"My expert opinion? This requires a bit more than a First Aid kit," Scott admitted.

They'd made it to the hospital at this point, to find, like everywhere else, that it seemed to be deserted. This was getting slightly suspicious now, especially seeing as the lights were on and the doors unlocked, and not to mention the "Open 24 Hours" sign on the front door, but the main concern at the moment was to help Stephen. Loki had set him down on the floor and Wanda and Scott had raided the storage cupboard for bandages.

"This will have to do for now, Strange," Loki apologised.

"Thanks guys," Strange said again, staring up at the lights above him miserably. He held his hands up in front of his face, which were shaking like they had done before he used magic to use them constantly. He felt nothing, no magic at all coming to his fingers as he tried to cast a simple spell. Never had he felt so useless. "But I still feel absolutely-"

"I found the kettle everyone," Wanda interrupted, coming into the reception briefly, back from her tour of the hospital. "Anyone want tea or coffee?"

"I think Stephen will have something a lot stronger, Wanda," Scott said lightly, bringing a small smile to Strange's lips. "I'll have some tea please."

"Me too, thanks," Strange requested, still attempting to bring some magic to his hands to no avail. This is all a dream, he thought. I'll wake up and this will all have been a dream. He knew this was a ridiculous thought; the pain was all too real.

Even his cape was concerned about him, hovering around Loki and Scott as they bandaged him up. Neither of them had much experience with dealing with wounds, but at least they could bandage him up while he healed – after all, it wasn't a deep cut. It turned out Scott's greatness with First Aid kits extended to helping his daughter put a plaster on, so he wasn't particularly useful in this situation. Wanda had absolutely no idea at all, and Loki was more accustomed to Asgardian healing techniques, none of which that would be very useful on Earth. Of course the doctor would be the one that was injured.

Now the pain wasn't as sharp, his main thought was the numb shock that his magic had been stolen so quickly and now he was going to face life without it... unless there was a way to get it back. He felt like some essential part of him had been removed and he'd been told to simply live without it.

"There we go, Strange, good as new," Loki said, as he and Scott finished with their slightly awful bandaging.

Giving up with making magic, Stephen struggled up into a sitting position against the reception counter with a bit of help from Loki. "Thanks. And sorry. You, sir, are the strongest Asgardian ever."

Loki gave him a small, sad looking smile. "I never thought I'd say this, but I wasn't that impressive."

"You were though," Scott pointed out. "Since when did you have the strength to effortlessly carry a 10 stone Sorcerer Supreme with one arm and send someone flying across the room with a single punch with the other? All the while sprinting through a collapsing building in Las Vegas?"

"I'll be completely honest with you Scott," Loki started, hand on his heart, "that was the first time I've ever done that."

Wanda came back in with the tea round, three mugs floating in the air as she used her magic to make sure they didn't spill. She passed one to Scott, then Strange took his tea, attempting to keep his hands as steady as he could to prevent it spilling over the edges. Wanda joined them on the floor, holding her coffee in front of her face like she was inhaling the steam still coming off it.

It was only then did Strange notice they were all bleeding and felt a stab of guilt. They'd been so busy making sure he wasn't dying to spare a second thought for themselves.

"You alright?" Wanda asked him, when she saw him looking at them.

"You're all bleeding," he pointed out.

"You were bleeding more," Loki countered, conjuring himself a drink.

"Yeah, but you can spare yourselves a thought you know," Strange answered.

"Yeah, well, we're not going to die from a little cut, are we?" Scott joked, ruffling Stephen's hair reassuringly.

"Don't worry about us, Stephen," Wanda told him, before he could answer back. "We can handle it. I'm more worried about you at the moment. What happened to your hands?"

Stephen put his tea down on the floor. It didn't taste like the tea he always made – it was cheap hospital tea, something he definitely hadn't missed during his sorcery career. "It's an old injury I haven't had to deal with for years. There's no physical cure for it; I've been using magic all these years to have the use of them. But now..."

They sat in silence for a little while as they waited for Strange to carry on. When it seemed like he wouldn't, Loki decided to diffuse the tension slightly.

"If it eases your mind, I didn't stab anyone," he said.

