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Chapter 25
Technomancer in MCU
Birnin Zana, Wakanda
Previously
I gave T’Chaka an amused look.
Why would he choose this as our first site?
He seemed to understand our confusion as some pallor returned to his face and he gave us a half-hearted chuckle and led us into the Royal Wakandan Museum.
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–Ed–
He led us into the museum.
The entry staff gave us weird looks but tried to be as professional as possible.
“Why bring us here?” I asked him.
He gave me a look but didn’t reply and kept walking.
Soon we came to a stop facing an empty wall.
“Where to now?” N’Jadaka asked.
T’Chaka just gave us a bemused look.
I gave him a knowing look.
The place we were standing in lit up in a circular shape and the whole ring started to float up.
N’Jadaka stumbled, clearly surprised but the ride itself was very smooth.
We cross multiple floors and even move sideways for a bit.
It was all very disorienting.
“Forgive me but it is a security precaution, installed after a devastating attack initiat—” T’Chaka said.
“By Ulysses Klaue, we are aware.” I interrupted him.
He gave us a searching look after that.
After a while, he said, “If you could give us his location, Wakanda would be eternally grateful.”
We had reached the first floor and I was looking around when he said that.
They had some pretty interesting stuff lying around here.
“He’s on the ship. I brought him here in case negotiations went awry and I needed some incentives for you to be bought into the fold.” I smirked at him.
He looked taken aback at that, clearly not expecting us to give him Wakanda’s enemy number one on what was essentially a silver platter.
He then nodded gravely, “Wakanda will forever be grateful for that. You can consider that a personal guarantee from me.”
I waved him off, “Yeah Yeah, I know. Now come on, show us what’s important here. I recognised some stuff earlier that was interesting but I know for a fact that it was just surface-level stuff.”
“You know what they are?” he asked me, surprised for some reason.
I gave him a shallow nod and said, “Some of your people must have been potent sorcerers, for them to have made artifacts of nearly the same level as the ones found in Kamar-Taj.”
He just gave me a confused look as if the words I was speaking were gibberish to him.
Curious, I always thought he knew about the existence of Sorcerers.
We were walking towards a vault-like door present at the end of the hallway and I was just about to explain to him about the existence of the Sorcerer society when all three of us abruptly stopped.
All of us could sense the pressure, the sense of impending doom that every living being with a survival instinct.
This feeling made us feel like an ant, something that can be crushed at a moment’s notice without any deliberate thought.
I sighed, she and her need for overbearing dramatics.
I turned around and said out loud, “I know you are here. You know, this doesn’t work on me after the first dozen tries.”
Both N’Jadaka and T’Chaka gave me weird looks for saying that.
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They were both tense and looking around for threats.
I chuckled, like they could see her coming in a million years.
They tensed even further, T’Chaka in particular when a golden portal opened up in front of us, and out stepped The Ancient One in all her bald-headed glory.
She gave me a sharp look as soon as she stepped out as if she had read my mind.
For all I know, she could have.
Honestly, with her, you never know.
The museum defenses started ringing but with a quick flex of Alfred’s skills, they all shut off and a false alarm notice was sent to the security department that was already flighty with their King’s fainting episode.
I bowed deeply towards her, “Ancient One.”
“Greetings, Outsider,” She called out to me.
She refused to call me anything but that, even after years of trying.
Grumbling slightly under my breath, I asked her, “Why have you come here? With your MO, a note would have magically appeared in front of me and that would have been the end of it.”
“Can’t I just come here to escape my duties then?”
I gave her a deadpan stare at that. The only way she is leaving her job is if she dies.
I should know, I had asked her that during one of our many correspondences.
She was dead set on dying and refused to be saved even if I guaranteed Strange’s ascension to the skill level that was required for him to become Sorcerer Supreme and later on, save the universe with it.
“Okay, I am here because we need to do something important after you are done with your tour, before your next meeting. My being here would allow King T’Chaka here to be better understanding of your situation.” She said.
