31
New York, USA
Manhattan
The Sanctum Sanctorum
7:46 p.m.
“Now, explain this to me again, but clearer and less idiotic.”
Wong and Doctor Strange moved swiftly throughout the Sanctum, only one of them holding the Eye of Agamotto. Stephen gripped the Eye in his left palm as he strode about in the Sanctum in his blue robes, the Cloak of Levitation elsewhere at the moment. If anything, Strange was in his leisure attire. The Cloak knew when it was time to act, when the time came for Strange to need it. Now was not the time.
Now was the time for preventing mass genocide and convincing Wong to do so.
He was not so easily swayed, trailing Strange closely through the halls of the Sanctum. “The Time Stone cannot be used as a weapon of war, Strange, as much as you would like it to,” Wong told him, shifting his eyes back to the Eye of Agamotto every few seconds, ensuring that Strange did nothing with it if things didn’t go his way. “It is an ancient relic of which Agamotto himself—!”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, his most ‘prized possession’, ‘threatening the very fabric of time’,” Strange groaned, looking down at the Eye of Agamotto in his palms. The two of them stopped at the very top of the staircase that led to the bottom floor of the Sanctum, the foyer resting beneath them. He sighed. “But just think about it, Wong. If we freeze time—hell, if we reverse it, we can stop this invasion from even occurring! We can save millions of lives!”
That statement alone didn’t even cause him to flinch. He was dead set on his decision, frowning Stephen’s way. “It is not that easy, Stephen,” he told him.
“Sounds pretty damn easy to me,” Strange retorted, looking down the steps.
“It isn’t!” Wong replied, growing more infuriated at Strange’s stubbornness. They stood eye to eye, seeing which one of them would break first. Neither would. Wong sighed, cooling his gaze, but never ceasing the strength that he offered. “Listen to me, Strange, the Time Stone is not like the magic we wield. You got lucky once in dealing with Dormammu, but that doesn’t guarantee you can use it just as well as last time!”
That struck him somewhere deep. After losing the Ancient One, after being therefore known as the Sorcerer Supreme amongst the Masters of the Mystic Arts, demoralizing his ability to control magic was like a slap to the face for Strange. He slowly narrowed his eyes, a heated glare glowing in his twin orbs. When he spoke, his voice was lower, more threatening. “I’ve been training… for two years in mastering the power of the Time Stone! Our fellow sorcerers have deemed it safest in my hands!”
“Not now! Not this time!” Wong shot right back. “This is beyond mystical threats, Strange! This is beyond what we were prepared—!”
Doctor Strange had no more of it. He scoffed rather loudly, rather obnoxiously, and proceeded down the steps. Wong watched his descent, clenching his fists at the top of the staircase. “What do you think you’re doing?” he shouted.
“Taking the Time Stone,” Stephen mumbled. His voice was still loud enough for Wong to react accordingly. He gripped the Eye in his left palm, descending the steps further and further to the foyer. He said, “I’m stopping this invasion.”
“You cannot!” Wong declared, moving right after him. “We have sworn an oath to protect the Stone no matter the costs! If it falls into the wrong hands—”
“The longer we wait here and bicker, the more innocent lives are killed!”
“We cannot threaten the safety of this dimension!”
“I can prevent this invasion from even occurring!” Strange yelled, spinning around just at the last few steps. He clenched both of his fists to conceal his growing fury and frustration, his palms shaking. He stared at Wong like he was insane, holding out the Eye of Agamotto to him. “We can save millions of lives! Or did you not hear me the first time?!”
Wong shook his head, pointing at him as he yelled, “And then what?! You reverse time, we keep it frozen to prevent the invasion, and we are no closer to discovering how or why it even started!”
