Technomancer in MCU #43 (Patreon)

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Chapter 43

Technomancer in MCU

Previously

Carefully extricating himself from her iron hold, he wore his uniform and took out his tablet, and called for his escort to Throgg’s workshop.

It was a good thing he had work to do, he couldn’t exactly sleep now, could he?

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–Frank Castle–

Watching how Alfred had been incorporated into every little thing in the base was always fascinating.

It was never said out loud but silently acknowledged that you were never truly alone when you were on the Asterisk. Alfred was always with you.

Even if you thought you were alone, he was there, ever-present inside the nanite packages given to any person that ever set foot on the base.

It did have its perks.

Like right now, the very fact that I had an escort machine ready for use right after I left my doorstep.

It was just there, silently floating outside the fence of the house, sent by Alfred who had anticipated my responses.

Getting into it, he said out loud, “Do I ever tell you how much I appreciate you helping run everything? Without you, we probably wouldn’t be able to complete half our tasks.”

“Not nearly enough, Commander Castle,” Alfred’s voice came from the sound system of the car.

“Whose car is this?” he asked Alfred after seeing a photo on the dashboard of the car.

“Oh, this? It is your neighbour’s car. I temporarily requisitioned it for military purposes.” Alfred replied without a care in the world like he hadn’t just stolen another person’s car in the middle of the night.

Before he could protest though, Alfred said, “Don’t worry. I have deposited more than an adequate amount of credits into his account. He would be more than happy to give you his car again after that.”

He then rolled his eyes after that.

Soon, the base hangar came into view.

The location where the car landed made him roll his eyes.

It had landed right in front of his personal jet.

It was hideous.

Apparently, Alfred had taken creative liberties when he had made the Commander's jet, knowing well that I hated those gaudy colours.

It was all Red and Gold and Matte Black in colours.

It was something Stark would have.

Disgusting.

Getting out of the car, he said, “You do realise I am not sitting in that, right?”

Alfred replied, “You have to. Look around you, there is no other jet available.”

He looked around, only to see that Alfred was right.

That cheeky bastard.

“You did this on purpose, didn’t you?” he asked with gritted teeth.

“Come on, Commander. What is the purpose of having a special jet for the Commander if he never uses it.” Alfred replied like a whiny brat.

He rolled his eyes and said, “The Commander would have seen some use of it had the colours not been vomit-inducing to him. But very well, I don’t want to waste any more time on this. Let’s go.”

He spied from the corner of his eyes that Alfred’s hologram was doing a little victory dance.

He cleared his throat at that and Alfred stopped and made a gesture towards the jet as if saying - After you.

He then went towards the jet and midway through, a veritable lightshow of different colours activated on the jet’s body.

The hangar opened up only to show disco lights active in the rear cargo bay and poles lowered through the ceilings.

It was mortifying.

Looking around in disgusted fascination, he said, “You are lucky that Maria doesn’t know about any of this. Digital or not, she would have found a way to make it hurt.”

All the lights, music, and the fog stopped at that statement.

He smirked at that reaction. He liked the fear that Maria’s name generated in the base.

It gave him validation that he was not the only one who was absolutely terrified of that woman.

By the time he reached the pilot seat, all the gaudy displays were suspiciously absent and the entire cabin had a professional look and feel to it.

Sitting on the pilot seat, he spoke out loud, “Alfred, you know the destination. Please put it on autopilot, no external stimuli. I want to get some shut-eye.”

“Affirmative, Commander.” came the reply.

He closed his eyes on the seat only to feel the entire seat reclining backward and the leg rests coming up, turning the seat into a true bed.

He wanted to speak up but then the massage function kicked in, cutting his complaints short.

But despite getting all the relaxing treatment one could possibly get, he still couldn’t sleep or relax while on the job.

He still had issues from when he was a regular on the job. All night stakeouts, shootouts, and encounters were the norm when he still worked under Schoonover.

Even after personally putting a bullet in that bastard’s head, he still woke up in sweat, afraid for his family’s safety sometimes.

It was the reason he still couldn’t relax while being on the job.

It took him weeks of personally watching over the details that protected his kids to be sure of their competence even after repeated assurances from both Ed and Alfred.

Sigh…

“Alfred, I don’t think I’ll be getting any rest tonight. So why don’t you just open up the view for me.”

“Very well, sir.”

The seats straightened themselves and the massage stopped.

The windshield which previously consisted entirely of holograms showing various parameters of the flight now turned transparent, showing off the lovely blue ball of life that was Earth.

The jet soon crossed the area where Earth’s jump gate was located at.

As soon as the jet cleared the safe area, it rocketed forward like a missile.

Soon, it breached the upper atmosphere without even a hint of burning up due to the vibranium shields and then went right through the sea of white clouds, finally making the ocean visible.

If this was his very first trip to Throgg’s workshop, he would have been concerned at the fact that the jet was not slowing down at all even when the water was coming increasingly closer but he was not, so he just watched on as the jet nosedived into the ocean and dove straight down towards the ocean surface.

The kinetic energy absorbing technology came in very handy during violent entries into the ocean just like this one.

The jet hadn’t slowed down at all and despite that, barring a small disturbance during entry, there was no reaction to the jet entering the water at Mach speeds.

