"Bradley isn't one of Shaw's men. He belongs to a secret military task force."
"That's right. A mutant task force."
"And… they've been involved in some highly illegal activities for quite some time."
…
Under the weight of everyone's gaze, Charles slowly began to speak, sharing the memories he had read from Bradley's mind.
The atmosphere in the room instantly turned heavy.
The involvement of the military made things significantly more complicated.
"So you're saying Alex and I killed two mutant operatives from the military… and captured a third alive?" Erik arched a brow, visibly troubled.
"You killed people? What happened out there?" Moira looked dumbfounded. "I thought you were just going to talk—like you've been doing all along!"
It was supposed to be a simple recruitment mission. How did it turn into a bloodbath?
"Agent Moira, we were acting in self-defense," Alex explained earnestly. "They came out of nowhere and tried to kill us. We had no choice."
He quickly gave a rundown of what had happened on-site to both Moira and Charles.
After hearing the story, Moira frowned deeply.
It was clear now: the two agents had gone there to silence the defector.
Alex and Erik had just happened to get caught up in the mess.
Given the seriousness of the situation, Moira didn't dare take it lightly. She immediately had Bradley brought in for interrogation.
But Bradley kept his mouth shut. No matter how hard Moira pressed him, he didn't say a single word.
In the end, it was Charles who had to use his powers to dig through Bradley's memories for more intel.
"William Stryker, Moira. He's the one who organized the mutant task force!"
Charles's expression darkened further.
"William Stryker? You mean the son of Deputy Director Jason Stryker?" Moira looked as though she'd just swallowed a bug.
As a senior CIA agent, she was well aware that Jason Stryker was the Deputy Director of Field Operations at the CIA.
And his son just so happened to be named William Stryker!
This was huge.
Moira still remembered how she and Charles had reported the existence of mutants to a room full of CIA executives at headquarters—only to get mocked and chewed out.
The Director had even threatened to demote her to the typing pool.
It wasn't until Raven pulled off a full shapeshifting performance that they finally believed her.
And among those laughing hardest back then? Jason Stryker.
And now they find out his own son had secretly formed a mutant task force long ago?
So why had Jason Stryker pretended to be clueless?
Or… did he really not know what his son was up to?
No one dared to think too hard about it.
The water ran far too deep.
One wrong move, and they could all get swallowed by this massive whirlpool.
The room fell into a heavy silence, the tension practically suffocating.
"Alex, you can head back for now," Charles finally said after a long pause. "But remember—what happened here today must not be leaked. To anyone."
"I understand, Charles," Alex nodded, exchanging farewells with Moira and Erik before heading for the door.
"Alex," Charles called out again just as Alex reached for the doorknob.
Alex turned around.
"We'll take care of it. Don't worry," Charles said seriously.
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a magnetic quality that made people instinctively believe him.
That was Charles's charisma at work.
"Of course, Charles."
With that, Alex stepped outside and closed the door behind him.
Everyone inside the office looked troubled by the mess they'd stumbled into, but Alex? He honestly wasn't too worried.
If the sky was falling, there were bigger people holding it up.
He had the CIA's backing. What was there to be afraid of?
Besides, with Charles and Erik—two walking cheat codes—around, nothing seemed like a real problem.
Alex returned to his dorm in high spirits.
As soon as he closed the door, he eagerly opened up his personal status screen.
---
[Host: Alex]
[Age: 16]
[Speed: 53 m/s]
[Strength: 7.2 tons]
[Physique: 124 (avg. adult male: 10)]
[Mental Power: 82 (avg. adult male: 10)]
[Current Template: Homelander (Unlocked 1%)]
[Abilities: X-Ray Vision (Basic), Super Hearing (Basic), Flight (Locked), Heat Vision (Locked)]
[Origin Points: 100]
---
His stats had clearly improved, and most importantly—he finally wasn't sitting at zero Origin Points.
[Detected: Host has surplus Origin Points. Would you like to use them for enhancement now?]
Of course he would. Who in their right mind would sit on these points instead of upgrading?
The only question was how to spend them. After all, there were many possible enhancement paths.
Alex took his time going through the options.
It didn't take long to realize that using Origin Points to boost individual stats was highly inefficient. The returns weren't worth the cost.
Unlocking more of the template, however, gave a far greater overall boost.
That settled it.
Alex dumped all 100 points into the Homelander template.
[Congratulations, Host. Homelander Template Unlocked: 2%.]
"Only 1% more? That's it?" Alex was a little speechless.
He'd gone through all that trouble just for one percent?
---
[Host: Alex]
[Age: 16]
[Speed: 61 m/s]
[Strength: 15.2 tons]
[Physique: 144 (avg. adult male: 10)]
[Mental Power: 102 (avg. adult male: 10)]
[Current Template: Homelander (Unlocked 2%)]
[Abilities: X-Ray Vision (Basic), Super Hearing (Basic), Flight (Locked), Heat Vision (Locked)]
[Origin Points: 0]
---
But when he looked at his updated stats, he couldn't help but feel excited.
All his physical attributes had taken a huge leap. His speed now clocked in at 61 meters per second, and his strength had more than doubled to over 15 tons!
It might be hard to grasp those numbers without context, so let's put it in perspective.
First off, his running speed was now double the maximum speed allowed on highways.
Which meant Alex could easily outrun most cars… on foot.
And remember that scene in Captain America: Civil War where Cap held back a departing helicopter? That was an AS350, a French military chopper weighing about 2.5 tons. And even Cap was gritting his teeth doing it.
Alex? He could now stop six of them—with one hand.
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