Trickster Chapter 3:

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANY X MEN ONLY ADRIANA! ENJOY THE CHAPTER! :)

Adriana's POV:

As I walked towards Hank's lab I decided to have a little fun and shifted into a blond Husky. That was the only problem with my power, when I shifted I always became a golden/blonde version of the animal. I quietly scampered down the hallway into the lab. As I entered I saw the jet again in all its glory, I looked to the left to see Hank now rid of his lab coat reading something on his desk. I slowly walked around the side of his desk so I was next to his stool and sat on my haunches looking up at him waiting for him to notice me.

It had been about 5 minutes and he still hadn't notice me. He was still fixatedly reading the stack of paper in front of him. I had enjoyed watching him read, watching his fascinated eyes scan over the paper with eagerness. However I was slowly getting cramp staying in the same position so I gave out a soft bark alerting him of my presence. He gave a quick start and the looked down at me in shock. He got off of his stool and kneeled down next to me.

"Hey there… girl." He greeted checking my lower region for my gender. Wow! That sounded even weirder in my head. "How the hell did you get inside a highly secured facility?" He questioned quietly to himself as he scratched at the scruff of my neck and behind my ears. I internally snickered at his bemusement, I tilted my canine head to the side giving him a look of innocence and he gave a soft, dimpled smile that made me want to melt. I suddenly got a good idea. I gently grabbed Hank's shirt sleeve with my teeth and pulled at it, indicating that I wanted him to follow me. "You want me to follow you?" He asked standing up and I pulled him over towards one of the large aeroplane propellers implanted into the wall. "If anyone sees me talking to a dog, they'll think I'm insane." He muttered to himself and I let out a snort. I let go of his sleeve and trotted over to the shelf that had emergency blankets and pulled out the golden one on the top and ran back over to Hank and held it near his hand. "You're a really smart dog." He observed as he lay the blanket out on the floor, I ran back over to his desk on the corner and jumped up and grabbed what looked like a doctor's bag off the top and ran back over to him. I sat near the middle of the blanket on my haunches and dropped the doctor's bag in front of me, then stared back up at him. He looked at me awkwardly not knowing what to do and I mentally giggled. He's so adorable. I looked down at the vacant space in front of me then back up at him, indicating that I wanted him to sit. He tentatively sat down before me and looked down at the doctor's bag in confusion, and then back at me.

I finally decided to stop teasing him as my dog form dissolved into the air leaving behind a golden mist and I appeared from it, sitting in front of him with my legs curled up next to me and I gave him a mischievous grin. He looked at me with many emotions playing across his face: Shock, awe, amazement, wonder, curiosity, etc. "Wow." He breathed with a flattering smile that made me blush. "How did you do that?" I shrug my shoulders modestly.

"Even the worst of powers can sometimes have perks." I tell him in an off handed tone, but shake my head wanting to get to the reason I was here. "Charles sent me over, said he wanted you to check over me. Make sure I am okay after living on the streets."

"Oh-uh, right. That's why you brought over the medical bag." He realised as he started unzipping his bag. "So I'm curious. What is your mutation?" He asked as he gently tilted my head to the side and placed a thermometer in my ear.

"Erm… I'm an Illusionist. Make people see what I want them to. Conjure thing out of thin air." I confess to him. He looks at me for a second and then slide the thermometer, checks it, cleans it and the put it away.

"Wh-why would you hate it?" He questions.

"With my ability, I still have no idea how far I can extend it, develop it. I'm scared of the damage I could potentially do one day, it's already bad enough now." I confide.

"But you could never hurt anyone, you're too pure too kind." He states as if it's obvious and I feel myself blush. "Well at least you don't have huge monkey feet, then I would understand why you'd hate your mutation but you don't, you have an amazing gift." He continues darkly.

"Don't!" I scold him and he looks up at me in surprise. "Never say that about yourself Hank. It's not like you're alone in this." He still looks at me unsurely, so I sit up straight and fold my legs underneath me. "Okay so explain it to me. You asked me so I'll ask you. Why do you hate your mutation?" I ask inquisitively.

"I-uh, I promised myself that I'd find a cure ever since I was a little boy. Eh- you have no idea what I'd give to feel…"

"Normal." We both say simultaneously and he looks at me and lets out a faint laugh.

"You say that as if you know from experience." He says confused and I make the decision to show him.

I take a deep breath preparing myself. "I do." I look down at my arms and let go of the hold I have on my aesthetic illusion. I watch as my skin turn from 'normal' in to metallic gold the only things that remain the same are my green eyes, strawberry blond hair and my clothes. I look up at Hank to see palpable fascination in his glorious eyes.

"Is that actual-" "No." I interrupt. "Just my skin tone… See… I'm different to." I state to him, but he shakes his head.

"It's still different. I mean, even though you have a gold skin tone your still beautiful, people wouldn't think of you as a freak. They would see you as a goddess." He spoke stubbornly. I tried and failed to prevent the full blow smile that appeared on my face when I heard the words: 'beautiful' and 'goddess'.

"You are so stubborn." I inform him with a small laugh, but then became serious. "Hank this serum you're making, it doesn't affect abilities right? Just appearance? Normalises it?" I question him and he gives a small nod. "I'm expecting that Raven's interested then as she hates her natural blue form?" I add and he nods again.

"Yeah, I told her that I would look into it. I took a blood sample from her earlier. I didn't intend to be forward with her but I was just excited. The-the nature of her mutation, if any genes hold the key to changing appearance, it's her." He informed me rapidly, I grin at his excitement.

