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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 52 [September 2010]
–Axle Riddle–
It was less than a week for the Stark Expo now. They had prepared for everything they could. He had tried to expand his range as much as possible but he was unable to generate enough force to lift the third hulk BUT he was able to increase the force with which he would be able to throw his projectiles.
The Hulks were all suitably armed to the gills. All of them knew how to fight and blessed with their bodies as they were, they would need very little defense. Still, Randall was updated about the repulsor blasts, and together with Bruce, they had figured out a much weaker and inefficient version of the same. After testing it on various metals and then eventually, on the Hulks themselves, they had come to the conclusion that….
Meanwhile, in the underground base, one of the brothers was holding a box that was attached to the ground with a power cable, which then went straight to the Arc Reactor. He was aiming it at Randall.
“Ow! That hurts, you idiot!”
“Oh yeah, what are you gonna do, crybaby?”
Yeah, the repulsor blasts, even at the somewhat higher intensities hurt the Hulks’ skin but not puncture it outright. Randall had recorded some of the footage of Tony Stark’s escapades and had come to the conclusion that the higher ranked Repulsor blasts could get through their skins but even then, it would not be a one shot kill and would only injure them.
That injury would then be rapidly healed, presumably because Bruce was not on site and he hasn't done anything that would truly injure the Hulks. However, judging by the basic package that one gets when they are Hulked out, advanced healing should be standard as well.
Yeah, they had figured that the Arc Reactors were very necessary for localised repulsor blasts, especially multiple of them in succession. No other power source came close when it came to portability and power output, which is required for the repulsor blasts.
He had seen the news of the party that Tony had hosted in his house, which led to some sort of altercation. Videos of the showdown between the two Iron Men suits were quickly taken down from the internet but Randall managed to find some of them.
After going through them, he realised that his help was completely wasted on that man. He would get healed when he would get healed. The fact that Tony let Rhodey get away with his seat meant that he had, once again, given up on being Iron Man, or rather, alive.
He should know that repeated use of the suit would accelerate the Palladium poisoning and yet, there he was, using the suit as a party trick.
Fury should close in on him soon enough and with Howard Stark’s notes, Tony should have the new element figured out within a couple of days. That puts the timeline of things into perfect sense.
According to the movies, Tony had just tested out the newest gen Arc Reactor and then had immediately come to the Stark Expo, in his suit or on a plane, he did not know.
The Hammer display was set for the first day as well, primetime slot. Apparently, Tony would give his rival every chance to embarrass himself if he paid the dime to do it on live TV.
Justin Hammer was so going down. Also, if the movies were anything to go by, the facility where Vanko was held should be close to the Expo as Romanoff had reached the facility and disarmed everyone by going in a car.
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And yet, he looked for Hammer Industries’ nearby facilities and found nothing of note, just regular old guns and bullets, no drones with no Arc Reactors and Repulsor tech.
Well, all he could do was wait then.
After spending some time with the Hulks, he could say, with confidence, that at least Randall was worthy of his trust so he had sent Randall to the Ancient One who took a single look at him and then dismissed him completely. In her words…
“He is a man of science and set in his ways. He won’t be able to join the Masters of the Mystic Arts,”
Alright, fair enough. But his argument about Strange being the same fell short as she told him that Strange had his own destiny, fate itself guiding his movements, so his predisposition to Science! didn’t matter much in that context because he was always going to become the Sorcerer Supreme.
Well, half of that mambo jumbo went over his head but he understood that Strange was going to become the Sorcerer Supreme because it was destined to happen, and Randall was not. He then asked her if any other Hulk would suffice, because if even a single person on the team could master Portal making, it would be a huge help but she refused even that.
For reasons only she was privy to.
That put him back to square one.
____xxx____
After a few days
His attention was drawn to a small convoy of blacked out SUVs heading straight to the place where the Random Beautiful Agent was, once again, lounging in her PJs.
“Damn, she is so going to get fired this time,” He muttered to himself as he watched a very fuming Nick Fury on his way to the SHIELD safehouse.
Soon, the entire convoy came to the safehouse but only Fury entered the place where Miss RBA was reading a magazine, a Cosmo from the looks of it. The sheer terror on her face when she nonchalantly looked up and found Nick freaking Fury on her doorstep was a hoot.
He rolled his eyes as, predictably, her eyes rolled into her head and as she fainted, with her head hitting the table with a nice thunking sound.
Fury ignored her and looked about the room before looking straight up. He leaned back in his room as even he had a jumpscare with Fury’s one good eye looking straight up at him.
“What can I do for you, Director Fury?” The phone that had been designated for his use slowly rose up in front of him and spoke in an electronic voice.
“Don’t you try and pull that shit in front of me,” Fury snapped as his face morphed into one of confusion, thinking of anything that he could have done to offend Fury. Oh well, the man was a walking talking mass of paranoia and bitterness anyway so…
“YOu would have to be more specific, Fury. I have done a lot of things that could have offended you,”
Fury took a deep breath at that.
“First you take in Banner. Fine, the man didn’t deserve what was happening to him anyway. Then, you take in the General’s daughter, the sole daughter under your protection. Fine, she is a big girl and can make her own decisions. Then, you had the audacity to let them walk around in public for everyone to see,”
He was amused as Fury kept on rambling as he paced back and forth in the safehouse, unheeding of the fact that he was babbling around probably higher clearance level information in front of someone who was barely a SHIELD agent in terms of clearance levels.
“Then there’s the seven menaces. The escaped experiments who, by all accounts, have become enhanced enough that they could fold Captain freaking America in half! And you!! You even let them out freely. Do you have any idea how much of an embarrassment that is for the people in the Army?”
“They see all these people walking around, and they fume silently because they are now allowed to do anything. Because-”
“Allowed?” He said, not through the phone but through his other method, which was much more efficient when it came to conveying tones through his voice.
“They are living, breathing people, Fury. And as long as they are under my domain, they will get their full rights, as do every other person who lives in my protection. I will not allow their rights to be trampled over just because some power hungry person sitting in his cozy place in Washington deems it so. You can tell this to whomever it concerns, Bruce Banner, Betty Ross, and all the seven brothers, are under my express protection. Whoever wants to come after them, will have to go through me and we both know how difficult that is, Fury,”
Fury looked like he had sucked a particularly sour lemon at his declaration.
Honestly, what did the man expect? That he would just roll over and hand all of them over to Fury?
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