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                          "A Day at the Mall"
                            By Tony Ricardi
                          webmeistro@hotmail.com

Few things grow in the rocky soil of western Massachusetts faster than
malls.  Jubilee considered herself to be one of the foremost experts
on The Shopping Mall As An Expression Of Late Twentieth Century
Culture, but she couldn't remember even hearing about the Silver City
Mall before today.  Not that that bothered her much.

Jubilee could scarcely remember the ride up, nor the reasons behind
the White Queen's sudden magnamosity in taking her here.  She half
remembered a promise to to take her shopping had she achieved a
certain grade on a Bio midterm, which she didn't even recall taking.
However, that too failed to furrow the brow of the 13-year old
Californian mallrat.  All she knew was that, right now, she didn't
have a care in the world beyond which stores to hit first.

She practically floated down the central promenade, Emma tailing
behind her. The main structure was slightly curved, preventing one
from seeing the end, creating the illusion of an infinite space. Three
terraced stories rose on either side, full of storefronts tailored to
the whims of 13-to-24 year old suburban white females in middle to
upper class income brackets. Jubes was in heaven.

"Where to, teach?"

"This is your trip, Jubilee.  I'll leave the specifics to your
discretion."

Jubilee's nose caught a fimiliar aroma.  "Caffeine rush!!", she cried,
making a beeline for the Starbucks.  She bought a double tall espresso
and dumped in more sugar than Cuba had exported last year. Emma
purchased a small Earl Grey.

Sipping their drinks, they browsed through a small newsstand next
door.  Emma skimmed through the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and
Vogue, while Jubilee scanned Cosmo and Teen People. She purchased a
copy of Archie Comics for Leech and Artie, pleased to see that Hama
had finally been given the appropriate outlet for his creative
talents.

"Do you see anything that interests you, Jubilee?"

Jubilee was so locked in shopping mode that she didn't try to think of
a snappy comeback regarding the packages of several teenage shoppers
passing by.  Instead, the two mutants strolled slowly past a
succession of trendy shoe boutiques, finally entering one named Event
Horizon.  Jubes eventually settled on a tiny pair of sandals with
cherry-red straps, while Emma rejected some white thigh-high leather
boots. Jubilee wore her sandals out of the store, tossing her beat-up
sneakers into a nearby trashcan.

They wandered through the mall's many corridors, Emma allowing Jubilee
to lead the way. After half an hour of meandering and windowshopping,
Jubilee's eye was caught by a dress on a mannequin in the window of
'Window', an even hipper than usual clothing store.  It was a pale
green, sheath-type number, with a horizontal red slash around the hips
made of interlocking plates of metallic material. The mannequin stood
with its arms locked behind its back, wearing a bizzare spiked headpiece.

Jubilee was in and out of the changing room even before she realized
it.  The dress fit perfectly, hugging her top and accentuating her
budding curves, flaring aroung her waist and terminating at mid-thigh.
 The scarlet band blazed like a stopsign.  "CanIgetit?  Pleezepleeze?"
She was sure the White Queen would denounce it as tacky, but she _had_
to try.

"Already done, dear", said Emma, returning her American Express
Plutonium Card to her purse.  Mathematical science had long since
given up trying to determine the credit limit on such cards, resigning
itself to easier tasks like the last digit of Pi. "If you feel that it
suits you, by all means".

"Oooothankyouthankyou!", Jubes gushed, hugging Emma briefly.  She
decided to wear this as well, stuffing her neon tank top and tiny
denim shorts into her purse as they walked out.  After hesitating
briefly, she threw her battered yellow raincoat into a trashcan.  It
slipped fluidly inside and was gone in a flash.

"Jubilee-"

"Aw, cmon, teach, I've been wearing that old thing forever.  Girl's
gotta move on, you know."

"Are you sure..."

"Emma, I've had that since I was thir... umm... hey, let's get done
over!"

They settled into the chairs at the salon located on the other side of
the main concourse.  In a flash, two blondes with hair piled a foot
high were fussing over Jubilee's black locks.  Refusing to let anyone
with less than a doctorate in cosmetology touch her golden tresses,
Emma put her feet up and enjoyed a pedicure.

