Chapter Eight
About half an hour later, Rogue, Jubilee and
Psylocke arrived at Macleod's loft. The
others were arriving at the same time. As they flew over the red brick building, they could see a black Ford
Thunderbird parking in the parking lot out back, with Gambit and Wolverine in
it, and Macleod driving. It stopped,
and they got out. Rogue, who was
carrying Jubilee, and Psylocke landed not to far away from the car. They noticed as they did so that Macleod was
watching them with an unbelieving look on his face. Then he went over and greeted the new arrivals.
"Is there anything you ladies can't do?" He asked them.
"Well," Jubilee started, "Rogue can't touch
mmhmhmm." She was cut off by Rogue's
hand over her mouth. Jubilee pried
Rogue's fingers off and said, "Sorry."
"We'll tell ya'll everythin' ya need t' know when
we're upstairs." Rogue assured
him.
"And I'll try to reciprocate." Macleod said as
Gambit and Logan came up behind him. "By the way, I don't think we've been properly introduced. My name is Duncan Macleod."
"Ah'm Rogue, and this is Jubilation Lee." She introduced them.
"Most people just call me Jubilee."
"It's a pleasure to meet you all." Macleod said. "Shall we go upstairs?" He gestured them to precede him up the stairs to the door with the sign
DeSalvo's Martial Arts above it. They
went up, and into the building. When
they passed through a set of double doors, Wolverine and Psylocke looked around
admiringly at the dojo they had entered. It wasn't too bad of a place, and they couldn't wait to try out the
equipment.
"This is a nice place you got here." Logan said.
"Thanks." Macleod answered. "You know, I was watching the way you fought
tonight. You guys are good. "
"You not too bad y'self." Gambit said.
"I've had a lot of practice." Macleod said as they
entered the elevator. As he put the key
in to start the elevator up, Psylocke noticed something,
"You're not bleeding anymore. In fact, you don't even seem hurt anymore."
Macleod stopped in his tracks. He hadn't realized that they had seen him
get stabbed.
"I guess I have something to tell you too." He admitted.
When the elevator stopped, Macleod slid up the gate
and let them all out. Richie, Methos
and Amanda were all there, and to the mutants it appeared that they had known
they were coming. Logan suspected it
was just the sound of the elevator coming up. They went into Macleod's apartment, and looked around. This guy certainly liked old things. Richie said to Macleod as he went into the
kitchen area,
"Hey Mac. Who are these people?"
"These are some new friends of mine. Say hello to Betsy Braddock, Remy LeBeau,
Logan, Jubilation Lee and Rogue. Guys,
these are Richie Ryan and Amanda, and over on the bed there, is Adam
Pierson." He went over to the bed, and asked
the man lying there, "I thought you had a room in a hotel?"
"Yeah, I do." He said. "But your place is so
much nicer."
Macleod just shook his head in an exasperated way,
and went back to the mutants.
"So, we have to talk." He gestured to the living area in the center of the room. "Please, take a seat."
"What happened?" Asked Amanda.
"Some big creature attacked Joe's and they helped me
fight it off, using some weapons and abilities I've never seen before."
"Like what?" She asked. She came around the
counter, and saw Gambit. And Gambit saw
her. He smiled as he went to her, took
her hand in his, and kissed it.
"Bonjour, cherie. De name's Remy LeBeau, but you can call me Gambit."
"Enchante." She responded. "I'm Amanda."
Rogue watched the display, turning green with
jealousy. Finally she couldn't take it
anymore.
"Ok you two, knock it off." She went over and forcibly pulled Gambit
away. "What do you think you're
doing?" Rogue's whisper was close to a
snarl.
"Cher," he drawled, "you know Gambit loves you bes'." Rogue just sighed, and turned away in disgust. Amanda smiled as she moved to Macleod's side and slipped her arm
through his.
Meanwhile, Macleod was telling Richie and Adam
everything that had happened at the bar.
"So, I fought it, and it stabbed me. And while I was down, Logan, Betsy and Remy
here jumped in and drove it away."
Richie looked at the three people he named like they
weren't really there, and said,
"The three of them took out a demon of some kind,
all by themselves?"
"Yes. But
they have strange abilities I've never seen before. I couldn't see all the fight, but it looked like Remy was
throwing something at it, and Betsy created a glowing sword out of nowhere, and
as for Logan, I don't know what he was doing, but it looked like he was
attacking it with claws…." He was very
confused.
"Would you like us to explain?" Psylocke asked.
"That would be very much appreciated." Macleod admitted.
Logan looked like he was going to open his mouth to
say something, but Betsy put her hand on his arm, and said to him,
"No, Logan, let me." She watched as Gambit sat down beside her on the couch, and then
started.
"I know I asked this before, but, have you heard of
Mutants?"
While Macleod was thinking, Richie answered,
"Yeah, I have. In the newspaper there are occasionally stories of people with strange
abilities, that the press call mutants. Are you saying that's what you are?"
"Yes. The
five of us are mutants."
"Well, that explains a lot." Richie said
sarcastically.
"It does if you think about it." Psylocke countered.
