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 67 [October 2010]

Manhattan

–Axle Riddle–

It was nice that the Ancient One was offering her support. It was also very anxiety inducing because of her exact words when he left.

“A fully realised godling born from an unrealised god,” The words from the Ancient One still reverbed in his mind as he readied himself to meet POTUS.

What did those words mean, he did not exactly know but it was worrying all the same. It meant that Bruce’s child would be strong, much stronger than most humans, probably even at birth itself. 

Those words did not bode well for the delivery of the baby. If it was just a science problem, he wholeheartedly trusted the combined genius of Tony and Bruce in that regard. Armed with Randall as well as Helen Cbho meant that the Science Side was as good as covered completely. 

The problem lies in the mystical side of things. The very existence of Bruce was shrouded in cosmic machinations. His patron was not someone who could be described as anything close to kind or merciful.

No, the guy below will take every chance he gets at hurting Bruce or stealing Baby Banner. The worst thing was that he wouldn’t be able to do much if that guy actively tries to stir shit up.

They were very vulnerable and all the Guy Below had to do was nudge a few things here and there, and voila, he had either Baby Hulk, or a very angry Papa Hulk.

He shuddered as he tried to imagine a situation with A World War Hulk level Bruce rampaging around, without anyone around to stop him.

As powerful as he was, he knew that he was nowhere close enough to Bruce’s strength levels, someone who could, theoretically, build enough power to sink even the Eastern or Western coast as well.

No, that was an absolute nightmare scenario. They didn’t have access to Thor, at all, and, without someone on the same level as Thor holding down Hulk, the chances of defeating Hulk were almost nil.

“Alright, no use worrying about it now. I’ll just have to trust the Ancient One and her mystical experience with all things eldritch,” He muttered to himself as he kept a close eye on the convoy that POTUS was using at his rally. 

He could see FUry already waiting in the SHIELD safehouse with an entire STRIKE team outside, for his protection. He didn’t know why they did all those convoluted preparations when they knew that nothing would happen to either of them in Manhattan.

If something unfortunately does happen, he would be unanimously hated by the entire country for it. He doubted even he could make it if the US Military, along with its advanced spy complex began searching for him. The sheer manpower they could deploy for him was no joke and it was not as if he could flee the city, not with the limitations imposed on him.

Well, no time like the present, he psyched himself up and then….snuggled into the covers, with the AC on Full blast.

What was he gonna do? Put on a tuxedo and then sit in his living room, while using his powers to communicate with the POTUS? Now, that would just be the height of stupidity.

So, with a warm cup of tea that just floated out of the kitchen and straight into his hand, he began prepping the avatar that he would use for this meeting.

A vortex formed on top of the building where Fury was staying, drawing in small pieces of paper that were shredded out of a newspaper that was lying around, and then culminated in a small burner phone that was prepared with the text to speech software already installed by a nearby vendor.

He had a deal with the vendor, giving him 200% of the cost of the burner phone in exchange for setting everything up. The money was leftover gang money anyway so no sweat off his back because he broke off every burner phone after it was used only once.

He mostly used the burner phone only when he interacted with Fury, so it did not happen often but when it did, having a stash of prepared burner phones that could be swiped off at his convenience was incredibly nice.

The paper avatar began slowly floating down the side of the building. The avatar then turned a bit and then waved at the 6 snipers perched on top of different buildings. He could see the sweat running off their foreheads as the action seemed to scare them a bit.

Hmmm, he wondered why.

Slowly, he came to the window of the safe house. The very much bulletproof window that was a chore and a half just to open so it always remained closed by the Random Beautiful Agent, since she did not like to exert any effort that was not explicitly required as part of her job.

The same window’s lock mechanisms were opened from the inside as the paper avatar slipped in the small gap he had created, the window being locked behind him.

“Top of the morning to you laddies,” he shouted out cheerfully using his air manipulation voice, creating a horrible deep tone.

“Jesus Christ,” Fury exclaimed as he re-hostered the gun into his Trench Coat, a look that not anyone could quite pull off. As usual, the Random beautiful Agent lay unconscious near Fury, presumably because she was startled by his voice.

“You sure everything is fine with her? No anxiety issues? Anything that could explain her fainting fit?” He asked Fury who continued to glare at the paper avatar a moment longer before finally turning to the unconscious agent sprawled on the ground.

He slowly lifted her and deposited her on the utility bed with pink sheets and pink pillows, likely decoration from the Random Beautiful Agent who had begun living in the safehouse for a very long time now.

It was a very cushy job since she was in a safe environment and now she also had the Internet, or at least whatever SHIELD has allowed her to access, the sanitised version of the Internet, if you will.

“Yeah, she’ll be fine. POTUS will be meeting you in a couple of hours, and I want to know just what you are going to talk to him about. I want some heads up regarding any harebrained scheme that you might have cooked up,” Fury asked him.

He thought about the problems he wanted to address with POTUS. 

There were many he wanted to address but the prime of which was Bruce’s situation. He was not yet declared a fugitive, officially, but he knew that the moment Bruce stepped out of his protection, they would spare no expense in getting him captured.

Now, a Bruce who was down on life, depressed, and unwilling to harm anyone whilst actively suicidal? The Army might have a chance at taking the Hulk down then.

But if Bruce was actually angry and had a family, something to return to, something worth fighting for, well, then let’s just say that even the strongest of weapons that Stark could whip up, would not be able to contend with the Hulk’s sheer raw strength.

In fact, he knew from his comic lore that even Nukes would not be able to completely wipe off the Hulk from the face of the planet. He would survive even that with ease, and more.

So, getting an official pardon, or a “BACK OFF” notice for Hulk, straight from the White House would be good. Next would be a pardon for the Seven Hulk brother but that is down on the priority list since they don’t seem willing to get out of Manhattan anytime soon and by the time 2012 rolls around, he will go and meet Jiaying on his own.

Having an un-brainwashed village of enhanced people would go swimmingly, especially if the groundwork he will be trying to lay down with the President works out or not. 

For the experiment to get off the ground and actually work, he might have to actually physically present himself and while that tickled his brains in all the wrong ways, the idea of revealing himself to the world, he might just have to do it one day.

Now, they do not know what he looks like so something to disguise his true face would work out best, since he would be able to assume his normal civilian identity if things ever went south.

So, let’s see what he had in mind for the agenda.

1. Getting Bruce an official Pardon.
2. Getting the Seven Brothers' official status in the country
3. Setting up the groundwork to have the participation of enhanced people in the workforce.
4. Plant seeds for eventual legislation that would protect the rights of, and recognise enhanced people as the same as normal vanilla humans.

So, after thinking long and hard about the meeting, he said to Fury who was patiently waiting, or rather, fuming all this time.

“Nah, nothing special. I’ll figure it out when the time comes. Now, why don’t we go the warehouse that I am sure you are dying to see,” He said and before Fury could mount any sort of defense against that statement, he was swooped in and enveloped by a wind cushion and then thrown in the direction of the warehouse, screaming profanities at the Invisible Man, all the way.

Man, the reaction of the snipers and the STRIKE team was legendary.

Now, he could have just gently picked him up and dropped him into the warehouse on the outskirts of the city but where was the fun in that?

Fury’s screams were heard by him as he deliberately made him take the route in front of his building, the screams sounding like music to his ears.

Man, he loved bullying the so called badass characters of this universe.

He couldn’t wait to troll Hawkeye, that man had the signature trollable personality in all of MCU, at least from the movies.

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