Technomancer in MCU #109

[A/N - Double Release Today.]

Disclaimer - I don't own anything. Please support the official release.

Chapter 109

Technomancer in MCU

Guest Wing, Asgard

–Ed–

"..Sigh… Just what was Stark thinking, barging in recklessly like that? Anyway, that's Frank's problem to deal with. How is the city coming along?" He asked Skye who was on the other side of the call. It had been almost 6 hours since they had given out the orders for the city to be built and the entirety of the Ascendancy was mobilised to make that happen. 

Skye looked annoyed at that as well. Honestly, none of the people in the organisation had any time for the Billionaire turned-hero but they could not just ignore him either. God knows what that man would end up doing if he was kept alone for long. Frank and all of the departmental heads were busy, coordinating with each other as they diverted resources from everywhere to the construction site that was being built at the North Pole. Already, he could see the number of people who were actively working on the project increasing as time went on.

Honestly, somewhere along the way, he had amassed so many people and so many means to accomplish stuff that now that he was finally seeing the entirety of his organisation moving at the same time, it was kind of shocking.

For someone like him, who had expected to fight against Thanos, the big bad of the MCU, with Alfred, Toby, and maybe, the reunited Avengers, this was all very surprising. He could honestly say that, as they were now, they would be able to triumph over the current roster of Avengers without much difficulty or even any casualties.

And wasn't that a terrifying thing to think about? The greatest champions of Humanity, defeated by something that he had started after getting an offhand comment from Alfred about him overworking himself and needing some sort of support system to help stem the flow of tasks.

"We are done with the foundations of the city, which was the easiest part. We already had a model for that from the New Attilan city so we just copy-pasted that along with adding sturdier vibranium alloyed foundations as per the requirements," Skye reported to him. He nodded along, fully aware of the requirements of a bunch of rowdy Asgardians who could just as easily tear off a metal bar as an adult human tearing a piece of plastic bag.

"What about the accommodations?" He found himself asking her because while accommodations were a priority, luxury accommodations were not something that was necessary, especially since that could be built later on if–when Asgard was destroyed. Right now, all they needed to build was makeshift structures with enough resources to safely sustain the entire population of Asgard for at least a week.

It would not take anywhere that long to complete the ritual but for a safe side, Alfred had made that a requirement. 

"Temporary accommodations are being constructed as we speak. We should have more than enough for everybody but if we need more, we can just project hard light constructs as per requirements. Hard light constructs were chosen to be installed at every possible place to ensure maximum coverage across the city, for both accommodation as well as security purposes. Alfred assured me that the newer hard light projectors will have the necessary throughput in them to stop even the stronger Asgardians from breaking through," Skye continued, reading through a bunch of reports that were being continually fed to her through her retinal HUD, that were active even now as she spoke with him.

"What about Asgardian weapons, though?" He asked Skye when it crossed his mind. Asgardian weapons were more often than not, made out of better materials and also enchanted at times. Allowing them to be sharper than most things on Earth. He was curious as to how it was going to be handled.

Skye grimaced at that question, "Well, blunt weapons can be stopped to a certain point. Certainly not Mjolnir but an enchanted hammer can be stopped, probably, but enchanted sharp weapons like a sword or an axe would most likely cleave right through the hard light barriers. The solution that I have come up with, and Alfred agrees with it too, is to abandon that section of hard light immediately and cover the entirety of the weapon, along with its wielder, in Hard light, rendering them immobile. The other option would be increasing the throughput of the Hard Light projectors but with the power we have on hand at the island, what with only a single Large Arc reactor being installed along with 4 Small ones for backup, we cannot increase the strength of the barriers. I see in the schematics that Alfred has created the infrastructure for a future upgrade to an N-reactor in the future but for now? The Arc reactor would have to do."

"What if there are other people who can help the imprisoned weapon user? What is the strate-"

"Ed, I am going to stop you right there. I have a lot of stuff to do and reporting everything to you will take more time than it is worth now. I know you trust everyone to do their jobs so why the sudden interest in everything?" She sighed, turned off her retinal HUD, and asked him the question that he feared.

Yeah, why was he pestering her for such small details when he knew that Alfred was there with her, along with every single person in the Ascendancy on her speed dial, ready to drop everything and assist her in the current project because it has been assigned importance level "SSS" by Alfred himself. He had no reason to pull her aside from her duties and demand updates that could just be given to him on a tablet that Alfred no doubt updates in real-time. 

He was just…

He sighed, his shoulders drooping as he replied, not finding it within himself to look right in the concerned eyes of Skye, "Look, I don't know what to do, alright? I guess I am a little bit scared as well. I had already given up on healing my body and resolved to go out with a bang, at least heavily injuring Thanos before you all took him down for good,"

Skye just looked at him with compassion in her eyes as he continued to talk about what he was feeling at the moment.

"Now, Alfred says that we have a very high chance of succeeding, and in my mind, I want to believe him but the what-ifs keep running in my head. What if the ritual fails and instead of restoring me back to my peak, what if it ends up hurting the strongest people we have on our side because that is what is on the line? Toby, Alfred, Thor, Loki, You, and Banner are all the strongest people in the fight against Thanos and I fully believe that even without me, you will eventually defeat him but Alfred's insisting on competing in the ritual and I guess, even I have gotten a little hopeful about it,"

He then chuckled wryly, "I'm sorry. Just ignore my ramblings. I am sure you have a lot of work to do," He was about to cut the call when Skye spoke up.

