Loki walked out of the room and headed in the direction of the commotion of men fighting down the hallway after Gemini. He watched her slink behind the door opening hiding her body completely in the shadows, why would she hide from the rest of the avengers. And finally it hit him, they hadn't met her yet.
"So your Nicks new gift to me… but he hasn't shown the others yet." She glared at him, and mouthed something he could not make out. This was his chance to have some fun, "Hello everyone." He spun her around and placed his face in the crook of her neck, he could feel her blush and held the urge to blush to. Being this close to her made him feel vulnerable, he took a deep breath but her smell only made it worse. He forced on a smile and turned to face everyone. "This is my new pet, and her name is Gemini. Say hello, my plaything." He pushed her forward and sat in the chair closest to him.
He tried not to laugh as she stumbled to introduce herself; it seemed that she too got off track when they were close together. This was an interesting predicament to him, yes he loved the company of women, but many were not attractive to him. They were either too shallow and vapid or just plain boring… but she seemed different, she seemed complex.
He gazed out the window and tried to put his head around how to deal with her, to be close to her was dangerous he knew that, but maybe that is want he wanted. The idea bounced around in his head, he had never been this confused about a woman before and it ticked him off.
Gemini stared at Loki as he gazed blankly out into the air, she sighed and turned to the others staring at her. "Um, hello, my name is Gemini and um-…" She trailed off and stared down at her feet. This was not going to be easy to explain because quite frankly she didn't know why she had been awakened in the first place.
Most of the team stared at her blankly, the strange woman they'd never seen before that apparently knew Loki and had two different colored eyes. With all of those factors put together, that would've made them instantly suspicious of her. But it was obvious in the way she held herself uncertainly before them that she wasn't a villain here.
Steve stepped forward with a polite smile on his face, holding a hand out to her. "Hello, I'm Steve Rogers. It's nice to meet you, Gemini." She shakes his hand only to be polite, averting her eyes from their faces at all times.
"Gemini, is it?" Thor booms, as always talking too loud for the occasion. Gemini can see Loki scowling from the corner of her eye as if Loki didn't like his "brother" addressing his personal pet.
"It is of best tidings to meet you, however the circumstances are not as agreeable." Gemini didn't know what he was talking about until she heard loud arguing coming down the hall toward the group.
Out of the hallway emerged a teenaged girl in ratty pajama pants and an Iron Man t-shirt. A good portion of her visible skin was covered in ugly purple bruises, and where her hair was brushed back against her forehead Gemini could see a deep gash that had been cleaned up and taped together.
Following the girl was a man in his mid to late 30s who looked like he was ready to kill the girl.
"I'm fine!" the girl shouts, gesturing wildly. "See? Not keeling over dead or anything! Stop worrying!"
"You passed out less than 20 minutes ago and you have a concussion and you've lost a lot of blood!" argued the man strategically. "You are about the farthest from fine as you can get."
"Nobody asked you!" the girl retorts childishly. Gemini is instantly reminded of Loki's initial behavior.
"Nobody had to! It's my call whether or not you'll be getting in a suit ever again, and after today those chances are seeming slimmer and slimmer." The man's carefully controlled rage is obvious in his overly calm tone. The girl gives a loud groan, just now noticing Gemini standing in the midst of most of the Avengers.
"Oh, hi," the girl says with a slightly embarrassed smile. "Sorry you had to see that. He's not usually this bad of a worry-wart."
"I am not a worry-wart," the man replies though the girl has stopped listening. "You can call me a lot of things that end in wart, but they should never EVER begin with worry."
The girl has walked up to Gemini now, and the woman can see all the individual cuts and bruises that line her face. She looks like a war veteran though she can't even be more than 17 years old. Gemini smiles cautiously as the girl holds her hand out for a proper introduction.
"Hi, my name is Jex."
Both Cròn and Solas gaped at the girl, her voice was familiar. "Wait, we have met before haven't we?"
Jex looked more than confused as she squinted at the woman, hoping for recognition to hit her in the face. Why did she only say that she sounded familiar, this woman was weird and Jex was slowly starting to dislike her. "Uh, not that I know of..." She replied rudely.
Nick looked at Gemini, he glared at her and she got the hint. He didn't want people to know about the girl. Before they had gotten to the base, he had dropped her off in a bunker, the look that Stellula had given her as they sent her into the bunker broke their hearts. Gemini dropped her head and looked at Jex. "I...I'm sorry you sounded like someone else." She slumped to the side and let Nick talk for her.
