Jao
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Doorman (MCU SI)
- Thread starter IdleMuse0307
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DoorMan (MCU SI) - #40 : Herding awkward Nerds in a room, HR stuff & SCIENCE! not SMASH!
New
IdleMuse0307
I trust you know where the happy button is?
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2021
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- 616
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 #40
Stark Industries HQ[January 23, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
He calmly waited in the pantry area, with 5 other interns, all of whom were notable names even at their age. They were supposed to mingle using this time but what the hell were the HR people thinking, putting a bunch of chronically online socially awkward teenagers in a room to socialise on their own accord?
If it is not a requirement, most of these nerds wouldn't even step out of their dorms. Still, it would be nice to network with people who would understand his work and then he would finally have someone in his life who would appreciate the blood, sweat, and–okay, he didn't work that hard but still, it counted for something.
"Hi, I am Colin Baxter." He offered his hand to the closest person in the vicinity who was an Asian teenager with thick glasses. He was really not doing the stereotypes any favour here, with hair slick back, bulky glasses, and an overall lanky build. Come to think of it, out of all the 6 of them, he was the most bulked out and he wouldn't even call himself a bulky dude, just a lean muscled guy.
Not that he could even gain bulky muscle because, apparently, CHI decides the optimal use for muscles and with the way his muscles were nourished with CHI, the more strength he gains, the denser his muscle fibres become instead of just becoming bigger, so, no becoming a professional bodybuilder to explain his strength since he would just becoming heavier as his strength increased.
"Hi. I am Jack Slash." The man eagerly shook his hand as he began making small talk with him. Something to pass the time at least since it was clear that this was one of the metrics they would use later on to review the internship applicants. Social skills were pretty important, after all.
After a while, the topic rounded back to tech, since they did not have much in common. He tried asking Jack about gym, exercise, and even Badminton since that was the one sport he played very well, and for all of these questions, the answer was in negative so he pivoted to things he knew everyone in the room had an interest in, nerdy shit.
"Oh yeah, I read both of your papers on the IP stuff. You have some really great ideas–"
"Yeah, but they will remain ideas, until the world plays catch up with networking hardware. With the industry being monopolised, there is very little chance we can see any funding come your way for the next generation of efficiency in the Internet. It's a shame, I'm sure it would have brought down basically everything in terms of cost, at least in the long run but we all know that the executives calling the shots at publicly traded corporations rarely if ever think that long term." He turned slightly to see an African-American man approach him.
Wow, was he tall, taller than even him, "Hi. I'm James Bourbon."
"Hi. I'm Colin Baxter."
"Yes, I am aware. I follow your work regularly. You have remarkable determination to have 3 things going on all at once in your life. Your academia, your freelance work, and even this open source project. I would love to chat over some of your more experimental ideas that require a Quantum Processor to perform the calculations needed for a global bus that every single device can ride on."
He smiled and nodded, "Yeah, sure. I would love to get another opinion on it. Between us, I don't think I will see that happening anytime soon. Not just because every university and company that has a Quantum Computer has flat out denied me their use but also because it will turn a single place into a target, centralising most of the communications on the planet into a single control unit, which while supremely efficient secure, would ultimately fail at the human error test."
James nodded, "I wholeheartedly agree. Technology is neither good nor evil, it's the humans that make use of it. In that case, whoever, the risk of it being used for evil is so high that it is better not to make it at all."
He nodded, and then turned to the door as someone from the Orientation team had finally come.
"Alright, people, let's get you your badges."
—-
He yawned in boredom as the HR guy explained the security principles to them for the second time. Did he not know one of the people here was actually hired by one of the three letter government agencies to do something highly illegal on their behalf? Probably not.
After that, somehow it was time for the lunch break as they were herded to a cordoned off area with a small buffet arranged for the six of them and their Orientation mentor. As he ate the no doubt tasty and good quality food, his mind drifted to what was happening here.
He was beginning to have some doubts about this whole endeavour but he couldn't back out, not now anyway. Might as well just go through the two months and then decide if doing this is worth it or not.
_____xx_____
Red Hearth
–Bruce Banner–
He was in comfortable gym clothing as he lifted the handle with more and more weights until it finally became too much for him and stopped. Looking at the weight on the machine, it showed a staggering 300 pounds of weight being lifted from the small handle coming from the ground.
He stepped back and wiped off his sweat as he realised that he didn't even feel that bad. This was not supposed to be possible. Not only did he not have the required muscle mass to lift something that heavy, he also did not have the training to do it properly and regular practice for his muscles to get them used to lifting so heavy.
Jin'Ya, the resident dragon, had told him that he was going to stay on Earth for an important mission and would only check in from time to time. His method of checking in was odd as well because all he saw was a bunch of meat products being airlifted from the kitchen and into a portal that led to who knows where on Earth.
For the time being, he was all alone on the Red Hearth and while it was nice to have a safe environment, where he knew Ross would never be able to reach, it was also kind of lonely. He started playing online games on the absolutely stacked out machines that Colin had in this place but even that got old after just a couple of hours of playing.
There was just too much profanity in that space for him to properly enjoy it as a beginner.
That was why he was here, in the gym, to workout because, intellectually, he knew that exercise was the best legal antidepressant there is. Granted, Colin could probably get him all sorts of pills but he wanted to at least try doing it the hard way.
As it turned out, he was different now. Not just as Hulk but even as plain old Bruce, he was much stronger than he should be.
The machine on the ground was the perfect test. It has a very uncomfortable lifting position, with a single handle coming out of the ground, which was very short and barely fit both of his hands on it, and to lift the handle with all his might.
The machine would progressively increase the load and in the end, give you a figure on how much weight he lifted. Never in his life has he ever done strength training. No weightlifting, nothing.
The best he had done before this was cardio and even the majority of that was running, on treadmills and away from the military.
Sighing, he wiped the meagre sweat and moved on to the next machine. The next time he met Colin, he'd need to see about getting some medical stuff as well because he absolutely had to study his own body now.
He did notice the fact that he was vastly more resistant to cold as he trekked through the snowy Canadian wilderness but having a vastly stronger body that could potentially grow stronger?
That was a game changer, for the right as well as the wrong reasons.
The inner scientist in him would not stop until he was at the root of his mutation, and now that he had a safe space to pace himself, he could finally do the thing he was best at.
SCIENCE!
And not SMASH!
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.
DoorMan #40
Stark Industries HQ[January 23, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
He calmly waited in the pantry area, with 5 other interns, all of whom were notable names even at their age. They were supposed to mingle using this time but what the hell were the HR people thinking, putting a bunch of chronically online socially awkward teenagers in a room to socialise on their own accord?
If it is not a requirement, most of these nerds wouldn't even step out of their dorms. Still, it would be nice to network with people who would understand his work and then he would finally have someone in his life who would appreciate the blood, sweat, and–okay, he didn't work that hard but still, it counted for something.
"Hi, I am Colin Baxter." He offered his hand to the closest person in the vicinity who was an Asian teenager with thick glasses. He was really not doing the stereotypes any favour here, with hair slick back, bulky glasses, and an overall lanky build. Come to think of it, out of all the 6 of them, he was the most bulked out and he wouldn't even call himself a bulky dude, just a lean muscled guy.
Not that he could even gain bulky muscle because, apparently, CHI decides the optimal use for muscles and with the way his muscles were nourished with CHI, the more strength he gains, the denser his muscle fibres become instead of just becoming bigger, so, no becoming a professional bodybuilder to explain his strength since he would just becoming heavier as his strength increased.
"Hi. I am Jack Slash." The man eagerly shook his hand as he began making small talk with him. Something to pass the time at least since it was clear that this was one of the metrics they would use later on to review the internship applicants. Social skills were pretty important, after all.
After a while, the topic rounded back to tech, since they did not have much in common. He tried asking Jack about gym, exercise, and even Badminton since that was the one sport he played very well, and for all of these questions, the answer was in negative so he pivoted to things he knew everyone in the room had an interest in, nerdy shit.
"Oh yeah, I read both of your papers on the IP stuff. You have some really great ideas–"
"Yeah, but they will remain ideas, until the world plays catch up with networking hardware. With the industry being monopolised, there is very little chance we can see any funding come your way for the next generation of efficiency in the Internet. It's a shame, I'm sure it would have brought down basically everything in terms of cost, at least in the long run but we all know that the executives calling the shots at publicly traded corporations rarely if ever think that long term." He turned slightly to see an African-American man approach him.
Wow, was he tall, taller than even him, "Hi. I'm James Bourbon."
"Hi. I'm Colin Baxter."
"Yes, I am aware. I follow your work regularly. You have remarkable determination to have 3 things going on all at once in your life. Your academia, your freelance work, and even this open source project. I would love to chat over some of your more experimental ideas that require a Quantum Processor to perform the calculations needed for a global bus that every single device can ride on."
He smiled and nodded, "Yeah, sure. I would love to get another opinion on it. Between us, I don't think I will see that happening anytime soon. Not just because every university and company that has a Quantum Computer has flat out denied me their use but also because it will turn a single place into a target, centralising most of the communications on the planet into a single control unit, which while supremely efficient secure, would ultimately fail at the human error test."
James nodded, "I wholeheartedly agree. Technology is neither good nor evil, it's the humans that make use of it. In that case, whoever, the risk of it being used for evil is so high that it is better not to make it at all."
He nodded, and then turned to the door as someone from the Orientation team had finally come.
"Alright, people, let's get you your badges."
—-
He yawned in boredom as the HR guy explained the security principles to them for the second time. Did he not know one of the people here was actually hired by one of the three letter government agencies to do something highly illegal on their behalf? Probably not.
After that, somehow it was time for the lunch break as they were herded to a cordoned off area with a small buffet arranged for the six of them and their Orientation mentor. As he ate the no doubt tasty and good quality food, his mind drifted to what was happening here.
He was beginning to have some doubts about this whole endeavour but he couldn't back out, not now anyway. Might as well just go through the two months and then decide if doing this is worth it or not.
_____xx_____
Red Hearth
–Bruce Banner–
He was in comfortable gym clothing as he lifted the handle with more and more weights until it finally became too much for him and stopped. Looking at the weight on the machine, it showed a staggering 300 pounds of weight being lifted from the small handle coming from the ground.
He stepped back and wiped off his sweat as he realised that he didn't even feel that bad. This was not supposed to be possible. Not only did he not have the required muscle mass to lift something that heavy, he also did not have the training to do it properly and regular practice for his muscles to get them used to lifting so heavy.
Jin'Ya, the resident dragon, had told him that he was going to stay on Earth for an important mission and would only check in from time to time. His method of checking in was odd as well because all he saw was a bunch of meat products being airlifted from the kitchen and into a portal that led to who knows where on Earth.
For the time being, he was all alone on the Red Hearth and while it was nice to have a safe environment, where he knew Ross would never be able to reach, it was also kind of lonely. He started playing online games on the absolutely stacked out machines that Colin had in this place but even that got old after just a couple of hours of playing.
There was just too much profanity in that space for him to properly enjoy it as a beginner.
That was why he was here, in the gym, to workout because, intellectually, he knew that exercise was the best legal antidepressant there is. Granted, Colin could probably get him all sorts of pills but he wanted to at least try doing it the hard way.
As it turned out, he was different now. Not just as Hulk but even as plain old Bruce, he was much stronger than he should be.
The machine on the ground was the perfect test. It has a very uncomfortable lifting position, with a single handle coming out of the ground, which was very short and barely fit both of his hands on it, and to lift the handle with all his might.
The machine would progressively increase the load and in the end, give you a figure on how much weight he lifted. Never in his life has he ever done strength training. No weightlifting, nothing.
The best he had done before this was cardio and even the majority of that was running, on treadmills and away from the military.
Sighing, he wiped the meagre sweat and moved on to the next machine. The next time he met Colin, he'd need to see about getting some medical stuff as well because he absolutely had to study his own body now.
He did notice the fact that he was vastly more resistant to cold as he trekked through the snowy Canadian wilderness but having a vastly stronger body that could potentially grow stronger?
That was a game changer, for the right as well as the wrong reasons.
The inner scientist in him would not stop until he was at the root of his mutation, and now that he had a safe space to pace himself, he could finally do the thing he was best at.
SCIENCE!
And not SMASH!
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.
Jao
(Verified Lemon Drop Addict)
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2022
- Messages
- 3,113
Is Jack a serial killer?
Orphiex
Wombat aficionado
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2020
- Messages
- 134
Yeah, that's also where my head went at first, but as a hacker handle it makes sense given how important the "backslash" character is in programming.
DoorMan (MCU SI) - #41 : Clobberin' Time! Nothing % Everything! Only up from here on out!
New
IdleMuse0307
I trust you know where the happy button is?
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2021
- Messages
- 616
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 #41
Stark Industries HQ[January 28, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
Colin sighed and collapsed on the bed as soon as the door closed to his hotel room. He only had the weekend left in this hotel room before he was moved to the official Stark Industries housing, which was just a series of residential buildings made exclusively for use by Stark Industries' employees or guests and whatnot.
The accommodations were more than generous enough but for some reason, he did not feel like moving to the official residence. It was….vexing.
He had thought that this would be one of the first few steps he could take to learn more about the things happening inside a company that might help him better but he was just realising that his entire school of thinking was flawed.
Stark Industries was an old company, like pre-WWII company and while it did only grow exponentially in the past couple of decades, that root, that history allowed it to create a stable foundation, a sense of trust that was very important, perhaps even more so than the product, for a publicly traded company to thrive.
He did not want that, not in this form anyway.
"Argh," He groaned into the pillow as the choices became too many and his thoughts became jumbled. He couldn't even ask Jin'Ya for advice because the Dragon had no frame of reference for this. Jin'Ya thought that it was all just a giant waste of time. He couldn't fault the dragon for lack of trying as he had combed through the memories of multiple people on the Wall Street and in the end had come to the same conclusion as he did.
It was all f*cking pointless, at least to some degree.
He sighed and turned around, facing the ceiling now, already missing his own personal artwork on the ceiling that was most definitely going to deplete his deposit given to the landlord as the cost of repairing that was substantial.
He closed his eyes and despite not wanting to, he cycled CHI in his body. He was not really tired per se but he really needed the mental clarity that could only come with happy chemicals in his brain, something that always happened whenever he cycled CHI in his body. It never really got old, the rush of happiness that was accompanied with literal life force flowing in his body.
It could become a dangerous dependency but he made sure to have weeks between each session, just in case, to monitor his mental state during that time and he had Jin'Ya in his corner, the de-facto Astral expert on Earth. According to Jin'Ya, substance abuse is as mental as it is physical and as such, shows up in their Astral Form and can be detected by Jin'Ya with ease.
So far, he was clean.
He jerked a bit as he heard a knock in his mind, for the lack of a better term. Knowing who it was since JIn'Ya never bothers knocking, he opened the link and greeted Dr.Banner.
"What can I do for you, Dr.Banner?"
"Ah, Colin, I was just reaching out to ask about the shipment."
He sighed once more as he got up and trudged towards his personal laptop, "Just a second, I'll check."
Waving his finger over the laptop's body, he activated the enchantments on it, connecting to the invisible network in Kamar Taj using the planetary shield as a global wireless network.
"Uh, Bad news, Dr.Banner. The shipment's being delayed by a week because of some customs issue. It should be here in the first week of Feb, according to the latest update from the supplier."
"..Oh…Okay. Just let me know when it's here. I have a lot of ideas just sitting around."
He winced as he sensed the hope dwindle from the man's voice. His finger twitched as the enchantments faded away, returning his laptop to the normal mode as he spoke through the link, "Speaking of which, how goes the setting in? I know you have started exercising and made some exciting new discoveries."
He smiled as the excitement came roaring back. Scientists, a very easy bunch.
—-
"Thank you," He took the absolutely massive order of 5 Hamburgers, 2 Cheeseburgers, 2 cokes, 3 Large fries and a Lava Cake from the room service guy, who was subtly trying to look into his room to see who was going to eat this food. Smiling politely at the guy, he shut the door before any inquiries could be made.
After all, it was clobberin' time!
….Clobbering the food, that is.
___xx____
–Shuri Udaku–
"How many times do I have to tell you that I will come back once I want to," She explained patiently to T'Challa, even as she continued working on stuff that she would never want to see the light of day. Having Bast's blessings enhanced more than just her body. Her brain was shooting off ideas every which way and she needed to write them down, or else, her brain refused to settle down.
"I know, I heard you the last three times but come on! Baba is depressed and nobody knows why. It has been almost a week since you left and things have changed so much. At Least tell me what happened between you and Baba," She sighed and dispelled the holokeyboard after hearing the pleading in T'Challa's voice.
Looking at him, she paused a beat before replying, "Look, you'll know once you become King but for now, let's just say that I disagreed with one of Wakanda's long-standing policies and Baba did not agree with my request to put a stop with that practice."
T'Challa looked at her with an incredulous gaze, "W-What? You went ahead and became the strongest Black Panther Wakanda has ever had, just because you had a disagreement with Baba?"
She snapped at him, "It was not JUST a disagreement. It was physically revolting to think that Wakanda–" She stopped, took a deep breath, and said with a stoic face, "If you want to know more, just become King as soon as you can. Then you can order me for all the information you might need."
T'Challa, seeing that his transparent attempt at goading her was seen right through, chuckled nervously and replied, "Even I know that the Black Panther is not beholden to the King or even the Royal Council, should the King and the Black Panther not be the same individual."
She rolled her eyes and waved her hand, shutting down the video feed. She did not need the law recited to her verbatim. She memorised that thing when she was six and had nothing else left to read.
____xx_____
–Tony Stark—
His eyes snapped open as he took in deep breaths and then slowly turned to the side, looking at Yinsen, the man who saved his life, the man who didn't even remember meeting, "How long this time?"
Yinsen looked at his watch and then began scribbling on a small notebook that his captors gave them. Apparently, guns and missiles were aplenty in this place but ask for a pen and notebook, these guys had none of it so they had to ration fucking paper of all things in this god forsaken hell hole.
"4 hours 23 minutes and 17 seconds." Yinsen replied and he cursed. That was too much. Removing the tapes attached to some of the wires, he sat upright from the bed and held the battery in one hand and began hobbling towards the workspace created for him. It was a very generous term, to name it as a workspace when it was just a bunch of tables attached together.
