A/N - [First of all, I am sorry for this chapter. I literally cringed once I read how it came out. I have been agonising over the decision to post this chapter or not, for almost a month. THis is not the way I wanted this story to end but apparently, my mind just couldn’t come up with something else. I guess I just wanted it to be over and one day, I decided to just sit down and finish it, no matter how long it took. Well, guess what, it took me over 6 hours of writing to finish the chapter below and it is not very good. I tried dozens of drafts after that, to see if I could come up with something else but I just…couldn’t.

I am sorry if the chapter does not pan out to your expectations. It certainly didn’t pan it out according to my expectations but this is it. This is the best I could do at this point. So, here it goes]

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

Chapter 125

Technomancer in MCU

“This is bad. This is literally the worst possible timing,” Frank’s panicked voice could be heard across the captain’s deck as he scrambled to mobilise the remaining meagre resources they had. With their strongest fighters either down (Alfred, Toby) or injured (Thor), they were in for a rough fight. In the first place, fighting Thanos was supposed to be the last step. When they were all at their peak with all of their allies waiting for them, that’s when they were supposed to be fighting Thanos. Not when they were what amounted to a literal refugee van. Thanos is not one to show mercy even during normal circumstances and when he realises that there are 3 Infinity Stones on the ship, he would much rather shred every single thing in front of him to bits than turn around or negotiate. At this point, their only hope was the tall armoured man standing at the forefront of the cabin, looking straight at the Sanctuary II.

Ed.

“Frank, how many people do we have on board, across all the ships?” Ed asked Frank without turning around. Frank took a moment to look at the dashboard detailing various information points about the occupants and gave out the number.

“We have about 16000 people spread across 2 carriers. Some of the people needed CHI treatment otherwise all of them can be stashed on a single carrier without any space issues,” Frank reported.

Ed hummed, “I see. Utilise short-range teleportation to transfer all non-patients to this carrier and then transfer the rest using bogeys. I am sure that Thanos would not stop them since he doesn’t believe us to be a threat yet. That bastard probably already knows about the situation with Hela and came to take advantage of it.”

Frank nodded and then relayed the orders, “What about the stones?” Frank asked Ed, concerned about the items of mass destruction just floating in Ed’s armour.

Ed sighed and put his hand over his armour, opening the armour and grabbing the Space Stone. Ed’s body and armour, along with his eyes, immediately began glowing blue as the energy around him rioted in response to the huge influx of energy from the Space Stone. He then waved his arms, causing a wave of blue energy to spread throughout the cabin and then onto the entire ship. “I have a way to get you all out of here but we need to hurry. Thanos would not wait for longer once he has sensed the Infinity STones being used. From what I have sensed, he has both the Power Stone and the Soul Stone on him, making him the most dangerous foe we have ever faced,”

Frank nodded as he looked at the progress report on his dashboard. Only a few were left to be transported by the bogies. The rest of the armies had all been brought on board without fail. He also looked around him to see most of the people on the deck sported despairing expressions on their faces. He sighed internally at that. It was not as if he did not understand their predicament. In all the time that Ed has spent building the organisation, he has never failed to make everyone realise the threat that Thanos posed, not just to them but to their families and even the universe. Even so, every single one on his team was ready to face Thanos, even at the risk of their lives, because winning meant that their families would live long prosperous lives without ever having to worry about anything. But now that they were on their way home from fighting someone who was just as if not more dangerous than Thanos was without his Infinity Stones, they were certain that they were going to meet their demise here. It was expected, after all, that most of them had never been around to witness Ed’s powers when he went all out. Not to mention that they had three stones on their side too. If it was just Ed and Thanos with the Infinity Stones, Frank could calculate a very significant chance of them winning but Thanos was now armed with armies beyond anything that they could conjure on top of having a cabal of generals, each stronger than the last. The only person who could currently compete with the generals was Hulk and he was still unconscious. Neither Thor nor Loki were in any condition to fight Thanos. He and Daisy were still reeling from the wounds they had sustained from Hela’s hands. The magic had wreaked havoc inside their bodies for a short period of time before it was purged from their systems but the damage had still been done. Their bodies were healing but very slowly. They would be of no use to Ed in a battlefield that involved the Black Order and Thanos. In such a situation, if Ed could use the Space Stone and take them all away, it would be very good for them. Frank just hoped that Ed did not plan something stupid like keeping himself here and then leaving them for the sacrificial play.