Jex looked suspiciously between Gemini and Fury, but said nothing. She looked behind her at Tony to see how he was taking all the excitement. She saw he was analyzing the woman as if she were another one of those easy bimbos he would find at galas, as if he were imagining creative pick-up lines to use on her. The girl scowled at this, crossing her arms over her chest and retreating to the side of Steve Rogers, knowing Tony would silently fume at this.
Loki glared at all of them, he hated the fact that both his brother, Steve and the Iron man-child were gawking at her. He was boiling, he did not appreciate them staring at her.
Jex pouted as Tony didn't even give his sidekick a second look, still giving Gemini doe eyes. Didn't he even think about Pepper when he saw other pretty women? Sure, Black Widow was one thing, but a strange woman he'd never met before? That was just pig-like of him, at least, in Jex's opinion. So she decided to do something about it, distract him from the woman. And the only way she thought to do was to whine, something she was quite adept at. She turned to Loki, glaring at him as she did so.
"I didn't need your help, you know," she tells him coldly, knowing full well she did. Loki's blue eyes scanned slowly to meet hers, she shivered. That should do it, she thought to herself.
"I'm sorry, you little Impling, but when your suit malfunctioned as you were doing god knows what-" She cut him off.
"I'm so sorry that I wanted to stop the mutant dog thing that was terrorizing that small village in China." He glared at Jex at her sarcastic reply.
"It was not my fault!" He screamed.
Nick turned to face Loki, "What wasn't your fault?" The skin on Loki's face grew red.
Thor groaned. "You did not unleash an Ahky for target practice again, brother?" Thor rolled his eyes and smacked Loki on the back, he recoiled from the touch.
"Yes, I did! And it would not have gotten out of hand if this, this... this sniveling piece of scrap metal hadn't intervened! It was the fault of her and her damn metal suit, she is not a god! Why does she deserve to fly like one?" He slammed his hand into the table leaving a slight crack.
"You're calling me sniveling when you're the one who was kicked off the planet, had his godliness taken away and now has to have a baby sitter?" Jex coughed a rude sounding laugh. "Please, explain to me how that's supposed to work out, Mr. God."
He pushed the chair he was sitting in towards the window, it clattered loudly. He walked up to the girl and placed his hand on her arm pulling him towards her. "Mark my words Slush, or whatever the hell you call your pitiful self. I will not let you live this down I will-" he was caught off guard as Gemini grabbed the back of his hair, pulling him towards her.
"Don't threaten little girls, it's unbecoming of a man of your stature." She pulled him down and jabbed her knee into his back.
Tony scoffed as the small woman proceeded to pick him up. "Well she is my type of lady." Jex slammed her fist into the side of his face.
"What the fuck are you talking about?!" She demands, far more hostilely than she had originally planned on getting. "Aren't you forgetting something? I'll give you a hint!" she roars, dodging a punch from Tony that would've hit her in the face as well. "Her name is something that goes with salt at the dinner table!" The girl rounds on Gemini and Loki, who seem to be struggling in some sort of wrestling match on the ground. "And you two! For one," she says, glaring at Loki. "My name is Crush. And I'm no little girl. You have no fucking idea what I've been through." She turns on her heels, stomping from the room in anger.
Gemini snapped to look at Jex, "Stop!" She yells at her, the voice that came out was both cold and menacing. Jex froze, turning slowly to see Gemini sitting on top of Loki. His face is that of a wild stallion.
Gemini looked into Jex's eyes, they were not angry at all... they actually looked sad. " I am so sorry." She looks down and pulls on Loki's arms.
"He shouldn't have called you those things-"
"No shit, Sherlock," scoffs the teenager, interrupting her.
Gemini carries on. "-And I take the full responsibilities for him." This last statement made the scowl on Jex's face grow deeper.
"I don't care if you take responsibility for that piece of ungodly shit! Doesn't change the fact that I can't stand you!" She raised her hand to slap Gemini, but something blocked her hand. "Let go of me!" she screamed as Tony led her out of the room, mostly dragging her away from the woman and the ex-god she was pinning down.
Gemini stared down at the man below her, a snarl forming on her lips. "Get to the room now... I want to talk to you privately." The smile on Loki's face made her growl. "NOW!"
He pushed her off of him and stomped to the doorway, his body was shaking with anger. I'm going to kill her, and that tin-can, both of them. His fist makes contact with the wall, shattering the doorframe. " I may not be a God, but I still have my strength. I will not stand for these futile games!"
He watches as Gemini storms past him, that woman was going to be the death of him. The hallways were growing darker as they walked closer to his apartment. He was going to have a word with her, yes, but not one she needed to hear. She guided him back to the room and locked the door behind her. He snarled and turned to face her.
