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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 72 [October 2010]
Manhattan
–Axle Riddle–
"Now, where is Tony?" His paper avatar asked Bruce and the other gathered scientists as they stood in front of a furnace type machine that was actually twice as deep underground as it was above it. There was a chimney attached to it, which blew smoke into one of the prepared containers.
He did not want to pollute the air himself when he had advocated for clean air many times. Rapid advancement should not come at the cost of the environment that made it possible in the first place.
"Jarvis says that he is on his way, probably stuck somewhere in traffic. You know how LA traffic is," Bruce said absentmindedly as he continued to look through the specs of the monstrosity built in front of them for the hundredth time.
"Uh-huh, and would you mind telling me who has a suit capable of flight and also has private jets to store said suit?" He asked Bruce who just waved at the paper avatar.
Wow, people really had lost their fear of him. He didn't know if that was a good sign or not.
In the meantime, on the other side of the equation was Betty who was laughing while watching some TV, having a bag of cheetos in her hand?
"Bruce, are you sure that Cheetos is the right snack for your pregnant girlfriend?" He asked Bruce who sighed and looked at him as if telling him :'What do you want me to do?'
Well, fair enough. She was putting her own life in danger so that baby Gamma Godling could be born. A pack, or three, of Cheetos, was hardly worth a mention when compared to the amount of processed cheese she had guzzled down in the past week alone.
Seriously, if it were not for the whole life threatening pregnancy thing, women around the world would have been thrilled to realise that they could eat anything and everything in their pregnancy days, simply because of the calorific requirements.
Betty's case was unique in the sense no amount of consumed calories would be enough for the Baby because of its unique nature but things were looking out for the good now. They had run more than enough simulations on the whole vibranium fibers.
They had already taken deep scans of Betty with a portable one that Tony flew over from his workshop and installed in the warehouse. He was the one who was tasked with handling the precious cargo, making sure that nothing in her body was disturbed as she was transported miles away, to the warehouse, without even feeling the wind hitting her face. That precise and smooth was the journey on the Invisible Man commute services.
The deep scan allowed them to pinpoint the locations in which the Vibranium fibers would be inserted. There would be some bleeding but nothing major.
Once they were manufactured today, once Stark decided to show up, Bruce and the others were going to be testing the fibre effectiveness on the irradiated lab rats. Oh, he hated this but Bruce told him that he would have to test it on someone alive.
He had also, privately of course, told him that Tony and he were in talks of developing a similar version of the fibers, to subdue the Hulk, if the need ever arose. And he had to say, both of them really had no idea what they were doing or talking of.
The Hulk was not dependent on Gamma Energy to wreak havoc everywhere. Yes, he was saturated with Gamma Energy but it was not as if he had a limited store of it.
The hulk could endlessly generate Gamma Energy. That is because he had a direct line of connection to the Guy Below. Some measly Vibranium fibers woven into his skin that could absorb Gamma Radiation are certainly not going to be able to stop him.
"Finally!" he let the paper avatar exclaim, making Bruce jump as he was the closest. When everyone looked at him, including Fury, who was still here for some reason, he replied.
"Stark's jet just landed. Once he is in range, I'll just pick him up," He said and–oh my god, Stark had this entire place bugged because Stark just froze for a second as he said that he will pick Tony up.
Tony probably knew his way of picking people up, as he was the one who was laughing endlessly at the footage of Fury screaming while flying through the air.
Well of course, Tony would have done that, bugging a project that was literally of national interest and paramount to national security as well, especially if Tony and Bruce could spin it off as developing something to help subdue the Hulk.
Tony then came out of the airport, entered the nearest parking lot, and entered his suit, rocketing his way towards Manhattan.
Well, that was no fun.
"He should be here in a minute," The paper avatar said, which was probably heard by Tony as well because the bastard purposefully steered away from the path, taking a much longer path of flight, resulting in a 2 minute delay. Just how petty can that man be?
And right on his schedule, the man of the hour arrived.
"Look who's here," His paper avatar said as Tony Stark's suit walked into the warehouse before the suit opened up, revealing Tony in all of his three piece suit glory.
"Hey, Paper cut machine. Hi, Bruce, how are things holding up? Betty fine? Great,"
He watched as Tony rizzed the crowd, for lack of a better term as he seamlessly switched from social butterfly to nerd engineer as he began looking over the machine as the holograms began blurring together at a dizzying pace, for a normal human anyway.
"Alright, let's get this show on the road," Tony said as Jarvis, piloting the Iron Man suit, carefully unpackaged a custom Arc Reactor built for the machine and slotted it in the deepest part, something that no human could do, and hence, the wait for Tony and his advanced exo suit.
Everybody, including Fury, watched the process with a hawkish gaze as Tony simply flicked a few digital switches, and then stepped back, with his arms crossed, and an inquisitive look on his face.
"Now?"
Tony turned around to meet everyone's gazes and then grinned, "Now? Now, we wait. For approximately 13 hours,"
Oh, come on.
_____xx_____
"Pierce! Is there any way to stop that menace from expanding further? According to the reports from WHite House, he is planning to up and leave the city, do you have any idea what that could mean for our operations?"
Alexander Pierce, the World Security Council Secretary, could do nothing but sigh in exhaustion.
What else could he do when he had already exhausted every manner of help that he had at his disposal. That man simply had a chokehold on the city and nothing they did, no matter how much money they threw at the sensor team, could find the person responsible fro much of the chatter that has been happening with Whitehall and Strucker.
Both of them have been obsessed with the existence of the Invisible Man and he doesn't blame them, at all. The thought of having a platoon of such people, ready to be deployed on a battlefield where the space itself would become their weapon, was tantalizing.
Alas, dreams often fade away, instead of turning into reality.
The reality was that nothing that he, or SHIELD, could do, was enough to identity the man. Sure, the man had some form of official relationship with SHIELD but that is only a one way line. He just informed SHIELD or asked for help, nothing from their end ever reached him.
They couldn't get him to reveal his identity because why would he? They had no leverage on him, aside from the city where he could effectively turn all his men into bloody mists if he so desired.
The incident with Banner and his lover did present a slight window of opportunity if they could have exploited Ross to get his daughter out of that fortress but apparently, the woman had no lost love for her biological father anymore.
Then came his influence. The sheer number of billionaires, domestic and foreign that had taken refuge under his umbrella was staggering. It would be safe to say that even HYDRA had to tread carefully around someone capable of rallying almost a third of the world's wealth.
In fact, in the privacy of his mind, he was glad that WHitehall and Strucker did not have access to Bruce BAnner and his child because he knew the amount of damage the Hulk would do, especially in light of recent information being revealed by the Invisible Man.
He did not want that chaotic power in his organisation. He wanted power, yes, but uncontrollable power was as good as no power.
No, something like the Winter Soldier was infinitely preferable to a Gamma soldier like Blonsky.
"Gentlemen, I have a plan. It is long term but HYDRA has not survived so long by being impatient. We will be….."
He began explaining to them the bare bones of a plan, the first phase of which will only be executed once the Invisible Man actually leaves the place in the first place.
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