Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ The Uncanny Dragonball Z! ❯ Lightnin' Strikes ( Chapter 1 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

A/N: All X-Men characters belong to Marvel comics are used without permission. All Dragonball Z characters belong to their rightful owners and are used also without permission. I just enjoy frolicking through their worlds...

Lounging on the sofa, a bag of sour cream and onion chips open in one hand and a half-empty can of Coke in the other, the girl's dark brown eyes were glued to the television set where a colorful cast of characters were flying around bashing the crap out of each other and shooting fiery light from their hands at one another, crashing into mountains and making enormous craters in the earth.

Laughing, she reached for the remote to turn up the volume, spilling some of the chips from the bag as she did so. A nearly empty box of tissues and a bottle of cough syrup sat on the coffee table in front of her. She sniffed, rubbed her red nose and thanked the gods above for inventing de-contestants.

A few feet away in the kitchen, the beautiful flame haired woman sipped a cup of coffee with cream and sugar and winced as the television's volume cut into her head and seemed to shake the entire mansion. She knew it was only her imagination, and she knew shouldn't have drank so much on her and her husband's anniversary dinner...

"What's the problem, Ma Chere?" She looked up as Remy LeBeau, otherwise known as Gambit, entered, yawing and unshaven, clad in a dark blue robe and hair mussed. She saw the lipstick smeared across his mouth and knew that he'd had a late night himself, "Ah, the petite bebe is sick today, no?"

"Ugh, she's going to make me sick with those cartoons she's into..."

"They're not cartoons, Jean," He corrected her, fixing himself a cup of coffee, black, "They're anime."

"They're grating on my nerves is what they are," She retorted, sighing, rubbing her temple and trying to use her telekinetic powers to lessen the ache, "What is the one she's really into now, Dragon-something?"

Shrugging, Gambit said; "Remy hasn't a clue, I could go ask..."

"Ugh, don't bother..."

Shoving dark locks out of her eyes, the teenager known as Jubilee played with her powers as she watched her favorite anime, making a small light show of colorful bubbles float off her fingers and snap out of sight as swiftly as she created more, careful not to make them so loud or so bright she couldn't see or hear the television.

I wish there was a way I could go into the t.v. and meet them! She thought, realizing it was a childish little fantasy, but one she couldn't help entertaining every time she watched her favorite show. She sniffed and blew her nose again, crumpling up another tissue and tossing it behind her back. This would be a lot better if I wasn't so stuffed up...at least my head doesn't hurt anymore and my fever seems to be down...

She'd had to stay in bed for three hours earlier waiting for her medication to bring her fever down so she could move out to the sofa in the den and watch t.v. Henry McCoy aka The Beast, their resident doctor and about the smartest...person...she knew, had absolutely forbidden her to leave her bed until her fever was down.

She nearly missed her show!

Thank god for modern medicine! She thought, coughing and holding her hand over her mouth.

"Hey, Darlin'," Logan walked into the room, wincing as he did so at the volume of the television, "What'cha watching?"

"Dragonball Z, Wolvie," She answered, not really looking at him, "Shh! I don't want to miss anything! This is my very favorite anime!"

"Yeah, I know," He mumbled, "Tell everyone I've gone out for a while...need a bit o' the hair of the dog, ya'know...?"

"Uh-huh, dog hair, got it." She nodded, not even realizing what he'd said, and Wolverine shook his head as he left. A few minutes later the sound of his motorcycle revving up could be heard over the volume of the television.

During a commercial break, Jubilee looked outside and saw that even though it was late into the afternoon, the sky was dark with clouds. Rain had begun to fall and streaked the windows like a million tiny teardrops. She thought it was a perfect day to be sick, all yucky outside and everything.

She knew Logan wouldn't have wanted to stay inside with her and watch t.v. He got restless really easily and rainy days were like torture to him. If he were anyone else she would worry about him being out on the road in this weather, what with the rain making the roads slick and all, but he had an amazing ability to heal from wounds that would kill a normal man...and Wolverine was anything but normal.

Still, she could forgive him his wanderlust, after all, she loved him like a father and always would. He would always be there when she needed him and would give up his own life, if need be, to save her...she crossed her fingers and said a small prayer under her breath that that day would never arrive.

