1X02 – Pop Rocks and Pixie Stix – Act I | X-Men: The (fan fic) Series

1X02 – Pop Rocks and Pixie Stix – Act I

1X02 – Pop Rocks & Pixie Stix – Act I

Two individuals lay asleep in their beds. On the punk rock side of the room, Jubilee was buried inside a yellow comforter as if she was in a cocoon of which she would never emerge. In contrast, Megan Gwynn laid face down in her bed on the opposite side, her sheet of a blanket only drawn up to her waist as her fairy-like wings were left free by the spaghetti strapped night-dress she wore.

Jubilee made a snorting noise and rolled over, further entangling herself under the covers. Megan continued to snore lightly, her wings lifting and shaking gently with each breath.

The clock turned to 6:30 and let out a screeching holler. Both mutants continued to lay there, unmoving.

6:31.

The clock continued to blare at them, reminding the two that it was a school day.

Jubilee rolled over and reached up to turn the blasted thing off, but instead a spark shot from her hand and the small, cheap, digital clock gave a squeal before dying.

“Third one this month, Jubes,” Megan said sleepily in her Welsh accent, shaking her wings out as she sat up.

The firecracker said something intelligible about Monday’s and buried herself deeper into the comforter.

…

In the early morning the cafeteria was full of chaos. Most of the students were either lethargic or rushing. It all depended on how much they slept in and what they had to do in class that day.

Jubilee spotted the blonde girl at the end of food line, she had hoped to run into her. Grabbing a plate, Jubilee slipped in beside the girl, “Hey, Christy.”

“Jubes,” the girl glanced up from where she waited, plate in hand.

“Think I can take your gardening duty this week?” she asked, giving the blonde her best smile despite how tired she was.

“I guess,” she shrugged, “I’m fixed for spending cash at the moment.”

“Great,” Jubes was happy with this turn of events. “The new special edition House of Mavendor: The Scarlet Queen comes out in November, it’s signed and limited edition, and Jean won’t pre-order it for me with her card unless I give her the cash now. Something about not spending money you don’t have.”

“You spend way too much on those books,” Christy gave her a wry look.

“No such thing,” Jubes waved her off, “Josephine Martyr is a genius. This special edition is annotated by her, I can’t wait to see what she has to say about that ending with Queen Jandamarra telling the Four Nations ‘bitch please, bring it’, well, not in so many words.”

“Sure…” the girl wasn’t terribly impressed but, “I’ll let the registrar know you’re taking my spot.”

“Rad.”

The line moved and it was Christy’s turn, Kitty shoveling some scrambled eggs onto her plate.

“Hey, Kat,” Jubilee smiled at her, “guess you pulled kitchen duty this week.”

“Beats working fast food,” Kitty laughed, giving Jubilee the same big helping of eggs. The good part about dragging into breakfast late is that you tended to get larger portions as the staff is now trying to get rid of the excess.

After she got a bottle of orange juice from the cooler, Jubilee headed over to her usual table, easily spotting Meg’s pink hair and fairy wings in the semi-crowded room. She was sitting across from Sharon who was sporting a school blazer like the one Jubilee was wearing. Meg was only wearing a white blouse-looking halter top on account of her wings which were dropped down in their resting position.

Xavier’s had a dress code, and uniforms, but they were hardly cast in stone.

Jubilee plunked down next to Megan and the firecracker bemoaned, “Why won’t they let us drink coffee?”

…

Megan rolled her eyes and looked over at Sharon, “Don’t mind Jubes, she’s not a morning person, especially on Mondays.”

“Mondays are a fascist invention,” Jubilee started stabbing at her eggs.

“She’ll be fine after first period,” Meg ignored her roommate.

“That would be English, right?” Sharon picked up a piece of paper from next to her plate, “I’m not used to block scheduling. My old school was traditional scheduling, not that it matters really, I missed a lot of it last year on account of my mutation.”

“Don’t worry about it,” the pink haired girl smiled at her, “we have the same schedule so you just stick with us. And the teachers are understanding, we’ve all had to miss out on some schooling when our mutations manifested,” and to make her point, Meg’s wings fluttered a bit.

“I didn’t want to be rude,” Sharon said apologetically, “but I am curious, where you born like that?”

“I had the hair and eyes,” she pointed to her dark, almond shaped eyes, “but the wings came in later. They’re still growing too, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to use them to fly soon.”

“That would be pretty cool,” the new student smiled.

“I have a very light skeletal frame, less dense and hollow bones, like a bird,” she continued on, her wings rising up as she got excited at the thought, “there’s another mutant with big feathery wings, he has the same kind of bone structure, and he can fly, well, glide.”

