ã€ŠThe Sage of the Mindã€‹


 Chapter 1 : Wrong Lever, kronk!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind : Chapter 1

    ¨C?--

    ¡°Argh¡­¡± The world came back into focus as his vision cleared from being blurry to being clear. Unfortunately, that didn¡¯t change much because previously he was staring at a mass of blurry white and now he was staring at a much clearer but still a mass of white, i.e., snow. He had somehow found himself face down ass up in the middle of someplace that was covered with snow.

    Yup, there went his face. It was numb now. With a pained grunt, he pushed himself up to make sure that he didn¡¯t frostbite from all the snow he was in. There he was, on all fours, looking at his surroundings, the snow filled surroundings and he had just a single thing to say to the asshole who had sent him here, to this deathworld of an universe camouflaged as a happy go camping universe where the heroes always win and the villains always lose and the rare scenario where there happens to be a grey person, he always, always, turns to the good side, ensuring a happy ending once and for all.

    ¡°Fuck you!¡± He roared at the sky, hoping that his message would reach the asshole ROB.

    But that was in the movies. He knew that things like that didn¡¯t happen in the real world. He was sure that with his luck, he would end up being an example for all the other reincarnators who might end up in any version of the MCU. Atleast, that was what that ROB had told him. That it was his job to process thousands of such applications, like his own and then send them on their randomized way.

    ¡°Huff,¡± He huffed as he began lumbering towards a direction he chose randomly. He had gotten no clue of his current location aside from it being in the middle of nowhere. Coincidentally, that middle of nowhere was also snowing heavily and he was dressed in a T-shirt and Jeans. That bastard couldn¡¯t even be bothered to give him weather appropriate clothing. Well, atleast, he was not comp-letley without help.

    He did have his sweet sweet powers package after all. He had multiple choices to choose from which were also customisable so he had chosen the Sage Force package but with the full package, he would have had to go to Worm to balance out the options. So, he had modified the option to become an incomplete avatar of the Sage. Instead of becoming the all powerful avatar of a cosmic force that would have gone on to enhance his intelligence to untold levels all the while granting him powers like telepathy, telekinesis and a host of other sub psionic energies while also enhancing his body to such a level that he would have been able to easily defeat even the strongest of normal humans with ease, he chose the option to have the power of telekinesis (on par with what he would have had if he had become the full avatar) and the physical enhancements that would have been awarded to him. That was enough of a drawback apparently that he could choose his home universe to be MCU instead of Worm.

    So, despite his current conditions that would have most certainly been deadly for anybody else, they were more of an annoyance to someone of his powers. Speaking of powers, he raised his hands, palms pointed at a particularly annoying tree in his way and just pushed with his mind.

    To his amazement, with a muted thud sound, the moderately large tree fell on another tree like it was being pushed by an invisible hand, which, in a way, it was. He looked at his hands in amazement as he looked at the tree and this time, without any hand gestures, pulled. He had to back up a few steps as the tree ended up falling in his direction this time but just at the last moment, as it was about to hit the ground, he halted the tree in its tracks, with just his mind. He knew that he had the powers of telekinesis but knowing and seeing the actual results of that was a whole other thing.

    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    If he was correct, which he thought he was, the upper limit of his telekinetic powers would basically be the limit of his mind and what his body can handle. Conversely, the Sage Force actually continuously enhances the body of its avatar so that the avatar can access even more of its powers, creating a loop that is wonderful for him. Judging from the ease with which he uprooted a tree that had a pretty extensive and strong root system, he was pretty strong as he was now and he would only grow stronger. The mere thought of that filled him with excitement. Now, all he had to do was find out where he was and figure out his way back to the nearest civilization. On that note, he began trudging his way through the snow in the same direction as before.

    As he was walking, his form froze before he immediately pulled the tree and then jumped on it. He then pulled his arm in front of him and then made a pulling gesture which lifted the tree off the ground. He held on to the tree with his powers as he lifted the tree and found his mood worsening as he saw a white wasteland as far as his gaze could go. He growled under his breath and pushed the tree to go towards the mountains. An aspect of his telekinesis was that it allowed him to create a radar of sorts that gave him a rough idea of the matter around him in a very vast area. Ofcourse, he could not yet use his powers on matter in that vast range because the farther he was from the area being affected, the weaker his powers would be and as he was now, his powers would only work well in roughly a hundred meters in every direction.

    As such, he had noticed something odd about that mountain. He continued to speed up the tree as he weathered the harsh cold dry winds that whipped his face, his enhanced constitution allowing him to weather them.

    His ears perked up as he heard the sound of metal clashing and men screaming and grunting. He was confused so he slowed down his speed and chose to gain more altitude before passing over the mountain. His confusion increased when he heard some words that sounded more like gibberish and nothing like any modern language he had ever heard of. His confusion turned into wide eyed horror when he saw what was happening at the base of the mountain.

    Somehow, there was a fort constructed on the side of the mountain and people were fighting outside the gates of the fort. People were wearing medieval armour and were fighting with spears and swords instead of guns and bombs.

    As far as he could see, the people defending the fort were losing but they were putting up a very hard fight. HE could see men falling down left, right and centre and yet, he could not find anything around the fort or even in the distance that could indicate where he was other than somewhere around the Poles? He was not very good at geography.

    He was about to lower down the tree and at least stop that senseless loss of life but the moment he tried to go down, his tree felt like it had hit something and bounced back, almost making him fall off from a height of hundreds of feet.

    ¡°Wha-¡± He muttered, disoriented, as his neck whipped around, trying to look for the culprit. Upon finding nobody and nothing, he once again tried to lower the tree but he was stopped the same as last time.

    Okay, this was getting a little serious, he thought to himself as he gained altitude and tried to look for the person or thing that was responsible for stopping him. He was about to turn around and go back when his entire body froze in its tracks as he spotted someone floating in front of him.

    The person was wearing robes that were very loose and was floating seemingly unaided on thin air. Both of his hands were in his sleeves as an ominous feeling entered his mind. Something in his mind was screaming at him to get away from this person and considering that he was, even if incomplete, an avatar of the Sage Force, he complied with that feeling and pulled the tree away from the person as hard as he could. That might have been a bad decision considering he had no idea how fast the tree would go and if he could hold on to it or not but before any of those things could happen, he felt as if the very space surrounding him was pressing him from all sides, effectively immobilizing him. He could not even move a finger and even breathing was becoming harder and harder as time went on. His vision began blurring as the figure in front of him didn¡¯t even move before he found himself being captured with contemptuous ease.

    He was the avatar of the Sage Force and was going to do great things with his powers. Get all the money and all the supermodel girls that were totally out of his league in his previous life. Earn so much money and donate so much that it would make many people¡¯s lives easier, all the while living a life of luxury as well. He had also hoped to tap that sweet Black Widow ass but before any of his juvenile dreams could come true, he found himself being suffocated by someone he didn¡¯t see the face of.

    Avatar of the Sage Force. What a joke!

    Those were the last thoughts that went through his mind before darkness overtook his vision and he succumbed to darkness.

    This is the story of Axle Riddle¡­.

 Chapter 2 : Zoinks!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind : Chapter 2

    ¨C?--

    He sighed in exhaustion and part pain as his joints continued to flare up whenever he made any elaborate movements. ¡°Ah, thank the Vishanti for this spell,¡± He murmured to himself as his body was covered in a green glow that alleviated the chronic pain he was inflicted with ever since he was hit by one of Dormammu¡¯s spells. Only this time, instead of increasing his lifespan, he was aged almost instantly before he could have dispelled the spell.

    He looked at the unconscious body of the person he was warned about by the Vishanti themselves. Apparently, that boy was some sort of fulcrum in the story that was being woven in the heart of the omniverse. A place where the multiverses collide and the Vishanti wanted him to be captured before he could gain a foothold of any sort. Somehow, he could not feel the boy becoming some sort of villain that would threaten the multiverse but the Vishanti were technically his bosses and he was not so stupid so as to believe that they had multiple agents beside him who could have just as easily done that same job.

    It wasn''t even hard, the boy didn¡¯t even notice when he had been pushed into the mirror dimension, allowing him to easily pressure his body from all sides by manipulating the space around him and then once he was unconscious, let the pressure off. He wasn¡¯t going to kill the boy after all. He looked quite young for someone with enough powers to uplift an entire stone building with ease.

    To his eyes, it was quite evident that the boy was untrained and was nowhere near his current limit, let alone his full potential but even then, he had more than enough power to threaten and even kill most of the sorcerers of Kamar Taj and even some of the more research oriented Masters of Kamar Taj. Not all of them had to be master combatants to be MAsters, after all. IT was written in the bylaws by Agomotto himself that becoming a Master was the sign of being sufficiently advanced in the field of sorcery while being acknowledged by their peers.

    ¡°So troublesome,¡± He said to himself before flicking his arms, creating multiple tongs of eldritch energy to appear over the prone form of the boy and lift him up only before the tongs could touch the boy, some sort of force appeared out of the body and disintegrated the tongs. He tensed, multiple eldritch constructs in the shape of arms appearing from his back. One of them created a shield and the other arm glowed a sickly green as it readied a spell. The other arms were reared back, creating an orb of energy that was pulling everything around it, even the air.

    The boy¡¯s body began glowing blue before it began floating in air, all the while the aura around the boy was increasing, creating shockwaves of air around him due to the sheer pressure exuded by the entity possessing the boy.

    ¡°Identify yourself,¡± He said and took a step forward, even as the air around them began picking up hurricane level speeds.

    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    The boy¡¯s prone body jerked before the boy came to stand on his own two feet and yet, he could confirm that the boy was not piloting his body. Someone, something else was using his body to do this and he couldn¡¯t figure out how. In the mirror dimension, he was more powerful than most beings on the planet, let alone some untrained body. ¡°Hello, Sorcerer Supreme. May I ask why  you have stopped us?¡±

    Yao, the current Sorcerer Supreme of this earth, jerked as the voice was directly transmitted into his mind, as if it had ignored mental shields that had been built after decades of painstaking cultivation.

    ¡°May I ask who you are? As the sorcerer Supreme, it is my duty to defend my realm from outer threats and this boy was definitely not born here,¡± He intoned in a calm voice , trying to suppress his fears from appearing on his face. It had been decades since anyone had breached his mental shields without him even knowing about it. The voice was also very different from normal ones. It felt as if hundreds of different voices were speaking into his ear at the same time. The voice was also accompanied with a jarring effect, disoriented him briefly before he was able to gather his bearings.

    ¡°Who we are is of no concern to you. We have a deal with the higher gods of this realm and as such, do no understand why our avatar has been stopped before he reaches his intended destination,¡± The voice had taken a different tone this time, rambling something about outer gods but before he could say anything, his body jerked as he felt a bast otherworldly presence enter his mind. He could do nothing but watch in horror as his body was taken over by Agomotto himself.He would have questioned the need of such a drastic move if he wasn¡¯t in so much disbelief over the fact that his carefully crafted defenses which were never down had been breached effortlessly by two different entities in a matter of hours. He was then put to sleep by Agomotto before he could hear anything of their conversation.

    When he opened his eyes, it was to a strange portal that had opened up in front of them with the boy¡¯s body hovering in front of him, even as his eyes remained closed and his body was covered in that strange blue glow, indicating that the entity possessing him had not left yet. He was unsure of what to do but before he could do or say anything, the boy¡¯s body entered the portal which was made up with energies that were hard to look at. The event horizon was also not the normal orange flame when a sorcerer portal was opened. Instead, it was colored in different colours, sometimes green and sometimes blue, it switched between those colours.

    He could only watch with his mouth agape as his hands were pointed in the position to open a portal but the moment the portal closed, he hissed as he hastily removed his sling ring and dumped it on the snow below.

    The snow immediately melted and the water vaporised as the sling ring glowed hot red due to the sheer heat. It then melted the ground it was on and continued to sink in the ground, creating a red lava like area around it.

    He looked at his hand as it continued to throb in pain. He was about to cast a spell before his body seized up in pain for some reason. He soon realised the reason. His body had been overdrafted in terms of its mystic ability and coupled with the curse¡¯s effect on his body, his body was shutting down, rather painfully at that.

    ¡°Huh, so this is how it feels,¡± He muttered as his eyes rolled up and he collapsed on the ground, finally being on the same side as his enemies who had been betrayed by their patron deities at the last moment. Somehow, Agomotto doing that to him felt more like a betrayal than he had thought.

    He knew that he was not destined for a peaceful end but this was so unfair. Being killed by the backlash of a spell that he did not even cast?

    So lame¡­.

    <hr>

    If you want to read ahead, you can head to my P*treon

 Chapter 3 : Reverse Yoink!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 3

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Okay, what the fuck was going on. He had fainted by some sneak attack by some yellow-robed bastard before he had even spent a day in his new universe. He did not know if he was even alive or not. The space he was currently in, looked awfully similar to the one he had been in when he had died and was sent to the MCU with his powers. Nowhere in the fine print, it was written that he would encounter someone way out of his league in the hours he would be there nor was it written that he would be thrown into that world when the people were still fighting wars with swords and spears, not guns and mortar.

    He, in his soul form, continued to pace around in the black-and-white space for a seemingly long time, muttering profanities against the ROB who sent him here with such an early ending. He was cheated out of it too. He was promised that the world would not deviate even a little bit from the canon MCU timeline up to the point he was inserted into it. He was also promised that while life and death could not be guaranteed in the MCU, he would most likely get enough time to prepare for foes beyond his ken. He had been placated with that as the Sage FOrce was powerful enough, at least according to him. If he needed more of it, he could have asked the Ancient One to teach him.

    ¡°Sorry for that,¡± He whipped around to glare at the new entry into this mind space.

    ¡°What the fuck just happened out there? I didn''t even get a chance to say a word before I was out,¡± He hissed out at the offending light even though looking straight at the light hurt his eyes for some reason.

    The light placatingly said, ¡°Calm down. Don¡¯t worry about this situation. Some third parties interfered in your placement into your designated universe. That situation is solved now so don¡¯t worry about it for now. You will now wake up in an alley in the 21st Century.¡±

    He sighed in relief at that piece of information. He was not keen on living in the medieval age, bereft of all the modern amenities he was so used to. What was the point of having all this power if he couldn''t even live the life he wanted to live and by the time some modernities came back into his life, he would be too old to even enjoy them, making his second life a major waste of his karmic points that he had accrued somehow. He did not even know what he had done to collect those karmic points but he was glad that something he had done in his lifetime had helped him, even if it meant that he had died very young.

    His relief was cut short when the white light continued, ¡°Well, there has been a slight complication in your scenario,¡±

    He tensed at that, ¡°WHAT?¡±

    ¡°There were problems with your release. The VIshanti of the MCU have taken an interest in you for some reason and were adamant in making sure that you were under their thumb or at least in their sphere of influence. We have obviously stopped them from doing that but in exchange for leaving you alone, they have certain conditions that, unfortunately, we had to agree to,¡± The voice seemed regretful about that as it sighed as well.

    ¡°Just spit it out,¡± He shouted at the light, his voice trembling, the day going nothing like he had imagined when he had been first told that he was going to be reincarnated.

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°In exchange for a non-interference clause, they have made us geo-lock your location until a few conditions are met. You will be bound to the island of Manhattan until the New York Invasion of Chitauri happens. After the invasion is done, you will be free to move about the universe. I suggest you do everything you can in the meantime to improve upon your powers,¡± The light said in a single breath.

    There was pin-drop silence as even his breathing, as much as his soul form could breathe, had stopped.

    Being trapped on Manhattan Island? That didn¡¯t seem that bad until you realised that every single major bad event could be traced back to that place. Also, suppose he gained enough power that he could easily prevent the invasion from happening. He didn¡¯t know about everything else but he could, with practice, knock out Loki and his forces once they arrived at Stark Tower to open the portal, thus preventing the Chitauri INvasion at the last moment.

    But that would mean that he would be constrained to that island for the rest of his life. Even if he grew strong enough to beat Thanos at that point, it would be very hard to create a scenario where he could confront Thanos with his powers. No, he would be lucky to have some sort of sway in that fight if he was trapped in that place.

    No, he would have to get out of that place and gain his freedom. Speaking of freedom, he turned to the light,

    ¡°Any limits on my power?¡±

    ¡°No, as a trade-off for the geo-restrictions, the ceiling on your telekinesis and spatial awareness has been removed. With a couple of years of practice, you will have more than enough power to influence things on the entire island of Manhattan with ease. You will also gain extra-dimensional sensory powers so you can easily cover the entirety of the state of NYC with your powers, just remember that the longer the distance, the weaker the powers,¡±

    He sighed at that. In the comics, he had read that having the Sage Force meant having access to powers that could one day be enough to cover the entirety of the planet in awareness and then some. He would definitely grow strong enough to stop the Invasion then.

    He would make sure the Invasion happened on time but there was no major fallout from that battle, ensuring that he had the moral high ground for essentially facilitating the INvasion.

    ¡°Okay. I am ready. I just hope that there are no more problems from your side,¡±

    The light brightened a little bit at that, ¡°You have my word. In exchange, you will get a starter¡¯s pack so you can survive without using your powers for a bit,¡±

    That was the last thing he heard before his vision darkened once again as he felt his body going through a series of tunnels before being roughly dropped on something hard.

    New York Sanctum

    ¨CAncient One¨C

    She was deep into her meditation, verifying the timeline she had plucked out of millions of other possibilities when her entire magical system went haywire for a moment as she was pulled out of her visions and back into her body.

    She gasped as she tried to stop the violent beatings of her heart. Somehow, something had happened inside the shield on the planet that had pulled her back from her meditation. It was an old spell that somebody had tied to the post of the Sorcerer Supreme. She just never thought that the conditions for triggering it would ever happen.

    She pulled her Astral Form and flew out of the New York Sanctum and her entire astral body froze in sheer terror as she looked at the multi-colored barrier that surrounded the island of Manhattan. The sheer power those symbols were emitting was enough to discourage her from going anywhere close to that. She pulled her Astral Form back into her body and called for an emergency in Kamar Taj, ensuring that the Sanctums were protected.

    She then went towards the curtain that covered Manhattan, hoping to uncover who or what placed it there for what reason.

    For some reason, she found her throat becoming dry as the power of that barrier meant that someone even stronger than Dormammu or even the Vishanti had placed it there. This was way out of her league yet at the end of the day, she was the Sorcerer Supreme and this was her sworn duty.

    <hr>

    If you want to read ahead, you can head to my P*treon

 Chapter 4 : Homicide Prevented!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 4

    A shady Alley, Manhattan, NYC

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°Urgh,¡± A groan escaped his lips as he lifted his smushed face that was stuck on gravel and dirt. He blinked the spots out of his vision as he tried to get back feeling to most of his extremities. When his vision finally cleared up, he looked at his surroundings and then at the adjoining street where he could see people with phones in their hands, headphones on, and modern cars zipping around and then, promptly collapsed back on the ground.

    ¡°Fucking finally,¡± He muttered to himself as he could see that he had actually returned to the modern world this time, not some medieval world where he would not even get easy access to soap let alone the various entertainment types that he had grown accustomed to.

    He then sat upright and saw that he was dressed properly this time and he also had something sticking out from his pant¡¯s back pocket. Wiggling a bit, he reached into the pocket awkwardly and removed it, revealing a small black box that was akin to a ring box. He then gingerly opened that box and promptly yelped as the box spewed out a number of things. Hoping nobody saw that, he reached out to the contents and was delighted to find a wallet that had a number of things, the principle between them was cash and an identity. He never thought he would cry at the sight of a  Social Security Card. He hurriedly went through the rest of the wallet and found multiple other important identification documents, such as a driving license along with a rental agreement of some sort for the next 11 months. Well, that was certainly helpful.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go get me some hot food,¡± He muttered to himself before standing up and dusting his rear. He looked around to check if there were any residues from his entry and after being satisfied that there was nothing out of the ordinary there, he whistled and began walking into the city life merrily.

    ¡°Taxi!¡± He hailed a cab and then just showed him the address in the rental agreement. The driver looked at him weirdly for a moment but then shrugged when he showed that he did have the cash to pay him. The ride did not take long. In 20 minutes, they were standing in front of a building that looked old enough to be of a sturdy nature but not so old that it would fall over at any moment.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± He paid the driver and looked at the apartment number. He also apparently did have a key to it and it was sitting in his front pockets. He sadly did not have a phone yet so he would have to procure that. Then again, it would not be hard to procure a burner phone here in America.

    He nodded at the doorman and went up to his apartment and opened it using the very old-style key that was given to him. He didn''t know what he expected from the apartment but it was all very¡­normal. It was a standard 2-bedroom apartment. The rent was already paid for the rest of the year. He might have to start looking for a job to sustain himself but from the looks of it, he had everything he could need for at least an entire month. Well, he was still not sure of the time period he had landed in and for that, he had just the right thing to check. He looked at his feet where a couple of newspapers were lying around, apparently having been slipped through the door every day. At least, it told him that people still read newspapers which meant that he was still aways from the 2010s.

    ¡°Let¡¯s see,¡± He picked up the newspapers and was shocked to see the news of two jets being shot down by the US military, their goal being the World Trade Centre. That newspaper was over a week old. He went through all of them and saw that the latest newspaper was on 20th September 2006. God, he hoped that it was right because it meant that he still had over 5 years to hone his powers to an acceptable level.

    ¡°Well, let¡¯s get to work, shall we?¡± He asked himself as he let his powers loose. Ever since he had woken up here, his powers seemed as if they were just dying to bubble forth. He had been keeping a tight leash on them in fear of somebody seeing something they shouldn''t see but now that he was in his, relatively, safe haven, he let go of the lid he kept on his powers.

    Instantly, as if a switch had been lit, his awareness exploded. He could feel what was happening in the entire building and then some. He could pinpoint the location of every single human in the building. He could see that most of them were moving about, working in their houses.

    He could also feel two couples three floors above him engaging in carnal activities, together. He could feel the water moving through the pipes and he just knew that he could stop that flow of water if he so wished. Honestly, the influence he could wield in that area of awareness was incredible. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the rooftop. He could feel various items just strewn about on the rooftop. Most of it was long rectangular bars of some metal. Steel bars probably were just kept there and forgotten. He reached out with his mind to one of the bars and tried to lift it. To his surprise, there was hardly any effort required to lift that steel bar, though to be fair, it was just six floors above him. He then floated it to the side of the building, reoriented it, and then slowly, carefully floated it down, right up until it was visible from his window.

    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Careful to not show any reaction in case anyone was watching, he let the bar go down until it fell down on the curb with a clanging sound.

    He would have loved to experiment more but his stomach chose that exact moment to growl in hunger. Right, he had forgotten that he had not eaten anything and he was feeling awfully hungry. Hopping over to the kitchen, he could see multiple flyers for Chinese takeout places but he had no phone to call them so he was just about to head out when he saw something very ancient. Something that would have looked very out of place in the time period he was in but was still in use in the current era, it would seem.

    He saw a landline connection. He made his way over excitedly and dialed the number for the takeout and with the stereotypical ringing sound, the place picked up. He recited the address to them after placing his order and hung up.

    ¡°Huh, neat,¡± He commented and placed down the phone.

    ¡°Next order of business,¡± He muttered to himself as he closed all the blinds and then sat down cross-legged in the living room. He then focused on his powers and his senses. He could feel his body and then his apartment, then the building but after that, there seemed to be some sort of wall that hindered his senses. It was as if he had not unlocked that part of the map yet.

    He focused on that wall and tried to break it if that made any amount of sense. He went at it for quite a while and it did yield some success because he could feel the wall becoming less ¡°opaque¡± somehow. He could feel the buildings on the other side of the wall after some time but they were still very blurry and not at all like the accurate awareness he could gain after focusing on just the building and the curb outside the building.

    Case in point, he could feel the building¡¯s super and doorman just standing there on the curb, looking at the bar of steel in confusion because it just sat there. At the height it had fallen from, it should have either drilled a hole in the curb or just broken apart due to all the rust it had accumulated. Instead, it fell gently on the ground as if it had been gently dropped from a very nominal height.

    He snickered at their confusion and looked at the other occupants of the building. He knew that it was a violation of their privacy but honestly? They were living in America, the land of the free. They knew that they were under 24/7 surveillance anyway. In some cases, the people signed away their right to privacy just for some entertainment and a really convenient way to communicate with people.

    His brows furrowed as he looked at the couple who lived on the top floor penthouse. It was really big and luxurious, judging from the number of heavy items he could sense in their house. He could also feel them fighting and each of them throwing things at each other. One of them was running around and throwing stuff at the other person and the other person was running after them with a knife?!

    He immediately reached out with his powers and to his horror, the person did seem to be holding a very sharp metallic object. He had to do something to stop them but he couldn''t just go up and do that. How could he justify him being there and if the person tried to attack him as well, he might have to expose his powers?

    Oh, OH! He could just stop them from here. He focused on the knife first and just yanked it out of the man¡¯s hand and threw it at the wall with such force that it buried itself to the hilt. There, now that the knife was out of the play, he could focus on the people.

    Slowly, carefully, he imagined two hands and wrapped them around both of their throats. He gently began applying force. He could feel them clawing at their throats in an effort to pry the invisible hands off but there was nothing they could do. He then banged their heads together with minimal force. It took him three more times before he could feel both of them passing out from either the head trauma or the suffocation, either one was not very good.

    He should have tried to knock them out from the neck but he had neither the finesse nor the know-how of doing that. He might as well have chopped their necks clean off so he had to resort to this.

    He sighed in resignation. Now, what could he do? He sensed a phone in their apartment and slowly floated it down to his window. With his eyes, he pressed 911 and then left it in the apartment. He made sure to create some noise that could indicate a fight happening but that was the extent of it.

    He would have to figure out how to non-lethally subdue people using his powers because he could foresee this happening a lot as his awareness range increased.

    The ringing bell and the announcement of ¡°Delivery!¡± brought solace to his soul as he rushed to the door and sighed in happiness once the delicious fragrance of Chinese food reached his nose.

    He would deal with that situation later. First food then a murder attempt.

    <hr>

    If you want to read ahead, you can head to my P*treon

 Chapter 5 : A stroll in Manhattan

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 5

    Upper West Side, Manhattan [21st Sept. 2006]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Ugh. So many rich people.

    The mere sight of them was enough to find out he had landed in the rich neighborhood which was fine. It was always assuring to have filthy rich people in your neighborhood. Better protection, better schools, less noise, better traffic, and overall, a place where crime is reduced is what is the result of having filthy rich people in your neighborhood, especially if they are white. What it also created was an underbelly of illicit and illegal activities that he made no particular effort to stop. Having rich white people in the neighborhood just meant that the government services that should be equal for everyone, are just plain better for this neighborhood. It was unfair but that was how it worked in some parts of the world. He had known that in the back of his mind but seeing that just hit the fact home.

    In the walk he had taken to get a bagel early in the morning, he had encountered no less than a dozen different dealers selling drugs to people who had plenty of cash to spare. He had also stopped 2 more homicides from occurring in the exact same way he did yesterday. He thought that creating a MO like that should help create his name.

    He hoped to expand his sensory range and help stop even more crimes but for the time being, he was fine with the way things were. It didn¡¯t help his confidence in human beings that for every block he crossed, he sensed some sort of crime happening to someone. Sure, some of them were petty crimes and he had no intention of stopping them but some of them were violent crimes or at least had the intention of doing violent crimes. Why else would that nondescript yellow taxi be carrying a dozen automatic rifles in their trunk? He subtly destroyed their triggers as well as bent their muzzles slightly so that the guns were no longer usable.

    He had found this morning that his sensory range had expanded a bit on its own. The fog that was there just past the building and the curb now expanded to cover multiple buildings around his own building, allowing him to find the numerous crimes that were happening in each of those buildings. God, just from a sample of about 5000 people, he had stopped almost a dozen violent crimes from happening. What would the rest of New York be? What would the high-crime zones be like?

    No wonder the Police are overrun with cases. Well, that and bureaucratic nonsense coupled with corruption meant that no matter how high the budget the police might get, getting rid of crime was not a job for their profile.

    For that, they needed someone who worked outside the framework. And that someone might just, someday, be him. He had over 5 years to hone his powers in preparation for D-Day. He had taken to calling the CHitauri Invasion as D-Day. It was kinda tacky but he liked it.

    He was sure that 5 years would be more than enough time to become able to secure the sceptre once it was just lying down, having fallen from Loki¡¯s grasp and then jamming it straight into the cube, after guiding the nuke into the portal, of course. He did not want to turn into ash because of a stupid decision that a handful of people sitting in their bunkers made. He also literally could not get out of Manhattan if he wanted to. The condition was that he would gain his freedom after the INvasion but he did not know exactly when.

    Would it be right after the portal opened?

    Would it be after the portal was closed and every Chitauri was taken care of?

    He did not know and that scared him a bit. It was not as if he could go to someone for guidance. According to that ROB, he had been accosted by the agents of the Vishanti for some reason and they had dragged him from his destination universe into some other universe for their own purposes. Of course, it was stopped but the ROB had no other way to send him to his destination other than taking the help of the VIshanti who paid some sort of heavy price to open a universal portal to send him here. That increased his paranoia and vigilance towards Kamar-Taj. From all the fanfics he had read in his free and not-so-free time when he should have been working, going to Kamar Taj to gain both power and knowledge was almost surely the best way to gain a foothold in the Marvel world. Thinking about it, it was true. Kamar Taj provided for all of your necessities along with giving a safe learning environment where literal magic was taught. You were also given the option to gain your own relic, a literal magical superweapon of sorts. Then, there was the guidance of the Ancient One who was so old that she had actually forgotten her name. Or maybe, she sacrificed it for power, he didn¡¯t exactly know.

    If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    So, he had taken the decision to expressly avoid them, at least until he was sufficiently powerful. For the time being, his focus was on finding a job and then becoming self-sustaining. That was going to be a little tough because he had an English degree in this world. He did have the identity part set up though so it won¡¯t be hard to find a job that is above board but getting one will be hard¡­.enough.

    ¡°Shit,¡± He silently exclaimed to himself mid-bite as he remembered something. He didn''t need some cushy job where he would always stay indoors and then make minimum wage. He had the benefits of a thoroughly enhanced body. There were always construction jobs going on in New York. He just had to find some in Manhattan and do the hard labour. With his body, he should have more than enough physical strength to do the job. Of course, he won¡¯t do that forever, wouldn¡¯t be fair to the people who really need that job but just as a starter job?

    Nah, he did not like taking jobs from actual hard-working people. That would not be fair. Then what should he do to sustain himself?

    The rent was paid off for another 6 months. He just had to worry about food and utilities until then. Judging from the stacks of cash he could sense on every drug dealer once they were done dealing, he could easily survive for a month by taking one day¡¯s income from a drug dealer. That would be illegal, sure but not unethical. Most of their customers were rich brats and judging by their conditions, they had been doing that for a long time. He was not a medical genius by any sort so depriving them of their drugs could have led them to more dangerous areas.

    He did stop the dealing when he could see that the person was new to drugs or was trying drugs for the first time due to peer pressure or something. His powers were incredible in that regard, he could even sense people¡¯s heartbeats and then judging from that, he helped them trip up or knock the dealer unconscious or just spill the drugs on the street in front of everyone so that the dealer ran away and then flinging that merchandise straight into the sewers.

    Come to think of it, he could become a very great drug dealer if he wanted to. Just deal with everything remotely but then again, what would he even do with all that money?

    Maybe he could do some vigilante justice and then distribute the cash he would raid from the dealers and then distribute it dollar by dollar to the poor. Some sort of modern-day Robin Hood?

    No, that would not hurt the true rollers of drugs and it would take an incredible amount of time and effort on his side that he could dedicate somewhere else.

    ¡°Hmm,¡± He hummed to himself as he crushed the bullet in the muzzle itself of a gunman who was about to shoot some poor shopkeeper just 3 blocks south of his position. He then promptly made the shelf behind the gunman fall on him, HARD. He may or may not have also given the robber a couple of blows using his powers so he would not wake up anytime soon. If the shopkeeper was smart, he would be calling 911 anytime soon. The sound of sirens ringing in the background a couple minutes later confirmed that for him.

    ¡°Now, what?¡± He mumbled to himself as he headed back to his apartment with a generous serving of Mac and Cheese for lunch. He would have to look into cooking for himself because someday, this food might just catch up with him. He then remembered the physical advantages that were granted to him and then chuckled to himself. That made him realise that he was officially off the guilt-ridden binge eating he subjected himself to back in his previous life. He could now safely eat whatever he wanted until he felt full without any worry of calories. Honestly, life was better when he didn¡¯t know what calories and what a deficit was and he would like to return to that phase of his life. It was glorious.

    He nodded at the doorman and went back to his apartment, passing a couple of policemen who must have come back for evidence of some sort. The couple on the upper floors had both been arrested for running some sort of organised crime racket. He was surprised to find that the woman was not just some innocent lady in danger. In a way, she was the danger as well.

    ¡°Now, to work,¡± He said as he sat, cross-legged on a yoga mat he had found in one of the closets. ¡°Time to make this work,¡± He said as he attacked the fog at the end of his awareness range with renewed energy. The extra awareness meant that he would be able to work with longer distances and would not have to linger in places doing nothing. That would be suspicious as hell. His current power levels were more than enough since he had found out this morning where he had lifted the garbage truck that had come to collect the trash, just a couple millimeters off the ground but the ease with which he had done that had cemented it in his mind. He was very powerful, at least in the context of normal people. He just needed the control to harness his powers properly and not end up, you know, tearing people in half instead of just pushing them gently away from a speeding car.

 Chapter 7 : Beginning of the Spirit Galore

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 7

    Axle¡¯s Apartment, [31th October, 2006]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Hmm, this was getting a little exhausting. He had been at the shop all day, waiting for something to happen but aside from a mugging that was about to go wrong, he had not seen anything special happening.

    Maybe, it was happening but he just could not sense it. He mused to himself as he took a break in the break room that Mrs.Sanchez provided for him. It was just a small storage room that had been turned into a nap room of sorts with a small bathroom and a bed, already making it better than the 500$ studio apartments he had seen around the block. He was so lucky that his building was rent-controlled and the ROB had somehow negotiated a very low rent when he had moved in, allowing him the opportunity to pay rent and groceries without having to resort to a second job or stealing from drug dealers. Beginning

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s try this,¡± He said as he sat cross-legged on the makeshift bed and focused on his range. The fog was ever present at the edge of his awareness but he could see that his range was growing day by day. But that was not the focus of this meditation session. He was trying to see if he could sense anything different using his spatial awareness senses. He had figured out that his telekinesis and spatial awareness were two different powers and so, he had to train both of them separately, although training one made it easier to train the other one, something about expanding his mind, he was sure.

    He had seen some disturbances in thin air that had occurred in some of the alleys nearby the shop but when he had focused on that area, he had gotten an intense headache and had to cut short his powers. He had a feeling that he would have been discovered had he kept using his powers which was terrifying to think about because he was being powered, at least partially, by a power that encompassed an entire multiverse. He had also felt similar disturbances twice more in his range but at that time, he had been able to find those disturbances but he had only managed to catch on the tail end of a portal closing.

    That had made him shut down his powers and pull the fog so close to his body that he could not sense the door of the shop. He had then figured out that the disturbances had something to do with either sorcery or the effects of a sorcerer doing god knows what, he did not know and he did not dare find out either.

    Today, he was trying to see if similar effects could be found under the street, in the subterranean floors because if lore was to be believed, Vampires and spirits only came out at night but it was not as if they spawned out of nowhere. No, they hid for most of the day, away from the sunlight that would burn them away. That place was mostly underground so he had chosen to try and scan the underground.

    It was a novel experience because so far, subconsciously, his powers had ignored the area underneath the visible earth. So far, he had only scanned through the areas above ground level, even if his powers could ignore the existence of walls or dirt. He focused his powers below and extended his awareness as far as he could see. He did not know how far he went but he had a feeling that he was not going as far as he could.

    Right beneath him, he could sense the plumbing of the shops and then the nearby shops as well, as well as the massive amount of sewage flowing right under the streets. Then came the area under the sewage lines. He could sense some individuals moving at speeds way too fast for normal humans. He could also see that most of them were ¡°not solid¡± in some way. He did not know how to explain that but it felt as if the individuals below were not as real feeling like the humans he could feel. Something about them felt odd. He tried to focus more on them exactly and tune out the rest of the white noise and was startled to find that all of them had paused running and were looking around, searching for something. Then, he realised that they did not have legs at all. They were floating on thin air.

    ¡°Shit!¡± He exclaimed as he realised what they were. Spirits and souls who had hidden themselves in the sewers below. His hunch had been correct then. He focused on them and tried to imagine a hand punching the biggest spirit right in the head with all his might. The other two spirits, as he called them, leaped away from the biggest spirit as he somehow(?) became even more ethereal for a moment before reforming as if nothing had happened. The bigger spirit then promptly fled the area, the other smaller two spirits following nearby. Only this time, he could see all of them floating at much slower speeds as they looked at their surroundings.

    Soon, they exited his awareness range and he let them. Not that he could do anything about them at all because he had seen that physical blows had no effect on them. The first spirit had just reformed after a moment and he had no way of knowing if doing so multiple times could actually ¡°kill¡± him or not. He also could not ¡°take hold¡± of the spirits for some reason, as if they were not solid objects at all. Makes sense if they were spirits and souls instead of flesh and bones. Now, if the same were vampires, he could have just as easily taken hold of him, broken all of the vampire¡¯s bones, and then punted him straight into the streets above, exposing them to the sun and killing them with ease.

    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Well, as if life would ever be that easy in real¡­.life.

    His eyes widened as he felt yet another signature entering his awareness range. This one felt just as solid as normal humans. He focused on the vampire and once again, he felt that headache feeling when he tried to spy on the sorcerers but it was much weaker this time so he was able to push past whatever protection it was and focus properly on this person.

    He focused even more on the internals of this person and was slightly disappointed when he found that it was just a regular human, just fitter than the average human he could sense. Well, that was nothing of interest to him so he was about to retract his awareness when he heard or rather, felt something being spoken to him.

    ¡°Please wait, O¡¯ great Spirit!¡± He saw the person before bowing to thin air as his mouth moved. He could sense the person was the one who had spoken those words to him.

    His jaw hung agape as he realised that this sorcerer had managed to trace him. How else would he have known where to send the message? He immediately prepared for an altercation as he took hold of the entire sewer around the man, ready to collapse the tunnel on that person and crush him underneath all the rubble. It might be ruthless but he could not afford for some sorcerer to find his location. Who knows what those sorcerers would do this time? He could not risk it so he was about to do it when he paused as he realised the person was prostrating to thin air, trembling in apparent fear.

    ¡°Hmm, maybe I can use this?¡± He mused to himself even though he didn¡¯t take his hold off the tunnel. Maybe this person could be of use to him. He still made sure to search the entire area in his awareness range and found nothing out of the ordinary and yet, his mind could not reconcile with his instincts telling him to take advantage of this opportunity that had fallen into his lap.

    ¡°Here goes nothing,¡± He breathed out and manipulated a piece of stone that he then broke up into thin particles. He then manipulated those small stones to form a pattern in the form of a question mark and then after seeing that the person was still prostrating, nudged him to stand upright and then shoved the question mark in his face.

    The person apparently saw the stones because his eyes widened immediately.

    ¡°Uh, spirit, sir?¡±

    He rolled his eyes at the slowness of it all and then after making the question mark bigger, shoved it once again right next to his face, making him lean back slightly. The man then apparently got his message and then cleared his throat and spoke.

    ¡°Uh, did you see three spirits running through this area? I am supposed to be hunting them but so far, they have proven to be very hard to catch,¡± The spirit hunter apparently said and he paused to ponder on how to better take advantage of this situation. He had only dreamt of the level of control it would take to manipulate the air around a person and then vibrate it in a specific pattern to create a sound and that too a specific sound from far away. It would make an excellent control practice once he was done with his current one anyway.

    He then rolled the small stones to find an arrow directing him to the tunnel the spirits ran through.

    ¡°Thank you so much, spirit, sir. If you need anything, feel free to contact this lowly one,¡± Saying so, the spirit hunter gently dropped something right underneath the arrow mark and skedaddled away.

    Now, he had question marks right on top of his head as he looked at the running away spirit hunter. HE had so many questions to ask him but his inability to manipulate sound and fear of meeting in real life meant that it was all he could do for the time being.

    Maybe, he could get lucky and then encounter a vampire that he could just toss in the air and then gather the dust off? He would love to experiment on something like that but his job, power practice, and then the overall urge to have at least a semblance of a normal life took most of his day, leaving him no free time to do anything else, even though he barely needed 3 hours of sleep every night to feel fully refreshed. He could make do with even 1 with ease, not that he would recommend doing that since feeling exhausted throughout the day was not a nice feeling, especially since he would punish himself for not sleeping adequately by carrying out the same routine he would if he was fully rested. That taught himself to sleep properly and at the right time instead of reading through the books he had checked out of the local library.

    Man, public libraries are the best. He would even go so far as to say that the Public Libraries and National Parks were the best advantage that America had over other developed countries.

    He took on the badge that the person had left behind and after scanning it thoroughly for something else, he swiftly made it come out of the sewers and then stowed it away in a place he knew only he had access to. In the inside of a chimney where he had hollowed out a part of the bricks surrounding it. He deposited the badge and then closed the area right away to see if someone would come and check up on it or not.

    It was also the chimney of an old-style hotel that routinely had hundreds of customers daily so he doubted the people behind would be able to track every single one of the suspects.

    He would check the area every day for at least a week to see if someone tracked it down and in the meantime, he would have to figure out some way of communicating in his awareness range. Since he had no telepathy, he would have to compensate somehow.

    ¡°Well, there goes my weekend,¡± He muttered to himself as he stood up from the bed and stretched, his short break over and his shift resumed now that Mrs.Sanchez was going home for the day.

    Honestly, that woman was such a stereotypical oldie.

    ¡°Sleeping at 7?¡± He scoffed and then began wearing his apron to prepare for his shift.

    You can read upto 5 extra chapters on my P*treon. It is the same name as my username,

 Chapter 8 : Vampire Paste!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 8

    Axle¡¯s Apartment, [2nd November, 2006]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°Ha, so exhausting,¡± He muttered to himself as he lay on the couch in a lackadaisical manner. Figuring out a way to communicate over long distances was very hard. The problem was getting messages from the other side. He could very easily send messages from his side by taking in rocks or pieces of something nearby, crushing them, and then rearranging them to form letters that form sentences. He could sense many things down to very minute details with his powers and through that, he could also sense the way people¡¯s mouths moved but he could not get any idea of what they were saying. It was not as if he knew lip reading and even if he did, doing that with his eyes and doing so with his powers were two different things. It was not as if he could get a course somewhere where he could find lip reading techniques for the extra sensory perception people.

    So, there he was, having spent the weekend roaming around Manhattan and then spending it in his apartment at night. He had not made much progress in the communication area and his regular surveillance over that chimney also revealed that nobody had come looking for that badge so, probably, it was fine and there was no tracking spell on it. Still, he did not want to risk it in any way so he had refrained from going there. His main motive for using that badge was fulfilled anyhow. He had taken the metro one day and roamed the entirety of Manhattan and found that no less than 100 spirits were active the day after Halloween. None of them were doing anything harmful though so he let them be.

    From his apartment¡¯s sensing range, he had found almost six spirits with the same ghost-like constitution but they also did not do much in the night, other than roaming around and scaring off some people so he did not feel like intervening in that.

    Also, by the time 2nd November rolled around, all of those 100 spirits had disappeared, as if their time on earth had come to an end. It was weird and he would have loved to ask the people knowledgeable about the phenomenon but unfortunately, that territory was kinda out of his safe zone for the moment. He would try again once the New York Sanctum was in his awareness range but he had a feeling that they have some sort of protection against that sort of vision as well.

    The real highlight of his weekend came in the evening yesterday as he was just drinking some coffee and reading the magazines that had been delivered to his door like a regular person was expected to in this time period. He did have a phone and wifi in his apartment with a crappy second-hand laptop he got for cheap but he could not use it for anything more than entertainment since he was sure that this world had more levels of surveillance than his old world ever did. Just searching for Black Widow or SHIELD would put him on some sort of international spy watch list that would not end well, both for him and them since he would, well, kick their asses and he would have to go into hiding. It also complicated things that his range would be just Manhattan. He could see them, the huge curtain that surrounded the entirety of Manhattan. The good thing was that it was much higher than he had expected so he could probably go hundreds of meters in the sky before he would touch the curtains but he did not want to know what would happen if he touched those. Maybe just a shock? Or just a feeling of hitting a wall? OR he could just die by touching those curtains. He did not know and finding out scared him so much that he never even went near the borders.

    Oh yeah, there were those two vampires he had found hurting someone, just two blocks from his place. He had not flagged them before because they were just talking, all three of them when, suddenly, two of them began fighting each other while both of them stopped the third one from leaving. Due to the peculiarity of the situation, he had looked more into them and to his surprise, found out their fangs, their advanced biology, and the slow flow of their blood along with the reduced beating of their heart. Even then, he had not taken any action because all of them were alive and he did want to see if anything could come of the situation but unfortunately, one of those vampires was weaker than the other and was soon subdued by the stronger one by inserting some sort of stake into the weaker vampire.

    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    The effects were near instantaneous as he could sense the heart no longer beating in that vampire but she had a sense that he was not dead because, according to what he knew about Marvel vampires, they were supposed to turn to dust immediately. The stronger vampire then began advancing on the woman who was a human, he had checked beforehand. Her heart rate, trembling body, and the smile on the Vampire¡¯s face as his fangs came out told him only one story and he would not let it play out the way the vampire wanted it to.

    So, he took hold of the entire alley. Oh yeah, he had figured out how to flood his powers in an area, allowing him to create a small domain where he could focus his powers and do things that would otherwise require more effort. The effect was immediately visible as he could now sense everything in that alley and that also included the way people¡¯s mouths moved but he was still unable to read lips so that was a bust.

    However, the situation was fairly simple for him to read. Two vampires, arrived with a girl in tow, most probably manipulated her into doing that, vampires do have that ability, then they fought over who gets to drink her blood, The stronger one won and was now about to cash in his meal voucher in the form of a clearly terrified human.

    That seemed to be the gist of it and thus, he enveloped the stronger vampire in a fist, well, an imaginary one, and squeezed. The vampire started screaming immediately but that too was cut short because the vampire kind of just¡­.exploded.

    Yeah, as it turned out, he miscalculated the strength he would need for that and just made a vampire paste in that alley. Some of it landed on that girl but she was too unconscious to care about that. The weaker vampire was immobile so he carefully removed the stake and had to catch the vampire because he immediately started making a run for it. He was babbling something but to him, it was just white noise so he ignored that and gave him the same past treatment but after a few moments, he was amazed to see that all the remains of the vampire, even the blood on that girl¡¯s face, disappeared into thin air. So, that was true then. Vampires, upon death, do disintegrate. Good to know.

    He saw that the girl did not have a phone on her to call 911 so he just found the nearest police officer and then immediately lifted him up in the air.

    ¡°AAAAA!¡± Was what he imagined the police officer to be screaming as he was brought back two blocks by floating and then promptly dropped at the entrance of the alley. The screaming had stopped since but he just looked around and did not enter the alley so he had to give him a small nudge in the back. The effect was¡­.not what he was expecting. The officer just turned around and shot two bullets in thin air. He had to take hold of those bullets lest they hurt some bystander.

    The officer took one look at the two crushed bullets floating in thin air, his eyes rolling back in his sockets as he promptly keeled over.

    He too rolled his eyes back in his apartment and searched for another police officer who could help two victims now. Hopefully, this one turns out to be competent and not trigger-happy like the last one. However, in his defense, he was seemingly targeted by the vengeful spirit that lives in that area.

    In the meantime, he floated over a couple of croissants he had from the kitchen to go with the coffee. No way he was going to leave his cozy spot for something that was someone else¡¯s job. In the first place, wasn¡¯t it Kamar Taj¡¯s responsibility to regulate the vampires or something? Maybe he was wrong or maybe they could not find those two. In any case, he was doing their job and they should thank him for that.

    Now, if only he could find a competent police officer who would do his job.

    ____xx___

    Meanwhile, at SHIELD NYC HQ

    ¨CRandom Analyst¨C

    ¡°Are you sure, Random Analyst 1?¡±

    ¡°Yes sir, Random Senior Analyst 1. I have multiple recorded incidents of a strange force acting in that 5-mile radius. We have recorded multiple testimonies and it would seem that so far, the force had acted only to save people. I think this is a level 5 Enhanced at the very least, judging by the weights lifted. Lifting a two-tonne car hundreds of feet in the air means they have some serious firepower behind them, Random Senior Analyst, sir,¡±

    ¡°Hmm, I¡¯ll fire this up the chain. Good work, Random Analyst 1,¡±

    ¡°Thank you, sir!¡±

    ¡°Dismissed,¡±

    You can read upto 5 extra chapters on my P*treon. It is the same name as my username,

 Chapter 9 : *Snore* Snooze

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 8

    Axle¡¯s Apartment, [10th November, 2006]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    It had been a week since that incident with the vampires. After that incident was brought to light and the woman¡¯s interview went viral on TV, he had sensed no other vampires, even at night. He had thought that the vampires would have some sort of pull with the authorities to make the case disappear or to silence the witness but to his shock, nothing of the sort happened at all. She was put on the list of the protective watch and was let go from the police station as soon as her statement was taken. He had also sensed the NYPD doing their job and keeping watch over her apartment for the past week. Somehow, despite being alive for thousands of years, the covens of vampires do not have the necessary power to make this case disappear before it could reach the common man¡¯s ears OR do they just not care about it all?

    It could be plausible enough that they thought that there was no evidence of this incident aside from the floating police officers being brought onto the scene. Yeah, that was also the unfortunate side effect of not being able to communicate over vast distances. Apparently, the unexorcised spirit, i.e. He was being blamed for the woman¡¯s incident as well, even though she clearly stated in the short interview that it was two men who had assaulted her, not some invisible entity.

    Still, there he was, J. Jonah Jameson, doing his job. The job was to flame the rumours and generate hate all day long but hey, he was good at what he did and figured out how to earn money through it, so¡­Respect.

    That brought him back to square one. His effective spatial range was somewhere between 2-2.5 miles in every direction so that was pretty good going. His strength was also very high, judging from the vampire paste he made last week. He was struggling with control. He had nobody to teach him about this stuff and every time, he thought that he had some baseline level of control, it all got shot to hell soon enough because his powers were increasing rapidly.

    Just last month, the amount of effort required for him to lift the garbage truck just enough for it to be noticeable had him lifting it almost a foot in the air. He had to figure out some way to clearly control his powers. Unfortunately, he did not know who to turn to, in that regard. Kamar Taj would be the best option and yet he did not trust them enough and honestly, it would be best for him if he grew his powers enough so that he could enter anybody¡¯s home without having to fear for his life. Stupid, he knew but it was the best he could come up with, considering the situation.

    He was not blessed with the intelligence aspect of the Sage Force. He had just the telekinesis and the body to show for it. Speaking of body, he had grown strong enough to throw around everybody¡¯s PR around him at the gym. He had stopped going after only 2 days, despite paying for the entire month (RIP his hard-earned money) because he was starting to gain the wrong kind of attention. The gym owner had actually approached him about some sort of underground fight club where he could earn money. While that would have been attractive had he not had a stable job, identity, and a place to live, he had all of that now and was more than happy to stay in the same place.

    ¡°So, what to do?¡± He mumbled to himself even as there was the sound of utensils being washed in the kitchen. Ah, it was so nice to have powers like this. He was able to multitask with ease, which made household chores a breeze. Cooking? Done. Cleaning? Done. Deep Clean? Not necessary because he used his powers and got the dust and grime out of every single corner of the house. It helped that it was not that big of an apartment anyway, considering it was Manhattan but his powers definitely did come in handy. Speaking of his apartment, the couple¡¯s apartment had been auctioned and the buyer was some investment firm he did not know about. They had conducted a survey of some sort, approaching every single owner if they wanted to sell it to the firm at 20% above market rate for some reason but he just told them he had only dealt with the management firm of the owner and never the owner directly. He got some bad vibes from them because why would the sales team of an investment firm be walking around with enough weapons in the trunk of their cars to shoot up a block or two? Nevertheless, he did not investigate further because he was late for his shift that day.

    Today though, it was a holiday because Mrs.Sanchez and her husband had gone on a vacation and he was also given a break for the week because Mrs.Sanchez thought that he was working himself too hard even though the working hours were absolutely normal for the service industry, let alone for someone like him, who could now maintain optimal performance without sleep for almost an entire week before he started feeling some effects like a dull headache.

    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    So, he can now choose to not sleep at all, for an entire week. He did not do that though, for obvious reasons. He loved sleeping. Even though he barely required 4 hours of sleep every day to wake up fully refreshed, he slept more than that because leaving his bed was so hard in the morning, especially with his powers and he can stay cozy in his bed and have already started his chores for the morning. Of course, that didn¡¯t help in increasing the strength of his body so he would have to go on runs frequently all the while his powers pressed down on his body so that it would get exhausted far often.

    That plan had hit a snag though. He was running around at 5 in the morning, as usual, when he stepped on a pavement that was already in bad shape and the added weight of him on top of his powers just broke that, making a big hole on the sidewalk. The noise it had made was very loud and he had been startled so much that he had fallen down with a very manly yelp. That had made him realise that he was probably stomping around with huge weights on his body. The stronger his body got, the more weight he would have to put on his body and the more likely he was to break the ground he was running on.

    For that, he would probably have to look for a natural running track but even that had its own set of risks so for the time being, he had suspended running in the morning. The added effect was the extra sleepy time he got in the morning but his darned body would not let him sleep more.

    That was why he was in his bed, thinking all these things instead of just getting up and doing something. He had the entire week off, might as well make something productive out of it.

    He had a lot of things to do on his to-do list but all of those were long-term goals. Today, he was going to do something that he had never tried before. He was going to the edge of his prison and see if his range actually extended out of his prison. If true, it would be a massive help since he calculated that by the time Loki would turn up in New York, his range would be around a hundred miles instead of the measly 2 miles it was now. If that range continued to expand outside the limits of his prison, he could do a lot of stuff.

    ¡°Alright, time to get going,¡± He muttered to himself as he woke up, the toothbrush, already washed and topped up with toothpaste, floating out of the bathroom into his waiting hand. Huh, he really was using his powers like they were a part of his life. Like it was a limb and not a supernatural power that most people would kill to have.

    He would have to be more careful in the future when the proliferation of cameras would skyrocket to untold levels. IT would be wise to assume that one was under constant video surveillance and act accordingly. Today though, he was going to figure out another aspect of his powers so he was psyched up for that.

    *Whistle*

    He whistled a merry tune as he walked up to the edge of the railing. He could see the huge orange curtain ending just a few feet away from him. Being so close to the curtain, he could feel its powers and it was heart-chilling. If it was something else, he might have had some hope of breaking the barrier and then not letting the CHitauri INvasion happen but feeling the sheer power wash over his skin, he could say with confidence that not even mastering the entirety of the Sage Force could have helped him break his curtain before its purpose was satisfied. He had his spatial awareness tightly wound up around his body only as he looked at the majestic power of the curtain and the way it was hidden from all the common people.

    Speaking of the curtain, could other people sense it? Probably all the beings who were mystically attuned should be able to sense something so overpowering on its surroundings. Probably the Ancient One could sense it with ease. Wait. Was the curtain the reason he had not encountered any mystical beings on his side? Including any high-ranking vampires or spirits?

    No. he was getting off-topic. He shook his head and looked at the curtain that was his prison for the next 5 years and let his powers loose. Almost immediately, as if an umbrella had been opened, the fog receded and his awareness range exploded, reaching for the curtain. He winced in preparation for some sort of pain but none came. He opened his eyes to see his awareness range had extended the curtain. He could sense the fish in the water below.

    He tried lifting one of them and almost immediately stopped as he felt a spike of pain in his head.

    *huff*

    ¡°So that''s how it is,¡± He mumbled to himself as he staggered back and sat on the bench, understanding the limits of the curtain. It would not hinder his spatial awareness range but the power he could exert out of it was severely limited. Combined with the natural weakness of his power being the weaker force being exerted the longer the distance, yeah, he could not do much outside the curtain. Maybe lift a car or two once 2012 rolled around the corner but that¡¯s it.

    Sighing, he put his hands in his coat and turned away, heading to his favourite pizza place. He needed some of that sweet sweet gluten and cheese to soothe his ego.

    You can read upto 5 extra chapters on my P*treon. It is the same name as my username.

 Chapter 10 : Hocus Pocus!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 10

    77A Bleecker Street, [31st December, 2006]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Well, he had both good news and bad news. The good news was that his range had now expanded to 4 miles in every direction and the control with which he could wield them has improved significantly as well. Now, he could manipulate individual droplets of water when it rains. It took a lot out of him and left him completely defenseless as every ounce of his mental faculties were focused on that task but yeah, he could do it now. You see, when he had the image of a telekinetic in his mind, it was always the scene of stopping bullets or raindrops or snowflakes, basically any scenario where multiple small things are all stopped at once, and when he was just a nobody looking at a screen, he thought to himself, how hard could it be? Not knowing that it was the single hardest thing to do. You had to split your focus on hundreds of different objects that are now supposed to be completely suspended in your grip, oh but wait, you also have to make sure all the different objects with varying sizes and shapes are held in a grip that is relatively gentle yet firm, for ALL particles. That was a headache and a half to get right. So, yeah, good news was that he figured out a way to get some practice on his control and was already pretty decent at it. On the day of the Chitauri INvasion, he hoped to pull off the badass stunt of just raising his fingers and stopping every single Chitauri in its tracks. Haaa, how awesome would that be? Plus, that would totally make every politician watching shit their pants as they tried to scramble up a response to him.

    Oh yeah, bad news as well. Well, bad news was that he had gotten a little bit of a power boost in his head. So yeah, apparently, he was going to ride that confidence boost straight into Bleecker Street, i.e. The New York Sanctum. Surprisingly, it was also in Manhattan. Hmm, he had come to the conclusion that almost everything of significance in NYC occurred in Manhattan or the areas surrounding it. He had been sitting at a coffee shop right across from the building where the seal of Vishanti was clearly on the windows. For almost an hour, he had tried to expand his awareness range into the Sanctum and so far, aside from figuring out some of the more rudimentary protective measures, he had not gotten far. His powers felt as if they were being stopped by a layer of sticky fluid that trapped most of his awareness in it, only letting through a fraction of it and even that fraction does not go far. He had gotten weird looks from the waitress when he had gulped down a dozen double espresso shots like water but it was nothing his body could not handle. In fact, it was a good thing since it helped keep his mind in focus on the task at hand.

    He had come up with a brilliant idea to bypass the restrictions laid down on him. Even if he personally could not cross the boundary area, what if he could just extend his awareness through a portal? It was a long shot but he was running out of options and he had a feeling that just winging through on the development of his powers was not going to cut it in the long term.

    Against common thieves and criminals? Sure, he was golden there as they would not be able to do much as he knocked them out from a distance (Just like a robber he just knocked out in a pharmacy at the edge of his range right now,) but enhanced criminals would be much harder to fight against. He had no idea who to approach to properly use his powers. The Masters of the Mystic Arts had a long history and he was sure that they could even develop minor psychic powers like Telekinesis or mild telepathy using their spells so he figured they were the next best thing to going to the source itself for knowledge. He had assumed that becoming the avatar of the Sage FOrce meant that he would get a handbook for everything, that he would not have to bumble around but then he realised it. An essential component of becoming the Avatar of the Sage Force was the added intelligence boost that catapulted the person to become one of the smartest people in their world. That intelligence must play a crucial role in ensuring that their powers are properly trained, utilised, and explored upon.

    He had none of that. Just mind over-matter powers on a scale the world had never seen before. The building itself was very weird. No matter how hard he tried, he could not get a ¡°grip¡± on the building. In his case, he doesn¡¯t just ¡°lift¡± stuff. He creates imaginary appendages that grip the buildings and then do the lifting. He is of the opinion that it was due to his simple-minded nature and thus, his powers are expressed in that simple form, his brain trying to comprehend and manipulate something that is like a limb but is so much more than that.

    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    So, when he tried to grab onto anything on the building, his powers just flowed over them, not hitting anything. It was as if the entire Sanctum was one huge solid block that just looked like a building from the outside. No matter, he tried to lift the entire building as well, but it felt as if he was trying to lift the entire Earth instead of just a building. For reference, he was pretty sure he could just knock out the support pillars of any decent-sized building and bring the whole thing down. The Sanctum barely had two floors from the outside so he did not understand what was bringing in the extra mass. Maybe the spatially expanded floors added to the overall weight?

    ¡°That is a fascinating theory, Mr.Riddle. I would love to discuss it over tea. I am sure you are rather done with coffee for the day?¡±

    He turned around, ¡°Yeah, it is starting to taste like tar to me now but hey, if it¡­helps,¡± His words slowed down as he looked at a very amused-looking Ancient One with her signature bald head staring down at him with her hands tucked into her suit. Jacket? Onesie? Whatever it was.

    ¡°Ah!¡± He yelled as he jumped away from her, his powers allowing him to jump very far. He looked at the cafe only to see that it was just an empty cafe. The sound of traffic was absent as well as he looked at the now completely empty block.

    Shit! ¡°The Mirror Dimension,¡± He mumbled to himself.

    ¡°That is correct, Mr.Riddle. Now, instead of trying to compromise the integrity of one of the three monuments that are responsible for Earth¡¯s safety, why don¡¯t we talk over a nice cup of tea? I assure you I mean you no harm,¡± The Ancient One said as he kept her hands to her sides to show she wasn¡¯t doing anything.

    His heart hammering inside, he nodded with difficulty. It was not as if he could do anything, especially in a place he literally could not escape from, even with all his powers. The silver lining was that he had a backup in place if he never made it out of here alive. Admittedly, it was a little scorched earth of him but damn it, if he died, he was going to take them down with him. All the information he could remember about the Mystic Arts, neatly sitting in an email that was timed to send information to every single interested party he could think of, if he didn¡¯t personally shut it down in 12 hours. He just hoped that she hadn¡¯t anticipated that.

    She opened a portal that led to a small dining room with a table set for two people already. He looked around and could not identify anything though he was reasonably certain that they were still in Manhattan, so this was probably one of the many rooms of the New York Sanctum.

    ¡°I assume we are still in¨C¡±

    ¡°Manhattan? Yes, we are. I assure you, nobody in this universe is anywhere near powerful enough to bypass that barrier that somebody put around Manhattan just to contain you,¡± She surmised his entire situation with a placid smile and then went back to the tea preparation ceremony. He was a complete novice at that so he did not know what she was doing, at all.

    ¡°I thought portals might do the trick?¡±

    She scoffed, ¡°Please, our portals are only as strong as the people wielding them. I can create portals capable of cutting out body parts of Demon Avatars and you think the same portals can be opened by the initiates who just learned how to create them? No, Mr.Riddle, there is no Mystic Art user on the planet who has the power to create a portal to bypass something as fundamentally carved into reality as that barrier. I am afraid you will have to wait for it to naturally dissipate.¡± She offered him tea and the sweet calming taste of honey in it did nothing to assuage his immense disappointment in the situation.

    At least, she was not outright attacking him so that was good.

    ¡°So, Mr.Riddle, why were you incessantly knocking on our door today?¡±

    He looked at her and thought, why the hell not?

    ¡°I am looking for help in regard to my powers. I need to achieve mastery in them and you are the only person who can help,¡±

    There, he laid down all his cards. Despite his earlier misgivings, this Ancient One was not giving him the same bad vibes as that previous Sorcerer in that other universe was. So, he decided to trust his gut feeling and told her everything.

    ¡°I was hoping you would say that. Welcome to Kamar Taj,¡± She declared and snapped her fingers, causing a book to appear on the table between them.

    It had some scribbling on top of it that he did not recognise. He looked at her in confusion and she snapped her fingers once again, making two more books appear. His eyes widened as he read the two books. They were the Latin to Sansrkit and Sanskrit to English translation books.

    He looked up at her with a deadpan stare, ¡°Really?¡±

    ¡°Every person who wants to learn in Kamar Taj has to go through the same ritual, Mr.Riddle and despite your peculiar situation, you will have to follow the same procedure,¡±

    ¡°Fiine,¡± He groaned but decided to enjoy the tea which seemed to refill on its own.

    Neat.

 Chapter 11 : HYDRA Probing!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 11

    77A Bleecker Street, [1st February, 2007]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Huh. You learn something new about this place every day, he thought to himself as his powers detected yet another room in the vast hallway that kept every single non-sorcerer away from the precious artifacts that littered this room. It was a neat little enchantment that was nearly impossible to break unless was intimately familiar with the codes of the spell. In the month he had been at the Sanctum, he did go home occasionally but for all purposes, this had been his home for the past month.

    Mrs.Sanchez was very sad to see him go but wished him good luck in his future endeavours along with giving him a ton of sweets after making him promise that he would make sure to visit her more often. Only then did that old adorable monster let him out of her freakishly strong grip. They also gave him some money that conveniently found itself back in the cash register. He also looked into the person they hired after him and found him to be trustworthy enough. Even then, he continued to check up on the bakery from time to time to see how things were going on. His apartment was cleaned by him when he went there on the weekends.

    Unfortunately, he was not able to employ the coolest mode of transport that almost everyone in Kamar Taj enjoyed. The portals.

    As a direct consequence of being an Avatar of a force that flows through his body, he is unable to make pacts with other extra-dimensional entities and use their energy to cast spells. He was stuck with the energy that suffused his entire being and that was a type of energy that was slightly different from the energy that most psionics in this universe used. Nevertheless, according to the Ancient One, it was not the type of energy that was used that mattered but the applications of it.

    And his powerset was best suited for any type of telekinetic application. Most telekinetics had some sort of limit on them in terms of range, application, strength, and so on and so forth. His powers were suited for all of them so he had a host of books to refer to.

    After consultation with the Ancient One, she had commented on his training methods and had confirmed that his growth would be good even with those methods, even if it would take longer than normal to reach the peak. With the books he had in hand, the Ancient One predicted that he would reach the strength required to destroy entire cities with just his mind, within a scant 10 years.

    Just imagining the ability to recreate Pain¡¯s ¡°Shinra Tensei¡± on his own just by pushing down on the city, was so exhilarating that he doubled his efforts to complete the training fast enough, which in hindsight was not good because he soon found himself bleeding from his nose and then fainting. The bad news was that he was forbidden from using his powers for a couple of days after that which felt like such a sudden jolt to his system like he had just lost the use of a limb and his brain was still trying to figure out why. The good news was that his body had healed in such a way that it would take much higher levels of overloading on his mind before he would pass out. The thought of doing that again had crossed his mind but he then immediately got out of the masochist training thoughts and focused on his controlled training which was proven to have the best results in the longer term.

    His current focus was on control and that was why, he was using his spatial awareness to control 100 different brooms to clean a hundred different rooms in the hallway of artifacts. At the same time, he had a litany of napkins responsible for cleaning the glass containers of artifacts that were deemed too dangerous to keep in the open.

    Doing all that multitasking has expanded his ability to apply his vast powers in minute quantities to hundreds of different tasks. As a direct result of that, he has been able to do his ¡°vigilante¡± activities much better around the city. He could now finally hear some solid rumours about something weird going on in the city as criminals of every kind found themselves being stopped by an invisible entity once they entered a circle where he was active.

    It had been about 6 months since he had arrived in this world and that was enough time for people to start noticing. For different organisations to start noticing and that was why, he was looking at a black hooded SUV passing through the street where the Sanctum was located, as he sipped on the heavenly coffee the cafe next door still served. Apparently, the Sanctum Masters also liked this coffee upon his recommendation and he could not have been happier that his words had helped a small business.

    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    The SUVs were completely nondescript but that was where it stood out. He had already scanned the insides of the car and aside from the alarming number of weapons they had on board, the car itself was fairly standard. He had expected something more high-tech from the cars of SHIELD. Or at least HYDRA that was masquerading as SHIELD.

    Because if he was not wrong here and he very rarely was, in this regard, that was some Sitwell guy, a pretty high-ranking member of HYDRA as well as SHIELD.

    Hmm, so he has caught their attention as well. He still has not gotten the lip reading part down so he was not sure what they were talking about but it would be safe to assume that they were here for him. He watched them go and then his brows furrowed in confusion as Sitwell¡¯s car separated from them to stand a bit ahead of a bank and the rest of the cars stopped right in front of the nearest bank.

    His heckles rose as he saw every single person in the three cars that had stopped behind, don masks and automatic rifles. He watched on, flabbergasted as they alighted the vehicle, opened the trunk, and took out even more heavy artillery as some of them started to open fire on the people.

    ¡°Shit!¡± He realised what they were doing. They were trying to draw him out or rather, force him to reveal himself in hopes that heavy weaponry would be too much for him to handle.

    Aside from a slight tremble in his hands, nothing changed on the outside, but inside, his powers had already taken stock of all the bullets and the people that would be stuck by them. His mind went into overdrive as a 3d map formed in his mind. He flooded the entire area around the bank with his mind, allowing him extra leeway to manipulate the surroundings. It was a little risky to do that for such a large area but stopping hundreds of bullets at the same time was no small matter.

    People started panicking at the sound of bullets and he had to work even more to stop more bullets as people, in their panic, inadvertently found themselves running in the direction those bullets were taking. He stopped the dozen or so bullets that had already pierced the glass doors and then just slammed a telekinetic barrier down on the area behind the door, stopping all the bullets that were about to go in.

    Unfortunately, somebody got shot before he could do anything about it. It was not someone inside the bank where he had focused the bulk of his powers. It was someone who was about to enter the bank and had witnessed the entire thing. They had shot him once in the chest and once he was down, assumed that he was dead and moved on to their main target of seemingly looting a bank. However, that was not the case because he had stopped the bullet from going too far inside his ribcage. It was now only on the surface of his ribcage and could easily be removed, without any risk of the person dying. Though there was blood, that person would be fine as long as he was removed from the scene, which is exactly what he did when he floated his body and placed it safely on the top of the rooftop.

    Now that the people were safe behind the barrier and even the grenades these animals had launched at them had not done anything but heat up in the internal surroundings, he couldn¡¯t exactly stop thermal energy from taking its natural course, he could finally focus on HYDRA¡¯s goons.

    First off, the cars had to go so he just simply¡­crushed them. One second, they were taking out even more ammo from the trunks of the car, the second moment the cars were simply scrapped. Also, two people had already lost their arms because their hands were in the way when he crushed those cars.

    Then, he focused on the people. One by one, every single gun they had started exploding in their hands as he simply bent their muzzles beyond repair and then floated all of them a hundred feet in the air. He could see Sitwell looking at a screen of some sort, very calm even though his men were about to get severely injured.

    What a ruthless monster.

    He then simply dropped the attackers and just shy of them hitting the curb and dying, he softened the blow and simply knocked them out. Before he could do anything to Sitwell, though, he found him to have left the surroundings. He crossed his range before he could do anything and he did not want to chase after him.

    So, all he did was make sure that all the guns and grenades were accounted for, made a huge pile of the scrap that they now were, thanks to yours truly and let the people come out.

    He rolled his eyes as only now did the NYPD come out of their hidey holes and reach the scene. HYDRA and their meddling in everything.

    ¡°Excuse me, sir? SIR?¡±

    ¡°huh-Yes?¡± He asked the waitress who was looking at him in concern¡­for some reason.

    ¡°Are you alright? You are¡­bleeding from your nose.¡±

    He immediately put a hand to his nose and yup¡­he was bleeding. Guess the strain of manipulating those hundreds of bullets was not exactly light then. It was a good thing that he was not unconscious.

    ¡°No, it¡¯s fine. A regular occurrence, I assure you. Now, thank you for the coffee,¡± He set down a 20$ bill and left the cafe, hobbling towards the New York Sanctum as his head began hurting like a bitch.

    Damn HYDRA.

    He would get his payback. He might have to be more careful with his activities because Sitwell getting out of his range just as he was done with his goons could not have been a coincidence.

 Chapter 12 : HYDRA Closing in.

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 12

    New York Sanctum Sanctorum  [1st February, 2007]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°You¡¯re cleaning that,¡± He opened his eyes blearily to see Wong¡¯s face looming over him. He must have passed out right there in the Sanctum after coming back from that horrible headache. Not just that, it felt like something had clicked in his mind during the battle but he was just too distracted to realise what it was. When he began hobbling towards the Sanctum, that was when he realised that something was wrong with his body as well.

    It was not just the blood flowing from his nose intermittently, probably due to the strain, it was his entire being. He tried to scan himself with his spatial awareness but that had never worked out before. All he got was a blurry mess when he tried to look inward.

    For a time, he had thought that he was not even human but he still bled red, looked like one, and thought like one, so he had not dwelled on that issue much.

    ¡°Wh-what?¡± He asked him as he sat up, grunting in discomfort as his muscles protested at the moment.

    ¡°That,¡± Wong pointed behind him and he made the big mistake of looking behind him, only to see the once pristine carpet, that he made sure to clean so much that it shone at the end of it, was now caked in vomit.

    Ugh, he felt so sick just looking at that.

    ¡°Bleurgh,¡± He immediately emptied the contents of his stomach, right at Wong¡¯s feet.

    He was feeling awful at that moment but later on, he took great pleasure in making the great unfeeling Wong sigh in frustration.

    He tried to make heads and tails of what had happened but that just made his head hurt even more. So, he concentrated on the simple task at the moment. Getting to his bedroom.

    The Sanctum usually only housed the Sanctum Master and occasional guests if required but as his case was unique, he was given part of the dwelling on a semi-permanent basis. That meant that he had quite a luxury apartment to go to in the Sanctum. Along with spatial runes, it meant that he practically lived in a penthouse, despite being just a student here.

    Life was good. At least, that was what he would have said had you asked him a scant few hours before. Now, getting to the bedroom, which was on the top floor, was beginning to feel like a huge chore. The kind of chore that your mom assigns to you when you are fresh out of the shower after an exhausting game outside and your bedroom is just primed for one of the best naps of your life.

    With that kind of exhaustion, he was dragging himself up the stairs. Wong, bastard that he was, had not offered to help at all. In his defense though, his shoes were covered in¡­.don¡¯t think about it. DO NOT think about it.

    He usually would have cleared the stairs in a single jump with his body or just floated himself up there with his powers but both of them were unreliable at the moment. He would have to look into that because if stopping just a couple of cars, hundreds of bullets, and about 4 grenades meant that he was going to be out of commission for long, it would mean that he wouldn¡¯t even be able to help with the NYC Invasion.

    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    In that case, he should just prevent it outright because what would be the point in him regaining his freedom if he would not be able to make a difference with his powers?

    Oh well, that was a question for the Axle that woke up from the nap. Not the one who is having a migraine at the moment.

    ______xx_____

    ¨CJasper Sitwell¨C

    ¡°Did you find the person responsible?¡±

    He wiped the sweat off his brows as he looked at the map displaying a circle around Manhattan and his current location being far away from that circle of influence.

    ¡°Uh-no. No, sir,¡± he replied to Secretary Pierce.

    They had been tasked to create a huge disturbance, preferably with civilian casualties, to provoke the person fighting crime in that particular neighbourhood of Manhattan using some sort of technology that was invisible or the far more likely answer, someone with powers.

    He had been ordered by Secretary Pierce to figure out who that was and get to them before SHIELD did with their index. They usually let SHIELD get the useless ones because all they needed from those people was data and they had access to all of SHIELD¡¯s data anyway. But this person was special.

    ¡°Figure it out, Sitwell. Having someone of that calibre would make even the Winter Soldier look obsolete.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir. Hail Hydra!¡±

    ¡°Hail Hydra!¡±

    He sighed in relief as the call was cut from the other side. He loosened the knot of his tie as he looked at the footage of the supposed heist.

    His men were arrested but that was fine. They would be out soon anyway. Two of them were out of commission because their hands were crushed in the vehicles.

    Idiots.

    Still, though, he wondered why that fellow did not chase him even though he was right there. He even made a show of coming in with the same convoy before waiting at the edge of the street to come after him.

    They had multiple theories as to what the guy could be and he was undoubtedly risking his life there but orders were orders and these orders specifically came from the top, so he was in no position to decline or even negotiate anything.

    After all, cut off one head, two more shall take its place, was true even for the subordinates, reminding them of their disposableness. He just never thought that he would have to experience that as well, being a high-ranking member of HYDRA as well as SHIELD, which insulated him from the worst of punishments because he was, essentially, a public figure, and a very useful public figure at that.

    Now that they had some useful data from the first contact, they could tackle this problem from a renewed perspective.

    First of all, whoever it was, their power was awe-inspiring. If the Hulk¡¯s power was pure brute strength, this person¡¯s powers were cold precise calculations. The ability to stop bullets and then even create an invisible curtain at the entrance to stop the bullets and even the shrapnel from the grenades from going inside was marvelous.

    As was the ability to simply crush cars that had been reinforced many times, surpassing even the SHIELD¡¯s standard for wartime delivery vehicles.

    If he could make someone else float, he could probably make himself float as well, so there went possible flight into his powers list.

    Honestly, there should have been no reason someone of this caliber could not hunt him down. The only reason must be that his powers must have some downsides.

    You can¡¯t have everything and there must be some weakness that they could exploit when it comes to this person. Maybe something like a cooldown period? Or they could not use their powers for too long? Something like a weight limit? Or maybe a range issue?

    He did not know but he will figure it out. It was an assignment from both SHIELD and HYDRA. If they could harness this power on their side, well, let¡¯s just say that many people would die but HYDRA would rise, and with it, Peace.

    Now, all he had to do was orchestrate more and more crimes in the given circle so that he could eventually pinpoint the approximate location of the freak. The boys at the lab had cooked up software, to help him triangulate the possible locations based on an assumed range limit and possible encounters.

    The more crimes he stopped, the more data points they would have until eventually, they could track him.

 Chapter 13 : Bulletproof! (Well Kinda)

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 13

    New York Sanctum Sanctorum [3rd February, 2007]

    ¨CAncient One¨C

    Hmm, this is a very peculiar situation, she thought to herself as she examined young Axle as he lay on his table, snoring peacefully until suddenly, his entire body started giving off blue fumes that seemed harmless as they dissipated into the atmosphere.

    As for how harmful they truly were. One would know by her reaction as she had leaned far away from the toxic blue fumes that Axle¡¯s body was intermittently emitting, at random intervals. Somehow, Axle had overused his powers, and that had caused some sort of reaction in his body that resulted in him falling unconscious and then his body emitting such toxic blue fumes.

    The blue fumes were not exactly fumes, more like energy in a mist form that naturally dissipated into the Astral Realm. The fumes were consolidated psionic energy that became so dense that it manifested into the real world before returning back to its natural form as part of the Astral Realm. The energy of the Astral Realm was inherently poisoning to the physical energy and as such, it was incredibly concerning that such energy was coming from Axle¡¯s body.

    From what she had been able to gather, Axle had intervened in an armed robbery that looked more like a military assault, and after presumably overusing his powers, found himself falling unconscious inside the New York Sanctum.

    Wong was the one who found him and was currently healing as well as he was the first to suffer from exposure to the strange blue energy that Axle just burped out once more.

    Her diagnostic spells were throwing out error after error, telling her contradicting information every single time she dispelled one and cast another one. She had no idea what was happening but the good news was that the amount of pure liquified Astral energy being emitted by Axle was reducing in quantity.

    First, his entire body gave off that energy and now, he was only burping out small quantities. Soon, she hoped, that he would have stopped burping the energy and returned to consciousness.

    She had some idea as to what was happening to him but no concrete conclusion could be given unless he woke up and she could scan him properly without all the psionic energy disrupting all her spells.

    The thing was that she could have very easily disrupted the flow of psionic energy inside his body but considering what Axle¡¯s powers were, she exercised caution and did not disturb that flow of energy. His powers were so intrinsically tied to his mind and soul that disturbing it at this crucial stage would be akin to killing or severely hurting him.

    Finding the person for whom such tremendous arrangements had been made was a stroke of luck, or rather, a stroke of luck that one of her future selves had in her timeline and that event was so significant that her future self chose to, despite all the risks associated with it, send that message back in time to her, jolting her out of her meditation.

    Never in a hundred years, she had thought that someone had expended that much energy to constrain someone who was not even strong enough to defeat her. Then, it came to her. She realised the wellspring of power and potential he held within.

    Somehow, this boy, in front of her, was holding together the psionic consciousness of something that was akin to an entire multiverse for her. She did not know how but she knew that the person in front of her would be the eventual lynchpin that would either make or break the universe as they knew it.

    Still, it was good that they found each other when he was still in the budding stages of his power. This way, she could make sure that he did not develop untoward tendencies and abuse his powers. It also helped him because he did not have to bumble his way around his powers anymore.

    Kamar Taj may have been primarily a sorcery-oriented organisation but that did not mean they did not have data on people wielding psionic energy like it was just another limb for them. Her predecessors had gotten into a lot of trouble with species from alternate dimensions and had religiously written everything down, for the perusal of any future Sorcerer Supremes.

    She had gone through them and she could count no less than 6 species who wielded psionic energy to devastating effect, just like Axle did. The only difference was that their energy was finite, limited. She had encountered one of their emissaries when he had come to Kamar Taj to renew the agreement with the current Sorcerer Supreme about the non-interference pact and she found them¡­lacking. Compared to Axle, whose mind felt like the sun, especially if she was observing him from the Astral Realm, the Onephemian emissary felt akin to a light bulb, even though both of them were roughly on the same level, as of now.

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    She was sure that once Axle woke up from whatever was happening to him, he would be vastly stronger than he was before. His body did not show any negative signs and his mind, when observed from the Astral Realm, was a whirlwind of activity so dense it made her dizzy to even look at him.

    ¡°Ugh¡­¡± Her gaze snapped to Axle as he burped out some more of that toxic energy and groaned, signalling his return to consciousness.

    She hurriedly cast another plethora of diagnostic spells and sighed in relief once she found that his body was not damaged in any way. She also paused as she found his body to be particularly hardy, almost as tough as a normal Asgardian foot soldier, which was a lot when compared to regular humans.

    She knew his powers had a physical enhancement component to them but she had expected it to be a minor one, not this. Now, with his body alone, he was capable of taking down a small squad of soldiers, he would just need the training for it.

    ¡°Welcome back to the land of the living, Mr.Riddle. For a moment there, I thought that you would return to the Astral Realm,¡± She said as she sat on her favourite chair and sipped on a cup of freshly brewed tea that she kept in stasis.

    ¡°...Ugh, what hit me? No loud sounds please,¡± Axle said as he sat upright and began rubbing his forehead, probably trying to stave off a headache.

    ¡°Here, water,¡± She offered.

    ¡°Ugh, once again, too loud,¡± Axle said but he took the glass of water and guzzled it down. In doing so, she saw the underside of his wrist, where some sort of mark was branded. It was only visible for a moment before it flashed blue and orange, then it disappeared.

    Hmm, something to check out later on. The curtain outside Manhattan also consisted of the exact same shade of orange so maybe it had something to do with that?

    __________xx_____

    ¡°What is going on? What happened to me?¡± Axle said after he had finally gathered his bearings.

    One thing after another had left him very disoriented. He had first fought off HYDRA¡¯s goons and then found himself bleeding from his nose, which was only supposed to happen when he had overextended his powers and he had not done anything of the sort when he had used them but somehow, he found his body weakening by the second.

    It was a good thing the Sanctum was right around the corner from the cafe so he luckily managed to hobble his way in but then, he found himself unconscious and facing Wong who woke him up.

    But then, he fell unconscious once again and woke up in front of Ancient One with a killer headache and an aching body.

    ¡°I am not sure exactly but it seems to be a byproduct of a natural evolution process of your powers. Congratulations, you now have the same physical abilities of a normal Asgardian.¡±

    What? His gaze snapped to her and seeing that she was not kidding, back to his hands as he clenched them. He did not feel any different, aside from his vision being sharper and his senses being way too enhanced for his current state but nothing that would indicate him becoming bulletproof.

    Oh, this was going to be fun.

    But before that, he turned his senses outwards and gasped in astonishment as he found his effective range being more than double of what it was.

    At this rate, he would soon be able to cover the entirety of Manhattan, much sooner than expected. He tried to gauge his powers using a method that the Ancient One had devised for him. There was a relic in the Sanctum that had the only function of measuring the lifting strength of someone. In this case, him. It could only measure it in relativistic terms and as such, when he lifted it with all his strength, first off, a spike of pain ran through his head and secondly, the relic lit up with the number 2.

    Which meant that he had effectively doubled his capacity with his powers. That would mean that he was finally ready now.

    ¡°I assume you would want more free time in your schedule now?¡± The Ancient One asked him and he gave her the most hopeful look at that. His hopes were shattered when she leveled a flat look at him and said,

    ¡°Denied. If anything, your training will now include hand-to-hand combat as well¡­with me,¡±

    Oh god, anything but that. She was a slave driver on a whole other level. But it made sense because she was probably the only one in the Order who would have fought an Asgardian and lived to tell the tale.

    ¡°Fiiineee,¡± He groaned as he laid down on his bed again.

    ¡°Rest for the day. We¡¯ll begin your training tomorrow,¡± She said and left the room, the smell of tea still prevalent in the room.

    That was relaxing at first but now that he had been smelling the same thing for over a month, he was over it.

    He carefully spread out his awareness and tried to find out if Sitwell was still in the city but nope, he could not find any trace of him or his goons. Apparently, they were not in any of the police stations nearby so maybe they had been transferred or something.

    Either way, he had to take this more seriously now. HYDRA was looking for him and well, he was glad to find an opponent on whom he could go all out.

    After all, Nazis were not deserving of mercy, not in this world and not in his previous world.

    You can read upto 5 extra chapters on my P*treon. It is the same name as my username.

 Chapter 14 : RAH! A Super HIGHWAY!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 14

    ¨CManhattan¨C [July 2008]

    ¡°Thank you, Invisible Man,¡± A little girl smiled cheerfully and waved at the sky as her balloon which had flown off was grabbed by something and brought back to her. The scenario might have looked unnatural to other people but for the people living in Manhattan, it was a daily occurrence.

    The ¡°Invisible Man¡± as the news had taken to call him now, was someone who was nearly omnipresent on the island of Manhattan. Property rates had shot up everywhere, even in the historically worse-off areas of Manhattan as the presence of the Invisible Man was felt everywhere. Well-off people from across the city began moving to Manhattan in hopes of taking advantage of the safe environment that the Invisible Man had created.

    It was also primarily due to the sheer brutality that which the Invisible Man dealt with child offenders. Normally, if somebody crashed their cars or had a fight with each other, the Invisible Man would just pick them up, like unruly kids, and separate them, waiting for the police to sort it out. BUT, if it involved a kid, let¡¯s just say that the punishment deterred most criminals from even thinking of touching children in Manhattan.

    It has gotten so safe that people somehow leave their kids out in the open these days. Young moms walking with their children late at night with their families was a common occurrence. A scant few years back, the presence of robbers, muggers, and overall criminals would have scared any loving mother back into her home by the time it turned dark outside but now?

    Now due to the presence and security that the Invisible Man brought to the city, it was safer than ever to just take a walk in the city at night. Millionaires from across the city had taken their stuff and moved to Manhattan for the reason of safety and it had clearly paid off.

    Crime rates in Manhattan had fallen to near zero in the year that the Invisible Man had been active. Business was booming as the city had officially declared Manhattan to be a 24/7 business zone because of the way people were out and about at that hour anyway.

    Of course, it was not all hunky dory. The reduction in crime on Manhattan Island meant that the crime had to go somewhere else.

    For some bizarre reason, the Invisible Man cannot act outside the island of Manhattan. It had been extensively recorded by various social media handles when criminals managed to get out of the island and then commit a crime. Of course, that didn¡¯t work well because the Invisible Man just grabbed something that was inside Manhattan and then chucked it at the criminal, usually knocking him out.

    Officially, though, the Invisible Man was a criminal, for many many counts. Taking the law into their own hands, breach of privacy, destruction of private property, assault, and more. The man was charged with a litany of charges and yet, nobody could get a hold of him to actually arrest him and even if they did, how would they even go about arresting him?

    The man, or woman, or whoever he was, was capable of lifting semi trucks as if they were just paper cars and chucking them around. It had been very evident when multiple semis had blocked the freeway when he had just lifted the dozen different semis and placed them safely outside the gridlocked area.

    There had been multiple attempts by the authorities to find out who he really was, including multiple specialised teams from SHIELD as well as the US Military but every single one of them had to go home.

    But what did he have to worry about? He thought to himself as he read his newspaper sitting on a bench in Central Park as the sun had just begun setting. Something like this would have been impossible to think of a few years ago. But now? As he ate his bagel and read the newspaper peacefully, he could admit that if they truly ever did catch the Invisible Man, he would be the first in line to get him reduced.

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    For he had his, J.Jonah Jameson¡¯s gratitude for saving his son from this city which only sought to take take take from him.

    _______xx_______

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Hmm. J.Jonah Jameson was smirking at something but it was just empty in front of him. That was¡­creepy.

    He refocused his attention on the underground labyrinth he had dug out that began from one end of the island to the other. He had been in contact with a couple of engineering grads from NYU.

    Oh, yeah, he had finally figured out how to communicate over very long distances. It was something that had previously crossed his mind but it was simply not possible, with the powers he had at that time.

    You see, after he had fallen unconscious last year and woken up, he had found his powers, both physical and of the mind, having gone through a huge upgrade. His range had shot up to double of what it was previously and his body had become bulletproof, to an extent. He was no Luke Cage but normal pistols would no longer have the ability to puncture his skin, only leave a bruise and excruciating pain behind. Don¡¯t ask how he knew, he wasn¡¯t proud of that moment.

    That range extension also came with finer upgrades which allowed him to easily read the lips of people. He had then taken a course that allowed him to learn lip reading. The course itself was very basic but he had been able to pick it up and after plenty of practice, he was now able to communicate over long distances with ease.

    Coming to the point, he was collaborating with a bunch of Engineering grads to build something that would be very helpful for both the city as a whole and to the people who might want to use something to alleviate the traffic load in Manhattan.

    ¡°Alright, IM, that¡¯s enough. If we go too far, we might just end up flooding the tunnel, again,¡± Chris, the resident nerd, civil engineer major, said in his room as he looked at a real time 3D map of the subterranean levels of the city as he moved the earth along with it.

    Oh yeah, they were building a long highway under the city, with all the protections it might need. It also would have multiple entrances to the surface which people, hopefully, would use to evacuate the streets with haste as the Chitauri would descend on the city. As for how he met Chris?

    It was a few months ago, he was doing routine sweeps of the city to stop the small amount of crimes that did occur, when his attention was drawn to a young man, kneeling in front of an elaborate pattern, right in the middle of Central Park, at midnight.

    Now, with his presence, it was much safer but that was still no time to be out and about, especially, not the time to perform some kind of¡­ritual?

    He focused on him only to see him chanting ¡°Invisible Man!¡± over and over again.

    He had been amused by the situation and focused on him, then moved over a small clump of dirt and then induced friction in them, making them glow red in the darkness of the park. He had then asked him what he was doing and then they had spent the entire night, communicating back and forth about Chris and his life.

    Apparently, he had lost a bet and was dared to bring the attention of the Invisible Man to their club. It was apparently a condition for him to join the ¡°Cool¡± Highways and Bridges club in his department. Well, Academic pursuits and all, so he obliged and just lifted the man, along with the grass underneath him, and then floated him straight to his dorm room, where the people in the club were waiting for him.

    They had certainly not expected Chris to succeed, shocking them all into silence as Chris continued to look at them smugly, although the look¡¯s effect was diminished as Chris held on to the piece of land he was standing on, for dear life.

    Apparently, Chris was afraid of heights from that day onwards.

    They had gotten to talking all night and they had maintained healthy correspondence ever since. It was nice to have people to talk to¡­even though all the talking you did was through scribble words.

    Chris and his club were the one who proposed the entire thing and he was all too happy to help anyway.

    Ever since his powers exploded in power, he didn¡¯t need to expend as much energy to do the same things. Even the crime-stopping was now done almost subconsciously by him.

    So, there he was, digging a very large tunnel underneath the city, which would then be presented to the city by him and him alone. After all, he knew that SHIELD, HYDRA, and a number of other three-letter organisations were still out there, looking for him and he could not slip up, giving them an opportunity to blackmail.

    Only 4 more years and he would be¡­.free.

    Ah, he couldn¡¯t wait.

    ¡°Wait, wait! That was not the correct route. I have some adjustments.¡± Chris exclaimed in his room.

    Sigh. Well, so much for the future engineers of this country.

    You can read upto 5 extra chapters on my P*treon. It is the same name as my username.

 Chapter 15 : The beginning of the END!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 15

    Manhattan [August 2008]

    ¡ªAxle Riddle¨C

    Oh, he was so bored. He was done with all that Kamar Taj could teach him with respect to TK and Extra sensory 360-degree spatial awareness so they had promptly kicked him out of the New York Sanctum although he tried to bribe the Sanctum Master with free coffee and croissants from the cafe down the street to no avail.

    They had revoked not just his building access but also his WIFI access, wifi! Who does that? Even breakups would not have been this thorough in terms of shutting down all the bridges.

    Anywho, he was now back on the job market and was now employed by the company of a Master who lived permanently in Kamar Taj, or rather, the company his descendants ran.

    It was actually fairly successful in what they do, i.e, building rail lines. Somehow, a tiny Asian company had managed to gain a foothold and a decent market share in the rail-building industry of America.

    Apparently, the Master did not interfere much, aside from stopping any supernatural entity from interfering of course, but that was to be expected. He had just mentioned off-handedly when Master Wu had come to visit him, growing curious about the happenings as he heard from the Sanctum Master about his wondrous abilities, and voila! He had an appointment letter in his hand the next day.

    He was now the assistant deputy Digital Prophet of Wu Rail-Cons Pvt. Ltd. Now, that was a job title that was completely made up.

    He only had to go to the office two times a week to report to his superior, who was actually one of the many family members of the Wu joint family. His superior was very respectful and even reverent to him sometimes and as such, he could choose to report or not, to the office. When he does go to the office, however, he has his own personal cabin, with his personal bathroom and everything. All he had to do was sign a bunch of documents and send a couple of messages to all the team members at the location, completing his job for the day.

    Or, he could type in the messages for the next month or so, and not show up at all.

    It was awesome!

    It allowed him to concentrate more on his other civic duties, mainly maintaining deep surveillance over a million people who lived in his awareness radius and through a deep violation of their fundamental rights, stopping any crime that could happen to them, or from them. Once, he had stopped a crime from happening on both ends. Somebody tried to mug an Italian dude, not knowing that he was carrying three different guns on his person and was more than willing to shoot the poor mugger in the head without even flinching, as was evidenced by the two bullets that floated in front of the mugger¡¯s forehead.

    He had to knock both of them out to sort out the situation while cackling like a madman in his cabin. He got more than a few weird looks on his way out that day, especially since he was leaving the office during lunch hours.

    Ah, he loved his job. Plus, it was fun to stay in his air-conditioned cabin while doing his other job, thankless as it was. He also made sure to work on his side project with Chris but apparently, one of the club members had pointed out the legal hurdles they would have to cross to make that viable and upon finding out the time and money that would be involved in making sure that the road could be opened anytime soon, they had promptly given up on and he had also obliged, more than willing to make sure that nobody knew of the emergency evacuation space he had built under the city.

    You see, he had a plan. Using his abilities, which would grow considerably by 2012, he could rip out the upper sections of the streets to expose the way down to the highway, making sure that people were safe and secure from the bomb blasts. Even in the movies, they had people huddling down into the subway for protection from any stray blasts.

    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    Then, once the people were brought into the safe space, either by themselves or by him throwing them inside, he would close down the entry, cutting off Loki¡¯s access from civilian hostages.

    It would greatly benefit them as then, the Avengers could freely exert all of their powers in the city. He too, would be rest assured that even though he let something as horrible as that happen, at least he made sure that not many people became victims. Of course, he would try to ensure that nobody died but he was not God. He could not guarantee that, at all.

    Currently, he was sitting in his cabin and looking at the news while reclining on this ridiculously comfortable chair. He smiled upon hearing about the zero crime rates and thriving business in the city because of the new 24/7 business zone declaration. Apparently, the Mayor had gone all out and even had tours declared of the city, to see him in action.

    Of course, people being the curious bunch that they were, flocked in masses to see the Invisible Man in action.

    SHIELD allowed it because they wanted to catch him and having more opportunities to see his powers in action meant that they could create a more thorough way to deal with him.

    His smile dimmed as he realised that the crime syndicates had also figured out his trick. They now knew that he did not act beyond the borders of Manhattan. They did not know why but that had probably relieved them as they just shifted their base elsewhere. There had been intense gang wars as gangs found rival gangs encroaching and settling in their ¡°territory¡± so to speak.

    Well, once the invasion happened, he would be more than free to deal with the scum of the highest order but he had a feeling that he would have to tone it down. There would be a massive uproar if it came to public knowledge that he was capable of conducting mass surveillance over an entire city and then acting on it, without anybody being able to hold him accountable.

    He might still use his powers for the worst of the crimes but for the most part, he would probably get a restraining order from the President or something, to tone down his activities.

    ¡°Sir, your coffee,¡± He looked up as the door opened and his beautiful PA walked in, a cup of hot coffee in her hands. The same coffee from the cafe down the New York Sanctum was brought to him from 4 blocks away. Ah, once again, how he loved his current job and life.

    The perks, the salary, and the existentially zero workload made it great but the Eye Candy made it even more attractive.

    ¡°Careful, it''s very hot,¡± She said and smiled as she tucked her hair behind her ear.

    ¡°Thank you, Helen,¡± He smiled as he took the coffee and dismissed her, her smile dimming a bit for some reason.

    What? Just because he was her boss and she was the beautiful, young, curvaceous blonde secretary, he was not going to fool around with her. That would be the epitome of foolishness.

    Well, not in the office anyway, he smirked to himself as he drank the scalding hot coffee, his enhanced constitution making the probably second-degree burn marks into just a slight stinge.

    Oh yeah, Dear Helen had found herself being subjected to rigorous exercises in multiple positions, in his apartment of course. He was anything but professional in his conduct in the office. It was also made explicitly clear to Helen that he was not involved in her promotion whatsoever but that had not deterred the blond woman.

    After all that, if he had refused, well there might have even been allegations of not being straight then. He couldn¡¯t have that, could he?

    Anyway, aside from Helen and their regular exercise sessions, he had been busy with his other pursuits as well. Procuring enough food, water, and medical necessities for the evacuation zone underneath the city was a very challenging task because accumulating the supplies slowly was not the problem. The problem was making them last and making them accessible for the required people.

    The emergency support people would be transported by him personally and even if he couldn¡¯t do that himself, he would open up a couple of pathways that should ideally be protected and hidden, known only to the Captain who would then relay that information to the first responders, making his job even easier.

    Fresh air would be taken care of by the ends and the forced circulation systems he would eventually install, once he found some big enough to be useful in that scenario. Aside from that, once the Invasion started, he planned to create huge openings at both ends of the highway, and then personally protect those entry points.

    ¡°This just in, Tony Stark¡¯s convoy in Afghanistan was attacked by rebel forces. As of this moment, his whereabouts are unknown. Please stay tuned as we¡­.¡±

    He swivelled his chair to look at the TV on the side which showed Tony Stark¡¯s face.

    Well, he smirked to himself, It had begun then.

    You can read upto 5 extra chapters on my P*treon. It is the same name as my username.

 Chapter 16 : Buy the Dip Bro!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 16

    Manhattan [August 2008]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Well, this sucked.

    There was nothing he could do aside from waiting for Stark to come back from his imprisonment in Afghanistan and even then, he was not sure when Tony would start the construction of Stark Tower though considering the size of that building in the movies, realistically it should have begun by now. Of Course, there was no guarantee that people could not build such huge skyscrapers in less than 4 years in this universe. They did have access to vastly more advanced bullshit than they did in his home universe.

    Meanwhile, he continued to buy the dip in SI Stock, which would make for a good little nest for him once Tony returned triumphantly, escaping from the jaws of death by the skin of his teeth.

    Anywho, he had made multiple trips around Manhattan and had yet to find any building that looked like Stark Tower in the movies. So, it meant that Tony didn''t just buy an existing building and repurpose it. No, that madlad did build his very own Tower Castle.

    In the meantime, he watched his portfolio go into red as he continued to buy Stark Industries¡¯ Stocks even as people continued to sell them in panic. This much was nothing, he planned on taking a loan from Master Wu, who was loaded apparently, to buy the stock once Tony returned and disbanded the weapons division. Oh, how the Stock would fall then.

    He was looking forward to it. Ah, this was such a rush, knowing that your money would grow even as people all around you sold their stocks.

    ¡°Sir, are you sure?¡± He looked up from his phone at Helen as she sat on a chair in front of him, working on her tasks, which was nothing as far as he knew. Maybe something to do with scheduling his message deliveries?

    He didn¡¯t care much but after hearing her question, he smirked at her and replied, ¡°Oh dear Helen, you don¡¯t have to take my word for it. All will be revealed once Stark returns from captivity,¡±

    ¡°...Okay,¡± She replied and went back to her laptop, humming cheerfully.

    In the back of his mind, he noted an uptick in crime but that happened in the evening anyway. It was currently 7 PM and he did not feel like going home today because the Air Conditioning was busted and he did not like that.

    Apparently, despite having a body that was vastly more suited for extreme temperatures was also very susceptible to falling into the throes of comfort. He could now much more easily identify the quality of a mattress, pillows, and blankets because of the increased sensitivity of his body. That meant that he had become extremely picky in terms of necessary items in his house. That meant that most of the joining bonus he had received from the company went up in flames once he found the correct luxury brand that would sell perfect quality bedding

    Anywho, the reason he was bored was because there was quite literally nothing to do. His range extension meant that there was little to no crime happening with him being active for half the day. The rest of the night was somewhat active but even then, once enough noise was made or if he got up to drink water in the night, all the crime in his surroundings was promptly crushed without even him trying.

    Somehow, the process of concentrating on areas, looking for crimes that are happening, stopping car accidents, and more had turned into a subconscious activity for his brain.

    He had a theory that continuous use of his powers had somehow evolved his brain, along with the episode back when he fell unconscious for three days and woke up with a chiseled muscled body that would not fall short when compared to a professional award-winning bodybuilder.

    Now, he had not gotten any medical testing done because, well, he was not that stupid, but he had a hunch that it was not just his body that had been improved. His brain must have been improved drastically to allow such a thing to happen.

    Oh, there you go, another car crash averted. Dumbass was watching something on his phone and failed to see the garbage truck in front of him. It was good he did that because not only would that have placed additional expense on the local budget, it would have totally destroyed the dumbass¡¯ car and potentially injured him severely. God, people were such fools, he thought to himself as he stopped the car and then bonked the man on the head.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    He was sure that he would call 911 himself to report the incident because he¡­just removed all of the wheels of his car and placed him there.

    Ah, yes, the trend of reporting his actions. Apparently, every single agency had gotten so desperate to track him down, that they had made the Mayor announce a reward. It was small for now. Even if somebody just saw his powers in action, they were to report that as well and would get a few dollars in exchange. Nothing life-changing but enough that people would just record anything they could and submit that grainy footage to the police who would write them a check.

    It was honestly¡­very stupid but it got people money so who was he to deny them?

    Ah, yes, SHIELD and HYDRA had struck the city multiple times, fake robbing in the case of SHIELD and real shootouts in the case of HYDRA but he had foiled their plans each and every time.

    He had taken precautions this time, unlike the last time when he just subdued the HYDRA personnel, this time, he just severed their tendons and pulverized their knee and shoulder joints, rendering them disabled or at least, unemployable for the foreseeable future.

    As for the SHIELD personnel, he had started communicating with them through the nearby debris and after heating them up so they would glow red, he always gave them the same messages, ¡°NICE TRY FED!¡±

    Ah, the disappointment on their faces once they saw that was very satisfying to feel. He also did the same for their temporary bases in Manhattan, they had at least two hidden in the city, stocked to the brim with supplies, if their agents needed it or not. Their real HQ was probably outside of his range and even if it was not previously, they must have realised the limitations of his powers and moved it outside the island anyway.

    Ah, he was sure that most of them were now sure about his power limitations and would not be worried much about him, assuming that he was limited to the city for some reason. Of Course, they wouldn¡¯t stop searching for him. No, if he could not get out into a warzone to be used as a foot soldier, they could figure out how his powers worked and then try and replicate that on a soldier who would.

    Well, that was cute but even Hand, the immortal ninja cult could not make heads or tails about his powers, he had no hope in SHIELD or HYDRA, not that they would ever get their grubby hands on him.

    Speaking of HAND, he had killed Madam Gao three times now as she came to negotiate with him a safe passage for her goods to pass and distribute in his city.

    Well, it was safe to say that neither HAND nor any big criminal enterprise would be able to set up shop as long as he was in the city, which meant at least until 2012. Once the invasion happened, he would move out and start making moves, for his continued survival.

    Speaking of moves, what would they even be?

    He did not want to risk his body by injecting himself with untested or even tested serums. Wakanda¡¯s Heart Shaped Herb was the closest thing to a natural super soldier serum and he did not even want that. Not just because of Bast but because he was already much stronger than the Black Panther.

    Extremis could help. Instant regeneration, even when the person is unconscious, would help a lot but once again, untested technology.

    Plus, he was sure his powers would grow to reach the peak anyway but even then, he was unsure if it would be enough to stop Thanos. No, what he needed were allies.

    Powerful allies who would help in the fight against Thanos. Not the ones who would fight Thanos anyway.

    No, he needed to look for powerful people who would have otherwise not been in the fight against Thanos.

    Villains, misguided heroes, Villains made out of necessity and so many others, could have been put to greater use in the fight against Thanos and his forces if only the people in the know knew about Thanos and his crusade.

    Well, he knew so he would have to gather them. The most obvious would be the Inhumans.

    Not the Inhumans on the moon, those were still too powerful and well-organised for him to go after. No, he was thinking of the smaller Inhuman settlement in Asia.

    Jiaying would be one of the first to go obviously. Not just because of her mentality of killing humans and her past trauma but also because she would just incite her people against him and attack him. Also, her powers would not help her in any way since she needed physical contact to absorb the life force of people. He didn¡¯t know if her powers worked only on Inhumans or humans or even on any living being.

    Hmm, more information was necessary for the decision. Even if he did secure her cooperation, he would have to be careful because the woman was willing to kill her own daughter to advance her agenda, which would have resulted in pandemonium across the planet.

    What would happen if she absorbed the life force of vastly more powerful beings than herself? She had absorbed the life force of multiple Inhumans who willingly sacrificed themselves for her, brainwashed as they were but that only led to her maintaining her youth and nothing more.

    She might just explode if she tried to use her powers on Hulk or Thor, so no. She was not really useful and she would be infinitely more troublesome as a thorn in his path to secure powerful combatants. Even support-oriented powers like healing or teleportation would be more than useful in the fight against Thanos.

    The next best candidates were the Eternals but they would not lift their hands for something like this, well, not all of them anyway and the ones who would help would do so at the drop of a hat so he would approach them later on.

    That left him with¡­.nothing. The MCU did not have many enclaves of enhanced people. He would have to work with what he had.

    ¡°Sigh, so much work and no time to do it,¡± He mumbled to himself, looking at the TV, channel surfing as he reclined on his chair, all alone in his cabin.

    You can read upto 5 extra chapters on my P*treon. It is the same name as my username.

 Chapter 17 : BREAKING NEWS!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 17

    Manhattan [October 2008]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Welp, it¡¯s been three months now. On the date.

    Yet, still no news of Stark. Even most of the news channels had stopped reporting on his absence and he had all but been declared dead. The thing was that Stark was not just an ordinary Billionaire weapons manufacturer. If he had been, the government would have abandoned him and started dealing with the next snake that took his place.

    No, it was not Justin Hammer who was abducted by terrorists. No, it was Tony Stark. The one man capable of creating weaponry so fart ahead of the rest of the world that it was not even funny.

    So, until the government had definitive proof of him being dead, they would not stop looking. In that direction, they had taken multiple steps, foregoing most of the standard procedure in the process.

    Thus far, the news had leaked that they had destroyed over a dozen insurgent bases but had yet to find any intel on Stark. Probably killed many civilians in the process as well but for them, Stark was more important than the combined lives of civilians in that entire region, so they kept looking.

    It was probably this aggressive approach that led to the Ten Rings, well, the remnants of it anyway, going deeper into their hole and hiding from the military, at least until Tony built them the Jericho missile and once they extracted the know-how from him, they would dispose of the American and start the war anew with the forces stationed there.

    He did not know exactly where Tony was being kept and when he would break out of his imprisonment but he did remember that it was somewhere around the three months mark so he had been waiting. It had been 3 months and 3 days since Stark was kidnapped and so far, the SI Stock that he had been buying wholesale, had stopped dropping and had now stabilised, more or less, at the lowest valuation it had been in since Tony Stark took over.

    Master Wu had been hesitant to give him over 100 million dollars to bet on Tony Stark¡¯s return but after assuring him that Tony Stark would return and he had guaranteed intel, Master Wu relented. It would seem that he had pretty deep pockets considering he didn¡¯t have to think much or take more time to arrange that amount of money.

    He spoke to Master Wu yesterday and today he had the money, which he then promptly poured into the stock. Sure, he was nowhere near a majority shareholder but if he played his cards right, he might just get a meet-and-greet from the man himself.

    So far, all he had done was expand his range to the edge of his prison. Which had surely left the analysts at SHIELD scratching their heads as they looked for him. He was sure they must have had some outrageous ideas like interrogating everyone or looking for the blood samples for the entire population and they might just have been successful had the mayor not been cunning. He realised that Manhattan was currently the golden goose it was because of his existence.

    Otherwise, it would have been rich, sure, but also infested with crime, drugs, murders, gang wars, etc. Now though, it was as if every Billionaire and multi-hundred millionaire in New York lived in Manhattan, under the umbrella of his protection.

    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    Cops somehow sought transfers to Manhattan because they knew the workload would be less and the danger would be almost zero.

    Anywho, he was currently in his apartment, practising his powers. Not his TK, no, that was not the focus of his current exercise. Currently, he was practising his spatial awareness. He had recently crossed his range over the barrier that surrounded Manhattan in a meaningful way. Now, he could actually focus on the people and the objects there and affect them to a degree.

    He could not use his full strength beyond the curtain, obviously but he could use it to some degree. In the absence of overwhelming force, he had to get creative. Applying just enough force at the foot of a person to make them either stumble or outright fall on their face.

    Shove someone with enough force to push them a couple of steps ahead until they regain their balance or make them fall down immediately.

    Take hold of a small rock and then float it far above in the sky and then drop it so that it would gain high velocity when it impacts something, thereby increasing the damage.

    Sadly, he could not do much about the bullets or even knives as the force behind humans was too much for his powers to stop completely. Knives could be deflected and he could always apply the entirety of his available powers at the crotch of people to disarm them but that did not always work.

    He even had to resort to stashing tools in secure corners and then using them on thugs in his range. The news must have spread fast in the underground crime rings because after a few times, he had stopped crimes, gangs stopped coming to the edge of his range.

    From then on, he had worked on increasing his range, mainly because there was not much crime happening in Manhattan and the amount that was happening was being easily handled by his subconscious. It was ridiculous that the evolution of his powers led to a second ¡°mind¡± of sorts that he could assign tasks to, even while he was asleep.

    So, now he was in charge of the protection of the city 24/7 and that..did not help one bit. The number of traumatic events he had witnessed were far beyond the norm.

    The amount of attempted murders, rapes, Overdoses, and much more had dropped drastically ever since he took over. He could not even imagine the scenario on the other islands.

    So, he had been hard at work, expanding his awareness range to the max. In the beginning, his awareness expanded very smoothly but once it crossed the curtain around the city, it crawled to a halt. It was as if it had turned into a very viscous fluid and moving it felt like a herculean task, if he was being honest with himself.

    Many times, he found himself bleeding from his nose but apparently, the boost he got to his body helped in that regard as well because, after weeks of trying and exerting both his mind and body, he no longer bled after overusing his powers.

    The good news was that the effects of trying so hard with his spatial awareness had paid dividends even inside the curtain of the city. Now, he could even predict if a portal was about to be opened in a certain area. His awareness, while still unable to penetrate the wards of the Sanctum, was now able to tell him that the Sanctum was present in that place and the wards did exist on that building.

    He could see the wordings but the meaning of them still eluded his mind. He had hoped to understand and maybe someday use the Mystic Arts but apparently, his body and soul were not exactly the ideal specimens for becoming a practitioner. Also, forcefully practising them might have hurt his original abilities and that was a big no-no.

    So, here he was, practising the only tool in his arsenal, hoping to bring them to greater heights so that one day, when his prison collapsed, he could go out and assemble the most badass backup for the Avengers once Thanos came knocking.

    ¡­¡­

    ¡­..

    ¡­..

    ¡°Breaking NEWS! Tony Stark has been found and rescued by the US Military. Details on his rescue have been scarce although the news has created waves in the financial markets, prompting analysts to update their predictions for Stark International¡¯s Stock prices.

    Stay tuned for more details.¡±

    He smiled as his phone began ringing, probably from Master Wu¡¯s great-grandson who ran the company these days. They bet a 100 million dollars on this and now, now it was time to cash in.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 18 : Key to my Fortune!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 18

    Manhattan [October 2008]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°How did you know?¡±

    He rolled his eyes as the CEO of the company asked him the same question for the umpteenth time. They were already up 16% on their profit in just a few days that it had taken Stark to be rescued from Afghanistan and him being cleared to come back on US soil.

    He wagered that there were quite a few nervous US generals, waiting to see if Stark had given sensitive information or worse, weapons technology, to the terrorists so he was probably held up in the interrogation.

    The other thing must be his overall health. Probably very dehydrated and starved, among other things as he was kept in that base for well over three months.

    ¡°I just knew, Mr.Wu, and as I have repeated it a dozen times before, no, we will not exit at this time,¡±

    ¡°What! Why?¡±

    Well, because it was going to tank even more but he was not going to say that to the man¡¯s face. The man was already pretty much depressed when he was told that pretty much the entire free fortune of the entire family was being pulled out of all their holdings and put into the falling stocks of Stark Industries on the word of a single person, who up until a few months ago, was a complete unknown to them. The same person was also getting a decent salary for doing essentially nothing.

    Anybody would be suspicious of this but alas, the word of Master Wu was final in their company and so, there they were, in the CEO¡¯s office who was trying to convince him to offload all of their stock from SI.

    ¡°The things Tony will do in the future will eclipse all of his previous achievements. It will be beneficial for us to hold everything for the long term. Don¡¯t worry, I will explain my reasonings to Master Wu,¡±

    There, that clinched it. The man was about to object but the second Master Wu¡¯s name came in the concentration, his jaw clicked shut as he nodded with a strained smile.

    Somehow, Master Wu had maintained an ironclad control on the family and none of their members even went so far as to raise any question, even if Master Wu was taking such risky bets that their entire family fortune might just be lost in that bet.

    ¡°Well, I have work to do. I¡¯ll see you when Stark does his first interview,¡±

    Saying so, he turned out and headed straight out of the office. He was craving an iced coffee and thanks to his powers, he didn¡¯t have to save for pesky things like a down payment for the house or a car payment. No, that might eat into the things that he actually liked, like drinking coffee, eating fancy (good) food, and generally doing as his heart pleased.

    Of course, looking at the orange curtain surrounding the city, his mood soured a bit because that limited his ideal life to only a small island but he tried to uplift himself by reminding himself that it could have been far worse.

    He could have been stuck on an uninhabited island, doomed not to have human contact until the set period was up. Or be stuck someplace where modern amenities were absent. WIthout human contact, he might have really gone insane, and thinking about someone going insane with his powerset was enough to make even him shudder.

    No, this was for the better. He was stuck sure, but on an island that had all the amenities he could think of, at a place that was sure to have some of the world¡¯s most influential people originate from.

    Well, one of the legendary heroes that would emerge from New York would be Spider-Man, Peter Parker. Sure, it was still almost a decade before Spider-Man would show up in the original timeline so he must still be a toddler at best but he was excited even now for him to turn up.

    Hah, things had gotten so boring recently. Even his training to expand his spatial awareness reach had hit somewhat of a roadblock after extending barely a mile out of Manhattan.

    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    The force he could exert outside his sphere of influence was less than even 200 pounds at the edge of his range. Now, that was still enough for him to stop crimes using increasingly creative ways but when it was a car crash involving cars going above the speed limit, the best he could do was cushion the blow for the passengers, and even then, it was not enough as the whiplash was enough to break their necks, spines or other bones, leaving them either crippled or dead.

    Those were the worst as he had to deal with not just them being injured on his watch but also taking them out of the wreckage of cars that could go up in flames at any point in time.

    Now, it was the weekend and he hoped that Tony would come back to the States to give that damned interview so they could buy up even more of SI stock. Apparently, there were more old fossils in Kamar Taj whose families had proposed beyond the norm, making immense wealth for their families.

    Master Wu was also somewhat of a tattle mouth, as he had informed his group of old fogies that he had increased their fortune in a matter of months and he had predicted the future when it came to Stark¡¯s rescue, something that only the Ancient One could do.

    That ability, the ability to peer into a possible future, more than anything made them come running after his ass, all trying to get a piece of the action. Apparently, the old fogies were plenty powerful but had retired because the Ancient One was so much more powerful than the threats that usually arrived on the planet.  Nowadays, all they were useful for was the opportunity to find a talented junior and then impart all their knowledge to him.

    They didn''t even do that. All they did was hole up in their cave up in the Himalayas and wait for their deaths while looking for interesting stories. Apparently, there was a graveyard shift to clean that cave that was thrust upon whoever was the newbie at that point in time and that young apprentice was accosted by dozens of old powerful fogies capable of bending reality to their will, and forced to tell them the tales of the outside world.

    It all sounded pretty hunky dory to him but apparently, the old fogies were not exactly living up in the caves voluntarily. Apparently, before the time he came into Kamar Taj, there used to be a council of Masters, that was responsible for appointing new Sanctum Masters, as well as supervising the orders of the Sorcerer Supreme. While the role¡¯s name suggested that they had free reign over Kamar Taj, Agamotto had predicted that and made the Master Council to balance their powers.

    The Master Council could also question the Sorcerer Supreme about their actions and decisions and they were bound to answer to them, provided they were not in a state of active war.

    The thing was that before the Ancient One¡¯s reign, which was the longest recorded one, Kamar Taj used to always be in a state of emergency, and as such, the Master Council had never gotten the chance to flaunt their authority.

    Ancient One, with her seeming immortality, changed that. Nowadays, most of the extradimensional threats knew that Earth was guarded by a human who was unaging, and unchanging for centuries. So the attacks had abated a bit but never stopped.

    He was sure they were just waiting for her to kick the bucket before sending in the heavy hitters. That meant that for the first time in millennia, Kamar Taj was in a state of prolonged peace.

    This meant that the Master Council could finally focus on things other than fighting constantly and that led to them discovering their powers. They then, in their infinite wisdom, decided to question the Ancient ONe on her decisions.

    While the Ancient One must have humoured them at first but the moment they started questioning her about her immortality, she shut them down. Hard.

    They tried to protest but apparently, she was not nearly as patient with them as she was with Stephen Strange in the future. He was the epitome of assholeness and yet, she made a proper Sorcerer Supreme out of him.

    That was how the exiled Master Council approached him and offered to give him almost 2 billion dollars to invest as he pleased and he was not going to let that opportunity go. After all, after intense negotiations, conducted remotely, they had finalised a 5% commission on their overall profits, which was¡­.huge.

    It was to the tune of almost a hundred million if he played his cards correctly, that is.

    Also, it might just be beneficial for him and the Masters to just leave that money as is and influence the workings of Stark Industries. He, for one, would immediately push for an aggressive approach when it came to clean energy from the Arc Reactor.

    In the movie timeline, Tony did not push Arc Reactor as much as he should have, probably because of the still strong influence of Big Oil and Coal companies from the United States.

    Leaving that aside, he shut down that process of thought and focused on his powers as he opened the door to his apartment and lit it up.

    He smiled in exhaustion as he looked at the brightly lit, very well-furnished, cozy but¡­lonely apartment of his.

    ¡°Ha, well, so much for the glamorous life of a superhero. When will it be my turn?¡± He mused to himself as the groceries put themselves into their place as his body seemingly floated straight to the bathtub, his clothes removed by his powers, the bathwater already at the optimal temperature with all the bath salts in it.

    He looked at the awaiting bath with so much love as his form was slowly dropped into the bathtub.

    ¡°Ah, I hope someone loves me as much as I love this bathtub right now,¡± He closed his eyes in satisfaction as the exhaustion just melted away.

    God, life is good right now. It could be better, but it was good right now.

    Now, if only 2012 came quicker.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 19 : The Weak Link

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 19

    Seattle [October 2008]

    ¨CChris Turner¨C

    Whistling, he entered his bedroom, ready to have the nap of his lifetime, especially after his social battery was drained by his best friends whom he hadn¡¯t met in forever, after moving to NYU for his studies.

    ¡°Ah, that¡¯s the stuff,¡± he sighed in contentment as the warm water in the bathtub soothed away the tension in his body. Ah, he loved his best friends but it was sometimes so draining to be with them all day.

    He always feels the same way every time. The first few days after coming home are a whirlwind as he meets with every single friend, family friend, relative, extended family, and so on and so forth. Then, he gets the time to hang out with his old school friends and reminisce about simpler times, all the while getting drunk out of their minds and driving around town with no destination in mind.

    Those two events happened exclusively to each other, of course. He did not want another lecture from the Invisible Man about the responsibilities of youth.

    Huh. Invisible Man. What a dumb name, he snickered to himself but then he burped.

    Ah, too much soda then.

    Honestly, he loved the Invisible Man, not in that way, but the way he was so approachable. He had never thought that doing that stupid dare would lead to him coming into contact with a superhero.

    Because that¡¯s who he was¡ª a superhero. Invisible Man had probably already saved thousands of lives and must be in the process of saving even more, as he soaked in the bathtub.

    It helped that they had some outrageous ideas that the Invisible Man could test, all at the cost of zero dollars. Their underground highway plan didn¡¯t work out because, well for one, the subway already existed. Secondly, the road was built by a mysterious person capable of moving matter with a thought. No matter how strong it was, it would never pass any audit of the government, forever entangling that project in red tape.

    Oh yeah, the Invisible Man naming scheme was stupid because it was not an Invisible Man who did the work manually. No, they had seen with their own eyes the proof for that. A crime being stopped halfway across the city at the same time as he was interacting with them using the scribble letters that they had bought for him.

    And the scale at which he operated was mind-boggling as well. Raw power combined with impeccable control, what a nightmarish combination, for his enemies that is.

    For someone like him who had always dreamed of building huge structures with his own hands, starting with the treehouse in his backyard, well those powers would have been a dream come true.

    Although, he was not sure if he could handle the burden of all of that. Having that much power and using that, not for personal benefit (that he knew of) but for the welfare of the society spoke to the Invisible Man¡¯s morals.

    Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!

    Well, he wouldn¡¯t lie and say that the thought of opening up about his powers to the rest of the world, confident in his abilities to stop anybody from harming him, and then becoming the most sought after bachelor for every single hot girl in the city, had never crossed his mind or dreams, but that was what every red-blooded late teen thought of anyway.

    Okay, that was enough time in the bathtub, he thought to himself as he dried himself up and entered his PJs.

    ¡°Ah, so comfy,¡± Somehow, the PJs he left at home, despite them being years old, were more comfortable than the vastly more expensive ones that he brought into the city.

    ¡°I am afraid that your comfortable session with your bed might be delayed a bit. I am truly sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause you,¡±

    He froze in his tracks and mechanically turned his neck in the direction of the voice and found his voice stuck in his throat as the most stereotypical of suits sat on his chair in front of the door, right beside his closet.

    ¡°Uh¨CEh?¡± Chris.exe had stopped working.

    ¡°Um, who are you? What do you want?¡± He stammered out as he looked out of the window and was relieved to see that there was not a squad of armed suits waiting outside his home, ready to take him to some black site, from where he would never hear of, ever again.

    ¡°Well, Mr.Chris Turner, I am Agent Coulson from the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division and I have some questions that I am sure you have the answers to,¡± The man said with the most genial smile on his face but at that moment, it looked more like the devil¡¯s smile to him.

    ¡°Uh, yeah, sure,¡± He stammered out as he sat on the bed, facing the scary agent.

    He didn¡¯t look all that muscular or anything but somehow, that only added to his intimidating stature.

    ¡°So, I am sure you know what this is about but let me refresh your memory. It is about the Invisible Man. We have credible intel that you and your friends have been in contact with him for an extended period of time, months if I am not wrong?¡± The suit man rattled off as he started reading through a stack of powers he had brought with him.

    ¡°Uh¨Cyeah but look, we haven¡¯t done anything wrong. I have rights, you can¡¯t just make me disappear. The Invisible Man will know and he will come to find¨C¡±

    ¡°Stop Stop. Let me stop you right there. We are not here to make you disappear, as you put it. Besides, if we did want to kidnap you, we would not be having this conversation in the comfort of your home,¡±

    ¡°Ehh,¡± He let out a muffled scream, NOT like a little girl.

