Marvel: Attack on the Sanctum!

Back in the weird miasma of multiversal mayhem! Here's last time.

Our heroes are in the Sanctum Sanctorum in New York. Bucky is standing in a hallway staring intently at a painting until he's told to do something else. Periodically he feels something pass him. He doesn't look. This place is well out of his experience.

Magnus the Magnificent finds a quiet corner and pulls a selection of bow ties out of his hat. He selects a red one and puts it on; red runes crackle to life around him. That oughta help protect him from witch-magic!

Maria Hill likewise finds a quiet corner and starts arranging dead drops - one for Nick Fury. One for her team. One for her neighbor to make sure to feed her cat. (That one is less a "dead drop" than a "text.")

Spider-Man wanders the trophy room marveling at the weird artifacts. Many of them are behind glass, but some are just out on shelves. One seems to be some kind of big metal...restraint harness? Spidey moves on and reaches for what looks like a music box. 

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," says a voice. 

"Who's that?" Spidey peers at the music box. "Where are you?"

"Turn around."

Spidey turns, and there's a tall, light-skinned black man standing there, wearing the same kind of weird robey things that Strange does, but his are green. He's also wearing a cloak with a hood. "Probably better you don't touch anything." 

"Sorry," says Spidey. "I'm Spider-Man."

The man nods. "You can call me Mordo." The man's gaze is unsettling. "Why are you here?"

Spider-Man proceeds to tell him the whole story, who he's here with, what Strange is doing for them. Mordo nods, and then steps in a little closer. 

"I think it's probably better if you go." 

Spider-Man shifts a little. "Well, as soon as we're ready, we're all going to-"

"No, that's not what I mean." The eyes take up Spider-Man's entire brain. "I think you should go, now, before this gets worse. It will. People who stand up beside Stephen Strange often end up dead, and this really isn't your fight."

"Well, I think...I mean, I'm..." Spidey tries to find his footing in this conversation, but his mouth goes dry. Fortunately Maria enters the room. 

"Hey, kid. You ready to go?" Mordo turns to her. "Oh, who are you?"

"Mordo."

"Really?"

Mordo smiles. "You could call me 'Your Excellency' if you really wanted to."

"I don't."

"Me neither, if I'm honest."

Maria feels the tension here, but isn't quite sure why. "I think we'd better go find Strange." 

Mordo gets a strange look on his face, and then...vanishes. Maria looks at Spider-Man, figuring his danger-detecting sense might give a clue as to whether Mordo is still here. Spidey is tensed, and Maria figures it's probably time to check on Strange. She pulls Spidey out into the hall where Bucky is standing, and yanks on a bell pull. A young woman in a maroon robe appears from around a corner. "Yes?"

"Where's Strange?"

"In the library, working-"

"WHERE IS THE LIBRARY?"

"What's wrong?"

"There was a man in the library. Wearing green. Said his name was Mordo-"

At this the apprentice's eyes get wide and she turns and runs. Maria, Spidey, and Bucky follow, past the room where Magnus was waiting ("hey, guys, what...OK, we're running"). They all run down a hall and the apprentice shoulders open a door. The sounds of gunfire and chaos spill out.

The others rush into the room. Bookshelves are knocked over and there are bullet holes in the walls. Strange is slumped against the far wall, bleeding. Mordo stands in front of him holding a quarterstaff, but Natasha and Yelena are flanking him, both armed!

Spider-Man flips out a web and disarms Natasha. Bucky and Maria flank the women, using the bookshelves as cover. Strange gestures and a gold shimmer appears around him; Mordo strikes with his staff and breaks it, and Yelena shoots him in the chest. 

Magnus steps into the stacks and teleports to Strange's side, and pours a red liquid into his mouth. The bullet wounds heal and he gasps. Mordo grimaces and strikes out with his staff, which breaks into three sections held together by crackling energy. It sweeps through the room - Bucky deflects with his arm, Spidey nimbly backflips over it, Magnus' runes deflect it, but it catches Maria and knocks her back. 

