Chapter 15
"Dammit… someone's gonna notice THAT," he quipped, coughing.
Thick black smoke billowed, and the canopy popped open. Wolverine crawled out, coughing and hacking in the smoke. It was murder on his enhanced smell, but his healing factor was already cranking to heal the third degree burns covering his face and parts of his uniform that were ripped away.
"C'mon Jubes, say somethin'… I'll be right there… just gotta get somethin' outta here before it blows sky high…"
He reached inside and threw various supplies out, then grabbed the passenger from the front. Cradling a figure in a battered yellow raincoat, he shook her and shouted. Bright flames spread from the minijet, and she felt their heat. What had gone on?
"Jubilee, darlin', you're scarin' me… you KNOW I hate that!" he shouted. Draping her body over his shoulder he scooped up the emergency packs that he could carry and ran away as fast as he could.
Suddenly she heard a huge KABOOM! A huge fireball exploded and threw him backwards, rolling onto the sand as he roared in anger and pain. Desperately Jubilee wished she could go to him, but her hand went right through him. Flames consumed the yellow and blue minijet, and she realized it was bound to attract attention to their location. Still the cord connected her to the body of the small figure laying only inches from him. Packs and other rations were scattered, while small bits of stuff landed here and there.
"Uhhh… damn… flamin'… take more than THAT to stop me…" he mumbled. "But just can't get up… just yet… sorry… kid… gotta get this damn healin' factor to catch up…"
For a long moment he lay still. The other figure, presumably her was sprawled with her face down on the beach. Only the distant roar of the flames could be heard, along with the pounding thunder of the surging tide lapping the beach. Jubilee drifted towards her body, trying to push herself into it. She cursed in frustration as her spirit lay, only to drift up again. What was keeping her from entering it again? Time spun by as she struggled vainly to lay in the hollow shell that refused to enable her to recover.
Suddenly she knew why she was here. Her body showed no sign of breathing. Even Wolverine's form lay so still. A slow gurgling in his chest, followed by a sharp exhalation jerked her attention back to him. Being away from her body so long caused a comatose state. Now she had to get back and fast. But how? Already the glittering cord attached from her spirit to her body was fading and shimmering. Jubilee panicked, wondering how close to death she was. This wasn't fair! No wonder she couldn't get back. Her body was giving up. She was powerless to enter it if she was dead!
"Wolvie! Wolverine, c'mon, get UP!" She cried, reaching through him. Already he groaned, his body slowly recovering from the shock blast. If he were human he'd be like she was, lying dead to the world. Yet his healing powers were not failing him in his time of need. He was her only link to life now, and he knew what to do.
He twitched his hand, sniffling as he blinked. She rushed towards her body, and yelled again, "Wolvie! I'm still here.. there's still time! You gotta wake up an' help me! Or I won't be able to come back! Please Logan… you can do it! Please I don't want to leave you…"
His nostrils flared and he coughed. Slowly he pushed himself up on his hands, shaking his head. He mumbled, "Jubes… Jubilee…"
"Yes! I'm HERE!" she yelled, though she knew it was useless. "c'mon, you big dorkbrain! I'm over here! Get up Wolverine! You can do this!"
she yelled, though she knew it was useless."Damn… I could swear.." he trailed off. Then he turned, stumbling towards her and rolling her over. Surely by the way he was shaking and loosening her coat she was already basically dead. The rescue breathing and CPR were a flurry of activity, and she suddenly felt the tug from the long cord.
"Dammit, you wake up!" he yelled. Another image and she was glancing up at him fussing over her. Then his voice yelling her name, trying to push life into her body with his fists pressing down on her ribcage, and his mouth breathing life into hers.
"C'mon kid, don't DO this to me…" he begged, voice cracking. "Wake up kid! For me!"
He drew back, hearing the stirrings of blood. Something whispered past his throat. Then a gasping wheeze escaped Jubilee's lips, and her eyes fluttered. His hands gently patted her cheek, while he arched over her and gasped in his own relief. "That's it… c'mon!"
