Once Hannah's gone, I decide to leave as well. I'm still kind of mad at Grandpa and don't feel like staying with him. I say goodbye and get into my ship. I don't know what to do next. I really don't feel like going on a hunt for the Guardians. Maybe I could stay with Maddie until I find somewhere else to go. I type a message on the phone and wait for a response.
She responds fairly quickly and offers her couch up to me again. I feel somewhat guilty for imposing on her, but I really have no where else to go. I put the address she sends me into my ship and set autopilot. I'll have to find someway to thank her for her hospitality, but that will have to wait until a good idea comes to me.
Once I arrive, I decide it might be a good idea to try and disguise my ship. I find a large tarp in a nearby garage can and throw it over my ship. It doesn't exactly cover the whole thing. Good enough, I think with a shrug as I walk towards the front door of Maddie's building. When I enter, I am met with Maddie helping out three people with various problems. She looks up as the door makes a sound when closing.
"Oh, Brooke," she says. She sounds tired. "Why don't you go upstairs to the apartment? I've got a few more people coming in today." She looks extremely stressed at the thought of having to handle more people. I decide this is my chance to pay her kindness back. I walk over to her.
"How about you tell me what to do and I help you instead?" I ask. She smiles gratefully at me and begins instructing me on how I can help. Apparently this is physical therapy. It helps people recover from injuries that keep them from doing certain tasks. I tell Maddie I went through something similar to this after I got hurt on a mission when I was 14 and Yondu ordered me to bed rest before letting me slowly work myself back up to my usual workloads. This brings a laugh from her.
As the day progresses, I learn that Maddie was inspired to become a physical therapist after tearing her meniscus and having to go through the process herself. Along with that, I get to learn more about her life story. "It's not as interesting as yours," she starts. "My parents are both from Canada, but my brother and I were both born here in America. We actually have dual citizenship.
"Anyway, my parents ended up moving back up to Canada while my brother moved down south to Texas. He's the assistant manager of a hockey team down there. They're playing the Rangers tomorrow, so my brother and I were planning to go out to dinner tonight. You can join us if you'd like."
I can't find it in myself to impose further so I lie and say my sister lives in New York and we were going out tonight as well. She seems excited for me. As there becomes a lull in the customers nearing closing, I decide to go upstairs and text Hannah.
Are you doing anything tonight? Maybe we could hang out or something? I hit send and await her response. It usually took no time at all when we sent messages over the pads on the Ravager ship, but that's probably because people's jobs/lives were at stake most of the time.
Well I'm going to Tony Stark's party over at Stark Towers… why don't you come? she sends me. I'm a little nervous because I don't know who Tony Stark is, much less who anyone else would be. But, my only other option is to admit I lied to Maddie and become further indebted to her.
I agree to go and quickly look up who Tony Stark is. Looks like he's a billionaire tech genius that spends his spare time being a superhero. It also seems like her fought the Chitauri when they attacked Earth not too long ago.
I hear the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs, telling me Maddie has closed for the night. Make or break time with this bluff. "That was a long day, but thank you for the help," she tells me. "Oh, and did you find out what you and your sister are doing tonight."
"We're going to Tony Stark's party tonight," I say. I hope she won't ask me too much about details, because I have no clue about those.
"Really?" she asks, obviously shocked. "That's so cool. Do you need any help getting ready?" I didn't even know I had to get ready.
"Sure," I answer. "I'd appreciate a bit of help getting party ready." She squeals a little and drags me to her room. Once we get there she messes with her phone for a minute before music starts playing over it.
"Sorry," she apologizes quickly, "but this song is perfect for this moment. It's called Popular and it's from this show I love called Wicked. Have you seen the Wizard of Oz?" During this all she's looking between her makeup and me. I nod confused. "Well Wicked is about the Wicked Witch of the West and Galinda, the good witch in the bubble, becoming best friends. In this song, Galinda is helping Elphaba, the wicked witch, become more popular with a makeover because she kinda just made Elphaba look like a fool at a party their class was holding."
She keeps on the music from Wicked as she begins my makeup. All the while she explains the story to me. Apparently it's a musical, which is performed on a stage and I can't actually see anywhere else but in a fancy theatre. The -re means it's live while theater with an -er means it's recorded. Maddie was a Theatre minor in college (whatever that means) and that's why she knows so much about it.
