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Chapter 36
Technomancer in MCU
Previously
“Alfred, chart a course to London, will you?”
“Yes, sir.”
Without so much as a small lurch, the jet did a ninety-degree turn and sped off towards London.
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London
–Ed–
Soon, the Big Ben came into view.
“Alfred, use the leftover energies from the space stone to lock down the space surrounding the portal once we reach there. I don’t want any unexpected complications to arise from there.”
“Are you sure, sir? That would use up nearly 6% of our Space stone energy reserves.” Alfred replied.
“Why so much?” I asked him, slightly shocked at the expenditure.
Due to the generous use of Vibranium in all of our energy-related technology, our efficiency figures never dipped below 90% and 6% of our energy reserves was a lot.
“Sir, it’s due to the convergence. While the bigger events will take a while to happen, the space surrounding this area has already become substantially more malleable than usual. Also, I am detecting some interference in the surrounding space. Somebody is trying to break the dimensional walls.” Alfred replied.
My eyes widened in realisation as I said, “So, somebody is trying to take advantage of the weakening barriers during the Convergence. Must be some demon or hell lord trying to send their agents of chaos here. Do alert the Ancient One.”
Before Alfred could reply, a small golden portal opened up in front of me and a small rolled-up scroll flew through it, dropping it right at my feet.
I rolled my eyes at that.
Honestly, how she managed to open a portal in front of me, keep it geo-locked since the jet was moving at a very high speed and deposit the scroll right at my feet, is beyond me.
Probably even Strange would not have that level of granular control, even when he would ascend to the level of Sorcerer Supreme.
It read - ‘Don’t worry about the Order, outsider. I have the dimensional barriers covered. Focus on your quest. It shall either grant you tremendous rewards or give a terrible enemy access to weapons that can remold the fabric of our universe. No Pressure :)’
Yeah, Right. No Pressure. Thanos with the Reality Stone is already undefeatable in my eyes if he can use it properly. And she says no pressure. Hilarious.
“Approaching Convergence Site A” Alfred helpfully reminded me.
The jet, in stealth mode, approached a garden?
Somehow, the first portal to open on Earth due to the convergence happened to be right in the middle of a children’s playing park.
The jet crossed the illusion barrier and a makeshift site came into view.
Only, because it was made by us, it was made of vibranium-lattice nanites.
We truly use that stuff a lot, don’t we?
Before I could disembark the ship though, a whining sound emerged from the jet as a thin blue beam emerged from its underbelly, which then unfolded itself to become slightly longer. The whine reached its crescendo when a blue wave was emitted from the beam.
Almost immediately, a near-transparent blue barrier surrounded the entire makeshift facility.
Almost immediately, a thin wiry, glasses-wearing man with a fierce scowl on his face exited the facility and upon seeing me, the scowl on his face somehow worsened.
I didn’t even know that it was possible to do that.
Apparently, angered upon seeing me, he stomped towards me as fast as someone with a walking stick could.
Despite, numerous attempts by me and Alfred to have Dr.Lawson get treatment for his eyes and his legs, he refuses to do so.
I like being old-fashioned in some ways that still matter, he says.
After being told off a little too many times, I backed off.
“What were you and your freaky AI thinking when you, without my prior approval, activated machinery that would have rendered all my efforts since I came here, moot?” he brandished his walking stick at me and shouted vehemently.
Apparently, Alfred had forgotten to mention to Dr.Lawson regarding the effects of the space block on his equipment.
Sure, he is the most advanced A.I. on this side of the galaxy, has processing prowess matched only by perhaps the Supreme Intelligence and somehow he forgot to mention a crucial thing to the now very irate scientist.
I wonder why I tolerate Alfred sometimes.
I raised my hands placatingly and explained to him, “I am sorry, Dr.Lawson. You know how Alfred is. He must not have informed you regarding the space lock.”
His face turned an even darker shade of red at the mention of Alfred.
Oh boy, Alfred must not have stopped making his coffee taste like coal then.
I sweatdropped as he went into a huge tirade about Alfred.