"Come on, Yinsen, we have work to do. Who knows how long they'll keep me alive once they know I have to go under every day with a real possibility of never waking up." He bitterly remarked as he began working on the newly arrived Jericho missiles, his mind working as he tried to come up with a better plan than just making an exosuit and blowing this whole place up.
He did not have enough time, materials or even hands for two whole suits and it put an ugly feeling in his heart to explore an option where only he lived.
"Don't lose heart, Stark. You still have a lot to gain if you manage to get out of here. After all, you have nothing, so this is rock bottom and I don't know much about American culture but I do believe they say from this point onwards, it's only up, right?"
He chuckled at Yinsen's relentless hope and his deep speeches that somehow all hit dead centre and made him look back on his life and how he had basically squandered most of it, not making any connections, meaningful connections in his life.
It was all….so sad.
Shaking his head, he dumped the battery keeping him alive on the desk and watched it ominously move due to the weight imbalance, "SAve for the speeches for later on, Yinsen, preferably over a glass of ridiculously overpriced Wine and the best steak money can buy."
Yinsen adjusted his glasses as he looked over all of the plans they made to appease their armed overlords for the moment, "Ah, that is a nice scenario to imagine."
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.
DoorMan #41
Stark Industries HQ[January 28, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
Colin sighed and collapsed on the bed as soon as the door closed to his hotel room. He only had the weekend left in this hotel room before he was moved to the official Stark Industries housing, which was just a series of residential buildings made exclusively for use by Stark Industries' employees or guests and whatnot.
The accommodations were more than generous enough but for some reason, he did not feel like moving to the official residence. It was….vexing.
He had thought that this would be one of the first few steps he could take to learn more about the things happening inside a company that might help him better but he was just realising that his entire school of thinking was flawed.
Stark Industries was an old company, like pre-WWII company and while it did only grow exponentially in the past couple of decades, that root, that history allowed it to create a stable foundation, a sense of trust that was very important, perhaps even more so than the product, for a publicly traded company to thrive.
He did not want that, not in this form anyway.
"Argh," He groaned into the pillow as the choices became too many and his thoughts became jumbled. He couldn't even ask Jin'Ya for advice because the Dragon had no frame of reference for this. Jin'Ya thought that it was all just a giant waste of time. He couldn't fault the dragon for lack of trying as he had combed through the memories of multiple people on the Wall Street and in the end had come to the same conclusion as he did.
It was all f*cking pointless, at least to some degree.
He sighed and turned around, facing the ceiling now, already missing his own personal artwork on the ceiling that was most definitely going to deplete his deposit given to the landlord as the cost of repairing that was substantial.
He closed his eyes and despite not wanting to, he cycled CHI in his body. He was not really tired per se but he really needed the mental clarity that could only come with happy chemicals in his brain, something that always happened whenever he cycled CHI in his body. It never really got old, the rush of happiness that was accompanied with literal life force flowing in his body.
It could become a dangerous dependency but he made sure to have weeks between each session, just in case, to monitor his mental state during that time and he had Jin'Ya in his corner, the de-facto Astral expert on Earth. According to Jin'Ya, substance abuse is as mental as it is physical and as such, shows up in their Astral Form and can be detected by Jin'Ya with ease.
So far, he was clean.
He jerked a bit as he heard a knock in his mind, for the lack of a better term. Knowing who it was since JIn'Ya never bothers knocking, he opened the link and greeted Dr.Banner.
"What can I do for you, Dr.Banner?"
"Ah, Colin, I was just reaching out to ask about the shipment."
He sighed once more as he got up and trudged towards his personal laptop, "Just a second, I'll check."
Waving his finger over the laptop's body, he activated the enchantments on it, connecting to the invisible network in Kamar Taj using the planetary shield as a global wireless network.
"Uh, Bad news, Dr.Banner. The shipment's being delayed by a week because of some customs issue. It should be here in the first week of Feb, according to the latest update from the supplier."
"..Oh…Okay. Just let me know when it's here. I have a lot of ideas just sitting around."
He winced as he sensed the hope dwindle from the man's voice. His finger twitched as the enchantments faded away, returning his laptop to the normal mode as he spoke through the link, "Speaking of which, how goes the setting in? I know you have started exercising and made some exciting new discoveries."
He smiled as the excitement came roaring back. Scientists, a very easy bunch.
—-
"Thank you," He took the absolutely massive order of 5 Hamburgers, 2 Cheeseburgers, 2 cokes, 3 Large fries and a Lava Cake from the room service guy, who was subtly trying to look into his room to see who was going to eat this food. Smiling politely at the guy, he shut the door before any inquiries could be made.
After all, it was clobberin' time!
….Clobbering the food, that is.
___xx____
–Shuri Udaku–
"How many times do I have to tell you that I will come back once I want to," She explained patiently to T'Challa, even as she continued working on stuff that she would never want to see the light of day. Having Bast's blessings enhanced more than just her body. Her brain was shooting off ideas every which way and she needed to write them down, or else, her brain refused to settle down.
"I know, I heard you the last three times but come on! Baba is depressed and nobody knows why. It has been almost a week since you left and things have changed so much. At Least tell me what happened between you and Baba," She sighed and dispelled the holokeyboard after hearing the pleading in T'Challa's voice.
Looking at him, she paused a beat before replying, "Look, you'll know once you become King but for now, let's just say that I disagreed with one of Wakanda's long-standing policies and Baba did not agree with my request to put a stop with that practice."
T'Challa looked at her with an incredulous gaze, "W-What? You went ahead and became the strongest Black Panther Wakanda has ever had, just because you had a disagreement with Baba?"
She snapped at him, "It was not JUST a disagreement. It was physically revolting to think that Wakanda–" She stopped, took a deep breath, and said with a stoic face, "If you want to know more, just become King as soon as you can. Then you can order me for all the information you might need."
T'Challa, seeing that his transparent attempt at goading her was seen right through, chuckled nervously and replied, "Even I know that the Black Panther is not beholden to the King or even the Royal Council, should the King and the Black Panther not be the same individual."
She rolled her eyes and waved her hand, shutting down the video feed. She did not need the law recited to her verbatim. She memorised that thing when she was six and had nothing else left to read.
____xx_____
–Tony Stark—
His eyes snapped open as he took in deep breaths and then slowly turned to the side, looking at Yinsen, the man who saved his life, the man who didn't even remember meeting, "How long this time?"
Yinsen looked at his watch and then began scribbling on a small notebook that his captors gave them. Apparently, guns and missiles were aplenty in this place but ask for a pen and notebook, these guys had none of it so they had to ration fucking paper of all things in this god forsaken hell hole.
"4 hours 23 minutes and 17 seconds." Yinsen replied and he cursed. That was too much. Removing the tapes attached to some of the wires, he sat upright from the bed and held the battery in one hand and began hobbling towards the workspace created for him. It was a very generous term, to name it as a workspace when it was just a bunch of tables attached together.
"Come on, Yinsen, we have work to do. Who knows how long they'll keep me alive once they know I have to go under every day with a real possibility of never waking up." He bitterly remarked as he began working on the newly arrived Jericho missiles, his mind working as he tried to come up with a better plan than just making an exosuit and blowing this whole place up.
He did not have enough time, materials or even hands for two whole suits and it put an ugly feeling in his heart to explore an option where only he lived.
"Don't lose heart, Stark. You still have a lot to gain if you manage to get out of here. After all, you have nothing, so this is rock bottom and I don't know much about American culture but I do believe they say from this point onwards, it's only up, right?"
He chuckled at Yinsen's relentless hope and his deep speeches that somehow all hit dead centre and made him look back on his life and how he had basically squandered most of it, not making any connections, meaningful connections in his life.
It was all….so sad.
Shaking his head, he dumped the battery keeping him alive on the desk and watched it ominously move due to the weight imbalance, "SAve for the speeches for later on, Yinsen, preferably over a glass of ridiculously overpriced Wine and the best steak money can buy."
Yinsen adjusted his glasses as he looked over all of the plans they made to appease their armed overlords for the moment, "Ah, that is a nice scenario to imagine."
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.
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DoorMan (MCU SI) - #42 : Saturday night Baby! APOSTLE calling!
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IdleMuse0307
I trust you know where the happy button is?
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2021
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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 #41
Stark Industries Accomodations[February 3, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
"Nooooo!"
He took it back, this internship was awesome! He laughed in triumph as he finally won, in chess. Yup, it was currently 2 in the morning, and he was in the lobby of their accommodation and was playing chess with one of his fellow interns.
Leaning back into the chair, he looked around him and saw similarly enthused forms playing board games of various sizes and shapes, scattered throughout the lobby attached to them. The layout of the building was unique as well.
It had seven floors with each floor having 10 rooms, for 10 people. Then the floor also had an independent washer/dryer unit, a small gym, the aforementioned lobby stocked with all the games one could need, along with a room carved into the side of the building that had the Theatre room.
All of this in a single floor. The entire lobby was sound treated as well, hence, the lack of restraint on their part in screaming, either in triumph or in despair.
"Yield before my might," He said in a deep voice before turning to the side as his phone pinged with an alert. Without breaking stride, he turned to Jack Slash and smiled apologetically, "Sorry, I have to take this. I'll bring the next round!"
That set off another round of WOOOO in this lobby. See, everything in the building itself was free, it was another form of consumer paradise, but one had to actually go down to the reception to get it. Everything was open 24/7 but the people were very lazy to actually go down and fetch the drinks.
Non-alcoholic mind you.
The madlads maintaining this building had freshly squeezed juice available at all times of the day, so all the people got whatever fruit juice they wanted at any time of the day. There was food but that was time limited. They COULD however tell the reception to order anything from any 24/7 food chain and get it for free, at any time of the day.
Living here was becoming more and more attractive by the day.
Weaving between the tables, he got out of the lobby as his smile dimmed, looking at the alert on the phone. His fingers twitched as he cast the enchantments on the phone as well as on the glasses he had begun wearing when he came for the internship, making the entire UI switch on the phone.
For the dozens of cameras littering this lobby, it would show usual stuff but for him, it was a personal alert from his system that had dozens upon dozens of targets that were being searched for, on the internet. He smiled as he read the target this time, and after checking on the location of a sub-target, switched off the phone and went into the elevator.
His systems found AIM or atleast the organisation that was peddling around discount pyromaniacs and looking for any investors to get the project off the ground.
The elevator dinged and he smiled at the receptionist before moving to the pantry, which was also accessible 24/7. Taking the stuff he needed and putting it in a basket, he scanned it at the self checkout and put his thumb for ownership so the system knows that he took out the drinks, for record keeping purposes since there was no billing involved whatsoever.
Smiling at the receptionist once more, he got into the elevator as his mind churned with what to do with AIM, or Aldrich Killian who was trying to perfect the Extremis Super Soldier serum.
Now, there was no way in hell that he was going to inject his previous body with that trash, even if it was somehow perfected because his powers were more than enough to make him strong but it wouldn't hurt to have Bruce take a look at it.
He finally had a super genius on his side, might as well take advantage of it. Jin'Ya was currently on an Astral Talk with one of his buddies in the Astral Realm, whilst also keeping an eye on Tony so he did not want to disturb Jin'Ya just to talk to Banner right now but once the data was done, in a day or so, he might contact Banner to get a look at whatever samples he might recover.
He put on his normal face and went into the lobby that was still abuzz with activity as it was Saturday night and none of the people here were inclined to go to a club. Actually, this was their club, in a sense and he would have been more than happy to just go on for the entire night but he had some stuff to do, meetings to crash, serums to steal, scientists to kidnap, all that jazz.
That is why once he set down the drinks on the table near the door, he turned to Jack who was busy on his phone, probably waiting for him, and said, "Hey, I gotta turn in for the night. I need to meet someone tomorrow morning, early morning."
Jack nodded, "Yeah, sure. Good Game." He bumped firsts with the guy and waved at all the other guys as he left.
"Bye, Colin!" They all did it in the sing-song voice of a class greeting the teacher in the first lecture of an absolutely cold morning, which was hilarious, in his opinion.
Turning around, he went into his room and turned on the laptop after activating the same enchantments, resulting in the server from Kamar Taj opening on his laptop. He read through the first few reports to see that SHIELD has been keeping an eye on the Advanced Idea Mechanics Think tank because they suspect them of trying to create advanced weaponry under the guise of medical technology along with a case of some fraudulent investors.
Money coming in from Zurich, spent on very overpriced equipment coming in from China, hiring foreign faceless workers from Vietnam for rates surpassing that of European scientists. Yup, that'll do it, that will put anyone on the radar of SHIELD if the company in question was dealing with stuff that could be easily used to make biochemical weapons.
He knew that Killian was dealing in more than just a dirty bio weapon but SHIELD probably thought that they were dealing with their average run of the mill terrorist group who would eventually lose their patience and slip up, not knowing that the potential slip up would be a spectacular explosion that would wipe out any evidence of wrongdoing.
No, SHIELD was taking the hands off approach because they couldn't really swoop in and essentially destroy a US company without due cause and just in case they couldn't find anything incriminating in the company, the World Security Council (and their donors) would surely get on Fury's case and that was probably the last thing he wanted, what with his planet already being full due to a certain orange menace stealing his secure data.
He shook his head and shut down the laptop. They had a meeting scheduled in Lagos in an hour, where they were going to showcase their first ever successful specimen, and the language was carefully worded as well, showing no sign that it was actually a person.
SHIELD was going to be there but only in a nominal capacity, for some reason. It was as if they were a globe spanning agency that couldn't afford to send in the cavalry for every single lead, without knowing if it was worth it or not.
After all, why would anyone at SHIELD think that someone with barely a billion dollars in total funding over 5 years could make anything close to the super soldier serum when entire countries spending dozens of times that in a single year couldn;t even create something close to the original Super Soldier Serum?
Maya Hansen really was a genius in her own right. He didn't know what he would do to her because her knowledge was really dangerous and giving her to SHIELD was not an option.
He got ready, arranging his room and putting on his sling ring because he had to be there right now. He only knew a single location in Lagos for the portal and the location for the meeting was in a parking lot of a commercial building that was shut down for construction for the moment.
Putting on his orange one sie which was just a small patch of fabric when unfolded, he was about to open a portal but froze as his phone rang. His phone never rang. No, it buzzed or pinged at most with a short sound. Never this hideous ringing sound.
Taking it out of his pocket, his eyes widened as he saw "APOSTLE OF BAST" as the caller ID.
In the medium sized bedroom, which was now totally dark, a single word echoed, single handedly encompassing the situation Colin was about to find himself in, "Shit…."
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.
DoorMan #41
Stark Industries Accomodations[February 3, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
"Nooooo!"
He took it back, this internship was awesome! He laughed in triumph as he finally won, in chess. Yup, it was currently 2 in the morning, and he was in the lobby of their accommodation and was playing chess with one of his fellow interns.
Leaning back into the chair, he looked around him and saw similarly enthused forms playing board games of various sizes and shapes, scattered throughout the lobby attached to them. The layout of the building was unique as well.
It had seven floors with each floor having 10 rooms, for 10 people. Then the floor also had an independent washer/dryer unit, a small gym, the aforementioned lobby stocked with all the games one could need, along with a room carved into the side of the building that had the Theatre room.
All of this in a single floor. The entire lobby was sound treated as well, hence, the lack of restraint on their part in screaming, either in triumph or in despair.
"Yield before my might," He said in a deep voice before turning to the side as his phone pinged with an alert. Without breaking stride, he turned to Jack Slash and smiled apologetically, "Sorry, I have to take this. I'll bring the next round!"
That set off another round of WOOOO in this lobby. See, everything in the building itself was free, it was another form of consumer paradise, but one had to actually go down to the reception to get it. Everything was open 24/7 but the people were very lazy to actually go down and fetch the drinks.
Non-alcoholic mind you.
The madlads maintaining this building had freshly squeezed juice available at all times of the day, so all the people got whatever fruit juice they wanted at any time of the day. There was food but that was time limited. They COULD however tell the reception to order anything from any 24/7 food chain and get it for free, at any time of the day.
Living here was becoming more and more attractive by the day.
Weaving between the tables, he got out of the lobby as his smile dimmed, looking at the alert on the phone. His fingers twitched as he cast the enchantments on the phone as well as on the glasses he had begun wearing when he came for the internship, making the entire UI switch on the phone.
For the dozens of cameras littering this lobby, it would show usual stuff but for him, it was a personal alert from his system that had dozens upon dozens of targets that were being searched for, on the internet. He smiled as he read the target this time, and after checking on the location of a sub-target, switched off the phone and went into the elevator.
His systems found AIM or atleast the organisation that was peddling around discount pyromaniacs and looking for any investors to get the project off the ground.
The elevator dinged and he smiled at the receptionist before moving to the pantry, which was also accessible 24/7. Taking the stuff he needed and putting it in a basket, he scanned it at the self checkout and put his thumb for ownership so the system knows that he took out the drinks, for record keeping purposes since there was no billing involved whatsoever.
Smiling at the receptionist once more, he got into the elevator as his mind churned with what to do with AIM, or Aldrich Killian who was trying to perfect the Extremis Super Soldier serum.
Now, there was no way in hell that he was going to inject his previous body with that trash, even if it was somehow perfected because his powers were more than enough to make him strong but it wouldn't hurt to have Bruce take a look at it.
He finally had a super genius on his side, might as well take advantage of it. Jin'Ya was currently on an Astral Talk with one of his buddies in the Astral Realm, whilst also keeping an eye on Tony so he did not want to disturb Jin'Ya just to talk to Banner right now but once the data was done, in a day or so, he might contact Banner to get a look at whatever samples he might recover.
He put on his normal face and went into the lobby that was still abuzz with activity as it was Saturday night and none of the people here were inclined to go to a club. Actually, this was their club, in a sense and he would have been more than happy to just go on for the entire night but he had some stuff to do, meetings to crash, serums to steal, scientists to kidnap, all that jazz.
That is why once he set down the drinks on the table near the door, he turned to Jack who was busy on his phone, probably waiting for him, and said, "Hey, I gotta turn in for the night. I need to meet someone tomorrow morning, early morning."
Jack nodded, "Yeah, sure. Good Game." He bumped firsts with the guy and waved at all the other guys as he left.
"Bye, Colin!" They all did it in the sing-song voice of a class greeting the teacher in the first lecture of an absolutely cold morning, which was hilarious, in his opinion.
