Marvel Her Beauty

Eric ravelled slowly behind Raven, detailing every move she made as if he was writing a novel in his head. She was in Human form, her blonde hair almost binding to look at, it reflected light and sparkled like a piece of crystal. Her pale skin was like a dolls, it looked almost as smooth as a piece of silk. Her lips were full and seemed to fit in with her own unique human resembling beauty. Yet, to Eric she had never looked so repulsive. "I'm pretty sure Hank doesn't need a blanket for making a machine." He sighed.

"No, but Ginger does, her room is colder then the Arctic because of the broken window." She paid for the colourful collection of cotton. Eric sighed and shook his head, not being able to understand why they needed the girl, they never needed the humans to return, Shaw just needed to be dead. The only reason Eric was still going through this sequence of events was because Charles confirmed that the finale was Shaw's demise.

After another round of Raven collecting mindless gadgets which were no use to recreating the machine, they finally got to work with accumulating everything on the list. They decided to start with all the simple instruments, tools were probably the easiest to come by in the market - Mutants with abilities that wouldn't help them survive the hardships of getting by would usually collect any pieces of material that could also attribute as a weapon, you'd be surprised how far a toothpick could go.

At the moment they were looking for a screw drover, probably in the top ten of the most used pieces of weaponry and as a consequence it was also a rare thing to find in an ordinary market such as this one. "Excuse me." The Shape-Shifter politely called. They had found a stall filled with hammers and nails and drills and wrenches, a whole collection of different tools. The harder that she look though, the more obvious the fact that there are no screwdrivers became even more obvious.

"What?!" An old women snapped, her grey eyes scanned the youthful woman in front of her, jealousy burned in the the widows heart. The old woman began to compare each aspect they shared figuring which one held more beauty. It was hardly tough to figure out.

The porcelain features won over the wrinkles that covered her whole body. The yellow glow of Raven's hair won over her grimy shade of grey that filled the woman's knotted hair. The small nose won over the face-consuming snozzle she owned. And just like that, Raven became the hate in the crooked woman's heart. "Well!?" the old lady rushed.

Eric was first to notice the spiteful tone which covered her voice, he stood in front of Raven and then sent the stall owner a smile filled with charisma, enough to charm the vindictive woman. He would much rather use his power to force the answer from within this lady, however, he knew that this would cause an outcome of the two partners being put in Ginger's position: Being hunted down by a pack of hatred.

"Why hello." He began, a cheshire cat smile managing to pull at the cold heart that thumped in the stall owners chest. "I was hoping a young lady such as yourself would be able to help us find a certain item."

Her legs went weak and she had to hold onto the desk in hopes not to fall over after being repeatedly woo'd by this stranger. "You can call me Meredith." Her voice had become weak, not as dominating as it was before.

Eric did a mocking laugh on the inside, who knew he had other abilities that weren't just manipulating metal. "Well then, Meredith," an automatic wink was sent to her and as a consequence her heart did an automatic flutter. "We are hoping to purchase some screwdrivers."

"Then your in luck, handsome." Meredith turned around and began to search through her collection, because she was bent over she was purposely making her bum more visible to the male Mutant, swaying her anus continuously as she consciously took her time. "Is this what you want?" She opened up a black plastic box of and revealed at least 5 different types of screwdrivers. Eric turned to Raven for confirmation that these objects were indeed what they had set out to find.

She nodded her head and he turned back to the vile Mutant, "that's exactly what I want." He moved his hand towards the pouch filled with money, "how much?"

"For you, and just you, about 10 Dollars." This was Meredith's own way of flirting. Her own way of giving them what they want in hopes they'd come back wanting more. They did the trade and then the pair went their own path away from the lustful grandma, Raven was obviously first to let out a gleeful laugh, amused by Eric's unusual behaviour.

He could only huff in response, not enjoying the way that she mocked him. "What?" His glare sent shivers down her spine.

Raven had often wondered if Eric knew how frightening he was, sometimes she would be lucky to see the gentler side and experience him actually caring. But, most of the time he would simply stew in a pit of boiling hatred for the world, for Shaw's kingdom. The blue Mutant knew that this would either drive him to win, or, destroy any remaining light inside the broken metal bender.

