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10/19/14
New York City had rebuilt itself pretty well after the alien attack. Sure, the construction did a beating on my daily commute, but at least I'm alive. A lot of people got hurt, some killed, but all New Yorkers were traumatized by the events of last year.
Even I was scared.
Keep that to yourself though.
I'd been in my shop when the first warning signs came. I co-own a tattoo shop with three of my friends, and we had all been halfway through different jobs when it all started. The loud booms that came from the sky, many mistook for thunder or a car crash. Then, the brightest light I'd ever seen burst from Stark Tower. Before anyone could make it out of the city, those aliens came down.
Those ugly things started causing havoc the moment they hit ground. Fearing for the lives of my friends and customers, I quickly slid down the window and door gates, locking them in place. I shut off all the lights and ordered everyone to get into the basement. All seven, eight if you include myself, hid in the basement for what felt like hours.
We came out after the sound of pounding feet and weapons firing ceased. The sun was still up when we crawled back up into the shop. One of the windows was broken, but the metal security gates were still all down and locked. My friend and co-worker, Edward, saw police officers going from door to door. When the officer came to the shop, I unlocked the gate and door, letting him in. He explained the attack in very vague detail, but all we needed was the basics.
The officer took our three young customers with him; all of them were going into shock and one looked like she was about to have an asthma attack. Bad day for those girls to come get 'friendship bellybutton piercings' together.
Hey, at least they're alive.
The next few weeks were filled with slightly controlled chaos. News stations were going off their rockers to try and get every story about the day. They were cheering The Avengers, the group of heroes that saved the city alongside New York's finest.
The re-build was slow and painful, but it was healing. My co-workers and I swept up the glass, fixed the damage and re-opened our shop. '518 Ink' was our love child, and none of my friends and I were going to let our baby die. Edward, along with our two other co-workers and friends, Aaron and Olivia, had been working hard. We worked especially hard on the tattoos that our customers got in memory of the attack on the city.
A lot of our customers came to us for cover up jobs. Whether they are covering up scars, or ugly tattoos, our shop did it best. I didn't do too many of the cover ups, that was Aaron's specialty, but I have the occasional customer who's seen my work online or in my books and demand me.
Which is why I wasn't surprised when Olivia called me from my resting spot in the backroom lounge. I managed to haul myself off our patchwork couch and make my way into the main shop. Olivia, who I had known for about four years, was standing at the counter with three customers.
The main customer was an intimidating looking man, with cropped blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. With him was a gorgeous bit of redhead and a tall drink of water with black hair. The woman was quiet, her green orbs bouncing around. The man, who was one of the tallest men I'd ever seen, was silent and glaring at everyone in the room.
"I'm Jennifer." I said, sticking my hand out to the blonde man for a shake. "But you can call me Jee. What can I do for you?"
"I'm Clint. I need a tattoo covered up." Clint said, unconsciously rubbing his right shoulder. Coming around the counter, I led the trio to my work station. Clint sat down on the padded tattoo chair, while his two friends sat down in the chairs alongside the small half-wall that separated our stations. I sat down on my spinning swivel chair, pulling out a highlighter, a camera, and some tracing paper.
"Alright, let's get this started. May I see the tattoo?" I asked, spinning around and pushing my chair to roll closer to the customer. With an unamused glance towards his red headed friend, Clint pulled off his black thermal to reveal what looked like a five-year-old scribble on the man's upper right bicep.
"What…pray tell… that supposed to be?" I asked, leaning in closer. It could have been the NYC skyline, but the lines just didn't look correct. Was that lettering?
"It's supposed to be the Stark Industries logo. I lost a bet and my drunk friend got to tattoo me." Clint said, earning a snort from the red headed woman. She leant forwards, a secretive smile on his face.
"Clint here was drunk too, so don't think he's a victim." She said, earning a sour look from the man. "I'm Natalie and this is Logan."
"Nice to meet you guys." I said, watching the dark hair man narrow his eyes and sneer at Natalie as she introduced him. "So what would you like to do here? I can re-do the Stark logo, or I could cover it up with something else."
"I was thinking of this symbol." Clint said as he pulled a folded piece of paper from his back pocket. It was a large capital A that was in a circle, an arrow making the line. I had seen the symbol many times during the past few months.
"The Avengers symbol?" I asked, nodding my head. "How big? Just enough to cover the old ink, or larger?"
