The Sage of the Mind

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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 101[May 2012]

Manhattan

–Axle Riddle–

"Alright, let's do this," he muttered to himself as he sat cross legged in his room and dove deep into his mind, all other outside thoughts forgotten, and even the patrolling and watch over New York stopped for a moment. 

When he opened his eyes, he found himself standing in front of a large blue half circle, which was the shield that surrounded his mind. Yeah, it was a cliche, surrounding one's mind with an indestructible barrier but hey, why change what works?

Especially since he had a multitude of others, just as deadly traps laid down for anyone trying to enter his mind. But he was not here to examine his defenses, no, he was here to check on the mechanism he had built for himself.

His form slowly floated into the shield, bypassing the shield as it wasn't there, and came face to face with a small clock like device, which did not serve the function of a clock. No, it was his last resort, an emergency fail-safe measure just in case he found himself under the tender mercies of Loki, and the Mind Stone he had in his possession, however weakened it might be due to the sceptre.

Right after the barrier was the clock, which would detect if any foreign surge of mental energy was breaking through his shields and trying to breach his mind or not. He didn't know exactly how the Mind Stone or the particular brand of mind control that Loki used but he could take some educated guesses. For one, Loki himself, while capable of some mind control magic, was nowhere near strong enough to breach his defenses, atleast not the current rendition of Loki.

Loki Season 2 might have won but Chitauri Invasion Loki? That bitch would get slapped the second he entered his TK range.

He had set up the mental construct in his mind with one goal and one goal only. Total and utter deletion of memories, of his past life just in case something unstoppable knocked on the doors of his mental shields. It also had a manual trigger, it was quite hard to create, especially since he did not have much time to make both the defenses and the mental trigger.

Just in case, he felt something off and felt as if his mind was about to be destroyed, the mental construct would flip a switch, and the most protected ball of memories at the centre of his mind palace would rip itself apart, rendering his mind catatonic, until it eventually healed itself, just without the memories part.

That served two functions. One, denying Loki, and by extension, Thanos any kind of future knowledge, and two, it would incapacitate him completely. That would reduce Loki's chances of winning in any meaningful manner.

Honestly, it was kind of an extreme measure but he had this thought ever since Randall told him that the tunnel needs to be completely independent of the influence of the Invisible Man, just in case he was busy fighting their foe, and Randall was right. So, they made the tunnel completely independent of any effort required on the Invisible Man's part.

It was also a ploy on his part to let Tony enter the tunnel and do as he pleases, especially since he had given both of them a pretty strict 1 month timeline. He lied to them about getting some intel from his so called teacher about a possible attack in a month, which was not untrue but he didn't specify if the attack was coming from below or from above.

They assumed another attack from the Moloids which spurred them to reinforce the tunnel to such an extent that should a small Nuke, like in canon, hit Manhattan above ground, the tunnel would be affected, yes, but not destroyed and most of the people would live past the blast, only to die a few years later of radiation poisoning but that was something that can be treated later on, especially if he was able to get some artificial CHI up and running.

Lots to do but no time to do it. So, he prioritised the mind defenses and the suicide mechanism built into his mind. He thought that it would have stopped his progress in telepathy but as it turns out, having a calm, stable, and more importantly, organised mind increased his telepathy range by leaps and bounds.

Now, he could read the thoughts of people, faintly, at least in a 500 metre radius. That was progress but he didn't have much time celebrating that because he was busy thinking and overthinking, and thinking anxiously about Loki and the Mind Stone. It was funny that he ignored the Chitauri as an enemy and was only focused on Loki and more importantly, on the Mind Stone itself.

He had to get the Stone for himself, he realised one day. No way was he going to let the freaking Mind Stone, something that could just elevate him to planetary status, get away from his hands. 

Once the Invasion was done, he could ambush the SHIELD convoy and take the sceptre for himself. That should be fairly easy, stopping Wanda's awakening, avoiding another threat in the process.

He kept checking up on his mechanisms and built multiple dense tungsten plates with words literally carved onto them, detailing the memories and some clues sprinkled in for future him to read just in case he had to activate the fail safe and essentially, kill himself for the greater good.

God, he was such a wuss. He couldn't even guarantee a win against the lowest tier of army that Thanos had under his command and he had dreams of defeating Thanos himself.

It was just that he didn't have confirmation if his powers could sense Loki or not. He tried with some of the masters who would talk to him but they admitted to not being experts in illusions and what little they did know, he was able to make out their body structure and if not their bodies, he was able to sense the disturbance in the air around him, and locate them that way.

He felt fairly confident in defeating Loki if Loki chose to reveal himself even a second earlier but he was not taking any chances.

He was also keeping a close eye on the Stark Tower, and the SHIELD safehouse in the distance. The second he heard of Loki arriving on the planet, he would hole himself deep underground, even deeper than the Refuge tunnel, with ample food, water, and air, so that he could get the entire Invasion done without ever having to worry about Loki sneaking up on him.

He also had kind of a costume ready, fabric custom made by one of the many cosplaying tailors that lived within the city who were more than happy to get the opportunity to make the official costume for the Invisible Man. He didn;t need much reinforcement but the mad lad was somehow able to learn how to use Kevlar in the suit and then after being supplied the necessary ingredients, was able to make one for him.

Ofcourse, he was compensated fairly, he was not a monster.

He took a deep breath and opened his eyes, noticing that only 2 seconds had passed in his mental world while he had all that internal monologue. His mind was immediately assaulted by the visions of the city, of crimes being committed, or people almost dying due to collisions, all in the span of 2 seconds.

Good Lord, he didn't know what the city would do if he left. He had to do something to prepare them, otherwise the entire city might just collapse when he left. No, he had to make sure that, at the very least, the city was left in somewhat better economic condition than before his debut.

Sure, the Billionaire exodus will happen but he could at least make sure that it was a stable transition. With Randall and Co. here, with his plans to permanently enhance Frank and Daredevil, once he became active, it should help keep the crime low in the city.

Bruce's situation was complex, as he would never leave Bellina out of his sight, and it was true that Bellina was in constant danger, unless she was in the range of the Invisible Man.

So far, he had already stopped 2 dozen attempts by various people from various nationalities from trying to get closer to Bellina, from spying on Bellina, and from trying to get DNA samples from Bellina.

He didn't stop them from doing anything else but once it came to little Bellina, he came down on them like the hammer of justice and after breaking one or two bones, depending on the severity of their actions, tossed them outside the city, right in the impound lot, purpose built for such people, who would randomly be tossed into it, at any time of the day, by the Invisible Man.

He would also pen a report of their actions and deposit it into the nearest Precinct, which filed it as evidence.

Apparently, even with his god like powers, he could not escape the evil that is Bureaucracy.

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