Jean Grey-Summers, beautiful and poised no matter what the situation was, entered the den and sat down next to her. Smiling sweetly, she focused her mind upon the teenager, brushing a subtle suggestion against Jubilee's medicine-fuzzy mind until the girl reached over and touched the volume button on the remote.

"Hey!" Jubilee cried, turning on Jean, "That's not fair!"

"I just wanted you to turn the t.v. down a bit, Sweetie," Jean said, "I'm sorry, I had no right to do that..."

"You could have just asked!" Jubilee said, rubbing her forehead, "It tickles when you do that, you know."

"What tickles?" Rogue asked, standing in the doorway, dressed in her green and white tight spandex outfit that covered her from head to toe, including her hands, Gambit stood behind her, somewhat more put together, the tell-tale lipstick washed from his face.

Jean knew that the lipstick did not belong to Rogue, or any of the X-Men women that she knew. She wondered if the ragin' Cajun had gone whoring again last night and stopped herself from peeking into his mind to sate her curiosity. She flushed as he caught her look and sent her one of his own, with a knowing wink to go along with it.

Jubilee wasn't paying any attention to them. She was pushing the buttons on the television remote and holding it in front of the t.v. Growling much like her beloved Wolverine, she slammed it down upon the coffee table and got up to walk across the room.

"What's wrong?" Came the low, sultry voice of the dark-skinned woman named Ororo, or Storm, "Why is the t.v. so loud?"

"I'm trying to turn it down, Storm," Jubilee cried, "But the remote must need batteries or something..."

"Is this weather your doing, Stormy?" Remy asked, teasingly. Storm shook her white hair, laughing.

"No, I was meditating in my loft when I heard all the racket," She said, indicating Jubilee's favorite anime, "I thought the Sentinels were attacking us."

Jubilee touched the volume button on the side of the television, but nothing happened. She was just about to turn around to complain to the others when she felt an odd tingling sensation, as if an electric current were running up and down her arms. She saw sparks rising off of her skin.


Realizing what was about to happen, Storm ran over and grabbed the girl around the waist, meaning to pull her back from the television set, but just as her hand touched the girl's arm, a random lightening bolt crashed down and slammed the top of the t.v, bright light flashed and blinded them all for half a second. Smoke billowed up from the set and Jubilee's scream echoed all around them.

Coughing, Gambit waved away the smoke, blinking back stinging tears. "Is everyone all right?"

"Oh, my god!" Rogue cried, pointing a shaking finger at the area the television set used to be in, "They're...they're gone!"

Instead of a smoldering television set, a dark hole, crackling all around as tiny lightning bolts zig-zagged like a frame around it, shimmered there, it seemed to be waiting, open like the black maw of a hungry creature, for someone brave enough to venture forth...

"Shh!" Jean cried, stepping towards the odd...portal... "I...I can hear them!"

"Storm! Jubilee!" Rogue cried, "Are they all right, Jean?"

"I think so..." Jean said, "I...I'm not entirely sure, all I know is that I can still feel them...their minds, I mean..."

"We have to go after them!" Gambit said, getting ready to jump through himself, but Rogue grabbed his arm with a gloved hand and pulled him away, "There must be some other way..."

Meanwhile, outside, Logan had returned home after his bike suffered a flat a few blocks from the mansion and he jumped as the lightning crashed down upon the house. His first thought was Jubilee watching t.v.

He let the bike lay where it fell and ran headlong through the front door, dripping wet as he jumped over furniture and made his way to the den just in time to see Rogue holding Gambit back from jumping through some kind of odd...hole...where the t.v. used to be.

"What happened?" He asked, "I heard the...Jubilee?! Where's Jubilee?!"

"Logan..." Jean approached him, reaching out to gently touch his leather-jacket-encased shoulder, "She and Storm...they were hit by lightning and something...something happened...they were sucked into some other dimension..."

"Then what are we standin' around here for!?" He yelled, shoving Rogue and Gambit out of his way, "I don't care what you all decide to do, I'm goin' after them!"

"Logan, wait!" Jean cried, "We don't know if..."

It was too late, Wolverine had all ready gone through.

"...it's safe..." She finished, shrugged and stepped forward, "Logan's right, no matter what, we have to try and get them back..."

After she'd gone through, Rogue shrugged and flew through, Gambit at her heels, following close behind.