With the Hydra situation sorted out, Luca prepared to head back to New York.
For the foreseeable future, he figured he'd be bouncing between New York, Sokovia, and the Hydra base.
Fortunately, he had the Spot—a driver who rivaled the portals of Kamar-Taj. It made getting around incredibly convenient, turning international travel into something as casual as visiting a neighbor.
Once back in New York, however, Luca had a mountain of work waiting for him.
First up, the blueprints for the transformable base were nearing completion.
For someone with Luca's current capabilities, designing it wasn't particularly hard. The issue was that actually building the thing was complex and would likely take a long time.
He didn't want to finish construction only to find out it didn't meet the System's criteria. So, he had to be as meticulous as possible—he couldn't just slap a retractable roof on a building and call it a "transformation."
As for the signal towers, power stations, and other infrastructure, he wanted to avoid getting Hydra too deeply involved for now. That work was being handled by the Aurantius Group and local Sokovian families, without tapping into Hydra's European connections.
Well, to be honest, it was mostly the local Sokovian powers doing the heavy lifting.
After Hydra pulled out of Sokovia, those families had briefly considered cutting the Aurantius Group out of the deal and going it alone. But under the double-barreled pressure of Luca and Zemo, they folded faster than a cheap lawn chair.
For Zemo, the stability of Sokovia was more important than anything else.
With the Sokovian base construction temporarily off his plate, Luca immediately threw himself into the next project.
"Haro, hold on. This doesn't add up. If the 'Cosmic Egg' particles have to be captured under Jupiter's gravity, and GN particles and energy are produced by filtering the decay of those Cosmic Eggs, then how is it even possible to build a Pseudo Solar Furnace on Earth?"
In the lab, Luca was flipping through manufacturing data for the Solar Furnace while discussing the feasibility of a Pseudo drive with the orange Haro beside him.
The orange Haro was currently piloting a new model of research mech, acting as Luca's lab assistant.
"According to the data, Cosmic Eggs do not exist solely in Jupiter's environment. The 'capture' process described in the data actually refers to harnessing the energy potential difference created by Jupiter's unique gravity and magnetic field to stabilize the Solar Furnace's operation."
"Based on your hypothesis, electromagnetic signals can indeed simulate a similar environment. However, since a stable energy potential difference cannot be perfectly formed, the amount of GN particles produced would depend on the duration of the magnetic field."
Listening to Haro's analysis, Luca nodded thoughtfully.
"So, what I need right now isn't actually to simulate Jupiter's environment, nor do I need to rush to capture Cosmic Egg particles. My primary task is to stably simulate that energy potential difference, which is similar to a miniature black hole..."
Luca's voice suddenly trailed off. He looked over at the Spot, who was bored and playing with his fingers, with a strange expression.
Seriously? This guy used to be a researcher for Kingpin. He helped build a particle collider capable of traversing space-time. How did getting superpowers turn him into such a goofball?
Okay, despite the mental roast, Luca wasn't thinking about the Spot just because he was goofing off.
Could the black holes this guy creates be used to help build the Pseudo Solar Furnace?
...No! That's thinking too small!
A sudden spark of inspiration hit Luca. He slammed the documents down on the table and shouted.
"Jonathan!"
"Uh, Boss! I wasn't spacing out!"
Startled, the Spot quickly hid his hands behind his back and looked at Luca with an innocent expression.
Luca rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
"Cut the crap. Let me ask you—can the portals you open connect directly to the interior of Jupiter?"
It hadn't occurred to him before, but this guy could open portals to parallel universes.
Why bother struggling to figure out how to use his black hole powers to capture phase topology energy differentials?
If he could just stably open a spatial tunnel to Jupiter's core, Luca could build a "station" on Earth that connected to Jupiter's environment only within the necessary equipment chambers.
This would not only save cost and time, but it would also allow him to skip the Pseudo Solar Furnace entirely and build a genuine, full-spec Solar Furnace.
Hearing the question, the Spot scratched his head in confusion, but answered honestly.
"As long as it's not across parallel dimensions, I should be able to do it. But the further the distance, the smaller the portal gets and the shorter it stays open."
"For a distance like Jupiter... I estimate I could only keep a portal open for a fraction of a second. Probably... about this big."
As he spoke, the Spot gestured in front of him, generating a black hole about seven or eight feet high out of thin air.
Judging by how long it lasted, this obviously wasn't connected to Jupiter; he was just demonstrating the size.
Luca turned to Haro for its opinion.
Haro didn't disappoint. The red lights in its eyes flashed for a moment before it nodded.
"Feasible. That size is sufficient. We only need to drop the capture equipment and the Solar Furnace casing onto the gaseous surface of Jupiter, then deploy a number of AI bots to handle the subsequent particle collision, assembly, and retrieval."
Luca's eyes lit up. He wanted to start immediately.
If he could skip the Pseudo drive and go straight for the real deal, a lot of his previous worries would vanish.
However, once Haro listed the subsequent plans, it served as a serious reality check for Luca.
Leaving aside the manufacturing of the Solar Furnace casing and the phase capture equipment, just building robots capable of working in that deep space environment was a massive project in itself.
Whatever. Rome wasn't built in a day. This already saves me a ton of effort.
After another busy day in the lab, Luca finally put down his work as the night grew deep, getting up to go rest.
As for Haro?
Why would a robot need to sleep? Just go charge yourself.
However, as Luca was about to head to his bedroom, he hesitated for a moment, then turned and walked toward the temporary infirmary.
Sigh, better go check on them.
Inside the temporary ward, Gina was already asleep. Baymax was standing obediently on a storage crate in the corner, charging itself.
But as Luca scanned the room, his gaze didn't land on either of them.
Instead, his attention was completely arrested by a plate of apples on the coffee table.
"Why... why is there a glowing apple over there?!"