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xp_logsNew York: 10:35 p.m.
Amanda is home working when she gets a rather alarming visitor.
It started off a night like any other. Amanda was sitting on her couch, idling paging through some school work with the television on, pausing every so often to giggle at the antics of Lister and Rimmer on the screen. Rain pattered on the windows, but inside it was snug and warm, a mug of tea steaming on the coffee table in front of her, a cigarette smoldering in the ashtray. In all, a scene of somewhat grungy domestic bliss. The peace, however, was broken by the abrupt knocking on the door. Startled, Amanda glanced up, reaching for the remote to pause the DVD. "Coming!" she called, laying aside her books and notes and padding barefoot over to the door.
When she opened it, she took a step back in surprise. The man on her doorstep was older, tired and worn-looking and soaked to the skin, his clothes battered and his silver-streaked hair in need of a cut. But his dark eyes burned fiercely as he reached over and grabbed her shoulder.
"Amanda," Stephen Strange said. "I have something of the utmost importance to talk to you about."
***
Strange's hands shook a little as he wrapped them around the mug, and as Amanda wordlessly draped a towel around his shoulders, he gave her a nod of thanks.
"Wanda should be here in a tick," she began, only to be interrupted by another knock on the door, before it opened and her boss entered.
Facing the door when it closed, Wanda took a deep breath before turning around to face the scene in front of her. She'd had since Amanda had called her phone to steel herself for the meeting. After all, it had been quite a while since they'd ended things and there was Kurt now. She'd moved on.
Hadn't she?
"Stephen," she said, giving Amanda a wan smile. "You look...well, you look like hell. What is going on?" He looked awful but...'Bloody hell, woman, this is not the time or the place,' she scolded herself.
"Wanda." Despite himself, despite everything, there was a certain warmth to his voice when he said her name. "So sorry to drop in so precipitously, but it was rather urgent."
"Isn't is always?" Amanda murmured wryly, acutely aware of the tension in the room, and finding herself torn. She'd always liked Strange and Wanda as a couple, but Kurt was her brother, and she wouldn't see him hurt. Then she remembered the urgency in Strange's expression as she'd opened the door, and shook herself. He wasn't back to pick up old relationships, this was something far more serious.
Wanda gave herself another five seconds to just...drink him in before moving towards the table. Everything else was falling neatly into the background as she settled in a chair, getting comfortable. There was something going on and whatever it was, it had brought Stephen probably half way, if not more, around the world. "If you tell me you just happen to be sporting a mantra, I just might be forced to throw you in a river and be done with it before hand," she stated, a small smile on her face.
It wasn't going to be that simple and she just knew it.
"No mantras this time, no." His smile slipped a little as he realised he'd been staring at her and he sipped from the mug, trying to compose himself. "There's something happening on the astral plane."
"The astral plane?" Amanda frowned - she'd had little to do with that particular phenomenon since leaving the mansion and breaking the link with Manuel. It was Strange's particular thing. "The whole joint headspace thing?"
Strange winced just a little at her terminology, but nodded. "Essentially, yes. The astral plane is the collective unconscious of every mind on the planet, with only telepaths and the magically adept able to access it. I frequent it regularly when I astrally project. However, on my last visit, something went wrong."
With her powers, the astral plane was something Wanda had never dealt with. She'd heard about it, in pieces, from Stephen and from the telepaths but she'd never been that curious about it before. Now she was regretting that. "What went wrong and how badly?"
His hands tightened on the mug, knuckles whitening. "I encountered a... presence. Something unlike anything I've ever felt before. Powerful, dark... and hungry."
Wanda frowned, staring down at the designs on the table top. "How often is it that you encounter other presences on the astral plane?" she asked. This was obviously something more but she needed the fuller picture.
"It's not unusual, given the amount of telepathic traffic, but this was something else. Certainly not a random encounter with another traveller. It initially paid me no heed, so I took it upon myself to follow it, to try and determine its origins, or its intentions."
"I'm guessing with the 'initially' your cover got blown," Amanda observed quietly. "Did you get anything before that?"
"Some. Not an origin. But I was able to discover a possible target, which is why I came here, as soon as I could." Strange met his former pupil's gaze, and then glanced at Wanda. "It's someone at the school."
She froze at that, eyes widening only slightly as her brain worked furiously. "Would the target be a psi or magically inclined –" Though as far as Wanda knew, that really only meant one person and that one was sitting right next to her. And he'd said the school specifically. "Or are we looking at something wider? Could anyone, student or staff, be the target? Since this entity you encountered was on the astral plane I'd assume it would be targeting those it could reach…but it's an assumption and I am not willing to go off a gut feeling, if you will."
