Technomancer in MCU #108 (Patreon)

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Chapter 108

Technomancer in MCU

Stark Tower, New York, Earth

–Tony–

“Hey Tony, are you looking at this?” He poked his head out of his workstation as he heard Bruce speak something with a shocked voice.

“Jarvis?” He spoke up as soon as he opened his eyes from the short power nap he was taking. It must be nice, to have the option to keep sleep as optional. Although, now that he thought about it, the tradeoffs were really not worth it. Bruce’s powers had that one upside that helped him in scientific research and a dozen downsides that turned his life upside down, robbing him of any stability, thus stopping him from conducting any worthwhile research.

“Yes, sir. Just 78 minutes ago, the custom satellite that Sir had launched a couple of months back sensed some unusual activity in the North Pole. Due to the weather, the satellite was unable to pinpoint anything other than clear signs of human movement. Huge blocks of mass are being moved from their place in the poles, sir. Multiple Bogies are en route for a better view, Sir.” Jarvis kindly explained as a hologram popped up in front of him, showing rough outlines of the activity being carried out deep in the North Pole.

The astonishing thing was that it looked like they were carrying out construction activities of some sort and the people who could do that could be counted on one finger. Hell, he was not even sure he was capable of undertaking that task under those conditions. Building another Stark Tower in less than six months? Sure. But doing anything in those conditions was not possible for any organisation he knew of, except the Ascendancy, Atlantis, and maybe, Wakanda.

He then whirled to Bruce, “Have you confirmed it with the Wakandans?”

“I have taken the liberty to converse with their budding AI, Griot and according to her latest updates, there has been no scheduled large-scale activity outside their continent, let alone on the Poles. She has also assured me that Wakanda is currently incapable of doing anything of that level in those conditions. She has also conveyed our concerns to the Second Prince as well as the King and will get back to us as soon as possible,” Jarvis chimed in between.

Well, that was helpful but not to them. 

Well, he had an idea of how to better tackle the situation. It had been a while since he had gone out of the Tower as well so this presented a good opportunity to stretch their legs. “How long until the scanners reach the site, J?” He asked J as he began stretching in place. Bruce looked alarmed at his actions.

Understandable since the only time he did that was when he was about to suit up and Bruce must know that he was not going to go to the Poles alone and he was pretty sure that Bruce would not let him leave alone anyway. He was a bro like that.

“Due to the launch locations being far away and taking into account the weather conditions, it will be a while before the boogies can find a suitable place to land, Sir,” 

He grinned at that news, “Perfect!”

“Tony, we should let Jarvis find out more details before we just storm that place.” Bruce tried to reason with him but when has Tony Stark ever let logic stop him before?

He put his arm over Bruce’s shoulder and began leading him away from the lab to their respective suit stations, not heeding any of his warnings even as he tried to stop him verbally.

Honestly, he thought that Bruce too wanted a piece of that action but was always afraid to do so because of his condition, as he liked to call it. Case in point, even as he tried to fight him tooth and nail about going to the North Pole, there was not even a shred of physical resistance from the bespectacled scientist even though he knew that the moment Bruce stopped walking, he would not pester him for it.

And yet, they found themselves standing in front of their respective suits. Bruce’s was a surprise that he had kept for his birthday but he could think of something else for that day.

“Whaa-” Bruce’s sound of confusion pleased him immensely. After all the work he had to put into making it compatible with Bruce’s alter ego, that much was expected although the form they were seeing now was not the final one. They still had to do some testing in the field before it could be ready for deployment.

Keeping that in mind, he turned to Bruce, “So, what do you think? And before you say that you don’t need it, I might have agreed with you had I not known that the Hulk is only limited by his mobility and this suit,” He looked at the gigantic hulking(huh, pun intended) suit and sighed in joy. It truly was his masterpiece.

Standing at over 9 feet tall, the suit was huge, even for the Hulk but he had made it with extra features in mind, tapping the nanotech that Alfred had given them access to, in the Lab. It still boggled his mind that the tech he had access to, was somehow barebones for Alfred.

“Tony, I-I don’t know what to say,” Bruce said, getting all sappy on him. He honestly had no idea how to deal with emotions and someday he would have to learn that, at least for his future kids but for now? He was going to just ignore Bruce’s teary eyes. The best he could do for him now was just clap him on the shoulder.

“So, wanna hear the features?” He asked Bruce as he rubbed his hands in excitement. 

“I’m afraid I will have to interrupt that decision, Sir,” He looked up at the ceiling in confusion.

His unasked question was answered soon because a hologram was projected right in front of him that depicted the surveillance bogies that Jarvis had sent ahead. They were following the correct path to the disturbances when, suddenly, they disappeared. Not attack or anything, just disappeared from any of the surveillance Jarvis had access to and he had access to almost everything.

