[Manhattan] The Monkey, the Sorcerer and the Sanctum

Sun Nao regarded the Doctor's words, crossing his arms and absentmindedly tapping his foot against the floor.

"Nothing worth doing is ever easy, sir," he began slowly. "I learned that from training with my father; he was and is not a kind teacher. I could have given up long ago, but I did not. Time on my father's mountain is... weird, and whenever I am summoned, I spend weeks, even months, training almost constantly. Yet, when I return, only minutes have passed, and life moves on without as much as a second thought... only I am different." Sun Nao looked at a random painting of a person with a very angry expression, watching the redness around the eyes.

"I don't deny that my father is himself an extremely powerful sorcerer. I doubt he would let you keep me away from him as long as he deems that my training is unfinished. In fact, I have no control over when he summons me, something about blood ties."

He glanced at Strange, trying to read the sorcerer's expression. There was a hint of sadness in the teenager's voice at the last words.

"Did you, Doctor Strange? Sever all ties to your previous life?"

Sun Nao watched Strange with keen interest as the sorcerer supreme stopped. Had he asked the wrong question? Maybe it was a touchy subject for the old man, and there was very little information about Doctor Strange besides his heroic deeds. Nao did not even know he used to be a surgeon, even if it made oddly sense in hindsight.

"Must have been rough, don't think I could understand how that feels."

It did make him appear more... human.

"Besides..." Sun Nao massaged the back of his neck thoughtfully. "I don't know how much it's worth, but in my view, you seem very decent as heroes go. Not that I know many, other than from newspapers and those who have their own Instagram accounts. Like that idiot Booster Gold."

It was odd how quickly the ambience of this place could shift from just walking down a staircase; the air became colder, and he could feel the dampness cling to his clothes, a chill without wind. Sun Nao raised one of his eyebrows at the sorcerer's comment. Doctor Strange did voice a thought that had lingered at the back of Sun Nao's mind: what WOULD Wukong do if he found out that someone else was training him? The Monkey King was not evil. He was brash at times but not malicious... he claimed to have found enlightenment... yet it did not seem that way from their time together.

"Why do you think I asked if learning from you could help me kick his ass? I intend to surprise him." There was a pause as a small smirk tugged at Sun Nao's mouth. "I feel it my duty as a son to... kick his ass. For the greater god of the world, of course."

Sun Nao curiously looked around as they left the stairs, widening into a much larger space. What... was this place? It looked nothing like the building above, and to be honest... he was not even if they were still inside the house... or if they should be under one of the other buildings. He mentally went back and tried to make sense of their path, but... it did not make sense.

"What's with the sofa?" He asked. They had just had tea, so the pot was most likely not for them, which did mean there was someone else down here. "Seems very out of place..."

He watched as Strange did... his thing, the deep green flames dancing about the place. It clearly was... something.

"Yeah, a little..." Sun Nao replied, watching one of the flames erupt from the wall. " Father talked and trained me a lot in Yōjutsu, mostly the art of self-replication and transformation... not been able to do the last part, but I am rather good at the former... if I do say so myself." He brushed some imaginary dirt off his outfit. "Both he and grandma also talked about Wu Xing, the five elements. Mù, huǒ, tǔ, jīn, and shuǐ." Sun Nao slowly counted them on his fingers, trying to remember what they told him. "Which would be, in translation, wood, fire, earth, metal... and water. Manipulating these, alone or in different combinations, can bring great change and cause terrible destruction if misused."

For him? Sun Nao looked to the tea and the sofa again before turning to Strange with one of his eyebrows cocked. He was sure that Strange would not hurt him, and if he wanted to, he would have done so already. It still sounded extremely suspicious, if not a little creepy. He looked to the flow of magic, the spots of which the Doctor had touched.

"If you say so," he said with a shrug, choosing not to look too much into it before sauntering over to make himself comfortable on the sofa. "Oh, very plush..."

"Wield the power of the Multiverse, huh?" Sun Nao poured himself some tea. He had no idea what that meant... but it sounded important and really big, not just Power of the Verse, but the Multiverse. He smelled the tea curiously before shrugging and taking a sip. "That's nice, and I'm ready. Bring on the Dumbledore-ing, Doc."

Sun Nao did not know what to expect, much less when Strange asked to trust him.

He replied with a small nod, thinking back on his comment about nothing worth doing was ever easy. The split second between when Strange spun and his palm struck out was longer than for a regular person. Sun Nao was certain he could have reacted to it, dodge or block. Maybe that was not true, but the words of Strange were still there:"Just remember to trust me." So, that was what Sun Nao did; he decided to trust.

The strike did not hurt, yet the impact was all the more forceful like being hit by a truck... or one of his father's many kicks... he was used to being flung around. What was out of the ordinary was flying away and still seeing the back of his head.

Sun Nao found the notion... exciting. He grinned. Seeing the universe did not sound like such a bad idea.

"Bring it, Doc!"

Sun Nao had been flying a lot since his powers awakened, he had zipped around the world on his clouds and visited all manner of weird places. He had never decided to go into space, not because he did not think he could not, but because... he was worried that maybe he could not. But, this was not the same kind of feeling, it was less like flying and more like... levitating. No, he was still sort of standing, but not, floating, yet not. The young demigod watched the city vanish below, the earth spreading out below until he was looking down on the great blue sphere, dotted with lights, shrouded in clouds.

"Wooh," was all Sun Nao could say, as he took a moment to look around.

He listened as Doctor Strange spoke, about dedicating their lives to protect, Sun Nao looked to the side and saw a massive structure of metal passing by off into the distance, a really big space station. Nothing, and everything, sounded like the kind of nonsense his father liked to say, but at the same time... it did make sense.

"Does it really matter?" He asked, the question was aimed at Strange, even if he could not see him. "If thoughts shape reality, does it matter if we know what is real or not? Like Plato said: reality is created by the mind. We can change our reality by changing our mind." He was sort of glad that his mother insisted on him reading philosophy, even if much of what the ancient philosophers said seemed weird, he could at least get that part.

"Yeah, most adults seem to want to tell me how the world works" Sun Nao muttered, thinking back to his own life, parents, and teachers being the most prominent. "I guess I did think similarly to, at least before. Suppose being kicked around enough puts things into a different perspective." He curiously watched the golden flames as he moved through space at an alarmingly high speed. "That's a nihilistic view for sure, but suppose that is a comfort. If nothing is real, then nothing really matters, which in turn removes things like... have-to's and must-do's. Just wish my mom could see it like that..." the last he muttered more to himself than to Strange.

As the universe fractured, he watched the splitting branches of reality, catching glimpses of reflections as he rushed past them. This all seemed dangerous for sure. Sun Nao did, however, promise to trust Doctor Strange, and so that was what he decided to do. Even if the great black maw looked hella sus. Well, no one could ever claim was one to back away from a challenge. He did not strike Strange as afraid, the young demigod's posture was that of curiosity, not worry. "Are you asking these questions rhetorically, or are you expecting me to give an answer, Doc?" He asked as he was rushing towards the void. "Because I don't know what to tell you, the world is messed up, and filled with weirdos?"