The Sage of the Mind

[IdleMuse0307]

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

–Axle Riddle–

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.

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.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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

–Axle Riddle–

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.

"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.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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

–Axle Riddle–

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.

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.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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

–Axle Riddle–

"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.

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.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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

–Axle Riddle–

"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.

"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.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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

–Axle Riddle–

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.

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.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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]

–Axle Riddle–

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.

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.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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]

–T'Chaka–

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?

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.