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 #19
Earth Bachelor Pad, Seattle [January 18, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
The more he talked to Shuri, the more he was certain that they were onto him. Well, they thought they were onto him because he would not slip up, not while he had Jin'Ya on his side. Speaking of the ancient Dragon, what was taking so long?
It had been almost an hour and he was getting tired of hosting Shuri. No matter how many times he tried to steer the conversation towards her origin, she put it right back on the track of Colin Baxter and what he did. What his hobbies were, what he did in his spare time, his family, and more.
He smirked internally as they tried to gather information on Old Man Wong. He had gone to pretty great lengths to make sure that what little information was out there on him, was very hard to access.
He had to have some digital footprint or else it would draw even more suspicion. He had to have a social security number, a passport, some investments, banking transactions, a small loan, a driver's license, and more. Any of these things would not reveal a single significant thing about him but he had to have them, just so he could reduce suspicion.
Besides, if these fools tried something on Old Man Wong, they would be in for a pretty rude surprise, and by some miracle, if they put even a scratch on Wong, well, the forcefield around their city would keep outsiders out but once he was in, the same forcefield would keep them inside, with him.
Getting tired of this and using the excuse of it getting dark outside, he slapped his knees and stood up, "Well, it's getting dark. I still have to make dinner so, I'll–"
"You should come over!"
He choked on his words as he looked at the now far too cheerfully smiling Shuri.
"What?"
"Yeah, you should come over. It'll be great, like a housewarming party. Ooh, I better go, I'll call you when dinner's ready?" She thrust her phone in his direction and he leaned away from it as if it was a live demon Naga, a half-snake half-man demon.
In the end, he couldn't even refuse as he inputted his number and watched her leave his apartment.
"Bye!"
He smiled half heartedly as he waved goodbye before slamming the door shut, leaning against it, and sliding down in resignation.
Why did I just agree to that? He questioned himself as he slammed his head back on the door, gently since he didn't want to put a hole in the door and put his head out of it. That would be one awkward conversation.
As far as he could sense, he didn't sense any advanced electronics or the signature all purpose Kimoyo Beads that she could use to scan everything in sight but one could never be too paranoid so he resolved to maintain steady CHI output consistent with normal humans for all the time he would be in that apartment.
He felt tense, as if he was walking into a trap of some sort.
Yeah right. As if the Princess of Wakanda would go somewhere else to study Material sciences. He scoffed internally. T'Chaka would have built her whatever size lab she wanted if she had just asked.
"Well, this is interesting." He nearly jumped out of his skin as Jin'Ya's voice revered all around him, not through the mental link.
He looked around and hissed into his mind, "What are you doing?"
"Oh, don't worry, I am just using the airwaves to speak to you. Everything is isolated, not even someone standing right next to you would hear me speak." Such was the confidence that came from honing your telekinetic prowess for literal millennia.
He sighed in relief as he stood up to boil some eggs. He was sure that whatever dinner that was awaiting him in that den would not complete his daily protein intake, so eggs it was. Protein came first.
"Just…come here soon."
"You got it."
He did not look forward to whatever mac and cheese meal she could make, he thought as he collapsed on the sofa, doom scrolling on his phone as the 10 eggs were set to boil with an automatic timer that would kick in and stop the flame.
He then paused in his scrolling, and then mentally kicked himself for having any preconceived notions about Shuri, based on his meta knowledge. This was an entirely different person he was dealing with, someone who was born in a different era, grew up with a set of parents that might have had a completely different set of personalities, alongside an older brother whose personality might have changed completely after having a younger sister that was much closer to his age.
If he remembered correctly, in the MCU, Shuri was like 20 years younger than T'Challa, something absurd like that.
Perking up, he opened the university website, logged in using his student ID, and began looking for course lists. It was public data, to see the names of the students enrolled in different courses.
The Material Sciences course had a lot of enrollments, probably because of the promised shiny new investments in any and every research project. Most of these students were probably there to make money and that was fine, everyone had to eat but in his opinion, if one wanted to advance their own field so much that people began throwing money at them, one had to be passionate about the subject, or willing to work like a donkey and have the corresponding talent.
