The wind was a bit chilly at 3:07 a. m.
Outside the corner café, a girl in pajamas turned and left, carrying a freshly replaced bubble tea. After the doorbell rang for the last time, Ye Mo finally stood up from his chair. He didn't say anything, but simply placed the empty coffee cup on the table, the bottom of the cup making a soft sound against the wooden surface, like a pause.
Tony lifted his eyelids a crack. "Leaving already? I haven't even finished removing my armor yet."
"I'm not leaving." Ye Mo flexed his wrists, the tingling sensation from the dissipating Lightning Control still lingering in his palms. "Sitting for too long will rust my bones. I need to move now."
Emma Frost opened her eyes, her glove halfway up her fingers, and paused upon hearing this. She didn't object, but silently put on the other glove as well, the knuckles making a soft rubbing sound as she tightened her grip.
Ye Mo took off his dusty black hooded sweatshirt and casually draped it over the back of a chair, revealing the tactical vest underneath. He walked to the open space across the street, his toes crunching over the wet tracks left by the water truck, and squatted down, his right palm flat on the ground.
An electric current sensation crept up my fingertips.
It wasn't the Riot pulse of battle, but rather a fine, intermittent residual current, like a extinguished power line still Mars. He closed his eyes and followed the faint signal forward—although the energy traces on the enemy's retreat route had been cleared, the system had still marked a high-frequency oscillation zone, just two blocks away at the intersection of underground pipes.
"Found it," he thought to himself.
A notification immediately popped up in the brain: [Unanalyzed ability fragment detected - Vibranium Sense) | Attempt to fuse with existing ability modules]
He wasn't in a hurry to try it.
Last time, the combination of hard-melting lightning and Wall Phasing almost caused him to convulse on the spot due to nerve reflexes. The system's "bear the risks of the combination yourself" was no joke. He first did ten sets of basic arc control training, with small strings of blue light jumping between his fingers, which he flicked back and forth like playing with a lighter.
A bolt of lightning darted out and struck a roadside fire hydrant with a crack, sending sparks flying.
"Hey!" Tony looked up. "Public facilities are property too. You're practically sabotaging municipal infrastructure."
"The system has indicated that I have the potential to develop remote conductivity." Ye Mo remained unfazed. "I call this a scientific experiment."
"Could you apply for a safety permit before conducting the experiment?"
Emma Frost sat by the window without smiling, but the corners of her eyes relaxed slightly. She closed her eyes, no longer scanning the outside world, but instead turning inward—her mental Force Field was like a tightly twisted thread, which she untangled one by one, peeling away the emotional fragments left over from the battle, the enemy's chaotic will, and even her own momentary hesitation.
My temples started throbbing again.
This time she didn't stop. She took three deep breaths, using her emotions as Anchor to pull herself back, and then built a thin barrier deep within her consciousness. If any distracting thoughts came, they wouldn't explode in her mind, but would be deflected at an angle.
[ The Mental Barrier is in its initial stages of construction | 37% complete]
She didn't open her eyes, but simply exhaled softly, beads of sweat appearing on her forehead.
Tony wasn't idle either. He leaned back on the bench, his left wrist-controlled projection unfolding, and a set of blueprints for a new armor appeared in the air. The thruster module was enlarged, and the original radical twin-turbo design was crossed out and replaced with a more stable ring-shaped split-flow structure.
"The old version had a lot of thrust, but it consumed too much energy." He muttered to himself as he made changes. "Last time it broke down after only thirty seconds of flight. If this continues, I'll heat up and fail before the enemy even has to lift a finger."
The energy distribution logic has been reset, the cooling system has been enhanced, and the shoulder weapon slots have been reserved but are not yet activated. Finally, a small note reads, "Combat testing pending."
He put away the projector and rubbed his side. It still ached slightly; the armor's hydraulic system had just endured an overload impact, and his muscles were protesting.
"You two, one practices electricity, the other cultivates the mind, and I'm in charge of technological updates." He looked up at Ye Mo, "So I'm just a tool?"
"You're the investor," Ye Mo said, compressing the electric arc into a sphere that hovered in his palm. "We're the execution team; you're responsible for covering the losses."
"Ha." Tony rolled his eyes. "I'm rather honored."