"You're a monster," she growled, poison dripping from each syllable. He smiled, he was going to kill her right now. He flung his body towards her, crushing her against the wall. She screamed and struggled under his weight.
"Don't struggle, it will only make it worse." he purred into her ears. Her mind spun, both with anger and intrigue. She was not going to let him push her around again.
"Get off me." she looked him in his eyes, he could feel tension but he was not going to let her win.
"Get off me, now." the voice that came out of her mouth was cold, he stared into her eyes.
"No," the sides of his smile curled, Gemini looked at him and smiled.
"Too bad." she slammed her head into his, Loki growled and stumbled backwards. The force of the hit made him dizzy, the room quite literally spinning, but he refused to pass out. Stumbling towards her he swung through the air to try to grab her. She dodged every swing and stared coldly into his eyes. The darkness began to etch the outside of his vision. He was not going to pass out, he pushed himself towards her, falling to the ground. He could feel her flip him over.
"Kill me now, I know you want to..." The venom slipping with each word, his slurred to scream at her, but the words would not come out. The last thing he saw was Gemini standing over him with his brother and that stupid imbecile in the flag suit, then the darkness swallowed him.
"Glad that's over," Steve mumbled as Loki finally passed out.
"Aye," Thor says gravelly, looking down at the unconscious form of his adoptive brother. "Though I am almost sure this could have gone in a much less violent manner, especially when the young Iron Maiden and Stark were involved."
Gemini glared at the limp body of Loki, He was such a nuisance but even then her eyes traced the soft curves of his face... he was rather handsome when he was unconscious. She screamed out in frustration and stomped the floor, kicking Loki square in the side he flinched but didn't wake.
"I cannot believe... You're such a jerk!" She stormed to her room and slammed the door behind her. Thor stood there and gawked at the slammed door, scoffing as he picked up Loki.
"You have found the one woman for you, my brother," Thor laughed and patted his brother on the back. "We should start plans for the wedding immediately." The last statement made Steve laugh along with him.
"Here let me get the door for you, we probably should get him strapped down at the infirmary... he won't be too peachy when he wakes up." Thor's thundering laugh made Gemini jump from her room.
After the two had left Gemini sighed, slowly pacing around the perimeter of her room. Her mind was reeling, with conflicting feelings of Loki, and lingering thoughts on the fight that just seemed to spring out of nowhere. Gemini wasn't even quite sure what had happened to cause Jex's outburst, but the words the girl had yelled at her stuck in Gemini's mind: You have no fucking idea what I've been through.
And it was true, Gemini really didn't know anything about this strange girl besides the fact she was the sidekick of the hero known as Iron Man. The girl appeared to be around her mid-teens, but that didn't tell Gemini much besides the fact that this girl had been forced to grow up far too fast in too short of an amount of time. The woman sighed to herself, wondering what could've possibly happened to make the young girl so angry on the inside. True, when she'd first formally met her, Jex seemed like a relatively easy going person, but once the fire had come out, once she'd started making accusations at Loki, the easy-going side slipped away to show the real pain and turmoil beneath the girl's skin, what truly laid inside of her. And it was tearing Gemini apart that she had no idea what could've caused it.
She sighed, both sides of her ached to find out what was wrong. You know how to get the info... we can hack the system... We've done it before... she grimaced.
As she slipped out the doorway and into the apartment she saw a drop of blood on the floor near the doorway. "Oh god... I didn't kill him," she said as she cringed and stepped around it and out into the hallway.
The way to the interrogation rooms was not that bright and she felt the guilt of what she was going to do before it happened. She didn't want to look up Jex, but she had to... to understand her and to be able to tiptoe around her next time.
One thing Gemini admired about humans was the way they thought their technology was state of the art, when in fact, they were about the least evolved in the universe when it came to technology. The woman smiled wryly to herself as she first hacked into the mainframe, opening the mechanically locked door to the interrogation room, and stepping inside. The room was tiny and dark, but she found what she was looking for: yet another door, this one leading to the archival room. After flipping on the lights Gemini was able to see how small the room was, with a single hulking computer monitor taking up the length of one entire wall. She sighed, sitting down in front of the computer in the chair provided and began to hack into it.
The process was almost glaringly simple and within seconds Gemini was already in the saved videos and documents area, typing Jex's name into the search box to see what showed up. She got no results. She bit her lip, trying again, this time using her code name, Crush. One result popped up, a video that was dated to have been saved over 2 years ago, simply labeled "Orange Crush Interrogation." Gemini looked around, feeling guilty as she clicked on the video, letting it play.
A bright light is shined in her face and she can't help but feel like she's being interrogated as if in an old movie. "Start talking, please. Start from the beginning."
