The wind was still blowing, whipping up sand from outside the corrugated iron wall and pattering against the rusty window frame. The light bulb flickered again, longer than before, as if it were about to give out.
Ye Mo didn't move, leaning against the wall, his right hand in his hoodie pocket, his fingertips still feeling the burning sensation, like an electric wire pulling back and forth inside. He closed his eyes, not to rest, but to "listen".
The signal was still jumping, once every seven seconds, so stable it seemed unnatural. It had deviated by three degrees just now, and now—he counted again, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper.
"It's moving." He opened his eyes, his voice extremely low. "Half a degree per minute, heading straight towards us. The distance has shrunk by about eight hundred meters."
The words left his mouth, but no one answered; yet the atmosphere changed.
Captain America's hand was already on the edge of the shield, his knuckles slowly tightening. Emma Frost closed her eyes, her breathing became shallow, and her mental energy spread out like Silk, crawling along the cracks in the walls, the pipes, and the vents. Bucky stood in front of the side window, his back to the room, his left hand on the control panel of the robotic arm, his fingers tapping out code.
Ye Mo gently tapped the ground twice.
This is their newly established code: two taps mean "good weather," which means the enemy is within ten meters.
It's still a long way off, but the intention is there.
Captain America immediately stood up, his movements swift and decisive, without uttering a single word. He walked to the main entrance, crouched down, and angled his shield in front of him, using it to both block a frontal impact and deflect the force. He glanced at the wreckage of a surveillance camera in the corner of the ceiling, then swept his gaze across the dust-covered open space outside the door, and muttered, "The main entrance has too much open space; it's not suitable for a direct defense, but we can't leave it undefended either."
He turned to Bucky: "You control the side window; that's a blind spot. If the enemy sneaks up from underground, that's the first place they'll show themselves."
Bucky nodded without speaking, tucked a modified pistol into his belt, and continued adjusting the robotic arm with his other hand. A low humming sound rang out, and a faint blue light emanated from the joints, but he quickly suppressed it manually.
"Did you disconnect the external interface?" Ye Mo asked.
"Hmm," Bucky said calmly, "I'm no longer a terminal receiving commands."
Emma Frost suddenly opened her eyes, her brow furrowing. "Abnormal fluctuations detected. It's not the thought of a living person, but more like... a looping instruction being transmitted via frequency hopping. The source is not fixed; it could be a mobile relay."
"They really are after us," Ye Mo sneered. "This isn't a test of their reaction; it's preparation for a raid. That three-degree deflection just now was them adjusting the launch angle to ensure the signal accurately covers our location."
"That means there's more than one person on the other side," Captain America said.
"At least two teams." Ye Mo touched the fragment of the glasses temple in his pocket. "One team is remotely controlling the signal chain, and the other is responsible for the on-site operation. The fact that they only approached now shows that they weren't sure about Bucky's condition before. Now that they see he hasn't restarted, they're even more eager to capture him and 'repair' him."
The room was silent for a few seconds.
The wind picked up, making the corrugated iron roof rattle and clang, as if someone were walking on it.
"What if they use drones or long-range sniping?" Ye Mo asked himself, then answered, "No. Signal interference is severe in this kind of place, making remote control unreliable. They'll have to send someone in to confirm it personally."
"Then let them in." Captain America stared at the doorway. "We can hold it."
"It's not a question of whether we can hold out or not," Ye Mo shook his head. "We need to figure out what they're really up to. If it were simply to retrieve Bucky, they would have already sent a large army. But the fact that they're only moving little by little means their target isn't just people—they're collecting data, such as our response patterns, the frequency of our ability usage, cooldown times..."
He paused, then suddenly laughed, "I was thinking, my Regeneration ability is still ninety seconds away from recovering. If they attack now, I won't even be able to stand up. Isn't that a coincidence?"
"Can't you just not say things like that?" Emma Frost rolled her eyes.
"To be honest," Ye Mo shrugged, "You'll live longer if you tell the truth. Look at Tony, he's always showing off, he'll get into trouble sooner or later."
He realized he'd said too much as soon as he uttered the word " Tony," and quickly shut up.
No one inside the room responded.
Emma Frost closed her eyes again, unleashing her spiritual power once more. This time, she was much more cautious, like groping her way through a wall in the dark, afraid of stepping into a trap. Fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead, and her temples throbbed.
Twenty meters is the limit. Any further, and my brain feels like it's being pricked with needles.
But she persisted, focusing her perception on the abandoned pipes on the third underground floor and the ventilation shaft on the west side. These two places were the easiest to overlook, but also the easiest to become the breakthrough point.
Suddenly, her eyelids twitched.
