The Sage of the Mind

Disclaimer - The rights of the respective characters are with their respective owners. I don’t mean to violate their intellectual property rights and thus, only my original characters are my IP. 

The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 40 [December 2009]

–Axle Riddle–

He continued to keep a hawkish gaze on the six people who had entered the soup kitchen. For the life of him, he could not find the slightest odd behavior from any of them, even the one who was currently sitting down in the sewer, looking oddly pensive as he kept a straight gaze at the six people eating in the soup kitchen as if he could see straight through the earth.

Now that they were closer, he was a lot more confident in his ability to handle them, should they act out of turn. It had been over 45 minutes since they had entered the soup kitchen and he had flooded the area with his presence. Even now, all the workers of the soup kitchen and the people who are currently eating were covered in a thin layer of micro barriers that were subtly protecting them.

At this point, it was getting slightly tedious but the way the wiry muscles in all the six people were tensed, as if in preparation for some fight, he could not afford to be lax in the security of the innocent people eating there. At this point, the kitchens were running so smoothly and efficiently that most low income families and workers had one of their meals of the day in the kitchen.

Sure, it could be said that they were capable of procuring their own meals and were stealing meals from the mouths of the ones that truly needed it, and to them, he would say: Back OFF!

Food should not be denied to anyone, in his socialist opinion but the way things worked, he was sure that the Billionaires that benefited from his protection would not mind paying a modest fee to make sure that tens of thousands of people ate properly. It was not even chump change for them. 

So, no, he was more than happy that the soup kitchens were so properly maintained that even families felt that it was both safe and hygienic enough for them to bring in their children. He was very happy when he saw that happening at first and he had to, very politely, remind the police that had been called in by some bystander who felt as if the soup kitchens were his own property, that no anybody could eat there.

Case in point, he could see some of the older NYPD gentlemen enter the soup kitchen, talking and laughing, feeling safe in the fact that nothing and nothing untoward would happen to any of them as they were now officially in the Invisible Man’s territory.

The second the police entered their vision, he was ready to take action and remove the six hulks completely from the equation but aside from widening eyes and a slight pause in eating, the six continued as if they were completely normal and not enhanced people who could probably take bullets to the face and come out the other side unscathed.

So, he stayed his hand, once again. He was unsure as to how to proceed from now on. On the one hand, he could completely disregard them and their strength and bring them into his territory with ease, wherein they would be completely under his mercy. On the other hand, they literally hadn’t done anything worthy of his notice, aside from being enhanced underneath the normal facade they had going on.

It was kind of amazing how they had the distinct aura of a Hulk but they looked completely normal from the outside. He could see that it was completely authentic, no illusionary method of any sort present on their body.

Bruce Banner did not get that privilege but these people did. He wagered that Bruce would be very interested in seeing how these people ticked, not that he had any lab equipment set up. That was another thing that he had yet to do.

Betty’s arrival did alleviate many things but Bruce’s drive to get rid of his alter ego was only dimmed, not snuffed out. He was sure that once news of this incident reached Bruce's ears, he would once again start pestering him for lab equipment.

Sure, he could get him some elementary stuff that he could set up in a small space but the thing was, Bruce now lived in Manhattan. It was absurdly expensive even before he made it the de facto world leader in crime rates, them being down that is. He was sure that it was probably the safest city in the world, for its population.

Some crimes like hate crimes, jaywalking, conspiracy to murder, and some weed sales that were illegal by the US law but not in his mind, still happened and the police were more than happy to register them so as to make themselves feel useful but overall, violent crimes had been dropped to near zero.

He had even had the opportunity to witness the tradition of Scandinavian countries migrating to Manhattan as well, where the mothers would often leave their babies out in the snow, unattended, so as to acclimate them to the weather. That was not something that was very clever but it was absolutely nice to see it happening naturally, the people of Manhattan are no longer afraid of crimes against their babies happening.

He watched as one of the police officers flirted with one of the employees at the soup kitchen. Yes, they had employees instead of volunteers because employees could be properly trained and compensated for their time and effort, instead of just exploiting volunteers with little to no training in handling volatile situations that could probably pop up at such places.

Another thing was all the employees at all the soup kitchens, were the people who attended the Congregation at Central Park, making them almost perfect employees as they worked with zeal, didn’t complain, not that he gave them any reason to, accepted the wages he gave them (He paid them fairly), and didn't= even blink at his additional requests to, if possible, help all the people that come the kitchen in need.

The six hulks kept a close eye on the police officers, always managing to keep the police in sight even as they moved out. Eventually, the police settled down in their usual places and scarfed down the food provided to them, as the six hulks left the place. 

He saw them enter the parking lot and just…..look at each other, in confusion and fear for some reason. He was just debating whether to give them a joyride through the air when the largest one looked up for some reason.

“Um, Hello? Invisible Man?” 

When he took a moment to reply, the other one furiously whispered to the other five, “You guys said that this is how we could contact him. Now see, he is not responding. I say that we-”

His words were cut short as he lifted all six of them and just slingshot them straight into the city. Their screams were muffled by a mobile application of his Curtain of Silence as they headed straight into an alley. 

As they were about to crash, the earth seemingly parted itself to reveal a deep dark hole that led straight to the underground highway that he had built before.

Time to see just what was going on here.

If you guys would like to support my writing or just read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon or Ko-fi, for upto 5 extra chapters.