Your name is Stephen Strange, and if the full scope of the possibility of becoming Sorcerer Supreme is only just now hitting you, well, that is nobody's business but your own, thanks very much. It really doesn't help that the Cloak is trembling excitedly behind you – from the outside, it looks like the relic is picking up on and broadcasting your anxiety. Which you really didn't need. If you wanted to flash your emotional state to the world, you would take your hands out from behind your back. Your nerves are making the ever-present shaking extremely noticeable.
...Now that you think about it, maybe the Cloak isn't trembling from excitement. It might actually be trembling because you are hiding your shaking hands in it.
Well then. Today is off to a great start.
Wong is not presiding over this final test, which is good, in your opinion. Apart from everything else, today is one of the days that Tony was liable to show up, and you have learned by now that he and Bruce need someone with common sense to supervise them if you want to avoid blowing up yet another side room. Before you leave, you hand Wong a list of warning signs, phrases, and sounds that the Science Bros will likely make before something explodes, and then a secondary list of how to thwart said explosion based on which sign, phrase, or sound is being made.
Put together, the lists are about six feet long. Tony is responsible for at least five of those six feet.
Still, with Wong on the job, you leave the Sanctum with confidence that at least seventy percent of the building will still be standing by the time you return – maybe sixty, if Thor decides he wants another spar. But probably nothing that you won't be able to eventually fix.
You step through your gateway portal at the same time that your fellow candidate steps through hers. The new touches of gray in her hair tell you that she likely spent the past few weeks just as tired and stressed as you did; in fact, to your professional eye, she still looks tired. Come to think of it, almost all your fellow sorcerers have looked tired, even now, several days after the situation with Hela is resolved.
It dawns on you that your own lack of lingering exhaustion is likely due to your near-limitless power core and all the energy that comes with it. It adds another tally in the list of positive side effects from Dormammu's invasion, though there aren't many.
It also dawns on you that, just maybe, your fellow sorcerers are still on alert because Loki kidnapped Hela and is doing who-knows-what with her available power. You frown, and wonder how that did not occur to you sooner. You decide it was probably because of Thor's frequent visits, Tony's even more frequent Science! explosions, and all the hassle that comes with moving in a new roommate. No offense to Bruce.
Whatever the cause, compared to her, you look positively vibrant. You smile awkwardly at her and offer a quiet piece of advice regarding which tea you have found helps with relaxation the most; she nods in acknowledgement.
The two of you stand in slightly-uncomfortable silence. Aside from the fact that you had not met her before these trials (and in fact still do not know her name; you really ought to rectify that at some point), you two are both vying for the same position and as such, she could be considered your rival of sorts. You have never had a rival before – well, you have never had an acknowledged rival before. Plenty of people fancied themselves your rival back in your doctor days, but you had never taken any of them seriously.
Really, you have no idea how to interact with this woman.
Silence stretches. You notice that she does not seem to be nearly as uncomfortable as you are, and are irrationally jealous.
Thankfully, the overseer for the test arrives just in time to save you from having to pull up a conversation starter, and you gratefully turn your full attention to him. Then you blink in concern, because he looks even worse than your fellow candidate. If she looks tired, then your test-giver looks like he's about to drop dead on his feet.
Aside from that, though, he doesn't show his exhaustion in anything else, which is quite frankly vastly impressive. You wonder how many cups of coffee this man is running on.
He collects you both efficiently and ushers you through a new portal, bringing your little group to what looks like a pre-prepared arena, of sorts. Not exactly a regular 'arena', though, and certainly not the kind that comes to your mind when you hear the word 'arena'. Rather, it looks more like someone searched out the ideal of a wooded glade and then built an arena around it. Of course, the only reason you know this is because you can see the stone walls over the tops of the trees several dozen feet away.
