Marvel: A Lazy-Ass Superman

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The call came through to Henry's personal mobile phone.

Naturally, the device was no longer connected to any self-destruct mechanism and functioned normally now.

"Mr. Henry Brown, please save us! Something like this has happened—I don't know who else I can turn to. Where are you?"

A woman's panicked, tearful voice came through the line.

Henry confirmed immediately that he had never spoken to her before and didn't recognize the voice.

But since she clearly knew his name, he still replied calmly:

"Please calm down, ma'am. First—who are you?"

"I'm Maria Thomson, Miss Katharine Hepburn's private caregiver. Miss Hepburn often mentioned you whenever she was lucid, and said that if there was ever any trouble, we could call you for help."

In the winter of 1996, Katharine Hepburn had been hospitalized with pneumonia.

After her discharge, her health had remained poor, and the acting career she loved had completely come to a halt.

There were even reports that she had begun showing symptoms of dementia.

Henry didn't know the name of her caregiver, but the circumstances matched.

Since this sounded serious, he skipped any suspicion and asked directly:

"Calm down and tell me what happened. Is Katharine alright?"

"It seems you're not in New York, Mr. Brown. This is all over the news here. If you were in the city, there's no way you wouldn't know."

"Don't tell me another giant monster crawled out of the ocean and onto land again."

Henry immediately thought of the earlier Godzilla incident in New York.

At that time, he had also checked on his elderly friend on the East Coast.

By coincidence, Katharine Hepburn had then been staying at her family seaside villa in Connecticut and escaped unharmed.

But this time, someone at her side was calling for help.

Clearly, the situation was serious.

As he turned on the office television, Henry said:

"Isn't Sentinel in New York? What kind of disaster could he possibly fail to solve?"

The TV switched on directly to a news channel.

The screen showed scenes of civilians fleeing chaotically through disaster-stricken streets.

The image shook violently, with no anchor narration—meaning the cameraman was literally running for his life while filming.

As if answering Henry's question, Maria Thomson said in despair over the phone:

"Sentinel is the one who went insane."

At that moment, the tumbling camera on the TV spun once more before hitting the ground.

Henry recognized several iconic Manhattan landmarks.

Then the rolling stopped.

The camera pointed upward at a man floating in the air.

Sentinel.

Not only the strongest superhero of the era, but perhaps theoretically the strongest in the Marvel universe as well—existing on a completely different level from Captain Marvel.

Yet his expression looked nothing like the confident, warm, reassuring face people knew from television.

Instead, his face was sunken and grim.

His eyes were dead, like those of a fish.

This was...

The Void?

Sure enough, on-screen, spreading unnatural darkness swallowed anyone it touched.

All that remained of those people were black silhouettes burned into the world.

Then the horrifying footage was abruptly cut by the station and replaced with the anchor desk.

Realizing how severe the situation was, Henry asked urgently:

"Maria, where are you now? Are you at the Turtle Bay residence on East 49th Street?

"Besides you and Katharine, is anyone else there?

"I'm in New York too, just out at the moment, so I hadn't seen the news. I only just caught what's happening on a store TV by the roadside."

As he said this, Henry was already standing in Stark Pictures' underground parking garage beside his brown old Cadillac.

The woman on the line quickly replied:

"Yes, yes! We're at East 49th Street, in Miss Hepburn's home. Just the two of us.

"Her condition isn't good. She absolutely refuses to leave.

"I can't handle this situation alone, so I called you."

Now understanding the circumstances, Henry immediately said:

"Alright, Maria. Listen carefully and stay calm.

"I'm driving there right now. I'll take both of you to Katharine's family seaside villa in Connecticut.

"What you need to do right now is pack the important things.

"Especially Miss Hepburn's medications. Don't forget those.

"When I arrive, I'll knock on the door, and then we'll bring her out together. Understood?" 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"Yes, yes, Mr. Brown…"

The woman was still flustered.

"But when will you get here?"

"Just give me a few minutes. I'm hanging up now."

Flying to the East Coast and then renting a car would already take too long.

Though the Void's rampage was still some distance from Katharine Hepburn's home, its destructive potential was impossible to estimate.

Henry had no intention of allowing that woman to come to harm.

So the fastest option—

Was to carry his own car there.

But New York was mutant territory.

Would the X-Men intervene to stop the Void?

Was Jean Grey—the Phoenix—currently there?

If one talked about Earth's current combat power, the person most likely capable of stopping the Void was probably Jean Grey empowered by the Phoenix Force.

Forget the Thunderbolts.

Even a complete movie-version Avengers lineup probably wouldn't be enough.

Call Captain Marvel back?

At her response speed, by the time she arrived, it would all be over.

And that didn't even touch the issue of whether she could win.

More importantly, in this situation, would there be any political benefit in recalling Captain Marvel to fight Sentinel?

That was the real key to whether Nick Fury would act.

After all, in Avengers: Infinity War, the one-eyed old Black spymaster had waited until he himself was turning to dust before activating the pager.

He only used it because if he didn't, he'd lose the chance forever.

Otherwise, when Thanos' fleet openly invaded Earth for the Infinity Stones, would the man controlling the world's greatest intelligence network really not know the planet was in danger?

Or had he simply trusted the Avengers to handle it—until he himself was dying and realized they'd lost control?

No matter how you framed it, Nick Fury was fundamentally a political creature.

If there was no advantage and no way to control the outcome, don't expect him to commit.

The X-Men had their own problems recently as well.

At minimum, the government's attitude toward mutants had been worsening.

Because the X-Men led by Mystique—Raven Darkhölme—were far less diplomatic than the team once led by Professor X.

Reports of defiance and refusal of orders appeared regularly.

So neither side could be relied upon.

The best strategy was simply to run far away.

If all he needed was transportation for evacuation, stealing a car in New York would be easiest.

But then how was he supposed to explain that to Katharine Hepburn?

That would be infinitely harder.

After thinking it over, Henry decided to carry his own car there.

The old lady's dementia was only intermittent.

It wasn't severe enough that she forgot everything or couldn't tell reality from nonsense.

He could plausibly explain having driven to New York on business.

He absolutely could not explain stealing a random car to evacuate her.

So—

Being responsible was the better option.

Henry grabbed the underside of the front bumper with one hand.

Like a hydraulic jack, he lifted the entire car.

Then he slid beneath it, supporting it overhead—

And activated his flight ability, heading straight from Los Angeles to New York.

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