"When blood is shed, let the Staff of One emerge." Nico Minoru had said these words so many times that she had stopped caring what they actually meant. She supposed that wasn't the best of ideas, but it was hard to keep wondering about such things when there were more urgent matters to deal with. Besides, it wasn't like she needed to know what the words actually meant to use the Staff. All she needed to know was how to use the damn thing, something she had become quite proficient at.
Nico honestly couldn't remember what her life had been like before she had obtained the Staff, except to say that it had been rather boring. Her life now was anything but boring, especially at that moment. Nico had just gone out to get some supplies with Karolina, Molly, and Victor, when they had been attacked by some fire breathing psycho and his seemingly indestructible partner in crime. Nico didn't even know who these two idiots were and she didn't much care. All that mattered was stopping them before they harmed any civilians or destroyed any property. That was why she'd brought the Staff forth, though she was beginning to regret even leaving the hostel, as these villains were proving to be tougher than just about anyone Nico and her fiends had faced.
"Man, these guys just don't quit do they?" Molly shouted over the noise of the battle.
"Apparently not." Nico agreed. "Too bad for them though."
"Ha, you really think you can defeat us, little witch?" the fire breather asked. "I am the immortal Inferno, your little magic tricks won't harm me."
"The immortal Inferno?" Nico asked, glancing at Victor, who shrugged. Nico rolled her eyes, disappointed by Victor's lack of knowledge. He usually knew at least a bit about the villains they fought, but apparently these two idiots weren't in Victor's memory banks.
"So, if you're Inferno, who's your friend?" Molly asked, glancing at the fire breather.
"He calls himself the Wall." Inferno answered. "And I promise you can't hurt him either."
"Yeah, we'll see about that." Nico said, twirling the Staff of One like a baton, before aiming it at Inferno. "Tidal-wave." She spoke the spell without thinking and before Inferno could react a massive wave came crashing down on top of him, dousing his flames with thousands of gallons of water. Nico grinned, surprised the spell had actually worked.
However, she had forgotten about the Wall and as she turned towards her friends the massive metal man lunged towards her, his fist swinging for her head.
"NICO, WATCH OUT!" Karolina cried, her voice alerting Nico to the danger.
Nico spun, raising her hands and the Staff to shield herself just as the Wall's fist reached her. The force of his punch was tremendous and Nico felt her feet leave the ground as she was thrown backwards. She hit the ground with a painful crack and felt the Staff of One slip from her hands before everything went black.
Moments later Nico snapped back to consciousness, pain shooting through her right shoulder as she sat up. Her vision was blurry and for a moment she forgot where she was, until she heard Karolina's voice.
"Nico, you okay?" Karolina asked, her tone concerned.
"I'm fine K." Nico replied. "Mostly. I think my shoulder might be separated." It was then that she noticed the Wall sprawled out on the ground beside Inferno. "What happened?"
"Victor electrocuted him." Karolina answered. "Turns out the Wall is just a walking hunk of scrap metal."
"Yeah, tell that to my shoulder." Nico muttered, wincing.
Karolina gave her a sympathetic smile and helped Nico to her feet. "Well, we should probably get going before the authorities show up, don't you think?" she said.
"Yeah." Nico agreed. "Just let me get the Staff of One and we'll be on our way." She turned to retrieve the Staff and froze, her breath catching in her chest. The Staff of One lay where she had dropped it, but it was not the same Staff she had held before. This Staff had a large, vertical crack running down its full length and Nico knew that couldn't be a good thing.
"Nico, is something wrong?" Karolina asked, seeming to have noticed Nico's shock.
"The Staff of One is cracked." Nico answered, trying her best not to freak out.
Karolina could sense Nico's concern, but she felt this wasn't the best place to discuss the matter so she said, "I'm sure it's fine Nico, now please, let's head back to the hostel."
Nico nodded and allowed Karolina to guide her to the corner where Molly and Victor were waiting, both of them looking concerned.
"What's going on?" Molly asked. "Is Nico okay?"
"She's fine." Karolina answered. "Except for her shoulder, so let's get going so we can take care of that."
Victor nodded, though he could tell there was something Karolina wasn't telling him and Molly. Molly could sense it too, but both of them chose not to comment and they made their way back to the hostel in silence.
They were greeted by Chase and Gert, who could immediately tell something was wrong. "God, what the hell happened to you guys?" Gert asked.
