Chapter 326: Ethan and Strange Arrive in the Future
For a moment, silence swallowed the whole platform.
Every last one of them understood, all at once, what they'd lost. Natasha.
None of them had imagined that a single trip through time could cost them a teammate.
Steve stood with his head bowed, fists clenched so tight his shoulders trembled — visibly fighting to hold himself together.
He didn't want to let the tears fall. But the grief inside him surged like a rising tide, and he couldn't hold it back much longer.
Dr. Banner had sunk to his knees too, his eyes full of disbelief and sorrow. He couldn't accept it. Couldn't accept that they'd lost Natasha.
That was the exact moment a blinding point of light flared to life on the platform. As the glow faded, a figure stood revealed before them.
"Why does this jump feel so much worse than usual..." Ethan opened his eyes, glanced himself over, and immediately started scanning his surroundings. First priority: figure out where he actually was.
What he found, instead, was a ring of faces staring back at him — every one of them wrecked with grief and disbelief.
Ethan recognized the owners of those faces instantly: Captain America, Steve Rogers. Iron Man, Tony Stark. That already-familiar Bruce Banner, fused with the Hulk. Ant-Man, Scott. All of them, right here.
And of course, Hawkeye, Barton — still on his knees, lost somewhere deep inside his own grief. A thoroughly baffled Nebula. A version of Thor who'd clearly gone soft and round. Rocket Raccoon from the Guardians of the Galaxy. And War Machine, apparently unable to even stand upright without his armor on.
Once Ethan had confirmed all this, he felt a wave of relief wash over him.
They hadn't jumped to the wrong parallel universe. This was, in fact, exactly the future Avengers' world they'd come looking for.
Just as Ethan opened his mouth to say something, a voice cut in from right behind him.
"Ugh, that jump was absolutely unbearable — I think I'm actually going to be sick!" Strange couldn't help complaining, his face drained of color. This particular transit had clearly hit him a lot harder than usual.
Still, he was a doctor at heart, with far more tolerance for bodily discomfort than most people — so despite the nausea, he managed to hold himself together.
Ethan had jumped to plenty of parallel universes before, and nothing like this had ever happened. He had no idea why this one felt different.
"Strange? Weren't you dead? What are you doing here — wait, who are you people?"
Even lost in his own grief, Steve wasted no time snapping to alert the moment he spotted the strangers who'd just appeared, his voice sharp with wariness.
Ethan didn't even need to turn around to know it was Steve speaking. He and Captain America hadn't crossed paths much, but that tone, that voice — there was only one man that could be.
Without turning, Ethan used Observation Haki and instantly understood: everyone present was already fully armed and poised to attack — everyone, that is, except Dr. Banner and Tony.
Thor had his hammer and axe both drawn. Steve had his shield up. Even grief-stricken Hawkeye had grabbed his bow.
"Well, well, Ethan — I did tell you I really didn't want to get dragged into this mess," Strange said, his tone dripping with complaint, though his deep-set eyes betrayed not a hint of fear or unease.
Ethan chuckled softly at Strange's grumbling, his voice calm but firm. "This isn't a mess. This is just their little welcome ceremony for us. You want to handle it, or should I?" The moment the words left his mouth, a dark aura began coiling around his body, as though something ancient and black were seeping up out of the abyss itself.
Clearly, he'd decided to take care of it personally. Ethan knew perfectly well these Avengers probably weren't actually going to attack him — but he couldn't be bothered explaining himself. A direct demonstration would just be faster.
Of course, he wasn't about to go overboard either. He'd need every one of them intact for the fight against Thanos.
If he actually put these Avengers in the hospital, who exactly was supposed to fight Thanos afterward? Or clear out the small fry?
Still, a little show of force wouldn't hurt. Best they understood up front exactly what it would cost them to swing at him.
As the dark aura surged outward, Ethan gave a light flick of his wrist — and every Avenger standing there, weapons drawn and braced for a fight, found themselves suddenly bound by an invisible force.
Dark, shifting shadows rose up around each of them, as though peeling directly off their own silhouettes, wrapping tight and holding them fast.
The Shadow Legion. Genuinely useful for just about anything — clearing out mooks, sure, but also perfectly good for pinning down opponents.
Ethan sometimes felt like dark magic was almost unfairly convenient.
"That's him — Ethan, the Lord of Hell's Kitchen, from the universe we just crossed into," Tony said, having confirmed it: this was indeed the same commanding figure from the world they'd just passed through.
"Everybody, stand down — they're here to help us. They've got the Infinity Stone." The moment Dr. Banner registered Ethan's sudden move, he snapped fully out of his grief over Natasha and back into the present.
He turned toward Ethan, an apologetic look crossing his face. "I'm really sorry about that — they didn't mean anything by it. That's on me, I didn't get the chance to explain in time," he said, explaining that he'd been too consumed by grief over Natasha's death to remember to fill the others in on who Ethan and Strange were, and why they were here.
Banner understood exactly how powerful Ethan and Strange really were. If the two of them decided to cut loose in this universe without restraint, the whole thing wouldn't even need saving anymore — because the two of them alone could level the entire planet.
So he hurried to apologize on the Avengers' behalf, hoping Ethan could understand the reflex behind their reaction.
"This is how you treat someone who crossed dimensions just to come help you?" Ethan said coolly. "But I get it. Just don't let it happen again."
The instant he finished speaking, he gave another light wave of his hand, and everyone was released, free to move again.
"Okay — what exactly is going on here?" asked one of the Avengers who wasn't from Ethan's universe.
Steve frowned. He didn't fully understand it himself — all he knew was that he'd just run into Captain Carter.
It was Tony who spoke up first to answer. "Short version... okay, so. Something might've gone a little sideways in the Quantum Realm. The four of us didn't actually make it back to our own past — we ended up in a different parallel universe instead."
"And this guy standing right here — this is that universe's own top superhero, the Lord of Hell's Kitchen, Ethan. Their whole timeline's played out pretty differently from what we know — they've got a whole lot more superheroes running around over there than we do." Once Tony finished, he glanced over at Banner, silently signaling that this was the extent of what he knew — the rest was Banner's job to fill in.
Seeing the look, Banner hurried to explain further: "Right, so — I didn't manage to get the Stone. But they agreed to lend us one. And they're going to bring it here themselves, in person."
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