Ye Mo leaned against the garage wall, his fingers still pressed to his temple. The strange sensation that had shot through him like an electric current had not faded. Instead, it kept intensifying, as though something were burrowing into his brain. He opened his eyes, and the metal shard in his palm suddenly grew scorching hot.
This was no illusion.
He whipped his head toward Emma Frost. "Did you go outside?"
Emma Frost froze. "I went to the convenience store up front ten minutes ago to buy some water and bread. Why?"
"Shit." Ye Mo rose, keeping his voice extremely low. "You've been exposed."
Emma Frost's expression shifted slightly. "Who?"
"I don't know, but the system just went off." He turned over the metal shard, and a line of text appeared on it: [High-risk psychic interference source activated. Target: Emma Frost]. Eight hundred meters away. The countdown-only fifty seconds remained.
Emma Frost's breath caught. She had been hunted before, but this time was different. In the past, Hellfire had actively searched for her; this time, she had shown her face herself. Worse still, they could pinpoint her psychic signature.
"They've upgraded their tracking methods," she said quietly. "They used to rely on nanomarkers. Now they can pick up my thought frequency directly."
Ye Mo looked toward the alley entrance, his gaze grave. They could not wait any longer. Tony's estate was no longer safe. The anomalous signals he had discovered in the ventilation shaft were most likely remote surveillance nodes. Once an external report came in, the internal data would sync immediately. They were about to be attacked from both inside and out.
He raised a hand and rubbed his ear. The ringing still had not faded. Forcibly controlling another's consciousness placed an immense burden on his brain, but he had no time to rest.
A spotted cat darted out from behind a trash can, its back arched and a low growl rumbling in its throat. It had been crouching quietly, only to suddenly bristle and bolt as though it had seen a ghost, knocking over a plastic bag before charging into the alley opposite.
This was Ye Mo's doing. He had injected a trace of fear into the cat to create a disturbance. It was only a minor disruption, but at a time like this, the slightest stir could throw off the enemy's rhythm.
"Move." His tone left no room for argument.
Emma Frost asked no further questions and did not argue. She knew the situation was critical. They moved single file along the wall, their footsteps almost silent. Just as they turned out of the back alley where the garage stood, two black SUVs slowly rounded a distant street corner, moving as though they were scanning for something.
Ye Mo seized her wrist and quickly ducked behind an abandoned newsstand.
"They haven't found us yet." Emma Frost closed her eyes and sensed for a moment. "But their search radius is shrinking. It'll cover this place within three minutes."
"There's more than one vehicle." Ye Mo narrowed his eyes. "A second wave is circling around behind us. We're already surrounded."
Emma Frost clenched her teeth. "I should have thought of it. There was a camera outside that store. I took off my hat when I paid."
"There's no point talking about that now." Ye Mo tightened his grip on the metal shard. "The question is, how did they confirm it was you so quickly? You only passed through. You didn't even use your powers."
Emma Frost opened her eyes and looked at him. "Unless... they'd already laid a net across this area, specifically waiting for me to appear."
Ye Mo's heart sank.
That meant Hellfire's pursuit of her was no ordinary manhunt, but a targeted hunt to kill. They had predicted she would flee toward the city center and deployed agents and signal receivers at key locations in advance.
And that convenience store employee was very likely an undercover operative.
"We can't stay here," he said. "They'll activate powerful interference soon. Once the psychic suppression starts, your sensing ability will suffer a backlash."
Emma Frost nodded. "I know."
They hurried across an iron-frame bridge over a drainage ditch, the rusted metal grating creaking beneath their feet. Halfway across, Ye Mo suddenly stopped.
"Did you hear that?"
"There's no sound." Emma Frost shook her head.
"Exactly." Ye Mo frowned. "Even the wind has gone silent. The air is too still."
He looked up at the sky. Dark clouds hung low, and the streetlights flickered. This was no natural phenomenon. Some kind of field was forming, enclosing the neighborhood like an invisible dome.
