The Sage of the Mind

[Mastersgt]

Personally? Not a fan of how much of a side character the MC is in his own story. Or how non-existent he is when needed most. I get it, building up the tension for the turnaround. Still dislike the narrative/plot method.

 

[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 126[May 2012]

Utah Salt Plains

–Randall–

"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–" 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–"

"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.

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.

 

[Spearow]

where is the mc?

 

[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 127[May 2012]

Manhattan [Inside Axle's Mind]

–Axle Riddle [Ặ̸̧̨͈̙̳͈̐̅̎̂͝͝w̴̡̬̹̣̭͖̥̞̞͉̮̙̬̎́̏̃̇̓̐͒̓̄̂͑̚͘͝͠ä̵͚̼̟̜͕̯̖̥̲͍͙́͗̿̈́́͗͜k̷̢̞̬̱͎̳͍̞̱̜͕̠̺̱̲͆̑̍͋ë̵̪̱̩̩̣̩̬͚̲̺̥̤͎̻̝̙͚̊̆̎͐̌͑̚͝͝͝͝n̶̢̧̢̜͙̜̖͕̭̟̦̝͎̭̻̔̈͜ę̵̡̨̮̫̬̫͎͔̥̹̅̈́̄̃͂̅͑̓̒̍̐͝ḑ̴̟̟͕̙̼͔͎̠̬̭̃̇͆̏̀̆̈́̍̽͋̕]–

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.

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

–Randall–

"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.

 

[Hyperionthetitan]

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.

Click to shrink...

Those sexual innuendos man

 

[LogicExtreme11]

why the fuck is he reading a BOOK AND EXPERIMENTING with his powers WHEN HIS PEOPLE ARE DYING?! seriously wtf?!

him " oh yeah the world is currently being torn apart and my friends slaughtered, but let me just sit here and play around with my powers and read a little. that fine right?"

do you understand how STUPID that is?!