Sharon looked like she was about to say something but she started to hunch over, clutching at her body, “Oh no, not now.”

“You okay?” Meg asked at the same time Jubilee got up, calling for Miss Munroe.

Within seconds, Sharon started to shrink, her clothes becoming bulky against her figure which began to grow thick brownish fur. By the time Storm reached their side, Sharon was now an Abyssinian house cat which looked up at them curiously amid a pile of fabric.

“That’s too cool,” Jubilee grinned.

…

Kitty was watching from behind the buffet server as Ororo reminded the students that they had classes getting ready to start. Seeing that the Headmistress had everything well in hand, she went back to clearing out the pans of food before she too had to get to her first class of the day.

“Hey, Kitty,” Bobby appeared next to her, looking at the scene, “what’s going on there?”

“New kid turned into a cat,” she said easily, this not being the strangest thing that had ever happened around there.

“Oh, okay,” he didn’t think twice about it either. “Scott wanted me to tell you, team meeting today right after last period, apparently we got some intel on the Brotherhood.”

“You know what kind of intel?” she asked as he followed her into the kitchen proper with what few leftover eggs she had.

“Not really,” Bobby headed over to the freezer, “it wasn’t anything urgent.”

“Alright,” she sat the pan down next to the sink and headed back to the table for another one, “I’ll be there.”

“Hey,” Bobby was torso deep in the freezer, “who stole my ice cream?”

…

“Settle down class,” Jubilee heard Betsy say as the last of the students filtered into the class. The telepathic woman took one look at Jubilee with Sharon in her arms and raised a single, perfectly sculpted, dark purple eyebrow. Of all the mutants, of all the people Jubilee had ever known, Betsy was perhaps the vainest about her appearance, but at least she wasn’t stuck on herself, a very important distinction.

“This is Sharon Silver,” Jubilee looked down at the cat she held.

“Ah, yes,” Betsy offered a polite smile, “the fixed shape shifter.”

“Storm said she’s still aware of the world around her, can understand what we’re saying,” Jubilee moved aside and Meg joined her, a tote bag with Sharon’s clothes in her hand, “so there’s no reason she has to miss out on anything until she switches back.”

“Of course,” the teacher gestured for them to sit down, “you’ll take notes for her won’t you, Jubilation?”

“Righty-o,” Jubilee smiled and they headed to their desks, sitting Sharon on the empty desk next to hers before taking her seat.

“Alright class,” Betsy went to the dry erase board, “we’re going to continue where we left off last week.”

Jubilee watched Sharon as she glanced around and had to wonder what the girl was thinking. She was stuck in her cat form until she could will herself out of it. While it had to be cool to be a cat, it must be awkward all things considered.

Without warning or even tensing, Sharon jumped from her desk to Jubilee’s then launched herself ten feet to land on the windowsill where the light shone in. After stretching out she curled up under the sunbeam but her attention was on Betsy who had noticed the girl’s acrobatics with another raised eyebrow.

Okay, so maybe not all that awkward.

…

The next two classes went without incident, Sharon curling up on top of a cabinet during Scott’s math class. When lunch rolled around, they all headed towards the cafeteria but were stopped by Ororo in the hallway.

“Sharon,” she smiled down at the cat in Jubilee’s arms, “I’ve had the cook prepare some boneless chicken breast for you for lunch, would you like that?”

A purring from Sharon was taken as a yes.

“I’ll make sure the kitchen always keeps some on hand for you,” then she said delicately, “would you like to join the others in the cafeteria,” she held up her left hand, “or would you prefer to eat somewhere more private such as your room?” she held up her right.

The cat seemed to think about it for a moment, then reached out with a paw and tapped the Headmistress’ left hand.

“Well then,” Ororo smiled and gave the cat a little scratch behind the ear, making her purr again, “enjoy your lunch.”

The three headed into the cafeteria and Jubilee sat Sharon down on the table, letting her know that she’d be back with her food. Meg was nice enough to carry Jubilee’s plate while the firecracker sat two saucers in front of Sharon, one of milk and the other of shredded up chicken, both of which the cat dug into eagerly.

“Hey guys,” a brown haired Venezuelan sat down at the table with them, then directed her attention to the cat, “I’m sorry I left you to fend for yourself on your first day, Sharon, kind of a sucky roommate thing for me to do but I had to get time in the computer lab before my first class.”

Sharon looked up from her milk, purred, then went back to eating.

“It’s cool, Sofia,” Jubilee assured the girl, “we took care of her, though she really needs to have her claws trimmed,” she added with a cheeky smile.

The cat’s hair bristled.

“I kid!” Jubilee laughed, “I kid!”