About how he was always bothering him, changing his coffee, abruptly changing the destination on his vehicles, and fighting for control with him whenever he tried to wrest back control of said vehicle, and the list went on and on.
I mentally noted to myself to order Alfred to stop doing his pranks on people above 50. At least those that haven’t had their bodies enhanced by us.
It would be a huge loss if we lost the foremost expert we had on gravitational anomalies, to something as preventable as a heart attack.
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Someday, I might have to do the procedure on him, without his consent anyway. Especially since he is on the cusp of weaponising portals. The sorcerer’s portals need an edge to them and Dr.Lawson is the one who is going to provide it.
Sure, if Thanos is actually defeated by just opening a portal and closing it once he is halfway through, I’ll feel pretty stupid for doing all the other preparations but it will be a victory and I would be free from that particular Sword Of Damocles.
“Are you even listening to me, you snot-nosed brat?” Dr.Lawson’s irate face with a vein popping out of his forehead appeared in front of me.
I lean slightly away from him and more importantly, his walking stick that I know was upgraded since I can see the shine of the Arc reactor coming out of its small crevices.
As soon as I focused on the walking stick, a blown-out view of all of its weapons and features appeared on my retina HUD.
Sure, the man refuses to have his legs healed but is okay walking around with a small army’s worth of firepower in his walking stick.
Does he even know how much damage that stick he is brandishing around can do?
Clearing my throat, I said to him as sternly as I could, “Dr.Lawson, while I am sorry about the lack of notice to you, I am still your superior and this kind of language doesn’t suit someone of your station.”
He just looked at me like I was a fool.
He then waved that death stick of his and turned around, huffing and puffing as he stomped back to his office, “You can shove your superior position where the sun doesn’t shine and tell that damn AI to stay out of my way.”
He then paused right before the door and turned towards me, saying, “Now, do you still want your report or do I have to kick you out of my site?”
Then without listening to my response, he just walked on ahead, uncaring of his insulting attitude.
I could see the guards and the researchers nearby, watching the show and chuckling quietly to themselves.
Enjoying their leader being embarrassed and scolded by someone who apparently doesn’t care about my power at all.
I looked ahead and walked into the good doctor’s office shamelessly, pretending that I didn’t hear all of them howling in laughter once I entered the site.
Entering his office, I could see Dr.Lawson clearing up his desk from a pile of papers taller than he was.
Sighing, I said, “Doctor, I am sure that you are aware we have hard light projectors that can give you the same feel as hard paper without cluttering your space to the point it can’t even be called one anymore.”
I gestured to the ground, where not a single foot could be kept without stepping on a piece of paper that had advanced mathematical formulas written on them.
Scoffing, he waved me off, “Bah! What do you youngsters know? Nothing and I mean, Nothing can replicate the feeling of writing down a formula on a piece of paper and staring at it for hours, trying to figure it out.”
I gave up.
“Alfred, clean this place up, will you?” I ordered Alfred out loud.
He didn't reply but several hard light constructs appeared around the paper.
I snorted once I saw the look on Dr.Lawson’s face.
Alfred, smartass that he was, had actually projected brooms and dustpans around the entire office, showing the pages being collected into the dustpan and then into a dustbin labeled as “Garbage”
Ignoring his vehement protests, I stepped on the finally clutter-free flooring and sat on one of the chairs.
Alfred, understanding my intent, projected hard light tongs and grabbed Dr.Lawson like he was a piece of bread and unceremoniously dropped him in his chair like a sack of potatoes.
I held in my laughter at that scene.
Looks like I’ll have to assign Dr.Lawson one of the VIs for a while.
While they can reduce efficiency figures of research pipelines, it is not by much and I don’t think Dr.Lawson or anyone on his team for that matter will allow Alfred in their systems anymore. If I forced them, it might just start a mutiny here.
Not letting any of my thoughts show on my face, I crossed my legs and said, “So, doctor. What do you have for me?”
