Chapter 327: Different Universes, Different Fates
Once Dr. Banner had finished explaining, Steve and the others realized just how out of line they'd been.
They still didn't have the full picture, but one thing was obvious: these two men had genuinely come here to help them. And they'd nearly come to blows over it. That one was squarely on them.
"I'm really sorry — we overstepped just now." Steve stepped forward immediately, his apology sincere.
He was terrified that his own recklessness might have just cost them the loan of the Infinity Stone.
Ethan could plainly see the worry written across Steve's face, and cut the tension with a joke. "You've got guests standing right here, and nobody's even offering coffee or tea?"
Hearing that, the group relaxed — clearly, Ethan wasn't holding a grudge over what had just happened.
"So — you're from some parallel universe, here to help us. How many Infinity Stones do you actually have on you?" Fat Thor asked, hands resting on his considerable belly.
At the question, Nebula, standing off to the side, gave a sharp flicker of interest in her eyes.
"Three. Two on me, one with Strange," Ethan answered, taking a sip of his tea.
At that, Thor stepped forward and clapped a hand on the shoulder of a visibly unenthused Strange. "Buddy! Didn't think I'd get to see you again."
Strange frowned at the gesture and shifted his weight sideways, subtly sliding out from under Thor's arm.
As far as he recalled, he and Thor had never been anywhere near this friendly — even in his own timeline, the two of them had only ever met once.
"So — the me in this universe really did die," Strange said, curious. Banner had mentioned it earlier in passing, but he still wanted the full story.
"He's dead," Tony said flatly, though something distant crept into his eyes as he said it.
Silence settled over the group for a moment — maybe from thoughts of comrades lost in the old war, or maybe from thoughts of Natasha, so recently gone.
Strange opened his mouth, ready to press for details — he wanted to know exactly how he'd died, so he could prepare himself accordingly.
But Ethan cut in first. "Tony, you're looking a lot older these days."
Ethan meant it as a distraction, but it wasn't wrong — Tony genuinely did look older. The gray hair, the wrinkles — this Tony looked to have aged well over twenty years more than the one Ethan knew back home.
The comment pulled Tony back out of his own thoughts. "The version of me in your world does seem pretty close to you, apparently. And yeah — younger than me. Still every bit as full of himself, though."
"Ah — so you've actually met the Tony from our world," Ethan said, surprised. He hadn't expected this Tony to have crossed paths with his own timeline's Tony at all.
"Yeah. Actually, I owe you an apology for that." Tony gave Ethan an apologetic look. Ethan said nothing, waiting.
Tony continued. "I was going to try sneaking into Hell's Kitchen to steal an Infinity Stone. Didn't even get started before I got caught."
The moment Ethan heard that, he understood — this Tony must have figured out somehow that he was holding Infinity Stones, and had gone looking to lift one straight from his home.
"The Infinity Stones have been with me the whole time," Ethan said.
Seeing that Ethan wasn't holding it against him, Tony pressed on, curious. "But it sounds like your world's Tony figured out who I was in the end — and he even knew about my daughter. Does that mean he's already been to other parallel universes? Or did you tell him?"
Tony couldn't fathom how the other Tony could possibly know about Morgan's existence. He'd checked the records himself — that universe's Tony hadn't married or had kids yet.
Unless that Tony had somehow traveled to other parallel universes himself, there was no other way he could have known.
Then again, Tony had also done some digging on Ethan — and found that this Ethan standing in front of him had a habit of disappearing every so often, which strongly suggested trips to other parallel realities.
"That's right. I told him. I have been to a few parallel universes, yes," Ethan answered calmly.
Captain America couldn't hold back any longer either, and stepped forward with his own question.
"Why does your world have a Captain Carter? What exactly is going on over there?"
At Steve's question, the rest of the Avengers turned toward Ethan too, equally curious about what this other parallel universe actually looked like.
"Mm. Our world's pretty different from yours. I imagine Dr. Banner and Tony already have a decent picture of it, though." Ethan's gaze shifted to Banner and Tony.
One of them had seen it firsthand, after all — the other had read up on it online.
"That's right. It's honestly hard to believe. And more than a little enviable," Banner said, nodding in agreement.
"Their world doesn't just have mutants — they've got a whole lot of superheroes and superhero organizations we don't even have here," Banner explained.
"And a lot of that's probably down to Ethan himself," Tony added.
"In their universe, the Chitauri invasion force was actually stronger than the one we fought — but the number of superheroes who showed up for the Battle of New York was something like a hundred times what we had," Banner went on.
"That's right. A lot more people showed up to fight on our side, which meant the pressure on any one of us wasn't nearly as heavy," Ethan confirmed.
With Ethan's explanation laid out, and Banner filling in the gaps alongside him, the Avengers present were starting to get a real sense of just how different Ethan's universe was from their own.
A clear picture of that world was forming in every one of their minds now.
Envy. Awe. Sheer power. Those three words kept circling through their heads, over and over.
Especially looking at the unassuming young man standing in front of them — because according to Banner, this was the same man who'd single-handedly wiped out the entire Chitauri invasion force by himself.
That fact alone hit them hard. Several of the Avengers present had personally lived through their own Battle of New York — they remembered all too well how much trouble that single Chitauri army had given them. That memory hadn't faded one bit, even now.
And this young man in front of them hadn't just wiped out an entire Chitauri army — apparently one of Thanos's own generals, Corvus Glaive, had been taken down by people under his command.
Whether you measured by raw numbers or by sheer quality of superheroes, Ethan's universe was leagues ahead of their own, no contest.
What struck them even harder: this time around, there hadn't been many casualties at all. Mostly economic damage.
Money lost could always be earned back. A life lost was gone for good.
So compared to money, life was what actually mattered.
Honestly, standing here now, these Avengers found themselves genuinely, deeply envious of Ethan and his world.
And every word of it was quietly being recorded by Nebula, standing at the back of the group.
Aboard a starship, somewhere out in the void—
"Interesting. Another visitor from a displaced timeline, hm? Let's see if you're really as capable as they say."
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