X-Force: Beyond Omega-Chapter 151: Calm before the storm

[Genosha] [Jubilee's room]

Jubilee lay fast asleep on her plush bed, wrapped in soft blankets, her face serene and smiling like someone who had just saved the world (which, technically, she had). Her hands were tucked beneath her cheek, and a soft snore escaped her lips every few minutes.

And that little smile on her face, the kind that screamed, 'I just blasted a demon and now I'm dreaming about a beach with bottomless boba.'

No eyebrows. No eyelashes. No peach fuzz. Not even a hint of scalp stubble. She was as smooth as a hard-boiled egg. A cute one, sure. But still... egg.

And as fate would have it... that made her supremely vulnerable.

Which was perfect.

Surrounding her bed...

...was a circle of vengeance.

Her victims.

Kitty, Psylocke, Jean, Pixie, and even Logan, especially Logan, stood at the foot of the bed, barely suppressing their evil grins.

"I can't believe I'm saying this," Psylocke whispered, smirking, "but she actually looks peaceful."

"She looks like a peeled grape," Pixie whispered back, stifling a laugh.

"Are we sure we're not going to hell for this?" Jean asked, already holding up her phone to record. "Just asking."

"I've been to hell," Logan grunted. "They'll understand."

Kitty stood front and center, holding a neon green doodle marker like it was Mjolnir. "Ladies," she whispered dramatically. "And Logan..."

Logan growled, arms crossed.

"Did she or did she not put banana peels in your boots, crash your bike, and program your ringtone to moan every time you got a text?" She asked, arms folded.

"She left a goat in my training room," Psylocke whispered. "A freaking goat."

"She switched my shampoo with green dye the night before my first day as a teacher," Jean said. "You know how long it took to fix that?"

"That's nothing. She once rigged my shower to blast glitter. I sparkled for two weeks," Kitty whispered like she was reciting a tragic war story.

Pixie held up a small camera drone, already recording. "This is for science. And history."

Then, Logan grunted from the back of the group.

"She stole my motorcycle."

Everyone turned to him.

"And?"

He cracked his knuckles. "She crashed it into a fruit stand, told the locals 'Wolverine's paying for it,' and vanished in a smoke bomb. Took me two weeks to clear my tab."

Kitty smirked. "Welcome to the team, Logan."

Even Emma Frost had wandered in, glass of wine in hand. She stood in the corner like the judgmental queen she was. "I won't participate, but I will observe."

And thus, the Great Bald Payback began.

Kitty made the first mark.

A neon green mustache, perfectly twirled, right on Jubilee's upper lip.

Jean followed up by drawing exaggerated lashes where her real ones were missing, complete with tiny hearts at the tips.

Psylocke calmly added elegant swirls across her scalp, framing her head like a glowing green crown of flowers and thorns.

Pixie zoomed down and added freckles to her nose. But instead of dots, they were tiny stars.

And Logan?

Logan drew a taco.

Right on her cheek.

"No regrets," he muttered.

The room was barely holding back full-on laughter when Jubilee stirred slightly, her head shifting against the pillow.

Everyone froze.

Then...

"Mmnnn... tacos..." she mumbled sleepily, lips smacking. "Extra sauce..."

She didn't wake.

Kitty let out a silent squeal. "She's dreaming about tacos!" she mouthed.

Psylocke nodded. "We've done well here."

Jean wiped a tear from her eye. "Truly... a team effort."

At that moment, Storm appeared in the doorway, arms crossed, one eyebrow raised. She surveyed the scene: the fully hairless, doodled Jubilee in the bed and the gang of X-Men standing around her like mischievous goblins.

Storm sighed. "Do I even want to know?"

Logan held up the pink glitter pen. "Team bonding."

Storm stared at him for a beat.

Then turned and walked away. "You have ten minutes before I start acting like an adult."

'Time to wake Sleeping Baldy.'

Jean gently tapped into Jubilee's mind... no nightmares, no fighting, just a beach... a taco stand... and "Aron" feeding her coconut boba with a straw.

"Rise and shine, Jubes."

Jubilee's nose twitched.

A snort.

A mumble.

Then her eyes cracked open.

She blinked once. Then twice. Rubbed them groggily with her knuckles and let out a long, content sigh.

"Did someone say tacos?" she murmured, sitting up, still half-asleep, blanket falling into her lap.

She squinted.

Right at Pixie.

Who was holding a very active, very obvious hovering camera drone, pointed squarely at her face.

Jubilee frowned.

"Wait... is that my drone?"

Pixie froze mid-hover. "It's... science?"

Jubilee's gaze swept to the rest of the room. Kitty looked like she'd swallowed her own smirk. Psylocke had suddenly become very interested in examining her boots. Logan was biting his knuckle, barely holding his laugh, which was very rare.

Then...

Jubilee's eyes landed on Emma.

Still in the corner. Still sipping wine. Still flawless. And now with one hand lazily raised, levitating a small hand mirror from Jubilee's desk.

It floated over.

Turned.

And stopped.

Directly in front of Jubilee's face.

There was a moment.

A single, perfect moment of dead silence.

Then:

"ARGGGGGGG!!!"

"MY HAIR! MY BEAUTIFUL HAIR!"

"...OH HELL NO!"

She lunged for the mirror and immediately froze as the full horror unfolded before her eyes.

The twirled green mustache.

The anime lashes.

The floral bald crown.

And...

"What the hell is on my cheek?!" she screamed.

