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 #91

Xandar [February 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

He was escorted to a processing chamber of sorts, where a number of people with similar restraints were waiting, entering a glowing door, which was yellow, one by one. He was told to sit and wait for his turn, as the sphere placed on every single alien beeped once before they got up and walked into the glowing door calmly.

"So, how goes your first space trip?"

He sent a sudden spike of anger through their mental link as Jin'Ya finally blessed him with his presence. "Where the hell were you? I thought you had links with Nova Prime. Get me out of here right now."

"Well, think of it like this. We were going to register your abilities anyway so might as well do it this way, and don't worry, this is just a civil offense. They will just write you a fine and leave you back in the city."

"I don't have much money on me, certainly not enough to pay any fine." He hissed back, mentally, as he waited for his turn to enter the glowing door.

"No need for that. They will just put negative units in your bank account. We can pay that off later on."

With that, Jin'Ya cut off the conversation before moving on to do whatever he was doing. Meanwhile, he saw that only two more people were left before it was turn, and honestly, he just couldn't wait for this to be over so he can finally start enjoying his trip.

He knew that Jin'Ya was loaded and he had no intention of letting that dragon screw him over, so, he was going to enjoy the finest hospitality that Xandar had to offer, on Jin'Ya's money of course.

Once he was out of custody, obviously.

___xx___

Wakanda [Same Time]

–Shuri Udaku–

With a grunt, she threw her brother back, as he impacted the wall of the training area, far above the training ring. It was quite comical to watch T'Challa slide down from the wall, as if he was being held by something to the wall.

"You will have to try much harder than that," She commented about T'Challa's move, trying to put her in a deadlock. Well, thanks to her many tests, she knew exactly how much T'Challa could handle which is why she never went easy on him.

Her bother dragged his tired and battered body back to the sparring ring, barely getting through without collapsing, as he raised his fists towards her, apparently eager to get beat up again.

Well, she was not so, sparing her brother's pride, she replied, "Let's take a break. I am really tired."

T'Challa smiled as he relaxed and all but collapsed on his behind, "Really? I can do this all day, Shuri."

"Sure you can."

She sat by his side, drinking water filtered through Vibranium blocks, something about the entire process doing something to the water, enhancing its taste and also creating water that could not be contaminated. Like, if she took this water and poured it in the river water that was found outside the borders of Wakanda, she would find this water to be its own solid mass, without mixing with the rest of the water.

She'd already built the purifiers into all the Royal Palace filtration systems and would soon have that installed at the entry points of all the Wakandan rivers, including the three underground ones that they pulled up from the ground for Wakanda's water safety, before they had the power and technology know how to just harvest unlimited seawater.

They also had a direct pipeline to the ocean, buried a hundred feet below the sea bed, completely untraceable, supplying essentially unlimited amounts of water, gravel, salt, and some other minerals to the Wakandan water processing stations built underground.

They were one of the very few Wakandan facilities built outside of the dome that surrounded Wakanda since secured water supply was something that was taken very seriously a hundred years before, which is why Wakanda had over engineered, and overpowered water systems.

There was a moment of silence that was broken by T'Challa's somber voice, "Does it really have to be this way?"

She sighed, and replied, "You know it can only be this way. The Council and most of Wakanda will not accept me unless I defeat you and Father in direct combat."

"Then why doesn't Baba wish to give you the throne? Why is he preparing, even at this age, to somehow defeat you?"

She snorted at that as if anyone in Wakanda could defeat her at this point. She'd checked with the High Priests, who were already notified of her visit by Bast, it would seem, and after some trial and error, they were able to confirm that the potion blessed by Bast that can be used to strip away Bast's blessings does not work on her.

She literally could not be depowered anymore, which is the only scenario where she could see T'Challa winning because he was always the better fighter of both of them. That was all before she had to take some drastic steps and turn herself into Bast's chosen, the strongest Black Panther that Wakanda has ever seen.

"You know as well as I do that I cannot be defeated."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, Princess. I mean, sure, now? You're freaking unbelievable. But once we are both on the same–"

"We can't be on the same stage anymore, T'Challa." She said, standing up. Pulling T'Challa up, she continued, "The High Priests confirmed it for me. My blessings, unlike yours, cannot be stripped away. So, the fight? It's pointless. I've already won."

Her piece said, she turned around, heading to her lab. She still had some work to do before she could begin scouring the Earth for any entrances to folded spaces, or pocket dimensions like Ta-Lo.

___xx____

Ta-Lo

–Red Matron–

"You know, I know this is like within the terms of my contract but I don't like it." She made sure her opinion was heard by everyone involved as she floated in the air, waiting and watching as the Bald headed demon and the Water Dragon did something to the seal that kept the being that made chills run down her spine, at bay.

As usual, it was the Water Dagon who replied, "We are just making sure that nothing in the seal was altered, in the chaos before we can move on to the next step."

Ah, yes. The next step. Apparently, all of the fights that the brat went into was just so the Bald headed demon could confirm something. Something that she could not see and needed that brat's help to confirm, was the presence of the Dread Lord, in the abandoned areas of Ta-Lo.

It was quite funny, the way that the brat and everyone in here believed that their great Water Dragon was the one who made this space. Well, the Water Dragon certainly carved out a place for themselves, creating an atmosphere that is habitable for humans and other animals.

What they most certainly did not do was create this space. That was clear the moment she stepped foot in this space in the first place. This was clearly a much larger plane, abandoned for some reason by their ruler, that the Water Dragon then found and made their home here.

Which meant that none of them knew about the Dread Lord's infestation that was happening in the areas beyond the Water Dragon's sight.

Dormammu. A being beyond time.

Her eyes glanced at the glinting metal around the Bald headed Demon's neck, as she thought of the threat they were about to face. Apparently, she has called in the big guns for the extermination they were about to carry out today.

The Dread Lord spreading his realm into other empty realms was an ongoing concern for everyone with an iota of rational thought but she never imagined that the Dread Lord had gotten this close to the planet, without anyone realising.

Hell, this was one of the few ways that the Dread Lord could bypass the shield around the planet and send his forces everywhere.

Kamar Taj must have been both pissed and afraid of this becoming reality. She too did not want to live in eternal anguish, which is why she would have gladly provided her services to the noble cause, for a fee of course.

But signing that damned contract put her in a fix once more as she was forced to help, for free, which hurt her damned soul.

Once this was done, she was going back to Colin's side. At Least the chances of gaining neutral CHI increased a lot when he was close by.

All she could get from the bald headed demon was trouble and misery.


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 #92

Xandar [February 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

"You know I am going to get you for this, right? One day, you are going to regret doing this to me," He made sure to stress the threat as he walked out of the detention facility, with a thorough profile built for the Nova Corps, along with total body scans, showing an uncomfortably precise amount of information.

They even let him see what all was being scanned and what data they had in their database and he had to say, it made him drool over what they were capable of scanning, and to what level.

The SCIENCE! bros would just go mad in this place, if they were allowed to buy that technology on the open market. Realistically, as long as something was commonplace enough that it was available in a dozen different places, it was bound to be stolen and sold on the black market. Another thing that he wanted to do before he had to leave, added to the mental to-do list.

"Sure, I will await the day you do something," Jin'Ya smirked at him as they both exited the facility, by flight. Yup, he could legally fly now, he had the license to show for it. The license had nothing to do with speed or how high he could fly. It was all about speed and the small ring in his hand.

Placing it above his eyes, he smiled as it unfolded to secure itself on his face, creating a slightly tingly sensation before that too faded away, revealing dozens of different roads in the sky.

A real time Air Traffic controller, he realised, as they both began floating on the small path that was marked blue for him, which meant that was the path he could use right now. The rest of them were either orange or red.

Orange meaning civil fines, could be used in case of an emergency but reckless use will result in fines and after sustained fines, eventually imprisonment came into the equation.

The red roads were meant exclusively for pre-authorised high value vehicles. Nova Corps patrol ships, government vehicles, shipments for Nova Corps, high net worth private ships carrying expensive cargo or people, and more.

Even here, the rich got preferential treatment which was to be expected but he was fine with that as long as the ones on the bottom got good enough treatment, which, judging by the way facilities were maintained and how he was treated as an absolute nobody, were very good.

