Chapter 19: Taxi
"Taxi!"
Colin waved down a yellow taxi heading towards him.
Colin pulled open the car door, settling into the back seat as he instructed the driver, "To Second Avenue..."
The street where the accident happened was quite a distance from Colin's apartment. Considering New York's terrible subway environment, Colin ultimately decided to take a taxi home.
It was a bit expensive, but at least he didn't have to endure those bizarre odors laden with a 'long history' in the subway station.
Sitting in the taxi, watching the street behind him gradually recede, Colin withdrew his gaze and focused his attention back on the taxi.
Nick Fury?!
However, the instant Colin's eyes met the taxi driver, his pupils contracted sharply.
Looking at the man in the driver's seat silently driving the taxi, and the black eye patch he wore over his left eye, a huge wave surged in Colin's heart.
"Why is the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. here?"
"Could this also be a Twisted Time Node? If so, that's a bit too exaggerated!"
"The dignified director of S.H.I.E.L.D. has actually been reduced to driving a taxi... But, now that I think about it, from the Helicarrier to a taxi, Nick Fury's range of driving vehicles is quite extensive..."
Various thoughts intertwined in his mind, making Colin somewhat confused, and also causing Nick Fury in the driver's seat to notice a trace of something amiss.
"Sir..."
Looking at Colin through the car's rearview mirror, Nick Fury spoke with a deep voice, showing concern.
"...You look a little pale, are you feeling unwell? Do you need me to take you to the nearest hospital?"
"No, thank you."
In the back seat, Colin shook his head, refusing Nick Fury's offer. He reined in his chaotic thoughts, allowing his mind to settle, while also speaking in a still shaken tone: "I'm just a little shaken by the explosion back in that district."
"Indeed."
Hearing Colin's explanation, Nick Fury nodded empathetically. He withdrew his gaze from the rearview mirror and refocused on the road ahead, saying, "It is said that many people were injured in the explosion. I saw no less than ten ambulances rushing there on the way here..."
"It is said that this is another act of destruction caused by a Supervillain."
Moving his body, Colin leaned a little closer to the car door, casually resting his hand on the car window as he said.
"Is that so? I didn't notice that."
Driving the taxi past the vehicles in front, Nick Fury raised his eyebrows, looking surprised.
"Fortunately, the members of the Thunderbolts arrived in time and stopped this crime."
"Yes, luckily there are the Thunderbolts."
Hearing Colin's exclamation, Nick Fury in the driver's seat also responded in kind.
"..."
As the two finished speaking, a brief silence fell in the taxi.
And so, they drove in silence for a while.
Colin suddenly spoke, pretending to casually glance at the eye patch over Nick Fury's left eye, curiously asking, "Excuse me for asking, but your eye?"
"Ha, I thought you wouldn't notice."
Faced with Colin's inquiry, Nick Fury showed a reaction as if he had expected it.
"In fact, more than eighty percent of the passengers in my car express concern about this. My standard reply is that it's a badge I earned in an extremely dangerous mission. A grenade exploded at close range and injured my eye, leaving this horrifying scar..."
As he spoke, Nick Fury turned his head so that Colin in the back seat could see his left eye injury more clearly.
Listening to Nick's description, Colin looked at the scar on his left eye.
He didn't know why the other party was telling him this. Could it be that his performance just now had aroused Nick Fury's vigilance, but why be vigilant?
"Gotcha, haha."
Seeing the expression on Colin's face gradually change, Nick Fury suddenly turned his head back and laughed, hitting the steering wheel.
"This trick never fails."
While laughing, Nick Fury looked at Colin in the rearview mirror and explained, "That was just a joke. In fact, my left eye is only like this because of an infection and a lack of timely treatment, far less thrilling than what I just said."
"Okay, you got me."
In the back seat, listening to Nick Fury's laughter, Colin twitched the corner of his mouth, revealing an ugly smile, while secretly breathing a sigh of relief in his heart.
He looked at Nick Fury in the driver's seat, watching the other party skillfully maneuver the taxi past the vehicles in front, looking no different from other taxi drivers.
Could it be that I'm wrong?
In reality, Nick Fury has become an ordinary taxi driver in this world because of the Twisted Time Node, and is no longer the director of S.H.I.E.L.D..
Thinking of the Hydra advertisements he had seen on the big screen in the square, the fact that Nick Fury had become a taxi driver seemed a little less surprising. After all, even Hydra had become a multinational corporation, so the disappearance of S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't seem so unacceptable.
What's more, if he remembered correctly.
Howard Stark's family, one of the founders of S.H.I.E.L.D., had tragically perished as early as the 1990s.
Or perhaps, it was because of this reason that S.H.I.E.L.D. disappeared.
Shaking his head, he pondered silently.
For Colin, everything in the Anti-World was still shrouded in deep fog, and the figures occasionally emerging from these fogs not only failed to clarify the world's hidden secrets, but instead plunged him deeper into the mystery, like Nick Fury in the taxi before him.
...
"We're here, sir."
Parking the car, Nick Fury glanced at the number displayed on the meter and turned his head to give Colin a kind look in the back seat.
"That'll be 32 dollars."
Nick Fury's voice interrupted Colin's thoughts. Hearing the taxi fare, even though he was mentally prepared, his heart still twitched.
With a pained expression, he took out two twenty-dollar bills and handed them to the other party, who smiled in thanks after receiving the bills but had no intention of giving change.
The price on the meter only represents the taxi's driving fee. If you add the $2.50 starting fee and the $0.50 nighttime surcharge, as well as the crucial 15% or more tip, then the forty dollars that Colin gave was, perhaps for Nick Fury, just the right price.
(end of chapter)