Technomancer in MCU #102 (Patreon)

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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.

Word Count - 2291