Evaluations
Jubilee wished all she had to do was make up for exams.
“On your feet, kiddo.”
Kiddo.
It took only a week for Jubilee to fully recover, as expected. McCoy ran his tests and Marie and Kitty visited everyday, the latter being her only reprieve from all the poking and prodding she endured. Her brain had been scanned, blood drawn, measurements taken - after an hour on a treadmill with an oxygen mask tied to her face and a billion sensors taped to her body, she decided astronauts didn’t have to sit through half that shit.
Whatever Jean had done, it hadn’t happened before. Jubilee had been a little worried at first. Now she genuinely loathed the young woman.
Stupid telepaths.
It was straight for evaluations after getting McCoy’s final approval. Jubilee didn’t know what to expect, but she was certain it was some kind of written exam or an oral report.
No.
This was definitely not a fucking oral report, she would rather recite Shakespeare in a feather boa and her underpants in front of her peers. She made a mental note to personally throttle Kitty and Marie for never mentioning that Logan was a psychotic P.E. teacher.
“I said on your feet, Jubes.”
A growl rumbled deep in her chest as she pushed herself off the floor. Talcum powder, old sweat, and a hint of copper filled her nose. She tasted blood in her mouth, and tongued the cut in her bottom lip.
It all felt familiar to her - just as grueling as her gymnast training. More force! Stick your landings! Higher! Higher!
Only this time, there were bamboo samurai swords, and a wild man with metal claws for hands.
She had been told Logan performed some kind of torture, but this was crazy. She was dressed like a fucking Japanese dojo disciple and forced to endure his brand of “punishment.”
Jubilee removed the training gloves from each hand, dropping them at her bare feet. The headgear, a traditional piece not dissimilar from fencing masks, but heavier, was stifling. Her fingers made work of the clasps and wrenched it off. She breathed deep, tossing the helmet to the side.
In retrospect, it probably wasn’t a good idea to pick a fight on the first day. Couldn’t be helped though. Logan disagreed. And to be fair, it was just a show of excessive force during a sparring match.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Like, she didn’t even hit the girl that hard but whatever.
“We’re not done here.”
She huffed, pushing back the sweat soaked hair from her eyes.
Honestly, if the bitch hadn’t charged at all this whole thing could’ve been avoided but no...
“Pick. Up. Your. Sword.”
...Jubilee had to be the bigger person and just walk away. Yeah. Okay.
“Do you yield?”
She could hear his patience reaching that fine line - the point of actually tearing - and the thrill of watching him cross it gave her the gall to turn to him with the most impassive expression she could muster.
To her delight, it was enough.
Never had she seen someone turn that shade of red. The troll of a man stared at her with those black eyes, and slowly removed the cigar that was hanging from his mouth, baring large, sharp teeth.
“Bored, are we?”
Jubilee gave a single-shoulder shrug, untying the chest plate from her torso. She had to be ready. Light on her feet. And that shit put on an extra 50 pounds. It clattered on the floor as she threw it aside. Just far enough.
“You think I give a shit about a class rank? You’re just the same as the next kid that walks into my gym.”
Jubilee raised a brow at him, her hands continuing to pull at the many knots on her arm guards.
“You don’t get to disrespect your peers, or make a farce of my training.”
At this, Jubilee raised two brows. If by disrespect he meant assaulting a classmate, then, sure. Another guard fell to the floor as she rubbed her forearm, inwardly wincing at the soreness from gripping a weighted weapon made entirely of bamboo. She also wondered where he learned a word like farce.
“And now you’ve gone and pissed me the fuck off.” There it was. That low growl.
The small crowd of students around them took a step back. It was already bad. Some of them hated Jubilee. Some of them were scared. The slander thrown at her earlier played back in Jubilee’s mind. As well as the sound of her fist cracking Boom Boom’s eye socket. It almost wasn’t fair that she got to lie down in an infirmary but Jubilee was stuck here, getting lectured and knocked around in front of her class. Fuck them. At least Kitty and Marie weren’t there to watch this.
Good.
He meant to grab at her. Maybe throw her over the shoulder and out of the gym. Maybe to slam her to the ground and knock the life from her body. But Jubilee was fast. Always the fastest. He lunged and she dived away. Logan was quick to pivot but she was already rolling to her feet. He didn’t see what she held in her hands.
Jubilee swung the chest plate upward until it connected with his face. She bit down on a shout as the impact almost vibrated up her arms. That kind of force could’ve broken a man’s jaw. Instead, Logan’s head snapped to the side.
There are a few moments in a person’s life where they know, for certain, that they fucked up.
