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Chapter 100
Technomancer in MCU
–Stephen Strange–
A vast difference from his previous situation, he was now capable of moving his body and doing his business by simply willing it. He still couldn't believe that Stark used that ridiculously advanced armour of his as a prosthetic suit for him. He still couldn't believe that he was effectively wearing one of the most advanced weapons that existed in the history of humanity.
What was also different was simply the level of tech that Stark had in the Advanced Medical Wing. It was technically all very experimental and prototype level but he could find no flaws in the machinery despite wanting it to have flaws. He could see software that ran faster and smoother than anything he had ever seen in the industry.
“Running smooth enough for you, Strange?” Stark said as he looked at some hologram that depicted ridiculously accurate real-time statistics about his body. He could identify some of them but most of them looked alien even to him. As it turned out, Stark was ahead of the entire planet even in the field of Medicine.
Wasn’t that a huge shocker? He knew that Stark Industries as a whole was invested in every single field imaginable and was also ahead of the curve in every field but he had expected their most sizable leads to be in the tech sector, energy sector, or the infamous weapons division but medical sector?
He supposed even medical tech was technically still technology and as far as he knew, Tony Stark’s expertise lay in every field of technology.
“Yes, more than smooth enough, Stark. It’s like it knows what I want it to do before I even consciously think about it,” He said even as he moved his limbs in wonder. Well, he couldn’t exactly see them but the movement of the armour told him the same thing. It honestly clung to his skin like a second skin. It was that touch intuitive.
“Well, of course, it is smooth. You have J in there with you helping you every step of the way. Everything is running smoothly there, J?” Stark said even as he continued to work on something on the hologram in front of them.
He was startled to hear a sound coming out of the suit he was wearing. “Yes, sir. All parameters are at optimal condition. Subject Strange has been sufficiently prepped for the procedure.”
Procedure? What procedure?
Before he could flail about in panic about an unauthorised procedure that they were about to perform on him, his control over the suit stopped and despite his best wishes, his body was turned around and brought to stand side by side with Stark. Turning his head with difficulty, he gritted out the words.
“What is going on, Stark? Is this revenge for rejecting your surgery because if it is, it is petty and you know it.”
Stark had the audacity to smirk at him and point towards the screen in front of them, “Just look and you’ll understand,”
And understand he did.
The process was simple yet extremely fascinating even to his structural mind because what he was witnessing was nothing short of magical, at least to him. Complete regeneration of limbs, bringing back dead brain matter to life as long as the patient’s death didn’t exceed 5 minutes, partial nervous system healing, and organ regrowth. These were only some of the benefits of the elixir he was about to receive. His entire adult life that he spent studying medicine revolted at the thought of receiving something that might as well be called magic in this day and age but the part of him that was absolutely in despair after being essentially crippled practically sang in joy after receiving the news that he might just get healed.
“Just so you are clear, this is highly experimental and we will take no responsibility in case of any side effects. You will sign a waiver before we do anything but let me just say this, this is the only chance you will get.” Stark said, finally looking him in the eye and telling him.
All he could do was nod.
“Very well, Bruce, prep the machines,” Stark said before he found himself being escorted to someplace else by the suit of armour he was wearing. It was like he was a puppet being controlled by someone and that someone was Jarvis, Tony Stark’s personal AI. People really didn’t know half the shit Stark was up to otherwise he would have long been either imprisoned or dead because there was no way he had the clearance to own an unregulated AI. That was just doomsday fuel.
–Tony Stark–
“Bruce, what does this tell you?” He asked Bruce as they looked at what Jarvis had written using the neural impulses that Stephen gave off when he was asked about his discussion with Alfred.
The things he had read about were enough for him to ask Jarvis to double and triple-check everything before coming back to him because if what he was reading was true, America had long since lost its ability to defend itself from its enemies.
Now, he would not go so far as to call himself a nationalist or a hardcore Patriot but he liked his country. All his favourite people, his money, his favourite celebrities, everybody lived here. He had enough favoritism about the country that even after shutting down the weapons division, he acted as a freelance consultant for the U.S. military in various capacities. Security expert for the NSA, Tech consultant for the Air Force and Army, and so on and so forth.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
That was why he was intimately aware of the fact that despite making huge strides in practically every possible field of war, the biggest option for his country was a single weapon.
Nukes.
Despite knowing that they had enough of a technological leap ahead of their rivals, the top brass of the American Military still relied on their trusty nukes because according to them, Nukes were the only thing that continued to guarantee their freedom. The rest of the stuff helped, of course, but to have a true hegemony over the world, America undoubtedly relied on the monopoly of the dollar, which was only possible because of the sheer military firepower they had on hand, a major part of which was Nuclear Weaponry.
