Dr Steven Strange was standing inside the newly-rebuilt London Sanctum, supervising the movement of relics. His cloak was acting up and kept dragging him after a relic it found interesting, it was difficult to look regal when he was being manhandled by a scrap of cloth. He got a whack in the face for that thought.

"Love you really," he muttered.

As the last of the relics was replaced he sighed and got out his sling ring to go back to New York. But call it what you will, fate, destiny, his cloak forcefully tugging him out the door, Strange ended up walking through London in his full gear. Luckily London is used to odd jobs, and the Brits that are out during the day are far too busy getting to their next meeting to comment.

The cloak was subtly directing him away from the centre into the shadier parts of London. Strange didn't even notice until they reached a dark alleyway.

"What are we doing here?" he asked the empty air.

Suddenly there was a gunshot, and a bright fiery flare. Strange crept down the alley, he was completely silent until someone collided with him.

"Oof," he exclaimed, as he pinned the person to the ground. It was a girl dressed in dark clothing.

She looked at him defiantly and disappeared in a shift of shadow. Strange fell rather unceremoniously onto the floor. He scrambled back onto his feet and looked for the girl. Strange strode down the alleyway once more, there was a scream and a thud.

Strange strained his eyes and saw a tall, thin man crouching over a muscular one, handcuffing him, girl by his side. She looked behind her and saw him. She whispered something in his ear and he tapped his collar bones. The girl took over with the muscular man, and the tall one approached him. The tall man was exceedingly pale, with sombre dark eyes, slender mouth and bushy eyebrows.

"Who...?" Strange began.

"I'm Detective Inspector Me, my family was a rather odd bunch. And you have just witnessed an arrest, but nothing to worry about it's all sorted,"

Strange sensed magic on him and the girl. He put on his 'Sorcerer Supreme, face and tried a different approach.

"What sort of sorcerers are you?" he asked, both of the strangers froze. "No one has ever used magic like I saw her do."

The girl smiled suddenly. "Malevolent," she said.

"What?" Strange was baffled, was that supposed to mean something to him?

The two mysteries turned to each other and started to talk, the very civilised conversation quickly turned into an argument.

"You let me fall off a building!" the girl suddenly shouted, and then blushed. They went back to whispering.

Steven was fed up of the cryptic maybe-sorcerers, so he used his sling ring and teleported in front of them. They both stepped back when he appeared and the man pointed a gun at him.

"Who are you?" the girl asked.

"I am Doctor Steven Strange, Sorcerer Supreme," from his bold statement Strange was expecting apologies and just a little bit of reverence, but they laughed. Outright laughed at him.

Between breathless giggles the girl said "You wish! God, you're worse than Sanguine, at least he stuck to killer!"

Behind him the muscular man started to stir and soon the seven-foot pillar of a man stood up.

"You cannot vanquish Venom Memento! I will burn you all!"

"Oh, shut up," the man said and flicked his wrist, as he did the man flew into the wall and crumpled, unconscious.

Strange could have sworn he saw bone gleam in the gap between the jacket and glove. He turned back to the pair, the man's gun still on him. The doctor created a portal around the gun, and it disappeared. Strange savoured a moment of pride, before a punch caught him square in the jaw. He fell to the alley floor.

In his blind dizziness, he felt cool metal latch around his wrist, everything was out of focus and what wasn't was blurry.

Mild concussion, the doctor part of him thought.

Hands pulled him to his feet, they were unnaturally bony, so it must be the man. Strange used his martial art training and medical knowledge to his advantage, and slammed an elbow into a pressure point on the shoulder. The man's hand snapped away, and Strange dislodged the other by spinning. Instead of the expected sight of the man howling in pain, he saw a skeleton.

An actual skeleton.

And it was walking.

And it was talking.

He could not process the rushing thoughts in his mind, as the girl had abandoned the other (unconscious) prisoner and was swinging at him. His cloak snapped around her wrist, and tugged her forward. Strange grabbed her other arm and pushed her against the wall.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I'm sneaky," she said, grimacing as he pushed her arm around further. The cloak, satisfied Strange had the situation under control, flitted back around his shoulders and settled into gravity again. When the cloak had ceased all movement, Strange felt a pin-prick in his leg.

Syringe.

"Just a sedative, nothing that'll do you any lasting damage, but I wouldn't want to be you when you wake up," the girl smirked.

The cloak went for her, but she clicked her fingers and a flame appeared. "Come any closer I'll set you on fire, you oversized dish cloth."

The cloak took her warning and decided to mother Strange instead. As the world began to darken around the edges, Steven heard two voices.

"Did you swipe that from Kenspeckle?" asked a velvety voice- the man, no skeleton.

"Yeah,"

"He's going to kill you,"

"He's going to kill you for letting me in his labs unsupervised,"

"Damn," said the skeleton.

Stranger's last thought before he fell unconscious was how can he talk without a tongue?

"A lot apparently," came a sarcastic response from above, "and yes you did say that aloud."