Thor ultimately could not keep his long hair. After being relentlessly mocked by the Avengers for his hairstyle, he obediently tidied up both his hair and beard.
However, he did not choose short hair either. His current look was similar to how he had looked when they first met him.
The person who cut his hair certainly was not Ethan. If Ethan had done it, he would have shaved off Thor's entire beard, given him a sharp short haircut, and then found him a black suit and sunglasses...
A refreshed Thor, holding his axe, felt his body filled with power. Now he was confident he could face Thanos one-on-one.
"I've recovered my strength. We don't need to wait for Carol anymore. Let's go directly and... revive Thanos."
"Don't rush. Thanos is already dead anyway. He can't run even if he wanted to."
Tony patted Thor's arm again. This time, it felt familiar.
"Besides, that guy is mine this time. Just watch me perform."
Tony's biggest goal in coming to this world was to meet his other self. From the moment he arrived, he used Jarvis to connect to this world's network and gather all sorts of information.
He knew that this world did not have Ethan's interference, so this world's Tony Stark should represent the future he would have had if he had never met Ethan.
Through the information gathered by Jarvis, he learned a lot about his situation in this world. He also noticed that he seemed to have found a successor, since Jarvis could connect to this world's Tony's various private databases, and this boy named Spider-Man, who was still a middle schooler, had also died in Thanos's Snap.
No wonder his self in this world looked so haggard. It was not just because he had been defeated. Deep down, he was also blaming himself.
Furthermore, his self in this world had already married Pepper and had a child.
After Ethan and Thor finished their sparring, Tony had been talking with this world's Tony Stark. He learned many things, and after everyone else went to rest, he found Ethan, who did not need rest and was still chatting with Thor.
"Ethan."
"What?"
"You should be able to see the future trajectory of this world, right?" Ethan controlled the rules of time, so even without the Time Stone, he should be able to glimpse various future possibilities like Strange and the Ancient One. "Just like Strange and the Ancient One."
"Yes, what about it?"
There was no need to deny this. In fact, if Tony could borrow the Time Stone, he could also do this, as he was already a powerful sorcerer and had experience using Infinity Stones himself.
"If the two of us hadn't come over, would their plan have gone smoothly?"
Ethan and Thor were both holding cups, but Thor's cup contained alcohol, while Ethan's contained iced cola. Before Tony arrived, Thor had been complaining that Ethan did not like drinking, wondering how they had become good friends.
So Ethan briefly told Thor how they had met in the other world.
Hearing that the Loki from another world was not only living well because of Ethan, but also wholeheartedly helping him govern Asgard, Thor suddenly understood why Ethan had become his other self's good brother.
Just then, Tony came over, and his question also piqued Thor's interest, making him swallow the words he had been about to say.
"Sounds interesting. You should be able to see it, right?"
"Yes."
Ethan looked at Tony, then at Thor.
"You both want to know?"
Both of them nodded. Ethan placed his cup aside and, while gesturing for Tony to sit down, cleared everything off the table.
"Can you let us see it together?"
"Of course. Don't be surprised. It's pretty much like watching a movie."
After clearing the table, he also turned off the lights in the room, leaving only the light emanating from the tabletop. After Ethan sat down as well, he lightly touched the light projection, which resembled a holographic image, and the scene began to play.
As the scene began to play, the first figures to appear were two people they were both very familiar with. These figures changed from simple coarse clothing, to hooded robes, then to golden Saint Seiya armor, and finally to Ethan in ordinary clothes, floating in midair and embracing the world.
After the character image froze, a line of large text flashed above the figure: Ethan Pictures!
"..."
Thor suddenly wanted to say something but did not know where to start. Just as he was about to ask Tony beside him, "Is this guy always like this?" the screen had already started showing familiar scenes.
The film began directly with the Avengers starting their test. Without Ethan's intervention, Hawkeye Clint successfully reached the predetermined location, returning to his home during the period before his wife and children were turned to dust by the Snap, and brought back an item.
This proved the feasibility of the Avengers' Time Heist plan. Next came discussing which points in time to choose and how to assign the teams.
At this point, the events on screen were significantly different from what they had experienced earlier. After the plan was finalized, the Avengers set off for their respective target locations.
