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 #56
LA[February 11, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
He closed his laptop with a twitch of his ginger after going through the reports twice more before he was satisfied. Leaning back in his chair, he looked up and thought of what this meant.
Intellectually, he knew that his powers were related to space and dimensions and as such, he might have some sort of affinity with the space element, i.e., the Space Stone. The same stone's energy was used to jumpstart the Arc Reactor when Howard couldn't get it up to speed, at least that is what the SHIELD records say, redacted as they might be.
Howard being a senior ranking as well as a founding member of SHIELD meant that his theft of the Tesseract energy shard was overlooked. It was the only plausible explanation as to why his powers acted up.
He closed his eyes and entered his mindscape, wherein he had painstakingly defined processes when it came to his powers. He had it down to a process that was just upended by the arrival of the Eight Door, crackling with blue. It was a nice mid sized tree as well, not CHI sized but most definitely the size of the Kinetic Lasers.
The size of the Doors was based on the rating he gave their dimensions. CHI was S-tier, Air was the same but the Kinetic Lasers were A-tier. Water and Sand were B-tier, the less said about the light dimension the better.
So, from the size of the tree, he could tell that whatever that Door was, it would be helpful. He could take a guess from the lightning logo and the electricity continuously crackling all around it but without using it extensively and testing it with Jin'Ya, he could not create a comprehensive report on it.
Opening his eyes, he exhaled in frustration. It was at times like this that he wondered whether it was even worth it to have a valid civilian identity. It was his mother's wish, to see him be so successful his name would be on a billboard or at best, on a building. He had vowed to fulfill her wish in the most outlandish way possible but so far, that seemed to be impeding his work on saving the wider world.
Sighing, he got out of the chair and began pacing around the room. He was getting out of this place, that was for certain. This was not worth his time and the prolonged period of inactivity can most certainly be used as an excuse to get out of his place. He was sure that the Dean's office would raise a fuss but in the end, it was his decision.
Seeing the time, it was just about noon right now, and in about an hour or so, the lunches would arrive. For some reason, the communal lunch system has been taken off the menu, and individual tiffins were served to every single intern. It all felt like the enshittifaction of a service, like Stark Industries was hoping that once the perks of this place were removed and the overall quality of service reduced, combined with the lack of work for a group of hard working people, the group of interns would leave on their own.
He could see it happening actually. The cracks had already started to form. Jack Slash, the oldest of their group, was already complaining about lack of work and communication whenever they were in a group setting and was also seething because they denied his request for two additional monitors so that he could do his personal work efficiently.
Apparently, the dude was a multi monitor setup guy, as opposed to the rational method which was just a large enough single screen. The new TVs were rock solid and he had a 43 inch 4k TV working double duties as a monitor and he hadn't even noticed anything wrong with it.
He noticed that he was now rambling in his mind as his pacing continued to pick up pace on the carpet. At this point, he would get a mighty static shock once he left the carpet.
"Ah, Fuck it," He cursed the situation, and immediately began packing everything. Laptop, wallet, water bottle(enchanted to always be cool), Stark Industries' ID, and after checking that nothing was kept here, he locked the door and began casually walking out of the complex.
"Sir? Excuse me, Sir?" He slowed down and half turned to see the receptionist speed walking towards him as he exited the lobby and stood in the sun.
"Yes?" There was something definitely wrong here. Why the hell would she run all the way here?
"Sir, can I ask where you are going?"
His brows furrowed as he replied, "I thought we had free rein to move about in the city whenever we were not working. Today is not a working day, ergo, today I can go to the city."
She flashed him a strained smile, "Yes, sir. I was just asking where in the city. We have a pickup and drop facility, we can have you paired with an experienced driver who can show you all the spots in the–"
He raised a hand, "Let me stop you right there. I want to roam the city, on foot. I have been cramped in that room for two days now because of no official communication from SI. So, thank you for asking, really, thank you but I would really like to leave now. Bye!" He waved her off and turned around, actually feeling her struggle to come up with words to make him do as she says.
He turned sharply to the right as soon as he exited the compound, expanding his senses to hear what the receptionist might be saying.
His senses immediately zoned in on the voice that he heard just now, "Sir, Colin Baxter left. He didn't take the company car, he said he wanted to walk on foot. What should I do now?"
A slightly hoarse male voice could be heard speaking to her. It did not sound like a phone call. Maybe a Video Call? "Shit! Do we have any idea where he went? Did he take his luggage with him?"
The man was most definitely not on campus because there was no accompanying sensory data from his presence. No breathing, nothing.
"No, sir. He just had a small backpack with him. What should we do? Should I have him followed?"
"...Yes, do that, and report to me every hour. DO NOT get noticed, we don't need a lawsuit."
"Yes, sir."
He smiled, now certain that Stane suspected one of them of the Arc Fiasco, and while the old man was right about that, he would never get any answers like this. Stane also was probably looking for other reasons, so he could rule out the kiddy interns from the suspect pool because the man who could have Tony Stark kidnapped in the middle of an active war zone would most certainly have people who could take care of a few teenagers.
___xx___
Wakanda [An hour back]
–Shuri "Apostle of Bast" Udaku–
She leaned on her knuckles, showing her interest in the current meeting called forth by the previous Head Scientist who she had fired because he was more interested in serving the Council's interests than Wakanda's.
She really did not have time for this but with her impending announcement of her ambition for the throne, she could do with some public facing PR and despite the point of this hearing, showing her face should be enough.
Besides, all of this was just a small part of the ruling package. Her power alone would secure her the throne, of that she was certain. The easy going nature, the likeability of the citizens, and the bureaucrats only served to make the work happen more efficiently.
She knew she could not just threaten everyone so she had to maintain appearances here as well.
Her phone, which was on a quantum dot communications array between the sealed shut communications device used for Colin and her personal comms array built into her armour that she wore at all times, pinged.
Her eyes narrowed a bit as she subtly removed the phone and checked the message. There was only one person who could have replied and she was right.
Mount Everest?
For what? She slightly shook her head, replied in affirmative, and was about to put the phone back in her pocket when she heard a pin drop silence in the chamber. Looking up, she saw that everyone was looking at her, with most of them having disapproving gazes and glares on their faces.
Well, two could play this game, "Sorry. Important National Security Stuff. Continue."
Resuming her bored, indifferent pose, she gestured at them to continue this pointless hearing, a total waste of time.
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