Chapter 56: The Multiverse Goes Public
Ethan frowned at the notification, clearly unimpressed.
Invisibility. Of all the skills the random number generator could have given him, it handed over invisibility. A power he had absolutely no use for.
What, so I can go peek at people in the shower? Hard pass.
He shook his head, trying to dislodge the thought. He wasn't what anyone would call a principled man, but even he had standards. Besides, his Observation Haki already let him sense everything around him — he didn't need invisibility to see through walls.
What he'd actually been hoping for was the Spider-Sense. That would've been the golden ticket. With Spider-Sense active, he could plausibly pass as a Spider-Person and infiltrate the Spider-Society, cultivating a mountain of friendships across a thousand universes. That would've been worth celebrating.
He and Miles reached the Lucky Dragon a few minutes later.
The restaurant was now surrounded by Fisk's bodyguards — a wall of grim, armed men standing at every entry point like they were guarding the Oval Office. Bullseye was stationed at the front door, visibly on edge, body blocking the entrance.
The moment Bullseye spotted Ethan, his expression shifted into something like a drowning man seeing a life preserver. Part relief, part humiliation — like a kid in detention who's just watched the teacher walk out of the room.
Ethan couldn't resist needling him. "What's this — you in time-out? Playing doorman now?"
The jab hit its mark. Bullseye stepped forward and grabbed Ethan's shoulder with both hands, his face working with genuine distress.
"Brother, I'm in so much trouble. The boss had me on a totally different battlefield tonight — I was going to finish my assignment perfectly, no complaints, no demands for bonuses, nothing. And then that goddamn Madame Gao pulled a feint! I rushed back and—"
His voice cracked. "If anything had happened to the Boss's wife, you wouldn't be seeing me tomorrow. Ethan. Please. You have to put in a word for me."
Ethan clapped his shoulder. "Relax. If Uncle Fisk genuinely wanted you dead, you'd already be a corpse. Come inside."
He turned to Miles. "Miles — keep up."
Miles nodded quietly and trailed along behind.
That was when Bullseye finally noticed the young Spider-Man following them. His eyes went wide. He pointed at Miles, then back at Ethan, then back at Miles.
"Brother — I thought you hated Bla—"
"He's just a kid. He hasn't done anything wrong. Also, he's useful." Ethan's tone was mild but firm, cutting the sentence off clean before it could finish.
Ethan had no patience for the gang element that had poisoned parts of Hell's Kitchen — but he wasn't one of those people who painted an entire community with the same brush. What he despised were the violent lowlifes who glorified their own dysfunction. That didn't include innocent teenagers, and it certainly didn't include Miles.
After all, Ethan had personally taken in plenty of orphans from Hell's Kitchen regardless of background. Anyone who grew up under his roof got the same deal: follow the rules or answer to him. He held himself accountable to the same standard. He'd always respected plenty of people from every walk of life — including certain basketball legends he could name.
Besides, Miles was literally the only Black Spider-Man across the entire multiverse — a unique existence. That alone made keeping him around worth the effort. If the kid ever got out of line... well, Ethan would cross that bridge if he had to.
The three of them pushed past the perimeter of bodyguards and entered the restaurant. Bullseye followed with a look of grateful trust plastered on his face. He knew Ethan would vouch for him.
Inside, Fisk was sitting alone on a couch, smoking a cigar in silent contemplation.
Wanda was at Vanessa's side, gently rubbing her back, trying to calm her down with soft words. The other Fisk's appearance had left Vanessa shaken to her core, and Wanda was doing her best to ease her out of it.
On the other side of the room, Pietro was crouched next to little Richard, focused intently on some video game on a handheld console. Kids were easy — a few minutes of entertainment and the trauma of nearly being murdered by a centuries-old crime lord could be temporarily set aside.
When Ethan's group walked in, every pair of eyes turned toward him.
Wanda got to him first, her face tight with concern. "Are you hurt? What happened? I heard there was another Fisk? And — what's a multiverse?"
Fisk didn't say anything, but his eyes carried the same questions. He sat on the couch with his hands folded across his chest, waiting for an explanation.
Ethan felt the weight of all the questions hit him at once and immediately regretted agreeing to be the one to handle this. He pulled Miles forward by the shoulder.
"This," he announced to the room, "is Miles. He's a Spider-Man from the same parallel universe as the other Kingpin. He's going to explain everything."
Miles, suddenly the focus of every eye in the room, froze up hard — especially when his gaze landed on the original Fisk, whose face was, to him, identical to the monster who had killed his Peter Parker.
Ethan gave his shoulder a reassuring pat.
Miles took a deep breath, centered himself, and started explaining.
Half an hour later, Miles finished. Everyone in the room looked like they needed a long moment to digest what they'd just heard.
It was an astonishing revelation. The existence of a multiverse — infinite parallel realities — felt like someone had pried open a door to the universe next door and invited them all to peek through.
"So there's a parallel universe version of me too? Like... multiple versions?" Pietro looked genuinely fascinated. His eyes had that wide-kid-in-a-candy-store light.
Fisk, meanwhile, was staring at Vanessa and Richard with an expression that carried the weight of everything he'd just learned.
Thinking about what had happened to the Vanessa in Fisk-Prime's universe — the fate of that woman, the cost her version of Wilson Fisk had paid for it — made him physically sick. He understood the parallel version of himself completely. If he'd been in that man's position, he might have done the same thing.
And then that decision had been violently ended by the kid standing in front of him.
Fisk's eyes locked onto Miles, and his voice dropped low and dangerous.
"Boy. Do you know who killed Vanessa and Richard in your universe?"
His tone carried a distinct edge — if it was you, I'm going to finish what he couldn't.
Miles froze under the weight of Fisk's sudden killing intent.
"Uncle Fisk — don't scare the kid. It wasn't him. It was an accident." Ethan stepped in before Fisk could follow through on whatever he was considering.
He understood Fisk's fury and pain, but he also knew Miles wasn't responsible.
Fisk drew in a long breath and pulled back on the murder aura. His eyes stayed complicated, fixed on Ethan, clearly waiting for the rest of the story.
Ethan could see that Fisk was going to keep digging until he got every detail.
He sighed. "The other me — I mean, the other you — told me that his wife and son were killed in a car accident."
He deliberately left out the context. No need to mention that Fisk-Prime had been in the middle of a brutal fight with his universe's Peter Parker, that Vanessa had seen her husband becoming something monstrous, and that she'd grabbed Richard and tried to drive away — and been killed in the crash that followed.
Fisk heard the vague explanation and his eyes narrowed. He could tell Ethan was holding something back.
Miles, meanwhile, was staring at Ethan in confusion. That's... not what the other Kingpin said. I was literally there.
Ethan noticed the look and quickly turned to Pietro. "Pietro — go grab the apartment keys from my room. Take the kid upstairs to get some rest."
Pietro started to protest, then caught the look Ethan and Wanda gave him in rapid succession. He decided, wisely, to just go along with it.
"My sister could totally do this," he muttered under his breath as he led Miles away. "Literally anyone could do this."
Nobody answered him.