Turning around, he went into his room and turned on the laptop after activating the same enchantments, resulting in the server from Kamar Taj opening on his laptop. He read through the first few reports to see that SHIELD has been keeping an eye on the Advanced Idea Mechanics Think tank because they suspect them of trying to create advanced weaponry under the guise of medical technology along with a case of some fraudulent investors.
Money coming in from Zurich, spent on very overpriced equipment coming in from China, hiring foreign faceless workers from Vietnam for rates surpassing that of European scientists. Yup, that'll do it, that will put anyone on the radar of SHIELD if the company in question was dealing with stuff that could be easily used to make biochemical weapons.
He knew that Killian was dealing in more than just a dirty bio weapon but SHIELD probably thought that they were dealing with their average run of the mill terrorist group who would eventually lose their patience and slip up, not knowing that the potential slip up would be a spectacular explosion that would wipe out any evidence of wrongdoing.
No, SHIELD was taking the hands off approach because they couldn't really swoop in and essentially destroy a US company without due cause and just in case they couldn't find anything incriminating in the company, the World Security Council (and their donors) would surely get on Fury's case and that was probably the last thing he wanted, what with his planet already being full due to a certain orange menace stealing his secure data.
He shook his head and shut down the laptop. They had a meeting scheduled in Lagos in an hour, where they were going to showcase their first ever successful specimen, and the language was carefully worded as well, showing no sign that it was actually a person.
SHIELD was going to be there but only in a nominal capacity, for some reason. It was as if they were a globe spanning agency that couldn't afford to send in the cavalry for every single lead, without knowing if it was worth it or not.
After all, why would anyone at SHIELD think that someone with barely a billion dollars in total funding over 5 years could make anything close to the super soldier serum when entire countries spending dozens of times that in a single year couldn;t even create something close to the original Super Soldier Serum?
Maya Hansen really was a genius in her own right. He didn't know what he would do to her because her knowledge was really dangerous and giving her to SHIELD was not an option.
He got ready, arranging his room and putting on his sling ring because he had to be there right now. He only knew a single location in Lagos for the portal and the location for the meeting was in a parking lot of a commercial building that was shut down for construction for the moment.
Putting on his orange one sie which was just a small patch of fabric when unfolded, he was about to open a portal but froze as his phone rang. His phone never rang. No, it buzzed or pinged at most with a short sound. Never this hideous ringing sound.
Taking it out of his pocket, his eyes widened as he saw "APOSTLE OF BAST" as the caller ID.
In the medium sized bedroom, which was now totally dark, a single word echoed, single handedly encompassing the situation Colin was about to find himself in, "Shit…."
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.
DoorMan (MCU SI) - #43 : Shuri Shenanigans & EXCUSE ME?!
New
IdleMuse0307
I trust you know where the happy button is?
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2021
- Messages
- 616
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 #43
Stark Industries Accomodations[February 3, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
He tried to wrack his brain as to who this Apostle could be, maybe the Black Panther? But then again, if Wakanda wanted an audience with him, they would never use subtlety, they would just bulldoze through.
He couldn't even try to track the hack because he was in such a hurry and who knows who might get the Extremis serum if even a single vial slipped through the meeting. Jin'Ya could not accurately ferret out information from individuals from the world without lunging his soul deep into the Astral Realm, something he was neither inclined to do nor was he allowed to do.
So, with a heavy heart, he swiped the animation and accepted the call. "Hello?"
He was surprised to hear a feminine voice come out of the phone's speakers, "Hello, Mr.Colin Baxter, or should I call you the Orange Menace?"
A chill ran down his spine as he looked around and activated his gaze enchantment, cursing mentally as he found a single gaze on him, probably of the same person who was calling him. He had a clue who this person was but no clue how they found out about him. Well, since the cat was out of the bag and Wakanda was the one place he need not fear because he knew so much stuff about them that putting them in the ground would barely be an inconvenience for him.
"Shuri?"
"......"
"I suppose you hacked my phone and my systems? Using your fancy Vibranium servers?" It was a gamble he was willing to take, to be in a position of strength since he was flying in pretty much bling here.
"You know far more than you should, Colin Baxter." He smiled and was about to reply but stopped as he felt something arrive on top of the accommodation. It was damn near silent but even Vibranium could not silence the tiny disturbances in the air, which he felt because he had his senses peeled ever since he got the phone call. Damn Wakandans.
He was in a hurry and they had to contact him at the same time...
"Are you right above my room right now?" He asked, incredulously as he tried to sense the shape of the ship they were in. There was a good chance that it was Shuri but she could not be alone, being Princess of Wakanda and all that jazz, so he was playing it safe here.
"Yes," Was all he heard before the CHI in his body spiked a bit as something small and light hit the balcony, right in front of his door. Tensing, he waited for the door to open, already summoning his most devastating Doors in both his hands, a Fire door, and the Kinetic laser Door.
Yes, both were energy based attacks and could work poorly against Vibranium but they would raise enough of a ruckus that Wakanda would be forced to hide and he would call in Jin'Ya to get him out of here. THe fire could be explained later on, that was not the scope here.
The lock clicked open and the door swung open, revealing nothing? No, something was there, it was just invisible. Pointing his right palm at the door that was crackling with red energy, he said in a deathly whisper, "Quietly come in, I am sure you don't want Wakanda's secrets to be sent to a select group of people who can and will come for your Vibranium, right? Princess Shuri?"
There was a moment of silence before he sensed the figure come in and close the door. A moment later, the invisibility was dispelled, revealing a sleek suit with purple lights coming through the crevices. His eyes narrowed as he recognised the suit to be the one Shuri used, in the future.
His question was answered when the helmet part of the suit just receded, revealing Shure's face and also the fact that she was using Nanotechnology right now, which meant that her tech was much more advanced than it was in canon.
There was a moment of silence between them, where both of them spent a second observing each other before he broke the silence, "So, what can I do for you, Your highness?"
Shuri snorted as the rest of her suit flickered for a moment before changing into normal clothing. Walking towards the couch, she sat on it and looked at the opposite couch, gesturing for him to sit too. Rolling his eyes, he dispelled the crackling red energy in his palm and sat down on the sofa right next to her, keeping his senses cranked to 11 just in case this was an ambush.
Shuri eyed his palm which was now not glowing red, "Neat trick. I wonder how many more of those you can pull out of nowhere?"
He didn't deign that with an answer as he asked, once more, "What do you want, Princess Shuri? I doubt this is just a social call."
Shuri shook her head as a small hologram was projected in front of him. "I was curious, that's all. The one on the left is the energy reading taken from two different isolated incidents, and the third one is the most recent one, taken from this room just a scant few minutes ago. Notice anything familiar?"
He cursed as he realised that SHuri could somehow track the orange onesie whenever it was activated. The density of the enchantments on the thing rivalled most Relics in Kamar Taj and that was probably what Shuri's sensors picked up on. This was…game changing. He had to warn the others at Kamar Taj because if Shuri could sense his use, she could also interfere in other operations that Kamar Taj had around the world.
He ground out, "Yes. What of it?"
The displays were dismissed as Shuri said, "Nothing. I was just curious."
He blinked at her, "Just curious?"
She nodded repeatedly, "Yup. So, where are you off to? The last two times you donned that suit, you did some pretty interesting stuff. Illegal stuff but interesting nonetheless."
He looked at her oddly, "You want to come?"
"Oh yeah, most definitely. Why else would I come into your room in the middle of the night?"
He exhaled and then stood up. "Fine, if you want to do this. But only you, none of your security can come."
"What security? I came here alone."
"And you thought that it was a good idea? You know how strong I am," He remarked as he donned his suit, which expanded instantly to cover his entire body, top to bottom, as he psyched himself up not to embarrass himself during the hardest part of any operation.
The portal opening.
"Wow, is that nano tech? I sense no Vibranium so how did you solve the Quantum interference? Also, the energy coming from it ebbs and flows, what's up with that?" He mechanically turned to the side, to see Shuri with her head buried in a screen, mumbling questions, either to herself or to him.
"Can you not?" He deadpanned at her who waved her hand at him to shut up.
"You do know I have a deadline, right? There are some dangerous people I have to capture today and the only reason I am even allowi–"
"Excuse ME?! Allow me?"
He blinked at the sudden outraged expression on her face. He sensed that he made a mistake of some sort but he didn't know at the time he was digging himself an even bigger hole, "Yeah, your suit. I assume it's Vibranium? That should be more than enough to protect you from most things so you should be saaafeeee–"
He raised his forearm to block the dropkick as he skidded backward, toppling over the sofa and backflipping to land back on his legs to see Shuri standing in the same spot with her leg outstretched in his direction.
"Okay, first of all, cheap shot. Second of all, I didn't mean it that way." He tried to defend himself, keyword being tried as the next moment a flying Shuri came his way with her leg aimed at his chest. He had to redirect her at the last moment by grabbing her leg and flinging her back to the sofa.
He DID NOT want to explain a hole in the wall to the admin team here. That would be embarrassing on all levels.
"Would you stop?" he asked, exasperated as Shuri stood up, smirking. She looked at him expectantly for some reason, as the suit reappeared on her, sealing her up to her neck.
He sighed, "Fine. You don't need protection. Princess Shuri is more than capable of defending herself. I was wrong, I apologize. Now, can we go?" He bowed mockingly at her and asked her pointedly.
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.
DoorMan #43
Stark Industries Accomodations[February 3, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
He tried to wrack his brain as to who this Apostle could be, maybe the Black Panther? But then again, if Wakanda wanted an audience with him, they would never use subtlety, they would just bulldoze through.
He couldn't even try to track the hack because he was in such a hurry and who knows who might get the Extremis serum if even a single vial slipped through the meeting. Jin'Ya could not accurately ferret out information from individuals from the world without lunging his soul deep into the Astral Realm, something he was neither inclined to do nor was he allowed to do.
So, with a heavy heart, he swiped the animation and accepted the call. "Hello?"
He was surprised to hear a feminine voice come out of the phone's speakers, "Hello, Mr.Colin Baxter, or should I call you the Orange Menace?"
A chill ran down his spine as he looked around and activated his gaze enchantment, cursing mentally as he found a single gaze on him, probably of the same person who was calling him. He had a clue who this person was but no clue how they found out about him. Well, since the cat was out of the bag and Wakanda was the one place he need not fear because he knew so much stuff about them that putting them in the ground would barely be an inconvenience for him.
"Shuri?"
"......"
"I suppose you hacked my phone and my systems? Using your fancy Vibranium servers?" It was a gamble he was willing to take, to be in a position of strength since he was flying in pretty much bling here.
"You know far more than you should, Colin Baxter." He smiled and was about to reply but stopped as he felt something arrive on top of the accommodation. It was damn near silent but even Vibranium could not silence the tiny disturbances in the air, which he felt because he had his senses peeled ever since he got the phone call. Damn Wakandans.
He was in a hurry and they had to contact him at the same time...
"Are you right above my room right now?" He asked, incredulously as he tried to sense the shape of the ship they were in. There was a good chance that it was Shuri but she could not be alone, being Princess of Wakanda and all that jazz, so he was playing it safe here.
"Yes," Was all he heard before the CHI in his body spiked a bit as something small and light hit the balcony, right in front of his door. Tensing, he waited for the door to open, already summoning his most devastating Doors in both his hands, a Fire door, and the Kinetic laser Door.
Yes, both were energy based attacks and could work poorly against Vibranium but they would raise enough of a ruckus that Wakanda would be forced to hide and he would call in Jin'Ya to get him out of here. THe fire could be explained later on, that was not the scope here.
The lock clicked open and the door swung open, revealing nothing? No, something was there, it was just invisible. Pointing his right palm at the door that was crackling with red energy, he said in a deathly whisper, "Quietly come in, I am sure you don't want Wakanda's secrets to be sent to a select group of people who can and will come for your Vibranium, right? Princess Shuri?"
There was a moment of silence before he sensed the figure come in and close the door. A moment later, the invisibility was dispelled, revealing a sleek suit with purple lights coming through the crevices. His eyes narrowed as he recognised the suit to be the one Shuri used, in the future.
His question was answered when the helmet part of the suit just receded, revealing Shure's face and also the fact that she was using Nanotechnology right now, which meant that her tech was much more advanced than it was in canon.
There was a moment of silence between them, where both of them spent a second observing each other before he broke the silence, "So, what can I do for you, Your highness?"
Shuri snorted as the rest of her suit flickered for a moment before changing into normal clothing. Walking towards the couch, she sat on it and looked at the opposite couch, gesturing for him to sit too. Rolling his eyes, he dispelled the crackling red energy in his palm and sat down on the sofa right next to her, keeping his senses cranked to 11 just in case this was an ambush.
Shuri eyed his palm which was now not glowing red, "Neat trick. I wonder how many more of those you can pull out of nowhere?"
He didn't deign that with an answer as he asked, once more, "What do you want, Princess Shuri? I doubt this is just a social call."
Shuri shook her head as a small hologram was projected in front of him. "I was curious, that's all. The one on the left is the energy reading taken from two different isolated incidents, and the third one is the most recent one, taken from this room just a scant few minutes ago. Notice anything familiar?"
He cursed as he realised that SHuri could somehow track the orange onesie whenever it was activated. The density of the enchantments on the thing rivalled most Relics in Kamar Taj and that was probably what Shuri's sensors picked up on. This was…game changing. He had to warn the others at Kamar Taj because if Shuri could sense his use, she could also interfere in other operations that Kamar Taj had around the world.
He ground out, "Yes. What of it?"
The displays were dismissed as Shuri said, "Nothing. I was just curious."
He blinked at her, "Just curious?"
She nodded repeatedly, "Yup. So, where are you off to? The last two times you donned that suit, you did some pretty interesting stuff. Illegal stuff but interesting nonetheless."
He looked at her oddly, "You want to come?"
"Oh yeah, most definitely. Why else would I come into your room in the middle of the night?"
He exhaled and then stood up. "Fine, if you want to do this. But only you, none of your security can come."
"What security? I came here alone."
"And you thought that it was a good idea? You know how strong I am," He remarked as he donned his suit, which expanded instantly to cover his entire body, top to bottom, as he psyched himself up not to embarrass himself during the hardest part of any operation.
The portal opening.
"Wow, is that nano tech? I sense no Vibranium so how did you solve the Quantum interference? Also, the energy coming from it ebbs and flows, what's up with that?" He mechanically turned to the side, to see Shuri with her head buried in a screen, mumbling questions, either to herself or to him.
"Can you not?" He deadpanned at her who waved her hand at him to shut up.
"You do know I have a deadline, right? There are some dangerous people I have to capture today and the only reason I am even allowi–"
"Excuse ME?! Allow me?"
He blinked at the sudden outraged expression on her face. He sensed that he made a mistake of some sort but he didn't know at the time he was digging himself an even bigger hole, "Yeah, your suit. I assume it's Vibranium? That should be more than enough to protect you from most things so you should be saaafeeee–"
He raised his forearm to block the dropkick as he skidded backward, toppling over the sofa and backflipping to land back on his legs to see Shuri standing in the same spot with her leg outstretched in his direction.
"Okay, first of all, cheap shot. Second of all, I didn't mean it that way." He tried to defend himself, keyword being tried as the next moment a flying Shuri came his way with her leg aimed at his chest. He had to redirect her at the last moment by grabbing her leg and flinging her back to the sofa.
He DID NOT want to explain a hole in the wall to the admin team here. That would be embarrassing on all levels.
"Would you stop?" he asked, exasperated as Shuri stood up, smirking. She looked at him expectantly for some reason, as the suit reappeared on her, sealing her up to her neck.
He sighed, "Fine. You don't need protection. Princess Shuri is more than capable of defending herself. I was wrong, I apologize. Now, can we go?" He bowed mockingly at her and asked her pointedly.
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.
stads
Experienced.
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nice chapter thx for writing it
wonder what shuri's reaction will be once she learn shield will be calling her the side kick
wonder what shuri's reaction will be once she learn shield will be calling her the side kick
Jao
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DoorMan (MCU SI) - #44 : Tag Along & Regretful Tag Alongs.....
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IdleMuse0307
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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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 #44
Stark Industries Accomodations[February 3, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
Waving his arms a bunch of times mid air, he was thankful that the portal opened on the third try, showing clouds on the other side. A nifty enchantment on the sling ring allows the caster to decide if air and water could come out of the other side, given that the pressure did not exceed a certain limit. It was not like he could open a portal to the bottom of the ocean and then keep the pressure at bay.
He would be vaporised by water of that pressure if he ever tried that, as was evident in the Sling Ring Warnings book distributed to everyone who ever got a sling ring. They had to memorise it, else, they were not given authorisation to use the Sling Network and without the network, using the Sling Ring required far more finesse and power.
"Hmm, what is your power source? A single person having such a diverse range of abilities is not something we have ever witnessed. Curious. Truly curious." Shuri murmured as he rolled his eyes and jumped into the portal, landing on an Air Door while Shuri floated through leisurely, propelled by the two boosters on her feet. He was curious about the suit but now was not the time for that.
Why did he bring her, an absolute stranger, to a mission he would deem critical? Who knows but Jin'Ya was not here to lecture him so he counted that as a win.
"Lagos? Why are we in Lagos?" Shuri asked him as she experimentally placed one foot on the Air Door, which was keeping him floating in the air.
"Well, many reasons but the main one is that I have been tracking someone who is scheduled to have an important sale here in Lagos in about an hour. So, if you could just follow my lead," He said his piece before letting the Air Door dispel, dropping him from tens of thousands of feet in the air.
He swiftly angled his body so that he was cutting through the air, heading straight down. They were not exactly above Lagos, just a little bit off the coast and last he checked, the radar systems were not exactly top notch so he was fine and Ms.Wakanda over there was in a state of the art suit that probably had all sorts of stealth mode in it.
"What is the plan?" he looked to the side as Shuri was flying down with him. Somehow, her words reached him perfectly, despite all the air between them. ANother Wakandan tech then.
He sighed and took out a USB from his pocket and presented it to her. She swiftly took it as it immediately melded in her suit. OKay, that was cool.
A moment later, as he used controlled air bursts to slow him down for an impending splash, he heard her scream, "Super Soldiers? Controlled Super Soldiers?"
Gently floating on top of the ocean with the Air Door, he looked at Shuri who was now standing on the door, going through the data docket he had compiled about AIM. Most of it was just information that SHIELD and the other law enforcement agencies had compiled and some of it was just him connecting the dots using his meta knowledge.
"They are here to sell a Super Soldier Serum?" Shuri asked him as the Door began moving in the direction of Lagos.
