My palms were pounding so hard they felt like they were going to explode.
Ye Mo pressed his left hand firmly against the edge of the control panel, while his right hand hovered in mid-air, his fingertips still glowing blue. He didn't look at the screen; his eyes were closed, and he adjusted his breathing rhythmically, alternating between deep and shallow breaths. The surge of heat that had just climbed up his nerves was suppressed, but his mind was buzzing, as if a needle was poking back and forth in his temples.
He opened his eyes, and his fingers moved.
Press the Enter key.
The system began loading Thor's corpus, with keywords scrolling: Jotunheim, Loki, childhood, frost, bloodline. The progress bar had barely moved one bar when the chip in the Faraday cage suddenly flashed, its frequency dropping from 61.5Hz to 61.3Hz.
Time is running out.
"Two hours and forty-three minutes," Emma Frost's voice came from the side, "The synchronization speed is four minutes faster than expected."
Ye Mo nodded without speaking. He took off his glasses and placed them on the corner of the table, then rubbed his temples. This action made him look a little tired, but his eyes were clear. He knew he couldn't delay any longer.
"This pace won't last until dawn," he said. "Once the bridge breaks, the coordinates of the Nine Realms will erratically. At that point, not only will Jotunheim be destroyed, but the entire dimensional network might collapse."
"What do you plan to do?" Emma Frost stood to the side of the Faraday cage, her hand resting on the metal shell, her Mental Network constantly open, extending outwards along the ceiling.
"Stay calm first." Ye Mo opened the Gene Spiral Tower log and brought up the lightning ability module. "My ability is a double-edged sword; if used poorly, it becomes a receiver. I need to cut off the reverse resonance first."
He typed in a piece of code, forcibly disabling the automatic synchronization mode of the neural interface. His palm immediately twitched, as if someone had squeezed his meridians. He gritted his teeth and endured it, a layer of sweat breaking out on his forehead.
"Alright," he said a few seconds later, "Now it can only output, not absorb. I can control it now."
Emma Frost stared at him for two seconds. "You never used to work this hard."
"Nobody used to wait for me to save them," he said, a slight smirk playing on his lips. "But things are different now."
He turned to look at the monitor screen; the energy flow diagram of the Bifrost was still updating. The trajectory, deflected by twelve degrees, was becoming increasingly stable, like a knife already held to the planet's neck.
"One person cannot stop God's bridge," he said. "I don't have that ability."
He was stunned for a moment when he said those words.
He used to always say, "The system is telling me to run," and his first reaction to anything was to hide. Now he sits still, knowing he can't hide anymore.
"So?" Emma Frost asked.
"So we need to call in reinforcements." He opened the list of encrypted communication protocols. "Going it alone won't work, so let's team up."
Several names popped up on the screen: Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner, Scott Lang... Each one was followed by a status tag and combat power assessment.
Tony – Technological support, armor can be deployed remotely, currently located at New York headquarters, with a high success rate of communication.
Natasha – Intelligence infiltration, skilled in infiltration and interference; no publicly available mission records; please contact her.
Banner – Energy Confrontation: The Hulk form possesses cross-dimensional impact, but his emotions are unstable, so caution is advised when triggering it.
Scott – Microscopic intervention, Ant-Man technology may be used to disrupt core resonance nodes, low risk, moderate compatibility.
"Who are you tagging?" Emma Frost asked.
"Three priorities." Ye Mo highlighted three people with the cursor. " Tony gets the gear, Banner takes the lead, Natasha investigates the mole. The rest of you, stand by."
Do you think they'll come?
"Not necessarily." He leaned back in his chair. "But the message has to be sent out. It's their choice if they don't come; it would be irresponsible of me not to call them."
Emma Frost didn't ask any more questions. She walked to the other side of the control panel and pulled up a Mental Scan map of the three-kilometer perimeter of the city. The image was clean, with no abnormal fluctuations.
"I can extend the warning range to five kilometers," she said. "Once any external energy approaches, it can be detected immediately."
"Okay." Ye Mo nodded. "You'll be in charge of external defense, and I'll handle internal resources."