"A shielding field?" Emma Frost asked quietly.
"More than that." Ye Mo looked at the metal shard in his hand. "It's resonating. That means multiple mutant energy sources nearby have activated at the same time."
Before he finished speaking, three figures lit up at the intersection ahead.
In the middle stood a man in a black trench coat, his hands in his pockets and a silver collar around his neck. He slowly turned his head as though scanning for heat sources. The woman on the left stood barefoot, her fingers spread, pale blue electricity shimmering at their tips. The man on the right had his eyes closed and his ears twitching slightly, as though he could hear footsteps a thousand meters away.
The three stood in a triangular formation. They were clearly a professional hunting team.
"The Scavenger Squad." Emma Frost's voice tightened. "They specialize in capturing escaped mutants."
"Looks like you're pretty famous." Ye Mo gave a cold laugh. "They even sent a lineup like this."
"Cut the chatter." Emma Frost grabbed his arm. "We can't escape now. They've already locked onto the psychic fluctuations in this area. The moment we use our powers, we'll expose ourselves."
"Then we won't use our powers." Ye Mo stared at the three figures. "We'll use our brains."
He lowered his gaze to the metal shard in his hand. Its temperature was still rising, making it almost impossible to hold. The system no longer displayed a countdown, but that did not mean they were safe. On the contrary, it meant the threat had entered a continuous lock-on state.
Something suddenly occurred to him.
"You said they can track your thought frequency?"
"Yes."
"Then what if I interfere with your signal now? Could I use my mind control to put a layer of 'noise shielding' over you and fool them?"
Emma Frost froze. "Theoretically, yes, but the risk is enormous. Your control isn't precise enough. If you damage the neural pathways..."
"There's no time to discuss theory." Ye Mo cut her off. "Trust me this once."
Emma Frost watched him, then nodded after a few seconds.
Ye Mo closed his eyes and focused his consciousness. His last attempt at control had already left his head splitting with pain. Doing it again would be like rubbing salt into a wound. But he had no other choice.
First, he established a faint psychic barrier around himself to prevent any fluctuations from leaking out. Then he slowly approached the edge of Emma Frost's consciousness, carefully feeding in a chaotic frequency as though applying a protective film to a precision instrument.
It was neither invasion nor control, but camouflage.
Like wrapping a cell phone signal in a virtual IP address.
Sweat soon beaded at his temples. His fingertips went numb, and the little finger of his left hand twitched uncontrollably. But he persisted, spreading that "noise" throughout Emma Frost's psychic field bit by bit.
At last, the metal shard cooled slightly.
"Did it work?" Emma Frost opened her eyes.
"For now." Ye Mo caught his breath. "To them, you look like a radio with bad reception. But it won't last long. Three minutes at most."
"That's enough." Emma Frost pulled him along. "Let's get out of the core area while they're still investigating the anomaly."
They quickened their pace, following the edge of the abandoned factory district. Sure enough, the three behind them did not immediately give chase, instead gathering to discuss something. The collared man crouched and touched the ground, seemingly testing for residual energy.
After turning past two blocks, Emma Frost suddenly stopped.
"Something's wrong."
"What is it?"
"I can feel... they're laughing."
Ye Mo's heart jolted. "What do you mean?"
"That laughter isn't from failure. It's... waiting for prey to walk into a trap on its own."
He understood instantly. "We fell for it. They don't care about us escaping. They're steering us somewhere."
He looked around. On both sides stood warehouses that had fallen into disrepair, their iron doors collapsed and their windows shattered. Ahead lay a dead end, with abandoned shipping containers piled layer upon layer at its far end.
Their retreat had been cut off.
Ye Mo gripped the metal shard, preparing for a fight to the death.
Just then, a sharp crack of breaking metal came from overhead.
A rusted billboard plummeted from above and slammed down five meters in front of them, sending sparks flying.
Immediately afterward, red lights lit up at both ends of the alley.
Four figures slowly closed in.
Only now was the real encirclement complete.