A/N: Thanks to Lucas'sgirl, punkcatwitissues, SperryDee, and MoonlightPhoenix3 for your reviews, I really do appreciate the feedback that I get from everybody.
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Jubilee sat on the floor in the center of her room, with clothes strewn around her like a hurricane had hit it.
"Two hours and counting to one of the biggest nights of my life, and I can't find a thing to wear." Jubilee thought to herself, "I could really use Rogue's advice right about now, let her pick out an outfit and then totally piss her off when I wear something completely different."
Jubilee then started to smile a little as she thought about Rogue and the last time that she asked her for advice.
"When Rogue gets upset, her southern accent definitely comes out. I can hear her now...
'Ah swear! Ah don't know why you even bother ta ask my advice, if you're not gonna pay it any attention.'"
Jubilee laughed to herself and continued to reminisce about their conversation before her last date with Doug. She then wondered if Rogue and Logan's flight had landed in Japan yet? She figured that it probably had and she also assumed that Kitty and the others were knee deep in Siberian snow by now. It hadn't even been a full day and Jubilee already missed both of her best friends. Just then, she heard a knock at her bedroom door.
"Anybody in here?" Bobby asked.
"What if I said no?" Jubilee quickly snapped.
"Can I come in for just a minute?" Bobby continued.
"I have a better idea, why don't you to take your head and see if it'll…never mind…door's open." Jubilee replied as Bobby opened the door.
"I didn't see you or Rogue in the library, or around the mansion today. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay." Bobby told her.
"Oh. Now you're concerned. Well, for your information, I was making up some Danger Room sessions that I missed last week and…" Jubilee paused for a moment, "Rogue's not here."
"I'm not blind." Bobby replied.
"More like stupid. Ass." Jubilee insulted him.
"All right, I can see I'm not your favorite person right now. Just tell me where I can find Rogue, and I'll get out of your hair." Bobby replied.
"Unless flight is some secondary mutation of yours, you and that ice slide trick you've been playin' around with, have a lotta ground to cover." Jubilee informed him.
"What're you saying?" Bobby asked.
"What I'm saying is, Rogue should be on the other side of the globe right about now." Jubilee finally revealed.
"What!? You just let her run off by herself. Why didn't you tell Hank or somebody?" Bobby shouted at her.
"Hank and somebody already knows where she is. She went with Logan to Japan." Jubilee shouted back.
"Why'd Hank let her go halfway around the world, with Logan of all people?" Bobby questioned as he sat down on Rogue's bed.
"Well, I guess because the Professor trusted Logan enough to let him take Rogue, Peter, Kitty, you and me down to South America a couple of weeks ago. He also trusted 'Mr. Adamantium 'n Attitude' enough to find and bring back that new girl Amara. As a matter of fact, you thought Logan was the coolest when he let you and Kitty pilot the Blackbird for most of the way. And, at least Logan acts like he wants Rogue around." Jubilee answered, taking a verbal jab at him with the last statement.
"Hold on, you're way off." Bobby responded.
"Oh really. So you didn't break her heart for no reason then?" Jubilee asked him.
"That's what I was trying not to do. Breaking up with Rogue was the hardest decision I've ever made. The only reason I did it was to keep from hurting her more in the long run." Bobby confessed.
"You ripped her heart out, just so you could keep from hurting her? That has got to be the lamest thing I've ever heard." Jubilee said, shaking her head.
"I didn't come in here to start a fight with you, Jubilee. I just wanted check on Rogue, and since she's not here, I'll leave you alone." Bobby replied.
"You know, the way Rogue used to talk about you, I was starting to think you were worth a girl being jealous over. Guess I was wrong." Jubilee said as she continued trying to hurt Bobby, just like she felt he had hurt Rogue.
"Maybe she does deserve better than a loser like me." Bobby replied. Then he just walked out of the bedroom and closed the door behind him.
Jubilee sat there for a moment, feeling kind of bad for the way that she had just insulted Bobby.
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While Jubilee finished getting ready, there was a knock at the front door that signaled the arrival of her date. The door was answered by one of the younger residents of the school.
"Um, hi. I'm Doug and I'm here to pick up Jubilee for our date." He said to the young boy in front of him.
"Sure. I'm Jamie, I'll go tell her that you're here." Jamie Madrox, aka The Multiple Kid, said as he led Doug into the mansion's huge living room and then took off up the stairs.
Doug usually just walked Jubilee to the front door of the mansion after their dates, so this was the first time that he had actually seen the inside of the estate. As he sat in the gigantic room, Doug didn't know what to think when Jamie, the younger teen who had just walked upstairs, came walking into the living room from an outside area of the school.
