Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men.

F.Y.I.: Marvel has launched a new X-Men title called Ultimate X-Men. This new book will start at the beginning of X-history but add a few new twists like everyone, including Wolverine and Sabertooth are or look under nineteen. Jean, Scott, Storm, Logan, Hank, and Mystique will make up the team. Mystique will later leave, no duh! Any way, I am a little upset because some of my favs are not in the book yet, so this is how I would introduce Jubilee and Gambit. Enjoy.

Logan hated it when the girls wanted to go shopping, because he always got bag detail. At last count he had fourteen shopping bags next to him and he was sure the count would top twenty or more before his nightmare was over. At least Scott had stayed at the hotel with the Professor who was preparing to give a speech tomorrow at UCLA.

He also hated this whole situation, the X-Men, how in the world did he need up with these losers?*oh yeah* he remembered *the red head* As the thought of her floated around in his mind, said red-head and Storm came around the corner with four more bags, each. He sighed, the girls had still only covered half the mall and he was at his wits end.

Without a word, Jean and Storm plopped their loot next to Logan and skipped off towards Macy's. He couldn't help but watch them, both of them were incredibly beautiful. Still, he was too old, too angry, and too confused to ever hope for a chance with either of them, especially the 'All American Sweetheart' Jean.

He leaned back on the rather uncomfortable metal bench hoping sleep would find him, but with all the people now crowded into the Beverly Center he knew his acute senses would not allow it. Even the quietest of conversations sounded like an ocean wave crashing down on him.

At least, in another two hours they would have to leave in order to make it back to the hotel by the Professor's curfew. He moaned, now he had a curfew, he was at least 100 years old and HE had a curfew. Granted he didn't look a day over nineteen, but most nineteen year olds don't have curfews. Grunting at the thought, he twisted in his seat until he found a less painful position.

Down the hall he could hear the pant of someone running, correction, three someones running. Soon, he could hear, another someone growling. A rumble developed in his chest as he recognitized Victor Creed's manical roar. He leapt to his feet, completely forgetting his duties to the bags and took off don the hall surprising the shoppers woundering near where he had been seated.

He rounded the corner near Mrs. Fields and caught sight of tall thin man with a long trench coat running in front of a small dark haired girl in a bright yellow jacket, pink sunglasses, blue jeans and a 'Kiss This' t-shirt. Logan stood his ground trying to see where Creed was, he was close but the crowd was so thick it was hard to tell who was who. Just at the tall man passed him, he heard an ear piercing yelp from a woman. Seconds later he saw a blond haired woman held about four or five feet off the ground and the hand of Victor Creed around her neck. Creed was slashing at her midsection with his free hand, blood sprayed everywhere.

The crowd began stampeding like wild horses to get away from the carnage. The young girl that had been running behind the man in the trenchcoat stopped and turned. To Logan's shock she turned around and ran back towards Creed.

"BELLA!" the young girl cried out. She stopped about ten feet away from them, clinched her fists and raised them level with her shoulders. What happened next, only caused the rampaging crowd to go into pandamonium. The girl discharged two pink lights from her hands, that exploded upon contacting Creed's back, the impact sounded like a fourth of July fireworks display. Logan stood behind the girl and watched as Creed tumbled over, with his bloody victim, to the ground.

Fearlessly, the young girl ran over and began tugging on the arm of the fallen woman, begging and pleeding with her to get up. Logan knew he only had precious seconds before Creed would recover.

"Get up Bella, c'mon this ain't funny, Remy's gonna leave us. GET UP," The girl pleeded in a thick SoCal accent, but the woman was not responding. Blood began to pool on the floor under her. Logan grabbed them both, the girl under his right arm, the woman under this left and took off in the direction he came.

The girl fought him, demanding that he put her down. She kicked, bit, and stratched him; against his better judgment, he held on to the brat.

