My Dad, the Boy (*Man) Who Lives

15 minutes ago...

A blue light beamed down from the space craft and spitted out a dozen chitauri soldiers and among them were his least favorite grey alien trio. Damn.

This day has been a pain. The worst first time of bonding with your boyfriend’s family and truly the worst day in his life and he was in a crash that took his hands away. This day couldn’t get any worst beside the fact that he was the protector of one of the last two infinity stones left on earth and his life was in danger from the biggest psycho villainous alien in the world and he haven’t even had breakfast yet.

“Squidward is here, “ Nat chimed in. “And with company.”

Seriously his day couldn’t get any worst than this.

Strange noticed that Ebony, Proxima and Corvus were arriving with a few of the bigger chitauri soldiers with four arms. Before they could come out with a strategy plan, Proxima and Corvus immediately charged after the black widow and her husband.

Sooner rather than later he felt arms closing around him and he was yanked to the side, away from stone spikes made by Ebony and shot towards him. The person holding him fell down with a dull thud while the doctor was encased with a warm body.

“You need to focus doll, “ James whispered roughly, from behind his ear. His boyfriend’s voice was muffled under the winter soldier’s mask.

“Your daughter…”

“My kids can take care of themselves, “ he let Strange go and pulled him up alongside of him. “Right now, your safety is my concern.”

The Sorcerer Supreme could see his boyfriend’s children and a few of his sorcerers have been pushed back towards another corner of the street while his assistant, Wong and some of the sorcerers in his team were trying to counter the attack from Ebony Maw’s manipulation of materials and a group of his chitauri soldiers.

“Guess our fight is with him then, “ he looked towards the floating alien who fought Wong and a couple of his sorcerers easily and not a speck of worry marred his face. It was as if he was indulging them with his power. As if fighting them was nothing but child’s play.

“Yes, we get him, “ James cocking his rifle and began aiming at the alien. The first bullet surprised the grey being but it wasn’t enough to distract him from shielding himself from more bullets that came his way. Their biggest opponent seemed to have a knack with telekinetic power.

Some of his disciples have fallen but they didn’t fall without taking all of the chitauri goons down. Strange felt himself crushed yet again with their loss but with the Time stone in his hands, he could revive them back later.

Unlike the loss that they were unable to gain two years ago when Kaecillious massacre most of his fellow sorcerers. By the time he tried to bring them all back, time has closed itself towards his manipulation of time stone. Apparently there’s a time limit of bringing people back from the dead.

He just need to stop squidward so that he has enough time to revive them all. With his badass boyfriend, he’d be able to do that in no time. Pun not intended.

With a renewed purpose, the doctor readied his magical shields with his fists and boomerang Maw’s attack using his portal. Some of the bullets James shot were flipped back on his direction by Ebony. Strange’s heart stopped for a sec before a familiar shield headed his way and James caught it in time to cover himself from the bullets.

The sorcerer took a quick look back to see Steve and Peggy with a group of men in tac vests with SHIELD writing on their vests arrived behind them.

James nodded towards them and informed them, “ Natalia and Teddy are there, “ he pointed at another direction, “ Help them.”

James’ best friend seemed to hesitate and almost rooted to his spot befor his girlfriend beside him practically dragged him away towards Natalia and Teddy’s location.

The couple seemed intriguing since Strange could see their silvery golden aura mingling with each other almost as if they were one and tied to each other. He didn’t address this to them because they at war. And even though he knew James was with him and the other man has a lover of his own, a streak of jealousy bubbled from inside of him at their closeness.

“Stonekeeper, so glad you could join us, “ Ebony addressed him, pulling the doctor away from his thinking.

“Well that makes one of us, “ he muttered under his breath.

One of the spike created by the alien cut the creator’s cheek when Strange boomerang-ed it back to him. In anger, the invader used a broken fire hydrant’s water stream to knock Wong and his disciples several meters away, rendering them unconscious, leaving Strange and James, the last two standing.

The doctor was almost knocked out if it wasn’t for his quick reflexes and James with his Winter soldier’s acrobatic skills, backflipping himself away from the shooting jet water.

“Stonekeeper, it’s been a pleasure fighting against you, “ Ebony smiled, clasping his hands together, floating slowly towards Strange,” but I’m afraid my Father is in need of the fifth stone.”

“Tight time schedule?“ The doctor pulled himself up from the concrete, dusting the dirt dirtying his robe. His cloak was pulling him slowly back, away from their assailant and toward his lover. “Sorry, but the stone stays with me.”

James has traded his rifle with two hand guns. The guns were trained on Ebony completely. For the life of him, Strange couldn’t fathom where James hid all of his weapons. But after finding out that Tony Stark was a wizard, godson of his lover, it all made sense. The man was a good inventor and being a wizard, he must have somehow designed James’ costume and fit every possible weapons and protections into his costume.

