Disclaimer - I don't, and have never claimed to, own Marvel or its Intellectual Property. This is all just so that I can take my maladaptive daydreaming and turn it into something so that it does not ruin the rest of my day.
DoorMan #3
San Diego Comic Con[January 2, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
"Your savior is here!" He exclaimed with pompous grandeur as he arrived at the gathering point his online group had decided for the Comic Con.
His outfit was glorious. Everything was perfect, well, as perfect as it could be. The signature red underwear on the outside, with blue tights with a blazing S carved on his very muscular chest. It was the yellow belt that he had added at the last minute when he revisited some of the older issue comics that he had been collecting with the money he had been earning as a freelancer.
The red cape was the easiest to source but not the easiest to get the right colour. He wanted to match the reference material perfectly and as such, it took over a week for him to finally get the right colour cape, and even then, it was not the perfect blend of red and dark red glinting in yellow sunlight.
For that, he feared that he would have to do something far more…custom.
His online discord group, which he had cultivated with his blood, sweat, and tears, along with a healthy dosage of cursing during online gaming, all laughed at him.
"Well you're one to talk, Discount Flash. You know, he was never this jacked. The guy was all lean mass, he was a runner for Pete's sake. Use your head, Brian." Brian, the stereotypical Jock, built like a brick house, all hard on the outside but an awkward nerd on the inside. He was currently sporting a Flash outfit with even more mass on top of Brian's already substantial mass.
"Cut it out, Colin, you're one to talk. You are not even as big as him and yet, you're dressed as Superman. Compensating much?" Tina, not even a part of the group and yet already at the gathering. He flashed a tight smile at her even as Brian gave him a rather strained one. Tina was the stereotypical cheerleader, though she did have the smarts and the looks going for her so he would not lean too much into that stereotype. As evidenced by her literally hanging off of Brian's arm and the way she was stuck to him, Tina was Brian's girlfriend and was a nerd-ish.
"OHHH!" The rest of their little gathering tried to rile him up but he was far beyond that, at least right now. When it happened the first time, well, it was good that he had the decency to apologise, or else Brian would be his enemy in their CS games and that was not a fate he would wish on anyone.
"Alright, no need to get our panties in a twist. Come on, there's a huge line for panels already." The rest of their little gathering, twins, Eric and Bill, both very large and very smart, though not in a good way. He met the Olson twins during one of his various black web strolls that he did, only for the good of the world.
As it turns out, when you have literal LIFEBLOOD flowing through your body at all times for years, your brain kind of turns into a computer. Not a supercomputer, not that far yet, but a computer. So, while it did slightly heighten his smarts, the far more beneficial thing for him was the Eidetic memory coupled with computer-like processing speeds, allowing him to excel at most things in his life.
Life, freelance software development. Something that the Ancient One showed him when he was trying to get his hands on more advanced Sorcery books simply to sate his brain's curiosity.
That little move catapulted him into the upper ranks of software development and these days, he was developing cutting edge software that kept the internet and multiple other systems up and running, for free. Yup, he did paid freelancing only for minor projects, like setting up a website, getting an app up and running, providing fast debugging services for middle to large sized corporations, willing to hand over their entire databases to someone like him, so mostly the social media companies.
Still, that paid enough for him to fund his education, though the insurance money from his family's death was more than enough for that. Touching that money felt…complicated so he just had that in a low yield long term bond until he needed it for a rainy day. The freelancing gave him enough money for college, getting a nice apartment, going out on dates though he had yet to find a stable girlfriend, funding his weird hobbies, and ofcourse, travelling the world.
The rest of the time, he studied Computer science engineering at MIT, whilst writing code that even his teachers took some time to understand. All in all, a very good life for one Colin Baxter.
However, all that work and study, along with training his powers and sorcery made his life pretty lonely, hence the discord group. By bonding over their shared use of inhumane curses in the field of online gaming, they came together and now, this was their second Comic Con together.
He was so excited!
"Let's go!" He shouted as he all but lifted the Olson twins in his haste to go to his favourite panels, ALL OF THEM!
_____xx____
Triskelion
–Nick "One Eye gouged out by Flerken" Fury–
".....And this is all we have on him?" He couldn't help but glare at the sparse file lying on his table as if wishing that it would set itself on fire somehow.
"Yes, sir. By the time we regained control of the vessel, the target had already subdued everyone, took the data, and fled the ship, escaping through unknown means."
"Suspects? Chinese? Europe? Freaking Japan? Get me something, dammit!"
"...WE suspect that he is an independent operative sir."
"....Are you telling me that we have someone who can put holes in concrete walls, attack strategic Military assets, and steal the data onboard, all without a single clear sighting or even a casualty?"
"Yes, sir. However, the motives remain unclear since the data is standard Satellite rerouting data, something that is available, albeit in much less precision, online, for free."
He took in a deep breath, exhaled, and then closed the file, "That will be all, Agent Sitwell. Dismissed."
"Sir." Sitwell saluted and left his office.
As soon as the doors closed, he pressed a button under his desk, sealing his entire office shut before turning to a dark corner of his office, "You get all that, Pierce?"
Out from the darkness, came the grim visage of one Secretary of the World Security Council, Alexander Pierce. The boss of his bosses, the one person whose word he could not ignore, well, theoretically anyway.
"This is concerning Fury. This is the third known attack that SHIELD knows of. I have credible information of 6 more, spread across the world, attacking sensitive locations before stealing the data onboard for some reason."
He levelled his one eye on Pierce, "You and I both know what is on those ships' data disks."
"A project you vehemently disagree with, I understand that Fury but now is not the time for that debate. We need to catch this person because while the data itself is not that important in the major scheme of things if the person somehow gets a whiff of what we planned to do with that data, we might just have to say goodbye to SHIELD as a whole."
He glared at that man, "Why? Why take such risks? You know as well as I do that we should have shut this shit down the moment we knew that someone was targeting the Project ships. Not even the agents manning the ships know the true purpose."
"And it will remain that way. Remember Fury, everything we do, we do for the continued safety for the world."
"And having orbital canons with perfect spy hardware in space is the way to do that, really?"
Pierce slumped as his eyes softened, "Fury, look, you know as well as I do that this project is just at the concept stage right now. Hell, even the most optimistic predictions to get the necessary funding, hardware, software, and more importantly, the right mental projection around the world, would take decades. Maybe, until then, we will find something that works better, something that would not force us to trample on everyone's rights to get the tools to make the right choices.
But, until then, until we find something that can make the World Security Council back off without the threat of the agency's dissolution, we are going to have to go ahead with this project. You did agree to this in exchange for green lighting Project Avengers."
He sighed explosively, his fists clenched, "Fine. Though, the Council has yet to debate or even listen to my first pitch on that project."
"IF you are talking about Banner, let me stop you right there. We can't be seen associating with monsters so unless and until you can confirm that the Green Beast is not a beast but just some slightly less intelligent animal, Banner will stay off the Avengers Protocol. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir."
"Great, glad I could clear it up."
The man then left his office, having waltzed in as if he owned the place.
His gaze then landed on the man with the orange outfit, the hideously orange robes that somehow, all the agents missed in the dark of the night. Freaking Orange one-sie managed to blindside all of his agents, physically bend steel, guns, and even break doors to get to his objective, with nothing being able to stop him.
Well, if he wanted the data so much… "Agent, get me Hawkeye."
Maybe it's time he set the Agent with the highest mission completion record in this case. The only reason Barton was kept out of this was because the man was smart and would smell something fishy was going on and he couldn't have that, not at this stage.
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