Doorman (MCU SI)

[Spearow]

so, she is going to cut off his arms and let it regrow? like a lizard?

 

[Sovereign Of All]

Dude deserves it, his ignorant stupidity and superiority complex making him view himself as the protagonist, who gets away with zero consequences, his is a reality check that the guy should have gotten earlier.
Also his simping Shuri and Wakanda is going to be a problem, cause like it or not in my opinion they're mostly a lost cause, and the guy should give up on them.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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

DoorMan #85

Ta-Lo [February 18, 2008]

–Jin'Ya–

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Ancient One nodded.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Will he be alright? Mentally?"

He shrugged, "I hope so."



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

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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

DoorMan #86

Ta-Lo [February 18, 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was all so….magical.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After all, there was work to do.



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

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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

DoorMan #87

Washington DC [February 23, 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

It was odd, having nothing for arms. It kinda made all his T-shirts look droopy, with the sleeves just hanging. Well, no matter what, it looked way better without the mutated flesh he had going on before.

The day he went to the Red Hearth, he stopped whatever it was that Banner was doing and tasked him with scanning his arms because whatever scans that Jin'Ya and the Water Dragon might have run on his hands, they were magical in nature. A scientific look was necessary in his opinion, as Banner gave him the same answer as the others did.

Amputation was necessary and inevitable, in his case because his hands no longer looked like functioning hands and instead began looking like weirdly mutated energy and meat combos that had potential in other fields, according to Bruce anyway.

Despite the actual real life pouts he got from Bruce and Hansen who swore up and down that his arms were actually the key to getting Exrtremis working, he took the executive decision to lock his arms away safely.

He had a lot of work to do and in some corner of his mind, it was being argued that the reason he was throwing himself into work was because he was procrastinating dealing with the loss of his arms but he just shut down that part of his mind and focused on stuff that would help them.

Authorising research on his destroyed arms that contained the energy of an Infinity Stone was not high on the list he wanted to do these days so once he got a proper proposal from the Mad Scientist combo back on Mars and he agreed with them, he might consider giving them access to his former body parts.

So, once the amputation process was done, which was completely painless, he moved on to the next task that was present in his list before he was all sucked into the whole almost dying and potentially killing everyone who was in Ta-Lo because he was such an idiot.

God, it felt like such a long time despite it barely being a couple of days for the events to go from start to end, with the end result in him coming out with two extra pieces with him.

The next task, on hand, before he left for Ta-Lo was…Ross.

General Thunderbolt Ross, someone who was given cancer by yours truly, because the man really did deserve it, and yet, after that, instead of retreating from public life, taking voluntarily retirement and enjoying the medical perks and pension that came with serving Uncle Sam, he found Ross giving press briefings, creating a certain media presence about himself.

All hale and healthy, without an ounce of cancer showing anywhere on his body. No weakness, no trembling body, nothing. Instead, what Colin saw was a healthy man doing tasks people his age should not be able to do, no matter the training they took to remain healthy at that age.

At the same time, he found that the Leader, the other part of the gamma menace, was dead, on paper anyway. The dots connected and which is why he was here, floating high above a very posh locality in Washington, surrounded by security because most of the top brass of the Army lived in this place, cloaked under spells.

Jin'Ya was with him but as was the case with most of his outings, he was going to remain hidden and away from him and would only intervene if there is a credible threat to his life.

Ross was certainly not going to be a threat to the life of the person who just survived being bathed inside out with the energies of an Infinity Stone. Compared to that, Ross and even Leader for that matter seemed like harmless people to him.

So, with a mental flex, the Air Doors situation all across his body calibrated their air output as he slowly began to float down. Usually, doing something like this would go against the spirit of stealth since sensors could track the flow of air and find out that there was an artificial flow around him but for now, it would suffice.

This was not Wakanda, despite the clear show of opulence all around him.

With ease, he slipped into Ross' office, knowing full well that the man was somehow working well into the night, despite working the entire day. It was as if the man had suddenly become a workaholic, which he was before but he was obsessed like this with only his own projects, not the work he was doing right now, which was cleaning up.

