Doorman (MCU SI)

[IdleMuse0307]

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 #122
Wakanda [May 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
After that depressing ass conversation, Shuri decided that it was enough for the day and decided to treat him to a meal of a lifetime, in her own words. He was expecting some sort of gaudy royal meal, with the Queen of Wakanda not having the evolved taste buds of the literally uncountable number of dishes in the outside world but apparently, he was the one who was uncultured here.

Because, he was in a semi private dining space, with a very small table, that could only seat the utmost of 5 people, with the entire table full of enclosed dishes, a platoon of Dora Milaje standing guard outside the room, bowing to Shuri and eyeing him with wariness as they entered the dining room.

"Now," Shuri began as the cutlery literally rose out of the table, glowing blue and purple, which could only mean one thing, "I know you think that the outside world is the best when it comes to food and we must be savages since we did not indulge in the kind of recipe sharing that the world went through in the past couple of decades but let me assure you, we Wakandans might not be the best at inventing stuff but we sure as hell are great at stealing them."

He…did not know how to react to that. To the subtle jab at their country's long standing policies of not helping the world advance but aside from that, actively sabotaging the world as well. For the sabotage to be successful, they killed people as well. Who knows where human society would have been right now with all those people alive?

Maybe they would be vastly more advanced and as a direct result of that, have vastly increased inequality, in terms of both wealth and quality of life? Or maybe the world would have been the same, only a few years ahead as the invention that Wakanda wanted to stop was just invented by someone else?

Or would they be far more advanced than they were now? A spacefaring species? A peaceful planet with far fewer war crimes as well as environmental crimes?

Ha! As if that would ever happen without a Sword of Damocles hanging over the entire planet.

"Moving on," He said slowly, his hands hovering over the numerous spherical objects placed on the table, "What are these?"

Before Shuri could answer his question, the outer layer of the spherical object peeled off as his hand neared it, revealing Biryani?

"Ah, yes, my favourite! Chicken Biryani, made in the way I like it. Try it!" Shuri said, but before he could look for anything to take out the biryani, he leaned back a bit as a pair of large flat spoons made up of hard light appeared in front of the pot of Biryani, getting to work on serving it for him.

Shuri commented from the side, "There is a proper way of serving Biryani and it is best that we let the machines trained for that do so. Trust me, it tastes better that way. The perfect proportion of the two layers of rice and chicken is necessary for the taste."

"If you say so," He said to the apparently foody Shuri as the hard light constructs faded away. He took one look at the extremely appealing Biryani and dug in, as the flavours just exploded in his mouth.

____xx____

After that extremely sumptuous meal, wherein he thanked his enhanced metabolism multiple times, they moved on to a tour of the capital city. He did not know what this trip had turned out to be near the end but it was nice. No assassination attempts, no family drama whatsoever or even no attempts from Bast, which was odd but he let that matter be for now.

No need to poke the hornet's nest just yet, especially since Shuri was doing everything he wanted Wakanda to do, and at an extremely rapid pace as well, since Wakanda as a society had grown stagnant and change of any kind must be a shock to these people.

It was interesting to watch the underlying mechanisms of a city that could be called the closest to a utopia on the planet. He had not visited Talokan yet so the Birnin Zana was his only frame of reference when it came to utopianistic cities. There was currency, obviously but most of the immediate needs of the citizens were taken care of by the government.

Housing? State housing, given based on the family members, changed based on the needs as well. More children? More garden space and a bigger house? More elderly? Given housing in close knit areas with a heavy medical presence 24/7

Utilities? Water and Electricity were provided by the government. With Vibranium in the picture, providing a stable flow of electricity with no cuts would be very easy. With that same energy, Wakanda can afford to do energy intensive water filtration with ease, something that is unaffordable for most municipalities around the world.

The Internet was heavily censored, with regular media pieces falling into the government screened library of movies and music.

Food? Now food was the thing that interested him the most. The one thing they had used and in Shuri's own words, was the one with the most success, to get Wakandans, people who would inherently have no need to work, to work.

Wakanda, despite its advancements in robotics and more, needed people. You can't just have people interact with robots all the time and build a healthy society. So, Shuri's ancestors used food as a means to get people to work.

Everyone here received a standard amount of currency each month, depending on their age and needs. Now, those credits covered most of what people needed and a little more because the main things were taken care of by the government.

What it didn't cover was food. More specifically, tasty food. Instead, everyone received three rations of meals a day, delivered to their homes if need be, containing exactly the right amount of nutrition and proportion based on their dietary needs, and accounting for allergies.

That food, as one could imagine, was not the tastiest food in the world. In fact, it was made purposefully bland, going so far as to add things that would remove any sense of taste from that, resulting in what could only be called goo.

He had seen it, and it could only be called that.

The real food? Like the one he ate right before this? That was blocked, behind higher costs, kept artificially inflated because only by working the jobs the government wants its people to work, could they afford the extra credit to get that tasty food.

Depending on the risk of the job, the people would receive government subsidised food that could taste just as good as a nice family owned restaurant, instead of a five star that just served bland food all the time.

Hotels were present everywhere, owned by the government, letting people on their version of Universal Basic Income save up and buy tasty food if needed. According to Shuri, even people on the lowest income level could get the tasty meals 5-7 times a month, depending on what they ate, which was…not that high but not nothing either.

She told him that it served as motivation, to get into jobs and earn the money necessary to eat that food especially since they made the food in a way that had the least possible amount of impact on anyone's health, like cholesterol and fat.

Through that, they achieved both the things they set out to achieve. Reach the highest quality of life for their people, with their basic needs taken care of, and also make sure their people do not live a completely indulgent, hedonistic lifestyle and turn completely stagnant.

Plus, the diversity of jobs was something that got a raised eyebrow from his side. Just because they wanted their people to work did not mean everyone had to get a desk job or a security job. No, anyone could just go out and paint, or sing, or write. Even artistic work was rewarded here, not equally, but the effort was rewarded in a meaningful way, which he thought was beautiful.

As a result of all these policies, Wakanda had an unemployment rate of just 1%. Even the elderly people could go to libraries, schools, day care centres and help entertain kids, keep company with them, or just become friends with their fellow elderly people by taking shifts at the community centres.

Everyone worked in their own way, on their own time, at the job they were most comfortable at, and received an appropriate sum of money in return, on top of the already taken care of basics.

It really spoke to him in ways he could not vocalise that most humans, if given the opportunity of not having to stress about the basic needs, would turn to art in some way, a quiet reflection of what the kids of rich parents liked to do the most.

"So, ready to see the most important place in Wakanda?" Shuri asked him as they flew over a river that cut through the city and despite it being completely open, there was not a speck of trash in it as fish flew through the clear water.

He wondered how the laws were enforced here. A question for another time, since he was dying to see the Vibranium mine.

"Sure," He nodded as they flew towards one of the mountains, which he knew was an illusion to hide the Vibranium Mound from the common population. The common man of Wakanda was kept in the dark about a surprising number of things, which just drove the point home since Dictatorship, in any form or in any country, would suppress the common person from knowledge to maintain that iron grip.

Well, judging by the standard of living of these people here, he would say that they got a good deal, based on the last few Monarchs they had.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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 #123
Wakanda [May 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
Flying high above the city, they crossed the threshold of that illusion soon enough as he eyed the beefy military installation below, which stopped anyone from going near the boundary of the illusion, as a mountain with a hole in the middle greeted him.

Slowly, he followed Shuri and landed on the edge of the hole, looking straight down to see glints of blue, white, and purple peeking out, with the white lights moving about, which were more likely the trains responsible for moving the Vibranium around.

