Lin Xiu's fingertips had just touched the shutdown button on the main control terminal when every hair on the back of his neck suddenly stood on end—as if icy needlepoints had swept across his skin.
The tremors from the ground were like muffled thunder rolling closer, forming faint vibrations beneath his feet, as though some colossal creature was slowly approaching underground.
He quickly withdrew his hand, pressing his palm against the cold metal console—the vibrations were not a mechanical malfunction, but the rhythm of heavy boots striking concrete.
Every footstep seemed to pound against his eardrums, making them throb faintly.
The faint smell of gunpowder drifted from the laboratory ventilation ducts, mixed with a familiar scorched electromagnetic odor—the smell of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents' standard EMP rifles warming up.
The air was filled with the lingering scent of burned metal, pungent and alarming.
"Oracle, scan the perimeter." He kept his voice low, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed. His throat was dry and tight.
Heat rose from the Nanocore along his spine, and a 3D projection immediately appeared on his retina: twelve orange-red thermal signatures were spreading out in a fan formation through the circular corridor outside the laboratory. Reflections from tactical helmets flickered in and out of surveillance blind spots like crouching cheetahs.
The triangular star insignia on the shoulder of the man in front gleamed coldly—the mark of a Level Three S.H.I.E.L.D. combat commander.
Its silver-gray metallic sheen was especially glaring in the darkness.
"Detected a S.H.I.E.L.D. tactical squad carrying EMP suppressors and Particle Oscillators." Oracle's electronic voice sounded in his ear, clear and calm. "Probability of intrusion: 87%. Recommend activating Stealth Mode."
Lin Xiu's fingers curled slightly at his side, his nails nearly digging into his palm.
Three days ago, when he had hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s internal network, Fury's encrypted file had still read, "Do not intervene in the anomalous energy entity in Brooklyn for the time being." Why had that suddenly changed?
Had the quantum fluctuations from earlier been caught by satellite?
Or... his gaze swept toward the tool bag in the corner, where half a scorching Tesseract fragment lay. Asgardian God Metal debris clung to it like a magnetized scar, glowing with a dim blue light.
"Stealth Mode, activate," he ordered quietly.
A silver gleam flashed around his wrist as nanoparticles raced up his veins and formed a translucent membrane over his skin. Even the sound of his breathing was filtered into a barely audible whisper.
The air seemed thinner, yet quieter, as though the whole world had been reduced to nothing but his heartbeat.
At the same time, he flicked the tabletop with his fingers, sending three drops of silver liquid rolling into the vent—the dispersed Nanite Swarm. It crawled through the ducts toward every corner of the laboratory. Cameras, fire sensors, even cracks in the ceiling all became temporary observation points.
"Lin!" Freddy's voice suddenly burst through the comms amid static. "S.H.I.E.L.D. has activated Forced Isolation Protocol Seventeen. They've cut off every exit on the third underground level!
Your stabilizer has four and a half minutes left before final calibration. Now—"
"I need two minutes." Lin Xiu crouched against the metal outer wall of the central energy chamber, his eyes sweeping over the wormhole parameters flashing across the wall.
His fingertips brushed the control panel, drawing a faint sting of static electricity.
A pale blue halo contracted within the energy matrix like a clump of fireflies clenched in a fist. It flickered bright and dim, giving off a soft hum.
The high-frequency vibration made his teeth tremble slightly.
"Tell Helen to set the backup coolant valve to 15%. The wormhole is too 'hungry' right now. Feeding it too much will only make it burst."
The laboratory broadcast suddenly crackled.
Isaac Green's electronic voice pierced in like an ice pick. "An unauthorized individual has been detected conducting high-risk quantum operations, in violation of Stark Industries Safety Regulations 9-12.
Repeat, terminate immediately—"
Lin Xiu's pupils contracted slightly.
He raised his hand, and the nanofilm around his wrist unfurled into tiny tendrils that slipped into the data cables in the wall.
The Oracle System unleashed a torrent of code in his mind. He quickly locked onto the AI's communications module, his fingertips tracing silver paths through the air—the Nanite Swarm was conducting a reverse intrusion.
When Isaac's voice suddenly stuttered, he heard the system prompt: "Forged identity authentication code implanted. External communications blocked for 1 minute and 30 seconds."
"Boom!"
The deafening crash of the metal door being smashed open shook dust from the ceiling. It fell in showers, landing on his eyelashes and making his eyes sting.
Lin Xiu's temples throbbed twice—it was forty seconds earlier than expected.
He saw three figures in black tactical uniforms rush in, the muzzles of their EMP rifles glowing blue while the energy cores of their Particle Oscillators flickered at their waists like breathing flames.
The goggles of the man in front reflected the laboratory's cold light. The moment he spoke, it was an order: "Target is near the energy chamber!
Destroy the stabilizer first!"
"Not a chance." Lin Xiu clenched his back teeth and pressed his left hand to his chest.
The Nanocore instantly boiled over. Silver-black armor surged from beneath his skin, and the patterns of Tactical Form lit up with dim blue fluorescence across his shoulder plates.
