Ethan refused a SHIELD escort and decided to walk home from school. As he walked he wondered what would be the best excuse to say to his new parents about his whereabouts for the last few days. After all, by now they must have reported him missing to the police.
Soon he arrived at the hotel, took the elevator headed to the right room, and used his keycard. The door creaked open with a familiar groan.
Ethan stepped into the entryway of his home, the scent of detergent and lemon cleaner hitting him like a wave. It was a very different smell compared to the smell of decay and rot that he smelled for the last few days. The lights were on. A stack of unopened mail lay haphazardly on the shoe bench.
And then—his mother's voice.
"Ethan?"
Footsteps pounded the balcony.
His mother appeared from the balcony, one hand gripping the railing, her face pale and drawn, eyes red-rimmed from days of worry. Behind her, his father was close behind—slouched with fatigue but alert, desperate.
"Oh my god," his mother whispered.
She rushed quickly over to him, wrapping him in a crushing hug before he could say a word. Ethan winced slightly—his ribs still ached from a small piece of debris that hit him in the last fight—but he didn't resist.
"You're okay," she kept repeating, her voice shaking. "You're okay, you're okay."
His father stood nearby, silent at first. Then he stepped forward and placed a hand on Ethan's shoulder.
"Where the hell have you been, son?"
Ethan hesitated, wondering if he should bother to tell them the detailed truth or a simple version. He looked at them—saw the bags under their eyes, the fear still etched deep into their faces. His mother's grip didn't loosen. His father's hand didn't tremble. He sighed internally as he knew they at least deserved the unfettered truth from him. Although the series of events were out of his control and he hadn't planned to be captured by a demon it was still true that he must have worried them to death.
He smiled softly. "I was kidnapped. Some… thing took me. It was awful. But some heroes found me. They saved me."
His mother pulled back, brushing hair from his forehead, eyes scanning every inch of him. "You're filthy. Your clothes are ripped, your face—God, Ethan, how long were you there?"
"I don't even know," he said honestly. "Time moved weird. I couldn't sleep. Couldn't wash. I've just been trying to survive."
Tears spilled freely down her cheeks now. "You poor thing… You're safe now. You're home."
His father exhaled hard and stepped in for a hug, wrapping his arms around them both.
Ethan felt it—that twist in his chest. It seemed that his body and mind had finally begun to relax and a part of him wanted to fall apart right here. To just lay down in bed and stop running calculations for once in his life.
But he couldn't.
Not now.
Too much was at stake. Moments like this where nothing was going on should be used wisely to avoid regret when the next inevitable danger happens.
"Go on," his mother said softly. "Take a hot bath. You need to rest. We'll talk more tomorrow."
Ethan nodded. "Yeah. Tomorrow."
She kissed his forehead. "I'll make you some soup and warm towels."
"Thanks, Mom."
He made his way to his room, every step heavier than the last.
His room was untouched.
Just how he left it.
As the tub filled down the hall, he stood at the window, staring into the city. Lights glittered in the distance. Lives continued. None of them knew how close the world had come to a demon being released.
None of them knew what he'd seen. What he was going to do.
After taking a bath and drinking his mom's soup Ethan returned to his room.
'I can't afford to wait anymore.'
He turned back to his desk, opened his modified laptop, and began to type.
Phase 1: The Ghost
Step One: Identity Erasure
He began laying the groundwork to vanish digitally. First, a trip through encrypted networks.
First, he'd quietly hack into several minor data centers—leftovers from a defunct Oscorp offshoot and a shadow HYDRA relic server he'd mapped a few days ago. He then created a backdoor access for himself and made sure to hide the traces of his code.
He opened a false browser under the name "ArdentKey" and created the persona creation program he'd been thinking about. He needed to craft new identities for himself and he wouldn't trust another person. So he launched the program and began crafting the backstories for his new identities.
Create new individual. Birthplace: Toronto. Occupation: network engineer. Age: 23.
He added that he'd need to fabricate records: a birth certificate, university diploma, social media posts seeded with realistic metadata. Photographs altered with deep learning to subtly change facial structure.
Alias One: Gavin Rowe. Canadian national.
Then another.
Alias Two: Diego Fuentes. Mexican robotics start-up co-founder.
He would create entire online lives. Apartment leases. Junk email accounts. Recorded fake video chats with AI-scripted voices. A trail that would take even S.H.I.E.L.D. weeks to unravel—and only if they knew what to look for.
ShadowStitch is born today.
By the time the sun was rising, Ethan had established six identities in four countries and created plans for two ghost companies. He planned to become a hacker-for-hire named ShadowStitch, and embedded fail-safes to erase any connection to Ethan Kane if traced.
His phone buzzed once.
A fake news alert for the dark web. He had set up an e-mail forwarding chain so messages for ShadowStitch would pass through thousands of fake emails until they reached him.
"Alleged 'Hack Saint' ShadowStitch credited with breach of hidden HYDRA lab."
Good. He would need to spread the name ShadowStitch and build some underworld connections.
He slipped in bed, closing his eyes. Muscles unknotted, pain ebbing away in the heat.
He should at least get an hour or two of sleep before his interrogation by his mom and dad.