A Strange Day of Fun

Ch. 1 - An Unexpected Surprise

Disclaimer: Disney/Marvel owns the rights to "Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness", its characters, etc. and I just own the story itself. I also do not own the song lyrics to "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga.

Author's Note: The sequel to Dr. Strange was such a fun and enjoyable movie! Not one of my top 5 MCU movies but definitely in the 10 list, and I enjoyed it more than the first film. Also loved that Sam Raimi was the director; glad that he was brought back to MARVEL.

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who was a fan of the father/daughter bond that our Strange (in Universe 616) had with America Chavez, and I'm hoping we get more of that in future movies or even a TV series.

Also, I am not too familiar with the comics or Strange himself since I haven't seen the first movie a lot, so I apologize if at any point in this short story that I have any of the characters act OOC or anything similar to that. And I do hope you enjoy what I'm publishing on this site.


Normally, most of the people that lived in New York would be trying to stop or question an individual that ran across the city streets but after all of the events that had occurred over the past decade or so, it wasn't really an importance unless there was a monster or something of that nature involved.

Thankfully, there wasn't anything dangerous or threatening that was coming for the young 14-year-old teenager known as America Chavez. The reason for why she was currently running and had just performed an aerobatic move over a couch that'd been set down by a couple of furniture movers involved paying a visit to someone she'd become close to since first landing in the Earth-616 Universe.

"Sorry… thanks for the hot dog!" America called out to the street vendor that she'd passed by and accidentally got ahold of a hot dog that he was about to give to his customer. Instead of yelling at the young kid, the vendor just shrugged and quickly made another one. But after handing it to the customer, he frowned a bit and looked back in the direction that she'd run in. I feel like I've seen her before somewhere.

America did slow down her speed in order to avoid choking on her meal, and by the time she'd finished it, the teenager had arrived at her destination: the Sanctum Sanctorum. "Yeah, that totally beats coming here by a magical portal."

She walked up the steps, and prepared to knock on the doors when they instead opened up by themselves. Oh, don't tell me that Wong already told him I'd be coming!

Making her way inside, America looked around the foyer in search of the Sanctum's main occupant. "Hey, Strange! You in here?!" Hearing nothing except the sound of her stomach growling, the young teen walked to the kitchen area in search of more food to consume. Hopefully he's got some - YES! Frozen pizza! She then began preparing what would be her lunch that day, and became unaware of a certain someone who was beginning to make his way downstairs from the library.

A few minutes later, America began to enjoy the first slice of her pizza meal when she heard the voice of the person that she'd run across several streets to see - Dr. Strange, who was wearing his usual sorcerer's attire and the Cloak of Levitation but he didn't look entirely pleased to see her. "I'm hoping that there's a good and valid reason you can give to me explaining why you're currently here helping yourself to some pizza rather than continuing with your training at Kamar-Taj."

"Yeah, I-" The young teen started to say, but a raised eyebrow from Strange made her realize she was talking while food was still in her mouth. Taking a pause to finish chewing and swallow up the remains, America continued her explanation. "Sorry… I got a bit further into my training since the last time you were at the temple, and I was able to get Wong to let me at least have this weekend off. So then, he opened up a portal to a spot that's like a couple miles from here and I pretty much booked it -"

"You took a taxi cab to the Sanctum rather than just have Wong portal you to the doors directly?" A confused Strange interrupted since he didn't understand why America just took the obvious route. Almost reminds me of another kid that I've met before… I think…

To his surprise, America shook her head and replied, "There's no joy in being stuck in a taxi for God knows how long when I can save more time by coming here on foot. Felt good to run without having to look over my shoulder and see something freaky chase after me." She continued on with enjoying the rest of her pizza while Strange was even more shocked at her explanation. "I was just trying to make the journey here more fun."

"I… you… never mind, I don't want to create myself a headache out of this." Strange just sighed while America gave a quick chuckle, and he waited until she finished consuming her meal before asking another question. "Alright, so what is the reason for your surprise visit today? Other than now giving me a reason to finish preparing - I mean, to not take a trip out to Kamar-Taj since you're now here."

A smile showed up on America's face as she got out of her chair, and started to hype herself up a bit by flexing her hands around in excitement while Strange chuckled underneath his breath. "OK, well there's two things. The first is that I wanted to show you what I was finally able to accomplish today. Look look look…"

To the sorcerer's understanding, America was trying to create a pair of Tao Mandalas with her hands. However, all that she was able to manage was either some sparks or almost half of a shield. "Why is this not… I mean, Wong was there this morning when he saw me create… ugh! I know that I can-"

"Whoa, hey! Just take a breather for a moment, kid." Seeing that she was starting to become frustrated, Strange quickly tried his best to comfort her in order to avoid any unexpected multidimensional portals or for the kid to suffer from any sort of anxiety attack. "Remember what I told you - slow, focus and concentrate. Alright?"