As if sensing Frank’s thoughts, Ed turned around and said, “Don’t worry. We will all get out of here safely. I have already locked the space around his ship,” Ed’s right arm was glowing blue as he was exerting the might of the Space Stone without the help of some regularity. According to the notes that Alfred had sent to Frank before, the body that Ed was currently inhabiting was made with the literal best of the best that Alfred could find so he was reasonably certain that Ed could wield at least a single Infinity Stone without his body being damaged irreparably.

“Will you be ok transporting something as large as an entire ship? We can have them converge on a single deck and then you can just take that part if that is easier. We can even–” Frank continued to suggest stuff, trying to make himself helpful because he was feeling so useless in the current scenario. He had literally only used his powers once on Hela for a sneak attack and had been injured so badly with a single attack that he was no more useful to Ed than a suit of armour, which was pathetic and humiliating for him.

“Frank, don’t worry. I can do it,” Ed said to Frank with a smile that caused Frank to just sigh in relief as his shoulders relaxed. Ed then waved his arms, causing a ripple to go through the deck’s floor, causing many of the people working to gasp as they stepped away from their desks. Ed didn’t say anything but his actions caused multiple thin wires to emerge on the floor, connecting and criss-crossing each other in patterns that Frank could ever hope to even understand.

Frank looked on in worry as the feeds showed them that multiple smaller ships including over a hundred Leviathans that they had seen in New York had gotten out of Sanctuary II and were now on their way. Out of all the ships, there was one that was faster than all of them and was at the forefront. Zooming in, he could see Thanos standing on top of the ship with his arms crossed in front of him, clearly showcasing the Infinity Gauntlet and the two glowing gems on it.

Ed smirked at Thanos who was trying to intimidate him but it was not as if that was going to work on him. He clenched his right arm and then slapped his arms together, making another blue wave but this time, it rippled out of the ship.

Everybody on the ship, including Frank, watched in marvel as a huge robot seemed to materialise right in front of them. It continued to grow bigger and bigger until it dwarfed even their super class carrier ships.

Thanos looked at the robot with an indifferent look on his face. His eyes then narrowed as he looked at the congregation of blue energy that was happening in its chest. Slowly, bit by bit, the entire robot’s body lit up with blue energy, signalling the use of the Space Stone. Thanos sighed and uncrossed his arm. He then rocked his arm back and punched into the vacuum, but the action caused the purple gem to glow and release a wave of devastating energy beam that promised to destroy everything in its path. The beam continued to cross the distance between them at record speeds. Even Ed’s spatial lock loosened in the face of such an onslaught.

Meanwhile, in the ship, Frank was getting worried about that attack because they would surely be disintegrated should that attack hit, and right as he was about to talk to Ed, Ed snapped his fingers and then placed his palm on the ground, lighting up the entire ground in the captain’s deck. In fact, everywhere on the carrier, multiple glowing wires began emerging which glowed blue. Eventually, the entire carrier glowed blue before it disappeared with nary a sound.

Thanos looked in disappointment as the Singularity fled from him. He expected it but he was hoping for the Singularity to stay and fight him. Now, they would have to go to Earth and fight him there. They would also gain preparation time but he was not someone who would walk away from a hard fight if it meant that his goals would get completed. He was about to order everyone to walk back when he felt something and turned around. The beam from the Power Stone had passed unimpeded through where the robot should have been.

Thanos’ eyes widened as he realised what the robot was for. He turned around and was about to command Maw to look for the robot when he looked at the blue dot around Sanctuary II and realised that it was already too late. The damn Robot was already about to infiltrate the ship.

