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On a summer night, even with the air conditioning running, Katie still sprawled lazily across her steel cat tree. Once a spot warmed up, she'd simply shift to another platform and continue lounging.
Henry's Kryptonian physique made him resistant to heat and cold—but that didn't mean he couldn't feel them. It simply meant he wouldn't suffer heatstroke or freeze to death.
Still, hot and humid weather could sour his mood. As for cold… even before transmigrating, he had always tolerated cold better than heat. As long as he wasn't shivering or catching a cold, he considered it manageable.
On a night like this, Henry had been considering flying up to ten thousand meters for some cool air—beer in one hand, moon overhead.
It was a full moon.
Charlize had worked late. After chatting briefly, she'd gone back to her room to rest. So Henry planned to enjoy the night sky first, then continue work on his underwater laboratory.
The lab was being carved into the seabed—an excavated cavern reinforced with corrosion-resistant steel, forming an egg-shaped sealed structure. Only a small portion would protrude above the ocean floor; the rest remained buried beneath.
Since he didn't plan to bring people down there—or grow plants or raise animals—the interior would be filled with pure helium instead of air.
The advantage?
No microbes. No mold. No cockroaches or ants.
Without oxygen or carbon dioxide, carbon-based life either dies—or goes dormant.
The downside?
Helium was expensive.
Filling the entire chamber to one atmosphere would cost a fortune. After all, helium couldn't be synthesized—it had to be extracted from natural gas.
To solve that, Henry had built a subsea natural gas extraction site.
Methane hydrates—"flammable ice"—were abundant beneath the seabed. Even decades later in his previous world, efficient extraction remained a challenge.
The biggest issue was transporting gas from seabed to surface without leaks, corrosion, or biological damage.
Oil pipelines already struggled with leaks—methane pipelines would be even worse.
Henry's solution?
Process everything on-site at the seabed.
Maintain the structure, extract what he needed, and eliminate pipeline risks entirely.
His primary goal was helium extraction—but methane could also be used for power generation.
Two birds. One stone.
The oxygen needed for combustion? Supplied via electrolysis of seawater.
Initial power came from underwater current-driven turbines.
His design delivered a rated output of 50 megawatts.
For comparison:
A typical generator: 3–8 kilowatts
His system: 50 megawatts
Sure, it looked modest compared to Tony Stark's future arc reactor—but 50MW could power an entire town of ten thousand people.
Europe's total daily consumption? Around 350 gigawatts.
For a single lab, 50MW was more than enough.
Of course, everything was still under construction.
The outer shell of both the lab and methane facility was complete. Lately, Henry had been testing structural integrity and gradually relocating equipment—along with the turbine generators.
Once operational, the lab would house his research into Kree and Skrull technology.
Goat Valley Lab might be remote—but not unfindable.
The ocean floor, on the other hand?
A blind spot.
Unless Namor and his Atlanteans decided to interfere, security would be far superior.
As for the Moon?
Out of the question.
Too many unknowns. Too many eyes. The Inhumans' city, Attilan, sat in the Blue Area. Henry had already ruled it out.
Compared to that, the deep sea was practically ignored.
He hadn't encountered Atlanteans yet—but then again, he hadn't explored the entire ocean either.
Just as he was deciding what to move next—
Knock knock.
Katie didn't budge.
Henry frowned. Who would visit this late?
A glance with X-ray vision—
Charlize.
He opened the door, surprised. "I thought you were going to sleep. Can't rest?" He reached to pull her in.
She slapped his hand away and held up a portable phone.
"Cruella wants to know—have you seen Jasper today?"
"Her tall, skinny sidekick? No. Why?"
"She's in Paris for Fashion Week. She sent Jasper to Los Angeles with invitations—including yours.
"But tonight she tried calling him for an update. No response. So she contacted me to ask you.
"You're first on the list. He should've come to you first. If you haven't seen him… something might've happened."
"Did Cruella say that?" Henry asked, alert now.
Charlize curled her lips. "That woman is a control freak. Do you think Jasper would just wander off? The Badun brothers are completely under her thumb—they wouldn't dare."
Henry's expression turned serious.
Given his own recent troubles… if Jasper had been targeted because of him—perhaps by vampires—it wasn't impossible.
"I understand," Henry said. "I have contacts on the street. I'll go check. Let Cruella know—and get some rest. Leave this to me."
Charlize hesitated. "Can I stay here? If something happens, you can tell me immediately. I'm worried about Jasper too. He looks like a thug, but he's actually a decent guy."
Henry didn't object.
He stepped aside.
Charlize entered.
He turned to change clothes and grab his car keys.
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