"I'm sorry, my flair for the dramatic... I know who the target is, although it doesn't make the situation any less dangerous, knowing who it is. It's Mr. Marko. Like you, he has been touched by the Elder Gods, and I can only guess that Cyttorak's mark has made him... visible to elements within the astral plane." Strange pinched the bridge of his nose. "I tried to get closer, to try and ascertain the nature of the threat, but unfortunately I was spotted, as Amanda guessed. The experience was... unpleasant, at best."
Wanda cursed, her bitterness for the meddling of the Elder Gods coming through loud and clear. "We will need to inform Cain and Professor Xavier at once," she said, speaking more to Amanda than simply thinking aloud. "And the rest of us here, especially the telepaths." She turned back to Stephen and asked, worried, "Are you all right?"
"Shaken. And I do not think it would be wise for me to venture into the astral plane for a time - I managed to fight my way free, but this presence, it has my astral imprint now and will be on the watch for it." He reached over and gripped Wanda's hand with a sudden vehemence. "Wanda, if this thing should take control of Marko, the implications are more dire than you realise. It is a psychic being, and merging with Marko, a vessel of powerful magic... it would create a magical/psionic hybrid that could potentially control the entire astral plane."
"Hang on, doesn't that mean it would have a foot in the subconscious of every living person?" Amanda asked, eyes widening as she started to understand the implications. Bad enough for Cain that he was being targeted, but this...
"Precisely."
Turning her hand over, Wanda clasped Stephen's hand with hers tightly. The very idea that something could not only be that powerful but have the chance to expand upon that power was frightening. But she was going to have to cage her fear if they were to get through this in one piece. "We will do everything we can to make sure that does not happen," she responded levelly, not breaking eye contact with him for a moment. "Even though it is best for you not to venture to the astral plane right now, you have first hand experience with this entity – however briefly – and everything you can share with us on that will be important."
Without releasing his hand, she turned her head toward Amanda. "Can you ring up Remy or Pete?" she asked. "I will put a call into the professor and then Cain. And whatever Illyana was doing beforehand is being dropped since we are going to need to hit the research pretty hard on this one."
Amanda nodded, already getting up from her seat. "On it, boss lady."
Amanda is home working when she gets a rather alarming visitor.
It started off a night like any other. Amanda was sitting on her couch, idling paging through some school work with the television on, pausing every so often to giggle at the antics of Lister and Rimmer on the screen. Rain pattered on the windows, but inside it was snug and warm, a mug of tea steaming on the coffee table in front of her, a cigarette smoldering in the ashtray. In all, a scene of somewhat grungy domestic bliss. The peace, however, was broken by the abrupt knocking on the door. Startled, Amanda glanced up, reaching for the remote to pause the DVD. "Coming!" she called, laying aside her books and notes and padding barefoot over to the door.
When she opened it, she took a step back in surprise. The man on her doorstep was older, tired and worn-looking and soaked to the skin, his clothes battered and his silver-streaked hair in need of a cut. But his dark eyes burned fiercely as he reached over and grabbed her shoulder.
"Amanda," Stephen Strange said. "I have something of the utmost importance to talk to you about."
***
Strange's hands shook a little as he wrapped them around the mug, and as Amanda wordlessly draped a towel around his shoulders, he gave her a nod of thanks.
"Wanda should be here in a tick," she began, only to be interrupted by another knock on the door, before it opened and her boss entered.
Facing the door when it closed, Wanda took a deep breath before turning around to face the scene in front of her. She'd had since Amanda had called her phone to steel herself for the meeting. After all, it had been quite a while since they'd ended things and there was Kurt now. She'd moved on.
Hadn't she?
"Stephen," she said, giving Amanda a wan smile. "You look...well, you look like hell. What is going on?" He looked awful but...'Bloody hell, woman, this is not the time or the place,' she scolded herself.
"Wanda." Despite himself, despite everything, there was a certain warmth to his voice when he said her name. "So sorry to drop in so precipitously, but it was rather urgent."
"Isn't is always?" Amanda murmured wryly, acutely aware of the tension in the room, and finding herself torn. She'd always liked Strange and Wanda as a couple, but Kurt was her brother, and she wouldn't see him hurt. Then she remembered the urgency in Strange's expression as she'd opened the door, and shook herself. He wasn't back to pick up old relationships, this was something far more serious.
