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Jean Grey wasn't the type to just stand there and take it. She fired back, her voice sharp with frustration.
"As long as what we do brings a good outcome, what's so wrong about it?"
Henry tilted his head, almost amused. "Even if it goes against the person's own will?"
Jean hesitated. "We're just trying to help him."
Henry gave a short, humorless laugh. "Really? Let me give you a scenario. An elderly woman loses the child she loves most to an accident. She's crushed by grief—so much so it starts affecting her health, her entire life.
"Now, you decide—without asking—to just erase the memory of the accident from her mind. She stops grieving, sure… but now she thinks her child's simply missing. She goes from heartbreak to constant worry.
"Or maybe you go further. Erase every memory of that child. She forgets she ever had them. No grief, no sadness… but also no love. That entire part of her life? Gone—like it never happened.
"Is that your idea of 'doing the right thing'? Deciding for her, without her consent, what she should remember?"
"I…" Jean faltered, clearly caught off guard.
Henry stepped forward, pointing at her. "And if you were that woman? Would you still think it's the right thing to do?"
He didn't know which version of the Phoenix she was, but judging by the wide-eyed innocence… yeah, Charles had definitely left his mental handcuffs in place.
Not that Henry cared about freeing her from that—it was just too tempting to poke at her logic.
Raven stepped in, pulling Jean back with a firm grip on her shoulder. "Don't listen to him. He's just twisting things to mess with your head."
"Ahh," Henry chuckled, "someone with a little more life experience."
Jean looked ready to bite back again, but Mystique was already done playing. She pointed toward the exit. "Get out, alien. We've learned our lesson for today. You don't need to stick around and run your mouth any longer."
Henry smirked. "Is that your way of apologizing?"
"I'm not the kind of woman who apologizes," Raven shot back, making sure to twist the insult Henry had thrown at her earlier.
Henry clasped his hands in mock sincerity. "Well then… on behalf of all of you, I offer my most heartfelt apologies to myself. And you're welcome—I forgive you."
It was the kind of line that made it sound like they were the ones groveling, not him. And before Cyclops could blow a fuse, Henry strolled off, calm and unhurried.
On the way out, he replayed the fight in his head. Sure, he'd scored a win against the X-Men—but he wasn't patting himself on the back.
It wasn't so much that Kryptonian powers under a yellow sun were unstoppable—it was the intel gap. He'd blindsided them, and that made all the difference.
Even if he couldn't name every face on sight, certain traits gave them away. Once you knew who was who, you knew their skillset. And with Xavier—an Omega-level telepath—taken out before he could do more than blink, Henry had the upper hand before things even got rolling.
Still… this was just a warm-up. Nobody had been fighting to kill.
The real danger with superheroes? Their ridiculous persistence. In anime, they'd call it "cosmos exploding." In Marvel terms, it was "I can do this all day." They bounce back from the brink like it's a hobby. Sometimes Henry wondered if any of them were even human.
When the gloves came off, the play-fighting stopped. That's when things got truly ugly.
So no, this wasn't a crushing victory. Just a small win—and one he'd rather not have needed. All it did was expose more of his abilities, with no real gain.
He didn't want to join the X-Men. Didn't want to be part of the mutant cause.
And even if he did try to help them, it's not like the whole community would be grateful. Some would oppose him just to oppose him. Others would sabotage him for their own agendas. Plenty would sit back and let him do the work while asking for more. And a few would be so desperate for acceptance they'd happily throw him under the bus.
Honestly? Even dealing with human politics was easier.
By the time he made it back to Manhattan, Henry had already shed the "Kryptonian powerhouse" role and slipped back into his part-time gig as the assistant to a washed-up celebrity. The mutant problem could solve itself—he had real work to do.
Tonight, that meant picking up Audrey Hepburn and her family for dinner at a restaurant they'd booked in advance.
Her eldest son, Sean Ferrer, had recently graduated and—unsurprisingly—used his family connections to get into the film industry. This year, he'd served as executive producer for the first time, with his father, actor Mel Ferrer, even making a cameo.
Her younger son, Luca Dotti, was still in college but had taken leave to visit his mother.
It was ironic. Hepburn valued family deeply, but outside of her, there wasn't much holding them together. Once dinner was over, Sean and Luca would head back to their own lives, leaving only her current boyfriend, Robert Wolders, to stay by her side.
One more reminder that, as the Buddhists said, life was full of attachments you couldn't keep.
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Hey everyone! Amazing news!
We've already smashed through 1800 Power Stones! 🎉 Thank you so much for your incredible support.
Since we reached this milestone so quickly, I've decided to give you the remaining 3 bonus chapters right away! One has already been uploaded in advance.
I trust that you'll help us push all the way to the 2000 mark! Let's keep the momentum going! 💪
Thank you for being such an awesome community!
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