"Well as long as you're doing this for you and not anyone else than I think you should go for it. Hell 4 years ago I would be jumping on board asking for it as well, but if living on the streets taught me anything at all, it's that life is too short, too unexpected to care about what others think of you. As long as I was happy with myself, then screw everyone else." I announced with a short laugh as he smiled at me.

"I wish I had your confidence." He said sullenly.

"You will… maybe not today or tomorrow… but someday." I notified.

He turned back to his bag on the side and brought out a stethoscope and hooked it in his ears. He held the end in his fingertips. "May I?" He gestured to my chest and I nodded. He slowly pulled down the top of my dress showing off my cleavage and shyly placed the end between the top of my breasts. "Breathe in." He instructed and I complied and after about 3 seconds he gave me the okay to breathe out and I turned around so he could do the same on my back. "Uh- I don't mean to make you sound like a hypocrite. B-but this confidence that you're talking about. If you have it then why did you hide." I breathed in for three seconds then breathed out before answering him.

"Well, on the streets, it's a pretty hostile place to live. Especially for a teenage girl. I thought I was the only one at the time and if I didn't hide, I could have been killed in my sleep, raped, kidnapped then experimented on." I told him as I turned around to face him. "It was a form of self-preservation." I concluded. He looked at me nodding.

"Yes-uh, I understand that. But what I meant was, why did you hide today? When you came to the facility? I mean you were amongst other mutants but yet you still hid under your illusion. I was just wondering why?" He challenged staring into my eyes. Huh. I never thought about that.

"Good question." Was all I could say. My eyes darted to his lips and back up to his eyes. We slowly leaned in and he brushed his lips across my own. It felt like electricity was running through them.

"Kinky." A voice interrupted and we both moved away and looked up to see Erik smirking at us. I was going to castrate him. "By the way," he spoke cutting off my thoughts, "if I looked like you." He continued observing my golden appearance. "I wouldn't change a thing... Same thing goes with Raven." He finalised giving Hank a snide look and he looked down intimidated, Erik started to walk off when my comment made him stop.

"Well you don't look like us. So your opinion doesn't have any importance on the subject" I declared strongly. I wasn't going to let Hank think that this recluse was superior over him. Erik stood there for a second more before walking off. I turned back to Hank to see him smiling at me in gratitude.

He started to pack up his bag. "Well I can't see anything that wrong with you." He told me as we walked back over to his desk, with me carry the blanket. "All your vitals look good, exceptional really considering that you've been living on the streets for…" He drifted off.

"4 years." I filled in and he nodded.

"Considering that you've been living on the streets for 4 years you really healthy and free of any disease, it's really phenomenal. I wonder if it's anything to do with your mutation." He thought aloud as I put the blanket away and walked back over to his desk.

"I don't know. Maybe." I wondered thoughtfully whilst yawning. "God sorry, I'm just really tired." I apologized.

"You should head to bed. It's getting late now anyway… Let me walk you to your room." He insisted politely, standing up turning the lights off.

"Sure, I'd like that." I answered heartily.

We walked down towards my room in a comfortable silence. It was strange, I never used to be that good around other people but ever since I came here, I'd let my guard down and become relaxed around them and let them get to know me. It felt nice to finally have friends.

We came to a stop at my door and I turned around to say goodnight to Hank to find that he was looking down awkwardly at the floor.

"What is it?" I asked with concern and he fumbled about with his hands not sure to say.

"Uh-I uh, just wanted t-to apologise for-for trying to k-kiss you…earlier." He got out self-consciously still not looking up from the floor. I grinned and took a step closer to him, I reached out with my gold hand and tilted his head up by his chin so that he would look at me. I gave him a serene smile and stood up on my tip toes and kissed to corner of his mouth. Again it felt like there was electricity shooting through my lips. After 5 seconds I pulled away as a red blush lightly bloomed over Hank's cheeks.

"Don't apologize for something I insinuated." I scolded teasingly and he gave out a faint laugh. "Goodnight Hank." I tell him opening my bedroom door.

"Sweet dreams Adriana." He bids smiling at me and I slowly close the door as he walks off.

I turn with the world's biggest smile on my face, when I stop to find my bed buried underneath bags and bags of shopping. I walk over in confusion and pick up the note attached to the bag in the front and read it.

Adriana,

I went shopping earlier today to get you a whole new wardrobe, courtesy of Charles

as I presume you don't have much from living on the streets.

Consider it as a welcome to the family gift, I hope you like everything that I picked out

(Charles brought) and that it all suits you as well as I think it will.

Much love,

Raven x

Raven. Bless her heart.

I browsed through the bag to see that she had gotten me a lot of really nice thing and also a lot of designer things and I adored every single piece of clothing. I had to remember to thank her in the morning.

I quickly put all the clothes away in my wardrobe and picked out the first items of night wear I could find and got in to my luscious new bed, leaving the fire on so I would stay warm during the night.

As I lay in bed I tried to wrap my head around the fact that 18 hours ago, I was living on the streets trying to get whatever food I could and trying to find warm shelters by nightfall, alone. Now: I had found friends who can relate to me, clean clothes, an actual bed, a chance to help save the world, hell even a potential boyfriend. I wasn't alone anymore.

And I love that.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Next Cerebro and maybe meeting the others. PEOPLE PLEASE REVIEW. IF I HAVE HIGHER REVIEWS PEOPLE WILL CONSIDER READING MY FIC WHEN SCROLLING PAST IT! Thanks.

Eloise xx