Miss Locke: “Not quite, Ms. Lee.” Arcade, in his green ugly Christmas sweater, and Miss Locke, in a skimpy elf costume, walk up to the three tied-up heroes. Sparrow nudges Jubilee and Jono. Sparrow: “Audible footsteps. Visible shadows. They’re not holograms. Jono, you getting a read on their minds?” Jono: “Yup.” Sparrow: “Alright, so not androids either. It’s really them.” Miss Locke is also wearing Sparrow’s utility belt. Miss Locke: “It’s more like a housing.” Arcade: “Quite right.” Sparrow gives the two a death glare, seeing her stolen utility belt. Arcade: “Glad you’re all reacquainted now. See Jubilation, I told you I’d bring Mr. Starsmore to Murderworld one day, but he is not easy to capture.” Miss Locke: “It’s quite annoying, trying to catch someone who’s immune to knockout gas and tranquilizer darts.” Jono shrugs, pleased that he made life difficult for them. Arcade: “But anyway, this tree will finally get rid of our little X-Men problem.”
Arcade: “You see, there was a time when trapping heroes in my little games was all good fun. It didn’t matter if my victims lived or died. The problem is… I’m not doing enough business these days. Potential clients find my inability to kill you weirdos laughable.” Miss Locke shrugs. Miss Locke: “It’s nothing personal, it’s just bad for business.” Arcade: “And for one percent-ers like us, we don’t like having to choose a favorite private jet when we can normally just buy them both!” Miss Locke: “What we’re trying to say is that we need to make a statement to our potential clients. If we can kill a whole group of heroes, everyone will want to hire us.” Arcade: “And then we can go back to not caring if our victims live or die.”
Arcade: “What’s inside that tree is one of Tony Stark’s old Jericho missiles from his weapons-dealer days. Of course, these beauties are no longer in production because Mr. Stark has one of those annoying moral backbones, but I grabbed it as an early Christmas gift from one of his…late former associates. The tree will take you three to the X-Mansion where it’ll reduce you and the rest of the insufferable X-Men to rubble!” Metallic clamps emerge from the “tree,” securing Jubilee, Sparrow, and Jono to it. Sparrow: “You’re insane!” Arcade smiles and shakes his head approvingly. Arcade: “You’re too kind!”
Sparrow whispers to Jubilee and Jono. Sparrow: “I can barely control my powers so I won’t be much use yet, but you two can break these clamps before the missile lifts off. Once we’re free, I’ll take Locke. Jono, you stop the missile from launching. Jubilee…Arcade is all yours.” Sparrow smirks. Sparrow: “Ready…NOW!” Jono generates a psionic flame, directing it onto the clamps but keeping it from burning Jubilee and Sparrow.
@amazing-jubilee and coordinated with @deathurgeoverdrive