After my makeup is done, Maddie plugs a strange device in. She catches me staring at it. "It's a hair straightener," she tells me while turning it on. "We're going to style your hair simple so you don't attract more attention than you probably want. What with being from space and all." She moves over to her closet then. "I'm thinking red. Iron Man's suit is red, so you'd probably fit in with the color scheme." She doesn't wait for me to say anything as she grabs a red dress from the rack. "This cocktail dress will look stunning on you." She glances at my feet. "And I have the perfect black heels to go with it!" She digs around on the closet floor before pulling out the shoes.
"It's fortunate we're the same size you know," she says as she picks up the straightener and grabs some of my hair. "Otherwise we'd have to get you a new outfit, which would be next to impossible at this hour. Well, either that or you'd have to wear the clothes you're wearing right now." I don't think there's anything wrong with my clothes, but I decide it's better not to argue. "That jacket is super cute though. I'd love to get myself a leather jacket like that."
"It's a Ravager coat," I explain while she keeps using the straightener on my hair. "You earn it when you prove your loyalty to the Ravager crew. They're the group that took my brother and I in."
"Oh," she says. "Well, out of respect for you I'll avoid getting one in that color until you tell me I've earned it."it seems stupid, but I really appreciate that she's respecting my tradition despite barely knowing me.
"That's nice of you," I tell her. "And with everything you're doing, I'm sure you'll prove your loyalty and worthiness to join the crew." We both laugh. Before hearing a knock from outside.
"That's my brother," she says. "I'll leave you to get changed while I go and let him in." As soon as the door is shut I start changing. I can hear laughing from outside the door, so I try and hurry.
As soon as I exit I see a dark haired man. It's a dark brown color, almost black. He's decently tanned, but Maddie did say he lives down south. He turns around and I can see he has brown eyes shielded by black glasses.
"Chris, this is my new friend Brooke," Maddie introduces. "Brooke, this is my brother Chris." I offer my hand out and he takes it.
"Nice to meet you," he says before turning back to his sister. "As I was saying, Eva really wanted to come but she didn't want Juliana and Ashton to miss too much school."
"That's fine," she tells him, "just be sure to tell them I said hi." She then turns to me. "He's talking about his wife and daughters. They stayed in Texas." I nod at her. "You'll never guess where Brooke here is going tonight Chris."
He looks me over. "Hot date?" he asks. She slaps his arm.
"No," she says. "Tony Stark's party up at Stark Tower." He turns to me in shock.
"No way!" He exclaims. "That is so cool. You'll definitely fit in with a look like that." He looks back at his sister. "Are dropping her off?"
"Of course," she responds. "When else are going to have an excuse to pass by a Stark party." She then explains the plan to me. "We'll all ride in a cab over to Stark Tower to drop you off before heading to our restaurant. Does that work for you?"
"Sure thing," I tell her. "I'm ready when you two are." It takes a few minutes for our car to get here, but he seems to rush a little when Maddie tells him we're going to Stark Tower.
When we arrive I bid the Jembac siblings goodbye and make my way into the building. There's a man standing guard. "Name?" he asks.
"Brooke Udanta."
He looks over his list. "You're not here."
"Really?" I ask. I don't what to do if I can't get in. "My sister said that I could come with her."
"Who's your sister?"
"Hannah Coulson," I tell him. I start to pull my phone out message her, but the man moves aside.
"Mr. Stark said Miss Coulson had invited her sister," he says. "Go on up." I thank him as I walk into the elevator. I am automatically taken to the right floor. I wander through all the people for a minute before I spot Hannah sitting with a group of people.
"Hey," I cheer, excited to find a friendly face. Her head snaps up to look at me.
"I'm so glad you could make it!" she exclaims. "I was starting to die sitting here alone. Steve said he'd be right back, but he seemed awfully distant, and he hasn't come back… anyways, let me introduce you to a few people." I have no clue who the fuck Steve is, but I feel like it isn't the best time to ask about him.
Hannah drags me over to two people. "This is Dr. Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff," she introduces. I do my best to be polite and not bring up the fact I'm from space.
It's not too long before I'm dragged to the next person. "This is Clint Barton, he works with Nat and I," Hannah tells me. We have a bit of a conversation where we talk mainly about how he and Hannah were under mind control from the guy I saw in my visions (though I decide not to tell them that).
