Doctor Strange & The Anomaly

Eight • Lore

Stephen.

Her voice echoed around him, so close he could almost feel her lips against his ear.

Stephen, I need your help.

"Where are you?" he said aloud.

My room.

He rolled his eyes.

He had been practicing alone, wielding his powers around the empty training grounds of Kamar Taj. He dropped his arms, the lights around him dissolving into the air, and began his walk back to the sanctum.

He jogged up the stairs, opening and closing his fists to ease the ache that would set in whenever he exerted himself.

He tapped once on the door before opening it and stepping inside the room. "Y'know, it's kinda lazy of you to use your powers like a mental intercom-" he stopped speaking when he saw her, his brow furrowing, lip curling in confusion and amusement. "What the f-"

"Can you get me out?" Juno interrupted curtly.

She was standing on the far side of the room, one arm sunken to the shoulder inside the solid wall. A laptop sat open on the bed with footage of Vision walking effortlessly through walls.

"What have you done?" he asked.

"I thought if he could do it then so could I," she said with an irritated tone, pointing to the laptop. "I managed to get this far, then I lost it and now I'm stuck."

He chuckled and wandered to the bed, looking down at the clips of Vision playing on an old news article. He paused it and glanced up at her, not needing to speak for her to know what he was about to say.

"Yes, I know it sounds dumb," she said. "But his powers came from the stone, just like mine, so I thought maybe I could... mimic it. If I saw someone doing it then maybe..."

"Your ability to replicate abilities comes from being in close proximity with the person you're trying to mimic."

"Well I know that now. Can you just... help? Please?"

He walked up to her and examined her arm, jutting out his bottom lip and nodding as if impressed by her attempt. He raised his hands and turned them smoothly, making the wall shift and move like liquid, melting until she could pull herself free.

She stepped back, rubbing her shoulder and watching as he returned the wall back to its original state.

"Thanks," she said. "I'd have done it myself but my way would've been a little more... destructive."

"Yeah no, thanks for not blowing a hole through the wall."

He watched her walk to the bed and sit down, closing the laptop with a defeated huff.

"Why Vision?" he asked.

"I told you, I want to find out what I'm truly capable of. Everything. I've learned from Wanda, I thought watching someone else who'd been powered by the stone would give me a good idea."

"Vision wasn't human. There were things he could do that just wouldn't be possible if he weren't made of metal. You trying to learn from him is like placing your bare hands on someone's chest and trying to defibrillate them back to life."