Chapter 197: Calling for Reinforcements

The girl on the phone said, "In that case, I'll transfer you to the principal. Please hold." The call switched to a transfer tone.

The principal? Professor X?

While he was still wondering if Professor X's abilities could transmit along the phone line, the phone was picked up again. A fierce female voice spoke rudely, "What do you want?"

"Who are you?"

"Click!" "Beep beep beep." The phone was hung up. That familiar feeling instantly returned.

As the saying goes, "Heaven's way is a cycle of retribution; who does the heavens spare?" Another version says, "Retribution is not absent; the timing has not yet arrived." What else could Henry, having been blocked, do but call back?

As soon as the phone was picked up, Henry said, "This is Henry Brown, I..." "Click!" "Beep beep beep."

Ah, truly a familiar scent.

Henry decided to endure it one more time. If they hung up again, he would go there in person to ask. At that point, there was no guarantee that bodies wouldn't litter the ground.

When the phone was picked up again, Henry quickly said, "Hey, don't hang up again. Hang up again and we're enemies."

A rough breathing sound came through the phone. After a moment, the voice said, "Why did you call?"

"I want to ask you for a small favor. I worked hard for you before. Even if I have no merit, I have suffered. It's not wrong to ask you for a small favor. No fighting or killing involved, nothing criminal. Just that we might have to run a bit far, over here in Switzerland."

As the new principal of the School for Gifted Youngsters, Mystique spoke in a slightly softer tone, "What for?"

"A lady has fallen into a coma due to illness. Now her family can't decide whether to resuscitate her or what to do. So we need someone with telepathic abilities to come and ask the patient's own opinion."

Mystique cursed, "Over in Europe, you wouldn't just find some Gypsy old woman and have her use a crystal ball to cast a spell and solve it."

Henry retorted just as rudely, "Besides serving as evidence in criminal cases, mutant abilities have no legal validity in civil matters."

"I've already found you unreliable; you can't give me an even more unreliable opinion. Just say whether you'll help or not. If you won't help, I'll go refuse them and say I'm powerless too."

Mystique said viciously, "Help! Why wouldn't I help? Remember this, you owe me one again."

Henry protested, "Last time I helped you fight aliens was big enough. I just want a favor; why should I owe you again?"

"Last time's favor was only enough for me to answer your phone calmly. If you want to ask me to do something, then you have to owe another favor."

Damn! What kind of bandit logic is this!

Don't think that because you're a woman and grew up under the Stars and Stripes, this makes sense. At worst, I'll default on it later!

Henry made up his mind and said, "Alright, alright. Consider it I owe you one. How fast can you get here? Preferably not Professor X."

"That guy in the wheelchair needs someone to take care of him; it's troublesome. I remember you mutants have quite a few with telepathic abilities; just send any ordinary one."

Mystique, on the other end of the phone, could clearly hear his tongue-clicking sound and said, "Do you think you're buying apples at a market, picking and choosing? Besides, that stupid donkey has gone into retirement. I don't know where he is, and I don't want to find him."

"I will contact someone else and see if she is willing to come. If she is willing, her movements should be fast; I'm not sure. We'll see. Where are you?"

A jumbled mess of words, with no clear logic. But Henry noticed Mystique used the female "She," not the male "He." Does this mean telepathic abilities appear more often in female mutants?

The internal complaint remained unspoken; Henry replied, "I am currently at the Geneva University Hospital in Geneva, Switzerland."

"Wait at the main entrance. If you don't wait half an hour, it means no one is coming." "Click!" "Beep beep beep."

Staring at the receiver, Henry felt an urge to fly to New York to talk to someone. In the end, he gently hung up the receiver and took deep breaths.

Go back to the ward to explain the situation? After thinking, Henry walked directly toward the hospital's main entrance. He didn't want to return to that place filled with low pressure.

They say even an honest official finds it hard to settle family disputes. Those two half-brothers, sharing the same mother but different fathers, would only be more complicated.

Henry loved watching the melon-eating show, yes, but at least he had to ensure he was in a safe place. If he got dragged in, turning from a mediator into a protagonist, that would be funny.

Arriving at the main entrance of the university hospital. In winter Geneva, although the nighttime temperature didn't reach below zero Celsius, it was still very low.

Although this low temperature was nothing to a Kryptonian constitution, standing around waiting for someone was boring. Henry could only exhale white breath while looking up.

Even though the starry night sky became very dim in heavily light-polluted city circles, for a Kryptonian's vision, seeing some low-magnitude stars clearly was no big problem.

In his eyes, this sky was still the Milky Way. Then Henry saw something he didn't want to see...

Is it too late to run now?

The moment this question flashed through his mind, a figure descended from the sky. It was already dark now; otherwise, it would have caused a huge uproar.

The one who came knocking was none other than Phoenix Jean Grey. She wore a casual combination of jeans and a flight jacket, but that red long hair, floating without wind, was extremely conspicuous.

"Still can't control your own power?" Henry tried his best to act calm and composed, asking flatly.

"No, it's just because seeing you made me so excited, I wanted to hit someone, so it happened like this." Jean Grey clenched her fists, saying resentfully.

"If you want to fight, let's do it another day, at another place. This place won't work." Henry, having decided to default on his debt, was now unafraid of making promises to the X-Men. He could just run later.

Jean Grey restrained herself and said, "I didn't want to fight you in this place either. Where is the person?"

"Follow me." Just as he turned to lead the way, Henry stopped after two steps. He turned back to look and asked, "Can you change your appearance?"

"Why? Do I look that scary?" Jean Grey's eyes coldly pierced with a death gaze. It seemed as if one wrong word would erase the person before her from reality.

Henry could only explain, "It's not about being scary or not; I just guess you might still be on the wanted list over in the US. The hospital has surveillance cameras; to avoid trouble, changing your appearance a bit shouldn't hurt."

"There are many ways to do it; the simplest is direct plastic surgery, adjusting your own face. Or, for example, using mental power to induce others to see you as a completely different appearance."

"Or distort the water vapor or light around you to create some kind of invisibility effect. With your current power, doing these things shouldn't be difficult. See which one you think is suitable, or which one is easy to use."

(End of Chapter)