This might have been one of them. Didn’t matter. She figured he’d forgive her later. Maybe even understand why she’d done it. Juvenile rebellion. Adverse reaction to authority. Just plain old petty.
But she couldn’t help the sliver of doubt when he looked at her.
Jubilee had never seen murder in someone’s eyes before that moment. And it scared the shit out of her. It’s probably the same feeling bunnies have when they make eye contact with a wolf. A certain, violent end. Turning on a heel, she made to dash away. And realized that she may never in her life be faster than Logan.
He grabbed the back of her gi and yanked. Hard. She cursed as her feet actually left the ground and she was flung backwards. Her shoulder hit the mat first and she allowed it to absorb the impact as she thrust her legs upward and over. She landed on her feet and was already scrambling to stand, her eyes widening in horror as Logan’s wild glare was just inches from her face. One hand snatched the front of her gi, the other the waist of her slacks, and Jubilee was shouting as she was being lifted up and over his head.
The ground rushed up at her as he threw her onto the mat, knocking the wind from her chest. Jubilee’s sense of fight or flight brought her rolling to her feet, stumbling backwards.
He waited, hands balled into fists and chest heaving.
She fell to a knee, a hand grasping at her gi as she forced herself to breathe. Spots danced before her eyes as she leveled a glare at him.
“Yield, you little shit.”
He had to have known better. Than to talk to her like that. Especially like that. She hadn’t even left a mark on his face after that first blow. It only pissed her off more.
“Fuck you,” she spat.
“Stay your ass down. Yield.”
At the moment, even if she wanted to, she couldn’t stand. She was shaking, unsteady, but the anger burned hot in her gut.
Fuck this guy. Fuck that girl. Fuck this place. Fuck them. Jubilee ground her teeth together as the burn in her gut seemed to spread to her chest.
She watched him whip around to the rest of the class, who looked on in terror.
“Anyone else bored with my class or interested in pissing me off?”
A weak chorus of “No” floated in the tense air.
“My class. My rules. My - “
The class erupted in a deafening bang and flash of blinding light. In the chaos of the moment - students shouting, screaming, scrambling and stumbling away, disorientation and panic rampant, no one saw Jubilee fly across the room and hurtle into Logan.
The blast had hit him directly in his back, the force of it knocking him to the floor, clothing singed to the skin. He was quick to recover, staggering to his feet, wisps of steam rising from his hunched over form.
Jubilee had moved with a renewed fury, darting through the smoke, ears ringing from her own attack, blinking back the white clinging to the edges of her vision.
There was a short time in Jubilee’s childhood when her father put her in martial arts classes. Kickboxing was a personal favorite, but the king fu academy in San Francisco had given her a love of movement - tumbling and flying.
So it was easy to plant a Sure foot on Logan’s bent leg, hands grasping the hard muscle of his shoulder, and pushing up and over as he swung back an arm. She used the momentum of his body and pulled down. He was a heavy bastard but not a friend of gravity. It was enough. He fell forward, hitting the mat with Jubilee, who growled as her arms found his massive neck and secured his shoulder while her legs wound tight around his chest.
And she squeezed.
Jubilee was vaguely aware of the shouting that erupted around them as students began to recover and witness the scene before them. Logan was on his back, choking, as Jubilee roared, strangling the life from him.
But Jubilee was struggling. It only took so much pressure to suffocate someone into submission, but the man was three times her size and carved out of stone. She was already exhausted, but her own stubbornness refused to let go.
Logan tried to roll them over, she tightened her legs and firmly kept him on his back. A hand came up and grabbed at her knee in a crushing grip. Maybe he was trying to tap out. Maybe he wanted to pulverize her chances of actually walking again. Jubilee screamed in objection, her hands burning again. She shut her eyes as she raised a blazing fist and slammed it into his face. Repeatedly.
The first time her sparks flew, Jubilee had felt a range of emotions. She had come to meet students who found their powers in times of fear, rage, pain, and desperation. It had been different for her.
Despite everything else that happened - drowning in the violent tides of the ocean, helplessly watching her mother bleed out on the kitchen floor, fighting off devious boys in that one home, or staring down the barrel of a gun that held the promise of giving her the same end as her parents - none of it was enough to trigger her abilities.
Instead it was that night, on the beach, sitting in front of a dying fire pit, spiraling in the darkness and uncertainty of what her life had become.
It was a moment of feeling completely lost.
And a light, so pure, so wonderful, erupted in her own two hands.
Jubilee’s power manifested as a beacon. When everything was fucked, beyond repair, her sparks gave her true, clear, presence.
She had learned quickly to trust it. And let it burn bright.