The crowd of terrorifed shoppers ran for the main enterences and emergency doors. Jean and Storm stood where they had left Logan only a few minutes ago.

"Maybe, this is all his doing," Storm commented while scanning the crowd. Jean closed her eyes, allowing her mind to walk the crowd. She could see Logan approaching with a girl and an injured woman.

"Come on 'Ro, we got trouble!" Jean yelled.

"We can not go any where without it, my friend," Storm returned. As Jean started running, Storm lefted off the ground, together they made it to the middle of the mall only to find Logan trapped in the crowd. Not good, he tended to react like a caged wild animal when he was cornered. Jean lefted him and his cargo out of the crowd using her telekensis. Carefully she guided them over towards her, but unceremoniously dropped the lot of them in front of her.

"Logan what's going on?" Jean demanded while helping him to his feet.

"Creed," he barked. No more needed to be said, Jean nodded to Storm. Ororo Munroe, mistress of the weather, raised a graceful arm above her head and called forth a mini tornado. Guiding it, she pushed it towards a wall that soon vanished after being crushed by the gail force of the wind.

Logan shifted the injuried woman in his arms and turned to look for the girl who was already half way to the hole in the wall. "Smart girl," he muttered. The parking lot was gridlocked with horrorified people trying to flee the scene.

"What do we do now," Storm questioned? Suddenly, they all heard a terrorifying growl, Creed had recovered from the girl's attack. The young girl tugged on Logan's jacket and took off across the lot. The others, with no better plan of action followed her.

Within a matter of seconds, she'd ran to a manhole in the middle of the lot, removed the unbolted cover and began to climb down. Storm made her way down followed by Logan. Jean was the last one down, she slide the manhole cover back in place and finished her climb to the bottom.

The others waited for Jean to finish her descent, with the exception of the girl who ran ahead. "C'mon, he can smell us, you idiots," she ordered! Logan looked at the girl curiously, *how does she know so much about Creed,* he wondered.

Questions later, she was right they had to get out of there, as much as Logan may have wanted to, this was not the time or place for a showdown with Sabertooth. The sewer smelled like a guy's gym locker room married to five day old garbage. It was driving Logan crazy, but he had smelled worst.

After twenty or so minutes, they stopped in front of a round metal door, after testing it the girl banged on it twice, nothing happened. "Open the door Gumbo, it's me," she banged again.

"Let me," Jean reached out her hand and the door rolled open. They entered and the girl rolled the door shut. The young girl made a beeline for a cot in a corner. The other looked around the small room, there were three cots, two of them pushed close together and a radio.

"Put her here," she told Logan.

"We should get her to a hospital," Logan grunted.

"Not on your little short life Pal, we ain't going to jail over a run in with Toothy. 'Sides, Bella gonna be fine," she tried to sound so sure of that. Logan placed the blonde on the cot and backed away.

"Bella, wake up, pleeaasssssssssse. We gotta go after Remy before Toothy gets him," she made it sound like an order. The woman opened her eyes slowly and looked up at the girl.

Belladonna placed a weak hand on her young friends face,"Jae-Lee... I'm sor...." Her eyes rolled back into her head as her hand limply slide down the girl's tender face.

"Bella," the girl shock her violently,"BELLA YOU CAN'T DIE!" Logan lowered his head, a respectful gesture he always extended to the dead.

"Come now little one, she's gone," Ororo took the young girl in her arms. At first she seemed to accept Storm's kindness, but like the changing of the wind she bolted away.

"I'm not little, I'm thirteen. Go to hell, all of y'all," she powered up just like Logan had seen her do in the mall. Storm and Jean, unaware of what this meant stood there in awe of the beautiful light the girl held. Logan knew better, she'd taken down Creed in one shot, God only knows what damage she could do to someone without a healing factor. He stepped in front of the girls,but just before she had a chance to fire her angry blast, she peered at the door.

