X2 with Jubilee

--Heavenstar3

Disclaimer:

I don't own any of the characters. Borrowed material from Stan Lee, Chris Claremont, and Bryan Singer

Note (IMPORTANT):

I am so, so sorry I have not been able to update this chapter sooner, I have been really busy. My finals were last week, so I had to concentrate on that; I have been having problems at home and at school; life for me right now really sucks. Good news is that school is finally over so I have time to write and type more chapters for this story and my other stories. Thanks for being patient.

2nd Note:

" normal speech " & ' thoughts '

Thank you to all of my reviewers!!!!!!!!!!

Check out my other story in the Comics: X-Men called, "True Secrets". Thanks. Please R&R.

Chapter 4

[ Narrator's POV]

It's late, 2:45 a.m. to be exact. The Professor and Scott are not home because they are visiting Magneto in his plastic prison; Jean and Storm are also not home due to the fact that they are looking for the president's assassin. The only ones at the Xavier Institute are the students and the one called Wolverine.

--Kitty, Rogue, and Jubilee's Room--

In the dark room of three of the older student females, two of these females were fast asleep, but one of them kept tossing and turning in her bed.

"Ugh. I can't sleep," Jubilee whispered frustrated that she couldn't sleep. Her mind was on other things and on other people.

Turning so she would be on her back, she looked up at the same ceiling that she had looked at only a few hours ago. More frustrated that she couldn't sleep, she gave a low growl and got out of bed.

She looked for her bathrobe so she could hide her pajamas. Not that it was revealing or anything like Rogue's, she just wanted to wear her robe. She looked for it in the dark, but couldn't find it.

"Damn it," she hissed. She decided to just wear her yellow leather jacket to cover her sky blue baby tee and her cloud printed pants. Then she slipped on her black flip flops, grabbed her sunglasses so they could act like a headband on top of her head, and headed downstairs toward the kitchen quietly.

When she got there, she saw the lights on and Bobby eating ice cream out of the carton. 'Why is he up?' Jubilee questioned silently.

"Hey," she said entering the kitchen.

"Hey, what are you doing up at this hour?" Bobby asked, pointing his spoon towards her.

"I could ask you the same question," she replied and took his spoon to get some ice cream.

"Couldn't sleep," he said while watching one of his best friends help herself to his ice cream.

"Me neither, have to much on my mind," Jubilee said after eating a spoonful of vanilla ice cream.

"So...why are you all dressed up?"

"I'm not all dressed up, I'm still wearing my pj's, I just couldn't find my robe, so I had to use my jacket."

"Oh," was all he said and began to eat the rest of his ice cream while Jubilee just watched.

She was going to say something, when a voice interrupted her from behind, "Doesn't anybody sleep around here?"

Jubilee knew who it was, it was Logan. She turned around to face him. He was wearing a white sleeveless top and jeans. She was looking at him from top to bottom, "Apparently not."

He went to the fridge, opened it, and looked inside, "Got any beer?"

"This is a school," Jubilee says.

"So that's a 'no'?" Logan asked.

"Yeah, that's a 'no'."

"Got anything other than chocolate milk?"

"There should be some soda in the small cupboard," Bobby said pointing his spoon towards the cupboard.

Logan headed toward the cupboard, his back to the two students. 'Nice ass,' Jubilee thought leaning back on her chair looking at his backside. He pulled out a Dr. Pepper and opened it. He was going to drink, but then stopped. He handed it to Bobby, then with his Iceman powers he turned the warm Dr. Pepper to a cold Dr. Pepper.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

Logan settled down on a stool next to Jubilee. All the while, Jubilee just kept looking at him.

Logan sensed this and turned towards her. "Well I know Bobby here, so who are you?"

"Jubilation Lee," she said proudly.

"Jubilation?" he questioned trying to understand the name. He took a drink, "Parents hippies?"

Bobby almost choked on his ice cream.

Jubilee looked annoyed and answered sarcastically, "Yeah, the first Chinese hippies in Beverly Hills."

