He certainly knew the woman standing before him, wearing a red leather jacket and a black skirt. Wanda Maximoff, code-named Scarlet Witch.
Wanda and Quicksilver, Pietro Maximoff, were twin siblings. In the comic universe, they were older sister and younger brother. Due to certain special reasons, in the movie universe, their superpowers came from Hydra's human experiments.
However, in this timeline, already altered by Ethan, these two shouldn't have had the opportunity to gain the same powerful superpowers through Hydra's experiments as in the original plot. The key to that experiment's success was Hydra obtaining Loki's scepter, which concealed the Mind Stone.
That scepter was now in Loki's possession, and the stone hidden inside had already been removed by Ethan long ago. It was currently stored in Asgard, under the safekeeping of the Asgardians.
Simply put, the Mind Stone was now under Loki's control. With Thor mastering the Power Stone as well, the two brothers' power had increased far beyond the original storyline. Combined with their powerful equipment, including the Infinity Stones, Asgard's combat strength had increased many times over. In this situation, Thanos couldn't easily take the Stones, let alone Hydra.
Without the Stones, these two would be ordinary people. Without superpowers, how could they attract the attention of the Avengers, let alone be recruited?
"Could it be..."
Ethan's thoughts raced. After all the changes he had caused, it should be impossible for Scarlet Witch to appear here. There was only one person who could have made this happen.
"Tony?"
Tony had downloaded many comics from other worlds. With that data as a reference, he could specifically search for these special talents.
Although Wanda and Pietro in this world were not mutants, Hydra's human experiments were certainly not conducted on just two people.
To survive and even gain some special abilities, these two must have had something unique about them. Maybe that was what caught Tony's attention.
"Little friend?"
Ethan snapped back to reality, looking up at Wanda, who had half-crouched in front of him. He sighed helplessly. This was the fundamental reason he couldn't casually run off to other worlds for fun.
"I have an appointment with Dr. Banner in the lounge."
"Banner?" Wanda was momentarily surprised, then quickly realized who he meant. "Bruce Banner? Didn't he go out?"
"He came back today."
Hearing that, Wanda did not doubt him at all. She didn't think Ethan was an intruder trying to sneak into the Avengers base. While the headquarters seemed to have no security on the surface, the entire facility was under strict surveillance. Unauthorized individuals would not be able to get inside unnoticed.
So when Ethan said that, she offered to walk with him.
"I know the way..."
"I'm heading there too. Let's go together."
This Scarlet Witch clearly thought he was just a normal child. Perhaps she was worried he would get lost, which was understandable. The base was massive, and its interior was complex. Getting lost was not unusual. It was said that some new staff had gone missing inside, and it had taken a full search team to locate and rescue them.
"Where did this kid come from?"
When they arrived at the lounge, Ethan understood why Wanda said she was going there. Pietro, Quicksilver, was already there. Though dressed in casual clothes, the towel around his neck and his still-damp hair clearly showed he had just finished training and was now resting here.
"I met him on the way. He said he was coming here to meet Dr. Banner, so I brought him along."
"Which Dr. Banner?"
When the two siblings arrived at the Avengers base, Banner had gone with Ethan to explore other worlds. They had never met him. And compared to his other identity, Banner himself was not particularly well known among the general public.
"The one who turns into a big green guy."
"Oh, right, him. Wasn't he out doing something?"
"They say he came back today."
The two began chatting. Wanda originally wanted to offer Ethan a seat and ask what he needed, but after seeing him casually open the fridge and grab a drink, it was obvious he was very familiar with the place. It seemed he really did know the way.
"What's your name?"
Unexpectedly, after chatting for a bit, Pietro spoke up and greeted Ethan. Based on first impressions, Ethan thought he was someone who didn't like to talk much. If it had been the Pietro from the X-Men world, he wouldn't have been surprised. That one was a chatterbox.
"Ethan."
He casually answered while opening the holographic interface on the coffee table in front of him.
