The alarm was still blaring, and red lights swept back and forth in the corridor. Ye Mo had just stuffed the Hellfire encrypted beacon into his inner pocket, and before he could even retract his hand, a metallic clanging sound came from outside the main hall.
"Here you are." He looked up at Tony.
Tony had already stood up, the interface on his combat suit automatically connecting to the armor module. "Do you think they might pick a good time? Like, after I finish this cup of coffee?"
"You don't have coffee." Ye Mo raised his right hand, a piece of ice crystal condensed in his palm, and with a flick of his wrist, the ice shard embedded itself in the crack in the wall, blocking the fire door that was about to close.
"Details aren't important." Tony's shoulders tightened, his shoulder armor snapping shut. "The important thing is—don't let them into the lab this time."
Ye Mo didn't reply. His foot slipped, and he sprinted towards the main passage, skimming along the ground. He pressed his left hand to the ground, and a chill instantly spread, freezing the entire corridor floor with a thin layer of ice, its surface as smooth as a mirror.
Three seconds later, the first wave of enemies jumped down from the ventilation shaft. As soon as they landed, they stumbled and fell flat on their faces.
"Anti-slip coating?" Ye Mo sneered, his right fingertip flicking out six ice spikes that shot out from the ground, precisely locking their knees and wrists. No bones were broken, but they were immobilized.
"Two," he said to Tony.
"Eight more to come." Tony's helmet activated, infrared scanner lit up. "Split into two groups, one heading straight for the data terminal, the other flanking from behind—pretty professional."
"Even expertise is useless." Ye Mo clasped his hands together, and the entire passage was instantly sealed off by an arc-shaped ice wall, half a meter thick, with frost patterns on the surface, like a welded steel gate.
The people outside tried to push it a few times, but finding they couldn't move it, they started to back away.
"They're waiting for a signal," Ye Mo said, narrowing his eyes. "The three prisoners just said that the commander was wearing a communicator and broadcasting the whole thing live."
"Let them have a good show." Tony's armor fully activated, his twin flamethrowers preheating. "You set up the stage, I'll grill the skewers."
"Don't burn it too much." Ye Mo took two steps back, standing to the side of the ice wall. "It'll be troublesome for S.H.I.E.L.D.. to investigate."
"Don't worry, I'm going for an eco-friendly approach today." Tony swooped down, his MK armor hovering behind the ice wall, shoulder flamethrowers fully activated.
The hot air blasted against the ice wall, causing the surface to melt and evaporate rapidly, filling the air with white mist. The alternation of hot and cold caused cracks to form inside the ice layer, producing a faint "crackling" sound.
The enemy was still hesitating outside when suddenly their foot slipped—the melted water had refreezed in the low-temperature zone, making the ground incredibly slippery.
"Now!" Ye Mo raised his hand, and dozens of ice spikes exploded from the front of the ice wall, shooting out in a fan shape.
Seven or eight enemies were pinned to the spot, some with their legs impaled, others with their weapons frozen in their hands. One man tried to pull out an electromagnetic pulse grenade, but the moment his finger touched the button, his entire arm was frozen solid.
The last guy, dressed in a silver cold-weather combat suit, finally rushed out, holding a high-frequency vibrating knife with a bluish blade.
"Commander?" Ye Mo raised an eyebrow.
Without saying a word, the man slashed at Ye Mo's throat with his knife.
Ye Mo dodged to the side and struck the other man's chest with his palm. A burst of cold air erupted from the point of contact, and thick ice instantly formed on the man's chest, making him look like an insect frozen in amber, unable to move.
"All done?" Tony landed beside him, his helmet opening to reveal a grinning face.
"There's one more," Ye Mo pointed to the corner.
The last Hydra member was crouching in front of the data terminal, holding a black device in his hand, his thumb already pressed on the detonation button.
"Trying to crash the server?" Tony sighed. "Can't you come up with something new?"
The man looked up, his eyes filled with madness. "As long as I can get MK's core data, it's worth destroying you!"