She coughed loudly, and gurgled, "Don't you DARE call me a kid!"
"Jubilation…" he breathed, buring his head in his hand. "Cripes, you almost… almost left…"
Heaving and jolting up, she fell back down with a groan. Inhaling HUGE breaths and gasping as he crushed her close, and stroked her hair with his hands. Charred hair and blood soaked her, with the taste of cigars and whisky and ashes on her tongue told her she was indeed alive.
"Don't you EVER scare me like that again, you hear?" he yelled, rocking her violently for a long minute.
"I'll try to remember that… next time I have an OBE…" she groaned. For a while she buried her face in his shoulder, and let him fuss over her, growling and inhaling her scent. As if to reassure himself that she was indeed alive.
"Jubes, you scared the hell outta me… what in flamin' HELL happened to ya? You weren't breathing… and then some turkey was taking pot shots at us… an' got lucky… then WHAMMO…"
"You dragged my butt outta the fire, an' started freaking," Jubilee mumbled, feebly trying to raise her hands and hug him back.
"I'm not even gonna ASK how you know that… but damn I'm glad you're alive… and whatever joker pulled the trigger's gonna have a one way ticket to the big shootin' gallery in the sky…" he rumbled.
"Thanks for saving my life…" she choked.
"Don't mention it, darlin'…" he murmured, kissing her forhead.
"I'm like REALLY sorry to make you go freakazoid… I couldn't stop it…" Jubilee sniffled.
"Jubes, Psylocke was scannin' ya, and then all HELL broke loose… I figured the best I could do was land the bird onna island that wasn't inhabited… last go round we ended up on the mainland and the natives weren't too friendly…" Wolverine mumbled, still not releasing her from his embrace. She did not want to let go, enjoying the feel of solid arms holding her body to his.
"I guess you aren't ticked at me for checking out, huh?" she asked.
"I'm mad all right, but I'll get over it… damn Jubes you really know how to make an entrance… why did you check out on me, huh? You said ya saw me outside… so's your spirit must've…"
"Yeah, that's it… and I saw some mondo freaky things… that give me the creeps…" she shivered. "What now? We're here… but if someone blew us down…"
"Exactly, darlin'. It was a damn good thing that Storm an' the others weren't us. Cause they'd be complainin' here instead of us… they hit the main engine, and hit us good… we're stuck here…"
"But that's what you wanted right? I mean to see if I was not going nutzoid or something…" Jubilee murmured as he released her and stroked her cheek.
"Yeah… but didn't expect to put it to such a test… why doncha lie there for a lil bit while I sort out what we've got, an' get us the heck off the beach…"
"They'll see us… we gotta move," Jubilee mumbled, struggling to roll over but aching. "OWWW…"
"Don't move a muscle. You ain't got the healin' factor… no telling what…"
"I know, sheesh," she mumbled. "I feel so damn useless…"
"Stop sayin' stupid things like that an' just rest easy…" he scolded angrily, gathering up whatever he could salvage. "I need ya at yer best… cause we gotta lot to do before we can even think of findin' out what those bozos on the mainland are up to…"
"I can walk, really," Jubilee mumbled as she slowly tried to stand. "Look…"
"Uh huh, yeah, right," he grunted, steadying her against himself. "Do us both a favor an' stop showin' off… leave the macho shithead stuff to the expert…"
"Hehe very funny, NOT!" she quipped back, but was touched when he let her try and stumble alongside of him with minimal support. When she was safely in the shelter of the trees, Wolverine darted back to gather the rest of the stuff. She watched him front a distance, seeing him tug the mask off and wipe the sweat from his brow. Like what so often happened, his costume had holes along one leg, and was charred and burned in the back. One glove was just about totaled, while his leggings and boots were pretty much still intact. Yet the shirt was almost a total loss in the small of the back and one shoulder.
