November 9th, 2019
There was something coming. Stephen could feel it in his bones. He looked up from his book and scanned his study with a critical eye. There had been a shift in magical energy, and it sent waves of foreboding and impending danger. He could sense it, and the location of the disturbance. It's close, Stephen thought as he got up out of his chair and exited his study.
A quick whistle came from his mouth, and after a few seconds, Cloak flew into the room with the sound of flapping fabric and at lightning speed. It settled itself onto Strange's shoulders, and the familiar and comfortable weight of the cape helped steady him. He quickly descended the stairs to the lower level, and felt the presence grow even stronger. The sensation gave him a headache as well as made him nauseous, and they were both getting worse as Stephen moved further into the display room.
For a split second, the air seemed to ripple and distort at the doorway to the foyer, and then the familiar sound of a portal opening filled the air. A circle of orange sparks twirled, but Stephen couldn't see what was on the other side of it.
"June?" He asked as he creeped forwards, his hands crackling with magical energy. He knew it wasn't Juniper the second he opened his mouth, but part of him held onto the hope that just maybe it was her.
Then they came. Blue slugs, about the size of a forearm, and with several sets of antennae, poured out of the portal. Their numbers were so great that they seemed to flow like water, and the sea of slugs began to fill the floor. The Cloak pulled Stephen into the air, away from the beasts. Stephen recognized them: Een'Gawori. These creatures were magic-eating slugs, and they quickly began attaching themselves to every relic they could get their slimy tummies on.
Their main strength is in numbers. Venomous – do not touch. There's usually a queen somewhere. Strange rattled off facts about the Een'Gawori in his head as he took a second to formulate a plan.
Stephen struck quickly, forming a whip and shredding slugs as he slashed through the air with it. But the effort was useless – slugs were still pouring out of the portal, and for every one that Strange slayed, 3 more took its place. I'm fighting a losing fight, he thought. I need backup. Using Cloak's magic, Stephen quickly flew upstairs to his study. He slammed the door shut behind him, and barred it with his body. Keeping the door shut with magic would have been smarter, but Stephen needed his hands free. He pulled out his sling ring, and quickly opened a portal to June's living room.
"June!" He cried. The door behind him was shoved, hard. The slugs were here. "Juuune!" He yelled, even louder than before.
"Stephen?" June's voice floated through the portal, and Stephen let out a sigh of relief. She came into view of the portal, and peered through it curiously. She was still in her pajamas – which initially surprised Stephen, until he remembered that it was 9 on a Saturday morning. Of course, she'd be in her pajamas, Stephen thought. He wasn't sure if he liked it or not; the tank top revealed her shoulders, upper back and the top of her chest, making the view lovely, but the outfit was not combat-ready. And he really needed for June to be ready to kick some slug ass.
"What's going on?" She asked, poking her head through the portal. Stephen groaned as the door was slammed against once more, this time harder than the last.
"Magical slugs! Filling the Sanctum and eating everything! We've gotta do something!" He explained quickly, practically yelling the words. June leapt through the portal without a word, and assumed her tiger fighting stance. "Be ready to move!" He barked before jumping away from the door. It immediately swung open, and slugs started pouring in. June began attacking immediately, using a sword she conjured in less than a second.
"We've got to get to the portal to close it!" Stephen yelled as he continued to use a conjured whip to slash at the creatures. Green blood splattered everywhere with each kill – June could only pray that it wouldn't stain. These are my favorite pajama pants… She mentally whined.
"June, let's go!" Stephen's voice was demanding, and she was grateful for his leadership – there would be no way she could have handled something like this on her own, without guidance.
June gave Stephen a quick nod, and in a smooth and powerful motion, he scooped June up and used the Cloak to fly out of his study. This was a maneuver that they had practiced a million times before: Stephen would fly June up high, and then drop her. She would control her fall and use the opportunity to land an aerial attack on their enemy. This would free Stephen up for a magical attack, and the two hits would make a nasty 1-2 combo.
