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Gilgamesh pointed at the X Weapon Program documents displayed on the screen.
"If what it says here is something they're still doing today, then this man certainly isn't a good person."
Thena nodded, agreeing with her fellow Eternal.
"So, if you want our help, it's not like that's impossible."
The goddess of war had regained her composure, but she seemed to have developed a tendency to charge headfirst into trouble.
At this point, she and Gilgamesh were alike. They were both afraid of getting bored and worried that things weren't exciting enough. If they had an excuse to join the fun, neither of them would want to sit it out.
Seeing the two Eternal powerhouses looking like they couldn't wait to make trouble, Henry was speechless.
"This is a personal grudge. Besides, Thena, your jewelry can suppress your symptoms, but that doesn't necessarily mean it can protect you from mutants capable of mind control."
Gilgamesh, who was the most concerned about his fellow Eternal's condition, immediately became anxious.
"Henry, are you saying that Stryker's kid could control Thena too?"
"Not necessarily control her. But as long as her peaceful mental state is disrupted, that can't possibly be a good thing for Thena, right?"
The two Eternal powerhouses exchanged a glance.
Cassandra, who also knew a little about Thena's condition, looked at her friend with concern.
The goddess of war herself, however, remained remarkably calm.
"Look, Henry. Now I have a reason to kill him too, don't I?"
"Uh... I suppose you do."
The Kryptonian was rendered speechless.
It seemed he'd successfully helped the Master of Illusion make another enemy.
That was probably a good thing for him, right...?
"So, what are you planning to do?" Cassandra asked.
In reality, the moment she asked that question, she had already sentenced the father and son to death in her heart.
Henry, however, found the situation somewhat awkward.
This was supposed to be a lonely road of revenge, one where he would advance alone even if he had to face ten thousand enemies.
So how had it somehow turned into a family group outing?
Looking at the three pairs of expectant eyes, Henry abandoned any thought of playing the mysterious riddler.
"C, bring up the surveillance footage from the Sparrow Drones."
"Recorded footage or live footage?"
The electronic voice from the speakers actually asked a question for once.
"Live."
The artificial intelligence Miss_C had only been given access to response functions and a limited set of execution commands. All of its files were accessible only in read-only mode.
Henry hadn't given the still-untrained AI too many privileges.
Now, everyone focused their attention on the footage displayed by the AI.
"Is this... a private school?"
Cassandra wasn't particularly out of touch with modern society. She recognized the six surveillance feeds transmitted by the spy drones at a glance.
"Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, located in Westchester County, New York."
Henry immediately supplied the answer.
"That mutant school? The X-Men's base? Why are you monitoring it?"
The first two questions weren't important.
The last one was.
Henry didn't hesitate to answer with a question of his own.
"When the trust between the mutants and the U.S. government completely breaks down, who do you think the U.S. military's first target will be?"
"The X-Men! Are you serious?"
"Magneto was arrested more than two years ago and imprisoned somewhere unknown. Without their leader, the Brotherhood of Mutants is left with nothing but a bunch of insignificant underlings. They don't even have a headquarters.
"Is there a more conspicuous target than the X-Men?"
Gilgamesh became serious.
"Although I've never faced the X-Men personally, those few exceptionally powerful mutants really are troublesome. Is the U.S. military confident it can deal with people like that?"
Henry was equally serious.
"Mutants have powerful abilities, but with targeted countermeasures, they're actually not that difficult to deal with.
"Besides, most mutants can still be dealt with using conventional firearms or tranquilizer darts.
"The U.S. military may not even need to target the entire X-Men team. All it would take is a little trickery to lure them out and split them up before eliminating them individually.
"I think we can figure out their real target just by asking ourselves what there are the most of in this school."
Cassandra understood immediately, and anger appeared on her face.
"The students! How dare they?"
"Once they've lost the protection of human rights, do the people in a laboratory care whether their white mice are old or young?
"The only thing the people in the laboratory care about is the number of specimens."
"So you think that as long as Colonel Stryker gets authorization, he'll raid this mutant school."
"It's almost inevitable. Otherwise, where else could he collect so many mutants in one go?"
In reality, based on the clues from the movies Henry had watched before transmigrating, William Stryker's true objective should have been the components of the massive Cerebro amplifier located in the X-Men's underground base beneath the school.
But Henry had no other evidence to support that theory.
So he simply threw some dirt on the other man's reputation.
The man in charge of the X Weapon Program was already covered in black marks anyway. He wouldn't care if Henry dumped another bucket of filth on him.
"So you're planning to stop the U.S. military from doing something like that?" Cassandra asked, thinking she'd discovered a charitable side of Henry.
The Kryptonian, however, was notoriously difficult to read.
"No. I don't care whether the military raids a school.
"But if both Strykers show up at the same time, I'll act."
"What if only one of them shows up...?"
"Then I'll keep waiting.
"But since they've already appeared in front of the Sparrow Drones, I'll have a chance to follow them to their secret research base—or wherever else they go.
"My problem right now is that I have no idea where they're hiding."
A certain dam somewhere in Canada wasn't enough for Henry to determine the location of the X Weapon Program.
William Stryker didn't spend twenty-four hours a day at the research facility either. Besides, the place wasn't continuously operational.
And even if Henry took advantage of the facility being empty and tore the entire base apart, so what?
The people were what mattered.
That was why Henry wanted to deal with the Stryker father and son in one go. He didn't want to alert anyone and give the other conspirators a chance to escape.
The others didn't have nearly as many thoughts running through their minds as Henry did.
Cassandra said seriously,
"You're waiting until both Strykers appear before taking action.
"In that case, when the U.S. military raids that school, you won't stop me from helping those children, will you?"
A group of well-trained soldiers going after minors crossed the Spartan warrior's line.
So Cassandra was using Henry's own logic against him, cutting off any attempt he might make to forbid her from intervening.
Henry was genuinely surprised by her attitude.
"Is that really necessary? They're mutants, even if they're children. Besides, the military's main objective should be to capture them alive, not kill them."
Faced with three pairs of skeptical eyes, Henry became increasingly guilty as he continued speaking.
"All right. I won't stop you from doing anything.
"But I'd still prefer that you don't expose yourselves and put the military on alert.
"So my suggestion is to stay hidden as much as possible and simply help those kids escape.
"Even if there are some children you can't reach in time and they end up captured, as long as the entire school isn't overrun, rescuing a limited number of prisoners will be much easier.
"On the other hand, those prisoners could also become clues for me to track down the Stryker father and son.
"I don't believe the military would allow the situation to escalate or let photographs of American soldiers shooting mutant children appear in the news."
Cassandra didn't immediately agree to Henry's proposal.
"We'll see how things develop and act accordingly."
The other two Eternal powerhouses agreed with the Spartan's position.
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