Hyperionthetitan
Stuck in a tree
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once the barrier lifted he can try to build a new body for him to puppet around 
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The Sage of the Mind
- Thread starter IdleMuse0307
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- #self insert fanfic marvel saga
Chapter 70 : Power Flex!
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IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
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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
–Axle Riddle–
"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.
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—-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 –"
"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.
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
–Axle Riddle–
"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.
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—-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 –"
"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.
chicozapote
Making the rounds.
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I can make a suggestion, drop the bomb that if people with superpowers are not taken care of, the monsters beyond the earth can see a delicious snack of life. He doesn't know about the old man, so you play your cards right or Galactus will eat the earth. 
Chapter 71: Introducing.....Random HYDRA analyst 1!
New
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
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- Likes received
- 9,546
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
–Axle Riddle–
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.
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
–Random HYDRA Analyst 1–
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.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 71 [October 2010]
Manhattan
–Axle Riddle–
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.
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
–Random HYDRA Analyst 1–
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.
chicozapote
Making the rounds.
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So your body can resist the sauce you have to put on the taco. I have met people who like Mexican food but because they are not used to it, well according to them the walk to the bathroom seems eternal
Chapter 72 : *Sigh*
New
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
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- Messages
- 349
- Likes received
- 9,546
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
–Axle Riddle–
"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.
"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–oh 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.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 72 [October 2010]
Manhattan
–Axle Riddle–
"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.
"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–oh 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!
New
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2021
- Messages
- 349
- Likes received
- 9,546
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~~]
–Axle Riddle–
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,"
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.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 73 [October 2010]
Manhattan [13 hours later ~~Spongebob Style~~]
–Axle Riddle–
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,"
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
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IdleMuse0307
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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
–Karl Mordo–
"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–"
"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.
"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.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 74 [October 2010]
Kamar Taj
–Karl Mordo–
"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–"
"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.
"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.
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Chapter 75 : YOUR SAVIOR IS HERE!
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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
–Axle Riddle–
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.
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.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 75 [October 2010]
Manhattan
–Axle Riddle–
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.
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.
ImperialMage701139
Know what you're doing yet?
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What are you talking about that was clearly an alien invasion, after all magic isn't real.
Chapter 76 : Dummies Guide to Astral Realm
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IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
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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
–Axle Riddle–
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."
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____
–Nick Fury–
"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.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 76 [October 2010]
Manhattan
–Axle Riddle–
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."
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____
–Nick Fury–
"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......
New
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
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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
–Axle Riddle–
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.
"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–"
"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.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 77 [November 2010]
Manhattan
–Axle Riddle–
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.
"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–"
"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.
Hyperionthetitan
Stuck in a tree
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2018
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While not exactly happy for his nerf he did indeed need to find his own hobby and life.
Plus its the big dog himself who did it.
Plus its the big dog himself who did it.
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