People talking stuff over like actual adults would make for superboring superhero films. Just saying. Or they'd actually be better. I guess that much is about perspective. (Could be both, to be honest)

This story follows the premise of my Doctor Strange story "Stretching the Moment" and that's where the specific details of the Sorcerers come from. If Marvel connects arcs so can I, right? You do not have to read it to follow this one. (Essentially the Ancient One lives and Mordo only ran off briefly and didn't go evil or crazy. Much)

Still no copyright infringement intended. I'm just playing in Stan Lee's Sandbox, bless him.

TapTap

Tony Stark had found himself in a number of colourful situations throughout the years - many times much more compromising ones than this, at that, but he still reeled a little bit.

Three weeks ago he was on a private island with Pepper; feeding turtles and half-sleeping to silly gossip shows. Today he was sitting in a meeting around a table in the apparently-suddenly-only-partly-isolated african country of Wakanda, in a meeting with their King, Prince, a dozen of very intimidating amazons (that was probably sexist, but he had no idea what else to call them in his mind) Captain America, several Sorcerers of all things and a somewhat blurry Bucky Barnes.

The latter apparently felt significantly better after some magical intervention since he'd been recovered. Or apprehended, whatever. James Buchanan Barnes seemed calm and entirely non-violent, if maybe still a little out of it. That one of the Sorcerer "Masters" was a world-leading Neurosurgeon was probably a coincidence, Tony was pretty sure, but definitely helpful none the less.

It had been two very strange weeks, to say the least. Tony was still reeling from it all. He had returned with Pepper in the middle of military talk about something they called "accords", a discussion brought up because of the next batch of superhumans they'd discovered when flushing out what was hopefully the very last of Hydra, but at any rate was close enough to the end of that organisation. The bunch of "Avenger" volunteers had been about as busy as they were effective. Then again, Tony mentally corrected himself, between Natasha's particular brand of lethal, Bruce's planning and the Hulk's enforcing, that was not really a surprise.

The talks had turned very heavy very fast when a Hydra Operative posing as Barnes of all people got caught by one of the Sorcerers, trying to murder the king of Wakanda in broad daylight, with bucketloads of witnesses. Which might have been the entire point, considering who the scapegoat was. Natasha and one of the Amazons had taken him down all too easily, after some brief magic intervention.

Studying the others around the table, Tony found that he couldn't identify which of the scary Wakandan warrior ladies was the one who had saved her king's life, but he could identify the sorcerer. It was easier as a lot of them seemed to wear robes - brown and blue for the two next to this one - and the man they'd been introduced to as "Master Mordo" at the beginning of the meeting wore a green tunic and leggings instead. They were a weird-dressing bunch, but he wouldn't want to cross them. Not even in the Ironman suit.

Especially not after they'd made themselves further useful and pointed out to the assembled military throwing a hissy fit of epic proportions that they'd been around for literal millenia, protecting the earth against threats the military had only screwed up lately trying to face, and they hadn't hurt a fly. He never thought he'd see govenment officials that agreeable, but supposed there might be magic involved. He had no objections, really. Truly.

"Thank you for inviting us here, King Tchaka," the bald woman wearing brown robes spoke first in her warm, tilting tones. She looked a lot fairer than a lot of the Sorcerers around her; blue-robed neurosurgeon possibly slightly excluded, and didn't seem to possess an actual name. Any sorcerer he'd heard address her so far had only - very respectfully - addressed her as the "Ancient One". She looked around thirty, but Tony supposed Sorcerers' looks could be decieving. Especially since she spoke about those previous millenia of their history as if she'd been right there the whole time. He wouldn't even be surprised at this point if she actually had. Alien army from outer space, and all that.

"Thank you, on behalf both myself and my country for your - and your people's - assistance," the king replied graciously, nodding respectfully to the man who'd been instrumental in saving his life. The man nodded back about as measuredly. Man, Tony was going to end up so bored with all this politeness going around. Hadn't these people ever heard of snark?

Rogers decided to shake it up a bit, going straight to the point. "Have the Accords definitely been scrapped, then?"

"Looks like it. With the sorceres making a pretty strong argument and taking charge of the few survivors not figthing to the death, I'd say we have a strong standing," Tchalla, son of the king, spoke confidently. "There's still the matter of your old friend to manage, of course, but they cannot reach him here anyway. We're willing to let him stay and recover with us. I gather it might still take some time."

The last few words were practically a question, and he looked towards the man wearing a blue robe and wearing a very expressive red cloak. He had a strange name, and possibly had heard of snark from what he'd heard so far, but Tony had forgotten what it was for the moment.

The man nodded, gently shoving his curious garment down as it tried to slip up onto the table and explore. "The brain can be a delicate thing. We're best off taking it slow, especially as he is doing suprisingly well after such significant trauma. Sorcery cannot heal the broken connections in a body or mind, not in itself, but we can certainly help the process along. Or substitute them for the time being, allowing him to access lost memories, at will. As well as provide a few spells as a potent safety measure."

"I imagine," the ancient woman spoke up, voice soft, "it does him just as much well just to know there is something reliable in the way to stop him should he take a step back and snap. It is only to be expected." She looked at him with eyes full of sympathy and honest understanding.

"And it is always a safer feeling, knowing you cannot do harm," the Ancient One added warmly, almost comfortingly. Steve Rogers looked ready to argue, but Bucky Barnes clearly agreed wholeheartedly. Whatever they'd done, Tony concluded silently, they had probably explained and asked first. Sorcerer blue seemed a little arrogant, and Mordo reminded him of a younger Rhodes, a bit, but their leader seemed like she was just the most patient and calm human being in the universe. Assuming she was in fact entirely human, anyway.

"Well then," Bruce spoke up; tone just as soft as the leading Sorceress'. "Then all we have to do is decide what to do now."

And wasn't that the million dollar question, Tony thought with a sigh. This could become a long meeting.