"It is far deeper than I expected it to be," He remarked as he leaned forward, trying to take a better look at all the lights in the distance.

"Yeah, this mountain is completely artificial. The Great Mound was originally found deep inside a crater, buried deep due to the impact, and we had to build this mountain on top of the crater to keep it hidden."

Well, that made complete sense, especially since they did not have access to this illusion tech in the past, but building a giant mountain around something was very easy. "I've plans to bury the hole completely, create a layer of support and turn the whole mountain flat so that even if the illusion is removed, outsiders cannot pinpoint the location."

Also, very smart.

After that, Shuri jumped back, flipping mid air as she rocketed straight down. Rolling his eyes and knowing what was to come, he followed her. Only this time, there was no illusion but a patch of the land around the mountain itself sliding back, to reveal a dark tunnel with no lights, except at the end.

He wondered who exactly made these tunnels and, more importantly, why?

They were completely smooth, with no ridges or platforms to hold onto, so one would just slide through until the end, and with the angle of the tube, it would be impossible to slide. People would just fall through, bumping into both sides, right up until they reached the bottom and became meat paste.

No lights to navigate anything. Nothing.

Before he could voice that question, Shuri flipped herself once more and landed on the ground, her suit glowing with purple veins as the kinetic impact was completely absorbed. Meanwhile, he had to use the Air Door to stop himself, buffeting the area below him with high pressure winds to come to a halt.

"Inefficient," Shuri snarked at his landing.

"Well, not everyone can have an entire mountain's worth of Vibranium to dampen any kinetic impact against them." He snarked right back, looking all around him, at the various doodads, too many screens and the most important of them all, the giant glass panes showcasing the maglev trains and the sonic disrupters they used to transport all that unrefined Vibranium, which was quite a hassle to move around in such large quantities.

"True," Shuri admitted before throwing something at him. He caught it on instinct, opening his hand to reveal a tennis-sized dark ball, deceptively light.

"Tap it once and place it on your feet," Shuri instructed and upon doing so, he found the nanites sort of flop around on the feet of his onesie, creating a shoe of sorts, "Wow. Uh, thanks? I guess,"

Shuri rolled his eyes at him as she snapped her fingers, the vibranium nanites returning to their ball shape, "Ungrateful coloniser,"

____xx___

"Woohooo!" He shouted, purposefully, as they sat in one of the empty carriages on the maglev meant to transport all the Vibranium safely to be refined.

"I don't get it," Shuri said, her tone bland, "How would this be fun?"

"You don't get it," He said without looking back, as he marvelled at the sheer size of the Vibranium meteor here and how blessed Wakanda was to have this at all, "I am in the fastest train on the planet, transporting ore that is worth more than most countries' GDP, to be used in a country that most people have no idea of, one that is the closest to utopia you can get on Earth."

He looked back with a grin, "How could this not be amazing?"

"Well, if you look at it like that," Shuri mumbled as the train finally came to a stop, right at the edge of the visible tracks. After this, it would undergo multiple trips through a dozen chambers with varying conditions and then enter one of the refining factories.

After that, the mine trip was done as they went back to the Royal Castle, where he got ready to leave. But before he left, he only had a single warning to give.

He did not think it would be necessary because this version of Shuri was far more ruthless than T'Chaka but just in case it became necessary, "Uh, Shuri, I think you should know this. You have a cousin of yours, son of your uncle, alive in the outside world. He goes by the name–"

"Killmonger, yeah, I know."

He blinked at her in surprise.

A display popped up in front of him, showing a rather surprising visual. He recognised the background immediately. The valley where the battle between prospective Black Panthers happens, with the winner becoming both King and the Black Panther.

Only this time, it was completely different. Shuri was fighting Killmonger?

And he seemed to be much stronger than before, every single one of his impacts cratering the ground, as he seamlessly switched between weaponry and his own body, training from the military and whatever mercenary groups he frequented coming into play and yet, he could see how this was a one sided battle, how Shuri just seemed to move about languidly, not even taking the attacks seriously, something that frustrated Killmonger to no end.

"Has he taken the.."

"The heart-shaped herb? Oh, yeah. Since they couldn't depower me with their usual poison, I agreed that it was a fair practice to let him eat the Heart-Shaped Herb as well, something that Bast agreed to as well since he came out alive from that ordeal. Well, not that it helped him in the slightest." Shuri shrugged, as the video resumed from the small pause it had taken when he had begun speaking.

Damn, Griot was good!

After a while of Killmonger just slamming stuff, cratering the ground, splashing water everywhere, and just roaring in her face, Shuri seemed to take it seriously and began duking it out with him.

Well, duking it out would be a gross overstatement of what he was seeing. She was just taking all the weapons that Killmonger could get his hands on, while pushing him with ease. Everything looked just as he expected it to be, right up until he saw where Shuri was pushing Killmonger.

Uh-oh.

He turned to her and asked, "Did you?"

Shuri nodded, "Obviously. I pushed him off the cliff and then made sure he died after he was rescued, in his sleep, obviously, painlessly.

I am not stupid. Someone like that, who could become a legitimate threat to my position? Of course, I would end him. It just became convenient to do so in front of everyone when he challenged me for the throne with an official ritual. Fight to the death is fight to the death. The idiot should have read the fine print before trying his luck with me."

He shook his head as the feed resumed and showed him exactly what had happened. The shocked look on his face meant that no one had told him that Princess Shuri was so powerful that taking on the entirety of the Dora Milaje was not beyond her, something that no Black Panther had done before.

If anyone said that it was a bit ruthless to just kill him off, then they simply did not understand how a Monarchy works, and also had no idea just how big a criminal Killmonger was in the outside world.

That blood relation, the potential of becoming King, coupled with that hatred in his mind? Yeah, killing him off was the best option here. The only thing better would have been to bring him back after his father had been killed off, but since T'Chaka was not smart enough to solve his problems before they became even bigger ones for his kids, this was the next best thing.

"Huh, good riddance, I would say, especially because of his crime spree outside of Wakanda. Now, if you do need anything from me, you know my email and if I happen to be in possession of a spaceship that requires extensive retrofitting, I will contact you."

Saying so, he just rocketed off, not even waiting to listen to her response, though he did catch the telltale signs of an awed and excited expression forming on her face.

Hook, Line, and Sinker.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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 #124
Red Hearth [June 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
It has been over a month since he visited Wakanda, a month spent doing nothing but establishing a new routine for himself. The old one was f*cked seven ways to Sunday, what with him suddenly losing both his hands and that kind of injury was kind of hard to just push under the rug, especially for him who would have been thrust into the public sphere soon enough.

So, he had moved all the money he could into offshore accounts, creating several dozen identities to use multiple shell companies, to make sure that at least some of his money remained, despite him not needing most of it.

The money he could not move securely, he donated, not to charities but directly to people who needed it the most. Sadly, with the somewhat robust social safety net in most developed countries, he had to forgo anyone who might have needed help there in order to focus on getting the less fortunate help, i.e, people living in third world countries.

It wasn't much, barely a drop compared to the money that even a single NGO might collect in the name of a good cause but the only difference here was that he helped the people in need directly, sometimes ordering stuff on their behalf, foregoing any currency entirely, instead of having money tied up in administering that money.

He formally dropped out, from college, from any work commitments, any contracts whatsoever, even the lease he had on his Earth Hearth. Paying people compensation even when it was not specified in the contract. Dealing with people was very exhausting, especially since he could not really answer the one question everyone had.

All in all, he had been quite reasonably successful in dropping off the face of the planet, both figuratively and literally, since he was no longer on the planet.

