"Oh? You're back?"
Tony Stark greeted Ethan with a surprised look, as if he had just noticed him.
But Ethan had been standing there for a while. Others might not have seen him because their backs were turned, but Tony Stark, who was facing him directly, absolutely couldn't have just noticed him.
There were also many people present who were sharp-witted and constantly alert.
For example, Ada, who was always on guard, Logan, with his sharp senses and astonishing sense of smell, and Happy, who faithfully performed his duty as a bodyguard—this guy just happened to be standing next to Tony and could clearly see Ethan.
"Are things done? Did you see Thor?"
"I did, and we talked for a while. Thor really wants to visit Earth, but there's a lot going on in Asgard right now. He needs to travel to several places to suppress rebellions."
Tony hadn't expected the Norse God of Thunder to be involved in something like that. Going to the front lines to quell rebellions felt like a topic far removed from his world. Although he came from a background as a weapons manufacturer, Tony was more like a hothouse flower, mostly immersed in research.
Even now, as Iron Man, having personally experienced quite a few battles, he still hadn't encountered situations like that.
His impressions of things like quelling war and chaos mostly came from entertainment media like novels and movies, and what came to mind were some overly dramatized "artistic" scenes.
"That's a shame. I was looking forward to seeing that guy."
In any case, he wouldn't be seeing Thor anytime soon. Tony quickly put the legendary god of thunder out of his mind and beckoned everyone to continue drinking and eating barbecue.
Through their interactions so far, and with Logan and Laura serving as intermediaries, Tony already knew what kind of people were in Ethan's new team.
In fact, Pepper Potts had used her excellent social skills to gather information on these people, and Tony had simply listened in.
With precedents like Arthur, Diana, and Logan, Tony wasn't surprised to see all kinds of strange characters among Ethan's companions.
So when he heard that Selene was a vampire who had lived for over six hundred years, his first reaction wasn't fear or disgust, but curiosity about a humanoid creature that survived by drinking blood. He really wanted to understand how a vampire could live on blood alone.
Ethan's appearance had already made him realize that many things couldn't be explained perfectly by modern science. But he was still used to analyzing everything from a scientific point of view. Or rather, he was doing his best to understand many mysterious things through a scientific lens, believing that if he succeeded, he would step into a broader field.
The mummy who had lived for over three thousand years also piqued his curiosity, but Imhotep was now fully resurrected. Together with Anck-su-namun, they were no different from ordinary people. After learning this, Tony thought of Ethan's previous promise but managed to keep his emotions in check.
However, the people who truly surprised Tony weren't Selene or Imhotep, but the ordinary individuals like Annette and Evelyn.
He couldn't figure out what role these people played in Ethan's team.
Through some casual conversations, he learned that Annette was a scientist. She had once assisted her husband in creating a terrifying virus. She had deep expertise in related fields and an above-average understanding of other disciplines. In short, she was a researcher and appeared to be handling logistics in Ethan's team.
Shirley, her daughter, was probably a bonus. Tony didn't pay her much attention beyond thinking that the little girl was cute and much more obedient than Laura had been at that age.
As for Evelyn and her brother, and O'Connell, he had no idea what purpose they served. However, Ada Wong did catch his interest a little more.
Evelyn was a very naive woman, and since she wasn't wary of Tony, Ethan's friend, she had already revealed that their boarding the ship had been an accident.
Ada was different. She had been personally invited by Ethan. As far as Tony knew, Ethan had only ever invited two people to join his team: one was Logan, and the other was Ada.
Others like Arthur, Diana, and so on had either been entrusted to him to temporarily accompany him on his adventures, or they had joined for a visit and left when they had enough.
Loki was with Ethan under the guise of exile, due to his relationship with Odin, the All-Father.
Although quite a few people had appeared around Ethan, most hadn't been actively brought along by him. So Tony was especially curious about Ada, who had received a personal invitation.
The biggest reason? Even he, Tony Stark, had never received an invitation from Ethan!
Even if Ethan had invited him, he wouldn't have left his vast empire behind to follow him into unfamiliar worlds.
