The living room fell silent.
No one spoke.
The only sounds were the faint hiss of the breeze drifting through the room and the soft rustle of the curtains as they fluttered.
Coulson’s mind had gone completely blank.
What did I just hear?
What did I just see?
What the hell is going on?
There were already enough bizarre things in this world.
Why did something even more ridiculous have to show up now?
What the hell was a sorcerer?
And what the hell was magic?
For a moment, Coulson genuinely wanted to slap himself across the face and wake up from this absurd dream.
But only for a moment.
He could still tell the difference between reality and a dream.
No matter how ridiculous the situation seemed, there was no question that what he’d just witnessed was real.
A veteran agent was exceptionally good at controlling his emotions.
One second, his worldview could be collapsing around him.
The next, he could be smiling as though nothing had happened.
Just like now.
Coulson’s distorted expression quickly returned to the same mild, pleasant smile he’d worn when Evan first entered the room.
Watching him recover, Evan couldn’t help admiring him inwardly.
As expected of old Cue Ball Fury’s right hand man.
That’s some top-tier composure.
Well, if you can handle it that well, I guess I’ll keep going.
“The place where I normally live isn’t part of the ordinary world,” Evan continued.
“It’s located in a separate dimension. So it’s perfectly normal that you can’t find any records of my life here. I only started moving around in this world a little over a week ago.”
Another bomb dropped.
Technically, Evan wasn’t even lying.
The Dimensional Restaurant really did occupy an independent space, and Evan really had only arrived in the Marvel universe a little over a week ago.
Before that, he hadn’t even existed in this world.
It would be far stranger if S.H.I.E.L.D. could find records of him.
Unfortunately, the way he’d phrased it was extremely easy to misunderstand.
A hidden supernatural organization had opened up its own separate dimension, where its members lived and trained.
Every now and then, some of them would venture into normal society to buy food and other supplies.
They might walk right past you on the street, and you’d never know what they really were.
The thought made Coulson feel as though people carrying concealed explosives had been wandering around him for years while he’d unknowingly laughed with them, shaken their hands, and slung an arm around their shoulders.
A chill ran down his spine.
“Are there many sorcerers?” Coulson had given up on dancing around the subject.
Right now, he simply wanted to learn as much as possible about them.
Know yourself and know your enemy, and you could survive a hundred battles.
Of course, how much intelligence Coulson could actually gather depended entirely on how much Evan felt like telling him.
“Quite a lot.” Evan thought back to the army of sorcerers that had shown up to fight Thanos during the final battle in Endgame.
“But don’t get carried away imagining sorcerers hiding on every street corner,” Evan added after dropping the bomb.
“Very few of them actually mix with ordinary society. Only a handful, really, and the ones who do are usually pathetically weak.”
After frightening Coulson, Evan decided to offer him a little reassurance.
He was passing the blame off on someone else, sure, but he was dumping it on people who were technically allies.
There was no need to go too far.
Nick Fury himself probably wouldn’t be a huge problem.
But if Evan accidentally piqued HYDRA’s interest, the Ancient One might end up having to assign people specifically to deal with agents constantly showing up and snooping around.
Kamar-Taj wasn’t like the Dimensional Restaurant.
It didn’t exist inside some inaccessible independent space.
If HYDRA genuinely started looking for it, they might actually find it.
At that thought, Evan turned his head and glanced at the other two men in the room.
Come to think of it… are either of these guys HYDRA?
He wasn’t being excessively paranoid.
HYDRA’s infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D. had already reached that level.
You could practically say there was a HYDRA agent hiding in every corner of the organization.
“I see.” Coulson nodded along, though he clearly didn’t take Evan’s reassurance at face value.
You say it, and I’m supposed to believe it?
I’d be a pretty lousy agent if that was all it took.
Show him evidence, and then they’d talk.
Evan could hear the skepticism in Coulson’s tone.
