The Massachusetts Academy, Snow Valley, where Generation X’s glamorous Monet St Croix is currently training on the courtyard outside the gymnasium, with her teacher and mentor, Sean “Banshee” Cassidy. Monet is the super-powered daughter of a wealthy and influential ambassador. She excels in every physical category, she is cultured, sophisticated, and her beauty and grace are unmatched - and she knows it. Wearing part of her new costume, Monet kicks Sean, but he, the former X-Man, blocks her, while Jubilation Lee a.k.a. Jubilee (presumably the person responsible for sticking a drawing of Magneto’s head to the punching bag, with Grrrr! I bend your spoons written on it), watches the training. Jubilee is a hyperactive, ex-social mall-rat, orphaned at a young age and raised by the X-Men. She likes Hello Kitty and old Blondie records - quite possibly the exact opposite of Monet. So what happens when these two spend the day together in New York City…?
‘Y’know, this really sucks’ Jubilee mutters as she eats a bowl of cereal. ‘Why d’yeh say that?’ Sean asks as he blocks another of Monet’s advances. ‘Cuz it’s boring, Mister Cassidy!’ Jubilee complains, standing up she points out that Monet can punch through steel and toss people about like frisbees. ‘All she has to do is use her powers just a little bit and you’d be out in, like, two seconds flat!’ Monet takes another swipe at Sean, while admitting that it is quite tempting. Banshee tells Jubilee that she knows just as well as he does that there are doing to be times where you find yourself in battle, but for whatever reason, cannot reveal you are a mutant.
Banshee takes a kick at Monet’s head, and Monet blocks him, while Banshee points out that it is important that they are all skilled in conventional fighting like this. ‘I want yeh to be able to take care of yourselves whatever the situation’. Banshee steps back from Monet as she takes a punch at him, remarking that this is an excellent exercise in self-control, for no matter how much Monet wants to, she knows she cannot give in and use her powers. ‘Doing so exposes her, and puts her in further danger’ Sean adds as her grabs Monet’s foot when she tries to kick him, only to be flipped over, where she lands, hard, on the ground. ‘Oww!’ Monet mutters, while Jubilee’s mouth drops open in shock.
Banshee tells Jubilee that, although Monet clearly has an advantage over him in many areas in terms of mutant ability, in strict hand-to-hand combat, he was quite easily able to defeat her. Monet grimaces and stands up behind Banshee, who remarks that it is important to note that not once during the contest did Monet lose control and use her powers to gain an advantage, so in that respect, the exercise was successful. Sean points out that is the whole point of the Academy, to learn how to use their mutant abilities, to grow with them, to learn how to adapt them into your day-to-day lives. ‘Not to just go off with them on a whim, or out of anger…isn’t that right, Monet?’ Sean asks, realizing Monet is sneaking up behind him.
Monet quickly retracts her fist, ‘Oh, absolutely, Mister Cassidy!’ she smiles. ‘Glad to hear it’ Sean smiles back, before telling the girls to take care, as he walks off. Jubilee asks Monet if she was really going to hit Sean, to which Monet replies ‘Of course, I was. Why wouldn’t I? I would be foolish to enter a conflict with no intention of using my abilities. It’s like a soldier entering a fire-fight without his rifle’. Jubilee asks Monet what would happen in a situation where she might have to keep her powers a secret, like Sean said. Monet replies that she doesn’t ever plan on allowing such a situation to develop. ‘It’s as simple as that’ she declares, adding that her powers belong to her, and that she will never opt not to use them if the need arises. ‘Regardless of what anyone else says’.
Monet proceeds to leave the training area, before informing Jubilee that she is taking a car into Manhattan today. ‘You are welcome to join me, if you don’t already have plans’. Jubilee looks stunned as she asks ‘You’re asking me to go with you? Why? What’s the catch?’ Monet tells Jubilee not to gape, as it doesn’t become her, and asks her not to make a bigger deal out of it than it is. ‘I am just trying to be nice’ she explains, before telling Jubilee that once she has changed into something a little more presentable she can meet her in the kitchen. ‘The car arrives in an hour, and I don’t intend to wait for you if you are late’.
Soon, Monet, Jubilee and their teammate Jonothan “Chamber” Starsmore arrive in New York City. ‘Yeah! New York City rocks!’ Jubilee exclaims as she takes in the sights and sounds, before asking Monet to remind her when they get back to ask Emma and Sean to relocate the Academy here. ‘Brilliant idea, Jubilee’ Chamber remarks as he eyes up some young women. Monet puts her hands to her eyes to pretend she doesn’t know them, telling them to stop acting like a couple of backwoods hicks in town for the first time. ‘You’re embarrassing yourselves!’ she tells them, while Jubilee jumps up and down with excitement.