He was sure that he had gotten his name placed on some lists, both government and private, but he didn't care much for that. For now, fulfilling his previous obligations and moving any money he could was more than enough. In terms of Papertrail, he was currently in Thailand, with plans to move around most of the planet frequently.

Once he was done with that, he moved on to the next item on his agenda. The issue of Wakanda was solved, or stable enough that he had no way to interfere, for now. Shuri had some really radical ideas, ideas that would have wrecked the world, but she was smart enough not to implement them. More importantly, Bast was smart enough not to push Shuri into doing that, so that was good in his books.

Wakanda was moving along nicely with the medicines that she was having her companies and proxies fake into developing, to be presented as original discoveries instead of being given to them by Wakanda.

The next item on his agenda was the…Ten Rings. More accurately, the current wielder of the Ten Rings. He didn't know much about the Rings' origins, except the fact that they were constantly transmitting their location to someone in the universe. He knew about their powers, though, and it was a very potent power to have.

Especially in the hands of a thousand-year-old man who had plenty of practice with the Rings themselves. A vengeful thousand-year-old man was even more dangerous with those Rings.

He shut down the tab showing the Death report of Wenwu's wife, Ying Li, the eldest granddaughter of the Village Chief, who was now all alone. To be alone in a world like theirs? With his entire family dead, and him being the one who managed to live to the end despite being the oldest of them all?

That…sucked. He couldn't even begin to imagine the pain that the Village Chief must be enduring. Jin'ya told him though that the old man was holding strong for all the other people in the village, and only the fact that the village had no one aside from him capable of holding everything down was keeping him tethered here.

Otherwise, with what the old man could do with Chi, he was sure that he would have long since passed away. The more someone gets attuned with their Chi, the more they unlock it, yes, but the more the Chi connects with your brain, your soul.

After a while, it gets to the point that the very nature of someone's Chi can change with the way their soul functions. For example, he, with his high level of attunement with his Chi, could simply manipulate it to the point that his normally healing Chi would give someone cancer if they were exposed to it.

Just like that, the potency and vitality of Chi in someone's body could also be affected by people's souls. The Village Chief, already old, was brimming with Chi and could manipulate it, thus making it very likely that if he so wished, he could simply will for the Chi within himself to kill himself, and no one would be able to stop that.

What did Jin'Ya call it when they first saw it in Kun'Lun?

The Death of the spirit begets the death of the flesh

Taking a deep breath, he tried not to think of that and moved on to the intelligence he had been able to gather about the Ten Rings and their connection to the recently emerging terrorist group Ten Rings, currently based in and around Afghanistan and Balochistan, was not as strong as it should be if Wenwu was actually running it.

He knew for a fact that Tony would not have made it out of that cave had it been Wenwu who authorised that kidnapping and subsequent weapons making. Most likely, Wenwu has been taking the fringe groups that splintered after his retirement and bringing them back under one banner, his banner and the one that Tony killed and later destroyed during the Gulmirah Raid, was not a group that Wenwu had yet reached.

Or the most probable option, which was that these guys just picked up that name since it was synonymous with a powerful group of the past and they wanted the cred that came with that.

Either way, they were dead and Wenwu was back in the business, gathering his forces. He had no idea if Wenwu could still hear the Demon speak to him since the seal was supposedly strengthened now so he did want to try the soft sell with him. Once it was clear that the man was beyond saving, which would only happen if Wenwu refused to show any care for any of his children, he can discuss options with Jin'Ya and the Ancient One.

The Rings themselves were a very fascinating weapon, if not a mid tier one. Nowhere near the strongest weapons on Earth but still a capable tool in the hands of someone who would focus on threats internally instead of threats coming from beyond the cosmos.

Shang-Chi would make a very great user of the Rings, especially since he was born with an advanced bloodline, having inherited excellent compatibility with advanced Chi as well as the Ten Rings from both his parents. Making him the ideal candidate to use the Rings.

Obviously, he was not going to go around raising a Child soldier. No, that would be up to Wenwu and the Ancient One to decide if they wanted to train Shang-chi right now or wait for him to grow up.

Either way, he had children to rescue, from a parent who was quite literally mad right now. IT didn't matter if Wenwu was mad with grief of losing his wife. What mattered was that he had two living children and instead of focusing on them, he was going around raising an army to raid a mystical place to rescue someone who was already sealed pack tight.

Recalling all the powers granted by the Ten Rings, he got ready to search for an otherworldly weapon constantly beaconing its location to places unknown. To search for it in a couple of surrounding countries, how hard could it be?

Time to liberate the Ten Rings from Wenwu

Heh. How very American of him.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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 #126
Afghanistan, Ten Rings compound [June 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
"You are a far way from Kamar Taj, Sorcerer," Wenwu commented, casually name dropping the magic police of Earth, which cemented his theory of Kamar Taj having had contact with this man before, which made sense since Wenwu was not the secret head of a large country by now.

He would have considered the man a pathetic loser if he had not even managed to build up a large enough empire with those rings if Kamar Taj hadn't stopped him at all.

"Ah, I am not here on behalf of the Ancient One, if you are worried about that." He said, still maintaining a healthy distance and keeping a close eye on those rings. Now that he could sense them close up, he could most definitely feel the sheer amount of energy within each of them. It was far higher than it should have been, considering that Shang-Chi defeated Wenwu even armed with his Rings.

The amount of energy in those rings was not in line with what he knew of their feats. It would be prudent to remain careful of them. Who knows what Wenwu might be able to pull off if he could utilise all that energy?

"Ha," Wenwu smirked at him, "Why should I be worried? I have not yet violated any of the conditions that I agreed to previously. If you were not sent by her, why have you come here?"

Okay, first of all, what conditions? And judging by his words, the man intended to violate the conditions someday. Also, the hostility in the air definitely increased a notch at the confirmation that he was not here on behalf of the Ancient One, which meant he could be eliminated without worrying about any retribution from her, since the almighty hammer of the Ancient One was feared by many on the planet.

He cleared his throat, "Ahem, I have come here on behalf of your wife's family. They have–" His words were stuck in his throat as all the Ten Rings were sent towards him, in a spiraling death circle, accompanied with an angry roar as he had to zoom back from the mountain. Even then, the Rings did not leave him be as they began following him like a homing missile. He'd thought that being represented by Ta-Lo would give him some leeway but apparently, that was a mistake, a big one at that, as he watched Wenwu literally jump on top of the Rings, marching towards him, on air, his face twisted in rage, as he shouted.

"Where were you?!"

Even he flinched a little at the vitriol in his voice, his mind finally catching up to the fact that Wenwu might just be blaming Ta-Lo for his wife's death. Egged on by the Demon or not, Wenwu probably thought that Ta-Lo could have protected his wife from the criminals who came to his house.

The reality was, he still did not understand why Ying Li would go so far as to give up her powers, essentially slapping away the Water Dragon's blessings, something that was a big taboo in Ta-Lo. That forced her grandfather, the Village Chief, to let her go and even cut off all contact, going so far as to remove her ability to see and enter Ta-Lo through the gate that only opens once a year.

The outrage among the villagers had probably seen to that.

If anything, if Ying Li had just retained her blessings, she would have wiped the floor with those men and would've had the ability to call on Ta-Lo for backup, not that it would have been necessary.

Obviously, he was not going to say that his wife's decisions led to her death, to Wenwu, a man drowning in grief, since that would just set the man off even more, but what else could he do?

"She died! Protecting them!" His eyes widened as he heard Wenwu's voice distort, gaining a monstrous tint to it, the rings glowing far brighter than before, almost blindingly. He had a dimensional energy shield all around him but that was not working as well as he had hoped, since each strike from any Ring chipped away at the shield little by little, and even those were grazing blows, the Air Doors allowing him to move fluidly through the rings, evading their attacks by the thinnest margins.