Ten minutes later he rejoined her, and she managed to stand on shaky legs. Despite his protestations she grabbed a light duffel bag from him, containing emergency clothes and light foodstuffs to carry while he shoved everything else into a large backpack. Together they moved through the woods, with Wolverine in the front slashing and hacking away the brush with his claws naturally.
That thing must weight close to one hundred pounds, she guessed, and he carried it without breaking much of a sweat. For all the time she knew him she figured he was pretty strong, not super strong like Rogue, but approaching Beast's class. Hank McCoy was probably able to bench-press enough to lift a schoolbus, but Logan was no slouch. Having indestructible bones DID tend to make it easier to put on more muscle mass and retain it.
"This way," he mumbled. "You okay, darlin'?"
"Just great, always wanted to go someplace tropical an' stuff with ya," she joked.
"Uh huh, be careful what ya wish for," he grunted in return.
"You take me to the weirdest places, Wolvie… I mean Logan…"
"This ain't no campin' trip, we gotta still stake the place out… an' take names…"
"Those dopes on Survivor don't know what they're missing," Jubilee joked. Their bantering was bolstering both their spirits, and Jubilee was amazed she had escaped the burns that wolverine was healing from. Something about her being in the front helped, along with the fact that her long raincoat, though tattered, had taken most of the scorching instead of her skin.
She was glad for the shorts and boots. Absently she grabbed something out of her pocket and found her old sunglasses with a groan. Sunlight flickered through the trees, and she slipped them on. Who'd have thought the garish fashion statement of her youth would be a blessing? Occasional grunts and swishes punctuated their conversation, while sweat poured down them both, and the sun rose over the jungle to beam in small holes here and there.
"Jeez, me without my sunblock… what's next, Tarzan? I shoulda brought that ol' lionskin suit I picked up in the savage land…" she gasped. "Ka-zar would LOVE this place…"
"Yeah… he'd fit RIGHT in. But at least there aren't any dinosaurs…" he chuckled, swinging and slicing through a mess of branches. He stopped, and Jubilee's shoulder collided with his backpack. They both went sliding down the wet leaves and mud into a clearing.
"EWWW gross!" she gasped, spitting out a mouthful of mud. "I can't BELIEVE this…"
"It's only mud, darlin'," he chuckled wiping off his face as he threw his backpack t the side. Wolverine struggled to stand and extend his hand to help her up.
"Yeah, but most of it's over ME, not you!" she yelped, and then smeared a handful on his tattered shirt.
"Hey, watch it!" he growled, and both of them slipped in the mud dripping off them. A stream gurgled nearby, and there were drier places on the ground where undergrowth and other bits of metal and packing crates lay scattered.
"What's the deal… I see all kinds of crud around… I thought this was uninhabited…"
"Probably some other poor saps that met the same fate we did," he mumbled, sniffing the air. "Don't' smell anything remotely human, just rottin' stuff and local wildlife…"
"Terrific," she muttered. "Should I even ASK?"
"Nothing either of us can't handle… an' I'm already figurin' on one of 'em becomin' dinner soon as we find a place to build a shelter like…"
"With all this stuff, who needs a tent," Jubilee commented, rushing over to upend pieces of packing crates.
"That's the idea, darlin'…" he nodded as he grabbed corrugated metal, and threw it onto a pile. Together they began the process of building a shelter from the elements. Logan's nostrils flared, not smelling anything resembling mutant or human. Yet he couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched, and kept a close watch on Jubilee.
He hadn't wanted to admit how scared he was. Granted she must know, but the thought of almost having her die was almost more than he could handle. Nevertheless she had come back, and was alive as she ever was. Whatever she had experienced he needed to know. Now wasn't the time unfortunately, because they needed food and shelter first, then a game plan. Later, would be the time for comparing notes, as Jubilee paffed dry wood and they debated how big of a fire or if they should even BUILD one…
