Everyone had gathered outside the Colony House. Stark looked out at the group in front of him, all 36 of them, Exculding him.
"Are we really going home?" Ethan, Jim's 9-year-old asked, looking at Tony. Ethan had been able to adapt to Fromville easier than most, viewing the experience as a quest like those in his favorite books.
"Ethan, right?" Tony asked, looking at the eager boy. Ethan simply nodded in affirmation.
"Well, we are going home, but," Tony seemed to think for a moment, looking at Jim and Tabitha, "if you are gonna miss it here, we can make an arrangement so you visit once in a while."
"No, I never wanna come back here," Ethan immediately replied.
"Never? Really?" Tony quipped. "I guess it's a matter of taste."
"No, it's not. You are supposed to be the smart one," Ethan replied, genuine worry in his voice. "We are all gonna die, aren't we?"
"Hey, don't say stuff like that," Julie reprimanded.
Tony removed his glasses and looked at Ethan, flabbergasted, then at the parents, as if to say, you have a weird kid.
'We know,' both Tabitha and Jim thought simultaneously.
"Don't worry, Ethan. Your namesake is gonna be there. He will help," Tony reassured. Then he spoke, almost in a whisper, "and no one else is gonna die."
"Okay, people," Boyd shouted from the other side. "Everyone here? Yeah?" he questioned. The group returned a murmur in agreement.
"Boyd? Is this for real?" Kristi asked from the side. Beside her, Fatima and Ellis could be seen equally perplexed. "You found a way out?" she asked.
Boyd looked towards Stark, who gave the sheriff a nod. They had decided to not disclose the information about Stark's dream. It would only cause more problems.
"Yeah, I found a way," Boyd lied, and the group erupted in murmurs. Some were excited, some skeptical.
"Look, whatever this place is, now we know for a fact someone sentient is behind it. A Cursed Spirit. It's not just a phenomenon, or purgatory," Boyd tried to explain. "So, if we try to escape, the curse will be alerted and it will come for us."
"Even in daytime? I thought those creatures cannot move during the day," Ellis asked.
"Yes, even in daytime," Tony spoke. "My understanding is the curse is under a self-imposed Binding Vow. It prevents itself from coming out when the sun's up. In exchange, the curse gets some kind of boost in its power. Maybe it strengthens its technique. And then there are those talismans. Those are definitely linked to a Binding Vow. The curse restricts itself; in exchange, it gets a boost in another area."
"What are you saying?" Fatima asked rhetorically. "Are you implying the curse could have killed us all at any moment, but simply chose not to? Is that what you are saying?"
Fatima sounded terrified, and rightly so. She had survived each day by the skin of her teeth. There was some triumph in that fact alone. That's why they had the party yesterday; it was meant to demonstrate survival. And now she was being told that the only reason they had all survived was due to the grace of the one who trapped them here.
Tony sighed. "What I am trying to say is, we have to move together as a group and get out of here All at once, so we don't give the curse enough time to react."
"Let's go, people," Boyd announced, marching towards the west of Colony House. "It's time to be brave," he added.
And the others followed behind him.
15 minutes later:
The group stood around the entrance of the tunnel. All of them had packed a minimum of their belongings.
"You sure this is the place?" Jade asked, looking towards the billionaire.
"Yup," Tony replied in one word, as he started looking for any sign that Ethan may have left.
"What are we looking for, Stark?" Boyd asked quietly from beside Tony.
"Ah, a rabbit," Stark replied. Majority of the people in the town didn't know about Park, as they had been trapped long before the Battle of New York, after which his identity as the healer solidified in the collective consciousness. He was known across the planet for his rabbits and deer.
Ethan competition to hear something coming from the cave.
"What is it, dear?" Tabitha asked, as she saw Ethan attentively looking at the entrance of the tunnel.
"I think I hear something," Ethan said as he made to move towards the entrance, but his mother immediately stopped him.
"No, no, no, no, you are not going there," Tabitha exclaimed.
The reprimand didn't go unnoticed from the rest of the group.
"What is it?" Boyd asked. "What happened?"
"He says he heard something from the tunnels," Tabitha said, holding the boy tight.
"From in there?" Tony asked, walking into view.
But before he could make his way near it, they all heard it: a hopping sound. A second later, a rabbit came out of the tunnel entrance.
'That's not his usual rabbit.' Stark immediately spotted the difference.
The rabbit featured the same pale white fur and red eyes, but the most distinctive feature was the horn. It was a horned rabbit.
The rabbit and Tony locked eyes, and it started to head back inside the tunnels.
"Let's go," Stark said as they made their way to the opening. The tunnel was cordoned by mountainous rock. It featured a narrow path that allowed only one person to pass at a time.
No sooner had they started moving when the sound of a horn echoed across the forest.
"What was that?" Donna asked from beside Boyd.
"A horn blazing... someone new has arrived?" Kenny questioned, looking towards Boyd.
"We have to stop the trip, help those people first, they will be confused," Tian-Chen said in fluent Cantonese, looking at her son, who nodded.
"Your mother is right," Tony said, looking at Kenny. Then he turned towards Boyd, "You all follow the rabbit. I'll bring the newcomers. I will be just behind you."
And yes, Tony had learned a lot of languages. During his playboy phase, he had spent more than a few nights with different Cantonese beauties. He didn't remember their names. Though he remembered to fully enjoy the foreplay, he had brushed up his Cantonese to a level that he could at least understand what was being said.
