Hello everyone! I really hope you're all semi-enjoying reading this story of mine and I'd like to reassure anyone who is thinking it's getting kinda bland that I'm nearing the climax where everything starts coming together. I'm sorry if it's been dragging a little, but I haven't really gotten any feedback on it yet so I'm gonna take that to mean that it's going okay so far. Okay, you can get to reading now. ^-^
"This is insane!" I hissed from where Dan and I hid in a room down one of the many hallways in the lower floor of the Sanctum. Dan said nothing in reply and the only noise he made was a stifled heaving of breaths from the several minutes' worth of running we had just done. We stood there in the dim light of the room with our backs pressed against the wall just inside the doorway and I could see that the sun had risen only slightly outside, casting a blueish light through the shaded windows across the small room. It had to be at least eight in the morning, and I could already tell that the day was already well on the way to driving me even further into madness.
"You two check upstairs, and we'll split up and take care of the lower hallways separately." A husky voice whispered just outside the room Dan and I hid in. I squeezed my eyes shut and stood up from the wall to prepare a portal once the people outside had hopefully moved out of earshot. I heard Dan shift to my left and I turned to see that he had moved further into the room and towards what looked like a giant potted plant against the wall.
"Dan…what are you doing?" I said, barely whispering for fear that the people just outside the room would hear us. Dan didn't respond as he just continued to maneuver across the darkened room silently, his slippered feet muffled on the carpeted floor. I hesitated by the door for a few seconds longer before I followed him, stopping where he faced the large plant by the window.
The plant looked just like any ordinary houseplant you might find in an elegant house and I glanced confusedly at the back of Dan's head as he continued to hold some curious interest in it. I tried to follow his gaze and noticed that the plant seemed to be just a small tree, with limbs sprouting randomly up and down the slim trunk and dark green leaves covering the wood almost entirely.
"What is it, Dan?" I asked him worriedly as I could hear the voices outside growing just a little louder once more as they returned from wherever else they had decided to look. Dan held up his left hand to silence me and then he pointed at the tree. I blinked and waited expectantly for something to happen and then he finally whirled around and pointed with his other hand at the Time Stone around my neck before nodding back at the tree.
"In here!" A feminine voice hissed just outside the door. The doorknob twisted and I instantly leapt into motion, opening the Eye on my chest. There was an exclamation of surprise from the woman who had been about to enter the room as the house plant/tree exploded forward, the hastily growing limbs shooting straight for her and out the door into the hallway.
"Yes!" Dan exclaimed excitedly as he clapped a hand onto my shoulder. The entirety of the small room had been overtaken by vines and leaves and sprouting limbs, but the two of us were protected by a circle of energy conjured up by Dan. I stopped the Time Jump hastily as I heard several voices rushing down the hallway outside to come and investigate the commotion of the crawling tree limbs.
"Let's move." I said quietly as I closed the Eye and swirled a portal that led to the underground tunnels. Dan and I leapt through the golden sparks and I closed it behind us hastily before what sounded like a torrent of energy blasts could hit us. As soon as the portal had closed, we were cast into pitch blackness and I realized that all of the torches must have blown out since the battle with Proxima Midnight.
"Let there be light." Dan muttered, motioning with his hands. Golden sparks coiled from his palms outward to the walls and the torches lining the walls all blazed to life in a heartbeat. I scoffed quietly and then smirked as we wandered down the familiar path that we had previously been down with Dr. Banner.
"How long do you think it'll take them to find us down here?" I asked to fill the silence in the echoing tunnel. Dan made a weary sound in his throat and seemed to stretch his arms lazily.
"Oh, not long." He said sourly. He looked up at the high stone ceiling above us as we descended deeper into the tunnels, almost coming upon the rubble where Proxima Midnight had caused the cave-in.
"How long do you think this exercise will last?" I asked after another few moments of walking in silence. Dan shrugged as he seemed at war within himself and I suddenly stopped to face him. When he noticed that I had ceased our pointless walking, he too stopped in his tracks.
