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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 89 [May 2011]

Unfinished Stark Tower, Manhattan

–Tony Stark–

“You know Bruce when Pepper offered to babysit for little Bellina, I don’t think she meant that I would babysit for you,” He told Bruce, overlooking the robot who was in the process of changing Bellina’s diaper, something that was not a task that he would do, in his lifetime, even if he was forced at gunpoint.

No. Just no.

“I know, Tony but on the plus side, you know Bellina likes you the most out of all her uncles,” Bruce said in a mock attempt at placating him, especially since he knew that Bruce was with Randall, experimenting on something that he was not allowed to know. He was not a fool, he already knew about the random Gamma Bursts from the subterranean layers of Manhattan.

He could not physically go there but he knew something was afoot. Plus, somewhere in his mind, he really liked little Bellina, hellion that she was, otherwise Bruce would not have been able to dump her on him.

There was a reason he had an entire room chock full with Baby stuff and all manners of toys. Some were suitable for a 6 month old baby, some were suitable for a teenager. He just went to a toy store and bought them all.

“Diaper Extraction done, sir.” Jarvis’ voice pinged him as Bruce smiled apologetically at him and he resisted the urge to show him the middle finger as the video feed closed off, and he made baby noises as he went to pick up little Bellina, who was fast growing up to be the best baby this world has ever seen.

“Oh, who’s a good girl? You are, you are the bestest best girl on the planet. Yes, you are! Yes!--”

“Wow!”

His frame froze as he glared at the remotely piloted robot in front of him. Jarvis didn’t warn him, the little shit!

He turned around to see Pepper in her business suit with a smirk on her face, telling him exactly what she was thinking.

“No! NO babies. Nuh-uh, not until–”

“Relax! I was just going to say, atleast this means that you will love our babies the same way, whenever the time might come.” Pepper said and then continued to disregard him completely once she had little Bellina in her arms.

Good god, that child was an attention hog. Everywhere she went, the world continued to adore her. All that was left was sunshine and rainbows everytime she so much as giggled.

“Wait! Pepper, not fair! I was assigned as the babysitter, I have it on record!” He rushed to get to Pepper who was undoubtedly going to the temporary living floor that was built.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

It was temporary, but it was built according to his standards, so it was much better than what 99.9% people lived in.

“Relax, she just needs to sit down in a space that is not littered with robots.” She looked at him reproachfully and he…had nothing to say to that, astonishingly.

“Wow, Tony Stark, speechless, something that one doesn’t get many of,” He whirled around with his finger already pointed at the surge of papers that came in through the AC vent and formed into the Invisible Man’s favourite avatar.

“You! Get out!”

When the paper continued to stand there with its arm crossed, he looked up, “Jarvis! Remind me to make the tower entirely sealed. We wouldn’t want to have strays-” He sneered at the paper avatar who shrugged at the insult, disregarding it entirely “--entering the building once it is done.”

“Oh, come on, Tony. Hello, IM!” Pepper waved at the paper avatar cheerily.

“Hi Pepper, how are you doing? Did you have that blood clot checked out?”

“Yes, I did and thank you so much for telling me about that. You know, the doctor said…”

What the hell was going on?

He watched on, transfixed, as the paper avatar, which was just a remotely piloted construct, walked over and sat down on his couch, right next to his wife, yeah, wife and began chatting with her animatedly, with Pepper not even slowing down in the least even when she had to make sure that Bellina did not stray too far away from her.

Not that it was a concern in any way. It would be safe to say that in the entire city, the single most guarded individual would be little Bellina, what with her heterochromatic eyes, one green and one white, and her rather significant ancestry.

He and Bruce, both believed that the colour of her eyes signified the process through which she was born, with the gree signifying the Gamma from Bruce and the white signifying the CHI (as much as it pained him to use that term for the life giving rays, he was not the inventor of it so he didn’t have much say in the naming process), that helped Betty not just survive but turn into a Super Mommy, capable of lifting cars and becoming bulletproof.

Oh yeah, Betty Ross was not someone who could protect Bruce and not the other way around, at least when Bruce was in non powered form, that is.

“Now, what do you want, you stalker?” He ended up taking up little Bellina from Pepper and asked the paper avatar.

Pepper looked at him with disappointment but he was made of sterner stuff than that.

“Nothing, I was just wondering what are you doing here, in this unfinished tower of yours. By the way, compensating much?”

Well, the answer to that was kinda complicated.

For one, he finally had a SCIENCE! Bro to tinker with. Bruce was nice, to talk to, to discuss ideas and also to talk about life as well.

Being a new father, Bruce had a newfound perspective on life and also it was really nice to see Bruce coming out of his shell, and becoming a very confident person.

That confidence was sort of contingent on Bellina remaining in Manhattan, under the Invisible Man’s umbrella but Bruce was very much forward now.

He and Betty had become active in the academic community now and actually had a home office, courtesy of the Invisible Man’s Russian Billionaire benefactor.

The government had actually rescinded all the decisions taken against BRuce and they were actually living a normal life in Manhattan, just landlocked into the island.

Bruce was more outgoing now, and nowadays, Bruce and Betty could be found on dates around the island, sometimes with him and Pepper as well.

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