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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 71 [October 2010]
Manhattan
–Axle Riddle–
All in all, quite a fruitful meeting, he must say. POTUS was not like the usual snivelling politician he had expected him to be. He was firm when he needed to be, and compliant in the face of a force that could level blocks on its own, i.e., the Invisible Man.
What a stupid name that is but alas, the media gave it to him and unfortunately for most people, the media is the one that runs the things that everybody's eyeballs are attached to nowadays.
He could see Fury pacing about in the warehouse, torn between going back to the safehouse to check in on the progress of the POTUS meeting and staying at the warehouse to monitor the work that was actually important.
Stark was absent but Dr.Banner, Dr.Cho, and Randall (doctorate pending) were working in tandem on something that would undoubtedly be the greatest medical invention of the year, at least when it came to the very niche field of natural Gamma pregnancies. According to his rough estimates, ones that have been corroborated by the good doctors, Betty had almost 40 days left until the pregnancy became too dangerous for her body to sustain.
He didn't know what she was thinking, being all carefree, gorging on anything and everything in her sight as she waited for Bruce to come back from work. The stereotypical role of a housewife, unless you count the housewife being an accomplished doctor herself and growing the strongest baby that would ever be born.
He was currently on a walk outside the city to get himself a Taco, he was somehow craving them these days. One of the few foods that Betty has not yet set her sights on. Due to her sensitive situation, privacy has been suspended for Betty Ross as long as the baby is not born. So, he had to witness the, although quite natural, unfortunate scene of Betty feasting on anything and everything, all at once, all by herself.
Bruce was obviously unable to say no to her and they already had an unlimited budget that was sponsored by the various billionaires that stayed under his protection.
Though, he did have to boot one of the newer billionaires that had taken refuge in the city for some reason, and was trying to take advantage of the housekeeping staff that was working in his penthouse. Apparently, the young Russian scion thought that things worked the same as his hometown here and was putting his disgusting paws on the housekeeper.
Well, safe to say that his exit from Manhattan was swift and precise. Precisely straight into the most filled dumpster he could find, which was not easy anymore because of the regular cleaning drives he initiated monthly now.
Regular occurrences of rich people being schooled made sure that most rich people in Manhattan behaved, no matter how rich they were. It served as a reminder that the one who was keeping them safe and sound in the city was also the one who could instantaneously serve an eviction notice and then act on it, with zero regard for their so-called power.
When he first began, he used to do daily cleaning of every piece of garbage across the city, to make sure that the city remained clean but then he realised that he was taking the sweepers' jobs from them. So, he made sure to only do thorough cleaning once a month, gave them the day off on that particular day of the month, and let them work the rest of the month.
The same couldn't be said for the subway though, since the subway had to be cleaned the moment it entered Manhattan. The things he had seen and had to clean from the subway stations were appalling, to say the least.
Did people not know that there were public toilets in New York that they could use? And it was not as if he could stop them from doing that.
He shook his head, trying to get rid of the intrusive thoughts, and focused on the delicious taco that arrived in front of him.
He rubbed his hands in glee, and dove into the Taco, making sure to enjoy it.
Food was one of the few things that still drove him, you know. Sex was good and all but due to the lack of enhanced females around the city, he couldn't really perform the activity without hurting the other party.
Times like these made him remember She-Hulk. She was enhanced and also very active if he remembered correctly. But even he was not that pent up to let the MCU atrocity of the She-Hulk arrive in his life.
No, that honor remained to the producers and directors of that godforsaken series.
Back in the warehouse, he could see that Bruce and the others had taken a lunch break. Aww, Bruce was facetimeting his wife as they both had lunch, just different sizes of servings on both sides.
Honestly, Betty might be enjoying the eat as much as you can part of the pregnancy more than she or Bruce realises. Her body was metabolising so many calories that she could eat and eat, and it wouldn't be enough, according to the radiation that she was emitting.
Bruce and the others were confused as to where all that energy was coming from because no matter how much food Betty ate, it would not be anywhere close enough. That is where his past lore came to mind.
He informed them that Betty was not in any danger, at least from all her energy being sucked by the baby to be born because the baby was generating its own energy, just like Bruce does when he generates his own mass and continues to regenerate without absorbing an ounce of energy or food from his surroundings.
The explanation had not mollified any of them but without subjecting Bruce to the experience of turning into the Hulk repeatedly, under lab conditions, they could not bring anything to the table that could disprove his theory.
They had scheduled the vibranium fibre production for today, once his meeting with the President was done and while he was ready, Tony Stark, as usual, was fashionably late.
Well, they were significantly ahead of schedule anyway. So, he could afford to slowly savour the delicious explosion of flavours in this Taco.
God, Mexican food was so delicious.
Huh, random Beautiful Agent was back. Well, he hoped she had her brain checked out, she did have a habit of fainting at the most inopportune times.
_____xx_____
Random HYDRA base somewhere
–Random HYDRA Analyst 1–
God, he hated this job.
"HAIL-HYDRA"
He was overworked and underpaid, the colleagues were unpleasant, and most of all, performance reviews resulted in actual bloodbaths.
"HAIL-HYDRA"
If he had any choice, he would not have joined this cult disguised as a company. Alas, he was fresh out of college, no place was hiring without experience and he desperately needed to work. He just needed a chance to prove himself, and his skills so that he could eventually move on to better companies.
"HAIL-HYDRA"
Like Stark Industries, Rand Enterprises, Pym Foundation, and more.
It was not even remote, which might have justified the low pay and extra workload but no, they needed every one of their little zealots to be in the office so that they could monitor everyone and reward good behaviour. This cold, damp, underlit dungeon of an Office.
"HAIL-HYDRA"
Ha! Like good behaviour was anything other than licking their master's assholes.
He didn't even care that HYDRA as an organisation was somehow still active. He just had to keep his head down for a few more years, state this experience on his resume, and then get back to work in the actual industry, where he didn't have to maintain the infrastructure that had to be hidden as games for them to actually work.
"HAIL-HYDRA"
Yes, yes, he loved HYDRA, said the average red eyed, energy drink infused, computer monkey while being continuously subjected to the horrendous voice that kept saying….
"HAIL-HYDRA"
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