The moment Ye Mo's fingers loosened their grip on the movable panel, the wind pushed him back a step. He knelt on one knee at the edge of the deck, his right knuckles gripping a weld seam tightly to prevent him from being blown off by the gust of wind. The broken part of his left shoulder throbbed, and his breath felt like a blade scraping his throat. He looked down at his palm; blood had blurred the lines, mixed with ash and grease.
He doesn't have time to worry about these things.
The ringing in my ears was still there, but I could hear some sounds now. The mothership's alarm had changed; it was no longer a long beep, but a series of intermittent "beep-beep-beep" sounds, like an alarm clock about to run out of power. The red light overhead was blinding, the metal plates under my feet were starting to slip, and the whole ship was tilting to the right, its speed increasing rapidly.
He raised his right hand and pressed it against his temple.
Emma Frost.
There was no Echo.
He shouted it again, this time using the channel in his mind. The system never speaks, but he knows how to send his thoughts out. It's like throwing a stone into a well and waiting for it to sink to the bottom.
Three seconds later, the water surface rippled.
[receive.]
Her voice went straight into my head, crisp and clear.
" Thor is surrounded, there's a big gap on the left. You go patch it up, I'll go to Tony's side."
He finished speaking and tried to get up, but his knees buckled and he knelt back down. Cold sweat streamed down his forehead and dripped onto his goggles. He shook his head and wiped the smudged side of the lens onto his cuff.
A silver trail streaked across the sky in the distance, wobbling and erratic like a drunkard's walk. That was the trajectory of Tony's thrusters. Before, he flew in a straight line, but now it zigzagged and trembled.
Ye Mo gritted his teeth and stood up. The deck was tilted at an angle of more than thirty degrees, so he could only walk in a half-crouch, grabbing onto the anchor post with one hand as he moved forward. Every step he took was on the verge of slipping.
The mothership is still moving.
It wasn't crashing, nor was it cruising. It was being pulled upwards by something. Its flight path curved into an arc, its belly facing east, and flames spewing from the crack at the top. This wasn't right. Its core had exploded, its power source cut off; it should have fallen long ago. But instead, it was rushing upwards, and flying faster and faster.
He stopped and looked back.
The location where the command tower exploded, the distribution of the debris didn't resemble that of an explosion. The charred parts of the wires were spiraled outwards, as if pulled outwards by a force. He had seen this kind of mark before, when he watched magnets attract iron powder in the laboratory.
External force pulling.
He recalled the three-second signal he'd heard in his earpiece before escaping. It was old-style Asgard encrypted communication; Emma Frost had said it was a royal frequency, inaccessible to ordinary soldiers. Loki knew how to use it, but he was imprisoned. Who could send such a signal now?
He didn't think any further and continued climbing.
Ten meters later was a maintenance ladder leading to the main entrance. The door was jammed, with half a broken crane arm hanging outside. He reached for the door handle, but his left hand couldn't provide enough leverage, so he could only slam the latch with his right elbow. After three attempts, with a click, the door popped open a crack.
He crawled inside; it was pitch black except for the green glow of the emergency light. The air was thick with the smell of burning. He stood against the wall for a few seconds, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness. There was movement at the end of the corridor—the clanging of metal, and footsteps.
Chitauri soldiers.
He crept forward along the wall, his right hand slipping into his pocket, where he felt a warped, burnt circuit board. The words "Don't believe it" were engraved on it. He squeezed it, then put it in his breast pocket.
A blue light flashed at the corner ahead, a sign that his weapon was charging. He immediately dropped to the ground, and a plasma bullet grazed his head, hitting the wall behind him and exploding in a shower of sparks.
Three Chitauri soldiers marched in formation, pulse guns in hand, their armor damaged as if they had just been in battle. They reached a fork in the road, and one of them raised his hand and tapped his helmet, seemingly receiving instructions.
Ye Mo held his breath.
They didn't come this way; instead, they turned to the left aisle and left in unison. He waited until they were far away before slowly getting up.
