Ghost's Countdown

Lin Xiu's fingertips had just touched the shutdown key on the main control terminal when the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly stood on end—as if icy needlepoints had brushed across his skin.

The tremors traveling through the floor rolled like muffled thunder, drawing closer from afar and forming faint vibrations beneath his feet, as though some enormous creature underground was slowly approaching.

He swiftly pulled back his hand and pressed his palm against the cold metal console—the vibration was not a mechanical malfunction, but the rhythm of heavy combat boots striking concrete.

Every footstep seemed to pound against his eardrums, making them ache faintly.

A faint smell of gunpowder drifted from the laboratory's ventilation ducts, mixed with a familiar scent of scorched electromagnetics—the smell of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents' standard EMP guns warming up.

The lingering scent of scorched metal filled the air, pungent and alarming.

"Oracle, scan the perimeter." He kept his voice low, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed against his dry, tight throat.

Heat surged from the Nanocore along his spine, and a three-dimensional projection immediately appeared across his retina: twelve orange-red thermal signatures were fanning out through the circular corridor beyond the laboratory. Reflections from tactical helmets flickered in the surveillance blind spots like crouching cheetahs.

The triangular star insignia on the shoulder of the leading figure glinted coldly—the mark of a Level Three S.H.I.E.L.D. combat commander.

Its silvery-gray metallic sheen was especially glaring in the darkness.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. tactical squad detected. They are carrying EMP suppressors and Particle Oscillators." Oracle's electronic voice sounded in his ear, clear and composed. "Probability of intrusion: 87%. Stealth Mode activation is recommended."

Lin Xiu's fingers curled slightly at his side, his nails nearly digging into his palm.

When he had hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intranet three days ago, Fury's encrypted file had still stated, "Do not intervene in the Brooklyn anomalous energy entity for now." Why had that suddenly changed?

Had the quantum fluctuations just now been caught by a satellite?

Or... his peripheral vision swept over the tool bag in the corner. Half of a still-warm Tesseract fragment lay inside—Asgardian divine metal shards clung to it like a magnetized scar, giving off a dim blue glow.

"Stealth Mode, activate," he ordered quietly.

Silver light flashed around his wrist as nanoparticles raced along his veins and over his entire body, forming a translucent film over his skin. Even the sound of his breathing was filtered into a near-inaudible whisper.

The air seemed thinner, yet quieter, as though the entire world contained nothing but his heartbeat.

At the same time, he flicked the tabletop with his finger. Three drops of silver liquid rolled into the ventilation shaft—the dispersed Nanite Swarm. It crawled through the ducts toward every corner of the laboratory. Cameras, fire sensors, even cracks in the ceiling became temporary surveillance points.

"Lin!" Freddy's voice suddenly burst through the comms amid electrical 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 needs another four and a half minutes to complete final calibration. Now—"

"I need two minutes." Lin Xiu crouched against the metal outer wall of the central energy chamber, his gaze sweeping over the wormhole parameters flickering across the wall.

His fingertips brushed over the control panel, sending a faint sting of static through them.

A pale blue halo contracted within the energy matrix like a fistful of fireflies, brightening and dimming as it emitted a soft hum.

That 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. If it eats too much, it'll burst."

The laboratory broadcast suddenly crackled.

Isaac Green's electronic voice stabbed in like an ice pick. "An unauthorized individual has been detected conducting high-risk quantum operations, in violation of Stark Industries Safety Clauses 9 through 12.

Repeat, terminate immediately—"

Lin Xiu's pupils contracted.

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 unfurled a torrent of code through his mind. He rapidly locked onto the AI's communications module, his fingertips tracing silver paths through the air—the Nanite Swarm was launching a reverse intrusion.

When Isaac's voice abruptly stuttered, he heard the system prompt: "Forged identity authentication code implanted. External communications blocked for 1 minute and 30 seconds."

"Boom!"

The thunderous crash of the metal door being smashed open shook dust from the ceiling. It drifted down onto his eyelashes, making his eyes sting.

Lin Xiu's temples throbbed twice—they were forty seconds ahead of schedule.

He saw three figures in black tactical uniforms rush in, the barrels of their EMP guns glowing faint blue. The energy cores of the Particle Oscillators at their waists pulsed like breathing flames.

The goggles of the leader reflected the laboratory's cold light. The moment he spoke, it was an order: "The target is near the energy chamber!

Destroy the stabilizer first!"

"Don't even think about it." 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 a dim blue glow across his shoulder plates.

The instant the armor adhered to his skin, a tingling sensation spread through him like electric current coursing over his body.

