A Lava Lamp

Idris. POV

"Hey Domino, are we friends?"

It had been three months since I took out Martin Salpa for the Director and I got no calls from him. I've been staying at Domino's for now. The lockbox of cash had been put in a pool to invest in an actual base of operations for our 'profession'.

"What?" She was on her laptop looking for another job we could do. We had made a name for ourselves as mutants for hire. Try fighting a man made of fire and a woman who could kill you by just dumb luck. It's pretty hard.

"You know. Are we friends? I feel like our relationship is just built on the fact we kill people together." I was trying to use my fingers as blow torches and shoot separate streams of fire from them. She stopped her scrolling and just looked at me.

"Will you show me your face?" I stopped and looked at her. "There's your answer"

Yeah, with the whole turn into fire thing I kind of kill all bacteria on my skin. So, there's no real use of taking my mask off. I mean I still shower and eat food. I just roll it up to my nose.

"I think not showing my face adds character."

"There's not much character you can add that I haven't seen yet. I've seen drool seep out of that mask." Yeah. I drool in my sleep. You probably do too. It's normal.

"And you snore."

"I don't wear a shitty mask."

"Fair point." I resumed my training, and she resumed her typing.

-Idris.- What the fucking shit balls! -Idris I would not contact you unless it were an emergency.-

"Domino get the guns out." She looked at me and pulled out a pistol and aimed it at the door.

-Idris that will not be needed.- Wait hold up. I know that wrinkly voice.

-Professor?- I motioned for Domino to lower the gun.

-Yes. As I said I would no contact you unless it were an emergency-

-Yeah. Go fuck yourself-

-A threat far larger than your ego has been unleashed. My brother. The Juggernaut has been freed from his prison. He will come to the school and kill me.-

-Have the X-men handle him. That's kind of their thing.-

-I fear they will not be enough. I understand you have your problems with me, but please. For the safety of the students still enrolled into this school. Help me, please.-

"Domino, we have an issue."

"yeah I noticed when you told me to grab the guns."

"The Xavier Institute is about to be under attack." Her eyes widened, before she went to her room and closed the door. 5 minutes later she came out with her merc gear. I looked at her confused. "Just like that? You don't even know what we're gonna fight. Hell, I don't even know what we're gonna fight." She shrugged her shoulders and closed the laptop.

"We haven't had a job in a few days. It'll be fun." Fuck me.

-We're in Professor.-

-I'm sorry we?-

-Yup we. We'll be there in jiffy. That's what you British people say right. About that how are you British?-

-We will see you soon.- He abruptly closed the link between us and I stood up and stretched.

"Well fuck me. I thought it would be longer until I went back to the Institute." She just looked at me with a curious look.

"You went to the Institute?" I looked at her. Right, I haven't told her about all that.

"Yup. Was an X-men for a whole week. Pretty much led the team too." I crossed my arms with a big smile. She just frowned at me with a dead look.

"Bullshit. Anyone who takes orders from you will end up dead."

"Now hold on. When we fought that Japanese clan, I was the one to save the day."

"You burned down the warehouse. With me inside."

"To be fair, how was I supposed to know that they had super samurais. I also saved you."

"By grabbing me with your weird lava arm. You're lucky my outfit is flame resistant."

"Yeah. That was a wise investment on your part." I scratched my chin and she just glared at me.

"Well, when your partner can burn everything around him, just because he stubbed his toe. You take some precautions." I snapped my fingers.

"That's why we make such a good team." I threw my arm around her and led her to the elevator.

"That explains nothing." The elevator gave a ding and I just looked at her with a smile.

"Doesn't it, my fair lucky lady?" She just glared at me and crossed her arms. "Or whatever you say is right and I should just shut up now." She nodded and stepped into the elevator.

"You do that." She pressed a button and down went the elevator.

"Just to be clear. We are friends right?" She just glanced at me at looked back at the wall. "I will take that as a yes" She sighed.

"Why are you like this?" I shrugged.

"After you've been tortured for hundreds of days in a row, and then burned alive. Then every time you activate your powers you go through that same excruciating pain..." Her eyebrow rose and she looked at me. I stopped mid-sentence when she did. "Well. I guess it's the way I cope."

"That's how you got your powers?" I just nodded and rubbed my shoulder.

"Yup." She kept staring at me, I looked at her weirdly. "What?"

"My real is name is Neena." I laughed. "What?"

"You made fun of me going by Meltdown. But your real name is Neena? Ha Ha Ha!" I was laughing uncontrollably.

"It's not even a bad name." I laughed louder and pointed at her.

"But Domino is way cool… Ow ow ow!" She twisted my wrist and held my finger ready to break it. "Why are you so strong?" I asked after some time shifting around.

"Make fun of my name again, and I'll drown you." Her voice and some heat and her eyes were so scary. I just turned my arm into it's lava form and she let go of it with a hiss.

"Will do." I turned my arm back to normal and flexed it. I held out my arm in shake her hand. "My real name is Idris." She just took it.

"Yeah. Idris is definitely better then Neena" She said sarcastically and I shrugged.

"Friends?" She just looked to the side and thought for a moment.

"Yeah. We're friends." I took my hand back and the elevator dinged. Telling us we were on the ground floor. We walked through the main lobby and out the front door. Her beat-up car waiting right in front of us.