Soon, they dove into a trench that was hidden behind a hologram to ensure nobody poked their noses where they didn’t belong.

As soon as the jet crossed the illusion boundary, the surroundings that became visible from the other side were tinted with red.

The jet soon came in front of the entrance to Throgg’s workshop, an underwater volcano.

Apparently, Throgg was really concerned about his privacy and didn’t want to be anywhere near other people.

The jet came to a stop in front of the volcano and then an orange wave passed through the jet as part of the identity verification processes installed in his home/office/workshop.

There really was no need for this. He then spoke into the intercom, “Throgg, you fossil, you do realise nobody really wants to come into your stinky home. I, for one, would certainly prefer being with my wife at home rather than being with an ancient fossil.”

That did the trick as the identification module closed itself and the invisible shield around the volcano entrance opened up.

He smirked as Throgg’s big ugly face came onto the screen as the jet started to slowly enter the volcano.

“If it wasn’t for your leader’s strength and the fact that I wouldn’t even be able to shit if not for his strange contraptions, I wouldn’t even look in you mortals’ direction,” Throgg said grumpily.

“Good to see you too, Throgg.” he replied with an infuriating smirk.

“Just get in and finish your job so I can have my peace and quiet back,” Throgg replied with a sigh and closed the call.

He then got back to reading his notes for this retrieval mission.

Yes, because for some reason, this was listed as a high enough priority mission that the Commander had to personally come to retrieve it.

He had also not missed the HUD on the jet signalling multiple bogies converging around the area on the surface of the ocean where his jet’s exit point would be.

It would seem that a high-priority item needed to be transported out of there.

Soon they entered the base.

It was a very challenging thing to build for Alfred. They had to commission multiple sorcerers who had to work in shifts to maintain the enclosure around the spatial bubble while Alfred did his work to build inside and then use the barrier tech to hold out the lava whilst also using its heat as an energy source.

He had questioned the decision of even making this base but Alfred and Ed loved challenges and this was the most interesting thing they had to do at the time. So, Throgg got his dream base.

A workshop inside the molten core of a sun, he called it. Well, this was as close as he was going to get for now.

The jet landed and as soon as he came out of the cargo bay, Throgg landed right in front of him.

Throgg then flexed his magical skills, creating an area of high gravity around themselves, trying to make the puny human submit.

But, as usual, he just smirked and activated his powers.

This resulted not only in the gravity field being negated but also in the propulsion systems of his suit failing and Throgg falling right on his ass.

Throgg groaned at the sudden impact but swiftly recovered and stood up. He then laughed, “AHAHAHA! You are as rigid as ever, Frank. Honestly, you should have been a dwarf. We would have had the best mead fests with you around.”

He smirked and shook hands with the old dwarf, “Maybe in some other timeline I am one. We know they exist.”

Throgg waved his metallic hands, “Bah! I don’t believe in that piece of nonsense. Anyway, let’s go. The sooner you take that stuff off my hands, the sooner I can relax.” He then turned around and tapped his foot on the ground twice.

The area they were standing on lit up on the circular edges and soon they found themselves floating and on their way to the office.

Soon they found themselves in front of a huge gate, easily 50ft tall.

He was wrong. They found themselves in front of the vault where Throgg stored all his previous artifacts.

While Throgg was in the process of opening his multi-level lock system, he said, “The item must truly be something for you to allow it to be stored in your precious vault. I believe the only one who has been inside the vault other than you is Ed and by extension, Alfred.”

After a series of complicated runes flashed on the door, the gate started to lift up, showcasing the vault of the oldest Dwarf alive.

When Ed rescued him and offered him a permanent base on Earth, he had Alfred send multiple teams to loot the old stashes that he had stored throughout the nine realms, resulting in this huge vault that stored dangerous items that could destroy the planet multiple times over.

It was a sad thing that of the entire organisation, nobody was able to use these artifacts as of yet.

He had heard from Alfred that Ed was planning to have Daisy involved in the process of making one so they would have higher chances of the artifact accepting her but that was still years away.

“Oh, it was something alright. Who in their right mind would just hand over an Infinity Stone to a mad dwarf?” Throgg’s mutterings snapped him out of his daze.

What did he say?

“Did you just say an Infinity Stone?” he asked Throgg

Throgg gave the command for the platform to float toward the cube that floated in the center of the vault. He then glanced backward at the question and said, “Yeah, and not just any Infinity Stone. He just came here one day and casually handed me the most dangerous of the stones, The Mind Stone. It was an insidious piece of work. Do you have any idea how much time it took to remove that nasty psychic imprint on the stone that commanded it to subtly influence everybody nearby?”

He made to speak only to be silenced by the mad Dwarf’s ramblings, “Years worth of hellfire supply? Gone. I had to personally create a Uru cage for that imprint. Gotta hand it to whoever it was, it was a strong psychic imprint and near impossible to destroy. But I wasn’t called Throgg the Mad in my prime.”

Frustrated by the ramblings of Throgg that led nowhere near to answers, he interrupted and asked, “What is it that I have to transport? What was Ed thinking, giving you an Infinity Stone of all things?”

“I know, right? I asked him the same thing when he first gave me the thing. Anyway, behold my latest creation.” Throgg replied and then gestured towards the cube that began to open up, shrouding him and Throgg in an eerie yellow glow.

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Word Count -2275

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