"There!" Strange said as he flew down the stairs, with June in his arms. "Hit it with everything you've got!"
"With pleasure." June grinned. Stephen did a quick spin and used the momentum to throw June as hard as he could, sending her towards the portal. June conjured a sword in each hand as she flew, and when she was close enough, she slashed as hard as she could.
The portal was split where June had cut it, and the distortion in the air around the portal seemed to recede a bit. June came to a skidding halt behind the portal, and hissed. Slugs were still pouring out of the portal – it was time for more drastic measures. The second her feet touched the ground, every slug froze in place, not even bothering to move out of the way of Stephen's attacks. The air was quiet outside of the sizzling of conjured weapons, and June shivered. Then every slug immediately rolled around, and faced June.
"Oh no." Stephen and June whispered simultaneously. The slugs then rushed at June, their round blue bodies moving much faster than what should have been possible. June froze for a second, and as a slug touched her bare foot, June leapt back with a cry and began to slash away at any slug within her reach.
"Watch out!" Stephen quickly slashed at the slugs who were making their way towards June. Their slimy bodies crawled over each other in a desperate attempt to get to Juniper. His whip came dangerously close to grazing June, and he grimaced.
June let out a scream as the slugs began crawling up her legs and weighing her down. "Stephen!" She cried as she tried to slash the slugs off her body. But it was too much. The slugs crawled higher and even more piled up as they began to cover June's body. She helplessly flailed, and then fell backwards.
"June!" Strange flew forward, ready to save June, when he saw it: the Een'Gawori queen was crawling out of the portal. This slug was massive, about the size of a leg, purple in color, and had antennae all down its back. Now's my chance! The Een'Gawori were hive animals – if he killed the queen, the rest of the slugs would scatter, and no longer be under her chemical influence.
Summoning all of his strength, Stephen flew towards the portal with a conjured disc over his fist. The queen reared up at him and let out a terrifyingly large roar from its circular, jagged toothed mouth. There was no time for hesitation. He moved quickly, and in one swift and deadly motion, he extended the disc outwards and slashed the queen clean in half.
The creature let out a dying scream, and began to thrash violently. Her fellow slugs began to hum loudly in response, catching Stephen by surprise. No book mentioned this… The queen let out a final cry, then stopped wiggling. The slugs seemed to shiver, and they slowly made their way back to the closing portal, still humming loudly.
Although the bizarre behavior fascinated him, there was no time to study them. Stephen quickly flew over to the pile of slugs in the living room, and with his magic, began to rip large groups of them from the pile.
"June?! Can you hear me?" He called as he tore group after group of slugs away from the pile, tossing them back into the portal from which they came. The lack of a response chilled his bones, and he began to pull the slugs away faster. His mind raced – June's veins would be filled with Een'Gawori venom, meaning two things: her motor control was impaired, and steadily deteriorating, and her respiratory system was being assaulted as the venom made her airways swell. There was no time to waste – June needed him, and now.
"June!" He called again, reaching deep within himself to gather enough strength to pull the rest of the slugs off her. Each slug glowed orange as it was forcefully shoved by magic. June's face appeared as the slugs were pushed away from her. Then her torso, and finally, her legs were clear of the slugs. Almost every inch of exposed skin was bruised or bitten, and Stephen felt guilt rise up like a great wave, and then settle into his stomach. When the slugs were pulled off her entirely, she coughed and rolled onto her side with a wheeze.
"What… happened…?" June's voice was weak, and her limbs were starting to tremble a bit. Covering almost every inch of exposed skin were circular bite marks, as if someone had stamped a cookie cutter against her skin several times. They were bleeding slightly, and the sight of them made Stephen internally wince. Stephen floated down to her. No time to waste, Stephen thought. The longer the venom stayed in her system, the more damage it was going to do. He leaned down and snaked his arms under her, and in a smooth motion, pulled her to his chest.
"Why… do I feel… weird?" Her breathing was ragged, and each word sounded strained.