Without warning, Jubilee’s hold on him broke - wrenching his arm from her grasp, Logan reached back grabbed at the front of her gi. He twisted to his knees and managed to lift Jubilee, his other hand snatching her fist before it landed another strike. Jubilee registered that half of his face was gone before he slammed her into the ground.
Jubilee cried out as a crushing weight hit her chest, Logan pressing a boulder of a knee into her.
“YIELD!”
“NO!”
Her free hand shot up, and a blast of sparks exploded directly in his face.
The sound he made was one Jubilee would never forget for the rest of her life.
And then the weight on her chest was gone, and she rolled away, choking and gasping, her hands numb as she tried to rub the dark spots from her eyes. She tried to stand and found she could not, her knee giving out with terrible, sharp pain.
Dazed, Jubilee finally looked around.
Most of the students had fled. A few had huddled to a side of the room, watching in horror. Only three remained at the edges of the arena they were in. She recognized them from her classes. A tall blonde boy, his dark haired friend with the bright brown eyes and bronze skin, and the girl who was always setting things on fire.
They regarded her with a mixture of awe, fear, and anger.
“Stay down, Jubilee,” the blonde one warned.
Cannonball. She saw him barrel through four solid walls made of brick and walk away without a scratch.
The girl was the closest, her own fists on actual fire as she took a wide stance. Magma. The other boy moved to her side as Jubilee leveled a dark gaze at them. He was glowing. Sunspot.
Everybody here and their stupid fucking code names.
Jubilee turned away from them, and found Logan not too far behind her, on his hands and knees. Retching.
His head was smoldering, wisps of smoke rising from his burnt scalp.
She watched him stand, swaying on his feet, unsteady, his back to her. He was still coughing and wheezing, the sound dry and cracked. He was reaching into his vest, the furry collar burned away, the leather blackened at the shoulders. Jubilee heard the scratch of a match, and watched small puffs of smoke rise in between labored breaths and hacking.
When he turned, she heard the students gasp. Her own stomach lurched. What had been Logan’s face was now a lump of seared meat, metal, and bone. Gone was the black mane of hair, the dense beard, a nose or mouth or ears. His teeth looked even larger, whiter, sharper as it clamped down on a lit cigar. But his eyes were intact. Black and glittering in the lidless sockets of his skull. Focused only on her.
A hand grabbed the cigar from his mouth, and he exhaled smoke through his bared teeth, some of it coming out of the tears in his cheeks.
“Get out.”
The command was directed to everyone but her. No one had to be told twice. The gym cleared instantly, but Canonball lingered.
“Professor -“
“I SAID GET OUT!”
The young man cleared his throat, casting Jubilee a withering glance before turning on a stiff heel and walking toward the exit.
When the door closed, Logan seemed to falter, taking a step toward Jubilee and collapsing to his knees with a thud.
“Shit.”
He was done.
Jubilee let go of a breath she didn’t know she was holding, letting herself sprawl across the floor on her stomach.
Silence filled the space between them.
And then the tears came.
She was spent. Beyond exhausted. Her chest hurt. Her hands throbbed painfully. And everything she held in since stepping off of that stupid plane had burst at the seams.
“I fucking hate you,” she cried, burying her face in her hands. “Why’d you say that. Why’d you let me do that!”
What was she doing here? Making friends and living her best life? How, when she had nothing. When the life she had was shot dead, dragged between shitty homes, and wasted on the streets?
She didn’t owe him shit. She didn’t ask to be taken away. She didn’t need some stupid kids shouting at her, spreading lies about a life she didn’t have anymore -
Rough, callused hands gently picked her off the floor, and pulled her against something solid and warm. She didn’t care enough to push him away.
And he didn’t offer any words. They sat like that for a long time. Not speaking, only Jubilee’s wretched sobbing.
“I don’t want to be here,” she choked out.
Logan only grunted.
“All of this is stupid,” she said weakly.
Another grunt.
“I’m not sorry for knocking her out.”
A pause. And a softer grunt.
“What was the point of that?” She demanded, hoarse and sullen.
“You can’t train with these kids.” His voice had changed, and Jubilee pulled away, turning to look at him.
Most of his face had come back, the skin waxy and pink, the hair on top of his head grown out in patches. His lips curled into a sneer, but Jubilee figured it was the closest thing to a smile he could manage.
“Looks like you’ll get to meet Danger.”
****
If Danger was actually the glare that Jubilee was receiving from Ororo, she wanted to elect another alternative.
There was a chill in her office today, despite the clear, perfect weather outside the window. Jubilee suppressed a shiver and tried not to cower from the Titan of a woman.
