AAAustinYu
Know what you're doing yet?
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bet that their still fucking
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The Sage of the Mind
- Thread starter IdleMuse0307
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IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
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Well, I wouldn't be so crass about it but...Yeah, probably
Chapter 35 : A loving reunion....
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
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- 410
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- 11,771
Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don't mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 35 [December 2008]
–Axle Riddle–
Now, let's see what the love birds have been up to, for all the time he had left them alone and even given them privacy, deliberately not scanning that area.
It had been hours, their reunion must be done by now.
He had facilitated that meeting for one reason and one reason only. The warning that the Ancient One gave him still rang in his ears. Apparently, something to do with the fraying mental health of Bruce Banner, and that allows something else to descend on their plane. That something else was dangerous enough to spook even the Ancient One, she went as far as to disbar Bruce from getting help from Kamar Taj.
And he thought that was their whole shtick. Not turning away anyone that would turn up at their doorstep, looking for help. That was probably how Kaecilius was not turned away, given the chance to climb the ranks of the MAsters of the Mystic Arts, despite the Ancient One always knowing that the chances of Kaecilius turning to the dark were high.
Despite knowing that the person would be eventually responsible for her own death, she allowed him in and helped him recover, at least somewhat, he hesitated to ask her, just what was in Banner to stop her from helping him.
So, with the first plan out of the way, he had to resort to Plan B. That was getting some help from one of his billionaire buddies, or rather, billionaire minion now that he was staying under this protection, to locate and escort Betty Ross to Bruce and hoping that she would be helpful in healing Bruce's psyche.
Because, let me tell you, he might not have the whole mind aspect of the Sage Force, he could tell, even just by looking, that Bruce was not in a healthy state of mind. And not just the, I am tired and this means nothing stage, no, he had passed on to the dangerous "what's the point of living and wants to kill himself" stage.
No, he could not have that. The Bruce in the movies was an incredibly depressed, broken man, and that was just a sad state of affairs for someone with more than enough power, someone who deserved to be treated like royalty, as was the case with most of the galaxy.
Unfortunately, humans, in particular, had the most noteworthy capability of being racist and discriminatory even if death itself stared them right in their face, such was the stubbornness inborn in humans.
It was called the indomitable human spirit and unfortunately, it didn't have any worthiness criteria or anything. Any human with sufficient motivation and the correct mindset, could display the indomitable human spirit and will stop at nothing to achieve their motives, be it good or bad.
So, removing the curtain he had raised around the apartment where Bruce was staying, he tried to peer in and…
Back in his office, he was slowly sipping coffee from his favourite bodega downstairs, a huge mistake in hindsight, when he finally saw the duo, and promptly spit out his coffee, right on his computer. It was a good thing, he had enough granular control to allow the water to spill over away from the computer without it seeming as if he had something to do with it.
God damn, he thought to himself as he violently cut off his powers from that area, something he could do for a while now. Draw an area using his mind and then shut off surveillance in that area.
Now, he had seen many a people engaging in their….fornication, as it came with the job. But the thing was that ever since he gained his second mind, that part was offloaded and he never had to see some dude naked again.
His mistake, he should have expected something like this to happen but hot damn! Apparently, they were missing each other more than he expected, and considering the now enhanced physique of Bruce Banner, even in his base form, he wagered that they would be at it, for quite some time.
His enhanced physique allowed him to not get burnt as some of the coffee had spilled over his T-shirt and since he didn't really like stuffy clothing, he had chosen a T-shirt that was very very slim. That combined with burning hot coffee would have ensured second degree burns on a normal human.
As he was now? It was nothing more than a warm trickle, almost comfortable even. What was not comfortable was the Air Conditioning in the room, which made the shirt stick to his body. Sure, it created an outline of his rock hard abs and he was sure that if he went out of his office looking this like, there would be more than a few catcalls from the ladies at the office, not to mention Sofia….but he was not in the mood for that, maybe later.
Right now, he had to make sure that the city was safe and work on his powers, hoping that Dr. Banner would be done within a few hours, at most.
As he cleaned himself the normal way, considering that Stark was in this very room a scant few hours ago, he thought of the sheer time he had spent in this reality.
It had been over two years since he was thrust into this life and he had to say, he had never really encountered something that stumped him. Sure, he had a couple of close calls but even those could not really be called close calls because of his particular skill set.
He had somewhat neglected his body because aside from his regular weighted workout, he didn't do much to hone his body.
'I should probably look into that' he thought to himself as he opened up his computer and searched Self defense and combat classes in Manhattan, New York.
The first couple of results were immediately discarded on the point of being either too flashy or being just plain wrong, as they were out of Manhattan and well, geo locked man here.
There were a couple of them that looked legit, apparently run by former Military guys, and just as he was about to click on them, he saw something at the edge of the monitor. He casually scrolled down to take a better look and lo and behold, his hand paused as he somehow found himself looking at the listing of the Chikara Dojo, with the face of Colleen wing plastered on the ad.
God damn, he just jinxed himself really hard, didn't he.
The location matched as did the competence. The HAND were a bunch of pansies, way too cowardly to properly face their deaths but they were also very old and skilled. In martial arts, they would probably rank in the top ten on the planet.
That would be the best choice for him. Just that he didn't know if it would be wise to go there to train. After all, the likes of Bokuto or Coleen herself would easily notice his enhanced physique and try to convert him or something.
Well, might as well try and get rid of something that plagues society then. The only reason he must not have gotten this place on his radar was because the Dojo was actually doing good. Coleen ran it and she was actually a kind soul, just in the wrong company.
HAND must have seen the results of doing something wrong in his territory and that must be why he could sense no ninjas in the city. He could see Coleen though and she was on a break? Reading books and all.
He would have to think about it. He might be able to defeat and make sure that somebody stays dead, but he didn't know the method of immortality that he HAND followed.
Did it need an intact corpse? Could they make do with a drop of blood? Was it time sensitive?
Lots of questions and way too few answers, so he was going to stay put at the moment. Might check out the other martial arts classes.
He could strike at them but his limitations meant that they would not make the mistake of coming into the city and certainly, not all at once.
Argh, damn his limitations.
Oh well, he would look into that later on as well. Anyhow their time was limited on this earth because once he was free from this place, theirs, along with multiple other heads, were going to roll, in a spectacularly surprising manner.
*Ring* *Ring*
"Uh, hello, is this the Castle classes for Martial Arts? Yes, I was calling to enquire about self defense classes. For me, yes,"
As he spoke on the phone with the other side, something about the gruff voice and the way of speaking alluded to something. Something tickled at the back of his mind but he couldn't pinpoint it at the time.
"Okay, great. I will see you tomorrow. Thank you," He hung up the call.
He looked up and swung his chair as it spun, creating a warped ceiling. He sometimes liked to do this if he was way too bored to surf the internet as well. Honestly, he was shocked that none of the upper management in the firm had come to meet him because of the rather explosive meeting with Tony Stark. That would have staved off some of the boredom.
Tomorrow, he would have to be careful. Make sure that no one at the Castle classes…..
SHIT!
His chair stopped as he immediately concentrated on the address.
"So that is how it is going to be," He muttered to himself as his shoulders sagged in resignation.
He should have known the universe would throw a curveball his way.
Apparently, the Castle Classes for Martial Arts was run by none other than former NAVY Seal, Frank motherf*cking Castle.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.
A/N - Regular updates will resume from Monday.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 35 [December 2008]
–Axle Riddle–
Now, let's see what the love birds have been up to, for all the time he had left them alone and even given them privacy, deliberately not scanning that area.
It had been hours, their reunion must be done by now.
He had facilitated that meeting for one reason and one reason only. The warning that the Ancient One gave him still rang in his ears. Apparently, something to do with the fraying mental health of Bruce Banner, and that allows something else to descend on their plane. That something else was dangerous enough to spook even the Ancient One, she went as far as to disbar Bruce from getting help from Kamar Taj.
And he thought that was their whole shtick. Not turning away anyone that would turn up at their doorstep, looking for help. That was probably how Kaecilius was not turned away, given the chance to climb the ranks of the MAsters of the Mystic Arts, despite the Ancient One always knowing that the chances of Kaecilius turning to the dark were high.
Despite knowing that the person would be eventually responsible for her own death, she allowed him in and helped him recover, at least somewhat, he hesitated to ask her, just what was in Banner to stop her from helping him.
So, with the first plan out of the way, he had to resort to Plan B. That was getting some help from one of his billionaire buddies, or rather, billionaire minion now that he was staying under this protection, to locate and escort Betty Ross to Bruce and hoping that she would be helpful in healing Bruce's psyche.
Because, let me tell you, he might not have the whole mind aspect of the Sage Force, he could tell, even just by looking, that Bruce was not in a healthy state of mind. And not just the, I am tired and this means nothing stage, no, he had passed on to the dangerous "what's the point of living and wants to kill himself" stage.
No, he could not have that. The Bruce in the movies was an incredibly depressed, broken man, and that was just a sad state of affairs for someone with more than enough power, someone who deserved to be treated like royalty, as was the case with most of the galaxy.
Unfortunately, humans, in particular, had the most noteworthy capability of being racist and discriminatory even if death itself stared them right in their face, such was the stubbornness inborn in humans.
It was called the indomitable human spirit and unfortunately, it didn't have any worthiness criteria or anything. Any human with sufficient motivation and the correct mindset, could display the indomitable human spirit and will stop at nothing to achieve their motives, be it good or bad.
So, removing the curtain he had raised around the apartment where Bruce was staying, he tried to peer in and…
Back in his office, he was slowly sipping coffee from his favourite bodega downstairs, a huge mistake in hindsight, when he finally saw the duo, and promptly spit out his coffee, right on his computer. It was a good thing, he had enough granular control to allow the water to spill over away from the computer without it seeming as if he had something to do with it.
God damn, he thought to himself as he violently cut off his powers from that area, something he could do for a while now. Draw an area using his mind and then shut off surveillance in that area.
Now, he had seen many a people engaging in their….fornication, as it came with the job. But the thing was that ever since he gained his second mind, that part was offloaded and he never had to see some dude naked again.
His mistake, he should have expected something like this to happen but hot damn! Apparently, they were missing each other more than he expected, and considering the now enhanced physique of Bruce Banner, even in his base form, he wagered that they would be at it, for quite some time.
His enhanced physique allowed him to not get burnt as some of the coffee had spilled over his T-shirt and since he didn't really like stuffy clothing, he had chosen a T-shirt that was very very slim. That combined with burning hot coffee would have ensured second degree burns on a normal human.
As he was now? It was nothing more than a warm trickle, almost comfortable even. What was not comfortable was the Air Conditioning in the room, which made the shirt stick to his body. Sure, it created an outline of his rock hard abs and he was sure that if he went out of his office looking this like, there would be more than a few catcalls from the ladies at the office, not to mention Sofia….but he was not in the mood for that, maybe later.
Right now, he had to make sure that the city was safe and work on his powers, hoping that Dr. Banner would be done within a few hours, at most.
As he cleaned himself the normal way, considering that Stark was in this very room a scant few hours ago, he thought of the sheer time he had spent in this reality.
It had been over two years since he was thrust into this life and he had to say, he had never really encountered something that stumped him. Sure, he had a couple of close calls but even those could not really be called close calls because of his particular skill set.
He had somewhat neglected his body because aside from his regular weighted workout, he didn't do much to hone his body.
'I should probably look into that' he thought to himself as he opened up his computer and searched Self defense and combat classes in Manhattan, New York.
The first couple of results were immediately discarded on the point of being either too flashy or being just plain wrong, as they were out of Manhattan and well, geo locked man here.
There were a couple of them that looked legit, apparently run by former Military guys, and just as he was about to click on them, he saw something at the edge of the monitor. He casually scrolled down to take a better look and lo and behold, his hand paused as he somehow found himself looking at the listing of the Chikara Dojo, with the face of Colleen wing plastered on the ad.
God damn, he just jinxed himself really hard, didn't he.
The location matched as did the competence. The HAND were a bunch of pansies, way too cowardly to properly face their deaths but they were also very old and skilled. In martial arts, they would probably rank in the top ten on the planet.
That would be the best choice for him. Just that he didn't know if it would be wise to go there to train. After all, the likes of Bokuto or Coleen herself would easily notice his enhanced physique and try to convert him or something.
Well, might as well try and get rid of something that plagues society then. The only reason he must not have gotten this place on his radar was because the Dojo was actually doing good. Coleen ran it and she was actually a kind soul, just in the wrong company.
HAND must have seen the results of doing something wrong in his territory and that must be why he could sense no ninjas in the city. He could see Coleen though and she was on a break? Reading books and all.
He would have to think about it. He might be able to defeat and make sure that somebody stays dead, but he didn't know the method of immortality that he HAND followed.
Did it need an intact corpse? Could they make do with a drop of blood? Was it time sensitive?
Lots of questions and way too few answers, so he was going to stay put at the moment. Might check out the other martial arts classes.
He could strike at them but his limitations meant that they would not make the mistake of coming into the city and certainly, not all at once.
Argh, damn his limitations.
Oh well, he would look into that later on as well. Anyhow their time was limited on this earth because once he was free from this place, theirs, along with multiple other heads, were going to roll, in a spectacularly surprising manner.
*Ring* *Ring*
"Uh, hello, is this the Castle classes for Martial Arts? Yes, I was calling to enquire about self defense classes. For me, yes,"
As he spoke on the phone with the other side, something about the gruff voice and the way of speaking alluded to something. Something tickled at the back of his mind but he couldn't pinpoint it at the time.
"Okay, great. I will see you tomorrow. Thank you," He hung up the call.
He looked up and swung his chair as it spun, creating a warped ceiling. He sometimes liked to do this if he was way too bored to surf the internet as well. Honestly, he was shocked that none of the upper management in the firm had come to meet him because of the rather explosive meeting with Tony Stark. That would have staved off some of the boredom.
Tomorrow, he would have to be careful. Make sure that no one at the Castle classes…..
SHIT!
His chair stopped as he immediately concentrated on the address.
"So that is how it is going to be," He muttered to himself as his shoulders sagged in resignation.
He should have known the universe would throw a curveball his way.
Apparently, the Castle Classes for Martial Arts was run by none other than former NAVY Seal, Frank motherf*cking Castle.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.
A/N - Regular updates will resume from Monday.
AAAustinYu
Know what you're doing yet?
- Joined
- May 30, 2023
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- 179
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- 3,002
Bet Frank heard of his alter ego and decided to move here to protect his family
SquirtleTurtle
Getting sticky.
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2017
- Messages
- 69
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- 760
Casually imma buy more of your company unless you start making it profitable again is quite the flex.
Chapter 36 : Air Jail!
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2021
- Messages
- 410
- Likes received
- 11,771
Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don't mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 36 [December 2008]
–Axle Riddle–
"The truth is…..I am Iron Man,"
He watched as Tony Stark outed himself as Iron Man on live TV, despite having the same note as he did from Coulson. Well, nice to see that canon has not been derailed all that much despite his existence.
To be fair, the circumstances that led to Tony becoming Iron Man were so far removed from his area of operations, that the chances of him having some sort of influence on it were downright negligible.
Now, all he had to do was dodge the board meetings until he gained his freedom and that was going to be simple enough because, on paper, he didn't really own all that much of Stark Industries. But, if one looks beyond the norm, one will find that he and his various financial entities own just about 11% of Stark Industries.
Now, that number, while nowhere near the majority, gives him more than enough power. He was now the second largest individual shareholder of Stark Industries, right after Tony Stark himself, who owned over 50%, as of today. He had been buying up everything that people had been offloading, probably waiting for the day he would gain the majority before he could make some sort of major announcement.
Now, he watched as Tony made the briefing announcement turn into some sort of product placement as he unveiled revolutionary new ideas regarding…clean energy. Huh, that was new.
Tony was apparently talking about a new alloy he had designed that allowed for spikes in power delivery in the power grid. That usually happens when one uses a solar energy mixture in the power grid capacity. Wow, that was…revolutionary.
The king of figures Tony was talking about, it would probably lead to massive savings in transmission losses, with or without clean energy. Not to mention, the base was aluminum, for some reason. That meant that the recyclability of this alloy should be through the roof.
Damn, what a shock to the scientific world then, he thought to himself, as he sipped his coffee, clad in his pajamas.
Well, it was the weekend and he didn't really like working on the weekends. Obviously, that didn't count his second mind working overtime to make sure that Manhtanna remained a safe place.
Though he wondered what would happen to it once he left, that was a question for the future him and he loved using that tactic to get himself in trouble. Ah, good times.
Well, nothing to be worried about. He would get more than enough chances to leave this city. He could fake his death during the New York Invasion fiasco. He could finally reveal himself and then pretend that he overused his ability and died in the process.
Maybe the Ancient One would be amenable to making sure that the illusion stuck?
Or would he have to stay in this place until Spider-Man and his team (hopefully) took charge of the city's protection? If he remembered correctly, there was a group of people, just like the Avengers but more street level and less alien level.
Yeah, the Defenders. But that was far off in the figure because he could see Rand Enterprises being run by someone who didn't have the enhanced constitution of Danny Rand.
He could sense Pops' barber shop open with customers brimming, sharing stories and laughter. The sight of it unconsciously brought a smile to his face. Man, he loved the way Pops lived his life. A convicted ex-criminal successfully turns his life around.
He mentored the current generation of youngsters and those youngsters went on to become gang leaders, but they didn't forget Pops and his kindness, thus, the creation of a neutral zone in Pops barbershop.
He was not going to let Pops die this time, especially not due to some drive-by, because some gangster couldn't be patient enough for his target to leave Pops' shop before killing him.
Hmm, he could not sense Luke Cage or anyone resembling that level of density anywhere in his range so it would be safe to say that the team-up he was expecting was just not in the cards right now.
Maybe once his range expanded again, he could try searching for Miss Jessica Jones. She should be active around this time….per...iod.
SHIT!
He totally forgot about Jessica Jones and that bastard Killgrave. Well, he didn't know at what point in time they met but he would have to stop that from happening. That single event, that single meeting…broke Jessica Jones and it was part of his duty to prevent that from ever happening.
He mentally noted it down and advised his second mind to be on the lookout for Jessica Jones, after imprinting the image that he remembered of her in the MCU.
She could be changed for all he knew but his second mind was already tasked with identifying those with abnormal physiques due to the scans everyone goes through. Weirdly enough, he could not, for the life of him, scan the bodies of those that use magic.
After questioning, he realised that dimensional energy flows through their bodies at all times, in small amounts, which allows them to shrug off minor divination as well as scanning spells.
His powers must have registered as scanning spells to them then. Still, it chipped at his ego a bit that his powers were being stymied by a basic protection that was only capable of stopping low level spells.
No worries, he had other, bigger fish to look for.
It was the next day. Banner had the entire night to himself. He was sure that he must have calmed down by now. So, it would be safe to approach that apartment once again.
And, it was safe. It was actually wholesome to watch Betty cook scrambled eggs for Bruce as he snored away in his bed. He had never seen Bruce sleep that peacefully in his bed.
Obviously, the state of the apartment left much to be desired and if he were the landlord and the owner of all the furniture, he would be pissed. Fortunately, the owner was someone else, and that someone else didn't mind losing money as long as he was provided protection and assurance that his heart would not stop beating as long as he was in the city.
Oh yeah, he made that deal with the old, scared of death, billionaire. He could do that as well. Flood his presence in the vicinity and then gently force the heart to beat artificially, making sure that that person would not die even if their heart failed to beat. This billionaire had a rich family history of heart failures in their middle age but this one had made it to 65 so he didn't know what was worrying him so much.
He looked as Betty served breakfast in bed to Bruce whose eyes snapped open as if he had been awoken from a rather good dream, and after confirming that Betty was actually with him, he smiled with tears in his eyes as they both kissed.
Eugh, Romance.
He rearranged the strewn about furniture in the living room, making sure to make enough noise to alert Banner. The result was obvious, breakfast in bed forgotten, Banner jumped in front of Betty, shielding her with his body as he slowly came out of his bedroom.
As soon as he saw the mess of floating objects in his living room, he relaxed. The furniture, too, as if caught in its tracks, froze for a moment before continuing on.
He rang the table on top of which the notebook was kept. Not a pen and paper notebook but a digital one. Banner had set this one up for him.
Two keyboards hooked up to a single screen, allowing him to chat with him without revealing his location.
"Had fun, Dr.Banner?" He teased Bruce, gladdened to see Bruce flush up to his ears as he looked at Betty who was sitting behind him. The elevated heart rate, relaxed body told him one thing and one thing only.
Bruce Banner needed Betty Ross if he was to ever become one with the Hulk.
"Yeah, I did. Thank you for bringing Betty here. She is the best thing that has ever happened to me," Bruce typed out and after seeing that, Betty awwed at Bruce and they started kissing again.
Okay, okay, no need to get burned by a loving couple expressing their love.
That was what he thought in the beginning but the small kiss was evolving into something steamy and he was not comfortable with that so he gently separated both of them and lifted Betty up in the air, her legs flailing about.