"Stark, Stark, wait, you are not going alone," Boyd sighed out, looking towards Ellis.
"Dad, please," Ellis pleaded, but he knew deep down his father would leave no man behind.
"I am coming with you," Boyd declared.
Tony seemed like he wanted to disagree. But they didn't have much time.
"Fine, me and Boyd will go back to town, get the newcomers, and get them out," Tony followed, as he looked towards Donna. "You all follow the rabbit and leave marks on the wall, and we will follow them."
"Sounds like a plan," Jade said. "Damn good plan. Let's go."
Meanwhile, on the bus:
"Are you sure you wanna leave here? There is no person in sight. The town's abandoned… looks abandoned," Bakta spoke, looking at Park as he stepped out of the parked bus.
'She is right. The town is abandoned,' Ethan realized as he subtly activated his unique Cursed Energy trait and spread his senses across town.
"Wait, is that…" Ethan spoke aloud, looking towards the Colony House. From there, a suit of armor could be seen carrying another man by his armpits.
'He is alive,' Ethan realized, as a genuine smile broke through his features.
The residents of the bus also made their way outside.
"That's Iron Man," Elgin spoke as he tracked the suit in the sky. He brought out his phone immediately and started filming. Prior to their arrival in this town, he had a strange dream about this town.
"We shouldn't be here," he had said as he woke up. "Turn back… or we are… we are all gonna die," he had shouted. But that strange man in the suit had comforted him.
And for some reason, as soon as the man had come close to him, the heaviness he had been feeling ever since he boarded the bus was gone.
He looked at the same man, his camera capturing the man's smile as he looked at the suit of armor.
Though something unexpected happened in front of their very eyes: the man's face began to change and flicker. If Elgin had to describe the transformation, it would be more akin to glitching in real life.
After a while, the glitching settled.
"What the… Ethan Park!?" Bakta, the bus driver, shouted, just as the suit of armor landed a few meters away from them.
"Ethan?" Another voice came from the speaker of the Iron Man suit.
"You are alive." "What are you doing here?" Ethan and Tony spoke on top of each other.
Ethan raised an eyebrow at Tony's question. "What do you mean, what am I doing here? You just called for me." He looked around the abandoned surroundings. "And by the looks of it, for good reason."
Ethan had already sensed them entering the barrier, a cursed spirit with some form of spatial manipulation. 'I have a feeling I've seen something like this before,' he thought to himself.
"First of all, I called for you yesterday," Tony started. "Second of all, I thought you said you couldn't be here, that's why I have to get them out."
'Yesterday? But I received the transmission 23 minutes ago... some kind of time dilation?' Ethan thought seriously as a memory of JJK surfaced, almost like a light bulb.
'The mansion curse that had trapped Mei Mei and Utahime for three days, but for them, it was just 15 minutes.' Ethan recalled why this felt familiar. 'Some looping mechanism when it comes to space, though the conditions on time are reversed. Outside, time flows slowly compared to time inside the barrier.'
"Wait," Ethan suddenly halted his train of thought. "What did you say about the second part?"
"That you couldn't be here, that's why I have to get them out," Tony repeated, looking back at Boyd for a moment.
"Get whom out?" Ethan asked seriously. He could examine the situation later.
"Whom else? The townspeople," Stark added, looking oddly at Ethan.
As a look of realization passed over Ethan's face, he locked eyes with Tony.
"Stark, ever since you left, I have never contacted you," Ethan grimly added. "I couldn't risk contact, on the off chance the curse gets alerted."
"What?" Tony questioned, though his brain was already connecting the dots.
"No, no, no. We talked in my dream," Tony added, a desperation in his tone. "You were wearing a yellow suit. You said to me…" Tony started hyperventilating.
"Stark," Boyd spoke as he moved towards the man, who was now on one knee.
Tony looked towards Boyd. "He said to me... I was going to save them."
Boyd, true to his nature, understood the gravity of the situation from the short exchange. "If it wasn't you who Stark talked to," Boyd said, looking at Ethan, "then who told you about the tunnels?"
"What else do you remember?" Ethan asked, Already dreading the answer, "About this dream? About the one you talked to?"
"I don't…" Stark managed out between gasps.
"Come on, Stark. You are the sharpest mind I know. What do you remember?" Ethan insisted.
Tony seemed to think for a moment, his mind flashing back to the memory of the dream.
"Heterochromia... different eye colors and He was bulkier than you are, I thought it was just my imagination, " Stark added. "And his hands... there were stitches across his wrist. That's all, that's all."
That did it for Ethan. If rage had a form, it was Ethan personified.
Sensing his intent, Tora emerged from his shadow.
"Protect them," Ethan ordered Tora. His enhanced senses had already located the townspeople inside the tunnels.
"I should come with…" Tora started.
"Don't make me repeat myself," Ethan ordered, his voice leaving no room for arguments.
The fur on the back of Tora's neck stood up at the warning. 'Such a strong killing intent. It isn't even directed at me, and it makes me shiver.' He backed down.
Ethan rarely got angry. Upset, disgusted, pity—those were the feelings Ethan usually regulated on a daily basis.
'I didn't think I was capable. But I feel pity for you, Mahito.' Tora thought as Ethan Vanished from where he stood.