Those icy blue eyes were dark with anger. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
Thankfully, Jubilee wasn’t alone this time. Marie sat to her left, Kitty to her right. They all fidgeted in their chairs. It wasn’t even sunrise when they were summoned to the professor’s office. Sleep had found them curled up together on two beds pushed together. They had spent the night weighing this very moment, tumbling through varying stages of grief.
“Silence? Hoping a little unity will stop me from expelling the three of you before breakfast?”
Jubilee closed her eyes, waiting for Kitty to crack first.
But only more silence followed. After a moment, she peeled an eye open to find Ororo glaring at them.
“I have a young woman confined to the infirmary for a fractured eye socket. Explain, or I send the three of you packing.”
Marie stood, “And where would Jubilee go!”
“She and I both know the answer to that,” Ororo replied, words laced with venom, her eyes never leaving Jubilee.
Kitty stood, “You wouldn’t do that! Not to her!”
“Take your seats,” Ororo growled. They glanced at each other and complied, casting the woman equally hateful glares.
“You deliberately harmed another student, endangering her well being.” Ororo pushed herself off the desk and took a step toward them. “I don’t care what she did, I don’t care if she started it, and I don’t believe Logan when he says you understand the consequence of your action. The three of you were irresponsible in managing the situation.”
“Managing What situation?” Kitty challenged, and the two other girls cast her a matching, horrified, sideways glance. “She bullied - no, terrorized - the three of us and when we tried to talk about it we were told to ignore it. Her micro aggressions toward Marie and her physical attacks on me and Jubilee should’ve been enough to expel HER.”
“And yet she is in the hospital bed, with a strong chance of losing vision in her left eye.”
Kitty’s mouth worked against another retort, her face turning red as she cast her eyes to the floor.
“There were things that could have been done to prevent this,” Ororo continued. “You have given me very few options.”
“It was a sparring exercise,” Marie defended. “We didn’t have to be there to know that Jubilee defended herself against Tabitha. At what point are we supposed to walk away when being the bigger person puts us in danger?”
Jubilee felt her heart clench, knowing that Marie had endured the worst of it the longest. Kitty only became a target because she was constantly intervening with Boom Boom’s antagonizing. She had failed terribly at hiding the burns from her roommates.
“You have remained silent since arriving, Jubilee,” Ororo focused on the girl again. “I expect you’ve weighed the outcome. What would you have me do.”
Jubilee stood slowly, meeting Ororo’s gaze. She took a steadying breath. “You told me there was zero tolerance for disruption. I understand we could have collectively prevented this, but they shouldn’t be punished for my actions.” She had been practicing this in her head since leaving the gym yesterday. Jubilee knew from the moment she engaged Boom Boom it was a fate she could not avoid.
“Jubilee - “ Kitty started.
“But I should go.”
“Agreed,” the response from Ororo was swift and carried a finality that Jubilee hadn’t prepared for. She felt herself sag in the silence that followed.
“You don’t even know what Tabitha said,” Kitty suddenly spoke. Her voice trembled with what Jubilee recognized as rage. She turned to look at the girl. Kitty sat in her chair, directing an accusatory scowl at Ororo.
Jubilee paled. “Don’t -“
“Everyone in the mess was talking about it,” Kitty almost couldn’t repeat it. “Tabitha accused her of killing her own parents.”
Jubilee spun away from Kitty, casting her gaze to the floor.
“If it were me - I would’ve phased her into the foundation of the school, and left her there,” Kitty growled. Ororo stiffened. “She has no right treating people the way she does - it’s repulsive and stands against the inclusivity and unity this institution stands for. If you want to expel her, you’d better wheel Professor X here to do it himself.”
Jubilee’s hand flew to her mouth to stifle the gasp that Marie made no effort to conceal.
“She just said to wheel that man out here,” Marie whispered to no one.
The silence that followed was going to break Jubilee, who was content to just study the laces of her shoes.
“Unnecessary, Miss Pryde, but noted.”
“I have more points if you’d like for me to share them,” she bit back.
“Please don’t,” Marie replied weakly. “I want to live.”
“I watched you fight him,” Ororo finally spoke. Jubilee recoiled, regarding the woman with wide eyes. The professor was looking at her with a strange curiosity. “No hesitation. No fear. Fully in control. In the face of defeat you did not give up.” Ororo nodded. “You passed your evaluation.”
“WHAT.”
“I agree you should leave - it’s clear you still grapple with the violence that took your parents from you. You have an aversion to authority, and you’ve yet to measure the full scope of your abilities which puts your peers in danger.”
“AND.”
“Despite my observations, Professor Xavier is allowing you to stay. With conditions.”