Stephen "Doctor" Strange stands on an overturned bus and directs Jessica "Spider-Woman" Drew, Wilson "Kingpin" Fisk, and Ben Urich into battle. Drew flies in her plane and strafes Karl "Baron" Mordo, but he's standing in Strange's sanctum sanctorum and Drew can't breach its defenses. Mordo summons monsters to destroy Strange's forces and Drew has to dodge gigantic tentacles and vines that strike at her. In the meantime, Strange sends the newly-empowered Fisk and Urich to devastate Mordo's ground forces. They do so, with Fisk criticizing Urich's loquaciousness, and even though Fisk takes a direct hit from what he describes as a 'laser-breathing sphincter crab' he's able to recover and kill it.
Drew continues circling Strange's sanctum, and she argues with him while Mordo muses that Strange is obviously trying to distract him with minions. He summons a magical telescope and finds Strange's location, then summons a gigantic monster to crush him. Strange, however, survives, shocking Mordo. Mordo hits him with blasts of fire but Strange again seems to shrug it off, causing Mordo to wonder how Strange can still be fighting him when he has so little magic left. Strange then orders his forces to fight harder and they do so, with Drew now using a bigger gun that has the potential of breaking through Mordo's shield, and both Urich and Fisk laying waste to Strange's ground forces.
Mordo abandons caution and manages to use a huge vine to smash Drew's plane, resulting in him capturing Drew in a bubble while the plane crashes. He then blasts both Urich and Fisk directly, removing their powers and capturing them in bubbles as well. Strange launches himself towards Mordo and proclaims that it's time for their final duel, and Mordo flies towards Strange as well. Mordo boasts that he has much more power than Strange does. However, before the two can fight, Strange vanishes. He then reappears in the sanctum behind Mordo, says that the 'Strange' Mordo had been fighting was just an illusion, and reveals that the entire fight was just him tempting Mordo to leave the sanctum along with all his monsters and magic tricks so that Strange could reclaim it.
Mordo demands to know what happened and Strange reveals that he was hiding on Drew's plane while the illusory copy of himself directed his forces in battle. When the plane crashed, Strange was able to climb onto one of the vines and reach his sanctum. Then Mordo left and Strange was able to reestablish control, cutting off Mordo from his magic. Mordo rants that the Darkforce Dome remains but then the heroes Mordo had trapped approach him and Matthew "Daredevil" Murdock knocks Mordo out.
The heroes talk amongst themselves, with Murdock and Luke Cage wondering why the Dome is still up if Mordo is defeated. Strange says that Mordo was never really in charge; he was just a distraction so the heroes wouldn't be able to make progress solving the real problem of the Dome. Now that Strange has his library back, though, he thinks it's possible that he might be able to attack the Dome itself. Strange asks the others to watch the now-captive Mordo while he goes inside. The others wonder what he's doing, with Drew making a Dungeons & Dragons joke in the process.
Inside, Strange has a relaxing bubble bath.
Tropes:
- Kansas City Shuffle: Mordo surmises, correctly, that Strange is trying to distract him with Drew, Urcih, and Fisk while Strange himself plots something from a hidden location. However, his attempt to beat the con by going after Strange directly turns out to be exactly what Strange wanted him to do, since it gets him out of Strange's houses. If Mordo had never figured out that Strange was playing him and had settled for just defeating the heroes he could see, he would have destroyed all of Strange's allies without ever putting himself in danger.
