Stephen had had a normal morning, or at least what had become normal for him, to be honest there hadn't been much incidents risking Earth's safety so it was starting to become a bit dull.
"Protecting Earth and the rest of the Realms isn't about entertaining you!" Wong would scold him, so he kept the complains to himself.
He had been in contact with Christine for the past few weeks, Wong had caught a flu so it seemed like a perfect excuse to give her a call and ask for a private appointment at the Sanctum even though he knew it was practically nothing, his friend had agreed to this nonsense because he knew Stephen would try anything to impress her. So she had come and after a really short session in which she told Wong the flu would end in a week at maximum the two had begun talking again like friends, Stephen understood completely that if he wanted to get close to her again he needed to take things slow.
He and Wong were casually reading in the living room area, it was about 7 am but from his training in Karma Taj this was a common hour to already be awake and ready.
He sighed and put the book down "Do we have food?"
Wong eyed him "No"
"Want to get some breakfast?"
"Yes"
Stephen took a deep breath "I'll always love your extensive vocabulary"
"Thanks"
The two had stood up and prepared to leave the sanctuary, he looked at his clock, it was still early but he might be able to give Christine a visit, maybe bring her coffee to the hospital or something.
Just as they were about to leave a ray of light entered from the skylight, the two immediately prepared themselves for a fight, Stephen's cloak wrapped around him.
To their surprise a group of people appeared, they seemed confused as well, second by second another small groups of people appeared.
"Did you plan a surprise party or something?" Stephen asked him.
Wong took a look at the clothing and signaled Stephen to step down
"They're Asgardians, their planet was just destroyed"
"But what are they doing here? like literally here"
Another ray of light, a familiar face appeared next to them.
He looked at the sorcerers and took a deep breath
"Are you Stephen Strange?" He asked
He nodded "Doctor Banner, I hope you have an explanation"
He began telling them about the attack on their ship and how Thor had sent them there knowing they would be able to help
"Loki says Thanos won't stop until he finds the stones"
They waited for Thor's arrival but the last group that came was Valkyrie's.
"Thor, Heimdall and Loki are still on the ship, I don't think they'll be able to escape... let's hope they could though" she told them
Stephen and Wong lead them to the part in the sanctuary to find them.
"We have another visit from your group in Scotland, that might be Thor" Wong told them
Stephen opened a portal and that's when he found Loki and the other two members of the Avengers.
They sent the survivers of the Asgardians to the other two Sanctums for protection, only Bruce, Loki, Valkyrie, Wanda and Vision stayed with them in New York.
"We need the strongest protection we can, if Thanos found us without any known trace he will sure know the stones are located here" Loki told them
"You mean call the Avengers?" Vision asked
The god rolled his eyes "We need more than the Avengers, you are like dust to him"
"Vision might have a point, we'll need every help we can get if he is actually coming here" Stephen told him
"If? You have no idea of what he will do"
"Forgive me if I don't trust you but I won't act blindly because you claim something"
"We saw it too" Valkyrie stepped in
"Yes, I heard but I don't know you, any of you, so let's just calm down and organize our plan"
"We already told Captain America" Vision told them "he will arrive anytime soon, I took the liberty of telling him our location"
"Wow that's just great, invite everyone"
Wong cleared his throat "Strange, I think we do need to start preparing ourselves, Thanos is known to strike without any warning"
The doctor took a deep breath "Fine, we'll begin by trying to locate the remaining stones and calling the rest of the Avengers, if they ever proved to be useful"
Banner and Wong brought Tony Stark with them, he seemed to be as unsure as Stephen but after seeing Bruce he decided to trust them, he was surprised to see Vision and Wanda but didn't tell them anything as for Loki:
"What the hell are you doing here?!"
"Missed me?"
Bruce stepped in "It's okay Tony, we can trust him...well we don't know but he's not the main problem now"
"Are you best friends now?"
"Jealous?" Loki joked
Wong began explaining them about the stones, Loki was the only one that seemed to understand what they were talking about, his wound had already been treated by Stephen much to his disgust.
"We have the location of three, Time, Mind and Space" Wong said reassuringly
"We need to destroy them" Tony told them "if they mean so much to this Thanos guy we should just get rid of them"
"Do you have any idea of how much power they mean in the Universe?" Loki told him
"So what do you suggest? We hide them under our beds and hope he doesn't steal them? Or you?"
"We could try to use them as a weapon"
"How did that work for you reindeer?"
"Enough!" Stephen stopped them "we can't risk exposing them to Thanos by any chance"
"What about the one you use?" Valkyrie suddenly asked him "you think we didn't realize?"
"Or the one in his head" Loki pointed at Vision
Stephen held their gaze "I am the protector of the Time stone and I won't give it to any of you, I'll deal with that"
"And you won't touch Vision" Wanda suddenly spoke, she had been silent ever since they arrived but her tone was firm and even intimidating
There was a complete silence in the room. The door bell rang making everyone look confused.
"That might be Steve" Bruce told them "I should probably open"
Wanda frowned "So the Avengers are back?"
"Looks like it" Tony said.
"This is going to be awkward" Stephen muttered under his breath...he didn't even have the chance to have breakfast