"We were...attacked by a pair of psychos." Nico said, wincing again.
"Well shit." Chase said. "Why didn't you call us?"
"We were kind of in the middle of a fight Chase." Nico snapped.
"What's your problem?" Gert asked, casting a dark look in Nico's direction.
"The Staff of One was damaged." Nico answered. "One of the guys we were fighting hit me and I think he may have broken the Staff."
"Is that even possible?" Chase asked of no one in particular.
"How the hell should I know?" Nico snapped, her level of irritation beginning to rise.
"Well, it is your Staff, isn't it?" Gert said. "If anyone here should know how it works, it should be you, don't you think?"
Nico didn't answer. She knew Gert was right, but she didn't feel like admitting that she hadn't learned everything there was to know about the Staff of One. Somehow that felt like failure and Nico wouldn't allow her friends to see her as a failure, especially now that she was the leader of their little group.
"It doesn't look that badly damaged." Victor said, drawing Nico from her thoughts.
"It's cracked along it's full length." Nico said, trying her best to stay calm. "I wouldn't call that minor damage."
"Well try it out then." Victor said, gesturing at the Staff. "If you want to know how badly damaged it is, you have to test it."
Nico gave Victor an incredulous look before deciding he was probably right. For all she knew this was just minor damage and the Staff would be just fine. But the only way to know for sure was to test it, so she thought of the simplest spell she could imagine and gave it a shot.
"Illuminate." she said, aiming the Staff at a burnt out light bulb.
There was a blinding flash of light and then the light bulb exploded, sending shards of glass flying across the room. The Staff of One sent off red sparks and then went cold in Nico's grasp, the crack visibly widening.
"Well, I think it's fair to say that didn't go the way we wanted it to." Victor said.
"Gee, you think?" Nico snapped. "What was your first hint Vic?"
"Come on Nico, it's not that bad." Gert said, her tone calm. "You did manage to turn the light bulb on."
"Yeah, and then it exploded." Nico said, her calm facade starting to slip. "And the crack in the Staff got bigger. So I don't think that qualifies as a successful test."
"I didn't say it qualified as a successful test." Gert said. "I was simply pointing out that you did manage to use the spell you intended to use, which tells me the Staff isn't as badly damaged as you think it is Nico. And if that's the case then maybe it can be fixed."
No sooner had Gert spoken when the red sparks shifted, spelling out a warning that said, Twenty four hours, that is the time you have to repair the Staff of One. Failure to do so will result in the permanent loss of the Staff's power.
Nico stared at the warning in horror. She only had twenty four hours to fix the Staff? How the hell was she supposed to do that? She didn't even know if the Staff could be fixed, so how was she supposed to fix it in twenty four hours? And if she failed, what would happen then? Would she lose all her power or just that of the Staff?
"Oh God, what am I going to do?" she asked of no one in particular. "I can't fix the Staff. I don't have the slightest idea how to even start something like that."
"Nico, calm down." Karolina said. "There's a way to do this and we'll help you."
"You'll help me?" Nico shouted, finally losing control of her emotions. "You'll help me K? And how will you do that, exactly? Do you even understand what's going on here? The Staff of One is damaged and I have twenty four hours to fix it. How the hell are any of you going to help?"
"I don't know." Karolina answered, visibly hurt by Nico's words. "But we'll find a way, I promise."
"No, we won't." Nico snapped. "The Staff can only be repaired with magic and I'm the only one here who can use magic, but my magic sucks without the Staff. I'm useless without it and none of you can fix it."
"Nico, calm down!" Karolina said again, her tone sharp.
Nico froze, taken aback by Karolina's sharp tone. She stared at Karolina for a moment before collapsing into a chair, her chest heaving as she tried to slow her racing heart and quell the panic rising within her.
"You are not useless Nico." Karolina said. "And we will find a way to fix the Staff. We just have to put our heads together and think for a minute. Eventually the answer will come to us."
"But what if it doesn't happen in time?" Nico asked, her voice strained.
"It will." Karolina said. "You say only magic can fix the Staff? Well, then, let's start there. What other magic users do we know about?"
"Well, there's the Scarlet Witch, Wiccan, Magik, Brother Voodoo, Daimon Hellstorm, and Doctor Doom, but I don't know how to get a hold of any of them." Chase said.
