Chapter 24: Ambush
Jubilee looked at Logan. "Well, it looks like I did something right," she said. "I'm just not sure what." Logan came over with a glass of water himself and sat down at the table across from her. "I mean, I overreacted. I'm supposed to think before I look, not just go flying off the handle."
"That mighta been true when you were younger," Logan said dryly, "But I think Scott tellin' ya all them times that ya hadda control yerself kinda went a little too far. Yeah, ya haveta control it, but ya also gotta know when ta let it all out. There's a time for reactin', Jubes, an' there's a time fer thinkin'. The middle of a battle ain't the time ta do the thinkin'. React first, ask questions later. Better safe than sorry."
"But imagine if that had actually been the others in there!" Jubilee's eyes were wide. "I could have seriously injured someone!"
"Then it'd be their fault fer bein' somewhere they shouldn't," Logan said firmly. "We were in the middle of a battle simulation. Anybody who's a fool enough ta walk in the middle of a battle an' have benign intentions is someone lookin' ta get paffed, fer stupidity if nothin' else. You were dressed fer battle, you were already keyed up…an' yer reflexes just went into overdrive. That's what I been tryin' ta teach ya all these months. Not only how ta control and vary the force o' yer paffs, but also how ta think in a situation, when ta react, an' how to react. Jubes…I saw this when ya got in that fight with Creed…ya don't like fightin'. Ya ain't a fighter, an' ya hate killin' or causin' someone else pain. But if it comes down ta you or them, it's gotta be the other person, not you. You hesitated ta hit Creed with everythin' ya had, not wantin' ta kill him…an' ya got seriously injured yerself. You can't hesitate like that. If you do yer gonna get killed eventually. And from what ya told me…back in the Hulkster base…you got in a fight with a guard while you were escapin', an' then stopped ta resuscitate a fallen guard…and cause o' that ya didn't get away. You can't worry about a fallen enemy, Jubes, if yer lookin' at a hopeless situation, shoot an' run, an' regret it all later. Or ya won't be alive ta regret anything again." He finished, quietly, "An' I want ta see my pal again."
"Shoot first, ask questions later." Jubilee nodded firmly. "Especially in the middle of a fight. Got it." She stared at her water for a moment, then smiled. "I kicked ass in there, didn't I?"
Logan had to grin at that. "Yeah, ya did."
"And Charles liked it."
Logan nodded. "Yep."
"Cool." Jubilee grinned, finished her water, and said, "Come on. Let's go see how Bobby's little birthday prank's coming."
The party was in full swing by the time Jubilee and Logan walked in. Bobby had gone into the Danger Room after putting his usual program in, and been confronted with the redone simulation. He had reacted offensively, just as Jubilee had, and Hank stopped the program and brought up the lights only after Bobby had frozen all the holographic 'X-Men' in place. Then the real X-Men appeared in the doorway, yelled "Surprise!" and the party got underway. Hank carried Bobby out of the Danger Room, singing 'He's A Jolly Good Fellow' at the top of his considerable lungs, and they all retreated to the Rec Room, where a huge buffet was spread out on tables around the room. Emma deigned to give him a birthday kiss, (which Bobby accepted with a bright-pink face and Scott barely put up with) and Bobby blew out the candles and cut up his cake. They all partook of the cake eagerly. Jubilee even wheedled Logan into eating a little bit with her, and it finally ended with Bobby sitting on the floor in front of the X-Box with Hank to try and beat him in a new video game he'd gotten as a gift.
Beer and other alcoholic drinks had flowed plentifully after the party was underway, and by the time it let out Logan was badly in need of some fresh air. Not that alcohol really had any effect on his system, which handled drinks as easily as it handled paper cuts…but he just felt he needed air. He slipped away from the party, going to his room and changing into his black jeans, a shirt, and his jacket, and slipped out to the garage.
Only to find someone had beaten him there.
Jubilee sat astride her bike, helmet on, dressed in jeans and black jacket, idly juggling sparks in the air as she waited for him. He gaped at her foolishly for a while before realizing his mouth was open and closing it belatedly. "What…"
"I needed to get some air," Jubilee said easily, releasing her sparks to hang in the air above her head. "Got tired of watching Paige trying to match Warren drink for drink." She popped them one by one, watching them as they fizzled out in a show of brightly-colored sparks, and turned to Logan. "And I figured you might need some air, too, and you might as well accompany me." She revved her engine and smiled invitingly. "Are you coming?" Without waiting for an answer, she sped out of the garage.
Logan stared at her for a moment. "Minx," he said under his breath, revved his bike up, and followed her out of the garage, down the driveway, and out into the lane.
Thy played a game of bike tag, not pushing their bikes up to their top speed but using speed bumps, landmarks, and side streets to hide and seek. Their route took them down the roads through the Village and out along the main road that led into the city.
She didn't seem to have a destination in mind, and Logan found he was enjoying just cruising with her. They finally converged along Main, and just cruised side by side on their bikes, watching the sidewalks, alleys, and street signs speed by in a blur. Finally, a glance at Logan's watch showed the time to be almost midnight, and he inclined his head back in the mansion's general direction.
She nodded, smiling under the helmet, and he took the lead down a narrow alley toward a road that would get them back in the right direction. They zipped down that alley, and headed for another one, which Logan was expecting would be just as easy, when out of the shadows came a silvery, shining cable.
And it was sparking electricity.
He slammed on the brakes, but as fast as he'd been going, the bike couldn't stop in time to avoid those snaking electric cables. He hit them, and went flying into the alley headfirst, accompanied by his bike in a shriek of rending metal. His ears screamed in protest at the sound, even as his body screamed in protest at the raw abrasions down the side of his body as he scraped over the asphalt. Behind him, he heard Jubilee scream, and looked back just in time to see her throw herself backward off her bike in a gymnasts' back handspring, avoiding ending up as street pizza, as Logan had.
