Summary: An unlikely encounter ends with an even more unexpected friendship between an enchanted cloak worn by a mystical doctor and a familiar coat owned by a famous detective.
(WHAM)
The force of the impact square to a man's chest sends him flying through the sky fifteen feet over the city of London. Upon landing, this man, with jet black hair beginning to turn white at the edges and cleanly shaped facial hair, is left lying face down on the concrete. Wrapped from head to toe in blue fabrics, which appear to look almost antiquated in their nature, the man doesn't take any notice to the fact that he is lacking a long, heavy cloak which normally adorns his ensemble. When the pair (the man and his cloak) landed the self-aware, enchanted piece of fabric crumpled into an unorganized pile, completely torn from its owner's body. Doctor Steven Strange grumbled irritably to himself while staggering to his feet and ran to meet his attacker head on without giving time for the cape to recover from its own stupor. Strange and the latest small scale baddie tussle for a moment, exchanging punches that they intern dodge just as quickly, before the evil doer opens a translucent portal behind himself and falls through it, pulling the martial artist in with him before it vanishes from sight.
The cape, on the other hand, is left to shake off the after effects of the blow it received only to float up to what appears to be a standing position on its nonexistent feet, completely alone. The piece of embroidered red cloth is left hanging an inch or two above the ground, suspended in midair without the assistance of a living body underneath it. Using the pointed tips of its eccentric and exaggerated collar, it looks about itself as if still in a daze. Without the aid of a recognizable face, the cloak is still expressive enough to communicate that it is searching for its owner. It suddenly seems to become flustered, once realizing the doctor is gone, and it begins moving frantically up and down the pavement. It zips around the area where the portal originated in a matter of milliseconds, like a dog sniffing around a fire hydrant, only to discover that the portal is not going to reappear to allow it entrance.
The cloak seems lost without its owner, yet decides to move on from its location. Choosing a direction seemingly at random the cape drifts up the street at a quick pace. Turning its collar from side to side it observes its surrounding just as plainly as if it had a pair of eyes. Darting behind trash bins and shimming up street lamps, the cloth looks comical as it attempts to avoid traffic cameras and pedestrians to little or no avail. Civilians still catch glimpses of the dark red figure as it passes as a single streak through the air with the speed of a cheetah (fast, but not fast enough to be invisible).
As it moves it seems to be going through a complete thought process of trying to deduce where it is and where it is most likely to reunite with its beloved owner. Looking both ways before crossing each street it appears to be listening for the sound of an explosion or loud swearing that would signal the location of the doctor and the current brawl. For no particular reason, the cape makes a right turn and begins to move down a new street where a white sign hangs on the corner of a large apartment building that reads, Baker Street.
After drifting through the city without a suitable companion, the cloak seems to suddenly get nervous of the prospect of being seen in public and it darts into the first open apartment it comes to, effectively slamming the door behind itself. The cape slides down the door once its firmly closed as if sighing silently. Then it looks around the dark corridor and, opting not to open anymore doors, begins to drift up the staircase.
Up and up and up the stairs, the cloak travels majestically only to halt abruptly. A single board on the staircase the cloth happened to be floating over creaked loudly as if a foot stood putting pressure on it. The cape hung there, listening for an auditory warning to sound from anywhere within the building. When none came the collar of the cloak made a circular motion as if it were wiping sweat from its brow and continued to the top landing.
Now the cape is standing at a closed door and raises its massive tail end, using it to turn the brass knob and enter the flat. With the switches on the walls turned down towards the floor, the only light in the room is the sun pouring in to illuminate the living room through parallel windows. Papers and pictures are tacked onto brown and black patterned wall paper above a couch and two chairs that didn't come from the same suite are facing each other in front of an empty fireplace.
The cape knows that its alone in the apartment, so it closes the door quietly behind itself and begins to snoop around freely. It observes a violin propped on its stand below one of the windows and identical tea cups left partially full on the coffee table between the two chairs, completely forgotten. It floats into the small kitchen only to be greeted by an untidy dining table covered in envelopes and open notepads, test tubes and beakers filled with foreign liquids that don't look safe to consume, and absolutely nothing that resembles normal kitchenware.
Drifting back into the living room, the enchanted fabric planned to scour further reaches of the flat. It even turned to go down a new hallway only to realize that it had missed a certain prominent fixture standing tall next the entrance. The cloak floats smoothly backwards through the apartment until it comes to a stop in front of a coat rack with a single dark and brooding coat hanging on it. The coat is a deep gray/blue color with large dark black buttons and an enormous folded over collar. The cape seems to take a special interest in the other piece of fabric, never touching it, but looking it up and down and floating all around it for a good two minutes.
The cape eventually becomes bored of the cloth that won't pay it any attention in return and just turns to continue its sweep of the flat before the coat, without prompt, jumps up on its own accord clear off its peg and drops limply to the floor. The cape immediately reacts with concern and dips low with the tips of its collar just scraping the ground as it peers at the dark mass, weaving around the coat while assessing the best way as to assist it off the ground.
But assistance isn't needed. Because after a moment of laying completely immobile on the ground the coat itself, much like the cloak, becomes animate and shoots up from the floor to float gently above the hardwood. With the actual back of the material facing the cape, the coat takes a moment to shake its massive mane of a collar as if just waking up from a nap before slowly turning toward the other bewitched material in the room.