"Hey, um, Jamie." Doug said, a little bit confused as to how Jamie had made it outside from the second floor so quickly, "I thought you were going to tell Jubilee that I was here?"
"Oh yeah, sorry. I'll go tell her now." Jamie replied.
Doug continued to sit there, staring intensely at the bouquet of roses that he had bought for Jubilee. He had debated about whether to actually get them, since she didn't really seem like the flower type. But, he wanted to do something to show her how much he really cared for her. So he decided to go ahead and take a chance. As he continued to sit, Doug couldn't believe who he saw walk in through the front door, yet again. This time Jamie was walking with another student.
"Jamie, I thought…forget it." Doug said as he smiled in disbelief. Just as he was about to go and get somebody else to tell Jubilee that he had made it there, she suddenly appeared at the doorway. Jubilee left Doug speechless. He had always thought that she was beautiful. But, he hadn't told her because he was worried about how she would react. Looking at her tonight though, beautiful didn't even begin to describe how she looked to him.
"What's the matter, cat got your tongue?" Jubilee said to him, trying to ease the tension, "I'm serious, we have a cat here that's a recovering kleptomaniac."
"No, nothing like that. You just, uh, look…" Doug replied nervously, searching for the perfect words.
"What, do you think I should go and change? I'll be right back." Jubilee said as she started to walk back towards the stairs.
"No, wait!" Doug told her, "You look…radiant. I brought these for you, I hope that you like them."
As Doug handed her the flowers, Jubilee wasn't sure how to react. She and Doug had been out before, but with the flowers and the way that he was acting, this date felt totally different from their other ones. As Doug stood there, he expected Jubilee to make some wisecrack about the flowers. He hoped that she would at least not say anything too mean. But to his surprise, she didn't do anything like that.
"Thank you." Jubilee said as she took the roses and kissed Doug on the cheek. She watched as he started to blush, just a little.
"Um, sure, your welcome. We'd better get going, traffic's gonna be a nightmare." Doug said as he took her by the hand and they headed for the front door. As they were about to walk out of the mansion, they heard three voices behind them.
"Don't stay out too late." All three Jamie's said to them, as they stood at the top of the staircase.
"Oh, I get it now. You guys are triplets." Doug said as he thought he had finally figured out what was going on.
"Uh, yeah." Jubilee replied, unsure if she should tell Doug the truth about Jamie's power. She was just as unsure if he would even believe it.
The ride to the concert seemed to fly by. All of the radio stations were telling listeners about the pandemonium that was surrounding Madison Square Garden. Reporters from around the globe were there to cover the last stop of Allison Blaire's world tour. While on tour, her shows had broken attendance records at almost every venue. The show this evening was even being broadcast live. After finding a parking space, the couple began the long walk through the parking lot. They didn't mind though, since it gave them a chance to talk even more.
Once inside, they walked to their seats and Doug offered to go to the concession stand. Jubilee sat there and watched as one of the opening acts, an unsigned local band, began to perform. Allison herself had been discovered singing in small clubs and she liked to give newcomers a chance, hopefully giving them their big break. As the opening act continued their performance, Jubilee looked as the other attendees continued to file inside. But she was totally shocked when she recognized who one of those concertgoers was.
"Oh my God!" Jubilee thought to herself, "What is John doing here?"
Jubilee watched as the young man, also known as Pyro, stood at one of the entrances and seemed to scan the crowd. She had thought about getting up to find Doug and getting out of there, but John spotted her before she got the chance. He walked over to her and Jubilee didn't know what to expect. Before the Professor left with Peter, Kitty, and Theresa, he had her and the other X-Men run simulations in the Danger Room against holographic versions of enemies they might face. One of those sessions was against Magneto and his Brotherhood, a Brotherhood that apparently included John. Jubilee wondered if she would have to put that training to use now?
"What's up, Firecracker?" John said to her, calling her by the nickname that he had given her when she first arrived at Xavier's School a couple of years ago.
"Uh, hi. Didn't expect to see you here?" Jubilee nervously replied, "I never figured you for a closet Allison Blaire fan. I always thought you liked your music with a little less melody and a lot more kick ass guitar."
"Yeah, normally I do. But lately, I've been trying to broaden my horizon." John replied, as he took out his cigarette lighter, the one that had sharks teeth etched on it. Jubilee watched closely as John started to flip the lid up and down. Up and Down. She prepared herself, wondering if he was planning on using it against her? But right then, almost on cue, Doug returned from the concession stand. Doug saw his date talking to a guy he had never seen before, with an expression on her face that he hadn't seen before either.
