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"Go, Kitty. Same as usual—I've marked the route for you. Just follow the arrows."

Using the same retinal projection technology, Henry directly projected the movement instructions into the tiger's eyes. After experimenting with many methods, he had unexpectedly discovered that Kitty could understand directional cues meant for humans just fine.

However, if Kitty had to run all the way from the Sheep Cave Valley Laboratory to the distress signal location, then even ignoring stamina issues, by the time she arrived at full speed, the person asking for help would probably be dead long enough for their bones to be used as drums.

So Henry simply removed the limiter and said to his pet:

"Kitty, go wild."

"ROAR!"

That was the happy cry of a tiger.

At the same time, the four thick mechanical limbs activated their gravity-unium core control systems. In sync with Kitty's leg movements, they provided gravitational acceleration and deceleration.

Tests showed that this system could allow Kitty to accelerate in a straight line to speeds exceeding 200 kilometers per hour.

More impressively, it granted her a form of pseudo-flight, allowing her to run through the air as if sprinting on invisible ground.

Because the gravitational field repeatedly shifted direction, it disturbed surrounding air molecules, causing the heavier water molecules to condense.

Thus, when Kitty wore the Duck-Leopard Armor and ran through the sky, mist formed around her paws, making it look as though she were soaring on clouds.

Even so, that speed still wasn't enough to support whoever had sent the distress signal.

The Sheep Cave Valley Laboratory was roughly 250 kilometers in a straight line from Los Angeles.

If Kitty ran there at 200 km/h, she'd arrive in over an hour—just in time to collect the body.

So now it was time to use another system:

The Hyper-Acceleration Launch System.

This was not an ordinary acceleration-deceleration device used to move something at extreme speed.

Nor was it a space-jump system used in the cosmos to shorten distances between two points.

Especially the latter—in the Marvel universe's established jump network, jump points had to be deployed in advance. Only vessels equipped with jump capability could use them within a certain range, arriving near another jump point.

If there was no jump point nearby, the only way to reach the destination was to fly there the slow way.

The Tesseract was another matter entirely, and not worth discussing here. It lacked universality, and the Space Stone inside it couldn't be mass-produced.

Henry had naturally found complete technical designs for such systems within Kree and Skrull knowledge archives.

But implementing one inside Earth's atmosphere involved too many unpredictable risks.

And from power consumption to shielding costs, using such a system for atmospheric travel was simply an unprofitable waste.

That was when the late Kree scientist Mar-Vell's final project—the Lightspeed Engine—became useful.

Its purpose had been to allow ships to perform long-range jumps through space without pre-existing jump points.

In truth, the design was nearly complete, and even prototype models had been installed—otherwise Captain Marvel would never have been created.

It was only because the Kree Starforce attacked, and because Mar-Vell (Dr. Wendy Lawson) worried about the Skrulls she had sheltered aboard the Kree cruiser, that she didn't activate the engine and flee. Instead, she fought them.

Actually...

If Carol Danvers hadn't insisted on piloting the test aircraft and had let Lawson fly alone, she might have escaped using the lightspeed engine first, then returned later after shaking off the Kree.

But that was only speculation.

The actual result was simple:

Mar-Vell died.

Captain Marvel was born.

Quite in line with the superhero tradition of "sacrifice the parents, gain limitless power."

The reason the engine required the Tesseract's energy was because the Skrulls needed to flee beyond Kree pursuit range—

Meaning beyond the Milky Way, the Large Magellanic Cloud, and even Andromeda.

Those regions were all within the standard range where jump networks had already been established.

As for jump point deployment, all three great empires had methods for doing so, and their systems had some degree of interoperability.

That was why no matter where the Skrulls ran, they couldn't escape the Kree.

But Henry's desired hyper-launch system wasn't for crossing millions—or tens of millions—of light-years between galaxies.

It was only for use inside Earth's atmosphere.

So ordinary energy sources were enough.

No Tesseract required.

Henry had long since completed the lightspeed engine design and even modified several versions of it.

Even if it couldn't fulfill the original purpose without the Tesseract, atmospheric use was more than sufficient.

The problem with precise jumping was this:

Not only did calculations need to be perfect, but the destination also had to be free of interfering objects.

Otherwise, the result of hyper-launching was simply crashing directly into the obstruction.

And under those circumstances, one shouldn't expect to walk away unharmed.

So during this period, Henry had launched a homemade satellite into geosynchronous orbit.

Since his main sphere of activity was still California, broader surveillance elsewhere wasn't urgent. There was no need yet for a global monitoring network.

After confirming conditions at the destination, Henry prepared the final steps for the hyper-launch device.

Besides giving Kitty psychological preparation, the compact hyper-launch modules mounted symmetrically on the upper rear limbs of the Duck-Leopard Armor needed to preheat.

The preheating time wasn't long—

About 35 seconds.

After that, arrival at the destination would take less than a blink.

Kitty had already experienced the process several times, so there was no discomfort.

In fact...

This tiger had become fascinated by the hyper-launch experience.

It even secreted dopamine during the process, clearly showing excitement.

Earlier tests had only been conducted in the Sheep Cave Valley wilderness, within distances under five kilometers.

This time, however, she was being launched over 250 kilometers for the first time.

According to the design, short and long distances made no real difference to the device.

Only at sufficient ranges did Earth's surface curvature need to be considered.

The distance from Sheep Cave Valley to Los Angeles posed no such issue.

Thus, Kitty—wearing the Duck-Leopard Armor—arrived smoothly in the air directly above the distress signal location.

This was South Los Angeles, the city's roughest district.

The time was a little after 10 PM.

Too early for sleep.

Not really the hour for ordinary people to be outside.

It was the time when demons danced.

The person who had sent the distress signal was none other than that burly man—

Captain Jack Reacher of the Military Police Special Investigations Unit.

And the ones attacking him...

Were a pack of vampires.

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