The time passed in silence.  Emma tried to be interested in her six
month old copy of People, and failed miserably.  She reached out
oh-so-gently to Jubilee's thoughts, but found only a fast-moving,
chaotic jumble.  Her task was made easier by the fact the Jubester's
two bimbette hairdressers had absolutely no thoughts whatsoever to
distract her. Her tall, sandy haired pedicurist also had no readable
surface thoughts, which was odd considering the view Emma's dress gave
him. Curious, she tickled the base of her nose with her hair. When the
sneeze hit, she 'accidentally' let her legs gape for a second.  Still
nothing.  I ought to tell Drake about this place, she thought, he'd-

"Whaddya think?"

Emma tried very hard to keep her face neutral, and almost succeeded.
Jubilee's hair had been shorn to a quarter inch, front, back and
sides.  Only a few stray hairs trickled down to her forehead. She
looked like she had just joined the Marines.  "Jubilee, that's...
very..."

"...rad, I know! Cmon, let's went."

Conveniently enough, Emma's pedicure had just finished as well.  She
waved her Plutonium Card in the cashier's general direction, and
headmistress and student walked back into the main atrium together.
The White Queen chose her next words carefully.  "Jubilee, in the past
few hours, you have... changed.  I hardly recognize you anymore."

"Ms. Frost, I told you. I'm not a kid anymore. I'm... growing up.
Changing. Y'know."

"Are you... feeling well?" Her tone made it clear she was concerned.

"Look, we both know I had some... stuff... happen to me. It's okay,
I'll pull through. Always have, always will. Hey, gotta hit the little
girls room. Coffee wants out. You too?"

Emma nodded, and they soon found the restroom between a housewares
store and another Starbucks. As fate would have it, exactly two of the
dozen stalls were free, next to each other. Jubilee put no less than
four layers of toilet paper down. *No one ever said Mrs. Lee's little
girl wasn't careful.*

She lifted her new dress, pulled down her scarlet silk panties, and...
nothing happened. She waited a moment. Nothing. She leaned forward.
Nothing. She squeezed. Nothing. Jubilee had heard of people being
unable to 'go' in public places, but it had never happened to her.
Heck she had relieved herself in malls across the globe, this
shouldn't be happening. She leaned forward and squeezed harder-

-and with a flood of embarrassment, she suddenly remembered that one
of the world's most powerful telepaths was in the stall next to her.
Her psi-training leapt to mind instinctively. *Don't think. keep it
inside. don't think. keep it inside* Regaining her composure, she
focused on keeping her mind blank. *keep it in keep it inside*

Finally, she squeezed massively *dont think dont think* and managed a
five second burst. Her bladder status downgraded from 'crisis' to
merely unconfortable, she wiped *dontthink* and sprinted out of the
stall. She couldn't see Ms. Frost as she washed her hands, so she left
to meet/wait for her outside.

*don't think. keep it inside*

==========================================================

The White Queen was nowhere in sight.  As Jubilee scanned the sparse
crowd, her attention was caught by a young girl rollerblading expertly
through the crowd, dodging benches, kiosks, and startled shoppers with
equal ease. Jubilee was reminded of the many exhilarating afternoons
she had spent mall-skating in SoCal, with her thirteen year old
partner in crime-

"CynJen!?!?!"

"Jubilee?!?!?!"

The slender teen skated to a halt in front of Jubilee. She was wearing
a short red tank top, pink ruffled mini, while blades and red safety
gear. She hadn't aged a day. "Omygod!"

"OhMYgod!"

"Love the dress!"

"Wicked blades!"

"Rad cut!"

"Wish I could say the same 'bout you!"  Jubilee couldn't see any hair
under Cynthia Jennifer's red helmet. *Jeez, spend _one_ summer away
from Cali and fashions pass me right by.*

"Whaddya doin' round here?"

"Major shopping expedition. You?"

CynJen grinned. "Same old tricks." She opened her purse to reveal a
dozen CDs, security tags still attached.  Jubes picked out Tori Amos
and Motorhead. "Ooops. Gotta vamoose!" A pair of overweight,
40something security guards were huffing down the hall after her.

"Not without me, you aren't!" Jubilee whipped her blades from her
purse and put them on in the space of a thought. "Away, Kemosabe!"

"_You're_ Kemosabe!"

"No way, I was last time, remember?"

It was just like old times. Giggling like schoolgirls, they skated up
stairs, down escalators, in and out stores, around people. The guards
never got close. They glided down the long central promenade, toward
the exit doors.