"Air Jail," He typed out on the screen before Betty was floated out straight into the bathroom.
"O-Okay, I get it. Whooo!"
"Dr.Banner, I don't need to alarm you but we need to talk. You can't live your life like this, hidden away from everyone. You need control and unfortunately, one of my contacts didn't come through. But, I did get into contact with an agency that could help get you a pardon, provided you work with them,"
"...Not as muscle but as brains." He added hastily after seeing Bruce tense up at the mention of a government agency. Yeah, that was a bad move on his part. His history with the government would not allow him to trust anyone.
"Are there any other options?" Bruce typed out, looking rather despondent as he looked at the bathroom, where Betty was showering, probably. He didn't look there, he was not a pervert.
"...There is but I don't know if you would prefer it. After 2012, a host of other options will open up to me. If you can stay in my domain for four more years, I can help you control the Hulk in less than 1. That is a promise from me," He said after thinking about it for a bit.
Four more years, hidden away in the city would be a bit much, even for Bruce but he had hope, seeing today. If Betty stayed with him, it would be much more bearable for him to live in the shadows.
"I understand if this is very heavy for early in the morning. Unfortunately, I am out of options at the moment and did not want to give you false hope. You can live in that apartment for as long as you want, with Ms.Ross ofcourse. Ah, there's the daily delivery of your groceries."
"Ah, for your information, I have cut off your apartment from my surveillance regime so I will not understand if you are calling for me if it is not dire and you are not turning green. I will check in with you tomorrow morning. Until then, enjoy the cake I sent, it's blueberry flavoured."
He cut off that part from his range after that. Good lord, the situation was busted.
Well, nothing he could do about it for now.
The Army had not come knocking yet, so that was good. Besides, he was sure that even if they did come, they would not come in tanks and guns blazing, they would send in specialised extraction teams.
Stealthily they would carry out that operation and unfortunately, that was never going to happen.
"Hmm," He chuckled as he saw the same Random Beautiful Agent 1, staying in the same safehouse, once again, in her PJs.
Didn't she learn anything from last time?
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 36 [December 2008]
–Axle Riddle–
"The truth is…..I am Iron Man,"
He watched as Tony Stark outed himself as Iron Man on live TV, despite having the same note as he did from Coulson. Well, nice to see that canon has not been derailed all that much despite his existence.
To be fair, the circumstances that led to Tony becoming Iron Man were so far removed from his area of operations, that the chances of him having some sort of influence on it were downright negligible.
Now, all he had to do was dodge the board meetings until he gained his freedom and that was going to be simple enough because, on paper, he didn't really own all that much of Stark Industries. But, if one looks beyond the norm, one will find that he and his various financial entities own just about 11% of Stark Industries.
Now, that number, while nowhere near the majority, gives him more than enough power. He was now the second largest individual shareholder of Stark Industries, right after Tony Stark himself, who owned over 50%, as of today. He had been buying up everything that people had been offloading, probably waiting for the day he would gain the majority before he could make some sort of major announcement.
Now, he watched as Tony made the briefing announcement turn into some sort of product placement as he unveiled revolutionary new ideas regarding…clean energy. Huh, that was new.
Tony was apparently talking about a new alloy he had designed that allowed for spikes in power delivery in the power grid. That usually happens when one uses a solar energy mixture in the power grid capacity. Wow, that was…revolutionary.
The king of figures Tony was talking about, it would probably lead to massive savings in transmission losses, with or without clean energy. Not to mention, the base was aluminum, for some reason. That meant that the recyclability of this alloy should be through the roof.
Damn, what a shock to the scientific world then, he thought to himself, as he sipped his coffee, clad in his pajamas.
Well, it was the weekend and he didn't really like working on the weekends. Obviously, that didn't count his second mind working overtime to make sure that Manhtanna remained a safe place.
Though he wondered what would happen to it once he left, that was a question for the future him and he loved using that tactic to get himself in trouble. Ah, good times.
Well, nothing to be worried about. He would get more than enough chances to leave this city. He could fake his death during the New York Invasion fiasco. He could finally reveal himself and then pretend that he overused his ability and died in the process.
Maybe the Ancient One would be amenable to making sure that the illusion stuck?
Or would he have to stay in this place until Spider-Man and his team (hopefully) took charge of the city's protection? If he remembered correctly, there was a group of people, just like the Avengers but more street level and less alien level.
Yeah, the Defenders. But that was far off in the figure because he could see Rand Enterprises being run by someone who didn't have the enhanced constitution of Danny Rand.
He could sense Pops' barber shop open with customers brimming, sharing stories and laughter. The sight of it unconsciously brought a smile to his face. Man, he loved the way Pops lived his life. A convicted ex-criminal successfully turns his life around.
He mentored the current generation of youngsters and those youngsters went on to become gang leaders, but they didn't forget Pops and his kindness, thus, the creation of a neutral zone in Pops barbershop.
He was not going to let Pops die this time, especially not due to some drive-by, because some gangster couldn't be patient enough for his target to leave Pops' shop before killing him.
Hmm, he could not sense Luke Cage or anyone resembling that level of density anywhere in his range so it would be safe to say that the team-up he was expecting was just not in the cards right now.
Maybe once his range expanded again, he could try searching for Miss Jessica Jones. She should be active around this time….per...iod.
SHIT!
He totally forgot about Jessica Jones and that bastard Killgrave. Well, he didn't know at what point in time they met but he would have to stop that from happening. That single event, that single meeting…broke Jessica Jones and it was part of his duty to prevent that from ever happening.
He mentally noted it down and advised his second mind to be on the lookout for Jessica Jones, after imprinting the image that he remembered of her in the MCU.
She could be changed for all he knew but his second mind was already tasked with identifying those with abnormal physiques due to the scans everyone goes through. Weirdly enough, he could not, for the life of him, scan the bodies of those that use magic.
After questioning, he realised that dimensional energy flows through their bodies at all times, in small amounts, which allows them to shrug off minor divination as well as scanning spells.
His powers must have registered as scanning spells to them then. Still, it chipped at his ego a bit that his powers were being stymied by a basic protection that was only capable of stopping low level spells.
No worries, he had other, bigger fish to look for.
It was the next day. Banner had the entire night to himself. He was sure that he must have calmed down by now. So, it would be safe to approach that apartment once again.
And, it was safe. It was actually wholesome to watch Betty cook scrambled eggs for Bruce as he snored away in his bed. He had never seen Bruce sleep that peacefully in his bed.
Obviously, the state of the apartment left much to be desired and if he were the landlord and the owner of all the furniture, he would be pissed. Fortunately, the owner was someone else, and that someone else didn't mind losing money as long as he was provided protection and assurance that his heart would not stop beating as long as he was in the city.
Oh yeah, he made that deal with the old, scared of death, billionaire. He could do that as well. Flood his presence in the vicinity and then gently force the heart to beat artificially, making sure that that person would not die even if their heart failed to beat. This billionaire had a rich family history of heart failures in their middle age but this one had made it to 65 so he didn't know what was worrying him so much.
He looked as Betty served breakfast in bed to Bruce whose eyes snapped open as if he had been awoken from a rather good dream, and after confirming that Betty was actually with him, he smiled with tears in his eyes as they both kissed.
Eugh, Romance.
He rearranged the strewn about furniture in the living room, making sure to make enough noise to alert Banner. The result was obvious, breakfast in bed forgotten, Banner jumped in front of Betty, shielding her with his body as he slowly came out of his bedroom.
As soon as he saw the mess of floating objects in his living room, he relaxed. The furniture, too, as if caught in its tracks, froze for a moment before continuing on.
He rang the table on top of which the notebook was kept. Not a pen and paper notebook but a digital one. Banner had set this one up for him.
Two keyboards hooked up to a single screen, allowing him to chat with him without revealing his location.
"Had fun, Dr.Banner?" He teased Bruce, gladdened to see Bruce flush up to his ears as he looked at Betty who was sitting behind him. The elevated heart rate, relaxed body told him one thing and one thing only.
Bruce Banner needed Betty Ross if he was to ever become one with the Hulk.
"Yeah, I did. Thank you for bringing Betty here. She is the best thing that has ever happened to me," Bruce typed out and after seeing that, Betty awwed at Bruce and they started kissing again.
Okay, okay, no need to get burned by a loving couple expressing their love.
That was what he thought in the beginning but the small kiss was evolving into something steamy and he was not comfortable with that so he gently separated both of them and lifted Betty up in the air, her legs flailing about.
"Air Jail," He typed out on the screen before Betty was floated out straight into the bathroom.
"O-Okay, I get it. Whooo!"
"Dr.Banner, I don't need to alarm you but we need to talk. You can't live your life like this, hidden away from everyone. You need control and unfortunately, one of my contacts didn't come through. But, I did get into contact with an agency that could help get you a pardon, provided you work with them,"
"...Not as muscle but as brains." He added hastily after seeing Bruce tense up at the mention of a government agency. Yeah, that was a bad move on his part. His history with the government would not allow him to trust anyone.
"Are there any other options?" Bruce typed out, looking rather despondent as he looked at the bathroom, where Betty was showering, probably. He didn't look there, he was not a pervert.
"...There is but I don't know if you would prefer it. After 2012, a host of other options will open up to me. If you can stay in my domain for four more years, I can help you control the Hulk in less than 1. That is a promise from me," He said after thinking about it for a bit.
Four more years, hidden away in the city would be a bit much, even for Bruce but he had hope, seeing today. If Betty stayed with him, it would be much more bearable for him to live in the shadows.
"I understand if this is very heavy for early in the morning. Unfortunately, I am out of options at the moment and did not want to give you false hope. You can live in that apartment for as long as you want, with Ms.Ross ofcourse. Ah, there's the daily delivery of your groceries."
"Ah, for your information, I have cut off your apartment from my surveillance regime so I will not understand if you are calling for me if it is not dire and you are not turning green. I will check in with you tomorrow morning. Until then, enjoy the cake I sent, it's blueberry flavoured."
He cut off that part from his range after that. Good lord, the situation was busted.
Well, nothing he could do about it for now.
The Army had not come knocking yet, so that was good. Besides, he was sure that even if they did come, they would not come in tanks and guns blazing, they would send in specialised extraction teams.
Stealthily they would carry out that operation and unfortunately, that was never going to happen.
"Hmm," He chuckled as he saw the same Random Beautiful Agent 1, staying in the same safehouse, once again, in her PJs.
Didn't she learn anything from last time?
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
Chapter 37 : ENTER....Someone?
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 37 [December 2009]
–Axle Riddle–
It had been over a year since the day he offered Bruce a place to stay. It had gone swimmingly since then.
For one reason and one reason only, Betty Ross had agreed to stay with Bruce, for however long it took for Bruce's condition to get better. Now, he was aware that Betty Ross was in occasional contact with her father but she had never hinted at anything that could lead back to Bruce but the thing was, the General might be brash and stubborn, but he was not a fool, well, not that much of a fool. The man also contacted her, once a month, on the 15th day, like clockwork.
So, General Ross probably knew that Bruce was in the one city where he couldn't reach him. Not just him, but no police, no FBI, and nothing will be able to reach him. The only way someone could capture Bruce was to bring him out of the safe zone he had built around Manhattan.
And for that, they needed leverage. And where would they bring said leverage from?
General Ross and his allies made no mistake in destroying Bruce's life's work. He had no academia left, no family left, no friends left, nothing.
The man had nothing to lose…except Betty. And that was the only card that Ross had to lure Banner into a trap.
And he had made sure to hammer that into their minds, the only reason Ross could contact Betty and ask her to come out of the city, would be to lure Bruce out as well. So no matter how rough things would become, he had all but ordered them to stay put and not step one foot out of his range.
And so far, things have been going pretty smoothly. They had relocated Bruce to a bigger duplex, instead of just a two-bedroom apartment. The duplex also had lots of windows, so lots of natural light in the room, making it not dreary.
Bruce didn't step out much, even though he could guarantee this safety. BRuce's reasoning was that he could not risk it. Betty was the one who did all the outside chores and Bruce was the one who maintained the house.
Yeah, they had turned into the stereotypical white family, only living in a house that 99% of families would not be able to afford. It was a huge duplex penthouse, with all the amenities imaginable, with its own patio, gym, sauna, theatre room..everything.
Once again, his dubious billionaire friend who is afraid of heart failures, came in handy when he needed a very nice home for his friend to move into. The expanded space gave Bruce some form of freedom as he moved about his apartment.
As you can imagine, the task of maintaining such a huge place was humongous but apparently, Bruce was all too happy to do it. His body had gained some characteristics from his Hulk form, as was evident by simply scanning his body.
Denser muscles, Denser bones, increasing muscle mass, greater lung capacity, lower heartbeat.
Somehow, Bruce was shaping into a pretty decent-ish enhanced person, even without transforming into the Hulk. Well, that was a surprise and a half. He was also gaining height somehow.
Now, Axle assumed that it would be good news for Bruce, considering that he was getting some of the enhancements he had as the Hulk, without all the mental changes.
Turns out, not so much. Bruce had pretty much freaked out the moment he was told that his base form was starting to gain characteristics similar to that of the Hulk. Maybe, he should have worded it better but Bruce had taken that as him becoming the Hulk permanently, losing his mind and identity in the process.
Safe to say, Betty had glared at a screen very hard, as she had furiously typed expletives at him, warning him to put all information through her first, before telling anything to Bruce.
He had backed off immediately, obviously. It had taken almost a month for Bruce to come out of his shell. The man had serious mental health issues that needed to be resolved yesterday but who could he consult?
There was no therapist that focused on the trauma of super powered individuals, as far as he knew. And even if someone like that did exist, Bruce would not have gone there.
All in all, Bruce was happy where he was, doing what he was doing. He had never had an episode for the entire year he had been living in that apartment, wanted for nothing, and didn't have to work for a living.
He had even abandoned his research regarding creating a cure for the Hulk. That was good, in the sense that he was not afraid of the Hulk anymore.
Now, onto other things.
He had expanded his range, a lot, in the past year alone. He could now cover part of Brooklyn and Queens, the majority of the Bronx but nothing on Staten Island.
That was quite an increase in a year and he was proud of all the work he had put into it. He wagered that by this time next year, all five boroughs will be in his range. With an increase in his range, came an increase in the amount of force he could exert outside the Orange curtain that surrounded Manhattan.
He could now finally throw around cars, outside of his range as well. Well, only in the periphery of Manhattan but even that was a win.
As one could imagine, the crime rate had dropped drastically across the areas he had access to. Organised crime, in particular, was down to historic lows.
His second mind could somehow process all of that extra information without even breaking a sweat, at least he thought so. He didn't feel any extra strain on his mind even when he tried to increase his range further.
His body had come along swimmingly as well. He could now bend metal.
Yup, he had bent the rebar with his bare hands. He could run very fast and go without sleep for days now. Not that he did the last thing.
He needed his beauty sleep.
He had half expected Tony to just drop in for a talk, especially since he had not met the man even once during the board meetings, but he had not made a peep in his direction. Obviously, he was more than aware that Jarvis was probably constantly spying on him but that was fine as well.
It acted as an exercise for him, to not show any outward reaction while doing all sorts of stuff with his mind. He was sure that he had the AI fooled for now, mainly because of the greater control he had over his body language.
Really, books were such a cheat once you knew that you could literally shape your mind and body with the knowledge found within.
Tony would probably leave him alone as long as his stooges continued to say yes to every plan that Tony would bring to the table.
That would change though, once Tony showed signs of the madness brought about by the knowledge of his impending death. That was when he would make the motion to have him ousted and have Pepper Potts become CEO. He was unsure if it would have any impact on their eventual romance so he had held things off.
From the looks of it, the Monaco Grand Prix was scheduled for early next year, so he had a bit of time before he could make the motion.
He had not heard from the Ancient One or from Master Drumm who had gone to, get this, vocational school for the Masters of the Mystic Arts.
Yeah, apparently there was this whole other world of magic where one could learn obscure magical languages, arts, and lessons for certain fees.
That was something that was never covered in the movies but it makes sense. The magical history of Earth itself was vast and rich, so there was no way that Kamar Taj, being the single oldest human founded organisation on the planet, did not have connections with lost magical civilizations.
"Hmm?" He perked up as he pretended to look at the street below, from his balcony when, in fact, his mind was focused on the man that just entered the edge of his range, in the Bronx.
The person's physical characteristics were off the charts, and somehow, he was radiating some sort of energy field around him as he walked through the sewers underneath. He failed to recognise the face but he could identify similar markers in Bruce as well.
So, Ross sent someone then. Time to see if this is Blonsky or not.
But before that, he had to let him come closer, in his range, so he could hold him still and then decide if he was worthy of being spared or just being ripped apart.
It was a good thing that Fury left Random Beautiful Agent 1 in the safehouse. He could contact Fury once again through her and this time, he hoped that she would not faint at the sight of a floating pen.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 37 [December 2009]
–Axle Riddle–
It had been over a year since the day he offered Bruce a place to stay. It had gone swimmingly since then.
For one reason and one reason only, Betty Ross had agreed to stay with Bruce, for however long it took for Bruce's condition to get better. Now, he was aware that Betty Ross was in occasional contact with her father but she had never hinted at anything that could lead back to Bruce but the thing was, the General might be brash and stubborn, but he was not a fool, well, not that much of a fool. The man also contacted her, once a month, on the 15th day, like clockwork.
So, General Ross probably knew that Bruce was in the one city where he couldn't reach him. Not just him, but no police, no FBI, and nothing will be able to reach him. The only way someone could capture Bruce was to bring him out of the safe zone he had built around Manhattan.
And for that, they needed leverage. And where would they bring said leverage from?
General Ross and his allies made no mistake in destroying Bruce's life's work. He had no academia left, no family left, no friends left, nothing.
The man had nothing to lose…except Betty. And that was the only card that Ross had to lure Banner into a trap.
And he had made sure to hammer that into their minds, the only reason Ross could contact Betty and ask her to come out of the city, would be to lure Bruce out as well. So no matter how rough things would become, he had all but ordered them to stay put and not step one foot out of his range.
And so far, things have been going pretty smoothly. They had relocated Bruce to a bigger duplex, instead of just a two-bedroom apartment. The duplex also had lots of windows, so lots of natural light in the room, making it not dreary.
Bruce didn't step out much, even though he could guarantee this safety. BRuce's reasoning was that he could not risk it. Betty was the one who did all the outside chores and Bruce was the one who maintained the house.
Yeah, they had turned into the stereotypical white family, only living in a house that 99% of families would not be able to afford. It was a huge duplex penthouse, with all the amenities imaginable, with its own patio, gym, sauna, theatre room..everything.
Once again, his dubious billionaire friend who is afraid of heart failures, came in handy when he needed a very nice home for his friend to move into. The expanded space gave Bruce some form of freedom as he moved about his apartment.
As you can imagine, the task of maintaining such a huge place was humongous but apparently, Bruce was all too happy to do it. His body had gained some characteristics from his Hulk form, as was evident by simply scanning his body.
Denser muscles, Denser bones, increasing muscle mass, greater lung capacity, lower heartbeat.
Somehow, Bruce was shaping into a pretty decent-ish enhanced person, even without transforming into the Hulk. Well, that was a surprise and a half. He was also gaining height somehow.
Now, Axle assumed that it would be good news for Bruce, considering that he was getting some of the enhancements he had as the Hulk, without all the mental changes.
Turns out, not so much. Bruce had pretty much freaked out the moment he was told that his base form was starting to gain characteristics similar to that of the Hulk. Maybe, he should have worded it better but Bruce had taken that as him becoming the Hulk permanently, losing his mind and identity in the process.
Safe to say, Betty had glared at a screen very hard, as she had furiously typed expletives at him, warning him to put all information through her first, before telling anything to Bruce.
He had backed off immediately, obviously. It had taken almost a month for Bruce to come out of his shell. The man had serious mental health issues that needed to be resolved yesterday but who could he consult?
There was no therapist that focused on the trauma of super powered individuals, as far as he knew. And even if someone like that did exist, Bruce would not have gone there.
All in all, Bruce was happy where he was, doing what he was doing. He had never had an episode for the entire year he had been living in that apartment, wanted for nothing, and didn't have to work for a living.
He had even abandoned his research regarding creating a cure for the Hulk. That was good, in the sense that he was not afraid of the Hulk anymore.
Now, onto other things.
He had expanded his range, a lot, in the past year alone. He could now cover part of Brooklyn and Queens, the majority of the Bronx but nothing on Staten Island.
That was quite an increase in a year and he was proud of all the work he had put into it. He wagered that by this time next year, all five boroughs will be in his range. With an increase in his range, came an increase in the amount of force he could exert outside the Orange curtain that surrounded Manhattan.
He could now finally throw around cars, outside of his range as well. Well, only in the periphery of Manhattan but even that was a win.
As one could imagine, the crime rate had dropped drastically across the areas he had access to. Organised crime, in particular, was down to historic lows.
His second mind could somehow process all of that extra information without even breaking a sweat, at least he thought so. He didn't feel any extra strain on his mind even when he tried to increase his range further.
His body had come along swimmingly as well. He could now bend metal.
