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 #57
LA[February 11, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
Whistling a jolly tone, he walked on the sidewalk, with a general distance of the nearest Starbucks in mind. He had already memorised the correct route for the overpriced coffee shop including all its surrounding areas, allowing him to take as many detours as he wanted without truly getting lost.
Ever so often, his eyes trailed over the car that had been following him ever since he left the Residency. Yes, that is what Stark Industries calls what is basically the entire compound that they owned, which had housing for small time contractors or interns to like C-staff executives to stay in. It was quite large but given that they had their HQ in the same city, it kinda made sense to have something permanent installed so they were not reliant on hotels and the uncertainty that came with that, even with five star hotels.
He knew they were ordered to stay out of sight but man were these guys not the perfect fit for this job. To be fair, they thought they were tailing an ordinary if slightly genius teenager, not him. Still, not using different cars, using different routes, creating different profiles, and variations for every single interaction was a giant mistake, something that could not be excused if these guys were ex law enforcement, something that most if not all Multinational Corporations looked for their security personnel.
Sighing, he turned sharply once more, doing a complete U-turn and heading straight at the two guys in polo shirts tailing him, with visible white comms on their ears, not even consumer models, straight up professional models on people who looked like they lived and breathed Gym and also had comms on them that were only seen in the movies.
Smirking at the slightly panicking agents, he turned to the right, and hailed a bus, knowing that it led to the same block where the local Starbucks was, courtesy of his super hearing. While it was fun getting these people to run circles all around him and the city, it was starting to get hot and he had a lot of work to do, in terms of monitoring his finances, both legal and not so legal.
Getting himself a ticket, he thought of the spectacular week that was lying ahead of him, something he was actually looking forward to. First off, he was getting himself off the trainwreck that was the current cohort of internships, and then, he was going to prepare for reverse shock on Shuri, by showing her Ta-Lo.
Speaking of Ta-Lo, he hadn't heard back from the chief, despite the letter stating that an urgent response would be appreciated. That damned old geezer had the gall to fleece him with that CHI session, he was going to get this session, proprietary be damned. Ta-Lo benefited a lot from him and if the chief disagreed with him, well then, Ta-Lo's citizenry might find itself suffering from a trade embargo on very essential items.
With a slight jerk, the bus came to a slight halt as he got up from his seat to get off. People bumped into him as he stepped off and was greeted with a very bustling small marketplace. After ordering his usual overly complex sugary water, he sat down and opened his laptop. The second he opened the lid and was about to press the power button, a full body shudder ran through his body, his entire body freezing as someone, no, something just slammed into his senses..
He flinched as his mystical senses were bombarded by something or someone with reality bending levels of presence just hit his senses, and knowing how weak his pure mystical senses were, he knew that he was in the presence of a walking calamity.
His senses expanded as the sound of his heart beating uncomfortably loudly echoed in his mind. Even so, he pushed past that and tried to get some reading even as his entire being was telling him that he needed to hightail it out of this place, this city, this state even, and retreat to the nearest Sanctum so he could get either the Ancient One's help or Jin'Ya's or maybe both–
"Fancy meeting you here." His entire body trembled all at once, cold sweat running down his forehead as he looked up from his coffee and saw her.
The Red Matron, the Mistress of the Blood Veil.
In that exact moment, "JIN'YAAA!" All he could do was scream bloody murder in his mind, knowing that he was completely out of his depth here. W-What was she doing here?
___xx___
–?--
She smirked as she saw the brat freeze upon his gaze falling on her majestic form. She was using the veil to hide most of her beauty but the little Life Giver here was strong enough to look past the Veil. Not strong enough to ignore the effects though.
With a flex of her will, the Veil's effects parted around the brat as she sat down and watched with slowly rising amusement as the brat mechanically looked at her, as she sat there, leaned back, a sugary drink in her hand, and dressed for the occasion as well.
The people of this era sure had a liberal view regarding clothing, and skin showing. In her time, this little dress that she was wearing would have had the Church hunting her down and burning down entire villages if she so much as touched the area around them.
So, she deliberately stretched and smiled as the brat's gaze wandered despite the terror present in his eyes.
"W-What are you doing here? I thought the treaty prohibited you–" The brat stammered, slowly gaining steam as he tried to cite the pesky little agreement she had to sign with the Bald headed Demon years ago, when one of her more adventurous vampires had gone on a rampage that resulted in multiple deaths of the Sorcery Cult.
"Oh, this little thing?" She snapped her finger, creating a copy of the treaty in front of them. The scroll then slowly unfurled and floated down to land on the table, withering away soon after. "Poof! The treaty, it's just words, only worth the power of the signatories on it. More importantly, you humans have your way with words but sometimes, you forget that we were the original tricksters."
The brat turned even paler at her words, "B-but all these years, no one could–"
She threw her head back and laughed, "Oh, yeah. No one could approach you because your dear Ancient One threatened to disintegrate anyone who would. I still remember the screams of that Hell Demon whose soul arrived in Hell half on fire, something that was supposed to be impossible because Hellfire was supposed to help them, not hurt them."
"But, my dear little Life Giver," She leaned forward, letting her magic loose a bit as her eyes started gaining the red glow she personally designed for optimal intimidation, "Treaties and contracts, they can be bypassed, circumvented, bent if some signatories of the party wish so."
"Ah, there he comes–" She tilted her head to look straight up, sensing the intrusion of a being on her level intruding on her domain, "--your little Guardian Angel."
"Awww, how cute! Are you happy he is here now? Yes! You are!"
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