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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 84 [November 2010]
Manhattan
–Random Beautiful Agent–
Well, this was scary. And also odd.
Oddly scary, actually.
She was currently clad in the skintight jumpsuit given to her as standard SHIELD gear, with enough pockets to fit in the entire contents of her purse, which was a true achievement but it also meant that it was supremely…displaying.
Now, don't get her wrong. She loves the attention her body gets but only when she demands it. Consent was a big thing.
Unfortunately, the suit was also one of the few things capable of protecting her from any fucker who had the guts to take on a SHIELD agent. Now granted, she was not the highest ranked SHIELD agent around but she would like to think that her training, however brief it might have been in the SHIELD academy, was not in vain.
She tried to get some sparring partners but due to her near permanent posting up here in Manhattan, she did not get any interaction with the rest of the SHIELD agents. Oh, she knew that it was just an excuse.
In the beginning, the higher ups might have tried it as a honey pot exercise but seeing that it had failed utterly, mostly because of her own inability to stop herself from fainting at the slightest shock, but also because the Invisible Man had shown no interest in her.
Also, what were they thinking? He was THE Invisible Man. The man could have any girl he wanted in the entire country, or even the world, so long as he demanded it.
She knew her friends would jump at the chance, even the Mormon ones, just so they could have the clout of sleeping with a godlike entity.
Later on, once it was established that the Invisible Man had no interest in her, she was only given to stay here because they had all thought she was compromised. So, this was just a long experiment to see what would happen to an individual who spent a long time under the Invisible Man.
That is why the SHIELD HQ had to be moved, because of the man's influence potentially tampering with SHIELD agents.
That was weeks ago, when SHIELD wasn't even sure if the man was even a human or not.
Now? After the Tentacle fiasco, they knew for certain that it was a man. And quite a powerful one at that too.
She shivered as she could still feel the energy from that night, the overwhelming white and orange still made her tingle.
While the official wait time for him to recover from his injuries was given to be a week, all SHIELD agents along with most of the law enforcement of the city were warned beforehand to be ready, in case he doesn't show up.
Crime was already up drastically but still manageable, atleast the ones that could be traced. But if the criminals came to know that the Invisible Man was not coming, it would be pandemonium.
For one, most of the rich people lived in the city. They also loved the fact that they could roam out and about at three in the morning with no security in sight and with all the freedom they could want for themselves, without ever having to worry about their kids and families.
And now that same safety was taken away from them, even temporary as it was.
As a result, private security companies were having their own windfall as thousands of security personnel flooded the city to create a security detail for all the VVIPs of the city.
The crime hit the stores the hardest. Now, the stores themselves were more than secure financially, perks of being in Manhattan before the Invisible Man began his operations, but their security was not upto the mark.
It would have been an issue before but with the greatest surveillance system in the world guarding them at all times, people had grown complacent with their security, allowing even a single slightly armed thief to rob mid sized stores.
With the NYPD already stretched thin, it was only a matter of time before SHIELD had to move in to secure the high priority assets in the city.
She was currently on her break, as she was allowed to patrol the city along with her seniors from the academy under the garb of US Homeland Security, helping bolster the safety net of the NYPD.
The members of NYPD themselves were working very hard, to the bones actually, because the higher ups of NYPD were pressuring everyone to prove that NYPD was the actual protector of the city.
Oh yeah, she was sure that it had nothing to do with the consecutively falling budgets for the NYPD, for every quarter since the Invisible Man came on the scene.
"*Sigh* That's the stuff," She sighed in relief as the hot cocoa hit her, warding off the sleep that was threatening to creep in after a grueling 4 hour patrol.
What? It might not sound much but for the past year or so, all she had done was some light cardio in the safehouse, and ordered all the food she wanted from any restaurant, all paid for by SHIELD, ofcourse.
Her next patrol was scheduled in less than 2 hours.
Well…"Time for a nap then," She muttered to herself as she shed off the uncomfortable uniform, on top of which she had to wear the Homeland Security suit as well, and then sunk into the comfy bed that she had ordered for herself from the SHIELD canteen.
It was ridiculously cheap in that store and she had not wasted a single moment as she splurged her entire monthly salary on a mattress.
Well, she had not used a penny from her salary for years now, courtesy of SHIELD paying for everything.
Her eyes grew heavy as she thought of the city and what would happen to it if the Invisible Man didn't come back.
Sure, the rich and the powerful would be more than alright. It was the little people she was worried about, like herself.
She was not super spy agent material. She was just some lateral hire, who managed to be both beautiful enough for the honey pot trap, and also athletic and morally flexible enough that she could pass the rigorous training course of the SHIELD academy.
____xx___
When she woke up, it was already dark.
"Shit!" She swore as she sat upright and then immediately regretted it. Damn her iron deficiency.
She looked outside and saw that it was completely dark, took her phone and sighed as she realised that it had been 2 hours since the patrolling had already begun.
Why did she have to oversleep at such a critical moment?
Her job was in jeopardy, if anybody had not been clued in on that yet.
If the Invisible Man did not return on schedule, she gave herself a week, maybe two before she was transferred somewhere else but she knew she would not survive that.
So, the moment SHIELD tried to transfer her, she would quit. Now, she had substantial savings but that did not mean that she was not afraid to lose her current job.
She unlocked her phone as a barrage of notifications hit her phone all at once, as soon as it was removed from aeroplane mode.
Her eyes widened as she saw a series of Instagram posts about the events that transpired while she was asleep.
"YES!" She cheered as she threw herself back into the mattress as she began reading through the series of articles that had since been published.
The Invisible Man was back!
She wouldn't have to move now!
She squealed into the pillow as she felt an invisible load finally lift from her shoulders.
"Oh crap." She muttered as she saw her immediate supervisor calling her.
She was so busted…..
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