"Those slugs overpowered you, and filled you with venom." He paused, and simply stared down at her. "I'm… I'm so sorry, June." He spoke slowly, as if to give himself time to think of a proper apology. One didn't come to mid – how do you apologize for getting your best friend bitten all over and filled with venom?
"Not… your fault." June said weakly before coughing. Stephen's eyes softened, and he used Cloak's magic to lift himself up into the air.
"Let's get you patched up." This was his fault, the least he could do was heal her. June's eyes shut as she leaned against Stephen's chest.
"Okay." She breathed. Inside his mind, Stephen was screaming at himself. This is my fault. The slugs were attracted to and ate magic – bringing the strongest source of magic currently in the world to them was like handing them an all-you-can-eat buffet. I shouldn't have brought her into this. Guilt clawed at him, its sharp claws tearing at his insides. He let out a sigh silently floated upstairs using Cloak, and headed towards his study.
"You know what?" June said quietly.
"What?" Stephen asked.
"There's this sushi place in town. I heard it's great. We need to go there." June inhaled deeply after speaking. Stephen raised his brows, taken aback.
"You want to… go get sushi?" He asked. "Are you serous right now? You've got to be kidding me."
June's brows furrowed. "When you're covered with biting slugs, it makes you think about all the stuff you haven't done in life. And I want to see you try wasabi, damnit." She occasionally coughed between words.
"So, you're serious?" He asked, still in disbelief. Was June really asking him out right now? He sifted through his mind to find anything about the venom having any side effects that would have made her less inhibited or even delusional. Nothing came to mind.
"As a slug attack." June tried to laugh, but was interrupted by a couching fit. The venom was attacking her respiratory system – Stephen needed to get it out of her, and fast. They floated into Stephen's study, and he sat June down on the desk.
"That was a terrible joke by the way." He commented quietly before scanning the spines of the books that decorated the shelves in the room.
"Let's see you… do better." June wheezed, and Stephen rolled his eyes. At least she was feeling well enough to tell jokes, Stephen thought. Doesn't stop her from making stupid jokes, however. Stephen found the book he was looking for – The Rejuvenatium. He flipped through it quickly, passing over several pages he had bookmarked, and he found the spell he was looking for: remove venom. He skimmed the spell quickly, memorizing it with only one pass. He closed the book and shoved it back into its slot on the bookshelf, and pivoted to face June.
"This might hurt a bit, so brace yourself." Stephen said before making a set of hand motions and mentally reciting the mantra of a spell. His hands sparked with white energy – the trademark sign of a healing spell.
June hissed in pain. It felt like her insides were being rearranged, and burning filled up her entire being. She gritted her teeth and gripped the lip of the desk with all of her might. Her insides were pulling left, then right, then upward. The sensation was disorienting, to say the least. Then June felt a burning lump in her chest, that traveled up into her throat. As it climbed, it grew more painful. June then opened her mouth, and a yellow liquid was pulled out of her, and gathered in the air to make a sphere of liquid. But June felt immediately better. Breathing was easier, and her body felt stronger.
"What is that?" She asked, pointing to the yellow, floating liquid. Knowing that stuff was just inside of her made her feel a bit light-headed.
"Een'Gawori venom. It was clogging up your airways." Stephen explained. "It attacks the nervous and respiratory systems, inducing paralysis and asphyxiation in extreme cases."
June blinked. Was I… going to be paralyzed? She asked herself. "Ah, well, thanks for getting it out of me." She smiled up at him, her gratitude genuine.
"No problem." Stephen controlled the sphere with one hand, and used the other to pick up an empty jar from one of the shelves in the room. He magically unscrewed the lid, and the liquid filled the jar. Stephen closed it quickly, and sat it back on the shelf from which the it came. "This will come in handy if we ever need to make an anti-venom." He commented.
"Now let's help you stop bleeding." Stephen stepped forward to June, and rested his hand just above the skin on her arm. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, summoning more healing magic.
