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 #37
Earthen Bachelor Pad, Seattle [January 22, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
Looking all around, he closed his eyes and tried to see if anything was around him but after finding nothing, he shrugged and went back to packing. He had about 4 hours till his flight and in typical fashion, he procrastinated packing until the last moment so here he was, a literal magician who had multiple housekeeping spells under his belt, standing in the middle of a clothing pile, unable to decide what to keep and what to throw back into the closet.
Sighing, he collapsed on the bed. He did not care anymore.
He might just buy some when he lands in LA. It's not like he is short on money anymore. Plus, he did not have much of the business formal that was undoubtedly needed for the internship and buying them in LA would be a much better decision.
With that, yet another round of procrastination done, he slumped back on the bed and closed his eyes, playing an incredibly dangerous game of taking a 15 minute nap before he had to leave for the Airport.
...
...
"Colin Boy,"
His eyes snapped open at the graveness in Jin'Ya's voice, snapping upright in an instant as his gaze flickered all around him, the CHI in his body ready to erupt into violence at any moment in time. "What is it?"
Instead of answering, Jin'Ya projected a feed for him, showing the globe with a single red dot flying through the sky, heading straight for him?
"Whatever it is, it has a mind of its own and has the blessing of Bast. The mental shields on this one are much better than what I saw in the Princess earlier. I can't break them without having Astral contact with them. Be careful."
Jin'Ya's warning clear in his mind, he carefully began packing everything up to head out, just in case whoever this was, ended up targeting him. He would not want his apartment to be trashed because while he kept most of his collector's stuff in the Red Hearth, he still kept some in Seattle to keep up appearances.
—
He had almost cleared out his apartment, cleaned everything up, threw anything that had gone bad in the fridge, ate anything that wasn't too far gone, and was just in the process of putting plastic sheets on the furniture when he perked up, the sound of a window opening and closing made him perk up and look in the direction of the now vacated apartment.
Normally, he would not keep his senses peeled so far because, after a certain point in time, the noise became too much, especially when he wanted to relax in his apartment. But since he was already warned by his personal early attack alarm system, Jin'Ya, he kept his senses at the maximum possible setting without cycling enough CHI to light up his apartment, and voila!
The apartment next door, used by Shuri, was opened by someone. The weird thing was that he heard the windows and the doors opening and closing but no footsteps, no breathing, nothing. As if a Ghost was…
His eyes widened in alarm as he immediately closed down the blinds and cycled his CHI, preparing for an attack.
GHOST!
SHIELD's operative which was also infiltrated by HYDRA. She could phase through material and might just be able to kill him, even with his CHI.
"Shit!" He muttered as he mentally called on Jin'Ya, who told him that he was ready with a portal right above Seattle.
"Oh, wait, Colin!"
"What?!" He snapped, the tension of both, having his one real identity exposed and his life being in threat from a very dangerous yet somewhat innocent agent stressing him out.
"That is not the Ghost. It is Shuri."
He relaxed on the spot, CHI disappearing from his system as the molten orange glow on his body began dying down. "Really?"
"Yes, I was unable to sense it when she was up in the air but now that she is much closer, I can see that she is in some sort of nanite suit, wow, that was advanced stuff for you humans, and is cleaning the apartment."
What? His face morphed in confusion. Why would…
He shook his head as he began packing and finishing up the rest of his tasks. He had no time for this and whatever it was, it could wait until after he was done with his internship. This was going to be his first foray into the corporate world and he could not wait for the industry to chew him and spit him out, just so he could create his own and spit back on them.
Wow, Colin, what a marvelous strategy!
He mimicked gracefully accepting an award and waving at the countless people who were giving him a standing ovation because of his pretend humility in saving the planet, not by his powers but by his acts as a businessman.
He shook his head. Enough shenanigans.
With a wave of his hand, the enchantments on his main computer are dispelled as he had already taken the SSD out of it, and put it in his laptop, which already had the necessary enchantments to piggyback off of the giant planetary shield that Kamar Taj maintained to access the network server in Kamar Taj. It would be slow but it was much better than nothing.
If anything else happened, Jin'Ya was there, with his interplanetary psionic range.
Taking one last look at the now properly cleaned and covered apartment, he switched off the lights, took the suitcases out of the apartment, and left the building, conscious of the gaze that was on him all the way until he left the block.
He shook his head. Women..
___xx___
Afghanistan [Same Time]
–Tony Stark–
He stayed in the most luxurious Military accommodation in Afghanistan, which was not much beyond simple bedding and a closed cramped room, thankfully, with its own bathroom. It was small mercies that he was a billionaire weapons dealer and not a soldier. He couldn't even imagine how the soldiers lived.
He could have stayed in a much more spacious and luxurious setting in another base but that was 6 hours away from the demonstration site and he did not want the hassle as well as the security risks that came with extra stopping points.
He was in enough danger as is.
For some reason, the thought of the 'Unnamed' hacker came to mind. To be mindful of his weapons and continue tracking them. He had been so carefree and caught up in his own world that he didn't even know that Stark Industries had such a policy.
To track every single piece of ordinance they sold to any client on the planet. With the US military's budget being what it is, most of their stuff went to Uncle Sam anyway so the policy was followed in a manner of speaking but the more he looked, the more discrepancies he found.
First off, the fact that it took Obi about a week to just get him access to the list was odd enough but the entries in the list were even more confusing. According to the entries, they were only manufacturing and selling about 70% of their production capabilities. He knew, for a fact, that Stark Industries had to pay penalties multiple times because they were behind on schedule on multiple pieces of weaponry that he now found out were not even running at full capacity.
The fact that they were running at full tilt and the supply was just being diverted elsewhere never even crossed his mind as he lay down on the relatively comfortable bed, thinking of where his life was going and how a single conversation with a globally renowned Cyber Criminal had forced him to take a closer look at his company, his legacy.
"Tony? Tony?" He got up and opened the door as Rhodey was knocking on it.
"Rhodes! How you doing, my man?"
For now, he wanted to get this demonstration out of the way, secure billions more, and then go back to take a deeper dive into what Stark Industries was doing behind his back. He could not skirt responsibility anymore.
....
....
Unfortunately, Tony was too late as forces were already moving in the shadows to take care of the Billionaire mogul before he could disturb the status quo too much.
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