So, this is going to be a five part story of Erika's life pre-Iron Man.
I still don't have a name for this or its sequel *bangs head on desk*
Maybe I should go to sleep . . .
Erika couldn't stand it when Tony brought women home. They only liked him because of his money, anyway, and that was something she hated—Tony deserved better, and she did her best to stop anything before it started.
When she was old enough to go to school, Tony gladly sent her to the best schools money could buy. He enrolled her in as many after school activities as he could while still being humane.
These distractions only worked for a short amount of time, as Erika soon used this to her advantage. Tony had enrolled her in an art program, a karate class, and violin lessons (When asked, she'd picked art and violin—karate was Tony's idea), and Erika decided to use these to further drive away the women Tony brought home.
When she'd learned a few basic karate moves, she'd decided to try them out on a few of his dates. All of them had been shown the door after exclaiming, loudly, "Ow! Knock it off, you little brat!" (The word 'brat' hadn't been used, but Erika wasn't old enough to say the word they'd actually used).
When Tony told her to knock it off with the karate moves, she switched to practicing her violin when she knew Tony had someone over.
She got away with it a few times, until she convinced Tony to buy her an electric violin, which she then proceeded to hook up to the household's AI and have it played throughout the house.
"Ready, Jarvis?" ten year old Erika asked the AI.
"As always, Miss Stark," Jarvis responded in his dry British tone. While Tony had built him, he seemed to agree more with Erika on what was and wasn't in Tony's best interest.
Getting rid of as many bimbos as possible was definitely in Tony's best interest.
Erika made sure that the violin was in tune and played a small, short note.
G, G sharp, A, A sharp, B, C, C sharp, D, D sharp, E, F, F sharp, G, then back down.
Now a few chords; C-G, D sharp-C, B flat-C.
"All PA Systems are online, Miss Stark," Jarvis informed her.
Erika grinned, and then began playing the piece they were currently learning in class, making sure that the wrong notes were especially loud. Erika tried not to correct herself—she wasn't really as bad as she sounded, but she wanted it to sound as bad as possible.
"Miss Stark, My systems have been overridden and my PA System has been disabled. It would appear that Sir is displeased with your performance. His companion even said, and I quote, "What is that horrible noise, is there a dying animal in here," and then proceeded to explain that she now had an ear-splitting headache and did not wish to partake in any further activities."
"Aw, poor baby," Erika sniggered.
"Sir has also informed me that you are to be grounded for a week, no electronics and no friends. You are to go directly to and from school, and you are to inform your extracurricular activity instructors that you will not be attending for a week."
That following week, Erika had to skip Art and violin (Tony still made her go to karate) and, like Tony had said, go directly to and from school.
It was worth it, though—she'd met the bimbo she'd chased out with her violin, and this one had been particularly nasty. She was worse that the others for one reason—Erika could tell she'd been planning on trying to get Tony to commit. Of course she never would have succeeded, but the fact that she'd wanted more than the others had set off alarm bells in Erika's head.
After the violin stunt, Erika decided to take a more subtle approach to dealing with these women—her artwork.
When Erika was little, she'd used the excuse of nightmares to drag Tony away from his conquests.
That didn't mean the dreams weren't real.
Her whole life, Erika had dreamed of monsters. Tony had taken her to a specialist, and they'd put Erika on medication to stop the dreams. Once she gained a few art skills, though, Erika decided to utilize these dreams to her advantage. She stopped taking her pills, and after a few days the dreams came back.
Erika was standing on an island, watching as the water around her churned and twisted. She took several steps back as something huge reared out of the black waters. A giant serpent at least a hundred stories tall was watching her through poisonous green eyes. Its wet greenish gray scales shined from the water, and it bared rows upon rows of huge, gleaming teeth. Horrible hissing noises were coming out of its mouth and what scared Erika the most was that she could understand it.
Who dares summon Jormungandr, Ruler of these Oceans? It hissed.
Erika opened her mouth to speak but the words got stuck in her throat. She hadn't summoned anything—she couldn't summon anything.
She was just a girl from Malibu.
'This is a dream', she reminded herself. That was the weird part of all her dreams—she knew she was dreaming.
People always said if you knew it was a dream, you could control it.
'Let's find out,' she thought, and focused on her violin set. Not the electric one, but the regular wooden one. The violin and her bow appeared in her hands a moment later.
'Cool.'
"Do you like music?" Erika asked hesitantly, hoping that the snake would understand her.
It said nothing, its gaze never wavering.
'Actions speak louder than words,' she thought, and then began tuning her instrument. She did a warm up scale, and then she began playing. The tune she played was Bartok's Solo Violin Sonata. She hit quite a few sour notes, but hey, nobody's perfect. The song ended and she lowered her bow, watching for . . . something.
The serpent's head came closer and Erika yelped, falling back and landing in the sand. The serpent's mouth opened and Erika could see every single tooth in its mouth.
"M-my, w-what big t-teeth you have," she stammered.
It snorted and reared back and a bright green glow enveloped the serpent.
Erika woke with a start, shaky and sweaty. It took her a moment to remember why she'd stopped taking her pills.
Right. Artwork. Scare them off.
A/N: So, out of all of Loki's children, Jormungand has always been my favorite—he's gonna pop up a lot.
