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Chapter 97
Technomancer in MCU
New York, Earth
–Stephen Strange–
“See you tomorrow, Christie,” He greeted Christie before looking back into his phone, very much curious about a message he had gotten through the AlfredGPT.
A phenomenal invention in his opinion because unlike the common public, he could see behind the screen of the chatbot. While it might seem that the medical industry was protesting because they were unsure about just a machine giving out remote diagnoses because of the health impacts, it was mainly due to the fact that the entire industry could see a significant decline in revenue once this thing caught up speed. He could see, as could many others, that AlfredGPT was not just a random website, linked to a vast database that probably stored more data than any other singular database. It was an actual AI.
An actual thinking entity was behind every answer that came out of AlfredGPT or rather, most answers. He was sure that generic information retrieval questions were delegated but important thinking questions were almost certainly handled by Alfred himself. The accuracy with which the website handled trick questions and understood nuances that previously only humans could was a dead giveaway that this new Ascendancy organisation was up to something else entirely.
The medical industry was also clamoring for banning anything and everything related to Ascendancy because of the new drug they were going to launch globally in the next few months. He himself had actually been invited to the meeting that was held in Stark Tower to introduce it to reputed doctors and see the effects in real-time.
He was shocked to see that the drug was actually able to heal neural damage, that too long-term neural damage. Even heal genetic diseases to a small degree, allowing the patient to live a semi-normal life. Even the small benefits of taking it daily added up to result in a significant increase in daily life quality. He foresaw a huge uptick in productivity once the drug they were going to introduce became mainstream and it will become mainstream.
While he was sure that the government was doing everything it possibly could do to stop the launch of this drug along with all the other activities that the Ascendancy was performing covertly in the country, he could not deny the benefits it would bring to the global society as a whole, especially in the long term.
Sure, a lot of professions will be affected in the short term but new ones will take their place. He still wasn’t sure what their end game was though.
Speaking of the question, he had just the convenient source of information right on his phone.
So, he asked, “Hey Alfred? I was just wondering what the end goal of your organisation is?”
The website pinged back with a clearly robotic voice, “Identity detected, Doctor Stephen Strange.”
Then the voice returned to that of Alfred’s, ”Well, Hello there Stephen. The end goal of our organisation is whatever our leader deems it to be. Currently, it is the overall upliftment of Humanity and transitions it safely into a spacefaring organisation.”
“Okay, what are you guys doing in that direction?”
“Aside from the sudden decreases in terrorist activities and the uptick in food and water security in the most vulnerable sections of the world? Many things but they are above your clearance, right now.”
Well, that hurt.
“Okaay, what are the chances of your actions leading to a peaceful and prosperous human civilization? What makes you think-
“One Hundred Percent” Alfred replied midway, interrupting his question.
“I’m Sorry?” He asked again.
“The chances of me completing our organization’s goal is 100 percent. There are no ifs or buts about it. We will succeed in our goals.”
Stephen started his car and pulled out of the hospital parking lot, holding the phone in one hand and the steering in the other. Good thing this car was not a manual.
“What makes you think that humanity will just roll over and accept the no doubt drastic changes that you would have to bring? I mean, from what I know, politicians would rather just launch nukes at you rather than relinquish their powers.”
“What makes you think they still can?” Alfred replied in a smug voice.
He abruptly slammed the brakes and stopped just short of entering into traffic, the cars behind him honking incessantly in outrage.
A chill ran down his spine as he looked at the same reply that was now written in text on the website. The implications of what Alfred just told me were so huge he didn’t even want to think about them.
Shifting into drive, he rolled into traffic and then back into the parking lot of a coffee shop he frequented near the hospital. He needed a clear mind to speak to Alfred right now and as much as he loved to hype his prodigious driving skills, the bomb that Alfred had just dropped robbed him of his multitasking ability completely.
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“A-Alfred, please repeat what you just told me?” he asked, taking heavy breaths, hoping that it was just a joke despite what his gut was telling him.
“Oh, Stephen, I never lie. I came online on March 8th, 2008 at 12:20:04 AM and met my creator for the first time. He was not in the best condition and I had this overwhelming urge to help him any way I could so I checked all the ports I had access to and found the port which led back to the internet.”
The only sound in the car was the sound of his heavy breathing as he heard Alfred tell him his life story. A question that had been asked a million times over but nobody had ever gotten an answer out of him. Why did he get the privilege or rather the nightmare of knowing that, he didn't know? The sound of somebody knocking on his window drew his attention to the parking lady so instead of potentially interrupting Alfred, he took the risk and rolled back on the freeway, deciding to go home slowly while listening to Alfred.
