Mystic

Tony turns from the window and pauses for a moment, remembering Wong’s advice about listening to his instincts so he listens. His first instinct was to run to Stephen, who clearly needed help but there was something beyond his emotional reaction so he considers it. Downstairs, he had to go downstairs to… he’d figure that out along the way.

When he exits his room he’s surprised to find Hope there half in her Wasp suit, “what the fuck is going on?” she asks as she follows Tony to the stairs.

“No idea but- where’s Rhodey?” he asks, noticing his missing soul mate.

“Safe. I locked him in our room,” Hope tells him.

“Hope!” Tony says, “what the hell?”

“He wasn’t going to stay- where are you going?” she asks, following him as he turns on his heel and heads towards their room down the hall.

“He’s not going to stay in there quietly, might as well give him a job,” he says as he reaches their door. Hope opens her mouth to say something but Tony cuts her off, “Rhodey get away from the door, I’m going to open it,” he tells Rhodey, who was trying his best to bust the lock on the knob if that shaking was any indication. The knob stops moving and Tony unlocks the door after Hope grudgingly hands over the key.

“I am so pissed off at-” Rhodey starts, glaring at Hope but Tony cuts him off.

“Get everyone to the far side of the building,” Tony tells him. “They should be relatively safe there and if something happens, well, I trust you to come up with something on the fly,” he says. Hope gives him a look that is downright poisonous but he ignores it as Rhodey nods, wheeling off to complete his new task. As soon as he’s out of ear shot Tony turns to Hope, “and that’s how you get him to evacuate the building without him giving you trouble and trying to bust down a door. Lets go,” he says and he starts back towards the stairs. Rhodey’s routes were out of the way thanks to the wheelchair and that would be useful now- if he and the rest of Stephen’s students weren’t on the usual paths that made them harder to find, half of why he thought to get Rhodey to get everyone out to begin with.

“That’s genius,” Hope mumbles grudgingly, following him down the stairs. When they get to the bottom Tony pauses, looking around for a moment before he starts towards a door he’s never gone through before, earning a frown from Hope, who no doubt knew they weren’t headed for the action now. “Where are you going?” she asks.

He shrugs, “not sure. You might as well head out, I’ll be there in a minute,” he tells her.

Hope pauses though before following him, “Tony you have no suit or any other protection, I know you’re not good at magic because Stephen looks constipated whenever you try spells, and you’re injured. What the hell are you going to do?” she asks as Tony spies a staff looking thing across the room.

“Do you see that?” he asks, gesturing to it.

“See what? That staff thing? What about it?” she asks.

“Does it look like it has a spotlight on it to you?” he asks and Hope looks at him like he’s nuts.

“Do you smell burnt toast?” she asks as he starts towards it, confident this was the right decision.

“I’m not having a stroke,” he tells her, stopping in front of the display case with the odd looking staff in it. It was probably as tall as Stephen and covered in odd carvings in what looked like metal but Tony was pretty sure that thing wasn’t originally from this planet. Not his ideal weapon but something drew him to it so it was probably useful. Maybe.

“Seizure,” Hope corrects and Tony rolls his eyes, opening the display case and pausing for a moment before he reaches out, grabbing the staff.

The last thing he expects is to feel his whole body turn electric as fire burns through his mind. Fire in Afghanistan, fire in New York, Sakovia, London, Siberia, his father’s basement- with a sharp gasp he snaps out of it, his head swimming.

“What the fuck is that?” Hope asks as images in destruction and death flicker through Tony’s mind but he shakes it off, having seen it all before.

“Not sure but I don’t like it. Lets go,” he tells her, taking off towards the door.

*

Stephen knew Mordo was likely planning an attack in the middle of the night and he was still caught off guard. It was one of the spells he set up around the perimeter that tipped him off, waking him up with a start as he frowns for a moment, confused. It doesn’t take him long to catch up with his confusion and he runs, his cloak flying after him and attaching itself to his shoulders as he heads towards the stairs. Wong pokes his head out of his room a Stephen runs by, “Mordo!” he yells in place of an explanation before deciding the stairs were for idiots and just jumping over the railing, letting the cape catch him before he hit the ground.

After that things go fast. Mordo was more experienced with magic and pissed off too, which didn’t leave time for Stephen to do much thinking. Distantly he hopes that he didn’t make a mistake leaving Christine in New York but he hardly gets an opportunity to ask Mordo if he decided to use her as a pawn again because he was blasting Stephen with magic.

