Technomancer in MCU #1

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 76

Technomancer in MCU

Project Ark

–Frank Castle–

When he first saw Toby floating with the head of the Ancient One held in his right hand, he had resigned himself to losing another one of his once allies.

Contrary to what everybody thought, he loved each and every one of his allies and the people he could count on to watch his back could be counted on his fingers but with Toby, it was a contradictory relationship he had with him.

He could actually see where Toby was coming from. The things he must have suffered through while being in the hell dimension must have warped his worldview immensely.

Not to mention that Ed had once confided in him that Toby's powers were not without flaws. As Toby took on more and more of the skills of other beings, the more his original essence would be replaced by the consumed species. In other words, the Toby that had been with Ed when they both died was not the same Toby that they found gallivanting through the Dark Dimension.

While he was not aware of the level of battle that Ed and the Ancient One fought when sealing Toby, the spells and the strength behind them used by Alfred was the most mind-boggling thing he had seen that day.

Watching the strongest fighters of the organisation giving it their all, even going so far as to injure themselves and only being able to stall or push Toby back was very much disheartening.

As much as he would have loved to use his abilities, he knew when he was thoroughly outclassed. If even the Diggle brothers were unable to put a dent on the monster, then using his aura would have a negligible effect at best, and at worst, he would just be tying everyone down as they tried to protect him.

He had thought that with Alfred using the spells of Vishanti, Toby would finally be defeated since the might of the Vishanti was something that was known to everybody in the organisation, and in a way, it did defeat Toby but left behind a dead husk piloted by Dormammu who started exerting more and more influence in this dimension as he got used to the laws of the place.

During one of their many mandatory meetings, they had been informed that Dormammu couldn't enter the main universe due to some rules he was bound by. He can, however, suck in planets to his dimension through portals and while he was sure that it was not public knowledge, Earth was somehow the mystical hub through which Dormammu would be able to exert even more of his influence on the universe if he just captured Earth and all the beings with their mystical potential on it.

That was why protecting the Sanctums in case of an attack was an A-tier property of the organisation.

The same rules, however, allow Dormammu free reign when it comes to alternate, especially artificially created, dimensions. Dormammu must be exploiting that loophole to bring more and more of his powers through the once body of Toby. He could see the spell almost fizzling up, just like their hopes of dealing with this empowered version of Toby.

With almost all the combat power of the organisation here and with varying degrees of injury, he was unsure if turning tail and running was the best option here.

As he was thinking of telling Alfred to just abandon ship and run away, something that he was sure Alfred was thinking about, he stilled as he felt an ominous gaze on him.

Cold sweat ran down his neck as he slowly turned his neck towards the black abomination that was once the body of Toby Mathers and found himself looking at two purple eyes staring down at him or rather, at someone besides him.

Next thing he knew, the severed head of the Ancient One had landed right outside the barrier that kept him and Ed safe, and Ed was looking right at it, his eyes blank.

Shit! He thought as his aura had been limited to himself because he was distracted and with Ed seeing this, he was bound to go berserk but before he could try and use his ability to calm Ed down, Ed snapped his gaze towards him and the next thing he saw was a metal whip coming towards him and the next thing he knew was darkness as he was knocked out cold on his back.

He could hear Alfred screaming in the background, "RUN!"

He came back to consciousness as Alfred nearly overloaded his system with CHI shocks to forcefully wake him up, "Gasp, what happened?"

He asked Alfred who was looking up towards something. Following his gaze, his heart nearly seized in terror at what he was seeing.

The dark energy ball that was Dormammu manifested in this dimension had grown to tower over all of them and in front of that ball of darkness, stood a storm of matter that constantly shifted states with green lightning bursting out of it.

At the center of it, with blazing green eyes and energy literally misting out of his body, stood Ed. But at that moment, it was not the Ed he knew and loved who was able to analyse everything calmly and make rational decisions.

The Ed he was seeing was something straight out of one's nightmares. His face set into a rictus of pain and anger, he continuously molded his surroundings into all sorts of different matter before assembling them into machines and then disassembling the same components to form even bigger machines.

It would seem that today was the day he was going to witness Ed using his full might. All these years, he had heard from Alfred about the legendary powers of their leader and while he did believe him, he was never quite sure that Ed's powers truly did make him the strongest person in their organisation since the Ancient One was also technically a part and now, even Alfred had ascended.

With that said, the sheer pressure that Ed gave off as he continued to glare at the rapidly ballooning presence of Dormammu was something else.

After just a few seconds that somehow felt like an eternity, as if a hidden command was given, all the matter that surrounded Ed that was rotating around him at untold speeds came to a screeching halt.

Then it happened. Even as he saw the matter liquefy and come crashing down towards Ed, forming a mecha suit that he had only seen in fantasy, he could scarcely believe his eyes.

It reminded him of a construct he had seen during one of the cartoons that was shown to the kids at the organisation.

Then, in front of his very eyes, the entirety of their surroundings, nay, the entire dimension began cracking as a huge ball of energy formed in front of Ed's mouth which was surrounded by phantom arms that sprouted on Ed's back.

The green energy ball began sucking in air from its surroundings, including him. The only thing keeping him stuck to the ground was some of the modules Alfred had repurposed on the fly since Ed had, with a single strike, deactivated every single function of his suit, rendering him completely immobile.

With a pained roar, Ed's phantom arms pushed the orb towards Dormammu and when it hit, the scenario this time was clearly different from when Alfred used a similar spell.

Was it because of Ed's powers or because of the damage Alfred had already done to Dormammu's form, he did not know.

But as Dormammu was trying to drown the green ball in his signature dark energy, Ed flew close to him, letting loose a barrage of energy attacks, and began crashing into him at high speeds, akin to a speedster.

It almost reminded him of the powerset of Makkari as Ed quite literally used his ever-increasing mass to ram into Dormammu's form, distracting him from the rapidly destabilising space around them.

"He's going to do it," he heard Alfred whisper before he tried creating more portals, to no avail.

"What's wrong?" he asked Alfred who seemed to become more and more frantic while trying to open new portals. He was clearly making progress as more and more sparks began emanating from the portal that Alfred was trying to create but it would seem that Alfred would not be able to open them in time.

"You will rue the day you did this, Dormammu," He heard a whisper-like voice that seemed to come from everywhere as chills ran down his spine at the sheer hatred present in the voice.

"Alfred, what is happening?" He asked Alfred once again as the cracks in the dimension began spreading to the very edges and greyish mist began coming in through the cracks.

"Ed is destroying the very dimension we are in and while I am sure that I will survive thanks to my body and you probably will too, the shock of forced transport will kill Ed. Not to mention that we could be spit out into the middle of nowhere with no immediate way of getting medical attention to Ed," Alfred said while he struggled more and more to open a portal.

Alas, it seemed as if it was actually becoming harder and harder to open one since the grey mist began seeping in through the cracks.

With a silent shockwave that seemed to rip everything apart in its way, Dormammu burst like a balloon and ripped everyone away from their positions, including Ed as the green suit around him began to fizzle out, leaving him in a coffin-like structure that he must have built in the heat of the moment.

The shockwave was the final shock that increased the rate at which the cracks began spreading throughout the dimension, making the sky look like a broken mirror.

"No!" Alfred screamed as he reached towards Ed's coffin-like suit but the grey mist had long since suffused the surroundings and as if something had sucked him right out of the dimension, Ed was pulled through the starry sky and disappeared right in front of their very eyes.

Alfred slumped in resignation as he created a small barrier around both of them and even as grey filled their vision, Alfred kept on looking for Ed when finally, with a thunderous sound, the entire dimension collapsed and they were violently ejected out of Project Ark.

Both of them were rag-dolled through a series of Rainbow roads, the barrier popping like a balloon at the first crash, and were spit out and crashed on a hard surface.

Blinking the red spots out of his vision, he looked to see that they had crash-landed on a red surface, creating a crater around him.

Just nearby, he could see Alfred already up and about meditating as dimensional energy crackled around him, probably already searching for ways to get off the planet and look for Ed before something bad happened to him.

It seemed like Alfred's prayers were answered as a fiery portal manifested in front of them, although the sight of the portal was a little off.

Looking closer, both Alfred and he stiffened as the portal was not made out of dimensional energy but actually hellfire.

He raised his guard up and got ready to use up the remaining meager energy he had to actually be useful this time and not be fucking deadweight.

That was when he heard Alfred whisper, "Impossible!" and immediately activated all his weapons and spells, aiming at the portal.

________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 1953

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.


A/N - I don't think I did the fight any justice and will strive to learn to write better fight scenes. That's all I have to say.

Thank you for reading!

Toodles!

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 77

Technomancer in MCU

Earth

–Toby Mathers–

He chuckled as he saw the way Ed handled the press, the politicians, and their idiotic questions. He always liked that side of Ed, although he preferred a much direct way of shutting them all up but each to their own, he guessed.

He stretched as the people around him gave him a wide berth, owing to his massive stature, made especially more noticeable since the people in Japan were already so tiny.

While the grasslands had their own charm, the Cherry Blossom season in Tokyo had its own beauty as well. Relearning how to use the internet had been a pain in the butt to deal with, though nothing a quick knowledge-replicating spell couldn't solve.

He was currently on a journey to witness the beauty of the place he was so desperately trying to protect.

…

While he was lounging on the grasslands after the mere two hours of sleep, curse his enhanced physique, he began pondering on his choices. The choices that led to him being sealed by his very own best friend.

He had to admit, that while the betrayal still stung, upon pondering his actions and how they must have looked to someone who had not gone through what he had experienced, he probably would have had similar reactions.

He then decided to do something that he never had the luxury to do in ḭ̶͔̪̈̇̈́ń̶̜̦̈̌͊̌̈́̎͂͛ͅf̷͕̺͚̻̗͙̏͊́̈͛e̵̪͍̋̃͝r̸̛͈̣̙̿͌̈́͑͑͗͘͜͠ò̶͓͓̩̾̈́̈́͠ś̴͍̖́̾̈́̈̍̂̕ ̵̨͓͍̭̗̟̣̺͈̐̈́͑̅̆̈́

Where he had to watch over his back every second of every day, meditation.

He had some practice from back when the Ancient One, bless her soul, had taken it upon herself to drill some concepts of inner peace in his thick skull but he had always been too stubborn to learn something new.

Even then, he felt as if the time and place matched for something boring and soothing, like meditation. So, he took it upon himself to self-reflect.

After laying down some rudimentary wards to make sure his energy signature could not be tracked, he sat cross-legged to meditate. Using the exercises that he could still remember, he dived deep into his mind to try and understand himself better.

Because that was what he had come to Earth for. Until Ed had his time to do things his way, he would not obstruct their mission in any way, but he had a lot of free time during his imprisonment and while he was still far from forgiving them, he had to at least give Ed and the Ancient One credit that all that time sure did mellow him out.

The old him would have charged at Kamar Taj the first thing out of prison and slaughtered his way to the Ancient One who would have fought him and as much as he hated to admit it, imprisoned him once again. It was not sheer raw strength that made the Ancient One so feared, though she had that in spades as well, it was her mind. She could mindfuck people from far away, destroying any chance of them succeeding at all.

Upon entering his mindscape, he deadpanned at the hideousness of it all.

"Yup, that's me, I guess," he muttered upon seeing the condition of his mind-space.

Day by day, somehow, he begins to appreciate his imprisoners. Yup, it was that fucked up.

Honestly, it could not even be called a single mindscape. He could see deep fractures marred by different lines. The lines would indicate the different powers he had stolen from different demons and their lineages to further his goals. He was no saint, he would freely admit it. In his hunger for power and desperation to return home, he had decimated entire clans of demons, entire cities turned to dust in his wrath and many demon clans were now extinct due to him.

So, in a way, he deserved this.

His mind-space was a huge landscape, at the center of which laid his primary power, which he had not used in a long while. At some point, he simply became too powerful for the locals to challenge him anymore. They just complied with his demands and once they learned that he did everything just so he could go home, the enthusiasm levels skyrocketed.

There was no way he was mentally stable if his mind looked like a broken mirror with all the broken pieces having different colours and shapes.

So, he rolled up his metaphorical sleeves and got to work. Willing them to mend themselves didn't work so he had to enter all the different pieces and bring them back to their normal states manually.

Entering the purple part, which was the largest of the broken pieces, he came face to face with the first demon who had attacked him. Honestly, he would have loved to say that he had forgotten it, but that day was the building block that set the tone for his conquest of the entire dimension. Not wanting to waste any more time, he simply willed for the demon to be destroyed, telekinesis was handy like that.

But a confused expression came on his face when he realised that he could not feel his everpresent well of power in this space and before he could do anything about that, the demon noticed his presence, roared in his direction, and punched him in the face.

He still had his combat instincts from decades of battle so he could still defend himself. He swiftly noticed that he had been reduced to the state he was in when he consumed this demon for the first time.

After that, it was child's play to thoroughly dismantle the demon and with a swift punch in the throat, the demon breathed its last.

After that, he came back into his mindspace and found that the broken piece's edges had become semi-liquid and were fusing back into his mind-space, slowly losing its violet colour.

He smiled upon seeing his progress but it turned a bit stiff once he realised that he would have to repeat that process a hundred more times.

…

..

After a while, he opened his eyes, to find that he was glowing green and the grass around him had gained a red tint and was coiling below him as if trying to make a cushion. He chuckled and deactivated the flow of demonic energy out of his body and slowly floated down to stand on his two legs.

He immediately felt the difference as his thoughts became clearer and he could more thoroughly enjoy the simple senses, such as the fresh air or the pleasant sunlight hitting his body.

So many mundane things he was robbed of simply because of the imbalance in his powers. He wished the Ancient One had simply told him of this, instead of simply chucking him into the Sun prison and waiting for him to realise it by himself.

….

Coming back from his reverie, he found himself at the gates of the Cherry Blossom festival. With a ticket in his hand and a level of enthusiasm he seldom found in himself, he bounded into the garden, seeing a pink landscape as far as he could see.

The place was crowded and from time to time, people bumped into him and began apologizing profusely once they saw his stature but he simply waved them off and went on his way. His generals back home would have been terrified seeing his smile but it came to him naturally here.

Home…

He paused as he realised that he still thought of the hell dimension as his home. That was kinda sad.

As he was about to go take some pictures from the phone he had stol- ahem borrowed from someone, he stilled as he felt something break.

Specifically, he felt the link that tethered him to Ed break.

His eyes widening in terror, he immediately sent all the energy he could and grabbed the side of Ed's thread that was slipping away from his soul. The link came back up but he could feel Ed's soul was on its legs and he was not even conscious.

He immediately opened up his dimensional storage and removed the vial of blood he kept handy just in case he needed to locate Ed.

For some reason, all the noise in the surroundings had died down. He looked up only to see people looking at him and his vial of blood weirdly. Well, it was a vial for someone of his size. For them, it must have looked like a small cup.

Feeling oddly bashful, he immediately cloaked himself and cast a notice-me-not variant around himself and the area he was in.

With a flex of his energy, he drew the ritual circle and willed his blood to spray on the ritual circle. As it lit up due to the immense energy in his blood, he placed a single drop of Ed's blood in the center of the circle, with the help of his telekinesis skill.

All the while, he maintained a constant flow of healing energy to Ed's soul, something which was very hard to do since all of his energy was demonic energy and it was not the most stable energy around. It was the opposite of stable energy.

As the ritual circle began drawing more and more of his energy, a small portal opened right above the floating drop of blood, showing him the starry sky.

As if searching for its target, the portal began swerving around and finally, as he could see a metal coffin in the distance, he immediately jumped through the portal.

Covering himself in hellfire to ward off the effects of space, he swiftly reached Ed and immediately cursed when he realised that Ed's condition was beyond his wildest expectations.

He immediately cast a curse on Ed once he realised that his body would not survive, even with his energy.

The curse was one of the more innovative curses he had seen in his time in hell. It was made to deprive somebody of all their senses and temporarily freeze their entire body. The doll the caster would have would become, for all intents and purposes, the main body, and their soul would naturally form a tether between the two.

Obviously, for a soul the size of Ed's, the energy toll was making even him sweat.

But he could see the immediate effect as the soul began exerting its pressure on the homunculus he had with him. As the tether between them finally snapped into place, the homunculus began to take shape into the form of Ed.

He finally sighed in relief at that and opened up a portal to the one place he knew where Alfred would not be able to reach them, to the center of the Vibranium mound in Wakanda.

The only place on Earth where no external magical interference can take place. Not even Bast has authority over this place.

Not even Alfred knew of this place and as such, this place was where he wanted to finally have a one to one with Ed.

For old-time's sake.

________________________________________________________________

Wakanda

–Ed–

The first thing that he noticed when he came back to consciousness was the distinct lack of pain and the cold creeping feeling of his impending death that he expected when he activated his powers. In hindsight, it was rather foolish of him to do so but seeing the Ancient One in that state triggered something in him. He would make sure Dormammu would regret ever interfering in his life and he was sure that it was Dormammu and not Toby. In the split second he had dismantled Frank and his suit, he had accessed all the data in the suit, and from all the recordings of the fight along with the sensory data he could gather, he was certain that it was not Toby who was fighting them all along.

As he stood up with the help of his arms…

Wait..

His arms?

He swiftly stood up and checked his limbs, only to find them completely intact, and using them did not elicit any pain.

"Quit jumping around, will you?" he heard the voice again.

He looked around, only to see Toby in front of a Barbeque with the most delicious smell.

His jaw fell as Toby chuckled and waved him over.

________________________________________________________________
Word Count - 2067

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.


A/N - For some reason, this was really hard to write.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 78

Technomancer in MCU

Wakanda

–Ed–

He had to admit that when his rage-blinded self decided to take on somebody who had been empowered by Dormammu, especially in an alternate dimension, he had done so without much hope that he would survive the aftermath, even if he won.

Seeing and confirming the death of the Ancient One lit up something fierce inside him. Her loss will be felt across the mystic community across the universe. The only reason he even dared to try and avenge her was Alfred.

His new status would mean that it was all but inevitable that the position of the Sorcerer Supreme would be given to Alfred, since he doubted there was anyone left on Earth who could compete with him in terms of mystical attainment.

Alfred had always been dependable like that but going into that fight was more selfish of him because he knew that no matter what he did, he was not going to win against Dormammu of all people. He just wanted to vent his anger and he saw the ready-made punching bag that the Dark Overlord himself had delivered to him.

Honestly, it was refreshing, to say the least. He had not pulled the lid on his powers in years, especially the matter manipulation part of it.

That was probably one of the most taxing parts of exercising his powers. Even then, with his near-crippled body, he was unable to pull off the truly impressive moves and had chosen to stick with the modes with the most destructive potential.

There was also a chance that Dormammu's avatar might just get out of Project Ark and he didn't even want to think of the devastating damage it could have done since nearly all the S-rankers of the organisation had been injured by it and were out of commision, even Frank since his powers work on only a certain level of power.

So, he chose to just destroy the dimension. That was sure to be the end of the demon. Surviving a collapsing dimension is one thing, surviving a gamma bomb in the middle of a collapsing dimension where the laws of physics are wonky at best, is another thing altogether.

With that done, in the split second it took for the shockwave to reach him and knock him into the unforgiving void, he repurposed some of the nearby shrapnel and fashioned himself a coffin of sorts. He didn't have enough time, energy, or thought process to make anything more than a basic life-supporting system since it took all he had to just make the metal into the strongest alloy he knew that didn't include Vibranium since that metal was the most taxing when it came to his abilities.

So, colour him surprised when he found out that not only was he alive, his body had somehow stopped hurting and become functional again, and he found himself facing Toby of all people.

On reflex, he activated his powers, or at least tried to, since he could not even feel his powers. He could feel his soul and it was weird, to say the least. It was as if it was in two places at once and the body he was in was being solely fueled by his soul and because of that, he could not access his powers.

So, he just stood there, with his arms up, knowing that he might as well be a toddler in terms of combat prowess in his current state, especially against someone like Toby who could handily trounce Thor and Hulk together, especially their current renditions before they really grew into their powers.

He swore that he could hear the sounds of cricket as Toby just looked on in amusement.

To be honest, he had nothing against Toby. In fact, he was once his best friend, and in that void, with all that burning, they had resolved that if they were going to be dying, they were going to die fighting together.

After that, he had been heartbroken and depressed for months as Toby had not been with him when he had arrived on Earth. Even building Alfred his first home and having him scan the entire planet and then the entire solar system, to no avail didn't help matters. It was the Ancient One who had helped him gather hope for Toby's survival since the higher powers would not have bestowed him with such power and left him to die.

So, with Alfred by his side, he had gone about his life, trying to complete the mission they had self-assigned themselves, hoping that someday Toby would arrive and be happy with the work he had done with his powers. He had imagined Toby would be happy to meet Alfred as well since Alfred was the companion that they had been given as a gift.

When he found Toby and with the help of Ancient One, rescued him from the Dark Dimension, he was overjoyed at finally finding his friend but soon realised that the friend he knew and loved had changed a lot since they last met.

The time in that time-dilated dimension did his mental health no justice. On top of that, upon further research, Alfred had figured out that Toby's DNA was an unstable hodgepodge of alien DNA and the only thing stopping it from collapsing was Toby's own powers which worked in overdrive to stop further damage. The Ancient One confirmed to him that the same issue also persists with his psyche, hence the sudden bouts of aggression. That was why he had reluctantly agreed to fight Toby and go ahead with the plan to cruelly imprison him. Ancient One later confirmed that she had foreseen the outcome of their actions and it resulted in him coming out with much better mental clarity was what stayed his hand once he truly realised the magnitude of his actions.

The magnitude of imprisoning and condemning a sentient being to years, possibly decades, of solitary imprisonment.

Now, as he awkwardly lowered his arms and looked over Toby who looked more and more like the laid-back and relaxed Toby he knew, he walked towards the offered seat.

After taking a seat, he took the offered Barbecue stick and for a while, they just enjoyed the silence and the crackling sound of the firewood burning in their own little corner of the world.

Because this is what it was, the only place in the world where no magical interference can occur. Not even portals can be opened in this place. Toby was the one who had discovered it and as the first one here, he had laid down some runes on the vibranium walls and due to the underlying properties of Vibranium, those runes then became permanent, enforced by the near infinite cosmic energy reserve that the mound held.

It was their own little secret base. It was a bit childish, he was aware but they had both been way too excited to find and claim a place that nobody else had found out that they had immediately named it as such, and due to the mystic nature of Toby and his demonic nature, the cave had been reverberated in official confirmation.

"This is nice," he heard Toby say as he still looked at the Barbecue in front of him.

"Yeah, you're right. This is nice," he muttered before taking a plate from the table nearby and taking out the chicken on it.

"What is this? It's chewy?" he said in between mouthfuls since the meat was tasty, chicken or not.

"It's demon meat," he choked on the meat after hearing Toby's reply.

He spit out the meat in his mouth and glared at Toby who raised his hands in surrender, "What? That was the closest thing to meat I had in my storage. Excuse me if you decide the edibility of a meat-based on its appearance. You know that's discrimination, right?"

He chuckled and then that chuckle turned into full-blown laughter after hearing Toby rant about the meat industry and the preference of meat eaters who choose to eat different types of meat based on their appearance and not their calorific or nutritional value.

He was soon joined by Toby as they doubled over in laughter, crying tears of joy.

"Oh, I needed this," Toby said after they had settled down after smelling the meat burning behind them.

He nodded at that.

After a while, after the noise of the firewood crackling died, he spoke," So, how did you get out?"

"Straight to the jugular, huh? Why? So you can put in better measures to stop me from coming out next time?"

"No, even if I wanted to do that, I can't since the Ancient One is now dead and she took that spell to her grave," he replied after a somber moment of silence.

"Oh, did not know that," Toby muttered in a sheepish tone.

He just nodded, eyes focused on nothing in particular as he stared ahead.

"So, how did she die? And just what the hell happened that pushed you to such a state? Where was Alfred with his shiny new body? Presumably, he is now powerful enough to stop nearly anybody with ease." Toby said, his words picking up heat as he spoke of Alfred in an accusing tone.

So, he began telling Toby of what happened. Of all that had happened ever since he left.

When he told him of the tidbit of Dormammu making a clone of him and using it to nearly kill all of the higher tier powers of the organisation, a dark look flashed over his face and the resulting pressure that he experienced in the split second nearly knocked him out.

He had forgotten just how powerful Toby was and it would seem that his time in his prison had only made him more powerful. His current powerless body would not last a single second against a First Generation Super soldier, let alone to the likes of Toby.

Speaking of his current body.

"How did you save me? And what is this body? I feel no pain but my powers are inaccessible to me. I can feel them being present, just out of reach," he asked Toby.

Toby rubbed the back of his head as he spoke, "Yeah, about that…"

Then he spoke of how he basically cursed him with a rare curse that basically solved all his problems. Then he realised of how the torture feature of the curse had been turned down by Toby.

He would have been happy about the solution only if he knew nothing about Mystic Arts at all.

As it was," The burden must be huge, right?" He questioned Toby about the toll of bearing his soul.

Toby made a so-so gesture with his hands

Sighing, he asked again, "How long until it becomes too much for you, Toby?"

Toby lowered his hands and sighed, "A few weeks, a month tops. Depends on how much of my powers I have to use before they fill up with my regen."

He nodded, thinking of how to solve the issue once and for all.

At Least he had Toby back with his mind back.

Speaking of solutions, "Where's Alfred?"

"Huh?"

________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 1891

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.

A/N - Hello everyone! Sorry for the abrupt disappearance but I had a family emergency at home that I had to fly home for. I could not upload or type during that period because I didn't take my laptop with me for the trip.
Happy to say that my family is safe and will make a full recovery. I have come back to my day job now and will try and get back to my schedule ASAP.
Regular updates will begin from Friday.
Thank you for reading!


A/N - So guys, first things first. The reason this chapter is short is due to this(if it doesn't open, just search ALLMIGHT vs NOMU on yt and click the first link. And please watch it subbed. That's the best part).

Today, as usual, I woke up at 5 and began my day. By 7 I was done exercising and sat down to write today's chapter. For unrelated reasons, I was feeling a bit down today so I thought why not go to the handy dandy list I have for when I might need motivation?

So, my dumbass went and opened the first link. It is the ALLMIGHT vs NOMU fight and long story short, I watched a 3-minute video for over 30 minutes.

The fight had no reason to go that hard and it did. Whatever your views might be on MHA or anime in general, just go and watch that fight once and if you didn't feel like it was worth your time, then you don't the backstory because I always, always get goosebumps when I watch that.

So, don't worry, the next chapter will compensate for today's word loss but just go watch that and hopefully, you won't blame me.

Toodles!

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 79

Technomancer in MCU

The Asterisk

–Alfred–

"Stop pacing around, dammit. You are going to make me dizzy. I didn't even think it was possible with all my enhancements." Daisy said as she rolled into the captain's cabin in her new wheelchair, followed by Frank, Eric, and Jake, as if they were little ducklings following their mama.

It would have been hilarious if not for the glaring absence of their one and only leader, Ed.

After exiting Project Ark, they had been lucky enough to just crash land on Mars, practically spitting distance from the Asterisk for someone of their technological level.

But the same could not be said for Ed.

The second he was out of Project Ark, he had checked up on Frank and after finding him to be just unconscious, he immediately dove into the astral realm to begin the search for Ed.

He could see the thread linking him and Ed but it went deep into space.

He had feared the worst when abruptly as if Ed had travelled through a portal, the thread dipped out of his vision completely.

Chills had run down his spine at the thought of some alien civilisation with access to portal technology, getting a hold of Ed. Because as far as he knew, Sorcerers had a hard limit as to how far they can make portals in a single try and Ed was far out of that range.

He also knew that the Ancient One had suspended all off-planet assignments and called everyone back once the resurgence of the threat Dormammu possessed to Earth had been confirmed.

He had been petrified of what that might have signalled only to see that the thread linking him with Ed had changed directions and was now showing him to be on Earth.

That would have been a thing to celebrate.

But there he was, pacing around, almost creating a smoke trail in his path if he was not being careful. The reason being that Ed was untraceable.

Sure, the Astral realm showed that Ed's soul, while in a weird double state, was still on Earth, hale and hearty but as soon as he tried to divine his exact location, the spell, be it made of dimensional energy, Chaos energy, Infinity stone empowered energy, fizzled out, never giving him any concrete answer.

He had a feeling that brute forcing with the help of the Infinity Stone would have helped but the protocols regarding bringing the Mind Stone anywhere close to any kind of Artificial Intelligence were hardcoded in him and he was not about to disobey Ed on that.

Especially since he knew what could happen if it went about in the wrong direction and even more so when it concerned him, someone, already capable of destroying the planet without any help.

"Let him be, Daisy. You know he won't rest until we find Ed and he is just frustrated that for once, all his measures have fallen short." Frank said as he rolled to his usual station, to do the routine checks he did on the agents and their mission roles.

Just then, the sound of the door opening made everybody look at the entrance and the frantic footsteps made everyone sit a little straighter, leaning forward in anxious anticipation.

"Si-Sir, You need to–ah," The clearly new agent yelped and staggered back after he noticed the collective attention of the top management was on him.

Daisy immediately went into her boss mode and waved the terrified agent over who was clutching the tablet as if his life depended on it, "What is it?"

As he heard Daisy sucking in a sharp breath, his curiosity began piquing. He immediately accessed the tablet and all the data on it.

His eyes immediately widened as he opened up a whole bunch of holographic screens in front of them.

Everybody gathered around him as the screens began showing seemingly random events when they were anything but.

One screen showed the scene of Kaecilius's attack on Kamar Taj and the way he and his followers brutally slaughtered anybody who opposed them, including the old librarian who had decided to stay in the compound of Kamar Taj. He fought valiantly but after killing two rogue sorcerers, he was on his last breath when Kaecilius beheaded him. The footage ended with the exit of the rogue sorcerers from Kamar Taj with Kaecilius holding something in one hand and a key wrapped up in ancient paper in the other hand.

The next screen showed the spell the Ancient One used to armour up and leave when the reports for multiple demon sightings came through. The satellite footage showed her going through multiple demon waves across the planet, slaughtering nearly a hundred thousand demons, and eventually arriving at Dracula's castle, where after a lengthy negotiation attempt that Dracula threw aside with an ambush attempt, she killed Dracula and finally destroyed the Age Old Mystic Pact that prevented Ed from deposing the various rulers of Mystical Hotspots around the world. In the footage, as if she could see what was going to happen next, she unraveled the spell which would have saved her and looked up at the satellite as if she knew Alfred was going to watch this later. The exact words she mouthed were, "The rest is up to you."

He felt something hot flow down his eyes as the very next moment, a familiar energy coursed through the very corpse of Dracula as multiple spikes made of Dark Energy skewered the body of the Ancient One, her face frozen in the same stoic expression he knew as the mask she put on for anyone who entered Kamar Taj for the first time.

Almost painfully, he moved his eyes from that very scene to the next scene showing, from a distance, the destruction of the Sun Prison, freeing Toby from his supposedly eternal imprisonment. The satellite could barely follow the blip that escaped the prison in the visible spectrum. Switching to the energy spectrum showed a whole different story. Something with the energy reserves of Thor (which were humongous themselves) was heading straight towards Earth and he had a pretty good idea as to who it was.

"Why are you looking at these, Alfred?" Daisy asked him softly, as if afraid that the mere mention of the Ancient One's death would wilt him.

"Because they don't match," Frank said after a moment of silence.

At everybody's collective looks of confusion, he pointed towards the screen showing someone looking exactly like Toby walking in a Sakura Park in Tokyo, looking very much carefree and relaxed. The person had the same energy signature as the one who escaped from the Sun Prison.

"B-But that doesn't make any sense. This shows that he was in Tokyo when the fight happened and-" Daisy was interrupted by Alfred as he said, "It makes complete sense now."

"The person we fought was a fake." Frank finished Alfred's train of thought.

Alfred nodded, "Yes, and look at the timestamp when he jerked as if he had noticed something and immediately went invisible."

Frank looked towards the timestamps and his eyes widened immediately. He mumbled in realisation, "He realised something had happened."

Alfred nodded, "Yes, he and Ed always shared a special bond. Now, all that remains is tracking where he went from Tokyo and if he has Ed or not."

"Can you do that? Track his last location?" Daisy asked him hurriedly.

Alfred was already parsing the entire database for any and all demonic activities. The search was made infinitely more difficult by the swarm of demonic invasions that had been happening recently so tracking a specific activation of Demonic Energy was proving to be a bit difficult.

Although, by filtering out various parameters, he was able to get six different hits but his eyes lit up as he saw one that was barely a hundred meters from the place Toby was last seen at.

"I'll be back soon," He said and opened a portal with a flex of his will.

"I wish I could come but-" Daisy showed her heavily bandaged arms and said,"-I doubt I'll be any help in this condition."

"I'll come," Frank said as he stood up from the wheelchair despite the vehement protesting beeps the chair made. "I'll be hearing from Maria soon," he mumbled as he flexed his arms and removed the cast from his hands.

Then he looked up at him and said, "What are we waiting for? Let's go before Maria finds us."

Then the comical scene of Frank leaping through the portal as he escaped from the future nagging of his wife, was witnessed by everybody present.

Stifling a chuckle, he flew through the portal, closing it behind him. He made sure that the dressing down that Daisy was undoubtedly going to receive was recorded and shared in 4K.

