Summary: Duncan finds out that Joe's bringing in a new arrival of an Immortal, a 16 year old juvenile delinquent from the states. After everything he's been through, Duncan thinks he's got a hold on this kid, but that's before he finds out they're stuck working together, but Joe won't tell him why.

Rating-PG13

Genre-humor/action/adventure

Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for Highlander or any of the characters.

It was a cold day in Swedan, a train was heading to the end of the country, on one of the cars, a stowaway Duncan MacLeod was out cold, using a sack of potatoes for a pillow. As he woke up, he found himself surrounded by a purple light, then disappearing altogether, and reappearing in what looked like some center. He looked around, surrounded by dark at every turn.

"Kinda reminds ya of old times, doesn't it?"

Duncan turned around, ready to behead the first thing that moved, and found Joe Dawson walking by him.

"How the hell did I get here?" Duncan asked.

"Calm down, you want that vein in your forehead to explode?" Joe laughed.

"This is no laughing matter Joe, now where the hell am I?" Duncan asked, "I knew I shouldn't have listened to you, go to Britain and get a rest, go to Europe and get some air, go to Swedan and get frozen air, this is insane! Now where the hell am I?"

"Calm down will you? The dead can probably hear you, look, you're in a restricted government research center in Russia," Joe started.

"Russia?" Duncan asked.

"We had to bring you in unannounced otherwise someone would catch smart," Joe said.

"Cut to the chase, Joe, you send me on a wild goose chase for 3 days from Britain to Europe to Swedan, then you have some mental case bring me in here?" Duncan asked.

"I had you out there for 3 days because I didn't have a choice," Joe told him.

"What about?" Duncan asked.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question? How many problems have you had with expert Immortals?" Joe asked.

"None of them," Duncan answered.

"Allright, how many juveniles have you encountered?" Joe asked.

"Hundreds of them," Duncan said.

Duncan wasn't quite getting the connection with these questions.

"What's the point?" Duncan asked.

"Do you think you would have trouble with a juvenile?" Joe asked.

"Was one once," Duncan replied.

"Think you could handle having one around?" Joe asked.

"He's not rabid is he?" Duncan asked.

"It's not a 'he'," Joe replied.

"What?" Duncan asked.

"We received word today of a 16-year-old arrival from the states, and from what we've heard, she's not bad either," Joe said.

"This is ridiculous, a juvenile girl's coming here, and she's an Immortal?" Duncan asked.

"Quite so, word of warning, she's a real delinquent," Joe warned him.

"After what I've seen, I doubt she could do anything to surprise me," Duncan said.

"We'll soon see," Joe said.

"What?"

"Here she comes," Joe pointed out.

Duncan turned around, in came a girl with pale skin, about 5'5, in ratty beat up clothes, and for some reason, she seemed to be glowing a bright blue.

"I'll take it you're the new arrival I was told about?" Duncan asked.

But the girl didn't say anything, she just looked at him.

"What's going on? Why isn't she talking?" Duncan asked.

"We'll take her for now..."

A lady in a white lab coat came up and took the girl by the arm.

"What's going on here? Who are all these people?" Duncan asked.

"I told you she was coming in from the States, the government sent over some of the best medical staff in the region to make sure she's not infected on arrival," Joe explained.

"Why isn't she talking?" Duncan asked.

The lady pointed to the girl's foot, there was a small chain wrapped around her ankle.

"I told you she was a juvenile delinquent, she's supposed to wear an ankle bracelet whenever she travels," Joe explained.

"The bracelet also mutes her temporarily, we're going to examine her and make sure she's okay before we release her to you," the doctor said.

The lady took the girl into another room and bolted the door.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Duncan asked Joe.

"It's no joke at all, you have to keep an eye on her, you two are going to be working together," he told him.

"What?" Duncan didn't like the sound of that.

"Immortals seem to follow her wherever she goes, lately, its been one that says he's looking for you. She said she didn't know you, but he didn't believe her. He also never stuck around for a Quickening, he just pops in and out like that and disappears," Joe said.

"This doesn't make any sense," Duncan said.

"I know, which is why I didn't tell you until now, if I did, odds are you would've put a stop to it before she arrived. Now listen Duncan, the important thing here is that you two don't go separate ways, this guy's bound to pop up out of nowhere. He's an expert here, no Immortal you've gone up against yet will give you the slightest idea of what to expect from him," Joe explained.

Before Joe could go into anymore details, they heard screaming from the back, they ran around in time to see the doctor come out of the exam room and lock it.