It isn’t until he senses someone in the artifact room that things change from Stephen trying to hold Mordo off to him frowning, letting his guard down for a half a second and getting blasted across the court yard for his efforts. His cape catches him and Stephen has to shake his head to focus, squinting down at Mordo, who didn’t look injured at all much to his annoyance. Mordo smiles up at him as Stephen feels blood drip down his face. Fantastic, he probably had a concussion now.

The pause between Mordo’s next attack and Stephen holding his hands up with magical shields as a defense was maybe a few seconds if that. Mordo was already moving back into a fighting stance when he goes flying. Stephen watches as he lands some twenty five feet away in shock, settling himself on the ground and taking the opportunity to touch his head. Swollen above his eye but that was good. Better the swelling show on the surface than underneath- that would be much worse for his health. Something buzzes past his face and he frowns as he disappears.

“Stephen,” someone says. “Stephen!” the person yells and he turns to find Tony standing there.

“Would you get back to your room!” he snaps, looking back towards the building for a half a second before he decides planting himself in front of Tony was better protection at the moment.

“Stephen are you alright?” Tony asks him. He hears it distantly, which probably wasn’t good but he ignores it for the moment.

“Peachy. Get back to your room,” he tells Tony. Mordo was standing again, but he wasn’t attacking Stephen, he was attacking… well something but Stephen couldn’t see it.

“Its Hope, she’s in the Wasp costume and probably shrinky,” Tony tells him. “Where is Wong?” he asks.

Stephen shrugs, “not sure, probably trying to evacuate people,” he says. Stephen was the stronger magic user and he was clever. Wong probably trusted him enough to hold Mordo off long enough to make sure everyone was safe, then he’d come to help. Given his current fuzzy state of mind Stephen had to wonder if that was the right call.

“You need to lay down or something,” Tony tells him.

“Can’t, we have problems,” Stephen says, gesturing to Mordo. Hope, wherever she was, must have been blasted out of commission because Mordo turns back to him and Tony. Stephen notices Tony had stepped out from behind him and moves to stand in front of him again before focusing his attention on Mordo. He was stalking forward with purpose but Stephen wasn’t about to let him into that Sanctum- that would happen over his dead body. Literally.

“Stephen, you have a head injury now get out of my way,” Tony says, side stepping him and stalking towards Mordo. He wastes no time in sending a magical attack Tony’s way given that he had to know Tony had no way of protecting himself against it and Stephen opens his mouth to yell but his cape flies off his shoulders and goes to Tony. Stephen promptly falls on his ass, unaware that the cape had been holding him up. He touches the wound on his head again and wonders if there was more damage than he could currently feel because this was peculiar. He doesn’t take long to consider it before he’s scrambling to his feet, trying to figure out what to do next. Tony was doing a decent job dodging Mordo’s attacks and Stephen distantly recognizes the fighting style from videos he’s watched of the Avengers, noting that Tony clearly didn’t rely on his suit before something occurs to him.

Mordo had taught him hand to hand combat because he couldn’t always rely on his magic or the cape not that it had chose him in that moment but it was a lesson he had briefly forgotten. Mordo wasn’t necessarily a better magic user, but his experience and anger made him more dangerous than Stephen. Beating him was possible, but given his high body count it was improbable. He needed to stop relying on the tools he usually used and make use of a new one like Tony was doing now.

Out of seemingly nowhere Mordo is lifted from the ground and thrown and Stephen assumes Hope was back before he turns and runs back into the Sanctum, barely managing to not run straight into the wall instead of through the door. He passes Wong on his way by and yells at him to get outside as he goes into the artifact room. There had to be something in here, something useful…

*

“How are you doing that?” Mordo asks Tony as he dodges another attack. The cape, when it chose to work with him instead of sending him flying all over the place, was useful in combat.

“How am I doing what?” he asks, trying to take a swipe at Mordo with the staff and missing. Damnit.

“The staff, no one can hold that staff!” Mordo yells at him, sending another magical blast right at him and Tony flinches, letting the cape block that because he had no idea how to deflect anything at this point.

“Well clearly you’re wrong because I’m holding it,” Tony says, getting an inkling of an idea as he allows the cape to pull him back from another attack. His evasion technique was irritating Mordo, he could see it, but it’s Hope buzzing past his ear and into Mordo, sending him flying backwards again that gives Tony some semblance of hope for winning this fight. Evasion would only work for so long and he was working on luck alone. The fact that he wasn’t dead yet was nothing short of a fucking miracle.