"Sorry."

"Mmm-hmm," was all she said.

There was a brief silence, "So how long have you two been here?" Logan asks.

"I've been here a couple of years," Bobby answered.

"And your parents just sent you to mutant school?"

"Actually, they think this is a prep school. They don't know I'm a mutant."

"Oh, I see. I suppose a lot of prep schools have their own dorms, campuses ---"

"Jets?" Jubilee questioned.

Logan looked at her and she just smirked. "So now what's your story?" he asked her.

Jubilee's smirk disappeared. "Well...Um...I've been here for a little more than three years. I heard about this place on the streets, so I decided to come."

"Your parents know you're a mutant?"

Jubilee's face slightly saddened, but then turned serious. "My parents died when I was ten. After they went state sent me to a foster home. Didn't like it so I lived on the streets, traveling here and there."

Logan was shocked. This kid had it bad. Alone like him. "That would mean you were on the streets for three years?" She nodded. 'Poor kid, alone at the age of ten, but still hanging on.'

There was an uncomfortable silence. Jubilee didn't like it, she hated uncomfortable silence, so she broke it. "What about you?" she asked Logan, even though she knew he had no memory, she just had to ask.

Logan was silent for a minute. "I don't know, can't remember," then took a sip of his drink.

"Didn't the Prof. help you? I mean didn't you leave to find your past?"

"Yeah, but found nothing," he was saddened, but his face wasn't.

'Poor Wolvie,' Jubilee felt sorry for him. It must be tough not remembering who you are. Not knowing if you had a family out there or not. "Don't worry. I'm sure you will find something," she said putting her hand over his.

He looked at her hand on top of his and then looked at her. She had a little smile. "Thanks," he smiled back.

Jubilee blushed a little and looked down. There was another silence, but this time Logan broke it.

"So Bobby, you and Rogue?"

"Yeah, but it's not what you think." Jubilee and Logan looked at him. "I mean," he stammered, closing his eyes in misery, "I'd like it to be..." He paused. "It's just," he sighed, "that it's not easy — when you want to be closer to someone, but ...you can't be." He looked up from his ice cream and looked at Logan, who had an understanding look. "I've seen the way you look at Dr. Grey."

Jubilee would have chocked if she were eating, not believing that Bobby had just said. Everybody in the mansion knew that Logan liked Jean, but would never say anything in front of him.

She watched Logan as he gave a somewhat questioning, angered look. "Excuse me?"

"Nothin'," Bobby started to eat his ice cream again.

Jubilee kept looking back and forth. From Logan to Bobby and back again. They were both in love with girls that they can't touch and they are here right now in the kitchen feeling sorry for themselves. 'Men!' Jubilee thought.

Nobody said anything for awhile. "Look," Jubilee said and the two guys looked at her. "Bobby you just have to be patient. I mean, I know it's hard, but it's not only hard for you. It's hard for her too." Bobby contemplated this. "If you love somebody you have to understand where their coming from and what position their in. You have to be patient and wait for them," she then looked at Logan, "and sometimes you have to let them go."

Bobby and Logan just started and her, both contemplating what she had said. She was right.

-- At the same time --

In the common room, a young mutant boy, Jones, was watching television. His eyes blinking, changing the channel, until he stopped. Something else had caught his attention, an image on the screen but having nothing whatsoever to do with it, Jones peered closely at the screen, then clambered up the back of the couch to see who'd entered the room behind him.

It was a man dressed just like the commandos Jones watched on TV. Black from head to toe, face decorated with camouflage paint and a knit wool balaclava. Battle fatigues, combat boots, weapons and equipment harness, night-vision goggles. His name, though Jones didn't know it, was Lyman. He was in command of the assault force.

Finding himself facing a boy who was barely a teenager, Lyman wavered.

Wondering if this was some prank, or test, or maybe a new teacher, Jones swung his legs over the couch and padded, barefoot and in pajamas, toward the stranger.

