Doorman (MCU SI)

[Jao]

Considering it payback for forcing him to live on Earth where he was constrained, psionically, magically and mentally, just to monitor a single person. Granted, TOny Stark was supposed to be the uber saviour of the human race, according to Colin but he was unsure based on previous actions of the Merchant of Death.

Click to shrink...

Tony*

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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 #40

Stark Industries HQ[January 23, 2008]

–Colin Baxter–

He calmly waited in the pantry area, with 5 other interns, all of whom were notable names even at their age. They were supposed to mingle using this time but what the hell were the HR people thinking, putting a bunch of chronically online socially awkward teenagers in a room to socialise on their own accord?

If it is not a requirement, most of these nerds wouldn't even step out of their dorms. Still, it would be nice to network with people who would understand his work and then he would finally have someone in his life who would appreciate the blood, sweat, and–okay, he didn't work that hard but still, it counted for something.

"Hi, I am Colin Baxter." He offered his hand to the closest person in the vicinity who was an Asian teenager with thick glasses. He was really not doing the stereotypes any favour here, with hair slick back, bulky glasses, and an overall lanky build. Come to think of it, out of all the 6 of them, he was the most bulked out and he wouldn't even call himself a bulky dude, just a lean muscled guy.

Not that he could even gain bulky muscle because, apparently, CHI decides the optimal use for muscles and with the way his muscles were nourished with CHI, the more strength he gains, the denser his muscle fibres become instead of just becoming bigger, so, no becoming a professional bodybuilder to explain his strength since he would just becoming heavier as his strength increased.

"Hi. I am Jack Slash." The man eagerly shook his hand as he began making small talk with him. Something to pass the time at least since it was clear that this was one of the metrics they would use later on to review the internship applicants. Social skills were pretty important, after all.

After a while, the topic rounded back to tech, since they did not have much in common. He tried asking Jack about gym, exercise, and even Badminton since that was the one sport he played very well, and for all of these questions, the answer was in negative so he pivoted to things he knew everyone in the room had an interest in, nerdy shit.

"Oh yeah, I read both of your papers on the IP stuff. You have some really great ideas–"

"Yeah, but they will remain ideas, until the world plays catch up with networking hardware. With the industry being monopolised, there is very little chance we can see any funding come your way for the next generation of efficiency in the Internet. It's a shame, I'm sure it would have brought down basically everything in terms of cost, at least in the long run but we all know that the executives calling the shots at publicly traded corporations rarely if ever think that long term." He turned slightly to see an African-American man approach him.

Wow, was he tall, taller than even him, "Hi. I'm James Bourbon."

"Hi. I'm Colin Baxter."

"Yes, I am aware. I follow your work regularly. You have remarkable determination to have 3 things going on all at once in your life. Your academia, your freelance work, and even this open source project. I would love to chat over some of your more experimental ideas that require a Quantum Processor to perform the calculations needed for a global bus that every single device can ride on."

He smiled and nodded, "Yeah, sure. I would love to get another opinion on it. Between us, I don't think I will see that happening anytime soon. Not just because every university and company that has a Quantum Computer has flat out denied me their use but also because it will turn a single place into a target, centralising most of the communications on the planet into a single control unit, which while supremely efficient secure, would ultimately fail at the human error test."

James nodded, "I wholeheartedly agree. Technology is neither good nor evil, it's the humans that make use of it. In that case, whoever, the risk of it being used for evil is so high that it is better not to make it at all."

He nodded, and then turned to the door as someone from the Orientation team had finally come.

"Alright, people, let's get you your badges."

—-

He yawned in boredom as the HR guy explained the security principles to them for the second time. Did he not know one of the people here was actually hired by one of the three letter government agencies to do something highly illegal on their behalf? Probably not.

After that, somehow it was time for the lunch break as they were herded to a cordoned off area with a small buffet arranged for the six of them and their Orientation mentor. As he ate the no doubt tasty and good quality food, his mind drifted to what was happening here.

He was beginning to have some doubts about this whole endeavour but he couldn't back out, not now anyway. Might as well just go through the two months and then decide if doing this is worth it or not.

_____xx_____

Red Hearth

–Bruce Banner–

He was in comfortable gym clothing as he lifted the handle with more and more weights until it finally became too much for him and stopped. Looking at the weight on the machine, it showed a staggering 300 pounds of weight being lifted from the small handle coming from the ground.

He stepped back and wiped off his sweat as he realised that he didn't even feel that bad. This was not supposed to be possible. Not only did he not have the required muscle mass to lift something that heavy, he also did not have the training to do it properly and regular practice for his muscles to get them used to lifting so heavy.

Jin'Ya, the resident dragon, had told him that he was going to stay on Earth for an important mission and would only check in from time to time. His method of checking in was odd as well because all he saw was a bunch of meat products being airlifted from the kitchen and into a portal that led to who knows where on Earth.

For the time being, he was all alone on the Red Hearth and while it was nice to have a safe environment, where he knew Ross would never be able to reach, it was also kind of lonely. He started playing online games on the absolutely stacked out machines that Colin had in this place but even that got old after just a couple of hours of playing.

There was just too much profanity in that space for him to properly enjoy it as a beginner.

That was why he was here, in the gym, to workout because, intellectually, he knew that exercise was the best legal antidepressant there is. Granted, Colin could probably get him all sorts of pills but he wanted to at least try doing it the hard way.

As it turned out, he was different now. Not just as Hulk but even as plain old Bruce, he was much stronger than he should be.

The machine on the ground was the perfect test. It has a very uncomfortable lifting position, with a single handle coming out of the ground, which was very short and barely fit both of his hands on it, and to lift the handle with all his might.

The machine would progressively increase the load and in the end, give you a figure on how much weight he lifted. Never in his life has he ever done strength training. No weightlifting, nothing.

The best he had done before this was cardio and even the majority of that was running, on treadmills and away from the military.

Sighing, he wiped the meagre sweat and moved on to the next machine. The next time he met Colin, he'd need to see about getting some medical stuff as well because he absolutely had to study his own body now.

He did notice the fact that he was vastly more resistant to cold as he trekked through the snowy Canadian wilderness but having a vastly stronger body that could potentially grow stronger?

That was a game changer, for the right as well as the wrong reasons.

The inner scientist in him would not stop until he was at the root of his mutation, and now that he had a safe space to pace himself, he could finally do the thing he was best at.

SCIENCE!

And not SMASH!



If you guys would like to support me, or just want to read up to 15 chapters ahead, you can head on to my P*treon. It is the same name as my username.

 

[Jao]

"Hi. I am Jack Slash." The man eagerly shook his hand as he began making small talk with him. Something to pass the time at least since it was clear that this was one of the metrics they would use later on to review the internship applicants. Social skills were pretty important, after all.

Click to shrink...

Is Jack a serial killer?

 

[Orphiex]

Is Jack a serial killer?

Click to shrink...

Yeah, that's also where my head went at first, but as a hacker handle it makes sense given how important the "backslash" character is in programming.