The green light was still flashing, every 0.8 seconds, like a death knell. Ye Mo's shield was about to fall apart, and fine cracks had begun to appear at the edges, as if it were being pried open little by little by an invisible hand. He was pressed against the wall, his left hand digging into the cement crack, his right palm still pressed against the ground, cold sweat dripping down his hair and accumulating in a small puddle at his feet.
"If this keeps up... I'm really going to turn into a human popsicle." He muttered through gritted teeth, a salty taste on his tongue—he hadn't swallowed the mouthful of blood yet.
A low voice sounded in his mind, "Temperature control module loading, cooling cycle unknown."
"So you finally decided to come out?" Ye Mo rolled his eyes inwardly. "Where were you before? You only reported for duty when I was about to die? Fine, now give me some work to do, stop just talking the talk."
He closed his eyes briefly, channeling all his remaining mental energy into the ninth level of the Gene Spiral Tower. A fragment that had just been inserted there began to vibrate—it was left behind by the Mutants he had encountered on the Wakanda border. That man could freeze an entire river in one go, but he was blown apart by Hydra, leaving only a frosty remnant of the battle. Ye Mo had brushed against it at the time, and the system had memorized it.
Now, this thing is finally going to come in handy.
" Emma Frost!" he suddenly yelled, "Keep an eye on those three outside! Don't let them get around us!"
Emma Frost stood to the right of the shield, her diamond-like skin gleaming coldly, her brows not even twitching. "I've locked on. I'll know as soon as they move."
"It's not a matter of letting them move," Ye Mo caught his breath, "It's that if I unleash a powerful move, I'm afraid I'll get myself killed first."
Before he could finish speaking, he bit his tongue hard, and the moment the taste of blood hit him, he slammed his hands on the ground.
"Freeze it for me!"
The ground cracked with a sound like glass shattering. Spiderweb-like frost burst from his palm, spreading rapidly along the concrete floor. Wherever it passed, white mist condensed in the air, the cable sheaths froze instantly, and even the metal bracket of the UPS host was covered with a layer of frost.
Three tactical units were preparing to flank when they slipped and fell flat on their backs. One of them had just raised his electromagnetic pulse gun when the handle was already covered in a thick layer of ice, making his fingers too stiff to pry open the trigger. Another tried to jump to dodge, but the cold air from his feet slowed him down in mid-air, and he crashed into a pile of wrecked electrical boxes like a comical penguin.
The ground within a ten-meter radius had turned into an ice field, so smooth that it reflected one's image.
"Wow, this is a real physical speed reducer." Ye Mo grinned, then frowned. "It's just that I feel a bit dizzy, like I'm spinning after drinking Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor)."
He steadied himself against the wall, his gaze flickering. The system hadn't given a countdown, and he himself didn't know how long this ability would last; as long as it worked for now, that was enough.
Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, he caught a glimpse of a dark figure out of the corner of his eye—the Winter Soldier Bucky, charging straight at Captain America across the ice.
The robotic arm traced a silver arc, its long alloy blade pointing directly at the throat.
"Damn! How does this guy withstand the cold?!" Ye Mo cursed, immediately changing his strategy. Instead of expanding the ice outwards, he concentrated and pushed forward. Instantly, a semi-circular ice wall rose in front of Captain America, three meters high and half a meter thick, blocking Bucky's path.
"Bang!" The long blade struck the ice wall, sending shards of ice flying.
Bucky paused, the red frame flashing erratically, like a signal conflict. Instead of retreating, he used his right leg to push off the ground, accelerating by sliding on the ice, and slammed hard into the edge of the ice wall.
"Is this guy born in the Year of the Ox?" Ye Mo's eyelids twitched. "He can run into a wall without even breaking a sweat?"
The ice wall trembled twice, and several cracks appeared.
Captain America seized the opportunity to roll over and get to his feet, grabbing a broken metal pipe from the ground and assuming a defensive stance. His left knee was scraped, and blood was trickling down his trouser leg, but his eyes remained focused.
"How much longer can you hold on?" He stared at Bucky, his voice low.
"Five minutes? Ten minutes? Who knows?" Ye Mo gasped for breath. "I'm only hanging on by sheer willpower right now. If I fight another round, I'll probably be dead."
"That's enough," Captain America nodded. "As long as I can get close to him."
As soon as he finished speaking, the ice wall burst open with a loud "boom." Bucky knelt on one knee in the pile of broken ice, his mechanical arm steaming and covered with a thin layer of frost, but his movements remained fluid. He slowly raised his head, the red frame locking onto Captain America, and took another step.
"No, he's still after you." Ye Mo gritted his teeth. "We need to add something extra."
He reached out and smeared his hand on the ground, his fingertips tracing the ice, drawing the chill back along his meridians. Then he clasped his hands together, as if making a snowball, and a fist-sized icicle condensed in his palms.
"Catch!" He tossed the ice pick in an arc, hitting Captain America precisely at his feet. "This is a better weapon than a steel pipe!"
Captain America glanced down, said nothing, and bent down to pick it up. The ice pick stood firmly in his hand, its tip pointing forward.
"You cover me," he said.
"I'm a power bank and a refrigeration unit, not a bodyguard." Ye Mo complained, but his body had already moved. He forced himself to stand up straight, pressed his hands to the ground again, thickening the ice field in some areas, creating several low ice barriers between the three of them, forming a zigzag bunker route.
