3’S A CROWD
PART ONE
"Everyone, I’m pleased
to introduce you all to our newest student. This is—er—Maggott."
Sean Cassidy had to stop
himself from visually grimacing when saying the young mutant’s name. When Dr. McCoy
contacted him about the newest X-Man changing teams, he had asked a perfectly
normal question. What was the boy’s name? Henry didn’t know. "We may have
another Rogue on our hands." He’d said sarcastically.
He had told the other
students of Maggott’s impending arrival and a brief sketch of his involvement
with the X-Men.
"Madre Dios!"
Angelo had exclaimed. "Not another one?"
"Another what?"
Jubilee asked, her eyes narrowing.
"Another you!
Is this guy gonna burn our ears off with more, ‘When I was with the X-Men…’
stories? I’ve had my fill."
"Fill this."
Jubilee responded, throwing a couch cushion at him. "‘Sides, I don’t do
that anymore."
"Much."
"Anyway, from what I
hear, this guy isn’t the talking type. Scratch that. He doesn’t talk about himself
much."
"Now hold on there
lass." Sean said holding up his hands. "I don’t want a pile of rumors
to be stacked up against the boy. Let him come first. Then ya all can make up
yer minds about him. Just be sure ya play fair."
Three weeks later and all
of Generation X were lounged around Sean’s office, greeting their newest
teammate.
"So where are your,
uh… friends? Your uh…" Angelo made a creeping/crawling motion with his
hand.
"The girls? Oh,
they’re… around." Maggott said, a slight smirk on his face. He folded his
arms.
"So, anyone volunteer
to give our friend the grand tour?" Sean asked, hoping the students would
not leave him hanging.
"I will." Jubilee
said standing up. "This way Mag." She led him out of the room.
* * * * *
"And finally, we have
what use to be commonly referred to as The Danger Grotto, and is now our
brand new, state of the Shi’ar, Forge improved Danger Room."
"This one much like
what the other looked like? Pretty plain, it is."
"That’s cause we
haven’t set a program."
Jubilee typed away at the control
room keyboard. A war ravaged city landscape appeared in the Danger Room below
them.
Maggott winced visibly.
"Little too close to home, luv."
"Oh!" Jubilee ran
her fingers across the board and the city vanished. "Sorry. Wolvie told me
you’ve had kinda a rough past."
"An’ what else did the
man tell ya?"
The two students left the
control room.
"Not much. You had
your secrets and I should respect ‘em and not ask a lot of question. I do that
sometimes. He told me to be nice to you. Which means he likes you. Which means
I’ll probably like you too."
"You and he are real
close I hear."
"Better believe
it."
"Yeah… we got kind
close too. He’s a good listener, that one. Still scares the rings outta me, but
he’s a good listener."
"Aw, Wolvie’s a teddy bear,
once ya get in good with him anyway. Common Mag. Let’s go find the rest of the
crew."
"It’s Japheth."
"What’s Japheth?"
"Me. The name’s
Japheth. Wolverine told me t’be nice to you too."
"Japheth."
Jubilee repeated the name. "It’s nice I like it. Why the hell do ya go by
Maggott when ya got a cool name like that?"
He shrugged. "My way
of remembering who’s close t’me. You call me by my given name twenty years from
now, I know you musta been a friend a t sometime."
"Fair ‘nuff. But I
hate callin’ ya Maggott though. How about I just call ya "J" when the
others are around? Too close?"
"Naw, doll. J’s just
fine.
* * * * *
"How ‘bout a movie
tonight Lee?" Everett asked coming into the foyer. Jubilee was tying her
shoelaces.
"Well, actually, J and
I were just headin’ out to one. You wanna tag along?"
"N-naw. It’s all
right. Have a good… have fun."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. That’s a new
jacket isn’t it."
"Yeah, Wolvie sent it.
Thought I’d be growing out of the other one by now."
"You were. The sleeves
were three inches up your wrist. You’re fifteen now and you’ve worn that yellow
for how many years?"
"Traitor. I love my
long yellow. Boy that Wolvie’s slick. How’d he know t’find the one perfect
jacket I’d fall in love with and make me loose the other one?"
"Brown Bomber style
looks good on you."
"Thanks. It’s butter.
I’ve never felt leather so soft."
"If it’s leather
you’re inta doll, let’s drop the flick. I saw this kinky little joint in town
that specializes in—ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!"
To silence the young
mutant, who had just walked into the area, Jubilee grabbed Japheth’s single
lock of hair and pulled.
"—I give! I give,
doll!" Jubilee released her hold.
"But ya just proved
the rough stuff agrees with ya."
Jubilee made another
grab, but Japheth dodged, whacked her on the behind and ducked behind Everett
for cover.
"Ohh, you are sooo dead." Jubilee said lunging towards him. Japheth
sidestepped still using Everett as a barrier. He was laughing, quite pleased
with himself.
Everett sighed and rolled his
eyes, while he was being knocked back and fourth.
