"See ya!" shouted Jubilee waving as the X-Men got into Bobby's car.
"Just remember,"warned Jean Grey-Summers telepathically,"to watch Pietro's daughter, Luna!"
"All right already will you people like leave? You said the kid's like a saint! I think that me a former X-Man and the rest of us can handle a two year old!" the excited teenager yelled back.

Jean got out of the car and approached the house so she could talk to Jubilee without shouting across the grounds. "Don't forget to feed Mutant....." she ponted to a fully grown Golden Retriever whose tongue and tail both began to wag at the sound of the word "feed." Then Jean pointed toward a huge stack of boxes sitting in the middle of the living room floor, "and decorate the Christmas tree."
"We get to decorate the tree? All by ourselves? That's like totally cool!" Jubilee said as she waved good bye again,"See you guys later, don't wory we won't blow up the house...."

Jean went back into the car and her and the other X-Men left for a night on the town, leaving the group of teenagers home alone.

"We won't blow the house up," she whispered to herself again only this time adding, "Not again anyway." She jumped onto the table and declared to the rest of the team, "They're finally gone! So people we have a kid to entertain and a tree to decorate! Let's start working! I get dibs on the tree!"

"I'm with Jubilee! Tree good, baby sitting evil!" laughed Angelo as he leaped for the couch.

"You better do the tree, Angelo! Who would we get to do all those high branches?" Everett mocked.
Angelo in a snide voice, "Funny..."

"Even if you did want to watch Luna, you couldn't. You'd probably give the poor thing nightmares." Joked Chamber.

"I wouldn't talk if I were you, amigo. You ain't all that handsome yourself," Skin answered back, in a few seconds all three of them were laughing.

"But who is going to watch Luna," Paige asked, "Ah know Ah'm not. Ah'm not good with kids."

Sauntering out of the TV room, Monet St. Croix smiled watching the future of the world fighting. "Stop all the shouting," Monet smirked, "I took care of the child. She's watching TV and eating chocolate bars."

The rest of them strugged their shoulders then turned to the tree. Joy filled the air as the wheels in their minds began to turn, trying to figure out what to do with the tree. They sat down and and took all the Christmas balls out, then the garland, then the lights. Looking at the lights they became a little disappointed but yet tried to untangle them.

"Was there something we forgot to do?" Paige asked as the lights began to wrap around her hands.
"No." Monet plainly replied.

Mutant looked at the group and laughed, "They should do what Storm, Gambit, and Wolverine did last year; steal brand new lights." Then the dog noticed what the tangled misfits had said, "They're not going to feed me! That's not fair! I would do it myself but I can't open the can! I'm a dog! I don't have thumbs!" He rolled on his back and began to sob.

"Like what's wrong with the mutt?"
"Probably smells Luna's chocolate."

"Chocolate?" The dog thought as he leaped up from where he was lying. The titter tadder of puppy feet could be heard heading to the room but no one stopped him. He looked back and just heard a strange version of "Carol of the Bells." "I have to get out of here before they hit the 'Gaily they ring' part. I don't like high pitched sounds, especially off key ones!" he told himself. Mutant stood up and wrapped his jaws around the door knob, then turned and opened it."

"Goo goo goo gee goo, I no like CNN! Want watch Sesame Street! No know how to change channels. Meanie didn't give me the clicky thing." Luna mumbled as she searched for a knob or button that would change channels.
"Poor baby, I should help her." Mutant thought, "Maybe she'll feed me!"
ARF! ARF!

The glowing light of the TV went out for a second then reappeared showing the form of Lassie jumping over a fence. The dog sat next to the confused yet happy two year old and watched his favorite show. He placed his head on Luna's lap.

"Luna are you ponderng what I'm pondering?" the dog asked.
"Gee goo gee ga goo, why are hot-dogs packaged in ten but hot-dog buns packaged in eight?" the two year old replied.
The dog looked up confused, "No, I was thinking why would someone program the TV to respond to my voice but now that you mention it.... why is that?"

Mutant receiving no answer became a little fustrated but then realized all she heard was "Arf, arf."
"Puppy give me pony ride! Then I can pretend I'm Jesse James like on TV!" Luna tugged on his collar.
"How about we pretnd that we're Bonnie and Clyde?" Mutant asked and then remembered that she couldn't understand him.
"Or Bonnie and Clyde, like on that show Mommy watches. You be Clyde."
"Could it be? That she can understand me? Nah, oh well."

An evil idea popped into Mutant's head. This was going to be the last time anybody forgot to feed him. He sat down and let Luna climb onto his back.
"Giddy up! Let's raid the towns!" the two year old shouted and Mutant nodded in agreement.

"We finally got the lights untangled at least." sighed Angelo.
"Now all we have to do is put them up and forget about them." Paige declared as she took the last knot out.
"Don't we have to," Everett wondered, "test if they all work?"
"Check if we have all of the covers!"

"One's missing!"
"Where is it?"
"Hijo de la ouch! I think I found it," Skin screamed as he handed over the pointy plasic cover.

Monet placed the cover onto the light and picked up the string and wrapped around the highest branch, then suddenly a rocket shot out of the TV room.
RUFF! ARF! ARF!
"What the..... oh no they got the lights! Stop them!" Paige shouted.
"Mutie stop! Mutie, you hear me? Stop!" Jubilee bolted after him.
ARF! ARF! ARF! Ruff! Arf! arf! Arf!

Chamber began to laugh and four pairs of eyes stared at him. "What? It's funny! He's getting back at you for not feeding him! This is his little revenge and every last one of you deseves it! Not feeding the poor dog!" He began to laugh again.

"How did you know that?"

"Everett, I'm a telepath, I read his mind....... By the way, M did you really make Luna watch CNN?"