June winced as the magic began to work on her wounds. The sensation of being healed wasn't pleasant – feeling your body regenerate muscle and skin was painful and very bizarre. The sensation only lasted about 5 seconds, and then it stopped. Strange removed his hand from her arm, and June looked down at the bites. Several of them had healed over, leaving smooth and new skin in its place.
"You've got to teach me how to do that." She said, slightly awestruck. Healing spells were not a new concept to her, but she had never been on the receiving end of one.
Strange gave a small smirk. "Only if you promise to not get eaten by slugs." He teased as he placed his hand over a different section of her arm, and began to heal it.
"Hey, you know that's a promise I can't make." June smiled at him. "It's not like I planned this, you know." Stephen's smile faded, and June gave him a light nudge on his shoulder. "Hey, you didn't plan this either. Don't beat yourself up about it."
"It's hard not to." He admitted as he continued to heal her, occasionally moving on to a new area of exposed skin. "I should have pulled someone from Kamar-Taj or one of the other Sanctums." His eyes darkened, and he felt his guilt rise again Here he was, the master of an entire Sanctum, and he couldn't even protect his only sti
"Maybe so. But I'm glad you immediately thought of me when you needed help." June brushed some of her messy hair out of her face. "You think I'm capable enough to handle stuff like this."
"I can't comment. If I actually told you how talented you were, it'd go straight to your head." Strange moved to her shoulder and began healing.
"Like you're one to talk. You're the king of inflated egos." June grinned cheekily, grateful for the distraction from the pain of being healed.
"I'm the king? Bow down, peasant." Stephen had finished healing her right arm and moved on to her neck and collar bone. Thankfully the spell covered a large area of skin, so he didn't have to press his hand against her sternum to heal the bites there. Saves us a lot of embarrassment, he thought.
June wrinkled her nose a bit. "Terrible joke."
"Hey, you smiled. It worked." Stephen gave his half-smirk, and June landed another light punch against his arm.
"You're such a little shit." June said with a laugh. Seeing June being herself relieved Stephen – she was clearly feeling better after the venom had been removed from her. And after he healed her wounds, it would be like it almost never happened. June didn't seem bothered by the incident, and didn't hold resentment towards him for his careless mistake.
"Oh, like you're not?" He walked over to her other side and began to work on that arm. June marveled at her healed arm, sticking it out and rotating it as she examined it.
"True, true." She conceded. "I still can't get over this healing spell. This is mind-blowing. Imagine this stuff in hospitals."
"I would be lying if I said I hadn't thought of reentering the practice with it. But relying on magic like that would stunt medical advancements, especially if other sorcerers get involved. Why create better tech when you can just have a sorcerer do the job?" He paused for a moment. The real reason he didn't want to reenter the practice was because he'd slide back into his old ways. Fame, fortune… it corrupts and twists people. Stephen feared he wasn't strong enough to resist the pull of his vices.
June looked at him, her eyes scanning his face with curiosity and concern. She knew there was something else, something more, that made him not want to reenter the practice – but she could never get it out of him. If he was just worried about medical advancements, he wouldn't be this hung up over the concept. Talk to me, she whispered in her mind. The stinging of her skin was brought back to the forefront of her mind, and she gripped the table edge with her hands. A shaky breath escaped her lips, and June mentally kicked herself for showing weakness. You're stronger than this, it's just a little pain.
"Are you okay? I can stop, if you want." Stephen pulled his hand away from her skin, breaking the spell, and looked at June with concerned eyes. He knew that the healing spell wasn't exactly pleasant, but he didn't want to cause her any pain, if he could help it.
"No, I'm fine." June said, letting out a sharp exhale as Stephen stopped the spell. "I need these to heal up. Don't stop."
Stephen paused, and after a moment of hesitation, placed his hand back on her arm to finish healing it. Her brows furrowed as more pain pulled at her skin.