"A little larger if you could, so it would cover the entire bicep." Clint said, looking down at his arm in disgust. I was eager to get this guy in my chair as soon as possible. There was nothing worse than walking around with an ugly tattoo that you hated.
Does horrors for the self-esteem.
"Alrighty then," I said, rolling my chair back over to my desk and flipping open my appointment planner. "I have an opening next Tuesday. One-Fifteen in the afternoon. Sound good?" I asked, my pencil poised over the planner to scribble him in.
"Sounds great." Clint said, giving me his last name and the number to reach him by. He and his two friends left silently, with promises to be back here next week. The red head seemed like a nice girl, but the black haired guy seemed like a total snob. I noticed him sneering at me every time I spoke.
"You got an appointment?" Olivia asked, sitting at the front counter with a bottle of cream soda.
"Next week, Clint B. Wouldn't give me a full last name." I answered, planning on heading back to the lounge for a quick nap.
"Nice lookin' group of friends he has," She said, running her tongue over her pierced lips. "They comin' back?"
"I don't know." I mumbled, feeling exhaustion starting to creep in. I made it to the lounge in time to toss myself on the couch and sleep.
"The Avengers logo? And using your real name? Really? We're supposed to keep a low profile." Natasha Romanoff snorted as she and Clint Barton hailed a cab. Loki was standing beside them, his arms crossed over his chest.
After many months of punishment under Odin, Thor pleaded with the All Father for Loki's punishment to be changed. Thor, who understood his brother was in the wrong, loved him very much and couldn't see him suffer anymore. Thor hadn't known how bad Loki's punishment was until his mother came to him, tears running down her beautiful face and flaxen hair matted.
Loki's punishment was practically torture. When Thor witnessed the conditions of his brother, he was enraged. Thor rained verbal hell down upon his father. Odin did not feel guilt for the punishment that he had chosen for his adopted son, but Thor and Frigga managed to sway him.
Odin agreed that after eleven months in captivity, Loki would be stripped of his powers, until he had proven himself. He would be sent to Midgard, where he would work alongside Thor with The Avengers. S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't approve of Odin's new punishment, but there wasn't much they could do. Nick Fury assigned Agent Barton and Agent Romanoff to shadow the mischievous god at all times.
"You two are despicable agents." Loki growled, huffing as a yellow taxi cab rolled to a stop before them. All three slid into the back seat, unhappily of course, and asked he driver to head towards Stark Tower.
"At least the woman was nice." Natasha said casually, watching the lights flash by as their taxi sped down the streets. Clint hummed, subconsciously rubbing the accident that he drunkenly let Tony scribble onto his bicep.
"She didn't even laugh at your stupidity." Natasha added, nudging her fellow agent. Cliff smiled, rolling his eyes. Loki scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest. Loki couldn't believe that he was being baby-sat. These humans had forced him into a foul smelling yellow carriage, made him go into a body modification shop of all places, and now they've placed him in another vile taxi. The shop was not as putrid as he expected, not like he'd ever admit that. The girl behind the counter, with orange hair and popping bubble gum bubbles, was somewhat annoying as she shrilly called out for 'Jee', the 'artist' that Agent Barton wanted.
Loki had been expecting one of the two muscle-bound, heavily tattooed men to come over and assist them. As it turned out, Jee was nothing more than a small slip of a woman. She was an insignificant five-foot-three to Loki's six-foot-three, her head only coming up to his armpit. The woman had the strangest hair Loki had ever seen; it was dyed a vibrant purple.
She introduced herself professionally with a friendly and easy going air about her. The purplenette led the trio to a sectioned off tattooing stationed and was quick to get to business. Jee didn't question Agent Barton's stupid actions, just asked what he wanted to hear: what did he want her to do, when did he want it done by.
"She had some nice tattoos herself." Clint said, remembering the half-sleeve that decorated Jee's right arm. The girl wasn't as heavily tattooed as her co-workers, but the pieces she did have were exceptional. Clint had seen the Celtic knotting on her calf and a sliver of what looked like a fish on her hip.
"She seemed positive about the cover up." Natasha said as she handed the cab driver a twenty dollar bill as he pulled up outside Start Tower. Loki scoffed once more, as he exited the vehicle.
"Positively uncivilized is more like it." Loki spat, shaking his head. "A woman in so much ink! Must be the lowest of lowly creatures."
Natasha and Clint just ignored the god, and herded him back into Stark Tower.