We go over to meet her next friend, which I'm guessing are the people who stopped the Chitauri invasion. "Brooke, I'd like you to meet Thor," she says before leaning closer to me. "He's from Asgard, so you can talk about being from space with him." This gets both of us excited as we start talking about the different places we've visited in the galaxy. Turns out he's never been to Xandar.
She takes me to her last friend she can find. "Last but not least, this is Tony Stark," she introduces. "Tony, this is my sister Brooke."
"Glad you could make it, Brooke!" Tony exclaims. I smile and leave, not wanting to take up too much of our hosts time. I decide to go back to Thor and talk more about space.
"Ah, Brooke," he greets. "I wanted to ask if you would want visit Asgard sometime. I'm sure they would treat you like royalty once they discover you helped defeat a Kree warlord." I laugh at that.
"That's a tempting offer," I answer, "but I'll have to pass for now. Not sure how kindly they'd take a Ravager, much less the girl set up to take over one of the crews. Have you ever been to Knowhere though? There's a great bar we could go to there. You know, once they fix it from the explosion that happened."
"Unfortunately no," he tells me. "I know a few people who have, but being a prince kept me from being permitted to travel to such an unsavory place. I would be happy to vouch for you should anyone in Asgard question your character for being a member of the Ravagers. I hear they are quite like a family there."
"Yeah," I respond. "They raised me, I was even adopted by their captain."
"My brother was adopted," he says. "My mother and I love him just the same though. I'm sure the captain thought of you truly as their daughter."
I smile at him. "I think he did. He's the best dad I could ever asked for."
He smiles back. "That's great to hear," he says. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to get something to drink."
I look over and notice Hannah bringing some guy over to me. "Brooke," she starts, "this is Steve." At least now I know who the fuck Steve is now. "He's my…" she pauses.
"Boyfriend," Steve finishes. He looks over at her and smiles. I'm glad she's happy with someone, but I feel kind of single and alone now that I'm though only sibling without a significant other.
"And Steve," Hannah continues, "this is my sister Brooke." I shake Steve's hand and decide to give Hannah a sly wink. He's a keeper with a grip like that.
Suddenly, our gracious hosts takes the stage. He begins giving a speech about how he has plans on turning this very building into the new Avengers Tower. If I had to guess, I'd assume that the Avengers are the people that Hannah introduced me to today. He also brings up that agents of something called Shield are allowed to visit. No clue what that means, but I'll pretend to be impressed like everyone else. People applaud and Tony Stark comes over to my sister and her boyfriend.
"So when do you guys wanna move in?" he asks. The question is obviously not meant for me. "It's pretty cool, you guys have a floor to yourself and we all have common floors, too." He flashes a grin at the two of them.
"Well," Hannah starts, "1. This sounds like a college dorm, and 2. Within a month if that's ok?" Tony nods. He then turns to Steve.
"Me too," Steve responds with a nod. The other "Avengers" come to join us and we all sit at a table and talk. I end up in an interesting solo conversation with Tony.
"So, where are you from?" he asks me. I guess it makes sense that Hannah would only mention that I'm her sister.
"I was born in Missouri," I tell him. "But I… traveled with my brother and adopted father for most of my life. Right now I'm staying with a friend at her physical therapy business." This surprises him.
"Her physical therapy business?" he asks. "As in, she owns the place?" I nod at him.
"She says that she's been getting a lot of business after the Chitauri invaded New York," I answer, "so it isn't too much trouble to put me up. She even got me a phone." I pull out my phone to show him. He is taken aback by this.
"There's no way I can have an independent business owner deal with you on her own," he says. "I'm switching you over to my plan. Afterall, it's the least I can do for Hannah. What's the name of her business anyway?"
"Jembac Physical Therapy," I say. "Her name is Madison Jembac, but I was planning on taking care of everything myself as soon as I can pay her back."
He shakes his head. "Nonsense," he tells me. "So long as you and Hannah are getting to know each other better, I'll be glad to help you out. I don't want to brag, but I am the owner of a billion dollar company. I can definitely afford one extra phone." Since he refuses to take no for an answer, I am entirely grateful to him for the rest of the evening.
I decide to leave before anyone else at the table, seeing as I am not exactly a member of the group. Tony calls me a cab and pays for me to go back to Maddie's place. I knock on the door and she must sprint to get the door.
We spend most of the night with me telling her and her brother all about my time at the party.