Supernova

Verlin left the conference room and decided to look for an exit, Chloe was going to be going through the process for the next two days. He didn't see a reason to stay much longer. Verlin turned on his X-ray vision to look for an exit but quickly found that the base of the enhanced humans was underwater, deep deep underwater.

'Underwater, huh?' Verlin said silently, somewhat amused. "That does make for a very secure base."

Verlin decided he was gonna test something he had been wanting to try, according to his calculation, if he could move his body fast enough and match the frequency of an object he should be able to phase through it. Going along with his theory, Verlin started by moving his hand at superhuman speeds, a blur to the human eye.

As his hand vibrated, he carefully moved it towards the wall of the base. He was careful to control his power to avoid damaging the wall. With each moment, he sped up his vibration, trying to match the natural frequency of the dense wall material.

As he increased his speed, his hand began to feel different. The usually solid feeling of the wall began to waver. He felt resistance, but it was lessening. His hand was starting to pass through the wall! He couldn't help smiling a little seeing this.

Verlin continued to increase the speed of his vibrations. His hand began to move further into the wall, phasing through the solid structure. It was a strange sensation, feeling the molecules of the wall pass around his hand. But his hand was unharmed, and the wall was intact.

Verlin started vibrating his whole body and tried to phase his entire body through the wall. It took more effort than just his hand, requiring him to maintain a high frequency of vibration throughout his body. But it was still relatively easy to focus on keeping his vibrations consistent.

With a final push, Verlin fully phased through the wall, emerging on the other side. He was outside the base, underwater. "Phasing through solid matter... check," he muttered to himself.

He turned around to look at the base but found that with ordinary vision, it was completely invisible. He turned on his electromagnetic vision and could see the energy signature of the base. Its contours shimmered with electric energy, outlining its structure amidst the emptiness of the deep ocean.

He also noticed the base was protected by a powerful shield. He assumed that his phasing through it must've temporarily disrupted the shield, but it didn't look like it caused any lasting damage.

Verlin also observed something else when using his electromagnetic vision: deep-sea creatures illuminated by their bioelectric fields, flickering like distant stars in space. The sight was strangely beautiful. Despite the expected darkness of the deep ocean, he could see perfectly. Maybe it was some sort of night vision, but he didn't really count this as an ability.

Verlin looked towards the surface of the ocean and started moving towards it, The base was at least 8km into deep ocean but the pressure here didn't phase him, and in less than a second he had breached the ocean's surface.

He climbed up a few hundred meters above the ocean, and he could see that there was no land in sight within 400km of the base. How they managed to build it, he had no idea. He continued to accelerate up towards space, and in a matter of seconds, he had already reached the upper layer of the atmosphere.

Now, he had to look for the materials to build the miniature star, he didn't want to start digging and leave a bottomless pit in the earth, and filling them back up seemed like more trouble than its worth. He decided to go to another planet to get the materials he needed.

Deciding to keep his operations within the solar system, Verlin set his sights on Earth's closest neighbor, this solar systems version of Venus. Known for its extreme temperatures and pressure, as well as its rich volcanic activity, It was an interesting option for his needs.

The only problem was that the planet was currently on the other side of the sun, Verlin didn't know how fast he could currently go. So he started accelerating towards the star in the distance, In space, the speed he could reach was essentially unfathomable. There was no air resistance to hinder him, and gravity became negligible the further he got from Earth. He didn't need to hold back as much as he did on earth.

He decided to take a moment to calibrate his speed to something manageable. He started off at speeds similar to that of the International Space Station, about 28,000 kilometers per hour, and then doubled it. Then, he doubled it again. And again. Each time he increased his speed, he paid attention to how the stars shifted around him and how his perception of time and distance changed. He kept going until he reached a speed where he could comfortably maintain control and observe his surroundings.

At such high speeds, he watched as the stars began to blue-shift due to the Doppler effect, their light compressed due to his incredible velocity. He was now traveling at a significant fraction of the speed of light. If he were to give a rough estimate, it would be roughly about 20% the speed of light. He felt that he was still slowly accelerating as he was getting stronger with each passing moment, but it was negligable as he stayed at the relative speed of 60,000 km per second.

Given that he would have to avoid the sun and go around it, not because he was scared of the temperature, but because he knew from his past life that some versions of kryptonians can have their cells overloaded and cause them to die, although there weren't alot of these versions. There were enough for him to avoid the risk of anything like that happening.

