The Sage of the Mind

Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don’t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP. 

The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 4

A shady Alley, Manhattan, NYC

–Axle Riddle–

“Urgh,” A groan escaped his lips as he lifted his smushed face that was stuck on gravel and dirt. He blinked the spots out of his vision as he tried to get back feeling to most of his extremities. When his vision finally cleared up, he looked at his surroundings and then at the adjoining street where he could see people with phones in their hands, headphones on, and modern cars zipping around and then, promptly collapsed back on the ground.

“Fucking finally,” He muttered to himself as he could see that he had actually returned to the modern world this time, not some medieval world where he would not even get easy access to soap let alone the various entertainment types that he had grown accustomed to. 

He then sat upright and saw that he was dressed properly this time and he also had something sticking out from his pant’s back pocket. Wiggling a bit, he reached into the pocket awkwardly and removed it, revealing a small black box that was akin to a ring box. He then gingerly opened that box and promptly yelped as the box spewed out a number of things. Hoping nobody saw that, he reached out to the contents and was delighted to find a wallet that had a number of things, the principle between them was cash and an identity. He never thought he would cry at the sight of a  Social Security Card. He hurriedly went through the rest of the wallet and found multiple other important identification documents, such as a driving license along with a rental agreement of some sort for the next 11 months. Well, that was certainly helpful.

“Let’s go get me some hot food,” He muttered to himself before standing up and dusting his rear. He looked around to check if there were any residues from his entry and after being satisfied that there was nothing out of the ordinary there, he whistled and began walking into the city life merrily.

“Taxi!” He hailed a cab and then just showed him the address in the rental agreement. The driver looked at him weirdly for a moment but then shrugged when he showed that he did have the cash to pay him. The ride did not take long. In 20 minutes, they were standing in front of a building that looked old enough to be of a sturdy nature but not so old that it would fall over at any moment.

“Thank you,” He paid the driver and looked at the apartment number. He also apparently did have a key to it and it was sitting in his front pockets. He sadly did not have a phone yet so he would have to procure that. Then again, it would not be hard to procure a burner phone here in America.

He nodded at the doorman and went up to his apartment and opened it using the very old-style key that was given to him. He didn't know what he expected from the apartment but it was all very…normal. It was a standard 2-bedroom apartment. The rent was already paid for the rest of the year. He might have to start looking for a job to sustain himself but from the looks of it, he had everything he could need for at least an entire month. Well, he was still not sure of the time period he had landed in and for that, he had just the right thing to check. He looked at his feet where a couple of newspapers were lying around, apparently having been slipped through the door every day. At least, it told him that people still read newspapers which meant that he was still aways from the 2010s.

“Let’s see,” He picked up the newspapers and was shocked to see the news of two jets being shot down by the US military, their goal being the World Trade Centre. That newspaper was over a week old. He went through all of them and saw that the latest newspaper was on 20th September 2006. God, he hoped that it was right because it meant that he still had over 5 years to hone his powers to an acceptable level.

“Well, let’s get to work, shall we?” He asked himself as he let his powers loose. Ever since he had woken up here, his powers seemed as if they were just dying to bubble forth. He had been keeping a tight leash on them in fear of somebody seeing something they shouldn't see but now that he was in his, relatively, safe haven, he let go of the lid he kept on his powers.

Instantly, as if a switch had been lit, his awareness exploded. He could feel what was happening in the entire building and then some. He could pinpoint the location of every single human in the building. He could see that most of them were moving about, working in their houses.

He could also feel two couples three floors above him engaging in carnal activities, together. He could feel the water moving through the pipes and he just knew that he could stop that flow of water if he so wished. Honestly, the influence he could wield in that area of awareness was incredible. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the rooftop. He could feel various items just strewn about on the rooftop. Most of it was long rectangular bars of some metal. Steel bars probably were just kept there and forgotten. He reached out with his mind to one of the bars and tried to lift it. To his surprise, there was hardly any effort required to lift that steel bar, though to be fair, it was just six floors above him. He then floated it to the side of the building, reoriented it, and then slowly, carefully floated it down, right up until it was visible from his window. 