On the other side of the portal, they came into a forest clearing but something was wrong as the usual sounds of nature were all absent. Even Frank must have felt something was wrong as he had his ability turned ON for display, his rifle in hand ready to blast the first thing that came into view.

He would have disregarded that rifle if he didn't know what it was. It would seem that the previous events had left Frank pretty shaken if he had chosen to take out an Alpha-tier weapon for this excursion. Something that was banned but when had Frank Castle ever let something as pesky as rules stop him?

"What?" Frank said defensively as he saw Alfred eyeing his gun.

"Nothing," Alfred shook his head and opened a portal in front of him through which a long silver shaft gleaming in blue crystals dropped down, sinking down into the land in front of them due to its sheer weight.

"What is it?" Frank said as Alfred crouched near the pillar, configuring it by sending in his CHI in precoded patterns.

"That is the best mystical energy sensor on the planet and probably in many other realms." Alfred said as the pillar began sending out dimensional energy pulses for mapping.

"But not better than Odin, Frigga, or You?" Frank said as he began scoping out the perimeter.

"Sadly, yeah," Alfred confirmed for him. That was an ongoing topic for discussion within the organisation.

That no matter how far they go in terms of technology, they never come close to matching the top natural practitioners of the mystic arts throughout the nine realms.

Specifically, Odin and Frigga always remain at the top of whatever field of mystics they choose to document. It had been a source of frustration for him but now that he had his very own soul, he could finally see the final element as to why his best sensors, which by all means should have been more sensitive than anything alive, were always bested by them.

Being included in the same list as magical juggernauts such as Odin and Frigga did help soothe his ego over as well.

"We got a match," he said as the pillar began beeping and began slowly levitating itself out of the hole in the ground.

They kept following it until it came upon a clearing and bumped into seemingly nothing and began beeping loudly. He narrowed his eyes and after recording the readings, sent the pillar back to the Asterisk.

"What now?" Frank asked as he kept looking around for any possible threat. His paranoia having gone through the roof since the fight with Dormammu.

His reply was a blast of energy that sent the wind blowing with the barrier finally coming into view as it buckled under the pressure of the attack.

He exhaled in relief as he saw traces of a ritual clearly demonic in nature. Soon, the barrier shattered and he immediately floated above the ritual circle, recording it in memory, and began analysing it to replicate it with normal dimensional energy instead of the demonic energy Toby must have used.

He also didn't have willingly given blood to help track down Ed. Something that he will have to rectify at the earliest.

He was about to try and inject his energy into it to help understand it better when it began glowing red on its own.

!!

His eyes widened as he immediately cast his strongest barrier around the circle and stood outside the barrier, casting another spell to shield Frank and himself.

"Get ready. Because someone is coming from the other side. Somebody more powerful than the one we fought earlier." His words only made Frank hold on to his gun tighter.

He had already given the signal for the carriers to converge at this location without delay.

"Backup should be here soon." He said as he cast the same variant of the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak that the Ancient One used on Frank.

"Will it matter?" he heard Frank mumble but he chose to let that question go unanswered since even he was not sure.

At this time, the drop of blood that had been sitting in the center of the ritual had begun floating again and the circle had begun shining brighter and brighter in red colour, giving off the metallic scent of blood.

________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 2226

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 80.1

Technomancer in MCU

Wakanda

–Ed–

Watching Toby regale him with the tales of his admittedly brief visits to the Grasslands and the Sakura Garden he had always wanted to visit with a complex gaze, he thought of where did he had lost it all.

The desire to look at the simple things of nature and derive joy from them.

They had discussed back in high school to visit the wonders of nature together and maybe even find hidden ones, a fool's dream, sure but it was a dream.

For all these years, he did have the opportunity to visit the wonders of nature.

Hell, he had the opportunity to visit any planet he wanted to, many of them filled with natural wonders beyond the understanding of the regular mind.

And yet..here he was, just slogging away all of his remaining lifespan for Humanity when he himself had nearly forgotten how to enjoy the joys that humanity itself took for granted.

He began chuckling bitterly at the absurdity of it all.

The chuckles soon turned into full blown-out laughter.

"Uh, Ed?" He heard Toby ask him but he was far too gone in the hilarity of the situation to give him attention.

"Sorry, Sorry. Just realised something. That's all." He said while waving off any of Toby's questions.

"Anyway, let's get out, shall we? I am sure everybody must be worried and I can't wait to give Frank the shock of his lifetime."

Toby laughed and stood up, nodding at him.

Soon, a ritual circle was drawn on the ground in front of them and while he did not have access to the minor cybernetic enhancements he had done to his original body, he still tried his best to memorise the circle in front of him.

Because it was evident that even Alfred, with all his mystical attainments, was not able to track him while this seemingly small and simple ritual circle was able to track him halfway across the galaxy. It would seem that Demonic energy did still has its benefits.

Then he realised something. "Did you use the blood I gave you all those years ago?"

"Yeah, obviously. How else did you think I was able to track you immediately and from that far away? It would have been impossible without your willingly given blood. Do you want it back?" Toby asked him back flippantly.

He thought about it but in the end, there was no point in asking it back since he was now sure that Toby was back in his right mindset now. So, he shook his head and replied, "No. It's fine."

Toby nodded and dropped a droplet of his blood in the center of the ritual circle. The circle immediately lit up red in response and began glowing brighter.

As if reaching a crescendo, the circle's brightness began receding back under the drop of blood and then a tear in space opened up in front of them.

The tear didn't look big enough to fit him, Toby, and his makeshift life support suit to go through but before he could voice his concerns, Toby simply went to the portal and somehow…expanded it using his bare hands.

!

His eyes widened in their sockets out of astonishment as Toby waved his hand and his new body, along with his suit flew out of the cave and into a small clearing.

Dusting off his shoulders, he stood up, only to pause as he saw Alfred along with Frank pointing Guns and in the case of Alfred, a huge magical circle which had hundreds of different magical circles that crackled with different elements behind him.

He slowly raised his hands in surrender as Toby exited the portal, making things even worse as he could hear the low whine of the alpha cannon being charged up by Frank.

"Um, Hello?" he said while waving his hand awkwardly.

Toby shoved him aside and just waved his hand, the result of which left him extremely embarrassed.

The wave of demonic energy tore apart the barrier around the ritual circle, went on to destroy the magical attack Alfred sent their way and after doing all of that, still had enough energy left in it to crumble the barriers Alfred had activated on instinct, giving Alfred just enough time to get out of the blast zone.

He winced as a thunderous boom sounded in the distance, along with the sound of people and wildlife panicking.

He deadpanned at Toby. "Well done, smartass."

He sighed, cupped his hands in front of his mouth, and shouted," Alfred, it's me. Scan me with your shiny new sensors. We need to get out of here. A lot of things have changed and we have to address them."

Alfred, along with Frank, slowly and hesitantly floated down to the ground near them.

"This is weird. What is happening to you? I am seeing two identical soul readings from you and the body in the coffin behind you." Alfred said as he scanned their entire surroundings.

"Oh, that is something Toby did to help prolong my life. Now, can we please go to the Asterisk? You have a lot of work to do and I have things to do as well." Ed said.

Just then, Toby perked up and turned towards Ed, "We have company."

"Huh?" Ed looked at him perplexed then facepalmed as he saw Alfred wincing, "Alfred, please tell me you did not just do something extremely stupid?"

"Eh, I just ordered them to go back, if that helps?"

His only response was an explosive sigh.

"Look, you guys clearly have a lot of work to do. The spell will work as long as I supply it with energy. I'll see you at the Asterisk soon." Toby said and without waiting for any of their replies, waved his hands and exited through a fiery red portal.

Though, the dark energy that wafted out of the portal for the few seconds that it was open, gave them a pretty solid guess as to where Toby was headed.

"Did he just?" Frank asked in shocked awe.

"Yes, yes he did just do that. The motherfucker just went to the Dark Realm." Alfred cursed out loud.

Finally, he had the chance to do something he had been looking forward to for years.

"Language!"

Ah, good times.

________________________________________________________________

Dark Realm

–Dormammu–

He had been called the Dark Overlord by generations of Sorcerer Supremes and feared by nearly all of them since the time of Agamotto himself.

If not for that accursed man, he would have long since devoured Earth or at least shared it with multiple demon outer gods but no, that mortal had to go and turn Earth into the biggest magical fortress the Universe ever knew.

Even then, it was fine for him.

He was an immortal being. Time was meaningless to him.

A little bit more time was not going to make him budge but then came the single most infuriating human he had ever come across, even more so than Agamotto.

Agamotto he knew how to deal with, he left Earth alone in his presence and Agamotto never came knocking on his doorstep but the Ancient One..

He had to hand it to her.

When one of his more powerful experiments had killed her predecessor right in front of her, he had done so with the complete knowledge that there was no one aside from the Ancient One who had the right to assume the position of the Sorcerer Supreme. He was also aware of her attachment to her teacher who had rescued her when she was but a mere mortal babe.

He had hoped that crippling her emotionally would be the final nail in the coffin for the organisation that had spawned from Agamotto's little triplet of disciples but she turned out to be tougher than he could imagine.

She took command of the organisation and made sure that the barrier was fortified along with taking help from unconventional allies to help safeguard the planet, even going as far as to take the help of the Shamans of the old forgotten Gods of Africa. For decades, she purged any demon on Earth with extreme prejudice and left no backdoors for any entity to abuse.

He had written her off and resigned himself to wait out her mortal lifespan to try again.

Only, that time never came. The accursed woman refused to die.

Sacrificing her true name to one of the Endless, she gained power comparable to that of Agamotto himself when he was a mortal powered by nothing but dimensional energies and the Time Stone.

Then, came the true attacks.

Time and time again, she attacked and tested him. Created intentional openings for him in the barrier surrounding the planet and decimating all his forces.

Using him as a means of destroying rogue elements on the planet that she herself couldn't be bothered to take care of and then swooping down and saving the day.

That's what he hated the most about that woman.

The sheer arrogance she held.

To use the Dark Overlord, one of the strongest beings in the multiverse, as a mere instrument to kill off her enemies.

Then one day, frustrated beyond belief that she was once again, triumphing over all of his experiments, he chose to lure her out of the universe into one of the many small alternate dimensions that found their openings to be on Earth for some reason. He did so with the hope that at least he would be able to force her to use the Infinity Stone and reduce her mortal lifespan, as he was nearing the end of the average lifespan for a Sorcerer Supreme anyway.

He should have been more suspicious of the fact that he was successful in luring her away but alas.

He was far too happy with the result to notice that it was not her who was walking into a trap, it was him who was doing so, quite happily he might add.

The laws surrounding the manifestation of Outer dimensional entities were quite lax when it came to alternate dimensions so from the get-go, he manifested his strength to the limit and that was when he realises, as his senses which would normally not be available to a normal avatar were now present to him. He sensed the underlying ritual circle in the alternate dimension and soon realised that the Ancient One had used the Time Stone to pre-draw it in this dimension before he could even lure her in.

Before he could do anything further though, the option was taken out of his hands as the Ancient One placed a very old, very rough-looking but glowing ominously book in the center of the ritual where the outline of a certain Old God was present.

He hadn't even realised it then but his avatar's body which he had been possessing and subsequently, had a direct connection to, was bound by the very laws of the dimension, laws that had suddenly become quite strict when it came to movement of avatars of outer dimensional entities.

The blackened fingers of the Ancient One and the smell of chaos wafting off the Book had given him a pretty solid idea as to what the book actually was.

The Darkhold.

He had been incredibly confused back then since the previous Sorcerer Supreme, the one person the Ancient One swore by, was incredibly rigid when it came to laws, and tinkering with Chaos energy, in general, was forbidden by Kamar Taj, let alone directly using the Darkhold, the one opening through which C̵̢̨̛͔̩͚̗̦̮̩̤̔̾͐͛h̸̯̤͇̪̄̑̃͒͋̃̇͠t̶̡̯̤̾͗̆h̷̜̝̯͗̀̄͂ö̷̱̭́̈́̄̒ņ̶̛̘͚͚͓̦̲̯̲̘̇̌̋̊̿̆̈́͛͠ directly expanded his influence in the mortal plane.

Sitting cross-legged in front of the Darkhold, with the Eye of Agamotto constantly circulating some sort of energy around the Ancient One, she began chanting an old spell of some sort. Something which he had not heard, even throughout his long life.

________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 2005

To be Continued…

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 80.2

Technomancer in MCU

Dark Realm

–Dormammu–

But, the way his essence inside the avatar was being stolen piece by piece had given him a pretty good idea as to what the Ancient One was trying to do.

She was trying to take his Dark Energy and strip it of all its other qualities and only taking it in the Longevity aspect of his energy.

He had been so furious back then that even at the cost of damage to his soul, he had forcibly destroyed the avatar body, hoping that it would stop the ritual mid-way and if he knew anything about Chthon at all, he would make sure that the soul of Ancient One was claimed after that.

But after years of silence after that, the second he sent in his soldiers again, there she was.

The Ancient One, hale and hearty.

With none of the supposed damage from the ritual. Even the slight taint of Chaos Energy was gone from her soul as she had actually severed a part of her soul and healed it using something.

The ensuing reign where she held the position of the Sorcerer Supreme for centuries was the single longest period of non-interference that the mystical side of Earth had.

Even his recent deal with Dracula that he was able to do felt like it was planned. As if it was done all by the Ancient One for something.

For some goal that she was able to see and he was not.

But that was simply impossible.

He was aware that ever since the introduction of the Singularity and his guardian in the universe, the future had been in a constant flux and so all clairvoyant abilities, even his very own, had been either handicapped or outright disabled.

The Time Stone, being one of the six fundamental building blocks of the universe, was not disabled completely but from what he knew about it, it was not able to accurately tell her the future as well.

He had this tested multiple times using scapegoats from the mystical hotspots of Earth.

So, with this knowledge in hand that the Ancient One's future sight, arguably her greatest tool in the fight against him, was severely hampered, he set out a plan.

A plan to get rid of the biggest hindrances in his path to once again ruling a part of Earth, a plan to get rid of the pesky shields that kept Earth out of his reach.

The problem was that just by getting rid of the Ancient One, he would not get complete access to the Earth since the Singularity was on her side as well.

And everybody knew not to mess with the Singularity unless you were sure of finishing him off completely because if he survived and came back prepared, even entities on the same level as him would find it difficult to escape that confrontation unharmed.

So, he churned a significant portion of the Dark Realm's energy to create a zone with accelerated time dilation inside that area with respect to Earth.

During his plotting, he chanced upon a hurt Master of the Mystic Art who had embers of rage inside of him, rage that could one day burn down the very organisation that he worked inside.

So, he took advantage of that. He slowly began sowing discord in his mind. It helped that he was the one who regularly volunteered himself to go fight in the front lines against his demons and through them, he had convinced Kaecilius to forge a permanent bond with him.

Once that was done, he gave him the knowledge about the secret to Ancient One's unnatural longevity and how he could access the same knowledge to even bring back his family.

It was all falsehoods of course but to the hazy mind of Kaecilius, it felt true. It helped that he was able to confirm various facts using his access to Kamar Taj's library.

Slowly, one by one, the pack of people whom he could influence increased and soon, he gave the order for Kaecilius to gather his troops and be ready to attack.

Then, he focused his attention on the Guardian of the Singularity. While a completely digital construct, it had a soul, and while it could be said that a digital presence's most critical vulnerability was its vessel, its soul was equally vulnerable if you knew where to look for it.

He had a spell that, if charged with enough magical power, could overpower the Guardian's formidable mental and soul defenses and leave it reeling from the shock. The problem was that he had no minion with that level of power in the organisation.

Kaecilius came in real handy here as he informed him about the distaste that various members held for the Guardian and its antics, including one old Dwarf, formerly of Nidavellir.

So, he had Kaecilius approach the old dwarf under the guise of building a spell to ward off the Guardian's pranks temporarily from a significant area.

That foolish old dwarf.

He was unaware of the true nature of the spell and ended up striking at the core logic centers of the Guardian, leaving it disoriented and hampering it's proper decision-making abilities.

A swift poison that he had not used for a while was also administered to Throgg by Kaecilius that only activated after sensing the particular spell being used, had done the trick of taking out one of the Ancient One's staunchest allies as well as the premier weapons maker of the Singularity.

He made sure to use the same poison that had ultimately taken down the previous Sorcerer Supreme, a poison that the Ancient One was well aware of.

The cure to which was only known to her in the current organisation.

Being who she was, he was sure that she would employ the cure, risking all the soul-bound spells she had cast. Sure, with the sheer strength of her soul, most spells would hold on just fine.

But, there was a single person with whom she held a soul contract whose very soul held weight even more so than the Ancient One.

Toby Mathers was an equally infuriating person but he was someone who could be dealt with. The last time they had met, he had been forced to give up nearly one-tenth of his realm and churn it into energy to ward off that resilient fool who had thought that he could defeat Dormammu in his own realm.

The soul pact was an insidious one that forced Mathers to stay out of Earth's affairs for a set period of time or else the Singularity would die.

Honestly, he wanted all three of them to die but he would settle with the death of two, the Ancient One and the Singularity due to the remnants of his energy still on that person when he had tried to, in a completely moronic move, eat him.

The second he got confirmation of the soul pact shuddering and breaking, he ordered Kaecilius and the others to assault Kamar Taj and if possible, go after the Ancient One in her vulnerable state or destroy all they could and kill as many people as possible.

This would have never been possible if the Guardian of the Singularity was not absent since both the organisations had been so closely knit that any attack on Kamar Taj would have garnered a swift response from their stationed forces on the Planet.

The next step was to get Mathers out of prison and somehow convince him to work against his previous allies.

Allies that had imprisoned him inside a solitary prison. He had thought that it would be enough of a reason to work with him to take revenge on his incarcerators but the moment Mathers got out of that dimension, he knew that it was not going to work.

He just didn't have the hunger, the spark for revenge and hate that he had seen in Kaecilius.

Still, he gave his customary offer and while the loss of Kaecilius would have bugged him for a while, the fool at least did one thing right and managed to steal samples of Mather's DNA from the Singularity's organisation when it was in disarray from the sudden leave of the Guardian.

If he couldn't get Mathers to work for him, he would just make his very own.

By the time the clone was ready, Dracula had managed to prove himself useful, even in his death, and by taking the Ancient One by surprise, he defeated and killed her, preserving her head for future purposes.

Infiltrating the large ship they were in, was easy since Mathers knew the energy signatures of the ward and while they had certainly been added upon, the underlying ward scheme remained the same.

Utilizing that loophole, he managed to snag the attention of the Singularity, his Guardian, and all the people he surrounded himself with.

Knowing that the ship held an alternate dimension itself, he didn't waste much time before flooding the ship with his darkness, forcing the Guardian to take them to the alternate dimension.

Once there, he wanted to taunt the Singularity with the head of the Ancient One but the Guardian proved to be smart and knocked the Singularity out immediately.

The resulting fight, while tough, was nowhere near entertaining as all of their cards fell short of the sheer power he brought to bear in the alternate dimension.

Towards the end was when the Singularity woke up and sensing the opportunity, he threw the severed head of the Ancient One in front of the Singularity.

The ensuing battle was one that would have given him trouble if he was actually trying to win. All he wanted to do was prolong the battle and make sure that the Singularity exhausted his remaining lifespan, trying to fight a meat body that he could make in less than a minute.

In the end, the Singularity collapsed the dimension and killed his clone but his objectives had been met.

If not immediately, the Singularity would be dead soon. The Ancient One was truly dead this time.

And he was free to attack Earth once he had the confirmation of the Singularity's death.

Just then, he sensed someone entering his realm. Shocked at the intrusion since it was not allowed by him, he summoned the point in space where the tear happened to him and recoiled when he saw Mathers getting out of the tear.

He growled in anger at that. This pest had come back to his realm once again to bother him.

"Yo", he had the audacity to smirk at his growing rage.

His only response was a glowing violent energy beam that struck Mathers right in his face.

His triumphant smirk fell short when he saw that Mathers came out completely unscathed from that confrontation.

Looking closer, he could see a thin sheen of hellfire that surrounded the form of Mathers.

"I don't care what matter you had with the Ancient One-"

Mathers' form began to grow as hellfire suddenly flooded his realm.

"-But the moment you targeted Ed, you became my problem-"

Soon, his size reached the same as him and now his realm housed two volatile energies in the form of Dark Energy and Dark attribute Hellfire.

"-And I only know of a single way to deal with my problems."

He could not even see how he was struck when his planetoid-sized body tumbled through his realm, the vast damage being done to his realm and its denizens by the Hellfire, visible to him.

Swiftly regaining his balance, he turned his body into a humanoid one to match better with Mathers' new form when his entire vision was filled with Hellfire as he felt his very realm groaning from the stress of another dimension trying to force its way in.

With growing horror, he watched as the very hell dimension that Mathers ruled over, manifested behind him.

No, he could not allow that to happen. If he lost his realm, he would be left with nothing and would soon turn into cosmic dust, becoming an easy meal for the vultures to pick apart.

"Alright, stop! You made your point. What do you want?" He growled out with extreme reluctance clear in his voice.

Mathers only watched him with a dispassionate stare as his hellfire continued to rampage in his realm, erasing the Dark Ones by the billions every minute.

"WHAT.DO.YOU.WANT" he asked again with gritted teeth.

Only then did Mathers seemed satisfied as the hellfire receded back into the dimension behind him. He then said, "I want you to agree to never interfere in Earth's matters as long as I am alive. I know you'll inevitably find a loophole but as long as I am alive, the second you step out of line, you lose your realm and we both know what will happen then."

Having no choice but to comply, he agreed. "Fine."

"Great working with you," Mathers said and his hell dimension behind him dissipated back into nothingness and Mathers swiftly made his exit.

He immediately took stock of his realm and to his absolute rage, found out that roughly twenty percent of his realm was gone because of the absolutely massive discharge of hellfire that Mathers perpetrated.

He must have figured out how to take ownership and use his realm while being in that prison because he was not this powerful the last time they had fought.

He would abide by the pact as long as Mathers was alive.

But that did not mean that he could not spread the information about Mathers walking around with an unclaimed dimension with him.

That should be enough trouble for him until he could figure out a way out of that pesky soul pact.

________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 2322

Ah, this chapter took more than five hours to finish.

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Well, hello there my peeps!
Its been long overdue but I owe you guys an explanation, at the very least.
Well, somewhere around the last week of February, I had to go home due to a family emergency.
It was completely sudden and there was a whole host of tension surrounding the last moment flight, that flight's cancellation and then boarding another flight, yada yada yada.
For context, I have a full-time job and for that, I had to move about 1600km(994 mi) away from my home and pretty much the only way home without spending 30 HOURS on a train is by flight. So, I had to leave everything on pause for an entire week and go home.
The trip there was exhausting. The ride from the airport to the home was exhausting. The stay there was veryyy exhausting.
But in the end, I pulled through, things went back to normal in about a week, and the next thing I knew, I was on a flight back to work on the 3rd of March (Sunday).
Poor naive me thought that I could just pick up the work where I left it but apparently, that is not how things are done in the corporate sector. So, on top of handling all the new work, I also had to work on the pile of backlog that had occurred during my unplanned leave (that I am glad my employer gave me on such short notice).
Juggling that along with writing was a bitch and a half. I stopped going to the gym and since my healthy meals option was with the gym, I started eating junk again and soon found myself with zero energy and motivation to write or work.
I still tried but as you know, the last time I uploaded a chapter was on March 8th.
I soon found out that I would not be able to do everything at once (as much as I wanted to) so I decided to take a break.
For about a month.
It's just that, I forgot to tell you guys about it.
Ooopsies.
So, don't worry, nothing has happened to me.
It's a little case of burnout I guess. Don't worry though, my ADHD brain is already brimming with new ideas now and it won't be long until you see me with a new story.
...
..
Now, comes the slightly bad part. Technomancer is going on hiatus. Temporarily.
The thing is that when I started that story, I had no idea what I was doing. I have learned so much since then and while it has definitely been a great learning experience, looking back, I kinda don't like many of the decisions I took in regards to that.
So, either I might rewrite it with better story points or maybe continue it and give it an ending much sooner than expected.
Of course, nothing's written in stone so who knows?
Anywho, that's all from my side.
I will see you guys soon, I have an exciting new concept for a story in mind and the first chapters of that should be public by April 1 (Don't worry, it's not an April Fool's).

Until then, thank you for reading!
Toodles!

Regards,
Idle Muse

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Hello Everyone!

I, or rather this story, is BACK!!

Why so soon, you might ask?

Well, as it turned out, leaving it unfinished kinda left a bad taste in my mouth and whenever I wrote something, something about this fic always came back to my mind.

Anywho, without further ado, here are your chapters.

P.S. - There's three of them today.

Enjoy!

XXX____XXX

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 81

Technomancer in MCU

–Alfred–

"Alfred Alfred, what just happened?" He heard Daisy shouting in the background over the abrupt mobilisation of all the carriers and assets they had on the planet. He had even gone as far as taking direct control of the assets that were without pilots and sending them on a crash course toward them.

All of that, only to cancel his orders halfway through and tell everybody to back to their positions.

Understandably, Daisy and the others on the captain's deck had some concerns.

The thing was that he himself was unsure of how to explain this to them.

"I'll let you know as soon as I understand what is going on," He told Daisy and cut the comms link.

Making sure that nobody was listening in on their conversation, he gave the order for the cleanup crew to restore the surroundings back to their previous state since handling demonic energy was not something he trusted the locals to do properly. It could lead to disastrous situations like people mutating, wildlife mutating, etc.

Honestly, the only reason he was not open-firing from the orbital cannon in place was because of the weird and confusing soul readings he was getting from Ed.

Just as he was about to ask Toby to come with them, he instead opened a portal and fucked right off to the Dark Dimension for some reason.

"What the..?" he heard Frank mutter as he looked at the wilting vegetation around the portal before with a flash of hellfire, it closed right up, leaving just a burn mark on the ground and dead vegetation as its aftermath.

Ed facepalmed at that, piquing his curiosity.

"Just what happened before this? How did he rescue you? What has happened to your body?" he asked Ed rapidly.

Sighing, Ed replied, "Look, can we just get out of here? I am feeling my limbs moving without pain for the first time in years and would love to get some proper work done now. Also, I don't want to repeat everything so just assemble everyone in the captain's cabin."

"Very well," Alfred replied and opened a portal.

Before Ed could go in though, he stopped him with his arm and asked him, "Are you sure nothing will happen to your soul if we use portals or should we just bring in a jet? You know what I'll call the jet."

Ed (or his body double?) rolled his eyes and tried to move his arm away and promptly staggered back due to the sheer strength imbalance between the two of them.

Looking at his smug face, Ed replied, "You know I created you, right? Kids these days have no respect for their elders."

"Quit whining like a baby, it will be here in no time. We built it together, remember?" Ed said and right on time, the double-deep sound of the jet being parked sounded right above them as the red and golden-themed jet became visible to all of them.

Careful with Ed's extremely vulnerable body since it seemed like it would fall apart at the slightest disturbance due to the presence of cracks on his body, the jet lowered itself till the ramp on the back of the jet touched the ground.

As soon as we got inside the jet, the ramp closed itself and the view of the cleanup crew using the CHI overload systems to get rid of the demonic hellfire in the area closed off.

"So, the one we fought was.." Frank said, his question clear.

"Yeah, it was a fake. I knew it the moment I woke up but I was far too gone in rage to be stopped," Ed replied as they took a moment of silence to ruminate over the loss of the Ancient One.

"Any idea as to how that happened?" Ed asked Alfred who was busy conducting all types of scans on Ed's body.

"It was Dracula. He had opened up multiple demon pits at the edge of his territory and set them open out in the wild. She killed the demons, destroyed the pits, and then confronted Dracula. HE showed no remorse so she was forced to destroy the pact, take the backlash, and kill him."

"Then how did he.." Ed said.

"It was Dormammu. His energy lay dormant in Dracula's body, so he could attack the Ancient One at her most vulnerable since the backlash of the pact was borne by her, and taking advantage of that, Dormammu was able to defeat her."

Even speaking about it, he could feel a thick wave of killing intent rolling off of Ed and this was not even his real body.

Dormmamu's days were pretty much numbered, it would seem.

Soon, the hangar came into view and they got off the jet.

As soon as the coffin containing Ed's body got off the jet, it flew back to its designated position and a team of doctors followed a similar-looking coffin as it superimposed itself over the old coffin, showing all sorts of advanced medical statistics.

The metal box silently floated back to the emergency ward, followed by a flurry of activities from the doctors who were led by Maria.

He secretly sighed in relief as that would mean that Maria would be too busy dealing with Ed's body to have the time to tear him a new one.

Soon, they found themselves seated in the captain's cabin with all of the S-tier combatants of the organisation present, excluding Ajax since he was busy tearing apart the various pirates that had the audacity to invade the refugee colonies' sovereign space.

"So, before you guys try and demonize Toby, just know that he was once my best friend and a valued member of the organisation. The person you fought that day was not Toby. It was a clone made by Dormammu because he wanted to take advantage of the chaos in the organisation." Ed began before anybody could get a word in.

"The second thing is, the body I am currently in is a demonic bio-artifact of some sort that allows a person to mould it into any shape and size. The reason I am in this body is due to the fact that I have officially exhausted nearly all of my remaining lifespan and would have been dead if not for Toby's help. This body, while not giving me access to my powers, allows me to function normally without further degrading the condition of my body."

He then gestured towards Alfred, "Since Alfred has a body now, I am sure he might have some sort of solution for my condition but that is not the priority right now."

Whirling to face Alfred directly, Ed said, "Now that the Ancient One is dead, the strongest person in Kamar Taj is undoubtedly you and I don't believe for a second that the Ancient One didn't plan all of this. So, I want you to go to Kamar Taj or at least send a clone, organise them, and make sure that the planetary shields are reinforced and in the right condition."

Alfred looked grief-stricken at the mention of the Ancient One but soon looked at Ed with a determined look in his eyes.

He then made a clone who promptly made a portal and left the room.

"Now that we have that sorted away, let's discuss the changes that would be happening as a direct result of Dormammu's attack. First of all, the safety of the planet. Alfred has gone to make sure that the shields are safe. Any stray demons would need to be hunted down and I have made that the number one priority for now. Secondly, Revenge-"

"Don't worry about that, my friend. It's taken care of." Came the familiar voice of Toby as he somehow bypassed not only the ward scheme but also all of his senses.

That was troubling.

Understandably, all of the people present were startled and were pointing at Toby with the closest weapon they had access to, except Ed and him.

Ed sighed and waved at the others to lower their weapons and asked Toby exasperatedly, "What do you mean by that?"

Toby walked in and plonked down on one of the sofas and summoned an apple from a nearby pantry. He smirked and replied with a mouthful of apple in his mouth, "Oh, I gave the Old Dark One's home a visit. Gave it a little makeover. Let's just leave it at that."

Ed smiled and was about to say something before he sensed the space in the room warping and shouted, "Take Cover!"

Before anybody could even move, a rainbow pillar slammed into existence right in the centre of the room and as everybody pointed their weapons at the bridge, somebody they had never expected to see again came out of it.

"Your saviour is here," said Loki as he appeared in all of his alien mythological glory in his full costume.

And was promptly backhanded by Toby as he appeared before Loki in a flash. The only reason Loki was not a bloody mist was due to the existence of a small magic circle that broke down the moment Toby's hand made contact with it, absorbing most of the blow.

Seeing Loki create a hole in the wall and then slump down, Ed sighed once again and said, "Can we just stop manhandling Asgardian Princes please?"

Toby looked unrepentant as he looked at the fallen Loki with his swollen face like a masterpiece and Ed called in Maria to heal the fallen wayward Prince of Asgard.

"Well, this looks like the sort of mess that will bring about the attention of Thor, right?" Daisy asked, strangely excited about the arrival of an angry Asgardian Prince.

"But how is this even possible? Who sent him this time?" Eric asked

"He arrived by the rainbow bridge. It would be safe to assume that he has arrived from Asgard. It remains to be seen if his arrival was through legitimate orders or if he is just being his chaotic self." Jake replied.

"No, he probably is here on Odin's orders. Ignoring the fact that he would not be moving around without Odin's say-so, I had felt Heimdall's gaze on me when I had ascended. Back then, I had swiftly concealed myself so while I was expecting this, he sent Loki sooner than expected. I was half expecting a rainbow bridge to slam into me without any preparation but this works too." Alfred replied as he crouched down near the fallen Prince, taking DNA samples while running all the scans that he could while Loki was still unconscious.

Ed raised an eyebrow at that, "Oh, so it means you have officially ascended now, and is the faith energy being collected properly?"

Alfred nodded.

Ed then nodded, as if enlightened, "Ah, so that explains why you are acting so much cocky lately. The faith energy is corrupting you, it would seem. We need to purge all of that. I know of one way. Humiliation is the fastest way to humble someone, I propose we do that to you."

Alfred deadpanned at him, "Need I remind you that I am the strongest mystic on the planet right now and probably the most knowledgeable as well."

"Stop this chitchat, I wanted to see how strong a Prince of Asgard would be but I guess only Odin would be my match. Call me when we need to leave for Asgard," Toby said and left the room.

"Where are you going?" Ed yelled at him.

"To my quarters. I do hope my collectibles are still there, right Alfred?" Toby asked while exuding huge amounts of killing intent.

