Girl 1.



There's a stretch limo waiting for us at the airport – right there on the tarmac, we literally head down the steps and into the car. It looks white, sexy and very expensive, and that'd do as a description of the lady waiting inside.

'Jubilations.' She greets us. 'Angelo. It's a pleasure to see you again.'

'Hey, thanks for the ride, Frosty.' Blue eyes answers, and gets ignored for her pains. Instead the white lady turns towards me.

'Emma Frost.' She says, holding out a hand. She's got pale skin and white-blonde hair and she's wearing white leather in a way that most of my colleagues would think a little extreme. She's got the looks for it, though. She is so obviously the owner of that white-on-white apartment in LA. I stare at her hand for a moment, and then take it.

'Jubilee.' I tell her. 'But then, I guess you knew that already.' She gives a strange little smile.

'How are you feeling?' She asks me.

'Like shit in a food processor.' I tell her, 'cause it's true.

'Methadone?' She offers me, and then glances at Angelo. 'Actually, probably best not at this stage. You're past the worst.'

'What the fuck would you know about it?' I whisper; I spent most of the flight in the toilet, and my system's completely empty, but otherwise I'd be puking my guts up right now. Again.

'Oh, I've done a little research.' She turns to the other two. 'We're going to my apartment in Manhattan. I've had a room prepared.'

'Who else knows?' Blue eyes asks.

'Hank is aware that I'm going to be helping rehabilitate a young addict. He is not aware of her being your apparent double. She will need a full medical examination as soon as possible.' Blue eyes nods at that, and turns to me.

'You'll like Hank. Everybody does. Well, everyone who's not a raving anti-mutant bigot, anyway.' She glances at Frost. 'What about the Professor?'

'He's offplanet.' She replies. 'With the Shi'ar.' Which exchange leaves me totally confused. My double spots this.

'The Shi'ar are these high-tech aliens with a major galactic empire. Professor Xavier's boffing their Empress-type lady.'

'Jubilation.' Stern, but she looks like she's suppressing a smile.

'Don't I get a say in my life?' I ask.

'No.' Frost tells me. 'Legally, you don't exist, and so far as I can see you are in no position to take any responsibility for yourself.' And she turns away, like she's just switched me off, and starts talking to Blue Eyes.

'Don't worry.' Angelo mutters beside me. 'Emma's like that. She's one of the good guys, she just has a hard time showing it.'

'Well fuck you and her both, you floppy-skinned bastard.' I mutter.

'No can do, Jubecita. Wolverine would kill me.'

'Wolverine?' I know what a wolverine is. It's a kind of big, vicious, weasel. A mincing machine on four legs.'

'Jubes says your family.' He's grinning. 'That means her surrogate dad's gonna take an interest.'

'Her surrogate dad is a wolverine?' I'm feeling too shitty to raise my voice.

'Nope. Called Wolverine. He's one mean hijo de – son of a bitch, too.'



Girl 2.



Frosty bitches at Junkie Jubes a little, and then turns to me.

'Jubilation.' She says again.

'That's my name. Ya lookin' to wear it out single handed, Frosty?' I ask her.

'As you are well aware, we monitor the international media for incidents that might require our attention.' I raise an eyebrow at this. I've been practicing.

'Yeah?'

'It appears a young Chinese-American mutant girl was involved in an . . . incident, yesterday afternoon. Three men – alleged criminals – were severely beaten, and the bar in which they were relaxing was wrecked. The girl then apparently used pyrotechnic abilities to destroy certain . . . items that they were carrying. The Los Angeles Police Department believe the girl to have been a mob enforcer, sent to put this alleged drug dealer out of business, and that the items she destroyed were his stock.'

'Frosty,' I begin, but she's looking at me in that way she has. 'Emma. Right then, it was burn the smack, or burn the dealer.'

'Misguided, but well intentioned. I can see why the X-Men wanted you back.'

'They want me back?' Now that sounded plaintive. Way to come off as pathetic, Lee.

'They wanted you back as soon as Generation X graduated.' She sounds kind of amused. 'I pointed out to them that you deserved a chance to make your own decisions in life.' I don't believe her.

'Frost! You knew I wanted to be an X-Man more that anything.'

'You felt beholden to the X-Men, and therefore bound to join them. Jubilation, you are far too capable to waste your childhood because you can't see past your own loyalty. You are also still too young to risk your life on a regular basis.'

'Like we didn't with GenX?'

'Do not be obtuse. Generation X encountered problems. They did not seek out and do battle with mutants such as Magneto or Apocalypse. In any case, that is beside the point.'

'So what is your point?'

'That if the X-Men had made you an offer, you would not have considered any of the other possibilities.'

'Like what?'

'Higher education. Going home. There are so many options, Jubilation, so many opportunities you would have let slip by for a chance to follow around a short, hairy psychopath with a habit of picking up young girls.' She didn't. She did not just suggest . . .

'What're you saying, Frost?'

'That you need to find your own way in life, which few of the X-Men have ever managed to do. And if you mean about Wolverine, merely that he cared for you as a child needing protecting. He did the same thing for Katherine Pryde, until she grew up, and as with her he would eventually move on. I did not spend three years training you to be a retired sidekick or another uniformed face in the mutant parade.'

'So what are you doing now?'

'I? Jubilation, I am a teacher, not an X-Man. I do not even wear their uniform.'

'Okay, so I needed to find out who I was other than an X-Man. Well, guess what, Emma. She's sitting right there.' I point at JJ, and Frost actually flinches. So does the other me. 'You want I should head back to LA and find myself a street corner?'

'Your mutation does not define your life, but it does shape it. She may be who you would be if you were not a mutant, but the fact that you are a mutant is as much a part of you as your atrocious colour sense. Being a mutant, though, does not necessarily mean being an X-Man.'

'So what else does it mean?'

'Jubilee, there is far more to you than your mutation, far more that sets you apart. Robert is a mutant, after all, and yet he trained as an accountant because it was an area in which he was talented. In his case a lack of confidence in his powers proved ultimately beneficial. Never mind who your double is or what route her life has taken, you are not her. What would you like to do with your life?'

Honestly? I have no idea. I never thought past going back to the X- Men. I guess that was obvious, at least to Emma.