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 60 [September 2010]

–Axle Riddle–

“Okay Bruce, I have told all the people I could to help make sure that everything turns out to be fine,” He told Bruce, seeing that Betty was still asleep, he used the curtain of Silence around the entire apartment. Scanning Betty once again, from top to bottom showed no signs of any growth but it had literally been less than an hour since Bruce dropped the bomb on him.

“Huh? Okay," Bruce said lifelessly as if the very purpose of his life had been snatched away from him. God, he must be feeling awful right now but there was nothing any of them could do at the moment.

In the end, this was not their decision anyway. It was Betty’s call and he was just going to have to make sure that whatever call she made, she came out safe from it. Bruce might be able to handle the loss of an unborn child, but the loss of Betty?

Whew, that would not go okay. 

“Bruce, snap out of it. I’ve ordered breakfast for both of you. Now, we both know things have already progressed past a point of no return. I think you and I both know the kind of woman Betty is and what decision she will take, but we will wait for her to wake up and consult her before taking any major steps. 

In the meantime, is there anything that Randall can do, so that we can make an informed decision? Any medical equipment you need? How did you even find out about her gamma radiation anyway?” He asked Bruce in rapid fire.

Bruce simply pointed him at a clock in the doorway. He focused on the clock and was astonished to find that it was nothing like a clock. It was completely digital on the inside with some sort of antennas going around it.

“The hands of the clock are like a radiation gauge. I wanted to keep something like that handy to monitor if my condition was stable or not. Betty insisted that we make it a fun art project so that I don’t ruin the “aesthetic” of the place. Huh,” Bruce chuckled wryly as he just told him a very heart touching story. 

Heart touching it may be but it was not exactly useful for them in this scenario. They needed Bruce back in the game. And a bunch of other geniuses, to make sure that Baby Hulk is born safely, because he knew what Betty was going to choose, and so did Bruce.

“Bruce! Snap out of it. Betty is still alive, you are acting as if she is already gone. Now, is there anything that Randall can do on his own?” He once again asked Bruce to give some directions to Randall who was already running around like a headless chicken once Randall had completed all the tasks he had given to him.

The subterranean highway that he made on a whim would be very useful for such an operation. He could let them get out of Manhattan if adequate medical care was not available here but that would just further jeopardise their safety. No, the best option would be to create the perfect environment, here in Manhattan and then hope for the best.

Plus, if something did really happen, he was the best shot at suppressing Bruce, even if it would turn out to be a temporary measure, with Bruce going stronger the angrier he gets.

Bruce slowly looked up at the ceiling and sighed, “Tell Randall I’ll be there in the evening. Until then, get the gamma spectrometers ready,”

“Very well,” he nodded and left Bruce to his own devices. The man was sad enough as is. He didn’t want to add even more to his already full plate.

He honed in on the Sanctum and was delighted to find that he had made enough progress to sense the protections around the Sanctum at even greater clarity than before. He had a theory that, given enough time, he would be able to sense the weakness of the entire structure, like the texture of it, and after prodding a bit, actually collapse them as well.

Granted, that would be a really bad idea but hey, progress was progress.

Leaving that aside, he metaphorically knocked on the doors, as in knocked on the wards of the Sanctum. 

‘What can I do for you, Mr.Riddle?” Master Drumm came out and was startled to find a small note just slamming into his chest as his presence receded. He had just given him the note to warn the Ancient One about the situation, even though she probably knew about it with her bullshit magic and bullshit Singularity Stone.

Let’s see what all he has done.

Called Fury, who will call upon all the experts he has access to? Check.

Inform the Ancient One? Check.

Inform the team about it. Judging by the various states of panic that had gripped all members of the team? Double Check.

Oh god, this was so stressful. He didn't know how normal people managed to handle this much stress and then go on to raise children.

In the meanwhile, the people of New York went on with their lives, not knowing that Bruce Banner, the Hulk lived with them and there was a chance that he was going to….multiply.

Oh yeah, the Highway. He told What’s-his-face to get some construction equipment ready. They were going to create a very sturdy structure with all the space they might need.

The worst thing was that if the baby was normal, he would have had months to prepare. This was literally the first time it would be happening, so nobody knew how fast the Baby would grow up and if Betty’s decidedly human body could even handle a Gamma foetus.

He made sure to maintain the lockdown he had on crime though because even with the entire world, at this point, knowing that he was here in New York and was capable of stopping most crimes, criminals still somehow tried. He tried to reduce the underlying reasons for which people turn to crime but there were limits to what he could accomplish, and eliminating hunger from a very sizable population of the city alone had worked wonders in the crime rate.

Obviously, that had ruffled some feathers, some people going live on TV and calling it Mafia Communism of sorts but that was just white noise and he had elected to ignore it. As long as the initiative survived and worked for a few more years, the results would then speak for themselves.

The truth of the matter was that once people are given the basic things they need with dignity, the bare minimum, there was very little chance they would turn to do bad things.

The only reason most criminals started was because a life of crime was somehow much more accessible to them than a life of hard work. Faster, more riskier progress was somehow right in people’s faces but slow progress, the one that stuck until the end, was not readily available to them.

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