Suddenly the exit burst open to reveal three more guards. They wore
red uniforms and carried _big_ guns. "Halt!"

"Woops! Time to zig."

"Or zag."

"You zig. I'll zag."

The turned and flew back down the main shopping area.  It seemed like
every shopper had transformed into an armored, gun-toting guard.
Jubilee dodged and wheeled madly, careening into a side corridor,
ducked past a startled grunt, and into an even smaller access
corridor, hoping to shake them in the maze of service crawlways that
she knew honeycombed every mall. She couldn't see CynJen anywhere.

Suddenly a hailstorm of bullets tore sparks from the wall a foot from
her. Acting on pure instinct, she spun around and lashed out with her
pyrokinetic powers. The guard was lifted off his feet and hurled
backwards, landing with a muted thump, his gun clattering away.  He
lay motionless, flames licking at the hole in his chest. Jubilee's
first thought was to check to make sure he was all right, but when she
heard more footsteps pounding down the hall towards her, she turned
and sprinted away. At the end of the hall, Jubes spotted a
manhole-like grate covering a dark access shaft. She paffed the grate
off its hinges and flung herself in.

Jubilee crawled desperately on her hands and knees through the
cramped, musty-smelling shaft, releasing an occasional glowing sphere
to pierce the darkness. After a few hundred feet, she spotted another
hatchway set into the wall. She blasted through it, the explosion
echoing painfully through the narrow tunnel. She crawled through and
tumbled into a dimly lit storeroom. Staggering to her feet, she
located the door and emerged, blinking, into a Sharper Image showroom.
Ignoring the surprised glances, she sidled over to the front of the
store, peeked outside, and almost ran into the White Queen, who had
evidently located her telepathically. The were no security guards in
sight.

"Where were you?"

"Ran into an old friend, had a chat then she had to split. Hey, you
hungry?" Jubilee's eyes widened as she spotted a nearby Uhip.
"PANCAKES!"

*keep it inside keep it inside*

============================================================

For the next fifteen minutes Jubilee chattered nonstop about the
Zen-like perfection of the pancake as a culinary art form while
simultaneously stuffing them into her mouth. Emma picked at her crepe
in silence.

"So where to now, teach? Time's a-wastin'!" She cruised through the
mall as though on rails, Ms. Frost barely keeping up. The mall
suddenly terminated in a garish movie mutitiplex. The upper walls were
painted to look as if spotlights were playing across them, while
beneath a faux Twenties-style marquee advertised "Retro night!"
Jubilee passed by the posters for Escape From New York, Logan's Run,
and The Chairman, stopping before-

"Night of the Dead Living XXVII!!", she gasped, "in 4D! A classic!"
Without even glancing behind her, she zinged through the lobby, and
located the appropriate theater. An usher with a pale crew cut,
goatee, and self-assured smirk handed her a pair of stereoscopic
glasses. She made her way to the center of the almost empty theater
and slipped them on.

The movie began almost immediately. Jubilee found herself in a
small pool of light, surrounded by acres of inky blackness. The 3D
illusion was flawless; the theater's worn seats and chattering patrons
were but a memory. Jubilee looked down and was only mildly surprised
to find herself wearing a white bodysuit. She could feel a heavy
helmet on her head, from which wires ran.

One by one, shadows formed from the darkness, moving slowly towards
her. One by one, the shadows took on form, color, and substance. One
by one, the faces of her friends became recognizable.

One by one, they died.

A regal looking black woman, trapped in a living tomb and crushed to
death. A boy in his late teens, flying through the air only to be
obliterated by a volley of antiaircraft missiles. A tall, muscular
black man riddled with energy rays until he overloaded and exploded
from within. A red-haired woman and a red eyed man in a trenchcoat,
cut down by a hailstorm of bullets without even having time to scream.

A shattered ruby visor at her feet.

One figure remained, imprisoned in a jungle of cables, electrodes and
steel. Despite the horror of his condition, he still wore a grim
smile.

"Mutant designate Wolverine". The voice rang out all around her. "We
will ask you again: what is the prime location of the gene terrorist
faction known as the X-Men?"

"And I'll tell ya what I told ya, before, bub. Kiss my Canadian b-"

-a faint, metallic click-

"AAAAAUUURRGGHHHH!!" The figure writhed in pain as electricity coursed
through his muscles. After agonizing moments, the switch was thrown
again, and the figure hung limply from his bonds. "..p...p-please
stop..."

