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After entering Louisiana, Nick Fury had spent some extra time confirming Maria Rambeau's place of residence.
This era didn't have navigation maps that could guide you directly to a specific street number. You had to search manually on a map, then guess where you were and which way to go.
The conclusion was simple: if the enemy wasn't stupid, after all this time, they should have caught up already.
If the Skrulls were still maintaining their impersonated identities, then with the advantage of their official authority, finding out what Vers and Nick Fury had been looking for in the base archives would hardly be difficult.
There was no need to deliberately track where the Quadjet had flown to. They should have been able to deduce the destination directly. A race of aliens that excelled at infiltrating enemy territory and seizing power through subversion surely weren't idiots.
So Henry didn't believe the abnormal signs he'd noticed were just coincidence. And sure enough—after observing more closely, he immediately found proof that trouble had arrived.
Three SUVs of the same model drove into the small town where they had landed. Most of the people inside wore black suits. Among them was Keller—the SHIELD agent who had previously ordered Henry and Barbara arrested outside the air force base.
Judging by this lineup, it looked nothing like the movie version where only two people showed up. So were all of them Skrulls in disguise, or had more SHIELD fools been tricked into coming along?
Without confirming that, it was hard to take action against them.
And in the movie, the reason only two Skrulls had come was because they had found evidence that Vers could be persuaded. They hadn't planned to use force, instead switching to a persuasion strategy—trying to win her over with shared hatred of a common enemy.
Now there were three vehicles, fourteen people total. Did this change mean their strategy had changed as well?
Thinking back, the only flaw Henry could come up with was the stolen car he'd left by the roadside. Since no one was in it, it gave the Skrulls reason to believe he had regrouped with Nick Fury and the others.
So… had he, this Kryptonian, become the variable?
Considering that the moment a Kryptonian appeared, the Skrulls started hunting him down, now that they'd caught up, it seemed wiser for him to avoid direct contact.
As long as these people talked, they couldn't hide anything from him. Keeping some distance would also make it easier for him to escape if necessary.
As for the trouble surrounding him—Henry couldn't deny that his fear of people like Mystique wasn't unfounded. If the enemy didn't confront him head-on but instead smeared him with false accusations, he still didn't have a good solution for that.
Before Vers chose to cooperate with the Skrulls, wiping them all out was one option. But that would require Nick Fury to step in and clean up afterward—and they'd also need a reliable way to correctly identify Skrulls.
Henry had no desire to owe Nick Fury that kind of favor. That would be no different from selling himself.
As for identifying Skrulls, Henry still didn't have much confidence. If he accidentally killed SHIELD agents because of it, don't think they'd kindly excuse it as collateral damage.
No matter how you looked at it, he was an outsider—not an internal SHIELD operative. Hoping they'd understand his "unavoidable mistakes" was less realistic than hoping America would suddenly turn pacifist.
So the only option left was to wait and see—and gamble that Kryptonians and Skrulls weren't ancient mortal enemies who had to fight to the death the moment they met.
Letting Katie roam freely in the woods, Henry kept his attention on the Skrulls mixed in with SHIELD agents—and on the group inside Maria Rambeau's house.
And precisely because he was watching from the sidelines, he witnessed a rare and spectacular show.
First, the Skrulls didn't spend much time discussing what to do. The moment they got out of their vehicles, they split up and began carrying out their respective actions.
From how they openly transformed into local residents without any concern for being seen, Henry could be certain that all fourteen of them were Skrulls. Otherwise, they wouldn't so casually reveal that ability in front of outsiders.
Then one of them—disguised as a neighborly middle-aged man—went to Maria Rambeau's front door. Wearing a baseball cap, the chubby "uncle" used the excuse of taking kids to see the Quadjet to draw the attention of all the adults inside.
At the same time, someone else snuck in through the back door, transforming into… Henry and Katie—one man and one tiger.
This immediately attracted the bold little girl, Monica Rambeau.
Perhaps the idea of touching a tiger had been stuck in her head all along. When the Skrull-version Henry approached without stopping her, she indeed dared to get close to the tiger—only to be pounced to the ground.
Seeing this, the real Henry had only one thought:
Holy shit. Even if it means dying, they're determined to smear me. Just how deep is the hatred between Kryptonians and Skrulls?
Of course, the adults in the house couldn't possibly watch this happen. And for the sake of making sure everyone could see clearly, the tiger's pounce wasn't done in some blind spot. All it took was turning around.
Unsurprisingly, Vers fired a photon blast, blasting the tiger off Monica Rambeau.
Nick Fury swung his gun around, aiming it at the Skrull-version Henry. Barbara also abandoned her original target—the chubby man at the door—and looked toward Henry. She didn't point her gun, but questioned him verbally instead.
As for the other eleven Skrulls, they spread out, searching for Henry's whereabouts.
Strangely enough, despite being a high-tech civilization, they didn't seem to carry much advanced equipment. Was it for the sake of fully exploiting their racial ability to disguise themselves anytime, anywhere—so much so that they wouldn't even bring a laser gun?
In any case, these Skrulls were just wearing the skins of small-town residents, relying on their eyes alone to search for one man and one tiger.
Inside the house, the Skrull-version Henry—who had let the tiger attack—offered no explanation. He simply walked over to the blasted-away tiger and checked on his "companion's" injuries.
The only sound in the room was Monica's sobbing, as her mother comforted her. She wasn't wailing loudly, which was already impressive for a child. But being pinned down by a tiger—that kind of helpless terror was something a person would remember for life.
Maria Rambeau said angrily, "I don't know where you're from, but I let you into my home as guests. That doesn't give you the right to hurt my family!"
Nick Fury, though suspicious, still kept his gun aimed at the man he'd only met earlier that day.
"Henry, whatever you're trying to do, control your pet. Don't think a 9mm pistol can't kill a tiger."
Even Barbara said in confusion, "Henry, what are you doing? How could you let Katie hurt someone—especially bite a child?"
There was a clear bite mark on Monica Rambeau's arm—left by the Skrull-version of Katie. Blood was still flowing.
Vers said nothing, but her glowing fists spoke volumes. If the person in front of her made the slightest move, this time it wouldn't just be knocking someone away—it would be punching straight through them.
"If I said… that wasn't me," Henry asked calmly,
"would you believe me?"
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