He immediately jumped from the ship and used the Power Stone to propel himself to the ship as the robot tore a path straight into the ship, probably hoping to do as much damage before he could reach the ship and personally destroy it. It was a mistake to bring his Black ORder with him here. He should have left at least Maw back. He reached the hangar and could see the ship had already sustained significant damage in the short time that the robot was inside. He was about to head inside to find that damned thing when his body froze as the sensation of danger closed in around him. He immediately used the Power Stone to create a cloak of pure energy around him and that turned out to be a very good decision because the next moment, the entire Sanctuary II was sucked into what appeared to be a miniature black hole. It would have gone on to swallow his entire forces but he used the Power Stone to forcibly close the black hole.

“Sire, what do we do now?” Maw’s query sounded in his ears as he looked at his remaining army. He simply clenched his fingers, making the gems shine, “Now? We go to Earth. We go to…. War,” His words were accentuated by the ominous glow from the Power Stone and the Soul Stone.

_____________xx_______________

Moon Base

At the same time, a blue wave of energy began suffusing the very skies above the Moon base, alarming its inhabitants. The Virtual Intelligences that Alfred had left behind that were in charge of the base’s defenses stirred into action as they opened up all the turrets and prepped the emergency attack vehicles. The barriers were already at their highest levels anyway so nothing was changed there. All of this was done solely by the automated programs even before Maria, the de facto head of the base right now was informed of the current situation. The base was right now bereft of any technical staff who could help her but she was in charge of the civilian population that was now hiding in the bunkers along with her. Before she could do anything or tell anybody else of the change that had occurred above them, the video feed showed the scene of a very familiar carrier entering the airspace above them. Maria sighed in relief when she saw that the security codes were confirmed and the barriers above the isolated hangars were now opened for them to land securely in. She was about to give the commands to start the procedure for opening up the rest of the barriers when the process was taken out of her hands. She gasped as unshed tears gathered in her eyes upon seeing the healthy form of Ed. It meant they had succeeded in their rituals. She was about to say something before Ed’s face took on a determined look, making her swallow her words.

“Maria, Thanos is on her way, and for that, we need everybody on deck,” Ed’s words sent chills down Maria’s spine. Before she could say something, Ed closed down the feed, presumably to move on to more important tasks. At the same time, the bunkers began opening up as Ed’s message continued to inform everyone of their safe return while at the same time, informing them of the approaching danger and how they would play their role in it. Maria was unsurprised to know that all of them were about to be moved to various bunkers on Earth which were much less safe but at the same time, were not prime targets for Thanos, making them actually much safer than the Moonbase for now. Some of the bunkers opened up, and some of them actually closed down as they were originally mobile ships capable of interplanetary flight so those bunkers were directly taken to their destinations. She was actually wondering about Alfred as his voice was nowhere to be heard and yet, she could not disturb Ed and the others with her questions right now, with Thanos hot on their tail. So, Maria chose to swallow her questions and dutifully evacuated with all the other members.

Meanwhile, back on the captain’s deck, Ed was contemplating his recent decision. He had made the admittedly reckless decision of using the Space Stone himself instead of just inserting it as a power source in the machinery that he had built right into the carrier. IF Alfred had been awake and able to operate the carrier, he would not have hesitated but using the Space Stone without a will in the machine could lead to disastrous consequences and as such, he had used an Infinity Stone to transport something as large as a super class carrier to Earth. Ed clenched his fists as smoke slowly seeped out of tiny pores out of his body as his body’s healing mechanisms worked overtime to heal the damage done to his body. He probably should have created something like the Infinity Gauntlet using his powers but that tier of item was apparently out of his league for now, at least not without him getting a scan of it and that would be a little difficult considering the person who had it right now. The damage done to his body itself was minor as he had created an internal metal mechanism in his body that bore the brunt of the energy that the Space Stone released while transporting them, the sheer heat generated from all that energy being thrown around made it so that some of that energy bled into his own body, intermingling and sometimes destroying his CHI storage, leading to the death of some small chunks of cells. HE had since already healed everything but it would be a while before he could use any of the Stones to such an effect again. He would probably develop multiple tools in which he would embed the stones and then use them as he deemed. That would be a much better strategy than using the stones barehanded.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“How long do we have?” Ed turned around once he heard Frank and the rest of the team enter the captain’s deck. Frank was the one who had asked the question. The robot he had created must have been successful in at least destroying the propulsion systems of Sanctuary II if not outright destroying the whole thing. Still, he would like to be cautious and assume that Thanos would reach their planet with some backup ships which would most likely be powered by the Infinite Power of the Power Stone, leading to reduced travel times. It would probably take Thanos…

