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 #70
Ta-Lo [February 16, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
He dreamt, for how long, he had no idea.
He dreamt of the universe, of blue, of red, of green, of yellow, of purple, of orange, and more.
Him, standing in the middle of hundreds of trees, giants towering over the entirety of the landscape, with Giant Doors carved on their trunks, pulsing with unknown energies, overshadowing him completely as he could only look up and up.
Visions of the Universe, the Crystallisation of Stones, and more.
And then, then came the blue.
Overwhelming, all consuming, bright blue that threatened to swallow him whole, drowning him, crushing him with such intensity that he could barely form a coherent thought.
Then, from deep within his being, he felt it, surging forth as a raging torrent, vastly weaker than the ocean of blue and yet, just about enough, as a shroud of yellow appeared on top of his body, safeguarding him from the blue.
Between all of this, he just floated in place, being a silent watcher as his body was being sandwiched between two flows of energy, trying to gain dominance over the other, completely helpless, as if he was in a dream.
Out of nowhere, the ocean of blue surged forth, obliterating his shroud, barely leaving behind a skin thick layer of blue, which too began to peel off under the relentless assault of the blue, as he watched, from the corner of his eyes, multiple Doors, familiar Doors, floating to the side, untouched by the chaos that was the blue ocean, looking on as bystanders.
Before he could form any other thought, the blue which looked like it was about to win in swallowing him whole, was punctured, by red and purple, with white mixed in, striking him straight in the chest.
The trail that the streak of red, purple and white left began widening as the blue receded and the yellow surged forth, flooding his vision with yellow, burning him from the inside out as he….
"AAAAA!" He snapped upright, screaming himself hoarse as he watched a shroud of yellow appear on his body, with Jin'Ya floating right in front of him. That was the last thing he saw before a wave of purple struck him right in the face and he blacked out.
The next time he woke up, it was much calmer, as his eyes showed him a wooden ceiling. He spread his senses and relaxed almost immediately as he felt the presence of Jin'Ya, with the Water Dragon's energy hovering just outside. The Red Matron was present as well but he was so confused for the moment that he just ignored her and sat up, looking over himself, to see if anything was wrong or not.
"How do you feel? Any part of you that doesn't feel right?" Jin'Ya questioned him, despite doing his own diagnostic with his Psionic energy.
He experimentally flexed all the muscles he could, moved all his toes and fingers, flashed a CHI cycle through his body and was surprised to find the amount to be almost double of what it was previously, but in the end, some rudimentary sensing told him that he was fine.
The burning question in his mind was, "What the hell happened? I opened the Door and that's the last thing I remember."
That earned him odd looks from everyone in the room, even the Village Elder and why was there a hole in the side of the building, showing the lake outside?
"What?"
Jin'Ya sighed and did his thing, a pulsing ball of purple flowing through their mental link towards him, probably containing a memory package. He immediately accepted it and closed his eyes, preparing for the memory dump.
It was probably just him blacking out and then Jin'Ya doing his thing and—
His thoughts screeched to a halt as his mind began assimilating the memories at a record speed and yet, even as his mind continued to run at higher speeds, absorbing everything in the background.
In seconds, he saw what felt like hours of high intensity crisis footage of him nearly destroying Ta-Lo and if it hadn;t been for his regular CHI sessions with the Water Dragon that strengthened the Guardian of Ta-Lo, he might just have been responsible for the greatest crime of his life, setting free the Demon sealed within that mountain.
"Oh, dear Stan Lee," he whispered, his face hitting his palm at record speeds, resulting in a nice smacking sound in the room.
"Indeed, you almost died and if not for all three of us acting in unison, you might just have turned into living energy and–"
"Who knows if I would have retained my mind or just my memories or lost all of it to become a mindless energy monster? Yeah, sounds about right," He said and then flopped down on the table.
He flinched a bit, as he cycled CHI throughout his body, noticing the ease with which he could call upon so much CHI. Pretty much his previous peak CHI output, he could bring about with a thought, without much conscious effort.
He turned to the hole in the building, and said, "Oh, god, what have I done?"
He heard chuckles around the room as everyone vacated it, even the Water Dragon's presence receded, he could feel it.
