Disclaimer - I don't, and have never claimed to, own Marvel or its Intellectual Property. This is all just so that I can take my maladaptive daydreaming and turn it into something so that it does not ruin the rest of my day.
DoorMan #99
Kamar Taj [April 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
"See that you do," Then, she looked at him, as if she was peering through him, "Remarkable. To do so in such a short period of time. I did not believe him when he said so, but I believe that you have surpassed your previous uninjured self in raw Dimensional Energy manipulation in such a short period of time. Congratulations are in order."
"So," He stretched the word out a bit as he worked on his reply, "There is very little chance that I am getting my arms back, is there?"
"I can't comment on that part, Master Baxter, but what I can tell you is this. You will not lose any functionality, strength or sleep over whatever might occur in the near future. From the looks of it, you have already accepted the fact and moved on, which is an admirable quality."
"Yeah, if you say so." He said as a hand conjured itself around his stub and then moved around in all the different ways he could manipulate it for now. It was very odd, comparing his current hand to his previous one. For one, he knew that he could not bend his fingers like that, and it could be useful in the future.
"An apt demonstration. Now, if you'll follow me," She said and then snapped his fingers, making him roll his eyes as the scenery around him blurred and they found themselves sitting in one of the meeting chambers, tea already ready and steaming with the tea aroma already wafting towards him.
"So, the rule of no teleportation within the library?" He asked her as his conjured hands snaked their way towards one of the cups.
"The position of the Sorcerer Supreme does come with its own set of perks."
"I assumed so," He said, giving a sharp look at her forehead in response.
She ignored it, obviously, "The day you left, we began the clean up of Ta-Lo,"
The memories of those Demons, Dragons and that massive mountain with that never ending fog came to his mind as he nodded, sipping on his tea, his hand trembling just the slightest as the pain flashed through his mind once more, "And?"
"And we were able to push Dormammu back. With the help of Ms.Koscheyenka and the Guardian of Ta-Lo, we were able to push through Dormammu's forces that he had accumulated in that place for a truly long period of time, and banish the mountain that was acting as his anchor to that plane."
He remained silent, his mind whirling at how close Dormammu had come to, potentially, invading the planet. And if he had, Earth would have been caught with its pants down. No Strange, no Avengers, no one who could oppose him. She could do so but he had his doubts if she could actually push back if Dormammu actually came at her with his full might.
Honestly, trying to predict the thoughts of someone who can perceive all time simultaneously was headache inducing because Dormammu was not bound by time, he was outside of it and as such, could not be comprehended by beings bound by time.
"Do we know how he got so close?" He asked her.
"It is difficult to predict the thoughts as well as the actions that someone like Dormammu can take. We have no idea when he planned to invade the dimension, how long he planned for that and what little actions he planned, culminating in Kamar Taj remaining unaware of that for so long."
"So, if I had not been there, in the right place and at the right time, then?"
She nodded, her expression grave, "Yes, then Kamar Taj might have been caught unaware of the invasion until it was too late. Your healing of the Guardian Dragon of Ta-Lo meant we were able to detect the anomalies early and your confirmation was all I needed to move and eliminate the threat."
"Why didn't you ask Jin'Ya? He might have been helpful."
"True." She agreed. "He would have been of tremendous help but you have to understand that Dormammu is not the only problem we have on our hands. The very nature of our work is that our enemies only have to win once whereas we have to win every single time."
"I see." was all he could say because what else could he say, especially since he could see the result of their fight. They might have succeeded in repelling Dormammu and derailing one of his many plots to conquer Earth but it was clearly not without a cost.
The right hand of hers that hung limply at her side was proof enough. He had to ask though.
"Was it because of Dormammu or was it backlash from using the Time Stone?"
"The latter. I had to sacrifice a part of myself to shorten the time needed to cast a spell, which had been supercharged with energy from the Eye of Agamotto."
"I see. Any way we can–"
"It is an injury of the soul. An order of magnitude deeper than your injury. I foresee no future in which I have both my arms functioning again."
Well, that killed off the mood.
Standing up, he said, "Anyways, I have a lot to catch up on. A lot of data to parse through. Also, I will be borrowing a couple of books, to practice my Sorcery, if that's alright with you?"
"Wong will get you anything you need, that you can have authorisation for."
"Perfect. Bye!" He said and got out of the room, ready to take that magnet spell creation. He bet that Bruce had some really interesting experiments he would like to try if he can work on getting the spell to the extreme ends of magnetism.
A nice little experiment for both of them in the ritual room in the lower levels of the Red Hearth. Once he was confident in that, he could start working on getting a hangar up and running on Mars.
Ah, he couldn't wait for that!
____xx___
"The books you asked for," Wong handed him the books and then, once he tried to take them from the man's grasp with his conjured hands, Wong did not let go. Instead, he pulled the books forward and said, "If there is even the slightest damage on anything, I swear to Vishanti that I will–"
"Okay! Okay! I swear I'll be careful. Chill!" He said and then took the books, from a distance, because he had already taken a long step back when Wong had gotten all serious, in his face and began screaming warnings at him.
"That is….new," Wong commented on his new arms as they shrank and brought the books to him.
He shrugged, "Well, you'll be seeing a lot of new things. Be prepared." He then used his conjured hands to mock salute the man as he mentally called in Jin'Ya as a portal opened up behind him as he walked backwards, while looking at Wong, like a badass.
The portal closed up and he turned around to find himself in the portal room, as expected. He knew that the enchantments would keep on working for almost a year without any intervention but it was nice to get confirmation that everything worked even without an active Magic user supercharging their environment with Dimensional Energy, allowing the wards to run off of ambient energy, instead of drawing on stored reserves.
The spell to create those reserves was extremely difficult to cast and the only one who could do so with a 100% success rate and was willing to do it for him was the Ancient One, so he kinda only had one of those reserve stones and would rather not see it benign used for a non emergency.
Taking a deep breath, he entered the kitchen, only to find it empty. Connecting himself to the wards, he realised that both Bruce and Hansen were asleep, and Jin'Ya was in the lower levels, with a giant DO NOT DISTURB sign plastered on their mental bond.
So, with nothing else to do, he hopped in the shower and then jumped on his bed, his bed. Within moments of that happening, he set the temperature and the air currents in the room to optimal conditions and dozed off.
Nothing like sleeping in Home Sweet Home.
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