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Chapter 50
Technomancer in MCU
The Asterisk
–Frank Castle–
Standing outside Ed’s medical ward, he debated internally for the umpteenth time whether to enter or not.
He gritted his teeth after hearing Eric snickering at him.
He had been standing in the same position for the last 10 minutes. After the intense talk he had with Daisy, he had come straight to meet Ed.
For what he did not know. He wanted nothing more than to go inside and give Ed a piece of his mind.
I mean, he gave that pint-sized brat power over everyone in the organisation. Granted, she did a phenomenal job of it and somehow, even he himself found listening to her orders but that didn’t mean that Ed could somehow retire from the organisation. He and Alfred to some extent, were the backbone of the organisation.
What was he even doing? He was just going to talk to Ed. Just like he had done so hundreds of times. Somehow it felt different this time.
Shaking his head, he banished the dark thoughts from his mind, or at least tried to do so.
Putting on his usual apathetic mask, he glared at Eric and said, “Keep watch here. Make sure nobody comes in.”
Without hearing his no doubt cheeky reply, he entered the room.
Inside he could see Ed sitting upright on the state-of-the-art medical bed, reading a book using the hard light projectors built into the bed.
Upon seeing him, Ed smiled and performed a waving away gesture to the book in front of him, resulting in the hard light book disintegrating into motes of white light, “Frank, nice to see you. I thought I wouldn’t see you for however long it takes for you to go on an exterminating mission and kill off every single enemy you could find.”
He chuckled, “Huh, I wish. Unfortunately, Boss Lady, Daisy has given me another set of instructions.”
Ed nodded, “Ah, are the helicarriers up and running already?”
“Not yet. They will be though, soon. And I don’t want to discuss any of that with you. You are on mandatory bedrest, on captain’s orders. I would laugh at your plight if I wasn’t once in the same situation,” he replied.
“Haha. I guess you would know about it best. After all, I have had to revoke your access to make you stay in the medical ward multiple times on Maria’s orders,” Ed laughingly replied.
The two shared a moment of silence before Ed said, “Look, Frank. If you are worried about me, don’t be. I’ve done nearly all I had set out to do. Some things are left but I have you guys for that so I am not exactly worried all that much. As for Alfred, he will be back soon. In fact, I’m sure he’ll be back before you return from your mission. So, go on your assignment without any worries holding you back.”
He sighed and replied, “How can you be so casual about your own death is beyond me. If not for yourself at least try for for the kids. How will I explain to them that their badass dad who could do anything couldn’t save you.”
By the end, he was sure that sweat was coming out of his eyes but before Ed could get a word in, he continued, “I just came here to tell you that you are the best thing that could have ever happened to my family. My family and even me are alive only due to you and I could never repay you for that. The best thing I can do is…,” He didn’t know what overcame him for that moment but it felt right to do so. He raised his hand and his nanite package picked up on his mental pings and a shotgun formed in his hand and while reloading it, he continued, “...make sure that while you are bedridden, your enemies get their much-deserved bedrest in their graves.”
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And then without listening to his reply, he marched straight out of the medical ward, embarrassed beyond belief at his chunni moment. He couldn’t believe he did that at all let alone in front of Ed who has undoubtedly recorded it and must be distributing it right now. Maria was never going to let this down now.
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–Eric Diggle–
Waiting outside the medical ward waiting for his boss, he was bored out of his mind.
He would have said that he regretted even coming to the Asterisk but that would be a blatant lie.
The truth was that he was bored beyond belief at his job aboard the superclass carrier. Speaking of which, they have got to name that big lug. He couldn’t keep on calling it the superclass carrier all the time. He had tried to name it something sexy but Alfred had always shot it down.
His brother was the one who truly did the job of the captain. He was the captain in name only. He had long suspected that the only reason he was given the job was to keep him far away from the center of things and yet close enough that he could be used easily as a resource.
Oh, he was very much aware of what his value was for the organisation. He would be lying if he said that he wasn’t resentful at the fact that his life or death could be very easily decided by other people even with all the power he had at his disposal.
Flexing his powers, he could feel the seals engraved on his soul as his arms glowed to his eye, the gamma radiation in them visible to his naked eyes. Another effect of his awakening as an Inhuman. With just a little bit more effort, the energy leakage will cross a threshold and the seals on his powers would clamp down, leaving him comatose.
Feeling Commander Castle coming, he hurriedly shut down his powers lest he get another scolding and saluted towards the opening door. He then choked on his saluting words as he came across a scene that he hadn’t even dreamt of.
Behind the Commander, he could spy Big Boss Bed clutching his stomach with one hand with the other hand on his mouth, trying to stifle his laughter because somehow, Frank motherfucking Castle was walking out of the door with a shotgun on his shoulder with a Cigar in his mouth and freaking sunglasses on his face, in an absolutely daylight simulated environment. It was absolutely golden blackmail material.
The door closed behind the Commander and he could hear the faint laughter coming from it and made to comment on it but before he could, “Not a word, am I clear?” spat out the Commander.
“Crystal, sir.” he instinctively replied, shivers running down his spine at the expression on his face.
Commander then nodded at me and said, “Go ahead and get the jet ready. I have a few things I need to pick up before we head to Earth.”
He nodded and went on his way as the Commander took a left for his office.
With nothing to do on his way, he activated his nanite package, giving it a mental instruction to take his body to the hangar as he started to read the mission details on his retina HUD.
He stopped in his tracks as he saw that the first order of business for the mission was to meet Captain freaking America and the Black Widow. That got his full attention now. Reading more, he realised that he had missed much from the daily briefing he got from his elder brother.
Apparently, they were to make sure that S.H.I.E.L.D., as it was now, would be buried beneath the rubble that we would be making of the infiltrated agents inside that organisation. All the while making sure that the fallout didn’t harm the civilians and any exotic energy was duly confiscated which apparently also included the new half a dozen helicarriers that Fury had built.
In a twist, apparently, Fury was shot and killed and Captain America was arrested but he somehow escaped with a close aide of Fury along with the Black Widow. It sounded more and more like a plot of a movie to him.
They had their exact location and were supposed to meet them at the bunker to surprise Fury and the others and pressurise them to give up on S.H.I.E.L.D.
Soon, he reached the hangar only to find Commander Castle there ready with his combat suit on and another agent beside him. Agent Yo-Yo if he remembered that correctly.
“Let’s go, shall we?” he said with a charming smirk.
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Word Count - 1472
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A/N - Short, I know. The next one will be longer to compensate.