บท 42: The Bastion
What greeted Alex was a fortress. A literal fortress.
And not just a fortress, it was a huge city that surrounded the main fortress that seemed to be reaching the heavens.
'Space elevator?' That was his first thought as he saw the huge contraption extending into the sky.
'Why didn't I notice it from the shuttle? The reflection? Or is it some sort of camouflage from beings in space?' Alex had tons of questions running through his mind.
He looked at the rough details of what he could see in the city. The technological marvel of a fortress/tower seemed to be the absolute center of the city and was surrounded by a large defensive perimeter. It was extremely protected from what meager things Alex was able to see.
Around that were perfectly placed blocks of apartments which also seemed to be made of metal.
In fact, every single thing in this city seemed to be made of some sort of alloy that Alex did not know about.
There was another defensive perimeter separating the main part of the city from the rest of it. Which Alex could only describe as slums.
'Canon fodder…' Alex quickly deduced the purpose of this huge slum area that was surrounding the city. If ever, the city is breached and the management needs some time to stall whatever is attacking them, then the residents of these slums would be perfect.
'I need to understand this place's situation,' He thought as he moved in his camouflaged state to find someone to devour while hoping that there weren't patrolling robots that would suddenly attack him.
Luckily for him, he found someone soon. The slums were literally overflowing with people. He directly devoured that person while instantly taking their spot. It was done so quickly that no one around them was able to notice any change in him other than a flinch.
'Mutant monsters… Alien invasion… Dead avengers… This place is fucked…' Alex thought as he devoured the memories of this person. His memories were much more useful than those random people that he devoured in the bunker.
This world was indeed brought to this state by World War Three. But it wasn't the only factor. There was a whole lot of stuff that had happened.
Along with Nuclear warfare, there was biological warfare. And the main reason for that war? The Avengers. It was something similar to the Sokovia Accords from the MCU. The Avengers fucked up, far worse than what happened in the MCU. The world tried to put them in check and they didn't like it.
And this version of the earth was very much reminiscent of comic books, with countless heroes involving themselves in the conflict. Things ended up escalating to the level of a world war where the governments resorted to all kinds of tactics to either kill or subdue the Avengers.
It all led to a massive conflict which eventually resulted in nuclear weapons being used against lone beings like Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange. Though, unlike their comic counterparts, they weren't completely able to take care of the nukes and ended up in a horrible state. Their current status was unknown.
It all led to the death of most of the superhero community, either by heavy weapons or assassination. Bruce Banner was assassinated in his sleep so that the Hulk would never have the chance to emerge.
And then there was something that rocked the entire world. While everyone was engulfed in turmoil, an alien race appeared and started invading the planet. They were the Kree in particular. The reason for the invasion was never broadcasted.
'I think that it may have had to do something with the Inhumans. Those guys were created by the Kree…' Alex guessed.
And at this time, the world was in complete shambles, the superheroes were mostly dead and the world leaders had no idea what to do. This escalated the situation into what it is today. The world threw everything it had at the Kree, hoping for something to work, but all it did was destroy the earth and kill 90% of humanity with its biological weapons and nukes.
The Kree weren't even worried about the situation.
Just as things were looking horribly dire, one day, the Kree ships disappeared, leaving only some remnant Kree forces on the planet that were taken care of by the humans after some sacrifices.
'More like the entire Earth disappeared…' Alex commented inwardly.
But things weren't over yet, they still had to deal with the repercussions of their actions. The biological weapons along with the radioactive waste left by the nukes made even more mutant monsters for them to deal with.
'Damn, talk about horrible decisions…' Alex thought as he digested all of the memories of this person. It was currently the year 2048 and the city he was in was called The Bastion. One of the only places on earth that were able to resist the Kree invasion.
The person who created this city? Tony Stark.
There were possibly more cities similar to this throughout the world but he didn't have any of that information.
The only reason this guy knew so much was that this was general information that everyone within the walls knew. It was more like propaganda than anything and Alex took much of that information with a grain of salt other than the main outline of the situation.
'I think he should be alive…' Alex wasn't sure whether Tony Stark was actually alive or if he'd shifted his consciousness into Artificial Intelligence.
The entire city was completely mechanical, and knowing Tony Stark, the purpose of making everything mechanical wasn't just the aesthetics, this city was probably a weapon in and of itself, but Tony probably just never used it. Otherwise, the people in the city would know about it, then again, it's possible that it was used but the news was completely suppressed to the point where the people of the slums never actually found out about it.
Alex also found out about the most important thing which was the reason behind these people staying behind such large walls as if what was outside would kill them.
That's because it really would kill them.
The biological weapons mixed with radioactive isotopes after the nuclear fallout turned a large amount of the populous which didn't only include humans but also other creatures into what could only be called abominations.
Their intelligence rapidly degraded into the basest of instincts while they turned into huge monstrosities with deformed features and got up to ten times as large as their original size. They were constantly plagued by an intense need to devour every living thing in their paths. This was the main reason that all Alex saw was a wasteland from where he came. Everything had been razed to the ground by those abominations.
For all intents and purposes, humans brought about a zombie apocalypse. It's just that the zombies ended up becoming far more dangerous and ferocious from the get-go.
'How would this turning have affected the superheroes…' Alex was dreading Marvel Zombies happening for real in this world, 'Think happy things, think happy things…' Alex chanted as if it was a mantra and stopped thinking about what would happen if this was Marvel Zombies.
The residents didn't give the mutant monsters any specific term and they all collectively called them the Abominations. Probably as a way of undermining their threat in the eyes of the general populous. By using a derogatory term to refer to them they could make the people believe that they have things under control.
'Though considering the rampage that this city dealt with two days ago, they should be completely hyping everything and preparing everyone for their eventual deaths.' Alex thought as he saw firsthand the attack of a hoard against the city.
'If it's always this intense then it's only a matter of time before the city falls. No matter how much of a technological marvel it is…' Alex thought as he got up from his spot. He wanted to understand how this city operated. The memories that this person had weren't the most accurate. A lot of what this person knew was inaccurate.
As Alex walked to the wall that separated the residents of the slums from the normal people, he had many thoughts and made a few plans on how he should deal with this place.
'I'm surprised that this place isn't completely managed by armored robots…' All of the security that Alex saw was in the form of human guards. There weren't any robots that were acting as guards.
'I guess it's because of Ultron…' Alex guessed that it was because of Ultron that Tony Stark decided to not use fully automated security measures. And it ended up coming in handy for Alex.
He reached the wall that was about 10 meters tall, serving as a separating area between the slums and the main district of the city. No one from the slums was allowed into the main city so the guy that Alex devoured had almost no idea about how the main inner city worked.
"Fuck off!" *Smack* One of the slum dwellers was trying to force his way in and was punched in the face by a guard.
This area around the border was the most conflict-prone since the slums were a very desperate and overpopulated area. Desperate people regularly came to try to break into the inner city, hoping to try their luck.
Though all of them failed. Even if someone had ever succeeded then the guy that Alex devoured didn't know about it.
Using a similar tactic, Alex turned invisible in a discrete spot and phased through the wall.
What greeted him was the technological marvel that was The Bastion. The true city, the Bastion of humanity, made by Iron Man himself to fend off the opposing forces of the governments of the world and the Kree. At least that's what the propaganda stated.
It was built with perfect precision in mind, with every single house, road, and block serving as a part of a huge puzzle. All of that came together to form the city.
'Yeah, this city is definitely a weapon…' Alex's thoughts were confirmed when he looked at the roads and buildings that were placed in a far too specific manner.
***
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