~Yo! We've hit 300 Powerstones, here's your Bonus Chapter as promised!
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Once Daniel had briefed him on the Sanctum's logistics, he casually excused himself, muttering something about catching up with "old friends" over tea and leaving Nolan alone in the vast halls of the New York Sanctum.
Nolan took the opportunity to explore.
The Sanctum was larger than it looked from the outside arcane geometry made sure of that. He levitated upward, bypassing the stairs entirely.
No point walking when you can fly.
He turned down a long hallway on the second floor, eventually reaching three ornate doorways at the end. Each had a glowing orange hemispherical dial embedded beside it.
These were the Sanctum's Fixed Portals pre-stabilized dimensional gateways to locations marked across the globe... and beyond.
They were more than just doors to cities. These could open rifts to other dimensions. Forgotten ones. Dangerous ones.
Most sorcerers didn't even know how to reach half those places. These doors made the unreachable reachable.
'No wonder Strange had to rely on them during that chaos with Kaecilius' Nolan thought. Mountains, forests, and remote oceans are places impossible to return from quickly.
Done surveying, Nolan made his way to the Vault.
The last place Kaecilius had broken into.
Artifacts lined the walls. Relics collected over centuries some dormant, some still pulsing with subtle magic. And sitting right at the center...
The Levitation Cloak.
An artifact with a mind of its own.
Nolan stood in front of its glass casing. He didn't speak aloud.
Instead, he projected his voice telepathically.
"Will you follow me?"
To anyone else, it would've seemed mad. But this cloak wasn't just fabric. It had will. It had once rejected Strange only accepting him in a moment of self-sacrifice during the Sanctum's defense.
The cloak twitched once. Then stilled.
"No?" Nolan's mind voice was calm. "Alright. Stay here then. Kaecilius will be here soon anyway when he comes to destroy this place for Dormammu. You'll make a fine sacrifice."
"He wouldn't dare attack the Sanctum."
The voice echoed in Nolan's head.
"He would. He must," Nolan replied without turning. "He needs all three Sanctums destroyed to bring Dormammu's projection to Earth."
"Wait... how are you hearing me?"
"Psychic channeling. Mind-magic." Nolan smirked and spun around. "But if you're going to just sit here, I'll leave you to your boredom. Next Sorcerer Supreme might show up in a few decades... or centuries."
There was a long pause.
Then with a swift click, the cloak slid a thin red corner into the cabinet's lock, popped it open, and darted out.
It floated gently behind Nolan... and fastened itself snugly around his shoulders.
"So, you can hear me too?"
"Obviously," the cloak replied in his mind. "I'm not dumb. Just picky."
"Then stick with me. But don't tug on my hair."
Back in the lab, Nolan returned to his studies until his AI, A.L.E.R., lit up in alert.
"Multiple high-priority targets detected converging at one location."
Nolan raised an eyebrow. "Who?"
"Red Hulk, Abomination, Luke Cage, The Leader, and MODOK. Opposing force: Avengers."
On the monitor, chaos unfolded.
Red Hulk and Iron Man were trading blows. Tony wasn't in a regular suit he'd gone full Hulkbuster. And while that suit usually got ripped apart by its namesake, it still had enough firepower to challenge Red Hulk and Abomination.
Vision was assisting, hovering and firing beams of precision energy.
On the other side, Luke Cage was tanking hits from War Machine and Black Widow. And then there were two massive brains: The Leader and MODOK.
They were ganging up on Vision, using tech-assisted precision attacks. Drones buzzed through the sky clearly, A.I.M. tech. Probably MODOK's.
Nolan narrowed his eyes.
"So MODOK's running A.I.M. now. That explains a lot..."
A.I.M. had always been a breakaway science cult. Loose ties to HYDRA. Deranged geniuses. Killian had been one of them but clearly not its founder.
"So the real puppetmaster survived," Nolan muttered. "Wouldn't mind getting MODOK or The Leader on my side. Both could be... useful."
He began prepping a spell ready to portal to the scene when A.L.E.R. flashed again.
"New signature: Human Torch confirmed. Fantastic Four involvement suspected."
"Now they're getting involved?"
This wasn't a skirmish anymore.
This was a civil war rehearsal and Nolan had no choice but to join.
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