Yup, he had bent the rebar with his bare hands. He could run very fast and go without sleep for days now. Not that he did the last thing.
He needed his beauty sleep.
He had half expected Tony to just drop in for a talk, especially since he had not met the man even once during the board meetings, but he had not made a peep in his direction. Obviously, he was more than aware that Jarvis was probably constantly spying on him but that was fine as well.
It acted as an exercise for him, to not show any outward reaction while doing all sorts of stuff with his mind. He was sure that he had the AI fooled for now, mainly because of the greater control he had over his body language.
Really, books were such a cheat once you knew that you could literally shape your mind and body with the knowledge found within.
Tony would probably leave him alone as long as his stooges continued to say yes to every plan that Tony would bring to the table.
That would change though, once Tony showed signs of the madness brought about by the knowledge of his impending death. That was when he would make the motion to have him ousted and have Pepper Potts become CEO. He was unsure if it would have any impact on their eventual romance so he had held things off.
From the looks of it, the Monaco Grand Prix was scheduled for early next year, so he had a bit of time before he could make the motion.
He had not heard from the Ancient One or from Master Drumm who had gone to, get this, vocational school for the Masters of the Mystic Arts.
Yeah, apparently there was this whole other world of magic where one could learn obscure magical languages, arts, and lessons for certain fees.
That was something that was never covered in the movies but it makes sense. The magical history of Earth itself was vast and rich, so there was no way that Kamar Taj, being the single oldest human founded organisation on the planet, did not have connections with lost magical civilizations.
"Hmm?" He perked up as he pretended to look at the street below, from his balcony when, in fact, his mind was focused on the man that just entered the edge of his range, in the Bronx.
The person's physical characteristics were off the charts, and somehow, he was radiating some sort of energy field around him as he walked through the sewers underneath. He failed to recognise the face but he could identify similar markers in Bruce as well.
So, Ross sent someone then. Time to see if this is Blonsky or not.
But before that, he had to let him come closer, in his range, so he could hold him still and then decide if he was worthy of being spared or just being ripped apart.
It was a good thing that Fury left Random Beautiful Agent 1 in the safehouse. He could contact Fury once again through her and this time, he hoped that she would not faint at the sight of a floating pen.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
TheHoneyPot
Not too sore, are you?
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I agree, he feels a bit stagnant now. It would help to see his powers grow or to see him develop other avenues, whether financial or physical.
Maybe its because I am not an american, but thats an odd thing to write. Out of nowhere the paragraph is turned into a thing about skin color(due to it being explicitly mentioned), then indicated a prejusticed view about caucasians by claiming the statement made to be stereotypical....
Do you mean this bit as a reference to paint an image of the american upper middle class or the high class families living in the subburbs or gated communities etc that we see in american movies? Or are you assuming it to be a factual?
Maybe its because I am not an american, but thats an odd thing to write. Out of nowhere the paragraph is turned into a thing about skin color(due to it being explicitly mentioned), then indicated a prejusticed view about caucasians by claiming the statement made to be stereotypical....
Do you mean this bit as a reference to paint an image of the american upper middle class or the high class families living in the subburbs or gated communities etc that we see in american movies? Or are you assuming it to be a factual?
IdleMuse0307
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It is completely based on American movie stereotypes.
NOT AT ALL FACTUAL!
please don't take my ramblings as factual.
This is a silly little thing I write in my free time. Please don't take it seriously
Chapter 38 : The One with the RBA
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
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A/N - I am down with the flu and so, this will be the last chapter for the week. Good news is that I have completed the 4/week quota. The bad news is that no more updates for the week.
See you guys, hopefully, on Monday.
Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don't mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 38- [December 2009]
Shield Safehouse in Manhattan
–Random Beautiful Agent–
Hmm. This is nice, actually. She thought to herself as she lounged on the sofa, once again, clad in her PJs, scrolling through a catalog of TV Shows and Movies that had been provided to her by the higher ups at SHIELD.
Of Course, her beloved MySpace profile was still out of reach so she probably was hemorrhaging followers as of right now, but the job was still her number one priority. The validation from online strangers was nice but it didn't pay her bills…yet.
Someday, hopefully, in the near future, she hoped to turn her MySpace profile into some sort of revenue generation stream. She didn't even want it to cover all of her expenses. Just the start of it would be more than enough for her to ditch her current job.
She had to jump in through a lot of hoops for this job. Technically, she was being paid by some private company but as far as she was aware, this was a government gig and ever since childhood, her father had drilled it into her head that a government job was the ONE thing, the one thing that would set her and her parents up for life.
Well, she had the job now but she didn't have her parents to set them up with a nice cozy retirement somewhere warm and pleasant. Now, she had all the money coming from the gig and nowhere to spend it. Currently, it is all parked up in some investment fund that SHIELD recommends to all its agents.
Hey, if the literal spy agency advised someone to invest in something, then there is no other thing to do. Just invest and leave it because if the people hoarding national security interests didn't know about the stock market, then who would?
She made a cool 100K a year, with all the benefits one could possibly get. As of right now, she wasn't even paying for her living expenses, even. Even after the total fiasco last time where she fainted at the first contact attempt of the Invisible Man, causing her senior to come here in person and then leading to a massive shootout, the marks of which were still visible now, SHIELD had seen fit to not just continue her tenure at SHIELD, but also send her on the same mission.
She didn't know if it was a punishment or if the Invisible Man requested it specifically. All she knew was that her senior was very upset and she didn't want to upset her more by asking for more information. So, she had just asked Agent Ross' assistant for more information and came here…to her work location.
She then read everything and then totally did not abuse the privilege given to her in the form of SHIELD Site Service or SSS privilege that was only given to Level 7 and above operations. SSS was basically a logistics geek's wet dream.
It is the wing of SHIELD that is responsible for procuring, preparing, transporting, and delivering basically anything from any part of the world in under 16 hours, to her SHIELD Safehouse.
So far, she has tried French Pastries, Italian Pizzas and pasta, Indian Butter Chicken, and more. She was cautious at first but over the weeks, she had grown brazen until one fine day, she saw the bill that she had accrued because of her spending spree.
Well, safe to say that she never opened that application on the SHIELD issued phone again. She wondered why nobody had contacted her to yell at her about the extravagant spending but apparently, this mission had more budget than she could fathom. Still, it was not as if she could abuse it for long, after all, she liked, no, loved the French Pastries, but not more than her cushy job.
The job was fine and all, and the current assignment was very dreamlike. It's just that….
"Ugh, it's so boring," She muttered to herself as she shut the TV off and threw away the remote. She didn't understand why there could be no live cable in the safehouse.
It was not as if watching Live News was going to threaten her mission or anything.
She would just have to make do with watching another rerun of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Though, she wondered why some of the higher ups at the NYC HQ liked to watch it in their down time and laughed, very loudly, when any scene of Mace Windu came on the TV.
She liked his character, if only for the purple lightsaber that only he seems to have but other than that, the movie was fine for her.
She was about to turn on the TV again when…
"Ah!" She yelped as a small, very small man made up of paper was standing on top of the coffee table, on top of which her legs were resting on.
She hastily stood up and stumbled behind the sofa. She would have fallen on her head had the city's guardian not been in front of her, in the flesh. Well, more like in the paper, but she got her point across.
"Ahem. Um, what can I do for you, Mr.Invisble Man, sir?" She coughed out into her hand and said, at least what she hoped it to be, in a professional enough tone, as if he had not just caught her in her PJs.
God, she really had to stop wearing this stuff as if it was her home and not the workplace. In her defense, the standard shield suit was very tight now. When she had given the physicals in the beginning, she was very…fit. Now, she had put on some French Pastries weight and she would not be shamed for it, dammit!
Oh no! She forgot she was in the presence of the Invisible Man and still, her thoughts wandered off, away from the current situation and as it had been told to her numerous times, she had a very expressive face.
Would the Invisible Man be offended by her?
"Ahem," An electronic voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She looked to see the paper avatar was now floating mid-air, almost at face height. The avatar somehow looked….concerned?
"Hello, I am sorry for the last incident. I should not have startled you," The paper avatar spoke. Her mind short circuited for a moment as she tried to process the words he had just uttered. She took a moment to find her words before replying to the all powerful entity present in front of her.
"Ah! No need for that. Actually, it was my fault, I was too distracted and did not carry out the proper procedure for the mission. Speaking of proper procedure, what can I do for you?" She repeated her previous question in a much more professional manner this time.
The avatar tilted its head at her before replying, "If you say so. Anyway, I have a message for your superior. Just pass this on to Fury or Coulson, if you can. Tell them that "Ross has made his move,""
She nodded her head, determined not to screw it up this time, "Understood. I'll make sure it is passed on. Anything else I can help you with?"
The avatar just shook his head and dispersed slowly, revealing a small burner phone that had her immediately scrambling for one of the cabinets.
She put on some gloves and immediately secured the evidence. The phone was easy enough to store but the pieces of paper were very difficult to store, especially since it was basically shredded.
Well, not her headache if nothing came from the evidence but it was her job to secure it, and just for safety, she also rang the button that would alert her handler at SHIELD who would be looking at the security cameras of this place 24/7.
"Phew, finally done right," She collapsed on the sofa once all the evidence was marked and bagged properly.
She wondered what he meant by that though. Something about Agent Ross, the NYC HQ Head?
She shook her head, dismissing those questions. She had learned from the plenty of spy movies she watched, foolishly thinking that it would help her prepare to work in an actual spy organisation, that one should not question what is above one's pay grade.
And it was definitely above her pay grade, considering that the Invisible Man blatantly told her to pass it on to Fury or Coulson, both of whom were legendary names in the agency, and also because she was at the very bottom of the totem pole, a level 2 agent.
The only ones below here were the garbage incinerator people. She would have thought that Janitors would have lower clearance but apparently, they were the ones who had access to very sensitive areas and were present in those locations when there was no other staff on duty, making their security clearance quite an issue.
The agent who onboarded her told her that most Janitors have a clearance level of 5 and above. The ones that work at sensitive locations might even have 7 or more.
It had broken her mind back then but as all things do, the thought left her mind soon after.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
See you guys, hopefully, on Monday.
Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don't mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 38- [December 2009]
Shield Safehouse in Manhattan
–Random Beautiful Agent–
Hmm. This is nice, actually. She thought to herself as she lounged on the sofa, once again, clad in her PJs, scrolling through a catalog of TV Shows and Movies that had been provided to her by the higher ups at SHIELD.
Of Course, her beloved MySpace profile was still out of reach so she probably was hemorrhaging followers as of right now, but the job was still her number one priority. The validation from online strangers was nice but it didn't pay her bills…yet.
Someday, hopefully, in the near future, she hoped to turn her MySpace profile into some sort of revenue generation stream. She didn't even want it to cover all of her expenses. Just the start of it would be more than enough for her to ditch her current job.
She had to jump in through a lot of hoops for this job. Technically, she was being paid by some private company but as far as she was aware, this was a government gig and ever since childhood, her father had drilled it into her head that a government job was the ONE thing, the one thing that would set her and her parents up for life.
Well, she had the job now but she didn't have her parents to set them up with a nice cozy retirement somewhere warm and pleasant. Now, she had all the money coming from the gig and nowhere to spend it. Currently, it is all parked up in some investment fund that SHIELD recommends to all its agents.
Hey, if the literal spy agency advised someone to invest in something, then there is no other thing to do. Just invest and leave it because if the people hoarding national security interests didn't know about the stock market, then who would?
She made a cool 100K a year, with all the benefits one could possibly get. As of right now, she wasn't even paying for her living expenses, even. Even after the total fiasco last time where she fainted at the first contact attempt of the Invisible Man, causing her senior to come here in person and then leading to a massive shootout, the marks of which were still visible now, SHIELD had seen fit to not just continue her tenure at SHIELD, but also send her on the same mission.
She didn't know if it was a punishment or if the Invisible Man requested it specifically. All she knew was that her senior was very upset and she didn't want to upset her more by asking for more information. So, she had just asked Agent Ross' assistant for more information and came here…to her work location.
She then read everything and then totally did not abuse the privilege given to her in the form of SHIELD Site Service or SSS privilege that was only given to Level 7 and above operations. SSS was basically a logistics geek's wet dream.
It is the wing of SHIELD that is responsible for procuring, preparing, transporting, and delivering basically anything from any part of the world in under 16 hours, to her SHIELD Safehouse.
So far, she has tried French Pastries, Italian Pizzas and pasta, Indian Butter Chicken, and more. She was cautious at first but over the weeks, she had grown brazen until one fine day, she saw the bill that she had accrued because of her spending spree.
Well, safe to say that she never opened that application on the SHIELD issued phone again. She wondered why nobody had contacted her to yell at her about the extravagant spending but apparently, this mission had more budget than she could fathom. Still, it was not as if she could abuse it for long, after all, she liked, no, loved the French Pastries, but not more than her cushy job.
The job was fine and all, and the current assignment was very dreamlike. It's just that….
"Ugh, it's so boring," She muttered to herself as she shut the TV off and threw away the remote. She didn't understand why there could be no live cable in the safehouse.
It was not as if watching Live News was going to threaten her mission or anything.
She would just have to make do with watching another rerun of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Though, she wondered why some of the higher ups at the NYC HQ liked to watch it in their down time and laughed, very loudly, when any scene of Mace Windu came on the TV.
She liked his character, if only for the purple lightsaber that only he seems to have but other than that, the movie was fine for her.
She was about to turn on the TV again when…
"Ah!" She yelped as a small, very small man made up of paper was standing on top of the coffee table, on top of which her legs were resting on.
She hastily stood up and stumbled behind the sofa. She would have fallen on her head had the city's guardian not been in front of her, in the flesh. Well, more like in the paper, but she got her point across.
"Ahem. Um, what can I do for you, Mr.Invisble Man, sir?" She coughed out into her hand and said, at least what she hoped it to be, in a professional enough tone, as if he had not just caught her in her PJs.
God, she really had to stop wearing this stuff as if it was her home and not the workplace. In her defense, the standard shield suit was very tight now. When she had given the physicals in the beginning, she was very…fit. Now, she had put on some French Pastries weight and she would not be shamed for it, dammit!
Oh no! She forgot she was in the presence of the Invisible Man and still, her thoughts wandered off, away from the current situation and as it had been told to her numerous times, she had a very expressive face.
Would the Invisible Man be offended by her?
"Ahem," An electronic voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She looked to see the paper avatar was now floating mid-air, almost at face height. The avatar somehow looked….concerned?
"Hello, I am sorry for the last incident. I should not have startled you," The paper avatar spoke. Her mind short circuited for a moment as she tried to process the words he had just uttered. She took a moment to find her words before replying to the all powerful entity present in front of her.
"Ah! No need for that. Actually, it was my fault, I was too distracted and did not carry out the proper procedure for the mission. Speaking of proper procedure, what can I do for you?" She repeated her previous question in a much more professional manner this time.
The avatar tilted its head at her before replying, "If you say so. Anyway, I have a message for your superior. Just pass this on to Fury or Coulson, if you can. Tell them that "Ross has made his move,""
She nodded her head, determined not to screw it up this time, "Understood. I'll make sure it is passed on. Anything else I can help you with?"
The avatar just shook his head and dispersed slowly, revealing a small burner phone that had her immediately scrambling for one of the cabinets.
She put on some gloves and immediately secured the evidence. The phone was easy enough to store but the pieces of paper were very difficult to store, especially since it was basically shredded.
Well, not her headache if nothing came from the evidence but it was her job to secure it, and just for safety, she also rang the button that would alert her handler at SHIELD who would be looking at the security cameras of this place 24/7.
"Phew, finally done right," She collapsed on the sofa once all the evidence was marked and bagged properly.
She wondered what he meant by that though. Something about Agent Ross, the NYC HQ Head?
She shook her head, dismissing those questions. She had learned from the plenty of spy movies she watched, foolishly thinking that it would help her prepare to work in an actual spy organisation, that one should not question what is above one's pay grade.
And it was definitely above her pay grade, considering that the Invisible Man blatantly told her to pass it on to Fury or Coulson, both of whom were legendary names in the agency, and also because she was at the very bottom of the totem pole, a level 2 agent.
The only ones below here were the garbage incinerator people. She would have thought that Janitors would have lower clearance but apparently, they were the ones who had access to very sensitive areas and were present in those locations when there was no other staff on duty, making their security clearance quite an issue.
The agent who onboarded her told her that most Janitors have a clearance level of 5 and above. The ones that work at sensitive locations might even have 7 or more.
It had broken her mind back then but as all things do, the thought left her mind soon after.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
TheHoneyPot
Not too sore, are you?
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That agent is gonna screw up again isnt she...
SquirtleTurtle
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Poor agent. Just trying to live that NEET life.
Chapter 39 : Sus peeps!
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 39 [December 2009]
–Axle Riddle–
Hmm.
He hummed to himself as he watched, with his spatial awareness, the energies surrounding Bruce Banner and the mystery person who had now taken root inside one of the underground tunnels that crisscrossed most of the city.
He had noticed the energy aura before but had not looked too deep into it, for some reason. Now, as he compared the two auras of both the people, he could immediately tell the difference.
Bruce's aura, for one, was not as rough, for lack of a better term, as the mystery Hulk's was. Especially since he was now living with his better half, his edges had mellowed out and his aura was pretty stable now. Nothing like the jagged mess he had sensed the first day he had encountered him.
The Mystery Hulk, because who else could have almost the same aura with a similar body composition as Bruce, was now resting in the tunnel but not doing anything special.
He must be waiting for something but what? He was quite deep into his range and he could not sense anything else coming in his direction or anyone with heavy weaponry, or more Hulks as well. Nothing of note was happening in any of the areas that were under his observation.
He made sure to suspend the privacy privileges that Bruce and Betty had and was now actively monitoring them. It helped that it was the morning so they were not doing anything that would make him feel single.
Though, the scene of Bruce reading his notes and drinking coffee while Betty was cooking pancakes in the kitchen, was more than enough to raise a bout of jealousy deep in his heart.
He tried to look deeper into the Hulk's body, to see if he could find anything interesting inside but apparently, that feature was pretty much limited and he could not use the microscopic scanning that far from his location.
God, he hated that restriction. Maybe the Hulk had something inside his body? The blood that flows through Bruce Banner is markedly different from Betty Ross', even without the whole other DNA in there. It was as if his powers registered the blood of enhanced beings as different.
He never really got the chance to ask Bruce if there was ever another experiment that failed, before the one that turned him into the Hulk. He, for one, did not want an army of Hulks that were now under the command of Ross because there was some failed experiment out there whose blood could be used to mass produce cheap Gamma powered super soldiers.
If it were true though, it would not have been silent. Noise would be generated over something like that and he did not see any notice from Fury to be careful or something.
For one, he had already sent the message to SHIELD, and while chances of Fury hearing about it immediately were quite nil, Fury would not have anything to blame on him once he inevitably damaged "government property".
This clearly enhanced person would probably count as property to the concerned people, the constitution meaning nothing to them considering that there was no amendment inside it that could facilitate the consideration of enhanced people as "people".
In a bigoted society, they could just as easily be labelled as "cattle" or "subhumans". That was somewhat pessimistic and dark but considering the sheer history of humans labelling other humans as "others" and then committing atrocities on the other side, without flinching and justifying it as being done to "things" instead of "people", he had to consider that angle as well.
Oh, well, there is nothing he could do about it right now. That was a long political uphill battle that he had no interest in. He had much bigger and more importantly, much more immediate concerns, like Thanos and the humans themselves.
He still couldn't believe the balls on Ross if he had the guts to send someone to the city, and for what? He had no hopes of getting Bruce back unless he threatened him with Betty and as far as he knew, Betty had no lost love for her father.
Honestly, this smelled like something else but he didn't know what. Fury must have done something that stopped Ross from even coming close to New York, for over a year and now, suddenly, Ross was sending in some bunged up experiment.
Something was fishy and unless and until the discount Hulk came in his range. Well, deeper into his range, because as soon as he reached the peripheral areas around Manhattan, he would have enough leverage to immobilise him and if not that, then at least catapult him into Manhattan's air space, where he could, very easily, hold him mid air, or do a number of other things to completely neutralise him, like stopping the airflow to his body or just tweaking his muscles, bones, veins, and even his organs, slightly, shocking his body into shutting down.
Honestly, he should not have read all those medical books. His mind absorbed that like a sponge and now he had a bunch of really creative, really easy, ways to kill or disable people without even breaking a sweat.
Though he had a hunch that the Hulk's regenerative factor might pose a hurdle in that but he knew that even that has its own limits, especially since they would not be, essentially, gods, allowing them to harness the power of an entire dimension.
Theoretically, the Hulk could go on forever, without ever taking an ounce of energy from this universe but the other Hulks could not. That was why they had limits while the Hulk did not. He was taking in energy from some other plane, for which he was the owner.
He did have a line straight to Pepper Potts because major shareholder, but he didn't know if involving Tony in this was a good idea or not. Especially with the situation being as it was, he didn't know if Tony's involvement would light the powder keg or if Tony would even involve himself, given his past connections with the Army.
