Meet My Friends

Chapter 23

With in a week Creed and Jubilee slipped through the Canadian Boarder and into the U.S. without being detected. They reached a rest area and rested there for a bit. While Jubilee went inside to clean herself up, Creed took the time to remove two license plates from a station wagon and a camero, carefully jimmy the camero, and hotwire it without anybody seeing him. He looked up to see Jubilee coming out of the rest rooms and drove up next to her.

He rolled down the window and said, "Get in."

Being too tired to argue Jubilee got in the camero.

They drove for hours, until they could no longer ignore their stomachs. Creed pulled out his wallet and counted how much cash he had, he frowned; he didn't have very much left. He growled and stuffed his wallet back into his front pocket.

"What's wrong?" asked Jubilee.

"I only got fifteen bucks left for us to eat."

"Well… We could hunt our food."

Creed shook his head, "I'm too tired and so are you, plus we still got Logan and Weapon X on our trail. I want to get us as far away from them as we possibly can before we try anything like that."

"Hmm" she thought for a moment, then got an idea, "We could always go to McDonalds. They have the dollar menu there."

"Nuh-Uh. I ain't goin' to any smelly fast food restaurants unless my sense of smell is turned off."

"Well… I think I've got a friend who's not too far away from here that might be able to help us out."

"It ain't one of your X-Geek friends is it?"

"Ha Ha Hell no. If I showed up on their doorstep with you they'd begin asking me a whole stream of never ending questions, and lecture me on how it's not save to be around someone as dangerous as you. Naw, I've got a couple of buddies that can help us with food, money, and ways to keep our appearances low."

"They better be good, frail, cuz I ain't in no mood for any bullshit today."

"Don't worry. They're really trust worthy people. Turn here." she pointed to a outer road that switched from pavement to gravel. "Amazing that in New York you can still find outskirt country places like these."

They traveled down the gravel road for a couple of miles, until Jubilee told him to turn left again, they went up it a little ways, until they spotted a rather large, dark house covered mostly by a large over growth in trees.

"This is it." said Jubilee

"What the hell kind of place is this?"

"A place that I've never told any of the X-Men. Not even Logan."

They pulled up to the house and stepped out of the car. Creed looked up at the house and then up at the sky finding that he really couldn't see it. He looked at Jubilee, who was looking at him with a sort of sly smile on her face. Her smile made him uneasy.

"You ain't tryin' to pull a fast one on me, are ya, frail?"

She smiled even bigger, "Now why would I do that?"

She began walking towards the house, but was stopped by Creed yanking her back by grabbing her hair, "Don't even joke."

"Alright!" he let go and she rubbed the back of her head, "Geeze, you seriously have like no sense of humor."

"I've got one, but you won't like what I think is funny."

Jubilee rolled her eyes and walked up to the house. Creed followed closely behind her in case she tried anything. They reached the door and knocked. Suddenly a sign dropped down in front and of them that read: Don't Knock It, Just Pull It." They around for anything that might be able to pull and found a really unique pull string. It was a naked make demon with a rather large unit with the words 'pull me' etched into it. Jubilee pulled it and throughout the house inside echoed the sounds of blood curdling screams so loud and high that it made Creed jump.

Jubilee giggled, "What's wrong, Creed? Scared?"

"I ain't scared of anythin'."

"Sure. Keep telling yourself that."

Just then the door opened. There stood a young woman, wearing a black medieval gown, and gothic makeup. She first looked at Creed, then at Jubilee, whom she gave a small smile.

She opened the door wider and stepped aside, "We've been wondering when you would return, Jubes. Please, come in and bring your friend."

"Thank you, Gothica." said Jubilee, as she walked in with Creed right behind her.

Once inside, Creed took in his surroundings. The house was dark, the only source of light were many black and red candles that were scattered decoratively around the house, they even made a trail up the stair case. The walls were red and the floor was black, except a few spots where there were stars and planets which almost looked as thought they were moving.

The young woman called Gothica closed the door behind them, then made her way in front of them, walking into another room which smelled strongly of pot. She spoke to them while looking straight forward, "As you can see, Jubes, we have made a few alterations to our home since you last came."

"You lived with these people?" Creed asked.

"When the X-Men forgot about me and refused to put me on any of the team lists even though I had proven myself worthy, I ran away for a while. I met Gothica at a club, she and I talked, and she invited me to stay here with her and her friends."

"I'd say she was better off here than at the Institute." said Gothica, "At least here she got some respect."

Jubilee shot Gothica an angry look, "Shut it, Gothie. I'm pretty sure that Creed doesn't want to hear us talk about the past."

Gothica looked over her shoulder and smiled, "I'm pretty sure he does. His heart is quickening with anticipation to hear more."

Creed looked at Jubilee with a curious brow, she rolled her eyes, "Gothica is half vampire." he became even more confused, "It's a long story."

"I don't mind telling it."

"You can tell him all about it tonight. Right now we need your guys help."

"Oh? And who's after you this time?" said a male voice from the room that they were about to enter.

Once inside they saw five more people sitting in different types of chairs. There was a middle aged man that looked like a tiger sitting in a chair made of stone, next to him was another middle aged hippy-looking man sitting in a bean bag chair, sitting in two chairs made of what looked like animal bones were twin men wearing nothing but lion cloths and long black hair that went past the back of their back, and sitting in the far corner was a young girl with red curly hair, large glasses, and a red cloak reading a rather large book. Everyone sensed them come in and looked up to see who it was.

