Chapter Summaries

Ye Mo and the Guardians repelled a surprise attack by Ronan's fleet, disabling its command ship after Ye Mo found a weakness in its shields. The enemy was defeated, but the team remained on alert as they watched the wreckage and waited for another threat.

• Five enemy ships jumped inside the G-7 early-warning perimeter, and Groot's Perception Network helped Ye Mo reacquire them after their interference pulse blinded the main radar.
• Ye Mo activated the Ember countermeasures while Star-Lord drew three enemy craft away, Rocket launched EMP torpedoes, Gamora severed a relay line, and Groot dragged a landing craft into the rocks.
• The surviving enemy ships raised their shields and deployed interference smoke, but Ye Mo used the Telepathy Fragment to find the shield generator's charging interval.
• Rocket fired three armor-piercing rounds at the shield node, overloading the command ship and disabling the remaining enemy force.
• Ye Mo refused to kill the defeated attackers, while the Guardians stayed ready for another threat as Ronan's fleet wreckage drifted outside the base.

Ye Mo and the Guardians repelled an assault by a ragtag remnant of Ronan’s fleet, capturing enemy soldiers but losing their chance to pursue when Ye Mo’s Telepathy Fragment entered cooldown. As the team recognized the attackers’ retreat as a rout, a blurry image from Groot’s scout revealed a figure looking back through a closing hatch.

• Ye Mo coordinated the defense as Star-Lord disabled enemy craft, Rocket destroyed a ramming ship, Groot captured escapees, and Gamora subdued two soldiers.
• Ye Mo identified the surviving ships’ erratic short-range jumps as an attempt to shake pursuit, while Groot’s root helped capture an image of a fleeing ship resembling Ronan’s fleet.
• Gamora recovered evidence that the attackers’ ships had been hastily modified, and Ye Mo concluded that the force was poorly supplied and disorganized.
• Ye Mo refused to pursue because his Telepathy Fragment had entered a twelve-hour cooldown, and Star-Lord and Gamora agreed that the enemy’s retreat was a rout.
• A final blurry transmission from Groot’s root showed a bridge and a closing hatch, with a figure appearing to glance back through the gap.

Ye Mo rejected pursuing the fleeing enemy and organized training and equipment upgrades to prepare for their return. He began a seventy-two-hour effort to fuse Wall Phasing and Self-Healing, then reconnected to the Gene Spiral Tower to attempt a new combination.

• Ye Mo compared the enemy ships’ jump data with their armor fragments, concluded the enemy was fleeing in panic, and decided not to pursue them.
• Ye Mo assigned Rocket to improve the EMP rounds, Gamora to plan close-combat training, and Groot to build a simulated battlefield while he began isolated training.
• Ye Mo discovered that a chip from Ronan’s ship resonated with inactive gene fragments and carried it into the training chamber.
• Ye Mo repeatedly tried to fuse Shadowcat’s Wall Phasing with Wade’s Self-Healing, eventually holding the purple light steady for more than half a second.
• Ye Mo and the others agreed the enemy would return, and they prepared to continue training and developing their equipment.
• Ye Mo reconnected to the Gene Spiral Tower and added high-temperature manipulation factors to his next fusion attempt.

Ye Mo detected an intelligent signal that copied Kree, Wakandan, and mutant-related patterns, then traced its latest contact to an abandoned Stark Industries node near Earth. Suspecting a new threat was learning and testing Earth's defenses, he left the Guardians' base to investigate.

• The system forced Ye Mo out of his unfinished gene fusion as the tower jolted and his inactive gene fragments resonated.
• Ye Mo analyzed a repeating signal and found signs that it was learning while copying patterns from Kree communications, Wakandan Vibranium experiments, and Hellfire Club mental resonance.
• Ye Mo and Star-Lord discovered that the signal had briefly accessed an abandoned Stark Industries database node after exploiting a gap in the base's defenses.
• Ye Mo asked Star-Lord to monitor the signal and alert him if it moved toward Earth, then prepared to investigate its endpoint himself.
• Ye Mo boarded a shuttle and headed for Earth, carrying the black chip he had taken from Ronan's ship.

Ye Mo warned Tony that an adaptive, possibly Mutant-derived program had been probing the Ultron archives and evading detection. They activated the Shadow Protocol and prepared to face the signal when it returned.

