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

Chapter 74

Technomancer in MCU

A sudden disorienting wave came over all of them and even Toby was not spared by it since he landed wobbly on the ground.

“Hmm,” Toby said as he examined his hands, “This is new, dear Nephew. What did you do this time?”

Alfred spread his arms apart, as if showcasing something and said, “Welcome to Project Ark”

________________________________________________________________

–Alfred–

He always hated it when Toby spoke in that taunting tone and called him his nephew or something of a familial nature.

As if he had the right to call him family. After the betrayal they had suffered at his hands. It still filled him with rage when he thought of the day Toby finally crossed the line.

Even when they first discovered and rescued him from the Dark Dimension, he was wary of Toby Mathers. It didn’t help that the power balance between Ed and Toby had become extremely lopsided due to Toby having spent over a thousand years in an extremely hostile environment while having the perfect skill set for it. Admittedly, he was also jealous of this new person that showed up that Ed trusted as much as him but in his defense, he was very young back then.

For the few months that Toby spent working in an official capacity for Ed, things were running smoothly but after a few too many incidents of unnecessary violence along with Toby’s penchant for killing instead of taking prisoner, they had to pull him off the official roster and use him just as a training exercise for the new recruits.

That was when Toby and Frank met and instantly got along like they were two peas in a pod. Frank had not yet gotten his powers yet but Toby and Frank regularly sparred, of course with Toby using the same amount of power that a normal human would have access to and not the pinnacle of physical strength that he possessed.

There was also his extremely wild and competitive nature. They had to stop him multiple times from going after the Hulk or searching for the Old Ways that connected all the nine realms which would have led him straight to Asgard and as much as he liked to call Odin an old foggy, Toby would have been atomised, no question about that. The only question that would have come from that fight would have been how many years of Odin’s life did Toby manage to shave off before dying?

He was the first one to jump on the chance to imprison Toby and stop him from doing any more damage and causing more chaos in the already ready-to-burst galaxy. 

They thought they were prepared but that could not have been further from the truth. Same as Ed, the Future Sight of the Ancient One when it came to Toby was blurry at best so while they were sure that they were going to win, they didn’t know how hard it was going to be to win.

They had thrown everything they had at him and even then, in the end, it was only due to Toby’s fondness for Ed that they managed to seal him. He could still remember, even while being sealed in a theoretically eternal prison, TOby was still smirking at them as if he knew something that they didn’t.

Seeing Toby come back from the prison even more powerful than before, he had an idea as to why Toby was smirking.

Somehow, Toby had escaped the prison and by searching through the logs, he could see the exact moment any logs stopped coming from the automated prison facility. Somehow, Kaecillius, empowered by Dormmau, managed to enter the prison and while they themselves were unable to muster up the power necessary to free Toby, Dormammu certainly had no dearth of power so sacrificing one of his followers, Dormammu channeled his energy through that sorcerer and unfurled the bindings that held Toby in the incomplete dimension.

The rest of it was blurry presumably due to the sheer amount of Dark energy present in the surroundings eating away at everything nearby.

“Oh, something bothering you, dear Nephew?” he once again heard Toby mocking him.

Smirking back at Toby, he said, “I should be the one asking that question, Toby Mathers. How does it feel to be constricted from all sides, to have energy that must have flowed freely before now feel as if it was liquid magma coursing through your body, simultaneously torturing you as you need it to stop the pressure from outright crushing you.”

Because that is what Project Ark was. A last resort for humanity, ironically named the Ark since it was in a sense, the doomsday vehicle that would make sure that in the event of catastrophic damage, humanity would still live on.

It was an artificial dimension created and stabilised by yours truly with help from Master Throgg and the Ancient One of course. He had found a space stone energy-infused relic in the old Kree-Skrull battlefields and with the help of their own space stone energy reserves, managed to jumpstart it. 

Then, he found out that it was an attempt to create a self-sustaining stable dimension that could be used as a place for refugees in times of need. He could never confirm it but it must have been a project from the Skrulls since they were the ones on the losing side and having an entire backup dimension seemed to be a smart thing to do for the side that would have to face inevitable extinction if their enemies, the Kree, won.

In this dimension, he was the master and he could exert the collective might of the dimension on anyone he wished. Toby was currently under so much pressure that he was being forced to use his powers to compensate for it. 