Ye Mo didn't reply, his attention completely focused on the ball of electricity in his hand. He brought up the system interface, selected " Vibranium Sense) " and " Lightning Control Lv.5 ", and clicked [Attempt Fusion].
A cold, robotic voice announced: [Warning: Unstable combination | Estimated neural load +68% | Continue?]
"Continue."
The next second, a sharp, stabbing pain shot from the back of my neck straight to the top of my head.
He groaned, his knees buckled and he almost collapsed, only managing to stay upright by sheer willpower. An electric ball exploded in his palm, crackling and illuminating half the street.
"Holy crap!" Tony jumped up. "What are you doing?!"
"It's nothing." Ye Mo gritted his teeth, a vein throbbing on his forehead. "It's just that I got a little brain-damaged."
"You call this an 'experiment'?" Emma Frost opened her eyes, her voice calm. "You call this suicidal debugging."
"The system doesn't explain how to match them clearly." He took a breath. "I can only try them one by one. Just now... I think I got a feel for it."
He paused for half a minute, then refocused. This time, he didn't rush into fusion; instead, he ran the Vibranium Sense as an independent module, like a background program. Then he activated Lightning Control, letting the current probe along the edge of the perception range.
This time, the magnitude of the current runaway was smaller.
Although there was still some recoil, at least it didn't make his vision go black. He slowly guided the current to circle, trying to make the two forces form a closed-loop feedback—like using Vibranium as a conductor and lightning as a signal source, calibrating their frequencies.
Ten minutes later, the electric arc in his palm finally stabilized at a diameter of five centimeters, and its color changed from a restless blue-white to a darker purplish-gray.
"It's done," he said softly. "It was a bit slow, but it works now."
Tony glanced at it. "Congratulations, you're now a human pressure cooker."
"At least it can be used to stew meat." Ye Mo grinned and extinguished the electric ball.
Emma Frost stood up as well. She didn't speak, but her eyes were much clearer. The Mental Barrier she had been using was now barely holding up, although it lasted for less than three minutes, but at least it wouldn't be easily disturbed by external thoughts anymore.
"What's next?" she asked.
Ye Mo looked back at the three people outside the cafe— Tony was sitting revising design drawings, Emma Frost was meditating, and he was training in the open space. None of them had left, but their demeanor had changed.
"It's better to be steady together than to be fast alone," he said.
Tony looked up and glanced at him.
Emma Frost didn't move, but her gloves snapped shut with a soft click.
No one uttered any grand pronouncements. There were no high-fives, no encouragement, and even their expressions remained largely unchanged. But they all knew that the brief respite they had just experienced was over.
The real preparations are only just beginning.
Ye Mo walked back, picked up his hoodie and put it on. His silver half-rimmed glasses were already on his nose. He pulled up his hoodie to cover half his face, but his eyes were still scanning the reflections in the glass on both sides of the street.
Tony closed the terminal, temporarily sealing the armor module in his briefcase, still clutching the design board in his hand. He stretched his shoulders, his joints cracking.
"Before the next enemy arrives," he said, "I hope my iron shell won't fail me at the crucial moment."
Emma Frost stood by the window and took one last look at the neighborhood. Her Mental Scan didn't expand outwards; instead, it remained within a low-intensity coverage area, like a silent alarm, ready to be triggered at any moment.
She put on tactical gloves, pressed her fingertips to her temples, and confirmed that the barrier was still in place.
None of the three people left the spot.
But they were no longer the three exhausted people who just wanted to catch their breath half an hour ago.
Ye Mo stood in the shadows of the street corner, the 20th floor of the Gene Spiral Tower faintly glowing in his mind. His new ability was still cooling down, but his fingers were already ready to respond to the next alarm at any moment.
Tony sat on the bench, his eyes fixed on the design drawings, his mind filled with the hydrodynamic model of the thruster.
Emma Frost stood quietly by the window, her breathing steady, her mental energy spreading out like a fine net, silently covering the entire neighborhood.
The city is still asleep.
The streetlights were on, a cleaning truck drove by, and the roller shutters of the breakfast stalls swung up with a whoosh.
A stray cat ran into the alley with half a piece of bread in its mouth.
Ye Mo watched it disappear around the corner, then raised his hand, palm up.
A tiny arc of electricity danced quietly at his fingertips.