InsaneJournal

Who: Pepper Potts, Stephen Strange
What: attack of the inter-dimensional Mind Leeches.
When: backdated, after Pepper and Tony bicker-made-up. Maybe.
Rating: Green

It was an oddity when someone disappeared and came back, without their memories entact. It was more of an oddity when they forgot about the timeline and left out of their own accord, and then came back again. Because Strange sensed that Pepper knew something now, but it was still off somehow.

The same as he sensed it was off with Steve Rogers and Thor, although their disappearance had been abrupt and unexpected. Without warning. Gratefully, the universe - or whatever mechanizations were in it - didn't do that to Pepper Potts. Stephen could only imagine the sort of high intensity drama would have ensued if the CEO of Stark Industries went missing. And the former CEO went bezerk because of it.

The doctor was seated in the guest chair, in front of Pepper's desk when she entered. He remained seated, since the Cloak of Levitation was getting even cheekier lately. He did turn enough to look over his shoulder.

"Miss Potts. I'm sorry this meeting was unscheduled," Stephen apologized. "I'm a friend of Mister Stark's. I wanted to talk to you about recent events."

Friend was a loose term, but since they were fighting on the same side, it was better to recognize that allegiance to try to distance himself from Stark's...incredibly blunt approaches to everything.

In the time it had taken to get from the elevator with Tony to her office Pepper had regained her calm. God, she had a date to cancel in lieu of a date with her ex. How did she get into this situation? Oh, right. She decided to check in on Tony. That was her first and biggest mistake. She knew he could get in under her carefully placed emotional shields, and that was exactly what had happened. Damn it.

Of course when she reached her office apparently the weirdness of her day wasn’t over. Someone was waiting for her. Someone she had never met before, but claimed to be a friend of Tony’s. Pepper put on her business polite smile as she approached the man in the...cloak?

“I’m sorry if I kept you waiting,” she said as she came to stand next to her desk. “What can I help you with, Mister…” Pepper waited for him to give his name.

"I'm Doctor Stephen Strange. Neurosurgeon. Now I'm a master of the mystic arts. Otherwise known as a...magician."

If she wanted to take that as the garden variety kid's party magician, he was willing to let her think that. But since she was close to Stark, it was probably a safe bet that he'd be lumped into the superhero crowd. Either way, Stephen didn't appear too bothered by weirdness or tense situations. In fact, there was an almost zenlike calm to his demeanor, even if his every word seemed weighed out before it was ever spoken. He was looking at Pepper with concern. There was something very off, right now. Like a miasma that didn't belong there, that hadn't been clinging onto the woman's aura, before.

"I don't want to take up too much of your time. I realize you have a company to run. Do you have a moment to speak with me about what might seem like...very peculiar circumstances. Have you felt odd, lately? Forgetful? Compelled to return here, out of your own volition? Or did circumstances suddenly present themselves that brought you back to this particular place?"

He was hoping that if he threw out enough ideas, that there might be some spark of recognition from Pepper that something wasn't normal anymore. For someone to forget about the time disruption entirely was an anomaly he hadn't come across quite yet.

“Magician,” Pepper said, and no she didn’t take that as the entertainment type of magician at all. Not if he knew Tony. Pepper felt she needed to sit down for this conversation. Not that she found this Dr. Strange an uncomfortable person to be around. On the contrary. Her instincts said she should trust him. And, unlike Tony’s other friends, he was calm.

Pepper slowly and deliberately sat in her very comfortable office chair, but her smile never wavered. “I get the impression that the company will have to take a back seat for the moment, Dr. Strange.” Odd name.

She listened to his questions and began to feel like she needed a drink. This was getting stranger and stranger...no pun intended. “I’m sorry,” she said with a small shake of her head. “But I haven’t experienced any of that, and this is a business trip.”

"I see, and yes, that might need to wait a moment," Stephen admitted, looking troubled. It was only a crinkling of his brow, as he was otherwise very still and contemplative. "Miss Potts, do you remember any previous events, pertaining to 'the network' or how the event known as 'Sharknado' came into being?"

He was watching her closely, hopeful that either of those two things might jog her memory. That the universe had marked her was without a doubt. The lingering traces of the magical net he threw out over the city for those affected was still clinging around her. If she didn't remember those things, then there was going to be a serious problem that he might have to investigate. Immediately.

The network? What was he talking about? Pepper didn’t think this conversation was one that required her to conspicuous with her thoughts. Her confusion was plain to see on her face...as was her growing fear.

“Sharknado?” Pepper tilted her head. “Wasn’t that a bad made for tv movie?” No she didn’t remember anything beyond that.

Strange stared at Pepper in shocked silence, somehow managing to keep a straight face so nerves didn't become further frayed and fears didn't grow. Yet he was watching her with such intensity that the room itself seemed to come into sharp focus, everything clean lines and neat, nothing out of order. It was as though the office was an extension of the woman in it, and everything seemed in its place on the surface. But only on the surface.

