Introductions
I stood in the doorway of the Xavier Institute, a byword for security and safety among mutants. It was almost a legend. There were many mutants who would give their right arm to be where I was.
"Nice place." I said. "A little on the small side for a billionaire, though."
I manage I heard an amused voice in my head say.
I turned to Jean Grey. "Where is he, anyway? I thought that he would be here to welcome me."
I am otherwise occupied. I will be with you shortly.
Fine, I thought back. Just stay out of my head.
There was an echo, like a mental chuckle.
"Where to?" I asked, turning to Scott as I did so.
"Since the professor's busy, we should wait in the common room. Follow me."
We waited in silence for several minutes. Finally the professor arrived.
"I apologize for keeping you waiting. I was on the phone when you arrived. I'm Charles Xavier." He said, offering a hand.
"Nice to meet you." I said, shaking his hand. "I'm Eternal."
"Jean told me what happened at the school. You said that you were only giving the basics of your powers. Would you mind if I asked you to give us a more detailed description?"
"Not at all, professor. One question first. Did Jean relay everything that I told her about my powers?"
"To my knowledge, yes."
"Good. Well then, I have already described my pain-touch in detail, so I'll spare you having to hear me repeat myself. My resurrection power, however, is much more complicated. Whenever I die, my body regenerates to the exact state it was in physically when I was twenty-three. The amount of time it takes me to regenerate is proportional to the amount of damage. A bullet wound usually only takes me about two seconds. Complete bodily disintegration takes almost ten minutes to recover from."
"A moment, Eternal. You say that disintegration takes you ten minutes. When have you been disintegrated?"
"I spent World War Two in Hiroshima."
"I see. Continue."
"As you are aware, I am close to 3,000 years old. In that time I have honed many different skills. One of them is the ability to find the weak points in any solid substance. It would probably be easiest to show you what I mean. Do you have a spare marble bust handy?"
Professor Xavier thought for a moment. "No, but I believe that the workmen left a few pieces of wood out back when they finished rebuilding the mansion. Would one of those work?"
"Sure."
We headed out back of the mansion. I selected a thick wooden slat. "This will do nicely." I tapped the wood a couple of times, feeling for the vibrations.
I gave the wood a couple of hard taps in just the rights spots. It split into three pieces.
"It takes me too long to find the weak points for me to use it in combat, but it's a nice party trick."
The professor nodded. "I see."
As we headed back to the institute, I asked him, "Professor, could I stay here for a while? I don't intend to stay long. Just long enough for the populace to settle down again so that I can leave."
"You're welcome to stay as long as you like, Eternal."
"Thank you professor. One more thing," I added, blocking the doorway, "I expect you and Jean Grey to stay out of my head. I have nothing against telepathic communication, but my secrets are my own."
"Understood. We'll respect your privacy."
"Professor, there ya are. Ah been..."
Reflexively I spun around, my hand going for where I judged the speaker's throat to be, my pain-touch bringing the receiving end of a shark feeding frenzy.
Too late I realized who it was that had been behind me.
My bare hand connected with Rogue's face.
As I dropped into unconsciousness, I could hear Rogue screaming.
