Synopsis
| - Dugan is desperate and shattered when he thinks Fury is killed in a fire-bombing attack by A.I.M., only to discover it was a Life Model Decoy that got "killed". But the A.I.M. prisoners he wanted interrogated were killed, which frustrates Fury-- who, along with Dum Dum & Jasper, realize their movements are under video-surveillance by the enemy! Meanwhile, Count Royale and his A.I.M. cohorts are amazed at how advanced & convincing SHIELD's L.M.D.s are, far more advanced than their own chemical androids, and determine to steal one. A squad of A.I.M. men break into SHIELD's underground base to steal an L.M.D. Just as Royale realizes Fury knew about the surveillance cameras, Fury stuns the crowd by shattering a viewport and leaping thru it to his apparent death, but parachutes to safety.
- As the Ancient One begins his tale of his past and his relationship with the mystical being known as Kaluu, Kaluu in his own realm having captured the Book of the Vishanti studies it.Finding nothing useful to him Kaluu banishes it.
Five centuries ago, in the Himalayan land of Kamar-Taj, the Ancient One and Kaluu grew up together and studied magic. They cast a spell of prosperity on their village. Kaluu wanted to use his power to serve his own ego, so he hypnotized the other villagers. They crowned him king and followed him in an attack on a neighboring village. The watchful Ancient One finally spoke out, warning that the prosperity spell would be broken by this hostile act. Kaluu put him in stasis and forced him to witness the battle, the looting, and the enslavement of the other village. The Ancient One's prediction came true, and a plague struck the village. Kaluu fled into another dimension, breaking the stasis spell.
Back in the present, Strange learns that Dormammu's attack on Eternity loosened the boundaries of the multiverse, so Kaluu has escaped. Finishing his tale, the Ancient One warns his deciple to brace himself as he sense that Kaluu is about to attack.
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