The skyline of a polluted, run down city was shown. Kathmandu, Nepal, was written over the screen in white letters.
"You didn't." Wanda said.
"I did." Stephen smiled.
"Yeah, he moved to Nepal." Christine sighed. "Sold all his furniture, all his belongings, even his house! Didn't call anyone. Didn't even leave a note. He just disappeared. We all thought he was dead!"
Stephen was led through crowds, looking a piece of paper in his hands. He was wearing old clothes and had an unkept beard.
""Ha! Look at that beard!" Tony snickered behind his hand.
"Excuse me. Kamar-Taj? Do you know where Kamar-Taj is?" Stephen asked a random person off the street. They nodded and pointed off into the distance.
Stephen walked through the crowded street, constantly looking over his shoulder.
A sign said "Himalayan Healing! Find Peace! Find Yourself!"
"Kamar-Taj?" Stephen asked the people near the sign. They looked at him like he was crazy. "Kamar-Taj…" He whispered to himself. Stephen walked off, not noticing a man in a green hood following him.
"Who's that?" Peter asked. "Is he one of the bad guys? What's he gonna do? Is he going to kill you? Are you going to die?!"
"Peter, for the billionth time. He's right there. He can't die if he's right there." Tony said.
"Me and half the universe died, but I'm right here now." Peter insisted.
"Technically you didn't die." Thor said. "You were just being transported and trapped in the soul world."
"Why are we talking about death?" Shuri asked, annoyed. "Can we please just watch the movie?"
Stephen walked down an empty alley, but paused when two thugs with knives approached him from the other end. Stephen went to turn around, but another thug blocked the exit.
"Run! There gonna kill you!" Peter jumped up and shouted at the screen. Tony facepalmed and pulled Peter back onto his seat.
"Okay. Guys, I... I don't have any money." Stephen said.
"Your watch." One said with a thick accent.
"No, please. It's all I have left." He pleaded.
"Your watch!"
"...Alright…" He sighed. Stephen quickly punched one of the thugs in the face. Stephen cried out in pain and grabbed his shaking hand. The thieves were not sympathetic. The took turns using him as a punching bag and knocked him to the ground. Stephen brought his knees up to his chest and put his hands over his head as the started kicking them. One of the thieves grabbed his watch while the others continued to beat him.
"Hey!" A voice rang out. The three thieves turned and saw the man in the green hood who had been following Strange. The thieves turned their attention to him. Big mistake. Within a matter of seconds the man in the hood had defeated all of them in hand to hand combat and knocked them unconscious to the ground.
The hooded man handed Strange his watch; it was crushed and no longer worked.
"You're looking for Kamar-Taj?" The man asked. Strange looked at him hopefully.
They traveled through the busy, crowded streets and stopped at an old green door. There was no signs, no lights, nothing. Not even a doormat.
"Really? Are you sure you got the right place? I thought it would look a little more… Kamar-y Taj-y."
"Ha!" Peter laughed.
"I once stood in your place." The stranger smiled. "And I, too, was... disrespectful. So might I offer you some advice? Forget everything you think you know."
"Uh... alright." Strange said slowly as they entered the building. The man looked over his shoulder to make sure they weren't being watched before closing the door behind them.
The man led Strange through a long hallway. Shelves and tables were full of different vases and jars. Odd candles were lit that gave off a large amount of smoke in the air, giving an ominous feel.
"The sanctuary of our teacher. The Ancient One."
"The Ancient One? What's his real name?" Strange asked. The stranger paused and glared at him. "Right. Forget everything I think I know. I'm sorry."
Stephen walked into a large room with the man following in a distance. There was an old man with an odd beard smoking a pipe and reading a book at a table.
"Thank you for... huh!" Strange turned around in surprise when two people showed up and took his coat off for him. "Okay, that's, uh... a thing…" Stephen mumbled.
"Ha! Look how awkward you are!" Tony laughed.
"Yes, yes. Its hilarious." Stephen said sarcastically and rolled his eyes.
Strange sat down in front of the man.
"Thank you." Stephen said. The man didn't even look up from his book. "Hello. Uh, thank you. And thank you. Uh, thank you, Ancient One… for... seeing me…" Someone in white robes poured him a cup of tea. The man reading the book got up and left, Strange staring after him with a confused look on his face.
"Well that was rude." Steve said.
"You're very welcome." The girl pouring his tea said. Stephen blinked and looked at her confused.
"The Ancient One." He said with a gesture of his hand.
"Hey, thats the same person from the beginning of the movie." Shuri said.