"What were you three doing in Joe's?" Asked
Macleod. "Did you know that thing was
going to attack?"
"We were just there for a drink." Betsy said. "We had no idea that that creature would be
there."
"Why did you attack it? Why endanger yourselves?"
"Fightin' off t'ings like dat is what we do." Gambit answered.
"We could ask ya the same thing, bub." Logan said to
Macleod. "Why did you attack it? Why
endanger yerself?"
"Well, I'm different from normal people." was all Macleod would say.
"We can deal with different." Logan leaned forward
over the coffee table. "We told you
about us, now it's your turn."
Macleod sighed, and hesitated. He looked over at Methos, Richie and Amanda,
as if looking for their approval. They
all sighed and nodded.
"I am Immortal." He finally said. "So are they."
None of the X-Men knew what to say. This wasn't quite what they were expecting
to hear. When no one said anything,
Macleod continued.
"I was born in the Highlands of Scotland, in the
year 1592. I don't age, and I can't
die, unless someone cuts my head off."
Jubilee did the math in her head.
"If you were born in 1592, and it's 2001 this year,
that would make you about 400 years old." She looked up at him from her place on the floor, where she had been
looking at the chess set on the table.
"Four hundred and nine, this year."
"That's pretty old."
"Not really." Macleod said with a glance at Methos.
"How do we know you's tellin' us the truth,
sugah?" Rogue asked suspiciously.
"I could ask you the same thing."
"Touché." Gambit said.
"You saw my sword." Psylocke picked up one of the
chess pieces and looked at it. "And you saw Remy throwing cards at the
creature. You have to admit that cards
aren't a normal weapon. What more proof
do you need?"
"I know what I saw." Macleod started. "But I
still don't understand it. And I'm not
entirely sure if I can believe what I saw. I mean, I saw your sword, but it could have been just a figment of my
imagination. My eyes could have been
playing tricks on me. And what man in
their right mind throws cards at things?"
Gambit gave him the dirtiest look he could, and
reached into his coat pocket for some of the said cards. But he didn't get a chance to charge them,
because Wolverine had gotten up and was making his way over to Macleod. Jubilee jumped to her feet, and Macleod
watched him as he came over and turned his chair to face him when he stopped.
"You wanna make sure your eyes ain't playing tricks
on you, bub?" He held his right hand
down at Macleod's chest level, away from him, and slowly extended the
claws. As they got longer and longer,
Macleod's eyes went wider and wider, until Wolverine's claws were fully
extended. Then he jumped back out of
the chair, caught his foot on the arm, and landed on the floor on his
butt.
"Very smooth." Gambit commented as Macleod stood up. Macleod didn't look at him. His
eyes were focussed only on Wolverine's claws.
"What are those?"
Jubilee went towards Wolverine. She hoped she could stop him if he tried to
do anything. He just looked at her with
a look that said he wasn't going to hurt him.
"These are Adamantium claws. Sure, ya, there ain't nothin mutant about
them, but you have to admit they are a little different."
"You could say that." Macleod agreed as Wolverine retracted his claws. He stared as the
skin between the knuckles healed. "You
aren't a mutant."
"Yeah, I am." Wolverine looked at his fist, realizing that's what Macleod had been
looking at. "I heal fast. That's my mutant power. Ya got a problem with that?"
"It's just, Immortals do the same thing." He held his hand out towards Logan, palm
up. "Cut me, I'll show you."
Wolverine shrugged, and extended the first claw on
his right hand again. "You sure?"
"Of course."
"Okay." He
brought his claw down towards Macleod's hand. He sliced the skin on the palm. Not deep, but deep enough. It
bled, as Wolverine expected, then stopped, and healed up. All the mutants gasped. None of them had expected that Macleod was
actually telling the truth.
"You are Immortal!" Gambit exclaimed, looking up at Macleod. "All you are?" He looked
around at all the others. They were
nodding.
"Cool!" Jubilee exclaimed. She looked at
Richie. "How old are you?"
He chuckled. "I've only been Immortal for 8 years. But both of them are over 1000 years old." He pointed at Methos and Amanda.
"Hey, hey! Leave me out of this." Methos
said.
"You're in this whether you want to be or not."
Macleod said. He turned to the
mutants. "Now I have to ask a favor of
you. You saw that big creature that
challenged me. I have reason to believe
that it was sent by someone that wants me killed."
"Why wou' someone wan' that, sugah?" Rogue asked.
"That's one of the worst parts about being Immortal. One of the rules is that 'There can be only
one'. So, some of us go around with
swords and behead other Immortals, and take their life force. Some of us try to live like normal people,
with friends, jobs, lives. Others,
though, all they can think of is being the "One". The rest of us have to protect ourselves."
"So, dat's what you was doin' wit' de sword." Gambit
said.
"Yes. I
carry my sword around with me all the time in case another Immortal wants to
kill me. But there are sometimes
Immortals that are cowards, and they get other people to wear me down, so I
can't fight as well when the time comes. In this case, I suspect the Immortal conjured up that beast to wear me
down. I have to ask you all to help me
fight it."
"No problem." Psylocke said.
