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Chapter 82

Technomancer in MCU

The Asterisk

–Ed–

Well, that was a situation and a half. 

Not only did the team get an explosive introduction to Toby, but they saw him slap an Asgardian Prince, Loki, into oblivion.

“How did he survive?” he asked Alfred as he was busy sealing up Loki’s powers. He knew Toby and while he cared enough to hold back against people he knew, Loki was not fortunate enough to have Toby’s acquaintance. Personally knowing his strength, that slap should have been enough to at least cave his skull, if not outright kill him.

“I cast a kinetic energy absorbing rune right in front of Loki’s face, hoping it would be enough to stop him in time. It didn’t but lessened the blow to the point that Loki only had minor concussions which have since healed due to his physiology. It probably helped that Toby understood my intent and didn’t push the blow further or else, we would be looking at a very angry Odin right now.” Alfred replied.

Yeah, that would have been the case.

While Odin liked to show himself to be the shining image of impartiality and justice, in reality, he did favour Thor more than he did Loki. 

But that didn’t mean that he didn’t love Loki. It was just that his expression of Love came out a little different from traditional parenting. Then again, they were an entirely different species so what would he know?

If Loki had died or severely injured here, Odin would probably be donning his combat suit and shining rainbow bridge on their asses in less time than it took for them to get out of the base since it was probably going to be blown up by the sheer might of the Rainbow Bridge.

Many people in the outer cosmos have forgotten that while it is called a bridge, it is in fact a planet destroyer that would puncture through most planets with ease.

Then there was Frigga who, while not in the same realm of power as Odin, was equally dangerous if not more so due to her knowledge of the forgotten Mystic Arts. 

Alfred would love to meet her.

“Yeah, from the looks of it, that guy looked to be in a rush to fight strong guys. Thor will probably love him,” Daisy said as she poked Loki in the face.

“There, done,” Alfred said as he sealed the entirety of Loki’s prowess, from his advanced strength to his magic to even his heritage as an Ice Giant. 

Alfred did good work with runes.

“I know you are awake, Loki. No use pretending in front of me.” Alfred announced as he did something that zapped Loki awake.

“Unnngh,” Loki spasmed as he suddenly stood ramrod straight.

“What have you done to me, you stupid machine? Why can’t I access my powers?” Loki said as he tried to flex his fingers to activate his magic to no effect.

Alfred deadpanned at Loki as he was zapped once again by Alfred’s runes.

“Where is that coming from?” Loki looked around himself, not noticing the temporary runic tattoo carved on his forehead

“Okay, fine. Let’s do this again, shall we?” Loki said with a smile that looked more like a grimace, “The Guardian of the Singularity, Alfred, has been formally invited to the Royal Court of Odin himself to commemorate the rise of Midgard’s new guardian.”

As he spoke the words, a golden scroll manifested in front of Alfred in a golden flash.

Ah, Asgardians and their love for gold.

“Oh, and-” They looked up to Loki as he pointed at Ed, “I guess, you can come too if you want.”

That was the most polite “Don’t come” he was going to get from Loki.

“What does it say, Alfred?” he asked as Alfred finished scanning the scroll and was then scanning the ashes it had become once Alfred was done reading.

“Fascinating spellwork. Oh, nothing special. Just a formal invite to the guardian of a realm that is usually done to acknowledge the guardian’s authority over the realm. Probably also a way to make sure that the de-facto leader of a realm bends their knee to Asgard, in front of Asgard’s mightiest ruler.” Alfred mumbled half-heartedly as he kept looking at a runic circle he had manifested in front of the ashes of the scroll.

For some reason, he was really fascinated with the spell Odin had used to bring the scroll to the intended recipient and once he was done reading it, turned to ashes.

“Oh, you primitives amuse me. Unlock me and I’ll tell you about the spell myself. Uncovering secrets of Odin’s spellwork is not a task that can be done by any machine that gains a body, however powerful the body might be.” Loki said as he haughtily looked down at everyone in the room, while simultaneously raising his free hands towards Alfred as if he had been handcuffed.

It made for a pretty hilarious sight.

He could hear Eric’s chuckles as they left the room along with Frank, presumably to meet Toby. Although he was not sure anybody aside from Frank had the desire to meet with the person whose clone had trounced them handily. Meeting the real one in person might be a tad bit intimidating for them.

Well, he was not sure about Eric since he had always been a bit of a wildcard but who knows?

“Got it,” Alfred said and opened up another runic circle right in front of Loki’s shocked and indignant face.

Judging by the wide eyes of Loki as he read the information inside the circle, Alfred was successful in deciphering Odin’s spell.

“Anyway, off you go. We’ll see when we decide to leave,” Alfred said as he opened up a portal right underneath Loki. Only the portal he opened didn’t open all the way through, so Loki sort of tumbled into the portal, knocking his head on the floor before slipping inside the portal.

“Bye!” he shouted before the portal closed up, likely sparing them from hearing whatever obscenities Loki was shouting.

