Sept 29 - Jubilee's office

[Sara Stanton]

After her afternoon classes Sara heads over to Jubilee's office and knocks on the door.

[Jubilation Lee]

"Come on in!" Jubilee called.

[Sara Stanton]

Sara steps into the office a give a faint nod. "Good evening, Ms Lee. I was wondering if I could ask you a question or two. Regarding the mission and the X-Teams, but you propably figured that anyway..."

[Jubilation Lee]

"Have a sit." Jubilee replied, gesturing at a chair "What do you want to know?"

[Sara Stanton]

Walking over to the chair she lets herself plop down on it.
"Well... I know I screwed up pretty badly, so I don't want you to think I'm complaining about being suspended or anything. I was just wondering if what Jayda said in the meeting is true. I know she's a pretty extreme case anyway, but are we really supposed to focus on nothing but our objectives? Because the way I reacted to what Nina did is one of the few things about the mission I don't regret, but I've had the sinking feeling it might have been one of the reasons for the suspension..."

[Jubilation Lee]

"What happened with Nina was a factor." Jubilee replied "First of all, although I can't be certain, it appears that Nina was trying to save the vampire's life. I don't totally agree with her actions, but what she was doing wasn't torture. Second, you got into a fight with a team-mate in a area where you were surrounded by people who were trying to kill you. Third, you killed a wounded enemy who was not in a position to harm you or anyone else."

[Sara Stanton]

"I'll agree that she propably didn't intend to torture him, but he swept the entire house beforehand, there weren't anymore vampires around and we were in no immidiate danger. And while I'm no doctor I know that you don't need to cut someone open like that to safe them.
I don't know 'what' she was doing, but it wasn't saving his life, because what she did made him worse. He was on the brink of death, there was no way to save him and not even our enemies deserve to be kept alive literally flayed open for a reason that obviously wasn't important enough for Nina to tell us."

She takes a deep breath, having managed to stay calm troughout her reasoning so far.
"Ignoring any debate on euthanasia or the fact that I've been feeling horrible about it... Does that mean I am right in the assumption that we aren't supposed to stand up for what we think is right but follow our orders and objectives to the letter like some kind of para-military group?"

[Jubilation Lee]

"No, what I'm saying is that you made a whole truckload of assumptions about what Nina was doing, and it appears that you haven't let go of those assumptions. You concluded that the vampire was being tortured and needed to be 'put down', even when Nina was fighting you to save the vampire's life. You are not expected to set your morals aside, but you are expected to trust your teammates and their judgment."

[Sara Stanton]

"It's not like I blindly ran at her and assumed the worst. To the question what she was doing the answer was 'Just looking...'. She was satisfying her curiosity and told me he wouldn't be able to even be moved. There was no saving him and she admitted to keeping him alive purely to... to rummage around inside.

But that's not really what I came here to discuss. I was just worried I might have joined the program on wrong assumptions."

[Jubilation Lee]

"I've read all the reports, and frankly, given Nina's mental state, I'm not prepared to make any assumptions about why she was doing what she was doing. In any case, no, you are not expected to follow orders that you consider immoral. However, you are expected to try not to endanger the lives of your teammates. Also, I'm a bit unclear as to why you decided to kill the vampire instead of having Nina stabilize or attempt to heal him."

[Sara Stanton]

"I didn't willingly endanger anyone! I tried to make the best out of a horrible situation after our team-leader disappeared. I wasn't prepared for that and maybe I'm not suited for it to begin with. I thought Nina would be going straight back to the helicopter. I might have been angry but not to the point that I let her walk off because I thought 'screw her'. I should have followed her..."

She sighs and places a hand on her forehead, looking at the floor as she tries to ignore her guilt about what she did before continueing.
"And the vampire was only barely alive because Nina already was healing him. He was pulled wide open. There was no coming back for him."

[Jubilation Lee]

"It was a difficult situation, and other than your confrontation with Nina, I'm very pleased with the way you handled yourself." Jubilee said, shifting gears a bit "And don't blame yourself for what happened to Nina. Taking off like that was a huge mistake on her part, and you aren't responsible for that. As for the way the vampire looked, frankly, healing mutations can look creepy as hell while they are working, and Nina's is creepier than most. You're a Biology major, right?"

