Doorman (MCU SI)

[IdleMuse0307]

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 #61

??[?]

–Alexander Pierce–

"So, we are sure there is nothing left?" He asked, one more time, in front of the Heads, because they wanted to be included in the investigation into the disappearance and probable death of a very influential and important Head of HYDRA.

Sure, their philosophy of cutting off one head, two will emerge worked wonders when it came to low level or even middle level grunts but when it came to Heads of HYDRA, especially the one who was responsible for much of their exotic high end superhuman research?

Yeah, the difficulty in replacing someone like that was a lot higher, especially someone like Strucker because that man had his hands in so many pies no one knew about that it would be all but impossible to replace him.

"No, sir. We have scanned all of the known bases, confiscated all the electronics we could, a massive amount of physical paper as well, and interrogated all of the known associates but no one knows his whereabouts."

"And what of his assets? His hidden research facilities around the world?" He rolled his eyes at the hunger evident in Whitehall's voice as the two usually butted heads for resources, especially human resources during their meetings and Whitehall would probably like nothing more than to get his hands on his rivals' precious research, probably catapulting his standing above everyone else.

Like he would ever let that happen. After all, while the research both of them did was helpful to some extent, he firmly believed that the future of humanity was not becoming some monster or undergoing painful procedures just to become a bit more biologically resilient. No, it was order. Perfect order, something that his branch was working relentlessly for, and if recent successes are any indication, they were on track to succeed, if not in the next decade, then the decade after that.

BUT they will succeed.

Rumlow, ever the loyal soldier, said straight-faced, "We have been unable to locate any of the primary research centers of Herr Strucker. Despite our many attempts, the location data of any of these facilities has not been found in any of the data caches we have recovered. We are currently in the process of sifting through hundreds of thousands of [pages worth of physical data to get any clues."

"I see. Any clue about his latest scheduled trip to Lagos?"

And that was the clincher of the whole thing. As part of the whole making all the Heads accountable to the council, it was made a rule that for every risky meeting that a Head might go into, they were supposed to report it to the council who might provide a hand to their fellow colleague, should the need arise.

Obviously, all of them were way too prideful to ever ask for help BUT it did help in making sure that no one stepped on anyone else's toes. They did not want a repeat of what happened to his team when they set foot in Eastern Europe without informing anyone. That would just drop morale between their forces.

"About that, we have agents currently scouring the entire city for any clues but according to what digital surveillance we were able to collect, Herr Strucker was last seen heading out of the city. Nothing after that. The cars and the men that went with him have not been seen since."

"I see. This is highly irregular." Malick stated and he had to agree. They have been operating in the shadows for decades at this point, without any major failure across the board. He couldn't pinpoint a single time in the past multiple decades where they had to worry about the safety of the Heads.

Most of them were either way too well hidden or on important posts in important governments, practically guaranteeing their security. The only ones who have been assassinating heads of state and doing it successfully have been HYDRA itself and to have someone not just target but successfully take out one of their Heads was disturbing, to say the least.

"Motion to raise a highest level emergency clause: Authorise all asserts." He whistles internally, once he was on mute obviously. He hadn't expected all of the others to be this spooked, to agree to pool all their resources to get to the bottom of this.

Well, it worked in his favour, since he was the current Head of the Council and as such, their resources were now his to command. Obviously, these snakes would never hand over everything they had but even the part they were willing to hand over to his already large pile would make his next actions very smooth.

"Seconded."

"I Agree."

"I Agree."

"Agreed/"

"Agreed. For HYDRA!"

With each vote, his smile grew as he, at the end, pressed the button and said, "For HYDRA! HAIL HYDRA!"

"HAIL HYDRA!

"HAIL HYDRA!

"HAIL HYDRA!

With that, he swiped his hand on the table and the Video Conference shut off, revealing an empty office, the door to which opened soon after, revealing Rumlow.

Greeting the man with a smile, he asked the most important question, "So, what actually happened?"

