Magic Mania: Book One

15

"You lot look stupid," Loki said.

They were walking (well, Loki was walking, the others were sneaking) up the path to the Sanctum's front door. Strange supposed they probably did look stupid, but he wasn't going to say that.

"You don't need to sneak you know. It looks a lot more suspicious than walking," he continued as Stephen used a spell to unlock the door. "You just look like idiots."

"Thanks Loki," Strange murmured, thankfully having developed a lot of patience throughout his life. He pushed open the door. "But please shut up."

"Completely unnecessary Strange. I was merely stating a fact," Loki replied, walking past him into the Sanctum. Wanda and Scott followed, then Strange closed the door behind them. It was weird being in here, so familiar yet so unfamiliar at the same time. Maybe the other version of himself had recently dusted everything and that was why it looked weird: he hadn't cleaned up for at least 2 months and the only things that weren't collecting dust were the books he'd read thoroughly multiple times over the last month. To add to his mental list: do some dusting when you get home.

"So, Stephen. Where do we go now?" enquired Wanda, turning towards Strange.

He looked around, debating the best place he could look from. "Er, OK then. Right..." Deciding on a certain room in the Sanctum, he summoned the power to teleport them. Any second now...

They were still in the hallway, exactly the same place they just were. So he tried again: no one budged a centimetre. Stephen actually let out a small growl of frustration as he tried again but to no avail. The others exchanged glances.

"Strange, what the hell are you doing?" asked Loki when Stephen started shaking with the tremendous amount of effort he was putting in to perform this, what had been, fairly simple spell.

"Trying to teleport us into another room," he answered, still quaking as he built up lots of energy that refused to be released. "For some reason, it's not working."

"We could just walk," Scott suggested, being the voice of reason at this moment in time.

That was a sensible idea. Strange gave up trying to teleport them and started walking (for he looked like a complete idiot sneaking) towards the next room, where he normally scanned for threats. "I'm super miffed that spell doesn't work you know," he complained.

"Why? It takes an extra 15 seconds to walk," Wanda pointed out. They were already in the other room, so it had only taken an extra 10 seconds.

"A god once told me life's too short, especially for mortals." Strange appreciated the way Loki scowled in exactly the same sort of way he'd found himself doing multiple times since this time yesterday.

"It's also too short to waste your time doing spells you can't do in other dimensions," Loki told him pointedly.

"Wait, why can't I do certain spells in other dimensions?" Strange asked. He stopped and looked at him. "Do you know this sort of thing?"

Loki gave him the look, though without the crossed arms this time. "It was in A guide to the Multiverse, Strange. 'The Sorcerer Supreme won't have their full extent of their powers when in the other dimensional Sanctums because certain spells can only be performed by that dimension's Sorcerer Supreme in their Sanctum, even if that is the same person.' It's basically because, since you're summoning energy from the planet, you aren't summoning the same energy. By that logic it won't effect me and Wanda, since our magic is our own and isn't summoned from the planet."

"How did you remember that? You skimmed that book once, begrudgingly and reluctantly, when I forced you to, and as I recall, you didn't see the point because you could've just asked me."

"I have a photographic memory, Strange, which you obviously don't."

"Hey, I got my MD and PHD at the same time, actually."

"But you can't remember one of the most important facts in a book you've read about 9 times in the last two days?" Loki smirked, completing the look with the crossed arms.

Scott coughed to interrupt. "Anyway, this isn't about who has the best memory, this is about us teaming up to eliminate an interdimensional threat that could mean everyone we know will die," he said cheerfully, clapping his hands once to snap their attention back to the situation. "And I don't want to die. I know you three have all died already but I don't really want to join the club."

"Yes, Scott, you are correct!" Strange agreed, also clapping his hands once for effect. He noticed Wanda and Loki looking at each other again and assumed they were having a telepathic conversation again. Wanda randomly gave a laugh and seemed to find something absolutely hilarious for a few seconds before she recovered her dignity, and Scott gave Strange a questioning look like, can you explain? Stephen just shrugged, like, I'm as clueless as you are.

Hoping it would work, Stephen started to summon the magic to perform a charm to magically search the planet for Mordo and his army of fellow wizards. Thankfully, the air around them started to shimmer, and a magical map of the world suddenly surrounded them, spinning and shifting as he searched through it.

"Well, at least this spell works," he murmured to himself as the others admired his magic. It seemed like Scott's jaw was permanently unhinged for 98% of the time he spent with them; everything just seemed to amaze him.

"Can we actually..." started Wanda, reaching her hand towards the illusion-like map (which, was not in fact, an illusion, but a half-solid, half-gas type of magic that could actually be touched). When her fingers brushed it, she gave an experimental swipe and the map spun to show them the other half of the globe. She turned to Stephen admiringly. "I've got to admit, that is some cool magic."

"Why thank you Wanda," Strange thanked her. "So everyone, I marked Mordo as a red dot, all we've got to do is find it."

"So we have to scroll across the whole planet?" asked Scott disbelievingly.

Before Strange could say yes, Loki came up to the map, started flicking it around and said, "Not necessarily. If you track it by narrowing the search parameters to other dimensional beings it will mark out us and him, which is a lot quicker than combing through the whole globe." Strange didn't understand what he was talking about, and neither did Scott nor Wanda by the look of it, but Loki obviously did something, because the map spun and zoomed in until it was showing them the exact location of the "red dot" Stephen had mentioned. "Et voila, your red dot awaits."

Strange blinked a few times before thanking him and turning his attention to the map. Studying it for a few seconds, he came to the conclusion Mordo was in... Las Vegas?

"He's in Vegas?" asked Wanda, looking as though she wasn't believing her own eyes. "Isn't that where all the casinos and stuff are? Why is he there?"

"I guess we're about to find out," Stephen said, somewhat dramatically, although he hadn't meant it to be. He opened a portal in front of them, beckoned them all to follow, and stepped through to the desert state of Las Vegas.