Fan Fiction ❯ When Stars Collide ❯ Chapter 1

Jubilation Lee observed the afternoon sun, and how it brought a golden sheen to the raw silk of her armchair. Sitting in a stylish salon of the L'Hotel Sofitel, she glanced with amusement around the room. Lulled by the droning voice of a physicist whose moment had passed but demanded a certain level of respect, her colleagues fought vainly to stay awake in the drowsy warmth. A couple doodled idly, a few stared ahead with a glazed look in their eyes, and one young man even dared to sneak in a game on his PDA.

As for herself, Jubilee managed an interested façade while her thoughts wandered like the motes of dust floating along the sunbeams from the windows. I can't believe he actually believes the drivel that is coming out of his mouth.

The elderly man's theories were as outdated as his polyester suit, and when you combined it with his lackluster speaking skills the lecture was almost painful to listen to.

You only had to look around the room to see the quickly changing face of modern physics. More than half of the audience were under forty, and a startling number were in their twenties. New theories bounced back and forth the intellectual community on the Web at the speed of technology, creating a multi-lateral discipline. This wasn't your grandfather's physics, and she herself was partly to blame for the youthful infusion.

Rubbing at her temples, Jubilee sighed as the lecturer continued with an equally boring tangent. Who would have guessed lil' Miss Fourth of July would ever become a scientist? Would anyone have ever suspected that she would turn in her roller blades for microscopes, or her yellow jacket for a lab coat? But here she sat, one of the foremost experts in the field of physics.

She had surprised everyone when she had decided to go to put her career with the X-men on hold and attended college. They hadn't expected her drive to find a focus in life, aside from her mutant powers. It seemed no one had ever bothered to notice that she had always had good grades in high school, despite the constant craziness with Gen X. I've always been driven...just because a girl likes to shop and have fun doesn't mean she doesn't have goals in life.

But even she hadn't expected to have such a keen understanding of the sciences, especially physics. Something about the symphony of motions inherent in the laws of atoms and the universe rang true in her. She understood it all on an instinctual level, which she soon concluded had to do with her powers.

Putting in long hours at the labs, she absorbed theories and laws like a sponge. By her junior year, she was doing graduate work and had accelerated her studies at the urging of her professors. She had breezed through graduate school almost as quickly, and by the age of twenty-two had a double doctorate in Nuclear and Quantum Physics.

College had changed her. It had truly been a higher education for her, rather than the generic "college experience" so many of her classmates had bought into. For the first time in her life she found something she had really excelled at. Friends and teammates didn't know quite what to make of it. She frequently would run experiments and study the latest scholarly publication on the weekends, rather than hanging out or partying. It baffled everyone, including herself.

It was inevitable that examining the behavior of atoms under electron microscopes would give her new understanding of her energy control powers. She was operating on an instinctual level with her pafs and explosions, which she deducted was possible due to latent psychic powers. Jubilee kept the information to herself for a long while, not wanting to deal with the burden till she had to. But as she started to experiment, she realized the danger involved with her particular powers and had gone to Hank for a series of tests.

The tests had only confirmed what she had suspected, although at much higher levels that she had anticipated. In raw power alone she was an Alpha Class, and with discipline and training she would be one of the most powerful mutants in years. The professor had been shocked, insisting she begin to train her psychic powers immediately. At the very least, she needed to learn how to avoid tripping over others' private thoughts and dreams without shielding.

Emma had been surprised that she had chosen her as her teacher over Jean and Xavier, but Jubilee had no doubts in her mind. Emma would not hold back, she would push her instead of coddling her. And truthfully, they had bonded during their years together in Gen X. Despite her cool exterior, she cared for Jubilee as like a mother, and would respect her privacy while tutoring her.

And so the years had flown by in a rapid and unpredictable pattern. Jubilee spent her days studying and running experiments, and her nights honing her mutant abilities. Often she would teleconference with Emma, doing the exercises and techniques over video till they were both pleased with the results. It was a grueling schedule, but well worth it. She had taken to her new psychic powers much quicker than Emma anticipated, and within a year there was nothing more she could really teach her.

Jubilee found new and unexpected ways to manipulate the energy and molecules around her everyday. Her pafs now ranged from the barest of flickers to sub-atomic, and she could implode, explode, and even absorb them. By causing the molecules of her body to agitate at certain rates, she was able to move through objects. By controlling the friction between the molecules, she was also able to heat and freeze substances at will. Manipulating the ions of metals was a cakewalk, to the shock of all of her teammates. She was fairly certain she could phase into different states, and perhaps even dimensions, but decided that much more research was necessary before taking the risk. The possibilites were endless.

Perhaps the most disturbing of the powers was her prescience, tickling her senses at the most unusual times. Jubilee was uneasy about exploring its scope. She had studied to become a scientist, and as such put more salt in facts and laws. Gone were the days she threw herself into a task based on a gut feeling. And yet…..it was that same precience that had urged her to enter college instead of continuing as an X-man. She couldn't ignore her prescience any more than she could the rest of her newfound abilities and powers.

Jubilee wrote numerous papers on her findings, sharing her work in various acedemic journals. Due to her mutation and ability to test theories, she made leaps and bounds no other scientists had been able to. Her theories were at first considered radical, but slowly the scientific community had accepted her ideas as she backed up some of them with lab work. Some of her theories would not be proven for many years given the limited scope of technology, but Jubilee could hardly offer her own mutation as proof for the logic behind them. So she was dealt with the critics and was content with her success as it came.

