Doorman (MCU SI)

Disclaimer - I don't, and have never claimed to, own Marvel or its Intellectual Property. This is all just so that I can take my maladaptive daydreaming and turn it into something so that it does not ruin the rest of my day.

DoorMan #85

Ta-Lo [February 18, 2008]

–Jin'Ya–

He was standing right outside the room, looking for any changes and the second the void that separated it from outside was removed, he moved in. Within a fraction of a second, he blocked the space all around the room. Realistically, that would not have been enough to stop the Ancient One from leaving if she wanted to but this was not about trapping her, this was about stopping her from leaving, a message that they needed to talk.

Just as he expected, he felt just a single poke against his spatial barrier before the Ancient One materialized before him. The Red Matron had long since abandoned her post, feeling secure in the fact that the Ancient One was right there with Colin, so her contract would not be void with her leaving Colin defenseless.

"I assume you have something you want to say to me?" The Ancient One prompted but before he could get a word in, another party joined the meeting as the scenery around them blurred, before they were in a small spherical chamber, with water and fish outside, with a magical projection from the Water Dragon appearing in front of them.

"I would like to be a part of this conversation as well. I assume this is about Colin and the way recent events have been carried out?" He nodded at the unasked question.

"Will his hands be healed?" He asked, to both the Ancient One and the Water Dragon, because he had never seen any of his injuries stick for so long, no matter the damage done to them. Hell, he had seen burnt bones, so brittle they could break with a touch, heal with the help of Chi, returning Colin to his healthy form.

Seeing injuries that remained for days without changing much was really a first for Colin.

It was not the Ancient One who answered but the Water Dragon, "I am not optimistic about full recovery."

A small magical projection appeared in between them, showing a human body with the arms glowing red with the rest of the body appearing fine. There were veins of red criss crossing across the torso section that were rapidly being eliminated by a yellow wave.

"I have seen Colin's condition and the damage done by his powers was not limited to his arms, it spread to every part of his body but as you can see, his innate healing has wiped out most of the damage, save for his arms. I believe that being the areas where most of the energy was channeled through, both of these arms are just beyond healing, at least for Colin."

The news, while disheartening, was not the end of the world. He knew that Colin knew about many things that could either create replacement limbs like prosthetics or outright grow him new ones.

Turning to the Ancient One, he said, "The damage is not in the soul, it is just physical." If it was, he would have been the first one to feel it, and his mental inspection, however brief it was, showed him that Colin's soul was intact.

The Ancient One nodded.

He seized the opportunity, "So he can regrow them? We can amputate these ones and then have him regrow new ones? I am sure he knows if not the how then the where we can find someone who can do so."

"I assume you cannot use the Eye to reverse time on his arms?" The Water Dragon questioned the Ancient One while he tried to remember if the Extremis could heal Colin's arms, especially at this stage. Bruce Banner had taken the research to another avenue, where it could be used to stabilise patients first, then treat injuries, then move on to treatable diseases, then terminal diseases and in the very end, make Extremis capable of regrowing limbs.

That was the flow of the Extremis Research that everyone involved agreed upon and at the time, it was fine but now? Now they might just have to change the course of the research.

"No," The Ancient One replied, "The eye cannot be used to reverse time for this, not because I don't want to but because the energies involved are too complex to do it safely. We might just end up harming Colin more than his arms if we do it. As the Guardian of the Eye, it is my duty to safeguard reality as we know it so that is out of the question."

"So, what was all this for? Why let Colin go through all of this? Was there even a point?" He asked her, finding it hard to keep the anger out of his voice.

She nodded, "Yes, there was. This was all an outcome, stemming from Colin's own actions. A series of steps, small on their own, resulting in a catastrophe."

"It was the Door opening, wasn't it?" He asked her, mentally rewinding every single one of Colin's decisions that led to him coming here, despite his next appointment for the Chi infusion being months away.

"No, actually," He looked up at her, "It was when he decided to casually reveal his identity, instead of hiding it. I get that it was his choice but just like butterflies, that single choice led to him coming here, with someone who could not defend themselves, during a time he should have been in the Red Hearth, safely opening the Door, with proper safety procedures."

"It is fact that Colin opened a Door, a dangerous procedure by any stretch of his imagination, within visible range of a Demonic Seal, and then proceeded to tour areas, as if they were a picnic spot, that had been deemed dangerous by you," She pointed at the Water Dragon who looked sufficiently chastised.

"This is all a series of decisions, and yet, I let it happen. Why? Because it is one of the better timelines. I have seen where Colin never made it out of his soul being overwhelmed. I have seen ones where he was ambushed by invisible predators and killed because he was not paranoid enough. I have seen him get burned from inside out, and die in that place before he could open a portal.