Yup, Ross was disbanding his own team, making sure that the people under him got out safely and were redistributed into other teams while his current projects were either wound down safely or transferred to his peers.

It definitely raised some eyebrows and honestly, if anyone on the outside looked at Ross' actions, they would definitely be confused but if someone knew who exactly was pulling the strings here and why, they would definitely know why this was happening.

The Leader was having Ross clean up his look. He would bet his non-existent arms that soon, there won't even be a paper trail showing Ross' litany of issues and accidents along with his most vocal opposition either quietly disappearing or blackmailed into submission.

All so that Ross could gain more power and provide it to the Leader, who probably had not set his sights on higher pursuits and was content with gaining the power of the President by having a puppet sit on the throne of POTUS.

Well, good for him actually.

"Jin'Ya, got anything?" He mentally asked the Dragon as he casually lounged in the man's chair. There was nothing digital in the man's house, even in his office as even the single computer was hardlined, with no cameras, no sensors, and no wireless networks. Even cellular did not work in this place.

Well, clearly, Ross forgot to include jammers for psionic communication.

"Yes, I have the last known location of the Leader and you were right, Ross was being manipulated with such ease, he really is an idiot."

"Chances of Leader still being there?"

"Pretty high. From what I saw, the Green one was very confident and Ross last met the guy a week ago."

Still, that gave the Leader plenty of time but it wouldn't hurt to check out the base for now.

"In your range?" He asked Jin'Ya who only replied with a short, "Hold on," Before the line went silent. A second later, Jin'Ya was back on the line, "The big Head is knocked out. He was in the process of figuring out that something was wrong with Mars and would have probably figured out the location of the Red Hearth soon enough."

He sighed in relief. "We'll collect him later on." Finally, something that went his way. He had the Leader knocked out and once Bruce was mentally stable enough, he could introduce him to the Gamma Menace and then they could work on getting the Leader depowered.

As he was now, the Leader would just manipulate Bruce into escaping together and despite his boasts, he knew that the Red Hearth would get damaged if Bruce tried to escape and he would have to then find and save Hulk and the Leader from getting themselves killed.

So, indefinite imprisonment for Leader, which, technically, was not illegal on Mars since he was the sole authority on that palace and he was fine with that, for now.

Plus, what Bruce didn't know wouldn't hurt him, so win-win.

With that secured, he moved the vase with the Door and dropped it, such that the voice echoed throughout the home, which was in an eerie silence, only shattered by his actions.

Ross, confident in his current body and paranoid bastard that he was, pressed the alarm button that he had installed within arm's reach in every single room of this giant home, headed straight up, not before acquiring some firearms obviously.

Jin'Ya stopped the alarm from ringing, disconnecting that single button from the network of alarms as Ross headed straight up to his office.

Jin'Ya had taken a look inside Ross' head and transferred the data straight to him, showing what Ross had planned to do.

Slowly, bit by bit, he planned on gaining authority and his initial step was going to create an artificial encounter with the Hulk, one that would preferably include civilian casualties and then, instead of coming after the Hulk with the power of the military, he was going to resign and rally against the government and the army, portraying himself as the hero who hunted down the Hulk but was stopped by the evil government who clearly don't care for the lives of its citizens.

It sounded like a cliche plan but people were predictable and it had a pretty good chance of succeeding. Obviously, events like the New York Invasion would put a wrench in his plan but then again, it would also introduce newer targets for Ross to rally against, to create an atmosphere of fear, that he would get elected.

Well, clearly, all of that was never going to happen because Ross was not going to remain alive for that.

With his senses, he could feel Ross approaching, despite his commendable attempt to be silent.

He was about to begin with a snarky comment ready, along with the classic villainous pose of reclining into a very expensive chair while being in a semi dark office but his phone vibrated at the last moment.

With an application of his powers, he opened his phone and saw that it was a message from Shuri, which was kind of sad because the contents of the message were innocuous, if taken without any context but since he knew what was happening behind the scenes, he did not reply to the message.

