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 #64
The Body Temple(Gym), The Red Hearth, Mars[February 14, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
BOOM!
With a grunt, he collided with the impact measuring machine, something he picked up from a university in China, a college project for some engineering course. Anyways, it was built to measure impacts, crumple zones, calculate the effectiveness of the crumple zone, all the auto stuff.
He, however, saw a different use case for the thing.
Boom! (Since it was a much smaller sound than his)
"Nice!" He clapped as Bruce shoulder checked the machine with all he had. Yeah, he had another commissioned from the group, just in case he needed parts for one that broke down. IT was a nice little thing he did, giving a group of broke students a little pocket change since he wasn't even scammed in the deal.
This was a perfectly working, normal impact machine.
Bruce came to stand before him, now in gym clothes that did nothing to hide his muscles, with the little flab he had on his stomach gone, huffing with both his hands on his waist, "This is–" He took a breath in between before continuing, "--It's more fun than I thought it would be."
"Right?" He clapped the man's shoulder with a grin as they were currently in the Gym. His story about his supernatural adventure was taken with a huge grain of salt by Bruce, and the only thing he found true, or rather, plausible about the whole thing, was the new and advanced wards on the Red Hearth.
Bruce explained to him that he had been feeling a little odd for a couple of hours before, and could not pinpoint it. So, that got both of their SCIENCE! signals tingling as they both came to the gym.
"So?" He asked Bruce, "Feel any difference?"
According to his theory, Bruce should feel a little less interference from the Guy Below, a little less anger and rage as well. Aside from that, Bruce being enhanced even in his base form was new territory for him, so who knows how that went with the new wards. Though the impact machine definitely told him that Bruce was enhanced, even right now.
Not Luke Cage enhanced, but definitely Captain America enhanced. Him, on the other hand? Spider Man category, the movie one, not the comics one, that one sometimes duked it out with Thor, and he was in no position to do that as of now.
Mjolnir alone would just break through all of his Doors, and the best he could do was use his Kinetic Lasers since using Air, one of his A-tier abilities, would do nothing to Thor, since Storm was his domain, which also included limited aerokinesis. The Kinetic Lasers, as well, would just push Thor back and give him some burns. Burns that Thor's body would heal in seconds, if not minutes anyway.
"Yeah," Bruce said in between gulps of water, "I can definitely feel it in the recovery. I was never this tired, though I never did this strenuous exercise anyway."
He noted those observations down, acting as a good research assistant to the actual Doctor in this place, which was Bruce Banner with his seven PhDs. Wonder what happened to them now that he is declared a criminal?
Not a traitor, not yet but definitely a criminal, and with Ross soon either dead or out of active service, hopefully, Bruce will not get the giant red tag of a traitor like he did in canon.
Still, he was not going to voice out his question like an insensitive idiot.
"So, call it a day?" Bruce asked him and he nodded, "Yeah. Just–here you go, I have catalogued them according to your previous format."
He handed over the perfectly calculated readings along with a little doodle of Bruce punching at the machine, even though that was totally not what they were doing here.
"Thanks! This will help, a lot. Also, while I don't necessarily believe what you just told me earlier, this right here," Bruce gestured at the gym and the machines around him, and then at the pad as well, "-Is real and for that, I am thankful. It's still too early to tell if what your Ancient One did was helpful for me or not, but a change has been recorded, and only time will tell if it's helpful or not." With these words, Bruce just fucked right off.
Once the gym door closed, he sat on the bench and sipped on his Glacier water, all with prehistoric bacteria and viruses, and shook his head, "Man. What a guy."
Stepping into the shower, instead of turning on the shower that drew upon water from the Red Hearth's reservoir, he drew upon a Door and blasted himself with cold water.
The benefits of having an entire dimension of water at your beck and call meant he could get wet anywhere in the world. Okay, that came out wrong.
He shivered a bit because, despite his enhanced physique, he was still susceptible to cold, and the water he had summoned was very, very cold. It was one of the bottom layers of water.
Absurd not conforming to reality's laws, fact, the Water dimension was essentially just an ocean. He did not know if it was spherical or rectangular. All that mattered was that there was an up and there was a down. There were levels to the water.
So, when he opens a Door, he can decide from which layer he wants to get the water from. Ranging from lukewarm to straight up water that has not frozen over only because it did not have the appropriate atmospheric conditions to do so.
Not opening the dimension of Fire to just dry himself off since that would just burn him, even if only a bit, he wiped himself down with a towel and then headed to his office.
The thought of Ross had him itching to know the man's current condition. Hopefully, out of military service already, if not dead. He knew the people in charge wanted an attack dog they could conveniently put the blame on and Ross probably knew that but even Ross and his unique brand of madness must know that if he had limited days to live, he might as well use the fortune and power he had amassed to give himself a comfortable ride to Death.
He still felt a little odd about the whole thing, not because he was the one who gave Ross cancer, but because he felt nothing while giving Ross cancer. Sure, it was done in the haze of rage, after having discovered his willingness to kill soldiers to pin more crimes on Bruce, but even after having performed the act, he felt nothing.
No regret, no guilt.
Just a quiet satisfaction that Ross will not be–
He choked on thin air as he saw a video. Checking and double checking the timestamp, he saw that it was shot just yesterday, showing Ross, hale and healthy, if only a bit red.
Not just healthy, but even a bit more jacked up than he was that night.
"What the f*ck?" He whispered as he got closer to the monitor and started getting to the bottom of things.
He knew, for a fact, that Ross should have been at least hobbling with a stick, if not bedridden entirely. He did not give the man benign cancer. No indication of sickness, no hospital visits, aside from mandatory Military ones that had nothing anomalous in the reports.
Obviously, the reports were doctored, but the video was not. It was a public event, and for some godforsaken reason, Ross was fine.
His eyes widened as he sat ramrod straight. Immediately, he began hammering away at his keyboard while saying the same thing over and over again.
"No, no, no. SHIT!" He exclaimed as he saw the paperwork.
Samuel Sterns….was declared dead.
The Leader….is on the loose.
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