"So, were you still serious about that sushi thing?" Stephen asked. The concept had been bothering him ever since June asked. Part of him leapt up at the thought of spending time with June, but the rest of him held reservations. She has to be into me, it's the only rational explanation, Stephen thought. But… what if I'm wrong? What if she really does just want to hang out as friends? The concept disappointed Stephen a bit, and he mentally kicked himself for feeling that way. Don't act like this! Even if she was into you, there would be no way you could have a relationship with her! There were specific rules set by the council explicitly against this kind of relationship, and they were on thin ice with them as it was.
"Why wouldn't I be?" June asked. If Stephen wasn't holding her shoulder, she would have shrugged.
"There's plenty of reasons. For example, why did getting eaten by slugs make you decide to ask me this? And why sushi?" Part of Stephen was urging to just take this gift of an opportunity to run with it, but there was a more critical portion of his mind that needed to make sense of all this.
"To tell you the truth…" June paused for a moment and inhaled. "My last friend from college just moved away a few months ago."
"Right." Stephen nodded, remembering how June mentioned it previously.
"So basically, that makes me a sad, lonely fuck." She admitted with a laugh. "I want to get out and do things, but doing stuff by myself makes me look like somebody who's sad and alone. I'm 26 for god's sake, I should be out partying the night away, not hanging out with my mom constantly."
"I see." Her reasoning made sense. June was a social person, and she didn't do well being cooped up in the house or Sanctum. Stephen understood the desire to get out and do things with somebody – he was reluctant to admit that he was in desperate need of some social interaction. I'm getting rusty with it, he mentally commented.
He ran his hand over June's neck and over her cheek. His fingers accidentally brushed against her face from his shaking, and Stephen mentally kicked himself again.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to actually touch-"
"It's fine." June cut him off, a hint of rose in her cheeks. "I know you can't help it." A moment of awkward silence passed between them, as Stephen silently finished healing her.
"That should do it." He said with a nod. June jumped down from the desk and rolled her shoulders.
"Good as new. Thanks." She gave herself a quick glance, inspecting some of her fresh skin on her arm. "Hey, do you mind if I borrow that book? Saying that spell is useful would be an understatement."
Stephen nodded and went to retrieve it from the shelf. "You never did answer my question about the sushi." He reminded her.
"Ah! Well, I haven't had it in a while, since Mom and April hate it. It just sounded good – we don't have to get it if you want something else."
"Nah, sushi's fine. Is a dinner really a meal if you don't eat something raw and slimy?" He asked sarcastically.
"You've got a point." June rolled her eyes. Stephen extended the book out to her, which she took. "So, are you in or not?"
"Well, after this slug infestation, I could certainly use a night away from this place. When and where?" He asked as he adjusted the wraps on his forearms, a nervous habit he'd picked up recently.
"Tonight… at 7? At Sakura Roll?"
Stephen smiled. "That's fine by me. We meeting here?"
June shrugged. "Works for me." She gave a quick look around the room, too nervous to meet Stephen's eyes. "Hey, if we're done here, I'm gonna bounce. After nearly getting eaten, I could really do with some breakfast."
"Of course." He nodded.
"Well, um… I'll see you tonight then." June instinctively reached for a pocketed sling ring, only to realize she didn't have one. "Care to make a portal?" She asked with a nervous smile.
Stephen rolled his eyes. "I suppose." He pulled out his own sling ring, and quickly opened a portal to June's living room. "See you later." He said with a smile.
"See you later." June nodded at him before quickly jumping through the portal.
"June! I told you, no more portals in the living room!" The voice of May caught Stephen by surprise, and he quickly closed the portal with his brows raised.
Whoops. He didn't mean to get June in trouble, but how else was he going to get ahold of her in situations like these? A telepathy spell would be too invasive – and Stephen wanted to keep June well away from his thoughts. That only left one practical option. Texting it is. But there was no time to worry about it. The day was still young, and he had a few house-calls he had to respond to before the day was over. The call was… something about a possessed dog? He shook his head and headed out of his study. He was keener to face curses and possessions than June's meeting with him tonight. He'd be lying if he wasn't anxious about it. Compared to a date with her, fighting a monster was easy.