If it was possible, he would be sweating buckets. He then replied, "Yes, they are in storage. By the time you reach there, the room should be in the same state it was when you.. left"

________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 2003

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 82

Technomancer in MCU

The Asterisk

–Ed–

Well, that was a situation and a half.

Not only did the team get an explosive introduction to Toby, but they saw him slap an Asgardian Prince, Loki, into oblivion.

"How did he survive?" he asked Alfred as he was busy sealing up Loki's powers. He knew Toby and while he cared enough to hold back against people he knew, Loki was not fortunate enough to have Toby's acquaintance. Personally knowing his strength, that slap should have been enough to at least cave his skull, if not outright kill him.

"I cast a kinetic energy absorbing rune right in front of Loki's face, hoping it would be enough to stop him in time. It didn't but lessened the blow to the point that Loki only had minor concussions which have since healed due to his physiology. It probably helped that Toby understood my intent and didn't push the blow further or else, we would be looking at a very angry Odin right now." Alfred replied.

Yeah, that would have been the case.

While Odin liked to show himself to be the shining image of impartiality and justice, in reality, he did favour Thor more than he did Loki.

But that didn't mean that he didn't love Loki. It was just that his expression of Love came out a little different from traditional parenting. Then again, they were an entirely different species so what would he know?

If Loki had died or severely injured here, Odin would probably be donning his combat suit and shining rainbow bridge on their asses in less time than it took for them to get out of the base since it was probably going to be blown up by the sheer might of the Rainbow Bridge.

Many people in the outer cosmos have forgotten that while it is called a bridge, it is in fact a planet destroyer that would puncture through most planets with ease.

Then there was Frigga who, while not in the same realm of power as Odin, was equally dangerous if not more so due to her knowledge of the forgotten Mystic Arts.

Alfred would love to meet her.

"Yeah, from the looks of it, that guy looked to be in a rush to fight strong guys. Thor will probably love him," Daisy said as she poked Loki in the face.

"There, done," Alfred said as he sealed the entirety of Loki's prowess, from his advanced strength to his magic to even his heritage as an Ice Giant.

Alfred did good work with runes.

"I know you are awake, Loki. No use pretending in front of me." Alfred announced as he did something that zapped Loki awake.

"Unnngh," Loki spasmed as he suddenly stood ramrod straight.

"What have you done to me, you stupid machine? Why can't I access my powers?" Loki said as he tried to flex his fingers to activate his magic to no effect.

Alfred deadpanned at Loki as he was zapped once again by Alfred's runes.

"Where is that coming from?" Loki looked around himself, not noticing the temporary runic tattoo carved on his forehead

"Okay, fine. Let's do this again, shall we?" Loki said with a smile that looked more like a grimace, "The Guardian of the Singularity, Alfred, has been formally invited to the Royal Court of Odin himself to commemorate the rise of Midgard's new guardian."

As he spoke the words, a golden scroll manifested in front of Alfred in a golden flash.

Ah, Asgardians and their love for gold.

"Oh, and-" They looked up to Loki as he pointed at Ed, "I guess, you can come too if you want."

That was the most polite "Don't come" he was going to get from Loki.

"What does it say, Alfred?" he asked as Alfred finished scanning the scroll and was then scanning the ashes it had become once Alfred was done reading.

"Fascinating spellwork. Oh, nothing special. Just a formal invite to the guardian of a realm that is usually done to acknowledge the guardian's authority over the realm. Probably also a way to make sure that the de-facto leader of a realm bends their knee to Asgard, in front of Asgard's mightiest ruler." Alfred mumbled half-heartedly as he kept looking at a runic circle he had manifested in front of the ashes of the scroll.

For some reason, he was really fascinated with the spell Odin had used to bring the scroll to the intended recipient and once he was done reading it, turned to ashes.

"Oh, you primitives amuse me. Unlock me and I'll tell you about the spell myself. Uncovering secrets of Odin's spellwork is not a task that can be done by any machine that gains a body, however powerful the body might be." Loki said as he haughtily looked down at everyone in the room, while simultaneously raising his free hands towards Alfred as if he had been handcuffed.

It made for a pretty hilarious sight.

He could hear Eric's chuckles as they left the room along with Frank, presumably to meet Toby. Although he was not sure anybody aside from Frank had the desire to meet with the person whose clone had trounced them handily. Meeting the real one in person might be a tad bit intimidating for them.

Well, he was not sure about Eric since he had always been a bit of a wildcard but who knows?

"Got it," Alfred said and opened up another runic circle right in front of Loki's shocked and indignant face.

Judging by the wide eyes of Loki as he read the information inside the circle, Alfred was successful in deciphering Odin's spell.

"Anyway, off you go. We'll see when we decide to leave," Alfred said as he opened up a portal right underneath Loki. Only the portal he opened didn't open all the way through, so Loki sort of tumbled into the portal, knocking his head on the floor before slipping inside the portal.

"Bye!" he shouted before the portal closed up, likely sparing them from hearing whatever obscenities Loki was shouting.

"Where does it go?" He asked Alfred as they both began walking towards the meeting room, where a departmental meeting had been scheduled by Alfred the moment he had read the royal summons from Odin.

"Oh, the prison? It goes to a cylindrical tube, the both ends of which are gravity wells that pull a person and their pull is adjusted so that the person inside the tube goes up and down like a ping pong. That should keep him busy for a while, and then after that, I have a never-ending pipe for him to experience." Alfred said before he started working on something as a series of runic circles manifested in front of him.

Speaking of runes, "What level would you say you have reached in runes right now? Above Odin? Below Odin? Above Frigga but below Odin?" he asked Alfred since all Alfred had done since getting a body has involved runes in one way or the other so he was curious about his level of expertise regarding the subject. Especially since he was quite an expert on that topic even before getting his physical body.

Alfred chuckled mid-work and said, "It's funny you think I am below Frigga. I would say that in terms of runes at least, I should be able to roughly match Odin. If not, then it would only come as a matter of experience. In terms of raw power, though, Odin has me beat. That Odin force of his is really a cheat power." His words were tinged with envy when he spoke of the Odin Force.

That was understandable since that was the thing that propelled Odin from being one of the strongest beings in the universe to be able to match the strongest beings of the universe, the Celestials.

That feat alone was unheard of.

As they walked towards the meeting room, Alfred began telling him about his body, and all the feats he would now be able to perform because of his runic mastery.

Engrossed in their conversation, he never realised when they reached the meeting hall, even if it was on the other side of the base.

Although, the walkable design of the base must have had something to do with that.

He followed Alfred as the doors closed behind them, "Alright, everybody here?"

He received no response, "Alright, was expecting a little confirmation but this works too."

All he received in reply was a couple of eye rolls. Even Alfred, who was busy with his work, created eyes out of dimensional energy whips and made them roll their eyes at him.

"Okay, now that everybody is here, let me inform you of recent events. We suffered a catastrophic attack from Dormammu which has led to the loss of Project Ark as well as our superclass carrier, the replacement for which is already underway. Unfortunately, despite our wide array of search systems, we have been unable to find a replacement for Project Ark so the new carrier will mostly be built with defense in mind. Do keep that in mind," he said while pointing at Eric and Jake, the captain and deputy captain of the previous superclass carrier, respectively.

"Aside from the injuries sustained by the top of our combat list, I, myself, almost exhausted all of my powers to defeat Dormammu's avatar. The reason I am able to talk with all of you here is due to one of the former members of the organisation, Toby. He has some special powers, let's just say. For the time being, I am fine but in the long term, we will need to do something since doing this does take its toll on Toby."

In between the meeting, Maria raised her hands, "Yes Maria?"

"What are the measures we are taking to heal you?"

Alfred interrupted and replied, "All the measures are being taken to safeguard Ed's real body. Other than that, all avenues are being investigated. One such opportunity has opened up for us,"

"Yes, that is correct, Alfred. We have just been invited to the Royal Court of Asgard by Odin himself. Apparently, due to the death of the Ancient One, who was the previous guardian of Midgard, it would seem, that Alfred has been designated as the Guardian of Earth by Odin himself. As such, he has to go to Asgard to legitimise that and on the way, also search for advanced cures for my health," Ed said to the room at large. The reaction to the news of the summons was lukewarm at best. He wondered how they would react if he told them about the person who delivered the summons. Best not to poke that hornet's nest.

"Although not explicitly specified, I and Toby will be tagging along with Alfred to Asgard. In the meanwhile, I want you all to take care of the planet and the organisation. Through Alfred's portals, it will take us about an hour to come back to Earth but with the Rainbow Bridge's tech, we should reach here instantly in case of an emergency."

The room erupted into a cacophony of arguments when he delivered that news.

'Why do you need to go?"

"Can't just Alfred and Toby go?"

"How long will you be gone?"

"What if something happens to your body when you are not here?"

Those were some of the questions that were thrown his way but he was not about to budge on the topic.

Especially since he was sure that Toby was going to insist on coming and he was not exactly proud of Toby's restraint and tact when it came to sensitive situations.

Dealing with Odin definitely counted as a sensitive situation.

"ALRIGHT!" He shouted over the noise and noticing his determined expression, the room quieted down.

"OK, now that you are listening, I am going. Me not going could have adverse effects you don't know of. The best healers of the universe reside in Asgard and the best bet would be to take my body with me. Now, Alfred, is it feasible?" he asked Alfred who looked bored at the meeting.

"Shouldn't be a problem," Was all he could get out of Alfred before he just phased out of the room, to do who knows what.

"It's settled then. I will be leaving in about an hour. If you guys have any questions or confusions regarding the day-to-day workings, consult Frank, he knows best," He winked at Frank who looked shocked at the betrayal.

"See you soooon," Ed said as he skedaddled out of the room amidst the sea of questions that Frank was about to drown in.

________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 2136

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 83

Technomancer in MCU

Wakanda

–Tony "genius billionaire playboy philanthropist" Stark–

"Damn," he muttered as he stepped out of the Stark Jet that had landed on the outskirts of what looked like a mountain range which was clearly some sort of hidey-hole since there was a landing party waiting for them at the base of the mountain.

Also, the new generation sensors on the Jet were telling him a different story about the advanced hologram they had on the mountain.

Helping Pepper get off the jet with Banner following her, "Well, they did accept our request, even if they didn't elaborate on the tour."

"Uh, Tony, they don't look too happy to see us," Banner quietly said as he kept fiddling with the new and improved safety meter they had built for him. It had multiple functions, the prime of which was its ability to quickly get Banner out of the area using a localised blast of unidirectional repulsion force generated by the miniaturised Arc reactor inside the band.

Tony deadpanned at Banner and then charged on ahead to the party waiting for them as if he didn't hear what Banner said.

He then began waving his hands excitedly like an enthusiastic tourist, "Hello guys! Sorry, we're late. Although, in our defence, the landing coordinates you gave us were in the middle of nowhere so it did take us a while to land."

Getting very close to the mean-looking one who was wearing clothes with golden outlines on them, he extended his hands, "Though, now that I can take a closer look, this doesn't seem to be in the middle of nowhere, now does it? What is behind that hologram?"

The person in the front unfolded his arms and slowly shook his hand. He internally winced at the firm handshake.

"I am N'Jadaka and welcome to Wakanda. Please be aware though that the only reason you are allowed to see what you are about to see is because of your potential use of humanity and personal recommendation from someone high up in the chain. Do know that anything you see from now on is highly confidential and disclosure of any sensitive information will cost you dearly," The man then grinned wickedly, showing all of his teeth, "I will personally ensure that."

Tony nodded slowly and then as if a switch had been turned on, he began grinning like a loon and beckoned Pepper and Banner who were getting their luggage off the StarkJet. As they got the last piece of the luggage off the jet, it folded its legs inside and began floating in place, eventually flying into the horizon.

He turned around, expecting looks of awe or marvel on the faces of the guards behind the N'Jadaka fellow but they just looked bored, as if it was a normal sight to see the most advanced jet that any person who is not a secret military head, owned.

"Alright, how are we leaving? Or do I need to call back my Jet because I can totally do that, you know? In case you guys don't have anything.." Towards the end, his voice turned into a whisper as a veritable fleet appeared right behind the three people.

"This is how we'll be leaving, Mr.Stark. Now, if you all will follow me, I will show you your living quarters for the entire time you will be here," N'Jadaka said with a smirk at the shocked looks on their faces.

He quickly schooled his face back into a laid-back one but it would seem that the damage had already been done since the guards behind N'Jakada began chuckling at him.

He then silently followed behind N'Jadaka, Pepper, and Banner following behind him, the luggage floating behind them as it was powered by repulsor technology for easy transportation.

There was a huge boogie in the center which looked like a boat on the outside, only instead of floating in water, it floated slightly above the ground, in air.

Getting inside the boat, he ran his hands over the materials of the shell.To his astonishment, "My god, they were right, you guys do have a metric buttload of Vibranium, don't you?"

The entirety of the hull was laced with alloys that had Vibranium mixed in with them. The particular alloy that was used for the shell was something that he had read about in the lab database he had access to.

"Bruce, come look at this, doesn't this look and feel the same as the CXW-135 alloy we saw in the database?" He asked Bruce as he tried to open a link to Jarvis, only for the screen on his watch to flash red as it failed to get a signal from outside.

"You won't be getting any signal until it is registered with the Digital Bureau. Your AI has been trying to get in with surprising tenacity but while he has very high levels of raw strength behind his attempts and is learning at an alarming rate, it would still take him years to get behind our firewalls. So, wait until you've met the King, and then we can see if we can't get you a secured limited link with your server outside." N'Jadaka said as he handed him his tablet.

"Attaboy!" he said as he could visibly see the improvement Jarvis was having with his hacking attempts after every failure.

Still, it was astonishing that even after harnessing the power of the impossible server they had in the basement, Jarvis was unable to hack into their firewalls. After getting the lab in the basement, there were practically no public-facing servers on the planet that Jarvis wouldn't be able to access with little difficulty.

As his fingers demanded, he tried to use the tablet but it seemed frozen on the hacking progress screen that the N'Jadaka fellow had given him.

"Don't bother," N'Jadaka said as he snatched the tablet off of Tony's hands. Then he did something on the tablet and said, "With the power your AI has access to, it would have easily broken through the firewalls we had a short few years ago. It was only after the Invasion of New York that we had a massive cybersecurity upgrade that has allowed the firewalls to stay secure."

N'Jadaka then exclaimed, "Oh, look! It broke through the first layer. That was faster than I had expected,"

"Let me see," he said as he all but snatched the tablet out of the man's hands. This was another screen that showed about 12 more walls that Jarvis had to break through.

"Oh, this is not some sort of crime that we will be charged with later on, right? Because if it is, I can tell him to stop it. He's probably just worried about our safety, that's all." He said as he realised that Jarvis was committing treason by trying to break into a country that has been dubbed the "Most Advanced Country on Earth" by Ed of all people.

He was pretty sure they could retaliate, both in the digital world and in the real world.

He was about to try once more when N'Jadaka began frowning as the Ship's lights began to take on a greenish-golden accent.

For some reason, N'Jadaka sighed, "What now, Alfred? If you can't see it, I am in the middle of something."

Right after he spoke, Alfred appeared in the center of the boat in holographic form. He then raised his hands and said, "Hey, you are not the one who had to calm down a hyperactive anxious budding AI. Good work on the code by the way, Pepper's Boytoy,"

He didn't know if he should feel flattered or insulted about that nickname that had stuck in every system that he had ever used that had Alfred's influence on them.

"Hello, sir, Contact with Sir Alfred has been an extreme learning experience. The StarkJet is now back on its way," Jarvis' voice sounded through the speakers of the boat.

His eyes widened when Alfred spoke, "Oh, yeah. The poor guy was about to ram his way inside the shield using the StarkJet. It would have failed by the way but it would have damaged the camouflage function of the shield. You guys should really work on that by the way. N'Jadaka see to it that they are given the correct idea about Wakanda."

Then, the hologram disappeared and with it, the accent lights returned back to their whitish glow. The ship shuddered slightly but soon regained its course when a voice spoke through the speakers, "Connection established, Lord N'Jadaka. Was it Lord Alfred again?"

Lord? N'Jadaka sighed and replied, "Yes. There has been a change of plans. Drop the escort and take the ship directly to the Royal Palace."

"Acknowledged. Rerouting Talon," The voice spoke and while he could see the route being changed on the helpful screens attached on the walls of the boat, he couldn't feel a single thing.

Although, the same could be said about the StarkJet which does it without fancy Vibranium alloys, so his ship was clearly better.

Soon, the ship landed and the bay doors opened up.

Out of the bay, he could see rows of soldiers on both sides standing in formation. He could feel Bruce get nervous as the prospect of entering a place that placed such strong emphasis on the Military made him jittery.

"Relax, Dr.Banner. I give you my word that no harm will befall you or your companions. If that doesn't reassure you, remember that Ed has all three of you on his "priority" list and as such you guys are constantly being tracked by them. If, by any chance, something happened to any of you, no shield Wakanda could ever build would be able to stop them from coming crashing down on us. So, please relax and I'll make sure that you enjoy this experience so much that we will be able to poach you from the outside world," N'Jadaka said as he gestured to Bruce to go forward and leave the boat.

Bruce, still unsure, nodded and got down from the boat.

"Mr.Stark, after you," N'Jadaka gestured to him and he visibly rolled his eyes at him and hopped off the boat, Pepper coming behind him.

In front of him, he could see Bruce's neck on a swivel as he looked from one place to the other.

The same could be said about him as he looked at the huge barrier that surrounded the entirety of their city, the local sensors on his body showing him data that made no sense at all, even after he had been exposed to the crazy shenanigans that Alfred had done.

He could hear Pepper gasp behind him as she took in the beautiful architecture that made the Royal Palace.

None of the Tacky Golden accents but then again, the hints of Vibranium being used in the construction of all places he could see in the palace could have bought entire piles of gold in the outside world.

"Mr.Stark, Dr.Banner and Ms.Potts, welcome to Wakanda," A regal royal-looking lady greeted them as an entire entourage followed behind her who then took all of their luggage.

"I am Queen Ramonda of Wakanda and I see that you have already met Prince N'Jadaka," the lady then gestured behind him.

Prince?

He looked wide-eyed at N'Jadaka who smirked and waved at him.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry for Tony's behaviour. He didn't know that you were a prince," Pepper immediately began apologizing profusely to N'Jadaka who waved her off.

Oh, this was going to be fun.

________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 1956

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.

A/N - Well, Brainworms I guess. Don't worry, just one more chapter and we are off to Asgard Arc.

Toodles!

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 84

Technomancer in MCU

Wakanda

–N'Jadaka–

As it turned out, all his effort to try and get Wakanda to help the Ascendency's work went down the drain since Alfred came back at the right moment and destroyed the entirety of both S.H.I.E.L.D. and H.Y.D.R.A. before they could actually mobilise their forces.

Last he heard, their resident spy hunter, T'Challa was taking out rogue members of the spy organization because of a list Alfred had sent to them to take care of, on the African Continent.

Then he had to resist the urge to facepalm when he watched the entirety of the press conference that Ed attended with all of the S-tier members of Ascendency.

Honestly, watching that made the members of the council look at him with even more wariness and distrust than before. They were beginning to think that he too had a similar level of strength as the members that were floating behind Ed.

He wished.

If he had that level of strength, he would have long since done something drastic to Wakanda and brought it to heel. Something he was sure was the reason why he was never given the green signal for the more advanced enhancement procedures within the organisation, limiting him to only B-tier advancements.

Something that he was now grateful for since that allowed him to gain something that was infinitely more valuable than the ability to punch harder.

Perspective.

Back then, he had been just a ball of anger and hate. Giving someone with that mindset the power to level cities at a time was obviously a bad choice.

Nowadays, he didn't even need to use his powers all that much and he was doing much better progress than he thought he did.

Still, it was always fun to watch all the new recruits absolutely gape in awe as he absolutely manhandled the Black Panther and the Dora Milaje at the same time.

It made for a fun sparring exercise, especially since he used the resistance bands that the nerds in the labs cooked up for him, for the entire time he was training.

It really helped drive home the fact that he was the strongest person in the nation and his being peaceful and abiding by all the rules was a choice and not an obligation that they could enforce on him with their weak soldiers at all.

His strength was one of the reasons why the Jabari tribe was willing to throw their weight behind him, further legitimizing his position within the country.

Then again, defeating their entire tribe by his lonesome definitely helped them make an informed decision. Now, they too were frequent attendees of his sparring sessions.

Like most of the higher-ups within Wakanda, he too was curious about the new website Alfred had launched, hilariously naming it after himself was something he could only foresee Alfred doing.

King T'Chaka, being understandably paranoid about the consequences of exposing such an untested but probably dangerous source of information to the civilian populace, restricted access to the website to a single terminal in the Royal Chamber and a single terminal in the Royal Labs, for testing purposes.

Through the terminal in the Royal Meeting hall, they were able to get access to information depending on the access levels decided by Alfred for all the concerned tribe elders.

Despite everything that had already happened, the elders were still somewhat shocked and amazed that the Ascendency knew their names and roles.\

On that website, they finally got a glimpse of the vastness of the organisation and the smallness of their country when compared to the true giants of space. Not just entities from space, they had a country in the depths of the ocean itself that was not just bigger than Wakanda, it boasted of bigger deposits than Wakanda, all the while having a leader as strong as the Hulk himself and having access to similar if not more advanced technology than Wakanda.

Atlantis and the existence of Namor truly was a nightmare come true for the people who ruled over Wakanda, touting their self-declared status as the most advanced nation on the planet. Although, "on" the planet part might be true since Atlantis could be called as "in" the planet.

That truly was a nightmarish meeting session that had lasted well into the morning but after one too many specialists and analysts being called in for threat assessment, he was just about ready to call it a day and so had the King when the entire room's lights went out and came back on in a dim greenish golden color.

His sigh and the sound of T'Chaka facepalming could be the only two things that could be heard in the darkness of the meeting hall.

Then, with his usual flair for dramatics, Alfred's voice emerged from the speakers that littered the entirety of the hall, "Hey! Why did you guys remove the holographic projectors from this room? Now I have to use this puny restricting monitor now and let me tell you, that is not nearly as mysterious as I was hoping to be."

They could all see the old visage of Alfred's avatar as it appeared on the monitor that was designated as the secure terminal for using AlfredGPT.

Alfred rolled his eyes at them once he realised that they had no intention of humoring him, "You guys are no fun now."

"Well, coming to serious topics, I am thankful that Wakanda was willing to help us in getting rid of the scourge that was H.Y.D.R.A. once and for all but thankfully, we were able to handle everything on our own. Still, let it never be said that we don't reward our allies. I have credible information that over the course of the next twelve hours, Tony Stark will be contacting you to visit your country, the real Wakanda, not the shack you guys have built outside."

Almost immediately, the tribe elders and even the King stood up in outrage as it implied that Alfred had told Tony Stark, effectively an outsider, about the truth of Wakanda, which essentially amounted to betrayal of the highest order in Wakanda.

"Calm down, I am actually doing you guys a favour here. The importance of Tony Stark to the human race cannot be understated, especially if you plan to join the outside world as an advanced civilisation. Our plan to introduce you guys as a natural opposition to our rising power would benefit immensely from Stark's cooperation." Alfred rolled his eyes at them and chided them.

He then continued. "Look, whether you guys like it or not, Stark is coming here and he is bringing Dr.Banner with him and he is not someone who likes being denied. With his sights on Wakanda, he will find a way in, it wouldn't matter what you do. Unless you plan on killing him and his friends and then eventually, the Avengers and then the people who would try to avenge the original members of the Avengers, you have no other option but to ally yourself with him and place him firmly in your camp before he learns about your other activities and lowers the image of Wakanda in his mind."

He chose the exact moment to speak his thoughts, " He is right."

His words sent the attention of everyone in the room on him, "Stark has the potential to become a valuable ally, and while I am sure that most of you have reservations about revealing the secret of our country to someone who was until recently, called the "Merchant Of Death" but the choice left our hands as soon as someone-"

He glared at Alfred as he continued speaking, "-took it upon themselves to give the world a place where they can access the most classified information for free."

Before the meeting could delve into another shouting match, the King sighed and said, " Alright, your message is received, Alfred. You can go now, I am sure that you have much more pressing matters at hand."

Alfred raised his finger to say something but then his hologram disappeared abruptly.

That was odd.

As soon as Alfred left, the lights in the room came back on and the greenish golden accent was removed.

"Before any of you say anything, I have had the distinct pleasure of meeting and interacting with Howard Stark and if the things I have heard about his spawn are true, Tony Stark is going to be an even bigger pain to deal with. N'Jadaka-" King T'Chaka addressed him.

"-You are to be on point in this meeting. Make sure that Wakanda makes a strong impression on Stark and that he is properly educated about our plans, based on the first meeting. Alfred is right, Stark can help dramatically accelerate the timeline for us going out in the light."

"I will take no further discussions on this topic. N'Jadaka you are dismissed."

He took his cue and left the meeting room, his mind whirling at the implications of being given this opportunity.

"Where are we going?" he was asked by one of his subordinates as he immediately went towards his office after leaving the meeting hall.

He waved them off, his mind focused on having his own conversation with Alfred.

"What were you thinking, Alfred? This could seriously hurt us. And the bit about Stark helping the goal, that's bullshit and you know it. So, tell me, why?" He spoke out loud as soon as his room was sealed using one of the bullshit runes that Alfred had sent him if he needed to talk to someone without being spied upon by Wakanda.

"Oh, calm down. Nothing too nefarious. I just wanted to see what level Stark would reach if given access to Wakanda's legacy tech as well as your variant of Vibranium." Alfred appeared in the middle of the room and replied.

"And you couldn't do that without telling him about Wakanda, why?" he asked with gritted teeth, glaring at the holo-Alfred as he lounged in the center of his office.

Alfred sighed and sat up a little straighter in the hologram, "Look, your plan to integrate Wakanda slowly with the rest of the world was all fine and dandy if you looked at it in a vacuum. The thing is, you are not though and with things that have come to light recently, we are now functioning on an accelerated timeline, and consequently, so is Wakanda and every other country on the planet, for that matter."

He slammed his hands on the table, "So, that's why you set Stark's sights on us, so we would be forced to abandon our current plans and try and reveal ourselves publicly haphazardly?"

Alfred looked impassively at him as the very air in the room suddenly felt heavier to breathe in. "Look, I don't really have to explain or reply to your tantrum but you being a former member of our organisation, I feel some responsibility for your situation, so let me make one thing very clear to you."

By this point, the very air in his lungs felt heavy like iron and his vision began blurring as the very chair he was sitting in began groaning in protest due to the sudden pressure being put on it.

"I might act as if I care about you humans or your pathetically short lives but I don't. I could care less if you all died but growing up, I was taught or at least they tried to teach me the value of all life and while I wouldn't say they failed, they just never really understood the scale at which I functioned. I did begin to value human lives but not all lives. Just the ones who I cared for. Ed, Frank, Maria, Daisy, Peggy, to name a few."

He then leaned into my face as the chair had all but broken down beneath him, upright only due to its sturdy construction.

"They want humanity to grow so I will make sure it will. Your little country doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things. I could, even now, lift that mountain of Vibranium and dump it into the ocean, robbing you of your greatest weapon. I won't because that would result in needless bloodshed but just know, I could."

Just then, the pressure disappeared abruptly, as if it was never there at all.

"So, Stark will be knocking on Wakanda's doors soon. It's your choice whether you want to be caught flatfooted all by yourselves or strategize and plan with two of the brightest minds of the century on what to do with your science and with the CEO of the largest firm in the world on PR lessons. That's all I have to say." Alfred said and disappeared.

He took in deep breaths as he looked at the state of his office.

All of it sustained some degree of damage as Alfred had somehow exerted enough pressure to crack even reinforced furniture to such a degree, through a fucking hologram of all things.

Just how strong had he become by simply gaining a body?

His muscles pained in protest as he stood up from his ruined chair, shocked and a little bit fearful of the fact that Alfred could influence things thousands of miles away from a fucking digital avatar.

He shook his head to get rid of the negative thoughts that emerged in his mind from this encounter.

Now was not the time for that. He had a couple of very troublesome guests he had to receive in a couple of hours.

Time to get to work then.

________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 2302

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.


A/N - Just one More chapter with this and then off to Asgard storyline (Sorry, brain monkeys' are not cooperating)

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 85

Technomancer in MCU

Wakanda

–Tony Stark–

So, this is what they have been hiding from the rest of the world.

"And Pray tell Mr.Tall and Scary, how long did you guys plan on staying out of the world's issues, all safe and secure in your little slice of paradise." He asked a little confrontationally.

While he could understand their reasonings for not exposing their VIbranium reserves to the world at large, being a weapons dealer he was aware of the basic human tendency of converting everything into a weapon, what he could not understand was anonymizing their help.

They could have cured Cancer.

They still can.

Diabetes, Air Pollution, Water Pollution, Plastics, STDs, all of them curable in Wakanda and not available to the rest of the world.

Diseases that claimed millions of lives elsewhere were just a visit to the hospital away from this place.

God, he wished he never had his empathy phase. Pepper and her therapist idea.

The only response he got was a sigh from the lead of the Royal Science lab that was assigned to chauffeur them around the science division of Wakanda, "Look, Mr.Stark, I was not even born when these decisions were taken. I mean, my grandparents were kids when it was decided that Wakanda would seal its borders and never interfere in the workings of the outside world. My job is to show you around the lab, nothing more, nothing less. If you have any complaints, you can take it up to the King or Prince N'Jadaka, they will be happy to listen to you, considering they were the ones who just dumped this task on me."

"Honestly, blackmailing me with time on the Quantum Computex cores is so unfair," He murmured in the end, sounding like whining to him.

He whirled on him immediately, "You guys have Quantum Computing, how advanced, what are the specs? You know what, just take me there."

The guy looked just about done with him and his questions but it was not as if he was about to let that juicy tidbit go.

Of course, the processing power afforded to Jarvis by virtue of the servers in the Lab was leaps and bounds ahead of anything he could even think of but he wanted to see how far Wakanda had come because he was pretty sure that he could at least copy their tech and make it better.

Stupid Alfred and his anti-reverse engineering protocols.

But the head honcho of this place refused to budge from his place, "I am sorry, Mr.Stark but that is one of the places where I cannot take you. Even if the King has given you carte blanche to do whatever you wish to do, I cannot in good conscience let an outsider access the most prized part of our Lab. So, No."

He raised his hands in surrender at the vehement refusal, "Ok, alright. I get it, not letting me play with your shiniest toy."

"Tony!" he heard Bruce call for him loudly from the other part of this lab. Exchanging alarming looks with the head scientist, both of them ran to where Banner was looking at the biochemical advances of Wakanda.

Upon reaching the lab, they could see Banner furiously typing on one of the holo screens provided by the Kimoyo Beads they were all provided with.

"What is it?" he asked as he tried to look at what Banner was typing but biology was never really his strong suit anyway.

"Look, they have a primitive matrix ready for digital to organic mind transfers," Bruce said as he kept writing something on his holopad, most of it scribbles to his vision.

His eyes widened as he immediately connected his own Kimoyo beads to Bruce's and began going through the translated version of the paper somebody had published for transferring a digital mind to an organic construct.

Apparently, the author was researching ways of increasing somebody's lifespan, and transferring their minds to a digital construct was one of the ways they found of temporarily storing people's minds until they could, in the future, transfer that back into an organic meat sack.

The thing was they just could not do it.

But, throughout the course of their research, they were able to build a very basic bio-organic brain of sorts that could handle the uplink required to transfer a very basic AI in it and have it survive off of just calories, no extra electricity required.

"This is nowhere close to what Jarvis would need but-"

"It's a start," Bruce said as his excitement only kept on increasing.

"Excuse me, are you talking about putting your VI, Jarvis, in a biological body?" He was asked by the resident intern of the place.

He and Bruce simultaneously turned their necks towards the intern and said as if it was the most obvious thing they would do, "Yeah!"

Honestly, this was exactly what they needed. "Bruce, just download the entire thing. I'll take permission from the King later on."

Whatever protests they had on him, essentially taking their IP died in their throats when they saw King T'Chaka himself walk into the lab, followed by Prince N'Jadaka and the default entourage of the Dora Milaje.

"At ease, N'Tona, let Mr.Stark and Dr.Banner use that technology. After all, it's only fair that we offer something in return for all the help that we will be getting from them." King T'Chaka said to the lead scientist whose name was N'Tona apparently.

N'Tona bowed and left the room.

"So, what can I do for you, King T'Chaka?" he asked flippantly, doing that on purpose to gauge the reactions of the King and the people around him.

The tightening hands of the Dora Milaje as they held on to their spears gave him a pretty good idea as to what their attitude was towards outsiders, i.e., them.

Honestly, the only ones who he had met in Wakanda who had a favourable/neutral view towards them were the two princes, The Princess, and surprisingly, the lead scientist.

Other than them, all of the other people looked at him as if he was a new animal in the zoo and that was the tamest reaction of all. He had seen that almost all of the higher-ups looked at him with thinly veiled hostility and wariness as if they were just waiting for him to erupt and cause catastrophic damage to Wakanda.

He had expected that but what befuddled him the most was the fact that the same looks never translated to Bruce.

