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Henry shot Barbara Morse a strange look when she followed him.
He really wanted to say, Woman, you're slowing me down—in the literal sense, not as some metaphor. But in the end, Henry didn't refuse her company.
Once he noticed that the Skrulls behind them had already left together with Nick Fury and the others, he finally asked,
"Why did you come with me? Shouldn't you be helping Fury?"
"Fury said that if he doesn't make it back, there should at least be someone who knows the truth and can report it to the agency. So he told me to leave with you."
After a moment's thought, Barbara added, "He doesn't completely trust the Skrulls either."
"Mm." Henry, deep in thought, only responded with a single sound.
"We don't need to wait for the police to give us a ride. I'll contact the local S.H.I.E.L.D. branch and have them send someone to pick us up. If things move fast enough, we should be back in Los Angeles by tomorrow."
With that, Barbara took out her phone and began making the call.
Henry didn't stop her. His mind was still turning over the information the Skrulls had revealed about Kryptonians.
The greatest weakness of Kryptonians had already been publicly exposed by General Talos. However, in this universe, Krypton hadn't exploded—so there was no kryptonite. Instead, the widely known Kryptonian weakness was green sunlight.
In Henry's memories from before transmigrating, in DC Comics the planet Barrington, suspended beneath a green sun, had indeed caused serious trouble for Superman and Supergirl. It wasn't instantly lethal, but in such a weakened state, a Kryptonian without assistance could easily be killed.
And then there were all those stories involving red suns and yellow suns across parallel universes, with Supermen crossing into each other's worlds and becoming as fragile as ordinary people on the other side.
So one thing was clear: what affected Kryptonians wasn't kryptonite itself, but the star-like radiation that kryptonite emitted.
From that, it followed that different colors of kryptonite causing different effects could be extrapolated into different colors of sunlight having similar influences on Kryptonians.
The most common green kryptonite weakened Kryptonians; when made into weapons, it could injure or kill them.
Red kryptonite caused drastic personality changes, often manifesting as an opposite persona—and sometimes the change was permanent, persisting even after the kryptonite was removed.
Blue kryptonite canceled out the effects of red kryptonite and could temporarily strip Kryptonians of their powers.
Black kryptonite split a Kryptonian into separate good and evil personas.
Gold kryptonite permanently removed a Kryptonian's powers without affecting their descendants.
Silver kryptonite made Kryptonians neurotic, inducing hallucinations and amplifying negative emotions.
Pink kryptonite turned Kryptonians into "gay Kryptonians"—or, by some accounts, directly caused gender reversal.
Platinum kryptonite granted non-Kryptonians Kryptonian abilities.
Orange kryptonite temporarily gave animals—other than humans—superpowers.
Those were the general categories of naturally occurring kryptonite; artificially synthesized or anomalous variants were another matter entirely.
If stellar light of different colors truly had the same effects on Kryptonians, then it wasn't hard to understand why the Skrulls described Kryptonian fleets as insane.
After all, a spacefaring civilization whose temperament and power fluctuated wildly with environmental conditions—sometimes deranged, sometimes malevolent, sometimes with an entire fleet floating around in pink bubbles—would leave any enemy utterly dumbfounded.
Worse still, Kryptonians remembered everything they did while under the influence of kryptonite or altered sunlight, even after recovering. Those memories and emotions would then feed back into their core personality.
Superman himself often felt deep remorse after returning to normal and recalling what he'd done while affected by kryptonite.
For Henry, who planned to stay on Earth and had no intention of roaming the cosmos, he didn't need to worry much about other colors of stars altering his personality. What he did need to consider was how Nick Fury might make use of this information.
First of all, natural kryptonite existed in Krypton's core. It wasn't something you could just pick up off the surface. As long as Krypton didn't explode, no one would ever discover it.
As for using artificial "sun lamps" of different colors to influence Kryptonians—Henry felt that was also unlikely.
In DC Comics, only two entities openly possessed the technology to synthesize kryptonite: the cosmic tyrant Brainiac, and Superman's archenemy, Lex Luthor. Later on, others followed—but without Luthor opening the door, the technology wouldn't have spread.
Batman never publicly admitted to being able to synthesize kryptonite; he merely collected and stored natural samples. Though, admittedly, everyone suspected he could…
If artificial kryptonite was that difficult to produce, did Earth really have the capability to develop sun lamps capable of affecting Kryptonians?
This wasn't like dealing with vampires—shine some UV light and you get burns, maybe even disintegration.
The underlying mechanism by which kryptonite—or stellar radiation of different colors—altered Kryptonian physiology and psychology had never been definitively explained.
If the difficulty level were raised to something comparable to the neighboring "genius tier," then maybe—maybe—this universe could create sun lamps that affected Kryptonians. But it would likely require someone on the level of Reed Richards to pull it off.
…
Well, originally Henry had thought it impossible for this universe to artificially recreate his weakness. But the more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.
Especially when Reed Richards—infamous for his talent for causing trouble—was involved.
It made Henry feel that from now on, whenever someone approached him with a flashlight, or tried to turn on a light, he'd need to be extra cautious.
In the movies and comics he'd seen before transmigrating, General Zod and his fellow Kryptonians wore individual combat armor that seemed capable of isolating solar radiation.
Only when their armor was damaged or deliberately removed did they begin to absorb yellow sunlight and grow stronger.
Who knew how Kryptonians in this universe worked? Or whether their individual armor had the same properties? Not to mention that those events had occurred nine thousand years ago—roughly the span of time it took Earth to progress from the Neolithic Age to the modern era.
Another point Henry fixated on was the fact that he was classified as an exiled defective—a naturally born Kryptonian.
Many believed Superman's strength came from his father, Jor-El, breaking down Krypton's genetic archive—the Genesis Codex—and infusing it into his blood. But that explanation had never been officially confirmed.
While American comics treated retcons like everyday meals, none of Superman's versions ever claimed his power came from carrying the Codex within him. At most, it was said that Superman held the key to Krypton's rebirth—yet he could also choose to become the guardian of its tomb.
What was consistent across all depictions of Krypton's origin was its rigidly stratified society. From the moment of birth, every child's future was already decided.
Only Kal-El—born naturally to Jor-El and Lara—stood apart. He was the first naturally born Kryptonian child in thousands of years.
Because he wasn't created through the Codex, his potential hadn't been artificially constrained. He wasn't locked into a predetermined path. All possibilities lay open to him.
In Henry's view, that was the true reason Superman was so powerful.
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