Chapter 115: Everyone at the Homestead
The system, when Ethan thought to ask, explained the return mechanics simply: Family members who wanted to leave the Homestead would simply return to wherever they'd come from. Coming back was equally simple — think the words, and the Homestead answered.
So people are just going to materialize in the restaurant, Ethan thought. I should warn May.
He hadn't quite finished the thought when the first transfer arrived.
John Wick appeared in the exact spot he'd been sitting.
He looked around. Looked at Ethan. Looked at the restaurant interior, which was exactly the same as when he'd left it approximately fifteen seconds ago.
"The Homestead," John said, "is the restaurant."
"It is."
"I transferred from the entrance to the booth area."
"You did."
John sat down with the equanimity of a man who had decided, some time ago, that the world was going to continue doing inexplicable things and the only reasonable response was to have tea about it.
The second arrival surprised Ethan.
Matt Murdock materialized in the middle of the floor, oriented himself with the immediate spatial awareness that didn't require eyes, and stood very still while he processed what had just happened.
Ethan checked the system log.
Matt Murdock — Family. Upgrade pending notification delivered retroactively.
Right, he thought. The system was upgrading when he accepted. It counted.
This meant Matt was Family without either of them having been told at the time, which was the kind of administrative surprise Ethan was going to need to think about more carefully going forward.
"Matt," he said. "Welcome. I'll explain in a few minutes when everyone's here."
Matt nodded with the composure of someone processing a significant amount of information and choosing to reserve his reaction for later. He found a wall to stand near and waited.
Ethan introduced him to John.
Two men who were called Baba Yaga and Daredevil respectively stood next to each other in a restaurant and discovered they had very little to say.
"You can talk to the wall," Ethan suggested.
Neither of them acknowledged this.
The next three arrived together: Wade, horizontal and indignant, hit the floor with the energy of a man who had been teleported against his philosophical objections. Peter Parker (Tobey) landed on his feet and spent a moment taking in the restaurant with the wide-eyed attention of someone visiting a place they'd been told about. Harry Osborn looked around with the expression of a person calculating how much it would cost to redecorate.
"This is where you live?" Harry said, with the specific diplomatic neutrality of someone who wanted to say something more direct.
"This is where I work," Ethan said. "It's also the restaurant where I live. Yes."
"It's very..." Harry searched for the word.
"Honest," Peter supplied.
Harry decided that was acceptable.
Ethan looked at Wade, who was still lying on the floor with the attitude of a protest.
"I notice it's been quiet around here lately," Ethan said. He was definitely not going to acknowledge that he'd forgotten to summon Wade for most of a month. That would require admitting to having forgotten, and the situation did not require that kind of candor.
"I was comfortable," Wade said to the ceiling. "I had things. I had situations. I had a pool."
"You have a pool here."
"There's no pool here."
"There's space to make a pool."
Wade considered this. "How much space?"
"As much as we pay for."
Wade sat up. "I'm listening."
Wanda came in at velocity, which meant the restaurant door opened and then she was there, and there was a short gap between those two events that most people wouldn't have noticed.
She looked at Ethan with the expression of someone who had crossed several city blocks at speed and was now performing a rapid threat assessment and finding nothing threatening.
"You're fine," she said, in the tone of someone making a statement that was also a question.
"I'm fine," he said. "I was just setting up the new feature."
"The voice in my head said—"
"It just said your name was authorized. Nothing else." He looked at her. "You flew here from Midtown."
"I walked very quickly," Wanda said.
She had chaotic energy dissipating around her hands that was visible to anyone who knew what to look for, which in this room was most of the occupants. She composed it back into nothing and found a seat near Ethan with the particular quality of someone who had decided their current position in the room was appropriate and was not going to discuss it further.
Across the room, Harry and Peter exchanged a look.
Harry mouthed something.
Peter nodded slowly.
John Wick, who had been observing all of this, smoothly redirected both teenagers toward the expanded section of the restaurant with the offer of a tour before they could continue speculating audibly.
The remaining arrivals came in clusters over the next half hour.
Doc Ock appeared and immediately found Tony, because Tony was the only person in the room who could generate a conversation at his level, and they resumed something that had apparently been ongoing since their first meeting. Sandman materialized and took a seat quietly, the sand at his edges barely moving in the way it did when he was at ease.
Marcus came in, looked at the room, found a spot at the bar, and ordered coffee with the economy of a man who had been in unusual situations before and had learned to prioritize refreshment. Frank Castle appeared and stood near the wall with the same wall-standing energy as Matt Murdock, and the two of them were now separated by approximately eight feet of floor space, which was apparently the natural distance at which two very dangerous men with no-kill codes reached equilibrium.
Caine arrived with Little Ye, who looked at the room full of extraordinary people and immediately went to find Richard Fisk, because Richard was her age and that was the most straightforwardly useful thing in the environment.
Pietro had materialized directly in the kitchen, in his bathrobe, which suggested he'd been sleeping when the notification arrived and had not been fully awake for the transfer. He emerged looking approximately normal within two minutes, which was either impressive adaptation or the specific efficiency of a speedster.
Kingpin and Vanessa arrived last.
They had, in fact, finished their shopping.
Fisk came through the door — the actual door, not a dimensional transfer — carrying two bags and looking at the full room with the expression of a man surveying something that had happened very fast.
"We went to three stores," he said.
"The timing worked out," Ethan said.
"Richard!" Vanessa called, because Richard was immediately visible across the room with Little Ye, both of them apparently trying to explain something to Jessica Jones, who was listening with the guarded attention she brought to most things.
Richard waved. Then went back to explaining.
Fisk looked at the assembled Family — twenty-odd people in a restaurant that was considerably bigger on the inside than it appeared from the street, coming from at least three different universes, occupying an afternoon with the comfortable noise of people who had decided to be in the same place.
He set his bags down.
"Well," he said. "I suppose we should eat something."
Ethan looked at him.
"Yes," Ethan said. "I think that's exactly right."
☆☆☆
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