    ¡°Now, we have suspicions that the Invisible Man is practically omnipresent in the city of Manhattan and the surrounding areas as well. You are the only one of the group who lived so far away, across the country actually, so you are the only one we can ask about him.¡±

    So that''s why they were targeting him. Well, the decision to get away from his family and enroll in the farthest possible good school had backfired on him in an utterly unexpected spectacular way.

    ¡°Y-You are right in that. He knows everything that happens in the city, at all times. It is like he is everywhere at once,¡± He admitted out loud. He was surprised by that move. He never thought he would betray the Invisible Man¡¯s trust but fear was a healthy motivator. But even then¡­

    ¡°Look, I will say it upfront. I do now know who he really is or if it is even a ¡°he¡±. What I do know is that he is very powerful but he does not use that power for bad purposes. We did communicate over long distances but that was limited to academic purposes. It all began with a stupid dare but then he became interested in our stupid projects and to us, he was the only shot at bringing out ideas into reality so we just told him where and when to do stuff and he did it. At first, I was really surprised and scared as well because¡­¡±

    He continued to rattle on, unheeding of the fact that the suit man had snapped his fingers, which caused another suit person to come in and point a camera at him, and then even after that, they started taking notes.

    He sweated as he somehow began babbling on and on about everything despite the suit man not asking him anything more than the bare minimum.

    God, he was such a wuss.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 20 : Son of Coul

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 20

    Seattle [October 2008]

    ¨CPhil Coulson¨C

    ¡°That will be all, Mr.Turner. If we have any more questions, we¡¯ll be sure to contact you during your stay here. Also, if you remember something that you might want to inform us of, call this number. Have a Good Day, Mr.Turner, and stay out of trouble,¡± Saying so, he handed Chris his card and turned around, and left the house, his agents following behind.

    God, today had been such a rollercoaster ride that he did not know what to think about.

    Everybody, from the janitor at the Triskelion who only spoke Russian, to the World Security Council, knew about the Invisible Man as the media had dubbed the mystery savior of Manhattan. Of course, SHIELD was worried about the implications of such a powerful enhanced roaming free in the world, doing as he pleased but seeing that he was on the side of good right now, they had backed off.

    Backed off, in the sense of overt legal moves. Their agents continued to monitor every single aspect of Manhattan and the way the man¡¯s powers worked. They were prudent in their caution because imagining someone capable of crushing a car to bits and rescuing a cat from a tree at the same time was bone-chilling.

    If he was that worried, imagine the state of Director Fury. He was very much fuming because, apparently, they had found a single link in all the time that the Invisible Man had operated in Manhattan but they could not actually approach the link in any meaningful way.

    Why? Because the link was a small group of civil engineering students playing a club at their university who happened to be acquaintances of the Invisible Man, so much so that they had regular conversations with him, not face to face of course but through clever use of his powers.

    Unfortunately, Manhattan was, for them at least, the Invisible Man¡¯s fief, and going there with hostile intent was a surefire way of getting knocked out and waking up in police custody. Things had evolved to such a level that even the Mayor and NYPD Commissioner would refuse to lift their hand against him.

    The reasons were twofold. The 24-hour Business zone instated in Manhattan that brought in so much revenue that it practically dwarfed all other Boroughs combined and secondly, the vastly safer working environment that he had created for any emergency services.

    The Boys in Blue would most likely defend the Invisible Man because of the sheer deterrence he represented. Gangs now avoided Manhattan and its surrounding areas like the plague and the men in blue were very grateful for that.

    Of course, in the short term, all that criminal activity had to go somewhere, so the gangs had begun intruding on other gangs¡¯ territories, and shootouts and gang wars had increased a bit but going by SHIELD analysts'' words, it was just a temporary uptick and things would soon turn to normal.

    So, interrogating, even a softer subtler one, would have been very risky to do in Manhattan, no matter how hard they tried to figure out ways to block his sight. They had tried everything, from lead to copper, to high energy frequency blocking to plain old jammers. Nothing seemed to work and it was clear that without having direct access to the enhanced himself, they would not be able to create a countermeasure for him.

    So, they had to resort to this. A fully paid-for vacation for both his parents that made sure that his parents were out of town and a fully paid-for trip home from a competition they ran at his university.

    Of course, they would not be able to make him ¡°disappear¡± as Mr.Turner put it so aptly because that would just antagonise the most powerful enhanced they had ever encountered.

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    As far as he knew, nothing, aside from that one person he met in the 90s, could beat him and even she would have a hard time considering her specialty was just punching through things, and as far as anybody knew, there was nothing to punch.

    They had been laser-focused on Manhattan for the better part of a year now and they had figured out nothing. No energy signature that would indicate activation of enhanced powers. Nothing.

    There should have been something but it was as if they were blind to it. Better sensors, better satellites, better computers, they tried it all. But still, they were as blind as they were in the beginning.

    It was as if the man had an Invisible hold on the city, and was capable of processing that vast amount of information and acting on it, in real-time. He didn¡¯t understand how the hundreds of rich people who had now taken residence in the city did so without caring about their privacy that much.

    Essentially, the man was everywhere and yet nowhere to be seen.

    The only thing they were able to find was that while the man himself was very strong, he was not really that smart or he was just playing around with a bunch of grad students.

    After all, who would make an island-spanning highway underneath the island, deeper even than the subway, just because a bunch of students suggested that it might relieve the traffic situation?

    Yeah, as if they needed one more lane to reduce traffic. Like that has ever worked out for anyone anywhere, ever.

    But they had sent a couple of drones after digging in a way and what they found had boggled their analysts¡¯ minds. That discovery was part of the reason they were ordered not to make any overt moves with respect to him.

    He had seen the footage and the terrifying fact was that he knew that all of it was done solely by that man. There was no indication anywhere that any type of tool was used to make that tunnel, not that he could do so without it coming to their attention.

    They had gone through the plans of the students and seen that the tunnel was built to scale, very accurately. The amount of earth moved for that project while also maintaining the integrity of the tunnel at the same time¡­the numbers alone made it so that Director Fury himself forbade anyone from approaching him at all.

    Then, he had appointed him to interrogate the student to see if they could find any new information that they didn''t already have from their hacked devices. It was seriously getting easier and easier to spy on people without even assigning people to them.

    Just turn on the mic, assign a few keywords, and then voila, you have a mass surveillance system ready at your fingertips.

    From Chris, they had confirmed what they already knew. The Invisible Man¡¯s range extended beyond the island of Manhattan, that was certain but, the way in which he exerted his influence mattered a lot.

    See, on the island of Manhattan, the Invisible Man was like a god. He could perform a dozen different things, all at once, without stuttering. He could stop bullets, asphyxiate fires, hold entire houses together, lift trucks, etc.

    Outside the boundary of Manhattan, however, was where things got a little interesting. They had noticed that his power did not extend very far out of Manhattan but enough to cover all of its periphery. Whereas inside Manhattan, the Invisible Man used enough brute force to shame even Captain America in terms of power, outside Manhattan, he used creativity to solve the problems.

    In Manhattan, he used his powers to just float any cars that were about to crash and then after bleeding their inertia, deposited them back on the ground. Outside Manhattan however, he could not do much in terms of a car crash aside from taking control of the steering and trying to take it away safely.

    Same when it came to apprehending criminals. Brute force knockout or just dropping heavy things on just the right stop to knock them out.

    He had power, in spades, that much they knew but building that tunnel and manipulating something as small as Scrabble from far away distances meant that he had impeccable control as well.

    That type of expertise doesn¡¯t just come automatically. From all their research on the enhanced people, they knew that powers were just like another skill that you had access to. It was unique and tied to you, nobody aside from you could learn it, but it was just something that people needed to practice to get better at.

    Somebody had practiced with their powers, likely for years on end, to reach this level of skill with their innate powers. He knew that having stronger powers meant a loss of control, at least in the initial stage.

    Weaker powers were just easier to control.

    Thinking of the tunnel, this person had probably been going at his powers for a decade, there is no other explanation for it. Well, aside from him having this level of proficiency instantly which was just impossible, even in the messed up logic of Enhanced people.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 21 : Brucie seeks Refuge!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 21

    Triskelion [November 2008]

    ¨CPhil Coulson¨C

    He was wrong.

    The Invisible Man was not the strongest person on the planet, not now. Not by a long shot. Watching as the Hulk grew bigger with each new gamma radiation spike, along with an increased ability to smash things and throw stuff, he was forced to eat his previous words.

    The Invisible Man might be able to exert force over a large area with astonishing precision but the Hulk? The Hulk was a whole other force of nature.

    He could somehow punch and create sonic booms in the aftermath, leaving behind just broken bodies and vehicles.

    ¡°...Um, Director? Is it just me or should we stop General Ross from making this even more of a mess?¡± He couldn¡¯t help asking the Director as they watched the paperwork pile up on the screen, showing the sheer amount of government resources that the, in his opinion, Mad General was about to use and waste on a cross-country hunt because he could not get a hint and was salty about his daughter getting a boyfriend.

    Well, those were his private thoughts and not something that could be proven in a court of law but he was pretty sure that had it been anybody other than Bruce Banner who had become that hulking green monstrosity, the obsession that General Ross had, would have been much more¡­tamed.

    ¡°...Sir? Aren¡¯t we going to do anything? Banner clearly seems to be headed to Manhattan. Are we not worried about two very powerful forces meeting there?¡± He voiced his concerns as they looked at a series of reports that showed Bruce¡¯s destination. Sure, he tried to throw people off by booking a bunch of tickets going the other way and then travelling to Manhattan on foot or on public transport but to their legion of SHIELD analysts, it was easy work to figure out that Banner would seek the safety of the Invisible Man long before he tried to flee the country.

    ¡°...Hmm?¡¯ The Director said as he came out of his introspection and then, after taking a look at him, looked at the screen that showed the prediction reports and just pressed the delete button.

    What?

    The confusion must have been very evident on his face as the Director chuckled, ¡°We never knew that Banner was headed to Manhattan, Coulson. If we knew, we would have been obligated to stop him before he reached such a sensitive zone but oh well, we had no idea and thus, were unsuccessful in stopping Banner, a declared fugitive, from entering a safe zone,¡±

    The smirk on Director Fury¡¯s face was very disconcerting. Even for him.

    ¡°...I see,¡± He was nothing if not adaptable to such changes in the situation. That was probably for the best anyway because imagining the lives lost in an altercation with the Hulk was not encouraging plus the invisible man maintained an ironclad hold on the city and if the Hulk started rampaging out, he could just¡­pick him up and throw him in the river to cool down.

    They did not know the upper limits of both the Invisible Man and the Hulk but the way his powers worked, the Invisible Man was uniquely positioned to contain the Hulk with ease, or rather, transport him out of the city such that no large-scale damage occurred to the city, something that General Ross could not boast about.

    ¡°Should I head out to the city HQ then? In preparation for a visit by General Ross himself?¡±

    He received a deadpan stare in exchange for his question and then nodded to himself, receiving his answer. He then promptly turned on his heel to leave Director Fury¡¯s office.

    ¡°..Coulson,¡± He stopped at Director Fury¡¯s words, ¡°Take the STRIKE team, you might need them,¡±

    His words made him raise an eyebrow but additional firepower never hurt anyone¡­.unless somebody used it.

    ¡°Very well,¡± He muttered and stepped out, somewhat cautious of the General now that DIrector Fury gave him the supposedly best ops team of SHIELD. Maybe the General was even more crazy than he had given him credit for?

    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    Only time will tell, he thought to himself as he prepared himself for a long assignment.

    Manhattan [November 2008]

    ¨CBruce Banner (THE HULK)--

    His heart pounded as he covered himself in a grey hoodie, wearing sunglasses as he kept looking at the roads in a bid to calm his hammering heart.

    Fat load of good that did when he saw police cars at every fucking intersection. His hands were bone white as he clenched them after every single turn of the bus, his heart rate shooting up as flashes of green intermingled with his normal vision.

    He tried, he tried really hard to just..not become him but the first chance he gets, he gets out immediately, and rather violently at that. It was not something he could control and yet, he was foolish on his way to a residential area with a major civilian population.

    Ideally, he would have left the country and settled in some remote part of Canada, that is, until Ross would have eventually tracked him down and then he would have had to move again, after¡­killing those soldiers.

    God, it made him retch anytime he thought of the casualties that came from his hand. The people he killed, were people who were just following orders, who had families at home waiting for them.

    And for what? Just so Ross could cage him back and then use him to make an army of the same monster he had become.

    No.

    He will not become a tool for the Army and yet, he knew what fate awaited him if he did become a recluse somewhere in a remote corner of the world. No human contact? No research? No way to figure out how to remove the monster from him, allowing him to live a semblance of a normal life?

    No, he cannot accept that. And that is why, he is going to the one place that housed a monster beyond even the one that was within him.

    Someone who possessed powers beyond even him and yet, used them in a safe controlled manner to help people, without ever having to worry about people hunting him down. It helped that should he ever turn into that monster permanently, the Invisible Man, as the media dubbed him, was the best chance he would have of getting out of the city in a non-violent manner and then being imprisoned later on.

    He had also heard that the Invisible Man helps everyone and even sometimes listens in on people¡¯s conversation if his name is called out. He couldn¡¯t even begin to imagine the processing power required to be essentially omnipresent in a city with almost a million people living in that space, but he also could not understand how he turned himself into that 10-foot monstrosity.

    So, there he was, waiting for the bus to cross the bridge and finally enter Manhattan, the promised land of New York City.

    The entire time, his body was on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop but as soon as they entered Manhattan, his entire body went limp, as if the strings holding it fell apart.

    He must have looked very weird to passersby and originally, his anxiety would have shot up but he didn¡¯t exactly care much now. Not with him finally being in a safe space, away from The Military, away from Ross, and even away from¡­..Betty.

    Oh god, Betty! She must be so worried but he couldn''t contact her, not with her father looking for him.

    He sighed and rubbed his face, getting off the bus and looking at the hustle and bustle on the streets.

    It seemed like a different world to him. People minding their business, not even arguing or making loud noises.

    Cars running in an orderly manner, even without the constant presence of the NYPD to deter them from breaking any laws.

    After all, the Invisible Man was the law here, and breaking his law meant that the punishment was just as inevitable as it was swift.

    ¡°E=Excuse me, can you tell me where the congregation of Problems, happens?¡± He asked an old lady passing by, a much safer option to talk to, because they were very detached from the news, statistically.

    ¡°Oh, you must be new in the city then. It happens by the park. You¡¯ll see when you get there, it is impossible to miss. Bye now, dear,¡± The very helpful lady pointed out and then he set out, on foot, because he could.

    He could finally remain out in the open without the threat of some sniper trying to shoot his head off because that hadn¡¯t been tried a hundred times by the soldiers who were killed by the monster in him.

    No Ross, No Military, and no monster to worry about.

    Ah, he could live here forever, even if he had to be homeless for it. After all, he could forget ever using any of his bank accounts, considering he must already be a declared fugitive with his assets frozen.

    Even if he did miraculously find them functioning, it would just be a ruse to track him down.

    No, he would first have a talk with the Invisible Man, be honest and open about his problems, and then¡­see what happens.

    See, he had a plan but that plan only went as far as to enter Manhattan without being captured.

    He could only hope that he was accepted into the city, being the massive security risk that he was. He literally had no other options and he had already exhausted his cash reserves for booking a couple of flight and train tickets to try to throw the Military off his trail.

    That should have bought him at least a couple of days.

    Now, where was the congregation? He had an Invisible Person to talk to.

    Oh, he knew that the invisible Man was no deity and he himself confirmed as such using his powers but the people needed something to rationalise his existence.

    The existence of someone so far above them that it made them¡­not human.

    He knew that feeling.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 22 : The One With the Cult!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 22

    Manhattan [November 2008]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Ah, this was so frustrating, he thought to himself as he angrily munched on the most delicious sandwich he could find, drawing looks from the passersby, not that he cared one bit about them.

    He had recently learned about something concerning. It was a cult named the Congregation of Problems.

    Ah! What a corny name. It was something of a cult that gathered around a set location in Central Park. Even the Mayor had tacitly agreed, leaving them alone despite them creating a huge ruckus every single day.

    The premise was that people had noticed that he would listen in on people¡¯s conversations if he was called enough times. Now that was simply not true.

    His second brain, as he had taken to call it now, was scanning the entirety of the city and the people at all times which meant that whenever there was an issue happening that needed his attention, his name automatically came to people¡¯s mouths. Coincidentally that issue also immediately catches his attention so that he can solve it post haste.

    Now, people somehow got the idea from that, that if they gathered in a specific spot and narrated their problems, he would listen and respond, by solving their problems for them. As if he was their god and they were his believers, for whom he was obligated to solve some of their pains.

    Obviously, he had rejected the earlier claims of that being his official church and him being a god, rather Violently at that but¡­

    But people could not rationalise his existence without liking him as something like either a god or a devil. Somehow, he had surpassed the realm of humans in the minds of the vast majority of people and that was how the Congregation of Problems came to be.

    People came, people narrated their problems, and he scratched his metaphorical brain, as to how to convince those people that he could not make his girlfriend or boyfriend to come take him back. His powers did not work like that.

    That was how it had been happening for the past two weeks. Then the worst thing happened at one of the early morning congregations when an elderly gentleman collapsed while taking his grandson out for a walk.

    He had been focused on the congregation when he sensed that happening so he immediately flagged the location to the nearby 911 call centre.

    Oh yeah, they had come up with a creative system for him to warn the authorities for emergency services at whatever location he wanted to call them to, without him exposing anything of note at all. They had installed a giant life-sized model of Manhattan in a call centre nearby.

    Then all he had to do was concentrate on the model and then pin the specific location and the pins were of different make as well. He had then pinned the location with the ambulance model and set about trying to keep that grandpa alive.

    With his limited knowledge, he saw that the grandpa¡¯s heart had stopped beating somehow, and not knowing what to do in that situation, he had just manually made it beat. That was apparently the right thing to do because, after a few moments of him doing it manually, the heart began doing it automatically.

    The pained breathing attempts also stopped but he kept watch on the grandpa until the medics arrived and wheeled him away. He had resisted the urge to just move the grandpa straight to the hospital because he had seen the ambulance charges that hospitals charge to patients but the grandpa was wearing a Rolex and diamond rings so he let them go as the paramedics were more knowledgeable than him in that regard.

    Now, that incident was averted and that old man woke up to live another day, he had checked, but the thing was that the entire thing was observed by the cult that had begun harassing him. It didn¡¯t help matters that the paramedic was far too chatty for her own good and just blurted out the system he had negotiated with the city administration to better get emergency services to places they needed to be.

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    So far, he has saved over 30 different people from strokes, heart attacks, and concussions in he either took them straight to the hospital or brought the paramedics to them, depending on the severity and his know-how. He had to resort to reading elementary medicine books to learn how to keep people alive until help arrived, which was thankfully, not far away, and even if it was, he just lifted the entire ambulance and brought them straight to his location.

    Ironically, one of the drivers just fainted and he had to check in on him as well, to see if he too had a heart attack due to the sudden change of transport lane.

    Anywho, that act of saving someone cemented this idea in the brains of the people looking to him for support, that he was some sort of being higher up on the chain than humans. That had been a particularly hard pill to swallow.

    He was very wary of something like that blowing up out of proportion, complicating things even further. Religion was something that was always a very sensitive and personal issue and that was something he was not going to touch with a ten-foot pole made up of pure Vibranium.

    No, sir.

    He was just here to grow strong, save his skin, save a couple of people along the way, and then retire to a nice countryside farm where nobody knew him. That¡¯s the dream.

    He tried to shut that thing down without hurting people¡¯s feelings by complaining to the Mayor about the public nuisance they were creating and as it turns out, the Mayor was totally on board with anything that could create tourism, as if there was any dearth of those.

    The Mayor was a capitalist buffoon and he could not be blamed for that. It was bringing in good revenue for the city but it felt¡­.wrong. To take advantage of people who he would have helped anyway.

    Since he could not turn those people away and he was indirectly bringing in a ton of revenue for the city, he had made a deal with the Mayor.

    He had always felt the hunger and diseased state of the homeless population of the city. It was a problem but also a symptom of a much larger problem that could not be tackled at just a city level so, he had always hoped to at least reduce their pain and do something so that they get the adequate care that they so direly needed.

    So, as part of the deal made with the Mayor, six kitchens, all on the periphery of Manhattan, since the real estate here had become so expensive, were established to cater to the poor. Completely free, 24/7, open all year round, serving hot food to anybody who would come.

    Also offering basic medicine along with primary care sponsored by something that had funds ¡°donated¡± from the various illicit businesses that still happened around the city.

    See, he had made sure that hard drugs like cocaine were completely eradicated from the city. He had made sure to remember the texture and looks of it on a nanoscale, allowing his second brain to automatically filter that out. But he had let drugs that appeared in nature continue to appear in the city.

    So, things like weed, alcohol, and cigarettes were still commonplace. Of course, that didn¡¯t mean that he would allow rampant distribution of that as well. And obviously, the first sign of violence would have all the parties violently ejected from the city and straight into police custody.

    Sometimes, it meant that rich people were stopped right in their tracks, as they sometimes carried hard drugs. He had to actively train his second brain to distinguish between drugs in the pocket of a person in a car and drugs being carried in a bag that a person was carrying while walking in his street.

    That was one of the things that he had discovered about his powers. His second mind, as he had come to call it, didn''t always have the necessary context that he did. So, he had to actively nudge it sometimes, so it made the right decisions.

    ¡°Hah, troublesome,¡± He muttered to himself as he kicked a stone as he walked back to his apartment. Damn, when will this end? He didn¡¯t want to become some sort of deity to these people.

    In the first place, he was going to hightail it out of society the first chance he gets, once the Invasion is done.

    What would happen when he disappeared? He didn¡¯t want such a public-facing role all his life.

    No, he had dreams of having his own private island where he would farm and do all sorts of stuff that he would figure out then, preferably with a shit ton of money. IT would be heavenly to enjoy that money with his loved ones, whoever they may be.

    Whistling, he put his hands in his pockets as he hailed a cab. ¡°Taxi!¡±

    He smiled as he saw one of the cabbies spotting and stopping for him. He put his arm down and was about to step down from the curb when something entered his range.

    Something strong.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 23 : The One with the Grown Man Crying.

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 23

    Manhattan [November 2008]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    What was this? He had never felt something so strongly before, he thought to himself as he used his powers to stop his face from hitting the road, slowly pulling himself back as his mind continued to zero in on that strong feeling.

    ¡°Ah! Be careful, man. Good thing the Invisible Man saved you, right? Where do you wanna go?¡± The driver asked him but his mind was already lost to the sensory input he was getting from his powers as he had begun walking subconsciously.

    ¡°Hey! Hey! I am talking to you,¡±

    The voice of the driver faded in the background as his powers closed in on the strong input he was getting.

    See, he had always been able to distinguish between normal vanilla humans and enhanced ones. The thing with sorcerers was that in spite of having powers beyond the imagination of normal people, they didn¡¯t always have a large amount of dimensional energy flowing through them so for the majority of the time he could sense them, they appeared only slightly above the normal people in terms of energy responses.

    He had sensed a couple of vampires and vampire hunters, along with spirits that descended during Halloween and those were immediately visible to his powers, as they were different from regular humans.

    While he did always get a ping of sorts as a somewhat heavy presence entered his range, it was never this pronounced.

    The presence he felt right now was the strongest he had ever felt. It also felt hot somehow, like it was completely molten red and was just restrained by a flimsy layer that was somehow able to stop the hot energy from overflowing.

    Shit!

    That was the only thing his mind could muster up in the face of Bruce fucking Banner in his city. From the looks of it, he was heading straight to an old lady for some reason.

    He tensed, his mind ready to intervene at the slightest sign of him turning into the Jolly Green Giant but somehow, Bruce seemed far calmer than he had expected him to be.

    He groaned in frustration when he realised that Bruce was asking about the congregation stuff and just seemed to glow up as the old lady told him where to find it.

    ¡°Why ROB, WHY!¡± He muttered to himself, drawing odd looks from a passerby but he didn¡¯t care much about that. Now he had to do something about that before Bruce actually went to the congregation and he was forced to do something that would deepen their faith in him, drawing forth another wave of believers.

    He didn¡¯t believe, not even for a second, the potential damage this so called ¡°Congregation¡± could cause in the name of their patron saint. He had seen enough examples in history to know what that would lead to, especially since he would not be living in this city after 2012.

    He had not made any inroads into how he would announce his exit but he was sure that doing so with any overt gestures would lead to the congregation just increasing around him.

    On the other hand, his dying in combat in service of humanity might just turn him into a martyr in their eyes and raise his standing even more.

    Argh! What to do!

    He thought to himself as he entered a cafe and ordered a triple shot of espresso and sat down, thinking of ways how to handle this.

    For one, he could let Bruce get to the congregation and answer him there but that had a lot of ways it could go wrong. No, that would just be needlessly risky. So that option was out.

    He would not just suddenly hoist Bruce using his powers and bring him somewhere isolated. No, that would just make him turn into the Hulk as his body¡¯s fight or flight response would get activated and then, he didn¡¯t know if he could even fight someone of the Hulk¡¯s caliber with his powers. Though, if it did turn into a fight, he didn¡¯t have much to worry about because while he might not be capable of matching Bruce blow for blow, he was more than capable of lifting the Hulk, no matter how dense and heavy he might be, and then simply¡­.fling him into the ocean.

    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    To cool him down, you see.

    Well, let¡¯s just do this, then.

    Bruce was walking to Central Park, looking around and¡­smiling¡­for some reason.

    Maybe he had gone a little bit mad because of the back-to-back shocks that he had received ever since he became the Hulk.

    Anyway, he flooded the block where Bruce was walking, with his presence. Oh, yeah. He can do that now. Earlier he was restricted to an area the size of a small alley but now he can effectively create a domain surrounding a large enough area.

    As soon as he did that, however, Bruce paused in his steps, somehow sensing that something was wrong. As if a switch had been flipped, his entire demeanour changed as he became more withdrawn as his posture became very guarded.

    He now looked around shiftily as he walked.

    Well, so much for being stealthy and non-threatening.

    Still, this could be salvaged. He collected a small amount of debris and overheated it, then pushed Bruce lightly, into the entrance of an alley.

    Bruce stumbled and looked at the alley where just a single word was waiting for him, floating in thin air - ¡°HELLO¡±

    Bruce looked flabbergasted before he took a deep breath and replied in kind.

    ¡°Uh-Hello. Are you the Invisible Man?¡± He asked as he looked around the alley, probably waiting for the other shoe to drop.

    ¡°Yes. Why have you come here, Bruce Banner?¡±

    ¡°Uh, how do you know my name? Anyway, I have come here to seek help. I am on the run from the mili-¡±

    ¡°General Ross, I presume?¡±

    ¡°Whaa, How could you possibly-¡±

    ¡°I know a lot of things, Dr.Banner. I also know that you are being hunted down for no fault of your own. I assume you came here in hopes that I will help you from being arrested wrongfully?¡±

    ¡°Y-yes. And I assure you, this is just temporary. Once I have a lab, I can cure myself of the Other Guy. I just need a little time and¡­resources but I can handle the resources part. I just need you to stop them from whisking me away in the night.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I can do that. Besides, it is not as if they will succeed, right Dr.Banner?¡±

    Bruce just seemed to wilt at the last statement as he muttered a defeated, ¡°Yeah¡­¡±

    Oh, well that backfired spectacularly.

    It would seem that particular wound was still a little too raw to make jokes about then.

    ¡°Very well, Dr.Banner, I, Invisible Man *Insert Eye-roll* hereby promise you that as long as you remain in Manhattan, I will make sure that nobody infringes on your right and tries to arrest you.¡±

    ¡°O-Oh thank you so much!¡±

    Oh, well seeing a grown man almost break down was never a pretty sight, especially if that was happening because of circumstances he had no control over.

    The sound of the debris overheating brought Bruce¡¯s attention back.

    ¡°I assume you wouldn¡¯t want to use your original identity to stay in the city? It would make things a lot easier but if you are uncomfortable with that, I can house you in a place where nobody would disturb you, and provide you with all the necessities without ever coming into contact with another human being. At least, until you have made your miracle cure that is,¡±

    Bruce had his mouth open as he read the long sentences being arranged in front of him. It was a nice thing that the alley had a lot of broken-down rocks and cement he could use to make the long ass sentence. God, he wished he had telepathy of some sort, even if it was just two-way communication with no hope of ever-expanding into mind-reading territory but even that was out of reach for him.

    ¡°I¨CI can do that? Live as me here, without any hiding?¡± Bruce stuttered and god the tears made him feel so bad.

    Unfortunately¡­.

    ¡°You can live with your own identity out in the open but are you sure you can handle that? I am not saying that you will have to handle the military but what about¡­regular people? You might get panic attacks and we both know what happens then. So, here is what I propose.¡±

    Bruce¡¯s face had wilted from the reality that was thrown in his face but he continued to read ahead, in hopes that something might be done for him.

    ¡°I will get you housed in a safe location for the time being. Nobody will be able to trace you, I will ensure that. All your daily necessities will be delivered to you, free of cost, of course. We will then work on your powers, and ensure you can maintain calm even in the face of chaos and panic. I have someone who might be able to help you but it might take time for that person to reach you. So, I suggest you follow my directions, it will take you to what will be your house for the next few days,¡±

    ¡°...Okay.¡±

    Alright then, he dropped all of the debris and then nudged Bruce lightly in the direction he wanted him to go. Bruce understood the signal and nodded, turning around to get out of the alley.

    Well, it was a good thing he knew a Billionaire that owed him a favour. And one that he couldn¡¯t refuse in any way.

    Also, time to contact the Ancient One once again.

    Ha, he hated dealing with her cryptic bullshit.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 24 : The One with Bruce in an Apartment

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 24

    Manhattan [December 2008]

    ¨CBruce Banner¨C

    His eyes snapped open as he sat up from the ridiculously comfortable bedding he was provided with, at least compared with the ones he used before he was chased away from everything he ever knew by the Military.

    He sighed and sat on the bed, his head hung low as he thought of everything that had happened in the past two weeks. It flashed through his mind at speeds that normal people would struggle to comprehend.

    He had always been blessed. He didn¡¯t really understand how children his age didn¡¯t derive Newton¡¯s laws just from idle observation, hence the ostracism he faced as a child and even as a teenager in high school.

    He would like to think that they were just intimidated by his intelligence but the truth was that he was a¡­nerd. Yes, he was a quintessential nerd representing the qualities that attracted Jocks as if they were bees and he was pollen.

    But he trudged on. He endured the bullying and the taunts until he finally reached college, having graduated high school early. That was when he finally met people who could somewhat understand him and his thoughts. He had been elated beyond measure and after that, he worked on his master''s, then his Phd, and then another Phd.

    He engrossed himself in academia until he met her. Betty Ross.

    How could someone like Ross ever fathered someone like Betty Ross was beyond him, something that could not ever be explained by science. And yet, there she was, working on something that required his expertise and he had been more than happy to help her.

    He hadn''t really expected for it to turn into anything else, other than a perfectly normal joint research project but somewhere along the way, as their research collaboration deepened, feelings sprouted in both of their hearts.

    Well, he had fallen for her much earlier than she did but he was elated that it finally happened. He vowed to himself that he wouldn¡¯t let anything happen to their relationship and then¡­..

    He rubbed his face and stood up, looking at the massive empty bedroom along with the equally massive living room that he knew was empty as well.

    It was part of the accommodations that the Invisible Man had arranged for him.

    When he was told that he would be given a safe place to live, along with all the necessities, he had nearly broken down in relief. For someone like him, a complete and utter civilian, to have lived the life of a fugitive for weeks, was so much mental pressure that he didn¡¯t know how he didn¡¯t kill himself long before.

    ¡®I know why¡¯ he thought to himself darkly before he banished those thoughts. Now was not the time for that.

    For the past two weeks, he had been staying in this cozy apartment that came with everything paid for, along with groceries that arrived every other day for him, courtesy of the Invisible Man directly.

    He had stayed away from open windows and devices with cameras and made sure that he never came out of his apartment as was instructed by the Invisible Man because he had some things to arrange before Bruce could come out in the open.

    But now that he had some time to think about it, he didn''t really know what to do with that option.

    On one hand, it would be his right to live freely, with his own identity, out in the open, without the threat of military imprisonment and experimentation hanging over his head but on the other hand¡­last week had been nice.

    He didn¡¯t get to go out but he had a TV and a computer he could use to browse the general internet, he didn¡¯t want to set off any alarms by searching for highly specific information. Cat Videos were something that amused him incredibly, making the boring lunches he could make for himself that much more tolerable.

    Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    Eventually, he had looked for recipes online and started making better food for himself other than plain sandwiches and meatloaf. Now, he could make pizza, mashed potatoes, turkey, chicken, salads, bread, and whatnot.

    It was nice¡­..to do things slowly, without a sense of urgency in every single action he performed.

    He slowly brushed his teeth, looking at his unkempt self. To be honest, he didn¡¯t really have the wish to shave at all. He felt lethargic most of the time.

    IT got incredibly boring to watch movies and TV series after the first few days because most of the movies could be categorised into finite sections and even guessing which movie would go into which category got boring after the first couple of tries.

    The internet access definitely helped but it would get very hard to control himself from looking at stuff that would definitely be flagged, so he refrained from using that much.

    He had a gym in the apartment that he tried to use but it was actually nearly useless to him. Ever since he got his powers, apart from stress, his heart rate never really went up, even if he performed strenuous exercises for long periods of time.

    It was one such bonus of the other guy, he thought to himself.

    He had met a grand total of one person in the past two weeks and that was the doorman who came to drop off the groceries at the door. That was it.

    The Invisible Man had promised him resources to help look for a cure but that had not arrived but he did not want to bother him, so he had not said anything about that.

    Anyway, he had been meditating a lot in the time he had been alone and that had helped him sort out the jumbled mess of thoughts that had plagued his mind ever since the other Guy came into his life.

    After getting ready, he sat down on the dining table, munching on an apple, as he watched his scribblings from last night¡¯s research session. Not having the luxury of typing anything in the digital world, he had resorted to writing with pen and paper.

    His brain had been buzzing with ideas ever since it realised that he was in a safe space, so he had been just writing endlessly in his free time, which was all the time since he only had to cook twice a day. That much was enough to sustain him.

    He had a washer-dryer combo in the apartment itself so he didn¡¯t have to go anywhere for the laundry.

    ¡°*Sigh* What has my life come to,¡± he mumbled to himself as he once again began writing, on the fourth such notebook in the past two weeks alone.

    They were a list of ideas through which he could try and cure himself of his affliction. However, calling it an affliction and not a curse would be doing it a disservice.

    He had a nightmare the first night he slept here and woke up to find his arm almost green and had to concentrate really hard on the fact that he was safe, in the domain of the Invisible Man, and only after a tense minute or two, did the green glow recede slowly, painfully slowly.

    That was the last time he had turned green, even partially. Ever since then, he made sure to get in a nice workout, even though he didn¡¯t feel tired the thought counts, and then a nice heavy dinner with a bout of meditation before sleeping, not before turning on whale sound for better sleep.

    And it worked, like a charm. He could not believe that the internet guide for sleeping better worked on him as well but he was grateful for that.

    He had an idea but once again, that idea required equipment that he simply didn¡¯t have.

    ¡°Um, uh, Hey, Invisible Man?¡± He looked up at the ceiling, feeling stupid immediately when he heard the pencil¡¯s scratching voice.

    He looked down and chuckled as the word ¡°Yes?¡± was written on one of his spare notebooks, though looking at it, he was running dangerously low on notebooks.

    ¡°Um, not that I am not grateful for all this, I am, really. But when will the equipment be ready? I understand if there are some problems. Just a timeline will do. I am already burdening you-¡±

    ¡°...Stop. I have someone who can solve most of your problems. That person is currently unavailable. As soon as that happens, I will let you know. Now, I know it is not the ideal scenario but the moment you come into outside contact, they might trace you back.¡± The pen furiously scribbled as he read the words.

    His shoulders slumped as he realised that the invisible Man was right.

    ¡°Although I could take care of any retaliation they could send your way, the mere sight of so many armed people might send you and your alter ego into a frenzy, something we can¡¯t have in a civilian population. I have my limitations as well, otherwise I would have sent you to the person directly. Just wait a few more days, alright?¡±

    ¡°...Okay,¡± He muttered and watched as the notebook and the pencil both dropped from mid-air, on the study table.

    Okay, so the Invisible Man had someone who could help.

    Who could it be?

    Someone with extraordinary powers like himself? Or a scientist who could help him?

    What did he mean by his ¡°alter ego¡±?

    The Other guy was the Other Guy and he was him. There was no connection between them.

    The Other guy was just a mass of rage, hate, destruction, and power while he was just..Bruce Banner. Someone with non-existential muscles and a big head.

    There was no way that the Other Guy was some part of his own mind.

    Right? Right?

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 25 : The one with the Random Beautiful Agent 1

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 25

    Manhattan [December 2008]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    He watched on, with his mental eye, what two weeks of complete isolation had done to Bruce.

    *Sigh* Yeah, he wished he could do something but the truth was, unless Bruce wanted to come out into the open and then be hounded by law enforcement and then by the public because they were too curious as to why law enforcement was here, there was not much he could do.

    Chances were that Bruce could someday, hope to contain himself when exposed to chaos and people, shouting people, along with the possibility of violence, but that day was not today.

    So, he had gone to the one person who probably knew the most about the human mind on the planet. The older-than-dirt Ancient One.

    And yet, when he went to the New York Sanctum to ask for her, Master Drumm had informed him that she was on an expedition, one of her long-time duties as the Sorcerer Supreme and she would not be back for another two weeks.

    Well, that was the first time he had heard about an expedition of sorts but the movies never really went into the depth of what Kamar Taj actually does aside from zapping monsters, bisecting demons, etc. etc.

    So, he had watched over Bruce and the city as usual. Delivering groceries and making sure that he was not spotted was very easily done.

    The apartment came from one of the many Billionaires that lived in Manhattan and owed him favours in that regard. Well, he hadn''t done anything noteworthy for them but apparently, just the mere protection he provided to the city had made them grateful enough to offer him a free-handed favour.

    Of course, he had made sure that it did not come with any strings attached and after confirming that, he had stashed Bruce in one of those buildings.

    Now, was he certain that SHIELD was aware of where Bruce was? Yes.

    But does that mean that Ross was aware of it? No.

    That worked out perfectly for him because if SHIELD was tattling on him, Ross would have been here with a military tank in days, rather than weeks. This meant that SHIELD also did not want Ross to get his hands, or rather try to get his hands on Banner. For all his buster, Ross was never going to capture Bruce unless he came along willingly, it just wasn¡¯t possible.

    The Hulk wouldn¡¯t allow it.

    He had made sure to drill it into Bruce¡¯s mind to maintain a minimal online presence and to stay away from the windows but he didn¡¯t know how long Bruce could take that anymore.

    Sure, the Gym and the books along with the TV helped but he could see that Bruce was not getting tired from the workouts at all. The books, he blazed through them at mind-boggling speeds and TV just gets boring after a while.

    He could understand that so he watched on, as Bruce filled notebook after notebook with stuff he couldn¡¯t even begin to understand. Something related to radiation therapy along with a serum that would destroy the Gamma energy within him.

    Oh no, no. He was not going to allow Bruce to do that, obviously but he couldn¡¯t just go and tell him that. It will break him, to know the truth of his situation. To know that the Hulk was just another part of him that could not be cured because he was not another disease to be cured.

    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    The Hulk was just another part of his psyche.

    He had let that one little tidbit out at the end of their conversation and he could see, in real time, how Bruce was processing it and it was¡­not good.

    He was just looking blankly ahead, staring at nothing in particular as he sat on a chair.

    Yeesh, that was a huge reaction.

    Yeah, he had to do something for Bruce. His story was filled with tragedies, one after the other. He would not have been able to help him when he was out of his range but now that he was in his domain, there was nothing that could come between him helping Bruce.

    In the first place, he didn¡¯t have the faintest clue as to Bruce coming here, in the city. The only time Bruce was in New York, as far as he knew, was when he and Abomination had that huge fight that broke Harlem. Which would not happen now, he would make sure of it.

    Butterfly effect and all that.

    If he had known that Bruce was making his way here, he could have made preparations. He had still not made official contact with SHIELD yet, so he could have done that beforehand and made sure that Ross kept his hands off.

    He would have to do that now as well. Honestly, aside from Kamar Taj and the Ancient One, there was no other person and place he would trust Bruce to be in, aside from Manhattan.

    Making sure that Bruce lived, out in the open, in a bustling part of the city would mean that he would have to become a lot more stable, mentally, than he was now. He couldn''t have him hulking out in the middle of the farmer¡¯s market, for example.

    No, he would have to talk with the Ancient One about this but she would probably agree with him. She would help Bruce get better and then he would make sure that he has a place to stay in Manhattan.

    That would work out for the best, it would seem.

    Now, the Ancient One¡¯s busy timetable was not in his hands but making sure that Bruce had a legit place to stay was.

    With that in mind, he searched for the two SHIELD safehouses they kept stocked to the brim in Manhattan. They were not used in all the time he had been active, probably owing to privacy concerns but they were stocked up and kept up to date all the same.

    He found only a single agent, lounging on the sofa, reading a magazine whilst also munching on an apple.

    He quirked an eyebrow at that, what a harmless-looking agent, probably a ploy on SHIELD¡¯s part to try and honeypot him after trying all the possible strategies in their playbook.

    Well, he just needed to pass along a message, it doesn''t matter if the agent is drop-dead gorgeous or not.

    _______xx________

    SHIELD Safehouse Number 1, Manhattan

    ¨CRandom Beautiful Agent 1¨C

    Ah, man, this sucks. She knew that she was mainly hired for this gig because she was young and inexperienced, in everything that counted and she was the most expendable asset at the New York HQ, and she understood but still. This sucked.

    On one hand, having to do nothing but look pretty while getting paid while living in a kitted-out apartment in Manhattan would sound like a dream come true for most girls with dreams of making it big in the showbiz but she was not one of those girls. Okay, she might have been once upon a time but not anymore.

    Now, she was all about the good fight. Being a super spy agent.

    Unfortunately, the only spy stuff she had been ordered to do, was a small stakeout out of the city, which turned out to be a bust anyway.

    She was technically on duty but it was not as if anybody came to check up on her. The logistics guys came once a week to restock everything but other than that, she had basically no human interaction.

    Everything was done on her SHIELD-issued phone, which was made to be very secure and nearly unhackable but it also meant that she could not log in on her MySpace account.

    Things were made worse because she was technically on duty, ALL THE TIME, so she was not given her personal phone. She was so going to lose most of her follo-

    Her entire thought process came to a screeching halt as she looked at the coffee table. On top of the coffee table, a notebook was floating and a pen was currently writing something on it.

    It eventually said the one word, ¡°Hello¡±

    She screamed as her vision went swimming towards the coffee table itself.

    Oh crap, she was going to faceplant on the coffee table. She was fainting.

    So much for her first serious gig¡­¡­

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 27 : Anticipation!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 27

    SHIELD Safehouse, Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Okay, now it is getting a bit ridiculous. They had stopped firing, which was good but were on their way downstairs, evacuating the honeypot trap while continuously calling for more backup since he had evidently ¡°attacked¡± them or something.

    Seriously, how afraid can someone be of just a white ghastly head bobbing around and then speaking in a guttural tone? Right? That must be normal for SHIELD agents, right?

    He sighed as he realised the mistake in his actions. Anywho, time to correct them now.

    He flooded his presence in the building, hijacking it essentially, in its entirety. Once he had flooded his presence in something, he was the de facto GOD of that place, allowing him to control every little aspect of that singular location.

    In this case, he used it to freeze every single agent that was running on their way down, took their guns, moulded the nozzles in front of their wide terrified eyes, and then brought them back up to the safe house. He had to assume that the only reason the neighbours had not come out was because this was a SHIELD safehouse building and the neighbours must be trained as well.

    Though, he could see that all of them had left the building for one reason or another. Some were grocery shopping, some were at a cafe eating cake, some were on a bagel run, etc.

    With all the 20 agents placed in the same safehouse, it had become a bit cramped but nothing these agents were not trained for, right?

    Oh well.

    He watched on as another set of SUVs, 6 this time, burned rubber as they hauled ass to the safehouse building. Also filled with armed people, apparently ready to burst down the door with guns swinging.

    Okay, this is just ridiculous now.

    He unfroze the lead agent and immediately regretted it because the man just refused to stop blabbering. It was as if he had put the fear of god in them.

    He did the same for the others but none of them showed any signs of listening to him. All they did was look around frantically in fear until the Random Beautiful Agent 1 once again fainted in fear.

    That would have been amusing had it not been for the faint smell of urine in the air.

    Just what was happening? He thought to himself as he watched grown hardened men tremble in fear.

    Back in his apartment, his eyes narrowed as he tried to look deeper into the issue. Something was wrong here and he did not know what. For the time being though, he would have to get his message across so he tore apart a page from the diary on the table, which also had a few bullet holes in it, wrote his message in, and after folding it, placed it into the front pocket of Agent Ross.

    Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!

    All the while Agent Ross kept praying to his deity to save him or something.

    Just what the hell was wrong with them?

    He nevertheless withdrew his presence and left behind a note for the arriving officers as well, explaining that he didn¡¯t even do anything to them. The CCTV should confirm that as well but he didn¡¯t want to take any risks.

    He watched as the next round of agents burst into the safehouse, expecting something, he didn¡¯t know what they were expecting but a bunch of hardened agents crying was not it.

    He saw the second lead agent look at the note that was stuck in Agent Ross¡¯ hand as he clutched it as if his life depended on it and after securing the footage, ordered a complete withdrawal.

    He watched as they left his awareness range and saw that they all simultaneously sighed in relief once they left Manhattan, confident in their ability to now remain safe because they were out of the Invisible Man¡¯s range.

    Just what the hell happened back there?

    He just flooded the area with his presence and somehow they all began peeing themselves in fear?

    He reached out with his TK and ¡°knocked¡± on the New York Sanctum¡¯s wards for a lack of a better word. He had learned how to do that ever since his spatial awareness began showing him the ward structure of the sanctum.

    He still couldn¡¯t read worth a damn but it was a start and someday, hopefully, he hoped to do magic with it. I mean, it was magic. Who doesn¡¯t dream of wielding magic?

    The doors opened on their own and once Master Drumm saw that there was no one on the front door, he sighed in disappointment and went back inside, to the drawing book he had left for him.

    Once he saw the question he had pre-scribbled for him, he sighed once again and scribbled something next to his question.

    ¡°No,¡± Was the answer to the question was - Has the Ancient One returned?

    Oh well, he thought to himself while delivering another round of groceries to Bruce¡¯s apartment. She had to come back soon because he could see Bruce fraying at the edges, the longer he lived all alone in that apartment. He could not afford a Hulk incident in a civilian area, that would just be disastrous for everyone involved.

    Maybe he could try and move Bruce to the underground tunnel.

    Nah, he couldn''t do that now, not after having him moved to a cozy apartment, that could kill the man. Plus, it was not fair to do that to him.

    He expected SHIELD to reach out to him soon enough, once they got over their fear that he was somehow terrorizing their agents for fun.

    That conversation was going to be very awkward, considering he did make over a dozen of their agents tremble in fear of him.

    He would have to negotiate with them the terms of Bruce¡¯s arrest because there was no way Ross was going to let this go and once he came into the city for Bruce, guns blazing, he would have all the grounds to just bend his guns and evict him from his city, consequences be damned.

    He would have to make preparations for that eventuality as well because¡ª

    His thoughts came to a halt as he sensed something truly interesting.

    Betty fucking Ross was in a cab, coming into the city. Judging by the distressed look on her face, she was probably here looking for Bruce but how did she find him anyway?

    Maybe Ross tracked Bruce before he could be hidden?

    Either way, he needed faster responses from people, dammit.

    Either from the Ancient One or Fury because things were about to turn a lot more hectic and more importantly¡­.fun.

    Ah, it had been so boring without some action and as much as he loathed the idea of collateral damage, he also had no entertainment these past year or so.

    He would make sure that Bruce is out of the city the second he starts turning Green but the drama from SHIELD and Ross coming from Bruce would be oh so worth it.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 28 : The One with Furys POV

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 28

    NYC HQ

    ¨CNick Fury¨C

    Breathing in the crisp cold air, he alighted from the helicopter and entered the New York HQ through the roof. He had hoped to delay this meeting but recent developments had forced his hands, especially since some agents had leaked information to the WSC and they had expressly ordered him to get here and sort this out with the so-called Invisible Man.

    He scoffed internally at the name. It was clear for anyone with a brain cell to rub that the man was obviously something else, certainly not a Man because that implied that he was a single human being.

    The amount of actions he takes across the city simultaneously boggles the mind and tells everyone that he is probably someone with psychic powers that span over an area of an entire city, and also an expert in multitasking.

    ¡°Tell me everything,¡± He said as he walked with Coulson, who had arrived here ahead of time to compile a report that he could trust. Somehow, he could not trust his own agents in this palace, not just because they could be compromised by the Invisible Man but also because they might just leak the information to unrelated parties at the moment and that was the last thing he wanted to happen.

    ¡°Yes, sir. Earlier Yesterday, The Invisible Man made contact with Random Beautiful Agent 1 but the mode of contact apparently spooked her so much that she fainted immediately.¡±

    He rolled his eyes at that. He never really liked this idea of picking up agents just based on their appearance but the concept worked sometimes so he could not just abolish the practice without having to answer to his overlords, in the form of the World Security Council.

    ¡°Following that, the analysts raised an alarm as they saw everything happening through the surveillance cameras. Two teams were immediately sent to the safe house to secure the Random Beautiful Agent 1 along with Agent Ross, a level 7 agent, to initiate a conversation with the Invisible Man,¡±

    That checks out. Ross was the highest-ranking agent on site and protocol dictated that he be the first in line when something of this magnitude occurred on his turf. This was also the first time that the subject had made contact with any SHIELD asset from his side, making it a golden opportunity to make a favourable impression.

    ¡°After she fell unconscious, the Invisible Man chose to, I don¡¯t know how to put this, but he chose to manifest an avatar or something. Papers from a nearby notebook were ripped apart and then molded to form a face floating in mid-air. The face didn¡¯t perturb Agent Ross but the guttural voice that came out of that mask startled him into¡­¡±

    ¡°Into putting two shots in the face of someone who is the closest we have ever come to finding an ever-present god-like entity?¡± he finishes the sentence for Coulson, his patience riding thin because of this incident and how they wasted a golden opportunity to gain an ally or at least establish some sort of working relationship with the target.

    ¡°....Ah, yes¡­Sir,¡± Coulson said as he handed him the tablet, showing the rest of the footage.

    It would not be wrong to call it a complete and utter shit show.

    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    ¡°Have Agent Ross and his team transferred to the Arctic Belt for a year long stint,¡± He ordered as they entered his office, one that is reserved for him in every HQ building SHIELD had ever built.

    ¡°Also, no casualties, that¡¯s good. Any evidence from all the sensors we have installed in various parts of the city over the months he has been active?¡±

    Coulson shook his head in negative as he watched the second team arrive and then leave after securing the first team. God, they were horribly untrained and unprepared for something like this.

    ¡°How does one even fight something like that?¡± He mumbled to himself as he read over the reports that the analysts had drawn up on short notice. It was mostly assumptions and the same old recommendation as before - Do not engage with hostile intentions. Like he would forget the way the man can toss around semis and help cats off of trees at the same time.

    ¡°Do we have to?¡±

    He looked up at Coulson who had asked him the question with a conflicting look on his face.

    ¡°Is it necessary that we have to fight with him? He could be a force for good. A very strong force. And he has done a lot of good already,¡±

    ¡°In one city, Coulson. There are billions more that need protecting and as strong as he is, he has for some reason, limited himself to a single borough of New York City, which might I remind you is not even in the top 10 most populous cities of the world,¡±

    He said and went back to reading the reports they had compiled for him in preparation for his visit, incomplete and inaccurate as they might be.

    However, what Coulson said did keep ringing in his mind. Having Someone of that calibre on call would mean that most crises would be solved as soon as he arrived on the spot. He would not have to worry about some pesky insurgents using the terrain to their advantage because, well, for someone who can rip apart buildings can most likely take care of some dirt and rocks with ease. The man also had some sort of hyper awareness powers that helped him know everything that was happening in a large area with complete accuracy.

    So much so that he could even read words off of paper. That was just mind boggling, both to him and the boys in the lab. According to them, this could only be done by deploying an energy field across a large swathe of area, so sensitive that it detected even the slightest change in matter. Ofcourse, they had yet to find any evidence of that but the theory remained.

    ¡°Alright, Coulson. We will do it your way this time. What do you suggest? Going straight to him?¡±

    Coulson smiled, ¡°No, sir. That would not be in compliance with your safety policies. I would suggest¨C¡±

    ¡°Oh hell with the safety policies. I am asking you, would you trust him enough to take me into his domain?¡± He asked Coulson, point blank to see what his thoughts were on the matter. He trusted Coulson and if taking a risk could get them a chance of having someone as uber powerful as this person on their team, then he was more than willing to take the chances.

    ¡°I trust him, sir. He has not done a single thing out of line ever since he became active. But there is also the matter regarding Dr.Banner, sir,¡±

    Ah, the Hulk shitshow. Another one on his pile of problems then.

    Last they had seen him, he was on his way to Manhattan. It didn¡¯t take a genius as to why he would do that. Protection of somebody like that was worth its weight in gold, as was reflected in the real estate prices of Manhattan. Most locals had already sold their homes and moved out of the city, to retirement probably, such was the surge in home prices here. Most of the billionaire class of NYC was probably already living here.

    In that sensitive zone, Banner had entered into the city.

    Judging by the lack of location on his file, it had already meant that he was either successful in cutting a deal with the Invisible Man or he had, once again, dropped from their radar. Despite the hits his agency had been taking, there was no way an untrained civilian could escape their surveillance.

    This meant that Bruce Banner, The Hulk, number one on General Ross¡¯ hit list, was also being provided with protection and cover in Manhattan, by possibly the strongest being in the world. In the most populous city of the United States, in the middle of a residential zone housing the richest people of the city.

    This would go swimmingly.

    ¡°Coulson, set up a meeting. I think it¡¯s time we meet this Invisible Man,¡±

    ¡°...Affirmative, sir,¡±

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 29 : Paper go brrr....

    A/N - Hello my dear peeps! I come with good tidings, in the form of this chapter. Anywho, aside from delivering this important chapter to you, I also wanted to deliver an explanation to yall.

    You might have noticed my updates being on point from Monday to Thursday before faltering throughout the weekend, despite me being off from work for the weekend.

    Well, here¡¯s the story for that.[TLDR at end]

    You see, Monday to Thursday, I have a regular 10 hour work shift. On Fridays, however, I am on call so that translates to a roughly 15-16 hour shift for the day. Yeah, it is pretty brutal so I am pretty much out of it for the majority of Saturday and sometimes, on Sunday as well.

    That is why I am unable to maintain the glorious grind of pushing out chapters day by day because my eyes start to water if I so much as look at a screen after that harrowing shift.

    TLDR - Huge ass work shift on Friday so brain go slow on weekends, explaining the lack of content on weekends.

    _____________xx___________

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 29 [December 2008]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°Uh-huh. Yes, I know that the stock is falling now. Yes, I know we only cashed out about half of our investment but you know that even that turned out a decent profit for you¡­..Yes, I know that we are once again funneling money back into SI. Yes, I know the stock is free falling and I am telling you once again, I don¡¯t CARE!¡±

    He slammed his phone shut at the last statement. Those old fogies were getting on his nerves now. Despite making a profit on their investment, they were still trying to advise him about it. Yes, he had no idea about the stock market but he knew one thing. Tony Stark was not a quitter and once the world came to know about Iron Man, the stock would only rise and rise and¡­rise.

    Huh, slamming the telephone shut was an oddly satisfying feeling. He kinda wanted to do it again.

    *RING* Ah, speak of the devil.

    ¡°Hello, Axle speaking,¡±

    He immediately took the phone away from his ear as another tirade of old fogies was coming from the speaker. Okay, he had it with these rich old fogies. They had all the control of their money. If they truly wanted to end their partnership with him, they could have taken out their money on their own without ever telling him about it.

    But noooo, they wanted to talk his ear off doing it as well.

    ¡°Hey, look, Master Wu, if you really want to end this, just do it, alright? I have a dozen other billionaires on speed dial, just waiting to take the deal, alright? So if you¡¯re out, you¡¯re out, don¡¯t yap at me about it. If you are in, then just shut up for a while. You¡¯ll see the results in a few months,¡± He said after slamming down the phone once again, once again feeling that pleasant feeling.

    It had been over a few hours ever since he had that horrible encounter with those SHIELD agents, forcing him to reassess his strategy for establishing a cooperative relationship with them.

    He wanted to see if Bruce could get a pardon from the President if he could prove that Bruce was in control of the Hulk and could be useful, not as a weapon, god no, Bruce would never agree to that. But having him on board as a scientific expert and as a major deterrent alone would be invaluable.

    He was sure that Fury would agree to it if only to get another player on board for the Avengers Initiative. It was the others he was worried about. Mostly General Ross and his connections in the White House, which might convince the president that instead of having a single non-combative Hulk, it would be better to have hordes of super soldiers who would do the country¡¯s bidding.

    That possibility could not be taken out of play here. General Ross was one of those foolhardy people who climbed his way up in the Military, rising up to command a position of extreme influence.

    It was not as if others in the Military were unaware of his actions and his tendency to go overboard when dealing with certain threats but what was the US military if not the very definition of Overkill?

    The higher-ups were probably also aware of Banner and the illegal experiments that led to that outcome but just let him be, hoping to milk him for any advantages that might come by from the experiment and if not, just throw him under the bus if it ever came to light.

    Plausible Deniability and all that.

    The US Government might be a little slow but it was not incompetent, especially not on matters relating to super soldiers. Ross should have never even gotten to see the blood sample of Steve Rogers, let alone get the authority to use it for human experimentations.

    He sighed once again, in his fully air-conditioned office, as he realised the probable reason as to why the government was tacitly supporting this hair-brained venture of Ross. It was because of his very existence.

    He had never really thought of it that way, mostly because he thought that the handicap that never really let him get out of Manhattan would be enough to placate the people in power, at least until he left New York City. He had hoped for them to be rational about it and see that he was not some villain that they had to worry about.

    Apparently, he expected too much from politicians.

    Welp, nothing he could do about that. Well, maybe Fury could do something if Fury trusted him but knowing what he knew about Fury and his infamous Paranoia, there was little chance that Fury would ever endorse him.

    Hell, SHIELD was probably already scrambling for countermeasures against him, not that they would succeed. He had already been pushing his powers to their limits, not the TK but his spatial awareness. He didn¡¯t know how to train his TK anymore but spatial awareness was really easy to do.

    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    He could now feasibly exert his powers up to a mile outside the Imprisoning curtain, that was what he had taken to calling the orange curtain around Manhattan. He could not exert more power even after gaining more distance in his spatial awareness but that was probably another limitation imposed on him.

    He could see that Bruce was now doing Yoga, having found some tutorials on the internet and while the image of Bruce Banner doing clumsy yoga would forever be imprinted in his mind, he was more concerned with the way Bruce was bending in ways that would have been more realistic for an Olympic Gymnast, without any visible effort, like¡­at all.

    It would seem that becoming the Hulk did grant him some benefits in his non-transformed state as well. He had witnessed his gym sessions as well and aside from some light sweating, he had not struggled even after lifting all the weights he had access to, despite never being one for physical stuff in university.

    So, slightly enhanced strength and flexibility, even in his base form. Good to know. Maybe he could train to alter between both states as a powered and a less powered state. Something to tell him once the Ancient One finally comes back from wherever the hell she went to.

    Apparently, it was one of her few obligations that she had to fulfill and even Demon Lords abide by it as the attacks cease this time of the year. He was curious about it but he knew that not having any aptitude for Sorcery would mean that he would be pretty unaware of most things in that space.

    Hmm. His attention was perked as he once again sensed a convoy of blacked-out SUVs heading his way. He peered deeper into the car and¡­

    ¡°Well well well, look who¡¯s coming to meet little ol¡¯ me,¡± He whistled out loud as the stoic face of one Nick one-eyed Fury came to him through his powers.

    Damn, he was hoping to meet Coulson at best, not the head honcho himself. Well, no time like the present then.

    He was curious as to how they would talk. He sure as hell was not going to go there personally. He was not stupid.

    Probably to the SHIELD safehouse then?

    Apparently not, he thought to himself as he watched Fury enter the biggest precinct nearby. Apparently, they were all informed about it because the precinct was nearly empty, save for some detective who, after handing over the keys to Coulson, fled from the scene as well.

    Now that he focused, he found that the entire building had been evacuated completely.

    Well, there was no need to do that. They could have communicated over long distances, even in his car if need be.

    But now that he had done all this, it would be remiss on his part if he didn¡¯t give Fury something of a show as well.

    He watched, after ordering lunch ofcourse (Chinese today), as Fury entered the precinct and after standing in the middle of a bunch of tables that had all signs of being hastily arranged, he put his hand on his waist as he turned around and kept looking at Coulson with an eyebrow raised.

    In return, Coulson just kept looking at him with the same placid smile plastered on his face. Fury sighed and took a seat, Coulson choosing to stand.

    Fury¡¯s team, meanwhile, spread far through the building and even perched on top of the nearby buildings, armed with snipers.

    ¡°Oooh, scary,¡± he scoffed to himself as he chose to finally make an appearance, metaphorically speaking.

    Right outside the building, a huge stack of paper rims was dropped, right in front of an agent standing guarding on the curb, completely startling him. He yelped as he pulled his gun and after finding that it was just paper, he looked up and around, speaking furiously in his comms.

    In his office, he giggled after seeing the scare they experienced from just¡­paper. It was hilarious.

    Even more was the reaction the agent made when the stack of paper seemingly exploded, flinging shredded pieces of paper in every direction. He yelped as he drew his firearm and actually shot paper!

    He could see every member of Fury¡¯s team furiously looking for something, someone. Well, he gave them one.

    The shredded paper that had been strewn all around seemingly came back to life as it all began accumulating right in front of the precinct door. Slowly, bit by bit, all the shredded paper was gathered until a distinctly human-shaped man, made of paper, was standing right at the door.

    In the middle of the chaos that was snipers taking aim at, once again, paper, they had not noticed a small phone he had slipped into the headpiece of his paper avatar. That was programmed with text-to-speech software.

    All he had to do was type in the required text using his powers, from a distance, so that the blunder from his previous encounter with SHIELD agents doesn¡¯t happen again.

    The noise he made using his powers was horrendous to even listen to and that made him feel a little guilty when he thought that agent to be a coward for being so afraid of mere paper.

    The scene of a paper head giving out that voice, especially since the words would have been somewhat legible, would have sent anyone packing.

    Although¡­

    He made the show of looking around and waving at all the snipers and agents stationed around since they were not taking any overt actions against him. Of Course, the snipers were still completely aimed at him but the triggers were not yet pressed, so he counted that as a win.

    It would seem that someone from the inside had ordered everyone else to stand down for the moment, probably Coulson.

    After waving at the sixth sniper located two buildings away, he turned around and walked straight through the door, as if it didn¡¯t exist at all. He did so by having the pieces of paper slide through the gaps underneath and on the sides of the door before reforming on the other side.

    Almost immediately, he came face to face with Coulson who was obviously wearing his signature smile.

    ¡°Welcome. Would it be safe to assume that it is not the real you and just a puppet?¡±

    He inclined the puppet¡¯s head and said, through the phone of course, which too had slid through the slit below the door. Somehow, the door had that big of a gap between them for some reason.

    ¡°Yes, Agent Coulson. It would hardly be wise to come here personally. After all, I am quite aware of SHIELD¡¯s reputation,¡±

    ¡°Oh, really?¡± Came an amused voice from behind Coulson.

    Coulson neatly slid out of his way and after nodding politely at Coulson, ¡°he¡± made his way over to Fury who was sitting on a chair with a small plastic table in front of him.

    ¡°Of Course. I might not know much but I do know that SHIELD is definitely not to be trifled with,¡± he said as his paper avatar slowly sat on the chair. He made the avatar cross his legs as he looked at Fury who maintained a stoic glare at the paper avatar.

    Meanwhile, back in his office, he was laughing, clutching his stomach as he saw that all these people were on edge, simply because of¡­paper.

    Man, he was hilarious. It was too bad that they simply weren¡¯t able to appreciate or understand his supreme sense of humour.

    ¡°And the US Army? Are they not on your list of not being trifled with? After all, you are harboring a fugitive of theirs. Quite an important fugitive too,¡±

    ¡°Allegedly, Director Fury. All allegedly. You have no proof and more importantly, no real person to convict,¡± He said airily as he made the paper man lean back into the chair.

    Let¡¯s see what Fury has to say for him.

    <hr>

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.

    A/N - I saw the Deadpool movie and hot damn, what a movie!

    I hope that the execs at Disney see the success this movie brought them and finally give the team the creative freedom to do as they see fit.

    I mean, half a billion in the opening weekend!

    This feels like much more of a comeback for the MCU than RDJ¡¯s supposed comeback.

    Thanks for reading!

    Peace out!

 Chapter 30 : Inklings of Deal Made!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 30 [December 2008]

    Evacuated Police precinct

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    It was quite funny to see Fury narrow his one eye and gnash his teeth as he bluntly threw all of his cards right into the dustbin. What he was saying was true. There was no real proof that he had been the one responsible for hiding away Banner and more importantly, they didn¡¯t even know who he was.

    Basically, they were trying to pin a crime that they could not trace on a person they knew they couldn¡¯t find, not without said person giving themselves up voluntarily. That was not going to happen.

    Visibly gathering his thoughts, then Fury spat out, ¡°What do you want, then? You contacted us for a reason and I still haven¡¯t thanked you for the treatment you gave my agents,¡±

    Ah, he snickered internally as Fury emphasizes the word thanked, so much so that he believed his gum had grown weaker simply due to the current gnashing session.

    He then went to work, typing on the phone screen. He was sure by now that Fury and Coulson had caught onto the fact that text-to-voice speech software was being used here, and a very crappy one at that, but it was not like he cared one bit about that.

    ¡°Ah, that. You see, Fury, say, hypothetically, I was harboring a fugitive wanted by someone high up in the Army. How would I go about getting a pardon for the wronged fellow? Wronged green fellow,¡±

    ¡°So he is with you,¡± Fury said as he shook his head and leaned back in his chair, finally having something to pin down on the Invisible Man. ¡°Look, the matter has reached up to the President and Ross has somehow convinced him that he will bring back Banner without any bloodshed, which is a fat load of bullshit, everyone knows that. But the President cares about the results and since he has deniability now, he has given Ross blanket approval to use whatever resources he can to reel in Banner,¡±

    Uh-oh. That did not bode well, for anybody.

    ¡°Those resources are not just limited to government resources, by the way. I have credible information that Ross is monitoring all communications with his daughter. I am sure he won¡¯t hesitate to use her as well. So, be careful about her. Now¡­¡± Fury said as he leaned forward, his eyepatch creating a small shadow-esque effect on his face, which was very cool if he was being honest.

    ¡°I want to ask you one thing. Are you an alien?¡± Fury asked him.

    Wha- He reeled back in shock at his apartment and after a moment, so did his paper avatar as Fury accused him of being an alien.

    ¡°What? God no, Fury. I am a human, born a human, and will still remain a human until the day I die, at which point I will turn into a pixie and haunt you for the rest of your days on God¡¯s green Earth,¡±

    Ha, it was funny to see vein after vein pop up on Fury¡¯s forehead as the phone spoke out the things he had typed in. Especially, after the Pixie part, Fury looked just about ready to strangle him. Well, this has been fun but he still had some work to do.

    After all, he was the one who had made first contact, and also, SHIELD was a ridiculously useful ally, at least until it went kaput due to HYDRA¡¯s schemes.

    ¡®Alright, let¡¯s be serious for a moment,¡± His paper avatar said as the very air in the precinct changed for a bit. Coulson was dragged much closer to the table. He took that sudden change remarkably well as he fluidly sat down on the chair that was also dragged in.

    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    All the curtains and doors closed off on their own. For a moment, all Fury and Coulson must have heard was the sound of a high pitched wind movement before it all went¡­silent.

    After that, dozens of bugs, planted all over the precinct, the chairs and tables, some from Coulson¡¯s and Fury¡¯s suits were brought in front of them, floating on top of the table before they were crushed into fine powder.

    ¡°Now, we can talk without the risk of anybody else listening in,¡± He said as his paper avatar leaned forward on the table, the table groaning in protest due to the sudden weight he applied on it, from a distance. In his opinion, it helped showcase the seriousness of the situation.

    ¡°What did you do?¡± Coulson asked calmly even though he could see his gaze swivelling from one side to the other, trying to make sense of the sudden bout of silence they were plunged into.

    ¡°Well, Agent Coulson, this is the curtain of silence. It¡¯s something I learned to do rather early in my career. It is a way of creating a soundproof barrier, such that no sound can come in or out. I do it by manipulating the very air around us. Anyway, that is not the main topic for the day,¡±

    ¡°Fury,¡± He pinned Fury with a look who glared back defiantly, ¡°Yes, Dr.Bruce Robert Banner, is under my protection. Not just because of the litany of crimes that have been committed in bringing him to heel but also because of the sheer damage it would cause if Ross got his hands on him. You, of all people, should know what Ross is planning to do and what the President is tacitly allowing,¡±

    ¡°Yes, I am aware that Ross wants his own little army of Hulks and that is not going to end well for anybody but the matter stands, Banner is a fugitive and Ross will come for him. He believes that-¡±

    ¡°Let him come, then,¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Fury¡¯s confused Pikachu face was cute, if you could consider a 50 year old man with a permanent scowl on his face¡­cute.

    ¡°Let Ross come then. He can come with all the weapons he can get but let me make one thing very clear, he will not be seeing Bruce Banner, green skin or not. I will obliterate his forces the moment they step foot in my city.¡±

    It was quite clear for everybody to see that his words rang true in that sense. Nothing that Ross could bring forth would be able to stand in his way. Besides, what was the President going to do? Authorise The Army to bring military grade ordinance into a heavily populated residential area, where billionaires and millionaires resided aplenty?

    His rating would tank so hard, that he would be scrambling to make amends.

    ¡°Threat of military warfare and possible treason charges aside, what do you want us to do? We are quite aware of your strength but even you must realise that fighting should be the absolute last option,¡± Coulson interjected, seeing that Fury was about to explode on the spot.

    ¡°Ah, you would be right, Agent Coulson. I want nothing but peace but Ross wants Banner and that is not something I can permit to happen, in the name of continued peace, of course. So, I scheduled this meeting in hopes that you get help get Ross off Banner¡¯s back, and in return, we could come up with some sort of deal that would be mutually beneficial,¡±

    Fury jumped in here, ¡°Assuming we even do something about Ross, what sort of deal are we talking about here?¡±

    He rolled his eyes from far away. Trust Fury to jump onto that part almost immediately.

    ¡°Look Fury, I am sure your analysts already told you this but I am very limited in the areas I can act in. So, anything that I would have to do, would have to be in NYC. In the future, my range might increase but as of now, I am limited in this area. So, keeping that in mind, what sort of deal can you cut me here?¡±

    ¡°We are quite aware of that. For now, we will see what we can do about Ross at the moment. As for the deal¡­.¡± Coulson said and then turned to Fury, throwing the ball in his court.

    Fury mulled it over for a moment before saying, ¡°Fine. I can¡¯t make any promises, not without anything tangible to show to POTUS but once we have something solid, I can see about that pardon. For the moment, Coulson will be your primary contact. He will contact you once we have any update about the situation,¡±

    Fury stood up, as did Coulson. He also made his paper avatar stand up and snap his fingers, dispelling the curtain of silence and opening up all the windows and doors, revealing the veritable storm of crushed bullets that the agents outside must have peppered the doors with.

    Fury and Coulson looked incensed as he simply made the paper avatar wave at them before it was dispelled in a shower of paper spaghetti, revealing the primitive phone used to generate the speech.

    Back in his office, he thought about the meeting that had happened just now. He was hoping to get something concrete from Fury but it made sense, he hadn¡¯t given them anything to work on, so far.

    He would have to¨C

    His thoughts screeched to a halt as he felt the wards around the New York Sanctum pulse before the form of Ancient One, standing on the rooftop, tending to the garden was made visible to his spatial awareness.

    Well, it was about damn time.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 31 : A quiet filler chapter

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 31 [December 2008]

    Evacuated Police precinct

    ¨CNick Fury¨C

    As he watched the paper human disperse into shreds of paper in front of him, his mind ran a mile a minute as he tried to process the outcome of this meeting. Sure, it might not have seemed that nothing of note happened in the meeting but for him, this was the most important meeting of the year.

    Getting to know the tone of the so-called Invisible Man of Manhattan was so much more important than dealing with Ross. Oh, he could take care of Ross in a hundred different ways this second but that was never in question. Convincing the President might have taken longer if he didn¡¯t have something far more attractive on the plate in front of him.

    The level of power and control that the Invisible Man had shown so far meant that he was the strongest being on the planet, if not tied with Banner when he was mean and green.

    Plus, he was somehow capable of being damn near omniscient in a very large area, making him the literal definition of a perfect combatant. He was sure that if the Invisible Man made a move or was deployed in a city, he could bring that city¡¯s crime rate down to damn near zero in a day or two. The less said about military zones the better.

    No, he could milk it a hundred different ways and while the President himself was not thrilled to be relying on ¡°freaks¡± as he likes to call them, he is pragmatic enough to realise that they could be game changers on their own, if not that then at least powerful deterrents.

    ¡°Coulson,¡± He called out for his trusted right hand man. He was the only one he could trust with a matter of this magnitude. Coulson looked back from where he was coordinating with the dozen teams that had arrived with him to protect him and had failed hilariously.

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡±

    ¡°We are moving out. Bag everything,¡± He ordered as he sat on his chair, refusing to work on anything lest that man read it using his bullshit powers.

    He had not even noticed as they continued to pepper the building with bullets and even battering rams, and not just any battering rams, SHIELD issue battering rams were capable of breaking open bunker doors if given enough time.

    Somehow, that man, in addition to stopping crime in the city, had maintained a blanket of silence around them, so much so that the astronomical amount of noise made by the bullets and the battering ram went unheard by either of them.

    Also, his eye narrowed as he went past Coulson, and climbed down the stairs. He looked back and his eye widened in astonishment as he could see that, despite the hundreds or even thousands of bullet shells lying around the building, there was not even a single mark on the building.

    Goddamn.

    What were the agents thinking, peppering the entire building with such heavy firepower? He knew he shouldn¡¯t have brought the STRIKE team with him, they were always a little heavy handed where they didn¡¯t need to be. Well, nothing a little stint in Antarctica can¡¯t fix.

    ¡°We¡¯re ready to move out, sir,¡± Coulson said as he boarded the car, the same as him.

    ¡°Good. Let¡¯s go. We have a lot to do, today,¡± He said and rested his eyes. There was scant little he could say in the domain of the Invisible Man that would not immediately be picked up by his prying gaze.

    Honestly, he couldn¡¯t even begin to understand just how someone could perceive an entire city all at once. Even now, he watched as news reporters covered every single one of the Invisible Man¡¯s exploits, starting from that cult of his.

    Thankfully, They didn¡¯t even have to step in to do anything to contain them. He had come forward himself and explained that he was no god and was just another human who was somehow blessed with powers.

    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    His wording had been dissected multiple times with different teams of analysts at every single three-letter agency in the country. Without ever seeing the man or his body in action, there were limitations in what the analysts could do but they were sure that he was someone with heroic inclinations, obviously.

    The cult was rather non violent and the gatherings were boosting the economy immensely, even though most of them went back home disappointed because the powers of the Invisible Man were pretty limited in what they could do.

    Sure, applying CPR on a dying man could be done with ease but the same could not be said for terminal diseases.

    Not even he has that level of fine control to target individual cells, at least that is what the analysts back home told him.

    He had read some of the reports regarding the city and it was safe to say that Manhattan was currently swimming in money. It was the closest thing to a utopia on US soil at the moment.

    Crime rates? Damn near zero, Traffic? Non existential. Hunger? Thing of the past with all the kitchens he had made the Mayor open and operate. Drugs? Incinerated before they could be brought into the city proper, at least the ones brought in by drug dealers.

    Apparently, individual recreational use was permitted by him but that was non consequential. According to the reports, even the very air was being purified somehow but that might just be the consequence of him helping the municipal workers in cleaning the city.

    Oh yeah, he was making sure that the city ran like clockwork, and in a sense, he was running the city. The city was more under his control than the Mayor¡¯s or even the President''s.

    He wasn¡¯t sure why there was not more uproar over the fact that a completely unknown all powerful entity had essentially taken over a major part of the most populous city of the United States.

    Sure, the economic and societal benefits he brought with him were enormous, to the point that most other Mayors would sell their left nut for him to come and settle in their city. But the people must realise the consequences of giving that much power to an unchecked party.

    It might be his paranoia speaking but the way the Invisible Man termed his powers were growing didn¡¯t sit right with him. Already, they had seen his effective range increase, though the more he tried to act out of Manhattan, the weaker his powers were.

    He resorted to more creative uses of his power that allowed him to achieve similar effects while using far less power, as opposed to just using overwhelming brute force, while in Manhattan. He had seen him just lift 3 fully loaded semis and set them on their way out of the city while snuffing out a fire that had broken out on the other side of the city.

    Oh yeah, he could not just move stuff with his mind, he could also somehow control the very air to devastating effects, the Curtain of Silence came to mind.

    He had snuffed the very air out of those flames, stopping them nearly instantly.

    ¡°Coulson, move everything important out of NYC HQ. I want a skeleton crew working here only. Contact all INDEX individuals and tell them to move out of the city. We don¡¯t want them to come into contact with the Invisible Man and for god¡¯s sake, figure out a better name for him,¡±

    It might just be paranoia but he had a hunch that the Invisible Man was not going to remain confined to a specific part of the city for much longer. Already they had predicted that with the rate of expansion, he would cover the entire city of New York in two or three years, at most.

    That was an uncomfortably short timeline. The higher ups might be satisfied that the new powerful variable was somehow limited to a small area that they could light up with fire whenever they felt like it but things would not be nearly as simple as that.

    For one, the fine control that he had, along with the amount of power he could bring forth, it would be safe to say that nothing short of Tesseract-powered weapons would work against his powers and those too worked best against a target. What would they be shooting against if they didn¡¯t even know who they were supposed to fight?

    The underground highway that spanned the entire length of Manhattan came to mind. Doing something like that would have taken billions of dollars and an absolute eternity to make. He did that in what? 20 days.

    ¡°Sir, about Dr.Banner?¡± Coulson¡¯s question brought him out of his introspection. He opened his eye to see that they already exited his estimated range and even the caution zone.

    HE sighed, ¡°What can we realistically do, Coulson? We will just have to warn Ross and tell him not to come guns blazing into a residential area. If he does it anyway, well, that bout of stupidity will be on him. Meanwhile, I¡¯ll report everything to the President. Let¡¯s see what he thinks about this and then, we¡¯ll go from there,¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± Coulson said as he opened the door for him to leave. Coulson¡¯s new assignment was for him to stay here long term and monitor the situation. Technically, Ross would not do something to jeopardize civilian lives but the madman could not be predicted.

    ¡°Coulson, stay safe,¡± He warned as the doors on the helicopter closed and he flew away to the airstrip, to go straight to DC.

    He had a lot of work to do and more importantly, a lot of preparation to depose one of the most celebrated Generals of their time.

    God, he could already feel the migraine coming.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 32 : Bluberry Truffle Delight!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 32 [December 2008]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Well, that was fun, at least Fury has something to base his conclusions on. He was sure that Fury would do something in exchange for an agreement regarding Banner and the continued participation of two strong people in the Avengers Initiative. He thought to himself as he whistled a jaunty tone to himself, on his way to the New York Sanctum. He had some stops to make before that though, since Master Drumm had wanted to try some new pastry store on the other side of the Sanctum.

    No worries though, the Ancient One would wait for him, after all, she did always love tending to that rooftop garden of hers.

    He knew there must be some special magical plants in that garden but all his attempts to ferret out the secret from master Drumm had ended in failure. He could not, for a second, believe that the garden of the Sanctum, something that was visited by the Ancient One the most after Kamar Taj, was completely mundane in nature.

    There must be something in that garden. Magical Tea? Honey? Weed?

    He did not know and at some point, he would have even barged into the dimensional protections around the garden to figure out, if only he didn¡¯t know what fate awaited him if he did that.

    That was not a fun game you wanted to play with, the Ancient ONe¡¯s personal wards were legendary. Spoken in hushed tones because it traumatised everyone who tried to act brave and try their hands at it.

    ¡°Yes, One Blueberry Truffle Cake. To go, please,¡± He smiled at the cashier as he handed in the exact amount of cash to her. His spatial awareness had flared out, telling him everything that had happened in the city,

    Except¡­that was not really true anymore. Ever since his range increased to cover most of Manhattan, it had been as if something else in his mind that was unlocked. And that unlocked part was responsible for most of his actions these days.

    If he didn¡¯t consciously think about it, he didn¡¯t even know what his second mind was doing, which was wild. He didn¡¯t know if it was using his TK to save some poor cat, stop an accident, or do something else. It was kinda disturbing at first, to see a somewhat autonomous mind construct using your powers but he had gotten used to it over the period of time.

    Now, it was the most convenient thing. It protected him from any attacks and warned him if it could comprehend the attacks. Saving people was done on the fly as well, day and night. It didn¡¯t rest, at all. He got worried a while back and tried to shut it down for a bit, so it could rest and everything, and the ensuing headache it gave him, made him call in sick two days in a row.

    Turns out, there was a reason the second mind was able to do something that he could not fathom doing himself. It was somehow designed for that and was incredibly efficient in what it could do.

    For starters, it could not access his full power. No, if he had to guess, it could access about 50-60% of his TK, which was plenty once you take into account that even felling a building was not out of the question with that amount of power.

    It also could not use his spatial awareness power beyond the curtain around Manhattan, which was suspicious but fine. He had to actively concentrate on most days to sense the outskirts of Manhattan and check in on how the soup kitchens were working.

    He was expecting, not the worst, but certainly bad enough that he would have to raise the issue but, to his relief, everything was going as smoothly as it could. One day, just for fun, he made sure to make his presence in the kitchen known to everybody who worked there.

    He made them all sit back down and relax for an hour as he took over everything. Food preparation, cooking, serving, cleaning, the whole schabang.

    It probably served as a stark reminder for them to do their jobs properly and he wouldn¡¯t have to act in their stead. It was quite easy and if it meant that it stopped people from trying to take advantage of the most underprivileged section of society, then so be it.

    ¡°Master Drumm, I come with cake!¡± He beamed as he opened the Sanctum door, which recognised him now. No longer would he have to bear the humiliation of knocking on the door and waiting for someone on the other side to open it for him.

    Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    No, he could do it by himself now, thank you very much.

    ¡°I see that you are in great spirits, Mr.Riddle,¡± Drumm said as he came into view, entering the large hallway through one of the zillion adjacent rooms, doing Vishaniti knows what.

    ¡°Must you throw that in my face? It¡¯s not my fault I don¡¯t have the knack for magic like you guys do,¡± He pouted as the cake was dutifully floated over to Drumm who looked at him as if he was some unruly child and not someone who could snap a building in half with a thought.

    ¡°Like I have told you hundreds of times, Mr.Riddle, please handle food with care. Especially a delicacy such as this one. They only make this once a week and it is gone by the time I can finish my duties and reach the bakery,¡± Drumm said as he, very carefully, went to the Sanctum Kitchen to store the cake.

    ¡°Do you need anything, Mr.Riddle?¡± Drumm asked him, not emphasising on the Mr. part of his name.

    ¡°Nah, I just came to see the Ancient One. Enjoy your cake, Drumm,¡± he waved him off and headed up to the rooftop garden. Somehow, the door going out felt it had more protections than the one on the main door, at least from his fledgling vision of the Mystic Arts.

    He had not told anyone about it but he could somewhat perceive magic using his spatial awareness now. Before, it was as if a void was created every time he tried to observe magic being used. Now, he could even see some enchantments and wards that had been laid down on some artifacts and the entire Sanctum itself.

    Huh, in a way, the entire Sanctum itself was another artifact. An immeasurably precious one, but still an artifact.

    ¡°Hello Ancient One. Back from your work conference? All good I hope?¡± His mouth shot off as he saw her tend to her precious plants.

    ¡°Ah, Mr.Riddle, can¡¯t say that I have missed this part of you. And why yes, thank you for asking, the conference was good. Nothing outside the norm happened, which as you know, is extremely good in our profession. Oh, sorry, my profession,¡± The Ancient One turned around and said with an amused look in her eye.

    Her face remained stoic though. She had centuries to master her poker face, it was not as if he would have been able to read her face or even her body language.

    ¡°Yeah yeah, I know. Anywho, I wanted to talk to you about¨C¡±

    ¡°About the threat you have unwittingly invited near the Sanctum. I was wondering what triggered the red alarm, so much so that I had to rush back here instead of feasting on the delightfully light yet aromatic food of the Fae. No calories, only feels, you see,¡±

    He did a double take at that last phrase of her, what slang was that? Wait, What? What threat? Red alarm?

    The question must have been evident on his face as the Ancient One whipped out something and shoved it in his face. It was a metallic object which now showed dark red.

    ¡°It is something that allows transdimensional communication, even in the worst of interdimensional turbulences. It warned me about an incoming threat that the Sanctum faces. Red means energy levels surpassing most Asgardians, including their royalty,¡± She continued.

    She sighed upon seeing his confused doggy look, ¡°Mr.Riddle, you have just brought in the avatar of the Rage into the city. After bringing him here, you have made him coop up in an apartment without any human contact. All Mr.Banner does is wake up, freshen up sometimes, scribble down his ideas of self-mutilation, eat, and then go to sleep. That is not healthy for anyone, let alone someone who is on the precipice of a mental breakdown. His weak mental state is a brewing pit to call in someone far worse than just Mr.Banner¡¯s alter ego,¡±

    His eyes had widened the more she spoke, realising his mistake. But then he remembered why he had come here.

    ¡°That¡¯s why I came here, to you. You could take him, train him in the Arts, or at least help him gain control. Isn¡¯t that like your motto? Never turn down anyone who needs help. Well, Bruce needs your help very much, and quite frankly, so does the Earth,¡± He laid his case in front of her.

    ¡°I can¡¯t bring him in Kamar Taj, for his patron would immediately notice it and try to attack it from within. Trust me, he is much safer being away from magic, at least until his mental state stabilises. His soul itself is raw as if recovering from a patched wound. I will see what I can do about him once his condition is not as volatile as it is now.¡±

    His shoulders slumped as he realized that she was not going to budge on the topic. Somehow, Banner was a danger to Kamar Taj and he didn¡¯t know why,

    ¡°Is there something you can do now? Some meditation method or an artifact for calming him down? Or something else?¡± He made the last ditch effort for Banner.

    She shot him an amused look, ¡°No such artifact exists, Mr.Riddle. Now, please make haste. If I am correct, you are going to be encountering multiple interested parties in the span of a week. It is certainly going to be eventful. Bye bye now¡­¡±

    He blinked and found himself standing on the door of the Sanctum.

    Damnit.

    Taking advantage of magically disinclined people like that.

    For Shame! For Shame!

    Well, time to meet the Hulk then.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 33 : Lovers United!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 33 [December 2008]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Argh, This made no sense to him. How could he solve Banner¡¯s problems if the only two ways he knows how to refuse to do it at this point in time? Banner didn¡¯t need their help ten years down the line when he would already be somewhat well adjusted.

    No, they needed to help him now and by now, he meant yesterday because that man was fraying at the edges. He could tell from the way he kept moving and muttering to himself erratically.

    It was as if he had lost his anchor point, as his mental being was slowly being dragged straight down. He didn¡¯t even know what to do with the other problem that had taken root in his city. One that refused to leave, no matter how many times he made her coffee spill or the number of inconveniences he had subjected her to.

    No, Betty Ross was exactly someone General Ross could have sired. Headstrong, stubborn, fiercely persistent, and somehow, still good enough that he was still considering letting them meet.

    Ah, what the hell, it was not as if Ross would try and use his own daughter as bait, right?

    Right?

    ¡­.

    ¡­

    Ah, if he found them, he found them. He would have to go through him first and what was better than stopping the stereotypical villain from breaking up two lovebirds, one of whom had some incurable oddity that was trying to break them apart from each other?

    He saw that Ms.Betty was having a New York style pizza slice and walking around Central Park. No, she was not walking around Central Park, she was walking towards something and that was the daily congregation they held in his name.

    Oh god, please not that damned thing again. He had flat out told them that he was just a human who gained these powers by happenstance and he would not be taking any personal requests, not that most of the requests were ever in his power to fulfill anyway.

    He gently nudged Betty to stop and stop she did, her eyes widening as she looked all around her, trying to spot the person who might have poked her. Her eyes then widened to saucer like proportions as she must have realised what had happened to her.

    He kept nudging her, showing her the direction to walk to, eventually leading her into a not crowded part of CEntral Park. He then cocooned her entire body and just for safety, enclosed her in a curtain of silence as well, subduing all her sonic attacks in the form of the scared screams everybody would have heard, as he flew her to Bruce¡¯s apartment. Now, someone might say that flying an entire human being through the air at breakneck speeds was bound to catch attention, right?

    To them, he would say: Wrong! It would have caught attention if it hadn''t already happened all the time in the city. He checked in on his second mind and what do you know, they were lifting another thing in the air right now.

    Only right now, it was a chopper with a failed engine making an emergency landing nearby, with both the pilot and the reporter being very excited about the entire thing for some reason. God, it was as if people did not care about their safety at all, so assured in his presence.

    May the Vishanti help this city once he leaves. Well, something for future Axle to think about. God, the reporter was even reporting live on her camera about the entire thing.

    Ugh, he disengaged from his second mind and focused on Betty as she landed right into Bruce¡¯s apartment through the window that had opened up just in time for her to make the surprise entry into her lover¡¯s home and then closed up after she was safely inside.

    The look on Bruce¡¯s face as he looked at Betty and confirmed that she was real was equal parts sad and happy. He must have been so alone, so lonely. At Least he was safe here.

    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    ¡°Well, time to give them the privacy,¡± He thought to himself before getting the bagel and leaving for his office, whistling a jaunty tone. He was oddly full of confidence today.

    He didn¡¯t know why and didn¡¯t particularly care about it but he was of the opinion that today was going to go swimmingly, mostly because he had done the good deed of the day, in addition to the hundreds of good deeds that he does on the go.

    Ross was a concern, yes, but not as much of a concern as the Ancient One was concerned about something happening due to Bruce¡¯s mental health.

    Stark International stock was still plummeting. He didn''t know what TOny was doing but he had not yet made the announcement regarding being Iron Man, even after he had already seen the news yesterday about an accident at the Arc Reactor facility back in LA.

    That meant, presumably, that Stane was dead and Iron Man was already born. Tony had gone through his first betrayal and had learned some lessons, hopefully. It also meant that Tony was now going to be using the poisoning Palladium in his Arc Reactor. Well, he might have tried to help or warn him about it only that Tony Stark lived all the way over to the West Coast, which was far out of his¡­.range.

    Good Lord, speak of the devil and the devil is here.

    Tony Stark, along with Happy Hogan, had somehow entered Manhattan in a limousine, followed by two SUVs full of armed bodyguards.

    As if that wasn¡¯t enough, the Iron Man suit, hollow as it may be, was hovering right at the edge of his boundary. Not the boundary of Manhattan but the boundary of his Spatial awareness.

    That was scarily accurate and he was sure that Jarvis must have played a crucial role in it, predicting the rate at which his awareness range grew and staying just out of it by just that much. He was somewhat off but he could not be faulted for that.

    Even he himself didn''t know how his powers advanced, just that they came with practice, and due to his second mind working all the time in the background, he couldn¡¯t really predict the rate at which his powers grew.

    His pace quickened as he hastily made for his office and then promptly stumbled on himself as he watched Tony¡¯s convoy, after making a quick stop to get Tony a cheeseburger, headed straight towards his office. Well, it could be something else but he didn¡¯t want anything to look suspicious so he slowly, normally, made his way to his office.

    ¡°Hi! Good morning. Morning, Steve. Morning, Scarlet. Morning, Sarah,¡± He greeted everyone and headed straight into his office. Most of them waved back at him, their smiles tinged with hesitation and uncertainty.

    Well, since most of them didn¡¯t exactly know what he did in the office and he was given a corner office to boot, they were very curious but since he was mostly out of reach for them, they had resorted to his secretary but even she didn¡¯t know what he did so they were all kind of awkward around him. He tried to mingle but now was not the time to do that because, Tony Stark just alighted from his car and was entering the lobby of his office building, with his entourage behind him.

    God, he was here because of the shares, wasn¡¯t he?

    Oh yeah, he, or rather, his backers, collectively owned about 10% of Stark International¡¯s stocks right now. While it would not be visible to someone who was doing a cursory search since it was all held in different trusts, financial entities, and even in different countries but for someone like Stark? It was child¡¯s play to figure out who was behind all the buying up of his company¡¯s shares.

    The only reason they were able to buy so much was because for one, SI¡¯s stock had been tumbling for a while now and two, he had more investors now. As it turned out, a lot of the old fogies had families worth billions just hiding away in that exiled mountain. He had made generous use of that money to buy up even more of SI¡¯s stock and Tony, as busy as he was, was never the wiser about it.

    Yup, Tony just exited the elevator and was heading straight towards him. Well, he is probably wiser now.

    His entourage stayed outside but Happy Hogan led Tony straight to his office. He stood up from his chair, trying his best to portray a surprised expression when Tony Stark, all but barged into his office.

    Tony¡¯s face was bruised in places and his entire body felt as if he had just come out of a warzone, technically, he had but that was months ago.

    ¡°Mr.Stark, what can I do for you?¡± He put his best smile forward and greeted him, but not with a handshake, he did not want to put it back down awkwardly while Tony ignored it.

    That would be¡­.uncool.

    ¡°Uh-huh. Axle, was it? Mind telling me how some wet behind the ears kid somehow controls a tenth of my company?¡±

    Well, so much for subtlety. It was his fault, really, to expect something as subtle as small talk before getting to the big part from someone like Tony Stark who represented more of a hammer than a scalpel.

    He sighed, ¡°What do you want, MR. Stark? I can assure you that I have not broken any law in acquiring your company¡¯s shares. So, what warrants this personal visit?¡±

    Tony¡¯s smile was all teeth as he replied, ¡°Well, Mr.Axle, how about we make a deal, right here and now?¡±

    Well, that was not good.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 34 : Rich Shareholder!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 34 [December 2008]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Well, that smile was not good. If there was anything he knew about Stark, as he was now, fresh out of the trauma factory that was his initiation into the superhero world, he was, let¡¯s just say, assertive.

    Ruthless would be a much better term but it was all in the economic sense, so that would not be apt. Tony would have to be. There were vested interests in making sure that clean green, unlimited, energy never made it to the open market. That was probably the reason Howard Stark didn¡¯t pursue it that much, despite having the holy mother of all golden geese in his hands, in the form of the Arc Reactor.

    Probably also the reason why there have not been that many advancements in the nuclear energy sector, despite this world being more advanced than his previous one in all the measurable metrics.

    To that note, ¡°What sort of deal, Mr.Stark?¡± He sighed, leaned back in his chair, and asked Tony. Since he had been outed anyway, there was really no point in making some false persona of being timid in front of Tony anyway. Not only would he figure it out within seconds, but it would also create a wrong image of him, especially since he was in Tony¡¯s camp.

    Tony blinked at the sudden change in his attitude but then soldered on and sat down on one of the chairs, Happy staying outside his office, standing guard and most likely, preventing anyone else from coming into his office.

    He was, of course, not worried in the slightest. While he could not exactly squish the suit that Jarvis must be piloting right on the edge of his awareness, he was more than capable of destroying it and every single weapon that Stark¡¯s bodyguards have on them, within the span of a second.

    All of that was contingent on Tony acting out, and using weapons in his city, which was next to impossible unless the truly worst happened because, well, the reputation of the Invisible Man preceded him.

    ¡°I know the money has to come from somewhere and while I have tracked some of it back to parts of Asia and Europe, the trail goes dark there. So, why don¡¯t you tell me the people you are working for and I can make sure that you don¡¯t go to jail or just disappear because you misused a lot of money from some truly powerful people? Trust me, kid¨C¡±

    Tony stopped as he scoffed out loud at his statement. So, that was how he was going to do this. He was disappointed. Tony expected him to just be some patsy, a scapegoat for when the government or the almighty Iron Man came knocking, to shove all their crimes on a single person. Man, that was the farthest from the truth.

    ¡°Oh, Mr.Stark, I am not some patsy that my patrons have installed in this place. I built this place and as of now, I own over 10% of your company and not my patrons. At least, that much you can confirm using your superior skills,¡±

    Tony¡¯s eyes narrowed at that blatant provocation.

    ¡°Besides, I am not your enemy, Mr.Stark. With you holding on to the lion¡¯s share of Stark Industries, the company will go in the direction you want it to, anyway. I, for one, happen to agree that, despite your myriad flaws, you happen to be the best person to decide how your company runs. So, I am not in it to impede you in any way.¡±

    ¡°Then what are you in for? Did you know about my kidnapping? Why else would you be buying stocks in a company that has been declining and was, for all intents and purposes, doomed to fail,¡± Stark asked him scathingly.

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    Well, wasn''t that a loaded question? One that he had no answer for. All he could do was deflect then.

    ¡°Look, Stark, your company was valuable enough as is. With you back, I am sure it will reach even greater heights. Especially since you haven¡¯t done anything to remedy the fall your stocks have been taking since you shuttered the weapons division, your bread and butter. You must have something on your mind to¡ª Oh, excuse me, I have to take this,¡± He was howling inside at the prank he was about to pull on Tony Stark himself.

    ¡°Hello? Yes. Yeah, I told you, grab all the lots you can find, and empty the balance if you have to. I don¡¯t care, today might be the last day we get it all for cheap. Yeah, text me when it¡¯s done. Already done? Great. Bye.¡± He made a show of talking to someone on the other side of the phone and then after hanging up, he turned to Stark, who was also looking at his phone.

    Oh boy, the smile on his face was very strained. He must have gotten Jarvis¡¯ notification of another round of stocks being bought by him. He was sure that SHIELD must have picked up some stocks as well, especially since Tony came back. HE was of the opinion that he might have to deal with SHIELD, down the road, if they wanted Stark Industries to make them weaponry that he didn¡¯t personally want to make.

    Obviously, that plan was doomed since Tony himself must have taken measures against someone else to gain control over his family¡¯s legacy.

    ¡°Ahem, so as I was saying, I am sure you have something to turn everything around so let me ask you, once again, why are you here? I am not going to just hand over the shares, just so you know,¡± He said with a completely straight face. He didn''t know he did it but he managed to hold it in long enough for Tony to give him a truly venomous look before he stormed out of his office.

    As soon as the door closed behind him, he howled in laughter. Ah, it was so fun messing with Tony Stark of all people, the quintessential hard to deal with person in the entirety of the MCU.

    He could see Tony fuming as he entered his line of SUVs and furiously typing on the holographic keyboard that popped out of his phone. Man, he sure had all the good toys. Having that phone would be tempting but it would probably take ages for something like that to hit the open market and something tells him that Tony Stark would not be amenable to make a custom phone for someone who he believed was somehow involved in his kidnapping.

    It was the logical conclusion. When the entire world was selling SI stocks, even Obadiah apparently, to later buy them at a lower price, he and his firm were the only people who were picking up the stocks in bulk, which slowed the fall but didn¡¯t stop it. The only reason someone would waste tens of billions of dollars like that would be because they knew something others didn¡¯t.

    In this case, Tony¡¯s kidnapping and his eventual escape. But what Tony maybe failed to realise was that Tony was supposed to die there, at least according to the offshoot of the Ten Rings that had taken him, hostage.

    He was sure that the real, the Wenwu led, Ten Rings had nothing to do with the kidnapping, otherwise, Suit or no suit, Tony would not have been able to get out of that cave in one piece.

    He tracked Tony at the edge of his awareness range, continuously typing on his phone before he left his range. As soon as that happened, the suit Jarvis was remotely piloting left the area as well, heading somewhere he did not know; it was out of his range.

    In the meantime, he had scanned the entirety of Stark¡¯s suit with such pinpoint precision that he could draw even the smallest of parts with ease. But what would be the point of that if someone didn¡¯t have the means of powering it, The Arc Reactor?

    He had read in the news that yesterday was the day there was a huge explosion, commotion, and spark of lightning, that took out most of the city¡¯s power and the source was traced back to an experiment gone wrong at Stark Industries. That was probably Obadiah Stane dying.

    This meant that any day now, Tony would go up on stage and declare himself as Iron Man. That was when he would finally turn a profit on his investment and it was not as if he would allow the old fogies to ever exit the company. They were bored in their high-up exiled abode and he was all too excited to hold a position of power in the company that would probably shape the future of Earth.

    Convincing them with some grandiose visions would not be hard and it wouldn''t even be false assurances. Tony would make that come true, one way or another. All they had to do was wait, and time was something they had plenty of, considering they didn¡¯t work, like, at all.

    Only a couple of years left now, to the time he would be free from this city.

    Now, let¡¯s see what the love birds have been up to, for all the time he had left them alone and even given them privacy, deliberately not scanning that area.

    It had been hours, their reunion must be done by now.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 35 : A loving reunion....

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 35 [December 2008]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Now, let¡¯s see what the love birds have been up to, for all the time he had left them alone and even given them privacy, deliberately not scanning that area.

    It had been hours, their reunion must be done by now.

    He had facilitated that meeting for one reason and one reason only. The warning that the Ancient One gave him still rang in his ears. Apparently, something to do with the fraying mental health of Bruce Banner, and that allows something else to descend on their plane. That something else was dangerous enough to spook even the Ancient One, she went as far as to disbar Bruce from getting help from Kamar Taj.

    And he thought that was their whole shtick. Not turning away anyone that would turn up at their doorstep, looking for help. That was probably how Kaecilius was not turned away, given the chance to climb the ranks of the MAsters of the Mystic Arts, despite the Ancient One always knowing that the chances of Kaecilius turning to the dark were high.

    Despite knowing that the person would be eventually responsible for her own death, she allowed him in and helped him recover, at least somewhat, he hesitated to ask her, just what was in Banner to stop her from helping him.

    So, with the first plan out of the way, he had to resort to Plan B. That was getting some help from one of his billionaire buddies, or rather, billionaire minion now that he was staying under this protection, to locate and escort Betty Ross to Bruce and hoping that she would be helpful in healing Bruce¡¯s psyche.

    Because, let me tell you, he might not have the whole mind aspect of the Sage Force, he could tell, even just by looking, that Bruce was not in a healthy state of mind. And not just the, I am tired and this means nothing stage, no, he had passed on to the dangerous ¡°what''s the point of living and wants to kill himself¡± stage.

    No, he could not have that. The Bruce in the movies was an incredibly depressed, broken man, and that was just a sad state of affairs for someone with more than enough power, someone who deserved to be treated like royalty, as was the case with most of the galaxy.

    Unfortunately, humans, in particular, had the most noteworthy capability of being racist and discriminatory even if death itself stared them right in their face, such was the stubbornness inborn in humans.

    It was called the indomitable human spirit and unfortunately, it didn¡¯t have any worthiness criteria or anything. Any human with sufficient motivation and the correct mindset, could display the indomitable human spirit and will stop at nothing to achieve their motives, be it good or bad.

    So, removing the curtain he had raised around the apartment where Bruce was staying, he tried to peer in and¡­

    Back in his office, he was slowly sipping coffee from his favourite bodega downstairs, a huge mistake in hindsight, when he finally saw the duo, and promptly spit out his coffee, right on his computer. It was a good thing, he had enough granular control to allow the water to spill over away from the computer without it seeming as if he had something to do with it.

    God damn, he thought to himself as he violently cut off his powers from that area, something he could do for a while now. Draw an area using his mind and then shut off surveillance in that area.

    Now, he had seen many a people engaging in their¡­.fornication, as it came with the job. But the thing was that ever since he gained his second mind, that part was offloaded and he never had to see some dude naked again.

    His mistake, he should have expected something like this to happen but hot damn! Apparently, they were missing each other more than he expected, and considering the now enhanced physique of Bruce Banner, even in his base form, he wagered that they would be at it, for quite some time.

    His enhanced physique allowed him to not get burnt as some of the coffee had spilled over his T-shirt and since he didn¡¯t really like stuffy clothing, he had chosen a T-shirt that was very very slim. That combined with burning hot coffee would have ensured second degree burns on a normal human.

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    As he was now? It was nothing more than a warm trickle, almost comfortable even. What was not comfortable was the Air Conditioning in the room, which made the shirt stick to his body. Sure, it created an outline of his rock hard abs and he was sure that if he went out of his office looking this like, there would be more than a few catcalls from the ladies at the office, not to mention Sofia¡­.but he was not in the mood for that, maybe later.

    Right now, he had to make sure that the city was safe and work on his powers, hoping that Dr. Banner would be done within a few hours, at most.

    As he cleaned himself the normal way, considering that Stark was in this very room a scant few hours ago, he thought of the sheer time he had spent in this reality.

    It had been over two years since he was thrust into this life and he had to say, he had never really encountered something that stumped him. Sure, he had a couple of close calls but even those could not really be called close calls because of his particular skill set.

    He had somewhat neglected his body because aside from his regular weighted workout, he didn¡¯t do much to hone his body.

    ¡®I should probably look into that¡¯ he thought to himself as he opened up his computer and searched Self defense and combat classes in Manhattan, New York.

    The first couple of results were immediately discarded on the point of being either too flashy or being just plain wrong, as they were out of Manhattan and well, geo locked man here.

    There were a couple of them that looked legit, apparently run by former Military guys, and just as he was about to click on them, he saw something at the edge of the monitor. He casually scrolled down to take a better look and lo and behold, his hand paused as he somehow found himself looking at the listing of the Chikara Dojo, with the face of Colleen wing plastered on the ad.

    God damn, he just jinxed himself really hard, didn¡¯t he.

    The location matched as did the competence. The HAND were a bunch of pansies, way too cowardly to properly face their deaths but they were also very old and skilled. In martial arts, they would probably rank in the top ten on the planet.

    That would be the best choice for him. Just that he didn''t know if it would be wise to go there to train. After all, the likes of Bokuto or Coleen herself would easily notice his enhanced physique and try to convert him or something.

    Well, might as well try and get rid of something that plagues society then. The only reason he must not have gotten this place on his radar was because the Dojo was actually doing good. Coleen ran it and she was actually a kind soul, just in the wrong company.

    HAND must have seen the results of doing something wrong in his territory and that must be why he could sense no ninjas in the city. He could see Coleen though and she was on a break? Reading books and all.

    He would have to think about it. He might be able to defeat and make sure that somebody stays dead, but he didn¡¯t know the method of immortality that he HAND followed.

    Did it need an intact corpse? Could they make do with a drop of blood? Was it time sensitive?

    Lots of questions and way too few answers, so he was going to stay put at the moment. Might check out the other martial arts classes.

    He could strike at them but his limitations meant that they would not make the mistake of coming into the city and certainly, not all at once.

    Argh, damn his limitations.

    Oh well, he would look into that later on as well. Anyhow their time was limited on this earth because once he was free from this place, theirs, along with multiple other heads, were going to roll, in a spectacularly surprising manner.

    *Ring* *Ring*

    ¡°Uh, hello, is this the Castle classes for Martial Arts? Yes, I was calling to enquire about self defense classes. For me, yes,¡±

    As he spoke on the phone with the other side, something about the gruff voice and the way of speaking alluded to something. Something tickled at the back of his mind but he couldn¡¯t pinpoint it at the time.

    ¡°Okay, great. I will see you tomorrow. Thank you,¡± He hung up the call.

    He looked up and swung his chair as it spun, creating a warped ceiling. He sometimes liked to do this if he was way too bored to surf the internet as well. Honestly, he was shocked that none of the upper management in the firm had come to meet him because of the rather explosive meeting with Tony Stark. That would have staved off some of the boredom.

    Tomorrow, he would have to be careful. Make sure that no one at the Castle classes¡­..

    SHIT!

    His chair stopped as he immediately concentrated on the address.

    ¡°So that is how it is going to be,¡± He muttered to himself as his shoulders sagged in resignation.

    He should have known the universe would throw a curveball his way.

    Apparently, the Castle Classes for Martial Arts was run by none other than former NAVY Seal, Frank motherf*cking Castle.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.

    A/N - Regular updates will resume from Monday.

 Chapter 36 : Air Jail!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 36 [December 2008]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°The truth is¡­..I am Iron Man,¡±

    He watched as Tony Stark outed himself as Iron Man on live TV, despite having the same note as he did from Coulson. Well, nice to see that canon has not been derailed all that much despite his existence.

    To be fair, the circumstances that led to Tony becoming Iron Man were so far removed from his area of operations, that the chances of him having some sort of influence on it were downright negligible.

    Now, all he had to do was dodge the board meetings until he gained his freedom and that was going to be simple enough because, on paper, he didn¡¯t really own all that much of Stark Industries. But, if one looks beyond the norm, one will find that he and his various financial entities own just about 11% of Stark Industries.

    Now, that number, while nowhere near the majority, gives him more than enough power. He was now the second largest individual shareholder of Stark Industries, right after Tony Stark himself, who owned over 50%, as of today. He had been buying up everything that people had been offloading, probably waiting for the day he would gain the majority before he could make some sort of major announcement.

    Now, he watched as Tony made the briefing announcement turn into some sort of product placement as he unveiled revolutionary new ideas regarding¡­clean energy. Huh, that was new.

    Tony was apparently talking about a new alloy he had designed that allowed for spikes in power delivery in the power grid. That usually happens when one uses a solar energy mixture in the power grid capacity. Wow, that was¡­revolutionary.

    The king of figures Tony was talking about, it would probably lead to massive savings in transmission losses, with or without clean energy. Not to mention, the base was aluminum, for some reason. That meant that the recyclability of this alloy should be through the roof.

    Damn, what a shock to the scientific world then, he thought to himself, as he sipped his coffee, clad in his pajamas.

    Well, it was the weekend and he didn¡¯t really like working on the weekends. Obviously, that didn¡¯t count his second mind working overtime to make sure that Manhtanna remained a safe place.

    Though he wondered what would happen to it once he left, that was a question for the future him and he loved using that tactic to get himself in trouble. Ah, good times.

    Well, nothing to be worried about. He would get more than enough chances to leave this city. He could fake his death during the New York Invasion fiasco. He could finally reveal himself and then pretend that he overused his ability and died in the process.

    Maybe the Ancient One would be amenable to making sure that the illusion stuck?

    Or would he have to stay in this place until Spider-Man and his team (hopefully) took charge of the city¡¯s protection? If he remembered correctly, there was a group of people, just like the Avengers but more street level and less alien level.

    Yeah, the Defenders. But that was far off in the figure because he could see Rand Enterprises being run by someone who didn¡¯t have the enhanced constitution of Danny Rand.

    He could sense Pops¡¯ barber shop open with customers brimming, sharing stories and laughter. The sight of it unconsciously brought a smile to his face. Man, he loved the way Pops lived his life. A convicted ex-criminal successfully turns his life around.

    He mentored the current generation of youngsters and those youngsters went on to become gang leaders, but they didn¡¯t forget Pops and his kindness, thus, the creation of a neutral zone in Pops barbershop.

    He was not going to let Pops die this time, especially not due to some drive-by, because some gangster couldn¡¯t be patient enough for his target to leave Pops¡¯ shop before killing him.

    Hmm, he could not sense Luke Cage or anyone resembling that level of density anywhere in his range so it would be safe to say that the team-up he was expecting was just not in the cards right now.

    Maybe once his range expanded again, he could try searching for Miss Jessica Jones. She should be active around this time¡­.per...iod.

    SHIT!

    He totally forgot about Jessica Jones and that bastard Killgrave. Well, he didn¡¯t know at what point in time they met but he would have to stop that from happening. That single event, that single meeting¡­broke Jessica Jones and it was part of his duty to prevent that from ever happening.

    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    He mentally noted it down and advised his second mind to be on the lookout for Jessica Jones, after imprinting the image that he remembered of her in the MCU.

    She could be changed for all he knew but his second mind was already tasked with identifying those with abnormal physiques due to the scans everyone goes through. Weirdly enough, he could not, for the life of him, scan the bodies of those that use magic.

    After questioning, he realised that dimensional energy flows through their bodies at all times, in small amounts, which allows them to shrug off minor divination as well as scanning spells.

    His powers must have registered as scanning spells to them then. Still, it chipped at his ego a bit that his powers were being stymied by a basic protection that was only capable of stopping low level spells.

    No worries, he had other, bigger fish to look for.

    It was the next day. Banner had the entire night to himself. He was sure that he must have calmed down by now. So, it would be safe to approach that apartment once again.

    And, it was safe. It was actually wholesome to watch Betty cook scrambled eggs for Bruce as he snored away in his bed. He had never seen Bruce sleep that peacefully in his bed.

    Obviously, the state of the apartment left much to be desired and if he were the landlord and the owner of all the furniture, he would be pissed. Fortunately, the owner was someone else, and that someone else didn¡¯t mind losing money as long as he was provided protection and assurance that his heart would not stop beating as long as he was in the city.

    Oh yeah, he made that deal with the old, scared of death, billionaire. He could do that as well. Flood his presence in the vicinity and then gently force the heart to beat artificially, making sure that that person would not die even if their heart failed to beat. This billionaire had a rich family history of heart failures in their middle age but this one had made it to 65 so he didn¡¯t know what was worrying him so much.

    He looked as Betty served breakfast in bed to Bruce whose eyes snapped open as if he had been awoken from a rather good dream, and after confirming that Betty was actually with him, he smiled with tears in his eyes as they both kissed.

    Eugh, Romance.

    He rearranged the strewn about furniture in the living room, making sure to make enough noise to alert Banner. The result was obvious, breakfast in bed forgotten, Banner jumped in front of Betty, shielding her with his body as he slowly came out of his bedroom.

    As soon as he saw the mess of floating objects in his living room, he relaxed. The furniture, too, as if caught in its tracks, froze for a moment before continuing on.

    He rang the table on top of which the notebook was kept. Not a pen and paper notebook but a digital one. Banner had set this one up for him.

    Two keyboards hooked up to a single screen, allowing him to chat with him without revealing his location.

    ¡°Had fun, Dr.Banner?¡± He teased Bruce, gladdened to see Bruce flush up to his ears as he looked at Betty who was sitting behind him. The elevated heart rate, relaxed body told him one thing and one thing only.

    Bruce Banner needed Betty Ross if he was to ever become one with the Hulk.

    ¡°Yeah, I did. Thank you for bringing Betty here. She is the best thing that has ever happened to me,¡± Bruce typed out and after seeing that, Betty awwed at Bruce and they started kissing again.

    Okay, okay, no need to get burned by a loving couple expressing their love.

    That was what he thought in the beginning but the small kiss was evolving into something steamy and he was not comfortable with that so he gently separated both of them and lifted Betty up in the air, her legs flailing about.

    ¡°Air Jail,¡± He typed out on the screen before Betty was floated out straight into the bathroom.

    ¡°O-Okay, I get it. Whooo!¡±

    ¡°Dr.Banner, I don¡¯t need to alarm you but we need to talk. You can¡¯t live your life like this, hidden away from everyone. You need control and unfortunately, one of my contacts didn¡¯t come through. But, I did get into contact with an agency that could help get you a pardon, provided you work with them,¡±

    ¡°...Not as muscle but as brains.¡± He added hastily after seeing Bruce tense up at the mention of a government agency. Yeah, that was a bad move on his part. His history with the government would not allow him to trust anyone.

    ¡°Are there any other options?¡± Bruce typed out, looking rather despondent as he looked at the bathroom, where Betty was showering, probably. He didn¡¯t look there, he was not a pervert.

    ¡°...There is but I don¡¯t know if you would prefer it. After 2012, a host of other options will open up to me. If you can stay in my domain for four more years, I can help you control the Hulk in less than 1. That is a promise from me,¡± He said after thinking about it for a bit.

    Four more years, hidden away in the city would be a bit much, even for Bruce but he had hope, seeing today. If Betty stayed with him, it would be much more bearable for him to live in the shadows.

    ¡°I understand if this is very heavy for early in the morning. Unfortunately, I am out of options at the moment and did not want to give you false hope. You can live in that apartment for as long as you want, with Ms.Ross ofcourse. Ah, there¡¯s the daily delivery of your groceries.¡±

    ¡°Ah, for your information, I have cut off your apartment from my surveillance regime so I will not understand if you are calling for me if it is not dire and you are not turning green. I will check in with you tomorrow morning. Until then, enjoy the cake I sent, it¡¯s blueberry flavoured.¡±

    He cut off that part from his range after that. Good lord, the situation was busted.

    Well, nothing he could do about it for now.

    The Army had not come knocking yet, so that was good. Besides, he was sure that even if they did come, they would not come in tanks and guns blazing, they would send in specialised extraction teams.

    Stealthily they would carry out that operation and unfortunately, that was never going to happen.

    ¡°Hmm,¡± He chuckled as he saw the same Random Beautiful Agent 1, staying in the same safehouse, once again, in her PJs.

    Didn¡¯t she learn anything from last time?

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 37 : ENTER....Someone?

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 37 [December 2009]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    It had been over a year since the day he offered Bruce a place to stay. It had gone swimmingly since then.

    For one reason and one reason only, Betty Ross had agreed to stay with Bruce, for however long it took for Bruce¡¯s condition to get better. Now, he was aware that Betty Ross was in occasional contact with her father but she had never hinted at anything that could lead back to Bruce but the thing was, the General might be brash and stubborn, but he was not a fool, well, not that much of a fool. The man also contacted her, once a month, on the 15th day, like clockwork.

    So, General Ross probably knew that Bruce was in the one city where he couldn¡¯t reach him. Not just him, but no police, no FBI, and nothing will be able to reach him. The only way someone could capture Bruce was to bring him out of the safe zone he had built around Manhattan.

    And for that, they needed leverage. And where would they bring said leverage from?

    General Ross and his allies made no mistake in destroying Bruce¡¯s life¡¯s work. He had no academia left, no family left, no friends left, nothing.

    The man had nothing to lose¡­except Betty. And that was the only card that Ross had to lure Banner into a trap.

    And he had made sure to hammer that into their minds, the only reason Ross could contact Betty and ask her to come out of the city, would be to lure Bruce out as well. So no matter how rough things would become, he had all but ordered them to stay put and not step one foot out of his range.

    And so far, things have been going pretty smoothly. They had relocated Bruce to a bigger duplex, instead of just a two-bedroom apartment. The duplex also had lots of windows, so lots of natural light in the room, making it not dreary.

    Bruce didn¡¯t step out much, even though he could guarantee this safety. BRuce¡¯s reasoning was that he could not risk it. Betty was the one who did all the outside chores and Bruce was the one who maintained the house.

    Yeah, they had turned into the stereotypical white family, only living in a house that 99% of families would not be able to afford. It was a huge duplex penthouse, with all the amenities imaginable, with its own patio, gym, sauna, theatre room..everything.

    Once again, his dubious billionaire friend who is afraid of heart failures, came in handy when he needed a very nice home for his friend to move into. The expanded space gave Bruce some form of freedom as he moved about his apartment.

    As you can imagine, the task of maintaining such a huge place was humongous but apparently, Bruce was all too happy to do it. His body had gained some characteristics from his Hulk form, as was evident by simply scanning his body.

    Denser muscles, Denser bones, increasing muscle mass, greater lung capacity, lower heartbeat.

    Somehow, Bruce was shaping into a pretty decent-ish enhanced person, even without transforming into the Hulk. Well, that was a surprise and a half. He was also gaining height somehow.

    Now, Axle assumed that it would be good news for Bruce, considering that he was getting some of the enhancements he had as the Hulk, without all the mental changes.

    Turns out, not so much. Bruce had pretty much freaked out the moment he was told that his base form was starting to gain characteristics similar to that of the Hulk. Maybe, he should have worded it better but Bruce had taken that as him becoming the Hulk permanently, losing his mind and identity in the process.

    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Safe to say, Betty had glared at a screen very hard, as she had furiously typed expletives at him, warning him to put all information through her first, before telling anything to Bruce.

    He had backed off immediately, obviously. It had taken almost a month for Bruce to come out of his shell. The man had serious mental health issues that needed to be resolved yesterday but who could he consult?

    There was no therapist that focused on the trauma of super powered individuals, as far as he knew. And even if someone like that did exist, Bruce would not have gone there.

    All in all, Bruce was happy where he was, doing what he was doing. He had never had an episode for the entire year he had been living in that apartment, wanted for nothing, and didn¡¯t have to work for a living.

    He had even abandoned his research regarding creating a cure for the Hulk. That was good, in the sense that he was not afraid of the Hulk anymore.

    Now, onto other things.

    He had expanded his range, a lot, in the past year alone. He could now cover part of Brooklyn and Queens, the majority of the Bronx but nothing on Staten Island.

    That was quite an increase in a year and he was proud of all the work he had put into it. He wagered that by this time next year, all five boroughs will be in his range. With an increase in his range, came an increase in the amount of force he could exert outside the Orange curtain that surrounded Manhattan.

    He could now finally throw around cars, outside of his range as well. Well, only in the periphery of Manhattan but even that was a win.

    As one could imagine, the crime rate had dropped drastically across the areas he had access to. Organised crime, in particular, was down to historic lows.

    His second mind could somehow process all of that extra information without even breaking a sweat, at least he thought so. He didn¡¯t feel any extra strain on his mind even when he tried to increase his range further.

    His body had come along swimmingly as well. He could now bend metal.

    Yup, he had bent the rebar with his bare hands. He could run very fast and go without sleep for days now. Not that he did the last thing.

    He needed his beauty sleep.

    He had half expected Tony to just drop in for a talk, especially since he had not met the man even once during the board meetings, but he had not made a peep in his direction. Obviously, he was more than aware that Jarvis was probably constantly spying on him but that was fine as well.

    It acted as an exercise for him, to not show any outward reaction while doing all sorts of stuff with his mind. He was sure that he had the AI fooled for now, mainly because of the greater control he had over his body language.

    Really, books were such a cheat once you knew that you could literally shape your mind and body with the knowledge found within.

    Tony would probably leave him alone as long as his stooges continued to say yes to every plan that Tony would bring to the table.

    That would change though, once Tony showed signs of the madness brought about by the knowledge of his impending death. That was when he would make the motion to have him ousted and have Pepper Potts become CEO. He was unsure if it would have any impact on their eventual romance so he had held things off.

    From the looks of it, the Monaco Grand Prix was scheduled for early next year, so he had a bit of time before he could make the motion.

    He had not heard from the Ancient One or from Master Drumm who had gone to, get this, vocational school for the Masters of the Mystic Arts.

    Yeah, apparently there was this whole other world of magic where one could learn obscure magical languages, arts, and lessons for certain fees.

    That was something that was never covered in the movies but it makes sense. The magical history of Earth itself was vast and rich, so there was no way that Kamar Taj, being the single oldest human founded organisation on the planet, did not have connections with lost magical civilizations.

    ¡°Hmm?¡± He perked up as he pretended to look at the street below, from his balcony when, in fact, his mind was focused on the man that just entered the edge of his range, in the Bronx.

    The person¡¯s physical characteristics were off the charts, and somehow, he was radiating some sort of energy field around him as he walked through the sewers underneath. He failed to recognise the face but he could identify similar markers in Bruce as well.

    So, Ross sent someone then. Time to see if this is Blonsky or not.

    But before that, he had to let him come closer, in his range, so he could hold him still and then decide if he was worthy of being spared or just being ripped apart.

    It was a good thing that Fury left Random Beautiful Agent 1 in the safehouse. He could contact Fury once again through her and this time, he hoped that she would not faint at the sight of a floating pen.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 38 : The One with the RBA

    A/N - I am down with the flu and so, this will be the last chapter for the week. Good news is that I have completed the 4/week quota. The bad news is that no more updates for the week.

    See you guys, hopefully, on Monday.

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 38- [December 2009]

    Shield Safehouse in Manhattan

    ¨CRandom Beautiful Agent¨C

    Hmm. This is nice, actually. She thought to herself as she lounged on the sofa, once again, clad in her PJs, scrolling through a catalog of TV Shows and Movies that had been provided to her by the higher ups at SHIELD.

    Of Course, her beloved MySpace profile was still out of reach so she probably was hemorrhaging followers as of right now, but the job was still her number one priority. The validation from online strangers was nice but it didn''t pay her bills¡­yet.

    Someday, hopefully, in the near future, she hoped to turn her MySpace profile into some sort of revenue generation stream. She didn¡¯t even want it to cover all of her expenses. Just the start of it would be more than enough for her to ditch her current job.

