The green light was still flashing, twice every three seconds, the rhythm unchanged. Ye Mo leaned against the corner of the wall, his eyelids heavy as if weighed down by two pieces of iron, his mind buzzing. The warning red bar of the Psi Link hadn't faded yet, like a red-hot wire wrapped around his nerves. He dared not close his eyes, afraid that if he did, he wouldn't wake up.
Emma's voice Emma Frost the headphones suddenly changed. "East wall, heat source moving—high frequency, multiple targets, 30 meters away, accelerating!"
The moment the words left his mouth, Ye Mo suddenly opened his eyes and squeezed out, "East wall! Explode within three seconds!"
Captain America reacted almost instinctively, swinging his shield horizontally and rolling to the side. Emma Frost simultaneously unleashed a mental shockwave, an invisible wave sweeping across the breach, causing the enemy formation to falter for half a second—but not enough.
boom!
Concrete exploded, debris flew everywhere, and smoke and dust rushed into the building, choking people and making it impossible to open their eyes. Three tactical units leaped in through the breach, their entire bodies clad in black armor, their helmets matte, carrying electromagnetic pulse guns with signal jammers attached to the muzzles. Instead of scattering after landing, they advanced in a triangular formation, heading straight for the UPS mainframe in the center of the power distribution room.
"Damn it!" Ye Mo cursed under his breath, his hand already reaching for his waist. The EMP grenade was hidden in the back pocket of his work pants, but he couldn't move—the warning sound had exhausted his last bit of mental energy, his temples were throbbing, his nose felt hot, and blood was trickling down the corner of his mouth.
Emma Frost was faster than him. She twisted her left shoulder, her body instantly Diamond Form, cold light flowing across her skin, making her resemble a white jade statue. She charged towards the two enemies, her right fist slamming directly into the first man's face. With a crack, his helmet split open. The second man raised his gun to fire, but she twisted to the side, taking the brunt of a stun grenade to the shoulder without flinching. With a backhand elbow strike to his chest, the man flew backward, crashing into half a partition wall.
But the third person circled around to the side, raised his hand and threw out a net—not ordinary metal, but a cryogenic composite net, specifically designed to restrict the joint movement of Mutants. The net covered the joint between Emma Frost's right arm and left shoulder, the low temperature instantly penetrating, a layer of frost forming on the Diamond Form surface, and her movements froze.
"I can still hold on," she said through gritted teeth, the voice forced out, "Don't worry about me."
Ye Mo wiped the blood from his nose and tried to stand up, but his legs were as weak as noodles. He knew where the problem lay—the seventh level of the system was still cooling down, he couldn't use the Wall Phasing Technique, and he couldn't load Short-Range Resonance. He was now just an ordinary person with Steel Bone, and a person who was about to die.
He looked up at the center.
The Winter Soldier emerged from the smoke and dust, his mechanical arm gleaming coldly, a flash of red in his left eye locking onto Captain America.
Steve raised his shield, his voice as deep as iron. " Bucky! It's me, Steve!"
The opponent didn't stop. One step, two steps, and then a third step, he suddenly lunged forward, his alloy longsword arcing as it cleaved the edge of the shield. The sound of metal clashing exploded, and the ground cracked with spiderweb-like patterns. Steve was knocked back three steps, his heels carving two deep furrows.
"He can't hear," Ye Mo said softly, his eyes fixed on those empty eyes. "The program is locked."
Emma Frost's situation was worse. She struggled twice, but the freezing net tightened, and the Diamond Form began to fade in patches. The remaining two enemies repositioned themselves, one pointing a concussion rod at her chest, the other raising a pulse gun with the muzzle pointed at her head.
"Give up resistance." One of them spoke, his voice processed by a voice changer, a buzzing tone, "Your mission is over."
Ye Mo ignored him and turned to look in Captain America's direction.
Bucky launched another attack, so fast he was just a blur. Steve parried with his shield, each blow sending numbness through his arm. He stopped shouting, simply raising his shield and retreating again and again. For a fleeting moment, his eye twitched—it was the spot of his old wound, the place where the elbow saw had grazed, burning with pain.
"He's testing the defensive rhythm," Ye Mo suddenly said. "It's not an indiscriminate attack; he's collecting data."
He wanted to move, but his body wouldn't obey him. The EMP grenade was in his hand, but he was at least fifteen meters away from the UPS mainframe, with enemies in between. He glanced at Emma Frost; she was using her left hand to pry open the net, her knuckles white, and tiny cracks appearing on her diamond-like skin.
"The plan is failing," he murmured.
Just then, the green light on the UPS main unit flashed.
Something's not right.
Ye Mo's pupils contracted—it was originally once every three seconds and two times, but now it became once every three seconds, then once every three seconds and five times... the frequency was out of control.
He immediately realized: they were upgrading the protocol.
"Damn it!" He looked up abruptly. "They're tightening their grip! The signal frequency has changed! If we don't break it now, Bucky will never get back!"
He gritted his teeth and forced himself to stand up, his head spinning, almost causing him to kneel. He grabbed the wall for support, digging his fingertips into the cement cracks, and pulled himself upright. He concentrated his last bit of perception, trying to activate the " Short-Range Resonance + Wall Phasing " combination technique, even if it only allowed him to get within five meters of the host.
