A YOUNG woman stood on a balcony that overlooked a golden city with her dark hair flowing in the wind. As the young woman's dark eyes remained looking out, she didn't notice an older man standing in the doorway leading to the balcony until his footsteps altered her to him now standing beside her. "You can't change my mind, Father" the young woman didn't turn her head towards him as she spoke.
Erika's father sighed before speaking; "I wasn't going to, Erika."
Erika's dark eyes widened before her head whipped around to look at him. She was unable to form words as she stared at him in disbelief. They remained silent for a few moments until her father turned his head to look at her and spoke; "You have a destiny that only you can follow, and I can't stop you from doing that."
A large smile spread across her face as she threw her arms around him and he responded back by wrapping his own arms around her. They hugged tightly for a few moments until they pulled away and the man gripped her shoulder tightly. His eyes were filled with pride as he looked at the young woman. He removed his hands off her shoulders and placed a hand on her back. "Come with me," he spoke and began to guide Erika out of the room and through the halls.
They continued walking until they reached a hall filled with many racks of different weapons and suits of armour. Erika's brow raised in confusion as her father continued guiding her to the back of the room where a large black velvet curtain was hiding something. Her father's hand moved off her back and reached up to pull the curtain down and reveal what it was hiding. Erika's jaw dropped to the floor when her eyes met a suit of armour. The armour was a dark red armour body plate that bore a gold Eagle-shaped breastplate, and a matching golden W-shaped belt plate. Below this body plate was a very dark-blue skirt and knee-high dark red armoured wedged combat boots with silvery arm enclosing vambraces. A brown leather strap laid across the chest of the armour which had a shield and sword being strapped to the back.
Erika looked towards her father who was smiling brightly at her before explaining; "You'll need armour for where you are going."
She threw her arms around him as her heart filled with love. He was giving her freedom.
Erika was now dressed in her new armour with a black furred cloak laid over it and was walking beside her father towards a golden observatory. When they entered the observatory, Erika's eyes widened in shock when her eyes saw an older blonde woman standing beside a dark-skinned man with her arms crossed. The woman's eyes glared towards Erika's father and when she spoke, her words dripping in anger; "You are letting her go?!"
"I'm going, Mother," Erika stood strong against her mother and watched as her glare faded as she looked towards Erika.
She walked over to her daughter and cup her cheeks between her hands, thumbs lightly stroking Erika's cheeks. The mother and daughter remained in this position until the mother let out a loud sigh and removed her hands from Erika's cheeks. A gold mist form around Erika's mother hands until a gold headpiece was now held in her hands. She swept the loose curl away from Erika's forehead before placing the headpiece on her forehead. Once Erika now wore the headpiece, the mother and daughter pulled each other a hug. Tears form in Erika's eyes as she hugged her mother tightly. She felt like this would be the last time she would hug her mother. They pulled away from each other and a kiss was placed on the top of Erika's head. Erika's mother stepped away and allowed her Father to take her place. Erika could feel her heart began to race as she felt his hand being placed on her shoulders. "Be careful in that world, Erika. They do not deserve you," he said to her before placing a light kiss on her forehead and removing his hands from her shoulders.
He stepped away from her and turned towards the dark-skinned male before going him a nod. The man nodded back before activating a bridge of dimensional energy. Erika looked towards the bridge before turning towards her parents, giving them a tearful smile. "Give my brothers my love," she said to them before turning back towards the bridge.
She took a deep breath before stepping into the bridge and watched as her home faded away. When she stepped out of the bridge, she arrived in a concrete building that was abandoned. She was now on Midgard and it was different from what she was expecting but good thing she can adapt to things quickly.
Erika walked through the streets of Los Angeles, now wearing appropriate clothing that she created by using her magic. She noticed a man being dragged into an alley by two other men and she quickly made the decision to follow the men and from what she could hear, the two men had different accents compared to the man they had been dragging.
She watched on as one of the men pull out a pistol and before he could fire the gun, she turned into a blur and grabbed onto the man's arms, knocking his pistol into her own hand. Gripping him tightly with her free hand, she pushed him back which made him knock into the brick wall behind him; knocking him unconscious. His partner stared at Erika in disbelief before pointing his own pistol towards her and fired. She quickly reacted by holding up her arm to block the bullet with one of her vambraces. The bullet shattered when it contacted with the metal vambrace and cause the metal to glow red before fading back to silver.
When the man realised his gun with useless against the young woman, he rushed towards her, only to be thrown back and like his partner, his head hit the wall hard and was knocked unconscious. Now that the short fight was over, the man Erika had just saved spoke with his tone being both curious and flirty; "Who are you?"
She turned around to look at him and raised an eyebrow in confusion as to why those men tried to kill him as he looked like a corky businessman. He had a flirtatious smile on his face as he looked her up and down which caused her dark eyes to roll. "I'm Erika, daughter of Odin and Frigga," she answered him which caused him stared at her in disbelief.
That disbelief quickly faded as the curiosity reappeared as he held a hand out for her to shake and introduced himself; "I'm Howard Stark."
Erika shook his hand and that was the start of how she went from being Erika Odinsdottir to Erika Stark. After she saved Howard from the HYDRA assassins, he insisted that she join the Strategic Scientific Reserve with him to which she agreed. This was how she met Dr Abraham Erskine and how she helped him find recruits for Project Rebirth. This led her in meeting Steve Rogers, the soon-to-be-great American hero and her future fellow teammate. And him, James 'Bucky' Barnes.