Check-In! Phasing!

At three in the morning, Lin Mo suddenly woke from a dream, his heart pounding as if it would smash through his ribs. Not because of a nightmare, but because the wristband on his arm was heating up, as hot as a branding iron tucked against his skin, making even his bones tingle.

He shot upright and, by the moonlight spilling through the window, saw the numbers on the wristband—[Countdown: 0 days 0 hours 0 minutes 10 seconds].

It was here!

Lin Mo's breathing immediately quickened, his palms slick with cold sweat. He leaped out of bed, his bare feet landing on the icy concrete floor, yet he felt no cold at all. All the blood in his body seemed to rush to his head. He had waited a full 365 days for this day—from being a drifter sleeping on park benches, to gaining a foothold at the repair shop, to Phil Coulson's business card being tucked at the very bottom of his drawer, to Peter's spider jar growing fuller and fuller...

The wristband shook more and more violently as the pale blue digits began jumping frantically: 10, 9, 8...

Lin Mo took a deep breath, walked to the center of the basement, closed his eyes, and clenched his fists, his nails digging deeply into his palms. He had imagined this check-in scene countless times, imagined what ability he might receive—Wolverine's healing factor? Iceman's ice control? Even Magneto's magnetism? But he had never imagined that his first ability would be related to the Basic Phasing he had already become proficient with.

[3, 2, 1... Check-in complete!]

[Ability obtained: Kitty Pryde's Phasing (Basic Version)]

[Ability description: Can phase through any non-energy solid material (including metal, rock, concrete, etc.). Physical collisions are ignored while phasing, but movement speed is reduced by 50%. Maximum duration per use: 5 minutes. Cooldown: 10 minutes.]

[Notice: This ability can be improved through practice. After merging with the host's existing "Basic Phasing," proficiency will carry over to the new ability.]

The warmth of the wristband gradually faded, replaced by a strange feeling of lightness, as if every bone in his body had turned to sponge and could pass through any obstacle at will. Lin Mo suddenly opened his eyes and stared at the peeling desk in front of him—a desk that had been with him for half a year, its surface long since covered in screwdriver scratches.

He stretched out his right hand, his fingertips hovering above the tabletop, and focused on imagining, I can pass through it. Just like Shadowcat did in the movies. He imagined himself as a wisp of smoke, a patch of mist, something without substance.

The moment his fingertips touched the tabletop, he felt a thin layer of resistance, like passing through a film of warm water. There was no snagging whatsoever—his five fingers went completely through to the underside of the table!

"It really... worked!" Lin Mo's voice trembled, his heart seeming ready to burst from his chest. He could clearly sense the wood grain flowing through the gaps between his fingers, yet he felt nothing at all, as if the layer of wood did not exist.

Excitement went to his head. He instinctively lunged forward, wanting to try passing his whole body through the desk. But he moved too quickly and got the angle wrong. With a thud, half his body became stuck in one of the desk legs—his shoulders and chest had passed through the tabletop, but his waist was tightly wedged in the leg. His arms flailed under the table while his legs stuck straight out on the other side.

"Fuck!" Lin Mo was in pain and panicking. He tried to pull himself back out, but could not find any leverage, as if an invisible clamp had caught him. The more he struggled, the tighter the desk leg wedged him in place. The wood scraped against his ribs, making him bare his teeth in pain.

In his panic, he forgot to maintain control over the ability, and the phasing state suddenly ended—with a tremendous bang, he sent the desk flipping upside down. Parts, screwdrivers, and solder wire scattered across the floor. One sharp blade flew past his ear and embedded itself in the wall, trembling nonstop.

"Lin! What the hell are you doing?" Carlos roared from the doorway, accompanied by heavy footsteps. A cigarette dangled from his mouth as he glared at the mess on the floor, his afro standing even straighter with rage. "Taking apart tables for fun in the middle of the night? Or did a meteor hit you in the head?"

