The Raven

II- Space

     "Wong?" His voice echoed back at him. With that, he opened his laptop to leave a note for his friend. He typed:

Had to go out for a bit. Should hopefully be back before dinner. Call me in case of an emergency.
     - Dr. Stephen Strange

    That should do it, no one should wonder where he went anyway, this is just a precaution. To start his plan, he had to research ways to contact Heimdall, the guardian of the Bifrost, gateway to Asgard. All he had to do was call out to him, easy peasy. Right? Standing out in the middle of an abandoned airport, he yelled into the air, "Heimdall!" No response. "I'm Doctor Stephen Strange. I wish for passage to Asgard." Still no response. "Please?" Okay, maybe not so easy. He called out a dozen more times with no success. "Knock Knock!" "Beam me up, Scotty!" "It is I, Stephen, son of Strange!" "Anybody home?"

     Plan B!

     Back at the Sanctum, he paced around feverishly. His plan can't be falling apart this quickly, it simply wasn't in his stubborn nature. "Any ideas?" He asked his Cloak, which was practically twitching with boredom. It rolled off his shoulders and started floating into another room, with Stephen following close behind. It stopped and started circling the Cauldron of The Cosmos. "Oh, yes! You're brilliant! Thank you!" He praised the Cloak as it dropped back onto his shoulders. He patted his relic lovingly as he projected some of his energy into the Cauldron. His silent demand rang on repeat, 'Show me the location of Odin.'

He wasn't sure what he expected; maybe in the midst of battle or on a golden throne berating one of his subjects. Wherever it was, it wasn't that old retirement home a few blocks away. Alrighty then, that should make things easier? With a quick glamour spell, he changed into his civilian clothes and started his little adventure.

     About ten minutes later, he started to feel a foreign energy that got stronger the closer he got to the King of Asgard. As he approached the door, a sign read: 'Tearing down for reconstruction soon. Please see Front Office about where our Clients will be relocated.' No one will question why he's coming to speak to Odin then, perfect. He opened the door and was almost stunned at the energy present. Being a sorcerer had its ups and downs, but when you can see all the magical parasites spreading like a plague... yay. Two-headed millipedes, worms with razor-sharp teeth-rimmed mouths, birds that look like they've been dipped in acid, all creatures invisible to the average person. The best way to describe them is magical bacteria, some are beneficial, others not so much. The bad bacteria liked to attack the elderly in particular, and here he was in a retirement home, oh joy.

     Doing his best to ignore his magical senses going on a rampage, he tried to look normal as he approached the front desk. "Hello, I'm here to speak to a man who might go by 'Odin'."

     "What's your relation?" A woman said with a polite smile. It was very very hard to act normal when there's an acid-bird picking beetles out of her hair.

     Forcing himself to keep eye contact, he said, "family friend. My mother knew him well." If by mother you mean his now-deceased mentor who was around during the Mongol Empire's construction, then yeah, his mother.

     "Of course. He should be either in his room, B4, or the cafeteria." She said. The acid-bird was looking straight at him now with its beady eyes, one of which just rolled out the eye socket and hung there before the bird caught it in its mouth and swallowed it. The bird just swallowed its eye. Dontvomitdontvomitdontvomitdontvomit.

     "Right, okay, thanks." He said hastily and turned away, his poker face nearly failing. How on Earth could this place be worse than Walmart! As he was navigating his way to Odin's room, he saw an old woman sitting alone with a purple worm attached to her neck. His magic senses and medical senses started to collide. Odds are she was diagnosed with a cancer of some sort, likely kidney, simply because they couldn't detect the real cause. Eventually, the worm would drain her of energy completely and she would die. Luckily these were simple enough to remove, the same way you remove a tick. "Excuse me, ma'am, you've just got a crumb in your hair." He lied as he removed the worm and quickly smushed it between his fingers. He wiped the invisible guts on his jeans as the woman turned around.