Chapter 39 : Sus peeps! (Patreon)

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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 39 [December 2009]

–Axle Riddle–

Hmm.

He hummed to himself as he watched, with his spatial awareness, the energies surrounding Bruce Banner and the mystery person who had now taken root inside one of the underground tunnels that crisscrossed most of the city.

He had noticed the energy aura before but had not looked too deep into it, for some reason. Now, as he compared the two auras of both the people, he could immediately tell the difference.

Bruce’s aura, for one, was not as rough, for lack of a better term, as the mystery Hulk’s was. Especially since he was now living with his better half, his edges had mellowed out and his aura was pretty stable now. Nothing like the jagged mess he had sensed the first day he had encountered him.

The Mystery Hulk, because who else could have almost the same aura with a similar body composition as Bruce, was now resting in the tunnel but not doing anything special.

He must be waiting for something but what? He was quite deep into his range and he could not sense anything else coming in his direction or anyone with heavy weaponry, or more Hulks as well. Nothing of note was happening in any of the areas that were under his observation.

He made sure to suspend the privacy privileges that Bruce and Betty had and was now actively monitoring them. It helped that it was the morning so they were not doing anything that would make him feel single.

Though, the scene of Bruce reading his notes and drinking coffee while Betty was cooking pancakes in the kitchen, was more than enough to raise a bout of jealousy deep in his heart.

He tried to look deeper into the Hulk’s body, to see if he could find anything interesting inside but apparently, that feature was pretty much limited and he could not use the microscopic scanning that far from his location.

God, he hated that restriction. Maybe the Hulk had something inside his body? The blood that flows through Bruce Banner is markedly different from Betty Ross’, even without the whole other DNA in there. It was as if his powers registered the blood of enhanced beings as different.

He never really got the chance to ask Bruce if there was ever another experiment that failed, before the one that turned him into the Hulk. He, for one, did not want an army of Hulks that were now under the command of Ross because there was some failed experiment out there whose blood could be used to mass produce cheap Gamma powered super soldiers. 

If it were true though, it would not have been silent. Noise would be generated over something like that and he did not see any notice from Fury to be careful or something.

For one, he had already sent the message to SHIELD, and while chances of Fury hearing about it immediately were quite nil, Fury would not have anything to blame on him once he inevitably damaged “government property”.

This clearly enhanced person would probably count as property to the concerned people, the constitution meaning nothing to them considering that there was no amendment inside it that could facilitate the consideration of enhanced people as “people”.

In a bigoted society, they could just as easily be labelled as “cattle” or “subhumans”. That was somewhat pessimistic and dark but considering the sheer history of humans labelling other humans as “others” and then committing atrocities on the other side, without flinching and justifying it as being done to “things” instead of “people”, he had to consider that angle as well.

Oh, well, there is nothing he could do about it right now. That was a long political uphill battle that he had no interest in. He had much bigger and more importantly, much more immediate concerns, like Thanos and the humans themselves.

He still couldn’t believe the balls on Ross if he had the guts to send someone to the city, and for what? He had no hopes of getting Bruce back unless he threatened him with Betty and as far as he knew, Betty had no lost love for her father.

Honestly, this smelled like something else but he didn’t know what. Fury must have done something that stopped Ross from even coming close to New York, for over a year and now, suddenly, Ross was sending in some bunged up experiment.

Something was fishy and unless and until the discount Hulk came in his range. Well, deeper into his range, because as soon as he reached the peripheral areas around Manhattan, he would have enough leverage to immobilise him and if not that, then at least catapult him into Manhattan’s air space, where he could, very easily, hold him mid air, or do a number of other things to completely neutralise him, like stopping the airflow to his body or just tweaking his muscles, bones, veins, and even his organs, slightly, shocking his body into shutting down.

Honestly, he should not have read all those medical books. His mind absorbed that like a sponge and now he had a bunch of really creative, really easy, ways to kill or disable people without even breaking a sweat.

Though he had a hunch that the Hulk’s regenerative factor might pose a hurdle in that but he knew that even that has its own limits, especially since they would not be, essentially, gods, allowing them to harness the power of an entire dimension.

Theoretically, the Hulk could go on forever, without ever taking an ounce of energy from this universe but the other Hulks could not. That was why they had limits while the Hulk did not. He was taking in energy from some other plane, for which he was the owner. 

