"To be honest," Tony Stark said lazily as he dropped onto the sofa, "I really liked Attilan. Especially those cute girls who grow bunny ears after Terrigenesis."
He pulled out his phone while speaking, still sounding far too relaxed for someone who had just returned to Earth.
Ethan Blake rolled his eyes.
"Go ahead," he said flatly. "I'll make sure Pepper hears that exact sentence."
Tony immediately coughed.
Wanda was standing right there. No matter what, Tony couldn't openly show how jealous he had been of the Inhumans' strange transformations.
Still, Ethan had to admit something privately.
Tony had enjoyed himself far too much during the past two days.
After Inhumans underwent Terrigenesis, their bodies evolved in strange ways. Many of them developed animal-like traits. Gorgon had hooves for legs. Others had fox tails, cat ears, or other unusual features.
Some of the younger Inhumans had ended up with fluffy rabbit ears.
Tony had nearly refused to come back to Earth.
If Ethan hadn't insisted on leaving, Tony probably would have stayed in Attilan for at least another week.
Ethan briefly considered something.
Maybe he should visit Attilan again sometime… secretly.
Tony suddenly frowned at his phone screen.
"Wait a minute… this can't be right."
He stared at the display in disbelief.
"More than seven hundred missed calls?!" Tony exclaimed. "I've only been gone for two days, not two years!"
Hearing that, Ethan instinctively pulled out his own phone.
The moment he unlocked the screen, more than three hundred missed call notifications appeared.
Most of them were from Natasha Romanoff and Phil Coulson.
Something was definitely wrong.
Ethan's brows slowly furrowed.
There shouldn't have been any major events happening during this time period.
Tony quickly called Pepper.
"Pepper, what's going on? Why were you calling me—"
He didn't get to finish.
Pepper's voice broke through the phone, filled with panic and tears.
"Oh my God! Tony, you're finally back! The president is dead! The Pentagon leadership is gone too! The whole country—no, the whole world—is in chaos!"
Tony's face froze.
Ethan was equally stunned.
They had only been gone for two days.
Had World War III started while they were away?
Or had Wanda accidentally opened a portal to some alternate universe?
Tony immediately softened his tone.
"Pepper, calm down," he said gently. "Where are you right now? I'll come get you."
"I'm at home," Pepper replied.
Tony turned to Wanda.
Without hesitation, Wanda flicked her hand.
A glowing crimson portal opened instantly.
Tony rushed through it.
"I'll check things out," he said quickly before disappearing.
Ethan turned toward Wanda and Pietro.
"You two stay here—"
"Ethan," Wanda interrupted immediately, sounding annoyed. "I'm not a kid anymore."
"Me neither," Pietro added.
Ethan looked at the determination in their eyes.
After a moment, he sighed.
"Fine," he said. "You're coming with me. But you follow my orders."
Both siblings nodded eagerly.
In truth, their abilities were already impressive.
Especially Wanda.
Between her chaos magic and her natural power, there were probably only two people on Earth who could defeat her with certainty—Ethan himself and the Ancient One.
The three of them stepped through the portal.
On the other side, Tony was already comforting Pepper.
"What happened?" Ethan asked.
Tony shook his head.
"I have no idea. I've been trying to calm Pepper down."
"J.A.R.V.I.S," Tony said immediately, "brief me on everything that happened while we were gone."
Fortunately, the AI assistant had already compiled the information.
"Sir," J.A.R.V.I.S began calmly, "during the past two days, the following major events occurred…"
As J.A.R.V.I.S explained, several video recordings appeared on the screen.
Tony's expression darkened rapidly.
"Where did S.H.I.E.L.D get arc reactors?" he muttered angrily. "And they built thirty thousand suits of armor?! Are they insane?!"
Ethan rubbed his forehead.
Originally, the Iron Legion had been Tony's creation.
But because Tony never built it this time, Ethan had assumed it would never appear.
Instead, S.H.I.E.L.D had created it themselves.
And just like in the original timeline…
Everything had gone completely out of control.
As for where S.H.I.E.L.D got the arc reactor technology, Ethan could guess easily.
If Tony hadn't built them, the only other person capable of doing it was Ivan Vanko.
At that moment, Ethan's phone began ringing.
Phil Coulson.
Ethan answered.
Before he could say anything, Coulson spoke urgently.
"Ethan, we need your help."
Ethan rolled his eyes.
Whenever people caused trouble, they always remembered him afterward.
But when something good happened, no one thought to invite him.
Still…
If HYDRA was involved, that meant one thing.
A massive amount of summoning energy.
Helping might actually be profitable.
"Where are you?" Ethan asked casually. "Send me a photo. We'll talk when I arrive."
Then he hung up.
Moments later, a photo arrived.
Ethan showed it to Wanda.
She raised her hand and opened another portal.
The group stepped through together.
Tony had already put on his armor.
A ring of fire suddenly appeared in the air inside a hidden safe house. The flames expanded into a circular gateway, and several figures stepped out.
Nick Fury and the others immediately drew their weapons.
But the moment they saw Ethan, everyone relaxed slightly.
"That's how you greet me?" Ethan asked, raising an eyebrow.
The guns were quickly lowered.
Coulson looked embarrassed.
"Sorry, Ethan," he said. "We didn't expect you to appear like that."
Ethan's gaze shifted to the hospital bed nearby.
Nick Fury lay there in terrible condition.
His body looked half-dead.
For some reason, Ethan suddenly felt very satisfied.
So the famous Director Fury could end up like this too.
"I told you a long time ago," Ethan said with a faint smirk. "S.H.I.E.L.D has serious problems. It should have been dismantled immediately."
Fury's expression darkened.
"But you never told me things would escalate to this level."
"If I had known, I would've taken action earlier."
Ethan shrugged.
"Really?"
He looked at Fury calmly.
"The future I originally saw wasn't like this. What I saw was the Insight Project. At the final moment, Captain America stopped it and barely saved the situation."
He paused briefly.
"But now things are worse."
Ethan spread his hands.
"You avoided the Insight Project, but you created an even bigger disaster instead."
His tone turned serious.
"That's why I'm always reluctant to reveal too much about the future."
"When you try to play with time…"
Ethan looked around the room slowly.
"…time eventually starts playing with you."
Inside his mind, Ethan sighed quietly.
The timeline was already a mess.
Being a "prophet" was becoming increasingly difficult.
If this continued, these people would start expecting him to solve every problem in the world.
That definitely wasn't happening.
Nick Fury, Coulson, Natasha, and even Captain America had all quietly blamed Ethan for not warning them earlier.
After all, if he had predicted this disaster, couldn't it have been prevented?
But now, hearing Ethan's explanation, those complaints slowly faded.
What he said made sense.
They had tried to manipulate the future.
Now the future had retaliated.
....
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