"So this your new boyfriend, or something?" John said as he put the lighter back in his pocket and put his hand out to shake Doug's.
"Uh, yeah. John, this is Doug. Doug, this is John. John used to go to our school before he…transferred." Jubilee said as she made the introductions.
"Nice to meet you." Doug replied as they shook hands.
"Yeah." John replied, "I can see that I'm a third thumb, so I'll be seein' you around. Hope you two enjoy the show." John smiled as he turned and walked back up the stairs and disappeared.
"Seems pretty cool." Doug said to Jubilee as they went back to their seats.
"Like ice cream on a hot day." Jubilee replied.
Jubilee sat down and debated in her mind about what she should do? Should she follow John and risk a confrontation. Obviously, he wasn't there to start a fight, or else he could've burnt her to a crisp right on the spot. On top of those concerns, there was also the question of Doug. What was she going to tell him?
"Yeah, um, I'm wearing this cool leather outfit with an X on it because our school is really the base for a mutant super hero team, and John is part of a super-villain squad that I have to go and fight. I'll just drop you off at your house on our super secret jet that nobody is supposed to know that we even have." Jubilee thought to herself, "Puh-leaze, even a super-sweet guy like Doug would head for the hills after hearing that one."
As Jubilee sat there contemplating her dilemma, the opening act wrapped up their set. Then there was a brief intermission before the main attraction took the stage. Doug and Jubilee just sat there in, what was for them, an unnatural silence.
"Everything all right?" Doug asked her.
"Everything's fine." Jubilee replied with a fake smile, trying to reassure Doug as she held his hand tightly in hers.
After the intermission was over, the lights in Madison Square Garden went down. Suddenly, there was a large explosion of pyrotechnics on the stage. Jubilee had read about how great the light effects at Allison Blaire's concerts were, but seeing it first hand made her realize how truly spectacular it was. The special effects seemed to almost mesmerize the crowd and they began to cheer wildly. Allison started singing songs from her large repertoire of songs, all of which had been number one on the charts at one time. In fact, Allison had more hit songs than she knew what to do with, which was a mighty feat for someone who had only released her first album less than four years ago. Watching her perform, you didn't have to know anything about her just to understand that she honestly and truly loved what she was doing.
After her ninth song, the show paused briefly for a wardrobe change. Allison then reappeared on stage in a tight red outfit. She began to sing one of her love ballads, Holding My Heart in Your Hand, which had spent six weeks at number one and a total of six months in the Top Ten. Suddenly, during the middle of her set, a disturbance could be seen from the left side of the stage.
"Outta my way! I wanna meet her face to face."
Jubilee looked and recognized the person pushing his way through the building's security as the Blob. As he continued to make his way onto the stage, Jubilee had no doubt in her mind about what she had to do now. Despite how it might affect her relationship with Doug, she had to get down there as fast as possible and see if she could put a stop to the Blob's rampage.
"Look, I gotta go help her." Jubilee said as she stood up, still holding his hand for one more moment and then releasing it.
"Are you crazy! I like Allison's music too, but you can't go down there. Those security guards are being tossed around left and right, and they're some pretty big guys. Just wait and let the cops handle it." Doug said to her, not quite sure what had gotten into her.
"That's just it, I don't think the cops will be able to handle things. I might be Allison's only hope against that maniac." Jubilee said to him as concertgoers started to head for the exits.
A few police officers that were assigned to the area had arrived and ran onto the stage, ordering the Blob to freeze. He responded to their orders by throwing some of the band's equipment at them. The police then fired their weapons at him, but the bullets had little effect as they simply bounced off of him. Doug saw this and grabbed Jubilee by the arm. He attempted to lead her outside with everyone else, but she stopped them dead in their tracks. She then looked up at him, staring deeply into his eyes.
"I know you're doing what you think is right, but trust me, this is something that I have to do." Jubilee said to him as she jerked her arm out of his grasp.
Doug thought that she was going on a suicide mission, and he had no idea as to why?
"Jube, come on. You go down there and you're gonna get yourself killed. Bullets aren't phasing that guy, how do you plan on stopping him?" Doug asked, still trying to talk some sense into her.