"Go this way, don't go straight." He pointed to the path, "He's fast, but he's bad at turning. Use the ice to glide around him."
Captain America nodded, took a deep breath, and suddenly started the engine.
He pushed off with his left foot, his metal boots propelling him across the ice, and he glided forward like an arrow. Bucky immediately changed direction and gave chase.
Ye Mo held his breath, his eyes fixed on the two's movements. Just as Bucky was about to catch up with Captain America, he raised his hands, and a three-inch-high icicle suddenly rose from the ice in front of him.
"Thud!" Captain America landed precisely, using the momentum to leap into the air, and swept the metal tube across Bucky's head.
Bucky raised his arm to block, the sound of metal clashing was deafening. But he slipped, lost his balance, and took two steps back before regaining his footing.
"Good opportunity!" Ye Mo roared, "Again!"
Captain America landed without stopping, then turned and delivered another diagonal slash. This time, he deliberately slowed down, each strike a probing motion, as if searching for a certain rhythm.
Bucky's counterattack began to falter. The red box flashed increasingly erratically, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, like a signal interruption.
"He's struggling," Emma Frost suddenly spoke, her voice very soft. "His consciousness is fighting with the program."
Ye Mo wiped his face, his hand smeared with cold sweat and nosebleed. He tried to laugh, but the smile made his temples throb, "Then let's give him a hand."
He mobilized the cold energy again, this time not to attack the enemy, but to draw a semi-circular ice ring around Captain America, encircling the two of them and isolating them from external interference.
"Call him by his name," he told Captain America. "Don't stop."
Captain America nodded, speaking as he continued, " Bucky, listen! I'm Steve! We enlisted in Brooklyn in 1943, and you laughed at me for being skinny! Later, you took a bullet for me in the trench, got shot through the shoulder, and I called you stupid!"
Bucky paused for a moment.
"You said we'd open a restaurant together after the war, you'd make pancakes and I'd serve them! You said you hated rainy days because when you were little you didn't have an umbrella and you'd always get soaked on the way home and catch a fever... Do you remember?"
The robotic arm trembled slightly.
The red frame went out for half a second.
Immediately afterward, he looked up sharply, raising his long blade again, but this time, the strike went astray.
"He heard that!" Ye Mo's eyes lit up. "Continue!"
Captain America seized the opportunity, taking a step forward, the ice spike pointed directly at the opponent's chest. "You're not their weapon! You're James Buchanan Barnes! You have a family! You have friends! You're not a fucking machine!"
Bucky's body jolted violently, as if struck by an electric current. He staggered backward, his mechanical arm swinging unconsciously, smashing the electrical cabinet next to him.
Sparks flew everywhere.
The green light on the UPS main unit is flashing rapidly, with the frequency increasing.
"Oh no!" Ye Mo's expression changed. "They're going to forcibly refresh the agreement!"
Before the words were even finished, the green light suddenly stabilized, resuming its rhythm of once every 0.8 seconds.
The red frame lit up again, cold and regular.
Bucky raised his head, his eyes vacant again. The mechanical arm retracted, the long blade returned to its place, and he steadily approached once more.
"No..." Captain America's voice was hoarse, "Try again, he really did hear me!"
"It's too late." Ye Mo gasped for breath, veins bulging on his forehead. "The shield is almost gone, the ice is melting, and I can barely stand up."
He looked down at his right hand; his fingertips were already turning purple, and the backlash from the cold had begun.
Emma Frost walked over, stood beside him, and asked softly, "Can we put the ice in one more time?"
"It's possible..." he grinned, his teeth chattering, "But I'm afraid that after this wave of attacks, I'll really become an ice sculpture exhibit."
"Then let it go." Emma Frost looked at him. "We can hold on."
Ye Mo was silent for two seconds, then suddenly laughed, "Fine, it's not the first time I've gambled my life on the system anyway."
He took a deep breath, pressed his hands to the ground again, and poured the last bit of his mental energy into the Gene Spiral Tower.
The frost spread once more.
This time, he no longer pursued a wide area, but focused on the feet of Bucky. The ice layer thickened rapidly, the cracks closed, forming an ice prison five meters in diameter, trapping him in the center.
"Go!" Ye Mo roared, "Before he fully unlocks it!"
Without hesitation, Captain America gripped the ice pick and charged forward.
Bucky tried to take a step, but the ice beneath his feet was too slippery. As soon as the robotic arm lifted, he lost his balance and fell to one knee.
" Bucky!" Captain America lunged at him, grabbing his shoulder. "Come back!"
The red frame flashed, sometimes bright and sometimes dim.
The robotic arm slowly rose, not in an attack posture, but rather... as if it wanted to touch his face.
Ye Mo leaned against the wall, panting like a dehydrated fish. He had just seen that scene, and the corners of his mouth had just turned up in a smile when, the next second, blood started flowing from his nose again.
The green light suddenly turned into a rapid flashing, accompanied by a piercing buzzing sound.
The red frame suddenly lit up.
The robotic arm retracted, and the long blade rose again.
Outside the ice prison, Ye Mo raised his hand to wipe his face; cold sweat mixed with blood condensed into ice beads on his chin.