Lin Mo was wedged between the desk leg and the overturned tabletop, looking as pathetic as a flattened cockroach. He quickly activated his Phasing Ability, his body turning into a translucent shadow as he slipped through the gaps in the wood. He pretended he had accidentally knocked the desk over. "Carlos... I was sleepwalking. I accidentally..."

"Sleepwalking?" Carlos crushed his cigarette butt against the wreckage of the desk, sparks scattering onto Lin Mo's pant leg. "Do you think I'm three years old? This desk weighs fifty pounds. You can flip it over while sleepwalking?" He bent down and picked up the blade from the floor, his gaze suddenly sharpening. "And this blade? A little closer and your ear would be gone. If you want to die, don't die in my shop!"

Lin Mo's back was drenched in cold sweat. He had been far too impulsive just now and had nearly exposed his ability. He hurriedly crouched down to gather the parts, apologizing nonstop. "Sorry, Carlos. I really didn't mean to. I haven't been resting well lately. My hand slipped."

Carlos walked away grumbling and cursing, but not before pointing at Lin Mo's nose. "Pull a stunt like this again, and I'm docking half a month's pay!"

The basement finally quieted down. Lin Mo leaned against the wall, gasping for air, his heart still racing. Though that mishap had been humiliating, it had made him truly feel the power of his new ability—this was nothing Basic Phasing could compare to. Shadowcat's ability could even pass through Wolverine's Adamantium claws. Ordinary walls and metal would be no challenge at all.

He picked up the parts from the floor, set the desk upright again—thankfully, it had not fallen apart—and began practicing methodically.

First, he practiced Precision Control. He placed a coin on the tabletop and tried to phase his fingers through the wood, picking up only the coin without touching anything else. The first time, he grabbed nothing, his fingers passing straight through the coin. The second time, he used too much force and crushed it flat. It was not until the fifth attempt that he steadily pinched the coin between two fingers and pulled it out from beneath the tabletop.

Second, he practiced phasing with his whole body. This time, he did not dare rush. He started with a chair—slowly passing his arm through its backrest, then his shoulder, until finally his entire upper body extended behind the chair, as if he were wearing an invisible cloak. Then came the wall. He walked to the concrete wall of the basement, took a deep breath, imagined what lay beyond it—Ted's basement, piled with beer cans and old comics—and inched forward step by step.

The instant he passed through the wall, he smelled the cheap aftershave on Ted. Ted was sprawled on the floor playing a game, still cursing, "This damn computer is lagging like hell," completely unaware that someone had appeared behind him. Lin Mo hurriedly backed away in fright. Passing through a wall felt too strange, like walking through water. Every step met resistance, and his speed truly had been cut in half.

Third, he merged his existing ability. The wristband had mentioned proficiency carryover, so Lin Mo tried using Kitty Pryde's Phasing on the encrypted hard drive he had been unable to repair before—the one Phil Coulson had left behind, of which he had secretly kept a copy. As his fingertips passed through the metal casing, he could clearly "see" the internal chip structure. He could even identify which part was the tracker—something Basic Phasing had never been able to do!

"So that's how it is..." Lin Mo suddenly understood. The new ability could not only phase through harder objects, but also came with a Structural X-Ray effect. It was practically tailor-made for repair work!

By five in the morning, Lin Mo could already skillfully control the range and timing of his phasing. He could make only his palm pass through an object or phase his entire body through a wall. He could walk slowly while phased, or instantly cancel the ability and land steadily on the ground. The only drawback was the duration—after five minutes at most, he would become dizzy, as if suffering from hypoglycemia, and had to wait ten minutes before using it again.

He collapsed onto his mattress and watched the sky outside turn pale with dawn, unable to stop the corners of his mouth from rising. With this ability, never mind robbers—even if he ran into ordinary Mutants, he was confident he could escape. More importantly, he could protect Peter, Aunt May, and Martha better—at the very least, when danger came, he could pull them out from behind a wall.