He really needed to find out what policies they had in place to combat corruption and abuse of power. Maybe something he could eventually introduce to Earth, possibly?

"So, where to?" He asked the dragon as they eventually crossed the forest that separated the High Citadel from the rest of the capital and slowly landed on the ground as the area ahead of them was not cleared for their travel. Jin'Ya apparently had the same clearance as him, which might have been grounds for making fun but he was on the same level, so the joke would have been on him so he let it go.

"Well, I asked around and while there are no equivalent global networks in this place, to the one that you humans have built on your planet, they do have a library of sorts, but you will have to pay, a lot," Jin'Ya said and he smiled sweetly at that. After all, he was not the one who was going to have to pay, now, was he?

"What is with that smile? It looks creepy."

He ignored the statement and jumped on the air roads as soon as one turned blue for him. The system was heavily organised as it also indicated a gap in existing roads for him to use, to ascend to the higher altitude roads. A system like this might become a necessity on Earth once jetpacks become ubiquitous enough. Then again, considering the durability of normal humans and how regularly people die from falling down, it might be a good idea to never bring jetpacks into the mass transportation equation.

He followed Jin'Ya as he was the one with the mental map as they, after almost 30 minutes of slow flight, landed on the ground, and then walked a couple of minutes before finally reaching the unassuming looking storefront, right in front of the main street.

He looked confused as the door opened and a being with far too many legs and eyes slithered out of the door. Wait, was that a monocle? For a single eye out of the 9 he could spot?

"Greetings, Hoarder. I wish to access your hoard, for a short period of time."

His eyes widened as he took a step back, Doors already appearing in front of him as he was assaulted by a very potent Killing intent, coming from the alien in front of him who hadn't even spoken a word regarding Jin'Ya's proposition.

"And why ss-should I grant you acces-ss?" Oh, the stereotypical snake talk. Lovely.

"Because we can pay, handsomely." He finished the sentence for JIn'Ya before flashing an innocent smile at the dragon who grumbled but took out a card and floated it towards the snake.

"Here, take 50000 credits for a one day pass, for whole access."

One of the limbs was floating towards the card, only for it to freeze as soon as Jin'Ya said the last part. Then it lashed out and flicked the card back at them, the card slowing down as Jin'Ya did his part.

"You think me a fool, Dragon? Your boy here," Why did that sound extremely insulting and derogatory to him? "Has barely been an entry in the Nova Corps registry for a day. I will not be risking everything I have for that. 300,000 credits or you can leave the same way you came from." The snake literally hissed at them, just without rolling its 'S' this time.

"Do you know who I am?" He looked to the side, somewhat surprised as Jin'Ya had assumed his draconic form, towering over everyone in front of him, releasing a concentrated blast of psionic energy, aimed at the snake in front of them.

Jin'Ya did his thing for about 10 seconds before the bored voice rang out, "Are you done?" Jin'Ya deflated back into his tiny form after his failed method of intimidation.

"Yeah, sure." Jin'Ya said before flicking the card back at the snake who eagerly took it inside, not before ordering them, "Wait here."

He mentally asked the dragon why he backed down and the reply he got made him deadpan at the Dragon.

"He is one of the older ones, not quite at my level but still strong enough, at least mentally, to sustain my regular psionic output. Plus, he has friends in high places so harming him was never an option. Even Nova Prime would have to request for information as he is known for hoarding every piece of information he can find." Jin'Ya mentally replied.

"So, he is our best bet then?"

"Yes."


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 #93

Xandar [February 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

After about a minute or so of just standing outside a store, he was starting to get antsy. The damned snake could have at least invited them in. What was taking so long for just a normal transaction anyway?

Before he could voice out any of his concerns, the door slid open and the snake tumbled out, throwing the card back at Jin'Ya who stored it in the pockets of his outfit, which was probably magically enlarged to store a freaking house in there if need be.

"Go to the docks. Someone will take you to the Archive. Remember, if you die down there, no refunds."

Jin'Ya just nodded calmly at the insane demands that the snake put forth and he was standing there, shocked about the conditions of refunds. Die down there? What does that mean?

"Is the archive not here? We have to go somewhere else for that?"

"Human," once again, did not like the way it was used as a derogatory term, "Were you born yesterday? Why would I keep myself and my treasure in the same place?" saying that, the snake slid back into his store, without giving them anything to confirm. No receipt, nothing.

Jin'ya began floating by so he did the same. Catching up, he was about to ask the multiple questions on his mind when Jin'Ya beat him to the punch, "No, there are no receipts. The product we are about to receive is not legal and is only allowed to exist by the major powers of the galaxy because it is equally helpful to everyone and also because the Old One is conscious of the fact so he deliberately withholds anything that can destabilise the current status quo."

He nodded, deciding to keep his questions to himself as they changed lanes and floated into the first entry lane, heading towards the Main Docks. He couldn't wait to get his hands on sweet, sweet information.

___xx___

"Huh," Standing on the edge of the ramp, he looked at the vast forests that dotted his vision, smelling the fresh air, he couldn't help but be speechless. This was…not what he expected when he was told that they were going to a secret underground information archive that was apparently equally coveted by many major players in the world.

He hesitantly floated down and yup, it was a tropical rainforest all right. No illusions, magical or otherwise, because the one thing that is really hard to duplicate without the power of Chaos Magic, is the sense of smell.

Nevertheless, a Door appeared in front of him and shot out a wave of air, and he nodded as the trees all wavered a bit, and one even dropped some sort of odd fruit from the top, confirming that it was indeed a forest.

"This is as far as I can take you. You'll have to reach the location on your own. I will be back here in exactly one rotation, and will not wait for long so be on time." With that rude statement, the ramp closed on its own and the ship rocketed up to the sky, forcing him to use a large Door to ward off all the sand that was displaced from the launch.

Once the jet was gone, he looked up at the giant trees that extended as far as his eyesight could go and then jumped, using Air Doors to propel himself further and further, until he finally reached the top and…

"Holy SHIT!" he cursed as he saw the view. Greenery as far as his eyes could reach and even then, they were all composed of trees that were about the height of the current one. As far as his knowledge went, none of the trees on Earth that were alive anyway, had reached this height and they probably never will.

He might have to thoroughly decontaminate himself before leaving for Earth because he couldn't imagine it being good for Earth's ecosystem, to introduce an alien species to the mix.

"Come on," Jin'Ya said as he flew forward, at very high speeds so he did the same, keeping in mind to keep a Door in front of his face, turned almost transparent because he did not want a bird just drilling into his face, and then cracking his neck due to the whiplash.

One time was more than enough, thank you very much. It was a very unpleasant sensation, to crash into a forest, and be unresponsive for a couple of minutes, unable to do anything, as the Chi door worked on getting his body back to operating limits.

Fun times.

Soon, he was left far behind Jin'Ya, who then had to cocoon him in Psionic energy before their speeds increased further, turning the landscape below into a green blur. Curiously, there was no hint of blue in those blurry shapes, despite them covering a very large distance.

Did this planet not have large rivers? Or were the giant trees covering all of it?

All of his questions however were pushed aside and replaced by a single one as they finally slowed down.

"What the f*ck is that?" he pointed ahead, at the massive, and he meant it, a massive volcano that had sprouted out of the ocean, with lava continuously streaming down from the volcano's sides, with small openings facilitating the flow, resulting in a constant steam being generated because the lava fell into the ocean, or lake of sorts because the whole water body was surprisingly short, way shorter to hold a volcano of that size.

"What is this place?"

"This is the Archive," Jin'Ya stated as their journey picked up pace once more, as they headed straight to the mouth of the volcano. Knowing that Jin'Ya could easily survive this, he still had some concerns.

So, naturally, he voiced them, "Um, why are we headed to the one dangerous thing in this place?"

Jin'ya did not answer but the change of trajectory was confirmation enough as they veered off course and just dunked themselves straight into the bubbling lava. He had already summoned Doors, on instinct but then dispelled them as Jin'Ya took them both straight down through who knows how deep layers of Lava before their bubble finally hit something solid.

