Chapter 12: Bio-bomb
They saw the smoke from the bus lodged in the side of the building some time before they actually saw the thing. Against one wall, Logan could see his four teammates, could see Jean's distinctive, unmistakable flaming red hair and Ororo's flowing silver locks, and he could hear a bit of their conversation.
Scott was speaking. "…I don't understand it. Why would Logan desert us when we needed him the most?"
Jean sounded puzzled herself but defended Logan firmly: "He wouldn't, Scott. There must have been some overriding reason—" She broke off as Sam jerked upright, staring out at the desert in disbelief. "Somebody's comin'—walkin' outta the desert!"
Logan smiled grimly as he trotted up, Jubilee still piggybacking, waving enthusiastically, her fatigue momentarily forgotten. "I see ya started the brouhaha without me!" He came to a stop against the wall beside Scott.
Jubilee, wincing a little and bravely trying to hide it, ran over to the two women who had been surrogate mother and big sister to her since she'd joined the X-Men. "Jean! Storm!" and then, "Sam! I thought I'd never see you again—I thought—" and to her embarrassment, she broke down again, sobbing in relief and happiness as she flung her arms around the women. Logan realized there was no hesitation this time; whatever she had endured, it had happened specifically at the hands of men, and didn't affect the way she reacted to women at all. Good. When this was over, maybe Jean could talk to Jubilee.
Ororo and Jean returned the hug, with interest. "Hush, Jubilee," Ororo said quietly, taking in at a glance Jubilee's battered, bruised appearance and torn clothing. "We are together again."
Jean closed her eyes as she hugged Jubilee, doing a quick mental assessment. The jumpsuit marked Jubilee as one of Bastion's captives, and the bruises on Jubilee's face didn't bode well. She didn't have a lot of time to do an in-depth psychic scan of Jubilee's mind, but the surface impressions were pretty telling. Relief. Exhaustion, pain, a lot of it, centering in…Jean winced mentally, and made a note to talk to Jubilee once the current emergency was over and they were all safe.
Off to one side, Scott stared incredulously at the young girl, then turned to Logan, questions spilling out of his mouth almost faster than he could ask them. "What happened? How did she get out here? Was this why you ran off—"
Logan looked at Jubilee, still caught up in her reunion with Jean and 'Ro. "Bastion had her locked up in the Hulkbuster Base—the same joint we escaped from. Apparently it extends hundreds of feet below the desert floor. There's no tellin' what else the government's got goin' on in there." Scott looked at Jubilee again, opened his mouth to say something—and Logan cut him off. "She's had a rough time, so don't bug her about it just yet." Then, with a grim smile, "Ya really didn't need me here, did ya, Slim?"
Leaving Jubilee with Jean and Ororo, Scott and Sam took Logan inside. "We had a little help," Sam started.
Logan grinned wolfishly, teeth showing whitely in his face. "I know. I heard the bus comin' right as I caught a whiff o' Jubilee."
Sam filled him in. "Before we could stop 'em, those ol' boys from the trailer park, they plowed right through the front door…" he shoved open a door at the end of the short hallway. "But once inside, all we found was this…"
Jubilee noticed Logan leaving out the corner of her eye, and relaxed a little. She was really glad to see him, and he'd saved her, and she loved him for that, but right now she was torn between wanting him to hold her and hug her tight and never let her go and wanting to paff him as far away as she could. She'd had to fight down her aversion to being touched as they traveled back across the desert the way he'd come, as they got back to where he'd left the X-Men. She had given Sam a wide berth, and Scott too. She simply didn't want to be around men right now. And she hoped it wouldn't be obvious.
She should have known she couldn't keep anything from a telepath.
Jean probed Jubilee's mind as Jubilee rambled on, paying only partial attention to Jubilee's retelling of her capture from the Massachusetts Academy. "…and then this big dude with white hair shows up outta nowhere, and he says his name is Bastion, and then Mondo like, comes up and Bastion just blows him away—blam!—like that, and then he grabbed me and…"
Jean tuned it out, focusing on what Jubilee was trying to hide. She'd seen the abrasions on Jubilee's wrists; had felt the tension in the younger girl's body as Jubilee fought to hide it…and she'd also felt Logan's emotions as he saw Jubilee wince and try to hide it. With Logan's enhanced senses, things about Jubilee's current condition would be more readily apparent than a psychic probe would be, because Jubilee was also trying to shield her mind from Jean's psychic probe. Not well; she'd never been very good at it, and usually when she was feeling strongly about something, Jubilee would project her emotions all over the place. But now all of a sudden her metal defenses were a bit stronger, as if she'd had a lot of time to practice recently.