He could feel Wenwu closing in on him, jumping on any Ring that was the closest, as they moved higher up, away from the mountain. Just a little more and they would be out of the illusion layer of the mountain.

"AAA!"

By now, the angry screaming had devolved to just mindless screaming, with no words coming out of Wenwu aside from that inhuman scream. From the small glimpses he could get of the man, his eyes had gone red, tears streaming down his face, as he jumped and jumped, hoping to reach him, as if getting his hands on him would mean something.

Well, clearly, no dialogue could be had if Wenwu was in such a mental condition. He could tell that even now, it was within his power to defeat Wenwu but as time went on, that certainty would certainly reduce since he could feel that the amount of power coming off of the Rings increase in intensity with every passing moment.

So, knowing that Wenwu could take it, and it would mostly push him off and not disintegrate him, with a blast from his Air Door, he gained a little distance and summoned the Kinetic Laser Door, almost the size of his body.

With a single mental command, the Door released a giant red Laster, blasting Wenwu away, into the mountain. Even then, in the split second between summoning the Door and blasting Wenwu away with the laser, he saw Wenwu gather his rings in front of his body in a defensive measure, likely dramatically reducing the impact on his body.

Even still, Wenwu was blasted away, right into the side of the mountain. He could see the commotion from up here. Everyone had stopped and were staring at the fight before but now that they saw Wenwu being blasted down, they scrambled like crazy.

Some ran towards Wenwu, literally jumping down the mountain. Some ran into the buildings, likely to get weapons, and some just stopped and looked at him.

He could feel Wenwu, being buried deeper into the mountain but still fighting and struggling at the other end, as he descended the mountain, waving at the people gathered nearby, even as his dimensional shield blocked the bullets.

He rolled his eyes as a giant arm snaked out of his back, catching one particular brave, loyal and stupid follower of Wenwu who thought jumping in the path of the Kinetic Laser would make any difference.

Throwing the idiot back up to the lake, he made sure that the Giant Arm wagged his finger at anyone who had the same stupid idea, before descending even further, closing the distance between Wenwu, who was still struggling but the glow on those Rings had dimmed down.

In response, he reduced the intensity of the laser as well, still blocking intense gunfire and was that an RPG?

Another giant hand grabbed the RPG, crushed it in a spectacular shower of explosion, and tossed it behind him as he finally felt the resistance from Wenwu dwindle to a level he deemed appropriate.

Letting the laser fizzle out, he took a look at Wenwu, the burns on his face and body, the red hot state of the hole in the mountain and the vengeance filled glare sent his way before Wenwu's eyes rolled to the back of his head and the man slumped forward, almost falling face first into red hot ground.

He caught Wenwu with a dimensional energy hand, subtly channeling some Chi into his body to make sure that the man did not die before floating back out of the hole, showing the defeated state of their leader to the gathered people.

If it reduced or outright removed any worship they had for Wenwu and reduced the size of the organisation that Wenwu had revived in such a short period of time, it would be for the better.

Once Wenwu was in a good enough state, since he should wake up on his own soon enough with the Chi provided to him, he handed him over to the nearest calm person, "Treat his wounds. I'll be waiting."

The man looked at him with fear, but nodded warily, as he floated up and sat cross legged on the lake, meditating, the water rippling where he planted his butt on it but aside from that, he maintained position, deliberately ignoring the duo of children, guarded by the man with the most Chi he had sensed in this place, aside from Wenwu obviously.

People, angry people, gathered all around the lake, circling it on all sides but refrained from making any moves, the beatdown he gave their leader seared into their minds, giving them some idea as to what might happen if they tried attacking him.

He was not going to attack them with his Kinetic Lasers, those were dangerous even on the lower settings, but a little trip into the Lake? Absolutely on the table.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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 #127
Afghanistan, Ten Rings compound [June 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
He floated on top of the lake, using a very small flow of pressurised air with Doors placed on top of his butt, meditating as he scanned the entire place with his senses with a much finer comb than before. He wanted to locate the source of the environmental manipulation in this place before Wenwu woke up, so once he was awake, he could use that in their negotiation.

He also had not consulted Ancient One before just coming here, since he did not know that Wenwu had a previous agreement with Kamar Taj. It could potentially backfire on him but all of that hinged on how Wenwu reacted when he woke up. If he could listen to reason or just charge mindlessly at him once more. From the very small encounter he had with the Ten Rings, confiscating them wouldn't be too hard, nor just yanking the ownership from Wenwu.

Not to toot his own horn but he was a pretty advanced Chi user, having it flow through his body for years now, constantly. Chi manipulation was pretty much second nature to him now.

In the middle of his second sweep, he felt Jin'Ya speak through their mental link.

'Bruce and Hansen have decided on their vacations and were wondering if the offer was still up.'

He jolted a bit at that, clicking his tongue as he stopped the deep scan and replied, 'Of course, it is still up. What kind of monster do they think I am? Tell them I will meet them when I return later today. Then, we can get them set up.'

'Hmm.'

He felt Jin'Ya retreat from their mental link as he got back to his sensing task and realised that he was not as good at it as he thought he would be. Whatever the artifact was, it was well hidden and probably would not reveal itself to his senses unless it was close by. He could just waltz through their hidden compound, looking at every piece of stone that looked wrong but that would just send the wrong message and needlessly agitate the people assembled nearby.

So far, they had been quite disciplined, forming a circle around the lake, keeping vigilant watch over him but not making any moves that might be construed as an attack, which is why there were no wet people around him as he waited for Wenwu to awake and get to him.

It must have been at least an hour since he began meditating and even he was getting antsy of getting this over with, so he could go back to the Red Hearth and start doing the next item on his agenda. He hadn't injured Wenwu that much and even then, a dose of Chi should have pretty much healed him, leaving behind nothing but cuts and bruises. Those he should be able to heal on his own, given his command over Chi.

It always amused him that people like Wenwu existed in some forgotten corner of the world, living peacefully until someone came in and shattered that precious peace, leaving behind broken people who became infinitely more dangerous than they were mere moments ago, all because they lost someone in their life.

Fury didn't even know someone like Wenwu existed, and it would probably tick the man off if he knew how old Wenwu was and if motivated enough, how much impact the man could have had on the global scene.

A single death. Of the millions that died annually. And it reactivated a warlord whose personal kill count must be in the tens or maybe even hundreds of thousands, let alone the people his army killed on his orders. He operated mainly in Asia, and the way the casualty figures rose even in relatively isolated battles in Asia meant that Wenwu here might actually be responsible for dozens or maybe more millions dead throughout his life.

A tainted person throughout, and even after all of that, he got love. Maybe the most dangerous trait of humans everywhere. The ability to bond with and love anyone, even the most unworthy of them.

Huh. Why am I getting sentimental all of a sudden?

Before he could ruminate on that, he felt the sea of people parting around the lake, making him open his eyes. Instead of Wenwu, he saw the child who was most likely Shang-Chi, already with bruises on his entire torso. Visible abs, muscle definition present already.

He clenches his fists at that. Child soldier training.

He sighed, as an Air Door manifested in front of him, slowly moving towards Shang-Chi, stopping right at the edge of the lake. Shang-chi took one look at it and, before his minders could stop him, leapt a distance no normal child should ever be capable of traversing, and landed lightly on his Air Door, which began moving towards him after that.

There was a slight uproar at that, but since no one attacked him, he let Shang-Chi come towards him as the Air Door halted right in front of him, a couple of feet away from his current floating position.

