17 Technomancer in MCU #14

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Chapter 14

Technomancer in MCU

Central Park

–Previously–

Hill came into the tent after that and said, "Sir! Widow and Hawkeye have regained consciousness and are being prepped for debrief."

"Excellent. Let's go.", I nodded back at her.

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S.H.I.E.L.D. Blacksite

–Nick Fury–

On the way to the ward where Widow and Hawkeye were kept, I encountered Agent Simmons.

I remember her being a genius in her own right. Her teachers in the academy say she is the Tony Stark of the biochemist world and from what I had seen of her contributions to the S.H.I.E.L.D. research systems, I was inclined to believe them.

Her face lit up with a sort of nervous delight when she saw me, it would see that she was hoping to see me.

I nodded at her in a greeting and started walking briskly towards the ward.

Not taking the dismissal as it was, she began to walk beside me.

"Good evening, sir. I–I, uh, was hoping to join you for the debrief, sir.", she asked, clearly nervous.

I stopped at that statement and looked at her with an eyebrow raised.

"If you are asking that as their doctor then be assured that this will only take a short while and I will be out of your hair soon."

Then my countenance changed abruptly. 

Glaring daggers at her, I said, "If this is your idle curiosity regarding the invasion and the interesting tech that you have no doubt encountered, I would advise you to think about it. You do not have the clearance level necessary to listen to that."

She looked sheepish but still said in a small voice, "I doubt many have the clearance necessary for that, sir."

"But I assure you that I only want to learn more about their healing technology. If you are not aware already, Alfred gave me one of their healing lights as I was leaving and somehow, it had bonded to my biometric signature."

"It won't work in anyone else's hands. I am utterly fascinated by it and any more information, even the experiences in using a more advanced version of this would help immensely."

"Please, sir. You wouldn't even notice me.", she pleaded.

I looked at her incredulously.

She still looked at me expectantly.

Palming my forehead, I was at the limit of my patience when Hill interjected.

"Agent Simmons, you are overstepping your bounds. This is no time to boundlessly indulge in your curiosities. Don't bother the Director. This meeting will have information you won't be cleared to know for years. ", she said scathingly.

Agent Simmons wilted in front of her scathing remarks.

"I would suggest you look for them after their recovery in their free time if you want to ask your questions and satisfy your curiosity.", Hill advised her.

She nodded meekly.

Satisfyingly chastising her, Hill looked at me and nodded.

We continued on our path to the ward.

One of the agents stationed outside nodded at us and opened the door.

Once inside, I saw that Widow was the only one who was awake.

Barton, according to the reports, will take slightly longer than Widow to wake up.

I wonder how much of that can be attributed to the bootleg version of the super soldier formula they gave the Widow.

She looked at me and put down the tablet she was using, probably writing the action report.

  I ordered the stationed nurse to stay outside for a while.

I took a seat on one of the nearby chairs.

Hill stood behind me silently.

"So," I began, "How's the Avengers life treating you, Romanoff?"

She chuckled at my question, "The pay sucks, teammates have big time issues, no work-life balance. It isn't much but it is what it is."

I smirk at her reply.

"In all seriousness, though, it's good to have you back. I am glad you made it out in piece.", I said seriously to her.

She nodded.

"You too, Barton.", I said, turning to the other occupant in the room.

He was pretending to be asleep.

"Oh, man! I thought I had you. Can't you let Nat report to you while I sleep for a few more weeks? It feels as if a truck ran over or more realistically, a chitauri Leviathan ran over me."

I chuckled at his reply, "Get up, Barton. The council wants the report yesterday."

He sighed and got up," Yeah, alright."

With both of them being awake, I could ask them the questions that had been bugging me the most.

"First of all, is there any chance that we could bring him in?"

"Even as a consultant like Stark?"

Barton snorted, "Fat chance of that happening, Boss. He seemed pretty independent to me."

It was worth a shot.

I nodded at him, "Fair enough."

"What would you recommend our response to him should be?"

"As an agency, I would strongly recommend maintaining our distance. He didn't seem too fond of S.H.I.E.L.D. and after the missile, I won't blame him.", he gave me a look after this.

"Who gave the order, Fury? We were still there not to mention the council had no idea if Ed's shields would hold."

Natasha interjected, "They were ready to sacrifice millions of people and ruin the future of millions more on the chance that they would be able to kill Ed and even us?", she asked with more emotion than I had ever seen before.

It was understandable as she had never come this close to absolute death with no chances of survival before.

She had close calls but there was always a chance she could make it out with her extensive skill lists but there was no martial arts that could save you from a fiery ball of death and destruction.

Her being shaken by the situation was normal

I could not, however, give her an answer regarding the perpetrators behind the event.

"We will talk about that in detail later. When we are done with the investigations on our side."

"Ed was kind enough to give us the black box of the jet and the pilot."

"Was he alive?", she asked.

I nodded and confirmed it.

"I'll make sure he is interrogated properly. Any information he has can help us gain a bargaining chip against the council. They have been overstepping their bounds a lot lately."

"Their activities are becoming more suspicious as well."

Both of them nodded after a while, trusting me to handle that matter for the moment.

"Did he say anything about his overarching goals?", I ask after that.

Both of them looked at each other for a second.

I narrowed my eyes at that, suspicion already brewing in my head.

Natasha shook her head and said, "In his words, he wants to uplift humanity."

"Didn't say how he was going to do that but he did say that we needed to stop relying on outsider protectors like Thor and develop our own tools."

Develop our own tools, he says, and has no intention of sharing his vast technological advantage with us.

"Threat Level?"

"10+"

I raise an eyebrow at that, regarding her with a questioning look.

"Even above Banner?"

She shook her head, "Much worse. It's not about the brute force he has available to him though that is a factor. It's his intelligence. He can make better suits than Tony and in quantities like they were built in a mass production factory."

"The technological threat he represents is only compounded by Alfred."

"The A.I.?"

She nodded, "Yes. He is much more advanced than Stark's. Unparalleled coordination between all his forces. Independent investigative thought processes."

"He was the one who actually found the solution to the portal."

"We'll include him in our threat list as well."

"Well, this has been informative. At least we know he won't immediately go off in the deep end and screw us all over."

"That's a relief. I will read the rest from your respective reports.", I gave Barton a stare as I said that.

He rolled his eyes but nodded at me.

Standing up with only a slight difficulty, I ask them, "Anything at all that you would like to say to me, off the books?"

Natasha, after a hesitant glance at Barton, said, "He used the word 'Foreseen' during the conversation. I don't know if it means anything but he changed the topic immediately."

"With all that we have seen and his reaction to the events, is it safe to assume that we might have someone with precognitive abilities on our hands?"

My face rapidly paling, I looked at her disbelievingly.

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Word Count - 1462

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