"What?" He asked absently. I crossed my arms over the Time Stone accusingly before I spoke.
"So…you know how today's battle is going to go." I phrased it more as a statement on purpose, not expecting him to answer and when he didn't, I continued. "Did what you saw include what's happening to us right now?"
Dan held my prodding gaze for a moment before he turned away and continued to head downward towards the rubble of rocks and dust. I struggled to keep up with his pace as he seemed to seriously be avoiding my question.
"That's how you knew what to do with that tree upstairs, wasn't it?" I pressed on. Dan looked back as a distant crash sounded from back down the tunnel.
"So what if it was?" Dan challenged me, conjuring up the glowing crossbow that he hadn't been able to use before. I moved to summon up a portal for our escape as another portal flared to existence right in front of us.
"Come on!" I hissed, whirling around to conjure our portal. Dan stayed facing the other way as I worked, firing a few of his glowing arrows at the sorcerers that had appeared. Amid the exclamations and Dan defending us with his magical crossbow, I felt a ball of energy slam against my injured shoulder, interrupting me in my summoning. I was forced to whirl around, grasping at my aching stab wound, suddenly taking the practice fight personally. I flipped my right hand upward and sparks fizzled into a ball of golden energy which simmered warningly in my palm. The three sorcerers that had found us stood amusedly a few yards away from us, two men and a woman, all of which held glowing magical weapons in battle-ready poses.
"Not very sporting when your master decides to put you kids up against the big guys, huh?" The red haired man over to the right of the threesome spoke up tauntingly. The other two apprentices scoffed and grinned in amusement and the dark haired woman twirled her baton lightly, much like Proxima Midnight had only the day before. The motion seemed to trigger something in me and I chucked my ball of golden energy straight at the woman who seemed taken by surprise at my act of rage.
"Get him!" The woman growled in exasperation and the two men leapt forward at us on golden discs that they created as they moved. One went high in the air while the other dodged to the left of us. The dark haired woman took her glowing baton in both hands and split it into two batons, both of which lengthened into shimmering points about two feet in length.
"Duck, Alex!" Dan shouted, lunging in front of me with the shield covering his right arm to block the red haired man's downward jab with what looked like a shimmering golden scythe. I flexed my left hand outward and felt a familiar presence of a powerful black pole materialize in my hands. I chanced a quick glance to see that my fire staff had reappeared, and I had about one second to smirk in relief before I swung the thing around to my front to block myself from the woman's speedy approach. Once she had failed at striking my weapon aside with hers, she growled in irritation and brought both halves of her baton together in a huge clapping motion. A pulse of energy as strong as a sonic blast sent both me and Dan sprawling backwards with the force of it, and as we rolled into the cave wall I heard the sound of yet another portal coming into existence.
"They're over here, Anna! Fredrick, hurry and help me get them back upstairs to base!" The red haired man greeted the two newcomers quickly, and I rolled out of reach as a whip shot towards where Dan and I were struggling to get back to our feet.
"Don't let him conjure a portal!" One of the girls' voices cried out hurriedly as I once more attempted to do just that. Dan fired up a huge mandala shield which deflected what sounded like a rockslide.
"Stop destroying Strange's property!" I shouted back furiously as I realized that they had somehow removed a chunk of the tunnel's wall and that had been what had nearly broken through Dan's shield.
"You're one to talk!" One of the men retorted as I angrily tried to focus on creating our escape route. "We saw what you did to the roof yesterday!"
"Don't listen to them, Alex. They're only trying to get you preoccupied from achieving the goal here." Dan warned me under his breath as he somehow managed to hold the oversized shield with one hand and fire bursts of flame from my fire staff which he had picked up from where I had dropped it in our fall.
"How are you both so advanced at such an early stage?" One man, the one they called Fredrick exclaimed as his attempt to get around the edge of Dan's shield was thwarted by me throwing an illusion of smog directly into his face.
"We've had a reason to learn quickly." I said through gritted teeth. The portal finally opened in front of me and I yanked Dan through it and closed it once we'd reached the other side in one swift motion.
