Unexpected

A Mysterious Package

My exhaustion overwhelmed me and I'm honestly pretty surprised that I made it to my bed before I conked out. It was all too much. The Mission, the trip back, the utter tiredness of my body and then the emotional overload of Loki and his revelation. I didn't even get to say goodbye to him this time. He'd faded away too fast. When would I see him again? My heart ached as our conversation played over and over in my head as I faded into unconsciousness, but even in sleep my dreams would not allow my mind to truly rest.

My nightmare started with Loki at first. There he was, maybe twenty feet tall, his skin tinted blue and his eyes red as blood, chained to a great stone wall with manacles of black metal. Instantly I ran towards him, grabbing at the largest stone I could find to try to smash Loki's chains, but my efforts were wasted. Moans of pain dribbled from Loki and I could see that the manacles were cutting into his flesh. I couldn't free him! Then the chains started dissipating, releasing Loki and allowing him to crumble to the ground in a heap, but I could feel no joy at the sight because I realized that the chains hadn't disappeared, but instead they had morphed into my old enemies, the shadow men. I screamed as they grew, taking their terrifying shape. I cried out to Loki, trying to pull him up so that we could run, but something was wrong. He was no longer blue, nor was he pale, nor was he Loki at all. It was a Chitauri! Its decaying-looking flesh and skeletal face made me stumble back with a screech as it shrieked its terrible, almost mechanical sounding cry.

Then I realized the alien's war cry was, in fact, my alarm. My heart beating like I had run a marathon, I rolled out of bed and tried to make myself look decent. I couldn't show the strain the last twenty four hours had put on me. Golden blonde hair tied up in a bun, makeup on, and dressed in a sharp blazer and slacks I left my apartment and started down the apartment stairs. Reaching the bottom, I was fiddling with my keys when I noticed a middle aged man in a brown, post office uniform and jacket by the wall of mailboxes with one of those levering trolleys used to push large boxes around sitting beside him and a stack of envelopes in his hand as he dispersed them into their correct slots.

Clearing my throat I stepped up to him, "Anything for a Penelope Copper?" Raising my key ring which was attached to a lanyard and a little wallet that displayed my driver's license, I showed him my picture on my license, "Don't worry, I'm actually me."

He peered at the tiny picture for a second, his mustache twitching before he looked down at his stack of mail, "Hmm, I might. Hold on." He shuffled through another stack of envelopes, muttering to himself before he skimmed the name tags on the packages. "This one. Overnight shipping."

The mailman then handed me a small, padded grey package that was about the size of a bottle of soda pop, which I accepted with a small smile before bidding him a good morning and heading out to my car. A package? I couldn't remember the last time I'd gotten a package in the mail, since I wasn't one to order things online. At a stoplight I peered at the name tag. I didn't recognize the return address, nor could I think of anyone I knew in Florida. Curiosity grappled with my weary, heavy heart as I drove towards the Triskelion. Upon arriving I smiled and nodded as I passed by my fellow co—workers as I passed the statue of the S.H.I.E.L.D. symbol, then my eyes fell on red hair.

"Nat."

"Are you okay?" instantly she saw through my attempt at looking like my usual self, but what had I been expecting? She was a trained agent.

"Jet lag hit me a little harder than I thought. I'm still running on French time, I suppose." I tried to act careless and it was true... I was exhausted and the glass cuts on the back of my legs were making walking incredibly uncomfortable.

"I guess that's understandable. It was your first mission too and there were casualties..." she looked me up and down. Was she suspicious? Probably. Sympathetically smiling back at me she nodded her head to the side, "Come on, let's get down to your report."