The sound of Tony's armored thrusters igniting drew a silver-gray arc across the ruins. Ye Mo looked up at the rising trajectory, his legs buckled, and he almost knelt down. He quickly grabbed the edge of the broken wall, his palm brushing against a piece of charred metal, burning his fingers.
"You're in worse shape than that old washing machine in my basement," Tony's voice came through the headset, tinged with amusement. "After that fight, you didn't even bother to wipe the blood off?"
"Can't you save your energy?" Ye Mo gasped for breath, wiping the blood from his nose; his hoodie collar was already stained dark red. "You're having a blast flying around now, but I've been carrying this on my bones the whole way."
"That's why I said you should rest." Tony landed in front of him, the scorch marks on his armor still unresolved, his helmet half-open, revealing a face covered in oil stains. "JARVIS is still analyzing the wreckage; they can locate the signal source in eight minutes. What's the rush?"
"The enemy is waiting eight minutes?" Ye Mo straightened up, his legs still a little weak, but he managed to stand firm. "They cut off the connection before the last drone crashed, cleanly and efficiently, which means they had a contingency plan. If we don't pursue them now, they'll switch servers and channels, and we won't even get a trace of them."
Tony squinted at the sky. The clouds had mostly dispersed, and the sunlight slanted across the ruins, casting wisps of black smoke. The city was unusually quiet, even the wind was languid.
"You're right." He looked down and brought up the control panel on his glove. "But they're not stupid either. Since they can remotely control swarms of drones for psychological interference, they must have set up early warning mechanisms around the landing site. Getting too close could easily trigger a second wave."
"Then don't be rash." Ye Mo pulled down his hoodie to shield himself from the glare. "Don't you have a backup energy module? Repair the flight system, activate the stealth coating, and sneak over there. I'll use the system's perception to assist you from behind, so if there's any energy fluctuation, we can bypass it in advance."
Tony stared at him for two seconds. "How much power do you have left? Steel Bone just retracted, his Regeneration is almost depleted, right? Don't end up coughing up blood on my back when I'm halfway through flying."
"I'm not the Hulk, I don't transform all the time." Ye Mo rolled his eyes. "Right now, I'm just a regular meat shield, at most a living detector with navigation. You take care of the fighting, I'll take care of the direction, clear division of labor."
"Alright," Tony shook his head, "Then get in the armor and hold on tight. If I find you passed out, I'll just throw you on the roof of the substation."
"Suit yourself." Ye Mo flexed his wrist, a metallic sheen flashing beneath his skin. "Anyway, it's not the first time I've been your accessory."
The hatch on the back of the armored vehicle opened, Ye Mo managed to climb up and fasten his seatbelt. Tony checked the connection status, and the thrusters slowly lifted off.
"Where's Emma Frost?" he asked as he adjusted the course.
"Still at the control panel." Ye Mo closed his eyes for a moment. "His brain is like a broken router, barely able to maintain low-intensity sensing. She said she can continue monitoring residual mental signals within the city, but can't participate in operations."
"Then let her guard the rear." Tony activated the navigation system. "I've had JARVIS remotely pinpoint the heat source trajectory of the first crash site. Preliminary analysis points to the abandoned industrial area in the East District—there's an old factory there, abandoned twenty years ago, but there have been sporadic electricity records in the last three months."
"Sounds like a place where rats hide." Ye Mo opened his eyes and looked at the gray city skyline ahead. " The Killian people used to like hiding in places like this."
"It's not just him." Tony's tone turned somber. "The recording equipment we just removed shows that the Raiders' equipment is far more sophisticated than Killian's original level. And that 'X-7' codename... I don't recall his subordinates ever having that kind of numbering system."
"So there's someone behind this," Ye Mo sneered. "Either a new force has taken over, or it's an old hand in disguise. Either way, we need to race against time. The fact that they dared to test our reaction means the plan has already started, it just hasn't been fully rolled out yet."
Tony didn't reply, but simply switched the gloves to manual driving mode, and the armor's speed gradually increased.
The city swept past beneath their feet, the streets deserted, few pedestrians around. Having just experienced an invisible attack, ordinary people were still unaware of what had happened, only feeling a heaviness in their heads and a sudden, erratic heartbeat. The news media were probably still investigating the cause, and no one realized that the real threat had only just begun.
When the aircraft flew to the outskirts of the industrial zone, the navigation system suddenly flashed red.
"Interference zone." Tony frowned. "Electronic barrier, regional jamming, like some kind of early warning system."
"Passive defense." Ye Mo leaned back in his armor, closing his eyes to sense the surroundings. "It's not offensive; it's for surveillance. It's somewhat like the aftershocks of the Mutants ' Sentry ' system we encountered before. The frequency is slightly different, but the principle is similar."
