Gar and Jubilee, Backdated to 8/11
Aug. 11th, 2018 08:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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ax_mainGar and Jubes track an internet rumor down to the sewers of New York, and find out that it isn't just a rumor...
Okay, yeah, he had to let someone know about this. Anyone else he could think of would either give him the brush-off, tell him to stay put, and let the older kids handle it.
Like he needed any of that crap! But there was one person he knew that would be bold enough to check this out, even if it was just rumors. Rumors were just facts in the making! Or something like that. He rapped on Jubilee's door, hoping she was in. He'd shot her a text message mere moments before, so he figured she'd get that if she wasn't in. Or even if she was. Whatever, this was too cool to even keep his head straight on. Under his arm, he had a purple notebook, and he was dressed for the weather in a pair of black and purple shorts and an X-Logo tank top. Because if he had his way, they'd be traveling today. Even if it was a bit of a hike.
Jubilee opened the door a moment later, peering a him through sleepy eyes, her hair a huge tangle and the t-shirt and shorts she'd been sleeping in looking very definitely slept in. Her cell phone was in her hand, demonstrating the initial cause of her wake-up. "Dude. It's summer, and it's not noon yet. What's the crisis?" she asked. Because there had to be one, right? Gar looked way too wide awake for there not to be a crisis. Or something.
He opened the notebook to a page he had tabbed and showed it to her, all but pushing it right into her face. "This!" he said, happily. It was a collection of newspaper clippings and sections of articles printed out from the Internet. All of them pertained to bizarre sightings in the sewers under New York. "There's something crazy happening in New York. It might be mutant related but nobody'll probably believe me! I figured you'd be the one to go to and we could go check it out!" It was something like a date... right? Not necessarily romantic, but it was something she'd probably enjoy. Who wouldn't wanna go on an adventure?
"Dude!" Okay, that was enough reason to wake up. Eyes widening, Jubilee snatched the notebook from his hands and flipped it open. "Okay, we totally have to check this out. You just need to give me like, ten minutes?" Because obviously, they had to do this. Urban legend hunting would be totally awesome. And, y'know, kind of make up for the fact that she hadn't been put on an X-Force mission yet, when she was totally qualified for one and it was obviously age discrimination.
"Totally! I need time to grab an inducer anyway." He didn't want to become the urban legend green kid, after all. "I'll meet you, uh. Front steps, in ten?" he offered.
"On it!" Jubilee ducked back into her room and closed the door, reopened it long enough to hand Gar back his notebook, and then popped back inside. No point in showering if they were gonna go down in the sewers; she just needed to get her hair in order and pick out something she didn't care if it got ruined to wear over her X-Force uniform. This'd be a great opportunity to test it out.
Gar wasn't in X-Force, so he didn't have a uniform to hop into. So he just got himself an inducer, and while he wasn't wearing it yet, he was waiting for Jubes on the steps where he'd promised he'd be, waiting patiently as he could. Which meant pacing just a little, excitedly.
Less than ten minutes later, Jubilee came racing down the steps, wearing a pair of jeans and a lightweight jacket over her X-Force uniform, and with her hair tied up in ponytails. "Ready!" she announced. "I brought a flashlight along," she added, gesturing to the string backpack she'd slung over one shoulder, "and I pulled up a map of the New York subway system, because I'm thinking we should start there? If nothing else, it'd smell a whole lot better than the sewers, right? And there are access tunnel things that go between the two."
"Great! And. I mean, I hadn't really thought about that, I'll be honest," Gar replied, nodding. "So, we're all set. Let's get our butts to find some secret mutant lairs!"
____
A couple of hours later, and they'd found the New York subway system. And the sewers. And a really, really horrible smell that Jubes personally figured she was never going to get out of her hair, let alone her clothing. What they hadn't found was any mutants. Or their lairs.
"Left, you figure?" she asked when they reached the next crossing.
"Can't hurt," Gar replied, shrugging. Left seemed just as good as right in terms of options, so he was willing to go with the flow. Given the limited battery life and the fact that they weren't exactly in public, he'd switched his inducer off. "I feel like I should think of something to, I dunno, make this easier..." But what?
"Turn into a bird and go scout it out?" Jubilee suggested. She wished she could - it'd beat trudging around through she didn't-want-to-think-what.
"Oh, yeah," Gar said, blinking. "That's worth a shot. I'll be right back," he said, his form melting into that of a bird as he jumped forward, giving himself the momentum to carry himself forward, spreading his wings and taking off. Maybe he couldn't go too far, but he'd at least have a decent idea of what was ahead of them.