“Don’t look at me like that. Sorcerers are busy people. They don’t have time to run around cities causing trouble. They’re either studying or fighting enemies.”
Evan spoke as casually as though he were discussing the weather.
“And if sorcerers and magic exist, obviously magical creatures exist too. Even Hollywood screenwriters know that sorcerers and monsters come as a package deal.”
Coulson’s stomach sank.
“Wait.” He stared at Evan.
“Are you telling me the monsters from movies actually exist?!”
The moment he thought about the countless varieties of bizarre and powerful creatures that appeared in movies and television, Coulson’s composure cracked again.
Dear God.
You have got to be kidding me.
Vampires.
Werewolves.
Dragons.
Demons.
They were perfectly fine staying on movie screens.
Why did they need to exist in real life too?!
He’d only just accepted the possibility that sorcerers and magic were real and was already preparing to report it to his director so S.H.I.E.L.D. could launch an investigation and establish surveillance.
Not even five minutes later, Evan had casually dropped monsters are real too on him.
Coulson’s head was starting to hurt.
He seriously wanted to knock on his own skull a few times.
“Relax. Sorcerers have been protecting the world for centuries, and you haven’t exactly seen demons strolling down Fifth Avenue, have you?”
As long as the Ancient One was around, creatures from other dimensions weren’t going to casually strut into everyday society.
“I certainly hope so.” Coulson nodded.
At this point, what else could he do?
The amount of information he’d received over the past half hour was so explosive that his brain felt close to overheating.
He didn’t even know how he was supposed to report this to Fury.
No matter how he phrased it, he was going to sound like a lunatic suffering from delusions.
And even then, Coulson remained skeptical of much of what Evan had said.
Evan possessing some kind of extraordinary ability was undeniable.
Whether sorcerers, magical creatures, and everything else he’d described truly existed was another matter entirely.
Seeing was believing.
For now, everything beyond Evan’s own powers rested entirely on Evan’s word.
“Well then, I think that’s enough for today.” Coulson stood.
“Thank you for cooperating with us, Mr. Whitaker. If anything else comes up, we’ll contact you.”
With that, he brought the interview to an end.
They’d talked for half an hour, and only one piece of information had actually been confirmed, Evan possessed extraordinary abilities.
Everything else was still unverified.
Continuing the conversation wouldn’t accomplish much.
“Fine by me.” Evan didn’t particularly care.
Then, as Coulson and the two agents prepared to leave, he added, “Actually, there’s something you can do for me.”
Coulson paused.
“Help me buy the building I’m currently renting. Consider it payment for tonight’s interview.”
Evan looked at the three of them.
“I came here tonight specifically to discuss buying the place from my landlord. So helping me take care of it isn’t too much to ask, right?”
He paused, then added, “And obviously, I’m paying for the building myself. I’m not asking S.H.I.E.L.D. to buy me a house.”
“That’s fine. I’ll take care of it.” The request was so simple that Coulson agreed without hesitation.
Regardless of whether everything Evan had told him was true, the man’s ability to manipulate space alone made him worth maintaining a good relationship with.
If such a minor favor earned them some goodwill, there was no reason to refuse.
Besides, if Evan bought the place, he’d presumably continue living there.
That would make finding him in the future considerably easier.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had spent two entire days tapping Williams’s phone just to arrange this conversation.
If they had to go through that much trouble every single time they wanted to speak with Evan, it would become ridiculous.
“Great. I’ll leave the rest to you.”
With his objective achieved, Evan had no intention of hanging around and chatting with Coulson any longer.
He closed the Portal he’d kept open throughout the entire conversation, then opened another directly to his home.
One step carried him through.
Evan disappeared first.
The Portal vanished almost immediately behind him, leaving only a few sparks dancing in midair.
Several seconds later, those too faded away.
Coulson narrowed his eyes slightly.
Then he smiled.
With a wave of his hand, he led his two agents out.