"Hi! I hope you are doing fine! I checked everywhere but you have just disappeared. Hope you remember our agreement. Get back to me once you have time."

It's like she was acting completely out of character and no one even noticed.

He sighed as the door creaked open. Just in time.

"Hello, Ross." He said as the man probably recognised him, judging by the now lowered gun as the orange onesie was the same one that he wore the day he and Ross officially met.

Welp, time to act like a Bond Villain.

Another item off a mental checklist he was never going to show anyone. Ever.



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

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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

DoorMan #88

Red Hearth [February 23, 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

After giving Ross a more permanent treatment, he came back to the Red Hearth as Jin'Ya had already retrieved Leader from his prison which was also his lab. Ross really was stupid, to give Leader even the slightest bit of freedom.

Which is why the Leader was going to remain sedated for quite a while now. It was not humane or ethical but it was the best he could do for now. Once he had some more robust imprisoning enchantments active and installed, he might consider letting Leader get a bit more freedom but even then, there was a very real risk of Leader learning magic of all things from the small bits of enchantments that are always active.

It was always very risky to keep the intelligent types alive because they could pull solutions out of thin air for problems you thought to be unsolvable. It was the same reason why he kept Hansen on close watch at all times and had given Jin'Ya authority to knock her ass out at the first sign of discrepancy.

Sighing in exhaustion, he threw his head back and stared at the ceiling. He had a few more things to do about the whole Ross thing but aside from figuring out a way to keep The Leader safely imprisoned, this chapter was pretty much behind him for now.

Killing Ross was not something that would be acceptable in the eyes of any member of the law or even any Avengers but if they knew the sheer damage he could do in the future and what level of power he could amass and then hand over to a terrorist in all but name, they might agree.

Shaking his head, he tried to banish those thoughts. Killing someone was never easy, especially a human. Demons and the Dark Ones, he could kill aplenty before he began feeling any shred of sympathy for them but for humans, it left a mark on him which is why he avoided killing anyone unless and until it was the last resort.

Leaving that aside, he went down into the ritual room, the one with the most dimensional energy synergy in the whole of the Red Hearth, because he was in dire need of a Dimensional Energy flow restructuring. His body was used to the flow of DImensional Energy in a certain manner. Well, that flow was certainly destroyed now and while Dimensional Energy as a whole would flow through everywhere given the chance, he needed to relearn everything else because spells needed precise Dimensional energy activation.

Thankfully, Master Hamir was someone who had done the exact same thing, having lost an arm during a Demon raid, resulting in him having to redraw everything in his body, essentially creating a translation layer for standard spells to work.

It was fairly easy to follow, just time consuming to master, and needed regular practice. So, there he was, in the sealed ritual room, working on the most basic thing that is taught to apprentices in Kamar Taj.

Eldritch Shape Summoning.

Using Dimensional Energy to create energy constructs, whose strength depends on a variety of factors, primary of which was the overall strength of the mind of the caster, i.e., him. Now, he had a pretty strong soul and mind so his constructs, prior to losing his hands were top notch, unbreakable against most spells if he kept his focus on them.

But now?

Well, he sighed as the Eldritch constructs he tried to create in place of his arms cracked and dissipated for the tenth time. Well, just last week, he couldn't even get sparks in the air so it was progress but it was much slower than he had expected it to be.

"You do realise it is because of your mindset right now, right?" Jin'Ya chose this moment to chime in, telling him something he already knew.

"Well, yeah, I know that. If you are not going to suggest something to help with that, then you are not helping."

"I am just saying that the day we came here, you have only stepped out to work. Nothing else. Might I suggest something else? Something to take your mind off of everything." Jin'ya said in a tone that suggested he knew something that Colin did not.

"What?"

_____xx____

"Whoa!" his jaw hung agape as he looked at the three suns that orbited Xandar, creating a very mesmerising background.

"How did you do it?" He asked Jin'Ya, who was floating by his side, in front of the watching deck as they waited for their ship to be cleared for landing before they could go out and earnestly enjoy all that Xandar had to offer.