At seven that morning, Lin Mo went to the repair shop with dark circles under his eyes. The moment he reached the entrance, he saw Peter squatting on the steps with his backpack on, holding a glass jar. Inside, the spider was spinning silk and weaving a glittering web.

"Lin! Look!" The boy excitedly raised the jar. "Its silk is so strong, it can lift my pencil case!"

Lin Mo's heart skipped a beat. Was this... a sign that Peter was about to get bitten by the spider? He stared at Peter's fingers and relaxed only after seeing they were clean and uninjured. "Be careful. Don't let it bite you."

"Don't worry, I'm wearing gloves." Peter shook the rubber glove on his wrist, then suddenly lowered his voice. "Oh, right. Last night, I saw several men in suits hanging around near the meteor crater. They were holding things that looked a lot like the hard drive you repaired. Isn't that strange?"

Lin Mo's back instantly tensed. Peter had noticed them! This kid's powers of observation were practically made for detective work. "Maybe they're government people, dealing with the meteor and stuff," he said vaguely, not wanting Peter dragged into it.

Peter clearly did not believe him, but he did not press further. He simply stuffed a sandwich into Lin Mo's hands. "Aunt May made it. Have it for breakfast. The science fair is at two this afternoon, don't forget."

"Yeah." Lin Mo took the sandwich and watched Peter run toward school. He suddenly remembered seeing something beneath Ted's bed while practicing phasing yesterday—covered by a black cloth, shaped like a launcher, with a Spider-Man logo on it. Was that kid secretly working on something too?

When the repair shop opened, Carlos still looked grim, but he did not mention the overturned desk again. He merely tossed a heavy box to Lin Mo. "The special parts I mentioned yesterday. Get to work. The client's picking them up at noon."

The box held more than a dozen metal parts, gleaming a dark green. Strange patterns covered their surfaces, and they felt icy cold to the touch—the same color as the stones from the meteor crater shown on the news. Lin Mo used his Phasing Ability to "look through" them. Their interiors had honeycomb-like structures filled with flowing green energy, like the core of some kind of... engine?

"What are these things?" Lin Mo pretended not to understand and tapped one of the parts with a screwdriver. "Looks like alien junk."

"Mind your own business." Carlos kept his cigarette in his mouth, his eyes flickering. "The client only said to take them apart and remove the 'cores.' They're paying double."

Lin Mo's heart stirred. Remove the cores? Could these parts be the cores of some kind of weapon? Without changing his expression, he began dismantling them, using Kitty Pryde's Phasing to avoid every mechanism and prevent any self-destruct program from triggering. When he removed the first green "core," the wristband suddenly vibrated.

[Detected residual Tesseract energy (weak).]

[Related event: Battle of New York (future).]

[Warning: Long-term exposure may cause genetic mutation (non-benign).]

Lin Mo's hand jolted, and the green "core" nearly fell to the floor. The Tesseract! These parts really were connected to alien technology! Who exactly was Carlos doing business with? S.H.I.E.L.D.? Or Hydra?

"Hurry up!" Carlos urged impatiently. "The client will be here soon."

Lin Mo drew a deep breath and quickened his movements, though turmoil raged in his mind. He secretly photographed the patterns on the parts with his phone and sent them to Peter through their encrypted email, as they had agreed before, along with a message: "Have you seen this kind of structure before?"

Halfway through the dismantling, Peter's reply arrived. It contained only one image—a design blueprint for his Web-Shooters. The energy circuits on it were astonishingly similar to the patterns on the parts!

Lin Mo's heart began pounding wildly. What did that mean? Was Peter's spider gene related to Tesseract energy? Or had the spider that would bite him itself been altered with alien technology?

"Done." Lin Mo placed the dozen green "cores" into a box and pushed it toward Carlos, his fingertips turning white from the force of his grip.

Carlos nodded in satisfaction and tossed him an envelope. "Your bonus. Two hundred bucks." He picked up the box, turned, and entered the back room. The door clicked shut behind him—clearly, this client could not be seen in public.