    She had to jump in through a lot of hoops for this job. Technically, she was being paid by some private company but as far as she was aware, this was a government gig and ever since childhood, her father had drilled it into her head that a government job was the ONE thing, the one thing that would set her and her parents up for life.

    Well, she had the job now but she didn¡¯t have her parents to set them up with a nice cozy retirement somewhere warm and pleasant. Now, she had all the money coming from the gig and nowhere to spend it. Currently, it is all parked up in some investment fund that SHIELD recommends to all its agents.

    Hey, if the literal spy agency advised someone to invest in something, then there is no other thing to do. Just invest and leave it because if the people hoarding national security interests didn¡¯t know about the stock market, then who would?

    She made a cool 100K a year, with all the benefits one could possibly get. As of right now, she wasn¡¯t even paying for her living expenses, even. Even after the total fiasco last time where she fainted at the first contact attempt of the Invisible Man, causing her senior to come here in person and then leading to a massive shootout, the marks of which were still visible now, SHIELD had seen fit to not just continue her tenure at SHIELD, but also send her on the same mission.

    She didn¡¯t know if it was a punishment or if the Invisible Man requested it specifically. All she knew was that her senior was very upset and she didn¡¯t want to upset her more by asking for more information. So, she had just asked Agent Ross¡¯ assistant for more information and came here¡­to her work location.

    She then read everything and then totally did not abuse the privilege given to her in the form of  SHIELD Site Service or SSS privilege that was only given to Level 7 and above operations. SSS was basically a logistics geek¡¯s wet dream.

    It is the wing of SHIELD that is responsible for procuring, preparing, transporting, and delivering basically anything from any part of the world in under 16 hours, to her SHIELD Safehouse.

    So far, she has tried French Pastries, Italian Pizzas and pasta, Indian Butter Chicken, and more. She was cautious at first but over the weeks, she had grown brazen until one fine day, she saw the bill that she had accrued because of her spending spree.

    Well, safe to say that she never opened that application on the SHIELD issued phone again. She wondered why nobody had contacted her to yell at her about the extravagant spending but apparently, this mission had more budget than she could fathom. Still, it was not as if she could abuse it for long, after all, she liked, no, loved the French Pastries, but not more than her cushy job.

    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    The job was fine and all, and the current assignment was very dreamlike. It¡¯s just that¡­.

    ¡°Ugh, it¡¯s so boring,¡± She muttered to herself as she shut the TV off and threw away the remote. She didn''t understand why there could be no live cable in the safehouse.

    It was not as if watching Live News was going to threaten her mission or anything.

    She would just have to make do with watching another rerun of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Though, she wondered why some of the higher ups at the NYC HQ liked to watch it in their down time and laughed, very loudly, when any scene of Mace Windu came on the TV.

    She liked his character, if only for the purple lightsaber that only he seems to have but other than that, the movie was fine for her.

    She was about to turn on the TV again when¡­

    ¡°Ah!¡± She yelped as a small, very small man made up of paper was standing on top of the coffee table, on top of which her legs were resting on.

    She hastily stood up and stumbled behind the sofa. She would have fallen on her head had the city¡¯s guardian not been in front of her, in the flesh. Well, more like in the paper, but she got her point across.

    ¡°Ahem. Um, what can I do for you, Mr.Invisble Man, sir?¡± She coughed out into her hand and said, at least what she hoped it to be, in a professional enough tone, as if he had not just caught her in her PJs.

    God, she really had to stop wearing this stuff as if it was her home and not the workplace. In her defense, the standard shield suit was very tight now. When she had given the physicals in the beginning, she was very¡­fit. Now, she had put on some French Pastries weight and she would not be shamed for it, dammit!

    Oh no! She forgot she was in the presence of the Invisible Man and still, her thoughts wandered off, away from the current situation and as it had been told to her numerous times, she had a very expressive face.

    Would the Invisible Man be offended by her?

    ¡°Ahem,¡± An electronic voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She looked to see the paper avatar was now floating mid-air, almost at face height. The avatar somehow looked¡­.concerned?

    ¡°Hello, I am sorry for the last incident. I should not have startled you,¡± The paper avatar spoke. Her mind short circuited for a moment as she tried to process the words he had just uttered. She took a moment to find her words before replying to the all powerful entity present in front of her.

    ¡°Ah! No need for that. Actually, it was my fault, I was too distracted and did not carry out the proper procedure for the mission. Speaking of proper procedure, what can I do for you?¡± She repeated her previous question in a much more professional manner this time.

    The avatar tilted its head at her before replying, ¡°If you say so. Anyway, I have a message for your superior. Just pass this on to Fury or Coulson, if you can. Tell them that ¡°Ross has made his move,¡±¡±

    She nodded her head, determined not to screw it up this time, ¡°Understood. I¡¯ll make sure it is passed on. Anything else I can help you with?¡±

    The avatar just shook his head and dispersed slowly, revealing a small burner phone that had her immediately scrambling for one of the cabinets.

    She put on some gloves and immediately secured the evidence. The phone was easy enough to store but the pieces of paper were very difficult to store, especially since it was basically shredded.

    Well, not her headache if nothing came from the evidence but it was her job to secure it, and just for safety, she also rang the button that would alert her handler at SHIELD who would be looking at the security cameras of this place 24/7.

    ¡°Phew, finally done right,¡± She collapsed on the sofa once all the evidence was marked and bagged properly.

    She wondered what he meant by that though. Something about Agent Ross, the NYC HQ Head?

    She shook her head, dismissing those questions. She had learned from the plenty of spy movies she watched, foolishly thinking that it would help her prepare to work in an actual spy organisation, that one should not question what is above one¡¯s pay grade.

    And it was definitely above her pay grade, considering that the Invisible Man blatantly told her to pass it on to Fury or Coulson, both of whom were legendary names in the agency, and also because she was at the very bottom of the totem pole, a level 2 agent.

    The only ones below here were the garbage incinerator people. She would have thought that Janitors would have lower clearance but apparently, they were the ones who had access to very sensitive areas and were present in those locations when there was no other staff on duty, making their security clearance quite an issue.

    The agent who onboarded her told her that most Janitors have a clearance level of 5 and above. The ones that work at sensitive locations might even have 7 or more.

    It had broken her mind back then but as all things do, the thought left her mind soon after.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 39 : Sus peeps!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 39 [December 2009]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Hmm.

    He hummed to himself as he watched, with his spatial awareness, the energies surrounding Bruce Banner and the mystery person who had now taken root inside one of the underground tunnels that crisscrossed most of the city.

    He had noticed the energy aura before but had not looked too deep into it, for some reason. Now, as he compared the two auras of both the people, he could immediately tell the difference.

    Bruce¡¯s aura, for one, was not as rough, for lack of a better term, as the mystery Hulk¡¯s was. Especially since he was now living with his better half, his edges had mellowed out and his aura was pretty stable now. Nothing like the jagged mess he had sensed the first day he had encountered him.

    The Mystery Hulk, because who else could have almost the same aura with a similar body composition as Bruce, was now resting in the tunnel but not doing anything special.

    He must be waiting for something but what? He was quite deep into his range and he could not sense anything else coming in his direction or anyone with heavy weaponry, or more Hulks as well. Nothing of note was happening in any of the areas that were under his observation.

    He made sure to suspend the privacy privileges that Bruce and Betty had and was now actively monitoring them. It helped that it was the morning so they were not doing anything that would make him feel single.

    Though, the scene of Bruce reading his notes and drinking coffee while Betty was cooking pancakes in the kitchen, was more than enough to raise a bout of jealousy deep in his heart.

    He tried to look deeper into the Hulk¡¯s body, to see if he could find anything interesting inside but apparently, that feature was pretty much limited and he could not use the microscopic scanning that far from his location.

    God, he hated that restriction. Maybe the Hulk had something inside his body? The blood that flows through Bruce Banner is markedly different from Betty Ross¡¯, even without the whole other DNA in there. It was as if his powers registered the blood of enhanced beings as different.

    He never really got the chance to ask Bruce if there was ever another experiment that failed, before the one that turned him into the Hulk. He, for one, did not want an army of Hulks that were now under the command of Ross because there was some failed experiment out there whose blood could be used to mass produce cheap Gamma powered super soldiers.

    If it were true though, it would not have been silent. Noise would be generated over something like that and he did not see any notice from Fury to be careful or something.

    For one, he had already sent the message to SHIELD, and while chances of Fury hearing about it immediately were quite nil, Fury would not have anything to blame on him once he inevitably damaged ¡°government property¡±.

    This clearly enhanced person would probably count as property to the concerned people, the constitution meaning nothing to them considering that there was no amendment inside it that could facilitate the consideration of enhanced people as ¡°people¡±.

    In a bigoted society, they could just as easily be labelled as ¡°cattle¡± or ¡°subhumans¡±. That was somewhat pessimistic and dark but considering the sheer history of humans labelling other humans as ¡°others¡± and then committing atrocities on the other side, without flinching and justifying it as being done to ¡°things¡± instead of ¡°people¡±, he had to consider that angle as well.

    Oh, well, there is nothing he could do about it right now. That was a long political uphill battle that he had no interest in. He had much bigger and more importantly, much more immediate concerns, like Thanos and the humans themselves.

    He still couldn¡¯t believe the balls on Ross if he had the guts to send someone to the city, and for what? He had no hopes of getting Bruce back unless he threatened him with Betty and as far as he knew, Betty had no lost love for her father.

    Honestly, this smelled like something else but he didn¡¯t know what. Fury must have done something that stopped Ross from even coming close to New York, for over a year and now, suddenly, Ross was sending in some bunged up experiment.

    Something was fishy and unless and until the discount Hulk came in his range. Well, deeper into his range, because as soon as he reached the peripheral areas around Manhattan, he would have enough leverage to immobilise him and if not that, then at least catapult him into Manhattan¡¯s air space, where he could, very easily, hold him mid air, or do a number of other things to completely neutralise him, like stopping the airflow to his body or just tweaking his muscles, bones, veins, and even his organs, slightly, shocking his body into shutting down.

    Honestly, he should not have read all those medical books. His mind absorbed that like a sponge and now he had a bunch of really creative, really easy, ways to kill or disable people without even breaking a sweat.

    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    Though he had a hunch that the Hulk¡¯s regenerative factor might pose a hurdle in that but he knew that even that has its own limits, especially since they would not be, essentially, gods, allowing them to harness the power of an entire dimension.

    Theoretically, the Hulk could go on forever, without ever taking an ounce of energy from this universe but the other Hulks could not. That was why they had limits while the Hulk did not. He was taking in energy from some other plane, for which he was the owner.

    He did have a line straight to Pepper Potts because major shareholder, but he didn¡¯t know if involving Tony in this was a good idea or not. Especially with the situation being as it was, he didn¡¯t know if Tony¡¯s involvement would light the powder keg or if Tony would even involve himself, given his past connections with the Army.

    He was watching as the Random Beautiful Agent scrambled to secure the evidence and call home but after that, she was just there, sitting ducks. Probably waiting for some orders from high above but he had kept his message purposefully short and vague.

    So her immediate superior would have no idea of what to do with her now. Only Fury should know IF this is Ross¡¯ doing anyway.

    Besides, if it wasn¡¯t him then-

    He stopped midway in chopping the onion, as six other people, with the exact same aura around them, entered the city as well, all in the back of the same truck, huddled together. His eyes narrowed as he immediately abandoned the thoughts of cooking for lunch as he went into the living room, put on the headphones, and let his favourite music drop as he leaned back on the sofa and closed his eyes, focusing completely on the six new dangerous people that had just entered his range.

    The people were heading straight to Manhattan. He could see the driver but he didn¡¯t seem¡­.okay. He was shivering for one, despite having a coat on him.

    Sadly, he could not check temps in an area using his powers but he could wager, judging by the air coming out of the blower, that the person was cold?

    The truck travelled through twists and turns, without rhyme or rhythm but he could see that they were inching closer and closer to the first one who had entered the city and was waiting for them, apparently, in the sewer.

    HE watched as the truck ran right above the first Hulk, which somehow woke him up as he started running right below the truck. He was pretty heavy too, judging by the cracks he made as he ran as fast as he could.

    At some point, the truck stopped at a signal but the one running underground made no move of getting out of the sewer and into the truck.

    From there onwards, as fast as they could, all seven of them made their way to Manhattan. He watched with bated breaths, just itching to take action as they were now within a distance, where he could just take ahold of them and then throw them into Manhattan, if not hurt them right there.

    But he waited because they had not done anything wrong, or illegal. There is a distinction there but right now was not the time to go into that.

    The driver was twitching increasingly as he came closer to Manhattan. By now, he had scanned the truck in its entirety a hundred times over, and yet, he could not find anything wrong. No bombs, no liquid, no solid, no sus artefact that he could not identify, not even guns and pistols. That was the elementary stuff and these guys didn¡¯t even have that.

    So, the question was, why were they here?

    He watched as they were headed straight into Manhattan, only to turn at the second last turn and head towards one of the soup kitchens.

    What could they want there?

    The kitchens were just a place with food and homeless people. Nothing noteworthy enough for a team of enhanced people to head there.

    The driver¡¯s twitchiness increased, to the point that he was amazed at the scene of him driving properly, if at all.

    He watched with bated breaths as they reached the parking lot of the soup kitchen, the driver letting all the six people out of the back of the truck before driving off, just as twitchy as before.

    The seventh person was waiting right around the corner or rather, in the sewer right under the corner.

    He flooded the entire soup kitchen with his presence, solidifying everything and covering the people with a small imperceptible shield that should be more than capable of deflecting debris from hitting them. Some of them probably realised something was wrong but his fine control over his powers, especially boosted by his Second Mind, meant that most of them didn¡¯t even realise as they were covered in a layer of energy that was almost bulletproof.

    The six people also probably realised that something was wrong, considering that the one in the front stopped mid step before continuing. He could see no weapons on them and yet, he could not shake off the feeling of worry as the six people, dressed in rags, stepped into the soup kitchen.

    Most of the staff in those places were used to seeing people in less than optimal clothing and condition so none of them batted an eye as these six people entered the kitchen.

    They were directed to a changing area where they were given clean, if not a bit worn out, clothing. The difference was night and day as they stepped out of the changing room and into the kitchen, where they were handed a plate and told to go in line to receive their food.

    He was hyper focused on their movements, even the slightest of twitch and he would have them thrown into the East River before drowning them until they were fit for interrogation.

    They dutifully received their food and sat on the rows of tables arranged for all the people to eat. The soup kitchen was frequented by not just the homeless but some low income people. The food in the place was made properly, with hygiene, and was nutritious enough so some gig workers made the soup kitchen their dinner place once or twice a week.

    Honestly, he didn''t mind it that much, considering that the billionaires residing in Manhattan took it upon themselves to donate plenty of money to the venture when they found out that the Invisible Man was the one who had pushed for the formation of these places.

    They probably thought that doing so would bring them in his good graces.

    Well, as long as it kept the kitchens stocked and staffed, he was fine with it.

    Still, he could not shake the itch of just grabbing one of them and then bringing them back over the river, just to scan them down to the smallest scale he could scan.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 40 : Shorty Chap

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 40 [December 2009]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    He continued to keep a hawkish gaze on the six people who had entered the soup kitchen. For the life of him, he could not find the slightest odd behavior from any of them, even the one who was currently sitting down in the sewer, looking oddly pensive as he kept a straight gaze at the six people eating in the soup kitchen as if he could see straight through the earth.

    Now that they were closer, he was a lot more confident in his ability to handle them, should they act out of turn. It had been over 45 minutes since they had entered the soup kitchen and he had flooded the area with his presence. Even now, all the workers of the soup kitchen and the people who are currently eating were covered in a thin layer of micro barriers that were subtly protecting them.

    At this point, it was getting slightly tedious but the way the wiry muscles in all the six people were tensed, as if in preparation for some fight, he could not afford to be lax in the security of the innocent people eating there. At this point, the kitchens were running so smoothly and efficiently that most low income families and workers had one of their meals of the day in the kitchen.

    Sure, it could be said that they were capable of procuring their own meals and were stealing meals from the mouths of the ones that truly needed it, and to them, he would say: Back OFF!

    Food should not be denied to anyone, in his socialist opinion but the way things worked, he was sure that the Billionaires that benefited from his protection would not mind paying a modest fee to make sure that tens of thousands of people ate properly. It was not even chump change for them.

    So, no, he was more than happy that the soup kitchens were so properly maintained that even families felt that it was both safe and hygienic enough for them to bring in their children. He was very happy when he saw that happening at first and he had to, very politely, remind the police that had been called in by some bystander who felt as if the soup kitchens were his own property, that no anybody could eat there.

    Case in point, he could see some of the older NYPD gentlemen enter the soup kitchen, talking and laughing, feeling safe in the fact that nothing and nothing untoward would happen to any of them as they were now officially in the Invisible Man¡¯s territory.

    The second the police entered their vision, he was ready to take action and remove the six hulks completely from the equation but aside from widening eyes and a slight pause in eating, the six continued as if they were completely normal and not enhanced people who could probably take bullets to the face and come out the other side unscathed.

    So, he stayed his hand, once again. He was unsure as to how to proceed from now on. On the one hand, he could completely disregard them and their strength and bring them into his territory with ease, wherein they would be completely under his mercy. On the other hand, they literally hadn¡¯t done anything worthy of his notice, aside from being enhanced underneath the normal facade they had going on.

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    It was kind of amazing how they had the distinct aura of a Hulk but they looked completely normal from the outside. He could see that it was completely authentic, no illusionary method of any sort present on their body.

    Bruce Banner did not get that privilege but these people did. He wagered that Bruce would be very interested in seeing how these people ticked, not that he had any lab equipment set up. That was another thing that he had yet to do.

    Betty¡¯s arrival did alleviate many things but Bruce¡¯s drive to get rid of his alter ego was only dimmed, not snuffed out. He was sure that once news of this incident reached Bruce''s ears, he would once again start pestering him for lab equipment.

    Sure, he could get him some elementary stuff that he could set up in a small space but the thing was, Bruce now lived in Manhattan. It was absurdly expensive even before he made it the de facto world leader in crime rates, them being down that is. He was sure that it was probably the safest city in the world, for its population.

    Some crimes like hate crimes, jaywalking, conspiracy to murder, and some weed sales that were illegal by the US law but not in his mind, still happened and the police were more than happy to register them so as to make themselves feel useful but overall, violent crimes had been dropped to near zero.

    He had even had the opportunity to witness the tradition of Scandinavian countries migrating to Manhattan as well, where the mothers would often leave their babies out in the snow, unattended, so as to acclimate them to the weather. That was not something that was very clever but it was absolutely nice to see it happening naturally, the people of Manhattan are no longer afraid of crimes against their babies happening.

    He watched as one of the police officers flirted with one of the employees at the soup kitchen. Yes, they had employees instead of volunteers because employees could be properly trained and compensated for their time and effort, instead of just exploiting volunteers with little to no training in handling volatile situations that could probably pop up at such places.

    Another thing was all the employees at all the soup kitchens, were the people who attended the Congregation at Central Park, making them almost perfect employees as they worked with zeal, didn¡¯t complain, not that he gave them any reason to, accepted the wages he gave them (He paid them fairly), and didn''t= even blink at his additional requests to, if possible, help all the people that come the kitchen in need.

    The six hulks kept a close eye on the police officers, always managing to keep the police in sight even as they moved out. Eventually, the police settled down in their usual places and scarfed down the food provided to them, as the six hulks left the place.

    He saw them enter the parking lot and just¡­..look at each other, in confusion and fear for some reason. He was just debating whether to give them a joyride through the air when the largest one looked up for some reason.

    ¡°Um, Hello? Invisible Man?¡±

    When he took a moment to reply, the other one furiously whispered to the other five, ¡°You guys said that this is how we could contact him. Now see, he is not responding. I say that we-¡±

    His words were cut short as he lifted all six of them and just slingshot them straight into the city. Their screams were muffled by a mobile application of his Curtain of Silence as they headed straight into an alley.

    As they were about to crash, the earth seemingly parted itself to reveal a deep dark hole that led straight to the underground highway that he had built before.

    Time to see just what was going on here.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 41 : Brain no worky today!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 41 [December 2009]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°Not so fast,¡± He muttered to himself as he watched the seventh Hulk about to hightail it out of the area, presumably sensing the sudden movement of his other accomplices. It was quite hilarious to watch, even from his non visual senses, the flailing about that the absurdly dense and heavy Hulk did as he was flown straight into the water.

    He must have been so surprised when, instead of getting a mouthful of water as he crashed into the river, he entered a completely dry, empty space as the river seemingly parted for him. He dumped him straight into a hole in the riverbed, which led straight to the huge hole dug right under the city, landing right beside his six other acquaintances, on his legs.

    He then proceeded to look around widely, recovering remarkably faster than the other Hulks. Unfortunately for him, the tunnel was a secret from the wider public, mostly in part to SHIELD, and it was nothing more than a huge dark tunnel with splatters of light scattered here and there, remnants of the inspection that the city tried to carry out before SHIELD came hammering in with their weight and took over the entire project.

    He had been in talks with the city to get it approved, mostly because it was just sitting there, at the moment, gathering dust but red tape was hindering progress. The national significance of the city and the added scrutiny that came with his presence in it meant that the tunnel would not be open to the public for a long time to come.

    ¡­And he was fine with that.

    After all, this was going to be his emergency evacuation shelter when the Chitauri started pouring down from the blue portal from hell. He had already started making conduits and makeshift rooms in the tunnel, which could be filled with the required emergency supplies a day or two before the Invasion.

    How would he even know about the Invasion, you might ask? Well, for one, he hoped to establish some sort of collaborative relationship with SHIELD before that, one that would have them trust him enough to divulge such critical information.

    Secondly, he hoped that Tony Stark might let it slip, especially since Coulson supposedly came to Tony Stark in the almost finished Stark Tower in canon, but that was not a guaranteed solution to the problem that was the consequences of his limited range of powers.

    What was a surefire way of gathering information were the people that lived in Manhattan, under his umbrella of protection. All kinds of people lived in Manhattan, having either brought out a property at the absurd prices that it was selling for these days or rented it for an equally absurd amount of money.

    Most of the locals had probably retired, settling outside the city, even New Jersey, as they cashed in on the boom of real estate prices within the city. His mere presence in the city meant that every  Tom Dick and Harry, with a bit of money, wanted to stay in Manhattan.

    Now, normal middle class people certainly wanted to stay safe, in general, but the people who were more afraid for their lives, valued their lives more than anyone else, were the elites, the Billionaires.

    ¡­And thanks to the universal protective umbrella he gave to any person that wandered into his range, most of the Billionaires on the East Coast had found themselves a penthouse in the wealthiest neighbourhood of New York City.

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    Those people were his last resort when it came to gathering information about the invasion if none of the other options panned out. He would surely notice the surefire influx of rich immigrants into the city, hoping that they would be safe from the forces of Loki, in the safest city on the planet, not knowing that this was precisely going to be the ground zero for the Chitauri Invasion.

    Sure, the thought of Loki not choosing New York did cross his mind, what with his reputation of being an all seeing god, but if that happened, well, what would be the point of all this?

    He would either have the ability to influence things or he wouldn¡¯t, no two ways about it. Plus, the sheer power of the curtain that kept him imprisoned within the city meant that there was a high chance that the INvasion would happen and it would happen in this very city.

    He didn¡¯t know if it would happen in the same location as Stark Tower, or would Loki figure out something else to open the portal, unlikely as it may be.

    Ah, stuff to worry about later, he thought to himself as he poured another cup of coffee for himself and settled down to read a nice book, the spicy kind. Of course, it was all a sham for the Personal Investigator that somebody had hired to spy on him and him specifically.

    Most probably Stark because of their latest encounter. He didn¡¯t know more because the PI arrived in the city just a few days ago, continually stalking him at his office and then at his apartment, probably looking for something to report back to Stark.

    It was good that he had literally nothing of value in his apartment and nothing of note in his office as well.

    While he pretended to read his book, he shifted to give the PI better angles as he continued to read on his balcony, his mind wandered around the city as the Hulks regrouped and began trudging through the tunnel in near darkness, all the while Bruce and Betty enjoyed a nice movie, snuggling into the couch.

    Ah, the joys of being in a loving, committed, heterosexual relationship. He wished he knew that as well but, oh well, duty calls.

    He cut off the spying on the happy couple and focused on the Hulks.

    Now that they were in his range, he scanned them down to the lowest level he could, revealing pretty much the same as before. They were enhanced, very¡­organically, in fact.

    See, he had some theories as to the process of enhancements that happen artificially. Using Bruce Banner as an example, the process of turning into the Hulk was a very painful and uncomfortable one, a sign of it being artificial or not yet settled power.

    Once that power probably settled down, Bruce would become the Hulk completely, having both his powers and intellect in a single package, making him far more formidable than he was now.

    These Hulks, on the other hand, were quite clearly recent, considering that Bruce had been the Hulk for less than two years now. He could spot no abnormality, no deficiency, no useless organ, no disproportionate organs¡­nothing.

    Well, the only way to find out anything about them would be to talk to them, and considering that one of them had actually called him out, he was sure that they had someone to say to him.

    So, flexing his powers, he flooded the area in front of them with his presence, gathering some foliage and then burning them to create some light in the otherwise nearly pitch black tunnel.

    All of the seven came to a stop as he recreated his iconic paper avatar, floating in front of them, only this time, just for shits and giggles, he only made the head.

    Understandably, before he could get a word in, the Seventh Hulk, the one who landed in the sewers, just jumped in with his fist cocked back, ready to deliver a powerful haymaker at the paper head.

    Predictably, he went straight through, landing on the other side, looking at the reforming paper head with confusion before he once again jumped the head, this time, with the help of his six other Hulks.

    Well, time to show them the alpha dog of this place then.

    With a flex of his will, all seven of them felt as if a huge boulder was pressing down on them and all of them found themselves in a crater the size of their body. He had made sure that none of them were hurt, not that it was hard considering the durability of their bodies.

    ¡°Now,¡± He made the same menacing sound by creating vibrations in the air, the same one that made Agent Ross shoot him in panic, ¡°What do we have here?¡±

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 42 : Frank Motherf*cking Castle

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 42 [March 2010]

    ¨CFrank Castle¨C

    ¡°So, what do you think about the new batch that¡¯s coming in today?¡± He looked up from his cleaning to see his wife, his beautiful wife, sitting on the receptionist counter, looking out the door.

    ¡°...I don¡¯t know. It is mostly young guys this time though,¡± He grunted before resuming the sweeping of the Dojo.

    Never in his wildest dreams had he thought that his life¡¯s trajectory would end up leading him here, in a small dojo, teaching self defense to normal civilians. Maria was not exactly the receptionist for the Dojo, she had her own practice as a nurse at one of the private hospitals in Manhattan, fetching her a hefty salary.

    The payout from the incident that changed everything in his life, was just enough for him to buy the building they were standing in. He had ownership of the building and due to the recent surge in real estate prices, he was getting more than enough rent out of the rest of the tenants in the building.

    He had started this Dojo, more or less out of boredom. He had sought out one of his son¡¯s friend¡¯s parents who was tech savvy and had him build a website for the Dojom, considering everything was online right now.

    He had not expected much if not any success at the get-go but apparently, word got out and now from the paltry batch of  2 that he had in September of 09, his Dojo had now expanded to have 2 classes of 15.

    That¡¯s 30 people in total and he knew every single one of them by their name. One of his classes had retired a week back and the new batch was going to come in today. The batch induction was done early morning, around 6 AM, so here he was, sweeping the Dojo since he couldn¡¯t realistically ask the cleaning lady to come to clean the Dojo at 4 AM, now could he?

    Maria was very sleepy, anyone could see that, and yet, she woke up to accompany him. He smiled softly at the act of love. He looked back at her to tell her to go to sleep only to pause when she was already snoring away, lost in the dreamworld.

    He deadpanned at her, if she was only going to be sleeping anyway, why not do it in the bed, If she wanted to stay with him, she could take a broom as well but noo.

    Women.

    He shook his head as he thought of the miracle that was the continued presence of his family in his life. His countenance darkened as he thought of the day that he thought he had lost it all.

    ¨CFlashback¨C

    He could still remember it clear as day. It was October of 2008. He had just come back from his tour and was given a couple of months off with his family.

    He had taken out the kids on an outing in Central Park, mostly to visit the Congregation that prayed¨Cokay worshipped the Invisible Man. The kids were infinitely fascinated with the idea that there was someone who was always watching over them, irrespective of who they might be, as long as they were in the areas surrounding Manhattan.

    God, the world was so much simpler before then, or was he too ignorant to know the reality of the world before that?

    When he first heard of the abnormality that was the Invisible Man, he had mostly shrugged it off, as rumours but then he saw the whisperings about the great deeds of the Invisible Man increase, to the point that everyone in his unit and more was continuously talking about the Invisible Man and his powers.

    He had been uninterested at first but then it was confirmed by the higher ups in the military that the Invisible Man was, in fact, real and was operating out of Manhattan. He had feared that it was some sort of evil entity and their soldiers would be deployed to fight it off, losing many of them in the process.

    And yet, once he had gingerly entered Manhattan, he had been amazed to find the difference. The very feeling in Manhattan was different from the rest of New York.

    Roads were clean, there was no traffic, kids frolicked around the streets, void of any fear, and the tourists.

    So many tourists came to Manhattan for a chance to see the Invisible Man in action. Well, they did see him in action that day.

    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    He was having a nice picnic in Central Park when Maria was called in by her work for an emergency, so they cut the picnic short and got into a taxi, with the idea that he would take the kids to have lunch after dropping Maria off at her job.

    Now, the situation did not raise any alarm bells for him because this sort of stuff was routine for Maria. What was not routine however was the bullet that had shot his taxi driver. He had thought him dead but apparently, he was only unconscious because of the shock.

    The next moment, he felt a force acting on him as the entire taxi was overturned and a hole was punched through the roof of the car, showing the road on the other side.

    He could do nothing but watch as presumably, the Invisible Man dragged his unconscious kids out of the taxi and then into a manhole cover that closed itself once the kids were inside. He sighed in relief at that but the situation was still unresolved. He could hear the bullets pelting the taxi¡¯s underbelly and it was a small miracle that the taxi was not on fire yet.

    Due to the sudden jerk and probably due to shock, Maria had been knocked out as well. The taxi driver was out of commission, he did not have any weapon on him, and from the sound of it, the attackers were closing in.

    He had a hunch that the Invisible Man was slowing down the bullets instead of outright stopping them for some reason, allowing the relatively fragile frame of the Taxi to survive the onslaught of bullets that had still not stopped!

    He was broken out of his thoughts when the bullets momentarily stopped before the panicked shouts of people faded away. He flinched as a small explosion went off near the car, or at least the sound of one.

    His hand snaked out to protect Maria as he felt movement from the hole in the roof of the taxi. His worries were unfounded however as he saw the small pistol that had landed right in front of him, followed by a combat grade knife followed by rifles, magazines, and more. More and more, as a veritable arsenal landed in front of him.

    He snapped out of it as his training kicked in, snapping the knife first before cutting himself loose. He checked on Maria and after carefully cutting her out of the seatbelt, he placed her on one side before checking the conditions of the gun provided to him.

    The gunfire had returned at this point with renewed intensity and he didn¡¯t know how long the Taxi could sustain all the damage it was taking, so he did the only thing he could at that point. He leaned on his training.

    He armed himself to the teeth, his face pulled back in a snarl as he looked around, trying to get a vantage point when he felt a nudge on his pants. The next second, there was a piston in his hands pointed down, only to see a small sentence formed on the road

    ¡°Maria is safe. Go - IM¡±

    He must have looked horrible back then, to the attackers, as he was continuously changing guns as all of the arsenal that was given to him floated around him, ready to switch at a moment¡¯s notice.

    The worst thing was, he recognised some of those people and most of the equipment used as he slaughtered every last one of these bastards, with the help of the Invisible Man of course.

    He had sustained no less than two broken ribs because of the slowed down bullet impacts.

    But the good thing was that the kids and Maria came out unscathed from that encounter and he had found who was after his life.

    If he had lost any of his family, he would have left all caution to the wind and hunted down every single one of them, down to the last corpse.

    But¡­he still had Maria, the kids. He couldn''t afford to do that. So, he had called in some of his trustworthy contacts.

    It had galled him to use money acquired through illegal methods but he swallowed it all for his family. A hefty sum was used up to buy an entire building at the edge of Manhattan, nothing fancy.

    The building was not fancy but it was¡­safe.

    Yes, they were finally safe. They transferred their kids to a private school here in Manhattan, Maria joined another hospital after a few months of job search and he opened the Dojo.

    All in all, a very peaceful ending to something that could have been the most violent time of his life.

    ¡°Alright, done!¡± He shouted the last part to Maria who flinched awake.

    ¡°What? I¡¯m awake! I¡¯m awake!¡± Maria said before she realised Frank had pranked her.

    She pouted at him as he hugged her.

    Yes, life was safe but more importantly, good here.

    He would not trade it for the world.

    ¡°Excuse me? Is the Dojo open right now? The email said 6 so it is 5:59 right now,¡± Maria separated from him, drawing an annoying look from him as he looked at the man standing at the entrance.

    The moment his eyes landed on the person, his entire body tensed as he looked at the smiling face of the person who was probably the most dangerous person he had ever met in his life.

    His thoughts started to wander off before he remembered that he was in Manhattan and this was the territory of someone who could tell the US Military to go fuck itself.

    He forcibly relaxed his body before stowing away the broom and replying,

    ¡°Yes, this is the Dojo. I am Frank Castle and I will be your instructor here. You can wait in that room there while the others join us,¡±

    ¡°Okay, Thank you. My name is Axle Riddle, by the way,¡±

    He shook hands with the absolute monster before sending him away.

    Well, time to see just what curveball life had thrown his way this time.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 43 : The Castle Dojo for Awesomeness!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 43 [March 2010]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Hmm, this was nice.

    He could see that Maria was not just alive but happy which meant they were probably a whole family, including the kids as well.

    It made him sigh in relief because it meant that his presence in the city had had a positive impact on some people¡¯s lives. IF Frank Castle could be made into a suburban Dojo instructor while acting lovey dovey with his wife instead of the death machine he becomes in canon, then there was hope.

    Hope that he could change things and if he could change something so big, he would most likely change the course of the events that led to the Snap.

    He looked on in amusement as he saw the people of his batch filter through the doors, dressed in various costumes that they thought would help them with the mobility of the class.

    He didn¡¯t even know what he was doing here. He could already lift a car without even straining his muscles, using just his body. That level of strength meant that he would never have to worry about fighting with a baseline human, no matter how well trained they might be.

    Sure, technique helps but if he was just plain faster, much faster than his baseline human opponent, no amount of technique would help them, now would it?

    And yet, he found himself stagnating when it came to his physical fighting prowess. He had reached some sort of upper limit with his Telekinesis as well, mostly owing to limited ways of practicing it.

    He still worked on increasing his range though, so that was slow going as well but it was advancing and that was important.

    He didn¡¯t have a lick of idea when it came to hand to hand combat despite watching Frank do it hundreds of times in his Dojo. Yeah, he had been spying on Frank Castle when he came to know that he had opened a Dojo right here in Manhattan.

    Apparently, he was the sole owner of the entire building he was in right now. That was some generational wealth right there, especially with the current property rates in Manhattan.

    The thing with his second mind was that he could do things autonomously, without any conscious input from his side, once he had set the programming in the beginning. He had set it so that all violent crimes, collisions, and natural calamities are avoided without him even noticing it, even the ones that are outside Manhattan.

    There were limitations of course, in the creativity of the solutions. That creativity was mostly required only outside Manhattan, because of the force constraint.  Inside Manhattan, his second mind could uproot buildings with ease so stopping people and cars was an easy thing.

    That was why he had to take over whenever there was an emergency at the edges of his range. That was how he had saved Frank Castle from those gunmen, only at that time he had no idea that it was Frank Castle whom he was saving.

    His curiosity as to why such a force was deployed to kill a family drove him towards identifying the man and that led to him scanning the tag Frank had on him and that was how he realised that he was in the middle of the situation that would drive Frank to become the Punisher and kill hundreds of criminals in his one-man war against crime.

    His response was not even in question as he immediately pulled both the kids into a nearby manhole cover, and then gave Frank all the tools he needed to do his job. Once Maria was secured, he watched as Frank rained holy fire on all the assailants, even sustaining two broken ribs because he could only slow down some of the bullets that were about to hit him centre mass.

    After that, Frank drove off with his family, once the emergency services arrived of course. After that, he went out of his range so he completely forgot about it. He had no idea that Frank had bought an entire building in Manhattan, man he must have raided some drug lord for all his life¡¯s savings for Frank to be able to afford an entire building.

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    He had then never come up in any incident. Nothing special had happened in that area and he never really focused on Manhattan anymore as his second mind was more than enough to control everything and if something did happen, like multiple lives being snuffed out despite the second mind¡¯s efforts, only then he was alerted.

    Since nothing like that happened, he had no idea that Frank was living here and running a Dojo of all things.

    Now that he was here, he could see that life inside Manhattan had been good for Frank, judging by the little weight he had put on compared to before. The building was in good condition as well, having multiple tenants, so he must be getting a good amount of rent as well.

    Well, glad to see that Frank Castle, one of canon¡¯s punching bags had his life turned around.

    ¡®All right people, take your positions, stand in marked spaces, and begin with your introductions. Today is your first day so we¡¯ll be taking it easy today.¡± Frank began with an actual smile on his face.

    That was¡­.unexpected.

    He stood in his position, surrounded by clueless people in their 20s, some middle aged people as well as one old lady. Wonder why she needs self defense classes at this age.

    Frank didn¡¯t bat an eye as he began instructing the diverse group of people in his class, once the introductions were done.

    The movements came easily to him as he did the motions, of course, while being under tons of weight by the subtle application of his powers. He had some problems in the beginning with blood flow because of the weight that was being applied on his body from all sides, as if the very atmosphere was pressing on him from all sides, but that was solved now.

    The first time he did that without warning, turning off the pressure directly, some of his blood vessels had burst apart, knocking him out for hours. Fortunately, there was no brain damage¡­.that he knew of, and now his blood vessels had come back stronger.

    He had to do only a couple more times before his body didn''t have an absurdly negative reaction to the pressure difference.

    God, he really was becoming discount Goku, wasn¡¯t he?

    The first session came to an end, with a small stretching session. Well, Frank really was a very good instructor, judging by the way complete laymen could do some stuff with a fluid motion just at the end of a 2-hour session.

    He was currently helping the old lady stretch properly while telling her what movements to avoid, as most of the participants began leaving the Dojo, him following behind. He could feel Frank¡¯s gaze on him as he left the Dojo, right up until he left his field of view.

    He grinned as he realised that Frank must have felt something. His instincts had not rusted yet, that¡¯s good.

    He will make a good addition to the team then. Still, it was way too early to decide that. He would consult with the team before finalising the offer that he would give to Frank.

    Oh yeah, he had a team now.

    An actual superpowered team now.

    ¡°Samuel, keep an eye on him and his family,¡± He used a Bruce Banner invention, [Patent Pending] that allowed him to easily communicate with his team members. It was a small pad that was hypersensitive to pressure, only the pressure pads were covered with a layer of hard plastic, making it impossible for anybody else to use it but himself. He applied pressure on specific points to convey his message, allowing Samuel, one of the Eight (Nine if you count Bruce) members of his team.

    He was one of the Hulks who was blessed with immense power but more importantly, immense flexibility. His body could contort in ways that would leave gymnasts weeping with envy.

    He was also the stealthiest of the bunch, capable of reaching anywhere without much effort, the best suited for surveillance.

    Well, Randall could do it as well, what with his invisibility but the man was such a wuss, afraid of heights. He was adept with a computer, his skills only increasing after gaining his powers so he was the resident Computer Man of the team.

    This was the first official mission he had assigned to any member of the team, and it was pretty easy too.

    He did it mostly as a test to see how they would work together. He expected them to work through the mission like a breeze because they were all brothers.

    Let¡¯s see, he thought to himself as he hailed a cab to get to his coffee. He had a hot shower waiting for him there.

    So what if he couldn¡¯t act out of New York until the Invasion came? He could create a team right now which could help him act in far off areas, as long as they were trained properly. Once he could go out with them though, they would remain as his replacement in Manhattan and New York so that the city doesn¡¯t immediately fall into chaos and crime.

    At Least for a while, until things stabilised once NYPD took over.

    Things were finally looking up and he couldn¡¯t wait for Loki¡¯s stupid face to enter his range so he could punch his lights out. He hadn¡¯t decided if he wanted to do that with his fist or his mind though.

    A question for later, then¡­.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 44 : A Dummies Guide to Spiritual and Soul Contracts

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 44 [May 2010]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    He could feel it in his bones. With undeniable certainty. He couldn¡¯t deny it anymore.

    He just knew that¡­.he was a fool.

    ¡°God¡­¡± He sighed and muttered to himself as he watched the seven hulks brawl with each other, play fighting as if they were kids instead of fully grown adults. Though the Hulk enhancement made it so that it would be almost impossible to tell their age through sight alone, he knew that they were well into their 30s at this point.

    They looked in their prime though, so that was it, but this kind of behaviour was not something that was expected from them, especially not from his team who he was hoping to mold into the world¡¯s best superhero team.

    The competition was not there yet but he would be ready for them.

    The Avengers.

    The Defenders. Though, he wondered how much of that part of canon he had screwed over with his actions. Frank¡¯s rescue alone would derail some of it but he had a hunch that he would get to interact with some of that show¡¯s protagonists sooner or later.

    Actually, that one of the protagonists of that team, was going to be the first real mission he would have them do.

    Jessica Jones. If his memory served him right, it would be right about this time that she would encounter Kilgrave and serve an extended period of time under his tender mercies. That would set the tone of her life for several years to come, wreaking havoc on all of her relationships, familial or otherwise.

    He wondered if Kilgrave could affect Samuel and the others. If that happened, it would be disastrous. They were certified powerhouses, definitely above even Spiderman level powers.

    They were nowhere near Bruce Banner¡¯s Hulk level but they were certainly a grade above the street criminal level not to mention their sheer durability and endurance, making them walking pieces of tanks that would shrug off damage that any modern weaponry could inflict on them.

    He had tried to crush them by just exerting force on their skin and it had taken a lot more effort than he had anticipated to make them feel pain. Of course, Tim, being the special case since he could transform between his solid state and semi liquid state with ease.

    Tim could take the most damage but conversely, he was also the most vulnerable once he was back in his solid form. All in all, the team was well rounded, filling any gaps their brothers might have.

    He could still remember his bewilderment when he first interrogated this bunch of brothers.

    Apparently, Daniell Whitehall was involved with the Inhumans on a whole other level. He had never really stopped his pursuit of his human enhancement goal. Encountering one of their kind had only further fueled his hunger to find more of their king to experiment on.

    Armed with Jiaying¡¯s organs, through which he regained his youth, he had probably continued committing atrocities wherever he could.

    These seven brothers were special in the case that they were born of two Awakened Inhumans, at the same time. Yeah, it must have been quite a doozy for their mother to carry all of them at the same time.

    They were born together and after undergoing terrigenesis at the same time as well, they emerged as formidable powerhouses.

    Yeah, Jiaying apparently thought that their shared existence was some sort of sign regarding their powers so she ordered a custom Terrigenesis chamber to be built. All seven brothers were tossed into that chamber and exposed to the Terrigenesis crystals, kickstarting the Inhuman process.

    Her gambit paid off because all seven of them came out, looking exactly the same as they did before, except with the seven glowing eyes.

    If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    That¡¯s it, that was how their powers manifested in the beginning but after extensive testing that every Awakened Inhuman goes through, they found that their powers were linked together.

    Yes, all of them had a single power only. The power to live and die at the same time. A type of shared immortality, if you will.

    As long as a single one of them lives, you can¡¯t kill all the other six. That doesn¡¯t mean that they heal any faster though. When they were just  Awakened Inhumans, they could fight together as one, channeling everybody¡¯s strength into one, or sustaining fatal injuries without going down, like nothing happened.

    In that dark tunnel, he had conducted a thorough interrogation of them, as to how they reached Manhattan, how they turned into Hulks, and what their motive was.

    And that''s how he found out what had actually happened.

    Jiaying, in her quest to absorb more life force to extend her lifespan, had approached her parents with a proposal.

    Apparently, it was just an open secret in the small village that Jiaying led that she was killing some of the Inhumans to absorb their life force. So, Jiaying openly approached the brothers¡¯ parents and presented her proposal to them.

    She proposed to absorb limited amounts of life force from all seven of them, such that they won¡¯t die. As long as a single one of them was alive, the other six would remain alive as well. Jiaying wanted to turn all seven brothers into her personal life force furnace.

    What a disgusting thing to do.

    She had even successfully convinced their parents and that had been the last straw. The brothers, after a small scuffle, left the village after realising the extent of Jiaying¡¯s brainwashing of the whole village.

    They left the village, to then explore the rest of the world. They travelled as far as they could, doing odd jobs to survive. They never really came to America though, too afraid of immigration, they told him.

    After travelling for years, they decided to go home and see if their parents could be convinced, or rather, they were just feeling nostalgic since they certainly knew that their parents would be the same as they left them.

    On their way to the village, they encountered Whitehall who immediately recognised their oddity. Oddly, he didn¡¯t immediately capture and dissect them. That seems to be his MO.

    Unaware of the continued existence of HYDRA, the brothers were tricked into following after Whitehall who had all the resources in the world. He promised them to help topple Jiaying, after being surprised at her continued survival of course.

    That was when Ross was contacted by the Heads of HYDRA in his quest to gather resources to make another batch of Hulks. As interested as HYDRA was in that exact plan, they didn¡¯t mean to make any overt movements regarding it as they knew it would bring undue attention when they still weren¡¯t ready to complete their goals.

    As such, the seven brothers were bribed and ¡°loaned¡± to General Ross for his experimentation, on the condition that all seven would undergo the experiment at the same time.

    In normal times, General Ross would have denied that without a second thought, it would have been too risky to make non American people into Hulks, if the experiment succeeded that is.

    Unfortunately, Ross must have been at his wit¡¯s end, what with no official support from the government on top of the hounding that Fury must have subjected him to. As such, he took the resources that HYDRA had given to him in exchange for the test subjects.

    He must have justified it to himself by telling himself that the method to make more Hulks would remain with him.

    That was how these seven brothers came into existence.

    They came out of the test tubes, looking the same as before but vastly changed underneath. Ross must have been disappointed with the results and had ordered them to be dropped near Manhattan.

    They were given orders to create distractions in Manhattan so that the Invisible Man¡¯s attention would be drawn away.

    Well, that sounded like a lie to him, Axle thought to himself.

    Fortunately, one of the brothers, Randall, was smart enough to do some research beforehand. He realised that antagonising the Invisible Man was a death sentence, even with the amped up powers.

    So, they approached the soup kitchen, hoping to get some sort of audience.

    And they did.

    And now, he was stuck with a superpowered team of seven people.

    Sure, it was way too risky on his part to trust a group of completely unknown people but the solution for that was provided to him by none other than the Ancient One.

    She had been quite exasperated with him when he approached her with the problem he was having.

    Something about having power but not knowing how to use it, she muttered to herself as she handed a book to him.

    The book was titled: ¡°A Dummies Guide to Spiritual and Soul Contracts¡±.

    So, yeah, that was how he got seven legit superpowered minions, someone who could not betray the contract conditions without him being notified immediately about it.

    No, he did not make them sign slavery contracts. He was not evil.

    But some reasonable restrictions that, when broken, would alert him immediately, in exchange for a safe space, was a viable deal in his opinion.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 45 : MURDER MITTENS!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 45 [May 2010]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    The contract with Randall and the others was quite simple. After the Ancient One had assured him that it would all work out and despite having literally zero experience with the Spiritual Contracts, he would not hurt the seven brothers, he went on with his learning experience with the book.

    Sure, it was quite easy to make living arrangements for the Hulks. He didn¡¯t know if Ross even knew about them but they were out and about in the city quite often, more than enough for someone high up in a surveillance state to track down a couple of individuals.

    He told Bruce about them immediately after getting permission from the Missus, i.e., Betty Ross. Both of them expressed quite a bit of interest in the only surviving Hulks aside from Bruce himself, especially the ones that looked quite normal, despite having the benefits, vastly reduced as they may be.

    He knew from the downcast looks from Bruce that he would trade his vast amount of strength and potential, along with instantaneous regeneration, in a heartbeat for a chance at a normal life. And if that normal life somehow came with advanced benefits like those to protect his loved ones, that would just be icing on top.

    Obviously, the brothers had not seen Bruce yet and that would remain for as long as it took him to trust them. Sure, he had the contracts now, but the contracts were not enforced.

    They only served as a warning system, telling him if they ever betrayed him by breaking the scant few rules he had written in the contract from his side. He had not practiced the soul bounds on them because, for one, he never really planned on revealing his identity to them.

    Secondly, it was absurdly dangerous to try and work with souls. Sure, his vast Astral energy gave him a leg up over others in the starting, but the finish line was still very far away. He didn¡¯t even know how he would begin mastering this field.

    Sure, animals were plenty, and even they had souls. Actually, they were the perfect starting point because their souls were not that strong, so they couldn¡¯t resist the manipulation done by a much bigger and stronger soul.

    Unfortunately, the very idea of doing that made him squirm in disgust. Using animals like that didn''t sit right with him. That was why it had stumped him in the beginning.

    Then, he turned upon the part of making a soul pact, a completely voluntary one that created a symbiotic relationship between the familiar and the master. He had not yet picked one animal to make that pact with but he was inclined with a species that could be evolved to something more combat oriented.

    How cool would it be to have a murder kitty made even more murdery by his soul?

    Ah, he could just imagine the day his murder mittens would rip out the throat of some Chitauri and then purr as she approached him for pets.

    He was broken out of his thoughts by the brawl about to spread to the electronics section of the base.

    ¡°Guys! Look out!¡± Ah, Randall, the wise one noticed it but he was a tad bit too late.

    As soon as it was obvious that they were on a direct crash course with some very expensive computer equipment, and some other electronic stuff that Randall had ordered, the purpose of which he had no heads or tails of.

    Randall¡¯s warning fell on deaf ears as the rest of his brothers continued to come near the huge expensive setup that Randall was in the process of setting up.

    He had enough as he flooded the entire underground base they were situated in, with the entire weight of his soul.

    The stiffening of all the seven brothers told him that they recognised that something was probably wrong.

    He bodily, or mindly(?), took hold of all the brothers, sans Randall, and made them float in the air. All of them realised what was happening and didn''t even say anything as they were made to float mid air.

    Randall opened his mouth to say something, probably in his brothers¡¯ defense but no words escaped his mouth as his mouth hung agape, witnessing the small tornada of the Hulk brothers he had created in the middle of the base.

    The winds created from the thorough beating they took from each other''s bodies crashing into each other were enough to scatter papers in the vicinity. After a minute or so of this, he unceremoniously dropped them on the floor.

    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    ¡°Now, Randall, show me the progress on your project,¡± He communicated using the air vibration technique, producing a much more natural and smooth voice now, owing to months of practice.

    Randall, clearly torn about tending to his brothers or following the commands of someone who was literally the only reason they were alive, chose the correct option and scrambled over to his station.

    Now, he really did bash them against each other at speeds and forces that would have had Randall cleaning brain matter from the flooring but since all of them had particularly hard skin, all they did was groan as they collected themselves up from the ground.

    ¡°Um, Yeah, as I said before, we need some way of tracking everything that goes on in the city so we can effectively utilise all our resources,¡± Randall started speaking as his station booted up, showing patchworks of the city¡¯s map.

    Some areas of the map were brightly lit, but most of it was greyed out. It was as if the city was a game map and the brightly lit areas were the areas the player had explored beforehand.

    ¡°As you can imagine, the lit areas are the places where I can confidently say, with 100% certainty, that we can detect something happening and reach that place with a speed that would make it viable for us to act upon,¡± Randall rambled on as he told him about the various paths he had mapped out of the subterranean base he had carved out for them, straight into various parts of the city.

    He had been upfront with the Hulks, especially Randall since he was going to be the brains of the entire operation, that he was going to have them become his replacement, well as far as someone could replace an omnipresent power.

    They had been shocked and afraid at first, thinking that he was going to die or something. He very easily reminded them of the fact that he was as powerful as ever with a simple application of power when he created this base for them, right in front of them.

    Now, Manhattan is built upon some pretty tough bedrock but it was still rock and it broke under his powers as he expected it to. That same tough rock was the reason why the New York Skyline even existed, really.

    The amount of weight that the high rises put on the soil could not be underestimated. He went into some sort of nerd trance and found out that, had it not been for the rock-solid bedrock that Manhattan was built upon, it would have been all but impossible for New York as a city to grow, because there was no space to expand since it was surrounded by water.

    The bedrock was the only reason the city would grow up instead of growing out like LA has.

    The good part about it was that public transport was developed as it should have been and everything became accessible within walking distance.

    The bad news for them was because everything was so densely packed together, they could not really build some vigilante base in the city. No, it would be easily found and that was not something the Hulks could afford to happen.

    They might have the strength necessary to hold their ground but they don¡¯t have the sheer leverage he does when he can, essentially, hold an entire major city hostage.

    The amount of fighting he could do, at any point was tremendous and the sheer utility of that could not be measured in any way.

    ¡°What about the areas that are lit in green and blue?¡± His voice rumbled out in the small underground cavern he had hollowed out for them.

    Randall¡¯s face lit up as he continued to speak while pointing at the screen, showing the lit up area that was broken up into the two colours.

    ¡°Ah! Those. The green area of the city is the area that we can feasibly reach without using any risky methods of transportation. The blue area is the one where we might have to use publicly available methods, where we could be traced back to the base because of it. I am working on getting stealth tech up and running but that would require experiments and while I am thankful that we have a place of operations. The power we are getting from the small makeshift hydro plant here is just not enough. We need more and doing so without getting attention is impossible so I have decided to look into the Arc Reactor,¡±

    If he was present there, his eyebrows would be raised into his hairline as he saw that Randall was not spouting bullshit. He was actually seriously going to look at something that took two generations of geniuses to devise and improve.

    Well, if he could actually crack the Arc Reactor, then maybe his powers had improved his intellect more than was obvious. If he could crack that, then maybe a couple of CHitauri tech samples should give him enough technological arsenal to figure out some truly dangerous pieces of technologies.

    As for their worries about silent and discreet methods of transportation once he was gone, well, they shouldn¡¯t be worried about that.

    Once he was free from the curtain of Imprisonment that shrouded Manhattan, he was going to approach the Ancient One with a proposal. A proposal to have someone willing from the Masters of the Mystic Arts to come to work for him.

    Now he was 80%, maybe 70% sure that she was going to reject his request but there was no harm done in trying.

    If the Seven Brothers proved trustworthy, he could just ask the Ancient One to train some of them. He was reasonably certain that the link to the big guy Below was not the same in all the Hulks.

    Bruce should have the strongest link because he was the strongest there was. It made sense for the Ancient One to be worried about Bruce coming into the hallowed halls of Kamar Taj.

    Now, someone like Randall, who was so obviously in control and vastly weaker than the Strongest Hulk would stand to reason that he also had the weaker link to the guy Below.

    Maybe that would be reason enough for the Ancient One to teach him, at least the basics like portal creation.

    Learning that alone would solve all their logistical worries. That would open a lot of doors for them, like setting up bases in remote parts of the world, inaccessible to most people.

    He knew at least one such place in the Antarctic that would be perfect for them.

    Though that was talk for a far away possible future. There was no way he was going to let some untrustworthy people get access to the Celestial Corpse in the South Pole.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 46 : The Wrecking Hulk! & The mournful state of public transit...

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 46 [May 2010]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Hmm, this was going to be tricky.

    He was looking over the plans for the Stark Expo and found, much to his chagrin, that he would not be able to exert enough force to actually destroy all the mechs that Vanko would send after Tony.

    No, at most, he would be able to inconvenience them, using subtle applications of his power. Now, the only frame of reference he had was the Stark suit that Jarvis was remotely piloting the day Tony came to meet him at his office and that thing didn¡¯t have much in terms of what could be exploited by applying the most minimal of forces.

    So, it might be that Hammer stuff would be wildly lower specced than one of Tony¡¯s suits and that stands to reason, considering Hammer Industries¡¯ reputation and history, but he couldn''t exactly take that risk there.

    The expo was in September, so he had just over three months to maximise his range as much as possible, increase the load of his powers, and train the seven hulks to help with the rescue operations.

    Oh yeah, the good thing was that the expo, the entire expo was within his range, even the fringe areas with all the warehousing. So, the worries were not if he could cover all of the Expo, the worries were if he could do something worth a damn.

    The hulks were a good option, they were varied, they had unique powers, were human looking so the crowds wouldn¡¯t panic but they just had the strength and not the mobility and sheer area of effect that he did.

    Randall didn¡¯t have the operations set up so that they could hack into satellites or something to track everything happening in the expo so they could give real time updates to the rest of the team, allowing them to do their jobs better.

    Then, as if a metaphorical light bulb lit over his head, his eyebrows rose as another idea formed in his head.

    He hurriedly began downloading the expo map that was so graciously provided to anybody with an internet connection by Stark himself. He looked through the entire thing and was satisfied that it should not be too complicated to cover the entire thing with his powers.

    Sure, stopping the mechs themselves should be out of his capacity, especially if he was doing something else at the same time, but getting people out of the way should be much much easier.

    He could already see multiple underground levels with a single entrance that would be perfect to stash people and keep them safe inside it, all the while the other Hulks would destroy the other robots.

    And if some Arc Reactors and drone samples managed to disappear from the rubble of the expo, well, it was not as if someone would miss the literal trash that Hammer and Vanko were going to peddle to the US Government.

    Stark might notice, and SHIELD might notice as well but what were they going to do? Demand compensation from him?

    Well, he will see to it when that happens.

    Now that they only had three months of preparation time, it was time to see if he could do what he had thought of.

    If he could feasibly achieve granting flight to all the seven Hulks at the same time, well, it would become far too easy to stop Vannko before he caused any real damage.

    Sure, in the movies, they didn''t show if anybody actually died or not but even if he considered the best case scenario and hoped that no one died, the glass shards from that huge auditorium being shredded by machine gun bullets from the drones alone would have caused multiple minor if not major injuries.

    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    Sheesh, he couldn¡¯t even begin to think of the check that Stark Industries probably had to give to the victims of the attack. Well, he wagered that Sueing Hammer Industries for all its worth would have covered that.

    Anywho, he had hoped for a quieter year, so the Stark Expo being in Queens thing completely slipped out of his mind. He had to even look out for the young Peter Parker who would be first introduced during the expo as well.

    Might as well make sure that Uncle Ben doesn¡¯t die here as well. Sure, doing that, in all of Marvel Continuity, had had some major consequences, most of them not good but he didn¡¯t think that it was okay on his part to let an excellent man die just because his nephew, all but son, Peter Parker would grow up to become one of the greatest heroes of all time.

    Sure, Peter did more good as SpiderMan than he would do as regular old scrawny Peter Parker but what would it say about him if he knowingly let Peter¡¯s father figure die?

    Who-Okay, that just sent chills down his spine.

    Maybe getting into a potential enmity with the Spider Man would not be a good idea for his continued good health.

    Yeah, he mentally noted down to make some arrangements to have the Parker family moved into Manhattan, or if not, then as close to Manhattan as possible.

    Now that that thing was sorted out, the spooky encounter with someone, most probably Madame Web, not counting¡­

    ¡°Randall,¡± He called out using his badass voice in the house they were all crashing in. He had dug a hole straight through the basement of the house, into the subterranean cave that he had built for them as a base of operations.

    Once again, a Russian Billionaire owned the house. The Billionaire doesn¡¯t ask any questions, just completes his request and he can live risk free in the wealthiest neighbourhood in the wealthiest country on the planet, without having to worry constantly about someone about to kill him.

    Apparently, just being out and about without any hint of worry of an assassination plot was something that the Billionaire valued enough to complete any of his requests without question.

    Billionaires should lead dramatic lives. Assassination attempts.

    He scoffed to himself before refocusing on the house that the Nulks were living in. Watching them all scramble to wake up Randall who himself was so lost in the dream world that eleven his admitted badass but still very distinct voice was unable to rouse him, was cathartic.

    In the end, Samuel got a mischievous glint in his eye as he went to the washroom and came with a bucket of water and just poured cold water on top of Randall¡¯s face, startling him awake.

    ¡°What? What? I am awake!¡± Randall exclaimed as he woke up and furiously tried to get the water off his face. Sometimes, he wondered exactly how comic book physics and biology worked because Randall, along with all six of his brothers, were borderline bulletproof.

    Sure, Randall theorized that even Missiles might have a hard time against them, save for some armour piercing rounds, but he was not so daft as to declare them completely bulletproof.

    That was the path of arrogance and that was how they got one of their teammates killed. Though, that possibility was pretty much negated by how their powers worked. Sure, for the power to work at its best, they would all have to be pretty much in sight of each other but even the weaker usage of their powers, which allowed them to live,  without sharing each other¡¯s strength was more than enough.

    ¡°Yo! THe big guy¡¯s calling for you. Wakey wakey!¡± Samuel cackled as he slapped the top of Randall¡¯s head, creating a dull boom in the bedroom, as all six of Randall¡¯s brothers exited his bedroom.

    ¡°Uh, can you give me five minutes?¡± Randall asked out loud and he obliged. He might be a slave driver but he was not going to deprive people of their basic rights and dignity. That path led to a rebellion from his minions and that would just be tedious to handle.

    ¡°Look up Stark Expo and memorise everything about it. We are expecting an attack on the Expo. Figure out which one of your brothers can handle being thrown about through the air by my powers. We are going to need a wrecking ball and one of you hard skinned ones is going to be that,¡± He declared as Randall booted up his makeshift workstation in his bedroom.

    He said workstation but it was just a monitor with a hardline connection down to the subterranean base. Man, digging with his powers was a piece of cake. Especially in his domain where he could exert his full power with impeccable control as well.

    Looking at the cost of building subways, he should charge the city a fraction of the cost to build those tunnels, at scale, so that the people of New York could have reliable and cheap public transportation to everywhere.

    Though looking at the state of public transportation in not so densely packed cities, he had to shake his head and sign in mourning of the potential of public transportation in those cities.

    Alas, the car lobbies won and now the government was just printing highways everywhere.

    Traffic due to more cars with only a single person inside them? Just build another lane.

    But reduce the dependency on cars? NOooooo.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 47 : Fight ON!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 47 [August 2010]

    ¨CRandall Bo¨C

    ¡°Alright guys, gather up!¡± He shouted to the dorks as they were busy playing video games instead of training as he instructed them to. Well, at least they completed the bare minimum that was expected from him so that was good.

    Only if it wasn¡¯t enforced by the fear of going in the bad books of their almighty lord and savi¨Cahem, He meant, Boss and saviour, the Invisible Man.

    He felt the thumps as all six of them left whatever they were doing, with reluctant groans as they gathered around him.

    In front of him, was the love of his life. The best thing money could buy in his opinion. The very best workstation setup that money could buy. Sure, he was a little constricted in terms of how much power he could use without tripping someone off but at the moment, they were fine with what little they could scrounge off the grid.

    He was so very close to cracking the Arc Reactor that even if he got a glimpse into the workings of a finished one, he would be able to start making his own en masse. And wouldn¡¯t that be the dream?

    To have a completely off the grid man cave with all the computers and toys one would ever need.

    Ahem, before he could start drooling, he opened up the Stark Expo Map that he had compiled using the map that was publicly available on Stark Industries¡¯ website as well as their submissions to the fire and safety departments when they applied for the permits.

    ¡°Now, the good news is that the Expo is a fairly spread out event, so the density of people at any given place should be pretty low, barring some special event. That means that our job would be slightly easier to corral the people to safety.¡±

    ¡°Um, wouldn¡¯t it be even tougher because then we would all be spread apart? You know our powers don¡¯t work normally when we are not in sight of each other,¡± Bolton, the scrawniest of the brothers, hesitantly raised his point.

    He pointed his stick at him, ¡°You would be correct, but that is only before we were turned into beings capable of taking bullets to the face without flinching¡­.¡±

    ¡°Speak for yourself¡­¡± Bolton murmured.

    ¡°Now that we are enhanced, I don¡¯t think we even need our base powers for this to succeed. All we need is a way of hiding our identity while making sure that the people are saved, i.e., handing them over to the emergency services.¡±

    All the brothers nodded at his explanation, finding it reasonable. After all, none of them had any training or powers that could help people heal or anything like that, so the next best thing they could do was make sure that the panicked people reached the people with the appropriate expertise.

    ¡°Now, to the main event,¡±

    All of them exited the first floor of their base and entered the lower areas. At first, all they had were the areas above them. Only a single floor for all the equipment they had.

    Sure, the amount of space on the first floor was enough to cram in all the equipment they had currently but what about in the future?

    The answer to that question was six more underground floors, custom built by the Invisible Man on his demands. Well, more like suggestions but the point was that the floors were made with his inputs in mind.

    He didn¡¯t know how to thank Ross for what he put them through, because he came to the other side a completely changed man. Well, all of them changed completely but he was not talking about their tough bodies.

    No, he was talking about his own mind.

    He could now think at dizzying speeds, and keep up with multiple trains of thought, all the while he maintained a normal conversation with someone else on the outside. Never in his wildest dreams could he have thought of reverse engineering the Arc Reactor just by watching some footage and seeing some old Soviet Era research papers he found on the internet.

    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Apparently, Howard Stark was not the only one who was responsible for making the Arc Reactor. There was some other Soviet scientist who also helped and probably knew much more so he approached the Invisible Man with this finding, hoping to get in touch with this Vanko guy to get some insight as to how the darned thing worked.

    Unfortunately, that particular Vanko was dead and Vanko Jr. was the reason they were going to be deployed to the Stark Expo as he was the one who was going to attack the Stark legacy.

    Vanko Jr. believes Stark to be responsible for his father¡¯s demise, and Howard Stark kind of was, but that was no reason to commit acts of terrorism and endanger the lives of innocent citizens.

    ¡°Well, this is what we will be after. Obviously, it is a crude imitation but consider the real opponent to be much harder than this because they will be able to fly as¨C¡±

    ¡°AAAAA¡± WIth a loud charge, Leny, the youngest of them(by seconds) charged at the crude construction of the Iron Man Drone.

    He did a double take as Leny shoulder tackled the Drone into oblivion, scattering all its parts on the floor.

    Apparently, Leny miscalculated the force required to destroy the drone so he stumbled once the drone fell apart with minimal force and almost face planted into the ground.

    His shoulders shook as he held in a chuckle in exasperation. Leny was always the youngest and the most impatient out of all of them.

    ¡°See, wasn¡¯t so tough, now was it?¡± Leny stood up from the ground, dusted off imaginary dirt from his shoulders, and looked at them expectantly, as if waiting for someone to praise him for a job well done.

    Of course, even the daftest of them (looking at you, Tim) was not fooled with the display. If it were this easy to destroy their enemies, then Randall would not be busy planning the entire thing and making sure that everybody got the training they needed for the D-Day.

    ¡°Invisible Man, if you please?¡± Randall sighed and looked at the ceiling, well not the ceiling but at the nearly omnipresent deity that watched over all of Manhattan and most of New York as well.

    ¡°Uh?¡± was the only thing Leny could say as he was bodily lifted by the Invisible Man and deposited on the side of the brothers, where he was promptly slapped on the back of his head by Randall.

    ¡°See? Watch and learn,¡± Randall said as all of them felt the heavy presence of the Invisible Man in the room.

    He watched, transfixed as all the components of the Iron Man Drone floated before coming together, seemingly held together in thin air.

    Leny was then pushed forward by someone, ¡°Now go try it out,¡±

    Leny gulped but then, as if he got a rush of courage from somewhere, he straightened his shoulder and looked back at them, giving them a thumbs up, ¡°Ha! Just a scrap of metal. I¡¯ll destroy it in no time,¡±

    He then turned around and with all the bravado he could probably muster, charged at the Drone who, somehow despite being literal metal, managed to convey the feelings of boredom from its posture.

    He watched in amusement as the Invisible Man piloted Drone now toyed with Leny and all his attacks. Sure, they had trained a bit in the past months but they were neither professionals in normal human baseline fighting nor experts in enhanced combat.

    He had discussed it at length with the Invisible Man and they had reached the consensus that Frank Castle, the middle aged Instructor at a nearby Dojo was a good choice for it. His record indicated that he would rather die than betray someone and as long as his family was safe, he would do anything one asked of him.

    Seeing that his entire family lived in Manhattan and expressly avoided going out of the borough meant that he was concerned for their safety. And what better way to get Frank to thank the person who was protecting his family by working for him?

    Having Frank on their team, even in just training capacity would help a lot because, from his files, Frank was an absolute monster when it came to hand to hand combat. They could definitely learn a lot from him.

    ¡°Oooof!¡± He winced back as the Drone decked Leny with a particularly hard uppercut that pushed Leny a couple of inches in the air before he was dropped on the ground, breathing heavily.

    Leny just lay there, pointing his one finger at the Drone, his mouth moving but no words coming out of them before his hand fell and he closed his eyes.

    Randall rolled his eyes internally because there was no way that amount of damage was enough to actually knock out Leny. he was just acting out because he didn¡¯t get a chance to inflict a single blow on the Drone while the drone completely destroyed him.

    Well, that is what you get when you try to fight someone who is nearly omnipresent, can act on different things all at once, and is capable of ripping apart buildings at their base.

    Thinking like that, this outcome was obviously expected.

    ¡°Come on, form a line. Everybody gets a go,¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°At the Murder Bot?¡±

    ¡°What did we ever do to you, Randall?¡±

    ¡°You mean aside from the constant bullying, emasculation, and more?¡±

    ¡°....¡±

    ¡°.....¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what I thought. Now, GO!¡±

    ¡°..Fine¡­.¡±

    Ah, it warmed his soul to see all his brothers gang up on a single machine and still fail as the Invisible Man summarily kicked all of their asses.

    In the end, all six brothers lay in a heap as they groaned in pain, which was totally unnecessary because he knew the amount of force with which the Drone could hit them, they had calibrated it beforehand.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 48 : Arc Reactor GETTO!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 48 [August 2010]

    Stark Expo

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    He was currently in the Stark Expo, or rather a 3D render of the Stark Expo. Of course, by ¡°he¡±, he meant that his awareness was there in the underground base where the product of Randall and Bruce¡¯s big brain colliding together was being used to create a rather lifelike rendition of the Stark Expo that was about to happen in September.

    So far, he had been monitoring the news, and as hidden as it was, he could see it in Tony¡¯s behaviour, both in public and in terms of the moves he was making with his company.

    Huge philanthropic donations.

    Multiple parties. And more.

    It was clear for him to see that Tony thought that he was going to die and was making all these moves. He had also stopped going out as Iron Man. Probably because he knew doing that would only poison him more and kill him from within.

    The Grand Prix was scheduled for the last week of August and the Stark Expo was scheduled for the second week of September. The events in the movies moved fast which meant that Stark went from being completely poisoned, almost dying from the Palladium, to creating an entirely new element and then kicking ass with Rhody, all in the span of 15 days.

    Damn, the man was good when it came to his field.

    Yeah, he had made the executive decision of letting Bruce meet Randall because what¡¯s the worst that could happen?

    ¡­..

    ¡­.

    He just tempted Murphy, didn¡¯t he?

    Oh well, moving on, he elected to, after discussion with Betty ofcourse-you don¡¯t offend the Missus of the Banner house, introduce Bruce to Randall and co. Betty wanted to come as well, to meet the new generation of Hulks but Bruce was against it so they decided that she would join them once Bruce deemed them trustworthy enough.

    It was justifiable, from Bruce¡¯s perspective because nothing had ever been able to kill or stop him before, so he was not in any real danger from the Hulks but Betty was still a regular human so risking her life was not justified in any sense of manner.

    Once Bruce and Randall were introduced to each other, they quickly bonded with how big their heads were. Seemingly shouting off random things, Bruce just handed a list of items to thin air that he then immediately transferred to the Russian Billionaire, what¡¯s his face.

    He didn¡¯t bother learning about people he could replace as shady Billionaires like him were dime a dozen in Manhattan and were more than willing to use their money if they felt like they could gain the Invisible Man¡¯s favour by doing so.

    Money was literally the cheapest thing for them. They could burn a bag of it every day and still not care or have to worry about where the money would be coming from, at all.

    The Billionaire probably realised the weirdness and how wide ranged the list was but didn''t complain as he organised the drop off in the river as fast as he could. The method for delivery was something else as well. First off, he took the delivered machines and then had them placed in a sewer, where they were checked by Randall with a device that could detect bugs of all kinds.

    Thankfully, the Russian what¡¯s his face had more intellect than he gave him credit for because there was no sign of any breaches on the equipment.

    So, the Billionaire gets one more chance to be of help to the Invisible Man. Good for him.

    Then that equipment was transported down to the subterranean base and kept there until Bruce and Randall were ready to work on it. Apparently, they didn¡¯t need that exact same machine, they just needed the parts of it to create something new.

    He looked at the scrapped remains of the machine and had the urge to tell them that he could have just ordered that specific part instead of them having to gut what was presumably quite an expensive piece of equipment.

    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    They ordered a couple more of these machines from which they took specific parts and left the rest as storage, finally creating their magnum opus, as Rnadll liked to call it.

    He was pretty sure that this was just another month for Bruce Banner whose head ran at speeds competing with geniuses like Shuri and Tony Stark.

    The holographic system.

    Now, they had a 3D rendering of the Stark Expo and all its routes projected in front of them, at 1/20th of the scale, which was still pretty big. Damn, the Stark Expo really was a very big deal if the size of it is any indication.

    And all of it was house full as well. All the companies worth a damn in the modern world had purchased a spot in the Expo, to showcase their products or to attract investors or just for brand recognition, it mattered not.

    The Stark Expo was the place to be if you want your company, especially Tech Company, to be considered as part of the ones that had the potential to change the world.

    Not in a good way, mind you. But change the world, nonetheless.

    ¡°Now, I am all for innovation but can someone please tell me why we had to waste over 10 days on this holographic system when a normal monitor or at most, a projector screen would have worked?¡± His voice rumbled in the underground cavern they were standing in.

    Bruce and Randall both looked at each other and then replied in unison, ¡°It was cool?¡±

    He almost facepalmed in frustration back in his office. Here he was, hoping for it to be something cool like a device that would track down every single Hammer Bot and destroy it but it turned out to be a Holographic projector, something that Stark had in his basement already.

    He created a sighing sound to let them know he was disappointed in them. ¡®Come on, guys. You are better than this. The expo is just a month away now. Where are we on the Arc Reactor for energy? Speaking of which, I had to go through so many hoops to procure that power load, just for this demonstration?¡±

    The twin winces he got from Bruce and Randall were telling already.

    It was not as if he didn¡¯t see them make the machine. He just didn''t know what they were doing, not being scientifically inclined and all. He did see them dismantle a couple of Stark Tech as well but the end result of that seemed to be a small ring which was once again, installed in the projector as well.

    So, his hopes of that being the Arc Reactor were once again dashed.

    ¡°Told you we could fool him¡­¡± All of a sudden Randall turned to Bruce.

    What?

    ¡°Hey! Invisible Man? Take a look around and see where the wires to the projector are going and track them down.¡± Randall shouted in the air as he gleefully rubbed his hands and advanced towards the projector installed in the middle.

    Apparently, the projector needed to be in the center of the image being rendered.

    He followed the trail of electricity and found it to be exactly as planned. It was split into multiple connections which were then burrowed underground to reach multiple properties owned by Whats-his-face, all of them commercial electricity lines.

    So what was the catch here? Even the switches were turned on so he was not getting what the joke was.

    In the meantime, he watched as they began dismantling the projector as well for some reason.

    Just as he was about to explode in frustration, Randall reached into the core of the projector and removed the same ring that they made from Stark Tech.

    Hope bloomed in his mind as he watched Randall carefully put it on top of a table and then remove the cover, revealing what was underneath.

    ¡°Tada!¡± Randall declared as he pointed at the Arc Reactor on the table.

    How could he have not sensed that?

    ¡°When we first made it, we realised that you could not sense it, at all. All you could see was probably a ring so that got us thinking.

    You, Invisible Man, cannot see energy, can you? Pure energy is invisible to you. It is visible to you now because we made adjustments to the energy frequencies, allowing some of the heat to be turned into visible light,¡±

    Bruce went into a long winded explanation but he was not listening to any of that.

    ¡°So, does this mean that?¡±

    ¡°Yes, the base will soon be on uninterrupted off-the-grid clean power so we can begin some of our more energy intensive experiments soon,¡± Bruce continued as they put the ring on top of the Reactor and placed it into a small container.

    Well, Damn.

    It was good that they figured out how to create the damned Arc Reactor but it was even better that they managed to figure out an apparent weakness to his power.

    He could sense power but not pure energy for some reason. So, the Infinity Stones'' energies and attacks would mostly be invisible to him.

    Good to know.

    ¡°What are we waiting for then? Let¡¯s get this show on the road¡­¡± He gave the orders for them to go ahead and forward him the list of materials they might need and went on with his day, starting with a long meeting with Sarah.

    He was just about to get to the good part when Tony freaking Stark entered his range, clad in his black Armani suit as his jet just landed at  John F. Kennedy International Airport.

    Damn.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 49 : Greetings!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 49 [August 2010]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Huh. This was unexpected.

    Tony Stark coming to New York was not surprising, what was surprising was the way he came here. In his jet.

    In the back of his mind, he knew that Tony would definitely want to meet the person who owned a tenth of his company so this meeting was expected but what he didn¡¯t expect was for him to come at this time.

    At this point in time, Tony knew he was dying but his actions were not that reckless. The real recklessness would begin from the Grand Prix next month but this was fine as well, he could take the opportunity to see if he could do something about the Palladium in his bloodstream.

    If he could, he might just have another billionaire¡¯s favour, only this time, the favour would be much more valuable because it would come from Tony freaking Stark.

    Although, he could just be here for the Tower that he was presumably going to build sometime in the future.

    His doubts were kept unresolved as Tony, after exiting his private Jet, donned a hoodie and track pants, and entered a yellow cab, all clad with sunglasses, even though it was not even a sunny day.

    Damn, this was shady and he had a feeling that Tony was going to end up right at his office doors.

    ¡°Sarah, I think I¡¯ll take a raincheck for now, I¡¯m not really feeling well at the moment. I¡¯ll be back tomorrow¡± He said to Sarah as he donned his suit and exited his office as well.

    Since Tony wanted to meet him clandestinely, let him meet in one of the most open areas in the entirety of New York, Central Park.

    When Tony first came within his range, he had scanned him from top to bottom, including the Arc Reactor as well but he had thought nothing of it when he couldn¡¯t scan the ring of the Arc Reactor, the place with the pure energy.

    He had then uploaded, for the lack of a better term, that scan into the Second Mind thing he had going on with his mind and programmed it to alert him once someone with the same scan popped up in the range of his spatial awareness.

    That same alert popped up right now so he was on his way to the Central Park now. As soon as he exited the office building, he could see Tony put his finger on the comms that he had placed in his left ear and then tell the driver something.

    Well, that seals it. He was coming to meet him. Why in such an attire, he did not know but this could be fun.

    This had the potential of spooking Stark. Well, he was a dying man at the moment so he could not do any overt moves but let¡¯s see.

    ____xx___

    Tony Stark was not a man who would readily admit his weaknesses. And yet, he had to accept that he was dying now.

    The Palladium in the Arc Reactor, the same thing that was keeping him alive at the moment, was also killing him. Slowly but yeah, it was killing him.

    Already he could feel the symptoms, and the more he used the Arc Reactor and the Iron Man suit, the faster the poisoning rate. If he stayed away from the suit completely, he could probably stretch it to two or more years.

    If he tried to match his normal routine, he would be lucky to survive for 6 more months.

    He had tried everything. Every known combination on the periodic table and none of them stuck. Nothing and absolutely nothing could replace palladium in the Arc Reactor.

    So, here he was, on his way to meet the guy who owned a tenth of his company, in a hobo disguise. He had to make sure that this Axle person did not pose a threat to Pepper¡¯s control of his company once he inevitably passed away.

    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Yes, he was going to give everything he ever owned to Pepper. She is the only thing he has left in his life.

    ¡°Huh, what a sad, lonely life,¡± No Siblings, Parents, nobody. Aunt Peggy¡¯s condition had destabilised again, from what he had heard from her retainers.

    Maybe, he should meet her before he croaked.

    ¡°Did you say something?¡± The cab driver looked back at him as he must have heard his murmurings.

    ¡°Ah, no. Nothing,¡± He said as his mind went to the conversation he was about to have.

    Threats would not work because he had nothing to work on here. Sure, the records of those transactions could work as ammunition at the SEC but there was no guarantee that the US government could not be lobbied to drop the case in exchange for phenomenal wealth.

    No, he had to talk with him and get his measure. So far, this Axle person has not made a single move in the company. His representatives came and just agreed with everything that he proposed, no questions asked.

    In fact, his representatives on the board actually pushed, much more aggressively than others, to expand the Arc Reactor lineup as a commercial product and sell it to everyone on the planet.

    They had some good ideas as well. Already, there was the first Arc Reactor powered Cargo ship being built in the Netherlands along with an Arc Reactor powered Subway line in China. Both of them were first-generation products but he could definitely see the potential in them, especially the Cargo Ship part.

    That alone would revolutionize the Shipping industry. It would also mint Stark Industries a lot of money but as he was now, he was not really into that so the geeks at Stark Industries were working on it, with Jarvis informing him if something happened that required his attention.

    There was also the part of giving powered fusion reactors to a foreign communist government like China in the first place but so far, they had not received a single backlash. So, the folks on the board were optimistic.

    ¡°Thanks,¡± He gave the cab driver a crisp 100$ tip and came into Central Park, the one place where it doesn¡¯t smell like New York.

    Jarvis gave him directions as to where Axle was. That led him to a secluded corner of the Park with a bench under the shade of a large tree.

    That was convenient.

    ¡°So, you knew I was coming then?¡±

    ¡°Hello, Mr.Stark. What can I do for you today?¡±

    ¡®Don¡¯t play coy with me. How did you know that I was coming?¡±

    ¡°Mr. Stark, how did you know I was right here? You have your sources, I have mine,¡±

    ¡°Fine. How much for your shares?¡±

    Axle merely deadpanned at him, ¡°That¡¯s your idea? You come here, out of nowhere, spooking me, and then tell me that your great idea to secure your company¡¯s shares is to buy them from me?¡±

    ¡°Fine. What do you want then?¡±

    ¡°Let me make this clear to you, Mr.Stark. Me and the people with me mean no harm to you or your close ones. We just want a better world and the Arc Reactor tech alone would make sure that the damage we have done to the planet in the past 100 or so years would be resolved in a couple of decades at most if you worked proactively, that is.¡±

    ¡°So, that¡¯s it. I am supposed to believe that you invested billions of dollars just for a better world. You don¡¯t seem like the altruistic type to me, Mr.Riddle,¡±

    ¡°Well, Mr.Stark, unlike you, I am very young and have a lot to live for. You are an old man in your 40s and as such, might not see the value of growing up in a cleaner world. I do. So, if that is all, I¡¯ll take your leave. I am not selling any of my SI shares anytime soon.¡±

    He watched as Axle just left after waving at him.

    ¡°Jarvis?¡±

    ¡°Voice analysis along with heartbeat monitoring says that there is a 97% chance that it was the truth.¡±

    ¡°Alright, good enough,¡± He gulped his coffee in a single gulp and stood up, his eyes falling on the large gathering of people in front of him.

    ¡°Uh, Jarvis?¡±

    ¡°That is the daily congregation for the Invisible Man, sir. I believe they are there to ask for help.¡± Jarvis helpfully supplied.

    ¡°...Maybe, you should try it as well, sir. Your issue-¡±

    ¡°Hey, J, we are not into that hocus pocus stuff. We are men of SCIENCE!, remember?¡±

    ¡°WHOOOA!¡± He said, shocked as he was dragged back down on the bench he was sitting on before.

    ¡°Jarvis?¡±

    ¡°Sir, I believe it is the Invisible Man,¡±

    ¡°Greetings, Mr.Stark,¡± An electronic voice greeted him as a small phone popped out of nowhere in front of him.

    His throat ran dry as he realised that someone who could rip apart buildings was talking to him at the moment. He had never felt so powerless, even if he did technically have the suit on standby outside the city.

    ¡°Um, Hi? I am not going to call you that stupid man, by the way,¡± He snorted as he leaned back into the bench, trying to get comfortable.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 50: Le Gasp! Bruce in Love!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 50 [August 2010]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    He snorted as he got into a Cab and sped off to his apartment, the one that was undoubtedly tagged by Jarvis to be surveilled 24/7. After all, he was one of the few people who could become a thorn in Pepper¡¯s side once Tony was dead, at least that is what Tony must have thought.

    The man was a giant baby. He would live, no worries about that.

    He was currently holding Tony Stark kind of hostage as he wanted to get his opinion on the existence of the Invisible Man and all that he entailed.

    Back in Central Park, he used the same tactic he did when he didn¡¯t want to scare people off by doing his neat trick of generating sound out of nowhere. Unfortunately, that voice was scarier than what most people could handle.

    So, the classic text-to-speech software work around it is for now.

    ¡°Greetings, Mr.Stark. What brings you to the Big Apple, aside from the stalled Tower project you were working on?¡± He asked Tony.

    Tony leaned back into the bench, trying to get comfortable but he could see that he was deeply uncomfortable with the situation he had landed himself into. His muscles were tense and his heartbeat was rising.

    He was¡­scared.

    ¡°Mr.Stark, rest assured, I am not here to hurt you.¡±

    ¡°Oh, then I can leave right now if I wanted to?¡±

    ¡°I just wanted to have a chat before you leave.¡± He tried to defend himself. This was going horribly. Stark was way too defensive right now.

    ¡°No, Thank you. Make an appointment like the rest of ''em¡± Stark said before he got off the bench in a single move and marched past the phone that was floating mid air.

    At the same time, he could feel a fully assembled Iron Man suit enter his sensing range, on a trajectory aimed directly at Central Park.

    ¡°The Palladium¡­¡± Tony stopped right in his tracks at the word, ¡°--It¡¯s killing you, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    The phone then floated back in front of Tony who looked at it with wariness and caution. The speed of the suit coming in here increasing as Jarvis must have sensed Tony¡¯s distress.

    ¡°H-How do you know that?¡±

    ¡°I know a lot of things. Also, you should know that I can scan things down to a very minute level the moment they enter Manhattan. As such, I can see the gunk in your bloodstream even now,¡±

    ¡°I see. Well, I am not going to beg for your aid or something. So, what¡¯s it gonna cost me?¡± Tony tried to project a nonchalant stance but he knew that he was desperate for something. Something to help him live out a normal human lifespan.

    Too bad, Tony was someone who had a fate, and humans with their own grand fate rarely lived to old age. It was an ugly truth but it was the truth.

    Except, he was here now and he would not let his childhood favourite heroes to become the punching bag of the universe¡¯s will.

    ¡°I can do many things, Mr.Stark but that is even beyond my powers. I cannot cure you¨C¡±

    Tony¡¯s face closed off as he began processing his statement before he could hear the end of it.

    ¡°---but I can help alleviate the symptoms.¡± He said as the parcel from the base finally reached Central Park, through his very own fastest delivery system, i.e., flying through the air.

    ¡°What do you¡ª Who- HEY!¡± Tony said as he stumbled back and removed the needle that was stuck in his neck.

    The suit suddenly activating all the repulsor arrays and weapons suite before presumably aiming everything at him because Jarvis detected a threat to his creator.

    He merely glanced in the direction of the suit, freezing it in place with his powers as it had entered Manhattan¡¯s airspace by now. He then willed for it to slowly come closer. He could feel its servos straining to make some movement, any movement but his powers were absolute in this space and as such, he was able to shut down the servos as well.

    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    ¡°That should keep your head clear for quite a while as you work on solving your problem,¡± He said over the sounds of Tony vomiting out Dark Blood over to the side, the lithium dioxide doing its trick.

    For some unknown reason, he remembered the name of the compound that Romanoff gave Stark when she revealed her secret identity as a spy. So, he used his handy dandy Russian Billionaire cash and ordered it. He then confirmed the scenario with Bruce who confirmed that it would work with Palladium poisoning and also that no element on the Periodic table would work aside from Palladium, for the power core in the Arc Reactor.

    He was the person who had reverse engineered a freaking Arc Reactor without any schematics or anything. Well, Randall did help too but from Randall¡¯s own words, Bruce did most of the heavy lifting anyway.

    ¡°Oh, And¨C¡± He said as Tony''s suit finally reached him, bound in his ethereal grip as it was, ¡°--Here¡¯s your suit back,¡±

    He finally let go of the suit and realigned the servos back to their original position as the suit immediately unfurled around Tony Stark and then wrapped around his form once he was done vomiting.

    ¡°WHAT.THE.FUCK. was THAT?¡± Tony¡¯s voice boomed out of the suit once he turned around before he broke into a coughing fit.

    ¡°That, Mr.Stark, was lithium dioxide, one of the few things capable of stemming the Palladium poisoning of your system.¡±

    ¡°Great, I just need a crateful of them then,¡±

    ¡°--Let me finish, you overgrown man-child. That can only stem the symptoms and never treat the root cause. You will have to do something about the PAlladium in the Arc Reactor. That is just a temporary solution, one that will only make you feel better but won¡¯t actually do anything to cure you. Remember that,¡±

    ¡°Crystal clear. Quick question before I leave you to your scary stalking duties. Did-¡±

    ¡°Bold of you to assume I am not doing my duties even right now, Stark,¡± He had quite a fun time interrupting Stark mid sentence as he liked to do to other people.

    ¡°...Like I was saying, did Banner help you with this? Because there is chatter all over the military comms about the Hulk taking refuge in Manhattan under your umbrella,¡±

    ¡°And what if it is?¡±

    It was weird how even through the armoured plating, he could actually feel Tony¡¯s grin. ¡°Nothing. Just making sure that one of my SCIENCE! Bros was fine, that¡¯s all. If that is all, O¡¯ Almighty benevolent peeper, I will take your leave,¡± Stark said, bowed mockingly, and then blasted off, ruining what was perfectly good overgrown grass.

    People these days have no respect for nature, overgrown lawn as it was anyway.

    The phone was then summarily crushed into fine pieces, the dust of which was then swept away by a gust of wind he had generated.

    He wondered how things would go because Tony was still not out of the red but at least his mind would be much clearer as he was now. Hopefully, he doesn¡¯t perform the same stunts he did in the movies where he let Rhodey get a suit.

    His attention was brought to Bruce who was watching TV.

    ¡°Yes?¡± He asked Bruce as he formed words using sand. Betty had the brilliant idea of doing that to reduce E-waste where it was unnecessary. The sand was mixed in with a color that contrasted with the white light being emitted from the plate on which the sand was resting.

    As such, he formed words with the sand and then it was immediately visible because of the contrast ratio.

    The couple had multiple such frames hung in all the rooms and in various corners for him to communicate with. They also added an aesthetic vibe to the place, as Betty would say.

    Bruce pointed at the news which showed Tony Stark¡¯s Iron Man blasting out of Central Park. News reports theorised that Tony Stark was here to meet the Invisible Man.

    ¡°Why is that idiot using that suit even with the Palladium poisoning?¡± Bruce almost yelled as he pointed at the TV once again, showing that Tony was using the very energy intensive flight function of his suit.

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand the way the minds of geniuses work, Bruce. More importantly, the dose worked but it is not a cure. We will see to that problem when the time comes. Besides, with the Stark Expo in Queens, he is bound to come here eventually. I will see what we can do then, alright?¡±

    ¡°Alright.¡±

    ¡°Speaking of the Expo, would you and Betty like to go? Only on the first days,¡± He hastily added after Bruce deadpanned at thin air.

    ¡°Look, I know that your range extends to Queens as well but we both know that it is not as¡­powerful as it is in Manhattan. I don¡¯t think it''s wise of me to endanger not just Betty but all the innocent people there, on top of the Drone attack that you said would happen there. So, no, I am happy staying in Manhattan. Besides, I have a lot of places left to visit.¡±

    ¡°....Fine,¡±

    ¡°Just next weekend, we have a date planned for the entire day, from morning yoga to the full body massage at night. I am looking forward to that.

    I have started looking forward to just dinner with Betty because it¡¯s not just dinner, it''s dinner with Betty, you know?

    I just wanted to thank you for allowing me to experience normal life. It is more than I could ever ask for. I just don¡¯t want to do anything that could risk things.¡±

    ¡°....I understand,¡± he said before receding from the apartment.

    Damn, didn''t think Bruce felt like this.

    Still, this was good. It meant that Bruce had finally moved on from his fixation to ¡°fix¡± himself and was finally allowing himself to enjoy the good things.

    When will he get that, he wondered to himself as he resolved himself to another long day of crime stopping and moping about his future partner even though he made no effort on his part to go out and meet new people.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 51 : Prep for the EXPO!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 51 [August 2010]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Welp, there goes his expectations of Tony Stark not doing anything reckless out the window.

    Axle watched as Tony Stark entered the F1 Car and still took part in the Grand Prix, despite his mind not being addled by the increasingly tainted blood he was carrying around in his body.

    He sighed as they telecasted the fight Tony had with Vanko. Vanko was still sporting that beat up suit with the whips. He winced as one of the whips sheared the very expensive Rolls Royce Phantom in half while Tony suited up with his very portable, probably lightweight suit.

    It was kind of awesome to watch on TV, watching something that would only be CGI in his previous world. Then, he witnessed the somewhat anticlimactic battle, mostly because he knew what the end result of that was going to be.

    The Hulk brothers in the base were not cursed with the same knowledge so they were on their toes, watching as the battle between good and evil culminated in the victory for the good. He rolled his eyes as he watched Randall cheer when the camera panned around to show Tony Stark¡¯s Iron Man looking around with his stoic faceplate, with Vanko lying at his feet with the knock-off Arc Reactor crushed.

    ¡°Alright boys! The good news is that Stark Survived. Bad news, this means that the Expo will happen and the attack is now even more likely to happen in the Expo. So, chop chop!¡± He said as the hulks began their training on the now vastly bigger floor that he had carved out for them underground.

    Randall was not being trained because he was going to be the ¡°Guy in the chair¡± in his own words, the one who would type on the keyboard and counter hack the hack that the bad guys would do.

    ¡°I assume you want some samples from the fight?¡± He asked, with his voice lowered down. After training it, he could now make it so that the source of voice could be manipulated and he was now projecting his voice from just behind Randall.

    ¡°Jeez! Stop doing that,¡± Randall said as he continued to work on some sort of schematics in front of him.

    ¡°Don''t worry about the hack part. With Bruce assisting me, we can defeat whoever it is on the other side. Shouldn¡¯t be much of a problem. The problem is on your side, you do know that, right?¡± Randall said nonchalantly as he continued to work on his computer. Pesky things like eye fatigue and blue light radiation not mattering to someone who could take bullets to the face and not even flinch.

    He did know. They had conducted some tests, in conjunction with Bruce, and to his shame, they had found that at a given time, he could only ¡°pilot¡± two hulks by swinging them around in the air, to help Tony against the small army of drones that Vanko was going to throw at them.

    Vanko, in his huge suit, should not be much of a problem for the Hulks because while the suit was significantly bulkier than other renditions, well, he could just throw one of the Hulks up and up in the air, and then simply¡­drop them, making for a truly devastating bullet that would turn Vanko into little more than pulp.

    As for the part that came after Vanko¡¯s death, his little kill switch of every Arc Reactor exploding would be taken care of by him with ease. He might not be able to lift all the hulks in the air at the same time, dozens of lightweight Arc Reactors were another thing altogether.

    ¡°Alright, we have less than a week. Let¡¯s make sure that it doesn¡¯t come to the point of Bruce getting ¡°stressed¡± out if you know what I mean,¡± He whispered to Randall whose body went stiff as he shivered minutely the moment he mentioned Bruce stressing out.

    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    And for good reason.

    Randall, with his big head, had advanced by leaps and bounds as he learned all there was about hacking, and after getting curious about this Bruce person and how they were to be around tiptoes around that person, on the Invisible Man¡¯s orders, Randall had gotten curious and ended up hacking into some Military contractor¡¯s databases.

    It was apparently much easier to do that than trying to hack into the Army¡¯s databases, which could also be done, according to him.

    There, the brothers finally saw the footage of The Hulk and just how much stronger he was compared to all of them. Sure, they were almost untenable when it came to the perspective of a normal human but the gulf between the brothers and the OG Hulk was just as much if not wider than the gulf between the brothers and normal humans.

    From then on, Randall began treating Bruce with reverence during all of their talks. It was kind of a win-win in his books. Bruce got someone academically inclined, aside from Betty to talk to. And Randall understood who and what Bruce was and conducted their interactions civilly. This meant that none of the other brothers ever got into a direct conversation with Bruce without supervision.

    ¡®Alright, have you decided on which two will be the ones who will be in the air? So that we can begin creating plating of armour and weapons for them,¡± He asked Randall because while the Russian Billionaire had essentially unlimited funds and connections, even they took time to reach Manhattan because of the increased scrutiny around the entire area due to his presence.

    ¡°I will give you the list by the end of the day. Now, will you please give me some peace and quiet so that I can work?¡± Randall sassed at him and was¡¯ that a change in their behaviour from before. They used to quiet down and stiffen whenever he declared his presence but, at least for Randall, it doesn''t quite do the trick anymore. He is not scared of the Invisible Man anymore.

    Speaking of the Russian Billionaire, he was quite a useful little fellow and while the extent of their conversation never exceeded past him creating a list and putting it into his hands, he should probably look into him a bit. He never really had the need to look into the Billionaire, especially since he never really tripped on anything.

    He lived in a penthouse suite, sure but so did all the other billionaires. Private security was made redundant by yours truly so most ultra rich people didn¡¯t have an entire convoy surrounding them as they walked through the streets. Now they looked like regular people in regular clothing walking around the city, going to regular places in regular subway trains.

    The Russian Billionaire frequented a deli that he liked, had a favourite pizza place, a favourite coffee place. He went to all those places using the subway system, which was very clean these days.

    Courtesy of yours truly.

    He was sure that the cleaners of the Subway system worked very hard but he was also sure that they were, as was common in most parts of the world, understaffed, underpaid, and overworked.

    So, he did one more good deed in his name. All the trains that entered Manhattan were cleaned thoroughly by him. Not a single speck of vomit, dust, food, etc. was kept in those trains as they passed his area. He also made sure that the Mayor got a stern warning from him about the cleaners.

    If they suddenly found themselves out of a job, well, he didn¡¯t know what he would do but the Mayor would certainly find himself living in the same filth that he would clean from the subways every day.

    He could see the Russian Billionaire in Central Park on his afternoon run. So, he wrote down on the special notebook that he kept in his wardrobe, that he would get a list of items in the evening that needed to be delivered expeditiously.

    He continued to work on his range, in the meantime. He wanted to at least be able to lift and fling around three hulks before the expo. He had 15 days for that to happen and he had a hunch that he was going to need all the power he could bring to bear if he wanted to finish the Stark Expo without even a single injury, let alone any casualty.

    He would have even kept Vanko alive if not for the fact that he would only be busted out of whatever prison they put him in, and then made to create cheap half working Arc Reactors to be sold to the world.

    Now, he was not some paragon of capitalism and intellectual property rights but he knew that Stark¡¯s Arc Reactors were eventually going to be distributed to the rest of the world, but for projects that were exclusively nonmilitary.

    Vanko¡¯s reactors, if he made any, would first find themselves in the hands of bad people before the good. So, Vanko dies.

    Nonnegotiable and he was going to die anyway, what with the Bulky armour not having the same reinforcement for the user that Stark¡¯s suits did. The Hulks would take care of it and if not them, then he didn¡¯t need much force to make sure that one suffered from a heart attack as well as vein bursting in their brain.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 52 : Take a chill pill, FURY!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 52 [September 2010]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    It was less than a week for the Stark Expo now. They had prepared for everything they could. He had tried to expand his range as much as possible but he was unable to generate enough force to lift the third hulk BUT he was able to increase the force with which he would be able to throw his projectiles.

    The Hulks were all suitably armed to the gills. All of them knew how to fight and blessed with their bodies as they were, they would need very little defense. Still, Randall was updated about the repulsor blasts, and together with Bruce, they had figured out a much weaker and inefficient version of the same. After testing it on various metals and then eventually, on the Hulks themselves, they had come to the conclusion that¡­.

    Meanwhile, in the underground base, one of the brothers was holding a box that was attached to the ground with a power cable, which then went straight to the Arc Reactor. He was aiming it at Randall.

    ¡°Ow! That hurts, you idiot!¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah, what are you gonna do, crybaby?¡±

    Yeah, the repulsor blasts, even at the somewhat higher intensities hurt the Hulks¡¯ skin but not puncture it outright. Randall had recorded some of the footage of Tony Stark¡¯s escapades and had come to the conclusion that the higher ranked Repulsor blasts could get through their skins but even then, it would not be a one shot kill and would only injure them.

    That injury would then be rapidly healed, presumably because Bruce was not on site and he hasn''t done anything that would truly injure the Hulks. However, judging by the basic package that one gets when they are Hulked out, advanced healing should be standard as well.

    Yeah, they had figured that the Arc Reactors were very necessary for localised repulsor blasts, especially multiple of them in succession. No other power source came close when it came to portability and power output, which is required for the repulsor blasts.

    He had seen the news of the party that Tony had hosted in his house, which led to some sort of altercation. Videos of the showdown between the two Iron Men suits were quickly taken down from the internet but Randall managed to find some of them.

    After going through them, he realised that his help was completely wasted on that man. He would get healed when he would get healed. The fact that Tony let Rhodey get away with his seat meant that he had, once again, given up on being Iron Man, or rather, alive.

    He should know that repeated use of the suit would accelerate the Palladium poisoning and yet, there he was, using the suit as a party trick.

    Fury should close in on him soon enough and with Howard Stark¡¯s notes, Tony should have the new element figured out within a couple of days. That puts the timeline of things into perfect sense.

    According to the movies, Tony had just tested out the newest gen Arc Reactor and then had immediately come to the Stark Expo, in his suit or on a plane, he did not know.

    The Hammer display was set for the first day as well, primetime slot. Apparently, Tony would give his rival every chance to embarrass himself if he paid the dime to do it on live TV.

    Justin Hammer was so going down. Also, if the movies were anything to go by, the facility where Vanko was held should be close to the Expo as Romanoff had reached the facility and disarmed everyone by going in a car.

    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    And yet, he looked for Hammer Industries¡¯ nearby facilities and found nothing of note, just regular old guns and bullets, no drones with no Arc Reactors and Repulsor tech.

    Well, all he could do was wait then.

    After spending some time with the Hulks, he could say, with confidence, that at least Randall was worthy of his trust so he had sent Randall to the Ancient One who took a single look at him and then dismissed him completely. In her words¡­

    ¡°He is a man of science and set in his ways. He won¡¯t be able to join the Masters of the Mystic Arts,¡±

    Alright, fair enough. But his argument about Strange being the same fell short as she told him that Strange had his own destiny, fate itself guiding his movements, so his predisposition to Science! didn¡¯t matter much in that context because he was always going to become the Sorcerer Supreme.

    Well, half of that mambo jumbo went over his head but he understood that Strange was going to become the Sorcerer Supreme because it was destined to happen, and Randall was not. He then asked her if any other Hulk would suffice, because if even a single person on the team could master Portal making, it would be a huge help but she refused even that.

    For reasons only she was privy to.

    That put him back to square one.

    ____xxx____

    After a few days

    His attention was drawn to a small convoy of blacked out SUVs heading straight to the place where the Random Beautiful Agent was, once again, lounging in her PJs.

    ¡°Damn, she is so going to get fired this time,¡± He muttered to himself as he watched a very fuming Nick Fury on his way to the SHIELD safehouse.

    Soon, the entire convoy came to the safehouse but only Fury entered the place where Miss RBA was reading a magazine, a Cosmo from the looks of it. The sheer terror on her face when she nonchalantly looked up and found Nick freaking Fury on her doorstep was a hoot.

    He rolled his eyes as, predictably, her eyes rolled into her head and as she fainted, with her head hitting the table with a nice thunking sound.

    Fury ignored her and looked about the room before looking straight up. He leaned back in his room as even he had a jumpscare with Fury¡¯s one good eye looking straight up at him.

    ¡°What can I do for you, Director Fury?¡± The phone that had been designated for his use slowly rose up in front of him and spoke in an electronic voice.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you try and pull that shit in front of me,¡± Fury snapped as his face morphed into one of confusion, thinking of anything that he could have done to offend Fury. Oh well, the man was a walking talking mass of paranoia and bitterness anyway so¡­

    ¡°YOu would have to be more specific, Fury. I have done a lot of things that could have offended you,¡±

    Fury took a deep breath at that.

    ¡°First you take in Banner. Fine, the man didn¡¯t deserve what was happening to him anyway. Then, you take in the General¡¯s daughter, the sole daughter under your protection. Fine, she is a big girl and can make her own decisions. Then, you had the audacity to let them walk around in public for everyone to see,¡±

    He was amused as Fury kept on rambling as he paced back and forth in the safehouse, unheeding of the fact that he was babbling around probably higher clearance level information in front of someone who was barely a SHIELD agent in terms of clearance levels.

    ¡°Then there¡¯s the seven menaces. The escaped experiments who, by all accounts, have become enhanced enough that they could fold Captain freaking America in half! And you!! You even let them out freely. Do you have any idea how much of an embarrassment that is for the people in the Army?¡±

    ¡°They see all these people walking around, and they fume silently because they are now allowed to do anything. Because-¡±

    ¡°Allowed?¡± He said, not through the phone but through his other method, which was much more efficient when it came to conveying tones through his voice.

    ¡°They are living, breathing people, Fury. And as long as they are under my domain, they will get their full rights, as do every other person who lives in my protection. I will not allow their rights to be trampled over just because some power hungry person sitting in his cozy place in Washington deems it so. You can tell this to whomever it concerns, Bruce Banner, Betty Ross, and all the seven brothers, are under my express protection. Whoever wants to come after them, will have to go through me and we both know how difficult that is, Fury,¡±

    Fury looked like he had sucked a particularly sour lemon at his declaration.

    Honestly, what did the man expect? That he would just roll over and hand all of them over to Fury?

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 53 : PIMP--no, PUMPED!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 53 [September 2010]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°Look, I have had it with Stark, you don¡¯t have to start being a thorn in my side as well. Just give me something so that I can make the vultures get off your back because you must know that I have been keeping people away from this place,¡± Fury pleaded to him, for something to show to his superiors.

    Unfortunately, ¡°Then let them come, Fury. I have nothing to fear, especially with anything that you guys could throw at me. Ross crossed the line when he didn¡¯t stop at just Banner and had the harebrained idea of creating more of his kind. Thank the one above that they came to me and not some mercenary group who could have taken full advantage of their powers.¡±

    Fury¡¯s one eye narrowed as he looked at the phone in front of him, ¡°So what? Am I just supposed to forget their existence? Forget the fact that the most dangerous person on the continent, if not the world, is staying in Manhattan in a quaint little apartment with his lover, going on fun and artsy brunch dates?¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡± Fury reeled back at the simple answer.

    ¡°So you don¡¯t plan on using his power at all, then?¡± Fury probed once more.

    Good lord, what is with this man and his paranoia?

    ¡°Fury, I am going to say this for the last time, I have no need of any of the people under my protection. I am plenty powerful all on my own. Power is the least of the things that I lack,¡±

    ¡°What about the shipments from Mordashov?¡± Fury asked him, out of the blue.

    ¡°Well, what about those?¡±

    ¡°We have kept a close watch on all the shipments that come in and out of the city, along with what the people in the city have been ordering, and Mordashov¡¯s order lists seem a little bit too random to my people so I have another question for you, what are you building in here?¡± Fury leaned way too close to the phone, not realizing that this intimidation tactic was not going to work here. He actually looked way too funny doing that, with his trench coat and everything.

    ¡°You can leave, Miss Agent,¡± He said out loud, drawing a squeak from the now awake agent who scrambled to get out of the safehouse under Fury¡¯s scathing glare. God, she was really fired this time around.

    A shame, he liked her shenanigans.

    ¡°You wanna know what I have been doing here, Fury?¡±

    ¡°It would help me sleep a little better,¡±

    ¡°Fine. An Arc Reactor,¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°An Arc Reactor, Fury. You know, the one that Stark uses to fly around in his death suit, that one.¡±

    He could literally feel Fury¡¯s mind cogs turning furiously as he tried to process this information.

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°That information is not for today, Fury. Now, If you don¡¯t have anything of value to tell me, I¡¯ll be leaving,¡±

    ¡°Wait! So that¡¯s why you have BAnner working for you. You don¡¯t need his muscle, you need his brains. The man¡¯s a genius as well so it works out why you would protect him,¡± Fury said, as if he had an epiphany. All that was left was for him to get naked, go running into traffic, shouting ¡°Eureka! Eureka!¡±

    The poor man couldn''t even fathom someone helping out someone from the goodness of their heart, not that he was doing that but still.

    ¡°And I do have important news for you. POTUS has a single question, as does everyone else in the world. Why New York?¡± Fury asked him and he actually had to think of an answer.

    If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    Sure, he knew the logical one, the truth of it being one Sorcerer Supreme fucked him over so the Vishanti and the ROB came up with some sort of deal that allowed him to reach his destination but in doing so, used the VIshanti¡¯s energy so they imposed some restrictions on his powers for some reason, not that he was complaining in any way, mind you.

    ¡°It was where I got my powers, Fury. The world is a vast place and even I, with all my powers, might find myself on the backfoot if I encountered the true monsters of this world,¡±

    ¡°You know something,¡±

    ¡°Of course, I know things, you fool. I am well on my way to becoming one of those monsters but until that happens, I will put my ass in this city, safe and sound. The helping part is just a side project of mine, allowing me to put my powers to use and train them while I get ready to take my place among the big boys,¡±

    His tirade finished, and he parted the safe house with a single warning to Fury.

    ¡°Make sure that no politician takes a step too much against the city because I can assure you that you would not like that, FUry. I have some ways that can help SHIELD stave off the political pressure but that will take time. I will inform your ambassador when I am ready. Stay safe, Fury. After all, if you left Goose unattended for long, she might just start eating humans for snacks,¡±

    The way Fury¡¯s face looked as if it was set in stone was hilarious. Still though, POTUS huh?

    So even the big wigs were starting to get on Fury¡¯s case about him then. Well, he might have to do something, establish some sort of dialogue without going too deep into anything because if he knew one thing about politicians it was the fact that they were scums of the highest order, ready to take advantage at the slightest sign of weakness, and never to be trusted with anything important of note.

    Well, he might be a little biased but that is what his opinion was and he will be sticking to it.

    It¡¯s been two days since the party incident in Stark Residence, LA. Tony should have been grounded by now and must have gotten access to SHIELD files on Howard Stark¡¯s research documents.

    Hopefully, the birth of the new element is close by. Not that he needed it in particular.

    The one with the Palladium core works fine for the moment.

    Man, the addition of the Arc Reactor has been game changing. Randall requested another floor, exclusively for him to tinker in, and he had to say, if he had allowed Randall to just draw power from the city, half of his experiments would have shut down the grid or not been viable at all.

    Most of all, it was all nontraceable now. They did not have to worry about pesky things like power budgets since they made their own power now. He was particularly excited about the flying car that Randall was trying to make, all with Repulsor technology.

    Once he was successful with that, he would commission a truck with the same tech and make that his mobile base as he travelled around in his search for ways to defend Earth.

    Yeah, he was going to go full on RV mode as he gallivanted across the world in his highly advanced truck, enjoying all the planet has to offer in terms of scenery.

    Who knows? Once Randall is advanced enough in his tech skills, he could make a spaceship with the same specs. Now, THAT would be truly epic.

    ____xxx____

    Just like that, days passed and the Stark Expo was supposed to open in a couple of hours. He had already sensed the shipments of Hammer Drones being put into position. He could also see the dozens of different Vibranium armoured guards as Princess Shuri and Prince T¡¯Challa were waiting in a 5-star hotel nearby.

    Apparently, their security was casing out the whole thing before the expo, to make sure that the probably impromptu visit was not dangerous to the Princess in any form or manner.

    Prince T¡¯Challa, he was sure could handle himself, judging by the abnormality in his body¡¯s, well, everything. His muscles were denser than any human¡¯s he had ever sensed, the same for his bones.

    He was clearly the Black Panther as of now.

    The thought brought him relief because that meant he had one more hero to count on when things went sideways.

    Unfortunately, no sign of Tony himself anyway. Pepper Stark had long since arrived at the Expo and was coordinating everything with everyone to make sure that the event that had not happened in decades would go through successfully.

    Well, she was the CEO of the Company.

    The Hammer Show was well into the evening and it was still noon right now. The Expo had started drawing crowds, heaps of attendees from all around the world, waiting to see the latest cool thing that the tech industry had to offer.

    He could also see Romanoff with Pepper, helping her coordinate with the Expo staff in her capacity as PA.

    She was¡­.attractive, that is all he would say on that topic.

    Seriously, there was no way, no freaking way she was not enhanced in at least some manner because that body and those curves did not look natural at all.

    Welp, time to shift focus before his mind went on a tangent.

    He focused on the entry and exit points of the expo as the 6 hulks had already taken their positions in the nearest Sewer line. Once the Expo started, they would mingle with the crowd, especially since the Expo was open to all.

    There was no charge to enter so no tickets were required.

    The hulks would swoop in once he registered Tony¡¯s armour flying to meet Rhodey.

    Alright! He was PUMPED!

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 54: Filler for the Expo

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 54 [September 2010, Day 1 of the Stark Expo]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Man, what he wouldn¡¯t have given for Frank to be the commander for this operation, preferably with the protection he was looking for, that would help Frank lead a team of super powered bulletproof manchildren.

    ¡°Team 1, all clear,¡±

    ¡°Team 3, all clear,¡±

    ¡°Team 2, all clear,¡±

    The six of them were distributed into three teams each. All of them were in civilian clothing with no armour underneath. He was able to sneak in the armoured parts that any two hulks could wear at any given point in time so that he could use them as over glorified smash balls against the drones that have arrived at the back of the Expo.

    He couldn¡¯t get a complete scan of them from this far away but just by a rudimentary one, he could see multiple weak points where they were normally hidden in Tony Stark¡¯s Iron Man suit.

    The three teams were stationed separately in three different sectors of the Expo. There was the store part of the Expo where companies set up shops to sell their tech, along with a food court for the entire Expo. The second part was where companies showcased their products, needing large flat areas for them to be able to showcase their latest tech.

    Somehow, there were multiple companies he could recognise from the bunch that was displaying their products.

    Oscorp was one that stood out the most to him, so was Pym Industries (soon to be Cross Industries if Hank doesn¡¯t do anything about it), and lastly Rand Enterprises. Huh, he hoped to meet some of the big people associated with these companies but he could not find any sign of a high level delegation from either of the companies.

    They must be here just to maintain a presence then.

    Then came the third section of the Expo, the Stage. Hammer was actually given the primetime stage for the event, he must have shelled out a lot of money for that. That Stage was then modified according to his requirements, that was where the popping up of the drone part must have come from.

    The wrecking ball equipment was stationed exactly in this auditorium. As soon as the first sign of attack on Iron Man appeared, he was going to let loose. He knew that the chances of anything happening elsewhere were quite low but he was not going to risk it.

    He just hoped that Tony did not go out of the auditorium using the glass windows, shards of glass were a pain to deal with, especially at the edge of his range. It just got more and more difficult to multitask the farther he was from the object. For this purpose, he had rented a room at the very edge of Manhattan. It was not good and obviously not worth the price but it is what it is so he adjusted for the sake of the innocent people, to make sure that nobody was hurt in Vanko¡¯s stupid quest for revenge.

    Seriously, how hard was it for him to realise that Anthony Stark was not Howard Stark, who was admittedly a dick in many things he did throughout his life, so it was not that far fetched to think that Howard had Vanko¡¯s father ousted from the project because he did not want a Russian to be working on what was in all but name, a Fusion Nuclear Reactor.

    They did not have the best of reputation at the time and that certainly did not help his case. As a result, Anton Vanko rotted away in Soviet Russia and Ivan Vanko grew up with a deep seated pathological hatred for the name Stark. Since Tony was dead, he set his sights on the man who piloted a walking armour of a tank.

    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ¡°Randall? How are things looking on your end? Is Bruce¡¯s help required?¡± He asked Randall who was busy hacking into the Hamer Industries records to see if they could find anything helpful.

    Randall had done it a dozen times beforehand as well but there were no records about the drones or anything of that regard, anywhere in the manifesto. It must be kept all off the books to help Hammer maintain plausible deniability later on.

    So, now that there was an official trail to the factory through which the Drones came from, Randall was trying to see if everything could be traced back to Vanko and if his systems could be hacked or not, nullifying the need for the Hulks to take action in the first place. Though killing Vanko while he was unarmed would be akin to cold blooded murder, he had long since resolved himself that one day, he would have to kill someone and for the greater good, he would have to take that burden upon himself. It would be better than killing him after he had threatened hundreds of innocent people and blown up prime real estate in New York.

    The property damages alone would have cost Vanko a life sentence in prison, before he was inevitably broken out of the prison by parties interested in the Arc Reactor, renewing the cycle of revenge that would only be broken once Vanko was dead.

    ¡°Um, I don''t know? Look he is doing something, that¡¯s for sure but unless the link to the drones comes online, I can¡¯t do anything without actual physical access to the servers. I could try and bomb the servers but we don¡¯t know if the drones have some sort of limited autopilot or not, that could turn out to be more dangerous,¡± Randall warned him.

    Yeah, that would definitely be more dangerous because, in the original setting, the drones targeted one thing and one thing only.

    Iron Man.

    They didn¡¯t see the civilians, law enforcements, or anything else. The entire target of the algorithm that had taken over everything was Iron Man, so while it did make things difficult for Stark, he was in a suit of advanced armour so he was fine. The civilians, on the other hand, would die if they took on even a mid sized blast of Repulsor Arrays.

    So, making sure that if they were unable to disable them from afar, then at least making sure that their target is a highly advanced, protective shell around a man would be a good priority.

    ____xxx___

    ¡°I still think we should have taken a venue closer to Manhattan,¡± Pepper Potts, the CEO of Stark Industries voiced out her thoughts to her newest, and so far, very capable PA, Natalie Rushman.

    ¡°And displayed what? A few stalls? Because that is all the space we could get. Don¡¯t worry, I have heard that the Invisible Man acts in a limited capacity in this area as well so law and order should not be a worry plus, when I mentioned the Invisible Man to the NYPD, it was as if it lit a fire under them. You can see the results of that statement over the Expo,¡± Natalie told her.

    ¡°Yeah, I can see the police but you do realise that Tony has enemies that cannot be handled by the police. And he was already feeling sick and after the party, *sigh*¡± Pepper sighed as she remembered the string of controversies Tony had found himself in, lately. He even forgot to sign on important documents that were necessary for the Expo to run in the first place. She had to forge his sign, as she had done many times in the past but this was the limit of what she was going to tolerate.

    Once the Expo was wrapped up, Pepper Potts was going to tender in her resignation as CEO of Stark Industries. She loved Tony but being around him was stressing her way too much. She even started finding grey hair, for Pete¡¯s sake.

    Her worries stemmed from the attack on Tony last month. If she was closer to the Invisible Man¡¯s territory, she would feel much safer considering that whoever it was, they made sure that their area remained void of crimes, no matter how large or small.

    She was sure even the Vanko guy from before would find it tough to do even a single thing before the Invisible Man had him in his, well, Invisible grip.

    ¡°Any update on what Hammer is going to showcase today?¡± She found herself asking Natalie, just to pass the time because her anxiety was not helping things today. This was the single largest event that she had coordinated in all of her career in Stark Industries.

    Everything has to go perfectly.

    ¡°Something about Robot drones, though, judging by the previously leaked footage, it is probably nothing noteworthy,¡± Natalie tried to reassure her and she was probably right and yet, she could not help but shake the feeling that something was wrong.

    ¡°Natalie, I want you to go with Happy and check the security of the plaza. Make sure that nothing is amiss. I don¡¯t want Hammer crying later on,¡± Pepper ordered her before she started taking her calls.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 55 : Here they come~~~!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 55 [September 2010, Day 1 of the Stark Expo]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°Here they come,¡± He muttered to himself as he got comfortable in his cheap mattress, seeing the entire crowd enter the Expo like rabid fans. The audience was varied as well, from old tech nerds to high school students on a school trip, to children accompanied by their parents for a night out.

    The Expo¡¯s audience had it all and he for one, could not find Ben Parker. He knew the man¡¯s face and was actually concerned if this was the day that Ben Parker was killed or injured in action but so far, no sign of Ben Parker or someone who was wearing an Iron Man helmet. Though, it would make sense for the kid wearing the Iron Man helmet to be Peter Parker, given his whole nerdiness.

    Romanoff had split off from Pepper Potts to go check in on the whole security around the Expo with Happy Hogan, and unfortunately, she had almost stumbled upon the Hulks who were doing a very poor job of mixing in. He would have warned them about her but it was not their fault they could not escape the eyes of someone who was trained since she was but a child to spot and identify suspicious people, and Randall and Co. were certainly not blending in as much as they could.

    They were neither in a group nor looking at any of the tech with interest. They were not journalists or reporters, they were not security¡­.though-yes, he can spin it like that.

    Oh, perfect timing, he thought to himself as Romanoff, after informing Happy about something, started sauntering her way straight to the Hulks in the auditorium section of the Expo. He winced as he realised they were the weakest link of the Hulks, what with the runt of the litter along with Randall, who was the most boisterous of the six, being there.

    He intervened before things could escalate. He had to, otherwise these fools would end up exposing themselves even before any attack could occur. The attack might even be blamed on their heads, one could never be certain as to what lengths of stupidity people in power could go to cover their own asses.

    Romanoff¡¯s confident expression faltered as she felt something holding her back. Not something like a hand but as if some unseen force had engulfed her entire body and was gently applying pressure on her body to stop her from moving, or at least discourage her from going in the same direction she was going before.

    She raised an eyebrow as he gently redirected her away from the Hulks and into the backstage area of one of the empty booths. He looked at the booths and deadpanned as he realised that the booth was about the clean water efforts by Stark Industries in Africa and similarly low income countries.

    Seriously, people have no value in all the things Tony does for the unprivileged people. And if this is the kind of footfall his efforts get, he could understand why it was sidelined and only the military and the cool stuff was shown on the big Stage.

    ¡°Invisible Man, I presume?¡± Romanoff coolly said as he let his hold over her go and tried to flood the area with his presence, as he normally did whenever he wanted to have an actual conversation with someone. It felt better that way. But, he failed this time. The distance was too much and he also needed to keep an eye on the entire range of the expo to make sure that nothing untoward happened to any of them.

    This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    So far, he had already broken the fingers of 3 molesters and broke hands of 4 people who tried to take off with kids who were not their own. Damn, people really do the vilest of things if they think they don¡¯t have company.

    ¡°Yes, Agent Romanoff. I would appreciate it if you wouldn''t investigate the particular two individuals you had tagged earlier. At Least not until after the Expo is over,¡± He said, hoping she would listen but knowing that it would be a fool¡¯s errand to think so. Romanoff was a spy. Information was her bread and butter. There was literally no way she would let this go without extracting as much information as possible from him.

    ¡°Oh, are they your men? Teammates, perhaps? Our reports suggested that you only work solo but it''s nice to see that you even pay attention to a huge security risk like this,¡± Romanoff said as she continued to look around the area.

    ¡°No one is here, I already checked. And yes, they are¡­hired help, you could say. As I am sure your reports corroborate, I can only act in a certain range with impunity, which is to say Manhattan and its surrounding areas. Once I get out of that range, it becomes harder and harder for me to exert the same amount of force. Hence, the hired help. They will make sure that, in case of any incident, all the attendees are safe and sound, all for the cost of you not spooking them,¡±

    ¡°So, they are the people that escaped from Ross, then?¡±

    He sighed and shoved another mouthful of Chinese takeout into his mouth. What? It was stressful, trying to coordinate things for an attack you knew was coming but could do nothing about.

    ¡°Yes, the seven brothers, through no fault of their own, aside from being just a tad bit too trusting of unknown people, found themselves voluntarily entering the illegal experiments that Ross was running. Luckily, they found themselves enhanced but not so much as the Big Guy. They also look the same on the outside, so I thought, why not employ them,¡±

    ¡°So you are running a crew then? What for?¡±

    ¡°Romanoff, I would love to give you the full rundown of what I do for my entire day but I have work to do, and so do you. If I am not wrong, your current boss, aside from Fury, is looking for you. Just ignore 4 more suspicious guys you might find and we¡¯ll be good. I¡¯ll be sure to hand over a report to whoever is the SHIELD liaison this time,¡±

    Romanoff nodded at thin air, schooled her expression, and left to find Pepper Potts.