Rumlow smiled and took out a tablet from his back and presented it to him, "This is the site we found. A hidden military bunker, buried under rubble. We are still in the process of digging through the whole thing but we have found one of the cars that Strucker used to exit the city."

"Hmm," He went over the footage. "And all the records have been deleted?"

"Yes. All digital as well as Physical copies have been deleted. One of the government archive floors caught on fire and destroyed all the copies of a series of bunkers around the country."

"Well done." He praised the man as he read through the rest of the report. "You think the bunker imploded?"

"Yes, sir. According to the schematics and what little we have been able to analyse based on the layers of debris, the base shouldn't have collapsed on its own. The boys think that some sort of high yield explosives acting on specific load bearing areas along with some strategic impacts on the concrete ceilings brought down the whole thing. We are talking tons of debris, sir."

"So, we might never know what happened down there." HE stated as he negligently swiped through the map on the tablet and then his eyes narrowed.

"Wait a minute. This-" He pointed at a closed building. "I know this place. This is one of Strucker's old facilities. Housing experimental organs purpose built for emergency transplants. Search this place as well. It is an underground basement with a ghost staff."

"I will send people to check it out. Any hostilities expected?" Rumlow asked him, which was fair of him because not all of HYDRA knew they were working for HYDRA.

"Just clean the entire facility. I don't want any ticking bombs from Strucker's side. Make sure to relocate the whole thing. It might help since Strucker must have visited that facility before leaving the city."

"I see. Thank you, sir. HAIL HYDRA!"

He waved the man off and then leaned back in his chair, looking up, smiling.

Strucker might have gone off and died somewhere and it might be a short term loss for HYDRA as a whole but his branch? They were about to get the biggest shot in the arm for all of their activities.

Over 80 Billion Dollars and counting, already in the process of being moved across shadow accounts across the world, to be used as funding to increase the pace of their work.

Sure, the Project INSIGHT was still a concept at this stage, but with additional funding and a little risk when it came to Zola, he might just get the entire thing built within the next three years.

After all, what good was freedom and free will if the entirety of the human race was in chaos?

He stood up and walked to the windows of his office, overlooking a small lazy river that went through the complex, an absolutely state of the art community where most of the occupants were HYDRA, just so he and his family could live a secure as well as luxurious life.

He could see it now. The savior of Humanity and the Earth, the leader of HYDRA.

It would not be long before Humanity realised that they needed HYDRA, needed him.


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.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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 #62

Kamar Taj[February 14, 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

"Ah! I'm so bored. Why can't I go back to the Red Hearth again?" He whined, yes, whined about his current stay in Kamar Taj. It had been over two days since he was brought here by the Ancient One once he had officially given up the Stark Internship.

He had told the Dean about a personal problem that might stretch into weeks, and he might just have to take a rain check on the exams, to which the Dean replied in a very calm and concise manner, but the underlying meaning was clear.

What the fuck is wrong with you? That is the premier Internship program in the world.

With a little back and forth, along with an official email from Stark Industries explaining the abrupt and unfortunate cancellation of the program for confidential reasons, was more than enough for the University to get off his back. He now had 3 weeks till his finals, and if this whole Hell Vampire fiasco lasted beyond that, he might just have to take a gap year.

Speaking of the whole Vampire Fiasco, he turned to his side and saw the freaking Red Matron in the same room as him, casually munching on Apples. "What the fuck are you doing here? Isn't this like sacred land? Why aren't you up in flames yet?"

She kept eating her apple and then after spitting out the seeds like some kind of barbarian–very strong barbarian because the seeds created slight indents in the walls of the secure room he was holed up in, looked at him, "What fucking idiot taught you the basics of sorcerey, you illiterate fool. The designated guardian of a sacred place, ergo, your precious Ancient One, can invite someone in with stipulated conditions. Ergo, me being here without going up in flames."

"Oh yeah?" He snarked right back. All this time spent cooped up in a single place was not good for his mental health, "Like you have the guts to do anything in Kamar Taj. The Ancient One would skin you alive."

