A/N - Updates about my demise have been greatly exaggerated!
So, I had a little oopsie moment with my laptop and it spent about 3 days in the service centre before it was repaired right in front of me in little more than 30 minutes. The pressure of me standing there, just waiting for my laptop must have gotten to the poor guy.
Anywho, let the updates BEGIN!!
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 70 [October 2010]
Manhattan
–Axle Riddle–
"Uhh," His mind faltered as he looked at the eager and genuinely curious expression on the President's face. He did not know if this was some attempt at information gathering because they had exhausted all their other means or if it was just genuinely nerdiness that the President was infected with.
Guess he would never know.
"So, my mind doesn't work in normal ways, as you can probably guess. I have multiple "partitions" you could call them, working on different things. So, they are still a part of me but are fragmented enough that they can carry out their own tasks,"
"Fascinating. So your mind essentially creates dumbed down bots that do the job that is assigned to them and just that job, nothing more. What is your information retrieval mechanism because I believe that handling all that information, let alone memorising it, would be fatal, even for someone like you?" The President asked him and he was taken aback at the fairly technical and on point question.
He looked for any hidden speakers, comms, or anything of the sort that the President could use to communicate with his analytical team but he found none. So either he had memorised all these questions or he was genuinely interested.
He didn't know which answer he preferred.
"With all due respect, I don't believe we are here to discuss the mechanisms of my powers, some of which even I don't fully understand yet," He interrupted the flow of the conversation and watched as the President seemingly blinked in realisation and straightened up.
"Ah, yeah, you are right, obviously. Now, as I have said before, you have to understand the sheer impact you make on entire cities so please give us a heads up before you up and leave Manhattan, so that we can double-no triple the law enforcement presence in the city," He said before stowing away the Whiskey glass, along with coaster.
"Ofcourse, even that might not be enough," He muttered later on, probably referring to the triple manpower required to maintain some semblance of law and order in the city once the Invisible Man is gone.
"Very well. I promise you that when or if I have to leave Manhattan, even for a short period of time, the government will be informed. Now, I have some thoughts of my own that I wanted to share with you."
"Please, by all means,"
"Very well, it is on the topic of the Enhanced,"
He carefully watched as the President's face went blank at the mention of the Enhanced. He knew that this was a sensitive topic, one that was very favourable for the President to ignore, because by the time it became too big to ignore, he would long be out of the White House and enjoying his paid off retirement on some tropical island.
"I was afraid that this would come up so I have made some prior preparations," POTUS said before he opened one of the drawers and removed a set of files, and threw them on the desk.
"Those are all the reports that Ross sent his superiors who sent them to me when we were first informed that Ross had already moved on to human experiments and actually had one that had escaped," He chuckled sardonically.
"You will find that nowhere in the reports, was it mentioned that the experiment was a complete accident, a repeat of which is almost impossible, and the now fugitive was none other than Bruce Banner who was being hunted down like an animal,"
He gained a thoughtful look back in his apartment but then shook his head. POTUS was lying. There was no way he did not know, or at least Ross' superiors did not know the extent to which Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross would go, to complete his experiments. And the thing about the manhunt would have been more believable if all of Bruce's civilian identities, and accounts, were not frozen.
As things stood, he had two choices in his hands.
Call out POTUS on his blatant lie, and then watch as any chance of an amicable partnership is washed away.
OR.
Go along with the POTUS' act and then get some benefits in return.
The choice was easy.
"I understand. But that still doesn't make it alright. If Bruce hadn't found his way into Manhattan, he would have been hunted down by the Army who, by the way, would not have been successful, at all. I know how much power Bruce has and he could, with ease, dismantle even Tony Stark's suit, let alone anything that the Army could throw at him," His paper avatar said.
Before the POTUS could get a word in, he interrupted, "I want a full pardon for Bruce Banner as well as the Hulk if the Hulk is registered as a separate entity, to avoid any future pitfalls. Also, the seven brothers, as I told you beforehand, need official citizenship. I will have the details sent to Fury later on but please make sure that they at least have some official protection,"
POTUS looked like he was about to reject when he finally made his statement.