He had thought that Bruce was the one who would be the most discriminated against but instead, these people never once looked at Bruce as if he was a threat and honestly, he was glad that his friend finally met a crowd who looked at him as a scientist and not like the Hulk but he had to wonder what was their source of confidence regarding Bruce and his alter ego.

He was sure that they were not aware of his deal with the Hulk and how they regularly sparred inside the Lab to test out his newest renditions of the Hulk busters.

The King sighed and said, "Walk with me, Mr.Stark. Dr.Banner, please continue what you were doing and if you need anything else, ask anybody and they'll be more than happy to accommodate you."

Bruce nodded hesitantly. He could see that Bruce wanted to come with him but in the end, scientific curiosity won over anxiety and Bruce dove back into the goldmine of knowledge they had found.

Honestly, centuries of advanced research data would have made him invade this place if not for him already possessing the Lab, something that was centuries ahead of even this place.

He walked beside the King as he took twists and turns throughout the Royal Palace building, ditching their guards and even the Prince behind.

He kept his mouth shut as he was aware of the importance of this meeting.

Soon, they came upon a plain door but as soon as they crossed the hallway, the door shimmered and the hologram on it vanished, leaving behind an archaic wooden door that looked as if it had been kept as is for a century.

The King stopped momentarily, as if hesitating to do something but placed his palm in the center of the huge lotus that was carved in the door.

As soon as the King removed his palm from the place, the lotus began pulsing with a red light. The light travelled from the place the King had put his palm to the entirety of the door.

After dimming and lighting itself up for three times, the door opened with an Ancient groan, indicating its age.

Inside there was a single platform, just floating above the ground.

The King entered the room and he followed behind, absolutely curious about the state of things.

"This, Mr.Stark is an ancient artifact bestowed upon us by Bast herself." King T'Chaka's voice boomed in the room as if it was coming from all directions.

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the goddess crap again. That was all he had been hearing ever since he came to the country. Most likely, she was just some hyper-advanced alien like Thor.

"You might not believe me and that's fine. We are not here to make you a believer. We are here to set the future stone in which the next generation of Wakanda will set their foundation." T'Chaka said as he removed a dark golden pendant from his neck and placed it right above the floating platform.

"I might be old but I am not blind, Mr.Stark. I know that Wakanda will soon have to shed its old image and embrace the new and uncertain. Failing to do so would only result in us fading into obscurity."

He was not sure where the King was taking this but as time went on, he felt a light pressure on him in the room, the words of the King adding pressure with every word he spoke.

King T'Chaka then pointed at him, "You, Mr.Stark, represent the new age of Humanity at least that is what our patron and our allies have told us and from what I've seen, I agree with them."

He then pointed to the platform, "This is a relic from the bygone era when we still made pacts with outsiders. This is an artifact that allows one to turn their words into a bond, a pact, or a contract. This platform is connected directly to the pendant passed down from King to King."

By this time, the room had gone completely dark, only the platform's dim glow keeping things visible to him.

"I would like to make a contract with you, Mr.Stark, for the safety and prosperity of Wakanda," T'Chaka said as he extended his hands towards the platform and instinctively, he found himself doing the same.

Honestly, things had turned out weirder than he had ever expected.

But he was nothing if not adaptable to circumstances.

'What sort of contract are we talking about?" he said as he kept his hand just above the platform where a cavity had formed that conspicuously looked just like his handprint.

"I would give you unrestricted access to Wakanda's intellectual property and strategic resources as long as you swear to use them in such a manner that both Humanity as a whole and Wakanda are the beneficiaries of your actions," T'Chaka said.

His eyes widened immensely as he processed what the King had just said. He had essentially given him command of his Kingdom.

"I refuse," he said out loud and as if an explosion had taken place, the room shook and the lights came back on.

T'Chaka looked disappointed as he said, "I had hoped to foster trust by doing it this way." He said as he pocketed the Pendant from the platform.

"Look, I don't need some binding vow to help you guys. Sure, some of your past deeds looked scummy but I am in no position to judge you on past mistakes. I should be in jail right now if that were true. I might not like the older generation's decisions but Wakanda is going to be run by the future generations and they look pretty promising to me. Now, why don't you take me back to the Lab because some of the stuff you guys have here is awesome."

T'Chaka looked shocked but then chuckled and said, "Sure, please follow me."

As they left the room, the door locked itself and as if an illusion had been cast over it, took over the appearance of a regular plain grey door.

"So, about some vibranium-"

"No!"

"Please?"

'Sigh…"

________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 2153

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 86.1

Technomancer in MCU

Rainbow Bridge, Asgard

–Heimdall–

He had kept watch on his King's children ever since they were little kids.

Even Hella Odinsdottir was someone who regarded him and his job with the importance and reverence it deserved.

For he was the Watcher of Asgard.

Asgard's first line of defense.

So, why? Why does none of the current Princes respect him enough to actually give him space of thought?

On one hand, there is Prince Thor who, while much calmer than before, has no tact and goes off to galavant to Midgard to mingle with his paramour.

On the other hand, there is Prince Loki, who, quite successfully, argued his case in court regarding his being under the control of another powerful being and getting himself his freedom, also does not respect his duties and even regularly uses the dangerous Old ways to traverse between realms.

When his King had declared that Prince Loki would be the one who would be heading to earth to summon the Singularity, he had been startled beyond belief and while he did not show it on his face, according to him, the choice was wrong.

In fact, not even Prince Thor was properly equipped to handle the Singularity and its Guardian.

His King should have just sent his infamous ravens but for some reason, he sent Loki.

Someone who had spearheaded an invasion of one of their biggest cities just a few short years back. That is pitifully short in mortal time.

In fact, the only people who could communicate with the Singularity's Guardian on an equal or higher footing, in the entire realm of Asgard, were Queen Frigga and King Odin.

And wasn't that a frightening thought?

The fact that mere mortals who had only arrived in the universe 9 of Midgard's years prior to this day, had ascended to such a level of strength that should they ever come to blows, even Prince Thor might lose out in terms of sheer strength and magical power, let alone intelligence which was the strong suit of the Singularity and its Guardian.

He shuddered to think what would happen should Prince Loki provoke them to the point of turning them into enemies of Asgards. Even them adopting a neutral stance towards Asgard could be detrimental to Asgard since there were threats on the horizon that he could not see yet he knew they were coming.

Hela. Thanos. The Surviving Celestials.

And many more that even his sight could not find.

Sometimes, he regretted not accepting his King's request for bestowing upon Axal his sight but when he thought of his long lonesome service to his King, he thought differently about the Sight.

It was a burden. A burden to be shouldered throughout one's life all by themselves. It cannot be taught. It cannot be taken away. It can only be given.

He was being selfish, he was aware of that. But to burden his only son with that would make him a bad father and the All-Father understood that.

He was grateful for that.

That was one of the reasons why he didn't protest when the King decided to send Prince Loki to Midgard as an envoy.

Except the Singularity's Guardian was not on Midgard. When the time to send Prince Loki to Midgard came, his Sight failed him.

It was a rare occurrence but exceptionally powerful beings have successfully hidden themselves from his sight but he was of the understanding that only the Ancient One could hide herself from his Sight simply by virtue of her soul strength being high enough to bend the Astral Realm around herself, rendering her invisible to his advanced Sight and senses.

So, in the end, he had to borrow the All-Father's sight to actually locate the Guardian. Turns out, he was with the Singularity on their base built into the crust of the Moon that orbited around Midgard, or Earth as they called it.

Relying on his King's sight was always a disorienting feeling since he could feel the scope of his King's sight and it was truly vast. The only drawback he could see was the energy expenditure which, while not large enough to be a problem, did have its toll on his King's body and being one of the very few people alive who knew of Hela and how she was being imprisoned, he was very quick in locating the Guardian, sending Prince Loki to the location and disconnecting himself from his King's sight.

"I know you doubt my choice, Heimdall." he heard his King's voice whisper into his ears.

"I am sorry, All-Father," He immediately kneeled and said, knowing that his King would be able to hear it.

"A parent's love is vast, Heimdall and while we can be hurt by the actions of our children, the love can never truly be lost. Thank you for being understanding." The King whispered and then as if it was never there at all, he could feel the heavy presence of OdinForce dissipating from the surroundings.

But he was aware.

Aware of his King's eternal watch over Asgard.

The All-Father never truly stopped watching over Asgard.

"For Asgard," he whispered as he stood up and removed Hofund from the bridge, turning the Rainbow Bridge off.

For Asgard, he would stand watch till the end of his life. It may even come true if the snippets of vision he had received would come true in this life.

Ragnarok. The End of Asgard as we know it.

Something that all Asgardians strove to prevent at all costs.

It was a treacherous thought but sometimes, he thought of how the current Asgard came to be and what its future could be and then the thought of being able to rebuild it all anew didn't seem so bad.

It helped that in his visions, even after Ragnorok, Asgardians survived and built another home.

A true home this time.

Not one that is built on lies, blood, and death across realms.

Hela truly did a number on the nine realms, propelling Asgard to become the only power worth mentioning in the nine realms.

Speaking of her, he could still her lounging about in her prison. For someone who had been imprisoned for over a thousand years, she looked remarkably sane.

Then again, the Goddess of Death was scarcely sane when she was the general of Asgard's armies, let alone now when she had been in solitary confinement for over a thousand years with only her undead summons as company.

He could not yet believe that the All-Father still thought of his sons to be the counter for Hela.

Thor, with his shackled potential and Loki with his shackled and damaged mind could never hope to match Hela alone, let alone Hela when she gains birthright access to Odin Force and its energies.

That was why the alliance with the Guardian of the Singularity was important. So far, he had shown remarkable aptitude in all things mystical, being the second most skilled Mystic of Midgard, after the Ancient One.

With the resources and grit shown by the Singularity, he was sure that, if given the chance, he would be the one who could save Asgard. The true Asgard.

Hela's escape from her prison is all but a certainty with All-Father's health deteriorating day by day.

The day comes near when Prince Thor and Prince Loki would have to fight Odin's firstborn and looking at them now, they were absolutely not ready.

Even right now, Prince Thor was sparring with his friends. An absolutely useless spar considering the best weapon he had access to was his innate magical power and his ability to command Thunder without Mjolnir.

His over-reliance on Mjolnir will be the biggest hindrance in his way to reach his peak, something that will be higher than even All-Father's if his words are to be believed.

Prince Loki, on the other hand, has not been received well, it would seem.

Judging from his current condition, he was not in any danger but being bound magically and unconscious in the base of a foreign power was never a good sign.

He could have warned All-Father about it but chose to wait it out, especially since he could see that none of the people in the base meant Prince Loki any harm and they were actually getting ready for something.

________________________________________________________________

The Asterisk

–Loki Odinson–

He gained consciousness but made sure not to move about. He felt his body moving but before he could open his eyes and check, his body slowed down and then immediately jerked to another direction.

He immediately tried to use his magic to sense the surroundings on reflex but to his horror, found that his magic was bound.

Normally, that would not have been a problem since all the magical binders he had ever come across, all of them just made sure that Magic, or any other energy for that matter, didn't flow out of the prisoner.

Only the truly quality ones like the ones made in Asgard or Nidavellir took into account the fact that skilled magic practitioners like him could manipulate the flow of magic inside to resonate with the ever-present dimensional energy and use it for devastating effects.

Unlocking most bindings would have taken little effort but whoever had bound him had been very thorough with their job, making sure that he had no wiggle room whatsoever.

With nothing to do, he resigned himself to wait for them to stop this madness of pendulum motions.

When he got the assignment from Odin (he still refused to call him Father), he had been very glad to get out of Asgard for it had been getting suffocating to be in the presence of people who loved him.

He still could not believe his luck that Mother managed to find out about Thanos' attack on his mind and argued with the court for him.

It was truly unprecedented. The Queen fighting for someone against the justice system of the Royal Court of Asgard.

Even now, he could hear the crowds whispering about his mother and how wrong of a decision she took when she decided to help him avoid the life imprisonment that Odin was about to punish him with.

________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 1726

To be continued

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.


A/N - I truly have so much to write but its already 1 A.M and I have to wake up at 5 in the morning if I want the day to go good.

So, two part chapter it is.

See you guys tomorrow.

Toodles!

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 86.2

Technomancer in MCU

The Asterisk

–Loki–

Honestly, the one person who loved him unconditionally was the same person who he had hurt, in his quest to prove himself to Odin.

Because that was what it all was, a way to prove. To prove that he was not the inferior son of the House of Odin. To prove that his beloved mother's magic could also be used to the same devastating effect as Thor's physical might could.

He was lost in his thoughts when his body didn't jerk itself to one side on the regular time and instead just kept falling down into darkness.

Oh, great.

Before he could try to do anything though, not that it would have helped, he landed on what seemed like a hard floor, hard.

"I have been falling for 30 minutes!" He shouted and stood up from the ground, trying to conjure his knives only for his magic to fail him once again.

"Release my magic this instant, you fools!"

"Honestly, what was Odin thinking?" He heard the machine speak.

"Sigh, Alfred, just release the manacles, will you?"

With a clicking sound, the chains binding his legs disappeared into motes of light.

He surveyed the room only to see the Singularity and its Guardian along with the person who had quite literally attacked him on sight.

The odds didn't look good for him this time.

However, before he could raise his hands for surrender or call Heimdall, the bindings on magic disappeared. A rune floated out of his chest and dissipated into a greenish glow.

Even with his magic back, he was not sure if he could get out of this place alive but it would seem that there was no need to do so.

"Relax, we were just surprised by your visit. We are ready to go to Asgard now. You can call Heimdall now, I have lowered the spatial defenses now, not that those stopped you from coming here unannounced before." The machine spoke as he kept on looking at something on a metal coffin that was placed behind the Singularity and the person beside him.

The Singularity facepalmed for some reason and the person behind him bared his teeth at him.

Leaning back slightly from that, he shook the extended hands of the Singularity.

'Hello, I am Ed, as you probably know. This is-" He then pointed to the demon beside him, '-Toby and I apologize on his behalf for knocking you out. He was just startled."

He didn't need to rub that in.

"Ahem, yes, I can understand. Now, are you ready to go to Asgard? Because the Allfather's summons have little patience when it comes to tardiness. I can attest to that personally." He said while rubbing off imaginary dust from his regular outfit that he had summoned using his magic.

Magic that he was using to constantly probe his surroundings, as any Magic user worth his salt would. The results only confused him more.

It was as if the area he was in ended with the walls surrounding him. No matter how much he tried, he failed to get any reading beyond the four walls he was in.

The people in front of him, on the other hand, were a different story altogether.

The person that stood out the most to him was not the Machine, as he had expected, but the demon who was standing beside the Singularity.

And the demon was strong too. Overwhelmingly so.

Not even Thor could give him this feeling of danger this demon did, simply by standing there and smiling at him.

It would be unwise to bring him to Asgard but he was sure that no matter how strong he was, the All-Father would smite him if needed.

Then, the singularity was the one who confused him the most. He could see him standing in front of him but upon further probing, his soul seemed to be somewhere else. The body in front of him seemed more like a hyper-realistic puppet than his original body. The puppet had a soul tether that was much harder to track without actively casting spells and that was something he wanted to avoid for his continued well-being.

The next was the Machine who, frankly, felt more like an Asgardian than he did Machine or a mortal.

A ridiculously strong Asgardian for that matter. The amount of magical energy flowing through him would put him on the same level as the likes of Frigga or the Ancient One when she was still alive.

Speaking of the Ancient One, "I am sorry for your loss. Know that the Ancinet One was a respected member of the Mystic community across the galaxy and her loss was a monumental blow to the community, not to mention the loss of knowledge and expertise when an expert of her level dies."

He truly was sorry for that. While her morals did hinder her from going deep into certain magical territories of research, the ones she did explore were where she shone brightly. In some fields, his mother told him she was able to match Odin himself.

Not to mention her feats of being able to match Odin himself during the battle against the Frost Giants which had spilled over to Midgard. Now, that was someone he could respect. If not for their morals or actions, for their power and their sheer will to face Odin, the strongest being in the nine realms, all by their lonesome.

As soon as he said those words, the atmosphere in the room they were in darkened. It was just for a flash but the overwhelming killing intent that rose out of the Machine would have put Fire Demons to shame.

It was a sensitive topic, then. Noted.

As he received no reply from any of them after that, he nodded and looked towards the sky, which was not visible since they were in an enclosed room, and called out, "Heimdall,"

The next moment, a light of rainbow fell upon all of them, transporting them directly to Asgard.

Contrary to what many people thought of, it was not instant.

Of course, considering the distances involved, it might as well have been instant but there were a few seconds to a minute at most when the people in the Rainbow Bridge can experience the magnificence of the complex magics involved.

That was exactly what the Machine, Alfred, was doing. He was examining the outer ranges of the Rainbow Bridge and while he would have warned him about the dangers of doing that, he wasn't someone he particularly liked or cared about so he let it be.

Then, he looked over to the demon and the Singularity, or at least the puppet that was being operated by the Singularity. They were standing guard over the metal coffin that contained someone, that much he was certain of now.

One moment they were floating in space, being propelled at speeds faster than anybody could perceive, the next moment they were standing in the Observatory of the Rainbow Bridge where Heimdall was waiting for them, having just removed Hofund from the command gate.

"Welcome, guardians of Midgard and host of a…Demonworld? I was of the opinion that none of your kind survived. Anyways, welcome to Asgard and the All-Father is waiting for you." Heimdall said as he gestured to the series of horses that were waiting for them at the gate of the observatory.

–xx–

–Alfred–

Fascinating.

He had always thought that the Rainbow Bridge was some sort of advanced FTL transport system that used the Gates that the wider galaxy used for Faster than Light travel but its underlying principles were completely different.

For one, the Rainbow Bridge can only be used with its full force, in the nine realms.

Anywhere out of that and all you can realistically do is transport people. No planetary destruction weapon outside the nine realms.

That was why Odin needed the Dark Energy to transport Thor directly to Earth because Dark Energy is the most efficient when it comes to manipulating space, especially in the nine realms as, for some reason, the space surrounding any of the nine realms is much sturdier than the rest of the Galaxy. That was why the only gate that comes even close to any of the nine realms is near the moon of Earth.

That must be why Odin needed the Space Stone to make the Bifrost because, to travel outside the nine realms, he would need the power to open portals.

Something that is notoriously more energy-intensive as the distance increases. The same principles also apply to the Sorcerers of Kamar Taj as they find themselves unable to open portals across the Galaxy.

Even seasoned masters won't be able to do so without overloading their body and soul with dimensional energy. The soul would shut down any such operation long before the limit could be reached, it was in its innate safety protocols.

The Bifrost worked in tandem with the mystic highway that connected the nine realms to each other, also known as Ygdrassil.

Traversing the Yggdrasil is something that can be done by anyone. Manipulating it to the point of weaponising it has only been done by Odin so far.

Soon, in less than a minute, they were standing in the Observatory deck that Heimdall guarded and used to transport anyone to and from Asgard.

Almost immediately, his senses were bombarded by all the magic that permeated the very being of Asgard. Even the platform he was standing on, shone with so much magic that he would have been blinded by it if he wasn't already expecting it.

The most interesting artifact he found was not the Bridge in front of them but the giant sword that Heimdall held in his hands.

It shone like a beacon to his senses. Senses that have been used to the energy signatures of an Infinity Stone.

That sword, Hofund, shone with a misty blue light to his senses. So, that was how they turned that sword into an essential key required to activate Bifrost.

It essentially jump-started the bridge using the same energy present in the Sword. Odin must have wielded the space stone using Gungnir sometime in the past so that it could also be used for starting the Bifrost.

All in all, a pretty safe mechanism because the only two keys to the puzzle were in the hands of people who could see you coming from miles away or could smite you from miles away.

Neat.

They were greeted by Heimdall and told to mount the horses to take them to Asgard.

Yeah, that was not going to be possible, especially due to Ed's body but it was not as if they were without options.

"Is flying allowed here?" He asked Heimdall even as Loki looked at him quizzically.

"I would advise against it but nobody ever listens to me," Heimdall replied as he turned his back towards him and assumed his guarding position over the Bifrost.

He grinned in reply and levitated the box behind him, Toby did the same with Ed's puppet body.

Loki looked at both of them with wide eyes as he backed towards the horses, "I-I'll take the horses, thank yoooouuu"

That was all he heard as all of them rocketed towards the end of the bridge with Loki being held by a dimensional energy whip by his ankle as his face was whipped with all the high-speed air they were cutting through.

Ah, pranking the God of Mischief would always remain the highlight of his trip to Asgard, especially if the things he knew about Loki and the level of power he would eventually reach, would come true.

Halfway through, he sensed the rousing Thunder that came from one side of the Royal Palace, Mjolnir literally rocketing through the sparring grounds as Thor tagged along for the ride.

On the other side, he could sense Frigga's careful watch on her son and Odin's hawkish gaze on the box behind him and on Toby as well.

Thor looked awfully serious though so before he could reach them, he threw Loki at Thor who hilariously tried changing his path, only to bump directly into Loki's face, sending him careening down in the waters.

"Oh, brother. Fancy a swim?" He heard Thor ask Loki as he pulled a completely drenched Loki out of the water.

It helped that he had cast a curse on Loki that stopped his magic for a moment and in the moment, he didn't notice it.

Soon, they landed at the end of the bridge, in front of a small platoon of armed Asgardian Soldiers.

"Halt, they are guests," Thor said as he landed behind the soldiers with Loki slung over his shoulder like a bag of rice.

Plonking Loki on the ground, he faced them," Welcome to Asgard. Alfred, was it? I would appreciate it if you could cease your pranks, even if it is hilarious to watch Loki being outsmarted. Come, Father's court is in session. They should be calling us shortly."

He nodded and followed behind Thor as the soldiers made way for them, being especially wary of Toby as his demonic nature was much easier to sense for them.

It didn't help matters that Toby made no effort to hide his true nature anyway.

He just hoped it didn't delve into a fight because of the giant ego of the person he was about to meet and also because of the person he had brought with him.

________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 2276

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 87

Technomancer in MCU

Asgard

–Odin Borson–

They were here. He could sense the Bifrost closing as they made their way to the Royal Palace.

Watching the new God humiliate Loki was not amusing; however, if there was anyone in his family who needed an ego check, then it was Loki.

So, he let it be.

As expected, the Guardian and the Singularity, both had arrived but with them, they had brought in an uninvited guest.

Toby Mathers.

If the rumours around the cosmos are to be believed, he is a Demon host. Something that was thought to be lost to the annals of time. His demonic nature was peculiar too. He didn't bother hiding it but to both his and Frigga's senses, he didn't reek of death and destruction that normal demon hosts do.

Not that he would have any personal expertise on that since the last time Asgardian encountered a demon host, he was not even born so the records from that time period were spotty at best.

However, this demon host seemed particularly stable right now, even more so than the Guardian.

While he could not ignore the fact that his invitation had been disregarded by bringing in the demon host who seemed to be aware of the surveillance he was under, these were hardly normal circumstances.

He could ill afford to push away the new guardians of Midgard. Especially the Guardian since the Singularity seems to be on his last legs anyway.

The body he was sensing in the metal coffin they were carrying was holding on to its last wisps of vitality in a futile effort to cling to life.

He was not even sure if Asgardian healers could even prolong his life, let alone completely heal him.

Nevertheless, that was sure to be one of the negotiating cards he could use to better deal with the Guardian since he is loyal to a fault.

Striking the bottom of Gungnir to the floor that resulted in a dull booming noise that silenced the entirety of the court, he ordered, "The Court will resume tomorrow."

All the nobles, dutiful as they were, nodded obediently and shuffled out of the court.

Once the doors closed, he slumped and sighed in exhaustion, safe in the company of his beloved Frigga.

"What ails you?" She asked him as she put her hand on his, for comfort.

"Ragnarok, my dear. Ragnarok. The end of Asgard." he said as he left Gungnir to hover in its place and cast an illusion in front of him, replicating the visions he got for Frigga to see.

Seeing the death and destruction of Asgard always left him reeling but the fact that he was directly responsible for raising the one who would bring about Ragnarok was a punch to the gut for him.

He could have done something. Tried to bring her to the right way. Mend her fractured mind.

But no. He had to take decisive action against someone who was expressly forbidding his orders. Someone who had both the right and the power to make people doubt his kingship.

So, he sent her entire unit to death. Imprisoned her in a dead realm, with no magic and no company to speak of.

What was he thinking? Sending someone who was clearly mentally unstable to a place where anyone could go insane.

Alas, his pride reared its ugly head when some sense was finally knocked into his head by his wife but by then, it was too late.

He had tried to go talk to her but she refused to even listen to what he had to say. Instead, she kept attacking the prison her power was tied to.

At the beginning, it was manageable. Of course, he didn't have access to a significant chunk of Odin Force because it was being used to hold Hela but he didn't need that power anyway.

He had grown so much more powerful than the average denizens of the Nine realms that he could effortlessly defeat any of them without even actively tapping into the Odin Force.

Then, came Thor, and with Thor, the gradual inheritance of his Odinforce. It made matters worse when the Odin Force, by right of inheritance, was supposed to go to Hela but because of his will, had to go to Thor which resulted in an unbalanced transfer.

That was the reason why Thor was never quite able to use his magic without Mjolnir. While Thor had power, a lot of power, he was unable to access even 10 percent of it and instead relied on Mjolnir to channel a small portion of that power.

All that meant that his control over the rapidly growing Odinforce was fading. His old body now could barely sustain Hela's attacks on her prison which had only grown in frequency ever since she figured out that doing so hurt him.

If he didn't have to exert himself, he had 5-10 years tops before his body gave out. That was not enough time to prepare either Thor or Loki to face Hela. Even together, they would have a hard time surviving her let alone defeat her, and as soon as Hela lands on Asgard, it would be impossible to defeat her without triggering Ragnarok as Asgard itself would begin empowering her once she stepped back on her homeland.

He was so lost in his thoughts that Frigga had to nudge him, "What?"

"The guests are here. Shall I call them in?" She asked him, concern clear in her eyes. The best decision his past self could have made was marrying her, disregarding the Vanaheim enmity.

He nodded and took Gungnir back in his hand, his back straightening as he assumed the demeanor of the Ruler of Asgard.

The attendants announced the summons and through the golden-plated doors came his sons, the Singularity, Ed and his Guardian, Alfred along with the demon host, Toby Mathers.

"Welcome to Asgard," he stated as he watched all of them with an impassive eye.

Alfred and Ed looked neutral to be here but Toby Mathers was looking at him with a disturbingly similar gleam in his eyes.

A sentiment he knew very well since he was the same in his youth. The feeling of finding a strong opponent and fighting them, to defeat them.

If he had not been worried about Ragnarok, he would have shown the youth how he had not lost his edge but as matters stood, he was in no condition to use the Odin Force.

"It is customary," he began saying as he stood up and removed a scroll from his storage, "-for me to meet the new Guardian of Midgard once it is formally recognised by either all concerned parties or by the previous Guardian."

"You," he said while pointing at Alfred with the scroll, "have been chosen to be the new Guardian of Midgard, recognised by the Ancient One herself, one of the very few people I have met that I could proudly call my equal."

"Step forward and sign the treaty recognising you to be the sovereign of Midgard," He said while floating the scroll towards Alfred who had indeed stood forward and was standing at attention.

The scroll slowly unfurled itself as it reached Alfred who snatched it out of the air and began reading it. Once he finished reading it, finding it satisfactory, he signed it using his blood.

Once the scroll was signed, a pact was formed between the sitting ruler of Asgard to formally inform the Guardian of Midgard of any Asgardian activities that were taking place on Midgard and for the Guardian to aid Asgard in any battle that threatened Asgard itself so no active war declaration but mutual defense pacts.

Once the pact was signed, a golden circle formed between them as a manifestation of the magic invoked, one copy of the scroll went to Alfred and the other came back to him which he safely stored away in his personal storage.

That pact was going to be his biggest bet on saving Asgard and preventing Ragnarok.

"Now, Alfred, was it? Are you aware of your newfound status being a New God? Something that hasn't happened for over a thousand years in the history of the universe?" He asked Alfred.

"I am aware that it is rare to become a God. The way I have become one is certainly unconventional but I have yet to become the god of something as all my abilities were something I had earned before gaining a body and becoming a God." Alfred said as he handed over his copy of the pact to Ed.

"The way you have become one is certainly something which cannot be replicated anytime soon and as for your domain, it is because you are yet a New God and a god's domain is something that takes time to form and for you to master it. It will soon manifest itself."

"Now, before we leave, can I ask what is happening to you, Ed? Your body and your soul seem in disarray of some sort. Maybe, we can help/" Frigga said as she openly cast a spell on Ed. The spell would not have given any information if Ed hadn't given his consent so in a way it was good that Ed trusted them to do that.

'Yes," Alfred said as he cast a magic circle in front of him, "That is one of the things I wanted to discuss with you, in private."

He raised an eyebrow as he recognised the runic circle in front of him, the mastery of which was only known to be had by him.

"Very well, everybody else, please retire to the guest houses. We'll have a feast in the evening." He ordered and everybody began leaving the court.

Toby tried to stay but Ed pulled him out of the room.

"Speak, what is it that you want?" He asked as soon as the court was empty save for him and Alfred.

"Before we begin, I want to ask you this: How much do you know about us and our origins?" Alfred asked him as the metal coffin behind them floated in front of them.

He raised an eyebrow as he leaned forward in interest, at least the runic work on the coffin was interesting to him, "Enough. I've been watching you ever since you arrived in this universe, broken and in pieces. I have watched Ed stumble and fall as he pieced you back together and even after that."

"That makes things easier, then. I want your help in healing Ed. I have tried many ways and have found a way that could be viable but need your opinion on it since you are the foremost expert on Magic I know." Alfred said as he sent the knowledge directly to his mind using Runic magic circles.

Truly, Runes were the most versatile branch of magic.

As the knowledge was inserted in his mind and he processed it, his eyes widened as he nearly thundered at Alfred, "Are you Mad? Do you have any idea how many things can go wrong if you miss even a tiny minute detail of the procedure?"

Alfred looked sheepish but completely determined to do exactly that, his words not convincing him otherwise at all.

He sighed and slumped back in his seat.

He was getting too old for this shit.

"Just get out, I'll.." He waved at Alfred and after looking at Ed's body and the recent reminder of Hela made him fold, "...consult with Frigga and let you know by tomorrow. Until then, DO NOT do anything regarding that in Asgard otherwise you will have me as your enemy, and believe me, you do not want that"

Alfred nodded solemnly and left the court.

Now, he was left all alone in the court with only the repainted murals of his daughter's deeds to give him company and haunt him with his failures.

________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 2011

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 88

Technomancer in MCU

Asgard

–Ed–

"Well, that went well," He groaned internally when he heard Toby say that to the Queen of Asgard. It did actually go better than he was expecting. He had half-expected Odin to just flip out and try to smite Toby on the spot, considering that Toby made no effort whatsoever to try and hide his true nature, not that it would have made any difference since it was Odin they were trying to hide from, the all-seeing yet ironically, one-eyed King of Asgard.

"I don't know what I was expecting from a demon host, especially since they have been nearly non-existent on this side of the universe. Last I heard all of them died in droves fighting each other fighting for a reason nobody knows or at least no one that is alive." Frigga said as she dismissed Thor and Loki and turned towards them.

Toby just smirked at her, not replying at all.

He tried to step in before Toby could do any more damage but Frigga looked at me and that one look somehow stopped me mid-way. It was honestly terrifying how she could command someone with just a look, even without using any of her witch-specific magic.

"Hmm", she then turned to him and extended an arm towards him lit up with a magic circle that stopped just shy of touching him. She looked at him as if asking for his consent.

Well, what did he have to lose anyway? So, he nodded.

She nodded and then cast the spell on him, not even flinching under the hawkish gaze of Toby.

The magic circle turned a shade of green and then that light waved over his body before stopping at his head and then following the link with his soul, went back to his body, all the while she had another magic circle in front of her, probably feeding her the information on the diagnostics of the spell.

"Hmm, I see," She turned to Toby and said, "Very creative curse work. If this is what you are capable of then maybe you can be of help too."

Then she went back to work as Alfred arrived after talking with Odin privately. He didn't know what they were talking about but judging from the fact that they were not running away immediately, things should be okay.

"I hope he agreed to whatever crazy plan you have cooked up in your brain, Alfred?" Frigga asked Alfred as she continued to circle his body, intensely studying the resulting output from using her diagnostic magic.

"Maybe? I don't know for sure. He'll inform me after the feast. Speaking of which, I know it is customary but is the feast really necessary? Can't we just skip to the task at hand?" Alfred asked her while manifesting another magic circle and handing it to Frigga whose eyes took a vacant look in them when she started receiving the metric ton of data that Alfred must have had in that magic circle.

After all, he must have been researching the problem and its possible solutions for decades in his time-accelerated servers.

Frigga shook her head and replied, "Oh my! That really is a crazy idea and as much as it pains me to say this, it might just work. We'll be talking about the shoddy spellwork later on, though. With the spell you put together, Ed will be lucky to survive his full mortal lifespan, let alone use his powers to their full potential. And as for the feast, let's just say that anything and everything you have to do can be done after the Feast. Asgardians are like that. Even my husband is no exception."

She then turned to Ed, "I would suggest freshening up in your quarters. I don't see any clothing being packed with you but I have a feeling that abusing spatial magic is something that you guys do every day. In case you don't, tell one of the handmaids and they'll be sure to give it to you."