"There's movement in the east duct..." she whispered. "Not footsteps, but air currents, like someone slowly pushing something underneath. And... a faint metallic scraping sound, so faint it's almost inaudible in the wind."
"Not human." Ye Mo's ears twitched. "It's a machine. A tracked reconnaissance unit with signal relay capabilities. They don't want to expose themselves, so they sent out these little gadgets to scout ahead."
"Should we deal with it?" Bucky asked.
"Don't move." Ye Mo raised his hand. "Let it come closer. The quieter we are now, the more they dare to approach. When they think we're still pretending to have an 'internal conflict' and lower their guard—"
Before he could finish speaking, the light bulb above his head suddenly flickered three times before going out completely.
Darkness instantly engulfed the entire space.
The four people didn't move.
No one turned on the lights or made a sound.
Ye Mo leaned against the wall, his right hand quietly pulled out of his pocket, palm up, fingertips slightly hot. Regeneration ability - 90-second countdown, 78 seconds left.
He looked down at his hands and said softly, "I guess I won't be able to get milk tea."
Captain America knelt on one knee, shield held horizontally in front of his chest, his body leaning slightly forward, like a wolf ready to pounce at any moment. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness, staring intently at the blurry outline outside the main entrance.
Bucky stood by the side window, his left hand gripping the robotic arm control lever tightly, his knuckles white. He wasn't looking out the window, but staring at the ground. There was a very thin crack there, which would vibrate slightly when the wind blew in.
Emma Frost sat cross-legged, her hands clasped on her knees, her breathing growing slower and slower. Her mental energy spread out along the ground like an invisible net, capturing every unusual ripple.
Time ticked by, second by second.
The metallic scraping sound grew closer in the wind.
Not one, but three.
Small, tracked unmanned reconnaissance vehicles, equipped with infrared scanning and signal relay modules, are slowly approaching the hiding place from three directions. They are moving very slowly, clearly to avoid heat sources and life signal detection.
Ye Mo could "hear" their signal frequencies, which matched the tinnitus he had experienced earlier.
"They're here." His lips barely moved, his voice barely audible, as if squeezed out from between his teeth. "Three reconnaissance units, flanking from the east, west, and north, fifty meters away, at a speed of one and a half meters per second."
Captain America didn't respond, but he subtly adjusted the angle of his shield by five degrees.
Bucky's mechanical arm emitted a very faint hum, which he then forcefully suppressed.
Emma Frost's eyelashes fluttered, and sweat slid down her forehead to her chin, dripping onto the floor with a barely audible "plop."
Forty meters.
Thirty meters.
Twenty meters.
Ye Mo's fingertips were no longer hot, but began to feel warm, as if a fire was slowly burning under his skin.
60 seconds.
50 seconds.
40 seconds.
The reconnaissance vehicle stopped.
Not because they discovered anything unusual, but because they received new instructions.
Ye Mo's eyes snapped open, "The signal source has switched! It's not the previous frequency, it's a backup channel with a higher level of encryption! They're remotely upgrading the protocol!"
"Purpose?" Captain America asked in a low voice.
"It's not an attack," Ye Mo gritted his teeth. "It's... a lock-on. They're marking coordinates for follow-up units, preparing to deploy their main force."
"How long?" Bucky asked.
"Three minutes at most." Ye Mo stared at his hands. "Once they've completed their location, they'll send in the real people. At that point, there will be no more probing; it'll be a direct assault."
Outside, the wind suddenly stopped.
The dust settled, and the world became eerily quiet.
Then--
A blurry shadow flashed on the horizon a hundred meters away and then disappeared.
It wasn't humanoid, nor was it a vehicle; it was more like a rapidly moving silhouette, so fast it was almost an illusion.
But all four of them saw it.
No one spoke.
They kept their breathing as quiet as possible.
Ye Mo's palms were already covered in sweat, but he clenched them tightly to prevent them from dripping.
Regeneration ability - 12 seconds remaining.
He leaned against the wall, his body taut like a drawn bow.
Captain America leans his shield forward and lowers his shoulders.
Bucky stood by the window, his hand on the start button for the robotic arm, his fingers steady and his gaze fixed.
Emma Frost kept her eyes closed, maintaining her mental network at its maximum range, and didn't retract it even though her head was throbbing.
Outside, the wind picked up again.
The sand swirled around, and the sheet metal cladding sounded like someone gently knocking on the door from the outside.
Ye Mo looked down at his hands.
The warmth in my fingertips suddenly disappeared.
Instead, a familiar power welled up from the very marrow of my bones.
He took a deep breath and smiled slightly.
"Alright."