I walk a fine line between letting people have free will, and having to guide events to a better future. I won't let people who trust me become dolls, beholden to my will, my version of time but at the same time, I can't let people make decisions that will obviously, to me, lead to their doom."

The Ancient One took a deep breath before replying, "The burden of bearing the eye is heavy and I would not wish it on anyone and yet, I have to prepare Colin to take it, because I have to prepare for every single outcome possible."

She turned around as a portal opened in front of her, "Colin's soul is intact. The energy within that Door is now infused with his cells, mutating them beyond healing. Now, it is his choice to do with the mutated hands as he pleases. Know this, this was the better outcome, for all of us, for all of reality."

With that, she entered the portal as he was safely brought out of the Great Lake, and deposited right in Colin's room as he slept peacefully. The hands were charred beyond recognition and he could feel the energy within the hands.

It was nothing like the usual Chi cycling that Colin's body did on its own. It was something entirely different, something so dense that it crushed Colin's hands and barely saved his soul because he was using so much of it.

"I assume the lifegiver will be using this energy in the future, even to his own detriment?" The Water Dragon asked him mentally.

He nodded, knowing that Colin would use everything in his arsenal if he had to, "Yes, but I don't think it will be that big of a problem later on. It was the same with his other Doors, just on a lower scale of damage. Once he gets enough practice, I think he can do good modulation over the power flow."

"Will he be alright? Mentally?"

He shrugged, "I hope so."



If you guys would like to support me, or just want to read up to 15 chapters ahead, you can head on to my P*treon. It is the same name as my username.

Disclaimer - I don't, and have never claimed to, own Marvel or its Intellectual Property. This is all just so that I can take my maladaptive daydreaming and turn it into something so that it does not ruin the rest of my day.

DoorMan #86

Ta-Lo [February 18, 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

His eyes fluttered open, awareness slowly returning to him as he looked up at the wooden ceiling of the room. Recent events came back to his mind as he thought of what happened, his reactions to them, and the end result of it all.

The pain coming from his hands at the slightest movement was a very good reminder of that. Chi was still working, moving through the rest of his body, with no blockages, he checked that. Nothing on the hand front though, both of them gave him no feeling other than pain.

By now, it was not as unbearable as before but he didn't know if it was just him adapting to the pain or the remaining nerves in his hands dying out, numbing down the pain coming from them.

Sighing, he manifested a Door to his right, that slowly slid itself below the back and then pushed him up, putting him in a better seating position. He was feeling really lazy hence the lack of any effort that involved moving physically.

He looked out of the window and saw that it was Dark outside. It was really fascinating to him in the beginning that the Water Dragon had to create what was essentially a 24 hour day and night cycle, exactly like the one that exists on Earth.

The cycle of evolution meant that humans were hard coded to live in places with half days worth of natural illumination, heat, and half days worth of darkness and cold, roughly that is. Apparently, it created problems in the beginning so the Water Dragon had to expend a chunk of their energy to create a day and night cycle in this place.

It was yet another area of research that would need to be done before humans can really go on years or maybe decades long missions to Outer space, who knows.

He wondered how long it would take for humanity's genetically coded instincts about day and night to go away. It should not hamper the current generation of people living in Ta-Lo too much because they were what were essentially pseudodragons, with the base of a human and a tiny tiny portion of a dragon.

Sighing, he manifested another door which pushed him back and propped his body up against the headboard. One of them dissipated while the other moved to the other side of the room, where a pitcher was resting. He needed water before he could speak. The last time he was awake, and boy was that a rollercoaster of emotions, it was day, and now it was night.

So, safe to say, he had been asleep for quite a while, or more probably, the Ancient One knocked him out when he began behaving like a deranged person. It might even be more than that though, who knows?

He resisted the urge to cringe as his panicked mutterings from earlier came to the forefront of his mind. "Oh, Stan Lee, why!" he whined as he leaned back, drinking from the pitcher of water that his Door brought back.

There was a reason he was doing a general wellness check when it came to his powers. All seven of his Doors were working properly, along with all the corresponding size and shape changes, the cycling between Doors was seamless as well, and so was the dissipation as well as creation process.

Manifesting multiple Air Doors, he noted that the process of coordinating multiple Air Doors had gotten easier on his brain, requiring much less focus to work properly, and as he exerted pressure on the miniature Platform made with six even tinier Doors, he could see that he could change the thrust exerted from each Door on the fly, reacting instinctively to any weight changes on it.

"Nice." He commented as the room he was in, illuminated only by the natural(well, Artificially created) moonlight coming in through the room, was illuminated by the colours of his Doors being manifested and used.

