Wall-phasing rescue, steel bone shows its might

The sirens of police cars formed a wall of light around the iron gates of the abandoned substation. Three police cars advanced in a fan formation, their searchlights like welding torches, firmly fixed to the rusted wire mesh. The riot squad was already in position, rubber shields at the ready, stun guns loaded. A calm, almost ruthless command came through the walkie-talkie, "Countdown to breaching the gate, three, two—"

Behind the iron gate, Scott's back was pressed against the cold metal, his breathing heavy like a broken bellows. The controller in his hand was still hot; the forced scaling just now had almost burned the circuit board. He knew that trying again might destroy it, but if he didn't try, he would be pinned to the ground and treated as a "supernatural threat."

He gritted his teeth and stared at the figure moving outside the crack in the door, with only one thought in his mind: I'm doomed. I'm going back on my very first day out of prison, and this time I'll be in a mental hospital plus military detention.

Just as the riot police kicked the door frame—

"Bang!"

It wasn't the sound of a door being broken down.

It was a muffled thud coming from inside the wall, like steel bars snapping and then quickly reforming. Immediately afterward, a figure "squeezed" out from inside the wall, the movement as natural as pushing open a spring-loaded door.

Ye Mo landed firmly, the hood of his black hooded sweatshirt slipped down, revealing a face with a slightly roguish air. He didn't look at Scott, but instead raised his hand to block the first stun blast that flew towards him.

"Click!"

The process of his left arm "Steel Bone Transformation" was faster than a human could imagine. The metal structure under his skin bulged up instantly, and his entire arm turned into a grayish-white alloy skeleton. He met the electric bullet with his palm and crushed the Negasonic Teenage Warhead with a "snap." A few wisps of blue smoke exploded between his fingers, and fragments flew everywhere, but none of them flew toward Scott.

There was an uproar outside.

"What's going on?! Thermal imaging shows two people?!"

"An unknown individual has appeared near Target A; suspected accomplice!"

"Repeated message: Unknown ability user intervention, escalated to Level 1 threat!"

Ye Mo then turned to look at Scott, his tone as casual as if he'd bumped into an acquaintance at a convenience store. "Bro, you're not looking well, your eyes are all glazed over."

Scott's mouth hung open, his throat felt constricted, and after a long pause, he managed to choke out, "You... you came in through the Wall Phasing?!"

"Otherwise what? Climb over the wall? That's too old-fashioned." Ye Mo flexed his wrist, the Steel Bone slowly receding to reveal his normal skin color. "Besides, there are security cameras over there. I don't want to be on the ' New York Oddities' headlines tonight."

Before he could finish speaking, a second stun bullet came from the side. Without turning his head, Ye Mo kicked back with his right leg, and a protective plate instantly popped out from the Steel Bone of his shin. With a "clang," the bullet was deflected and crashed into a pile of discarded cables, sparking a burst of sparks.

"Wow, quite persistent." He clicked his tongue, then turned to Scott and said, "See? You can be even stronger too."

Scott's mind was buzzing. This man could not only catch stun grenades with his bare hands, but also turn his body into steel. And the crucial thing was... he seemed to be watching him the whole time?

"You... you were following me?" Scott's voice trembled slightly.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not a pervert." Ye Mo shrugged. "I was just worried that your controller waveforms were so chaotic, like a erratic electrocardiogram, that I was afraid you'd end up in the morgue."

As he spoke, he stepped forward, his Steel Bone right arm suddenly exerting force, grabbing the edge of the deformed iron door. With the combined force of his muscles and the metal, he tore open a gap as tall as a person with a "crack".

"Let's go, don't wait for them to bring out the Rocket."

Scott didn't move, his eyes still fixed on how the other person had just turned bones into steel. He had repaired circuits for ten years and disassembled countless precision instruments, but he had never seen the human body so "modularized."

"What are you standing there for?" Ye Mo turned around, his tone amused. "Do you want to explain to the police why you can change size so drastically? Say you're Ant-Man? Do you think they'll give you a Marvel fan certificate?"

These words were like a bucket of cold water poured over him, jolting Scott awake. He gritted his teeth, stuffed the controller into his backpack, and followed Ye Mo toward the gap.

But after taking only two steps, the red dot of the drone overhead locked onto them.

"Targets are withdrawing! Repeat, two targets are breaking out through the gap on the east side!"

"Activate heat tracing, prepare for the second round of suppression!"