He was watching as the Random Beautiful Agent scrambled to secure the evidence and call home but after that, she was just there, sitting ducks. Probably waiting for some orders from high above but he had kept his message purposefully short and vague.
So her immediate superior would have no idea of what to do with her now. Only Fury should know IF this is Ross' doing anyway.
Besides, if it wasn't him then-
He stopped midway in chopping the onion, as six other people, with the exact same aura around them, entered the city as well, all in the back of the same truck, huddled together. His eyes narrowed as he immediately abandoned the thoughts of cooking for lunch as he went into the living room, put on the headphones, and let his favourite music drop as he leaned back on the sofa and closed his eyes, focusing completely on the six new dangerous people that had just entered his range.
The people were heading straight to Manhattan. He could see the driver but he didn't seem….okay. He was shivering for one, despite having a coat on him.
Sadly, he could not check temps in an area using his powers but he could wager, judging by the air coming out of the blower, that the person was cold?
The truck travelled through twists and turns, without rhyme or rhythm but he could see that they were inching closer and closer to the first one who had entered the city and was waiting for them, apparently, in the sewer.
HE watched as the truck ran right above the first Hulk, which somehow woke him up as he started running right below the truck. He was pretty heavy too, judging by the cracks he made as he ran as fast as he could.
At some point, the truck stopped at a signal but the one running underground made no move of getting out of the sewer and into the truck.
From there onwards, as fast as they could, all seven of them made their way to Manhattan. He watched with bated breaths, just itching to take action as they were now within a distance, where he could just take ahold of them and then throw them into Manhattan, if not hurt them right there.
But he waited because they had not done anything wrong, or illegal. There is a distinction there but right now was not the time to go into that.
The driver was twitching increasingly as he came closer to Manhattan. By now, he had scanned the truck in its entirety a hundred times over, and yet, he could not find anything wrong. No bombs, no liquid, no solid, no sus artefact that he could not identify, not even guns and pistols. That was the elementary stuff and these guys didn't even have that.
So, the question was, why were they here?
He watched as they were headed straight into Manhattan, only to turn at the second last turn and head towards one of the soup kitchens.
What could they want there?
The kitchens were just a place with food and homeless people. Nothing noteworthy enough for a team of enhanced people to head there.
The driver's twitchiness increased, to the point that he was amazed at the scene of him driving properly, if at all.
He watched with bated breaths as they reached the parking lot of the soup kitchen, the driver letting all the six people out of the back of the truck before driving off, just as twitchy as before.
The seventh person was waiting right around the corner or rather, in the sewer right under the corner.
He flooded the entire soup kitchen with his presence, solidifying everything and covering the people with a small imperceptible shield that should be more than capable of deflecting debris from hitting them. Some of them probably realised something was wrong but his fine control over his powers, especially boosted by his Second Mind, meant that most of them didn't even realise as they were covered in a layer of energy that was almost bulletproof.
The six people also probably realised that something was wrong, considering that the one in the front stopped mid step before continuing. He could see no weapons on them and yet, he could not shake off the feeling of worry as the six people, dressed in rags, stepped into the soup kitchen.
Most of the staff in those places were used to seeing people in less than optimal clothing and condition so none of them batted an eye as these six people entered the kitchen.
They were directed to a changing area where they were given clean, if not a bit worn out, clothing. The difference was night and day as they stepped out of the changing room and into the kitchen, where they were handed a plate and told to go in line to receive their food.
He was hyper focused on their movements, even the slightest of twitch and he would have them thrown into the East River before drowning them until they were fit for interrogation.
They dutifully received their food and sat on the rows of tables arranged for all the people to eat. The soup kitchen was frequented by not just the homeless but some low income people. The food in the place was made properly, with hygiene, and was nutritious enough so some gig workers made the soup kitchen their dinner place once or twice a week.
Honestly, he didn't mind it that much, considering that the billionaires residing in Manhattan took it upon themselves to donate plenty of money to the venture when they found out that the Invisible Man was the one who had pushed for the formation of these places.
They probably thought that doing so would bring them in his good graces.
Well, as long as it kept the kitchens stocked and staffed, he was fine with it.
Still, he could not shake the itch of just grabbing one of them and then bringing them back over the river, just to scan them down to the smallest scale he could scan.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 39 [December 2009]
–Axle Riddle–
Hmm.
He hummed to himself as he watched, with his spatial awareness, the energies surrounding Bruce Banner and the mystery person who had now taken root inside one of the underground tunnels that crisscrossed most of the city.
He had noticed the energy aura before but had not looked too deep into it, for some reason. Now, as he compared the two auras of both the people, he could immediately tell the difference.
Bruce's aura, for one, was not as rough, for lack of a better term, as the mystery Hulk's was. Especially since he was now living with his better half, his edges had mellowed out and his aura was pretty stable now. Nothing like the jagged mess he had sensed the first day he had encountered him.
The Mystery Hulk, because who else could have almost the same aura with a similar body composition as Bruce, was now resting in the tunnel but not doing anything special.
He must be waiting for something but what? He was quite deep into his range and he could not sense anything else coming in his direction or anyone with heavy weaponry, or more Hulks as well. Nothing of note was happening in any of the areas that were under his observation.
He made sure to suspend the privacy privileges that Bruce and Betty had and was now actively monitoring them. It helped that it was the morning so they were not doing anything that would make him feel single.
Though, the scene of Bruce reading his notes and drinking coffee while Betty was cooking pancakes in the kitchen, was more than enough to raise a bout of jealousy deep in his heart.
He tried to look deeper into the Hulk's body, to see if he could find anything interesting inside but apparently, that feature was pretty much limited and he could not use the microscopic scanning that far from his location.
God, he hated that restriction. Maybe the Hulk had something inside his body? The blood that flows through Bruce Banner is markedly different from Betty Ross', even without the whole other DNA in there. It was as if his powers registered the blood of enhanced beings as different.
He never really got the chance to ask Bruce if there was ever another experiment that failed, before the one that turned him into the Hulk. He, for one, did not want an army of Hulks that were now under the command of Ross because there was some failed experiment out there whose blood could be used to mass produce cheap Gamma powered super soldiers.
If it were true though, it would not have been silent. Noise would be generated over something like that and he did not see any notice from Fury to be careful or something.
For one, he had already sent the message to SHIELD, and while chances of Fury hearing about it immediately were quite nil, Fury would not have anything to blame on him once he inevitably damaged "government property".
This clearly enhanced person would probably count as property to the concerned people, the constitution meaning nothing to them considering that there was no amendment inside it that could facilitate the consideration of enhanced people as "people".
In a bigoted society, they could just as easily be labelled as "cattle" or "subhumans". That was somewhat pessimistic and dark but considering the sheer history of humans labelling other humans as "others" and then committing atrocities on the other side, without flinching and justifying it as being done to "things" instead of "people", he had to consider that angle as well.
Oh, well, there is nothing he could do about it right now. That was a long political uphill battle that he had no interest in. He had much bigger and more importantly, much more immediate concerns, like Thanos and the humans themselves.
He still couldn't believe the balls on Ross if he had the guts to send someone to the city, and for what? He had no hopes of getting Bruce back unless he threatened him with Betty and as far as he knew, Betty had no lost love for her father.
Honestly, this smelled like something else but he didn't know what. Fury must have done something that stopped Ross from even coming close to New York, for over a year and now, suddenly, Ross was sending in some bunged up experiment.
Something was fishy and unless and until the discount Hulk came in his range. Well, deeper into his range, because as soon as he reached the peripheral areas around Manhattan, he would have enough leverage to immobilise him and if not that, then at least catapult him into Manhattan's air space, where he could, very easily, hold him mid air, or do a number of other things to completely neutralise him, like stopping the airflow to his body or just tweaking his muscles, bones, veins, and even his organs, slightly, shocking his body into shutting down.
Honestly, he should not have read all those medical books. His mind absorbed that like a sponge and now he had a bunch of really creative, really easy, ways to kill or disable people without even breaking a sweat.
Though he had a hunch that the Hulk's regenerative factor might pose a hurdle in that but he knew that even that has its own limits, especially since they would not be, essentially, gods, allowing them to harness the power of an entire dimension.
Theoretically, the Hulk could go on forever, without ever taking an ounce of energy from this universe but the other Hulks could not. That was why they had limits while the Hulk did not. He was taking in energy from some other plane, for which he was the owner.
He did have a line straight to Pepper Potts because major shareholder, but he didn't know if involving Tony in this was a good idea or not. Especially with the situation being as it was, he didn't know if Tony's involvement would light the powder keg or if Tony would even involve himself, given his past connections with the Army.
He was watching as the Random Beautiful Agent scrambled to secure the evidence and call home but after that, she was just there, sitting ducks. Probably waiting for some orders from high above but he had kept his message purposefully short and vague.
So her immediate superior would have no idea of what to do with her now. Only Fury should know IF this is Ross' doing anyway.
Besides, if it wasn't him then-
He stopped midway in chopping the onion, as six other people, with the exact same aura around them, entered the city as well, all in the back of the same truck, huddled together. His eyes narrowed as he immediately abandoned the thoughts of cooking for lunch as he went into the living room, put on the headphones, and let his favourite music drop as he leaned back on the sofa and closed his eyes, focusing completely on the six new dangerous people that had just entered his range.
The people were heading straight to Manhattan. He could see the driver but he didn't seem….okay. He was shivering for one, despite having a coat on him.
Sadly, he could not check temps in an area using his powers but he could wager, judging by the air coming out of the blower, that the person was cold?
The truck travelled through twists and turns, without rhyme or rhythm but he could see that they were inching closer and closer to the first one who had entered the city and was waiting for them, apparently, in the sewer.
HE watched as the truck ran right above the first Hulk, which somehow woke him up as he started running right below the truck. He was pretty heavy too, judging by the cracks he made as he ran as fast as he could.
At some point, the truck stopped at a signal but the one running underground made no move of getting out of the sewer and into the truck.
From there onwards, as fast as they could, all seven of them made their way to Manhattan. He watched with bated breaths, just itching to take action as they were now within a distance, where he could just take ahold of them and then throw them into Manhattan, if not hurt them right there.
But he waited because they had not done anything wrong, or illegal. There is a distinction there but right now was not the time to go into that.
The driver was twitching increasingly as he came closer to Manhattan. By now, he had scanned the truck in its entirety a hundred times over, and yet, he could not find anything wrong. No bombs, no liquid, no solid, no sus artefact that he could not identify, not even guns and pistols. That was the elementary stuff and these guys didn't even have that.
So, the question was, why were they here?
He watched as they were headed straight into Manhattan, only to turn at the second last turn and head towards one of the soup kitchens.
What could they want there?
The kitchens were just a place with food and homeless people. Nothing noteworthy enough for a team of enhanced people to head there.
The driver's twitchiness increased, to the point that he was amazed at the scene of him driving properly, if at all.
He watched with bated breaths as they reached the parking lot of the soup kitchen, the driver letting all the six people out of the back of the truck before driving off, just as twitchy as before.
The seventh person was waiting right around the corner or rather, in the sewer right under the corner.
He flooded the entire soup kitchen with his presence, solidifying everything and covering the people with a small imperceptible shield that should be more than capable of deflecting debris from hitting them. Some of them probably realised something was wrong but his fine control over his powers, especially boosted by his Second Mind, meant that most of them didn't even realise as they were covered in a layer of energy that was almost bulletproof.
The six people also probably realised that something was wrong, considering that the one in the front stopped mid step before continuing. He could see no weapons on them and yet, he could not shake off the feeling of worry as the six people, dressed in rags, stepped into the soup kitchen.
Most of the staff in those places were used to seeing people in less than optimal clothing and condition so none of them batted an eye as these six people entered the kitchen.
They were directed to a changing area where they were given clean, if not a bit worn out, clothing. The difference was night and day as they stepped out of the changing room and into the kitchen, where they were handed a plate and told to go in line to receive their food.
He was hyper focused on their movements, even the slightest of twitch and he would have them thrown into the East River before drowning them until they were fit for interrogation.
They dutifully received their food and sat on the rows of tables arranged for all the people to eat. The soup kitchen was frequented by not just the homeless but some low income people. The food in the place was made properly, with hygiene, and was nutritious enough so some gig workers made the soup kitchen their dinner place once or twice a week.
Honestly, he didn't mind it that much, considering that the billionaires residing in Manhattan took it upon themselves to donate plenty of money to the venture when they found out that the Invisible Man was the one who had pushed for the formation of these places.
They probably thought that doing so would bring them in his good graces.
Well, as long as it kept the kitchens stocked and staffed, he was fine with it.
Still, he could not shake the itch of just grabbing one of them and then bringing them back over the river, just to scan them down to the smallest scale he could scan.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
chicozapote
Making the rounds.
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Dios los ve y ellos lo saben.
Chapter 40 : Shorty Chap
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
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- 11,771
Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don't mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 40 [December 2009]
–Axle Riddle–
He continued to keep a hawkish gaze on the six people who had entered the soup kitchen. For the life of him, he could not find the slightest odd behavior from any of them, even the one who was currently sitting down in the sewer, looking oddly pensive as he kept a straight gaze at the six people eating in the soup kitchen as if he could see straight through the earth.
Now that they were closer, he was a lot more confident in his ability to handle them, should they act out of turn. It had been over 45 minutes since they had entered the soup kitchen and he had flooded the area with his presence. Even now, all the workers of the soup kitchen and the people who are currently eating were covered in a thin layer of micro barriers that were subtly protecting them.
At this point, it was getting slightly tedious but the way the wiry muscles in all the six people were tensed, as if in preparation for some fight, he could not afford to be lax in the security of the innocent people eating there. At this point, the kitchens were running so smoothly and efficiently that most low income families and workers had one of their meals of the day in the kitchen.
Sure, it could be said that they were capable of procuring their own meals and were stealing meals from the mouths of the ones that truly needed it, and to them, he would say: Back OFF!
Food should not be denied to anyone, in his socialist opinion but the way things worked, he was sure that the Billionaires that benefited from his protection would not mind paying a modest fee to make sure that tens of thousands of people ate properly. It was not even chump change for them.
So, no, he was more than happy that the soup kitchens were so properly maintained that even families felt that it was both safe and hygienic enough for them to bring in their children. He was very happy when he saw that happening at first and he had to, very politely, remind the police that had been called in by some bystander who felt as if the soup kitchens were his own property, that no anybody could eat there.
Case in point, he could see some of the older NYPD gentlemen enter the soup kitchen, talking and laughing, feeling safe in the fact that nothing and nothing untoward would happen to any of them as they were now officially in the Invisible Man's territory.
The second the police entered their vision, he was ready to take action and remove the six hulks completely from the equation but aside from widening eyes and a slight pause in eating, the six continued as if they were completely normal and not enhanced people who could probably take bullets to the face and come out the other side unscathed.
So, he stayed his hand, once again. He was unsure as to how to proceed from now on. On the one hand, he could completely disregard them and their strength and bring them into his territory with ease, wherein they would be completely under his mercy. On the other hand, they literally hadn't done anything worthy of his notice, aside from being enhanced underneath the normal facade they had going on.
It was kind of amazing how they had the distinct aura of a Hulk but they looked completely normal from the outside. He could see that it was completely authentic, no illusionary method of any sort present on their body.
Bruce Banner did not get that privilege but these people did. He wagered that Bruce would be very interested in seeing how these people ticked, not that he had any lab equipment set up. That was another thing that he had yet to do.
Betty's arrival did alleviate many things but Bruce's drive to get rid of his alter ego was only dimmed, not snuffed out. He was sure that once news of this incident reached Bruce's ears, he would once again start pestering him for lab equipment.
Sure, he could get him some elementary stuff that he could set up in a small space but the thing was, Bruce now lived in Manhattan. It was absurdly expensive even before he made it the de facto world leader in crime rates, them being down that is. He was sure that it was probably the safest city in the world, for its population.
Some crimes like hate crimes, jaywalking, conspiracy to murder, and some weed sales that were illegal by the US law but not in his mind, still happened and the police were more than happy to register them so as to make themselves feel useful but overall, violent crimes had been dropped to near zero.
He had even had the opportunity to witness the tradition of Scandinavian countries migrating to Manhattan as well, where the mothers would often leave their babies out in the snow, unattended, so as to acclimate them to the weather. That was not something that was very clever but it was absolutely nice to see it happening naturally, the people of Manhattan are no longer afraid of crimes against their babies happening.
He watched as one of the police officers flirted with one of the employees at the soup kitchen. Yes, they had employees instead of volunteers because employees could be properly trained and compensated for their time and effort, instead of just exploiting volunteers with little to no training in handling volatile situations that could probably pop up at such places.
Another thing was all the employees at all the soup kitchens, were the people who attended the Congregation at Central Park, making them almost perfect employees as they worked with zeal, didn't complain, not that he gave them any reason to, accepted the wages he gave them (He paid them fairly), and didn't= even blink at his additional requests to, if possible, help all the people that come the kitchen in need.
The six hulks kept a close eye on the police officers, always managing to keep the police in sight even as they moved out. Eventually, the police settled down in their usual places and scarfed down the food provided to them, as the six hulks left the place.
He saw them enter the parking lot and just…..look at each other, in confusion and fear for some reason. He was just debating whether to give them a joyride through the air when the largest one looked up for some reason.
"Um, Hello? Invisible Man?"
When he took a moment to reply, the other one furiously whispered to the other five, "You guys said that this is how we could contact him. Now see, he is not responding. I say that we-"
His words were cut short as he lifted all six of them and just slingshot them straight into the city. Their screams were muffled by a mobile application of his Curtain of Silence as they headed straight into an alley.
As they were about to crash, the earth seemingly parted itself to reveal a deep dark hole that led straight to the underground highway that he had built before.
Time to see just what was going on here.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 40 [December 2009]
–Axle Riddle–
He continued to keep a hawkish gaze on the six people who had entered the soup kitchen. For the life of him, he could not find the slightest odd behavior from any of them, even the one who was currently sitting down in the sewer, looking oddly pensive as he kept a straight gaze at the six people eating in the soup kitchen as if he could see straight through the earth.
Now that they were closer, he was a lot more confident in his ability to handle them, should they act out of turn. It had been over 45 minutes since they had entered the soup kitchen and he had flooded the area with his presence. Even now, all the workers of the soup kitchen and the people who are currently eating were covered in a thin layer of micro barriers that were subtly protecting them.
At this point, it was getting slightly tedious but the way the wiry muscles in all the six people were tensed, as if in preparation for some fight, he could not afford to be lax in the security of the innocent people eating there. At this point, the kitchens were running so smoothly and efficiently that most low income families and workers had one of their meals of the day in the kitchen.
Sure, it could be said that they were capable of procuring their own meals and were stealing meals from the mouths of the ones that truly needed it, and to them, he would say: Back OFF!
Food should not be denied to anyone, in his socialist opinion but the way things worked, he was sure that the Billionaires that benefited from his protection would not mind paying a modest fee to make sure that tens of thousands of people ate properly. It was not even chump change for them.
So, no, he was more than happy that the soup kitchens were so properly maintained that even families felt that it was both safe and hygienic enough for them to bring in their children. He was very happy when he saw that happening at first and he had to, very politely, remind the police that had been called in by some bystander who felt as if the soup kitchens were his own property, that no anybody could eat there.
Case in point, he could see some of the older NYPD gentlemen enter the soup kitchen, talking and laughing, feeling safe in the fact that nothing and nothing untoward would happen to any of them as they were now officially in the Invisible Man's territory.
The second the police entered their vision, he was ready to take action and remove the six hulks completely from the equation but aside from widening eyes and a slight pause in eating, the six continued as if they were completely normal and not enhanced people who could probably take bullets to the face and come out the other side unscathed.
So, he stayed his hand, once again. He was unsure as to how to proceed from now on. On the one hand, he could completely disregard them and their strength and bring them into his territory with ease, wherein they would be completely under his mercy. On the other hand, they literally hadn't done anything worthy of his notice, aside from being enhanced underneath the normal facade they had going on.
It was kind of amazing how they had the distinct aura of a Hulk but they looked completely normal from the outside. He could see that it was completely authentic, no illusionary method of any sort present on their body.
Bruce Banner did not get that privilege but these people did. He wagered that Bruce would be very interested in seeing how these people ticked, not that he had any lab equipment set up. That was another thing that he had yet to do.
Betty's arrival did alleviate many things but Bruce's drive to get rid of his alter ego was only dimmed, not snuffed out. He was sure that once news of this incident reached Bruce's ears, he would once again start pestering him for lab equipment.
Sure, he could get him some elementary stuff that he could set up in a small space but the thing was, Bruce now lived in Manhattan. It was absurdly expensive even before he made it the de facto world leader in crime rates, them being down that is. He was sure that it was probably the safest city in the world, for its population.
Some crimes like hate crimes, jaywalking, conspiracy to murder, and some weed sales that were illegal by the US law but not in his mind, still happened and the police were more than happy to register them so as to make themselves feel useful but overall, violent crimes had been dropped to near zero.
