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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 129[May 2012]
Mumbai [An hour after the Mumbai Chitauri Invasion]
–?–
Shit. Shit. Shit.
She never intended for it to go this far.
Sat alone in her apartment, she sighed as she laid down on her bed, her gaze unfocused as she thought of her actions and what it might lead to. She was not really worried about anyone else, having these powers meant that she hadn’t maintained any credible relations with anyone, even though the others tried.
She chuckled sardonically at that. God, her college friends tried hard to keep in touch but then again, once they hit their 30s, everyone either got married, moved abroad, had kids, or even got divorced. In the meantime, she got her MD and started her practice, in the wealthiest city of India.
Sure, it got her all the money she could have wanted but seeing that number in the bank got stale real quick. She tried everything that she possibly could.
Hiking. Gym. Marathons. Philanthropy. Free Clinics and more.
And yet, it could never give her the same level of happiness as using her powers gave her. At this point, she had her powers for the better part of 3 decades. God, that was a long time to remain isolated from everyone else, to hide her deepest darkest secret, never having the courage to trust anyone fully. She knew that it took a toll on her relationships, well the ones that held any meaning anyway.
Dating was out of the way, especially since the dating pool for women in their 40s, especially in India was basically creeps and the odd divorcee, that’s it. Their conservative culture meant that most girls got married off the moment they turned 25, sometimes even earlier, and guys could sometimes stretch it to 28, or 29 but even these scenarios were very rare.
It was only recently that education levels rose in even rural areas, allowing women to get educated about their rights, lifting the average marriage age, in both men and women. And yet, this was not her era.
During the time when she was undergoing puberty, when she was lucky enough to be raised by her extended relatives after her parents had died in a bus accident, all she had were books. Books about everything that happened in the world. The world as a whole was much more conservative back then, let alone her then family, which was the epitome of conservative, as were most families in the neighbourhood.
She had always been smarter than most kids her age, which prompted her parents to get her all the books she asked for. In their opinion, rightfully so, education was the way forward and they were actually ecstatic that their sole daughter, which was another rarity since everyone wanted sons back then, was enthusiastic about education.
She had overheard them talking, more than once, about saving for her higher education. That money was taken by her relatives, and she honestly had no issues with that since they did cloth, house and feed her for over 5 years before she went away for studies and never went back.
She was 14 when her parents died. She was 14 when she was whisked away by the authorities to her extended family, whose existence was a surprise to her. Barely a teenager when her life as she knew it, ended and she was thrust into the house of complete strangers, who barely acknowledged her existence, let alone comfort her, or try to make sure she was fine, beyond the occasional “How are you?”, providing her hot meals three times a day and making appropriate provisions for her continued education.
14 when she got her powers. She hesitated to call them blessings but that was what they were, 14 year old her just didn’t know any better. She suppressed her powers for over 5 years, deathly terrified of being found out and ousted from all that was left of her life. So, she hid them right up until she went out for her education.
It was all completely paid for, partially by the government and partially by a private scholarship she managed to snag by scoring exceptional marks in their exams.
That was when she finally got the space to explore her powers, and that was how her story began.
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It took her a while to figure them out but her powers but when she did, she was over the roof.
Enhanced healing, strength, speed, and intelligence. Intangibility, the ability to choose when and where to interact with the material world, with the only real limit being her ability to hold her breath. That was why she took up swimming and that was honestly the one thing, aside from her practice, that she practiced regularly, even now.
As a result of that regular practice and her powers, she looked much younger than she actually was. That was probably also one of the reasons why none of her female classmates tried contacting her after school.
Oh well, none of that mattered, she thought to herself as she just lay there, in her bed, with a bottle of vodka lying empty at her feet. It had been extremely stressful, putting on that silly costume and going out to fight the aliens. She once debated donning that costume and going out at night to fight crime but once it came down to it, she figured that the logistics of doing so just didn't make any sense.
She didn’t have any overarching delusions about what she could do on her lonesome, despite her awesome powers. Her intangibility also allowed her to fly, somehow. She had studied her powers extensively and to this day, she had not idea how her powers worked.
Even the costume, it was only a recent thing. All she had done so far had practised a lot in her apartment, a very large one for a single person but she used it to sometimes use her powers so that single reason justified the spending. Besides, what was she going to do with all that money?
She was a neurosurgeon, with accolades from all over the country, having worked in various hospitals, under various expert doctors. There were a lot of rich people that were more than happy to throw money at the hospital which employed her.
So, when word of the Invisible Man operating in New York finally reached her ears, she was ecstatic, finally hearing about another person with powers, someone who was different. She would have gone there personally to meet him but, well….
It had been harrowing, to watch a blue hole appear in the sky, with monsters straight from fantasy coming out, raining down lasers on buildings and everything else in sight. She hadn’t even hesitated for a moment, donning her uniform, and floating into a nearby hardware store and picking up all the nails that she could, out of sight.
Then, she had floated right up in the air, holding sharp nails in her hand and just left them in the brains of all the monsters, or where she approximated their brains to be. The first death only emboldened her as she single handedly slaughtered the entire invasion force. She only snapped out of it when she subconsciously landed on the ground and saw hordes of people cheering for her. Her fear of being discovered reared its ugly head as she fled from the scene, straight into her home.
And now, there she was, laying on her bed, having drunk an entire bottle in one go. Despite her enhanced physique, she knew that she would feel it tomorrow, what with having eaten nothing before downing that bottle, but then again, she needed that liquid courage if she was going to face what was coming her way.
She had no delusions that she was not tracked all the way to her home. When she first got her powers, it was the 80s, and it was rural India, so the chances of digital surveillance were almost non-existent. But now? In the 21st century, in the era of Stark Phones in every other hand? Surveillance was everywhere and in everyone’s hands. Everyone gladly carried tools of mass surveillance, even paying for it themselves.
That was why she went out of her way to strip her apartment of all things digital, including her phone which went into a small box designated for it, right next to the shoe cabinet, right at the entrance of her apartment.
“Open up!”
And there they were. She signed once again, knowing what was coming. She had thought it through and had come to a decision. She knew that the invasions were a global phenomenon and they were only looking for her so she could help defend more places against the Chitauri because Mumbai was the only place that had defended their cities without a single casualty.
It was all in the news, which she could hear from her downstairs neighbour who had a TV in her bedroom, which was just below hers. Enhanced senses, sometimes a blessing, sometimes a curse.
She stood up, emptying yet another beer bottle, which did nothing to her physique, and walked out of her bedroom, a skip in her step as she basically abandoned all caution to the wind.
Realistically thinking, what did she have to lose?
Nothing, that’s what.
She passed the Kitchen and was about to step foot into the living room when…
“Ah!” She yelped as her feet found no purchase, instead falling into a hole of some sort.
……
…
Good Ol’ US of A
“Good Evening, Ms.Priya, how would you like to help save the world?” She looked up, barely managing to stand upright, looking at a weirdly dressed monk of some sort.
Ah, what the hell. She knew she shouldn’t have drunk that expired bottle of vodka.
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