He watched as it hit some sort of energy field, as Jin'Ya stopped. He couldn't hear anything legible because lava did not conduct sound like normal substances but he could most definitely hear movement of sorts all around them.

Soon enough, the answer was clear because the Lava all around them was being sucked away into a large opening on the wall beside them. He looked up from the bubble and saw a similar energy field holding the lava at bay, as the area around them was cleared of any lava before the energy field below them was opened up, allowing them entry.

Jin'Ya exited the bubble first, presumably to check if the atmosphere was hospitable for him or not as he kept observing the entire process of how the second energy field collapsed, allowing lava to furiously crash on the force field right above him, making him duck a bit on instinct.

A second later, the bubble dispelled, as he looked around him and saw a fairly nondescript room with a similar snake person pushing some buttons on a console nearby, presumably the one that operated everything about those forcefields.

He wondered how others came to this place? A ship small enough to protect from lava and traverse this opening would almost certainly be a rarity.

That left superpowered beings throughout the galaxy who could make this and there were certainly a handful who could but even between them, the ones who could make it as effortlessly as Jin'Ya would be few.

The snake person did not even look at them as he began walking towards a door that was previously a wall. He followed suit with Jin'Ya, as the view made his jaw drop.

"Surprised?"

Surprised wouldn't even begin to convey the feeling he was having right now. In front of him, for what must have been miles long, there were books, and shelves. A library.

"A literal library, on paper? What are you, the 80s?" The statement blurted itself out before he could process anything.

"Alright, let's move on," Jin'Ya said as they sailed to the platform in the middle, the elevated one.

"It is not as bad as you think it is. There is an index and the file you request comes to you instead of you having to navigate this whole thing. So, don't worry. Secondly, I am granting you level 1 access."

"What? I am being restricted? Why?" He exploded as he stood up. The thought of being denied potentially salivating information was unacceptable to him.

"There's stuff in here that would drive even you mad so yes, level 1 access so only stuff you wanted to find. General information, technical know-how for everyday systems, and a little bit more." Jin'Ya waved his hands and a small card flew out of his pockets before it landed on one of his Doors.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some stuff to find. Feel free to read whatever you have authorisation to access." Saying that, the dragon f*cked right off, leaving him with a watered down access to such a cool place.

Hell, he could even feel traces of magic, strong Asgardian magic, somewhere in this place and because of Jin'Ya, he couldn't even access it.

He had no doubt that forcibly trying anything would just make things worse so he just resolved to get the stuff he needed.

Such a spoilsport, Jin'Ya.



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 #94

Xandar [February 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

"So, no interconnected network in any galaxy? None? The Kree have a TV program of sorts that continuously blasts propaganda at their faces but aside from having to see that ugly mug's face, nothing else?" He muttered to himself, parsing through record after record on the digital screen, feeling utterly confused and fascinated with the progression of media in various alien civilisations.

Xandar, for one, was the highest on the list to have properly developed arts, including movies, plays, music, and more. Probably a direct consequence of having pro immigration policies and becoming a hotspot of cultural diversity.

As much as that would have been a positive measure, he could see that it would not have had as much success as it did if not for the overwhelmingly powerful but gentle hand of the Nova Force pressing down on them, reminding them that the safety they enjoyed came at a cost.

There was nothing on the air traffic control system that he wanted, or more accurately, it was not available in his Level 1 access that JIn'Ya so generously granted him.

Nothing about the Infinity Stones.

Nothing about the Supreme Intelligence, Thanos or even Odin. Some brief surface level information about Ronan, the Black Order, and the Asgardian siblings was present, and even in that case, there was no mention of Hela or the Goddess of Death.

He really did get shafted with the reduced access levels.

____xx____

Warrior Falls, Wakanda

–T'Challa–

He stood in the stands, witnessing people quietly shuffling in under the close guard of the Dora Milaje. He was not supposed to be here this early and it showed. Everyone from the priests to everyday citizens were whispering about his presence.

According to traditions, it was the security that showed up first, then the civilians, the witnesses, then the King and his Royal Family, and in the end, the contenders for the battle to become King of Wakanda.

In his opinion, this practice, while functional until now, would not hold weight in the future, when physical prowess would not equate with a good king. He might just have to abolish this tradition or more accurately, have his sister do it because it is not appropriate for the greatest nation on the planet to choose their ruler based solely on their physical and combat ability.

The J'Bari would make excellent Kings and Queens if that logic was applied universally.

Him being here this early, earlier than even Okoya was a signal, a sign that he was not going to be a part of the competition to become King. He was not going to be the one who was going to fight his sister for a chance to become King.

He still did not know exactly what it was that set off the loving relationship that Baba and Shuri had into fire, that forced Shuri into becoming the strongest Black Panther ever, but he was not about to challenge Shuri to a fight he knew he would not be able to win.

He glanced at the sun and knew that any minute now, the King and the Royal Entourage, consisting of the Elder Council as well as the Royal Family would arrive. Shuri was nowhere to be seen but with what little he knew about her and the tech she kept secret from everyone else, she could be in her lab one minute, and the next, she would drop down from the sky, ready to fight anyone who dared.

"Prince T'Challa, does your presence here indicate what I think it does?" Okoye asked him as she continued to monitor the peaceful procession of witnesses on the stands built around here.

"Yes." Was the only reply he could give, and she did not ask for an explanation either.

"All Rise! For King T'Chaka!" The High Priests announced as Baba arrived with the Royal Entourage. He nodded slightly at Mother who nodded back as they passed before him and sat in the Royal Seats.

He had already informed Baba and Mother about his choice beforehand, along with informing them about Shuri's odd resistance to the portion that strips Bast's blessings from the Black Panther. That information did not seem like news to Baba so the High Priests must have already informed him about that but he considered that information to be the most he could do, in this apparent match between his family.

Soon, everyone was seated and the High Priest began their lecture, about Wakanda, its founding and the principles it was built on. How Bast protected everyone, blessed the Black Panthers to become the protectors of the country, to save Wakanda from outsiders and threats beyond the capability of normal people.

On and on, they went, taking turns to narrate different parts of traditions, until finally, it was all done. And the High Priests declared the challenger section to now begin. As usual, the J'Bari were absent but he expected at least a single candidate from any of the Five Tribes but no, no challenger from the Tribes.

A minute after the High Priest finished her declaration, his neck snapped up, so did Baba's as they both heard something that only the ones blessed by Bast could hear, as a very tiny whine or pressurised air could be heard before Shuri, clad in her armour, dropped down from the sky, landing on the ground without a sound, and only a little disturbance in the water.

There was a surprised gasp from the witnesses but everyone that was important here knew that the Princess was going to make a play for the throne so they were relaxed.

"I, Shuri Udaku, challenge T'Chaka Udaku, for the throne of Wakanda!"

Wow, that was surprisingly passionate for Shuri, who usually took this whole thing with an air of nonchalance, as if she had already won and only the formality of the official declaration was left, which, in a way, was true.

If the potion could not strip Shuri's blessings away, then even if he and Baba combined fought her, they were destined to lose. Sometimes, he had nightmares, thinking of the reasons why Bast thought it prudent enough to bless someone with so much strength to become the Black Panther, on top of the already existing ones.

Was Wakanda headed into such a grave disaster that this level of strength and intelligence was necessary?

There was little surprise among the populace because it was public news by now that the Princess wished to become Queen. The only surprise would be him taking back his candidacy for King and when Baba made eye contact with him, he slightly shook his head to indicate as such.

As much as it made him sad that his Baba was going to lose, in some way, he could not realistically interfere without knowing the full story and no one was willing to tell him anything as Baba had expressly forbidden everyone from ever speaking out about that specifically and the one person who ignored Baba's orders did not wish to speak about it as well.

So, there he was, in the dark, about to witness a one sided fight between his sister and his father, when out of nowhere, a clear voice rang out across the clearing.

"I wish to challenge the Princess for the right to become a Challenger."

He caught the slight smile on his father's face as he looked up to see someone completely unknown drop down, right in front of Shuri.

His eyes narrowed as he sensed danger from the man in front of them whose body was riddled with marks.

