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 #18
Earth Bachelor Pad, Seattle [January 18, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
"Haaa," Sighing, he looked up at the ceiling from his bed as he thought of the encounter with Shuri. As far as he was aware, there were no bugs on his person and he did not see the signature Kimoyo beads on her, but he could never be too cautious. It was the evening now, he had lunch at the Cafeteria itself. It was bland but it was meat and it was properly cooked or boiled, he could never tell when it came to that particular lunch hall.
The matter with Wakanda was getting more and more complicated. Shuri being here meant that Wakanda meant business. They were incredibly protective of their princess, someone who was, in his opinion, so much more valuable than a mere Black Panther. In T'Challa's generation alone, they had two different Black Panther candidates while they had none who could even hope to reach the same echelon as Shuri when it came to science.
He had just about 4 days till his flight. Yeah, he met the rep and got all the details for his internship. The internship was for 10 weeks and housing was going to be top-notch. The rep showed him some examples of the entire building that Stark Industries owned and operated purely to house student interns or probationary employees or employees who needed to work at their HQ for a short period of time before they were whisked back to their home locations. It was great for temporary housing so that was sorted.
All he had to do was figure out what he could do in LA, with his alternate identities. IT had been a while since he went out as the Orange Ninja and did something else other than commit treason, and many other espionage charges, on SHIELD. He had been meaning to do something more adventurous for the week he supposedly had off but then, this Wakanda thing just fell into his lap and now, he could not move without alerting the damned Wakandans.
"Hello, Colin. I have arrived."
He stilled for a moment before relaxing as he heard Jin'Ya's voice in his brain, meaning that the dragon was somewhere in the same state as him.
"Where?"
"In the city itself. I have been checking out the portal drop locations and I have to say, the enchantments are really shitty. I should be done correcting them soon. I will contact you in an hour or so."
He barely resisted the urge to yell at the stupid dragon as the mental link was cut off from the other side. That was not what he was here for, and he knew that the enchantments were not really top notch because he didn't need them to be top notch. He had no idea how long he was even going to stay in Uni because lately, it had been feeling like a chore, with Old Man Wong's insistence being the only thing that kept him from dropping out.
Plus, he couldn't exactly afford a Master on Jin'Ya's level when it came to enchantment. It worked so well so why even touch it?
He groaned as he rolled over and face planted into the bed, thinking of his next moves. The Hulk alert had yet to arrive so that was out for now but once he reached the Red Hearth, he should check in on those documents once more. Tony was going to get kidnapped in about a week's time and surprisingly, there has been no movement from his side since the hack.
He didn't know if he had it in him to let Tony suffer, just for the character development. Realistically, there was not much he could do as Colin Baxter but as someone who hoped to follow the Ninja Jesus in his Nin-Nin ways, he could do much, from outright stopping the demonstration from happening or just saving Tony before that missile went off and he was carted off to Yisen who would end up staving off Tony's death temporarily.
That might work, except it might end up depriving Earth of its, almost, greatest hero, something that didn't sit right with him. Tony needed that time in the cave to understand that his weapons were being used for stuff that would not sit right with him, that being a weapons company inherently meant that his weapons would be sold to the good guys as well as the bad guys.
A little brush with death was all that was needed for him to gain another perspective. All of these things were true, yes, but it was not his decision to make. If he could actually go and rescue Tony from experiencing all that horrible stuff, he felt like he had the moral responsibility to save him but then again, he also had to think of the future, especially the future since he knew what was coming.
He sighed and opened his eyes, with steely determination in them. The incident with Shuri told him that he couldn't completely rely on his meta knowledge. He also knew that Tony was getting kidnapped but if his knowledge was not reliable in this timeline, Tony might just die in that cave, never getting the chance to become Iron Man.
That was….unacceptable.
Fetching his phone from the table, he opened the web and searched for Tony Stark, and opened the first link which actually had the itinerary for his visit to a war torn country. Damn, talk about a security nightmare. It was written that Tony had a military presentation on the 23rd of Jan, about 5 days from now.
He had to report to Stark Industries on the 23rd as well. Welp, it's a good thing he had that indefinite deal he signed with Jin'Ya that would allow him to use the Ancient Dragon as a doppelganger.
Locking the phone and throwing it on the dresser, he put his hands behind his head and looked at the starry ceiling, the one he's made using his kinetic lasers, as both practice in modulating the output and also to test his aiming as well as art skills. It was…crooked.
"Huh," he said to himself as he never really saw that before but now that he knew it, he couldn't unsee it.
He will be tailing Tony, from the Mirror Dimension, or rather, Jin'Ya might, depending on who wants to tackle the task of Internship orientation. They would only act if Tony's life was in actual danger, not from the shrapnel or from the disastrous fall in his suit but an actual credible threat to his life.
That should work, as a compromise on both sides. Making sure that Tony is safe and sound but a little roughed up by the terrorists so he finally realises what he has been doing all his life.
Shaking his head, he got up and began changing. Jin'Ya should be here soon and once they swapped places, he had a lot of work to get done on the Red Hearth. He turned to the door as he heard footsteps coming and what do you know, it was Shuri's voice and she had probably just rung his doorbell.
Putting the T-shirt back on, he opened the door, to find Shuri with her hand raised, about to knock for some reason. She took one look at his face and then said.
"Hey! You are Colin, from the University, right?"
He extended his hand, "Yup, that's me, and you are Shuri. Did you just move in?"
She shook his hand, "Yes, I just did, yesterday actually. Can't believe that we live next to each other. What a coincidence!" She said as she invited herself in, walking in his living room like she owned the place.
Yes, what a coincidence, he thought to himself as he plastered a smile on his face while keeping the door open. Who knows what those trigger happy spy bastards might do with their energy weapons if they thought their Princess was in any danger?
His senses might not work because Vibranium was known to absorb most of the energy incident on it, so no noise as they activated their guns and freaking lasered him. He did not want to test his durability against energy weaponry, not yet anyway.
"Can I get you anything to drink?" He asked as he headed into the kitchen.
"Just water."
He nodded and focused on his senses, careful not to funnel too much CHI into his body as his body begins to glow then.
"Here you go. So, what brings you to Seattle? Are you from around here?" He asked as they both sat down, trying to maintain conversation, since he was not supposed to know if she was from here or from the most powerful nation on the planet, dry land that is. Atlantis was a solid contender for the top spot, owing to their vastly more powerful protector and also because of the sheer amount of land they would rule if their claim over all seas was legitimate.
"As you might know, the University has just begun a new venture and I was interested in that. I also needed to go somewhere for college so I just chose this one because it seemed interesting to research cutting edge Material Science." She said with a smile, trying to seem casual but he noted the way her eyes moved over every single thing on display and stayed a bit too long on his computer.
He maintained his smile while internally, it confirmed something for him.
Wakanda has the same suspicion about me being the hacker.
It makes sense, Shuri would definitely be curious about the one who broke through their firewalls within 4 hours. He had no idea they already had Shuri on the helm, so he tried to breach their systems, only to realise that they kept everything air gapped and the only thing he had breached was a media server that was responsible for cataloging a lot of the outside entertainment base.
It had mind boggling amounts of storage and memory though it was ultimately useless since it did not have even a lick of data on Wakandans.
That must have stoked their curiosity in him and now, he had a hyper intelligent, like smarter than Tony, Princess of Wakanda living right next door, looking curiously at him.
God help me.
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