The Fantastic Four Consult Doctor Strange

The air smelled of exotic incense, cloying and spicy. The sunlight that filtered through the odd window seemed to have a different quality than it had on the street. Nothing could be heard of the New York traffic here, and the house itself seemed to be subtly alive, the walls never at quite the same angle when Sue Storm turned her head. Rich carpets covered the ancient wooden floors, bookshelves were stuffed with volumes bound in leather and other, stranger materials.

Wong had admitted them at once, as if they had been expected, and immediately Sue Storm and Reed Richards had been lost, unable to remember the way to the study despite their previous visits. Situated in a pair of high-backed chairs, Wong fetched them tea...and they waited, observing the various mystical gewgaws here and there.

A small bronze brazier, chased with golden dragons. A tall iron tripod, covered with a kind of dome. A wand of some strange wood, faced with two horned demons on either end. A bookstand that held a thick tome, older and larger than a Gutenberg bible, written in a strange script that reminded Sue Storm of Tibetan, but the hanging loops of the characters seemed to twist like small black tentacles.

At last, though in truth Sue had no idea how much time had past, a door opened and a tall, spare figure in a rich red cape whose broad collar rose above his head stepped into the room. He might have stepped form some Shakespearean play, a necromancer out of the distant past with blue tunic on which was stitched a pale demon; the thin moustache above his lip covered a small scar, and the pale silver that graced his temples bespoke years that weighed lightly on him.

"Sorry," Doctor Strange said. "We've been having difficulty with the internet; a minor sorcerer attempted to infiltrate past my firewall."

Reed Richards raised an eyebrow. "You have the internet?"

"A necessity, for Wong's streaming career," Strange said. "Or so he tells me. He wishes us to get StarkLink installed, but I do not know if the house will stand for it. Yet, enough with such matters. I sense you are troubled. How may I help you?"

It spoke to how seriously Reed took the proceedings that he didn't needle Strange further, but sat patiently as Sue Storm explained what she had experienced.

"I see," Doctor Strange said. "And yet I do not. I must call upon the All-Seeing Eye of Agamotto to discern the truth of this matter!"

Reed visibly bit his tongue. Sue reached over and patted his hand as Strange made a mystic gesture. The golden amulet that hung on the Sorcerer Supreme's chest opened slowly, revealing a pale, eye that appeared to be made of sheer energy. It left its metal housing and drifted to attach itself to Stephen Strange's forehead.

"Now," he intoned. "All shall stand revealed in the light of truth!"

A pale radiance erupted from the eye, brighter than one of Franklin's LED flashlights, and Sue blinked at the sudden blobs on her vision. Yet it was Reed who gasped.

"What is that?" he asked.