Lin Mo gripped the envelope, his palms sweaty. He knew he could no longer play dumb. Carlos, the meteor crater, the Tesseract parts, Peter's spider... none of it was a coincidence. There had to be a massive web behind it all, and he was already tangled at its center.

At noon, Lin Mo used buying parts as an excuse to circle around near the meteor crater. The cordon was still there, but the guards had been replaced by people in black suits—S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. They held scanners and inspected everyone passing by. Lin Mo hid around a corner, activated his Phasing Ability, and quietly passed through the cordon to the edge of the crater.

The green glow at the bottom of the crater had vanished, but he could see traces of lingering energy in the soil, flowing like green lightning. Using Kitty Pryde's Phasing to "look" deeper, he discovered a metal device at the bottom that was slowly absorbing energy from its surroundings—it was S.H.I.E.L.D. equipment!

So it really is them... Lin Mo's heart sank. S.H.I.E.L.D. was not only studying the meteor crater, but had deliberately released the parts to test who could handle this alien technology. Carlos and Lin Mo had both become pieces on the board.

Suddenly, static crackled in his earpiece—he was wearing a homemade detector for listening devices. Someone was approaching! Lin Mo quickly activated his Phasing Ability and slipped into an abandoned car nearby, exposing only one eye to observe.

Two agents in suits approached. One of them was Phil Coulson! He was holding a tablet and looking at the image displayed on it—a photo of Lin Mo in the repair shop. He said to the other agent, "Confirmed. It's him. His ability resembles Shadowcat's, but with greater precision. It may be connected to the meteor energy."

"Do we bring him in?" the other agent asked, his hand resting on the gun at his waist.

Phil Coulson shook his head, a faint smile appearing on his lips. "No. Let him stay in Queens. A 'phaser' who can repair things is more useful than one locked in a cell."

Cold sweat instantly soaked Lin Mo's back. They really were watching him! Coulson's "come find me if you have trouble" had never been recruitment—it was a warning. We know where you are. Don't do anything stupid.

After the agents left, Lin Mo crawled out of the car, his heart still pounding. He finally understood that from the moment he gained his ability, he could never return to an ordinary life. S.H.I.E.L.D. was watching him, the crater's energy was affecting the area, Peter's spider could bite him at any moment, and Lin Mo had to become stronger before everything erupted.

On the way to the science fair that afternoon, Lin Mo threw Phil Coulson's business card into a trash can. He did not need anyone else's "protection," nor did he want to be a pawn. He would rely on his own ability to protect his little corner of this mad world.

At the science fair, Peter eagerly showed him his "Webbing strength-testing device," which could precisely measure the load-bearing capacity of different spider silk. "Look at this," he said, pointing at the data on the screen. "This spider's silk can actually lift three kilograms!"

Lin Mo looked at the furry spider and suddenly said, "Peter, promise me you won't touch it. Especially don't let it bite you, okay?"

Peter froze for a moment, then smiled. "Relax. I'm not that stupid."

But Lin Mo knew some fates could not be avoided. All he could do was become strong enough before then—strong enough to offer Peter a Shield and say, "I've got you," when Peter needed him.

As they left the science fair, the setting sun stretched their shadows long behind them. Lin Mo suddenly stopped and said to Peter, "If you run into danger next time, head for the repair shop. I have a way to hide you."

Peter looked at him in confusion. "Lin, what's wrong with you today?"

Lin Mo smiled but offered no explanation. He only patted Peter on the shoulder. He could feel the wristband growing faintly warm again—not as a warning, but as a kind of anticipation. Perhaps an even stronger ability would be waiting for him at the next check-in.

But for now, he had more important things to do: go back and study those Tesseract parts, find out what S.H.I.E.L.D. was after; continue practicing Kitty Pryde's Phasing and try to break through the five-minute limit; and keep a close eye on Carlos. The parts in that man's hands might be hiding a secret capable of destroying Queens.