The Sage of the Mind

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 113[May 2012]

Manhattan, Subterranean base

–Axle Riddle–

With a start, he came back online. He spread his senses outward in an instant and was satisfied to see that the small localised mind he had created for simple crime recognition had done its job. He then dispelled that mind with ease, absorbing that energy back into his main mind partition.

That was another ability that he had in his hand now, something that he was not able to confirm because he had literally not slept for a few days.

He stretched, feeling the joints pop, despite him not doing his usual workout regime ever since a certain Asgardian disgraced Prince touched the soil on his planet. Damn, why was he being so afraid of a villain that would not even reach his peak until later in his life?

His senses picked up on Tony sleeping, with Pepper and Betty along with Bellina being in the same bunker as Tony. Tony still had three armours of his in the subterranean base, with Jarvis keeping watch over everything. Usually, Randall was pretty territorial when it came to his networks but this time, he made an exception for Jarvis to run in his networks in a supervised, limited capacity, which they all knew was a lie because Tony would not be able to keep his hands to himself, or resist ordering Jarvis to snoop around the obviously forbidden digital space that was so tantalizingly dangled in front of him.

"Randall, any status updates?" He asked Randall, even as he spotted two new Scouts trying to see if the Invisible line he had set against the Mole People, had dissolved or not. That was another headache that had come at the worst possible timing.

It was good that the Mole Men were not really that strong. Hulk could wipe them all out, if given time but they were bulletproof, and could destroy city blocks within minutes if not interrupted.

So, no exposing them to the local PD. Especially the Police department in Manhattan because the NYPD had gotten very lax in their armoury purchase, mainly because they couldn't justify all that money being poured into acquiring more guns and ammo because they hadn't even used 1% of what they used to need before the Invisible Man showed up.

Gunshot wounds had reduced drastically at every ER and even gang members now refused to use guns because being in possession of a gun automatically meant a more thorough scrutiny from the guy above and once found something criminal, immediate breaking of a single or all limbs, depending on the severity of the crime.

"No. We are searching for two things at the moment - Things that they would require to build a portal machine, something that Thor was no help with. And two, the energy they would need to get the portal machine running," 

"So, you are sure that the Tesseract cannot be used as the power source to open portals?" 

"No. The Tesseract will be the thing that opens portals. It's just that for the Tesseract to open stable portals, you will need something to tether the Tesseract to something, and that would require tons of energy, yes."

"Okay. Got it. So, monitoring of all known Nuclear power plants, then?" He asked Randall, even though he was sure where Loki was going to show up.

"Yup. Jarvis has hacked into all that he could and the rest, we are monitoring through SHIELD's access codes," 

Ah, SHIELD's database. The biggest advantage that Coulson gave them all. Direct, uninterrupted access to the core central database of the largest Spy agency in the world. He was sure that it would be multiple counts of treason right then and there.

And yet, that allowed him to understand the true reach of SHIELD and just how deep their hands went, in the digital surveillance systems of the world.

He was still uncertain if Coulson could be trusted but the base was shielded from all outside communications, save for hard fibre going in and out of the base. Plus, there was no way that Loki could communicate with his mind control victims telepathically, at least not without the sceptre being in his hands.

The sceptre was immediately requisitioned by him as soon as it had come in his range, despite Tony's protests that he wanted to research. He had just allowed Bruce to get a single deep Gamma scan and use that as a base to look for the Tesseract, something that he remembered from the movies.

Bruce had immediately set to work but not having SHIELD's deep reach, he had reached out to POTUS who had immediately ordered every lab in the United States to hand over control to Bruce, and even some of the allies that responded quickly.

The rest had to be strong armed by Tony and the word of the Invisible Man. Still, they were nowhere near the reach that SHIELD would have given them, something that was still impossible because Pierce was the Director of SHIELD now and according to POTUS, removing him, at such a critical juncture, would be all but impossible given the bureaucracy involved.

Basically, POTUS was telling him that without any sky high treason charge with proof, he could not remove Pierce, just reprimand or limit his access. 

Coward.

His senses were still in the city, which naturally, involved the New York Sanctum. While he could not get a look inside the Sanctum, due to the protections involved, he could see everything on the outside, even the so called wards that protected the Sanctums, and then even stretched beyond the Sanctum's walls.

That was why a chill ran down his spine when he saw the Ancient One herself, looking straight at him, walking on the rooftop, tending to the plants in the rooftop garden.

"Randall, issue a red alert. The INvasion is imminent. Get ready everyone, we are about to get some very nasty guests. The Invasion will be in Manhattan, inform everyone, and once the portal opens, blast the emergency message across every known frequency, secured and unsecured,"

He then withdrew his senses, even as he felt Randall scrambling to fulfill his orders and then slowly stretched his body, getting ready to confront the Chitauri, and then…annihilate them.

He was about to have a talk with the Ancient One but before he could do that, he heard Bruce calling for him.

"California. The Tesseract is in California!" Bruce shouted. He faltered as he flooded his presence in the lab, something that Bruce felt because he jerked in alarm.

"What? Are you sure?" He faltered as a sinking feeling entered his mind.

"Yes, I have triple checked it. The Tesseract is in California. We will have a much more accurate location in a few minutes."

"Any nuclear power plants nearby?" He asked Bruce, even as he made sure that the Jet was ready and the brothers were all geared up in their combat suits.

"Yes, just the one," Bruce replied.

"Okay, get ready everyone, we are leaving for California. Get everything you might need. Prepare for extreme–"

That was when all hell went loose.

Alarms began blaring in the base as something appeared on the screen, something that made his blood run cold.

A portal.

In California.

Fuck.

"Shit!" Bruce swore as he scrambled to get to the Hangar floor.

He was about to do something, talk to the Ancient One, and ask her why it was happening elsewhere when he felt it.

Hell, he was sure that every mystic worth his salt in all of the State felt it.

The Curtain.

He held his breath, desperate for the curtain to break and irrationally afraid that he might do something to stop it.

He got out of his apartment and went to the rooftop, something that was restricted but he just broke the lock apart, wanting to see everything with a clear view.

His jaw hung agape as he saw the curtain, but not through his extra senses. No, the curtain was now visible to him, as to everyone else because he could see people in the streets, getting out of their cars and filming everything.

Good Lord, what is happening?

Then, with a horrendous sound, the cracks began spreading across the curtain and he made sure to keep his powers tightly wound around himself only, to make sure that nothing untoward happened during the process.

Then, with an even more thunderous noise, that was probably heard across the city and made many people deaf, the curtain…broke apart.

His momentary relief was turned into horror as all the broken pieces? INstead of dissipating into motes of energy, turned as if guided by an Invisible Hand and then rushed straight to him.

He immediately ducked and went inside the building, somehow knowing that his powers wouldn't help but he still tried. Empty cars rose from the ground, along with anything he could get his hands on, to get and stop the horribly sharp pieces of cracked energy from reaching him but they passed through the things as if passing through butter.

He was still subconsciously limiting his powers around himself when the first energy shard reached him, and then just sunk in his body.

He could feel his energy increasing with that shard, which was manageable but then came the next, and the next, and the next.

And then, he blacked out.

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