"Yup. I don't know if it is working or not but I can't take that risk now, can I?"
"So, what's the plan? Are you going to turn them into SHIELD? Confiscate the research and then hand them over to–"
"Hand them over?" He deadpanned at her as they dove underwater, courtesy of another three Air Doors appearing all around them. ONce they were at a sufficient depth, the Doors propelled him forward. Turning to Shuri who was looking at him with an odd expression, "To answer your question, No. I am not going to hand them over to any government related entity who will just make them restart their work, with government level resources this time."
Turning to the burner phone he kept handy, he saw that the parking lot where they were about to have their meeting was actually across the city. SIghing, he turned to Shuri who had gone quiet at his declaration, "I assume you have a decent Stealth mode built into your suit?"
"Once we surface, follow my energy signature. The location is on the other side of the city. Alright?"
Shuri nodded, "Sure. Are you going to kill all of them?"
He sighed, "I do not know, actually. I do know that I can't let them be free. I know that some of the people there did not work willingly. Some of them are just people down on their luck. Once I'm done with the ringleader, I'll have to evaluate the situation on a case by case basis."
"This Killian guy? Does he pose a threat to you?"
"Me, personally? Nope. But the world does not need a renewed super Soldier Arms race and I, for one, would like to live in a world that was not in a constant state of emergency."
"Makes sense," Shuri said as he activated the stealth function of his suit and shot out of the water. He couldn't see her but he could faintly sense the air disturbance behind him. She then slowly disappeared from his senses the higher they got, due to the air speed.
Within minutes, he landed on top of the building that was sealed off for maintenance work. He felt the light impact beside him as Shuri spoke, "I've scanned the place. There is no one in all the three underground parking lots."
"Well, you're the one with the more advanced tech here. Cast a wider net then." He suggested before walking over to the edge of the helipad, looking at the city which was bustling. THe sun shone brightly above them as he looked at the crowd moving around the city, not knowing that at any moment now, someone was going to bring in a walking human bomb capable of reaching temperatures high enough to melt steel.
"So what's your plan? A mass purge of everyone involved? That would be the best way to minimise any risk of fallout as well as thoroughly destroy the research." Shuri commented lightly as a hologram appeared in front of him, showing a program that was looking for Killian, Maya Hansen, and a couple of other lieutenants of AIM through every single camera in Lagos, of which there were plenty.
"Well, the top management has to go. I know Hansen is only working to get her research done. She did not find anyone else willing to fund her research. Killian is in it for both revenge as well as his broken body. The other three Doctors with him are utterly ruthless, they have to go."
"Uh-huh. So the Doctor lives, the person with the most value lives while the rest die. What about the clients?"
"Once I have ID on them, I'll see what kind of scum they are and get rid of them as well."
"I see. Do tell me why I should let you get away with Hansen. For all I know, you could be doing all this so you could build yourself an army of Super Soldiers. After all, I don't really know you that well, Colin, to trust you with something so world changing." Shuri said in a tense voice as she positioned herself facing him.
He smiled, uncaring of her threatening position, "Shuri Udaku, daughter of T'Chaka, brother of T'Challa, daughter of Queen Ramonda, genius extraordinaire, and now, Bast's chosen as well."
He turned to look at her who had now donned her entire suit, covering her entire body, the holo displays dispelled completely, "I do not care for your motives and if you think I am here to profit from people who can, at best, be called traitors to the Human race but do know this, if you even think of interfering with my work, I will not be kind, to you or Wakanda. So, please, think your next words carefully."
Turning back to the city at large, he expanded his senses and almost winced at the amount of feedback. Shuri was right though, the parking lots as well as the entire building was completely empty, which was odd. No construction work, no squatters, nothing.
He felt more than heard Shuri coming to stand by his side, "I apologise if I came off judgemental. I know that with my country's track record, I have no right to lecture you. Now, this is your operation and I did just come here as a tag along at the last moment. Please, ignore me and continue."
"Uh-huh." he said as he mentally wished that Jin'ya was present. Sure, her thoughts were walled out by Bast but having backup would have been much more preferable to having someone who might turn on him at any moment.
Why did he agree for her to come with him, again?
Oh yeah, she figured out his identity and he panicked at the spot.
There was a beeping sound before a holo display appeared in front of him, showing both Aldritch Killian and Maya Hansen, spotted by a traffic camera, in a car headed their way.
"Show time."
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.
DoorMan #44
Stark Industries Accomodations[February 3, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
Waving his arms a bunch of times mid air, he was thankful that the portal opened on the third try, showing clouds on the other side. A nifty enchantment on the sling ring allows the caster to decide if air and water could come out of the other side, given that the pressure did not exceed a certain limit. It was not like he could open a portal to the bottom of the ocean and then keep the pressure at bay.
He would be vaporised by water of that pressure if he ever tried that, as was evident in the Sling Ring Warnings book distributed to everyone who ever got a sling ring. They had to memorise it, else, they were not given authorisation to use the Sling Network and without the network, using the Sling Ring required far more finesse and power.
"Hmm, what is your power source? A single person having such a diverse range of abilities is not something we have ever witnessed. Curious. Truly curious." Shuri murmured as he rolled his eyes and jumped into the portal, landing on an Air Door while Shuri floated through leisurely, propelled by the two boosters on her feet. He was curious about the suit but now was not the time for that.
Why did he bring her, an absolute stranger, to a mission he would deem critical? Who knows but Jin'Ya was not here to lecture him so he counted that as a win.
"Lagos? Why are we in Lagos?" Shuri asked him as she experimentally placed one foot on the Air Door, which was keeping him floating in the air.
"Well, many reasons but the main one is that I have been tracking someone who is scheduled to have an important sale here in Lagos in about an hour. So, if you could just follow my lead," He said his piece before letting the Air Door dispel, dropping him from tens of thousands of feet in the air.
He swiftly angled his body so that he was cutting through the air, heading straight down. They were not exactly above Lagos, just a little bit off the coast and last he checked, the radar systems were not exactly top notch so he was fine and Ms.Wakanda over there was in a state of the art suit that probably had all sorts of stealth mode in it.
"What is the plan?" he looked to the side as Shuri was flying down with him. Somehow, her words reached him perfectly, despite all the air between them. ANother Wakandan tech then.
He sighed and took out a USB from his pocket and presented it to her. She swiftly took it as it immediately melded in her suit. OKay, that was cool.
A moment later, as he used controlled air bursts to slow him down for an impending splash, he heard her scream, "Super Soldiers? Controlled Super Soldiers?"
Gently floating on top of the ocean with the Air Door, he looked at Shuri who was now standing on the door, going through the data docket he had compiled about AIM. Most of it was just information that SHIELD and the other law enforcement agencies had compiled and some of it was just him connecting the dots using his meta knowledge.
"They are here to sell a Super Soldier Serum?" Shuri asked him as the Door began moving in the direction of Lagos.
"Yup. I don't know if it is working or not but I can't take that risk now, can I?"
"So, what's the plan? Are you going to turn them into SHIELD? Confiscate the research and then hand them over to–"
"Hand them over?" He deadpanned at her as they dove underwater, courtesy of another three Air Doors appearing all around them. ONce they were at a sufficient depth, the Doors propelled him forward. Turning to Shuri who was looking at him with an odd expression, "To answer your question, No. I am not going to hand them over to any government related entity who will just make them restart their work, with government level resources this time."
Turning to the burner phone he kept handy, he saw that the parking lot where they were about to have their meeting was actually across the city. SIghing, he turned to Shuri who had gone quiet at his declaration, "I assume you have a decent Stealth mode built into your suit?"
"Once we surface, follow my energy signature. The location is on the other side of the city. Alright?"
Shuri nodded, "Sure. Are you going to kill all of them?"
He sighed, "I do not know, actually. I do know that I can't let them be free. I know that some of the people there did not work willingly. Some of them are just people down on their luck. Once I'm done with the ringleader, I'll have to evaluate the situation on a case by case basis."
"This Killian guy? Does he pose a threat to you?"
"Me, personally? Nope. But the world does not need a renewed super Soldier Arms race and I, for one, would like to live in a world that was not in a constant state of emergency."
"Makes sense," Shuri said as he activated the stealth function of his suit and shot out of the water. He couldn't see her but he could faintly sense the air disturbance behind him. She then slowly disappeared from his senses the higher they got, due to the air speed.
Within minutes, he landed on top of the building that was sealed off for maintenance work. He felt the light impact beside him as Shuri spoke, "I've scanned the place. There is no one in all the three underground parking lots."
"Well, you're the one with the more advanced tech here. Cast a wider net then." He suggested before walking over to the edge of the helipad, looking at the city which was bustling. THe sun shone brightly above them as he looked at the crowd moving around the city, not knowing that at any moment now, someone was going to bring in a walking human bomb capable of reaching temperatures high enough to melt steel.
"So what's your plan? A mass purge of everyone involved? That would be the best way to minimise any risk of fallout as well as thoroughly destroy the research." Shuri commented lightly as a hologram appeared in front of him, showing a program that was looking for Killian, Maya Hansen, and a couple of other lieutenants of AIM through every single camera in Lagos, of which there were plenty.
"Well, the top management has to go. I know Hansen is only working to get her research done. She did not find anyone else willing to fund her research. Killian is in it for both revenge as well as his broken body. The other three Doctors with him are utterly ruthless, they have to go."
"Uh-huh. So the Doctor lives, the person with the most value lives while the rest die. What about the clients?"
"Once I have ID on them, I'll see what kind of scum they are and get rid of them as well."
"I see. Do tell me why I should let you get away with Hansen. For all I know, you could be doing all this so you could build yourself an army of Super Soldiers. After all, I don't really know you that well, Colin, to trust you with something so world changing." Shuri said in a tense voice as she positioned herself facing him.
He smiled, uncaring of her threatening position, "Shuri Udaku, daughter of T'Chaka, brother of T'Challa, daughter of Queen Ramonda, genius extraordinaire, and now, Bast's chosen as well."
He turned to look at her who had now donned her entire suit, covering her entire body, the holo displays dispelled completely, "I do not care for your motives and if you think I am here to profit from people who can, at best, be called traitors to the Human race but do know this, if you even think of interfering with my work, I will not be kind, to you or Wakanda. So, please, think your next words carefully."
Turning back to the city at large, he expanded his senses and almost winced at the amount of feedback. Shuri was right though, the parking lots as well as the entire building was completely empty, which was odd. No construction work, no squatters, nothing.
He felt more than heard Shuri coming to stand by his side, "I apologise if I came off judgemental. I know that with my country's track record, I have no right to lecture you. Now, this is your operation and I did just come here as a tag along at the last moment. Please, ignore me and continue."
"Uh-huh." he said as he mentally wished that Jin'ya was present. Sure, her thoughts were walled out by Bast but having backup would have been much more preferable to having someone who might turn on him at any moment.
Why did he agree for her to come with him, again?
Oh yeah, she figured out his identity and he panicked at the spot.
There was a beeping sound before a holo display appeared in front of him, showing both Aldritch Killian and Maya Hansen, spotted by a traffic camera, in a car headed their way.
"Show time."
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.
ImperialMage701139
Know what you're doing yet?
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God I love might makes right hypocrites. When someone they don't like uses their power to impose their will on others it's bad, but when they do it it's all right because they're, checks notes a good person
DoorMan (MCU SI) - #45 : I am a Nigerian Prince & I need your help...... I AM TOTALLY NOT A SCAMMER.
New
IdleMuse0307
I trust you know where the happy button is?
- Joined
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- Messages
- 616
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 #45
Lagos, Nigeria[February 3, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
"I've hacked into the car as well as all the devices in it. Accessing Location history on the phones. We have audio but they are not speaking at the moment. The driver is local and they don't have any security personnel with them." Shuri informed him while he kept an eye on the surroundings.
"Makes sense. They wouldn't want to draw any more attention to this. Any leads on the possible clientele?" He asked as he paced on the rooftop, watching Shuri do her magic as screens paced past her display at a dizzying pace, only visible to him because he was a literal superhuman at this point.
"Not yet. There have been a number of arrivals, through both legal as well as illegal routes of foreign individuals with a high net worth but they are far too many to go through individually, and at this point, I have 60 of them on the move, with about two dozen of them coming in this direction."
He muttered, "Right. This is the shopping district." Then, he stopped pacing and asked Shuri, "What about the building? It is in a prime location and they have somehow kept it sealed off without any ongoing work. Look for the owner."
"Already done. It is a building owned by a number of companies, all tracing back to multiple shell companies, eventually leading to a holding in the Caribbean. That's as far as the trail goes. I can find the owner but it will take time and it might alert them." Shuri shrugged.
He sighed in frustration and nearly snapped at her, "Aren't you supposed to have data like this stored somewhere already? I thought you guys ran surveillance on the entire world."
Shuri deadpanned at him, "We don't go around looking for every tax dodging individual, and who they are. If we did that, we would run out of people. That is not important for Wakanda."
He sheepishly muttered, "Right." Why would Wakanda care about outside tax laws, tax dodging, and tax criminals?
"Well then, it would seem there is nothing we can do but wait." He muttered as he reached through the mental link and hit a wall. He cursed internally. The wall was flimsy and he could break through at a moment's notice but that was not the point. Jin'Ya had warned him that unless there was a genuine emergency, he wished to be with the person whom he was meeting.
Jin'Ya would have been a great help here because doing targeted mental searches was within reach of Jin'Ya without contaminating his soul, but alas, the Dragon was on a date and it rarely happened so he was not about to disturb the man for something he could accomplish on his own.
Doubly so now that he has some sense of a backup with him, even if he could not really trust her 100%. He hoped that Shuri, grown up and exposed to the ugliness of the world, would have a much more mature worldview and would know that sometimes, there are no good or bad choices, only things that are necessary. Killian had to die. There was no way he could imprison Killian indefinitely. The man knew way too much about Extremis.
Maya was another thing entirely. Her goal was different from Killian's. It would be way easier to just give her whatever money and equipment she needed, and a lab on the Red Hearth, where she would be suitably isolated from the world, sparing her from certain death, something he would no doubt be bringing up during their inevitable encounter.
The reports in SHIELD also indicated a substantial security crew along with three other scientists who worked with Maya. The others were probably moles for their respective investors and knew just as much as Maya. Now, damage was already done because the data on Extremis, however incomplete and faulty it might be, was already out there but so was the data on dozens of other failed programs.
The baseline data was gone but that was not important for now. Now, he needed to deal with all the scientists and take the person who has the best chance at making Extremis a reality, out of the game altogether. He was sure that if Maya was given the chance to work on her serum without any requirement to weaponize it, in exchange for getting to live, she would take it.
"What's this?" He looked back as Shuri seemed to have found something. Noticing his gaze, she did something that changed the holidisplay. His eyes widened as he saw the structure of the building they were standing on. The feed showed the building structure, the 3 basement parking lots and beneath that was a thick concrete floor and after that were another two floors full of movement.
"What the hell?" He asked as he took a closer look and saw what seemed like dozens of people moving about in a giant enclosed space.
"The city has no records about that space. I am unable to find any activity on the grid that would suggest a large operation. No wind currents, no parking history, no coordinated security or supplies transportation. Nothing." Shuri rattled off as a feed showed Killian and Maya being just minutes away from the building.
His brows furrowed as he saw them enter through one of the back exits and go straight down, to the last basement parking. "Come on, let's go," He said as he turned invisible and jumped off the building, controlling his descent using his Air Doors. In the beginning, the impact of something small abruptly digging into his body was painful but now it was negligible.
"What's the plan?" He heard through the small comms that Shuri gave him since they needed to maintain silence and Shuri could speak from inside the suit and he could speak from inside the skull mask to maintain complete silence.
"We need to get inside the floor. I can spoof the motion sensors as well, can you?"
"I am not getting any signal inside the building. I am trying to trace the data paths of the entire island through the internet exchange centre nearby. Once I am in, I can do pretty much anything we need. It looks like a closed loop facility and with how many people are in the space, most of it must be automated." Shuri informed him as they manoeuvred through the empty spaces and began descending into the empty parking lots.
Both of them landed without any noise as the car dropped them and left the parking lot, leaving just Killian and Hansen standing alone in the parking lot.
Both of them seemed anxious but Maya seemed more so, plus Killian was the only one who had a gun on him.
"Should we take them right now?" Shuri asked him and it was a valid question. It was a great opportunity to extract the Doctor from the situation and kill Aldrich and be done with it.
But… "No, we need to know what's in the facility as well."
"I thought so. The fibre traces should be done in a few minutes. I have confirmed no wireless operations for the facility so the connection must be coming from somewhere and it is a lot harder to track fiber data connections than it is to track electricity." Shuri explained to him even as he kept an eye on the criminal duo.
They were just standing there, looking around, waiting for someone or something to happen.
"Any movements from the floors? Can you do a deeper scan? See if there is any entry/exit point. They must be coming and going from somewhere."
"None. Actually. It is all just a thick concrete box below us. No discernible entry points. Wait! We have cars incoming." Shuri said and just after a minute or so, the sound of tires screeching echoed throughout the building as multiple blacked out SUVs came rolling in. HIs eyes widened as dozens of armed people exited the cars and gestured for Aldrich and Maya to enter the cars. They complied and he and Shuri were left watching as the parking lot was empty once more.
"Shit!" He cursed as he slowly floated behind them. He would have to come back later on to figure out what this giant underground space was but for now, Extremis was the priority. It had the potential to do much more damage, especially once the procedure was disseminated to the rest of the world.
They didn't even have to work, to have super soldiers. No, even the defective ones in canon, that created what were essentially suicide bombers. Even those would fetch a pretty penny on the market because it was potential for super soldiers and in the meantime, they got undetected suicide bombs, a wet dream for terrorist organisations.
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.
DoorMan #45
Lagos, Nigeria[February 3, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
"I've hacked into the car as well as all the devices in it. Accessing Location history on the phones. We have audio but they are not speaking at the moment. The driver is local and they don't have any security personnel with them." Shuri informed him while he kept an eye on the surroundings.
"Makes sense. They wouldn't want to draw any more attention to this. Any leads on the possible clientele?" He asked as he paced on the rooftop, watching Shuri do her magic as screens paced past her display at a dizzying pace, only visible to him because he was a literal superhuman at this point.
"Not yet. There have been a number of arrivals, through both legal as well as illegal routes of foreign individuals with a high net worth but they are far too many to go through individually, and at this point, I have 60 of them on the move, with about two dozen of them coming in this direction."
