Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don't mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP.
The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 46 [May 2010]
–Axle Riddle–
Hmm, this was going to be tricky.
He was looking over the plans for the Stark Expo and found, much to his chagrin, that he would not be able to exert enough force to actually destroy all the mechs that Vanko would send after Tony.
No, at most, he would be able to inconvenience them, using subtle applications of his power. Now, the only frame of reference he had was the Stark suit that Jarvis was remotely piloting the day Tony came to meet him at his office and that thing didn't have much in terms of what could be exploited by applying the most minimal of forces.
So, it might be that Hammer stuff would be wildly lower specced than one of Tony's suits and that stands to reason, considering Hammer Industries' reputation and history, but he couldn't exactly take that risk there.
The expo was in September, so he had just over three months to maximise his range as much as possible, increase the load of his powers, and train the seven hulks to help with the rescue operations.
Oh yeah, the good thing was that the expo, the entire expo was within his range, even the fringe areas with all the warehousing. So, the worries were not if he could cover all of the Expo, the worries were if he could do something worth a damn.
The hulks were a good option, they were varied, they had unique powers, were human looking so the crowds wouldn't panic but they just had the strength and not the mobility and sheer area of effect that he did.
Randall didn't have the operations set up so that they could hack into satellites or something to track everything happening in the expo so they could give real time updates to the rest of the team, allowing them to do their jobs better.
Then, as if a metaphorical light bulb lit over his head, his eyebrows rose as another idea formed in his head.
He hurriedly began downloading the expo map that was so graciously provided to anybody with an internet connection by Stark himself. He looked through the entire thing and was satisfied that it should not be too complicated to cover the entire thing with his powers.
Sure, stopping the mechs themselves should be out of his capacity, especially if he was doing something else at the same time, but getting people out of the way should be much much easier.
He could already see multiple underground levels with a single entrance that would be perfect to stash people and keep them safe inside it, all the while the other Hulks would destroy the other robots.
And if some Arc Reactors and drone samples managed to disappear from the rubble of the expo, well, it was not as if someone would miss the literal trash that Hammer and Vanko were going to peddle to the US Government.
Stark might notice, and SHIELD might notice as well but what were they going to do? Demand compensation from him?
Well, he will see to it when that happens.
Now that they only had three months of preparation time, it was time to see if he could do what he had thought of.
If he could feasibly achieve granting flight to all the seven Hulks at the same time, well, it would become far too easy to stop Vannko before he caused any real damage.
Sure, in the movies, they didn't show if anybody actually died or not but even if he considered the best case scenario and hoped that no one died, the glass shards from that huge auditorium being shredded by machine gun bullets from the drones alone would have caused multiple minor if not major injuries.
Sheesh, he couldn't even begin to think of the check that Stark Industries probably had to give to the victims of the attack. Well, he wagered that Sueing Hammer Industries for all its worth would have covered that.
Anywho, he had hoped for a quieter year, so the Stark Expo being in Queens thing completely slipped out of his mind. He had to even look out for the young Peter Parker who would be first introduced during the expo as well.
Might as well make sure that Uncle Ben doesn't die here as well. Sure, doing that, in all of Marvel Continuity, had had some major consequences, most of them not good but he didn't think that it was okay on his part to let an excellent man die just because his nephew, all but son, Peter Parker would grow up to become one of the greatest heroes of all time.
Sure, Peter did more good as SpiderMan than he would do as regular old scrawny Peter Parker but what would it say about him if he knowingly let Peter's father figure die?
Who-Okay, that just sent chills down his spine.
Maybe getting into a potential enmity with the Spider Man would not be a good idea for his continued good health.
Yeah, he mentally noted down to make some arrangements to have the Parker family moved into Manhattan, or if not, then as close to Manhattan as possible.
Now that that thing was sorted out, the spooky encounter with someone, most probably Madame Web, not counting…
"Randall," He called out using his badass voice in the house they were all crashing in. He had dug a hole straight through the basement of the house, into the subterranean cave that he had built for them as a base of operations.
Once again, a Russian Billionaire owned the house. The Billionaire doesn't ask any questions, just completes his request and he can live risk free in the wealthiest neighbourhood in the wealthiest country on the planet, without having to worry constantly about someone about to kill him.
Apparently, just being out and about without any hint of worry of an assassination plot was something that the Billionaire valued enough to complete any of his requests without question.
Billionaires should lead dramatic lives. Assassination attempts.
He scoffed to himself before refocusing on the house that the Nulks were living in. Watching them all scramble to wake up Randall who himself was so lost in the dream world that eleven his admitted badass but still very distinct voice was unable to rouse him, was cathartic.
In the end, Samuel got a mischievous glint in his eye as he went to the washroom and came with a bucket of water and just poured cold water on top of Randall's face, startling him awake.
"What? What? I am awake!" Randall exclaimed as he woke up and furiously tried to get the water off his face. Sometimes, he wondered exactly how comic book physics and biology worked because Randall, along with all six of his brothers, were borderline bulletproof.
Sure, Randall theorized that even Missiles might have a hard time against them, save for some armour piercing rounds, but he was not so daft as to declare them completely bulletproof.
That was the path of arrogance and that was how they got one of their teammates killed. Though, that possibility was pretty much negated by how their powers worked. Sure, for the power to work at its best, they would all have to be pretty much in sight of each other but even the weaker usage of their powers, which allowed them to live, without sharing each other's strength was more than enough.
"Yo! THe big guy's calling for you. Wakey wakey!" Samuel cackled as he slapped the top of Randall's head, creating a dull boom in the bedroom, as all six of Randall's brothers exited his bedroom.
"Uh, can you give me five minutes?" Randall asked out loud and he obliged. He might be a slave driver but he was not going to deprive people of their basic rights and dignity. That path led to a rebellion from his minions and that would just be tedious to handle.
"Look up Stark Expo and memorise everything about it. We are expecting an attack on the Expo. Figure out which one of your brothers can handle being thrown about through the air by my powers. We are going to need a wrecking ball and one of you hard skinned ones is going to be that," He declared as Randall booted up his makeshift workstation in his bedroom.
He said workstation but it was just a monitor with a hardline connection down to the subterranean base. Man, digging with his powers was a piece of cake. Especially in his domain where he could exert his full power with impeccable control as well.
Looking at the cost of building subways, he should charge the city a fraction of the cost to build those tunnels, at scale, so that the people of New York could have reliable and cheap public transportation to everywhere.
Though looking at the state of public transportation in not so densely packed cities, he had to shake his head and sign in mourning of the potential of public transportation in those cities.
Alas, the car lobbies won and now the government was just printing highways everywhere.
Traffic due to more cars with only a single person inside them? Just build another lane.
But reduce the dependency on cars? NOooooo.
If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.