Strange snorted and turned away, reaching the end of steps and moving towards the exit. He was halted by the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak expelling from Wong’s fingertips, the red bands wrapping around his arms. Doctor Strange grew a furious frown, breaking the bonds before Wong could tighten them. He spun around, right hand sparking a holographic Tao Mandalas. His left hand held the Eye. Wong shot out both of his hands, a shield appearing in each one in sparks of orange energy.
The two sorcerers stared each other down, Wong on the last few steps and Strange already on ground-level. Their Eldritch Magic was strong, quite possibly equal to each other. The years they spent sparring with one another, training continuously for hours on end to defend the way of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, both Strange and Wong knew each other’s tactics. They knew each other’s strengths, weaknesses, abilities. Strange knew Wong was more skilled than he was, as he had more experience. Wong knew Strange was a loose cannon, dealing with magic in ways never before seen by the Masters of the Mystic Arts. It had made him unpredictable, dangerous, and more importantly… powerful.
“You were always rebellious,” Wong growled, fists still shot outwards, the glowing discs on his hands slowly spinning with raw, magical energy.
Strange just frowned, his own shield sparking with unrelenting power. “I was always right.”
“To this day, you still do not understand the severity of what you hold,” Wong told him sternly, walking down the steps and slowly approaching Strange. He never lowered his guard. Neither did Strange. “We took an oath… you took an oath… to protect the Stone no matter what.”
“And I will,” Stephen affirmed to him.
Dropping his hands, the sparks surrounding his fists died out, leaving just Wong. His eyes held concern. No fire or fury. Just concern and a hint of harsh reality. “You can’t know that.”
He had hoped the harshness, the reality of his tone would bring Strange back to it. Instead, it seemed to do the opposite, Stephen slowly lowering his right hand and turning his attention to his left. To the Eye of Agamotto. To what remained within it. He shot up his head. “Maybe I can.”
“Enough of this,” Wong declared, swiping the Eye of Agamotto from Strange’s grasp. Stephen turned accusingly to Wong, but he was already up the steps. Strange met him halfway.
“Wait!” he called out, gripping Wong by his tunic. “Just give me… ten minutes alone with the Time Stone. I swear to you that I won’t steal it. I just—”
“We will discuss this later,” Wong said after facing him. He held out the Eye for him to see one last time, ready to continue upwards. “For now, we keep the Stone safe in the Sanctum. With the Vapors of Valtorr over us, nothing will be able to find the Sanctum Sanctor—”
Three loud knocks reverberated across the Sanctum. The two sorcerers turned their attention to where the sound originated, that being the front door. Looking to one another, both Strange and Wong descended the steps and approached the front door. They stood on-guard, hands held outwards, ready to deal with any possible threat that had found them, even through the Vapors of Valtorr no less.
When they opened the doors, standing before them was a certain God of Thunder Strange had known and dealt with personally.
He wasn’t the only one.
By his right was his half-brother and God of Mischief Loki, standing with a sly grin as he met the somewhat startled expressions from the sorcerers. On Thor’s left stood a man practically naked and covered in a thin blanket, observing the Sanctum in awe. Doctor Strange and Wong slowly turned their eyes above, to the alien spaceship hovering directly over the street and facing the Sanctum. Within the cockpit, Strange and Wong could see a human and a raccoon piloting the ship. The human seemed to be at a loss for words as he observed his surroundings through the glass windshield. The raccoon yawned.
Then it spoke to the human, moving its mouth like it was actually talking.
Stephen slowly dropped his hands after several seconds of nothing but awkward, confusing silence. Wong did the same, gazing wondrously at the spaceship hovering over the street. They both brought their eyes down to Thor. “Wizard!” he exclaimed, smiling as wide as he could, with relief.
His brother, Loki, smiled as well. But it held a certain sinister undertone. “Vapors of Valtorr?” Loki asked, smirking at the end. “Quite clever.”
Doctor Strange slowly looked back to Wong, smirking as well. “You were saying?”
Wong just frowned. He never loosened his grip on the Eye of Agamotto. “Exactly my point.”