Your instructor leads you to the center of the grassy area, so that the edge of trees encircles your group on all sides, then begins speaking. The object here, he says, is to test your fighting ability, both separately and as a team. The Sorcerer Supreme, among other things, is largely responsible for being the first line of defense and needs to have a good repertoire of skills and tactics in order to combat the various threats to the Earth. Spell constructs of various foes, he continues, will attack the two of you within the confines of the arena, and will continue to do so until the test is complete.
You absorb all this and groan to yourself, because if there is one thing you haven't been doing lately, it's practicing your combat magic. You've been a bit preoccupied with things like Tony Stark and corresponding explosions. This is sure to be among the less-enjoyable experiences in your life thus far.
Your overseer gives you a five-minute warning, then portals himself away to presumably preside over and judge the ensuing battle. You exchange a glance with your fellow candidate – well, teammate now, you suppose.
You any good at strategy? You ask, just to cover the bases. Your own thinking pattern has never been inclined towards the theoretical; your brain works in the here and now, where you can react in the moment. And besides, most of your good ideas come from the Cloak or the Eye nowadays anyhow.
Luckily for you, the woman nods. She glances around, eyes calculating, then declares, They're most likely to come from the southeast. That's where the easiest access is. We'll want to set up a choke point with the heavier hitter between the two of us, and have the other pick off the stragglers. She gives you a extendedly pointed look, lingering on your relics, and you can pick up the hint well enough.
Right then, I'll just stand over here, you say. Your teammate frowns at you in confusion.
What? She says, her brow furrowing. No, you're the heavy hitter.
You feel profoundly embarrassed. After so many months spent training yourself out of that kind of mindset, it simply hadn't occurred to you. You, awkwardly, inform her of this. She stares at you and smiles helplessly, in the sort of way that tells you she doesn't quite believe what she's hearing.
You were chosen by both the Cloak of Levitation and the Eye of Agamotto, she says. If nothing else, that makes you the heavy hitter.
You nod, because you have very little idea how to respond to that, and place yourself at the designated choke-point. Your partner takes up a position some ways away and sparks a spell between her fingers. She flashes you a glance, letting you know that she is ready.
A rustle in the trees is all the warning you have before a swarm of things rushes at you. There is a moment when you simply stare, caught between processing what you are seeing and actually doing something about them. For some reason, when your instructor said 'spell constructs', you were expecting human figures, or at least humanoid figures. These things look like a scorpion had offspring with a lamprey in a lake of glitter glue.
Then again, most of the threats that a Sorcerer Supreme would deal with would come from another dimension, and nothing you have seen in other dimensions has ever given you the impression that the inhabitants would be human-shaped.
With that in mind, you decide to see if Lycaon will consider these things to be edible. If not, well, he will have at least roughed them up a bit for you.
Your name is Stephen Strange, and you are quite certain that this final test is going to be an experience.
Happy Holidays, everybody. Sorry for the somewhat shorter-than-usual length, but I figured I'd kept you all waiting long enough. And hey, now I can finish planning where I want the trials to go without feeling like I'm holding chapters hostage. Win-win.
Also!
Based on everyone's feedback to my AN, I have elected to keep riding my AU Train and seeing where it takes me. However, I HAVE tweaked a few things just so that I'm still lining up with my source material a little bit.
Nothing about my plot has changed. I'm still going where I was going. However, I have now taken note of Thor's new haircut, as well as his new... let's call it an ocular accessory. In addition, I have also taken note of Asgard's... decorating choices and incorporated that as well. (I'm being deliberately vague for those of you who haven't seen the movie yet, if you can't tell. Though really, if you're gonna read the edits then you'll find Spoilers anyway, so... *shrugs*)
In regards to the location of these changes, there is a small note of Thor's new appearance in Chapter 26, in the paragraph that begins with "Before you can respond to that". The main addition is in Chapter 27, during the taco scene. Stephen asks about the... ocular accessory, and it just rolls from there. If you want to go find them to see what's different, that's where you go.
Thanks a ton to everyone who gave me their opinion, and I hope you'll like where I'm going next.
Changeling
Thanks to lordvaatithewindmage and ChainedGenius129 for Favoriting/Following!