"Nothing, I'm sorry." She was very careful as to not get into Eric's bad side Charles and Eric had countless fights, it was unusual at first; he was always the calm one. Raven soon had to learn that in this day and age, personalities had to change.

She carried on to walk down the street with her eyes looking every where but Eric. She saw numerous things she would love to collect, however, one caught her eye the most. It was a beautiful family portrait which was slightly worn out, luckily the image was still very clear. It was a picture of a mother, a father and a child. It was a stereotypical, normal, family. Something that a younger Raven had always fantasized about. Present Raven had learnt to accept the fact that this probably would never become a part of her lifestyle, but after this portrait, the child inside of her became active and was reaching out to the canvas in need. This change of mood did not go unnoticed by Eric.

He too scanned the painting, although he saw something much different. Instead of the beautiful piece of Art which Raven seems enable to vision. He saw puny mortals which thought themselves to be the concept of perfection, lost souls daydreaming of being rulers on what was always a mutation-owned planet. The starry-eyed look that Raven gave this picture seemed to sicken him, he was perplexed with his feelings though, as much as he hated the humans those feelings did nothing to the multitude of emotions for Raven.

"Excuse me," a voice came from within his throat. Not really thinking about what he was doing and in seconds he had paid for the portrait, he handed it to the grinning Raven.

She examined every wonderful detail, a warm gratitude rising in her stomach. "Thank you, Eric." She wanted to hug him, kiss his cheek and announce that he was her best friend. But she knew that would be too formal for Eric, he enjoyed the cloak of shadows that made him seem like any other Mutant, he wanted to stay invisible. "I thought you didn't like Humans," she meant this sentence to be just a joke, but, a side of her was curious on whether he wanted the same dream that Charles had pushed on them.

"I have nothing against Humans; their morals however." He did not continue after, unsure on whether she would keep his views a secret. "All I'm saying is when the Humans stood tall on the food chain, they glowered at us like we were freaks, they were afraid of our powers so mocked us in hopes they would emotionally scar us in to hiding." He was trying to explain without breaking her fantasy, "you dream of this normal like, well now we have it. No Humans to judge us, this is our chance to have the life we were banished from for being different."

Raven stood with the frame against her chest, letting his words sink in. She knew everything he said was true. She had become so sucked into Charles personal paradise she hadn't realized the Haven she wanted was more reachable when all the Apes were gone. She was officially lost in a choice of what was what needed to be and what was right. "Does this mean your not going to fight for Humanity when the time comes?" She needed to know what side he was on. So she could decided which side she wanted to be in.

"Honestly?" Eric was still unsure of whether he wanted this personal information to be leaked, but as a consequence of keeping in these thoughts, he was already willing to burst. "I do not care for the Human rights, or the Mutants. I care for Shaw and what must be done."

He knew she saw the carnivorous spark in the eye, the imagery of ripping at Shaw's heart and destroying his kingdom was Eric's personal paradise, and she saw this. The metal bender walked away, Raven soon following behind. She wasn't going to tell anyone, a new self-respect formed inside of her as she realized Eric entrusted his darkest secret within her. Throughout the rest of their trip out doors she pondered on her future, which path she would choose. Charles had promise, she had always had trust with this man, ever since he rescued her as an orphan scrounging the streets for a home. Eric had the dominating one though, a life as King and Queen as they led to Mutants to a civilisation that would be considered normal for freaks such as themselves.

Then there was her own personal paradise, what if she abandoned them for her own reality. She could move to a richer side of the ruined world and find a man. Maybe she'd be lucky and find a man who was attracted to the natural her, the blue her. They;d get a house that was away from the dangers of this world. Have a Kid or two. And then get their own portrait of the family which would forever hang over the fireplace in the front room. Was it weird that the man in her mind looked a lot like the Metal Manipulator beside her.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" Eric's voice snapped her from the daydream and she looked towards the two awkward Mutants that had sprung apart from each other. After returning they both went in search for Ginger, Charles and Hank. They found the telepathic Mutant and his red-head compadre first. Arms wrapped around each other and big matching grins.

"Shut up." Charles muttered, still not making eye-contact.