He opened his mouth, probably to berate me but I stopped him and said, “I’ll be honest with you, Dr.Lawson. There are many others in the organisation and even outside who will be more than happy to sign any binding contract for an opportunity to sit in the same chair as you do. So please, tell me straight. What do you know so far?”
He got red-faced, probably angered by my insinuation that he was easily replaceable to me, but controlled it in the end and handed me one of the manilla folders that was sitting on his desk.
Taking ahold of it, I opened it and looked inside to find all the findings regarding the portal, including its rate of expansion, different esoteric energies being emitted from it, energies spewing out of it that are not indigenous to Earth, and so on.
“You know” he began, “I am not stupid. It's just that years of working alone and being ridiculed for my hard work have probably jaded me more than I would admit. On top of that, your A.I. is a royal pain in the butt to deal with. You have to admit that.”
I opened my mouth to defend Alfred but closed it slowly once I thought of all the things the crew had had to deal with because of his shenanigans. They only tolerate him because they are scared of me and Alfred doesn’t do anything when the situation calls for it.
It does help that he has a near-perfect record of helping coordinate all missions.
“See” he pointed towards me, “Even you know that.”
He then sighed and said,” That matter aside, the portal is stable and now that the space has been locked, we’ll be able to study it in more depth. Is there any way we can quarantine this zone until the Convergence is done? More than one member has approached me regarding their concerns about an invisible portal that changes its destination appearing right in the middle of a children’s park. People could die, Ed.”
He was right.
Not only was the destination of the portal changing from Svartalfheim to Jotunheim to any one of the nine realms.
No other realm other than Earth is hospitable for Humans.
Even Vaneheim, the closest to Earth in terms of atmospheric composition, has nearly 10X Earth’s gravity.
Even 6 times Earth’s gravitational force would be fatal to all healthy adults.
Let alone children.
Nodding at his question, I reply, “Don’t worry. I’ll have somebody look into it. The easiest way to do it would be to alert S.H.I.E.L.D. about it but then they would want to butt their heads in the research as well. And we both know how disastrous it would be if S.H.I.E.L.D. gets its hands on portal creation technology.”
He nodded at that.
I then stood up and said, “Don’t worry, though. I’ll do something. Maybe a radiation leak will quarantine this place for atleast a year then or we can just outright buy this place through our corporations. Anyway, continue your research and I’ll expect to see you during the monthly departmental head meeting.”
“Very well. Now let me do my work in peace and make sure that infernal AI doesn’t stay in the systems.”
I nodded sheepishly at that and swiftly left his office.
“Alfred, make sure you don’t go anywhere near Dr.Lawson, at least until the Convergence. It is imperative that he does his research in peace and while I might find your pranks endearing, it has become a real nuisance to him. So, please, leave him alone.” I whispered to my suit.
Alfred’s hologram appeared on my retina HUD with a literal cloud over his head.
I deadpanned at that.
I shook my head and ordered him to take me to the Moon.
I had a meeting with Black Bolt that I needed to prepare for.
It’s time I had a meeting with the strongest Inhuman and either brought him into the fold or eliminated him.
Also, “Alfred, do remind me to take care of Maximus permanently while I am there, will you?”
“Roger that, sir.” his reply came in a subdued voice.
Oh, come on. Not this again.
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Word Count - 2368
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The shorter chapters backlog has now finished and all the chapters after this one should have ~2.5k words/chapter.
Author Note
Once Again, I am sorry BUT in my defense, I just moved to a city 1500km(35hrs) away from my home and had to find a place to stay, figure out the public transport (As it would take another week for my bike to reach here) and find good enough food for my tastebuds.
YOU try doing all of that in a span of 3 days all the while maintaining correspondence with the company that managed to somehow send me 3 different types of formats for the document arrangement( I ended up doing all 3 types and so didn’t have to do it again on the spot but that is another point altogether).
Good news is that today was my first day and I am now officially an employee (Yay!) and am now in the training phase. One advantage of that is I have a pretty good idea of what my schedule will be after this. So I should be able to catch up and maybe(hopefully) even stockpile on some chapters this weekend.
Anyway, thank you for reading my rant.
Toodles!