"Yes, I thought she would like it. How did you find out anyway?"

"The dog told me."

"This is fun Mutie. We go round and round the endless forest trying to outrun the killer fairies." Luna giggled as she hoaxed Mutant to run around the tree faster.
"I'm not a fairy! Stop running around the tree and let go of those lights! Please!!!" Jubilee dived for the two of them, nearly knocking over the tree.

"Three to one odds that Jubilee sends the tree crashing down."
"Skin, we shouldn't be betting if she knocks down the tree!.....Put me down for ten dollars."
"The lights are nearly finished, how if she going to knock it down?"

"Paige wait, she'll find a way," Jonothon began to laugh again,she always does!"

"This isn't funny! Luna! Mutant! Stop............ not the Christmas balls! Don't throw those!" Jubilee stood in front of the tree, trying to regain a sense of order.

"We play war! Lots of cannon balls to fire!" Luna told Mutant.
"I love this kid!" Mutant thought as Christmas balls were hurled at Jubilee.

"She has a good arm," Paige admitted.
"The chica's throwing to high!"
"That's one went to low!" Synch noticed.

"Not Jean's Elvis ball! She'd kill us all! Stop!"

"The pitch is thown.... it's down in far left field.... it looks like it's going to go all the way.... going.... going... oh.. caught by the X-Fieldman and placed on the tree... too bad!"

Paige scowled at Chamber, "That wasn't nice. It was funny, but not nice."
"This is what happens when you forget to feed the dog!" Synch shouted over to Jubilee.
"Wait a second!" The commotion instantly stopped, " I wasn't supposed to feed the dog! Paige was!" Jubilee pointed toward her.

"Was not."
"Was too."
"Was not."
"Was too."
"Not."
"Too."

Mutant felt as if he had whip lash from turning his head so much.

"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"See she admits it! They should be throwing the stuff at her!" Jubilee proclaimed.

"Did not. You were the brains of the outfit. It was your job!" Paige replied walking over to Jubilee.
"But....."
"And you keep telling us all those stories about when you were an X-Man, shouldn't it be your responsible to take care of the X-Dog?"

The dog began to sob. "No one likes me! These people forget to feed me, and every candidate wants to get rid of me! I'm not a menace to society, I'm not evil! Why does everyone want me dead?"
"It okay puupy, I still love you," Luna told him as she scratched behind his ear.

"Do you think you two could terrorize them both?" Chamber asked Luna and Mutant mentally while pointing at Paige and Jubilee.

Mutant and Luna nodded and Chamber began to laugh again. He could have sworn that the "Loony Toon" theme song was playing in the background. Laughter filled the room as a garland attack was launched. Paige and Jubilee tired to catch as much garland as they could and placed it behind them.

Mutant let Luna off his back and she continued the onslaught sole while he sneaked up behind them. As they became preoccupied with Luna's assault they didn't notice Mutant take the end of the garland strand and gallop around the tree with it.

"Luna's trying to like knock us over Paige!"
"Forget Luna, look at Mutant! He's going to trip us....!"

As Paige finished her statement, Mutant's plan succeeded and they both went tumbling down. Mutant pranced over to Luna's side and nodded in approval of his work. Jubilee dusted herself off as the sound of a worn out muffler shrieked into the drive way.

"Bobby's car! They're home!" yelled Paige.
Everett became a little nervous, "What do we do? We didn't do anything they asked. We didn't feed the dog, we didn't decorate the tree, and we let Luna run a muck!"
"Just lie and say a super villian attacked the house!" Angelo advised.
"Lying is not the answer," Monet chided Skin's thought, "Jubilee for the first time in my life I want you to remember when you were and X-Man and tell us what they would have done."
"Well...there was this one time that something like this happened but they lied and said Magneto attacked the house." Jubilee confessed

"Here comes our day of reckoning, all in agreement that, ummm, Emplate attacked?"
They all agreed on Emplate and then the door slammed open.

"De place ain't blown up, mon ami!" Gambit said surprised as he walked through the door.
"That's right, Gumbo! It's all in one piece! You owe me twenty bucks!" Wolverine grinned as he took the money and put it in his pocket.

All the X-Men soon entered the house and looked around their living room. Little Luna was playing with one of Mutant's tennis balls in the corner of the room; she looked like a little angel. Mutant walked around the room with a hop in his step; he looked like the perfect pet.

"I can explain about the tree....." Jubilee began to say as she stepped out of the group. As she spoke Mutant behind all their backs took the cord from the lights and plugged it into the wall socket.

"I know what you're going to say, Jubilation," the Professor said as he hovered into the room, "you need the star to complete the tree!"
Paige stepped foward and in a befuddled voice said, "But we didn't even start the tree, we just made a big mess."
"What are you talking about?" Jean asked.

"Well look......." Paige's words were cut off as she saw the magnificent tree. The rest of Generation X turned around and joined their teammate in awe.

The garland reflected the light's glow making the tree seem to have a golden aura around it. The Christmas balls were spaced evernly across the tree as if they were painted on. It was a miracle! As a collective they turned and watched Luna rubbing Mutant's belly.

"You guys did a good job," Scott applauded.

"Well.. Luna and Mutant helped a little."

Jubilee walked over to the duo and knelt down. Petting Mutant's head, "You're a good dog and I promise I'll never forget to feed you again. Even though it wasn't my fault." Mutant nooded accepting the promise. Turning to Luna she whispered, "And I'll make sure Monet never watches you again. No one deserves that." Luna smiled.

Jubilee got up and walked over to the piano. She passed by an open window and ultmately knew that Gambit and Wolverine had flew the coup. "Oh well," she thought as she joined in.

".....Troll the ancient yule-tide carols...Fa la la la la la la la la..........."