"Oh my God, he's coming," the thirteen year old whispered. She looked at the door, Logan could smell nothing of Creed or of anybody else except those present.

"Logan," Jean said," she's right, I feel him near by." Logan sniffed the rotten air, he could only now start to pick up a trace of Creed. "We have to leave," Jean ordered. Jean looked at the girl, wondering if their new friend was telepathic.

"Not without Bella," the girl pointed to the dead woman lifeless body. Her statement was empty, she knew Belladonna was dead. Fighting back tears, she walked over to her fallen comrad and removed the woman's pink earrings from her ears. Kissing Belladonna on the forehead, she backed away. "Without Bella, then," she muttered.

The child turned as Jean pulled back the door, Creed was no where in sight, but the running terrorified sea of rats racing towards them was sign enough that he was too close for it to be safe to remain a second longer. "C'mon, follow me...I'm not afraid," Jubilee ordered. Logan looked down at the girl, she was forcing herself to remain calm. He relieved she'd gone through this before only, he was sure, it must have been worst.

They ran to the next manhole, Jean removed it with a thought and they escaped into the night and dark of North Hollywood.

At the Hotel...

"Did you find them, Scott?" Charles asked impatiently as his student walked throught the door.

"No Professor, but when I arrived at the Beverly Center, cops were everywhere. According to what I overheard there was some kind of mutant attack on a group of people." Scott's mind was swirling with concern for his team, especially his beloved Jean. They had heard nothing for hours from Logan or the girls. With Logan's natural ability to get them all in trouble, the information he gathered at the mall, and their extreme lateness, Scott was more than worried.

Hank entered the room, pausing at the door. Both Scott and Charles looked up, Hank opened the door wider exposing the missing X-Men and their tag-a-long. They looked like they had been through world war 3 and smelled like the sewers.

"Where have you three been all night," Charles asked trying to remain calm. Obviously something went terribly wrong on the shopping trip.

"Who's baldy?" the girl quipped. Charles stared at her sourly. "Sorry," she returned.

"Would somebody care to explain what happened, or should we guess," Scott tossed Logan a pissed off holier-than-thou look.

"You wanna explaination...four eyes," the girl started," fine. In a hundred words or less. Me, Bella, and Remy were catching the five finger discount sale at Sears when old 'Tooth, I guess surfing for an industrial sized nail file or som'thin', shows up and ruins all my fun. We almost got away until old Snagglepuss here, "she said pointing to Logan, "showed up. Then I paffed Creed with a light magic. A little walk through the sewer and I got your people home safe and sound. I take cash and credit cards for services provided, no checks they tend to bounce." The three X-Men standing behind her looked down at her completely confused about how she could have been so flippant about the whole thing. Someone she clearly cared about was dead and another in her party was missing.

Charles looked at the girl. "What is your name, child?" he asked politely.

"Here we go with this 'child' stuff again, I am thirteen you know," she bragged with her hands on her narrow hips.

"Just answer his question young lady," Scott ordered.

"Who died and left you in charge,SHESSSHH, oh the name's Jubilee, by the way."

"Right, Jubilee, now can we have your real name," Scott was losing patience with the girl.

"I can see we ain't gonna get along, my name is Jubilation Lee, J-u-b-i from the first name, L-e-e, from the last name. Jubilee. You understand, duh for brains?"

"Whatever," Scott sheepishly returned.

Logan smiled, anyone that could make Scott-I-Am-Always-Right Summers out to be wrong and shut him up at the same time was okay with him. Without asking, Jubilee began to look around the hotel room. No one said a word, they only watched. She was sizing the place up, she looked out the window noting they were only two stories up, checked the bathroom, and picked up the phone listening for something.

"What are you doing," Hank asked?

"Just checkin' fer bugs, Remy showed me," she quietly returned.

"Fer bugs, what the C.I.A. after you," Logan chuckled?

"No silly, you can never be too careful. Clearly, y'all know about Toothy too, he could be watching the place. He's sick that way," She returned smiling at Logan.

