Chapter 306: Dr. Banner — "How Am I Supposed to Prove I'm Actually Me?"
Just as future-Banner leapt onto the rooftop, preparing to take off, he suddenly felt a powerful force clamp onto him, magnetic and unyielding.
Startled, he glanced down — and found a shimmering, orange-glowing energy whip had shot out from somewhere, coiling around his waist like a living serpent.
Before he could react, the force yanked him violently toward the ground.
The instant he hit the pavement, the world spun around him, the impact nearly knocking him unconscious.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself bound tight by the orange whip, completely immobilized, pinned flat to the ground as though nailed in place.
"Who's there?" Future-Banner struggled, throwing everything he had into breaking free. He looked up toward the direction of the attack and saw a figure step slowly out from the shadows beneath a bridge — a sorcerer in a red cape.
"You? Strange!" Recognition hit Banner instantly, and relief flooded through him.
He hadn't expected to run into his own Strange here, of all places — after all, back in the future, the two of them had fought side by side against countless enemies.
He assumed Strange had simply mistaken him for someone else, hence the binding.
"Let me go! I'm one of the good guys!" Banner called out, hoping to clear up the misunderstanding fast.
But Strange made no move to release him.
Facing this sudden stranger, Strange's brow furrowed, the whip's glow still pulsing with unmistakable menace. He fixed Banner with a wary, guarded stare instead. "Who are you? Why are you approaching this place?"
In this timeline, Strange had no idea who Banner even was — by the time Banner joined Hell's Kitchen, Strange had already been off training under the Ancient One at Kamar-Taj.
As for the past few days back at Kamar-Taj, Strange hadn't been wandering around much at all — he'd spent nearly every waking hour holed up in his apartment practicing magic. This world was simply too dangerous to risk otherwise.
Even the Strange currently standing in front of future-Banner was, in fact, only a clone.
It wasn't as if Strange had never heard the name at all — bits and pieces had drifted his way back at the Lucky Dragon, secondhand chatter about some group chat, bounties, a marketplace, that sort of thing.
Strange was plenty curious about it, sure, but it wasn't in his nature to go actively seek Ethan out and ask to be added. As far as Strange understood Ethan, he figured the man would add him to the group whenever the moment felt right.
Had Ethan been here, he'd probably have said: It's not that I don't want you in the group, man — it's that your Friendship Level hasn't hit the max yet. How am I supposed to add you?
Hearing Strange's response, it finally clicked for future-Banner — in this timeline, Strange simply didn't know who he was.
With that realization, Banner tried a proper introduction. "I'm Dr. Banner. Part of the Avengers. I've traveled here from the future — I'm looking for you, actually, to get the Time Stone!"
"The Time Stone? From the future?" Strange found himself almost losing interest in continuing this conversation at all — this self-proclaimed 'Dr. Banner' sounded, to his ears, completely unhinged.
Strange had no idea what a "Time Stone" even was — in this timeline, the Ancient One hadn't handed it off to him yet.
As for time travel or parallel universes — Strange had heard about those secondhand, through Ethan, and had even witnessed evidence of other-universe visitors before. But "the future" specifically was something he'd never once heard mentioned. His gut instinct told him something was seriously off about this man.
Strange didn't personally know Banner, but living in Hell's Kitchen, even secondhand, meant he'd absorbed enough gossip to know Banner turned into a big green guy.
The trouble was, the real Banner was currently very much still active on the battlefield.
Strange glanced off in the distance, and sure enough — there was the Hulk, tearing through Chitauri soldiers with wild abandon. Even in a crowd full of superheroes, the Hulk was impossible to miss; Strange had spotted him instantly.
If the real Banner was still fighting out there, then was this person actually telling the truth about being some future version of him?
Strange dismissed that possibility almost immediately. Couldn't this self-proclaimed "future Banner" just as easily be someone in disguise, or using some power to mimic the look? Someone here specifically to breach the New York Sanctum, maybe? Strange himself had only arrived at the Sanctum for the first time in the past couple of days — and this "future Banner" somehow already knew about it too. That reeked of a setup.
With that thought, Strange found himself genuinely weighing whether to just kill the intruder on the spot — but what if he really was telling the truth?
Damn it. This would be so much easier if Ethan were here. Man's clearly been slacking — how's he not wrapped up his fight yet? Strange grumbled internally. If Ethan were around, he could tell in an instant whether this guy was lying.
As for bringing the man to Ethan directly — Strange didn't even consider it. Far too dangerous. Ethan was smack in the middle of the battlefield's epicenter; if someone ambushed him while he was distracted, it could genuinely cost him his life.
Which left, as far as Strange could see, exactly one option.
With that, Strange turned to the self-proclaimed future-Banner and asked, "How do you intend to prove you're actually Dr. Banner?"
At the question, future-Banner just stared, utterly baffled. How am I supposed to prove I'm actually me? He didn't exactly have his ID card or driver's license on him.
Who travels through time carrying their driver's license, seriously?
Doesn't the fact that I'm literally green skin already prove I'm Banner?
What decent, law-abiding citizen just happens to have green skin, anyway?
"I really am Banner! Just give me the Time Stone already! This isn't funny, Strange!" future-Banner shouted, panic creeping into his voice. He was genuinely running out of time — if he didn't secure the Time Stone within the allotted window, he'd be pulled back to the future automatically, and that future was doomed either way, since they didn't have enough energy left for a second Quantum jump.
With that thought driving him, future-Banner threw everything he had into breaking free of the restraints.
Strange glanced over at Banner's futile struggling. "Don't bother wasting your energy. That whip's a modified version of my own design — the harder you struggle, the tighter it gets. Keep it up and you'll strangle yourself to death."
"Tell you what. Answer a few questions for me, and I'll believe you're genuinely Dr. Banner from the future. I'll take you to see the Ancient One myself. I don't actually have a Time Stone on me — but maybe she can give you the answer you're looking for."
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