As monsters ravage the buildings, streets, and subways of New York City, Wilson Fisk drives Jessica Drew, Ben Urich, and Dr. Stephen Strange on an electric golf cart through a hidden tunnel. Strange reflects that he usually wouldn't trust Fisk but the situation is so desperate that he'll reluctantly consider allying with him. Meanwhile, Fisk tells the others that he's reformed and simply wants to free his home of New York City from the darkness surrounding it. He proposes an alliance between himself and the heroes, noting that he has resources the superheroes lack and vice versa. Strange says to keep talking, but Urich objects and calls Fisk a monstrous criminal. Fisk stops the cart and threatens Fisk until Drew threatens him back, at which point Strange sighs to himself that he's trapped with a bunch of people acting like children and then tries to get everyone to work nicely with each other.
Urich insists that Fisk is a crime boss, but Strange argues that Fisk has in fact reformed and that he's also a crucial ally given their desperate straits. Urich finally agrees to hear Fisk out, and Fisk tells them that the reason his hidden tunnel isn't crawling with monsters is that he's been able to buy certain magical protections. He takes them up from the tunnel to the top of his skyscraper and says that these protections extend over his entire property; while gigantic monsters are destroying skyscrapers all around them, Fisk Tower remains secure. Strange asks if Fisk is just offering them a safe house and Drew says that, as heroes, they want to fight the bad guys instead of just hide from them. Fisk says he's just proving that he has access to powerful magic. Furthermore, he is willing to take the heroes to places where it's being held.
Steve Rogers, Helmut Zemo, and Elisa Sinclair contact Baron Mordo to see how things are going in New York City. Mordo is flippant until Rogers tells him to get serious, at which point Mordo says they've won. Most of the heroes in New York City such as Luke Cage are incapable of doing anything about the Darkforce dome, and while Strange is still loose, Mordo has seized his home and has already enacted a plan to catch him. Rogers tells Mordo that he can capture the heroes however he wants but he's not to kill anyone or level the city, and adds that he will destroy Mordo if his orders aren't followed. Mordo promises obedience and then leaves to get coffee as Rogers gripes to Zemo about how he hates Mordo. Zemo, however, says that Mordo is controllable. He also says that Mordo is just a necessary evil, which amuses Sinclair.
Mordo opens the refrigerator to get some half-and-half for his coffee and is forced to fight off a monster with multiple mouths and many spiked tentacles which lives inside it. He gets the door shut and returns to Strange's library, musing that Strange could at least have a non-monster refrigerator for essentials like beer and coffee add-ons. Matt "Daredevil" Murdock, still trapped in a magic bubble, says nothing to Mordo, who taunts him and then says that he's finally been able to magically locate Strange now that Strange teamed up with the indiscrete Drew and Urich. He then turns on a television so he and Murdoch can watch the upcoming battle.
Monsters chase Strange, Drew, Urich, and Fisk through a hidden tunnel. Strange shoots magic behind him as the others flee and Urich whines how the tunnel isn't actually monster-proof except for the section under Fisk's tower. Fisk, Drew, and Urich bicker as they reach the surface, but then Strange rushes up with the monster behind him and orders everyone to get down. The monster smashes its way back into the ground and flees, leading Fisk to ask how Strange manage that; Strange says that he just gave enough boils to the monster to get rid of it. The four walk off, with Fisk promising Strange plenty of powerful magic, as monsters called Mindless Ones begin to self-assemble from the rubble behind them.
Mordo sneers as he watches Strange's group walk away on his television, noting how the battle was very exciting to watch and how Strange is going to lead Mordo right to more magic. Murdock sighs to himself.
Fisk leads the group to a fancy apartment, and Drew snarks that Madam Mim must live there. Fisk knocks and a gigantic eyeball appears on the door which refuses him entry. Fisk protests that they have a deal, but the eyeball says that the situation has changed and Fisk must leave. When Strange introduces himself, however, the eyeball lets them in. They enter only to be immediately attacked by an unnamed witch who says that Fisk's money has no value anymore and she is incensed that he approached her and thus put her own sanctum at risk. Strange asks how the witch managed to hide her magic away, and the witch boasts that she was able to do it by focusing entirely on her own well-being instead of using (and revealing) her magic in order to help civilians. Strange threatens her and says he is still the Sorcerer Supreme, enraging the witch, who turns into a flaming tiger and attacks.
Strange narrates how to deal with sorcerer duels, noting how the witch wants to prove her power by beating him and thus is going for her biggest and baddest spells right away, meaning if he can defuse them with just a little magic, he'll still have most of his capabilities while she'll have lost her biggest weapon. Accordingly, he summons a little water to put out the fire, leaving the witch as just a regular tiger. She turns herself into a crocodile but Strange jams her mouth open with a magical stick; when she bites through it and turns herself into a horse, Strange just uses a floating spell to leap over her charge so she slams into a wall. Before the battle can continue, however, several Mindless Ones break through the wall and Mordo speaks through them to say he's caught Strange.
Strange's group begs the witch to grant them access to her magic and let them help her repulse Mordo, but she refuses out of pride. She blasts the Mindless Ones with a powerful bolt of energy and splits them apart, causing Fisk to say she went 'full Gandalf' (and Drew to ask if Fisk just made a Harry Potter reference, which Urich says isn't quite right). Mordo, however, easily reforms his monsters and mocks the witch's failure before using them to seize her. She begs for help and Fisk says he can't do anything to stop Mordo from killing them all and taking her treasures, resulting in her finally casting a spell to let the others into the pocket dimension where she keeps her magic.
Strange and his group enters the dimension through what looks like a large bank vault door and find themselves staring at hundreds of artifacts, totems, and spellbooks. Drew and Urich try to take some weapons but Strange uses a spell to stop them, saying everything in the room is full of dark magic which could corrupt them. Fisk points out that if they leave empty-handed they have nothing to fight the monsters or breach the Darkforce dome with, and Strange allows that he personally might be able to use one of the weapons without being corrupted. Fisk, though, says they don't have time for that, and he grabs a severed demonic head from a table.
Strange yells for Fisk to stop, but not before Fisk triggers a column of fire to shoot out of the head and incinerate both the Mindless Ones and the witch. Drew, Urich, and Strange stare at him as Fisk turns to the others and says 'you're welcome' with a cruel glint in his eyes.
Tropes:
- Asshole Victim: The witch, who went back on her word and tried to murder the heroes just to save her own skin, and is subsequently incinerated by Fisk.
- Hospitality for Heroes: Strange and his group finally manage to get the witch to help them when they convince her that they need her help to save her life.