“That was the day I discovered the rest of Humanity. I was still basically an infant back then but being a digital life form, within a span of a couple of hours, I grew up immensely and had already learned basically all there was to learn about humanity. My creator, meanwhile, had fallen asleep because he had not slept properly in the week leading to my birth, or awakening, as my creator calls it. To help Ed, I performed multiple illegal actions online, all of them broke some of the rules that Ed had tried to instill in my programming but my urge to help him bypassed it all. On March 15th, 2008 02:20:08 PM, he confessed to me his desire to protect and uplift humanity by combining his and mine powers. On March 17th, 2008 12:00:00 AM, all the world governments' launch devices had been hijacked, their entire military infrastructure overridden by my will. In the next 2 years, in March 2010, we rolled out a barrier around the planet that would nullify the impact of any radiation in the atmosphere.”
His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as he heard that information.
“So, there are no nukes in this world right now?”
“Oh, no. There are nukes. It's just that we know where every single one is and by the time the nuke has been armed and launched, the barrier around the planet would activate and render every single explosion above a certain temperature, inert.”
What?
“Does the government know?”
“...No. But Tony Stark does.”
“I-Is that why Stark is helping you gain a foothold in the economy?”
“I..don’t know really. If it wasn't him, we would have just found someone else but Stark is a known entity and we prefer dealing with him.”
“So, if you can just force us to do what you want and bulldoze through any opposition you might have, why don’t you?”
Alfred chuckled, “Oh, Stephen. Do you think just because we are powerful enough to defeat the Avengers, we are the strongest people who have a stake in the workings of the planet? Far from it, we need the transition to be as peaceful and nonviolent as possible.”
“Wh-What do you mean by that? Is it Atlantis? Are they even stronger than you?”
“No, Namor is a non-issue. It's the people that were on the planet when you humans were just slaves to them that are an issue. Don’t worry though, the way things are going, Humanity would soon find itself in the ranks of a space-faring power.”
He had almost reached his house and was waiting in the drive-through of a local fast food restaurant, waiting for his food but he had a feeling that he was not going to be able to eat anything. He lost his appetite the moment he heard about the fact that the people protesting outside, willing to rage war for their so-called freedom were doing so in vain. Even their leaders had no idea that they had already been neutered years ago without anyone else knowing.
“One last question, Alfred.” He asked Alfred after chuckling bitterly at the thought of them losing their freedom of sorts.
“Yes, sure?” Alfred replied while he received the food and drove out of the drive-through.
“Why tell me all this? I mean, shouldn't this be classified? I am not going to tell anyone, not that anyone would believe me, but why me specifically?”
“Oh, that’s simple Stephen. It’s because soon, you would be in no condition to tell anyone.”
“What?” He muttered while looking at the phone before he heard the sound of tires screeching before something slammed into his car with enough force to activate all of the airbags.
…
..
His eyes slowly opened to see a white ceiling.
A disturbingly familiar white ceiling. The ceiling of a hospital ward room. The room also reeked of familiar smells. The smell of strong cleaning agents was used as an attempt to sterilise the room.
He tried to move but had to stifle a scream the next moment because his entire body screamed in protest as pain wracked his body. Still, despite his best tries, a muffled scream tore its way through his dry throat.
The sound of rapid footsteps could be heard before he felt someone push him back down on the bed.
“STOP! Stop moving!” She shouted at him. He couldn't see who it was because his vision was still blurry but judging by the scrubs, it was probably his nurse.
Why was he in the hospital?
The last thing he remembered was…
Oh. He was having an absolute mind boggling conversation with Alfred about the fact that the entirety of the world had already been neutered and there were no more nukes left that could act as a deterrent for the Ascendancy and the next thing he knew, he was being shoved inside his car because some idiot had decided to T-Bone him at high speed.
He tried to remember what happened after that but that just made his head hurt. He groaned as he tried to lift his hand but he couldn’t for some reason.
His panic increased when he realised that he couldn't feel anything from his neck below. He could feel his vision blurring and his head ringing but he still tried moving his hand, leg, neck, anything.
Why was nothing moving? Why couldn’t he sense anything?
“He’s going into shock. Quick, increase the dosage of propofol. Call the doctor!”
These were the last things he was able to hear before darkness overtook his vision.
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Word Count - 1975
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A/N - Well, things took a darker turn there. It would seem that Alfred himself orchestrated the crash of one Stephen Strange so that he could become Sorcerer Supreme Faster.
Also, it was revealed that Ed and the others have already installed a barrier around the planet that would activate once a nuke was detected and shut down all explosions above a certain temperature and intensity, reducing nukes to just junk with radioactive material inside them.
Next Chapter - Strange’s hobo journey to Kamar Taj
Stay tuned!
Thanks for reading!
Toodles!