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Chapter 99
Technomancer in MCU
New York, Earth
–Tony Stark–
“Who could have expected there to be a country in Africa with this level of tech with them,” Tony said to Bruce as he hustled back and forth between the lab in Stark Tower. Tony’s personal lab and not the one that was given to them by Alfred as part of the building’s reconstruction.
“Honestly, Tony, Why did you promise them an upgrade in shield technology? Even though you know that there’s is the most advanced one on the planet anyway. There is no merit in upgrading something for them. We should instead devise new methods of defense.” Bruce said while he continued to work on the calculations for the gamma fallout from the shield.
“And that’s what we are doing, Bruce. Look, it might not be clear in the first attempt but I have a fantastic plan for a planetary defense system that will also act as a deterrent in case of war between countries.”
Tony then dragged Bruce’s chair who promptly gave out a defeated sigh and allowed himself to be dragged by Tony who had been acting like a kid on a sugar high ever since he had gotten some idea about barrier enhancement and had dragged him out of his personal research and tasked him on it.
In fairness, Tony was paying him a very handsome salary so Bruce figured the least he could do was help Tony with some of his projects for a little bit before going back to his own research but no.
Apparently, what Tony wanted to do was create a projection shield. Something that even Alfred struggled with, in his early days, if the logs are anything to go by. Then, midway through, he had another idea that had him prancing around for days. Bruce had asked about it but Tony refused to tell anyone about it until today, it would seem.
“Look Look look, I finally figured out the expansion to energy ratio,” Tony said while showing him something that he had never thought he would see for at least another decade.
A modular full-scale planetary shield capable of stopping asteroids, lasers, space debris, and spaceships.
“Tony, if these numbers are correct then,”
“Yeah, even the strongest of the nukes won’t be able to breach the barriers. In fact, I have designed them for much higher workloads.”
“I can see that. If you are able to build this, even a thousand nukes a day would not add much to the energy consumption of the shields. Theoretically, we could last months without any backup even against an advanced fleet as long as this barrier is active.”
“Yup!” Tony couldn’t stop grinning. This was his most important achievement since he convinced Pepper to become CEO and his girlfriend at the same time.
“...You said something about it also acting as a deterrent for countries who go to war? How are you going to do that?” Bruce asked as he cleaned his glasses.
Tony’s smile turned into a smug smirk as he raised his finger, “Ah, that. Let me introduce you to my master plan for world peace. At least, peace for major countries.” Tony mumbled the last part.
He then placed his hand on the hologram table, which opened up a list of options in front of him. He then went through a bunch of procedures and authenticated himself which opened a file that had to be decrypted using a secure code that only Tony knew about.
‘So much secrecy, even in this lab where most of the world wouldn’t be able to reach even if they knew about it all,’ Bruce thought to himself after seeing all the process Tony went through.
“Tada!” Tony said after showing Bruce nearly the same shield model as before. Bruce deadpanned at Tony whose smirk slowly widened before he tapped the rotating globe in front of them slowly.
As if a string had been cut, the outer structure of the shield fell apart, revealing the underneath. The shield projectors could be seen located across the planet as opposed to a single massive planetary shield generator that could power a barrier for the planet for years.
“What’s this, Tony?” Bruce asked, astonished at the figures he was seeing. If he was correct and from a cursory glance, the math did check out, Tony would be able to create a system that could turn the planet into an unbreachable fortress, all with its own sun or at least the barrier simulating sunlight so that the plant life on the planet doesn’t die if their attackers decide to block out sunlight for the whole planet, slowly starving them.
“It is a modular system. Every major nation on the planet will get one shield generation system that they themselves will be responsible for maintaining. The generators themselves will act as deterrents because if somebody managed to harm even one of them, the entire system would fall apart.”
“But don’t you think that’s a bit dangerous given that a small terrorist group could take out any one of the generators and leave the entire planet defenseless?”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Tony leveled a deadpanned look at Bruce, “Please, like Alfred and Ed would ever leave the planet defenseless.”
“That is not the point and you know it.”
“Fine, we will make extras and give them to smaller countries too. But this is the best-case scenario I could come up with because the way I see it, even if Alfred accelerated it, planetary unification would take at least a couple more decades and I don’t think we have that much time on our hands. This would give us the breathing room that we need.”
“And does KIng T’Chaka know about it?” Bruce asked Tony, concerned about the implications of such a project that a country would have to bear, especially one already as controversial as Wakanda itself.
“...”
When Tony didn’t reply immediately, Bruce’s concerns grew manifold.