"The long lost son of Prince N'Jobu, N'Jadaka will be fighting in my stead, for the throne of Wakanda."

His gaze snapped to Baba, who looked pleased and calm about the whole ordeal as Shuri looked confused about the whole thing.

The people in the stands, they were different. They were cheering and shouting, celebrating the discovery of Wakanda's long lost son.

Then why? Why did it feel like he was just watching someone who could end up being a danger to Wakanda, instead of a blessing?

This….This did not feel right to him. And he was sure that Shuri must be feeling the same.

Alas, it was a ritual that Shuri asked for so no one save for Bast herself could interrupt it.

All he could do was trust his overpowered little sister.



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 #95

The Archive, Uncharted Planet [February 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

"I hope you found what you wanted here," He waved off JIn'Ya who was back from his gallivanting as he was pouring through another book on the specifics of a cautionary tale of the galaxy.

It was kind of the go to story that everyone referred to whenever the topic of uplifting entire civilisations was brought up. Surprisingly, it was the same tale that was thought of as fiction back home.

The story of giving Advanced nuclear fusion reactor, a singular reactor, so that the people who were in the industrial age and were capable of consuming electricity would not die out in their first winter. The locals were obviously very happy for an unlimited, non polluting source of electricity, and the requirements of the entire civilization, apparently, could be fulfilled by that single reactor.

Alas, it happened. The thing that he knew would happen, as such was the nature of sentient life with emotions.

Jealousy. Resentment. Anger.

The placement of the reactor meant that people naturally closer to it became more prosperous and fearing the loss of said advantage, began zealously guarding their sacred treasure, leading to widespread losses and conflicts.

In the end, the civilisation that wanted to give a fledgling species a chance to survive a brutal winter that would have guaranteed a 50% loss of life, lit the spark for a war that decimated 80% of all life on that planet.

This was the boogeyman story used to justify or scare off any civilisation that truly wished to help other civilisations prosper. Now, on the other end of the spectrum, species like the Kree actively descended upon helpless civilizations and made them their slaves, or mined their planets for resources, using the native population as slave labour.

In his opinion, when the opposite end of the spectrum that was interference in natural civilisation development, as the Kree existed, there should have been some sort of framework that would have helped other species to advance and become member states, instead of being ruled by fear.

HE discarded the book and turned to Jin'Ya, "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"I am not sure. I have found something but I'm not sure if it will work."

He shrugged, "Okay. How much time do we have in here anyway?"

Jin'Ya retrieved a card from his pocket space, and replied, "We have about 7 hours left."

Huh, time moved a lot faster when he was engrossed in reading stuff that literally nobody on Earth had any idea of.

"So," He turned to Jin'Ya, "I've read here that they don't allow people from obviously backward civilisations to take home any piece or know how of technology that might result in disproportionate growth. Any way we can circumvent that?"

"You do realise that the Good Ways laws, accepted by most of the galaxy, were written for a reason, right? I understand your wishes but to hand over any sort of technology to humans of all races would be the height of folly. No, I did not bring you here so that you could bring back technology."

"Then why?"

"Well, for one, we needed you out of the equation while the rest did their work, and two, I don't think the Hell Vampires have their claws in Xandar so that you can work on getting back up to fighting speed. Also, I think a change in scenery is good for you humans."

"Huh," Was all he could say to that as JIn'Ya flew off to do…things.

He then turned around and changed the course of his study. Since he was here to get back to fighting shape and it was probably going to take a while to do that, might as well study stuff about challenging terrains he can find where he can do his training.

Like the ones Fat Thor would undergo to become Fit Thor again, in the future. Maybe.

So, with renewed gusto, he dove back into the index, which was just a handy dandy little tablet that had all the books, and papers and news, gathered by genre, date, time modified, most accessed, most popular, least popular and more. It was surprisingly intuitive, as he would just select a book, and then a robot would float from underneath the platform and would just disappear into the ocean of books here.

Then, after a minute or so, it would return into the chambers beneath the platform and then, he would have a book in his hand, or rather, a temporary copy of the book. That technology was also very sweet because the book would just be recycled apparently, turning the old paper into blank paper, stripping the ink and then reusing it. A masterclass in sustainability apparently, as all the power in this place came from harnessing the heat from the lava on top and below the entire facility.

There was a book on the workings of this place as well. They had these tubes, running around the entire facility, which allowed for the movement of high pressure lava from the bottom of the facility to the top of the facility, allowing for a small cavity, wherein this huge space was created. He had no doubt that spatial magic was used in the creation of this place because the size of that volcano would never be able to fit this place inside it, especially considering the shape of a volcano and the long space that this library had.

They also used Vibranium to get the energy from the high pressure lava, to run the whole thing all the time.

With his training montage in mind, he dove back into the books, searching for interesting planets and terrains. After all, he could not just hope that whatever Jin'Ya found with his access level in this place would actually work on his arms or not.

Also, he wondered what Jin'Ya meant by the rest doing their work.

____xx___

Ta-Lo Space

–Red Matron–

"You know, I never thought I would say this but I kind of wish the Parasitic Dragon was here right now." She said and then snarled as she had to pull off yet another invisible demon who clung to her body by literally ripping it in half.

These pesky demons were very tenacious, sticking their claws in her body even when dead and ripped into two.

It had been nothing but hours and hours of this, ripping apart demons who came in their way, and as far as she could see, the only way here was through them. She was doing her part, casting a wide area blood net, allowing for nothing to pass through undetected and the Water Dragon was casting wide area light spells, cleansing the weaker demons and weakening the stronger ones, so she could finish them off with ease.

All the while, the Bald Headed Demon, the supposed strongest of their group was floating with her eyes closed, her entire body glowing golden as she pointed them at their target. She wondered how that brat even survived an hour in this place, if this was the intensity of the attacks on him.

No wonder the brat thought losing both his arms was a worthy trade off to get out of here. Still, it elevated the brat's position in her mind, to have survived all of this, and that too with a dead weight hanging off of him? Impressive.

All thanks to that neutral Chi. Ah, how she wished she could get a taste of that. That was probably the only reason she was going through with the whole plan with the level of enthusiasm she had right now. Any way she could increase her chances of getting her hands on that, it would be worth it.

That didn't mean that she couldn't get absolutely angered and frustrated at the unending hordes of Demons that the Dread Lord was sending their way, doing nothing but making her angry, as her face twisted in an angry snarl, sending forth an omnidirectional wave of blood disintegration spell, making the Demons flop uselessly to the ground in a circle around all of them.

Only for another horde to come barreling through, crushing the Demon corpses below.

"How long?" She shouted at the Bald Headed Demon but received no reply as they continued to make slow and steady progress towards the epicentre of Dormammu's invasion of this space.

She knew intellectually that the Ancient One, clad in her Vishanti's cloak, would be their best bet at repelling Dormammu but that still put destroying the vast majority of their obstacles on her and the Water Dragon, who was not as strong as her but was useful in weakening most of the fodder that was sent their way.

Argh, she would have to bathe in the tears of the Dark Elves when she went back to get rid of this Demonic stench.



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 #96

Xandar [February 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

"You know, you could at least tell me what you found there. I could help," He offered to Jin'Ya who just looked down at him and then scoffed, resuming floating languidly towards their rooms.

"Come on!"

They were back on Xandar, and Jin'Ya had booked a complete relaxation package for him. Jin'Ya, being in an artificial body, did not have much need for that, but apparently, Jin'Ya knew that Colin needed all the massages he could get.

Essentially, a forced pampering session that was imposed on him despite his many protests to turn the ship around and dropping them at 4 different planets he found with higher gravity than Earth and in various adverse environmental conditions.

Hell, two of them even had oxygen rich atmospheres. But noooo, the pickup and drop service was only to and fro from Xandar, nowhere else.

He bickered, right up until they reached their rooms and Jin'Ya phased through the door, while he had to use his Doors to push open the Door and go inside. Honestly, that was becoming second nature to him, using his Doors as Hands.

They had more range than his hands since they could float away, had more versatility and more importantly, could be sacrificed without any issues, something that could not be said of his hands. The only major drawback he could think of, was the use of a sling ring.