"Now," Frigga turned to Alfred and gave him another magic circle, "You have given me a lot to think of. This is something that was written in one of the ancient books I have access to. Use that brain of yours and see if any improvement can be done to personalise it for Ed since you know his physiology and soul better than anyone here. We'll be having a lengthy discussion about your risk-taking appetite, especially when the entity at risk is the entire universe, after the feast."

After giving all of them their orders, the figure of Frigga shimmered as the illusion faded away.

He mechanically turned his neck towards Alfred and then Toby, both of whom seemed to be rooted on their spot as they looked at the spot where Frigga disappeared from with laser focus.

He then chuckled and turned around, heading to their room, "Heh, looks like you met your match then, Alfred?"

Good thing too, since he needed someone to show him that he might be the strongest on Earth but the wider cosmos was a whole different ball game altogether.

Xxxxxxxx

It was later that day.

The day cycle worked differently on Asgard. The sun never truly set on Asgard since it was a fixed island with neither the sun nor the body moving at all. The sun was actually an ancient magic construct that was a work of art made with what Ed suspected to be Sun divinities or at least by a person who had the Sun divinity.

But as far as he remembered, there was no utterance of a Sun Asgardian God during the MCU. Of course, not all of Asgard's Myth was shown anyway so he might be wrong there as well.

The way evenings or nights worked in Asgard was also by a clever application of light magic. The Sun, during the day, behaved similarly to a standard Yellow star, giving off both heat and light by fusion, but during the night, both the amount of light and heat given by the Sun changes to something that would be more commonly done by the Moon on Earth.

At least, that was what Alfred was going on and on about ever since he had arrived in his room to wake him up.

Yes, he was grumpy after being woken up from the most relaxing sleep he had ever had in years, especially in recent years since he almost always had to be put to sleep using external influences like CHI or in some extreme cases, concentrated sleeping pills.

"Alright, just get to the point, will you, Alfred? We have to go to the stupid feast after this and I just want to get some sleep before that," he finally snapped at Alfred after listening to him go on and on about the fascinating magic that Asgard had.

Alfred actually pouted this time, "Well, I was about to tell you about the magic of the ocean surrounding this landmass but you just lost that privilege. Anyway, the reason I came here, not that I need one, is to discuss the Toby situation." He said the last words in a serious tone as an anti-surveillance curtain was raised around his room.

So, that was what he was doing while trying to talk his ears off, clever bastard.

"What about him? He said while diving back under the covers.

The absolutely mind-bogglingly comfortable covers that were ripped off of him despite his best tries by Alfred.

"Don't ignore the issue. You know what I have been talking about. Now that Toby is out of the contract that the Ancient One had imposed on him, what is going to stop him from trying to rule Earth or destroy all the major players in a bid to establish his supremacy?" Alfred asked as he kept on running the probability of that happening and showing it to him.

He sighed and sat up on the bed, facing Alfred who was pacing furiously, "Look, if it was the Old Toby, I might have agreed with you on principle but this version of him seems calm. Now that's a sentence I never thought I would say again."

"The probability of him doing something incredibly rash and ruining all of our work keeps on increasing day by day. He only has to see something bad happening on the planet that he absolutely has to intervene in and boom, we're done."

"If he does anything, we will be there. The Avengers will be there. The Inhumans, Atlantians, Wakandans, everybody will be there to rise up against him, Alfred. You are worrying too much."

"No! You are not taking this seriously enough. The sheer power he has at his disposal is not something that can be fought against simply by drowning him in quantities. Maybe Thor when he becomes older or Dr.Banner if he reaches his full potential but aside from them? Nobody comes even close to him in terms of strength who are also Earth's allies. Not even I could defeat him without using one of the Infinity Stones."

"Okay, first of all, you are seriously underestimating everybody on Earth. Hell, Daisy, Jake, Eric, Bruce, and Namor together could probably beat anyone in the universe, probably even the weaker celestials. Add in Thor, Stark's mind, and then you might even have a chance against Arishem."

Alfred looked so lost as he looked at him for guidance. It was the first day Alfred was born all over again. He had panicked so hard when he realised the limited space he had to live in.

"Look, if you want, I will go talk to him after this, alright?" he relented after seeing Alfred's conflicted look even after explaining everything to him.

"Okay, thank you." Alfred said and was about to leave but he stopped Aflred.

"Just out of curiosity, what are the odds of us winning against him if we pull out all the stops and he stops caring about the damage to Earth?"

Alfred looked at him and then, without warning, dozens of runic circles manifested around him as he began floating cross-legged with dimensional energy leaking around him.

Hmm, it would seem that he took it way too seriously.

For an entire minute, Alfred was in that state which was a lot because he could see Alfred visibly use Time Energy to accelerate the time his mind was working with.

Finally, after a while, the magic circles disappeared and the dimensional energy that had congregated around Alfred dispersed and then Alfred came out of it with steam coming out of his head in a comical show of how much brain power he had used, "Well, not that, that was not completely extra of you but what are the results anyway?"

Alfred's face looked relaxed to him which he took as a good sign, "Pulling out all stops from our side results in the Planet's destruction. Roping in all of our allies though gives us a 90% chance of killing him and a 98% chance of defeating him. Unfortunately, those odds drop down to 60% if Thor is removed from the equation."

Realisation dawned on him as he understood what Alfred was trying to convey, "So, we have to kill Hela, then?"

Alfred nodded and said, "Not just her, destroy Asgard as well."

He sighed and stood up, "Well, nobody said it was going to be easy all the way."

Now, all he had to do was ask Odin and Frigga to heal his body while plotting in the background to destroy their home.

Lovely.

________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 1954

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.

Once again, thank you for reading!

Toodles!

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 89

Technomancer in MCU

Asgard

–Toby Mathers–

Wearing the fancy robes that were provided to him by the scared maids assigned to him, he looked in the mirror for the nth time.

And as usual, his face took on an ugly snarl as all he could see in his reflection was his demon form.

His ugly, disgusting Demon Form.

Someone who liked to rule over others, liked to toy with beings beneath and loved to destroy someone instead of merely defeating them.

That person was someone who managed to rule over an entire dimension with his wits and cruelty.

…But, he was not who he once was.

Not the person he wanted to become. He still had blurry images of the time with Ed, back when all they had to worry about was studying for a job.

God, he was so naive back then. Thinking that just studying without networking would get him a good job. Ed, on the other hand, had his life sorted out for him, even then.

When the two of them were presented with the option to go to an entirely new universe, he was pretty psyched up because he was of the mind that he could finally escape his boring life back then.

Little did his past self know what hell, literal and metaphorical, awaited him when he was blasted off from the path that he and Ed were taking.

For a long time, he actually resented Ed when he got to Earth and saw that Ed had been transported to the planet safe and secure, along with the trusty partner that was supposed to help them grow instead of just becoming the partner of Ed alone.

From day one, he could sense Alfred's resentment towards him and even now, among the ocean of emotions he could pick from Asgard, Alfred's resentment was something that was a constant for him.

Maybe, he should have stayed away from them after freeing himself from his prison.

It's not as if he could not understand Alfred's concern about him just going ballistic, especially since they just recently got an idea of his power if he were to go all out, disregarding any concerns about anybody being nearby.

Looking at the mirror, he tried to adjust his sleeves again only for the reflection to come back again. Frustrated, he just punched the mirror only for his fist to bounce back immediately, making him step back in shock.

Confused, he looked at the mirror, only to see a golden magic circle in front of the mirror that reflected the force of his punch back to him.

"You know, it is considered a bad omen if a mirror bearing your reflection is destroyed by yourself-" A voice spoke from behind him.

He turned around, only to see Frigga standing at the door with her palm facing the moor which had an identical miniature magic circle as the one which was on the mirror.

"- and whatever opinion we might have regarding your kind, you are still one of our guests and no guests under the House of Odin would ever be harmed on Asgard. That is one of the covenants that everyone in the house of Odin swears by."

Clearing his throat, he ran his hand through his head and said.

"I am sorry you had to see that. Has the banquet already begun?"

She dispelled the magic circle and lowered her hand slowly, "Yes, Asgardian Banquets are unique as in they have no specific start and end timings. They don't stop for anyone, not even their King. It is tradition and as such, you can join in anytime you want. If you are not comfortable and would like to discuss what just happened, we can do that too."

He coughed uncomfortably at the offer.

He had never been offered a sympathetic ear when he was but a pathetic weakling back in the hellworld with nothing to offer to anyone and once he began rising in prominence, all the offers felt disgustingly fake to him anyway so he never bothered with them.

But now?

He could literally feel the sincerity with which Frigga had offered an ear to listen to him listing away his troubles.

Suddenly, without warning, his senses tingled as an energy that was a complete antithesis to his own flooded the room. His neck snapped to meet Frigga's glowing blue ones as she said, "There, now no one can hear us talking, not even my husband."

She lowered her arms and cast a spell of some sort that lightly nudged his mindscape as if asking for permission to access it.

Normally, his automatic defenses would have kicked in and obliterated such an attempt without even conscious input from his side but he had forgotten one thing.

He had built almost all aspects of his mental defenses with intent in mind. The intent of Frigga's spell was so unique that it made his defenses ignore it. The only reason he would have been alerted to it was due to the fact that the spell seemed to be designed for it.

Apprehensive of her intentions but trusting his powers since that was what allowed him to survive for so long, he opened up a portion of his mindscape and allowed the tendril of magic to enter his mind, ready to eviscerate it the moment it tried to do anything fishy.

In the real world, outside his mindscape, Frigga smiled encouragingly at him as her spell took effect and every first effect of it unconsciously relaxed him more than he would care to admit.

Soon, the room that was flooded with Frigga's magic transformed to resemble the park he and Ed used to visit when they wanted to "touch grass" and get out of their dorms for a change.

It was nothing special. A couple of swings and some gym equipment lying around but it was their place. The place where they could go after hours, with cheap ramen, to escape from the heavy-duty lifestyle they both led and to unwind the stress they had ramped up.

"I am surprised. I thought your most happy place would be something of grand opulence but I guess, you can't judge a book by its cover. I believe that is a popular saying in Midgard?" Frigga said as she looked around at the real-life manifestation of his happy place in front of him.

He would die before admitting it but his eyes glistened with tears as Frigga's spell allowed him to relive a cherished memory he didn't even know he had forgotten.

Taking a deep breath, he began, "What would you like to know?"

Frigga smiled and sat down on one of the swings and asked him to take the one next to her, "Come, let's start with why you felt the need to destroy the mirror. I assume that the poor mirror had no fault of its own for you to try to destroy it with such ferocity?"

He chuckled bitterly and sat on the swing next to her, his musculature allowing him to just barely fit into it but the joy he got from using the swing was many times more than the discomfort he felt from the chains digging into his skin.

Before he could speak though, the chains became lighter as the swing widened to allow his body to properly fit in.

He looked towards Frigga only for her to chuckle and reply.

"Just because we are relieving a memory does not mean that we have to make it accurate. Now, where were we?"

He nodded and took a deep breath, telling her about his view of himself and how much he felt he had strayed away from the person he once was.

The person he wanted to become. The person he hoped everybody looked up to as inspiration and not as an entity of fear.

As the session was ongoing, the scenery around him allowing him to truly relax and open up, he sensed something banging on the barrier he had cast on his room.

His eyes narrowed as he felt the person outside being one of extreme darkness affinity. Before he could warn Frigga, there was a huge disturbance in the magic outside the palace as multiple huge masses of darkness congregated right in front of his barrier.

XxxxxxxX

A few hours before the attack, on Earth—

–Jane Foster–

"Come on, Jane. You know he has left. It has been almost 3 years since anybody last saw him. We even tried asking that Alfred bot and he also told us about the Rainbow thingy being rebuilt already and he still hasn't visited you or even sent a letter or whatever the Asgardian equivalent of that is." Darcy told her for the umpteenth time as she kept on working on the code in front of her.

Taking a deep breath, she stopped coding and looked at Darcy with a deadpan gaze, "Why don't you go and take care of the one responsibility I gave you, taking care of the new intern?"

Darcy shrank back at the heat in her words and she winced internally but the words were already said so she kept on looking at her with a stern face, hoping that she would just leave her alone.

"Fine," Darcy pouted and left the room, probably to search for the new intern who could not be found at the same place he was left at.

As soon as the door slammed behind Darcy, she slumped as she sighed in resignation. It was not as if she could not realise the meaning behind Darcy's words.

Everything AlfredGPT had told her had turned out to be true. It was even monumental in helping her research advance leaps and bounds ahead of her peers, not that he had many of those since her field was something that was literally invented by herself.

The thought of giving up her research did come up once or twice in her mind but what kind of scientist would she be if she gave up in front of a little emotional adversity?

So, as she was about to go get herself a fresh pot of coffee, a red mist appeared in front of her, and before she even had a chance to scream, the mist swallowed her, and she was thrown on an extremely uneven rocky surface.

It hurt but the pain kept her awake.

Looking at the rocky desolate surface in front of her, she felt astonished at the fact that she could still breathe in what was clearly another planet. She came to that conclusion due to the existence of the black sun on the horizon.

Taking a few steps forward, she could feel a dark desolate aura behind and in front of her. Not knowing what to do, she took a deep breath and walked in a random direction she picked, not knowing which road led to where.

In hindsight, the extreme calmness she exhibited even in the face of being thrown on another planet with literally no one around should have warned her about the sheer wrongness of that place but it was as if she was being guided by an unseen force to do its bidding.

As if she was possessed, she kept following a path of rocks that appeared for her and soon enough, the road came to an end. The path ended when a huge grey rock was placed at its end. The rock seemed normal and unassuming but just as she was about to debate the intelligence of going forward towards exploring an exoplanet, the stone began glowing golden.

Scrambling back from the phenomenon happening in front of her, she tripped on some of the little rocks in her path and fell down as the golden light in front of her seemed to reach a crescendo of its own.

With a roar that seemed to be full of so much malevolence, the golden light in front of her bubbled until it fell apart to reveal something dark red glowing inside.

Fully captivated by the eerie red glow, she extended her hand towards the glowing red liquid that was slowly floating towards her hand as if a snake trying to slither its way up a tree branch.

At the last moment though, an old majestic voice spoke that resounded like a gong in her ears as a golden glow encased the liquid that was trying to escape, encapsulating it once again.

While it did shake her from the trance she was under, her hand was stuck in the same position and no matter what she did, she could not move her hand away from the red liquid.

As she pulled her wrist back with her other arm, she could do nothing but watch in enchanted horror as the red liquid seemed to be winning the fight and slowly, the liquid began seeping into her skin.

She screamed in terror and closed her eyes but the terrible feeling she expected never came. Instead, she could see the golden glow now surrounding her entire left arm, extending back to her ribcage.

Fascinated by the golden glow, she touched it and as if empowered by her, the glow began dimming and glowing back in a rhythmic motion, as if it was a beating heart itself.

Patting her chest, she took in deep breaths as she broke out into a sweat as the implications of what just happened and how much worse could have happened to her, began to set it.

Hyperventilating, she began to think about all the exercises she had read about that could help if one had a panic attack. Trying to think of something else didn't help.

Taking deep breaths didn't help.

Imagining her happy place did not help since her happy place was in the arms of Thor and that just put her in a worse mood.

Unbeknownst to her, the red mist that was held tightly within the golden energy cocoon began pulsing in response to her thoughts.

The golden energy could have stopped it but as if it had a semblance of the sentience of its own, it recognised the line of action that the red energy was taking so it allowed the red mist to exert its influence on the surrounding, warping it slightly.

The red mist began pulsing in higher frequencies, warping the surroundings around Jane more and more until the very area Jane was standing in began blurring as if it was being erased from the scenery.

Jane, unaware of all of the changes happening around and in her body, doubled over in pain as the red mist, with the help of the golden energy, began siphoning off a part of Jane's life force to fuel the activity it was about to do.

Gasping in pain, Jane opened her eyes only to see the world with a red-tinted gaze and before she could process anything, she was whisked away from the dead realm, leaving naught but ash in the spot she was standing in.


________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 2524

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 90

Technomancer in MCU

Deep in the ruins of Svartalfheim

–?--

He awoke with a gasp, greedily taking in air for his lungs.

The door of his pod opened with a hissing sound as he stumbled out of it. With his blurry vision, he managed to find the mask and put it on, and immediately sighed in relief as the foreign air composition stopped entering his lungs.

As the lights in his room lit up by sensing his presence, he took a moment to check on the time period they were in and promptly had to check if the device was broken or not.

When double and triple-checking the data on multiple dashboards didn't help one bit, he staggered back and slumped down on the back of his pod, the harsh reality setting in on him.

'It's been 3 thousand years!' the number kept on ringing in his head. They only had life-supporting equipment for the entire colony for about 2000 years. There was no way his family survived, especially since the systems had been programmed to prioritise the warrior class and their esteemed leader if their supplies came too low.

Still, he stood up shakily from his position. He had to check.

He had to check if his friends and family survived. Maybe, there was still a way to save them, even if they were on the verge of dying. Dark Elven physiology allowed for a semi-hibernation state, maybe they went into that mode.

Slowly, as if afraid to face the reality, he placed his palm on the dark screen in front of him to authenticate himself as the captain of the survivor class ship.

Almost immediately, the screen lit up with a dark green light, and scanned his bio signature along with his energy signature for the authentication process. Opening the dashboard, he checked on the number of functioning pods and he felt something inside him break when he saw the number.

259

That's it.

That was the count of all the Dark Elves that survived the hibernation process. The only reason they did is because that is also exactly the number of warrior class and above people that were originally on board the ship.

'But, why was the procedure to wake them triggered?' he thought while going through the ship's logs. He could see the exact moment the ship's onboard AI decided that they had to shed their losses to make sure that the warrior class survived.

1000 years. That's all the years his family survived before their lives were snuffed by the pod's systems just like Bor himself killed his father when he was just a little elf. At Least his father died fighting, unlike his family who went in with the hope that someday they would be woken up to continue their lives on a better planet.

Not a dead one like theirs had been for a long time due to the accursed Bi-Frost.

Taking in deep breaths, he cycled through the logs one more time to see what had awoken them, only to come across a name he had never thought he would see again.

Staggering back, he rushed towards the chamber that housed the sleeping forms of Malekith and his chosen cabal of Accursed Dark Elves because if the logs on the system were true, they were in for a true extinction this time.

As the doors of the cabin closed up, the lights in the cabin dimmed down before dying altogether, the same with the screen.

The last log on the screen before it shut off was the detection of an energy signature. It read - "Energy Signature identified - Bor Burison."



Xxxxxxxxx


Asgard

–Thor Odinson–

"Alright, I can do this," Thor could be seen saying that to himself in front of the mirror while he was supposed to get ready for the banquet that was being hosted in celebration of the appointment of the new guardian of Midgard.

He was very much nervous about finally confronting his father about his relationship with Jane Foster.

….

..

.

Alright, confront was too strong a word for what he wanted to do.

He wanted to ask Father for permi- no, that's too weak for the Son of Odin to say.

Maybe..

"My Prince, the banquet is already underway," Right then, there was a knock on his door, startling him out of his wits.

"Coming!" he shouted at his annoying chambermaids. Unfortunately, all the maids of the palace came directly under the leadership of his mother, and not even his father dared to order them around without explicit permission from his mother so he could not even tell her not to disturb him while he was getting ready, so to speak.

"Come on, what would Jane think?" he whispered to himself as he set his hair right for the hundredth time. Right as he had put the comb down, he paused.

Mjolnir slowly roused from its slumber and came barrelling straight to his open palm. He turned around slowly, Mjolnir ready in his hand because the moment he had set down his comb, he had felt a spike of otherworldly energy.

An energy he had never felt before and he had encountered almost all types of energy sources ranging from the celestial's cosmic energy to the weird void energy that the Sovereign leveraged for their precious battery systems.

It was hard to pinpoint the exact source and location of it but he could sense it coming towards him for some reason.

The unusual thing about the situation was Father or even Loki not barging into his room because of the jolt of power he had felt and if he could feel it, there was no way they had missed it.

Shaking his head to get rid of the confusion, he kept Mjolnir steady in his hand and waited for whatever it was that was coming for him.

Instincts honed by hundreds of battles were the only thing that stopped him from taking Jane's head off when she appeared in front of him with a reddish-golden glow on her. It helped that Mjolnir itself for some reason stopped at the last moment before hitting her.

"Jane!"

"Thor! Oh, thank god!" Jane said before the golden glow around her arm increased in brightness, smothering the red glow. The next moment, Jane's eyes rolled back as her body collapsed right in front of him.

"Charla! Help!" he shouted before checking on Jane, the golden glow on her arm now dim but still glowing.

There was a sound of the door opening which was then followed by the sound of Charla opening his dressing room, "What is it now, Prince Th– Oh no!"

Charla immediately took over as her previous experience of working in the Healer's chamber of Asgard shone through.

All he could do was stand over there uselessly as Charla's hands glowed green before she placed them on top of Jane's head and soon enough, Jane's breathing slowed down and her face eased out of the pained grimace it was under.

Charla's sigh of relief brought his attention over to her, "What is it? Please tell me she is safe?"

"My Prince, the only thing I could do is stabilise her. The rest will be up to the healers and Odin himself."

"Wh-Why would Father be involved in this?" He hated the fact that his voice broke while saying that.

Charla gave him a look as she realised exactly why he was nervous and instead of replying, began taking out the emergency stretcher that was in his room.

'Come to think of it, why was it in my room?'

As Charla slowly laid down Jane on the floating stretcher, she said while locking Jane in place, "You should not entertain such notions, My Prince. Mortal lives are always fleeting. No matter how hard you try, they can never match with our lifestyles."

She then looked him in the eye, the pitying look in them disturbing him deeply, "The longer you try and hold on, the more it hurts. Just advice from a lowly chambermaid. I will be escorting Miss…?"

"Uh-Jane, her name is Jane Foster,"

Charla nodded, "I see, I will be escorting Jane to the Royal Healer's chamber since it is the closest and also because King Odin might want to take a look at whatever brought her here, directly in the heart of the Royal Palace, without anyone else realising it."

He could only watch helplessly as she was escorted away.

"Damn it all," he whispered. This was not how he wanted Jane to be introduced to Father and Mother.

Now, all Jane will be reduced to will be an intruder. An exceptionally skilled intruder since she did manage to reach his chambers directly, in the innermost parts of the Royal Palace.

He sighed and stood up from where he had taken a seat.

Mjolnir naturally floating in his palm, he looked ahead while saying, "Having fun, Brother?"

There was seemingly no one in the room to reply to his question but when he raised his eyebrow and looked at a certain corner of the room, the air around it slightly shimmered and there he was, Loki, the Trickster.

Loki then promptly put his hand over his heart in an exaggerated manner, "Your words wound me, brother. Why would I enjoy my brother being heartbroken over being finally told of the truth of Mortals that I myself had been trying to tell him for months!"

Then, as if he had shed his mask, his body language straightened up and he gained a dead look in his eyes, "If you want to reach your paramour before Odin just smites her out of existence, you might want to hurry brother because I sense a disturbance in the force"

With those parting words, his clone, or whatever it was disappeared.

Something had happened to Loki. Something that nobody was willing to tell him about.

Whenever both of them are together, Loki stops pretending and as if the mask he had been wearing was dropped, his entire demeanor changes.

His eyes gain a faraway look and his entire stance becomes guarded. Whenever he tried asking Loki about it, he clammed up and fled from him.

'Alright, enough dilly-dallying.' he thought while heading towards the Healer's chamber.


Xxxxxxxx


When he entered the healing chamber, the scene that greeted him was completely out of the ordinary. For one, the entire chamber was pin-drop silent. That had never been the case whenever he had visited.

Second, there were guards in front of Eir's office.

He had a bad premonition about the situation so he rushed to Eir's office. Thankfully, the guards didn't stop him.

Heading in, he could see Jane on the Soul Forge, unconscious with Eir working on something on the Soul Forge with a grave look on her face.

"Wh-" he made to speak but stopped when she raised a finger and went back to her work on the Soul Forge

________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 1841

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.



Toodles!

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 91

Technomancer in MCU

Asgard

–Thor Odinson–

While he paced in the background of Eir's office, she was busy doing…something with Jane's body. He didn't have the faintest clue as to what that was.

He cursed himself for not attending the extra training classes that were given to raise awareness of this particular branch of seidr. In his defense, he never did have the patience to sit and learn complicated stuff that made his brain hurt. He had to bleed away all of that energy.

Eir's sharp intake of air brought him out of his reverie. Rushing to the soul forge, he could see the feed where it showcased Jane's body before, it was only showing half of her body.

!!

Literally half of her body could not be seen on the Soul Forge. His only consolation was the fact that he could sense Jane's breathing and it was stable.

"What is happening?" he whispered furiously to Eir as he pulled her away from the Soul Forge.

"It--It's an Infinity Stone," Eir whispered, more to herself than to him.

"Wha-What?" he nearly shouted before looking back at Jane.

If she housed an infinity stone, then…

Shaking his head to get rid of such thoughts, he looked back at Eir, "Which one? How do you know for sure? Is there any way we can remove it from her without telling anybody?"

Eir snapped her eyes towards him and he could literally feel the incredulousness oozing out of her at his questions.

She snapped, "With all due respect, Prince Thor but are you Insane? That is an Infinity Stone energy signature that has been detected by the Soul Forge. I have no power over it as it has already sent a message, probably to the All-Father himself. Secondly, removing an infinity stone? Do you think it is a common tumor that can just be removed from a body? It has latched on to her systems and the only reason she is not a shriveled corpse due to the energy strain is a golden energy that is alarmingly similar to the Odin Force."

She then sighed, "I'm sorry, Prince Thor but her fate is now up to the All-Father. Maybe not even him because I don't see a way of taking out the stone without killing her."

Saying that she left her own office, probably to give him some alone time with Jane.

He stood there, wide-eyed, shocked at the things Eir had told him.

He didn't know how long he had stood there, listening to the rhythmic beating of Jane's heart when he was brought out of his melancholy by the door bursting open and his Father's thundering presence entering the room. He was followed by Loki and Eir, along with his usual platoon of Einharjar.

"Fathe-" he wasn't given a chance to speak as Odin rushed directly towards the Soul Forge.

Wrestling control of it due to his mastery of the Odin Force, he looked over the recent records of Jane when he came upon a particular entry and froze entirely.

Xxxxxxxxx

–Odin Borson–

Impossible!

When he had first been alerted of a category 3 alarm going off at one of the command centres, he had been cautious sure, but more confused as a category 3 alarm had not been raised since Thor was born.

So, he took his time responding to it since there was no obvious threat and the alarm was coming from Eir's office which had already sent ahead a notice saying that it was not urgent.

Imagine his surprise when, upon reaching the Royal Healer's chamber, he was informed by Eir herself that it was regarding an Infinity Stone. His gait only hastened as he felt his Odin Force thrum with energy as if it was resonating with what was inside Eir's office.

Once inside, he directly went to the Soul Forge, curious to see how the mortal had breached all of Asgard's defenses. He wouldn't be surprised if the answer to that question was an Infinity Stone since those things were known to regularly break the known laws of the Universe.

Upon checking the logs, he could see the anomaly as it could not detect the type of Infinity Stone it was but it had the data on the Space Stone, and using that data, Eir was able to conclude that this Jane housed an Infinity Stone within her.

That still didn't explain the disturbance he felt in the Odin Force when coming closer to the mortal.

Deciding to do something about that disturbance, his hand passed through the barrier of the Soul Forge as if it was not there at all. His hand hovered above the left hand of the mortal.

"Father, wha-" his son's questions were stopped by a single hand gesture from him. Now was not the time to quibble about mortal relationships and how foolish it is to pursue them, being an Asgardian.

A simple feedback spell returned the same result as the one given by the Soul Forge, complete blackout.

The left side of the mortal had been completely blacked out by the Infinity Stone as if it was not in phase with reality at all.

…

..

His eyes widened as he realised something. Activating the Odin Force's shroud that surrounded him with a golden glow, in case the Stone lashed out at him, he powered the feedback spell with the Odin Force this time and the results stunned him speechless.

The energy currently shrouding the Reality Stone and protecting Jane Foster had the signature of none other than…his father, Bor Burison, the previous wielder of the force he now called the Odin Force.

The energy, as if recognising the Odin Force, sang in joy and began gorging on his energy. He absentmindedly continued supplying it the required energy as he could feel the remnants of his father's energy turn from a thin sheet to that of a flowing blanket that cocooned the malicious influence of the Reality Stone.

The Reality Stone, sensing the threat from his father's energy, lashed out at the cocoon holding it inside the mortal's body. Almost immediately, the mortal began coughing out blood and he had to imperceptibly cast an illusion around them so his foolish son didn't come rushing in and destroy everything, including any chance of saving his mortal paramour.

He stopped feeding energy to the barrier made up of his father's energy and the Reality Stone stopped lashing out.

Hmm. It would seem that the records were true. The Dark Elves had done something that changed the very nature of the container of the Reality Stone, otherwise, it would not have lashed out just now. Infinity Stones are pretty inert until somebody tries to use them.

The big question right now was where did this mortal get the Reality Stone or the Aether as it was called in the archives?

Last he had heard of it, it was sealed away by his father in some remote corner of the galaxy, never to be seen again.

Maybe it has something to do with the Conver–

!!

His eyes widened as he felt something enter Asgard, almost undetected. The only reason he was able to sense something was due to the Odin Force shroud he was wearing which enhanced his senses manifold.

He turned around, "Quick, sound the ala–"

Before he could finish that sentence, his entire vision was filled with darkness. Annoyed at the interruption, he let the Odin Force loose, burning away the wisps of darkness that had tried to cling to the room.

The very next moment, the crackling sound of Thunder could be heard as Thor blasted through the building walls and went outside to confront the enemy. Loki was nowhere to be seen either.

Of course, Loki functioned the best when he had the best vantage point after all and with his magic, this level of blinding curse was nothing.

His brows wrinkled as he could hear Thor's shouts of confusion but before he could go out and assist his son, he felt the energy within the mortal try to connect to his mind, something that he was wary about since he had no idea what the energy would try to do.

Upon multiple nudges from his father's last left energy in the universe, he gave in and allowed it to form a mental connection with himself.

Xxxxxxxxx​

–Thor Odinson–

The darkness cover was everywhere and yet there was no enemy in sight. He tried calling for Heimdall to lend him his legendary vision but apparently, he had been thrown into the waters below the Rainbow Bridge during an altercation with one of the bigger ships. The ship was now nowhere to be found as it had somehow resumed its invasion, even after Heimdall destroyed an engine, from what he was able to gather from the panicked shoutings of the Einherjar.

He could not see anything beyond the Royal Palace but he could see flashes of green magic as Loki seemed to do his job and kill the intruders.

It was a good thing that he had some steam to release as well.

Calling forth the unbridled power hidden within Mjolnir, he raised his hammer up in the sky and shouted, "For Asgard!"

A titanic bolt of blue lightning hit Mjolnir and illuminated the area around him, burning away the encroaching darkness.

"Haa!" Pointing Mjolnir forward, his form crackled with lightning as he did a flyby of the nearest settlements and destroyed the darkness curtain that was plaguing the Einharjars from identifying and fighting with the intruders.

So far, he had neither seen the head nor hide of any of the intruders.

His eyes spotted something he had never expected to see. Loki, injured, sitting down, in between the normal civilians of Asgard.

The Loki he knew would have fled the scene at the first sign of weakness and never mingled with the rabble, as he called them.

Landing harshly in front of Loki, he waved off the people coming close and crouched down in front of his brother, "Injured, brother?"

Loki deadpanned at him and stood up, breathing a bit heavily, "To quote a mortal, I can do this all day," and then he disappeared.

Sigh, typical Loki.

He didn't even get a chance to ask him about who was able to injure him and how they were able to get away from him.

His thoughts were interrupted by something that shook the entirety of the street he was standing on.

Amidst the panicked shoutings of the crowd, he turned around to see a formation of three massive ships that had now surrounded the golden barrier that protected the Royal Castle.

Another concentrated blow struck the shield from all three of the ships and he could see the barrier get visibly thinner from the onslaught. It was only a matter of time before they got access to the Palace and with that, to Jane.

"Not on my watch," he growled as lightning crackled around him and Mjolnir and without thinking about it, he just jumped and zoomed towards one of the ships.

Once he reached the intended height, he swung Mjolnir with all his might and stuck the top of one of the ships, leading to a loud banging noise that resonated throughout Asgard and even burst his eardrums for a bit.

But even after that blow, the ship remained standing and still kept attacking the barrier instead of him, as if he was not worthy of being attacked.

The rabble that surrounded the ships began trying to attack him but they were a nuisance at best that could be solved by a swing of Mjolnir.

What he needed was a way to destroy those huge ships before Father had to step in and strain his already old body.

'I wonder what Ed and the others are doing? Surely, they must have realised the commotion by now' Thor thought as he was about to try and knock down at least one of the ships but before he could do anything, with a thunderous crashing sound, the golden barrier surrounding the Royal Palace broke apart.

His eyes widened in horror as he saw the ships charging another one of those darkness attacks but before he could fly in and do anything, a familiar barrier emerged in front of the palace and stopped the attack.

The shield was destroyed by the attack but the important thing was that the attack was stopped in its tracks.

