Ye Mo had barely raised his finger when the heartbeat signal went out. Emma Frost noticed immediately, her pupils contracting slightly as she lightly placed her fingers against her temple. The monitoring node's communication link was forcibly cut, creating a 0.8-second blind spot.
He did not wait for the door to open fully. His right arm turned straight into liquid metal and slipped into the seam of the alloy lock. The wall parted like water and closed again as his entire body slid through in one clean, swift motion.
The interference Yingya had created outside was still ongoing, but the power system did not flicker out as planned. Backup power switched on automatically, and the lights only wavered once before returning to normal. The patrol's footsteps turned toward Sector B half a minute early. Through Thermal Vision, red dots moved in dense clusters, their routes completely changed.
"The timing's off." Ye Mo crouched against the wall and said quietly, "They aren't following the original procedure."
Emma Frost's voice sounded in his mind. "I just picked up a pulse fluctuation in Corridor Three. They've probably upgraded the mobile detectors."
"No wonder." Ye Mo touched the vibranium fragment inside his hoodie. It was slightly hot. "This place is smarter than we thought."
"What now?" Emma Frost asked.
"We keep going." Ye Mo stared at the infrared scanner at the far end of the corridor. "We can't retreat. Those people won't last much longer."
The two edged forward along the side passage. One section of the ventilation shaft grating had been removed in advance. Ye Mo made his left leg intangible and passed through without stirring so much as a breeze. Emma Frost followed close behind, her steps so light she seemed never to touch the ground.
But just as they turned into the second stretch of passage, a ring of blue patterns suddenly lit up ahead. A fine grid appeared on the walls, as though some kind of force field was activating.
"A mutant suppression field." Emma Frost frowned. "Its strength is increasing."
"In other words, they're tightening the suppression." Ye Mo narrowed his eyes. "The longer we take, the smaller our chances of getting them out."
"So you're planning to force your way through?"
"No." Ye Mo shook his head. "We take the ventilation shaft."
They doubled back, encountering two guards carrying detectors fitted with antennas. Those devices could detect bioelectric abnormalities. Even Regenerative Phasing could not fool them.
Ye Mo stopped immediately and lowered the temperature of parts of his body, bringing his body temperature down to match the air in an instant. At the same time, his left leg turned intangible again and passed through the gaps in the grating, his entire body seeming to evaporate.
Emma Frost held her breath, using a psychic shield to conceal herself in a psychic blind spot in the corner. Two seconds later, the guards walked past without noticing a thing.
"You're getting better and better at that trick," Emma Frost said as she landed.
"Practice makes it easy." Ye Mo patted his pants. "The system says the cooldown is two seconds, but I've found that if I control how fast the metal patches spread, I can actually bring it down to 1.5 seconds."
"Don't try anything that risky next time." Emma Frost glanced at him. "I can't react in time every time."
"I know." Ye Mo smiled. "That's why I use my heartbeat as a signal. As long as you can hear it."
They finally approached the holding room on Level B3. The control panel by the door flashed green. Ye Mo reached toward the keypad, but before his fingertips touched it, a mechanical voice suddenly sounded inside the room:
"Unauthorized genetic resonance detected-Class X threat confirmed. Initiating code red lockdown."
As the voice fell silent, six alloy gates crashed down, sealing every exit. The ceiling split open, and a circular weapons array slowly unfolded, its muzzles aimed at the three of them.
"Damn." Emma Frost took half a step back. "They recognized you."
"Not just me." Ye Mo stared at the warning symbol appearing on the wall. "They know Regenerative Phasing is a composite ability. It's already recorded in their database."
"Which means..." Emma Frost's voice grew quieter. "Your ability pattern has been flagged?"
"Yeah." Ye Mo removed his silver half-rimmed glasses and tossed them into a corner. "So much for the disguise."
He plunged both hands into the wall's central circuitry, and metal patches rapidly spread along his arms. Electricity crackled as he gritted his teeth against the backlash, tearing through the firewall protocols bit by bit.
"I'm going to force the door controls," he said. "Keep the psychic barrier up. Don't let them disrupt my timing with mental attacks."