"What is your name?" He asked the boy to confirm his identity. And now that he was much closer to Shang-chi, he could tell the amount of Chi the boy had in his body.

Holy shit, this is closer to the amount the adults have in Ta-Lo, without any food from Ta-Lo.

"Shang-Chi. My name is Shang-Chi."

He nodded at that, "I am Mysterio. What would you like to know?"

Shang-chi visibly struggled with his question before asking, "Can you get my sister away from here?" He had a hunch that this was the most Shang-chi had ever spoken with a stranger. The question itself was kind of complicated. He was in no position to jut adopt a child and take them anywhere.

Hell, he himself was a textbook case of a patient isolating themselves from everyone in their lives, all in an effort to gain a semblance of safety, by retreating from real life, to remove any vulnerability.

He was self-aware enough to know that. Which also meant that he couldn't make a decision like that all on his own. She would need a family, a much better and well-settled family than the one she currently had.

Too bad that the MCU did not have a convenient, perfect family with impeccable moral standing, like the Kent Family in Kansas for Superman, else it would have been an instant yes from him.

And at that exact moment, a thought struck him like lightning.

With Great Power comes Great responsibility

Uncle Ben! The Parkers!

It took great effort on his part not to react in any way, considering the discovery he had stumbled upon. In the MCU, they had not explored Uncle Ben or how he died or how Peter got his powers.

With that in mind, he nodded at the boy silently, waiting for his answer, "I can try but it all depends on what your father has to say once he wakes up."

"You beat him," Shang-chi quietly remarked, ending the sentence with more than a little awe and reverence, which was understandable since Wenwu must be an unbreakable rock to these people.

"Yup," He nodded, cracking his neck as he stood up, still floating, the Air Doors seamlessly sliding from his butt to his feet as he stood up, "Quite easily at that. Now, come on, let's see what your old man has to say. I'm getting quite tired of just sitting here. Why don't we take the scenic route?"

Shang-chi, confused, nodded as they both, stood on top of the Air Door as it transported them to the edge of the lake. The people who had circled the lake before followed him as well, and by the time he reached the edge of the lake, there was a veritable army of people seemingly waiting to lynch him.

He raised a single eyebrow, not that they could see it since he was behind a mask, as a giant claw rose from his back and stabbed itself into the ground in front of the gathered people, making them part with ease as he and Shang-chi landed on the ground, after the Air Door was dispelled.

"Gentlemen," He nodded at the gathered people, as he began walking ahead, Shang-chi walking side by side.

"You scare them," Shang-chi remarked.

He nodded, "Yes. I assume not every day someone comes out of nowhere and beats your father."

"No, everyone gets beaten up by father. No one can touch him," He remarked somberly, something that was ill suited on the face of a boy so young. Then, Shang-chi added as he looked up at him, "Except you."

Oh boy. He might have a case of hero worship here. He didn't know what to make of that.

Technically, Shang-chi was his first fan, in the persona of Mysterio, anyway.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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 #128
Afghanistan, Ten Rings compound [June 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
As it turns out, there was not much of a scenic route to take in this place, everything having been built with a utilitarian perspective in mind. So, with dozens of people following them, he and Shang-chi reached the hospital equivalent of this place, a place that was completely surrounded by Wenwu's people.

Hell, even the roof was not spared as he saw no more than six people precariously perched on top of the dome-shaped roof, glaring at him, without any weapons in their hands. How that would make any difference to him, he did not know.

He raised an eyebrow as the people refused to part even as he walked closer. Rolling his eyes once more, a small hand rose out of his back, floating above him. Everyone's gaze was drawn to that arm, and then the gazes sharpened as multiple such arms rose out of his back, creating a poor man's HYDRA behind him..

"Move," was all he said as he began walking, the people parting in front of him as he reached the door and knocked on it, politely. He could feel the high Chi signature inside the room, along with the second highest in this place, both awake and both not in a state of mindless rage, which boded well for the conversation he was hoping would take place here.

The chakra signature of the person who was guarding Shang-chi and his sister, opened the door, looked all around him, at the people gathered, and the way they must be impotently glaring at his back, knowing there was nothing they could do to stop an outsider from reaching their boss.

Then, he took a step back and said, "Come in. He's waiting for you."

He was about to step forward, only for the man to place his hand on Shang-chi's shoulder, "Not the boy."

Shang-chi sent a pleading glance his way but he was right. It would be better if Shang-chi was not there for this conversation since it might devolve into violence once more. He kneeled next to Shang-chi, trying to convey his earnestness to him, "I'll come find you once we have a talk, alright?"

Shang-chi nodded and then turned around, walking away. He stood up, and whispered to the man, "And I will meet him, do you understand?"

After getting a nod in confirmation, he walked in, as the man stepped out and locked the door behind them.

The room itself was mostly bare, which made him wonder how these guys called this a hospital. Only a single bed, facing the window, with Wenwu standing in front of the window, looking out.

He noted the Ten Rings lying quietly, dormant, on the edge of the bed. Why would Wenwu do that? If he was not grossly wrong about the man's personality, Wenwu was not the type of man who would surrender, not even with an absolute defeat hitting him right in the face.

"Why?" He looked up from the Rings, to see the man looking at him with anger on his face, though it was not accompanied by the hideously bright and dangerous glow sticks that were the Ten Rings, so it was alright in his book.

He sat down on a conjure chair, "Why what?"

"Why didn't you come? She was in danger! Fighting for the children."

He sighed, "First of all, I am sorry for your loss. I never knew her but I know of her. The second thing was that she left Ta-Lo. Ta-Lo did not leave her, at least not at first. Then, she went ahead and rejected all the blessings of the Guardian."

"What?" Wenwu looked at him with absolute confusion written on his face.

Ooh, boy.

"Did you not know? Ying Li rejected her powers when she left and married you. Why do you think she lost all her powers then?"

Wenwu was silent after that, his face cycling through realisation, anger, and resentment before settling into quiet and resigned acceptance.

"Because of that, you guys couldn't come help her?"

He shook his head, "No. The people at Ta-Lo had no way of contacting her and, in fact, did not want to contact her since rejecting the Guardian's blessings is a pretty major crime in Ta-Lo. It is a crime punishable by immediate banishment, which is why I think she did it because she knew that the village would try everything it could to retain her since she was the strongest at the time."

Actions borne from love, but intent matters little when the consequences of those actions come biting back.

Wenwu was silent for a while, as he sat down on the bed, before saying, "What now?"

His brows furrowed at the reaction he was seeing. Where was the demonic influence? The blame? The urge to go blasting in Ta-Lo and unseal the demon?

Was the Demon sealing so successful that the influence on Wenwu was gone?

"Before we can talk about that, I have one question to ask. Why build all this?" He gestured around them, referring to the compound built into the mountain, capable of housing thousands.

"Revenge." Was the single answer he received, "On the people I thought had abandoned my Love, on the people whom I thought were responsible for her death but I can see it now, it was me. I was the one responsible for that."

"I ask again," Wenwu said, "What happens now? You've defeated me when I was drawing on more power than I have ever drawn from the Rings before, pretty easily at that. I can see it in my son's eyes. If you ask him, he will go with you, without question. Xialing should be the same. I can see that I have failed as a father. What else is left then?"

Uh….

This was so out of the script that even he was stalled for a second, as he scrambled for answers.

"You disband the organisation," He said, the first matter of fact.

"Done."

"And the Ten Rings?" He said, glancing at the deceptively ordinary looking Rings just lying there.