There was the nagging sensation that she was there, but just slightly off center. As well as a creeping feeling that there was something unseen that nudged her that way.

"Uhh, yeah. Someone wouldn't shut up about it. One guess who," Stephen said, solemnly, before he straightened in the chair a little bit, and shifted around to settle in. "I'd like to look into what's happened here, and it won't require me moving or you doing anything on your part. If that's alright with you."

If he thought this office was part of her he should get a look at her office in L.A. That was where she’d started, where she’d become Tony’s assistant then CEO of Stark Industries. That was where her roots were, her core. This office was a pale reflection of that.

Pepper got the impression that it hadn’t been a television movie, or there was something she was missing. Her brows came down as she tilted her head a bit. “Wait. What happened where and why would you feel the need to look?”

The doctor folded his hands together and sighed, because there really was no easy way to break this sort of news.

"I believe your memories have been tampered with," he patiently explained, choosing his words as carefully as possible. "Not by anything in this dimension. Thor and Captain Rogers have both been affected by it. The breaks in the timeline drew them in, and brought them back. Some of their memories were not entact. You, however, were here, but don't remember anything that occurred because of the timeline being compromised. So I'd like to look past our reality, around you. If that's okay. I want to see where that connection became...disjointed."

It was almost as though he was giving a diagnosis, albeit one where the patient was going to live, and could expect a healthy life despite whatever malady they were currently experiencing.

Oddly, or perhaps not so, Pepper didn’t seem doubtful or surprised by what Dr. Strange was suggesting. If anything, she seemed a bit disgruntled, as if she were thinking something along the lines of who let the interdimensional cat out again. What did surprise her was hearing that Steve and Thor were affected. That worried her.

“Are they all right?” she asked first. She had met them through Tony and liked both of the Avengers. Steve was very polite and nice while Thor...let’s face it, Thor was humongous flirt which was good for anyone’s ego. “I mean, I haven’t spoken to either of them in a while, but they’re still my friends.”

"They're managing to deal with the after-effects. But it has required some rebuilding, and might be uncomfortable for those that knew them. Before it happened. There's no changes to their personalities or histories, otherwise."

They were both good people, in Stephen's opinion. Honorable, brave, selfless. With a definite connection to events happening in the timeline...and so Pepper Potts must, therefore, be intrinsically connected as well.

To reassure Pepper, he made sure to add, "Whatever you've experienced in the past? It still happened. Recent events, however, are more troubling. I think, though, if I can look into this, we might get a better insight into what's happened. I won't do that without your permission. And no, it won't hurt, but you might get a cold chill."

Reassured that her friends were fine, Pepper sat back in her chair as she waved a hand. “Yes, of course. Certainly. Whatever you have to do.” Because she didn’t want to be part of some plot or trouble. That had happened far too many times to her already.

Stephen nodded and closed his eyes, letting his astral form fly out of his body in an instant. It became old habit to traverse that way, and there didn't seem to be anything unsettling to him about hovering or flying around, lighter than air. Before he even landed by Pepper's side he saw the problem, a movement at the nape of her neck. Sensing it was seen, what looked like a black wisp of smoke curled up and shot away from Pepper, likely leaving that cold chill he mentioned. It darted around, trying to escape through the office windows.

Flying into the air, Stephen grabbed hold of it in one hand. It let out an unearthly shriek and tried to latch onto his hand. He quickly used his other hand to form a cage of sigils around it, shrinking them down until, with one last squeak, the creature was obliterated.

"Great," Dr. Strange said, looking unenthused. There was no greater infestation than dimensional hopping Mind Leeches. Whatever Pepper Potts had lost was gone for good and for whatever reason, that one got greedy and refused to detach from her, as it had with Thor and Steve Rogers. Which lead him to believe she was of some importance indeed. Perhaps because of her proximity to Stark, which anything with half a brain cell would probably not want to attach to. That sort of frantic energy would cause it to explode, if not be repellent to the parasitic leeches that liked stable prey...like the mountain of stability that Pepper Potts provided to Tony Stark.

As he went back to his body, he wondered if those leeches were unleashed on purpose. That certainly begged to be looked into, because he wasn't the only one who could travel into different dimensions. As he shuffled back into his mortal coil, Stephen let out a solemn sigh and gave his diagnosis.

"Mind Leeches," he stated without preamble. "Interdimensional parasites. They feed off memories, thoughts, and sometimes magic, if someone's so inclined. You aren't. Sorry? But one formed an attachment to you, but that one's gone now. You're free of it, but the damage there is already done."