    He was sure this was not the last he was going to be seeing of her but the woman was razor focused on extracting all the information she could from the conversation and it was certainly exhausting trying to talk to people like that.

    ¡°Boss, the show¡¯s about to start,¡±

    ¡°Yeah yeah, I know,¡± He said to Randall as he sensed the massive amount of crowd gathering in the middle of the auditorium. He made sure that the armoured pieces were ready and accessible by bringing them in, just under the stage where Hammer was keeping his armed drones.

    He could sense Rhodey in the War Machine suit as well and he had to say, even from a distance, it was awesome!

    Hammer was yapping in the background and he could see the sheer exhaustion on Rhodey¡¯s face as he realised that he would have to, presumably, deal with this idiot for far longer than necessary.

    Slowly, the crowd filtered into the auditorium after the myriad announcements made by Hammer, just for the event.

    Rhodey couldn''t look happier as he was literally told to go stand in with a bunch of zombie drones underneath a stage with pitch black darkness inside.

    Damn, Hammer really was the most annoying CEO in the weapons space, even if one counted pre-Afghanistan Tony Stark.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 56 : Hulks Strong Together!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 56 [September 2010, Day 1 of the Stark Expo]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Axle Riddle watched as Justin Hammer, Yapper of the Yapperston University, continued to Yap on and on about the current unfair situation of Tony Stark just hoarding all of Tony Stark¡¯s tech, and not giving it to the military or better yet, to leeches like Justin Hammer who can use it to wage even better warfare.

    He was not kidding when he said that the mood between the members of the audience could not have been lower. It was not like Justin was standing in a military fair, in front of decorated generals or members of the government. No, he was standing in front of an auditorium filled with regular people, students, who had taken time out of their evenings to watch¡­.this.

    Understandably, the mood was rather down. Thankfully, Justin seemed to realise that the longer he kept his mouth open, the bigger the hole he was digging for himself, so he just shut up and began doing his whole show about the drones popping out of the stage, with Rhodey leading them as the War Machine.

    Seriously, it might be called a War Machine but unless Tony himself supplies his top tier weapons, he doubted there was much difference in combat levels between the normal suit sans the weapons and the suit with all the Hammer weapons in the world attached to it.

    ¡°Army!¡±

    ¡°Navy!¡±

    ¡°Air Force!¡±

    While Hammer continued to yap, his mind was working overtime as he tried to look for something that would indicate someone who should not be here. Because he could not discount the possibility of HYDRA knowing about Vanko and then coming here to make sure that they could get the spoils. Although, if HYDRA really wanted something, they could have just coaxed old Justin over there to send over a sample of every drone to them, ahead of time.

    However, competence should not always be expected, even from thousand year old Behemoths.

    Aha! He finally got here.

    ¡°All units, Tony Stark has just entered my range. He should be visible right¡­about¡­now,¡± He said to all the Hulks as well as Randall who was monitoring everything. He spied Romanoff¡¯s form along with Happy Hogan leaving the Expo for some reason. So, Romanoff had something then.

    ¡°Randall, follow Romanoff and Happy Hogan and see if you can do something to help them. They must be going after Vanko,¡±

    ¡°Roger that! Oh! I always wanted to say that in real life!¡± Randall''s voice cut over as he kept a close watch on Tony. He could see that the suit was completely new, devoid of any defects or even repair work.

    So, Tony should be relatively safe in that big hunk of iron. Tony¡¯s face, inside the suit, was one of determination, with none of the sickly purple lines showing on his body anywhere. He smiled as it seemed as if, no matter the timeline Tony was in, he would pull through.

    Tony Stark had officially created Vibranium, or at least some variant of it that was more useful in energy transmission rather than kinetic energy absorption.

    He could feel Justin, as well as Rhodey, tensing as the entire audience silenced down, hearing the whine of Tony¡¯s repulsor. However, that same silence turned into deafening cheers as Tony Stark¡¯s Iron Man landed on the stage in his signature style.

    Tony¡¯s faceplate opened up as he put his arm around Rhodey¡¯s shoulder, waving at the audience while telling RHodey something, probably about the fact that Vanko was still alive and Hammer was keeping him hidden somewhere.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    He was more busy with making sure that the pieces were in place. Samuel and Tim were the ones who were chosen to become the flying pieces of grinders who would take apart those drones.

    Both of them were standing right in front of the stadium, looking fearlessly at the arrayed drones, with their pieces of armour just waiting to pop from underneath the stadium. Both of them were tense, waiting for the other shoe to drop, as were the other 4 Hulks who were stationed in the other areas, waiting to evacuate the other people.

    This would be it. After today, these guys would be public heroes, since, in their own words, they didn¡¯t want to remain hidden. Most of them loved the attention and since being in Manhattan meant that there was no real danger to them, they would love to become the so-called heroes of Manhattan.

    ¡­..

    ¡­

    ¡°Go!¡± As soon as he felt Rhodey shouting at Tony and the other drones activating on their own, he just sent the pieces of armour at Samuel and Tim. Both of them remembered their training and jumped forward in a swimming diving pose, the pieces of armour interposing around them, forming a literal clone over their head, made from the strongest titanium alloy mixture that Bruce and Randall could find.

    The screams began a second later as Tony blasted his way through the glass auditorium, with the War Machine hot in his tail. Thankfully, he was able to strain his powers long enough for the glass shards to be collected in a small ball before throwing it down into the center.

    ¡°Evacuate Everyone!¡± He made sure to make it heard over the comms as he saw Samuel and Tim just blasting through two rows of Army Drones, scrapping them completely, before the rest of the drones began taking cognizance of them.

    He could feel Tony and Rhodey blasting through the skies, with Rhodey¡¯s weaponry constantly taking shots at Iron Man while Tony tried his best to take the drones away from the people.

    ¡°Randall, patch to Tony and tell him about our people there. Also, tell him that he will have backup soon,¡± He ordered Randall who immediately began typing furiously on his custom made keyboard.

    So far, Samuel and Tim had seen the lion¡¯s share of action as the other Hulks were busy getting people away from the center of action. Most of them had resorted to shredding through the expo panels to make way for more people to get out of the danger zone.

    Meanwhile, the drones, or rather Vanko had finally taken note of Samuel and Tim and were focusing the firepower of the drones on them, with most of the air force drones creating a circle around the area and constantly peppering the area with repulsor blasts.

    Samuel and Tim were both doing okay, what with the repulsor arrays only stinging a bit, as opposed to punching a hole through them. Once all the army drones were taken care of, he lifted Samuel and just¡­rammed him through one of the Air Force drones.

    Being made of lighter stuff for more maneuverability, the drone folded in pieces as Samuel just tackled it out of the sky. The next moment, Tim did the same.

    Just like that, half of the total drones that Hammer had brought were scrapped right in the auditorium itself, never having the chance to get out and hurt people.

    He sighed in relief as he felt most of the people getting out of the Expo and into the parking lot where the emergency services had just arrived and began setting everything up.

    Not to be outshone by their siblings, the other 4 hulks arrived on the scene as well and well, lacking any means to be airborne, simply began lifting stuff and throwing them at the drones. The drones too, the ones who were not after Tony, began firing at them.

    He almost laughed out loud when he saw them throwing Leny at one of the drones, what with Leny being the scrawniest of the bunch. Leny missed but with the drone¡¯s attention firmly on the falling form of Leny, it missed the literal pole that skewered the drone through the chest as the hulks made sure to capitalise on the opportunity provided to them.

    He could see the drone horde closing in on Tony but it was very thin this time, allowing him to outmanoeuvre them very easily. The War Machine though, was hot in his tail, the advanced repulsors with better maneuverability meant that Rhodey was keeping up with Tony, even with the advanced reactor that Tony had this time.

    He switched tactics and tried to see if the components of the drones were as cheap as he thought they were.

    He focused on the foot repulsors and after some fidgeting around, he grinned as just unplugging some wires, he was able to make the repulsor fizzle out, unbalancing the whole drone, leading him away from Tony. He then started pulling wires from all the repulsor arrays from all the drones, creating a completely hilarious situation where the drones kept facing Tony but their repulsors kept flickering in and out, drawing them further down, or away from Tony.

    He grinned as the drones never saw Leny, Samuel, and the others coming as the Hulks, combined made very short work of the remaining drones.

    ¡°Good work, team. Now rendezvous at Tony''s location, the Big One is coming,¡± Randall said into the comms before the Hulks began heading to the clearing Tony and Rhodey were talking in.

    It would seem that Romanoff had finally infiltrated the facility and rebooted everything.

    Good.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 57 : Tony : STRONGMAN!!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 57 [September 2010, Day 1 of the Stark Expo]

    ¨CTony Stark¨C

    Well, today was certainly not going, according to expectations.

    Normally, that would be a bad thing, what with his penchant for extreme SCIENCE! adventures, but today it actually turned out to be a good thing.

    Today has actually been good for many reasons. He finally figured out how to create the new element that his father had designed all these years ago, only being unable to create it due to the limitations of the technology at the time.

    Hell, even he was limited to the technology of his time, the only difference was that he lived in a much more connected world than his old Pops did, so he was able to source all the parts and use the combined knowledge of the world¡¯s geniuses, to make the makeshift particle accelerator, however stupid it might have been to make on in one¡¯s basement, and create the new element for his Arc Reactor.

    He named it Starkium, after his father. Ah, him and his atrocious naming scheme.

    Oh well, he thought to himself as he dogged yet another round of lethal repulsor volleys before turning hard right, grinning to himself as he further thinned the hoard that was after him because Hammer was too cheap to install advanced turning compensation mechanisms in his suits.

    Well, what could one expect from a copycat anyway?

    ¡°Six bogies remaining, sir.¡± Jarvis helpfully reminded him even as he watched the red dots on his HUD disappear one by one. Jarvis, without any prompting, opened up a feed from one of the many cameras nearby, and the visuals he was seeing left him stunned for a moment.

    If he was not wrong, he was seeing a bunch of humans, though judging by their sheer strength, they were anything but regular humans, just throw one of them at the drones. The even more strange thing was that the person would find themselves airborne and then land in the dit without a scratch, all the while the drones were being skewered lift, right, and centre by anything the people could throw at the drones.

    Poles, Chairs, Rocks, and even some experimental showings from some companies that had come to the Stark Expo for exposure. The items themselves were certainly not lethal to metal drones by any stretch of the imagination. What was lethal was the speed and strength at which the group was throwing the objects, as well as each other.

    ¡°Jarvis?¡± He yelled as one of Rhodey¡¯s repulsor blasts came way too close for comfort. While the Hammer Bots had quantity when it came to repulsor blast quality, the suit Rhodey was wearing was made by him and such, was top notch when it came to quality. While the Arc Reactor itself was the last gen, the power output was not the issue when it came to the last gen, it slowly killing him was.

    ¡°Only 2 remaining bogies, sir. Colonel Rhodes¡¯ suit is being scrambled by outside code.¡± Jarvis helpfully reminded him, even though he was stating the obvious.

    He grinned as he had an idea, ¡°Jarvis, point me to the strongmen,¡± Yeah, he was going to be calling them the strongmen since they were strong.

    ¡°Any luck in scrambling the signal, Jarvis?¡± ¡°No, sir,¡±

    Yeah, he thought so. So, he just turned a hard left and then a hard right, and so on and so forth, until the drone itself was somehow malfunctioning, with its repulsor arrays flickering in and out of the stable stasis field that was required for the muons to safely generate thrust. He grinned and just clipped the drone, shoving it straight into the direction of the strongmen who took great joy in viciously tearing apart the drone with their bare hands, the stings from the repulsors apparently not even drawing blood from their skins.

    Well, that was scary.

    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ¡°Tony TONY! I am back in control.¡± He sighed in relief as Rhodey finally got the armour in control. They then landed in a small clearing around the Expo.

    ¡°Thank god,¡± Rhodey said as the faceplate of his armour opened up.

    ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t think it was God who rebooted your Armour, Rhodey. We have a Miss Rushman to thank for that,¡± He said even as Jarvis relayed the details to Rhodey¡¯s HUD as well.

    ¡°Stark, you have an incoming bogie, and be careful, the energy signature on this one is incomparable to the drones before,¡± Romanoff¡¯s voice sounded in both his and Rhodey¡¯s suits as their respective faceplates slid over their faces.

    Both of them stood with their backs to each other as the bigger energy signature came closer and closer. Both of them looked up at the sound of something big coming through the air, seeing a huge black behemoth of a suit dropping down in front of them.

    His face scrunched in distaste by instinct as he examined the monstrosity of a suit in front of him. It was easily over 9 feet tall and was completely grey and black, with two-no three Arc Reactors embedded inside the suit for some reason. It was not as if he had some energy intensive application that required¨C

    CRACK! SIZZLE!

    Oh. Ooooh.

    His face turned grim as he watched a veritable storm of energy gather around Vanko¡¯s suit as multiple whips came out of the suit. So, that was why he was packing so many Arc Reactors.

    ¡°DUCK!¡± Rhodey said even though he was the first one who moved out of the way, as two whips came blasting down on the ground he was standing on, leaving nothing but a gaping hole with molten sand around it, due to the sheer heat generated by the whips.

    ¡°Jarvis!¡±

    ¡°Getting into direct contact with the whips is inadvisable, sir,¡± Jarvis, oh so unhelpfully reminded him. The HUD Showed energy readings far beyond the pale, somehow the whips could generate enough energy to overwhelm the suit¡¯s energy dissipation capabilities, so if even one of them touched him, it could shear the suit in half, and him in the process.

    ¡°Argh!¡± He grunted in pain as the tail end of one of the whips caught one of his legs, melting through the repulsor arrays, creating a small localized blast of energy that shrugged off the whip but also sent him careening straight into the mud.

    He propped himself back up, only to see Rhodey trying to unload every single one of his payloads into Hammer but from a distance.

    ¡°Jarvis!¡± He said as he peppered Hammer¡¯s suit from behind with his repulsors, only for the third whip to begin rotating around his back as if it was some sort of energy shield and it was actually working.

    Holy SHIT! Hammer actually worked out the concept of an energy shield. Damn, if only he wasn¡¯t a villain vying for his bloodline, he would have made Stark Industries a boatload of money.

    ¡°No viable weak spots detected, sir,¡± Jarvis¡¯ analysis meant that they couldn¡¯t do much but flee.

    ¡°Rhodey! Leave!¡± He shouted over the comms and Rhodey¡¯s suit immediately began backpedalling but the whip, the damn whips came too close and sheared off part of his chest piece, along with the Arc Reactor.

    ¡°RHODEY!¡± He shouted as he blasted towards Rhodey and picked up his prone form. Jarvis¡¯ sensors indicated he was having third degree burns on his chest and a broken rib or two due to the impact but nothing life threatening as long as medical attention was given to him in a few hours.

    He slowly dropped him down a distance away before turning to face Vanko, with fury in his eyes.

    ¡°Jarvis, reroute all power to the Chest piece,¡±

    ¡°...Affirmative,¡±

    He looked on his HUD as the power levels began climbing, charging the chest piece which would then unleash a single devastating beam of repulsor blast, capable of cutting through steel like paper.

    The UniBeam was only charged halfway through when, with a roar, multiple beings came barreling through the forest clearing around them, seemingly throwing themselves on top of Vanko.

    Vanko, clearly caught off guard, struggled to deal with the small people who were just shoving his gigantic suit around.

    He recognised those as the strongmen. It was about damn time.

    The UniBeam continued to charge as his eyes spied on the reddening skin and burn marks on some of the strongmen. Yeah, this was hurting them as well, the whips clearly being on another level than the repulsors.

    Seeing the UniBeam almost charged, he shouted, ¡°Hold him STILL!¡±

    They clearly heard him as all six of them, at the same time, charged and held on to his whips and pulled.

    Vanko struggled but the strongmen held on, even as their fists sizzled by the temperatures.

    With a loud whining sound, he braced for impact as his feet drove into the ground, the UniBeam tore through the air and then slammed straight into the chest piece of Vanko¡¯s suit, punching through it like it was paper.

    The beam fizzled out after a moment as the suit unfurled around him, the Arc Reactor dropping down to dangerous levels. His eyes unfocused, he managed to point at the injured Rhodey before falling down on his face, darkness claiming his vision.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 58 : A Strategists wet dream - A flying private base

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 58 [September 2010, Day 1 of the Stark Expo]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Well, that was something alright.

    Due to the UniBeam being pure energy manifested from the Arc Reactor, in quite a dangerous way, if Randall¡¯s words were to be believed, he could not really ¡°see¡± it as he did with his spatial awareness but this time it was different. While he could not detect pure energy by his extra senses, he did manage to sense the effect of the beam on the surroundings.

    While he was still way off from sensing ¡°space¡± or rather, space that was not being affected by Magical portals, he was able to figure out the effects of an energy beam punching through the very air and then through the very thick plates of armoured steel as well.

    ¡°Randall, tell me the bombs are gone?¡± He said to Randall, tensely awaiting the answer as he prepared to try and move all the mechs in a single location, though that was mostly done by the Hulks because they were all actually gathered in a single location and the drones naturally homed in on their location, with them being the primary threats to the drones, even before Tony.

    ¡°...Just a second aand, DONE! All Arc bombs have been deactivated,¡± Randall¡¯s voice made him slump down in the cheap chair that the hotel owner was providing to the guests here.

    ¡°Alright team, gather the scraps, and make sure to get out of there as planned,¡± He ordered them to take as much as they could and escape that place.

    ¡°Take Tony obviously,¡± He ordered Leny, the weakest of the bunch but also the fastest of the bunch, to take Tony. Leny then hilariously began pulling the Iron Man suit by its legs as he slung Tony over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and after sharing a nod with Randall, headed out towards the emergency area.

    Meanwhile, he examined Rhodey¡¯s injuries and winced upon seeing the blood pooling in this suit. With no way to remove it altogether, he simply lifted the armour and made it follow Leny who was now jumping with the suit, and Tony.

    He could not simply hand over Rhodey and the War Machine armour to any Tom, Dick, and Harry. It would have to be either Romanoff or Pepper Potts because there were probably more people wanting this suit of armour than there were screws in the whole thing.

    The suit of armour was making it really hard for him to do anything meaningful to tend to Rhodey¡¯s injuries but the distance itself meant that aside from artificially stopping the bleeding and making sure that he was in an ideal breathing position, there wasn¡¯t much he could do.

    The Arc Reactor housing was damaged badly and as such, there was no energy in the suit so Jarvis could not be contacted to help open up the suit. Looks like they would have to cut through it.

    Or..

    ¡°Randall, can you communicate with Jarvis?¡±

    ¡°What? Stark¡¯s AI? Yeah, what do you want me to tell him?¡±

    ¡°Ask him for a way to open up Rhodey¡¯s suit without any power from the Arc Reactor because his injuries are worsening. We need to open up the suit so that emergency services can actually help him,¡±

    ¡°Doing that right now. Still, it is kind of risky to let an AI know that we exist at all, let alone establishing a direct communication corridor with him,¡±

    He waited a few moments as the huge parking lot where all the emergency service workers were pooled up came into view. Most of the attendees had been evacuated from the Expo by shuttle buses arranged by the company. He scanned the entire expo and was relieved to see that nobody was left behind in the Expo. No child, pet, or man, was there.

    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    This meant that it was the prime opportunity to steal Arc Reactors, even if they were of questionable quality.

    ¡°Yeah, Jarvis says there should be an emergency release mechanism inside the armoured hip joint,¡±

    No sooner did he hear those words, than he ripped apart the hip armour, rolling his eyes at the stupidity of installing a release valve under a thick plate of steel but that was most likely Hammer¡¯s genius shining through instead of faulty design on Tony¡¯s and Jarvis¡¯ part.

    He could see Pepper Potts and Romanoff rushing towards Leny as they saw Tony completely out of it.

    They also gasped upon seeing Rhodey and the deep gash on his chest. The EMT came rushing in as he gently deposited Rhodey on the gurney.

    After handing over Tony to Potts and leaving the Iron Man and the War machine suits at their feet, Leny jumped back and disappeared into the woods. Or more accurately, into the line of sewers that criss crossed the underneath of the expo land, joining his brothers.

    They were still not out of the clear yet. No doubt Ross and co, or HYDRA had already noticed the escaped experimental subjects and were already on their way to ¡°apprehend¡± them based on some BS law.

    The good news was that the closer they were to him, the better he could help them.

    ¡°Oh, there they are,¡± He muttered to himself as he watched armed members with no uniforms somehow pinpoint the direction of the Hulks and chase them in that direction. Well, no doubt they could tag and trace the energy signature of Leny and the others but couldn¡¯t do much until they were out of Manhattan.

    Now that they were here, it was just like tangling a juicy bait in front of a hungry dog. The Dog couldn¡¯t help it and had to leap towards the bait. He nudged Romanoff who was coordinating efforts to secure all the armour, back in the Expo and informed her about the incoming tail on the Hulks and how he expected SHIELD to handle it.

    ¡°In exchange, I will reveal some critical information to Fury,¡± He promised her, not yet deciding on the information that will be revealed to Fury but that can be decided later on.

    Right now, it was more fun to watch the cars and the assailants faltering as he made sure that sharp objects were wedged into the tires and the steering were turned in the wrong direction, or brakes were applied, or the transmission was jammed.

    Tony was now awake and discussing something with Pepper while Stark Industries employs collected the Iron Man armour as well as the War machine armour. Rhodey was being carted to the nearest hospital, thankfully, his breathing has returned to normal.

    Most of the debris from the drones had been collected but some of it was left, which would no doubt be collected by the alphabet soup companies in the next few hours or so.

    The assailants were now in a pretty sad shape as their cars continued to betray them, with sharp things hitting their windshields, entering their cars, and mildly injuring them as well.

    The tag game went on for a minute before the Hulks came close enough to Manhattan that he just lifted them out of the sewers through a manhole cover and then catapulted them straight into Manhattan. Far from the scary mess they were the first time he did this, they whooped and hollered as they entered his domain and were thus safe.

    The assailants, probably realising that, stopped their attempts and tried to turn around. Tried being the keyword as he had just busted all their tires and loosened all the screws he could, leaving them stranded in what could only be called a shell of a car.

    ¡°Randall? How soon can we get the prototypes working?¡± He asked Randall who had proposed to him a remote base of operations. A huge rectangular ship, kept afloat by Repulsors and Arc Rectors so that it doesn¡¯t have to come down for months at a time.

    Once he was free, something like that would be immensely helpful. Randall and Bruce could have cracked the Repulsors given time but a working sample would reduce the time required to bring it to production.

    If it was ready before the Invasion, they might just have their very own weapons platform for the Chitauri Invasion.

    If the invasion was going to happen anyway, he might just let it happen for far longer than it did during canon, to really drive it home. The impact of an actual alien invasion in the heart of the most powerful country on the planet.

    With him around, no civilian casualties would be recorded but even if the world could see the material devastation that the aliens could bring about, perhaps that would spur the moment of global cooperation to present a united front for the things that awaited them in the deep darkness of space.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 59 : OH SNAP!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 59 [September 2010, Day 1 of the Stark Expo]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Well, this was quick, he thought to himself as he watched Nick Fury, along with Natasha Romanoff arrive straight into Manhattan in a helicopter. Fury¡¯s trust in him had certainly reached new heights if he was so confident in coming here, in his domain where he was the undisputed power holder, without much backup.

    Thinking from Fury¡¯s perspective though, it must be incredibly frustrating to be in that situation but in Axle¡¯s perspective, it was incredibly amusing to watch Fury, and to an extent, other higher authorities, bend themselves in front of him because they simply didn¡¯t know enough about him.

    And that was one of the main reasons he was never going to reveal himself to the world. The world would never, if he could help it anyway, see him personally leaping into action. He believed that his powers would be more than enough and if they weren¡¯t, it¡¯s not like his physical prowess is anything to be awed about.

    Sure, he could bend steel and jump higher than multiple-story buildings in a single leap, but that didn¡¯t mean that he had the sheer versatility that he did with his Telekinesis, especially when combined with his spatial awareness.

    He still took regular hand-to-hand combat classes with Frank though and he was sure that Frank had caught on by now, to the fact that he never sweated, was never tried, never had to take a break, or caught off guard by anything that Frank or the other students did, Frank had yet to say anything about it.

    He could see that Frank was giving him a noticeably tougher time than the others, especially in the spars because he outclassed everyone in his class a long time ago. Yet, he never really did anything about it, and that kinda made him respect Frank more.

    The ability to not give a fuck and mine one¡¯s own business is a trait that is very rare in the marvel universe which is filled with goody two shoes who would not hesitate before putting their nose where it does not belong.

    Well, he was one to say, he was the biggest peeper the planet had ever seen, aside from the Watcher but he operated on a cosmic, nay, multiversal scale so that utter hack didn¡¯t count.

    ¡°I heard that!¡± He could almost hear the whispers in the smooth suave voice of the Watcher, but that couldn¡¯t be right, he was sworn to non interference, right?

    Anyway, he, once again made sure to flood his presence in the designated SHIELD safehouse where the Random Beautiful Agent was still snoring away, it was still 7 in the morning so he could excuse her for that.

    Now, Axle Riddle, the helpful senior executive whose role no one in the office knows about, would have excused that. The Green Guardian, he might have excused that but Nick Fury?

    Nick, the one eyed spymaster of Earth, Fury? Well, he was about to see what would happen then in real time as he maintained a curtain of silence around the Random Beautiful Agent, helping her sleep better.

    Jeez, these people are making her sleep in the same safe house, day in and out with all that she could ever need, delivered straight to her door, plus a handsome salary to boot. Damn, this was a bed-rotter¡¯s wet dream. Not to mention all the benefits she must be getting, being an employee of a technically extra government but still coming under the government for all intents and purposes.

    Fury and Romanoff were joined by another squad of armed SHIELD agents who then began escorting them straight to the safe house. The poor girl was about to get the attack of a lifetime. He didn''t know if she was informed beforehand about the visit and simply overslept or was unaware of the visit entirely. He bet on the second option, mainly because Fury was a paranoid fuck.

    He was also keeping a close eye on the news cycle as well. The Stark Expo was shut down, clearly. After all the damage that had been done to the physical Expo as well as to the brand now that it was revealed that an active terrorist attack happened on US soil, the Expo was bound to go down in flames.

    The good news was Justin Hammer and Hammer Industries as a whole were officially things of the past now. The clear cut proof Hammer Industries Drones attacking and terrorizing the Expo were circulating on the web anyway but the final clincher was the evidence that was released about Hammer helping Vanko escape from Jail and then having him work to create the Arc Reactor technology.

    Another lawsuit that Stark Industries had slapped on Hammer Industries, Justin Hammer himself as well, further hammering down the nail that was the bankruptcy of Hammer Industries. No matter what anyone says, Pepper Potts was a vicious woman when it came to business.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    His neck snapped to the side as he sensed Bruce writing something on the pad that had been designated for him.

    Before he could respond, however, his eyes widened as he almost choked on his breath, reading the message that Bruce had written with clearly shaky hands on the pad.

    ¡°Betty is gamma irradiated¡±

    Shit!

    He immediately flooded his presence into their apartment, foregoing his usual privacy concerns, and immediately scanned Betty down to the smallest level he could. He could not find anything immediately concerning but if Bruce was saying something, it must be true. Bruce would not joke about this, no matter what.

    ¡°Did it happen because¡­.?¡± He asked on, trailing at the end because he realised the nature of his question. Yeah, all the sex they must be having could have resulted in this but they should have used protection every time. Both of them were scientists for God''s sakes and as far as he could tell, none of them wanted children, especially at a time when their own safety was contingent on someone else vouching for them.

    Bruce nodded with a haunted look on his face, ¡°Yes, it is because of me. Something must have happened but I have triple checked everything. The amount of Gamma Radiation coming off of her is more than the necessary amount for it to be fatal. And it is only growing, at alarming speeds,¡±

    His breath hitched back in his apartment, ¡°Do you mean,  she is pregnant?¡±

    Bruce nodded as tears began streaming down his eyes, and the man slumped down in the chair, defeated. He scanned Betty once again and realised that yes, there was a clump of cells, very small right now but judging by Bruce¡¯s words, it would only grow rapidly.

    He didn¡¯t know what to say in this type of situation, especially if the motive was to comfort someone. He didn''t know anyone who could either. All he could do was..

    ¡°Bruce! What are you waiting for then? You fool, we have to make sure she is safe and sound. Tell me what do you need, scratch that, I will consult with the doctors nearby and if they can¡¯t do anything, we can always call in doctors from all corners of the world,¡± He said with his air pressure generated voice before immediately zoning on the figures of Fury and Romanoff who were just now exiting the elevators.

    At the same time, he mentally catalogued the list of all the specialised doctors nearby, ordered Randall to order everything that Bruce might need in such a scenario, ordered What¡¯s his Face Billionaire to comply with Randall¡¯s list with haste, and also searched for Stephen Strange, who was nowhere to be found in Manhattan.

    He debated whether to tell Fury or not but the simple truth was that unless he could call for Wakanda¡¯s help, there was no one who was technologically advanced enough to help deliver a half hulkling, especially if they wanted Betty, the mother to survive.

    Stark¡¯s expertise might help as well.

    Shit! Why was he panicking so much?

    He watched as Bruce just sat there, unheeding of his words, and he was suddenly reminded of the fact that this man had gone through so much loss, and suffering, and for what?

    For the plot? No, he would reject such machinations of Fate. Bruce would get a happy loving family in a safe environment, he would ensure it, damn it!

    Just when the man had a semblance of a stable life and a happy enough outlook on life, something like this had to happen and almost screw up his life.

    ¡°Fury, I am in an emergency situation of sorts and would love your organisation¡¯s assistance at this point. I would be more than happy to give you all the information you need in exchange for you calling in all the experts you have on Gamma Radiation and its effect on human biology, along with anybody you know who can handle uncommon pregnancies,¡± He said once he created a curtain of silence around Fury and Romanoff, throwing off their guards a few feet back.

    He could see Fury tense and Romanoff¡¯s calm expression crack as they both realised what he had just requested.

    Gamma Radiation and pregnancy.

    That combination of words did not bode well for anyone wishing for the East Coast to still be standing if Bruce¡¯s child doesn¡¯t make it. Hell, even he was not sure if Bruce Banner¡¯s World War Hulk could ever be contained and that possibility would only become clearer if Betty didn¡¯t make it.

    ¡°Call Stark! Tell him I don¡¯t have time for his excuses this time. Get Helen Cho on the line, and tell her to get her ass to Manhattan yesterday! Call in every nerd we have on Gamma Radiation,¡± Fury snapped orders at Romanoff who nodded and immediately left for the stairs, jumping down floors at a time to reach the lobby faster.

    Fury then snapped his glare towards the floor, ¡°You! Take me to Banner!¡±

    ¡°Absolutely NOT!¡± He growled back. Banner was already in a fragile enough mental state as is. He would not risk Fury risking things further.

    ¡°Bruce would remain with Betty as long as we don¡¯t have a solid strategy or unless a doctor needs to personally examine her. We will see what can be done about the child but saving Betty is paramount. Without her, well let¡¯s just say, that even I don¡¯t have confidence of dealing with a Hulk that has his emotions amplified by Bruce¡¯s grief,¡±

    His voice took on a razor thin edge as he replied, ¡°You think the Hulk was problematic to deal with until now, Directory Fury? That was Hulk with Bruce actively hamstringing everything. Imagine what would happen if Bruce LET.IT.GO!¡±

    The paling of Fury¡¯s face and increased heart rate told him all he needed to know.

    Satisfied with the warning, he said, ¡°I will be continuously monitoring Bruce and Betty. Make all the arrangements you need, I will see what can be done on my end. Good day, Fury,¡±

    Damn Fate, sending crisis after crisis for the protagonists of the world.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 60 : PaNiCk!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 60 [September 2010]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°Okay Bruce, I have told all the people I could to help make sure that everything turns out to be fine,¡± He told Bruce, seeing that Betty was still asleep, he used the curtain of Silence around the entire apartment. Scanning Betty once again, from top to bottom showed no signs of any growth but it had literally been less than an hour since Bruce dropped the bomb on him.

    ¡°Huh? Okay," Bruce said lifelessly as if the very purpose of his life had been snatched away from him. God, he must be feeling awful right now but there was nothing any of them could do at the moment.

    In the end, this was not their decision anyway. It was Betty¡¯s call and he was just going to have to make sure that whatever call she made, she came out safe from it. Bruce might be able to handle the loss of an unborn child, but the loss of Betty?

    Whew, that would not go okay.

    ¡°Bruce, snap out of it. I¡¯ve ordered breakfast for both of you. Now, we both know things have already progressed past a point of no return. I think you and I both know the kind of woman Betty is and what decision she will take, but we will wait for her to wake up and consult her before taking any major steps.

    In the meantime, is there anything that Randall can do, so that we can make an informed decision? Any medical equipment you need? How did you even find out about her gamma radiation anyway?¡± He asked Bruce in rapid fire.

    Bruce simply pointed him at a clock in the doorway. He focused on the clock and was astonished to find that it was nothing like a clock. It was completely digital on the inside with some sort of antennas going around it.

    ¡°The hands of the clock are like a radiation gauge. I wanted to keep something like that handy to monitor if my condition was stable or not. Betty insisted that we make it a fun art project so that I don¡¯t ruin the ¡°aesthetic¡± of the place. Huh,¡± Bruce chuckled wryly as he just told him a very heart touching story.

    Heart touching it may be but it was not exactly useful for them in this scenario. They needed Bruce back in the game. And a bunch of other geniuses, to make sure that Baby Hulk is born safely, because he knew what Betty was going to choose, and so did Bruce.

    ¡°Bruce! Snap out of it. Betty is still alive, you are acting as if she is already gone. Now, is there anything that Randall can do on his own?¡± He once again asked Bruce to give some directions to Randall who was already running around like a headless chicken once Randall had completed all the tasks he had given to him.

    The subterranean highway that he made on a whim would be very useful for such an operation. He could let them get out of Manhattan if adequate medical care was not available here but that would just further jeopardise their safety. No, the best option would be to create the perfect environment, here in Manhattan and then hope for the best.

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    Plus, if something did really happen, he was the best shot at suppressing Bruce, even if it would turn out to be a temporary measure, with Bruce going stronger the angrier he gets.

    Bruce slowly looked up at the ceiling and sighed, ¡°Tell Randall I¡¯ll be there in the evening. Until then, get the gamma spectrometers ready,¡±

    ¡°Very well,¡± he nodded and left Bruce to his own devices. The man was sad enough as is. He didn¡¯t want to add even more to his already full plate.

    He honed in on the Sanctum and was delighted to find that he had made enough progress to sense the protections around the Sanctum at even greater clarity than before. He had a theory that, given enough time, he would be able to sense the weakness of the entire structure, like the texture of it, and after prodding a bit, actually collapse them as well.

    Granted, that would be a really bad idea but hey, progress was progress.

    Leaving that aside, he metaphorically knocked on the doors, as in knocked on the wards of the Sanctum.

    ¡®What can I do for you, Mr.Riddle?¡± Master Drumm came out and was startled to find a small note just slamming into his chest as his presence receded. He had just given him the note to warn the Ancient One about the situation, even though she probably knew about it with her bullshit magic and bullshit Singularity Stone.

    Let¡¯s see what all he has done.

    Called Fury, who will call upon all the experts he has access to? Check.

    Inform the Ancient One? Check.

    Inform the team about it. Judging by the various states of panic that had gripped all members of the team? Double Check.

    Oh god, this was so stressful. He didn''t know how normal people managed to handle this much stress and then go on to raise children.

    In the meanwhile, the people of New York went on with their lives, not knowing that Bruce Banner, the Hulk lived with them and there was a chance that he was going to¡­.multiply.

    Oh yeah, the Highway. He told What¡¯s-his-face to get some construction equipment ready. They were going to create a very sturdy structure with all the space they might need.

    The worst thing was that if the baby was normal, he would have had months to prepare. This was literally the first time it would be happening, so nobody knew how fast the Baby would grow up and if Betty¡¯s decidedly human body could even handle a Gamma foetus.

    He made sure to maintain the lockdown he had on crime though because even with the entire world, at this point, knowing that he was here in New York and was capable of stopping most crimes, criminals still somehow tried. He tried to reduce the underlying reasons for which people turn to crime but there were limits to what he could accomplish, and eliminating hunger from a very sizable population of the city alone had worked wonders in the crime rate.

    Obviously, that had ruffled some feathers, some people going live on TV and calling it Mafia Communism of sorts but that was just white noise and he had elected to ignore it. As long as the initiative survived and worked for a few more years, the results would then speak for themselves.

    The truth of the matter was that once people are given the basic things they need with dignity, the bare minimum, there was very little chance they would turn to do bad things.

    The only reason most criminals started was because a life of crime was somehow much more accessible to them than a life of hard work. Faster, more riskier progress was somehow right in people¡¯s faces but slow progress, the one that stuck until the end, was not readily available to them.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 61 : The One where Bruce Calms down

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 61 [September 2010]

    ¨CBruce Banner¨C

    Rage.

    Looking back, that was the emotion he was most familiar with. Throughout his shitty childhood, then his very bad schooling experience, then towards the end, where he ended up working for the most stereotypical bully there could be, Rage-Anger were emotions he was most familiar with.

    Anger at the unfairness of the situation. Anger at the unfairness of his life. Anger at the inability to understand others.

    Sometimes he wondered, there was no wonder he turned into a raging monster capable of destroying entire cities. It must be due to the sheer rage he held within himself.

    And yet, the same rage that had turned advanced reinforced military equipment into scraps without even thinking about it, the same rage that felt like a burning inferno at the time, felt so small.

    It felt so small, like a barely burning ember of fire, when compared to the rage he was feeling right now. Oh, he was not green. Oh, that would not be a good thing and somehow, this time, the Other Guy seemed to agree as well, silently mirroring his rage.

    As he was now, he had two options. He could rage at the world, the unfairness of trying to snatch away someone who had just now entered his life, or, he could be there for her.

    ¡°Bruce! Snap out of it!¡± The Invisible Man had said to him, clearly worried for the city he held so dear but the Invisible Man had nothing to worry about, for he would not be turning into a raging monster today.

    Not today.

    ¡°Good Morning, Honey. I made your favourite pancakes. The first batch burned but why don¡¯t we just ignore them, huh?¡± He said with what he hoped was the appropriate amount of cheer before placing the breakfast table on Betty¡¯s lap as she woke up.

    He would have to break the news to her, one way or another. He had already informed the Invisible Man, who was his only help at this point. The good news was that man was a powerhouse for whom most of the world¡¯s richest and most powerful would bend over backwards for. So, he was sure that if it existed in the world in any form, the Invisible Man could get it for him.

    But no matter how resourceful and all present the Invisible Man might be, this was an entirely new problem, something that had never happened before. Part of him berated himself for not realising it sooner. It would never work out between someone like him and a normal human being, and yet¡­.he lost himself in the moment.

    He was just so happy to finally have someone he could call his own, and that too, without being called a monster because of the Other Guy.

    ¡°Honey, these are delicious,¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡±

    ¡°So, what¡¯s up?¡±

    He looked at Betty, ¡°Nothing,¡±

    ¡°Oh please, Bruce Rober Banner, I know you better than that. Now, spill, what¡¯s up?¡± Betty asked him in between mouthfuls of pancakes.

    If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    ¡°So, you know how we have that clock that can measure gamma radiation coming off of a  person?¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah, that was a fun project. It looks so much better and goes with the look of the apartment now, instead of being a cheap plastic-looking thing. What about it?¡± She asked him with those big beautiful eyes and he had to consciously remind himself that he would have to tell her about it anyway, so there was no point in prolonging the inevitable.

    ¡°So, I was just going through the logs when¡­.¡±

    ¡­¡­

    ¡­..

    ¡°So, you think that I am pregnant with our child?¡± She asked him, all serious, pancakes all but forgotten.

    He gulped as his mouth suddenly felt way too dry, ¡°Yes, that is my belief as well as the Invisible Man¡¯s but we will still be taking another look. I don¡¯t know what is happening but the Invisible Man has assured me that¡­¡±

    ¡°Bruce! Ohmygod!¡± Betty hugged him as she gushed about the baby and how happy she was about everything. And how it was perfect that they were already in the safest place imaginable. They also had access to the best doctors and schools anyway, and so on and so forth.

    ¡°So, why the mopey face? Gasp! Don¡¯t tell me, you don¡¯t want our child, the sign of our love? Oh Bruce Robert Banner, thou art a heartless bitch!¡± She mockingly gasped as she pointed an accusing finger at him.

    He chuckled at her antics, a tear escaping his eyes as his mind finally started to relax from the high tension it had wound itself into.

    ¡°Listen, you know about my situation and the gamma radiation coming off of you is increasing exponentially. I just want to make sure that it is safe before we get our hopes up. I¡¯ll make something with Randall that will help identify the signs of the baby,¡±

    ¡°Can I come? Come on, what will I even do here? I get so bored when you leave for your boys'' meetup and I have to look at daily soap, like a housewife,¡±

    ¡°Hey, I seem to recall someone in the labs telling me that they would prefer being a housewife if lab work was all they had to do for the rest of their life,¡± He teased her as he got out of bed, getting ready to head to the Lab, or rather, the Lair of the invisible Man where he kept his team locked up. It was a huge load off his shoulders that Betty was not freaking out like him. She was so calm and composed, as opposed to him.

    That gave him more than enough strength to go to the lab and work his damndest hard to make sure that Betty gets what she wants. After all, isn¡¯t that was love is all about?

    GASP!

    ¡°Bruce Robert Banner, how dare you accuse me of saying something I totally did?¡±

    Both of them looked at each other for a moment before he burst out laughing.

    ¡°Play, that one was good. Now, if you¡¯ll excuse me, I have a meeting with another gamma genius extraordinaire,¡±

    ¡°Oh. Give Randall my regards. I am having some pregnancy cravings for French baked goods right now,¡±

    ¡°Honey, it is too early for you to be having pregnancy cravings -err, you know what, I will make sure that it is delivered to you within the hour,¡± He amended himself after being subjected to her glare.

    ¡°That¡¯s more like the Bruce Robert Banner I know. Have fun, bye!¡±

    He deadpanned at the liberal use of his middle name to mock him and waved back at her as he left his apartment.

    Now, all that was left was to make sure that a Gamma Baby came safely out of a normal human whose body was woefully inadequately prepared for such circumstances.

    Easy peasy, right?

    Come on Bruce, you have always had a big head. If it is not useful at such times, what even is it useful for?

    ¡­.

    Soon, he reached the house in which the seven hulks were living. It was fairly large and it was also reinforced multiple times because the Hulks were not known to live delicately, at all.

    ¡°Hey Samuel, I just came to meet Randall,¡± He greeted Samuel who opened the door for him. Even though it would be the height of foolishness for someone to try and rob people who could bend steel, they still made sure to lock their doors.

    ¡°Yeah, he is down in the Cave, doing something. See you,¡± Samuel said and left for the kitchen where the rest of the Hulks were doing their preferred activities. One was reading, one was on a gaming console, one was reading a newspaper, and one was cooking for all of them.

    All in all, a very odd but still functional family the seven brothers made.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 62 : The One with the SCIENCE! bros

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 62 [October 2010]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°So, you mean to say that if we didn¡¯t pull Baby Bruce out of there in 2 more months, the chances of Betty surviving would drop sharply?¡± He asked Bruce who looked heartbroken at the news. Bruce and Randall had been hard at work the past month, taking notes and resources from SHIELD and whats-his-face Billionaire to build anything that could help BEtty survive.

    Fury had pulled in all the resources he could. Axle was somewhat surprised in the beginning when Fury didn¡¯t make any unreasonable, or any demands really when he agreed to help Banner. He brought in the best people from his organisation and from outside his organisation.

    Helen Cho. He didn¡¯t expect her to be here considering her field was not really pregnancy related but she was apparently a licensed doctor and had some interesting ideas for making sure that Betty made it out of the experience.

    Tony Stark had been called in as well but the man took one look at the setup, talked a bit with Bruce, and had immediately flown back to bring something. As it turned out, Tony had been hard at work, Tony was the one who built most of the equipment that was being used in one of the warehouses he had taken over, for the express purpose of fortifying it for Betty¡¯s pregnancy.

    So far, combining the geniuses of all these three people, they had built machines and procedures that could work but nothing concrete at all. The baby was growing exponentially, estimated to pop out of Betty at just 5 months old, fully formed.

    The problem was not the baby¡¯s size or anything, it was going to be normal sized, at 5 months anyway. The problem was the gamma radiation. Betty was being constantly subjected to it from inside for months.

    He had still now shown Tony the subterranean Lair but the warehouse had a direct underground line built straight to the Highway tunnel. From the tunnel, they had a direct line to the Lair as well.

    When he first showed Tony the huge tunnel he had built underground, his reaction was expected. After all, the man regularly hacked sensitive databases and his tunnel was hardly a secret so Tony knew about it but once he scanned the entire thing and realised the precision with which he had built a miles long tunnel without any outside help, he had been dumbfounded, not at the tunnel but the potential applications of his power.

    ¡°What does Betty have to say about this?¡± he asked Bruce who slumped even further.

    ¡°She wants to keep the baby, even if it does cost her own life,¡± Bruce whispered. Welp, that complicated things.

    ¡°A C-Section? We have world class surgeons in New York,¡± he offered, even though he had a hunch why that would not be feasible in Betty¡¯s case.

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t work. The issue is not the baby, it would be irradiated tissue in Betty¡¯s body. We need something to purge all that radiation and nothing has been found that could absorb the radiation from inside Betty,¡± Bruce said, frustrated at his failures.

    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    ¡°What about Vibranium?¡± He was just pulling at straws here, his limited mental capacity unable to think of anything else that could help.

    Bruce¡¯s neck snapped up as his face, along with Randall''s, gained that thoughtful look when they were doing some intense thinking.

    ¡°Micro fibers woven from Vibranium, carefully injected into various parts around Betty might help slow down the radiation poisoning,¡± Randall said out loud.

    ¡°And once the baby is delivered, they could absorb the remaining radiation, leaving Betty¡¯s cells slightly damaged but nothing that can be immediately fatal,¡± Bruce replied in turn.

    Oh. So Vibranium could work then. But¡­.

    ¡°But where would we even get Vibranium? That stuff was the rarest metal on the planet,¡± Bruce whispered in defeat.

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t you worry about that, Brucie bear. What am I here for then, huh? We SCIENCE! Bros gotta stick together, you know. I¡¯ll make a couple of calls and get us the Vibranium we need. If we weave it thin enough, we might be able to get by with a couple hundred grams as well. If the properties of Vibranium are as miraculous as I know they are, we can even siphon off the radiation from Betty accordingly,¡± Tony said as he swooped in on the two geniuses discussing things with Axle.

    ¡°Oh. Heya Invisible Man. Kinda creepy of you to listen in on our conversation, don''t you think?¡± Tony snarked at him as he looked straight up.

    ¡°Oh, like you haven''t been trying to listen in with all the bugs you dropped around the place, Stark? You do realise why I didn''t take you to the real base then?¡± He snarked back, his mind working in the background as he realised that the Vibranium plan might actually work.

    ¡­If they could utilise it properly. He had no doubt that Tony would be able to source the Vibranium, especially since they needed so little of it but he should be able to use it properly.

    Howard Stark had no other way of using the Vibranium so he built a shield with it, not understanding the miraculous properties of the cosmic metal. In fact, he had a hunch that the only reason Captain was allowed to keep the shield by the Wakandans was due to the fact that it was nothing but an over glorified frisbee, capable of devastating acts in the right hands but a frisbee nonetheless.

    The only other people on the planet who knew best how to use Vibranium were Wakandans and lucky for him, for some reason probably related to him, Wakanda had opened a new embassy in New York, a little further away from Manhattan.

    Now he was sure that it should have been at least a little suspicious that a tiny African country, which was poor by all measures, should not have been able to afford an embassy in New York of all places, especially with all the real estate inflation that had occurred ever since he became active in the area. And yet, there it was the Wakanda Embassy.

    It was completely normal, as far as he could sense. Sure, it had all the digital doodads and everything but it was nowhere near as advanced as Wakanda could be. It made sense because they wouldn¡¯t want the outside world to know but he had a hunch that Wakanda specifically kept this place clean to avoid his gaze.

    Well, if this idea of Tony was going to work, he needed additional information about Vibranium and how to better use it in this scenario.

    Now all that was left was to approach the Wakandas and see if they were willing to help him out or if they were going to prove their stereotype that had formed in Fanon over the years.

    He just hoped that T¡¯Chaka didn¡¯t dismiss him outright. After all, he was landlocked to an area that was halfway across the world from Wakanda.

    He would not be a threat anytime soon. But he didn¡¯t really have to go to Wakanda to threaten them, now did he?

    Information was just as deadly as physical force these days.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 63 : The one with Wakandan Embassy

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 63 [October 2010]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    He created his paper avatar in front of the Wakanda Embassy and had it slowly approach the gates of the Embassy. The guards in front of the embassy were understandably startled as they saw something straight out of a movie walking towards them.

    One of them began speaking into his comms and the other one began approaching his paper avatar. He made sure that the paper avatar appeared as nonthreatening as possible. Just as the guard came into listening range, he activated the phone speaker inside the head of the avatar, speaking, ¡°Greetings. I am the Invisible Man. This is a temporary avatar I have created to interact with you. Can you take me to meet the head of the Embassy?¡±

    The guard who was speaking in the comms looked like he had heard something surprising and came running toward the paper avatar.

    ¡°Yes. She will meet you now. This way, please,¡± The guards then escorted him inside the embassy. It looked quite ordinary with loads of diplomats walking around, handling paperwork. Of course, he could see them for what they really were instead of the facade they were trying to build around him.

    The calluses on their hands, the musculature, and the hidden weapons all pointed towards most of the Embassy being actually warriors, instead of diplomats. One such clue was one of the so-called diplomats actually holding the paper upside down as they discussed with each other the Wakandan Textile policy and import agreements with some private corporations in the US.

    He wouldn¡¯t be surprised if said private company in the US was owned by Wakanda itself. Honesty, with the amount of power they had, they could have easily pervaded every single hall of power in the world, be it through soft power, military strength, or just by providing information.

    There were a lot of ways that Wakanda must have involved themselves in the world economy. He actually refused to believe that an advanced civilisation actually just closed themselves from the world, not even deigning to maintain an active presence in key industries of the outside world.

    If he was the head of Wakanda, he would, firstly, control the Oil trades, and then control the demographic population of the most powerful democracy on the planet. Those two things alone would have allowed Wakanda to subtly direct any entity that came too close to Wakanda, and that too with ease.

    Some country uncovering their involvement? Bomb Them. Drop WMD accusations and flatten the country, then extract their resources.

    Now, this was heinous but it was not as if Wakanda was above such acts if it suited them just fine. Murdering scientists who came too close to them in technological superiority, just rubbed him the wrong way.

    If he had it his way, he would not interact with Wakanda, not unless T¡¯Challa himself had become King. The business with Killmonger was nasty business but that was what convinced T¡¯Challa to open up Wakanda to the rest of the world, something that was sorely needed because if T¡¯Challa didn''t do it, Wakanda as a nation would not have existed in a century at most.

    At most, it would have remained as the name of the Vibtranium mine on the planet.

    So, he watched as the Embassy head, an unassuming black woman cleared her desk and waited for his avatar to arrive, even though she must know that he could sense her at this moment as well.

    Now, he knew that she was a warrior through and through as well. The Wig told him that she was probably a part of the Dora Milaje but he had no way of confirming that.

    Well, all of that could be done later on. He was here for help and might as well go along with the charade. Othersei, he would have just flexed his powers, and then the information he had on Wakanda and then gotten things done.

    That was still not out of the picture though. Depends on the attitude and stubbornness of the Embassy head. If T¡¯Chaka himself had placed her here, she must have some level of authority to promise something. Vibranium distribution would be out of her hands, undoubtedly, but knowledge on how to use Vibranium might be a little in reach of her.

    ¡°Greetings. I am the Invisible Man, as you must know. I am here for something that only Wakanda can provide,¡±

    His statement tensed a lot of people in the building. Well, it was clear that everyone in the building was hearing his conversation, ready to do..what exactly?

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Did they not know he was not here in person at all? Nothing their Vibranium weapons could hurt was here. His physical body, enhanced as it was, would also be instantly punctured by Vibteranium spears but that was a question for later.

    ¡°What can I do for the illustrious hero of New York?¡±

    He had to hand it to the woman. She was tense, that much was obvious from the increased heart rate but outwardly? Nothing could be seen on her face or even in her body language.

    For this, he dismantled the phone entirely. What if SHIELD was listening in and in trying to get Wakanda as an ally, he ended up revealing its existence to SHIELD, or worse, SHIELDRA.

    ¡°I know about the hidden city. The Birnin Zana,¡± The much deeper voice spoke in the office of the Embassy and this time, there was a number of stiffenings in the Embassy before all of them began rushing towards the top floor, only to be stopped by somebody ordering them.

    ¡°I see. Can I ask how you came in possession of such dangerous knowledge?¡± She asked him as she leaned forward at her desk.

    ¡°That is not of importance as of now. As I am sure you know from your WarDog channels, Bruce Banner, along with Betty Ross, are having a baby,¡±

    ¡°Yes, I have heard of the Gamma-baby. Give them my congratulations,¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I guess. For that to happen, we need to deliver the baby safely. Now, Gamma Radiation is tricky to work with, especially since Betty wants to have the baby. For safe removal of the Gamma radiation, we need the one miracle metal that can absorb any and all types of energies safely,¡±

    ¡°Vibranium. You want our Vibranium?¡±

    Now that triggered her for some reason. Well, it must be genetically encoded in them by now. NO VIBRANIUM TO OUTSIDERS.

    Especially to the people who looked like the colonisers.

    ¡°No, we will get the Vibranium on our own. I just need to know how to mould the Vibranium into thin enough fibres so that the excess Gamma radiation given off by the baby can be absorbed by the Vibtranium instead of Betty¡¯s body.¡±

    ¡°....That¡­is certainly better than Vibraniumm but I cannot make that decision just now,¡±

    ¡®That¡¯s fine. You can tell me in a week¡¯s time. Tell T¡¯Chaka that I have some information about his long lost Brother. I am willing to trade it for the information,¡± He said his piece and dismantled his paper avatar.

    Then he watched her calmly look around the room and tell her assistant to schedule a flight straight to Wakanda.

    Well, he expected more panicking and running around like a headless chicken from her but she was made of sterner stuff.

    _______xx______

    He knew something was wrong when Fury didn¡¯t say anything but just did what was required when he was informed about the possibility of a baby Hulk roaming around. Tony, he could understand, the man had no fear of consequences, especially since he knew that the majority of the blame was going to be dumped on top of a single head.

    Him. The Invisible Man.

    So, as Helen Cho, along with Bruce and an armada of SHIELD scientists worked on the cradle that would eventually house Betty and then give birth to the gamma baby, he was called into a meeting with Fury and Tony, of all people.

    The meeting was deliberately kept away from Bruce and everyone else, for reasons he was about to come to know.

    ¡°Well, I was wondering when you would call me, Director Fury,¡± He, or rather his paper avatar said as they sat down in the SHIELD safehouse in Manhattan, the Random Beautiful Agent given reprieve for the day. He could spy her drinking very sugary drinks in one of the cafes just a couple blocks from the SHIELD safehouse.

    Well¡­good for her?

    ¡°Uh-huh. Now, can either one of you tell me, the actual chances of the Hulk having a baby and not rampaging around the most prosperous area in the world,¡± Fury asked as he pinned Stark down with a glare. Of course, Tony looked as unphased as ever as he removed his phone and placed it down on the table in front of him.

    Now this is where things got a little tricky for him. He could sense holograms as objects but it took a little more focus to interpret them. So, he had to flood his presence in the safe house for him to accurately get all the inputs.

    Tony¡¯s phone projected a hologram about the cradle they were building. Vibranium, as was expected, was taking longer than expected to secure. Tony had a small cache of his own but he was understandably loathe to take it out of his experiments. He would use it if the leads didn¡¯t pan out though.

    ¡°If the cradle works properly, and it will, Betty will survive the pregnancy, as well the child but the long term damages are still unknown. As such, we cannot be sure for how long Betty will be alive but she will be alive to see the baby,¡±

    ¡°I see. Have you told Banner that?¡±

    ¡°No, but he knows. I can tell,¡± Tony said in a serious voice, the gravity of the situation dawning on him as well.

    ¡°And you,¡± Fury rounded on the phone floating in mid air.

    ¡°Yes?¡±

    ¡°Sigh, Nothing. Just tell me what you need. Also, there is a rally next month in New York. The President¡¯s coming. He wants to meet,¡±

    Oh?

    ¡°Sure, just tell him he will receive the same paper treatment,¡±

    ¡°...Fine..¡±

    Ah, frustrating Fury was a very good hobby of his, in his opinion.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 64.1 : Wakanda POV

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 64.1 [August 2010]

    Birnin Zana, Wakanda

    ¨CKing T¡¯Chaka¨C

    For months, it has been like this.

    Ever since T¡¯Challa came back from his education in the United States, he had been confessing having some ideas that he wanted to implement when he became King. Ideas that were dangerously similar to what his brother had.

    That brought another pang of sadness in his heart as he thought of ways he could have handled that night differently. The brother in him mourned the loss of the one who he grew up with but the King in him would have done the exact same thing, given the chance. It was actually the most practical option.

    No chances of any civil war, no chances of that dangerous ideology spreading to the higher ups in Wakanda, and no chances of the outside world coming to know about them. Just kill his brother, plain and simple.

    However, similar words were now coming out of T¡¯Challa¡¯s mouth as he recounted the plans he wanted to enact to help the outside population, irrespective of their race, creed, religion, etc. He didn¡¯t think that his son would be so naive but he consoled himself by telling himself that once the burden of becoming King was transferred to T''Challa, he would eventually learn the perils that came with such naive ideas.

    For the time being though, he was an old man barely clinging to his post with the help of his old loyal followers, one who didn¡¯t want to sour his relationship with his eldest son, so he began humouring T¡¯Challa.

    ¡°So, what would be the first step for this? Baby step, I mean,¡± He asked T¡¯Challa who gained a thoughtful look at the question, Little Shuri looking curiously at her elder brother and then her father, the mere sight of that enough to melt his heart.

    ¡°An Embassy.¡±

    He raised an eyebrow and gestured for T¡¯Challa to continue explaining.

    ¡°An embassy, right in New York. A Wakandan Embassy would allow us to establish a legitimate foothold in the heart of the American Economy. This would allow us to learn more and adapt our plans accordingly,¡± T¡¯Chlla said with passion in his voice as he dug into his food with gusto.

    He internally mulled the idea and wasn¡¯t really opposed to it that much.

    ¡°Oh? New York? Is that the same one where the Invisible Man resides, brother?¡± Shuri asked T¡¯Challa, always having been interested in the special anomaly of New York that was the Invisible Man.

    ¡°Yes, little Shuri. The Invisible Man operates in most of New York, with MAnhattan being his base of operations for some reason. We will not be opening the embassy there anyway so that should be fine,¡± T¡¯Challa immediately began peppering Shuri with all the little anecdotes he had about the rise of the Invisible Man in New York and the subsequent fall of crimes, hunger in the same area.

    When they had first learned about this person, more than two years back, his WarDogs had dismissed it as nothing but the ramblings of crazy people, not allowing themselves to believe in someone outside Wakanda possessing such powers.

    Only for that misconception to fade away over time as more and more incidents kept happening, eventually leading to the entirety of Manhattan being sealed away, for criminals.

    Aside from white collar criminals making that place their secure base of operations, no crime of any sort happened in that place anymore, so much so that people began leaving their babies unattended for short periods of time, something that would have been unthinkable a short few years back.

    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    ¡°So, Father, who will go as the Embassy head? Because we don''t actually have any need for the Embassy, we can just make a sham one, without any of our technology and send in some WarDogs to pose as embassy staff. No need to tip off the Invisible Man about our existence, right?¡±

    He nodded, pleased that T¡¯Challa was at least aware of the dangers that would befall Wakanda should the world come to know about their true civilization.

    ¡°Still, the Invisible Man, huh? Father, what are the chances of some other god aside from Base having blessed someone who went on to become this Invisible Man?¡±

    He looked up from his meal, suddenly not having the appetite as T¡¯Challa¡¯s question fully registered in his mind.

    What if that really was the truth?

    No. he couldn¡¯t think like that. It was almost blasphemy in his opinion.

    ¡°No need to think of such things. It is most likely another American science experiment that went wrong, just like the Hulk,¡± He told T¡¯Challa and gestured for the attendant to begin cleaning the table.

    ¡°Yeah, you could be right. Still, the sheer strength that Dr.Banner wields in that form, I don¡¯t think there is anything that I can do to harm his alter ego.¡± T¡¯Challa admitted to him, making him feel proud at seeing him admit that even the Black Panther had its own limits.

    ¡°Relax, T¡¯Challa. You will be King. You will never be alone. The might of the entire country will be standing behind you, nothing and no one should be able to phase you,¡±

    ¡°You are right, Father. Thank you for that,¡±

    Still, T¡¯Challa¡¯s thoughts were correct. The sheer destruction the beast caused was a sight to behold. He was akin to a force of nature, not slowed down by anything that man could throw at it. Just drop the best in an active war zone and just see the slaughter happen. No gun, no missile, no grenade, and nothing was able to stop the Hulk¡¯s charge as he escaped through the base and then settled down in Manhattan, under the protection of an even bigger Monster.

    The thought of someone being able to maintain near omnipresence in a city the size of New York while also actively acting using telekinetic powers, was bone chilling.

    He had already ordered this Invisible Man to be properly investigated but aside from some people he regularly interacted with, there was nothing that could determine the identity of the Invisible Man or if he even had an identity or not.

    For all they knew, the Invisible Man, while a very stupid name, might actually be incorporeal.

    ¡°Alright, I have a meeting. I will see you all at dinner,¡± He said and then headed straight to the Throne Room.

    Sigh, he couldn''t wait to hand over this burden to T¡¯Challa and then watch, relaxed, from the sidelines.

    [October 2010]

    This was a disaster.

    The Stark Expo, that is.

    Now he was glad that he didn¡¯t send T¡¯Challa or Bast forbid, Shuri who was pestering him to get tickets for the Stark Expo, the biggest Tech Expo that the outside world had hosted in years.

    The Expo also gave them a lot of intel on how the Invisible Man operates. The WarDogs already had a theory but it is now confirmed that there are some limits as to how much power the Invisible Man could exert over a specific area.

    According to the theory proposed by his team, one that he was inclined to believe, the Invisible Man was actually somehow geo constrained, meaning he had a fixed range of influence.

    While they believed it was still growing, the outermost edges would be the areas where he would be able to exert the least amount of power.

    Basically, the closer the area is to Manhattan, the more power he could exert.

    For example, in the Stark Expo, at the calculated edge of his range, he was unable to directly crush the robots that were attacking people. No, he had to fling around some enhanced people that could crush the robots with ease.

    On the opposite end of this spectrum was a building that was scheduled for demolition. For some reason, the demolition didn''t happen properly and the building was about to tip over to the building next to it.

    It almost happened when as if an Invisible Hand held it, the crash stopped, the building was then turned to fine powder and then that same powder was deposited at the base of the building, showcasing the sheer power and fine control the Invisible Man had in areas.

    The Council was abuzz with the display of power and how to deal with the new threat when a guard walked into the room with an official message.

    ¡°My King, we have a message from the Embassy in New York,¡±

    His eyebrows rose as a hologram appeared with her on it.

    The second most troublesome figure in all of Wakanda, after the Jabari.

    Jeda.

    Sister of Ramnoda, and the fiercest warrior in all of Wakanda.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 64.2 : Wakanda POV

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 64.2 [October 2010]

    Birnin Zana, Wakanda

    ¨CKing T¡¯Chaka¨C

    When he thought of Jega, he thought of the one person who could even best the Black Panther in one to one combat, purely on the basis of her skills alone. In fact, it had not even been months since she was in the Royal Academy, handling T¡¯Challa¡¯s ass to him every other day without even being enhanced by the Heart-Shaped Herb.

    In fact, she was a very strong contender to become the Black Panther as well. Traditionally, the Black Panther was always a man but they had evolved past such petty gender discrimination. No, the discrimination was not because she was a woman, but because she was not the King or a member of the direct line of the King.

    Since history has been recorded in Wakanda, the Black Panther has either been the King or the King¡¯s son, or brother. That¡¯s it. It made sense because the Black Panther was supposed to be the pinnacle of the Kingdom¡¯s fighting power and the way each King wanted to keep that power in their control meant that there was little chance of someone not from the King¡¯s family becoming the Black Panther.

    Even if the candidate was as deserving, if not more so than T¡¯Challa himself. There was no doubt in his mind whether Bast would accept Jeda or not and yet, he could not bring himself to give her the permission to undergo the trial.

    While it would throw some of the priests into disarray at seeing two Black Panthers alive at the same, he could have worded it so that it could provide more protection to Wakanda in these changing times, citing the Hulk and the Invisible Man as reasons.

    It could have been done, with little political backlash and a bit more cultural backlash, not that the Priests had much power in how the country was run and who was made King.

    But there was a single reason why she was not made Black Panther and was instead sent off to New York to head the so-called Embassy project of T''Challa.

    Her mindset.

    When she had begun her stint in the WarDogs to go see the outside world and serve her country, she had been of the same mind as him, and most of the other WarDogs. She knew that Wakanda needed to hide itself from the world, lest human greed destroy Wakanda as they knew it.

    And yet¡­

    As she went on mission after mission, saw the plight of the world, and saw the state of the Continent they were living in, her thoughts began changing. The change didn¡¯t happen overnight but over the years, as she performed admirably in the WarDods, successfully carrying out missions in all the countries they maintained a presence in.

    Thankfully, nothing as extreme as his brother but she began voicing out her thoughts, of helping the suffering people openly, to create a solid presence that would deter the evildoers of the world from committing any more atrocities on their people. She wanted Wakanda to take over the African Continent and form a new power bloc over the most resource rich place that was still mostly unexplored and completely governmentless.

    He had to actually take her off the roster for her own safety as the higher ups of the WarDogs had begun taking notice of her rebellious thoughts. He had to do something before some of the elders on the council did.

    That was two years ago, when she had been relieved of her duty and had chosen to take teaching at the Royal Academy where she regularly humbled all the top students with contemptuous ease, including T¡¯Challa who came to visit sometimes and was the only one capable of holding his own against the dreaded Combat Instructor at the Royal Academy.

    Even there, she did not stop expressing her borderline treasonous thoughts to anybody who would listen. She understood her position as the only sister to the Queen and thus did not abuse the privileges that came with that by trying to enact any official changes with her authority but she did try to spread her dangerous ideology in the Academy as well, irking many of the seniors at the Academy.

    This prompted him to move her to the outside. The Embassy idea from T¡¯Challa simply came at the right time.

    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    Now, it would seem that the decision to do so, hoping that nothing important would happen and she would be safe and sound outside the Kingdom was naive then, as he watched the hologram of her appear.

    ¡°My King, I was just contacted with the elusive Invisible Man,¡± SHe began and the entire council, which had not paid attention to her, snapped to attention. It was natural as the Invisible Man was a point of quiet interest in the Kingdom as whole.

    The scientists had found out that the sphere of influence of the Invisible Man continued to expand, day by day. In small incremental amounts, they calculated that he would be able to cover the entire city of New York and then eventually its surrounding areas in less than a decade.

    There was a chance that his reach might expand beyond the country as well, though that was assuming that he didn¡¯t have any real limits, and even the most optimistic of the scientists said that it was almost impossible for the invisible Man to reach Wakanda.

    Still, they had begun researching ways on how to hide Wakanda from the prying gaze of the Invisible Man, should he come near Wakanda, even if by accident because nobody really knew how the Invisible Man looked or who he really was.

    ¡°Speak,¡± He ordered her, understanding the gravity of the situation.

    ¡®Yes, he alluded to knowing about Birnin Zana. He knew about the Vibranium and about the country,¡±

    The entire council erupted in loud noises at that. The mere thought of an outsider, much less one of the most dangerous ones at that, was disturbing on so many levels, that it weighed heavily on his heart.

    ¡°Quiet!¡± He told the council before turning to the hologram.

    ¡°Get yourself out of there as soon as you can. We cannot risk you with¨C¡±

    ¡°Already done, My King. I am in the car, heading to the airport. I have already scheduled pickup from Johannesburg airport,¡± She said as she sent him multiple reports about the whole encounter.

    He sighed in relief when she told him that she had removed herself from the dangerous situation.

    ¡°Very well. What did he want?¡±

    ¡°I assume you know about Bruce Banner and his baby?¡±

    He nodded at that piece of information. It was surprisingly easy to maintain tabs on Bruce Banner as well as the seven brothers, even with the WarDogs residing inside Manhattan. All they had to do was not perform violent acts and not be over the top in their surveillance efforts, to safeguard themselves from the wrath of the Invisible Man. As long as they didn¡¯t break any laws, like breaking and entering or stealing, they were fine.

    ¡°Well, the baby, as the nerds had predicted, is already showing signs of complications. Apparently, they have figured out a solution to deal with all the Gamma Radiation, one that involved Vibranium,¡±

    There was a pin drop silence in the room as he processed the information. So, they needed Vibtranium then? The question was, did he cooperate to not only save a innocent life but also gain the favour of the two undisputedly strongest beings on the planet?

    ¡®Maybe even as strong as Bast herself¡¯ he didn''t let his treasonous thoughts appear on his face.

    ¡°And no, they don¡¯t need the Vibranium,¡± His neck snapped up at that, ¡°--they need the Vibranium to be woven into thin enough strands that they can absorb all that Gamma Radiation from the woman¡¯s body without harming her or the baby. They need to know how to do that,¡± She finished.

    Well, that certainly made things easier. Still wouldn¡¯t get past the council but it was for good reason then that they were not King. Before he could tell her that he was Agreeing to it though, she dropped another bomb.

    ¡°The Invisible Man said that he had information on Prince N¡¯Jobu. He was willing to trade that information for the knowledge,¡± She finished her report.

    He maintained a facade of calm on the outside even though he was freaking out inside, his mind reeling from the fact that this person somehow had information about his dead brother. Out of love and hoping that Wakanda didn¡¯t remember his brother as a traitor to the country, he had just labelled his brother as Missing in Action, and never really bothered to declare him dead, even though it was common consensus that after all this time, his brother was most probably dead.

    Could this Invisible Man be bluffing? Hoping that he would take the bait and give the information?

    There was only one way to know..

    ¡°Jeda, return to Wakanada. I will have someone else deliver the information. Your safety is paramount,¡±

    ¡°Yes, my King,¡± She took the dismissal and shut down the video call.

    The moment the hologram faded away, the council turned to him, no doubt ready to voice out their complaints about the decision but the memories of that tragic night made him lose his already sparse patience.

    ¡°Enough! I am King and this is my decision. Sacrificing a little bit of information in exchange for the possible favour of two of the strongest beings on the planet is a profitable deal, no matter how you look at it. We will speak no more about this, that is an order!¡± His outburst clearly left them unbalanced.

    ¡°Dismissed!¡± He said as the council, although shaken, left the room, and the Dora Milaje followed later on.

    His shoulders slumped in defeat as he leaned into his uncomfortable throne, as soon as the room was empty and he had some privacy.

    By Bast, he was too old for this shit.

    <hr>

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 65 : Mystical Backing, Getto!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 65 [October 2010]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°So, are you completely and utterly sure that you want to have this baby, even with all the risks attached?¡± He asked Betty who was currently busy gorging on all kinds of cheeses. Apparently, the pregnancy cravings had arrived early on this one.

    ¡°What? Are you kidding? I love this kid already. Plus, I get to eat so much foooood,¡± Betty said as she dove right back into the cheese platter.

    ¡°Disturbing comparison aside. Betty, you know the risks, right? I am sure Bruce didn¡¯t have the stomach to do so but you can actually die while doing this, Betty. I am not a hundred percent sure of being able to save you if the need arises,¡± He said, trying to convey the risks associated with the pregnancy.

    The woman barely paused at the news, as if it was something that happened on the daily.

    ¡°Oh relax, nothing is going to happen to me. I can feel it, the baby will save me if anything happens,¡± Betty said, and he actually fell into deep thought at that.

    If Bruce could be considered a Gamma God of some sort, having divinity associated with the feeling of Rage, then his baby would be considered a godling. Huh, maybe there is some truth to this theory but he might have to consult with the Ancient One about this.

    ¡°Hey Randall, how far along are we with the Vibranium?¡± He asked Randall, who was working in the warehouse with none other than Helen Cho, in order to create emergency tissue just in case they needed to do an emergency C-Section. Apparently, the chances of that happening are very high because if they let the pregnancy come to term, Betty¡¯s body might not handle it very well.

    ¡°..Uh, Tony said that it will arrive in about two more days. He had Vibtranium stashed in different parts of the country and some of it was hidden very well so he had to send out his suits to recover it.¡±

    Okay, he did not know Tony was this paranoid. He should have had this level of caution when it came to Obadiah, probably would have saved him the trip to Afghanistan.

    ¡°Okay. And is Vibranium going to be enough?¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah, more than enough. Our primary concern at the moment is being able to actually use the Vibranium in any meaningful way.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I am working on that as well.¡±

    ¡°Dr.Cho, Good Afternoon,¡±

    ¡°Good Afternoon, Mr.Invisible Man,¡± She bowed at him slightly then turned back to her work.

    ¡°What can you tell me about the Gamam fetus?¡±

    ¡°It is advancing very fast, faster than what Ms.Ross¡¯ body can keep up with. You can see her body requiring much more nutrients than usual to sustain all the activity happening in her body. Mr.Stark and Mr.Randall here were able to build the live scanner that is now installed in her bedroom, giving us real time updates about her body,¡±

    Wow, talk about violation of privacy.

    ¡°We are figuring out alternative methods of providing the energy necessary but so far, any energy dense source of food we have given her, has ended up in her emptying the contents of her stomach,¡± Cho replied.

    ¡°I still believe that we should be able to do what Mr.Stark told me about the Vibranium but the fact remains that we don¡¯t know how the baby might react to the Vibranium. We must proceed with caution. We only have about 2 more months until the baby is born,¡±

    ¡°Very well, Continue your work. Thank you for coming on such short notice. You are being paid, right?¡± He asked her the last question when he remembered that he was not really paying any of the people present here. He might have to rectify that.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Oh, he was more than certain that all the SHIELD personnel here were mining all the information, and that information was probably worth more than any amount of money that SHIELD could get but he didn¡¯t really like them working without being compensated.

    ¡°Oh? Oh yes, I am on the direct payroll of SHIELD. I am getting 30% more than my emergency rate. Also, this work is very interesting, I would have done it for free anyway,¡± Cho replied.

    Well, he might have to compensate Fury for all the work he must have done in keeping not just General Ross from coming but also from the WSC getting their paws on Bruce and his baby.

    Aside from this emergency Gamma situation, things were running smoothly in the city. Crime was being handled properly.

    He had now hashed out proper procedures for different crimes, how to apply appropriate amount of force and how to better subdue the perps until the police arrived, that sort of stuff. He had an official understanding with the NYPD and the City of New York now.

    The soup kitchens were running perfectly, with no deviation in funds, and no mistreatment of the people arriving there.

    Hell, he considered it his personal achievement when normal people who couldn''t, or rather, didn¡¯t want to cook and just wanted a hot hygienic meal, arrived at his kitchens and had their meals in silence.

    Well, time to get to the Ancient One now, he thought to himself while eating the pizza slice, walking towards the New York Sanctum.

    Dealing with the Ancient One was one of the few things that he had to do in person,instead of using his powers. For one, his awareness was instantly sensed by her, due to his sheer presence in the Astral Realm.

    She once told him that if he were to ever wander deeper into the Astral Realm while someone severed the connection from his body, he would be the biggest snack for all the creatures that lived in the Astral Realm, including some non corporeal Gods.

    That did the trick and he no longer tried to explore the Astral Realm willy nilly.

    After disposing of the coffee cup and the paper napkins, he went up to the Sanctum building and waited for the doors to open. The last time he came here, he almost fell through because he was about to knock and ended up with his hand hovering right in front of the face of Master Drumm who looked very bemused at the act.

    ¡°Oh come on,¡± He said while he knocked on the door, not just with his body, but also with his mind, and this time, he did not hold back, as much. The resulting force would have probably blasted any door and created a hole in the wall behind it but as a result of the wards that he could now sense properly, the door didn¡¯t even budge.

    ¡°What the hell! Are you trying to destroy the Sanctum, you brute!¡± The door opened and the irate face of Master Drumm entered his vision who didn¡¯t waste a single moment as he shoved him into the Sanctum and then closed the doors.

    ¡°Hey, I just knocked. It¡¯s not my fault you didn¡¯t open the door even though you knew I was coming,¡± He complained as he looked around the layout of the Sanctum. Seriously, this place changes every time he comes to visit.

    ¡°Hi, Master Drumm, I was wondering if the Ancient One is free. I have a certain Gamma Problem that we need to deal with,¡±

    Daniel narrowed his eyes at him, ¡°I am well aware of the Gamma problem you are referring to. Bruce Banner is a volatile being and unless he settles down, he cannot be given access to Kamar Taj in any way, you know that,¡±

    ¡°Yeah yeah, I know but I am not here for Bruce Banner, I am here for¨C¡±

    ¡°--the godling, I assume?¡± The crisp clear voice of the Ancient One made them both look up as she descended from the stairs, her hands clasped behind her back.

    Honestly, she had such a penchant for dramatic entrances but then again, what did he know about old people and what they do in their spare time?

    He nodded at her, ¡°Yes, Bruce¡¯s baby is about to be born and while I do trust Stark in having the technology side of things handled, I am not so sure about the mystical aspect that probably comes with having Bruce Banner as their father,¡±

    He was even fearful that the Guy Below could have a hand in the entire process or that he would steal the baby in some manner, setting off the Hulk.

    ¡°Hmm, this is certainly interesting. The baby of an unrealised God, born as a fully realised Godling. Very well, I will be there when the time comes. Now, please leave because I have some preparations to do,¡± She said and waved her hands.

    His vision blurred as he found himself back on the same street, facing the same dustbin where he dumped the coffee mug.

    Damn her shenanigans, he fumed to himself as he started his walk back to his office, his sweet sweet air conditioned office.

    He was not sure if Wakanda would respond to his request because he had sensed the Embassy Head all but fleeing the country after he had submitted his request but he would reserve his judgement on the matter. Worst case scenario, he could just threaten them with complete exposure if they refused to budge on the matter.

    He was all for being honest but a life, an objectively more important life, was at stake and he honestly did not have the time for Wakanda¡¯s Xenophobia at the moment.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 66 : The one where I dont know what I am doing!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 66 [October 2010]

    ¨CChris Lang¨C

    His eyes snapped open as the alarm that his father had gotten him when he went to college rang, waking him but not his sweetheart because her brain was wired to a different frequency of alarm clocks.

    It was actually quite a nifty thing because it meant that she would only wake up with her alarm clocks and he would only wake up with his. The kids were a whole other thing though. They needed to be woken up by their parents and if they woke up on their own, well, then god have mercy on him and Anna¡¯s soul.

    ¡°Good Morning, Chris!¡± He made finger guns at himself while brushing his teeth. Nowadays, due to the electric toothbrushes, all the fun was taken out of the process. Also, since he was approaching middle age, he was not allowed to brush like he used to, in college. Gone are the days of brash brushing, uncaring if any sensitive gum was hit or not.

    Now, he had to do skincare, in the morning and even before sleeping.

    Ugh, that sucked.

    In the words of a famous actor in an equally famous movie, ¡°Good Morning, Good evening, and Good night. I am Chris Lang,¡±

    Ugh, that sucked, he thought to himself in his mind as his intrusive thoughts began forming dialogues on their own, the first thing in the morning.

    Once he got ready, he put on some casual clothes, and greeted his still very much sleepy wife, ¡°Hey, honey!¡± ¡°Ugh,¡±, and then went on to make breakfast for himself, because it was a Friday.

    On Fridays, the kids wake themselves up and go out to play in the Central Park, since their school didn¡¯t start till late in the afternoon, something about too many kids being enrolled in the nearby schools. The only reason he allowed them to do so was that they knew better than to leave Manhattan, to leave the safety umbrella that the Invisible Man provided.

    He whistled to himself as he made himself some breadbutter jam, some cereal, and a freshly squeezed glass of Orange juice.

    Now, one might ask, how is Chris able to afford all of this?

    A house in Manhattan, Two kids in private schools, a totally unnecessary car, house help, and more.

    Well, the answer to that was one name - Wu Enterprises.

    See, he was in college, a very third tier college but still a college nonetheless. He was interested in money, no matter which field brought him the money, he just wanted to make a lot of money.

    And wouldn¡¯t you know, there was a field especially dedicated to the science of money making?

    Finance.

    He just dove into that then. He worked hard for a couple of years, spending his days filling spreadsheets, doing analyst stuff, and getting by on his salary when BAM! He met Mr.Wu, the ex-CEO of Wu Enterprises, a giant firm from China, dating back to the 50s.

    While his salary as an analyst was above average according to the market, he also had to support his girlfriend through medical school, so he didn¡¯t exactly live at par with his salary. All that changed when he met Mr.Wu at one of the many many conferences that he attended in the name of networking, and after talking with him for a couple of minutes, Mr.Wu offered him a job as a Junior Analyst.

    Now the title was the same, but the pay was 2X of what he was making then. He could not have accepted the deal faster.

    That was how he joined Wu Enterprises, a coalition of companies operating out of Asia. He also realised why the salary was so high because the entire bloody hedge fund was being managed by less than a dozen people, all working from China.

    He had to build the entire team from the ground up, hiring people from the US, entering the US Markets, and making sure that everything was compliant on both ends of the company. Comply with US Laws, comply with Chinese laws, and more.

    That was a very exhausting 3 years of his life, the period where he probably lost most of his hair but eh, it was worth it. He was promoted to Head of Department after that and he never looked back after.

    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    He bought a house for himself in Manhattan. He had multiple commercial properties in Manhattan. He had a couple of apartments on rent in Manhattan, two office floors that he rented out.

    For some reason, his real estate portfolio never really ventured out of Manhattan, and for good reason. He got really good rental yields as well as the ease with which he could manage all the properties by himself.

    He purchased the space where his wife practiced as well, so they had, overall, very nice finances.

    Life was going good, great even.

    Then it became even better, when the Invisible Man began operating in Manhattan. Crimes went down, rentals went up. His wife¡¯s business boomed because of the influx of rich people in the city.

    His kids became safer in the neighbourhood. He could actually let them wander around, and explore Manhattan because it was actually safe to do so now. It was heartening to watch the change around the city.

    It was equally disheartening to see the number of threats that the original property owners got to sell their properties at dirt cheap rates before the Invisible Man found out, and shut them down, hard.

    The Invisible Man teamed up with the Mayor, he didn''t know how, but he did that and enacted a law that helped protect the original owners from predators.

    Still, he was working from the same office he did way back when he started. Only now it occupied the entire floor instead of a small section of the floor.

    The work was nice, he knew where everything was, he was paid handsomely, and he was his own boss, all in all, a pretty cozy job.

    Then came him.

    Axle Riddle.

    Even after years of asking the current CEO and even his father, the ex-CEO about the mystery that was Axle Riddle, he was nowhere near the truth of his identity. The man had somehow waltzed into the office and was granted a totally useless title, but with all the benefits that came with a C-suite title.

    Chief of Strategic Bets.

    What kind of nonsensical title was that?

    The thing was, that he could have accepted it if Axle was some hot shot from the industry with decades of experience under his belt but Noooo¡­

    Axle was just 20 20-something young adult who had somehow wormed his way into the executive structure of a 300 billion dollar fund.

    The perks would have been one thing, he could have consoled himself by telling himself that this Axle fellow was simply some relative who got in due to nepotism but no, that was not the case.

    He looked into this Axle and he had no prior history with Finance at all. The bastard was an English Major for god¡¯s sake.

    He had just about resolved himself to call a board of directors meeting when they just handed over control of the free flowing funds of the hedge fund straight to him, over 20 billion dollars of it.

    And then, that bastard went and put that money, no, burned that money by dumping it all into Stark Industries Stock, a failing Stock, at the time.

    He had just about strangled the fellow when his wife called him and reminded him about their anniversary.

    That call from his wife was the only thing that saved his job, and created his confusion.

    He went on a week-long vacation with his wife after that, to cool off a bit. When he came back...

    Well, it was pandemonium.

    Axle¡¯s bets had actually paid off, netting the company with so much money but more importantly, they actually had a seat on the decision making Board of Stark Industries now.

    Something that was much more valuable than mere money, according to Axle that is.

    Ever since that day, he had been watching Axle. How he worked, what he did, and who he talked to.

    But aside from spending an inordinately long time with his Secretary in his office, Axle did nothing that would indicate him doing his job.

    The thing had haunted him for weeks when he had simply resolved to ask the man about it.

    Until now, he had never really interacted with the man, not even once.

    The day he tried to schedule a meeting, was the day Tony Stark appeared in the office, threatening Axle with something.

    After that, Axle came out of his office, dolled out donuts as apology, and went back inside.

    He expected some backlash from upper management but no.

    Nothing came Axle¡¯s way even after weeks of waiting.

    So, he resigned.

    Not the way he wanted his career to end but the stress of the uncertain situation at the office was taking a toll on his body, as well as his marriage.

    Anna was the one who suggested that, especially since their rental portfolio was now making more money in a month than they needed in a year.

    So, he quit and took on a consulting role in the industry. Well, he said consulting but mostly, it was just meetings with senior Analysts, telling them what they did wrong.

    All in all, quite an unexpected career he had with Wu Enterprises.

    ¡°Oh, that looks delicious,¡± Anna said as she finally arrived in the kitchen.

    ¡°Oh, it is,¡± He said as they ate their breakfast in silence.

    Ah, what a blissful life.

    But Damn Axle Riddle.

    <hr>

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

    A/N - I¨CI..I have no idea why I just wrote this. Brain gave this to me and I delivered it to you. Hey! Don¡¯t shoot the messenger.

    Thank you for reading (and sorry, just in case)

    Toodles!

 Chapter 67 : The one with the unconscious RBA, Again!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 67 [October 2010]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    It was nice that the Ancient One was offering her support. It was also very anxiety inducing because of her exact words when he left.

    ¡°A fully realised godling born from an unrealised god,¡± The words from the Ancient One still reverbed in his mind as he readied himself to meet POTUS.

    What did those words mean, he did not exactly know but it was worrying all the same. It meant that Bruce¡¯s child would be strong, much stronger than most humans, probably even at birth itself.

    Those words did not bode well for the delivery of the baby. If it was just a science problem, he wholeheartedly trusted the combined genius of Tony and Bruce in that regard. Armed with Randall as well as Helen Cbho meant that the Science Side was as good as covered completely.

    The problem lies in the mystical side of things. The very existence of Bruce was shrouded in cosmic machinations. His patron was not someone who could be described as anything close to kind or merciful.

    No, the guy below will take every chance he gets at hurting Bruce or stealing Baby Banner. The worst thing was that he wouldn¡¯t be able to do much if that guy actively tries to stir shit up.

    They were very vulnerable and all the Guy Below had to do was nudge a few things here and there, and voila, he had either Baby Hulk, or a very angry Papa Hulk.

    He shuddered as he tried to imagine a situation with A World War Hulk level Bruce rampaging around, without anyone around to stop him.

    As powerful as he was, he knew that he was nowhere close enough to Bruce¡¯s strength levels, someone who could, theoretically, build enough power to sink even the Eastern or Western coast as well.

    No, that was an absolute nightmare scenario. They didn¡¯t have access to Thor, at all, and, without someone on the same level as Thor holding down Hulk, the chances of defeating Hulk were almost nil.

    ¡°Alright, no use worrying about it now. I¡¯ll just have to trust the Ancient One and her mystical experience with all things eldritch,¡± He muttered to himself as he kept a close eye on the convoy that POTUS was using at his rally.

    He could see FUry already waiting in the SHIELD safehouse with an entire STRIKE team outside, for his protection. He didn¡¯t know why they did all those convoluted preparations when they knew that nothing would happen to either of them in Manhattan.

    If something unfortunately does happen, he would be unanimously hated by the entire country for it. He doubted even he could make it if the US Military, along with its advanced spy complex began searching for him. The sheer manpower they could deploy for him was no joke and it was not as if he could flee the city, not with the limitations imposed on him.

    Well, no time like the present, he psyched himself up and then¡­.snuggled into the covers, with the AC on Full blast.

    What was he gonna do? Put on a tuxedo and then sit in his living room, while using his powers to communicate with the POTUS? Now, that would just be the height of stupidity.

    So, with a warm cup of tea that just floated out of the kitchen and straight into his hand, he began prepping the avatar that he would use for this meeting.

    A vortex formed on top of the building where Fury was staying, drawing in small pieces of paper that were shredded out of a newspaper that was lying around, and then culminated in a small burner phone that was prepared with the text to speech software already installed by a nearby vendor.

    He had a deal with the vendor, giving him 200% of the cost of the burner phone in exchange for setting everything up. The money was leftover gang money anyway so no sweat off his back because he broke off every burner phone after it was used only once.

    He mostly used the burner phone only when he interacted with Fury, so it did not happen often but when it did, having a stash of prepared burner phones that could be swiped off at his convenience was incredibly nice.

    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    The paper avatar began slowly floating down the side of the building. The avatar then turned a bit and then waved at the 6 snipers perched on top of different buildings. He could see the sweat running off their foreheads as the action seemed to scare them a bit.

    Hmmm, he wondered why.

    Slowly, he came to the window of the safe house. The very much bulletproof window that was a chore and a half just to open so it always remained closed by the Random Beautiful Agent, since she did not like to exert any effort that was not explicitly required as part of her job.

    The same window¡¯s lock mechanisms were opened from the inside as the paper avatar slipped in the small gap he had created, the window being locked behind him.

    ¡°Top of the morning to you laddies,¡± he shouted out cheerfully using his air manipulation voice, creating a horrible deep tone.

    ¡°Jesus Christ,¡± Fury exclaimed as he re-hostered the gun into his Trench Coat, a look that not anyone could quite pull off. As usual, the Random beautiful Agent lay unconscious near Fury, presumably because she was startled by his voice.

    ¡°You sure everything is fine with her? No anxiety issues? Anything that could explain her fainting fit?¡± He asked Fury who continued to glare at the paper avatar a moment longer before finally turning to the unconscious agent sprawled on the ground.

    He slowly lifted her and deposited her on the utility bed with pink sheets and pink pillows, likely decoration from the Random Beautiful Agent who had begun living in the safehouse for a very long time now.

    It was a very cushy job since she was in a safe environment and now she also had the Internet, or at least whatever SHIELD has allowed her to access, the sanitised version of the Internet, if you will.

    ¡°Yeah, she¡¯ll be fine. POTUS will be meeting you in a couple of hours, and I want to know just what you are going to talk to him about. I want some heads up regarding any harebrained scheme that you might have cooked up,¡± Fury asked him.

    He thought about the problems he wanted to address with POTUS.

    There were many he wanted to address but the prime of which was Bruce¡¯s situation. He was not yet declared a fugitive, officially, but he knew that the moment Bruce stepped out of his protection, they would spare no expense in getting him captured.

    Now, a Bruce who was down on life, depressed, and unwilling to harm anyone whilst actively suicidal? The Army might have a chance at taking the Hulk down then.

    But if Bruce was actually angry and had a family, something to return to, something worth fighting for, well, then let¡¯s just say that even the strongest of weapons that Stark could whip up, would not be able to contend with the Hulk¡¯s sheer raw strength.

    In fact, he knew from his comic lore that even Nukes would not be able to completely wipe off the Hulk from the face of the planet. He would survive even that with ease, and more.

    So, getting an official pardon, or a ¡°BACK OFF¡± notice for Hulk, straight from the White House would be good. Next would be a pardon for the Seven Hulk brother but that is down on the priority list since they don¡¯t seem willing to get out of Manhattan anytime soon and by the time 2012 rolls around, he will go and meet Jiaying on his own.

    Having an un-brainwashed village of enhanced people would go swimmingly, especially if the groundwork he will be trying to lay down with the President works out or not.

    For the experiment to get off the ground and actually work, he might have to actually physically present himself and while that tickled his brains in all the wrong ways, the idea of revealing himself to the world, he might just have to do it one day.

    Now, they do not know what he looks like so something to disguise his true face would work out best, since he would be able to assume his normal civilian identity if things ever went south.

    So, let¡¯s see what he had in mind for the agenda.

    <ol>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Getting Bruce an official Pardon.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Getting the Seven Brothers'' official status in the country</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Setting up the groundwork to have the participation of enhanced people in the workforce.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Plant seeds for eventual legislation that would protect the rights of, and recognise enhanced people as the same as normal vanilla humans.</li>

    </ol>

    So, after thinking long and hard about the meeting, he said to Fury who was patiently waiting, or rather, fuming all this time.

    ¡°Nah, nothing special. I¡¯ll figure it out when the time comes. Now, why don¡¯t we go the warehouse that I am sure you are dying to see,¡± He said and before Fury could mount any sort of defense against that statement, he was swooped in and enveloped by a wind cushion and then thrown in the direction of the warehouse, screaming profanities at the Invisible Man, all the way.

    Man, the reaction of the snipers and the STRIKE team was legendary.

    Now, he could have just gently picked him up and dropped him into the warehouse on the outskirts of the city but where was the fun in that?

    Fury¡¯s screams were heard by him as he deliberately made him take the route in front of his building, the screams sounding like music to his ears.

    Man, he loved bullying the so called badass characters of this universe.

    He couldn¡¯t wait to troll Hawkeye, that man had the signature trollable personality in all of MCU, at least from the movies.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 68 : Excuse Me?!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 68 [October 2010]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Now, that was enough, he decided as he gently took hold of the SHIELD Director, and placed him down on the sidewalk in front of the warehouse, drawing surprised looks from the people in the adjacent warehouses. He did so because¡­.

    ¡°Blarghhh¡±

    Yeah, that. Fury emptied the contents of his stomach. Guess even his hardened body was not prepared for the joyride through the city he was just subjected to. Well, what can you do?

    ¡°Now, Director Fury, if you are done, shall we?¡± The paper avatar gestured at Fury and then began walking deliberately towards the warehouse. He paused but the paper avatar didn¡¯t when Fury whirled around, removed his gun, and shot the paper avatar in the back of its head.

    The shots were silent too, it would seem that SHIELD had guns that didn¡¯t require external silencers to mask the gunshot. Obviously, Fury knew that this was not going to do anything but the man probably just wanted to express his frustration at the helpness of the whole situation. For a man who has been in control of a world spanning organisation like SHIELD, feeling so out of depth must be an entirely new feeling.

    Yeah, he could not sympathize with that, at all.

    ¡°Now, now, Fury. I know you are angry but that is no way to kill someone. You have to actually hit their bodies for the bullets to do their job,¡± The paper avatar creepily turned its neck around, with the body still facing the warehouse, and then spit out the two bullets that Fury had fired at the paper avatar.

    Obviously, he was not going to let it go anywhere near the warehouse, Fury probably already knew that.

    ¡°Now, shall we?¡± The paper avatar gestured and he made sure to give FUry a little nudge from behind to make him behave.

    ¡°Now, I know you want to meet Banner and give him the ¡°I am Fury, Director of SHIELD¡± talk along with whatever pitch you might have for him to come to work for you as a consultant but I am only going to tell you this once, save it! Banner is already stressed enough as is. I am going to talk to POTUS about his situation as well. I believe his warrant is still issued somewhere, only not in use because of their inability to enforce it,¡± The paper avatar said as the doors to the warehouse opened up, revealing a warehouse full of technology and people that most governments could only dream of bringing together for a common cause.

    ¡°Fine¡­wait! You are going to ask the President to pardon Banner? You have to run things like that through me first,¡± Fury rolled his eyes at the paper avatar, his expressions a lot more visual than what he thought would be. Then the sense of shock on his face was incredible as they walked into the warehouse, the center of innovation dedicated to one thing and one thing only.

    The safe birth of Bruce Banner¡¯s child, along with the continued survival of the mother, Betty Ross.

    ¡®I think Bruce should tie the knot now. At Least get engaged or something. It was not nice, living in sin like this. What would Stan Lee say?¡¯

    There was a sense of urgency in the movements of every single person in the warehouse, even in Tony¡¯s when he was working from here. Rest of the time, he worked from either the Stark Facility upstate or from his Residence in LA. The only times he came here was if he needed to deliver some critical component or to make some custom component that only they required.

    So far, things have gone pretty well. Stark was able to source the Vibranium from questionable sources, according to his words. He was not able to get the entirety of the amount requested but whatever amount he got, plus the Vibranium he already had in his stash was more than enough for the operation to be successful.

    Now the most peculiar thing happened the other day when he noticed a Wakanda Raptor entering the edge of his range before flying away, depositing a single drone that was only about the size of a sparrow which then promptly began flying straight to the warehouse where Bruce and the others were working.

    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    He didn¡¯t intercept the drone because, well, mainly he was curious as to what Wakanda was trying to do. He knew there weren¡¯t any explosives in the device so he didn¡¯t exactly stop it but he took all the necessary precautions at the warehouse, which was already fortified to hell and back by both SHIELD and Tony Stark¡¯s personal recommended private contractors.

    The small drone slowly landed on the rooftop of the warehouse or rather, it tried to but he stopped it from completely landing. The drone seemed to be confused about its situation for a moment there but then abruptly, the drone¡¯s entire body unfurled to reveal a small USB.

    That moment was a relief for him which meant that Wakanda had agreed to hand over the information required to build the Vibranium fibres, without much fuss on their end. Oh, he completely expected them to come at him later on with some inane demands but for now, this was more than enough for him.

    That was how Tony got the necessary push to make the final design changes and today was going to be the day, once his meeting with POTUS was over that is, the Vibranium fibres were going to be created. The USB also had data on how to effectively recycle Vibranium with no loss in its properties, creating an infinitely recyclable loop in their hands. So, if the first try wasn¡¯t successful, they could just melt it down, or dismantle it down using the specific frequencies that Wakanda had graciously provided them, and then begin anew.

    What wasn¡¯t going to be possible to restart was the process of inserting them into Betty¡¯s body once it had started. So, they were going to be running countless simulations before even thinking of doing anything to Betty.

    The scenery that greeted them was of what would happen when a bunch of scientists, all extremely proud of their work, were put together in a project with hastily drawn up, unnegotiable, deadlines.

    ¡°And I am telling you that Betty will not be subjected to something so painful. Not if I have any say in it,¡± Bruce could be heard arguing passionately with both of the female scientists on the other hand.

    ¡°Excuse me? Did you just assume what could or couldn¡¯t be done to Betty without her express consent?¡± The wildly offended voice of Simmons could be heard as she berated

    ¡°Besides, this will only be mildly painful compared to the delivery where she will have to pop out your child, Dr.Banner. Ever thought of that before coming here to argue with us on Pain factors?¡±

    Ooh. That particular burn from Dr.Cho was quite a firecracker. He didn¡¯t think Bruce had anything in his arsenal that he could retaliate with. His guess was confirmed when Bruce¡¯s shoulders sagged.

    As Bruce was probably about to announce his defeat to the female scientists/doctor cabal, he interrupted their lovely moment of SCIENCE!

    ¡°Dr.Banner, Dr.Cho, Dr/Simmons, I trust work has been going well?¡± He addressed the three lead scientists, sans Tony, discussing animatedly in front of a hologram showing the human body.

    All three of them turned around. Bruce stiffened at the sight of Nick Fury, already aware of the legendary Director¡¯s reputation and the extent of his powers.

    ¡°Director Fury,¡± x3

    ¡°Doctors, I am here to get the progress report about the entire operation. I have been told that not only has Stark procured the required Vibtranum but also devised a method to use it according to your requirements and then recycle it infinitely as well?¡± Fury asked the doctors.

    He rolled his eyes back into his apartment. This was a power play of sorts, loud and clear. Fury was telling him that he had eyes in the operation.

    Oh. Wasn¡¯t that a shocker? Scientists and analysts provided exclusively by SHIELD, who wore SHIELD uniforms on the daily, reported every single thing that happened in the warehouse to their superiors.

    Oh, what a catastrophic information leak this was!

    ¡°Yes, Dr.Stark was certainly instrumental in making sure the project was finished before time. With his genius, we will be able to start the VIbranium fiber production today itself, once Mr.Invisible Man is free to monitor the process of course,¡± Helen Cho piped up.

    ¡°Yes, Dr.Stark¡¯s methods are truly revolutionary. We have already tested them and the results are as expected. VIbranium can be recycled, infinitely, at least that is what we have observed. Dr.Stark has also made it clear that the methods will be patented by Stark Industries so any attempt by SHIELD to use his technology will result in a lawsuit,¡± Simmons reported to Fury.

    ¡°Yes, Repeatedly,¡± Helen CHo said, exasperated.

    This was Tony¡¯s payment in return for keeping hush about the source of the methods. Now, it was nothing for him and once Wakanda opened up its birders, if could contest that method in court but Tony had assured him that it would not be used for any commercial activity, only for his suit once the Vibranium was done being used by Betty and was ready to be recycled to be incorporated into his suits.

    He had been holding on to a fortune¡¯s worth of Vibranium but was always hesitant to use such a precious metal, in fear of destroying it since it was common consensus that Vibranium, once set, could not be used again.

    Probably didn¡¯t want to end up making a frisbee out of the most versatile metal on the planet, like his father did.

    Maybe, Ultron was right in that regard.

    But Howard Stark did end up making one hell of a legendary frisbee.

    He was sure that the mere mention of recycling Captain America¡¯s shield would have the entire branches of the US Military in arms.

    Huh, wonder what that would be like?

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 69 : The one with the.....Nerd?

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 69 [October 2010]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°Now that this is done, Fury. I will be going to meet the President. He has already finished his rally and the scheduled time is near so I will just go and wait in the lobby. I hope you have already informed them about my paper avatar, otherwise, there might just be a big scene because of you!¡± The paper avatar said and essentially exploded as the chunks of paper, along with a small burner phone traversed through the door that opened and closed on its own.

    The ¡°WAIT!¡± of Fury registered to his senses but quietly ignored as well.

    The paper avatar reformed on top of Waldorf Astoria, the President, and his team keeping a constant vigil on the surroundings of the hotel as well as its internals.

    That was how they probably found him. As he stopped three different sniper bullets from hitting him, he realised that Fury did not inform them about his paper avatar. That, or they were startled at the moment and just shot the first suspicious thing that appeared mid air. It was totally understandable since they were probably already nervous, being in proximity to a being capable of powdering buildings instead of people.

    The paper avatar raised its hands up in the stereotypical harmless pose, and then slowly lowered itself right up until it landed right in front of the lobby, all the while the Secret Service continued to pour out of the hotel in droves.

    He could see that POTUS was about to be escorted outside and was wondering if the prank had gone too far when he saw the President take a call and after doing a literal double take, ordered the Secret Service to stand down and escort the ¡°Paper Man¡± Inside.

    Seriously, Fury? Paper Man? That was such a lame name.

    Soon after, the Secret Service lowered their weapons as they gently escorted him inside the hotel. He was taken to the penthouse suite after going through no less than six security checks wherein they ran him through a metal detector, which obviously pinged because of the burner phone.

    They also tried to frisk him which was just ridiculous in his opinion. After going through all of that, where they no doubt tried to gather all the data they could, he finally came face to the face with the President¡¯s Secretary, an uppity looking woman who just turned her nose up at him as she just gestured at him to follow, not deigning to utter a single word.

    Rude.

    Did she not know he could just dismantle her body from the inside? Or just nudge a few things here and there, leading to total organ collapse a few months later with none being the wiser?

    Oh, he was the Hero here. He was not supposed to think of such things.

    He cleared his thoughts as POTUS finally came into view.

    ¡°Mr.President,¡±

    ¡°Invisible Man? I am sorry, that name is atrocious. Is there anything else I can call you?¡± The President said as he sipped on what seemed to be a glass of whiskey. Damn, he could really hold his liquor then. He thought it was some sort of non alcoholic beverage since he didn¡¯t think the President would want his mental faculties impaired on such an occasion.

    But apparently, he was wrong.

    ¡°Actually, you can just call me IM then. Shortened. I am sorry but I can''t really tell you my real name, if that''s what you were hoping for,¡± The paper avatar said since the burner phone was unable to get any signal for the text to speech software to work properly. It had an offline only mode but that was so bad, it might as well not have existed.

    ¡°Very well, IM. Let¡¯s talk. I believe this is the first time I have ever interacted with someone¡­.¡±

    ¡°Enhanced?¡± He prompted the President, having the paper avatar sit leaned back into the no doubt comfortable chair provided to him.

    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    ¡°...Um, let¡¯s go with¡­. different,¡± The President said after a moment of introspection. This was good. Good thing there was no mutant hating nonsense here. That word itself invoked negative emotions since mutations were seen as an inherently bad thing, mainly because of the widespread proliferation of mutations being one of the side effects of nuclear radiation.

    God, he wished he had empathy at long range just like he did with his TK. Oh yeah, the book that the Ancient One gave him about Spiritual contracts for Dummies, also somehow unlocked some of his powers that he definitely should not have, according to his contract with the ROB.

    He can now sense people¡¯s emotions, but only within like three feet of him. So, peak time Subway rush, a great time to practice his power, a bad time to be hungover for sure. God, the sheer amount of hate, and horniness he felt in that subway train was nauseating.

    ¡°Alright,¡± The paper avatar nodded. ¡°You arranged this meeting, Mr.President. Please tell me what you would like to know,¡± He said straightforwardly because he did not want to think too hard about these conversations later on. It was always better to have an honest straightforward conversation.

    The posture changed, and so did his face, as it slowly began setting into stone, no sign of any emotion leaking from his face or his body. Wow, that change was impressive, especially with liquor in his system.

    ¡°So, IM, I would like to ask you, who, or what are you, really?¡±

    Well, that question was not totally generic, ¡°Well, for starters, I am human. Not a regular human, by any stretch but a human nonetheless. I have extraordinary powers but I did not get them from an experiment,¡±

    ¡°So you got them naturally?¡±

    ¡°Yes, you could say that.¡±

    ¡°Alright, I will take what I can get. Next question, why New York?¡±

    This was beginning to sound like an interrogation of some sort but it was fine as long as he didn''t feel bored.

    ¡°Well, when I woke up, I was in this place. So, I guess you could call this place my home. But don¡¯t worry, I will be moving soon, in a couple of years,¡± He dropped the bomb on POTUS¡¯ lap, taking delight in the way that his heartbeat quickened and his left finger twitched.

    It had probably been a general consensus to leave the Invisible Man, the monster alone, because he was just operating from a single city, no matter how rich or prosperous it might be. Now that they were going to be aware that he was going to move or rather, he could move, it was probably going to light a fire under their asses.

    ¡°...I see. Well, I will be happy to see another city become a safe beacon just like Manhattan has become for¡­people.¡± POTUS said after a beat passed.

    ¡°The Billionaires, IM. The people residing under your umbrella are some of the richest and consequently, most powerful men on the planet. Having influence on so many people at once makes you stronger than most countries. I can say that many people at the White House have been getting antsy seeing the amount of influence you, or rather, your name is collecting as time passes by,¡±

    Oh. Well, it was true.  But it was not as if he used his influence to do anything bad. Even he punished the rich or poor the same when it came to crimes being committed.

    As if reading his thoughts from miles away, POTUS continued, ¡°I know you haven¡¯t used your influence to do anything bad but the fact remains, as of right now, if what you say about your movement is true, you are probably the most powerful person in all of America,¡±

    Wow. That was kind of a disastrous move to make, especially when engaging who is, by all rights, a rival of sorts, not in terms of politics but in terms of power.

    ¡°Also, the cult, the congregations. While you have done an admirable job in suppressing them and giving them healthier outlets, some people in the government are still worried about the cult spreading,¡±

    ¡°That is one of my concerns as well. I have tried my best but the people believe I am some sort of God or something, hoping that I would be able to solve their problems, but I am not. I have told them numerous times but they refuse to listen so I just tasked them with maintaining the kitchens and organising exercise, yoga-sports, camps that anyone can participate in.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I am aware of those initiatives. As I said, you have done a great job in diverting their motivations. Now, I would like to know, what are your future plans?¡±

    ¡°Future plans?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Your Future Plans. What are you going to do later? Which city will you move to? What will happen to the power vacuum you will undoubtedly leave behind? Each and every one of your moves will be monitored by thousands of people. A single step in the wrong direction can have catastrophic consequences, simply because of the sheer power you have in your hands. You have to think carefully about everything and inform us because in case you forgot, it is our job to take care of our citizens.¡±

    Wow, that was kind of an unexpected outburst.

    ¡°Admittedly, we will not be able to do the job as good as you but realistically, no one can. What is it like anyway? To be able to feel an entire city¡¯s worth all at once. Stopping crime in some other place whilst simultaneously having a conversation with me?¡±

    Wow, this was inching dangerously close to Nerd Alert and he did not know what to do here.

    One thing was for certain though, this conversation was heading in uncharted territory.

    He blamed the Alcohol.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 70 : Power Flex!

    A/N - Updates about my demise have been greatly exaggerated!

    So, I had a little oopsie moment with my laptop and it spent about 3 days in the service centre before it was repaired right in front of me in little more than 30 minutes. The pressure of me standing there, just waiting for my laptop must have gotten to the poor guy.

    Anywho, let the updates BEGIN!!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 70 [October 2010]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°Uhh,¡± His mind faltered as he looked at the eager and genuinely curious expression on the President¡¯s face. He did not know if this was some attempt at information gathering because they had exhausted all their other means or if it was just genuinely nerdiness that the President was infected with.

    Guess he would never know.

    ¡°So, my mind doesn¡¯t work in normal ways, as you can probably guess. I have multiple ¡°partitions¡± you could call them, working on different things. So, they are still a part of me but are fragmented enough that they can carry out their own tasks,¡±

    ¡°Fascinating. So your mind essentially creates dumbed down bots that do the job that is assigned to them and just that job, nothing more. What is your information retrieval mechanism because I believe that handling all that information, let alone memorising it, would be fatal, even for someone like you?¡± The President asked him and he was taken aback at the fairly technical and on point question.

    He looked for any hidden speakers, comms, or anything of the sort that the President could use to communicate with his analytical team but he found none. So either he had memorised all these questions or he was genuinely interested.

    He didn¡¯t know which answer he preferred.

    ¡°With all due respect, I don¡¯t believe we are here to discuss the mechanisms of my powers, some of which even I don¡¯t fully understand yet,¡± He interrupted the flow of the conversation and watched as the President seemingly blinked in realisation and straightened up.

    ¡°Ah, yeah, you are right, obviously. Now, as I have said before, you have to understand the sheer impact you make on entire cities so please give us a heads up before you up and leave Manhattan, so that we can double-no triple the law enforcement presence in the city,¡± He said before stowing away the Whiskey glass, along with coaster.

    ¡°Ofcourse, even that might not be enough,¡± He muttered later on, probably referring to the triple manpower required to maintain some semblance of law and order in the city once the Invisible Man is gone.

    ¡°Very well. I promise you that when or if I have to leave Manhattan, even for a short period of time, the government will be informed. Now, I have some thoughts of my own that I wanted to share with you.¡±

    ¡°Please, by all means,¡±

    ¡°Very well, it is on the topic of the Enhanced,¡±

    He carefully watched as the President¡¯s face went blank at the mention of the Enhanced. He knew that this was a sensitive topic, one that was very favourable for the President to ignore, because by the time it became too big to ignore, he would long be out of the White House and enjoying his paid off retirement on some tropical island.

    ¡°I was afraid that this would come up so I have made some prior preparations,¡± POTUS said before he opened one of the drawers and removed a set of files, and threw them on the desk.

    ¡°Those are all the reports that Ross sent his superiors who sent them to me when we were first informed that Ross had already moved on to human experiments and actually had one that had escaped,¡± He chuckled sardonically.

    ¡°You will find that nowhere in the reports, was it mentioned that the experiment was a complete accident, a repeat of which is almost impossible, and the now fugitive was none other than Bruce Banner who was being hunted down like an animal,¡±

    He gained a thoughtful look back in his apartment but then shook his head. POTUS was lying. There was no way he did not know, or at least Ross¡¯ superiors did not know the extent to which Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross would go, to complete his experiments. And the thing about the manhunt would have been more believable if all of Bruce¡¯s civilian identities, and accounts, were not frozen.

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    As things stood, he had two choices in his hands.

    Call out POTUS on his blatant lie, and then watch as any chance of an amicable partnership is washed away.

    OR.

    Go along with the POTUS'' act and then get some benefits in return.

    The choice was easy.

    ¡°I understand. But that still doesn¡¯t make it alright. If Bruce hadn''t found his way into Manhattan, he would have been hunted down by the Army who, by the way, would not have been successful, at all. I know how much power Bruce has and he could, with ease, dismantle even Tony Stark¡¯s suit, let alone anything that the Army could throw at him,¡± His paper avatar said.

    Before the POTUS could get a word in, he interrupted, ¡°I want a full pardon for Bruce Banner as well as the Hulk if the Hulk is registered as a separate entity, to avoid any future pitfalls. Also, the seven brothers, as I told you beforehand, need official citizenship. I will have the details sent to Fury later on but please make sure that they at least have some official protection,¡±

    POTUS looked like he was about to reject when he finally made his statement.

    ¡°Otherwise, I would have to intervene myself and I am sure that nobody in the government wants to go against the combined influence of all the Billionaires I have in Manhattan, along with the earned enmity of myself,¡±

    He watched as POTUS paled and then shakily nodded.

    ¡°Very well. You will have both of these requests granted by the end of the month. I will personally see to it that everything is fast tracked,¡±

    ¡°Now, onto even more stressful matters. About the baby that is currently in¡ª-Ack¡­¡±

    The entire hotel shook as he made his presence known to everybody nearby. Cars began slowing down, their engines working against an inexplicable pressure, all the Secret Service Agents who were rushing inside felt as if they were wading through water instead of air as they felt their breaths getting constricted.

    The table in front of his paper avatar began cracking, creating fractures on the surface of it.

    Then, as if the pressure was not there at all, it disappeared. He watched as the Secret Service began tumbling into the room, the cars on the street jerking forward as the pressure on the car disappeared.

    POTUS was completely shaken as was evidenced by his pale face and sweaty demeanour but he was made of much sterner stuff than he had expected because he just waved off the Secret Service out of the office. As soon as the office doors locked up, ¡°

    ¡°The baby that is in Betty Ross will remain just as it is now, out of reach of anybody that would wish it harm. In fact, anybody who will not see the baby as just a baby, will never be allowed to lay their eyes on him, no matter who it is.¡± He said sternly because the thought of the government stooges exploiting even babies for their own agenda disgusted him to no end.

    He realised that he went a bit too far today but he had to make sure that they knew the consequences of doing something that would lead to Bruce rampaging all over. He was not kidding when he told FUry about Bruce actively hamstringing the Hulk from killing too many people.

    No, if the WORLD WAR HULK scenario ever came to be, he would just have to join in on the suicidal fight against the Strongest There is.

    ¡°You have to understand that as things stand now, Bruce Banner, or rather, the Hulk can be somewhat controlled, restrained. But if something were to happen to someone Bruce loved, be it Betty or the baby, then all bets are off. The Hulk turns into something that you could not even dream of. Capable of shattering islands with a single footstep, parting clouds with a single swipe of his hand, and more importantly, leaving behind just molten irradiated places even if he merely walks through the area,¡±

    The more he detailed the consequences of Bruce turning into his most dangerous form, the paler the President got. The same must be true for all the people listening in on this conversation.

    He¡¯d hate to have to remind another set of people once again.

    ¡°..I-Is all that true?¡±

    ¡°Do you want to risk finding out?¡± He countered back, knowing the answer.

    ¡°Very well. I must admit, the meeting is going in a different manner than I had expected it to,¡±

    He scoffed back in his room, like no shit Sherlock.

    ¡°It is against my nature to let innocents be harmed and babies are the most innocent of them all, so forgive me if I don¡¯t allow anybody from the government, the same government who was about to chase Bruce into oblivion, anywhere close to Bruce¡¯s child,¡±

    ¡°Still, you have to understand why everyone is concerned right? Fury¡¯s report just told us that the baby¡¯s nature is ¡°undocumented¡± and he cannot say anything until he has more information but I know that the Baby will most likely be born enhanced, due to the gamma energy,¡±

    Of Course, the man has spies in SHIELD. Someone high up as well.

    ¡°I have also heard about the complications and all the resources that are being poured into it. I can have all of the scientists we have on hand take a look at ¨C¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think that will be necessary, Mr.President. Between Stark, my own team, Bruce Banner, and Helen Cho, along with the support staff from SHIELD, I believe we have everything sorted out.¡± He refused any help from them, knowing the taint that would come from it.

    He had already informed Randall and Stark about it, no data from the final stages will make it out of that warehouse, save for what was already stored in their brains.

    ¡°Very well, I can see that you will not budge on this. Let¡¯s move on to something else that I am sure you have a lot to talk about,¡±

    ¡°The official inclusion of Enhanced people in the workforce,¡±

    Hmm. His paper avatar leaned forward, to showcase his interest.

    The President smiled as he began speaking.

    ¡°So, I know that getting the public to recognise¡­.¡±

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 71: Introducing.....Random HYDRA analyst 1!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 71 [October 2010]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    All in all, quite a fruitful meeting, he must say. POTUS was not like the usual snivelling politician he had expected him to be. He was firm when he needed to be, and compliant in the face of a force that could level blocks on its own, i.e., the Invisible Man.

    What a stupid name that is but alas, the media gave it to him and unfortunately for most people, the media is the one that runs the things that everybody¡¯s eyeballs are attached to nowadays.

    He could see Fury pacing about in the warehouse, torn between going back to the safehouse to check in on the progress of the POTUS meeting and staying at the warehouse to monitor the work that was actually important.

    Stark was absent but Dr.Banner, Dr.Cho, and Randall (doctorate pending) were working in tandem on something that would undoubtedly be the greatest medical invention of the year, at least when it came to the very niche field of natural Gamma pregnancies. According to his rough estimates, ones that have been corroborated by the good doctors, Betty had almost 40 days left until the pregnancy became too dangerous for her body to sustain.

    He didn¡¯t know what she was thinking, being all carefree, gorging on anything and everything in her sight as she waited for Bruce to come back from work. The stereotypical role of a housewife, unless you count the housewife being an accomplished doctor herself and growing the strongest baby that would ever be born.

    He was currently on a walk outside the city to get himself a Taco, he was somehow craving them these days. One of the few foods that Betty has not yet set her sights on. Due to her sensitive situation, privacy has been suspended for Betty Ross as long as the baby is not born. So, he had to witness the, although quite natural, unfortunate scene of Betty feasting on anything and everything, all at once, all by herself.

    Bruce was obviously unable to say no to her and they already had an unlimited budget that was sponsored by the various billionaires that stayed under his protection.

    Though, he did have to boot one of the newer billionaires that had taken refuge in the city for some reason, and was trying to take advantage of the housekeeping staff that was working in his penthouse. Apparently, the young Russian scion thought that things worked the same as his hometown here and was putting his disgusting paws on the housekeeper.

    Well, safe to say that his exit from Manhattan was swift and precise. Precisely straight into the most filled dumpster he could find, which was not easy anymore because of the regular cleaning drives he initiated monthly now.

    Regular occurrences of rich people being schooled made sure that most rich people in Manhattan behaved, no matter how rich they were. It served as a reminder that the one who was keeping them safe and sound in the city was also the one who could instantaneously serve an eviction notice and then act on it, with zero regard for their so-called power.

    When he first began, he used to do daily cleaning of every piece of garbage across the city, to make sure that the city remained clean but then he realised that he was taking the sweepers¡¯ jobs from them. So, he made sure to only do thorough cleaning once a month, gave them the day off on that particular day of the month, and let them work the rest of the month.

    The same couldn¡¯t be said for the subway though, since the subway had to be cleaned the moment it entered Manhattan. The things he had seen and had to clean from the subway stations were appalling, to say the least.

    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Did people not know that there were public toilets in New York that they could use? And it was not as if he could stop them from doing that.

    He shook his head, trying to get rid of the intrusive thoughts, and focused on the delicious taco that arrived in front of him.

    He rubbed his hands in glee, and dove into the Taco, making sure to enjoy it.

    Food was one of the few things that still drove him, you know. Sex was good and all but due to the lack of enhanced females around the city, he couldn¡¯t really perform the activity without hurting the other party.

    Times like these made him remember She-Hulk. She was enhanced and also very active if he remembered correctly. But even he was not that pent up to let the MCU atrocity of the She-Hulk arrive in his life.

    No, that honor remained to the producers and directors of that godforsaken series.

    Back in the warehouse, he could see that Bruce and the others had taken a lunch break. Aww, Bruce was facetimeting his wife as they both had lunch, just different sizes of servings on both sides.

    Honestly, Betty might be enjoying the eat as much as you can part of the pregnancy more than she or Bruce realises. Her body was metabolising so many calories that she could eat and eat, and it wouldn¡¯t be enough, according to the radiation that she was emitting.

    Bruce and the others were confused as to where all that energy was coming from because no matter how much food Betty ate, it would not be anywhere close enough. That is where his past lore came to mind.

    He informed them that Betty was not in any danger, at least from all her energy being sucked by the baby to be born because the baby was generating its own energy, just like Bruce does when he generates his own mass and continues to regenerate without absorbing an ounce of energy or food from his surroundings.

    The explanation had not mollified any of them but without subjecting Bruce to the experience of turning into the Hulk repeatedly, under lab conditions, they could not bring anything to the table that could disprove his theory.

    They had scheduled the vibranium fibre production for today, once his meeting with the President was done and while he was ready, Tony Stark, as usual, was fashionably late.

    Well, they were significantly ahead of schedule anyway. So, he could afford to slowly savour the delicious explosion of flavours in this Taco.

    God, Mexican food was so delicious.

    Huh, random Beautiful Agent was back. Well, he hoped she had her brain checked out, she did have a habit of fainting at the most inopportune times.

    _____xx_____

    Random HYDRA base somewhere

    ¨CRandom HYDRA Analyst 1¨C

    God, he hated this job.

    ¡°HAIL-HYDRA¡±

    He was overworked and underpaid, the colleagues were unpleasant, and most of all, performance reviews resulted in actual bloodbaths.

    ¡°HAIL-HYDRA¡±

    If he had any choice, he would not have joined this cult disguised as a company. Alas, he was fresh out of college, no place was hiring without experience and he desperately needed to work. He just needed a chance to prove himself, and his skills so that he could eventually move on to better companies.

    ¡°HAIL-HYDRA¡±

    Like Stark Industries, Rand Enterprises, Pym Foundation, and more.

    It was not even remote, which might have justified the low pay and extra workload but no, they needed every one of their little zealots to be in the office so that they could monitor everyone and reward good behaviour. This cold, damp, underlit dungeon of an Office.

    ¡°HAIL-HYDRA¡±

    Ha! Like good behaviour was anything other than licking their master¡¯s assholes.

    He didn¡¯t even care that HYDRA as an organisation was somehow still active. He just had to keep his head down for a few more years, state this experience on his resume, and then get back to work in the actual industry, where he didn¡¯t have to maintain the infrastructure that had to be hidden as games for them to actually work.

    ¡°HAIL-HYDRA¡±

    Yes, yes, he loved HYDRA, said the average red eyed, energy drink infused, computer monkey while being continuously subjected to the horrendous voice that kept saying¡­.

    ¡°HAIL-HYDRA¡±

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 72 : *Sigh*

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 72 [October 2010]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°Now, where is Tony?¡± His paper avatar asked Bruce and the other gathered scientists as they stood in front of a furnace type machine that was actually twice as deep underground as it was above it. There was a chimney attached to it, which blew smoke into one of the prepared containers.

    He did not want to pollute the air himself when he had advocated for clean air many times. Rapid advancement should not come at the cost of the environment that made it possible in the first place.

    ¡°Jarvis says that he is on his way, probably stuck somewhere in traffic. You know how LA traffic is,¡± Bruce said absentmindedly as he continued to look through the specs of the monstrosity built in front of them for the hundredth time.

    ¡°Uh-huh, and would you mind telling me who has a suit capable of flight and also has private jets to store said suit?¡± He asked Bruce who just waved at the paper avatar.

    Wow, people really had lost their fear of him. He didn¡¯t know if that was a good sign or not.

    In the meantime, on the other side of the equation was Betty who was laughing while watching some TV, having a bag of cheetos in her hand?

    ¡°Bruce, are you sure that Cheetos is the right snack for your pregnant girlfriend?¡± He asked Bruce who sighed and looked at him as if telling him :¡¯What do you want me to do?¡¯

    Well, fair enough. She was putting her own life in danger so that baby Gamma Godling could be born. A pack, or three, of Cheetos, was hardly worth a mention when compared to the amount of processed cheese she had guzzled down in the past week alone.

    Seriously, if it were not for the whole life threatening pregnancy thing, women around the world would have been thrilled to realise that they could eat anything and everything in their pregnancy days, simply because of the calorific requirements.