He muttered, "Right. This is the shopping district." Then, he stopped pacing and asked Shuri, "What about the building? It is in a prime location and they have somehow kept it sealed off without any ongoing work. Look for the owner."
"Already done. It is a building owned by a number of companies, all tracing back to multiple shell companies, eventually leading to a holding in the Caribbean. That's as far as the trail goes. I can find the owner but it will take time and it might alert them." Shuri shrugged.
He sighed in frustration and nearly snapped at her, "Aren't you supposed to have data like this stored somewhere already? I thought you guys ran surveillance on the entire world."
Shuri deadpanned at him, "We don't go around looking for every tax dodging individual, and who they are. If we did that, we would run out of people. That is not important for Wakanda."
He sheepishly muttered, "Right." Why would Wakanda care about outside tax laws, tax dodging, and tax criminals?
"Well then, it would seem there is nothing we can do but wait." He muttered as he reached through the mental link and hit a wall. He cursed internally. The wall was flimsy and he could break through at a moment's notice but that was not the point. Jin'Ya had warned him that unless there was a genuine emergency, he wished to be with the person whom he was meeting.
Jin'Ya would have been a great help here because doing targeted mental searches was within reach of Jin'Ya without contaminating his soul, but alas, the Dragon was on a date and it rarely happened so he was not about to disturb the man for something he could accomplish on his own.
Doubly so now that he has some sense of a backup with him, even if he could not really trust her 100%. He hoped that Shuri, grown up and exposed to the ugliness of the world, would have a much more mature worldview and would know that sometimes, there are no good or bad choices, only things that are necessary. Killian had to die. There was no way he could imprison Killian indefinitely. The man knew way too much about Extremis.
Maya was another thing entirely. Her goal was different from Killian's. It would be way easier to just give her whatever money and equipment she needed, and a lab on the Red Hearth, where she would be suitably isolated from the world, sparing her from certain death, something he would no doubt be bringing up during their inevitable encounter.
The reports in SHIELD also indicated a substantial security crew along with three other scientists who worked with Maya. The others were probably moles for their respective investors and knew just as much as Maya. Now, damage was already done because the data on Extremis, however incomplete and faulty it might be, was already out there but so was the data on dozens of other failed programs.
The baseline data was gone but that was not important for now. Now, he needed to deal with all the scientists and take the person who has the best chance at making Extremis a reality, out of the game altogether. He was sure that if Maya was given the chance to work on her serum without any requirement to weaponize it, in exchange for getting to live, she would take it.
"What's this?" He looked back as Shuri seemed to have found something. Noticing his gaze, she did something that changed the holidisplay. His eyes widened as he saw the structure of the building they were standing on. The feed showed the building structure, the 3 basement parking lots and beneath that was a thick concrete floor and after that were another two floors full of movement.
"What the hell?" He asked as he took a closer look and saw what seemed like dozens of people moving about in a giant enclosed space.
"The city has no records about that space. I am unable to find any activity on the grid that would suggest a large operation. No wind currents, no parking history, no coordinated security or supplies transportation. Nothing." Shuri rattled off as a feed showed Killian and Maya being just minutes away from the building.
His brows furrowed as he saw them enter through one of the back exits and go straight down, to the last basement parking. "Come on, let's go," He said as he turned invisible and jumped off the building, controlling his descent using his Air Doors. In the beginning, the impact of something small abruptly digging into his body was painful but now it was negligible.
"What's the plan?" He heard through the small comms that Shuri gave him since they needed to maintain silence and Shuri could speak from inside the suit and he could speak from inside the skull mask to maintain complete silence.
"We need to get inside the floor. I can spoof the motion sensors as well, can you?"
"I am not getting any signal inside the building. I am trying to trace the data paths of the entire island through the internet exchange centre nearby. Once I am in, I can do pretty much anything we need. It looks like a closed loop facility and with how many people are in the space, most of it must be automated." Shuri informed him as they manoeuvred through the empty spaces and began descending into the empty parking lots.
Both of them landed without any noise as the car dropped them and left the parking lot, leaving just Killian and Hansen standing alone in the parking lot.
Both of them seemed anxious but Maya seemed more so, plus Killian was the only one who had a gun on him.
"Should we take them right now?" Shuri asked him and it was a valid question. It was a great opportunity to extract the Doctor from the situation and kill Aldrich and be done with it.
But… "No, we need to know what's in the facility as well."
"I thought so. The fibre traces should be done in a few minutes. I have confirmed no wireless operations for the facility so the connection must be coming from somewhere and it is a lot harder to track fiber data connections than it is to track electricity." Shuri explained to him even as he kept an eye on the criminal duo.
They were just standing there, looking around, waiting for someone or something to happen.
"Any movements from the floors? Can you do a deeper scan? See if there is any entry/exit point. They must be coming and going from somewhere."
"None. Actually. It is all just a thick concrete box below us. No discernible entry points. Wait! We have cars incoming." Shuri said and just after a minute or so, the sound of tires screeching echoed throughout the building as multiple blacked out SUVs came rolling in. HIs eyes widened as dozens of armed people exited the cars and gestured for Aldrich and Maya to enter the cars. They complied and he and Shuri were left watching as the parking lot was empty once more.
"Shit!" He cursed as he slowly floated behind them. He would have to come back later on to figure out what this giant underground space was but for now, Extremis was the priority. It had the potential to do much more damage, especially once the procedure was disseminated to the rest of the world.
They didn't even have to work, to have super soldiers. No, even the defective ones in canon, that created what were essentially suicide bombers. Even those would fetch a pretty penny on the market because it was potential for super soldiers and in the meantime, they got undetected suicide bombs, a wet dream for terrorist organisations.
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.
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DoorMan (MCU SI) - #46 : Perks of flying, Vibranium CHI hijacking & Ta-Lo Cultural Exchange program
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IdleMuse0307
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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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 #46
Lagos, Nigeria[February 3, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
They were hot in pursuit. Actually, scratch that, they were floating at a very leisurely pace right above the cars, both in stealth mode, because the cars were now stuck in traffic.
"Being able to fly really does help chasing someone down in the outside world, doesn't it?" Shuri commented over the comms as they both tracked the small convoy of vehicles that were taking Killian and Hansen somewhere.
"I wouldn't know, I have never really been to Wakanda before." He commented, realizing that Shuri was just fishing for more information.
And as expected, she zeroed in on that piece immediately, "Really? You sure know a lot about Wakanda without ever being present inside the do– inside our country."
He rolled his eyes at that, she couldn't have been more obvious if she tried, "My sources are none of your business, and yes, I do know a lot about your country because I make it a business of knowing about people and countries that could become a threat to me or the world."
"Hey! What did we do?" Shuri's voice got quieter towards the end and he was sure she must have felt his deadpan when he said, in the driest voice possible, "Really? You wanna know what your country has been doing to the rest of the world–hell, I'll need most of the day to describe what you guys did or didn't do to the African continent itself, let alone the rest of the world."
Oops. He might have gotten a little too passionate there but then again, it has always grated on him how a country with massive advantages, natural, technological, and even geographical was so passive, so content with being the backstage, to be a background power.
In a way, they were fortunate that not a single king from Wakanda had expansionist policies, or else, at a minimum, they would have had control over the African continent but that also meant that no single King looked at the outside world, looking at the science that no doubt proved that everyone was human, sans the color, and help the world from tragedies.
No, they were fine hunkering down, building cures and comfort technology for themselves, and remaining isolated.
After a long 10 seconds, Shuri replied, in a subdued tone, "I guess you are right. We have been pretty lax, and that must change, and it will change." Her voice rose in fervor as she continued. "I will make sure it changes."
She seemed to have come to a decision, a major decision for her but he had no desire to meddle in that so he just settled with warning her. "Just don't do anything stupid. Otherwise, I might just have to burst that barrier open to contain the chaos."
"Wait, What? You can do that? Break our barrier? How?"
He kept an eye on the car which had now stopped at a signal, "Well, it's nothing too exciting. See, your barrier was made to mimic the properties of refined vibranium as much as possible, right?"
"As disturbing as it is to hear an outsider be so cavalier about our technology, yes, It was made with that goal in mind," Shuri said in a contemplative voice. Yes, fall into my trap. Spend your days trying to find how information leaked out of Wakanda while he relied on his meta knowledge since he hadn't actually been to Wakanda ever. He planned to change that soon enough, though.
He was sure that an exchange visit, to either the Red Hearth or even Ta-Lo would be more than enough for Shuri to facilitate a Wakandan visit for him. Well, it all depends on how this conversation goes.
Coming back to the topic at hand, of breaking the shield around Wakanda, he replied, "That makes it really simple because Vibranium can actually absorb most energies in ridiculous quantities but there is a single type of energy that can't really be stored by Vibranium. Once it encounters that energy, its properties begin breaking down."
"What? What is that energy? We have tested 113 different Vibranium alloys with all the energy types we have available on Earth, even some of the more esoteric ones that are classified, and not once has Vibranium faltered." Shuri countered with fierceness as if he was proving her personal research wrong.
Well, he was certain she had never used the type of energy he had access to.
CHI.
Yup, CHI was the one type of energy that could be used to break down or at least temporarily disable Vibranium's ability to endlessly absorb energy in all forms. Somehow, CHI, as in pure life energy, at least the one that he had access to, could overwhelm Vibranium in its energy storage capacity.
The Ancient One has a theory about Vibranium being Celestial Flesh and CHI doing something to the long dormant flesh but that is just a theory that cannot be proven unless somehow in the near future, he meets Arishem and establishes a friendly rapport with the Deadly Celestial.
CHI was the answer to breaking down Wakanda's barriers but he was not about to tell that to Shuri. It would just stop one of his entry points, not that he couldn't do that same with his portals but Shuri had now seen the portals and he was not about to underestimate the genius of someone who, if given enough time, would have been able to transfer an actual sentient consciousness, who was vastly more complex than normal humans (VISION), into a digital format.
So, he scoffed at her, "Please. How stupid do you think I am? Why would I tell you something like that?"
The car had traveled just 5 miles in the time they had been talking, courtesy of peak city traffic but it looked like they were starting to gain speed because the cars were now moving out of the city.
"Name your price. Wakanda has a lot of stuff that will interest you."
Hmm. That was interesting but he was not going to agree to an offer like that so soon. Let the BLACK PANTHER of Wakanda jack up the offer more so once he got to Wakanda, no one will be able to question it because the word of the Black Panther, more often than not, held the same weight as the word of the King.
"We'll see."
He still didn't have the faintest clue as to why and how Shuri became the Black Panther so he asked. "How did you become Bast's chosen anyway? I thought your brother had already ingested the Heart Shaped Herb."
His offhand comment raised his innate danger sense as he felt Shuri about to do something to attack him but soon, that feeling went away. Externally, he remained the same, floating ahead at a leisurely pace, while internally, he was ready to blast her and her vibranium suit to pieces if she really tried to attack him with some bullshit ray that broke down his magic.
That would really suck.
Fortunately, it would seem that Shuri had more sense than he expected her to and she calmed down.
Shuri sighed over the comms, "You do realise that each and every word of that sentence was information pertaining to Wakanda's national security and the official protocol for dealing with individuals in possession of such information is death?"
He shrugged and grinned, even though he knew Shuri would not be able to see him, "Like you dealt with Everett Ross from the CIA?"
"Okay, Who are You? Do you live in Wakanda? Do you have some bug installed in my Father's office?" Shuri's deepening confusion only served to amuse him more.
"No." he just delivered the answer and her muted frustrated groan was music to his ears.
In the meantime, the cars had sped up, officially exiting the city and heading towards the woods. Figures. Yet another hidden shady base somewhere.
"Remind me why we aren't just taking the two of them and forcing them to reveal their clients. These guys don't look like they've had any training, they should fold pretty easily, especially the girl." Shuri commented and he had to remind himself that Shuri probably had military training, even if it was somewhat muted due to the fact that she was the darling Princess of Wakanda.
But the Military training sometimes shone through her naivety and kindness.
As for her question, "Well, I am all but certain that Killian doesn't have the faintest clue as to who their client is. They are literally gambling with their lives here and if that is happening, I am sure that it is not about just money. Killian could have acquired it from anywhere. Coming all the way here, especially without any security, just to meet someone? It doesn't make sense."
"So, you think that their client has something they want, but it's not money. Something to help with their serum then?
"Precisely."
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.
DoorMan #46
Lagos, Nigeria[February 3, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
They were hot in pursuit. Actually, scratch that, they were floating at a very leisurely pace right above the cars, both in stealth mode, because the cars were now stuck in traffic.
"Being able to fly really does help chasing someone down in the outside world, doesn't it?" Shuri commented over the comms as they both tracked the small convoy of vehicles that were taking Killian and Hansen somewhere.
"I wouldn't know, I have never really been to Wakanda before." He commented, realizing that Shuri was just fishing for more information.
And as expected, she zeroed in on that piece immediately, "Really? You sure know a lot about Wakanda without ever being present inside the do– inside our country."
He rolled his eyes at that, she couldn't have been more obvious if she tried, "My sources are none of your business, and yes, I do know a lot about your country because I make it a business of knowing about people and countries that could become a threat to me or the world."
"Hey! What did we do?" Shuri's voice got quieter towards the end and he was sure she must have felt his deadpan when he said, in the driest voice possible, "Really? You wanna know what your country has been doing to the rest of the world–hell, I'll need most of the day to describe what you guys did or didn't do to the African continent itself, let alone the rest of the world."
Oops. He might have gotten a little too passionate there but then again, it has always grated on him how a country with massive advantages, natural, technological, and even geographical was so passive, so content with being the backstage, to be a background power.
In a way, they were fortunate that not a single king from Wakanda had expansionist policies, or else, at a minimum, they would have had control over the African continent but that also meant that no single King looked at the outside world, looking at the science that no doubt proved that everyone was human, sans the color, and help the world from tragedies.
No, they were fine hunkering down, building cures and comfort technology for themselves, and remaining isolated.
After a long 10 seconds, Shuri replied, in a subdued tone, "I guess you are right. We have been pretty lax, and that must change, and it will change." Her voice rose in fervor as she continued. "I will make sure it changes."
She seemed to have come to a decision, a major decision for her but he had no desire to meddle in that so he just settled with warning her. "Just don't do anything stupid. Otherwise, I might just have to burst that barrier open to contain the chaos."
"Wait, What? You can do that? Break our barrier? How?"
He kept an eye on the car which had now stopped at a signal, "Well, it's nothing too exciting. See, your barrier was made to mimic the properties of refined vibranium as much as possible, right?"
"As disturbing as it is to hear an outsider be so cavalier about our technology, yes, It was made with that goal in mind," Shuri said in a contemplative voice. Yes, fall into my trap. Spend your days trying to find how information leaked out of Wakanda while he relied on his meta knowledge since he hadn't actually been to Wakanda ever. He planned to change that soon enough, though.
He was sure that an exchange visit, to either the Red Hearth or even Ta-Lo would be more than enough for Shuri to facilitate a Wakandan visit for him. Well, it all depends on how this conversation goes.
Coming back to the topic at hand, of breaking the shield around Wakanda, he replied, "That makes it really simple because Vibranium can actually absorb most energies in ridiculous quantities but there is a single type of energy that can't really be stored by Vibranium. Once it encounters that energy, its properties begin breaking down."
"What? What is that energy? We have tested 113 different Vibranium alloys with all the energy types we have available on Earth, even some of the more esoteric ones that are classified, and not once has Vibranium faltered." Shuri countered with fierceness as if he was proving her personal research wrong.
Well, he was certain she had never used the type of energy he had access to.
CHI.
Yup, CHI was the one type of energy that could be used to break down or at least temporarily disable Vibranium's ability to endlessly absorb energy in all forms. Somehow, CHI, as in pure life energy, at least the one that he had access to, could overwhelm Vibranium in its energy storage capacity.
The Ancient One has a theory about Vibranium being Celestial Flesh and CHI doing something to the long dormant flesh but that is just a theory that cannot be proven unless somehow in the near future, he meets Arishem and establishes a friendly rapport with the Deadly Celestial.
CHI was the answer to breaking down Wakanda's barriers but he was not about to tell that to Shuri. It would just stop one of his entry points, not that he couldn't do that same with his portals but Shuri had now seen the portals and he was not about to underestimate the genius of someone who, if given enough time, would have been able to transfer an actual sentient consciousness, who was vastly more complex than normal humans (VISION), into a digital format.
So, he scoffed at her, "Please. How stupid do you think I am? Why would I tell you something like that?"
The car had traveled just 5 miles in the time they had been talking, courtesy of peak city traffic but it looked like they were starting to gain speed because the cars were now moving out of the city.
"Name your price. Wakanda has a lot of stuff that will interest you."
Hmm. That was interesting but he was not going to agree to an offer like that so soon. Let the BLACK PANTHER of Wakanda jack up the offer more so once he got to Wakanda, no one will be able to question it because the word of the Black Panther, more often than not, held the same weight as the word of the King.
"We'll see."
He still didn't have the faintest clue as to why and how Shuri became the Black Panther so he asked. "How did you become Bast's chosen anyway? I thought your brother had already ingested the Heart Shaped Herb."
His offhand comment raised his innate danger sense as he felt Shuri about to do something to attack him but soon, that feeling went away. Externally, he remained the same, floating ahead at a leisurely pace, while internally, he was ready to blast her and her vibranium suit to pieces if she really tried to attack him with some bullshit ray that broke down his magic.
That would really suck.
Fortunately, it would seem that Shuri had more sense than he expected her to and she calmed down.
Shuri sighed over the comms, "You do realise that each and every word of that sentence was information pertaining to Wakanda's national security and the official protocol for dealing with individuals in possession of such information is death?"
He shrugged and grinned, even though he knew Shuri would not be able to see him, "Like you dealt with Everett Ross from the CIA?"
"Okay, Who are You? Do you live in Wakanda? Do you have some bug installed in my Father's office?" Shuri's deepening confusion only served to amuse him more.
"No." he just delivered the answer and her muted frustrated groan was music to his ears.
In the meantime, the cars had sped up, officially exiting the city and heading towards the woods. Figures. Yet another hidden shady base somewhere.
"Remind me why we aren't just taking the two of them and forcing them to reveal their clients. These guys don't look like they've had any training, they should fold pretty easily, especially the girl." Shuri commented and he had to remind himself that Shuri probably had military training, even if it was somewhat muted due to the fact that she was the darling Princess of Wakanda.
