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 #9
Red Hearth [January 15, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
Phew, that was close. He cast a cleaning spell on himself, casting away all the soot and stuff, before he looked at the walls of the portal room. A room created specifically for people to portal into, since this was the only place that didn't have the anti spatial manipulation wards he had woven into the entire structure of his home.
As expected, the walls in front of him slid open, revealing giant glowing balls of red and purple, ready to blast away any intruder that dared to invade his home. The glowing balls were pretty much forbidden spells, made from the essence of a mass genocide of demons, instilled with multiple spells, so as to make a ball of pure destruction that, if failing in destroying the target, would poison and curse them with high level spells, pretty much guaranteeing the death of anyone below the level of Wong.
Sighing as the walls slid back down after confirming, on a Quantum level, that it was Colin Baxter and not a clone, or someone possessing his real body, or even a time travelling version of himself. He really had gone overboard with the security of this place but hey, if the Ancient One was offering a wardstone that had pretty much unlimited energy and would last for years, who was he to decline overkill protection for what was his home in this reality?
After all, it is not paranoia if they really are out to get you. He learned that from watching Moody and Fury, both one eyed paranoid sons of bitches that always survived.
Choosing not to switch into his clean clothes, he trudged towards the small freshening up station he had built just outside the portal room. As he neared the door of the portal room, multiple vigils, which were runes from different languages, flashed before the door opened and then the same thing happened when it closed, essentially, opening and closing a pocket dimension that had been anchored to the Wardstone buried deep beneath the Red Hearth, right below the chambers of Jin'Ya, the de facto protector of his home, and when the time comes, Jin'Ya will be the most fearsome protector in the Nine Realms.
The dude was a monster, and it was only a matter of time before he got to witness the old fuck in all of his glory. Sighing in relief as hot water began cascading down his body, he thought of what would happen should someone succeed in getting past the protections in the portal room.
He giggled a bit at the possibility, even though it was small, so much so that he was tempted to invite some Demon Prince through the portal room, only to watch Jin'Ya wreak havoc on the poor demon.
Oh, well. That was going to be impossible since Jin'Ya was a master of psionic manipulation and would read the mind of the demon instantly and then, it would not be fun for Colin Baxter anymore.
"Decontamination procedure, complete." The computer said out loud as his entire body was bathed in high concentration UV, just to get rid of any germs he might have brought from Earth and considering that he was just swimming in the Earth's oceans which were increasingly being treated as Earth's common sewers, he might just have some new bacteria, viruses or germs on him.
Wincing in discomfort as the CHI flowing through his body rushed to the injured spots and began healing the burns, stretching his skin in the most uncomfortable ways, he waited a few seconds before heading out of the UV chamber. The UV chamber, while decontaminating him, was also moving, so he stepped out into the living room, a shared space between him and Jin'Ya, who was nowhere to be seen.
That was odd.
He expanded his senses and connected to the ward scheme of Red Hearth, and let out a creepy smirk as he realised where Jin'Ya was and what he was probably doing.
"Hehehe," He laughed as he began tiptoeing back to the elevator, making sure to mask his energy signature while doing so. Wouldn't want to tip off old man Jin'Ya, who still couldn't let go of his romance even after being a gazillion years old.
The elevator tinged as he reached the conference room, an area laid down with the most advanced communication arrays of magical, psionic, and technological connections, allowing for communication almost anywhere. They were in the process of setting up another room, where they would use the Warp Gates to communicate throughout the wider space, after they had pilfered any spaceship that was unfortunate enough to get stuck in their net.
So far, none had taken the bait and it was unwise to disturb Titan, once home of Thanos lest they invite the calamity far before than scheduled.
Sure, he gave the Ancient One and all the people he could rally, about a 50% chance of defeating Thanos without the Stones, especially since they would have two on their sides, but the chances of decimating Thanos' forces while injuring the Titan to such an extent that even fighting a Kylosian (Drax's species) would be all but a death sentence for him. But still, it was much better to avoid that possibility altogether.
