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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 58 [September 2010, Day 1 of the Stark Expo]
–Axle Riddle–
Well, that was something alright.
Due to the UniBeam being pure energy manifested from the Arc Reactor, in quite a dangerous way, if Randall’s words were to be believed, he could not really “see” it as he did with his spatial awareness but this time it was different. While he could not detect pure energy by his extra senses, he did manage to sense the effect of the beam on the surroundings.
While he was still way off from sensing “space” or rather, space that was not being affected by Magical portals, he was able to figure out the effects of an energy beam punching through the very air and then through the very thick plates of armoured steel as well.
“Randall, tell me the bombs are gone?” He said to Randall, tensely awaiting the answer as he prepared to try and move all the mechs in a single location, though that was mostly done by the Hulks because they were all actually gathered in a single location and the drones naturally homed in on their location, with them being the primary threats to the drones, even before Tony.
“...Just a second aand, DONE! All Arc bombs have been deactivated,” Randall’s voice made him slump down in the cheap chair that the hotel owner was providing to the guests here.
“Alright team, gather the scraps, and make sure to get out of there as planned,” He ordered them to take as much as they could and escape that place.
“Take Tony obviously,” He ordered Leny, the weakest of the bunch but also the fastest of the bunch, to take Tony. Leny then hilariously began pulling the Iron Man suit by its legs as he slung Tony over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and after sharing a nod with Randall, headed out towards the emergency area.
Meanwhile, he examined Rhodey’s injuries and winced upon seeing the blood pooling in this suit. With no way to remove it altogether, he simply lifted the armour and made it follow Leny who was now jumping with the suit, and Tony.
He could not simply hand over Rhodey and the War Machine armour to any Tom, Dick, and Harry. It would have to be either Romanoff or Pepper Potts because there were probably more people wanting this suit of armour than there were screws in the whole thing.
The suit of armour was making it really hard for him to do anything meaningful to tend to Rhodey’s injuries but the distance itself meant that aside from artificially stopping the bleeding and making sure that he was in an ideal breathing position, there wasn’t much he could do.
The Arc Reactor housing was damaged badly and as such, there was no energy in the suit so Jarvis could not be contacted to help open up the suit. Looks like they would have to cut through it.
Or..
“Randall, can you communicate with Jarvis?”
“What? Stark’s AI? Yeah, what do you want me to tell him?”
“Ask him for a way to open up Rhodey’s suit without any power from the Arc Reactor because his injuries are worsening. We need to open up the suit so that emergency services can actually help him,”
“Doing that right now. Still, it is kind of risky to let an AI know that we exist at all, let alone establishing a direct communication corridor with him,”
He waited a few moments as the huge parking lot where all the emergency service workers were pooled up came into view. Most of the attendees had been evacuated from the Expo by shuttle buses arranged by the company. He scanned the entire expo and was relieved to see that nobody was left behind in the Expo. No child, pet, or man, was there.
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This meant that it was the prime opportunity to steal Arc Reactors, even if they were of questionable quality.
“Yeah, Jarvis says there should be an emergency release mechanism inside the armoured hip joint,”
No sooner did he hear those words, than he ripped apart the hip armour, rolling his eyes at the stupidity of installing a release valve under a thick plate of steel but that was most likely Hammer’s genius shining through instead of faulty design on Tony’s and Jarvis’ part.
He could see Pepper Potts and Romanoff rushing towards Leny as they saw Tony completely out of it.
They also gasped upon seeing Rhodey and the deep gash on his chest. The EMT came rushing in as he gently deposited Rhodey on the gurney.
After handing over Tony to Potts and leaving the Iron Man and the War machine suits at their feet, Leny jumped back and disappeared into the woods. Or more accurately, into the line of sewers that criss crossed the underneath of the expo land, joining his brothers.
They were still not out of the clear yet. No doubt Ross and co, or HYDRA had already noticed the escaped experimental subjects and were already on their way to “apprehend” them based on some BS law.
The good news was that the closer they were to him, the better he could help them.
“Oh, there they are,” He muttered to himself as he watched armed members with no uniforms somehow pinpoint the direction of the Hulks and chase them in that direction. Well, no doubt they could tag and trace the energy signature of Leny and the others but couldn’t do much until they were out of Manhattan.
Now that they were here, it was just like tangling a juicy bait in front of a hungry dog. The Dog couldn’t help it and had to leap towards the bait. He nudged Romanoff who was coordinating efforts to secure all the armour, back in the Expo and informed her about the incoming tail on the Hulks and how he expected SHIELD to handle it.
“In exchange, I will reveal some critical information to Fury,” He promised her, not yet deciding on the information that will be revealed to Fury but that can be decided later on.
Right now, it was more fun to watch the cars and the assailants faltering as he made sure that sharp objects were wedged into the tires and the steering were turned in the wrong direction, or brakes were applied, or the transmission was jammed.
Tony was now awake and discussing something with Pepper while Stark Industries employs collected the Iron Man armour as well as the War machine armour. Rhodey was being carted to the nearest hospital, thankfully, his breathing has returned to normal.
Most of the debris from the drones had been collected but some of it was left, which would no doubt be collected by the alphabet soup companies in the next few hours or so.
The assailants were now in a pretty sad shape as their cars continued to betray them, with sharp things hitting their windshields, entering their cars, and mildly injuring them as well.
The tag game went on for a minute before the Hulks came close enough to Manhattan that he just lifted them out of the sewers through a manhole cover and then catapulted them straight into Manhattan. Far from the scary mess they were the first time he did this, they whooped and hollered as they entered his domain and were thus safe.
The assailants, probably realising that, stopped their attempts and tried to turn around. Tried being the keyword as he had just busted all their tires and loosened all the screws he could, leaving them stranded in what could only be called a shell of a car.
“Randall? How soon can we get the prototypes working?” He asked Randall who had proposed to him a remote base of operations. A huge rectangular ship, kept afloat by Repulsors and Arc Rectors so that it doesn’t have to come down for months at a time.
Once he was free, something like that would be immensely helpful. Randall and Bruce could have cracked the Repulsors given time but a working sample would reduce the time required to bring it to production.
If it was ready before the Invasion, they might just have their very own weapons platform for the Chitauri Invasion.
If the invasion was going to happen anyway, he might just let it happen for far longer than it did during canon, to really drive it home. The impact of an actual alien invasion in the heart of the most powerful country on the planet.
With him around, no civilian casualties would be recorded but even if the world could see the material devastation that the aliens could bring about, perhaps that would spur the moment of global cooperation to present a united front for the things that awaited them in the deep darkness of space.
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