He did have a line straight to Pepper Potts because major shareholder, but he didn’t know if involving Tony in this was a good idea or not. Especially with the situation being as it was, he didn’t know if Tony’s involvement would light the powder keg or if Tony would even involve himself, given his past connections with the Army.

He was watching as the Random Beautiful Agent scrambled to secure the evidence and call home but after that, she was just there, sitting ducks. Probably waiting for some orders from high above but he had kept his message purposefully short and vague.

So her immediate superior would have no idea of what to do with her now. Only Fury should know IF this is Ross’ doing anyway.

Besides, if it wasn’t him then-

He stopped midway in chopping the onion, as six other people, with the exact same aura around them, entered the city as well, all in the back of the same truck, huddled together. His eyes narrowed as he immediately abandoned the thoughts of cooking for lunch as he went into the living room, put on the headphones, and let his favourite music drop as he leaned back on the sofa and closed his eyes, focusing completely on the six new dangerous people that had just entered his range.

The people were heading straight to Manhattan. He could see the driver but he didn’t seem….okay. He was shivering for one, despite having a coat on him. 

Sadly, he could not check temps in an area using his powers but he could wager, judging by the air coming out of the blower, that the person was cold?

The truck travelled through twists and turns, without rhyme or rhythm but he could see that they were inching closer and closer to the first one who had entered the city and was waiting for them, apparently, in the sewer.

HE watched as the truck ran right above the first Hulk, which somehow woke him up as he started running right below the truck. He was pretty heavy too, judging by the cracks he made as he ran as fast as he could.

At some point, the truck stopped at a signal but the one running underground made no move of getting out of the sewer and into the truck.

From there onwards, as fast as they could, all seven of them made their way to Manhattan. He watched with bated breaths, just itching to take action as they were now within a distance, where he could just take ahold of them and then throw them into Manhattan, if not hurt them right there.

But he waited because they had not done anything wrong, or illegal. There is a distinction there but right now was not the time to go into that.

The driver was twitching increasingly as he came closer to Manhattan. By now, he had scanned the truck in its entirety a hundred times over, and yet, he could not find anything wrong. No bombs, no liquid, no solid, no sus artefact that he could not identify, not even guns and pistols. That was the elementary stuff and these guys didn’t even have that.

So, the question was, why were they here?

He watched as they were headed straight into Manhattan, only to turn at the second last turn and head towards one of the soup kitchens.

What could they want there? 

The kitchens were just a place with food and homeless people. Nothing noteworthy enough for a team of enhanced people to head there. 

The driver’s twitchiness increased, to the point that he was amazed at the scene of him driving properly, if at all.

He watched with bated breaths as they reached the parking lot of the soup kitchen, the driver letting all the six people out of the back of the truck before driving off, just as twitchy as before.

The seventh person was waiting right around the corner or rather, in the sewer right under the corner.

He flooded the entire soup kitchen with his presence, solidifying everything and covering the people with a small imperceptible shield that should be more than capable of deflecting debris from hitting them. Some of them probably realised something was wrong but his fine control over his powers, especially boosted by his Second Mind, meant that most of them didn’t even realise as they were covered in a layer of energy that was almost bulletproof.

The six people also probably realised that something was wrong, considering that the one in the front stopped mid step before continuing. He could see no weapons on them and yet, he could not shake off the feeling of worry as the six people, dressed in rags, stepped into the soup kitchen.

Most of the staff in those places were used to seeing people in less than optimal clothing and condition so none of them batted an eye as these six people entered the kitchen. 

They were directed to a changing area where they were given clean, if not a bit worn out, clothing. The difference was night and day as they stepped out of the changing room and into the kitchen, where they were handed a plate and told to go in line to receive their food.

He was hyper focused on their movements, even the slightest of twitch and he would have them thrown into the East River before drowning them until they were fit for interrogation.

They dutifully received their food and sat on the rows of tables arranged for all the people to eat. The soup kitchen was frequented by not just the homeless but some low income people. The food in the place was made properly, with hygiene, and was nutritious enough so some gig workers made the soup kitchen their dinner place once or twice a week.

Honestly, he didn't mind it that much, considering that the billionaires residing in Manhattan took it upon themselves to donate plenty of money to the venture when they found out that the Invisible Man was the one who had pushed for the formation of these places.

They probably thought that doing so would bring them in his good graces.

Well, as long as it kept the kitchens stocked and staffed, he was fine with it.

Still, he could not shake the itch of just grabbing one of them and then bringing them back over the river, just to scan them down to the smallest scale he could scan.