Careful to not show any reaction in case anyone was watching, he let the bar go down until it fell down on the curb with a clanging sound.

He would have loved to experiment more but his stomach chose that exact moment to growl in hunger. Right, he had forgotten that he had not eaten anything and he was feeling awfully hungry. Hopping over to the kitchen, he could see multiple flyers for Chinese takeout places but he had no phone to call them so he was just about to head out when he saw something very ancient. Something that would have looked very out of place in the time period he was in but was still in use in the current era, it would seem.

He saw a landline connection. He made his way over excitedly and dialed the number for the takeout and with the stereotypical ringing sound, the place picked up. He recited the address to them after placing his order and hung up.

“Huh, neat,” He commented and placed down the phone.

“Next order of business,” He muttered to himself as he closed all the blinds and then sat down cross-legged in the living room. He then focused on his powers and his senses. He could feel his body and then his apartment, then the building but after that, there seemed to be some sort of wall that hindered his senses. It was as if he had not unlocked that part of the map yet.

He focused on that wall and tried to break it if that made any amount of sense. He went at it for quite a while and it did yield some success because he could feel the wall becoming less “opaque” somehow. He could feel the buildings on the other side of the wall after some time but they were still very blurry and not at all like the accurate awareness he could gain after focusing on just the building and the curb outside the building.

Case in point, he could feel the building’s super and doorman just standing there on the curb, looking at the bar of steel in confusion because it just sat there. At the height it had fallen from, it should have either drilled a hole in the curb or just broken apart due to all the rust it had accumulated. Instead, it fell gently on the ground as if it had been gently dropped from a very nominal height.

He snickered at their confusion and looked at the other occupants of the building. He knew that it was a violation of their privacy but honestly? They were living in America, the land of the free. They knew that they were under 24/7 surveillance anyway. In some cases, the people signed away their right to privacy just for some entertainment and a really convenient way to communicate with people. 

His brows furrowed as he looked at the couple who lived on the top floor penthouse. It was really big and luxurious, judging from the number of heavy items he could sense in their house. He could also feel them fighting and each of them throwing things at each other. One of them was running around and throwing stuff at the other person and the other person was running after them with a knife?!

He immediately reached out with his powers and to his horror, the person did seem to be holding a very sharp metallic object. He had to do something to stop them but he couldn't just go up and do that. How could he justify him being there and if the person tried to attack him as well, he might have to expose his powers?

Oh, OH! He could just stop them from here. He focused on the knife first and just yanked it out of the man’s hand and threw it at the wall with such force that it buried itself to the hilt. There, now that the knife was out of the play, he could focus on the people.

Slowly, carefully, he imagined two hands and wrapped them around both of their throats. He gently began applying force. He could feel them clawing at their throats in an effort to pry the invisible hands off but there was nothing they could do. He then banged their heads together with minimal force. It took him three more times before he could feel both of them passing out from either the head trauma or the suffocation, either one was not very good.

He should have tried to knock them out from the neck but he had neither the finesse nor the know-how of doing that. He might as well have chopped their necks clean off so he had to resort to this.

He sighed in resignation. Now, what could he do? He sensed a phone in their apartment and slowly floated it down to his window. With his eyes, he pressed 911 and then left it in the apartment. He made sure to create some noise that could indicate a fight happening but that was the extent of it.

He would have to figure out how to non-lethally subdue people using his powers because he could foresee this happening a lot as his awareness range increased.

The ringing bell and the announcement of “Delivery!” brought solace to his soul as he rushed to the door and sighed in happiness once the delicious fragrance of Chinese food reached his nose.

He would deal with that situation later. First food then a murder attempt.

If you want to read ahead, you can head to my P*treon