[center][img]https://preview.redd.it/omniverse-fanart-by-ethanpierceart-insta-v0-hc0vd4rnmz1b1.jpg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=1e17e51b9653de9bbc5d60d1d2ff751acd582d1c[/img] [sub]In collaboration with [@Ezekiel][/sub] [/center] [b]|| Strange Academy, New Orleans[/b] The Cloak of Levitation swept dust from the floorboards as Doctor Strange drifted a few inches above the stone tiles of the Grand Foyer. Ben followed behind him, sneakers thudding loudly in a place that felt like it should not echo at all. The whole building hummed with a kind of quiet pressure he couldn’t name. Magic, he guessed. It made the Omnitrix feel heavier on his wrist, like the device was reacting to the place or the place was reacting to it. Either way, it set his nerves on edge. Strange didn’t look back when he spoke. [color=lightcoral]“You’ll find the geography of the Academy is flexible.”[/color] He gestured toward a staircase that was currently rearranging itself into a spiral. [color=lightcoral]“I suggest you memorize the feeling of the hallways rather than the layout. The bricks have a habit of wandering when they get bored.”[/color] Gwen walked a little ahead of him, taking everything in with wide eyes. Ben had never really believed Gwen’s whole magic thing at first. Even after Hex. Even after Charmcaster. Science made more sense. Aliens made more sense. Magic felt like someone had forgotten to explain the rules. But the more he watched her with that book she carried everywhere, the more he saw the way the pages reacted to her touch, the more he started to think there was something real there. She was clearly talented. She fit here in a way Ben didn’t. The air around her practically buzzed with excitement. Strange seemed to notice it too. Ben could tell by the way the man’s attention lingered on her, like he was already imagining her in one of those long robes the students wore. Ben tried not to think about that. After the mess in New York with the Questing Beast, Grandpa Max had practically floored the Rustbucket getting them out of the city. Ben suspected it was because he didn’t want another lecture from Agent Brand. Whatever the reason, Ben didn’t complain. He liked the quiet the road gave him. It was easier to breathe when the world wasn’t collapsing around him. With Gwen’s early admission prospects becoming real, Grandpa had apparently reached out to an old Plumber contact who arranged a tour of Strange Academy. Ben still wasn’t sure how he felt about that. The place was impressive, sure, but it wasn’t for him. It was for Gwen. She belonged in a school like this. She deserved it. The thought of her leaving though caused a tightness in his chest. He’d just gotten her back. He couldn’t lose his best friend again. He just hoped he could make it through the rest of the tour without saying something. The foyer opened into a wide chamber lined with floating lanterns and shifting murals that moved when Ben wasn’t looking directly at them. Strange slowed, and Ben thought they were about to head deeper into the building when someone stepped out from a side corridor. A young woman stepped forward, dark hair loose over her shoulders. She looked a few years older than them and was pretty in a way that made Ben straighten up without meaning to. She greeted them with a warm, easy smile that immediately softened the strange, shifting foyer around them. Strange gestured toward her. [color=lightcoral]“This is Zatanna. One of our more capable students. She will continue your tour from here. I am needed elsewhere. A meeting with a demon.”[/color] Ben still couldn’t tell if he was joking. Zatanna’s smile widened just a little. [color=1E90FF]“Welcome to the Academy. The east wing is open right now, so we’ll start there.”[/color] Gwen practically vibrated beside him. [color=7ea7d8]“This place is incredible. The architecture alone is unreal. And the way the hallways shift, and the murals—”[/color] Ben grumbled something that was supposed to be agreement but came out more like a noise. Gwen shot him a look over her shoulder. He gulped. It was clear she had noticed him acting off and it was clear she wasn’t happy about it. Zatanna glanced at him then, catching the awkward half sound he’d made.She was already moving toward the east corridor before the echo of Strange's footsteps had fully faded. She took the stairs at a pace that assumed they'd follow, stepping over the gap between the second and fourth steps without comment. Ben caught it just in time. Gwen didn't need to, she'd already clocked the way Zatanna's foot had moved and adjusted before she reached it. The continuous movement of the structure of the building had left a vacant space that could, quite clearly, be a tripping hazard. The step simply wasn't there when Ben reached it, a gap of ordinary air between the second and the fourth, and she heard the brief scramble of him catching himself on the banister. The east wing corridor ran long and cool, lit by lanterns that burned without flame. Gwen had slowed almost immediately, drawn to the alcoves lining the walls. Each held a shimmering image, a foundational form of magic captured in a combination of sculpture and arcane signature designed to call to those with the gift itself. She turned into a doorway without slowing. The classroom inside was mid-chaos, not dangerous chaos, just the kind of chaos eight students attempting the same thing with eight different ideas about how. One student had a reasonable column of water rotating about a foot off the desk. Another had coaxed a small but genuine flame into something approaching a stable shape. A third was apparently attempting both simultaneously, which had produced a quantity of steam that was making everyone in the back row squint. The instructor, a compact woman with her sleeves rolled to the elbows, had stopped talking and was simply watching one student in the corner with an expression past patience and into something more like professional curiosity. [color=1E90FF]“Hm.”