Now, he was headed to the psionic wing of the conference room, the one used predominantly by Jin'Ya, mainly because he was the only one skilled enough to actually operate it since it was a completely manual machine with no machine interference whatsoever.
According to the Ancient One, this served as yet another line of defense in their communications network because the only ones capable of operating their network were dragons who had spent who knows how many years in the Astral Realm, soaking up psionic energy and becoming masters at manipulating it.
"Hehe…" He giggled as he came closer to the room that Jin'Ya was currently using and it was becoming increasingly harder to control his laughter, and therefore, his energy suppression because this was it, this was the moment he was going to remind Jin'Ya for the rest of his humane life, since Jin'Ya, the old fuck was immortal and was not going to bite the dust anytime soon.
Just as his hand touched the door knob, a dark aura assaulted his being as he was flung back from his body–No, his Astral Form was flung back out of his body, with his body falling slack in slow motion.
He looked down and saw the Door that continued to pump CHI throughout his body right above his chest. Huh, so they carried over in Astral Form as well, something that he had not dared experiment with because who knew what could happen with the doors he had attached to his very soul. He didn't want to risk becoming a vegetable and so, that part of his training was omitted as well.
You know, he could actually understand the position of all the other Masters who were so opposed to him actually getting the title of Master because firstly, his portals were abysmal, and secondly, he didn't even know how to draw out his Astral Form, hence the huge back and forth about getting a new spell from him peer reviewed and certified to officially confer him the title of Master.
Ignoring that for a moment, he pointed above the conference room and screamed hysterically, "What the fuck is that?!!!"
Right above the conference room, at last in the Astral Realm, there was a giant void, that had far too many eyes and tongues than he was comfortable with, and the most gross thing of all, there was a tongue, coming from inside the room and heading into the void.
"Ewww!" He screamed as he tried to float back and realised that he couldn't do that. In that moment of bumbling panic, he called upon his CHI and flooded his soul with it, trying to break free of the hold, searing away the translucent waves around him.
He smiled as it seemed to be doing something but apparently, that was not how it worked because the next moment, he blacked out.
...
…..
"Ugh! What hit me?" he groaned as he flopped off the chair he was sitting on. With Bleary eyes, he looked up and saw the floating form of Jin'ya looking down at him, and in a mighty pissed way too!
"You! What the fuck is wrong with you? Why would you become a beacon of CHI in the fucking Astral Realm? Do you have a death wish?!" Jin'Ya screamed at him as the entire room shook from his anger.
Even in the dazed state that he was in, a chill ran down his spine as he realised what he had done.
"Oh god," He muttered as he looked around and checked his body and then closed his eyes, going straight for his mind to check if—
Bonk!
"Don't bother. Your soul is whole. You were lucky I was here, you idiot!" Jin'Ya bonked him psionically and told him.
He sighed in extreme relief. How could he have forgotten that the Astral Realm was filled with ancient soul sucking monsters who would love nothing more than to have a life filled, unlimited CHI providing soul such as himself?
His shoulders sagged as he lay down on the floor, thinking of what his stupid curiosity and a little prank could have led to. He should have just left Jin'Ya alone but he was just fresh off from a defeat and wanted something to stave off his boredom long enough for him to regain the motivation required to find the two remaining puzzles of the data.
Then, his eyes snapped open as he sat upright. He pointed at Jin'Ya, "Hey! It was your fault at first! Why did you push me out of my body? You knew that it was a danger, the Ancient One said so. How could you put me in such a position? Do you have any idea how scared I was when I saw the whole and the tongues and the–Oh god, the eyes!"
He all but screamed at the being older than civilization itself as he got off from the high of being saved.
Jin'Ya looked increasingly embarrassed before, with a hmph, he disappeared from the spot.
"Oh yeah! That's real mature of you! As expected of an old fuck. Run from your mistakes, why don't you!" He shouted with magic enhancing his voice, making sure that his voice reached the entire Red hearth, top to bottom.
Thank god, the floors where he planned to build habitats for animals and other rare species were not yet populated. Otherwise, those poor creatures would have been subjected to his magic enhanced rant as well.
Word Count - 1850
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