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 #12
Red Hearth [January 17, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
After finishing up some work on the new generation IP protocol they were gearing up to launch to the rest of the world, Colin got up from his desk and stretched, despite not needing to because his body was much more resistant to stiffness than normal humans.
The alert about Bruce Banner should work as expected, reaching him as long as he was on Earth and in the Red Hearth, making sure that Bruce did not have to spend any more time being hunted down like an animal. He might need some muscle for that, though.
"Hey, Jin'Ya?" He shouted in his mind, sort of like a psionic doorbell. See, one thing to note about Astral Realm lifeforms like Jin'ya was that their minds were absolute, walking disasters, creating havoc in the Astral Realm just by existing, and if they manifested in the real world, then it would spell disaster for any normal person nearby.
If Jin'Ya wasn't so used to suppressing over 90% of his own power, just so he could normally interact with the mortal species, Earth would have had a giant dead zone right around the Himalayas, simply because that was the place where Jin'Ya first manifested. It was just one of the dangers of summoning an Astral lifeform like Jin'Ya. Thankfully, that was not Jin'Ya's first rodeo so they were fine.
"What?!" He smiled as Jin'Ya snapped at him. It was actually disadvantageous for Jin'ya to so tightly wind his Astral Presence around him because that is how his species navigates the world. On Earth, he had to keep it to himself, otherwise, the Ancient One would have punted his little ass back to the Astral Realm.
On the Red Hearth however, he could let it all loose, not having to worry about accidentally killing everyone around him as long as he did not go all out. Colin was fine because he had mental training to withstand the passive Astral pressure that Jin'Ya gave out.
"I don't know if you are aware of a giant green ball of rage on Earth. But in a few weeks' time, we might have to go and rescue him from the Military. I might need some extra muscle for that, would you be willing to come?"
There was a pause on the other side before a slimy voice slipped into his mind, "20 pounds of Ta-Lo's exquisite meat collection."
He gawked in the real world as he immediately snapped at the dragon, "Are you insane? That is my entire year's meat allowance. You can't ask for it, all at once. That would leave me with nothing for the rest of the year. It's only January"
"Do you want my help or not?" He could just picture the damned thing's smug expression. Ah, it made him want to punch the dragon but he knew it would just be futile.
He growled, "Ah! Fine. But if there is a single mishap on the mission, I will be docking part of the meat."
In return, he got the impression of a middle finger and then a careless wave of his paw as the connection was shut down from Jin'Ya's side.
Shrugging, he exited his office, thinking of how he could increase his quota of meat from Ta-Lo. After all, there was no way he was not going to have anything to eat from that place for the entire year. That would just kill him.
He might just have to bear it and act as a CHI battery for an entire week for their semi dead dragon. That might just get him double the meat allowance, something that he fought tooth and nail for when he first negotiated the deal to help rejuvenate their water dragon.
Ah, he could still remember that day. He had just turned 16 and was asked what he would like for his birthday present by Wong, and well, being the little shit that he was, he asked for something not just expensive but also very very difficult to achieve.
To visit Ta-Lo, one of the many mystical hotspots on the planet but the one that should be the most friendly. Now, he knew even back then that Kamar Taj and all the mystical hotspots on the planet were peripherally aware of each other and would alert each other if any large threat was found.
So, he knew they could communicate with each other. He was just betting to see if the connections extended to transport as well. That was how he found himself standing in front of the Ancient One who asked for his reasons and after he told them that he just wanted to find out what a place untouched by large scale industrialisation looked like, he was granted permission to visit.
The permission to visit was just a medallion from the Ancient One and a portal that opened up beneath him, depositing him in the forest on the outskirts. Back then, he did not have his CHI door permanently open yet so he was not as strong. However, every night, he made sure to have the CHI door open for at least two hours and use that to strengthen his body, which was a nighttime ritual he had created back then, so he was not super worried.
The worries were evaporated, however, as he reached the lake and was mesmerised by the picturesque view. Being identified as an envoy from Kamar Taj meant that he was treated with respect and also with healthy caution as he looked really young.
That was his first trip to Ta-Lo, where he returned with a healthy appreciation for the milk products, mainly the desserts and also the barbecued meat, which was to die for.
The second time he wanted to visit, however, the Ancient One showed her true colours, telling him that he could not use Kamar Taj's medallion just for free and needed to give something to Kamar Taj to use its authority in return.
Not to be outdone, during one of his later trips to Ta-Lo, he negotiated a deal with the village chief. The village chief was a wrinkly old man with two daughters. The village chief was the one who looked into the admin side of running a small village and the Protector of the village guarded the entrance.
The youngest daughter of the village chief was now the Gate protector, with the previous one, also the village chief's daughter, having defected from Ta-Lo to have her own life in the mortal world, according to their own words.
The deal was to flood the lake, the lake that housed the water dragon, and also help keep the influence of the terrible entity inside the seal, with pure CHI from his gates. They were understandably cautious and disbelieving at first but when he opened his first GIANT gate, which was 20ft tall and 10ft wide, to emit waves upon waves of CHI into the lake, they were flabbergasted.
That little stunt was about to cost him a bit because that much CHI being infused into the lake meant that all the creatures in the lake were a bit stunned and had almost swarmed him to presumably tear him apart when the water dragon came and disciplined everyone.
The Water Dragon spoke something to the village chief and the village chief told him to state his terms. The sighs of relief when he just asked for 20 pounds of meat annually gave him hope right now that they might increase his yearly quota.
Inflation was a thing in Ta-Lo, right?
'Maybe the village chief would be amenable to doubling the quota?' He thought to himself giddily as he entered the elevator and pressed the button for the training room. He needed to catch up on the training that he had skipped for the past two days.
After all, this chiseled physique was not going to be maintained by itself.
He needed some 5G full body training to do before he could get his body ready for February in LA. Some sort of interview process that required him to move to LA for two weeks, all paid for by Stark Industries, obviously.
It probably had something to do with Jarvis finding that he might be the unhackable hacker on the Dark Web, not that he would ever admit it. That would be the height of foolishness. If he admitted that he had a way of foolproofing a system by hiding it so that not even the owners of the internet could find it? Well, let's just say that the NSA would be the least of his worries.
The elevator dinged and opened up to a giant sprawling empty space with high ceilings. High as in 200 ft high ceilings, just in case he wanted to do a PR on his high jump.
Fiddling with the mystical controls of this place, he grunted as the 5 times earth's gravity mode was activated, making him shift to secure his footing. The max it could do was about 20 times Earth's gravity but the most he had ever been able to stand in, was about 12 Gs, and even then, it felt like he was about to vomit his internal organs.
So, yeah, 5G for a heavy workout it is.
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