By ten o'clock the girls had returned to their room with Jubilee in tow. They all needed a shower and a change of clothes. Charles, against his better judgment, attempted to scan the young girl's mind, but to his surprise he was denied access due to a fairly strong psi-shield.

"Professor, I found something," Hank meekly announced while sitting in front of his laptop. "Her name is Jubilation Lee, she is thirteen, and an orphan."

"Did you find anything else Hank?"

"Oh yes sir, quit a sad story, actually," at that Scott looked up from his seat. "Her parents died in a freak car crash two years ago on the Coastal Highway, Dr. and Mrs. Lee. Dr. Lee was a banker, C.E.O of First Pacifica Bank. She was put into foster care, did about six months in the Los Angeles County Youth Detention after beating up her allegiatedly abusive foster father. Her only family, is in China. About six months ago she vanished from her group home; there was a complaint filed by another girl there claiming that both she and Jubilation had been assualted by a Social Worker."

The room became quiet as a church. Logan glanced over at Scott who seemed lost in thought. "She's scared," Scott finally murmured, "scared to be weak, scared to be hurt, scared to be alive. All that bravado, it's a cover." Logan had already guessed that. Still, Wolverine wondered how it was that Jubilee knew so much about Creed.

Jubilee emerged from the bathroom wrapped in towel and drying her short hair. She watched Jean comb through her crimson red locks. "Don't it get on your nerves," she blurted out?

"What, does what get on my nerves?" Jean returned.

"All that hair, I keep mine short, it's easier to take care of and makes it harder for people to tell if I'm a boy or a girl."

"Now why would you want someone to think you are a boy?" Storm asked with a curious look on her face.

"I'm a professional thief, if they don't know if it was a boy or girl took the stuff they can't finger ya," she answered smiling.

"Oh," Jean replied, "so that's it. Well what happens when you meet a boy you like?" Jean teased.

"Like Log...." Jubilee turned a deep red. Jean and Storm giggled, they thought she had a little crush on him, especially after asking so many questions about him from second they entered the room.

"Well my young friend, I think Wolverine is a little too old for you," Storm returned with a giggle.

"Really," Jubilee said with her hands on her hips, "I'll have you know I'll be fourteen in seven months," Jubilee rebutted.

"Well, Logan will around 101 sometime this year," Jean sternly returned trying to bury her laugh.

"101," Jubilee said twitching her button nose, "but he looks like, nineteen." Storm and Jean looked at each other smiling.

Scott was the first to leave the Professor's room, followed by Hank, but Logan remained. He didn't want to go to his room until Scott and Hank were asleep, they liked talking too much for his taste.

"Logan are you alright," Charles's fatherly voice was a comfort to Logan's twisted soul?

"You're the mind reader you tell me," he returned dryly.

"I don't read mind without permission, or unless I have too," Charles bitterly admitted.

"Could you crack the kid?"

"No, surprisingly, I could not." Logan looked over at Charles with a shocked expression. This man had made reason out of choas in Logan's mind, helping him to recover memories he thought lost forever, but Charles couldn't crack a simple smart mouthed kid.

"I'm going to sleep, is Jubilee staying with us tonight," Logan asked? Charles noted a rare amount of concern in Logan's rough voice.

"Yes I have already contacted Jean. The girls say she's a bit of a handful, but fun. They didn't mind her bunking with them. Tomorrow, we'll decide what course of action to take next." Logan nodded and wished Charles a good night.

Upon entering the darkened hallway, Logan could hear the door to the girls' room opening slowly. Jubilee emerged from the room dressed in one of Ororo's t-shirts and Jean's tan shorts that were way to big for the little girl. He stopped behind the massive potted plant next to the Professor's door and watched her.