He suddenly leaned back into the chair, a slight chill running through the room as the Red Matron was suddenly way too close for comfort, "Watch your mouth, little Life-Giver. You might be able to hide behind your precious Ancient One or even the Psionic Dragon but for how long do you think you will survive without either of them? Know your place, baka~."

He blinked as the woman was back in her seat, munching on apples that never seemed to end, which might just be true considering what he knew about Sorcery and the infinite dimensions that the average sorcerer can see and can access, under the right circumstances.

The Vishanti's power probably made the process vastly easier, though, giving the Ancient One access to, for example, an entire dimension filled with apples.

One of the many handy dandy perks of being the head of a thousand year old order that practiced magic and not just any magic, interdimensional reality warping magic. The best kind.

He then blinked again, his brain taking a while to catch up, despite its enhanced status. "D-Did you just quote anime to me?"

The woman had the audacity to ignore him. Argh, he was so fed up with this.

He checked his laptop for the nth time he had been here. No progress on anything whatsoever.

Sure, there was some progress on the Extremis end but it was all technical jargon and more importantly, just a thinly veiled request for even more ridiculously specialised equipment that was hard as fuck to source on the open market, unless one was a private research company or a freaking country.

Which is why he was ignoring that email, for now. Procrastination for the win.

No reply from Shuri either and nothing on SHIELD's end as well. No new updates for their new satellite systems. He knew it was Project Insight but he just needed something to expose them once and for all. Sure, it might take down SHIELD with it but he was fine with that, as long as they served their purpose.

In his opinion, the single most significant thing that SHIELD ever did, at least in this century, was help in the creation of the Avengers. Sure, with or without their help, a group of heroes, with the same will to save people, would have gathered under a single umbrella to defend Earth from Loki and the Chitauri.

It just would have taken longer for all of them to gather in a single place, a little more time to establish a command structure, more time to get used to each other's moves, and probably would not have gotten a badass name like Avengers.

Probably would have been named something lame like Avengers League.

Which is why it was acceptable to him for SHIELD to become a casualty if the cancer that is HYDRA was rid of this world, once and for all.

*SIGH*

"Why, Stan Lee, Why?" He looked up at the ceiling and asked Marvel God, not Marvel Jesus, no, that is Deadpool, about his current condition.

He swore to Stan Lee himself, the timing of the door creaking open was so perfectly matched as he whirled around, almost dropping out of the ultra comfy chair he was sitting in, hoping for blissful release from boredom, the bane of everyone in his generation and it was…Wong.

"Aww…" He collapsed in his seat, and then turned around, shooting a Kinetic Laser at the Red Matron, who didn't even flinch as a veil of red appeared in front of her face and devoured it easily. She didn't even acknowledge the attack, so busy she was stuffing her face with apples.

How could she eat so much anyway? She hadn't even let him touch them while she continued to eat them by the dozens.

Wong came behind him and stood right by his chair, "I hope the Blood Apples are to your liking, Ms.Koscheyenka?"

The air in the room seemed to ripple as he looked up at Wong, who was looking placidly at the woman who had stopped eating what were apparently Blood Apples, and was straight up glaring at Wong.

He tensed, fingers barely restrained as he got ready to call forth everything he could muster up, just in case the crazy nutjob tried to attack them, and the protection the Ancient One put in place failed to completely stop her.

He couldn't hope to stop her at her full strength but if she was crippled by the protections of Kamar Taj and could only use a fraction of her strength? He could stop one of her attacks, more than long enough for both him and Wong to flee, come with backup and then crush her, Ancient Treaty be damned.

Abruptly, as if the previous bloodlust was just an act, she relaxed in her chair and began munching on the rest of her apple, before speaking, "I see that the Bald Headed Demon's attack dogs have gotten significantly more daring in the time I have been inactive. I don't suppose you know of–"

"--Of the Transylvania incident? Yes, I am more than aware of how you bit more than you could chew and had to call upon the Blood God's powers, which triggered Kamar Taj's protections, resulting in you being handily defeated by the Ancient One." Wong then smiled at her, which only seemed to rile her up even more.