That group of people didn't seem to have any intention of attacking, nor did they appear to be on patrol. They were retreating.
The enemy forces on the mothership are retreating.
His heart tightened. There was only one explanation for this situation: the ship had gone out of control and no longer belonged to the Chitauri.
But why is it still flying? Who's controlling it?
He quickened his pace toward the exit. At the end of the passage was an external observation deck with a separate communications array, where he might be able to contact Tony.
Just as he reached the doorway, the ground shook violently. He lunged against the wall to avoid falling. Looking up at the ceiling, he saw the ventilation ducts explode, Mars raining down. The entire mothership emitted a deafening roar, as if metal had been ripped apart.
He rushed out of the passage and onto the observation platform.
Glass shattered everywhere, and outside lay the night sky. New York's lights stretched out below, and several fires raged, billowing thick smoke. The mothership, which had been hovering above the city, was now ascending at an eerie angle, its nose rising and its tail trailing flames.
And its flight path was directly towards Polaris.
This angle makes no tactical sense. No one would push a heavily damaged warship out of the atmosphere unless...
It's not flying by itself.
He stared at the sky and suddenly noticed something amiss with the space around the mothership. The starlight was slightly distorted in a certain area, like a reflection on water ruffled by the wind. That location was exactly five kilometers directly in front of the mothership.
Gravitational anomaly.
He immediately activated his Telepathy, expanding the range to its maximum. This time, he wasn't just looking for people; he was searching for energy fluctuations.
A few seconds later, he caught it.
A faint resonant frequency matched the waveband of the Asgard seal he remembered from Thor. That frequency wouldn't appear naturally; it would only leak out when the ancient magic circle was activated.
Someone is using Asgard technology to pull this ship.
He turned and ran back.
Tony must be notified to change course and avoid that point. If the mothership is completely sucked into that area, it could trigger even bigger problems.
He rushed into the maintenance access road and retraced his steps. He had only climbed halfway up when his communicator suddenly rang.
It was Tony's voice, broken and intermittent. "... Can you hear me...? The left flank of the armor is destroyed... The thrusters are down to thirty percent... I can't hold on much longer..."
"Listen!" Ye Mo roared back, "Don't come within five kilometers of the front of the mothership! There's a gravity trap there!"
"What... what did you say? The interference is too strong... I can't hear you..."
"Repeat! Do not fly forward! The mothership is being pulled by an external force! Repeat! Do not fly forward!"
Before he could finish speaking, the entire passageway shook violently. He grabbed the edge of the pipe and saw the starry sky outside begin to spin. The mothership's flight path changed; it was no longer a straight line but drew a slow arc, as if being pulled along by an invisible hand.
Tony's trail of flames came into view as he attempted to intercept the mothership, only to be pushed aside by a force. His armor tumbled backward, nearly crashing into a building.
"Damn... what kind of weather is this..." Tony's voice was panting, " The Force Field is messed up... navigation is failing..."
Ye Mo stared at the distorted starry sky.
He knew he couldn't wait any longer.
He has to go up.
But his Steel Bone abilities are still cooling down, and he can't use his Regenerative Phasing either. If he charges in now, he'll just be throwing his life away.
He closed his eyes and placed his hands on his temples.
" Emma Frost, how is Thor?"
[The left wing has been suppressed, he can still fight. What about you?]
"I'm going to track the anomaly at the front of the mothership. Tony can't hold on any longer; no one can stop him."
You are injured.
"I know."
Don't go.
"I'm not going. Tomorrow I'll be collecting corpses for all of New York."
He opened his eyes and looked at the distorted night sky outside the observation deck.
The mothership is still ascending.
Its shadow swept across the skyscrapers of Manhattan, like a dying beast still struggling. And the folds of that starry sky were widening little by little.
He took a deep breath and strode towards the exit.
The wind blew in my face, carrying the smell of gunpowder and burnt metal.
He stood at the edge of the deck, gazing at the sky torn apart by gravity.
He slowly raised his right hand, pointing in that direction.