CHAPTER 78#

Meet Cerise

AN: I'm so SO sorry this took so long to update. I'm still in the midst of writers block. Also, I apologize for the shortness of this chapter, but it's better than nothing. Questions are welcomed, they help get my creative juices going.

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The rather robust form of Lewis Evans made it's way towards a small abandoned building, huffing and puffing at his exercise. There was no way to hide it; the man was FAT.

The rolly-poly man with balding brown hair looked both ways anxiously before removing a credit card and beginning to jimmy the door open. As soon as the old door swung open with a loud creak, the man darted inside and shut the door. Before he even turned the lights on, his body began to change.

It was a bizarre sight indeed; first his tweed suit, his skin, even his handlebar mustache began to turn a brilliant shade of cobalt blue. Then his form seemed to shrink, like undergoing a sped-up liposuction process. Belly fat shrank and toned, the suit he wore seemed to melt into his clothes. Soft, red hair grew from his scalp to fall in shapely curls down his back. Brown, myopic eyes turned brilliant gold and then then the transformation was finished and there stood a young woman holding a cell-phone which she quickly turned on and began to text;

TO: icemandrake

FROM: 007blue

I've got it.

She hit the send button then let the arm holding her phone fall to her side as she sagged up against the wall, closing her eyes in sheer exhaustion and wondering, yet again, how on earth she had managed to get into this mess. Stealing something from Nick Fury! The man was like a super-spy deluxe.

`But I did it.` she thought, letting herself slide down the wall to slump against the floor. `I got the Infinity Serum.` She looked towards the small, locked room where the REAL Lewis Evans resided. The shape-shifter hadn't had the heart to kill him like Bobby had told her to. The man had family. A daughter. After all this was over with she had promised him he would see his daughter again.

Thankfully, the room was silent, meaning the real Lewis Evans was probably asleep.

Her name was Cerise Darkholm. Sixteen years old, a shape-shifting mutant, lock-pick extraordinaire and now a thief. "Just like you always wanted, right Mother?" Cerise asked bitterly, speaking to the air. "Too bad you never got to see me."

Cerise hadn't always been the blue-skinned, shape-shifting mutant she was now. Infact, she was born quite normal, and it wasn't until the onset of puberty that her mutation had kicked in. But her mother hadn't waited around to even see if her mutation WOULD kick in. All Raven Darkholm had seen was a child who WASN'T a mutant, and therefore worthless. So, she had abandoned Cerise to Saint Johns Orphanage.

It hadn't been a terrible place to grow up; it wasn't like the orphanages in the movies where the children slept on dingy mattresses with rats. She had been kept clean and fed, taught how to read and do basic math, but that was about all. There was no real love. No hugs. No true caring. Sometimes she compared it to growing up in a solitary white room where food was shoved in through a flap. She was kept alive. Taught the basics. That was all.

Cerise wasn't mad at the institution though. The orphanage had had far too many mouths to feed, too many children to give each one the proper attention they needed, and when her mutation kicked in and she woke with blue skin and golden eyes, the orphanage said they could no longer care for her. It was too difficult; which meant they couldn't handle the fear she inspired in the other children, the bullies that cropped up because they didn't understand 'different', especially when her mutation went 'whacky' for a while.

That's what Cerise called it. Going 'whacky', when she got too upset or sad, she couldn't control her morphing powers and would often transform into whomever was right infront of her. It caused quite a stir and though it wasn't like she was really harming anyone, the institution couldn't take it. So she was kicked out.

That was when she had met Bobby aka Iceman.

Apparently he had been on a field trip with the rest of his class. Bobby had seen her and tried to talk to her, despite her attempts to keep him away. He had been nice. Sociable. To a young woman who had had so few people be truly nice to her, he was captivating. It never once occurred to her to wonder why he hadn't told his teachers about her when she could have gotten a place at the school he went to; a school for mutants. Perhaps she didn't think of it, because she didn't WANT to know.

Either way, she and Bobby had a deal.

A deal that would change her life forever. She just had to get to him the Infinity Serum.

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NICK FURY'S INFINITY LAB

Victor stood infront of the extremely large assembly of workers as if he was a Military Sargent reviewing his troops. With his hands clasped behind his back, he prowled along the lines of scientists and secretaries and workers, letting out a soft growl as he did so, enjoying the scent of fear he could cause. But he was also looking for something else. The scent of a shapeshifter. Looking to see if anyones eyes flashed golden. So far, nothing was popping up and that aggravated him to no end.

He wanted to get back to his mate and cub, make sure both were safe and sleeping. He wanted to hit Jimmy over the head for letting them stay up so late. He wanted to make sure his little brother would remember the list he had given him and spend some time with his mate. But no, instead he was here trying to sniff out a shapeshifter.

The thought made him flex his claws, causing the scent of fear to intensify, but his instincts (and his nose) were telling him that the shapeshifter wasn't here.

The huge feral stalked back up to Fury. " Have ya found the real Lewis Evans yet?" he growled at the man and Fury shook his head, bristling with anger.

"No."

Victor growled again. "Have ya even looked?"

It was like watching an angry cat puff up its fur, Nick Fury actually seemed to swell with indignation. "Of course I have! His home, here, every place he usually haunts and some he hasn't. Nothing."

"Well the Shapeshifters not here." Victor growled, almost to himself as he began to pace. "What about the Black Market?" he demanded of Fury. "Eternal youth is probably a high commodity. Lots'a people would give their left leg fer it."

"Nothing in the usual channels." Fury answered. "We've checked."

"And you've received no demands?" Victor asked.

"None."

His growl grew in volume as he began to pace along the rows of workers when a scent caught his attention. He froze, muscles tensing almost like a hound on point. The scent of mint. Some kind of ice-water. Charcoal. He recognized this scent.

Victor let out a low deadly growl. "The ice-brat."

Fury raised an eyebrow at him. "What?"

But Victor was already stalking towards the hanger to the Blackbird.

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THE INFINTY LAB

MED BAY

"Ow, ow, HEAH! GENTLE!" Tony Stark yelled, slapping away the nurses hands. "I bruise easily!"

The blonde headed nurse was very patient. "I'm sorry, Mr. Stark, but this is a shot of adrenaline, it will help you warm up."

Natasha, whose arm was being bandaged by Clint, shot an evil glare towards the billionaire. "Stop being such a child, Stark. The only thing that bruises easily on you is your ego. Now shut up before I shut you up myself! May I remind you it was your big mouth that got us into this mess."

"She's right, Tony," Bruce said, toweling himself off from the rain, but then his eyes snapped to the glass windows where an obviously incensed Victor Creed was stalking with a purpose. "Where do you suppose he's going?"

Almost as one, all eyes turned to the glass.

Natasha hopped off the table. "I don't know, but we're following.