Damn, the protections placed in Kamar Taj or more specifically, the restrictions placed on her by the Ancient One must be truly powerful or else, Wong would have been dead meat by now.

Then, as if on cue, all three of them looked to their side as a glowing orange portal opened up and the Ancient One came out of it. He squinted his eyes and heard a painful groan as the pure, absurdly blinding light coming out of the closing portal meant that the Ancient One just had a one to one meeting with the Vishanti.

He looked to the side and saw the Red Matron only looking mildly annoyed at the burns on her skin, which were visibly repairing as the portal closed.

"The Vishanti have spoken. Koscheyenka, you are hereby ordered to help us with the Vampire problem. Deal with the infestation and the Vishanti guarantees 1 billion Blood Apples, over the course of the next ten years."

His eyes widened as the Red Matron, unheeding of her injuries, skipped over and extended her hand to presumably handshake to seal the deal.

Instead, he saw her visibly stumble as a pair of Apples appeared in the sky, one zooming into her chest and the other disappearing into the sky, presumably leaving for the dimension that the Vishanti resided in.

"And the agreement is sealed. I hope you fulfill your end of the deal." The Ancient One said calmly and then turned around.

Before he could get a word in about these absolutely horrendous living arrangements, especially for a teenaged hyperactive mind, the Ancient One spoke, "You can go to the Red Hearth, Colin. I have updated the wards, and please, do tell Dr.Banner that he cannot access his powers as fluidly as before in that enchanted space. Do with that what you will."

Before he could even pump his fist at that, the scenery around him blurred, and he found himself standing right outside Kamar Taj, in the company of…

"Why are you here?" He pointed at her, who was, once again, eating a Blood Apple.




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.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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 #63

The Red Hearth, Mars[February 14, 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

"This is quite a quaint little place you have built for yourself. Nothing compared to my Blood Veil, obviously, but still, a good little place for the little LifeGiver."

He groaned and slid a hand down his face as the absolutely horrendous and nothing like the rumours about her would indicate, Red Matron skipped in the hallway after the Portal Room of the Red Hearth.

"Don't you know? As part of the agreement, I am also supposed to guarantee your safety, and I can't do that while you galavant around the world. My Blood Apples are on the line, you know." She patronisingly explained to him as if he were a toddler, which, well, he was, if taken in relativistic terms but goddamn, he was an adult and it stung to be treated like that.

So, there he was, getting out of the portal room, with the Red Matron, accused of multiple massacres, into the most sacred place he had built in his life. If it was up to him, he would have never agreed to this but alas, it was something agreed to by Jin'Ya, who was the officially and more importantly, mystical guardian of this place and also the Vishanti who were the de-facto boss of the Ancient One, which made them the bosses of his boss.

"For the record, I absolutely hate this and if you go a single step out of line, I will call down Jin'Ya so down on your ass–"

He was interrupted by her snort as she refused to even look at him, "Oh, that's cute. Relax, little LifeGiver, I am just here to get my Blood Apples, plus your Psionic Dragon has left his traces all over this place. A single command, and I fear that I might just find myself in need of a new body and you in need of another planet. Pro Tip: look for something slightly more hospitable instead of just looking for the closest planet."

He rolled his eyes and ignored her recommendations, though he mentally noted to himself to ask Jin'Ya about the traces that had the potential to blow up the Red Hearth, his one and only true home, something that he literally poured litres of his blood into, to comply with the blood binding process, turning this place into the de-facto house of one Colin Baxter.

Once they were clear of the portal room, he made a sharp right, intending on housing her in one of the medical prison cells, having no interest in getting her even a bit closer to–

"Ooooh, I sense someone, someone strong, and another vastly weaker, and then another completely human. What an interesting combination. I assume we are heading completely away from them?" The latest and greatest headache in his life asked him, though she still followed him without complaint, something he was grateful for because if she just remained obstinate, he had no real way of enforcing any rule all by himself.

Which was kind of saddening, because he had hoped to not encounter reality warping individuals for another decade at least, when he would have gained reality warping level powers of his own.