    Betty¡¯s case was unique in the sense no amount of consumed calories would be enough for the Baby because of its unique nature but things were looking out for the good now. They had run more than enough simulations on the whole vibranium fibers.

    They had already taken deep scans of Betty with a portable one that Tony flew over from his workshop and installed in the warehouse. He was the one who was tasked with handling the precious cargo, making sure that nothing in her body was disturbed as she was transported miles away, to the warehouse, without even feeling the wind hitting her face. That precise and smooth was the journey on the Invisible Man commute services.

    The deep scan allowed them to pinpoint the locations in which the Vibranium fibers would be inserted. There would be some bleeding but nothing major.

    Once they were manufactured today, once Stark decided to show up, Bruce and the others were going to be testing the fibre effectiveness on the irradiated lab rats. Oh, he hated this but Bruce told him that he would have to test it on someone alive.

    He had also, privately of course, told him that Tony and he were in talks of developing a similar version of the fibers, to subdue the Hulk, if the need ever arose. And he had to say, both of them really had no idea what they were doing or talking of.

    The Hulk was not dependent on Gamma Energy to wreak havoc everywhere. Yes, he was saturated with Gamma Energy but it was not as if he had a limited store of it.

    The hulk could endlessly generate Gamma Energy. That is because he had a direct line of connection to the Guy Below. Some measly Vibranium fibers woven into his skin that could absorb Gamma Radiation are certainly not going to be able to stop him.

    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    ¡°Finally!¡± he let the paper avatar exclaim, making Bruce jump as he was the closest. When everyone looked at him, including Fury, who was still here for some reason, he replied.

    ¡°Stark¡¯s jet just landed. Once he is in range, I¡¯ll just pick him up,¡± He said and¨Coh my god, Stark had this entire place bugged because Stark just froze for a second as he said that he will pick Tony up.

    Tony probably knew his way of picking people up, as he was the one who was laughing endlessly at the footage of Fury screaming while flying through the air.

    Well of course, Tony would have done that, bugging a project that was literally of national interest and paramount to national security as well, especially if Tony and Bruce could spin it off as developing something to help subdue the Hulk.

    Tony then came out of the airport, entered the nearest parking lot, and entered his suit, rocketing his way towards Manhattan.

    Well, that was no fun.

    ¡°He should be here in a minute,¡± The paper avatar said, which was probably heard by Tony as well because the bastard purposefully steered away from the path, taking a much longer path of flight, resulting in a 2 minute delay. Just how petty can that man be?

    And right on his schedule, the man of the hour arrived.

    ¡°Look who¡¯s here,¡± His paper avatar said as Tony Stark¡¯s suit walked into the warehouse before the suit opened up, revealing Tony in all of his three piece suit glory.

    ¡°Hey, Paper cut machine. Hi, Bruce, how are things holding up? Betty fine? Great,¡±

    He watched as Tony rizzed the crowd, for lack of a better term as he seamlessly switched from social butterfly to nerd engineer as he began looking over the machine as the holograms began blurring together at a dizzying pace, for a normal human anyway.

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get this show on the road,¡± Tony said as Jarvis, piloting the Iron Man suit, carefully unpackaged a custom Arc Reactor built for the machine and slotted it in the deepest part, something that no human could do, and hence, the wait for Tony and his advanced exo suit.

    Everybody, including Fury, watched the process with a hawkish gaze as Tony simply flicked a few digital switches, and then stepped back, with his arms crossed, and an inquisitive look on his face.

    ¡°Now?¡±

    Tony turned around to meet everyone¡¯s gazes and then grinned, ¡°Now? Now, we wait. For approximately 13 hours,¡±

    Oh, come on.

    _____xx_____

    ¡°Pierce! Is there any way to stop that menace from expanding further? According to the reports from WHite House, he is planning to up and leave the city, do you have any idea what that could mean for our operations?¡±

    Alexander Pierce, the World Security Council Secretary, could do nothing but sigh in exhaustion.

    What else could he do when he had already exhausted every manner of help that he had at his disposal. That man simply had a chokehold on the city and nothing they did, no matter how much money they threw at the sensor team, could find the person responsible fro much of the chatter that has been happening with Whitehall and Strucker.

    Both of them have been obsessed with the existence of the Invisible Man and he doesn¡¯t blame them, at all. The thought of having a platoon of such people, ready to be deployed on a battlefield where the space itself would become their weapon, was tantalizing.

    Alas, dreams often fade away, instead of turning into reality.

    The reality was that nothing that he, or SHIELD, could do, was enough to identity the man. Sure, the man had some form of official relationship with SHIELD but that is only a one way line. He just informed SHIELD or asked for help, nothing from their end ever reached him.

    They couldn¡¯t get him to reveal his identity because why would he? They had no leverage on him, aside from the city where he could effectively turn all his men into bloody mists if he so desired.

    The incident with Banner and his lover did present a slight window of opportunity if they could have exploited Ross to get his daughter out of that fortress but apparently, the woman had no lost love for her biological father anymore.

    Then came his influence. The sheer number of billionaires, domestic and foreign that had taken refuge under his umbrella was staggering. It would be safe to say that even HYDRA had to tread carefully around someone capable of rallying almost a third of the world¡¯s wealth.

    In fact, in the privacy of his mind, he was glad that WHitehall and Strucker did not have access to Bruce BAnner and his child because he knew the amount of damage the Hulk would do, especially in light of recent information being revealed by the Invisible Man.

    He did not want that chaotic power in his organisation. He wanted power, yes, but uncontrollable power was as good as no power.

    No, something like the Winter Soldier was infinitely preferable to a Gamma soldier like Blonsky.

    ¡°Gentlemen, I have a plan. It is long term but HYDRA has not survived so long by being impatient. We will be¡­..¡±

    He began explaining to them the bare bones of a plan, the first phase of which will only be executed once the Invisible Man actually leaves the place in the first place.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 73 : Unleashed!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 73 [October 2010]

    Manhattan [13 hours later ~~Spongebob Style~~]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    So that is what Vibranium fibers looked like, looked kind of the same as regular steel, but that was just his spatial senses talking. It might be different if he could actually lay his eyes on it but that was not a security risk he was willing to take.

    ¡°So, I assume you guys need some sleep or should we begin the testing right away?¡± He asked the small group of scientists that had chosen to stay for the procedure, to see the final strands being spat out by the machine in real time. Apparently, all they needed was a specific frequency of vibration hit at specific times, the times which would be decided by the sample of Vibranium you have on hand.

    And that frequency and timing between sonic treatments could only be determined once you can scan the Vibranium sample on hand, since apparently Vibranium constantly shifts its internal structure, for some reason.

    Another mystery ability that makes it the most versatile metal on the planet.

    ¡°Hmm? Yeah, we should all begin tomorrow. Get some good night¡¯s sleep. I¡¯ll make sure the fingers are properly guarded,¡± Tony said as he snapped his fingers, causing the Iron Man suit to come walking towards him, and open its back for him to walk into, then the machine that wove the fibers began shutting down, along with two Iron Men suit emerging from the pods that Tony had transported to the warehouse earlier.

    ¡°They will remain on guard until we return in the morning. Combined with Peeper over here, I am reasonably certain that the Vibranium will be safe.¡± Tony said before taking off through the ceiling.

    Oh yeah, the madlad had specially installed a ceiling that could rapidly open up and then close off just in case he needed to make a vertical take-off.

    Show-off.

    He watched as all of them filtered out of the room, slowly until only the SHIELD guards and Jarvis in the suit were left, keeping guard over the machine. He wondered if the SHIELD agents present were HYDRA or not but it was not as if they could do much, if anything, with Jarvis around.

    ¡°See you tomorrow, Jarvis,¡±

    So, he dissipated the paper avatar and then snuggled up into his bed, back in his apartment, after having a nice crisp beer, that did absolutely nothing to his body due to his metabolism.

    He might just need Space Viking Alcohol to actually get drunk these days but he could not complain, what with the added immunity to most poisons coming with the metabolism.

    He was about to go to sleep when..

    ¡°Ah!¡± He softly exclaimed as a portal opened in his living room, and the Ancient One stepped through, her signature yellow cloak gleaming against the orange fiery glow of the portal.

    The fuck?

    ¡°What happened?¡±

    ¡°We need to talk, Mr.Riddle,¡±

    Well, that wasn¡¯t ominous at all, he grumbled to himself as he got out of the bed.

    ¡°What is it? I was just about to go to sleep, you know?¡±

    ¡°This is related to the godling that Ms.Ross carries in her stomach,¡±

    Her words had him sitting upright and out of the bed in a second, following her into the portal, only for the portal to bounce him back.

    ¡°Ah, my apologies. I assumed that you could get through,¡±

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    She said and he peered at her in confusion because there was no way she did not know about¡­.

    He stiffened as he immediately jumped back, the area he was standing in, jagged Green spikes ran through, making his head hurt from just looking at them.

    In a split second, his mind ran through all the possible conclusions as he jumped out of the apartment window.

    One, THis was not the Ancient One. Some kind of illusion, judging by the dark portal that was now visible instead of the standard orange.

    Two, He could not differentiate between him, at all, only stopping because the Ancient One knew that he could not use portals that led him outside the city.

    Three, they knew his identity, and had chosen to attack him on his home turf.

    They would¡­.rue the day they tried this.

    In a single leap, he was outside his apartment window. In the second beat, he had already scanned the building, confirmed the 37 living residents, and had already mapped out a path for them to get out of the collapsing building.

    Because there was no way the building would remain standing after this. The third beat, he whipped his hand forward, bringing forth an avalanche of sharp matter that hit the misty face of the intruder with the force of hundreds of tons.

    ¡°AA!¡± ¡°Ugh!¡±

    Amidst the screams of the residents being forcefully evacuated, he floated with his entire body covered in a blanket stolen from a nearby store, he watched as the building floor collapsed due to the sheer weight of the attack.

    Even then, he ducked as another volley of dark green spikes attacked him. His eyes went to the small piece of blanket that immediately began turning grey as soon as it came into contact with those spikes. Without hesitation, he cut that part of the blanket and stored it in a groove near the sidewalk, lest some unsuspecting person stumble upon it.

    A series of other clothing items surged around him as he floated on top of the building, waiting for either Master Drumm or the Ancient One to make a move. In the meantime, he made sure that Bruce and Betty, along with the Vibranium were fine.

    Vibranium could be procured once again but Betty¡¯s safety was of paramount importance. He could see Bruce twisting and turning, his face showing unease.

    He once again had to duck between the spikes, their pure energy nature meaning that he could not accurately predict them using his spatial awareness, only able to track the impact they have on the surrounding air and then track them that way.

    Alternatively, his sight was faster in doing so because the spikes were right in front of him.

    The portal was still open but he could not sense anything past that because the portal probably led to someplace very very far away, hindering his investigative powers.

    Whoever had done this, they had come prepared, if their goal was just to out him. If they wanted to kill him, they had to do better than this.

    Shit!

    He exclaimed internally as the spikes then began running through the building and then into the passerby.

    He hastily mapped all the people and just flash evacuated the entire block, and also finally knocked on the Sanctum Wards along with doing it with enough intensity that even the Ancient One should have realised by now that something had happened.

    His form was now visible to any passerby looking for it, or through the hundreds of satellites pointed at Manhattan or through the CCTV cameras, it mattered not. What mattered was this MF¡¯er just exposed his identity and he was going to get his pound of flesh in return.

    His sentiments were apparently returned because the entire building seemingly exploded, revealing a huge monstrosity of tentacles that burned Green to his eyes.

    ¡°Alright, if it¡¯s a fight you want, it¡¯s a fight, you will get,¡± He cracked his neck as the entire block they were standing in began vibrating because he had unlocked his limitations.

    He had already warned Bruce about the danger and advised him to the warehouse where an underground bunker had been built. He was in the process of packing things up when he just packed everything for him and then lifted both of them and straight into the warehouse.

    He then locked the warehouse from any outside intrusion.

    Did the same for all the SHIELD doctors who were staying in the city.

    Then once everyone was accounted for, he simply shut down his second mind.

    In one moment, he was standing in front of the monster that was still growing by the second, the next moment, he was floating with a blue corona surrounding his body, empowering him to heights he previously thought unreachable.

    When he first gained the second mind ability, he was able to offload most of his psychic prowess into the second mind, allowing it to essentially run a city as huge and complex as Manhattan.

    But now that the second mind was shut down, for the first time since he had discovered it, he now had access to everything.

    He could now sense the energy of the being in front of him and realised that it was nothing more than an extension, something that could be regenerated over and over again by the energy of the portal.

    So, he had to make sure the portal was closed but that was not his expertise at the moment.

    His expertise at the moment was¡­.

    ¡°Let¡¯s dance,¡± He said as the entire block seemingly fractured in the middle before the entirety of the matter of the block turning into a huge monstrosity, on par with the monster.

    It was time to finally let loose¡­..

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 74 : Tony Whipped HAHA

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 74 [October 2010]

    Kamar Taj

    ¨CKarl Mordo¨C

    ¡°Are you sure about this, Wong?¡± He asked one of the strongest Masters of Kamar Taj, on par with himself, and as much as it pained him to admit it, Kaecilius as well. Three of them were seemingly on the same step as each other but even then, the gulf between them and the Ancient One was more of a chasm than a step.

    That was why he had chosen to faithfully follow the Ancient One. Because she was the one who kept the realm safe and without chaos.

    ¡°Yes, those were the orders straight from the Ancient One. If you want, we can go and confirm them,¡± Wong suggested and he gave him a look. There was no need to go that far when he was just asking a question.

    Still, the requirements for this ritual were somewhat odd. Then again, rituals themselves were odd, not odd in the sense that they were out of order because the principle of equivalent exchange was still followed in most of the rituals. Odd because the ritual also took into account esoteric properties, like the love for an object, feelings held towards an object, memories, etc.

    That was why he was shocked when the Ancient One asked the Staff of the Living Tribunal to be borrowed, so that she could conduct some kind of ritual.

    ¡°No, if these are the orders, then, by all means,¡± He said as he parted with the relic that had saved his life more times than he could count.

    ¡°Thank you. Now, come, we need to draw the ritual circles once again,¡± Wong hurried back to the massive underground ritual room that was situated right below the training grounds of Kamar Taj.

    ¡°What? Why again?¡± He found himself asking Wong as they sped towards the ritual room, the urgency in Wong¡¯s movement evident.

    ¡°Because, I forgot to connect a line before I sneezed, alright?¡± Wong said to him as he continued walking. Meanwhile, he almost tripped at the reason.

    ¡°Very well. What is the ritual for? And why is the Ancient One doing it herself? Last I remembered, the only time she did something¨C¡±

    ¡°Was when one of the leylines under the Hong Kong Sanctum had misaligned due to some foolish Atlantean mages, I know. But, if I am not wrong, this has the potential to turn into nearly the same level of tragedy, so we better hurry,¡±

    Wong¡¯s words shocked him. He could still remember the state of panic that Kamar Taj had fallen into when one of the major ley lines, out of the seven that criss crossed the planet, one of them had been thrown out of natural alignment by the actions of a supposedly rouge mage of Atlantis.

    The Ancient One had to go personally to Atlantis to school the people there and then had to conduct a massive ritual, over the course of an entire week, where she communed with Gaia to restore the natural alignment of the leylines, allowing the planetary shield to function at its full strength.

    Soon, they had drawn the entire ritual circle, the complexity of which was mind boggling.

    Just as he had stood up from the ritual, he heard her speaking.

    ¡°Great work, Master Mordo, Master Wong.¡±

    The Ancient One had arrived in the ritual room.

    ¡°Now, please guard the ritual room. There are nefarious entities that will stop at nothing to hamper our efforts,¡± with those ominous words, she snapped her fingers and he found himself outside the ritual room, facing the closed door which glowed orange for a moment, then seamlessly melded right into the wall, such that there was no viable entry point into the ritual room now.

    A small part of him wanted to question her on what the hell was going on but the larger part of him was glad that he had his orders that he could follow.

    A rigid structure. Order.

    Some of the favourite things in his life.

    So, he stood guard.

    For hours on end.

    After the fifth hour, there was an alarm that rang throughout Kamar Taj, a shrill voice echoing throughout the complex. He exchanged alarmed looks with Wong as they both realised something had gone wrong with one of the Sanctums.

    This was a specific alarm that could only be raised by a Sanctum Master and should only be raised when the Sanctum itself was in danger of being destroyed.

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    ¡°We need to go, now!¡± Wong said as he snapped at him incredulously.

    ¡°Are you foolish? The Ancient One has given us clear orders. We need to guard the Ritual Room. IT could be a ploy to get us to leave her here. Besides, Master Drumm is a capable Master, and no doubt, other Masters of Kamar Taj must be rushing to help him. What we need to do is follow orders,¡± He said and then stood guard, his wary gaze inspecting every corner of the surroundings.

    He knew that he came off a little rigid in his ways but that was the only way he knew how to live his life now. He was broken when he came to Kamar Taj and Order, that was the one thing that he clung to as he tried to rebuild himself, resulting in this semi broken person known as Mordo.

    Oh, he knew that he was not healed, not by any stretch of the imagination, but at least he had a purpose now. At least, he could rest easy knowing that he did all he could for his family. He now knew that there was no feasible way of bringing back his family, not without desecrating their memory in ways most foul.

    Multiple Masters approached them after they had realised their location but they were under express orders to not leave, so they ordered all the available forces to reinforce the New York Sanctum and then told the rest to stand vigil over Kamar Taj itself.

    ______xx_____

    Meanwhile, in Manhattan, things had heated up.

    Axle Riddle, having finally released all the blockers, or rather, limitations of his powers, stood atop a towering beast made up of material scavenged from the surroundings, standing in front of an eldritch monstrosity made up of dark green and purple tentacles.

    The Monster was still growing but Axle had had enough of this farce. He flooded his presence on the avatar that he had created and to his visible surprise, his entire body along with the entire avatar gained a blue hue as he could now feel as if the avatar he had created was an extension of his limb.

    ¡°Well, that was new,¡± Axle muttered to himself as he experimentally punched the monstrosity. He did not know if this was the right approach or not, especially since all his attempts at closing the portal or sending in enough barrage of things to overwhelm the caster of the portal had gone unsuccessful.

    But since all the surrounding areas had been evacuated, with thousands of people finding themselves standing in Central Park with his COngregation having standing orders to help the people there, he didn''t have to worry much about collateral damage.

    All he was worried about were the people¡­and Bruce.

    The timing was completely suspicious and his mind wandered to BRuce and his connection to the Guy Below.

    A chill ran down his spine when he realised that if he was involved in this, then he was way out of his league. It was a small mercy that he was unable to enter that portal. Who knew where it led to?

    He probably would have been dead now. He was powerful, yes, but it was his mind that was more powerful. His body, while still stronger than most, was woefully inadequate when it came to foes such as the ones he was fighting with.

    His punch had clearly pushed the tentacled monstrosity through a couple of buildings behind him but there was no visible damage done.

    He winced as he saw the portal had disappeared as well.

    Due to his newfound powers, it was as if he had teleported, when he came to the warehouse with Jarvis¡¯ suit along with the SHIELD guards, standing guard over a room that housed the scientists as well as Bruce and Betty.

    He was just in time too because a small green mist had appeared in front of the warehouse, out of which a long green limb came out, followed by more and more of the same limb.

    He didn¡¯t wait around for the portal to open even wider, as he took the excess vibranium that they had, and infused it with his power. His eyes revealed a surprised look as he could feel some sort of connection with the small piece of Vibranium before it too began glowing blue.

    He thrust the Vibranium at the portal¡¯s limbs, the sharp edge of the Vibranium shedding through every little piece of it, throwing dark green blood all over the warehouse floor. The blood melted through the flooring as he threw all the SHIELD security inside the warehouse into another room, separate, from Bruce and Betty.

    ¡°Jarvis? Where is Tony?¡±

    ¡°Sir, is in LA. He has sent an additional two suits to assist you and is in the process of convincing Ms.Potts to let him go,¡± Jarvis¡¯ voice filtered through one of the suits which continued to fire beam after beam at the limbs, doing some damage but not enough.

    Meanwhile, he was piloting the avatar on the other side of the city, both giants duking it out in one corner of the city. He couldn¡¯t let the eldritch monstrosity further into the city but he also couldn¡¯t let it get out of his range. So, he was in a stalemate, at least until the masters arrived.

    ¡°Oh, come on!¡± He shouted in frustration as the limb seemed to go on forever. In a fit of frustration, he threw the vibranium at the edge of the portal itself, the green mist giving way to the blue celestial material.

    He blinked in shock as the vibranium seemed to do some real damage to the portal.

    Well, it would seem that he had a new weapon now.

    Not wasting time, he threw the vibranium at the edges, making sure that the limb stopped using his powers, even though it was gaining ground slowly due to the sheer power behind the limb.

    He could feel the limb fracturing as it hit a wall made out of pure psionic energy but even then, it seemed to push.

    Thankfully, the vibranium came in clutch as it seemingly cut through the portal, destroying it slowly until the portal became too unstable to maintain and winked out of existence.

    His shoulders slumped as he relaxed. But the fight was not over yet, he thought to himself as he watched another portal open on top of the eldritch monstrosity, another series of purple tentacles coming through the portal.

    Just where in the hell were the Masters of the Mystic Arts?

    ¡°Jarvis, stay here. Make sure that only Bruce and Betty are in a single room. Once those two suits arrive, task them to Bruce and BEtty only. They are the priority, understand?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Mr.Invisble Man,¡±

    He nodded at Jarvis and then set off towards the tentacle monster, resolved to end it now, armed with his newfound crude albeit effective weapon.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 75 : YOUR SAVIOR IS HERE!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 75 [October 2010]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Damn, that is huge. He looked at the three tentacle monsters now standing in front of the lone trash monster that his powers had conjured up. Chunks of it were missing but that was not a big problem.

    His powers worked as another few tons of matter were added to the trash robot, which then began marching towards the tentacle monsters when it became clear that all three of them were about to take off in different directions.

    Could not have that in his city, now could he?

    Well, things were going to be rough after this. The existence of this Cthulhu like monster was going to give many of the organisations worldwide, cult like organisations, more ammunition. And that didn¡¯t even take into account what the response of his cult, no- the people who follow him would be. God, things just couldn¡¯t be nice and peaceful until he could get Bruce and Betty a nice cozy beach retirement set up somewhere.

    He winced as one of the tentacles missed his avatar and ended up slamming into a nearby street, puncturing a high pressure water line and also sewer lines as both of these things began pooling in the street.

    That smell is going to take ages to wear off.

    The good news was that his avatar was doing reasonably well¡­as well as it could, in holding off the monsters from rampaging through the city. Meanwhile, he was floating in front of the standoff, pouring more and more of his ¡°amped up¡± energy as he liked to call his new form, into the Vibranium cutting tool he had on hand because the last stunt of cutting through that portal somehow drained the weapon of its energy.

    He still could not sense any portal opening but Jarvis had assured him that he would be warned that in the millisecond a portal of any sort opens within a mile¡¯s radius of Bruce and Betty.

    He had also spotted two afterburner marks, signalling the arrival of two more drones but no sign of Tony or his stupid smug voice and face anywhere. So, it would be safe to say that the man had not arrived yet.

    Huh, Pepper really has him whipped then. No way was Tony Stark going to miss this sort of action but to be fair, he was really far away, and getting all the way here in just his suit was illogical and by the time his private jet made it here, the issue will most likely have resolved itself.

    Seeing that the Vibranium block, which was now beginning to change shape, he had noticed, could not take any more of his psionic energy, he used his powers to create vines made up of building material and held off all the three tentacle monstrosities that the Guy Below had made for some reason.

    For some reason, probably due to the high energy being generated over their skin, his powers could not ¡°hold¡± the monsters as he would for normal people. It was as if his powers were trying to latch onto something that would just pass through the net that his powers were trying to cast.

    So, he had to improvise. Destroy surrounding infrastructure to create giant hands and ropes to restrain monsters that would most likely irradiate and destroy that part of the city once they were destroyed.

    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Another option was to catapult them out of his range but he had noticed the way they shrugged off his glancing blows, capable of duking it out with his avatar, even in his amped up mode. He was not going to risk them getting out of Manhattan, where his powers would be even weaker.

    Seeing the three monsters weakened and the giant avatar from before, crumbling due to the damage done to it, he let the Vibranium block which had now changed shape and turned into a ninja star, for some reason, into the air in front of him.

    The reason was not important at the moment but the timing of the shape being formed was a very nice touch.

    He could not hold the star conventionally using his powers either but it was as if the Vibranium had bonded to him and he could control it with a thought, without ever having to use his powers to do so.

    He willed the star to begin spinning, creating a small localised star that gave off blue stars. The star then created a trail of energy as it whizzed towards the tentacled monsters. As if realising their demise was near, the monsters renewed their struggles but it was not meant to be for them.

    He knew that because he was not there in front of them anymore. No, he was already recalling the ninja star that had already created hundreds of holes in the bodies of those monsters, because he was standing in front of Bruce who was standing in front of a heavily pregnant Betty, already turning faint shades of green.

    All because of a small portal that had appeared right in the room where they were stashed away safely. He had a hunch something was wrong when the monsters were not healing their wounds nearly as fast as before and were also unable to exert much power on the vines imprisoning them.

    From the corner of his eyes, he saw the two scrapped Iron Man suits and the hole in the door, and yet, if it were not for him seeing the portal with his own two eyes, he would have thought that everything in the warehouse was normal.

    Even now, he could see all the other scientists in the other room, huddled together, with all the Guards. Jarvis piloted all three suits and kept a close eye on the entry, exit, and interior of the staff room where bEtty was kept.

    Even as his powers continued to feed him that information, he ordered the ninja star to start cutting through this portal as well but the moment the star came into close vicinity of the portal, the unthinkable happened.

    Like lightning, a hand shot out of the portal and grabbed the star and then, with a thunderous crack, broke the fucking Vibranium with its bare hands. The backlash of that happening was immense to him as he began bleeding through his ears and mouth, his vision dizzy and his ears ringing as the hand grasped the edge of the portal and pushed.

    He staggered back and actually had to be held upright by Bruce as he saw the portal slowly expanding.

    While this was happening, he could see the blood of the tentacled monsters flowing deliberately into the sewers without anything there to stop him. His mind felt so weak and fuzzy, that he could not muster up enough force to stop that blood from contaminating everything in the city.

    The portal was clearly unstable now because there were fissures of lightning occurring around the portal but the hand seemed to be determined in widening the portal for some reason. He didn¡¯t know why because at this point, even the Hulk could have walked through that portal, provided he hunched his back and walked.

    He slowly straightened himself as his somewhat enhanced body began repairing itself. His mind was still shaken from the link between the ninja star, which was probably some sort of bonded weapon at that point, and his mind being broken so abruptly.

    He took a step forward as blue flashes of barriers appeared on his body but he was evidently unable to sustain it as he dropped down to his knees within the next moment. He was about to try again, not knowing what else to do to save Betty, but as if his prayers had been answered, orange filled his vision as he saw some squiggly lines on the ground and then happily passed out, uncaring of the fact that he was still covered in only a flimsy piece of blanket.

    That cheap blanket being the only thing stopping people from outing his hidden identity. But at that point, he was way too injured, dazed, confused, and out of fucks to give, to care about that. He just welcomed the darkness that claimed his vision, the last scene that he managed to see was a giant orange circle to light up underneath the portal, as pure white chains wrapped themselves around the hand as well as the portal.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 76 : Dummies Guide to Astral Realm

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 76 [October 2010]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    With a gasp, he came to consciousness, as his mind returned to awareness of its surroundings. As soon as it happened though, he winced.

    ¡°Ow¡­¡± He had to forcibly control his power and wind it tightly within his mind for his head to stop hurting.

    ¡°Ow indeed. I assume you are finally feeling the effects of the stunt you pulled earlier?¡± He looked to the side as an invisible pressure forced him back on the bed, with the Ancient One reading a book while nonchalantly sipping tea.

    ¡°W-What happened?¡± He croaked out, his mouth feeling completely dry. He muttered a quick thank you as a glass of water slowly flew over to him. He ignored how it continued to be full despite him chugging down most of it within moments.

    ¡°What happened Mr.Riddle is that within a span of an hour, you managed to tangle yourself with one of the most dangerous beings in the universe, pulled off a ridiculous move of combining your latent potential with your partitioned mind which granted you phenomenal levels of power, proceed to battle his avatar using your own avatar, bonded with a block of Vibranium using your powers, and then suffered a backlash from said weapon being destroyed, and then still managed to reach Bruce Banner and Betty Ross to help defend them, where in we found you collapsed,¡±

    ¡°When you put it like that, anything will sound stupid. Where were you, anyway? I had to fight with that guy who was not even taking me seriously and winning, and that was with my shiny new upgrades, you know,¡±

    He conveniently left out the part where he could not really use his powers right now. His head felt bloated as if it was filled with way too much water and was about to spill out of it. He didn¡¯t have the courage to use his TK, that was how intensive the damage was. The shiny new powers did not come without a cost then.

    ¡°That, Mr.Riddle, is someone who can suppress the Vishanti all by himself if there was not someone else of equal power stopping him. Unfortunately, there is not much you can do about him. He has a vested interest in Dr.Banner and more importantly, in his unborn progeny.¡±

    ¡°But he is restricted in how he can act so he pulled that stunt. Wait, are you telling me that was him at his weak point?¡± He asked her incredulously. While he was more than aware of the existence of the One Below All, *chills*, he was of the opinion that the One Above All *Stan Lee Flashes by* was the one keeping him contained.

    If this was his fractional power then¡­.

    ¡°What happened to Betty?¡± He asked her urgently, his mind fighting the urge to just let his powers go and find out for himself since he was pretty sure this was the New York Sanctum and the warehouse was not that far away from here.

    ¡°Ms.Ross is fine. You have been unconscious for three days now. Full recovery will take at least a month,¡± She said, calm as a cucumber.

    ¡°A month?! We don¡¯t have a month. Betty is due in a month and a half. What if something happens until then? And what about the city? Oh, dear god, there must be pandemonium in the city,¡± He panicked and began blubbering.

    It had been years since he had felt this blinded, this helpless. Without his powers, he was unable to keep an eye on the city or keep them safe from the dangers by instilling the fear of god in the minds of criminals.

    Oh, Shit!

    ¡°What about the city? Those tentacled monsters? Their blood was acting as if it was alive and was deliberately spreading to the sewers. I couldn¡¯t do much about it because I had to save Betty and Bruce but did you find out anything?¡± He asked her, his heart sinking as he saw her brows furrowed as she leaned forward, the cup of tea and her book disappearing as if it was never there at all.

    ¡°No, Mr.Riddle. The remnants have been taken into custody by the government and we have purged as much as we could of the mystical influence of those foot soldiers but nothing is permanent. I am afraid that some of the blood that you are talking about, which is cosmic ichor, must have escaped.¡± She said before snapping her fingers.

    He blinked as he found himself sleeping in his clothes and not the medical PJs from before.

    ¡°Here,¡± He looked up to see an armour floating towards him. He yelped a bit as it seemed to sink into his body and then sighed in relief as a warm pleasant sensation spread throughout his body.

    ¡°That is the armour of the Vishanti. It will help you against dark influences, be it from the Astral Realm or the real world.¡±

    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Why would he need to go to the Astral Realm all of a sudden? He was not even that good at it. As if answering his question, another book appeared in front of him. He took hold of it and read the title of the book, and deadpanned at the Ancient One who looked just as serene as before, as if this situation meant nothing to her and did not affect her one bit.

    ¡°A Dummies guide to safe passage in the Astral Realm and the ways to heal one¡¯s spirit¡±

    ¡°That was a mouthful, wasn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°The author of that book is not human, Mr.Riddle. The Astral Realm is home to many species, and while the material universe has found itself devoid of most dragons for eons now, there are some species of dragons that evolved to survive in the Astral Realm, as psionic entities. One of those dragons, quite an eccentric one, managed to inhabit one of the homunculus that we had in possession at the time. That dragon is the reason we know so much about the Astral Realm.¡±

    ¡°You will do well to respect Master Jin¡¯ya as he is the only reason you will recover your soul within the span of a week. In the meantime, I assume you will come to appreciate the struggles of being an ordinary person. I have taken the liberty to inform all of your minions, as you like to call them, that you will be out of commission for a month.¡±

    He opened his mouth to argue when she forestalled him, ¡°Do not worry about them. They will be fine. Just in case, I have also assigned one of the newer Masters to shadow them at all times. Nobody is going to come in and take them from the city,¡±

    He sighed in relief. His existence was really the only thing stopping the vultures from descending into Manhattan, or Bruce and even Betty herself. He liked to think that Ross would not stoop so low so as to hurt his own daughter or his own grandchild for power but he could never be sure with that man.

    For all he knew, Ross could consider the baby as an abomination, a monster, and in his mind, he could be doing Betty a favour by getting rid of the monster in her belly.

    He shook his head to get rid of those dark thoughts. Nothing he can do about them other than heal up and get back to work.

    ¡°I suppose I will have to learn this by myself?¡± He asked her, smiling weakly when she nodded. It was not as if he did not understand the books, the books related to mind and Astral Realm were surprisingly easy to understand. IT was just that the books were really boring and mostly relied on the user¡¯s mind¡¯s imagination to function properly.

    ¡°You will be fine, Mr.Riddle. Now, I have a lot of work to do to strengthen the shields to make sure nothing of this sort happens near one of the Sanctums so¡­off you go,¡± She made a shooing gesture and he found himself standing outside the Sanctum once again, holding onto the book with one hand, and his wallet with the other.

    Well, time to live life like a normal human.

    _____xx____

    ¨CNick Fury¨C

    ¡°Yes, Mr.President, we have taken all the samples into our custody,¡±

    ¡°Yes, Mr.President, multiple blood samples have been found at all the locations of the battle but we are yet to find anything concrete.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir, I have tasked my best men on it.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,¡± He hung up the phone and had the urge to just throw the phone and disappear from the world for a month.

    ¡°Fucking Invisible Man. Not so invisible, are you now?¡± he muttered as a series of photos, clicked using both SHIELD as well as US Government satellites were laid on his table. All of them were from different angles, the darkness making the photo blurry, but it was unmistakable.

    The Invisible Man was a human and had to come out of his hidey hole to fight something of that calibre.

    But then again, it was understandable, he thought to himself as he came out of the makeshift tent office and looked at the now pulverised six blocks worth of an area, filled with nothing but rubble.

    It was good that the Billionaire army that the Invisible Man had raised, along with his cult, had taken all responsibility to rebuilt everything, down to the last brick. Money had already poured in, permits were being granted at an expedited pace, and construction crew had already begun working on the areas that SHIELD had cleared, and declared safe from contamination.

    Contamination from what exactly? He did not know.

    SHIELD Was supposed to be the first line of defense against motherfucking aliens and they somehow entered their backyard without anyone noticing.

    It was their luck that they came to Manhattan, and just Manhattan, where the powers of the guy were the strongest. Otherwise, who knows what kind of death and destruction they would have had to face.

    Well, he had received the news from Banner and Tony. The Invisible Man was injured in the fight and will not be back for atleast a week. That news will never make it into any of the reports because that was just begging for another disaster to occur.

    What was important was that the Invisible Man was just healing, he was not gone. HE will be back and things will turn to normal. In the meantime, he had this headache to deal with.

    How did the fucker do it anyway?

    According to the records, there was a giant ass orange magical circle that appeared all around the island, and then white chains came out of those circles and restrained the tentacles.

    Then, just as they came, they were gone, leaving behind dead husks of those monsters. They had testimonies of the Invisible Man falling unconscious just before the whole white chains came out of the magic circle thing but he did not have access to either the Invisible Man or his closest people to interrogate.

    And even if he did have a brain the size of a pea to try and strongarm his people into an interrogation, he would not do so because he could not do so.

    Everyone had gone underground, save for Banner and Tony, both of whom were individually capable of wrecking anything he sent their way.

    So, there he was, standing amidst the rubble, waiting for the main guests to arrive so that he could finally understand what the fuck had happened!

    "Ow, Motherfucker," He cursed as he almost tripped over a piece of rock.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 77 : A Sobering Realisation......

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 77 [November 2010]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Okay, this was incredibly unsettling.

    He was walking back towards his home, and yet, it felt more like he was walking through a warzone instead of a normal sidewalk. The ability to always be aware of one¡¯s surroundings in advance was not something that could be taken for granted then.

    He had bumped into no less than 7 people in the 15 minutes he had been walking on the sidewalk, it was maddening. People just kept walking, sparing no attention to whom they were walking into. It was as if the prerogative to move was on the other party, not them.

    He couldn¡¯t keep track of the cars, and people running into the cars¡¯ tracks. Nothing.

    All he could do was keep his head down and head back into his apartment. He had already called in sick and told them that he would not be coming to work for atleast a week because he just did not have time for Corporate work right now.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± He said to the hot dog stand owner as he bit into the first real food he had eaten since he woke up from that power overuse coma.

    Apparently, getting yourself a fancy little spirit weapon is all nice and good, only until someone vastly stronger than you gets hold of the spirit weapon and crushes it to bits. He didn¡¯t even know it was possible to crush Vibreanium like that. Break it, bend it? Sure.

    But that hand did not even flinch as his Baby Ninja Star, only half formed, was crushed in its grasp. The soul injury was not affecting his normal cognitive functions since he could think just fine, it was only inhibiting him from using his powers, even in their lowest state.

    He had never been without his awareness for so long. Even when asleep, his second mind continued to work in the background, making sure that he knew where everyone and everything was.

    If needed, the second mind automatically intervened on his behalf, allowing him to take it slow or fast, or focus on other tasks, or not work at all, all without the guilt of having to use his powers for the common good, all the time.

    Soon, his apartment building came into view¡­.or lack thereof.

    ¡°Shit,¡± He paced around in front of the yellow tape that cordoned off the area around his building and a very large area around it as well.

    How could he forget?

    After all, he himself brought down his apartment building while attacking that hand that came through the portal.

    ¡°Well, so much for not going to the office,¡± He said and then turned around. He always kept a go bag in the office handy in case he needed to secure his identity or just grab that bag and run away from this place since it was so freaking scary!

    Good Lord, how did people even function in this chaos without having something like his powers? He was only now coming to realise the huge gift he had, that allowed him to perform well even in mundane day to day tasks.

    ¡°Hey!¡± He had just taken a step when his enhanced senses allowed him to hear the heavy bounding footsteps of someone running towards him.

    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Hello?¡± He asked the SHIELD Agent, trying his best to look harmless, which he probably was, just not to her. He might not have his mind powers but he had his body which was more than enough for him to barrel through whatever they had on hand, unless they managed to shoot him in the head multiple times.

    ¡°Hi, I am Special Agent Paige from SHIELD. Are you one of the tenants of the buildings that were collapsed yesterday?¡± She asked him as she took out her tablet and began going through a list.

    ¡°Ahem, yes, I lived in building C-3, Apartment 204, Axle Riddle,¡± He told her all the information she needed and her face brightened a little as she opened a series of documents about something, he did not know.

    Man, not having his eyes everywhere was really jarring for him. He could not wait for the healing to be done.

    ¡°Ah! Yes, you are on the list. Mr.Riddle, the attack on Manhattan was unfortunate and your situation is even more so. So, until the reconstruction work is done, the government will foot the bill for your stay. Please wait here, I will have someone escort you to possible rental locations so that you can choose one from your¨C¡±

    ¡°No.¡± His reply made her freeze as she looked at him in confusion.

    ¡°Ah, thank you Agent but I will find alternative arrangements. I only lived here because of nostalgia. Thank you for the good work though. I was only a tenant, please compensate the other people fairly. Farewell,¡± He bid her goodbye and left the place.

    ¡°That¡¯s weird," he heard her whisper before she put him on the list of Person of Interest for some reason. Well, let them come and investigate.

    As of right now, he was actually just some normie and not the S-class mind combatant that the entire city¡¯s criminals feared. Speaking of criminals, how was the crime rate doing anyway?

    In the hour that he had been walking the streets of Manhattan, he had not noticed any significant change but this was the first day itself. Who knows what could happen in the span of a week?

    He couldn¡¯t even contact Tony or Bruce or even the Seven Hulks because he had not met any of them. The perks of keeping one¡¯s identity completely secret were many but there were cons as well, as he came to realise right now.

    ¡°Good Morning, Mr.Riddle, I heard what happened to your building, are you alright?¡± The employees at the firm asked him well intentioned.

    ¡°Yeah, I was not there last night. Thankfully.¡± He assured them that he was safe and entered his office. Opening the safe, he found the documents, one of his credit cars that he kept here for safety along with a bundle of cash.

    Welp, time to experience luxury then, he thought to himself as he shoved the ¡°Dummies Guide to Astral Realm¡± into one of the backpacks he had in the office, along with the office laptop, and then headed to the nearest Five Star Hotel.

    He had less than a week to make sure that the fear of the Invisible Man was not reduced in any way, making sure that Manhattan did not turn into a crime den, especially because of all the rich people who might begin indulging themselves.

    ¡®Anyway, I will be off, Shaun. I will be back next week. The events of yesterday¡­.I have a lot to think about, just don¡¯t call or text me even if anything happens because I will be unreachable,¡± He told Shaun, the person who sat right in front of his office.

    He did not actually know what Shaun did just like nobody knew what he did for a living but Shaun nodded and smiled brightly at the notice.

    As he checked into his hotel room for the next week, he couldn¡¯t help but notice that he had no real friends.

    Just acquaintances.

    In his bid to maintain his secret identity, he had detached himself from the people of this world. He had not cultivated interpersonal relationships, and while he did show up at work regularly, he never really talked with anyone there.

    He was just so focused on making sure that he did his ¡°duties¡± with his powers while being on the other side of the city, miles away, that he forgot to have an actual life as well.

    He could have had a vibrant outgoing life with all the resources he had available to him. Money, Time, Youth, Energy.

    He had it all, and not much responsibility as well due to his second mind being the one that did most of the heavy lifting, and yet, all he did was stay cooped up in his apartment or his office, cook good food, train his body, and then sleep.

    Ah, who was he kidding? That was a great life too!

    It¡¯s just that¡­¡±I should probably look into getting friends as well,¡± He said before he dove into the book that Master Jin¡¯ya had written for Kamar Taj who was apparently a psionic dragon who lived in the Astral Realm.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 78: News Delivered!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 78 [November 2010]

    Manhattan

    ¨CBruce Banner¨C

    His mind was still reeling from yesterday¡¯s events that he was all jittery and unable to sleep. In the meantime, to ward off his incoming panic attack, he had taken to cleaning and cooking for Betty. So far, he had been able to make everything she wanted him to make, courtesy of the grocery number given to him by the Invisible Man and online cookbooks.

    Thank god for Betty¡¯s pregnancy because some of the food that he had made, he couldn¡¯t eat himself, let alone feed it to another person. He thought at first that Betty was probably only eating all that stuff so that he wouldn¡¯t feel bad but nobody would be able to eat all that food without uttering a word of complaint, even if it was someone they loved dearly.

    ¡°Oh God,¡± He muttered to himself as he realised something, his movements freezing entirely.

    He hadn¡¯t even proposed to Betty yet.

    Good Lord, what a rookie mistake. He should have done that the moment he found out she was pregnant with his child, instead of floundering about.

    But in his defense, he had some expectations of how his marriage would go. How it would be a small but private ceremony with some of his closest friends. It was another thing entirely, that the people he could call his closest friends at the moment were either eccentric Billionaires, God like people whose face nobody had seen, or enhanced Gamma mutates like himself, like Randall and company.

    He chuckled self deprecatingly as he realised that he was thinking like someone who lived in a fair world. In a fair world, he wouldn¡¯t have to watch all his work being thrown down the drain by someone who was so much more powerful than himself that he couldn¡¯t even be touched, politically speaking.

    Sure, he could turn into the Hulk and overpower anything they could throw at him, but that was not controlled. When he transformed, he let everything loose, nothing was off limits. Anything in sight could be a target and he hated himself for doing that because the moment he was jerked back into the driver¡¯s seat of his body, he could instantly memorise all the things that the Other Guy had done.

    All the soldiers he killed, all the buildings and cars that were destroyed.

    And now?

    Now that he had finally found someone who was willing to be with him, long term, and in an environment that was undoubtedly safe, life had to go ahead and put that in jeopardy as well.

    ¡°Bruce, how are you holding up?¡± He almost jumped at Tony¡¯s voice but by now, he had gotten used to the Eccentric Billionaire¡¯s casual but wildly illegal invasion of his privacy.

    He had somehow hacked everything, or rather, Jarvis had somehow hacked everything. Every phone, computer, even the Refrigerator was somehow hacked by Jarvis. He didn''t even know why Fridges even had computers inside them, especially ones that could connect to the Internet.

    ¡°I am fine, Tony. I am just worried about our work flowing down the drain.¡± He alluded to the manufactured Vibranium fibers along with the machine that made them.

    Tony made an ¡°Ah,¡± Noise in understanding.

    ¡°Do not worry, My Friend. The machine is in complete lockdown, the schematics of which can only be found in my head. Any sign of intrusion, the machine will kill itself, making sure that the designs do not fall into¨C¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t care about that!¡± His voice took on a guttural hue as green blazed in his vision, and he almost snarled at Tony.

    ¡°Oo-kay. Look, Bruce, we are all tense about the situation. But unless and until we can get confirmation from the Invisible Man, we cannot proceed any further, you both know that,¡±

    His words brought clarity to his mind. Yes, that was true.

    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    Unless and until the Invisible Man was back from wherever he went after that huge fight, they could not proceed with anything. No, it would be too risky, for both Betty as well as the Baby, The less said about the collateral damage to the city, the better.

    ¡°Any leads on him?¡± He asked Tony after taking in several deep breaths, hating the pitying look in Tony¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Noo. I have been looking for him for ages, and still no luck. I don''t see why it would be any different right now. Besides, the fighting back there was intense, there was no way it did not drain the big guy, despite his powers,¡± Tony said as multiple videos of the aforementioned fight appeared on the huge screen of the Refrigerator.

    ¡°Also,¡± He looked up at Tony as he replied, ¡°In the end, when both of my suits were instantly torn apart by whatever came through that portal, he seemed to be trying his best but was apparently too exhausted to make any difference. And that was when the weirdness began¡­¡± Even Tony was disturbed by what he saw, and the entire world saw.

    Huge orange circles, spanning the majority of the city had appeared, and the white ethereal chains that shot out of the circle had taken hold of all the three tentacle monsters that were about to go loose rampaging throughout the city. The chains only appeared for a second or two before they disappeared with the magic circle as well, leaving behind the monsters but the monsters did not move and only collapsed on the spot.

    ¡°Yeah, you think it was the work of Invisible Man?¡± He rolled his eyes and flipped the sandwich, as Randall inserted himself into the call as well, his face looking visibly shaken from the entire ordeal.

    ¡°Could be,¡± Tony shrugged, not even phased by his hacked call being hijacked by someone else, ¡°But if he could have done all of that, couldn¡¯t he have done that at the beginning?¡±

    ¡®Some sort of last resort, then? Something that leaves him so exhausted that he would end up falling down to his knees, like he collapsed in front of Dr.Banner here,¡± Randall added his two cents.

    His mind went back to the nightmarish scene. They were safe and protected, so they thought, what with both the Invisible Man looking out and Tony¡¯s Iron Man suits being remotely piloted by Jarvis but they were wrong.

    A mist appeared in the middle of the room, throwing out a shockwave that seemingly burst apart the Iron Man suits, and then shot out a hand that was reaching for Betty.

    At the first sign of trouble, he had already shielded her with his body, ready to let go of the control to let the Other Guy out because he knew that if there was one thing common between both of them, it was the fact that both of them would never do anything that could hurt Betty.

    That was unneeded as the Invisible Man appeared in front of him in a flash, clad in blue, just in time to stop the hand. It had worked as well but the hand, even after bending in grotesque ways, seemed to go on.

    The Invisible Man threw something at the portal but the hand had somehow caught it and crushed it.

    After that, the Invisible Man crashed on the ground.

    He was still too shocked to see the white chains and the portal itself closing, too busy in making sure that Betty was safe, that he completely missed how the invisible Man left the complex.

    ¡°Yeah, I think the Invisible Man is not alone. I went through the available footage and the only working camera at the end was one of the infrared ones on one of my suits.¡±

    He and Randall both looked on curiously as video footage of the attack was played and in the end, it looked as if¡­

    ¡°Yeah, it looks like the land itself swallowed him and it is possible if the Invisible Man used his power, but I checked the sil and it is completely undisturbed. That means that there is a high chance that a portal was involved.¡±

    ¡°....¡±

    ¡°Very Impressive, Mr.Stark. No Wonder he speaks so highly of you,¡± A voice interjected in between as he watched Tony¡¯s face cycle through a number of emotions as a fourth member was added to the conversation.

    ¡°Who is this? How are you doing this?¡± Tony¡¯s face morphed into one of intense concentration and he too dropped the spatula and grabbed his computer, Randall probably doing the same off screen.

    ¡°Don¡¯t bother tracking this call. It is beyond your means, just like the Invisible Man is beyond your means. I am his acquaintance, you could say. He is currently healing from the injuries of the fight. I was also the one who was responsible for disposing of the foul monsters. The Invisible Man will be back in a week¡¯s time, that is all I can say about that,¡±

    ¡°What the hell¡­¡± Tony muttered, probably because he could not find any link going to anyplace other than the three nodes that he, Randall, and Tony was using.

    ¡°How are you doing this, lady? There is no code for this,¡± Randall exclaimed.

    ¡°The How is not important, Mr.Randall. What is important is the fact that Ms.Ross¡¯ pregnancy has advanced into its final stage and the birth of such a powerful being has attracted quite the attention. That was the reason for last night¡¯s fight.¡±

    His face sank as his fears were confirmed.

    Millions in property damage, thousands of people homeless, all because of him.

    ¡°Do not fret, Dr.Banner, for no lives were lost. Also, I will be working round the clock until your baby is delivered, to make sure nothing of this sort happens again. In the meantime, please continue working on your approach.¡±

    ¡°Holy hell!¡± Tony exclaimed just as the mysterious fourth part left the chat.

    ¡°I just received a data packet and you are not going to believe it¡­.¡±

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 79: Minions! Tonight, we protect the city!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 79 [November 2010]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Okay. Good news.

    The city had not gone to the shitter yet although he was already seeing the signs of his absence. Traffic jams were more common, and theft was on the rise but as far as he could see, there was nothing that signified that Violent crimes were on the rise.

    Then again, it had only been two days since he was cooped up in this hotel room, just waiting for his mind to heal so that he could go back and do what he loved best.

    Eating Good Food and enjoying life without the guilt of not having used his powers for the greater good.

    His second mind partition was perfect for that, allowing him to not overly fixate on the areas of maintaining near constant surveillance on the city so that most crimes could be stopped before they were committed or were in the process of being committed.

    Alas, he had a hunch that his latest stunt in assimilating every single bit of his powers and consolidating it had removed the possibility of ever getting the second mind back.

    It did make him supremely powerful though. Powerful enough that he could affect beings with high energy auras around them

    See, ever since he had encountered the Sorcerers using his spatial awareness, he had noticed something around them. For lack of a better term, he called it aura.

    After observing the Sorcerers, Ancient One, the Hulk, and the Seven Hulks, he could confidently say that Aura was an expression of the energy of a being, be it internal or what they could wield through outer means.

    Whenever he tried to use his powers on beings with substantial auras around them, it just slid right off them. The only way to breach that aura is to simply have more power than the other party.

    Now, that was not an issue when it came to most people, save for the Ancient One and the Hulk.

    For the life of him, he had this mental block that he knew he would not be able to breach the Hulk¡¯s energy aura, making him fear the possibility of the Hulk rampaging in his city and him being helpless to stop said rampage.

    The only way he could deescalate that situation, according to his calculations, would be to overwhelm the Hulk with sheer mass and then punt that mass, either into space, which was unlikely, or straight into the Ocean, very far away.

    Now though? Now, he could feel the sheer power in his mind and could actually breach through the Hulk¡¯s aura this time, allowing him to do all sorts of grisly stuff to his insides should he ever act out.

    He took a step out of the study that was also present in the suite, and looked down at the hustle and bustle of the city, and then at the skyscrapers that littered the skyline.

    He wondered what the seven brothers were doing. He knew that Tony was making rounds around the city because of the nearly constant coverage of Iron Man flying through the buildings of Manhattan, being shown on TV.

    Good, that meant that the work had not stopped yet. Betty¡¯s pregnancy was very important, especially after the events that transpired recently.

    He could not believe his shitty luck when he saw that One Below All *Chills*,  one of the supreme bad fuckers of this universe had decided to ambush him. He counted himself lucky that he could not actually get into the portal.

    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

    He could only imagine the grisly fate that would have awaited him on the other side of that portal.

    Also, he could accept the complete failure of his spatial awareness if it was that person on the other side. The guy was the de-facto reality warper of the setting, it would be a piece of cake for him to somehow bypass his powers, especially since he had not fully grown to his full potential yet.

    Still, the guys knew everything. His identity, not that it was hard for someone like him to locate him.

    But also his interpersonal relationship with the Ancient One, along with his connection to the birth of the golding.

    Seriously, Bruce¡¯s life was fucked up and he was glad that he did not have that power. All the power in the world, which the Hulk technically has, would not be enough for him to get involved with the Guy Below.

    His powers were the best, in his humble and totally impartial opinion.

    Speaking of his powers, he was making steady progress towards his eventual unlocking of his spirit.

    See, his injury was not an injury of the soul, not in the traditional sense anyway. It was not as if his soul was damaged and he had to heal the soul itself to use his powers.

    No, his soul was fine. It was the delivery of the powers that was the problem.

    The pipeline between his soul which had the power, and his mind which could effectively use that power was effectively unwound, by his act of brute forcing everything.

    At least, that was what the book told him. Very insightful stuff written in the book though.

    Now, all he had to do was either mend the connection or create a new one. He chose to create a new one, which was less hassle and also better for future powerups if there were any.

    He had made steady progress and would actually be done ahead of schedule, because it should not take more than three days to get the connection done and once the connection was slotted into place, he would be the almighty Invisible Man once again.

    Ah, he missed having supreme power over millions of people and one of the largest cities on the planet.

    Guess it is true, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

    Well, better make sure that he doesn¡¯t have absolute power then. He would have to leave the city in 2012 anyway so it was all for the better.

    ¡®Alright, time for some ~~Room Service,¡± He giddily rubbed his hands as he was about to partake in, in his opinion, the best thing about good hotels.

    Good, round the clock, Room Service.

    Just as his hand took hold of the landline to place the order, he flinched as he heard a gunshot go off. His shoulders slumped as the gunshots kept going as if multiple people were firing rounds.

    He tried to ignore the cries and screams of help from the people, unused to needing protection in Manhattan but alas, there was not much he could do at the moment.

    Didn¡¯t mean that it still didn''t hurt like a bitch though.

    He stopped from putting on his headphones as he heard¡­cheering?

    He ran to the window and his jaw hung agape at what he was seeing.

    Right there, on the edge of the street, were three people standing, waving at the nearby people, standing next to a crumpled up car with multiple police cars behind them.

    ¡°Minions!¡± He cheered as he saw the heroes of the day.

    It was the seven brothers. Well, three of the seven brothers.

    He sighed in relief once he realised that they were helping protect the city in his absence. The costumes were a bit tacky especially since all law enforcement must have some idea about who they were and where they lived but it was the thought that counts, he thought to himself.

    Well, seeing that everyone else was stepping up to the task, he should see to it that he is not left behind in any possible way.

    ¡°Time to grind,¡± He muttered to himself and entered the study room, the sound treatment in the room was the only way he could actually concentrate without having to enter the Astral Realm.

    Another skill that he was still in the process of mastering.

    Once that was done, he wanted to see if he could still use his powers in the Astral Realm. Now, that would be quite cool. Not much would change considering his current powerset but it would be nice to take another step in the direction of the mind and soul.

    He hoped to one day hone his skills to such a level that he could at least get some rudimentary telepathy. Sorcerers could train to get that ability but he, with all his vast psionic energy, could not do that on his own.

    He had to learn, and for him to learn properly, he would have to remove all limiters on his powers, both from the ROBs and his own mental blocks.

    So much to do, and so little time.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 80: GLORIOUS!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 80 [November 2010]

    Manhattan

    ¨CTony Stark¨C

    ¡°So, how goes SCIENCE! My boys?¡± He added after seeing the deadpan stare from Dr.Cho and Dr.Simmons, ¡°--and ladies?¡±

    The ladies turned around without addressing him, seriously his charisma had dropped dangerously ever since everyone in the lab came to know that the reason he was unable to come to the Manhattan Tentacle Fest was because Pepper didn¡¯t let him.

    It was BLASPHEMY! It was a huge spot on his otherwise clean sheet of honor but alas, the lady sayeth and he do as the lady sayeth.

    ¡°Ah, Mr.Stark, you are on time. We are just about to process the fibres, once again,¡± Bruce emphasised on the once again did not go unnoticed by him.

    Yeah, they were redoing the entire thing from scratch. That is, they were taking the already made vibranium fibres, melting them down, and then recreating them exactly, except with just one difference. The time difference in getting all that done was getting on Bruce¡¯s already frayed nerves.

    That one thing would, if successful, make all the difference in the world.

    ¡°I am not sure if the hocus pocus liquid will even work, Mr.Stark,¡± He deadpanned at Cho who actually used those words in a professional setting. It meant that his unique brand of snark was being imprinted on her.

    Nice!

    ¡°I don¡¯t know about you guys but Bruce and I were there to see it, and we know that it should be something.¡± He said, not knowing how to explain the call hijacking that was done, with no trace whatsoever. The real kicker was the small bottle, made from nearly indestructible glass (Jarvis was still trying to break, shatter, melt, dent, or otherwise change the shape of the bottle in any meaningful way), containing a yellow and white liquid.

    One would think that those two colours would mix and give rise to light yellow but now, it was as if the liquid itself was completely mixed with each other, but the liquid sometimes emitted yellow light and sometimes white light.

    ¡°Did you get anything from your reports?¡± Bruce asked him and his mind went back to the weird behaviour he noticed, from himself. He had immediately asked Jarvis to get him checked out, his paranoia meant that he had a full medical suite installed in his workspace down in the basement in LA.

    State of the art, top of the line equipment with custom code written for everything meant that the chances of failure were pretty low. So, he had been feeling extremely peppy when he had gotten himself checked out, and apparently¡­.

    ¡°Yup, Bruce. That lady just gave us some sort of miracle liquid. I am sure that if I drink that, I will become 20 years younger, back to my peak.¡±

    And that was true. Bruce nodded back in confirmation.

    After all, Bruce was the one who received the documentation about the liquid and how to use it properly. He just received the liquid itself.

    Why the segregation he did not know but after seeing the information about the liquid, he was sold on the fact that the Invisible Man was not alone and was probably working with some sort of organisation, in a bid to do something but becoming the de-facto King of Manhattan must slot into their plans somehow.

    He had noted it down in his head because apparently, they could hack anything and everything, going through painfully built and rebuilt firewalls as if they were not even there, and then leaving no trace behind whatsoever of their intrusion.

    God, what a nightmare from a cybersecurity perspective. That lady could probably just go into a bank¡¯s systems, or log into hundreds of banks worldwide, and get herself a small amount, like a million dollars, and then fuck right off, as the banks scrambled to find the data.

    ¡°I know that. I was there when we conducted the experiment. What I want to know is did you get anything negative from your reports? And just because it worked properly with you does not mean it will work well for Betty. She is also pregnant,¡± Bruce began pacing around in front of him, something that he did when he was nervous, which was always nowadays.

    Especially since the attack on him. He still did not know who that was, and how they got past the all encompassing presence of the Invisible Man, and how that tentacle monster was able to overwhelm the Invisible Man enough for him to actually come out and fight him, with his powers.

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    He had seen footage of entire buildings being dissolved into dust just because of a wrong demolition somewhere. The tentacle monsters were big but not too much on the scale of things that the Invisible Man could handle.

    Then there was the blue glowlight he became and how he disappeared just as fast, after doing honest to god magic. Well, sufficiently advanced science would be just as indistinguishable from the normal person.

    It galled him to admit that for the person capable of maintaining awareness over an entire city, he must really look like a caveman in comparison.

    ¡°Bruce, have some faith. We will be conducting tests before we do anything. And the Invisible Man should be back in just three more days. Everything is going to be fine,¡± He reassured Bruce even though he himself was facing some of the heat right now.

    The presence of NYPD in Manhattan had to be quadrupled after the news of the Invisible Man coming back in a week reached the seedy underbelly of New York.

    The criminals who had avoided Manhattan like the plague had come back in droves. Jarvis was currently out there, piloting two remote suits and busting drug rackets, day after day.

    People were scared to come out. Thankfully, the Congregation of the Invisible Man was also somewhat armed and they had taken it upon themselves to guard the city in their patron¡¯s absence as well.

    So, that was good. The kitchens were working fine, nobody wanted to hit that.

    Jarvis predicted that if the Invisible Man did not return on the exact specified day, crime would skyrocket on top of the rates they had right now. Right now, they are just risking it and taking advantage of a rare window that had opened for them.

    If they think that the city is completely devoid of protection. Well, then, let¡¯s just say the government coming in and trying to take away Betty would be the least of their concerns.

    Oh yeah, Betty. Bruce and Betty found themselves being the very first semi permanent residents of the warehouse they were in. Both were pretty shaken and having an Iron Man suit on hand, along with SHIELD security gave them have a peace of mind.

    ¡°Alright,¡± Bruce muttered to himself and then turned around to look at the beauty of a machine making the fibres. Damn, just where in the hell did the Invisible Man get the data for that machine, he would love to know.

    Only if they had the means and the Vibranium to actually study, experiment, and waste the metal, could they make such a sophisticated piece of machinery. Nobody in the world wanted to waste what little Vibranium one could find on hand. Hell, last he heard, he had the second biggest stockpile in all of America, outside of the US government.

    ¡°Oh, there we go,¡± He said as the machine began glowing yellow. The machine was supposed to be completely isolated from the rest of the world, only opening when the fibres were done but the solution that lady had given him did not conform to the standards of the world, so what did he know?

    ¡°What?¡±

    Oh right, he hadn¡¯t told anyone else of the why of today¡¯s process.

    ¡°Oh, Dr.Cho, this is a special process developed for some truly phenomenal effects. Please, once it is done, you will be the first to test it.¡± He told the bewildered doctor and then went back to watching the machine do its work.

    The light seemed to brighten and brighten, until most of his vision was just a big splotch of light, even after wearing sunglasses.

    ¡°GLORIOUS!¡± He didn¡¯t know what overtook him at the moment but he ended up shouting that out as he flipped the switch on the sunglasses, turning them into goggles that covered his entire face from the nose up.

    And yet, despite the intense heat that should be followed by such bright lights, all he could feel was¡­.

    ¡°Oh, this is so gooood,¡± He almost moaned out in relief as the light hit every part of his body, and reduced pains that he didn¡¯t even know existed. It was as if the light was healing everything about him.

    Unfortunately, the light soon reached its crescendo and began dimming down. The glow was then concentrated on a single location that was moving.

    The fibres, he realised. They were done.

    With the entire rest of the team still in shock, and a shocking number of the scientists now sporting guns in their hands, he walked forward, Bruce right behind him, as they unloaded the machine, and had to immediately stop looking as the fibres were bright.

    Immensely so.

    After a moment, the glow died down and as he looked at the fibres, the difference was night and day.

    It was completely yellow and white, interchanging colours at the drop of a hat.

    ¡°Son of a bitch, it worked,¡± His neck snapped to the side as he heard Bruce swear. Bruce never swore!

    ¡°Yeah, it did.¡± He giddily said as he entered the suit that had silently reached behind him. Why would he need tongs or industrial safety equipment when he had the safest suit of them all?

    He gingerly took the fibres and dipped them into a specialised container made, just for this. Once the container was nicely sealed, he looked to the warehouse and saw that everyone was looking at him, probably for some sort of explanation.

    ¡°What are you looking at? Get back to work!¡±

    Ah, he always wanted to say that.

    And look at them, they scrambled back to work even. Did they not know that they were employed by Fury and not him?

    ¡°Anywho, let¡¯s begin the testing, Dr.Cho. I assume you have suitable mutilated animals on hand to test their healing effects?¡± He asked Cho who looked very bewildered and confused about the whole thing.

    Ah, he forgot she was not from around here.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 81: Human Greed, Life blood, and a study into the effects of men on the traffic systems!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 81 [November 2010]

    Experimental Warehouse, Manhattan

    ¨CTony Stark¨C

    ¡°Right, I forgot you don¡¯t know what is happening here,¡± Tony told Dr. Cho who looked highly interested in the totally exotic looking fibers he had in a container on hand. The container was expressly transparent as well, for this exact purpose.

    Even now, as he held the container in his hand, the suit having returned to its patrolling duty around the warehouse, he could feel the effects of the fiber on his body. Whatever liquid that woman had given him, it had miraculous properties.

    He couldn¡¯t believe that they had been somewhat skeptical of the woman¡¯s tall claim.

    ¡°This, Dr.Cho, is the vibranium that we are going to use for the operation of Dr.Betty. Also¨C¡± He scrambled around, and took out a piece of paper from his back pocket and handed it over to Dr.Cho,¡±--this is the way we are going to do it. The insertion points and the optimal depth, along with how the fibers should be connected to each other are perfectly mentioned in that,¡±

    She took one look at the paper and her face instantly fell for some reason, ¡°Dr.Stark, this is completely baseless. For one, this fiber position will mean that we might puncture the umbilical cord. Also, we agreed that we have to calibrate everything while we are taking real time scans from the womb so that we don¡¯t risk anything happening to the natural support system of the baby.¡±

    He sighed internally. He knew how it looked but the proof of that woman¡¯s words was literally in his hands, sending soothing energy all over his body.

    God, this was an addictive feeling. He might just ask the Invisible Man to sell him some, if he had some more.

    ¡°I realise your concerns, Dr.Cho but please, just¡­.Look, you¡¯ll know once you test this,¡± He reluctantly handed over the plastic container holding the fibers.

    ¡°Dr.Stark, my ethics will not allow me¡ªOoh,¡± Her tirade was stopped mid way as she held on to the container.

    ¡°Yes, Dr.Cho. That is correct. The fibers are now literally life giving. I want you to test it on every single animal you have on hand. Please be careful and use them on smaller animals only, because this is all we have and I don¡¯t know how to get into contact with the original supplier,¡± He said, making sure that his hands were in motion and he was concentrating on something else otherwise he would have just snatched the container right out of her hands and done the testing himself.

    God, that stuff was strong and addictive. Especially so for Tony because his body had already been going through the ringer for a couple of years. With the suit, the palladium poisoning, all the alcohol, some drugs, and even the caffeine he consumes on a daily basis. Not to mention the processed food that he inhales every day.

    It was inevitable that he would find something that literally begins healing someone, addictive.

    ¡°Tony, are we sure about this?¡± Bruce asked him, still worried about the consequences of using technology that was clearly so far ahead of the rest of the world, and even him, that it might as well be magic.

    ¡°Well, Bruce, even if we can¡¯t believe her words, we should be able to confirm them, right? After all, that is our job as scientists,¡± He couldn¡¯t believe he had to tell this to Bruce of all people but he could understand. Becoming a father, and especially the father to a very special case baby like the one they were about to have.

    The baby had a very thick energy layer around it, so most modern machines wouldn¡¯t even be able to take a scan of Betty. Fortunately, he was able to make something that could give them the rough positioning of the baby but even that was enough to create so detailed of a map that had arrived in his email, most probably from that woman herself.

    The email was odd too. ¡°[email protected]</a>¡±

    Probably some practical joke that he couldn¡¯t get. Who knew what went through the minds of people who could make portals, create literal panaceas, and simultaneously stretch their minds across an entire city?

    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    It was, quite literally, out of his comprehension which was still limited to the normality that he was so used to.

    The plan was so detailed, it was as if the woman had seen the future and told them the exact details of the baby at the exact time and place, even with the minor changes that might happen because of the position of the mother.

    ¡°..Yeah, yeah, you are right. I¡¯ll go help Helen with the tests,¡± Bruce all but ran after Helen into the bio lab, specifically made to hold any biological material coming from the baby or the mother.

    Eww.

    ¡°Alright, My work here is done, for the moment. Jarvis?¡±

    ¡®Yes, sir,¡± A suit arrived behind him and opened up. He took a step in and grinned as the familiar pain of the back plate latching onto his waist and spine for safeguarding, did not elicit the same level of discomfort as before.

    So, it was true then. The health benefits of that fibre were not temporary. Well well well, it would look like the Invisible Man was hiding so many more secrets than he had thought before.

    It would seem that he would have to track the man down, now that he knew that it was most definitely a human behind all that power, courtesy of the tentacled monster attack on the city.

    If he had any more things like that miracle liquid lying around, well, then it would be in his best interest to track him down, not to like soup himself up but because that stuff was really revolutionary, and in the wrong hands, really dangerous.

    Now, he wasn''t saying that his hands were the right ones but he was really curious. Just so, so curious.

    ¡°Hey! No shoplifting!¡± He slowly floated in front of a woman who was running from a store manager, with goodies in her hands with his index finger pointed at her.

    She promptly dropped all the stuff and then raised her hands up. The store manager finally caught up, thanked him, collected the items, and then ran back once again, not even waiting for the police to come.

    So, that is how things worked around here. They just trusted the always watching man to just solve the problem for them. To hold the system accountable and make sure that the perpetrators did not get off scot free.

    In his early days, that would translate to him breaking the thugs¡¯ body in such a way that it would keep them alive and nothing more, and everyone knew the back breaking burden of using any healthcare system in all of America.

    Nowadays though? No thug or even organised crime across America did not have any designs on the wealthiest, most influential, with the least threat of law enforcement, a city in the wealthiest country on the planet.

    All because of the actions of a single person. He had probably retired many people just based on their rental portfolios alone, and had also driven out corporations from buying out all the single family, or double units so that they could charge a bomb for any rental.

    Even Stark Industries was unable to buy any apartments en masse for its; employees. They had to resort to dealing with an owners association who then allowed them to negotiate leases for entire buildings so that the employees that would eventually go on to work in Stark Tower, would have someplace to stay.

    God, the real estate in this place was beyond expensive but it was also worth it. Clean water, air, and food, along with guaranteed zero crime and express problem solving by none other than the de facto strongest entity on the planet.

    Or so they had thought. As it turns out, there is someone out there, it could be the tentacle monsters, or whoever had sent them through the portal, that could actually rival or even defeat the Invisible Man.

    That single act of absence meant that the rats had started coming out of their hidey hole. In conjunction with the NYPD, he had already recovered and burned off tons of hard drugs, let alone Weed and the other soft drugs.

    Things were rapidly devolving and he did not know if the city could take another two days before a major incident happened.

    For one, the Mayor, who had taken some harsh decisions regarding many things, affecting multiple communities, based on the expected backing of the Invisible Man, was currently scrambling for protection.

    That was a person of interest for Jarvis. The NYPD was scrambling because crime across all areas was increasing. Not skyrocketing yet, but increasing nonetheless.

    Shoplifting had increased dramatically, mainly because all the shops in Manhattan had simply not invested in their security. Years of safety meant that they had probably already forgotten the basic safety measures that everyone in the rest of the parts of the world practiced, like security staff for high end stores.

    He shook his head as he had to intervene in yet another cop chase that was disturbing the overall traffic environment of the city. The traffic was yet another thing that he had never thought of the Invisible Man interfering in.

    Now it made sense why the traffic in the city was completely manageable despite every millionaire in town owning some sort of luxury vehicle because the Invisible Man had built underground multi level car parking near every major destination, with the permission of the city.

    The proceeds, ofcourse, went to charity.

    So far, he has deployed 7 of his suits to this city alone. That was more effective than a small army in terms of the sheer firepower he had on hand but the suits were built with modern warfare in mind, not urban law enforcement. Otherwise, he would have built them to have much friendlier faces, instead of faceless masks that were badass but could be scary to the children.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 82: Spa, Food & Sleep : THE TRIFECTA

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 82 [November 2010]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Ah, that was the stuff, he thought to himself as he had a 5 star in house spa treatment at the hotel he was staying. It was really nice to be able to use his functionally unlimited cash reserves to finally do something nice to his body.

    Now, he was sure that he was not getting the full treatment because his body was simply not built the normal way, which would be evident if one took a look at the effort the masseuse was having to expend just so that he could feel something.

    Also, his control over his body meant that he could soften the tissue or muscle at the point where she was working, and even then, it must be an uphill battle for her.

    How did he end up in a spa instead of his hotel room, where he should be cooped up, working to remove the blockage on his powers?

    Ah, yes.

    Boredom.

    Yes, Boredom was the simple one word answer to the question as to why he was not prioritising the work that could end up restoring order to a city housing millions. Yeah, he felt guilty and terrible but the thing was, he was only human, even if a vastly overpowered one.

    That meant that his mind was human as well, at least he liked to think so. So, it wandered off, unheeding of its own priorities. It led to stagnation, where he couldn¡¯t think of the book and its solutions and how to better use the psionic energy within oneself, resonate it with the Astral Realm, and then use that amalgamation to soothe one¡¯s spirit. In his case, heal his soul from the backlash of his bonded weapon being destroyed.

    Good lord, how stupid was he to just think that he could tangle with the One Below All *chills* There it was, once again, even thinking that name would bring him chills.

    There was probably a reason why he was so strong and he had an active interest in Bruce and his child. For now, he was assured that the Ancient One was protecting the city from undue interferences like that and Tony was having a field day in the city, already having deployed at least 7 Iron Men suits to help fend off the growing wave of crime.

    Yeah, he had noticed the crime.

    From the day that Randall and Co had to stop that car chase to today, it had been 4 days. There was only a single day left until the deadline given to the city by the Ancient One ends.

    And even now, he was not sure if his solution would work or not. See, the Astral Realm was not like a tangible place that one could mark and then go to the same address.

    It doesn¡¯t work like tha¡­. ¡°Ah, yes, that¡¯s the spot,¡± He almost moaned as the masseuse finally started working on his neck muscles, which he had to consciously soften to make it possible for her to work on.

    So, where was he?

    Ah, yes. The Bullshit that was the Astral Realm.

    Everyone had an imprint in the Astral Realm. Even non sentient animals, they too had much smaller imprints in the Astral Realm. The way to heal the spirit was to look for that imprint, which was very hard, considering that the Astral Realm was shared by the entire universe, and as he said earlier, there was no definitive address to the Astral Realm.

    Then use the psionic energy that every being had in minute quantities, resonate with your own imprint which was now filled with energy from the Astral Realm, and then use the mixture of energies from both sides to bring both the imprints to equilibrium, i.e., a healed state.

    To do that, however, he had to locate his imprint, which he did. Quite easily, in fact, because his imprint was just that much brighter than the rest of them. He also found out that there were other Astral Dragons in the Astral Realm, just like Master Jin¡¯Ya but far more bloodthirsty or rather, soulthirsty, because he had to fend off three dragons like that.

    And it was not fun, because while he could use his psionic powers in the Astral Realm, and even manipulate the surrounding energies to augment his soul, the dragons were that much more used to the energy, trying to eat him up.

    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    He won, obviously but that whole encounter left him more exhausted than he would care to admit.

    Now, he had found his imprint in the Astral Realm, learned all there was to learn about this healing method, had gotten into a fight with Astral Dragons, and more importantly, won.

    Now, all there was left to do was complete the resonation process, and then the Astral Realm would do the needful. There was no complicated soul surgery procedure or anything. The Astral Realm will precisely heal as much as can be healed.

    The process was almost done, ahead of schedule. He was overjoyed and was about to dive into it when he realised that he had done nothing but read, work, and eat all the past 5 days, and he was exhausted a bit, mentally speaking.

    Being of the opinion that anything related to the soul should be handled with extreme caution, he decided to unwind for the rest of the day, and then work on the resonation in the morning, after a good night¡¯s sleep.

    Ofcourse, for him, a good night¡¯s sleep is barely more than two hours so he will be up in the very early morning and hopefully, healed up by noon, so he could make his huge debut.

    ¡°Alright, Trisha. Thanks, but I think, for now, this is enough,¡± He said out loud and Trisha let out a quiet sigh of relief that she didn¡¯t think he could hear.

    ¡°Okay, Axle,¡±

    The sound of the door closing had him hopping into the shower and changing into a fresh pair of clothing, delivered by the hotel itself. Seriously, five star hotel concierge, combined with an Amex Card, meant that he could have anything he wanted, hand delivered to him at his room.

    That was how he got any clothing for the past week. Everything he had, was burned down in the fire.

    Thank goodness that he kept all his LEGO collectibles in a fire resistant, flood resistant storage container in the center of the city. It cost a pretty penny but hey, NOTHING is too expensive to safeguard his Death Star.

    ¡°Your finest wine and anything the chef recommends for the day. Surprise me,¡± He said to the waiter when he was about to give him the menu. The waiter nodded mutely and left the table.

    He looked around and really looked, not just use his eyes to fill in the colour with the data he was getting from his powers. He saw various people, mostly very rich ones with their families, girlfriends, and second girlfriends, having fun in the hotel.

    Well, he knew this was coming when he created a safe haven for everyone. Rich people, indulging in their vices, with girls half their age, well, that was to be expected.

    He couldn¡¯t really stop them from making bad choices. The girls were adults, that much he could confirm and that was that.

    Also, he had a standing no crime policy anywhere in the city, it didn''t matter if you were a billionaire or a hundred billionaire, or a humble taxi driver.

    So, that probably helps the girl in making sure that least they won¡¯t be killed and the matter hushed by the obviously rich and powerful.

    Shaking his head to get rid of what old unethical men do with their money and power, he instead focused on the steak that had arrived in front of him.

    It looked delicious.

    ¡°Thank you,¡±

    ¡°Enjoy your meal,¡±

    Pleasant interaction aside, the wine was great. And the steak was immaculate.

    Unfortunately, even after drinking an entire bottle, something that drew strange gazes from the waiter assigned to him, he could feel no buzz.

    So, that was 10k down the drain.

    He came back to his room and sighed as he saw the book, exactly where he kept it, its deceptively small size hiding the gargantuan number of pages inside the book and the even more exhaustive amount of information inside.

    Well, he couldn''t exactly fault Master Jin¡¯Ya for being thorough with his information. This was a book about the soul and anything missing can, and will, result in shredded souls.

    ¡°Ah, this sucks!¡± He grumbled as he changed into his pyjamas, manually, and entered the sheets, the heavy comfy sheets.

    ¡°Nighty night!¡± he mumbled to himself as sleep finally claimed him.

    _____xx_____

    His eyes snapped open as he looked out of the window. It was still dark. His eyes went to the bedside clock.

    4:00 AM. Good.

    He got up and got ready which took a lot more time than it would have taken if he still had his powers.

    ¡°Yeah, I need a cab. Yeah? To 177A Bleecker Street. Great.¡± He called the room service and booked himself a premium cab.

    Grabbed everything that he felt he needed, and went down to the receptionist.

    ¡°Mr.Riddle, thank you for staying with us. We hope to host you soon in the future.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, me too.¡± The pretty receptionist smiled at him as she gestured him towards a person waiting at the entrance.

    The person was the driver who drove a black limousine, probably from the hotel itself. He saw a nice charge being added to the bill for chaperone services, but that was fine.

    He was loaded anyway.

    ¡°Mr.Riddle, I have been instructed by the Ancient One to provide you access to the ritual room. Please, this way." Master Drumm said as he was ushered to the ritual room, a room strengthened by the best wards so that any outside influence doesn¡¯t exceed the ritual room¡¯s premises.

    Perfect for his purpose today.

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s begin,¡± He muttered as he began the ritual that would change everything he knew about the limitations imposed on him.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 83 : Soul scape, Enlightenment, and then back to Ball crushing!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 83 [November 2010]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°So, where did it go? Ah-hah! There it is, the restructuring of a standard ritual room to better manifest one¡¯s own psionic form without leaking into the Astral Realm¡­¡± He muttered to himself as he held the book in one hand, and followed Master Jin¡¯Ya¡¯s explicit instructions with the other.

    Because while the ritual room was standardised for a number of reasons, it did not offer the best efficiency when it came to dealing with psionic energy as well as the Astral Realm. So, he was altering the symbols etched on the ground with a  tool that was present inside the ritual rooms as a standard etching tool, mystical one with orange and red accents as well.

    Really went well with the theme of the room.

    ¡°Alright, here goes nothing,¡± He safely stored the book inside one of the book vaults in the ritual room, sat down in the center of the ritual circle, took out a bottle pre filled with his blood this morning, taken out with a syringe of course. He was not crass so as to cut his finger open and then draw blood from it.

    Not only was it unsanitary and did not guarantee an accurate drop location, in his case, it would not be enough because his healing factor would close the wound so fast that there would barely be a few drops of the material.

    So, he had to use extra pressure on his skin, on top of using the strongest syringe he could find, to actually penetrate his skin, and then take out his blood. Which was very precious, by the way, because the blood of a being could be used for a number of nefarious rituals.

    Come to think of it, rituals as a field itself leaned heavily to the dark than the light. And in his case, it was willingly given blood, which could be used to even more devastating effects.

    Thankfully, almost all of Blood Rituals had been purged from every single library on the planet, save for some in Romania along with whatever personal collection Dracula has. That limited the usage of such vile rituals but as you can see him mutter gibberish that he knew not the meaning of, some Blood Rituals still remain within Kamar Taj¡¯s library.

    He closed his eyes as his body seemed to continue muttering the gibberish he learned inside Master Jin¡¯Ya¡¯s book, as he found himself floating in a space that was oddly familiar to him.

    He could feel that his powers were still not back so the ritual was not entirely done. Unfortunately, the process of unlocking one¡¯s spirit blockade was unique to every single person out there, so there was not much the book would help him beyond this point.

    He was currently barefoot, wearing a simple T-shirt and Jeans, along with a cap, overlooking a vast expanse of grasslands that led to a huge mountain. The sun was overhead and yet, there was a cool breeze with the sunlight being gentle on his skin.

    It was nice. It was nice to know that he had such a pleasant soul scape.

    With nothing else to do, but reach the mountains, since that was the defining character of this picture, he started walking towards the giant range of mountains.

    In the meantime, he could feel his body slowly heat up, not from the sun, he would know that because he was feeling the same under the shade of a nearby tree as well.

    No, it was as if some sort of pressure was being built up.

    ¡°No!¡± His eyes widened as he booked it towards the mountain with all his might. The pressure was building up but it was not in his body.

    No, he was feeling it in his current avatar but he was a soul projection. The psionic pressure was building up right in his soul and if he did not find a way to unshackle his soul before the pressure reached its peak, well, then, bye bye Axle Riddle.

    Mid way through his sprint, he found himself jumping higher and higher, the land going farther away in every jump. It was kinda scary especially since he did not have his powers to fall back upon but time was of the essence and he could be a pussy later on.

    Taking wide jumps, like the Hulk, he soon found himself at the base of the mountain, after crossing over a river of crocs that looked oddly translucent, with the same colour of energy as his empowered self when he combined his second mind with his primary one, granting himself a phenomenal boost in power.

    The pressure was quite literally visible now in his avatar as he looked at the huge blue door etched on the side of the mountain, its silhouette visible from afar. Looking at the shiny and very slippery sides of the mountains, he abandoned any plans of climbing it and decided to try his luck jumping straight at it.

    ¡°1¡­2¡­3¡­Jump!¡± He backed up a bit and after taking a bit of a run, jumped with all his might. He did not know what he was expecting but face planting on the side of the mountain was not it.

    He tried to gain leverage of any sort but the mountain was bare, as if someone had drawn it without taking into account any natural crevices or depression that mountains get when they are formed, naturally, that is.

    ¡°Alright¡­Once more,¡± He tried to psych himself up but that was a bit hard with the ever increasing pressure in his body. It was bearable now but he did not know how long he could hold on.

    With each jump, he could feel himself getting closer but with each jump, the pressure also increased. He did not know what to do when he saw his hand carved through the ground as if it was butter, because of the blue hue that now surrounded his body, courtesy of the ever increasing Psionic pressure in his body.

    He looked back at the trees and had a brilliant, possibly stupid and suicidal, but brilliant idea.

    His hands worked like an axe, as he mowed down trees after trees. If he could not reach the door on his own, he would build something that would take him there.

    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Midway through skinning one of the trees, he froze and slapped his head as he forgot to try one thing. If his aura, as he liked to call it now since he could not direct the flow of that energy anywhere, could carve through stone, sand, and trees, maybe it could do the same for the mountain over there.

    He jumped as far as he could, reaching the mountain in an instant, and then jabbed his fingers at the mountain, hoping to at least create some leverage so that he could slow down his descent.

    Nope, no such thing. Instead, he felt his fingers hitting blocks of steel that refused to so much as ripple, as he plummeted down to the ground.

    Thankfully, this was his soul world and as such, no physical damage occurred to him but the blow to his ego was another thing.

    Seeing that his conjecture was wrong and there was no way the universe would let him take the easy way out, he set out to build a seesaw. Well, originally, he wanted to build a trebuchet so that he could take practice runs, really aim it right at the door, and then do the deed but as it turned out, in the real world, there is only time for fast and barely working, not perfectly working and slow.

    So, he had to mimic the deadlines that corporate overlords set for their employees and stand on one side of the tree, holding a huge rock he took out from the river, after batting away the translucent crocs ofcourse. They were no match for his mighty aura, as he dug out the rock and flopped to the side of the river like a dying fish, the pressure now almost too much to bear.

    ¡°Alright¡­let¡¯s fucking GOOOOO!¡± His voice echoed in the distance as he threw the rock on the other end of the seesaw and found himself being flung at the mountain at breakneck speeds. Now, he had done some rough aiming of the seesaw but there were bound to be some irregularities with such crude applications.

    ¡°AAA¡ªAck!¡± As such, he found his glorious jump over the grasslands, culminating in face planting on the side of the mountain, once again. The shiny surface made sure that he slid right down.

    Thankfully, he had the presence of mind to hold onto the handle of the door as he slid on top of the door. Atleast his jump led him above the door.

    He pulled himself up using one hand, balancing his entire body weight on a single hand, holding onto the door handle which was decidedly human sized while the door itself looked as if it was made for Surtur.

    How the hell was he supposed to open something like that without his powers?

    ¡°Hmm¡­..Oh! What the hell.¡± He just shoved his blue auar-ed hand into the lock of the door, his hand easily swallowed by the giant lock on the door.

    Thankfully, his gambit worked as he could feel the pressure in his body being sucked by the door, the door itself lighting up in a blazing blue as he felt his hand get sucked in.

    He panicked a bit as he found his body being pulled in an inky black substance but there was nothing he could do as he found himself swallowed whole.

    ______xx____

    Information.

    Information all around.

    His eyes snapped open, if they could even be called ¡°eyes¡± at the moment as he took in the mountain of information available to him at all times.

    His mind had expanded to such a level that he could process trillions of data nodes simultaneously, all the while pondering upon his life upto this moment and how he would achieve what he wanted to achieve in the near future.

    He couldn¡¯t really be called Axle Riddle at this point. No, that was just someone who was playing around with the powers that were given to them.

    Not much of a plan, somewhat of a wuss because he did not even fight against the restrictions that were imposed on him.

    Incompetent enough that he believed that he could not master Telepathy, even after having so much psionic energy at one¡¯s disposal. A baby could have learned Telepathy if given the right instructions.

    Instructions that were within reach, if only the fool asked.

    But NO! The restrictions are absolute. The ROB¡¯s word was absolute.

    He was only a partial avatar of the Sage Force.

    Bullshit!

    There was no such thing as a partial avatar.

    There was the Sage Force and all it encompassed.

    And he, somehow, had found himself in one of the most dangerous multiverses, with a broken down power. But no, the power itself was not broken, it was just muted¡­subdued by an outside force.

    He sneered as his mind immediately ran a million simulations and found a multitude of answers as to why the ROB would do that.

    Entertainment being the most likely answer.

    Unfortunately, his current enlightened state was only sustained because of the blockade that allowed the Sage Force to force open the gate for a few moments.

    Once the blockade was cleared and his powers returned, he would return to being the dumb old Axle Riddle.

    No, this was a travesty.

    The sheer amount of power he could wield now, even for a few moments, dwarfed whatever he had thought of the Sage Force before.

    ¡°I understand now. Thank you,¡± He bowed to the unseen all encompassing force that had facilitated this exchange.

    ¡°Now, how to fuck over the bastard that put me in this position?¡± He asked himself the question and with the Sage Force fully accessible to him, he received hundreds of answers instantly.

    His eyes lit up as his mind read, comprehended, and chose the option most fun for him.

    Because while he might be an intellectual in this state, his base state was still Axle Riddle and that asshole loved to mess with people, especially those in positions of authority.

    Downloading the plans into Axle Riddle¡¯s subconscious because his puny mind would not be able to comprehend the vastness of the plan, he cut the connection and sadly¡­returned to being Axle Riddle.

    ____xx____

    GASP!

    He awoke with a gasp, his throat dry, his heart pounding as he looked around him. He sighed in relief once he felt his powers return, much stronger than before.

    No, not stronger, just easier to use somehow. He did not need the second mind now to process the sheer amount of background information.

    Also, his TK felt much more powerful than before. He had to be careful, uncalibrated TK would just tear apart people.

    He floated over a pitcher of water tailor made for such situations and gulped down all the water he could.

    His mind whirled with new possibilities as he took hold of the city.

    Drug dealers found themselves flung outside the city, one or two major limbs broken depending on the drugs they were peddling.

    Subways found themselves clean again.

    Thieves, shoplifters were brought gently to the nearest NYPD officer.

    All guns, save for law enforcement, were confiscated and crushed to form a large ball, which was then deposited in front of the nearest precinct.

    Seven active rapists had their balls crushed.

    Six murderers had their offending limbs crushed.

    All in all, quite a nice way to declare his return.

    Then why did he still have that emptiness in his heart when he did all that? As if he was supposed to do something else, something greater?

    <hr>

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

    A/N - Whoa Boy! This was a doozy and a half to write. Also, probably the longest because my fingers just refused to stop.

    Anywho, enjoy!

    Spooky ENLIGHTENED Axle Riddle!

    More messing to come!

 Chapter 84 : RBA, Iron Deficiency and her Job Security!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 84 [November 2010]

    Manhattan

    ¨CRandom Beautiful Agent¨C

    Well, this was scary. And also odd.

    Oddly scary, actually.

    She was currently clad in the skintight jumpsuit given to her as standard SHIELD gear, with enough pockets to fit in the entire contents of her purse, which was a true achievement but it also meant that it was supremely¡­displaying.

    Now, don¡¯t get her wrong. She loves the attention her body gets but only when she demands it. Consent was a big thing.

    Unfortunately, the suit was also one of the few things capable of protecting her from any fucker who had the guts to take on a SHIELD agent. Now granted, she was not the highest ranked SHIELD agent around but she would like to think that her training, however brief it might have been in the SHIELD academy, was not in vain.

    She tried to get some sparring partners but due to her near permanent posting up here in Manhattan, she did not get any interaction with the rest of the SHIELD agents. Oh, she knew that it was just an excuse.

    In the beginning, the higher ups might have tried it as a honey pot exercise but seeing that it had failed utterly, mostly because of her own inability to stop herself from fainting at the slightest shock, but also because the Invisible Man had shown no interest in her.

    Also, what were they thinking? He was THE Invisible Man. The man could have any girl he wanted in the entire country, or even the world, so long as he demanded it.

    She knew her friends would jump at the chance, even the Mormon ones, just so they could have the clout of sleeping with a godlike entity.

    Later on, once it was established that the Invisible Man had no interest in her, she was only given to stay here because they had all thought she was compromised. So, this was just a long experiment to see what would happen to an individual who spent a long time under the Invisible Man.

    That is why the SHIELD HQ had to be moved, because of the man¡¯s influence potentially tampering with SHIELD agents.

    That was weeks ago, when SHIELD wasn¡¯t even sure if the man was even a human or not.

    Now? After the Tentacle fiasco, they knew for certain that it was a man. And quite a powerful one at that too.

    She shivered as she could still feel the energy from that night, the overwhelming white and orange still made her tingle.

    While the official wait time for him to recover from his injuries was given to be a week, all SHIELD agents along with most of the law enforcement of the city were warned beforehand to be ready, in case he doesn¡¯t show up.

    Crime was already up drastically but still manageable, atleast the ones that could be traced. But if the criminals came to know that the Invisible Man was not coming, it would be pandemonium.

    For one, most of the rich people lived in the city. They also loved the fact that they could roam out and about at three in the morning with no security in sight and with all the freedom they could want for themselves, without ever having to worry about their kids and families.

    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    And now that same safety was taken away from them, even temporary as it was.

    As a result, private security companies were having their own windfall as thousands of security personnel flooded the city to create a security detail for all the VVIPs of the city.

    The crime hit the stores the hardest. Now, the stores themselves were more than secure financially, perks of being in Manhattan before the Invisible Man began his operations, but their security was not upto the mark.

    It would have been an issue before but with the greatest surveillance system in the world guarding them at all times, people had grown complacent with their security, allowing even a single slightly armed thief to rob mid sized stores.

    With the NYPD already stretched thin, it was only a matter of time before SHIELD had to move in to secure the high priority assets in the city.

    She was currently on her break, as she was allowed to patrol the city along with her seniors from the academy under the garb of US Homeland Security, helping bolster the safety net of the NYPD.

    The members of NYPD themselves were working very hard, to the bones actually, because the higher ups of NYPD were pressuring everyone to prove that NYPD was the actual protector of the city.

    Oh yeah, she was sure that it had nothing to do with the consecutively falling budgets for the NYPD, for every quarter since the Invisible Man came on the scene.

    ¡°*Sigh* That¡¯s the stuff,¡± She sighed in relief as the hot cocoa hit her, warding off the sleep that was threatening to creep in after a grueling 4 hour patrol.

    What? It might not sound much but for the past year or so, all she had done was some light cardio in the safehouse, and ordered all the food she wanted from any restaurant, all paid for by SHIELD, ofcourse.

    Her next patrol was scheduled in less than 2 hours.

    Well¡­¡±Time for a nap then,¡± She muttered to herself as she shed off the uncomfortable uniform, on top of which she had to wear the Homeland Security suit as well, and then sunk into the comfy bed that she had ordered for herself from the SHIELD canteen.

    It was ridiculously cheap in that store and she had not wasted a single moment as she splurged her entire monthly salary on a mattress.

    Well, she had not used a penny from her salary for years now, courtesy of SHIELD paying for everything.

    Her eyes grew heavy as she thought of the city and what would happen to it if the Invisible Man didn¡¯t come back.

    Sure, the rich and the powerful would be more than alright. It was the little people she was worried about, like herself.

    She was not super spy agent material. She was just some lateral hire, who managed to be both beautiful enough for the honey pot trap, and also athletic and morally flexible enough that she could pass the rigorous training course of the SHIELD academy.

    ____xx___

    When she woke up, it was already dark.

    ¡°Shit!¡± She swore as she sat upright and then immediately regretted it. Damn her iron deficiency.

    She looked outside and saw that it was completely dark, took her phone and sighed as she realised that it had been 2 hours since the patrolling had already begun.

    Why did she have to oversleep at such a critical moment?

    Her job was in jeopardy, if anybody had not been clued in on that yet.

    If the Invisible Man did not return on schedule, she gave herself a week, maybe two before she was transferred somewhere else but she knew she would not survive that.

    So, the moment SHIELD tried to transfer her, she would quit. Now, she had substantial savings but that did not mean that she was not afraid to lose her current job.

    She unlocked her phone as a barrage of notifications hit her phone all at once, as soon as it was removed from aeroplane mode.

    Her eyes widened as she saw a series of Instagram posts about the events that transpired while she was asleep.

    ¡°YES!¡± She cheered as she threw herself back into the mattress as she began reading through the series of articles that had since been published.

    The Invisible Man was back!

    She wouldn¡¯t have to move now!

    She squealed into the pillow as she felt an invisible load finally lift from her shoulders.

    ¡°Oh crap.¡± She muttered as she saw her immediate supervisor calling her.

    She was so busted¡­..

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 85: ~~Filler

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 85 [November 2010]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Alright, it was the last week of November.

    Things had almost totally spiraled out of control but somehow, this wild train had been brought back on track. He had never expected his powers to fail him that day, even against a foe like the Guy Below.

    In his defense, he had simply never expected the guy to be able to influence the material plane so drastically, but that was just his folly as he expected one of the strongest beings of the Marvel Multiverse to not have a way past all the defenses that must have been created in his name.

    After his announcement of return yesterday, in the form of a crime free Manhattan, the general public had gathered for a short speech by the Mayor who had been over the moon that the Invisible Man was back, on time as well. People gathered for the short speech that the Mayor gave about fighting crime, rising incomes as well as prosperity for all of New York, as the economic benefits of Manhattan continued to spread to other boroughs as well.

    Well, that was pretty much the truth. Manhattan these days was filled with millionaires, multi millionaires, hundred millionaires and billionaires.

    These people were not going to work in shops, or as cooks, or as waiters, or do any work really. The millionaires were mostly because of their property rates shooting up, but many of them had also emigrated to Manhattan because it was the number one safest country in the world, especially with the generous Immigration policy that the country had.

    New York¡¯s tax coffers had never been full. But that came at a cost, as he had his congregation hackers (yes, they also hackers between them) make sure that every penny was accounted for, as he did the same for the account books of the soup kitchens. Then, whenever he found an anomaly, he went to the Mayor, who immediately sweated buckets and fired someone.

    This back and forth went on for a while before the Mayor himself stopped any such attempts happening on his side, at which point, he gave the Mayor a body tune up, cleared his blockages, reoriented his muscles and bones, cleaned out the tar from his lungs, the standard clean up.

    That, along with the stick in the form of an uber powerful person chasing after you, had been enough to ensure the Mayor¡¯s cooperation in making sure that the vision he had for the city was fulfilled.

    It was ridiculously easy to lay down infrastructure for the city, for him anyway but he had never really expected to take the jobs from the blue collar workers. No, nowadays, he just made their jobs easier.

    Safety was paramount and he had seen some of the workers joke around on skyscraper cranes because they knew that the Invisible Man would catch them, even if they fell down from such fatal heights. He made sure to only grab them at the last moment so that they knew the value of precautionary safety.

    The same abilities also made sure that Manhattan also had a vibrant Warehousing zoning section. It was just a large empty space with large warehouses with nothing in it. He had made sure that all the warehouses were connected, the space was clean, and companies came pouring in to store their stuff so that their rich clientele in MAnhattan could get everything they wanted as soon as possible.

    That was also where the Warehouse housing the experiment was.

    Betty and Bruce also used to live here, until the day before when he just licked them up and deposited them back into their, now cleaned, apartment, along with some Chinese takeout.

    The couple had been very thankful, and it looked as if an invisible load from Bruce¡¯s shoulders was lifted as both of them snuggled to sleep.

    Ofcourse, this was only done after he had received confirmation from the Ancient One about the seal¡¯s total closure and the loophole that the Guy Below used to enter the material world was closed up, courtesy of the Vishanti.

    Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    Also, according to the Vishanti, the Guy Below was unlikely to try again so soon but they would have to maintain a certain level of vigil even after Baby Banner was born.

    Also, regarding the experiment, he could see that they had some sort of breakthrough because he was getting confused about the testing that Dr.Cho was doing.

    So, he made his trusty paper avatar and had it manifest right outside the Warehouse doors. THe much more reinforced warehouse doors. Hmm, they must have improved security in the week he was gone.

    But to be honest, it might as well not exist in the face of someone as powerful as the Guy Below but it was okay if the extra perceived security made them feel safer inside the office.

    The doors beeped and then opened up, revealing three layers of doors, all reinforced, as Tony stood in front of his paper avatar with a smirk on his face.

    ¡°What are you laughing at? You couldn¡¯t even join the fight because your girlfriend didn¡¯t let you come.¡± He laughed his ass off as he saw the smirk being wiped off Tony¡¯s face in real time.

    ¡°Alright, someone is grumpy. Mood swings?¡± Tony mumbled as they entered the warehouse, the sounds of the heavy door closing up behind him as Jarvis was probably coordinating everything in the warehouse.

    ¡°I am surprised SHIELD allowed you and Jarvis anywhere near their classified and probably stolen technology.¡± That drew odd looks from the nearby SHIELD agents as well as scientists but that was true and he didn¡¯t really care about their opinions all that much.

    ¡°Yeah, they were reluctant at first but then, in a surprising turn of events, Bruce actually put his foot down and made them see that it was beneficial to listen to someone who could curp stomp buildings.¡± Tony¡¯s face was so happy at the mention of the aforementioned curb stomping that Bruce did on SHIELD¡¯s security protocols.

    Fury must have been pissed.

    Ah, Chaos, he could just smell it.

    ¡°That¡¯s great. I was just wondering what the hell Dr.Cho is doing. I don¡¯t remember testing anything on animals being scheduled.¡± He wondered out loud and if it was even possible, Tony¡¯s smirk widened even further.

    ¡°Ah! Let me show you.¡± Tony said mysteriously before leading his paper avatar to the lab where Dr.Cho was currently slicing off a tail of a mouse before inserting the Vibranium fibres inside the mouse.

    ¡°Dr.Cho, the boss is here to check on your work.¡± Tony obnoxiously announced before making a mocking bow at the paper avatar that followed him inside.

    ¡°Ah, the Invisible Man, I am glad to see that you have recovered in time. We will be commencing the operation soon enough. I suppose you want to see the test results. Just a moment.¡± Dr.Cho said before she took another pair of fibers and inserted them right above the stump of a three legged dog.

    That poor thing.

    Atleast he knew that Dr.CHo did not cutoff that limb, otherwise they would be having some real problems in the lab, especially with what he knew about South Korea and their choice of meats.

    Then, as if a spell had been cast, and the dog had suddenly gained a healing factor, he could see the stump bursting apart in real time. It was obviously painful but he could see the healing process happening, beginning from the area where the fibre was inserted.

    ¡°How did that happen?¡±

    ¡°Oh, so your lady friend didn¡¯t tell you? Huh, wonder why.¡± Tony commented from the side.

    Obviously, he realised that the Bald headed Sorcerer did something but didn¡¯t tell him about it.

    ¡°Yes, the fibres now possess life giving properties. This is revolutionary. With just these fibres, we could upend the entire healthcare system. Imagine the amount of lives you could save if you just distributed these..¡±

    ¡°Whoa. Whoa. Whoa! Slow down there, Doctor. Firstly, it is made of VIbranium, that stuff is as rare as I am. Also, we are not going to go around trying to upend the US healthcare system. That is a fast track way to get yourself killed.¡± Tony warned her darkly, and it was true.

    Unless you had someone backing you with the power of an entire nation behind you, US conglomerates could not be fought. Not in their own game though.

    He realised that it had something to do with CHI. Also, the Ancient One had already told him that the delivery would be successful.

    Was it because of this?

    ¡°Also, how did your friend know what the baby¡¯s position will be at the exact moment of the delivery? It is as if she can see the future.¡± Dr.Cho continued to gush about the marvellous abilities of the Ancient One.

    Ofcourse, she would be awesome because she was the bloody Sorcerer Supreme.

    The silence in the wake of Dr.Cho¡¯s statement was deafening as Tony immediately whirled around on him.

    ¡°What! She can see the future? What. THE. FUCK!¡± Tony swore as he immediately dissolved into fits of babbling scientific terms that he had no knowledge of.

    He could just imagine that old woman, sipping tea, and enjoying his misery, not with a full blown out laughter but a subtle smirk on her lips.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 86 : The Vein conondrum

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 86 [November 2010]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°So, let me get this straight. You have a teacher¨C¡±

    ¡°A Mentor.¡±

    ¡°--someone who can do reality bending stuff? Someone who can create liquids that can seemingly heal everything?¡±

    ¡°Well, not everything, I don¡¯t think the fibres could regrow organs, for example.¡±

    ¡°--Actually, I believe that if we had any more of the concentrated liquid that was used to make the fibres, we could actually make someone regenerate entire limbs from scratch, provided enough nutrition was provided to the body,¡± Cho interjected in between, which was really not helping.

    ¡°Not helping, Dr.Cho.¡± He wished he could glare at people in this paper avatar, something to think of, for the next version.

    He was currently in a shouting match with Tony, Bruce, and Nick Fury, the unholy trinity.

    The second Fury had heard that I had finally ¡°Shown my royal ass up¡±, he marched into the city and into the warehouse without a second thought, and was now currently demanding to know everything that transpired that night in his apartment.

    Well, a dozen block radius around his building was all rubble when he was done with the monsters, or more accurately, the Ancient One was done with the monsters, leaving them void of any energy after closing off their path to the Guy Below.

    Good news was that his congregation, his soup kitchens, and even the rich guys staying under his protection had all pitched in, combined with his rep with the Mayor, it had resulted in expedited construction, for a complete reconstruction of the area, to be completed in less than a year.

    Something that was hella impressive if one considered the average build times of the apartment buildings.

    ¡°Okay, let me get this straight. Not only is there someone out there who can do, honest to god, magic, but you are also telling me that she is stronger than you?¡± Oh boy, here comes the forehead vein. Fury might just have an aneurysm after this.

    It was bad enough that he slipped under SHIELD¡¯s radar but to think there was someone out there with an even bigger impact than the Invisible Man. Well, he could already see memos being given to Fury about his Director position.

    Still, he couldn¡¯t really lie and there was no reason to, anyway. It was not like he was outing the Masters of the Mystic Arts as a whole. No, letting them know about the Sorcerer Supreme was fine, as long as he did not unduly expose Kamar Taj to the mundane world.

    ¡°Yes. She is both stronger, and older than me. Actually, she is older than all of us¡­combined.¡±

    That was another bomb and his inner self cackled as he saw the pin drop silence in the room as Tony and Bruce both looked disbelieving at his statement.

    ¡°WHAT.DID.YOU.JUST.SAY.¡± Oh boy, the vein was throbbing now.

    ¡°You know an IMMORTAL?!¡± Tony and Bruce both shouted at the same time, nearly shoving away Fury as they whirled upon his paper avatar.

    He was not about to let them hit his avatar with their barrage of questions, so he dropped another bomb.

    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    ¡°Well, she is not absolutely immortal. Only unaging, she will die if her head is removed from her body.¡±

    Just as Tony and Bruce were about to sigh in relief, he added, ¡°But I do know of people who can, and have survived being bisected in half, even vivisected actually.¡±

    Both of their faces twisted in disgust at the last statement with Fury glaring holes in his avatar. He was sure that if Fury were actually a mutant, and powers really did come from both the mindset and the DNA, he might just be capable of firing lasers from his eyes.

    ¡°What is the matter with you? Leaving aside the fact that we still don¡¯t know anything about those monsters, apart from them being aliens, what is up with all the information that you are suddenly being generous about?¡± Fury asked him, his voice breaking a bit, which had him snickering internally.

    ¡°Okay. Look, I understand that it doesn¡¯t look really good. But the good news is that the last incident had my mentor, a vastly stronger being than I am, take interest in Bruce¡¯s situation. She has assured me that nothing will happen, even going so far as to aid us in the delivery as well as any complications that might arise in the process.¡±

    Bruce and Tony both looked thoughtful at that.

    Fury looked mutinous but well, he was done for the moment. So, his paper avatar turned to Bruce, ¡°So, what is the progress with the operation?¡±

    Bruce was surprised a bit but then he began speaking, ¡°Frankly speaking, we have to do it now. We have maybe 2-3 days before there is a significant danger to Betty.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean? Wouldn¡¯t the Vibranium help in making sure that the delivery is safe?¡± Fury asked Bruce and he had the same question as well.

    The operation was not much of an operation because all they had to do was use a specialised arm that Tony had built with a very high sensitivity, and insert the fibers in the designated locations. Locations that had already been provided by the Ancient ONe.

    That would help siphon off the excess gamma and now that the fibres were infused with CHI, it would also increase Betty¡¯s overall health, allowing for a potential natural birth to occur, which would occur in another month or two, according to the baby¡¯s growth rate.

    He thought that was the whole point of the CHI infusion in the fibres. Why was Bruce still talking about an early delivery?

    ¡°...I, Look, the fibres might help but nothing is set in stone. I think we should use the fibres on the baby instead so that there is a chance that both of them would be alright.¡± Bruce said with a resigned look on his face.

    The silence in the room was deafening, as he could see Tony¡¯s throat make some noise but not a word coming out of his mouth. He could see Fury looking a bit shocked as well before he put on his blank mask.

    Dr.Cho¡¯s reaction was the harshest one out of all the people present. She straight up walked up to Bruce and slapped him across the face¡­hard.

    He winced as he saw her tearing into the poor man, who just wanted to be a bit selfish and get the best chances of both his baby and his lover surviving.

    ¡°Who are YOU to make that decision, huh? How dare you suggest such a vile thing even when you have an option in front of you?¡±

    Dr.Cho then levelled such a potent look of disgust at the man that had him recoiling even more than the slap, and then she left the room.

    Tony and Fury both looked quite uncomfortable to be in the room, even as tears slowly gathered in Bruce¡¯s eyes.

    He could not even fathom the pressure he was putting himself under. Fury left the room soon after, probably having no words of comfort left in him.

    Tony stayed and patted Bruce¡¯s shoulders as Bruce remained mum.

    He could see Cho head directly toward Betty, after getting the SHIELD issue car for her, a team of SHIELD agents leaving right after her as well. She was one of the five people on base who was of priority.

    He was really conflicted as to what should happen here. He knew Bruce was objectively wrong because the Ancient One had already told him that the delivery would be successful and both the mother and the son would survive.

    But Bruce¡¯s trust in the Ancient One and more importantly, in the Time Stone was not as absolute as his. On the other hand, he didn''t know if the Ancient One talked about delivery being natural or being in the middle with both of them surviving due to the CHI infused Vibranium.

    Ah, this was all so confusing.

    ¡°Bruce,¡± His voice boomed in the small room they were in.

    ¡°You may not trust me, or the words of my mentor but know this, we will both stop at nothing to save Betty and the baby. I will inform Betty of the same. In the end, it is her decision to make. I will see you in the evening,¡± Saying so, his paper avatar dissolved with the burner phone slotting itself in its designated place in the warehouse.

    Meanwhile, CHO was actually driving quite sedately, on her way to Betty¡¯s apartment. He thought she would be burning rubber, and he would have to step in but she was really rule abiding, it would seem.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 87: Cliffhanger Kun strikes again!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 87 [November 2010]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    So, it was the very next day. The atmosphere inside the room was awkward, which was astonishing since he was not even in the same room as those people.

    Bruce, Tony, Cho and Betty were all seated in a room, one of the spare conference rooms created just in case, and were all just staring at each other, in silence.

    Cho had reached Betty safely and informed her about everything that was going on and what the chances of every option were. Dr.Cho did not let her biases taint Betty¡¯s decision as she informed Betty about every possible decision and what it would lead to.

    Betty had all heard it with a calm expression and told Dr.Cho to gather everyone relevant to her pregnancy, tomorrow morning for a meeting, and then she had just straight up looked up, ¡°I will need your help getting there, Invisible Man,¡±

    She had turned him into her chauffeur but oh well, anything for the demigod bearing lady.

    He carefully transported her to the warehouse and then let her into the room itself, and here they were.

    ¡°So, I will only speak of this once, so make sure everyone understands this, alright?¡± He didn¡¯t know who she was speaking to, in particular, but everyone nodded anyway. Nobody wanted to anger the pregnant lady, especially since angering the pregnant lady meant angering Bruce, and whoo, if they thought an angry Hulk was scary, they should take a look at protective Hulk.

    ¡°--I am keeping the baby. I am telling you, nothing will happen to me or the baby. I have gone over the designs and they are brilliant. The lifeblood solution that we used on the Vibranium actually seems wasted on me. It has so many medical applications that I was ecstatic that we could use it again.¡± Betty then went on a tirade about all the test results that she had read from Dr.Cho¡¯s experiments and how it would surely help her pregnancy.

    And then, after delivering her speech, she flicked the controls on her wheelchair and rolled out of the conference room in style. Just before the door to the conference room closed, a series of paper shavings and a familiar phone entered the conference room and formed his paper avatar.

    ¡°Alright guys, this has gone on long enough. Just prep for the operation and insert the fibres today. We can collect test data today itself and see if any anomaly occurs, then decide on any further complications. Alright?¡± His paper avatar asked anyone even though everyone knew that it was more like an order.

    Bruce nodded, lifeless, as they all shuffled out of the room to carry out their respective tasks. Betty had not spoken to Bruce ever since Dr.Cho informed her about his opinion about her safety and the baby¡¯s safety. Perhaps knowing that Bruce also had not left the warehouse, instead working himself to the bone on the operational procedures.

    Ofcourse, knowing that he was active again, Bruce probably held no fear for her safety but even then, he made sure that the Master assigned for their protection focused on Betty more than Bruce. After all, The Hulk needed no protection, did he?

    ¡°Hey, can I talk to you for a second?¡± Tony was the last one to get up and just as he was about to exit, he closed the door and looked at his paper avatar.

    ¡°Alright,¡± His paper avatar nodded.

    ¡°Look, about that liquid that was given to me. How much?¡±

    Tony Stark did not just ask him for CHI infused Holy Water, well, water from the Vishanti¡¯s pond, that is, in exchange for something as trivial as money.

    ¡°How much for what?¡±

    ¡°How much do you need for that liquid? I would like to take all I can get. Come on, who wouldn¡¯t like to get younger?¡± Tony asked him with a nervous smile. He could see it on his body, Tony was nervous about getting rejected.

    Why though? Tony Stark never really cared much about Immortality in canon, even after having Extremis in his hand and having the expertise to get it fixed and working properly.

    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    ¡°Tony Stark, that liquid required the undivided attention of my mentor for hours at a time, and even then, only that amount was produced. It is not a commodity that can be mass produced. The only reason even I ever got to see it is because the situation is really concerning. Put any thoughts about that out of your mind. You would be lucky to see it once again, in your entire lifetime.¡± Saying so, the paper avatar dispelled itself, the phone, once again, slotting back into its designated place.

    They got out and saw that Bruce and Cho were prepping Betty, with the well placed anesthesia, custom made because Betty¡¯s metabolism had shot through the roof ever since she became pregnant.

    Jarivs was already getting everything ready, and once Toyn broke out of his stupor, came out and joined Jarvis to get the final touches in. They had created a Captain America-esque pod that would house Betty and then insert the Vibranium fibres using a highly sophisticated hand that would be operated by Jarvis and supervised by both Dr.Cho and Tony about the exact positions of the fibres.

    Even after Tony likely invented a higher spec MRI, they could not get past the radiation wall around the baby to get an accurate positioning of the baby, a problem that was solved by the data packet sent to Tony by the Ancient One.

    So they were pretty confident about the data and were going to use that as a template, along with numerous close range scans.

    Bruce was standing beside Betty, holding her hand as they all looked at Tony and Cho prepping the machine.

    The news about the operation had likely reached FUry because he could see a cascading barrage of Blacked out SUVs, out of which SHIELD personnel poured out to secure the entire thing.

    6 Iron Men suits hovered around the warehouse, keeping guard as they were finally about to move into the surgery state of the solution.

    He grinned as he saw the large forces that had turned out, not to capture or hurt Bruce, but to protect him and his unborn child from outside influences.

    It was heartening to witness and hopefully, seeing something like that would make Bruce understand the good that still existed in the world instead of the bad that he had encountered.

    He could even see the Random beautiful agent being mobilised for this, which was a rarity and she probably understood that as well, judging by the tremor in her body as she held a pistol in her hand and armour on her body.

    ¡°Ready!¡± Tony gave out his confirmation as Betty finally went under.

    Bruce reluctantly tore himself away from her as they all stood behind a thick glass barrier, designed to contain any stray radiation and create a sterilised environment for the operation.

    Betty¡¯s vitals were stable as the robot arm picked up a single vibranium fibre, still glowing white and yellow, and carefully inserted it right above her belly button.

    We all waited with bated breaths for something to happen¡­¡±Yes!¡±

    Everyone flinched as Tony cheered. After he saw everyone looking at him, he gestured to the large screen where new information was being updated.

    ¡°The Radiation is being successfully absorbed by the fibres and is being dissipated outside at far faster rates than we expected.¡±

    ¡°Any danger?¡± ¡°no, her vital signs are all stable.¡±

    ¡°Alright, Jarvis, proceed,¡± Bruce ordered as the arm jerked back into motion.

    Slowly, one by one, they inserted all the dozen Vibranium fibres they had on hand. Once the entire process was done, everyone saw the amount of Radiation inside Betty¡¯s body had dropped by over 90%, most of it being drawn away by the fibres.

    The fibres now shone yellow, white, and green, as Betty was finally safe from danger.

    ¡°Alright, now we keep her under observation for a week, at the very least.¡± Dr.Cho helpfully informed them as she continued to write notes after notes about the entire process.

    Now that the process was successfully done, they could discuss the next step¡­

    He stopped mid sip on his coffee, back in his apartment, as he saw Tony and Dr.Cho both tensing up for some reason.

    Bruce too looked distressed and panicked as something was happening. Before he could voice out his question, Tony spoke, ¡°The baby, it is sending out even more radiation.¡±

    What the hell?

    ¡°Quick, everyone, get out!¡± Bruce turned around and yelled at everyone, his muscles almost enlarging before they turned back to normal human size.

    Something was wrong, he realised as he flung every single person inside the room, save for Dr.Cho and Tony, who were both in the process of entering a protected Iron Man suit, out of the warehouse.

    He watched as the warehouse was now completely sealed, using Stark Tech, which probably sealed off the radiation. Even so, he gave the order to the SPOC they had on hand for SHIELD, ¡°Evacuate the nearby areas, give a radiation warning. I have already warned the Mayor. We need to be ready if something happens.¡±

    The agent didn¡¯t think twice and scrambled away to follow the orders.

    Huh, look at him, ordering around SHIELD agents.

    He looked inside, and saw all three of them working furiously, even as Betty didn¡¯t so much as twitch during the entire process, her heart beating calmly and her vitals seeming normal to him.

    Welp, time to make sure that the Ancient One was right in her predictions. Otherwise, he was going to have a Hulk sized problem on his hands.

    Good thing that he just had a power up last month, it might just come in handy this time.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 88 : Suprise, Its Mother-HULK!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 88 [November 2010]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Okay, this has gone on long enough. He never expected the universe to throw this curve ball at him in the shape of a baby but he felt as if his entire attention was being taken by this one single problem for a long while now.

    He was sick and tired of the universe not letting him take a breath in peace without having another problem thrown on top of his already large pile. It was bad enough that he got to see what the city would have to face if he ever left it, even for a small period of time, but now there was some sort of radiation warning, something that could devastate the entire city.

    No, not on his watch.

    ¡°Okay, Tony, what is happening?¡± His paper avatar spoke even as he made sure that additional material was summoned from the nearby warehouses that had been stocked with solid lead, lead polymers, and more, just in case a radiation emergency occurred, just as it was happening right now.

    The area around the warehouses was a ghost town right now and more were being evacuated, with him controlling the flow of traffic and making sure that no road was clogged, which made the process go much faster than normal.

    A single SHIELD agent remained outside the premises but he was already in heavy radiation shielding gear so he let the agent be, but remained ready to fling him far into the city if the need arose.

    ¡°I-I don¡¯t know. One moment, it was fine, the radiation was being purged from Betty¡¯s body and was being harmlessly released into the air but then¨C¡± Tony spoke even as his hands continued to fly across the keyboard, his armoured hands making it very difficult but he had to make do with that.

    ¡°It¡¯s the baby. The baby is now releasing pulse after pulse of gamma radiation that are now being taken out into the air. The thing is, Ms.Betty is in an enclosed space with all that radiation in the air. The fibres are still doing their job, they are not near their limit but the sealed space will soon be at its limits.¡± Dr.Cho informed him as she too, tried to find a solution to their problem.

    Bruce was a complete nervous wreck, his fingers flying across the keyboard even as he saw Bruce¡¯s fingers twitch whenever he looked at the glass that speared both of them as if he was contemplating just breaking the glass.

    The perks of already being Gamma enhanced meant that Bruce didn¡¯t exactly need any protection from any radiation that might spill over from the sealed space that Betty was in.

    ¡°Can we move them?¡± He ended up asking the question that he dreaded the most. If he could, he would not let them out of his sight, not until Bruce¡¯s child was strong enough to protect himself or Bruce himself was established as someone who was not to be trifled with, but if the choice was between possible risk to Betty and definite risk to the city, he would unflinchingly choose the former.

    Unfortunately, Tony dashed all his hopes, ¡°No. It is too late now. Moving them might jostle the fibres out of their place and we don¡¯t want Betty to suffer from catastrophic organ failure, which is what will happen if her body is flooded with that much gamma radiation, all at once.¡±

    Oh. Well, that complicated things. He could guarantee the non movement of the fibres until they remained in his range but after that, he would not be able to do anything.

    ¡°Wait!¡± Dr.Cho¡¯s shout turned everyone towards her as she continued to type across the hologram that was in front of her.

    ¡°Look, I¡¯ve sent you the data.¡± She said as Tony and Bruce both turned back to their displays.

    ¡°..What the..¡± Tony whispered as his hands seemingly froze at the information he was seeing, same with Bruce whose body trembled.

    ¡°What is happening?¡± his avatar asked, even as he noted that the signal integrity to the phone was being compromised, probably due to the cloud of solid lead that now surrounded the warehouse, ready to be deployed at a moment¡¯s notice.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    It was Bruce who answered with a wide smile on his face, ¡°I-It¡¯s a feedback loop.¡±

    A what now?

    ¡°The baby is sending out more gamma radiation which is then absorbed by the fibres and then part of that is released into the enclosed space and part of that is turned into the life force and pumped back into Betty¡¯s body,¡± Bruce answered as he slumped down on one knee, the pressure finally being relieved from his mind.

    ¡°So, Betty is fine?¡± He asked them tentatively, the scientific jargon flowing above his head but he realised one thing. The Gamma radiation excess was creating CHI from the fibres which was pumped back into Betty, which healed Betty of all the damage.

    But still.. ¡°What about the gamma radiation? I mean staying in that saturated environment can¡¯t be healthy for Betty. I reckon the baby itself will be fine but¡­¡±

    His worries were waved off by Tony, ¡°Oh, don''t worry about that. We have plenty of ways of flushing out the radiation from the enclosed space. What we were worried about was the way Betty''s body would react negatively, if there was no additional healing done to her body. How were we supposed to know that the thing was so potent.¡±

    ¡°Yes, and I can see her cell structure changing in real time. The Gamma radiation feedback along with the stem cells that the baby is undoubtedly sending its mother, combined with the life giving rays of the fibre, Betty¡¯s body is changing at a pace never seen before. I think..I think she will become a positively enhanced person before the pregnancy is over.¡± Cho¡¯s words made sense to him but apparently, were like thunderclaps in the ears of both Bruce and Tony who immediately scrambled over to Cho¡¯s display which showed the latest scans being taken of Betty from the custom equipment that Tony and Bruce had built for this purpose.

    It basically ignored Gamma Radiation in the air but still, no matter how much they tried, they could not get a completely accurate picture of the baby inside Betty.

    ¡°What the¡­¡± Tony whispered even as Bruce remained shell shocked at the piece of information.

    ¡°Latest DNA sample?¡± Tony prodded and Dr.Cho nodded at the same.

    ¡°...So, She-Hulk?¡± Everybody¡¯s necks robotically tuned to his paper avatar which shrugged at the accusing glares.

    ¡°So, is it safe to call everyone back? Or do we still need the lead lining around the warehouse because I gotta tell you guys, I have to actively hold back all the dust so that it doesn¡¯t poison the air and water around us and it is a chore.¡±

    ¡°Dude, read the room.¡± Tony of all people said to his paper avatar as he and Bruce both turned back to gawk at the changes that were happening in real time to Betty. THey even got scans of her muscles and bones which were changing near simultaneously.

    It was not that hard to make the connection to him, having meta knowledge that all these peasants in front of him did not.

    What made the first super soldier? Super Soldier Serum but without the Vita Rays.

    Second Super Soldier? SSS and Vita Rays.

    Hulk? Gamma Radiation and inherent Gamma gene. Some had even theorised that the mere existence of the Hulk in any future timeline was so powerful that its repercussions were felt across the timeline, essentially meaning that Bruce would turn into the Hulk in that Gamma Explosion simply because in some future, the Hulk existed.

    Keeping that aside, Blonsky¡¯s creation needed the SSS and Bruce¡¯s blood.

    Now, Betty had Gamma Radiation, Gamma gene (in the form of the baby and the stem cells), Vita Rays (Term coined by Erskine because he probably didn¡¯t know what CHI was), and Bruce¡¯s DNA.

    All in all, quite the potent combination to become the super soldier serum because even if Betty¡¯s body couldn''t handle the strain, the baby will ensure that its mother was given enough resources to be healed, along with the seemingly endless Gamma being absorbed by the fibres and being outputted as CHI straight into the vital organs in her body.

    Damn, the Ancient One played very well when she wanted to.