"With these." Jubilee replied as she looked down at her hands. Doug knew that Jubilee was a mutant, but she would never show him what her power was. She only told him that she'd ruined her share of TV's and microwaves. Out of respect, Doug never pressed the issue with her. Deep down, Jubilee had hoped that he would never have to see her abilities. But as they stood there arguing, she could see that the cops were getting majorly thrashed and that none of their backup had arrived. Instead of wasting time trying to explain everything, she knew that there was one thing that might convince Doug. As she began, Doug was left speechless, once again. Jubilee held out both of her hands and they started to crackle and spark brightly.
"I knew being a mutant meant that you were different, but I…I never guessed…" Doug stuttered, still taking in the sight. Jubilee's heart sank as she realized that this changed everything between them. If Doug couldn't handle seeing this, then how could she ever tell him about the other students, or even about the X-Men?
"Yeah, I understand." Jubilee said in a depressed tone, "I gotta go." She walked by Doug and started down the stairs. As she was almost out of earshot, she heard him call out to her, this time with no hesitation in his voice at all.
"I love you." Doug shouted to her, "Just promise that you'll be careful, okay."
"Aren't I always?" Jubilee replied. She then continued downward, going against the rush of people fleeing the arena.
When Jubilee finally made it down to the stage, she ran and jumped on some of the equipment in front of it. The Blob was about twenty feet from Allison and her band.
"Hey, Blimpy-dude. Why don't you quit ruinin' the concert for the rest of us civilized folks?" Jubilee shouted, in an attempt to get the Blob's attention.
"Well if it ain't X-Chumps: The Next Generation." Blob responded, "Whtat'cha gonna do about it, little girl?"
"This." Jubilee told him as her hands started glowing and she hit him with a full plasma energy blast. She stunned the Blob, but within a matter of seconds he had regained his composure.
"That ain't gonna do squat to me." Blob replied as he picked up an amplifier from the stage and threw it at Jubilee. Jubilee moved just in time to avoid the large object, but she landed hard on the concrete and knocked the wind out of herself.
Blob then turned his attention back to Allison and her band.
"Now 'sweet-thing', you gonna show that kid how it's really done?" Blob asked her.
"What are you talking about?" Allison replied.
"Don't play stupid with me. I know all about your 'other' talent, and I ain't talkin' about your actin'." Blob told her.
"You know! But how?" Allison replied.
"I got my sources. Next time someone makes you an offer you can't refuse, don't be dumb enough to refuse it." Blob said as he started walking towards her and the band, "Now, you can (A)-try and stop me, or you can (B)-watch as I take your band apart, piece by piece."
"I choose (A)." Allison replied as she reluctantly raised her hands, putting them together in the shape of a gun, "Buddy, you've messed with the wrong girl tonight." It looked as though light, pure untainted light, began to emanate from Allison herself as she fired small light blasts at the Blob from her hands.
"Ooh. Oww. That really hurts." Blob sarcastically replied, acting as though Allison's barrage was really hurting him, "I've learned my lesson. Never go up against a MUTANT as powerful as Allison Blaire."
He said the last sentence loudly, hoping that the few people still near the stage heard him. But as the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. And tonight would prove that it still rang true. The crew filming the concert had returned to their cameras, just in time to capture what Allison had done. Within mere minutes, the secret that Allison Blaire had spent most of her teen and young adult years hiding, would be revealed to the entire world.
Having accomplished his goal, the Blob fled through the backstage area. Jubilee picked herself up and attempted to follow behind him. But, by the time she made it outside, he was long gone. She then tried to make herself as inconspicuous as possible, moving through the crowd and hoping that the police wouldn't spot her. The authorities, however, had their hands full with an animated mob that had gathered outside. Word was spreading like wildfire about Allison being a mutant and some of the concertgoers began to turn on her. A few even began to shout anti-mutant statements, which started fights between them and the fans that still supported her.
"Man, what I wouldn't give for my own Bat-Mobile right now." Jubilee thought to herself as she walked and held her side, which was still aching from her fall earlier, "At this point, I'd even settle for a Bat-Bicycle." As she continued through the parking lot that was steadily emptying, she tried to figure out her next move. Suddenly, her next move showed up.
"Headin' my way beautiful." Doug said to her as he pulled alongside of her in the car, "Or are you superwoman enough to walk all the way back to Westchester?"
"Wait a minute, I'm the one that makes the wise-cracks." Jubilee said as she ran around to the other side of the car and got in, "You're messing up the dynamic of our relationship."
"Hey, I can have my moments too." Doug told her.
"Yeah, but it just seems…wrong." Jubilee replied as they exited the parking lot and got into the congestion heading home.
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Next chapter: Fallout from Allison's revelation. Plus, Kitty and Peter have a major moment…
