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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 95 [March 2012]
Manhattan
–Axle Riddle–
So, there he was, in a board meeting of the Wu enterprises, smiling and nodding along as the Board clapped themselves on the back for the phenomenal performance they were having year on year, especially their investments which were already netting them returns that they thought impossible a year ago.
Due to his stake in Stark Industries, Wu enterprises had finally been able to break into the heavy energy sector and start building parts that were now required for the Arc Reactor. Somehow, without him even doing anything about it, Tony had given some concessions to the Wu enterprises firm and was now allowing them to be the only offshore supplier of the rings that were necessary for the safe functioning of the Arc Reactor.
That’s right, Tony was building the world’s first commercial Arc Reactor, right here, in Manhattan.
Getting past the red tape was tough but with Tony’s money and his supernatural favours, they were able to get past everything and get a site cleared for a test situation. ONce the reactor runs safely for a month, the city will then begin the process of hooking it up to the city’s grid.
New York might not be the best place to start with an Arc Reactor. There were much more remote places that worked on just fossil fuels that would have benefited immensely from round the clock clean energy but the thing was, he had no influence on those things. He could just get things approved here.
So, aside from the Arc Reactor already installed in Stark Tower, Tony was going to be building another one, one with much lower throughout so that it can comply with some of the bare minimum safety standards that the government imposed on them.
In fact, if he looked outside the hotel conference room they were in, he would be able to see the building, once it was finished. The thing about the Arc Reactor was that it did not have a fixed orientation.
It was just a fusion core that gave out direct electricity. No need to convert the heat into steam to run a turbine to generate electricity. No, it was straight up electrons moving juice coming out of the reactor.
So, the requirements for the structure of it were very loose. As such, Tony had decided to build a huge building to house the Arc Reactor, something like a skyscraper. It would house everything obviously including the office staff.
It was going to be manned by the personnel from the government, obviously, but the construction and maintenance will be in the hands of Tony, at least for the first plant. They might have allowed Tony to build it, they were not going to allow him to run it, at all. Oh, he will get the profits but profits were not what Tony was after, in this particular situation.
He was looking at this as a proof of concept.
“Mr.Riddle? Mr.Riddle? Are you listening?”
“Hmm??” he looked back to see a bunch of old fogies looking at him with mildly hidden annoyance and anger. That was to be understood. After all, he was the sole reason they were having this meeting in New York in a hotel.
That’s right, he had made all the board members of one of the largest companies in China, come all the way to New York, just so he could participate in the meeting and then was not paying attention at all to what they were saying or what they wanted to do.
Frankly, most of it was nonsense anyway so he did not regret it but he should have done a better job at masking it. Now, the old fogies were all upset and would go back home and cry and whine to the older fogie who would then call upon him.
Ugh. What a drag.
So, he bowed at them, apologised, smiled, and then left the meeting, with nothing to add from his side.
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What more could he do?
He had already given them over 5 billion dollars in order just this year, their shares were rising, and enquires came flowing in, not just from the global private sector but also from the CCP who were interested in the company, Master Wu and his relationship with the rising American Superhero.
Not his problem, not his circus.
“Ah! That’s the stuff,” He exited the five star hotel and went into the closest coffee store he could find, getting the sweet sweet iced coffee shot that literally melted all his troubles away.
Done with his coffee, he gave the Barista a hefty tip since it was not a franchise and the employees actually worked hard on making sure that his order was well made, and went right back to his apartment.
Oh yeah, he got a new apartment as well.
Flexing his money, he was able to get himself a penthouse suite with breathtaking views that were certainly popular with the ladies, and most importantly, had the now almost finished Stark Tower right in his field of view.
He could sense that most of the tower was done, save for a few basement floors’ being integrated properly and the defense mechanisms not being installed in the top few floors.
Oh yeah, Tony, knowing that New York suffered through spontaneous alien invasions that are sometimes stopped in time (Moloids) and sometimes are stopped only after they have done a certain amount of damage to their surroundings (The Guy Below), he had chosen to take matters into his own hands and make his building a veritable fortress, with repulsor weaponry installed in such a way that every corner of the building was covered.
If he was not wrong, the inauguration date was set to be sometime in July, which he felt bad for because the Chitauri Invasion happened right before the building was supposed to be inaugurated, probably sometime around May.
The preparations for the attack were in swing and he had a hunch that the INvasion was going to be pretty anticlimactic, which was good but he was worried that it might just set the wrong perception in the minds of the common populace, underscoring the threats of future alien invasions, with the aliens being much stronger and way less in number.
In fact, if he was not wrong, one such invasion was already underway, with the Skrulls.
He had them in the back of his mind when he first began scanning every single human he met, down to the tiniest detail but he had yet to meet someone whose genetic structure varied so much from a normal human’s.
Vampires were different because they were essentially dead, with their heart beating at almost 1 bpm, allowing him to identify and exterminate them with ease.
Skrulls were going to be an issue, he could tell.
Thankfully, he had another way of reading people now.
He sat down on the sofa, and leaned back, closing his eyes and letting his mind…expand.
Almost instantly, he was assaulted by a cacophony of thoughts, too jumbled to make any sense of but the thoughts were there.
He was rather limited in his range at the moment, since it was a new ability he had just unlocked, after three months of hard practice and it was proving to be rather difficult in terms of training and growing it.
TK was easy, lift big heavy stuff, lift multiple big heavy stuff, lift thousands of tiny stuff. It was easy to get different exercises going for strength, dexterity, stamina and more, when it came to his TK.
His spatial awareness fed on his TK strength so that was a non issue.
It was telepathy that was giving him a tough time. But slowly, he was making progress.
Maybe not remotely but if could atleast touch a Skrull, he would be able to identify if the person was human or not. Atelast that much he could do.
Unfortunately, he had never met anyone with his real body.
He swore as he felt a particular emotion bleed through the telepathy and had to cut it off because it was getting annoying.
Sigh.
He just sprawled himself on the sofa as his mind wandered as to what he would do about the Chitauri. It was clear that they needed to go and he would be able to do that even before Loki had a chance to set things up.
Unfortunately, that ruined the agreement he had where he had to let the Invasion happen. Probably because the world needed to know and this was probably a bad way to get the shock across, but a very effective one.
One that could not be hidden by the governments or by SHIELD.
No, he had to create an impact, probably some property damage while he evacuated everyone to the tunnel below Manhattan or to the Central Park and safeguard them from all the damage, allowing the news to broadcast everything in real time.
That should make sure that the threat of aliens gets across to the public, who should, in turn vote for people who will address their concerns.
Then again, he did not want a warmongering xenophobic person to be elected just because people were afraid.
Options. Options.
Ah, this is all so complicated.
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