"See, I have the best ideas," Jubilee pointed out as she continued trudging along. "I mean, it'd be even cooler if you could turn into something that could get me out of the sewer water, because seriously, this is gross, but-" she broke off abruptly as something wrapped around her ankle and pulled, tugging her under the water.
He vaguely heard her speech cut off, and Gar circled back to come see what had happened. If she fell, she might've cut herself, and that was just ew considering their environment. He morphed back into his human form as he got close. "Jubes?" he called, peering into the dark. Man, he needed to think of something he could turn into that'd help him, here...
Jubilee's eyes widened and she fought an urge to scream as she caught sight of what had grabbed her. A humanoid lizard, bigger than her, dressed in the tattered remains of a lab coat. Eyes re-narrowing, she aimed her hand at its face and blasted of a volley of pafs - light, concussive, you name it. The lizard threw up an arm to protect its eyes, letting go of her in the process, and she kicked off and burst up towards the surface, gasping as her head emerged from the water. "Gar!" she shouted as she went under again.
Okay, that, Gar could understand. Galvanized by her call for help, Gar buzzed in rapidly and his form then morphed and twisted into that of a silverback, throwing his shoulder into the aerial charge to get this man-lizard off of her and away from her so she could get up. If this guy was a mutant, he needed to seriously chill. If he wasn't a mutant and was... some kind of... he wasn't sure, then... well, he'd figure it out.
First thing was first, keep everyone safe.
The lizard let out a shrill scream of protest as the gorilla - gorilla? - bodyslammed him, and Jubilee took her opportunity to swim for distance this time. She broke the surface a few yards away and shouted, "Dude, over here!" as she aimed a spray of pafs at the lizard, hoping to distract him from grabbing hold of Gar.
Gar, momentarily distracted by Jubilee's fireworks as much as the lizard was, caught a tail slap to the shoulder (he thought, as he reeled back, that it might've been aimed at the head, but the lizard missed). Silverbacks were tough, though, and Gar wasn't going to let this lizard... guy, girl, whatever, through to Jubilee if he could help it. He gave the mightiest gorilla roar he could and pounded his chest, hoping to scare the lizard off... Or at least cow him into submission.
That'd show him! Jubilee slicked her hair back from her face and made an expression of distaste as the lizard hissed and slinked (slunk? that didn't sound right, either) backwards, away from the pissed off gorilla. "Get awaaaaay," it ordered, gesturing down the length of the sewer.
"Dude. You can talk?" Jubilee blurted. Because yeaah. Lizards didn't. On the other hand, lizards didn't wear the remains of what looked like labcoats, either. Or walked on two legs. Or...she glanced over at Gar, then back again. "Are you a mutant?"
Holy crap, Lizard-guy could talk. Well, it sounded male. He. She. Whatever. Gar, in his surprised, shifted back to his humanoid (but still green) self, and looked about as shocked as Jubilee had. "Dude," he said, blinking at the lizard-guy. If a mutant was living down here... well, he didn't like the idea of him (her? he was pretty sure the lizard-guy was indeed a guy at this point, but who really knew how he identified at this rate. This was more complicated than he was willing to spare extra thought toward at this rate) feeling like he needed to live down here.
"Why are you down here, even?"
"Gooooooooo!" the lizard-dude rasped out again, waving his arm and revealing some seriously dangerous looking claws on ends of each finger before diving back beneath the water and disappearing.
Jubilee stared after him, then back up at Gar. "Y'know, I'm thinking this is one urban legend we've totally proven right, right? Maybe we should call back to the school and like, let the Professor know there's a mutant lizard guy living in the sewer who doesn't like, want to be bothered?" She pulled out her phone, made a face, and looked back at him. "Assuming, y'know, that your phone works, because mine? Apparently not totally gross sewage-proof."
"Mine should be fine," Gar said, blinking at the space where the lizard-guy had been. He pulled his out, and frowned. "No signal down here." Wasn't surprising, though. "When we get up topside, we can call." He let out a breath, and then turned to ask her. "You okay?" he asked. "In the heat of things, I didn't think to, y'know, ask."
"Ugggh. Yeah, I'm already," Jubilee admitted. "I think I need like, 100 antibiotics or something as a just-in-case? But I'll see what Dr. McCoy says when we get back." Despite that (and the neverending grossness of this whole thing, which was right at the top of her mind, all things considered) she grinned. "Nice move with the gorilla, dude."