"Hi," he said. He wasn't afraid. In this mansion, he truly believed he had nothing to be afraid of.

His eyes widened slightly in disbelief as, without a word in response, Lyman pulled a pistol from its holster and fired.

Jones felt a sting in his neck, grabbing at it reflexively in time to pull free the tranquilizer dart but not before the drugs took effect. He collapsed to the floor, his eyes fluttering, the TV changing channels so fast behind him that the flickering images registered more like static.

Lyman used hand signals to motion the rest of his team forward. Silently, weapons leveled, they spread throughout the mansion.

Before Jones completely passed out, he sent a telepathic 'HELP' to anyone who could hear him.

-- Back in the kitchen --

Jubilee got up and went to the cupboard to get a soda. She pulled one out and suddenly dropped it.

The glass breaking interrupted the silence in the kitchen and the two males shot their heads up to look at Jubilee.

"Jubes?" Bobby questioned her actions, worried about his best bud.

"Something's wrong," she said.

"What?"

Logan then heard a 'clink' and told them to be quiet. He was looking towards the kitchen door and went to see what the noise was.

Bobby got out of his chair and went towards Jubilee. "What's wrong?"

"Something's happening."

"Wha–?" He got cut off by some kind of noise outside, "What is that?" They both go towards the window.

"Helicopters?" Jubilee questioned.

"I think so."

Then all of sudden they heard a noise from behind them and turned. They saw a man dressed in a camouflage outfit and Logan. Logan grabbed the man's arm and placed it on the man's side so the man couldn't use the tranquilizer gun.

"You picked the wrong house bub," Logan said.

Then all of a sudden everybody in the mansion heard Siryn's cries. Bobby and Jubilee both covered their ears trying to stop the high pitch scream from entering their ears and breaking their eardrums.

Logan and the man couldn't do anything about the tremendous shrieking so they both endured it, screaming themselves.

The man in the camouflage outfit couldn't take it anymore. To get free, he raised his other arm which held a mission gun and pointed it toward Bobby and Jubilee and started firing.

The two teens saw what he was about to do and ducked down and hid next to the counter.

Jubilee, still clutching her ears with her hands, could hear Siryn's cries and a lot of firing going off. Once the firing of the gun ceased, she heard struggling coming from Logan and the man. Then Siryn's cries ceased; she dared herself to look over the top of the counter. She gasped at what she saw.

The man had pinned Logan against the counter, she and Bobby were hiding behind, with a combat knife pointed directly at Logan's face.

'I can't just hide here. I have to help,' Jubilee said to herself and got ready to blast this guy with fireworks.

When she was about to throw a ball of her pyrotechnics, she heard a snikt. She saw Logan push the man off him and into the fridge. Logan had his claws out. 'Wow,' Jubilee stared, never really actually seeing them before only hearing about them from Rogue. Logan yelled, ran towards the guy, and plunged his six claws into the man's sides.

Jubilee stared wide eyed as the man fell down onto the floor dead, heard a snakt, and saw Logan's claws retract back into the back of his hands. 'That was interesting,' she thought. She could hear Logan heavily breathing as he turned towards them.

Bobby also witnessed the scene between Logan and the man and actually looked scared as he looked at Logan. "You guys alright?" Logan asked them.

Both of the shocked teen just nodded. Logan looked at them. He saw fear in Bobby's eyes and a mixture of emotions in Jubilee's. There was a sense of shock, amazement, and excitement? But no fear. That amazed him. Usually people would be scared of him after what she had just witnessed, with him and his claws, but not her. He shook his head and told himself he would contemplate on this later. "We've gotta go," he said simply.

Without running, they moved quickly through the ground floor. Jubilee had no idea whether they were simply trying to escape or rescue the others. Logan didn't offer any enlightenment, and Jubilee understood that her job right now was to follow Logan's lead and do as she was told. End of story. She heard the sounds of booted feet all around them, men shouting orders counterpointed by the higher-pitched cries of kids in a panic. She thought she heard shooting, she knew she heard a crash that sound to her like a wrecking ball making contact. Then suddenly, at the short hallway leading to the servants' back stairs, Logan stopped her with an arm like steel rebar across her chest.