Jubilee blinked as she noticed the room start to bustle around her. The audience members had begun a polite stampede for the door the moment the speaker had stepped down from the podium. Only the briefest of applause had disturbed the silence before the crowd had surged towards the exit. Gathering her things, she walked back to her room at a leisurely pace, still caught in her thoughts.

The L'Hotel Sofitel was one of the grande dames of Paris, settled cozily against the Seine to make the most of the sights and seasons. It was mid-April and the cherry blossoms along the avenues bloomed in fragrant glory. There was something about Paris in the springtime, it was truly a lover's paradise. Soft misty rains in the mornings offered the opportunity to laze about in bed between soft linen sheets. The afternoon delivered a delicate sunshine that made for perfect shopping and café hopping. And when the sun set, the lights of the city lit up the sky in a soft glow. Couples strolled along the pathways of the Seine whispering and cuddling on park benches in the shadows.

It's a lover's paradise if you have a lover....which I seem to be lacking. She smiled sardonically. Jubilee had matured and grown in so many ways, and now that she was an X-man fulltime again, she was surrounded by people who cared for and supported her. She was doing the work that she loved, studying new theories in the lab, and when a crisis arose she welcomed the physicality of fighting alongside her teammates.

Why don't I take up Bobby or Remy on their offers for dates? I even caught Hank staring the other day, and he's the dearest man in the world.

Jubilee had been living like a nun the past few years, rarely finding a man who aroused her interest or her heart. Those she had dated had been casual but friendly flings, each understanding that the other was not seeking more than a companion for social affairs and the occasional lover. Why couldn't she find someone who would make her happy?

Logan, that's why.

Jubilee slipped into the empty solarium to watch the sun set over the river. Absorbing the beauty of the pale roses and lilacs kissed in the golden hues of the sunset, she stared silently into the quickening night. Her relationship had changed over the years with Logan, and neither one of them had the balls to face it. He had been edgy about her going off to school in the first place, worried about her being alone and so far from home. She had been stubbornly vocal in her decision, but had soothed his fears with a steady of emails and phone calls.

Surprisingly, he had made an excellent pen pal. Even during her most hectic schedules, Jubilee had always managed to write him. He got antsy if she forgot, and had no problem with calling her at all hours of the night to make sure she was safe. Did he really think she was drunk at some frat orgy, helpless and being taken advantage of?

Jubilee grinned to herself. Someone has watched Animal House one too many times, methinks.

With anyone else she would have felt smothered, but for Wolvie she knew it was just his nature. Even when he insisted she carry the cell phone he bought her 24/7, she had relented to make him feel more secure. And really, what girl can't use a 1000 free minutes?

So even though Jubilee had not visited the mansion as often as she would have liked during her years at college, she and Wolverine grew closer. She wrote to him excitedly when she discovered a new breakthrough in the labs, and trusted him with her fears of new powers that seemed to never end. He would write to her of his travels, surprising her with his natural abilities as a storyteller. She felt as though she was still beside him kicking ass and taking names in the seediest dives and bars. He wrote to her of the search for his past and memories, revealing his own fears that he would have too many sins to atone for.

Every so often, Wolvie had shown up unexpectedly on his scoot to check up on her in person. Or so he said. He missed her, and loved using the excuse to rile her and get a rise. He'd drag her away from whatever she happened to be working on and take her to dinner at a nice restaurant. He'd insist she needed more meat on her bones with a grunt and a puff on his cigar. They inevitably made their way to a bar afterwards, drinking pitchers of beer and shots of whiskey as they talked about the past and the present. He'd fall asleep on her couch when they got home, and was usually be gone in the morning before she woke up.

After earning her doctorates she had received offers from universities around the world, but the years of studying had burned her out. The passion to understand herself and the world around her had consumed her while at school, but she had not really taken part in the world for almost four years.

When Jubilee had decided to go on sabbatical, Wolvie had pitched a fit like she had never seen. Scowling and ranting, he couldn't understand why she didn't want to come home. "You've been away too God-damned long, Jubes! And now yer gonna trot around China, and Europe, and where-the-fuck else!?" he had yelled.

But she had been adamant, and insisted she needed to do it for herself. Logan had stormed out of the mansion cranky as all hell at the news, heading down to Harry's.

He had stumbled to her bedroom later that night, and thumped against her door as he called her name in a singsong, "Jub-i-leeEeeEee!"

Flying to the door to save the rest of the mansion from the horrible caterwauling, he had fallen forward when she opened it, forcing her to catch his bulky weight. Grinning sheepishly, he tried to stand up straight."Sorry, darlin'. I don't know what came over me."

Wobbling precariously, Jubilee had managed to aim his next stumble towards her bed at least. She had been amazed at how plastered he was, it took a lot of alcohol to affect Wolvie with his metabolism. She had covered him up, crawling in beside him under the blankets. Snuggling up close, he had tucked her effortlessly under the crook of his arm.

Mumbling into her ear he said, "You were right darlin', you deserve to be happy. If this is what makes you happy, I'm all for it." before promptly passing out.

With his blessings, Jubilee threw herself in her travels. She visited universities as a guest speaker top cut on travel costs, and took time to really enjoy life. For almost two years she wandered China, Australia, Russia, and Europe. She had eaten delicacies in Bangladesh, and sipped tea in the bazaars of Cairo. She had indulged as though she was a social butterfly celebrating her freedom from the cocoon.

Logan was always in her thoughts, and she managed to write him on her laptop from even the most distant locales. The world was a wired place these days, and she made it a habit to choose hotels that catered to her online addiction. He tried not to flip out if she missed writing him every so often, and she tried not to become exasperated at his trying to keep tabs on her. Two years flew by, and finally homesickness set in. It was time to go home.