Keeping a vigil by his bedside, Pepper Potts was dozing fitfully. She was exhausted. Mentally drained. The events of the day had been far too much for her to handle. The sight of Tony Stark lying on the bed, his heart barely beating, sustained by fluids that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a day, had nearly pushed her over the edge.
Knock knock knock.
A knock on the hospital room door echoed in the quiet night. Pepper Potts's eyes shot open. "Who is it?" she asked cautiously.
"It's me, Banner."
Bruce Banner pushed open the door, a bag in his hand. He looked tired and haggard. "I brought you some food. You should eat something." Bruce Banner placed the bag containing a sandwich and milk on the side table.
"What did S.H.I.E.L.D. say?" Pepper Potts asked, her hopes for a miracle cure from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s advanced technology clinging to her voice.
"Pepper..." Bruce Banner hesitated, but ultimately decided to tell her the truth. "I can't reach S.H.I.E.L.D., not even Natasha, who I spoke to on the phone earlier. It's like they all disappeared."
"But don't worry, you have to believe in them. They're all highly trained agents, they'll be okay." His last words of comfort felt weak and hollow. Based on what had happened earlier, the attackers were Lothar and his people. And the consequences of their attack...
"Most of them are already dead."
A completely unfamiliar voice accompanied the squeak of the door. A strangely dressed figure entered, and Pepper and Bruce both looked at him. Their first thought was: His face is so long.
"Stephen Strange?!" Pepper Potts exclaimed, unable to contain her shock as she recognized him.
"What? Pepper, you know him?" Bruce Banner, who had lived a life of "running, hiding, running, hiding" before the Battle of New York, was confused.
"He's a very famous doctor who left the medical field after a car accident. Nobody knows where he went," Pepper Potts explained. With Tony Stark unconscious, she had spent the afternoon searching for famous doctors. The name Stephen Strange was on her list.
But... she had just searched for Stephen Strange this afternoon, and now he was here? Was this "big data monitoring" on her?
"I was a doctor," the Sorcerer said, acknowledging her. "But now... I'm a sorcerer."
"Wait, what do you mean, 'most of them are already dead'?" Bruce Banner said, suddenly on guard. He stepped in front of Pepper Potts, ready to call the Hulk.
"As you can see, I'm a sorcerer. I was meditating in the New York Sanctum today when I sensed a spatial disturbance. After that, I saw the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier explode."
"Unfortunately, by the time I arrived at the closest crash site, only two people were still alive: one named Coulson, the other Barton."
"They're currently at a safe house trying to find their other colleagues and planning a funeral for their director, Nick Fury."
Strange made it clear to Banner and Pepper what had happened to S.H.I.E.L.D. They were completely wiped out, their resources destroyed, and even the "King of Spies," Nick Fury, had been forced to sacrifice his life. And it was all because of one long-distance, casual strike from Lothar, the Son of Titan.
Both Bruce Banner and Pepper Potts fell silent. Strange's words confirmed their greatest fear.
"Do you have any proof?" Pepper Potts asked, clinging to the hope that Tony could be saved.
"Proof..." Strange considered it, then made a decision. He spread his arms. He pointed his left hand at an empty space, and a rainbow of colors appeared. He waved his right hand through the air, and a magical dragon roared to life. A magnificent magic circle spun in his palm, its flickering light drawing them into the world of magic.
Hum!
The magic vanished, and the hospital room returned to its quiet state. Stephen Strange looked at the two of them, who were now covered in a cold sweat. "Do you believe me now?"
"Can you... can you tell me why you're here?" Pepper Potts asked, forcing herself to forget what she'd just seen, her voice trembling.
"Tony Stark."
"Earth needs him."
"He can't die yet."
Strange was serious. In the letter his teacher, the Ancient One, left him, Tony Stark's name was mentioned five times, and each time in a crucial section.
"Tony?"
"You can save Tony?!" Pepper Potts's eyes lit up.
"No, I can't. His injuries are too severe. But I can temporarily separate his soul from his body." Strange shook his head and offered his solution.
Tony Stark's injuries were more than just the result of a missile explosion; they were compounded by the force of the Mind Stone isotope. They weren't easy to heal. He planned to wait until the energy from the Mind Stone had dissipated before beginning to treat Tony Stark.
"...His soul?"
"Yes, like this."
Stephen Strange walked to the bed. He formed a magical hand sign and placed his right palm on Tony Stark's forehead. As Strange's arm rose, Tony Stark's soul slowly appeared before the stunned Pepper and Bruce.
"Is this... my corpse???" Tony Stark, now out of his body, looked at himself on the hospital bed. He then looked at the three people in the room, a rare expression of bewilderment on his face. "Pepper?"
"Tony?"
"Is that really you?"
A disbelieving Pepper Potts tried to touch the spectral Tony Stark, but her hand passed right through him.
"I'm afraid, Ms. Potts, that no one but me can touch Tony Stark right now." The man who had caused all this, Stephen Strange, waved his hand and tore open a portal crackling with sparks, gesturing for them to follow him.
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