"Stay here," Logan said, and then he charged.

Jubilee and Bobby couldn't resist a peek. Two troopers were carrying Jones down the stairway. Another few waited below in the hallway.

Logan turned the scene into a demolition derby. A first backed by adamantium bones smashed one man's face and hurled the man aside, blinded and broken and bloody. Momentum carried him into the main body of the group, and a piercing shriek of surprise and pain told Jubilee and Bobby that Logan was using his claws.

Bobby and Jubilee looked at each other with surprise looks on their faces as Logan killed every guy in the hall. Then they heard more screams coming from upstairs. "The children," Jubilee informed Bobby.

"Let's go," Bobby grabbed Jubilee's hand and headed toward the hidden elevator door.

When they got up to the dorm floor, it was mass hysteria. Kids were bumping into them as they got out of the elevator.

Bobby saw John run down the hall, "John! Hey, where's Rogue?"

"I don't know."

"I gotta find her," Bobby announced running the opposite direction that everybody else was running.

"Bobby!" Jubilee screamed in fear for her friend and ran after him.

"Hey!" John yelled and ran after them.

Jubilee stopped and waited for John to catch up, "So you gonna come with us?"

John shrugged, "Can't let you out of my sight. Might never see you again."

Jubilee blushed, but got over it when she heard Bobby scream for Rogue. "Come on," she grabbed John's hand and ran down the hall looking for Bobby.

It had been a minute and a half and they both couldn't find Bobby or Rogue. "Damn these mazed hallways," Jubilee hissed when they came to a dead ended hallway.

"Yeah, I know," John said gasping for air.

They both stood there for a couple of seconds to catch their breaths, when all of a sudden Jubilee felt some sort of light electrical bolt come into her brain as like to warn her that they were in danger there. She gasped and pulled John with her to the floor.

"What the --?" John didn't have time to finish because he heard something fly over his head and hit the wall. He saw two darts in the wall; he turned his head in the direction where the darts came from and saw a man in camouflage clothing with night goggles on.

"Now you two just cooperate and I might not have to hurt you," the man said.

"Ha, yeah right," and with that Jubilee got to use her powers for the first time tonight.

From what the man could tell, a firework spark was coming at him. It hit him in the face where his goggles were and blinded him. 'Too much light!! Can't see!!!' he screamed in his head.

The man was too busy worrying about his eyes, he didn't notice a foot coming towards his face.

Jubilee did a roundhouse kick and knocked the man totally unconscious.

"Nice," John complemented her.

Jubilee looked back and smiled, "Thanks. Now come on."

They jumped over the unconscious man and ran to find their two friends.

After many turns, they finally found Bobby still looking for Rogue.

"Bobby, where's Rogue?" Jubilee asked when they were in front of him.

"I don't know," Bobby ran down another hall calling out for Rogue.

"Rogue," Bobby screamed with Jubilee and John right behind him.

"Bobby," they all heard and as they turned the corner saw Rogue. "This way," she pointed towards the hidden passage.

The four teens were running towards it, but stopped when an exterior lamp turned the hall brighter than noonday. They saw two shapes vaguely outlined in the glare, hanging outside the window. Immediately John grabbed Jubilee hand, Bobby grabbed Rogue's covered waist, and they all tumbled around the corner in a heap as an explosion shattered the leaded glass to bits, spraying the corridor with splinters and debris. Right behind the blast came the soldiers, targeting lasers tracing lines through the smoke, fingers ready on the triggers. Each door they passed got the same treatment: shotgun blasts to the hinges followed by a shot from a battering ram to punch it open, a coupled of stun grenades to incapacitate anyone inside, sustained bursts from submachine guns to finish the job. Each room took only seconds to clear, and they did the job with murderous, methodical precision.