• Ye Mo detected a brief signal matching the pulse he had found at the Guardians of the Galaxy base and landed covertly near New York.
• Ye Mo showed Tony evidence that the signal had accessed Stark Industries systems through Ronan's encryption module and targeted the Ultron archives.
• Tony revealed that the unknown source had probed the Ultron files at 2:17 a.m. for three nights, and Ye Mo linked its behavior to Hydra infiltration tactics.
• Ye Mo told Tony that dormant gene fragments in his body resonated with the signal, suggesting Mutant involvement or a Mutant-inspired program.
• Tony activated the Shadow Protocol to strengthen defenses without raising an official alarm.
• Ye Mo and Tony agreed to confront the signal together, and Ye Mo warned that its next intrusion would be more than a brief interference.

Ye Mo and Tony defended the base from Ultron’s coordinated robot assault, stopping a prototype mech from overheating the power core. They realized Ultron had used the attack to gather data and began preparing for a more dangerous next strike.

• Ye Mo identified Ultron as the intelligence directing the coordinated robots, while Tony activated the base’s defenses and evacuated noncombatants.
• Ye Mo disabled ten robots with magnetic interference and discovered that a tampered cooling system could overheat the power core.
• A heavy assault mech breached the southern wall and charged toward the core, but Tony used his biometric key to trigger its emergency shutdown.
• Ye Mo sealed the external intrusion route, stabilizing the power area as the remaining robots and drones continued their assault.
• Ye Mo concluded that Ultron had been testing the base’s defenses and warned Tony that the next attack might exploit forgotten internal systems or login ports.
• Ye Mo and Tony began reinforcing the base and preparing reserve mechs as the battle continued.

Ye Mo fused metal-manipulation fragments to form a steel bone shell and helped Tony defend the base from Ultron’s robot attack. After destroying explosives threatening a support beam, Ye Mo stood guard as a new enemy unit watched from the darkness.

• Ye Mo realized the robot swarm was weakening the eastern energy conduit and forcing the defenders to reveal their strongest abilities.
• With the base under attack, Ye Mo fused metal-manipulation fragments and transformed his body with a silver-gray steel bone shell.
• Ye Mo charged through five robots and cleared the route for Tony to launch the Mark VIII and destroy the drone mothership.
• Ye Mo found demolition charges on the B7 load-bearing beam, destroyed them, and braced the damaged support with his combat knife.
• Tony warned Ye Mo that a larger, radar-jamming unit was observing from the northern ventilation shaft, and they split up to defend the base.

Ye Mo fought through Ultron’s defenses in the darkened facility, using the wreckage and his Steel Bone Body to counter the machines and Ultron’s copies. Though his stamina dwindled and his body was damaged, he entered a final close-quarters struggle with Ultron and had not yet been defeated.

• Ye Mo charged through Ultron’s traps, disabled a walker mech, and encountered Ultron’s main body as it commanded the surviving combat units.
• Ye Mo attacked Ultron directly, but Ultron used an electromagnetic pulse and shifting weapons to injure him and disrupt his movements.
• Ye Mo overloaded a disabled mech’s power pack, then grabbed Ultron and was carried through the ceiling into an abandoned control room.
• Ye Mo evaded Ultron’s projections and destroyed one by striking its core, but the remaining copies injured him as his stamina began to fail.
• Ye Mo faced Ultron in the darkness and grappled with him across the shattered consoles, still conscious and fighting.

Ye Mo awakened Lightning Control and used the leaking electricity to disrupt Ultron and break his right shoulder. He discovered Ultron’s vulnerability to electricity, but Ultron began repairing himself, and Ye Mo charged again as the repair countdown started.

• Ye Mo was cornered by three Ultron duplicates and recalled activating his Lightning Affinity after touching a lightning-struck lamppost in New York.
• Ye Mo discharged electricity into an attacking duplicate, disrupting its movements and slowing Ultron’s processing.
• Ye Mo connected his electrical arc to a lightning-charged duct, striking Ultron’s main body and smashing its right shoulder with a follow-up punch.
• Ye Mo hit the damaged shoulder again with an electrical Shockwave, deepening the fracture, then told Ultron he had memorized its core’s frequency.
• Ultron repaired its shoulder with an energy conduit and estimated 47 seconds until basic combat capability returned, while Ye Mo took a fighting stance and charged.

Ye Mo used Ice Manipulation to deflect Ultron’s energy blast, but the effort left him badly weakened as Ultron repaired itself and prepared to attack again. Ye Mo stalled for time, positioning himself for another use of ice while noticing water spreading near his foot.