Captain America, Iron Man, Ant-Man, and Hulk went to the Battle of New York. This team's goal was three Infinity Stones. Hulk went directly to the New York Sanctum to find the sorcerer guarding the Sanctum, Strange. They did not know that Strange had not become a sorcerer yet at that time.
Iron Man Tony and Captain America, using the convenience of their identities, prepared to trick the two Stones obtained by S.H.I.E.L.D. into their hands.
At first, the operation went smoothly, but no matter how precise the plan, accidents were unavoidable. So this team encountered many problems and ultimately could not collect all three planned Stones.
Banner successfully persuaded the Ancient One and borrowed the Time Stone. Captain America also successfully escaped from his other self and brought back the Mind Stone.
"Wait, why couldn't Steve defeat his past self? Has he gotten weaker over the years? At that time, he had just woken up from being frozen and shouldn't have been in peak condition, right?"
Ethan spread his hands, only able to explain, "Maybe Steve couldn't bring himself to be ruthless toward himself?"
This explanation seemed plausible. However, considering Captain America could eventually turn into an old man, the serum's effect was clearly inferior to the comic book version, so it might also be due to declining physical fitness.
The exact situation could only be known through examination, but the two beside him did not dwell on this issue and continued watching the screen before them.
While the three of them were watching the movie, Steve and Natasha, who could not sleep, also came over. They did not speak. They simply stood beside them and quietly joined the movie-watching team.
Because the Space Stone was taken by Loki, their team's mission was considered a failure. To compensate, Tony came up with a new target point in time. He and Steve decided to go to an earlier era of S.H.I.E.L.D. to steal the Tesseract.
This time, things went smoothly. They even found Pym Particles to replenish their loss, allowing them to return successfully after obtaining the Tesseract.
However, this mission also laid the groundwork for Steve's subsequent choice.
As this part played, Natasha specifically looked at Steve beside her. Although the resolution had not been shown yet, she already had a premonition about some things.
After this team's mission process finished playing, it was Rocket Raccoon and Thor's turn to go to Asgard. Their mission was relatively smoother. Thor and Rocket Raccoon not only obtained the Aether, but Thor also conveniently took Mjolnir with him.
Seeing himself do this in the footage, Thor immediately understood the reason and turned to glance at Steve behind him.
Next was the team of War Machine Rhodey, Nebula, Hawkeye, and Black Widow. They would split into two groups, going to get the Power Stone and the Soul Stone respectively.
There was not much to say about the Power Stone. When it came to the Soul Stone, they finally saw the sacrifice scene Ethan had mentioned. Black Widow and Hawkeye competed to sacrifice themselves, and ultimately Black Widow won. She sacrificed herself to help Hawkeye obtain the Soul Stone.
Regardless, the Stones were all collected, but a hidden danger was left behind. Nebula's appearance attracted the attention of the parallel world's Thanos. Because of Nebula's special physique, that world's Thanos learned everything, then copied the Avengers' time travel technology and came over from the parallel world.
Although they collected all the Infinity Stones and resurrected the lives turned to dust by Hulk's snap, the Avengers had to face a more enraged Thanos.
There was not much to say about the final battle. After a chaotic free-for-all, Tony snatched the Infinity Gauntlet and, with a snap, annihilated Thanos and his subordinates. Iron Man's curtain thus fell...
"Wait!"
The screen froze. Tony pointed at Iron Man, who had already passed away on the screen, and looked at Ethan in disbelief.
"I died?"
Ethan spread his hands. He had not done any magical modifications. Without his meddling, this was Iron Man's final battle.
"Why didn't Strange use the Time Stone to restore me?"
Ethan continued to spread his hands. How would he know why? Maybe Strange did not like him? There could only be one Sherlock Holmes in the Marvel universe? He had taken a bribe from Pepper?
"Maybe the backlash from the Infinity Gauntlet made it impossible to use the Time Stone's power to recover?"
This was not Ethan's answer, but Steve's guess. In the previous scene, when Banner snapped his fingers, he had also wanted to resurrect Natasha but did not succeed.
"Do you want to keep watching?"
"No need. It's meaningless."
Tony pouted. He was very dissatisfied with this ending. Although it was a tragic death and looked very heroic, it did not suit his preference.
If he did not like it, he had to change everything. Fortunately, their arrival meant that this ending was absolutely impossible to happen again.
(To be continued.)