"We have to get you a better car." She smiled and slapped the top of the car.

"No way. Me and her have history." I walked to the passenger side, and got in.

"The car is a her?" She got in and shrugged.

"It's whatever I call it" I just leaned back in the seat.

"Ready to wreck some shit?" I looked at her and she looked at me.

"I wish we were getting paid but yeah I am." She deadpanned.

"I thought we were about to do something cool." I crossed my arms and looked out the window. "You should work on your social skills."

"No way." She responded and started driving. The car ride was silent all the way to the Institute.

Now you may be thinking. 'Why don't you just fly there?' It'll be way quicker. You see Domino gets moody whenever I fly ahead because by the time she gets there, there's nothing for her to do. So I am confided to the Dominomobile until she can get something better.

Speaking of getting something better. With all the jobs we've done in the past few months, we've saved a pretty penny. Around $200,000. Now you may be thinking. 'That is enough money to get your own base'.

It's not. A full concrete building for me, and discreet enough for us to go in and out without a problem. That's some secret government funding we'd need. Millions of dollars. Which we do not have.

The jobs we have done in the past were all low key and done with extreme care. Except for the Japanese warehouse one. That got out of hand quick. I was not lying about the super samurais.

------Flashback!-------

We pulled up in front of a warehouse. Apparently, there's some big shot yakuza here overlooking the gang's drug operation. We've been paid to take him out. Short and simple.

"Alright I'll go in and look around. If things go loud, you come in." Domino said and opened the car door. I didn't like that plan.

"Wait, are you sure that's a good plan?" I grabbed her arm stopping her from leaving. "You aren't exactly bullet proof." She closed the door and got back in the car.

"You're not exactly built for stealth. You're a giant lava lamp." She does have a point.

"Fine. You go in alone. I'll be waiting here." I crossed my arms and looked out the window.

"It'll be quick." She said and left. I was left alone to twiddle my thumbs and play with the car seat. I spent 15 minutes being absolutely bored until I heard an explosion inside.

"Great" I unclipped the seatbelt and got out of the car walking toward the warehouse. "Just fucking great" I ignited and shot up to the roof and burned my way through. When I got inside, I found a large room full of drugs, and men with samurai armor and katanas. How original. They all looked at me and I saw Domino being held by one of them.

"Finally!" She yelled at me and kneed the guy holding her in the nose. I will never understand how nimble she is. The guy fell back holding his nose, he laid on the floor for a second before sitting up and snapping his nose back into place. I flew down to Domino and looked at the downed guy.

"I see the plan went on without a hitch." I looked around the room and all the men started to surround us. All aiming their swords at us. I could hear Domino unclip her guns and aim them at the Samurai.

"I had it all handled." She said form behind me, and I smiled.

"Sure you did." When I said that, the man that was on the floor yelled and lunged at me. I just punched him and he staggered back with barely a mark on his face. "That's new." He yelled again and I cut him off with a beam of fire. He didn't get up form that.

"So, did the contact mention anything about Samurai?" I yelled over my shoulder to Domino after spraying another samurai with flames.

"I don't think so." She yelled back and I just frowned. Great. I shot a large wave of fire in front of me, either lighting the samurai on fire or turning them to ash. I looked behind me to see the samurai that Domino already shot were getting back up with the bullets just falling out of them.

"Domino get back!" I started to mold a large ball of fire in my hands and she looked back with wide eyes and ran behind and wall. The samurai tried to stop her, but she just dodged all of their attacks and shot back at them. Talk about lucky. The ball of fire had gotten bigger when I heard a door crash open and loud footsteps filled my ears. I looked over at the sound and saw a 7ft tall man with all black samurai army and his sword was on fire. Huh? I aimed the ball at him and let go. To say I may have over done it in an understatement. When it hit him it was like a tank shell went off in here. He was immediately disintegrated and the explosion caused the building to shake and the men around me to light on fire. Domino! I turned around and it was like I traveled through the fire and I was in front of Domino holding the flames back before I knew it.

"You need to get out of here!" She looked at me wide eyed.

"How the hell did you do that?!"

"Get the fuck out now!" She just looked at the flames and turned around. She's not gonna make it. Fuck. I pushed the fire back and shot towards domino and turned my arm into lava. I grabbed the back of her vest and melted the wall. Once the hole was big enough I threw her out of it, and went back to holding the flames. I could hear her grunt as she landed on the floor. I was too focused on the fire to really care about her right now. I could feel my body getting hotter and hotter as I was trying to control the wildfire. I focused on clearing my mind and Instead of the fire shooting wildly, it was starting to shoot into me. It felt invigorating. Like I was getting an energy boost. It took me a minute to absorb all of the fire, and all around me was just a blacked building.

"That was something." I heard Domino say. I turned around and saw her peek through the hole I threw her out of.

"Yeah." She climbed through and kicked a random piece of wood.

"Didn't know you could do that." I just looked around the building.

"Me either." She turned towards me and I unignited.

"So. You just hoped for the best?" I looked at her and she crossed her arms.

"Pretty much." I shrugged.

"Unbelievable" She threw her arms out and left out of the hole. I followed her.

"Hey I saved you. A thank you would be nice." She swung open her door and got in. I followed in the passenger seat.

"You almost got me killed with the mini nuke!" She yelled at me and I winced.

"I still saved you."

"Shut up"