Technomancer in MCU #34.1 (Patreon)

                                                                DOUBLE RELEASE TODAY

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

Chapter 34.1

Technomancer in MCU

Previously

“You?!” he said while pointing at me.

Oh man, this was the best.

“Yes, ME!” I said with the biggest grin I could manage.

_________________________________________________________

Bunker Below the White House

–Nick Fury–

The last thing I expected to see in this meeting was him.

Ed

That bastard was the source of half my problems and the one who could solve all of my problems.

Analyzing the state of the occupants, I can make out the nearly disheveled appearances of everyone.

There were clear efforts made for them to look presentable but I could see the sweat on their brows and the tenseness in their bodies.

It was as if they were ready to flee at the first sign of trouble.

How unfortunate that the biggest trouble they had experienced recently was sitting right in front of them, smiling without a care in the world.

His smiling face belied the danger he posed to everyone in this meeting.

Ed was somehow able to infiltrate this meeting and then hijack it without anyone outside noticing.

The agents are required to have periodic check-ins with the President as per protocol.

The fact that they didn’t do anything means either of one thing.

The entirety of the Secret Service contingent serving POTUS has been compromised or none of them noticed anything suspicious around the President.

Both of them were daunting situations.

Sighing at the fact that I was stuck in this meeting, one way or another, I sat on my seat, right in front of the President and Ed.

After that, I just glared at Ed.

He continued to smile and look at me.

After a while, the President cleared his throat to gain my attention.

I looked at him as he asked me, “So, Fury. You had a report for me to see?”

I looked at him, blinked a few times, and said, “I’m sorry, Mr.President, are we really going to ignore his presence here?” while gesturing to Ed.

The President’s smile looked strained as he said, “Mr.Ed here has given us valuable information that has made us look into other avenues as to how we were going to proceed with this meeting.”

He looked at the Secretaries before continuing, “ Our hope is that the report you have with you will help us gain further insight into the situation and help us make an even more informed decision.”

He then gestured to Ed, “He is here to tell us more about our situation at large.”

At my confused look, he elaborated, “Our situation in terms of the galactic scale.”

My eyes went wide at that.

Updated information regarding the happenings in outer space would help us tremendously. If he truly was going to give us that, it would help us in formulating strategies and most importantly, help get the goddamned politicians with all the different agendas on the same table for discussion and action.

“Of Course,” said the President, “He wouldn’t give us the complete information without having read your report for some reason.”

I gave Ed a suspicious look at that.

If he is as advanced as we think he is, he must already know what was in the report.

Nothing.

Why would he insist on handing over my report before giving us any useful information?

Nevertheless, I took out the manilla folder from my jacket and carefully handed over the copies to the President and everybody else, slightly embarrassed at how light and empty it felt.

After giving everybody their report, I looked at Ed and said mockingly, “I’m sorry, I only made three copies as only three people were invited to this meeting.”

The bastard had the audacity to shrug and say, “It’s alright. I already know what is in there anyway.”

I gritted my teeth at the blatant admission of cybercrime.

After just a few minutes, everybody was done reading through the report.

The President gave me a look after that, that clearly indicated he wanted to talk to me about the report.

I reckon the only reason I was not torn into a new one was because there were more pressing matters at hand.

The President then turned to said important matter and asked him, “Now, can you debrief us about the situation at large?”

Ed shrugged and said, “Sure. Alfred?”

A Hologram representing Earth popped up on the table in front of me.

I leaned forward in interest, and so did the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security.

“Ideally, I would’ve done this at the UN where most of the world’s representatives would be gathered but this meeting forced my hand and I also understand that the world at large is in chaos at the confirmation of the existence of aliens. So I thought I would delay that meeting a bit.” Ed said.

More like never.

I don’t think the people in this room would allow any other nation to have the slightest advantage if it was in their power. They would fight Ed every step of the way if he wanted to truly distribute this information equally to every nation on the planet.

Information was Power these days and the ones sitting before me were the biggest hoarders of power on the planet.

As I looked at the globe, some things stood out to me.

The majority of the countries looked red, and some of the countries looked orange.

The shades differed from the Middle East to Europe to North America but most of the developed countries looked orange to me.

Then there were 2 dots that shined a bright blue.

One seemed to be in the Atlantic Ocean and one on the African continent.

The President must have shared my observations as he asked Ed, “What are the colors separating those regions by?”

Ed looked at us and answered, “Oh, that? That’s just the advancement level or the amount of work needed to be done for those places to be brought up to a satisfactory condition, according to me.”

Advancement level? What did that mean?

Wait a minute

“What were the blue areas?” I asked Ed, glaring at him as if daring him to lie to my face.

“Oh, those? Those are the ones that need no intervention or at least no help to get them up to my technological advancement levels. They are more than advanced enough.”

What?!

“But one of them is in the middle of the Ocean and the other is in Africa. We all know that there is no country there that is more advanced than The United States of America.” the Secretary of Defense said in confusion.

“Ah, I can understand your confusion,” Ed said while pointing at the Secretary of Defense.

He then continued, “There is no advanced civilization there that you know of.”

All of our eyes widened rapidly.

Advanced civilizations under the Ocean?

“Ar..Are you talking about Atlantis? Is it Real?” The President asked Ed hesitantly, a slight tremor in his voice.

Ed sighed and waved his hand slightly.

The globe shrank down to a dot.

In an insufferable voice, he said, “Look, do you guys want the information regarding outer space or not? Because if we sit here talking about the glaring holes in your information regarding civilizations that were building cities when you were still cavemen, we would be here all night.”

The bastard did it on purpose.

He knew we would not be able to resist this bait dangled right in front of us.

The President’s and my eyes matched, we both knew that we could not let potential threats in our own backyard go unchecked.

“We would like to learn more about these hidden civilizations, Ed. The fact that they didn’t come to help during the invasion suggests that they could be hostile to our countries and I don’t think any one of the gentlemen inside this room would risk that. So, please, tell us more about them.” President Ellis said in an authoritative tone of voice.

Ed looked at the President and said in a tone of voice that sent chills down my spine, “So you can do what? Invade them? Blackmail them? Steal from them? No No No… I am well aware of what would happen should I reveal their secret. You would start an arms race that would threaten to engulf the entire planet, nearly destroying it. Then I would have to step in and stop you guys.”

The silence in the room was nearly deafening.

We were reminded of the power Ed held in his hands and the fact that nobody knew he was here was not lost on us.

He could very easily murder us all and leave without anyone being the wiser.

He then continued, “So, No. I will not share with you any of their details because they could just kill you all for knowing that, without any intervention on my side.”

All of us shared looks of terror at that.

The idea of an advanced civilization that had infiltrated our government was chilling enough, the fact that they were considered so advanced that even Ed deemed it unnecessary to help them was downright terrifying.

According to Stark, Ed wanted to uplift humanity. He didn’t give an explanation as to how he wanted to do that but Stark thinks that at the very minimum, it would involve making Humanity a space-faring civilization, capable of handling most of the threats present in outer space all by themselves, without any help from Ed or the organisation behind him.

If the two blue dots meant two advanced civilizations and they had the capability to be space-faring, there was no telling what kind of technology they were able to amass simply by trading or stealing in space.

I could understand Ed’s point about them being able to effortlessly kill us.

What I didn’t understand was one thing.

I looked up at Ed and said, “If they are as advanced as you say they are, why didn’t they leave the planet?”

He looked at me in confusion at that statement.

“Because… they can’t?” he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I was going to kill Stark.

________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 1717