The Sage of the Mind

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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 25

Manhattan [December 2008]

–Axle Riddle–

He watched on, with his mental eye, what two weeks of complete isolation had done to Bruce. 

*Sigh* Yeah, he wished he could do something but the truth was, unless Bruce wanted to come out into the open and then be hounded by law enforcement and then by the public because they were too curious as to why law enforcement was here, there was not much he could do.

Chances were that Bruce could someday, hope to contain himself when exposed to chaos and people, shouting people, along with the possibility of violence, but that day was not today.

So, he had gone to the one person who probably knew the most about the human mind on the planet. The older-than-dirt Ancient One.

And yet, when he went to the New York Sanctum to ask for her, Master Drumm had informed him that she was on an expedition, one of her long-time duties as the Sorcerer Supreme and she would not be back for another two weeks.

Well, that was the first time he had heard about an expedition of sorts but the movies never really went into the depth of what Kamar Taj actually does aside from zapping monsters, bisecting demons, etc. etc.

So, he had watched over Bruce and the city as usual. Delivering groceries and making sure that he was not spotted was very easily done.

The apartment came from one of the many Billionaires that lived in Manhattan and owed him favours in that regard. Well, he hadn't done anything noteworthy for them but apparently, just the mere protection he provided to the city had made them grateful enough to offer him a free-handed favour.

Of course, he had made sure that it did not come with any strings attached and after confirming that, he had stashed Bruce in one of those buildings.

Now, was he certain that SHIELD was aware of where Bruce was? Yes.

But does that mean that Ross was aware of it? No.

That worked out perfectly for him because if SHIELD was tattling on him, Ross would have been here with a military tank in days, rather than weeks. This meant that SHIELD also did not want Ross to get his hands, or rather try to get his hands on Banner. For all his buster, Ross was never going to capture Bruce unless he came along willingly, it just wasn't possible.

The Hulk wouldn't allow it.

He had made sure to drill it into Bruce's mind to maintain a minimal online presence and to stay away from the windows but he didn't know how long Bruce could take that anymore. 

Sure, the Gym and the books along with the TV helped but he could see that Bruce was not getting tired from the workouts at all. The books, he blazed through them at mind-boggling speeds and TV just gets boring after a while.

He could understand that so he watched on, as Bruce filled notebook after notebook with stuff he couldn't even begin to understand. Something related to radiation therapy along with a serum that would destroy the Gamma energy within him.

Oh no, no. He was not going to allow Bruce to do that, obviously but he couldn't just go and tell him that. It will break him, to know the truth of his situation. To know that the Hulk was just another part of him that could not be cured because he was not another disease to be cured.

The Hulk was just another part of his psyche.

He had let that one little tidbit out at the end of their conversation and he could see, in real time, how Bruce was processing it and it was…not good.

He was just looking blankly ahead, staring at nothing in particular as he sat on a chair.

Yeesh, that was a huge reaction.

Yeah, he had to do something for Bruce. His story was filled with tragedies, one after the other. He would not have been able to help him when he was out of his range but now that he was in his domain, there was nothing that could come between him helping Bruce.

In the first place, he didn't have the faintest clue as to Bruce coming here, in the city. The only time Bruce was in New York, as far as he knew, was when he and Abomination had that huge fight that broke Harlem. Which would not happen now, he would make sure of it. 

Butterfly effect and all that.

If he had known that Bruce was making his way here, he could have made preparations. He had still not made official contact with SHIELD yet, so he could have done that beforehand and made sure that Ross kept his hands off.

He would have to do that now as well. Honestly, aside from Kamar Taj and the Ancient One, there was no other person and place he would trust Bruce to be in, aside from Manhattan.

Making sure that Bruce lived, out in the open, in a bustling part of the city would mean that he would have to become a lot more stable, mentally, than he was now. He couldn't have him hulking out in the middle of the farmer's market, for example.

No, he would have to talk with the Ancient One about this but she would probably agree with him. She would help Bruce get better and then he would make sure that he has a place to stay in Manhattan.

That would work out for the best, it would seem.

Now, the Ancient One's busy timetable was not in his hands but making sure that Bruce had a legit place to stay was.

With that in mind, he searched for the two SHIELD safehouses they kept stocked to the brim in Manhattan. They were not used in all the time he had been active, probably owing to privacy concerns but they were stocked up and kept up to date all the same.

He found only a single agent, lounging on the sofa, reading a magazine whilst also munching on an apple. 

He quirked an eyebrow at that, what a harmless-looking agent, probably a ploy on SHIELD's part to try and honeypot him after trying all the possible strategies in their playbook.

Well, he just needed to pass along a message, it doesn't matter if the agent is drop-dead gorgeous or not.

_______xx________

SHIELD Safehouse Number 1, Manhattan

–Random Beautiful Agent 1–

Ah, man, this sucks. She knew that she was mainly hired for this gig because she was young and inexperienced, in everything that counted and she was the most expendable asset at the New York HQ, and she understood but still. This sucked.

On one hand, having to do nothing but look pretty while getting paid while living in a kitted-out apartment in Manhattan would sound like a dream come true for most girls with dreams of making it big in the showbiz but she was not one of those girls. Okay, she might have been once upon a time but not anymore.

Now, she was all about the good fight. Being a super spy agent.

Unfortunately, the only spy stuff she had been ordered to do, was a small stakeout out of the city, which turned out to be a bust anyway.

She was technically on duty but it was not as if anybody came to check up on her. The logistics guys came once a week to restock everything but other than that, she had basically no human interaction.

Everything was done on her SHIELD-issued phone, which was made to be very secure and nearly unhackable but it also meant that she could not log in on her MySpace account. 

Things were made worse because she was technically on duty, ALL THE TIME, so she was not given her personal phone. She was so going to lose most of her follo-

Her entire thought process came to a screeching halt as she looked at the coffee table. On top of the coffee table, a notebook was floating and a pen was currently writing something on it.

It eventually said the one word, "Hello"

She screamed as her vision went swimming towards the coffee table itself.

Oh crap, she was going to faceplant on the coffee table. She was fainting.

So much for her first serious gig...

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