Hello everyone! This is the first fic I've written so I hope you all like it. I tried my best to have it make sense with all of the jumbled timelines and such, and stay as true to the characters as possible. As always with fanfics I own nothing but my OC Retha.
"Come on, come on!" Retha muttered in frustration, the dim light of the sanctum deepening the dark smudges under her eyes. She flipped a page roughly and read over the characters again.
"Activate tablet..." She created a series of complicated, kaleidoscope like shapes in the air, their energy crackling and spewing light like sparklers. She then thrust her hand down towards a worn bronze colored slab, the spell shifting as she went. The tablet's surface began to glow with thousands of dots of colors, sparkling like the night sky.
"Ah!" She breathed, casting a glance filled with urgency towards the doorway, "Ok... ok." She continued to read swiftly, muttering under her breath all the while. She cast another short series of spells and the colors began to dance and flash rapidly. Shapes began to dance across the surface, and Retha could tell they meant something, though she couldn't read them herself.
Behind her a loud whooshing crack rang out, shaking the building. The door swung open to reveal Doctor Stephen Strange, a large cut across his cheekbone and the tips of his hair sizzling. He conjured two large disks that appeared to be made of pure, hot energy, and threw them at the wall. They ricocheted and forced Retha to stop her work in order to use her sling ring to send them hurling back at Strange. By then he had vaulted himself towards her, and after nearly missing the disks himself he began to cast another spell. Strange pressed his hands together and pulled them apart again, a rope of bright orange crackling between them. He threw it around Retha's neck and pulled her away from the tablet.
"Retha stop!" He yelled, her breaths gasping under the force of him constricting her throat. She made a fist and swung her arm upwards, her spell slicing through the rope. She kicked Strange backwards before rolling and grasping desperately at the tablet again, attempting to finish her work. Strange pulled in a sharp breath of pain from the kick and pulled himself to his feet.
He conjured footholds that helped him hop through the air as if he was crossing a river, using larger stones as the next step to avoid the water. He grabbed at Retha's robes and fell headfirst over the table which held the tablet, pulling her with him. The two struggled and fought on the ground. Retha let out a guttural scream and sliced his arm with one of her disk shaped spells. He yelped and kicked blindly, making contact with her face.
She threw her hands out and the air before her seemed to shimmer and shift. The mirror dimension. Strange glanced at his hand, the space were his sling right once sat now vacant. He couldn't get trapped in the mirror dimension, or she would activate the tablet and... he didn't know what. The wall that marked the boundary between the mirror dimension and this one sped towards him and he only barely managed to cast a spell which flashed a brilliantly bright beam of light towards Retha's face. She howled and the wall shattered just before it reached his boots. A flash of red whisked through the door. The Cloak of Levitation flapped angrily in a sort of battle cry as it hurled itself at her head, proceeding to smash it hard against the floor.
Strange rushed towards the now vibrating tablet and examined it, trying to grasp how deactivate it. The thumping of Retha's head and her cries didn't exactly help his concentration. Think. Think! Thi-
An echoing bang. He was sent crashing over the tablet back next to Retha, his head slamming sickeningly against the wall. Retha struggled against The Cloak blindly before using her sling ring to drop a load of shelves from the other room on the hem of The Cloak. It struggled under the weight, its threads stretching precariously in an attempt to contain her.
She ripped it off and scrambled towards the tablet, blinking the stars out of her vision. She flipped another page of the book from the Sorcerer Supreme's private collection. She selected one of the unknown symbols which now flashed on the stone and the room started to glow an icy blue.
The Cloak flapped about next to a dazed Strange. He shook his head and grasped the wall as he tried to stand. The light got brighter and out of sheer desperation The Cloak of Levitation gripped Strange's leg and hurled him at Retha. He knocked into her and they tumbled backwards with a yell. Thanks, I guess, Strange thought through the dizzying pain in his head.
The tablet was now casting watery light along the walls. Retha lunged at it, Strange still clinging to her legs, pulling her down. The Cloak lunged at his leg, managing to reach it but emitting a loud ripping in the process. She clawed, her hand touching the surface.
~o~