He grinned back. "I'll be honest. I kinda just panicked and tried to think of something big and scary. I'm glad it worked." He looked around. "C'mon, there's gotta be a way back up somewhere around here."
Okay, yeah, he had to let someone know about this. Anyone else he could think of would either give him the brush-off, tell him to stay put, and let the older kids handle it.
Like he needed any of that crap! But there was one person he knew that would be bold enough to check this out, even if it was just rumors. Rumors were just facts in the making! Or something like that. He rapped on Jubilee's door, hoping she was in. He'd shot her a text message mere moments before, so he figured she'd get that if she wasn't in. Or even if she was. Whatever, this was too cool to even keep his head straight on. Under his arm, he had a purple notebook, and he was dressed for the weather in a pair of black and purple shorts and an X-Logo tank top. Because if he had his way, they'd be traveling today. Even if it was a bit of a hike.
Jubilee opened the door a moment later, peering a him through sleepy eyes, her hair a huge tangle and the t-shirt and shorts she'd been sleeping in looking very definitely slept in. Her cell phone was in her hand, demonstrating the initial cause of her wake-up. "Dude. It's summer, and it's not noon yet. What's the crisis?" she asked. Because there had to be one, right? Gar looked way too wide awake for there not to be a crisis. Or something.
He opened the notebook to a page he had tabbed and showed it to her, all but pushing it right into her face. "This!" he said, happily. It was a collection of newspaper clippings and sections of articles printed out from the Internet. All of them pertained to bizarre sightings in the sewers under New York. "There's something crazy happening in New York. It might be mutant related but nobody'll probably believe me! I figured you'd be the one to go to and we could go check it out!" It was something like a date... right? Not necessarily romantic, but it was something she'd probably enjoy. Who wouldn't wanna go on an adventure?
"Dude!" Okay, that was enough reason to wake up. Eyes widening, Jubilee snatched the notebook from his hands and flipped it open. "Okay, we totally have to check this out. You just need to give me like, ten minutes?" Because obviously, they had to do this. Urban legend hunting would be totally awesome. And, y'know, kind of make up for the fact that she hadn't been put on an X-Force mission yet, when she was totally qualified for one and it was obviously age discrimination.
"Totally! I need time to grab an inducer anyway." He didn't want to become the urban legend green kid, after all. "I'll meet you, uh. Front steps, in ten?" he offered.
"On it!" Jubilee ducked back into her room and closed the door, reopened it long enough to hand Gar back his notebook, and then popped back inside. No point in showering if they were gonna go down in the sewers; she just needed to get her hair in order and pick out something she didn't care if it got ruined to wear over her X-Force uniform. This'd be a great opportunity to test it out.
Gar wasn't in X-Force, so he didn't have a uniform to hop into. So he just got himself an inducer, and while he wasn't wearing it yet, he was waiting for Jubes on the steps where he'd promised he'd be, waiting patiently as he could. Which meant pacing just a little, excitedly.
Less than ten minutes later, Jubilee came racing down the steps, wearing a pair of jeans and a lightweight jacket over her X-Force uniform, and with her hair tied up in ponytails. "Ready!" she announced. "I brought a flashlight along," she added, gesturing to the string backpack she'd slung over one shoulder, "and I pulled up a map of the New York subway system, because I'm thinking we should start there? If nothing else, it'd smell a whole lot better than the sewers, right? And there are access tunnel things that go between the two."
"Great! And. I mean, I hadn't really thought about that, I'll be honest," Gar replied, nodding. "So, we're all set. Let's get our butts to find some secret mutant lairs!"
____
A couple of hours later, and they'd found the New York subway system. And the sewers. And a really, really horrible smell that Jubes personally figured she was never going to get out of her hair, let alone her clothing. What they hadn't found was any mutants. Or their lairs.
"Left, you figure?" she asked when they reached the next crossing.
"Can't hurt," Gar replied, shrugging. Left seemed just as good as right in terms of options, so he was willing to go with the flow. Given the limited battery life and the fact that they weren't exactly in public, he'd switched his inducer off. "I feel like I should think of something to, I dunno, make this easier..." But what?
"Turn into a bird and go scout it out?" Jubilee suggested. She wished she could - it'd beat trudging around through she didn't-want-to-think-what.
"Oh, yeah," Gar said, blinking. "That's worth a shot. I'll be right back," he said, his form melting into that of a bird as he jumped forward, giving himself the momentum to carry himself forward, spreading his wings and taking off. Maybe he couldn't go too far, but he'd at least have a decent idea of what was ahead of them.