"Guys, I really don’t
want to be in the middle of this." ‘You’ve no idea how much I
don’t want to be in the middle of this.’
In the three months Maggott
had been at the Massachusetts Academy, he had gotten very close to Jubilee. The
two had quickly become close friends, no doubt partially due to their common
friendship with Wolverine. Their relationship had now developed into a stream
of shameless flirting. Two nights earlier, Everett had seen them kiss.
He didn’t like it.
"Don’t you two have a
movie to catch or somethin’?"
The dancing around Everett
subsided.
"E’s right. We should
be gone." Japheth reached his and out and Jubilee took it.
"Later, Evy." She
said, and the two left.
Everett stood alone in the
foyer. A very mean thought flashed across his mind, but he shook it off and
went up to his room.
* * * * *
"Wolvieeeeeeee!"
Jubilee didn’t even hit all
of the steps on the way down the stairs. She dived into the X-Man’s arms
without ever touching the ground. He caught her in a hug.
Jubilee had just managed to
finally pull herself out of bed, showered and changed when she heard a yell
that brought her out of her early morning haze.
"Hey, kid! You gonna
leave an old man standin’ down here all day?"
Always the last one up in
the morning, the rest of Generation X was already gathered at the foot of the
stairs to greet their surprise morning guests. Along with Wolverine, Cyclops,
Storm, Cannonball and Beast were standing there.
"What are you guys
doing here?" Jubilee asked when she finally touched the floor.
"Pop quiz."
Banshee answered. "You all ‘ave been doin’ pretty well in the Danger Room
on yer own. But to really test ya, we decided to pit ya up against the big
boys."
"Ya know Mr. C,
suddenly I ain’t feelin’ so good. Maybe I should just go lay down for a
while."
"Nice try. No deal
Angelo."
"Damn."
"Suit up! Ya got ten
minutes."
* * * * *
Seven hours later, the
members of Generation X lay slumped around the den. Some on the floor, some on
the Sofa’s, Angelo was on the coffee table.
"My hair hurts."
"My teeth hurt."
"Someone really smells
in here."
"Do you think they’ll
fire us?"
"They weren’t even
winded!"
"They never broke a
sweat."
"Just pile some dirt
on me and call it a life."
"This is really
pathetic."
"They’re probably
running back the sequences and laughing."
"We weren’t that
bad."
"Jubilee, I think Sam
might’ve knocked you in your head a little too hard."
"I’m serious guys. We
did okay. We did what we were supposed to do. Probably more than they expected
us to."
"We got our asses
kicked!"
"We protected the
civilians."
"Speaking of
which," M interjected. "Jubilee, do not ever order me around like
that again!"
"If you were doing
what we were supposed to do, I wouldn’t have had to order you."
"What do mean ‘what we
were supposed to do’? We were dropped into the Danger Room, the program was
activated and the X-Men attacked us. We were obviously supposed to fend them
off. To fight back."
"And we got our asses
kicked."
"You said that
Angelo."
"I’m sorry, it’s still
with me."
"Monet, we were
supposed to treat this as though it were a real life situation. A real attack
on a city street."
"Exactly."
"…So… if this were a
real fight, you would’a kept on knocking heads with Wolvie?"
"Until he backed down,
yes."
"And what about the
civilians."
"Those were
holographic robots, Jubilee."
"Making sure they were
safe, should’a been our first priority. Once they’re in the clear, then it’s
stompin’ time. The balcony almost fell on me and those old folks."
"Hello! You’re speaking
as though there were real people in there."
"The point is you were
too busy in your own little battle to help me."
"So that’s what this
is about? You’re blaming me cause you can’t cut it?"
"I’ll show ya what I
can cut, ya little--"
"Jubey." Maggott
grabbed her arm to stop her from charging over the lounging team to where Monet
was sitting.
She calmed herself and
flopped down next to Japheth on the couch.
"Look guys, the point
is, we got all the people clear with only a few bruises. I say we had a good day."
"We got killed. Nine
of us, four of them. We were slaughtered."
"There’s no way we
could’ve beat them, that wasn’t what this was about."
"Pray, enlighten us oh
sparkling one."
"I thought you were
supposed to be the perfect one with the genius I.Q. You mean you haven’t
figured it out yet."
"Figured out what
Lee?" Everett asked. He was sitting upside down on another sofa, his head
hanging over the floor.
"We had to wear those
stupid sticker things so Beast could monitor us. They wanted to see how we handled
the stress. And look who came: Storm, Cyclops and Cannonball."
"And Logan."
"I think Wolvie just
tagged along. But what do the others have in common?"
"…Too tired to think
Jube."
Jubilee rolled her eyes.
Jono mentally sighed.
"They’re all now, or at one time have been team leaders." He rolled
back over in his chair and closed his eyes, boarded with the conversation.
"Right."
"What are ya saying
Jubilee?"
"Simple,
Corncob." She replied to Husk. "They’re here to pick someone to lead
Generation X."
To Be Continued…
Call me! You know I love
that mail! stormgates@hotmail.com
On To Part 2