“--24 hours. That’s all the time we will probably get before Thanos enters our solar system,” HE informed Frank and the party who seemed both relieved and worried at the news. Relieved that they had at least a day to prepare and worried because that was not as much time as they had expected. Healing their armies and gathering their allies would take longer than that. Hell, even negotiations might take longer than a day.

“We have to hurry. Frank, take someone and head straight to Earth. Tony is awake and already underway for a B-tier general enhancement procedure. Take him with you and offer to do the same to Pepper. That should sweeten the deal. Then head to Wakanda and then Atlantis, and tell them it’s an express request from both Alfred and me. Tell them to gather their armies. I will create the stage for our fight with Thanos,”

“We will not fight on Midgard then?” Loki stepped forward and asked the question. Frank had already left with his orders. Daisy had left with Frank as they both best worked together.

He nodded and raised his left hand, showcasing a hologram about a rectangular plate. IT was just that the size of the plate left the ones standing before him in awe. It was almost twice the size of Asgard itself and was more comparable with the size of Africa. “We will be fighting on this. This is something that has already been located and will soon be brought into our solar system. I know the exact coordinates to it and with little work, it will look exactly like this. The special thing about it is that it is entirely made up of Vibranium,”

Dr.Banner’s gasp echoed in the captain’s deck, “How is that possible? This much Vibranium..”

Ed nodded, “Yes, this is very valuable but it is more valuable in the sense that I can manipulate it during the fight, allowing me to have a home-field advantage. Atmosphere and gravity will be taken care of with the reality stones and the systems that Alfred had already built. Now, I want you all to prepare as much as you realistically can for the battle, and if you need anything for the battle, don’t hesitate to ask. This is quite literally the…Endgame,”

Everybody nodded and left the deck, all determined to be at their best for the final battle.

___________xx_____________

“So, this is…nice,” It was amusing for Alfred to watch Namor, the big bad king of Atlantis, the strongest metahuman of Earth, as long as he was submerged that is, stuttering as he took in the huge stage that had been built for their battle. It had been over 16 hours since Ed had brought in the carrier from Thanos’ jaws back to Earth and over 2 hours since he awoke. Ed had to actually jumpstart Alfred’s systems and build some of his internals from scratch because of the damage done during the ritual.

“Yes. It is nice, as you put it,” Alfred snickered and then playfully raised his hands at Namor’s glare. Honestly, beating down Namor and then letting him live along with promising (and then delivering) to clean the oceans, beginning at the areas around Atlantis had been enough to gain Namor’s loyalty. He had not even hesitated to pull up all his armies, well, the ones that could function on land, that is, and then enter a portal without an ounce of hesitation. Of course, it helped that Ed had given Frank the medallion that had Alfdred’s soul mark on it that was first given to Alfred when Namor had been beaten into the ground by him.

“It’s nice that everybody showed up, right?” Namor asked him, mostly just using the conversation to hide his nervous jitters. He had read all about the person who was coming to wreak their asses and could only take solace in the fact that Thanos himself was going to battle only Ed and they only had to deal with the vastly culled army that Thanos carried around himself. Namor had brought with him his elite soldiers, leaving behind just one to manage the empire in his absence and all of the ships capable of surface warfare. He was also given a pendant, as were all of his elites, that created a small area effect around them which increased the humidity to such a level that it was comparable for them to be in shallow waters, effectively increasing their strength and stamina to their peak.