This lounge was for internal Avengers members. Regular staff at the base had no access. Even the coffee table had advanced functions, allowing members to access various data at any time.
Ethan was looking at the profiles of the two in front of him.
The public information was vague, simply stating that the two were outstanding individuals recruited from the civilian population. They were not yet full members of the Avengers and were still in training.
But from the internal Avengers data, which could only be accessed by official members and was managed by JARVIS, Ethan saw that Wanda and Pietro were actually test subjects rescued by Tony Stark during a raid on a secret Hydra lab.
It was clearly documented that the two had voluntarily become test subjects and had undergone multiple enhancement procedures. They were among the few relatively successful cases.
Although they hadn't gained powers as strong as in the original plot, Wanda's psionic power was significantly above average, and Pietro's body had mutated and improved. His agility and speed now exceeded the limits of ordinary humans.
"Maybe this was the talent they originally had, and the Mind Stone only served to stimulate and strengthen it?"
Ethan couldn't confirm without personally examining their souls, but it was a possibility.
Of course, this wasn't what really caught Ethan's attention. What surprised him was what happened afterward.
Wanda and Pietro had volunteered to become test subjects for Hydra out of hatred for Tony Stark. Yet in a strange twist of fate, it was Tony Stark who saved them from that endless nightmare of experiments and even said he would personally teach them.
That was bizarre enough, but what happened next was even stranger. Tony took the two of them to track down the person who had actually bombed their house, helped them get revenge, and emphasized again that he was no longer the arms dealer he used to be.
Stark Industries had already transitioned into a tech company. Furthermore, there were many fake products on the market falsely using the Stark brand. That faulty piece of junk that hit their house was most likely a knockoff. Tony claimed that if it had been a real Stark weapon, they would not have survived at all.
As much as they wanted to argue, they also felt like that explanation made a bit of sense. Although the siblings were still wary of Tony, mainly because they didn't know his true intentions, their hatred began to fade, and their interactions became relatively normal.
With that as a foundation, things progressed smoothly. Scarlet Witch became Tony's disciple and began studying magic. Quicksilver started training under Steve Rogers and Clint Barton, learning various combat techniques that leveraged his physical strengths.
"So... you took on a disciple?"
As Ethan closed the holographic display, Tony and Banner entered the lounge. Tony was not surprised that Ethan had found him. In fact, he would have been more surprised if Ethan hadn't.
"What do you think? Not bad, right? I picked a pretty good student."
Ethan rubbed his temples. This guy definitely didn't decide to accept Scarlet Witch on a whim. Most likely, he was influenced by Ethan taking Leah as a student, and then searched for a similarly talented candidate from the available pool.
Scarlet Witch's background was right there for anyone to see. With Tony's personality, there was no way he would pass up such a promising student in favor of someone completely unqualified.
"Not bad."
Even if Scarlet Witch in the movie and comic universes had different backstories, her power type had always leaned toward psionics and magic. That made her a good fit to be Tony's student now.
In fact, having Wanda learn magic from Tony seemed closer to her original comic setting than her movie counterpart.
"You're not actually teaching her how to warp reality, are you?"
Tony didn't expect Ethan to figure it out so quickly. He wasn't the type to hide it either, so he admitted it with only a hint of awkwardness.
"Reality warping isn't that simple. Right now, she can barely twist someone's neck."
"Tony!"
Banner looked at Tony in shock.
"This is what you're teaching your student?"
What happened to your grand scientific vision? Even if you've embraced mysticism now, magic is still a rigorous field. And yet you're only teaching your first student how to snap necks?
At that moment, Wanda and Pietro also realized that the child standing before them was not ordinary. They didn't dare to interrupt and simply waited quietly for Tony to make an introduction.
Then Tony said something that left Wanda completely stunned.
"This is Ethan. The most mysterious member of the Avengers, and the teacher who taught me magic."
(To be continued.)