"What's going on?" Duncan asked.

"She's a monster, she wouldn't let us remove the ankle bracelet, so she tried to kill us, we had to sedate her to get it off, she'll be out for a few hours, so we're safe for now," the doctor said.

The doctor went down the hall, Duncan turned to Joe.

"I'm working with her?" he asked.

"That's right," Joe said.

"Doesn't sound like I'll have too much trouble," he thought.

Joe wandered off down the hall to pick up the records on her, Duncan slipped around the back and managed to get into the exam room. The girl was out cold on a hospital bed, naked with a small sheet thrown over her body. Her clothes were on the exam table, with something sticking out of one of her pockets, Duncan heard some ruckus in the other room, he listened with his ear to the wall.

"You think he'll be along?" one doctor asked.

"I told him she was arriving today, he'll be here," the other replied.

"What's he looking for anyway?" the first one asked.

"That guy we brought here earlier, what's his name, Duncan MacLeod," the other responded.

"Well, when he gets here, we won't have to worry about either of them," the first laughed.

Duncan walked over to the table and picked up her clothes, and underneath them were the records.

Name: Amber Jenzon

Height: 5'5

Weight: 127

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Sandy

Blood type: A-positive

Underneath those papers were a thick bunch stapled togehter, it was a rap sheet.

Grand larceny

Grand theft auto

assault and battery

breaking and entering

domestic violence

firearm possession

possession of deadly weapon w/out license

attempted murder

robbery

The rap sheet went on and on, and underneath that was a newspaper bulletin, from an old newspaper in Philidelphia.

June 14th, 1995, Jennifer Jenzon, 32, and Ryan Jenzon, 34, were killed today at 10:13 A.M when the vehicle they were driving crashed into Kenny Hepburn's Antique Store's front display window. No explanation has been given as to why their car ran off the road as of yet, Sergeant Mike Turner suspects poor mechanical work on the brakes. Funeral services will be held June 19th at 2:00 PM.

Duncan looked over at Amber, and realized what kind of trouble she was in, left out cold, when this other Immortal showed up, she wouldn't have a chance of surviving. He got an idea, he picked Amber's lifeless body off the bed and put her on a gurney and rolled her down the hall to a different location.

He bolted the doors shut and made sure that there was no other way in, then he got a better look at all the papers. The profile on Amber was packed with information, the rap sheet seemed to be the size of a phone book, but Duncan had his doubts about the story of the car crash. He got up and slipped over to a filing cabinet, he pulled out a map of the United States, on the back was an index card for an enlarged map of every state. Going down to the second drawer, he pulled out a large map of Philidelphia, and looked up Amber's old address, and then the antique store's address.

Then it hit him, Joe went down to the first floor to pick up these papers, why would the doctors have them? And where was Joe at this time? Just as he thought he was getting somewhere, he heard something, in a panic, he shoved the maps back in the drawer and turned around. Amber seemed to be coming out of the sedation, Duncan walked over to her to make sure she was allright, when she opened her eyes, she looked up and let out a scream that screeched like a bob cat with his tail in a blender.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Duncan MacLeod, I'll take it your Amber Jenzon," he said.

"Yeah, I-----where am I?" she asked, "this isn't the exam room!"

"No it isn't, I moved you down here, turns out the doctors have connections with someone neither one of us is too thrilled about seeing," Duncan said.

"Well, let's see if you can answer this question, who stole my clothes?" Amber asked.

Duncan laughed as he grabbed her clothes and handed them to her.

"Hmmmmm, smart boy, how old are you?" Amber asked.

Duncan gritted his teeth as he tried hard not to laugh.

"Too old for you," he said.

At that time, they heard several people coming down the hall, when they left, Amber came to a conclusion.

"So, you're the guy that Mario's been talking about?" she asked.

"Mario's the name of this Immortal?" he asked.

"Yeah, he's been looking for you," Amber replied.

"Then why is he coming after you?" Duncan asked.

"For some strange reason, he thinks I know you, but that's just plain crap, I only met you today," she said.

"Well, it doesn't look like he could get in here very easily, looks like everyone's carrying a machine gun," Duncan said.

"Wonderful, now that that's settled, let's get the heck out of here," Amber replied.

"I have an idea on how to do that," Duncan told her.

"A 14 page rap sheet?" Joe asked the guard.

"That's right, that girl has caused some trouble, but now it's gone, I guess somebody must've waltzed in and gotten it," the guard replied.

"Imagine that," Joe said, "the nerve of some people."

"Sergeant O' Hara, the patient has escaped!" Doctor Schmok said.