    It made him wonder why she fought like a pansy in the movie which led to her death, being killed by falling from all things. Fighting demon lords, Dormammu, Mephisto, and any number of reality altering threats and then dying to something as pedestrian as falling from a height, granted after being severely injured was the height of not going out with a bang.

    ¡°She¡¯s safe. Betty is safe.¡± He didn¡¯t know if Bruce was telling it to the people in the room or reassuring himself.

    It was probably the latter.

    ¡°Call everyone back, Mayor. The issue is resolved.¡± He transmitted the news and assembled the solid lead back into one of the adjoining warehouses, along with the not insignificant amount of lead dust that was gathered by him and sealed in an airtight box.

    It would not do to recreate the lead poisoning from the eras back. It led to a permanent decrease in American IQ that he would not like to be repeated.

    There were enough dumb people as is, without some outside intervention.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 89 : * Dont Know*

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 89 [May 2011]

    Unfinished Stark Tower, Manhattan

    ¨CTony Stark¨C

    ¡°You know Bruce when Pepper offered to babysit for little Bellina, I don¡¯t think she meant that I would babysit for you,¡± He told Bruce, overlooking the robot who was in the process of changing Bellina¡¯s diaper, something that was not a task that he would do, in his lifetime, even if he was forced at gunpoint.

    No. Just no.

    ¡°I know, Tony but on the plus side, you know Bellina likes you the most out of all her uncles,¡± Bruce said in a mock attempt at placating him, especially since he knew that Bruce was with Randall, experimenting on something that he was not allowed to know. He was not a fool, he already knew about the random Gamma Bursts from the subterranean layers of Manhattan.

    He could not physically go there but he knew something was afoot. Plus, somewhere in his mind, he really liked little Bellina, hellion that she was, otherwise Bruce would not have been able to dump her on him.

    There was a reason he had an entire room chock full with Baby stuff and all manners of toys. Some were suitable for a 6 month old baby, some were suitable for a teenager. He just went to a toy store and bought them all.

    ¡°Diaper Extraction done, sir.¡± Jarvis¡¯ voice pinged him as Bruce smiled apologetically at him and he resisted the urge to show him the middle finger as the video feed closed off, and he made baby noises as he went to pick up little Bellina, who was fast growing up to be the best baby this world has ever seen.

    ¡°Oh, who¡¯s a good girl? You are, you are the bestest best girl on the planet. Yes, you are! Yes!--¡±

    ¡°Wow!¡±

    His frame froze as he glared at the remotely piloted robot in front of him. Jarvis didn¡¯t warn him, the little shit!

    He turned around to see Pepper in her business suit with a smirk on her face, telling him exactly what she was thinking.

    ¡°No! NO babies. Nuh-uh, not until¨C¡±

    ¡°Relax! I was just going to say, atleast this means that you will love our babies the same way, whenever the time might come.¡± Pepper said and then continued to disregard him completely once she had little Bellina in her arms.

    Good god, that child was an attention hog. Everywhere she went, the world continued to adore her. All that was left was sunshine and rainbows everytime she so much as giggled.

    ¡°Wait! Pepper, not fair! I was assigned as the babysitter, I have it on record!¡± He rushed to get to Pepper who was undoubtedly going to the temporary living floor that was built.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    It was temporary, but it was built according to his standards, so it was much better than what 99.9% people lived in.

    ¡°Relax, she just needs to sit down in a space that is not littered with robots.¡± She looked at him reproachfully and he¡­had nothing to say to that, astonishingly.

    ¡°Wow, Tony Stark, speechless, something that one doesn¡¯t get many of,¡± He whirled around with his finger already pointed at the surge of papers that came in through the AC vent and formed into the Invisible Man¡¯s favourite avatar.

    ¡°You! Get out!¡±

    When the paper continued to stand there with its arm crossed, he looked up, ¡°Jarvis! Remind me to make the tower entirely sealed. We wouldn¡¯t want to have strays-¡± He sneered at the paper avatar who shrugged at the insult, disregarding it entirely ¡°--entering the building once it is done.¡±

    ¡°Oh, come on, Tony. Hello, IM!¡± Pepper waved at the paper avatar cheerily.

    ¡°Hi Pepper, how are you doing? Did you have that blood clot checked out?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I did and thank you so much for telling me about that. You know, the doctor said¡­¡±

    What the hell was going on?

    He watched on, transfixed, as the paper avatar, which was just a remotely piloted construct, walked over and sat down on his couch, right next to his wife, yeah, wife and began chatting with her animatedly, with Pepper not even slowing down in the least even when she had to make sure that Bellina did not stray too far away from her.

    Not that it was a concern in any way. It would be safe to say that in the entire city, the single most guarded individual would be little Bellina, what with her heterochromatic eyes, one green and one white, and her rather significant ancestry.

    He and Bruce, both believed that the colour of her eyes signified the process through which she was born, with the gree signifying the Gamma from Bruce and the white signifying the CHI (as much as it pained him to use that term for the life giving rays, he was not the inventor of it so he didn¡¯t have much say in the naming process), that helped Betty not just survive but turn into a Super Mommy, capable of lifting cars and becoming bulletproof.

    Oh yeah, Betty Ross was not someone who could protect Bruce and not the other way around, at least when Bruce was in non powered form, that is.

    ¡°Now, what do you want, you stalker?¡± He ended up taking up little Bellina from Pepper and asked the paper avatar.

    Pepper looked at him with disappointment but he was made of sterner stuff than that.

    ¡°Nothing, I was just wondering what are you doing here, in this unfinished tower of yours. By the way, compensating much?¡±

    Well, the answer to that was kinda complicated.

    For one, he finally had a SCIENCE! Bro to tinker with. Bruce was nice, to talk to, to discuss ideas and also to talk about life as well.

    Being a new father, Bruce had a newfound perspective on life and also it was really nice to see Bruce coming out of his shell, and becoming a very confident person.

    That confidence was sort of contingent on Bellina remaining in Manhattan, under the Invisible Man¡¯s umbrella but Bruce was very much forward now.

    He and Betty had become active in the academic community now and actually had a home office, courtesy of the Invisible Man¡¯s Russian Billionaire benefactor.

    The government had actually rescinded all the decisions taken against BRuce and they were actually living a normal life in Manhattan, just landlocked into the island.

    Bruce was more outgoing now, and nowadays, Bruce and Betty could be found on dates around the island, sometimes with him and Pepper as well.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 90 : FUN UNCLE TONY!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 90 [May 2011]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    It was nice to see Tony trying to get little Bellina¡¯s attention who was doing her best not to let her focus waver from the piece of pizza that Tony was dangling in front of her. Now, normally, doing that would be frowned upon, since babies can¡¯t exactly digest processed cheese or he should say, shouldn¡¯t digest processed cheese.

    But the thing with Bellina was that she wasn¡¯t exactly a normal kid. Even at just over six months old, her development was comparable to that of 4 year olds, when it came to walking, talking, understanding stuff, etc.

    But if one looks inside, they would find something totally alien. It was an entirely new biology set that has baffled more than one scientist. In fact, Dr.Cho was going to set up a permanent laboratory here in Manhattan, just for the chance to study Bellina, non invasively, ofcourse.

    If anything even came close to hurting her, well then, he would be the first one to shred anybody who did that, to pieces, but by chance, if he missed (which he wouldn¡¯t), Tony would come swooping down, not just in his regular armours but in his ¡°FUNUNCLE¡± armour, something that he built with extra space to house Bellina, just in case something happened.

    It was quite cute, Tony trying to be the fun but equally responsible uncle, and Pepper¡¯s encouragement of that was a message in and of itself that Tony should probably get the act going faster.

    Then there were the parents of little Bellina, Bruce, and Betty, both of whom were capable of individually wrecking apart cars with their bare hands, Betty with less screaming and shouting.

    It was quite a chaotic delivery which he, unfortunately, was witness to, as little Bellina came into the world screaming, to make sure every person in the six block radius knew that she was born. It was so loud that a PSA had to be made the next day, telling the city about Bellina, which was quite a shocker, he had to be honest.

    It was equal parts shocking and hilarious to see Betty just pulverize Bruce¡¯s hands during the delivery and to see Bruce actively control himself from Hulking out, which was only partially successful because Bruce¡¯s body continued to bulge and bubble with green mass but he never let his hand change, even if it must have been extremely painful to let Betty hold his already destroyed hand.

    After all, Bruce could heal from pretty much everything and he did but the next day, he asked Dr.Cho, if Vasectomy was something that his body could regenerate from. Dr.Cho¡¯s reaction was equally funny as well.

    After that, it was as if a switch had been flipped in their life, turning them from a couple who didn¡¯t see the sun for days at a time to a couple that went to two different public group activities in a day. Bruce built himself a small laboratory, with Tony being a personal investor and Betty occasionally worked there as well.

    Last he heard, both of them were going to move into one of the floors into the Stark Tower once it was finished, as Tony had promised them lab space along with personal living arrangements, with special accomodation for Bellina and her very public status.

    Oh yeah, Bellina was a social icon of America. Cute videos of her were made and circulated all over the internet in droves by her fans.

    It was equal parts adorable and equal parts disturbing because social media was being used as a weapon right in front of his eyes in ways that the normal person wouldn¡¯t even understand.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    He wouldn¡¯t even let his children be in the public domain in the first place.

    He had not expected Bruce and Betty to have such a public facing attitude when it came to their daughter and the fact that they did so just because of the trust they placed in the Invisible Man just melted his heart.

    It was actually Tony¡¯s idea and thus, a dedicated social media team came once a week with ideas that Bruce and Betty either approved or rejected with Bellina required to be in Manhattan at all times, so that nothing untoward would happen to her.

    Now, the entire world knew who Bellina was, her super strength, her absurd physical and mental growth with her ability to cry so loudly, that it would echo into the other part of the city, even though she would be far gentler with animals who somehow are attracted to her as if she was a disney princess.

    And she might actually be one, because of the sheer light focused aura that she puts out at every moment. Due to the circumstances of her birth, Bellina constantly releases a stream of low powered CHI that helps with stress. Long Term exposure will lead to most health related issues being cleared, atleast that is what the Ancient One told him and Bruce.

    Yeah, obviously, he had the little angel checked out by the Ancient One who told him that, even without any training or tapping into her father¡¯s lineage, she would grow up to become stronger than all the previous Iron Fists, which was not much of a compliment if one thought of the realm of power the Hulk usually operated in, but it was something that cemented something in his mind.

    Bellina was born as an evolved human. Her body could be used as a blueprint to see what the next evolution in human genetics will be. Her body was a ¡°work of art¡± according to Dr.Cho and Tony because Bellina had some redundant organs, two hearts, a stronger nervous system, and an overly fortified spine. Some organs were doubled while some were outright missing.

    It was quite bizarre if one didn¡¯t know the truth about her conception.

    Betty¡¯s body had not really evolved per se, it was only enhanced because she was already fully grown when the CHI infusion happened.

    ¡°Alright, little Bellina, it¡¯s time to go home.¡± His paper avatar muttered as Bellina continued to giggle as she flew around in the air, donning the Superman pose while he used his phenomenal cosmic powers to entertain a child.

    Sigh, what has his life come to?

    She began laughing even more once he created a small air bubble around her and sped her directly to the incoming Banner and Ross couple who were holding a couple of shopping bags while on their way to their penthouse apartment.

    Oh yeah, the couple had come a long way from their bank accounts frozen days.

    They were raking in handsome paychecks from Stark Industries because of the work they were doing with Toyn on advanced sensors and life sciences, and the penthouse was a gift to them by What¡¯s-his-face Russian Billionaire once it became abundantly clear to him that the Invisible Man was much closer to this couple for some reason.

    ¡°Oh! Hi, Baby!¡± They didn¡¯t so much as flinch as Betty flung the ocean of bags she had in her hand on poor Bruce¡¯s body as she stepped forward to catch the missile that was her baby.

    It was a common scene now, him pulling babysitter duties while the couple went on dates, worked on new technologies, made new friends, or just roamed around the city that they had begun to call home.

    It was heartening to witness.

    Which is why he rejected SHIELD¡¯s request for an extended medical scan of Bellina for the tenth time this month itself. There was no way in hell that he was going to let it fly and Fury probably knew that, that is why he must have green lit the request.

    Probably was being oppressed by the World Security Council for it because previously, it was just about one Hulk, who, while powerful, could not be controlled.

    Now though? It was about Betty, who was a very strong, bulletproof person who looked and thought just like a baseline human, which was basically a stronger super soldier, the wet dream of the American Military.

    Not to mention Bellina, who would surely grow up to surpass even Betty, Tony had said so himself. Bellina was probably much easier to brainwash as well.

    After all, they needed something to show for their contribution to the whole Betty pregnancy situation.

    The Vibranium fibres, when they were pulled out of Betty after the pregnancy was done, came out blackened and then simply withered away after the operation, dashing many people¡¯s dreams about reusing them.

    He still had a meeting with Wakanda over that. They must be curious about their invincible metal breaking apart at the seams.

    He looked at his computer, sitting in his office, and thought, things would be very different in about a year or so.

    2012 was fast approaching and he was ready.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 91 : ugh! TMI!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 91 [May 2011]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Okay. So this was odd.

    He was, in real time, able to see how Steve Rogers, THE Super Soldier¡¯s body worked because Fury, in his infinite wisdom had seen it fit to bring Steve into Manhattan, and unconscious to boot as well.

    IT really rubbed him the wrong way when it was revealed in the movies that Fury had kept Steve in a small base in the middle of Manhattan, with Times Square just in walking distance because really, he should have been held in a tightly guarded base with nowhere to go, otherwise how else could you hope to contain an actual super soldier, much less the heartthrob of the American Military.

    Then again, it made sense that storing the Captain in any military base would just result in unnecessary chaos.

    In his situation, in this timeline, he could understand because Steve needed to be kept safe, not just from outside forces but insider forces as well and what better place to keep him safe than Manhattan? The safest place in the world.

    Still, he should have a talk with Fury about this.

    ¡°Um, Excuse me? What are you guys doing? I am pretty sure that carrying a dead body sealed in a container is against some law, I just have to find the law.¡± His paper avatar said as it manifested in its chibi form in the middle of the car, where Coulson, the ever unflappable Coulson was sitting, right alongside the casket like structure which was probably responsible for keeping Cap under.

    It was kinda creepy that Coulson looked very happy to just be present in the moment, with the Captain America sleeping right beside him as a sleeping beauty.

    Coulson didn¡¯t scream out loud and aside from a minute flinching, there was no indication that he was surprised.

    ¡°I hope there won¡¯t be any kissing involved, Agent Coulson because I will call the cops on you,¡± He snickered at the insinuation, and then slowly sat his paper avatar down on the casket while Coulson merely deadpanned at him.

    ¡°Need I remind you that you are currently sitting on hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medical equipment, housing someone who is literally priceless,¡± Coulson said as he took a magazine, rolled it up, and tried to swat away his paper avatar.

    Ofcourse, it was moot since the magazine was just stopped a mere cm away from his chibi avatar but the sentiment remained. You don¡¯t just swat away his emissary while being in his city.

    If it were anyone else, there would have been severe repercussions.

    ¡°Alright, not that this has not been entertaining, can you tell me where you found the still alive Captain America? Or were you guys just keeping him in the basement? Waiting for the right time to unleash him into the world?¡± He asked Coulson because he had to maintain the facade of not knowing anything.

    He was aware of the fact that his tussle with the One BElow All had not gone unnoticed and there were probably hundreds, thousands of pictures taken of his floating self back then, from all angles and devices.

    Hundreds of analysts must be on the case, to figure out the identity of the Invisible Man, so he was not going to take any chances and bring any suspicion on himself. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°That is classified. What I can tell you is this,  Director Fury believes that Captain America will be safest in Manhattan, where no outside entity has any influence.¡± Coulson reminded him and he had to agree.

    It was true, he didn¡¯t even let NYPD run any of their agendas in the city, let alone Feds or SHIELD or HYDRA, or as he likes to call it, SHIELDRA.

    ¡°So, how are you planning to wake him up? Where will he live? Who will be his handler? What is he supposed to do? Will he live a civilian¡¯s life? What is Fury¡¯s goal here?¡± he asked all the reasonable questions in rapid fire, leaving Coulson no time to reply.

    ¡°I am afraid all of that is classified. I am not at liberty to speak. Director Fury will be the one who will be debriefing you about the whole situation.¡±

    Very well.

    ¡°Alright, but please tell me you guys are not going to use that tacky hospital setup to fake the 40s?¡± He asked Coulson who cringed at the mention.

    ¡°You are! Oh my god, that is hilarious. Who suggested the idea?¡±

    ¡°Look, it was the best way we could get Captain Rogers awake as soon as possible and into your domain as soon as possible.¡±

    Yeah, that made sense.

    ¡°Alright, just make sure that he doesn¡¯t threaten everyone around him. I¡¯ll make sure that he is safe, as I always do. Don¡¯t kiss him, Coulson,¡± he took one last parting shot and left the SUV, the shredded papers conveniently falling in Coulson¡¯s hair and staying there.

    ¡°So, Bruce, how was the latest scan from Betty?¡± He asked Bruce, who didn¡¯t even flinch at the arrival of the chibi paper avatar, right on his dining table as he was having his lunch, some sort of Chicken salad, if he was seeing correctly.

    ¡°Hmm? Oh, that, we just scanned her yesterday and we found traces of unknown metals in her body. I was scared at first but the metal refused to show up on scans, absorbing all energy projected within, so we realised that it was just Vibraniumi.¡± Bruce forgot about the lunch and immediately began explaining animatedly to him.

    Most of it went above his head but he understood one thing. Betty still had trace amounts of that Vibranium fibres in her body, not enough to extract them in any meaningful way but enough that her body was still getting affected by the CHI, so she was still getting stronger.

    He was unfortunate enough to witness one of their bedroom bouts, now that both of them had shed their mortal coils to evolve into greater, stronger lifeforms, they were free to break their beds as many times as they wanted, and their walls, and even their flooring.

    Yeah, it was a lesson well learned, to respect their privacy, so he created a designated zone for them and just told them to do their business in that zone only. He couldn¡¯t just block out their entire apartment because Bellina was there and she needed to be protected.

    ¡°So, all good, then?¡± He asked Bruce who blinked and realised that he had just given him a six minute lecture on Vibranium and how it seemingly perfectly fused with the Human body, to enhance it completely.

    He was sure to bring that up during his meeting with the Wakandan embassy next week. It was going to be nice, to let them be the ones who were clueless for one.

    ¡°And how is the SCIENCE! Life treating you, Dr.Banner?¡± He asked Bruce even though he knew the answer to that question.

    Bruce was just awarded his latest PhD, along with Betty as well, on their revolutionary work on Gamma Radiation and its effects on biochemistry, something that was just there when they looked into the data Stark had gathered for them, during Betty¡¯s pregnancy.

    Now, while the entire world probabl;y knew about Bellina by now, they didn¡¯t know if Betty was superpowered or not, because she had never used her powers publicly.

    Privately? Bruce¡¯s bones had been broken more times than he could count, only for his body to flash green and heal all the damage.

    Bruce was somehow finding a middle ground in the process of turning into the Hulk. Even if, say, a hole was ripped into Bruce¡¯s heart, he would then turn green and by the time he was the giant Hulk, all his injuries would be gone.

    He was triggering that sequence of early healing but not letting the transformation reach its final stage. It was quite clever and the experiments he did to reach that level were not something he could envision the canon Bruce doing.

    So, even without doing much, they now had a much stronger and clearer in mind Bruce, which should translate into a much meaner killing machine Hulk, a strong Betty who should be at par or even stronger than Luke Cage, a smarter Tony who had a taste of Vibranium and probably will have something built by the time 2012 rolled around.

    All the while, he continued to grow into his powers, creating safe pockets where people could be stashed during the invasion, all the while the Chitauri had no idea what was about to hit them.

    Or what they were about to hit.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 92 : Sigh.....

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 92 [December 2011]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    He was so busy with his usual activities over the past six months that he didn¡¯t even notice that it had been over 5 years since he had arrived in this reality. Sure, the time didn¡¯t really create much of a personal life for him, aside from a friend he made, named Joey who really liked to eat good food and play basketball.

    But even then, Joey was just a weekend acquaintance. Going to play basketball together against players much younger but taller than them, and then going to all you can eat buffets to recharge was awesome but the feeling of being truly exhausted could not be replicated, not with his body being way too powerful for normal sports.

    One of these days, he was going to have to juggle with the Asgardians, normal ones, not the Royal ones, to get his body through a nice workout.

    Even the ones he subjected his body through the use of telekinesis did not cut it anymore because it just felt plain artificial. Even still, he made sure that he was ready for any nasty surprises from people like the Guy Below. He really needed to work on his mystical defenses but according to the Ancient One, who reiterated it, he had zilch talent for Sorcery but an overwhelming talent for anything involving psionics.

    Which was when she had given him the book about Spiritual contracts for dummies and so far, he had made use of it only once.

    He did have the idea of creating bonded familiars of sorts, collecting animals and making them stronger but there was a hard limit on what regular animals with no mystical ancestry running through them could reach.

    Now where was he going to find mystical animals?

    So, he dropped that idea.

    He chose to just focus on the basics, getting his powers refined, getting his allies together and more importantly, more powerful together. It was a masterstroke on fate¡¯s part to let Bruce and Betty come together and have that baby because he had never seen Bruce so at peace but also determined to train with the Hulk.

    He had created multiple caves underground that bore marks of the Hulk and Bruce trying to come together to an understanding. It helped that both of them loved Betty, loved Bellina, and were generally averse to killing people, even if the Hulk did get pretty loose with that once he was angry enough.

    Still, seeing the progress they were making was enough for him. If not partners, they were turning into unwitting allies by agreeing to protect Betty and Bellina together. Something that would happen once the Chitauri came knocking.

    Then there was Betty. That was where Frank Castle had come to play. Sure, he had long since stopped going to the Castle Dojo, mostly because Frank was getting too suspicious about him and also because he didn¡¯t feel like he had much more that he could learn from Frank, not unless it was an actual life and death scenario.

    Betty was also getting the training that she needed, with the tonnes of weight that was being pressed down on her from all sides, so that Frank wouldn¡¯t think that she was an enhanced person. She was also learning everything pretty fast, and he was hopeful that by the time the Invasion rolled around, she would atleast be as strong and mobile as Spiderman. Even if she acted strictly as a rescue person, it would be more than enough.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    He had not scanned any Luke Cage in the city yet, which was a bummer but maybe things had butterflied away and they would not be getting the same badass person anymore.

    All in all, he had quite a spread of allies. Combined with Thor, they would tear the Chitauri apart.

    Speaking of allies, he had one Steve Rogers going through the motions, getting milk, and newspaper of all things while heading back to his apartment, which was safe and secure, thanks to yours truly.

    The Captain was a figure in the equation that didn¡¯t make much sense to him. Sure, he was all strong and muscly but there were stronger people on the team and if it came to leading, he was sure that Jarvis could do a much better job, with all his procession power but he supposed that it was just his inexperience talking.

    There must be something in the Captain for him to be revered by so many people, even now, something beyond all the propaganda that was pushed with his name on top.

    Welp, aside from a very outgoing nature and a sunny disposition, there was not much he was sensing but even so, he was doing it from afar and not in a warzone. Maybe Steve Rogers shined his brightest when he had a team to rally around him.

    Well, be that as it may, he watched as Steve went into a bar, talked with the bartender, got himself a drink, paid for it and left right back for his apartment. The luxury apartment building had a world class gym in the building itself but for some reason, Steve liked the old rusty feeling of a gym nearby.

    Steve knocked on the door of his next door neighbour, waking up Random Watch Person1, who was supposed to keep an eye on the good Captain. Steve then took both of them to the gym where they began working out.

    Well, mainly Steve working out and Random Watch Person1 trying to keep up.

    With the snowfall, it fell on him to make sure that snow didn¡¯t pile up on the streets and also to make sure that everyone had heating and didn¡¯t freeze to their deaths. That meant hundreds of blankets being distributed daily, along with the meals they were already handing out. This time of the year, even the gang activity went down in the neighboring boroughs.

    So, he didn¡¯t really have much to do. Bruce and Betty were hosting their own Christmas party, now in the much bigger Penthouse apartment that came as a perk of being a Stark Industries Research Scientist, something that happened over the past few months as Tony bought the small company that Bruce and Betty had set up for their research for a little over 20 million dollars.

    A huge sum for Bruce and Betty, which almost guaranteed a cozy retirement but chump change for Tony, especially if he got two world class scientists in his company for that amount.

    Not to mention, the friendship that came with it. It was nice to see Tony finally make friends with someone who could truly understand what was going through his mind and actually keep up with him intellectually.

    Something like that was rare and he wagered that Tony thought 20mil for the chance to be with his friends for longer was a price not even worth mentioning.

    The penthouse was nice, really nice, more than enough to host a small party. He had helped with the decoration and babysitting of Bellina whenever required while Betty did all the heavy lifting.

    Randall and Co. were coming, Tony along with Pepper were coming, Dr.Cho was coming, and a few of the SHIELD scientists that Bruce got along with were invited as well.

    Sadly, while he did have the invitation, he could not really go.

    It was not really time for him to reveal his face to someone, especially without the dome enclosing around him gone. No, it would just create a prison around him that people could exploit if they knew his face and knew that he couldn¡¯t leave Manhattan.

    So, he watched, Melancholy, as the entire party had drinks, food, watched a movie, laughed and then left, late in the night.

    While he? He was left patrolling the city, metaphorically of course, and drinking enough booze to leave a grown man without his liver, feeling particularly numb about the situation.

    It was as if he was just going through the motions, not even caring one bit about anything.

    It was hard, being alone.

    But oh well, life wasn¡¯t meant to be fair, was it?

    At Least he was not some chup living alone with a nice cushy job while having no friends, families, or loved ones to talk to, now was he?

    No, he was just a chump with none of the above but the only difference was that he had powers.

    Powers that seemed so awesome and yet, made him so lonely at such times.

    ¡°Stupid ROB¡­¡± He muttered as he drank yet another bottle of Whiskey without even feeling anything, a collection of bottles lying at his feet as he sat on the balcony, looking at the pretty Christmas lights all around.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 93 : Le Bruce "BEHOLD! Alcohol that WORKS!"

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 93 [December 2011]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°Hmm?¡± his late night pity drinking fest was cancelled because he felt something in his range, or rather multiple someones. His eyes cleared immediately as he felt hundreds, no, thousands, of creatures suddenly come into his range, from below.

    Yeah, he had checked and his circle of influence was more like an eclipse that also had a limitation when it came to the downward direction.

    So, his mind was jerked back into awareness as he watched the creatures, with pointy claws, small brains, and absurdly dense muscles just dig their way to the top. They were advancing very fast, as if there was no dense rock and mud between them and the surface. They were digging through everything as if it was just another Tuesday for them.

    The biggest of them were like the vanguards, digging through everything with their claws, leaving behind paths that their, still much bigger than a human, but relatively smaller creature brethren used to advance to the top.

    His brows furrowed as they shredded through the bedrock as if it wasn¡¯t there at all. They were still not in his Manhattan sphere of influence, just at the periphery of it. He could act on it but he wanted to see just what was happening here.

    He scanned them as much as he could but aside from weird biology along with denser, well, everything, including their tiny brains, he could not find anything that he had seen before.

    Could they be the deviants? His mind wandered off as he thought of the alien villains that fought the Eternals but they were not as many and why would they be targeting New York of all places? He was sure that no Eternal actually lived here since he made sure to regularly scan the biologies of all the people that lived in his range.

    A gross violation of privacy? Sure but nothing that the government doesn¡¯t do on a daily basis.

    The monsters, he was going to call them monsters because they were only snarling and roaring as they advanced with no care for any injury that might have happened to any one of them, because he had tried doing so and the only response was that the particular creature was crushed completely by the onslaught of his fellow creatures, rushing to the surface.

    Thankfully, the biggest of them all, the size of three storey buildings, who were about to claw their way through another layer of rocks, hit something that could not be destroyed by them.

    His TK.

    He watched as they tried, again and again, without even flinching as their claws broke upon contact, even as hundreds of the below creatures began pressing on the giant ones who were now smushed against his TK barrier.

    That was not¡­ideal.

    He could foresee their deaths without him even doing anything. The rabid rush from below would ensure their deaths.

    Still, he would like to not cause senseless death, so he created a small hole in his barrier for them to enter, making sure that only a single row went in but then he confusion only increased as the entire horde that he could sense, turned their heads straight to the hole in his barrier, as if they could sense it all, even through thick stone and dirt.

    Interesting.

    He was about to get one of them in and try to communicate with them, or atleast analyse them further to see if he could recognise them from any of the meta knowledge he had but before that could happen, the entire horde stilled abruptly, including the one he held in his TK grip.

    And it was not just their bodies externally that froze, no, it was as if someone who had supreme control over their entire being made sure that even their heartbeat, their blood flow, and even their expressions were tampered with, so as to present an identical showing.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    He held onto the one specimen, largest of them all that it was, and then plugged the gap in the TK barrier.

    He was extremely curious as to what this was, especially since he didn''t exactly have much else to do.

    He was wondering what to do when, abruptly, every single one of those creatures began rushing back, right back through the holes that they made to get up. He tried to stop them but they were soon out of his range and the ones he did manage to tag, they struggled so violently to get into the ground that they left behind entire limbs or even tore themselves apart as they resisted his TK.

    Even the one he had in his grasp, he had to sever every tendon, to make sure that it remained in its place. Eventually, he had to methodically sever the spine as well which finally stopped all its thrashing around, and even made it sleep, if the heart rate and the lack of activity was any indication.

    He made sure to do one more thorough scan of the entire area around him, to check if he had missed anything but nothing pinged to his senses, aside from the leftover blood from the creatures that was sizzling.

    Hmm. Interesting.

    ¡°I suppose that this will be a Christman party to remember,¡± He muttered to himself as he felt Bruce and Betty sleeping but Randall and Co. were still awake and playing beer ping pong.

    Tony was fast asleep as well, in his Tower.

    No worries, they will know it in the morning then. There was a reason that the warehouse research place was still kept as is. Mostly because it had been bought by Bruce in the name of his company, which was then bought by Tony who was gracious enough to lease it to Randall for a period of 99 years, effectively, giving them a legitimate base of operations.

    Not that they were ever going to use it for anything serious, knowing Tony¡¯s penchant for dangerous curiosity. Hell, the man tried to bargain for the CHI liquid from the Ancient One in exchange for complete secrecy as well as the warehouse, which was mostly a joke but Tony¡¯s quest to buy that life blood was very much real.

    Creating a small barrier around the creature, he brought it back to the surface, to be dumped right into their base below the Earth, to make sure it was safe before it could be brought to Tony¡¯s attention.

    That man might just get more ideas to make greater armours from this creature, and..actually, that wasn¡¯t that bad of a thing, considering the invasion they had on their horizon.

    _____xx____

    ¡°Hicc..Hey, guys, I told you we should not have asked Dr.Banner to make us industrial alcohol for consumption. Now, look at you guys,¡± he couldn¡¯t help but point out to the room as he watched all six of his brothers laughing and giggling while doing drunken stuff, which the house was not built for.

    As a result of that, they now had six more man shaped holes in the wall. Actually, they one had two, because Leny somehow stumbled and threw himself into a wall but then, once the others saw the shape of the wall, they all thought it was funny.

    And then, they decided to create comical poses while jumping through the walls, creating human shapes with their limbs contorted, creating an even bigger ruckus.

    As a result, he had five more holes in the wall before he could bring it to a stop.

    ¡°Sigh, I should get it rebuilt to a much tougher standard,¡± He muttered to himself, mostly sober but the kick of the alcohol given to them still fresh in his mind.

    Dr.Banner had really outdone himself, mostly because his wife had given him an ultimatum as well because Dr.Betty Ross also could not get drunk on the pedestrian alcohol they could buy off the market.

    Still, he was about to herd everyone back into their bedrooms and make sure everyone was asleep before heading to bed himself when he was pinged.

    Yup, not his phone, not his computer but he was pinged and there was only one person on the planet, as far as he knew, that could ping people remotely.

    The Invisible Man.

    Almost immediately abandoning his brothers, he jumped into the basement and into the tunnel that slid right into his personal laboratory. It was a fun and quick way of getting to his workspace.

    His brothers tried once and wrecked things in his lab so he had to create an energy identifier that reversed the flow of air in the tunnel, throwing people out if they were not him.

    No sooner had he booted up his computer, one of the tunnels that led even further down from his lab opened up on its own, and what could only be described as an alien floated out of the tunnel.

    ¡°Randall, I want you to take a look at it. It is still alive but I have severed its spine. Also, its blood is acidic. That is all I know. Look for any brain anomalies because I am pretty sure these guys have a Hive Mind.¡±

    That was all the Invisible Man, their official employer told him before the voice receded.

    Well, this was nice.

    Couldn¡¯t it have waited for him to get a nice sleep before, though?

    He shrugged and got back to work.

    It wouldn¡¯t do to skimp on work given directly by the Invisible Man. Might just become a matter of alien invasion or not someday.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 94: The One with the MUAHAHAHA!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 94 [December 2011]

    Research Warehouse 1, Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°Alright, ladies, let¡¯s get in line,¡± Tony hollered at the seven brothers who had all gathered around curiously a table that now held the still form of the alien he had captured. It would be wrong to call them aliens though because they were coming from underneath and their numbers suggested some sort of expanded population living below the Earth.

    ¡°Alright, Bruce, would you do the honors,¡± Tony asked Bruce dramatically who rolled his eyes at Tony¡¯s actions but still complied since they were SCIENCE! Bros, after all.

    Bruce tapped a switch on his holo display and a forcefield appeared all around the table which held the very heavy, multi ton body of the digger, a tentative name that had been decided for the ones who were leading the digging charge, with heavier, denser claws and extremely large musculature around the arms and legs for better digging and jumping.

    The forcefield flickered a bit as a small repulsor blast from an immobile drone from within the forcefield struck it with a small repulsor blast.

    ¡°Just testing. Now, let me show you all something interesting,¡± Tony muttered as he controlled a joystick on his holo display and aimed the repulsors at the body below. As far as he knew, the digger was still awake and completely conscious, with no human drugs working on sedating it, but with its spines, and tendons severed and re-severed because they were starting to heal rapidly, the only way to keep it sedated was to forcefully reduce the flow of blood or whatever equivalent they had in their body.

    That was the only reason they were able to conduct such painful tests. Well, painful in the sense¡­.

    BOOM!

    Yup, just like that.

    The small arm drone had smoke coming out of its repulsor output because irt was probably not built to the same standard as the Iron Man suit ones but it still outputted a decent amount of energy and despite that, there was nothing. No mark whatsoever on the skin of the alien.

    ¡°There you have it, folks. A biological skin equivalency to Vibranium,¡± His gaze turned serious at Tony¡¯s words. If it was true, that could change things.

    ¡°You know that is not true, Tony. It is just something that we think might be the answer. Its biology is so tough that anything short of an energised alloy scalpel will not get through. We had to rely on IM¡¯s powers just so we could get the acidic sample,¡± Bruce interjected as he continued to log in the creature¡¯s powers.

    ¡°Yeah yeah, I know but look into the possibilities Bruce. The skin can absorb blunt force, direct kinetic damage, repulsor output, plain old heat, Gamma Energy, and more. Why shouldn¡¯t I call it the Vibranium of biology,¡± Tony said as he slung his arm around Bruce¡¯s shoulder who deadpanned at Tony.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ¡°Because for one, it is not unbreakable. Because, it would be unethical to label its skin something even close to Vibranium because that would mean that the entire species would soon be hunted to extinction and despite their, less than savoury, actions, they don¡¯t deserve genocide,¡± Bruce, ever the forward thinker explained to Tony who gained a thoughtful look at that.

    Well, would you look at that, already Bruce was reigning in some of Tony¡¯s expressly reckless ways of doing SCIENCE!

    ¡°Dr.Banner is right. Plus, we still have a ton of testing to do. Please, Invisible Man, can you get us some more of these?¡± Randall asked him and that gave him a pause.

    Huh, should he really get more of these? So far, the Invasion, if it could even be called that, was laughably small, so much so that he could stop it in his sleep, without even breaking concentration on the city around him.

    But what if the next one turned out to be much bigger than the previous one?

    ¡°Well, Randall, I can¡¯t reach their current location. We can only wait for the next wave to emerge so that I can snag another one. Until then, where does SHIELD stand on this?¡± He asked Tony who had already informed Fury about this and he was not happy about it, well, no one would be, to see Fury¡¯s face first thing in the morning and then inform Fury that they had an alien living body that they were experimenting on, without the express consent of the government.

    Ah, trolling Fury, once again, quite fun.

    ¡°What more can you tell me about it, aside from what I already gleaned from my scans,¡± He asked Tony and the SCIENCE! Bros but aside from their DNA being carbon based and very close to Sea Horses for some reason, there was not much additional info there.

    ¡°I see. Okay, please keep working on this. Tony, I am sure the Hangover has receded by now. Bruce and Randall don¡¯t suffer from that issue so they are fine. In the meantime, I want you to figure out something that can exterminate them en masse,¡±

    Bruce whirled around on the paper avatar, no doubt to admonish him about talking of extermination but it was just for precaution.

    ¡°Bruce, they were in the thousands and they were crushing each other to get to the top, even when I created the forcefield in their way. It is quite possible that it is an HIVE mind connected to everyone and please, make sure that this specimen can¡¯t hear what we are talking about.¡± He informed them and dispelled his paper avatar.

    The structure of the body, its purpose, and its origin pointed him to one thing: Moloids.

    A species originally created by the Deviants to be a slave class or a working without pay class, but were later regressed into unthinking brutes because of massive inbreeding, allowing someone like the Mole Man to usurp command of the entire race, allowing him to become a very powerful person since the Moloids, while not smart, were overwhelmingly powerful, capable of overwhelming even the likes of Luke Cage and Spider Man with their sheer numbers.

    They mostly lived in the subterranean levels though so the only reason they could be so organised and rushing for the surface would be, if someone was controlling them.

    Good Lord, he had a supervillain on his hands.

    Well, let him come then. There was nothing he could do at the moment, aside from letting Tony and Bruce come up with ways of creating something to counter a species that had acidic blood, an HIVE mind, and high physical characteristics who did not flinch from pain.

    Sound familiar?

    Oh yeah, the Chitauri were not going to realise what hit them, when Tony and Bruce whip out their countermeasures, designed for the Moloids in mind, but worked just fine for the Chitaur as well.

    Dance, little puppets, Dance!

    MUAHAHAHA!

    Meanwhile, he would sit back and relax, and fly little Bellina around as she giggled in happiness.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 95: Board Meetings, Arcs, and Telepathy! Finally!!!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 95 [March 2012]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    So, there he was, in a board meeting of the Wu enterprises, smiling and nodding along as the Board clapped themselves on the back for the phenomenal performance they were having year on year, especially their investments which were already netting them returns that they thought impossible a year ago.

    Due to his stake in Stark Industries, Wu enterprises had finally been able to break into the heavy energy sector and start building parts that were now required for the Arc Reactor. Somehow, without him even doing anything about it, Tony had given some concessions to the Wu enterprises firm and was now allowing them to be the only offshore supplier of the rings that were necessary for the safe functioning of the Arc Reactor.

    That¡¯s right, Tony was building the world¡¯s first commercial Arc Reactor, right here, in Manhattan.

    Getting past the red tape was tough but with Tony¡¯s money and his supernatural favours, they were able to get past everything and get a site cleared for a test situation. ONce the reactor runs safely for a month, the city will then begin the process of hooking it up to the city¡¯s grid.

    New York might not be the best place to start with an Arc Reactor. There were much more remote places that worked on just fossil fuels that would have benefited immensely from round the clock clean energy but the thing was, he had no influence on those things. He could just get things approved here.

    So, aside from the Arc Reactor already installed in Stark Tower, Tony was going to be building another one, one with much lower throughout so that it can comply with some of the bare minimum safety standards that the government imposed on them.

    In fact, if he looked outside the hotel conference room they were in, he would be able to see the building, once it was finished. The thing about the Arc Reactor was that it did not have a fixed orientation.

    It was just a fusion core that gave out direct electricity. No need to convert the heat into steam to run a turbine to generate electricity. No, it was straight up electrons moving juice coming out of the reactor.

    So, the requirements for the structure of it were very loose. As such, Tony had decided to build a huge building to house the Arc Reactor, something like a skyscraper. It would house everything obviously including the office staff.

    It was going to be manned by the personnel from the government, obviously, but the construction and maintenance will be in the hands of Tony, at least for the first plant. They might have allowed Tony to build it, they were not going to allow him to run it, at all. Oh, he will get the profits but profits were not what Tony was after, in this particular situation.

    He was looking at this as a proof of concept.

    ¡°Mr.Riddle? Mr.Riddle? Are you listening?¡±

    ¡°Hmm??¡± he looked back to see a bunch of old fogies looking at him with mildly hidden annoyance and anger. That was to be understood. After all, he was the sole reason they were having this meeting in New York in a hotel.

    That¡¯s right, he had made all the board members of one of the largest companies in China, come all the way to New York, just so he could participate in the meeting and then was not paying attention at all to what they were saying or what they wanted to do.

    Frankly, most of it was nonsense anyway so he did not regret it but he should have done a better job at masking it. Now, the old fogies were all upset and would go back home and cry and whine to the older fogie who would then call upon him.

    Ugh. What a drag.

    So, he bowed at them, apologised, smiled, and then left the meeting, with nothing to add from his side.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    What more could he do?

    He had already given them over 5 billion dollars in order just this year, their shares were rising, and enquires came flowing in, not just from the global private sector but also from the CCP who were interested in the company, Master Wu and his relationship with the rising American Superhero.

    Not his problem, not his circus.

    ¡°Ah! That¡¯s the stuff,¡± He exited the five star hotel and went into the closest coffee store he could find, getting the sweet sweet iced coffee shot that literally melted all his troubles away.

    Done with his coffee, he gave the Barista a hefty tip since it was not a franchise and the employees actually worked hard on making sure that his order was well made, and went right back to his apartment.

    Oh yeah, he got a new apartment as well.

    Flexing his money, he was able to get himself a penthouse suite with breathtaking views that were certainly popular with the ladies, and most importantly, had the now almost finished Stark Tower right in his field of view.

    He could sense that most of the tower was done, save for a few basement floors¡¯ being integrated properly and the defense mechanisms not being installed in the top few floors.

    Oh yeah, Tony, knowing that New York suffered through spontaneous alien invasions that are sometimes stopped in time (Moloids) and sometimes are stopped only after they have done a certain amount of damage to their surroundings (The Guy Below), he had chosen to take matters into his own hands and make his building a veritable fortress, with repulsor weaponry installed in such a way that every corner of the building was covered.

    If he was not wrong, the inauguration date was set to be sometime in July, which he felt bad for because the Chitauri Invasion happened right before the building was supposed to be inaugurated, probably sometime around May.

    The preparations for the attack were in swing and he had a hunch that the INvasion was going to be pretty anticlimactic, which was good but he was worried that it might just set the wrong perception in the minds of the common populace, underscoring the threats of future alien invasions, with the aliens being much stronger and way less in number.

    In fact, if he was not wrong, one such invasion was already underway, with the Skrulls.

    He had them in the back of his mind when he first began scanning every single human he met, down to the tiniest detail but he had yet to meet someone whose genetic structure varied so much from a normal human¡¯s.

    Vampires were different because they were essentially dead, with their heart beating at almost 1 bpm, allowing him to identify and exterminate them with ease.

    Skrulls were going to be an issue, he could tell.

    Thankfully, he had another way of reading people now.

    He sat down on the sofa, and leaned back, closing his eyes and letting his mind¡­expand.

    Almost instantly, he was assaulted by a cacophony of thoughts, too jumbled to make any sense of but the thoughts were there.

    He was rather limited in his range at the moment, since it was a new ability he had just unlocked, after three months of hard practice and it was proving to be rather difficult in terms of training and growing it.

    TK was easy, lift big heavy stuff, lift multiple big heavy stuff, lift thousands of tiny stuff. It was easy to get different exercises going for strength, dexterity, stamina and more, when it came to his TK.

    His spatial awareness fed on his TK strength so that was a non issue.

    It was telepathy that was giving him a tough time. But slowly, he was making progress.

    Maybe not remotely but if could atleast touch a Skrull, he would be able to identify if the person was human or not. Atelast that much he could do.

    Unfortunately, he had never met anyone with his real body.

    He swore as he felt a particular emotion bleed through the telepathy and had to cut it off because it was getting annoying.

    Sigh.

    He just sprawled himself on the sofa as his mind wandered as to what he would do about the Chitauri. It was clear that they needed to go and he would be able to do that even before Loki had a chance to set things up.

    Unfortunately, that ruined the agreement he had where he had to let the Invasion happen. Probably because the world needed to know and this was probably a bad way to get the shock across, but a very effective one.

    One that could not be hidden by the governments or by SHIELD.

    No, he had to create an impact, probably some property damage while he evacuated everyone to the tunnel below Manhattan or to the Central Park and safeguard them from all the damage, allowing the news to broadcast everything in real time.

    That should make sure that the threat of aliens gets across to the public, who should, in turn vote for people who will address their concerns.

    Then again, he did not want a warmongering xenophobic person to be elected just because people were afraid.

    Options. Options.

    Ah, this is all so complicated.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 96 : Noose, Skin Grafts and the Weaponisation of anything and everything

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 96 [March 2012]

    Manhattan [Time till Chitauri Invasion - 2 months]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    He was in his room, practising his telepathy by concentrating on the thoughts and dreams of the young couple that lived just upstairs, all the while he worked with his TK to reconfigure the tunnel below and stop crime in the city. It was a strenuous activity for his mind but he was not bothered by that, doing that was how his mind would grow and he needed that growth, especially since lately, he had been feeling as if some noose had been tightening around his neck.

    It was 2012 already, and despite all the preparations he had done, he found his hands sometimes clammy with sweat as he thought of the various ominous ¡°what-ifs¡± that wandered into his mind from time to time.

    What if Loki found him somehow and then used the Mind Stone on him?

    What if the portal didn¡¯t open in Manhattan, limiting his ability to use his powers on the Chitauri?

    What if he couldn¡¯t actually sense Loki with his illusion magic? What if something happened to the evacuation and controlled invasion that he was trying to enact, resulting in grave tragedies?

    He shook his head violently, trying to banish the thoughts but doing so with meditation was next to impossible so he gave up on telepathy practice for the day. Instead, he stood up, and floated right into his bedroom with his clothing for the day all ironed and ready for him to wear, floating mid air.

    He had to do something to get rid of the restless energy he seemed to have and meditation was not the proper way to do it. Unfortunately, building a gym for the superpowered was very much on Tony Stark¡¯s list of capabilities but for that, he would have to expose his identity and that was not something he was willing to do right now.

    The night of Christmas and New York was still fresh in his mind. Man, the amount of alcohol he had consumed that day would have killed multiple men with ease, an amount that barely seemed to affect his system. At the time, he was resentful of that fact but right now, he was grateful because he couldn¡¯t even begin to imagine the unmitigated disaster that a drunk him with all his powers, would be.

    Thankfully, he had one major thing to focus on today.

    A meeting at the Wakanda Embassy. Well, the new Wakandan Embassy that they built right in the heart of Manhattan, for some reason. It was totally pedestrian with no advanced anything in the embassy save for a hardline fiber connection straight to their Embassy on the outskirts of the city but aside from that, it had nothing of note.

    It must have raised some eyebrows when Wakanda, a third world African country, with barely any forex reserves, opened not one but two Embassies in the Big Apple in less than a year. Their reasoning? Only they knew.

    He had the meeting in about two hours and he was already done for the day. His telepathy, atleast the focused version of it, would leave him feeling pretty drained throughout the day, not something he wanted to feel while talking with the Wakandans. They were mentally draining enough on their own.

    It was about the Vibranium fibers they had utilized and how and why they had withered into nothingness when the operation was done. It must have spooked them to go through that particular recording when they hacked into Stark¡¯s or SHIELD¡¯s database. Vibranium was their sacred metal and his being able to destroy Vibranium of all things must have set off alarm bells in their mind.

    That was why they had been trying to set up this meeting for months but he had been blowing them off. A bit petty but hey, he had to make them know somehow that he didn¡¯t really like them and their policies all that much, especially their policy to outright kill the scientists that came too close to their technological superiority.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    That rubbed him all kinds of wrong ways, and he just hoped that the rise of T¡¯Challa to becoming King of Wakanda would stop that practice.

    Why was an advanced technocratic, self-sufficient, and borderline utopian society run by a monarchy anyway? What kind of backward ass thinking was that?

    Hold a tournament, examine the candidates, choose the one most suited for strategies to lead, choose the most physically dominating to be Black Panther, and then have some sort of elected cabinet, directly or indirectly, and then have them make informed decisions.

    That way might be slow but it was not as if Wakanda was making any phenomenal world changing progress right now. They were completely stagnant and while changing anything would demand nothing less than a bloody revolution, he still hoped that sometime in the future, when humanity inevitably expanded to the stars, decentralization of powers happened in Wakanda.

    But then again, he was neither Wakandan nor invested in their internal politics, so what right did he have to comment on their ruling style?

    As long as they didn¡¯t export that to the rest of the world and didn¡¯t impede normal efforts to advance humanity, it would be fine in his books. After all, they were not even a hundred million, if he was remembering correctly, and the world¡¯s population had just crossed the 6 billion mark.

    Wakanda must be strict on population control because they had all the resources when they were growing as a country or rather, they observed the developed country phenomenon of falling birth rates much earlier because they were a developed country when the rest of the world ran on steam engines.

    ¡°Thank you. Keep the change,¡± He insisted to the Barista, one of the many small sized coffee shops that had popped up in this place that he loved to explore, smiled back as he sipped on the heavenly drink, with six shots of espresso, being just enough to rouse him a bit.

    He was on his way to the office while the appointment with the Wakandans had already passed about 20 minutes ago.

    What? It was a power move to let them stew for an hour and also, who was going to do all the fake paperwork in his office, if not him?

    In the meantime, Tony and Bruce had already figured out the specific frequency of repulsors needed to peel open the skin of the probable Moloid that he had captured. Ofcouse, they were not going to vivisect it. They were not savages.

    They made sure that the Moloid had a painless death and then were conducting experiments on its body to figure out how it ticked. So far, Dr.Cho had been the one with the most excitement to join the project and had already begun forming her own thesis based on the skin samples she had received from the Moloid.

    According to her, the skin could be used as the base for an artificial skin graft, virtually indistinguishable from normal skin, but just built differently, in his own words.

    It would have blunt resistance, fire resistance, cold resistance, and even puncture resistance if used properly, creating natural skin armor for people.

    Something that he was quick to warn her about. The skin might not make them as strong as the Moloid, you would need the underlying muscles as well as the bones to make that happen but if something even remotely enhancing was invented by Dr.Cho and it reached the ears of the military, well, it would be used in wars.

    So, he just told her to tread carefully. And she took that advice and went to Tony, who was the certifiable current expert on military grade commercial activities.

    A questionable choice but the best she could have made considering the circumstances and the sheer ease of access to Tony.

    So, he let them be and would only pipe in if Tony tried to shaft Cho and not in a sexual way, the chances of that happening were pretty low but he would still maintain a close eye on that.

    Wouldn¡¯t want mini Moloids popping up, attracting Deviants and Eternals to the city. That was the last thing he wanted, especially with the Invasion just on the horizon.

    ¡°Alright, get the latest financial reports,¡± He pressed a button on the intercom and ordered in his authoritative voice.

    At the same time, a series of papers stuck together before being shredded to form a small human, with a phone flying out of nowhere into its head.

    Let¡¯s see who he would have the pleasure of meeting because the last time he went to a Wakanda Embassy, he met a pretty trained woman who was not a part of the Dora Milaje because she had hair on her head. This time though, he could not sense the same woman being in his entire range, so it must be someone different.

    His paper avatar then began floating high up in the sky before it deformed and began rocketing toward the Wakandan Embassy.

    If they wanted him to be discreet, they should not have built an Embassy in Manhattan then.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 97 : The One with the Old Nosy People

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 97 [March 2012]

    Wakanda [Time till Chitauri Invasion - 2 months]

    ¨CT¡¯Chaka¨C

    He sat in front of the Royal Council, waiting for the same thing that they were waiting for, desperately, for over 3 months now.

    When the news had first reached them about Vibranium being used by the Invisible Man, they were not that shocked, since the man had practically demanded the proper methods to mould Vibranium from them.

    It was also not that shocking to know what the Vibranium was going to be used for. What was shocking was the ease with which their scientists adapted to methods that had been refined over centuries and built some of the most accurate Vibranium fibres they had ever seen, well, if you took into consideration the primitive technology that they had access to.

    The scientists at the Royal lab had gone over their plans dozens of times before presenting their conclusion to them.

    Betty Ross would not survive the child¡¯s birth, and he had been, not quite devastated, but sad that a mother¡¯s life had to be traded for her child¡¯s, something that he knew that most mothers would do in a heartbeat.

    Bearing the child of Dr.Banner, someone who was so strong that the Royal Lab theorized the Shield surrounding Wakanda to be the only option for reliably stopping him, was not something that could be done lightly, and yet, the couple had decided to go through with it.

    The Vibranium fibres were a nice enough option if they just wanted to stop the Gamma Radiation from poisoning her systems. But that was not the only complication that Ms.Ross had at that point.

    The baby¡¯s energy would be so bright, so strong that the internal organs of Ms.Ross would be damaged even before delivery and even more during the delivery. The amount of energy the baby must have consumed from his mother meant that Ms.Ross¡¯ body would be running itself ragged, as was evident by the quite frankly, abnormal, amount of food that Ms.Ross consumed on a daily basis.

    They could not risk getting in depth scans aside from what they could take from their databases, because they were all under the umbrella of the Invisible Man but even from that data, his scientists were all but sure that the baby would be born, it would be hard for such a resilient creature to die, but the mother would not survive the operation.

    Imagine his surprise when something out of the blue happened. Tony Stark somehow chanced upon a liquid that when he put on the Vibranium fibres and re-processed them using the sonic frequency formula that Wakanda had given to the Invisible Man, created fibres that did not look like natural Vibranium.

    No, they were all glowing with white and yellow lights, the glow brightening and dimming.

    His council had all but ordered the sample to be confiscated when the results of Dr.Cho¡¯s experiments with animals were revealed to them but he had silenced them all with one question.

    ¡°How?¡±

    How indeed. That had silenced them all. After all, who wouldn¡¯t want to have something that could heal everything, even limb loss could be healed by the fibres at that point.

    He was sorely tempted, as was every single old person in the room with him, but he was also realistic. What was the point in antagonising someone who was, very soon, not going to be limited to just one small part of the world, and could most certainly bypass all their shields?This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    The Invisible Man¡¯s conversation with the President of America had been most enlightening in that regard. He could just imagine the scrambling that the government and all their shady organisations were doing in preparation for what would most certainly be their end if the invisible Man chanced upon their activities.

    Then, the operation happened. His agents had already been pulled out of Manhattan by that point because there was no point in endangering the WarDogs in an area that might sono turn into a warzone if Dr.Banner began rampaging.

    They had been daring and had hijacked every single packet of data that came out of Manhattan at that point, by tapping into the satellites as well as the undersea cables. It was risky and bold but he wanted, no, needed to see the fibres in action.

    And see in action, he did.

    It was eye opening, what had happened that day.

    With his own two eyes, he had seen someone turn from a normal baseline human into someone that not even the Black Panther could defeat. He also made the mistake of letting the Council be with him when the footage was being relayed.

    That had almost caused a rebellion as the Council now deemed those fibres an important Wakandan artefact that had to be rescued immediately. And he would have agreed but once again, not possible for them, especially now since they knew that Ms.Ross had survived and was now capable of throwing around T¡¯Challa and himself as if they were misbehaving kids.

    The detailed reports had come in a month later and he could only lament at the events as it was stated that Ms.Ross would be mostly immune to the standard blasters they used on their raptors, along with bulletproof. She would also be impossibly fast and receptive to changes around her, so ambushing her was out of the question.

    And without even taking into consideration the above facts, the most important fact was that they still lived in Manhattan, albeit they were much more outgoing now.

    The live footage of the Fibres being all blackened when they were pulled out of Ms.Ross and then withering into thin air, not even dust, into thin air, was what finally calmed the Council down.

    Further investigation revealed that the Invisible Man had a teacher who had given the liquid to Tony Stark at the Invisible Man¡¯s request, something that had put him right on the edge of a heart attack.

    So, he had declared Invisible Man and Manhattan at large, a no activity zone. No Wakandan activity would be carried out in that city without his express permission.

    Still, they had to know, the Lab had to know just how and why the Vibranium had withered as if it was rusted metal and not the strongest metal in existence.

    So, they had been hounding the Invisible Man, almost begging for a meeting with the man personally so that they could discuss the incident and also, to see if the liquid could be procured at any cost.

    Something like that could be like a second life given to the Black Panther whenever needed, even if it was a one use item.

    Unfortunately, the man had been non responsive, even if they went through the so-called congregation that worshipped the man and manned his initiatives throughout the city.

    It was the building of a whole new embassy in Manhattan and the rather sizable anonymous donation of over a 100 million dollars to his food safety initiatives that had the man finally responding to their calls.

    He was sure that the new embassy would increase the scrutiny on their country but that was a risk he was willing to take, especially if he could secure something that might just make someone stronger than even the Black Panther.

    And that was what they were gathered here to watch. He was supposed to have arrived 30 minutes ago but he was sure that the meeting would not be blown off.

    ¡°My King,¡± He was brought out of his ruminations as the screen finally showed a paper avatar appearing on top of the Wakandan embassy flag. The paper then shredded itself and arrived in the office of the only person present in the building.

    They had many questions and he had already forwarded them to the most capable negotiator they had on hand, something of a rarity since Wakanda did not negotiate with anyone.

    It was simply not needed before.

    If they could not get the liquid, which was most probable, he alteast needed some information regarding the Invisible Man and his future plans.

    He was even willing to let the man visit Brinin Zana if he proved to be amicable.

    T¡¯Chalal would surely benefit from the support and benefit of such a person in the future.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 98 : Jitters, Military Sales, and Fear

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 98 [April 2012]

    Manhattan [Time till Chitauri Invasion - 1 month]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    He was getting jittery, he realised that. After the meeting with Wakanda, wherein he so gleefully reminded them that Vibranium was the strongest metal on Earth, not in existence. There were also plenty of beings in the universe capable of breaking apart Vibranium and some of them even resided on Earth.

    They were definitely skeptical but after seeing definite proof of this statement, they had little reason to doubt him. T¡¯Chaka in particular was quite shaken, as were the delegates he had assigned to talk to him.

    Aside from that, Fury had come knocking on the doors of the safehouse where RBA resided, to inquire about the supposed alien corpse they had on hand and what can be done to transfer the custody of that corpse to the government.

    Tony and Bruce had openly scoffed at that demand when he had just washed his hands off the matter and told Fury that if Tony and Bruce agreed with him, he could take the Moloid away for further experimentation. It was safe to say that the Moiloid would not be leaving Manhattan until Tony¡¯s and Bruce¡¯s curiosities were fulfilled.

    The US Government was going to get the data regardless of who did the experimentation anyway so they were not a significant hurdle in the matter. Fury had come to a compromise by stationing Jemma Simmons at the base to help with the study.

    Dr.Cho had come in the initial phases but after taking her skin tissue samples, along with all the subdermal layers, she had retreated to her designated floor in Stark Tower and had been working on that specific part of her project.

    She had already been working on skin grafts, enhanced skin grafts based on her observations of Betty¡¯s skin evolving and strengthening in real time and she, along with Bruce¡¯s help, were going to use the Moloid skin as its base and then create advanced skin grafts capable of tanking all but the largest of bullets without outright puncturing.

    Something that had Fury¡¯s attention as well as the military¡¯s but Tony had promised them if they did not wish to sell it to the Military, they could sell it to emergency services across the country, like the Police and the firefighters. The Moloid skin was plenty fire resistant.

    In the end, Bruce had agreed to sell it to the military but only if all the operations were done on Stark owned sites and the recipients could not be private contractors or anything, they had to be official military personnel.

    Which meant no bulletproof soldiers for SHIELD. Well, according to the latest results of her testing, not all the body could be made bulletproof but over 70% along with the head and the heart covered was a pretty solid covering in his book.

    Aside from that, he had begun subtly working on the underground tunnel that ran across the city. Creating more and more entry points with just the last entry point above the surface left unfinished, which would be opened the second the blue portal opens.

    Creating conduits for clean water storage, packaged food, and even sterilised rooms for emergency medical services to work on.

    He had also added Randall to the plan, not about the invasion but about the tunnel and the plan to use it as a Refuge area for any emergency, natural or alien that may occur above New York. Randall had gotten right to work, installing independent power lines across the entirety of the tunnel, powered by multiple redundant Arc Reactors, to make sure every sq. ft. of it was properly lit.

    He then went a step above his water tank idea and installed water lines extending into the water, from both sides of the tunnel, align with redundant Arc reactor powered water filtration systems, capable of churning out enough water to keep thousands of people fed, for a long time.

    Then there came the medic areas, huge rectangular blocks, lined with solid metal plating, along with enough sterilisation material and hospital supplies to, well, run a huge hospital for months.

    Randall also told him that they had to account for the possibility of him not being available for anything if an actual attack happened on the city and the Invisible Man had to focus completely on the invasion and nothing else.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    It was a fair point so they had also created multiple entry and exit hatches, going deep into the ground and coming out into the other boroughs, with customised vehicles capable of using the Repulsor tech to haul hundreds of people within minutes. Randall had already begun work on the production type cars with two prototypes being built according to his specs.

    He hadn¡¯t even thought of the fact that if it was some other extremely strong entity, he would have to focus all his attention on the fight and would not be able to help the people with mass entry or exit, a rookie mistake in hindsight.

    Also, Randall proposed creating areas with heavy reinforcement, mostly metal based right now but he was working on high application force fields that could work using the same muon base that Repulsors used. If that was ready in time, they could use the force fields to line the entirety of the tunnel, creating a very large safe haven.

    He knew that it was all overkill for the Chitauri because in the movies, it was a tragedy sure but the overwhelming damage was done to the property and all in the first few minutes where the Avegners hadn¡¯t yet drawn the entirety of the Chitauri¡¯s fleet¡¯s attention on themselves, so he was not really worried all that much.

    But still, it was his first Invasion and he both couldn¡¯t wait for it to be done and dreaded it coming all the same.

    He had taken an extended sabbatical from the office, for over 2 months, all paid vacation because he just could not be still in the office for long periods of time. It was quite a perk, especially because it had been approved without someone batting an eye, leading him to believe that the old monster Master Wu had created some sort of reputation for himself in the company, allowing Axle Riddle to do as he pleased, as long as the profits came rolling in.

    He used the time to work on his body, and work on his telepathy, which was working well but not as well as he had hoped to be. He still had to work on the telepathic feedback and reducing the emotional bleed out that happened every time he tried to connect to multiple minds all at once.

    For now, he was just working on reading minds, not manipulating them but even the supposedly simple part was tough going, especially since he realised that not all minds are the same, even if they are the minds of not enhanced people.

    He didn¡¯t touch Bruce¡¯s mind and he would not do so with a hundred foot vibranium pole, because, hello, Avatar of Rage, and all that stuff but he had tried to tap into the mind of Frank, and that had been all but impossible in the beginning.

    Even now, he could barely hear snippets of thoughts from Frank. The minds of teenagers were the easiest, even more so than children, but that was somewhat disgusting to him because of the majority of the thoughts that dominated their hormonal bodies, mainly due to puberty.

    Cops and Firefighters were a little tougher than the normal majority crowd but still doable for his fledgling abilities. Children were very thought because the emotional bleed out from kids was the worst. It would hit him with the force of a sledgehammer, completely disorienting him for seconds before he could focus his telepathy on something else.

    But all of the above was fine. Because he was finally learning something new, something that might turn out to be useful even during the fight. To be honest, he has quite a fear of being mind controlled by Loki even for the fight, something that gave him nightmares, because what if Loki was given some sort of skill that allowed him to find the strongest mind in his vicinity, leading him straight to the Invisible Man whose mind, formidable as it might be, was no match for the fucking Infinity Stone in his grasp.

    Allowing himself to fall under the control of Loki would quite literally spell the end of the planet, because the moment the Blue Portal opened up, he would be free. Free to wreak havoc on any part of the planet.

    And sure, the Ancient One could probably stop him but that battle would not be quiet and outing Kamar Taj to the rest of the world would do the world no good, especially right on the heels of an alien Invasion.

    No, the second Loki arrived on Earth, he was going to bunker up. Flood his presence in the surroundings and make sure that every current of air was monitored, so that Loki does not approach him while invisible.

    Part of him felt silly for being afraid of Loki while the image of him being thrashed by the Hulk repeated in his mind but another part of him remembered, the sheer ugliness Loki held within his soul and what could happen when that same part was amplified by Thanos and the Mind Stone.

    No, he was right in being cautious.

    The second the portal opens up, he will evacuate everyone, let the Chitauri through, thrash Loki to an inch of his life, bury that sceptre so deep in the ground that no one would be able to find it, and once the appropriate response comes from the WSC, which it will come, he was sure of that, let the Nuke through and then use the sceptre to plug the hole.

    All the while making sure that the world knows that while there are scary things in the deep darkness of space, they were not helpless, that they were not alone.

    Because the point of letting the Invasion happen was not to let the world know about the aliens and their might, not to scare them but to make them aware of the dangers and also to let them know that they had defenders that would protect them from the dangers.

    Something that was supposed to be done by SHIELD but whatever.

    <hr>

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 99 : The One with the Flying Car!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 99 [April 2012]

    Manhattan [Time till Chitauri Invasion - 1 month]

    ¨CTony Stark¨C

    Well, that cements it, something absolutely fishy is going on and he was not in on it. That would just not stand by him, now would it?

    ¡°Jarvis? Get me our flying car, would you?¡± He ordered Jarvis while finishing his drink in a hurry, a protein shake, not alcohol. It was noon, he was not an animal. Well, it depends if you counted being a party animal but that mode of his was reserved for only when it was dark outside, and he was feeling particularly cheery.

    ¡°Certainly, sir. However, I must remind you that I have been advised by multiple concerned parties not to let Sir drive the car alone.¡± Jarvis sassily reminded him and he just waved off those worries. There was no reason he could not drive the car, it was perfectly safe. He built the repulsor system into the car, he knew just how it worked.

    ¡°Bah! They worry too much, Jarvis. Just get the car out on the penthouse roof and please, get a new flavor for the protein shake. Plain Vanilla gets boring after a while,¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Jarvis said and he gleefully rubbed his hands as he came out of the elevator and saw the car in all its glory.

    It was based on an old Porsche Vintage car, with nothing about it being vintage except its external looks. It still had four wheels but they were merely decorations, placeholders for the muon repulsion system that would take its place once the vehicle was activated.

    It was a thing of beauty, sleek silver, and chromium, with no gold and red highlights though. What a bummer. But it was a unanimous decision between all the people that contributed to the project that the car would remain as is and any personalisations could be done on later versions of the flying car, something he agreed on so no use pouting over lost opportunities.

    Finally, his dad¡¯s promise to the world that he made in the first Stark Expo would be fulfilled. A flying car!

    The car slowly floated on top of the penthouse, with its doors facing him, and he grinned as the light forcefields came to life. This was another project he was working on, creation of force fields with strengths dependent on the amount of Arc Energy being supplied to the generators.

    So far, he could make force fields that could not just tank but contain the explosion from a Jericho missile, the strongest weapon that the Military still had. That was quite impressive but not even close to the required rating if he wanted something like the Hulk or the Invisible Man to be contained.

    To be fair, how would he even go about trying to contain the Invisible Man? He had searched high and low and aside from some partial matches that just did not make any sense, he had not found anything about the elusive telekinetic.

    He slowly took a step on the forcefield ladder that had been created for him and smiled as railings simultaneously appeared on the sides of the ladder, allowing him to cover the steep climb with ease.

    Once inside, he smiled once more, seeing no buttons at all. While some people really loved the tactical feedback of buttons, he liked them to be digital, so that they could be tucked away, especially since he had a very reliable digital assistant who could not just understand his commands perfectly but also sometimes execute them before he could even say them out loud.

    Case in point, the railings on the ladder.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    Satisfied with the novel experience, he put his hands on the steering, which was more of a plane steering than a car steering, and was about to put the car on Drive, when the screen flashed red.

    ¡°Insufficient permission? What?¡±

    ¡°Unfortunately, Mr.Stark, when the car was programmed to stay in storage until the next one was to be made, it was programmed to only have automatic functionality unless all three key members were present. For you to drive the car manually, you will need the immediate presence of Dr.Banner and Mr.Randall,¡± Jarvis reminded him of that stupid thing that he agreed to.

    ¡°But, you can bypass it, right? I made you, Jarvis, I know you can do it,¡±

    ¡°It would be possible if only Dr.Banner had not installed a physical sensor requirement which would not be fulfilled if his unique energy signature was not recorded, reportedly, after repeated insistence from both Ms.Ross and Ms.Potts,¡±

    Oh, so the missuses were worried then. Alright then, they win. He shouldn''t really be doing this anyway. The only reason it would even be legal was because there was no such license category for flying cars, allowing him to exploit a small legal loophole that would probably be plugged by the time he was done with his personal car.

    Fiinee.

    ¡°To the SHARED LAB!¡± He always wanted to say that, as Jarvis took control of the car and he whooped as the car immediately picked up speed, the repulsor systems allowing it to access most of its torque in the early phases.

    The car slowly came to a halt, the inertial dampeners working as he barely felt any impact, as the car slowly landed on top of the warehouse, the top of which opened, and then the car landed on the ground, the top closing on its own.

    He looked around, as the various teams of scientists worked together in this lab. A small team from SHIELD, led by Jemma Simmons, worked on one side, mostly on the skin tissue and the defense tech that Dr.Cho was leading, Bruce and Betty both worked on, well, their own bodies, essentially.

    They still had yet to conclude the studies on the stem cells frozen, and the various goo that was left behind from little Bellina¡¯s delivery. It was apparently worth its weight in gold because the cells, even after so long, were still alive.

    There was a small Stark Industries team here but they were mostly here to install the various doodads they had made over the months to secure this place. Randall was nowhere to be seen, and neither was his merry band of brothers.

    He liked the brothers, they were¡­not as smart as Randall was, who could easily keep up with him and Bruce, but they were really loyal and more importantly, really strong.

    Together, they could probably hold off even Bruce in his em[powered form if they wanted to. They didn¡¯t get injured, not by any weapon he used anyway and they were freakishly tenacious.

    Randall had some weapons tuned to their bodies so that they could be used to hurt them, if necessary but even after being bloodied by those weapons, all the brothers seemed to come back for more. It was as if their bodies were being tempered by damage, allowing them to grow stronger in a controlled environment.

    Lately, that part of their training has been increased for some reason, both in terms of intensity and frequency. Randall was also busy in some other project given to him specifically by the Invisible Man.

    He wondered what they were up to.

    ¡°Bruce!¡±

    ¡°Hi, Tony/ Hello, Dr.Stark,¡± The couple greeted him but before Bruce could go back to working with his paramour, he dragged him a bit away.

    ¡°Hi, do you have any idea what Randall is working on? Because I know they have a secret base in the subterranean levels and for the past few weeks, I am getting some really strong energy readings, along with disturbances recorded across Manhattan,¡± He was hoping Bruce would have some idea because, being fellow Hulks, they shared a much deeper bond than he did.

    Bruce looked unamused, ¡°I don''t know, Tony. The last I heard, he had some personal work from the Invisible Man that was also interesting. If you¡¯ll excuse me, I still have to compile that report by the end of the day,¡±

    Yeah, to your boss, which was him, he wanted to say that but he didn¡¯t say it out loud. He just nodded and thanked Bruce.

    ¡°Jarvis, access the data points for the entry point of the underground Tunnel that he built and take me there,¡± He ordered Jarvis who complied and he tapped on his smartwatch, and ordered a suit to come meet him at the entry point.

    It was time to see just what was going on below the city, under the watch of the Invisible Man.

    Hmm, he was strangely excited as if he was about to bust someone¡¯s completely harmless operation but finding joy in doing it nonetheless.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 100 : The One with Randall Yapping.....

    A/N - Sorry guys for the inactivity for the past few weeks. IRL seasonal change hit me hard. Regular seasonal Cold, Cough and fever evolved into something more sinister due to my immune system''s inability to fight it properly, leading to hospitalisation.

    Anyways, double release today! Woohoo!

    On a serious note, will try to get back to a regular schedule but let''s see. Thanks for reading.

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 100[April 2012]

    Tunnel Under Manhattan, the Refuge Zone [Time till Chitauri Invasion - 1 month]

    ¨CRandall¨C

    ¡°Urgh,¡± With a grunt, he pushed the final part into the entire assembly, which created a clicking sound as the systems came to life with a whine, the Arc Energy pulsing through every single node that he had installed in the miles long tunnel that the Invisible Man had built, as a makeshift emergency center for the entire centre to huddle into.

    When he was first approached with this concept, he was very much giddy to be given the opportunity to work on something like this, a giant panic room, with free reign and essentially unlimited resources to do whatever he wanted to create what was essentially a small temporary fortified city, by the Invisible Man.

    He was confused at first because all the entry and exit points were either too small or inaccessible without the help of the Invisible Man. When he explained that along with some other problems to the Invisible Man, he was promptly handed the control over the entire project to him, as if he was the authority here.

    And yet, over the past month that he had been working on this place, it had been very fast paced and just plain cool to work. According to the Invisible Man, he feared a large-scale invasion of aliens with no place for the citizens to huddle down, until the Invisible Man took care of the threat. It was understandable, and he had even refined the concept further as well.

    Building multiple train routes, going deeper underground, and emerging into other boroughs, with the trains capable of carrying thousands of people at once, at lightning speeds to the other boroughs, so that they can get away from the epicentre, while the Invisible Man worked on containing the threat to Manhattan.

    That was another oddity, he noticed. The Invisible Man seemed to be sure that the attack would happen on Manhattan, the home field of the Invisible Man, where he was the strongest, the absolutely undisputed powerhouse, and yet, he seemed almost certain that as long as the native population of Manhattan was safely evacuated to the other boroughs, they would be mostly fine.

    He thought long and hard about that but the only thing that made sense to him was the notion that the Invisible Man was preparing for some sort of attack on him personally, with the damage to the city being just collateral damage as a result of the fight between the Invisible Man and whoever the third party was.

    He soon abandoned that train of thought and worked on doing what he knew best. Tech.

    Ah, it was so freeing, so have essentially unlimited budget, what with the babble of Billionaires just waiting to get some sort of command from the Invisible Man, to throw their wealth at someone who was giving them something that all the money in the world would not have been able to buy otherwise.

    Security, but not just security. No, money could buy them absolute security in a deep dark bunker in some remote corner of the world with a private military protecting them. That could be bought with money but not what the Invisible Man was giving them right now.

    Security in a mundane environment.

    Being able to get out on their own, with no stuffy security or no feeling of danger, no fear of being hurt by breathing fresh air, was something that no amount of money could buy for these people.

    As such, he had been able to blow through over a hundred million dollars worth of stuff in the past month alone with no sight of the people hesitating to hand over even more money for whatever reason.

    The best water purifiers, with enough stored air and supplied to last days at a a time. He was really proud as to how far this had come. When he had taken over, it was just a tunnel with some lights and a couple of reinforced steel rooms built into the corners for any emergency services to use. The Invisible Man had resorted to building giant water tanks and pressured air tankers for use by the people who would take refuge in the area.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    While that was practical for someone of his powers, they had to build something that would not require his attention, at all. Something that would run by itself, without any attention required from the Invisible Man since he would be busy fighting the alien or monster or whatever it is that attacked Manhattan. Attacks that would force the entirety of the city to be evacuated would presumably also be potent enough that the Invisible Man would need to focus entirety on the enemy.

    With the last part finally installed, he had done it.

    His first large scale forcefield installation. He hadn¡¯t yet tested the system yet and there were a couple of checks in the tunnel integrity to be done before he could think of turning on the force fields but the generator was installed and more than half of the does were showing ready but still, for his peace of mind, he would check everything once again before hitting the ON switch.

    He was about to go up to the city to get a sandwich or pizza but his watch began buzzing with a specific coded alarm.

    He sighed, as he realised what the code was for. It was an alarm specifically coded into his systems to warn him if Tony Stark or one of his Iron Men suits were coming any closer to designated special sites, like their subterranean base as well as this tunnel now.

    He opened the display and yup, Tony Stark himself was on his way right here, after discovering the closest unfinished entrance to the tunnel. How he found the entrance which was still about 50 ft from the surface, in the underground sewer, was another question he would have to ask the eccentric billionaire, after answering a thousand other questions from the Billionaire, obviously.

    He sat down, not on a normal chair but on a forcefield chair, something that he did just so he could flex on Tony when he arrived and saw his awesome creation.

    Now, granted, it would not have worked nearly as flawlessly without Arc Energy, energy that was taken straight from the Arc Reactor housing without any refinement and imputed straight into the forcefield cluster he had built for the tunnel.

    Great for forcefield applications but it burns out the Arc Reactor far faster than usual.

    Well, something to improve in the next iteration then, he thought to himself while deliberately sitting right in front of the point of entry into the tunnel that TOny was using, reading a digital magazine.

    Presentation was important and he was a bit of a drama queen.

    He didn¡¯t have to wait long before the sound of repulsors being fired reached his ears, the subtle whine easily audible to his enhanced senses.

    Tony could have easily done away with any noise made by the repulsor systems, with ease but for some reason, he continued to have them in his newer suits as well. Admittedly, it was a nice sound, very futuristic to hear but it was a sound that had no place in the battlefield.

    Such were his thoughts when he watched, through the translucent digital magazine, Tony land in the tunnel, with his signature three point landing.

    He lowered the magazine, took one look at Tony, and¡­

    ¡°Get off my Lawn!¡± He grumbled as he stood up, his chair and the magazine dissipating.

    ¡°Ha. ha. So funny, Randall,¡± Tony¡¯s modulated voice came through the suit before the mask slid off and Tony¡¯s obnoxious smug face was revealed to him as he looked around the tunnel, with multiple smaller drones ejecting from his suit.

    ¡°So? What you got down here, Randall? Some newer alien? Come on, tell me,¡± Tony asked him, following in his footsteps as he began walking towards the makeshift office he had built for himself in the tunnel, all with a direct line to his systems in the subterranean base, something that he deactivated as soon as Tony set his sights on the system.

    ¡°This, Mr.Stark, is a refuge tunnel, being built, to house hundreds of thousands of people, in case an attack of a caliber that hit us recently ever happens again. It has everything, from clean water, and air, to enough storage space to keep food and more importantly, people safe from whatever happens above ground.

    ¡°Uh-huh. So a glorified bunker then. I get it. What I want¨C Is that a force field generator? Oh, that¡¯s a clever way to use the Muon bleedout. Hmm,¡± And there he went, Tony in his own world as he snapped his fingers, and summoned one of the drones which flew right into the ceiling and began taking extensive scans of the forcefield node that he had built into the roof, and the floor of the tunnel, cross the entire length of the tunnel.

    ¡°Wow, it never occurred to me that the pure muon, something that will fry most electronics could be used to do this. It makes sense, though.¡± Tony began muttering to himself as he floated to the top of the tunnel and reached towards the node and then.....

    ¡°Hey!¡± He found himself shouting and launching himself straight at the floating Iron Man as Tony just ripped out the forcefield node, shutting down the entire network as a precautionary measure he had built into the systems.

    Tony flew away but he snatched the node right out of his hands.

    Landing on the ground with a thud, he exclaimed, ¡°Come on, Man! Now, I have to repopulate every single one of the nodes into the system, again.¡±

    Tony floated down, ¡°That¡¯s great. You can show me how then.¡± The smugness in his voice deserved only a single response.

    Showing Tony the finger, he stomped with the node in hand, back to his office, to begin the tedious process of repopulating the system with nodes, one by one.

    Tony¡¯s suits followed behind as they walked to his office, hopefully, Tony had some ideas about the software and what can be done to improve it.

    It was not as if he was averse with sharing his technology. It was what the Invisible Man had told him to do, only to be careful to whom it was shared which was fair enough.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 101 : Prelude to Showdown!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 101[May 2012]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s do this,¡± he muttered to himself as he sat cross legged in his room and dove deep into his mind, all other outside thoughts forgotten, and even the patrolling and watch over New York stopped for a moment.

    When he opened his eyes, he found himself standing in front of a large blue half circle, which was the shield that surrounded his mind. Yeah, it was a cliche, surrounding one''s mind with an indestructible barrier but hey, why change what works?

    Especially since he had a multitude of others, just as deadly traps laid down for anyone trying to enter his mind. But he was not here to examine his defenses, no, he was here to check on the mechanism he had built for himself.

    His form slowly floated into the shield, bypassing the shield as it wasn¡¯t there, and came face to face with a small clock like device, which did not serve the function of a clock. No, it was his last resort, an emergency fail-safe measure just in case he found himself under the tender mercies of Loki, and the Mind Stone he had in his possession, however weakened it might be due to the sceptre.

    Right after the barrier was the clock, which would detect if any foreign surge of mental energy was breaking through his shields and trying to breach his mind or not. He didn¡¯t know exactly how the Mind Stone or the particular brand of mind control that Loki used but he could take some educated guesses. For one, Loki himself, while capable of some mind control magic, was nowhere near strong enough to breach his defenses, atleast not the current rendition of Loki.

    Loki Season 2 might have won but Chitauri Invasion Loki? That bitch would get slapped the second he entered his TK range.

    He had set up the mental construct in his mind with one goal and one goal only. Total and utter deletion of memories, of his past life just in case something unstoppable knocked on the doors of his mental shields. It also had a manual trigger, it was quite hard to create, especially since he did not have much time to make both the defenses and the mental trigger.

    Just in case, he felt something off and felt as if his mind was about to be destroyed, the mental construct would flip a switch, and the most protected ball of memories at the centre of his mind palace would rip itself apart, rendering his mind catatonic, until it eventually healed itself, just without the memories part.

    That served two functions. One, denying Loki, and by extension, Thanos any kind of future knowledge, and two, it would incapacitate him completely. That would reduce Loki¡¯s chances of winning in any meaningful manner.

    Honestly, it was kind of an extreme measure but he had this thought ever since Randall told him that the tunnel needs to be completely independent of the influence of the Invisible Man, just in case he was busy fighting their foe, and Randall was right. So, they made the tunnel completely independent of any effort required on the Invisible Man¡¯s part.

    It was also a ploy on his part to let Tony enter the tunnel and do as he pleases, especially since he had given both of them a pretty strict 1 month timeline. He lied to them about getting some intel from his so called teacher about a possible attack in a month, which was not untrue but he didn¡¯t specify if the attack was coming from below or from above.

    They assumed another attack from the Moloids which spurred them to reinforce the tunnel to such an extent that should a small Nuke, like in canon, hit Manhattan above ground, the tunnel would be affected, yes, but not destroyed and most of the people would live past the blast, only to die a few years later of radiation poisoning but that was something that can be treated later on, especially if he was able to get some artificial CHI up and running.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    Lots to do but no time to do it. So, he prioritised the mind defenses and the suicide mechanism built into his mind. He thought that it would have stopped his progress in telepathy but as it turns out, having a calm, stable, and more importantly, organised mind increased his telepathy range by leaps and bounds.

    Now, he could read the thoughts of people, faintly, at least in a 500 metre radius. That was progress but he didn¡¯t have much time celebrating that because he was busy thinking and overthinking, and thinking anxiously about Loki and the Mind Stone. It was funny that he ignored the Chitauri as an enemy and was only focused on Loki and more importantly, on the Mind Stone itself.

    He had to get the Stone for himself, he realised one day. No way was he going to let the freaking Mind Stone, something that could just elevate him to planetary status, get away from his hands.

    Once the Invasion was done, he could ambush the SHIELD convoy and take the sceptre for himself. That should be fairly easy, stopping Wanda¡¯s awakening, avoiding another threat in the process.

    He kept checking up on his mechanisms and built multiple dense tungsten plates with words literally carved onto them, detailing the memories and some clues sprinkled in for future him to read just in case he had to activate the fail safe and essentially, kill himself for the greater good.

    God, he was such a wuss. He couldn¡¯t even guarantee a win against the lowest tier of army that Thanos had under his command and he had dreams of defeating Thanos himself.

    It was just that he didn¡¯t have confirmation if his powers could sense Loki or not. He tried with some of the masters who would talk to him but they admitted to not being experts in illusions and what little they did know, he was able to make out their body structure and if not their bodies, he was able to sense the disturbance in the air around him, and locate them that way.

    He felt fairly confident in defeating Loki if Loki chose to reveal himself even a second earlier but he was not taking any chances.

    He was also keeping a close eye on the Stark Tower, and the SHIELD safehouse in the distance. The second he heard of Loki arriving on the planet, he would hole himself deep underground, even deeper than the Refuge tunnel, with ample food, water, and air, so that he could get the entire Invasion done without ever having to worry about Loki sneaking up on him.

    He also had kind of a costume ready, fabric custom made by one of the many cosplaying tailors that lived within the city who were more than happy to get the opportunity to make the official costume for the Invisible Man. He didn;t need much reinforcement but the mad lad was somehow able to learn how to use Kevlar in the suit and then after being supplied the necessary ingredients, was able to make one for him.

    Ofcourse, he was compensated fairly, he was not a monster.

    He took a deep breath and opened his eyes, noticing that only 2 seconds had passed in his mental world while he had all that internal monologue. His mind was immediately assaulted by the visions of the city, of crimes being committed, or people almost dying due to collisions, all in the span of 2 seconds.

    Good Lord, he didn¡¯t know what the city would do if he left. He had to do something to prepare them, otherwise the entire city might just collapse when he left. No, he had to make sure that, at the very least, the city was left in somewhat better economic condition than before his debut.

    Sure, the Billionaire exodus will happen but he could at least make sure that it was a stable transition. With Randall and Co. here, with his plans to permanently enhance Frank and Daredevil, once he became active, it should help keep the crime low in the city.

    Bruce¡¯s situation was complex, as he would never leave Bellina out of his sight, and it was true that Bellina was in constant danger, unless she was in the range of the Invisible Man.

    So far, he had already stopped 2 dozen attempts by various people from various nationalities from trying to get closer to Bellina, from spying on Bellina, and from trying to get DNA samples from Bellina.

    He didn¡¯t stop them from doing anything else but once it came to little Bellina, he came down on them like the hammer of justice and after breaking one or two bones, depending on the severity of their actions, tossed them outside the city, right in the impound lot, purpose built for such people, who would randomly be tossed into it, at any time of the day, by the Invisible Man.

    He would also pen a report of their actions and deposit it into the nearest Precinct, which filed it as evidence.

    Apparently, even with his god like powers, he could not escape the evil that is Bureaucracy.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 102 : Maximus Defensus!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 102[May 2012]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Breathe In. Breathe Out. In and Out. He repeated the cycle, trying to mold his vast psionic energy into something usable when it came to his telepathy. Being prepared to essentially kill himself just in case Loki got his hands on the strongest Telekinetic on the planet, he was now trying to advance his telepathy.

    He was hoping that even if he could not read Loki¡¯s mind since the minds of even moderately strong people like Captain America were out of his reach, he could sense his mind. Sense that there was a mind present in his range, even if it was vastly more protected than the normal human¡¯s.

    Because when it came to Steve Rogers, while he could not read his thoughts, he could, faintly make out his emotions and also could tell that there was a mind present there, it was just not in his capability to read, less said about controlling his mind the better.

    For some reason, the controlling aspect doesn¡¯t come to him, not even at all. He couldn¡¯t even insert some benign suggestions in the minds of people, fairly weak minded people as well. He was hoping to insert a suggestion to STUDY HARD in a random kid¡¯s mind but that just seemed like something that would backfire on him and then ruin that kid¡¯s life. Maybe he was destined to be a sports star? Or someone who doesn¡¯t need to study all that much, like an actor? Or a Musician?

    Yes, extensive study is required to become an expert in any field but that would not be STUDYING that schools provide. No, that would be a specific study and he did not want to do anything to affect innocent people¡¯s minds. That was going a step too far, in his opinion.

    So, he sought out the criminals of the city. Turns out, there weren¡¯t many. Not in the process of actively committing a crime anyway. While he was sure that most of the Russian variety of Billionaires in the city had hundreds of crimes to their name, none of them were done in his purview and he had yet to see an arrest warrant for any of them.

    He had received dozens of arrest warrants from multiple authorities of the US government and after minimal consultation with the Mayor and the local authorities, he made sure that the person against whom a legitimate arrest warrant had been issued, was safely put into the respective authorities¡¯ custody.

    The Government was worried in the beginning that he would not respect the law but aside from Bruce¡¯s situation, he had not yet openly flouted any law. Well, aside from ALL the privacy laws that the US government might have but then again, the government flouts it as well, so who would police him in that regard?

    At the moment, he was trying his best to increase his telepathic range, something that was so very hard because while he did have vast amounts of psionic energy, it was getting harder and harder to manipulate said energy into something useful. It was easy to strengthen his TK. Use it over and over, over and over again until his tank was completely depleted.

    The thing here was that the tank was so absurdly large and the hose was so freaking small, that it was all but impossible for him to put any meaningful dent in the tank. So, there he was, stuck in his apartment, trying to do something to get the jitters off. It had been a week since the tunnel was completed, with everything he could think of and more. Dedicated hospitals had been built in that place, which would mostly be unnecessary because he would keep a close eye on everything but then again, Randall¡¯s idea of self sufficiency was correct.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    It had all the supplies needed, along with multiple large water tanks, with the filtration plants connected directly to the river water. They were all powered by a giant Arc Reactor which provided centralised power and then, each unit had another smaller Arc Reactor just in case the bigger one failed for some reason.

    It was quite an intricate design. Randall and Tony working together were able to build the forcefield much faster than just Randall working on it. They had even tested the forcefield and theoretically, he was able to focus about 10% of his total strength on a single point on the forcefield before it burst apart, destroying some nodes and one of the Arc Reactors.

    That was¡­great. It might have broken at his 10% but there were not many things that could exert that much pressure in such a small area. He was sure that even one of the Leviathans crashing on the forcefield would not destroy it because the weight would be much more distributed.

    Seeing the effectiveness of the shields, Tony had the idea to install some of them in his tower as well. Well,  that worked out exactly as he planned it to work out. So far, he could see partial installation being done on the penthouse floors.

    The end of the month was in sight and there were still no signs of Loki arriving. He couldn¡¯t even subtly inquire about the Tesseract or anything. Fury wouldn¡¯t tell him anything anyway.

    All he could do was focus on the city, do his job, strengthen his telepathy, something that he should have done ages ago, and then wait.

    ¡­..

    ¡­

    Okay, where the fuck was Loki? He thought to himself, frustrated at the lack of any action. He was getting more and more anxious as the days went by. There were now only 5 days left in the month of May and if his memory was correct, The New York invasion happened in the month of May itself.

    In the meantime, there had been another development. A new company, with Stark Industries being a minority shareholder and Bruce and Dr.Cho being the majority shareholders, had been created, headquartered right in Manhattan.

    It was aptly named Maximus Defensus Pvt. Ltd.

    Bruce had asked him for a name and with no way of backing out of his absurd suggestion, Bruce watched helplessly as his first company, his first corporate endeavour was named something so silly. In his defense, it was just a way to get rid of some of the stress he was accumulating.

    Already, he could see many people pointing at the name on the building and whispering amongst themselves. It was not to the point of outright laughing but it certainly was odd.

    As for what the company did, well, it created skin grafts. The strongest skin grafts that any company did. Fury and the US military, having known about it beforehand, had already booked all the available slots. Extensive testing had been done by basically all the branches of the military and it would be safe to say that the company was now basically drowning in money, as the government threw whatever they asked at them, just to get their soldiers bulletproof.

    And it wasn¡¯t even completely bulletproof either. Sure, it was stronger than Kevlar but they couldn''t do the skin grafts on any part of the body. Most extremities were covered obviously, but a bullet to the back of the head will still put them down, just like any normal human.

    Even then, the military was jumping at the chance to get their soldiers enhanced in quantities ranging in the hundreds, with no horrible side effects or fancy super soldier serums.

    SHIELD had gotten their cut as well, as was discussed in the deal they had with Tony and the Invisible Man as the witnesses, to make sure that Bruce was not ripped off.

    It was safe to say that little Bellina¡­ wouldn¡¯t have to worry about money, at all, in the future.

    Bruce expressed some concerns about going into the military industrial complex but Tony was the one who explained to him that he was not creating stuff to kill people, just defend people better.

    Plus, Bruce had strictly put 40% of all the available slots to be used for civilians only, out of which most of them would be free anyway. THe skin grafts also had a very low rejection rate so people across the country would soon be pouring in to get their grafts for free, subsidised by the revenue coming in from the military, obviously.

    NYPD was getting some of them as well, on his suggestion, just in case.

    As all these thoughts ran through his mind, his mind still ended up going to the root question of all.

    WHERE.THE.FUCK.WAS.LOKI??!!

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 103 : WSC takes centre stage

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 103[May 2012]

    Manhattan

    ¨CPhil Coulson¨C

    ¡°Agent Coulson, you are ordered to stand down, under direct orders from the WSC. Please refrain from making any overt moves while we process your defection,¡± He maintained the same placid smile on his face, even as the people he proudly called colleagues pointed their guns at him.

    ¡°An entire STRIKE team, just for me?¡± He couldn¡¯t help but shout, as he pressed a few buttons on the dashboard of the car he was sitting in, turning it into a veritable fortress capable of taking punishment far above what any pedestrian car could take.

    Jasper Sitwell, one of the people who graduated the same time as him through the SHIELD academy shook his head, regret clear on his face, ¡°You know as well as I do that I am not the one giving orders right now. It is out of my hands. Please, just come with me and we won¡¯t have any more problems,¡±

    He shook his head at that. No, they were far beyond that point now. Director Fury was dead. Project Pegasus was shut down, the Tesseract was in the wind and they were no closer to doing anything than they were 24 hours ago, when the entire base in NewMexico imploded on itself, leaving behind just a handful of survivors, recently promoted Deputy Director Hill being one of them.

    As for him? Well, he smiled as the logo on the dashboard finally finished loading. There was a reason he was in a car, instead of a ship or a container where hiding would have been infinitely easier. He had received clear, precise instructions from Director Fury, instructions that had been recorded before his death and to be handed over to him, just in case.

    He was now the proud keeper of secrets that he would rather now know, at all. It was not fair, Director Fury should have been able to evacuate in time but apparently, Loki¡¯s mind control was so heavy that Barton shot the Director straight in the head.

    ¡°Agent Sitwell, I am sure you were just following orders and for what it''s worth so am I,¡± with his words spoken, he slammed his foot on the accelerator, making the car whine with a particular sound. A sound that was most probably heralded by the arrival of a man in a suit.

    He could hear the dings of bullets hitting the underbody of the car as it floated, straight to New York City. He had to make sure that Invisible Man was aware of the threat that Loki and the Tesseract posed to the world.

    The system was very rough and very prototype phase so it was a rough ride in the beginning but it soon smoothed out. His mind flashed back to the message he received, in the middle of the night.

    For some reason, all of SHIELD was put on a high red alert but no one seemed to know what was going on or if the emergency was even real or not. He wouldn¡¯t put it past the the taskmasters that were the emergency readiness team at SHIELD to manufacture multiple emergencies to prove that SHIELD agents are the best the country has.

    Unfortunately, even after hours of no confirmation, he was getting jittery and that was when he received the data packets. A series of coordinates, container multiple secure caches, an emergency toolkit just in case Director Fury died due to a traitor, and could not inform anyone before dying.

    That had jolted him into awareness and he had spent the next few hours securing the data caches and this car, with SHIELD already having revoked all his accesses, declaring him as a deserter, and had made chasing him down one of their priorities. Fortunately, this car was very stealthy and the only reason he was found was because he stepped out for nature¡¯s call, something that his car already had in the third row of seats, about which he did not know then.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    Soon, it was only a few hundred miles before he reached the boundary of New York and entered the official domain of the Invisible Man. SHIELD had so far not made any moves in the New York division and had not even informed most of them about anything, probably to make sure that nothing of the literal WORLD ENDING situation reached the ears of the Invisible Man.

    He shook his head in disgust at the sheer politics of it all. The WSC was confident that ordinary agents, normal unenhanced humans would be able to go after Loki, an Asgardian? No chance in hell.

    He winced as a bird hit the windshield and promptly exploded into pieces, which were immediately cleaned by the wipers.

    He sighed as the exhaustion of the past 24 hours began setting in. He still had Alpha Level access to SHIELD¡¯s databases, something that only the Director and the Secretary were supposed to have but then again, when did Fury ever do anything half asses?

    He half laughed, half grimaced as he activated the cruise control, along with the stealth mode, something that reduced the top speed to half of what it was capable of but he didn¡¯t have it in him to care all that much. He climbed back into the rear seat and just tried to get some shut-eye, before he had to deal with this huge clusterfuck that was Loki¡¯s attack.

    Barton was reportedly under Loki¡¯s mind control. Romanoff had been pulled back from a mission. Captain was still in New York so SHIELD had refrained from calling him back but he could see them trying to get him on board when things inevitably got too heavy for them.

    ETA - 2 hours. He read it on the roof of the car, which also had a screen somehow and then drifted to sleep.

    He was awoken by a gentle beeping noise that only half awoke him as he began searching for the alarm. Then the beeping intensified and his eyes snapped open as she realised where he was.

    The car was floating right above the Staten Island, Manhattan visible in the distance. He was sure that The Invisible Man was probably seeing him right now. As much as the stealth systems of this car were touted, they did come with a built in warning that the Invisible Man did not rely on any of the conventional senses that the car dampened.

    Rubbing his face, he entered the driving seat and slowly began floating straight to Manhattan. He was only halfway through when a voice spoke up all around him, jolting him, nearly throwing the car off course.

    ¡°Hello Agent Coulson,¡± He never thought that the eerie voice of the invisible Man speaking right into one''s ears would make him feel so much relief.

    Then he realised that he was wasting time, so he immediately began speaking,

    ¡°Invisible Man, the Director is Dead. SHIELD has been compromised. The World Security Council has taken over. Loki, brother of Thor, has invaded the planet and taken a very important artefact. He is suspected to possess Mind Controlling abilities along with a myriad of other powers, not to mention the sheer number of advantages that probably come from being a so-called Asgardian. We have to¡­¡±

    ¡°Coulson,¡± That single word, accompanied by a sudden surge of pressure, along with the feeling of the car being catapulted to a certain location, silenced him completely. He let the Invisible Man do his thing while he continued to monitor the SHIELD database for any new entries and aside from letting their respective nations know that a nuclear-like weapon was on the loose in the hands of a rogue entity, they hadn¡¯t done anything new.

    Nothing has been assigned to Raomnoff as of yet.

    There were no new orders for any members of the New York branch.

    Also, the international warning for all the global superpowers held the face of Clint instead of Loki. They were trying to downplay the threat posed by Loki.

    This would help no one.

    Still, he was in New York now, in the territory of the strongest man on the planet, someone who has a direct line even to the President. He was sure that they would win.

    Such were his thoughts as the car finally came to a halt, showcasing water on all sides to him before, to his shock, the car was dumped into the icy cold waters. He was about to shout when the car was enveloped in a bubble of air as it rapidly traversed the water, entering the sea bed, going through twists and turns, million year old socks folding and bending for the car as it were putty, until finally, the car stopped and they emerged out of the war, into what could only be called a futuristic lab and bunker.

    ¡°Agent Coulson, meet Randall. Randall, make sure that he is healthy, and rested. We will have an all hands on meeting in an hour. Give him the vitality shot,¡± He heard the Invisible Man say before the door was ripped open, and the face of Randall was revealed to him.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 104 : Fastest transport service in Manahttan!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 104[May 2012]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Welp, there it was. He knew something was wrong when even nearing the end of the month, he hadn¡¯t heard anything about the invasion. Now, Coulson had come flying, actually, in a car, into Manhattan, a car that was almost completely battered and full of tech that should have been proprietary.

    He was wondering what had gone wrong because Coulson¡¯s body was run ragged for some reason and then Coulson opened his mouth and rambled on information about just what had happened in the past 24 hours. He needed more information but more importantly, he needed to make sure that all the critical people were fine.

    ¡°Tony? We need to talk,¡± His voice boomed right next to Tony¡¯s ears as he was doing something in his workshop.

    ¡°Jesus. How many times have I told you not to do that?¡± Tony said while patting his chest.

    ¡°Now is not the time, Tony. Be ready in 15 minutes. I will pull you out in 15,¡±

    ¡°Bruce, be ready in 15,¡±

    He obviously excluded Betty and Bellina but he already had plans for them to be completely covered in a metallic shell with enough resources to last them a month with ease. He couldn¡¯t really risk either of them, Brucve might destroy Manhattan as a result.

    The brothers were already assembled in the lab and were just waiting for the others to arrive before sliding into the tunnel below. Randall had given Coulson a booster shot, something that Bruce and Betty had developed after studying the stem cells and whatnot of Bellina and the overall body processes of Betty.

    He was asleep for now but when he woke up, he would be very much healed and energised.

    He scanned every single thing in New York, as far as his range could get and yet, could not find any anomaly. Even the SHIELD agents in New York showed no anomalies, as if an emergency has not been declared for the entire planet right now. They were being kept out of the loop, he realised.

    The WSC.

    Shaking his head, he chose to focus on the one thing that mattered the most, the one thing that would dictate whether Loki would be able to open a portal in New York or not. He took a giant risk doing this but times were such that he couldn¡¯t exactly give much of a fuck, as his form was wrapped in so many dark clothes, that he must have looked like a caterpillar, with even his eyes closed since he saw so much better with his senses.

    With his powers, he was able to get himself to the edge of the barreri in seconds, the orange curtain still present, a reminder of the nerf that was placed on him, for some reason. He slowly lifted his arm and pressed against the curtain.

    He sighed when the curtain barely budged.

    Well, there goes the plan then.

    He blasted away from the curtain, into the waters, and from there, right back into his apartment within a minute. Well, he won¡¯t be able to help much since Loki is still outside Manhattan.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    ¡°Alright, everyone, as of 24 hours ago, Loki attacked and killed Director Fury, and took along with him a certain artifact-¡±

    ¡°The Tesseract,¡± He interrupted Coulson who looked surprised at his knowledge but didn¡¯t deny it.

    ¡°The tesseract is a source of unlimited fucking energy. SHIELD must be using it to create WMDs and Loki somehow found it. Now, we have a Norse God loose on the planet, with mind control capabilities, capable of turning our best men into yes men.¡± He informed everyone.

    ¡°Now, Tony, Dr.Banner, Coulson has access to all SHIELD databases. There must be something about the energy signature of the Tesseract in SHIELD¡¯s books. It gives out trace amounts of gamma radiation. I want you both to figure out a way to track it down. In the meantime, Randall, piggyback on SHIELD¡¯s facial recognition systems and see if any improvements can be made to the process.¡±

    He could tell Tony and Bruce had a lot of questions but they didn¡¯t have a lot of time so they complied and went away, into deeper sections of the base, to work on their tasks. For the time being, for everyone¡¯s safety, he had mandated stay in the subterranean base, with Pepper and Betty keeping Bellina company.

    ¡°Randall, I believe we have a hotline directly to the President?¡± He asked Randall who immediately began setting things up, with data being thrown around in so many different directions and into all the undersea fibre cables, making it impossible for them to track them down.

    The call rang for a few moments before it was picked up by the President, ¡°hello? Is this the Invisible Man?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Mr. president. We have something very important to inform you. I assume you have already been informed about Director Fury¡¯s death and the subsequent takeover of SHIELD?¡±

    ¡°Yes, it is indeed regrettable. I assume you are here to tell me about the terrorist attack?¡±

    Those bastards. They didn¡¯t tell him about Loki?

    ¡°Um, sir. The Tesseract, it was stolen. Not by some terrorist but by Loki, brother of Thor, the one who arrived on Earth a while ago.¡±

    ¡°What, that¡¯s nonsense. How did you come to know about the Tesseract anyway? That is only for the President¡¯s eyes and ears.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter, Mr.President. I want you to call Pierce and ask him calmly, where is the Tesseract and get all the details about Loki¡¯s attack on the planet. In the meantime, also prepare the military for attacks at key locations. I would suggest you either bunker down or come to Manhattan. Either way, please go underground.¡±

    ¡°Why?  What does this Loki have that has you so worried, Invisible Man? With your powers, you should be able to easily handle him.¡±

    ¡°It is not just about power, Mr.President. Loki can control minds. He has taken control of some SHIELD agents with startling ease. We don¡¯t know anything about that particularly dangerous ability, so I would, once again, advise you to stay isolated and stay safe. Please, make sure that every agency is informed to be prepared.¡±

    The President nodded, too shaken and pale after being told that someone with mind control powers might be aiming for him.

    Alright, with that out of the way, he had to figure out how to break the news to the Captain, or if he even wanted to break the news to him. He didn¡¯t have his shield with him. He was just now getting into a regular routine with Peggy¡¯s niece being his handler.

    Pierce couldn¡¯t move either of them without tipping him off which is probably why they would be much safer here.

    ¡°We have a hit,¡± Randall shouted.

    ¡°We have an 80% match in Stuttgart, Germany.¡±

    ¡°Get Stark, tell him to use the Jet he has been building in secret. Take Bruce with you guys. I can¡¯t leave Manhattan yet. Make sure that you use ranged attacks first and at the first sign of mind control, unload all ordinance and leave. Alright?¡±

    Randall nodded and ran to the labs.

    In the meantime, he was making sure that the underground tunnel was in perfect condition, with no irregularities on the surface of the road. It was made completely of concrete, but they had mats in regular intervals for people to relax in. He just hoped that it was used by the elderly, the pregnant, the children instead of the entitled.

    Something to think about later on.

    Tony and Bruce, along with Randall, were express transported to the basement levels of the Stark Tower within seconds by the fastest transport service in all of Manhattan, i.e., by yours truly.

    They should be up in the air in less than 30 minutes and then about 2 hours in Tony¡¯s new repulsor tech jet.

    Hopefully, Loki will still be there by then.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 105 : Le Loki - Sandbagging

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 105[May 2012]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    Randall, Bruce, Tony, and all the other Hulks under his employ.

    Quite a formidable lineup for someone like Loki. It was also quite a risk because he was not quite sure if Loki would sandbag himself just like he did in canon but that was why they were going in the Stark Jet and not the OG Quinjet.

    The Quinjet, while advanced according to the standards of the military, was nowhere near as powerful as the Stark Jet. It had all the long range weapons they would need and once the civilians were cleared out from the impact zone, Stark could turn the entire block into a large crater without even using a substantial amount of the ordinance he had packed into the Jet.

    Also, he had localised repulsor targeted lasers so shooting Loki from the sky should be fairly simple. He had also given them express orders that subduing Loki is the secondary priority, the primary mission is to deprive Loki of his mind control capabilities, and from the footage and reports they had access to, from SHIELD¡¯s servers, they knew that the staff or the sceptre was more likely to be the source of said mind control abilities.

    So, he was quite hopeful as the Jet streaked across the sky at maximum speed towards Loki.

    On the other screen, he could see Loki just hanging out, in the background of the event, drinking wine and looking at everything with his narrowed gaze. Having access to SHIELD¡¯s alpha tier meant that they had access to everything that SHIELD did, which was most of the digital world.

    SHIELD was much closer though and he could see Romanoff with a STRIKE team headed straight for Loki in another Quinjet. No Captain America to back them up right now.

    He debated getting Cap involved but it was too late for that anyway and it would have taken time to get him up to speed, time that they did not have. Maybe once the INvasion began, the Captain could help. He had already stocked everything that he could in the underground tunnels.

    The SHIELD agents in New York were still going through the motions, with no signs of any panic or anomaly.

    Romanoff was slower but they were much closer so they would be reaching Loki about 10 minutes earlier than Stark would. Bruce must be nervous but he should be fine considering that Little Bellina and Betty were both very safe here in Manhattan.

    He was still, out in the open, in his apartment but once Loki was captured, he would be going underground, subterranean, in fact, and would do everything from long distance.

    He still hadn¡¯t decided if he wanted Loki to get away with SHIELD because he couldn¡¯t trust SHIELD as of now, and if Thor became involved with the current rendition of SHIELD which would not wait for Loki to be tortured, things could become so much more complicated than they had any right to be.

    ¡°Tony, I want you to not clash with SHIELD anymore than we have to,¡± He typed his message across the specialised keyboard made for him in the Lab.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°SHIELD will reach there first and if they manage to subdue Loki on their own or if they claim jurisdiction, I want you to let them take Loki. Just follow them on their way to their HQ.¡±

    ¡°But didn¡¯t you say that Loki is an Asgardian? There is no way these guys can defeat Loki, right?¡± Bruce asked him and he was right, if only Loki was fighting to win.

    ¡°No, something is wrong here. Loki showing himself out in the open like this. It smells fishy. I want you all to engage from a long distance only and once SHIELD has him, follow their Quinjet.¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    ¡°If you say so, Boss,¡± Tony muttered as the Quinjet finally reached the venue.

    Loki seemed to have sensed that because, just a minute prior to that, the man did something that created a huge green fog in the venue. The guests were surprised at first, expecting it to be some sort of performance but something happened that made them all run around like headless chickens.

    He sighed, the man with the access to Iridium was probably already dead now.

    On the specialised holo monitors, he could see Loki, along with seven of his illusions, clad in his traditional Asgardian armour, emerge out of the hall and stop amidst the panicking people.

    Tony was 5 mins away and SHIELD had just reached the location. Romanoff did not seem to be the mission command for this because the STRIKE team just dropped down on a nearby building and Rumlow ordered Romanoff to go ahead and draw Loki¡¯s attention on the Quinjet.

    Loki¡¯s attention was drawn alright, to the very loud Quinjet.

    The next exchange was quite literally the definition of sandbagging on the side of Loki because somehow, the STRIKE team managed to hit Loki, all the Loki¡¯s with sniper rounds. Sniper rounds that somehow dispelled all the illusions and made the original Loki who was now standing all alone, stagger back as if the sniper round did any damage worth mentioning.

    Then Romanoff opened the machine guns on the Quinjet and fired right in front of Loki¡¯s feet, carving out the marble in front of him. Loki had not even held the people hostage, something that would have increased his chances of escape enormously.

    Another Sniper round hit him dead center and he fell down, with dozens of red dots appearing on his body. Getting the hint, Loki raised his hands and dropped the sceptre.

    Good Lord, how could the SHIELD agents be so stupid? He thought to himself as they were now approaching Loki on their own, with the spectre within Loki¡¯s reach.

    ¡°Tony, zap Loki with the strongest repulsor array you have. Knock him out, right now.¡± He ordered Stark who was on the scene as well but was in complete stealth mode.

    ¡°Aye aye, Captain,¡± Tony shouted, with too much glee as, with a small whining sound, Loki was stuck in the chest with a blue laser, creating a small explosion on impact, which knocked back all the STRIKE team members who were slowly approaching Loki.

    The laser also removed the stealth of the Stark Jet but that was fine for now. All the sensors aboard the StarkJet indicated Loki being severely injured, and unconscious with the Sceptre being knocked away from him.

    ¡°Ah, Romanoff. It¡¯s so nice to see your beautiful face once again,¡± Tony said over the hacked comms as the SHIELD team received new orders from Pierce to secure Loki and bring Stark with them as well.

    Stark was all too eager to comply.

    ¡°Randall, maintain a secure distance with the Quinjet. Make sure that you don¡¯t make any hasty decisions. If the situation changes, wait for my orders,¡±

    ¡°Ookay. You are being awfully forbidding, Invisible Man.¡±

    He didn¡¯t have any answer to that because his mind was still a mess from thinking of all the possible outcomes of this entire thing.

    He had to make sure that the New York Invasion happened. He also wanted to make sure that the Avengers were formed and that they had SHIELD¡¯s complete support during the Invasion.

    All of that went up in flames when Fury went and died, letting Pierce take complete command of the organisation. Now, he couldn¡¯t let Piercfe get ahold of Loki, the sceptre, or even Thor who was no doubt on his way to rescue his brother.

    In the meantime, ¡°Coulson, are you sure this plan will work?¡±

    ¡°Trust me, Invisible Man, I am not about to let someone else get hold of the Shield.¡± Coulson said with an oddly determined look on his face as he dialed in on his contacts, his extensive contacts within SHIELD.

    Apparently, Coulson was making sure that his childhood hero, who was now living in Manhattan, had his signature weapon, i.e, the Vibranium shield. He didn¡¯;t know how Coulson was going to get that item out of SHIELD custody but Coulson wanted to feel useful and this was something that he swore he could do.

    So, he let the man do what he wanted. He was still shaken from Fury;s death and the no doubt vast responsibility that Fury had dumped on his shoulders.

    He scanned all of Manhattan, once again, for safety but could not find any anomalies of any kind.

    Bellina, Betty, and Cho were all safe and secure in the subterranean base. Frank was warned about possible attackers and while Frank was not yet a complete member of the team, he had allowed Frank to keep the frankly absurd armour that he kept in his house, enough to outfit a small military team with all the weapons they might need.

    ¡°So, who is coming, Invisible Man?¡± Tony asked him, the ever perceptive one.

    ¡°It¡¯s Thor, isn¡¯t it?¡± Bruce was the one who answered since he was buried in the SHIELD databases ever since Coulson gave them all the metaphorical keys to the kingdom.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 106 : Nat POV

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 106[May 2012]

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°I have reasons to believe that Thor Odinson will make an attempt to rescue Loki from SHIELD¡¯s clutches.¡±

    ¡°But why? According to the reports I have here, Thor is definitely on the morally good category and Loki¡¯s actions in the past two days should definitely disgust Thor,¡± Bruce interrupted even as the Stark Jet continued to maintain a safe distance from the Quinjet, but in non Stealth mode so the higher ups at SHIELD probably knew that they were being tailed by the Stark Jet.

    ¡°Asgardian Culture is fundamentally different from ours, Dr.Banner. We can¡¯t predict Thor¡¯s response but what I can predict, with near certainty, is that the Asgardian Royal Pride would never let Thor or Odin keep Loki in someone else¡¯s custody,¡± He tried to explain to them that to a normal Asgardian, the lives of a 100 mortal would fall short to a single Asgardian life. Such was their culture and there was not much that could be done to change it, given their warlike ways.

    ¡°Okay, if what you are telling us is correct, then we should be seeing the Teleportation device that Asgardians seem to have any time now, right?¡± Tony asked with glee even as he could see Tony doing something to the Stark Jet.

    ¡°Oh,¡± Bruce breathed out in realization. ¡°That is correct, this could be a rare opportunity to monitor the bridge that the Asgardians use to teleport between planets.¡±

    ¡°Guys, please! Focus. We are here to make sure that Loki doesn¡¯t succeed in his plans and more importantly, we don¡¯t even know his plans. So, why don¡¯t we just focus on getting information out of Loki before we try to research something that is so far out of our reach that it might as well be magic?¡± His pleas fell on deaf ears as even Randall was very much on board with scanning everything in their surroundings to help understand how interplanetary teleportation works.

    Never mind the fact that Odin was not using the Bifrost this time. He was using Dark Energy of some sort to manipulate space itself and send a single emissary, Thor to Earth to retrieve Loki.

    ¡°Alright, guys, I have all the sensors exposed. Good thing we don¡¯t need stealth mode to be active because it would be impossible as of now. I hacked into the Quinjet and they are headed to a place called the ¡°Hub¡±, which is still hours away so we should have plenty of time to witness an Asgardian alien in action,¡± Tony¡¯s voice was tinged with excitement as all of the scientists on board took positions on their battle stations while the other six, less academically inclined Hulks lounged on the lower level, emptying the fridge that Stark had outfitted into the lounge area of the Stark Jet.

    It wouldn¡¯t be Tony if he didn¡¯t do things in style, now would it?

    ¡°Alright, then. Since you guys are so focused on that, please do so but Tony, make sure that the Jet is prepped to handle flight in adverse weather conditions,¡± He warned them because realistically there was not much he could do, all the way from Manhattan.

    ¡°Huh?  What adverse weather conditions? We are clear to go----Uh, Bruce? What¡¯s happening?¡± Tony¡¯s words trailed off as the sound of Thunder rang in the background.

    He couldn¡¯t help but say in a smug voice, ¡°I told you so, Tony. Now, brace for impact,¡±

    ¡°Impact? This ship is built with the latest advances in alloy structures. It is even stronger than my armour. I don¡¯t think we need to worry about a little lightning and a man with a Hammeeeeee---¡± The voice glitched out as a large gong resounded in the background.

    ¡°What the hell? Jaaarvis?¡± he could hear Tony shout for Jarvis as the Jet apparently tumbled out of the sky.

    Well, let it not be said that Thor ODinson did not know how to make a thunderous landing.

    _______xx_____

    --Natasha Romanoff¡ª

    Things had not been going well for her the past few days. First Fury had to go and die, and Clint had to go and get mind controlled by an Alien God. Loki stole something important from SHIELD that SHIELD desperately wants back.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    Now, she would have thought that those two back to back tragedies would be the worst of it but noooo. Apparently, Secretary Pierce had unilaterally decided that he was going to take charge  of SHIELD since his ¡°dear friend¡± Nick  was gone and he didn¡¯t trust anyone else to take charge of the behemoth of an organization on such short notice.

    The biggest load of bull she had ever heard in recent years.

    The first thing she noticed was the fact that she was kept isolated. Isolated in terms of information and isolated in terms of keeping her away from the small group of people that Fury trusted. As far as she had heard, the orders had come straight from Secretary Pierce, ordering the transfer of several high level agents to locations of minute importance.

    Then came the new faces. She hadn''t even known that there were these many Level 7 agents in SHIELD that she did not know about and she was right. These agents, whoever they were, were very new and no one in her contacts had seen half of them.

    It was as if they popped up out of nowhere and were inserted into positions of high importance by Pierce.

    She was starting to think that Pierce was going to be the biggest of her problems from now on. And she was proven correct when instead of giving her adequate information or setting her on the path to retrieve Clint, she was instead kept in the dark about almost everything.

    A communication blackout.

    Hell, she hadn¡¯t even heard from Coulson despite her blasting a message across all the mediums that she knew of, even the secret ones that Fury had developed and given to Clint, with express orders to never share it with Romanoff, since she was still considered a flight risk back then.

    Then, out of the blue, she was told that Loki was spotted in Germany and she was supposed to go with the SHIELD Strike team there, with Rumlow being the leader of the mission, despite her authority vastly surpassing his.

    But it would seem that Pierce¡¯s words were law because there she was, flying the Quinjet, acting as nothing more than an over glorified pilot.

    The fight with Loki, if it could even be called that, was uneventful because of Stark¡¯s arrival and for once, he was not in his suit. No, he had arrived in a sleek Jet that managed to output lasers that stopped Loki in his tracks, prompting him to surrender.

    She was not given any orders but she had a hunch that the Strike team were given some orders regarding Stark and the shiny new Jet he was hanging in front of SHIELD and more importantly, SHIELd that was under the control of Pierce.

    Stark didn¡¯t make any moves to detain Loki, instead spending the time to flirt with her, typical of him really, so the STRIKE team moved in and detained Loki with some high tech Cuffs that the boys in the Lab cooked up, designed for high Brute level strength. Despite that, she had doubts about the cuffs holding Loki because his enhanced strength did not seem to be his greatest power.

    No, his illusions, teleportation, mind control, and magic seemed to be his signature moves. Despite that, there was not much she could do because Rumlow was not going to listen to her and Stark was not taking a stand in the situation, something that he should have done ages ago, according to the profile she had on hand about him.

    The Quinjet was then diverted from its original destination, which was the Helicarrier, to the Hub, where they performed maintenance on the aircraft carriers. She didn¡¯t question the new orders, mostly because it was not the time to show her rebellious side.

    She was sure that Rumlow was given orders to just eliminate her if the need arose and she was not going to go down without figuring out the truth about Pierce and whatever the hell was going on in SHIELD.

    They were only a couple hours away from the Hub when things took a turn for the worse. Thunder rumbled all around them as the sensors in the Quinjet began giving out scrambled readings.

    She was about to contact Stark to see if he had any updates through his shiny new Jet but all she got was static and when she used the on board camera to see, she saw one side of the Jet smoking and the Jet spiraling down in a barely controlled manner.

    Then her eyes widened as she felt another impact on the Quinjet. She looked back towards the bay which was giving out tortured noise as the bay door was forcibly yanked open.

    And through the light of the lightning all around them, she saw him. Thor, the God of Thunder and the strongest alien SHIELD had ever encountered, now that the Invisible Man was confirmed to be human.

    She was about to warn Rumlow and the others but they opened fire before Thor could do anything. Of course, the bullets did nothing as Thor simply raised his hand to defend his eyes from the shower of bullets.

    ¡°Stop!¡± She shouted in a vain attempt to stop them from riling up the God of Thunder any further.

    Getting such an aggressive response, Thor simply waved his hammer, creating such strong gusts of wind that all the agents were ragdolled within the Jet. One of the agents simply fell out of the Jet, falling to his death.

    Thor looked at the fallen agent and then simply ripped Loki out of his restraints and flew out of the Jet.

    The damage done to the Jet meant she had to do an emergency landing nearby. Thankfully, the exit of Thor meant that the weather around them went from absurdly bad to somewhat bad, allowing her to barely control the Quinjet to perform a controlled landing.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 107 : Banner of the Bruces!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 107[May 2012]

    Germany

    ¨CTony Stark¨C

    Things were spiraling out of control, that much was clear to him. While the entire Loki thing came on all of a sudden to most of them, the Invisible Man, whoever he was, seemed to know about it, all in advance. It was just that the Man himself couldn¡¯t do much about it because he was geo bound to the city of New York.

    That was why he had sent them ahead. It was clear that the Invisible Man had some scary accurate information about Loki, his brother, and their civilization and he had a hunch that even the future was something that the Invisible Man knew about.

    And yet, even as the things that the Invisible Man said came to be true, he knew that there was at least something that was not in his calculations, hence the mild panicking he could hear in the man. The Invisible Man had now begun ordering him around, knowing that he was very much averse to that.

    Alas, the hours of very expensive therapy had proven to work because he had set aside his petty thoughts because of the very real world ending emergency in front of him. They had captured, or rather, helped SHIELD capture Loki without much fuss and without even leaving the Jet, just as the Invisible Man had ordered them to, but that was when things began spiralling.

    The Invisible Man warned them that Thor, Asgardian Crown Prince and the brother of Loki was sure to arrive to rescue his brother because, in his own words, Loki was the former Prince of Asgard and no other civilisation can be allowed to judge Loki other than Asgard. Doing so would be a huge affront to Asgard¡¯s honor, despite Loki killing over a hundred people ever since he set foot on the planet.

    He and Bruce had been very excited to finally see actual, real life teleportation in action so he let the sealed state of the Jet go and pointed all the sensors that he could, at the Quinjet in front of him, in hopes that they could gather as much data as possible when Thor inevitable teleported to his brother.

    Unfortunately, Thor¡¯s arrival was not without its effect on the weather around them. Thunder, lightning, clouds, and more accumulated all around them within seconds, heralding the arrival of the so called God of Thunder. Now, normally, that would have been fine, the Jet was more than capable of handling even space operations for a limited amount of time so a little bit of lightning and rain was not going to be an issue. But this lightning was not normal, and he had let go of most of the protections of the Jet in favour of setting the sensors on the outside of the body of the Jet so that they could get the most accurate readings.

    That, combined with the surge in an unknown energy that somehow resonated with the Arc Energy led to a brief power loss, which should have been immediately restored by the backup Arc Reactors that he had installed in the Jet as redundancy but unfortunately, that energy surge reset all the Arc Reactors on the Jet, so he had to resort to Battery power, like a 20th century peasant.

    The battery only helped them see where they were going to crash and not how to stop the crash because the Reactors were going to take another minute to reboot, according to his calculations. He would have done something but there was no time.

    Fortunately, even as all the occupants of the Jet strapped in their emergency seats, bracing for impact, the Arc Reactors came online and the Jet stopped barely a dozen feet from the ground with the help of the Repulsors.

    Slowly, the other, smaller Arc Reactors came online and finally, they had full functionality back. Unfortunately, the moment the wide angle HUD came back online, they saw the Quinjet, smoking, crash land right in front of them. It seemed to be a controlled landing so they were mostly fine.

    He controlled the urge to get out of the Jet and do something because according to what he had seen in the database, even as brief as his time was with it, he was not so sure about SHIELD being the good guys, especially so after Fury died.

    This Pierce guy was giving him the creeps. The database was a godsend because they now knew which one of the guys were Pierce¡¯s and which ones were the good eggs, because he knew, in his guts, that after all of this Loki¡¯s matter was done and dusted with, the President would have to be informed about SHIELD¡¯s actions and Pierce¡¯s actions and a massive culling operation would have to be launched to either cleanse SHIELD and reduce its size, or destroy it altogether.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Either way, he was not really interested in associating any further with SHIELD and its mooks, so after confirming that Romanoff was fine and not in any danger, he let the Jet gain altitude, before following the area with the most lightning and thunder. With all the other areas of the sky being clear, it was very easy to find the God of Thunder.

