Chapter 317: The Time Stone Secured
"Who ARE you? Why are you impersonating Steve?!" Captain Carter demanded, dropping into a fighting stance, staring down this stranger wearing Steve's exact face.
Captain Carter had volunteered for the serum experiment after Steve's disappearance, and her transformation had only just been completed.
By all rights, she should still have needed time to adjust to her newly enhanced body — but seeing Captain America go down against one of the Black Order on the battlefield, she couldn't stand waiting around any longer and rushed out to help.
The moment she stepped outside, though, she ran straight into this suspicious, furtive figure — and it set her off instantly. As far as she was concerned, whoever this was wearing Steve's face had to be either an infiltrator, or some clone S.H.I.E.L.D. had cooked up in a lab somewhere.
Either possibility left her equally furious and disgusted.
"Wait — just let me explain!" future-Captain-America shouted, desperation and exasperation both creeping into his voice.
He tried to explain who he was and why he was here, but Carter had already run out of patience.
"I don't need your explanation!" she snarled, swinging her shield and launching a furious assault straight at him.
Future-Steve was completely and thoroughly overwhelmed at this point. What is WRONG with this world? Nothing here has matched history the way I remember it.
He'd searched everywhere and found no trace of Loki, no sign of the Mind Stone — and now, out of nowhere, he'd run straight into Peggy Carter, of all people. Except somehow, impossibly, she was the one wearing Captain America's uniform now.
In his own universe's timeline, Peggy Carter had lived out a long life and died of old age. So how, in this one, had she become Captain America herself?
What in the world has happened to this place?
Meanwhile, the man ultimately responsible for this whole universe's divergence from every other timeline — Ethan — had just finished borrowing the Time Stone from Strange.
「DING!」
「Time Stone detected in Host's possession!」 The System's calm, mechanical voice rang out in Ethan's mind. He couldn't hold back a flicker of a smile — he knew exactly what this meant: another leap forward in power was coming.
「System now absorbing energy!」 The instant the notification finished, Ethan felt a surge of power pouring out of the Stone in his grip, flowing steadily into his body.
He could feel it clearly, that power threading through him, trickling into every corner of his being like a gentle stream.
「System entering upgrade phase. Estimated time: 24 hours.」 The System's voice sounded once more. Ethan understood: for the next full day, the System would be offline entirely — but on the other side of it, his power would take a genuine leap forward.
Ethan also understood the Time Stone couldn't leave his side for the duration of that day — which meant even his planned trip to help Banner's team in the other universe would have to wait a day or two.
For now, though — rest sounded pretty good.
Ethan took a slow breath, letting his excitement settle, and headed back to the Lucky Dragon.
By the time he arrived, the restaurant was already blazing with light, packed full of noise and warmth. His people sat gathered around the tables, laughing, eating, celebrating. Seeing him walk in, they all rose at once to greet him.
"Not bad, Ethan — that new magic trick of yours is seriously cool!" Pietro said, clapping him on the shoulder, a note of genuine admiration and envy in his voice.
"Master Ethan, that's just not fair," Tobey-Peter grumbled, pouting. "I barely had time to rack up any Friend Points before you cleared the whole field."
He looked a little put out, sure — but mostly, what shone through was pure admiration.
Ethan laughed and shook his head, walked into the middle of the group, and clapped his hands together. "Good work today, everyone. We couldn't have pulled this off without every single one of you. On behalf of all of us — thank you." His voice rang with genuine warmth and gratitude, and everyone in the room felt it settle over them, warm and reassuring.
"We were just doing what needed doing. Hell's Kitchen's part of the Big Apple too, after all," Daredevil said, eyes closed, his voice low but steady with conviction.
"I believe after today, ordinary people's opinion of mutants is going to improve significantly. We were only ever fighting to protect ourselves, in the end," Professor X said calmly.
Simple as his words were, they captured exactly what they'd all been hoping for.
Everyone had gotten something out of this fight, one way or another.
"Still — Manhattan really did take a beating this time. Won't be bouncing back anytime soon. No telling how many people just lost their homes," Fisk said, brow furrowed, clearly troubled.
The moment he said it, the restaurant's cheerful noise dimmed noticeably. Everyone knew it too — victory or not, Manhattan wasn't recovering from this in a year, maybe not even two. The warm atmosphere in the room shifted, laughter fading into something heavier, more subdued.
Ethan took a deep breath. He knew this was exactly the moment someone needed to step up and give people something to hold onto.
There's nothing to be done about it. War's always ugly. We did everything we could.
Cleaning up the aftermath — that's the federal government's job now. What we CAN do is help the people this war left with nowhere to go.
"Exactly. Nobody in here should be beating themselves up over this. If we hadn't stepped in, this whole fight might've gone very differently," Tony chimed in.
"Don't worry — Stark Industries will fund relief efforts for everyone displaced."
"And Hell's Kitchen's got its own next move ready to go," Ethan said, calm and steady.
Every eye in the room turned to him at once, curiosity plain on every face. What exactly did Hell's Kitchen have planned next?
Had Ethan already seen this whole situation coming?
"Hell's Kitchen is, right now, the only part of the entire Big Apple that came through this completely untouched," Ethan said, watching the room nod along in agreement before continuing. "So — I'm rolling out a Hell's Kitchen Talent Recruitment Initiative."
"Hell's Kitchen's talent pool is still too thin. Under normal circumstances, there's no way top-tier professionals would ever choose to move here. But things are different now. Most of Manhattan's elite have just lost their homes entirely. If we offer the right terms, we'll pull in some genuinely excellent people."
At the announcement, everyone in Hell's Kitchen nodded along without needing convincing.
Ethan laid out the plan in detail — generous compensation packages, a strong working environment, real room for growth, and more.
He promised Hell's Kitchen would do everything in its power to fully support whatever new talent came aboard.
And so Ethan rested through the night. The next morning, Hell's Kitchen found itself welcoming yet another visitor — one Ethan never could have predicted.
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