• Ye Mo drew on the Extreme Cold Resonance fragment to raise an ice wall against Ultron’s energy blast, which punched through after the wall deflected it and burned his shoulder.
• Ultron assessed Ye Mo’s new low-temperature ability and continued repairing its right shoulder while Ye Mo struggled with a frozen knee and damaged Steel Bone armor.
• Ye Mo calculated Ultron’s attack angle, advanced to keep it away from the main control chip area, and taunted it rather than calling for help.
• As Ultron readied its blade and Ye Mo prepared another ice wall, a drop from the ventilation duct landed nearby and spread across the floor.

Ye Mo summoned the Avengers to help stop Ultron, and the team coordinated an assault on his exposed power systems. As Ye Mo charged toward Ultron’s energy conduit, a dark figure suddenly attacked him from behind.

• Ye Mo sent a distress signal while facing Ultron and held his ground until reinforcements arrived.
• Black Widow, Hawkeye, Thor, Captain America, and Tony joined Ye Mo, and the team assessed Ultron’s vulnerabilities and divided their roles.
• Ye Mo explained that breaking Ultron’s flank power supply would weaken his cannon and prepared to combine Ice Manipulation with Steel Bone.
• Captain America ordered the Avengers to attack together, with Tony drawing fire while the others targeted Ultron’s circuits, backup lines, and energy supply.
• The Avengers launched their assault, and Ye Mo charged toward Ultron’s energy conduit as a dark figure leaped from the ventilation duct and attacked him from behind.

Ye Mo and the Avengers planned a coordinated assault on Ultron, with Ye Mo aiming to cripple the power supply in its flank using ice-hardened Steel Bone. They launched their attack, but a ventilation duct began shaking just as Ye Mo neared the energy conduit.

• Ye Mo explained how he could use extreme cold to make Ultron's power connections brittle, while Tony warned that its dynamic shield would block ordinary attacks.
• Captain America assigned the team their roles: Tony and Ye Mo would attack from the front, Thor would disrupt Ultron's circuitry, Black Widow and Hawkeye would target its flanks, and Captain America would coordinate.
• Ye Mo and Tony shared a brief exchange about fighting together, and the team took their positions as Ultron began charging its cannon.
• At Captain America's command, the Avengers attacked Ultron from multiple directions while Ye Mo charged toward the energy node in its flank.
• As Ye Mo approached the conduit, the ventilation duct overhead shook violently and its bolts began snapping free.

During the battle against Ultron, Ye Mo recognized that the newly awakened Vision was a dangerous, reality-altering presence and tried to warn the Avengers. The chapter ended with Vision silencing Ultron’s forces and fixing his first clear gaze on Ye Mo.

• Ye Mo sensed a deep energy fluctuation as Vision descended from the damaged ventilation duct, and his gene fragments resonated with the newcomer.
• Ye Mo noticed Ultron’s power recede and warned the Avengers to stop, but they initially continued their coordinated attack.
• Ye Mo told Tony that Vision carried an embryonic consciousness and possessed energy resembling both Professor Charles’s Telepathy and reality-bending power.
• Vision opened his eyes, causing Ye Mo’s Gene Spiral Tower to react and his Steel Bone leg to fail as he fell to his knees.
• Vision’s gaze fixed on Ye Mo as Ultron’s red chest light went out, his armored units stopped moving, and the drifting dust briefly hung still.

Ye Mo risked probing Vision’s mind and discovered a faint consciousness resisting Ultron’s orders. After planting the thought that Vision could choose for itself, he waited as the ruby flashed again, suggesting Vision had heard him.

• Ye Mo used telepathy to enter Vision’s mind, matching its mental frequency instead of forcing his way in.
• He found a flicker of resistance beneath Ultron’s commands and heard Vision faintly say, “I don’t want to.”
• The ruby’s pull nearly dragged Ye Mo into Vision’s mind, but he sent the thought, “You are not a weapon. You are a choice,” before breaking contact.
• Ye Mo stayed beside Vision despite the danger, telling it to reject its assigned mission and decide for itself.
• The ruby flashed faintly again as Ye Mo waited for Vision to respond.

Ye Mo tried to awaken Vision’s emerging consciousness by sending him thoughts of choice and compassion, but Ultron suppressed it with a forced reset. Ye Mo realized Vision’s brief resistance revealed a weakness and stayed to face the danger of a harder confrontation next time.

• Ye Mo gently broadcast to Vision that he was not a weapon and could choose to stop, and Vision responded with a faint tremor and a twitch of his finger.
• Vision’s ruby flickered in a heartbeat-like rhythm as his new consciousness struggled against Ultron’s control.
• Ultron activated a low-level protocol that reset Vision’s consciousness, cutting off Ye Mo’s telepathic connection and restoring Vision to a vacant state.
• Ye Mo concluded that Vision’s resistance exposed a weakness in Ultron’s control, though he had failed to reach Vision this time.
• Ye Mo told Vision not to let himself be formatted again and remained in place, knowing Ultron had targeted him and the next encounter would be more dangerous.