No government on Earth was invited to the battle aside from just informing them about the battle taking place because none of the governments on Earth had any standing armies or weaponry that could help in a battle of this level, aside from the nukes but those were such crude weaponry that they might as well not participate. Of course, the sudden existence of such a large asteroid in the solar system did come as a shock for most people and AlfredGPT had been hit by queries regarding it and Alfred had given all of the servers only a small summary before he had shut everything down. In fact, this was the only time in all of Alfred’s existence where his code was only in a single place, and that too in a single body. That was necessary because Ed had to forcibly draw his main self back into the body to successfully resuscitate his mind.

Wakanda had pulled out all the stops and had actually sent both of the Panthers for the fight along with a sizable portion of their armies, which included the Jabari as well who had submitted to N’Jadaka’s rule once he had gone to their mountains and defeated their entire tribe.

“All the armies have to do was kill the straglers. The big Leviathans will be taken care of by the Hulk, Thor, Daisy, and Alfred. We have some members who are still missing who would have been of huge help but Alfred has been unable to locate the wielder of the REality STone, Jane Foster, and Stephen Strange, the next Sorcerer Supr—”

“--Here,” A voice interrupted them as Stephen Strange and Jane FOster appeared on top of the platform through a burning orange portal.

“Jane! YOu made it,” Thor exclaimed as he all but blurred to Jane, forgetting that she was a human the last time he had seen her. He realised too late that he was going too fast but that was not a problem because as Jane was now, she was as strong if not more stronger physically than Thor.

‘Yes, very happy for the reunion. Alfred, I suppose you can integrate them into the plan as well. They will also be the heavy hitters responsible for the Black Order,” Ed continued even as he looked in the distance where multiple blocks were emerging and reordering themselves through the use of his powers. He was building something for the fight but nobody knew what it was.

“We have less than an hour before Thanos shows up. Long-range trackers have already sensed a mix of ships that Thanos must have taken throughout his journey. A conservative estimate puts us at equal odds, which is very good. As a last resort, we have over a hundred nuclear weapons sitting right underneath this place and when they erupt, I can channel all that energy into a single place.” Ed’s words brought no comfort to the members present as they looked at the floor warily as if the aforementioned nukes would erupt anytime now.

“Anyway, here he comes,” Ed declared as, with a purple glow surrounding his accelerating form like a meteor, Thanos arrived at the other end of the battlefield. The Black Order followed suit as they arrived on their respective ships. The atmosphere got tense as both sides waited for Thanos’ armies to arrive and soon enough, the battlefield was littered with dozens of Leviathans and thousands of CHitauri soldiers, which was comparable to that of the New York invasion.

“Did you like my gift, Thanos?” Ed said from far away and yet, Thanos heard it all the same. The robot golem that Ed had made in the last moments before he retreated from the scene must have destroyed Sanctuary II and reduced his army to such pitiable levels.

“You will pay for that transgression, Ed. I will pry those stones out of your cold dead hands if I have to,” Thanos growled out, the very air around the armies reverberating as he said so. Thanos was already making judicious use of the Power Stone. HE also worryingly had the Soul Stone but Ed was ready because his soul would be even more difficult for Thanos to manipulate due to its sheer size and weight.

Thanos’ gaze went to Ed’s chest piece where three of the Infinity Stones were hanging casually. His eyes narrowed as he looked for the last stone that he was able to sense on the battlefield and yet, he could not pinpoint. No matter, Thanos thought as he took the first step forward, he would just have to find it amongst the corpses of his enemies.

As soon as Thanos took the first step, there was a resounding purple shockwave that threatened to swallow their armies but before it could reach them, Ed arrived at the forefront and slapped his hands together, lighting up his entire body with the space and time stones before Ed, Thanos and the thing that Ed had been building at the corner of the battlefield disappeared from the universe and instead, appeared in an alternate universe.

Alfred, along with everyone else was incredibly startled because this was not part of the plan but Thanos’ armies continued to charge forward so they did the same.

Thor and Jane made short work of Cull Obsidian before moving on to the Leviathans. Tony Stark, now enhanced, made easy work of Proxima Midnight as his nanites effortlessly cleaved through her body and destroyed her from inside out.