"What? Sound the alarms!" the guard yelled.

Sirens blew all over the center, bright red lights flashed everywhere. On the top floor, someobody had come upon a brainstorm of escape. Duncan stormed by the 10th floor on a motorcycle with Amber holding onto him, he made a sharp turn and busted out through the window, fell down a diagonal direction, and landed onto a lower roof of the building, down that one, to the next one, then once they went down the 3rd roof, they got thrown off the motorcycle and rolled down to the streets.

Duncan ripped off his helmet and sat up to see Amber's body lying next to his, her helmet had been partially smashed during the fall. He tore the remaining part off and picked her up and shook her.

"This isn't your first time doing that, is it?" Amber asked.

"No it isn't," he replied.

"That's what I thought," Amber said.

"You allright?" Duncan asked.

"I'm fine, boy, I never knew a window busted into that many pieces," Amber replied.

"Maybe I better take you to the hospital to make sure," Duncan suggested.

"Hold it, I don't need no hospital, no doctor, and I don't need no authorities coming after me, let's get out of here," Amber said.

Joe came out of the center looking for Duncan.

"Hey!" he yelled.

"Uhoh!" Amber said.

Amber got up and tried to runaway, but Duncan snagged the back of her jacket.

"Hold it! He's a friend of mine," he told her.

Amber looked back at Joe in confusion.

"You call that mountain goat a friend? He's old enough to be your grandfather!" Amber said.

"I'm still old enough to take you over my knee," Joe told her, "Hey, I was wondering how you were going to bust out of there. What'd you do?"

"He stole a guard's motorcycle and------kaboom!" Amber said.

"We have to get out of Russia as soon as possible, we got no rights being here," Joe said.

"So? When has that ever stopped us before?" Duncan asked.

"While you were out here being Evel Kinevel, I spoke with Mario on the phone and made a deal, I told him we'd meet him in London," Joe said.

"That's where you sent me 2 days ago, why couldn't you have made the deal then?" Duncan asked.

"Because this guy's calling all the shots, it seems he's got everything planned," Joe explained.

"Then why doesn't he come here and try to kill us?" Duncan asked.

"Maybe I can explain that," Amber said, "a few years back, Mario got struck by lightning, now, not only does he have only half the memory of being an Immortal, but he also gets the radio weather station through his teeth."

"This is ridiculous," Duncan said.

"Tell you what Joe, you go check the airlines schedules for London, while Duncan and I go out to eat. The stuff they serve on that plane is worse than leather boots," Amber said.

"Still think you can handle her?" Joe asked.

"Believe me, I've dealt with worse," Duncan grunted through his teeth.

Amber suggested they go to a diner down the street, Duncan agreed, but when he received his food, he wasn't so sure about it.

"What's in this stuff?" he asked.

"I don't know, but I wouldn't recommend asking the chef, this is a Russian diner, you ask about the food, they're bound to put a gun to your head while you eat," Amber said.

"Two punishments for the price of one, first this posion, then death," Duncan replied.

There was a tap at the front window, it was Joe.

"Wonderful, I was wondering when he was going to get here, I can't stand the sight of this food anyway," Duncan said.

"Well, I'll go pay the bill and we'll be on our way," Amber ran off.

"So, what'd you find out?" Duncan asked.

"The earliest flight heading to London is at 1:00," Joe said.

"That's good, we'll be out of here in no time," Duncan thought.

"Yeah, but then there's the bad news, we won't get to London until 2:00," Joe said.

"One hour? That's fast," Duncan said.

"No no no, it's not 2 in the afternoon, it's 2 in the morning," Joe told him.

"WHAT? 13 hours? That's insane, I could swim there faster than that, this is an outrage! Why the hell is it taking so long?" Duncan asked.

"Bad weather's coming up," Joe said.

"Then they should've cancelled the flight," Duncan said.

"They can't do that, there's too many demands to get out of Russia, it's too dangerous here," Joe told him.

"I know, eating in this place is like having a last meal before being shot at dawn," Duncan replied.

"What's going on here?" Amber asked.

"The damn flight is going to take 13 hours to get to London, that's what!" Duncan exploded.

"13 hours? We could swim there faster than that," Amber said.

"Well, anybody got any better ideas?" Joe asked.

"One, by the time we get to the water, it'll be well past an hour," Amber started.

"Come on, let's just take the damn flight, I can't wait to get out of this place anyway," Duncan said, "at this rate, I don't care how long it takes."

"You look like hell," Joe said.