He had even had the opportunity to witness the tradition of Scandinavian countries migrating to Manhattan as well, where the mothers would often leave their babies out in the snow, unattended, so as to acclimate them to the weather. That was not something that was very clever but it was absolutely nice to see it happening naturally, the people of Manhattan are no longer afraid of crimes against their babies happening.
He watched as one of the police officers flirted with one of the employees at the soup kitchen. Yes, they had employees instead of volunteers because employees could be properly trained and compensated for their time and effort, instead of just exploiting volunteers with little to no training in handling volatile situations that could probably pop up at such places.
Another thing was all the employees at all the soup kitchens, were the people who attended the Congregation at Central Park, making them almost perfect employees as they worked with zeal, didn't complain, not that he gave them any reason to, accepted the wages he gave them (He paid them fairly), and didn't= even blink at his additional requests to, if possible, help all the people that come the kitchen in need.
The six hulks kept a close eye on the police officers, always managing to keep the police in sight even as they moved out. Eventually, the police settled down in their usual places and scarfed down the food provided to them, as the six hulks left the place.
He saw them enter the parking lot and just…..look at each other, in confusion and fear for some reason. He was just debating whether to give them a joyride through the air when the largest one looked up for some reason.
"Um, Hello? Invisible Man?"
When he took a moment to reply, the other one furiously whispered to the other five, "You guys said that this is how we could contact him. Now see, he is not responding. I say that we-"
His words were cut short as he lifted all six of them and just slingshot them straight into the city. Their screams were muffled by a mobile application of his Curtain of Silence as they headed straight into an alley.
As they were about to crash, the earth seemingly parted itself to reveal a deep dark hole that led straight to the underground highway that he had built before.
Time to see just what was going on here.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
Chapter 41 : Brain no worky today!
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2021
- Messages
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- 11,771
Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don't mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 41 [December 2009]
–Axle Riddle–
"Not so fast," He muttered to himself as he watched the seventh Hulk about to hightail it out of the area, presumably sensing the sudden movement of his other accomplices. It was quite hilarious to watch, even from his non visual senses, the flailing about that the absurdly dense and heavy Hulk did as he was flown straight into the water.
He must have been so surprised when, instead of getting a mouthful of water as he crashed into the river, he entered a completely dry, empty space as the river seemingly parted for him. He dumped him straight into a hole in the riverbed, which led straight to the huge hole dug right under the city, landing right beside his six other acquaintances, on his legs.
He then proceeded to look around widely, recovering remarkably faster than the other Hulks. Unfortunately for him, the tunnel was a secret from the wider public, mostly in part to SHIELD, and it was nothing more than a huge dark tunnel with splatters of light scattered here and there, remnants of the inspection that the city tried to carry out before SHIELD came hammering in with their weight and took over the entire project.
He had been in talks with the city to get it approved, mostly because it was just sitting there, at the moment, gathering dust but red tape was hindering progress. The national significance of the city and the added scrutiny that came with his presence in it meant that the tunnel would not be open to the public for a long time to come.
…And he was fine with that.
After all, this was going to be his emergency evacuation shelter when the Chitauri started pouring down from the blue portal from hell. He had already started making conduits and makeshift rooms in the tunnel, which could be filled with the required emergency supplies a day or two before the Invasion.
How would he even know about the Invasion, you might ask? Well, for one, he hoped to establish some sort of collaborative relationship with SHIELD before that, one that would have them trust him enough to divulge such critical information.
Secondly, he hoped that Tony Stark might let it slip, especially since Coulson supposedly came to Tony Stark in the almost finished Stark Tower in canon, but that was not a guaranteed solution to the problem that was the consequences of his limited range of powers.
What was a surefire way of gathering information were the people that lived in Manhattan, under his umbrella of protection. All kinds of people lived in Manhattan, having either brought out a property at the absurd prices that it was selling for these days or rented it for an equally absurd amount of money.
Most of the locals had probably retired, settling outside the city, even New Jersey, as they cashed in on the boom of real estate prices within the city. His mere presence in the city meant that every Tom Dick and Harry, with a bit of money, wanted to stay in Manhattan.
Now, normal middle class people certainly wanted to stay safe, in general, but the people who were more afraid for their lives, valued their lives more than anyone else, were the elites, the Billionaires.
…And thanks to the universal protective umbrella he gave to any person that wandered into his range, most of the Billionaires on the East Coast had found themselves a penthouse in the wealthiest neighbourhood of New York City.
Those people were his last resort when it came to gathering information about the invasion if none of the other options panned out. He would surely notice the surefire influx of rich immigrants into the city, hoping that they would be safe from the forces of Loki, in the safest city on the planet, not knowing that this was precisely going to be the ground zero for the Chitauri Invasion.
Sure, the thought of Loki not choosing New York did cross his mind, what with his reputation of being an all seeing god, but if that happened, well, what would be the point of all this?
He would either have the ability to influence things or he wouldn't, no two ways about it. Plus, the sheer power of the curtain that kept him imprisoned within the city meant that there was a high chance that the INvasion would happen and it would happen in this very city.
He didn't know if it would happen in the same location as Stark Tower, or would Loki figure out something else to open the portal, unlikely as it may be.
Ah, stuff to worry about later, he thought to himself as he poured another cup of coffee for himself and settled down to read a nice book, the spicy kind. Of course, it was all a sham for the Personal Investigator that somebody had hired to spy on him and him specifically.
Most probably Stark because of their latest encounter. He didn't know more because the PI arrived in the city just a few days ago, continually stalking him at his office and then at his apartment, probably looking for something to report back to Stark.
It was good that he had literally nothing of value in his apartment and nothing of note in his office as well.
While he pretended to read his book, he shifted to give the PI better angles as he continued to read on his balcony, his mind wandered around the city as the Hulks regrouped and began trudging through the tunnel in near darkness, all the while Bruce and Betty enjoyed a nice movie, snuggling into the couch.
Ah, the joys of being in a loving, committed, heterosexual relationship. He wished he knew that as well but, oh well, duty calls.
He cut off the spying on the happy couple and focused on the Hulks.
Now that they were in his range, he scanned them down to the lowest level he could, revealing pretty much the same as before. They were enhanced, very…organically, in fact.
See, he had some theories as to the process of enhancements that happen artificially. Using Bruce Banner as an example, the process of turning into the Hulk was a very painful and uncomfortable one, a sign of it being artificial or not yet settled power.
Once that power probably settled down, Bruce would become the Hulk completely, having both his powers and intellect in a single package, making him far more formidable than he was now.
These Hulks, on the other hand, were quite clearly recent, considering that Bruce had been the Hulk for less than two years now. He could spot no abnormality, no deficiency, no useless organ, no disproportionate organs…nothing.
Well, the only way to find out anything about them would be to talk to them, and considering that one of them had actually called him out, he was sure that they had someone to say to him.
So, flexing his powers, he flooded the area in front of them with his presence, gathering some foliage and then burning them to create some light in the otherwise nearly pitch black tunnel.
All of the seven came to a stop as he recreated his iconic paper avatar, floating in front of them, only this time, just for shits and giggles, he only made the head.
Understandably, before he could get a word in, the Seventh Hulk, the one who landed in the sewers, just jumped in with his fist cocked back, ready to deliver a powerful haymaker at the paper head.
Predictably, he went straight through, landing on the other side, looking at the reforming paper head with confusion before he once again jumped the head, this time, with the help of his six other Hulks.
Well, time to show them the alpha dog of this place then.
With a flex of his will, all seven of them felt as if a huge boulder was pressing down on them and all of them found themselves in a crater the size of their body. He had made sure that none of them were hurt, not that it was hard considering the durability of their bodies.
"Now," He made the same menacing sound by creating vibrations in the air, the same one that made Agent Ross shoot him in panic, "What do we have here?"
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 41 [December 2009]
–Axle Riddle–
"Not so fast," He muttered to himself as he watched the seventh Hulk about to hightail it out of the area, presumably sensing the sudden movement of his other accomplices. It was quite hilarious to watch, even from his non visual senses, the flailing about that the absurdly dense and heavy Hulk did as he was flown straight into the water.
He must have been so surprised when, instead of getting a mouthful of water as he crashed into the river, he entered a completely dry, empty space as the river seemingly parted for him. He dumped him straight into a hole in the riverbed, which led straight to the huge hole dug right under the city, landing right beside his six other acquaintances, on his legs.
He then proceeded to look around widely, recovering remarkably faster than the other Hulks. Unfortunately for him, the tunnel was a secret from the wider public, mostly in part to SHIELD, and it was nothing more than a huge dark tunnel with splatters of light scattered here and there, remnants of the inspection that the city tried to carry out before SHIELD came hammering in with their weight and took over the entire project.
He had been in talks with the city to get it approved, mostly because it was just sitting there, at the moment, gathering dust but red tape was hindering progress. The national significance of the city and the added scrutiny that came with his presence in it meant that the tunnel would not be open to the public for a long time to come.
…And he was fine with that.
After all, this was going to be his emergency evacuation shelter when the Chitauri started pouring down from the blue portal from hell. He had already started making conduits and makeshift rooms in the tunnel, which could be filled with the required emergency supplies a day or two before the Invasion.
How would he even know about the Invasion, you might ask? Well, for one, he hoped to establish some sort of collaborative relationship with SHIELD before that, one that would have them trust him enough to divulge such critical information.
Secondly, he hoped that Tony Stark might let it slip, especially since Coulson supposedly came to Tony Stark in the almost finished Stark Tower in canon, but that was not a guaranteed solution to the problem that was the consequences of his limited range of powers.
What was a surefire way of gathering information were the people that lived in Manhattan, under his umbrella of protection. All kinds of people lived in Manhattan, having either brought out a property at the absurd prices that it was selling for these days or rented it for an equally absurd amount of money.
Most of the locals had probably retired, settling outside the city, even New Jersey, as they cashed in on the boom of real estate prices within the city. His mere presence in the city meant that every Tom Dick and Harry, with a bit of money, wanted to stay in Manhattan.
Now, normal middle class people certainly wanted to stay safe, in general, but the people who were more afraid for their lives, valued their lives more than anyone else, were the elites, the Billionaires.
…And thanks to the universal protective umbrella he gave to any person that wandered into his range, most of the Billionaires on the East Coast had found themselves a penthouse in the wealthiest neighbourhood of New York City.
Those people were his last resort when it came to gathering information about the invasion if none of the other options panned out. He would surely notice the surefire influx of rich immigrants into the city, hoping that they would be safe from the forces of Loki, in the safest city on the planet, not knowing that this was precisely going to be the ground zero for the Chitauri Invasion.
Sure, the thought of Loki not choosing New York did cross his mind, what with his reputation of being an all seeing god, but if that happened, well, what would be the point of all this?
He would either have the ability to influence things or he wouldn't, no two ways about it. Plus, the sheer power of the curtain that kept him imprisoned within the city meant that there was a high chance that the INvasion would happen and it would happen in this very city.
He didn't know if it would happen in the same location as Stark Tower, or would Loki figure out something else to open the portal, unlikely as it may be.
Ah, stuff to worry about later, he thought to himself as he poured another cup of coffee for himself and settled down to read a nice book, the spicy kind. Of course, it was all a sham for the Personal Investigator that somebody had hired to spy on him and him specifically.
Most probably Stark because of their latest encounter. He didn't know more because the PI arrived in the city just a few days ago, continually stalking him at his office and then at his apartment, probably looking for something to report back to Stark.
It was good that he had literally nothing of value in his apartment and nothing of note in his office as well.
While he pretended to read his book, he shifted to give the PI better angles as he continued to read on his balcony, his mind wandered around the city as the Hulks regrouped and began trudging through the tunnel in near darkness, all the while Bruce and Betty enjoyed a nice movie, snuggling into the couch.
Ah, the joys of being in a loving, committed, heterosexual relationship. He wished he knew that as well but, oh well, duty calls.
He cut off the spying on the happy couple and focused on the Hulks.
Now that they were in his range, he scanned them down to the lowest level he could, revealing pretty much the same as before. They were enhanced, very…organically, in fact.
See, he had some theories as to the process of enhancements that happen artificially. Using Bruce Banner as an example, the process of turning into the Hulk was a very painful and uncomfortable one, a sign of it being artificial or not yet settled power.
Once that power probably settled down, Bruce would become the Hulk completely, having both his powers and intellect in a single package, making him far more formidable than he was now.
These Hulks, on the other hand, were quite clearly recent, considering that Bruce had been the Hulk for less than two years now. He could spot no abnormality, no deficiency, no useless organ, no disproportionate organs…nothing.
Well, the only way to find out anything about them would be to talk to them, and considering that one of them had actually called him out, he was sure that they had someone to say to him.
So, flexing his powers, he flooded the area in front of them with his presence, gathering some foliage and then burning them to create some light in the otherwise nearly pitch black tunnel.
All of the seven came to a stop as he recreated his iconic paper avatar, floating in front of them, only this time, just for shits and giggles, he only made the head.
Understandably, before he could get a word in, the Seventh Hulk, the one who landed in the sewers, just jumped in with his fist cocked back, ready to deliver a powerful haymaker at the paper head.
Predictably, he went straight through, landing on the other side, looking at the reforming paper head with confusion before he once again jumped the head, this time, with the help of his six other Hulks.
Well, time to show them the alpha dog of this place then.
With a flex of his will, all seven of them felt as if a huge boulder was pressing down on them and all of them found themselves in a crater the size of their body. He had made sure that none of them were hurt, not that it was hard considering the durability of their bodies.
"Now," He made the same menacing sound by creating vibrations in the air, the same one that made Agent Ross shoot him in panic, "What do we have here?"
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
Chapter 42 : Frank Motherf*cking Castle
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2021
- Messages
- 410
- Likes received
- 11,771
Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don't mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 42 [March 2010]
–Frank Castle–
"So, what do you think about the new batch that's coming in today?" He looked up from his cleaning to see his wife, his beautiful wife, sitting on the receptionist counter, looking out the door.
"...I don't know. It is mostly young guys this time though," He grunted before resuming the sweeping of the Dojo.
Never in his wildest dreams had he thought that his life's trajectory would end up leading him here, in a small dojo, teaching self defense to normal civilians. Maria was not exactly the receptionist for the Dojo, she had her own practice as a nurse at one of the private hospitals in Manhattan, fetching her a hefty salary.
The payout from the incident that changed everything in his life, was just enough for him to buy the building they were standing in. He had ownership of the building and due to the recent surge in real estate prices, he was getting more than enough rent out of the rest of the tenants in the building.
He had started this Dojo, more or less out of boredom. He had sought out one of his son's friend's parents who was tech savvy and had him build a website for the Dojom, considering everything was online right now.
He had not expected much if not any success at the get-go but apparently, word got out and now from the paltry batch of 2 that he had in September of 09, his Dojo had now expanded to have 2 classes of 15.
That's 30 people in total and he knew every single one of them by their name. One of his classes had retired a week back and the new batch was going to come in today. The batch induction was done early morning, around 6 AM, so here he was, sweeping the Dojo since he couldn't realistically ask the cleaning lady to come to clean the Dojo at 4 AM, now could he?
Maria was very sleepy, anyone could see that, and yet, she woke up to accompany him. He smiled softly at the act of love. He looked back at her to tell her to go to sleep only to pause when she was already snoring away, lost in the dreamworld.
He deadpanned at her, if she was only going to be sleeping anyway, why not do it in the bed, If she wanted to stay with him, she could take a broom as well but noo.
Women.
He shook his head as he thought of the miracle that was the continued presence of his family in his life. His countenance darkened as he thought of the day that he thought he had lost it all.
–Flashback–
He could still remember it clear as day. It was October of 2008. He had just come back from his tour and was given a couple of months off with his family.
He had taken out the kids on an outing in Central Park, mostly to visit the Congregation that prayed–okay worshipped the Invisible Man. The kids were infinitely fascinated with the idea that there was someone who was always watching over them, irrespective of who they might be, as long as they were in the areas surrounding Manhattan.
God, the world was so much simpler before then, or was he too ignorant to know the reality of the world before that?
When he first heard of the abnormality that was the Invisible Man, he had mostly shrugged it off, as rumours but then he saw the whisperings about the great deeds of the Invisible Man increase, to the point that everyone in his unit and more was continuously talking about the Invisible Man and his powers.
He had been uninterested at first but then it was confirmed by the higher ups in the military that the Invisible Man was, in fact, real and was operating out of Manhattan. He had feared that it was some sort of evil entity and their soldiers would be deployed to fight it off, losing many of them in the process.
And yet, once he had gingerly entered Manhattan, he had been amazed to find the difference. The very feeling in Manhattan was different from the rest of New York.
Roads were clean, there was no traffic, kids frolicked around the streets, void of any fear, and the tourists.
So many tourists came to Manhattan for a chance to see the Invisible Man in action. Well, they did see him in action that day.
He was having a nice picnic in Central Park when Maria was called in by her work for an emergency, so they cut the picnic short and got into a taxi, with the idea that he would take the kids to have lunch after dropping Maria off at her job.
Now, the situation did not raise any alarm bells for him because this sort of stuff was routine for Maria. What was not routine however was the bullet that had shot his taxi driver. He had thought him dead but apparently, he was only unconscious because of the shock.
The next moment, he felt a force acting on him as the entire taxi was overturned and a hole was punched through the roof of the car, showing the road on the other side.
He could do nothing but watch as presumably, the Invisible Man dragged his unconscious kids out of the taxi and then into a manhole cover that closed itself once the kids were inside. He sighed in relief at that but the situation was still unresolved. He could hear the bullets pelting the taxi's underbelly and it was a small miracle that the taxi was not on fire yet.
Due to the sudden jerk and probably due to shock, Maria had been knocked out as well. The taxi driver was out of commission, he did not have any weapon on him, and from the sound of it, the attackers were closing in.
He had a hunch that the Invisible Man was slowing down the bullets instead of outright stopping them for some reason, allowing the relatively fragile frame of the Taxi to survive the onslaught of bullets that had still not stopped!
He was broken out of his thoughts when the bullets momentarily stopped before the panicked shouts of people faded away. He flinched as a small explosion went off near the car, or at least the sound of one.
His hand snaked out to protect Maria as he felt movement from the hole in the roof of the taxi. His worries were unfounded however as he saw the small pistol that had landed right in front of him, followed by a combat grade knife followed by rifles, magazines, and more. More and more, as a veritable arsenal landed in front of him.
He snapped out of it as his training kicked in, snapping the knife first before cutting himself loose. He checked on Maria and after carefully cutting her out of the seatbelt, he placed her on one side before checking the conditions of the gun provided to him.
The gunfire had returned at this point with renewed intensity and he didn't know how long the Taxi could sustain all the damage it was taking, so he did the only thing he could at that point. He leaned on his training.
He armed himself to the teeth, his face pulled back in a snarl as he looked around, trying to get a vantage point when he felt a nudge on his pants. The next second, there was a piston in his hands pointed down, only to see a small sentence formed on the road
"Maria is safe. Go - IM"
He must have looked horrible back then, to the attackers, as he was continuously changing guns as all of the arsenal that was given to him floated around him, ready to switch at a moment's notice.
The worst thing was, he recognised some of those people and most of the equipment used as he slaughtered every last one of these bastards, with the help of the Invisible Man of course.
He had sustained no less than two broken ribs because of the slowed down bullet impacts.
But the good thing was that the kids and Maria came out unscathed from that encounter and he had found who was after his life.
If he had lost any of his family, he would have left all caution to the wind and hunted down every single one of them, down to the last corpse.
But…he still had Maria, the kids. He couldn't afford to do that. So, he had called in some of his trustworthy contacts.
It had galled him to use money acquired through illegal methods but he swallowed it all for his family. A hefty sum was used up to buy an entire building at the edge of Manhattan, nothing fancy.
The building was not fancy but it was…safe.
Yes, they were finally safe. They transferred their kids to a private school here in Manhattan, Maria joined another hospital after a few months of job search and he opened the Dojo.
All in all, a very peaceful ending to something that could have been the most violent time of his life.
"Alright, done!" He shouted the last part to Maria who flinched awake.
"What? I'm awake! I'm awake!" Maria said before she realised Frank had pranked her.
She pouted at him as he hugged her.
Yes, life was safe but more importantly, good here.
He would not trade it for the world.
"Excuse me? Is the Dojo open right now? The email said 6 so it is 5:59 right now," Maria separated from him, drawing an annoying look from him as he looked at the man standing at the entrance.
The moment his eyes landed on the person, his entire body tensed as he looked at the smiling face of the person who was probably the most dangerous person he had ever met in his life.
His thoughts started to wander off before he remembered that he was in Manhattan and this was the territory of someone who could tell the US Military to go fuck itself.
He forcibly relaxed his body before stowing away the broom and replying,
"Yes, this is the Dojo. I am Frank Castle and I will be your instructor here. You can wait in that room there while the others join us,"
"Okay, Thank you. My name is Axle Riddle, by the way,"
He shook hands with the absolute monster before sending him away.
Well, time to see just what curveball life had thrown his way this time.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 42 [March 2010]
–Frank Castle–
"So, what do you think about the new batch that's coming in today?" He looked up from his cleaning to see his wife, his beautiful wife, sitting on the receptionist counter, looking out the door.
