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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 35 [December 2008]
–Axle Riddle–
Now, let's see what the love birds have been up to, for all the time he had left them alone and even given them privacy, deliberately not scanning that area.
It had been hours, their reunion must be done by now.
He had facilitated that meeting for one reason and one reason only. The warning that the Ancient One gave him still rang in his ears. Apparently, something to do with the fraying mental health of Bruce Banner, and that allows something else to descend on their plane. That something else was dangerous enough to spook even the Ancient One, she went as far as to disbar Bruce from getting help from Kamar Taj.
And he thought that was their whole shtick. Not turning away anyone that would turn up at their doorstep, looking for help. That was probably how Kaecilius was not turned away, given the chance to climb the ranks of the MAsters of the Mystic Arts, despite the Ancient One always knowing that the chances of Kaecilius turning to the dark were high.
Despite knowing that the person would be eventually responsible for her own death, she allowed him in and helped him recover, at least somewhat, he hesitated to ask her, just what was in Banner to stop her from helping him.
So, with the first plan out of the way, he had to resort to Plan B. That was getting some help from one of his billionaire buddies, or rather, billionaire minion now that he was staying under this protection, to locate and escort Betty Ross to Bruce and hoping that she would be helpful in healing Bruce's psyche.
Because, let me tell you, he might not have the whole mind aspect of the Sage Force, he could tell, even just by looking, that Bruce was not in a healthy state of mind. And not just the, I am tired and this means nothing stage, no, he had passed on to the dangerous "what's the point of living and wants to kill himself" stage.
No, he could not have that. The Bruce in the movies was an incredibly depressed, broken man, and that was just a sad state of affairs for someone with more than enough power, someone who deserved to be treated like royalty, as was the case with most of the galaxy.
Unfortunately, humans, in particular, had the most noteworthy capability of being racist and discriminatory even if death itself stared them right in their face, such was the stubbornness inborn in humans.
It was called the indomitable human spirit and unfortunately, it didn't have any worthiness criteria or anything. Any human with sufficient motivation and the correct mindset, could display the indomitable human spirit and will stop at nothing to achieve their motives, be it good or bad.
So, removing the curtain he had raised around the apartment where Bruce was staying, he tried to peer in and…
Back in his office, he was slowly sipping coffee from his favourite bodega downstairs, a huge mistake in hindsight, when he finally saw the duo, and promptly spit out his coffee, right on his computer. It was a good thing, he had enough granular control to allow the water to spill over away from the computer without it seeming as if he had something to do with it.
God damn, he thought to himself as he violently cut off his powers from that area, something he could do for a while now. Draw an area using his mind and then shut off surveillance in that area.
Now, he had seen many a people engaging in their….fornication, as it came with the job. But the thing was that ever since he gained his second mind, that part was offloaded and he never had to see some dude naked again.
His mistake, he should have expected something like this to happen but hot damn! Apparently, they were missing each other more than he expected, and considering the now enhanced physique of Bruce Banner, even in his base form, he wagered that they would be at it, for quite some time.
His enhanced physique allowed him to not get burnt as some of the coffee had spilled over his T-shirt and since he didn't really like stuffy clothing, he had chosen a T-shirt that was very very slim. That combined with burning hot coffee would have ensured second degree burns on a normal human.
As he was now? It was nothing more than a warm trickle, almost comfortable even. What was not comfortable was the Air Conditioning in the room, which made the shirt stick to his body. Sure, it created an outline of his rock hard abs and he was sure that if he went out of his office looking this like, there would be more than a few catcalls from the ladies at the office, not to mention Sofia….but he was not in the mood for that, maybe later.
Right now, he had to make sure that the city was safe and work on his powers, hoping that Dr. Banner would be done within a few hours, at most.
As he cleaned himself the normal way, considering that Stark was in this very room a scant few hours ago, he thought of the sheer time he had spent in this reality.
It had been over two years since he was thrust into this life and he had to say, he had never really encountered something that stumped him. Sure, he had a couple of close calls but even those could not really be called close calls because of his particular skill set.
He had somewhat neglected his body because aside from his regular weighted workout, he didn't do much to hone his body.
'I should probably look into that' he thought to himself as he opened up his computer and searched Self defense and combat classes in Manhattan, New York.
The first couple of results were immediately discarded on the point of being either too flashy or being just plain wrong, as they were out of Manhattan and well, geo locked man here.
There were a couple of them that looked legit, apparently run by former Military guys, and just as he was about to click on them, he saw something at the edge of the monitor. He casually scrolled down to take a better look and lo and behold, his hand paused as he somehow found himself looking at the listing of the Chikara Dojo, with the face of Colleen wing plastered on the ad.
God damn, he just jinxed himself really hard, didn't he.
The location matched as did the competence. The HAND were a bunch of pansies, way too cowardly to properly face their deaths but they were also very old and skilled. In martial arts, they would probably rank in the top ten on the planet.
That would be the best choice for him. Just that he didn't know if it would be wise to go there to train. After all, the likes of Bokuto or Coleen herself would easily notice his enhanced physique and try to convert him or something.
Well, might as well try and get rid of something that plagues society then. The only reason he must not have gotten this place on his radar was because the Dojo was actually doing good. Coleen ran it and she was actually a kind soul, just in the wrong company.
HAND must have seen the results of doing something wrong in his territory and that must be why he could sense no ninjas in the city. He could see Coleen though and she was on a break? Reading books and all.
He would have to think about it. He might be able to defeat and make sure that somebody stays dead, but he didn't know the method of immortality that he HAND followed.
Did it need an intact corpse? Could they make do with a drop of blood? Was it time sensitive?
Lots of questions and way too few answers, so he was going to stay put at the moment. Might check out the other martial arts classes.
He could strike at them but his limitations meant that they would not make the mistake of coming into the city and certainly, not all at once.
Argh, damn his limitations.
Oh well, he would look into that later on as well. Anyhow their time was limited on this earth because once he was free from this place, theirs, along with multiple other heads, were going to roll, in a spectacularly surprising manner.
*Ring* *Ring*
"Uh, hello, is this the Castle classes for Martial Arts? Yes, I was calling to enquire about self defense classes. For me, yes,"
As he spoke on the phone with the other side, something about the gruff voice and the way of speaking alluded to something. Something tickled at the back of his mind but he couldn't pinpoint it at the time.
"Okay, great. I will see you tomorrow. Thank you," He hung up the call.
He looked up and swung his chair as it spun, creating a warped ceiling. He sometimes liked to do this if he was way too bored to surf the internet as well. Honestly, he was shocked that none of the upper management in the firm had come to meet him because of the rather explosive meeting with Tony Stark. That would have staved off some of the boredom.
Tomorrow, he would have to be careful. Make sure that no one at the Castle classes…..
SHIT!
His chair stopped as he immediately concentrated on the address.
"So that is how it is going to be," He muttered to himself as his shoulders sagged in resignation.
He should have known the universe would throw a curveball his way.
Apparently, the Castle Classes for Martial Arts was run by none other than former NAVY Seal, Frank motherf*cking Castle.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon, for upto 5 extra chapters.
A/N - Regular updates will resume from Monday.