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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 43 [March 2010]
–Axle Riddle–
Hmm, this was nice.
He could see that Maria was not just alive but happy which meant they were probably a whole family, including the kids as well.
It made him sigh in relief because it meant that his presence in the city had had a positive impact on some people's lives. IF Frank Castle could be made into a suburban Dojo instructor while acting lovey dovey with his wife instead of the death machine he becomes in canon, then there was hope.
Hope that he could change things and if he could change something so big, he would most likely change the course of the events that led to the Snap.
He looked on in amusement as he saw the people of his batch filter through the doors, dressed in various costumes that they thought would help them with the mobility of the class.
He didn't even know what he was doing here. He could already lift a car without even straining his muscles, using just his body. That level of strength meant that he would never have to worry about fighting with a baseline human, no matter how well trained they might be.
Sure, technique helps but if he was just plain faster, much faster than his baseline human opponent, no amount of technique would help them, now would it?
And yet, he found himself stagnating when it came to his physical fighting prowess. He had reached some sort of upper limit with his Telekinesis as well, mostly owing to limited ways of practicing it.
He still worked on increasing his range though, so that was slow going as well but it was advancing and that was important.
He didn't have a lick of idea when it came to hand to hand combat despite watching Frank do it hundreds of times in his Dojo. Yeah, he had been spying on Frank Castle when he came to know that he had opened a Dojo right here in Manhattan.
Apparently, he was the sole owner of the entire building he was in right now. That was some generational wealth right there, especially with the current property rates in Manhattan.
The thing with his second mind was that he could do things autonomously, without any conscious input from his side, once he had set the programming in the beginning. He had set it so that all violent crimes, collisions, and natural calamities are avoided without him even noticing it, even the ones that are outside Manhattan.
There were limitations of course, in the creativity of the solutions. That creativity was mostly required only outside Manhattan, because of the force constraint. Inside Manhattan, his second mind could uproot buildings with ease so stopping people and cars was an easy thing.
That was why he had to take over whenever there was an emergency at the edges of his range. That was how he had saved Frank Castle from those gunmen, only at that time he had no idea that it was Frank Castle whom he was saving.
His curiosity as to why such a force was deployed to kill a family drove him towards identifying the man and that led to him scanning the tag Frank had on him and that was how he realised that he was in the middle of the situation that would drive Frank to become the Punisher and kill hundreds of criminals in his one-man war against crime.
His response was not even in question as he immediately pulled both the kids into a nearby manhole cover, and then gave Frank all the tools he needed to do his job. Once Maria was secured, he watched as Frank rained holy fire on all the assailants, even sustaining two broken ribs because he could only slow down some of the bullets that were about to hit him centre mass.
After that, Frank drove off with his family, once the emergency services arrived of course. After that, he went out of his range so he completely forgot about it. He had no idea that Frank had bought an entire building in Manhattan, man he must have raided some drug lord for all his life's savings for Frank to be able to afford an entire building.
He had then never come up in any incident. Nothing special had happened in that area and he never really focused on Manhattan anymore as his second mind was more than enough to control everything and if something did happen, like multiple lives being snuffed out despite the second mind's efforts, only then he was alerted.
Since nothing like that happened, he had no idea that Frank was living here and running a Dojo of all things.
Now that he was here, he could see that life inside Manhattan had been good for Frank, judging by the little weight he had put on compared to before. The building was in good condition as well, having multiple tenants, so he must be getting a good amount of rent as well.
Well, glad to see that Frank Castle, one of canon's punching bags had his life turned around.
'All right people, take your positions, stand in marked spaces, and begin with your introductions. Today is your first day so we'll be taking it easy today." Frank began with an actual smile on his face.
That was….unexpected.
He stood in his position, surrounded by clueless people in their 20s, some middle aged people as well as one old lady. Wonder why she needs self defense classes at this age.
Frank didn't bat an eye as he began instructing the diverse group of people in his class, once the introductions were done.
The movements came easily to him as he did the motions, of course, while being under tons of weight by the subtle application of his powers. He had some problems in the beginning with blood flow because of the weight that was being applied on his body from all sides, as if the very atmosphere was pressing on him from all sides, but that was solved now.
The first time he did that without warning, turning off the pressure directly, some of his blood vessels had burst apart, knocking him out for hours. Fortunately, there was no brain damage….that he knew of, and now his blood vessels had come back stronger.
He had to do only a couple more times before his body didn't have an absurdly negative reaction to the pressure difference.
God, he really was becoming discount Goku, wasn't he?
The first session came to an end, with a small stretching session. Well, Frank really was a very good instructor, judging by the way complete laymen could do some stuff with a fluid motion just at the end of a 2-hour session.
He was currently helping the old lady stretch properly while telling her what movements to avoid, as most of the participants began leaving the Dojo, him following behind. He could feel Frank's gaze on him as he left the Dojo, right up until he left his field of view.
He grinned as he realised that Frank must have felt something. His instincts had not rusted yet, that's good.
He will make a good addition to the team then. Still, it was way too early to decide that. He would consult with the team before finalising the offer that he would give to Frank.
Oh yeah, he had a team now.
An actual superpowered team now.
"Samuel, keep an eye on him and his family," He used a Bruce Banner invention, [Patent Pending] that allowed him to easily communicate with his team members. It was a small pad that was hypersensitive to pressure, only the pressure pads were covered with a layer of hard plastic, making it impossible for anybody else to use it but himself. He applied pressure on specific points to convey his message, allowing Samuel, one of the Eight (Nine if you count Bruce) members of his team.
He was one of the Hulks who was blessed with immense power but more importantly, immense flexibility. His body could contort in ways that would leave gymnasts weeping with envy.
He was also the stealthiest of the bunch, capable of reaching anywhere without much effort, the best suited for surveillance.
Well, Randall could do it as well, what with his invisibility but the man was such a wuss, afraid of heights. He was adept with a computer, his skills only increasing after gaining his powers so he was the resident Computer Man of the team.
This was the first official mission he had assigned to any member of the team, and it was pretty easy too.
He did it mostly as a test to see how they would work together. He expected them to work through the mission like a breeze because they were all brothers.
Let's see, he thought to himself as he hailed a cab to get to his coffee. He had a hot shower waiting for him there.
So what if he couldn't act out of New York until the Invasion came? He could create a team right now which could help him act in far off areas, as long as they were trained properly. Once he could go out with them though, they would remain as his replacement in Manhattan and New York so that the city doesn't immediately fall into chaos and crime.
At Least for a while, until things stabilised once NYPD took over.
Things were finally looking up and he couldn't wait for Loki's stupid face to enter his range so he could punch his lights out. He hadn't decided if he wanted to do that with his fist or his mind though.
A question for later, then….
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