"...I don't know. It is mostly young guys this time though," He grunted before resuming the sweeping of the Dojo.
Never in his wildest dreams had he thought that his life's trajectory would end up leading him here, in a small dojo, teaching self defense to normal civilians. Maria was not exactly the receptionist for the Dojo, she had her own practice as a nurse at one of the private hospitals in Manhattan, fetching her a hefty salary.
The payout from the incident that changed everything in his life, was just enough for him to buy the building they were standing in. He had ownership of the building and due to the recent surge in real estate prices, he was getting more than enough rent out of the rest of the tenants in the building.
He had started this Dojo, more or less out of boredom. He had sought out one of his son's friend's parents who was tech savvy and had him build a website for the Dojom, considering everything was online right now.
He had not expected much if not any success at the get-go but apparently, word got out and now from the paltry batch of 2 that he had in September of 09, his Dojo had now expanded to have 2 classes of 15.
That's 30 people in total and he knew every single one of them by their name. One of his classes had retired a week back and the new batch was going to come in today. The batch induction was done early morning, around 6 AM, so here he was, sweeping the Dojo since he couldn't realistically ask the cleaning lady to come to clean the Dojo at 4 AM, now could he?
Maria was very sleepy, anyone could see that, and yet, she woke up to accompany him. He smiled softly at the act of love. He looked back at her to tell her to go to sleep only to pause when she was already snoring away, lost in the dreamworld.
He deadpanned at her, if she was only going to be sleeping anyway, why not do it in the bed, If she wanted to stay with him, she could take a broom as well but noo.
Women.
He shook his head as he thought of the miracle that was the continued presence of his family in his life. His countenance darkened as he thought of the day that he thought he had lost it all.
–Flashback–
He could still remember it clear as day. It was October of 2008. He had just come back from his tour and was given a couple of months off with his family.
He had taken out the kids on an outing in Central Park, mostly to visit the Congregation that prayed–okay worshipped the Invisible Man. The kids were infinitely fascinated with the idea that there was someone who was always watching over them, irrespective of who they might be, as long as they were in the areas surrounding Manhattan.
God, the world was so much simpler before then, or was he too ignorant to know the reality of the world before that?
When he first heard of the abnormality that was the Invisible Man, he had mostly shrugged it off, as rumours but then he saw the whisperings about the great deeds of the Invisible Man increase, to the point that everyone in his unit and more was continuously talking about the Invisible Man and his powers.
He had been uninterested at first but then it was confirmed by the higher ups in the military that the Invisible Man was, in fact, real and was operating out of Manhattan. He had feared that it was some sort of evil entity and their soldiers would be deployed to fight it off, losing many of them in the process.
And yet, once he had gingerly entered Manhattan, he had been amazed to find the difference. The very feeling in Manhattan was different from the rest of New York.
Roads were clean, there was no traffic, kids frolicked around the streets, void of any fear, and the tourists.
So many tourists came to Manhattan for a chance to see the Invisible Man in action. Well, they did see him in action that day.
He was having a nice picnic in Central Park when Maria was called in by her work for an emergency, so they cut the picnic short and got into a taxi, with the idea that he would take the kids to have lunch after dropping Maria off at her job.
Now, the situation did not raise any alarm bells for him because this sort of stuff was routine for Maria. What was not routine however was the bullet that had shot his taxi driver. He had thought him dead but apparently, he was only unconscious because of the shock.
The next moment, he felt a force acting on him as the entire taxi was overturned and a hole was punched through the roof of the car, showing the road on the other side.
He could do nothing but watch as presumably, the Invisible Man dragged his unconscious kids out of the taxi and then into a manhole cover that closed itself once the kids were inside. He sighed in relief at that but the situation was still unresolved. He could hear the bullets pelting the taxi's underbelly and it was a small miracle that the taxi was not on fire yet.
Due to the sudden jerk and probably due to shock, Maria had been knocked out as well. The taxi driver was out of commission, he did not have any weapon on him, and from the sound of it, the attackers were closing in.
He had a hunch that the Invisible Man was slowing down the bullets instead of outright stopping them for some reason, allowing the relatively fragile frame of the Taxi to survive the onslaught of bullets that had still not stopped!
He was broken out of his thoughts when the bullets momentarily stopped before the panicked shouts of people faded away. He flinched as a small explosion went off near the car, or at least the sound of one.
His hand snaked out to protect Maria as he felt movement from the hole in the roof of the taxi. His worries were unfounded however as he saw the small pistol that had landed right in front of him, followed by a combat grade knife followed by rifles, magazines, and more. More and more, as a veritable arsenal landed in front of him.
He snapped out of it as his training kicked in, snapping the knife first before cutting himself loose. He checked on Maria and after carefully cutting her out of the seatbelt, he placed her on one side before checking the conditions of the gun provided to him.
The gunfire had returned at this point with renewed intensity and he didn't know how long the Taxi could sustain all the damage it was taking, so he did the only thing he could at that point. He leaned on his training.
He armed himself to the teeth, his face pulled back in a snarl as he looked around, trying to get a vantage point when he felt a nudge on his pants. The next second, there was a piston in his hands pointed down, only to see a small sentence formed on the road
"Maria is safe. Go - IM"
He must have looked horrible back then, to the attackers, as he was continuously changing guns as all of the arsenal that was given to him floated around him, ready to switch at a moment's notice.
The worst thing was, he recognised some of those people and most of the equipment used as he slaughtered every last one of these bastards, with the help of the Invisible Man of course.
He had sustained no less than two broken ribs because of the slowed down bullet impacts.
But the good thing was that the kids and Maria came out unscathed from that encounter and he had found who was after his life.
If he had lost any of his family, he would have left all caution to the wind and hunted down every single one of them, down to the last corpse.
But…he still had Maria, the kids. He couldn't afford to do that. So, he had called in some of his trustworthy contacts.
It had galled him to use money acquired through illegal methods but he swallowed it all for his family. A hefty sum was used up to buy an entire building at the edge of Manhattan, nothing fancy.
The building was not fancy but it was…safe.
Yes, they were finally safe. They transferred their kids to a private school here in Manhattan, Maria joined another hospital after a few months of job search and he opened the Dojo.
All in all, a very peaceful ending to something that could have been the most violent time of his life.
"Alright, done!" He shouted the last part to Maria who flinched awake.
"What? I'm awake! I'm awake!" Maria said before she realised Frank had pranked her.
She pouted at him as he hugged her.
Yes, life was safe but more importantly, good here.
He would not trade it for the world.
"Excuse me? Is the Dojo open right now? The email said 6 so it is 5:59 right now," Maria separated from him, drawing an annoying look from him as he looked at the man standing at the entrance.
The moment his eyes landed on the person, his entire body tensed as he looked at the smiling face of the person who was probably the most dangerous person he had ever met in his life.
His thoughts started to wander off before he remembered that he was in Manhattan and this was the territory of someone who could tell the US Military to go fuck itself.
He forcibly relaxed his body before stowing away the broom and replying,
"Yes, this is the Dojo. I am Frank Castle and I will be your instructor here. You can wait in that room there while the others join us,"
"Okay, Thank you. My name is Axle Riddle, by the way,"
He shook hands with the absolute monster before sending him away.
Well, time to see just what curveball life had thrown his way this time.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
LordofTentacle
Know what you're doing yet?
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Did we miss a chapter where is his talk to the hulk people?
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
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Intuition....maybe?
Chapter 43 : The Castle Dojo for Awesomeness!
IdleMuse0307
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
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- Likes received
- 11,771
Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don't mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 43 [March 2010]
–Axle Riddle–
Hmm, this was nice.
He could see that Maria was not just alive but happy which meant they were probably a whole family, including the kids as well.
It made him sigh in relief because it meant that his presence in the city had had a positive impact on some people's lives. IF Frank Castle could be made into a suburban Dojo instructor while acting lovey dovey with his wife instead of the death machine he becomes in canon, then there was hope.
Hope that he could change things and if he could change something so big, he would most likely change the course of the events that led to the Snap.
He looked on in amusement as he saw the people of his batch filter through the doors, dressed in various costumes that they thought would help them with the mobility of the class.
He didn't even know what he was doing here. He could already lift a car without even straining his muscles, using just his body. That level of strength meant that he would never have to worry about fighting with a baseline human, no matter how well trained they might be.
Sure, technique helps but if he was just plain faster, much faster than his baseline human opponent, no amount of technique would help them, now would it?
And yet, he found himself stagnating when it came to his physical fighting prowess. He had reached some sort of upper limit with his Telekinesis as well, mostly owing to limited ways of practicing it.
He still worked on increasing his range though, so that was slow going as well but it was advancing and that was important.
He didn't have a lick of idea when it came to hand to hand combat despite watching Frank do it hundreds of times in his Dojo. Yeah, he had been spying on Frank Castle when he came to know that he had opened a Dojo right here in Manhattan.
Apparently, he was the sole owner of the entire building he was in right now. That was some generational wealth right there, especially with the current property rates in Manhattan.
The thing with his second mind was that he could do things autonomously, without any conscious input from his side, once he had set the programming in the beginning. He had set it so that all violent crimes, collisions, and natural calamities are avoided without him even noticing it, even the ones that are outside Manhattan.
There were limitations of course, in the creativity of the solutions. That creativity was mostly required only outside Manhattan, because of the force constraint. Inside Manhattan, his second mind could uproot buildings with ease so stopping people and cars was an easy thing.
That was why he had to take over whenever there was an emergency at the edges of his range. That was how he had saved Frank Castle from those gunmen, only at that time he had no idea that it was Frank Castle whom he was saving.
His curiosity as to why such a force was deployed to kill a family drove him towards identifying the man and that led to him scanning the tag Frank had on him and that was how he realised that he was in the middle of the situation that would drive Frank to become the Punisher and kill hundreds of criminals in his one-man war against crime.
His response was not even in question as he immediately pulled both the kids into a nearby manhole cover, and then gave Frank all the tools he needed to do his job. Once Maria was secured, he watched as Frank rained holy fire on all the assailants, even sustaining two broken ribs because he could only slow down some of the bullets that were about to hit him centre mass.
After that, Frank drove off with his family, once the emergency services arrived of course. After that, he went out of his range so he completely forgot about it. He had no idea that Frank had bought an entire building in Manhattan, man he must have raided some drug lord for all his life's savings for Frank to be able to afford an entire building.
He had then never come up in any incident. Nothing special had happened in that area and he never really focused on Manhattan anymore as his second mind was more than enough to control everything and if something did happen, like multiple lives being snuffed out despite the second mind's efforts, only then he was alerted.
Since nothing like that happened, he had no idea that Frank was living here and running a Dojo of all things.
Now that he was here, he could see that life inside Manhattan had been good for Frank, judging by the little weight he had put on compared to before. The building was in good condition as well, having multiple tenants, so he must be getting a good amount of rent as well.
Well, glad to see that Frank Castle, one of canon's punching bags had his life turned around.
'All right people, take your positions, stand in marked spaces, and begin with your introductions. Today is your first day so we'll be taking it easy today." Frank began with an actual smile on his face.
That was….unexpected.
He stood in his position, surrounded by clueless people in their 20s, some middle aged people as well as one old lady. Wonder why she needs self defense classes at this age.
Frank didn't bat an eye as he began instructing the diverse group of people in his class, once the introductions were done.
The movements came easily to him as he did the motions, of course, while being under tons of weight by the subtle application of his powers. He had some problems in the beginning with blood flow because of the weight that was being applied on his body from all sides, as if the very atmosphere was pressing on him from all sides, but that was solved now.
The first time he did that without warning, turning off the pressure directly, some of his blood vessels had burst apart, knocking him out for hours. Fortunately, there was no brain damage….that he knew of, and now his blood vessels had come back stronger.
He had to do only a couple more times before his body didn't have an absurdly negative reaction to the pressure difference.
God, he really was becoming discount Goku, wasn't he?
The first session came to an end, with a small stretching session. Well, Frank really was a very good instructor, judging by the way complete laymen could do some stuff with a fluid motion just at the end of a 2-hour session.
He was currently helping the old lady stretch properly while telling her what movements to avoid, as most of the participants began leaving the Dojo, him following behind. He could feel Frank's gaze on him as he left the Dojo, right up until he left his field of view.
He grinned as he realised that Frank must have felt something. His instincts had not rusted yet, that's good.
He will make a good addition to the team then. Still, it was way too early to decide that. He would consult with the team before finalising the offer that he would give to Frank.
Oh yeah, he had a team now.
An actual superpowered team now.
"Samuel, keep an eye on him and his family," He used a Bruce Banner invention, [Patent Pending] that allowed him to easily communicate with his team members. It was a small pad that was hypersensitive to pressure, only the pressure pads were covered with a layer of hard plastic, making it impossible for anybody else to use it but himself. He applied pressure on specific points to convey his message, allowing Samuel, one of the Eight (Nine if you count Bruce) members of his team.
He was one of the Hulks who was blessed with immense power but more importantly, immense flexibility. His body could contort in ways that would leave gymnasts weeping with envy.
He was also the stealthiest of the bunch, capable of reaching anywhere without much effort, the best suited for surveillance.
Well, Randall could do it as well, what with his invisibility but the man was such a wuss, afraid of heights. He was adept with a computer, his skills only increasing after gaining his powers so he was the resident Computer Man of the team.
This was the first official mission he had assigned to any member of the team, and it was pretty easy too.
He did it mostly as a test to see how they would work together. He expected them to work through the mission like a breeze because they were all brothers.
Let's see, he thought to himself as he hailed a cab to get to his coffee. He had a hot shower waiting for him there.
So what if he couldn't act out of New York until the Invasion came? He could create a team right now which could help him act in far off areas, as long as they were trained properly. Once he could go out with them though, they would remain as his replacement in Manhattan and New York so that the city doesn't immediately fall into chaos and crime.
At Least for a while, until things stabilised once NYPD took over.
Things were finally looking up and he couldn't wait for Loki's stupid face to enter his range so he could punch his lights out. He hadn't decided if he wanted to do that with his fist or his mind though.
A question for later, then….
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 43 [March 2010]
–Axle Riddle–
Hmm, this was nice.
He could see that Maria was not just alive but happy which meant they were probably a whole family, including the kids as well.
It made him sigh in relief because it meant that his presence in the city had had a positive impact on some people's lives. IF Frank Castle could be made into a suburban Dojo instructor while acting lovey dovey with his wife instead of the death machine he becomes in canon, then there was hope.
Hope that he could change things and if he could change something so big, he would most likely change the course of the events that led to the Snap.
He looked on in amusement as he saw the people of his batch filter through the doors, dressed in various costumes that they thought would help them with the mobility of the class.
He didn't even know what he was doing here. He could already lift a car without even straining his muscles, using just his body. That level of strength meant that he would never have to worry about fighting with a baseline human, no matter how well trained they might be.
Sure, technique helps but if he was just plain faster, much faster than his baseline human opponent, no amount of technique would help them, now would it?
And yet, he found himself stagnating when it came to his physical fighting prowess. He had reached some sort of upper limit with his Telekinesis as well, mostly owing to limited ways of practicing it.
He still worked on increasing his range though, so that was slow going as well but it was advancing and that was important.
He didn't have a lick of idea when it came to hand to hand combat despite watching Frank do it hundreds of times in his Dojo. Yeah, he had been spying on Frank Castle when he came to know that he had opened a Dojo right here in Manhattan.
Apparently, he was the sole owner of the entire building he was in right now. That was some generational wealth right there, especially with the current property rates in Manhattan.
The thing with his second mind was that he could do things autonomously, without any conscious input from his side, once he had set the programming in the beginning. He had set it so that all violent crimes, collisions, and natural calamities are avoided without him even noticing it, even the ones that are outside Manhattan.
There were limitations of course, in the creativity of the solutions. That creativity was mostly required only outside Manhattan, because of the force constraint. Inside Manhattan, his second mind could uproot buildings with ease so stopping people and cars was an easy thing.
That was why he had to take over whenever there was an emergency at the edges of his range. That was how he had saved Frank Castle from those gunmen, only at that time he had no idea that it was Frank Castle whom he was saving.
His curiosity as to why such a force was deployed to kill a family drove him towards identifying the man and that led to him scanning the tag Frank had on him and that was how he realised that he was in the middle of the situation that would drive Frank to become the Punisher and kill hundreds of criminals in his one-man war against crime.
His response was not even in question as he immediately pulled both the kids into a nearby manhole cover, and then gave Frank all the tools he needed to do his job. Once Maria was secured, he watched as Frank rained holy fire on all the assailants, even sustaining two broken ribs because he could only slow down some of the bullets that were about to hit him centre mass.
After that, Frank drove off with his family, once the emergency services arrived of course. After that, he went out of his range so he completely forgot about it. He had no idea that Frank had bought an entire building in Manhattan, man he must have raided some drug lord for all his life's savings for Frank to be able to afford an entire building.
He had then never come up in any incident. Nothing special had happened in that area and he never really focused on Manhattan anymore as his second mind was more than enough to control everything and if something did happen, like multiple lives being snuffed out despite the second mind's efforts, only then he was alerted.
Since nothing like that happened, he had no idea that Frank was living here and running a Dojo of all things.
Now that he was here, he could see that life inside Manhattan had been good for Frank, judging by the little weight he had put on compared to before. The building was in good condition as well, having multiple tenants, so he must be getting a good amount of rent as well.
Well, glad to see that Frank Castle, one of canon's punching bags had his life turned around.
'All right people, take your positions, stand in marked spaces, and begin with your introductions. Today is your first day so we'll be taking it easy today." Frank began with an actual smile on his face.
That was….unexpected.
He stood in his position, surrounded by clueless people in their 20s, some middle aged people as well as one old lady. Wonder why she needs self defense classes at this age.
Frank didn't bat an eye as he began instructing the diverse group of people in his class, once the introductions were done.
The movements came easily to him as he did the motions, of course, while being under tons of weight by the subtle application of his powers. He had some problems in the beginning with blood flow because of the weight that was being applied on his body from all sides, as if the very atmosphere was pressing on him from all sides, but that was solved now.
The first time he did that without warning, turning off the pressure directly, some of his blood vessels had burst apart, knocking him out for hours. Fortunately, there was no brain damage….that he knew of, and now his blood vessels had come back stronger.
He had to do only a couple more times before his body didn't have an absurdly negative reaction to the pressure difference.
God, he really was becoming discount Goku, wasn't he?
The first session came to an end, with a small stretching session. Well, Frank really was a very good instructor, judging by the way complete laymen could do some stuff with a fluid motion just at the end of a 2-hour session.
He was currently helping the old lady stretch properly while telling her what movements to avoid, as most of the participants began leaving the Dojo, him following behind. He could feel Frank's gaze on him as he left the Dojo, right up until he left his field of view.
He grinned as he realised that Frank must have felt something. His instincts had not rusted yet, that's good.
He will make a good addition to the team then. Still, it was way too early to decide that. He would consult with the team before finalising the offer that he would give to Frank.
Oh yeah, he had a team now.
An actual superpowered team now.
"Samuel, keep an eye on him and his family," He used a Bruce Banner invention, [Patent Pending] that allowed him to easily communicate with his team members. It was a small pad that was hypersensitive to pressure, only the pressure pads were covered with a layer of hard plastic, making it impossible for anybody else to use it but himself. He applied pressure on specific points to convey his message, allowing Samuel, one of the Eight (Nine if you count Bruce) members of his team.
He was one of the Hulks who was blessed with immense power but more importantly, immense flexibility. His body could contort in ways that would leave gymnasts weeping with envy.
He was also the stealthiest of the bunch, capable of reaching anywhere without much effort, the best suited for surveillance.
Well, Randall could do it as well, what with his invisibility but the man was such a wuss, afraid of heights. He was adept with a computer, his skills only increasing after gaining his powers so he was the resident Computer Man of the team.
This was the first official mission he had assigned to any member of the team, and it was pretty easy too.
He did it mostly as a test to see how they would work together. He expected them to work through the mission like a breeze because they were all brothers.
Let's see, he thought to himself as he hailed a cab to get to his coffee. He had a hot shower waiting for him there.
So what if he couldn't act out of New York until the Invasion came? He could create a team right now which could help him act in far off areas, as long as they were trained properly. Once he could go out with them though, they would remain as his replacement in Manhattan and New York so that the city doesn't immediately fall into chaos and crime.
At Least for a while, until things stabilised once NYPD took over.
Things were finally looking up and he couldn't wait for Loki's stupid face to enter his range so he could punch his lights out. He hadn't decided if he wanted to do that with his fist or his mind though.
A question for later, then….
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
Chapter 44 : A Dummies Guide to Spiritual and Soul Contracts
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 44 [May 2010]
–Axle Riddle–
He could feel it in his bones. With undeniable certainty. He couldn't deny it anymore.
He just knew that….he was a fool.
"God…" He sighed and muttered to himself as he watched the seven hulks brawl with each other, play fighting as if they were kids instead of fully grown adults. Though the Hulk enhancement made it so that it would be almost impossible to tell their age through sight alone, he knew that they were well into their 30s at this point.