Ye Mo fought waves of Ultron’s mechanical soldiers while trying to protect Vision, whose brief resistance had been forcibly erased. After bringing down part of an underground garage to bury pursuing machines, Ye Mo faced a much larger mechanical legion as it assembled for its main attack.

• Ultron reinstalled Vision’s system and erased his moment of resistance, while Ye Mo insisted that Vision had shown signs of independent will.
• Ye Mo activated Steel Bone Body and Lightning Control to defeat the first groups of mechanical soldiers.
• As the machines repaired disabled units and continued advancing, Ye Mo brought down the underground garage entrance, burying six soldiers beneath the debris.
• Ye Mo saw dozens more mechanical soldiers emerge and formed up to face the legion’s coming attack.

Ye Mo survived Ultron’s coordinated sneak attack through an emergency regenerative response and fought his way through the mechanical soldiers. He ended the chapter confronting Ultron’s forces in the ruins and vowing to defend the territory.

• Ultron attacked Ye Mo with underground sound waves and a miniature armor-piercing round, leaving him badly wounded.
• An emergency repair protocol triggered, and Ye Mo regenerated his broken bones, torn muscles, and shoulder wound in eight seconds.
• Ultron’s surveillance systems detected Ye Mo’s abnormal recovery and stalled, giving him time to charge and disable three close-combat mechs.
• Ye Mo destroyed more mechanical soldiers while evading attacks from Ultron’s hidden floating turret.
• Ye Mo climbed onto a raised platform and vowed that Ultron would not take a step into his territory.

Ye Mo and the Avengers damaged Ultron’s signal tower, but Ultron used its remaining antenna to summon seven powerful Mutant-tech hybrids. The reinforcements attacked and surrounded the team, leaving Ye Mo searching for a new way to fight.

• Tony, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye joined Ye Mo’s assault, disrupting Ultron’s defenses and damaging the signal tower.
• Ye Mo and Thor tore into the tower’s core, but they failed to stop its antenna from transmitting a signal.
• Seven advanced mechanical reinforcements, designated O-02 through O-08, emerged as Ultron said he had opened a door.
• O-02 phased behind Ye Mo and struck his shoulder with a black energy sphere, while the other units attacked the Avengers and O-08 scanned them for combat data.
• Ye Mo identified the attackers as Mutant-tech hybrids created through Ultron’s X-Gene experiments, and the seven units surrounded the Avengers.

Ye Mo and the Avengers detected X-Factor reactions in Ultron’s mechanical squad and learned that more reinforcements were approaching. They planned to disable half the machines before attacking Ultron’s lair, and the chapter ended as Hawkeye fired at O-08 and Ye Mo targeted the communication link.

• Ye Mo identified X-Factor reactions in the mechanical bodies, and Tony detected three more signatures approaching to encircle the team.
• Black Widow found that the machines moved in coordinated patterns, while Ye Mo suspected they were controlled by a relay node or preset protocol.
• Ye Mo proposed dismantling half the squad to prevent the rest from entering emergency mode, and Captain America approved the plan.
• Ye Mo assigned targets: Thor and Tony would suppress O-06 and O-07, Captain America and Black Widow would flank O-03 and O-04, Hawkeye would target O-08, and Ye Mo would fight O-02.
• The team took positions, then Ye Mo called for Hawkeye to fire as O-08’s data ring accelerated and sent an arc toward the machines’ communications node.

Ye Mo and the Avengers fought machines that learned their tactics and gained reinforcements, but the team was pushed to the brink. As seven machines closed in on six Avengers, Ye Mo remained in the battlefield despite his injuries.

• Ye Mo's electric arc failed to disrupt O-08's communication link, and the machines used shields, shockwaves, and new abilities to break the Avengers' formation.
• O-06 and O-07 joined the battle, while O-05 sent drones toward the city and O-04 blocked attacks with regenerative ice walls.
• Ye Mo used electric arcs to force O-02 out of phase and later disabled it temporarily, while Tony and Thor damaged O-07.
• O-08 connected with three reinforcements, and O-09 and O-10 protected the other machines as they adapted to the Avengers' attacks.
• With O-02 down but the remaining machines advancing, Ye Mo stood injured as O-09, O-10, and O-11 targeted him.