He really needed to get his mystical training in order. So far, he had just been using his powers, not understanding them. Getting control over his powers on a mystical level would probably elevate his powers scale to levels reaching Thor and, hopefully, with time, the Skyfather level as well.

"Ah, the silent treatment. I see that Humans have not changed in the 5 centuries that I have gone without talking to any human, well, peacefully anyway." She mused out loud, and he noted every little piece of information he got from her chattering away for later analysis, though he was self aware enough to know that she was a thousand year old Vampire, who survived.

As was the mantra, respecting the elderly was important, even more so in the supernatural world because living past a certain age, especially being an objectively evil being on the same planet as the Ancient One meant that she was exceptional, powerful in ways that very few were.

Beings on this level would never slip up and give him anything of note.

Sighing out loud, he flushed his body with CHI, just in case this woman was doing her blood magic on him, however unlikely it might be, and had to witness the incredibly uncomfortable display of the Red Matron, the boogeywoman of Vampires, moan with her eyes closed and her mouth op–

He blinked, shaking his head to banish the image away and snapped at her, taking a step back due to the sheer oddness of the situation, "Stop that! What is wrong with you?"

"Ha. So, that was—wow, that was some really strong stuff. I apologize for losing control, but you have to realise–"

"Alright, that's it," With a snap of his finger, he exercised his control over the wards in the Red Hearth and just displaced her to the prison cell and she didn't even resist as the hallway was finally empty and he could relax.

"Who knew CHI could do this to her?" He wondered out loud as he began walking backwards, to the kitchen, where Bruce was already waiting for him. Hansen was still in the lab, and JT James was still in a coma, which was already starting to weigh on Bruce, he could tell.

"I knew, we all knew. Vampires cannot survive pure life force flowing through them, but if they did, they would instantly elevate their bodies and souls to another level. Why do you think we all steamrolled that treaty without any consideration for any other changes?" Jin'Ya chimed in his mind, reminding him that the Psionic Dragon was watching over him at all times.

"Please," he could feel the Dragon roll his eyes, "I am more worried about dealing with a Blood God level being than you getting in a honey trap."

"So, what? Just because my CHI is untainted by the cycle that is life, not having emotions and little bits and pieces of precious lifeforms, it can be absorbed by Vampires?" He asked JIn'Ya through their mental link as he reached the kitchen floor.

Just waiting outside the door, he heard Jin'Ya's reply, "Precisely. CHI comes from life itself, that is a fact, but you have somehow found a dimension that contains CHI that did not come from any life. It just exists. That makes it more valuable than the Blood God's blood for vampires. Like I said, there was a reason we rushed that thing in to save your pale ass."

He snorted at that reply and shook his head as Jin'Ya left his mind. Even in his care, Jin'Ya never failed to insult him. Truly the best person to bring him down a notch, especially since he was starting to feel a little too important in the wake of having so many valuables stuffed into his very soul and body.

Pushing the door open, he saw Bruce sitting at the table with nothing but a tablet in front of him. The time spent here in the Red Hearth was truly good for the man. He was starting to not look like stick and bones now.

Some of his wrinkles had faded away and the man actually looked more muscular now, no doubt courtesy of their findings that showed them that Bruce was actually decently superhuman, without needing to change a single shade.

"Good evening, Bruce." For simplicity's sake, they had just decided to adopt Pacific Daylight Time since he spent most of his time in Seattle, in the Red Hearth. Not like he needed COngressional Approval to change timezones in this place.

He could just change it to Eastern Daylight Time when he inevitably settled in New York, the capital of public urination and Superhero fights.

"Good evening. I heard that there was an emergency and also read about the internship cancellation. Is everything alright?" Bruce asked him, concerned.

His brows furrowed at that, "What? How did you know about the internship thing? It's barely been a day."

"Well, it's a big thing in the social circles that I used to frequent, at least online. Stark Industries doing this, along with Tony Stark's disappearance, has the academic community talking about Stark Industries' Research future."