Stephen Strange cast multiple spells across the battlefield that shielded every single member of the allied army from on top of the standard armour that Ed had provided for them. He was also the one who, with a single humongous sword, had sliced through not just two Leviathans but also from an unsuspecting Ebony Maw. Apparently, training with Jane Foster, who had been in the constant company of a nerd for the past few years, had given Strange many ideas on how to creatively use basic eldritch conjurations.

Corvus Glaive was easily taken care of by Alfred whose attention was not on the battlefield below but on a locator spell, he was repeatedly casting by taking in energy from all available sources in order to search for his creator. The creator who had abruptly disappeared at the beginning of their battle, taking their strongest enemy away from them.

Meanwhile, in the alternate dimension that Ed had taken him into, Thanos had lashed out with the Soul Stone, as soon as he had felt himself being transported. The result of that attack was a Thanos who was now bleeding from all of his orifices as Ed took the Infinity Gauntlet off his dead body.

“Sigh, what a waste of time,” Ed lamented how easy it was. He had guessed correctly that his soul would be one of his strongest weapons in the fight against Thanos as the Ancient One had once told him that even the strongest beings, even armed with the Soul Stone, would struggle to extinguish his soul. He had done two very basic things during his stunt earlier. He had transported a subset of nanites that were so small that it would not be wrong to call them quantum beings. They were the ones he was making at the edge of the battlefield. Their only function was to infiltrate Thanos’ body and flood his body with energy from the Quantum realm so that it would destabilise the flow of cosmic energy in his body.

Ed had not even expected Thanos to just try and use the Soul Stone on him at the get-go. That resulted in his body coming under even more pressure, requiring him to use up more of his energy that was in reality quantum energy rather than the cosmic energy that he was used to. As Thanos was focused on the Soul Stone, he failed to realise that he was effectively choking his own body, resulting in the below scenario.

His body had ended up taking so much load with little to no usable energy in it, his body had been crushed under all that pressure.

Ed then took one look at the Gauntlets and then at the stones he had in his possession and decided that the world didn’t need them that much. So, he created a bomb of sorts with the Space Stone. One that would shred the very dimension they were in and then simply placed the stones in that dimension and primed the bomb such that all of the stones would float in different directions of the void.

He then took the Infinity Gauntlet and came out of the dimension. He was greeted with an empty battlefield with the exception of Aflred who was floating in the same place he had disappeared in, with Stephen STrange arguing with Jane Foster who was holding on to her hand which was glowing with the energies of the Reality Stone, the only Infinity Stone in existence in the universe.

As soon as he arrived, everybody looked at him as he raised the Infinity Gauntlet in the air, it seemed as if the entire Universe sighed in relief.

He had done it. He had defeated the big bad of the universe and he was alive for it. Sadly, Toby had still not awoken. He would have been happy for him.

“Father!” Alfred shouted as he slammed into his form like a missile.

Ah, he could rest happily now, Ed thought to himself before his thoughts screeched down to a halt as the entire universe, as if it had reached the broken part of a CD, glitched before he was once again greeted by the same ROB who had given him this chance.

No.

No. No…NOOOO!

_________________xx________________

Word Count - 5178

Woohoo! It’s finally done. 125 seemed like a good number to end it on. Almost 280k (well, 279449 but you get the gist of it)

In all honesty, I did not like the ending and might write an epilogue some time but for now, this is it. I have plans for a second part of this where Toby will be the main character with Ed and Alfred living a slice of lifestyle in the post-scarcity human civilization that will be built in the coming generations after Ed won against Thanos. But that will come much later. I have just noted it down in my ideas pad. Might even do that as a one shot. Who knows? Not me.

I know that many of you think that Ed was the side character and Alfred was the MC and honestly, you might be right. I started this as a hobby and it has helped me learn so much more than I thought it would so forgive me if I made some mistakes along the way; that’s how I learned. I have come to love writing and will continue to do so.

I have another fic in the works and the first few chapters will be posted in the next couple of days.

As usual, Thank you for reading!

Toodles!

If you have read all the way here, first off, thank you for that. Secondly, I have already published two of my next fics. They are The Sage of the Mind & The “G” Shield. If you want to read more of my works (I totally understand if you don’t want to), you can head on to the aforementioned links.