They began glowing a dim blue as all ten of them flew towards Wenwu, settling down on his palm, "When I dug them out, I only had revenge on my mind, with a distant hope that my son would be the one who will inherit them. To that end, I had even begun training him but I can see that I would not be giving him an inheritance, I would be giving him a curse. So," With that, Wenwu light waved his palm in his direction, the Rings actually floating towards him as they floated in front of him.

A dimensionally conjured hand shot out of his back and collected the Rings, as he looked at Wenwu with an odd look on his face, "You would give them up?"

Wenwu chuckled at his line of questioning, actually looking a little bit more relaxed now, "What use would they be to me when I was defeated so easily by you? If I wanted to go to Ta-Lo, I would have to go through you and I see no way of doing that, not to mention the looming threat of Kamar Taj should I harm a Sorcerer in their employ."

"I see." He said quietly, and then added, "And what of the odd weather in this place? Any magical relic Kamar Taj should know of?"

Wenwu looked at him confused, "Why would Kamar Taj want that? It is a cheap knock off I commissioned from a rogue sorcerer centuries ago. The only reason it still works is because the Ten Rings work as a supplementary power source for that thing but sure, if you want, you can take the piece of garbage."

"Now," Wenwu said, "What of me? What will happen to me?"

He was silent for a minute there, ruminating on the options. Giving him the Ten Rings was kind of dangerous since the man could go back to being a genocidal warlord again, but just ripping him out of Shang-chi's life would be equally damaging to the boy, especially since he could see that Wenwu was not completely gone yet.

The words tumbled out of his mouth before he could properly think of the implications, "Would you like to raise them in the States?"

"What?" Wenwu said, far too quickly.

Welp, the cat was out of the bag now.

"Yeah, I assume you have quite a big fortune from all your years of living. Why not take both your kids and raise them, normally, in America? It is close by so that I would instantly know if you tried anything, and also because it should allow both your kids to get trained in Ta-Lo, which is their birthright," he added at the end as Wenwu was about to protest something, likely something along the lines of his daughter not needing any training.

"Think about it," He said, standing up, the Rings floating behind him as well, "I will be back. Do note that if you continue your current ways, I will make sure that you are in no position to be even near them. So make of that what you will.

With that, he turned around and flew straight up, crossing the layer of that relic with ease.

Time to deposit a new relic in Kamar Taj.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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 #129
Kamar Taj [June 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
He nodded at all of the people he was familiar with, the number of which was reducing by the day because he spent so little time in Kamar Taj, as he made his way towards the library. Wong, distant as he may have been towards him since he lost his hands, would surely have some sound advice to give to him.

If that advice came with some harsh, biting words? Then so be it.

The rotation of people coming to and leaving from Kamar Taj over just a short period of time, like maybe two to three years, was insane. Due to the safety of all the Sorcerers booming exponentially over the past couple of centuries, Sorcerer Families have become a thing, mostly in Asia and Europe.

Sorcerers, who instead of dying on duty, found families, whilst also being active Sorcerers, which was almost impossible before due to the mortality rate of Sorcerers. Those Sorcerers ended up having giant families, mainly because being a Sorcerer granted them everything they could possibly need.

Then, it was not necessarily fixed but a large majority of the Sorcerer progeny ended up being more attuned to the Dimensional Energy all around them than any other normal child, not to mention the proximity to an Active Sorcerer cultivating the right mindset to one day join Kamar Taj.

Most of the family members of these Sorcerer Families knew that learning magic was the best way to reach the top, as even without abusing magic, one's safety and health could be guaranteed, not to mention all the other benefits one could get from specialising in something.

Which is why the apprentice batch in Kamar Taj, the ones learning the basics, like Eldritch shape summoning and sling rings, were huge. They were in the hundreds, easily. Most of them came from such families.

Despite all of that, despite all of that headstart, the literal bloodline advantage, the number of Masters that came from people outside these families, with no Sorcerer heritage to speak of, was in the majority.

It was something about the desperation or the need, or the uncertainty that came with being an outsider in the world of magic that gave birth to the Masters of the Mystic Arts, which is why, he knew, that of the hundreds of apprentices he saw training just now, maybe a dozen would become Masters and even amongst Masters, they would always remain in the lower rung.

In terms of power, anyway. The strongest Masters currently all came from outside the magical circle, with no heritage.

Mordo. Kaecilius. Wong. Drumm and more.

Even so, it didn't hurt to be polite, he thought to himself, waving and greeting everyone who came to him, as he finally reached the library, with the Ten Rings burning a hole in his pocket.

A treasure that was by all means something that would make the world riot over, but that was out there. IN here? In the sacred halls of Kamar Taj? It was a B-grade relic at best.

Well, here's hoping that bringing in such a relic would finally get him his own relic.

He entered the library, seeing apprentices and Masters alike studying, as he whirled around and found himself facing Wong's back, as he had his headphones on, and was sorting through piles of paper.

Shaking his head, a hand shot out of his back and tapped Wong on his shoulder. The yellow glow must have clued Wong in on who was behind him as he sighed, placed the yellow pages down carefully, and turned around, tapping the headphones twice to make the songs stop.

"Hi!" He grinned at Old Man Wong, who merely stared at him with a neutral look on his face, which just meant that Wong was scowling at him.

"Don't be like that. Look, I know you disagree with how I am going about things but can we do that later? Preferably in some resort? With a Spa? Great Food and Weather?"

Wong took two steps forward, taking the headphones out of his head with a telekinesis spell, as he looked down upon him, which was not possible because of their height difference but Wong somehow made it work.

"Don't think you can bribe me with that."

He smiled nervously, "Okay. Maybe this will help make my case," He said as a hand reached into his pocket and took out the Ten Rings, looking completely lifeless right now but as soon as he injected some Chi into them, they lit up as if Christmas lights, glowing a bright yellow as he tried to get a feel for them on his way here.

They were surprisingly intuitive, with information about them entering your mind as soon as you inject Chi in them. Well, it tried to enter his mind. He was able to stop that but he wished to know more about them so he let it in, and boy, was there not a lot of information about the Rings.

No hidden message. No hidden feature. Nothing about who made them. Nothing about their end goal. No extra esoteric features either.

Just vague ideas as to what one can do with the rings.

In the end, he considered them not useful for him or anyone sufficiently powerful. It was a great tool for someone whose only superpower was Chi and martial arts, making it perfect for Shang-chi if he wished to do so, in the future or the Iron Fist.

"What are these?" Wong asked him as he held them in his hand and just as he expected, they did not react at all. They were basically inert without Chi being injected into them and even then, the Chi must be injected with intent.

"They are the Ten Rings, Master Wong. Not of this world, or this universe. Please have them catalogued as a B-tier in terms of risk but C-tier in terms of combat and have the relic library updated."

He turned around as the Ancient One walked into the library, the lack of reaction from the apprentices and Masters around them cluing him in on the fact that she was hidden from everyone but them.

"As for you," She then turned to him, "I assume you have some questions."

"I do. I wanted to ask Wong about them but sure, your advice works as well." He said as the space around them fractured, before he was sitting in a comfortable chair, with steaming hot tea placed in his hand.

He knew it was coming, and he could have interfered with it, but he had a hunch that doing so would not change his destination, only the orientation in which he would arrive, which was kinda scary if you think about it.

"So, I assume you are here to talk about Wenwu and his children?"

__xx__

Red Hearth

"Alright, Everyone!" He spoke through the place's intercom, something that he had honestly forgotten he'd installed in the beginning, "Huddle up on the Dining Floor. I have an important announcement to make!"

With the announcement done, he waited calmly, purposefully using a spoon and a fork to eat a banana, after cutting off both the ends with a knife.