They looked in their prime though, so that was it, but this kind of behaviour was not something that was expected from them, especially not from his team who he was hoping to mold into the world's best superhero team.
The competition was not there yet but he would be ready for them.
The Avengers.
The Defenders. Though, he wondered how much of that part of canon he had screwed over with his actions. Frank's rescue alone would derail some of it but he had a hunch that he would get to interact with some of that show's protagonists sooner or later.
Actually, that one of the protagonists of that team, was going to be the first real mission he would have them do.
Jessica Jones. If his memory served him right, it would be right about this time that she would encounter Kilgrave and serve an extended period of time under his tender mercies. That would set the tone of her life for several years to come, wreaking havoc on all of her relationships, familial or otherwise.
He wondered if Kilgrave could affect Samuel and the others. If that happened, it would be disastrous. They were certified powerhouses, definitely above even Spiderman level powers.
They were nowhere near Bruce Banner's Hulk level but they were certainly a grade above the street criminal level not to mention their sheer durability and endurance, making them walking pieces of tanks that would shrug off damage that any modern weaponry could inflict on them.
He had tried to crush them by just exerting force on their skin and it had taken a lot more effort than he had anticipated to make them feel pain. Of course, Tim, being the special case since he could transform between his solid state and semi liquid state with ease.
Tim could take the most damage but conversely, he was also the most vulnerable once he was back in his solid form. All in all, the team was well rounded, filling any gaps their brothers might have.
He could still remember his bewilderment when he first interrogated this bunch of brothers.
Apparently, Daniell Whitehall was involved with the Inhumans on a whole other level. He had never really stopped his pursuit of his human enhancement goal. Encountering one of their kind had only further fueled his hunger to find more of their king to experiment on.
Armed with Jiaying's organs, through which he regained his youth, he had probably continued committing atrocities wherever he could.
These seven brothers were special in the case that they were born of two Awakened Inhumans, at the same time. Yeah, it must have been quite a doozy for their mother to carry all of them at the same time.
They were born together and after undergoing terrigenesis at the same time as well, they emerged as formidable powerhouses.
Yeah, Jiaying apparently thought that their shared existence was some sort of sign regarding their powers so she ordered a custom Terrigenesis chamber to be built. All seven brothers were tossed into that chamber and exposed to the Terrigenesis crystals, kickstarting the Inhuman process.
Her gambit paid off because all seven of them came out, looking exactly the same as they did before, except with the seven glowing eyes.
That's it, that was how their powers manifested in the beginning but after extensive testing that every Awakened Inhuman goes through, they found that their powers were linked together.
Yes, all of them had a single power only. The power to live and die at the same time. A type of shared immortality, if you will.
As long as a single one of them lives, you can't kill all the other six. That doesn't mean that they heal any faster though. When they were just Awakened Inhumans, they could fight together as one, channeling everybody's strength into one, or sustaining fatal injuries without going down, like nothing happened.
In that dark tunnel, he had conducted a thorough interrogation of them, as to how they reached Manhattan, how they turned into Hulks, and what their motive was.
And that's how he found out what had actually happened.
Jiaying, in her quest to absorb more life force to extend her lifespan, had approached her parents with a proposal.
Apparently, it was just an open secret in the small village that Jiaying led that she was killing some of the Inhumans to absorb their life force. So, Jiaying openly approached the brothers' parents and presented her proposal to them.
She proposed to absorb limited amounts of life force from all seven of them, such that they won't die. As long as a single one of them was alive, the other six would remain alive as well. Jiaying wanted to turn all seven brothers into her personal life force furnace.
What a disgusting thing to do.
She had even successfully convinced their parents and that had been the last straw. The brothers, after a small scuffle, left the village after realising the extent of Jiaying's brainwashing of the whole village.
They left the village, to then explore the rest of the world. They travelled as far as they could, doing odd jobs to survive. They never really came to America though, too afraid of immigration, they told him.
After travelling for years, they decided to go home and see if their parents could be convinced, or rather, they were just feeling nostalgic since they certainly knew that their parents would be the same as they left them.
On their way to the village, they encountered Whitehall who immediately recognised their oddity. Oddly, he didn't immediately capture and dissect them. That seems to be his MO.
Unaware of the continued existence of HYDRA, the brothers were tricked into following after Whitehall who had all the resources in the world. He promised them to help topple Jiaying, after being surprised at her continued survival of course.
That was when Ross was contacted by the Heads of HYDRA in his quest to gather resources to make another batch of Hulks. As interested as HYDRA was in that exact plan, they didn't mean to make any overt movements regarding it as they knew it would bring undue attention when they still weren't ready to complete their goals.
As such, the seven brothers were bribed and "loaned" to General Ross for his experimentation, on the condition that all seven would undergo the experiment at the same time.
In normal times, General Ross would have denied that without a second thought, it would have been too risky to make non American people into Hulks, if the experiment succeeded that is.
Unfortunately, Ross must have been at his wit's end, what with no official support from the government on top of the hounding that Fury must have subjected him to. As such, he took the resources that HYDRA had given to him in exchange for the test subjects.
He must have justified it to himself by telling himself that the method to make more Hulks would remain with him.
That was how these seven brothers came into existence.
They came out of the test tubes, looking the same as before but vastly changed underneath. Ross must have been disappointed with the results and had ordered them to be dropped near Manhattan.
They were given orders to create distractions in Manhattan so that the Invisible Man's attention would be drawn away.
Well, that sounded like a lie to him, Axle thought to himself.
Fortunately, one of the brothers, Randall, was smart enough to do some research beforehand. He realised that antagonising the Invisible Man was a death sentence, even with the amped up powers.
So, they approached the soup kitchen, hoping to get some sort of audience.
And they did.
And now, he was stuck with a superpowered team of seven people.
Sure, it was way too risky on his part to trust a group of completely unknown people but the solution for that was provided to him by none other than the Ancient One.
She had been quite exasperated with him when he approached her with the problem he was having.
Something about having power but not knowing how to use it, she muttered to herself as she handed a book to him.
The book was titled: "A Dummies Guide to Spiritual and Soul Contracts".
So, yeah, that was how he got seven legit superpowered minions, someone who could not betray the contract conditions without him being notified immediately about it.
No, he did not make them sign slavery contracts. He was not evil.
But some reasonable restrictions that, when broken, would alert him immediately, in exchange for a safe space, was a viable deal in his opinion.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 44 [May 2010]
–Axle Riddle–
He could feel it in his bones. With undeniable certainty. He couldn't deny it anymore.
He just knew that….he was a fool.
"God…" He sighed and muttered to himself as he watched the seven hulks brawl with each other, play fighting as if they were kids instead of fully grown adults. Though the Hulk enhancement made it so that it would be almost impossible to tell their age through sight alone, he knew that they were well into their 30s at this point.
They looked in their prime though, so that was it, but this kind of behaviour was not something that was expected from them, especially not from his team who he was hoping to mold into the world's best superhero team.
The competition was not there yet but he would be ready for them.
The Avengers.
The Defenders. Though, he wondered how much of that part of canon he had screwed over with his actions. Frank's rescue alone would derail some of it but he had a hunch that he would get to interact with some of that show's protagonists sooner or later.
Actually, that one of the protagonists of that team, was going to be the first real mission he would have them do.
Jessica Jones. If his memory served him right, it would be right about this time that she would encounter Kilgrave and serve an extended period of time under his tender mercies. That would set the tone of her life for several years to come, wreaking havoc on all of her relationships, familial or otherwise.
He wondered if Kilgrave could affect Samuel and the others. If that happened, it would be disastrous. They were certified powerhouses, definitely above even Spiderman level powers.
They were nowhere near Bruce Banner's Hulk level but they were certainly a grade above the street criminal level not to mention their sheer durability and endurance, making them walking pieces of tanks that would shrug off damage that any modern weaponry could inflict on them.
He had tried to crush them by just exerting force on their skin and it had taken a lot more effort than he had anticipated to make them feel pain. Of course, Tim, being the special case since he could transform between his solid state and semi liquid state with ease.
Tim could take the most damage but conversely, he was also the most vulnerable once he was back in his solid form. All in all, the team was well rounded, filling any gaps their brothers might have.
He could still remember his bewilderment when he first interrogated this bunch of brothers.
Apparently, Daniell Whitehall was involved with the Inhumans on a whole other level. He had never really stopped his pursuit of his human enhancement goal. Encountering one of their kind had only further fueled his hunger to find more of their king to experiment on.
Armed with Jiaying's organs, through which he regained his youth, he had probably continued committing atrocities wherever he could.
These seven brothers were special in the case that they were born of two Awakened Inhumans, at the same time. Yeah, it must have been quite a doozy for their mother to carry all of them at the same time.
They were born together and after undergoing terrigenesis at the same time as well, they emerged as formidable powerhouses.
Yeah, Jiaying apparently thought that their shared existence was some sort of sign regarding their powers so she ordered a custom Terrigenesis chamber to be built. All seven brothers were tossed into that chamber and exposed to the Terrigenesis crystals, kickstarting the Inhuman process.
Her gambit paid off because all seven of them came out, looking exactly the same as they did before, except with the seven glowing eyes.
That's it, that was how their powers manifested in the beginning but after extensive testing that every Awakened Inhuman goes through, they found that their powers were linked together.
Yes, all of them had a single power only. The power to live and die at the same time. A type of shared immortality, if you will.
As long as a single one of them lives, you can't kill all the other six. That doesn't mean that they heal any faster though. When they were just Awakened Inhumans, they could fight together as one, channeling everybody's strength into one, or sustaining fatal injuries without going down, like nothing happened.
In that dark tunnel, he had conducted a thorough interrogation of them, as to how they reached Manhattan, how they turned into Hulks, and what their motive was.
And that's how he found out what had actually happened.
Jiaying, in her quest to absorb more life force to extend her lifespan, had approached her parents with a proposal.
Apparently, it was just an open secret in the small village that Jiaying led that she was killing some of the Inhumans to absorb their life force. So, Jiaying openly approached the brothers' parents and presented her proposal to them.
She proposed to absorb limited amounts of life force from all seven of them, such that they won't die. As long as a single one of them was alive, the other six would remain alive as well. Jiaying wanted to turn all seven brothers into her personal life force furnace.
What a disgusting thing to do.
She had even successfully convinced their parents and that had been the last straw. The brothers, after a small scuffle, left the village after realising the extent of Jiaying's brainwashing of the whole village.
They left the village, to then explore the rest of the world. They travelled as far as they could, doing odd jobs to survive. They never really came to America though, too afraid of immigration, they told him.
After travelling for years, they decided to go home and see if their parents could be convinced, or rather, they were just feeling nostalgic since they certainly knew that their parents would be the same as they left them.
On their way to the village, they encountered Whitehall who immediately recognised their oddity. Oddly, he didn't immediately capture and dissect them. That seems to be his MO.
Unaware of the continued existence of HYDRA, the brothers were tricked into following after Whitehall who had all the resources in the world. He promised them to help topple Jiaying, after being surprised at her continued survival of course.
That was when Ross was contacted by the Heads of HYDRA in his quest to gather resources to make another batch of Hulks. As interested as HYDRA was in that exact plan, they didn't mean to make any overt movements regarding it as they knew it would bring undue attention when they still weren't ready to complete their goals.
As such, the seven brothers were bribed and "loaned" to General Ross for his experimentation, on the condition that all seven would undergo the experiment at the same time.
In normal times, General Ross would have denied that without a second thought, it would have been too risky to make non American people into Hulks, if the experiment succeeded that is.
Unfortunately, Ross must have been at his wit's end, what with no official support from the government on top of the hounding that Fury must have subjected him to. As such, he took the resources that HYDRA had given to him in exchange for the test subjects.
He must have justified it to himself by telling himself that the method to make more Hulks would remain with him.
That was how these seven brothers came into existence.
They came out of the test tubes, looking the same as before but vastly changed underneath. Ross must have been disappointed with the results and had ordered them to be dropped near Manhattan.
They were given orders to create distractions in Manhattan so that the Invisible Man's attention would be drawn away.
Well, that sounded like a lie to him, Axle thought to himself.
Fortunately, one of the brothers, Randall, was smart enough to do some research beforehand. He realised that antagonising the Invisible Man was a death sentence, even with the amped up powers.
So, they approached the soup kitchen, hoping to get some sort of audience.
And they did.
And now, he was stuck with a superpowered team of seven people.
Sure, it was way too risky on his part to trust a group of completely unknown people but the solution for that was provided to him by none other than the Ancient One.
She had been quite exasperated with him when he approached her with the problem he was having.
Something about having power but not knowing how to use it, she muttered to herself as she handed a book to him.
The book was titled: "A Dummies Guide to Spiritual and Soul Contracts".
So, yeah, that was how he got seven legit superpowered minions, someone who could not betray the contract conditions without him being notified immediately about it.
No, he did not make them sign slavery contracts. He was not evil.
But some reasonable restrictions that, when broken, would alert him immediately, in exchange for a safe space, was a viable deal in his opinion.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
Chapter 45 : MURDER MITTENS!
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 45 [May 2010]
–Axle Riddle–
The contract with Randall and the others was quite simple. After the Ancient One had assured him that it would all work out and despite having literally zero experience with the Spiritual Contracts, he would not hurt the seven brothers, he went on with his learning experience with the book.
Sure, it was quite easy to make living arrangements for the Hulks. He didn't know if Ross even knew about them but they were out and about in the city quite often, more than enough for someone high up in a surveillance state to track down a couple of individuals.
He told Bruce about them immediately after getting permission from the Missus, i.e., Betty Ross. Both of them expressed quite a bit of interest in the only surviving Hulks aside from Bruce himself, especially the ones that looked quite normal, despite having the benefits, vastly reduced as they may be.
He knew from the downcast looks from Bruce that he would trade his vast amount of strength and potential, along with instantaneous regeneration, in a heartbeat for a chance at a normal life. And if that normal life somehow came with advanced benefits like those to protect his loved ones, that would just be icing on top.
Obviously, the brothers had not seen Bruce yet and that would remain for as long as it took him to trust them. Sure, he had the contracts now, but the contracts were not enforced.
They only served as a warning system, telling him if they ever betrayed him by breaking the scant few rules he had written in the contract from his side. He had not practiced the soul bounds on them because, for one, he never really planned on revealing his identity to them.
Secondly, it was absurdly dangerous to try and work with souls. Sure, his vast Astral energy gave him a leg up over others in the starting, but the finish line was still very far away. He didn't even know how he would begin mastering this field.
Sure, animals were plenty, and even they had souls. Actually, they were the perfect starting point because their souls were not that strong, so they couldn't resist the manipulation done by a much bigger and stronger soul.
Unfortunately, the very idea of doing that made him squirm in disgust. Using animals like that didn't sit right with him. That was why it had stumped him in the beginning.
Then, he turned upon the part of making a soul pact, a completely voluntary one that created a symbiotic relationship between the familiar and the master. He had not yet picked one animal to make that pact with but he was inclined with a species that could be evolved to something more combat oriented.
How cool would it be to have a murder kitty made even more murdery by his soul?
Ah, he could just imagine the day his murder mittens would rip out the throat of some Chitauri and then purr as she approached him for pets.
He was broken out of his thoughts by the brawl about to spread to the electronics section of the base.
"Guys! Look out!" Ah, Randall, the wise one noticed it but he was a tad bit too late.
As soon as it was obvious that they were on a direct crash course with some very expensive computer equipment, and some other electronic stuff that Randall had ordered, the purpose of which he had no heads or tails of.
Randall's warning fell on deaf ears as the rest of his brothers continued to come near the huge expensive setup that Randall was in the process of setting up.
He had enough as he flooded the entire underground base they were situated in, with the entire weight of his soul.
The stiffening of all the seven brothers told him that they recognised that something was probably wrong.
He bodily, or mindly(?), took hold of all the brothers, sans Randall, and made them float in the air. All of them realised what was happening and didn't even say anything as they were made to float mid air.
Randall opened his mouth to say something, probably in his brothers' defense but no words escaped his mouth as his mouth hung agape, witnessing the small tornada of the Hulk brothers he had created in the middle of the base.
The winds created from the thorough beating they took from each other's bodies crashing into each other were enough to scatter papers in the vicinity. After a minute or so of this, he unceremoniously dropped them on the floor.
"Now, Randall, show me the progress on your project," He communicated using the air vibration technique, producing a much more natural and smooth voice now, owing to months of practice.
Randall, clearly torn about tending to his brothers or following the commands of someone who was literally the only reason they were alive, chose the correct option and scrambled over to his station.
Now, he really did bash them against each other at speeds and forces that would have had Randall cleaning brain matter from the flooring but since all of them had particularly hard skin, all they did was groan as they collected themselves up from the ground.
"Um, Yeah, as I said before, we need some way of tracking everything that goes on in the city so we can effectively utilise all our resources," Randall started speaking as his station booted up, showing patchworks of the city's map.
Some areas of the map were brightly lit, but most of it was greyed out. It was as if the city was a game map and the brightly lit areas were the areas the player had explored beforehand.
"As you can imagine, the lit areas are the places where I can confidently say, with 100% certainty, that we can detect something happening and reach that place with a speed that would make it viable for us to act upon," Randall rambled on as he told him about the various paths he had mapped out of the subterranean base he had carved out for them, straight into various parts of the city.
He had been upfront with the Hulks, especially Randall since he was going to be the brains of the entire operation, that he was going to have them become his replacement, well as far as someone could replace an omnipresent power.
They had been shocked and afraid at first, thinking that he was going to die or something. He very easily reminded them of the fact that he was as powerful as ever with a simple application of power when he created this base for them, right in front of them.
Now, Manhattan is built upon some pretty tough bedrock but it was still rock and it broke under his powers as he expected it to. That same tough rock was the reason why the New York Skyline even existed, really.
The amount of weight that the high rises put on the soil could not be underestimated. He went into some sort of nerd trance and found out that, had it not been for the rock-solid bedrock that Manhattan was built upon, it would have been all but impossible for New York as a city to grow, because there was no space to expand since it was surrounded by water.
The bedrock was the only reason the city would grow up instead of growing out like LA has.
The good part about it was that public transport was developed as it should have been and everything became accessible within walking distance.
The bad news for them was because everything was so densely packed together, they could not really build some vigilante base in the city. No, it would be easily found and that was not something the Hulks could afford to happen.
They might have the strength necessary to hold their ground but they don't have the sheer leverage he does when he can, essentially, hold an entire major city hostage.
The amount of fighting he could do, at any point was tremendous and the sheer utility of that could not be measured in any way.
"What about the areas that are lit in green and blue?" His voice rumbled out in the small underground cavern he had hollowed out for them.
Randall's face lit up as he continued to speak while pointing at the screen, showing the lit up area that was broken up into the two colours.
"Ah! Those. The green area of the city is the area that we can feasibly reach without using any risky methods of transportation. The blue area is the one where we might have to use publicly available methods, where we could be traced back to the base because of it. I am working on getting stealth tech up and running but that would require experiments and while I am thankful that we have a place of operations. The power we are getting from the small makeshift hydro plant here is just not enough. We need more and doing so without getting attention is impossible so I have decided to look into the Arc Reactor,"
If he was present there, his eyebrows would be raised into his hairline as he saw that Randall was not spouting bullshit. He was actually seriously going to look at something that took two generations of geniuses to devise and improve.
Well, if he could actually crack the Arc Reactor, then maybe his powers had improved his intellect more than was obvious. If he could crack that, then maybe a couple of CHitauri tech samples should give him enough technological arsenal to figure out some truly dangerous pieces of technologies.
As for their worries about silent and discreet methods of transportation once he was gone, well, they shouldn't be worried about that.
Once he was free from the curtain of Imprisonment that shrouded Manhattan, he was going to approach the Ancient One with a proposal. A proposal to have someone willing from the Masters of the Mystic Arts to come to work for him.
Now he was 80%, maybe 70% sure that she was going to reject his request but there was no harm done in trying.
If the Seven Brothers proved trustworthy, he could just ask the Ancient One to train some of them. He was reasonably certain that the link to the big guy Below was not the same in all the Hulks.
Bruce should have the strongest link because he was the strongest there was. It made sense for the Ancient One to be worried about Bruce coming into the hallowed halls of Kamar Taj.
Now, someone like Randall, who was so obviously in control and vastly weaker than the Strongest Hulk would stand to reason that he also had the weaker link to the guy Below.
Maybe that would be reason enough for the Ancient One to teach him, at least the basics like portal creation.
Learning that alone would solve all their logistical worries. That would open a lot of doors for them, like setting up bases in remote parts of the world, inaccessible to most people.
He knew at least one such place in the Antarctic that would be perfect for them.
Though that was talk for a far away possible future. There was no way he was going to let some untrustworthy people get access to the Celestial Corpse in the South Pole.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
A/N - See you guys on Monday. Gonna sleep like a baby this entire weekend. CIAO!