She raced forward, ignoring her bike in favor of tending to Logan. "Logan…are you all right?" she asked, helping him sit up and watching as his skin healed the (to him) minor scrape. "What was that? Where the hell did that come from?" She looked back, at the snaking electrical cables…and froze as the cables turned into hands. Silvery, metallic hands. Attached to silvery, metallic arms, to a body, to a head. And that head belonged to…
Donald Pierce!
It had been a long time since she and Logan had seen the ex-Reaver. Time which hadn't done him a lot of favors.
There wasn't a whole lot of resemblance to the man whom Jubilee had first seen in Australia crucifying her beloved Wolvie. This Donald Pierce resembled nothing so much as a huge, demented Terminator-like cyborg; just as angry, just as deadly, and damn near indestructible, from the way his entire body now seemed like it was made of adamantium. She stared openmouthed, still crouched beside Logan.
Logan hauled himself to his feet, still breathing hard, his heart pounding in his chest. Pierce. "What, ya lookin' fer a fight, Pierce?" he growled, popping his claws. His adamantium would slice through Pierce's adamantium…but the reverse was also true. At least, though, he could distract Pierce long enough for Jubilee to get away. The three of them had a history together, and it had ended badly enough in most clashes that Jubilee would now be considered a possible target by this adamantium monster. "Jubes, get out of here."
"Absolutely not," Jubilee said angrily, dropping into a fighting stance beside Logan. "I'm not leaving you here with that…thing. Come on, Wolvie, we kicked his ass once, we can do it again."
"'We' are not kicking anyone's ass," Logan growled at her, never taking his eyes off the adamantium behemoth. He couldn't afford to be distracted right now; who knew what 'cybernetic enhancements' Donald Pierce had added to himself? "You are going home."
"Not." Jubilee eyed Pierce warily. "I am not leaving you here. This is the same guy who crucified you, remember? I'm not leaving; I got my own score to settle with him."
There was no more time for talking, as Pierce strode forward, turning his 'arms' into those snaking, whipping electrical cables again. Logan danced backward, away from them; He didn't want to close with Pierce if he didn't have to. Just touching Pierce would expose him to all that electricity; and if that much electricity went coursing through a body like his, with all the adamantium bonded to his skeleton, he could be incapacitated. Leaving Jubilee to fight Pierce alone…
He was definitely not going to let that happen.
The electric cable/arm snaking toward Jubilee was repelled by a stream of her paffs. It withdrew, seemingly rethinking its attack strategy, and headed for Logan again.
Logan struck out at them with his claws, battering them backward. He wasn't however, leaving much of a dent in them, although they weren't having much effect on him. He needed to be able to inflict some lasting harm to Pierce…hopefully enough to get the other man to leave.
He raise his arm to strike out at Pierce's cable-arms again…and found himself frozen, as if by magic. He growled, but he was helpless as a cold, uncaring tendril of Telepathic thought slid into his mind. Freeze, the telepathic voice said, and Logan froze. Unwillingly, but his traitorous body wasn't going to be able to break the telepathic compulsion laid on him. He thrashed, howling in impotent fury in his own mind.
Jubilee, beside him, felt him stop moving. "Wolvie?" she frowned. "Wolvie, hey, what's wrong with you—"
Grab her, said that cold telepathic voice in Logan's mind, and he was helpless to resist that telepathic urging. He saw his arms reach out and grasp Jubilee firmly by her shoulders, trapping her, and his mind screamed in fury and frustration as Pierce's cybernetic hands touched her.
"Wolvie! What are you doing…let me go…Pierce…" Jubilee stared into Logan's eyes, and she must have seen a flicker of the helpless fury in them, because she looked at Pierce in anger. "Damn you! What have you done to him, let him go…!" She struggled, trying to free herself from Logan's grasp. "Let me go!"
Pierce grinned as he came up behind her, trapping Jubilee now between Logan and himself. 'His hands came up, hands now, not electrical cables, but she could still see the electrical sparks at his fingertips. She gave afrantic wriggle, but Logan's grip was too strong…and then Pierce touched her.
She went rigid under Logan's hands, her mouth opening in a scream as electricity tore through her body. She shook, screaming, her eyes wide, her voice agonized as she writhed. Pierce let his hands, his fingertips, roam over Jubilee's body, while Logan watched, a prisoner inside his own mind, watching his body hold Jubilee a captive for this torture. She was in such agony…he willed his hands to open, to release her, and wrap themselves around Pierce's throat, so temptingly close…but they remained closed in a steely grip around Jubilee's upper arms, a grip Logan knew was going to leave some brutally painful bruises on her skin. Rage washed through him…and he felt that psychic control over his body slip a tiny bit.
Just a fraction…but it was enough. He couldn't move his hands, his fingers, his arms…but his claws were available, and from the angle he was holding Jubilee, the caws wouldn't hurt her. They would, however, capture some of that electricity, channel it into his own body, and allow Jubilee to escape.
It worked. Electricity surged into his body via his claws, snaked along all the adamantium buried in his flesh, sizzled along his nerves, and set every neuron in his body on fire with pain. The mental presence invading his brain abruptly withdrew, the electricity having affected it too, and he found himself free. His hands opened, Jubilee fell out of them still screaming and twitching, and Pierce lost his contact with her body.
He'd only been subjected to a few seconds of electricity, and although it felt like an eternity, his body wasn't shaking as badly as Jubilee's was. He scooped her up as Pierce, caught by surprise, stood there trying to recoup his senses, and flung himself backward, into the abandoned warehouse behind them, and hurtled into its welcoming darkness, carrying Jubilee's unconscious body.