Chapter 206: Hey — You There, With the Pink Camera
Before heading upstairs, Ethan paused.
Harry was sitting at one of the restaurant tables looking like he'd left part of himself in another universe. Which, in fairness, he had.
"What's going on?" Ethan asked, as if he didn't know. "You saved a version of your father. Shouldn't you be in a better mood?"
"I'm fine," Harry said, with the specific flatness of someone who is not fine. "I'm just — thinking about whether that helmet will actually hold. It's a prototype. I don't know how long the suppression lasts."
"Instead of sitting here worrying about it," Ethan said, "why not bring him here? Xavier can finish the job properly. Get rid of the Goblin personality entirely."
He didn't wait for a response.
A flash of light. The Homestead function activated.
Norman Osborn materialized in the middle of the Lucky Dragon dining room, still wearing the suppressor helmet, looking around with complete bewilderment.
"Where — how did I—"
He saw Harry.
"Harry. My son."
He crossed the distance in three steps and pulled him into a hug that left no room for anything else.
Harry held on. His eyes were wet before he had time to decide they shouldn't be. He hadn't thought he'd get another chance at this — and here it was, handed to him by someone who hadn't even hesitated.
He looked up at Ethan over his father's shoulder.
"Thank you."
Ethan shook his head. "Don't thank me. Catch up with him. If you want to show him around while he's here, just say so."
He left them to it and went upstairs.
He settled onto the couch in his room and took stock of what the trip had actually produced.
Results, honestly, were mixed.
Family acquired: Garfield-Peter, Holland-Peter, Dr. Connors, Strange, Tony, and Osborn — six total. But only three of those were actually usable right now. The other three — Holland-Peter, Strange, Tony — were sealed, locked behind the timeline-lock the system had explained in Ch.196. He couldn't call them into the Homestead, couldn't leverage the relationship, until he reached the point in his own timeline where he'd originally met them.
Holland-Peter had been at five stars until the very moment Ethan arrived back in his own universe, when the notification had finally come through. Three Family Points total from the whole trip.
Still — he'd confirmed things that mattered. He knew his future self would cross into Earth-1999999 during a major battle. He'd made contact with the Spider-Society and established terms with Miguel. He'd picked up a dimensional watch and a cross-universe communicator. And a loose roster of Spider-Men with varying feelings about him had inexplicably started adding him as a one-star friend, for reasons he was looking forward to eventually understanding.
The immediate task: find Martin Lee — Mister Negative — plus Cloak and Dagger, and bring them into the fold before whatever disaster future-Ethan had been trying to prevent arrived on schedule.
The medium-term task: figure out what the Illuminati situation was actually about, and prepare for Ming and Lady Kaitou's arrival, because Strange had basically just told him they were coming.
On the Ming question specifically — Ethan was clear-eyed about the math. Kamen Rider Eternal versus a man with INCA power was probably close to fifty-fifty on a good day. If Ming activated the Purple Light, or shifted into the Twenty-One Rider Lord form — the one covered head to toe in cards — Ethan was going to have a bad time.
He'd briefly considered using his other powers to compensate.
Then he'd decided against it. This was Rider versus Rider. There was a way these things were supposed to go, and showing up to a Rider battle with a Gravity-Gravity Fruit felt like cheating in a way he couldn't quite justify even to himself.
Besides — he wanted Ming's friendship gauge to move in the right direction. A proper Rider fight was probably the fastest way to get there. And if he managed to impress him, the potential gains were significant. Ming's card collection made the system's gacha look like a coin toss.
Which reminded him.
"System. Gacha. Now."
「Congratulations, Host! EVOL Driver acquired!」
Ethan stared at the belt. "You give me the driver but not the bottles? What exactly am I supposed to do with—"
"Another pull."
「Congratulations, Host! Killbus Spider Fullbottle acquired!」
He looked at the red bottle in his hand for a long, quiet moment.
Killbus Spider. From Kamen Rider Build.
The villain's bottle.
He turned it over a few times, thinking. With the EVOL Driver and the Killbus Spider Fullbottle—
Could I actually pass for a Spider-Society member?
He genuinely considered the naming question for several seconds. Hell Spider? Killbus Spider-Man? Neither of those was quite right. He'd have to think about it.
At approximately the same moment, somewhere inside the S.H.I.E.L.D. building, a dimensional wall that had no business existing opened up.
Two figures stepped through.
The first wore a magenta camera on a strap around his neck. His hair looked like it had been styled by someone who had a personal grudge against him. He looked around the lobby with the mildly offended expression of a man who had seen better universes.
"If I hadn't sensed a new Rider power emerging here, I wouldn't have bothered crossing over," he muttered, mostly to himself. "The navigation alone is exhausting."
The second man held what appeared to be a toy gun and was surveying the room with the cheerful curiosity of someone at a buffet.
"This is a different universe?" he said, delighted. "I can already smell the treasures."
"I'm warning you, Kaito — there are people in this universe who could put both of us down without breaking a sweat." The camera-wearing man's voice had an edge to it. "Do not get cocky. And don't expect me to pull you out of anything."
Before either of them could continue the conversation, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent appeared from around the corner, clipboard in hand, looking exactly as irritated as someone who'd just watched two people materialize through a hole in reality had every right to be.
"Hey. You — yeah, you, with the pink camera. And your friend. Come with me. I'll take you to check in."
The camera-wearing man looked down at the device on his chest, then back up at the agent.
"Magenta," he said.
The agent was already walking. He didn't acknowledge the correction.
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