DoorMan (MCU SI) - #128 : New Relic?

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. 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.