"Otherwise, I would have to intervene myself and I am sure that nobody in the government wants to go against the combined influence of all the Billionaires I have in Manhattan, along with the earned enmity of myself,"
He watched as POTUS paled and then shakily nodded.
"Very well. You will have both of these requests granted by the end of the month. I will personally see to it that everything is fast tracked,"
"Now, onto even more stressful matters. About the baby that is currently in—-Ack…"
The entire hotel shook as he made his presence known to everybody nearby. Cars began slowing down, their engines working against an inexplicable pressure, all the Secret Service Agents who were rushing inside felt as if they were wading through water instead of air as they felt their breaths getting constricted.
The table in front of his paper avatar began cracking, creating fractures on the surface of it.
Then, as if the pressure was not there at all, it disappeared. He watched as the Secret Service began tumbling into the room, the cars on the street jerking forward as the pressure on the car disappeared.
POTUS was completely shaken as was evidenced by his pale face and sweaty demeanour but he was made of much sterner stuff than he had expected because he just waved off the Secret Service out of the office. As soon as the office doors locked up, "
"The baby that is in Betty Ross will remain just as it is now, out of reach of anybody that would wish it harm. In fact, anybody who will not see the baby as just a baby, will never be allowed to lay their eyes on him, no matter who it is." He said sternly because the thought of the government stooges exploiting even babies for their own agenda disgusted him to no end.
He realised that he went a bit too far today but he had to make sure that they knew the consequences of doing something that would lead to Bruce rampaging all over. He was not kidding when he told FUry about Bruce actively hamstringing the Hulk from killing too many people.
No, if the WORLD WAR HULK scenario ever came to be, he would just have to join in on the suicidal fight against the Strongest There is.
"You have to understand that as things stand now, Bruce Banner, or rather, the Hulk can be somewhat controlled, restrained. But if something were to happen to someone Bruce loved, be it Betty or the baby, then all bets are off. The Hulk turns into something that you could not even dream of. Capable of shattering islands with a single footstep, parting clouds with a single swipe of his hand, and more importantly, leaving behind just molten irradiated places even if he merely walks through the area,"
The more he detailed the consequences of Bruce turning into his most dangerous form, the paler the President got. The same must be true for all the people listening in on this conversation.
He'd hate to have to remind another set of people once again.
"..I-Is all that true?"
"Do you want to risk finding out?" He countered back, knowing the answer.
"Very well. I must admit, the meeting is going in a different manner than I had expected it to,"
He scoffed back in his room, like no shit Sherlock.
"It is against my nature to let innocents be harmed and babies are the most innocent of them all, so forgive me if I don't allow anybody from the government, the same government who was about to chase Bruce into oblivion, anywhere close to Bruce's child,"
"Still, you have to understand why everyone is concerned right? Fury's report just told us that the baby's nature is "undocumented" and he cannot say anything until he has more information but I know that the Baby will most likely be born enhanced, due to the gamma energy,"
Of Course, the man has spies in SHIELD. Someone high up as well.
"I have also heard about the complications and all the resources that are being poured into it. I can have all of the scientists we have on hand take a look at –"
"I don't think that will be necessary, Mr.President. Between Stark, my own team, Bruce Banner, and Helen Cho, along with the support staff from SHIELD, I believe we have everything sorted out." He refused any help from them, knowing the taint that would come from it.
He had already informed Randall and Stark about it, no data from the final stages will make it out of that warehouse, save for what was already stored in their brains.
"Very well, I can see that you will not budge on this. Let's move on to something else that I am sure you have a lot to talk about,"
"The official inclusion of Enhanced people in the workforce,"
Hmm. His paper avatar leaned forward, to showcase his interest.
The President smiled as he began speaking.
"So, I know that getting the public to recognise…."
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