He stood up and walked toward the weapons bay passage. The door slid open with a slight hiss. Inside were several sets of modified tactical uniforms and capability testing devices recovered from different battlefields. He picked up a black combat suit with ventilation slots on the shoulders and checked whether the interface was compatible with the newly activated lightning module.
"This can withstand high voltage," he said. "Last time I wore it to block the Destroyer's fire, it only burned a hole in it."
Emma Frost followed her in, her gaze sweeping over the gene ability recorder on the wall. "You still have these?"
"It was all earned with lives." He hung the clothes on the rack. "Every piece has a price. Now is not the time for nostalgia, it's time to use them."
He opened his personal storage compartment and took out a silver bracelet. It was an emergency signal transmitter that Tony had given him years ago, which had later been modified by the system to simulate the encrypted band of the Avengers Channel for a short time.
"Use this to send messages," he said. "It avoids using the public internet and prevents interception."
What content should be sent?
"Keep it simple." He sat back down at the control panel and typed:
[Code name X, emergency call to action.]
Objective: To prevent cross-dimensional detonation.
Location: Undisclosed base.
Time: Within 2 hours.
Support types: Technology, Energy, Intelligence.
Response method: Replying with the code 'Thunderfall' will be considered confirmation.
He checked it over; there was no Loki, no mention of the Bifrost, and no indication of his own location. The information was vague enough for safety, yet clear enough for those in the know to understand the gravity of the situation.
"Send it," he said.
Emma Frost reached out and lightly touched the screen, using her mental energy to encrypt the signal and ensure the transmission left no trace. A notification of successful transmission flashed by.
"Wait for a reply," she said.
"I might not be back right away." Ye Mo cracked his knuckles. "For some people, sleep is more important than saving the world."
"Then what will you do?"
"Prepare a second plan." He pulled up the base's structural diagram. "If no one comes, we'll do it ourselves."
He pointed to the experimental area on the third underground floor, "There's a miniature oscillator there that can simulate Earth's core frequency interference. Although the power isn't enough, if combined with my lightning abilities, it might be able to cause synchronization frequency misalignment."
How great is the risk?
"Your brain might get fried," he chuckled, "But you won't die."
"You've changed," Emma Frost suddenly said.
"Um?"
"You used to always make excuses for things, saying things like 'the system tells me to do it this way.' Now you make decisions directly."
Ye Mo paused for a second, looking down at his hands. The scorch marks on his palms were still throbbing, but the rhythm was now in sync with his breathing.
"Excuses are useless now," he said. "This time, I don't want to run away."
He stood up and walked towards the training area. A copper-core target plate hung on the wall, bearing burn marks from previous electric arc strikes. He raised his right hand, a thin blue arc of electricity condensing in his palm.
This time, the electric arc was very stable.
He aimed at the bullseye and released.
With a "pop," sparks exploded, hitting the very center.
"The control precision has improved," Emma Frost said.
"It's from practice." He stopped, "I used to be afraid of hurting myself, but now I'm not."
He turned to look at the holographic projection in the center of the control room, where the coordinate map of the Nine Realms slowly rotated. Jotunheim's location was marked in red, and the countdown numbers kept jumping.
61.1Hz.
Two hours and forty minutes.
"Notify everyone to prepare for war," he whispered.
Emma Frost nodded without saying anything more. She took a step back, and a metallic sheen appeared on her body, her Diamond Form activating slightly. This wasn't her combat form, but she could switch to it at any time.
She walked to the monitoring station and extended the Mental Network to a radius of five kilometers around the city, establishing the first line of defense. At the same time, she activated the base's defense protocol, putting all non-essential systems into hibernation to conserve energy.
Ye Mo returned to the terminal and opened the equipment maintenance interface. He checked the status of each available weapon, including the sonic jamming gun he had seized from Ulysses Klaue, the protective shield generator he had brought back from the Hellfire Club, and the " Regenerative Phasing " experimental device he had assembled himself.
As he repaired it, he muttered to himself, "This gun charges slowly, so I have to turn it on early; the shield generator only lasts for thirty seconds at most; the Regenerative Phasing limit hasn't been tested yet..."
Before he could finish speaking, a new message popped up in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Reply with coded message.
One word: Thunderfall.
Ye Mo looked up and glanced at Emma Frost.
"The first one here."