Chapter 23 : The One with the Grown Man Crying. (Patreon)

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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 22

Manhattan [November 2008]

–Axle Riddle–

What was this? He had never felt something so strongly before, he thought to himself as he used his powers to stop his face from hitting the road, slowly pulling himself back as his mind continued to zero in on that strong feeling.

“Ah! Be careful, man. Good thing the Invisible Man saved you, right? Where do you wanna go?” The driver asked him but his mind was already lost to the sensory input he was getting from his powers as he had begun walking subconsciously.

“Hey! Hey! I am talking to you,” 

The voice of the driver faded in the background as his powers closed in on the strong input he was getting.

See, he had always been able to distinguish between normal vanilla humans and enhanced ones. The thing with sorcerers was that in spite of having powers beyond the imagination of normal people, they didn’t always have a large amount of dimensional energy flowing through them so for the majority of the time he could sense them, they appeared only slightly above the normal people in terms of energy responses.

He had sensed a couple of vampires and vampire hunters, along with spirits that descended during Halloween and those were immediately visible to his powers, as they were different from regular humans.

While he did always get a ping of sorts as a somewhat heavy presence entered his range, it was never this pronounced.

The presence he felt right now was the strongest he had ever felt. It also felt hot somehow, like it was completely molten red and was just restrained by a flimsy layer that was somehow able to stop the hot energy from overflowing.

Shit!

That was the only thing his mind could muster up in the face of Bruce fucking Banner in his city. From the looks of it, he was heading straight to an old lady for some reason.

He tensed, his mind ready to intervene at the slightest sign of him turning into the Jolly Green Giant but somehow, Bruce seemed far calmer than he had expected him to be. 

He groaned in frustration when he realised that Bruce was asking about the congregation stuff and just seemed to glow up as the old lady told him where to find it.

“Why ROB, WHY!” He muttered to himself, drawing odd looks from a passerby but he didn’t care much about that. Now he had to do something about that before Bruce actually went to the congregation and he was forced to do something that would deepen their faith in him, drawing forth another wave of believers.

He didn’t believe, not even for a second, the potential damage this so called “Congregation” could cause in the name of their patron saint. He had seen enough examples in history to know what that would lead to, especially since he would not be living in this city after 2012. 

He had not made any inroads into how he would announce his exit but he was sure that doing so with any overt gestures would lead to the congregation just increasing around him.

On the other hand, his dying in combat in service of humanity might just turn him into a martyr in their eyes and raise his standing even more.

Argh! What to do!

He thought to himself as he entered a cafe and ordered a triple shot of espresso and sat down, thinking of ways how to handle this.

For one, he could let Bruce get to the congregation and answer him there but that had a lot of ways it could go wrong. No, that would just be needlessly risky. So that option was out.

He would not just suddenly hoist Bruce using his powers and bring him somewhere isolated. No, that would just make him turn into the Hulk as his body’s fight or flight response would get activated and then, he didn’t know if he could even fight someone of the Hulk’s caliber with his powers. Though, if it did turn into a fight, he didn’t have much to worry about because while he might not be capable of matching Bruce blow for blow, he was more than capable of lifting the Hulk, no matter how dense and heavy he might be, and then simply….fling him into the ocean.

To cool him down, you see.

Well, let’s just do this, then.

Bruce was walking to Central Park, looking around and…smiling…for some reason.

Maybe he had gone a little bit mad because of the back-to-back shocks that he had received ever since he became the Hulk.

Anyway, he flooded the block where Bruce was walking, with his presence. Oh, yeah. He can do that now. Earlier he was restricted to an area the size of a small alley but now he can effectively create a domain surrounding a large enough area.

As soon as he did that, however, Bruce paused in his steps, somehow sensing that something was wrong. As if a switch had been flipped, his entire demeanour changed as he became more withdrawn as his posture became very guarded.

He now looked around shiftily as he walked.

Well, so much for being stealthy and non-threatening.

Still, this could be salvaged. He collected a small amount of debris and overheated it, then pushed Bruce lightly, into the entrance of an alley.

Bruce stumbled and looked at the alley where just a single word was waiting for him, floating in thin air - “HELLO”

Bruce looked flabbergasted before he took a deep breath and replied in kind.

“Uh-Hello. Are you the Invisible Man?” He asked as he looked around the alley, probably waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“Yes. Why have you come here, Bruce Banner?” 

“Uh, how do you know my name? Anyway, I have come here to seek help. I am on the run from the mili-”

“General Ross, I presume?”

“Whaa, How could you possibly-”

“I know a lot of things, Dr.Banner. I also know that you are being hunted down for no fault of your own. I assume you came here in hopes that I will help you from being arrested wrongfully?”

“Y-yes. And I assure you, this is just temporary. Once I have a lab, I can cure myself of the Other Guy. I just need a little time and…resources but I can handle the resources part. I just need you to stop them from whisking me away in the night.”

“Yes, I can do that. Besides, it is not as if they will succeed, right Dr.Banner?”

Bruce just seemed to wilt at the last statement as he muttered a defeated, “Yeah…”

Oh, well that backfired spectacularly.

It would seem that particular wound was still a little too raw to make jokes about then.

“Very well, Dr.Banner, I, Invisible Man Insert Eye-roll hereby promise you that as long as you remain in Manhattan, I will make sure that nobody infringes on your right and tries to arrest you.”

“O-Oh thank you so much!” 

Oh, well seeing a grown man almost break down was never a pretty sight, especially if that was happening because of circumstances he had no control over.

The sound of the debris overheating brought Bruce’s attention back.

“I assume you wouldn’t want to use your original identity to stay in the city? It would make things a lot easier but if you are uncomfortable with that, I can house you in a place where nobody would disturb you, and provide you with all the necessities without ever coming into contact with another human being. At least, until you have made your miracle cure that is,”

Bruce had his mouth open as he read the long sentences being arranged in front of him. It was a nice thing that the alley had a lot of broken-down rocks and cement he could use to make the long ass sentence. God, he wished he had telepathy of some sort, even if it was just two-way communication with no hope of ever-expanding into mind-reading territory but even that was out of reach for him.

“I–I can do that? Live as me here, without any hiding?” Bruce stuttered and god the tears made him feel so bad.

Unfortunately….

“You can live with your own identity out in the open but are you sure you can handle that? I am not saying that you will have to handle the military but what about…regular people? YOu might get panic attacks and we both know what happens then. So, here is what I propose.”

Bruce’s face had wilted from the reality that was thrown in his face but he continued to read ahead, in hopes that something might be done for him.

“I will get you housed in a safe location for the time being. Nobody will be able to trace you, I will ensure that. All your daily necessities will be delivered to you, free of cost, of course. We will then work on your powers, and ensure you can maintain calm even in the face of chaos and panic. I have someone who might be able to help you but it might take time for that person to reach you. So, I suggest you follow my directions, it will take you to what will be your house for the next few days,”

“...Okay.”

Alright then, he dropped all of the debris and then nudged Bruce lightly in the direction he wanted him to go. Bruce understood the signal and nodded, turning around to get out of the alley.

Well, it was a good thing he knew a Billionaire that owed him a favour. And one that he couldn’t refuse in any way.

Also, time to contact the Ancient One once again.

Ha, he hated dealing with her cryptic bullshit.