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 121[May 2012]

US Airspace 

–Tony Stark–

"What do you mean, we can't leave the United States airspace, are they mad? This is our chance to lure Loki into a location of our choosing instead of chasing him around the planet, which has turned out wonderful for all of us," He couldn't help but shout at their liaison with the White House who had outright denied their request to leave the States to some deserted location elsewhere, where they would be zero chances of Loki hurting anyone, well, aside from them that is.

He was thinking some desert with no people for hundreds of miles in any direction. The ocean would have been the perfect choice but not all of their fighters were flyers and he didn't want to risk the chance of death by drowning just because his suit got bunged up in the battle and he couldn't find a replacement in time.

He was really not good at swimming. The best swimming he had done, according to his humble opinion, would be the swim to become the prime zygote.

"Then what else do you want us to do? We need to bring Loki to our terms. If we continued chasing him around the world, the death toll will continue to rise because Loki is going to continue targeting major cities and not every city is as fortunate as New York," Randall stomped forward and snarled at their liaison who didn't even flinch at that, and that must be impressive because they had all seen Randall and his brothers in action at the California battle. 

They were savage and very well coordinated. It was as if the brothers shared a psychic link. Thor seemed to get along exceptionally well with all of them.

"Mr.Randall and Mr.Stark, the President has declared a national emergency and you, as a team, are the single most valuable resource we have to defend the country. Under no circumstances, can we allow all of you to leave the country. If the other countries cannot defend themselves without your intervention, then I am sorry to say but there is nothing we can do but pray for their safety," Saying so, the woman cut the call.

"Good Lord," Bruce whispered as he looked at a screen, which held the current casualty counter, traced by Jarvis himself, so it should be pretty accurate.

"A quarter million dead, huh?" He muttered to himself as he stormed out of the Lab, to the storage area where all the new suits had arrived, from his various production facilities in the States.

Once upon a time, that would have been just a number to him, something that would be the end result of his weapons being fired at a population centre. Sure, the numbers never reached those numbers at a time, but he was sure that the Stark name that was printed on all of their weapons, held the blood of more than a quarter million who were now dead because of Loki's invasion.

He had a plan, and Thor agreed that it would work, not to mention that it was their only plan that had any chances of working and yet, due to stupid old people and their fear of death, they were constrained to a single country.

Sighing, he rubbed his face in defeat, "Jarvis, find the most suitable area in the Continental United States please?"

If they were not going to let them leave the country and not going to tell him which area to lead Loki to, then he might just have to choose one himself.

"Also, look for an area that can be bought up quickly," He reminded Jarvis because he knew that the only reason the President was not allotting him an area was because he was a politician and then he would have to answer why he destroyed that area and not some other deserted area because frankly, the United States was full of empty areas and yet, had some of the highest cost of home ownership in the world, wonderful capitalistic phenomenon.

"Alright, gentlemen, let's hope this works otherwise the world will soon become a Nuclear wasteland," Then, he remembered something and quickly asked Jarvis, "Open a line to Thor,"

"Yes, sir." 

"Thor, suppose we catch Loki, do you have any way of making sure that he cannot escape because he escaped last time," He quickly reminded Thor because even after going through hell, if they couldn't keep Loki imprisoned, it was all going to be a waste of time, effort and most probably, lives.

A small part in him reminded him that he was the most squishy member around. Bruce, the Hulk brothers, and Thor, they were all very bulletproof and mostly invulnerable to everything, except nukes that is but he was the one who would die with a well placed laser from even the Chitauri foot soldiers.

"Jarvis, prep all the suits. Bring more from the fabrication facilities. We will need everything for this. Also, contact some of the newer enhanced people that have emerged out of the ground to defend their countries. See if they can be convinced to fight Loki,"

"Affirmative, sir. Location found. The Utah Salt Flats,"

He sighed at that. He was afraid of something like this.

"But that is a protected region. Tony, we cannot just destroy a natural wonder like that," Bruce was the one who argued against the location but a single sentence from Randall shut down any incoming arguments.

Randall chuckled, "Well, we can either let Loki destroy our artificial wonders and then move on to these natural wonders or we can take the fight to him, sacrificing one of our natural wonders and stop him, once and for all," 

He agreed with that, "Jarvis. Prep the suits. Select that location and broadcast it to any enhanced we have in range, or is willing to come by. Put out an SOS for any nearby people, tell them it's a national emergency or something and lastly, check in on Axle. Is he awake yet?"

"No sir, his brain scans show an astonishing amount of activity which seems to increase with every passing moment but all vital signs are normal,"

He sighed in relief and disappointment at that. They would have won this war with contemptuous ease if Axle were awake but if they did win this war, with extreme losses, he would be very much relieved if Axle were on their side, because if an Alien invasion can occur once, it can happen again and he would very much like their juggernaut to be with them for the next one.

He already had ideas on how to improve basically everything when it came to his defense protocols, because so far, all he had focussed on was the US, his company, his home, and some key high violence zones. 

Nothing that would span the globe. He might have to change that, after this, and who knows, if the rest of the world could cooperate on this, then he might just have a chance of seeing something happen that he never thought would happen. 

Global Cooperation or Unification for a single cause.

Something like that would be necessary to have a planetary defense system, like a suit of armour around the world.

"Randall, tell everyone to be ready. We will call on Loki in an hour and since he can get there instantly, we will ambush him as soon as he arrives." He deflated after Randall left the lab, suddenly feeling all the bruises from the last fight.

It had been a very high speed, high tension time ever since they entered the Stark Jet to go get Loki. He hadn't had a good sleep since then. He was sure that he was going to crash for a week after this battle was–

"Get some sleep," He looked up at Bruce who was looking at him, concerned.

"We all have some powers but you don't. You can't fight on an empty tank. I've already informed Jarvis to get you an easily digestible smoothie and get the bed ready. I'll wake you up in an hour."

He was about to argue but then his eyes grew heavy and he began yawning. "Okay," he nodded and left the lab.

A/N - I realise that the fic has been somewhat serious for the past few chapters, a departure from the crack-ish vibe I was going for. All I can say is that we will return to the goofy vibe in the next few chapters.

Toodles!

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