Deadpool Syndrome - A Marvel Fanfic

Chapter 11 - And The Nights Are Drawn Out Long

***GWEN***

I look at the image of the big green Hulk throwing Loki around Tony Stark’s office (“‘Puny god,’” he says, or something similar), then I turn back to Peter. “No. No, I don’t remember that name.” I look around at everyone else in the room - Tony, Clint, Steve, and Natasha all shake their heads.

“As well you shouldn’t,” says a deep voice somewhere behind us. The movie pauses, even though the remote control is sitting on top of the projector with nobody touching it. “He was never brought out of this world like the rest of you were.”

I turn around, along with everyone else, to see a tall, thin man holding up a red-gloved hand, with one finger extended towards the screen. He’s wearing a dark blue suit with a red scarf peeking out from underneath the lapels of his jacket. He looks down on us with piercing, icy blue eyes.

“Who are you?” I ask.

“And why are you dressed like the immortal guy from Forever?” asks Steve. Tony looks at him out of the corner of his eye. “What? I can’t watch Forever? My dad loves it, and he got me into it too.”

Peter grins at Steve. “I never thought I’d meet anyone else who watched that show.”

“I don’t know what you kids are talking about, I’m afraid.” The man in the suit slides one hand into his jacket and extracts something from an inside pocket. It’s a DVD case - I recognize the cover artwork from Body of Proof.

“Well, if you like that show,” Peter says, pointing to the DVD in the man’s hand, “you’ll love this one. Take Body of Proof, turn the ME into an immortal guy, add some flashbacks as far back as the War of 1812, and you’ll have Forever.”

“Interesting,” says the man. He pops open the cabinet under the projector, kneels down, and puts the DVD inside it.

“There you are, Doctor,” Coulson says, coming into the room. “Kids, this is Dr. Stephen Strange. He’s a neurosurgeon and sorcerer.”

“I prefer the term ‘metaphysical consultant,’” says Strange. “But I see none of you are surprised by Agent Coulson’s revelation about my job?”

“Why would we be?” Peter asks. “We only just found out today that most of us are movie characters. I don’t think we can be shocked by anything anymore.”

“I’ll take up that bet,” says Strange. “Twenty dollars says I can shock you right here and now, literally.”

“You’re on,” Peter laughs.

Strange raises his right hand towards Peter, then a bolt of lightning zaps out. Peter, however, jumps out of the way just in time, so the lightning barely brushes his leg. I do, however, notice a small burn mark on his jeans.

Strange, however, either doesn’t notice the burn, or decides to consider his bet lost. He then reaches into his jacket again to pull out a wallet and give Peter twenty bucks. I notice as the bill is exchanged that Strange’s hand is trembling a bit.

“You’re not here to scare the kids, are you, Doctor?” Coulson asks, giving Strange a placid half-smile.

“Hardly,” Strange says. “I’m mostly here to leave some lasting impressions. And to make them wonder why one Avenger was left out of this whole mix.” He puts one arm around Coulson’s shoulder and steers him towards the door. “Now, I know Stark recommends that one shawarma restaurant in New York, but I can do you one better…”

Before Strange leaves the room, he uses his finger to play the movie again. The movie keeps playing, but I don’t think I’m the only one not paying much attention anymore. Doctor Strange is exactly what his name implies, and because of that, he’s really sticking in my brain much more than Joss Whedon’s vision of an apocalyptic alien attack on New York. As is the fact that he obviously knows something about why we’re all here, why we’ve all been supposedly brought down to normal teenager status. I guess that makes sense, though, so we could all be the same age. Is it harder to reverse-age a person than to age them forward, though? After all, if we were to all be adults, it would be a lot easier since Peter and I would have been the only ones who needed to have our ages changed…