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 68 [October 2010]

Manhattan

–Axle Riddle–

Now, that was enough, he decided as he gently took hold of the SHIELD Director, and placed him down on the sidewalk in front of the warehouse, drawing surprised looks from the people in the adjacent warehouses. He did so because….

“Blarghhh” 

Yeah, that. Fury emptied the contents of his stomach. Guess even his hardened body was not prepared for the joyride through the city he was just subjected to. Well, what can you do?

“Now, Director Fury, if you are done, shall we?” The paper avatar gestured at Fury and then began walking deliberately towards the warehouse. He paused but the paper avatar didn’t when Fury whirled around, removed his gun, and shot the paper avatar in the back of its head.

The shots were silent too, it would seem that SHIELD had guns that didn’t require external silencers to mask the gunshot. Obviously, Fury knew that this was not going to do anything but the man probably just wanted to express his frustration at the helpness of the whole situation. For a man who has been in control of a world spanning organisation like SHIELD, feeling so out of depth must be an entirely new feeling.

Yeah, he could not sympathize with that, at all.

“Now, now, Fury. I know you are angry but that is no way to kill someone. You have to actually hit their bodies for the bullets to do their job,” The paper avatar creepily turned its neck around, with the body still facing the warehouse, and then spit out the two bullets that Fury had fired at the paper avatar.

Obviously, he was not going to let it go anywhere near the warehouse, Fury probably already knew that.

“Now, shall we?” The paper avatar gestured and he made sure to give FUry a little nudge from behind to make him behave.

“Now, I know you want to meet Banner and give him the “I am Fury, Director of SHIELD” talk along with whatever pitch you might have for him to come to work for you as a consultant but I am only going to tell you this once, save it! Banner is already stressed enough as is. I am going to talk to POTUS about his situation as well. I believe his warrant is still issued somewhere, only not in use because of their inability to enforce it,” The paper avatar said as the doors to the warehouse opened up, revealing a warehouse full of technology and people that most governments could only dream of bringing together for a common cause.

“Fine…wait! You are going to ask the President to pardon Banner? You have to run things like that through me first,” Fury rolled his eyes at the paper avatar, his expressions a lot more visual than what he thought would be. Then the sense of shock on his face was incredible as they walked into the warehouse, the center of innovation dedicated to one thing and one thing only.

The safe birth of Bruce Banner’s child, along with the continued survival of the mother, Betty Ross. 

‘I think Bruce should tie the knot now. At Least get engaged or something. It was not nice, living in sin like this. What would Stan Lee say?’

There was a sense of urgency in the movements of every single person in the warehouse, even in Tony’s when he was working from here. Rest of the time, he worked from either the Stark Facility upstate or from his Residence in LA. The only times he came here was if he needed to deliver some critical component or to make some custom component that only they required.

So far, things have gone pretty well. Stark was able to source the Vibranium from questionable sources, according to his words. He was not able to get the entirety of the amount requested but whatever amount he got, plus the Vibranium he already had in his stash was more than enough for the operation to be successful.

Now the most peculiar thing happened the other day when he noticed a Wakanda Raptor entering the edge of his range before flying away, depositing a single drone that was only about the size of a sparrow which then promptly began flying straight to the warehouse where Bruce and the others were working. 

He didn’t intercept the drone because, well, mainly he was curious as to what Wakanda was trying to do. He knew there weren’t any explosives in the device so he didn’t exactly stop it but he took all the necessary precautions at the warehouse, which was already fortified to hell and back by both SHIELD and Tony Stark’s personal recommended private contractors.

The small drone slowly landed on the rooftop of the warehouse or rather, it tried to but he stopped it from completely landing. The drone seemed to be confused about its situation for a moment there but then abruptly, the drone’s entire body unfurled to reveal a small USB.

That moment was a relief for him which meant that Wakanda had agreed to hand over the information required to build the Vibranium fibres, without much fuss on their end. Oh, he completely expected them to come at him later on with some inane demands but for now, this was more than enough for him.