    ¡°Tony? Whatever you do, do not engage the Crown Prince in direct Combat. Trust me when I say this that even the Hulk will find it difficult to best Thor,¡± The warning from the Invisible Man came right on time and was duly noted but he could not let his curiosity not be sated, right?

    Within a minute, they were upon the Asgardian brothers. The advanced sensors on board projected a picture as well as flaky audio for them to hear. He could see one of the brothers being completely indifferent to the passionate pleas of the Crown Prince of Asgard.

    Thor was trying to convince Loki to come back and Loki was not having it.

    ¡°Tony, whatever you do, do not fire the first salvo,¡± The warning came once again and he rolled his eyes at that. The Invisible Man was not the boss of him but he was keeping all his loved ones safe and sound at the moment so he replied.

    ¡°Yes yes, I know. Don¡¯t provoke the scary blonde who can flatten me like a paste,¡±

    The line was silent after that.

    He continued to eavesdrop on their conversation and was enlightened to many things.

    Loki was not the invasion party. He was the Vanguard.

    He shared horrified looks with Bruce and Randall. If Loki was the vanguard, who was the army? And how terrifying must the army be?

    ¡°An army from outer space? That is¡­.¡± Randall was speechless as they heard more of the conversation even as Jarvis filed away most of it and processed it, trying to find more and more clarity to the conversation that was happening hundreds of feet away in this very turbulent weather.

    ¡°Huh, what do you know, ET, in this case, looks just like us. I suppose the green Martian theory was way off then,¡± He quipped, as he did when the stress of any particular situation became too much for him.

    ¡°The Chitauri will not win you this planet, brother. They will de¡­s¡­ it. You must come home, brother,¡± Thor¡¯s words did not fill any of them with confidence.

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯m going in. They are talking about my planet,¡± He declared and pulled the jet out of stealth mode and slowly, very noticeably, let the Jet descend near Thor¡¯s location.

    The reaction was immediate, as the sensors recorded an increased lightning and thunder in the skies above them as Thor held his hammer in one hand and held on to his brother¡¯s collar with the other, looking straight up at him.

    A shiver went up his spine at that. ¡°Jarvis? Keep the suits ready, will you?¡±

    He had never felt this much danger before. Damn, the Invisible Man was right, this man was dangerous, with a capital D.

    ¡°Affirmative, sir,¡± Jarvis¡¯ reply came with a reassuring whine and thunk of armours as they lined up at the back of the Jet¡¯s cabin, ready to leap in and defend him at a moment¡¯s notice.

    Thor didn¡¯t take any action, even as the Jet landed, without any of its weapons visible, obviously. Loki, on the other hand, looked quite interested when he, in his armour, and Bruce and Randall came out of the Jet¡¯s bay.

    Loki and Thor both kept an eye on the armour that flew up in the sky but not for long, as they were finally within striking range of each other. He had taken an executive decision and ordered Jarvis to take possession of the sceptre.

    He was not really comfortable with any government or government organisation having access to mind control artefacts. So, he was going to figure out a way to destroy that sceptre as soon as he could get it back to Stark Tower.

    ¡°Greetings, Asgardians. We are part of the team that was supposed to apprehend Loki,¡± He said and almost immediately backpedaled when thunder rumbled and lightning gathered on top of Thor¡¯s hammer.

    Bruce immediately took charge, as he should have in the beginning itself and stepped forward with his hands raised up, ¡°We mean you or Loki no harm.¡±

    They all ignored Loki¡¯s scoff and eye rolling at the harm part, as if they could not harm him at all, even if they wanted to.

    ¡°We are just worried about what we heard. The Chitauri? An Invasion of Earth? We may not have the authority to interfere in Asgardian Royal Family matters but if there is going to be an Invasion happening on Earth, we need to know about it. Can we¡­just talk about it?¡± Bruce gestured to the very open bay of Stark Jet.

    Thor mulled over it for a moment before replying, ¡°Loki stays in my sight at all times.¡±

    ¡°That is what we would prefer. Currently, we have no feasible way of countering his illusions and would prefer if you could keep a close eye on him, for our safety,¡±

    Smart. Bruce presented himself as the lower, powerless party, partly to appease the Crown Prince¡¯s obviously sky high Ego, and yes, the irony of Sky High Egos was not lost on him, Mr.Tower with his name on it.

    ¡°Very well, lead the way¡­¡±

    ¡°Banner. Bruce Banner,¡±

    ¡°Very well, lead the way, Banner of the Bruces,¡±

    Bruce wisely didn¡¯t correct the man with the scary hammer, because if the readings he was getting were correct, that hammer held more energy in it than all the Arc Reactors he had built in his lifetime, combined.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 108 : Narcissits and Perfectly Sculpted Asses.....

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 108[May 2012]

    Germany

    ¨CNatasha Romanoff¨C

    ¡°Romanoff, you are under arrest for conspiring with known criminals and possibly, aliens to try and harm SHIELD¡¯s interests,¡± She rolled her eyes as the STRIKE team finally turned on her, the moment they were all safe and sound, with the barely controlled emergency landing.

    Probably someone higher up lost their patience with her and was not willing to take any more risks with her, probably discovering her attempts to contact Coulson.

    ¡°Get on with it, Rumlow,¡± She drawled, half relaxed, even as her mind connected the dots and her heart sank as she realised that she had no feasible way of getting out of the encirclement, not alive anyway. She was not a supersoldier and she also did not have any armour on her, so it would seem that her run with SHIELD had come to an end.

    Well, at least she could go down taking Rumlow with her. He seemed to be the favourite attack dog of the shady part of the higher ups of SHIELD. It was no wonder that Fury barely used the STRIKE team, preferring to send in a small team of his trusted agents to deal with critical missions.

    The thought of Clint brought yet another pang to her chest but now was not the time for that. First, she had to save her own ass and then she could go around the world, searching for him and then smack some sense in him. What would she say to Laura?

    Well, dying here was much better than that.

    Oh, well.

    ¡°Oh, please,¡± Rumlow scoffed as he walked towards her, his gun pointed straight at her head, ¡°We all know you are the last one left who was in Fury¡¯s inner circle. Coulson is MIA, declared a defector, Hill is sent on administrative leave, Barton is mind controlled, allegedly, and there¡¯s you, purposefully crash landing a Quinjet so that you could let Loki, a very dangerous criminal, escape SHIELD¡¯s custody,¡±

    She hummed at that. So that was their game. That was how they were going to spin it, the death of the legendary Black Widow, due to treason.

    How Ironic.

    Rumlow, in the process of delivering his monologue, had come close enough that she could probably make it if she lunged for his gun but she was also aware of the seven other guns that were probably just itching to perforate her body.

    Damned if you do, damned if you don¡¯t.

    She was just about to fuck it and try to atleast kill one or two of them but then everyone in the clearing stopped as they heard something, a slight whining noise.

    She stopped for a moment to think and then relaxed as she smiled, recognising both the jet noise as well as the whining noise. If she was not wrong, then in 3,2,1¡­

    ¡°There we go,¡± She muttered as two repulsors were blasted just a few inches to her left and right. She flinched minutely but then immediately lunged towards the nearest person, in the midst of the dust and dirt raised by the attack, which was Rumlow. She took hold of his gun and didn¡¯t even hesitate as she dumped two in his forehead.

    His look of shock was hilarious as she turned around and clocked two others before Tony crashed on the ground and disarmed everyone. He then looked at the three dead bodies surrounding her. She was expecting some judgement but not much since Tony was not some saint but she didn¡¯t expect the voice that came out of the suit.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    ¡°Agent Romanoff, sir has tasked me with retrieving the sceptre but I saw your predicament and couldn¡¯t help but intervene,¡± Yeah, that was Jarvis.

    ¡°Yeah, alright,¡± She sighed and then sat her ass down. This was all so very stressful for her. Despite having more close shaves with death than her age, this one was particularly nerve wracking because she finally realised something that she should have realised ages ago.

    SHIELD was not the good guys, at least not in its entirety. She knew that on some level but since the top commander was someone good like Fury, she was alright with that and somehow managed to turn a blind eye to all the darkness within SHIELD but now that Fury was gone, she could see the overwhelmingly darkness within SHIELD that was barely being held back by Fury.

    She could also see the sheer delight in Rumlow¡¯s eyes when it became clear that she was going to be arrested. And for a woman of her beauty, that was more than enough clues as to what was going through RUmlow¡¯s head.

    So, she popped a bullet in his head. And then the others were just acceptable collateral damage since she could see that all of the STRIKE team members who were surrounding her were quite trigger happy, and she could also see two other STRIKE team members, dead, shot in the chest and head. Probably by these asshole traitors.

    ¡°Please stay here, there are no threats nearby. I will be back momentarily,¡± Jarvis said before the suit flew off, and she collapsed on the ground, looking at the moon, trusting Jarvis and his sensors to know if any threat actually remained nearby.

    From the direction Jarvis was going, he was probably going to the crash landed helicopter to recover the sceptre.

    Ah, this was going to suck so much.

    Not the defection part. She had done that before and she could do it again, no big deal. She already had a couple of identities ready and multiple escape routes of the country ready. She could have and probably should have taken that option when Clint was mind controlled but she thought that staying with SHIELD would give her the best chances of finding and bringing Clint back.

    What a fool she was.

    Now? Now she was going to have to go to Stark, and he was the worst. Good Lord, she was going to have to listen to him, at least until she finally reached Manhattan and got amnesty under the infamous Invisible Man.

    God, she hoped Coulson reached somewhere safe, if not Manhattan, the safest city on the planet. She knew for a fact that not even SHIELD and the despicable higher ups would not dare move against the city and the city¡¯s protector, not if they wanted their positions of power to remain.

    All because of the power of one man. The man¡¯s powers might be limited to a small city, in the grand scheme of things but the sheer utility the man provides in the same city meant that the world¡¯s elites resided there. There were even talks of the President making sure that Manhattan remained untouched by the higher politics, all because of the sheer economic output of that city. They had not seen such numbers in the last 30 or so years, so high was the money being poured into the city, and consequently, into the Country¡¯s coffers.

    It was honestly mind boggling, the powers he wielded and she only cursed at their luck that Loki landed somewhere remote and not in Manhattan. From what she had seen, the fucker would have been identified, subdued, and ready for Thor to take home whenever he came to Manhattan as well.

    It was their bad luck that they now had to deal with the biggest threat to humanity in recent times, without the support of their greatest powers.

    She did not have to wait long as the familiar thumping noise brought her attention to the empty suit, now holding onto the sceptre.

    ¡°Please, keep that away from me,¡± She warned Jarvis as he came closer. JArvis paused and then the suit¡¯s hand broke apart from the main body and floated to one side as he came closer and offered a small harness to her.

    That was¡­..new.

    ¡°Mr.Stark has ordered me to escort you to the Stark Jet, Agent Romanoff,¡± Jarvis helpfully supplied as she got the harness tied around her, and then clipped onto the suit¡¯s back.

    She rolled her eyes at that. Leave it to someone like Stark who would name a phenomenal, probably several generations ahead Jet, StarkJet.

    Eccentric Billionaire, her perfectly sculpted ass. He was just a narcissist.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 109 : Blueberries, Flying LOLA, and the Simping of THE CAPTAIN!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 109[May 2012]

    StarkJet

    ¨CRandall¨C

    Now, this was quite the conundrum on his hands. They were still in the Stark Jet but it was effectively only flying in circles, with no fixed destination on hand. They had not received any new orders from the Invisible Man but he was sure that Tony and Bruce were going to interrogate or atleast try to interrogate Loki about what he had been doing ever since he came to Earth.

    More importantly¡­¡±You said something about an Invasion of Earth? Care to Elaborate?¡± He asked Thor who was sitting on a sofa, with his right hand firmly placed on Loki¡¯s shoulder, who had a metal mask sitting on his face, something that Thor had brought as a precaution of some sort.

    Thor looked up at him, from his pensive thinking, ¡°Aye, the Chitauri. They are a race of bloodthirsty, unfeeling, relentless species of warmongers who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals, even if it means certain death. Loki, through some means, has gained their loyalty and means to bring them to Earth,¡±

    ¡°How?¡± Bruce asked as all of them were seated around a large sofa, as was customary when it came to anything that Stark did or built.

    ¡°That, I do not know but I am sure the Tesseract comes into play with whatever scheme he has planned,¡± Thor replied, face stuck in confusion.

    ¡°Oh. Okay. So we know that the Tesseract is involved and we also know that Loki took the Tesseract. So, either it is with him, which I doubt unless he has some extra dimensional storage space attached to him?¡± Tony asked Thor who replied.

    ¡°Aye, he does have such magicks but the Tesseract is unique, it cannot be stowed away like that,¡±

    ¡°Okay, then it is with his lackeys, the one he mind controlled with the sceptre. The sceptre which should be on its way back. Now, we just need the location of the Tesseract. If we secure the Tesseract, then it''s game over, right?¡±

    Thor nodded at that, ¡°Aye, but do remember that my mission on Earth is not just to retrieve Loki but also the Tesseract because it was kept here to hide it from the rest of the cosmos. Your experiments have sent signals across the galaxy that there is something on Earth and Midgard is not ready for that type of warfare,¡±

    ¡°Hey-Whoa, it was not me who experimented on it but sure, it¡¯s your property and more importantly, it just seems more hassle than it is worth so feel free,¡± Tony shrugged and turned around when he heard a double beep. All of them followed his gaze to the door, and were promptly confused when Agent Romanoff was standing there, with a suit standing right beside her, holding the sceptre in one hand.

    He kept Loki in his vision at all times, which was just common sense and he could sense nothing from the guy, which was obvious since the man was a thousand year old alien God, but the fact that his gaze lingered on the sceptre more than he would be comfortable with, told him one thing and one thing only.

    ¡°Tony, can you please get the sceptre to Manhattan, ASAP?¡± He said out loud, keeping his gaze fixed on Loki and he was pleased to find the slightest hint of irritation on his face at that.

    Tony gave him a look at that, ¡°Okay. That was the plan anyway. So, should we get the plane to Manhattan then?¡±

    ¡°Manhattan is the domain of the Newest psionic master of Midgard, am I correct?¡± Thor asked all of them.

    ¡°If you are talking about the Invisible Man, then, yes, Manhattan is currently the safest place on the planet, and believe me, Loki will not be able to escape that man¡¯s gaze. He is everywhere,¡±

    Thor just nodded at that, oddly quiet.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    ¡°Alright, Jarvis, secure the Sceptre, please show Ms.Romanoff to her guest quarters and make sure she doesn¡¯t ¡°wander off¡± anywhere,¡± Tony clapped his hands and stood up, rapidly ordering Jarvis to set course to Manhattan.

    ¡°I think it would be safer to continue this conversation when we are under the umbrella of the all seeing Invisible Man,¡± Tony snarked and went out of the room.

    ¡°Jarvis, I remember telling you to get just the sceptre. Then, why, pray tell, is a SHIELD agent..¡± Tony¡¯s voice faded out as the door closed.

    He shared a look with Bruce and exited the place as well, leaving the two brothers alone.

    ¡°Jarvis, seal the room and be ready with the oxygen suppressors. As far as we can tell, both of them need to breathe,¡± He ordered Jarvis before heading to the captain¡¯s deck with Bruce.

    ¡°I don¡¯t like this,¡± Bruce muttered at his side.

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    Bruce turned to him, his eyes wide in realisation, ¡°Loki. He has the ability to cast multiple illusions, all at once, practically indistinguishable from whatever tech we have. He could have easily cast another illusion on himself and escaped. So, why did he expose himself to us? The only reason he drew attention to himself was because he was the¨C¡±

    ¡°A distraction,¡± He finished for Bruce.

    ¡°Dr.Banner, you might be correct because I am getting reports of stolen Iridium, from the vaults whose access codes were with the single casualty of the Stuttgart incident,¡± Jarvis piped up in between.

    ¡°Why would he need the Iridium?¡± He asked Bruce.

    ¡°I don''t know but that¡¯s just another clue we have to trace the Tesseract. Jarvis, inform Tony. ETA to Manhattan?¡±

    ¡°2:23, sir,¡±

    ¡°Great. Nothing should happen in the meantime. And Jarvis, please maintain full stealth, we can¡¯t risk getting attacked in between, either by SHIELD or by Loki¡¯s mind controlled lackeys,¡± He said as they finally reached the captain¡¯s deck, where Tony was snacking on¡­.

    ¡°Blueberries?¡± Tony offered them.

    _____xx____

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle (Invisible Man)¨C

    ¡°Whoa, this is so cool,¡± He resisted the urge to groan as he had to keep his attention on COulson, who was riding in the prototype flying car that Randall had made and had kept as a display piece in the lower levels of the base which were mostly just empty caves with high ceilings with power and lightning installed everywhere, just in case Randall needed it for another one of his experiments.

    ¡°Okay, I will give you my life¡¯s savings if you can install this system into my car,¡± The car finally landed on the ground and Coulson came out of it, breathless, smiling, and markedly less tense about the whole Fury dying situation than before.

    He didn¡¯t even think that tough son of a bitch was dead. Fury dying this early in the timeline was not likely. It was probably some green bitch who was impersonating him, and was much less badass that died.

    Further evaluation was impossible because Fury¡¯s body was right next to the epicenter of the explosion, which most likely vaporised everything around it.

    ¡°Oh please, SHIELD agents aren¡¯t paid that much. Most of it goes into the fancy toys you waved around,¡±

    Coulson deflated at that, ¡°That¡¯s true.¡±

    ¡°Hey, what about the request I made earlier about-¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°But he can-¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t understand. If only he came for-¡±

    ¡°Coulson. I said NO. We are not involving him unless absolutely necessary. The man has earned his retirement a hundred times over. We don¡¯t need to bother him with a situation that he has no control over,¡±

    ¡°But he can do so much! If only he came forward and told everyone the truth, then-¡±

    ¡°Then, we will lose SHIELD as a whole and then it will be divided like a pie with most of it going to the US military, which we all know is a shining beacon of morality. No, COulson, this has to be handled properly. WSC has to go, but SHIELD gets to stay, and once the dust settles down, I have the perfect candidate in mind,¡±

    Coulson¡¯s eyes widened in shock before he frantically waved his hands around, ¡°No. No, I am not suited to be the Director. I don¡¯t know the first thing about--¡±

    ¡°Don''t worry about that. It will come to you in time. Plus, we can have the Captain as part of SHIELD under your tenure,¡±

    Coulson looked really thoughtful at that, his mind probably imagining the scenario.

    ¡°Anyway, your playtime is done. The team will be here soon with Loki and Thor. Get ready because you are the only one here with any interrogate experience, Agent Coulson,¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Alright. Interrogating a thousand-year-old Godly being? No pressure.¡± Coulson muttered to himself as he went to the lift.

    Sigh. Even the most serious of agents can become children when confronted with their most wanted Toys.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 110 : Safe zones, Eureka and Enlightenment!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 110[May 2012]

    StarkJet

    ¨CRandall¨C

    He looked at the huge holographic screen that was also the windshield of the StarkJet, which showed the ETA for their arrival being an hour into the huge yellow circle that was the Invisible Man¡¯s estimated area of influence and another 2 minutes until they entered the green zone, the area of absolute power that the Invisible Man maintained, i.e., Manhattan.

    Once they were in the yellow zone, they were safe-ish but in the green zone, they could sunbathe on top of one of the many skyscrapers in Manhattan, and watch as an alien invasion happened and was repelled by someone with Invisible Hands, probably.

    Okay, it might not be that exaggerated since the Invisible Man was also human and he must have some limits because if he did not, then it was just ridiculous. But he had a hunch that if an Invasion happened, the capability of the Invisible Man to handle both the invaders and the evacuation of the people in the surrounding area would depend, mostly on the relative strength of the Intruders.

    For example, even three of those giant tentacled monsters had forced the Invisible Man to come out in person to battle and dismantle those things. But if an invading force of a million came out in droves but had the strength of say, only elephants, then the Invisible Man could take care of it with ease.

    Such thoughts ran through his mind as he waited, impatiently for them to reach the green zone with the important cargo and prisoner they had on board. The Invisible Man, his boss, had made it clear, in no uncertain terms that NO experimentation was to happen to the sceptre, just to him ofcourse because if Tony heard NO then he was most definitely going to do the thing, mainly because the sceptre messed with minds and his boss definitely did not want the minds of anyone present in the jet messed with.

    That would be a¡­disaster.

    ¡°So, nothing? They are just sitting there? Not even speaking to each other?¡± Tony asked everyone in the room, which was just him and Bruce, as they watched another feed on the holo screen, the captain¡¯s seat empty since Jarivs was the one who was remotely piloting everything anyway.

    ¡°Nope. Just sitting there. Though, Thor has kept constant watch over Loki, as requested,¡± He shook his head at that. Something about this whole encounter did not sit right with him.

    ¡°Alright, no clues there. What have we got about the stolen Iridium then? Why did they raid the sixth largest singular store of Iridium on the planet? Why would they need that much Iridium?¡± Tony asked them and once again, they had no clues.

    Without any underlying data as to how the Tesseract worked, how the portal making ability of it worked, how the portal in New Mexico explo¨C

    ¡°Wait a minute!¡± He had an Eureka moment.

    ¡°The portal. In New Mexico, it was unstable, right?¡±

    ¡°So they need the Iridum to stabilise the portal? So that it doesn¡¯t collapse on their own invading forces? That¡¯s a possibility but then again, we don¡¯t have the slightest clue as to how they are going to make their portal machine. For all we know, Iridium could be used to make some new alloy to cool their machine,¡± Bruce replied and he almost scoffed at that.

    Iridium, for cooling? Doubtful.

    But his point stood. They did not have the whole parts list and how the procedure was going to happen.

    ¡°Alright, they have Iridium and they need it to power their portal machine. Let¡¯s see what they had in that base when Loki shot out of the Tesseract¡¯s portal,¡± Tony said as he accessed the SHIELD database, through his computer in the base and was met with a deadpan from Tony when he couldn¡¯t get his authentication through.

    He sheepishly apologised, ¡°Sorry. Standard Security Protocol. Everything remote shuts down within a few minutes of inactivity,¡± He then entered his credentials and then verified his gamma signature, and then manually set the lockdown time to indefinite.

    He would change it after the whole Invasion thing was over. One could never be too trustful of Tony Stark and his boundless curiosity.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Alright, so they had energy constantly being rerouted from a nearby nuclear power plant, along with energy from the grid, on top of the power plants they had on base to power their entire experiment, all so Selvig could test if the housing of the Tesseract could absorb that much energy and remain intact. Spoiler alert, it did stay intact,¡± Tony speed read through the entire thing, like the genius he was.

    They all had copies running in front of them, about the Tesseract and the experiments they ran on the thing for two whole years. Anything from energy transference, to energy overload, to one time almost frying the grid because of the energy backlash from the Tesseract. They had done it all, except make a portal of any kind. Or if they did make one, it was so tiny that it did not register on any of their sensors.

    Unlikely.

    ¡°So they have batteries filled with energy from the Tesseract but no viable way to use it beyond as a bomb, which did not have much in the way of yield or blast radius because all of the bombs act in different ways, but result in the same thing. Complete matter disintegration.¡±

    ¡°Damn,¡± Bruce swore uncharacteristically as they watched an unfortunate agent, disintegrate because one of the cubes of energy on the large pellets fell off and created a huge hole in the ground, and took the agent with them. The agent didn''t even register anything before he was gone in a cloud of blue.

    ¡°Hey, Wait! Look at the footage again,¡± He ordered Jarvis to enhance the footage as much as he could and then replay it frame by frame.

    ¡°Look at the edge of the cloud and then compare it with the edge of the cloud of the portal that Loki came from,¡±

    All their screens disappeared as Jarvis did his magic and a single large video playback appeared in front of them. It compared everything, from width, to energy bleed, to light bleed.

    It matched, in every single way.

    ¡°Damn. So the Tesseract¡¯s energy is capable of creating portals. Only the stored energy ones create a portal somewhere that we cannot trace, but is strong enough to suck in matter at incredible speeds so it is no different than disintegration to us,¡± Tony muttered.

    ¡°So, this means that the Tesseract¡¯s energy¡¯s main function is to open portals, to somewhere. The energy output is just the byproduct. The only question remained, what more do they need to create a sustained portal because none of what we have seen is even remotely close to sustained,¡± Bruce said as they began going through the list of components, most of which were hand made by Selvig, and see if they could find something that could lead them to the mind controlled agents of Loki.

    ¡°Jarivs, search for any theft reports or break ins at facilities that house any Nuclear fission material. Also, keep a lookout for the peripheral surveillance points of all nearby Nuclear Power Plants. I am reasonably certain that they will target one of our cities but cast a wider net just in case,¡±

    ¡°Affirmative, Sir,¡± Jarvis replied as all the screens shut down and the ETA was once again, back on screen. It was a comforting 32 minutes only.

    ¡®Alright, gentlemen, let¡¯s get some rest before our ¡°boss¡± sends us on another errand,¡± Tony snarked before going to his personal chambers while he and Bruce retreated to the remote lab they had on hand. Seriously, the lack of any Jet engine, or any supporting equipment meant that the Jet was mostly hollow and had no lack of space.

    ______xx_____

    Meanwhile, Somewhere in Germany

    ¨CClint Barton [E?????n???l????i?????g?????h??????t????e??????n????e???????d???]--

    ¡°Are you sure this will work? This doesn¡¯t seem like something that should work, even if my mind is telling me that the math is correct, which doesn¡¯t make any sense,¡± He rolled his eyes at the Doctor, whose mind was expanded, more than the rest of them, unfortunately.

    The Doctor¡¯s weak mind could not handle the extra knowledge they had dumped in his brain, so that he could build things out of the world, to their freedom.

    ¡°Yes, it will work. He said so, and it has to,¡± He reassured the doctor before signalling one of the mercenaries to take the doctor towards the machine that he was supposed to build next.

    They couldn¡¯t have him run out of brain juice before they were done filling their ruler¡¯s wishes.

    He looked at the small rectangular machine, holding onto the Blue Tesseract in the center with a small vial of red blood right above it, just waiting to be dumped on the cube.

    ¡°Alright, load it up,¡± The boys loaded it into one of the Jets they had stolen from the US Military.

    Once they were all strapped in, the Jet took off and reached maximum speed. They were untraceable by local radars because he had enlisted the help of someone who could do miracles like that.

    Tech, was the only name they went by and they owed him a favour.

    ¡°Alright, here goes nothing,¡± he took a baton he had bought for this express purpose and slammed it down on the top of the machine, breaking the vial of blood and dropping it on the Tesseract, making it sizzle and then the machine glow blue.

    The glow increased until it became unbearable to look at.

    With a slight whomp noise, they heard a slight grunt and a thud as the glow died down and the Tesseract which had melted through the machine was collected by a hardened alloy made specifically for that.

    Once the Tesseract was secured, he looked to the side and there he was, their Lord and Saviour.

    ¡°Make sure he is fine and buckled in. Adam, take us back,¡±

    ¡°Roger that.¡±

    ¡°And Tech. Thanks for your help,¡± he muttered in his radio, which he was sure was being hijacked by Tech.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 111 : Tick Tock! The Count till freedom!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 111[May 2012]

    StarkJet

    ¨CRandall¨C

    He didn¡¯t need as much rest as Tony or even Bruce did in his base form because he was permanently enhanced. So, when the alarm rang, he immediately sprang into action, sprinting from his quarters, straight to Tony and Bruce¡¯s rooms, worried that someone had targeted them.

    Tony was quite vulnerable, being the most squishy member on the Jet, and Bruce would be fine but his transformation would wreck the plane, which would make all of them¡­not fine.

    ¡°Jarvis, talk to me,¡± He snapped as he walked through door after door, in curves, as Tony had built the chambers around a huge central block that housed the conference room and their labs.

    ¡°Sir, I am detecting an unusual energy surge in the conference room, with light interference blocking all sensors including cameras, sir.¡±

    ¡°Shit,¡± He muttered as he changed course and ran back towards the entrance of the conference room, which was on the lower floors. The alarms were still blaring and he was sure that everyone was up by now, even Agent Romanoff but she was basically on house arrest so she should be safe in her quarters.

    The question remained, just what in the hell was Thor doing? He assured them that Loki would not be able to do anything with Thor keeping an eye on him. He slid to a halt and opened the door, and had to immediately shield his eyes from the intense light that assaulted his eyes.

    ¡°Urgh,¡±

    The light subsided after a moment but before he could recover his vision, he heard Thor curse and grunt. He rapidly blinked his eyes as his healing factor went to work, restoring his vision from what was essentially a flashbang on steroids.

    What he saw was just Thor standing around, looking around with Mjolnir in his hand, surveying the area warily.

    ¡°What happened? He asked Thor as he entered the room cautiously, looking for Loki but it was as he had feared.

    ¡°What in the world?¡± Bruce and Tony followed through, entering the room and joining him in examining the blue dust that was left near the sofa, where Thor and Loki had sat.

    ¡°One moment, Loki was right beside me, and the next, my hand burned with a searing heat unlike anything I have ever experienced. And then, Loki was gone,¡± Thor informed them and his heart sank as he realised that Loki had successfully escaped from them, and more importantly, if he could do it now, it meant that he could do it again.

    Being able to teleport and escape from any custody meant that there was effectively no way of containing Loki, even for the Invisible Man, because it did not seem like the teleportation was activated from Loki¡¯s side.

    ¡°Aye, Loki seemed surprised as well because I felt his body seize before it burned my hand,¡± Thor said as he shook his left hand, which was still discoloured but was rapidly healing, right in front of their eyes.

    ¡°So, we have someone on Loki¡¯s side who can just teleport him out of trouble from their end? Great. That¡¯s just fantastic,¡± TOY said and stalked out of the conference room, Bruce following suit. They were probably on their way to see if they got any useful data from the myriad of sensors that were installed in and around the conference room.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind him. We will find Loki, it is just a matter of time.¡± He tried to console Thor who replied.

    ¡°No, I am not worried about Loki. He will surface, he has to. I am worried about the Invasion. If they have machines capable of doing this, then, we don¡¯t know what else they might have in store,¡± Thor said, seemingly half to himself.

    His eyes widened as he scrambled out of the room and back to the lab, hoping that they had some sort of trail they could track Loki with, if not, they were going to be in big trouble.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    He reached the lab, to see Tony and Bruce discussing animatedly about what had just happened, all the while the ETA- 12 minutes was displayed on the side screen.

    ¡°Okay, so, we know they used teleportation now, which means they used the Tesseract. Jarvis, see if you find any unusual dips in Grid energy across the planet.¡±

    ¡°Nothing on the reports sir although I must inform you that we simply don¡¯t have the most accurate grid data of various developing countries,¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I was afraid of that,¡± Tony muttered as he went over the various energy readings, most of which were completely nonsensical, as their sensors were simply not built to scan energies of that level.

    ¡°That dust withered soon after, leaving no trace whatsoever,¡±

    ¡°Which means our theory of the Tesseract energy being just a portal opener was right. It also means that¨C¡±

    ¡°Wait. Do we know that if the inertia of the object is nullified while travelling through the Tesseract?¡± Bruce interrupted Tony and both of them looked at Bruce for a moment, then they exploded in motion.

    ¡°Jarvis, track for any high speed projectile on Earth or in the air, mostly in the air, around remote areas with speeds matching ours,¡± Tony informed JAvis who immediately began pulling up radar records from all over the world, and began laying filters.

    ¡°Dismiss nothing, Jarvis. We don¡¯t know if activities that seemed planned on paper were actually orchestrated or not. This Loki guy really does know how to plan in advance,¡± Tony commented.

    Then, alarms began blaring once again, but this time, they were yellow.

    ¡°Sir, Mr.Thor is trying to force his way out of the conference room.¡±

    ¡°What? No, keep him there. Tell him that he will come out to meet the Invisible Man soon enough,¡±

    Unfortunately, his enhanced senses picked up on the groaning of metal before a loud impact was heard, which should have been obvious to them, considering the sheer strength of Thor.

    ¡°He has breached the door, sir.¡± Jarvis helpfully reminded them.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. I will bring him here, don¡¯t worry, the Invisible Man has told me that he can be trusted implicitly in the current scenario¡±

    Saying so, he ran out of the lab. Damn, this was so not going how he pictured it to go.

    _____xx_____

    Manhattan

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    What in the fuck?

    His mind ran a mile a minute, as he tried to reconcile the reports he was getting. Loki fled? No, that was not the right term. Loki was extracted from the Jet by the use of the Tesseract.

    But who could do that? Loki came to Earth alone and there was no way that any human could perform such a targeted application of the portal properties of the Tesseract, especially since Loki was moving at such high speeds.

    He sighed and groaned, as he waited for some reply from the President. Last he had spoken, he had warned POTUS about the impending threat from Loki and how PIerce was hiding everything from him, putting the entire country and potentially, the world in danger.

    As a result of that, a member of the Secret Service was stationed in Manhattan, who would relay POTUS¡¯ words to him and vice versa. That was days ago and so far, he had not heard anything.

    He knew, from SHIELD¡¯s live updating database that militaries across the world, major ones anyway, were gearing up for action but he needed to know the President¡¯s stance on SHIELD and this tense atmosphere was the perfect time to get his true opinion on it.

    Damn, his mind was running in a million different directions. He was much stronger than when the Guy Below attacked and he knew that neither the Chitauri nor Loki were much of a threat, especially once he had confirmation about Loki¡¯s illusions but even then, he was going to be hidden and safe, away from Loki and his sceptre so he was not worried about that.

    What he was getting anxious about, was that curtain. He was getting excited, afraid, and worried, all at the same time, about the curtain and whether it would be lifted or not.

    He absolutely could not live in Manhattan all his life, even though it is a perfectly fine city that was made even better due to his presence in it.

    The StarkJet, along with Thor and Romanoff should be here soon. Once that was done, he was immediately going to whisk them away into the subterranean base and then establish contact with POTUS, to tell him that they had alien royalty with them and that Thor was going to help them apprehend Loki, which seemed more and more difficult due to the new abilities that just keep popping up.

    Loki most certainly did not have someone or something that could do this in canon. It complicated things though he was sure that doing that again was going to be almost certainly impossible, considering they did not have the oomph required to create a portal, like they did in the movies.

    Argh, when will that damned portal open and he will be free?

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 112 : Princeling and his Delusions!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 112[May 2012]

    Manhattan, Subterranean base

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°Welcome to Midgard, Prince Thor,¡± He greeted Thor who was just getting alighted from the Stark Jet, which he had immediately rerouted into the river and then straight into the base because he could take no further risks anymore.

    ¡°Greetings, Invisible Man. I was told that that was the moniker you assume,¡±

    ¡°That is correct, Prince Thor.¡±

    He had informed the Secret Service agent that Loki had been whisked away by a targeted application of the Tesseract, and also provided the video footage so Pierce should not be able to make too much of a ruckus. By now, Pierce had realised that his plan to keep the Invisible Man unaware of everything by keeping everything in New York quiet had gone up in shitters, so he had started moving his personnel in New York as well, at least right up until he put a stop to it, with the President¡¯s help of course.

    Wouldn¡¯t want to do anything illegal after all. POTUS had issued written orders that no changes, nothing of the sort that Pierce was aiming for, would be allowed to happen in Manhattan because it was an area of special interest and the harmony could be disturbed because of the rapid changes in personnel that Pierce was proposing, which was mostly just him filling in his HYDRA goons in important positions, something that the President had probably realised by now.

    So, that was halted but there was yet another problem that had appeared on his plate, other than Loki and the Chitauri.

    The Mole people.

    They had once again started sending, not entire waves of molemen but scouts, smaller, much faster mole people who were sniffing around the artificial boundary he had created last time and while they were barely even worth a mention, due to their low prowess, their numbers could not be underestimated and if they mounted a full fledged invasion during the Chitauri Invasion, that could be problematic.

    ¡°Prince Thor, we are on the verge of a planetary invasion but thankfully, the invasion will come through a portal which will prove to be a bottleneck for them. Now, for the Invasion itself, we might be able to handle it but so far, Loki has proven to be far more slippery than we could have imagined. Can we trust you to handle Loki in that case?¡± He asked Thor, because he would rather not deal with Loki at all.

    ¡°Aye, Loki¡¯s ways are strange and illusory. I will handle it, that is why I was sent here but Loki and the Tesseract¨C¡±

    ¡°Goes with you, I understand. You have my word that both of them will be with you when you leave for Asgard,¡± He assured the Prince. He didn¡¯t want the Tesseract or even the sceptre in the hands of the government anyway, so this was the best option.

    The sceptre would be broken down, obviously, and he would have to consult with the Ancient One on how to get rid of the small primitive but very much evil intelligence that was programmed on the Mind Stone by the Other before he could try and use the Mind Stone to augment himself.

    But then again, he might not even feel the need to use the Mind Stone unless Thanos himself came in front of him or if he had to lift a continent, because the second the curtain fell, he had a hunch that his overall power levels would shoot through the roof, not in terms of power, but in terms of range and the level of fine control he could exert.

    ¡°So, we know that Loki would have the inertia of the fastest Jet on the planet and even if he is an Asgardian and essentially bulletproof, he would still be paste if he went from that speed to a sudden stop,¡± Randall said, as he came down from the Jet along with Tony and Bruce, and went right into Randall¡¯s lab.

    ¡°That¡¯s right. So, no point in summoning Loki if you are just going to paste him anyway. So, we have to search for ways they could have bled off that momentum and made sure that Loki reached them alive,¡± Tony said and then they went out of the huge space that he was going to label as the Hangar from now on because this was the place where both the Flying Car and the Stark Jet was kept.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Prince Thor, please get comfortable. It could be a while before we get any leads on your brother. In the meantime, we have some people who are very excited to challenge you to a spar,¡± He informed Thor who looked confused and lost at the prospect of mere mortals challenging the God of Thunder to a spar.

    ¡°They are not ordinary humans, if that¡¯s what you are wondering,¡± He helpfully informed Thor and then nudged him towards the guest chambers he already made sure that Randall had prepared using his giant 3D printed, so that if anything breaks, it could be replaced within moments.

    He also informed Michael, Harvey, and Leny about Thor¡¯s arrival because these three were the most excited to catch hands with Thor, despite Leny¡¯s shy behavior.

    He then moved on to the SCIENCE! Section of the base. ¡°Gentlemen, any luck?¡±

    ¡°No. We have not found any unscheduled Jet launches. The fastest Jets are all accounted for. Dropping Loki from a height also does not make sense because at that velocity, even if he dropped on water, it might as well be concrete,¡±

    ¡°So, they have something that can nullify the momentum then?¡± He asked the trio, because that was something that could be built, even with human tech, as was evidenced by Future Tony.

    ¡°Yeah, it looks like it. Anyway, let¡¯s move on to the parts list. Jarvis is actively monitoring power dips around the world. Iridium can be used to stabilise high energy fluctuations, to the point that minor fluctuations would be invisible to all known apparatus,¡±

    ¡°So they need it as a stabilising agent.¡±

    ¡°Correct.¡±

    He left the eggheads to their job and shifted his attention to Manhattan as a whole, because he couldn''t discount Loki already having ordered his men to infiltrate the city. Worse, the brainwashing meant that they could be anybody, even Coul¨C

    Shit.

    He immediately seized Coulsin in a soft grip, knocked him out, and ordered Randall to create a cell for short term detention, something that was easy since they had created all quarters with the intention of being able to quarantine someone with the push of a button. Randall was startled but immediately guided him to the nearest cell, as he dumped Coulson in the cell, and made sure that Coulson was kept in the cell until Loki was found and rendered inert.

    Damn, that was a close call.

    He couldn¡¯t believe how foolish he¡¯d been, trusting someone so implicitly just because he knew that in canon, nothing happened to Coulson.

    ¡°Randall, check if Coulson ever came into a hundred mile radius of Loki¡¯s known sightings and also check his location when the New Mexico base collapsed,¡±

    That was a close one. He should have been more careful, even if Coulson was innocent.

    It had been two days, and he had not slept ever since. Despite his body being more than capable of going weeks without sleep, he had never been this high strung before and it was beginning to show its tool.

    So, with a final sweep of the city, he catalogued all the weapons, tools that could be used as weapons, people who were in possession of such tools, people who had newly moved in, and more.

    Especially people who lived close to Stark Tower, which was not difficult since all the Stark Tower employees lived close by, in a cluster of skyscrapers with leases that had been directly negotiated by Stark Industries.

    He then did a mental sweep of his entire range, still finding nothing out of the ordinary, he sighed in relief.

    Ordering Randall to just call for him once he finds something, he snuggled deeper into his blanket, in his bed, and tried to sleep.

    Hopefully, when he woke up, the Portal would not be too far away.

    ___xx___

    Undisclosed Location

    ¨CLoki Laufeyson¨C

    ¡°You prove yourself incompetent, Pinceling,¡± He grit his teeth at the insolence but bore it with the grace of a ruler.

    ¡°The defenders have proven to be more resistant than expected,¡± He tried to justify the emergency rescue, which sent yet another signal out in the cosmos, about the Tesseract.

    ¡°Which is why we gave you the sceptre, princeling. We smelled your weakness ages ago. My Master does not like losing his prized possessions. Retrieve the Sceptre, Get us the Tesseract or elsssee,¡± He jerked back, the connection breaking as he punched the ground, the bruise already on his hand worsening on impact but that physical pain was nothing to the sheer anger he felt at his treatment at the hands of the Other.

    His Master¡­

    He shuddered in fear as his back was drenched in cold sweat at the thought of facing the Other¡¯s Master. No, he could not afford to fail, he had to win.

    He ignored the voice that asked him about his master as well. No, he was no one¡¯s pawn or slave. He was his own master.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 113 : Aaaaand, hes gone....

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 113[May 2012]

    Manhattan, Subterranean base

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    With a start, he came back online. He spread his senses outward in an instant and was satisfied to see that the small localised mind he had created for simple crime recognition had done its job. He then dispelled that mind with ease, absorbing that energy back into his main mind partition.

    That was another ability that he had in his hand now, something that he was not able to confirm because he had literally not slept for a few days.

    He stretched, feeling the joints pop, despite him not doing his usual workout regime ever since a certain Asgardian disgraced Prince touched the soil on his planet. Damn, why was he being so afraid of a villain that would not even reach his peak until later in his life?

    His senses picked up on Tony sleeping, with Pepper and Betty along with Bellina being in the same bunker as Tony. Tony still had three armours of his in the subterranean base, with Jarvis keeping watch over everything. Usually, Randall was pretty territorial when it came to his networks but this time, he made an exception for Jarvis to run in his networks in a supervised, limited capacity, which they all knew was a lie because Tony would not be able to keep his hands to himself, or resist ordering Jarvis to snoop around the obviously forbidden digital space that was so tantalizingly dangled in front of him.

    ¡°Randall, any status updates?¡± He asked Randall, even as he spotted two new Scouts trying to see if the Invisible line he had set against the Mole People, had dissolved or not. That was another headache that had come at the worst possible timing.

    It was good that the Mole Men were not really that strong. Hulk could wipe them all out, if given time but they were bulletproof, and could destroy city blocks within minutes if not interrupted.

    So, no exposing them to the local PD. Especially the Police department in Manhattan because the NYPD had gotten very lax in their armoury purchase, mainly because they couldn¡¯t justify all that money being poured into acquiring more guns and ammo because they hadn¡¯t even used 1% of what they used to need before the Invisible Man showed up.

    Gunshot wounds had reduced drastically at every ER and even gang members now refused to use guns because being in possession of a gun automatically meant a more thorough scrutiny from the guy above and once found something criminal, immediate breaking of a single or all limbs, depending on the severity of the crime.

    ¡°No. We are searching for two things at the moment - Things that they would require to build a portal machine, something that Thor was no help with. And two, the energy they would need to get the portal machine running,¡±

    ¡°So, you are sure that the Tesseract cannot be used as the power source to open portals?¡±

    ¡°No. The Tesseract will be the thing that opens portals. It¡¯s just that for the Tesseract to open stable portals, you will need something to tether the Tesseract to something, and that would require tons of energy, yes.¡±

    ¡°Okay. Got it. So, monitoring of all known Nuclear power plants, then?¡± He asked Randall, even though he was sure where Loki was going to show up.

    ¡°Yup. Jarvis has hacked into all that he could and the rest, we are monitoring through SHIELD¡¯s access codes,¡±

    Ah, SHIELD¡¯s database. The biggest advantage that Coulson gave them all. Direct, uninterrupted access to the core central database of the largest Spy agency in the world. He was sure that it would be multiple counts of treason right then and there.

    And yet, that allowed him to understand the true reach of SHIELD and just how deep their hands went, in the digital surveillance systems of the world.

    He was still uncertain if Coulson could be trusted but the base was shielded from all outside communications, save for hard fibre going in and out of the base. Plus, there was no way that Loki could communicate with his mind control victims telepathically, at least not without the sceptre being in his hands.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    The sceptre was immediately requisitioned by him as soon as it had come in his range, despite Tony¡¯s protests that he wanted to research. He had just allowed Bruce to get a single deep Gamma scan and use that as a base to look for the Tesseract, something that he remembered from the movies.

    Bruce had immediately set to work but not having SHIELD¡¯s deep reach, he had reached out to POTUS who had immediately ordered every lab in the United States to hand over control to Bruce, and even some of the allies that responded quickly.

    The rest had to be strong armed by Tony and the word of the Invisible Man. Still, they were nowhere near the reach that SHIELD would have given them, something that was still impossible because Pierce was the Director of SHIELD now and according to POTUS, removing him, at such a critical juncture, would be all but impossible given the bureaucracy involved.

    Basically, POTUS was telling him that without any sky high treason charge with proof, he could not remove Pierce, just reprimand or limit his access.

    Coward.

    His senses were still in the city, which naturally, involved the New York Sanctum. While he could not get a look inside the Sanctum, due to the protections involved, he could see everything on the outside, even the so called wards that protected the Sanctums, and then even stretched beyond the Sanctum¡¯s walls.

    That was why a chill ran down his spine when he saw the Ancient One herself, looking straight at him, walking on the rooftop, tending to the plants in the rooftop garden.

    ¡°Randall, issue a red alert. The INvasion is imminent. Get ready everyone, we are about to get some very nasty guests. The Invasion will be in Manhattan, inform everyone, and once the portal opens, blast the emergency message across every known frequency, secured and unsecured,¡±

    He then withdrew his senses, even as he felt Randall scrambling to fulfill his orders and then slowly stretched his body, getting ready to confront the Chitauri, and then¡­annihilate them.

    He was about to have a talk with the Ancient One but before he could do that, he heard Bruce calling for him.

    ¡°California. The Tesseract is in California!¡± Bruce shouted. He faltered as he flooded his presence in the lab, something that Bruce felt because he jerked in alarm.

    ¡°What? Are you sure?¡± He faltered as a sinking feeling entered his mind.

    ¡°Yes, I have triple checked it. The Tesseract is in California. We will have a much more accurate location in a few minutes.¡±

    ¡°Any nuclear power plants nearby?¡± He asked Bruce, even as he made sure that the Jet was ready and the brothers were all geared up in their combat suits.

    ¡°Yes, just the one,¡± Bruce replied.

    ¡°Okay, get ready everyone, we are leaving for California. Get everything you might need. Prepare for extreme¨C¡±

    That was when all hell went loose.

    Alarms began blaring in the base as something appeared on the screen, something that made his blood run cold.

    A portal.

    In California.

    Fuck.

    ¡°Shit!¡± Bruce swore as he scrambled to get to the Hangar floor.

    He was about to do something, talk to the Ancient One, and ask her why it was happening elsewhere when he felt it.

    Hell, he was sure that every mystic worth his salt in all of the State felt it.

    The Curtain.

    He held his breath, desperate for the curtain to break and irrationally afraid that he might do something to stop it.

    He got out of his apartment and went to the rooftop, something that was restricted but he just broke the lock apart, wanting to see everything with a clear view.

    His jaw hung agape as he saw the curtain, but not through his extra senses. No, the curtain was now visible to him, as to everyone else because he could see people in the streets, getting out of their cars and filming everything.

    Good Lord, what is happening?

    Then, with a horrendous sound, the cracks began spreading across the curtain and he made sure to keep his powers tightly wound around himself only, to make sure that nothing untoward happened during the process.

    Then, with an even more thunderous noise, that was probably heard across the city and made many people deaf, the curtain¡­broke apart.

    His momentary relief was turned into horror as all the broken pieces? INstead of dissipating into motes of energy, turned as if guided by an Invisible Hand and then rushed straight to him.

    He immediately ducked and went inside the building, somehow knowing that his powers wouldn¡¯t help but he still tried. Empty cars rose from the ground, along with anything he could get his hands on, to get and stop the horribly sharp pieces of cracked energy from reaching him but they passed through the things as if passing through butter.

    He was still subconsciously limiting his powers around himself when the first energy shard reached him, and then just sunk in his body.

    He could feel his energy increasing with that shard, which was manageable but then came the next, and the next, and the next.

    And then, he blacked out.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 114 : Holy Shit! Rubber Ducky, and Oh no!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 114[May 2012]

    Manhattan, Subterranean base

    ¨CRandall¨C

    ¡°Shit! Shit!¡± he couldn¡¯t stop swearing as he saw the video blaring on every screen around him. It was one of complete and utter chaos.

    A portal, a blue portal tearing a hole in the atmosphere, through which hellish creatures and space whales continued to fly out, terrorizing the world completely.

    ¡°Jarvis, get everything,¡± Somehow, Tony¡¯s ominous sounding words didn¡¯t fill him with much confidence as they ran straight towards the Hangar, which was unfortunately, on the deeper levels and for some godforsaken reason, they were unable to contact the one person who would have been able to guide them properly and would have also yanked them into the Hangar within seconds.

    ¡°Calm down, Randall. We can do this. Bruce said that he was in contact with the Invisible Man before all contact was shut off, and that was when both of them saw the California invasion. So, have trust in him and hope that he is doing something about that, like making some slingshot or something,¡± Tony muttered the last part under his breath because they all knew that the Invisible Man, for some reason or other, could not leave New York, with Manhattan being his home turf, where he was the strongest.

    And right now, Earth needed its strongest in California and that onus was now on them, because, undoubtedly, at the moment, they were the strongest Earth had to offer, and thank god for the Stark Jet because it would be able to take them to the site in less than half hour, so hopefully, not much damage would be done by then.

    ¡°Alert! Alert! Mr.Stark, protocol Sleeping Guardian activated,¡± Jarvis¡¯ warning ran in everybody¡¯s ears and he noticed how Stark faltered immediately upon hearing that.

    ¡°What? What happened? What is Sleeping¡­¡±

    Oh.

    ¡°It is too early to say anything but I developed a series of algorithms that continuously monitor the areas that the Invisible Man is heavily involved in. Drug confiscation, weapon confiscation, subway cleaning, traffic monitoring, everything. And according to what Jarvis just told me, the patterns are shifting, reverting to what they would be if an Invisible Hand was not guiding them, to the perfect solution,¡±

    Shit!

    Tony¡¯s words just filled him with more dread. It was just like last time when the Invisible Man was unavailable, but back then, they just had to handle a small city, with the occasional crime boss who thought himself too big to fail, and even then, they knew when the Big Bad of the city was going to come back.

    Now?

    ¡°Bruce has reached the Hangar, so have the brothers. Thor is being escorted by Jarvis and Romanoff and Coulson have been advised to stay on base,¡± He informed Tony who just nodded. It was logical, baseline humans would have no place in a battlefield of that level, unless they were enhanced in some way or had an extremely advanced ¡°prosthetic¡± that was weaponized to the high heavens.

    ¡°Great, tell Bruce to dump everything non weaponry and load it with all the weapons from the crates I had transported here,¡±

    Well, that was reassuring though not as much as having that invisible support on their heads.

    They were just about to jump into the utility hole that went straight down to the lowest level, with Levy and Bolton poised to catch them midway when another alarm rang, with the highest possible setting, even higher than the one that rang when the Invasion occurred.

    He and Tony looked at each other, as Jarvis¡¯ warning came once again.

    He immediately activated every holo display in the vicinity and what he saw just jerked him more into the realm of fear.

    A huge orange barrier? Curtain?

    ¡°What the fuck is that?¡±

    ¡°It is emitting energy levels unheard of. I can¡¯t even measure it and I have measured the output of a fucking cold fusion reactor, multiple times over,¡± Tony muttered under his breath as he furiously typed on his keyboard.

    ¡°Jarvis? Can you tell me anything?¡±

    ¡°Sir, the curtain appeared a moment ago and has shown no volatility in energy levels with no adverse effects on the surrounding,¡±You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    That was odd, he thought to himself as his algorithm kept on searching for something in that barrier to help them. They couldn''t leave Manhattan without going through that barrier because according to his scans, it went underground as well, very deep.

    ¡°Tony, can you see if any of your remote repulsor arrays, does anything to¨C¡±

    He stopped mid way and collapsed to his knees as a loud cracking noise entered the base, disorienting him completely. He saw, from the corner of his vision, that Tony was just knocked out, with his holo keyboard still active.

    ¡°Jarvis? What happened?¡± His own words sounded slurred to him, his head throbbing as he fought to gain his balance and strength to stand up.

    In the background, he heard a roar and his blood chilled as he realised that whatever damage that sound had done to Bruce, it had forced him into the Hulk.

    Shit.

    ¡°Sir, the curtain just cracked and the cracked parts are now floating¨CNo, they have begun moving, aligning themselves to target something. Calculating,¡±

    JArvis showed him a live feed, as he gave up on standing and just sat down on the ground, which showed a very cracked scene in the sky, with pieces of orange filling the camera¡¯s feed.

    Then the cracks, very sharp ones, he noticed, angle themselves towards a certain direction, all of them.

    ¡°Jarvis?¡±

    ¡°The shards are realigning themselves minutely in response to something. Calculating now,¡±

    And that¡¯s when he saw it. The shards were aligned towards a building, more accurately, the rooftop of a building, where a single man was standing and looking at the shards as well.

    ¡°Subject named: Axle Riddle, second largest individual shareholder in Stark Industries and a current Board Member of Wu Enterprises, the largest privately held company in all of Asia,¡±

    What the hell? He is so young, that was the first thing that came to his mind and the next got stuck mid way as he watched the shards flying towards their target, rapidly.

    The man scrambled to get out of the rooftop as¡­.

    His eyes widened as cars, rebar, pieces of road, and more flew out of the street below and placed themselves right in the path of the shards but the shards cut through everything like butter and even through the walls and then, something happened.

    Something that made all that stuff fall down in free fall, as if the strings holding them together were cut apart.

    ¡°Holy shit! That is the Invisible Man. I have been taking orders from a man so young,¡± He exclaimed, temporarily having forgotten his crippling headache.

    ¡°Jarvis, take a suit and rescue him. I now give you authority to use any of the base¡¯s Class 2 resources, to secure and protect the individual known as Axle Riddle. Alright?¡±

    ¡°Access Granted. Optimum solution found : taking rescue bot designated ¡°Rubber Ducky¡± for the operation,¡± He nodded at Jarvis¡¯ reply and after throwing Stark on his shoulder like a sack, he went on his way down to the Hangar.

    The Hulk roar had only happened once but that was another mess he had to deal with, especially since he knew some of his brothers and they would not hesitate to just brawl with the Hulk.

    He wasn¡¯t worried about those jugheads. No, he was worried that they might damage the Stark Jet, their one way of reaching the Invasion on time. Without it, they would never arrive on time.

    ¡°Military response has begun,¡± Jarvis¡¯ alert came to him as a display followed him to the Hangar. He was in no shape to jump through the utility hole and there was no guarantee the jugheads downstairs would catch him or not, so he was going the regular way.

    The ultrafast Elevators, which was still slow because their base was¡­huge.

    He saw that fighter Jets launched heaps of missiles at the flying whales but only at the edges.

    Oh. ¡°Current military orders are for them to target the fringe ones and contain the enemies until a better solution can be reached,¡±

    Oh. He chuckled bitterly, as he realised that they were going to be the better solution.

    A bunch of disoriented Hulks, the Hulk, Iron Man. That¡¯s it. That was going to be Humanity¡¯s solution to an Alien Invasion.

    How pathetic.

    ¡°Individual Axle Riddle secured. Bringing back to base now,¡±

    ¡°Okay. Once he is back and we have left, make sure that everybody, including Coulson and Romanoff, are in the core zone, the one designated as the panic room and then detonate all the explosives so the entry and exit zones are buried completely. We can¡¯t risk anything coming in or out. There are enough resources and power for them to last years, so no worries in that department.¡±

    ¡°Affirmative, sir. Good Luck.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, buddy. We are going to need it,¡± He grinned as the Hangar finally came into view, with the Stark Jet in one piece.

    ¡°Thank God.¡± He sighed and dumped Tony on the ground.

    ¡°Somebody wake this Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist up, and get every piece of weapon and armour you can get your hands on,¡± He shouted as a series of racks came out of the ground, filled with weapons he made in his spare time, some of them being too dangerous to allow use in normal situations.

    But this was not a normal situation, was it?

    It was actually the Hulk who grinned, savagely, and took the biggest mace he had built in his tinkering phase. He grinned as well. That was just a mace, with no technology in it, just a dense, tough mace that was impossible to be wielded, even by the likes of his brother, and the Hulk just swung it around, creating literal gusts of winds in the Hangar.

    Oh yeah, they were going to crush this.

    ¡­¡­

    ¡­..

    Watching the news as they were en route to California, only a single thought ran through his mind.

    No, they were most certainly not going to crush this Invasion.

    Damn Loki!

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 115 : 2nd Amendment, Air Jail & Railguns! * Le Frank : Get off my Lawn!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 115[May 2012]

    Manhattan

    ¨CFrank Castle¨C

    For years, he had known peace. Peace from the back stabbings from his unit, peace from having to worry about money, peace from having to worry about his family and their continued safety, and peace from all the things that went bump in the dark.

    ¡°Honey, Breakfast¡¯s ready,¡±

    ¡°Coming!¡±

    Years of having a nice home to come to, with a loving family with whom he had daily breakfasts, which was honestly the highlight of his day. Schooling was expensive, but the education for his kids was worth it and to be honest, he would have paid the same for even crappy education if it meant that his kids would remain in the purview of the Invisible Man at all times.

    He chuckled to himself at that, endorsing who was arguably the biggest stalker in all of America and entrusting said stalker with the safety of his kids. Then again, the Invisible Man had proven his mettle for years, safeguarding Manhattan from literally everything.

    From gangsters, drugs, and corruption to even literal monsters out of science fiction. Only once did the Invisible Man fail in his duties, and even then, he had some sort of backup team to help protect the city until he came back. Ofcourse, nobody could perfectly replace the Invisible Man but that small team of seven people was bulletproof, could bend steel, and was capable of cratering city blocks on their own.

    So, they were an adequate deterrent until the Invisible Man came back. And then, things went back to normal.

    Or so everyone thought but not him. His years of paranoia came clawing back to the forefront of his mind as he imagined the consequences of the Invisible Man just up and disappearing from the city. Then, Manhattan would turn from the safest city on the planet to a No Man¡¯s Land within days.

    It would also be unsafe to transport his family out of the city during that period. So, he had taken measures.

    Measures to make sure that his home remained the most defensible location in all of New York City, even more so than the police precincts, now that they had removed most of their advanced military gear, because they couldn¡¯t justify the expenses now that someone was doing their job for them, for free, and with much better efficiency than they could ever hope to achieve.

    It was good that the Invisible Man was willing to cooperate with the cops, otherwise they would have had a riot from the Police Unions on their hands.

    He pressed his thumb against an innocuous looking wall. Nothing happened for a few moments, then the entire wall slid inside and then to the side, revealing a walkway that led even below the basement levels.

    It was one of the reasons why he had bought this building. It was a renovated old building that had multiple sub levels that he had sealed once they had moved in. After that, it was just a matter of time and effort to get it all installed.

    He was going to do it all by himself but then the weirdest thing happened. The Invisible Man helped him, for everything. The basement installation, power for the entire thing.

    He still didn¡¯t know where the power was coming from but the Invisible Man had brought a single industrial grade power cable from the ground and that had worked splendidly so far, even if he kept every single machine he had in the basement active at all times.

    He stepped into the stairs and the door slid shut behind him, another perk of knowing the Invisible Man who built this entire installation, dismantled it, brought it in his house and then installed it for him, for free.

    His vision adjusted to the sudden light when the door opened and he found himself standing right in front of what could only be called the armoury of a small military unit.

    That was another thing he found odd because for every single person in all of Manhattan, they were outright forbidden to bear arms, something that infringed on the 2nd Amendment but who was going to take the Invisible Man to court? So he was allowed to stop anyone from bearing arms in Manhattan, a relatively small place compared to all of America so the political overlords let him be.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Only the cops could have guns and even they could not just use it willy nilly. He had seen, with his own eyes, a rookie being airlifted when he pulled a gun on a suspected drug dealer who was just dealing in Weed, nothing hardcore.

    So, by law, Weed was illegal so if the cops found them, they could arrest them but the Invisible Man apparently did not think that weed was that harmful so he let the dealers be, as long as they didn¡¯t sell to minors, that is. He could see the logic in that, if adults could be allowed to consume alcohol and cigars in absurd amounts, things that are infinitely more damaging to the body, then why would weeds be stopped?

    Still, he didn¡¯t stop the cops from doing their jobs but if anyone got trigger happy, they were punted into the air and kept there for a while, scared out of their minds as they were suspended mid air.

    ¡°Honey!¡± he heard Maria shout again, so he hastily shut everything down and went up to have breakfast with his family. One of the two meals that they shared everyday. The kids were mostly busy throughout the day, with their extracurriculars, academics, and their hobbies, so lunch was delivered through a special service that made perfectly curated meals that had a tie up with their school.

    Dinner was once again, with the entire family. It had become a tradition of sorts and he was going to make sure that this tradition continued as long as he drew breath, or realistically, when one of his kids wants to go away for college or god forbid, marriage.

    ¡°So, I heard you had a tough math exam today?¡± He asked Lisa, his elder daughter.

    She didn¡¯t even look up from her pancakes as she replied, ¡°Yeah but I am prepared. I¡¯ll pass,¡±

    And he didn¡¯t even have the heart to tell her to work hard because for him, all that mattered was that they were safe, healthy and mentally sound. Because Lord knows their daddy was not all three of them when he was their age.

    Academics can come later on. Baby steps at a time.

    He was about to say more when it sounded like a grenade had burst right next to him. His head throbbed, stars flashing in his vision as he tried to get up, only to stumble back.

    With no other choice, he crawled and brought the kids to his side, trying to get his bearings. He saw his wife trying to do the same to his son. He looked up and saw that everything else was fine, his vision still blurry but the lights were still on and the table was still standing.

    So no Earthquake.

    No explosion.

    Something else then?

    Finally, after what felt like an eternity of his daughter shivering in his arms, he felt his head throb less. He slowly looked all around him, saw his wife and son alright, made sure that his daughter didn¡¯t have a concussion or any other injuries, and sighed in relief.

    ¡°Get up, come on, we have to go,¡± He managed to say to his wife who was still too shaken to do anything else. He got them out of the kitchen and was about to take them to the basement when something he heard from the TV stopped him.

    He gave Lisa to Maria and then stumbled towards the living room and saw what was on the news.

    His blood chilled as he saw the harrowing scene. An orange wave, all around the city, breaking and going somewhere, and then, an Invasion in California, with aliens and monsters pouring in en masse.

    What the fuck?

    He scrambled back and got everyone into the basement and then into the secured bunker he¡¯s built, separate from the armoury bunker, another courtesy from the Invisible Man.

    ¡°Wait! When did you do this?¡± Marias asked him as she finally came to her senses. He looked at her tear stricken face and at his two children who were clinging to their mother and was about to stay in the Panic room with them, when his vision shifted, to the small TV installed inside the panic room.

    His eyes widened as he immediately turned the TV off, and kissed Maria on her forehead, ¡°I¡¯ll be right back,¡±

    Pressing the emergency lock button, he turned around and ignored her desperate cries as he entered the armoury bunker.

    Ignoring the rows of guns, machine guns, bombs, and more, he went straight towards the computer setup.

    Logging in with his credentials, he activated the experimental sniper mode.

    On the screen, a rooftop view could be seen. Suddenly, multiple tiles just slid into the floor and a huge cannon with electrified blue lights on all sides on it came out, with its barrel being over 2 meters long.

    Hitting the energize button, he watched as his rooftop was suddenly filled with electrifying arcs of energy that were being drawn from the single cable that came from nowhere.

    Once it was energized to the full, he looked at his locked target, ¡°Get off my planet.¡±

    With those words, he pressed X on the keyboard, letting the small tungsten projectile loose, and watched with satisfaction as the damned space whale was bisected into two.

    With that single shot, the entire Invasion force froze and then he had to suppress a shiver as he saw the entire fleet of aliens lock onto his building.

    His hand hovered above another button and then, after taking a deep breath, he slammed that button as well.

    That dropped the panic room, straight down, into a safe space that the INvisible Man had built for situations just like this, with ample food, water and medical resources for thousands of people to last for months.

    Even as he used the guns and technology given to him by the Invisible Man, his mind was fixated on one question and one question only.

    Where the fuck was the Invisible Man?!

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 116 : We Scotts Age Gracefully! Class 2 Resource & DUN! DUN! DUN!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 115[May 2012]

    Manhattan

    ¨CChris Lang [From Chapter 66]¨C

    This morning could not have gone more to shitters, he thought to himself as he tried to wrestle the kids into getting ready for school, a school that he paid a small fortune for but noooo, his father told them about their trip and now the kids wanted to tag along as well.

    He had specifically warned his mother not to tell anyone about their trip to the farm because if the kids found out about it, he would have to deal with it but his father was a whole other beast that was even more difficult to wrangle than the feral kids currently playing a game of tag with him in the kitchen.

    ¡°Aha! Got you!¡± He cried out triumphantly and then tickled the unfortunate soul who was now in his grasp.

    ¡°N-No, St¨CStop!¡± She tried to squirm out of his grip but he was relentless. Ah, he was actually having fun in this. Eh, maybe they can miss a week of school. Sure, the school teacher had cried out at the mere thought of missing a week of school as if they were going to miss out on sacred knowledge coming straight from the wise mind of the Invisible Man but what do they know? He was their father and if he said so, he was going to take his kids to see their grandparents, ridiculously priced private school be damned.

    ¡°They¡¯re not going to listen, are they?¡± He looked up, to see his wife, his beautiful beautiful wife entering the kitchen with a fond and exasperated look on her face.

    ¡°What do you think?¡± He asked her and lifted the little gremlin who had the audacity to smile at her mom, who all but melted at the site. For all her acting to be the tough mom, Anna was always the one who folded first, no matter the issue.

    ¡°Great, I¡¯ve already packed their bags. I¡¯ve told Robert to get the car out, we should be ready in about 10 mins, right Pumpkin?¡± Anna smiled and it was as if the entire world was lit up in front of him.

    ¡°Yay!¡± In his momentary bedazzlement, the gremlin squirmed out of his grip and ran up the stairs as if the devil itself was on her tail.

    He was about to get up when a horrible keening noise slammed right into his senses, making his vision blackout for a moment. What felt like an eternity passed when his vision returned, all blurry and splotchy as he tried to get up, only to fall back down on his ass.

    ¡°Anna?¡± His own voice sounded blurry to him as he tried to get up using the kitchen island as support but his body felt like it was filled with lead, no strength to do anything. Finally, after what felt like monumental struggle, he finally lifted himself into an upright position and his vision finally cleared enough that he saw Anna already on her way up the stairs, to look at the kids.

    He sighed in relief at that. Thank god she was able to get up. His body felt like it would break apart the moment he took another step. Even so, he had to find out what happened. They had a balcony for the kitchen as well, as he trudged painfully toward the balcony, getting support from any odd item that was within reach, until finally, the doors opened on their own, thank god for smart home stuff, and he saw what was outside.

    His breath hitched as he saw a scene straight from the science fiction stuff his kids loved to watch. A blue hole in the sky, from which monsters were pouring out in droves.

    ¡°Anna! Anna! Get down here!¡± He shouted as he scrambled his mind to map the optimum route to get out of this situation. They had a state of the art panic room installed but it was built with robbers and humans in mind, not monsters who were raining down lasers.

    Unfortunately, the shortest way to get out of Manhattan was directly underneath that blue hole. He was about to head up, however slow it might be, when¡ª

    A high pitch noise entered his senses as he looked to the right, his eyes widening as he saw a white glow appear on top of a small building. He recognised that building, it was the Castle martial Arts Dojo, something the girls wanted to join but were too young to do so right now.

    He squinted his eyes, trying to figure out what that was when, with a thunderous boom, the white energy coalesced into a ball and escaped his field of vision. All of a sudden, there was complete silence in the city.

    Even past the sirens, car horns and people shouting, there was the sound of the monsters, roaring or blasting lasers but all that noise was suddenly silenced.

    He looked towards the monsters and his jaw hung agape as one of the huge whale-like things was torn into two pieces and was currently dropping down on the ground.

    He winced as it landed on top of two buildings but thankfully, they stayed upright despite the humongous load on top of them.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    ¡°A Railgun, huh?¡± he murmured to himself as he looked at the rooftop of the building, which was now sure to be the target of the monsters.

    Right then, with a WHOOP! Sound, the blue hole disappeared from the sky, but it left the monsters in the city.

    He recognised the weapon used but that did not make him useful. Damn, if only Scott was here, they could have done something to make sure that at the very least, his family was safe and sound. Scott was always his favourite cousin.

    ¡°It¡¯s like Nana always said, we Scotts may not be the most athletic but we age gracefully and are wicked smart.¡± He muttered to himself, mostly because he was out of it and also because he wished he was athletic enough to recover quicker.

    Unfortunately, he did age very gracefully and he was smart, smart enough to retire as one of the head honchos in an industry that spit out freshers as if it were a churning mill.

    ¡°Anna! Get down to the basement!¡± He shouted, hoping she would hear him.

    ____xx____

    ¡ªFrank Castle¨C

    His eyes narrowed as he saw the blue portal disappear. As soon as the hole had appeared on top of Manhattan, a data file had become accessible to him on the computer that was given to him b y the Invisible Man.

    He speed read through the whole thing and then one thing became increasingly clear to him. THe Invisible Man knew about the whole thing, about the Invasion and who would invade and what their weaknesses were.

    A beep brought his attention back to the screen as the railgun was charged completely once more. He grinned and let the railgun loose once again.

    The space whale tried to manoeuvre out of the way of the death ball but its sheer size made it impossible to do so. Another space whale out of the game but it was not lost on him that doing so, in the middle of the city meant that it was crashing on top of buildings which meant casualties.

    He steeled his heart and hoped that they were fine because no building had collapsed yet. He could not let them free reign in the city, it would be disastrous.

    He braced for impact because the aliens were now on a warpath straight towards him.

    ¡°Just like old times,¡± He said to himself as he activated every single strangle contraption that the Invisible Man had installed in his house, something that he was against, at first but now he was the most grateful.

    Another railgun appeared on the rooftop, partially charged, and by the time the third whale, the only one they had on hand, came into the view of the railgun, it was completely charged.

    With another launch, their third space whale was gone as well, their mobile Base of operations gone. It also took out almost half of the infantry as well because they foolishly tried to shield the whale and ended up vaporising as a result.

    The others, he did not have anything precision based for that but he apparently didn¡¯t need to do anything, because, something shot at the forces with utter precision and power, leaving behind a charred mess.

    The computer automatically calculated everything and showed him the Stark Tower. It also had hundreds of black installations on the side of the building which was now targeting every single alien that had appeared in the sky, very successfully.

    He could see it did not have the sheer energy to go through the space whales but the smaller units were easily handled by it.

    He sighed in relief and slumped in his seat, knowing that the building, their home was fine when another screen appeared on the computer, making him jerk back into alertness.

    What now?

    His eyes narrowed as a series of video reports appeared on the screen.

    His mouth twisted as a bitter feeling settled in his stomach, watching the blue portal appear in the skies, spit out nearly invincible Space whales and then disappear, only to reappear in the skies above another major city.

    So far, it has appeared in California, Manhattan, Paris, Auckland, and Sydney.

    ¡°He is going to destroy the planet,¡± He could not believe it but the short lived feeling of victory was feeling very bitter right now.

    These cities had no protector, who could prepare for something like this. Nobody to help defend them.

    No one to¨C

    ¡°Greetings, I am Jarvis. Am I speaking to Lieutenant Frank Castle?¡± A voice spoke from the computer.

    ¡°Not anymore, I am not. Yes, I am Frank Castle,¡± He confirmed, mostly because he was very desperate to help in any way he could.

    There was also the looming threat of the portal circling back and attacking them once again. The Railguns could only fire a dozen shots each before they melted down from the strain.

    With the portal jumping around the world like that, nowhere was safe. He was sure that the White House must be shitting their pants at this predicament and calling for the Invisible Man to do something.

    ¡°Thank you for the assist, Mr.Castle. You have been listed as a Class 2 resource in the database of the Invisible Man¡¯s team. Can I count on you to further participate in the defense of the city?¡±

    Class 2 Resource?

    ¡°Damn right you can. My family lives here.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, Mr.Castle. Please await further instructions. Further control of all weaponry in your house will be taken over so please get ready for field combat. We also have another Class 2 resource that will need debriefing that you are better suited for.¡±

    ¡°Debriefing? What the hell do I know to debrief someone?¡± He asked this Jarvis person and suddenly, everything appeared on the screen.

    ¡°A carrier will be at your location soon. In the meantime, please read through this as it will be crucial to obtain the cooperation of this asset,¡±

    Saying so, the voice left. It was all very confusing but he did what he was taught to do in the military.

    Follow the orders.

    He ignored the part that whispered ¡®As long as your gut tells you to¡¯

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 117 : Language!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 115[May 2012]

    Manhattan

    ¨CSteve Rogers¨C

    ¡°Son of a bitch,¡± He couldn¡¯t believe it. Monsters, aliens, real aliens pouring out of a hole in the sky, flying whales the size of the largest buildings he had seen in this city.

    ¡°Language!¡± He did a double take as an old man hobbling along the road, with a package in his hand, as if the chaos all around them was not happening and he had nothing to do with it, shouted at him without even turning around to face him.

    Shaking his head, he did what he did best, even before he became a Super Soldier, try to help people, in any way he could.

    ¡°This way, please!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t push!¡± ¡°Hey! Leave! Now.¡±

    It was hard, being unable to do anything but being essentially a slightly stronger cop, who were actually thankful for his intervention because more than once, he had to disarm the more easily excited person who was understandably panicked and afraid of the situation.

    He himself was not any better but somewhere, in a deep dark ugly part of himself, he thought that maybe this wouldn¡¯t be the worst place to die, in his hometown, even though it looked worlds apart from when he last saw it.

    To die in the place where it all began, where he became the Super Soldier, where he met Peggy, and where he hoped to retire, with Peggy and have a family with her, should he get the chance.

    While his mind accepted his death, with his life feeling more and more meaningless as the days went by, his body moved on autopilot, helping bystanders, moving more than one car as it was blocking the road.

    The way he moved and/or lifted some of the lighter cars had the police nearby gawking at him but they had seen weirder stuff in their life so they didn¡¯t comment much on it, especially not in the current turbulent times.

    His mind ran as he ran and helped the older, more vulnerable people get out, in the opposite direction. Once he got a hold of a big truck, he used it as a battering ram and made sure that all the roads were cleared up, so that people can use the buses, trucks and the odd minivans to get away. Away from the madness that was occurring behind them.

    Thankfully, they were far away from the blue hole in the air but he could see that all of the monsters were capable of movement and it would only be a matter of time before they spread all across the city, and his enhanced brain told him that not even a quarter of the city¡¯s population could be evacuated, sometimes he hated how his brain told him with the cold logic of inevitability.

    ¡°I¡¯ll see if they need more help,¡± Hefting a motorcycle up from where it was abandoned on the side of the road, for what reason he did not know since it was actually easily manoeuvrable on the roads, not without bumping into people though.

    ¡°Be Careful,¡± He waved off the worries of one of the police officers. He smiled at the thought of people genuinely helping each other, even in times of adversity, it reminded him of the war torn villages they had liberated sometimes but then again, this situation was quite different from what he and the Howling Commandos were used to.

    The thought of his old team wiped the smile off his face as he thought of their deaths, all of them dead before their age. All that was left was Peggy.

    It was kind of concerning how none of his team mates had ever made it to old age, except Peggy, including Howard and his wife, who had died in a freak accident, and he had hoped to investigate it but his handlers at SHIELD had made it very clear that he could not leave Manhattan, for his own safety.

    It was an odd feeling, to live under the umbrella of an all seeing eye. That was the closest thing he could attribute to the Invisible Man who, effectively, ran the entire city, and yet, during the city¡¯s most trying time, he was nowhere to be seen.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    That was part of the reason why none of the people were prepared for something like this.

    ¡°Move! Move! MOVE!¡± He shouted at the people who seemed to be waiting for their lord and Saviour invisible Man to come and save them, which was not happening because he had seen the feats of power of the all seeing eye and it should have been able to easily move the aliens, or atleast dismantle the small flyers who were attacking the nearby buildings.

    The screams, wails, and sobs were especially trying on him due to his enhanced senses, making him feel as if he was back on the battlefield, fighting Nazis and HYDRA. It also made him churn in shame and guilt as he thought about his feeling of leaving this world, a world that did not need him anymore because there were no more wars to fight.

    THe world was a different place, a vastly different place and the only thing that he had done that made him feel even remotely useful was today, when he had helped some people move along, moved some cars and disarmed a dozen robbers and some people with guns who were just panicked and afraid of the entire situation, thinking that the entire world was about to end.

    ¡°No, no, no, NO! This is not the time and place to pray. M¡¯am, please Move,¡± He had to physically pry the woman from the church walls as she was frozen in fear, unable to move or comprehend the sight in front of her, constantly chanting the Lord¡¯s name in hopes that the Lord or someone in his name would come to save her.

    ¡°Please! Take her,¡± He pleaded to the stranger with a minivan, already full of elderly people, who nodded and took her gently. He hoped that he had not aided in a kidnapping but anything was better than being stuck in what he was sure was going to be the blast zone soon enough.

    He was about to head on deeper, into the deeper areas, which was mostly evacuated by the people who could get out but he was sure that there were plenty of people still stuck in the buildings, subway stations and more, that might need help, when a buzzing noise took his attention.

    The noise then turned into a high pitched whining, making him flinch a bit as he heard something of an explosion, which then reverbed near him as well.

    He looked up and his eyes widened as he saw a clean cut, glowing red and molten on the space whale. Something had cut straight through that thing, at extremely high speeds. The projectile could be small enough if the speed was high enough.

    But then¡­ ¡°Shit!¡±

    ¡°Language!¡± He did a double take, once again, as out of nowhere, that same old man, wearing a uniform, holding on to some parcel, walked past him, admonishing for his language while not even looking back. His face, one of utter confusion, he turned to look at the slowly dropping pieces of the whale and then turned around to run back, hoping to help anyone in the way that he had not seen, including that old man, only to see no sign of anyone around him.

    ¡°What the..¡± he muttered as he heard yet another buzzing sound before another shot fired through the air, making him look back, almost making him stumble on a pothole.

    Another whale down. That seemed to set them off something fierce in the swarm of aliens because all of them began flying in a certain direction, away from him. He slowed down to a halt, as he noticed that sometime during his confusion, the blue portal had closed on its own.

    He counted three whales when they first entered his vision and he was sure that they had not deviated from their original place so much that there could be another whale, not that it would be possible to hide something of that size.

    So, that meant that only a single whale remained with their entry point gone.

    His shoulders slumped as he sighed in relief, running back towards the mass of people he could see. It was fine now, even if the Invisible Man didn¡¯t turn up.

    The damage would be much higher but the military was more than capable of taking down one of those things.

    Maybe those previous attacks were from the military as well? It didn¡¯t seem like it because the response was very fast and as far as he knew, the current militaries still used fighter jets, just ones that could fly very fast and very far but still jets were the primary method of attack in all military operations.

    Drones were coming up but he read that they were still too expensive and unreliable to be deployed en masse for all operations around the world, even in challenging terrains.

    His mind ran down another path as he began helping the police officers in any way he can, hefting a trash can as a crude rendition of his shield. He thought of the Invisible Man and how dependent the city had become on one man.

    That was not how it should be.

    It felt like the city was one step away from being crippled, and he did not like it, not about his home.

    He felt that change was needed but he couldn''t do anything about it, not by himself because the SHIELD handlers, his official caretakers would just tell him to work out more, read more, and stay in civilian life.

    No, this cannot be done by Steve Rogers. Politics was not his forte but in the current climate, he would be able to make far more change with his words and face, than his fists.

    It would seem that Captain America would soon have to come out of hiding then.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 118 : Class 2, jumping Loki, and Narcissisism Incarnate!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 118[May 2012]

    Manhattan

    ¨CFrank Castle¨C

    He could honestly say that this was the weirdest day of his life, even more so than the first time he saw cars and trucks being lifted into the air, suspended by nothing, just in an attempt to clear the traffic after a fire had broken out of the oil container and had spread to the nearest car.

    It was also kind of amusing to watch grown men get ejected out of the car and then flung back to the ground, with the fire put out by the same invisible hands. Then, there was the wave of cleaning that happened on the subway, it was as if a wave of cleanliness swept through the subway every morning. It was visible with how the grime, dirt, and whatever else gross stuff, was eviscerated by the Invisible Hand of the Invisible Man whenever the subway trains entered Manhattan and left Manhattan spanking clean.

    While he didn¡¯t let his kids out of Manhattan, at all and never left Maria out of Manhattan without him being there as company, he himself had travelled all over New York and even out of State ot handle some business permanently, content in the knowledge that his family was safe and with the property they held in Manhattan, would be safe and want for nothing for most of their lives.

    That assurance was worth more than anything and the will to be there, to watch all of them grow up and grow old with them was what helped him lower his pride and finally ask for help, ensuring that his past life, legal and grey legal, did not come to haunt him, or his family in their current happy lives.

    Though, as he followed the voice¡¯s instructions and came to the rooftop of his building, which now housed railguns that were positively smoking, he thought of the current state of the city, his building, the expense of repairing it, and how the city or even the world would never be the same after today, considering the sheer amount of damage that was happening to major cities around the world, even now as he followed the instruction of the voice.

    He turned around and aimed his gun at the sudden sound of something heavy hitting the ground, and saw a humanoid blue suit landing on his rooftop.

    ¡°Greetings, Mr.Castle, I¡¯m afraid we don¡¯t have much time. Can you please get inside this suit?¡± The voice spoke from the suit as well as his phone and he relaxed minutely, but still didn¡¯t let go of the safety on his gun.

    ¡°Alright, but where are we going and what the hell is going on? And if you spoke from the assets that the Invisible Man gave me, then do you have any idea where the fuck he has gone?¡± He asked the suit even as he stepped forward and entered the suit.

    Darkness filled his vision briefly before a series of complex diagrams and images filled his vision as he felt the suit jerk for a brief moment, probably from the suit taking flight, before an orange circle appeared in the bottom right corner of his vision, pulsing slightly.

    ¡°Mr.Castle, we are to approach a Class 2 Resource, such as yourself. His name is Steve Rogers,¡±

    With that, a series of pictures appeared on the big screen, even as he felt the suit jerk minutely in various directions, probably because the suit was taking turns. His eyes widened as he read through the texts and saw the pictures, some taken with current timestamps.

    ¡°Son of a¨C¡±

    ¡°Yes, that is Captain America. To be brief, Captain America was frozen in ice in suspended animation. He has been rescued recently and has been living a normal life in Manhattan. We are to explain the current situation to him and gain his assistance. I believe you to be best suited due to your shared background and also because interacting with artificial intelligence for a man who has yet to figure out a toaster can be a bit disturbing,¡±

    He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, counted to three and then opened them once again, only to glare at the details in front of him. The gist of it was that they were currently under an Invasion by some alien God known as Loki, yes, from the Norse Gods, and he has an army of aliens just waiting to invade Earth through a portal.

    Now, that portal machine is capable of not just opening portals to transport aliens through it, but also capable of transporting itself to any part of the planet instantly, making sure that even if they did defeat the aliens that came out of the portal, unless they managed to catch and deactivate that machine, they would be back to square one because according to the limited intel they have, this Loki guys has enough of those aliens to take over the entire planet.

    ¡°Good Lord. Jarvis, was it? Do you know the status of my family?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Would you like to talk to them?¡± A feed opened on the screen and he smiled fondly as he saw Maria, his sweet beautiful Maria helping people in what seemed to be a huge hall of some kind, filled with people who were currently confused and panicking, crying but more importantly, safe.

    ¡°Where is this?¡±

    ¡°That is the tunnel, reinforced with the best tech that we could build. It will be safe even in the event of a thermonuclear device exploding above Manhattan. So be rest assured that your family will be safe.¡± Jarvis replied.

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go meet the sleeping beauty.¡±

    ____xx____This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Stark Jet

    ¨CTony Stark¨C

    ¡°What are we supposed to do?¡±

    He didn¡¯t answer Coulson¡¯s question since they were just coming back after making sure that all the aliens in California were taken care of and was also working on something that might help them at least get some victory in this fight. It was a nightmare to deal with, especially the Space Whales. He had nothing in his arsenal capable of taking down one of them.

    Thor managed to take out two of them and the seven brothers took down another one, by going inside the Whales and then attaching multiple high yield bombs inside it.

    Bruce took down another 2 and all he managed to do was take out the stragglers, the one who were shot out of the whales and were peppering the surrounding areas with laser fires.

    They had taken and scanned as much of the weaponry they could and it was nothing advanced. He has built much more advanced stuff but the problem was the sheer quantity. According to Thor, Loki had practically unlimited troops and they would just keep coming.

    He turned around and saw Bruce stumbling into the lab, his eyes red and his clothes in disarray but time was of the essence so they had no time for lab etiquettes as Bruce promptly sat down on his workstation and began working on the data they pilfered from the Reactor before he had to shut it down, and seal the entire thing, rendering it inert and destroying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property.

    ¡°Jarvis, relay all the information with Level 2 clearance to Coulson and Romanoff and make sure that they don¡¯t get out of their quarters,¡±

    ¡°No! Wait, Stark, you can¡¯t¨C¡± He swiped down and closed the call. He didn''t have time for this. The President was breathing down his neck.

    ¡°Jarvis?¡±

    ¡°We have the railguns active at full capacity and I have expedited the manufacturing processes at both the bases. We should have an ample amount of weaponry produced in the next two hours, in case another Entry portal opens above New York,¡± Jarivs helpfully informed him as Randall and Bruce worked tirelessly on the data they got from the reactor, including any video footage.

    Most of it was scrambled beyond repair, mainly due to the wave of pure energy released from the machine that damaged all nearby electronics. Thankfully, this particular reactor was decades old and its protection systems relied mainly on plain old mechanical mechanisms that worked on time and disabled everything in the reactor..

    ¡°Got it!¡± Randall yelled and he immediately whirled around, suppressing a wince as he felt the bruise on his shoulder when one of the laser speedos clipped him on the shoulder, the sheer onslaught of them being intense enough that not even Jarvis could protect him from everything.

    The suit he had used in the fight was being repaired as well as multiple suits were on their way to the Stark Jet, because he was not going to take any chances.

    ¡°They used the reactor¡¯s energy to jumpstart the machine, just like we suspected but they didn¡¯t just jumpstart the machine, they overpowered it. Look,¡± Randall pointed at a series of graphs including video footage that showed the machine being activated in two stages.

    The first activation created a blue halo around the machine, as if it was a shield, burning all the wires and equipment all around it, making it float mid air. For the Second activation, his eyes narrowed as he saw Loki holding onto two wires in both his hands and after doing something at them, his hands began shimmering in green before he thrust both the wires, including his hands at the blue glow surrounding the portal machine.

    All of them winced as Loki¡¯s hands turned red but the wires stuck to the glow, including Loki. Loki¡¯s face was twisted in pain but he managed to say something before the green glow around his hand increased in intensity, blinding the camera before it all receded and all that was left in the facility were unconscious men, a barely standing Loki who dragged himself to the machine and stood atop a groove that was built beforehand.

    And then, the feed cut off because of the portal creation.

    ¡°Shit.¡±

    Shit indeed.

    ¡°So, Loki can take the portal anywhere he wants to? He can use the machine to get anywhere on the planet or is there a pattern somewhere there?¡± Bruce asked as he got back to his workstation, the information being nearly useless to them because they knew that the portal machine was being transported to all the major cities on the planet.

    Only now they knew that Loki was in the machine as well, guiding it.

    ¡°Wait! We can use this,¡± he caught the attention of Bruce and Randall as he rushed back to his station.

    ¡°Jarvis, how quick can you get me access to every single radio, TV, as well as satellite frequency on the planet? Hack everything. Activate Protocol Omega, energy burnout be damned.¡±

    ¡°I have certain orders standing in place to remind you sir that this might result in extensive backlash for the company.¡±

    ¡°And this is not the time to worry about that. Look at the counter, we have already crossed a hundred thousand casualties. Hurry,¡±

    ¡°Affirmative, sir. Protocol Omega activated. ETA until complete digital takeover - 13 minutes,¡±

    HE heaved a sigh of relief and opened the direct line to POTUS.

    ¡°Stark! What have you been doing? Any updates on where the portal might open next? My analysts say that there is a delay of 6 minutes between the portal closing and the next portal opening. The pattern is completely random, except they are targeting major cities, irrespective of their population or population density,¡± He leaned back at the rapid fire question and data vomit that came out of the feed.

    ¡°Sir, I am already aware of that, and we are working on mitigating the damage. Thankfully, unexpected parties have risen up in multiple locations to combat the invaders but we can¡¯t just keep fighting the dregs, we will be burnt out sooner than them, according to the intel that we have. We need to drag the battlefield to a location of our choice and keep it there. We are working on it but for that, we need access to every single digital device on the planet, anything with a speaker and a display, I need access to. How soon can I get that?¡±

    ¡°Done. Get him everything he needs. Tony, make sure that we don¡¯t lose,¡± Saying so, the feed cut off. He grumbled internally, it was not as if he intended to lose or anything.

    ¡°Tony, what are you planning?¡± Randall asked him and he turned around, grinning a bit.

    ¡°Well, what else? How else would you bait a narcissistic asshole? By using another narcissistic asshole as bait, ofcourse!¡± He grinned as he got to work on getting his message across to Loki.

    That might just work.

    In the corner of his workstation, there was a small red glowing symbol which indicated the activity of the Invisible Man, i.e, Axle Riddle.

    He couldn¡¯t believe it, the bastard had been in front of him all this time, buying up his company.

    ¡°Well, we will have all the time in the world to have a nice conversation once he is awake and all of this is behind us,¡± He muttered to himself as he worked on something that might just help knock Loki off the machine.

    The pure energy barrier was off-bar, no matter how powerful his weapons would get, they would not breach through an energy barrier with a power source that is effectively unlimited, but getting Loki off the machine should be simple enough because the barrier was now only surrounding the cube and not the machine.

    Damaging the machine or dislodging Loki off the machine, anything was a viable outcome.

    They just had to get it done somehow.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 119 : Surprise Protectors, Americas Ass in a suit, and Suspiciously Strong Firewalls!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 119[May 2012]

    Manhattan

    ¨CFrank Castle¨C

    This was somehow his life now. A scant few hours ago, he was just a regular old Martial Arts Dojo instructor with a dubious background that would not hold up to any background checks made by any half decent company.

    Now? Now, here he was, in an advanced suit capable of taking down small militant units on its own, flying to meet Captain America.

    ¡°Damn, this is weird,¡± He muttered as he landed, gently, in front of the Captain America. Some part of him wanted to fanboy at meeting the OG Soldier, the role model that the military thrust upon every single recruit, the one every single red blooded American soldier wanted to be like.

    Steve Rogers, Captain America, technically, the highest rated soldier in the army since he was given that title posthumously, with supreme authority but they never expected him to be alive, now, did they?

    He wondered if the Captain could use his title now.

    He got out of the suit, with dignity this time, and said, ¡°Hello, Captain. It¡¯s good to see that you are well, I am Frank Castle. I am part of the group that shot down the small batch of aliens that came here.¡±

    ¡°Greetings, Soldier. Are you from SHIELD?¡± Captain asked him and he had to shake his head in negative at that. Before he could waste any more time, the single beep sound from the suit behind him and the -phone in his pocket reminded him of the time crunch.

    ¡°Uh, look, Captain. I would love to sit down, chat, and explain everything to you but time is of the essence here. We need to be ready, just in case they come back to New York because¡ª¡±

    ¡°And what of the others?¡± Captain interrupted him.

    ¡°Excuse me?¡±

    ¡°What of the other cities? Who is protecting them?¡±

    He caught something from the corner of his eyes and then thrust his chin forward, ¡°See for yourself,¡±

    Captain looked confused for a second before he turned around and looked at the series of TVs displayed on the side of a store, showcasing newscasters that were very much flustered and were barely reported coherently about the alien Invasion and how different protectors had risen up to help defend their cities.

    He had been surprised as well but seeing the various avatars rising up to protect various cities has been very reassuring for him, because it meant that it was not just Invisible Man in the world, who could make a difference using his powers.

    Others could do it as well.

    But even then, there were many cities or even countries without any protectors of their own, and there were already talks of where Iron Man was, and he knew the answer as to why Tony and the others were not rushing to help the other countries, even if they could make it in time to save Vancouver, or the other neighboring cities.

    The President.

    It was an official order that came from high above that mandated the entire team that had fought in California to get rid of the aliens and also stop the reactor from melting down, had been ordered to stay put.

    They were essentially ordered to not leave US airspace until this entire fiasco was behind them, which meant that Tony and the others, all the other heavy hitters, were now stuck on US soil, and while the Invisible Man could reasonably ignore orders from the President, the people on that Jet could not, especially Stark since he was the most invested in the country and also the most vulnerable to a strike from the government, be it on his business, on his technology, or even on his loved one.

    But he could not tell the Captain that because, according to Jarvis, that would invite a drastic response and they couldn;t afford that at the moment. Jarvis had informed him that Tony had a plan right now, even if the others were not convinced about it but atleast they had something, so he didn¡¯t have to lie directly to the Captain¡¯s face.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    ¡°That is why I am here, Captain Rogers. People are already working on a plan to isolate and then put a stop to the Invasion but in the meantime, we need to make sure that we are prepared, just in case.¡±

    Catapin nodded at that and then took a step back as he looked behind him, in the air. He turned around and squinted as another shadow was cast over them, revealing a giant black box that floated in the air before it abruptly slammed down on the ground, destroying the road but eh, it was more potholes at this point anyway.

    ¡°What is that?¡± He turned around to see the Captain holding on to a gun and in a defensive posture, ready to jump behind the bench if need be. He snorted internally at that, as if something mundane could provide protection against the suits.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Jarvis?¡±

    ¡°Captain Steve Rogers, this is your equipment. Please use it wisely,¡± Jarvis replied, and then the black box opened up, revealing¡­

    ¡°Wow. Which fanboy designed this?¡± He deadpanned at the open suit that held Jarvis. The black box held a monstrosity of a suit, colored in the colors of their flag, and held a shield and a gun in the other hand, and more importantly, was a hulking unit, atleast 3 times as big as his smaller suit.

    ¡°The design is irrelevant. The suit is designed to be used by the captain himself and so has many intuitive design choices. Captain, if you will?¡±

    The Captain looked at him and he nodded, and saw the Captain being swallowed up by the suit before it lit up. Seeing that the Captain was getting used to having an entire armour around himself, he turned to the suit which was still open, ¡°Why do I get a small one?¡±

    There was only the sound of crickets in the background, so he sighed and entered the suit. There must be something else that Jarvis wanted him to do before the portal opened up once again.

    And, speaking of the devil¡­..

    Alarms began blaring through the suit as well as through Captain¡¯s suit as he instinctively looked up and found¡­nothing?

    He was about to ask Jarvis what was happening before, with another jerk, he felt the suit rocket up in the air, Captain¡¯s suit following suit momentarily.

    Up in the air, he could see on the HUD, the aliens, and their attacks. His eyes narrowed as the suit dived down rapidly, into the streets. He was horrified to find that this time, the portal was not opened vertically, but horizontally, and heaps of the land units were pouring out, firing at anything that moved in their vision.

    With a crunching sound, his suit landed right on top of a foot soldier, killing him before the arms were raised and his suit began blasting apart the foot soldiers, while he cursed internally at their situation.

    Their strongest weapons, the railguns, were now unusable because the invaders had gotten smart, choosing to fight in the streets. He could see that JArvis was scrambling resources and they should be here in a minute at best but his suit was already being peppered with lasers and he didn¡¯t know how long it could sustain that because he was already feeling pretty bruised on the inside.

    ¡°Jarvis? I am not feeling safe here,¡±

    His pleas were answered in the form of a missile landing on the street, in between a squad of foot soldiers and then he grinned as he watched them all burst apart.

    ¡°Yeah, baby! Second Amendment for the win!¡± He just regretted the Invasion not being in a redneck state. They would only need to deal with the whales while these foot soldiers would be taken care of by the civilians.

    He could just imagine the rednecks, arming themselves even more, bunkering down in their mini fortresses and just itching to fight an alien with the weapons that were their birthright. With how things were going, the rednecks might just get a chance.

    The Captain¡¯s suit then unleashed a barrage of lasers that were noticeably thicker than his own and eviscerated the small squad before moving on to the next one.

    ¡°Well, I am definitely Jealous,¡± He muttered as he followed the captain, providing support though it was definitely unneeded.

    __xx___

    Stark Jet

    ¨CTony Stark¨C

    ¡°Sir, Partial Digital Takeover complete,¡± he looked up from the small shut eye he was taking in between tasks because his eyes had pretty much begun watering the moment he looked at the holo screen now. Despite his many many advances in display tech, the eyes still remained a limiting factor.

    ¡°What do you mean, Partial? Omega Protocol as well as the President¡¯s access codes should have given you complete control over anything that had an internet connection.¡± Bruce interjected as he came forward, from his own workstation where he was working on a way to fire a Gamma Wave straight at Loki, which should provide enough of a disruption to his systems as well as any machine holding on to him so that they could get Loki off the portal machine and onto his ass.

    ¡°It would seem that there is a block in East Africa that has firewalls stronger than anything recorded. ETA to break their firewalls using Omega Protocol - 7 years,¡±

    He and Bruce traded looks at that. That was¡­.not good.

    He sighed, ¡°Alright. Jarvis, in terms of percentages?¡±

    ¡°98.1% devices connected to the web hijacked,¡±

    He took a deep breath at that. ¡°Okay, open up a direct link, bypass everything, make sure that anyone within reach can hear me,¡±

    He shook his head. Alright, no biggie. All he had to was goad an alien warlord into bringing his nigh infinite, absurdly resilient army to him, to a pre chosen location for a final showdown, where there was a non zero chance of death, of not just his death but the death of everyone on this Jet and then everyone he ever knew.

    Because the goddamned freaking Axle Riddle had to go into a coma at this moment.

    He took in deep breaths once again, just thinking of that bastard put him in a bad mood.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 120 : Loki : Back to Asshole-y self

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 120[May 2012]

    Zurich, Switzerland

    ¨CLoki Odinson Laufeyson¨C

    He grinned under the illusion he had cast over the machine. It was very hard for his magic to latch onto the machine because it was so suffused with energy from the Tesseract but with some light energy cleansing work, he was able to get his lightest illusion spell working which was just a visible illusion. He would still be visible and detectable to other means, far from his magnum opus which would slip his body in between spaces to make sure that he remained undetected.

    The very heavy impact on his brain, when he had been rescued from the mortals, had been enough to dislodge the parasitic spell that was implanted in him. Now that he was clear in his mind, it was also very clear to him that the sceptre was only partially there to use as a weapon. It was most likely used as a link between him and the Other who would use it to reinforce the spell if needed.

    That was where the overwhelming fear came from, he was sure. Nothing to do with the torture he experienced under them, he was sure of that.

    Now that he had no Master commanding him, he could have done away with the Invasion but it was still true that he needed to conquer a realm, to become King, to show Odin that he was not some failure, not someone who is not worthy.

    So, there he was, making sure that the machine worked as best as it could. He had dismissed all the thralls he made under the Sceptre¡¯s control and told them to go where they would be arrested with ease, and fight back. He grinned deliciously at the sheer amount of chaos it would cause.

    But that was neither here nor there. No, the reason he was continuing this invasion was because he needed to make sure that Midgard remained weak. Despite his earlier notions about mortals, they had grown a lot since he last came here. They also had champions who were much stronger than he had anticipated.

    The Genus Loci in the city called Manhattan alone gave him chills. The only reason the machine had reached that godforsaken place was because it was the default location set by Eric Selwig, something about the city being the optimum place for the most damage, to both people as well as their morale.

    He did not agree and as such, after dumping a small squad of Chitauri, he jumped out of that place so fast. He then jumped on to the next location, which was usually some city population by the ants he was going to crush and then rule, to bring them into a new age of prosperity, away from the needless genocide they committed against one another.

    It was so wasteful. He had watched a few of the documentaries, wherein they documented the crimes they committed against their own kind and he had been beyond repulsed. Even the Fire Demons, which were mostly cannibals, were better since they didn¡¯t know any better. They had no conscious thoughts.

    These humans, they had empathy, and enough intelligence to realise what they were doing but they continued to do so anyway, and not just that, they had the audacity to come up with new and better ways to kill one another.

    One such thing was the nukes. He shuddered as he undid the illusion on himself, and jammed his hand near the cube¡¯s barrier, where the button was. He winced as his skin was singed by the Tesseract¡¯s energy but that was a small price to pay, as he watched a blue hole appear in the sky and droves of Chitauri fly down. The only reason he was doing this one by one, with only a few Chitauri soldiers was because, one, he wanted the Other to expend his forces needlessly, and two, he wanted to whittle down Earth¡¯s defenses, slowly.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    He didn¡¯t want to create a super large invasion force and then force their leaders to send in the nukes. Those were weapons that contained the power of the sun and would destroy even him, with ease. The Tesseract will be fine but he will be fine mist, even with all his power.

    Hell, he reckoned that not even Thor would survive one of those attacks.

    These damn mortals, how did they even come up with a way to contain the power of the sun, he would never know. Then again, if it were only the nukes he had to worry about, it would be fine. No, it was more than that. Midgard had hidden defenses in most major cities.

    In some of the cities he attacked, he witnessed multiple champions emerging out of nowhere to defend the city, even though they were not really successful. He made sure that large buildings were the first ones to be toppled before he left for a new city. Even so, when he was in the city called Mumbai, one of the champions who could fly on his own, had almost collided with him before he had retreated from that zone.

    He could have easily dealt with that mortal since he knew that despite their various abilities, almost all of them were vulnerable to attacks from the Chitauri but he couldn¡¯t enter the fray himself, mainly because he was still connected to the machine.

    When the machine was being built, he had asked the resident Doctor a few questions, and that had elicited a couple of very interesting answers to him. So, he had changed some parameters from the original design which meant that now, instead of the portal being controlled by the Other who would prefer it to be open in a stationary location with endless droves of Chitauri arriving and destroying everything in sight, the control was held in his hands, literally.

    His blood was used to control the Tesseract¡¯s portal location and as soon as his hands left the machine, it would cease to function. Activating it was no simple matter and he knew that the mortals would not let that happen again.

    So, he had to make this one chance count. He could not let Thor or the champions defeat him but he could not let the Chitauri destroy everything. This was supposed to be his kingdom now.

    He sighed and closed the portal above this Zurich City. It was one of the smaller cities but if he recalled correctly, it held significance in the sense that the country it belonged to, didn¡¯t enter any World War that the humans had in the last century.

    He was about to leave but then his senses prickled, as he felt someone watching him. Which was supposed to be impossible because he was cloaked in his illusion and far away from the original portal location.

    His neck swiveled around as he tried to look for the stalker, only to find himself face to face with a mortal, flying, looking straight at him.

    He immediately backpedaled, his first instinct to get away from this place but reality around him rippled and he fled right into the woman¡¯s open palm.

    __xx__

    Zurich,

    ¨CAncient One¨C

    ¡°Hmm, this is concerning,¡± She mused as she withdrew her spell from Loki¡¯s mind and destroyed his memories of their encounter. She could have defeated him herself and confiscated the Tesseract, she was well within her rights but this was not going to be her era for long.

    It was time for the future generation to step up and do their part, especially since the crutch everyone was lingering on, Axle, was now comatose.

    Then again, it was not like she couldn¡¯t give the soon to be Avengers a helping hand, her mouth quirked into a small smile as she cast a subtle compulsion on Loki¡¯s mind, one that would unravel in a few hours but that would be more than enough time for Stark to make his move.

    ____xx___

    ¨CLoki¨C

    He came to consciousness with a gasp, a feeling of terror in his heart for some reason, even though he was cloaked, perfectly safe, with the mortals in front of him scrambling to defeat the small squad of Chitaur.

    He chuckled to himself. Pathetic, these mortals were.

    They didn¡¯t even have any champions to protect them. He would be that champion, and once their cities were ashes, they would learn to accept him as their patron God.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 121 : Politicians, Saving Asses and A suit of armour around the world.

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 121[May 2012]

    US Airspace

    ¨CTony Stark¨C

    ¡°What do you mean, we can¡¯t leave the United States airspace, are they mad? This is our chance to lure Loki into a location of our choosing instead of chasing him around the planet, which has turned out wonderful for all of us,¡± He couldn¡¯t help but shout at their liaison with the White House who had outright denied their request to leave the States to some deserted location elsewhere, where they would be zero chances of Loki hurting anyone, well, aside from them that is.

    He was thinking some desert with no people for hundreds of miles in any direction. The ocean would have been the perfect choice but not all of their fighters were flyers and he didn¡¯t want to risk the chance of death by drowning just because his suit got bunged up in the battle and he couldn¡¯t find a replacement in time.

    He was really not good at swimming. The best swimming he had done, according to his humble opinion, would be the swim to become the prime zygote.

    ¡°Then what else do you want us to do? We need to bring Loki to our terms. If we continued chasing him around the world, the death toll will continue to rise because Loki is going to continue targeting major cities and not every city is as fortunate as New York,¡± Randall stomped forward and snarled at their liaison who didn¡¯t even flinch at that, and that must be impressive because they had all seen Randall and his brothers in action at the California battle.

    They were savage and very well coordinated. It was as if the brothers shared a psychic link. Thor seemed to get along exceptionally well with all of them.

    ¡°Mr.Randall and Mr.Stark, the President has declared a national emergency and you, as a team, are the single most valuable resource we have to defend the country. Under no circumstances, can we allow all of you to leave the country. If the other countries cannot defend themselves without your intervention, then I am sorry to say but there is nothing we can do but pray for their safety,¡± Saying so, the woman cut the call.

    ¡°Good Lord,¡± Bruce whispered as he looked at a screen, which held the current casualty counter, traced by Jarvis himself, so it should be pretty accurate.

    ¡°A quarter million dead, huh?¡± He muttered to himself as he stormed out of the Lab, to the storage area where all the new suits had arrived, from his various production facilities in the States.

    Once upon a time, that would have been just a number to him, something that would be the end result of his weapons being fired at a population centre. Sure, the numbers never reached those numbers at a time, but he was sure that the Stark name that was printed on all of their weapons, held the blood of more than a quarter million who were now dead because of Loki¡¯s invasion.

    He had a plan, and Thor agreed that it would work, not to mention that it was their only plan that had any chances of working and yet, due to stupid old people and their fear of death, they were constrained to a single country.

    Sighing, he rubbed his face in defeat, ¡°Jarvis, find the most suitable area in the Continental United States please?¡±

    If they were not going to let them leave the country and not going to tell him which area to lead Loki to, then he might just have to choose one himself.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    ¡°Also, look for an area that can be bought up quickly,¡± He reminded Jarvis because he knew that the only reason the President was not allotting him an area was because he was a politician and then he would have to answer why he destroyed that area and not some other deserted area because frankly, the United States was full of empty areas and yet, had some of the highest cost of home ownership in the world, wonderful capitalistic phenomenon.

    ¡°Alright, gentlemen, let¡¯s hope this works otherwise the world will soon become a Nuclear wasteland,¡± Then, he remembered something and quickly asked Jarvis, ¡°Open a line to Thor,¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir.¡±

    ¡°Thor, suppose we catch Loki, do you have any way of making sure that he cannot escape because he escaped last time,¡± He quickly reminded Thor because even after going through hell, if they couldn¡¯t keep Loki imprisoned, it was all going to be a waste of time, effort and most probably, lives.

    A small part in him reminded him that he was the most squishy member around. Bruce, the Hulk brothers, and Thor, they were all very bulletproof and mostly invulnerable to everything, except nukes that is but he was the one who would die with a well placed laser from even the Chitauri foot soldiers.

    ¡°Jarvis, prep all the suits. Bring more from the fabrication facilities. We will need everything for this. Also, contact some of the newer enhanced people that have emerged out of the ground to defend their countries. See if they can be convinced to fight Loki,¡±

    ¡°Affirmative, sir. Location found. The Utah Salt Flats,¡±

    He sighed at that. He was afraid of something like this.

    ¡°But that is a protected region. Tony, we cannot just destroy a natural wonder like that,¡± Bruce was the one who argued against the location but a single sentence from Randall shut down any incoming arguments.

    Randall chuckled, ¡°Well, we can either let Loki destroy our artificial wonders and then move on to these natural wonders or we can take the fight to him, sacrificing one of our natural wonders and stop him, once and for all,¡±

    He agreed with that, ¡°Jarvis. Prep the suits. Select that location and broadcast it to any enhanced we have in range, or is willing to come by. Put out an SOS for any nearby people, tell them it¡¯s a national emergency or something and lastly, check in on Axle. Is he awake yet?¡±

    ¡°No sir, his brain scans show an astonishing amount of activity which seems to increase with every passing moment but all vital signs are normal,¡±

    He sighed in relief and disappointment at that. They would have won this war with contemptuous ease if Axle were awake but if they did win this war, with extreme losses, he would be very much relieved if Axle were on their side, because if an Alien invasion can occur once, it can happen again and he would very much like their juggernaut to be with them for the next one.

    He already had ideas on how to improve basically everything when it came to his defense protocols, because so far, all he had focussed on was the US, his company, his home, and some key high violence zones.

    Nothing that would span the globe. He might have to change that, after this, and who knows, if the rest of the world could cooperate on this, then he might just have a chance of seeing something happen that he never thought would happen.

    Global Cooperation or Unification for a single cause.

    Something like that would be necessary to have a planetary defense system, like a suit of armour around the world.

    ¡°Randall, tell everyone to be ready. We will call on Loki in an hour and since he can get there instantly, we will ambush him as soon as he arrives.¡± He deflated after Randall left the lab, suddenly feeling all the bruises from the last fight.

    It had been a very high speed, high tension time ever since they entered the Stark Jet to go get Loki. He hadn''t had a good sleep since then. He was sure that he was going to crash for a week after this battle was¨C

    ¡°Get some sleep,¡± He looked up at Bruce who was looking at him, concerned.

    ¡°We all have some powers but you don¡¯t. You can''t fight on an empty tank. I¡¯ve already informed Jarvis to get you an easily digestible smoothie and get the bed ready. I¡¯ll wake you up in an hour.¡±

    He was about to argue but then his eyes grew heavy and he began yawning. ¡°Okay,¡± he nodded and left the lab.

    A/N - I realise that the fic has been somewhat serious for the past few chapters, a departure from the crack-ish vibe I was going for. All I can say is that we will return to the goofy vibe in the next few chapters.

    Toodles!

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 122 : Romulan Ale and the "compromising" positions it leads to!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 122[May 2012]

    Zurich

    ¨CLoki Laufeyson Odinson¨C

    It was odd. He shook his head as if trying to get rid of a particularly persistent migraine, the ones he had whenever he drank something called the ¡°Romulan Ale¡± that flooded the black market a few centuries back and he had bought some from the Kree Black Markets, just as an experiment, and ended up in ¡°compromising circumstances¡± with a "Quadrupedal land mammal of the genus Equus commonly domesticated by humans for transportation, agricultural labor, and recreational activities, distinguished by its elongated head, flowing mane, and swift locomotive capabilities¡±.

    Just then, he was about to take out a handy invention that humans made, a device holding tiny runes that held so much information and was also connected to all the other devices across the planet. Thankfully, the tracking feature of the machine was removed by the Good Doctor before he had ordered his minions to dispose of him.

    The man was probably already gone because of the magnitude of information that was forcibly stuffed in his mind. Mortals were not supposed to have access to that level of information.

    Then again, he thought to himself as he looked at the immaculate construction of the portal machine, mortals can do good work, if they were properly motivated. Imagining armies being capable of not just instantaneous one side transport but also troops capable of localised movement throughout the battlefield made him shiver in excitement.

    Sure, the mortals were squishy but as the handful of champions had so handily reminded him, they could be tough and if not, there was always the armour that the mortal known as Stark touted about.

    Once he was King, there would be nothing to worry about. Pesky things like Intellectual Property, trademarks, and more would become a thing of the past. He always wondered why things like Intellectual rights evolved exactly the same across all of the universe, that he knew of, and then realised that the ability to safeguard materialistic things will always be the virtue of mortal species with sentience, bare as it was.

    He looked through the list of cities and their location on Midgard¡¯s map, which allowed him to feed the data to the Tesseract which instantly transported him to that location, all at a paltry cost of some magic that he would never really use because of the Tesseract and his ability to call on unending hordes of Chitauri.

    Well, Shanghai sounds like an Ancient city name.

    Looking at the map, imaging it in his mind, he shoved the device back in his pocket, because he couldn''t afford to waste his magic in opening and closing his storage space, and then shoved his hands near the sphere that covered the Tesseract. Wincing once again at the pain, despite the magic coating his hands, he shoved the image from his mind into the Tesseract and immediately pulled his hands away from the Tesseract, as his surroundings changed.

    Swiftly casting a stealth spell on him, he looked around and was satisfied to see a bustling city with a proper amount of people. Huge artificial metal abominations littered the skyline, no doubt filled with people already.

    Good, this was a place worthy of being called a city, for the mortals that is. Some of the previous cities he attacked barely had any people worth mentioning.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Just as he was about to open the portal to the Chitauri, he heard an annoying voice. His hands paused as he instead looked all around him, at the hundreds of shining lights that had turned black and were buzzing at a very frequency, something that affected him but didn¡¯t seem to deter any of the humans.

    He sneered at that. Inferior beings with their inferior senses.

    ¡°Um, hello? Mic Check? Working? Okay. Good,¡± His neck snapped up as he glared at the black boards that now projected the face of Stark, the one mortal who could match up to him, in his weakened form of course. The rest were clearly no mortals.

    The Genus Loci of Manhattan could have posed a threat but he was not going to touch that city, not without having the rest of the world under his thumb. Let that spirit act as the guardian host, the last haven of Midgard and then let the rest of the Midgardians watch as he crushes their last stronghold, finally breaking the spirit, both literal and metaphorical, finally completing his invasion and conquest of Midgard.

    ¡°Um, hi? Everyone, as you know, we are suffering from a terrible crisis at the moment. The reason for that crisis is just one small coward, jumping from place to place because he is afraid that we will catch up to him. Now, I don¡¯t want to say that he is compensating for something with those giant ass whales but what do I know? ¡°

    His nostrils flared as he felt a white hot spike of rage at Stark, at the drivel he was spouting. Bereft of his sceptre, he could not fire any energy blasts, not ones that wouldn¡¯t deplete his already meagre mana pool but by the Allfather, he wished he had the sceptre that could burn a hole in Stark¡¯s pea sized brain.

    ¡°Anyway, Loki Laufeyson-¡± He growled at that, he was no Frost Giant,¡±--You can come to these coordinates. If that is too complicated for you, this is a picture since I am sure you cannot read and write properly, your brother¡¯s words, not mine!¡±

    ¡°See you there, bitch!¡± Stark said before the large screens turned to their black states, with the pathetic mortals scrambling beneath him. HE smirked at their patheticness, panicking at such a small crisis.

    He would have to whip that out of them when he became their King. It might take a few generations to whip them into discipline and obedience but they were mortals anyway, a few generations would pass without him even noticing anything about it.

    Now, to the pest problem that he hoped to push until later on but¡­

    ¡°Stark!¡± He growled and uncaring of the pain, he thrust his hand into the Tesseract and conveyed the location. Feeling the change, he found himself in a vast land that was white in colour.

    Choosing not to dwell on that oddity, he surveyed his surroundings and found them bereft of Stark and his ilk. He sneered internally, typical mortals. Too cowardly to face their superi¡ª

    His senses blared at him as he hurriedly dropped the spell holding the machine up in the air and dropped a few feet, only to be ragdolled by the shockwave of whatever it was that passed him. Desperately holding on to the machine, his hand brushed against the sphere of energy, triggering the portal.

    As a result, the ragdolling ceased instantly as the machine stabilised itself, him barely holding on to the machine. His neck on a swivel, he looked at where Stark¡¯s suit should be but his eyes narrowed as he found an explosion looking back at him.

    His shoulders tensed as he realised that he barely avoided death just now. In his current mana depleted state, he would not be able to cast a shield spell and if he managed to survive that, his body would be in no condition to heal itself or keep him alive long enough for Thor to arrive.

    That stupid naive fool would still try to save¡ª

    He looked up abruptly as he saw thunder right up above him heralding the arrival of his brother. He squinted as he saw the glowing form of his brother, arcs of lightning surrounding his body as Thor raced straight at him.

    His jaw hung agape as Thor seemed to be in no hurry to slow down. He barely had the sense to hunch right behind the machine as Thor, clad in lightning, struck the machine and him with it.

    The last thing he remembered was a white flash of pain on the back of his neck before darkness claimed his vision.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 123 : Project Big Shit, Magic Vow, and the risk of Friendly Fire!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 123[May 2012]

    Utah Salt Flats

    ¨CTony Stark¨C

    With their plan in motion, they stayed put, thousands of feet above the place where they had just goaded Loki into coming. The atmosphere aboard the Stark jet was very stifling, everybody held their breath because there was a chance that Loki would just ignore them and not even think of coming into such an obvious trap.

    They were also currently ignoring all calls from all government entities, even as he saw Jarvis tracking multiple fighter jet departures from all the nearby military bases, converging directly at their current location. He knew that the President couldn¡¯t give a direct order himself because his position was quite strenuous at the moment, but choosing a mostly empty location such as this was also going to generate a lot of backlash, especially from the environmentally maniac people.

    He has dealt with them before,  but that was about protests about his personal property, like the Arc Reactor or his many other weapons but this was different. He had just effectively declared an entire zone that was thousands of acres, a no mans land.

    Jarvis was doing all he could to buy up everything at double, triple the price but he knew that he would need to burn a lot of favors to avoid jail time after this, since it was his face that was all over the world, practically inviting Loki to destroy a precious natural phenome¨C

    Sirens began beeping as Jarvis tracked a heavy energy arrival in their area.

    This was it, ¡°Jarvis! Prep it and as soon as you have a lock, go in full throttle.¡±

    ¡°Affirmative, sir. Project Big Sh*t activated,¡±

    He expertly ignored everyone¡¯s looks when Jarvis uttered the original name of the project, something that he had cooked up during one of his many drunken tinkering sessions back when he was in college.

    ¡°Thor, can you hit the machine with your strongest attack? Preferably a physical attack since energy attacks don¡¯t seem to work?¡± He asked Thor since he was the only one, aside from the Hulk, who could hit with a strength that would destroy most things on the planet.

    Also, The Hulk couldn¡¯t fly. He tried to tell Bruce about the foot repulsor units he could fix up but Bruce was confident that the Hulk would not care for those and would rather destroy them himself instead.

    ¡°Aye, Friend Stark. I will need a few moments to gather the lightning but I can hit the machine with all my might,¡±

    ¡°What about your brother?¡± Everyone looked at Randall who continued to type on his workstation, trying to work on something to interfere with the workings of the machine while also simultaneously recording everything so that they could detect such portal openings to the last meter, in the future, should the need arise.

    Randall then stopped and turned to face Thor fully, with an intense look in his eyes, ¡°What if you hold back at the last moment? How can we be sure that you will not destroy our one chance at stopping Loki?¡±

    He was taken aback at that. He didn¡¯t expect Randall to be so straightforward, especially since his patron, The Invisible Man was still comatose, something that should create many problems for them from the government but Randall was¡­fine.

    Thor opened his mouth to speak but Randall beat him to it, ¡°820,000 people are dead, Crown Prince Thor.¡±

    Thor winced at the reminder of his brother¡¯s borderline genocide. The worst disaster to hit the world in terms of human death count in the 21st century.

    ¡°I will admit that my brother has erred and he deserves to face full justice for his crimes. Facing the full brunt of my attacks can kill Loki, I acknowledge that but know this, I will never, never hold back because the lives of thousands of more mortals hang in the balance. I, Thor Odinson, vow on my powers that I will not go easy on Loki just because he is my brother,¡±

    He looked around as the words reverbed all around the jet, even though the sound isolation in the Jet was supposed to be top-notch. Some magical bullshit then.

    Randall¡¯s face didn¡¯t change one bit but he had a hunch that THor had just done some significant thing which basically guaranteed what he just said.

    ¡°Portal confirmed,¡± Jarvis¡¯ reminder put everyone on high alert as Thor left for the hangar bay, which was opened, just in case Thor needed to rocket out of the jet. Jarvis had also increased the thrust on all the repulsors to increase the stability of the Jet, couldn¡¯t have the Stark Jet tumble out of the sky just because the God of Thunder jumped out of it.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    ¡°Alright, ladies!¡± He looked at the gatherings of their team, their faces set in excitement, anger, and even some fear as they prepared themselves for a very hard fight. The fight of their lives even, and honestly? He mirrored that sentiment but he couldn¡¯t let it show on the outside now, could he?

    ¡°It¡¯s showtime,¡± With his words, a screen appeared in the centre, showing the energy blob that was the TEsseract;s location. Sure, they couldn¡¯t get a visual on Loki but that was due to Loki¡¯s illusions, something that was just a fancy way of bending light.

    ¡°3..2¡­.1¡± And with that, he saw one of the Stark Industries¡¯ satellites that he¡¯d put up in space a year back, spit out a projectile, a missile but it didn''t have any thrusters on it. It was just a missile that he had hastily installed in the Satellite because he hadn¡¯t installed the hyper dense tungsten projectile that he was going to install because he felt that holding an Orbital Canon over everyone¡¯s head would be wrong.

    As it turns out, it would have been illegal and treasonous but it would have been the perfect thing for such an occasion.

    Instead, they had this.

    On the screen, as soon as the missile was dropped out of the satellite, two different suits of his appeared on the screen, and their hands, which were not really hands but devices made to latch onto the circular body of the missile appeared.

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go,¡± He muttered as he suited up in the Stark Jet, ready to get to the battlefield, if it didn¡¯t work as were everyone else but they couldn¡¯t risk going in early because Loki might sense them and flee the place.

    The cameras on the suits along with a handy map on the screen showed the missile, its speed, and its ETA to hit Loki.

    It was already going way faster than anything that Earth had ever built, including Rockets for orbital launches. He also knew that the President tacitly approved his actions because he was yet to see any response from the no doubt hundreds of missile silos that would activate almost instantly if any missile of unknown origin was approaching US soil at such breakneck speeds.

    His decision to stay in the jet was proven correct when just as the missile was about to breach the clouds and enter Loki¡¯s vision and destroy him, Loki¡¯s head snapped up and he immediately ducked down, dropping a couple dozen feet, and then immediately flying up high, his body very much wobbly because of the shockwave. Loki struggled to hold onto the portal machine even as the air around him continued to ragdoll the machine as well as Loki.

    It would seem that without the portal being active, the machine didn¡¯t have any way of stabilising itself.

    That single move saved his ass as the missile exploded on the salt flat and since the yield of the makeshift missile was not as high as he wanted it to be, the impact was not significant, either on the Salt Plains or on Loki.

    ¡°Alright, move OUT!¡± He shouted as the entire floor moved to create a circular hole, through which he jumped. Even as he was going through the tunnel, he felt the entire Jet jerk to one side, as his head hit the wall of the narrow tunnel.

    ¡°Damn it, THor!¡± He cursed as he exited the Jet and saw the rapidly flying form of Thor.

    Then the idiot went ahead and did something that stabilised the machine but also activated the blue portal from Hell right above them, this one being the largest one ever recorded.

    ¡°Unusual Meteorological activity detected,¡± Jarvis¡¯ warning was unnecessary because he saw, in real time, the darkening of clouds and the buildup of lighting in the atmosphere, seemingly following THor¡¯s flight trajectory.

    He followed suit, making sure to remain at a distance because he did not want his suit to be damaged by friendly fire. He wasn¡¯t sure if his energy redirectors and the Arc Reactor itself along with the wiring, could hold on to the total energy amount of an actual lightning bolt.

    Those things were scary, actually.

