"Wong will teach you what you need to know…just listen…and open your mind…"
I stared up at the dark ceiling above my bed, the encounter with Doctor Strange running through my anxious mind. Less than eight hours before, he had handed me the Stone that now rested on my chest. The warmth of the thing surprised me, like it was a living thing, charged and waiting to be used. I clutched the necklace in my fist, feeling the heat spread quickly through my hand.
"Was it a mistake?" I muttered to myself in the dark room, the silence finally too stifling for me. "Maybe I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time…"
Then I recalled Strange's serious expression as he had spoken to me in the weird dream I had witnessed. He seemed pretty confident that I would be able to keep his stone safe from whatever those aliens wanted it for…
"He's like one of the smartest guys ever so…this has to be the right thing to do… right?" I asked myself. I scoffed at my quiet and shaky voice and laughed at the dark ceiling after a moment. "Everything's gonna be fine…"
There was a knock at my door suddenly, and I clamped my mouth shut quickly, knowing that, even though I was quiet, my voice had very probably carried outside my room.
"Mr. Alexander? Are you ready for a bit of training?" Wong's voice called quietly from the other side of the door. I sat up slowly in confusion and then glanced to my phone where it rested on the small nightstand by the bed charging. It wasn't even one in the morning yet…
"Uh…training this early?" I called back hesitantly. There was a pause from the other side of the door and then I heard Wong shuffling his feet on the wood floor in the hallway.
"I sensed that you couldn't sleep so I figured a small bit of mental exercise might help." He said simply. Surprised that Wong had a 'sense' for things like that, I slowly kicked the blanket off of myself and slipped on my t-shirt, shorts and tennis shoes before moving over to the door and opening it. As I did so, my breath hitched in my throat and I looked out to an empty hallway.
I quickly raised my hand to the necklace that still rested underneath my shirt. My eyes flicked back and forth down either side of the hallway as I scanned suspiciously for Wong. The artifact- filled glass cases lining the hallway stood silent and shadow-like in the dark and I felt myself back hesitantly into my room, inching the door closed. That's when I noticed a soft swishing sound emanating from behind me and a faint glow of warm light. Without looking behind me, I threw the door open and bolted down the hallway, careful not to bump into any of the cases as I hurried as far away from my room as possible.
"Wong!" I called desperately, letting my adrenaline carry me further and further down the seemingly endless hallway. "Wong, help!"
I nearly stumbled off balance when explosions of shattering glass sounded from behind me. I whirled around to see that case after case exploded outward, one after the other, making its way to where I stood in a frozen panic.
A faint golden spark of light blinked into existence in the midst of the glass-filled hallway and I hurriedly ducked down the nearest doorway to avoid being seen. I found myself in the kitchen from before, the floating flame from the corner stovetop still flickering quietly. I glanced briefly over my shoulder before rushing past the dining table and towards a small cabinet door by the fridge, the urge to hide the quickest thought that popped into my head. I reached the cabinet and yanked on the doorknob, but it refused to move. Panicking even further, (if that were even possible), I twisted the doorknob in every direction it could go, finally stumbling back as it broke off in my palm. I felt sweat drip down my forehead as I looked around for any other means of escape, hearing a quiet thump from the fridge a few feet away. I involuntarily dropped the doorknob from my hand, the brass clattering on the wood floor dully; a signal to whatever was after me an exact location of where I was.
I dove for the fridge as the swishing sound emanated from the doorway I had just rushed through. My hand latched onto the handle and I prepared to jerk the fridge door open but I hesitated as I felt a hand clap firmly down on my shoulder, yanking me backward.
"What did I tell you?!"
I fumbled quickly for a response as I turned and faced Wong, who stood over me, his hand still squeezing my shoulder tightly. The kitchen faded into a warm glow of light from the ceiling light fixture and I blinked several times before responding to his demanding question.