Chamber tells the glamorous Monet that it looks like she has her hands full, and tells her that he will see her later, and to call if she needs anything, otherwise, they can all meet back here at six. Monet stares at Jono before turning to Jubilee and declaring: ‘Jubilation! Stop acting like a child, please, and let’s get going!’. Jubilee tells Monet to relax, and calls her a party pooper. ‘You have gotta learn how to have a good time!’ Jubilee tells her. Monet replies that, for her, a good time doesn’t include gawking like a tourist in the middle of Times Square, as it is so tacky and middle American. ‘You have it your way, rich girl’ Jubilee replies, before asking where they are heading. Monet hails a cab as she replies that they are going to Downtown Soho. ‘I know it’s not the mall, Jubilee, but trust me, this is for your own good’.
Shortly, in an up-market fashion store, Jubilee slouches on a couch by a dressing room, blowing bubbles with her gum. A shop assistant approaches Jubilee and asks her if there is anything she can show her while she waits for her friend. ‘Yeah, you could do that. But if I were you, I’d be making sure that my friend is well taken care of’ Jubilee replies, popping her gum. ‘Pardon?’ the shop assistant asks, unimpressed. ‘You know who she is, right? That’s Monet St Croix’ Jubilee remarks. I’m sorry…should I know who that is?’ the shop assistant replies, still unimpressed.
‘Hello! The Monet St Croix? Come on, surely you’ve seen her in that movie! And the Victoria’s Secret ads?’ Jubilee exclaims, getting to her feet. ‘Oh, yes! Yes, of course! She looks so much younger in real life!’ the shop assistant replies, glancing sideways nervously. Jubilee exclaims that Monet gets that all the time. ‘You know how it is, though. The camera. Ten pounds, bad lighting, yadda, yadda, yadda…anyway, she is the one you should be worrying about, not me’, Jubilee tells the shop assistant, before asking her if she knows that Monet is dating Robert de Niro. ‘NO!’ gasps the shop assistant. ‘Totally! She’s even gonna be in his next film -’ Jubilee begins, when suddenly, Monet steps out of the dressing room.
Wearing a tight black mini-dress with black platforms, Monet “hmphs”, before remarking that she hopes she is not interrupting anything. The shop assistant puts on a big fake smile and exclaims ‘It looks fantastic on you, Ms St Croix!’ Monet gives a half-smile and narrows her eyes as she replies ‘Yes, it does, doesn’t it?’ The shop assistant begins taking notes as Monet tells her that she will take the dress, as well as the gray one, and the boots, along with the cashmere coat. ‘Hey, how do you know my name?’ Monet asks the shop assistant, who just looks nervously in the other direction, while Jubilee smiles.
Shortly, Monet sits very uncomfortably in a funky, but not sophisticated, clothing store. Two valley girls approach Monet, who frowns at them as they exclaims ‘Um sorry to bother you, but… you have like the most beautiful hair we have ever seen!’ ‘Yes, I know. Thank you’ Monet replies graciously. One of the girls asks Monet if she is a model, to which Monet replies that she is a student. ‘In college? Cool! You could totally be a model, have you ever tried?’ the other girl asks. ‘Um, no, not really -’ Monet replies, when the blonde girl interrupts, telling her friend that she knows this girl, Brooke, who started modeling when she was, like, thirteen. ‘Brook from class?’ the other girl asks. ‘No, the other one! That goes out with Josh!’ the blonde girl exclaims. Monet rolls her eyes, before getting up and pushing past the girls, telling that she needs to check on her friend. ‘Fine, be that way!’ one of the girls exclaims. ‘See if we care!’ the other adds’.
Monet approaches Jubilee, who is wearing a checked skirt and ripped green t-shirt, with her hair pushed upwards, and tells her that is a very interesting outfit. ‘Isn’t it? It’s so 1977! I love it!’ Jubilee replies, grinning. Jubilee asks Monet what was up with those girls talking to her. ‘I don’t think I have ever seen you look that uncomfortable before’ she tells her. Monet replies that she is pretty sure those girls are the same age as her, and she knows she grew up differently than most other people, but she just has no idea how to talk to them.
‘Yeah, well, join the club, M. What do you expect? They are just typical high school kids, and you are Ms fancy pants ambassador’s daughter from Morocco’ Jubilee replies. ‘You certainly do enjoy reminding me of that’ Monet replies, to which Jubilee exclaims ‘Seriously, we’re mutants. We live in the middle of nowhere. We stay home most of the time’ Jubilee declares that she lives vicariously through “The Real World” and “Ricki Lake” television shows. ‘Let’s face it: we’re our own best friends, because we have to be. The world doesn’t want people like us around, and probably never will. We’re on our own, M’ Jubilee exclaims. ‘Sucks, but it’s true’ she adds.