Silence filled the vast, dark space like a shroud. Then, slowly,
laughter filled the room. It took Jubilee a moment to realize it was
hers.

She ripped off the glasses and flung them across the room, leaving her
in the theater once more. It was dimly lit and occupied only by
herself and the goateed usher, who towered over her with the same
self-satisfied gloat.

Rage flooded through Jubilation Lee like a hot river. "Is _this_ all
you can do?", she almost screamed. "Is _this_ what the big fight is
about? Humanity's right to punish? To _torture_? To HATE? Is THAT what
you're fighting for? If it is, you can keep your stinking humanity-"

Bastion's fist slammed into her like a brick wall. She lay sprawled on
her back, unable to move.

"My humanity... child... is the only thing that is keeping you alive."
His voice was perfectly calm.

"Do what you _want_ to me, Bastion! It won't matter, it won't _ever_
matter! I won't break, I'm NEVER gonna break!"

Bastion knelt before her, his face and voice still as calm and
emotionless as a professor giving a lecture. "It seems you have
succeeded in withholding the information I require. Perhaps you will
even continute to do so indefinately." With a single motion, he tore
the botton half of her white bodysuit away like it was made of tissue.

"But know this, child. I _will_ break you."

Jubilee didn't scream. Not then. Not when he shed his robe and cruelly
forced her knees almost to her armpits. It wasn't until her hymen was
smashed aside by an iron shaft that the screams ripped themselves from
her and echoed through the hallways of the hulkbuster base like the
wails of a dying beast. She tried to move, to wiggle away or free her
hands to force him out or claw at his expressionless face, but all she
could do was scream.

============================================================

A pale alabaster statue sat on a bench in the lobby of the deserted
movie theater. The marquee was dark and blank. Beside her, an
old-style popcorn maker ejaculated white kernels into a crimson pot
below. Nothing else moved.

Slowly, very slowly, a shadow fell across the theater entrance.
Jubilee was wearing her yellow raincoat once again, open at the front,
nothing else. A ghastly mixture of blood and semen slipped down her
inner thighs.

Their eyes met. After a second that lasted forever, Jubilee shuffled,
walked, ran and threw herself into Emma's arms, crushing her in a
desperate bear hug. Emma embraced Jubilee back, and they held each
other for minutes, hours, geological ages.

Finally, Jubilee drew herself back a little. "How... how long...?"

"I don't know how much of your memory has recovered, child", Emma said
tenderly, "so I'll start with what I know. Logan told me that when he
found you in the desert, you seemed all right. You helped fight the
Sentinels; in fact, he said you had even helped the X-Men escape
Bastion's base." Jubilee nodded. "However, after the group had
returned to the remains of Xavier's mansion, and removed the bomb from
Cyclops' chest, you became unresponsive. Dr McCoy examined you, and
discovered evidence of the... the rape." Emma held Jubilee closely
once more.

"We flew you back to the Academy, where you have remained, totally
catatonic, for the past two weeks. Drs. McCoy and Reyes assured me
that you had not suffered any major physical injuries, which left
psychological trauma as the only cause. I tried to reach you through
all the methods I was accustomed to, to no avail.

"Finally, with your physical condition worsening by the day, I sent my
consciousness directly into your mind." Emma waved her hand in an
all-encompassing gesture. "I chose a shopping mall as an environment
which you would find non-threatening. It served as a metaphor through
which I could communicate with you, and- more importantly- for you to
express yourself to me, and to yourself."

Arms still around each other, they walked slowly out of the theater
into the ersatz mall. The illusion was already beginning to
deteriorate. It was deserted, silent as a tomb, and lit only by a pale
light shining from a formless void above the third terrace.

Emma led Jubilee to a small, plain metal door sandwiched in the wall
between two Starbucks, and pushed it open. Dizzyingly, the view beyond
looked _down_ upon the Massachusetts Academy sickbay, as though the
door were set in the ceiling. Side by side, Emma and Jubilee lay on
diagnostic beds, unconscious. Two IV tubes fed into Jubilee's
emaciated arms. Medical equipment beeped and blinked around them.

Emma held out her hand. Slowly, very slowly, Jubilee grasped it.

Slowly, one step at a time, they walked forward, together.

                    -=FIN=-