Jin'Ya smugly replied, assuming his floating izard form since they were quite literally on an alien planet so they had nothing to hide, "Well, one does not get to be my age and be an interstellar traveller, without picking up some favours and contacts along the way."

"Oh yeah?" he replied dryly, "And how long had it been since your so called contact died and you had to scramble to find someone else?"

"Hey! It's not my fault most species die out so soon. That man didn't even pay me back for the favour I did for him."

"Well, not everyone can be a member of the pseudo immortal dragons, Jin'Ya."

Jin'Ya rolled his eyes at him but didn't say anything else, which was a win in his book.

Jin'ya was right, obviously. He needed a change, something to keep his mind away from everything that had transpired in the last month, and what better way to run away from his problems than by literally running away from his problems?

After all, they couldn't bother him if they were confined to Earth, literally millions of miles away, probably even more than that. He hadn't bothered counting.

"Well, I have to say, this is really good. And you say that you have arranged a meeting with someone high up in the chain of command?" He asked Jin'Ya as he turned around and sat on a chair that was right behind them, following his butt, ready to cushion his fall wherever he might decide to take a seat. It was a pretty nifty thing and a cheap alternative to the very expensive hard light projector suite that has to be installed to create chairs or seating furniture anywhere you wanted in a room.

"Yes but that is for later, once we have explored everything else. I believe you would love some of the adventures they have on Xandar, along with some deep sea and deep Earth exploration trips."

And just like that, his attention was, once again, diverted to another new shiny thing.

____xx____

Red Hearth

–Bruce Banner–

He sighed, and after heavy deliberation, finally pressed the button. The button did not do anything substantial, it just moved all his current research of turning Extremis into a viable product that could be used for the good of the world, into another folder because they had pushed that later down the line.

"You know that they are not exclusive to each other, right? The research we have to do." Maya replied as she was the one who was unloading and securely storing the samples they had into long term cold storage.

He nodded, "Yeah, I know but you know that once we are done with this heavily weaponized version of Extremis, it won't be the end of it? Today, it is Colin. Tomorrow it could be anyone else. When does it get to the point that it is distributed to the bad guys as well?"

"Well," Maya shrugged, "That's not my problem. I was given an order, and I am going to follow it. Boss man listens more to you anyway but this time, I don't even think you have a choice in this matter."

No, he did not because while Colin might have been cordial in his request, Jin'Ya, the resident Dragon guardian of this palace was very clear as to what they needed and the Dragon was most certainly not going to accept anything else.

"Yeah, you're right," he muttered as he began downloading all the scans of Colin's arms, along with the previous medical scans Colin had of everyone on base, and began the work for molecular compatibility.

Colin needed his arms back and while it was a little disheartening to know that he had no other choice, at least he knew that Colin was overall a good guy and would not abuse it, at least he hoped Colin wouldn't.

Only time will tell.

____xx____

Triskelion [2 days later]

–Nick Fury–

"They found what in his body?" He exclaimed as Sitwell finally gave him the report he had asked yesterday. Apparently, Ross was found dead in his house and they only found out when he didn't get out of the house or show up on his scheduled meetings.

"Yes, sir. Forensics have reported a Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer with a possible heart attack being the cause." Sitwell reported as he looked in his other screen, showing Ross talking to the media, which was odd in and of itself but what was more interesting was Ross himself.

"Well, Agent," He drawled as he saw the timestamp on the footage being only a week old, "You tell me how a stage 4 cancer patient was able to take a press conference, speak for hours on end without any change in his voice and was able to walk back to his car. Hell, I even have footage of him undergoing light training with his troops in the Military that is barely a month old."

"I-I don't know what else to say, sir. I have triple checked everything but–"

"Check again and make sure you get a copy of everything." He cut the feed as he leaned back and thought about this.

Ross was making some odd moves before this, which put him on Nick's personal radar but nothing that would signal this.

Ross did not look like a man who was going to die and was certainly not making decisions that way. He looked as if he was going to win, with confidence that was absent even 6 months ago.

Something was wrong and he had a hunch that their mystery orange guy was involved, even in this.

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