Reviewing the memory, he shuddered at the scene of the Blue Energy cleaving through the space in this pocket dimension. This was so going to get him a good lashing from both Wong and the Ancient One.
He might even get banned from using that energy ever again, though he doubted that they would go that far, especially since they know that it could turn into a valuable weapon and also because they had no real mechanism of imposing any restrictions on him and his powers.
They were as much a part of him as his nose was.
With a thought, multiple Doors spread beneath him as he floated to the centre of the room and sat cross legged, mid air, and dove deep into his mind.
Opening his eyes, his eyes snapped wide open as he saw the section where the Trees of the Opened Doors usually are. He counted Seven of them, identical tree sizes, along with different Door sizes carved on their trunks, depending on the power levels.
Okay, alright, it was fine until now. It was all according to the mechanics and systems he had identified and built for himself over the years. A proper way to showcase his powers, and also to visualise keeping a Door open forever, something that came in handy when he opened the CHI door, turning himself into an endless fountain of literal Life Force.
Not his smartest decision but hey, it worked out and bedside, he made an even bigger mistake just now.
That was when the proper mechanisms ended. For the Eighth new addition to his powerset, a completely unexpected addition, that was when the logic he set in place ended.
He looked up and up, as a Tree ten times the size of the other Tree was now planted smack dab behind the CHI Tree, with a Door the size of the other Trees carved into the trunk of the Tree.
With a thought, he floated upward and had to change course a bit as the Door began sparkling, crackling with blue energy. He reached the Door and saw a lightning bolt carved onto it and yet, the way it cleaved through space and how he got that Door indicated a connection to an energy type he dared not touch.
The energy of an Infinity Stone, more specifically, the Space Stone.
Howard Stark, doing stuff that had its repercussions felt across generations. Even dead, the man couldn't stop being an absolute genius and meddlesome fellow, as was written in every single testimony and personality report written by every single SHIELD therapist, as every single Level 7 and above agent had to go through at least one of them every year, resulting in some pretty interesting testimonies.
Yes, he was violating their privacy but he only did so because he just downloaded everything that SHIELD had on their servers about Howard Stark, and if they could be arsed to protect his original research by keeping it on a bloody Videotape of all things, they should have done so for everything else as well.
Shaking his head, he floated back down. Even if he wanted to use that particular energy, he would not do so, not here and not anywhere near the planet even.
Actually, he might just go outside the Solar System, if the Ancient One had contacts in that sector, otherwise the far off planets in the Solar System might work as well.
According to previous experiences, most of the danger in opening a Dimensional Door has passed and he should be fine the next time it was opened but this was not normal, nowhere near normal.
Why is why he shut his eyes in the mindscape and opened them in the real world, leaning back and blinking a bit as Ying Nan, who was leaning way too close to his face, appeared in front of him.
Floating back expertly, he gently set his feet on the ground and before he could ask why she was here, "The Village Chief has opened the Wards for the State Guest that you were supposed to bring today. The Wards are weakened temporarily and as such, you only have two hours to bring her in, after which the Guardian would have to do so himself because the Village Chief only has limited authority."
His mouth hung open as he remembered Shuri! The visit! The whole reason he had came to this place and all this stuff happened that he forgot about the whole thing.
"--Now, you wouldn't want to bother the Guardian for such a trivial task, would you?" She finished her explanation with a snarky tone.
Too hurried to care about her, he hurriedly slipped on a T-shirt, that was one size smaller than his regular, and began hurrying out of the door, not before replying on his way out, "Yeah, I'll go get her. Thank your Grandpa for that!"
With a small smile on his face, that came out of nowhere, he conveyed his message to Jin'Ya and opened a small portal, which was enlarged by the Water Dragon using their superior magical control, as he blasted through the portal, with both Jin'Ya and the Red Matron hot on his tail.
Ugh, it felt like bringing Mom and Dad to meet a Girl.
"I heard that, and disgusting"
He laughed heartily as he was exposed to the snow of the Mount Everest, not needing any additional heating since he was superhuman, Jin'Ya a psionic Dragon piloting a drone, and the Red Matron, on top of being cold hearted, also did have an actual cold heart since she was a vampire and they were naturally cold blooded creatures, both biologically and emotionally.
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