[Sara Stanton]

"Unless we really have to I'd like to drop the topic of that vampire. I already feel bad enough about it without having the possibility that Nina might have been able to actually save him pointed out to me... And I'm hoping to go for a more specific major, but yes, it's basically Biology at this point, why?"

[Jubilation Lee]

"Well, I don't want you to beat yourself up over it." Jubilee replied "You did what you thought was right, and were in a difficult situation. That is the kind of thing we want to cultivate. But, I think that you'd benefit from learning a bit more about how mutations work. I'm not going to make it an official assignment, but I hope that you'll consider volunteering in the infirmary, working for the healers."

[Sara Stanton]

"I'm not stupid, but the info I got about Nina's powers didn't mention anything like this. Regardless of that, I'm already a double major in addition to the X-Team training. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to spend the bit of free time I do have on that."

[Jubilation Lee]

"Fair enough." Jubilee said with a shrug "Once Dr. Bowen is on his feet, I am going to ask people to go in for a complete physical work-up, so that they and their teammates can get a better idea of how their mutation works. Will you be able to make time for that?"

[Sara Stanton]

"Of course. I'd actually be very interested in that."

[Jubilation Lee]

"Excellent. It won't be mandatory, of course, since people get weird about having The Man know about their mutations, but I hope most will go for it. I'll email you about it once I know when. Was there anything else you needed to discuss?"

[Sara Stanton]

Sara gets up. "Not really. Thanks for your time, Miss Lee."

[Jubilation Lee]

"You're welcome. And to underline it, you did pretty good for your second mission."

[Sara Stanton]

"Thanks. I'll do my best to leaveout the mistakes the next time." Turning around she heads for the door.

[Merle McClintock]

Merle swings by the day after the mission - fresh from his meeting with Dr. Miles. He's feeling a lot better, moving fast on his crutches, but slows noticably before knocking.
He suddenly felt a half meter tall. He takes a deep breath, draws himself up to a full height, then knocks.

It could be worse - his teammates were a lot nicer than he would've expected - but he still had an uphill battle. Convince an AMERICAN that she had made a mistake.

"Miss Lee? It's Merle McClintock."

[Jubilation Lee]

"Gimme a sec!" Jubilee called out and then got up to open the door "Come in and have a seat." she said, heading back to her desk.

[Merle McClintock]

He thought back to all his time doing drama in Secondary. An unfortunate amount of it was singing and choreography, which wouldn't play too well here. At the same time, he was saying his own words, and being honest about them. He just had an aim.

He offers a handshake and tries to be exceedingly gentle and in control.
"Miss Lee, I know I mucked up the mission for my team. I know an innocent person lost their life because of a tactical error on my part. But I think taking me off the curriculum through October will only make me a pariah, a relic in my first month."
He looks upwards, like the next few words were too difficult to fathom and might be written up there. He tries to regain eye contact.

I met with Dr. Cross earlier today. I'm troubled by my actions, and my overall inefficiency during the mission. But I imagine it's a result of undertraining; I was relying on Nomic's advice, ignoring the fact it wasn't intended for me.

I imagine that sending me into the field without more training would be a liability, and I accept that. I've proved I wasn't ready to handle the vampires.
But I'm worried about not being prepared to defend my own life here. I mean, the school was attacked! That's not the kind of thing you see at UCL or West London. Training and X-teams aren't just a hero fantasy, Miss Lee, they seem to be a necessity to survive the semester."

[Jubilation Lee]

"It seems like you have a very good grasp of why you got your suspension, Merle. It also appears that you totally misunderstood what I said during the de-briefing. You have not been kicked off the X-teams. You are still on a team and you are still required to train, and train hard with your team. What you will not be doing is going out in the field for the period of one month, since even you admit that you are a liability in the field at the present time. Is that clear?"

[Merle McClintock]

...

"Very clear, Miss Lee."

Well, that was easier than expected.

[Jubilation Lee]

"Is there anything else?"