He thrust his bent arm forward, sending a fan-shaped blue energy ripple outward—it was the Balder Armor's Shockwave module. It precisely avoided the agents' vital points, yet hurled the foremost two men and their guns to the ground.

"Barrier!" he barked.

The Nanite Swarm scattered throughout the corners suddenly converged, forming a translucent shield wall at the entrance.

Beams from the Particle Oscillators struck the shield, erupting in blinding white light, but left only spiderweb-like cracks across its surface.

Lin Xiu took the opportunity to duck and rush toward the energy control console. His fingers flew across the holographic keyboard—the final set of calibration parameters needed to be entered. The wormhole halo had shrunk to the size of a thumb, like a Blue Star on the verge of going dark, emitting an intermittent low hum.

Beep—

The alarm did not come from S.H.I.E.L.D., but from the laboratory's eastern wall.

The back of Lin Xiu's neck burned again as Oracle's red warning exploded across his retina: "Unknown metallic vibration detected!

Frequency matches a Chitauri 'Harvester' mech!"

The next second, the concrete wall was punched through as easily as paper.

As the dark-purple mech squeezed inside, the gust it created overturned two lab benches. Dust billowed while metal fragments sprayed everywhere.

Lin Xiu saw the optical lens in the mech's head flare crimson as its cannon slowly turned toward him—the J-09 controller's "Prey Retrieval" protocol had been activated.

"High-frequency resonance pulse preparing to strip the Nanocore." For once, urgency entered Oracle's voice. "Evasion recommended!"

Lin Xiu's breathing suddenly quickened.

He could feel the armored shield over his chest heating up—the energy reaction of the mech locking onto him.

Heat rushed over him as though he were standing inside a furnace.

There was no time to think. He instinctively rolled sideways, his Nano Armor scraping sparks across the floor as the air immediately filled with the scorched scent of metal grinding against metal.

The pulse beam grazed his left shoulder and struck the energy control console, melting metal into molten slurry in an instant—if he had been 0.1 seconds slower, his heart would already have been shredded.

"Countermeasure program, activate!" He gritted his teeth as he climbed to his feet, pressing his right hand against the floor.

The Nanite Swarm dispersed through the ventilation shafts surged back like a tide, burrowing into the mech through the gaps in its joints.

J-09's optical lens flickered frantically as it tried to fire a second pulse, but the swarm had clogged its energy conduits.

Lin Xiu saw the mech's chest abruptly bulge as purple energy churned wildly within—that was the swarm forcibly overloading its power core.

The blast wave hurled Lin Xiu into the wall of the energy chamber. The pain of the impact against his spine blackened his vision.

He coughed up a mouthful of blood, yet braced himself the instant he hit the ground.

The laboratory before him was a 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 smoking legs, and the wormhole halo on the energy control console... had completely gone out.

"Stabilized." He tore off his protective mask, tasting rust in his throat.

Data scrolled through Oracle: "Wormhole contraction rate: 99.7%. Estimated stability duration: 12 hours.

Enough to last until the Battle of New York truly begins."

The laboratory suddenly fell into dead silence.

The breathing of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents became distinct. Someone quietly reported through a radio, "The target... is still alive?"

Lin Xiu wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and looked up at the gaping hole the mech had smashed through.

Moonlight spilled through it onto the floor by his feet—at some point, half of the Tesseract fragment had fallen from the tool bag. The divine metal shards clinging to it gave off a faint golden glow, like sleeping stars awakening.

Bzz—

His wrist suddenly grew hot.

A burning pain came from the Nanocore, and the Oracle System displayed a line of garbled text: "Time... interference... detected... warning..."

Before he could make it out, a piercing 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, powerful enough to pierce straight into the nervous system.

Lin Xiu bent down and picked up the Tesseract fragment. Warmth seeped through his glove from the metal surface, as though he were holding some ancient power.

He looked toward the night sky beyond the hole. The clouds were rapidly dispersing, revealing a patch of stars.

One star there suddenly shone with blinding brilliance, as though someone had lit a lamp in the depths of the universe.

"It's time to go," he said to the air, his voice even softer than before.

The Nano Armor began to contract and recede beneath his skin.

He gave the energy control console one last look, confirming that all parameters had returned to zero, before walking toward the hole—outside was a tactical vehicle abandoned by S.H.I.E.L.D., enough to get him to the safe house in Queens.

And in a corner of the laboratory beyond his sight, that dust-covered instrument continued flashing red.

The instant the countdown reached "0," a line of text burst across the screen: "Quantum Sentinel activated—"