Realizing Monet has been silent, Jubilee asks her what she is thinking about. ‘Nothing’ Monet replies. Jubilee sighs, and asks ‘It’s Everett, isn’t it?’, before exclaiming that she misses him too, before pointing out that it has been months. ‘It’s like after I lost my parents, Logan taught me how to deal with that, how to mourn loved ones, and also how to keep it in perspective and move on’. Jubilee declares that Synch was their teammate, and more importantly, their friend. ‘We all miss him a lot, and think about him every day. But you gotta stop beating yourself up about this, Monet’.
Monet gets angry, and throws her hands in the air, ‘That’s easy for you to say. You didn’t have what I had with him!’ Monet snaps. ‘You didn’t wait your whole life to find someone like him, so kind and sweet and smart and sexy, and then have him taken away, right in front of your eyes! The first and only person in my life I have cared about like that, and he was just ripped away from me in an instant! I will never ever see him again - and you have no idea what that’s like! You don’t know how I feel! DO YOU?!’ Monet shouts. Monet stops shouting, and sees tears streaming down Jubilee’s face. Monet composes herself and hugs Jubilee, ‘Yes, yes. Of course you do, don’t you?’ Monet whispers.
Soon, Monet and Jubilee sit in a café, and Jubilee holds a strange brown drink in front of Monet - ‘And this would be…?’ Monet asks hesitantly. Jubilee explains that it is bubble tea, a dessert drink from China. ‘Try it. It’s good!’ she exclaims. Monet asks what the black balls in the bottom of the drink are, to which Jubilee assures her that it is only tapioca, and tells her that if she doesn’t want it, if it’s too weird for her delicate sensibilities, she would be happy to take it off her hands. ‘Besides? Aren’t you supposed to be all well-traveled and hip to all sorts of cultures? Drink up, princess smarty pants!’
‘Fine. If only just to shut you up’ Monet replies as she puts the straw in her mouth, and sucks the drink - including the tapioca - and as she does, she jumps up from her seat and covers her mouth. ‘Oh, God, these things feel repulsive!’ she exclaims, to which Jubilee casually replies that she guess it takes some getting used to. ‘Mark my words though: six months from now, Starbucks will be selling these!’ Jubilee exclaims.
Soon, the subway train speeds along the track. Inside the packed train, Jubilee and a little kid sitting across from each other poke their tongues out at each other, while Monet reads a magazine, nose in the air. Jubilee creates a small plasma burst, causing the kid to grin with glee. Monet notices Jubilee using her powers, and elbows her in the side. ‘Ow!’ Jubilee exclaims, to which Monet asks her if she has gone mental. ‘This train is filled with people!’ Monet points out. Jubilee points out that it is just a little kid, and tells Monet to relax and lighten up. ‘Lighten up? Look, it’s one thing to have pride and confidence in your abilities like I said this morning, but to be purposely careless is just…’ Monet’s voice trails off when a gun is fired in the carriage.
‘SIT DOWN!’ a man in a balaclava calls out, accompanied by several others. ‘I assume the adults here are all registered voters?’ one of the men asks as he hands out some brochures, assuring everyone that he will only take a minute of their time, announcing that he is here to ask they support Senator Kelly in the upcoming election. ‘Senator Kelly. He’s that anti-mutant slime ball Emma mentioned. He was just assassinated!’ Jubilee whispers to Monet, who frowns, wondering what the masked man is talking about, when she gets his answer as he turns to her and declares ‘Oh wait. I forgot. You can’t vote for him. You know why? Because he was just murdered by mutants, that’s what!’. The masked man thrusts a brochure in Monet’s face as he looks at her and remarks that the media claimed Kelly was killed by one of his own - a human - but they know better.
Monet looks annoyed, but says nothing. Jubilee whispers to her to keep cool, to which Monet replies that she is. The other passengers on the train look around nervously, while the men in balaclavas hold their guns up. ‘Mutants. The scum of the Earth. The sort of freaks that scurry about the shadows, hunting down innocent victims to infect with their diseased genes!’ He holds up the brochure, with a photo of Senator Kelly on it, and the words Senator Kelly: Murdered by Mutants!! printed on it. ‘So that is why, in the name of the late Senator Kelly…a brilliant man, a visionary, a born leader…I vow to continue his work to rid society of these godless mutants!’.
Monet pouts as she watches the terrorist, while Jubilee whispers ‘Oh, please, what a bunch of nutcases’ as she turns to Monet and asks what the deal is. ‘Can you tweak their minds, make them drop the guns and start crying for mommy or something?’. Monet continues to stare ahead as she replies that she thinks she can disarm all them before they get a shot off. ‘Wait, disarm them? You mean physically?’ Jubilee asks. Monet replies that she has ran the numbers. ‘Typical reaction times with distance and number of adversaries. With my considerable speed and reflexes, I estimate a 74% chance of success’.
