Chapter 12 : HYDRA Closing in. (Patreon)

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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 12

New York Sanctum Sanctorum

–Axle Riddle–

“You’re cleaning that,” He opened his eyes blearily to see Wong’s face looming over him. He must have passed out right there in the Sanctum after coming back from that horrible headache. Not just that, it felt like something had clicked in his mind during the battle but he was just too distracted to realise what it was. When he began hobbling towards the Sanctum, that was when he realised that something was wrong with his body as well. 

It was not just the blood flowing from his nose intermittently, probably due to the strain, it was his entire being. He tried to scan himself with his spatial awareness but that had never worked out before. All he got was a blurry mess when he tried to look inward.

For a time, he had thought that he was not even human but he still bled red, looked like one, and thought like one, so he had not dwelled on that issue much.

“Wh-what?” He asked him as he sat up, grunting in discomfort as his muscles protested at the moment. 

“That,” Wong pointed behind him and he made the big mistake of looking behind him, only to see the once pristine carpet, that he made sure to clean so much that it shone at the end of it, was now caked in vomit.

Ugh, he felt so sick just looking at that.

“Bleurgh,” He immediately emptied the contents of his stomach, right at Wong’s feet.

He was feeling awful at that moment but later on, he took great pleasure in making the great unfeeling Wong sigh in frustration.

He tried to make heads and tails of what had happened but that just made his head hurt even more. So, he concentrated on the simple task at the moment. Getting to his bedroom.

The Sanctum usually only housed the Sanctum Master and occasional guests if required but as his case was unique, he was given part of the dwelling on a semi-permanent basis. That meant that he had quite a luxury apartment to go to in the Sanctum. Along with spatial runes, it meant that he practically lived in a penthouse, despite being just a student here. 

Life was good. At least, that was what he would have said had you asked him a scant few hours before. Now, getting to the bedroom, which was on the top floor, was beginning to feel like a huge chore. The kind of chore that your mom assigns to you when you are fresh out of the shower after an exhausting game outside and your bedroom is just primed for one of the best naps of your life.

With that kind of exhaustion, he was dragging himself up the stairs. Wong, bastard that he was, had not offered to help at all. In his defense though, his shoes were covered in….don’t think about it. DO NOT think about it.

He usually would have cleared the stairs in a single jump with his body or just floated himself up there with his powers but both of them were unreliable at the moment. He would have to look into that because if stopping just a couple of cars, hundreds of bullets, and about 4 grenades meant that he was going to be out of commission for long, it would mean that he wouldn’t even be able to help with the NYC Invasion.

In that case, he should just prevent it outright because what would be the point in him regaining his freedom if he would not be able to make a difference with his powers?

Oh well, that was a question for the Axle that woke up from the nap. Not the one who is having a migraine at the moment.

______xx_____

–Jasper Sitwell–

“Did you find the person responsible?” 

He wiped the sweat off his brows as he looked at the map displaying a circle around Manhattan and his current location being far away from that circle of influence. 

“Uh-no. No, sir,” he replied to Secretary Pierce.

They had been tasked to create a huge disturbance, preferably with civilian casualties, to provoke the person fighting crime in that particular neighbourhood of Manhattan using some sort of technology that was invisible or the far more likely answer, someone with powers.

He had been ordered by Secretary Pierce to figure out who that was and get to them before SHIELD did with their index. They usually let SHIELD get the useless ones because all they needed from those people was data and they had access to all of SHIELD’s data anyway. But this person was special.

“Figure it out, Sitwell. Having someone of that calibre would make even the Winter Soldier look obsolete.”

“Yes, sir. Hail Hydra!”

“Hail Hydra!” 

He sighed in relief as the call was cut from the other side. He loosened the knot of his tie as he looked at the footage of the supposed heist.

His men were arrested but that was fine. They would be out soon anyway. Two of them were out of commission because their hands were crushed in the vehicles.

Idiots.

Still, though, he wondered why that fellow did not chase him even though he was right there. He even made a show of coming in with the same convoy before waiting at the edge of the street to come after him. 

They had multiple theories as to what the guy could be and he was undoubtedly risking his life there but orders were orders and these orders specifically came from the top, so he was in no position to decline or even negotiate anything. 

After all, cut off one head, two more shall take its place, was true even for the subordinates, reminding them of their disposableness. He just never thought that he would have to experience that as well, being a high-ranking member of HYDRA as well as SHIELD, which insulated him from the worst of punishments because he was, essentially, a public figure, and a very useful public figure at that.

Now that they had some useful data from the first contact, they could tackle this problem from a renewed perspective.

First of all, whoever it was, their power was awe-inspiring. If the Hulk’s power was pure brute strength, this person’s powers were cold precise calculations. The ability to stop bullets and then even create an invisible curtain at the entrance to stop the bullets and even the shrapnel from the grenades from going inside was marvelous.

As was the ability to simply crush cars that had been reinforced many times, surpassing even the SHIELD’s standard for wartime delivery vehicles.

If he could make someone else float, he could probably make himself float as well, so there went possible flight into his powers list.

Honestly, there should have been no reason someone of this caliber could not hunt him down. The only reason must be that his powers must have some downsides.

You can’t have everything and there must be some weakness that they could exploit when it comes to this person. Maybe something like a cooldown period? Or they could not use their powers for too long? Something like a weight limit? Or maybe a range issue?

He did not know but he will figure it out. It was an assignment from both SHIELD and HYDRA. If they could harness this power on their side, well, let’s just say that many people would die but HYDRA would rise, and with it, Peace.

Now, all he had to do was orchestrate more and more crimes in the given circle so that he could eventually pinpoint the approximate location of the freak. The boys at the lab had cooked up software, to help him triangulate the possible locations based on an assumed range limit and possible encounters.

The more crimes he stopped, the more data points they would have until eventually, they could track him.