Author's Note: This is a project I've been itching to do for a very, very, very long time. When I started Tales of the Beyond, I didn't plan on it to become overtaken by ongoing plots. While I'm still proud of it, it has gotten away from what it was originally meant to be; an exploration of a larger multiverse told in one-shots. Glimpses is meant to be what Tales of the Beyond can't be anymore. Each chapter will be its own thing, only lightly tied together by this framing device with Doctor Strange at the beginning and the eventual end (of sorts), hence why it'll be listed as a Doctor Strange fic even if it isn't really about him outside of said parts. I still will complete the original storyline of Tales at some point in the future before ending it, and then transferring my ideas for more chapters of that into new Fics, chapters of Glimpses, and, in the case of the Incredibles, that Secret Wars-inspired story I prematurely teased oh so long ago.

Prelude

Earth-199999

The Sanctum Sanctorum

Deep within the halls of the Sanctum Sanctorum, two robes men walked together down a dark corridor. The one named Wong held up a lit candle that illuminated their path. They didn't go to this part of the building much. The one named Stephen Strange followed Wong as they calmly kept moving forward. There was no dark secret as to why they didn't go down this hall often. No, doing that was not forbidden from them in any fashion. Wong stopped and turned around to look at Strange face to face.

"Are you sure this is where you want to do it?" Wong asked, breaking their silence.

His voice echoed down the dark hallway, but only just a little. Strange looked down at the burning candle. He smelt the melting wax and the scent puzzled him.

"I'll answer your question with one of my own; what kind of scented candle is this?" Strange questioned. "I know it isn't important, but I know I'll forget to ask later."

Wong rolled his eyes at his former student.

"It's artichoke." Wong answered.

"So you bought an artichoke scented candle, it seems. Do you have an explanation?" Strange asked incredulously.

"You said you didn't want generic candles, so I picked a bunch of random ones." Wong told him in a somewhat irritated tone. "Now give me an answer to what I asked you."

"Fine, Wong." Strange relented. "Truth is that I could do this anywhere. I just want a place where I won't be disturbed. This could last a while and I don't need any intruder or visitor screwing it up for me."

The pair of mystic artists then got back on their way. After a few minutes, they reached a simple wooden door. It opened itself up for them and the two walked through it. They found themselves in a modestly sized room. There was no furniture, windows, or anything of the sort save for some electric lights illuminating the room. They were very effective lights, greatly contrasting the room with the hall they had just walked down. The walls, floor, and ceiling were made up of simple, smooth planks of lightly colored wood.

"Yes, this will serve me well. It's devoid of anything that could distract me." Strange stated.

"I'll leave you to your endeavor." Wong said.

"Works for me." Strange shrugged.

Wong walked out the door, which closed itself after he was gone. Strange removed his gloves and set them on the floor, looked down at his hands for a moment, and then sat down in a cross legged position. It was time. He took a deep breath and proceeded to make several varying gestures with his fingers, with his eyes held shut. After roughly ten repetitive minutes of this, his palms began to glow with multiple colors. The faint cracks in the wooden walls of the room began to glow in a similar way. He began to hear voices that were familiar to him in some ways, but different in others. In his mind, Strange saw glowing lights transform into humanoid shapes. As they gained more details and features, he was able to recognize that these were representations of existing men. Except they weren't men from his own universe, but from alternate ones. Finally, he was able to grasp what they looked like, and he understood.

"They are me. All are different versions of me." Strange gasped.

It was true. These were visions of different Stephen Stranges from different worlds. Many looked almost exactly like him, but that wasn't true for them all. He noticed at least one who was much more youthful that reminded him of how he looked when he had attended college. As this version of him was in garb similar to most of the others', it seemed this was a Stephen Strange who had become a sorcerer at a much younger age. Another contrasted the young one greatly, possessing longer hair that had gone completely gray. One was brandishing a battle axe, which Strange found rather odd. None of those were the ones he looked at for the longest though. That attention was given to a Stephen Strange who was not in any cloaks or poofy shirts, but one who was dressed exactly like how Strange used to for his work as a neurosurgeon, white coat and all. Strange walked up to this one and touched it. The representations of his alternate selves returned to being wavy multi colored lights. He became engulfed by them. Just as quickly, they vanished and strange found himself standing in a strange place. It was like a place between worlds, between realities. Even he couldn't properly describe it beyond it being a sea of colors. Despite this, Strange knew this was his destination. From here, he could glimpse into any world in this sprawling multiverse.

"Now where to start?" Stephen Strange pondered.

He held up his hands and began to think. As he did, black numbers appeared, hovering above his palms, with many more circling around him. As he had a long road ahead of him. Strange figured it'd be best to start simple and randomly chose three numbers. He reached out and plucked up a 1, a 4, and a 0.

"Time to get started…"

I'll admit this isn't much, but please understand that this is all setup. In case I didn't make it clear enough, this is going to be similar to be similar Tales of the Beyond and Michael Weyer's Counterpart Confrences, with the hook of Glimpses is that Doctor Strange is going to be seeing exactly what we'll be seeing in the coming chapters, with each showing a different universe (along with crossovers of course). Can you guess what we'll be seeing in Chapter 1? I'll be suprised if anyone can get it. I can't guarantee when it'll be ready, but I can promise that it won't be a very long wait. In the meantime, feel free to suggest fun properties that you hope to see down the line.