But the Military training sometimes shone through her naivety and kindness.
As for her question, "Well, I am all but certain that Killian doesn't have the faintest clue as to who their client is. They are literally gambling with their lives here and if that is happening, I am sure that it is not about just money. Killian could have acquired it from anywhere. Coming all the way here, especially without any security, just to meet someone? It doesn't make sense."
"So, you think that their client has something they want, but it's not money. Something to help with their serum then?
"Precisely."
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.
DoorMan (MCU SI) - #47 : Nudging Shuri & Two birds with One Stone
New
IdleMuse0307
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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- 616
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 #47
Lagos, Nigeria[February 3, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
After a while, the cars slowed down, well, they had to because they were now wading through thick forests, trudging along slowly on a dirt path that was very well hidden or atleast not used enough for it to show up anywhere online.
"Anything on your scanners?" He asked Shuri as they were still floating right above the cars, the foliage acting as a natural screen for them but even so, the cars were visible partially to him. He was sure that no normal human would have been able to keep track of them just with their vision. THey both would have lost the cars had they not had supernatural vision and in SHuri's case, thermal cameras.
"Nothing yet but I am only scanning the areas around the cars and the trail," Shuri informed him as they both waited for the cars to reach their final destination. It was just so irritating to have to wait for normal people to get on with their criminal activities so he could come in and bust them, especially since he did not have to deal with pesky things like IC engines and challenging geography.
Both of them were still in stealth mode and he was starting to get really tired of this. He had half a mind to just give up on the chase and snatch those two out because—
"Wait! I found something." Shuri informed him as he felt her form float up and up, something he reciprocated as he raised his levels as well, which was risky because his form of flight used controlled air bursts, something that can be detected by sensitive enough sensors.
"What?" He asked as he kept an eye on the cars that seemed to be slowing down but that could be because of the bad roads.
"There is a complex ahead, fairly large and deep underground as well. Three stories worth of concrete and soil before the base even begins. IF my scans are correct, the base is 2 stories deep."
"And any people?"
"Just 10 heat signatures with no other movement."
"So no regular research base then."
"No, that base earlier was much more active than this. Plus, I have found a vent not far away from here that is releasing particulate consistent with diesel engines. They must be using diesel generators to power this base. There is no sign of any heavy metals in the base, it is very sparse."
He mused out loud at that, "So, just a holding facility then? No research, just people to station?"
"Most probably."
He nodded and then flew right down near the convoy. The convoy had stopped at this point as Killian and Hansen were escorted by a bunch of armed guards, who now had automatic rifles now, instead of the small pistols they were sporting when they first met Killian, something that the Crippled doctor no doubt noticed because there was suddenly anxiety and terror in both him and her respectively.
"We step in the moment Hansen is in danger. I don't care what happens to Killian, agreed?" He confirmed with Shuri once more and while it did take her a while, she did respond with an affirmative.
Soon, they were taken to what looked like a cave but was just a cover for the entrance to the base as inside the cave there was a lever that opened a large door with stairs leading straight down. He rolled his eyes, now they would have to wait for these morons to walk down three flights of stairs.
With a sweep of his hand, a violent gust of wind hit the insides of the cave, making everyone lose their balance as he carefully controlled the wind to deposit them as far down as possible, while making sure that no one was too harmed.
"That was not necessary. Also, good to know you can casually generate wind speeds like that." Shuri commented and he groaned in reply. She had somehow taken his declaration of breaking Wakanda's barriers as a challenge of some sort and had taken to documenting each and every one of his abilities, all in a bid to create some sort of countermeasure.
The ceilings in the staircase were fairly tall so both he and Shuri easily entered the space and watched as the head of security definitely cursed and began trudging upstairs, over some of his subordinates, to shut down the door.
Nobody suspected his hand in the violent gust of wind, which was good. He did not want his involvement in this known anywhere. Speaking of which, "Shuri, I want you to delete any records that Wakanda has about my energy signature." He stopped her before she could finish countering, "I know you will not delete it from your personal database, I won't even ask you to. Just make sure nothing about me remains in Wakanda's servers. I don't want to have to come into your country just to delete my own data someday because you guys elected some dumbfuck to be your King, alright?"
"Hey! You can't say that about Wakanda. The next ruler is going to be my brother, and he will make a fine king." Shuri argued with a heated voice.
Well, time to work his magic then. T'Challa was good, great even but to make sure that Wakanda reaches its full potential, they needed Shuri, especially the current rendition who was iron willed and uber smart at the same time, making a terrifying combination for a ruler.
So, with deliberate amusement in his voice, he replied, "Really? As far as I know, you are much, much stronger than your brother at this point and as siblings, you have a right to challenge him for the throne. Are you going to throw the match?"
"...I-I don't–"
"Uh-huh," He stopped her from speaking while he kept an eye on the group which had now finally got their bearings, "I never thought Bast would choose someone who was not confident in everything that mattered. Sure, T'CHalla would make a fine king but ask yourself, is he ready to face all the challenges ahead? Is he even strong enough? There must be a reason you are as strong as you are. Why did Bast make you so much stronger than the other Black Panthers? Things to think about." He offhandedly commented, knowing that it would stay in her mind for a long time because he mentioned Bast this time.
Seriously, the country and its obsession with Bast would have been a big problem had Bast not been a pretty chill goddess, in both mythology and in real life because she was one of the few that stayed on Earth and only interfered when a massive threat to her followers reared its head.
Otherwise, she was content chilling in her dimension, feeding on the faith energy Wakanda provides her.
Up ahead, he watched as the security leader punched in the codes to open the thick bunker doors. Killian and Hansen both tidied up as much as they could as the doors opened with a groan, showing their age.
His eyes narrowed as he saw someone who was the absolute worst person who could get their hands on Extremis.
Baron Strucker.
"Well, Damn," He muttered, happy because now he got to cut off one of HYDRA's heads while getting rid of Extremis as well.
Two Birds with one Stone.
Let's see how HYDRA grows another resourceful head in the short time it has before he obliterates it.
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.
DoorMan #47
Lagos, Nigeria[February 3, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
After a while, the cars slowed down, well, they had to because they were now wading through thick forests, trudging along slowly on a dirt path that was very well hidden or atleast not used enough for it to show up anywhere online.
"Anything on your scanners?" He asked Shuri as they were still floating right above the cars, the foliage acting as a natural screen for them but even so, the cars were visible partially to him. He was sure that no normal human would have been able to keep track of them just with their vision. THey both would have lost the cars had they not had supernatural vision and in SHuri's case, thermal cameras.
"Nothing yet but I am only scanning the areas around the cars and the trail," Shuri informed him as they both waited for the cars to reach their final destination. It was just so irritating to have to wait for normal people to get on with their criminal activities so he could come in and bust them, especially since he did not have to deal with pesky things like IC engines and challenging geography.
Both of them were still in stealth mode and he was starting to get really tired of this. He had half a mind to just give up on the chase and snatch those two out because—
"Wait! I found something." Shuri informed him as he felt her form float up and up, something he reciprocated as he raised his levels as well, which was risky because his form of flight used controlled air bursts, something that can be detected by sensitive enough sensors.
"What?" He asked as he kept an eye on the cars that seemed to be slowing down but that could be because of the bad roads.
"There is a complex ahead, fairly large and deep underground as well. Three stories worth of concrete and soil before the base even begins. IF my scans are correct, the base is 2 stories deep."
"And any people?"
"Just 10 heat signatures with no other movement."
"So no regular research base then."
"No, that base earlier was much more active than this. Plus, I have found a vent not far away from here that is releasing particulate consistent with diesel engines. They must be using diesel generators to power this base. There is no sign of any heavy metals in the base, it is very sparse."
He mused out loud at that, "So, just a holding facility then? No research, just people to station?"
"Most probably."
He nodded and then flew right down near the convoy. The convoy had stopped at this point as Killian and Hansen were escorted by a bunch of armed guards, who now had automatic rifles now, instead of the small pistols they were sporting when they first met Killian, something that the Crippled doctor no doubt noticed because there was suddenly anxiety and terror in both him and her respectively.
"We step in the moment Hansen is in danger. I don't care what happens to Killian, agreed?" He confirmed with Shuri once more and while it did take her a while, she did respond with an affirmative.
Soon, they were taken to what looked like a cave but was just a cover for the entrance to the base as inside the cave there was a lever that opened a large door with stairs leading straight down. He rolled his eyes, now they would have to wait for these morons to walk down three flights of stairs.
With a sweep of his hand, a violent gust of wind hit the insides of the cave, making everyone lose their balance as he carefully controlled the wind to deposit them as far down as possible, while making sure that no one was too harmed.
"That was not necessary. Also, good to know you can casually generate wind speeds like that." Shuri commented and he groaned in reply. She had somehow taken his declaration of breaking Wakanda's barriers as a challenge of some sort and had taken to documenting each and every one of his abilities, all in a bid to create some sort of countermeasure.
The ceilings in the staircase were fairly tall so both he and Shuri easily entered the space and watched as the head of security definitely cursed and began trudging upstairs, over some of his subordinates, to shut down the door.
Nobody suspected his hand in the violent gust of wind, which was good. He did not want his involvement in this known anywhere. Speaking of which, "Shuri, I want you to delete any records that Wakanda has about my energy signature." He stopped her before she could finish countering, "I know you will not delete it from your personal database, I won't even ask you to. Just make sure nothing about me remains in Wakanda's servers. I don't want to have to come into your country just to delete my own data someday because you guys elected some dumbfuck to be your King, alright?"
"Hey! You can't say that about Wakanda. The next ruler is going to be my brother, and he will make a fine king." Shuri argued with a heated voice.
Well, time to work his magic then. T'Challa was good, great even but to make sure that Wakanda reaches its full potential, they needed Shuri, especially the current rendition who was iron willed and uber smart at the same time, making a terrifying combination for a ruler.
So, with deliberate amusement in his voice, he replied, "Really? As far as I know, you are much, much stronger than your brother at this point and as siblings, you have a right to challenge him for the throne. Are you going to throw the match?"
"...I-I don't–"
"Uh-huh," He stopped her from speaking while he kept an eye on the group which had now finally got their bearings, "I never thought Bast would choose someone who was not confident in everything that mattered. Sure, T'CHalla would make a fine king but ask yourself, is he ready to face all the challenges ahead? Is he even strong enough? There must be a reason you are as strong as you are. Why did Bast make you so much stronger than the other Black Panthers? Things to think about." He offhandedly commented, knowing that it would stay in her mind for a long time because he mentioned Bast this time.
Seriously, the country and its obsession with Bast would have been a big problem had Bast not been a pretty chill goddess, in both mythology and in real life because she was one of the few that stayed on Earth and only interfered when a massive threat to her followers reared its head.
Otherwise, she was content chilling in her dimension, feeding on the faith energy Wakanda provides her.
Up ahead, he watched as the security leader punched in the codes to open the thick bunker doors. Killian and Hansen both tidied up as much as they could as the doors opened with a groan, showing their age.
His eyes narrowed as he saw someone who was the absolute worst person who could get their hands on Extremis.
Baron Strucker.
"Well, Damn," He muttered, happy because now he got to cut off one of HYDRA's heads while getting rid of Extremis as well.
Two Birds with one Stone.
Let's see how HYDRA grows another resourceful head in the short time it has before he obliterates it.
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.
DoorMan (MCU SI) - #48 : Air CLEAVE & ANIME in Wakanda?!
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IdleMuse0307
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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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 #48
Lagos, Nigeria[February 3, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
"You know that guy? What don't you know? His activities are sparsely detailed even in Wakandan databases." Shuri said and then it hit him. Wakanda knew. About HYDRA and even the smaller branches if they knew who Strucker was and that…that really pissed him off for some reason.
Having data on all countries and acting in your country's interest by sabotaging other countries is one thing, one heinous thing, but to actively ignore an organisation that could actually take over the world one day or was the closest to that goal out of any number of nefarious organisations throughout the world was…angering.
Sighing, he pushed all those away, and entered the Bunker, followed by Killian and Hansen, as the rest of the security guard stayed outside the bunker door that closed with a giant thud that echoed in the empty facility. It looked like some sort of unfinished doomsday bunker with some working facilities.
Strucker took a step forward, "Welcome, Dr.Killian, I hope your travels were comfortable."
Hansen stayed silent as Killian limped forward, "Yes, Mr.Strucker. Let me tell you that I am glad you took time out of your busy–"
Strucker interrupted the classic investor bootlicking, "No need for flowery words, Dr.Killian. I trust you have the final part of your formula?"
His eyes narrowed at that as he whispered to Shuri over the comms, "Scan the entire damned place." As far as his vision went, he could not really see any cameras of any sort that could be transmitting everything happening here live.
Nevertheless, he couldn;t really let whatever it was that Killian planned to hand over, get out of this room. If he had his way with it, the only people alive who would come out of this situation would be him, Shuri and Hansen, no two ways about it.
"I see three people behind that door. One of them is tied to a chair and the rest are guarding him, with guns. Also, no connectivity in this place except those short range radios. No cameras, no motion detectors. Nothing. It is completely isolated." Shuri informed him and he nodded.
Realistically, he did not really trust Shuri with any of the information he was sharing with her but he was going with the mutually assured destruction route here and hoped that Shuri did not really need the Extremis serum with her already substantial enhancements that would put Captain America to shame.
Really, what had she done to gain that level of enhancement, would remain a mystery to him. He would have hoped for Extremis to remain secret but he could definitely work with his, especially once he had a talk with Jin'Ya and both of them figured out what the hell was going on in Wakanda.
"Alright, I want you to make sure that no one kills anyone without my say so. So, keep that man alive." He ordered and she complied. In the meantime, he listened in on the tail end of Strucker's conversation.
"Let me remind you, Doctor, that as per our agreed upon deal, you give me the final piece of the formula that you have kept hidden from everyone, the one that makes people go boom in a spectacular fashion and in return, I give you something that will stop your test subjects from exploding. Now, the formula, please?"
The sound of guns being loaded made the man flinch as he took out a diary from his coat and took out a pen as well. He nodded in appreciation. Killian was at least smart enough to have the data in his brain and not written on some paper like an idiot. That way at least his life could be guaranteed but as expected, the man was a civilian greenhorn.
He would not survive a day under Strucker's hands if Strucker really wanted that formula. No, Strucker was after the finished product and this formula was just a stop in the middle to use as weapons. No, HYDRA were hoarding anything and everything that could help them with their end goal which was world domination and he had no doubts in his mind that Strucker had already arranged the deaths of everyone involved in the creation of perfected Extremis once it was finished.
Strucker snapped his fingers and two soldiers dragged a table and a chair for Killian to sit into and write down the formula. Killian was probably smart enough to recognise that his science team, aside from Hansen, had been infiltrated by all the people who showed interest in his illegal endeavours, so he had kept the most important part to himself.
These morons must not know that Hansen was the real brains behind this thing and would fold under the threat of torture so fast that Killian wouldn't even have the time to say traitor.
"Colin, something is wrong with this man," Shuri informed him as she continued. "His body temperature. It's way higher than it should be. I honestly don't know how this man is even alive at this point."
His eyes narrowed as he remembered something. Hurriedly speaking into the comms, "Scan his vitals. Make sure he is alive. Inform me once you have identified him. Do whatever you have to, make sure he lives."
"Alright."
This little operation just got a whole lot more beneficial for him. Killian continued to write down page after page of the formulas along with the process for Extremis as Strucker just stood there, looking down, amused.
His comms crackled to life as Shuri replied, "This man is different. His body is completely stable despite his entire body being hot enough to the point normal people would have died from heat strokes. I might need a DNA sample after we are done. Also, I got a partial hit on his face structure, it's really tough to get through these thick walls; his name is J.T. James, former street artist, no financial entries after November of last year."
He grinned as he finally got confirmation on it. "Shuri, on my mark. I want you to take care of the guards around him. Make sure J.T. James is unconscious, I will deal with the rest of them."
"Are you sure? I can hel–"
He scoffed, "I can handle this." "Fine."
He moved around the hall, to have a better aim at Strucker. He was going to manifest an Air Door at his foot, a giant One to propel him past Killian and straight into Strucker. Yeah, the fucker was not going to make it today, of that he was certain.
"Shuri, move once you hear it."
"Hear what?" Shuri asked but he did not reply.
Grinning, he angled his body using the smaller doors inside his orange onesie, and after aligning himself, created a giant Door and thrust himself in the direction of Killian. There was a giant boom in the small hall, made worse by the echo as he found himself on the other side, right in front of the door which Shuri was in the process of ripping out, after making two holes in it.
He flicked his hand and activated the enchantment to clean his orange onesie as he looked behind at the sound of bullets being fired. Killian and Hansen were fine due to the Air Doors as he flicked his hand and used the one covering Hansen to let loose a violent burst of wind that flung the soldiers into walls, with sickening crunches of bones being broken.
Within seconds of his initial movement, the entire bunker had gone silent, save for the panic on the other side of the door, which should take a while to open.
He deactivated his stealth, as Shuri did the same, both of them looking at the place where Strucker once was. Now the only thing left was not something nice to look at. Turning to the other side, he waved his hand as Hansen and Killian were deposited to one side of the bunker while another Fire Door manifested in front of the two downed guards and Strucker's remains before it was all burned by the fire.
Walking to the one Inhuman who was supposedly the key to regulating the Extremis output, he kneeled down and touched the man using his CHI. It returned a general reading of the man's health and aside from slight dehydration, he was in good health, with no poison running through his system.
That was good. Turning around, he came face to face with Shuri who was not looking amused by it, "So, you can make fire now? What are you, the freaking Avatar?"
He did a double take at that, "You guys have Anime in Wakanda?" The knee jerk reaction was warranted.
After all, Wakanda was infamously isolationist.
Shuri rolled his eyes at him, "We are isolated, not without taste. In the words of my fellow people, we are "Men of Culture" which I believe is a gender neutral term, just like bro in the English language."
He shrugged, agreeing, "Okay. Now, let's clean up."
After all, he was soon going to have one of the tools that could become the holy grail of human medicine if he played his cards right.
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.
DoorMan #48
Lagos, Nigeria[February 3, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
"You know that guy? What don't you know? His activities are sparsely detailed even in Wakandan databases." Shuri said and then it hit him. Wakanda knew. About HYDRA and even the smaller branches if they knew who Strucker was and that…that really pissed him off for some reason.