"Ah, that's what it was. Makes sense." He nodded and swiped away the small blog post, along with a little note at the end talking about the Arc Experiment's permanent shutdown procedures being initiated.

Well, he was curious about the way Stane would die this time then.

"Enough about me. As you can see, I am completely fine. Due to some other unrelated stuff, I might have to spend a lot of time here, so you might see a lot of me from now on, depending on how many times I can leave my office. Anyways, any updates about Extremis–aside from the equipment requests." He hastily added after seeing Bruce getting geared up.

That took the wind out of his sails as Bruce smiled hesitantly, "Yes, about the man. I know you said—"

"Ah, about him. I am so sorry about that. I still need some stuff to prepare an attractive proposition for him. Until that is done, even if we did wake him up, he would just end up as a prisoner in this facility. Look, Bruce, I know you don't like this, but think of it this way. I am completely responsible for everything, for you, for Hansen, for this place."

Bruce nodded, looking deep in thought. He continued, "IN a way, this is a prison, for you and Hansen, however pretty the package might look like."

He raised a hand and stopped Bruce from interrupting him, "I know you don't think of it like that, but it is the truth. You can't leave, and if you do, you will be hunted down unless you find a safer place, which I don't think you will find. So think of it like him being a prisoner and me being the warden. I have a need for him, and once we have what we need, I will let him go. Until then, I am willing to be the warden who is illegally imprisoning him here. Understood?"

Bruce was silent for a minute before he nodded hesitantly, "Yeah, I get it. I assume that he will get the same perks as me and Hansen?"

"Provided he cooperates with you. We don't want a little pyromaniac and pyrokinetic loose in this place."

He then leaned back, "Now, enough about that. Want to hear a fascinating story about my life? Something that happened just now? It has something that will help you as well."

Might as well use the new and restricted wards to help the man get closer to the Hulk now that the flow from the Guy Below is restricted by the wards that the Ancient One, or rather, the Vishanti, cast on the Red Hearth.


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.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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 #64

The Body Temple(Gym), The Red Hearth, Mars[February 14, 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

BOOM!

With a grunt, he collided with the impact measuring machine, something he picked up from a university in China, a college project for some engineering course. Anyways, it was built to measure impacts, crumple zones, calculate the effectiveness of the crumple zone, all the auto stuff.

He, however, saw a different use case for the thing.

Boom! (Since it was a much smaller sound than his)

"Nice!" He clapped as Bruce shoulder checked the machine with all he had. Yeah, he had another commissioned from the group, just in case he needed parts for one that broke down. IT was a nice little thing he did, giving a group of broke students a little pocket change since he wasn't even scammed in the deal.

This was a perfectly working, normal impact machine.

Bruce came to stand before him, now in gym clothes that did nothing to hide his muscles, with the little flab he had on his stomach gone, huffing with both his hands on his waist, "This is–" He took a breath in between before continuing, "--It's more fun than I thought it would be."

"Right?" He clapped the man's shoulder with a grin as they were currently in the Gym. His story about his supernatural adventure was taken with a huge grain of salt by Bruce, and the only thing he found true, or rather, plausible about the whole thing, was the new and advanced wards on the Red Hearth.

Bruce explained to him that he had been feeling a little odd for a couple of hours before, and could not pinpoint it. So, that got both of their SCIENCE! signals tingling as they both came to the gym.

"So?" He asked Bruce, "Feel any difference?"

According to his theory, Bruce should feel a little less interference from the Guy Below, a little less anger and rage as well. Aside from that, Bruce being enhanced even in his base form was new territory for him, so who knows how that went with the new wards. Though the impact machine definitely told him that Bruce was enhanced, even right now.

Not Luke Cage enhanced, but definitely Captain America enhanced. Him, on the other hand? Spider Man category, the movie one, not the comics one, that one sometimes duked it out with Thor, and he was in no position to do that as of now.