Dimensional Energy had to be guided through a soul and into the sling ring using one's body, and he did not think that his Doors counted as part of his body. Maybe if he could do something even more drastic, like the time he ripped apart the door on the Chi Door, allowing him permanent access to neutral Chi.

Before he could even think of entering his mindscape to figure out if anything else could be done, he heard Jin'Ya essentially shout through their mental link.

"Don't even think about it!"

Well, he would have done it either way but he was not in a hurry. Who knows, whatever Jin'YA found in there might end up working or even better, help them perfect their existing methods.

He was not that worried about them now, not nearly as much as he was when he was back on Earth. Part of it was seeing multiple alien species with fewer limbs and mobility thriving and living happily in this place.

Honestly, if he was not already so invested back on Earth, he might have settled here. Sold some Vibranium, used his powers as services for the high class, paid his taxes to the Nova Corps, helped defend Xandar if need be, and then lived a very happy life on this planet.

Then, he sighed. Alas, he loved Earth and would love to see Earth take steps in the right direction, even if he intellectually knew that he would not be able to see Earth adopting even a fraction of Xandar's policies in a human lifetime.

___xx___

His eyes fluttered open, as he found himself facing the ground. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes as he remembered how he had fallen asleep. Who knew a massage by someone with four limbs would be so relaxing?

He slowly lifted himself using his Doors, looking around the empty massage room, really thankful for the great sleep he had just now. Man, Jin'Ya was right, this was the best massage place on the planet. HE wondered how that dragon knew about it but he just chalked it off to ancient contacts having other contacts pointing him to this place.

He knew that despite Jin'Ya's claims of having contacts in every sector in very place, the reality was that the dragon had contacts who probably were alive at some point in time. The dragon had a horrible sense of time and probably had naps that were longer than humans lifespans at some point.

One of the quirks of having an extremely long, almost indefinite lifespan, he supposed.

Quickly getting dressed, he saw that he had been asleep for about 2 hours, which was a lot for him because he barely needed to sleep 3-4 hours each day and that was pushing it because he slept extremely lightly, such that after the first hour, he could be awoken by a small rustling sound as well.

"Thank you," he thanked the staff, and the receptionist as he exited the massage place, which was built into the hotel they were staying in, and went into the elevator. It was frowned upon to use flight abilities inside the hotel so he just went with the regular method.

In his opinion, getting rid of his mandatory 7-8 hours of sleep per day requirement was one of the better things he had received from his powers. He just had more time in a day than most people on the planet and that helped him a lot, for multitasking.

"I suppose you are well rested enough to begin your training?" Jin'Ya was waiting for him at the door.

He raised an eyebrow, curious about Jin'Ya's method of training but willing to finally work on his situation. "Yeah, just give me a second to change."

"No need. The place we are going, none of your clothing can survive."

"What?"

He did not receive a reply as he was covered in purple psionic energy and whisked out of the hotel. "Wait! I didn't get my stuff!"

"It's paid for, for the entire month. So, quit squirming!"

____xx___

"Uh, what is this?" He asked Jin'Ya as the ship was parked in orbit around something he would hesitate to call a planet. It was just a swirling mass of purple and pink, oddly reminiscent of the colour of Jin'Ya's psionic powers.

The shape continued to change as well, and it was a free planet with no star or satellites around it, which made him question if the thing had substantial mass or not.

"That, Colin boy, is the training that you were so desperately asking for."

"No!" He snapped at the dragon, "I did not ask for this. What I asked for was a planet with a breathable atmosphere, with some minor tweaks in environment and gravity. Not this!" He pointed at the swirling mass, through the glass.

"Well," Jin'Ya shrugged, "this is the best training spot, trust me. We will have your energy routes redesigned in no time."

Then, he was covered in an air bubble and the ship's bay was opened, exposing them to the vacuum of space as they slowly drifted out of the ship, as the ship itself moved away from the purple mass.

Jin'Ya spoke into his mind as they slowly went closer to what he suspected to be a mass of psionic energy mixed with some other energy, "You will need to work on getting a proper defense mounted against the flood of energy, other than your Chi. This is the fastest method to get you back up to passable levels in Dimensional Energy manipulation."

"What?" He had so many questions but before he could vocalise any of them, Jin'Ya spoke a final warning into his mind, "Don't worry. I will be right here, just in case something unexpected happens. Don't worry though, no limbs will be destroyed today. Some layers of the skin can disintegrate but most of your muscle and all of your bones should be fine."

There were so many things wrong with that sentence that he couldn't even begin to list them out.

"F*ck yooooou!" He snarled through their mental bond as the air bubble he was in, abruptly accelerated and punted him into the energy cloud.

Within a second, he had already covered himself in Doors, sealing himself within, as an Air Door pumped it full of air that was roughly the same composition as the current atmosphere back on Earth.

The purple bubble of energy around him moved away from his Doors and was turned into a rectangular box. He could see it all through the transparent doors. One moment, the entire rectangular box was empty and the next, thin strands of purple energy came pouring in.

"It is a diluted form of extremely heavy energy. It will hurt but once you have Dimensional Energy manipulation down, we can move on to denser energies. Yes, Dimensional Energy is capable of blocking this, if you have the will to do it." Jin'Ya answered his question before he could ask so he shrugged and sat down, cross legged.

This time, it was a lot easier to just get a clear coating of Dimensional Energy on his head and torso, along with manifesting two arms.

He looked up as the sealed Door space he was surrounded by, changed shapes, eventually creating a very small Door that he could shrink in order to create a small opening for the external hostile energy to come through.

He also made sure there was enough space to trap that energy if he could not dissipate it.

Taking a deep breath, he removed the other hand, and just kept his right hand manifested. In a single motion, he shoved the hand towards the smallest Door, just in time for a small stream of energy to come crashing through to directly hit the hand made up of Dimensional Energy.

He blinked as it shattered immediately on impact, as he jumped back a bit and summoned a Door to lock that energy down.

"Uh, this was going to be a long day," he sighed and sat down once again, determined to create an even stronger hand. If he could make something that could survive this, he would have made conjurations that would be stronger than even his body.

The mere thought of it filled him with excitement.


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 #97

Middle of Nowhere [April 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

He took a deep breath in, visualising Dimensional Energy to be a raging flow of river, as it wrapped itself around him, not drowning him but covering him in a protective embrace.

Then, he opened his eyes and smiled. For he was floating in the middle of an energy storm, the likes of which would have shredded his arms off just a scant few weeks ago, and yet, there he was, floating in between, covered by a seemingly thin layer of Dimensional Energy, with nothing else to protect him from the onslaught of the very heavy energy.

He uncrossed his legs and stood on nothing, looking all around him as he could feel the energy taking its toll on the full body barrier he had around him, micro cracks forming on the outer layer but his control had advanced to such a point he could continue the cycle of casting newer barriers with Dimensional Energy by matching the rate of destruction, minimising energy expenditure.

Jin'Ya came into his view, with a small load of stuff with him, that he promptly threw at Colin. With a mental flex, a hand made out of Dimensional Energy shot out of his chest and caught the purple bubble, bringing it closer to himself as the shroud of Dimensional Energy expanded to form a small room, as the stuff that Jin'Ya brought him was dumped into the box he had formed around himself.

"Hmm, much smoother than before. Still, you missed a spot," Jin'Ya pointed at the corner of the room, where a small piece of the heavy energy outside was nestled in, having made its way in during the expansion of the barrier.

With a small rearrangement, he sacrificed a small barrier and removed that piece of energy from his bubble of Solitude.

Ha! It made him crack up whenever he thought of that term in his mind. Also, he might be going a little crazy doing nothing but training in this palace for what he estimated to be months now, so there was that as well.

Jin'Ya wouldn't tell him how long they had been at this, only that they would leave once he could leave the cloud of energy on his own, which, fair, he still couldn't do. Not while actively defending himself from Jin'Ya attacking him from all angles. Yup, that was the prerequisite to pass the training here which was harsh in his opinion, but necessary if he wanted to have a shot at defending himself against opponents at the same level as the Red Matron.