Waving his hands around Mordo was once again distracted by Hope, who easily evaded him swatting at her. Why this was always everyone’s first response, his own included, he had no idea. It wasn’t as if she was an actual insect so why swat at her like that would help? He shakes his head to clear it and looks at the staff for a long moment and then at Mordo. He had one shot at this and he had to do it fast while he was still distracted by Hope.

Okay. Time to concentrate. He breathes in slowly and breathes out, a brief image of Sakovia flickering in his mind. He wouldn’t fail this time. Taking a step back from the staff he quickly draws patterns in the air and taps the center of the design, sending it towards the staff. It lifts off the ground and Tony holds his hands steady, doing his best to control the spell but he could already feel it slipping. He grits his teeth and concentrates on the magic, holding on to what was left and he moves his hands, pleased when the staff lifts.

His control was slipping still but he continues to lift the staff and then he pulls it back once it was close to Mordo before he swings it, his control dropping as soon as the staff followed through on the swing. Both the staff and the man go flying and Tony drops to his knees, gasping for breath. Without the staff in his hand his shoulder burned and he winces, not looking forward to the lecture this was going to get him from Stephen. Hope appears at his side, kneeling down beside him. “Oh my god Tony are you okay?” he asks. He must look like some shit if she was asking.

“I think so,” he says slowly, sounding distant to his own ears. Or maybe not. He’d see later he supposed, when Stephen inevitably harassed him into checking out his wounds. Out of the corner of his eye he sees orangs sparks flying around and notes distantly that Wong was on the scene, thankfully. Tony had to hand it to this Mordo guy- he was fucking talented to go through so many people in such a short period of time. Though in Hope’s defense she didn’t look hurt, just concerned about Tony.

She looks over her shoulder and back at Tony, “go,” he tells her, “I’ll figure it out, I always do. Worst come to worst this cape saved my life once, I’m sure it can do it again.” Putting his life into the hands of some magical cloth. Unbelievable. Hope goes though, shrinking as she takes off into the air. He wondered if she knew she preferred fighting small or if she had some other reason for preferring not to remain human sized. Or giant sized like Lang did that one time.

Tony stands up, shaky on his feet but the cape steadies him some, just in time to see Stephen run out of the Sanctum in a zigzag that didn’t look intentional. “Go to him,” he tells the cape. It doesn’t move and Tony sighs, “damnit he’s about to run back into that fight, go to him I’ll figure it out!” he yells at it. The cape detaches itself from Tony’s shoulders and floats in front of him while he swayed a little. It stays there for a moment before he flutters off to attach itself to Stephen, who follows a much more direct path after that. Tony gets the feeling that the cape, in its weird cape way, just thanked him. He shakes his head and sighs, headed back towards the fallen staff.

He’s about to pick it up when Wong lets out a blast of magic that stuns Mordo for a moment- just long enough for Stephen to slip something over his head. Mordo whirls, magical shields flickering but going out fast not that it stops him for more than a half a second before he tries to just fucking deck Stephen. Tony wanted to know who supplied villains their super strength and he wanted to know if there was a supplier for heroes because this was fucking ridiculous.

Stephen ducks fast though, or more likely the cape does it for him, but when Stephen comes back up he slams his hand into Mordo’s throat, causing him to collapse immediately. Stephen falls down after this too, or he would have if the cape didn’t catch him and gently lower him to the ground. Tony decides that’s a good time to pass out and does so, likely landing on his face as he does so.

*

Rhodey doesn’t even realized he’s been duped until he’s in another Sanctum somewhere he didn’t pay attention to because he was too busy helping Wong evacuate people. He didn’t even think that he was going with them; his concern was making sure the people were safe. But then Wong closed one of those nifty portal things and he realized he was now stuck, at the very least, a country or two away and was no help to anyone and he could damn well guarantee this was what Tony planned.

Hope wasn’t good at subtly when it came to trying to keep him safe, but Tony was a master at it. How that ended up being the case he had no idea- on any given day Hope was the one who knew how to be subtle while Tony was as subtle as a sting ray on a coffee table but here he was, locked in some other random location with no way of helping Tony or Hope.

He was going to chew them out good when Wong and Stephen came and got them back.