"I look better than I feel," Duncan replied.

"Again I state, you look like HELL!" Joe told him.

"Try spending 9 hours on a bumpy train in the middle of winter, going 39 miles, and sleeping on a 20 pound sack of potatoes and tell me if you feel like hell," Duncan told him.

"Hey, it kept you busy until we needed you, didn't it?" Joe asked.

"Yes, and the next time a Watcher tells me I should go somewhere to relax, I'm not listening," Duncan said.

"Hey, how'd I know you'd have a terrible time?" Joe asked.

"I got flat feet in Britain, I got pinched by a dozen lobsters and crabs in Europe, and I nearly got frostbitten in Swedan, other than that, I had a pleasant time. If it weren't for the fact I was Immortal and couldn't die from any of that, I'd kill you," Duncan said.

"So I'm a bad travel agent, don't bite my head off," Joe replied.

"I'd never be able to, you have too fat a neck," Duncan told him.

"Hey, you think you had a terrible time? Try watching all of that, besides, it wasn't all that good for me either. I got sunburnt to blackened toast in Britain, I got slapped silly with hailbut in Europe cuz I didn't understand a word anybody said. And in Swedan, instead of snow, I wound up in 5 feet of mashed potatoes," Joe said.

"Another thing, how come you disappeared off the train?" Duncan asked.

"I had to be transported out of there first to make sure everything was going as planned before we could bring you in," Joe said.

"What was this supposed to be? Some kind of surprise?" Duncan asked.

"Well.....In a way, yes," Joe said.

"Fine, I'm surprised, next time let me know ahead of time," Duncan replied.

So they boarded the plane, Duncan was steamed as a lobster over the past three days, but Amber looked more green than red.

"Something wrong?" Duncan asked.

"No, I just remembered I never do well on airplanes," Amber said.

"Maybe it was that lobster tail ala combat boot you ate before we headed down here," Duncan said.

"I don't think so, that's all still in my throat, have you ever tried swallowing someone's shoelaces?" Amber asked, "That's exactly how they cook their lingeuinie."

Well, the flight made better progress than expected, they reached London at 11:50 PM. They checked into a hotel for the night.

"How come we're not going to see Mario?" Duncan asked.

"Because he hasn't stated where to meet him yet, we can't go charging in someplace we've never been to," Joe said.

"Speak for yourself," Amber said.

Half an hour later, Duncan came up to Joe's room to see where Amber was, he could hear someone vomiting in the bathroom. Joe sat on his bed reading a book with plugs in his ears.

"Think you could take care of that problem? Sounds like the last opera I went to," Joe said.

Duncan pounded on the door, rather than go in and probably end up sorry.

"Amber are you allright?" he asked.

"I will be in a minute," she called out.

They heard the faucet at full blast, then Amber came out of the bathroom wiping her mouth with a towel.

"What was that?" Duncan asked.

"I'm not sure, but I think it might've been food posioning from that diner in Russia. Do you have any idea what prussic acid looks like?" Amber asked.

"Excuse us," Duncan said.

He grabbed Amber by the collar of her jacket, took her into the bathroom and out the other door leading to their room.

"Something wrong?" Amber asked.

"If we're going to be meeting Mario soon, it might help if I knew what he looked like," Duncan told her.

"Okay, well, he's about your height, about 40 pounds lighter, blonde spiky hair, bad complexion, and basically the outline of a five o' clock shadow, and whenever he opens his mouth on one end, you can hear the weather forcast for the weekend," Amber told him, "and one more thing, on the left side of his forehead there's a stitch, they had to seal up the hole after the lightning struck."

"The lightning opened his head?" Duncan asked.

"How else do you think he forgot half his mission as an Immortal?" Amber asked.

"Why is it that it opened his forehead?" Duncan asked.

"He wears a metal plate around his brain, so it not only attracts lightning, but if you hit him on the head with a cooking pot, he vibrates into the broom closet, and when you turn up the radio or TV, the sound vibrates off his skull," Amber said.

"This is ridiculous now get into bed and shutup!" Duncan told her.

"And I thought I had the lobsters at lunch," Amber said.

Amber took a pillow off the bed and went over to a chair next to the door.

"I told you to get into bed!" Duncan told her.

"Forget it, I'm not sharing any bed with someone who's had lobsters piching at his tushie," Amber said.

Amber pounded the pillow and drifted off to sleep in the chair, Duncan wound the alarm clock for 6:00, then he shut off the lights, and he too conked out.

(This is the end of chapter one, hopefully I have 2 up soon.)