"Um…don't touch anything?" I guessed, my voice breathless as my adrenaline dissipated and my heart attempted to slow to its normal rate. Wong's expression was a mask as he released his grip on my shoulder. He took my wrist and yanked my hand away from where it was still frozen and latched onto the door handle of the fridge.
"Especially the refrigerator door." He ordered. I looked from Wong to the fridge where another thump sounded from inside of it. I looked back to him and edged away from the fridge hesitantly.
"Is…is this a joke or…?"
"If you think unleashing Hell on earth by opening that refrigerator door is a joke." Wong said serenely.
"…Point taken." I said softly. Wong nodded and led me away from the demon-filled fridge and past the dining room table to the hallway. Expecting to see the cabinets overturned and shattered glass littering the shiny wooden floors, I was surprised to see that everything was still in order as it was when Dan and I had walked down it earlier that afternoon.
"As you can see, that was just an illusion I conjured up to get you on your toes." Wong explained casually, noticing my flabbergasted expression at the tidy hallway. I nodded slowly, still amazed at how he had fooled me so easily into thinking that I was about to die.
"And my freaking out didn't wake up Dan? Was that part of the illusion too?" I asked as we passed by Dan's room, his door still shut tightly from when we had parted ways hours before to call it a night. Wong nodded silently, still leading me down the hallway past the still-intact glass artifact cases.
"Would you like a small lesson in creating illusions?" Wong offered casually, opening a door into a wide room that appeared to be empty of all furniture. I shrugged nonchalantly, trying to hide my overexcitement at being taught some real magic.
"Um…yeah…I mean…yes, if you wanna show me something." I said quickly. Wong smirked as he shut the door behind us and led me to the center of the room, lit by the dim light in the ceiling.
"Firstly, you must visualize what it is you would like to see." Wong explained, taking only a brief moment to think something up. He then swept his right arm in an effortless flowy motion and the room was suddenly lined with chairs and couches, a huge ping-pong table in the center of it.
"Wow…" I said in amazement, as I walked over to the table and reached for the ping-pong paddle that rested on the end of the table. As I did so, the table wavered and my hand fell through it. The vision flickered for a blinking second and then appeared as solid as it had the first time. I turned back to Wong, who still held his hand out in front of him, an expectant look on his face.
"Looks real, doesn't it?" He said.
"That's so cool…" I said, causing him to smirk smugly. He released his flexed hand and the vision faded away as quickly as it had appeared. I stared at the spot in awe for a moment before looking down at my own hands.
"Yes, you could even do a simple trick such as that." Wong said, clearly not having to try hard to read my thoughts.
"That's all you have to do? Visualize it and wave your hand around dramatically?" I asked in hopeful disbelief. Wong smirked again to himself and shook his head slowly.
"There is a little more to it than that, I'm afraid. But that's the gist of it, yes." He placed a hand on each of my shoulders. "There is a generous amount of practice and meditation involved before you can reach the point of performing stable illusions, but I feel that it would be a wise first step in your training."
"My training?" I repeated thoughtfully. I placed my hand over the necklace beneath my t-shirt. Wong took notice of my gesture and removed his hands from my shoulders to step in front of me.
"We must protect the Time Stone at all costs. If Strange thinks that you are the one to provide the last line of defense for it, then we must have you ready as soon as possible to face Thanos and his minions. They will not be fooling around the next time they attempt to take it." Wong said seriously.
"Alright, then show me what I need to do first." I said sternly, taking my hand away from the necklace and squeezing both of them into fists by my side. Wong eyed me steadily for a moment and moved his hands in front of his chest methodically. He then circled over his head as the room around us shimmered with flickers of light.
"The Mirror Dimension. It's a safe place to practice magical skills without harming reality." Wong explained. I shook myself out of my awe, the warmth of the Time Stone jolting me into remembering how real this situation was going to be and how much I really needed to learn fast.
"I'm ready." I said. Wong smirked halfheartedly and then pressed his hands tightly together in front of him, indicating for me to imitate him.
"Let's hope so."