But not wanting to go and not being invited at all were two very different things. Tony absolutely couldn't accept being outdone.
His thoughts were quickly picked up on by Pepper. Based on their previous interactions, Pepper simply gave her assessment: "Don't underestimate this woman. I feel like she's the same type as Natasha Romanoff."
Tony immediately understood. This woman was an elite agent—or rather, a super spy—just like Black Widow.
"Why would you want to recruit an agent?"
"Sometimes, you really need people like that." Ethan ignored Tony's disdainful look, glanced at the drinks, and casually opened a can of cola. "When I choose companions, do you know what the most important factor is?"
"What is it?" Tony was very curious about Ethan's selection criteria, and he also wanted to know where he himself had fallen short.
"Pleasing to the eye!" Ethan answered while sipping his drink. "For my companions, of course, I choose people I find pleasing to the eye."
He would absolutely never cause trouble for himself. If someone irritated him just by being around, no matter how beneficial they might be, he would never allow them on his ship.
Don't assume Arthur and Loki were forced on him. The prerequisite was that he could accept them. Otherwise, no matter how great the benefits, he would have refused.
Tony clearly misunderstood. He turned to look at Ada, who wasn't far away. This elite spy always paid great attention to her appearance and knew exactly what kinds of outfits best highlighted her figure and temperament. So Tony immediately interpreted Ethan's "pleasing to the eye" a certain way.
"If that's your standard... what about Logan?"
"Huh?"
Ethan immediately realized what Tony was thinking. He could only shake his head in exasperation, not even bothering to explain.
How could he explain it? Should he say, "It's not what you think!" That sounded even more suspicious. Besides, did he really have no such thoughts when inviting Ada? As an honest man, Ethan never lied to others—or to himself!
The small talk came to an end, and the two of them gradually moved away from the crowd, standing in a more secluded corner to talk about serious matters.
"About resurrecting your parents, I now have some confidence. But I can't guarantee success, and I'm not sure what kind of side effects there might be."
Ethan's past attempts were in other universes. He couldn't be sure whether the spell would cause issues in this one. To prevent Tony from having overly high expectations, he decided to temper them appropriately.
"I'm not some impulsive young man. I can already guess the possible consequences."
Tony wasn't young anymore. He knew how to think things through calmly. Besides, resurrecting the dead was something he'd never even dared to imagine before. If it really could be achieved, any outcome wouldn't surprise him. If it were too easy, Tony would feel something was wrong and wonder if he were dreaming.
"You don't need to worry too much. Even if it doesn't work this time, we can always look forward to the next."
Ethan truly wasn't worried at all. Even if he couldn't solve the problem in this movie universe, couldn't he just go to a more absurd anime world? He didn't believe those bizarre worlds couldn't solve the problem of resurrection.
So the real goal this time was to find the souls of Howard Stark and Maria Stark. As long as their souls were located, even if they couldn't be resurrected this time or summoned right away, once their location was confirmed, there would be endless hope for the future.
After explaining the plan to Tony, Tony also felt it was reasonable and well thought out. The next step was to find a suitable place to conduct the soul-summoning ritual.
To avoid offending powerful beings in this world or suffering backlash from some unknown rules, it would be best to hold the ritual in a special location.
"What kind of place would be suitable?"
"I'm going to ask the Ancient One at Kamar-Taj if she knows of any pocket dimensions that are closely connected to this world."
Such small worlds are attached to this universe and have a close enough connection to it so that they wouldn't find themselves unable to access this world's underworld once they got there.
And because these realms are relatively independent from the main world, if something goes wrong and they need to escape, the other side wouldn't be able to easily track them or retaliate through that space, helping them avoid the consequences of invoking forbidden forces.
Tony couldn't help with this kind of thing. He could only let Ethan handle it, offering support and helping prepare the items needed for the ritual.
Just as the two were discussing what they needed, a golden circle of light suddenly appeared in the open space nearby, and a bald woman in a blue-black robe stepped out.
It was none other than the Ancient One, the very person Ethan had just mentioned.
(To be continued.)