Uncanny X-Men, The (1981 series) #244

In the enormous Hollywood Mall in Los Angeles, a young girl calling herself Jubilee performs for a stunned crowd! She amazes them with the firework-like globules that shoot from her hands, everyone too enraptured to care whether or not she’s a mutant. Mall security spots her, with one guard in particular eager to take her down. She’s forced to end her performance early and runs from the guards, bounding over them when they try to surround her! They eventually corner her on the top level, but she blinds one of the guards with her sparkles and jumps over the railing! She flips and somersaults off a large art structure, landing safely on the floor below, getting cleanly away while the guards fume! One of the guards then shows the chief a flyer for a group of mutant hunting experts called M Squad. They decide that if Jubilee really is a mutant, then they’d better bring in trained professionals to catch her!

Meanwhile, in the X-Men’s base in the Australian Outback, the peaceful day is suddenly disrupted by an explosion coming from Rogue’s room! Storm, Colossus, and Dazzler head to see what all the fuss is about, when a bed comes flying out of the room! Dazzler blasts it out of the way, causing it to head straight for Storm! Storm careens out of the way, but her momentum ends up taking her right through the window of Psylocke’s room, landing right in the bath as it was being used by Psylocke! Betsy is not pleased. Inside, the others find Rogue in the midst of a full-on tantrum, completely trashing her room! When Storm demands answers, Rogue explains that when Carol Danvers’ psyche had control of her body, she completely redecorated everything! Rogue frantically asks Psylocke if she can erase Carol’s psyche, but Betsy says it wouldn’t be right. Storm tells Rogue she’ll have to live with the consequences of her actions and Rogue feels she may never be forgiven for what she accidentally did to Carol! Feeling unwanted, she begins to fly off when Carol takes control of her body once more. Carol explains everything that happened with the two of them in Genosha, and how the split between them got worse after Inferno. Dazzler then points out that their lives as superheroes hardly ever affords them time to actually live, and suggests they take a night off and have some fun by going shopping!

Back at the Hollywood Mall, M Squad arrives, turning out to be the group of scientists briefly seen in New York at the beginning of Inferno (in UXM #240) who assure they’ll get the job done! Elsewhere in the mall, the X-ladies arrive via one of Gateway’s portals. While they head off deciding what to do first, they’re spotted and followed by Jubilee, who’s amazed at their beauty and elegance! For their first stop, Dazzler takes the others to all get new hairdos, much to their reluctance. Jubilee continues to follow after them as they head to get new outfits and the others make Storm try makeup. Meanwhile, M Squad sets up their equipment, which they admit they don’t fully understand (much of it having been corrupted during Inferno). They decided to fill the void of mutant hunting professionals after X-Factor were revealed to be mutants themselves, and are considering this the first field test of their equipment!

Now all dressed to kill, the X-ladies head to a snazzy club in the mall, all eyes on them as soon as they enter! They take seats in front of a Chippendales dancer and Dazzler pays the maître d to arrange a little surprise for Storm! Outside, the bouncer denies Jubilee entry due to being underage, when M Squad’s equipment finally tracks her down! As the Chippendales dancer invites Storm up to dance with him onstage (to Dazzler’s utter bemusement), M Squad confronts Jubilee! They set up their Mutant Containment Grid, a large machine that seems almost alive, as streamers shoot out to grab Jubilee! An explosion rips through the wall of the club, and the X-ladies realize their night off may have just ended prematurely! They fly out, and Storm tries to distract the device, while Psylocke attends to Jubilee, and Rogue and Dazzler protect innocents from M Squad, who’ve completely lost control! Psylocke finally gets Jubilee free of the device, allowing Storm to blow it up through the ceiling of the mall, where Dazzler blasts it to pieces! Later, mall security admonishes M Squad for their recklessness, and the X-ladies decide it’s time to leave. Jubilee watches them step back through a portal and realizes that M Squad may come after her again. With only a split second to decide, Jubilee decides that the mall isn’t safe anymore, and secretly follows the X-ladies through the portal!