[/color] She watched for another moment, then stepped back into the corridor. [color=1E90FF]“First year elemental cohort,”[/color] she said, to Gwen and Ben. [color=1E90FF]“Four elements in simultaneous balance. It’s a little on the direct side for most magic we do here, but it certainly helps teach the importance of careful practice.”[/color] A brief cry of alarm following a sudden ‘whoosh’ of flame as someone introduced a little too much air to the equation interrupted her train of thought. [color=1E90FF]“Well, it is supposed to.”[/color] Zatanna extracted themselves from the room with measured haste, shutting the door as she did so. [color=1E90FF]“I’ve heard you have some existing experience already, Gwen, what magic has called to you before?”[/color] She asked with a smile as they carried on, each doorway a window into a new foundational class of the building blocks of the arcane arts. Ben watched Gwen’s hand go to her bag before she even answered. That familiar weight settled in his chest as she pulled out the spellbook, the one she guarded like it was a living thing. The cover caught the shifting lantern‑light, the sigils along the spine pulsing faintly as if recognising her touch. She held it with the same ease someone else might hold a favourite novel, but Ben knew better. That book had teeth. That book had history. Gwen smiled at Zatanna, confident in a way that made Ben’s breath hitch. [color=7ea7d8]“I got this years ago,”[/color] she said, brushing her thumb over the edge of the pages. [color=7ea7d8]“Charmcaster dropped it during a fight. I… may have grabbed it before she could get it back.”[/color] Her tone was light, but Ben remembered the moment. The panic. The adrenaline. The way she had clutched it like it was a lifeline. [color=7ea7d8]“It felt like it wanted me to take it. Like it recognised me.”[/color] Ben swallowed. It really had been a lifetime since Hex and Charmcaster. Gwen opened the book, and the pages fluttered on their own, stopping at a section marked by a ribbon that hadn’t been there the last time Ben looked. [color=7ea7d8]“Most of what I know started here. Basic constructs, energy shaping, binding glyphs. The book teaches in layers. It shows you more when you’re ready.”[/color] She glanced at Zatanna with a small, almost shy smile. [color=7ea7d8]“I’ve been practising the core spells for years. And… experimenting a little. Variants. Tweaks. Some things I found online that actually worked.”[/color] She lifted her hand, and a soft sphere of violet energy formed above her palm. Not a shaky spark like when she first started. This was clean. Precise. Controlled. It shifted shape at her will, folding into a shield, then a blade, then a lattice of geometric patterns that hovered in the air like stained glass. Ben felt his jaw loosen. She made it look easy. [color=7ea7d8]“I can do beams, barriers, constructs. Raw energy stuff mostly.”[/color] Gwen let the magic fade, the last motes drifting away like dust caught in sunlight. [color=7ea7d8]“But there’s so much I don’t know. The book only goes so far. And magic is… bigger than I realised.”[/color] Ben watched as the two of then gushed over the book together, pouring over the pages. He watched the way she carried herself now. Steady. Sure. Growing into something powerful and bright. She didn’t need him. Not really. Not anymore. And for the first time, he felt the truth of it settle in his chest. The excitement of Gwen and Zatanna and Ben’s internal crisis of thought were both interrupted by a burst of noise. Akin to the sound of ripping paper and nails along a chalkboard, the tip, and then full form, of a blade seemed to punch through the air itself a few meters away, before gradually tracing an oval pattern in the air. It was not a smooth motion, clearly meeting some resistance, but it was not long before it was completed and what could best be described as a portal fully formed into reality. The smell of ozone flooded out of the baleful shape, as a blonde woman first poked her head through from the other side, before stepping forwards, cursing under her breath. She examined the edges of the portal herself with the air of someone judging her own work harshly, before pulling the blade free of where it seemingly remained ‘stuck’ in mid air. The portal remained as she lent the soulsword over her shoulders. While many might consider her just as captivating as the raven-haired Zatanna, it was clear this was a harsher beauty, her attentions barely flickering across the two younger occupants of the hallway before settling on Zatanna. [color=1E90FF]“Ilyana, you know the wards are going to-”[/color] Zatanna began with a huff before Magik cut her off. [color=F5F0A8]“Theatre’s haunted.”[/color] [color=1E90FF]“What?”[/color] [color=F5F0A8]“Saenger Theatre, ghosts, bad news.”[/color] The Russian woman offered a few further words that didn’t really grant the full picture of the situation, even as she put one leg back through the portal, leaning slightly to the right to dodge what appeared to be a theatre seat travelling at some pace through the air, crashing back through the other side of the portal. [color=F5F0A8]“Come on, before Khalid is accusing me of being lazy.”[/color] [color=1E90FF]“Ah…I’m on a tour, new potential students.”[/color] Zatanna offered, a little meekly, as she gestured towards Gwen and Ben. Ilyana seemed to re-notice the pair, as if she had already forgotten their existence from the prior moment, before she shrugged. [color=F5F0A8]“Bring them, field trip!”[/color] Before she dived back through the portal she had so errantly sliced through the air. Zatanna smiled, a little awkwardly, to the pair, before pointing to the portal. [color=1E90FF]“If she’s being that polite it probably is really important…. If you don’t tell the Doctor this was part of the tour, I’m sure we could use your help.”[/color] A smile crept across Ben’s lips as the newfound crisis snapped him out of his woes. Sounds like it was hero time.