Ye Mo paused, turned around, and grabbed Scott's wrist. "Hold on tight, you might feel a little dizzy the first time Wall Phasing."

"Wait, what did you say—"

Before he could finish speaking, Ye Mo had already pulled him around and made him lean against the wall. Their figures began to distort like ripples on water, and the next second, they seemed to be swallowed up by the wall, completely disappearing from the surveillance camera's view.

Outside the wall, police rushed to the breach, their searchlights sweeping across the empty factory area, revealing only a few fragments of stun guns and a fresh metal scratch on the ground.

Where are they?!

"What about thermal imaging?!"

"Gone! Both signals have disappeared!"

The walkie-talkie was in chaos, but at that moment, Ye Mo and Scott had already passed through the thirty-meter-thick concrete wall and appeared in the maintenance passage of the underground drainage pipe.

The air was humid, water dripped from above, and the low rumble of water flowing through the city's pipe network drifted from afar. Scott plopped down on the concrete platform, panting as if he had just finished a marathon, his hands still trembling.

"I... I'm not hallucinating, am I?" He looked up at Ye Mo. "You... just now, did you walk out of the wall?"

Ye Mo leaned against the opposite wall, the Steel Bone slowly dissipating, his skin returning to normal temperature. He took off his glasses, wiped them, and put them back on, his tone indifferent. "What do you think? Or should I wear them again for you to see?"

"No, no, no!" Scott waved his hands frantically. "I mean... how did you do that? Is it Mutants ability? Magic? Or... Stark's new project?"

"Neither," Ye Mo smiled. "It's all from practice."

"Training?" Scott's eyes widened. "You're telling me this is something you learn through training? Your arms can turn to steel and you can Wall Phasing, and you call that 'training'? It took me three days to learn how not to get stuck in a crack in the floor!"

"So now you know where the difference lies." Ye Mo looked him straight in the eye. "It's not that you lack talent, it's that you haven't been pushed to that level yet."

Scott choked, looking down at his hands, his voice lowering slightly. "But I... I'm just an ordinary person. Fixing circuits, stealing things, at best it's just being skillful. This kind of thing... I'm not worthy."

"Who was Superman from the start?" Ye Mo straightened up and walked up to him. "Tony was a wealthy alcoholic before he donned the armor, and Thor didn't even know how to use a microwave when he first came to Earth. You think you can't do it because you're always thinking about 'what if I fail,' instead of 'how to succeed.'"

He paused, his tone softening slightly. "Do you know why I took action tonight? It's not because you're about to be caught, but because of your last words."

Which sentence?

You said, 'I'm not a monster... I just want to do something right.'

Scott looked up abruptly.

Ye Mo nodded. "That one sentence is enough. People who have this thought won't really go astray. They just need someone to give them a push."

He patted Scott on the shoulder. "That suit you're holding isn't a toy, it's a tool. Used well, it can save lives; used poorly, it can only harm people. Tonight, you almost turned yourself into a wanted criminal because of one mistake. What about next time? If your daughter is in danger, will you panic like this?"

Scott's expression changed.

"I didn't... I never thought she would—"

"Then don't even think about it." Ye Mo interrupted him. "Thinking about it won't help. What you need to do is prevent that 'what if' from ever happening. How do you do that? Practice, practice like crazy. Until your reaction is faster than your brain, until your body memorizes every single movement."

He turned and walked deeper into the drainpipe, his steps steady. "Not everyone is born to fly, but no one says you can't learn to jump higher."

Scott sat there, his fingers unconsciously stroking the controller in his backpack. The scene from just now was still replaying in his mind— Ye Mo Wall Phasing, Steel Bone blocking bullets, tearing open the iron door... It all seemed so unreal, yet it had truly happened.

He took a deep breath, stood up, and chased after him.

The two walked one after the other through the dimly lit drainpipe, their footsteps echoing within. Ahead, the night on the edge of the city remained silent, but something had already quietly ignited within Scott's heart.

Ye Mo didn't turn around, but the corners of his mouth slightly turned up.

He knew that the seed of revolution had been sown.

Now, all that's needed is a real storm to ignite it.

They rounded the last bend, and ahead lay a hidden maintenance exit leading to the wasteland on the outskirts of the city. A night breeze blew in, carrying a hint of freedom.

Ye Mo stopped, confirmed there were no tracking signals outside, and turned to Scott, saying, "Let's go, training isn't over yet."