Finding out that Alfred had disabled every single nuke in the first couple of years of his existence was disheartening. Finding out that they had built and perfected the barrier that they had found in the conceptual stages of barriers in the Lab given to them was downright terrifying.
It meant that even if somebody built a very crude Nuclear weapon, one that would detonate on the spot and not at the target itself, the barrier around the planet would activate and deny the weapon its explosion, thereby completely nullifying it. He still could not believe how they quantified and disabled something as common as “explosions”. It was equal parts baffling and terrifying.
Even as he read the entirety of the information that was practically downloaded from Strange's mind, he was more baffled at the last part of the conversation.
Why talk with Strange at all? Having had the opportunity to work with Alfred on a deeper level, he was quite aware that most of AlfredGPT’s operations were performed by an advanced VI that Alfred had built by himself almost negligently. It was very rare when Alfred himself would communicate with someone personally. It was even rarer for him to talk to someone and then tell them very private details surrounding their birth and the actions they had taken since then.
If word of what Alfred had done ever got out, there would be mass panic and anarchy on the streets of America. He could understand killing someone to silence them or to stop them from disseminating such information but if Alfred wanted to do so from the beginning, why tell Strange in the first place? It was not as if he needed a reason to have Strange killed if he wanted to. All but one of the cars in Strange’s garage didn’t have tech in it that Alfred could have hacked.
He had hacked into the other car that was crashed as well and he could see that despite there being no signs of tampering whatsoever, the car had enough tech in it to facilitate remote driving by an AI. It meant that there was a decent chance that Alfred initiated and orchestrated everything which raised huge alarm bells in his mind.
Thinking it through, he looked towards the ceiling, “Alfred, you there?”
Bruce looked up at him from his screen when he called for Alfred. After a while, seeing that there was no reply, Bruce asked the other AI in the room, “Jarvis?”
“Alfred has not been seen in Stark Industries Systems for a while now. Do you want me to contact him?” Jarvis supplied helpfully.
Bruce rapidly shook his head no because he was kinda spooked by the new stuff that was revealed and to be honest, he himself was not exactly thrilled with the idea of talking to Alfred at this stage either because he was kinda surprised with how everything had gone as well.
“Alright, we’ll talk directly with Ed the first thing after this procedure is done, deal?” He told Bruce who looked visibly relieved after hearing that. Bruce was someone who’s always had difficulty trusting people and Alfred was one of the few he thought he could trust but after reading this, he was starting to second judge his choices.
“Now let’s get this over with. Today has been a rather exhausting day.”
Let’s hope that the miracle drug that Alfred provided works on Strange because if it didn’t, he would have to go straight to Ed because he was sure as hell not allowing Alfred to nearly kill someone and not have him compensate them.
“Strange, are you ready?”
“Yes! Just do it!”
He and Bruce both looked at each other before he nodded lightly, prompting Bruce to keep his entire palm on the screen in front of them.
He then slowly began to turn it in a clockwise direction, increasing the energy levels that Strange was being bombarded with.
See, they had found out that the miracle elixir that Alfred touted as the “best medical treatment they had ever discovered” was fine and dandy when ingested in liquid form but when it was turned into gas and sprayed directly into a chamber which was then hit with radiation he had isolated from the small sample of Wakanda Vibranium he had gotten from the king, it amplified the effects of the miracle elixir.
He was sure Alfred knew it as well but disrupting the medical industry and destroying the medical industry were two different things.
As Bruce’s palm kept rotating, Strange began screaming from inside the room. Both of them were calm even then because he was monitoring Strange’s vitals from the other screen.
Everything was within limits even though Strange continued to scream raw due to the sheer pain he must be experiencing due to his nerve damage. They were getting healed and then burned at the same time. He just hoped that Strange came out of it healed, at least partially because even he was not sure if it could completely heal Strange.
At the very least, it should afford him the dignity of being able to move all by himself, even if he would not be able to be a surgeon after everything.
He just hoped that Alfred did not come back to finish the job somehow but the entire thing didn’t make even an iota of sense to him.
If everything else failed, he could just take the SpaceDucky for a swim and go directly to the shiny Moon Base they had kept hidden from him all this while. It has always been a dream of his and with the level of tech he had incorporated into SpaceDucky, he could probably reach halfway to Mars before he could run into any serious trouble.
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Word Count - 2043
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A/N - Woohoo! 100th chapter (Even though, counting the interludes, it's been almost 116 chapters)
I never thought I could reach this milestone. Although I did go through a couple of bumps in the way, I will see this fanfic finished.
Wish me luck.