The treaty with the Ancient One and Kamar Taj was still active, as far as he knew but if the Red Matron could somehow get around it, then so could someone else so he was not taking chances with his safety and if he could meaningfully become better at using Dimensional Energy, then he would do so, time be damned, as long as he did not end up spending years here, though he was sure that was not the case.

Taking the stuff that Jin'Ya brought him, he took the largest spherical object and pressed the top of it and took a single step back, allowing for the world's most portable bathroom setup to emerge from it. Then, he attached the water tank, the waste tank, and took out the toiletries.

This had been the routine for the past few months or so, as he did his training, as Jin'Ya told him, waited for the dragon to come, and he came right on time, with this essential package.

He then bathed himself, and put on fresh new clothing. Clothing from Xandar was very comfortable and soft, but sadly, they did not have much in terms of fashion. Denim, apparently, was not used on Xandar much because many alien species were allergic to it. Another interesting tidbit that Jin'Ya told him when he was in the middle of his meditation to get into the proper mindset to build stronger barriers.

"So, finally going to tell me how long I have been doing this? You know this counts as some sort of torture scheme, right?" He asked Jin'Ya as he tore into a sandwich, with meat from some sort of chicken adjacent family that is commonplace on Xandar.

He gave up the questions about the food long ago because one got very hungry doing the same mentally and physically demanding task again and again.

"Two months." He did not choke on his food because it was not as shocking. He continued chewing and after swallowing, replied, "Oh, that's not too bad. How long do you think we'll be here until we can leave?"

"Actually, we can leave now if you want to."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, you've progressed very well, far more than I expected you to, and frankly, you deserve a small break from this. So, we can either go straight to Earth, or go to Xandar. Your wish." Jin'Ya offered him and he peered suspiciously at the man. This was way too good of an offer from him, especially considering his actions over the past two months, bordering on torture.

__xx__

"How long till we reach Earth?" He asked Jin'Ya who was piloting his spaceship. That's right, who has two limbs and a personal spaceship? The guy sitting in the co-pilot's chair with his two remaining limbs on the dashboard.

Yes, that guy!

"I really should have downloaded the English language pack before we left Xandar," Jin'Ya grumbled because the ship was showing all sorts of data in a completely alien language to him. With the universal translator that was gifted to him by Jin'Ya, he could understand and speak most alien languages as if they were speaking English but reading and writing was a whole other beast.

Which is why this old, beat up spaceship that he was the proud owner of, did not have all the languages downloaded in it, especially not English, because it was a language spoken on a planet that was literally named as Dirt, in the wider interstellar community.

It was also why Jin'Ya was slightly irritated with him because he was endlessly curious about everything that was being shown to him on the dashboard, as well as the multiple written warnings on many parts of the inside of the ship.

"As for your question, it will take another hour before we finally leave the Jump Gate near the Moon."

"Alright."

"So, how do we fuel this thing on Earth?" Alas, that was not going to be the end of his line of questioning and he had a feeling that the chances of Jin'Ya just turning this thing around and buying him an English Manual and downloading the English language pack were increasing by the minute.


___xx___


Slowly, the ship came to a halt right above a clearing in the middle of Nepal, a few hours away from Kamar Taj, Kathmandu. As the ship descended on the clearing, there was a ripple effect mid air, as they parked the ship on the clearing, away from cities, roads. It was impossible to just stumble upon this place by accident and the cloaking ensured that there was little to none emission of energy.

With a quiet hiss, the bay doors opened up but the engine, no, it did not go down quietly. There was a very gravelly sound that came from the engine, resonating throughout the ship as it was finally turned off.

Still, it might sound old and was probably older than he was, but hey, no fumes!

Jin'Ya floated out of his seat as his conjured hands picked up his luggage, as he walked towards the ramp. "As for the fuel used, no, we would not be able to refuel on Earth but I already have placed an order for fuel which should be delivered in about 10 Earth days. Once we have a functioning depot setup around the Red Hearth, you should be able to make most trips without much issue."

And there was that.

This whole ship placement was a very temporary thing. Once he spent a few more weeks in Kamar Taj, experimenting with his newfound mastery over Dimensional Energy and brushing up on some advanced enchantments, they were going to expand the area of the Red Hearth.

No, the building would remain the same, it was not going to get an expansion. He already had more space than he needed, no need to add more. What they planned was an expansion of the environmental shield around the Red Hearth or if it went according to his plan, it would be a second environmental shield on top of the existing one, just at a much larger radius.

Then, the underground depot as well as the hangar will be built, with the eventual end goal being a proper hangar facility that he could then lend to his fellow allies.

Earth's first fully functioning spaceship depot, if you will.

He knew, for sure, that there were people at NASA who would cream their pants if they knew that such a thing existed.

All in all, it should be done within a few months, at most, especially since he was going to buff up his arsenal of spells, and there was no shortage of offensive spells that could be used to dig up bigger holes on Mars.

Jin'Ya opened a portal and left for the Red Hearth, to check in on Bruce and the other and also to see if the methods they found for his hands worked or not. He was not really interested in that, at the moment.

He was far more interested in getting his personal spaceship hangar and at a close second, came the checking of his life. His absence must have been noticed, despite his many contingencies to make sure that none of his work was too messed up in his absence.

His money was all in a trust anyway, so no issues there.

He shrugged and then floated up. He needed an internet connection and the fastest one in all of Nepal was in Kamar Taj, installed by yours truly.


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 #98

Kamar Taj [April 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

"Welcome back, Master Baxter," The first one to greet him was Wong, who looked very stoic, but he knew that internally the man was very happy to see him. Well, he hoped, anyway.

He knew the man was using official terminology because they were in the open, and the man was very stingy when it came to breaking his character in front of the vast majority of the people here at Kamar Taj, so he played along.

"Glad to be bad, Master Wong. Anything exciting happened while I was gone?" For some reason, Wong's face twisted briefly before returning to his usual stoic face, with an intense expression.

____xx____

–Master "Wongers" Wong–

The moment Colin asked him that question, his mind flashed back to the memory of the fight from two months ago, when the Ancient One unexpectedly rounded up all of the strongest Masters and went somewhere, handing him the responsibility of looking after Kamar Taj in her absence.

It was the first time a responsibility of that level was placed on her and he understandably panicked since she was taking every single Master his seniors with her, for an undisclosed mission that might end up threatening the planet beyond anything they had ever seen.

Only a few threats could warrant a movement of that sort but he did not have the time or the urge for any clarification from the person who was organising a massive expedition not seen in his lifetime, to combat a dangerous foe, so he decided to investigate on his own, later on, when he was saddled with the responsibility of looking after the place that had nurtured generations of protectors of Humanity.

Curious about the whole event, he had used his unprecedented access to check on everything, essentially. Everything that was being actively monitored by Kamar Taj and could be checked, he checked on.

The three Sanctums and their respective shield modules? Intact.

The six backup lines established in case any Sanctum falls? Intact.

The 17 demon seals on the planet? Intact.

Spells cast on multiple public sites to deter any civilian from stumbling into them? Intact and in need of a recharge in about 70 days.

Nothing that could tell him about that event was found so he did what he could. He waited, instructed some of the newer initiates and walked around, inspecting everything and maintaining a constant state of vigilance just in case some stupid decided to attack Kamar Taj at their weakest.

He expected an update, a signal, a call for more reinforcements, something, from the party that left but alas, he did not receive a single peep from them for over a week. After which, everyone came back, save for the Ancient One.

From the people that came back, he learned about what had happened. These people had gone to Ta-Lo, not to fight but just in case something happened, to help evacuate the entire place and create a last defense for Earth around the entrance of Ta-Lo.

No injuries, nothing, which was a good sign and he took it as such, right up until the Ancient One arrived, and she did not come alone.

With her, she brought the downed form of the Red Matron, one of the strongest beings on the planet, capable of low level reality warping with her blood magic. Someone like her was severely injured, to the point that he couldn't even feel any threat coming from her despite being just a few feet away.

Usually, being in the same vicinity as her was enough to trigger a reaction from his instincts but back then, she was just down. He thought for good and in some part of his mind, he thought that it was for the better but the Ancient One, likely due to some obligation, decided to heal her.

