Preparing to Begin

Nick Fury sat in a makeup chair.

A flamboyant makeup artist circled him with a look of disdain. After thinking it over for a long while, he halfheartedly took a brush-like tool and swept it across Nick Fury's face twice. Then he looked at Alvin, who was standing nearby, and said, "This face doesn't need makeup.

His style is ugly. Makeup would only ruin his look."

Alvin glared at Pepper's personal makeup artist. "You charged me ten thousand just to tell me he doesn't need makeup?

Today's a big day. There are over two thousand reporters and dozens of TV stations gathered outside. You need to make him look like a bad guy who's seen the error of his ways and turned over a new leaf.

Otherwise, I'm not paying the rest of your fee..."

The makeup artist gave Alvin a coy, disdainful look that raised goosebumps all over him. Then he pulled a small spray bottle from his makeup bag and gave Nick Fury's single eye a good spritz.

Nick Fury had been pressing his lips together, putting on a show of unyielding resolve. Now his eye reddened at a speed Alvin could see with the naked eye, and tears streamed from it.

The iron-willed man, with a face black as a pot and a single eye that glared like a wolf's, was instantly transformed into an ugly man with a sharp tongue and a soft heart.

The makeup artist shoved the spray bottle into Alvin's arms. Even as Alvin glared at him murderously, he still glanced at Alvin's newly acquired six-pack from the corner of his eye. Then he covered his mouth and scampered out of the makeup room like a fox that had stolen a chicken.

Alvin looked irritably at Stark beside him. "Was I just sexually