Verlin had estimate the distance with him avoiding the sun to venus would be about 1 billlion km, So he had thought that the trip would take several hours, but he had forgotten to take into account that moving at light speed would warp time and space around him due to a concept called time dilation.

The closer an object moves to the speed of light, the more time appears to slow down for it relative to objects that are stationary or moving at a slower speed. This phenomenon becomes particularly significant at speeds close to the speed of light.

With this realization, Verlin made some quick calculations. At his current speed of 20% the speed of light, or 60,000 kilometers per second, he'd cover a distance of about 216 million kilometers per hour. Given that Venus was about a billion kilometers away, factoring in his path to avoid the sun, he'd reach the planet in approximately 4.6 hours as per his perception.

However, due to time dilation, from the perspective of someone observing him from Earth, it would seem like he reached there even faster. In theory, if he was moving at light speed, his trip would appear instantaneous to an outside observer, although it would still feel longer from his perspective. At 20%, the speed of light, this effect wouldn't be as extreme, but it would still be noticeable.

Contemplating these calculations, Verlin also realized that he'd need to be careful about slowing down as he approached Venus. At such high speeds, he could easily overshoot and destroy the planet if he wasn't careful. He decided to start decelerating well in advance to ensure a less destructive entry.

As Verlin passed by the sun, he could feel the intense energy radiating from the celestial body. Even with his Kryptonian cells absorbing solar energy, he still took caution, making sure not to get too close. He could feel his body being attracted to the star and wanting to get closer to it. He could also feel the gravitational pull of the sun, but his own speed was sufficient enough to resist its pull.

Soon, Venus was in sight. The bright, yellowish-white planet was getting closer and closer, and when Verlin was about 5 million km from the planet, he began to decrease his speed gradually. He was mindful of the planet's intense atmospheric pressure and temperature. Unlike Earth, Venus's atmosphere was primarily carbon dioxide with traces of nitrogen, and the surface temperature could reach up to 465 degrees Celsius.

His telescopic vision allowed him to view the planet in more detail. It was a hostile environment, with a surface made mostly of basalt and host to numerous active volcanoes. He could see the traces of lava flows and the structures of extinct volcanoes, the biggest of which was comparable to Earth's Mount Everest.

Now Verlin had to decide what materials he would need for creating a miniature star. His mind quickly ran through the elements involved in the process of nuclear fusion, the reaction at the core of a star. Hydrogen, helium, trace amounts of lithium, and beryllium were all necessary.

He also realized he would need a containment vessel of some kind for the star to prevent its energy from exploding outward. For that, he would need some extremely heat-resistant and durable material. Perhaps he could make use of some of the unique minerals found on Venus, as well as the basaltic rock that made up most of the planet's surface.

Verlin made sure to use his telescopic vision along with his X-ray vision to scan the entire planet for any signs of life. When he made sure that there was nothing worth caring for, he breached through the planet's atmosphere at mach 1000, but he didn't slow down. He hit the planets crust as the shockwave expanded outwards, displacing air and creating a powerful sonic boom. As he made contact with the crust, the extreme speed and the resultant kinetic energy converted into heat, causing the surrounding rocks and sand to instantaneously melt into lava.

He kept going, breaking through layers of rock and crust as they could do nothing to slow down his movement. It was almost the same as flying through air. He could have done this back on Earth, but it would have caused far too much damage. Verlin kept moving downward until he reached the planet's mantle, which was rich in silicate minerals and metals.

Verlin decided to take large quantities of these metals as they could potentially be used for the containment vessel. He used his super strength to rip out huge chunks of the material and brought them back to the surface for later use. Verlin came to the Planet's crust with the hole he had created.

It hadn't yet been filled with the lava that was flowing down since it didn't have enough time to do so. Verlin could see the crater he created from his entry, which was about 6.6km in diameter and 2.2 km in depth. He didn't mind it as it hadn't affected anyone. So, he continued to scan the planet for sources of hydrogen and helium.

Most of Venus' atmosphere was carbon dioxide, but there were small amounts of helium and molecular hydrogen present. But it was enough for what he needed.