Then came the state of the Ancient One. Her face was covered in soot, her one hand hung limply by one side and even the Eye of Agamotto had some scorch marks on it, indicating a fierce fight had gone by.

He had not had time to even ask her what had happened because the only ones who knew had either recovered and left Kamar Taj hastily or were in meditation. The Ancient One had given strict orders to only wake her up once Colin had returned.

He wondered if she would finally tell everyone what the hell happened in Ta-Lo, now that Colin had returned.

___xx__

–Colin Baxter–

"Master Wong? Hello? Wong? WONG!" He had to shout to finally get the man out of some sort of reverie that he was in.

"Huh, what? Oh, Master Baxer. The Ancient One has been waiting. Can you stay in the library until I can inform her?" Wong asked him, somewhat excited for some reason.

He shrugged it off, "Sure, I was headed to the library anyway. And she probably knows I am here anyway, but, sure."

Wong swiftly turned and began briskly walking as he turned and made a beeline to the library. He had some experimenting to do and what better way than to start with spells he never had the accuracy for, now that he has tremendous accuracy.

Waving and nodding at some of his acquaintances, he crossed the threshold of the library and smiled upon feeling the familiar sting of the wards identifying him before deciding not to smite him as he entered the Masters' section of the library.

Kamar Taj's motto of no knowledge being forbidden was true, but only to a certain extent. The hidden part that was barely ever said out loud was that some knowledge would be withheld from people until they were ready and the one judging people would be the Ancient One.

Which is why even he did not have unfettered access to everything. Some of the Ancient One's personal collection had stuff that literally had to be chained up by chains made up of some magical metal, which was like Uru but not Uru. Odin, for some reason, had exclusive ownership of every single Uru made weapon in the galaxy.

Well, he knew why Odin had control of a very strong and volatile material. It was because he was strong, simple as that. The Dwarves believed in might makes right, which is why no Uru weapon shall ever be made for anyone without Asgard bearing down on them.

Getting near the Restricted section, he was rewarded with the same feeling of ominous doom that he got whenever he tried getting near them before but this time, it was noticeably dimmed down, as if the cursed feeling had difficulty getting to him.

Hmm, progress then.

"Nice," He smiled and stepped back to see if he could find a spell he could practice without having to go to the largest sparring ring, but also one that would be high level enough that he could get an accurate reading as to where he was in his progress.

Come to think of it, how did Strange ever get anywhere near her collection without going at least a little bit mad in the process? Was it because he was already mad, or was it because she was already playing favourites and clearing the path for him. Because having the Eye of Agamotto out in the open, with Strange being cleared for the pedestal enchantments and having the Book of Cagliostro out in the open, just begging to be used? It reeked of outside intervention.

Moving on, he began browsing the books of spells available here.

"Separating different gases from the air and poisoning Demons? Pass." No way to check on the efficiency without some sacrifices and he didn't think the Ancient One had it in her for his shenanigans right now.

"Magnetic pole manipulation? Creation of a mystical magnet? Nah." Too much metal around here. He didn't want to think what could happen if he could not modulate the strength of the magnet and ended up even slightly moving the metal racks in the library.

Too bad that the Mirror Dimension was now unavailable to him, due to his loss of a working limb. He paused from his browsing as a thought occurred to him.

He slowly looked down and flexed his toes. Hmm, maybe?

"It is not feasible, Master Baxter," He whirled around to see the Ancient One, with the same placid smile on her face.

"The Sling ring on your toes, I mean," She continued, "It will not be feasible for combat and the effort required to, once more, relearn will not be worth it. I am sure you will figure something out but I can tell you this, that is not a viable solution."

He nodded, "Alright. I will look into something else."

"See that you do," Then, she looked at him, as if she was peering through him, "Remarkable. To do so in such a short period of time. I did not believe him when he said so, but I believe that you have surpassed your previous uninjured self in raw Dimensional Energy manipulation in such a short period of time. Congratulations are in order."


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[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 #99

Kamar Taj [April 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

"See that you do," Then, she looked at him, as if she was peering through him, "Remarkable. To do so in such a short period of time. I did not believe him when he said so, but I believe that you have surpassed your previous uninjured self in raw Dimensional Energy manipulation in such a short period of time. Congratulations are in order."

"So," He stretched the word out a bit as he worked on his reply, "There is very little chance that I am getting my arms back, is there?"

"I can't comment on that part, Master Baxter, but what I can tell you is this. You will not lose any functionality, strength or sleep over whatever might occur in the near future. From the looks of it, you have already accepted the fact and moved on, which is an admirable quality."

"Yeah, if you say so." He said as a hand conjured itself around his stub and then moved around in all the different ways he could manipulate it for now. It was very odd, comparing his current hand to his previous one. For one, he knew that he could not bend his fingers like that, and it could be useful in the future.

"An apt demonstration. Now, if you'll follow me," She said and then snapped his fingers, making him roll his eyes as the scenery around him blurred and they found themselves sitting in one of the meeting chambers, tea already ready and steaming with the tea aroma already wafting towards him.

"So, the rule of no teleportation within the library?" He asked her as his conjured hands snaked their way towards one of the cups.

"The position of the Sorcerer Supreme does come with its own set of perks."

"I assumed so," He said, giving a sharp look at her forehead in response.

She ignored it, obviously, "The day you left, we began the clean up of Ta-Lo,"

The memories of those Demons, Dragons and that massive mountain with that never ending fog came to his mind as he nodded, sipping on his tea, his hand trembling just the slightest as the pain flashed through his mind once more, "And?"

"And we were able to push Dormammu back. With the help of Ms.Koscheyenka and the Guardian of Ta-Lo, we were able to push through Dormammu's forces that he had accumulated in that place for a truly long period of time, and banish the mountain that was acting as his anchor to that plane."

He remained silent, his mind whirling at how close Dormammu had come to, potentially, invading the planet. And if he had, Earth would have been caught with its pants down. No Strange, no Avengers, no one who could oppose him. She could do so but he had his doubts if she could actually push back if Dormammu actually came at her with his full might.

Honestly, trying to predict the thoughts of someone who can perceive all time simultaneously was headache inducing because Dormammu was not bound by time, he was outside of it and as such, could not be comprehended by beings bound by time.

"Do we know how he got so close?" He asked her.

"It is difficult to predict the thoughts as well as the actions that someone like Dormammu can take. We have no idea when he planned to invade the dimension, how long he planned for that and what little actions he planned, culminating in Kamar Taj remaining unaware of that for so long."

"So, if I had not been there, in the right place and at the right time, then?"

She nodded, her expression grave, "Yes, then Kamar Taj might have been caught unaware of the invasion until it was too late. Your healing of the Guardian Dragon of Ta-Lo meant we were able to detect the anomalies early and your confirmation was all I needed to move and eliminate the threat."

"Why didn't you ask Jin'Ya? He might have been helpful."

"True." She agreed. "He would have been of tremendous help but you have to understand that Dormammu is not the only problem we have on our hands. The very nature of our work is that our enemies only have to win once whereas we have to win every single time."

"I see." was all he could say because what else could he say, especially since he could see the result of their fight. They might have succeeded in repelling Dormammu and derailing one of his many plots to conquer Earth but it was clearly not without a cost.

The right hand of hers that hung limply at her side was proof enough. He had to ask though.

"Was it because of Dormammu or was it backlash from using the Time Stone?"

"The latter. I had to sacrifice a part of myself to shorten the time needed to cast a spell, which had been supercharged with energy from the Eye of Agamotto."

"I see. Any way we can–"

"It is an injury of the soul. An order of magnitude deeper than your injury. I foresee no future in which I have both my arms functioning again."

Well, that killed off the mood.

Standing up, he said, "Anyways, I have a lot to catch up on. A lot of data to parse through. Also, I will be borrowing a couple of books, to practice my Sorcery, if that's alright with you?"

"Wong will get you anything you need, that you can have authorisation for."

"Perfect. Bye!" He said and got out of the room, ready to take that magnet spell creation. He bet that Bruce had some really interesting experiments he would like to try if he can work on getting the spell to the extreme ends of magnetism.