The instant the armor fitted against his skin, a tingling sensation ran through him, like electricity coursing through his entire body.
He bent his elbow and thrust forward, releasing a fan-shaped blue energy ripple—the Shockwave module of the Balder Armor. It precisely avoided the agents' vital points, yet sent the two men in front flying to the floor along with their guns.
"Barrier!" he barked.
The Nanite Swarm scattered throughout the corners suddenly converged, forming a translucent shield wall at the entrance.
The Particle Oscillator beams struck the shield wall, kicking up blinding white light, yet left only spiderweb-like cracks on its surface.
Lin Xiu took the chance to dart toward the energy control console, his fingers flying across the holographic keyboard—the final set of calibration parameters still needed to be entered. The wormhole's halo had already shrunk to the size of a thumb, like a Blue Star on the verge of going out, emitting an intermittent low hum.
"Beep—"
The alarm did not come from S.H.I.E.L.D., but from the eastern wall of the laboratory.
The back of Lin Xiu's neck burned again as Oracle's red warning exploded across his retina: "Unknown metal vibrations detected!
Frequency matches a Chitauri 'Harvester' mech!"
The next second, the concrete wall was punched through as though it were made of paper.
As the dark-purple mech forced its way inside, the blast of air overturned two laboratory benches. Dust filled the air, and metal fragments sprayed everywhere.
Lin Xiu saw the optical lens in the mech's head light up crimson, its cannon barrel slowly turning toward him—the J-09 controller's "prey retrieval" protocol had activated.
"High-frequency resonance pulse preparing to strip the Nanocore." Oracle's voice carried a rare note of urgency. "Recommend evasion!"
Lin Xiu's breathing suddenly quickened.
He could feel the armor shield over his chest heating up—the energy response of the mech's lock-on.
A wave of heat rushed at him, as if he had been thrown into a furnace.
There was no time to think. He instinctively rolled to the side, Nano Armor scraping sparks across the ground as the sharp, burnt scent of metal friction filled the air.
The pulse beam grazed his left shoulder and struck the energy control console, instantly melting the metal into molten slag—if he had been 0.1 seconds slower, his heart would already have been shredded to pieces.
"Countermeasure program, activate!" He gritted his teeth and climbed to his feet, pressing his right hand against the ground.
The Nanite Swarm scattered through the vents surged back like a flood, drilling through the gaps in the mech's joints.
J-09's optical lens flashed wildly as it attempted to fire a second pulse, but the swarm clogged its energy conduits.
Lin Xiu saw the mech's chest suddenly bulge as purple energy churned violently inside—that was the swarm forcibly overloading its reactor.
The blast wave flung Lin Xiu into the wall of the energy chamber. Pain exploded through his back, and his vision went black.
He coughed up a mouthful of bloody foam, yet braced himself the instant he hit the ground.
The laboratory before him was a complete wreck: the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had been pinned behind the shield wall by the shockwave, J-09's mech was reduced to half a pair of black-smoke-belching legs, and the wormhole halo on the energy control console... had gone completely dark.
"Stabilized." He tore off his protective mask, tasting rust in his throat.
Oracle's data scrolled through his mind: "Wormhole contraction rate: 99.7%. Estimated stable duration: 12 hours.
Enough to hold until the Battle of New York truly breaks out."
The laboratory suddenly fell dead silent.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents' breathing became clear. Someone reported quietly over the radio, "The target... is still alive?"
Lin Xiu wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and looked up at the hole the mech had smashed through.
Moonlight spilled in through it, shining at his feet—at some point, half a Tesseract fragment had fallen from the tool bag. God Metal debris clung to the fragment, glowing faintly gold like sleeping stars awakening.
"Hum—"
His wrist suddenly heated up.
The Nanocore sent forth a searing pain, and the Oracle System displayed a line of garbled text: "Detected... time... interference... warning..."
Before he could make it out, a shrill siren suddenly sounded outside the laboratory.
This time, it was not a S.H.I.E.L.D. tactical vehicle. It was a sharper, stranger-frequency buzz—like an alarm that did not belong to Earth, intensely piercing and striking straight at the nervous system.
Lin Xiu bent down and picked up the Tesseract fragment. Warmth seeped through his glove from the metal, as though he were holding some ancient power.
He looked toward the night sky beyond the hole. The clouds were rapidly dispersing, revealing a corner of the stars.
One star there suddenly flared with a blinding brightness, as if someone had lit a lamp in the depths of the universe.
"Time to go," he said to the air, his voice softer than before.
The Nano Armor began to contract, disappearing beneath his skin.
He cast one final glance at the energy control console to confirm that all parameters had returned to zero, then headed toward the hole—there was a tactical vehicle abandoned by S.H.I.E.L.D. there, enough to get him to the safehouse in Queens.
And in a corner of the laboratory beyond his sight, that dust-covered instrument was still flashing red.
The instant the countdown reached "0," a line of text exploded across the screen: "Quantum Sentinel activated—"
Before you continue