Wanda gave herself another five seconds to just...drink him in before moving towards the table. Everything else was falling neatly into the background as she settled in a chair, getting comfortable. There was something going on and whatever it was, it had brought Stephen probably half way, if not more, around the world. "If you tell me you just happen to be sporting a mantra, I just might be forced to throw you in a river and be done with it before hand," she stated, a small smile on her face.
It wasn't going to be that simple and she just knew it.
"No mantras this time, no." His smile slipped a little as he realised he'd been staring at her and he sipped from the mug, trying to compose himself. "There's something happening on the astral plane."
"The astral plane?" Amanda frowned - she'd had little to do with that particular phenomenon since leaving the mansion and breaking the link with Manuel. It was Strange's particular thing. "The whole joint headspace thing?"
Strange winced just a little at her terminology, but nodded. "Essentially, yes. The astral plane is the collective unconscious of every mind on the planet, with only telepaths and the magically adept able to access it. I frequent it regularly when I astrally project. However, on my last visit, something went wrong."
With her powers, the astral plane was something Wanda had never dealt with. She'd heard about it, in pieces, from Stephen and from the telepaths but she'd never been that curious about it before. Now she was regretting that. "What went wrong and how badly?"
His hands tightened on the mug, knuckles whitening. "I encountered a... presence. Something unlike anything I've ever felt before. Powerful, dark... and hungry."
Wanda frowned, staring down at the designs on the table top. "How often is it that you encounter other presences on the astral plane?" she asked. This was obviously something more but she needed the fuller picture.
"It's not unusual, given the amount of telepathic traffic, but this was something else. Certainly not a random encounter with another traveller. It initially paid me no heed, so I took it upon myself to follow it, to try and determine its origins, or its intentions."
"I'm guessing with the 'initially' your cover got blown," Amanda observed quietly. "Did you get anything before that?"
"Some. Not an origin. But I was able to discover a possible target, which is why I came here, as soon as I could." Strange met his former pupil's gaze, and then glanced at Wanda. "It's someone at the school."
She froze at that, eyes widening only slightly as her brain worked furiously. "Would the target be a psi or magically inclined –" Though as far as Wanda knew, that really only meant one person and that one was sitting right next to her. And he'd said the school specifically. "Or are we looking at something wider? Could anyone, student or staff, be the target? Since this entity you encountered was on the astral plane I'd assume it would be targeting those it could reach…but it's an assumption and I am not willing to go off a gut feeling, if you will."
"I'm sorry, my flair for the dramatic... I know who the target is, although it doesn't make the situation any less dangerous, knowing who it is. It's Mr. Marko. Like you, he has been touched by the Elder Gods, and I can only guess that Cyttorak's mark has made him... visible to elements within the astral plane." Strange pinched the bridge of his nose. "I tried to get closer, to try and ascertain the nature of the threat, but unfortunately I was spotted, as Amanda guessed. The experience was... unpleasant, at best."
Wanda cursed, her bitterness for the meddling of the Elder Gods coming through loud and clear. "We will need to inform Cain and Professor Xavier at once," she said, speaking more to Amanda than simply thinking aloud. "And the rest of us here, especially the telepaths." She turned back to Stephen and asked, worried, "Are you all right?"
"Shaken. And I do not think it would be wise for me to venture into the astral plane for a time - I managed to fight my way free, but this presence, it has my astral imprint now and will be on the watch for it." He reached over and gripped Wanda's hand with a sudden vehemence. "Wanda, if this thing should take control of Marko, the implications are more dire than you realise. It is a psychic being, and merging with Marko, a vessel of powerful magic... it would create a magical/psionic hybrid that could potentially control the entire astral plane."
"Hang on, doesn't that mean it would have a foot in the subconscious of every living person?" Amanda asked, eyes widening as she started to understand the implications. Bad enough for Cain that he was being targeted, but this...
"Precisely."
Turning her hand over, Wanda clasped Stephen's hand with hers tightly. The very idea that something could not only be that powerful but have the chance to expand upon that power was frightening. But she was going to have to cage her fear if they were to get through this in one piece. "We will do everything we can to make sure that does not happen," she responded levelly, not breaking eye contact with him for a moment. "Even though it is best for you not to venture to the astral plane right now, you have first hand experience with this entity – however briefly – and everything you can share with us on that will be important."
Without releasing his hand, she turned her head toward Amanda. "Can you ring up Remy or Pete?" she asked. "I will put a call into the professor and then Cain. And whatever Illyana was doing beforehand is being dropped since we are going to need to hit the research pretty hard on this one."
Amanda nodded, already getting up from her seat. "On it, boss lady."