"The beginning?" the girl asks, holding a hand in front of her face to shade her eyes from the light. "The very beginning?"
"Yes," the man says robotically, coolly, coldly. The girl takes a deep breath.
"My name is Jex Xanthrop and my age is 14. Actually, no, no it's not. Wait, I'm actually 14, but my name is Juliette Echo Xanthrop, but I go by Jex. Actually, when I was little, my mom would call me July, cuz she didn't like the way Julie sounded, you know?" Jex gives a little laugh, running a hand to get her hair out of her face. Her expression is solemn though as she chuckles. "I grew up in San Jose, California with my parents, Aiden and Charlotte Xanthrop. They were the best parents; at least, I thought they were.
You see, my parents worked at Stark Industries. As a kid I didn't know that, I just thought they were always busy. I didn't have many friends when I was a kid, so I was quite frequently lonely. They'd get me nannies, but I swear I'd have a new one every week because I'd drive those ladies up the wall." Jex gives another laugh, this one more sincere, a faraway look in her eyes. "I was a little prick back then. Still am, I suppose."
"Please go on, Miss Xanthrop."
"Right, right…" Jex gives a deep sigh, casting her eyes down before going on. "When I was 13 my parents died in a plane crash on their way to New York. They were working on a project, something called 'Project Clause', but we'll get to that later. Anyway, the last thing I told my parents before they died was that I hated them, because I was being a little spoiled rich kid. So they went off and died and after a week of being tossed around in foster care, I was shipped off to Los Angeles to live with my mom's sister, a woman we all know and love: Virginia Pepper Potts.
I instantly hated Pepper. I hated how she was trying to replace my parents, how she couldn't understand how I felt, and especially how she was just like my parents and never had time for me. Her job working as Tony Stark's secretary was a full time one and I was shoved off to the side once more. I became withdrawn and moody and a little bit depressed," Jex says with one of the saddest sighs the man had ever heard from a teenager. It was so earnest and miserable for a 14 year old girl. She looks up at the man. "Nothing leaves this room, right?" He nods his head yes and Jex goes on dejectedly. "That was about the time I started attempting suicide."
The man takes a few notes down on a pad of paper in front of him, gesturing for the girl to continue.
"I used to try and overdose. I tried to cut once, that didn't turn out well. I tried to go and jump off into a canyon but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Same with the time I got ahold of a gun. I stuck the barrel in my mouth; tears streaming down my face before I pulled the thing out, uncocked it, and finally realized there weren't any bullets in it." Jex gives a cold laugh but there is absolutely nothing funny about it. "But then things started getting better. I decided to start paying attention in class, learned a few things, got good grades, and turned my life around really. Summer came around and I found something in my life worth living for: Iron Man.
I was practically obsessed with the guy. Watched all the news stories they had on him, waited outside trying to get a glimpse of him, brought a camera everywhere I went hoping to get a picture. Never saw the guy anywhere but on the news. Then the night came when all that stuff was going down at Stark Industries, with Iron Man and that big guy they were calling 'Iron Monger', which I thought was a total rip-off of the name. But anyway, I watched the news the whole night to see the footage over and over. The next day Pepper took me to the press conference for Tony. I was so excited to hear what he'd have to say about Iron Man." Jex gives herself a smile. "And then I found out Iron Man and Tony Stark were one in the same." Jex pauses, taking a drink of water from the glass that had been set down in front of her, no doubt getting parched from the telling of the story.
"After that I wanted nothing more than to at least legitimately meet Tony Stark. I bugged Pepper about it for weeks until finally I did get to meet him. He snuck up on me talking to Pepper about him and about how I wanted a job from him. He offered to let me clean his lab for 200 a week. I accepted and started immediately. I worked for a week when he finally told me that he'd picked me as his sidekick. As you can imagine, I was utterly floored. 'Iron Man wants me as his sidekick?' I'd ask myself. It still doesn't seem real. He got me my suit, trained me up. We got the suit painted burnt orange and steely grey, and I came up with a name for myself: Orange Crush. Kind of juvenile, but I still like it. And then came the press conferences," Jex groans with the memories. "Those were boring for a while, but something good did come out of them."
"Continue," the man says dryly, taking Jex's dare.
"I met a guy I was crazy about, as stupid as that seems. His name was Donner and at the time I thought he was the coolest guy in California. Messy black hair, one eye yellow, one eye grey, and tan like he practically lived out in the sun. This guy had me floored. So we started talking and texting and hanging out. Sooner or later he figured out I was Orange Crush. Well, I kind of let it slip, but that's not the point. The point is, he knew about me as Iron Man's sidekick. He knew my biggest secret. But I didn't mind, because he had told me his.
