Gemini (BEING REWRITTEN)

Duped

Los Angeles, California

October, 2009

Some people hear October and think of Halloween right around the corner, or even the precipice of snow and therefore wintertime. The small snowflakes falling from the sky and decorating the leafless trees and concrete covered jungles of the world. For those living in Los Angeles, October means cozy seventy degree weather and no snow in sight for a few more months. Visitors might be wandering around in shorts and t-shirts, not used to the warmer weather so later in the year or residents finally feeling as if the weather is cool enough for a light jacket during the evenings.

One body from Russia has adapted to the chill in the air, choosing just a pair of ripped black jeans and a thin grey t-shirt for the walk around the neighborhood she now has to reside in. Blending perfectly into the tourists and residents alike like she was always trained to do without even realizing it herself.

Alrina Boldyreva is a woman of many faces, but the question always remained the same,

Which one was she wearing today?

It has been well over a year since she's last seen her best friend and has chosen to slowly forget she ever even existed. Saving herself the pain of accepting that she's actually alone in the world now and will be for the rest of her life. The last she had heard of the name Natalia Romanova was that the Red Room had lost her, at least that was the last Alrina had heard. It wasn't long after Natalia defected to the Western World that Alrina herself was right behind her. Running from everything she had ever known, even her own evil mother, she was tired of being a pawn in everyone else's games.

So she stopped playing.

That did not mean that she completely stopped; however, she was top of her class for a reason and everyone knew that bit of information. Boldyreva was a name that higher organizations knew, whether she chose to stay in France for a month or managed to make fake identities to live in LA for the last three months.

Almost running into someone stopped on the side of the road is when she's knocked from her own thoughts. The larger than normal group in front of the electronics store confused her for a moment, but when the tv spoke it cleared almost any question she had.

"The return of Tony Stark is a topic on many citizens mouths recently, but the question everyone has been asking is, "Who is Iron Man? The answer? The genius himself, Anthony Stark."

Tuning out from the news report, Alrina pushes through the ever growing crowd to return to the small apartment she's renting. Avoiding the eyes of other passersby on the streets, it isn't until two blocks from her new temporary home that she finally notices the tail she has seemed to pick up. Internally sighing, she cuts through a nearby ally, but ducks behind a dumpster before the man following her can see her. Waiting for an extra few seconds after he has passed she quietly leaves the way she came and continues her way home.

It shouldn't have been that easy should it?

Little does Alrina know that she might have lost one tail, but another one picked her back up from the man. However, both followers are more confused than they have ever been.

"Clint, where did you go?"

"I'm following the target, what do you mean? Aren't you nearby?"

"No, I'm following her."

"Wait, what do you mean you're following her?! I'm literally watching her walk into a café right now."

"I'm telling you Clint, I'm-"