Without a word, the four young mutants decided that they didn't want to find out what would happen if they were found. When the soldiers reached the corner, the teens were long gone.

The four teens hurried down the nearest flight of stairs, the order of the evening was that things that were bad were constantly getting worse.

The mansion was crawling with troops, and from the sounds they heard all around, they quickly realized that nobody was using tranquilizer guns anymore. The bad guys were shooting bullets now, and they weren't being stingy with their ammunition.

Abruptly, Rogue stopped in her tracks, so suddenly the others slammed into her from behind. Harsh words were formed, but none were spoken. The sight before them wouldn't allow it.

Rogue was standing in the middle of a pile of bodies, all soldiers.

"Logan was here," John commented unnecessarily, but even he felt small and vulnerable in the face of this carnage.

"This is old news," Jubilee said. "We can't stay here, we're sitting ducks." With that they all headed towards the door running, until it burst open by four men with guns.

The men were about to shoot, but never got the chance to fire. Logan saw to that.

He was on the gallery above them, and with a primal scream that was so much more animal than human, he dropped on them like the wrath of God unleashed, arms held wide, claws extended. The soldiers didn't stand a chance.

After all four of the men were dead, Logan retracted his claws and stared at the four teens. "Let's go," and he started walking towards the front doors.

They all were headed there until it flew open and blinding light come through it.

Everybody had to shield their eyes, it was so intense. "Come on. This way," Logan pushed them in the opposite direction.

Bobby found the nearest escape passage, opened the door, then he and John went leaping through at once. Jubilee next and then Rogue. She got in and then turned. She saw Logan shutting the door. "Logan," Rogue screamed and the door shut all the way.

John, Bobby, and Jubilee were already running through the passage way until Rogue stopped them. "Wait! Wait! You guys, we gotta do something. They're gonna kill him."

Her plea fell on totally deaf ears except for one. Both boys had seen Logan in action. Neither believed an outcome remotely possible.

"Maybe she's right," Jubilee said, sounding worried. She was starting to like the hairy man.

"Yeah, right." John scoffed for emphasis. "He can handle himself, Jubes. Let's book!"

"Bobby," Rogue pleaded, "please!"

"Yeah, I mean it's like were sentencing him to death," Jubilee backed up Rogue.

Bobby just stood there, looking back and forth at his girlfriend and his best friend, wondering what to do. He sighed loudly, "Alright!"

Rogue, Bobby, and Jubilee returned back to the door. Leaving John standing in the hall. When they stuck their heads out they saw Logan talking to someone.

"Who are you?" Logan questioned the older man.

"Don't you remember?" The man questioned back, moving towards Logan.

Bobby then put his hand against the wall and froze it. Making an ice sheet in between Logan and the man with the soldiers.

Logan blinked, wondering, what was wrong with the air. A mist was forming between him and the man named Stryker, the temperature plunging so rapidly that one breath was normal, the next gusting a cloud of icy condensation.

On the other side of the mist, Stryker reached out a hand to encounter a wall of gleaming ice that divided the hallway from floor to ceiling, wall to wall, forming a protective bulwark between the mutant and Stryker. The men around him stirred, suddenly anxious that they might become entrapped in ice themselves. But nobody broke ranks.

"Logan," Rogue said. "Come on."

Logan didn't answer. He was just staring at the ice sheet in front of him. "Logan," Bobby said, snapping Logan back to reality.

"Get outta here. I'll be fine," Logan finally said.

"But we won't," Jubilee said.

Stryker wasn't sure what was happening. The wall was translucent enough to suggest to him that Logan was no longer alone, but it didn't allow him to see how many others had joined him or who they were. With swift, decisive movements, he plucked a penetrator grenade from Lyman's harness and jammed it into the ice. Lyman immediately pulled him back and around, to shield his commander's body with his own. The other troopers shielded themselves and scrambled for cover as best they could in the seven seconds that passed between Stryker pulled the pin and the bomb detonating. The shock resounded through the confined space, leaving those closest to the blast partially deafened, their bodies feeling like they'd just been pummeled by jack hammers. The force of the shaped charge went straight into the ice, filling the air with frozen splinters as it punced through the wall like a spear.