“Where does it go?” He asked Alfred as they both began walking towards the meeting room, where a departmental meeting had been scheduled by Alfred the moment he had read the royal summons from Odin.

“Oh, the prison? It goes to a cylindrical tube, the both ends of which are gravity wells that pull a person and their pull is adjusted so that the person inside the tube goes up and down like a ping pong. That should keep him busy for a while, and then after that, I have a never-ending pipe for him to experience.” Alfred said before he started working on something as a series of runic circles manifested in front of him.

Speaking of runes, “What level would you say you have reached in runes right now? Above Odin? Below Odin? Above Frigga but below Odin?” he asked Alfred since all Alfred had done since getting a body has involved runes in one way or the other so he was curious about his level of expertise regarding the subject. Especially since he was quite an expert on that topic even before getting his physical body.

Alfred chuckled mid-work and said, “It's funny you think I am below Frigga. I would say that in terms of runes at least, I should be able to roughly match Odin. If not, then it would only come as a matter of experience. In terms of raw power, though, Odin has me beat. That Odin force of his is really a cheat power.” His words were tinged with envy when he spoke of the Odin Force.

That was understandable since that was the thing that propelled Odin from being one of the strongest beings in the universe to be able to match the strongest beings of the universe, the Celestials.

That feat alone was unheard of.

As they walked towards the meeting room, Alfred began telling him about his body, and all the feats he would now be able to perform because of his runic mastery.

Engrossed in their conversation, he never realised when they reached the meeting hall, even if it was on the other side of the base.

Although, the walkable design of the base must have had something to do with that.

He followed Alfred as the doors closed behind them, “Alright, everybody here?”

He received no response, “Alright, was expecting a little confirmation but this works too.”

All he received in reply was a couple of eye rolls. Even Alfred, who was busy with his work, created eyes out of dimensional energy whips and made them roll their eyes at him.

“Okay, now that everybody is here, let me inform you of recent events. We suffered a catastrophic attack from Dormammu which has led to the loss of Project Ark as well as our superclass carrier, the replacement for which is already underway. Unfortunately, despite our wide array of search systems, we have been unable to find a replacement for Project Ark so the new carrier will mostly be built with defense in mind. Do keep that in mind,” he said while pointing at Eric and Jake, the captain and deputy captain of the previous superclass carrier, respectively.

“Aside from the injuries sustained by the top of our combat list, I, myself, almost exhausted all of my powers to defeat Dormammu’s avatar. The reason I am able to talk with all of you here is due to one of the former members of the organisation, Toby. He has some special powers, let's just say. For the time being, I am fine but in the long term, we will need to do something since doing this does take its toll on Toby.” 

In between the meeting, Maria raised her hands, “Yes Maria?”

“What are the measures we are taking to heal you?”

Alfred interrupted and replied, “All the measures are being taken to safeguard Ed’s real body. Other than that, all avenues are being investigated. One such opportunity has opened up for us,”

“Yes, that is correct, Alfred. We have just been invited to the Royal Court of Asgard by Odin himself. Apparently, due to the death of the Ancient One, who was the previous guardian of Midgard, it would seem, that Alfred has been designated as the Guardian of Earth by Odin himself. As such, he has to go to Asgard to legitimise that and on the way, also search for advanced cures for my health,” Ed said to the room at large. The reaction to the news of the summons was lukewarm at best. He wondered how they would react if he told them about the person who delivered the summons. Best not to poke that hornet’s nest.

“Although not explicitly specified, I and Toby will be tagging along with Alfred to Asgard. In the meanwhile, I want you all to take care of the planet and the organisation. Through Alfred’s portals, it will take us about an hour to come back to Earth but with the Rainbow Bridge’s tech, we should reach here instantly in case of an emergency.”

The room erupted into a cacophony of arguments when he delivered that news.

‘Why do you need to go?”

“Can’t just Alfred and Toby go?”

“How long will you be gone?”

“What if something happens to your body when you are not here?”

Those were some of the questions that were thrown his way but he was not about to budge on the topic.

Especially since he was sure that Toby was going to insist on coming and he was not exactly proud of Toby’s restraint and tact when it came to sensitive situations.

Dealing with Odin definitely counted as a sensitive situation.

“ALRIGHT!” He shouted over the noise and noticing his determined expression, the room quieted down.

“OK, now that you are listening, I am going. Me not going could have adverse effects you don’t know of. The best healers of the universe reside in Asgard and the best bet would be to take my body with me. Now, Alfred, is it feasible?” he asked Alfred who looked bored at the meeting.

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Was all he could get out of Alfred before he just phased out of the room, to do who knows what.

“It’s settled then. I will be leaving in about an hour. If you guys have any questions or confusions regarding the day-to-day workings, consult Frank, he knows best,” He winked at Frank who looked shocked at the betrayal.

“See you soooon,” Ed said as he skedaddled out of the room amidst the sea of questions that Frank was about to drown in.

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Word Count - 2136

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