The cape itself is mesmerized after finding something much like itself seemingly by chance. The coat, though it appears to be the same width and would suit the same size of man, hovers a full inch lower than the cape and its tail (the hem of the coat) is only half as long at about three feet off the ground.
The cape suddenly leaps into the air and spins around the coat in two quick circles very excitedly and seemingly pleased with the new development. The coat on the other hand looks rather confused, whether at the prospect of being alive or the prospect of having another strange, animate object in its living space, we will never know.
The fabrics each take turns examining each other with curiosity. Poking and prodding at the air without ever actually making direct contact. Without the ability to speak, they must inquire about each other's appearances by pointing at their differences in textiles and accessories. At one point, the cloak even appears to ask the coat, 'what are these?', as an edge of its tail points downwards into one of the coat's large open pockets. A long, hollow sleeve lifts from its side without the consultant of an arm and dove straight into the pocket indicated, showing that the pouch is where the coat's owner often puts his hands. The cape seemed thrilled with the new information and shook its collar in a negative motion before using it like hands to wave up and down its own form to state that it had none of its own. For a moment, it almost seemed jealous.
Introductions last nearly ten minutes as the garments swivel and twist and turn, circling each other. Following one another here and there about the living area as if in a game of tag, the two materials darted between corners and swooped over furniture.
Finally, the two personified cloths came to rest at the center of the room. They floated quietly for a moment. Neither moving, both just peering at each other with their nonexistent eyes. Suddenly, the cape looks down to the bottom of its long, flowing tail and raises it. Just a foot out in front of itself and towards the coat. Hanging limply in the air. It was an offering. The coat stares back at the outstretched flap and ponders it for a moment. Then, hesitantly, the coat reciprocates. Meeting the cape half way, the coat offers one of its sleeves and steadily moves it out in front of itself. Gently, the two fabrics touch in a sort of caressing motion before they clasp onto each other as if the two are holding hands, entangling their two materials together. A mixture of gray and red. Then, slowly, they begin to drift closer. Closing the small gap between them, before –
Unexpectedly, a sound, much like man yelling, could be heard screaming outside on the streets from within the flat. He sounded far off at first. Maybe a street or two away. Then the screaming began to build in intensity, gradually growing closer. Moving in the direction of the complex.
The cloak and coat turned at the same moment once they began to pick up on the strange noise, separating faster than they came together, and each turned to face the windows which looked out over the city. Nothing could be seen at first, but then a second later the form of a man began to take shape. From the second story of the apartment complex, the man could be seen travelling horizontally through the air towards the building.
Then there was Strange, crashing loudly, straight through the apartment wall. The parallel windows shattered out of their frames as the doctor crashed into the building creating a gigantic hole between the two panels.
Once the rubble had settled from the crash, the cape turned back to look towards the coat only to see that it had darted back onto the coat rack to camouflage itself.
Strange meanwhile, clambered to his feet from a pile of plaster and Sheetrock. The magician cracks his back to relieve the pressure that had built in it and pats off the dust on his trousers while promptly raising the question, "Hello, and where have you been all my life?"
The cape turns to Strange and begins swishing its tail around in a seemingly sarcastic manner as if irritated by the man's presence and unwilling to give a dignified response. "No, no, no. No time for this. You can tell me off later. Right now, we have a job to do," Strange dismissed the cape, and the fact that he had previously disregarded the cape's presence amid the squabble, with a single wave of his hand and faces the wall, or lack thereof one. He flexes his shoulders and the muscles in his back and waits expectantly for the cape to encompass him before he rejoins the brawl outside.
The cape looks to its owner and to the coat hanging off its hook and back several times. It seems torn. Like it can't decide what it should do next.
"What? Suddenly get cold feet."
But its owner decides for it. The cape looks to the coat on its rack one last time. The coat lifts a side of its thick collar as if it is gazing at the coat and subtly reaches out towards it with an empty sleeve.
Then the cloak seems to begrudgingly wrap itself around the shoulders of its owner. And the two jump out the hole in the wall created by the super hero, the cape bellowing out behind him, and back onto the streets of London to continue the fight against evil and protect the unsuspecting city and its citizens.
About half an hour later and Sherlock Holmes and John Watson return to their flat on Baker Street. Walking up the stairs, they open the door only to be met with most a wall missing in their cozy London apartment.
"What the bloody hell happened here?" John all but shrieks, looking out through the hole where he can clearly see the path he had taken to walk up to the flat outside on the pavement. He continues to trudge around the apartment angrily as he waits for Sherlock to react to the colossal damage as he had yet to do so.
"Oh, did I forget to mention? Mycroft texted. Said it was a "gas leak"," Sherlock calmly explains as he settles into his assigned chair with his laptop in hand, planning on browsing it for the remainder of the day. It's unclear to John as to whether Sherlock can actually see the mess or if he is simply choosing to ignore the rubble on the floor that surrounds him.
"Which means he either doesn't know what caused it or it was something stupidly dangerous and he's not at liberty to tell us what it was."
"Precisely."
"Oh, brilliant," John mutters as he heads to the kitchen, intent on distracting himself to prepare tea for both himself and his completely unaffected flat mate.
Meanwhile, neither of the tenants notice the coat that remains on the rack where it has been left all day who seems to be staring across the room at its owner who wears a very similar face to the man that left with the mystically, mysterious cloak.