Chapter 27 : Anticipation! (Patreon)

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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 26

SHIELD Safehouse, Manhattan

–Axle Riddle–

Okay, now it is getting a bit ridiculous. They had stopped firing, which was good but were on their way downstairs, evacuating the honeypot trap while continuously calling for more backup since he had evidently “attacked” them or something.

Seriously, how afraid can someone be of just a white ghastly head bobbing around and then speaking in a guttural tone? Right? That must be normal for SHIELD agents, right?

He sighed as he realised the mistake in his actions. Anywho, time to correct them now.

He flooded his presence in the building, hijacking it essentially, in its entirety. Once he had flooded his presence in something, he was the de facto GOD of that place, allowing him to control every little aspect of that singular location.

In this case, he used it to freeze every single agent that was running on their way down, took their guns, moulded the nozzles in front of their wide terrified eyes, and then brought them back up to the safe house. He had to assume that the only reason the neighbours had not come out was because this was a SHIELD safehouse building and the neighbours must be trained as well. 

Though, he could see that all of them had left the building for one reason or another. Some were grocery shopping, some were at a cafe eating cake, some were on a bagel run, etc.

With all the 20 agents placed in the same safehouse, it had become a bit cramped but nothing these agents were not trained for, right?

Oh well.

He watched on as another set of SUVs, 6 this time, burned rubber as they hauled ass to the safehouse building. Also filled with armed people, apparently ready to burst down the door with guns swinging. 

Okay, this is just ridiculous now.

He unfroze the lead agent and immediately regretted it because the man just refused to stop blabbering. It was as if he had put the fear of god in them.

He did the same for the others but none of them showed any signs of listening to him. All they did was look around frantically in fear until the Random Beautiful Agent 1 once again fainted in fear.

That would have been amusing had it not been for the faint smell of urine in the air.

Just what was happening? He thought to himself as he watched grown hardened men tremble in fear. 

Back in his apartment, his eyes narrowed as he tried to look deeper into the issue. Something was wrong here and he did not know what. For the time being though, he would have to get his message across so he tore apart a page from the diary on the table, which also had a few bullet holes in it, wrote his message in, and after folding it, placed it into the front pocket of Agent Ross. 

All the while Agent Ross kept praying to his deity to save him or something.

Just what the hell was wrong with them?

He nevertheless withdrew his presence and left behind a note for the arriving officers as well, explaining that he didn’t even do anything to them. The CCTV should confirm that as well but he didn’t want to take any risks.

He watched as the next round of agents burst into the safehouse, expecting something, he didn’t know what they were expecting but a bunch of hardened agents crying was not it.

He saw the second lead agent look at the note that was stuck in Agent Ross’ hand as he clutched it as if his life depended on it and after securing the footage, ordered a complete withdrawal.

He watched as they left his awareness range and saw that they all simultaneously sighed in relief once they left Manhattan, confident in their ability to now remain safe because they were out of the Invisible Man’s range.

Just what the hell happened back there?

He just flooded the area with his presence and somehow they all began peeing themselves in fear?

He reached out with his TK and “knocked” on the New York Sanctum’s wards for a lack of a better word. He had learned how to do that ever since his spatial awareness began showing him the ward structure of the sanctum. 

He still couldn’t read worth a damn but it was a start and someday, hopefully, he hoped to do magic with it. I mean, it was magic. Who doesn’t dream of wielding magic?

The doors opened on their own and once Master Drumm saw that there was no one on the front door, he sighed in disappointment and went back inside, to the drawing book he had left for him.

Once he saw the question he had pre-scribbled for him, he sighed once again and scribbled something next to his question.

“No,” Was the answer to the question was - Has the Ancient One returned?

Oh well, he thought to himself while delivering another round of groceries to Bruce’s apartment. She had to come back soon because he could see Bruce fraying at the edges, the longer he lived all alone in that apartment. He could not afford a Hulk incident in a civilian area, that would just be disastrous for everyone involved. 

Maybe he could try and move Bruce to the underground tunnel.

Nah, he couldn't do that now, not after having him moved to a cozy apartment, that could kill the man. Plus, it was not fair to do that to him.

He expected SHIELD to reach out to him soon enough, once they got over their fear that he was somehow terrorizing their agents for fun.

That conversation was going to be very awkward, considering he did make over a dozen of their agents tremble in fear of him.

He would have to negotiate with them the terms of Bruce’s arrest because there was no way Ross was going to let this go and once he came into the city for Bruce, guns blazing, he would have all the grounds to just bend his guns and evict him from his city, consequences be damned.

He would have to make preparations for that eventuality as well because—

His thoughts came to a halt as he sensed something truly interesting.

Betty fucking Ross was in a cab, coming into the city. Judging by the distressed look on her face, she was probably here looking for Bruce but how did she find him anyway?

Maybe Ross tracked Bruce before he could be hidden?

Either way, he needed faster responses from people, dammit.

Either from the Ancient One or Fury because things were about to turn a lot more hectic and more importantly….fun.

Ah, it had been so boring without some action and as much as he loathed the idea of collateral damage, he also had no entertainment these past year or so. 

He would make sure that Bruce is out of the city the second he starts turning Green but the drama from SHIELD and Ross coming for Bruce would be oh so worth it.