Chapter 305: The Panicking Uninvited Guests!
On the chaotic battlefield, Ethan and his Riders swept through like an unstoppable storm, their combined attack landing on Corvus Glaive and the others like a thunderclap.
Sparks scattered in every direction, a violent shockwave erupting outward, threatening to swallow everything in its path. The sheer force of it was too much for anyone within several city blocks — people were knocked clean off their feet by the wave alone.
Two figures caught in that chaos found themselves swept off their feet as well — future-Ant-Man and future-Iron Man.
They'd been quietly flying overhead, trying to scout out somewhere safe to hide, when the sudden explosion and its shockwave dragged them straight into the mess.
The force sent them flying, then slammed them hard into the ground.
Once they finally managed to steady themselves, future-Ant-Man couldn't help but gripe at Iron Man. "That was... that was way too intense, right? Is this what all Avengers fights are actually like? This is more insane than anything we ever dealt with in the future!"
Future-Tony wasn't in the mood to respond. His brow was furrowed, his face a mix of embarrassment and confusion.
He remembered his own era's Avengers battles clearly — intense, sure, but nowhere near this level of terrifying. And by now, he was fairly certain of something else entirely: they hadn't traveled back to their own past at all. This was a completely different parallel universe.
Tony couldn't understand it. They'd simply come here to retrieve the Infinity Stones — how had they ended up in a universe they didn't recognize at all?
And now, going back wasn't an option either. All they could do was push forward through this unfamiliar world and hope for a chance to still complete the mission.
Tony looked around and realized this universe was fundamentally different from the one he knew.
There were Riders and superheroes here he'd never encountered before, fighting in ways that looked nothing like what he was used to.
Even more unsettling — he kept overhearing people mention place names he'd never heard of before. "Hell's Kitchen," for one.
As he walked, turning these questions over in his mind, worry settled deep in his chest.
If this really wasn't the same universe, then everything they'd learned and planned for beforehand might be worthless.
Whatever intelligence and clues they'd gathered from their own timeline might not apply here at all.
Which meant they might have no way to even locate the Infinity Stones, let alone complete their mission.
By the original timeline's schedule, Tony should have been holed up in his own tower right now, hard at work.
Instead, in this parallel universe, he found this world's own version of himself locked in a full-scale battle against Corvus Glaive's group.
That only deepened his confusion and unease. He had no idea whether this universe's Tony was also hunting for the Infinity Stones, or whether they'd ever cross paths and cooperate.
For now, all Tony could do was hope the Tesseract was still sitting safely in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s custody.
He'd originally planned to have FRIDAY collect data on the situation, only to find this universe's AI systems were malfunctioning somehow, needing time to come back online.
That only compounded the difficulty and uncertainty of their whole operation.
"Hope Steve and Banner's part of the plan is going smoother than this," future-Tony sighed, offering a small prayer.
Elsewhere, Ethan stood with his back turned coolly to the explosion behind him.
Real men never look back at explosions.
Just as he turned to face the fight again, an unusual figure caught his eye.
A shirtless Hulk, holding an entire tree, sneaking furtively through the battlefield. Ethan recognized the silhouette instantly — and knew with absolute certainty this wasn't the Banner he was familiar with.
His stomach dropped. No way. They actually showed up? You Avengers really traveled back through time and ended up in MY universe? Buddy, you took a wrong turn somewhere.
These guys had apparently botched their Quantum Tunnel jump so badly they'd landed in an entirely different multiverse — coming from a straightforward MCU-movie continuity into this sprawling multiversal Marvel setting. Their own universe, after all, had no mutants, and certainly no Hell's Kitchen.
Ethan's first instinct was to just pretend he hadn't noticed. But he knew full well that wouldn't actually get him anywhere.
After all, two of the Infinity Stones these visitors wanted were sitting right in his own possession. The only remaining one — the Time Stone — belonged to the Ancient One, and Ethan was thoroughly, completely certain she'd find some way to dump that particular headache straight onto him.
Meanwhile, the three Black Order members, having just taken a triple Rider Kick, were still — mostly — standing. Corvus Glaive remained combat-capable thanks to his particular immortality quirk (as long as the scythe stayed intact, he'd keep coming back), and Kaito's Diend form didn't actually have a Rider Kick to begin with, which explained his own restraint there.
But Ethan hadn't expected Ebony Maw to still be alive too.
He turned to Tsukasa immediately. "Senior — you held back?"
The only one of the three actually down for the count was Proxima Midnight, the one Ethan himself had attacked.
"I never hold back," Tsukasa said, entirely unbothered. "That one just pulled off some ability and vanished before I could land the hit."
"Guess we just fight him again, then."
Meanwhile, Banner — thoroughly convinced he'd remained totally undetected — made his way steadily toward the New York Sanctum.
"Phew... made it here without any trouble." He gave himself a proud, satisfied little pat on the back for his flawless stealth work.
Little did he know, every step of his journey had been watched by half of Hell's Kitchen the whole way.
"There's a group of strangers on the battlefield — looks like they're from another universe. Should we bring them in?" Jean asked Professor X.
"No need. Leave it to Ethan. Don't forget what we actually came here to accomplish. We've clearly already done that, but let's make the most of the moment while we're here," Professor X said, shaking his head.
The whole point of this fight, for Xavier, had been reshaping mutants' image in the eyes of ordinary people — and by all accounts, it was working beautifully. Everything else, he trusted Ethan to handle; he had no doubt Ethan had already noticed these visitors himself.
"Hey, Hulk — looks like someone's impersonating you over there, skulking around all sneaky-like. Want to go grab him?" Doc Ock suggested.
"HULK!" the Hulk roared once, before switching back to Banner's own personality. Banner covered his face with both hands, visibly embarrassed on behalf of whatever alternate-universe version of himself he'd just seen.
That other-universe Banner really doesn't seem all that bright, huh.
"It's fine, though — Strange is over there. He'll handle it."
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