“Tony, just what is going on?” Bruce asked him, aghast because he was aware of what went into the construction of those next-gen satellites. Because that’s what those bogies were, mobile satellites that could be deployed at any location upon demand, made from the strongest possible alloys. It wasn’t made of Vibranium or anything fancy like that but it could easily take a couple of hits from the Hulk and come out unscathed. For it to just disappear like that meant something else was afoot. 

“J, do you still have a direct line to Alfred?” He really didn’t want to talk to Alfred before talking to Ed because of the whole Strange debacle, which has conspicuously dropped form the radar after reaching Nepal. He didn’t want to think about the choices Strange must have taken after his disability but right now, he had no other option. If it was an alien invasion like last time and they had some evil plan to melt the poles to bring about the biblical Flood, they would be well out of their depths here.

The hologram in front of him shifted from showing the tracking measures to a call page. It rang for a few seconds before it was picked up.

“Hey Alf-”

“Stark, why are your satellites intruding on our construction bases? I was not aware that the Poles were of that much interest to you,” An unfamiliar voice spoke from the other side.

He and Bruce looked at each other, confused as to who picked up the call. He even looked at the ceiling with a raised eyebrow, conveying to Jarvis his question who responded by authenticating the link between him and Alfred in real time.

Clearing his throat, he spoke back, “Ahem, who am I speaking to?”

“You are speaking to Frank Castle, comm- ex-commander of the ground forces of Ascendancy. You will get your scrap back soon enough, Stark. We have no time for unscheduled deliveries right now. Goodbye,”

“W-Wait!” His words fell on deaf ears as the line was cut and it would seem that it had gone offline as well, stopping them from making any sort of communication with whatever the hell they were doing there.

A construction site? What were they even building in the North Pole?

Well, time to find out then.

His grin must have unsettled Bruce because he immediately began waving his arms back and forth, “No, Tony NO! You heard him. That man was a commander, well, ex-commander and he somehow took down the most advanced piece of armour we have ever developed. I, for one, would like to know more before we go to such a hostile environment, Tony.”

He didn’t stop grinning when he listened to the list of reasons Bruce laid down for not going. He didn't stop grinning when he eventually wore him down and made him enter the armour. He didn't stop grinning when Jarvis gave Bruce a crash course on his armour. He didn’t stop grinning even when he heard Bruce’s exclamations about the multitude of features he had built into the suit that were specialised for when Bruce “Hulked” Out.

His grin only faded once they entered the atmosphere right above the snowy terrain of the North Pole. Somehow, there was a snowstorm without any being predicted by any of the weather forecasts on the planet.

“Tony, you were right. This storm doesn't make any sense. It shouldn’t exist. This is clearly artificial,” Bruce’s voice could be heard over the comms as he analysed everything about the storm in front of them. Normally, snowstorms should move, albeit slowly, but the one in front of them seemed to be fixed with the center being the place where Jarvis had initially detected activity. Activity that seemed to be absent from his sensors now that they were close by.

It would seem that they found the hole and plugged it. Pretty fast, he must say.

“What are we going to do now, Tony?”

“Bruce, have you ever wondered what it would be like to fall through a storm, straight into its center? I know I have?”

“Tony....Sigh..” 

That was the only reply Bruce gave before he followed him right into the storm. He was not exactly falling into the storm. More like, they were rocketing right into the storm.

Right as they had entered the center of the storm, he heard Jarvis say something.

“Sir, unusual energy currents detected. Recommend Immediate Retre-a-a-t,” Something happened because Jarvis’ voice cut off, and then, the entire suit lost power, leaving him barrelling straight down into an icy storm.

He could barely see from the holes in the suit since no matter what he did, the suit refused to turn back on. Even the warmth from the Arc reactor was gone. Seeing that none of the measures worked, he closed his eyes and hoped for the best. He had trust in the suit that they would not die from the impact but they would most certainly die from frostbite.

Before he could feel the impact though, he felt his suit slowing down. He opened his eyes with hope, only to be greeted with a confusing scenery.

“Package secured,” A robotic voice was heard outside his suit.

He was startled when his face mask was wrenched open. He blinked in response to the sudden light in his eyes but when his vision came back, he could only gape in awe.

He could see Bruce’s suit being held aloft by a robot, the same with his suit. That was not the surprising part. The surprising part was the city that was being built in front of them. 

A flying city!

Oh, this was going to be so awesome! He could just feel it in his bones.

….

…

“You will remain here until Commander Frank returns,” The robot said before shutting the gates of their prison after removing their suits.

On second thought, maybe not so awesome.

“Well, at least it's not cold?” He offered to Bruce who was looking at him reproachfully.

Word Count - 2070

A/N - A slight detour from the mainline but the end is near. I can feel it. Maybe a dozen more chapters before the story ends. I can’t wait to have my first ever fanfic finished. Oh, it will be such a relief.