…

After lunch was Biology with Jean Grey. It was going along as usual when Sharon suddenly hissed, back arched, tail up, making a beeline for the door, scratching at it.

Everyone sat still, not entirely sure what was happening, but Jean got that look in her eye when she was concentrating on her telepathy and said, “She’s about to change back.”

“Isn’t she not wearing a stitch?” one of the boys asked, perhaps a bit too gleefully, and Jean gave him a disapproving look.

Jubilee was already out of her seat, taking the bag of clothes from Meg, and heading to the door, “Bathroom’s on the right.”

Without getting permission, even though she knew it was a given, Jubilee opened the door and Sharon raced out, Jubilee running on her heels. Sharon was already two times bigger when they got to the bathroom door which Jubilee had to open for the cat. Sharon dashed under the stalls and a few minutes later there was a bit of a thump and some hacking.

“You okay?” Jubilee asked.

“Yeah,” Sharon coughed, “just a hairball.”

“Oh,” she wanted to laugh but clamped down on it. After figuring out which stall the girl was in, Jubes held the bag over the door, “here you go.”

“Thank you,” Sharon’s voice was pretty small in the space.

Sensing that the girl was feeling very self-conscious, Jubilee said, “I’ll wait for you.”

“Okay,” there was some shuffling of clothes and Sharon exited the stall, her head downcast. “I’m sorry you had to take care of me, but I am grateful.”

“Don’t sweat it,” she said cheerfully, “made my day when you hissed at Scott’s mention of functions.”

That got the desired reaction of causing the girl to smile, just a bit, however her mood was still dejected, “I can’t control the changing, it just, happens.”

“Come on, we’re teenagers,” she placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder, “uncontrollable body changes are part and parcel. You’ll get the hang of it, and we’ll help you, that’s why you’re here, remember?”

“I’m here because my parents dumped me here,” Sharon said dejectedly, “I mean, sure, they put up a decent show, they wouldn’t want me experimented on or anything, but they forget cats have really good hearing,” she started to cry a bit, “they simply couldn’t deal with me anymore.”

“Hey,” Jubilee gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze, “a lot of us are in that same boat, but you can’t dwell on it.”

“Your parents abandoned you here too?” the girl was feeling hurt and her comment was a defense mechanism, Jubilee understood that and forgave her for it, even if did sting a bit.

“My parents are dead, actually,” she admitted, “car accident. The trauma of the whole thing is what triggered my mutation a bit earlier than typical.”

Sharon’s head popped up, complete regret on her face, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s cool,” Jubilee assured her, “you didn’t know.”

“Is that how you came here?” she asked, looking as if she was going to kick herself.

“Actually, I ran away from social services first,” Jubilee said like it was no big thing. “Spent six months living in a mall before Storm, that’s Miss Monroe, and a friend of hers found me and rescued me from what was quickly becoming a bad situation.”

The shape shifting mutant thought about that for a moment, “This really is your home then?”

“Yep,” Jubilee smiled, “we’re one strange bunch, but we’re a family and you’re more than welcome to be a part of it.”

“I…” Sharon attempted a smile, “thank you.”

…

The last class of the day was Professor Xavier’s Mutation 101, or at least that’s what the kids liked to call it. Basically, it was where the students worked on better control of their mutations. Even those who had a pretty decent hang of it, like Jubilee, still needed work on refining it. Those whose mutations were purely cosmetic, like Meg’s, learned how their biological changes affected them.

“Sharon,” Professor Xavier came over to her as she sat with Sofia and Jubilee, the former attempting to keep a ball in the air by manipulating the wind pressure underneath it. She kept slipping and knocking the ball to the side which Jubilee would gleefully try to catch.

“Yes, Professor?” Sharon asked, turning towards the bald man in a wheelchair. She was told he was a telepath but not to worry because all the telepaths in the school were very polite and did not invade people’s minds.

“I was wondering if you up to discussing your mutation and what happened today?” he said very gently.

“Um,” she glanced around and chewed on her lip before saying, “not particularly.”

“That’s quite alright,” he gave her a polite smile, “when you’re ready,” and with that he wheeled away towards another group of students.

Sharon blinked, “That’s it? My parents were always pushing to know what was going on, trying to get me to stop it.”

“The Professor isn’t going to make you talk about something your uncomfortable with,” Jubilee said, catching the ball again, tossing it up into the air for Sofia, “you’ll never learn anything that way.”

“Yeah,” Sofia said, her eyes concentrating on the ball while her hands moved up and down as she tried to pinpoint where the wind went, “the first step to controlling your mutation is becoming comfortable with it, and you can’t do that if you’re constantly being pushed, poked and prodded about it.”

