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 #6
Dean's Office, UW (short for University of Washington) [January 14, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
After a very thorough patting down that definitely had his eyebrows raising, which also included him surrendering all his meager belongings, like his laptop, he was finally cleared to enter the Dean's office, which was odd, very odd and the people who frisked him did it all professionally, not that he wouldn't have put them on their asses if they'd tried anything.
He could have used his enhanced senses to figure more stuff out but where was the fun in that? So, he did as they told him to and was finally allowed to enter an adjacent conference room, instead of the Dean's office directly.
Putting his hand on the doorknob, he turned to the security detail and mocked sarcastically, "Can I go now or do you guys need to check my underwear too?"
There was a strangled choking noise right as he entered the conference room, coming face to face with….Tony STARK?!
Composed and ready as he was, even he froze for a split second at the sight of the infamous billionaire, current Merchant of Death, just sitting nonchalantly right next to a very stressed out Dean. Still, as shocking as it was to see him right now, it was not much in the grand scheme of things so he schooled his expression and took the seat in front of Tony Stark.
"Dean Stein. Dr.Stark." Greeting them, he took in both of their expressions. Tony was looking mildly interested right now, instead of just looking dazedly at him while using his mobile phone under the desk, and the Dean, Dean Stein just looked stressed out. Poor Man.
"Ahem, Mr. Baxter, let me introduce you to–"
"The kid knows who I am," Tony said as he interrupted the Dean, finally setting his phone down on the table.
"..Ah, yes, of course he does. Now, Colin, the reason–"
"Let's cut to the case shall we, kid?" He smiled internally at the blatant disrespect to the Dean of a prestigious institution, not to mention who was old enough to be Tony's father. Well, it was not his job to humble Tony, no, it was Life's job, and it would almost certainly happen soon enough.
"Yes, Mr.Stark?" He replied, unphased at the whole charade. There must be a reason why someone of Tony's status had come personally to meet him. It was probably his exploits on the Dark Web that caught the eccentric genius' attention, or rather, Jarvis' attention and the manchild just couldn't contain his curiosity to come to meet the person who was the one person who could build better neural net algorithms than the man himself.
He knew there was no way that a human could crack stuff that fast. It had to be Jarvis but at that moment, he had no idea that Stark had left poor innocent Baby Jarvis exposed to the Dark Web.
"Is this you?" Stark slid the Stark phone to his side, showing a profile he had painstakingly built and kept hidden on the Dark Web, something he built on the side to build a reputation and to chase the thrill of cracking new security stuff, at the beginning of his career.
"That seems to be a profile of someone on one of the many leadership boards on the Dark Web. Am I supposed to know this 'WallBreaker_69' that you speak of?"
Ah, the wonders of crude boy humour that was only funny in a group of degenerate teenagers.
Tony looked straight into his eyes, "Right. So you claim to have no idea who that is?"
He shook his head innocently but he had a hunch that he was about to be proven wrong, and the best way to do that would be to look at his code and for that, they would have to crack his security and that was not for the faint of heart, since it used ridiculously advanced hardware and software to hold a tiny amount of data, something that he could afford with all his money, laundered through various countries and organisations, courtesy of Kamar Taj's vast network of favours who were happy to provide all their services when he asked around.
"I see." Tony said and then as if a switch had been flipped, he beamed and pocketed his phone, "Well, sorry to bother you, young man. I just wanted to meet the smartest cookie that this college has produced in a while. Now, I was supposed to give you the whole shtick about working at Stark Industries but I think you will fight right in with the stuff we have. I'll have someone send you the data packet. You'll come work directly under me. Until then, have fun and stay in school, kid."
He watched, amused as the Dean tried to get some manner of control over the situation. A situation that had been railroaded by Stark as he shook Colin's hand and left the room, acting as if he didn't listen to Dean fawning over him, right up until the door slammed into Dean Stein's face.
He sat back down in his seat as Dein Stein slumped and turned around, to look at him grinning like a loon.
"Oh, come off it, Colin. You'd understand if you were in my position."
