As dawn broke over the edge of the ruins, Ye Mo remained standing, his fingers still gripping the alloy strip. He stared at the movement of the shadowy figures in the direction of the woods, neither moving nor making a sound. A few seconds later, a gust of wind swept through, the steel plate wobbled, and then fell back into place. He breathed a sigh of relief, but didn't let go of the strip.
He glanced down at the Vibranium fragment in his pocket; the 2.8% charge felt cool against his fingertips. The battle had drained most of his strength; his Regeneration abilities were still circulating within him, but the pace had slowed. He moved his wrists, the bones cracking, and his breathing became much more steady.
Emma Frost was still lying against the wall, covered with his hoodie, and looked better than before. He went over and knelt down, gently touching her wrist; her pulse was steady. A system notification sounded in his mind: [Vitality signs normal, estimated time to regain consciousness: 15-30 minutes].
He pulled out his recorder and quickly uploaded the data. The Abomination's weaknesses, EMP effects, and neural bundle reaction points were all recorded. Just as he turned off the device, the roar of engines came from the distant sky.
Iron Man's armor sliced through the morning mist and landed steadily in the center of the ruins. Tony removed his helmet, his brow furrowed. "I saw the EMP signal flash three times. You guys made it through?"
Ye Mo nodded. "It ran away."
"Who's injured?" Tony asked as he activated the medical module on the side of his armor, scanning the surroundings.
" Emma Frost," Ye Mo pointed to the corner, "She took a punch and is unconscious, but she has no internal injuries."
Tony strode over, the equipment scanning Emma Frost's entire body. A few seconds later, he breathed a sigh of relief, "Intracranial pressure normal, nerve signals stable, just severely exhausted. She should wake up in a little while."
As soon as she finished speaking, Emma Frost's eyelashes trembled, and her eyelids twitched slightly. She let out a soft groan, and her fingers slowly curled up.
Ye Mo immediately leaned closer. " Emma Frost? Can you hear me?"
She slowly opened her eyes, her vision a little blurry, but quickly focused on Ye Mo's face. "You... are still standing?" Her voice was hoarse.
"Otherwise what?" Ye Mo smirked, "Lie on the ground and wait for you to rescue me?"
She wanted to laugh, but the movement aggravated the wound on her forehead, causing her to frown. Tony handed her a bottle of water, which she took a couple of small sips of, and her strength slowly returned.
"It's gone?" she asked.
"It ran away," Ye Mo said. " Regeneration couldn't keep up with the damage, its nervous system was disrupted, and it retreated on its own."
"It won't be long," Tony chimed in. "Someone like Thaddeus Ross, once he loses, he'll only bet more, he won't stop."
The three of them were silent for a moment. Only the crackling of flames and the sound of wind blowing shredded paper could be heard in the ruins.
"We need to find a way to solve this completely." Emma Frost tried to sit up, leaning against the wall, Ye Mo helped her.
"You're not in a good state to fight right now," he said.
"I don't want to fight," she shook her head. "I want to analyze it. I can sense its consciousness structure—chaotic, yet orderly. Anger is on the surface; beneath lies fear."
Tony's eyes lit up. "Emotional weakness?"
"More than that." Emma Frost closed her eyes, beginning to mobilize her remaining mental energy. "It fears repeated blows to old injuries. Every time you hit the same spot, its reaction is more intense. This isn't instinct; it's a stress response left over from training."
Ye Mo recalled that when his third punch landed on the nerve bundle, Abomination did indeed tremble violently. "Does this mean its nervous system has a fixed pathway?"
"Yes." Tony had already pulled up the footage recorded by the armor and projected it on the ground. "Look here—the third vertebra at the back of the neck. The first time you struck it, it was delayed by 0.6 seconds; the second time, 0.9 seconds; the third time, it just collapsed."
He zoomed in on the image. "Its neural pathways are concentrated in this section, like the exposed main control wires of an old-fashioned robot. The Regeneration tissue is also concentrated in this area, and it goes out of control when stimulated by high-frequency radio waves."
Ye Mo opened his palm, where blue light still lingered. "EMP blinds for more than three seconds, indicating that its senses rely on bioelectrical signals. Once the signals are disrupted, the entire body can't keep up."
"That makes things simpler." Tony grinned. "We won't fight head-on; we'll play the control game."
"How do we control it?" Emma Frost asked.
"A three-stage approach," Ye Mo continued. "First, you use Telepathy to create an illusion, throwing its mind into disarray for a second; second, Tony uses electromagnetic pulses or Shockwave to disrupt nerve signals; third, I close in, using Regenerative Phasing combined with Steel Bone Enhancement, specifically targeting the back of the neck."