And the implications of that troubled Jean. Back when Jubilee had first come to the mansion, she had been taught to shield her thoughts from the other telepaths; Charles, Betsy, and Jean herself. It hadn't been that hard, since Betsy hadn't even known Jubilee was at the X-Men's Australian base until Jubilee had come out of hiding. Jubilee already had some kind of mental shield that activated automatically when she was actively hiding. It wasn't foolproof, by any means, so they'd taught her to shield herself. At the mansion, however, it hadn't really been necessary, since none of the three telepaths was particularly interested in the contents of Jubilee's mind. Even when she'd done something wrong, it hadn't been necessary to ferret out the truth about anything psychically because Jubilee openly admitted what she'd done when pressed. She'd found out truth from her own mouth was preferable to truth weaseled out of her by one of the mansion's telepaths, and things always went harder for her if she didn't admit to her wrongdoing; and Logan himself had taught her to take responsibility for what she'd done.
So, while Jubilee had been taught to shield, she didn't actively practice it because there was no need. And that had been the case the last time Jean had seen her, when she came for a quick visit home. Now Jubilee's mind was shielded, heavily, but there were cracks in it from exhaustion and mental fatigue. And that kind of mental exhaustion…Jean wondered what Bastion could have done to cause Jubilee that kind of mental fatigue, but Jubilee wasn't letting Jean in. The cracks in that mental armor let some things out; Jean got a fleeting glimpse of a woman, girl really, not much older than Jubilee; a glimpse of a dark cell, the mental picture permeated with a sense of hopeless, despair, and guilt…and a control room, with buttons, switches, and all sorts of control…and Bastion, whom Jean had barely seen, but his image was graven indelibly in Jubilee's mind.
Also of some concern was Jubilee's thinness, and the bruising on her face and arms. And of course, the shorn hair that had partially grown out but was still jagged-edged. Ororo, while appearing to be listening to Jubilee, was also looking her over, taking in details with eyes trained by years of thieving to notice details. Jean sent a message over to Ororo. Does she look too thin to you?
Indeed. Ororo's mindvoice was tinged with dismay. There is a great deal Jubilee is not telling us, Jean, and the mere fact that she feels the need to keep this to herself and not share it with us is cause for concern. She has never felt as though she could not talk to one of us before.
Do those look like restraint marks on her wrists?
Yes. And it horrifies me beyond belief, Jean. We know he was cruel, cold and uncaring…but could he possibly have been this cruel to a child
Bastion kidnapped her from the Academy. From the Academy, Ororo. Right under Emma's and Sean's noses. Jean shook her head quietly. Emma's a telepath; even if Sean were distracted (which I assume he was from what she's telling us) Emma should have felt Jubilee's consciousness drop out of the telepathic web. Charles and I both do that; we set up 'telepathic radar' when things start to go wrong. She should have located and kept all of them in her 'telepathic' sight, so when Jubilee's mind suddenly dropped from her 'radar' she should have known. And then she should have alerted us…or someone…that Jubilee was missing. Look at how thin Jubilee is; that's not a matter of a few days, or a week, that's a couple of weeks, maybe even a month, of cruelty. Ororo, I don't think I'd like to be Emma, and to a lesser extent, Sean…when Logan finally gets up there to talk to them. Of all of us, Logan feels the strongest emotions for her. I don't understand what it is that they have together…but it's so strong that I wouldn't be able to predict what would happen to Logan if something were to happen to Jubilee. And I hope I never find out.
And suddenly people started pouring out of the clinic door, panicked, running, screaming. Jean, Ororo, and Jubilee turned, just in time to see Sam blasting out of the door carrying a limp figure in his arms, and Scott half-carrying another wounded person. Jubilee gasped audibly. "What happened in there? Where's Wolvie?" she asked Scott.