“Totally,” Jubilee agreed.

Silence passed for a few moments as Sofia continued practicing, the ball slipping again only this time flying off in the direction of Sharon who caught it in one hand with cat like reflexes. Looking at the red ball, she timidly said, “Sometimes I’m afraid that I’ll forget who I am…”

“When you’re a cat?” Jubilee prompted.

“Yes,” she twirled the shiny ball slowly, seeing her reflection warped in the curvature, “I can understand English, I know I’m human, but I also have feline instincts. I want to climb, to hunt… it’s quite fun, to run along fence tops and roofs.”

“I bet it is,” Jubilee said softly with a smile, “it sounds like fun.”

“Have you ever tried embracing your cat form?” Sofia asked curiously, her tone gentle.

“You mean have I ever willed myself to become a cat?” Sharon clarified.

“Yeah…”

Sharon shook her head, tossing the ball back into the air and Sofia caught it with wind again on instinct, “No, I always try to fight it when it happens.”

“Maybe next time,” Jubilee offered, “you can just let it happen, see if it makes any difference?”

“What difference could it make?” Sharon frowned.

“One never knows,” Jubilee shrugged with a smile.

…

“Alright team,” Scott said as everyone, sans-Logan, gathered at the conference table, “I’ve been in contact with Agent Duncan, he’s had some information come to his attention he thought we’d like to know about,” he brought up an image from a traffic camera, Rogue and Pyro walking down a sidewalk, “this was taken two days ago in Philadelphia,” then another image from what looked like a bank ATM camera, the two mutants plus Avalanche sitting at a restaurant, “and this yesterday.”

“Their body language reads surveillance to me,” JP offered the group, “they’re watching someone or something, possibly another heist?”

“That’s the government’s thought too,” Scott nodded, “the FBI and Homeland Security have agents on the ground in Philly looking for the Acolytes.”

“They haven’t had much luck capturing them in the past,” Bobby pointed out.

“You know,” Jean mused, gaining everyone’s attention, “have we really thought about what we’d do if we managed to capture them?”

The team looked to each other, all at a loss.

“We could hand them over to the authorities?” Kitty suggested.

“Not sure they’d be able to hold them,” Scott admitted, “and if they did, we could be signing up the Acolytes to be government guinea pigs.”

“As much as I wish to stop the Acolytes and the Brotherhood,” Ororo spoke up, “governmental experimentation is not a fate I wish upon anyone, mutant or no.”

“We don’t have the facilities here to be able to hold them,” JP pointed out, “unless we wanted to build something?”

“No,” ‘Ro said before anyone could expand on this, “we are not keeping them here with the students.”

“Then where?” Bobby asked, “You know, provided we actually catch them one of these days?”

“I believe the Professor may be able to take care of this,” she said after a thought, “let me speak to him. At the moment though, I believe our bigger question is what are we going to do about the Acolytes in Philadelphia?”

“I thought tomorrow,” Scott offered, “being that it’s a school day, a couple of us can go and check things out. See if we can pick up on what they’re doing, or did, they could be long gone by now.”

“Last time we went on a recon mission,” Jean pointed out, “we ended up stumbling onto them robbing an M-TAM facility.”

“Yeah,” Scott frowned, “well, what’s the odds of that happening twice in a row?”

Everyone looked at each other, various looks on their faces regarding Scott’s flaunt of Murphy’s Law.

“So, who’s going?” JP asked.

“Bobby, since he’s not teaching yet,” he pointed to the school’s accountant, “and Jean as our resident telepath, if you can cover Jean’s classes tomorrow, JP?”

“No problem,” the man nodded his agreement of the setup.

“Wait,” Kitty sat up, “does me being a student mean I’m always going to be excluded on school days?”

“For these kinds of missions, yes,” Scott said bluntly. “As you like to point out, you’ll be graduating soon, you don’t want to mess that up, do you?”

“No, of course not,” she said, defeated.

“Like I said, they could already be gone, but if we find anything,” Scott said, “JP, you could get there faster than I could fly you, probably the same to you ‘Ro.”

The two mutants glanced at each other, it was likely true.

“Well, sounds like a plan,” Bobby clapped his hands together and there was a general murmur of agreement.

“I’ll spend some time on Cerebro tonight,” Jean said, “see if I can pin-point any locations or if they’ve moved on.”

“Good idea, but make sure you get plenty of rest tonight,” Scott looked from Bobby to Jean, “we fly out at 06:00.”

“I reserve the right to sleep on the plane,” Bobby said quickly.

“Duly noted.”

X-Men: The (fan fic) Series

A series of short stories in a fictional X-Men TV Universe.