DoorMan (MCU SI) - #126

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.