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It was Nick Fury, ever the seasoned operator, who knew how to control the tempo of events. No matter how interested he was in what the Skrulls were saying, he wasn't about to let them take the lead.
He smoothed things over for Henry, saying,
"Henry is an excellent doctor. If you don't trust him, then at least tell Bobby where your first-aid kit is. The girl's wounds really do need to be treated."
It was the classic psychological trick—when someone strongly rejects the first option, they're far more likely to accept the second.
Being watched warily, Henry didn't push his luck by stepping forward to show off his medical skills. With Barbara stepping in to help, Maria Rambeau didn't object forcefully. Her daughter truly did need treatment.
Fortunately, the injury on Monica's arm hadn't been caused by a tiger's four longest canines—only the sharper back teeth had left bite marks.
There was bleeding, and it looked frightening, but the bone wasn't crushed, nor was there any tearing. Unfortunate, yes—but still a blessing in disguise.
Perhaps the Skrulls had already anticipated the possibility of being exposed when they staged this frame-up. They hadn't bitten down hard, clearly holding back.
Vers was concerned about the girl's injury as well, but most of her attention remained on the Skrulls. She looked ready to start a fight at the slightest provocation.
What restrained her was the fact that even more Skrulls were entering the house, positioning themselves at both the front and back doors, sealing off all escape routes.
Though they had the numerical advantage, they carried no weapons. All of them reverted to their original forms—green-skinned, bald, with pointed ears.
Even the Skrulls who had initially impersonated Henry and Katie returned to their true forms and retreated behind General Talos. The one who had been shot was receiving treatment from his companions.
It was hard to say whether this display signaled goodwill, but at the very least, they had no intention of starting a fight immediately.
Nick Fury paid the Skrulls' movements no mind. Instead, he looked at Henry—who seemed just as bewildered—and asked,
"What that guy said about Krypton… did you know any of it?"
"Honestly? This is the first time I've heard any of it," Henry replied.
"But you don't look very shocked."
Henry shrugged.
"If being shocked could change the facts, then maybe I should act shocked. But as someone who's never known his parents since childhood, should I really be surprised by my origins?
"If the timing weren't off, and someone told me today that I was the son of Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, I might even believe it. Being an alien doesn't really seem worth making a fuss over."
Marilyn Monroe died in 1962, John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Henry arrived on Earth around 1970—he couldn't even fake a connection if he tried.
In truth, Henry felt a sense of relief. At last, his origins had been confirmed.
Based on his abilities, he had long suspected he was Kryptonian—everything matched Superman's powers, though the exact level was uncertain. But whether Krypton even existed in this universe had always troubled him.
Now, hearing from the Skrulls that "Krypton" did indeed exist here—albeit with a different history—at least confirmed that he wasn't the result of some double or triple dimensional crossover.
A new question immediately followed:
If Krypton was universally hated across the cosmos, why had he ended up on Earth?
Talos, who clearly knew far more about Krypton than Henry did, instantly grasped the source of the unease he'd been feeling all along.
The Skrull general laughed heartily.
"Ha! Looks like you're an exiled defective."
"An exiled defective?" Henry tilted his head, clearly reacting to the term, and looked at the Skrull general with his condescending air.
Talos wasn't about to hold back—this was his chance to savor a sense of superiority.
"Do you know what's most disgusting about Kryptonian civilization?
"Unlike normal lifeforms, your people don't reproduce naturally, male or female. Krypton relies on the so-called 'Codex' system to continue its species—two individuals contribute DNA, and a child with no genetic defects is produced.
"From the moment that child is born, their future role is already decided—engineer, soldier, artist. Society runs like a perfectly meshed machine, devoid of passion. Whatever kind of person is needed, that kind of child is manufactured.
"But even the most perfect system produces anomalies. Children born naturally—without passing through the Codex—are labeled 'defectives' by your civilization.
"And defectives have only one fate: exile. They're sealed into pods and launched randomly into space, originally meant to be sent into the Phantom Zone that surrounds Krypton.
"But for someone like you—not captured by the Phantom Zone, not landing on an uninhabitable world or being swallowed by a star, but instead falling onto a life-bearing planet—that kind of luck is the first in nine thousand years. You should be proud."
Though his words spoke of "pride," the mockery in his tone was unmistakable.
Don't be fooled by the Skrulls' current status as refugees hunted by the Kree. According to Marvel canon, the Kree built their empire by exploiting the Skrulls. The Skrulls themselves once established a vast empire, standing alongside the Kree and the Shi'ar as one of the three great galactic powers.
Henry, of course, didn't expose the Skrulls' past—he wasn't supposed to know any of that. Instead, he countered their accusations directly:
"So discrimination against Kryptonians is why you've repeatedly framed me? You even dragged an innocent child into it!"
Shrewdly, Henry pulled Monica Rambeau—the little Black girl with the wild afro—into the picture, tying himself to her and seizing the moral high ground to condemn the Skrulls.
That move alone caused the Skrulls' standing in everyone else's eyes to plummet further.
Already viewed unfavorably, they now faced openly hostile expressions from Nick Fury, Vers, and the others—looks that practically screamed I don't like you.
Talos hadn't anticipated that the atmosphere would shift so sharply against him.
He had appeared in his true form intending to negotiate and recruit. Yet after hearing his subordinates' reports, he'd agreed to framing the Kryptonian—only to realize now that the trap had backfired spectacularly.
At this point, all he could do was try to salvage the situation—because letting things deteriorate any further would only make matters worse.
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