Loki Temporarily Contained, the Crisis Unresolved

Loki knelt on the ground, his neck pinned down by the Hulk's knee, his hands bound behind his back, the nanochains digging into his flesh. He stopped struggling, but the smile on his lips remained.

Ye Mo stood three steps away, clasping his hands together. A lightning net rose from the ground, forming a hemispherical cage around Loki. The current flowed into the ground through his fingertips, its frequency synchronized with his heartbeat. He could feel each arc of electricity connected to his nerves, like a part of his own body.

"How long can this thing last?" Tony floated in mid-air, steam still rising from the surface of the armor.

"It won't stop as long as I don't sleep," Ye Mo said.

Emma Frost stood beside him, eyes closed, her Mental Network spread out, circling Loki's brain. Sweat dripped from her forehead, falling to the ground along her chin. Suddenly, she opened her eyes. "What is he listening to? He's not trying to escape, he's waiting."

"What are you waiting for?" Tony looked down at her.

"I don't know. But there's an echo in his head, like a signal bouncing back and forth." Emma Frost's voice trembled slightly. "I've never encountered anything like this before. His consciousness is like a stone, submerged at the bottom of the water, but bubbles keep rising to the surface."

Banner crouched to one side, still in his Hulk form, fists on his knees, eyes fixed on Loki's face. He whispered, "Don't let him speak. Don't let him utter a single word."

Loki heard it, his eyelids twitched, but he didn't look up.

Tony opened the wrist panel and brought up the scanning interface. Three small jammers popped out from the back of the armor, flew to the perimeter of the lightning net, hovered automatically, and began to rotate. After the high-frequency resonant waves were cut off, the faint vibration in the air disappeared.

"This guy's like a living USB drive," Tony said, "Plugged in with background processes, ready to run automatically at any time."

"Then unplug the power." Ye Mo pressed his hand on the ground, increasing the current by one level.

The lightning crackled, and the blue light flashed even faster. Loki swayed as if he'd been electrocuted, but he didn't cry out; he just gritted his teeth.

"It's working," Emma Frost said. "His brainwaves have slowed down by fifteen percent."

"Not enough." Ye Mo stared at Loki. "He can still pass."

"How did you know?" Tony asked.

"Because he's not panicking," Ye Mo said. "We pinned him to the ground just now; anyone else would have panicked. But his heartbeat didn't change, and his breathing didn't falter. This isn't admitting defeat; it's a countdown."

Tony paused for two seconds, then his helmet visor flashed and disappeared. He looked at Loki, then at Ye Mo: "So you mean we're not capturing the main control unit, but just a relay station?"

"Possibly." Ye Mo nodded.

"Damn," Tony cursed, "The real trouble isn't here yet?"

"They might have already arrived." Emma Frost opened her eyes. "I just detected a faint signal bounce, but the direction was wrong. It wasn't in Asgard, nor in Earth's coordinate system. It seemed... to be coming from somewhere else."

The air suddenly became quiet.

The city lights in the distance, which were still somewhat visible, are now completely blurred. The wind has stopped. Even the chirping of insects is gone.

Banner looked up, his nose twitching. "Something's not right in the air."

"It's not an air problem." Ye Mo took off his glasses and wiped the lenses with his sleeve. He glanced at the ground in the reflection—the pattern of the lightning grid was stable, but the current showed a 0.1-second delay at a certain point. It was very short, almost imperceptible, but he noticed it.

He put his glasses back on and said to Tony, "How much longer can the jammer last?"

"Forty-eight hours," Tony replied, "Unless he finds an alternative frequency. But I've already locked down seven main channels, and the remaining three are obscure bands that no one would normally use."

"Loki isn't a normal person," Ye Mo said.

"I know," Tony sneered, "That's why he's more dangerous than a nuclear power plant."

Emma Frost suddenly raised her hand, making a stop gesture. She closed her eyes, her brows furrowed. A few seconds later, she opened her eyes. "He tried again. This time, it wasn't an attempt to escape, it was an attempt to leave. He was distributing something."

"What should we send?" Banner asked.

"I don't know the content, but the signal structure is strange, like encrypted instructions, or some kind of wake-up protocol." Emma Frost took a breath. "I stopped it, but I might not be able to react so quickly next time."

Ye Mo looked at Tony: "Could we make the jammer switch frequencies in advance? To catch them off guard?"