"See, I have the best ideas," Jubilee pointed out as she continued trudging along. "I mean, it'd be even cooler if you could turn into something that could get me out of the sewer water, because seriously, this is gross, but-" she broke off abruptly as something wrapped around her ankle and pulled, tugging her under the water.
He vaguely heard her speech cut off, and Gar circled back to come see what had happened. If she fell, she might've cut herself, and that was just ew considering their environment. He morphed back into his human form as he got close. "Jubes?" he called, peering into the dark. Man, he needed to think of something he could turn into that'd help him, here...
Jubilee's eyes widened and she fought an urge to scream as she caught sight of what had grabbed her. A humanoid lizard, bigger than her, dressed in the tattered remains of a lab coat. Eyes re-narrowing, she aimed her hand at its face and blasted of a volley of pafs - light, concussive, you name it. The lizard threw up an arm to protect its eyes, letting go of her in the process, and she kicked off and burst up towards the surface, gasping as her head emerged from the water. "Gar!" she shouted as she went under again.
Okay, that, Gar could understand. Galvanized by her call for help, Gar buzzed in rapidly and his form then morphed and twisted into that of a silverback, throwing his shoulder into the aerial charge to get this man-lizard off of her and away from her so she could get up. If this guy was a mutant, he needed to seriously chill. If he wasn't a mutant and was... some kind of... he wasn't sure, then... well, he'd figure it out.
First thing was first, keep everyone safe.
The lizard let out a shrill scream of protest as the gorilla - gorilla? - bodyslammed him, and Jubilee took her opportunity to swim for distance this time. She broke the surface a few yards away and shouted, "Dude, over here!" as she aimed a spray of pafs at the lizard, hoping to distract him from grabbing hold of Gar.
Gar, momentarily distracted by Jubilee's fireworks as much as the lizard was, caught a tail slap to the shoulder (he thought, as he reeled back, that it might've been aimed at the head, but the lizard missed). Silverbacks were tough, though, and Gar wasn't going to let this lizard... guy, girl, whatever, through to Jubilee if he could help it. He gave the mightiest gorilla roar he could and pounded his chest, hoping to scare the lizard off... Or at least cow him into submission.
That'd show him! Jubilee slicked her hair back from her face and made an expression of distaste as the lizard hissed and slinked (slunk? that didn't sound right, either) backwards, away from the pissed off gorilla. "Get awaaaaay," it ordered, gesturing down the length of the sewer.
"Dude. You can talk?" Jubilee blurted. Because yeaah. Lizards didn't. On the other hand, lizards didn't wear the remains of what looked like labcoats, either. Or walked on two legs. Or...she glanced over at Gar, then back again. "Are you a mutant?"
Holy crap, Lizard-guy could talk. Well, it sounded male. He. She. Whatever. Gar, in his surprised, shifted back to his humanoid (but still green) self, and looked about as shocked as Jubilee had. "Dude," he said, blinking at the lizard-guy. If a mutant was living down here... well, he didn't like the idea of him (her? he was pretty sure the lizard-guy was indeed a guy at this point, but who really knew how he identified at this rate. This was more complicated than he was willing to spare extra thought toward at this rate) feeling like he needed to live down here.
"Why are you down here, even?"
"Gooooooooo!" the lizard-dude rasped out again, waving his arm and revealing some seriously dangerous looking claws on ends of each finger before diving back beneath the water and disappearing.
Jubilee stared after him, then back up at Gar. "Y'know, I'm thinking this is one urban legend we've totally proven right, right? Maybe we should call back to the school and like, let the Professor know there's a mutant lizard guy living in the sewer who doesn't like, want to be bothered?" She pulled out her phone, made a face, and looked back at him. "Assuming, y'know, that your phone works, because mine? Apparently not totally gross sewage-proof."
"Mine should be fine," Gar said, blinking at the space where the lizard-guy had been. He pulled his out, and frowned. "No signal down here." Wasn't surprising, though. "When we get up topside, we can call." He let out a breath, and then turned to ask her. "You okay?" he asked. "In the heat of things, I didn't think to, y'know, ask."
"Ugggh. Yeah, I'm already," Jubilee admitted. "I think I need like, 100 antibiotics or something as a just-in-case? But I'll see what Dr. McCoy says when we get back." Despite that (and the neverending grossness of this whole thing, which was right at the top of her mind, all things considered) she grinned. "Nice move with the gorilla, dude."
He grinned back. "I'll be honest. I kinda just panicked and tried to think of something big and scary. I'm glad it worked." He looked around. "C'mon, there's gotta be a way back up somewhere around here."
