Epilogue
Mystery packages made Nick Fury very nervous. Something he considered completely understandable given his lifestyle. Just because he was no longer in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D didn’t mean he wasn’t a target for just about every dumb-fuck bad guy with a world domination plan. That wasn’t even including those rogue elements he was working on hunting down.
Honestly, where were these kids hiding a dinosaur in California? A raptor , no less! How the hell couldn’t he find them?!
But that was a matter for tomorrow. Right now he had a suspiciously un-marked envelope inside the train locker he’d stashed his emergency money in.
Without making too much of a fuss, he pulled the explosive analysis device he’d gotten from Fitz-Simmons out of his pocket and ran it over the package. Nothing.
Putting that back, he slipped on a pair of gloves from a different pocket and carefully lifted the package out of the locker. He slid his finger under the flap and opened the package to reveal… a CD? Or he assumed so, given the jewel case’s distinctive edge.
On the CD case was a bright yellow sticky note with Tony’s distinctive handwriting.
“Merry Christmas! Enjoy!”
What the? Fury pulled off the sticky note to reveal an album cover featuring the Hulk in a Santa hat. Red was not a good color on the eight foot tall behemoth.
After blinking a few times in a futile attempt to either memorize the image of the Hulk smiling or wipe the horribly clashing colors from his brain Fury turned over the case. The back was less visually offensive at least, even if it did cause a near-aneurysm.
“Those motherfuckers did a holiday album?” He asked himself quietly, brow furrowing as he read the track titles. Some were familiar to him, others he had never heard of. Assuming the names next to each track were the people --or in some cases, groups -- who did the singing, he was both intrigued and terrified. He was pretty sure Avengers Lite would be those mutants running around New York City now that the Avengers had mostly cleared out, but who the hell were Avengers Zero?
“Are you all right, sir?” a young lady a few lockers down asked, looking concerned.
“What? Yes, I’m fine!” Fury said quickly, stuffing the CD back into the package and shoving the whole thing into one of his coat pockets. “Just an unexpected text, you know how it is.” He gave the woman what he hoped was a reassuring smile before shutting the locker and hurrying away.
“Shit.” Fury hissed, realizing he didn’t have any way to listen to the CD. Turning back to the young lady, he asked, “Excuse me, Miss? You wouldn’t happen to know where I can find a CD player?” And tried to ignore the slight twinge of embarrassment at her exasperated look. Kids these days.