"Obviously." Stephen said.
"Thank you, Master Mordo. Thank you, Master Hamir! Mr. Strange!" The lady said.
"Doctor, actually." Stephen corrected her as he took a sip of tea.
"Well, no. Not anymore, surely. Isn't that why you're here? You've undergone many procedures. Seven, right?" The Ancient One asked.
"How'd she know that?" Clint asked. "Thats creepy."
"The Ancient One works in mysterious ways." Wong said.
"Can you not be vague?" Tony turned to Wong. "Just once?"
"Yeah…" Strange said slowly. "Good tea."
"Yes."
"Did you heal a man named Pangborn? A paralyzed man." Stephen asked.
"In a way".
"You helped him to walk again."
"Yes."
"How do you correct a complete C7-C8 spinal cord injury?"
"Oh, I didn't correct it. He couldn't walk; I convinced him that he could."
'You're not suggesting it was psychosomatic?"
"When you reattach a severed nerve, is it you who heals it back together or the body?"
"It's the cells."
"And the cells are only programmed to put themselves together in very specific ways."
"That's right."
"What if I told you that your own body could be convinced to put itself back together in all sorts of ways?"
"You're talking about cellular regeneration. That's... bleeding-edge medical tech. Is that why you're working here, without a governing medical board? I mean... just how experimental is your treatment?"
"Finally. Something interesting." Tony leaned forward and rubbed his hands together.
"Science nerd." Rhodey whispered.
"Oh, be quiet." Tony said and threw a pillow at his friend.
"Quite." She grinned as she refilled his tea.
"So, you figured out a way to reprogram nerve cells to self-heal?"
"No, Mr. Strange. I know how to reorient the spirit to better heal the body. Spirit... to heal the body."
"Huh. A-a-a-a-alright. How do we do that? Where do we start?"
She held up a book. In it was a silhouette of a man meditating, and there were several weird symbols all over his body.
"What the heck is that thing?" Clint asked.
"Do you want the short answer or the long answer?" Stephen replied.
"Uh… whichever one makes sense." Clint said.
"Or we could just get back to watching the movie so I can get back to running my country." T'Challa said.
"We're going to be here for a while. If you want to go, then you can go." Shuri shrugged.
"I just need to check on a couple things." T'challa stood up and started walking away. "I'll be back soon. I just need to make sure that M'Baku d-" T'challa was cut off as he walked into some sort of invisible barrier. He stumbled back and grabbed his nose, which had smacked into the barrier hard.
"What just happened?" Peter asked. He stood up and walked over to where T'challa was standing. Peter raised his fist and smacked the air in front of him; his fist colliding with the invisible barrier. He hit it a few more times, smacking it as hard as he could (which is pretty hard considering Peters super strength), but all that happened was that Peter got a sore hand from hitting it multiple times.
"That's odd." Bruce said as he ran his finger along the barrier. It surrounded the room, so the could move around if they wished, but they couldn't leave.
"Will someone please explain what's happening." Tony asked. "I mean, I know whats happening, I just want to make sure you guys know. I know. Obviously."
Everyone rolled their eyes at Tony.
"Seriously though, what's happening?" Bucky asked.
"Well, it's obvious, isn't it?" Peter said.
"No, no no no." Clint groaned. "Not you too. It's bad enough that Tonys pretending to know everything, don't you start too. I know you have this weird father-son thing going on, but please, do everyone a favor and don't become Tony Stark Jr."
"Hey, come on." Tony said. "If there were more of me this planet would be a better place."
"And I wasn't pretending." Peter said, drawing everyone's attention back to him. "I know what's going on."
"Then tell us." Shuri challenged with an eyebrow raised.
"The note." Peter shrugged. "It said we couldn't leave until we finished the movie, remember?"
Everyone got really quiet. Nat grabbed the note that came with the disk. She skimmed over it and gave an affirmative nod.
"You mean we're stuck here!?" Scott asked.
"Don't worry." Stephen said. "Wong and I still have our Sling Rings. Mine is right… um… uh…" Stephen patted his empty pockets and tried to find his Sling Ring. Stephen looked over at Wong who was also searching his pockets.
"Are those your Rings?" Shuri asked and pointed at a countertop on the other side of the room. Sure enough, the Sling Rings were sitting on the counter, on the other side of the barrier.
"How did they get over there?!" Stephen asked.
"The note said we can leave if we finish the movie." T'challa said. "So let's just finish this so we can go."
Everyone sat back down and turned their attention back to the movie.
"Let's get this over with." Stephen sighed.