Logan grunted. "It's a taco."

"A TACO?!"

"Dreamed it, didn't you?" he smirked.

"YOU DREW A TACO ON MY FACE?!"

"You said 'extra sauce' in your sleep," Jean added helpfully.

Jubilee's mouth opened.

Closed.

Opened again.

Then she slowly, very slowly, turned to Kitty.

"...It was you."

Kitty took a step back, holding up both hands like a nuclear scientist backing away from a melting reactor core.

"It was all of us!" she squeaked.

"Traitors!" Jubilee hissed, clutching the blanket like a vengeful princess awakening from a thousand-year slumber of petty vengeance.

Pixie, seeing the rising chaos, tried to casually edge toward the door.

She got three steps before Jubilee flung the blanket off and pointed at Pixie.

"You! Give me the footage!"

"Too late!" Pixie grinned and hit upload. "It's already on my YT. It's going viral under #GrapeOfWrath."

"YOU'RE ALL DEAD!" Jubilee shrieked, leaping out of bed, barely caring about her lack of hair.

Psylocke was already halfway to the window. "Abort! ABORT!"

Jean used reality wrap to run away.

Kitty phased through the floor like a pink-garbed phantom of guilt.

Logan dove out the window and ran away.

Emma, still sipping her wine, didn't move an inch.

Jubilee stood in the middle of her room, fists glowing, vengeance blazing.

She turned to Emma, eyes narrowed.

Emma finally looked up, took another slow sip, and said, "You should be thanking them. It's the most aesthetic you've ever looked."

Then calmly turned... and walked out.

Jubilee stood there... bald, glowing, murder in her veins, and let out a primal scream of betrayal.

"AAAAAAAAARGH!"

Somewhere in the distance, a window shattered.

...

[A few minutes later...] [Aron's Tower – Rooftop Garden]

The chaos in Jubilee's room still echoed faintly in the distance, glass shattering, panicked footsteps, the unmistakable sound of a mini plasma explosion, and then, a very loud "I SWEAR I'M GOING TO SHAVE ALL OF YOU IN YOUR SLEEP!"

Aron leaned back in his chair, sipping from a tall glass of something tropical and glowing faintly blue. His long coat was gone, replaced with a simple black T-shirt and dark pants. The rooftop garden around them was calm, blissfully detached from the madness below.

The ocean breeze swept across the balcony, rustling the tall grass lining the rooftop edges.

"Should I be concerned?" Natasha asked without looking up from her seat beside him. She had her feet kicked up on the table, a cup of black coffee in one hand and a cookie in the other.

Aron smirked. "Nah. That's just Jubilee discovering she's now trending on Mutant Twitter as a bald anime grape."

Natasha snorted into her drink.

"I saw it go up two minutes ago. Trending worldwide already. #GrapeOfWrath. Someone remixed her scream into a dubstep track."

"Logan?" she asked. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

"Pixie."

Natasha took a sip, shaking her head. "Remind me to never prank her."

"Oh, don't worry. She's probably already designing her revenge arc in high-res detail."

There was a moment of peace between them, the kind that felt earned. The kind that could only come after surviving gods, demons, death, and a very long list of near-apocalypses.

Natasha tilted her head back, letting the breeze hit her face.

"I missed this," she said quietly.

Aron glanced at her, brow raised.

"I never really... stopped before," she said, voice low. "Not like this."

Aron glanced at her, saying nothing, just letting her speak.

"I've always been moving. Missions. Wars. Running from one mess to the next. Fighting. Killing." She took a sip of her coffee, but her expression was distant now. "Even when I wasn't on the job, I couldn't sit still. Couldn't enjoy the quiet. Didn't think I deserved to."

Aron raised an eyebrow. "You saying you finally feel like you deserve a moment of peace?"

She shook her head slowly. "I'm saying... I don't know what it feels like. Not really."

She looked at him now, really looked.

"The last time I felt anything close to this... something safe, calm, warm... I was just a kid. Before the Red Room. And honestly... most of that's a blur now. Like trying to remember a dream I forgot the moment I woke up."

Her voice softened, almost to a whisper.

"But right now? This rooftop, this breeze, that idiotic scream echoing through the halls... it's surreal. It's like a dream I'm not sure is mine."

Aron was quiet for a moment. Then he nodded, leaning back in his chair and resting his hands behind his head.

"Yup," he said simply. "Definitely the calm before the storm."

Natasha blinked, half-laughing. "Way to ruin the mood."

He grinned sideways. "Hey, I'm just being honest. There's an ancient chaos god out there who's planning to warp reality, crack Earth in half, and use your DNA as seasoning in his next demonic soufflé. But..."

He leaned forward, propping his arms on the table, eyes meeting hers.

"I'm going to kick that ancient bastard's ass."

Natasha quirked a brow. "Confident."

Aron shrugged. "I mean, I've fought gods, rebuilt cities, and survived Jubilee's hugs. I'm pretty much unstoppable."

She smirked at that. "You're not invincible."

"Nope," he agreed. "But I've got a hell of a lot to fight for."

The moment settled between them. Not heavy. Not sad. Just... understood.

Then, in the distance...

BOOM.

"YOU'RE ALL GONNA BE BALD! EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!"

Aron raised his glass, unbothered. "To peace and vengeance."

Natasha clinked her coffee mug to his glass with a smirk. "To the calm before the storm."

They drank.

And somewhere inside the tower, someone screamed as a mini plasma grenade detonated.

Just another day in paradise.

---

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