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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 78 [November 2010]
Manhattan
–Bruce Banner–
His mind was still reeling from yesterday’s events that he was all jittery and unable to sleep. In the meantime, to ward off his incoming panic attack, he had taken to cleaning and cooking for Betty. So far, he had been able to make everything she wanted him to make, courtesy of the grocery number given to him by the Invisible Man and online cookbooks.
Thank god for Betty’s pregnancy because some of the food that he had made, he couldn’t eat himself, let alone feed it to another person. He thought at first that Betty was probably only eating all that stuff so that he wouldn’t feel bad but nobody would be able to eat all that food without uttering a word of complaint, even if it was someone they loved dearly.
“Oh God,” He muttered to himself as he realised something, his movements freezing entirely.
He hadn’t even proposed to Betty yet.
Good Lord, what a rookie mistake. He should have done that the moment he found out she was pregnant with his child, instead of floundering about.
But in his defense, he had some expectations of how his marriage would go. How it would be a small but private ceremony with some of his closest friends. It was another thing entirely, that the people he could call his closest friends at the moment were either eccentric Billionaires, God like people whose face nobody had seen, or enhanced Gamma mutates like himself, like Randall and company.
He chuckled self deprecatingly as he realised that he was thinking like someone who lived in a fair world. In a fair world, he wouldn’t have to watch all his work being thrown down the drain by someone who was so much more powerful than himself that he couldn’t even be touched, politically speaking.
Sure, he could turn into the Hulk and overpower anything they could throw at him, but that was not controlled. When he transformed, he let everything loose, nothing was off limits. Anything in sight could be a target and he hated himself for doing that because the moment he was jerked back into the driver’s seat of his body, he could instantly memorise all the things that the Other Guy had done.
All the soldiers he killed, all the buildings and cars that were destroyed.
And now?
Now that he had finally found someone who was willing to be with him, long term, and in an environment that was undoubtedly safe, life had to go ahead and put that in jeopardy as well.
“Bruce, how are you holding up?” He almost jumped at Tony’s voice but by now, he had gotten used to the Eccentric Billionaire’s casual but wildly illegal invasion of his privacy.
He had somehow hacked everything, or rather, Jarvis had somehow hacked everything. Every phone, computer, even the Refrigerator was somehow hacked by Jarvis. He didn't even know why Fridges even had computers inside them, especially ones that could connect to the Internet.
“I am fine, Tony. I am just worried about our work flowing down the drain.” He alluded to the manufactured Vibranium fibers along with the machine that made them.
Tony made an “Ah,” Noise in understanding.
“Do not worry, My Friend. The machine is in complete lockdown, the schematics of which can only be found in my head. Any sign of intrusion, the machine will kill itself, making sure that the designs do not fall into–”
“I don’t care about that!” His voice took on a guttural hue as green blazed in his vision, and he almost snarled at Tony.
“Oo-kay. Look, Bruce, we are all tense about the situation. But unless and until we can get confirmation from the Invisible Man, we cannot proceed any further, you both know that,”
His words brought clarity to his mind. Yes, that was true.
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Unless and until the Invisible Man was back from wherever he went after that huge fight, they could not proceed with anything. No, it would be too risky, for both Betty as well as the Baby, The less said about the collateral damage to the city, the better.
“Any leads on him?” He asked Tony after taking in several deep breaths, hating the pitying look in Tony’s eyes.
“Noo. I have been looking for him for ages, and still no luck. I don't see why it would be any different right now. Besides, the fighting back there was intense, there was no way it did not drain the big guy, despite his powers,” Tony said as multiple videos of the aforementioned fight appeared on the huge screen of the Refrigerator.
“Also,” He looked up at Tony as he replied, “In the end, when both of my suits were instantly torn apart by whatever came through that portal, he seemed to be trying his best but was apparently too exhausted to make any difference. And that was when the weirdness began…” Even Tony was disturbed by what he saw, and the entire world saw.
Huge orange circles, spanning the majority of the city had appeared, and the white ethereal chains that shot out of the circle had taken hold of all the three tentacle monsters that were about to go loose rampaging throughout the city. The chains only appeared for a second or two before they disappeared with the magic circle as well, leaving behind the monsters but the monsters did not move and only collapsed on the spot.
“Yeah, you think it was the work of Invisible Man?” He rolled his eyes and flipped the sandwich, as Randall inserted himself into the call as well, his face looking visibly shaken from the entire ordeal.
“Could be,” Tony shrugged, not even phased by his hacked call being hijacked by someone else, “But if he could have done all of that, couldn’t he have done that at the beginning?”
‘Some sort of last resort, then? Something that leaves him so exhausted that he would end up falling down to his knees, like he collapsed in front of Dr.Banner here,” Randall added his two cents.
His mind went back to the nightmarish scene. They were safe and protected, so they thought, what with both the Invisible Man looking out and Tony’s Iron Man suits being remotely piloted by Jarvis but they were wrong.
A mist appeared in the middle of the room, throwing out a shockwave that seemingly burst apart the Iron Man suits, and then shot out a hand that was reaching for Betty.
At the first sign of trouble, he had already shielded her with his body, ready to let go of the control to let the Other Guy out because he knew that if there was one thing common between both of them, it was the fact that both of them would never do anything that could hurt Betty.
That was unneeded as the Invisible Man appeared in front of him in a flash, clad in blue, just in time to stop the hand. It had worked as well but the hand, even after bending in grotesque ways, seemed to go on.
The Invisible Man threw something at the portal but the hand had somehow caught it and crushed it.
After that, the Invisible Man crashed on the ground.
He was still too shocked to see the white chains and the portal itself closing, too busy in making sure that Betty was safe, that he completely missed how the invisible Man left the complex.
“Yeah, I think the Invisible Man is not alone. I went through the available footage and the only working camera at the end was one of the infrared ones on one of my suits.”
He and Randall both looked on curiously as video footage of the attack was played and in the end, it looked as if…
“Yeah, it looks like the land itself swallowed him and it is possible if the Invisible Man used his power, but I checked the sil and it is completely undisturbed. That means that there is a high chance that a portal was involved.”
“....”
“Very Impressive, Mr.Stark. No Wonder he speaks so highly of you,” A voice interjected in between as he watched Tony’s face cycle through a number of emotions as a fourth member was added to the conversation.
“Who is this? How are you doing this?” Tony’s face morphed into one of intense concentration and he too dropped the spatula and grabbed his computer, Randall probably doing the same off screen.
“Don’t bother tracking this call. It is beyond your means, just like the Invisible Man is beyond your means. I am his acquaintance, you could say. He is currently healing from the injuries of the fight. I was also the one who was responsible for disposing of the foul monsters. The Invisible Man will be back in a week’s time, that is all I can say about that,”
“What the hell…” Tony muttered, probably because he could not find any link going to anyplace other than the three nodes that he, Randall, and Tony was using.
“How are you doing this, lady? There is no code for this,” Randall exclaimed.
“The How is not important, Mr.Randall. What is important is the fact that Ms.Ross’ pregnancy has advanced into its final stage and the birth of such a powerful being has attracted quite the attention. That was the reason for last night’s fight.”
His face sank as his fears were confirmed.
Millions in property damage, thousands of people homeless, all because of him.
“Do not fret, Dr.Banner, for no lives were lost. Also, I will be working round the clock until your baby is delivered, to make sure nothing of this sort happens again. In the meantime, please continue working on your approach.”
“Holy hell!” Tony exclaimed just as the mysterious fourth part left the chat.
“I just received a data packet and you are not going to believe it….”
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