Having data on all countries and acting in your country's interest by sabotaging other countries is one thing, one heinous thing, but to actively ignore an organisation that could actually take over the world one day or was the closest to that goal out of any number of nefarious organisations throughout the world was…angering.
Sighing, he pushed all those away, and entered the Bunker, followed by Killian and Hansen, as the rest of the security guard stayed outside the bunker door that closed with a giant thud that echoed in the empty facility. It looked like some sort of unfinished doomsday bunker with some working facilities.
Strucker took a step forward, "Welcome, Dr.Killian, I hope your travels were comfortable."
Hansen stayed silent as Killian limped forward, "Yes, Mr.Strucker. Let me tell you that I am glad you took time out of your busy–"
Strucker interrupted the classic investor bootlicking, "No need for flowery words, Dr.Killian. I trust you have the final part of your formula?"
His eyes narrowed at that as he whispered to Shuri over the comms, "Scan the entire damned place." As far as his vision went, he could not really see any cameras of any sort that could be transmitting everything happening here live.
Nevertheless, he couldn;t really let whatever it was that Killian planned to hand over, get out of this room. If he had his way with it, the only people alive who would come out of this situation would be him, Shuri and Hansen, no two ways about it.
"I see three people behind that door. One of them is tied to a chair and the rest are guarding him, with guns. Also, no connectivity in this place except those short range radios. No cameras, no motion detectors. Nothing. It is completely isolated." Shuri informed him and he nodded.
Realistically, he did not really trust Shuri with any of the information he was sharing with her but he was going with the mutually assured destruction route here and hoped that Shuri did not really need the Extremis serum with her already substantial enhancements that would put Captain America to shame.
Really, what had she done to gain that level of enhancement, would remain a mystery to him. He would have hoped for Extremis to remain secret but he could definitely work with his, especially once he had a talk with Jin'Ya and both of them figured out what the hell was going on in Wakanda.
"Alright, I want you to make sure that no one kills anyone without my say so. So, keep that man alive." He ordered and she complied. In the meantime, he listened in on the tail end of Strucker's conversation.
"Let me remind you, Doctor, that as per our agreed upon deal, you give me the final piece of the formula that you have kept hidden from everyone, the one that makes people go boom in a spectacular fashion and in return, I give you something that will stop your test subjects from exploding. Now, the formula, please?"
The sound of guns being loaded made the man flinch as he took out a diary from his coat and took out a pen as well. He nodded in appreciation. Killian was at least smart enough to have the data in his brain and not written on some paper like an idiot. That way at least his life could be guaranteed but as expected, the man was a civilian greenhorn.
He would not survive a day under Strucker's hands if Strucker really wanted that formula. No, Strucker was after the finished product and this formula was just a stop in the middle to use as weapons. No, HYDRA were hoarding anything and everything that could help them with their end goal which was world domination and he had no doubts in his mind that Strucker had already arranged the deaths of everyone involved in the creation of perfected Extremis once it was finished.
Strucker snapped his fingers and two soldiers dragged a table and a chair for Killian to sit into and write down the formula. Killian was probably smart enough to recognise that his science team, aside from Hansen, had been infiltrated by all the people who showed interest in his illegal endeavours, so he had kept the most important part to himself.
These morons must not know that Hansen was the real brains behind this thing and would fold under the threat of torture so fast that Killian wouldn't even have the time to say traitor.
"Colin, something is wrong with this man," Shuri informed him as she continued. "His body temperature. It's way higher than it should be. I honestly don't know how this man is even alive at this point."
His eyes narrowed as he remembered something. Hurriedly speaking into the comms, "Scan his vitals. Make sure he is alive. Inform me once you have identified him. Do whatever you have to, make sure he lives."
"Alright."
This little operation just got a whole lot more beneficial for him. Killian continued to write down page after page of the formulas along with the process for Extremis as Strucker just stood there, looking down, amused.
His comms crackled to life as Shuri replied, "This man is different. His body is completely stable despite his entire body being hot enough to the point normal people would have died from heat strokes. I might need a DNA sample after we are done. Also, I got a partial hit on his face structure, it's really tough to get through these thick walls; his name is J.T. James, former street artist, no financial entries after November of last year."
He grinned as he finally got confirmation on it. "Shuri, on my mark. I want you to take care of the guards around him. Make sure J.T. James is unconscious, I will deal with the rest of them."
"Are you sure? I can hel–"
He scoffed, "I can handle this." "Fine."
He moved around the hall, to have a better aim at Strucker. He was going to manifest an Air Door at his foot, a giant One to propel him past Killian and straight into Strucker. Yeah, the fucker was not going to make it today, of that he was certain.
"Shuri, move once you hear it."
"Hear what?" Shuri asked but he did not reply.
Grinning, he angled his body using the smaller doors inside his orange onesie, and after aligning himself, created a giant Door and thrust himself in the direction of Killian. There was a giant boom in the small hall, made worse by the echo as he found himself on the other side, right in front of the door which Shuri was in the process of ripping out, after making two holes in it.
He flicked his hand and activated the enchantment to clean his orange onesie as he looked behind at the sound of bullets being fired. Killian and Hansen were fine due to the Air Doors as he flicked his hand and used the one covering Hansen to let loose a violent burst of wind that flung the soldiers into walls, with sickening crunches of bones being broken.
Within seconds of his initial movement, the entire bunker had gone silent, save for the panic on the other side of the door, which should take a while to open.
He deactivated his stealth, as Shuri did the same, both of them looking at the place where Strucker once was. Now the only thing left was not something nice to look at. Turning to the other side, he waved his hand as Hansen and Killian were deposited to one side of the bunker while another Fire Door manifested in front of the two downed guards and Strucker's remains before it was all burned by the fire.
Walking to the one Inhuman who was supposedly the key to regulating the Extremis output, he kneeled down and touched the man using his CHI. It returned a general reading of the man's health and aside from slight dehydration, he was in good health, with no poison running through his system.
That was good. Turning around, he came face to face with Shuri who was not looking amused by it, "So, you can make fire now? What are you, the freaking Avatar?"
He did a double take at that, "You guys have Anime in Wakanda?" The knee jerk reaction was warranted.
After all, Wakanda was infamously isolationist.
Shuri rolled his eyes at him, "We are isolated, not without taste. In the words of my fellow people, we are "Men of Culture" which I believe is a gender neutral term, just like bro in the English language."
He shrugged, agreeing, "Okay. Now, let's clean up."
After all, he was soon going to have one of the tools that could become the holy grail of human medicine if he played his cards right.
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.
xscraid
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Avatar is not an anime.... It's a cartoon.
Abba is the best
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Damn, this brings me back to my highschool days... I litterally had this conversation with these exact two talking points thrown at me by the two sisters that introduced me to Nana, death note and Monster. They even used the bro analogy too
ahh I'm experiencing some hard dejavu and nostalgia right now... thanks for that.metordragon
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You know something I keep thinking about is cant the other sorcerers basically makee warlock pack with him on the dimensions he does have control and ownership of just like they do with other dimensional entities.
If so that would make it interesting into how they can negotiate contracts with him for different things from helping him, paying him, working for him if something come up or emergency usage.
If so that would make it interesting into how they can negotiate contracts with him for different things from helping him, paying him, working for him if something come up or emergency usage.
IdleMuse0307
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Huh, that actually does make sense but before that could become remotely possible, he would need TONNES of energy absorbed which is still far away....
metordragon
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Fair enough. Just something I saw coming way beforehand when his power was explained given it had such easy setup to be used in such warlock manor like hie the sorcerer's of the mcu do at times.
It just made since something he could do much less make independent warlock contracts with other non sorcerer's too since he is the figurehead and controller of those dimensions.
But yeah would be a later thing and interesting to see what all happens. Just like him having the probability of crossover potential if wanted can have his connection ever leads to a other dimensions that have living universe or he gets the ability to do so via mastered dimensional power gained if not his already established power allows for such but he's just long way off from mastering such. though again thats if wanted for that avenue not sure thus setup will go for such.
For all pun intended his powers allows for many doorways of power, mastery, narrative additions, and more. while still having alot of growth and figuring thing out himself on how much less journey potential. Like one piece always more to figure out power wise and journey wise as ther is just so much let alone power interactions.
DoorMan (MCU SI) - #49 : Fortress of Solitude & Video Call troubles.....
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IdleMuse0307
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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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 #49
African Airspace[February 4, 2008]
–Shuri Udaku–
Sitting in her one man ship she kept for emergencies just like the one that happened back home, she thought about all that had transpired the past week or so when she fled Wakanda, and yes, she did flee Wakanda. There was no need to be so hasty in leaving Wakanda so soon after becoming someone who could dictate the country's policies with a word.
No, at the time, she said to herself that she was only going to America to meet Colin, to take his measure, to see his powers for herself, and to ascertain if he could help her.
"What a mess," SHe sighed as she realised now that those were just lies she was telling herself to justify literally fleeing her home. Dear Bast, she couldn't even imagine the political turmoil she had left in her wake. She couldn't even spare a week to make sure everything was stabilised before leaving to galavant across the country.
Still, "Pull up the scans," the trip was not a waste of time, not at all, she thought to herself as she looked upon the absolute goldmine of data she had been able to gather in her time in America. She couldn't make sense of half the data she had gathered, using a combination of sensors onboard her suit and Wakandan satellites around the world.
Most Wakandan satellites were masked as normal imaging as well as telecom satellites launched by various private companies around the world, using Wakanda's resources to install their hardware at the last moment before they were launched by various countries on the planet.
"Grid map the entire planet, calculate the lattice of satellites required, and set the fabrication to max capacity." She commanded the computer which would then relay her orders to the Royal Laboratories. She couldn't wait to see where else she could find the energy she found in Colin.
Were there other people just as powerful as Colin out there, hidden in the world?
It was like a whole other world just opened up to her, a dangerous and powerful world that was so far ignored by every single King as well as Black Panther before her. Clearly, they were wrong because if she could find and meet Colin with such ease, there must be someone out there hidden even deeper, someone even more powerful.
The thought of it sent chills of thrill and anxiety down her spine. She had a lot of work to do and centuries of mindsets to clear before Wakanda as a country was remotely ready to face the outside world with a position of strength.
The computer beeped as she was forced out of her thoughts. "21 days, huh." She muttered to herself, seeing the time required for all the satellites to be in orbit. The building of satellites was the easy part, it barely took more than a day. At this point, 3-D printing a remote sensing advanced satellite was no more complex than building an IC Engine using her advanced printers but it was the positioning that would take the majority of the time.
While they did have the stealth technology to cloak the satellites, they still ran the risk of someone or something stumbling upon them. No, it was much safer and more importantly, a tried and tested strategy to just mask them as private satellites and then make sure that in case of a crash, the wreckage was retrieved before anyone else.
That had worked for decades for Wakanda and if it worked, she saw no reason to change that right away, especially since she had much more important stuff on her plate already.
The ship slowed down smoothly as she realised she had entered Wakandan airspace and the ship was following the airspace protocols because this specific ship was not registered as a Royal Escort ship. With a twitch of her finger, the protocol was overridden and her identity provided so the Border Tribe does not panic and try to shoot her down.
Soon, she landed on the far right corner of the Royal Palace, the training area for the Black Panthers; it had a small pad overseeing the city of Birnin Zana where she could land her ship.
With a smooth motion, the hatch on which she was lying on slid back and she dropped down from a modest height of 20 ft. It would have required a tuck and roll in the earlier days and even then, some damage was expected but now?
She landed with a solid thunk, not even using Vibranium nanites to absorb the shock from the landing. With a thought, the nanites covered her entire body as the one man ship she did not have a name for zoomed away to park itself in her vault and she jumped off the pad, straight down.
Within a second, she disappeared and fell into a hatch that opened at the last moment, revealing a fake patch of grass that housed an entrance to the underground network of tunnels that housed a bunch of different things.
The subway trains, for both materials and people, the drinking water transportation network, both heated and cold, the secured trains for Military staff, and the smaller tunnel network to be used as a second entrance for the Royal Laboratories' deepest labs, i.e. her personal lab.
The last hatch opened up upon recognising her as the suit decelerated at the last moment. She landed smoothly as the entire lab came alive, lab displays, decorations, data mining, and even her AI project came alive as soon as the lab detected her presence in the room.
It made sense, after all, she had designed this place to be unbreakable. This was her fortress of solitude, after all.
She snickered to herself for that joke, "So much for being Superhuman."
A message was sent to both T'Challa and mother that she was back but would not be joining them for dinner as she worked on getting the satellites in order to see if she could somehow optimise some of the launch sequences. She was sure she could find some tech billionaire satellite project she could bump off the priority list without anyone noticing.
Also, she really needed to check on the higher ups of Wakanda, i.e. the Council. Those people were very powerful people who could increase her work for no reason at all. She did not wish to impose absolute authority using force and she knew that it would be a lost cause doing so.
She would lose what little family she had left if she went that way. The Council was insidious enough to never really step out of the line, just toe it until she got frustrated and made a mistake. They would never willingly give up their power and the only way she could legitimise her position, which would need legitimising because of her radical ideas that she would soon start spreading, was to outperform everyone at the Scuession ceremony.
To show every one of note, in Wakanda, that she, and only she, could become the King of Wakanda. Previously, she thought that having T'Challa on that post would be fine but now she knew that it had to be her, she had to make sure that Wakanda as a nation was so strong that even if they faced near global backlash for their past actions, they would survive.
For that, she needed stuff to change, fast, and Wakanda of now had gotten stagnant, and comfortable, and they could not have that, for they were about to face enemies of their own making, enemies who would not hesitate to slaughter every last one of them for the divine gifts of Bast.
And it was not like they could fight back with lethal force, not when the other side had people like Colin, Bruce Banner and many more who could single handedly defeat her, atleast physically.
Mentally, it was a whole other issue but she did not wish for it to reach that level.
She rolled her eyes as she received the fifth call request from T'Challa.
"What?" She snapped at him who didn't even look phased at her less than pleasant greeting.
"Whoa, what did you bring back from America? That attitude?"
She deadpanned at him, "No, it was with me when I was born."
"What?" And just like the stereotypical middle aged white people, her mother barged into the video call and zoomed way too in. "You did not get an attitude from me. And T'Challa, don't say such things about your sister. Shuri! Where have you been? You look so thin!"
She rolled her eyes at the nagging.
"--Just do as I say and open those doors so I can get you some of your favourite soup. My baby, getting so thin. It's all because of that poison they call food in America. You should have come back every day so I could have fed you properly. Now, look at you!"
Things like that, nagging stuff should have irritated her, and yet, it warmed her heart for some reason. Well, it's not like it would be the end of the world if she gave her mom access to her lab, well, temporary access–one time access only.
Okay, she had control issues!
"Fine. You can come in but only you. T'Challa, I will throw outside and you both know I can do that." She threatened and was satisfied as T'Challa threw his hands up in surrender as the call ended.
He knew his place. Good.
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.
DoorMan #49
African Airspace[February 4, 2008]
–Shuri Udaku–
Sitting in her one man ship she kept for emergencies just like the one that happened back home, she thought about all that had transpired the past week or so when she fled Wakanda, and yes, she did flee Wakanda. There was no need to be so hasty in leaving Wakanda so soon after becoming someone who could dictate the country's policies with a word.
No, at the time, she said to herself that she was only going to America to meet Colin, to take his measure, to see his powers for herself, and to ascertain if he could help her.
"What a mess," SHe sighed as she realised now that those were just lies she was telling herself to justify literally fleeing her home. Dear Bast, she couldn't even imagine the political turmoil she had left in her wake. She couldn't even spare a week to make sure everything was stabilised before leaving to galavant across the country.
Still, "Pull up the scans," the trip was not a waste of time, not at all, she thought to herself as she looked upon the absolute goldmine of data she had been able to gather in her time in America. She couldn't make sense of half the data she had gathered, using a combination of sensors onboard her suit and Wakandan satellites around the world.
Most Wakandan satellites were masked as normal imaging as well as telecom satellites launched by various private companies around the world, using Wakanda's resources to install their hardware at the last moment before they were launched by various countries on the planet.
"Grid map the entire planet, calculate the lattice of satellites required, and set the fabrication to max capacity." She commanded the computer which would then relay her orders to the Royal Laboratories. She couldn't wait to see where else she could find the energy she found in Colin.
Were there other people just as powerful as Colin out there, hidden in the world?
It was like a whole other world just opened up to her, a dangerous and powerful world that was so far ignored by every single King as well as Black Panther before her. Clearly, they were wrong because if she could find and meet Colin with such ease, there must be someone out there hidden even deeper, someone even more powerful.
The thought of it sent chills of thrill and anxiety down her spine. She had a lot of work to do and centuries of mindsets to clear before Wakanda as a country was remotely ready to face the outside world with a position of strength.
The computer beeped as she was forced out of her thoughts. "21 days, huh." She muttered to herself, seeing the time required for all the satellites to be in orbit. The building of satellites was the easy part, it barely took more than a day. At this point, 3-D printing a remote sensing advanced satellite was no more complex than building an IC Engine using her advanced printers but it was the positioning that would take the majority of the time.
While they did have the stealth technology to cloak the satellites, they still ran the risk of someone or something stumbling upon them. No, it was much safer and more importantly, a tried and tested strategy to just mask them as private satellites and then make sure that in case of a crash, the wreckage was retrieved before anyone else.
That had worked for decades for Wakanda and if it worked, she saw no reason to change that right away, especially since she had much more important stuff on her plate already.
The ship slowed down smoothly as she realised she had entered Wakandan airspace and the ship was following the airspace protocols because this specific ship was not registered as a Royal Escort ship. With a twitch of her finger, the protocol was overridden and her identity provided so the Border Tribe does not panic and try to shoot her down.
Soon, she landed on the far right corner of the Royal Palace, the training area for the Black Panthers; it had a small pad overseeing the city of Birnin Zana where she could land her ship.
With a smooth motion, the hatch on which she was lying on slid back and she dropped down from a modest height of 20 ft. It would have required a tuck and roll in the earlier days and even then, some damage was expected but now?
She landed with a solid thunk, not even using Vibranium nanites to absorb the shock from the landing. With a thought, the nanites covered her entire body as the one man ship she did not have a name for zoomed away to park itself in her vault and she jumped off the pad, straight down.