Mjolnir alone would just break through all of his Doors, and the best he could do was use his Kinetic Lasers since using Air, one of his A-tier abilities, would do nothing to Thor, since Storm was his domain, which also included limited aerokinesis. The Kinetic Lasers, as well, would just push Thor back and give him some burns. Burns that Thor's body would heal in seconds, if not minutes anyway.

"Yeah," Bruce said in between gulps of water, "I can definitely feel it in the recovery. I was never this tired, though I never did this strenuous exercise anyway."

He noted those observations down, acting as a good research assistant to the actual Doctor in this place, which was Bruce Banner with his seven PhDs. Wonder what happened to them now that he is declared a criminal?

Not a traitor, not yet but definitely a criminal, and with Ross soon either dead or out of active service, hopefully, Bruce will not get the giant red tag of a traitor like he did in canon.

Still, he was not going to voice out his question like an insensitive idiot.

"So, call it a day?" Bruce asked him and he nodded, "Yeah. Just–here you go, I have catalogued them according to your previous format."

He handed over the perfectly calculated readings along with a little doodle of Bruce punching at the machine, even though that was totally not what they were doing here.

"Thanks! This will help, a lot. Also, while I don't necessarily believe what you just told me earlier, this right here," Bruce gestured at the gym and the machines around him, and then at the pad as well, "-Is real and for that, I am thankful. It's still too early to tell if what your Ancient One did was helpful for me or not, but a change has been recorded, and only time will tell if it's helpful or not." With these words, Bruce just fucked right off.

Once the gym door closed, he sat on the bench and sipped on his Glacier water, all with prehistoric bacteria and viruses, and shook his head, "Man. What a guy."

Stepping into the shower, instead of turning on the shower that drew upon water from the Red Hearth's reservoir, he drew upon a Door and blasted himself with cold water.

The benefits of having an entire dimension of water at your beck and call meant he could get wet anywhere in the world. Okay, that came out wrong.

He shivered a bit because, despite his enhanced physique, he was still susceptible to cold, and the water he had summoned was very, very cold. It was one of the bottom layers of water.

Absurd not conforming to reality's laws, fact, the Water dimension was essentially just an ocean. He did not know if it was spherical or rectangular. All that mattered was that there was an up and there was a down. There were levels to the water.

So, when he opens a Door, he can decide from which layer he wants to get the water from. Ranging from lukewarm to straight up water that has not frozen over only because it did not have the appropriate atmospheric conditions to do so.

Not opening the dimension of Fire to just dry himself off since that would just burn him, even if only a bit, he wiped himself down with a towel and then headed to his office.

The thought of Ross had him itching to know the man's current condition. Hopefully, out of military service already, if not dead. He knew the people in charge wanted an attack dog they could conveniently put the blame on and Ross probably knew that but even Ross and his unique brand of madness must know that if he had limited days to live, he might as well use the fortune and power he had amassed to give himself a comfortable ride to Death.

He still felt a little odd about the whole thing, not because he was the one who gave Ross cancer, but because he felt nothing while giving Ross cancer. Sure, it was done in the haze of rage, after having discovered his willingness to kill soldiers to pin more crimes on Bruce, but even after having performed the act, he felt nothing.

No regret, no guilt.

Just a quiet satisfaction that Ross will not be–

He choked on thin air as he saw a video. Checking and double checking the timestamp, he saw that it was shot just yesterday, showing Ross, hale and healthy, if only a bit red.

Not just healthy, but even a bit more jacked up than he was that night.

"What the f*ck?" He whispered as he got closer to the monitor and started getting to the bottom of things.

He knew, for a fact, that Ross should have been at least hobbling with a stick, if not bedridden entirely. He did not give the man benign cancer. No indication of sickness, no hospital visits, aside from mandatory Military ones that had nothing anomalous in the reports.

Obviously, the reports were doctored, but the video was not. It was a public event, and for some godforsaken reason, Ross was fine.

His eyes widened as he sat ramrod straight. Immediately, he began hammering away at his keyboard while saying the same thing over and over again.

"No, no, no. SHIT!" He exclaimed as he saw the paperwork.

Samuel Sterns….was declared dead.

The Leader….is on the loose.



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