Mutant and Proud

Raven possessed the power almost all young women desired - the power to manipulate her appearance and transform into whatever she wanted. She could make herself blend in or stand out. She could give herself sandy blonde hair, flawless pale skin and beautiful blue eyes. However, although her powers allowed her to effortlessly deceive anyone who laid eyes on her, she couldn't completely deceive herself. Raven looked around enviously at all the women in the bar. They were all naturally beautiful. They didn't need to hide hideous, bumpy blue skin and unnatural yellow eyes.

Later that night, Raven stood in the bathroom, staring at her grotesque reflection in the mirror. Though home was the only place she could reveal her true colours, she still didn't feel completely secure. She ran her fingers slowly over the blue bumps on her face. "Mutant and proud," she said sarcastically to the mirror, mimicking the woman with hetrachromia that Charles had been flirting with at the bar. Well it's hard to be mutant and proud when you look like this, she thought. Sure, some guys find some small mutations, like hetrachromia, intriguing, perhaps even attractive, but no man would ever want to date a red-haired, yellow-eyed, blue-skinned freak of nature.

Raven wandered out of the bathroom to where Charles sat, working feverishly on his thesis. She craved an outside opinion, someone to either confirm what she thought of herself, or tell her otherwise. "Would you date me?" she asked.

Charles was fully concentrated on his writing. "Of course," he replied, not even raising his head. "Any young man would be lucky to have you. You are stunning."

Though his complimenting words caused her to beam with happiness momentarily, Raven realised she needed to be more specific with her enquiry. "Looking like this?"

"Like what?" he asked, eventually taking the time to look up at Raven. "Blue?" Charles hesitated momentarily. "Well... uh... you are my oldest friend."

"I'm your only friend," Raven remarked, rolling her eyes.

"Thank you for that," Charles chuckled.

"Well?"

"I am incapable of thinking of you that way. I feel responsible for you. Anything else would just feel wrong," Charles explained, though Raven took his response as a skillfull way of avoiding the question.

"But what if you didn't know me?" she asked in another attempt to pry an answer out of him.

"Unfortunately, I do know you," he replied. "I don't know what's gotten into you lately. You're awfully concerned with your looks."

Raven sighed. You would too, if you looked like me.

oOo

"I'd promised myself I'd find a cure. You have no idea would I'd give to feel..."

"Normal," Raven mumbled the word simultaneously with the young scientist, Hank, and they both laughed nervously. At last, Raven had found someone who understood what it was like to look at their body and feel like a freak. Though this young man's only imperfection were his unusual feet, the way he spoke of his mutation showed that he was just as ashamed of them as Raven was her blue skin.

"Hank, this serum that you're making, it doesn't affect abilities, right? Just appearance?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah."

"Do you think it would work on me?" she asked hopefully. She imagined what it would be like to not have to constantly focus on maintaining her transformed appearance and hiding her true self, to be both naturally powerful and beautiful. Raven felt her heart beat more rapidly just at the idea of her fantasy coming true.

"I can look into it," Hank replied with a shy smile. "It's the least I can do after asking you to come down here with such a weird request."

Raven laughed. "I have to admit, usually when guys ask me out, they're not after my blood." Then again, she thought, guys usually don't ask me out at all.

"Sorry..." Hank stuttered, adjusting his glasses nervously. "I didn't mean to be forward, I was just... excited."

Raven shuffled closer to Hank. Through his black-framed glasses, she could see his eyes lighting up with excitement at the very idea of creating a cure for his physical mutation, and she was almost certain her eyes reflected the same feeling. No more bumpy blue skin, greasy red hair and freaky yellow eyes, she thought, a smile breaking out across her face. She rolled up her sleeve and extended her bare arm towards Hank. "Go ahead," she told him, looking directly into his eyes. "Take the blood."

Hank pierced the needle carefully into Raven's vein, apologising repetitively. For some strange reason, the pair found themselves being drawn together closer and closer. It was as if the similar feelings they both shared worked as a magnetic force, attracting them to one another. Just as Raven closed her eyes and felt Hank's lips brush lightly against hers, their intimate moment was rudely interrupted by the sound of footsteps and a mumbled smug comment. The pair pulled away to see Erik slowly walking by.

"By the way," he said, looking at Raven. "If I looked like you, I wouldn't change a thing."

Trust me, Raven thought to herself. You would.

oOo

War was approaching and, therefore, training had begun. Raven lay by the window on a mat, pushing the heavy metal weights up and down with control. Though she was undeniably strong enough to lift the weight, maintaining her transformed appearance stole some of her concentration and made the task slightly more challenging.

Without warning, the weights were snatched from her grasp and hoisted up in the air, suspended by nothing. Startled, Raven sat up and turned her head to see Erik standing in the doorway.

"If you're using half your concentration to look normal, you're only half paying attention to whatever else you're doing," he lectured. "Just pointing out something that could save your life."

Erik released his grip on the metal weight and Raven immediately reached her arms up to grab hold of it, her body returning to its natural form.

Erik looked at Raven, his eyes filled with sympathy. "You want society to accept you, but you can't even accept yourself." With that, he exited the room, leaving Raven to ponder over his words.

Later, Raven decided to use her transforming abilities in a way she had not yet used them before. It surprised Erik, when he entered his room, to find Raven lying in his bed in human form. When he dismissed her as too young, she made herself older and more beautiful.

Erik sighed. "I prefer the real Raven."

Aiming to please, Raven transformed back into her younger self, but that wasn't what Erik meant.

"I said the real Raven," he repeated his words.

Raven hesitated, then slowly transformed back to her true form, her pale skin disappearing as the blue bumps resurfaced. She felt her face burn with embarrassment, but she knew for a fact her cheeks were not red. "Could you pass me my robe?" she asked sheepishly.

Erik moved to sit beside her on the bed. "You don't have to hide," he reassured her. "Have you ever looked at a tiger and thought you ought to cover it up."

"No, but..." Tigers are beautiful creatures, she wanted to say. I'm a hideous beast. There's a difference.

"You are an exquisite creature, Raven," Erik told her honestly, looking into her yellow eyes with admiration. "All your life the world has tried to tame you. It's time for you to be free." With that, he leant forward and kissed her.

At last, Raven had found someone that made her feel beautiful. Not just someone who told her not to worry about her appearance, and not just someone who could fix her appearance. No, Raven had found someone who loved her appearance, someone who wanted her to embrace it, someone who thought she was beautiful just the way she was. In that moment, she felt proud.

Mutant and proud.

This story was written as part of The Hostile Takeover's Theme Writing Challenge for the theme "Appearance".