Donner was something scientists like to call a 'bio-bot'. Bio-bots are ¾ robot and ¼ human, though they appear to be perfectly normal. I could've cared less if Donner was mostly a robot or not, I was still crazy about him. We started dating and then things started getting stressful on the Orange Crush front. Some information about me was leaked, I was being stalked by this kid with a camera, and people were starting to get really suspicious about me. My stalker, nephew of a newspaper reporter, ended up spilling my secret identity all over the news. Everyone knew I was Orange Crush, but it didn't matter, because all at the same time, I found out why exactly my parents had died."
"Pray tell why," the man says dryly, almost sarcastically but with little to no emotion.
"My parents got on that plane to New York to work on Project Claus. A project that was for the company they worked for, especially assigned to them by the CEO of that company. My parents worked for Stark Industries, and Tony Stark was the one who called them up and told them to go on that plane abruptly. So my parents went to go work on Project Claus, but they died on the way there." Jex's jaw is clenched frighteningly tightly yet she goes on. "But wait, there's more. The people who made Donner and all his fellow 'siblings' as he called them, were people who worked with my parents at Stark Industries."
"So you're trying to say…"
"Yes. My parents died in a plane crash on their way to engineer my boyfriend. As you can imagine, I was extremely pissed off by the news. I wouldn't talk to anybody for days, not Donner or Tony or Pepper. I actually ran away a few times but always found my way back to Pepper's house, a place I still can't bring myself to call home. Nothing was really the same after that. I don't feel like I can trust anyone anymore, especially not Tony and Pepper."
"What happened to Donner and his siblings?"
"Most of them were taken back into the lab permanently, something about glitches in their programming, not human enough or too powerful or something. I dunno. Donner is still out there, though. I haven't seen him in months. Oh, you know why they called it Project Claus? All of the bio-bots names are reindeer names." Jex cracks a smile and it looks real this time. "I'm not even kidding. There was a Dasher and a Prancer. I met Comet once, he was a total jerk. Blitzen wasn't so bad, though. I don't know what's going on with the Project now. I could look into the Stark mainframe and see, but I just don't want to know."
"I see," the man says monotonously. "Anything else you have to tell me?"
"This light is killing my eyes. Mind turning it down?"
"I meant about your history."
"I know. Jeez, is everyone around here so serious all the time?" Jex grumbles. "I think that's pretty much all, actually. Nothing interesting has really happened after that. Everything is pretty straightforward. Well, as straightforward as things can be when you're a superhero and everyone knows it's you under the mask. I've had a few attacks on my life, not near as many as Tony or even Pepper, but my fair share for a girl of 14, you know?"
The man takes a few more notes. "Is that all you have to say, Miss Xanthrop?"
"Is that all you want me to say?" she asks. The man doesn't answer and she gives a heavy sigh.
"Yes, that's all I have to say."
"Then thank you for your time," the man stands up, reaching up to shut the camera that had been trained on them off. Before it switches off Jex turns to face it, giving the camera a devilish grin and a wink, the last thing Gemini sees before the screen goes completely black. The woman sits there for a moment, not quite believing what she sees when she finally realizes there is someone standing behind her.
Gemini whirls around to see Jex who's standing with a cocked hip and a water bottle full of some strange looking green liquid. Jex looks relatively calm with the barest traces of moisture in her eyes as Gemini analyzes her. The two girls look at one another for a few minutes before Jex swallows her strange green drink and speaks up first.
"Enjoy the show?" she asked coldly. Gemini can instantly tell that the girl standing before her isn't the same girl from the video. She's not only 2 years older, but she's been through so much more, it's evident in her eyes. She's not the little fan girl she used to be. She's actually matured, whether she wanted to or not. Gemini didn't want to imagine what Jex had seen that had forced her to make the transition from a girl to an adult before she'd even made it to 18.
Gemini doesn't respond, so Jex goes on, continuing the conversation as if she did. "I thought the wink at the end was a bit cheesy, you know?" Normally the conversation would sound light hearted, but the disdain in the 16 year olds voice is obvious. She turns away from Gemini and leaving the room with another swig of the strange green drink, walking away as if nothing had ever happened.
Gemini pushed the car back quickly and ran after Jex, "Please, Stop… I just want to talk to you."
Jex stopped and turned to face Gemini, she laughed at her. "You don't deserve to talk to me, you see I'm not a perfect little girl, so I don't give a shit what you think." She rolled her eyes, "You're so stupid you know that… you walk all in her like a slutty big shot but you have nothing to do with me, so stay away from me. Mmkay." She smirked and entered the lunch room, leaving Gemini standing by herself.