The control room light flickered again, and Ye Mo's fingers paused on the keyboard for half a second. It wasn't a malfunction; the rhythm had changed—the normally regular alarm flashing was now a beat slower, like someone drumming in the distance, each beat closer than the last.
" Tony," he said without looking up, his voice flat, "The pressure in the eastern energy channel has dropped to the critical point."
Tony was squatting in front of the terminal debugging the Warframe's remote wake-up protocol when he heard this, his hand trembled, and he almost unplugged the data cable. "Which channel? B7 or E4?"
"B7." Ye Mo brought up the structural diagram, his fingertip swiping across the screen. "The third support beam is already vibrating slightly, and the robot swarm is using high-frequency resonance to cut the base. If this continues, the entire east wing will crack open like a biscuit."
Tony stood up and wiped his face. "My MK-8 isn't fully warmed up yet; the heavy armament will take another two minutes."
"You can't wait two minutes." Ye Mo stared at the monitor screen. Twenty-six combat robots, arranged in a wedge formation, were pushing forward against the remaining barrier. A swarm of drones in the air was constantly dropping electromagnetic fog bombs, and the radar signal was already intermittent. "They're not playing with data this time; they're here to demolish the building."
The words had barely left his mouth when a muffled thud came from the corridor, and the entire building shook. Several soundproofing panels fell from the ceiling, and dust rained down.
"Damn!" Tony stumbled and grabbed the corner of the table for support. "They dare to crash right into a load-bearing wall? Do they really want to blow the base to bits?"
"It's not that I want to blow it up." Ye Mo took off his glasses and put them in his pocket, stretching his wrists and shoulders as he stood up. "It's because it knows we can't let it collapse. The power center is on the second basement level; if the structure becomes unstable, the backup power will automatically cut off, and the Shadow Protocol will become invalid. It's forcing us to reveal our hand."
"So how do you plan to fight?" Tony frowned. "If you rush out now, you'll just be a sitting duck. You're not Iron Man."
Ye Mo didn't answer, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.
Something inside him began to heat up, like a wire pulling back and forth between his bones. He gritted his teeth, sweat beading on his forehead, his hands gripping the edge of the table, his knuckles turning white. This wasn't the first time he'd tried to fuse the fragments of his ability, but before he'd always done it secretly; now he had to succeed immediately.
He had encountered metal manipulation abilities three times: once was the self-defense reaction released by the Mutants " Steel Bone " before his death, once was the ion coating residue on the armor wreckage of Ronan's fleet, and once was the fragments of Ulysses Klaue's Vibranium weapon. These genetic fragments had been stuck on the seventh floor of the Spiral Tower, with unclear combination logic, unknown cooldown time, and the system never providing any hints.
But there's no time for trial and error now.
"Give it a shot," he whispered, as if to himself, and also to the unresponsive system in his brain.
The next second, a silvery-gray light appeared under his skin, spreading from his palm to his forearm, quickly hardening into a dense alloy. His shoulder blades, sternum, and ribcage emitted a series of subtle "clicking" sounds, as if countless miniature machines were reassembling his bones. A sharp pain struck, and his knees buckled, but he managed to stay upright by supporting himself on the table.
"Holy crap?" Tony's eyes widened. "You're... transforming?"
"Don't ask." Ye Mo took a breath, lifted his foot and walked forward, each step making a soft metallic sound as it hit the ground. "As long as I can handle it."
He pushed open the door to the control room, and an EMP pulse swept towards him. Sparks flew from the Steel Bone shell, but he didn't stop. Instead, he accelerated and rushed into the smoke-filled corridor. Five robots ahead had broken through the barrier and were using their cutting arms to destroy the energy lines, with blue arcs of electricity crackling on the walls.
Ye Mo crossed his arms in front of him and charged directly into the enemy ranks.
With a loud "boom," the first robot was sent flying, crashing through the Wall Phasing and embedding itself in the next room. The other four robots turned their weapons and thrust at him, the blades leaving only a few white marks on the Steel Bone. He parried one of the blades with his left hand, grabbed the helmet of another robot with his right hand, and twisted it violently—"crack!" Sparks flew from the circuitry, and the robot became paralyzed.
" Tony!" he yelled into the comms, "Port 3 cleared! You can take off!"