Within a second, she disappeared and fell into a hatch that opened at the last moment, revealing a fake patch of grass that housed an entrance to the underground network of tunnels that housed a bunch of different things.
The subway trains, for both materials and people, the drinking water transportation network, both heated and cold, the secured trains for Military staff, and the smaller tunnel network to be used as a second entrance for the Royal Laboratories' deepest labs, i.e. her personal lab.
The last hatch opened up upon recognising her as the suit decelerated at the last moment. She landed smoothly as the entire lab came alive, lab displays, decorations, data mining, and even her AI project came alive as soon as the lab detected her presence in the room.
It made sense, after all, she had designed this place to be unbreakable. This was her fortress of solitude, after all.
She snickered to herself for that joke, "So much for being Superhuman."
A message was sent to both T'Challa and mother that she was back but would not be joining them for dinner as she worked on getting the satellites in order to see if she could somehow optimise some of the launch sequences. She was sure she could find some tech billionaire satellite project she could bump off the priority list without anyone noticing.
Also, she really needed to check on the higher ups of Wakanda, i.e. the Council. Those people were very powerful people who could increase her work for no reason at all. She did not wish to impose absolute authority using force and she knew that it would be a lost cause doing so.
She would lose what little family she had left if she went that way. The Council was insidious enough to never really step out of the line, just toe it until she got frustrated and made a mistake. They would never willingly give up their power and the only way she could legitimise her position, which would need legitimising because of her radical ideas that she would soon start spreading, was to outperform everyone at the Scuession ceremony.
To show every one of note, in Wakanda, that she, and only she, could become the King of Wakanda. Previously, she thought that having T'Challa on that post would be fine but now she knew that it had to be her, she had to make sure that Wakanda as a nation was so strong that even if they faced near global backlash for their past actions, they would survive.
For that, she needed stuff to change, fast, and Wakanda of now had gotten stagnant, and comfortable, and they could not have that, for they were about to face enemies of their own making, enemies who would not hesitate to slaughter every last one of them for the divine gifts of Bast.
And it was not like they could fight back with lethal force, not when the other side had people like Colin, Bruce Banner and many more who could single handedly defeat her, atleast physically.
Mentally, it was a whole other issue but she did not wish for it to reach that level.
She rolled her eyes as she received the fifth call request from T'Challa.
"What?" She snapped at him who didn't even look phased at her less than pleasant greeting.
"Whoa, what did you bring back from America? That attitude?"
She deadpanned at him, "No, it was with me when I was born."
"What?" And just like the stereotypical middle aged white people, her mother barged into the video call and zoomed way too in. "You did not get an attitude from me. And T'Challa, don't say such things about your sister. Shuri! Where have you been? You look so thin!"
She rolled her eyes at the nagging.
"--Just do as I say and open those doors so I can get you some of your favourite soup. My baby, getting so thin. It's all because of that poison they call food in America. You should have come back every day so I could have fed you properly. Now, look at you!"
Things like that, nagging stuff should have irritated her, and yet, it warmed her heart for some reason. Well, it's not like it would be the end of the world if she gave her mom access to her lab, well, temporary access–one time access only.
Okay, she had control issues!
"Fine. You can come in but only you. T'Challa, I will throw outside and you both know I can do that." She threatened and was satisfied as T'Challa threw his hands up in surrender as the call ended.
He knew his place. Good.
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.
DoorMan (MCU SI) - #50 : Emperor Laziness, Astral Punches & SCIENCE!
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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 #50
LA[February 4, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
With a sigh, he threw his backpack back on the bed and all but collapsed on the very comfortable bed.
"How do people even do this?" He borderline whined, as he looked up at the ceiling, his head filled with the corporate jargon that the people at Stark Industries shoved down his throat. Well, he might be exaggerating a little but the fact remained that he did more compliance related and company policy related work than actual work today.
Work was one thing but all the other little facets that came with the aforementioned work was kinda soul sapping. He could see why the capitalist agenda thrives on giving people easy to access loans and EMIs for them to continue subscribing to this 9-5, which is actually a 9-9, machine that makes the world go round.
With a sigh, he got up from the bed and began getting ready. Today, he was going to get a raincheck for the daily nightly hangout sessions with his fellow interns and then do a quick check in with the new inhabitants at the Red Hearth. It was still a headache for him because he was unsure as to whether he could cross that line, of denying someone leave from what was essentially an unbreakable prison, for an unpowered person anyway.
He was done for the day and while he could delay this meeting by keeping them sedated for a little longer, he had a hunch that it was not going to go well with the resident Gamma geek he had stashed away on the Red Hearth.
Say what you will about Bruce Banner and his supposed weak and timid nature, the man could somehow grow a spine of steel when it came to stuff he disagreed with, and possible human rights violations definitely came into that category.
He did not want Jin'Ya to tear a hole in the ceiling of the Red Hearth and throw the Hulk to the mercy of the thin, almost non existent atmosphere because of something he could have avoided. So, first things first, meet Banner, explain stuff, and see if his cooperation could be secured for the whole Extremis agenda.
Blasting his face with the fancy shower, filled with ice cold water, his body relaxed at the touch. The bathroom was a thing of beauty as well, having multiple options included in an inbuilt steam room. All the taps had settings, very much more complex than normal bathrooms. There was the normal cold and hot water, then there were settings around that as well.
It was all named funky as well. The iced water setting he was using right now was "Straight from Norway's Ice bath temperatures" and many other settings. The hottest one was the liquid magma setting and according to his knowledge, was a hit with all the ladies that lived in this building.
He couldn't imagine the cost that the contractor must have quoted to Stark Industries when the contractor received the plans for the building. Getting out of the bathroom, he sighed as the slightly warm air of the bedroom hit him.
With that out of the way, he quickly got dressed and after checking the enchantments around his room and confirming that nothing was out of the ordinary, waved his arm multiple times mid air as a portal opened in his room and jumped through, to the other side.
"Home Sweet Home!" He exclaimed with his hands spread out as if he was some circus artist who had jumped out of a hole in the floor, except in his case, he had jumped through a hole in the universe, powered by dimensional energies that made the foundational building blocks of the material universe.
"Yeah, Yeah, we're so happy that the Emperor Laziness is his virtue, finally found time to come to his home to solve his mess." Jin'Ya snarked mentally and then appeared in front of him in a flash of purple and blue, manifesting as a small floating orb which then turned into his most preferred form in the material world, his small lizard body.
The eyes on Jin'Ya's tiny face narrowed in his direction, something that not everyone could detect and he had the honor of being able to do that after spending a lot of time in the Ancient Dragon's vicinity, "Why do I feel as if you just insulted me? Don't make me read your thoughts, young man!"
He flipped the lizard off before walking into the elevator that then led to the kitchen. He'd already pinged Dr.Banner about his arrival so the man should be arriving soon. IT took a while for the man to leave his sparsely equipped lab because he truly had very high standards when it came to scientific equipment and the thing about high grade science equipment was that, in most cases, it was more tightly regulated than guns, bombs, and even small missiles.
So, yeah, progress was slow going on that front because he had to smuggle all that stuff without raising any alarms about unexplainable disappearances` and bringing heat upon the portal magic that KAmar Taj uses. After all, the version of Ancient One that he was most familiar with was the slightly firm but overall kind and skilled Magic Sorceress who could destroy you down to your very soul without even flinching and he had no desire to get to know the version of the Ancient One that most demons and Dark entities know her as.
"So, what do you plan on doing with both of them? I checked and both of them are clean, if we take the average human psyche as a benchmark," JIn'Ya remarked and he slumped on the spot, as the elevator slowed down with a single push of a button. Turning to Jin'Ya, he said, "What do you want me to do? I can't just let both of them get out into the open, they'll be either dead, imprisoned, in so much pain that they wished they were dead, or any number of those combinations."
Jin'Ya, unphased with his moral dilemma, nodded, "Yes but in your own words, you are also imprisoning them, just in a vastly better scenario."
He nodded and then straightened up. Slapping his face, he took in a deep breath and exhaled, "Yeah, I know." Then, he looked straight at Jin'Ya, with absolute determination in his eyes, "Doesn't matter because more important things are at stake. If hundreds, thousands, millions of people can be saved, I am fine with two people bitching and whining while living in absolute luxury and if the carrot doesn't work, I am sure you can act as the stick in this case,"
"Good. Because while morals are a nice thing to have, you have to be alive first to exercise them and no good will come with good guys not doing anything because of morals while evil thrives because it has no such limitations…What? Why are you laughing?!"
Jin'Ya manifested a purple finger of pure psionic energy and jabbed him in the chest as he stood there, almost folded in half, laughing his guts out.
"W-What," He wheezed, barely getting the words out, "What w-was that? That was sooo crin—ooof." He then lay on the ground, courtesy of Jin'Ya's psionic punch, which really hurt because the fucker had figured out how to hit the Astral Avatar with his punches, instead of the physical body.
No worries, this was another form of training. He just wished it was not this painful every time Jin'Ya got pissy enough to use it in their arguments.
"You know, someday I am going to stop imparting my wisdom to you and you are going to absolutely regret it," Jin'ya said as he was pulled up from the ground and…
"Argh," He held his nose as his face was painfully smacked by the ceiling of the elevator they were currently in.
"Okay, that's it," He said as CHI flared throughout his body, creating a cloak of yellow around him that blocked Jin'Ya's psionic energy from taking hold of his body. It wouldn't hold if the Dragon got serious about exerting more and more of his soul in the real world, but for now, it was more than enough.
_____xx_____
The Kitchen, Red Hearth
–Bruce Banner–
"So, yeah, that's the gist of it. Look, I know you don't like this whole thing but I want you to really think of it and how the world would react if they knew about the serum, her whereabouts, and the key to unlocking functionally biological immortality."
He sat there, deep in thought as Colin finished explaining what he had the prior night before coming here, or was it the prior day? It got very convoluted to explain events when multiple time zones were involved. He knew certain things were missing from Colin's explanation but for the most part, even if it did disturb him to admit that internally, Colin was right.
He looked at Colin who actually looked nervous for that part, as if Colin was waiting for him to agree with the kidnappings because that's what they would be if they were not going to let go of both of those people. It wouldn't matter even if their lives were in supreme danger.
After almost a minute of silence and deliberation, he replied, "I-I don't know what the consequences of this will be but I do know that your fears are true. This Extremis serum, it cannot be allowed to land in the hands of the people who would tear the world apart for it."
Colin all but beamed, "Right? Right? There is still a lot of work to be done but my broad vision is that we need a version of Extremis that doesn't create half molten men capable of regenerating endlessly but a lesser one that can only–"
"Heal one time, exploiting Extremis' ability to flash DNA changes on the go to heal and regenerate even organs with a single dose or even a series of treatments." His mind whirled at the implications.
The medical ones aside, he would be a fool not to recognise the other aspects of this serum and what Colin was hinting at. It would be world changing, and if there was one thing he had been accused of by Ross, correctly, was his need for SCIENCE! surpassing his survival instincts.
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.
DoorMan #50
LA[February 4, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
With a sigh, he threw his backpack back on the bed and all but collapsed on the very comfortable bed.
"How do people even do this?" He borderline whined, as he looked up at the ceiling, his head filled with the corporate jargon that the people at Stark Industries shoved down his throat. Well, he might be exaggerating a little but the fact remained that he did more compliance related and company policy related work than actual work today.
Work was one thing but all the other little facets that came with the aforementioned work was kinda soul sapping. He could see why the capitalist agenda thrives on giving people easy to access loans and EMIs for them to continue subscribing to this 9-5, which is actually a 9-9, machine that makes the world go round.
With a sigh, he got up from the bed and began getting ready. Today, he was going to get a raincheck for the daily nightly hangout sessions with his fellow interns and then do a quick check in with the new inhabitants at the Red Hearth. It was still a headache for him because he was unsure as to whether he could cross that line, of denying someone leave from what was essentially an unbreakable prison, for an unpowered person anyway.
He was done for the day and while he could delay this meeting by keeping them sedated for a little longer, he had a hunch that it was not going to go well with the resident Gamma geek he had stashed away on the Red Hearth.
Say what you will about Bruce Banner and his supposed weak and timid nature, the man could somehow grow a spine of steel when it came to stuff he disagreed with, and possible human rights violations definitely came into that category.
He did not want Jin'Ya to tear a hole in the ceiling of the Red Hearth and throw the Hulk to the mercy of the thin, almost non existent atmosphere because of something he could have avoided. So, first things first, meet Banner, explain stuff, and see if his cooperation could be secured for the whole Extremis agenda.
Blasting his face with the fancy shower, filled with ice cold water, his body relaxed at the touch. The bathroom was a thing of beauty as well, having multiple options included in an inbuilt steam room. All the taps had settings, very much more complex than normal bathrooms. There was the normal cold and hot water, then there were settings around that as well.
It was all named funky as well. The iced water setting he was using right now was "Straight from Norway's Ice bath temperatures" and many other settings. The hottest one was the liquid magma setting and according to his knowledge, was a hit with all the ladies that lived in this building.
He couldn't imagine the cost that the contractor must have quoted to Stark Industries when the contractor received the plans for the building. Getting out of the bathroom, he sighed as the slightly warm air of the bedroom hit him.
With that out of the way, he quickly got dressed and after checking the enchantments around his room and confirming that nothing was out of the ordinary, waved his arm multiple times mid air as a portal opened in his room and jumped through, to the other side.
"Home Sweet Home!" He exclaimed with his hands spread out as if he was some circus artist who had jumped out of a hole in the floor, except in his case, he had jumped through a hole in the universe, powered by dimensional energies that made the foundational building blocks of the material universe.
"Yeah, Yeah, we're so happy that the Emperor Laziness is his virtue, finally found time to come to his home to solve his mess." Jin'Ya snarked mentally and then appeared in front of him in a flash of purple and blue, manifesting as a small floating orb which then turned into his most preferred form in the material world, his small lizard body.
The eyes on Jin'Ya's tiny face narrowed in his direction, something that not everyone could detect and he had the honor of being able to do that after spending a lot of time in the Ancient Dragon's vicinity, "Why do I feel as if you just insulted me? Don't make me read your thoughts, young man!"
He flipped the lizard off before walking into the elevator that then led to the kitchen. He'd already pinged Dr.Banner about his arrival so the man should be arriving soon. IT took a while for the man to leave his sparsely equipped lab because he truly had very high standards when it came to scientific equipment and the thing about high grade science equipment was that, in most cases, it was more tightly regulated than guns, bombs, and even small missiles.
So, yeah, progress was slow going on that front because he had to smuggle all that stuff without raising any alarms about unexplainable disappearances` and bringing heat upon the portal magic that KAmar Taj uses. After all, the version of Ancient One that he was most familiar with was the slightly firm but overall kind and skilled Magic Sorceress who could destroy you down to your very soul without even flinching and he had no desire to get to know the version of the Ancient One that most demons and Dark entities know her as.
"So, what do you plan on doing with both of them? I checked and both of them are clean, if we take the average human psyche as a benchmark," JIn'Ya remarked and he slumped on the spot, as the elevator slowed down with a single push of a button. Turning to Jin'Ya, he said, "What do you want me to do? I can't just let both of them get out into the open, they'll be either dead, imprisoned, in so much pain that they wished they were dead, or any number of those combinations."
Jin'Ya, unphased with his moral dilemma, nodded, "Yes but in your own words, you are also imprisoning them, just in a vastly better scenario."
He nodded and then straightened up. Slapping his face, he took in a deep breath and exhaled, "Yeah, I know." Then, he looked straight at Jin'Ya, with absolute determination in his eyes, "Doesn't matter because more important things are at stake. If hundreds, thousands, millions of people can be saved, I am fine with two people bitching and whining while living in absolute luxury and if the carrot doesn't work, I am sure you can act as the stick in this case,"
"Good. Because while morals are a nice thing to have, you have to be alive first to exercise them and no good will come with good guys not doing anything because of morals while evil thrives because it has no such limitations…What? Why are you laughing?!"
Jin'Ya manifested a purple finger of pure psionic energy and jabbed him in the chest as he stood there, almost folded in half, laughing his guts out.
"W-What," He wheezed, barely getting the words out, "What w-was that? That was sooo crin—ooof." He then lay on the ground, courtesy of Jin'Ya's psionic punch, which really hurt because the fucker had figured out how to hit the Astral Avatar with his punches, instead of the physical body.
No worries, this was another form of training. He just wished it was not this painful every time Jin'Ya got pissy enough to use it in their arguments.
"You know, someday I am going to stop imparting my wisdom to you and you are going to absolutely regret it," Jin'ya said as he was pulled up from the ground and…
"Argh," He held his nose as his face was painfully smacked by the ceiling of the elevator they were currently in.
"Okay, that's it," He said as CHI flared throughout his body, creating a cloak of yellow around him that blocked Jin'Ya's psionic energy from taking hold of his body. It wouldn't hold if the Dragon got serious about exerting more and more of his soul in the real world, but for now, it was more than enough.
_____xx_____
The Kitchen, Red Hearth
–Bruce Banner–
"So, yeah, that's the gist of it. Look, I know you don't like this whole thing but I want you to really think of it and how the world would react if they knew about the serum, her whereabouts, and the key to unlocking functionally biological immortality."
He sat there, deep in thought as Colin finished explaining what he had the prior night before coming here, or was it the prior day? It got very convoluted to explain events when multiple time zones were involved. He knew certain things were missing from Colin's explanation but for the most part, even if it did disturb him to admit that internally, Colin was right.
He looked at Colin who actually looked nervous for that part, as if Colin was waiting for him to agree with the kidnappings because that's what they would be if they were not going to let go of both of those people. It wouldn't matter even if their lives were in supreme danger.
After almost a minute of silence and deliberation, he replied, "I-I don't know what the consequences of this will be but I do know that your fears are true. This Extremis serum, it cannot be allowed to land in the hands of the people who would tear the world apart for it."
Colin all but beamed, "Right? Right? There is still a lot of work to be done but my broad vision is that we need a version of Extremis that doesn't create half molten men capable of regenerating endlessly but a lesser one that can only–"
"Heal one time, exploiting Extremis' ability to flash DNA changes on the go to heal and regenerate even organs with a single dose or even a series of treatments." His mind whirled at the implications.
The medical ones aside, he would be a fool not to recognise the other aspects of this serum and what Colin was hinting at. It would be world changing, and if there was one thing he had been accused of by Ross, correctly, was his need for SCIENCE! surpassing his survival instincts.
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.