Chapter 13 - I Am Batman ! Oops I Mean I Am The Wizard !

After Ray's experience with Captain Marvel, he went back to New York to continue to study magic in the New York sanctum with Baron Karl Mordo. Ray would have to wait until 2008 and the start of Iron Man to see if he could his hands on the Space Stone. At the current moment Ray had decided to study science as well since he was well versed in magic already and there was almost nothing left for him to study. Ray also asked the Hand to buy up technology companies so he could get their technology as well as asking the Hand to get any and all Buddhist scriptures in the world. Yes, Ray was preparing for the end of the world at the rate he is going.

Ray these last few decades had a chance to study the Hand and D5 or Bakuto's formula to make an immortality potion from dragon bones. However Ray had used his own legacy magic, normal magic and science to create his own pseudo immortality gas which he calls, "Dragon Breathe". With dragon breathe, Bakuto or any members of the Hand wishing to be immortal would not have to scour the Earth looking for Dragon bones anymore. All you need to do was to ask Ray and he would be able to create, "Dragon Breathe" to extend your life. But just like the Hand and Bakuto's immortality potion, there was a limit to dragon breathe. When you use too much dragon breathe you will start to age albeit at a slower rate. In other words Dragon Breathe long term use will get less potent over time. This means the person using Dragon Breathe is not immortal and will die one day ! Just like the Hand's own potion which does not make the person immortal but extends his or her life. But at the moment for Ray's plan to succeed, people using his products did not need to know that.

It was 2007, just a year to go before the start of Iron Man. Ray had gone back to Kamar Taj to see the Ancient One and give her a gift. Ray was in a small meeting room with an elderly Ancient One who appeared to be at death's door.

"Mother ! How are you ?", Ray asked in a girlish voice.

"I am fine Ray... but I think I do not have much time left.", the Ancient One said sadly.

"That's why I have spent all my time studying in the world to get you a very special gift.", Ray said as he took out a test tube with a strange golden gas trapped in it. Ray proceeded to uncork the test tube and let the Ancient One breathe in the gas. The Ancient One began to get youthful at a rapid pace appearing to be around 30 years of age as she got younger and younger.

"What is this ? Is it a potion of immortality ?", the Ancient One said in shock.

"Yes mother. Only through my legacy magic can these potion of immortality be made. The only drawback is that you need to take the potion on a regular basis whenever you start to feel old. And the ingredients of the potion is just my magic. I call the potion Dragon Breathe.", Ray said in a girlish voice as he smiled sweetly. Ray was lying, the ingredients were more than just his magic but the Ancient One did not need to know that.

"This must never be known by others in Kamar Taj. And you are forbidden in giving it to others. The ramifications of giving immortality to everyone will cause chaos throughout the world.", the Ancient One said seriously as she pondered how to stop the news of her getting younger from spreading in Kamar Taj.

"Don't worry mother. Here is another potion I made for you. If you need anymore just let me know in New York and I will immediately make a batch for you mother.", Ray said in a girlish voice and then smiled sweetly at the Ancient One. Ray then produced another, "Dragon Breathe ", potion and gave it to the Ancient One.

"Thank you my son...", the Ancient One said with a sweet smile as she greedily grabbed the Dragon Breathe potion.

"Mother there is another thing, I feel guilty in not being able to share in my discovery of immortality with the rest of the world. To alleviate my guilt, I feel that I should use my powers, my legacy magic to help others but Kamar Taj bans the use of magic in the outside world. And those that use magic in the outside are severely punished by Kamar Taj.", Ray said in a girlish voice with a sad look.

"Well I suppose an exception can be made for you since what you are using technically is legacy magic and not our Kamar Taj magic. But the dragon breathe must never be made known to the outside world or even known to Kamar Taj. It must remain our secret.", the Ancient One said with a smile.

"I suppose I could do that. Thank you mother.", Ray said in a girlish voice as he smiled and left the room to go back to New York.

The Ancient One sat there in the room grasping the Dragon Breathe potion as she mumbled, "So it was her legacy magic that made her immortal when she used the spell model with the eye of Agamotto, it makes sense now why it did not work for me.".

Ray had wanted access to the Space Stone or the Tesseract. And the only way to do that is to pretend to be a superhero to get the attention of Nick Fury and Shield. So with the approval of the Ancient One and Kamar Taj, Ray can now use magic in the outside world. Ray had already prepared his costume in advance for more than ten years. The costume had a green cloak that protects you against magic and almost any harm. A green eye mask that covers the eyes only and allows you night vision as well as vision across a spectrum of light. A superhero green army beret suit that has different patches of green mixed upon each other, some dark and some light green. Ray's suit is magic proof and protects the user against almost all harm whether it's energy or physical by nature. Now all Ray had to do was create a superhero name. Ray's mind went blank, he couldn't decide on a superhero name.

As Ray started, "Operation Superhero", he wore his costume and went out at night to look for crime. Ray went around New York hoping to find people in trouble and create a name for himself first as a street hero. Ray did not worry about normal criminals because in the many decades, he has found out the limits of his superhuman strength. Ray can lift 8 tons. Yes, Ray was stronger than Captain America ! But weaker than Spider Man. Ray waited and waited for a criminal for the first night. For the second night, Ray tried going to a crime ridden neighbourhood in New York but other than drug dealers, there was no other crimes like theft, murder or burglaries. Ray was bored out of his mind, he was starting to think there was no real crime in the Marvel Universe. Actually he was not wrong by much, since Ray got control of the criminal underworld in New York there really was no crime committed in New York. By the third night patrolling the streets, Ray was thinking of committing a crime and then going to rescue the person himself, he was bored to death !

Luckily for Ray there was a fire that accidentally started in a five storey apartment in New York. Ray which could fly flew up and started rescuing the victims. One by one he flew the victims down from the roof of the apartment. Ray made sure the journalists around the fire captured him saving lives. When the final victim was rescued. Ray flew down to the reporters and smiled.

A young girl reporter asked, "Who are you ?".

"I am Batman ! Sorry ! I mean I am the Wizard !", Ray said in a girlish voice with a smile.

"How old are you ? Are you still a child ?", the young female reporter asked.

"Sorry have to go. Remember my name is the Wizard !", Ray shouted in a girlish voice as he flew off.

The next day Ray was reading the paper with a black face and his eyes were twitching in anger. On some of the newspaper, they had the headline, "Batman rescues fire victims !", on others, "The rescue of fire victims by the jolly green elf boy !", and finally on some other newspaper, "Wizard boy saves fire victims !". If there had not been so many different humiliating names, Ray would have been happy his name got out there !