement, carefully stepped over the limbs and various appendages, when he tripped over his shoelaces.

From the top of the stairs Emma watched in utter amazement as her team disintegrated into...her mind fumbled for an appropriate word coming up only with some demented mutant cosmic joke.

"Ahem...uh...we got a couple of letter for ye M, some catalogues fer Paige, sample, sample, sample, bill, bill, bill, and the box is fer all of us. It's from Jubilee." Sean held up the large box and shook it, interesting rattles coming from the inside. "Let's take it to the living room and open it."

The team managed to right itself and mutely follow Sean into the room, a trail of batter marking their progress. Emma sighed, and sat down next to Sean. The box was quickly opened, brown paper scattering across the room, and the individually wrapped parcels were tossed to their perspective owners. Everyone around the room began tearing open their gifts, Paige was busy modeling a colorful sarong that Jubilee had included with a bright, African print, purple bikini , the others were exclaiming over their gifts while Angelo snuck out of the room. His gift was fairly thin, and once he was alone on the porch, he opened it to reveal a deadly looking dagger and sheath. "Dios!" Angelo whistled softly as he thumbed the blade. Resheathing the blade, he tore open the letter that had been tucked in.

Dear Ange,

You guys should come and visit. I miss you.

=)

Jubilee

Frowning, Angelo reread the letter several times. Jubilee's letter sounded...strange. Slipping the knife in his belt, he walked back into the living room where everyone was comparing gifts. Monet looked up from her beaded necklaces as he came in.

"What did you get?"

Angelo absently held up the dagger, as he walked over to Emma and handed her the letter. "I need you read this."

Emma took the paper and quickly scanned it. She glanced at him curiously. "I don't see anything wrong with this, it seems like she's just a little homesick. How about we go and visit her for a few weeks?" Pulling out her cell-phone, Emma quickly dialed up Jubilee's home. After talking quietly for a few seconds, she hung up angrily. Standing up, Emma held up her hand for silence. "Alright everyone, settle down. I just talked to a Jessica, her tutor or so she says and she claimed that Jubilee was in the shower and that I could get a hold of her later. I couldn't tell much at this distance but I do know that she was lying. How does everyone feel like a quick trip to Africa?"

-in-

-A week earlier-

Jubilee breathed hard, her nostrils flaring as she sat in the cold, dark corner between tall stacks of boxes. In her hands she clutched a khaki pack-back that was filled with everything she could get her hands on in the precious few minutes that Jessica had been distracted by shooting on the grounds. With a calm born of panic, Jubilee had quickly packed and ran for the docks she saw from her window day after day. Getting onto the ship had been easy after all her years with Wolverine, and she crouched in a damp wedge in the hold, praying to any god that Angelo had gotten her message.

Her back was against the cold metal of the hull, and she could hear the waves lapping at the ship. Since her uncle's disappearance three weeks ago, she had received letters from him on a regular basis. On the second week, the letters had dried up. By the end of the second week, Jubilee was ready to go look for him, but had been stopped again and again by Jessica, who had turned from cool adult, to obsessive jail keeper monitoring everything that Jubilee did to listening in on conversations she had on the phone with Paige. Finally, a week and a half after Peter's last letter, Jubilee had managed to escape and board a ship that was headed for Central America.

Tying back her hair, Jubilee dumped the contents of her bag out onto floor in front of her. Sighing, she assessed the items unhappily; three bottles of water, granola bars, beef jerky, three hundred dollars, her cell phone (which wasn't working of course), the communications device that Emma had given her (also inoperable), a blanket and a Swiss army knife that she had found in her uncle's old stuff while she had been exploring the attic on a rainy afternoon. Stuffing everything back in the bag, she climbed to the top of one of the stacks of boxes and curled up under the blanket, lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking of the boat.

-in-

-the present-

"Dammit!" Emma flung off the helmet angrily. "Jessica may or may not be a mutant but she has her shields up so tight that I can't get any information out of her. Jubilee has always been under the radar. Sean do you have any ideas?"

The team had come to the mansion in hopes of finding help, but had found it empty. Instead Emma had donned on Cerebro in hopes of finding out more about what was going on with Jubilee and getting nowhere. The rest of the team were killing time while sitting around the control room hopefully waiting for word on where Jubilee could be found.