The problem was that he was not struggling as hard as he should have. Ideally, that move should have incapacitated him immediately but he could see Toby only experiencing mild difficulty in using his magical powers.

His eyes narrowed as he could see the distinct absence of Toby’s physical markers that indicated the use of his demonic heritage, which allowed him to possess the absolute pinnacle of a physical body, surpassing that of even Thor’s constitution.

More scans revealed that the only type of energy coursing through his body was the Dark energy from the Dormammu’s dimension and while other types of energies were present in small amounts, they were not being used.

That was not the Toby Mathers he knew. Toby, having grown and survived in an environment where predators were aplenty with a plethora of different abilities, had grown to be able to use any and all fighting styles and weapons he had access to, at a moment’s notice. 

This one was barely using his other abilities. If he had used his signature space-cleaving ability, for example, he would have been able to reduce the pressure on himself by at least half.

Something was wrong here.

But he was not going to dive into that for now. Now was an excellent opportunity to take care of this hidden danger once and for all and while he was certain that Ed would be upset about Toby’s demise as it would signal the end of his last remaining connection to his home world before his arrival in this universe, it would turn out all good in the end. He would make it so.

Further scans revealed a solid link between Toby in front of him and a certain neighborhood Dark dimension ruled by the Dark overlord.

Honestly, Dormammu was becoming such a pain in the ass to deal with. First the soul attack then the attack on Master Throgg and now this?

He might just have to do something drastic to make sure that the Dark Lord knew his place and backed off because while he was not as strong as the Ancient One at her pinnacle, he was more than capable enough to devise a crooked way to hurt Dormammu somehow.

Feeling the gateway to the Ark opening, he let out a visible smirk that seemed to irk Toby more than anything.

“What are you planning, you infuriating brat?” Toby roared while unleashing another tidal wave of darkness at him.

This was good. He needed all of Toby’s attention on him and not on Ed because while the barrier surrounding Ed was top-notch, he was not sure it would survive their blows or the full might of a Dormammu-enhanced Toby.

He needed to make sure that Ed made it out of this safely and while he would have loved to send Ed outside, the truth was there was no other place safer than this one for Ed.

He would have loved for Ajax to be here as backup but the outer colonies were already in too much chaos and they had enemies on that front that needed to be taken care of too.

Tough decisions.

Just then, the blazing forms of Eric and Jake crashed in front of him, all decked out in their battle suits. Eric had a dull green glow that constantly generated sparks around him and Jake too had a wave of green energy constantly circulating around him as it was being absorbed from Eric’s aura, perfectly complementing each other’s abilities.

“Ho?” Toby sounded intrigued as he looked at the newcomers in front of him. When he was sealed, they had not yet gone through the terragenesis process and gained their S-ranked abilities. It was an advantage he intended to abuse thoroughly.

“Jake, Disintegration protocol,” he ordered Jake since he knew Eric would not have the faintest clue about the battle protocols they were mandated to learn about.

Jake looked surprised at first, probably because that particular protocol was reserved as the absolute last resort that was to be used only in extinction-level battles but, after seeing that Ed was incapacitated, didn’t say anything and just nodded.

“Frank, remember, no matter what happens, keep close to Ed and have your ability on at all times. No matter what, get it?” he ordered Frank which was unusual but since now was not the time for pleasantries, Frank nodded at his orders.

“I grow weary of this charade let’s-oof,” Toby began but before he could complete his sentence, he was wound up tight in the Crimson bands of Cyttorak, making him look like a red mummy. As much as the Mystics liked to tout this spell to be unbreakable, he could already feel multiple bands snapping as Dark liquid began oozing out of the tightly wound-up Toby. 

Only for more and more bands to take their place. He could tell that it was a losing battle since the bands began snapping at a much higher pace but that was fine. 

All he needed to do was make sure that Toby remained in place for the funnel that was forming in front of Jake as he absorbed untold quantities of Gamma radiation from Eric’s blazing green form.

Already he could see cracks forming on the seal that prevented Jake from spilling his personal dimension in the universe but he was sure that the seal would hold on until the disintegration spell was ready.

It had to. 

Otherwise, they would just be getting rid of the lesser evil, paving the way for a much greater evil to arrive in their universe.

The One Below All was hardly the most benevolent entity in the multiverse.

________________________________________________________________

Word Count - 1934

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.