Technomancer in MCU #73 (Patreon)

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Chapter 73

Technomancer in MCU

Aboard the Superclass Carrier

–Alfred–

With the conference wrapped up and the assimilation of the Dreaming Celestial done, they were on their way to the superclass carrier floating just above them when he got a ping from his mystical senses.

He could not exactly pinpoint it and tracking it down would have taken his full concentration so he just tasked an extra partition for that task and exited the joke of a UN assembly they had gathered for the express purpose of telling the people of Earth how useless the UN was and how unprepared they were in terms of dealing with actual real world problems.

The reason he had deactivated the cloak and risked revealing their trump card to the enemies was due to the fact that there were still people in many governments who thought they could win against the Ascendency simply because they too could build aircraft carriers that could fly.

Somehow, these people got the idea that the aircraft carriers were the pinnacle of technology that the organisation could bring to bear against their enemies but he had to prove them wrong. Especially since he and Ed had worked so hard to build the designs for that carrier.

That project was the heaviest one when it came to the toll on Ed’s body after using his Technomancy powers. That had been the first time Ed had slipped into a coma, albeit a short one, and while after numerous checkups had come back negative for any sort of issue, he and Ed had just chalked it up to stress and resolved to use Ed’s powers sparingly, at least when it came to mega projects like the superclass carrier.

Already he could pick up on the background chatter going on in the encrypted military networks of all the militaries nearby and while he would have loved to just go into their systems and leave a visible trail for them to follow, ultimately leading to a huge “Boo!” coming out from the speakers, he was above such childish pranks now, especially since he had heard of the opinions many of the junior employees had of him and his pranks.

For the record, his pranks were hilarious and ingenious but some people just could not tolerate fun so he had been ordered by Ed and Frank and Maria and Daisy to stop them so he did.

But for some reason, he could not stop the nagging feeling in his mind that came from the mystical ping he got a while ago. The partition was not any closer to finding the source of it and while he couldn't go into a deep meditative session, especially since he had just returned, he mentally noted to go and consult the Ancient One about the strange phenomenon.

Greeting Deputy Captain Jake and getting the confirmation from him made the other members of the team feel relieved and while he could have informed Ed and the others about his experiment with the mind of the celestial, he was not sure if they would approve of it and while he did realise the risks of keeping a celestial alive, in any way or form, especially one they had killed, he was very curious as to how their mind functioned and it would be a great help in making sure that Ed did not become machine-like once he received his enhanced body and ascended to become a God-like being just like him. His soul would probably catapult him to the same level as the likes of Odin or Future Thor.

Speaking of Gods, he had been very surprised when he had started receiving the various prayers of his followers that littered the various refugee colonies they had built and while it was an unintentional benefit, he was very much happy to note that all spells using the power of faith were magnified multifold when it came to their impact as opposed to his personal power expended.

As they were all retreating to the captain’s cabin where the team was dying to hear (read: interrogate) him describe his brief unplanned sabbatical from the organisation’s servers, a periodic sweep that he performed of the Astral Realm around them revealed something that should not have been there.

His systems went into overdrive to find more about it but before he could alert the others, he could see the entity grinning and the next thing he knew, an overwhelming wave of darkness had hit all of them, taking them all by surprise and knocking out all of the nearby crew members. The only reason they were not being overwhelmed by the dark energy and turning into mindless beasts was due to the energy purification feature in all of the crew’s uniforms and the fact that they were not the target of the darkness.

It rose like a whip and lashed out at all the members present. Everyone including Ed was surprised by it but everybody present had captain-level suits which had a certain level of energy stored in it of every element.

So, with the suit’s defenses switching automatically to light elemental energy, the impact of the whip was reduced considerably.

Of course, the whips landed on his body and dispersed harmlessly, his body makeup being able to disperse any sort of energy, be it elemental or kinetic, made things much easier.

He could see the markers for Jake and Eric already on their way and with their synergetic power set, it would be much easier to take care of whoever Dormammu had sent to attack them.

While he was much more curious as to how it entered the carrier without his permission, getting Ed out of the battle area was much more important.

