DoorMan (MCU SI) - #130 : Fate is a bitch....

Disclaimer - I don’t own Marvel or any of its characters. The Mighty Mouse does =and I hope it is not standing behind me with a shotgun cocked and ready to blow my brains out the second I have the audacity to press PUBLI——

DoorMan #130

Kamar Taj [June 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

“Ahh! That hit the spot,” He softly exclaimed, sipping on his mocktail, lounging on a beach of the private island they had booked for the entire week, with Maya and Bruce enjoying the amenities somewhere.

“I must agree. This is far better than the Red Hearth, though it is missing the personal touch.” Jin’Ya said, as he sipped on an alcoholic concentration so dense it would probably kill even Captain America, as his enhanced liver failed to metabolise alcohol that was made more for Royal Asgardians than even Super Soldiers.

“Really?” He cracked an eye open, looking at the pristine waters and the beaches, “I thought you would’ve seen far better sights than this in your life.”

“Well, I did but slurp,” Jin’Ya took a sip before continuing, “You overestimate how much time I spent out of the Astral Realm, especially to relax. Most of my time spent in this universe was spent learning.”

“And what have you learned since knowing me?” He asked Jin’Ya, a grin on his face.

“That even idiots can get phenomenal power.” Jin’Ya snarked as he leaned back into his chair with a smile on his face.

“Say whatever you want, I know you loooovveeeee me!”

All he got in return for that was a faceful of water that he instinctively tried to block with a Dimensionally conjured shield, but the water just curved around it and soaked him completely.

He deadpanned at the now smiling dragon beside him, “Really? You know I could summon more than enough water to create a lake, just to drown you?”

Jin’Ya ignored him as he sipped on his mocktail. Shaking his head, he sighed, summoned a Fire Door, covered himself in a Dimensional Energy cloak, and let the Fire wash over him, protecting the chair obviously.

The thing about Dimensional Energy was that it was infinitely malleable, compared to his Doors. While his doors could not modulate the temperature of the fire being thrown his way, hence the second barrier isolating himself and the Door from the world, the Dimensional Energy shield could control the flow of heat or energy from one place to another.

He sighed in contentment, as heat washed over his body, fire so hot his clothes began to dry themselves, as steam was collected in the shield. He was fine with this level of heat with his body because of all the Chi he had been doping himself with ever since he first unlocked the Chi door, permanently.

Once he felt he was sufficiently dry, he dissipated the shield and the Door before walking towards the resort, the very large resort that had no place being used by only four people. Well, he had to book the whole damn thing for privacy reasons, and also because it would not be good for Bruce’s stress to be in the middle of so many people for his first outing.

Nevertheless, it might be a good idea to call in some people he knew who might enjoy a place like this.

Let’s see: Shuri was out. She had her own tropical utopia to rule over and enjoy.

People from Ta-Lo? Nah, they lived in paradise. Why would they come here? Plus, he was going to meet them with Shang-Chi anyway, so why waste a trip?

Ancient One? Pffft.

Wong? 

Huh. He just realised. He had a depressingly sad number of people he could call on for a free vacation. Usually, people had at least a couple of dozen who would latch onto the first opportunity for free stuff.

Shaking his head, he walked to the reception, who did not even bat an eye at both his stumps being out for display, “I would like to order for lunch, please.”

She blinked at him, professional training on full display, “Sir, lunch hours do not begin for another two hours. I can give you the breakfast menu if you want.”

He shook his head, “No, I don’t think you understand. You might need to get in more food if you have only stocked for the three people who are here. So, let me order the food real quick and then you guys can arrange that in the next two hours.”

“Okay, sir. Sure, here you go,” She looked unsure but handed him the menu all the same. Well, he was going to consume a lot of food today, not to mention Bruce.

Ever since he showed to Bruce the enhanced gym that could take a beating from the Hulk, and also exposed him to the fact that he could strengthen his base form with exercise, without ever Hulking out, Bruce had been on a warpath, to become as strong as possible in his base form.

In his own words, “If I am strong enough to just ignore the threats in my base form, then Hulk has no reason to come out.”

Which, was a little ass backwards logic but hey, whatever floats the boat. He had recorded Bruce spending half of his waking time either in the gym or planning or testing stuff around his growth in the gym, which was nice because it showed Bruce an alternative path to just curing the Hulk, which was just stupid in his opinion.

He was not going to say that to Bruce’s face, though. The man could deadlift multiple tons of weight now, without even turning a shade of green. People who sought to take advantage of Bruce would be in a world of pain once they realised that the man could breathe through prisons without even turning green.

Just thinking about Fury’s Pikachu face when Bruce just waltzed right out of any cuffs on him without any effort made him quietly snicker.

Moving through the menu, he ordered enough food for over 10 people, confirmed with the waitress that yes, they knew there was a good wastage fee, and they were confident they would finish all that food.

Once that was done, he began walking around the property, which was massive, easily capable of housing at least 50 ultra rich people who did not like being around other poor people.

He was sure that he had seen a prostitute section in the folder that had been provided to him when they first came here but other than handing that over to Bruce, who looked very awkward at that, he had not used any of the facilities of this admittedly nice place.

It was void of surveillance. Yes, he’d checked. It was the USP of this place, which partially explained the extra services but also made it perfect for people like Bruce.

No IDs required. All Cash payment. No questions asked transport. They didn’t even bat an eye when he told them he would reach the island on his own, and there was no curiosity in their eyes as to how all three of them reached the island in a ratty boat that looked like it would collapse with a little wave.

His eyes lit up as he found the arcade section of this place, completely empty with no staff or Bruce in sight.

He knew Maya was somewhere in one of the internal freshwater pools, lounging while drinking all the alcohol she could, and Bruce was also somewhere inside, but he didn't know where or what, or rather who he was doing.

___xx___

It was nighttime. He was peacefully sipping on yet another mocktail, the taste of alcohol pushing him away from any cocktails, watching the waves peacefully crash against the beach, lounged in a chair, on the balcony of his hotel room.

It was nice, with a cool breeze hitting his face, with no cameras to see him sipping on a drink using a Dimensional Conjured hand that gave off a faint yellow glow in their surroundings.

A nice relaxed day after months of fast paced and tense events, just perfect.

Of course, it was his life, and as fat would have it, in exchange for getting to live out a second life, he would not get much if any relaxation, as he tensed, the drink dropping from his hands as two hands shot out with Tao Mandalas on top of them and a Kinetic Laser Door appeared in front of him, pointed at the other side of the balcony.

All of this happened within a split second as he felt the telltale signs of someone arriving by spatial manipulation, another quirk he gained after gaining that godforsaken Blue Door, something he still hadn’t mastered yet.

With a pop of shadows that dissipated soon after, the smiling, glowing face of the Red Matron was revealed to him, who just sauntered over to him, ignoring the Door and the Shields, sparing his stumps only a single glance as she sidled up right next to him, “Miss me, LifeGiver?”

He groaned at that. Couldn’t this have come later? Preferably after he had the massage he’d booked for himself tomorrow?

A/N - The Red Matron is a character I introduced earlier in the story, around the 62 chapter mark.