Chương 15: Prison

Author's note: Just letting you all know that I deleted a review and a few comments that attacked me personally or were racist. It hurts to hear criticism, but I also love them because it means they are readers invested in the story and want the story to be better. And they give me inspiration and new ideas. But I won't tolerate blatant hate.

Enjoy the story and keep commenting and stoning me. Just don't spread hate in the comments. I'm way too underpaid to deal with that.

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"Dr. Strange, I know you. I've read some of your papers. You had never written anything about neurosurgery's use in creating portals though, I'm impressed. Is it a trade secret?" Savant asked in a joking tone.

"You don't seem surprised about me coming out of a portal." Strange said in an inquiring tone.

"I see a burning man fly outside my office window every day. There is a Norse god who was swinging his hammer at some robot across the street the other day. For people in New York, it should be a regular Monday to see a portal opening in front of them."

Savant spoke as he gestured Dr. Strange to follow. However, Strange waved his hand and a portal to Savant's office opened up. Savant walked in while talking.

"That's convenient. Sadly I was told I have no fate with magic though. Anyway, what brings a sorcerer to my place Dr. Strange?"

Strange looked at Savant who went to sit on the sofa and started pouring water into glasses. He then walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked at the view of the skyline. He then spoke as one of the glasses with water floated to him.

"Why did you approach Robert?"

Savant looked at Strange dumbfounded, "Are you stalking me, doctor?"

"I've placed a spell on Robert to alert me when new people approach him. Now, answer me."

"To cure him of course. And to test his blood." Savant was honest. It's not like he can hide it if he synthesized the serum and used it.

Strange turned sharply and spoke in a higher tone, "How do you remember? No, that's not important. Do you want to become another Sentry? If you remember him then you should know about his counterpart too. And you still want to do it?" Strange prepared to cast a spell.

"Doctor, did you stop thinking after becoming a sorcerer? Why would I let myself be taken over by something like that? If I had to take it, I'd of course perfect it." Savant replied with annoyance.

Strange frowned while staring at Savant, prepared to cast spells at any moment. "Even if you could in theory perfect it, it's not a power a human should have. Stop approaching Robert and stop your research on Sentry. Or I will stop it with force."

Anger could be heard beneath Savant's voice, "Who dictated that a human shouldn't have that power? You, doctor? You who carries around a tool that can manipulate time around your neck?"

Savant could feel a torrent of information every time he looked at the Eye of Agomotto. Thankfully, Agomotto's artifact shielded the time stone or it might have put Savant in a coma for quite a while.

Strange wanted to retort but he fell silent for a while. But he quickly gathered himself, "If your experiment fails and you create another one of those monsters, it will be devastating. And even if you manage to perfect it, you might get corrupted by the massive power."

"Dr. Strange, I'm not bragging but I don't need that power to cause more damage than Void ever did. If I wanted to, it might be a bit too troublesome to cause a world war but I'm pretty sure I can decimate a city like New York with a few months of preparations."

Savant's words made Dr. Strange feel a chill down his spine. The young boy in front of him had said those words so matter-of-factly that Strange couldn't not believe them. His hands glowed in preparation for a spell. Savant still calmly looked at Strange though, the anger in his eyes receding.

"I gave you a hypothetical, no need to get tense. Reed Richards and Tony Stark could do the same. As well as a few other geniuses with enough resources. But I don't like meaningless violence. I only care about progress.

And I agree with you on the point that too much power corrupts most people, and brings out the worst in them. But I am far from 'most people'. It might again sound like bragging but it's simply a fact that my capabilities are far higher than baseline humans."

Dr. Strange was having a hard time thinking of how to deal with this arrogant youngster. He knew the kid was right but he couldn't just let him do something so dangerous.

"Regardless of all that, you should stay away from Robert. If that thing gets out of him, the consequences aren't something you can handle." Dr. Strange insisted.

"I know what you are worried about doctor. But I really want to treat Robert Reynolds. He shouldn't have to live a life forgotten by his friends and family. As for the serum it takes longer but I can just find the original project files and start from there. I don't really need his blood, it's just convenient." Savant explained this to the surprise of Dr. Strange.

"We already tried everything. Even Reed's mind couldn't conjure up any cure. What makes you think you can do it?" Strange asked in anger.

Savant smiled, not taking offense at that. He really couldn't compare to Reed or more accurately he couldn't compare to most top geniuses in Marvel, to be honest.

His abilities gifted him with great processing, remembering, and learning abilities. He could get all kinds of information and process them as well. That made him a genius far above the others. But an AI could do the same provided with exceptional hardware.

He understood that real genius was different. It wasn't just about learning and processing ability. It was going far beyond what was learned or even what wasn't learned. That creativity and imagination as well as the thought process were something that couldn't just be learned at will.

He wasn't bad at it but he understood he was too far from real geniuses. That's why he hired people like Cypher.

"You might have tried many things but due to my presence, we have a rather unconventional approach we can take now. Why don't you try getting in my mind, doctor?"

Although apprehensive, Dr. Strange did as told, and when his mental projection entered Savant's mind, he found himself in a void with something very viscous surrounding the void.

"Welcome to my mind, doctor." Savant's projection appeared beside Strange.

"What is this? What kind of mental space is this?" Strange was confused.

Savant waved his hand and a very small drop of the viscous liquid separated from the rolling ocean around him and appeared before Strange. Savant motioned Strange to touch it and then Strange woke up in the real world with a massive headache.

Strange asked while heaving, "What was that black drop? Why did you do that?"

"You can think of it as a kind of ability of mine. My mind takes in information from my surroundings through all my senses and just stores them whether I want it or not. Over time, it continued to grow as the information I took in never stopped but increased with every passing day.

And all that information began to condense and compress into an ocean as you saw. This process continues even as we speak. As of now, by comparison, the ocean in my mind is about the size of the sun."

Strange thought that there was something that Savant hadn't told about this ability but he didn't ask since it's not his place to do that. Instead, he asked, "Why did you show that to me?"

"My idea is simple doctor, I want to use that space you just saw to trap Void while I provide psychiatric help to Robert. You and I both know, the spells you cast and the power of Sentry are slowly loosening. It's only a matter of time before Void gets back its strength and comes out.

I just want to provide enough psychological help to Robert to tip the balance in favor of Sentry. Once Robert's positive psyche starts to accept the negatives and begins to move forward, Void will be weakened."

Strange heard Savant's theory and mulled over it. "How sure are you about this working?"

"From known observations in the past, we can be sure that whenever Robert has felt intense negative feelings, his negative persona, Void came out strengthened. It also strongly reacted when Robert tried to get help and almost caused a massacre in New York. So I'm pretty sure it will work."

Strange asked another question, "And what if it doesn't?"

"I can hold it in my mental space for a few years before its strength is enough to just teleport out of my mental sea. The Void would get back its strength in the next few years anyway so it's the same either way." Savant gave a helpless look.

"Let's do it your way then, but I need to be present for every session as well and we will do it in the mirror dimension in a remote place. Preferably outside earth."

Savant gave a thumbs up, "I'll leave the location up to you. Leave your contact info so that we can match schedules lest you go off fighting monsters when I invite Robert here."

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