When the mist cleared, the wall lay in broken chunks, filling the hallway and partially covering some of the men.

On the other side, though, was empty floor. Of Wolverine, and the others Stryker had seen, there was no sign.

The four teens and Logan all ran down the passage. They ended up at the garage.

Like everything else about the mansion, there was a public space and private one. Upstairs, in a carriage house set a little apart from the main buildings, was the usual group of SUVs and vans, plus the professor's vintage Rolls-Royce. The basement held a far more eclectic and personal assortment of vehicles, including Scott's collection of bikes. Some looked normal, others were as wildly modified and revolutionary in conception and design as the Blackbird.

The choice for tonight was a sports car, blindingly quick but so well crafted and balanced that it could handle the local roads–which were narrow and wickedly winding–as though it were traveling on rails. The confines would be cramped, but it would carry them all.

"All right. Get in. Get in." Logan ordered them.

"I'm driving," John announced opening the driver's seat door.

"Hey. Maybe next time," Logan told him and opened the backseat door for him.

Everybody got in the car. Rogue was in front with Logan and Jubilee was in back in between Bobby and John.

"This is Cyclops' car," Bobby said.

"Oh, yeah?" Logan didn't sound impressed, bu actually he was.

"We'll need keys."

Logan's reply was the snikt of a single claw extending. He stabbed it through the ignition, twisted some wires together, got a spark, got a start, and they were on their way.

There was an evacuation tunnel for vehicles as well, giving them access directly to Graymalkin Lane, the road that ran along the estate's border. A left turn would take them to the neighboring town of Purdy's Station and the interstate, 684, that linked New York City with the main east-west highway—I-84—that bisected Connecticut and the southern tier of New York State. Turning right put them into the heart of Fairfield County, lots of woodland roads so gnarly and poorly signed that even the locals got lost occasionally. It was hilly country, constantly dropping into little ravines and hollows, which made it difficult to establish sustained radio or cellular communication.

Logan went for it like a shot, taking the turns at speeds that made the four passengers grab for their seat belts and then hold them tight. He drove without lights.

"What the hell was that back there?" John asked.

"Stryker," Logan said after awhile. "His name is Stryker."

"Who is he?" Rogue asked.

"I don't remember."

Rogue looked at her wrist, unwrapped Logan's old dog tags, and held them out to him. "Here. This is yours."

Jubilee, from the backseat, watched the whole scene. When Logan got his old dog tags back he rubbed them with his thumb over the embossed letters like Aladdin did his lamp, hoping for his own kind of genie and three wishes to unlock all the secrets of his life, never considering—now or ever—that perhaps those secrets weren't something he should see. She also saw the 'thank you' look Logan gave Rogue and the jealous look Bobby gave.

Then there was silence. Jubilee felt uncomfortable, so she decided to do something. She got out of her seat and leaned forward to the car radio. "I don't like uncomfortable silences."

"What are you doing?" Rogue asked as Jubilee turned on the radio.

The speakers erupted with music that sounded like NSYNC's "Bye, Bye, Bye." Jubilee tried to turn it off because it was too loud. She finally found a button that turned off the music, but did something else too. A tray popped into view, revealing an oval-shaped disk about as small as your basic computer mouse.

"I don't think that's the CD player," Jubilee announced, looking at it.

Logan took the device and examined it. He managed to open it and it beeped. "Whoa," he said looking at it in awe. It was some type of phone or something. He looked at Jubilee and told her to sit back.

"Where are we going?" John asked after awhile, totally lost.

"Storm and Jean are in Boston," was Logan's tense reply. "We'll head that way."

"My parents live in Boston," Bobby said looking uncomfortable with a hint of fear in his eyes Jubilee noticed.

"Good," said Logan and with that they drove in the dark, headed toward Boston.

( End of Chapter 4 Long huh? )