Magic Mania: Book One

10

Strange was greeted by two things.

One was that Loki was already awake and had made him breakfast. His cloak floated away to go say hello. Two was a very loud ping from his phone.

"Hi, Strange. Hope you don't mind I borrowed your toaster," Loki said, as Stephen sat down and desperately tried not to open his phone in a completely over-enthusiastic fashion. "I made you some too. I thought it'd be a nice thing to do since you seemed so stressed yesterday."

Strange took a seat and conjured some tea. "Yeah, well, it has something to do with going to fight a bunch of magic people in another universe later. Thanks for the toast."

His phone pinged again at maximum volume and Loki looked at it confusedly. "Got a secret admirer?"

"Haha. No, I think it's those people I emailed," Stephen said, taking a bite of toast with one hand and unlocking his phone with the other.

"They in?" asked Loki, sipping his coffee.

Strange eagerly read the replies as fast as he could without taking in a word of it the first time he read it. Once he'd read them twice, more slowly the second time, he made a subtle fist-bump motion.

"That's a yes then? Feel like I'm talking to myself over here," Strange heard Loki say.

Stephen looked up at him. "Yeah, sorry. They're both in."

"You're sorry they're in?"

"No, two separate sentences: me apologising to you about feeling like you were talking to yourself, then me stating a fact that they were in."

Loki started laughing, which confused Stephen for a moment. "You are so gullible," Loki laughed. "I'm only messing with you, Strange."

"Oh."

He looked again at the emails. The first one said:

Subject: DANGER IN THE MULTIVERSE – DOCTOR STRANGE NEEDS YOU! – reply.

I would love to help you Doctor Strange :)

I've been in a bit of a down mood for the last couple of months but I sure need a distraction – what could be more distracting than fighting magic people in another universe? Though I will have to ask for a better explanation later – I like to know who/what/why/where/when I'm fighting, if you get my meaning.

I'll be over later :)

The second one was a little more informal. It said:

Subject: DANGER IN THE MULTIVERSE – DOCTOR STRANGE NEEDS YOU! – reply.

Yh sure strange! I'm honoured that out of all the magical peeps you choose me out of everyone! Be over soon. ;)

That was the one he wasn't sure about, but there was a limited number of magical people out there, and he could use all the help he could get.

Stephen and Loki sat in silence eating their toast for a moment. Strange's cape kept flying around the room for no apparent reason, maybe doing the cloak equivalent of when dogs zoom around the garden to use excess energy. Eventually Stephen broke the silence.

"So, this is a kinda awkward silence. What do you wanna talk about?"

Loki shrugged. "Don't know. Anything exciting happening in the world of Doctor Stephen Strange?"

"No, not really. I'm just a bit stressed that's all," he replied, tracing the rim of his mug solemnly.

"Is this your first time travelling to unknown dimensions to fight a battle against your friend-turned-enemy who wants to commit wizard-cide?" Loki asked, taking a sip from his coffee.

"Yes. I'd be surprised if anyone would have done that before."

"Well, it's my first time teaming up with you and two strangers to travel to unknown dimensions to fight a battle against your friend-turned-enemy who wants to commit wizard-cide too. We're all in the same boat here," Loki told him, putting his feet up on the empty chair. "But don't tell anyone. It'll ruin my reputation."

"So you know why I'm so stressed then," Stephen guessed, to which Loki shook his head.

"I've learned a lot of things over this past millennium, and one of the most important things is: life's too short to worry and stress about things. That's especially true for humans," he assured Strange. "Remember your original plan – grabbing a bunch of wizards, travelling to the other dimensions, kicking ass and being back for lunch? Just stick to that. Simple."

Strange was quite jealous about how Loki could stay so calm and relaxed about being 1 of 4 people taking on an army of inter-dimensional villains with almost no preparation. Then again, unless Tony had made it up, apparently he'd got beaten up by the Hulk and 2 minutes later sat up and asked for a drink. "It's not that simple though. We can't just go and wing it."

"Why not?"

That was a good question. He felt stupid saying, "We just... can't."

Loki shrugged, obviously not wanting to argue. "You're in charge, boss."