Marvel: Born in Fire!

"Remember young Kala, your aim is not to simply control the current of power but to let it flow through you." Stephen Strange said as he helped his newest student go from one form to another. "Magic is inherently against brute forcing things, it is a far more subtle art compared to your Old Power. Rather than forcing it to do anything you need to convince, or even trick, the power to do what you want it to do." He said and then small sparks of orange appeared on the fingertips of Kala, which then grew into magic circles that started to slowly rotate over his hands.

"Not going to lie, this wasn't what I had been expecting when I was told that I would be learning magic."

"Let me guess, you were expecting more dimly lit rooms with lots of books flying around and mysterious forces whispering dark temptations in your ears instead of simple movements that allowed you to harness the energy." The Sorcerer Supreme guesses with an amused tone and a raised eyebrow. "That is the paradox of the mystic arts. It is simultaneously far more and also far less mysterious than one would imagine it being." He said with a chuckle.

"I guess you're the expert." The son of Hulk said with a shrug before going back to the movements.

If Stephen Strange had to be honest, this current situation felt really… strange. No pun intended.

It hadn't been that long since he, along with practically every other hero available on earth, had fought against the Hulk when the green goliath had returned for vengeance against Illuminati; which Strange had been a part of.

His support of the decision to banish Hulk from the planet was one that the Sorcerer Supreme would likely remain ashamed of for the rest of his days, not simply for the act itself but because of what it meant to Hulk coming from him.

The green berserker never had much of interaction with Blackbolt except for that one time they fought on the moon during their first meeting and he had never made a secret of the fact that he disliked Reed Richards. The ones who could be considered closer to him were Strange and Stark, and even his relationship with Stark had always been rather tense with how many times Iron Man and the rest of the founding Avengers got tricked by a villain into thinking that Hulk was out of control; which was literally how the founding members of the group had met.

But him? No, he was the only one who truly had been friends with Hulk due to their shared time as fellow members. Yet he hadn't been ready to defend the gamma mutate like Namor had been. The king of Atlantis and douches had been a better friend to Hulk than he had been. Having his hands broken and then beaten up even more after he had the genius idea of letting a universal threat level demon inside his body hadn't been nearly enough as far as punishments went for his betrayal and he could feel that clearly as the Sorcerer Supreme.

He couldn't help but wonder if that was the reason he had been so willing to teach Hiro Kala when Cyclops had called him and told him how the son of Hulk was a potential reality warper, much like Wanda had been. Maybe that was another reason he had accepted, to help the mutants with a reality warper when he had so spectacularly failed with the last one.

It felt selfish yet he couldn't help it. After all the boy was tHrEaT

No!

No, he wasn't and even if he had the potential to become one he still deserved the benefit of doubt; to be given a chance. Not simply because Strange owed that to the young man's father and himself.

"So, what's next?"

"You have successfully managed to cast the magic circles so next will be to enlarge and strengthen them in order to create a shield.

But because it was the right thing to do.

——————

"So, what's big and grey guy's problem?" Rockslide asked as he sat down. "I mean the big and grey guy who isn't me." And then pointed at Skaar who was sitting by the beach and looked like he was sulking.

"Kala has gone somewhere, though no one is telling where, and apparently that's how Skaar is when his brother isn't around." Noriko said with a shrug as she bit into her burger.

The way Skaar looked so down without his brother would have been almost amusing if it wasn't for the fact that most of the people around were still wary around the son of Hulk. Even more so than they were with Kala since no one could forget that Skaar truly was the son of Hulk. And if there was something that anyone with a half working brain was wary of, it was an upset Hulk.

"I'm gonna try to cheer him up." She said with a sigh and threw the wrapping of her burger into the trash before walking up to Skaar, out of everyone on the island she had known him the longest and even if they weren't exactly friends; she'd like to think that they were at least friendly acquaintances now. She had been the one to almost convince him to reenact a Getsuga Tensho after all.

"Hey." She said as she finally was in arm reach of Skaar. "You wanna come down, it can't be fun just sitting here all by yourself." She smiled at the huge form of the son of Hulk, somewhat dismayed about the fact that he didn't seem to be really fond of his more human form; he looked adorable in that form.

He currently wasn't adorable though, as a matter of fact he suddenly got scarier as he got up with a snarl. The only reason she didn't just piss herself in fear was the fact that he was snarling in another direction instead of at her. The reason became clear as she looked at the same direction and immediately called upon her powers, creating sparks around her hands, as she saw someone was there.

"Quite the welcoming." The man said with a smile as he pushed his glassed back up and put his backpack down before holding up his hands in a surrendering position. "Not here to fight, can't actually fight anyway."

"Who are you?" She demanded as the other students she had been with a few moments before ran towards them. Within a moment the man was surrounded by young mutants who did not take kindly to strangers in their new home.

"You don't remember me? I'm not sure if I should be happy or disappointed, it's kind of a new thing for me." The man said with a chuckle. "Especially since you have that guy with you so you should have some idea. I've been told the resemblance is uncanny." He said with a chuckle as he pointed at Skaar, whose snarl just got even more prominent.

It took a moment more than Noriko would like to admit but she finally understood what the man meant and a few moments later, so did the rest of the people around him. And the words left her mouth before she realized.

"Hulk."

"It's Banner actually. The other guy is... I guess you could say that he's on sabbatical." Bruce Banner said with a chuckle. "Now then, can you guys take me to your leader? I'm here for my parent teacher conference."

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