"Hmm, so this is what it feels like to eat like a douche," He said to himself, as he ate the banana in slow, purposeful bites, fully immersing himself in the role of old pompous British nobility.

After about a three minute delay between his intercom announcement and the lifts opening up, he saw Bruce and Maya making their way to him, with nervous curiosity on Maya's face and just curiosity on Bruce's.

They took their seats and then watched as he ate a banana like a psychopath. He purposefully waited to finish the banana before speaking.

"So," He said, letting the tension in the room ramp up, "What have you guys decided on?"

Bruce and Maya looked at each other before asking him, "About what?"

He looked at them as if they were at fault as he said, "I thought I told you about this before I left. Your…vacations!"

Maya all but collapsed in relief in her seat while Bruce looked at him, exasperated.

Lol.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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 fate 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.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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 #131
Kamar Taj [June 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
He took one look at the Red Matron's face and just said, "Nope!" before trying to blast off the balcony, pinging Jin'Ya at the same time to get rid of this vampiress from his vacation spot.

Only, before he could take off, "They have begun moving again. Targeting magical enclaves one by one. Last night, Kun'Lun lost half of their elders."

That stopped him right in his tracks, his face losing all emotions as he processed the information she just gave him.

"What? How is that possible? The enclaves have a robust–"

"Warning system? Yes, I am aware of that, but apparently, the Demon Prince can keep them contained for a short period of time, enough to raze half of Kun'Lun, provoking their dragon into action."

"Shou-Lao fought them?" His eyes widened as Jin'Ya silently materialised beside them, staying silent as the Red Matron began describing the series of events that led to her stumbling upon the traces of the Super Vampire that was apparently on a warpath to become the most hated criminal by all magical enclaves.

The last time that happened, Earth was scorched of any demonic filth, as Demons watched, powerless to do anything but scream as they were banished to the alternate dimensions, by the combined might of the Vishanti and Gaia.

Shaking his head, tired and resigned at the turn of events just as he was starting to feel relaxed enough, he turned to Jin'Ya, silently asking for a portal as Jin'Ya nodded, a purple hole in reality appearing to the side.

He nodded at the Red Matron, "Thank you for the heads-up, but I don't think they will appreciate your presence in their Holy Land."

She shrugged at him, "That's fine. I will just enjoy it here, until the sun comes up, that is." Right, she could function properly in the sun but they preferred to remain in the shadows.

He mentally asked Jin'Ya to stay here, to keep watch over his mad scientists and safely return them to the Red Hearth once the week was up, no need to disturb their vacation, before he jumped into the portal, and landed right in front of their entrance gate.

Only this time, instead of it being covered partially in fog and adorned with ancient symbols glowing with barely restrained power, it was in tatters, the area in front of it littered in holes.

Also, there were no attendants to keep watch over the entry gate. Then again, he did hear how many people they'd lost in this single attack. Far more than they lost during Hand's defection, he was sure. That was mostly injuries because the Hand knew that inflicting more damage would just rouse Shou-Lao from his slumber.

Once the dragon was awake, none of the Hand would have survived their trip to the outside world.

Sighing, he began speed walking; no need to fly and startle some of them. Once he ran into somebody who could direct him to the injured, he could go over and take charge.

He was not running at full tilt but still far beyond anyone here at Kun'Lun as he surveyed the road, realising something.

They wanted to be known. They wanted this attack to be flashy.

The entire way he ran to the central compound, the mental map allowing him to run in that direction almost on autopilot, he saw holes in the street, fires that had only recently been put out, entire gouges in stones that reeked of dark magic.

He could see that the people here put up a valiant fight. He could feel the dark energy attacks increase in intensity, likely as a response to the defense from Kun'Lun. Vampires, thralls, as they were, would just wither into dust when they were killed, so he could not accurately gauge how many of them Kun'Lun managed to put down.

But he could see the blood. Human blood everywhere. No body parts, but still, he could see the cleanup efforts that still left behind blood.

Sighing, he finally reached the central compound, feeling the densely packed Chi signatures inside the buildings, along with the vastly weaker ones as well, flickering as if candles in their last moments.

Without thinking, he covered himself in the Chi shroud that was well known in Kun'Lun before barging in, not even blinking as three hands shot out of his back to stop the three spears, as he continued walking to the back of the entrance, the people parting around him as they recognised him.

The spears were dropped as well, as they began to hastily walk behind him, something that he ignored, as he all but barged into the healing chambers, wincing as he saw only 7 Elders, with only two of them conscious.

"Baxter!" One of the Elders exclaimed, and then backed away with fear in his eyes as seven tentacles shot out of his back before extending to hover over all seven of the Elders. The two that were awake immediately made to get out of the bed, whilst also looking to fight the healing arms.

"Calm down!" Yu-Ti, the absolute Leader of Kun'Lun, said in a deep baritone voice, making the elders freeze as they sat back down on their beds, their earlier stunts having pulled at their wounds, staining the bandages with blood once more.

The elusive, mysterious leader of Kun'Lun was also in a medical bed, covered in bandages all around his legs, but seemed to be the least hurt out of all the higher ups in Kun'Lun. As his healing arms touched the elders' bodies and began doing the work of healing individuals with high Chi count, which always took longer, Tu-Ti spoke.

"It would seem that our friend here has picked up on some new tricks since the last time we saw them," Yu-Ti commented, as he focused on getting the Elders out of the death's door, which was not hard, just mentally taxing, because of the way their bodies were already suffused with Chi.

Chi that had been honed and refined for their entire lives, which meant he had to make sure that his neutral flavour of Chi did not interfere with the normal flow of their flavoured Chi, which is why it took him over 15 minutes to fully heal them of their injuries and another ten minutes to purge the dark energy in their bodies.

Most of that energy was concentrated in their wounds but some of it had penetrated their bodies as well, which was yet another delicate operation with Chi being the scalpel for it.

Sighing in relief, once all the seven Elders were safe, he retracted all the healing arms before facing the Leader of Kun'Lun, the faceless Leader who was the backbone of Kun'Lun.

He had never really interacted with the man alone before all of this, despite Kun'Lun taking an inordinate amount of interest in him, largely due to his capacity to act as a Chi generator.

"Thank you for coming to our aid. We were only able to send in the signal a scant few minutes ago. The casualties have been….heavy." The man finished with a sombre tone, his face still behind that golden mask, radiating more Chi than any other person in Kun'Lun, save for the dragon and whoever was crowned the Iron Fist.

"Don't worry about it," He said as a lone healing arm emerged from his back, stopping just before the man's torso as he looked into Yu-Ti's eyes. The man nodded slightly, as the healing arm attached itself to the man's body and began flooding it with neutral flavoured Chi.

His eyes widened slightly, as he sensed the Chi being gobbled up completely by that mask before being redistributed into the man's body, as he straightened up a bit, sitting upright in the bed.

"Huh," He said out loud, as he finally realised the function of that mask. "Nifty," He commented on that, to which Yu-Ti just nodded.

"I assumed you to be capable of understanding its features at a glance. I assumed correctly." The man remarked but otherwise remained silent as that mask consumed truly astronomical amounts of Chi, almost on par with what we had to spend to heal all the other elders, all at once.

"What happened? And what is the damage?" He finally asked, figuring that the Leader of the place would have a more accurate picture of exactly what transpired here and what motivated the Vampires to attack this place.

"Not here. In my office," Yu-Ti said as the healing arm dissipated. He followed the Leader into his office, watching as the man showed his uninjured self to the people gathered here, and the effect was immediate, as most people began smiling, sighing in relief, relaxing and overall feeling better seeing their Leader in good condition.