"It doesn't really, but thanks anyway," Strange smiled weakly. "So much for: cause a distraction, threaten answers out of him, right?"

"Don't go blaming yourself, Strange. None of us could have predicted that was going to happen," Loki assured him, taking a sip of his coffee. "But now you can't do any magic at all?"

Stephen shook his head, miserably. "Not even the simplest of spells."

Loki and Wanda exchanged a glance. Stephen didn't need telepathy to know what they were thinking: they couldn't imagine life without their magic.

Then Scott chose to voice the question they'd all been thinking. "So... what now?"

"I honestly don't know anymore, Scott," Strange replied. "I'm going to be brutally honest: we don't even know if Mordo's alive anymore. We kinda dropped a building on them all."

"That's if Loki's punch didn't kill him," Scott added. "You got to admit, that was kinda sick."

"I'm flattered, really. You hang around with Captain America, my brother and the Hulk and you admire my strength. I mean, I know I'm amazing and everything, but there's no need to rub it in, Scott."

That raised a laugh out of the three of them.

"I'm sorry about nearly crushing you all under a collapsing building," Scott apologised afterwards, sipping some of his tea thoughtfully. "I shouldn't have used one of the temperamental disks."

"We've all been there Scott," Wanda said. "Accidentally collapsing buildings is incredibly common in a superhero's agenda."

"Hey, I think my sarcastic humour is rubbing off on you," Loki joked.

"Yes, you really are a terrible influence," Wanda agreed. She took a sip of her hospital coffee and seemed to regret it immediately. "On a more serious note though, Scott, don't worry about it. Had you not made that plan we might not be talking about it right now."

"That's true."

Strange couldn't help himself thinking (though the possibility of it was unlikely) how strange it would look if someone were to walk into the hospital now and see 4 adults sitting on the floor of the reception with tea and coffee, all bleeding and wearing very unusual outfits. Oh and don't forget the cape floating around all by itself.

"So, then. What's the plan now?" asked Wanda, voicing the question none of them knew how to answer.

"I really do not know anymore, if I'm honest Wanda. All my plans just go bust," Stephen said miserably. "I doubt they could've escaped though, so that's an advantage we have. Unless one of them had a sling ring."

"Mordo had one and so did three of the others," Loki said immediately. "Also, you left your spare one there by accident when Mordo took your magic, so there's a chance they have that one too."

Strange stared at him in disbelief. "How the-"

"Well what do you expect, I'm going to just not keep track of our enemies' entire inventory?" Loki asked, and he seemed genuinely serious. "If you don't, how are you going to create a strategy against them?"

"But... you said why not just wing it," Stephen said, confused.

"As in, make a plan as you go along," Loki clarified like it was completely obvious. "Is this why people get surprised when I stab them? Because they don't keep a track of every single weapon their opponent has?"

"You know, that's really smart," Scott admitted, frankly.

"Thank you," Loki thanked him. He finished his coffee like he was thinking. Eventually, he said, "My point being, I'd be surprised if they were still there. We might've surprised them but I doubt we delayed them so much as scrapped their original plan. But, unlike us, they probably have a Plan C."

"Maybe they knew we were coming," added Wanda, stirring her coffee with her finger absent-mindedly. "You saw their map. They must know how to do the same spell Loki did to track people from other dimensions."

Stephen was suddenly hit with a brainwave and nearly jumped into a standing position, despite his current limited mobility. His sudden movement made the other three, and even his cloak, stare in concern. "Oh, sorry, but I just had an absolute brainwave. I can't do the spell, but..." He had hoped to imply the rest of the sentence with the silence afterwards, but at the blank looks they gave him, had to say it himself, "...maybe Loki can."

Even Loki looked impressed with Strange's brainwave. "I could, couldn't I? Good idea, Strange."

"Wait," Scott interrupted, looking out of the window at the streets outside. It was set on a steep hill, of which they'd walked up to get here, and they had a fabulous view (or it would be if it wasn't so plain) of the desert. "What time is it? The sun's setting. Didn't we get to New York at like, 12 o'clock?"

"Wait, that's impossible, Las Vegas is 3 hours behind New York," Strange said, also looking out the window. He turned his attention to the reception clock. Hang on – it read 9 o'clock. At night. "This dimension has a weird time schedule."