"Can you tell which way is which?" Tony lowered his altitude to avoid the high-altitude radar scan zone. "Autonavigation has failed; now it's all down to feel."
"Give me three seconds." Ye Mo took a deep breath, and a faint notification sounded in his mind: [Residual mental fluctuations detected, frequency 0.7 Hz, 15 degrees southeast].
"Five degrees southeast, fly close to the ground," he said. "Don't go too high; this thing is more sensitive to high altitudes."
Tony nodded, his armored vehicle swooping down, gliding close to the rusty corrugated iron roof. The wind whistled past his ears, and the outline of a huge factory in the distance gradually came into view—vines covered the exterior walls, half of the windows were broken, and several modified black vans were parked at the entrance, without any markings on them.
"Found it." Tony lowered his voice. "There's no proper power line, but there's an independent energy source inside, and thermal imaging shows at least twenty active heat sources."
"This isn't a small-scale operation." Ye Mo narrowed his eyes. "These people not only prepared drones, but they're also building other things."
"Don't alert them yet." Tony shut down the main thrusters and switched to micro attitude control nozzles, landing silently above the ventilation ducts on the west side of the factory. Ye Mo unbuckled his seatbelt, moving a beat slower than before. His knees buckled upon landing, and he only managed to steady himself by bracing himself with one hand.
"I told you to rest," Tony muttered under his breath.
"If we rest now, we'll become targets later." Ye Mo caught his breath and looked up into the factory. Through the broken glass windows, he could see figures moving around in the dim light, wearing uniform protective suits and masks, their movements well-trained.
"It doesn't look like a temporary gang," he said. "This is standard operating procedure, with a clear division of labor and a steady pace."
Tony took a miniature drone, about the size of a palm and entirely matte black, from the armor's internal compartment. He tossed it gently, and the drone took off silently, slipping into the ventilation gap.
A few seconds later, the image was transmitted back to the helmet's HUD.
The factory interior was much larger than it appeared from the outside. In the central area stood a giant piece of equipment—shaped like a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, but much larger, with a ring-shaped nozzle at the rear and surrounded by interfaces and data cables. Several technicians were adjusting it, and next to it were two transparent containers filled with some kind of dark red liquid.
"This isn't an ordinary drone," Tony whispered. "This is a mothership-level control center, capable of commanding hundreds of units simultaneously. They're planning a large-scale psychological suppression operation."
"What's the purpose?" Ye Mo stared at the screen. "Is it simply to paralyze the city, or to cover up another operation?"
"I don't know." Tony zoomed in on the screen, noticing a line of small print on the bottom of the device. "But look at this mark."
Ye Mo leaned closer to take a look, and his pupils contracted slightly.
It was half a burning "A" shape, its edges twisted, as if it had been scorched by high temperatures and then forcibly repaired.
"A remnant of Extremis Project," he said. "An old Killian totem, but they added something new—a string of numbers below it, X-7-Δ."
"X-7?" Tony's eyes sharpened. "The same codename as the enemy after their memories were erased."
"It's no coincidence." Ye Mo gritted his teeth. "These people didn't just take over; they merged. The remnants of Killian have made contact with a new organization, and now they're using their technology as a foundation to graft a new system onto it."
"So that drone test just now wasn't just a test of us," Tony said, putting away the drone, "It was to calibrate the compatibility of the new platform."
"Before they finish integrating," Ye Mo stood up, his legs still trembling. "We can still break the chain if we act now."
"Are you sure you can fight right now?" Tony looked at him. " Steel Bone hasn't recovered, his Regeneration is on cooldown, he can barely even stand."
"I'm not here for a one-on-one fight." Ye Mo grinned. "I'm here to announce the program—'Ladies and gentlemen, the performance has come to an end.'"
Tony paused for two seconds, then suddenly laughed, "Okay, you're in charge of reciting your lines. I'll turn off the lights."
He reactivated his armor, the thrusters hummed softly, and he entered standby mode. Ye Mo lay prone on the edge of the ventilation duct, his eyes fixed on the mothership being assembled below.
The technicians were still busy, and no one looked up at the sky.
Tony made a gesture, Ye Mo nodded.
The two men, one after the other, slowly crept into the steel frame structure high up inside the factory, hiding in the shadows. Below, the low, continuous hum of the machinery sounded like the breathing of some giant beast in the darkness.
Ye Mo held his breath, his right hand pressed against his waist—there, the Steel Bone Transformation tissue was slowly flowing back, not yet fully formed.
But he was ready.
Tony's finger hovered above the fire button, and the armored targeting system silently locked onto the mothership's energy core.
The air condensed.
The next second, a single command could shatter this whole charade.