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Chapter 49.1
Technomancer in MCU
Previously
He had to get away from there.
From the place that signified the death knell of his saviour and leader.
And he had a job to do.
He had to find Alfred before he did something he would regret in his quest to save Ed.
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–Ed–
I sighed internally as Frank left the room, uncaring of Maria calling for him to come back.
In a way, I could understand his mindset.
Ever since I saved his family from that dreadful day, he had done everything I ever asked of him. In a way, he pledged his loyalty to me that day.
Not only his own loyalty but over the years, he found me multiple good men who, upon enhancement, have become some of the best operatives.
Some of them even ran some of the ships with the biggest guns in the organisation. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that should Frank choose to do so, he could have a significant portion of the organisation’s key military assets siding with him. His contribution to the operations side of the organisation couldn’t be denied.
That was why I felt incredibly guilty whenever I thought of the day I met him. Over the years, I had thought of telling him the truth of that day. Of the fact that I had deliberately allowed the scenario to happen in a way that was most favourable for me but I always chickened out at the last moment. That I had allowed, even for a second, Maria and the kids to be in danger for my own benefit. I had justified it to myself back then with the reason that in the end, it would give them a much better life than they would have had in canon but over the years I have accepted it for what it was.
Over the years, as Frank grew into the role of Commander, he must have realised the truth of the incident that day even if I made sure that there was nothing incriminating in the files but Frank was not someone who would miss something like this. Even then, it changed nothing between us.
“Ed, i-is it true? About your condition?” I looked up as Maria asked me the question with hitched breathing.
I didn’t say anything and just nodded at her question.
Before she could ask me anything else though, I asked her, “How is everything being handled? How is Daisy handling everything?”
She wiped her tears and nodded her head at my question, “Ye-yeah she is handling it well. You chose the right person for the job, Ed. I’ll go call her.”
I nodded slowly, the exoskeleton slow to respond to my mental commands.
As the door closed behind Maria, I heaved a huge sigh.
I closed my eyes as my mind churned furiously, thinking about the future and the consequences of my previous actions that the others would have to bear.
I was not worried as much about Earth’s situation since Tony and the others, along with Daisy’s help, would be much better prepared for any threat that might come their way, at least until Thanos showed his ugly purple mug on my planet.
Just thinking about it made me furious.
What was the use of all this power and all this preparation I did, if I couldn’t be there to contribute to the final fight?
As it is now, I don’t even have the time required to participate in the battle and go out with a bang.
Man, how glorious that would have been. I would have been content even severely injuring Thanos as my last hurrah.
But, alas. Sigh, no use thinking about it now. The best I could do now was prepare Daisy and the others as best as I could and equip them with the best resources possible.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Honestly, the last thing I was worried about was Alfred, unlike others I knew what he had gone to do. He must have found something to try and prolong my life and to do that, he left the base servers. I shook my head as I thought about his actions exasperatedly. I knew he had grown out of the basic compulsions I had encoded into his code but didn’t expect for him to just up and leave, putting most of the organisation’s operations in jeopardy.
But then again, what has stopped Alfred Ed Muncher ever?
As I was lost in my thoughts, I heard the soft sound of the door’s lock opening and looked up to see Daisy entering with a nervous smile.
I smiled at her and then said in a faux serious voice, “Where’s your work tablet, Agent Johnson? I hope you know that it has the highest access level below me and I don’t think I need to explain its importance to you.”
She deadpanned at me and said, “ I know about it, Boss. So, how are you? I mean I know about your condition so I’m sorry if it came off as insensitive. I don’t know what I was thinking. I’m so sorry. Please don’t make me leave.”
I started chuckling softly as I watched her panic levels visibly increase in front of me.
“Ahh, I needed that. Thank you for that. Now, why don’t we get to work?” I said to her and commanded the suit to make me sit upright. I must have looked quite funny as the stupid suit took forever to follow my commands. I could have sent more juice but that would have put undue pressure on my condition anyway.
She pouted at me, “Yes, Yes. I am glad that my situation amuses you so much.”
I smiled at her reply, “Now, I hope you’ve had the time to go through all you have access to. All the bases we have, the assets we have stationed around the world, the people and entire communities under surveillance, the different hidden civilisations?”
Her smile became more and more strained as the questions came from my side.
“Uh, yes?” she said in an unsure tone.
I sighed internally, “Very well. You must have some questions, ask away.”
“Uh, so first of all, don’t worry about the agents, all of our operatives are accounted for, and save for a few, all of them have been recalled to their nearest base. I have also taken the liberty to reinforce the agents whose assignments couldn’t be canceled with heavy firepower and multiple teams are on standby to assist any agent who goes dark anywhere on the planet. The supercarrier’s N-reactor has gone offline but Commander Castle has assured me that is normal procedure.”
I nodded at that tidbit of news, “Due to the very nature of the N-reactor, it is something that is as valuable as an infinity stone-empowered person. The energy that could be extracted from such a relatively portable package was insane that was why I was against building it in the first place. But since Alfred and the other department heads outvoted me, I agreed on one condition that the second Alfred lost connection with the superclass carrier, the N-reactor would extinguish itself. Right now, that reactor is just an extremely expensive one-of-a-kind energy conducting empty sphere.”
“B-But what about the weapons on board the carrier? I thought that the gamma cannon needed the N-reactor to function at all.” She asked me in worry.
It was understandable of course. After all, the gamma cannon was the weapon we had on hand that could deter even the likes of Thanos from attacking our planet. SO much energy is condensed in the gamma cannon at the time of firing that physics becomes wonky at the point of impact. That property is what allows the cannon to penetrate most energy-based defences as if they were not there since, in a sense, they weren’t. The concentration of energy in that small point was so high that it affected things in the quantum level, thereby bypassing most energy based defences but it had yet to be tested on any energy based shields empowered by one or more infinity stones. Doing so carried the risks of detection after all.
I reassured her about the backups, “Don’t worry about that. In case of emergency, the 4 emergency Arc reactors along with the ones in operation would allow for the gamma cannon to be fired once. It would just take longer to accumulate that much energy, that’s all.”
“Okay, great. The next thing I wanted to confirm was I still can’t access some of the data. I mean, look, it here shows that we have a facility near the photosphere of our sun and somebody is stationed there. Not going into the impossibility of that facility being there, why can’t I contact whoever it is that is stationed there? I was close to sending a ship there but apparently none of our ships other than the superclass carrier is capable of gliding near the sun safely and even it can only do so for a very short period of time.’
I nodded, “A very valid question. The reason you can’t see it is because you are using Frank’s access and even he doesn’t have access to everything. Look, just give me the tablet and I’ll show you.”
She handed me the tablet and after having the exoskeleton provide it with my personal access keys, gave it back to her.
She excitedly started going through the all-new UI available to her and I waited patiently for her to go through it all. It would take time, after all, it was the entire organisation’s truth. Every agent and their history, every person under surveillance, every protocol I built for every emergency I could think of, every piece of weaponry we developed, all my plans for their future upgrades and the prerequisites for those upgrades, every ally we had and could have in the future, and even my ‘future’ visions, it had it all.
After a few minutes, I said, “Alright, you can go through that after a little while. I’ll just leave you with a few important things.”
She nodded seriously.
“First of all, no matter what happens, do not invoke the HELL protocol set. Second of all, go tell Frank that Alfred will return on his own. There is no need for him to go hunt him down somehow. Use your new authority if he doesn’t listen to you. Third and most importantly..”
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Word Count - 1758
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