    Apparently, Thor didn;t get that memo because instead of going straight down, Thor just jerked up, right into the middle of the biggest thundercloud Jarvis had ever recorded on this side of the planet.

    He was about to continue on his path to Loki when Jarvis¡¯ warning came in the form of the suit being thrown back by the repulsor thrusters as he saw, in slow motion, as Thor, wreathed in crackling white light, flew straight down, towards Loki.

    Thor¡¯s hammer in particular was just white now, with no hint of its previous grey in sight.

    In just a second, he saw all this unfolding and then he took control, following after Thor, activating the extra shields he had on the back, just in case some friendly fire did occur in this game.

    The world¡¯s most dangerous, high stakes, high pressure, and crappy story game.

    ¡­¡­

    ¡­.

    His jaw hung agape as Thor, seemingly not taking into consideration the safety of his brother, continued on his path, and stuck the machine.

    The cameras in the ruined suits underneath Loki and on the Jet, the satellites as well as the suit he was wearing could not see what was happening because the machine was just a blur of white, with a blue beam sticking out of the mass of blue.

    ¡°Shit!¡± He shook his head as he moved onto the horde of Chitauri coming out of the portal now. After pulling off a move like that, even Thor must be tired.

    They couldn¡¯t let the CHitauri spill out because these guys were nasty AF and did not care about harming children, women, or the elderly. For them, everyone else was a target.

    ¡°Alright team, keep an eye on the situation. I¡¯ll deal the first round,¡± He announced before a series of micro missiles ejected his suit as well as the two almost ruined suits on the ground, heading straight for the horde of Chitaur.

    ¡°Jarvis! Any updates?¡±

    ¡°The energy storm around the machine continues to persist, with no possible way of calculating the energy levels in the sphere, I can¡¯t calculate a precise ETA,¡±

    ¡°Then get me rough figures!¡± He shouted as he shoulder checked one of the chariots, making it swerve and crash into another Chariot.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 124 : Le American Military Industrial Complex swimming in money : Ahh, thats the stuff!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 123[May 2012]

    Utah Salt Flats [2 hours after Loki was detained]

    ¨CTony Stark¨C

    ¡°Please stay still, Mr.Stark,¡± He resisted the urge to snap at the nurse who was nursing his wounds. Wounds that he had sustained in the hour long non stop fight that he was a part of, destroying Chitauri Chariots left and right, before the cavalry showed up.

    It was official, Thor was powerful. Uber powerful one could say if they calculated even a tenth of the energy in Thor¡¯s hammer when he hit the machine with his big fuck you attack, and then they would have to weep in despair because even that didn¡¯t kill the machine, the machine somehow being protected by the pure energy barrier around the Tesseract.

    THey had nothing in their arsenal capable of closing that whole thing down. They¡¯d tried everything at this point and the only thing that would surpass Thor¡¯s sheer energy attack was a nuclear strike and he had been in a very heated argument with POTUS, Defense Secretaries and some analysts as to why that was a very bad idea.

    A fucking stu[pid idea if there ever was one.

    Good news, Loki was contained, if with some limbs missing, but Thor assured them that Loki would live. He was being held in a specialised cell, with Thor being very clear as to what would happen to Earth if anything happened to his brother while Loki was in the custody of the US military.

    He waved off the nurse who wanted to give him a painkiller. Sure, it would help with the pain but it would also take the edge off and he was not sure if he would remain standing if the pain was not there to remind him of the current events.

    God, he was so very tired.

    Loki was taken into custody, which was fine. The Tesseract was right in front of them, going nowhere, which was good. But the damned thing was just out of reach for everyone save for Loki who somehow was touching the damned thing when he was taken out by Thor.

    He was certain that had Thor hit Loki head on, with that level of power, not even ashes of Loki would have remained. IT would seem that the Crown Prince took his vows, especially the ones taken magically, very seriously. The attack legit would have killed his brother and Thor was willing to do it because Thor knew that if he held back then, hundreds of thousands of more lives would have been lost.

    Speaking of lost lives, they had a zero casualty count in the military forces that had arrived here and that was only because of the scenery at the portal.

    He grinned, hobbling towards where Thor and the less tech savvy members of the Hulk brotherhood were standing, looking at the greatest fireworks festival Earth had ever seen.

    ¡°Beautiful, isn¡¯t it?¡± He asked everyone as he watched the near continuous rain of missiles that was happening at the mouth of the portal. The machine was floating mid air as well but as they had learned in the previous two hours, no amount of explosions was going to dislodge the portal machine so right now, they were focused on making sure that the enemies didn¡¯t make it past a certain perimeter around the portal.

    He looked up as fighter jets continued to roam the skies.

    ¡°Mr.Stark!¡±  he looked back to see a trooper running towards him with a satellite phone in his hand, ¡°POTUS is on the line,¡±

    Great. He had to deal with politics even now. He would have thought that now of all time humanity would come together and try to solve this together but nooo. Somehow, the United States of America was still dragging their feet in granting clearances to other countries¡¯ militaries to help them contain this threat.

    ¡°Stark, how long until your Jericho missiles are back in stock?¡±

    He sighed at the question. Honestly, that was one of the harder things he had done in this invasion and he had personally weathered laser blasts and had dislocated both his shoulders during the fight, relying on JArvis to pilot the suit because there was no way he was backing down until backup got to them.

    Restarting the production of weapons that he had sworn to never do again, was akin to throwing away all the progress he¡¯d made in the past years. Pepper was fully supportive of him and had told him, in no uncertain terms, that she would rather fight the government on this than let Tony make a decision he would regret.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    And that had been the thing, wasn¡¯t it? Regret. He would have regretted any single person dying just because the government had been forced to turn to a substandard weapons supplier. Oh heaven forbid, they went to Hammer?

    They would all die then.

    ¡°Mr.President, I have repurposed some of my facilities but it will take time. My people are working on it. The first missile should reach the nearest military bases in about 3 more hours. That¡¯s the best I can do. Also, we have redesigned them for the portal¡¯s purpose so they can target a much narrower target,¡±

    ¡°Alright. Any word from our prisoner?¡±

    He sighed once again, glancing at Thor from the corner of his eyes, who still sported some cuts, and scuffs on his armour from the massive dogfight he had been in when two of the Chitauri space whales had descended on him, judging him to be the bigger threat of the bunch, which was a mistake because Hulk had proceeded to absolutely gut another space whale, and roar at the Chitauri which made every one pause.

    ¡°No, Mr.President. Loki is pretty bunged up from Thor¡¯s attack and I don¡¯t think he will be waking up anytime soon. We are on our own for this. Any words from the recovered mind control victims?¡± He made sure to emphasise on the word ¡°victim¡± because he knew that this was wartime and the US government performed enough human rights transgressions as is, he couldn''t imagine what they would do in wartime.

    He was making sure that the agents recovered were just that, victims of Loki¡¯s crimes and nothing more.

    ¡°No, Stark. The victims are all still in a coma apparently. Analysts say that they were given orders to surrendered to the closest authority, and after that, their minds shut down,¡±

    He closed his eyes at that. So chances of permanent brain damage after being subjected to extensive time periods of mind control.

    ¡°Mr.President, is Congress still dragging its feet with the permission to have foreign militaries on our soil? I seem to remember the President having unprecedented powers during wartime,¡± He reminded the older man, knowing that having coordination from other militaries was best.

    Plus, while the US military looked like they had the situation handled, they didn¡¯t. The US was vast and if the entire war machine was mobilised, it would have been another thing but the President was a weak minded simpleton who did not want to step on anyone¡¯s toes, so he was only mobilising forces as the situation demanded.

    There was a sigh on the other side, ¡°Tony, son, look, it¡¯s not that simple. I can¡¯t create a precedent for something like this. It makes us look weak. Plus, we have more than enough reserves to last weeks of sustained battle, if the numbers I am seeing are correct. In the meantime, we can always produce more, and with your¨C¡±

    ¡°Mr.President, you and I both know that this is not going to be resolved with just missiles and nukes. We need the enhanced, the hidden people who jumped out of their hidey holes during the invasion. We need explicit permission to make sure that they would not be prosecuted by the government for simply helping in a human crisis. Hell, that girl, with the intangibility powers alone would be very helpful if she could somehow lodge the Tesseract out of the machine,¡±

    It would seem that his words were going above the man¡¯s head because the next words came out very hastily, ¡°Great! Then we can have her to your location within the day, I will personally write her VISA so she does not suffer from any consequences,¡±

    He sighed, and went along with the drivel, despite knowing that there was no way any law enforcement agency was going to be able to catch her, especially since she seems to be extremely adept at hiding from everyone and everything, including Jarvis and since it was India, she did not have as much of a digital footprint as an Average American.

    Also, the President was missing the point entirely. He needed to create a precedent so that he could create America enhanced friendly, just like it becoming Immigrant friendly made it the economic powerhouse it was today.

    They couldn''t generate that many enhanced but they sure as hell could bring them to the greatest nation in the world and employ their services, and something like that wasn''t going to happen with a one time return VISA, wherein she would likely be ambushed during her return trip if she somehow survived the battle at all.

    Times like these were what SHIELD was for but as soon as he heard Fury was dead, he knew the reason why the agency was nowhere near this invasion and was instead being actively sidelined by the President in every matter that was significant.

    He flinched a bit as a particular loud keening noise was heard, closing his eyes. He opened them when a squelching noise was heard, as yet another Space Whale was killed or burned alive in the explosives that were now staining the atmosphere around the portal.

    The now dead space whale landed on a pile of already dead Chitauri, with their blood pooling around the space, the salt plains and staining everything, also likely poisoning everything as well.

    Good Lord, this was going to be an environmental disaster of epic proportions.

    ¡°Jarvis, any updates?¡± He asked Jarvis the one question that he had been asking for hours now, a question that was probably in the minds of most of the people in the government and all the people in the team.

    Just when will the fucking Invisible Man wake up?

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 125 : Oh, Hell Naw! Not this shit again!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 123[May 2012]

    Manhattan [3 hours after Loki¡¯s detention and Portal Invasion in Utah]

    ¨CFrank Castle¨C

    ¡°That¡¯s the last of ''em,¡± He grunted as he hefted yet another pair of Chitauri soldiers and dumped them on the growing pile of waste that he and the Captain had created after the Invasion was over.

    ¡°You sure? I think I can still smell them, everywhere,¡± The Captain, huffing and puffing, asked him. The picture was ridiculous for him. The Captain was dragging, with him, two of those Chariot type things while talking to him. Sure, it made him exert his strength but he couldn¡¯t even move one of those damn things if he didn¡¯t have this armour on him.

    ¡°Yeah, Jarvis says so, so it should be pretty accurate,¡± In the time he had spent as part of the invasion counter force, he had come to respect Jarvis as an information provider.

    ¡°You still think we should stay here? With the fight still happening in Utah?¡±

    And that was probably half the reason why Jarvis was keeping them down here, doing grunt work instead of having his probable army of drones do it for them.

    ¡°Yes, Captain. You¡¯ve seen the aliens, there is not much you could do in a fight of that level. Plus, the fight is happening in a totally controlled area, with no civilians.¡± That had been a major selling point to placate the anxious captain who just had to jump in and help people whenever he could.

    Ah, the Perfect Boy Scout.

    ¡°Mr.Castle,¡± Jarvis¡¯ words were accompanied by the suit¡¯s faceplate slamming shut and a small visual appearing on the HUD. ¡°What am I seeing, Jarvis?¡±

    The visual increased in size to fill his vision and all he saw was some sort of line, and hundreds, no thousands of dots heading straight to the line.

    ¡°Mr.Castle, I am detecting a full scale invasion of the Mole People. We need to prepare for their arrival. I have already extended the stay in the Tunnel and have informed the Mayor of funnelling all the people either out of state or into the Tunnel,¡± Oh. Oh, Hell Naw, not this shit again! Weren¡¯t the Giant Space whales enough?

    Just as Jarvis finished speaking, there was a thudding sound right behind him. He turned around, and saw that the Captain¡¯s armour had arrived.

    ¡°Captain, we need to go,¡± He said to the Captain who didn¡¯t question anything and entered the armour. His form rocketed up in the air.

    ¡°Jarvis, you said Mole People? What intel do you have on them? Also, can we funnel their entry into a single point?¡± He asked Jarvis as various entry points on the HUD were being marked as they crossed over the entire borough, with his heart sinking as he realised that they were going to enter Manhattan, through everywhere.

    ¡°The Mole people are a subterranean species, capable of burrowing through hard soil and stone with ease. They are bulletproof and their blood is acidic enough to melt concrete. Their main weaknesses are their brains which are protected by bulletproof skulls. They can also not tolerate bright lights as much as we can but that is not something we can rely on to kill them, only temporarily stun them,¡±

    ¡°Great! Bring out the big lights then!¡±

    ¡°Already on it. ETA - 4 mins,¡±

    ¡°...And ETA on the Mole guys?¡±

    ¡°...2 mins..¡±

    He cursed as he raced through the sky, followed by the Captain along with a dozen other drones being piloted by Jarvis, spreading throughout the burrow.

    ¡°Jarvis, plot the entry points with the most Mole people that have the largest concentration of people around them. Target those first and then spread out from there. Inform all the law enforcement people around us, inform them that they only use high calibre rounds, normal rounds won¡¯t help, even if they targeted the eyes.¡± Apparently, that was something that Stark and his team had tested way before, because the Invisible Man was able to easily repel their previous attempt and also secure a fresh corpse for the scientists to study.

    The document held dozens of pages with all sorts of information, leading from the composition of their claws, to the size of their brains being small because they didn¡¯t have as much sensory information to process, being buried so deep underground, with only heat and pressure to temper and accompany them.

    ¡°Captain, are you seeing this?¡±This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°Seeing? Yes. Still working on believing,¡± Came the reply as the Captain continued to usher in the people who were still out into the various entry points of the Tunnel that they had blasted open because the invisible Man was counting on himself being available to do the job anyway.

    ¡°Jarvis, where is the Invisible Man?¡± Something didn¡¯t add in this situation and if he was being honest, if the situation was this bad and the Invisible Man still hadn¡¯t arrived, it would probably mean the end of the road for the Invisible Man because public opinion would surely turn against him or at least made to turn against him because a lot of powerful people were after him, who wouldn''t hesitate to turn the city into a warzone to get to him, if the Invisible Man showed even the slightest hint of a weakness.

    ¡°That is classified information. I am not authorized to disseminate that information. I have marked the areas of high volatile activity.¡± Well, that was to be expected.

    ¡°Jarvis, we can¡¯t use any of our weaponry that you built for the Invasion, can we?¡± He asked the question that popped into his mind when he thought of ways to mitigate the damage from this invasion as well.

    Wasn¡¯t one enough, these people had to pop up today only?

    ¡°Unfortunately, aside from the Class 2 drones alongside the Shields mounted in the Tunnel as well as the Stark Tower, precise weaponry capable of sniping down single mole units is not something we have.¡±

    ¡°Okay, can you create a perimeter around the Stark Tower and give people access to the safer floors? I assume that power will not be an issue with the Arc Reactor you have in the building?¡±

    ¡°Affirmative. Designated safe zone created: Stark Tower. I¡¯ve informed the relevant authorities about it and have changed the repulsor outputs. No mole people should be able to breach the perimeter there,¡±

    He sighed in relief. At Least they had something other than shoving people in a tunnel.

    ¡°Okay. Make sure that the TUnnel entry points are not clogged, either by people or by these Mole People.¡±

    ¡°ETA - 30 seconds,¡±

    He and Captain, both were floating right in between a series of high rises, which unfortunately still held a bunch of people who had not evacuated at the right time. The ground seemed to shake with each passing second, with people nervous peeping through their windows, doors and what not. He kept an eye on the countdown while also looking at the movement of the Mole People.

    There!

    ¡°Captain, head to the Empire State Building, a bunch of them just split apart,¡± He told the Captain as Jarvis had asked him to assume command of the entire operation, Jarvis¡¯ protocols not allowing him to dictate everything, something that the military followed as well. Computers could not replace the commanding capabilities of an experienced soldier.

    Captain¡¯s suit, blue with stripes, rocketed towards the building, the wreckage of the Chitauri lying a few hundred metres away from the Empire State Building.

    Just then, as if the ground itself was boiling and frothing, the pavement, the roads, and even some of the nearby stores which had thankfully all been evacuated, burst apart as giant humanoid figures with brown skin and hunched backs emerged from the ground and immediately began attacking and destroying everything in sight.

    His suit, now the battle version, not the rescue model, held enough firepower to flatten the entire area and even that was not enough so he had to ration the missiles and draw their attention away from civilians, and more importantly, from high density zones to open areas where their main weapons could take care of the Mole People, once and for all.

    With a single missile that blew apart a single Mole Person, he drew the attention of every single invader in sight, of him. A chill ran down his spine as they roared and as if the earth itself was responding, more and more of the Mole People erupted out of the ground, including something that was creating an even bigger ruckus than normal Mole People.

    He had already flown quite a big high up but was still using his weapons to kill one Mole person at a time, which was proving to be quite tedious because as of this second, Jarvis counted 3,491 Mole people above surface and just above double of that, below the surface, waiting for something.

    The continued assault had the Mole People climbing buildings, scaling concrete walls by digging giant holes in concrete with their claws as if the walls were made of paper. He hastily rose even further up, dodging a few that came alarmingly close, and pushed back most of them with the repulsor lasers but even then, the Mole People simply shook their heads and got up, ready to begin the assault anew.

    ¡°Jarvis, a little help here?¡± He asked Jarvis, his inexperience with the suit showing. Jarvis had informed him earlier that the suits were using an outdated version of the Arc Reactor and thus the suit could not sustain the repulsor firepower required to punch a hole in the Mole People, without burning out the suit¡¯s electricals.

    And then help came.

    A giant blue beam just about grazed him and slammed right into the center of the street, aiming for the giant hole that was only enlarging as something was about to come out and he did not want to be the one to confront it.

    A large roar resounded throughout the block as the beam crashed into the ground and despite the beam, out came a hand. Heavily burned and bleeding but a hand came out that was taking the beam and surviving. The hand then slammed on the road, grabbed the road itself and then chucked a huge piece of concrete at the drones which were using the repulsor beams at speeds that generated gusts of wind in the block.

    As expected, the repulsor array made by 4 different drones was disrupted and the hand pulled its body out of the ground.

    He immediately scanned it and pulled even further up, not so much that their attention would be distracted but just enough that he had time to react if a repeat of the concrete bullet happened.

    This was a Big Boy.

    It was over 20 feet tall, along with a tail that created craters as it slammed seemingly lightly on the ground.

    This was¡­.not good. As if this wasn¡¯t wasn¡¯t enough.

    ¡°Steve here, requesting backup. I have three unusually large mole people with none of my weapons capable of killing them. I have drawn their attention to me but I don¡¯t know how long until they get annoyed and move on.¡±

    Great.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 126 : Despondent Tony!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 126[May 2012]

    Utah Salt Plains

    ¨CRandall¨C

    ¡°What?¡± he heard Tony exclaim all the way from his tent so he rushed over to see what was wrong since he was in the Military tent, trying to get an idea of how much the military could do to sustain this whole firepower thing. As far as the military was concerned, they could do this for weeks, with ease.

    Also, the military industrial complex had already been fired up, ready to supply weaponry until the end of all time. So, they clearly had time but the longer this went on, the more damage to their surroundings, and that was something everyone clearly wanted to avoid, especially Stark since this was not an officially sanctioned operation.

    The state of Utah is probably going to ask for a bankrupting amount of compensation for destroying one of their natural wonders after the invasion but that was something to deal with later on. The case can be made in the Supreme Court for there was no other alternative that could be arranged on short notice, especially with a terrain that wouldn¡¯t be hostile to them, otherwise, they could have just used some small part of the Great Basin Desert.

    ¡°What? What happe¨C¡± his words were stuck in his mouth as he watched the hologram in front of Tony. It was a warning from Jarvis and he knew very well what those red dots and the blue line represented.

    ¡°The Mole people..¡± he whispered, horrified at the realisation.

    Tony looked at him, despondent, with bags under his eyes, ¡°Yeah. The freaking Mole people have decided that this was the perfect time for them to invade Manhattan.¡±

    A chill ran down his spine as he saw the ETA for them to breach the surface being mere minutes, with very few resources in Manhattan equipped to deal with them.

    ¡°Tony, they have nothing, nothing, that can help them deal with the Mole People. They are relatively small, they can hide in buildings, travel through the roads. They won¡¯t be able to¨C¡±

    ¡°Yeah, the railguns are useless as are the large scale repulsors. I have already rerouted the completed suits to Manhattan, and Frank Castle has already ordered Jarvis to create the Stark Tower as a designated safe zone,¡± Tony said, his shoulders slumping as the light left his eyes.

    He was not even trying to work, to find some sort of solution and that was bad, very very bad. As much as he liked to tinker and think of himself as a smart person, he knew that he was hilariously and hopelessly outclassed when it came to Tony Stark. The man was a genius and that was the only superpower he needed. If there was anyone who could bring them out of this crisis, it was Tony Stark.

    ¡°Tony, please! Don¡¯t lose hope. We will get out of this,¡± He tried to console TOY while trying to find something in his large list of weapons prototypes that could help Jarvis or Frank deal with this.

    Hey, look! Captain was being enlisted as well and Jarvis used his prototype Captain America suit to help the Captain since the Mole people were way out of his league. Bulletproof, heat resistant, capable of scaling buildings, and more.

    The mole people were, in a way, even better foot soldiers than the low quality ones that the Chitauri seem to have. It was only that the mole people did not have the sheer quantity that the Chitauri had thrown at them.

    Speaking of the Chitauri, another keening noise was heard as yet another Space Whale was killed by the combined efforts of all the branches of the military. Well, not the Navy since Utah was landlocked but the Navy was already as close as it could get, with multiple aircraft carriers locked and loaded on the coast.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    This was an all out emergency situation and none of the politicians were risking anything so anything that the military asked for, was granted. Billions had already been used up in the continuous bombing spree near the portal, so much so that in every breath, he could smell the gunpowder and even taste it on his lips.

    If this went on for any longer, the people here would have to wear masks to even survive properly. Tony was already exhausted and despite being the weakest physical member of their team, he had kept up with all of them.

    ¡°Tony, why don¡¯t you get some shut eye? I will see what can be done about the situation. Hopefully, most of the people have already left the city and the rest can be corralled into the safe zones.¡±

    Tony didn¡¯t even respond as he gestured to one of the military guys to take TOY to the resting quarters. They were not comfortable by any stretch of the imagination but they did have beds, and Tony would probably pass out the moment he laid down.

    ¡°Alright, how to do this,¡± he opened his personal dashboard and saw all the assets they had, something that he had spent years building, using the unlimited resources from the Russian oligarchs who enjoyed the protection that the Invisible Man provided.

    ¡°Rubber Ducky, gone. Captain America suit, gone. Hulk¡¯s mace, destroyed,¡± Oh yeah, the Hulk had apparently destroyed his face when he one shot a Space Whale, caving its skull in with a single smash. That was when he had gotten particularly angry and frustrated with the continuous onslaught.

    Right now, he was still Hulk because he refused to let Banner out for some reason. Even Betty trying to convince him didn¡¯t work because Hulk felt Banner was safer if Hulk was out, which was true but they needed Banner¡¯s intelligence as well.

    With Tony out of the picture, that just left him as the brains of the operation. The military had some people but he couldn¡¯t exactly trust them and they were not really that exceptional anyway.

    ¡°Okay. Jarvis?¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir.¡±

    ¡°I am granting you full access. Use anything you can. Make sure that the panic rooms are all stuffed full of resources because we do not want Bellina to be in any danger. Also, make sure that the Protector Titan suits are not all being used. Make sure that at least three, one for each person surround the Panic room, alright?¡±

    ¡°Browsing Class 3 resources. Lists updated. Parameters updated.¡± The screen showcased Jarvis going through a number of resources before he saw the ejection sequences at the bottom of the bay being activated and dozens of uber powerful suits being ejected out, to hopefully reduce the casualty figures.

    The current counter was at 800,000 which was a very high figure but the rise in numbers had stopped ever since they detained Loki. Now, all they had to do was figure out how to stop that portal and also how to kill all those Mole people because they did not have enough sentience in them for negotiation.

    Wait¡­

    He instantly logged into the Stark satellite portfolio, ¡°Jarvis, activate all the long range ones and search for a specific signal that is common between all the Mole People. I think I know how to stop that invasion. There must be someone controlling them if the majority of them are still below the surface and are waiting for something,¡±

    ¡°Affirmative. ETA for Satellite positioning - 12 minutes.¡±

    Okay. That was one problem semi resolved, at the moment.

    The other one was the problem with the Tesseract. The good news was that they no longer had to rely on Coulson¡¯s database access to get information about the Tesseract since the President had ordered for SHIELD to stay away from the site and as much as the WSC liked to think they were above their respective countries, they were not, at least not yet.

    They had been continuously scanning the damned thing but all they were getting was a single constant reading, despite the numerous bombardments done on the Cube. The only time it spiked was when the Portal was opened and it had remained there until now.

    He opened the footage they had of Loki with the Portal machine captured by numerous cameras situated all around him, giving him a pretty good view of the man and the machine.

    He could see that Loki¡¯s hands were stained red, either by the blood of someone or maybe due to some injury but that was odd because Loki had never entered the fray in any of the invasions, choosing to stay invisible rather than fight himself.

    His primary weapon, the sceptre¡­..

    Oh shit!

    ¡°Jarvis! Where¡¯s the sceptre? Scan the sceptre. Also, I want it prepped for transport,¡± He ordered Jarvis before he looked at the image once again. It was being continuously refined and while the military had software that could refine it more, he already had what he needed.

    ¡°Thor!¡± he called out as he exited the tent assigned to their team after shutting down everything. He had a hunch that they could try before the sceptre got here. If he was correct, they might just close the portal down all at the tiny cost of some injuries on Thor¡¯s hands that would heal soon enough anyway.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 127 : Eureka! HELLO DUMBASS & Seidr proficiencies....

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 127[May 2012]

    Manhattan [Inside Axle¡¯s Mind]

    ¨CAxle Riddle [A???????????????w??????????????????????????????a???????????????????k????????????????????e??????????????????????????????n???????????????????e????????????????????????d???????????????????????]¨C

    Huh. So this is what it felt like to have the Sage Force, the complete Sage Force, Axle thought to himself as he floated in what felt like space but he couldn¡¯t really confirm anything. All he knew was that his entire memory base was being scanned, optimised, and torn down once again, for new defenses to take their place.

    He could feel the Sage Force, he could feel its connection to his body, a body that was becoming increasingly feeble compared to the mind it was housing.

    Despite the significant boost that the Sage Force gave to its bearers to allow their bodies to continue functioning despite housing a vastly more powerful mind, his body was not up to par, certainly not with the mind he currently had.

    He sighed in resignation. Once again, he would be shackled, only this time he would have to do it of his own volition. He couldn''t feel anything beyond his body but he knew that he was currently on a cold hard surface, with the smell of the hospital wafting through. Combined with the periodical beeping of the equipment around him, he knew that he was in some sort of hospital.

    Which could be both good or bad, depending on where he was. The New York Invasion meant that hospitals would be overburdened with patients and that could affect the ICU ward that he was undoubtedly in, because he was certainly declared comatose on top of that building.

    There was also a very real threat to his identity being discovered and him being kidnapped but judging by the lack of sedatives in his bloodstream and chains on his body, he knew that he was not in hostile company.

    Regardless, that limited his options vastly. He knew that New York was under attack because why else would the curtain break and embed itself in his body? A fact that he was still getting used to because as it turned out, that curtain, that thing that was keeping him locked down in Manhattan and was stopping his powers from working properly outside a certain range, that curtain was what was left of his connection to the Sage Force.

    It was just sitting there, encapsulating him, slowly gathering energy, from the universe, from his broken connection, and from everywhere it could, all so that by the time came, that entire energy could be dumped straight into him, turning him from an incomplete Sage Force avatar into a complete one.

    Somewhere along the way, something was lost in translation, he had a feeling because he was not just going from an incomplete avatar to a complete one. He was going from an incomplete Sage Force Avatar into a fully realised Avatar. The difference between both of them was so immense that his body was buckling under the pressure of housing his mind.

    Already, he could feel his hard earned muscles atrophying because the body was rerouting precious energy to the brain which was also struggling to hold onto the sheer weight of his power. This could not go on, he could tell. In this struggle, only he would be the loser but despite having all this power, he couldn¡¯t exactly control any of it.

    It was all a raging ocean with multiple massive earthquakes going off under the ocean at all times, and he was trying to jostle that energy back into something that resembled calm. He was trying since what seemed like forever but the ocean refused to budge and why would it?

    He was just a tiny speck in comparison. It was just flowing through him, nourishing his soul, mind and body as well but the body aspect was just not happening as fast as it should because of some reason.

    His mind was fine somehow but as far as he knew, it was only because his mind had already been prepared. It was as if someone had left behind a set of instructions and had already stretched his mind, for a lack of a better term, beforehand, so that it would have no problems adjusting to the very real power that coursed through his mind.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    He sighed and was about to try again when a light bulb appeared above him. No, an actual light bulb did appear because it was his soul scape and anything he wished could be manifested. He looked at the odd bulb for a moment before it smoked out like a cartoon, dropping a scroll on his head.

    He fumbled to grab it lest it fall into the endless void he was falling into and be lost to him. He also looked up to see that the smoke from the bulb had formed the word ¡°EUREKA¡± right above him, before that too dissipated slowly.

    He shook his head and unfurled the scroll.

    ¡°Hello Dumbass, although since you are me, I guess we are both dumbasses. Do you have ANY idea how embarrassing it was to see you bumbling around? You are literal cosmic power given form and I had to hear you whining about not having telepathy. GROW UP!

    He leaned back as the HELLO DUMBASS resounded in his very being and then his eyes widened as he read more and more of the scroll¡­..

    __xx__

    Utah

    ¨CRandall¨C

    ¡°Thor, how close can you get to the machine?¡± He asked Thor, coordinating the missile strikes so that there would be a lull in the invading forces, allowing THor some time to do what he thought could end this battle.

    ¡°Very. I can reach the machine with ease, these lizards are no match for the Mighty Mjolnir,¡± Thor did the perfect rendition of an overexcited Viking as he raised his hammer to the sky, with the rest of the military personel ducking around him as lighting thundered in the sky.

    ¡°Okay, alright. Great, what I want you to do Thor is to try and get past the barriers with your hands,¡± He slowly asked THor of what he was sure was going to sound outrageous but he had a hunch that they were going about this whole thing in the wrong manner.

    The Tesseract was an object of unexplainable origins and unexplainable properties. Something that could literally not be explained and anyone who touched it found themselves dying or with their hands melted due to the sheer energy output of the damned thing.

    Maybe, just maybe, the Tesseract was not supposed to be just part of a machine that could open portals.

    That maybe it was something that could also be used by a person. More specifically, someone who could handle holding onto the Tesseract long enough to actually wield it as a weapon. Someone strong enough to resist the effects and not end up with melted hands or as just ash.

    He had a theory that Loki did the same but his hands were reddened and injured because he was probably trying to do the entire thing manually, which made sense because the portal was not stationary, in a single place like it is now. No, it was moving, dumping Chitauri in places before moving on to the next population centre.

    That had to require some finessing because the Tessertact, strapped to a machine could not possible do all of that, or maybe it could, and he was wrong and they were all doomed to fight them until the Invisible Man came along, and held the portal open and clear for long enough for them to dump Earth¡¯s entire nuclear payload into the damned portal as humanity¡¯s last ¡°Fuck you¡±

    He took a deep breath, coming out of his morbid thoughts as he looked at Thor who had gone utterly still at his words. Before he could say something and defend his hypothesis, thunder rumbled as Thor hugged him, lifting him off the ground in doing so.

    He could only take it, as Thor said, ¡°Yes! That is perfect. How could I forget? When the Bifrost was not being used, my Father used the Tesseract with his bare hands to devastating effects.¡±

    His eyes widened as hope surged within his heart. Thor¡¯s next words dimmed it a bit¡­ ¡°Although I am not as proficient as my father in the arts of Seidr, it was always Loki¡¯s expertise, I can try to stop the portal. It should be easy enough, Loki could do it,¡±

    What the hell, despite that hope dimming, at least that there was some hope now. They weren¡¯t just waiting for their Lord and Savior to come and save them, sitting around like ducks.

    Now, all that was left was, ¡°Clark!¡± He beckoned the junior most analyst that was assigned to them as a clear snub because the military did not like clearly enhanced people running their operation. He¡¯d heard more than one general mutter ¡°freaks¡± whenever the Generals were in sight.

    Clark scrambled over, his tablet held tightly, ¡°Yes, sir?¡±

    ¡°Get me a status update on the Mole invasion of Manhattan. Hulk should be arriving shortly along with two of my brothers, so the urban areas should be secured soon enough. Also, relay these missile patterns to the High Command. I want these precise paths followed by the missiles in an hour or so. Tell them it is non negotiable, or I will have to call the President,¡±

    Clark clearly went pale at that, having to face the daunting task of convincing his clearly biased superiors or risk having the President called on them, who everyone knew was favouring the team of supers who were risking their lives for free.

    ¡°Go!¡±

    ¡°Yes sir!¡± Clark saluted and ran away with shaky legs. God, how did that man ever get into the upper echelons of the analysts in the army was a mystery to him.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 128 : Stumbling Clark, Constipated Generals, Burned Hands and...Oh? Oh..No

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 128[May 2012]

    Utah

    ¨CRandall¨C

    So, they had a tentative plan. The military would come in hot and fast, creating a temporary reprieve for Thor, a small window for him to try and touch the machine, or the sphere of pure energy that surrounded the Tesseract. It was a long shot but he hoped that Thor¡¯s ¡°limited skill¡± in the arts of Seidr, which was just sorcery, would help them because Loki had manually controlled the TEsseract, albeit at a steep cost to himself.

    That must be part of the reason why Loki was so easily captured. He could not fathom why Loki had been so easily defeated. It could also be that Thor had really amped up his attacks and Loki had been surprised to find his brother coming at him with lethal intent.

    Either way, Loki was in custody but was still unconscious and he knew that Loki would not talk either way. The sceptre was on its way as well. SOmething about the energy signatures of both the things bugged him the wrong way and if he was correct, there was a shroud of pure energy around the crown of the sceptre as well.

    IF they could somehow bring both the spheres of pure energy together and see if they could cancel each other out, they could finally stop this Invasion. Already, the Jericho missiles had been deployed, damaging their surroundings even more. The smell of gunpowder in the air had still not faded and now they were using high energy weapons.

    ¡°Okay, Clark? Are they ready?¡±

    Clark stumbled to reply, even though the man was standing in a single place. He was now the primary mode of communication between them and the generals stationed both here and around the bases which were being used as a hopping point for all the Jets nearby.

    The Military was being cooperative but not nearly as much as they should have had it been the Invisible Man here. Axle Riddle, huh?

    He shook his head at that. He couldn¡¯t believe they were being ordered around and not just ordered around, afraid of someone who was a decade younger than him. Sure, age didn¡¯t matter when the man could lift a building and throw it at them but still, it felt kind of bizarre.

    He wondered how constipated these generals would feel if they knew that their brass was deathly afraid of someone who they wouldn¡¯t even deign to look at in their normal lives.

    It was¡­amusing.

    ¡°Uh, yeah. Sir, they have approved the flight paths and are ready to go at your word. Uh, sir.¡± Clark, once again, stumbled over his words.

    He looked at Thor who held Mjolnir tightly in his hand, nodding at his unasked question. He turned to Clark, ¡°Do it.¡±

    Clark nodded as well and then pressed a button on his tablet. ¡°Uh-the first missile volley should be here in about 2 minutes so if you could¨Cuh-please get in position?¡± Clark asked Thor and wow, was that actual courage he was gathering before he spoke to Thor?

    Thor, thankfully, didn¡¯t make fun of him for any of it and simply readied himself.

    ¡­.

    ..

    Right on time, a high pitched whine filled the air, forcing him to look in the sky. His eyes widened as he saw Missiles coming in from two different directions, converging straight on the portal which was still clogged by the Leviathans, with not a single moment of inactivity. He had hoped that the Chitauri would learn something and stop sending their troops to die in a meat grinder but he supposed that they had more than enough troops to sacrifice and not have to worry.

    His mind supplied him with what would allow something like this to happen. He knew that most of the Chitauri soldiers had very little in terms of brain activity and capacity. So, they probably had some sort of cybernetic implants that allowed them to coordinate everything. IN that aspect, they were little more than animals.

    Also, the Chitauri were not in the most optimal states, despite their large stature. A thought flashed through his mind and his face turned ugly at that. Judging by the size and power of the Chitauri, it would not be wrong to assume they probably had some planets specifically reserved to breed these Chitauri and if they didn¡¯t need to actually train them, they could just forcefully grow them into vats, hand them their weapons and send them on their merry way, to die in some battlefield.

    ¡°Uh,¡±  lark¡¯s words brought him back to the present, ¡°We didn¡¯t have enough Jericho missiles in a single base for the first volley so we had to send them from two different laughing pads but that is fine, I have triple checked everything,¡± Clark hastily handed him the tablet and yup, the math checked out.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    As the missiles passed overhead, Thor tensed and threw Mjolnir forward, matching the missiles for speed, as his target was the portal machine right beneath the Leviathan. He just hoped that it worked because he had seen a Leviathan corpse landing on the portal machine and the machine just made a hole in the thing, which then promptly slid off the sphere of pure energy.

    He shuddered and hoped that nothing of the sort happened to Thor. Thankfully, he had Mjolnir which was also supposedly unbreakable, so that probably helped in the clash.

    The winds buffeted the grounds, rocking a few tables back as Thor became a figure wreathed in lightning. Thor was not really supposed to hit the portal so much as touch it and try to see if there was any feedback in it. There was a chance that THor was either too bad at the magic thing or that Loki had built in some safety mechanism that made sure that the machine did not accept commands without authentication but they couldn¡¯t know anything without trying.

    A feed appeared in front of him that showed Thor flying straight to the portal. His eyesight could only show him so much, especially since he was the least physically combat inclined out of all of his siblings, even more so than Leny who abhorred direct physical combat and was the weakest out of all of them, despite being the most deadly due to his stealth capabilities.

    The missiles did their work as the Chitauri were outright vapourized in the ensuing explosion, giving Thor free reign to do his thing. Thor jerked Mjolnir back, halting his flight, and then rotated it above his head, allowing him to float in one place. If he was not wrong, even a single hand should be enough since magic was just about having energy, being capable of using said energy, and then having the intent imbued in the energy.

    Thro had the first two parts nailed down. He was just worried about the third one. Thor was not really¡­well, let¡¯s just say that Thor was not the thinking Prince of Asgard. He was more along the brawns, at least at this point in time. He was sure that life would certainly teach him how to be more alert and mindful.

    That was coming from someone who was approaching middle aged despite not looking a day over 25, courtesy of Hulk powers.

    In the feed, Thor carefully extended his left hand towards the sphere of pure energy, Mjolnir still crackling with blue lightning. All of them leaned forward, curious and hopeful in equal measure.

    Multiple drones captured the footage of Thor from multiple angles, the background flashing white sometimes due to the Jericho missiles. Tony was still completely out at the moment and he had made the decision not to wake him up, since he was the most exhausted out of all of them.

    Arcs of lightning came out of Thor¡¯s outstretched hand, the energy readings jumping across the board. A smile graced his face as he saw a spike in the Tesseract¡¯s energy, something that hadn''t happened until now, no matter what they did.

    So, they could do something. That joy was short lived as arcs of blue energy, much darker than Thor¡¯s own, began appearing all over the sphere of energy. His eyes widened as his screen began flashing red, the energy readings soon surpassing anything that their sensors could measure.

    Thor¡¯s face was captured as his eyes widened in alarm. ¡°Get aw¨C¡± He barely managed to get one word out before the feed turned white, and a huge shockwave blew away all the smoke and smog that had accumulated all around the portal.

    The screens all glitched in front of him as he looked towards the Tesseract machine, only to get another shock as lightning seemed to come out of nowhere and struck the machine once again. He almost fell down and had to steady Clark as well, as he looked at the screen which was showing once again the energy readings of Thor¡¯s lightning to be unreadable.

    A roar resounded in the air, one that he recognised to be Thor, as a thick bolt of lightning emerged from the Portal machine and struck the ground. ¡°Go!¡±

    He ordered as Bolton, clad in his suit, rocketed towards the portal machine, which was now regularly sending the bolts of lightning right below, which held the Chitauri corpses, filling the air with scent of burnt meat.

    He could barely see Bolton as his vision struggled to adjust to the white flash that appeared every 10 seconds.

    ¡°I have him!¡± Bolton¡¯s comms crackled to life as a feed appeared from his suit. His heart sank as he saw Thor¡¯s condition. Mjolnir was fine, as was his right hand but his left hand, it was burned beyond recognition.

    ¡°Everyone! Get the medics. Somebody get me the President on the line.¡± He screamed as his mind went into disarray. Even Thor couldn¡¯t do it, which meant Hulk would be out as well even though Hulk¡¯s ability to take damage was much higher than Thor¡¯s.

    ___xx___

    Deep below the Crust

    ¨C?--

    For millennia, he had slumbered, taking advantage of the inherent fighting instinct of his species, only coming up to ambush the weakened members, who had some iota of power that could be plundered by him.

    After millenia of the same, he had rid his race of all the powerful members, leaving only him. Any opposition was swiftly dealt with, in the easiest possible way, by taking their energy.

    The last time he awoke was when he had to move the base of his entire species after the pesky dolls had come far too close to his colony. He had been so frustrated he had killed off an entire line of his species.

    But now?

    His mind snapped awake, his body stretching upright as he sensed something. Something that should be impossible.

    Cosmic energy. And how plentiful... he could almost taste it.

    His eyes narrowed as he sensed more and more of the cosmic energy, hitting the ground, as if trying to burrow through the Earth to reach him.

    He grinned at that. Howling, he summoned what was left of his species. Yellow eyes snapped open in the thousands in the massive cavern he had dug with his own claws. Howls filled the cavern as they began digging through the Earth.

    Maybe, after all this time, he could finally accumulate enough energy to kill and take the energy of one of those dolls.

    The mere thought of it filled him with ecstasy.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 129 Ms.In-her-40s-Superhero.....

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 129[May 2012]

    Mumbai [An hour after the Mumbai Chitauri Invasion]

    ¨C?¨C

    Shit. Shit. Shit.

    She never intended for it to go this far.

    Sat alone in her apartment, she sighed as she laid down on her bed, her gaze unfocused as she thought of her actions and what it might lead to. She was not really worried about anyone else, having these powers meant that she hadn¡¯t maintained any credible relations with anyone, even though the others tried.

    She chuckled sardonically at that. God, her college friends tried hard to keep in touch but then again, once they hit their 30s, everyone either got married, moved abroad, had kids, or even got divorced. In the meantime, she got her MD and started her practice, in the wealthiest city of India.

    Sure, it got her all the money she could have wanted but seeing that number in the bank got stale real quick. She tried everything that she possibly could.

    Hiking. Gym. Marathons. Philanthropy. Free Clinics and more.

    And yet, it could never give her the same level of happiness as using her powers gave her. At this point, she had her powers for the better part of 3 decades. God, that was a long time to remain isolated from everyone else, to hide her deepest darkest secret, never having the courage to trust anyone fully. She knew that it took a toll on her relationships, well the ones that held any meaning anyway.

    Dating was out of the way, especially since the dating pool for women in their 40s, especially in India was basically creeps and the odd divorcee, that¡¯s it. Their conservative culture meant that most girls got married off the moment they turned 25, sometimes even earlier, and guys could sometimes stretch it to 28, or 29 but even these scenarios were very rare.

    It was only recently that education levels rose in even rural areas, allowing women to get educated about their rights, lifting the average marriage age, in both men and women. And yet, this was not her era.

    During the time when she was undergoing puberty, when she was lucky enough to be raised by her extended relatives after her parents had died in a bus accident, all she had were books. Books about everything that happened in the world. The world as a whole was much more conservative back then, let alone her then family, which was the epitome of conservative, as were most families in the neighbourhood.

    She had always been smarter than most kids her age, which prompted her parents to get her all the books she asked for. In their opinion, rightfully so, education was the way forward and they were actually ecstatic that their sole daughter, which was another rarity since everyone wanted sons back then, was enthusiastic about education.

    She had overheard them talking, more than once, about saving for her higher education. That money was taken by her relatives, and she honestly had no issues with that since they did cloth, house and feed her for over 5 years before she went away for studies and never went back.

    She was 14 when her parents died. She was 14 when she was whisked away by the authorities to her extended family, whose existence was a surprise to her. Barely a teenager when her life as she knew it, ended and she was thrust into the house of complete strangers, who barely acknowledged her existence, let alone comfort her, or try to make sure she was fine, beyond the occasional ¡°How are you?¡±, providing her hot meals three times a day and making appropriate provisions for her continued education.

    14 when she got her powers. She hesitated to call them blessings but that was what they were, 14 year old her just didn¡¯t know any better. She suppressed her powers for over 5 years, deathly terrified of being found out and ousted from all that was left of her life. So, she hid them right up until she went out for her education.

    It was all completely paid for, partially by the government and partially by a private scholarship she managed to snag by scoring exceptional marks in their exams.

    That was when she finally got the space to explore her powers, and that was how her story began.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    It took her a while to figure them out but her powers but when she did, she was over the roof.

    Enhanced healing, strength, speed, and intelligence. Intangibility, the ability to choose when and where to interact with the material world, with the only real limit being her ability to hold her breath. That was why she took up swimming and that was honestly the one thing, aside from her practice, that she practiced regularly, even now.

    As a result of that regular practice and her powers, she looked much younger than she actually was. That was probably also one of the reasons why none of her female classmates tried contacting her after school.

    Oh well, none of that mattered, she thought to herself as she just lay there, in her bed, with a bottle of vodka lying empty at her feet. It had been extremely stressful,  putting on that silly costume and going out to fight the aliens. She once debated donning that costume and going out at night to fight crime but once it came down to it, she figured that the logistics of doing so just didn''t make any sense.

    She didn¡¯t have any overarching delusions about what she could do on her lonesome, despite her awesome powers. Her intangibility also allowed her to fly, somehow. She had studied her powers extensively and to this day, she had not idea how her powers worked.

    Even the costume, it was only a recent thing. All she had done so far had practised a lot in her apartment, a very large one for a single person but she used it to sometimes use her powers so that single reason justified the spending. Besides, what was she going to do with all that money?

    She was a neurosurgeon, with accolades from all over the country, having worked in various hospitals, under various expert doctors. There were a lot of rich people that were more than happy to throw money at the hospital which employed her.

    So, when word of the Invisible Man operating in New York finally reached her ears, she was ecstatic, finally hearing about another person with powers, someone who was different. She would have gone there personally to meet him but, well¡­.

    It had been harrowing, to watch a blue hole appear in the sky, with monsters straight from fantasy coming out, raining down lasers on buildings and everything else in sight. She hadn¡¯t even hesitated for a moment, donning her uniform, and floating into a nearby hardware store and picking up all the nails that she could, out of sight.

    Then, she had floated right up in the air, holding sharp nails in her hand and just left them in the brains of all the monsters, or where she approximated their brains to be. The first death only emboldened her as she single handedly slaughtered the entire invasion force. She only snapped out of it when she subconsciously landed on the ground and saw hordes of people cheering for her. Her fear of being discovered reared its ugly head as she fled from the scene, straight into her home.

    And now, there she was, laying on her bed, having drunk an entire bottle in one go. Despite her enhanced physique, she knew that she would feel it tomorrow, what with having eaten nothing before downing that bottle, but then again, she needed that liquid courage if she was going to face what was coming her way.

    She had no delusions that she was not tracked all the way to her home. When she first got her powers, it was the 80s, and it was rural India, so the chances of digital surveillance were almost non-existent. But now? In the 21st century, in the era of Stark Phones in every other hand? Surveillance was everywhere and in everyone¡¯s hands. Everyone gladly carried tools of mass surveillance, even paying for it themselves.

    That was why she went out of her way to strip her apartment of all things digital, including her phone which went into a small box designated for it, right next to the shoe cabinet, right at the entrance of her apartment.

    ¡°Open up!¡±

    And there they were. She signed once again, knowing what was coming. She had thought it through and had come to a decision. She knew that the invasions were a global phenomenon and they were only looking for her so she could help defend more places against the Chitauri because Mumbai was the only place that had defended their cities without a single casualty.

    It was all in the news, which she could hear from her downstairs neighbour who had a TV in her bedroom, which was just below hers. Enhanced senses, sometimes a blessing, sometimes a curse.

    She stood up, emptying yet another beer bottle, which did nothing to her physique, and walked out of her bedroom, a skip in her step as she basically abandoned all caution to the wind.

    Realistically thinking, what did she have to lose?

    Nothing, that¡¯s what.

    She passed the Kitchen and was about to step foot into the living room when¡­

    ¡°Ah!¡± She yelped as her feet found no purchase, instead falling into a hole of some sort.

    ¡­¡­

    ¡­

    Good Ol¡¯ US of A

    ¡°Good Evening, Ms.Priya, how would you like to help save the world?¡± She looked up, barely managing to stand upright, looking at a weirdly dressed monk of some sort.

    Ah, what the hell. She knew she shouldn¡¯t have drunk that expired bottle of vodka.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 130 : Le Hulk = Whack-a-Mole!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 130[May 2012]

    Utah

    ¨CRandall¨C

    He stared blankly at the screen, showing the projections for the area. It was their luck that no new variant of Chitauri had emerged from the portal because he had no idea how they were going to close that portal. Thor was their best bet because he assumed that Loki did some Asgardian magic on the portal to use it.

    It was his mistake in assuming that Thor would know everything that Loki did. It could have been something that Loki learned recently, or something else entirely, it mattered not.

    At Least there was one piece of good news. The situation in New York had stabilised somewhat, with Stark Tower and the Bunker below acting as safe havens while Hulk, Frank, Captain America, and his brothers worked on clearing the entire city of Mole People. He was sure that it must have been disturbing for anyone watching for hordes of Mole People to just die en masse, due to the Hulk¡¯s penchant for using stray cars as bowling balls to just crush all the Mole People in some streets.

    Hulk had also taken care of all the Big Mole People that had emerged out of the ground, with ease.

    There had also been a video clip that has gone viral about a particularly small Mole Person who was dodging Hulk¡¯s attempt at smashing it with a car¡¯s bonnet, while it burrowed into the ground and popped out right next to its previous spot, making a hilarious Whack-a-Mole moment in an otherwise tragic event in modern human history.

    He shook his head, and focused on the problems he had on hand. The gigantic lightning strike along with the continuous stream of blue energy beams that were striking the ground had created enough noise that Tony woke up, and got right back to worry. The situation in Manhattan was stabilised enough but even then, the casualty count went up by the hundreds before the Mole People could be stopped.

    More accurately, Frank Castle, Captain America and a couple of new faces managed to draw the attention of the Mole People on themselves, drawing them away from population centres long enough for the heavy cavalry to arrive and decimate the remaining forces.

    It was also confirmed that the Mole People which were waiting just below the surface, numbering in the thousands, had retreated hastily once it was clear that the Hulk was waiting for them on the surface and he had no scruples with smashing them into pulps of acidic blood that only seemed to tickle the Green Giant.

    There was still the matter of the Mole People that were scattered throughout the city in buildings, in subway stations, in the sewers, and more but for now, the people were safely evacuated and Jarvis had suits and sensors monitoring every single exit that the Mole People could take out of Manhattan.

    Tony, awake with renewed vigor, seemed to ignore the Mole People problem since it was semi stabilised and got to working on the Tesseract, or more importantly, on the new problem that the Tesseract had created.

    See, before Thor tested his theory, the Tesseract was only sending energy one way, right up into the air. Now? Now it was sending not the same but some sort of energy right into the Earth.

    Creating holes in the sky from which giant space whales came out? Terrifying for the most part but manageable if only all the people in power got their heads out of their asses. The same energy burrowing through the Earth, potentially causing harm to the Earth itself?

    Now that was pants shitting terrifying. It was sobering how he could be credited with turning an event that was being managed, right up until the Invisible Man woke up whose Mental activity was actually lowering from his all time high, which should be a good sign, he didn''t know yet. Now, he had accidentally created something that could potentially destroy the planet itself, instead of the aliens wiping out the dominant species and taking hold of the planet.

    ¡°Fuck! What is it now!? AAAAAh!¡± He heard Tony scream and promptly went through the tent, and right into the adjacent one where Tony was working on something and found him manically shouting, grabbing anything in sight, and throwing it at the holo display which flickered a bit at the matter disruption, and then returned to its original state.

    His eyes narrowed as he saw something that made his blood run cold.

    ¡°I-Is that? Are those?¡± He stammered as he couldn¡¯t believe his shitty luck. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    Tony, having regained his calm, now that a suit had torn through the tent¡¯s roof and was in the process of assembling around him, replied, ¡°Yup. That is most probably the alien wave coming from the ground, or something else entirely. Either way, I am done letting it dictate my actions,¡±

    Having said his piece, the faceplate slid over Tony¡¯s face as he rocketed straight up, right into a giant hexagonal construct that floated above them. The machine lit up in the signature Blue colour of the Arc Reactor before flying away, in the direction of the Tesseract.

    In the backdrop, he could see multiple volleys of the Jericho missile coming as well. God Help them all.

    ¡°Welp, Clark, tell the Military that another wave is coming from the ground. We¡¯ll see what we can do but be ready just in case,¡± Clark went deathly pale at that and seemed rooted on the spot, his tablet held in a white knuckled grip. He sympathetically tapped his shoulder, and left the tent, to go to the storage section, where he kept his flying suit.

    Well, he called it suit but it was just repulsor units with a back unit for stabilised flight. He had three of them and he was going to need all of them for now. Until the army can facilitate even more volleys of missiles, they were going to have to deal with the intruders coming from below as well, while the Military dealt with the ones coming from above. Without Thor or Hulk. Damn, this was not going to be pretty.

    His enhanced senses picked up on abrupt hasty movements within the camp, probably evacuation sequences since they were not that far off from the Tesseract now.

    As he flew towards the Tesseract, Tony¡¯s completely grey hexagonal platform now visible to him, one thing he was thankful for was the Tesseract¡¯s white beam of energy that was impacting the Earth straight down. It had completely vaporise all the corpses of the space whales that had accumulated right below it. Some blood and bits of flesh probably remained but he was thankful that they wouldn¡¯t have to worry about some broken and dangerous piece of technology winding up in the hands of weapons manufacturers who wouldn¡¯t hesitate to label it safe and sell it to the Military for a handsome upmark in price.

    He chuckled bitterly as he realised something. It was a true sign of apocalypse when something that Tony built, which was clearly supposed to be a flagship grade piece of technology, but didn¡¯t have his signature red and gold colour scheme. The Hexagon, while absolutely decked out and shining with repulsor arrays, did not have a single piece coloured, to match the badass style of Tony Stark.

    Presentation was important but when they had the time for it. The machine probably slid off the fabrication lines and came straight to them.

    He floated right beside the platform, and looked at the white beam of light impacting the ground, with the smell of burned meat in the air.

    ¡°It doesn''t seem to be doing anything. No displaced Earth whatsoever,¡± He commented, knowing that Tony was listening.

    ¡°You¡¯re right but it could also mean that the energy is just disintegrating everything that comes into contact. The energy density meant that my sensors aren¡¯t picking up on as much data as they should,¡± His comms crackled to life.

    That was true as well.

    ¡°Here they come,¡± he heard Tony say before he saw the ground itself shudder for a bit. The area all around the white beam was bubbling as if something was about to burst out of it. He readied all his weapons, as did his brothers and Tony¡­

    Well, if there was ever a need to say ¡°too many weapons and repulsors¡± in a single suit, it would be now as he counted no less than six of those giant repulsor arrays installed in the weapons platform, along with multiple smaller missile silos, combined with regular repulsor arrays as well.

    That was a floating tank and he was glad that it was. They were going to need it.

    With a squelching sound and a shower of dirt and stone, an eight feet tall monstrosity of a creature jumped out of the hole in the Earth. Before it could even fall on the ground from the giant leap it had taken, he heard a slight whining sound before a giant blue beam flashed in his vision, cutting itself off after a second, leaving behind a smoking repulsor array.

    He looked at the creature only to see a big hole in the middle, with the creature with yellow eyes somehow managing to convey hatred to them, before it slumped back, clearly dead.

    He didn¡¯t expect Tony to immediately switch to lethal mode, especially since they were clearly not Chitauri or at least not the regular Chitauri they dealt with but after the first one came out, it was as if a Chain reaction occurred as hundreds of holes filled the ground, with hundreds of these monsters coming out and immediately leaping high up in the air, reaching for them.

    He did not want to take any chances with those sharp claws and those giant long limbs which drew holes in the ground by simply standing on it. They took one look at the dead body of the monster and¡­..

    He barely resisted the urge to hurl as a number of similar looking monsters dimply converged on the dead body and tore it apart, eating it, leaving behind nothing but the little bit of blood that had pooled beneath it.

    ¡°Dear Lord,¡± He heard Samuel whisper, horrified at what they were seeing. He was too but they didn¡¯t have a moment of respite because he felt Tony¡¯s platform float up in the air before the whining noise was repeated, this time much louder than before.

    The creatures before did as well, indicating that they had enhanced senses as well, as they began jumping over themselves, to reach the weapons platform.

    He flinched minutely, as did his brothers, as his vision was filled with white and blue. The resounding impact reached his ears before he could blink the spots out of his eyes. They recovered quickly and when he looked at the landscape, his jaw hung agape.

    There was nothing left. Just a giant crater, with the blood of those monsters at the edge of the crater. He could even see a monster with its lower half and two of its six limbs vaporised, crawling out of the hole.

    Good Lord, Tony was scary when he was angry.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 131 : Deviant Rabies! Cannibalism....

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 131[May 2012]

    Utah

    ¨CRandall¨C

    There was a lull in the battlefield, with only the sounds of the Chitauri being slaughtered from above, and the faint sounds of truck engines running at full speed as the camps were evacuated, with all of their equipment being taken away to safety. After all, they had recorded hours worth of important data and that was probably more important than the lives of some of the soldiers here.

    There was a giant crater, which was carved in one direction, vaporising almost all of the yellow eyed giants that had jumped out of the hole. The energy storm around the Tesseract was subsiding as well, with the intensity of its blasts into the ground reducing at a measurable pace. It would still be absolutely lethal to go anywhere near that beam of energy but at least it would soon be gone. Taking advantage of their disoriented states, his brother''s dove in to finish off the rest of those creatures, with him providing support in the form of repulsor shots from afar.

    He also had to see if Tony¡¯s weapons platform could do another strike like that because the platform was now smoking in various places. Thor¡¯s vitals were alright and his skin was visibly healing after all the nutrient solutions were being pumped directly into his body, something that would not be advisable for normal humans but apparently worked just fine for Asgardians.

    That meant that until Hulk got here, after resolving the Mole People situation, which was still not resolved as there were still dozens of different moles sighted by Jarvis in the city, hurting people before fleeing as they somehow sensed Hulk and the others converging on their location. None of Jarvis¡¯ suits or even Hulk could navigate underground like the Mole People could so they were locked in a stalemate right now, with no side winning definitively, the situation would not get better.

    They need heavy artillery to deal with these people, just like with the Chitauri. At Least these ones were vulnerable to physical attacks and did not have any fliers that could take potshots at them.

    He slammed the hull of the weapons platform, which held Tony inside, ¡°Tony, you alright?¡±

    Tony¡¯s muffled voice came, which meant that the outside speakers were now dud. He figured that with that level of energy output coursing through the thing, anything that was connected with wires was probably dead. It was a wonder the thing was even floating, though he could see that it was only floating upright, with none of the stabilisation it had previously, evidenced by the slight wobbling of the thing when he lightly knocked on the metal. ¡°Yeah, just some energy overload. It should reboot soon,¡±

    Well, he hoped it did, because there was no way that this was the end of it. He saw many more red dots when he came here. It was probably the shock of seeing so many dead, all at once, that temporarily stopped the bubbling of the land.

    He was tense, waiting for the shoe to drop. Hell, this was the third shoe that was about to drop on their heads. A giant, heavy, dense metal shoe falling on the vulnerable chicken neck that was Earth.

    The Chitauri.

    The Mole People.

    And now these yellow eyed monsters. Why couldn¡¯t they catch a freaking break?

    And there it was, the bubbling of the ground.

    His brothers floated back up, and he called upon all the remote weaponry modules he had on hand, to float right behind him just in case one of them needed backup or heavy bombardment. It should not be needed because as far as he could tell, none of those monsters possessed anything that could pierce their skins but he could not rule out any esoteric so long range attacks was the best way to go right now.

    Speaking of long range attacks. ¡°Tony, we could really use that Fuck YOu laser from before?¡±

    Tony¡¯s response did not fill him with confidence, ¡°That might take a while.¡± His voice was distracted which meant that he was working on something, which was good.

    What was not good was the bubbling of the ground, which had increased in radius since the last wave of them.

    ¡°Uh, Jarvis?¡± His HUD lit up as Jarvis¡¯ sensors, scarce as they were here, worked their magic, and showed him that this time, the number of those monsters was more than quadrupled, with an area covering thrice of what they were covering before. He relayed that information and Tony flew behind them, away from the Tesseract portal, while he got ready to be the first defender this time. HE had plenty of weapons that needed testing on armoured creatures but he spent most of them during the two Chitauri fights he was part of.

    Right now, he barely had some explosive weaponry, and some exotic bombs, along with repulsor arrays powered by the second generation Arc Reactor. Tony was really stingy in giving him the latest generation Arcs, which was fine, it was his property but it was really coming to bite them all back in the ass right now. His repulsor arrays could not work quite as fast and at quite the strength with which TOny could use them, simply because his power source was not strong enough to power them all.

    ¡°Well, here goes nothing,¡± he increased the power output on everything and hoped to the high heavens that he did not die because he got monster rabies because one of these yellow eyed freaks scratched him, and got through his skin.

    With yet another roar, the ground beneath them buckled as hundreds of those creatures came jumping through, brandishing their six claws straight at their airborne forms. He let loose a volley of repulsors, punting most of the closer monsters back on the ground, as the rest of the Monsters set their sight on the flying suits and started digging chunks of the ground.

    He yelped as a rock went sailing right above them, nearly hitting Tony¡¯s platform as he was busy firing repulsor after repulsor at the monsters below. He could hear Tony shouting at them to protect him but he probably saw the situation and retreated, far above even the Chitauri portal.

    ¡°Shit!¡± He exclaimed as he felt the repulsor arrays on his arms getting heated up. Any more and they would break down, leaving him with only a single dimensional repulsion control. He would not be able to move properly if his arm repulsors were dud.

    The same was true with his brothers as well. They exchanged glances and came to the same decision. At the same time, all three of them dove into the mass of monsters, and smashed into anything that came into sight, using the increased thrust from the foot repulsors to give them that extra oomph, when it came to smashing stuff.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    It was all going well, they realised that the deviants could not hurt their hard tissue like the arms and everything else. He made sure that their soft tissue, like ears and stuff, was well protected and they never stayed in one place long enough to get dogpilled like these monsters were trying to do.

    Ofcourse, that was when things had to go to shit.

    Without any warning, he heard Samuel scream in his comms. This jolted him as he ripped apart one of those monsters and saw his brother falling down, with his repulsor array smoking and his arm¡­

    He had one arm missing, he realised as he hastily went after his brother, which turned out to be a mistake, as he heard yet another scream. He looked to the side but he couldn¡¯t see anything past the sea of monsters that were converging on them.

    ¡°TONY!¡± HE screamed into the comms as he dove and caught his brother, but instead of heading straight up, he doubled down and dove straight for the ground, knowing what was about to come.

    He cradled his younger brother close to him as he spread what little armour he had around him, around his back, and braced himself. IT came not a moment later. The extreme heat managed to make even him scream as he felt his back burning, even though the beam was not directly hitting him.

    He crashed into the ground, riddled with back burns but still conscious. Samuel on the other hand. He carefully placed Samuel down on the ground, relieved to find that he was still alive, but his hand.

    His hand was cut off, with claw marks on his repulsors. He heard a thud, and watched as a suit landed and took Samuel in its arms, nodded at him and flew away. From the corner of his eyes, he saw another suit do the same.

    ¡°Tony?¡±

    ¡°Light Rescue grade models with no weapons functionality. They will take them to the Military medics who are waiting for them.¡±

    Thank god.

    Now, for the low life that dared hurt his brother, he turned around and saw a clear divide in the ground, a deep and long trench dug in the ground, with most of the monsters on the other side, with a couple of them on his side, whom he swiftly crushed with his hands, all the while maintaining eye contact with their apparent leader.

    Their leader was surprisingly more human looking. Still hunched and on more four legs with two claws in the air but its size was much smaller than the other monsters yet he knew what those exact claws had done, with the hand of his brother laid down at the monster¡¯s feet.

    ¡°Tony?¡±

    ¡°Working on it. The platform is mostly dead for now but new parts are on their way. We just need to figure out a way to sta¨C¡± That was all he heard before his breath hitched, as did Tony¡¯s.

    Because, right in front of their eyes, the monster took his brother''s hand and was¡­chewing on it.

    He saw red.

    ¡°Randall, wait!¡±

    He had never been one to get angry in his life. Even when subjected to multiple injustices, betrayals, and maintaining a lifestyle with a group of people who were more frat boy animals than civilised gentlemen, he did not get rage like other people did.

    He couldn¡¯t really understand why people would rage specifically. He did get angry but not to that level. All his brothers had no problem in expressing that specific emotion but for some reason, instead of choosing confrontation, he chose to solve the problem, choosing to get out of anger rather than diving deeper into rage.

    Now? Now he could understand. His brothers had all told him they got more powerful as they tapped into their inherent rage.

    All of them had pent up rage against the world, from their nomadic days, from the days they were betrayed and used, only to be spit out and aimed at someone who was so hilariously out of their league, it was not even funny.

    He felt his body heat up, wisps of blue energy leaking out of his body as he jumped. He jumped, with his fist cocked back, straight at the motherf*cker who dared hurt his brothers, his family, because he saw the claw marks on the repulsor arrays. They were smaller, much smaller than the normal claws.

    The smaller monster threw his brother¡¯s arm out of his mouth and grinned at him. He crossed the trench in a single leap, his anger amplifying his strength as he aimed to punch the monster in his stupid face.

    Only that never happened. All he felt was a blow to his stomach and then his face as he was kicked back, his vision blurring. Even then, he felt the dozen shallow cuts that appeared all around his body.

    That bastard was playing with him. Somehow that filled him with more rage. He scrambled back upright only to see a giant repulsor beam, much larger than his repulsor arrays but much smaller than the giant beam slam right into that stupid face, throwing the monster back, as Tony landed right beside him.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡±

    He coughed out spittle and stood up straight, ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t think we are equipped to handle that monster.¡± Tony said and he was probably right. He was never the stronger of his brothers, just the smartest one. Also, that monster just tanked Tony¡¯s UniBeam and got up, without even a scratch on him.

    ¡°Any weaknesses?¡± He asked Tony since he was the only one with a full sensor suite on him right now, his entire exoskeleton having been damaged by Tony¡¯s attack earlier and then completely dismantled in the attack he just sustained.

    ¡°Aside from his eyes and soft tissue inside his mouth? No.¡±

    He was worried about that. The monster had also stopped all of the Invading members from doing any more damage but conversely, the monster itself was more than capable of harming them immensely.

    His gaze never left the monster so he was understandably worried when the monster¡¯s neck snapped behind them, with its face twisted in some expression he could not recognise. His ears registered a faint whining sound before he was jerked to one side as Tony tackled him right up, took hold of him, and then rocketed off, right up in the air.

    ¡°Tony?!¡±

    ¡°Missile Strike,¡±

    Oh. Oooh.

    That was a much better choice than to bet on his mediocre combat skills. He would have to rectify that as soon as possible. He saw as multiple missiles flew over them, right in the direction of that monster.

    He grinned as he felt the heat of that missile attack, and the ensuing shockwave. Tony stopped and turned around, looking at the attack, which had created a giant mushroom cloud, thankfully not from nuclear fission though. They were still not authorised to do that and he was thankful for that.

    At Least the President had the sense that if it turned into a Nuclear war, the land would be unsalvageable. At Least right now, they could do something to repair it.

    ¡°What? How?¡± He heard Tony whisper before they flew closer to the explosion, his heart sinking at the news.

    ¡°What? Did he survive?¡± He asked Tony but the answer became visible to him on its own.

    There, surrounded by the corpses of its brethren, stood the smaller monster, injured but doing something completely bizarre. The monster only had three claws instead of six, its face was half burned off and its body was completely blackened, and yet¡­

    ¡°Shit!¡± Tony swore as its body was visible healing, as the monster ate its own kind.

    Tony fired multiple repulsors at the monster, even as he was dropped to the ground, his injuries flaring up but he grit his teeth and stomped towards the monster, ready to kill him before he could heal.

    Alas, the monster stayed in the same spot, tanking Tony¡¯s admitted weaker repulsors and continued eating the monster corpses all around him, and by the time he was within reach, his claws had turned from 3 to 5, allowing the monster to lash out at him, carving a shallow wound on his forearm as he was pushed back.

    ¡°Tony! Missiles?¡± He roared at Tony as he jumped back in the fray as Tony¡¯s repulsors managed to just push him back. The monster was grinning at them, toying with both of them as it continued to crunch on its own species, healing itself back to its prime.

    Already, its torso had returned to its greyish colour from before.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 132 : The One where the Author ends the Arc that nobody liked........ PART 1 [MUAHAHA]

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 132[May 2012]

    Utah

    ¨CRandall¨C

    He felt his nose crunch as another one of that bastard¡¯s punches connected with his face, throwing him back and disorienting him momentarily, though the noise and the flash of light that entered his blurry vision told him that Tony had not been idle.

    Granted, there was no opening in that monster¡¯s body but they had to try. The Military, ironically, was in a missile shortage.

    No, not the actual missiles but the ways the missiles can be launched. Jets can¡¯t do close fly bys because they didn¡¯t have the capacity to get Jericho missiles installed. They needed land based launchers and the Military just went and aimed all of their launchers at the portal which was still churning out the Chitauri by droves.

    Seriously, just how many of these bastards did they have that they could just afford to waste so many of these flying Whales? While those bastards did have seemingly endless forces to waste, they did not have an endless amount of launchers.

    So, the missiles locking onto the monster''s form were rather limited and the next volley was still 3 minutes away, at least that was what his HUD told him before it was smashed to pieces by that bastard¡¯s claws.

    His vision finally cleared, as he punched the ground in frustration, seeing Tony¡¯s suit flying back above him with a worrying amount of gashes on the outside. He roared as he once again joined the fray, having no other choice than to fight and fight.

    His brothers were out of commission, and that led to no small amount of fury between the others.

    Still, he had put his foot down, being the oldest one who was conscious, and had ordered all the others to stay put, until the suits arrived for them. The heavy duty ones, the Titans that had been deployed in Manhattan. Now that the Hulk was the most effective deterrent in that place, the Titans could be redeployed and they would be here in less than 10 minutes, again putting them at a slight advantage, if the current stats of the monster in front of them were to be believed.

    He had almost fully healed now, only the hole in his skull was left, with its eye somehow regaining its yellow luster slowly, but surely. He couldn¡¯t believe that this was the third different species to invade the surface world, showing humanity that it was not alone, not even on Earth let alone through the vastness of space.

    He barked out a laugh as he felt his skin glow before he punched the claw that the monster waved in front of him, denting the claw in exchange for creating a bloody hole in his hand. He laughed through the pain as the angrier he got, the more he glowed blue, and the more his attacks worked.

    And somehow, he found out today,  that laughing, even in the middle of his rage, was enough to kickstart his powers, powers that he believed would never manifest.

    He heard the familiar launch of a repulsor that was tanked with the combination of two claws, that did succeed in pushing back the monster but that was the extent of the damage. Tony¡¯s suit was clearly damaged and exhausted as the beam fizzled out after a few seconds of sustained fire, leaving the claws smoking hot but nevertheless, still in fighting condition.

    He too panted, as he picked up a piece of rock and lobbed it at the monster, showering him in rubble as his claws broke through the entire thing. He hunched over in exhaustion, ready to redo the party trick when he heard a squelching sound, followed by a small boom.

    He looked up, eyes wide as he saw the monster. The same monster that had toyed with them, missing a part of its torso. He saw a wispy shadow behind the monster, as the monster finally, finally staggered back, swiping ineffectively at the shadowy wisps behind it. The fuzzy mass that was vaguely humanoid lunged at the monster, drifting through the monster''s body, coming out the other side, all the while ignoring the monster¡¯s claws, as yet another part of the monster bubbled before exploding in a spectacular shower of gore.

    The shadow was now floating towards them. Tony landed beside him, his foot repulsors making him wobble in his landing, ¡°Do we know her?¡±

    He looked at Tony, ¡°Uh-oh yeah. She is the one who killed all the CHitauri in Mumbai.¡±

    The shadow reached them and then promptly fell down, revealing herself to be a woman of average height, breathing heavily, coughing in between.

    Tony immediately let loose a volley of repulsors, the ones he could sustain anyway at the monster who was once again, eating through his brethren.

    ¡°N¨CNeed..¡± he looked down at the woman who had a mask on her face, ¡°Need to breathe.¡± She coughed a bit, her face regaining a bit of colour then she spoke, ¡°Can¡¯t breathe in shadow form,¡±

    Oh, that made sense. He nodded at her in understanding. He also noticed the slew of grenades latched onto her belt, two of the six were missing.

    ¡°So, its insides are much weaker than its outside?¡± Tony said out loud as he concentrated on blasting away the corpses, as the monster staggered, clearly disoriented from the loss of much of its body mass in a spectacularly explosive way.

    ¡°Seems so,¡± He said as he took yet another piece of rock and threw it at the monster, succeeding in distracting him as Tony blew up yet another corpse.

    Between the missile strikes, Tony¡¯s repulsors, and his rampage, all that was left that could move in front of them was the monster, who hadn¡¯t done a single thing to save its brethren for some reason.

    He felt footsteps beside him as the woman stood in front of him, apparently already recovered. ¡°You good?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, going through the ground was not a great idea in hindsight. Uh, Can you just throw me at him? Would make things a lot easier.¡±

    On that, he did agree. He nodded at her. She took a deep breath and then gestured at him. He picked her up and threw her straight at the monster, headfirst.

    The monster let out a roar of rage, as its gaze finally landed on the shadow that was headed his way. The second roar somehow felt like a shriek as it locked on to something that could most definitely kill him.

    Then the monster did something that none of them expected it to do, it jumped.

    His eyes widened as the shadow girl managed to meet only air as the monster jumped as high as it could.

    ¡°No!¡± Tony roared as they both realised, all at once, where the monster was headed for. The Tesseract.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Between the time it could took Tony to realise it and aim his repulsors at them, the Monster had already reached the machine and had plunged his claws towards the Tesseract.

    The resulting light show would have blinded him had he not already turned around, knowing what was to come. Honestly? He just hoped that the monster bit off more than it could chew and blast itself to kingdom come.

    That would just make things easier at this point.

    But no, that was not what he heard. The sound, the chittering, the roar which then gradually turned into genuine human laughter, would forever haunt his dreams as the light subsided and he got a good look at the machine.

    Tony¡¯s hands fell slack as he looked at the monster, which was no longer a monster but a large human with grey and silver skin, which was glowing with blue veins as the monster¡¯s hand was plunged into the sphere of energy around the Tesseract. Yes, hands not claws. Apparently, as part of the package of whatever he got, his claws were converted to two hands and two legs, somehow evolving to become humanoid.

    The shadow girl had returned to their position, and even though he could see her shadowy form, it was jittery, as if she was afraid of uncertainty. He understood her, the monster was just laughing at this point, with energy levels no doubt off the charts.

    That did not bode well for them.

    The monster then abruptly stopped laughing. The lull in the battlefield, supplemented only by the regular bombardment, meant that a chill ran down his spine.

    ¡°RUN!¡± He shouted as he picked up the shadowy girl or at least tried to, as his hands simply went through her, Tony retreating as well.

    This was over, there was nothing they could do. He had already jumped over, so by the time he looked back, the shadow was already floating with them but benign way far behind. Tony was ahead of him but he had already resolved to turn back once he landed but the choice was taken out of him.

    Out of the corner of his vision, he saw blue headed right for them. It was too late when he realised that it was headed for the shadowy girl. ¡°Watc¨C¡± Was all he could get out in terms of warning before the beam collided with her shadowy form, and went straight through the shadow.

    The beam fizzled out immediately as he immediately jumped back, carefully cradling the bloody figure of the shadow girl, and jumped again, this time with as much strength as he could muster.

    THis was over, nothing they could do would help them at this point,. They had tried everything and even if they did have free access to the machine, they couldn''t¡¯;t stop the portal, let alone now when they had a vengeful monster holding onto the machine like it was his precious.

    It was¡­¡­over.

    ____xx____

    Manhattan [Subterranean base]

    It was an atmosphere of tension. The entire base was silent, save for the occasional sound of some robot moving. The panic room was sealed tight, with Coulson and Romanoff in a different bunker, a lower priority one than the one where Pepper, Belina, and Betty were present. The Titan bots kept guard over them while the base was a haunted place of silence.

    The only other place in the base with a human presence was the Medic ROom, which was not as developed as Randall would have liked it to be, being the de facto custodian of the entire base simply because there was no reason until now to design, develop or otherwise order high level medical equipment.

    It was because none of them simply got hurt. They had mostly enhanced staff and all they did was operate in a place where it would be hard for a 100 year old to get accidentally injured, let alone people who were downright bulletproof.

    It had seemed less important to Randall to invest his time into that, instead choosing to build what he called weapons but were more like toys, just supercharged to work with enhanced brutes. Those same weapons were used in the earlier invasion battle, dealing significant damage to the enemies before being destroyed in the battle.

    In the Medic Wing, rested Axle Riddle, also known as the Invisible Man, with nothing but three different Rescue bots being operated solely by Jarvis. The rescue bots, while not as powerful, were much more maneuverable and were thus used to monitor the condition of the one person who could help humanity turn the tide.

    Jarivis was continuously monitoring the condition of Axle Riddle, whilst simultaneously doing a mountain of other things. In the first time since it began operation, Jarvis relegated the Stark Mansion, the primary Stark Residence, as secondary in importance simply because Jarvis was stretched too thin.

    Jarvis was monitored the vitals of Invisible Man and aside from some stress in the beginning, they were fine. Axle¡¯s brain waves were the main issue which were sky high but were also beginning to lower down.

    ¡­¡­

    ¡­.

    On the other side of the battlefield, as soon as Kro managed to grievously wound Priya, the entire subterranean base began shaking. The robots paused, as Jarvis worked on resolving this anomaly, his sensors and processors working overtime.

    ¡­¡­

    ¡­.

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°Come on, Come on,¡± He muttered to himself, tense as he watched a literal loading screen in front of him. The scroll that past him had left for himself was rather¡­crass. Enlightening but he could have used less swear words.

    Then again, in his own words, he had been quite a dumbass.

    ¡®It was so embarrassing watching myself bumbling around like a fool as if we didn¡¯t have any intelligence of our own. As if stripping the intelligence boost of the Sage Force sapped away ours as well or the more humiliating one, that we didn''t have any to begin with.¡¯

    The scroll was filled with many such tidbits, criticising himself, at every turn. It was honestly humbling, anger inducing and embarrassing all on its own. A ball of second hand embarrassment also followed when he was hit in the face with a literal book by the Ancient One with detailed instructions on how to use it but he only used it to form contracts with Randall and then return it.

    ¡®You fucking IDIOT! God! It¡¯s like watching a Zombie walk around. What was the deal with waiting around, you fucktard? You couldn¡¯t do anything else except create a bunker? OH, I AM GONNA BUILD A SUPER TUNNEL THAT WOULD NEED MY EXPLICIT ATTENTION TO FUNCTION PROPERLY SO THAT PEOPLE COULD  BE SAFE DURING THE INVASION, HOW COULD THAT GO WRONG? Think! Idiot, THINK!¡¯

    Alright, that was enough of that. It was not good for his ego, bruised as it was. Thinking back, he did get quite reliant on his meta knowledge and did fum,kble with some stuff but he was not a backwards looking guy. Let¡¯s look forward.

    So, he sat there, floating cross legged as he had to wait for the gamer-esque loading screen to finish. It would have been comical had it not been for the literal world ending situation going on outside.

    He didn¡¯t know if the WSC would just nuke the whole place, even with the string of billionaires and powerful people present in the city, presumably. Tony should be able to redirect the whole thing but all of that was contingent on him finding out how much time he had spent as the Sleeping Beauty.

    He couldn''t believe it, the one thing that he prepared for years, he was spending asleep. It must be so infuriating to the people(viewers *wink wink*) to see that the person who protected them from gangbangers, skedaddle when it came to actual global threats.

    With the help of the handy dandy counter, he saw the progress bar inch closer to completion. It was already at 99% and anytime soon now, he would be waking up, powered up, not as much as he would have liked to, but enough so that anything short of Infinity Stone powered Thanos would be bitchslapped into oblivion.

    ¡­..

    ¡°Come on, just one more percent left,¡± he psyched himself up, stretching his metaphysical form, knowing that it would not help, at all.

    ¡­¡­[99%]

    ¡­¡­[99%]

    ¡­¡­[99%]

    ¡­¡­[99%]

    ¡­¡­[99%]

    ¡°Nooooooo!¡± He roared despairingly as the Gamer loading screen glitched at the mother of all bad times. He stood up and glared at the bar, blurting out any and all obscenities that came to his mind, ¡°You Mother¨CBLEEP, You Cocks¡ªBLEEP, PILE OF¡ªBLEEP¡±

    [INSERT FITGIRL REPACK SONG]

    He stopped mid tirade as a horrendous sound filled the space. He blinked in shock at the progress bar.

    ¡°Yes!¡± He cheered with his hands up in the air, as the progress bar had finally reached 100%, then began showing a bunch of progress reports. He briefly saw a command terminal opened up but that was fine, right?

    It was not like it was just a computer that could be replaced but a human brain of the wielder of the Sage Force, capable of devastating the planet if it felt like it.

    God Help them all.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.

 Chapter 133 : The One where the Author ends the Arc that nobody liked........ PART 2 [MUAHAHA]

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 133[May 2012]

    Manhattan [Subterranean base]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    ¡°DO YOU WISH TO PROCEED WITH THE AWAKENING?¡± He jumped with all his might and body slammed the YES button as whatever the loading screen was made up of, broke apart. He looked back from his jump and saw everything, everything that was this infinite space breaking apart, with blue cracks appearing everywhere in sight.

    In fact, he turned around to see himself healing into one such crack, ¡°AAAAH!¡±

    One moment, he was seeing the blue, feeling the blue, tasting the blue, the next his mind expanded.

    He awoke with a gasp, his eyes seeing sterile white ceilings, his ears noting the beeps of the machine next to him, his skin noting the coldness of the bed but above all of that, above every single one of the sensations granted to him by his mortal body, was the feedback from his mind.

    He took in a deep breath, closed his eyes and floated. His mind ran at a speed previously unthought of, covering Manhattan in an instant, taking hold of the entire city that he had come to love and adore.

    He instantly took control over all the Moles hiding in the buildings and even in the Subways, breaking their necks and transporting all of the Mole People, dead and alive, into a large pile in Central Park, one of them had even escaped the borough. Thankfully, he was not the same as before.

    He then took a breath, and then as if a switch had been flipped, he was assaulted by the voices of millions of minds, all in distress, all in some kind of panic.

    PANIC. HURT. PAIN. HELP. CRY.

    ¡°Ahhh!¡± He screamed as he worked his mind overtime on resolving the issues. Hundreds of people were rescued from the rubble. His mind panicking at the sight of so much pain and suffering in his extra sensory vision.

    His mind fell back on the one thing that worked with his powers. So, one moment he was overwhelmed with the sight of these many emotions, the next it was all gone, dumped onto his second mind, which then began using his powers to sort through everything and everyone, limiting itself to Manhattan for now.

    Buildings on the verge of falling were turned into dust, or repaired wherever possible. But more importantly¡­

    ¡°Woah!¡± He exclaimed as he tore out of the base, blasting through rock and Earth as if it wasn¡¯t even there, reaching the stratosphere in an instant.

    ¡°Ha..¡± It started with a small chuckle, which soon turned into a full laughter, ¡°Hahahahaha!¡±

    Then, his mind sobered up as he realised that there was still work to be done. He read the minds of the people and had come to the startling realisation that his mere presence in this world had changed things, enough so that Loki had done something that had somehow, in a roundabout way, fulfilled the condition for his release from the Dome but also made the situation worse, by targeting the world as a whole.

    Within less than a minute, he was done with Manhattan, with hundreds of doctors and entire hospitals¡¯ worth of stuff being transported to Central Park. He noted the astonishing efficiency of his mind, as the doctors were all on break, not on emergency surgeries or were on Vacation.

    His second mind, usually reserved for jobs with less mental strain, had somehow scanned all the doctors¡¯ minds, read some hospital reports, and had brought them to Manhattan, all within a minute. It was all way too advanced for him.

    Manhattan was still a big ball of Red to his telepathic senses, an area filled with negative emotions so he was going to refrain from using that ability to its fullest right now, especially since he did not have the time to get accustomed to his newest ability, or more specifically, an ability that he always had but never had the brains to pursue more.

    It had been 1 minute 22 seconds since he had awoken, and only then did he realise that he was feeling a draft on his bare ass. Deadpanning at the situation, he instantly ripped apart a fashionable outfit from a nearly destroyed store, and clothed himself, the threads of the clothing splitting apart to fit him before it was all sewn back together, in an instant.

    ¡°Huh, handy.¡± he grinned at that, then, his smile disappeared as he looked inside his mind, where time slowed down to a crawl. Horus could pass inside while only seconds would have passed in the real world, all the while maintaining his extrasensory perception.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    He could see his mind, which had expanded so much it was unbelievable. He could feel his range now. He dared not use it all at once, to get all that information at once would be suicide, even for him but he had a hunch that with enough practice, he could get either surface level information or something that would help reduce the influx of information in his mind, NOT turning him into a catatonic vegetable.

    Solving the Mole People crisis was somewhat easy, mainly because his extended range easily reached the lair of the Mole People, instantly mapping the subterranean layers, and finding the lair of the Mole Man.

    A quite pathetic specimen of a failed human who somehow managed to build a device that controlled all the Mole People. With a thought, the Mole Man slumped over his desk, overlooking multiple monitors that probably gave him the lay of the land in Manhattan.

    Hijacking the mental signal of the device was easy enough once he cross referenced it across all the still active Mole People, disabling all the active ones lurking below the surface. He couldn''t kill them outright because they number in thousands and it would amount to genocide. Ordering all of them to go back to their homes, he made sure that the Mole Man¡¯s device was buried deep, and his chambers were sealed tight, along with all the tunnels to his burrow collapsed.

    That should keep him occupied for a while. Once all of this was over, he could decide if he wanted to hand the petty man over to the government for attacking Humanity during a time of crisis, nonetheless.

    It had been 2 minutes since he had awoken. The streets were safe, the buildings were safe, the partially collapsed entry points to the Tunnel below were all cleared out. All of the security checks had been done at blistering speeds. All the healing he could do was done, mental surface scans were done, with multiple heavily criminal mindsets spread to a separate part of the tunnel, something that he and Randall had built into the design of the Tunnel.

    His second mind continued to work in overdrive, with his main one acting as a supervisor as it continued to unearth newer minds, finding damage, and repairing damage.

    It scanned the entirety of Manhattan, then started going around in a circle, slowly increasing its radius. He would have loved to watch but he had a lot of other stuff to do, like saving Randall and Tony¡¯s ass since both of them were absent from Manhattan, with Bruce being here.

    He could sense the Sanctum, inside of it as well. He could sense Master Drumm and he was about to ask for his help with a direct portal to Utah once he was done with New York as a whole, something which should be done in less than 10 seconds of real time.

    He was about to exit his mind, and travel to the Sanctum when he froze. He concentrated in his second mind and found, to his amazement as his second mind sensed an abnormal mind, something that moved at far greater speeds than an average human. Hell, even faster than the current him.

    Opening up a link, ¡°Hello Jarvis! This is me,¡± he sent as a greeting message.

    The link opened up instantly, ¡°Mr.Axle! This is an unusual way of communication.¡±

    He was about to say more when he received a data packet from Jarvis detailing the entire battlefield situation.

    He froze, his second mind freezing abruptly as well. Even inside his mind, he could feel it freezing and cracking almost as he absorbed what Jarvis had told him.

    ¡°Mr.Riddle?¡± Jarvis¡¯ voice sounded distant to his ears. Tony and Randall were fighting for their lives against a¡­Deviant?

    ¡°809000?¡± He whispered to himself as he felt his mind, once a lush green landscape, shake and crack as he processed that number. So many people, dead!

    Gritting his teeth, he exited his mind, almost violently, absentmindedly noticing that everything around him was shaking, his entire body covered in a corona of blue light. He looked to the West, knowing the direction of the battlefield, and with a single step, disappeared.

    ¡ªRandom Beautiful Agent¨C

    This sucked. Not the invasion, even though that was arguably more sucky but the situation as a whole. When she was told to report back to base so that she could be escorted to WASHINGTON, she knew that something was wrong, so she absconded from her post, and went around from place to place, helping people, because that was what she was trained to do.

    No, what sucked was the whole SHIELD being sidelined thing. She had to rip off all the logos on her uniform and even wear a jacket to hide who she really was so that people in law enforcement would let her help them. She knew that while some people were shady, most of the people she met during her time at the agency were pretty nice.

    Then again, the thing that sucked the most was the absence of the Invisible Man. With the return of the Hulk, the Mole People situation was pretty much resolved with people told to stay indoors so that the last remaining few could be rounded up. She was out and about with a radio on her so she could report any anomalies to the police who would then send the Hulk to her location who would then play a game of Whack A Mole with the Moles.

    She was about to report her area as clear and report back to the Police as a volunteer when she felt something pass through the ground. She looked up only to see a small blur in the air. She ran over to a smoking hole in the ground and was startled to find that it had closed completely.

    She whirled around, her gun in her hands as she heard the signature noise of the Mole People but then the voice was abruptly silenced. She was about to call it in since she was in an all but deserted complex, but then her eyes widened, her words stuck in her mouth as she saw something that she never thought she would see again.

    Floating People in the air.

    Her hands above her mouth, she barely choked back a sob as she saw the sky filled with Mole People, being transported in the direction of Central Park. She collapsed to her knees, her strength leaving her as she finally realised that she was safe, once more.

    Sniffing, she wiped her tears and took her radio, ¡°Do you see that, Detective?¡± Her happiness was clear in her voice as she walked back to her back, ready to go to Central Park to see the spectacle that would no doubt be waiting for her.

    The radio crackled to life, Detective Santiago no doubt wanting to snark something back when an Earthquake hit them, her bike almost falling on her.

    The shaking barely lasted a few moments before she regained her footing. Her radio cracked life to life but she ignored it, her eyes glued to the massive blue cloud in the air before that too disappeared.

 Chapter 134 : The One where the Author ends the Arc that nobody liked........ PART.....69 [Subdued L

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 134[May 2012]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    809000.

    That was the number that kept repeating in his mind as he disappeared, appearing at the edge of his range through teleportation. Oh yeah, somehow, he could do that as well, good to know.

    As he appeared, the blue shroud around him disappeared, his rage simmering down but never truly going away. He scanned the surface thoughts of the people around him and found that he was somewhere in Iowa.

    His eyes widened minutely, as he calculated his range to be about 1000 miles. If it was a complete radius or if it was in a single line, he did not know but he was somewhere in Iowa.

    He set his sights, closed his eyes, concentrated, and with little more than a pop which drained him somewhat, he appeared in¡­Utah.

    His mind immediately latched onto the situation in the Salt Basins, flooding the entire area as he halted everyone, or at least tried to.

    Breaking Mach speeds, he arrived on the battlefield and the sight made his insides churn. Hundreds, maybe thousands of corpses littered the battlefield, of both the CHitauri and some other species.

    His finger twitched as he lifted Randall, Tony, and some other girl, Priya, if her thoughts were anything to go by, and brought them to the Military convoy with a hospital about 200 miles away. He could sense a barely conscious Thor trying to force his way out and knocked him out as well.

    His mind was weird, well different than normal humans slim[ply because it was much denser and therefore, much harder to read. He did not mean it because THor was stupid but because it was [probably an Asgardian thing. Knocking him out was well within his abilities, especially since Thor was already weakened.

    His mind expanded, somehow interfacing with all the devices in the area, contacting Jarvis through them, which was very very handy. He also noticed that he was not wearing a mask or anything that could hide his identity, which should be stupid but right now, he was not worried about that.

    ¡°Jarvis, Transmit this. Around the world,¡± HE ordered as he looked at the Chitauri portal. The portal was blue, as was in the original timeline but everything other than that was different.

    ¡°Who¡­.are¡­.you?¡± He didn¡¯t let his gaze stray from the portal even as his senses registered the Deviant, the only one alive and also the one with the most energy dense body, with a barely humanoid appearance, glaring straight at him.

    He didn¡¯t deign that question with a reply, waiting for something. ¡°Connection established. Multi angle feeds restored,¡± He smiled slightly at that as he sensed multiple drones buzzing all around the battlefield recording and transmitting everything.

    This¡­.This could not be something that he could solve with a wave of his hand, go back to the people, and tell them ¡®Don¡¯t worry about it, I resolved it. Trust me¡¯. How could he? When he had fallen asleep, like the freaking Snow White.

    Even in this barren land, he could sense the overall mood, and the motions of the people in his range. They were all in the negative, and while it would naturally improve once the threat was gone, that did not sit right with him.

    So, here goes¡­..

    With a raised hand, he stopped the incoming missiles from both directions. Jericho missiles, if he was correct, letting the CHitauri come in unfettered. He could not fathom what was going through the Other¡¯s mind when he let so many Chitauri Leviathans come through the portal to their deaths. He could see no less than 11 corpses of the massive leviathans right beneath the Tesseract, with most of them in pieces.

    The Deviant whose mind he could not read, not without doing a deeper dive, was looking straight at him, with one of his hands on the Barrier, his other hand, releasing a blue wave that was carving through the Chitauri Leviathans like butter and then digging a hole in the Earth.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    That monster must be the one who can absorb the cosmic energy from the Eternals and then evolve to become more and more humanoid, not to mention stronger. Evolution of the highest order. His gaze then slid to the Tesseract, the biggest source of cosmic power on the planet currently.

    It was their misfortune that Tony chose this place for their final battle. The deviants must have been living underground, right below this place and the massive Cosmic energy right above them must have alerted them to the delicious snack waiting just above them.

    His link with Jarvis was still established, allowing him to see the coverage of the feed. Jarvis was using the same reach that he had cultivated when Tony gave him blanket permission to hack most of the world, to telecast him floating strong in front of the portal.

    The Military had received their messages and had stopped the missile launches, instead launching jets that were due to arrive at his location soon enough. First off¡­.

    He looked straight at the Leviathans that came out of the portal and with a thought, atomized them. It was incredibly easy as well, turning two Leviathans, what would normally be a city destroying force, into dust with just a thought.

    With another thought patches of Earth all around him were ripped out of the ground and floated right at his level. Another twitch of his fingers turned them into spikes, another twitch had them rotating at speeds that turned the sand red.

    Looking straight at one of the drones, he smiled and did the only thing he knew that had an absolute chance of drawing hope, and strength in trying times.

    ¡°Have no fear¨C¡± He waved his hand up, lifting an sq.km worth of land around him and also sending the superheated spikes straight into the portal, ¡°Because I AM HERE!¡±

    The next second, his hand came up, stopping the beam of the blue just as it was about to hit his palm as if some invisible force was holding it in place. He locked eyes with Kro, and the next second, he hit Kro, the Deviant born with a mutation, allowing him to absorb cosmic energy and evolve, to become smarter and stronger than his brother, with enough force to rip him from the Tesseract.

    His left hand was still embedded into the sphere of pure energy surrounding the Tesseract, but the rest of the body was blown apart in a spectacular shower of golden lights. Lowering his hand, the problem resolved for now, he waited for Jarvis to arrive.

    Randall was in the right direction but he didn¡¯t have a concrete idea as to how the Portal machine could be stopped. Jarvis was on his way with the Sceptre, the one thing that would totally shut this machine down. In the meantime, despite the losses sustained by the Chitauri, he could still sense dozens of Chitauri Leviathan crowding the area on the other side of the portal, waiting to come through.

    He borrowed one of the universal comms from the Military base and patched himself through, ¡°Randall?¡±

    There was a brief static before he heard Randall¡¯s relieved voice, tinged with exhaustion, ¡°Oh thank God! Keep an eye on that monster, he can heal himself by¨C¡±

    ¡°--Eating the remnants of his species, I know. But I hit him with so much force that there is nothing left of him, save for his hand in the Tesseract portal which is not doing much. Still, I will destroy it once the portal is closed.¡±

    He could tell that Randall was not happy, mainly because he believed that Kro was a much bigger threat due to his ability to touch and use the energy from the Tesseract. While he was not wrong, Kro had turned into a very evolved version of himself, he could sense everything in his range and there was nothing left of him.

    ¡°Patch me to the President.¡±

    He didn¡¯t receive an answer but a slight static before the panicked, tired, and frankly desperate voice of the old President reached his ears.

    He smiled and in a reassuring voice, told him that he was back and he would be taking care of the entire problem, once and for all.

    He raised his left hand, as the Sceptre came flying through, in an otherwise perfect imitation of Thor and Mjolnir. With the cameras still on him, he flew close to the machine but waited a bit before looking straight up, ripping apart the leviathans and seeing the dozens more that were on their way from the main mothership.

    He sighed, shook his head, and jabbed the crown of the sceptre into the Tesseract. He encountered some resistance but the portal was finally closed, the machine breaking down around the Tesseract.

    He atomised the hand as well, leaving no trace behind.

    He could hear and feel the faint cheers of the military around him as well as the thunderous applause as Jarvis was still connected to him and provided him, in a controlled manner, with information from all around the world.

    His task done, he ripped the Earth apart, placed the Tesseract and the Sceptre in it, and compressed it, turning it into a very hard prison for the two Infinity Stones.

    ¡°Mr.President, I will be back in about two hours, give or take.¡± he said and disappeared from his position, the crude container transported in the military convoy, right in front of Randall who just received mental instructions on how to better handle the whole thing.

    Meanwhile, he had a couple of Chitauri all around the world that needed to be turned to Dust.

    Heh, he smirked to himself, turned to Dust. He smiled at the internal Joke.

    Then, he disappeared.

 Chapter 135 : Whipped! & Flexing his might!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 135[May 2012]

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    The damage was more widespread than he had imagined it to be. Travelling around the world, he dusted all the Chitauri he could find and dusted every single one that was stolen or confiscated by the various government agencies as well.

    Despite saving thousands more by stopping various crimes, healing people as much as he could, saving them from harm, repairing properties, or helping turn rubble into dust to rescue more people, he did not feel good.

    No, he felt awful. This was nothing like he had expected the Invasion to go. It was all a light note for him, Fight off the Chitauri, create a big show, safeguard all the people around the portal opening, let the Nuke go through the portal itself, and BAM! He was free.

    That was all it was supposed to be and yet, reality had hit him right in the balls, repeatedly. Not only was he asleep for most of it, the world had to deal with a much more global Invasion, something that it was clearly unprepared for. He was preparing for a small single scale invasion and ended up being greeted with the Aftermath of an Invasion that spanned the globe.

    Well, most of the globe was certainly not as lucky as Mumbai was. Priya, if he read her mind correctly, was the sole reason why the most populated nation in the world did not have a single casualty from the alien invasion, well, aside from some heart attacks that might have occurred but he wouldn¡¯t count those.

    ¡°Mr.Riddle?¡±

    He was mostly done now, repairing the structures and clearing out the areas had taken time and he knew that he could not do all of the work for them since it would set a very bad precedent, and also would not be appreciated. Coming together, working together in the aftermath of a tragedy is what creates a community, he couldn''t possibly stop that from happening.

    ¡°Yes, Mr.President?¡±

    ¡°Can you come to DC? With your awareness Off,¡± And there it goes.

    ¡°And what if I tell you that I can¡¯t turn it off?¡±

    ¡°Well, then I¡¯ll be sorry to tell you that you will be barred from ever leaving your home state.¡±

    With an eyebrow raised, he flew up into space, overlooking Earth as he kept a small pocket of air around him to breathe, ¡°Is that a challenge?¡±

    There, that¡¯s New York, he rocketed towards his home state.

    ¡°That is the truth. In fact, if it were not for the fact that there was simply no way of containing you, I am sure that my colleagues in Congress would have simply drafted you in the serve of the nation,¡±

    He scoffed at that, even as the pocket of air around him began burning out due to his speed of re entry, ¡°yeah, right. Alright, Mr.President, we can have a virtual meeting.¡± He cut off the call then and there.

    It was different, getting used to this, to all this strength. And it was even more humbling to know that this was not his full power. No, this was maybe around 80% of his full strength, and that too when it came to Telekinesis and Telepathy.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

    He made a face at the telepathy. He couldn¡¯t let anyone know he had Telepathy as well, that would not go over well. Not even his hardcore supporters would help him.

    ¡°Good Morning, Mr.Riddle,¡± Jarvis pinged him over his network that he kept open. Tony would surely be scratching his head trying to figure out how the heck a connection directly to Jarvis was made without any discernible network, or maybe he might just figure out telepathy as well.

    With Tony, you never know.

    ¡°Good morning, Jarvis. Tony up yet?¡±

    ¡°Unfortunately, Mr.Stark¡¯s body had undergone a rather stressful period and as such, Ms.Potts has forbidden him from doing any work, going so far as to maintain a DND zone around Sir.¡±

    ¡°Oh, and Tony agreed?¡±

    ¡°He had no choice, sir.¡± Was it just him or did he hear the sound of a whip going in the background when Jarvis said that?

    ¡°I was to inform you that your identity has been leaked all over the world, mainly because of the lack of any masking features on your side. With your status as the second largest shareholder of Stark Industries, there have been calls to restrict your movements by putting pressure on Sir. Ms.Potts is concerned about the same and has been asking to meet you,¡±

    He rolled his eyes at that, his trajectory set on a certain small building in Greenwich, which was much bigger on the inside. For the time being, his telepathy was set to surface scans only so he did not know the general mood of the city aside from a general simmering of negative feelings topped by general positivity for temporary periods of time, mostly because they met someone, or food or something else.

    ¡°I will see what can be done, Jarvis. Don¡¯t worry too much about that, I¡¯ll meet her today itself,¡±

    ¡°Thank you, sir.¡±

    New York as a whole was very much damaged, instead of the damage being restricted to just MAnhattan. Every single Borough was damaged because the Chitauri Invasion had spread to many parts but more than that, the Mole People had come digging through every single borough, targeting everything and everyone in their sight indiscriminately.

    809000

    That number still rang in his mind, as he thought of what he could and should say in the upcoming meeting. A meeting he did not schedule but they must know he was coming. After all, he was doing a pretty badass burning re entry.

    The only reason there was not a burning fireball headed straight to the city was because he did not want to panic people more than they already were.

    The Sonic Booms were well under control due to his powers but he was well above Mach 3 right now and he was not even breaking a sweat, according to the data Jarvis had access to.

    Just as he was about to crash into the outer barrier around the Sanctum, a portal opened up in front of him and he almost crashed into stone tiles. Still, his abrupt halt created gusts of wind that made two people almost fall down and the rest actually fell down.

    ¡°Mr.Riddle, I have been expecting you,¡± The Ancient One, the Lady in the Know, the Bald headed Demon herself greeted him, and he grinned at her.

    It was not a good grin, he could tell that very much. Oh, he was angry, so very angry.

    At himself, at the situation, at her, at the Vishanti, at his ROB, everyone. He was angry and he had nothing to channel that anger into.

    It was not like he could go into space and start tearing apart the Asteroid belt in his anger because as he was now, he would most likely tear apart the country before he could reach his limits, mainly because it took shockingly little force to disturb the tectonic plates and unleash what many would mistake as the Apocalypse.

    Bursting Volcanoes, Cracking Land, Landslides, floods, and more, all available at a single push of his mind.

    Sobering.

    He straightened up, surveyed the scene in front of him, looking at Wong and Ancient One who were standing and the rest who were trying to get up, shooting him ugly looks as they did so, ¡°Yeah. I have some questions and¨C¡± Here, he flexed his Sage Force might, something he had wanted to do for a long time. Thankfully he had the instructions to do so when he became who he was now.

    A corona of blue surrounded his body, the stone pavement cracking beneath him in circles, a heavy pressure, both mental and physical was cast all around him, making all the people save for the Ancient One hunch down a bit, and in the case of Wong, make him draw his Eldritch energy to form weapons and point them against him.

    After all this show and tell, he replied, ¡°--I would very much love the answers to them, right now!¡¯

 Chapter 136 : Dead yet alive, Compromises & GOING STATE LEVEL NOW!

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 136[June 2012]

    KamarTaj

    ¨CAxle Riddle¨C

    A corona of blue surrounded his body, the stone pavement cracking beneath him in circles, a heavy pressure, both mental and physical was cast all around him, making all the people save for the Ancient One hunch down a bit, and in the case of Wong, make him draw his Eldritch energy to form weapons and point them against him.

    After all this show and tell, he replied, ¡°--I would very much love the answers to them, right now!¡¯

    He looked the Ancient ONe dead in her eyes, daring her to say No to his face right now. Sure, he was sure that despite his power up, he was sure that she could still seal him away or blast him away from Kamar Taj but he would not, could not be dealt with so easily. No, this was important and he needed the answers.

    Hundreds of thousands of people died because he had the idea in his mind that the invasion would only occur in Manhattan, with just a single portal, just like canon. Not this¡­tragedy.

    Moments seemed like minutes as the ancient ONe finally sighed and twitched her fingers. His eyes twitched as he saw her effortlessly cut through the pressure he had generated, relieving the people behind her from bearing the full brunt of his powers, which was unfair but needed to drive home his point.

    ¡°Return to your duties,¡± She said nonchalantly to the people behind her, most of whom were already sporting eldritch weaponry, then turned to him, ¡°Follow me,¡±

    The crowd parted for her, as he followed through the path as well, keeping the corona of energy active around him, wary of any sneak attacks. While he was confident in dealing with them before they could even think of making a move on him, it was still good to be cautious.

    Being Masters, he could not yet read their surface thoughts but he could thoroughly read their bodies which meant that even the slightest muscle twitch was observed, recorded, analysed to provide the optimum response.

    His brows furrowed as he realised that he couldn¡¯t do the same to the Ancient One. There was something, a veil of some sort blocking his powers from doing anything. Everyone else was fair game though. Damn, Wong was ripped underneath all those robes.

    They passed through multiple corridors, some of which were surely there only to confuse any would-be intruder, as they entered what seemed like a reception room of some sort, clad with comfortable sofas and a coffee table.

    She sat in one of them and gestured for him to sit in one of them. He huffed, dispelled his aura, and sat his ass down.

    ¡°Did you know?¡± He had to ask, because that kind of death, being in the hands of one person did not sit well with him. Even if she was the Sorcerer Supreme.

    ¡°I assume you are familiar with the phrase ¡®The Hardest Choices Required the Strongest Wills¡¯?¡±

    His eyes widened as a chill ran down his spine, the Ancient One reciting the creed of the fucking Thanos to him, with a nonchalant look on her face as she sipped her tea.

    He barely managed to choke out, ¡°What?!¡±

    She took a long sip while maintaining eye contact, set down the cup, and replied, ¡°That is true, Mr.Riddle, the hardest choices do require the strongest wills. Your mere existence has changed the fabric of reality around the multiverse. You couldn¡¯t expect the universe to just roll over and accept any changes, no, the universe fights back, and in your case, the only reason Earth is not a wasteland is because the Vishanti fought on your behalf, reducing the¨C¡±If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ¡°Reducing? Is this reducing the damage?¡± He whispered, deathly calm as his enhanced mind ran everything she said hundreds of times internally before replying. Once he began using his powers to enhance his thinking, the rage just went away, dissolving into blocks of irrational emotions before being flushed away by his conscious mind. He was sure that it would remain in his subconscious somewhere but for now, he was calm for this conversation.

    The Ancient One nodded, a look of pity crossing her face, ¡°Yes. This is by far the best scenario they could create for you. I realise that loss of life on this scale is new to you but to me¨C¡±

    ¡°It is just another tragedy, a part of the job, huh?¡± He said, more to himself than to her. He realised then and there that he could never respect the Ancient One as a person, never respect who she had become in all her years being the Sorcerer Supreme. Along the way, the path she had chosen to protect all of Humanity, she had lost the one thing that made her human.

    Empathy.

    Sure, it was not her fault, not completely. The situation was to blame as well. After all, witnessing dozens of events with catastrophic loss of life, being powerless to do anything simply because a magic Rock told her that this was probably the path of least loss, would turn anyone into an unfeeling monster.

    Oh, she tried. He could tell that she tried. To be more humane in her dealings, and to display more emotions but it was all forced. The second her attention is shifted, she turns back into the emotionless, attack dog of the Vishanti.

    Supreme in power and yet, lost in all the ways that mattered.

    ¡°Do you regret it?¡± his mouth moved on its own before he could decide on anything. He was about to explain what he meant when the Ancient One spoke on her own with a soft smile on her face.

    ¡°No. Not even for a moment. I realise that I must move on soon because I have become something that my younger self would not bear to look at but the horrors I have seen, the horrors I have personally inflicted, and the horrors I let happen simply because it was the path of least damage, has taken its toll on me.¡±

    He leaned back in his chair, slumped as he realised that there was simply no reason for him to come here. He had more important things to do. Besides, Strange should be coming in soon anyway. He had more than enough things on his plate, he should not be here wasting time on things that had already happened.

    HE stood up, looking down at her surprised face, ¡°Look, I get it. I don¡¯t like it but I understand. It was foolish of me to think that getting a cozy life in one of the best cities on the planet with powers beyond anyone was a punishment. Something had to give and other people had to pay the price for that. I have a lot of other work to do and this¡­this is not the way to do so,¡±

    HAving said his piece, he was back in his corona of energy as he walked out of the place, the wards of this place breaking as they tried to latch onto him. He could tell their function as well, simple location as well as warning systems just in case he entered places he was not supposed to.

    ¡®Huh. Nifty¡¯ he thought to himself before blinking in surprise as the door to exit Kamar Taj was somehow right in front of him. It further proved his suspicions, it was all a maze that could be controlled at will.

    Damn, what a nightmare for people who can¡¯t blast through everything. Shaking his head, he flew through the door, finding himself in the middle of nowhere.

    Literally nowhere as he was suspected mid air. He looked back and saw the fading form of a door as it too dissipated soon after. Letting his telepathy go after he had restrained in Kamar Taj, he picked up on a few stray thoughts from the people down below.

    He had an effective range of 1000 miles now. An absurdly large number which also generated an absurdly large amount of information, so much so that even after having his second mind, he could not keep the entire thing active at all times.

    No, that was going to take a lot of work, even more work than defeating Thanos himself, he supposed.

    He could still cover more than ten times the area of Manhattan with ease but that was nowhere near his full range if he concentrated and was looking for something specific. The problem lay in the amount of information entering his mind.

    It had to deal with the spatial scans, giving him the exact material details, and also with the now telepathic thoughts from all the people that lived in that range. He could also do animals but that was mostly just feelings and a bunch of images instead of complex thoughts.

    Plus, most animals had very short memories so that was a plus.

    ¡°Well, time to return home,¡± He shrugged and disappeared. It would only take a couple of jumps before he was back in Manhattan, something that didn''t even phase him in terms of energy expenditure.

    He was so going to bust every single criminal in all of New York now.

    He couldn¡¯t wait!

 Chapter 137 : Ehh? *Shrugs*

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 137[June 2012]

    Manhattan

    ¨CRandom Beautiful Agent¨C

    She looked forlorn as she was, effectively, evicted from the one place she had called for the past couple of years. She knew it was coming, not this soon but she knew it was coming because she had done nothing in years at this point. The only reason she was sent for this assignment was as an offering, as a honeypot trap so that SHIELD could get themselves someone strong, and yet, she hadn¡¯t even done her job as a liaison well.

    And now? Now that the Invisible Man has been unmasked for all of the world to see? Well, even if SHIELD was not down into the gutters, her job would have been axed anyway. With the recent changes in command and the way SHIELD was sidelined at every attack effort, she did not feel comfortable reporting to duty halfway across the world, like her superiors had ordered and had instead just resigned.

    She smirked as she recalled their faces when she told them that she would not be going anywhere else other than Manhattan, and gave them her resignation. Sure she was nowhere near important in the command chain of SHIELD but that single act, that was more than cathartic.

    What was more cathartic was the fact that they tried to strong arm her and she then had to remind them that this was Manhattan, not their home base, where they could try and intimidate her. She was not scared of the 6¡¯2 man in front of her back then because she knew that someone even stronger was keeping watch everywhere.

    Sighing, she turned away from the building that had been reinforced and built over multiple times before heading towards Central Park, for some nice and quiet fresh air. She had already found a place to crash, one of her friends'' parents owned an apartment in Manhattan that her friend graciously offered to her. She was paid handsomely all these years, plus she didn¡¯t have to pay for anything so she did have a sizable amount of money saved, like mid 6 figures level. She had already invested about 200k in Stark Industries which had already turned into 230k, which was fine but she was not looking to recklessly spend her money.

    No sir, that behaviour was reserved for when she had the SHIELD credit card with essentially unlimited credit because they wanted to get their hands on the shiny new enhanced, and held hope for years that one woman would be able to do that.

    Did those idiots not realise that had the Invisible Man truly wanted, almost all of the world¡¯s models, hoes, and gold diggers would fall over themselves to throw their bodies at him? Drowning him in a slut pile?

    ¡°That is not good for my skin,¡± She muttered as she dug into a slice of Pizza, New York Style that she bought on her way to Central Park. In the distance she could see the Congregation of the Invisible Man, something of a church that had sprouted in the Invisible Man¡¯s wake. Now those same churches were distributing everything that came to her mind to all of the victims of the invasion.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    Food, Medicine, Blankets, volunteers, Doctors and more.

    Everyone and their grandma had now been convinced of the power of the Invisible Man, someone going so far as to claim him an emissary of God, which predictably led to the Church ballooning up far beyond their original number. Well, she might register herself as a member soon enough anyway, if only to remain closer to the antics of the Invisible Man.

    ¡°They really do help, don¡¯t they?¡± her neck snapped to the side as she saw someone sitting on the bench with her.

    ¡°Um, excuse me?¡± it was not like she was worried for her safety. Even ignoring the fact that this was Manhattan and the Invisible Man¡¯s domain, she was sitting within a throw¡¯s distance of a mass of over 100 people whose core tenant was to mitigate crime in any way possible. Only a fool would try anything in these circumstances.

    The man smiled at her, ¡°Nothing, Sara. Just admiring the view.¡±

    ¡°O-okay,¡± She said back before she scooted to the edge of the bench, subtly keeping an eye on the well dressed handsome creep. Damn, what was wrong with you, Sara?

    Scooting away from such a hot piece of ass. Me Likey.

    She opened her mouth, to break the ice only to blink in confusion as she saw nothing but thin air.

    _____xx_____

    SHIELD NY HQ

    ¨CRandom Junior Analyst¨C

    He stood in front of the SHIELD HQ Parking lot, holding onto a box of cardboard that held his meager belongings, the ones that he had sneaked into office over his years of service. Sure, he may not have been the best analyst, with his only achievement being the first to stop the Invisible Man¡¯s activities in Manhattan but come on?

    That had to count for something, right?

    ¡°Apparently not,¡± He muttered as he smiled grimly, heading towards his car, the one thing that was working properly in his life right now. He had no girlfriend, no job, no benefits, a crappy apartment because he had been saving for his future, and a decent car because he liked driving.

    Putting his stuff in the trunk of the car, he opened the car manually, since it was almost a decade old at this point, and sat down in the driver¡¯s seat. As was customary, since he was a stickler of the rules, he moved his hand to put the seat belt on, and just as he was about to click it¡­

    ¡°AAAAAAA!¡± He did not scream like a little girl as he wiggled around in his seat, trying to get to his gun that did not exist at the moment because SHIELD had taken every single asset back, as was their procedure when someone left the organisation.

    ¡°Calm Down Steven,¡± he felt a strange sense of calm wash over him as the stranger kept his hands up in a non threatening gesture.

    ¡°Who are you?¡± He asked calmly.

    The man smiled mysteriously, putting him on edge even though the edge was dulled by whatever was keeping him calm, ¡°Me? I am just a nobody. Goodbye, Steven.¡±

    Then, he blinked and the man disappeared. What was he doing right now?

    He shook his head and pushed the ignition. He did not have time for this. He saw the wiring on the wall and was fired only because he had the audacity to tell his friends, though calling them friends now would be generous, that SHIELD¡¯s time was gone now, with the President actively sidelining them in the worst crisis of the century.

    Well, sucks to be them. He would now have to find a new job, maybe go back to the finance sector.

    He shuddered as he pulled out of the parking lot. Being trained to be an assassin, and then getting a desk job was way better than working in finance. He was of the mind that even some of the legendary Spies in SHIELD would find it difficult to fit in there.

    With those thoughts in mind, Steven, once a Random Junior SHIELD analyst went onward, toward his destiny to be a middle class man and die, surrounded by nurses in an Old Age home.

 Hiatus Notice

    Hi guys!

    Um, as you can tell, there have been no new updates from me for a while now. Yes, I have put this story on hiatus now. Somewhere along the way, the quality dropped, and I failed to incorporate the new elements in the story without compromising on the overall tone, which was going to be funny, as I had decided in the beginning.

    Also, the Invasion Arc was needlessly long and also focused on other characters, but that was only because I had in mind that once Axle unlocked his powers, he would go fuck off to space, and then Earth would have to be defended by the other superheroes that popped out after Axle led the way.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    Anywho, enough talking about that. Yes, I have stopped writing this story. No, I have not stopped writing. The writer''s block was only for this story, thankfully.

    In a few days, I will post the HP story that I have been writing, and then a few days after that, the next MCU story should be up.

    See you guys then!

    As always, Thank you for reading!

    Toodles!

 Wizard with a Mutation : Chapter 10

    Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don¡¯t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.

    Brown¡¯s Hotel, London, Magical Britain [The Next Day, 1980]

    ¨CScott Winters¨C

    His eyes snapped open, on the dot at 6:00, he could tell without even looking, especially since the alarm began beeping a moment later. Counting small victories since that was the secret to remaining happy, he hopped off the mattress and landed seamlessly on the ground or rather, that was what should have happened.

    Instead, he almost fell face first if not for the wandless charm he cast on his clothes, saving him from a swollen face or a broken tooth. After that, he, or rather, his advanced magical freshening up kit did its magic on his face as he bathed and got dressed up.

    After all, today he had to go to the embassy and if the things he had heard about the US consulate in London were right, John was in for a pretty shocking experience. It would shock most people about how often Americans thought of the rest of the world, even if they were wizards and then those people would realise the simple vastness of America, understanding why Americans didn¡¯t bother to go abroad or even get a passport for most people.

    It was simply because America was so vast and so varied that they simply didn¡¯t need to go anywhere else. They could cross a State and it would be as if they entered a different English speaking country, such was the variation.

    That is probably why even wizards like John, who could teleport or get someone to teleport them for a fee, were so awestruck by going to foreign countries. It was simply cheaper to roam around in America instead of getting on a flight.

    Doubly so for John, since most Wizards didn¡¯t trust the flying contraptions that the No-Maj built, and a worrying amount outright refused to believe that they existed. He had even met some people, in Greenwich Village itself, telling themselves and anyone who would listen, that there were squads of wizards in each and every one of the planes, powering it with their magic so that it could fly, and someday, the wizards were going to make a mistake and metal planes were going to rain down on everyone.

    ¡°Ah, finally.¡± He said as he saw John arrive for breakfast, which opened up at 7 sharp. The man looked harried yet also was dressed impeccably, knowing that they were probably going to meet Rothschild today, and the man was anything but pleasant to talk to, especially since they were only going to add to the pile of paperwork he had on his desk.

    He counted that as a small victory as well.

    ¡°You¡¯re late,¡± He said as he took a sip of his freshly squeezed orange juice. Funnily enough, Oranges tasted different here and in Manhattan.

    ¡°Well, forgive me, dear sir, someone thought it appropriate to dump some information on me and then shut the door on me without giving me any context,¡± John snarked as he ordered the Omelette and also Orange juice.

    Copycat.

    ¡°I just thought that you would need all the sleep you could get since it would be a long flight home.¡± John rolled his eyes at him so hard he feared that his eyeballs might fall out of his head.

    Plus, he also had to stay up and guard their rooms and the hotel at large because he knew there was a possibility that he was tracked, especially since the British Ministry still had their time trackers.

    But he had something they didn¡¯t and that is the ability to blend in with the common population, something that almost no wizards in Magical Britain have, not even the No-maj borns because Magical Britain and Hogwarts as a whole had a primary purpose that worked excellently.

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    The education and the political posing were all secondary. The primary purpose was to make sure that the majority of new wizards, the No-Maj born integrated perfectly into the wizarding society, so much so that Hogwarts basically crippled their ability to go back into the nonmagical world and stay there for long periods of time.

    Even their yearly breaks were barely a week long and the rest of the time, there was total magical silence on both ends. Letters were all screened, not the noble kids no but the No-Maj borns were fair game since they had no authority they could complain to and also because their parents could disseminate the information to other unsuspecting No-Majs.

    It was all a very successful scheme since the nobles needed someone to do the jobs that no one else would and they would never bring in No-Majs to do their jobs. Hence, the No-Maj born came into the picture. Their educations were all sponsored, with the stipulation being that they completed all the seven years of Hogwarts, without fail. Oh, they could fail and even take drops but they had to get a certificate from Hogwarts and Hogwarts was very good at brainwashing everyone that entered its hallowed doors, no matter how bad the education might be.

    Yeah, he had a very bad opinion of Hogwarts, contrary to what the wizards in MACUSA thought about it. Yeah, it was old and yes, it did house many mysteries, which was compounded by the fact that Dumbledore lived there, and had a fan following worldwide but it was not even close to being the top in either coolness factor or even education.

    Japan¡¯s Mahoutokoro was much, much better. He had a harder time against Japanese criminals than any other criminal on the planet simply because their school had a much more rigorous and strict combat training program that every single wizard had to take and pass, without fail. They were not allowed to practice magic in the No-Maj world without it.

    It was also much more balanced as it included close combat skills as well, something that was only given to Aurors in MACUSA, and even then, it was nowhere near as rigorous as Mahoutokoro¡¯s training.

    That school made sure that each and every one of its wizards would be able to fight for itself since the wizards had abandoned the Emperor before Japan was defeated by the No-Maj using a weapon that he could only describe as apocalyptic. To this day, there was a permanent squad of ICC researchers and Unspeakables who worked on reversing the damage done to Japan.

    They had limited success and were on their way to getting a complete solution in a few decades if they were lucky. It was all very fascinating as he had read their research a bunch of times using his high clearance given by MACUSA.

    One of the many things that he would miss if he strayed in MAgical Britain.

    He shook his head slightly, ¡°Are you Ok?¡±

    He looked up as John peered up at him in concern, mid sip of his Orange Juice.

    ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t worry about it. Now, eat up, I hear that the ride we are going to take is a bumpy one.¡±

    ¡°Bumpy?¡±

    He just smiled mysteriously.

    ¡­..

    ¡­.

    ¡°Oh. Ohhhh,¡± John could only say that as they stood right outside the real US Consulate with the No-Maj coming in and out in droves.

    ¡°Are we at the wrong place?¡±

    ¡°Nope!¡± HE smiled cheekily and pushed John inside.

    He followed the ¡°Commercial Foreign Immigration Services Bureau for Others¡± sign, climbing two floors and finally reaching a floor that was almost empty save for the one desk manned by one man.

    ¡°Oh, please come in,¡± The man said with a plastic smile on his face that was reminiscent of the average service industry worker back home, in the States.

    ¡°It is my genuine pleasure,¡± He grinned back, only his was much more real as he pushed John to go past the desk, the man returning to his desk with the same plastic smile as if he was a robot and then strode to the door that appeared in his vision as soon as he crossed a black line on the ground.

    ¡°Where are we¡ªOhh,¡± John said as the door, the shiny golden door appeared in front of them.

    He gestured at the door to John¡°After you,¡± John looked suspicious but did not question it as he opened the door and put one foot inside, and then¡­..fell down.

    ¡°AAAAAaaaa!¡±

    ¡°Hey! You fell down yet?¡± He shouted into the tunnel before faltering as he too felt an impact on his back, pushing him into the tunnel. Turning around, he gave the middle finger to the wizard who was looking at him with an all too pleased of an expression with his wand pointed at Scott.

    If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon

    I already have upto 10 extra chapters published there.