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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 14

–Manhattan– [July 2008]

“Thank you, Invisible Man,” A little girl smiled cheerfully and waved at the sky as her balloon which had flown off was grabbed by something and brought back to her. The scenario might have looked unnatural to other people but for the people living in Manhattan, it was a daily occurrence.

The “Invisible Man” as the news had taken to call him now, was someone who was nearly omnipresent on the island of Manhattan. Property rates had shot up everywhere, even in the historically worse-off areas of Manhattan as the presence of the Invisible Man was felt everywhere. Well-off people from across the city began moving to Manhattan in hopes of taking advantage of the safe environment that the Invisible Man had created.

It was also primarily due to the sheer brutality that which the Invisible Man dealt with child offenders. Normally, if somebody crashed their cars or had a fight with each other, the Invisible Man would just pick them up, like unruly kids, and separate them, waiting for the police to sort it out. BUT, if it involved a kid, let’s just say that the punishment deterred most criminals from even thinking of touching children in Manhattan.

It has gotten so safe that people somehow leave their kids out in the open these days. Young moms walking with their children late at night with their families was a common occurrence. A scant few years back, the presence of robbers, muggers, and overall criminals would have scared any loving mother back into her home by the time it turned dark outside but now?

Now due to the presence and security that the Invisible Man brought to the city, it was safer than ever to just take a walk in the city at night. Millionaires from across the city had taken their stuff and moved to Manhattan for the reason of safety and it had clearly paid off.

Crime rates in Manhattan had fallen to near zero in the year that the Invisible Man had been active. Business was booming as the city had officially declared Manhattan to be a 24/7 business zone because of the way people were out and about at that hour anyway.

Of course, it was not all hunky dory. The reduction in crime on Manhattan Island meant that the crime had to go somewhere else.

For some bizarre reason, the Invisible Man cannot act outside the island of Manhattan. It had been extensively recorded by various social media handles when criminals managed to get out of the island and then commit a crime. Of course, that didn’t work well because the Invisible Man just grabbed something that was inside Manhattan and then chucked it at the criminal, usually knocking him out.

Officially, though, the Invisible Man was a criminal, for many many counts. Taking the law into their own hands, breach of privacy, destruction of private property, assault, and more. The man was charged with a litany of charges and yet, nobody could get a hold of him to actually arrest him and even if they did, how would they even go about arresting him?

The man, or woman, or whoever he was, was capable of lifting semi trucks as if they were just paper cars and chucking them around. It had been very evident when multiple semis had blocked the freeway when he had just lifted the dozen different semis and placed them safely outside the gridlocked area.

There had been multiple attempts by the authorities to find out who he really was, including multiple specialised teams from SHIELD as well as the US Military but every single one of them had to go home.

But what did he have to worry about? He thought to himself as he read his newspaper sitting on a bench in Central Park as the sun had just begun setting. Something like this would have been impossible to think of a few years ago. But now? As he ate his bagel and read the newspaper peacefully, he could admit that if they truly ever did catch the Invisible Man, he would be the first in line to get him reduced.

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For he had his, J.Jonah Jameson’s gratitude for saving his son from this city which only sought to take take take from him.

_______xx_______

–Axle Riddle–

Hmm. J.Jonah Jameson was smirking at something but it was just empty in front of him. That was…creepy.

He refocused his attention on the underground labyrinth he had dug out that began from one end of the island to the other. He had been in contact with a couple of engineering grads from NYU.

Oh, yeah, he had finally figured out how to communicate over very long distances. It was something that had previously crossed his mind but it was simply not possible, with the powers he had at that time.

You see, after he had fallen unconscious last year and woken up, he had found his powers, both physical and of the mind, having gone through a huge upgrade. His range had shot up to double of what it was previously and his body had become bulletproof, to an extent. He was no Luke Cage but normal pistols would no longer have the ability to puncture his skin, only leave a bruise and excruciating pain behind. Don’t ask how he knew, he wasn’t proud of that moment.

That range extension also came with finer upgrades which allowed him to easily read the lips of people. He had then taken a course that allowed him to learn lip reading. The course itself was very basic but he had been able to pick it up and after plenty of practice, he was now able to communicate over long distances with ease.

Coming to the point, he was collaborating with a bunch of Engineering grads to build something that would be very helpful for both the city as a whole and to the people who might want to use something to alleviate the traffic load in Manhattan.

“Alright, IM, that’s enough. If we go too far, we might just end up flooding the tunnel, again,” Chris, the resident nerd, civil engineer major, said in his room as he looked at a real time 3D map of the subterranean levels of the city as he moved the earth along with it.

Oh yeah, they were building a long highway under the city, with all the protections it might need. It also would have multiple entrances to the surface which people, hopefully, would use to evacuate the streets with haste as the Chitauri would descend on the city. As for how he met Chris?

It was a few months ago, he was doing routine sweeps of the city to stop the small amount of crimes that did occur, when his attention was drawn to a young man, kneeling in front of an elaborate pattern, right in the middle of Central Park, at midnight.

Now, with his presence, it was much safer but that was still no time to be out and about, especially, not the time to perform some kind of…ritual?

He focused on him only to see him chanting “Invisible Man!” over and over again.

He had been amused by the situation and focused on him, then moved over a small clump of dirt and then induced friction in them, making them glow red in the darkness of the park. He had then asked him what he was doing and then they had spent the entire night, communicating back and forth about Chris and his life.

Apparently, he had lost a bet and was dared to bring the attention of the Invisible Man to their club. It was apparently a condition for him to join the “Cool” Highways and Bridges club in his department. Well, Academic pursuits and all, so he obliged and just lifted the man, along with the grass underneath him, and then floated him straight to his dorm room, where the people in the club were waiting for him.

They had certainly not expected Chris to succeed, shocking them all into silence as Chris continued to look at them smugly, although the look’s effect was diminished as Chris held on to the piece of land he was standing on, for dear life.

Apparently, Chris was afraid of heights from that day onwards.

They had gotten to talking all night and they had maintained healthy correspondence ever since. It was nice to have people to talk to…even though all the talking you did was through scribble words.

Chris and his club were the one who proposed the entire thing and he was all too happy to help anyway.

Ever since his powers exploded in power, he didn’t need to expend as much energy to do the same things. Even the crime-stopping was now done almost subconsciously by him.

So, there he was, digging a very large tunnel underneath the city, which would then be presented to the city by him and him alone. After all, he knew that SHIELD, HYDRA, and a number of other three-letter organisations were still out there, looking for him and he could not slip up, giving them an opportunity to blackmail.

Only 4 more years and he would be….free.

Ah, he couldn’t wait.

“Wait, wait! That was not the correct route. I have some adjustments.” Chris exclaimed in his room.

Sigh. Well, so much for the future engineers of this country.

You can read upto 5 extra chapters on my P*treon. It is the same name as my username.