Dr. Strange seemed to just stare at her for long moments. It gets really uncomfortable being stared at in silence like this. Pepper wasn’t usually one to fidget under scrutiny, but this was weird. Weirder than usual, that is. Nothing seemed to be happening either until that chill he’d warned her about made the small hairs on the back of her neck stand up until she shuddered a little involuntarily.

She jolted in place and let out a little yelp when Strange just suddenly spoke up. Her hand went to her chest as she sucked in a breath then gave him an aghast look. “Mind what?! I had…what?!” She couldn’t help but swipe at her hair as if they were still there. Geez, the thought gave her the heebie jeebies!

And Tony was going to have a fit. Wonderful.

Tony would have a fit. Oh yes, he would.

"You're all right now. They're definitely gone. Sorry if that caused you any discomfort," Strange said, as though he listened to hear her heartbeat with a cold stethoscope. It didn't even register to him that the way he went back into his body might be a bit...jarring. "I put an infinite shrink spell on it. It's a shame we can't get those memories back, but once a leech has fed off them, they're turned into quantum foam. Which is what they...uhh...they poop out. Afterward."

There was just no nice way to put that. Really.

Pepper just stared at the doctor in astonishment. She gave a slow blink once then a second time before her brows came down into a small frown. “There are certain details about things that I do not need to know.”

She let out a heavy sigh as she rubbed her fingers at her forehead. Seriously. Why must Tony’s friends give her headaches? “Is there anything you know that I lost for certain that I definitely should know?”

There was a lot that Pepper Potts probably needed to know, but Stephen didn't think that he was the one who should be telling her. He didn't want to come across as having a bias against Stark's behavior, well meaning or not. So the good doctor simply shrugged and tried to explain by giving her the same spiel that he'd given before to other 'new' arrivals.

"...well," Stephen said, thoughtfully, "that cold chill was your body's recognition that this timeline has been irrevocably broken. The leech was preventing you from that realization. This universe is not stable, and that means all sorts of threats are imminent. It also means that you, for whatever unknown reason, have a part to play in these events. I only wish I knew what it was."

“Me?!” That took Pepper by surprise. Not the instability of the universe. With the people she knew that was almost to be expected, but not so much that she was important in some way, that she could help.

Then something occurred to her. “O-oh no,” she said in mild warning and held up a hand. If it was what she was thinking then the universe was screwed. “There is still such a thing as free will, and I won’t be forced into...anything.”

"It's not like that," Strange reassured her while standing up. He opened up a portal with the sling ring, reaching into it and pulling out one of the 'welcome' packages. It was placed on her desk as the portal closed in on itself. "Think of it as the timeline is trying to stabilize and it's recognizing people who are of some importance, so that happens. You still have free choice. And so does Stark, since he has known about this for...a few months now. This is his doing."

He eyed the gift pack and then looked at Pepper again.

"I need to rid of us of the infestation as soon as possible," he said, ready to get going. "I know this is a lot to process. But if there's a tear between dimensions, I need to try to track it down and start purging them, before things get worse."

Pepper didn’t look entirely reassured as she leaned back against her office chair. Her eyes went to the package, but she didn’t touch it yet. That would come in time, after she’d processed this a little bit more.

“Wait,” she said with her brows knitting down. “Tony did this? All of this is his fault?” Of course it was. “And don’t get me wrong. Of course I’ll help.” She just wasn’t sure how she could help.

"No. This is my fault," Stephen replied, without a moment's hesitation. "He tried to help when I first went to him, after he experienced it for himself. He thought what he felt was anxiety or a heart attack. It wasn't."

The doctor motioned toward the package.

"This was his doing. He put everything else together and provided room and board for whoever was displaced. Whether he liked them, or not." Dr. Strange let out a sigh and shook his head. "I think you knowing about this now will help. Stark can sometimes be....erratic."

That was putting it nicely.

Pepper looked at the package and a slight, but sweet smile pulled at her lips. “Ah,” she said. That also made sense. Tony liked being the philanthropist. That had been one of the qualities that had drawn her to him.

“Well, I won’t really need this,” she said with a smile. “I have a place to stay and more money than I need. Save this for someone else.”

"The laptop and phone are network connected, so you will need them. I removed the money and hotel keycard before I came here. I gathered you have a place to stay."

Stephen smiled with more ease now. For as much trouble as Stark sometimes generated, he was resourceful and didn't hesitate to help. Even people that didn't like him.

"I'll be leaving now. If I can track down where the infestation entered, then it might save one of us from forgetting everything."

He turned while putting on his sling ring, moving his hand in a circular motion until a circle of embers formed and grew large enough for him to walk through. The inner part of the portal revealed a dark and somewhat ominous home that resembled a museum.

"Good day, Ms. Potts," Stephen said, with a nod. "If you have any time or magic related questions, or if you need help, don't hesitate to ask."

With that, the cloak floated him through the portal, one corner of it twirling around in a toodle-loo motion as the sorcerer departed.