"You can say that again," Wanda agreed, still staring out the window in confusion. "Maybe Mordo used the time stone to affect it?"

"Seems like a waste of magic if you ask me," Loki pointed out. "What would be the point of stealing an Infinity Stone only to use it to change the time zones?"

"She might have a point though Loki," Stephen pointed out. "If Mordo doesn't know how to use the time stone yet, he might have tried to practise using it and accidentally changed the time zone."

Scott half-raised his hand in a feeble yet successful attempt to get their attention. "Um, I actually mentioned it because, if it's night time, I think people will get suspicious if we're hanging out in the hospital in the dark and maybe we should go somewhere else now Stephen is a bit more mobile."

"Such as...?" enquired Wanda, with a hand-twirling gesture. "I'd rather not stay either but it's not as though we can just book a hotel room is it? Besides, it's technically only-" she checked her watch "-3 o'clock in our time."

"I don't mean to sleep," Scott said. "I just mean to talk and plan, like we're doing now. And for Loki to try that map spell. And for the "such as"... I may or may not have bought something along with us we could use."

Strange didn't like the guilty look on Scott's face as he said that. "What did you do?" he asked, maybe a little too aggressively.

"Um, I can't really show you in here," Scott said, scratching his head awkwardly. "Can we go outside?"

"Well, anywhere's better than in here," Stephen guessed, watching Scott finish his hospital tea and get up to leave the cup on the reception desk. "Did you seriously just drink the disgusting hospital tea?"

Scott put on a look of mock offence. "Stephen, this tea is delectable! Not disgusting!"

"You have a seriously weird taste," Wanda pointed out, also getting to her feet. Loki got up too, before offering Strange a hand. Stephen took it and Loki pulled him to his feet, making him feel immediately dizzy. He clung to the reception desk for support, but at least he could mostly stand on his own now.

"You want us to find some crutches or something?" Wanda asked sincerely, noting how he was struggling just to stay upright.

"No thanks, Wanda, I'm fine," Stephen said, feeling anything but fine. Trying to stand unsupported and surprising himself with the near success, he said, "OK then, Scott, where is this place you are to take us to?"

"Er... it's not a place as such," Scott confessed, still looking a little guilty, though none of them were really sure why. "But it'll do for now."

Scott started to walk out the door, and Wanda followed. Loki deliberately started to follow very slowly, and turned back to Stephen, who was scowling at him. "You coming, Strange?" he asked with a smirk.

"I hate you," Stephen answered, while Loki came over to help him walk. Maybe he should've accepted Wanda's offer about the crutches. Then again, he probably wouldn't be able to hold himself up with them, with his hands being the way they were.

They joined Wanda and Scott outside, who were both waiting for them. Scott was fumbling with his pocket for something.

Loki looked around them as there seemed to be no movement happening. "OK, so the marvellous Scott Lang has taken us to his secret place where we can scheme without being suspicious. Great place. Love the décor."

"Haha Loki," Scott said, rolling his eyes subtly. "Amazingly, this isn't the place. And please, turn down the sarcasm dial."

Loki put his free hand up in surrender. "OK, OK. But I can't turn the sarcasm dial down any further; it's already on the lowest setting. Trust me, you'd know if I was being truly sarcastic."

They watched Scott dig around in his pockets for about half a minute before he pulled something out with a triumphant, "Aha!"

Wanda blinked, staring at the object in his hand. "Is that... what I think it is?"

"It very likely is," Scott answered. He set whatever it was (Stephen couldn't see properly in the rapidly receding light) on the tarmac in front of them and warned them to stand back. He pressed a button on the remote that had come with it, and suddenly, the thing he'd taken out his pocket expanded into...

"You have a shrinking van?" asked Strange in confusion, looking at the van that had popped out of nowhere in front of them. Then he remembered shrinking was kind of Ant-Man's thing.

"It's not mine, it's Hank Pym's," Scott told them, opening the door and climbing into the driver's seat. "Don't tell him I borrowed it."

Wanda turned to Strange and Loki. "Who's Hank?" she asked.

"No idea," Loki andStephen both said in unison.