"Yeah, not to mention the fact that Doctor Doom wouldn't help us and Brother Voodoo is most likely dead." Gert said.
"What about Doctor Strange?" Victor asked. "We could go to him for help."
"Do you know where he lives?" Nico asked, suddenly hopeful.
"Well, his sanctum sanctorum is in New York, but last I heard he was living with the New Avengers in Avengers Mansion." Victor said.
"How do you know all this stuff dude?" Chase asked, perplexed.
"I've always been a fan of super heroes." Victor answered. "I guess I just like keeping tabs on what everyone is up to."
"Do you really think Doctor Strange will help me though?" Nico asked.
"I don't see why he wouldn't." Victor answered. "He is the Sorcerer Supreme, after all, so he's bound to have some kind of knowledge of the Staff of One."
"Okay, but there's just two small problems we have to deal with first." said Gert.
"And they are?" Nico asked, her level of annoyance beginning to rise again.
"One, we have no way to get to New York." Gert said. "And two, do we really want to deal with the Avengers again? Won't they just try to get us back into foster care or something?"
"Actually, we do have a way to get to New York." Chase said. "We can just use the Leapfrog. Go cloaked and we'll be fine."
"And as far as dealing with the Avengers, we technically only need to deal with Doctor Strange, so that shouldn't be an issue either." said Victor.
"Okay fine, let's go." Gert said, though she sounded less than enthusiastic.
"Thank you." Nico said. "I promise I'll pay you back for this."
Gert just nodded and they boarded the Leapfrog before setting off for New York.
Several hours later Nico and her friends arrived in New York, all of them determined to find Doctor Strange and get the Staff of One fixed. Nico had spent most of the journey worrying about what would happen to her powers if she wasn't able to get the Staff fixed. She had ultimately come to the conclusion that she probably wouldn't lose her powers completely, but they would likely be greatly diminished. There would still be spells she could use, most likely, but they wouldn't be as potent and she would be greatly limited in what she could do without the Staff. She was certain Doctor Strange could repair the Staff, but she was less certain they'd be able to find him. He was technically an Avenger, after all, as well as the Sorcerer Supreme, so he was likely a very busy man. Still, she wouldn't give up hope, not until there was absolute proof that this plan wouldn't work.
"Okay, so, does anyone have any idea where we can find Doctor Strange?" Chase asked.
"Like I said, he's supposedly living at Avengers Mansion now." Victor answered. "So we should probably head there first."
Chase nodded and piloted the Leapfrog in the direction of the mansion. Nico wasn't sure how he knew where he was going, but she supposed it didn't matter. All she cared about was finding Doctor Strange and getting the Staff of One repaired. Everything else was secondary to that goal and she would not stop until she accomplished it.
Nico was drawn from her thoughts by the lurch of the Leapfrog as Chase parked it in front of Avengers Mansion. To her dismay the gate in front of the mansion was locked and the mansion looked deserted.
"Damn it." she said. "There's no one here."
"So, what do we do now?" Molly asked, with a questioning glance at Nico.
"I suppose we try to find Doctor Strange's sanctum sanctorum." Nico said, her tone sullen.
"You don't think it's listed in the phone book, do you?" Chase asked, trying to lighten the mood. "Cuz that'd be awesome."
"I doubt that's the case, Chase." Gert muttered, rolling her eyes.
"Let me try something." Nico said. "Maybe I can find it without the magic of the Staff."
"It's certainly worth a shot." Karolina said, her tone encouraging.
Nico nodded and closed her eyes focusing all of her energy on an image of Doctor Strange. Please, she thought. I really need this to work. Please let me find Doctor Strange. With all of her energy focused on the mental image of the Sorcerer Supreme and her wish echoing in her mind she spoke the spell, "Locate Sorcerer Supreme." She felt warmth in her hands and then light flared before her, so bright she could see it through her eyelids. She opened her eyes and saw, to her amazement, a large glowing arrow pointing down the street. Encouraged, she began moving in the direction the arrow pointed, the others following right behind her.
As Nico walked she began to notice more arrows, each of them leading her in a new direction until at last they came to an end in front of a nondescript building that looked like it was abandoned.
"This is where Doctor Strange lives?" Chase asked, confused.
"Apparently." Nico muttered, glancing at the building with some apprehension.
"Why would he live in such a shitty old building though?" Chase asked.
"To keep people from stumbling upon things they're not supposed to find, obviously." Nico answered, rolling her eyes.
