DoorMan (MCU SI) - #125

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 #125

Red Hearth [June 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

He was hovering around a mountain range, that did not seem to be anything special. The only reason he was even here was because Jin’Ya was certain that the Ten Rings were here, or at least they were here recently. Something about the Ten Rings seemed to be messing with Jin’Ya and his psychic perception. He suggested a possible extra dimensional draconic origin for the Ten Rings, which did not seem far fetched. Especially since they were made of ancient Draconic aliens in the comics.

Who knows what origin they used for the movies?

As it turned out, searching for the Ten Rings, especially since Wenwu was not making any overt moves, was kinda hard, especially since his search radius was countries wide, instead of being something reasonable, forcing him to turn to Jin’Ya for help.

If his memory was to be trusted, right now, Wenwu must be in the process of getting his forces in order and also training his son with a brutal training regimen, neglecting his daughter for the same training because, surprise, surprise! 

The ancient warlord was also a patriarchal maniac.

Who could have guessed?

He took a deep breath, realising that he was stalling. He knew exactly why he was stalling. He had no problem facing down Wenwu, he had faced down worse and more powerful men than him without any issue. Hell, he had even killed few like him. The problem was the aftermath. The children.

Shang-Chi might have been a badass in the movies or in the comics but right now? He was just a kid who had lost his mother, and in ways that counted? His father as well. And if Wenwu turned out to be just as hostile as he expected him to be, well, then Shang-chi would lose what was left of his father as well, becoming a true orphan.

Further risking Shang-chi turning to the wrong side, which would be disastrous in his opinion, because the boy was born for this. He almost certainly had the capabilities to become the Village Chief.

“Why don’t you just hand him over to the Geezer in Ta-Lo? That way, he gets a reason to live and you have done all you could have reasonably done to put that boy on the right path.”

He blinked. Multiple Times. 

“You’re a genius!” He exclaimed through their mental link and received the mental and draconic equivalent of a hmph before the link shut off from Jin’Ya’s side. He shrugged at that, before focusing on the range of mountains beneath him. He was high up in the air but even from this distance, he could tell there was nothing on that mountain, save for rocks. Not even a single goat or any other animal was visible from up here.

Relieved of his moral conundrum, he floated down, still under the effects of his stealth spell, keeping his senses peeled to the max, hoping to find whatever it was that Jin’Ya had managed to ferret out of this place. 

Jin’Ya was beyond him when it came to sensing range but at least, his sensitivity to eldritch energy should come in handy here. With that in mind, he floated—

He froze abruptly, halting his descent as he felt it, finally, right at the edge of his awareness. A shield or sorts, but unlike that of Wakanda, this one felt magical in nature. Also, it did not have much in the way of protection. He could feel that him crossing through that barrier would have zero effect on him.

It was just illusory in nature? 

In a way, it made sense. Wenwu was a thousand year old monster who had been a King, conqueror, among many other things, predominantly operating in and out of Asia, which meant he must have got his hands on a ton of magical artifacts. Kamar Taj’s official policy was to recover those artifacts from civilian hands but Wenwu was far from a mere civilian, and was probably capable of using the relics or artifacts with the Ten Rings in some way.

Plus, the man must be highly knowledgeable. He must be, otherwise what use would that high lifespan be?

Some sort of relic that shielded a place from observation then.

He smirked at that. Neat. It would be a damn shame if someone happened to liberate this place and got their hands on a real relic, something that had been held back from him for who knows what reason. Even Wong didn’t know why, stating that the Ancient One was the one who decided it and she would grant him permission when it was time?

What else was left for him to become worthy of getting a relic for himself? People would laugh at him if he told them he was the second strongest being in all of Kamar Taj and still did not have his own relic.

Damn, talk about liberating other people’s treasure. 

His American was spilling out.

Shaking his head, he got his game face on, and flew through the barrier. Then, he waited. For minutes. Nothing happened and nothing changed in his view, so he continued descending. He knew something was here because he did feel those barriers. It was just a matter of time before he–

He stopped, once more, immediately, as his eyes fell upon a facility. It was small now but the sections he could see that were being built would mean that Wenwu was building something that would eventually encompass the entire mountain.

“Housing an entire army,” He whispered, as the ant-like figures, from his vision, moved, in perfect sync.

Training.

It was incomplete but even now, it had vast compounds, built on the side of the mountain, a giant lake at the top, with water flowing down towards the other compounds. It had been only a year since Ying Li died and yet, Wenwu had done all of this?

“Do the Ten Rings help in construction as well?” He whispered to himself, before chuckling and flying down, cloaked in his stealth spell. Better to get the lay of the land before striking, he thought to himself.

Also, if he could just knock out his kids and secure them before any conversation and more importantly, a fight broke out between them, it would be the best. 

Still cloaked in stealth, he began from the top, from the Giant Lake, in the middle of this desert, feeding water to everyone on this giant mountain compound. No way this lake was natural. Another power of the Ten Rings then?

Something to do with either Water manipulation? Weather manipulation? Matter Manipulation?

All abilities capable of extreme harm in the wrong hands. Then again, if Wenwu really had all these abilities from the start, he would not have lost to Ying Li and more importantly, Earth would have been a single empire in his name, or at least the strongest nation would have been made in his image.

Maybe Kamar Taj got involved and shot him down? Or prevented him from establishing his own country?

He noted the dozens of people doing their combat training, essentially, beating each other with sticks with force that ought to have hurt, as he floated down the mountain. He noted the water to be clear, and the air here was cold as well, likely because of that large lake. 

Still, he could not discount another relic capable of making small changes to the weather on a micro scale. It would explain the water and the cold air, along with the vastly lowered UV index of this place. Say what you will about Wenwu, the guy knew how to create a nice atmosphere for his people to undergo brutal training.

Speaking of Wenwu, where was–

He leaned to the side, as two rings just whizzed past where his shoulder was. He looked to the side to see Wenwu standing with his fist stretched in his direction, looking in his general direction. 

The rings then whizzed right back, aiming at him. Not wanting to antagonize him right now, he just leaned out of the way, and decloaked himself, revealing his Orange onesie to Xu Wenwu, one of the oldest humans alive.

The rings returned to his outstretched hand as he calmly assumed a relaxed position, hands clasped behind his back and yet, the five rings floating behind him in a circle told him that the man was ready to throw hands or rings-heh, at any point of time. The rest of the rings were adorned up his left hand, faintly glowing blue, with the active ones behind him glowing brightly.

“Greetings, Xu Wenwu, Bearer of the Ten Rings. I am Mysterio, a humble Sorcerer.” He bowed lightly at the man, as old men liked to be respected.

There was no outward reaction to his introduction as the man looked at him with the same placid expression on his face, reminiscent of that of the Ancient One.

He groaned internally. This was going to be tough, as old people had the maddening trait of being impossible to read in a conversation and impossibly hard to shock as well.