The Sorcerer's Apprentice {Stephen Strange}

Nine

Play That Funky Music by Wild Cherry

"Come find me," Emerson mutters aloud, mocking Stephen Strange. After spending a couple of hours finishing his book and starting another, she decided to go find him. After taking a trip around what seemed to be the entire main building, she has yet to find him. she had peeked into a large planning room that contained a globe and many other planets surrounding it. There were maps on tables and taped to walls with many marker placements leaving her to wonder what they're planning. The sergeant stumbled upon the kitchen and living area before making her way to the dormitories. Using her arm strength, she wheels herself across the outside path straight to the building with the rooms. She looks around for Stephen Strange to no avail. She doesn't know why they didn't put her in the hall with the novice students. Instead, they put her with advanced sorcerers like Stephen. She didn't know which room was his, he just explained that she would be staying down the same hall as him.

Letting out an annoyed sigh, she stroll outside to find him training some other students. He wears a more relaxed version of his regular blue robes and red cloak. The students wear intermediate outfits, proving they know a little bit about magic. By the time she wheels up to him, her arms are burning with exhaustion. He keeps moving his hands around, explaining a specific movement to one of the students. The sun begins to disappear over the horizon as he continues to speak. She waits behind him, not wanting to bother his class. After a moment Strange finishes up his lecture before shooing them off to find something else to do. He starts cleaning up the outside brick patio before he notices her sitting behind him.

"Sergeant Moore," he addresses as he picks up the tools used off the ground.

"You don't need to call me that. Em is just fine," she tries to tell him but he throws a ring in her direction. Catching it mid-air, she holds it in her fingertips, inspecting the blocky form. she traces over the patterns with her index finger before slipping them on.

"Alright, Moore," he corrects himself. "This is your sling ring. When you're ready, you will use this to open the portals," he begins explaining.

"Wait, what? You're giving this to me already?" She questions his antics.

"I said 'when you're ready'," he restates. "You have some more reading to do before we can work on summoning portals."

"When will I be ready?"

"I'll tell you when. I just want you to get comfortable wearing it, feeling its weight on your hands," he tells me. "Now, would you prefer I teach in the library or out here tonight?"

"Well, I have been stuck in a library all day so maybe we can be out here for now..." The sergeant trails off and the doctor nods his head. "What are we reading now?"

"Ah, we're taking a break from reading. This lesson is more hands-on," he tells me. "Astral projection is key-"

"The ass thing again? Where you shoved me out of my body? Ha, I'll pass... How about we go back to reading," she scoffs. He takes a step toward the soldier, making her feel small. His doctoral intelligence and knowledge in the mystic arts manage to make her feel inferior and insignificant. Normally men don't intimidate her, especially men as slender as him.

"Are you afraid?" He smirks, almost making fun of the soldier. "You are a war veteran and you're afraid of a little astral projection?"

"This," she gestures around herself. "Is nothing like the army. I mean, you're a wizard that does... wizard-y things."

"I'm a doctor," he retorts, arms crossed over his chest.

"And a wizard," Emerson quips. "A Wizard Doctor."