"Well, well. Look what the cat dragged in. Pardon the expression, Stripes." said the hippy looking man.

"None taken." replied the tiger man.

"Oh, my." said the red headed girl, "Who is this luscious man that have with you, Jubilation?"

"Yes, Jubes." said Gothica, sitting down on a nearby sofa, "Tell us about your new friend."

"Creed, the tiger looking guy is Turk, the hippy over there is Bong-o, the two naked guys over there are Stag and Snake, and the book work over there is Rosie. Well, guys… This is Victor Creed. He is…"

"Her love master." interrupted Creed.

These words caught every ones attention.

"Is he really, Jubes?" asked Gothica.

"Uh… Well." she turned and glared at Creed.

"Ooh! I'm so jealous!" cried Rosie, "I once had a love master once, but found me too boring and left."

The twin men sitting on the other side of the room got up and walked over to them. Snake, who had his hair pulled bank into a pony tail examined Creed with a suspicious eye; the Stag squatted down next to Jubilee and looked her straight in the eye.

"What're they doing?" Creed asked.

"Shh"

"Don't tell me to shh, frail!"

"Don't raise your voice at her, outsider!" roared Turk, who stood up angrily.

Creed rose of up too, his claws extended, "And whatcha gonna do about it, fur face!"

"This!" Turk leapt at Creed and the two feral men began fighting.

"Turk! Creed!" yelled Jubilee trying her best to pull them apart, "Stop it!" she fell backwards and looked to the others for help, "Guys! A little help here!"

"Let them duke it you, Jubes." said Gothica, "It's the only way for inferior males to settle things."

"Yeah, man." agreed Bong-o, "Usually I'd say make love not war, but Turk has been rubbing me the wrong way lately. It'll be cool to see the old guy in action."

Both Stag and Snake crossed their arms in front of their chest and nodded in agreement as well.

Rosie simply blushed and looked at the two men dreamingly, "Aren't they just dreamy?"

Jubilee glared at the group and tried again to separate the two feral men, but only achieved in getting knocked down again. Clenching her fists, she became angry, and her body began to glow crimson red.

Creed noticed this and immediately stopped, not paying attention to Turks fist flying right into Creed's face. The punch didn't faze Creed at all, he was more concerned about trying to make Jubilee calm down, before she blew up and gave away their hiding place. He knocked Turk down and raced over to Jubilee, he reached out and grabbed her, but his hands jerked back when he felt how hot her body was.

Everyone saw this and began to panic, all except Gothica, who simply walked out of the room, then shortly returned with a bucket filled with ice cold water. Without a moments hesitation she dumped the cold water over Jubilee's head. When the water made contact with Jubilee's body her body steam rose and her body returned to normal.

Jubilee glared at Gothica, who was smiling sweetly, "Feel better?"

"I hate you, Gothie."

"The feeling is mutual."

A couple of hours had past and Jubilee had finally cooled down enough to tell her story to everyone, except she left out the part her deal with Creed. She was embarrassed as it was already with the comment Creed had made earlier. Everyone understood her situation and gave her and Creed safe sanctuary, until it was time for them to go.

In the mean time, everyone wanted to get to know Creed, except for Turk who already knew enough not to like him. Turk looked around for Jubilee, who had already left the main room to go step outside. He followed her scent and found her sitting on the rooftop of the house. With ease Turk climbed the house and sat down next to her.

Jubilee felt his presence, "Hey, Turk."

"Hey, kitten." he purred, "You've grown a lot since the last time I saw you."

"Yeah, but clearly not enough to win Logan's affections."

"The man's a fool. He never had good taste in women, always going for the damsels in distress." Turk put a massive arm around her shoulder and hugged her tightly, "Tell me something, kitten."

"What?"

"Why are you really with that man? I can tell that you really don't love him and that he doesn't really feel any real love for you, only territorial feelings."

"I really don't want to talk about it."

"Why? Don't you trust me?"

"I do trust you, Turk, but I'm scared that you'll feel the same way about me as Logan does now."

"Try me. I'm a bit more understanding than that blow hard."

"Okay." she explained to him about how she and Creed came to hook up with one another and how things took a turn for the worse with Logan. She sighed sadly, "So that's why I'm with him."

Unable to make eye contact with Turk she turn way and tried to leave, but he pulled her into a tight hug, and did not let go. For a long while they simply sat on the roof top holding each other.

It was getting late, so Turk and Jubilee headed back inside the house where Creed was waiting for them patiently. For the first time, Jubilee was able to measure up the size of Turk and Creed. Turk was about four inches taller than Creed and had more muscle on him, but he was a little slimmer than him.

Both men walked circles around each other, blue eyes on yellow green eyes, and fangs bared. Turk's tail swished with irritation and he growled threateningly, "Just remember, if you hurt her, I'll make sure that you breath again."

"Don't worry, pal, I always take good care of my property."

"GRRRRRR Jubilation is no one's property! As long as you stay here, you're to treat her like a real person, and show her and everyone in this house with respect. Got it, blondie?"

Creed smirked, "Whatever you say, hairball."