Monet finally managed to rupture the gas lines. There was no time left. Everything had to be done now or never. Quickly she sent a telepathic message to the people living in a three block radius.

Within three minuets, the local police department had received several phone calls reporting a gas odor in the air. Within twenty minutes, the electrical power for a six block radius was cut off and emergency crews were called to the area. Soon, the only people left in the affected area were the members of the network. From start to finish, the whole clearing process took less than an hour.

About the time that the first person reported smelling gas, Skin saw Matt and Ariel walk out of the building and drive off. _Madre de Dios!_ Celeste had managed to get them out of danger. Quickly, he called Matt's cell phone and arranged for Jubilee to meet them at a gas station five miles away.

Sam saw the younger sister walk out of the building. He would promise anything to keep his family safe, and he bet the older girl was no different. Quickly he motioned for Ev, Paige and M to move out. It was time for action.

Skin had decided that the risk was too great to his family for him to be seen, so he was acting as communication coordinator. It seemed to him that some vital detail had been missed. But what was it?

Celeste's half an hour was up ten minutes ago. Quickly, Tony marched in the bedroom. He saw an open bathroom door. Walking in there, he found Celeste on the bathroom floor, covered in her own vomit.

"You were too much a lady to give in," he told her admiringly as he started to run a tub of cold water. Celeste was still conscious enough to nod. Killing herself was the easy way out. She proudly made a small motion with her hand, drawing attention to the large empty allergy bottles, the assorted pills laying around, and most importantly- the empty bottle of her sister's medicine. Her blue lips emphasized her smile.

"As long as you're dying want to know what for?" Celeste nodded with her eyes. She could feel her body start to die and needed every ounce of strength she could muster. He carefully set her in the tub, hoping against hope that by slowing down her metabolism, he could help her hang on until her friends came and got her.

"You see, we were paid good money to get Jubilee for someone. Even if you die, it won't stop anything, he'll try again. And people wanted her friend Wolverine. Then we found out about the price on Pete Wisdom's head. It was almost as good as the bounty on Shadowcat's head. So we thought we'd get them all." Celeste started wheezing. "Didn't count on the little girl having such devoted friends." His voice dropped as he added, "I'm sorry if you die, but it's a lot better than life at the compound."

With that, Tony walked out of the room and gave orders for the men to start to pull out. He came back in and dropped everything from her freezer on her. Then, gently, he slipped the names of her medicine and her doctor's phone number in her hand.

"Hold on," he whispered. "I'll make sure no one hurts you again."

Jubilee held the box containing her image scrambler carefully. How would Ariel take seeing her again? By all rational and reasonable accounts, she would hate her. And Jubilee couldn't blame her.

Their friendship started out as two mall rats hanging together on Saturday. Jubilee hadn't been one for close female friends since she was a child. Most girls seemed so different from her, so conformist, so bland. After what happened to Cy-Jen, she didn't think she could relate to a non-mutant anymore.

Cy-Jen hadn't freaked when Jubilee first told her that she was a mutant. It would have been easier if she had. Instead, Cy-Jen just stopped calling gradually, stopped talking when they saw each other. "You wouldn't understand," Cy-Jen would start but never finish. Her best friend just drifted away.

Soon the school was whispering about the mutie freak that was in class with them. Jubilee got so scared, she decided to ditch school. She knew that the teachers wouldn't protect her, and she couldn't protect herself. After her parents' death, Cy-Jen's parents wouldn't take her in. She was stuck in a group home until she ran away.

Ariel was different. They could hang or talk about their deepest problems. Heck, Ariel was the first person that Jubilee had told about her learning disability. Ariel's attitude about Jubilee being a mutant was very much, "I can't know 'cause I can't lie," but she knew. And still she ate with Jubilee, drank from the same cup after she had, borrowed clothes from her. Cy-Jen stopped doing that because she was afraid to catch the X-factor. Ariel loved her best friend because she was her best friend, not for who she was, what she had, or anything else. Jubilee didn't want to lose that.

And Celeste. To say Celeste was strong was to say the surface of the sun was a little warm. To use a line that Jubilee had heard on her favorite soap opera, Madre was "steel disguised as spun glass." Celeste would drive out to the school every Sunday morning to take Ev and Paige to church with her. She opened her home to every member of Generation-X, and would take the time to listen and help them. In her own way, Celeste added a touch of femininity that Ms. Frost couldn't. The team needed the comfort of knowing there was an empathic ear just a few miles down the road.

Matt's car pulled into the service station and Ariel hopped out. Just Ariel, Jubilee realized grimly. Not both sisters. But that thought buried itself as Ariel recognized the t-shirt Jubilee's image was wearing, and ran to hug her best friend.

Skin sat in the darkness of the building. He hated himself for not going out and helping Celeste. His fear for his family was that strong. Celeste would understand and forgive him, but he couldn't forgive himself. She was as much a part of his family of love as Paige or Ev and, if the situation had been reversed, she would be in there. Instead he was here, a prisoner of fear.

Suddenly, it hit him. The one fact that had made this plan so risky? Propane gas is flammable. Sam and Jubilee both had a mutant power that involved fire. If they tried to use it, with all the gas, the block could blow up. And he couldn't risk calling them, because that would cause a spark of electricity. He could only hope that they would remember.

Ev and M were standing outside the door to the apartment, waiting for Sam and Paige to turn off the damping field. So far, every thing was on schedule. But Ev knew that he had to worry about M.

"You holding it together?" he asked her.

M sighed, "It's hard to hold things together with my mutant power, without it it's damn near impossible. What the hell is keeping those two?" Ev felt his jaw open and had to forceable close it. M cussing? Things must be bad.

"Sam said they should be done in less than two minutes," he tried to reassure her.

"Great! I'm ready to kick some ass." Who was this person that was speaking for M?

Gently, Ev tried to nudge her. "So your mutant power is to be Miss Perfect Priss."

M giggled. "Maybe," she answered in a coy, childish way.

Ev checked his watch. Sam had a minute left. "So, um, did you get any pictures of what is going in that apartment?"

M looked more motherly, "We have to move fast or that dear child will die." M, having lost her mutant power, was now losing control over herself. Ev checked his watch again. Thirty seconds.

This time he had to be more direct and get M back. "Sybil," as in the movie about a woman with split personalities, "Can I talk to Monet now?"

Suddenly M's body grew more composed and hauty. "You haven't met Cybil yet," she said in that patent 'I'm a Saint Croix and you're not' tone that Ev knew.

At that moment, Ev felt his sync power kick back in. Finally! They were ready for some action.