DoorMan (MCU SI)

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

DoorMan #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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