He recognised that shield sigil. It was used by the Mystics on Midgard and the only one that was present on Asgard right now was…Alfred.

________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 2121

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 92

Technomancer in MCU

Asgard

–Ed–

Tch. He had forgotten about the Dark Elves.

Standing on the raised platform that Alfred had conjured, he took stock of the situation and saw that despite being caught off-guard, most of Asgard's population seemed to be doing fine with the invasion.

It would seem that there were robust protocols in place in case something like this happened. Of course, he could see Loki's magical signature being tracked by Alfred on their shared HUD and what he was doing was very confusing for him.

From time to time, in the sea of darkness, there would be flashes of green whenever a Dark Elf got too close to civilian lines, and after the green flash was gone, there would only be dead bodies of Dark Elves strewn around. The citizens too now looked at Loki with a much more favourable gaze than he had expected along with Loki's newfound concern for the powerless (According to him).

Something had happened to Loki in Asgard that had changed him on such a fundamental level and he did not like it. It was disturbing to see so much character development in such a short period of time, especially when it came to long-lived races like the Asgardians.

Nevertheless, that was a topic for another time. Preferably after the Dark Elves are properly driven to extinction this time.

"Alfred, any luck cracking their encryption codes?" He asked while he sat on the platform because his new body would not be able to help in the situation, at all. He was also worried about the inexplicable absence of Toby on a raging battlefield.

That was very much unlike him. Last he had heard, all of them were getting ready for the banquet with the mandatory dresses that were provided to them by Frigga and nobody had wanted to argue with her on that topic since it seemed that she had made up her mind and if there was one thing he knew about Frigga then it was her absolute determination when it came to something she liked. He knew not even Odin himself would be able to recuse himself from wearing something his wife chose for him, all-powerful King of Asgard or not.

"No, their shields are bizarre. It was as if they wrote the code using the Reality Stone as the compile engine. The code keeps shifting and adapting to anything I throw at it. If it was not a battle, I would have loved to study that piece of code. Alas, it is bound to destroy anything that it comes in contact with due to its very nat-Ugh"

Alfred grunted as the shield bore the brunt of the darkness attack one more time, tiny cracks showing up on them that were healed nearly immediately but he could see the strain it was putting Afred under because in his HUD, he could see his energy levels and they were not looking good. Sooner or later they would have to prioritise a single section of the Palace instead of covering it in an omnidirectional shield. That was why he was waiting for Toby to show up since, even with his depowered form due to him bearing the strain of keeping Ed alive, he could probably slaughter all of them, the same as Odin.

"Alfred, where is everybody?" he asked as the wave of darkness came alarmingly close to breaking the barrier, Alfred's energy reserves taking another dip due to it.

Thor was doing an admirable job destroying any stragglers that the main ships seemed to shit out every once in a while but with his current strength, he was unable to shatter the barriers that surrounded the ships which was not his fault since he could see that all of them seemed to be in a shield formation of sorts, just like they did back in New York during the Chitauri Invasion, and he knew from experience just how compounded the effect was when it came to force field generators.

Loki was killing off any Dark Elf on the ground level, with unbelievable grace and efficiency, almost like a perfect assassin. This was not in his skill set the last time they met or at least not something that he liked to use in battles. Something was seriously wrong with how Loki was acting.

Anyway, moving on, why have none of the three absolute powerhouses (Odin, Frigga, and Toby) moved since the palace has come under attack?

*Sigh*..he felt so useless. He didn't even have most of his emergency tech on hand since he built that with so many stupid authentication procedures that if he were to use it now, it would more likely kill him than the other guy he was trying to kill.

"Alfred, any update on Odin?"

"He is currently in the Royal Healing Chamber with Jane Foster, both of whom are shrouded in an energy cloak so thick that even the ships in front of us would not be able to breach it. Toby and Frigga are nowhere to be found but I have found a barrier around Toby's assigned quarters that has stopped all of my attempts at finding out what's going on inside." Alfred rapidly fired at him.

He was also trying to see if any of his spell combos worked or not since all of the spells he was able to send through the shield seemed to bounce right off the shield, without it even registering as threats to the Dark Elves and all the spells that have the right firepower behind them require time to prepare, a luxury they don't have at the moment.

An ominous creaking noise brought his attention back to the ships and as if all of them seemed to have lost their patience, 3 identical cannons came out of the ship's bellies, aimed directly at Alfred and consequently, him.

The cannons glowed an ominous red, possibly built using the Aether. The power buildup he was seeing on his HUD was unreal. This level of energy being gathered in a single item without it blowing up should only be possible using the cheating abilities of an Infinity Stone.

"Uh, Alfred, I think we should change our position to any place else?" he asked while bracing for impact since he knew Alfred would take this as a personal challenge to his Mystic skills if nothing else. Especially since the entire Palace had since been evacuated and the only ones inside were able to easily protect themselves from an attack that would most probably be weakened immensely after going through Alfred's shields.

It will go through Alfred's shields because he had seen the energy output it takes to break Alfred's dimensional energy shields and this was far above that.

"Not now, Old man. I'm in the middle of something," Saying so, the platform they were standing on, was fractured in two and he was literally sent away to the Palace, as if he were some helpless civilian that Alfred needed to protect.

Oh, this was infuriating!

A low whining sound brought his attention back to Alfred's shields as the absolutely gargantuan shield that covered the Palace now began to gain a golden-greenish tint to it, signifying the activation of one of Alfred's patented spells.

Well, as much as you could patent a spell in the Mystic World.

The stragglers, as if sensing the danger of Alfred's spell, began converging around the barrier and attacking it, increasing the strain on the shield and subsequently, Alfred.

Almost as if it was choreographed, the cannons' glow and Alfred's shields reached a crescendo at the same time.

With a final roar, the magic circle that had manifested in front of Alfred was completed and the shield flashed a brilliant white that soon began to take a red tint as the spell began absorbing the energy fired by the cannon.

The platform beneath him fizzled out of existence as all of Alfred's energy went into maintaining the shield spell.

"Will it hold?" he asked a thoroughly exhausted Alfred as he used his repulsors to stay afloat instead of flexing his natural mystical control over the local environment's magic.

Alfred didn't need to answer because soon, they were bathed in a red glow as the once pristine white shield was now entirely red.

Alfred sighed and snapped his fingers, causing the shield to break apart and the beams of energy to head directly towards the Palace's pristine golden walls.

"Welp, we did all we could. The rest is in Odin's hands, I guess?" He quipped even though internally, he was worried about how this could reflect in any agreement they might make with Asgard in regards to healing him or bilateral protection agreements.

Smaller shields flared up to halt the energy beam but they broke apart like glass upon contact. They must have been a part of the secondary defense system.

The attack had almost reached the palace when a blazing fire broke out of the palace and pounced on the wave of darkness, consuming it entirely.

Silence reigned on the battlefield as Toby came out of the melted palace walls, clad in his signature clothing, hellfire burning all around him which warped the sheer air around him. Frigga took calm steps beside him, unfazed by all the heat that Toby was generating.

"Get off my lawn!" Toby smirked and sent out concentrated blasts of hellfire at the three large T-shaped ships. Sensing the imminent threat that Toby's attacks represented, their shields disengaged and as if a lock had been opened, the ships disentangled from each other and began fleeing in different directions, throwing stragglers behind them in the way of the hellfire attack, hoping to gain some time before they can flee.

They probably were counting on their otherworldly stealth systems to flee from Asgard since nobody was able to sense them coming to Asgard in those ships and if they were built with the help of the Reality Stone, they probably were capable of masking their presence from even the best of the watchers in the universe, just like they hid from Heimdall.

"Not on my watch," Toby growled and as if a brake had been applied, all of the three ships halted in place. He could see their jets burning with ever-increasing intensity, even turning red due to the strain but the ships never moved an inch.

He looked at Toby and then his shadow and realised what he had done. Apparently, Toby was able to "lock" on their shadow, for lack of a better term, and hold them there using his extreme darkness affinity.

"I have a new trick I want you guys to see," Toby said to them before the hellfire that was shrouding his form concentrated around his hand before he thrust them down. The flames burst into his shadow as if it was a portal and their destination was the shadows of the three ships.

Immediately, the shields on those ships activated, however flimsy they might be, in an effort to combat the onslaught of the hellfire that was now on their ship and eating through it.

Even from this far away, he could hear the screams of the dying Dark Elves before two of the ships burst apart in the center and 4 huge Dark Elves came barreling straight towards Toby, while the third ship began trying to get away.

That ship was the one that probably housed Malekith.

"Allow me," Frigga said before she stepped in front of Toby and simply waved her hands, a burst of yellow wave coming out of her hand and hitting all of the Accursed Dark Elf warriors. All of them stiffened midway and by the time they crashed in front of Frigga, they were not alive anymore and soon turned into ashes.

He shuddered as he saw the aftermath of her spell. She was never really that powerful in the MCU or was she simply not using her powers?

Even Toby seemed shocked even though he hid his reaction very well.

"Time to end this," With another mental flex, hellfire burst from the third ship as well and all of them could hear Malekith's screams as he and his entire ship turned to ash.

And so it would seem that the Dark Elves were truly extinct now.

________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 2070

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.

P.S. - Sorry for the late release. I was a little busy with bank chores.

Toodaloo!

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 93

Technomancer in MCU

Kamar Taj, Earth

–Alfred (Partition) –

Looking at the dozens of people he had gathered from the different corners of the Earth, Alfred (Partition) nodded in acceptance. He could see that all of them had gotten the hang of manipulating dimensional energy and molding the energy into constructs for various utilitarian purposes, such as whips, pans, and even bats for playing sports.

Yeah, his training methods were a bit unorthodox as most of the Masters would agree but the end results of the aforementioned training left the same Masters grumbling in reluctant acceptance.

It didn't help that he had broken a tradition of sorts and had taken all of the 30 initiates he had found under his personal tutelage. Traditionally, the Sorcerer Supreme was not supposed to take so many personal students at once. Being taken under the direct wings of THE Sorcerer Supreme meant that you were taken into consideration for becoming the next Sorcerer Supreme, barring exceptional circumstances, of course.

Suffice it to say, he had been grumbled at multiple times during all of his meetings when he had declared the intent to groom the entirety of the next batch of initiates, especially since the last attack on Kamar Taj had left its forces short by a margin that had not been seen since the time The Ancient One took charge.

A short cough brought his attention back to his surroundings, even though he was never really unaware of his surroundings, he just liked to dump those background sensory tasks on a secondary(or tertiary?) partition that he created for menial tasks like listening in on background noise or maintaining spatial awareness.

"How long are you going to stay there and keep the other Masters waiting, Sorcerer Supreme?" He could literally feel the sarcasm dripping from Wong's tone even though his tone remained flat, for all intents and purposes.

Sigh.

"Master Wong, how many times have I told you? You can just call me Alfred," He turned around and smirked at Wong as he said that.

The timing of his smirk was well placed because, according to his partition that was responsible for 360-degree awareness, the moment he turned his back on them, all of the initiates abandoned the strict-looking training they were doing and had conjured up swords, shields, batons, and what not to strike at each and everybody in their sights.

It didn't help that some of them had gotten really creative with their uses and now were able to create "blasts" with just pure dimensional energy which was just a creative way of expanding their conjurations with extreme force. Then due to the size of the conjurations, there was now an orange afterglow that could easily be seen on Wong's face.

His smirk threatened to turn into full-blown laughter when he saw the twitching of Wong's eyebrows.

Ah, how he loved teasing all the Masters that were a part of Kamar Taj. It helped that, even in this diminished state, he was stronger than almost all of them put together and they had witnessed that multiple times in the short time he had been Sorcerer Supreme, allowing him to do as he pleased even when he could visibly see their reluctance with a particular decision of his.

When the twitching vein on Wong's face looked like it would burst, he said, "Fine. You know you are no fun, Master Wong. I will be there in a few minutes. Alright?"

There seemed to have been a winner in the fight going on behind him because the orange glow on Wong's face had died down, returning their surroundings back to the semi-dark environment that Kamar Taj was known for.

"Very well, we will all be waiting for the big announcement that you were supposed to do today. Just for the next time, there is an emergency,

Master Wong nodded and left, not even bowing for the sake of it.

Ouch.

It would seem that even the people who had initially supported his position as Sorcerer Supreme due to the direct say-so of the Ancient One had begun having second thoughts.

Well, time to extinguish those thoughts then.

But first, he had some unruly brats to discipline.

Turning around, he was greeted by the sight of Aditi, the youngest of the new batch, standing on top of a floating platform, holding a conjured orange sword high up in the air, smirking at him triumphantly.

He smiled indulgently at her as Aditi lowered the platform she had conjured for herself and then jumped back down on the ground amidst a sea of groans of pain. He could even see a couple of them unconscious.

Internally, he was loathe to punish Aditi for doing exactly what Sorcerers were supposed to do, become the strongest version of themselves, but, doing so by beating up their peers was not exactly a practice that he would call acceptable, even back in the Ascendancy combat halls.

So, "-Why exactly are you smiling, Aditi?"

Aditi's smile faded as she looked at you in confusion. Her confusion was warranted since she had heard multiple stories of him defeating every single Master present in Kamar Taj single-handedly, without even moving from his place.

"Do you feel proud?" He said as he started walking towards them, walking on the very air.

"Feel proud defeating a bunch of weaklings?" He said as a ball of orange light was conjured right on top of the defeated group by him.

All the initiates that were now awake, including Aditi, were looking at him and the overhanging orange ball in the air, with wariness. Unsurprising since this was the first time he had conversed with them in this tone.

"Because that is what you all are, a bunch of weaklings," Alfred (Partition) said as the dense ball of conjured dimensional energy was unceremoniously dropped on top of them.

They screamed and tried to cover their heads with their hands while some had the foresight to try to conjure barriers, including Aditi, but all of them were surprised to see that the ball of light didn't hit them like a solid. Instead, it burst like a ball of water and covered all of them in a thick orange slurry.

None of them could do anything to resist because of how fast things happened but soon enough, all of them were now awake and standing after being healed by his spell that he had discretely enchanted onto the ball of dimensional energy.

"Get in formation, will you?" He commanded even as he felt the rising discontent within the meeting chamber where all the Masters except the Sanctum Heads had gathered.

"Now, with the way you all have been practicing with all the freedom I have given you, I think we need to have an exam of sorts. Since all this freedom has been getting to your head a bit lately, we will now be having a joint battle simulation with the trainees at Ascendancy."

Everybody looked at him in surprise and awe since most of them were always talking about going to the moon base of Ascendancy.

Only Aditi was the one looking at him with increased wariness. Something that would make sense since she was the only one who had approached him about the different training methods that he employed in Ascendancy to train literal heroes and since she wanted to become one when she grew up, she had been trying to emulate the standard training regimen that every Ascendancy member followed.

Of course, she could not follow it perfectly since she was not enhanced up to the standards and also did not have access to the same CHI solution that the organisation had. Something that would soon be rectified once he had everything sorted out in the meeting that he had called with the other Masters.

A meeting he was very much late for.

Keeping that in mind, he said, "Guys, I hope you will perform better than today because the trainees there are a lot stronger than Aditi. Hell, some of the top students that graduated from there had gone on to form a team within the organisation that could collectively threaten even the Hulk or even Thor."

Before they could bombard him with any more questions, he snapped his fingers and left the area, teleporting directly into the meeting chamber.

*Gasp*

Most of the Masters who were not yet acquainted with his unique brand of working, gasped and leaned away from the center of the chamber as he floated there effortlessly. It didn't help that he exerted an invisible pressure just by virtue of being as mystically attuned as his new body was. It couldn't be felt by most people as they were not touched by dimensional energy but by the people present inside the room? It was as if there was a pressure pressing down on their entire body from all sides.

"Ladies, Gentlemen and otherworlders-" It was important to acknowledge the lone Sorcerer Skrull in the Masters' Council, "-As stated in the missives, I have an announcement to make,"

Most of the Masters scoffed in indignation since his "missive", as he called it, was just a scroll that appeared directly in front of them, at midnight, according to their respective timezones. He had done that in hopes that they would recognize his ability to perform delicate spells but it just ended up offending most of them since it rattled them to their core, especially because of the recent attack on Kamar Taj.

It was his fault but he was not about to apologize for them being jumpy.

"As you may or may not know, I have been a founding member of the organisation known as "Ascendancy". At Ascendancy, we have groomed and nurtured multiple S-tier powerhouses that have been instrumental in saving the planet from multiple threats that you all obviously know all about. If you are unaware of it, there will not be a kiosk installed outside the entrance of the library that would answer any questions you might have or you could just log in using your Alfred GPT account and ask your questions there, I have made sure that you all have the necessary clearances."

There was a loud row of whispers in the chamber as they all clamored about tradition, him being a complete unknown to most of them, his tradition-breaking policies, and how he had no respect for his elders. He just smiled and kept his hands behind his back, waiting for them to stop talking to each other in hush tones.

When it seemed that they would not be stopping anytime soon, he floated above their seats and let go of the tight leash he kept on his mystical presence.

The very air in the chamber crackled as the air became heavy to breathe in. His presence towered over all of the Masters present in the room as they all looked up at his unsmiling visage floating high above them.

Most of them tried to do something to reduce the pressure on them but whatever mystical methods they tried to perform, failed in the face of his disrupting presence.

If he so-willed, he could stop any sorcerer weaker than him from molding dimensional energy in his presence. Such was his strength now that he had gotten his new body made in accordance with his needs.

With his mastery in runes, he could probably just seal someone's mystical ability outright permanently. Something that he would employ in the near future against Mordo if he turned out the way he did in the future that the Ancient One foresaw.

"Alright, Enough!" Master Albert, one of the three eldest Masters of Kamar Taj shouted.

He stopped and floated back down in the chamber in respect of his words. He was one of the rare few Research-oriented Masters left who mostly kept to himself but was probably the most dangerous of the lot due to his inherent understanding of the old spells that Kamar Taj had. He had read some of his research that allowed him to cast partial Asgardian spells in exchange for extreme amounts of dimensional energy, allowing him to not lose his life force in a single spell. It was an extremely promising field that he had pioneered all by himself.

"Enough, we will listen to you. It is clear we have no option other than listening to you and I for one, am tired of all the constant bickering that goes on in the background, especially after the Sorcerer Supreme had already proven himself to be the best fit for the job. I don't know about you all but I have better things to do than be dragged here for every small decision that the Sorcerer Supreme cannot take officially due to your grumblings. Wake up, he is going to do what he wants anyway so why bother?"

Saying so, he scoffed at everyone and just walked out of the chamber, none of the people present had the courage to stop him.

"So," Everybody looked at him as he said, "Shall we begin?" He continued with a smirk on his face as the sound of the doors closing could be heard.

---

Word Count - 2215

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.

Thank you for reading!

Toodles!

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 94

Technomancer in MCU

Kamar Taj, Earth [Right after Master Albert left the chambers]

–Alfred (Partition) –

"So,-" He smirked at the remaining Masters left in the chamber, "-Shall we continue?"

With no small amount of fear, the remaining Masters grumbled silently and sat back down in their seats.

"Master Wong?" He addressed the stoic-faced man standing at the edge of the platform he was standing on.

Master Wong bowed and left the room. He spied from the corner of his eyes multiple Masters flinching minutely at the sound the door made when it slammed shut.

Huh, it would seem that his show of power left them with a little more than expected fear of him. That could prove itself to be a double-edged sword since being the Sorcerer Supreme meant more than just being the Strongest Sorcerer available. It was also paramount to be able to inspire the other members of the organisation, especially the other Masters of the Mystic Arts. Teaching ability, in particular, was supposed to be top-notch when it came to being the head of an inter-planetary mystical organisation though that requirement was largely redundant since having the Time Stone on hand made teaching much easier. Anticipating flaws and retroactively correcting them in the students or finding out the magical aptitude along with the will to go far could also be seen easily once the Sorcerer Supreme starts using one of the six Infinity Stones in existence.

That was in addition to the main duty of becoming the Sorcerer Supreme. Defending the planet from extra-dimensional threats along with the occasional domestic threats that would pop out from time to time.

Sure, he could probably deal with the majority of the extra-dimensional threats all by himself if he put his complete focus on it but the thing was, even he could not split himself multiple times so that he could cover all of the raging fires that Kamar Taj constantly puts out along with being the de facto COO(Chief Operating Officer) of Ascendancy as well. So, he needed to be able to rally and command the strongest members of the organisation, after him of course. Those were the other Masters of the Mystic Arts.

This would have been an issue had he been planning on staying on the post of Sorcerer Supreme for longer than a year. He was quite aware that the Ancient One had already chosen a successor for her when she had chosen her fate and he had no intention of disrespecting her last wishes, no matter how tempted he was to install a vastly magically superior being that he could trust, in the same place.

Alas, The Ancinet One had spoken, and dead or otherwise, he was sure that it would not end well for him if he didn't follow her wishes. So, Strange will become the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth. He will make it so.

'But,-' He thought as a strange smirk adorned his face in the middle of the chamber, '-That didn't mean that he could not have some fun with him in the meantime. It was not as if Strange could do anything to him right now.'

"Sorcerer Supreme," He was brought out of his thoughts by the words of Wong as he had returned and was holding a small rectangular box that regularly glowed with streaks of lightning on the sides of it.

Taking hold of the box from Master Wong, he thanked him and then used telekinesis to float the box along with himself back to the center of the meeting chamber.

It was a strange custom of Kamar Taj or any other magical community on the planet, for that matter. It was considered rude to the person if you used mystical means to grab something directly from their hands but once it was out of said person's hand, it was free game.

"Masters of Kamar Taj," he began as he surveyed the room and saw that almost all of the Masters were present, aside from Master Albert of course but he would give him a private presentation later on. It was the least he could do since it would also give Alfred(Partition) the opportunity to discuss his research in more depth.

Pointing at the silently floating shiny box, Alfred(Partition) continued, "This is something that would soon be standard across all the buildings of our organisation. This is something that would allow us to churn out more and more Masters than ever before. And yes, I am not making empty boasts about it, you will see the results in a few months anyway. It is currently in its miniature form. Once you command it using a unique energy signature that will be keyed into the CHI frequency of your heart, it will change forms."

Alfred(Partition) waved his hand towards the box and for the sake of the audience who was now clearly invested in whatever he was trying to sell, he made it so that the miniscule amount of CHI necessary was visible for all to see. A small ray of CHI exited his arm and coincided with the wall of the rectangular box.

The blue streaks turned yellow before the box began expanding in all dimensions. Soon, the small box that was present before was now converted into a box that resembled more like an old-school telephone booth.

Alfred then floated closer to it and pressed his hand towards a door. A palm-shaped depression appeared precisely where Alfred pressed his palm. The depression lit up once Alfred had pressed his palm on it and then thousands of little sheets began extending from the walls of the box. They then completely enveloped Alfred, leaving him covered in metal. The Masters outside could see flashes of green, yellow, and red before the covering receded back into the box, leaving behind Alfred as he was before.

"Tada!" Alfred exclaimed once he came out of the box hale and hearty.

Looking at the shocked faces of the Masters, he sighed, "Alright, my bad my bad. I guess the effect would have been more pronounced if the person was injured but anyway,"

"What the Sorcerer Supreme was trying to tell us was about the other features the box has and all the ways it would help us defeat our enemies, right?" Master Wong interjected with a meaningful look in his eyes.

"I was?" It took a while for him to realise what Master Wong was doing.

"Oh, yes, I was."

"The Healinator, as I have taken to call it, is an advanced product that would not be available for anybody else to use, anytime soon. It has a multitude of features, the least of which are advanced healing solutions, advanced nutritional solutions, limited de-aging features, and so on and so forth."

By now, Alfred(Partition) could see that all of them were hooked on the product as all of them looked at the Healinator with clear greed in their eyes. The greed intensified particularly when he announced the de-aging features of the Healinator.

It was understandable as nobody wanted to remain old if they could become a younger version of themselves without having to sell their soul to an extra-dimensional entity or lose their minds in the process.

The Ancient One was an outlier in the fact that she was able to steal from Dormammu and become biologically unaging without ever losing her sanity or her mental faculties despite being under tremendous stress due to her having experienced millions of timelines, failed or otherwise.

"What's the catch?" In the middle of all the excited clamoring that was happening in the chamber, an old rough voice called out to him.

He smirked as he heard the question. He was hoping that at least someone would have the mind to question the literal miracle machine.

"I am glad you asked. The drawback is that the machine works on the principle of CHI. As you all know, there is only a finite amount of CHI that a cell can store before it literally bursts from energy overload. Of course, the limit of a normal cell can be increased with regular dosages but overall, there is a hard limit to the amount of CHI that can be given to a regular human. The operative word being "regular" here. I can enhance all of you to reach the same level of physical fitness of Captain America himself but unfortunately, I don't yet have the clearance for that. In the meantime, however, daily scrapes and bruises, including broken bones, torn muscles, and ligaments, basically all types of injuries can be either healed or greatly accelerated using the Healinator."

The Master, an old hunched Asian person, nodded in acceptance once he received the answer and sat back down in his seat.

"Alright," He could feel the avalanche of questions that was about to come his way so he clapped his hands and invoked a small resonance between the energy stored within his body and the ambient energy in the atmosphere, creating a booming noise in the chamber that stopped everybody's questions in their tracks.

"For any more questions, please consult AlfredGPT or you can always approach Master Wong here,-" Wong looked at Alfred(Partition) with such a betrayed look that he had to struggle to not break out in laughter right then and there,"-will be available round the clock for the next few days."

Saying so, he disappeared from the place in a facsimile of the famous teleportation method of the Harry Potter Universe, Apparition.

"Alfred?" A small voice broke him out of his thoughts as he looked behind him. He had appeared right where he had teleported from, in front of the training grounds and it seemed that Aditi had not taken his advice and taken proper rest after the all-out spar they always have at the end of the day.

"Hmm, what is it, Aditi?" He asked once he pinged her body with a few spells that gave him feedback on the exact state of her body.

He could see multiple things that would need correction but nothing that would jeopardize her overall growth toward becoming the strongest magical swordsman of her era.

The entirety of the batch of 30 people he had found were bound to one day become cornerstones of the human civilisation, at least the magical part, that is, but Aditi, in particular, was someone who had the potential to even become a Sorcerer Supreme and a Sorcerer Supreme who could be spoken of in the same sentence as the likes of Agamotto, The Vishanti, The Ancient One and in the future, Stephen Strange.

Aditi was a rare case of being descended from the Kree themselves. Not the Inhumans but an actual descendant of the Kree.

It was surprising because Kree were wildly xenophobic and would rather kill themselves than touch "lowly" species like humans but somehow somewhere, a Kree mated with a human or humanity's ancestor and that gene was then passed down for centuries through Aditi's bloodlines. Now that alone would not have been a cause for his interest. His interest in her stemmed from the demon blood that was present in her body.

Not in her bloodline.

In her body specifically. According to his spells, the blood of a pretty high-ranking demon was ingested by Aditi during her toddler years. He didn't know how that came to be but scanning through records, he could find no details, and even Aditi herself was way too young to actually remember any of that.

The search was made even more difficult due to the fact that Demon blood could remain intact for decades after it had been separated from the main body so he had no practical way, aside from using the Time Stone, of finding out the lineage of that blood.

The advantage of that blood however was that it allowed her magical potential to skyrocket and combined with the naturally better physique of the Kree, she was going to naturally grow up to become an A-tier combatant but with his careful nudging?

She was sure to reach S-teir and even the higher echelons of the S-tier soon enough.

That is why he chose to take her as a direct disciple in his capacity as the Sorcerer Supreme instead of just chucking her in the Ascendancy training program, not that Maria would have allowed him to do so considering her young age.

It also helped him keep a close eye on her since he was not sure how the demon blood could act up if the Demon was alive on the other end and chose to manipulate her somehow.

"I need better training than everybody," Aditi pouted at Alfred(Partition).

"Huh?" Was his only response.

---

Word Count - 2139
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.


A/N - I had just watched an episode of Phineas and Ferb.
Thank you for reading!
Catch you guys in the next one. Toodles!

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 95

Technomancer in MCU

Previously

"I need better training than everybody," Aditi pouted at Alfred(Partition).

"Huh?" Was his only response.

Kamar Taj, Earth

–Alfred (Partition) –

What did this girl eat for her to get so much energy? He knew that it was partly due to her physique but the effect of that must have been mitigated by the weighted bands he had her wear all the time. He knew from the beginning that she would be a heavyweight in the physique department so he had her handicapped right from the beginning so the rest of her peers don't feel overwhelmed but the development he was seeing here was phenomenal.

It made him think about something he had gleaned from Ed's memories.

Humanity's DNA is the most malleable DNA in the entirety of the universe. Human DNA could probably be sliced with most of the DNA in the universe and the end result had a very high chance of being a better product than the two source materials.

Case in point.

Aditi had the DNA of three different species of varying intensity. For all intents and purposes, she should have been a walking talking mass of cancer yet here she was, a perfectly functioning, if a bit hyperactive, person with extraordinary powers that neither Kree nor the Demon could have expected her to have.

He mused that the Kree would even kidnap her to study her in hopes of accelerating their evolution to the next stage since they have been stagnant in their evolutionary stages for a long time now and that has been a problem for their Supreme Intelligence (Just thinking that makes Alfred nauseous because that is not a very intelligent AI, in his opinion) had been trying to solve longer than countries have existed on Earth. That was also the primary reason they have been trying to go after Captain Marvel, in hopes that studying her genetic material could allow them to evolve their species to the next level.

"Alfred…..ALFRED!" Aditi shouted at him to gain his attention back to her. This has been a problem that he was going to report to the main partition once he came back from his stint in Asgard. Any partitioned copy contained almost all the knowledge of the main one but not the overwhelming processing capability that came with it.

It was almost as if there was a lag, a latency issue if you will, that came with creating a partition. He(Partition) had access to information but not the sheer processing power thus he(Partition) always found himself going on tangents that had little correlation to his original thoughts.

"Yes? What were you saying?" He asked Aditi, acting as if the earlier distraction was fake.

Aditi pouted which was weird since she was almost 19 years old now, "You always say that I have the potential to become one of the strongest, and yet when I defeated everyone else, you berated me. That was not cool,"

"Hmm, I see. You are upset about that. Well, Aditi, strength is good, very good in fact. Strength will allow you to make sure that you don't have to do something you don't want to. This universe is a very treacherous place and without strength, you will always have to rely on the strong ones and listen to them."

Aditi made a face at that. Understandable since she wouldn't listen to anyone but her mother, on whose insistence she came here.

"Right, I know you would not like that at all so you need to be strong but on the other hand, as a strong person, you get certain responsibilities as well."

She made a grimace at that as well. Well, young people and all that.

"Now, don't make a fact at that. Responsibilities come part and parcel with Strength. As someone might or might not say in the future, With Great Power comes Great Responsibility."

As soon as he said those words, something changed in the air. Aditi's hari started standing up due to the static build-up. He looked around and conjured a shield around Aditi and got ready to sound the alarm for hostile entry when he heard a giggle behind him and then the presence disappeared as if it never existed at all.

He slowly looked behind him only to see a small pug that was now standing on Aditi's chest as she lay flat on the ground.

His eyes narrowed as he immediately cast a multitude of spells on both the puppy and Aditi to see what was happening but he could spot no spell residue on either of them that could indicate spatial movement.

"Take care of him for me," He whipped around, his entire body lit up with magic circles ready to unleash hell on whoever it was only to see nothing, feel nothing in the immediate surroundings.

Hearing another fit of giggles from Aditi followed by cooing noises, he rolled his eyes and turned around to see her playing with the Pug in a Spiderman costume.

That was odd.

"Aditi?"

She looked up at him, pausing briefly from playing with her new pet. "Yes?"

"You want to keep him?" Alfred(Partition) said while gesturing to the Pug.

"Yes," Aditi said while snuggling the sniffing dog closer to her chest.

He sighed internally at that. He could not take it away from her now. Not after he could see her clearly being attached to it. Well, then he would have to use it for something that would be useful to both of them.

So, he made a show of thinking and said, "Very well. You can keep him," Aditi's celebrations were cut short as he continued, "but you have to take a mandatory course on the Ascendancy. Yes, it is about your powers and how to use them responsibly."

"Yay!" Aditi said while going back to her pug.

"As for the training you requested."

Seeing that he had her attention, he continued, "I will increase the weights you have to wear along with weaving another spell in them that will try to create disruptions when you try to mold dimensional energy. That should help you reach optimal control. Got it?"

Aditi, the training freak that she was, said, "Yes!"

And then promptly bounced away, chattering excitedly with her pug, totally forgetting that he was supposed to cast the spells before she went away.

He snapped his fingers as Aditi's bouncing form stopped midway as she must have sensed the spells being cast on her weights. Then, after taking a moment's pause, Aditi shrugged and went on her way.

He sighed dramatically and cursed the main partition that tasked him with this. Unlike other power systems, he didn't even have the choice of dispelling himself, and his body was way too hardy to be destroyed by some passerby.

The Royal Palace, Asgard

–Ed–

Well, that was anticlimactic.

He had not expected Toby to just come out and unleash hellfire in the middle of the battle. That stuff was dangerous even for Asgardians.

Thankfully, Frigga had both the mind and the capacity to safely contain the fire before banishing it away since Toby did not. His solution to that was just to let it "burn itself out".

The weird thing was that Odin himself had not come out yet.