He watched as Yu-Ti ordered some of the gathered people here to patrol, seal off the exits, begin collecting reports and more, as the entire hall was now mostly empty with only the guards remaining to protect the Leaders in their vulnerable state.

Within minutes, Yu-Yi did that, as they resumed their walk to his office.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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 #132
Kun'Lun [June 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
"It was something I had never expected to see, not in my lifetime anyway. There have been records of vampires previously attempting to enter Kun'Lun, but they have never been successful." Yu-Ti told him as they sat in his office. Already, he could tell that the mask was doing its work properly, as with every passing moment, Yu-Ti's breath stabilised, he sat straighter, and minor tremors in his hands receding.

"Because of Shou-Lao," He prompted the man who nodded at his words, sipping from the cup of tea he'd made for himself when they entered his office. It had a nice aroma that spread throughout his office.

"Yes, because of Shou-Lao, we never had to worry about those filthy creatures of darkness. They always fell to Shou-Lao's aura, no matter how strong they thought of themselves. After all, Shou-Lao is light himself. Those filthy creatures of darkness could never get close."

"Until now,"

Yu-Ti paused, the only sign of his internal turmoil, before agreeing, "Yes, until now. As shameful as it is to be known as the first leader of Kun'Lun to fail in the face of darkness, it is the truth. Somehow, those infernal creatures managed to find someone strong enough to outright ignore Shou-Lao's aura, forcing our guardian to intervene himself, an event that hasn't occurred for over a thousand years."

He leaned back into the chair, exhaling as his thoughts drifted to the time he first got news of that vampire. That stupid, hell empowered Vampire, who apparently was targeting him. So much had happened since then that it felt like ages ago when the Red Matron first approached him, to get her fill of Blood Apples in exchange for informing the Ancient One about that threat.

Since then, this Vampire has orchestrated an attack on Ta-Lo, and now an attack here. He didn't even know if the Super Vampire himself came for the attack, since he didn't even know what that bastard looked like or the far more accurate measure of existence, what his energy signature felt like.

They had even roped in the likes of Dormammu, who was instrumental in hiding them from the gaze of the Ancient One. For he was sure that no matter how strong they were, they would fall in front of the Ancient One, with her Vishanti Cloak.

"Did Shou-Lao manage to kill the one responsible?" He asked the burning question, however unlikely it might have been.

Yu-Ti shook his head, "No, they fled just as Shou-Lao's aura flooded Kun'Lun."

"I see." He nodded, lost in thought as he asked the question on his mind ever since he came here, "Why did they come here? What were they after?"

Yu-Ti went silent after that, as his suspicions rose. The Super Vampire must be after something. To risk Shou-Lao's wrath like this meant it must be incredibly important to come here, raise all this commotion, kill invaluable protectors of Kun'Lun, injure the Supreme Leader, and then just flee.

Something must have happened, they must have done something that he was not seeing here. Some hidden angle that he needed to know because this was fast becoming a huge problem, for both him and Earth as a whole.

Kun'Lun, despite not actively defending the planet against threats, is actually an integral part of Earth's defenses.

The Ancient One told him all about it sometime in the past. About how Earth was infested with mystical, supernatural creatures, both benevolent and exceedingly cruel. About how multiple human groups were formed with their own specialty, to defeat the evil in their region.

About how those groups lost their purpose once Earth was cleansed, and the responsibility to defend it against magic fell primarily on Kamar Taj. How the remnants of these groups occupied mystical hotspots, preserving their knowledge, skill and tradition with a small number, eventually becoming the Six Mystical Hotspots on the planet.

How they continued to train, waiting for their foes to return.

"How much do you know of the Six Mystical Hotspots on the planet? I assume you know of them from your time at Kamar Taj?" Yu-Ti suddenly asked him, instead of answering his previous question.

"Yes? I know of their names, but I haven't been to all of them. Only Ta-Lo, Kamar-Taj, and here." He replied, uncertain as to where this conversation was going.

"I see. That's good. Can you tell me why these places still exist? After all, from your time at Kamar Taj, you must know by now that we do very little when it comes to protecting the planet. We send no personnel to train at Kamar Taj, nobody to help you with Chi, no support, no experts, nothing. So, why? Why do we exist?"

He replied slowly, "Well, I know about Ta-Lo. They have that ancient demon behind that seal. As for you, I guess it's because of Shou-Lao? He doesn't have anyplace else to go?"

Yu-Ti burst out laughing at that, "Believe me, Master Colin, if Shou-Lao wanted to, he could go to any place in the galaxy, such is his strength. No, Kun'Lun is not just glorified housing

for Shou-Lao. We serve a purpose far more important than that."

"What is it? Stop speaking in riddles. Just tell me what they took so that I can go get it back for you." He, did not snap but it was very close.

"I will be clear then. The Three Sanctums."

His brows furrowed as the conversation took another turn once more, "What of them?"

Yu-Ti's hands moved, as Chi began flowing through his hands, forming a visual representation of Earth, and the Mystical Shield surrounding it, with the three central points denoting the Three Sanctums keeping the whole thing running. The shield moved fluidly around the planet but it was clear that it had three anchor points that were necessary to keep it running.

"I assume you know this much,"

To which, he just nodded, marvelling at the extremely precise Chi manipulation on display. He was sure that mask was helping somewhat but even so, the man in front of him was probably the foremost human expert on Chi. The only reason he was as skilled as he was because he cheated.

He could never run out of Chi, allowing him to practice without end. These guys, on the other hand, had to keep some in the tank, else they ran the risk of injuring themselves, or even outright death.

"What you don't know, however, is that this is only part of the total picture," His eyebrows rose as Yu-Ti moved his hands once more, expanding the shield, and then, six different rings popped up in between the shield and the planet.

"Each one of these rings is a Mystical Hotspot."

What? How does that work?

Yu-Ti, seeing his confused look, began explaining, "The shield is not just a single layer supported by the Three Sanctums. The Three Sanctums, along with the six Mystical Hotspots, create an energy feedback loop that powers the whole thing. Now, I must emphasise that destruction of the three Sanctums would destroy the shield entirely, that part is true but the Sanctums do not make the shield by themselves."

"I see." His mind churned furiously as he connected the dots and realised just why the Ancient One took great care of these hotspots, despite them not even lifting a finger for Kamar Taj in exchange.

"Just like Shou-Lao here, and the Demon in Ta-Lo, there are beings with great significance, in each of these six places, fueling the shields, with the Three Sanctums siphoning energy straight from the leylines, all so that the shield can be kept active."

"Wow." He said, truly amazed. So the part of these people not currently defending the planet from mystical threats was false. They have been protecting the planet, just like their ancestors.

It also explained why the Ancient One never took any effort to actually slay the demon in that seal, even when she had Jin'Ya and the Red Matron on her side with a weakened Demon in that seal. She needed that demon to remain alive, to fuel the shields outside.

Then, he snapped out of it, looking at Yu-Ti, "Wait. That still doesn't explain why that vampire came here. Shou-Lao is still here, so the shield is still active. What did he take from here?"

Yu-Ti folded his hands in front of him, as he leaned on the desk, "That wretched being came here and took something worth more than my life itself, "He took the keys to the shield."

"Keys?"

"Yes, keys. Once in a hundred years, the keys to the shield in each of the six pillars are interchanged, for safety. These Keys, are more information than physical items, holding the secret to the shield and how it draws energy from every one of the six places. It is extremely valuable and is guarded zealously by everyone, even at the cost of their lives, just so the secret remains safe.

The Ancient One has gone to great lengths to bury this information, but apparently, somehow the vampire knew, and he now has Kun'Lun's key. We have failed."

For some reason, that declaration rang like a gong in his ear.