He raised his hands in mock surrender, "Hey, I didn't say anything. I am sure you have your reasons for kissing–"
"If you finish that sentence, I am going to make sure that you have to do all your assignments in the classroom itself. Do you want me to do that?"
"Hey! Whoa! Where'd that come from? What did I do? It was all him, you were there!" He defended himself or at least tried to.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. That asshole! You know, if he hadn't just given us a 10 million dollar donation, I would–"
"What? 10 Mil? Damn, that's as if he is a billionaire, with no personal value for money. Shocker!"
Dein looked at him, sighed once more, and sat down in front of him.
"Look, Colin, I don't know what he came here to do and if he was satisfied or not, but the administration has high hopes from you, and even if you do end up taking the corporate route, which I don't think will justify your talents, we will support you in any way we wan. I was told that Mr.Stark wanted to meet you but he just handed…you–"
"What?" He asked a touch defensively. The Dean was pretty chill and due to his many exceptions taken from normal schooling, he knew the Dean on a much deeper level than most of the people in the University, so they could both talk freely. The man was an old geezer with an obsession to bring in more money for the University but he was alright.
Not evil, just a product of his environment and the expectations of the society and his job.
"You really are that WallBreaker character, aren't you?"
"Hmm. I don't know. No way to find out, I guess."
"*Sigh* You will lead me to an early grave one day. Just…keep it separate from your public identity."
"I don't know what you are talking about but I'll think about it."
"That's all I can ask for. Now, I know you had your last exam today. A month long break. Where are you going? Bahamas? Hawaii? Switzerland? India? Thailand?"
"Hey, what do you take me for? I don't have that kind of time, to do a global tour."
"Really? And what about the three month long vacation you took, claiming that you were working on a new product feature for TCP/IP protocol that would revolutionise the damned thing, and where do I find you, according to your Social Media?"
"H-Hey! In my defense, I did revolutionise the damned thing but the overhaul required was deemed too much of an effort so the goal was shifted to the next financial year. It works! You know that, the university received confirmation from them, on my behalf!"
Stein got all in his face, "Yes! I did. I was very proud BUT you could have done that here as well, instead of gallivanting around Italy and Europe, posting pictures of food and the countryside on your page. Do you have any idea how many complaints I had to deal with? Complaining about the special privileges you receive and abuse?"
"Alright, I got it. Won't do it the next time I go on a Europe trip!"
"Out! Get out of my office!" He laughed maniacally as he exited the conference room. He quickly snatched his bag out of the assistant's hands and fled the area, laughing all the way.
Ah, it was all so fun. It was nice watching Dean's blood pressure rise in real time.
____xx___
Colin's Bachelor Pad (Earth)
"Ah! Finally…." Colin grunted as he entered his apartment and dumped his backpack and just collapsed into his heavenly bed, without even taking off his shoes, something of a sin back when he used to live with Old Man Wong and that habit was certainly ingrained into his very soul but right now, he just didn't have the energy for that.
Plus, Old Man Wong was not here right now so who cares?
He turned around to lay down on his back, staring at the ceiling where he had engraved, with his own powers, a cool Dragon when he had a little creative phase because he had been very very excited to get his own place that he could actually host parties at!
Alas, that remained only a dream since he did not have any friends in Uni, at least not yet, what with all his concurrent projects advancing at the same time, requiring his attention at all times.
Sometimes, he wished he could make a clone of himself, just like Naruto could but that was a failed direction to work for. It was much better to develop one's mind more to better sustain multiple trains of thought at the same time. His brain was even better. According to the Ancient One, if he tried hard enough to do something, his brain would literally mold itself to accommodate that activity, courtesy of the CHI flowing through his body.
Today had been quite the day, and he had yet another ship to hit tonight, the second last one before he could complete the set and finally figure out exactly what SHIELD had been planning.
With controlled application of his Doors, he blew the shoes off and snuggled deep into the blanket after cranking up the AC. After all, having a cool outer area while being nice and warm in a blankie was THE best way to sleep.
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