Monet sucked on her lollipop thoughtfully. "Does anyone else think that we're making way too big a deal out of this?"

Paige shook her head. "Think back on every single time Jubilee has been in trouble. If something's weird then it most likely means that there's trouble."

"She doesn't get into trouble all the time."

"Do you remember the last time we went shopping in town and left her and Emma alone? Do you remember what we came back to?"

Monet's eyes clouded as she recalled the 'Pancake Incident' as it was now being called, and then shook her head. "That was just because they were cooking it had nothing to do with...."

*Okay, remember when we were on the road trip to the Grand Canyon for the history thing and Jubilee made us stop at that roadside rest area for some candy? I ruined a perfectly good pair of leather pants that day."

"It wasn't her fault that it was a home for that alien creature."

"M," Angelo looked at her. "But it was Jubes that had us stop there."

It takes a wise person to know when they're beaten and M realized that she had a million of Jubilee related incidents against her. "Fine, lets go save her."

Exactly four minutes later Emma and Sean heard the Blackbird fly out of the hangar.

-in-

"Emma is going to be so pissed." Paige expertly worked the controls for the flyer, as she glanced back at Angelo who was looking through the lockers for stuff they would need.

"Just be glad that you don't telepathy, she's screaming in my ear right now for us to turn around and come home this instant." The plane veered to the right as Monet set the coordinates for Durban.

Jono winced. *Ow...damn, the gel is not happy people. Ange you better have a damn good reason for us bailing on Frost.*

Angelo looked up incredulously from the trunk he was pawing through. "Who's bright idea was it to just hand Jubes over to that man?"

*Emma.*

"Who said that we owed Jubilee the chance to have a real family?"

*Emma.*

"Emma and Sean practically threw her to the sharks without a thought. If they come they're not going to be any help."

"Yeah, I guess but what about Jubes how are we going to find her?"

Angelo shrugged, not deterred by mere facts. "We find Jubes first, save her from the evil clutches of her diabolical uncle who is keeping her locked up in the basement, starving her and making her watch old Julie Andrews movies..." he trailed off as everyone turned to stare at him. "What? We have no idea what that man is capable of!"

*Yeah mate. That's why a little old man comes after forty years in the jungle to find his long lost grandniece- to torture her* Jono rolled his eyes at his best friend. *Give me the letter she sent you.*

Reluctantly handing over the letter Angelo went to stand behind Monet as winds began to buffet the plane. Jono regarded the legal sized page for a moment before pulling out his lighter and flicking it open. He turned to his friends as he started a flame. "We all claim Jubilee isn't the brightest of our bunch but why would she use a perfectly good piece of paper for a total of two lines?*

"Three." A sullen mutter came from the front of the plane.

*Whatever. I think that she might have left us a message besides the one in ink.* With steady hands, Jono ran the flame lightly under the paper and within seconds words began to darken on the page. *Voila! You can all thank me later in records and cash.* Jono smirked as they rushed to see the paper.

"Wow, how did you know?"

Jono ducked his head and mumbled something. *wnmwahsweesee*

Paige frowned and leaned closer. "Huh?"

*I saw it on a episode of Sesame Street okay?"

"Yeah but how did you know that Jubes..."

Throwing up his hands in disgust Jono buried his head in his arms. *Because Jubes was there too okay. We watched Sesame Street and saw how to write secret messages!*

Everyone paused in their inspection of the letter to take a good look at the man they once thought they knew. Angelo gingerly patted him on the shoulder. "Uh...it's okay man."

Paige waved the letter in their faces. "Guys, the letter? Here's what it says; Dear Ange, I really do miss you but I can't write very much. Hopefully Jono remembers that day when we watched TV so you're reading this now. Here's the skinny, about a month after I left Uncle Pete got a call from an old friend that needed his help and he left. He said that he would be back within the week and I haven't heard from him in two weeks. Jessica, the woman he left in charge has turned jail keeper on me and I can't trust her hence the secrecy. I'm heading out to help Uncle Petey and I need some back-up. Come soon, please. The last letter was postmarked from a town in the middle of the Yucatan called K'alakmul that supposed to be some major Mayan site. I'm going there. Meet me as soon as you can. Since I have to keep my shields up I'll try and call you as soon as I can get to a phone. Miss you. Love, Jubes." Paige grinned. "And she put a little heart next to her name. Well it looks like we're headed towards Mexico folks."