Magnus pulls a big gun out of his hat and fires at Mordo, but Mordo steps into the air, his boots making contact with glowing circles of magic and letting him dodge. Natasha fires a widow's bite at Magnus, but his runes absorb it, and Spidey fires a barrage of webs at Natasha and puts her against a wall. Bucky pops out of the stacks and yanks Yelena's gun out of her hand. She sweeps up a book and strikes at Bucky's throat, but he deflects the shot ("Really?"). Uncharacteristically, Yelena does not have a snappy retort.

Maria runs over to Natasha and zaps her with her taser rod - not enough to hurt, just hoping to shock her out of whatever the hell is going on. Natasha regains lucidity and tells Maria to get everyone away from here, and take the back door. 

Maria yells over her shoulder: "Get Strange, we are leaving." 

Magnus pulls a lei out of his hat and throws it to Spider-Man. "Put this on the green guy!" Spidey obligingly swings over Mordo's head and drops the lei around his neck, and he vanishes. ("Where'd he go?" "Hawai'i.") Bucky yeets Yelena into a wall and picks up the fallen sorcerer, and they all head down a hallway.

They hear gunfire and screams from elsewhere, and Spidey looks over his shoulder. "I'll catch up. I've gotta-"

Maria cuts him off. "No. Out the door. We are all staying together. Go." Spider-Man, still a little emotionally wrecked from his conversation with Mordo, obeys, but hears his aunt's voice in his head asking when he'll be home. 

Spidey feels danger and warns them before a barrage of gunfire roars out - widows! Spidey swings in and flips webs around, yanking the guns out of their hands. Magnus tosses a little wind-up sheep that explodes into sleep gas, and Maria lays down covering fire that forces the ones that stay away back away from the door. Bucky just charges in and socks one, and the heroes burst out the door into an alley behind the Sanctum.

Strange comes to as they're talking about where to go. "Put me down," he says. He barely manages to stand. "We need to get out of here." Explosions ring out behind them. 

"I think the 'Sanctum' needs a new name," says Spidey. Strange gives him a look, and then waves his fingers in a circle and opens a portal. 

"Where's this go?" asks Bucky. 

"What's the difference?" says Maria. "We'll know when we get there." She shoves Bucky and they go through. Strange goes to follow, but then falls forward with an arrow in his back. The portal closes, and the heroes find themselves...

...in some kind of temple? There are a bunch of people wearing red and orange robes, training in making sparkly circles. A few people are sparring. One of the groups is apparently being led by a big green minotaur (Spidey stares, Magnus shurgs. "Seen weirder."). A Chinese man walks up to them. "You're friends of Stephen? Where is he?"

Maria explains the situation as best she can, and the man - Wong - says that if the New York Sanctum has fallen and/or Stephen is dead, that's what's known as a Big Problem. They mention Wanda, and he's able to offer a little more information. He saw Wanda get sucked into the Dark Dimension along with Kaecilius and his other zealots. What he doesn't know is how Wanda got out again. Doing so would mean that either Wanda convinced Dormammu to let her go or she found a way to get out by herself, and either one is not good. 

He tells them to go to a small, square building and rest a bit, while he tries to figure what's happening.

They go into said building and talk a little, trying to decide where to go. Maria suggests Malibu - maybe one of the old Stark facilities might have some resources and be off the grid enough to reconnoiter. Magnus says maybe they should just track Wanda down and confront her - he's not interested in staying in this universe forever and that's gonna have to happen sooner or later. Bucky suggests maybe an old HYDRA base, but Maria's not thrilled about that idea. Spidey doesn't have much to contribute - he pretty much just knows New York.

Wong enters and tells them that the New York Sanctum suffered heavy losses (but is notably mum on Strange's fate). He notes that if Wanda has compromised Natasha, she might have compromised the other Avengers, so it's probably best if the characters draw on people or resources without that connection. Bucky notes that if Strange got hit with an arrow, then Hawkeye might be involved, which supports that "the Avengers are compromised" conclusion. In the end, they decide to go to Malibu (Maria calls up a Google street view so Wong can open a portal). 

Wong gives them some street clothes (including an official Avongers shirt for Bucky, which delights him). Spidey takes off his mask ("I trust you guys"), and the four of them step through a portal into an alley in Malibu, California.