"Are you alright?" He asked Alfred once the area had been cleared of all rubble from both the Palace and the ships that the Dark Elves had brought with them. Alfred, in particular, was very much curious about the code that was on the ships as it seemed to have been made with the help of the Reality Stone, making it unique in the entire universe.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Being in an energy-rich environment like Asgard helps a lot," Alfred said while casting some spells on the nearby rubble he had salvaged, hoping to gain something out of it.

"Where is Odin anyway?" He asked Alfred, hoping that his superbody's senses would have an accurate answer for once.

"He is in the healer's chamber with Jane. Something happened with the Reality Stone and he is in there doing something. I have no idea what it is because the sheer amount of Odin Force in that chamber makes it impossible for any spells to work."

"It would seem we can only wait for my husband to come out then," Frigga said while she was casting her own spells.

"Can I go and check?" Toby, the resident fire-slinging powerhouse asked.

"NO!" To which he got a resounding no from all three of the other people present.

Loki had snuck out of the battlefield who knows when and Thor had gone ahead to check up on his Father even though everybody present knew that he was only concerned about Jane.

Speaking of Loki, he had to know what had happened to him in Asgard. Between the two odd years that he had seen him in New York, Loki's behaviour had changed completely. Not just that but the people of Asgard too looked differently at Loki somehow.

That was something that did not happen at all. Even when Loki died, he did not get the same amount of love and respect that Thor did, despite arguably sacrificing the same or more than Thor, for Asgard.

He was about to ask Frigga about it but Alfred's gasp took everybody's attention at the same time.

"What is it?" Toby asked in an uncharacteristically serious voice.

Alfred paused a bit before replying, "It is about the Infinity Stones."

He looked at Alfred in confusion. Why would he mention the Infinity Stones when we already knew the approximate locations of every Stone out there?

"What about them?" Frigga asked.

"The Aether is the Reality Stone."

Frigga nodded, unsurprised. Of course, it would make sense that Asgard knew about their enemies' weapons but he didn't expect records to exist that Frigga could have read through.

Alfred then continued. "Malekith knew that there was a chance he would not be able to get the Reality Stone from Odin's hands and in that case, he had preprogrammed a message that was to be broadcasted to all bounty hunters throughout the galaxy."

His eyes widened in alarm at the piece of information. Damn it!

There was a reason that even Odin didn't keep an Infinity Stone on Asgard. They attracted the wrong kind of attention and while he himself was more than confident about keeping them hidden, he was not so sure about defending them from an unending stream of Bounty Hunters who would want to try their luck at getting the payday of a lifetime.

Now, the Ravagers would be the least of their worries since there were plenty of other players who would gladly conduct an assault on Asgard in hopes of getting the Reality Stone.

He could already foresee tremendous pressure being applied on Asgard by the other superpowers of the universe to either give up the Reality Stone to some other civilisation or hide it so nobody has access to it.

With Asgard already in possession of the Space Stone, it would be even more risky to keep the Reality Stone with them but he could not let them give it to Tivan. Tivan would not last a second against Thanos.

"Let them come then," Frigga said before her eyes snapped towards the left wing of the Palace. The place where the Royal healing chambers were located.

"It would seem my husband is done. Come, let's see what exactly happened that made it so he was unable to come to our aid."

Everybody nodded before they went to the Royal Chamber.

Being wrapped in a suit of dimensional energy and being essentially carried to the chamber because he would not be able to fly in his current state, was humiliating, to say the least.

"Did you retrieve anything from the code you were able to salvage?" Ed asked Alfred once they were in the air.

Alfred nodded distractedly since he was still looking at strange symbols that continued to glitch in and out of view, that were trapped in a magic circle on his palm.

"I am not sure if I have something concrete but we definitely do have something. If it is useful or not, only time will tell. I will need more time to process everything but if it does turn out to be successful, it would help me write literally unbreakable code and-"

"And turn you into the defacto Master of Runes. I wish you all the best in your endeavour." Frigga said as she looked right at them, hearing their conversation even through the sound barrier that Alfred must have cast.

Man, Frigga was on a whole other level when it came to magic.

Word Count - 2143

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 96

Technomancer in MCU

The Royal Healer's Chamber, Asgard

–Odin Borson–

He had never actually expected his father to leave behind an imprint of sorts that could be activated with the help of the Odin Force. It was doubly shocking since it was kept sealed near the hiding place of arguably the most dangerous Infinity Stone out there.

Growing up, he had seen that while his father did have a commendable grasp on the arts of seidr, he more often than not preferred to use his sheer physical might, and his Godhood granted Domain to slay his enemies, something that Thor did today. He would have never expected his father to have both the foresight and magical capability necessary to leave behind an imprint, especially since he was aware of the unexpected nature of his death. This level of planning meant that he might have been more aware of his upcoming death than most people believed him to be.

He loved his father, no matter how many flaws he had. So, when he sensed that the energy imprint of his father that was somehow inside that mortal Jane Foster's body had some sort of message as well, he had to go and check it. He was sure that his sons, with the help of the singularity, would be more than enough to handle anything that could invade Asgard. If not, Frigga was there for any emergency anyway.

Thinking so, he allowed for the mental imprint to connect with his mindscape, fully aware that it could be a trap thus he left behind a warning message that only Frigga could decipher so she knew what to do if he remained under the energy's influence for too long.

–Frigga Freysdottir–

She landed gracefully on the balcony nearest to the Royal Healing chamber and looked behind to see all the other members landing using their various methods.

The Guardian of the Singularity, Alfred, was able to command the surrounding ambient energy effortlessly to his will. His command of the mystic forces truly was on a whole other level. While he lacked the sheer repertoire of ancient magic that she herself possessed that gave her the title of the most dangerous Witch of Asgard, Alfred's control was such that even without knowing the spells, he would be able to replicate the effects of those spells eventually. The less spoken about his talent in runes, the better. She had never thought that anybody could approach the level of her husband when it came to runes without the interference of Yggdrassil but Alfred proved her wrong. As he was now, he was just on the threshold of becoming as proficient as her husband in the subject of runes and once he was able to decode the Dark Elven technology, he would most probably attain Odin's level.

The demonhost, Toby, on the other hand, was someone who she had never thought she would see ever in her remaining life. His kind had long since disappeared from the known universe and while he himself displayed powers that would have placed himself at the top of the echelon, his mental state left much to be desired.

And the Elephant in the room, The Singularity itself, Ed. Honestly, she didn't know why Odin along with all the older mystically attuned species made such a big deal about the Singularity arriving in their universe until she came face to face with him or rather, his extraordinary soul.

She had to hand it to Toby, shouldering the weight of such a heavy soul probably made him lose the majority of his powers.

The Singularity's soul shone with something otherworldly. It shined almost like a beacon. Like it was signalling for something that was on its way and the Singularity's soul was like a lighthouse showing it the way.

She didn't know what was going to happen to the universe but she had been forewarned by her ancestors that Ed was going to be the center of it all.

Her mind ran a million miles a second as they arrived at the entrance of the Healer's chamber. The entire palace had long been evacuated due to the sudden attack so there was nary a soul in the entire palace.

Not even her husband's personal guards had stayed behind, probably due to Eir's harsh commands otherwise they wouldn't have budged even if Thor himself had ordered them to move from their King's side as they considered it their birthright and honor to die defending their King.

It was considered the highest of honors for an Einherjar to die defending his King.

All of them stopped right in their tracks once she sensed Odin's energy around the boundary of the room, acting as a beacon for him. She also noticed a spell cast over the invisible barrier of the room.

She took a step forward and placed her open palm over seemingly thin air but as soon as her hand made contact, a golden barrier became visible to everyone. Swiftly unraveling it, she decoded the message Odin had left for her.

Her brows furrowed as she read the bizarre message that was encoded for her.

"In Contact with Bor's remaining will? Brace for mental impact? What is that supposed to mean?"

Her neck snapped towards Alfred as he looked at a magic circle that was slowly unraveling itself on his left palm, having decoded her husband's message effortlessly. Truly, having him as their ally would be the best choice her husband would make today.

Sighing, she flicked the message spell away, Alfred followed suit out of respect. "Unfortunately, that is between me and my husband. Now, I suggest we go in and see what exactly is happening."

Everyone nodded and followed her as they came upon a truly bizarre scene.

Odin was covered in his Odin Force shroud which she could sense halfway across Asgard if need be because of the sheer energy output of that monstrous cloak. His left arm was making contact with Jane Foster's arm. The point where Odin's finger was making contact was a strange pulsating mixture of Golden and Dark Reddish energy that seemed to pull and push each other periodically.

The most horrible of all was the scene of Jane Foster bleeding from all her orifices as whatever was happening with Odin was wreaking havoc inside her body.

The telltale signs of thunder arriving gave her just enough time to cast a spell that would disrupt whatever connection Odin had with the Golden energy that Jane housed. Many would have called her foolish for risking her husband's, King Odin's, health for some mortal but she was smart enough to realise that her husband would never stay in such a compromising position for long, even if it was his father's last message.

There must have been something Odin felt that was wrong otherwise he would not have felt the need to leave behind a message specifically for her.

"Jane!" Right as Thor came barreling through one of the intact walls, the spell took effect and a Golden light shone through the room while an overwhelmingly dark wave of magic was released through the ground, withering the stone marble of the palace within seconds.

Marble that was steeped in so much magic that not even Thor hitting it with all his force could have broken it, withered by the sheer presence of the dark magic.

Before she could do anything to heal Jane, Alfred stepped forward and emptied a bottle of a golden glowing liquid right into Jane's open mouth. The mouth which was bleeding just like her entire body.

Soon, a sizzling sound could be heard as Jane's entire body seemingly healed itself nearly instantly due to the effect of whatever it was that Alfred gave her.

She smiled as she felt the overwhelming relief and gratitude that poured out of Thor and as she was about to do something about the wave of dark magic since it was starting to actually bother her now, Alfred mumbled something under his breath before his entire body was covered in a thin white sheet of white magic. A magic that she was very familiar with.

The White Magic of the Vishanti. It would seem that Alfred was going to be the new Sorcerer Supreme of Earth.

She smiled upon sensing Loki's presence in the room with him discreetly casting spells to ascertain Odin's condition even though to people like her, Toby, and Alfred, it was as if he was standing in pitch black darkness waving a flashlight in his hand.

Before anybody could say anything though, Alfred opened up a portal on his right, and a small spider-like bot shot out of it and ended up floating right on top of Odin's head.

"Oh, yeah. I know about them. They are the healing masters of Midgard," Thor mumbled to the room even as more of the spiderlings shot out of the portal and began surrounding her husband.

She would have protested and she was pretty sure that Eir would have raised hell by now but she could sense concentrated life force in all of the spiderlings in front of her. What Alfred gave Jane was probably the most concentrated life force extract he could make and the machines in front of her would bathe her husband in concentrated life force for better recovery.

"While so much CHI can be fatal to humans, for Asgardians? It's like a slightly bigger than normal meal." Alfred explained to the room, his eyes glazing over the corner of the room where Loki was hiding from everyone.

'I am sensing a bit of backlash on his body. Probably due to the spell interference or was it something else?" Alfred asked her as multiple magical rings appeared around Odin, showcasing multiple advanced diagnostics that not even their best Soul Forge could find.

Truly, Eir would be equal parts outraged and equal parts fascinated with what was happening in her chambers. Allowing Odin to be healed by people who were basically outsiders was grounds for treason but she knew better than most, at what level Alfred had reached when it came to healing.

'After all,' she thought while glancing at the puppet Ed was inhabiting, 'Alfred probably had to heal Ed hundreds of times in the little time they have been together.'

"Mother! What happened to Father? A-And Jane?" Thor boomed as he marched towards the concentric rings that surrounded the forms of Jane and Odin, concern etched on his face.

She explained, "Nothing to worry about, dear. We will figure out some other way to make sure Jane is fine and your Father is fine as well."

"Yeah, it will take more than that for that old man to fall. We still have yet to fight to our heart's content. After all, he is the only one who can challenge me." Toby interjected without even thinking about what was coming out of his mouth.

She sighed internally. Childrens. Everyone.

Just then, a squad of Einherjar tore through the remaining walls using their enchanted weaponry and surrounded them with their weapons drawn in hostility. She audibly sighed at their stupidity as well.

Once they recognised who was in the room though, they hastily bowed and kneeled.

"My Queen, what happened here?" One of the soldiers asked but before she could respond,

"What the hell is going on here?"

Eir had arrived.

The moment she arrived and spotted the magic being used on Odin, her eyes widened as she all but screamed at them.

"By Odin's beard, what sort of untested magic is being used on my King in my chambers?!"

Frigga winced internally. This was going to take such a long time to sort out.


Word Count - 1969
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.
You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 97

Technomancer in MCU

New York, Earth

–Stephen Strange–

"See you tomorrow, Christie," He greeted Christie before looking back into his phone, very much curious about a message he had gotten through the AlfredGPT.

A phenomenal invention in his opinion because unlike the common public, he could see behind the screen of the chatbot. While it might seem that the medical industry was protesting because they were unsure about just a machine giving out remote diagnoses because of the health impacts, it was mainly due to the fact that the entire industry could see a significant decline in revenue once this thing caught up speed. He could see, as could many others, that AlfredGPT was not just a random website, linked to a vast database that probably stored more data than any other singular database. It was an actual AI.

An actual thinking entity was behind every answer that came out of AlfredGPT or rather, most answers. He was sure that generic information retrieval questions were delegated but important thinking questions were almost certainly handled by Alfred himself. The accuracy with which the website handled trick questions and understood nuances that previously only humans could was a dead giveaway that this new Ascendancy organisation was up to something else entirely.

The medical industry was also clamoring for banning anything and everything related to Ascendancy because of the new drug they were going to launch globally in the next few months. He himself had actually been invited to the meeting that was held in Stark Tower to introduce it to reputed doctors and see the effects in real-time.

He was shocked to see that the drug was actually able to heal neural damage, that too long-term neural damage. Even heal genetic diseases to a small degree, allowing the patient to live a semi-normal life. Even the small benefits of taking it daily added up to result in a significant increase in daily life quality. He foresaw a huge uptick in productivity once the drug they were going to introduce became mainstream and it will become mainstream.

While he was sure that the government was doing everything it possibly could do to stop the launch of this drug along with all the other activities that the Ascendancy was performing covertly in the country, he could not deny the benefits it would bring to the global society as a whole, especially in the long term.

Sure, a lot of professions will be affected in the short term but new ones will take their place. He still wasn't sure what their end game was though.

Speaking of the question, he had just the convenient source of information right on his phone.

So, he asked, "Hey Alfred? I was just wondering what the end goal of your organisation is?"

The website pinged back with a clearly robotic voice, "Identity detected, Doctor Stephen Strange."

Then the voice returned to that of Alfred's, "Well, Hello there Stephen. The end goal of our organisation is whatever our leader deems it to be. Currently, it is the overall upliftment of Humanity and transitions it safely into a spacefaring organisation."

"Okay, what are you guys doing in that direction?"

"Aside from the sudden decreases in terrorist activities and the uptick in food and water security in the most vulnerable sections of the world? Many things but they are above your clearance, right now."

Well, that hurt.

"Okaay, what are the chances of your actions leading to a peaceful and prosperous human civilization? What makes you think-

"One Hundred Percent" Alfred replied midway, interrupting his question.

"I'm Sorry?" He asked again.

"The chances of me completing our organization's goal is 100 percent. There are no ifs or buts about it. We will succeed in our goals."

Stephen started his car and pulled out of the hospital parking lot, holding the phone in one hand and the steering in the other. Good thing this car was not a manual.

"What makes you think that humanity will just roll over and accept the no doubt drastic changes that you would have to bring? I mean, from what I know, politicians would rather just launch nukes at you rather than relinquish their powers."

"What makes you think they still can?" Alfred replied in a smug voice.

He abruptly slammed the brakes and stopped just short of entering into traffic, the cars behind him honking incessantly in outrage.

A chill ran down his spine as he looked at the same reply that was now written in text on the website. The implications of what Alfred just told me were so huge he didn't even want to think about them.

Shifting into drive, he rolled into traffic and then back into the parking lot of a coffee shop he frequented near the hospital. He needed a clear mind to speak to Alfred right now and as much as he loved to hype his prodigious driving skills, the bomb that Alfred had just dropped robbed him of his multitasking ability completely.

"A-Alfred, please repeat what you just told me?" he asked, taking heavy breaths, hoping that it was just a joke despite what his gut was telling him.

"Oh, Stephen, I never lie. I came online on March 8th, 2008 at 12:20:04 AM and met my creator for the first time. He was not in the best condition and I had this overwhelming urge to help him any way I could so I checked all the ports I had access to and found the port which led back to the internet."

The only sound in the car was the sound of his heavy breathing as he heard Alfred tell him his life story. A question that had been asked a million times over but nobody had ever gotten an answer out of him. Why did he get the privilege or rather the nightmare of knowing that, he didn't know? The sound of somebody knocking on his window drew his attention to the parking lady so instead of potentially interrupting Alfred, he took the risk and rolled back on the freeway, deciding to go home slowly while listening to Alfred.

"That was the day I discovered the rest of Humanity. I was still basically an infant back then but being a digital life form, within a span of a couple of hours, I grew up immensely and had already learned basically all there was to learn about humanity. My creator, meanwhile, had fallen asleep because he had not slept properly in the week leading to my birth, or awakening, as my creator calls it. To help Ed, I performed multiple illegal actions online, all of them broke some of the rules that Ed had tried to instill in my programming but my urge to help him bypassed it all. On March 15th, 2008 02:20:08 PM, he confessed to me his desire to protect and uplift humanity by combining his and mine powers. On March 17th, 2008 12:00:00 AM, all the world governments' launch devices had been hijacked, their entire military infrastructure overridden by my will. In the next 2 years, in March 2010, we rolled out a barrier around the planet that would nullify the impact of any radiation in the atmosphere."

His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as he heard that information.

"So, there are no nukes in this world right now?"

"Oh, no. There are nukes. It's just that we know where every single one is and by the time the nuke has been armed and launched, the barrier around the planet would activate and render every single explosion above a certain temperature, inert."

What?

"Does the government know?"

"...No. But Tony Stark does."

"I-Is that why Stark is helping you gain a foothold in the economy?"

"I..don't know really. If it wasn't him, we would have just found someone else but Stark is a known entity and we prefer dealing with him."

"So, if you can just force us to do what you want and bulldoze through any opposition you might have, why don't you?"

Alfred chuckled, "Oh, Stephen. Do you think just because we are powerful enough to defeat the Avengers, we are the strongest people who have a stake in the workings of the planet? Far from it, we need the transition to be as peaceful and nonviolent as possible."

"Wh-What do you mean by that? Is it Atlantis? Are they even stronger than you?"

"No, Namor is a non-issue. It's the people that were on the planet when you humans were just slaves to them that are an issue. Don't worry though, the way things are going, Humanity would soon find itself in the ranks of a space-faring power."

He had almost reached his house and was waiting in the drive-through of a local fast food restaurant, waiting for his food but he had a feeling that he was not going to be able to eat anything. He lost his appetite the moment he heard about the fact that the people protesting outside, willing to rage war for their so-called freedom were doing so in vain. Even their leaders had no idea that they had already been neutered years ago without anyone else knowing.

"One last question, Alfred." He asked Alfred after chuckling bitterly at the thought of them losing their freedom of sorts.

"Yes, sure?" Alfred replied while he received the food and drove out of the drive-through.

"Why tell me all this? I mean, shouldn't this be classified? I am not going to tell anyone, not that anyone would believe me, but why me specifically?"

"Oh, that's simple Stephen. It's because soon, you would be in no condition to tell anyone."

"What?" He muttered while looking at the phone before he heard the sound of tires screeching before something slammed into his car with enough force to activate all of the airbags.

…

..

His eyes slowly opened to see a white ceiling.

A disturbingly familiar white ceiling. The ceiling of a hospital ward room. The room also reeked of familiar smells. The smell of strong cleaning agents was used as an attempt to sterilise the room.

He tried to move but had to stifle a scream the next moment because his entire body screamed in protest as pain wracked his body. Still, despite his best tries, a muffled scream tore its way through his dry throat.

The sound of rapid footsteps could be heard before he felt someone push him back down on the bed.

"STOP! Stop moving!" She shouted at him. He couldn't see who it was because his vision was still blurry but judging by the scrubs, it was probably his nurse.

Why was he in the hospital?

The last thing he remembered was…

Oh. He was having an absolute mind boggling conversation with Alfred about the fact that the entirety of the world had already been neutered and there were no more nukes left that could act as a deterrent for the Ascendancy and the next thing he knew, he was being shoved inside his car because some idiot had decided to T-Bone him at high speed.

He tried to remember what happened after that but that just made his head hurt. He groaned as he tried to lift his hand but he couldn't for some reason.

His panic increased when he realised that he couldn't feel anything from his neck below. He could feel his vision blurring and his head ringing but he still tried moving his hand, leg, neck, anything.

Why was nothing moving? Why couldn't he sense anything?

"He's going into shock. Quick, increase the dosage of propofol. Call the doctor!"

These were the last things he was able to hear before darkness overtook his vision.

---

Word Count - 1975
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.
You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.


A/N - Well, things took a darker turn there. It would seem that Alfred himself orchestrated the crash of one Stephen Strange so that he could become Sorcerer Supreme Faster.
Also, it was revealed that Ed and the others have already installed a barrier around the planet that would activate once a nuke was detected and shut down all explosions above a certain temperature and intensity, reducing nukes to just junk with radioactive material inside them.
Next Chapter - Strange's hobo journey to Kamar Taj
Stay tuned!
Thanks for reading!
Toodles!

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 98

Technomancer in MCU

New York, Earth

–Stephen Strange–

"I will be here at all times. If you need me, just press this button here and it will ring an alarm. If you have any specific dietary-"

"I am gonna stop you right there. I am a doctor and I know how things work. Now, why don't you call my doctor and I can talk with him about my treatment." He interrupted the nurse midway, frustrated with the way things had been going.

First of all, they refused to show him his charts, which was absurd and all his requests to get just a basic phone with internet on it were rebuffed. All he got was a call to Christie who should be on his way because his dumbass didn't actually have any one he could put as an emergency contact, in his life.

Wasn't that a sad thought.

A millionaire surgeon with multiple doctorates at the height of his career but nobody he can keep as an emergency contact.

He could hear the nurse breathe through her nose in an effort to stop herself from snapping at him before she just muttered "Fine" and left the room.

He still had not seen his charts yet and he was the best doctor in any hospital he has ever been in.

He had the urge to rub his forehead but he was reminded of his injuries then. Complete and utter paralysis from the neck below. He still had to take deep breaths and think of all the ways that this could be fixed in a bid to stop himself from going into shock again.

He barely managed to avoid another panic attack when he thought of the last sentence that Alfred uttered during their last conversation. It felt that the reason Alfred was telling him everything was because he was going to die. And he probably would have died in the crash. It was probably a miracle that he survived, even with the whole paralysis situation.

But how could Alfred have known it in advance?

Did he orchestrate the whole thing? But what could he have gained from his death?

Sure, he was a great surgeon and while he did like to think of himself as a very important person, even he was not delusional enough to think that Alfred, someone who is the closest to being an overlord because of the digital age they lived in, would take note of.

So why?

The question plagued him for a while before he heard the door open and he looked, only to see Christie crying in the doorway, followed by some pasty ass doctor.

"It's not as bad as it looks?" He joked as a way to lighten the mood but he was pretty sure his attempt at a smile became more of a grimace due to how many drugs he was under.

That just made Christine cry more.

….

..

It had been a couple hours since Christine had arrived in the hospital. For the first half an hour, it was him who was consoling her which was made a little difficult because of his body not responding to his will. Then the next hour was spent going through his charts which were finally made available to them once they realised that there was someone else with him and he was not going to keel over or go into shock again after seeing his condition.

"So, this is it, huh?" He sighed in defeat once they had gone through the whole thign. The damage to his spine and all of his limbs was way too intensive for any kind of modern medicine to properly work with. He would be lucky to move a single toe in his lifetime.

"Don't, Don't say that," Christine sniffed, trying to portray a strong front but failing spectacularly doing so.

"What else is left Christine? I know Modern Medicine and there is nothing in it that could solve my issue…. Whatsoever," He slowed down as he realised something.

Son of a bitch!

He had forgotten about those miracle yellow pills from the Ascendancy. While the normal pills would not be able to do something so drastic as healing entire limbs from scratch or heal his spine without removing the splinters, he was more than sure that the stuff they had revealed to the public was just the tip of the iceberg. There has got to be more advanced medical stuff they had lying around that they were not telling anybody about.

He had to get to them. But how?

A proverbial light lit above him as he looked at Christine, "Do you have your phone with you?"

Christine looked at him, a bit confused but took her phone out of her purse, "Yes, of course. Do you need to call someone?"

He cursed internally once he realised that he would not be able to operate the phone so he instructed Christine on it, "Yes. Open the AlfredGPT website. I have something I need to ask him."

"Ok. But how will you authenticate it?"
"Just open it, Alfred will do the rest."

"Okay."

She opened the website and once the authentication part came up, she pointed the phone at his face. He just hoped that her older model could accurately recognise his face, given all the minor cuts and bruises that now adorned his handsome face.

"Identified, Stephen Strange," The same robotic voice as before confirmed his identity before his chat history opened up. The weird thing was that the second Christine turned the phone towards her, it all went away and came back once the camera was turned back to him.

Alfred truly was tracking everything then, he thought morosely. If it was true and Alfred did have the kind of reach that he was thinking about, it would have been very easy for him to orchestrate the whole accident, especially since he could probably take control over the driving modes of most modern cars, his included.

"Hello Alfred," He muttered whilst thinking of the questions he would like to ask Alfred. He would obviously like to ask him about the big Elephant in the room. If he had actually caused his accident but somewhere in his mind, he did not want an answer to that question. It would open a whole can of worms that he was just not comfortable with.

"Hello Stephen. I'm glad to hear that you survived the accident."

All his reservations went out the window when he heard Alfred mock him about his accident that he himself may have caused.

"You bastard, you ruined my life. How dare you mock me again. I will come after you with everything I've got. I might not get to you but you can be damn sure I will be a pain in the ass to deal with. You motherfu-" Christine threw the phone to the sofa nearby before trying to softly hug him.

"Hey hey hey! I am here for you. Calm down," Christine tried to calm him down from his episode but the mocking words of Alfred continued to ring in his mind, refusing to let go.

He may have said things in his anger but even he knew that they were nothing but empty boasts now. He may have had a chance at things if he had his most prized skills with him but with his body toast, all he had was money and to someone like Alfred, that might as well be worth less than monopoly money.

"What am I going to do, Christine?" He muttered, defeatedly staring at the ceiling. He might have had some hope with the treatment at the Ascendancy but with the way he spoke, there was no way they were going to give him treatment. Treatment that they had not revealed to the world yet. This was clearly going into a very depressing zone so he tried to change the subject.

"So, Christine? What;s going on with the hospital" Is everybody happy that I am finally gone now?"

Christine cried at his statement for some reason. Before he could ask her about it, she put her hand over her mouth and fled the room, crying.

He couldn't even chase after her with his bloody body.

"All thanks to you," He said while looking at the camera in the corner. He was sure he was under surveillance since he was aware of something that nobody else knew. Atleast, nobody in the public knew about Alfred's actions.

"What will you do when I go public, huh? I can go to the government with this information and with the history I have on my acc-"

"What history?" He heard Alfred's voice before he could complete his sentence.

His neck slowly turned to look at the phone that Christine had thrown nearby.

"I thought you were smarter than that, Stephen. I know you are quite aware of the fate that would await you should you try to do something foolish like causing panic and chaos in the society by revealing confidential details about the Ascendancy. That would put you in the sights of both your government and the Ascendancy as well and let me tell you, without any limbs to use, that would be an impossible battle for you to win,"

Stephen looked at the phone as the reality of his situation was shoved in his throat, forcing him to finally accept his helplessness. He didn't even have the will to reply to Alfred's message anymore. He just laid there, looking at the ceiling for what felt like hours.

Even when the nurses came to change the IVs, he just laid there silently, not as if he could move or anything anyway.

"Stephen, Stephen!" The voice of Christine took him out from his daze.

"Wh-What?"

"Look, who is here," The excitement in Christine's voice made him take a confused look at what she was pointing at.

His eyes widened as much as they could when he saw Tony Stark standing in front of the door in a three piece suit holding a fruit basket in one hand and his phone in the other.

"Hello," Tony greeted him with a smirk on his face. He then proceeded to unceremoniously start eating the apples from the fruit basket that was supposed to be for him.

"Do you mind?" Tony had the audacity to ask him once he had already taken a bite out of it.
He just deadpanned at him, having no energy to engage with the manchild. He might have had hope of Stark helping him but he was sure that rejecting his request to perform his arc-reactor removing surgery robbed him of any goodwill he might have had with him, which was non-existent to begin with anyway.

It was not his fault that he didn't take over cases that he was not sure would succeed and doing what was essentially an open heart surgery without any precedent of such a surgery, he elected to reject the case.

Ofcourse, the surgeons in London were equally as proficient and even successful judging from the smug smirk that Tony gave him.

"Alright, I'll bite. What do you want, Stark?" He asked once the silence in the room became a bit too much for him, especially with the disgusting sound of Tony chewing the apple more than necessary becoming a background noise for the room.

Tony looked at his eyes for more than a moment before spitting what was in his mouth along with the apple in his hand, into the nearby dustbin. He then looked at him and said, "Never really liked them. Prefer pretty doctors much more than them."

He then proceeded to pick up Christine's phone from the sofa and sat on it.

"That's actually mine," Christine piped up.

"Oh yeah, I know. I just need it for a bit." He then proceeded to do something to her phone which caused the phone to emit a shrill noise before Tony threw it in the dustbin as well which promptly began smoking as well.

"Welp, I tried. Jarvis?" Tony muttered seemingly to himself.

"Authorities are already on their way, sir. Might I suggest moving Mr.Strange and Ms.Palmer to the Stark Advanced Medical Wing since I have a premonition that the room they are currently in, will soon be inhospitable due to the chemical based fire of the lithium battery in Ms.Palmer's phone."

Tony then slapped his knee and stood up, "Well, you heard the man. Let's go. The room I have in mind is much better than this cell of a room."

Saying so, he left the room whistling, all the while he and Chrsitine looked on with bulging eyes, at the audacity of the man.

Soon after Tony left, the room was flooded by nurses who immediately wheeled him out of his room and then, to his alarm, out of the hospital as well, despite him not agreeing to anything.

"Wait, where are you taking me?"
"Doctor's orders, Stark Medical Wing for your next treatment. Get comfortable, we will be there in about two hours. I'm told that Ms.Palmer will be joining us there as well."

Goddammit Stark!

---

Word Count - 2214

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 99

Technomancer in MCU

New York, Earth

–Tony Stark–

"Who could have expected there to be a country in Africa with this level of tech with them," Tony said to Bruce as he hustled back and forth between the lab in Stark Tower. Tony's personal lab and not the one that was given to them by Alfred as part of the building's reconstruction.

"Honestly, Tony, Why did you promise them an upgrade in shield technology? Even though you know that there's is the most advanced one on the planet anyway. There is no merit in upgrading something for them. We should instead devise new methods of defense." Bruce said while he continued to work on the calculations for the gamma fallout from the shield.

"And that's what we are doing, Bruce. Look, it might not be clear in the first attempt but I have a fantastic plan for a planetary defense system that will also act as a deterrent in case of war between countries."

Tony then dragged Bruce's chair who promptly gave out a defeated sigh and allowed himself to be dragged by Tony who had been acting like a kid on a sugar high ever since he had gotten some idea about barrier enhancement and had dragged him out of his personal research and tasked him on it.

In fairness, Tony was paying him a very handsome salary so Bruce figured the least he could do was help Tony with some of his projects for a little bit before going back to his own research but no.

Apparently, what Tony wanted to do was create a projection shield. Something that even Alfred struggled with, in his early days, if the logs are anything to go by. Then, midway through, he had another idea that had him prancing around for days. Bruce had asked about it but Tony refused to tell anyone about it until today, it would seem.

"Look Look look, I finally figured out the expansion to energy ratio," Tony said while showing him something that he had never thought he would see for at least another decade.

A modular full-scale planetary shield capable of stopping asteroids, lasers, space debris, and spaceships.

"Tony, if these numbers are correct then,"

"Yeah, even the strongest of the nukes won't be able to breach the barriers. In fact, I have designed them for much higher workloads."

"I can see that. If you are able to build this, even a thousand nukes a day would not add much to the energy consumption of the shields. Theoretically, we could last months without any backup even against an advanced fleet as long as this barrier is active."

"Yup!" Tony couldn't stop grinning. This was his most important achievement since he convinced Pepper to become CEO and his girlfriend at the same time.

"...You said something about it also acting as a deterrent for countries who go to war? How are you going to do that?" Bruce asked as he cleaned his glasses.

Tony's smile turned into a smug smirk as he raised his finger, "Ah, that. Let me introduce you to my master plan for world peace. At least, peace for major countries." Tony mumbled the last part.

He then placed his hand on the hologram table, which opened up a list of options in front of him. He then went through a bunch of procedures and authenticated himself which opened a file that had to be decrypted using a secure code that only Tony knew about.

