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 #71
Mount Everest Base Camp [February 17, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
He took in a deep breath, getting the fresh mountain cold and dry air that was not nearly as pristine as some of the remote areas he had been near the Poles but still, miles ahead of the usual city pollution he had to deal with.
He ignored the two planetary level entities who were apparently just going to babysit him as he flew down near the Base Camp, spreading his senses as he searched for an anomaly in the general airspace as he was certain that Shuri had come in some sort of cloaked aircraft.
Suddenly, he was pulled behind by Jin'Ya, "She's right there. No guards."
Hung in the air, he looked in the direction that Jin'Ya nudged him to and found a small, very small space where air parted. Usually, sensing something this sensitive meant that he had to focus on that space very hard but due to the buffeting wind speeds all around them, he could sense the irregularity in the flow of snow and wind quite easily.
As for the no guards comment from Jin'Ya, "Well, don't count out any artificial intelligence or the absolute ton of weapons she might have crammed into that small thing."
With that, he flew towards the ship, ready to uncloak himself but found himself surprised as the ship became visible first, and he came face to face with a very threatening glowing tip with visible arcs of energy all around it, aimed straight at him.
Smirking, he removed the spell, confident in the fact that Jin'Ya and the Red Matron employed vastly superior methods of stealth that Shuri should not be able to detect, at least not yet.
After a second of the weapon clearly not deactivating, he looked in the general direction of where Shuri should be and raised an eyebrow in question. The weapon slid back into the small, very small jet soon after and the top hatch opened up, from which Shuri, in a very Iron Man-esque suit flew out, completely silent.
"Greetings, Princess of Wakanda," He said in a mock bow as he floated mid air.
"Greetings, Colin, I assume you called me here for a reason? I have been here before and I don't think there is anything special about this place aside from a tourist standpoint."
"Ah," He nodded at her and then raised a finger in the universal wait a minute gesture. Then, he turned around and deliberately waved his hand in the air, concentrating extra hard to make sure the Portal opened on the first try and as if Stan Lee himself was looking down on him, the portal opened on the first try.
A tiny, basketball sized one but it opened and the next moment, he let go of the portal's control as he relaxed and turned around, trusting the Water Dragon to do the needful.
"That," He said as the glow of the red and orange was reflected around them because of the snow, "is where we'll be going. I assume your ride has self park?"
He asked the question, mostly as a joke because even if it did, who would ever leave out such valuable equipment out in the open, away from—
"Yes, it does." Shuri said and then, as if locking a car, she tapped her thigh two times, which made the spaceship light up twice, as if it was a f*cking car instead of an uber advanced jet. Then the thing just disappeared and then shot right up, disappearing from his tracking range soon after.
"Neat." He commented at that, and then gestured at the portal behind him, after getting the confirmation that his two babysitters were not going to leave before him at any cost. "After you."
Just what was the value of those Blood Apples to the Red Matron that she would do such demeaning, at least in his opinion, protection jobs?
Her suit floated effortlessly towards the portal, now big enough to house two of him going side by side and across as well, resulting in a rather noticeable light show but this was fairly secluded since they were high up and any reportings will just show an orange and red light cluster instead of them so they were safe.
The moment they crossed the threshold, he expected the abrupt environmental backlash to have some sort of effect on Shuri but apparently, that was just not something that Black Panthers had to deal with anymore. He had noticed during their very brief brawl back in Seattle that Shuri was enhanced and not just a little enhanced, like running Dimensional Energy Body reinforcement but like beyond Captain America enhanced which could only be possible with the Heart Shaped Herb.
Before he could even get a word in, Shuri flew up in the air, probably to get a higher vantage point and he followed suit, cognizant of the fact that his babysitters had followed through.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" He commented as he floated side by side with Shuri, overlooking the Great Lake, the Mountain as well as the expanse beyond, covered with a thing layer of fog, expanding as far as his vision could go.
That was the boundary of the current guarded area of Ta-Lo. See, the powers granted to every single human as well as animal born here came from two things.
The bloodline granted to them due to all of them technically being part children of the Water Dragon or more accurately, living in an enclosed space suffused with the essence of the Water Dragon, made them tangentially related.
Secondly, it came from being in the proximity of the Water Dragon. The Water Dragon can choose to empower a particular piece of human who had its essence in them, i.e, were born in Ta-Lo. The circle in which the Water Dragon can perform effortless empowerment is 50 miles, after which the Water Dragon's ability to empower humans wanes drastically, likely because of its weaker overall health.
Now that it was healing bit by bit, it should be able to do more but for now, that was the line drawn in the sand and everyone in Ta-Lo had to abide by it.
Well, almost everyone.
"It is, and yet, I fail to see what is so special ab–" Shuri stopped in the middle as the tiny drone floating by her side beeped and a bunch of data popped up in front of her, her focus zeroing in on the data.
"How is this possible? Even Wakanda has.." She whispered then continued to read through the stuff before turning to him, as he had a smug smirk already plastered on his face, fully expecting a completely bamboozled Shuri with no answers and a ton of questions.
"We are not on Earth anymore, are we?" And instead, got a perfect guess in the first try, stumping him as he could not do the cool guy with all the answers act anymore.
Coughing into his fist, he replied, "Yes, we are not on Earth anymore but it's probably not what you think it is. We are—" Aaaand, she was gone. Yup, apparently, looking at screens was much more interesting and probably, a much faster way of getting information.
Three more of such tiny drones got out of her suit, which lost some of its mass, which meant that Shuri was way ahead in the whole nanotech stuff than he had expected her to be, as three different Holo displays popped up in front of her, with a fourth one exclusively being used as a notepad, which wrote down the rapid Xhosa that was overflowing out of her.
Sighing, he slumped mid air and then straightened up a bit as he unleashed a gust of wind, point black as the displays glitched for a bit before returning to their original shape.
"What?" She did not quite snap but he had a hunch that he was getting close to the annoyance territory.
He then suddenly smiled as he got a message from the Water Dragon or more like, he felt the Water Dragon approaching the surface. He then pointed towards the Lake, "Look."
Just in time for the Water Dragon, bruises and injuries all gone, to burst out of the water in all their glory, shining resplendent. With the water backdrop and the sun behind them creating a rainbow, he thought it looked absolutely magnificent.
Shuri…on the other hand, had a dozen different blasters poking out of her suit, looking at him with utter anxiety on her face which was then covered in her armoured suit, which locked itself down.
Sighing, he facepalmed so hard. This was so not going according to his plan.
He could just feel Jin'Ya laughing, cackling in the background.
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