Scott replied to all three of them, though his face was turned in Jean's direction. "Mustang turned out to be one of Bastion's sleeper units—"
Jubilee narrowed her eyes in anger, and pointed an accusatory finger at him. "And you left Wolvie in there with him?" She turned and ran for the door of the clinic, ignoring Sam's shouted, "Jubilee, come back here! Y'all can't—"
Ororo cut him off. "By the Goddess, my friends—look! Hundreds of Sentinels, approaching from the horizon! How many did Bastion twist into cruel parodies of life?" She stared at them. "How many?" she breathed.
Jubilee heard Ororo's exclamation, but ignored it. Wolvie was in here, somewhere, and she had to find him. Dear God, she whispered, please let me find him. He's all I have, don't let anything happen to him, I just found him again, please don't let me lose him…and she rounded a corner, and there was Wolvie, her Wolvie, flying backward as a Prime Sentinel's killing blast knocked him backwards into a wall. The Sentinel facing him had Mustang's features, but a Prime Sentinel's uniform. And it's voice. "I am sorry, Logan. But if your kind is left unchecked, it is only a matter of time before mankind is extinct." Chills ran down Jubilee's spine; it was the same drivel Bastion had spouted.
Logan pushed himself upright, his healing factor already going to work on the charred hole in his chest. Nevertheless, he was still struggling. "I ain't tryin' ta save my life, Mustang…I'm tryin' ta save yours."
His words didn't make any sort of impression on the Prime Sentinel whose human form belonged to a man named Mustang. Jubilee heard the high-pitched bleep that meant the Sentinel had turned on it's targeting sensors to 'terminate'. And she acted.
She burst into the room, her twisted ankle forgotten, her fists blazing with all the power she could muster in her current exhausted state. "You let my Wolvie be!" she screamed, thrusting her fists in front of the surprised Prime Sentinel/Mustang's face. "You just let him be!" Remembering how she'd managed to hold off the Prime Sentinel in the desert, she aimed for his eyes as she released everything she had.
And she got the desired result. "Vision receptor fault! Photo-sensor overload!" and then, somewhat more human-sounding, "My eyes!" Jubilee backed away, gathering herself for another burst of power, but that was rendered superfluous. "I can't see again!" It was Mustang's voice, though still sounding partially mechanical. "—again? Oh, Lord! What have I done?" His expression went from a mechanical stoicism to one of disbelief and remorse.
Logan went up to him, reaching out, as Jubilee reabsorbed her unused plasmoids into herself. "Nothin' ya coulda prevented, bub," he said, no trace of anger in his voice. "Nothin' ya coulda prevented. I ain't gonna hold it against ya, so don't hold it against yerself." To Jubilee, he said, "Hey. Check that desk over there; maybe there's somethin' we can use ta figure out how ta reverse the change and deprogram the sleeper units." Jubilee went obediently over to the desk, rummaging around in it. Finally she found it; a whole stack of the floppy disks she remembered as being so plentiful in Bastion's control room.
"Way to go," Logan said as he took them from her with a smile, and warmth spread through her at the praise, and at the quick squeeze he gave her shoulder. Suddenly his touch didn't bother her so much, although she tried to stay as far away from Mustang as she could, putting Logan between herself and him.
They burst out of the clinic, elated by their success. "Hey! We found these computer floppy discs—" Logan stopped in mid-sentence as he and Jubilee took in the sight of Scott, lying motionless on the ground in obvious pain, and Jean beside him with two human medics hovering close by. "What happened to Slim?"
Sam sighed. 'You missed the shoot-out, Logan! Bastion is history and S.H.I.E.L.D. was just through here mopping up the Sentinels—Cyclops got caught in the crossfire—" Sam looked hopelessly back at their fallen leader. "There's a bio-bomb in his chest."
Jean spoke, her eyes never leaving her husband. "We have to get him back to Salem Center. The medlab is his only chance, but…how…?"
Logan looked up…and by chance his eyes fell on the abandoned Zero Tolerance aircraft the X-Men had been planning on using to make their getaway. "Looks like we got an abandoned Z.T. transport jet over there—Storm, you're qualified to fly the Blackbird. You think you got the chops to get this crate airborne?"