Chase was about to respond with a snide comment when the doors flew open and a brilliant light flooded the street. "Who comes to my sanctum sanctorum?" a voice called out. "If you are a demon seeking a fight, you may want to reconsider, for I am the Sorcerer Supreme of this dimension."
"We're not demons." Nico said. "We're kids and we need your help."
The light dimmed and Doctor Strange stepped forward. For a moment he simply stared at Nico and her friends and then he smiled. "Ah, the children of the Pride." he said, his tone amused. "What brings you to my humble abode?"
"You know who we are?" Karolina asked, unnerved by this fact.
"I do indeed." Doctor Strange answered. "Captain America has told me a great deal about you Runaways."
"Oh really?" Chase asked. "And what, exactly, has Cap told you about us?"
"Nothing bad, I assure you." Doctor Strange answered. "Now, what can I help you with?"
"This." Nico said, holding the damaged Staff of One before her.
"The Staff of One." Doctor Strange said, his tone one of awe.
"Yes." Nico said. "It has been damaged and if it is not repaired soon it will cease to function and I will lose my magic."
"How was it damaged?" Doctor Strange inquired.
"We were fighting some lowlife scumbags and one of them hit me." Nico answered.
"I see." Doctor Strange said, examining the Staff as he spoke.
"Can you fix it?" Nico asked, a note of pleading in her voice.
"I believe I can." Doctor Strange answered. "Come inside and I'll see what I can do."
Nico nodded and followed Doctor Strange inside, the others following her. Once inside she paused, marveling at the sheer quantity of magical artifacts that were stashed in Strange's home. She had never seen so many spell books in one place before and for a moment she wondered how Doctor Strange had come to possess all of this, before remembering that he was the Sorcerer Supreme.
"This place...it...it's amazing." she said, her tone now one of awe.
"You like it?" Strange asked, glancing at Nico with amusement.
"I have never been to a place I liked more." Nico answered.
"Well, you're welcome to come back at any time." Strange said. "I can teach you how to use your magic without the Staff, if you so desire."
"I may take you up on that offer sometime." Nico said. "If I can find the time."
"You really should." Strange said. "With the right training you could, perhaps, become the Sorcerer Supreme someday. Assuming someone like Wiccan doesn't gain the title first. Anyway, back to business."
Nico smiled, appreciating his words, though she didn't really believe them. Surely there were better candidates to take over his position than her. Still, it was nice to know he had faith in her when so few other adults did.
For the next hour or so Doctor Strange sat and studied various books and scrolls, until he finally found what he was looking for. "Ah, here it is." he said, his hands glowing with golden light as he laid them upon the Staff. The Staff rose into the air and began spinning, Strange moving his hands in rhythm with the spins. This went on for several minutes until the Staff finally settled on the table.
"That should do it." Strange said, handing the Staff back to Nico.
Nico took it and examined it, noticing to her great pleasure that the crack was gone. Strange had done it. He had repaired the Staff of One and Nico had never been more excited or happy in all her life. She felt like she could do anything now and just to prove that the Staff was indeed fixed she tried out a new spell, which worked perfectly.
"Thank you." she said, turning to Doctor Strange. "Thank you so much."
"You are most certainly welcome." he said, smiling. "Try to be a bit more careful with it from now on though, okay? That is a powerful magical artifact you hold and it would be a shame for it to get destroyed."
Nico nodded and she and her friends took their leave, all of them glad things were back to normal. Though as they boarded the Leapfrog for the trip home Nico couldn't help thinking that she would one day return to this place and learn from the Sorcerer Supreme. This incident with Staff had been scary, but now she knew she could handle anything. And with that knowledge in mind she settled back for the ride home, determined never to take her powers for granted again.
End.
A/N: And that's my second Runaways fic. As with Saving Ducks, I'm not sure exactly where this fits in continuity, though it's likely before either Xavin or Klara join the team. It doesn't really matter though, as this fic is AU. Also, I know this is kinda long for a one shot (maybe?), but it took more words than I expected to get the story out of my head. Also, Inferno and the Wall are my own creations, though they're likely based off actual Marvel characters (I'm not really sure who though). That's really all I have to say, except to add that my next Runaways fic will be about Chase. Oh and Runaways is the property of Brian K. Vaughn and Marvel Comics, lest we forget. Cheers!