Filtering the list alphabetically, he scrolled down and finally found the name. Shuri Udaku, huh, so that's their surname, or more probably, that was the designated fake surname Wakanda used everywhere on the planet.
So, she was speaking the truth. She was enrolled in the program or at least her name was on the list. She could have just as easily hacked the whole thing so who knows? Dropping the phone on the coffee table, he leaned back and rubbed his eyes as he thought of how he could get out of this predicament.
Yes, he only had four days before he was whisked off to LA but something told him that even that wouldn't be enough plus, he had stuff, important stuff that needed to be taken care of before his internship. Jin'Ya could act as his substitute in many matters but not at Ta-Lo, the old dragon might just provoke the poor old Water Dragon in Ta-Lo. That dragon did not have a name or rather, no one knew it.
When asked, Jin'Ya told him that all Dragons guarded their true names zealously as it could be used to cause immense harm to not just the Dragons themselves but to their entire bloodlines. With draconic birth rates being what they were, none of the Dragons wanted the slightest chance of harm to come to their younglings.
If a Dragon told someone their true name, it meant that the Dragon trusted the person with not just the Dragon's wellbeing but also with its future children. That level of trust was rare and it was probably also the reason why the Water Dragon was just called "guardian patron" by the locals.
____xx___
Meanwhile, Stark Industries HQ, LA.
–Tony Stark–
"Hey! Look who's here! My shining star!" He smiled as he hugged Obi, his father in all but name. Growing up, he remembered seeing Obi a lot more than his own father. His father trusted the man and so did he, as most of the operations in the company were overseen by the man himself.
"Hey Obi, how's it going?" He sat down in Obi's cabin, which was surprisingly simple. He expected a lot more opulence.
"Great, great. All thanks to you, my once in a century genius. With our new Jericho missiles, well, let's just say that you are about to make a lot of people even richer. The stock market is going to riot once they see the amount of zeroes on the cheque that the Army will be throwing at us." Obi grinned and slid him a whiskey, neat, just like he liked.
"Yeah, about that.."
Obi's smile left his face as he leaned forward, "What? Is something wrong with the Missiles? Do we need to recall the ones sent forward for the demonstration?"
He waved his hand, "No! No, nothing like that. The missiles should work perfectly fine. It was just that I was looking for the production manifesto and couldn't find any. Do we keep it in physical files or something?" He slightly joked at Obi since everything was mandated to be kept on secured encrypted servers as per Company policy.
The encounter with the hacker left him with some questions, some uncomfortable questions that could be easily answered since he had access to all of Stark Industries' files. Unfortunately, as he later found out, he did not have access to all the files, for some reason.
Hence, his reason for visiting Obi. He needed to check the manifesto and see how many were produced and sold to check for himself if company policies were being followed or not.
"Oh, that? Yeah, we moved to strict physical copies once you informed us of the breach last year. Most sensitive information is kept like that. Unfortunately, I don't have that list on BUT don't worry, I will make sure it is delivered to you before you leave for Afghanistan. You leave in 2 days, right?"
He nodded.
"Don't worry, I will take care of it. It's my mistake anyway, I should have given you a copy in the beginning itself but I was just so busy, you know how it is.."
He waved his hands to calm the man down, "I understand, truly. It is some idle curiosity of mine. We can go over the files once I am back from Afghanistan anyway." He stood up from the chair, ready to leave since he was satisfied with the answers.
"Since you're here, I thought we might just get some dinner, you know, you & I haven't had dinner in years now."
Putting on his coat, he spoke, "What? That can't be right. What about that–"
"I'm not talking about award functions, Tony." The man said in an exasperated tone and he grinned at the man.
"See you around, Obi."
"See you, Tony!"
Tony turned around and missed the flash of hatred on Obi's face, as Tony headed back to his car, ready to relax for the 2 days before he had to endure the scorching weather of Afghanistan.
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A/N -
In some comics, Shuri's surname is Udaku and their rule was known as the Udaku Dynasty of Wakanda.
Something something True Draconic names being precious, something something witchcraft dangerous.
Also, Tony has begun asking the right questions but apparently, forgot to trust the right person.
Poor Tones :(