That was how Tony got the necessary push to make the final design changes and today was going to be the day, once his meeting with POTUS was over that is, the Vibranium fibres were going to be created. The USB also had data on how to effectively recycle Vibranium with no loss in its properties, creating an infinitely recyclable loop in their hands. So, if the first try wasn’t successful, they could just melt it down, or dismantle it down using the specific frequencies that Wakanda had graciously provided them, and then begin anew.

What wasn’t going to be possible to restart was the process of inserting them into Betty’s body once it had started. So, they were going to be running countless simulations before even thinking of doing anything to Betty.

The scenery that greeted them was of what would happen when a bunch of scientists, all extremely proud of their work, were put together in a project with hastily drawn up, unnegotiable, deadlines.

“And I am telling you that Betty will not be subjected to something so painful. Not if I have any say in it,” Bruce could be heard arguing passionately with both of the female scientists on the other hand.

“Excuse me? Did you just assume what could or couldn’t be done to Betty without her express consent?” The wildly offended voice of Simmons could be heard as she berated 

“Besides, this will only be mildly painful compared to the delivery where she will have to pop out your child, Dr.Banner. Ever thought of that before coming here to argue with us on Pain factors?” 

Ooh. That particular burn from Dr.Cho was quite a firecracker. He didn’t think Bruce had anything in his arsenal that he could retaliate with. His guess was confirmed when Bruce’s shoulders sagged.

As Bruce was probably about to announce his defeat to the female scientists/doctor cabal, he interrupted their lovely moment of SCIENCE!

“Dr.Banner, Dr.Cho, Dr/Simmons, I trust work has been going well?” He addressed the three lead scientists, sans Tony, discussing animatedly in front of a hologram showing the human body.

All three of them turned around. Bruce stiffened at the sight of Nick Fury, already aware of the legendary Director’s reputation and the extent of his powers.

“Director Fury,” x3

“Doctors, I am here to get the progress report about the entire operation. I have been told that not only has Stark procured the required Vibtranum but also devised a method to use it according to your requirements and then recycle it infinitely as well?” Fury asked the doctors.

He rolled his eyes back into his apartment. This was a power play of sorts, loud and clear. Fury was telling him that he had eyes in the operation. 

Oh. Wasn’t that a shocker? Scientists and analysts provided exclusively by SHIELD, who wore SHIELD uniforms on the daily, reported every single thing that happened in the warehouse to their superiors.

Oh, what a catastrophic information leak this was!

“Yes, Dr.Stark was certainly instrumental in making sure the project was finished before time. With his genius, we will be able to start the VIbranium fiber production today itself, once Mr.Invisible Man is free to monitor the process of course,” Helen Cho piped up.

“Yes, Dr.Stark’s methods are truly revolutionary. We have already tested them and the results are as expected. VIbranium can be recycled, infinitely, at least that is what we have observed. Dr.Stark has also made it clear that the methods will be patented by Stark Industries so any attempt by SHIELD to use his technology will result in a lawsuit,” Simmons reported to Fury.

“Yes, Repeatedly,” Helen CHo said, exasperated.

This was Tony’s payment in return for keeping hush about the source of the methods. Now, it was nothing for him and once Wakanda opened up its birders, if could contest that method in court but Tony had assured him that it would not be used for any commercial activity, only for his suit once the Vibranium was done being used by Betty and was ready to be recycled to be incorporated into his suits.  

He had been holding on to a fortune’s worth of Vibranium but was always hesitant to use such a precious metal, in fear of destroying it since it was common consensus that Vibranium, once set, could not be used again.

Probably didn’t want to end up making a frisbee out of the most versatile metal on the planet, like his father did.

Maybe, Ultron was right in that regard.

But Howard Stark did end up making one hell of a legendary frisbee. 

He was sure that the mere mention of recycling Captain America’s shield would have the entire branches of the US Military in arms.

Huh, wonder what that would be like?

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