A nice little experiment for both of them in the ritual room in the lower levels of the Red Hearth. Once he was confident in that, he could start working on getting a hangar up and running on Mars.

Ah, he couldn't wait for that!

____xx___

"The books you asked for," Wong handed him the books and then, once he tried to take them from the man's grasp with his conjured hands, Wong did not let go. Instead, he pulled the books forward and said, "If there is even the slightest damage on anything, I swear to Vishanti that I will–"

"Okay! Okay! I swear I'll be careful. Chill!" He said and then took the books, from a distance, because he had already taken a long step back when Wong had gotten all serious, in his face and began screaming warnings at him.

"That is….new," Wong commented on his new arms as they shrank and brought the books to him.

He shrugged, "Well, you'll be seeing a lot of new things. Be prepared." He then used his conjured hands to mock salute the man as he mentally called in Jin'Ya as a portal opened up behind him as he walked backwards, while looking at Wong, like a badass.

The portal closed up and he turned around to find himself in the portal room, as expected. He knew that the enchantments would keep on working for almost a year without any intervention but it was nice to get confirmation that everything worked even without an active Magic user supercharging their environment with Dimensional Energy, allowing the wards to run off of ambient energy, instead of drawing on stored reserves.

The spell to create those reserves was extremely difficult to cast and the only one who could do so with a 100% success rate and was willing to do it for him was the Ancient One, so he kinda only had one of those reserve stones and would rather not see it benign used for a non emergency.

Taking a deep breath, he entered the kitchen, only to find it empty. Connecting himself to the wards, he realised that both Bruce and Hansen were asleep, and Jin'Ya was in the lower levels, with a giant DO NOT DISTURB sign plastered on their mental bond.

So, with nothing else to do, he hopped in the shower and then jumped on his bed, his bed. Within moments of that happening, he set the temperature and the air currents in the room to optimal conditions and dozed off.

Nothing like sleeping in Home Sweet Home.



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 #100

Red Hearth [April 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

"Take that, Sand Dune," He muttered as he remotely controlled a toy RC car he retrofitted to give it the ability to survive in the harsh terrains of Mars, using his conjured hands to manoeuvre the car, to drift and flip itself, before using it as a practice test to get it oriented properly, using the Magnet spell he had swiped from the library yesterday.

So far, the car has been the unfortunate victim of 20 or more tumbles as he tried to turn it upright using a finely controlled Dimensional Energy spell instead of using the car's inbuilt mechanism, which was to just unload a spring, forcing it to turn upright.

It was surprisingly fun, to do something as utterly mundane as drive a children's toy, whilst turning it into a training exercise.

It also tickled a funny bone in him to imagine the toy veering out of the bubble of the Red Hearth and then people from Earth with their telescopes, including NASA would just freak out of their minds, especially since the tires were magically enchanted to just dig deep in the ground to get proper grip on the ground.

After all, he was not about to ambush the Mars Rover and steal the special tyre NASA developed for the Rover. It would be very troll of him to just vandalise one of the largest developments of mankind.

Shaking his head, another hand shot out of his back as it grabbed the glass of juice and brought the straws to his lips as he took a sip before concentrating back on the tasks at hand, or rather hands.

Heh, he snorted a bit as he thought of how he was going about things. Two hands were currently holding the controller of the RC-toy car and the other two hands were casting the magnet spell, modulating the strength of the magnetic force with his mind, with subtle movement of his hands.

The fact that none of the metallic railings on the roof moved at all, despite him just cranking out the spell, made him really pleased with the quality of work done on everything. It probably also helped that everything was tied together, magically, when the Red Hearth was named and essentially declared to be a single magical unit.

What did not please him, however, was the absolute tsunami of red that flooded his vision when he first cast that spell. It made him scramble back to the door, only for the shield to kick in and stop the onslaught of the red sand, which made him drop the spell entirely.

Fun fact, the Red sand, the one that made most people call the Red Planet, consists of Iron oxide. It is essentially a major component of the sand anyone could see all around the planet and he, being the dumbass that he was, just willy nilly activated the magnet spell, attracting tons of sand towards him.

Now, he knew that he would be getting some sand towards him, which was expected, but he just did not expect the spell to have such high level strength, making him panic for a bit there.

Fine tuning the spell would have taken a little more time and effort. Time and effort that he did not want to expend because he had a cool RC toy on him and he wanted to play, now.

So, in came the second part of the spell. It was a whole book really, on magnet related spells. Enough to turn him into discount Magneto, actually, a really powerful Magneto if he were only using the spells on the non magical side.

Once magic comes into the mixture, there are probably hundreds of spells to ward off any external mystical influence so Magneto would be really useless against magical beings or demons used to fighting off hordes of Sorcerers, Masters and Witches.

Anyway, the second part of the spell was a neat trick. It allowed for, essentially, marking a thing, designating it as a specific pole and then casting the spell, creating a different pole in your hands. It was kind of physics breaking, in the way that it can create a monopole magnet, but then again, all magic was physics breaking, the standard version of physics anyway.

If the speech that the Ancient One gave Stephen Strange is to be believed, Magic is just science that you don't understand yet, then there must be a magical version of physics somewhere, lying around to be discovered.

OR, it was just reality warping with the help of so & so energy.

So, there he was, spending his time happily, doing something that will advance his progress in Sorcery and also doing something that will not bore him to death, when Jin'Ya pinged him.

"They have an update for you."

"Coming,"

He replied and then, very reluctantly and carefully, increased the strength of his spell, which made the car wobble slightly at first and then made it shoot straight at him as he abruptly increased the power of the spell, as a fifth hand shot out of his chest and caught the thing mere inches away from his face.

He smirked. Nice reflexes.

___xx___

Extremis Lab Space, Red Hearth

–Bruce Banner–

When he was first tasked with the current task, it was almost three months ago, and he had been shocked to realise the strongest human he knew, had lost and lost so badly that he had lost both his arms.

He had thought that to be a significant blow to Colin but apparently, if the updates Jin'Ya gave him were to be believed, in mere two months, Colin had brought his overall functioning back to normal levels or even above it in some cases.

Magic, they called it. He called it the manipulation of esoteric energies using some unknown genetic factor. Colin had apparently become even more proficient in the use of magic, using conjurations.

He had not seen them yet and since he was wary of Jin'Ya poking around in his head, which was still a disturbing thing to consent to, he had not had visuals of how Colin had surpassed his previous functionality in any way.

That was until today.

"Wow, makes me wonder why we even bothered with it at all," Maya snarked and even though he would not have said the same thing, the thought did rise in his mind. What use were the two biological arms of Colin if he could somehow conjure not one, not two, but four arms simultaneously and operate them without any visible difficulty?

It really made justifying their effort hard since technically speaking, more arms were always better than one and even more so in the case of Colin since he could now perform magic with two hands and then physically beat anyone who got close with his other two arms.

Colin's Doors, as he called them, were also not affected in any way, according to Jin'Ya, so, once again, he was somewhat baffled as to why he was going to update Colin on the direction of the research they had done in the past months.

No matter how much he thought about it, aside from the aesthetic loss of biological arms, there was not much that Colin had lost in the attack which made him feel a bit resentful because they had to send everything they were working on, on hiatus and move onto the category he thought he would be working on during the ending phase of Extremis.

Limb regeneration.

Jin'Ya spoke suddenly, making both of them jump a bit as the miniature character was very unpredictable in how he would deliver their message. The first time he had spoken directly into their minds, which had disturbed him a lot and fascinated Maya, so much so that he had to undergo a brain scan the next hour, so that Maya could gather data on the brain and if telepathic connections could affect brain chemistry, even temporarily.

He was curious so he agreed to the scan. Turns out, there was no visible effect on the brain.

"I believe you have some updates for Colin?"

He patted his chest and answered, working his fingers on the screen as multiple scenarios, along with possible rejection rates, were displayed on the screen, "Yes, I have devised 6 different treatments, with varying rejection rates and varying time periods."

"Hmm. I've called him. Just explain it to us when he is here. Know this, though, there is no real hurry here. As you can no doubt see, Colin is resilient and has already adapted to the loss of his limbs. No reason to endanger him by sacrificing safety for speed."

He nodded. That was fine.


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