“Ah, it seems that you think you have a say in this matter, “ the alien said to him mockingly. “You are but a mere child playing with things beyond your comprehension, young sorcerer.”

“And you talk too much, “ James shot his guns at the grey being, which the latter deflected easily.

Strange helped his lover by conjuring a whip of energy to bind Maw’s hands and yanked him, but the alien flew forward, bringing him with him. Then he was pinned against a building upside-down with the bricks used to trap him.

“Not again, “ the Sorcerer Supreme grumbled, “ What’s with you and backing me against the wall? Is this your kink?”

“ I do not understand what kink is, “ Ebony smirked, trailing his fingers around the amulet but refrained from touching it. “I shall fulfill my promise of making you wish you were dead. After that I shall pry this stone from your dying body.”

Something hit the alien from the back with a loud explosion, making his body fell to the ground. Not a few seconds later Strange saw James ran towards him from below. He leaped through the pipe and climbed up but not before pulling Ebony’s body and threw him as far away as he could. It was but a second before he was face to face with his masked boyfriend.

The doctor couldn’t help but smiled fondly at his assassin boyfriend. “Hi James.”

“Hi Vince, “ he pulled his mask off to smile back and began punching his metal coated arm at the bricks holding Strange.

“What did you shoot him with this time?” He asked out of curiosity.

“Stark mini missiles.”

“I thought SI has stopped making weapons in the 90’s.”

“They did,” the man pulled him away from the brick and with the cloak’s help, Strange descended onto the concrete. James followed by jumping down beside him from the four stores building.

“I have Tony specifically made these for me,” James tapped a button on his metal arm and a few mini missiles appeared from the hidden panel,” to take the big fish.”

“Or big scary telekinetic alien,” Strange tugged a half smile of amusement at his lover.

Their peaceful moment came to an end when a giant spike of stone protruded from James abdomens. Strange could feel his heart stopped as he turned wide eyes at the wound on James stomach and saw Maw stood a few feet away from them with an evil smirk.

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!”

The sorcerer held James by the waist but the assassin was too heavy that they both felt on their knees to the ground. He cradled his head in his arms and shook his head. This couldn’t be happening, he thought as tears started falling down from his eyes. He felt his face grew warm from the wetness as he chanted no repeatedly.

“ Vi… Vince?” James vomited blood from his mouth.

“No, no, no,” Strange shook his head,” Save your breath. I’m going to reverse this.”

His heart was pounding and hands were shaking as he summoned his golden rings of energies on his wrists. Before he could conjure the ritual, his hands were glued together by stone cuffs. He looked towards James and Maw who raised his hand above his head to deliver his attack. The doctor felt hopeless yet again.

Fortunately Natalia and Teddy arrived to distract Ebony before he could attack James and him any further. Steve and Peggy appeared in front of him, kneeling. Peggy immediately destroy the stone cuffs holding Strange wrists. They looked worried, especially the man who looked paler than his natural complexion.

“Oh God, James, ” Captain America whispered in devastate.

“Ste… Stevie? Pegs?”

Ignoring them, Strange immediately conjured up the ritual and hand gestures. Reversing the time as James began standing up once again without any wound on his abdomens.

“Vince?” He looked down and knelt in front of him, cradling Strange’s face in his hands. He wiped the tears off his face with his thumbs,” Don’t cry Vince, doll. I’m fine. You save me.”

“I almost couldn’t,” he spoke hoarsely, grabbing James’ hands that cradled his face. “I almost couldn’t.”

The photographer helped him up and embraced him gently, ignoring his friends,” Sssh. You’re not going to lose me.”

“I could have,” his back was towards where Ebony was once standing away, but he didn’t care. “He trapped my hands. We both could have died.”

“But we didn’t,” the other man smiled reassuringly. “We’re both fine.”

“I…”

Suddenly he felt his heart exploded as the pain surging to his chest come out of nowhere and fast. He grabbed his back slowly and came out with blood even his cloak moved sluggish against his back. He didn’t know what it was, but he could feel all of his energy leaving his body. It was not a good sensation. They were both not in good state, the cloak and him.

And from the look on his James’ face, it seemed that something really bad has happened to him. The man was holding his body with one arm and tried to use his other hand to push against his chest.

The doctor coughed up some blood and wondered if Ebony had just stabbed him in the back, multiple times. He must have used something stronger than stone to manage to rip the defense on his cloak. And with Strange spelling the eye of Agamotto, he had rendered it useless to be use by anyone beside him. He never hated himself for being a genius as much as right now.

The shock from the pain reminded him from the time he was almost died on the operating table with Christine Palmer trying to save him. But this time, he didn’t think he had enough time to transport himself to his ex-colleague capable hands or go to the astral plane.

Damn, he was not fine, if the numbness that had travelled through his body was a telling.

Before he was swallowed by the darkness, he squeezed James hand with the last of his strength, “ Ja… James, “ and for the last time, forcing himself to grin through the iron taste in his mouth, “ avengeme.”

***