"No. No, you are correct in that regard and I don't think there is a single thing that you can do to convince Alfred and the others to stop, not now of all times." Skye spoke. She then did something and Maria Castle of all people was added to the call.

Before he could get a word in, Maria spoke, "Hello, what do you need, Skye? Oh, hello, Ed. What's going on?:"

"Oh, yeah, Maria, Ed is going into a tirade about how risky the ritual is and how we should just let him die instead of risking hurting all of our strongest players in the ritual." 

He glared at Skye, betraying him like that. Getting a lecture from Maria was the last thing he wanted to do today.

Skye then waved her hand towards him and said, "Continue…" Then she skedaddled out of the call.

He looked at Maria who looked equal parts angry and hurt, the worst possible combination when it came to her, "L-look, I can explain…"

North Pole, Earth

–Skye–

She sighed after getting out of the call. Honestly, what was Ed thinking? Of course, they would try anything and everything to get him healed. He was their leader.

Before she could get a moment of respite, somebody barged into her makeshift office which was just a hard light conjuration.

"Commander Skye, Commander Castle has returned from Atlantis,"

"Ex-Commander," She corrected the person who had come in. 

"Um, Mam?"

'Sigh, Just go. I'll be there in a second,"

"Yes, Mam!" He saluted and left her office.

Frank had gone on a warpath on the planet, making sure that no chaotic element remained that could distract the organisation from working at peak efficiency. From the mystic hotspots that had innumerable mages to the hidden civilisations like Atlantis to the scattered small groups like the Skrulls, Eternals, and even the Deviants. Each and every one of those people was intimidated by the might of Ex-Commander Castle, backed by the might of Ascendancy.

All that was left was the United States along with the Avengers. It was a good thing that Stark himself came to them before Frank sought him out. With Stark's ego, who knows what would have happened had they clashed?

Actually, she knew exactly what would have happened. Frank would have easily dismantled any attack Stark would have thrown at him and then they would have had to deal with a Hulked out Bruce Banner which was honestly, easier than she had thought.

The Hulk was terrifying because there were very few things that could survive a straight bout with him. Then, the solution was simple. Don't interact with him at all. The first sign of Bruce Banner turning green, multiple nano pockets would be launched at him that would continue to cling to his body, eventually burrowing inside his skin and lathing themselves to his bones. Then, the bots would go down to the soles of his feet and emit repulsors at the highest settings, vaporising his legs but to ensure that the Hulk would not be able to just remove the bots, it was a small price to pay. It would be painful, sure, but Bruce Banner would thank them for it, especially since the foot would keep on regenerating as long as Bruce was green.

She sighed, she was going on more and more tangents ever since she was given command of this project. Honestly, why couldn't Frank take the lead this time? She was just a baby and given this task was kinda overwhelming but Daisy Johnson was made of sterner stuff and she would prevail over this admitted huge task.

She slapped herself on the cheeks to get out of the rut and stormed out of the office, her tablet floating behind her.

She marched straight towards the temporary hangar that was built on the floating city. Well, it was temporary for their organisation but if it was compared to any hangar on the planet, it would be better than all of the hangars and runways that any country had ever built. It helped that their jets were all running on anti-gravity technology though. That, and Repulsor jets made it very easy to make jets with VTOL [Vertical Take-Off & Landing] capabilities.

Once she was inside the Hangar, she saw Frank speaking to his team while handing over his stained uniform to a bot that had appeared by his side.

"What happened in Atlantis?" She asked him once he was in hearing range.

Frank turned around and after looking at her, dismissed his team, all of whom had varying degrees of wear and tear on their suits.

"What happened to their suits?" 

Frank looked at her and sighed, "Long Story,"

She found herself nodding even though she was very curious as to who and what could force Frank to fight himself instead of employing the vast firepower they had access to, especially since Alfred had mass produced captain-class armours and distributed them en-masse to all field agents. Frank was, essentially, carrying around a large country's army around with him at all times so them encountering any opposition that was not immediately overcome was kind of surprising.

"But we are go for mission Asgard then?" She asked him. They had been sent a list by Alfred with things to do before the main forces of their organisation could be shifted to Asgard, to act as security for the ritual.

It included eliminating a ton of people and destroying a couple of organisations that were still budding along with tasking the current rules of various countries to make sure that their dissenting organisations were nipped in the bud. Various stray organisations that had built up in both Atlantis and Wakanda had to be destroyed before they could make their moves. It was also to act as a reminder to both of the countries' Kings that they were still under the surveillance of the Ascendancy.

"Yes. The list is done. We can go to Asgard once the city is done. Namor was surprisingly understanding once I beat him," 

His last statement raised her eyebrows in surprise. Defeating Namor, especially underwater, was a task even for the Hulk then how did he…

"Oh, Namor is a mutant by his species' standard and you just nullified his powers?"

"I was able to do that barely but it was enough to convince him. Oh, what's this I hear about Stark intruding on the base?"

"Oh, you are not going to like this," She grimaced as she reported the situation to Frank, who looked more and more resigned as time went by.

"Fine, lead the way," Frank said, resigned to dealing with the most troublesome member of the Avengers.

She would be lying if she did not find the situation a bit exciting. The billionaire was known to push the right buttons of everybody around him and she could not wait to see how Frank would react.

Word Count - 2386

 If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.

You know you want to, why resist?

I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.