Monet began to turn to the plane to the west and shrugged. "This is going to be good."

"Wait! What if she couldn't get out and is stuck, trapped in the clutches of that evil woman."

Paige rolled her eyes. "I thought we were going to rescue her from that evil uncle of hers."

"Evil smeviel! Jubes could be in trouble and we're heading in the wrong direction." Angelo had managed to degenerate into a person, while still loved by all, that was a worrywart and it was only his obvious fear for a certain cute firecracker that his teammates were choosing at that time to ignore him (and probably saving his life while they were at it).

Monet sighed witheringly. "From the person that claims Mama Espinoza didn't raise any stupid children you sure are acting like it. He's spent the last major part of his life in Mexico. Logical conclusion is obvious."

Paige shook her head. "I agree with M, if Jubes can get out of Bastion's prison then I think she's already on her way. We'd just be wasting time and fall into Emma's hands if we headed towards South Africa. Let's vote."

"Mexico."

"I'm for Mexico."

*I say Jubes is strong, and we'd be underestimating her if we thought she wasn't halfway there yet. Mexico.*

Angelo looked at his teammates, tugging at his nose thoughtfully. Finally he threw up his hands in the air. "Let's visit my motherland amigos."

-in-

After a week of surviving in the dregs of the ship, Jubilee awoke on the sixth morning to the sounds of men yelling out direction to crane workers who were starting to unload the cargo. Quickly grabbing her belongings Jubilee heft the backpack on her back and started climbing up some boxes to the opening where things were being lifted out. The ship creaked and shuddered under the strain and within a half an hour Jubilee was walking on the docks heading towards the small village clustered around the bay.

The dirt road sent up tiny puffs of dust each time her booted feet hit the ground, as she slowly walked in the sweltering heat towards a small café about a mile ahead. Jubilee squinted under the harsh sunlight and sighed as she made her way across the village. It was fairly quiet, almost silent after the sounds from the docks faded into the distance. Glancing around, Jubilee failed to see anyone sitting around doing...anything for that matter. Clearing her throat, Jubilee shook her hair free from it's ponytail and let it hide her face.

The café was small and dark and the owner looked at Jubilee noncommittally as she walked in. Clearing her throat, Jubilee pulled on three years of Spanish lessons and hearing Angelo talk. "Hola."

"Mmph."

"Como estas?"

"Mmph."

Jubilee smiled winningly, only to have it fall flat at the man's expressionless face. "Um…Perdone…um…puede ayudarme por favor?"

"Que?"

"Estoy…" Jubilee racked her brains for some words other than taco and enchilada to appear. "publico telephono? Por favor?"

The older man nodded and pulled out an ancient looking telephone. "Si."

Unsure whether to accept the offer of the phone, Jubilee gave in and quickly dialed Paige's cell phone. It rang two times before it was opened. "Oh thank god, Paige this is.."

"Hello you have reached Paige Guthrie's voice mail. Leave a message after the beep."

"Crap. Paige this is Jubes, I'm in um…." Jubilee turned to the old man. "Donde estamos ahora?"

Smiling, the man patted her hand. "Isla de la Juventud."

Jubilee frowned. "Um I'm in Isla de la Juventud. In Mexico right?"

The older man shook his head. "Non, Cuba."

Her hands clenched on the phone as she forced herself to remain calm. "Paige, I'm in a tiny village in an island off the coast of Cuba. I have to go now. Come and get me." Hanging up the phone, Jubilee forced herself to look at the man who was beginning to frown.

"Que es esto? Americano?"

Jubilee began to back away. "No, no. Ne Americano. Fuck." Turning on her heel, Jubilee sprinted out of the café and into the countryside with the older man screaming at her back.

-in-

A/N I have nothing against Cuba, but I am well aware that in the smaller villages there is a lot of fear of outsiders. More is to come…have fun and please review!