“Tony, we don’t want Wakanda on our asses, hunting us because we compromised the shield system that is the only thing hiding them from the rest of the world. The world that would not hesitate to tear them apart and distribute the spoils between themselves should it come to that.”
Tony scoffed, “I know that. It is nothing like that. If anything, their shields will actually be enforced with this mode. It’s just that-”
“I hate to interrupt such a spirited discussion, Mr.Stark but I have a Case 16 alert here.”
His face immediately turned into one of intense focus as Jarvis projected a case report in front of them.
“What is a case 16 alert?”
“Jarvis?”
“A case 16 alert is one that Mr.Stark created once he had removed the shrapnel in his chest. The 16 alludes to the number of pieces that were stuck in his chest because of the grenade explosion that happened in Afghanistan in 2008. A case 16 alert means that someone who was on the list has gone through something major that can be of interest to Mr.Stark”
“Oh, what happened then?”
He chose to speak up at the same moment, “Nothing, just the most talented neurosurgeon of New York just went through a car accident and had his entire body paralyzed. Let’s go, Bruce, we have a patient to visit.”
“Oh, so we are going to help him?” Bruce asked as he donned his jacket. Tony had the urge to scoff at that. Like they could do anything about it. The guy had shrapnel all over his spine and even if they could remove the shrapnel, there was nothing he had that could heal his entire neurological structure just like that. Even the concentrated CHI crystal that Alfred gave him in case of emergency would not help. It would probably take years of exposure to CHI and therapy for Strange to even gain some modicum of mobility. Sadly, he would probably be bed-bound for the rest of his life if all he had was modern medicine. What he needed was Advanced Medicine and he was going to offer that to him, that.
Partly as a way of petty revenge after he himself was snubbed by him when Strange was approached for his heart surgery and partly because he felt sorry for the guy. At the top of his career and then something like this happens.
“Sir, I have a slightly disturbing discovery as well that could change things,” Jarvis said just as they were about to leave the lab.
“What is it, Jarvis?” He asked Jarvis who instead of answering, promptly opened up a holo screen right in front of him. Honestly, installing those holo projectors in every single space that he worked in was a great investment, even if he had to tear them down every couple of months because he made huge strides in that field and just could not bear to use the old outdated models.
“Sir, I did some digging and it would seem that from the moment Dr.Strange left the hospital to the moment he was in the accident, he was on the phone.”
Tony groaned. Oh, no. This was just criminal.
“But he was not talking to a person. He was using AlfredGPT.”
What?
He and Bruce both looked at each other dumbfounded. Who uses that chatbot while driving? And for what?
“Jarvis, do we have the transcripts?” He asked Jarvis even though he knew the answer to that question.
“Unfortunately, no sir. The last time I tried, as you had instructed, to get access to AlfredGPT’s servers, I was locked in my own server space for about 24 hours before you came and rescued me.”
He winced as Jarvis narrated that incident. It had been a bad day without Jarvis there to automate most parts of his life. As it had turned out, Alfred had simply flipped the switch and forced Jarvis back into his servers and cut off his ability to use the internet or communicate at all. He had inspected the code later on and found out that Alfred was not completely off the hinge as he could see that Alfred had allowed Jarvis the opportunity to relearn the code necessary to communicate and eventually, rescue himself.
He began driving or rather kept his hand on the steering for appearances because he was not allowed to drive by himself as Jarvis had installed specialised remote driving systems in all of his cars for safety purposes. Something he could not override because Jarvis had Pepper behind him and he would not be able to say No to her.
“So, what are we gonna do?” Bruce asked him even as he continued to work on his personal research project. He still did not know what it was though. Just that it would vastly enhance Bruce’s power. He had been of the opinion that Bruce didn’t want the power he had now but then Bruce told him about all the dangers outside that could harm the planet and swallowing his concerns about his powers was the least he could do for the planet.
He had been in no position to tell him no so he continued to research on the topic.
“We are going to take Strange to the Stark advanced medicine wing and wing it from there.”
“Isn't this person rich? Shouldn't he have the best possible medical care by now?”
“Yes, but the thing is his money will not be able to buy him the best possible medicine because we don’t sell it yet.”
Bruce looked up at him from the research at that statement, “Please don’t tell me we are going to give him the treatment Alfred warned us never to give anyone without his express permission.”
Tony lowered his sunglasses and looked at Bruce, “You Tell me.”
“Tony,” Bruce groaned while rubbing his face.
He laughed while pressing the accelerator but his face fell when he realised that it didn’t work and the car was still being driven by Jarvis who wouldn't listen to his requests to increase the speed, at all.
For God’s sakes, they were driving at Grandma speeds, not Stark speeds!
Word Count - 2038
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