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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 87 [November 2010]

Manhattan

–Axle Riddle–

So, it was the very next day. The atmosphere inside the room was awkward, which was astonishing since he was not even in the same room as those people.

Bruce, Tony, Cho and Betty were all seated in a room, one of the spare conference rooms created just in case, and were all just staring at each other, in silence.

Cho had reached Betty safely and informed her about everything that was going on and what the chances of every option were. Dr.Cho did not let her biases taint Betty’s decision as she informed Betty about every possible decision and what it would lead to.

Betty had all heard it with a calm expression and told Dr.Cho to gather everyone relevant to her pregnancy, tomorrow morning for a meeting, and then she had just straight up looked up, “I will need your help getting there, Invisible Man,”

She had turned him into her chauffeur but oh well, anything for the demigod bearing lady.

He carefully transported her to the warehouse and then let her into the room itself, and here they were.

“So, I will only speak of this once, so make sure everyone understands this, alright?” He didn’t know who she was speaking to, in particular, but everyone nodded anyway. Nobody wanted to anger the pregnant lady, especially since angering the pregnant lady meant angering Bruce, and whoo, if they thought an angry Hulk was scary, they should take a look at protective Hulk.

“--I am keeping the baby. I am telling you, nothing will happen to me or the baby. I have gone over the designs and they are brilliant. The lifeblood solution that we used on the Vibranium actually seems wasted on me. It has so many medical applications that I was ecstatic that we could use it again.” Betty then went on a tirade about all the test results that she had read from Dr.Cho’s experiments and how it would surely help her pregnancy.

And then, after delivering her speech, she flicked the controls on her wheelchair and rolled out of the conference room in style. Just before the door to the conference room closed, a series of paper shavings and a familiar phone entered the conference room and formed his paper avatar.

“Alright guys, this has gone on long enough. Just prep for the operation and insert the fibres today. We can collect test data today itself and see if any anomaly occurs, then decide on any further complications. Alright?” His paper avatar asked anyone even though everyone knew that it was more like an order.

Bruce nodded, lifeless, as they all shuffled out of the room to carry out their respective tasks. Betty had not spoken to Bruce ever since Dr.Cho informed her about his opinion about her safety and the baby’s safety. Perhaps knowing that Bruce also had not left the warehouse, instead working himself to the bone on the operational procedures.

Ofcourse, knowing that he was active again, Bruce probably held no fear for her safety but even then, he made sure that the Master assigned for their protection focused on Betty more than Bruce. After all, The Hulk needed no protection, did he?

“Hey, can I talk to you for a second?” Tony was the last one to get up and just as he was about to exit, he closed the door and looked at his paper avatar.

“Alright,” His paper avatar nodded.

“Look, about that liquid that was given to me. How much?”

Tony Stark did not just ask him for CHI infused Holy Water, well, water from the Vishanti’s pond, that is, in exchange for something as trivial as money.

“How much for what?”

“How much do you need for that liquid? I would like to take all I can get. Come on, who wouldn’t like to get younger?” Tony asked him with a nervous smile. He could see it on his body, Tony was nervous about getting rejected.

Why though? Tony Stark never really cared much about Immortality in canon, even after having Extremis in his hand and having the expertise to get it fixed and working properly.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Tony Stark, that liquid required the undivided attention of my mentor for hours at a time, and even then, only that amount was produced. It is not a commodity that can be mass produced. The only reason even I ever got to see it is because the situation is really concerning. Put any thoughts about that out of your mind. You would be lucky to see it once again, in your entire lifetime.” Saying so, the paper avatar dispelled itself, the phone, once again, slotting back into its designated place.

They got out and saw that Bruce and Cho were prepping Betty, with the well placed anesthesia, custom made because Betty’s metabolism had shot through the roof ever since she became pregnant.

Jarivs was already getting everything ready, and once Toyn broke out of his stupor, came out and joined Jarvis to get the final touches in. They had created a Captain America-esque pod that would house Betty and then insert the Vibranium fibres using a highly sophisticated hand that would be operated by Jarvis and supervised by both Dr.Cho and Tony about the exact positions of the fibres.

Even after Tony likely invented a higher spec MRI, they could not get past the radiation wall around the baby to get an accurate positioning of the baby, a problem that was solved by the data packet sent to Tony by the Ancient One.

So they were pretty confident about the data and were going to use that as a template, along with numerous close range scans.

Bruce was standing beside Betty, holding her hand as they all looked at Tony and Cho prepping the machine.

The news about the operation had likely reached FUry because he could see a cascading barrage of Blacked out SUVs, out of which SHIELD personnel poured out to secure the entire thing.

6 Iron Men suits hovered around the warehouse, keeping guard as they were finally about to move into the surgery state of the solution.

He grinned as he saw the large forces that had turned out, not to capture or hurt Bruce, but to protect him and his unborn child from outside influences.

It was heartening to witness and hopefully, seeing something like that would make Bruce understand the good that still existed in the world instead of the bad that he had encountered.

He could even see the Random beautiful agent being mobilised for this, which was a rarity and she probably understood that as well, judging by the tremor in her body as she held a pistol in her hand and armour on her body.

“Ready!” Tony gave out his confirmation as Betty finally went under.

Bruce reluctantly tore himself away from her as they all stood behind a thick glass barrier, designed to contain any stray radiation and create a sterilised environment for the operation.

Betty’s vitals were stable as the robot arm picked up a single vibranium fibre, still glowing white and yellow, and carefully inserted it right above her belly button.

We all waited with bated breaths for something to happen…”Yes!”

Everyone flinched as Tony cheered. After he saw everyone looking at him, he gestured to the large screen where new information was being updated.

“The Radiation is being successfully absorbed by the fibres and is being dissipated outside at far faster rates than we expected.”

“Any danger?” “no, her vital signs are all stable.”

“Alright, Jarvis, proceed,” Bruce ordered as the arm jerked back into motion.

Slowly, one by one, they inserted all the dozen Vibranium fibres they had on hand. Once the entire process was done, everyone saw the amount of Radiation inside Betty’s body had dropped by over 90%, most of it being drawn away by the fibres.

The fibres now shone yellow, white, and green, as Betty was finally safe from danger.

“Alright, now we keep her under observation for a week, at the very least.” Dr.Cho helpfully informed them as she continued to write notes after notes about the entire process.

Now that the process was successfully done, they could discuss the next step…

He stopped mid sip on his coffee, back in his apartment, as he saw Tony and Dr.Cho both tensing up for some reason.

Bruce too looked distressed and panicked as something was happening. Before he could voice out his question, Tony spoke, “The baby, it is sending out even more radiation.”

What the hell?

“Quick, everyone, get out!” Bruce turned around and yelled at everyone, his muscles almost enlarging before they turned back to normal human size.

Something was wrong, he realised as he flung every single person inside the room, save for Dr.Cho and Tony, who were both in the process of entering a protected Iron Man suit, out of the warehouse.

He watched as the warehouse was now completely sealed, using Stark Tech, which probably sealed off the radiation. Even so, he gave the order to the SPOC they had on hand for SHIELD, “Evacuate the nearby areas, give a radiation warning. I have already warned the Mayor. We need to be ready if something happens.”

The agent didn’t think twice and scrambled away to follow the orders.

Huh, look at him, ordering around SHIELD agents.

He looked inside, and saw all three of them working furiously, even as Betty didn’t so much as twitch during the entire process, her heart beating calmly and her vitals seeming normal to him.

Welp, time to make sure that the Ancient One was right in her predictions. Otherwise, he was going to have a Hulk sized problem on his hands.

Good thing that he just had a power up last month, it might just come in handy this time.

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