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 45 [May 2010]
–Axle Riddle–
The contract with Randall and the others was quite simple. After the Ancient One had assured him that it would all work out and despite having literally zero experience with the Spiritual Contracts, he would not hurt the seven brothers, he went on with his learning experience with the book.
Sure, it was quite easy to make living arrangements for the Hulks. He didn't know if Ross even knew about them but they were out and about in the city quite often, more than enough for someone high up in a surveillance state to track down a couple of individuals.
He told Bruce about them immediately after getting permission from the Missus, i.e., Betty Ross. Both of them expressed quite a bit of interest in the only surviving Hulks aside from Bruce himself, especially the ones that looked quite normal, despite having the benefits, vastly reduced as they may be.
He knew from the downcast looks from Bruce that he would trade his vast amount of strength and potential, along with instantaneous regeneration, in a heartbeat for a chance at a normal life. And if that normal life somehow came with advanced benefits like those to protect his loved ones, that would just be icing on top.
Obviously, the brothers had not seen Bruce yet and that would remain for as long as it took him to trust them. Sure, he had the contracts now, but the contracts were not enforced.
They only served as a warning system, telling him if they ever betrayed him by breaking the scant few rules he had written in the contract from his side. He had not practiced the soul bounds on them because, for one, he never really planned on revealing his identity to them.
Secondly, it was absurdly dangerous to try and work with souls. Sure, his vast Astral energy gave him a leg up over others in the starting, but the finish line was still very far away. He didn't even know how he would begin mastering this field.
Sure, animals were plenty, and even they had souls. Actually, they were the perfect starting point because their souls were not that strong, so they couldn't resist the manipulation done by a much bigger and stronger soul.
Unfortunately, the very idea of doing that made him squirm in disgust. Using animals like that didn't sit right with him. That was why it had stumped him in the beginning.
Then, he turned upon the part of making a soul pact, a completely voluntary one that created a symbiotic relationship between the familiar and the master. He had not yet picked one animal to make that pact with but he was inclined with a species that could be evolved to something more combat oriented.
How cool would it be to have a murder kitty made even more murdery by his soul?
Ah, he could just imagine the day his murder mittens would rip out the throat of some Chitauri and then purr as she approached him for pets.
He was broken out of his thoughts by the brawl about to spread to the electronics section of the base.
"Guys! Look out!" Ah, Randall, the wise one noticed it but he was a tad bit too late.
As soon as it was obvious that they were on a direct crash course with some very expensive computer equipment, and some other electronic stuff that Randall had ordered, the purpose of which he had no heads or tails of.
Randall's warning fell on deaf ears as the rest of his brothers continued to come near the huge expensive setup that Randall was in the process of setting up.
He had enough as he flooded the entire underground base they were situated in, with the entire weight of his soul.
The stiffening of all the seven brothers told him that they recognised that something was probably wrong.
He bodily, or mindly(?), took hold of all the brothers, sans Randall, and made them float in the air. All of them realised what was happening and didn't even say anything as they were made to float mid air.
Randall opened his mouth to say something, probably in his brothers' defense but no words escaped his mouth as his mouth hung agape, witnessing the small tornada of the Hulk brothers he had created in the middle of the base.
The winds created from the thorough beating they took from each other's bodies crashing into each other were enough to scatter papers in the vicinity. After a minute or so of this, he unceremoniously dropped them on the floor.
"Now, Randall, show me the progress on your project," He communicated using the air vibration technique, producing a much more natural and smooth voice now, owing to months of practice.
Randall, clearly torn about tending to his brothers or following the commands of someone who was literally the only reason they were alive, chose the correct option and scrambled over to his station.
Now, he really did bash them against each other at speeds and forces that would have had Randall cleaning brain matter from the flooring but since all of them had particularly hard skin, all they did was groan as they collected themselves up from the ground.
"Um, Yeah, as I said before, we need some way of tracking everything that goes on in the city so we can effectively utilise all our resources," Randall started speaking as his station booted up, showing patchworks of the city's map.
Some areas of the map were brightly lit, but most of it was greyed out. It was as if the city was a game map and the brightly lit areas were the areas the player had explored beforehand.
"As you can imagine, the lit areas are the places where I can confidently say, with 100% certainty, that we can detect something happening and reach that place with a speed that would make it viable for us to act upon," Randall rambled on as he told him about the various paths he had mapped out of the subterranean base he had carved out for them, straight into various parts of the city.
He had been upfront with the Hulks, especially Randall since he was going to be the brains of the entire operation, that he was going to have them become his replacement, well as far as someone could replace an omnipresent power.
They had been shocked and afraid at first, thinking that he was going to die or something. He very easily reminded them of the fact that he was as powerful as ever with a simple application of power when he created this base for them, right in front of them.
Now, Manhattan is built upon some pretty tough bedrock but it was still rock and it broke under his powers as he expected it to. That same tough rock was the reason why the New York Skyline even existed, really.
The amount of weight that the high rises put on the soil could not be underestimated. He went into some sort of nerd trance and found out that, had it not been for the rock-solid bedrock that Manhattan was built upon, it would have been all but impossible for New York as a city to grow, because there was no space to expand since it was surrounded by water.
The bedrock was the only reason the city would grow up instead of growing out like LA has.
The good part about it was that public transport was developed as it should have been and everything became accessible within walking distance.
The bad news for them was because everything was so densely packed together, they could not really build some vigilante base in the city. No, it would be easily found and that was not something the Hulks could afford to happen.
They might have the strength necessary to hold their ground but they don't have the sheer leverage he does when he can, essentially, hold an entire major city hostage.
The amount of fighting he could do, at any point was tremendous and the sheer utility of that could not be measured in any way.
"What about the areas that are lit in green and blue?" His voice rumbled out in the small underground cavern he had hollowed out for them.
Randall's face lit up as he continued to speak while pointing at the screen, showing the lit up area that was broken up into the two colours.
"Ah! Those. The green area of the city is the area that we can feasibly reach without using any risky methods of transportation. The blue area is the one where we might have to use publicly available methods, where we could be traced back to the base because of it. I am working on getting stealth tech up and running but that would require experiments and while I am thankful that we have a place of operations. The power we are getting from the small makeshift hydro plant here is just not enough. We need more and doing so without getting attention is impossible so I have decided to look into the Arc Reactor,"
If he was present there, his eyebrows would be raised into his hairline as he saw that Randall was not spouting bullshit. He was actually seriously going to look at something that took two generations of geniuses to devise and improve.
Well, if he could actually crack the Arc Reactor, then maybe his powers had improved his intellect more than was obvious. If he could crack that, then maybe a couple of CHitauri tech samples should give him enough technological arsenal to figure out some truly dangerous pieces of technologies.
As for their worries about silent and discreet methods of transportation once he was gone, well, they shouldn't be worried about that.
Once he was free from the curtain of Imprisonment that shrouded Manhattan, he was going to approach the Ancient One with a proposal. A proposal to have someone willing from the Masters of the Mystic Arts to come to work for him.
Now he was 80%, maybe 70% sure that she was going to reject his request but there was no harm done in trying.
If the Seven Brothers proved trustworthy, he could just ask the Ancient One to train some of them. He was reasonably certain that the link to the big guy Below was not the same in all the Hulks.
Bruce should have the strongest link because he was the strongest there was. It made sense for the Ancient One to be worried about Bruce coming into the hallowed halls of Kamar Taj.
Now, someone like Randall, who was so obviously in control and vastly weaker than the Strongest Hulk would stand to reason that he also had the weaker link to the guy Below.
Maybe that would be reason enough for the Ancient One to teach him, at least the basics like portal creation.
Learning that alone would solve all their logistical worries. That would open a lot of doors for them, like setting up bases in remote parts of the world, inaccessible to most people.
He knew at least one such place in the Antarctic that would be perfect for them.
Though that was talk for a far away possible future. There was no way he was going to let some untrustworthy people get access to the Celestial Corpse in the South Pole.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
A/N - See you guys on Monday. Gonna sleep like a baby this entire weekend. CIAO!
Chapter 46 : The Wrecking Hulk! & The mournful state of public transit...
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 46 [May 2010]
–Axle Riddle–
Hmm, this was going to be tricky.
He was looking over the plans for the Stark Expo and found, much to his chagrin, that he would not be able to exert enough force to actually destroy all the mechs that Vanko would send after Tony.
No, at most, he would be able to inconvenience them, using subtle applications of his power. Now, the only frame of reference he had was the Stark suit that Jarvis was remotely piloting the day Tony came to meet him at his office and that thing didn't have much in terms of what could be exploited by applying the most minimal of forces.
So, it might be that Hammer stuff would be wildly lower specced than one of Tony's suits and that stands to reason, considering Hammer Industries' reputation and history, but he couldn't exactly take that risk there.
The expo was in September, so he had just over three months to maximise his range as much as possible, increase the load of his powers, and train the seven hulks to help with the rescue operations.
Oh yeah, the good thing was that the expo, the entire expo was within his range, even the fringe areas with all the warehousing. So, the worries were not if he could cover all of the Expo, the worries were if he could do something worth a damn.
The hulks were a good option, they were varied, they had unique powers, were human looking so the crowds wouldn't panic but they just had the strength and not the mobility and sheer area of effect that he did.
Randall didn't have the operations set up so that they could hack into satellites or something to track everything happening in the expo so they could give real time updates to the rest of the team, allowing them to do their jobs better.
Then, as if a metaphorical light bulb lit over his head, his eyebrows rose as another idea formed in his head.
He hurriedly began downloading the expo map that was so graciously provided to anybody with an internet connection by Stark himself. He looked through the entire thing and was satisfied that it should not be too complicated to cover the entire thing with his powers.
Sure, stopping the mechs themselves should be out of his capacity, especially if he was doing something else at the same time, but getting people out of the way should be much much easier.
He could already see multiple underground levels with a single entrance that would be perfect to stash people and keep them safe inside it, all the while the other Hulks would destroy the other robots.
And if some Arc Reactors and drone samples managed to disappear from the rubble of the expo, well, it was not as if someone would miss the literal trash that Hammer and Vanko were going to peddle to the US Government.
Stark might notice, and SHIELD might notice as well but what were they going to do? Demand compensation from him?
Well, he will see to it when that happens.
Now that they only had three months of preparation time, it was time to see if he could do what he had thought of.
If he could feasibly achieve granting flight to all the seven Hulks at the same time, well, it would become far too easy to stop Vannko before he caused any real damage.
Sure, in the movies, they didn't show if anybody actually died or not but even if he considered the best case scenario and hoped that no one died, the glass shards from that huge auditorium being shredded by machine gun bullets from the drones alone would have caused multiple minor if not major injuries.
Sheesh, he couldn't even begin to think of the check that Stark Industries probably had to give to the victims of the attack. Well, he wagered that Sueing Hammer Industries for all its worth would have covered that.
Anywho, he had hoped for a quieter year, so the Stark Expo being in Queens thing completely slipped out of his mind. He had to even look out for the young Peter Parker who would be first introduced during the expo as well.
Might as well make sure that Uncle Ben doesn't die here as well. Sure, doing that, in all of Marvel Continuity, had had some major consequences, most of them not good but he didn't think that it was okay on his part to let an excellent man die just because his nephew, all but son, Peter Parker would grow up to become one of the greatest heroes of all time.
Sure, Peter did more good as SpiderMan than he would do as regular old scrawny Peter Parker but what would it say about him if he knowingly let Peter's father figure die?
Who-Okay, that just sent chills down his spine.
Maybe getting into a potential enmity with the Spider Man would not be a good idea for his continued good health.
Yeah, he mentally noted down to make some arrangements to have the Parker family moved into Manhattan, or if not, then as close to Manhattan as possible.
Now that that thing was sorted out, the spooky encounter with someone, most probably Madame Web, not counting…
"Randall," He called out using his badass voice in the house they were all crashing in. He had dug a hole straight through the basement of the house, into the subterranean cave that he had built for them as a base of operations.
Once again, a Russian Billionaire owned the house. The Billionaire doesn't ask any questions, just completes his request and he can live risk free in the wealthiest neighbourhood in the wealthiest country on the planet, without having to worry constantly about someone about to kill him.
Apparently, just being out and about without any hint of worry of an assassination plot was something that the Billionaire valued enough to complete any of his requests without question.
Billionaires should lead dramatic lives. Assassination attempts.
He scoffed to himself before refocusing on the house that the Nulks were living in. Watching them all scramble to wake up Randall who himself was so lost in the dream world that eleven his admitted badass but still very distinct voice was unable to rouse him, was cathartic.
In the end, Samuel got a mischievous glint in his eye as he went to the washroom and came with a bucket of water and just poured cold water on top of Randall's face, startling him awake.
"What? What? I am awake!" Randall exclaimed as he woke up and furiously tried to get the water off his face. Sometimes, he wondered exactly how comic book physics and biology worked because Randall, along with all six of his brothers, were borderline bulletproof.
Sure, Randall theorized that even Missiles might have a hard time against them, save for some armour piercing rounds, but he was not so daft as to declare them completely bulletproof.
That was the path of arrogance and that was how they got one of their teammates killed. Though, that possibility was pretty much negated by how their powers worked. Sure, for the power to work at its best, they would all have to be pretty much in sight of each other but even the weaker usage of their powers, which allowed them to live, without sharing each other's strength was more than enough.
"Yo! THe big guy's calling for you. Wakey wakey!" Samuel cackled as he slapped the top of Randall's head, creating a dull boom in the bedroom, as all six of Randall's brothers exited his bedroom.
"Uh, can you give me five minutes?" Randall asked out loud and he obliged. He might be a slave driver but he was not going to deprive people of their basic rights and dignity. That path led to a rebellion from his minions and that would just be tedious to handle.
"Look up Stark Expo and memorise everything about it. We are expecting an attack on the Expo. Figure out which one of your brothers can handle being thrown about through the air by my powers. We are going to need a wrecking ball and one of you hard skinned ones is going to be that," He declared as Randall booted up his makeshift workstation in his bedroom.
He said workstation but it was just a monitor with a hardline connection down to the subterranean base. Man, digging with his powers was a piece of cake. Especially in his domain where he could exert his full power with impeccable control as well.
Looking at the cost of building subways, he should charge the city a fraction of the cost to build those tunnels, at scale, so that the people of New York could have reliable and cheap public transportation to everywhere.
Though looking at the state of public transportation in not so densely packed cities, he had to shake his head and sign in mourning of the potential of public transportation in those cities.
Alas, the car lobbies won and now the government was just printing highways everywhere.
Traffic due to more cars with only a single person inside them? Just build another lane.
But reduce the dependency on cars? NOooooo.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 46 [May 2010]
–Axle Riddle–
Hmm, this was going to be tricky.
He was looking over the plans for the Stark Expo and found, much to his chagrin, that he would not be able to exert enough force to actually destroy all the mechs that Vanko would send after Tony.
No, at most, he would be able to inconvenience them, using subtle applications of his power. Now, the only frame of reference he had was the Stark suit that Jarvis was remotely piloting the day Tony came to meet him at his office and that thing didn't have much in terms of what could be exploited by applying the most minimal of forces.
So, it might be that Hammer stuff would be wildly lower specced than one of Tony's suits and that stands to reason, considering Hammer Industries' reputation and history, but he couldn't exactly take that risk there.
The expo was in September, so he had just over three months to maximise his range as much as possible, increase the load of his powers, and train the seven hulks to help with the rescue operations.
Oh yeah, the good thing was that the expo, the entire expo was within his range, even the fringe areas with all the warehousing. So, the worries were not if he could cover all of the Expo, the worries were if he could do something worth a damn.
The hulks were a good option, they were varied, they had unique powers, were human looking so the crowds wouldn't panic but they just had the strength and not the mobility and sheer area of effect that he did.
Randall didn't have the operations set up so that they could hack into satellites or something to track everything happening in the expo so they could give real time updates to the rest of the team, allowing them to do their jobs better.
Then, as if a metaphorical light bulb lit over his head, his eyebrows rose as another idea formed in his head.
He hurriedly began downloading the expo map that was so graciously provided to anybody with an internet connection by Stark himself. He looked through the entire thing and was satisfied that it should not be too complicated to cover the entire thing with his powers.
Sure, stopping the mechs themselves should be out of his capacity, especially if he was doing something else at the same time, but getting people out of the way should be much much easier.
He could already see multiple underground levels with a single entrance that would be perfect to stash people and keep them safe inside it, all the while the other Hulks would destroy the other robots.
And if some Arc Reactors and drone samples managed to disappear from the rubble of the expo, well, it was not as if someone would miss the literal trash that Hammer and Vanko were going to peddle to the US Government.
Stark might notice, and SHIELD might notice as well but what were they going to do? Demand compensation from him?
Well, he will see to it when that happens.
Now that they only had three months of preparation time, it was time to see if he could do what he had thought of.
If he could feasibly achieve granting flight to all the seven Hulks at the same time, well, it would become far too easy to stop Vannko before he caused any real damage.
Sure, in the movies, they didn't show if anybody actually died or not but even if he considered the best case scenario and hoped that no one died, the glass shards from that huge auditorium being shredded by machine gun bullets from the drones alone would have caused multiple minor if not major injuries.
Sheesh, he couldn't even begin to think of the check that Stark Industries probably had to give to the victims of the attack. Well, he wagered that Sueing Hammer Industries for all its worth would have covered that.
Anywho, he had hoped for a quieter year, so the Stark Expo being in Queens thing completely slipped out of his mind. He had to even look out for the young Peter Parker who would be first introduced during the expo as well.
Might as well make sure that Uncle Ben doesn't die here as well. Sure, doing that, in all of Marvel Continuity, had had some major consequences, most of them not good but he didn't think that it was okay on his part to let an excellent man die just because his nephew, all but son, Peter Parker would grow up to become one of the greatest heroes of all time.
Sure, Peter did more good as SpiderMan than he would do as regular old scrawny Peter Parker but what would it say about him if he knowingly let Peter's father figure die?
Who-Okay, that just sent chills down his spine.
Maybe getting into a potential enmity with the Spider Man would not be a good idea for his continued good health.
Yeah, he mentally noted down to make some arrangements to have the Parker family moved into Manhattan, or if not, then as close to Manhattan as possible.
Now that that thing was sorted out, the spooky encounter with someone, most probably Madame Web, not counting…
"Randall," He called out using his badass voice in the house they were all crashing in. He had dug a hole straight through the basement of the house, into the subterranean cave that he had built for them as a base of operations.
Once again, a Russian Billionaire owned the house. The Billionaire doesn't ask any questions, just completes his request and he can live risk free in the wealthiest neighbourhood in the wealthiest country on the planet, without having to worry constantly about someone about to kill him.
Apparently, just being out and about without any hint of worry of an assassination plot was something that the Billionaire valued enough to complete any of his requests without question.
Billionaires should lead dramatic lives. Assassination attempts.
He scoffed to himself before refocusing on the house that the Nulks were living in. Watching them all scramble to wake up Randall who himself was so lost in the dream world that eleven his admitted badass but still very distinct voice was unable to rouse him, was cathartic.
In the end, Samuel got a mischievous glint in his eye as he went to the washroom and came with a bucket of water and just poured cold water on top of Randall's face, startling him awake.
"What? What? I am awake!" Randall exclaimed as he woke up and furiously tried to get the water off his face. Sometimes, he wondered exactly how comic book physics and biology worked because Randall, along with all six of his brothers, were borderline bulletproof.
Sure, Randall theorized that even Missiles might have a hard time against them, save for some armour piercing rounds, but he was not so daft as to declare them completely bulletproof.
That was the path of arrogance and that was how they got one of their teammates killed. Though, that possibility was pretty much negated by how their powers worked. Sure, for the power to work at its best, they would all have to be pretty much in sight of each other but even the weaker usage of their powers, which allowed them to live, without sharing each other's strength was more than enough.
"Yo! THe big guy's calling for you. Wakey wakey!" Samuel cackled as he slapped the top of Randall's head, creating a dull boom in the bedroom, as all six of Randall's brothers exited his bedroom.
"Uh, can you give me five minutes?" Randall asked out loud and he obliged. He might be a slave driver but he was not going to deprive people of their basic rights and dignity. That path led to a rebellion from his minions and that would just be tedious to handle.
"Look up Stark Expo and memorise everything about it. We are expecting an attack on the Expo. Figure out which one of your brothers can handle being thrown about through the air by my powers. We are going to need a wrecking ball and one of you hard skinned ones is going to be that," He declared as Randall booted up his makeshift workstation in his bedroom.
He said workstation but it was just a monitor with a hardline connection down to the subterranean base. Man, digging with his powers was a piece of cake. Especially in his domain where he could exert his full power with impeccable control as well.
Looking at the cost of building subways, he should charge the city a fraction of the cost to build those tunnels, at scale, so that the people of New York could have reliable and cheap public transportation to everywhere.
Though looking at the state of public transportation in not so densely packed cities, he had to shake his head and sign in mourning of the potential of public transportation in those cities.
Alas, the car lobbies won and now the government was just printing highways everywhere.
Traffic due to more cars with only a single person inside them? Just build another lane.
But reduce the dependency on cars? NOooooo.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.