The energy had just condensed when everything went black, and the nosebleed gushed out even more violently, dripping from his chin onto the ground. System alarms flashed frantically. " Gene Spiral Tower Level 7 incomplete, ability interrupted, neural overload exceeded."
He knelt down, his knees slamming into the gravel, causing him to gasp in pain.
" Ye Mo!" Emma Frost shouted, "There's still a gap in the west passage! You guys go! I'll hold them off!"
He shook his head, his vision blurred, but he still stared intently at the central battlefield. "No... the signals are too dense, no one can get close alone... any movement will trigger a chain reaction."
Before the words were even finished, the UPS green light suddenly started flashing rapidly—from a slow burst to a rapid burst, compressed from once every 3.2 seconds to once every 1.8 seconds, regular and cold, like some kind of countdown.
Ye Mo's expression changed. "They've activated the Level 2 brainwashing protocol... If this continues, Bucky's consciousness will be completely overwritten."
He wanted to try again, but as soon as he raised his hand, his entire right arm began to twitch, and the joints of the Steel Bone frame made a creaking sound, as if it would fall apart at any moment.
Emma Frost finally broke free of one hand, the Diamond Form spreading back to her shoulder. She kicked away the approaching enemy and shouted, " Ye Mo! Do you remember our first collaboration? In the depths of Wakanda, you said, 'The system told me not to move,' but you rushed in yourself! Now, you don't move either—let me handle this!"
After she finished speaking, she rushed towards the east side of the power distribution room, her entire body covered in Diamond Form, like a white light crashing into the enemy ranks. She wasn't going to rescue anyone, but rather to pounce directly on the UPS main unit—she was going to act as bait, forcing the enemy to split their forces.
Sure enough, the three tactical units immediately turned towards her, firing pulse guns in unison and sweeping with concussion batons. She withstood two hits, but was struck in the waist by the third, causing her body to sway, yet she still held tightly to protect the front of the mainframe.
Ye Mo could see it clearly—she didn't want to disassemble the machine at all; she was just buying time.
He looked down at his hands, which were trembling violently. He knew the best thing to do now was to retreat and wait to recover before fighting again. But he also knew that if he retreated, he might never have another chance.
Captain America's side was almost at their breaking point. Bucky's attacks were becoming increasingly ferocious, his rhythm almost inhumanly precise. Steve was cornered against the wall, shield held horizontally in front of his chest, panting heavily, his forehead covered in sweat. He looked at Bucky, his eyes filled with complex emotions—pain, anger, and resentment.
" Bucky... you fucking wake up!" he roared, his voice hoarse.
The other party did not react. The mechanical arm rose high, the alloy blade aimed at his throat, and slowly pressed down.
Ye Mo wanted to move, but he couldn't.
Emma Frost was surrounded by three people and couldn't free up any hands.
Captain America is trapped and his life hangs by a thread.
The entire power distribution room was in a dead end.
Just then, Ye Mo suddenly sensed something unusual—not from the UPS mainframe, nor from the enemy, but from Bucky themselves.
For a fleeting moment, the red frame flickered, as if there was a frame freeze.
Her finger twitched almost imperceptibly.
Then, I blinked my left eye twice.
Ye Mo was stunned.
It wasn't a programmed action; it was... a human blink.
He looked up sharply at Captain America: "He heard you! He heard you!"
Steve jolted, looked up at Bucky, and asked in a trembling voice, " Bucky? Is that you?"
The Winter Soldier paused for half a second.
The long blade hung in mid-air.
Then, it slowly shifted a few centimeters.
Ye Mo gritted his teeth, trying to get up, but his body wouldn't obey him. He could only watch helplessly as Bucky's eyes seemed to soften for a moment, as Steve reached out to touch him, and as the green light on the UPS mainframe flashed wildly, faster and faster, as if desperately suppressing something.
"They're forcibly refreshing my consciousness," Ye Mo whispered. "If this continues, even that brief moment of clarity just now will be erased."
He looked at Emma Frost, who was kneeling on one knee, her right arm struck by the vibrating rod, leaving a large crack in her Diamond Form. She glanced up at him, her lips moved but no words came out, but the meaning was clear: You still have a chance, don't waste it.
Ye Mo closed his eyes, forcing himself to calm down. He knew that the only thing he could do now was wait. Wait for the next signal fluctuation, wait for the next moment of relaxation, wait for an opportunity to break the deadlock.
But time waits for no one.
The UPS green light is flashing more and more rapidly, once every 1.8 seconds, then once every 1.5 seconds...
Bucky's red frame lit up again, and the robotic arm began to retract.
Captain America's hand was still outstretched in mid-air, his fingertips only ten centimeters from Bucky's face.
Emma Frost's diamond-like skin is fading.
Ye Mo's nosebleed dripped onto the ground, spreading a small patch of dark red.
Inside the power distribution room, the four men each occupied a corner, all trapped on the battlefield.
No one fell, no one evacuated.
The fighting continues.
The plan has been shelved.
The countdown has only just begun.