Limits

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Kurt was a bit put out. He still wasn’t drunk. His
head still ached a bit. He was currently sitting at a table of questionable
cleanliness in Moe’s, next to Sage who was doing what she did best: sitting
coolly and not emoting. Kurt sipped from his cold piss-colored water they
called beer at Moe’s. He glared at it balefully. Logan, also known as
Wolverine, dropped into a chair across from Kurt, it creaked beneath his
weight. He clunked a bowl of salted peanuts onto the table and took a long draw
from his bottle of some obscure Canadian ale. He set another bottle in front of
Sage.

          
“Wolverine,” Sage began, pushing the bowl away from her. “I’ve been…”

          
“Have some peanuts.” Logan interrupted, pushing the bowl of peanuts back.
“Let’s wait for the Elf’s little friend before we start on the explanations.”

          
“We should be careful, The Hand…”

          
“The Hand ain’t around here right now. I could smell ‘em.” Logan munched a
handful of peanuts. “They headed out of town. I thought they were after me but
whatever happened at that ritual seemed to have spooked them.”

          
“They were after me. They probably assume I’m dead.” Sage took a draw from her
beer and made a face. “I was, after all, carried off by an “incubus” who
managed to break a summoning circle.”

          
“I don’t know,” Kurt leaned forward, “I think Ilsa the Wanna-Nazi had her
suspicions about me. She noticed this.” He touched his crucifix. Sage reached
out and carefully lifted Kurt’s cross from where it lay nestled in the hollow
of his throat. She smiled wryly and let it drop back to his chest.

          
“You also blurted, “What the fuck?” in German as soon as you appeared and had a
lollipop in your cheek.” She helped herself to a few peanuts.

          
“So, why exactly were they using you to beam in Kurt here?” Logan lit another
cigar.

          
“They weren’t trying to summon Nightcrawler…”

          
“Nightcrawler? You were saying about the Jolly Pirate Nicknames, Elf?”
Logan cast an assumed glance over at Kurt who simply shrugged with a little
smile.

          
“I wasn’t privy to most of the ritual, but they were trying to summon an
incubus, I was unconscious until after they had accidentally summoned
Nightcrawler. My mutation gives me an
indomitable will; I am therefore immune to most methods of information
extraction. I have information they want, and I believe they thought the, for
lack of a better term, ‘persuasive’ talents of an incubus would help them get
the information they required.”

          
“Sounds like overkill to me.” Kurt frowned, “summoning a demon in an elaborate
ritual just to get information? ”

          
“I assume they had other uses for the incubus as well, what they were, I have
no idea.” Sage looked up and towards the door of the bar, “I’m not surprised
about that, a very many people are interested in what I have hidden in here.”
She touched her temple. She gestured towards the door, “Marvel Girl is here.”

          
“Marvel Girl?” Logan mouthed to Kurt with raised eyebrows.

          
“Don’t call her that.” Kurt whispered, “She’ll pull out your leg hairs with
Telekinesis.” He looked up to see the red headed telepath making her way
through Moe’s patronage.

          
“Now, that she’s here.” Sage waved the waitress over for another round of
drinks, “We can get to work.”

FIN

“Limits”
has been a prequel of sorts for my upcoming long running X-Men fanfic novella
“The Tarot Saga”