Monet states that the odds are clearly in her favor, and explains to Jubilee that she is a lot more comfortable with that than attempting to influence five minds at once, especially when those minds are pointing assault rifles at innocent people. Jubilee looks nervous as she tells Monet that there is a lot at risk here for a puny 74%. Suddenly, the main terrorist spins round to Jubilee and Monet and asks them what they are whispering about. ‘Oh, you know, the usual…makeup, tampax…girl stuff’. Suddenly, the little kid from earlier shouts ‘Hey, mister! She makes sparks with her hands! Again! Show me again!’ he calls out to Jubilee. The terrorist frowns and points his weapon at Jubilee. ‘I knew there was something about you two. I swear, I can smell a mutant a mile off -’ he exclaims, when, suddenly, his gun vanishes from his hands.
Indeed, Monet used her super-speed to grab it from him, then she aims it at him, warning him to tell his men to drop their guns and stand down. ‘That’ll never happen, you perverse piece of -’ the terrorist retorts as he reaches into his jacket, just as Monet shouts ‘Everybody down! Jubilee!’. Jubilee takes her cue and blasts the terrorist at close-range with her plasma fireworks. Monet throws the bullets from the gun, while Jubilee blasts the weapons of the other terrorists. The terrorists promptly pull out sharp knives. ‘Jubilee -’ Monet calls out. ‘Got it, M!’ Jubilee replies, dropping to the train floor, she blasts a firework at one of the terrorists who lunges at her, but she flips him over. ‘I don’t need prompting!’ she assures Monet.
Monet takes on two of the terrorists at once, kicking one of them hard in the face, while shoving another’s arm through the train wall. The other passengers look on in shock as Monet flies through the carriage and grabs one of the terrorists who has begun to flee, shoving him to the floor, she pulls his arm back behind his head. The terrorist whom attacked Jubilee shouts ‘You…you…filth!’ as he points a gun at Jubilee, who lies on the train floor clutching her arm. The terrorist fires the bullet, which speeds towards Jubilee - who is rescued in the nick of time as Monet picks up the injured Jubilee, then punches the terrorist hard in the face.
With her injured teammate in her arms, Monet turns to the other passengers, who stare at her with some disdain. Monet stares back, using her telepathy to erase their recent memories, before she jumps out the back of the carriage and onto the subway tracks.
Soon, on a deserted platform, Monet has placed Jubilee up against a dumpster as her teammate regains consciousness. ‘M?’ Jubilee asks. Monet tells Jubilee that it is all right, and that she is here. ‘Ow! Be careful!’ Jubilee exclaims as Monet ties a makeshift bandage around her injured arm. Monet tells Jubilee to stop being such a baby, and that it is hardly a scratch, as the new costumes really work. ‘The knife barely got through’ she assures Jubilee. Looking around, Jubilee asks where they are. ‘Somewhere out of the way’ Monet replies, admitting that she isn’t quite sure where, but that they shouldn’t stay here long. ‘You should see what that subway car looked like when we left’ Monet smiles.
Jubilee rubs her head, before remembering that someone shot at her. Monet smirks as she holds the bullet up in front of Jubilee, remarking that it is fortunate for her she is pretty good at catching bullets. ‘You know, I never cease to amaze myself’ Monet adds. ‘Yeah, but that’s never much of a problem for you, is it?’ Jubilee jokes, before Monet helps her up. ‘So much for keeping out powers a secret in public’ Monet replies that she took care of that. ‘A good old-fashioned Emma Frost mind-wipe’ she exclaims, adding that she executed it perfectly. ‘Are you serious? Sean is gonna kill you! He hates that stuff! It’s an abuse of your powers, you know, to use that on innocents!’ Jubilee exclaims.
‘Innocents. Yeah, right, Jubilee’ Monet replies. ‘Just like the “innocents” that are responsible for Ev’s death. The same “innocents” that have us hiding out like rejects from society. And on the one day we try to live like normal people and go shopping, we end up having to defend our lives - just for being born the way we were born!’ Monet exclaims. ‘Well, I’m sorry, Jubilee, but the “innocents” will just have to deal with it!’. Monet reveals that the mind-wipe is one of the very first things Emma taught her, but no one else knows that, especially Sean. ‘And I expect it to stay that way’ Monet tells Jubilee. ‘Fine! Enough with the speeches, all right? I just wanna get out of here!’ Jubilee replies, before suggesting they go and meet up with Jono. ‘I hope he had a better day than I did…’.