America nodded her head, took a deep breath, and let it out before thinking about what else she wanted to say. "Well, I pretty much wanted to first show you that I'd been able to at least create those glowing shields for a few seconds…" Strange gave her an expression of understanding, which made the teenager feel better about what she was going to now ask. "And once you saw those, I was gonna suggest if we could, like, I dunno… explore the city streets like we did in that one universe. Go look at the Empire State Building, check out Times Square. Maybe visit the Statue of Liberty - "

"Well, I don't know yet about the statue for certain reasons," replied the sorcerer, who was actually surprised to learn that had been her second request. "But I would've thought you already knew what New York had to offer. Isn't that where you first came across Other Me in his universe's version of this city?"

"I mean, technically yeah, but I didn't really have time on my side then because of the whole 'being chased by hench-monsters' dilema and everything," pointed out America, and Strange could tell by her body language that she'd spent time thinking about asking him."I get it if you're busy today with taking care of this place or something to spend all that time, though…"

Trying her best now to not show signs of a smile, America pretended to act as if she'd be disappointed were Strange to decide to not take her out to explore New York. However, she knew that she'd convinced him by the way he was sighing and even his cloak was making motions toward the front doors. "I mean… if you're that interested, kid… and I could probably use my own break from being inside here for so many hours now that I think about it…"

"OK great! Aw man, we're going to have so much fun today," replied America, and she took her empty plate over to the sink while Strange stood completely silent in his spot at the front of the table. What did I just get myself into?

"Wow… it's like I can see the whole city from here!" America was in awe right now as both she and Strange walked around the 102nd observatory floor of the Empire State Building. Her face started to light up with excitement after spotting a familiar location. "Look, there's the Sanctum!"

"Good catch, kid." Strange gave her a small smile, and continued to be thankful for being able to portal their way directly to Floor 102 rather than walk or spend unnecessary time waiting in line. This is a pretty good view now that I think about it. He also couldn't help but feel a sense of happiness from seeing America's face go from "wow" to "oh cool" in just a matter of seconds.

Before the sorcerer could ask where it was that America would like to go next, the young teenager suddenly gave a little hop of excitement. "Oooh, look! I want to check out what's going on with that group of people there." Strange turned his focus in the direction that she was pointing to, and quickly nodded before creating a travel portal. "Great, let's go!"

"Alright, just hold on a moment - whoa!" Strange was cut off by America grabbing ahold of his arm as she rushed out the portal and stepped foot into their new destination: Grand Army Plaza, where a large group of people were appearing to have a celebration that involved some of them dancing to a song he knew about already but the same couldn't be said for her.

Ooh, there ain't no other way, baby, I was born this way

Right track, baby, I was born this way

"This kind of reminds me of something that was shown to me in the 24th universe I'd been in," said the grinning teenager, now making her way closer to the dance circle while Strange noticed that some of the people in the crowd were wearing clothes in the same color style as the flag pin on America's jacket. "Hey, what's the holdup? Don't you want a closer look?"

Strange shook his head, and made a gesture for her to continue on. "I'm fine watching from right here, kid. Dance stuff isn't my thing. You enjoy it, but please just be careful."

Knowing that it'd be pointless to argue with him, America continued on with moving closer into the circle while trying to make sure Strange could still see her. Once she stopped moving, the young kid saw that almost everybody was now dancing with someone else to the beat of the song. Well this isn't what I thought would-

"Hey, I'll be your partner real quick!" America's thoughts were cut off by another 14-year-old teenage girl suddenly appearing next to her, with the young female having noticed that America wasn't with anyone. "Just move along to the music. No one's judging anybody here."

She let out a sheepish chuckle, and started off with moving just her head first. However, her temporary dance partner continued to give a look that meant "is that really all you've got" so America eventually began to loosen herself up and tried dancing from what she was seeing around her. That made her partner nod with approval, and a few moments later, they were both dancing together in unison.

No matter gay, straight, or bi', lesbian, transgender life

I'm on the right track, baby, I was born to survive

No matter Black, white or beige, chola, or Orient' made

I'm on the right track, baby, I was born to be brave

Feeling almost like a proud parent as he continued to watch America have fun with the crowd, Strange felt part of his cloak making an attempt to bring him over to where she was. "No, no… no. One step at a time, alright?" The cloak went back to being motionless, and the sorcerer chuckled as America went into full dance-mode. I'm never going to forget this.