"Quick – you have to cloak us!" Dan said lowly, surveying our surroundings speedily for any nearby sorcerers. We were in the white surgical room from the afternoon before, only now everything was spotless and cleaned of the bloody mess that I had caused yesterday.
"Cloak us?" I repeated uncertainly. I immediately got the gist of what he had been saying as I heard sudden hurried voices rushing down the hall.
"In here! I heard them!" Casey's voice echoed as she somehow teleported through the wall. Thankfully my reflexes had caused me to move with superhuman speed and Dan and I were illusioned into appearing invisible in the empty surgical room. The two of us stared hopefully at Casey's prodding eyes, knowing that she probably would be able to seek out illusions in a heartbeat. I began to edge slowly and soundlessly backward toward the window, hoping that she wouldn't come so far as to walk the entirety of the room and risk bumping into us invisible sorcerers-in-training.
"Something's coming…" A male voice emanated from outside the room. Casey turned her head in the direction of the man's voice and I recognized Grayson when he emerged through the doorway, his head cocked to the side like he was listening for something. Casey seemed to do the same thing, her eyes closed and her stance stiffened as she sensed something.
"Come on…" I mouthed to Dan, who was the only other person able to see through our illusion. His expression was worried but he silently followed after me as we edged around the room, trying to get past the two statuesque sorcerers.
"It's almost time." Casey said, her voice sounding odd and dreamlike as she and Grayson continued to listen to whatever forces and enmities that they were sensing. I hesitated in the doorway a few feet behind Grayson and I shared a weary glance with Dan before we slowly escaped the room.
"It's almost time?" I repeated in a hoarse whisper once we'd moved a few yards down the quiet hallway. Dan said nothing but I could sense that he was even more on edge than he had been moments before.
The Sanctum was cast into eerie silence as I assumed that every sorcerer scattered about inside of it had stopped to sense the change in the atmosphere. My chest was heavy with dread and something else I couldn't put my finger on, and I was almost sure that my invisibility illusion was faltering because of my worry.
"I wish you could tell me what happens next, man…" I said lowly to Dan as we rounded a bend in the hallway and headed for some random stairs in the mazelike mansion. "Because I don't like being kept in the dark."
"Well it's about to get really dark, so stay alert if you can." Dan said cryptically, and I looked over at him in surprise as he perfectly mimicked Wong's dark puzzling way of speaking. He didn't crack a halfhearted smirk but only held my gaze with his worried, held back and knowing expression.
Just as we climbed up to the next landing of steps, I noticed that a large window set along the staircase cast the late morning sunlight brightly down into the Sanctum, illuminating the Victorian décor and architecture. I hesitated on the landing and turned my back on the window to look down the steps and to the lower hallway we'd just left, seeing the reflection of the window almost as clearly as if from a mirror on the polished wood floor below. Dan and I were still invisible, as revealed by the reflection in the floor.
As I turned back to continue ascending the steps to the next landing or floor, I noticed that the light from the window suddenly disappeared, to be replaced by a dimmer, more reddish light. Dan and I stepped back hurriedly as a portal suddenly emerged from the window, staying open just long enough for a skinny, red and blue figure to leap through before it winked out of existence.
"Oh my God – I'm –wait, what?!" The figure exclaimed in surprise as he bumped into me on the landing, not knowing we were there because we were still masked by my illusion. Dan and I said nothing to give ourselves away as we retreated a few steps back to take in the sight on the staircase.
Instead of the usual latex costume that he usually was known to wear, the figure was clothed in what looked like a modified version of Tony Stark's Iron Man armor. The armor had two large white eye pieces in the mask, which dilated and twitched as the figure surveyed his surroundings in a panic. The armor also looked severely damaged in several places, as if the hero had just left the scene of some grotesque and taxing battle. As the figure whirled around in our direction for what seemed liked the tenth time, I decided to remove the illusion I had cast over me and Dan and finally addressed the familiar figure in front of us.
"…Spiderman?"