I Am Polaris

“Hi and welcome to Dr Steve’s Pizzeria, what can I get for- oh.” I placed the boy’s face halfway through the sentence. Blonde boy.

“Hello. I’ll have a margarita pizza please.” I clenched my teeth and raised my eyebrows.

“You ordered like 5 not 3 hours ago.” He shrugged.

“I ate them.” I ground my teeth a little further. “Kidding. It’s a sort of cover. Xavier sent me to keep an eye on you. Can’t sit in a pizzeria and not order anything to eat.”

“No one needs to keep an eye on me. I’ve coped for 13 years, just because he’s taken an interest in my… thing doesn’t mean he gets unwavering access to me. Tell him to shove it up his-“

“Lottie. Stop scaring the customers.” Joe said from behind me.

“Joe. Get back in the kitchen.” Joe leaned over me and held out a hand.

“Joe. I’m guessing you know her.” The blonde guy in front of me smirked, not moving his eyes from mine.

“You could say that. Alex Summers. Nice to meet you.” He grasped Joe’s hand. I flicked his wrist and he let go.

“I don’t know him. He doesn’t know me. Leave me alone. And you can tell your Professor Xavier that I want nothing to do with him or his school.” Alex cocked his head at me, then moved his gaze to Joe.

“My friend is trying to hire her as a teacher. She’s not having any of it.” I rolled my eyes.

“Dude seriously?” Joe turned me round by my shoulders. “Take it. Take it now. You have got to take it. Get out of this dump. A teaching gig would totally give you enough money to set up a lab. A big nice new shiny one too.”

“A lab?” Alex asked, a little confused. Joe turned away from me.

“Yeah. She’s saving up to buy a lab so she doesn’t have to use the university lab to get her doctorate.” I slapped Joe on the arm.

“Dude. Stop it. I hardly know him.”

“Take the job then.”

“There is no job. He’s taking the piss. Go back to the kitchen Joe.” Alex’s face froze as I turned to glare at him. His face re-animated.

“Yeah. Go back into the kitchen Joe. Lottie you need to leave.”

“Oh piss off.” Alex raised his eyebrows and looked pointedly at the till in front of me. I frowned and looked down at it. It seemed like the metal was shivering. “That’s not me.”

“We know. It’s someone else. You need to come with me now.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.” The door rang as someone came through it, a man with a helmet.

“Alex. Good to see you again. You haven’t reconsidered my offer yet?” Alex shook his head, moving to stand in front of me, putting his hands out. “Shame. Still, I have more important things to worry about. I suggest you listen to her, she is not going with you today. She’s coming with me.” I swallowed.

“No I’m not.” I answered, already annoyed with this man.

“Yes. My child. You are.” I opened my mouth to let leash an angry retort when one of our cooking knives flew through the door to the kitchen and embedded itself in Joe’s neck.

“Joe!” I caught him as he fell next to me, “Joe. Joe. Don’t you dare died on me, Don’t you dare.” He gurgled some blood out of his mouth, dribbling the red liquid down his chin. “No.” I watched as he went limp in my arms.

“Lottie. Get out of here!” I heard Alex call back to me.

“No. Joe. Come on. Please. Please wake up. You’re going to be fine. Joe. Please.”

“He’s dead my dear. And that is what will happen to the nice man sat in the office through that door if you don’t come with me.”

“Ben.” I stood back up, wiping Joe’s blood down my uniform. “You touch him and you die.”

“I don’t have to touch him.” The other fourteen knives flew out of the kitchen and hovered beside me, being joined by the one that had been previously lodged in my best friends throat. I locked my eyes on the new man. “You can call me Magneto. Come with me.”

“Alex?”

“Yeah?”

“Duck.” Surprisingly he didn’t hesitate and he had hit the floor before I’d finished the word. Which was lucky, considering every piece of metal in the room had flown past me toward Magneto. The amount of metal I had thrown at him meant that when it stopped dead in front of him, I could hardly see him.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about. This is brilliant. Someone with the same amount of power as myself. Excellent. I can definitely use you.” I scowled.

“I have no intention of being used by you.” The metal dropped to the floor, revealing Magneto’s face once again. He looked bored.

“And I have no intention of leaving you with dear old Charlie. You are far too valuable.” Alex stood back up in front of me, glancing between us. “He shouldn’t have sent you alone Alex.”

“Oh yeah?” He pulled his t-shirt open and grinned at me. “Your turn to duck.” I fell to the floor, but not before I glimpsed bright red energy blasting itself from Alex’s chest toward Magneto’s face. I stayed behind the counter until the splintering noise ceased, at which point I braved looking. My mouth dropped open.

“What the hell have you done to my job?!” The glass was smashed and the walls were black and smoking. Alex shrugged.

“Yeah. Sorry about that.” He held a hand in my direction. “Come on. He ran for it. We’ve got about 10 seconds before he comes back here and sends all your knives in my direction.” I bit my lip and glanced in the direction of the kitchen.

“He’ll kill him.”

“No he won’t. Magneto’s an ass. But he wouldn’t kill him for no reason. He’s not insane. Killing that guy won’t get him anything so he won’t do it.” He gestured for me to take his hand. “Come on.” I looked down at Joe’s frozen face, then leaned down and brushed his eyes closed. I kissed him lightly on the lips and whispered in his ear.

“I’m sorry Joey. I’ll see you in hell sweetie.”

“You think you’re going to hell?”

“Are you kidding? Of course I’m going to hell. I’m a mutant.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “What?”

“Nothing. Come on.” He helped me climb over the counter and run out the front door… or rather, what was left of it.