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Max saw the pain in Wong’s eyes and instantly knew what he was about to do. He wanted to stop him, to scream and hope for a better way, but he couldn't. He didn't. The scene flickered before his eyes, the babes suddenly appearing like Dorian to him before they settled back into their true selves. He wanted to believe that his inaction was due to being fused with Jack, or perhaps due to his unusually old age. He didn't dare face the facts that he simply couldn't act as fear and shock froze him in place. 

[color=6644ff]”I should skin him alive for that…”[/color] Jack said to himself, feeling frail in his magically ancient age.

[Color=aba400]”Don't. Wong is just doing what was necessary. As cold as it may seem, with Strange gone, it is the job of the Sorcerer Supreme to protect Earth against magical and mystical threats. Without one, it fell to Wong to do what we couldn't…”[/color] It hurt Max to say it, but Strange had drilled it into his head so many times. This was their duty, their oath, to defend Earth in these times of crisis where all other options failed them. They didn't have a Time Stone to revert it back to before they invaded, and the Soul of the Supreme was divided both physically and morally. The others didn't care to stand together. 

[color=6644ff]”Strange would have had the power to simply teleport Witchfire’s victims away from the moment he put his mind to it,”[/color] Jack wasn’t happy about the way this was going, and it was obvious through the way he spoke. [color=6644ff]”This is not good enough, we are losing what little ground we currently have.”[/color] A god had come down to take its toll on the mortal world, and they were staring it in the face… And it was trying to grab them.

The hand began to close in around them, Carolinas's voice barely cutting through the massive winds that muffled sound as it encroached on Jax. [i][color=aba400]”A banishing spell? First we need to get out of its grasp.”[/color][/i] Max was about to attempt to use his secondary mutation, a skill he'd only used reactively until not too long ago. As he began, waves of information flooded his mind and the power fizzled out within the palm of the hand of god. Time was of the essence and Jax used the new knowledge and abilities to navigate the mutation better. Cold air filled the space where they once stood, as a blackhole engulfed them and reappeared down on the streets of New York. [Color=aba400]”I have an idea on a banishment spell, but I've yet to get it right…though perhaps with our knowledge combined we could do it.”[/color]

[color=6644ff]”The only banishments I use involve sending someone through a portal.”[/color] This was bad. They could cut the portal off, but then that [i]thing[/i] might grab them. Or they could banish it, but then the Veil would be gone for good.

[color=6644ff]”Keep talking.”[/color]

[Color=aba400]”Strange has used it on several occasions. It's meant to banish the target back from where they came, though how helpful any banishment is as the Veils are thinning is beyond me. But I figured with our magical prowess combined we could use The Whirling Winds of Watoomb to banish the hand back just long enough to deal with the current threats around us. Though Watoombs Magic is powerful…calling upon such arts has proved…difficult for me.”[/color]

[color=6644ff]”My magic is drastically different from Strange’s. I have heard [i]of[/i] that spell, but I’ve never learned or used it.”[/color]

[Color=aba400]”By all technicalities my magic is vastly different from both of yours. We are fused as one via mutant magic, it isn't something Strange could do to my knowledge. But we've gotten this far thanks to you and your vast wisdom, and I've never been one to back down just because it had never been done or the odds were slim. I've felled immortals and I won't let myself be beaten by a gassy puff of air that deems itself godly in nature.”[/color]

Appealing to his ego? Clever.

[color=6644ff]”Well, if you believe that there is a chance, then so be it. What other choice do we have? Shall we”[/color]

Jax moved in unison, following the movements Max had seen Strange use several times (as well as from the scriptures that he may have borrowed from the archives for some light reading). There was hope, with two sorcerers combined, both their knowledge and skills as well as two tenths of the soul of the supreme, they had a chance to actually do this. The Pentagram was already flickering, they only had to hope that it would go out on its own while Jax dealt with the partial god before them. They called upon The Whirling Winds of Watoomb, asking them to banish the hand from whence it came. Winds rushed past them as their arms swept out, making contact with the thing but nothing happened. 

[Color=aba400]”By the Hoary Host of Hoggoth! That didn't go as planned. I was really hoping that even having two fragments of Stephen's Soul would allow us to accomplish it.”[/color]

It did nothing.

[color=6644ff]”We are not Strange. Perhaps our mistake was thinking like him. We may have pieces of his soul, but we are still different sorcerers, with different methods…”[/color]

Jack had an idea.

[color=6644ff]”Stephen was a traditionalist. You bend reality, and I bend the forces of a plane that is all but removed from most of the universe… If we truly were chosen as successors, it was not to be like the previous Sorcerer Supreme. No, we must do this our way.”[/color]