Any more application of his powers and he might just have to scrape off pieces of his body as it would explode from the burden of his soul. So, as he was making his way to where Ed and the others were surrounded by a dome of white light that he had ordered to be activated, he felt an ominous gaze lock on to him.

Ignoring the Dormammu-empowered avatar, he had to annoyingly walk towards the others since the very space inside the carrier had gone into lockdown due to his very own protocols.

“Heh,” he heard an oddly familiar chuckle that sent chills down his multiple spines and he made the mistake of looking before making sure that Ed was not looking at himself because he was pretty sure that it was the one voice that Ed would never forget in his entire life.

Toby Mathers was here.

He could see the shock on Frank’s and Ed’s faces when he breached the dome and stood beside them.

Amidst the continued laughter of Toby, almost painfully slowly, the curtain of darkness that covered him began to recede.

First, the face that sported the same arrogant smirk that Toby was known for, and then, slowly as his hands came into view, he narrowed his eyes as he could see something in his hand that was still being covered in darkness while he himself was now fully visible.

“Oh, what is this?” He said while lifting up the still-covered object for all of them to see. On his HUD, he could see Eric and Jake checking in on their fallen crew members. Just a little bit more and he could just unleash a concentrated gamma beam and get rid of this scourge in Ed’s life once and for all.

“This,” he said with a malicious glint in his eyes, “my once friends, is payback for all those years,”

“Toby, look, you have to unders–,” Ed, ever the diplomat, came forward and began trying to converse with Toby when his words got stuck in his mouth as the object finally came into view.

He felt something inside him scream in rage and break in despair at the same time as the severed head of the Ancient One with the same stoic look on her face came into view. The only reason he was not going into a rampage was because he had to make sure that Ed didn’t.

He swiftly appeared behind Ed and combined with a concentrated dose of CHI at his sleep centers, chopped him on the neck and knocked him out.

He cursed his previous self for making his body anatomically accurate as tears stung in his eyes because of the confirmation he had received from the mystical analysis done on the Ancient One’s head he could see in front of him.

While it was possible that his senses were being spoofed by Toby or Dormammu, he knew that Toby would never do things like these half-heartedly and for them to do this at this opportune time, the chances of the Ancient One surviving were pretty low.

Sometimes, he hated cold hard facts. Especially since he knew that bringing back someone from the dead always resulted in even more death and destruction. He was not going to fall into the same trap as Wanda and Strange did and become blinded by grief.

Since the surrounding space was locked due to both the wards hardcoded by him and also due to the fool who was still grinning maliciously at them, he decided to just enclose Ed in the strongest mystical barrier followed by a vibranium elasticized forcefield that should keep him safe from even Odin level battles.

“Alfred, what the hell is happening? I thought he was still in prison. Did your leaving somehow open it?” Frank bombarded him with questions with beads of sweat dripping down his eyebrows as Daisy leaned over, trying to understand herself what the hell was going on since she had no idea who Toby even was.

“Wait wait wait, is that the guy who was imprisoned in the Sun prison? How did he even get out?” Daisy asked them, surprised beyond belief.

“Frank, I need you to make sure that his attention is not diverted away from me. Negate any shockwaves that could affect Ed. We just have to hold on until Jake and Eric come here and then,” here, " he grinned maliciously, “I’ll be taking care of our residential demon here once and for all.”

Frank frowned but ultimately, nodded, acceding to his decision since he was the authority if Ed was out of commission and while there was a case to be made since Alfred was the one who knocked him out, this was not the time and place for it.

Alfred nodded and put his hands together and when he pulled them apart, a greenish golden circle manifested and it began shining brighter and brighter until it became hard to even look at.

Suddenly, the strings holding the circle to Alfred’s hands snapped and it spread over the entire room, coating the entire room in the colour of the circle.

A sudden disorienting wave came over all of them and even Toby was not spared by it since he landed wobbly on the ground.

“Hmm,” Toby said as he examined his hands, “This is new, dear Nephew. What did you do this time?”

Alfred spread his arms apart, as if showcasing something and said, “Welcome to Project Ark”

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Word Count - 1887

A/N - Short but the next few chapters should come soon so stay tuned for that.

Toodles!