Tony nodded. "I can modify the shoulder cannon to fire directional EMPs, with a small range to avoid friendly fire. Add a resonant frequency generator to specifically target the central nervous system."
"I can hold on." Emma Frost opened her eyes. "Even if it only interferes for three seconds, that's enough for you to get close."
"The problem is you just woke up, your mental strength hasn't recovered yet," Ye Mo, looking at her. "What if you force yourself to exert yourself and then faint again?"
"So you're going to go alone?" she countered. "Is your Wall Phasing Technique still on cooldown? How many EMPs do you have left? How many more Vibranium Shards can you use?"
Ye Mo remained silent.
"We can only win if the three of us work together," she said. "Don't expect me to hide in the back."
Tony interjected, "Actually, there's a compromise. Emma Frost doesn't need to control the entire situation; she just needs to implant 'cognitive confusion' at key moments. For example, the instant it's about to counterattack, make it misjudge for half a second, and that'll be enough for Ye Mo to unleash a combination punch."
"That works." Ye Mo thought for a moment. "I've observed its attack rhythm; its shoulder moves before each punch. As soon as it raises its shoulder, you make your move."
"Okay." Emma Frost nodded. "I'll send the signal. As soon as it raises its shoulder, I'll send in a chaotic wave."
Tony had already modified the program on the armor interface. "I compressed the EMP pulse to a 0.3-second burst, perfectly timed for your close-range engagement. The shoulder cannon only charges in four seconds, and I can switch to weapon mode immediately after firing to provide support."
"The sequence is set." Ye Mo drew three lines on the ground. "First step, Emma Frost interferes; second step, Tony cuts off the signal; third step, I finish."
"What if it hides?" Tony asked.
"Then let's do it again." Ye Mo sneered, "No matter how strong it Regeneration, it's fine once or twice, but what about ten or eight times? Repeated damage to the nerve bundles will eventually paralyze it."
"You still have a backup plan?" Tony raised an eyebrow.
"Of course." Ye Mo took out a small piece of metal from his backpack. "This is a fragment of Vibranium I picked up from the electrical box. Although it's only the size of a fingernail, it's still conductive. I plan to embed it into my boxing gloves so that when I hit someone, it releases a microcurrent to continuously interfere with the Regeneration tissue."
Tony whistled. "Are you going to treat it like an experiment, slowly disassembling it?"
"It provoked us first," Ye Mo, tucking the metal plate into the lining of his glove. "And Thaddeus Ross definitely has a backup plan. We have to take it down this time, or next time there might be more than one Abomination."
Emma Frost leaned against the broken wall and suddenly said, "Someone is controlling it."
"Hmm?" The two of them looked at her at the same time.
"I sensed an external pressure within its consciousness," she said in a low voice. "It wasn't a command, it was more like... programming. Its anger, fear, and fighting patterns were all programmed. It wasn't out of control; it was being used as a weapon."
Tony's expression changed. "You mean, Thaddeus Ross is conducting neurocontrol experiments on living people?"
"Not just Thaddeus Ross." Emma Frost shook her head. "The signal source doesn't seem to be Earth technology. The frequency is too clean; it doesn't seem like military equipment."
Ye Mo narrowed his eyes. "You mean... Hydra? Or some other force?"
"I don't know." She closed her eyes. "But I'm certain of one thing—if we only defeat the Abomination, the people behind them will create another. We must uproot them completely."
Tony lowered his head and typed. "Then this operation needs to be upgraded. I'm not just providing support; I need to fully activate the armor's data link and track any abnormal signal transmissions."
"I can cooperate," Emma Frost said. "Once it appears, I'll immediately perform a reverse scan of the mental link path."
"Then it's settled." Ye Mo stood up, brushing the dust off his pants. "When it comes back, we're not only going to win, we're going to pull the thread off its back."
Tony closed the interface. "Shoulder cannon modification completed in ten minutes, EMP charging in progress simultaneously."
"I adjusted my breathing rhythm to regain my mental strength." Emma Frost leaned against the wall and closed her eyes.
Ye Mo walked to the distribution box and began to disassemble the casing. He was going to reconnect the remaining wiring to create a temporary electromagnetic trap. As long as the Abomination stepped within five meters, it would trigger a short-term, strong interference.
He unscrewed the last screw and was about to pull the wire when he suddenly heard Emma Frost's voice:
"Etc."
He looked up.
Her eyes were open, her gaze fixed on the gap in the distant ruins.
"It's back."