Ye Mo stepped forward, raised his hand to conjure a hemispherical ice shield, and directly wrapped the person and their device into an ice coffin. The explosion was muffled within the ice, only causing the ground to tremble slightly.
"It's over." He withdrew his hand, and the last ice crystal in his palm fell to the ground and shattered.
Tony walked to the ice coffin, looked down at the struggling figure inside, and said, "Do you really think you can create Iron Man just by stealing the armor code? Have you considered that the key is the person?"
No one answered.
The alarm was lifted, and the lights returned to normal. In the center of the laboratory, the ice had not melted, and several frozen enemies lay on the ground, charred marks extending from the edge of the ice wall all the way to the ceiling.
"Good teamwork this time." Tony removed his armor module, walked towards Ye Mo, and gave him a high five.
"It went better than the simulation training." Ye Mo caught the palm strike, his palm burning hot.
[Battle won, sixth floor of the Gene Spiral Tower unlocked.]
The system notification sounded precisely on time.
"It went up again?" Tony raised an eyebrow. "Your tower's practically reaching into the clouds."
"One layer at a time." Ye Mo flexed his wrists; his Ice Manipulation Technique was becoming increasingly smooth, no longer causing injury or going out of control.
"Next time it's my turn to treat you to a drink." Tony pulled an unopened bottle of energy drink from his equipment case and tossed it to Ye Mo.
"Remember to add ice." Ye Mo caught it and gently shook it.
"You really are..." Tony shook his head and laughed, "Alright, ice it is."
Ye Mo stuffed the drink into his tactical waist pack and glanced at the main control panel. The screen was still running its self-test program, and the power system showed a stable reading, but the data stream in a certain corner was a bit abnormal.
He didn't say anything, but just glanced at it again.
Tony patted him on the shoulder. "Stop looking, we've got the men and the beacon, we can finally get a good night's sleep."
"I hope so." Ye Mo walked to the terminal, tapped the keyboard twice, and brought up the background log.
A hidden process has just been terminated, and the remaining signal path points to a backup node on the internal network.
"What's wrong?" Tony asked.
"It's nothing," Ye Mo said, closing the window. "It's just that... they arrived too in unison."
"Is this a trap?"
"I don't know." Ye Mo stared at the screen, "But an organization that dares to broadcast a battle live wouldn't just send these few people to get themselves killed."
Tony paused for two seconds, then laughed, "So you mean, this is just an appetizer?"
"Perhaps the main course is already on its way." Ye Mo turned and looked into the depths of the laboratory. "And... someone left a door open inside."
"Who?"
"I don't know." Ye Mo walked closer to a computer, opened the casing, and touched an unfamiliar chip with his fingers. "But we didn't install this thing."
Tony leaned closer for a look, his expression changing slightly. "This interface format... is it an old encryption module from Stark Industries?"
"It's a model that was phased out three years ago." Ye Mo took it out and placed it in his palm. "But it still works, which means the permissions are high enough."
"A mole?" Tony frowned.
"Or perhaps it was a move planted even earlier." Ye Mo put the chip into the evidence bag. "They're not afraid of us discovering the beacon, nor are they afraid of us arresting people. Because they know the real thing has already been in there."
Tony stared at the computer for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed, "Interesting. I thought they'd cleared all the viruses, but it turns out they didn't even need to hack into the system—they just had the hardware replaced."
"The problem now isn't who's been here," Ye Mo said, looking around, "But who could have replaced the core equipment so quietly without triggering any alarms."
"Security system, access control logs, surveillance playback... everything is fine?" Tony's voice deepened.
"Everything's fine." Ye Mo nodded. "So this person either has extremely high authority, or... has always been by our side."
Tony didn't speak, and looked down to check the interfaces on his armor.
Ye Mo stood there, holding the chip in his hand, his knuckles turning slightly white.
The laboratory fell silent, save for the low hum of the cooling system.
His gaze fell on an interface in the corner of the main control panel, where there was a very fine scratch, as if it had been repeatedly plugged and unplugged by some tool.
The power indicator light on the main unit was flashing at an irregular frequency.