Unconsciously, a smile found its way to his face as he watched his powers, his Doors in work, revolving all around him, spitting out tiny Kinetic Lasers, small gusts of wind that moved the curtains, tiny flames that lit up the candles that were put out by the wind and water that did not taste good now for some reason, along with a pile of sand on the ground.

The light Door worked as well as he imagined the three small Doors to be fixtures as they were attached to the ceiling, creating a uniform glow in the room.

It was all so….magical.

"Man, am I stupid," he commented to himself, shaking his head as he criticised himself for panicking over something as menial and inconsequential as losing his hands. Even if it was written by the OAA that he was going to be an amputee for the rest of his life, it did not change anything, not anything of value anyway.

He still had his powers, he could work on his Sorcery, which was long overdue anyway, what with the Super Vampire threat hanging over his head, and do all the things he wanted to do.

His Doors worked just as well with mental commands, better in the case of the Air Door, as they did with his arm gestures. Sorcery was something that he would have to put in effort but he already had a guideline on how to reorient the whole Dimensional Energy flow within one's body because Master Hamir already went ahead and did it all by himself, creating a journey detailing everything in exhaustive specifics, creating an easy shortcut for himself. So, that should not take more than a year, to become just as proficient, if not more with Sorcery than he was now, since he did not use much of that school of magic, other than Portals and a little bit of enchanting here and there, especially the parts where he could create something that was a meld of magic and technology.

That was the best piece of magic in his opinion, since that was the one field where he could make advances that some old fuck some centuries ago did not already do and record in magically enhanced paper that would last for centuries more.

Slowly, the Doors in the room began dissipating as it was once again bathed in the moonlight, every other light source having been either dissipated or put out by him, as his gaze slid downwards, towards the two burnt twigs he had for arms now.

He could barely move the tips of his fingers now, he wondered how he opened that portal back then. The sling ring was removed, thankfully. Chi hit a roadblock when it reached the joint of his hand, blocking any further movement.

Taking a deep breath, he muttered, more to himself than to others, "Well, that settles it then."

With a mental nudge, he called in Jin'Ya 'Yeah, I know you're here. Just come out.'

With a flaky purple wave of energy, Jin'Ya manifested in front of him, looking oddly sombre. He wondered when he mastered the art of reading the facial cues of an automaton and not a human automaton but a draconic one.

He might start writing a book later on in the future, as the only expert in Draconic human relationships(not that kind! Eww!), once the magical world was commonplace knowledge throughout the world and not the hush hush it was now.

"So," he began, shrugging as he leaned back, "Stuff happened, huh?"

"Yes." Jin'Ya before beginning to apologize, "I know nothing I say will heal your arms but–"

"Duh. Look, no need to apologize. I've had some time to process stuff and you know what? It's fine."

"It's fine? Your hands, they're gone!"

"Eh," He waved or would have waved with his arms as he shrugged off his worries, "Tomato-Tomahto. I can do everything I want without them anyway. I am in a far better position than normal people who had to deal with this. Plus," He pointed at the flying lizard, "We have Extremis!"

That was when the Water Dragon entered the conversation, "I have talked with him about this Extremis but I'm afraid that the chances of the serum just regrowing your limbs are slim. It will almost certainly affect the rest of our body and your body already being as strong as it is now, we have no idea what might happen. In any case, I suggested doing the research for that, but preparing for failure."

His smile dimmed a bit but then he shrugged again, "No problem. Hey, the universe is such a huge place, anything is possible. If not Extremis, then something else. Even then, if it does not happen. Well, I've always wanted a mechanical hand. It would be so cool!"

There was a silence in the room that felt oddly uncomfortable to him as Jin'Ya was the one who broke it, "Are you fine, Colin? Are you sure?"

He sucked in a deep breath as he leaned back, nodding as he replied, "Well, Yes and no. It would be a shock to anyone, to lose both arms, they are how I interact with the rest of the world so it was a shock in the beginning. But now? I can see a life I can live without them. It might be a little inconvenient in the beginning but once I have the basics down, I can do stuff better than if I had my biological hands."

Jin'Ya slowly nodded, like he didn't believe Colin but was willing to humor him for the sake of the situation, "Fine. If you say so."

"Alright," He said, peppily, as Doors appeared beneath him and pushed him off the bed as he jumped down, flexing his legs to see if any muscle damage occurred, of which he could find none, "let's go home."

"Colin," Jin'Ya began, "I think you should stay here, under supervision for a dew–"

"Jin'Ya," He interrupted the dragon, "We're going home."

After all, there was work to do.



If you guys would like to support me, or just want to read up to 15 chapters ahead, you can head on to my P*treon. It is the same name as my username.