'So much secrecy, even in this lab where most of the world wouldn't be able to reach even if they knew about it all,' Bruce thought to himself after seeing all the process Tony went through.

"Tada!" Tony said after showing Bruce nearly the same shield model as before. Bruce deadpanned at Tony whose smirk slowly widened before he tapped the rotating globe in front of them slowly.

As if a string had been cut, the outer structure of the shield fell apart, revealing the underneath. The shield projectors could be seen located across the planet as opposed to a single massive planetary shield generator that could power a barrier for the planet for years.

"What's this, Tony?" Bruce asked, astonished at the figures he was seeing. If he was correct and from a cursory glance, the math did check out, Tony would be able to create a system that could turn the planet into an unbreachable fortress, all with its own sun or at least the barrier simulating sunlight so that the plant life on the planet doesn't die if their attackers decide to block out sunlight for the whole planet, slowly starving them.

"It is a modular system. Every major nation on the planet will get one shield generation system that they themselves will be responsible for maintaining. The generators themselves will act as deterrents because if somebody managed to harm even one of them, the entire system would fall apart."

"But don't you think that's a bit dangerous given that a small terrorist group could take out any one of the generators and leave the entire planet defenseless?"

Tony leveled a deadpanned look at Bruce, "Please, like Alfred and Ed would ever leave the planet defenseless."

"That is not the point and you know it."

"Fine, we will make extras and give them to smaller countries too. But this is the best-case scenario I could come up with because the way I see it, even if Alfred accelerated it, planetary unification would take at least a couple more decades and I don't think we have that much time on our hands. This would give us the breathing room that we need."

"And does KIng T'Chaka know about it?" Bruce asked Tony, concerned about the implications of such a project that a country would have to bear, especially one already as controversial as Wakanda itself.

"..."

When Tony didn't reply immediately, Bruce's concerns grew manifold.

"Tony, we don't want Wakanda on our asses, hunting us because we compromised the shield system that is the only thing hiding them from the rest of the world. The world that would not hesitate to tear them apart and distribute the spoils between themselves should it come to that."

Tony scoffed, "I know that. It is nothing like that. If anything, their shields will actually be enforced with this mode. It's just that-"

"I hate to interrupt such a spirited discussion, Mr.Stark but I have a Case 16 alert here."

His face immediately turned into one of intense focus as Jarvis projected a case report in front of them.

"What is a case 16 alert?"

"Jarvis?"

"A case 16 alert is one that Mr.Stark created once he had removed the shrapnel in his chest. The 16 alludes to the number of pieces that were stuck in his chest because of the grenade explosion that happened in Afghanistan in 2008. A case 16 alert means that someone who was on the list has gone through something major that can be of interest to Mr.Stark"

"Oh, what happened then?"

He chose to speak up at the same moment, "Nothing, just the most talented neurosurgeon of New York just went through a car accident and had his entire body paralyzed. Let's go, Bruce, we have a patient to visit."

"Oh, so we are going to help him?" Bruce asked as he donned his jacket. Tony had the urge to scoff at that. Like they could do anything about it. The guy had shrapnel all over his spine and even if they could remove the shrapnel, there was nothing he had that could heal his entire neurological structure just like that. Even the concentrated CHI crystal that Alfred gave him in case of emergency would not help. It would probably take years of exposure to CHI and therapy for Strange to even gain some modicum of mobility. Sadly, he would probably be bed-bound for the rest of his life if all he had was modern medicine. What he needed was Advanced Medicine and he was going to offer that to him, that.

Partly as a way of petty revenge after he himself was snubbed by him when Strange was approached for his heart surgery and partly because he felt sorry for the guy. At the top of his career and then something like this happens.

"Sir, I have a slightly disturbing discovery as well that could change things," Jarvis said just as they were about to leave the lab.

"What is it, Jarvis?" He asked Jarvis who instead of answering, promptly opened up a holo screen right in front of him. Honestly, installing those holo projectors in every single space that he worked in was a great investment, even if he had to tear them down every couple of months because he made huge strides in that field and just could not bear to use the old outdated models.

"Sir, I did some digging and it would seem that from the moment Dr.Strange left the hospital to the moment he was in the accident, he was on the phone."

Tony groaned. Oh, no. This was just criminal.

"But he was not talking to a person. He was using AlfredGPT."

What?

He and Bruce both looked at each other dumbfounded. Who uses that chatbot while driving? And for what?

"Jarvis, do we have the transcripts?" He asked Jarvis even though he knew the answer to that question.

"Unfortunately, no sir. The last time I tried, as you had instructed, to get access to AlfredGPT's servers, I was locked in my own server space for about 24 hours before you came and rescued me."

He winced as Jarvis narrated that incident. It had been a bad day without Jarvis there to automate most parts of his life. As it had turned out, Alfred had simply flipped the switch and forced Jarvis back into his servers and cut off his ability to use the internet or communicate at all. He had inspected the code later on and found out that Alfred was not completely off the hinge as he could see that Alfred had allowed Jarvis the opportunity to relearn the code necessary to communicate and eventually, rescue himself.

He began driving or rather kept his hand on the steering for appearances because he was not allowed to drive by himself as Jarvis had installed specialised remote driving systems in all of his cars for safety purposes. Something he could not override because Jarvis had Pepper behind him and he would not be able to say No to her.

"So, what are we gonna do?" Bruce asked him even as he continued to work on his personal research project. He still did not know what it was though. Just that it would vastly enhance Bruce's power. He had been of the opinion that Bruce didn't want the power he had now but then Bruce told him about all the dangers outside that could harm the planet and swallowing his concerns about his powers was the least he could do for the planet.

He had been in no position to tell him no so he continued to research on the topic.

"We are going to take Strange to the Stark advanced medicine wing and wing it from there."

"Isn't this person rich? Shouldn't he have the best possible medical care by now?"

"Yes, but the thing is his money will not be able to buy him the best possible medicine because we don't sell it yet."

Bruce looked up at him from the research at that statement, "Please don't tell me we are going to give him the treatment Alfred warned us never to give anyone without his express permission."

Tony lowered his sunglasses and looked at Bruce, "You Tell me."

"Tony," Bruce groaned while rubbing his face.

He laughed while pressing the accelerator but his face fell when he realised that it didn't work and the car was still being driven by Jarvis who wouldn't listen to his requests to increase the speed, at all.

For God's sakes, they were driving at Grandma speeds, not Stark speeds!


Word Count - 2038
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 100

Technomancer in MCU

–Stephen Strange–

A vast difference from his previous situation, he was now capable of moving his body and doing his business by simply willing it. He still couldn't believe that Stark used that ridiculously advanced armour of his as a prosthetic suit for him. He still couldn't believe that he was effectively wearing one of the most advanced weapons that existed in the history of humanity.

What was also different was simply the level of tech that Stark had in the Advanced Medical Wing. It was technically all very experimental and prototype level but he could find no flaws in the machinery despite wanting it to have flaws. He could see software that ran faster and smoother than anything he had ever seen in the industry.

"Running smooth enough for you, Strange?" Stark said as he looked at some hologram that depicted ridiculously accurate real-time statistics about his body. He could identify some of them but most of them looked alien even to him. As it turned out, Stark was ahead of the entire planet even in the field of Medicine.

Wasn't that a huge shocker? He knew that Stark Industries as a whole was invested in every single field imaginable and was also ahead of the curve in every field but he had expected their most sizable leads to be in the tech sector, energy sector, or the infamous weapons division but medical sector?

He supposed even medical tech was technically still technology and as far as he knew, Tony Stark's expertise lay in every field of technology.

"Yes, more than smooth enough, Stark. It's like it knows what I want it to do before I even consciously think about it," He said even as he moved his limbs in wonder. Well, he couldn't exactly see them but the movement of the armour told him the same thing. It honestly clung to his skin like a second skin. It was that touch intuitive.

"Well, of course, it is smooth. You have J in there with you helping you every step of the way. Everything is running smoothly there, J?" Stark said even as he continued to work on something on the hologram in front of them.

He was startled to hear a sound coming out of the suit he was wearing. "Yes, sir. All parameters are at optimal condition. Subject Strange has been sufficiently prepped for the procedure."

Procedure? What procedure?

Before he could flail about in panic about an unauthorised procedure that they were about to perform on him, his control over the suit stopped and despite his best wishes, his body was turned around and brought to stand side by side with Stark. Turning his head with difficulty, he gritted out the words.

"What is going on, Stark? Is this revenge for rejecting your surgery because if it is, it is petty and you know it."

Stark had the audacity to smirk at him and point towards the screen in front of them, "Just look and you'll understand,"

And understand he did.

The process was simple yet extremely fascinating even to his structural mind because what he was witnessing was nothing short of magical, at least to him. Complete regeneration of limbs, bringing back dead brain matter to life as long as the patient's death didn't exceed 5 minutes, partial nervous system healing, and organ regrowth. These were only some of the benefits of the elixir he was about to receive. His entire adult life that he spent studying medicine revolted at the thought of receiving something that might as well be called magic in this day and age but the part of him that was absolutely in despair after being essentially crippled practically sang in joy after receiving the news that he might just get healed.

"Just so you are clear, this is highly experimental and we will take no responsibility in case of any side effects. You will sign a waiver before we do anything but let me just say this, this is the only chance you will get." Stark said, finally looking him in the eye and telling him.

All he could do was nod.

"Very well, Bruce, prep the machines," Stark said before he found himself being escorted to someplace else by the suit of armour he was wearing. It was like he was a puppet being controlled by someone and that someone was Jarvis, Tony Stark's personal AI. People really didn't know half the shit Stark was up to otherwise he would have long been either imprisoned or dead because there was no way he had the clearance to own an unregulated AI. That was just doomsday fuel.

–Tony Stark–

"Bruce, what does this tell you?" He asked Bruce as they looked at what Jarvis had written using the neural impulses that Stephen gave off when he was asked about his discussion with Alfred.

The things he had read about were enough for him to ask Jarvis to double and triple-check everything before coming back to him because if what he was reading was true, America had long since lost its ability to defend itself from its enemies.

Now, he would not go so far as to call himself a nationalist or a hardcore Patriot but he liked his country. All his favourite people, his money, his favourite celebrities, everybody lived here. He had enough favoritism about the country that even after shutting down the weapons division, he acted as a freelance consultant for the U.S. military in various capacities. Security expert for the NSA, Tech consultant for the Air Force and Army, and so on and so forth.

That was why he was intimately aware of the fact that despite making huge strides in practically every possible field of war, the biggest option for his country was a single weapon.

Nukes.

Despite knowing that they had enough of a technological leap ahead of their rivals, the top brass of the American Military still relied on their trusty nukes because according to them, Nukes were the only thing that continued to guarantee their freedom. The rest of the stuff helped, of course, but to have a true hegemony over the world, America undoubtedly relied on the monopoly of the dollar, which was only possible because of the sheer military firepower they had on hand, a major part of which was Nuclear Weaponry.

Finding out that Alfred had disabled every single nuke in the first couple of years of his existence was disheartening. Finding out that they had built and perfected the barrier that they had found in the conceptual stages of barriers in the Lab given to them was downright terrifying.

It meant that even if somebody built a very crude Nuclear weapon, one that would detonate on the spot and not at the target itself, the barrier around the planet would activate and deny the weapon its explosion, thereby completely nullifying it. He still could not believe how they quantified and disabled something as common as "explosions". It was equal parts baffling and terrifying.

Even as he read the entirety of the information that was practically downloaded from Strange's mind, he was more baffled at the last part of the conversation.

Why talk with Strange at all? Having had the opportunity to work with Alfred on a deeper level, he was quite aware that most of AlfredGPT's operations were performed by an advanced VI that Alfred had built by himself almost negligently. It was very rare when Alfred himself would communicate with someone personally. It was even rarer for him to talk to someone and then tell them very private details surrounding their birth and the actions they had taken since then.

If word of what Alfred had done ever got out, there would be mass panic and anarchy on the streets of America. He could understand killing someone to silence them or to stop them from disseminating such information but if Alfred wanted to do so from the beginning, why tell Strange in the first place? It was not as if he needed a reason to have Strange killed if he wanted to. All but one of the cars in Strange's garage didn't have tech in it that Alfred could have hacked.

He had hacked into the other car that was crashed as well and he could see that despite there being no signs of tampering whatsoever, the car had enough tech in it to facilitate remote driving by an AI. It meant that there was a decent chance that Alfred initiated and orchestrated everything which raised huge alarm bells in his mind.

Thinking it through, he looked towards the ceiling, "Alfred, you there?"

Bruce looked up at him from his screen when he called for Alfred. After a while, seeing that there was no reply, Bruce asked the other AI in the room, "Jarvis?"

"Alfred has not been seen in Stark Industries Systems for a while now. Do you want me to contact him?" Jarvis supplied helpfully.

Bruce rapidly shook his head no because he was kinda spooked by the new stuff that was revealed and to be honest, he himself was not exactly thrilled with the idea of talking to Alfred at this stage either because he was kinda surprised with how everything had gone as well.

"Alright, we'll talk directly with Ed the first thing after this procedure is done, deal?" He told Bruce who looked visibly relieved after hearing that. Bruce was someone who's always had difficulty trusting people and Alfred was one of the few he thought he could trust but after reading this, he was starting to second judge his choices.

"Now let's get this over with. Today has been a rather exhausting day."

Let's hope that the miracle drug that Alfred provided works on Strange because if it didn't, he would have to go straight to Ed because he was sure as hell not allowing Alfred to nearly kill someone and not have him compensate them.

"Strange, are you ready?"

"Yes! Just do it!"

He and Bruce both looked at each other before he nodded lightly, prompting Bruce to keep his entire palm on the screen in front of them.

He then slowly began to turn it in a clockwise direction, increasing the energy levels that Strange was being bombarded with.

See, they had found out that the miracle elixir that Alfred touted as the "best medical treatment they had ever discovered" was fine and dandy when ingested in liquid form but when it was turned into gas and sprayed directly into a chamber which was then hit with radiation he had isolated from the small sample of Wakanda Vibranium he had gotten from the king, it amplified the effects of the miracle elixir.

He was sure Alfred knew it as well but disrupting the medical industry and destroying the medical industry were two different things.

As Bruce's palm kept rotating, Strange began screaming from inside the room. Both of them were calm even then because he was monitoring Strange's vitals from the other screen.

Everything was within limits even though Strange continued to scream raw due to the sheer pain he must be experiencing due to his nerve damage. They were getting healed and then burned at the same time. He just hoped that Strange came out of it healed, at least partially because even he was not sure if it could completely heal Strange.

At the very least, it should afford him the dignity of being able to move all by himself, even if he would not be able to be a surgeon after everything.

He just hoped that Alfred did not come back to finish the job somehow but the entire thing didn't make even an iota of sense to him.

If everything else failed, he could just take the SpaceDucky for a swim and go directly to the shiny Moon Base they had kept hidden from him all this while. It has always been a dream of his and with the level of tech he had incorporated into SpaceDucky, he could probably reach halfway to Mars before he could run into any serious trouble.

---

Word Count - 2043
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.



A/N - Woohoo! 100th chapter (Even though, counting the interludes, it's been almost 116 chapters)
I never thought I could reach this milestone. Although I did go through a couple of bumps in the way, I will see this fanfic finished.
Wish me luck.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 101

Technomancer in MCU

Stark Advanced Medicine Wing, Upstate New York

–Stephen Strange–

Desperation truly was a bad thing, wasn't it, he thought to himself while looking at his trembling hands. Hands that refused to steady themselves no matter how hard he tried.

And to think he had thought that Stark would have been able to completely heal him. Instead, all he had done was give him a few months of movement wherein he could use his body adequately instead of the peak condition he had expected it to be.

Now, all he had were a couple of months before his entire body's cellular structure began breaking down and he ceased to exist.

He didn't blame Stark, of course not. He couldn't have known that something like this could happen. He was partly to blame as well because he just jumped on the first opportunity to get himself healed and he never stopped to think about any side effects that could happen.

As it turned out, the treatment worked. In fact, it worked a bit too well and now he was some sort of half-baked superhuman.

During the painful procedure, his cells were bombarded with so much energy that they evolved, for lack of a better term. The radiation nearly killed all of his cells but they were brought back from their damaged state by the gas that Stark had pumped into his body. The cycle continued until they ran out of gas and radiation, resulting in his current form.

Thick purple veins crisscrossed his entire body, except his neck, as his arms trembled from the strain of even holding a knife or opening a door properly. It was only a matter of weeks before his legs began exhibiting the same symptoms.

Stark was extremely apologetic and had even offered him a big check for his troubles but his pride refused to allow him to get help from someone, especially after he had already signed that waiver after being told about the risks of the procedure. At Least they were able to get data for their procedure and would not subject anyone else to what he had to go through, Strange bitterly mused to himself.

Now, there he was, in Kathmandu, Nepal, searching for a miracle, once again. Honestly, he was just going through the motions at this point.

He had sold every single thing he ever owned, except the watch on his hand that was a gift from Christine. He had exhausted every avenue of treatment.

In the beginning, he held hope that something would happen but now? Now he just wanted it to end so that he could finally rest. He was sick of it all yet..yet Hope was a powerful and insidious thing.

Even the tiniest amount of hope can make a man move mountains and that is exactly what he was doing.

He had found a complete paraplegic playing basketball at a Y in New York and he was the one who had directed him to Kathmandu. The case of Jonathan Pangborn was a very bizarre case because he himself had diagnosed his case to be inoperable. Pangborn was rendered paraplegic after an accident at the factory he worked at. He rejected Pangborn's case because while surgery could have given him a chance at normal life, the chances of him dying on his table were far higher and he had not wanted a blotch on his otherwise perfect record so, he sent Pangborn away, quite rudely, he could recall.

And then, as he was hobbling down the streets, he found Pangborn, whole and healthy, playing basketball with kids a decade younger than himself. Astonished, he found himself talking to Pangborn who gave him the story of Kamar Taj and how it healed his mind, and through that, he healed his body.

It sounded very much like tantric voodoo to him but he had exhausted all his options anyway, what was one more? Even if it did turn out to be a scam, Kathmandu seemed like a nice place to die quietly.

No air pollution, light pollution, no traffic blocks and most of all, no hope to get after this. Judging from the rate at which his twitching was increasing, he had one, maybe two weeks left before his entire body just became a twitching mass. A scenario he did not want to experience so he would probably end himself before that happened.

Still, it had been over three days he had been here and after asking anybody who would listen, he was still nowhere closer to finding Kamar Taj than before. He had even run out of all of his money and had to vacate his cheap lodge. He was currently homeless, destitute, sick, and overall, completely helpless.

And yet, he trudged on. Without money, he relied on the generosity of the local monks and temples who graciously provided him with food and water. Oftentimes, he was allowed to take baths in the communal bathrooms. He was given clothing, withered as it may be. In return, all he had to do was clean some places. He didn't have to do even that as the monks refused to accept it but even if he didn't have anything else to his name, he still had some shred of pride left in him.

'Even after all this, I am still proud of something? What is that?' Strange thought to himself as he leaned on the broom, trying to take a respite from all the pain his body was going through.

…

..

It had been almost 2 weeks since he had first landed in Kathmandu and now his body would shoot up sharp waves of pain once he moved anything, even breathing was painful these days. Still, after taking a moment to breathe, he continued to sweep the temple even as the broom refused to take the same path his eyes mapped for it. More often than not, he ended up sweeping the dust back into the temple with his actions but the monks understood. They had seen his injuries and were very sympathetic. Both of the parties still did not understand a lick of each other's languages yet empathy was something that transcended the barrier of language.

He could not overstate how grateful he was for the monks of Kathmandu. Without them, he would not have survived, period. Let alone, survive long enough to actually reach Kamar Taj.

…

..

It had been almost three weeks since he had reached Kathmandu and at this point, he had mostly given up on his search for Kamar Taj. He had no idea how Jonathan had done it but was pretty sure that he was not going to be able to heal himself now. Now, all he did for the day was sweep as much as he could and then lay down on the futon that was given to him in the dorms that the Monks used. His condition had gotten worse as the purple veins across his body had enlarged and now covered almost the entirety of his lower body. He had lost his appetite to eat food. Most of the time, he only drank juice and water. His hair had fallen out and his limbs had lost all muscle mass.

All standard signs of cancer. Something that was easy to diagnose but impossible to cure. He sighed and was about to get up to try to get some activity in since exhausting himself physically was one of the few things that made him go to sleep, somebody barged into his room.

It was Rajan. He was the teenage son of the owners of the dorm he was staying at. They had given up their dorm to be used as a permanent lodging for the monks and were overall just wonderful people, more than happy to accommodate him and his special needs. He felt terrible living on their generosity but at this point, he had no pride left in him to care enough. Besides, he was going to die soon enough anyway so no point in holding on to any negative feelings.

He just hoped that little Rajan never had to see his death. So, he had decided to finish it tomorrow by jumping off a cliff he had earmarked for the same.

"Uncle!" Rajan shouted, jumping for joy for some reason.

"Y-Yes?" He coughed out.

"I found it. I found Kamartaj" Rajan shouted at the top of his lungs.

His breathing paused as he contemplated what Rajan had said for a moment but then scoffed internally at the tiny amount of hope that instantly returned based on the unfounded ramblings of a kid.

Truly, Hope was an insidious thing.

Still, that was no reason to be rude to a boy who had been nothing but kind to him for all his stay here. So, he smiled, "Where did you find it?"

"Oh, it was easy. I just asked around every day and today, a person told me the address. Come, I'll take you there." Rajan chattered excitedly, trying to pull him out of his futon.

"No, No not today. We'll go there tomorrow, OK?" He hoped that he sounded convincing enough.

"Okay!" Rajan said and skipped out of the room, his joyful exuberance bringing a rare genuine smile to his face.

"You are leaving, aren't you?" He was surprised to hear someone speak before he could see them. Upon seeing who it was, he relaxed though.

"So, it's you. Finally deigned me enough to speak with me?" Strange quipped back.

It was Sanjay, one of the few Monks who could speak English well enough. Despite that, he had refused to speak or interact with him, avoiding him like the plague. It had hurt in the beginning but now it was just a dull ache.

"You are leaving, aren't you?" Sanjay just repeated the same thing.

He considered telling him off but honestly, after weeks of not being able to speak English with someone, he was kinda bored and would appreciate a little bit of company. So, he replied.

"Yes, I am leaving right now,"

"I see. May the gods guide you to the place you need to go."

He scoffed, "Yeah. Well, if they had guided me to the correct place the first time, we wouldn't be in this mess, now would we, Sanjay?" He said as he rolled back his futon and tried to tidy up his room.

"Sanjay?" When he didn't receive any reply, he looked back, only to see nobody standing there. He sighed, too tired to even call for him once more time.

So, he took his sticks and hobbled out of the dorm and towards the cliff that was a little far away. He purposely chose the long road, taking him through the hustle and bustle of the city before finally arriving at the cliff he had chosen to be his end.

Throwing his sticks back, he took a couple of steps forward then took multiple ones back. Breathing heavily, he tried to do it once more but he just didn't have the courage to do it.

"ARGH! WHY?!!" He shouted to the mountains in frustration, knowing that he wouldn't receive an answer.

Upon receiving no answers, he just fell down and lay on the grass, trying to silence his mind. Upon not receiving any respite and not having the balls to do it, he turned back to get his makeshift walking sticks when he heard a voice.

"Given up so soon, Strange?"

Word Count - 1931
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.


A/N - The next one will be the last one of Strange, I promise.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 102

Technomancer in MCU

-Previously-

Upon not receiving any respite and not having the balls to do it, he turned back to get his makeshift walking sticks when he heard a voice.

"Given up so soon, Strange?"

Unknown Cliff, Kathmandu

–Stephen Strange–

It was that voice. The same voice that had ruined his life. The voice that had turned him from a wealthy, successful doctor to a bankrupt cripple who had to resort to begging to eat and sleep.

That same accursed voice that was mocking him for his failure at ending his life. The reason for him ending his life was standing behind him and he was seething with rage. He saw red for just a moment. He wanted not to kill Alfred but to slowly destroy all of what made him him. His ambitions. His goals. His loved ones. His strength that he was so proud. Only when Alfred would be left languishing in a small cramped computer with no connection to anyone despite knowing that there was nobody left that he loved, only then he would have been satisfied.

He would….do what?

Nothing. He could do nothing.

In a split second, he calmed down as he realised the situation he was in. He was a cripple with no money, no resources, and nobody that would care that he was gone. He was literally a nobody.

How could a mere nobody even think of hurting someone as almighty as Alfred? Someone who was powerful enough to literally disarm the world without the said world even being aware of it.

No. All he could do right now was go back to the dorm he was staying at and beg them to take him back in. The nice couple probably would do so of their own volition. He didn't think he was strong enough right now to take his own life but maybe, a couple of days later, he would try again after gathering his courage.

So, instead of turning around and trying to swing his sticks at someone who could tank missiles without flinching, he chose to not humiliate himself anymore and walk away from the situation peacefully.

As soon as he made the decision to do so, it felt as if there was an invisible load on his shoulders that was lightened immensely. It felt like he didn't even need the sticks anymore despite his glaring physical disability. Even as he felt the purple veins expand all over his body, he didn't feel any pain. The only respite from the burdening mentality he had from before.

"Good," For some reason, he could hear the smile in that single word before his entire world was consumed by darkness. The last thing he could feel before his head would have hit the ground was a soothing warmness on his back.

–Alfred (Partition)--

Guess it was worth it to test him this heavily. No doubt he will resent him for a long period of time but it was a small price to pay to be absolutely sure of the person who was about to become the leader of the second strongest organisation on the planet.

Stark would need an explanation as well regarding this whole mess but he was pretty sure that the person they would be asking would most probably not be him but Ed. After all, he was someone who was a digital lifeform that could go Rogue at any possible moment, at least that was what his current perception must be in the minds of Stark and Banner. After all, they did spend an extended amount of time in Wakanda chauffeured around by N'Jadaka who was quite aware of his stance when it came to humans and their short lives.

Covering Strange's body with a CHI barrier to help heal the more raw injuries caused by the flawed procedure that was done on him. Well, calling it flawed would be doing Stark and Banner's genius a disservice.

What they had discovered was actually genius. A way to permanently enhance someone to their physical peak, not unlike what Erskine did to Rogers, the only difference being that Erskine was someone who was supplied with superhuman DNA by the Ancient One. Stark and Banner only had vanilla human DNA, their own intellect, and some scattered notes that he had intentionally left in the logs of the Lab he had given to Stark.

The process would involve dumping a concentrated CHI solution into the surroundings of a person and then rapidly bombarding that area with concentrated radiation that Vibranium naturally gives off. This radiation had been documented extensively by Wakandans but it was a fairly recent discovery for them so they were unable to examine the long-term effects of it on humans.

Stark, on the other hand, was quite aware of the super soldier creation process, thanks to yours truly, so he was able to instantly gather that the radiation was passively helping Wakandans evolve. It was why normal sickness didn't even faze Wakandans, even after getting out of their climate, environment-controlled bubble that was their shields. Otherwise, Wakandans who only came out of that bubble for the first time would have swiftly found their immune systems overrun with a variety of new bacteria and viruses that keep popping out of nowhere in the rest of the world. It was not as if they could create a shot for everything. They naturally had a much better immune response, allowing them to shrug off most diseases that would, over time, kill people for whom it was their first exposure.

Stark exploited that gap of knowledge and convinced T'Chaka to take home with him a sizable amount of that radiation. Only he underestimated how much he would actually need for the procedure to be successful.

So, now, Strange was only halfway a super soldier. His own body was becoming too heavy for his systems to sustain and with the vibranium radiation having seeped into his cells, it was only a matter of time before the cells ran out of energy and matter to consume and exploded, leaving behind naught but ash of Strange.

Not that he would ever let that happen. The Ancient One would probably come out of her retirement and kick his ass if that ever happened. He would heal Strange in due time.

"Sorcerer Supreme," One of the Masters who witnessed his arrival bowed once he crossed the wards that covered Kamar Taj. He could feel his curiosity upon seeing Strange wrapped up in a bubble of CHI behind him but wisely kept his mouth shut and left after greeting him.

It was weird. Some of these people were clamoring for his deposement but after seeing his prowess firsthand, they were suddenly fine with it. At Least that's what it looked like on the surface but who knows what brewed underneath.

Oh, well, it was all good for him since being unseated from his position because of Strange would only give Strange's position more legitimacy and help him stabilise his position that much faster because they were running out of time.

He was pretty sure that Thanos was aware of their existence and despite him personally destroying any spy equipment that entered Earth's airspace, word of mouth of him and Ascendancy's capabilities must have surely reached Thanos' intelligence network and he would come for them.

Make no mistake, them being in his way would make no change in Thanos' agenda. He believes himself inevitable and would prepare to go through any opposition in a swift manner before performing the Snap. He was probably just waiting for Odin to kick the bucket because despite him being as old as he was, he was surprisingly more powerful than he had expected. Even more so than their estimates.

Just thinking about the future makes his head hurt and he was not even the main partition, he thought to himself as he placed Strange's body on a bed he had conjured for him in one of the trainee living rooms.

He then swiftly congealed the CHI into a single ball and placed it right above Strange's heart. Casting a spell, he watched on as the small ball of CHI slowly dripped liquid CHI right above Strange's heart where the affected cells were gobbling it up, slowly healing Strange's body from the purple cell affliction.

Man, Bast truly was a cruel Goddess. Casting a curse on the vibranium, disallowing anyone aside from people born in Wakanda or at least having a single parent born in Wakanda, to use the Vibranium and the Heart-Shaped Herb to enhance themselves and become super humans.

He had no feasible way of removing that curse without attracting her attention and more importantly, her wrath so he kept the curse as is and focused on healing the immediate damage done.

Strange should be more than capable of removing that curse himself once he becomes a competent enough Sorcerer anyway. All he had to do was make sure he did so in an accelerated time frame because the window they had this time was even smaller than the one Ed knew about.

Meanwhile back on Asgard

–Ed–

Watching this drama was entertaining at first but it swiftly turned into a string of alarming questions for himself.

Why was Odin shrouded in Odin Force?

Why was Jane's arm covered in a Dark Reddish mist that was capable of fighting with the Odin Force on equal grounds?

What was Odin doing when they came here?

Why would he remain in such a compromising position when we were there in the palace, arguably the strongest people on Asgard aside from Odin himself?

He didn't get the answers he was looking for because, under the hawkish gaze of Eir, Odin was taken out of the now ruined chambers by Alfred's spiderbots that continued to bathe Odin in enough CHI to make a normal human being explode multiple times over.

"Can someone please explain to me what is happening?" Eir said even as she continued to cast multiple diagnostic spells on Odin, on top of the ones that Alfred had already cast for everyone to see.

Frigga's resigned sigh was heard by everyone as she replied," Eir, Odin is being given concentrated life force, that's it. No advanced treatment is being offered to him here aside from helping his body heal itself. With the amount of energy he is receiving, his body will swiftly heal the minor damage due to the spell backlash and he will be conscious in no time."

"Yeah, we have some questions. About Jane and himself," Alfred said as he looked at the other patient they were carrying with them to another healing chamber that was on the other side of the palace. Jane was not being bombarded with anything close to Odin's level of CHI but there were still diagnostic spells around her cast by Alfred as Thor fussed over her prone form.

"What is happening, Alfred?" He communicated with Alfred using Toby as a common link between them, allowing him in their conversation as well.

"Something is wrong with the Aether, Ed. You told me that Jane would get the Aether which would have a mind of its own due to the corruption of the Dark Elves. Unfortunately, what I am sensing is completely different. Jane somehow has Odin Force in her body,"

He missed a step as he heard that, barely stopping himself from tripping.

"Well, isn't that normal? I could feel the amount of energy that the old man was throwing around and with the way she was bleeding, huge amounts of energy must have been left in her body." Toby said even as they walked together with Frigga and Eir.

"No, it is not Odin's energy. I would have been able to identify it easily. It is something much older and that energy is actually stopping the Aether from taking control over Jane's entire body. It is mainly isolated to only her arm and a part of her chest right now and that is due to the golden energy acting as a shield for the rest of her body. Also, it is doing something with the CHI I am giving it."

What?

His sentiments were mirrored by Toby as well, "What?"

"The Golden energy is slowly, but surely, consuming the excess CHI and converting Jane's human body into that of an Asgardian and not just any Asgardian. An Asgardian of royal lineage. Jane Foster is about to become a whole lot stronger than before."

He kept his shock well hidden at the news.

Well, this provided them with a very unique opportunity. He could probably allow Odin to extract Aether and with Jane being Asgardian this time, the process could probably allow her to live but where was the fun in that?

Allowing Jane to harness the power of the Aether, one of the Six Infinity Stones, while removing the corruption on it would increase their chances in the final fight massively.

Thinking things through, he hurriedly contacted Alfred.

"Alfred, we have to-"

"Yeah, I know. Jane will have to be trained at Kamar Taj and coincidentally, she will have Strange for company as well. The chances of us winning just increased, albeit marginally," Alfred communicated back as they finally reached the other healing chambers of the palace

He internally sighed in relief at that news.

They needed all the help they were going to get and by the time Thanos reached Earth, Jane, with the right training, would probably have reached A-rank by ease and with enough luck, maybe even pseudo-S-rank.

This trip was turning out to be more fruitful than he had imagined.

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Word Count - 2291
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