N’Jadaka and T’Chaka just looked at both of us conversing normally, their mouths agape.
“And you are correct. Wakanda once had a vibrant society of sorcerers. Two Sorcerer Supremes came from this country.” She continued.
“What happened to them, then? Alfred hasn’t sensed a single person with the necessary dimensional energy flowing through them for them to be classified even as an apprentice, let alone a master or a Sorcerer Supreme as you said,” I asked her.
She gave a noncommittal hum at that, instead walking towards a black mask.
I groaned at that, her obsessions with riddles frustrated me with no end in sight.
Nonetheless, I followed her as I had no choice here.
I stood beside her, looking at the artifact, trying to decipher what was special about it.
“Don’t bother. Even I would have needed a significant amount of time to unravel the wards surrounding the true nature of this artifact. Without the time stone, it is basically impossible to find this.” She said gravely.
Understanding the severity of the situation, I asked her, “What is it? Is it dangerous? Do we need to evacuate the city for it?”
She looked at me as if I was stupid.
As if the strongest motherf*cking person on the planet had not warned me about a thing that would have been invisible to even her senses and she could sense people halfway across the world with pinpoint accuracy.
“This is not dangerous, Ed. This is the blessing of a previous Sorcerer Supreme to Wakanda. She must have foreseen the magical society of Wakanda collapsing and taken measures to ensure that her lineage is not forgotten.” she mumbled the last part.
Breaking through the energy barrier as if it was a layer of water rather than something that would take the Hulk’s punches as if it were nothing, she deftly took hold of the mask and yanked it out of the display.
T’Chaka made to protest but one look from her made him swallow his words.
She then handed it over to N’Jadaka, surprisingly.
Startled, he scrambled to take it in his hands and glared at me when I snickered at his nervousness.
She had that effect on people when you first met her.
N’Jadaka looked at her questioningly.
Her eyes glowing, she replied, “Keep it. Soon, you will meet its destined user. They will be the future of Wakanda. Protect them and make sure that they reach their full potential. In the near future, Wakanda’s and to a further extent, Humanity’s fates would depend on them.”
I rolled my eyes at that, always with the cryptic riddles.
N’Jadaka and T’Chaka looked very concerned with that.
N’Jadaka asked her, “How will I know? What if I give it to the wrong person? Will I destroy the world then?”
She gave him a look as if asking him: Are you stupid?
He looked as if he had swallowed a particularly sour lemon.
“Now, onto the matter at hand,” She turned to T’Chaka.
“Yes, magic exists. Consider it as an advanced form of energy manipulation. Where your people use the innate ability of vibranium to manipulate energy, we sorcerers do it with our bodies. Of course, there are pros and cons but that discussion is for another day.” She continued.
What followed was a lengthy discussion regarding the existence of Magic and its role in protecting the human civilisation at large since before the founding of Wakanda.
T’Chaka was pretty shocked to realise that people had known about Wakanda before it was even formed and two of their people had even gone on to lead the super secret magical society.
After explaining all of that to T’Chaka and even N’Jadaka as I had yet to give him access to the supernatural side of the world, she bade us farewell.
But not before inviting me to Kamar Taj for a discussion.
Yeah, I was not looking forward to that.
Sighing, I turned to T’Chaka only for him to look at me with a dead gaze.
He whispered, “No wonder you don’t take Wakanda seriously. If even half the stuff she told me is true, then we have truly been living under a rock all this while.”
Oh boy, he was in shock it would seem.
Deciding to console him, I pat his shoulder and say, “Don’t take it too seriously. She is more than capable of taking care of the mystical side, at least for a couple more years.”
“You should focus on what you can do instead.”
He nodded at that.
“We should continue on with our tour of the museum then, shall we?” I asked him.
He nodded back.
N’Jadaka, in the background still looking at the spot where she pulled off her disappearing trick. His face was pale, looking as if he had seen a ghost.
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Word Count - 1669 (Nice)
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