Chen stopped in the doorway, staring at the man calmly eating a bowl of noodles.
Ethan looked up, chopsticks still in hand. "Hi."
"...Hi?" Chen replied, unable to hide her confusion. Her eyes moved to the bowl, then back to him.
"Sorry if these were yours," Ethan said between bites. "I'm starving. Terrible morning. Wasn't in the mood to stay hungry." He shrugged as though taking someone else's breakfast was entirely reasonable.
"I'll pay whoever made them later."
Chen blinked several times. "How did you get here?"
"I walked."
"You weren't supposed to be able to leave."
"Oh." He nodded as though she had clarified something obvious. "The door wasn't really a problem."
She stared at him, unsure whether he was joking.
"You know, eating on time is actually good for your mental health," Ethan continued between mouthfuls. "Skipping breakfast just makes the rest of the day worse."
Chen opened her mouth. Nothing came out. She had spent years studying ancient myths, Titan legends, and forgotten civilizations.
None of it had prepared her for a man found asleep on Godzilla's back whose first priority after arriving at a classified MONARCH facility was finding something to eat.
Ethan finished the noodles, set the empty bowl down, and stretched with a satisfied sigh. "Now I'm actually in the mood to deal with people." He turned toward her and leaned against the counter.
"So. Any questions?"
Chen looked at him. There were too many to count. She settled on the most basic one.
"Who are you?"
Ethan scratched the side of his head. "Going straight for the nuclear question." He thought about it for a moment.
"It's a little complicated. Different worlds, different names — some people call me a hero, some call me a monster, a few just consider me a traveler." He smiled faintly.
"But at my core? The simplest answer is that I'm a god."
He said it the way someone mentions what they had for lunch.
Chen simply stared at him. She had expected many answers. That wasn't one of them. She sighed internally. He's mentally ill.
"You're thinking I'm mentally ill," Ethan said, appearing directly in front of her.
Chen instinctively stepped backward, startled by how fast he had moved.
"That's a normal reaction," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "If someone walked up to me claiming to be a god, I'd think the same thing." He shrugged.
"So it's easier to show you than spend an hour arguing about it."
Before she could respond, he snapped his fingers.
The cafeteria vanished.
WHOOOOSH —
Wind roared past Chen's ears as she found herself falling through open sky, hundreds of meters above an endless blue ocean rushing toward her at terrifying speed.
She screamed.
Ethan, meanwhile, had both hands behind his head and was lying in the air like he was on an invisible couch. He yawned.
"People rarely believe explanations," he said, glancing sideways at the horrified Chen. "They believe what they see."
WHHHHHRRRRR —
The wind tore past them as the ocean continued closing in. Chen squeezed her eyes shut, opened them again, and turned toward him in a rapid stream of Mandarin.
"Chòu hún dàn! Nǐ shì fēng le ma?! Shéi huì yòng zhè zhǒng fāngshì zhèngmíng zìjǐ?!" (You bastard! Have you lost your mind?! Who the hell proves themselves like this?!)
"Nǐ zhège bái chī! Nǐ zhīdào wǒ xiànzài yǒu duō xiǎng dǎ nǐ ma?!" (You idiot! Do you have any idea how badly I want to hit you right now?!)
She didn't wait before continuing.
"Wǒ zhēn de huì bèi nǐ qì sǐ!" (You're really going to make me die from frustration!)
Ethan listened patiently until she paused for breath. "...I don't speak Chinese. But I'm going to guess that wasn't a compliment."
Chen shot him a look. "It wasn't."
"Fair enough. I've definitely earned it."
"You're impossible," she said through gritted teeth.
"Probably."
"And if we survive this, I'm reporting you to—" She stopped. "...I don't even know who I'd report a self-proclaimed god to."
"See? That's the practical problem." Ethan glanced at her calmly. "But don't worry. Since I caused this, why would I let anything happen to you?"
The wind stopped.
The ocean vanished.
HONK — VRRRMMM — HONK HONK —
They appeared above a skyscraper rooftop, the city noise flooding in from hundreds of meters below. Chen stumbled as her feet hit the edge instead of solid ground. Her balance gave way and she slipped over the side.
Ethan caught her wrist without looking.
Chen dangled for a half second, the streets impossibly far below, her heart somewhere in her throat.
He pulled her back onto the roof with almost no effort. She stood there breathing hard, gripping the ledge behind her.
Ethan slipped his hands into his pockets.
"From a god's perspective, time and space aren't really obstacles. Existing here one second and somewhere else the next isn't anything special." He glanced toward the skyline.
"Human physics only applies to humans. It doesn't mean much to me."
Chen looked at him in silence.
One moment they had been falling through open sky. The next they were on a rooftop.
She had spent her entire career studying beings that transcended natural law. Every culture she had researched spoke of them. Until today they had been stories.
Now one was standing a few feet away, discussing it like weather.
She believed him.
Before she could form another question, the rooftop dissolved around them.
An instant later they were back in the MONARCH cafeteria, standing exactly where they had been, as though neither of them had ever left.
***
A/N: And on Patreon, The Boys arc started.
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