The roar of thrusters starting up came from overhead, and the MK-8 battle suit burst out of the window, its blue-gold figure hovering in mid-air. The palm cannon was fully charged, and a high-energy beam accurately hit the aerial drone carrier, triggering a chain explosion. The remaining drones instantly lost command and flew around like headless flies.
"Roger that," Tony's voice came from above. "Can you hold on over there?"
"We have to hold on, even if we can't." Ye Mo kicked over the last melee unit and turned to look into the depths of the corridor. Infrared scanning showed that two more heat sources were moving around behind him at extremely high speed, heading straight for the load-bearing beam in area B7.
"Someone wants to blow up the pillar," he said. "I'll go stop them."
"You're going alone?" Tony's tone was urgent. "That place has a structural weakness; what if it collapses—"
"Then don't let it collapse." Ye Mo had already rushed out, his Steel Bone legs exerting force, the ground trembling slightly as he ran.
The smoke grew thicker, reducing visibility to less than three meters. He relied on his Spatial Perception to orient himself, weaving through the damaged laboratory area before finally stopping in front of a sloping maintenance passage. The floor ahead had been cut open, and two cylindrical explosive devices were attached to the bottom of the main load-bearing beam. The timer showed forty-seven seconds remaining.
"They actually dared to plant a time bomb?" He sneered, leaping down the tunnel and stomping on one of the detonation modules. The other device automatically switched to manual trigger mode, its red light flashing wildly.
Without hesitation, he ripped the device off the beam and slammed it against an enemy plane climbing the wall. The impact caused an explosion, a fireball erupted, and the heatwave ripped half the ceiling off. He used the momentum to roll out of the impact range, his back slamming heavily against the wall with a dull Steel Bone.
He coughed, his mouth tasting slightly metallic, but he ignored it. Looking up, he saw that although the main beam was damaged, the structure was still stable.
"It can be repaired," he murmured, pulling out his military knife and inserting it into the crack to secure the temporary support. "As long as there isn't another heavy attack..."
Before he could finish speaking, Tony's voice suddenly came through the communication channel. " Ye Mo! New signal detected in the north ventilation shaft, larger in size, with active radar jamming!"
How many units?
"One machine. But it moved very slowly, as if... it was observing."
Ye Mo narrowed his eyes. Ultron learns very quickly. The first wave tested the defense system, the second wave launched a strong attack to apply pressure, and now he's sending a single unit to scout? It's either a decoy or it's recording his combat data.
"Let it see." He stood up, brushing the dust off his clothes. "I'll stand here and not move; I'll take a full-body picture of it."
He walked back to the main battlefield entrance, standing at the edge of the broken corridor, the silver-gray Steel Bone shell gleaming coldly under the emergency lights. Behind him was the unrepaired energy channel, and in front of him were wreckage and raging flames.
Tony piloted his armor and slowly landed, hovering half a meter away from him. His helmet visor opened, revealing a face covered in oil stains.
"You're really going to stand here like a gatekeeper?" he chuckled. "Aren't you afraid it'll send a hundred of them to gang up on you next?"
"I'm scared," Ye Mo grinned, a little blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. "But don't I look pretty intimidating like this?"
"It's all bluffing, isn't it?" Tony looked him up and down. "I just don't know how long it can last. Does that 'skin' of yours take a toll on your stamina?"
"Damn," he admitted, "it probably won't last more than ten minutes at full power. But for now—" He stretched his shoulders, the metallic scraping sound clearly audible, "Enough for it to hesitate for three seconds."
Tony nodded and closed his mask again. "Then you guard the front door, I'll patrol the outside. Don't try to take on too much damage; if it collapses, I won't have any spare construction crew."
"Understood." Ye Mo raised his arm to examine the cracks on the surface of the Steel Bone. "Don't drift too far either. My signal doesn't penetrate well; I can't reach you if I'm too far away."
The two exchanged a brief glance, but said nothing more.
Tony took off, his thrusters spewing blue flames, and disappeared above the smoke.
Ye Mo stood alone amidst the ruins, his breathing slightly heavy, but he stood ramrod straight. His entire body was covered by Steel Bone, like a layer of armor that would never fall off. He looked down at his hands, his silver-gray knuckles clenching slightly.
"System," he muttered to himself, "If you don't give me some hints next time, I'm going to start cursing your ancestors."
Of course, no one responded.
He smiled, looked up, and gazed at the dark end of the corridor.
There was nothing there, but he knew the enemy was still watching.
And he just kept standing there, it never stopped.