Secret Base Reactions

Henry's secret base, eleventh floor, Tribeca District.

The people who showed up here were not in their usual spots. Instead, they had all gathered in the rarely used tactical computer area, separately watching the various images and data on the screens.

The moment Henry entered, he teased, "Oh, what a rare sight. What is everyone looking at?"

Quicksilver, who had poked his head out and spotted him, froze for a moment before using Super Speed to arrive at Henry's side and sling an arm around his neck. "Hey, brother. What happened to your hair and beard? Wait, no—your eyebrows are gone too."

The others also craned their necks to look at Henry. Every one of them snorted with laughter before trying hard to hold it in.

Henry remained as helpless as ever. "If you want to laugh, just laugh. Holding it in might give you internal injuries."

Alexei stepped closer and inspected him from head to toe. "Looks like that nuclear blast didn't blow you apart. It just blew off all your body hair. But why are you keeping one eye shut? Did you hurt it?"

At first, Henry's left eye had merely felt painfully swollen. But ever since he had destroyed the bathroom in the hospital room, whenever he opened it now, while Heat Vision did not exactly shoot around wildly, a bizarre, tangible red killing light would ripple before his eye.

Whenever that red light shot a little farther, something was bound to suffer.

So Henry took a step or two back before opening his eye toward an empty area. The instant he did, a beam of red light struck the bare wall. It did not penetrate it, but it still left a scorched mark.

Even after venting it, his left eye still shimmered with that red light,