Emma Frost stood behind him, a diamond sheen spreading across her body. Her form transformed completely, making her look like a crystal statue reflecting the cold light.
"Ready," she said.
"Then let's begin." Ye Mo increased his output, sending liquid metal into the main control chip in an attempt to bypass the encryption layer.
But the instant the door lock loosened, the announcement sounded again:
"Target confirmed-codename 'Mr. X.' Commencing elimination protocol."
A second later, the weapons array finished charging, and red lights locked onto his entire body.
Ye Mo did not move, his hands still buried in the wall. He knew that pulling them out now would make him a sitting duck. He could only gamble on who would be faster.
"Emma," he said quietly, "if I go down, use the Wall Phasing Technique and get everyone out immediately."
"I'm not leaving." Emma Frost stood diagonally behind him, her voice steady. "You said we couldn't break the rhythm. Right now, you are the rhythm."
"But this is a suicide hack." Sweat broke out on Ye Mo's forehead. "The system's hitting back. I can't last ten seconds."
"Then make it nine." Emma Frost watched the firing countdown gradually light up ahead. "You do the hacking. I'll do the blocking."
The corner of Ye Mo's mouth twitched. "You really believe I can do it."
"If I don't trust you, who am I supposed to trust?" Emma Frost said evenly. "Hellfire taught me to calculate the odds. You taught me not to."
The liquid metal inside the wall suddenly blasted through a firewall, and the door lock gave a soft click.
"Got it." Ye Mo caught his breath. "Two more seconds and the door will open."
"You only have one." Emma Frost stared at the countdown overhead. "They've sped it up."
Ye Mo gritted his teeth and tore through the final defensive layer. A gap opened in the door, offering a faint glimpse of more than a dozen figures secured to the walls inside.
"Go!" He pulled his hands out and turned to pull Emma Frost inside.
But just then, the floor shuddered. A new alarm sounded, and the announcement repeated:
"High-level Telepathy activity detected. Initiating level-two purge protocol."
Emma Frost's expression changed. "They've locked onto me."
"Then we charge together." Ye Mo grabbed her wrist. "The door's open. We can't stop now."
Just as they were about to move, the ceiling-mounted weapons array suddenly changed its angle. Rather than sweeping the entire area, it aimed precisely at the doorway.
"They're forcing us to choose," Emma Frost said. "Stay here and wait to die, or rush in and get ourselves killed."
"Neither." Ye Mo stared at the gap in the door. "We have a third option."
He took a black fragment from his hoodie's inner pocket. It was a piece he had picked up earlier at an abandoned station in Wakanda. He stuffed it into the gap in the door, then shoved hard.
The fragment jammed the mechanism, preventing the door from closing completely. Immediately afterward, he pulled Emma Frost two steps back into a recess in the side wall.
"What are you doing?" Emma Frost asked.
"Giving them a decoy." Ye Mo reached toward his chest. "I left a signal lure in the fragment."
As soon as he finished speaking, the black fragment in the door gap suddenly emitted a high-frequency pulse, drawing concentrated fire from every weapon.
"Now!" Ye Mo growled, activating Regenerative Phasing again and charging in through the passage entrance on the other side with Emma Frost.
They had barely landed when molten metal completely sealed the passage behind them.
"Did it work?" Emma Frost glanced back.
"For now." Ye Mo leaned against the wall, panting. "But they know we're inside."
"And they know who you are," Emma Frost added.
"Doesn't matter anymore." Ye Mo wiped his face. "Since I'm exposed, there's no need to hide."
He looked up into the holding room. More than a dozen people connected to tubes and cables were twitching slightly, their brain-wave signals extremely faint.
"Can these people still be saved?" Emma Frost asked.
"I don't know." Ye Mo walked up to the first prisoner and reached out to check their carotid artery. "But we have to try."
The moment he touched the prisoner's wrist, a new interface popped up on the console:
"Welcome back, Subject 07."
Ye Mo froze.
Emma Frost immediately grabbed his shoulder. "Don't look at the screen!"
But it was already too late. His gaze had met that line of text.
A second later, every light in the room turned blood-red.