"Okay," Tony nodded, "But I have to control it manually, not fully automatically. He'll switch to a new channel immediately once he senses a change in frequency. We need someone to monitor his physiological responses and tell me when to act."

"I'll do it," Ye Mo said.

"You're going to be watching the whole thing by yourself?" Tony frowned. "You also have to maintain the lightning net."

"The system can help me," Ye Mo said. "Every time I come into contact with Mutants's power, I leave a trace. The current lightning power comes from Thor, and it's from the same source as the magic Loki uses. I can sense how he manipulates energy."

Tony glanced at him. "Was that another system notification telling you to say that?"

"I discovered it myself this time," Ye Mo said with a slight smirk, "But the system didn't object."

Tony snorted, "Alright, you take charge of the early warning, and I'll handle the frequency switching. Let's work together."

Emma Frost took a deep breath. "I'll continue guarding the mental layer, but if he launches another high-intensity transmission, I might not be able to hold on."

"You don't need to hold out for long." Banner stood up, took two steps forward, blocking Loki's view. "If he dares to even think about it, I'll smash his head in."

Loki finally looked up.

He looked at Banner calmly, then slowly shifted his gaze to Ye Mo's face. He opened his mouth, his voice hoarse. "You... think you've won like this?"

No one answered.

Ye Mo simply placed his palm back on the ground. The lightning net suddenly contracted, doubling the current density. Loki's body twitched, and blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, but he was still smiling.

"His pupils contracted by three percent as he said that," Emma Frost whispered. "Not out of fear, but out of confirmation."

"Confirm what?" Tony asked.

"I don't know," Emma Frost shook her head, "But I feel... this is the moment he's been waiting for."

Ye Mo stared into Loki's eyes and suddenly noticed that the other's breathing rhythm had changed. It was no longer steady as before, but had a slight fluctuation, as if it were in sync with some external rhythm.

He immediately looked down at the ground.

The lightning strike caused another delay in current flow. This time it wasn't 0.1 seconds, but 0.2 seconds, and it happened at the same node.

"Tony!" Ye Mo shouted.

"Roger!" Tony swiped his finger across the panel, and the three jammers simultaneously turned, adjusted their transmission angles, and instantly activated the new frequency band.

A very faint "click" sounded in the air, like the sound of glass cracking.

Loki's smile froze.

His head snapped to the side, his eyes rolled upward, and a gurgling sound came from his throat. The shock of the forced severing of the mental link caused him to momentarily lose his senses.

Emma Frost seized the opportunity to intensify her mental suppression, directly penetrating the depths of his consciousness and severing all active thought pathways. Banner grabbed his shoulder to prevent him from collapsing.

Ye Mo did not relax.

He knew this was just an interruption, not an end.

He crouched down to Loki's eye level. "What you just said wasn't a threat, it was a notification. Who were you telling—'I'm in position'?"

Loki didn't speak, but the corners of his mouth twitched upwards again.

Tony landed, his armor partially activated, and walked to Ye Mo's side. "What do we do next? We can't just keep guarding like this."

"We can't hand it over to S.H.I.E.L.D..," Emma Frost said immediately. "Last time they detained Loki, the interrogation room turned into a stage the next day."

"I remember," Tony stroked his chin, "He even added lighting and background music for himself."

"So we'll have to guard it ourselves." Ye Mo stood up. "He still has a backup plan; we must find a loophole before he activates it."

"The problem is," Banner whispered, "We don't even know what he's waiting for."

Ye Mo looked down at the ground.

The lightning grid was still operating, and the current was stable. But near that node, the air distorted slightly, as if something unseen had passed through it.

He reached up and touched his glasses frame, but didn't say anything.

Tony glanced at him. "What's wrong?"

"That delay just now..." Ye Mo lowered his voice, "Wasn't interference, it was a response."

"A response?" Emma Frost frowned.

"Someone received his signal," Ye Mo, staring at Loki. "And they just replied."

None of the five people moved.

The area around the ruins was deathly silent. The hum of the lightning bolts was the only sound.

Loki closed his eyes, and the blood on his face slowly dried. His chest rose and fell, and his breathing returned to normal.

Ye Mo raised his hand, and lightning crawled up his fingertips, circled his palm, and then fell.

He knew the battle wasn't over yet.

They captured Loki, but not the plan.

But the real countdown may have only just begun.