Verlin began to gather the gases, using his super speed to create a powerful updraft that concentrated the elements he needed. The atmospheric gases were sucked up in a vortex created by his motion, bringing the helium and hydrogen towards him. Using his control over his own bioelectric field, Verlin began to separate and contain the different gases, creating several large spheres of each element hovering in the air around him.

Once he had gathered enough, Verlin moved on to the next step. He looked around, spotting the massive chunks of rock and metal he had brought up earlier. He decided that they would be a suitable material for the containment vessel for the star. He began to manipulate and mold the material, using a combination of his super strength and heat vision to reshape and harden it.

Verlin started by creating a spherical mold. He superheated the material with his heat vision, causing it to become malleable. With deft movements, he began to shape the glowing metal, pressing, pulling, and twisting it into the desired shape.

The process took some time, but Verlin was patient. He knew the importance of getting this right. He took care to ensure the integrity of the containment vessel, making it as seamless and solid as possible.

Once he was satisfied with the result, Verlin allowed the vessel to cool. The end result was a large, spherical structure that was smooth and highly durable. Verlin carefully checked over the sphere to ensure it was up to his standards. Satisfied, he moved on to the next step.

Inside the containment vessel, he started to compress the hydrogen he had collected. He knew from his knowledge of stellar processes that fusion would only start when the hydrogen was under immense pressure and heat.

With a deep breath, he began. He started to compress the hydrogen, his hands vibrating at super speed to increase the pressure. As the pressure built up, the hydrogen started to heat up, the atoms moving faster and faster.

He continued the process, increasing the pressure and temperature until he could see the hydrogen starting to glow. He knew he was on the right track. The glow was the first sign of nuclear fusion, the process that powered stars. The hydrogen atoms were starting to fuse together to form helium, releasing energy in the process.

The next step was to maintain the reaction. The fusion process was self-sustaining as long as the pressure and temperature remained high. Verlin monitored the process carefully, making adjustments as needed to ensure the fusion continued.

As the fusion reaction took hold, Verlin could see the containment vessel beginning to glow. The energy being released was immense, radiating heat and light just like a real star.

"Miniature star creation... check," Verlin murmured to himself, a sense of accomplishment filling him. The miniature star he created was different from the one he saw at the enhanced human base, If their star was the size of a basketball, his star had a diameter of 75 cm. He couldn't help marvel at his creation. He could feel the miature star empowering him, much more than the sun does to him on earth. It was the same feeling as when he flew by the sun.

As Verlin was observing his creation, he could tell something was wrong, and the miniature star was becoming unstable. There was a moment of concern, but he quickly realized the issue. The fusion was not contained properly within the vessel. The massive energy was beginning to eat away at the walls of the containment vessel.

Verlin quickly rushed towards the mini star. He moved his hands at a rapid pace, reshaping and reinforcing the containment vessel walls, patching up the weakening spots with additional material. But he knew this was a means to an end, and in the next instant, the minature star went off, blasting Verlin several thousand kilometers away from the explosion. Verlin hit several active volcanoes and kept tumbling until he fell into an ocean of lava, creating a huge splash of lava.

The lava, for anyone else, would have been instant death. But for Verlin, it was merely an inconvenience. He quickly righted himself, He couldn't help holding his head and frowning. For the first time since he had reincarnated, he felt pain. He had actually blacked out for a moment from the explosion, and he was sure if not for his super eyes, he would have gone blind from the supernova.

What he felt would be similar to a regular human receiving a punch to the head and looking directly at the sun for a couple of seconds. Verlin slowly rose from the molten sea, his body instantly cooling down as he left the hot liquid. Although his body was visibly fine, his clothes weren't spared.

Verlin flew up to the atmosphere which had been visibly diminished by the explosion, he looked at the sight of the miniature supernova, A huge chunk of the planet had gone missing, it was an astonishing sight, Verlin didn't know whether to be in awe that he survived that almost unscathed or be shocked by the permanently alteration of the planet as there was a massive hole, 400km in diameter and 100 km deep. most of it planet caught in the explosion had either been incinerated or been ejected into space. The shockwave from the explosion traveled through the planet several times.

After a couple minutes of looking down on the planet, the throbbing pain he was feeling in his head had slowly gone away. Although he had permanently scarred the planet by accident, He did gain something, his body had managed to absorb some of the energy released by the explosion, he felt like he was several times stronger than he was before.