She pulled the door shut and backed away slowly. For the first time her face showed something other than attitude; a deep painful sadness walked across her young sweet face. Logan had seen such a look before, on his own rough mug. He exhailed, normally he would has secretly wished the kid good luck and went to sleep in his room not giving her another thought, but there was something about this girl that tugged at his heart. He didn't like it, but he couldn't deny it either.

She looked down at her hands, the pink earrings she had removed from Belladonna shimmered in the dim lights. She pulled them close, fighting her tears. "Bella, I'm sorry I was so weak. Please forgive me, I'll get stronger. Then...then I'll show that S.O.B. not to mess with the Thieves' or Assassins' Guilds." A low growl rumbled in his chest as he realized just how much trouble this kid was in. If she was mixed up with the clans in New Orleans. her very life could be at stake. But why did he care, wasn't it bad enough he was in love with Jean, a girl he clearly couldn't have, now he gave a damn about this kid.

She heard the low rumble, without even turning to see where it was coming from she ran off down the hall. "OhmyGodohmygodohmygod, Sabertooth." Logan wanted to laugh, the kid thought he was Sabertooth. *Good for you kid, with a mind like that you'll live to be an old lady,* Logan took off after her.

It wasn't until they were on the parking lot that he even came close to catching her. He reached out and snatched her up by the back of her t-shirt. Screaming, she struggling to get away. "Hush up, Darlin' it's me," he wrapped a cold course hand around her tiny mouth. She calmed down, her breathing leveled off as she leaned against his muscular chest. "Now where you off to in such a hurry?" He whispered.

"Let me go," she demanded with his hand still over her mouth. A small dampness kissed his hand. He tilted his head to look around at her, she was losing her fight with those tears she had been hiding all day. Still, she trembled trying to fight them until the bitter end. To her, tears meant weakness and in this world being weak meant being dead.

Logan, to his own surprise, released her. She stood in place, her breaths began to sound like hiccups, she was in full blown tears now, still she fought the sounds of her pain from escaping her mouth. Logan walked around to her and took a good look at her for the first time. She was a cute little girl destined to be a knock out of a woman, her blue playful eyes were drowning in a sea of mournful tears, her Asian heritage proudly displayed in the gentle features of a stubborn face. She was so tiny, barely five feet, no more than 90 pounds and early in her development, the curve of her breasts were slight, the roll of her hips still too narrow to notice under her baggy attire.

He took her up in his arms, like breaking a flooded dam her tears overwhelmed her, her painful wail rang out across the parking lot. Lifting her off the ground Logan craddled her while stroking her china silk hair. Small droplets of rain began to fall from the sky, accompanied by thunder and lightening. She tightened her arms around his neck, she was terrorified of one thing and one thing only, thunder. He soothed her with 'shhs' and soft kisses on the top of her head as he slowly walked back inside the hotel. Internally, he rolled his eyes, he wasn't the comforting type, *I must be going soft,* he thought.

He tapped softly on the girls' door but after a minute he realized they were asleep. He went to the Professor's room, but he was also asleep and the door was locked.

He looked down at his load, who had cried herself to sleep. She was snuggled up close to him, her baby breaths warming his neck. He smirked, surpressing the full blown smile he wanted to display. He entered his room, placing Jubilee on his bed, she would not release her grip from around his neck. He tried to pull away, his plan was to sleep on the floor, but she protested while still asleep. Hank turned, almost awakened by her sleepy cries. Logan looked at both Scott and Hank, if she woke them he would have to deal with them; he was in no mood for Twenty Questions. He slide her closer to the middle of the bed and laided down. Just as he got comfortable she balled up next to him and tightened her grip on his neck even more.

"Good night, Darlin'," he muttered before kissing her on the top of her head.

"Night Wolvie," she returned from her sleep. He peered over at her, *Wolvie,* he thought. A his nose twitched with disgust but as the sound of her voice saying his abbrivated nickname rolled around in his sleepy mind, the corners of his mouth turned up into a smile.

To be continued....