Ororo smiled thinly, though it was a grim smile. "You have to ask, my friend?"
Scott levitated off the ground, wrapped in the magenta glow of Jean's telekinesis. "I'm generating a psi-cocoon to stabilize Scott for the trip!" Ororo boarded first, to prepare the plane for a vertical lift-off; Jean followed, cradling Scott and cushioning him from further harm, and Sam followed with Jubilee. Jubilee took a last glance behind her, at the clinic and the base, and saw Logan give Mustang the disks she'd found. She saw them exchange words, and she lagged a little behind until she saw Logan head for the plane, then she climbed in and found a seat, buckling herself in securely. Hey, at least I get to ride in this thing awake and vertical, she thought. Beats ridin' in it drugged asleep and horizontal!
She made herself as comfortable as she possibly could, sighing. Everyone seemed to be busy. Jean was holding Scott together despite the bomb in his chest threatening to tear him apart; Logan and Ororo were up front, piloting the plane; only Sam seemed to be restless, walking around with a pensive expression on his face that looked so much like Paige's that Jubilee was startled. Well, they are brother and sister…she remembered how Paige hated being interrupted, so she remained quiet, until they were just over Pennsylvania, and then her curiosity got the better of her. "What's wrong, Hayseed?" It was an affectionate nickname she used for Sam's little sister.
"Nothin', Jubilee. Jus' thinking, is all."
Jubilee had a hunch she knew what he was thinking about; he'd looked just as lost as she felt. But all she said was, "Yeah? Well, don't do too much of it. It'll get ya in trouble every time."
Logan looked back at them. "Strap yourselves in, we're gonna be home in a while. Jubes, we was thinkin' fore Slim got hit that we'd drop ya off in Massachusetts 'fore we went back to the mansion, but now we can't afford the extra time ta detour. You gonna be okay with spendin' a few extra days with us?" Or weeks. Or months, depending on how long it took to mop everything up.
"Suits me," Jubilee sighed. Off the hook. She wasn't really keen on going back to the Academy right away; just remembering how Bastion had swept her off the grounds had ruined any feeling of happiness and security she'd had. Now all she wanted was to be close to the people she cared about, the people she'd almost never seen again…the family she had betrayed.
Guilt pricked her like a needle, and she leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes, trying not to think about it. This whole mess had been her fault…how the hell was she going to find a way to apologize for this? Would they believe her? Would she ever be trusted again? Would they—especially Wolvie—ever, ever forgive her?
She was still mulling over this as exhaustion over took her and she slipped into a deep, dreamless sleep.
"We're here, Jubes—" Logan stopped short as he saw her, slumped over in the seat, definitely deeply asleep. He placed a finger against his lips and turned to Ororo, who was behind him. "She's sleepin'. 'Bout time for it, she has to've been exhausted. Put the plane on autopilot an' let her sleep. I'll come get her later." Ororo nodded, went to the cockpit, made the necessary adjustments, and the X-Men made their exit from the plane as Jubilee slept on, oblivious to anything but her body's urgent, overwhelming need for sleep.
End notes:
Thanks go to the creative teams on Wolverine #117 and #118, and the creative team on X-Men #350, from which material for this chapter was taken. And thanks also to my coauthor, who so kindly provided me with the issue I was missing! Also, the folks at UXNyou folks are a veritable Smithsonian of X-Men information, particularly Monolith and Peter Luzifer, and I appreciate the time and effort you've taken to answer all my annoying questions about a minor character like Jubilee. I hope you guys approve of the way I bridged some of the 'irreconcilable gaps' in Marvel continuity.
The next part of this book will be a lot less 'leaning on canon' and a lot more creative work. After X-Men 350, Jubilee drops off the radar for a while; the general consensus among the X-Men fans seems to be that Jubilee got dropped off at the Academy on the X-Men's way back to the mansion. Given Scott's state at the time, I really doubt they would have detoured out of the way to drop her off, so the next few chapters will be mostly my work. If you have any issues with the events as I've laid them out so far, feel free to email me at
