"Skye, I've got a problem. I need you to crack a program for me,"
Natasha said urgently.
Inside Wanda's protective barrier, Skye froze for half a second.
"Right now? How am I supposed to get to you?"
"I've got a USB that can link with your system remotely. As long as you find any computer that can connect to the internet, you can get in."
Skye nearly choked.
"At a time like this?? Where am I supposed to find a working computer? You're joking!"
Under normal circumstances, a tech expo was full of computers.
Right now, after being bombed into a warzone?
She'd be lucky to find a cell phone that wasn't smashed.
"Then hurry up and look, little ancestor! We've got less than thirty minutes before everything goes to hell!"
Skye turned toward the panicked crowd inside Wanda's barrier and shouted:
"Does anyone have a working internet connection?! I need a computer—urgent!!"
People looked at her immediately.
They all knew she and the red-haired girl protecting them were together.
Seeing Wanda shielding them with such power, no one hesitated—they started searching and asking around.
"There! Over there!"
A young voice called out.
Skye spun toward it.
It was a kid wearing an Iron Man helmet and a checkered shirt, pointing toward a corner where several busted laptops lay in a pile.
Skye ran over—but whether any of those laptops still functioned was another question entirely.
"Be careful!"
Pepper warned, wiping the sweat from Wanda's forehead.
Wanda was visibly trembling now.
Maintaining the energy barrier this long was draining her chaos magic at a frightening rate. Her face had gone pale, but she gritted her teeth and held on.
Skye bolted out of the barrier—just as two drones locked onto her and dove from the sky.
"Skye!! Watch out!!"
Pepper screamed.
Skye didn't think—she hurled herself forward, rolling across the ground.
BRRRRRRT!!!
A storm of bullets shredded the tiles behind her.
Chunks of concrete and dirt exploded upward in a fountain.
Skye scrambled to her feet, hands glowing with rippling quake energy.
The two drones dropped low, aiming their arm cannons directly at her.
"HAH!!!"
Skye thrust her palms forward.
WHOOOM!!!
A compressed wave of vibration shot out—so dense it warped the air.
Both drones were erased mid-air.
Not blown up—not shattered—erased, disintegrating at the molecular level.
Skye stared at her hands, horrified. She'd never produced anything like that.
"Ha—!"
She tried to repeat it.
Agony shot up her arms.
"AHHH!!"
Her hands twisted unnaturally—bones cracking.
The pain hit so sharply she collapsed to her knees.
"—Tss!!"
Skye clenched her teeth.
Whatever she'd done a moment ago…
It wasn't something she could repeat at will.
Ignoring the pain, she staggered to the pile of laptops.
By sheer luck, one was damaged but still usable.
Back inside the barrier, her hands were swollen and purplish, shaking violently.
There was no way she could type.
"Pepper, you do it. Follow my instructions."
Skye breathed through the pain, sweating heavily.
Pepper's eyes reddened when she saw Skye's broken hands.
"Skye, your hands—!"
"Time… we're running out…"
She hid her arms behind her back to stop herself from looking.
Pepper nodded hard.
"Tell me what to do."
Skye had her put on a headset, then dialed Natasha.
"I found a computer. What do we do?"
Natasha, too focused on the crisis, didn't yet notice Skye's condition.
"I'm giving you an IP address. Once you're connected, you'll have remote access."
She plugged in the USB and transmitted the IP.
With Skye directing Pepper, they hacked into Natasha's computer successfully.
The bright red countdown filled the screen.
Both women sucked in a sharp breath.
This was unmistakably a detonation timer.
Skye began firing strings of code into the system.
"The person who built this… is a genius. I can't break this from here alone. I need you to work with me."
"How?"
Natasha immediately sat down and focused.
Skye guided both Pepper and Natasha simultaneously.
As expected—Vanko's program was a mass self-destruction trigger.
Once the countdown finished, every remaining drone would explode—including the one Rhodey was trapped inside.
To disable the bomb, they first had to break Vanko's remote-control hold on the drones.
The master override was in Natasha's room—a one-way programmed lock.
"You see a screen with switch-like icons?"
Natasha checked quickly.
There was only one display that resembled a toggle—a humanoid silhouette.
"I've got it."
"How many are still lit?" Skye asked.
Any drones already destroyed wouldn't show up—their control nodes were gone, leaving only the self-destruct trigger active.
The lit icons represented the drones still chasing Tony and Lucas.
"Seven."
"Okay. I'm going to breach one of them—but it's random. When you see any icon glitch, you must hit the switch immediately. You've got one second. That should short the system."
Natasha nodded.
"One second is plenty. I'm ready."
"Starting."
Skye gave the command.
Pepper typed.
A second later—one humanoid icon turned bright red.
Natasha instantly selected it and pressed Enter.
—
High above the expo—
Lucas aimed Judgment at a nearby drone.
Before he could fire, the drone suddenly jerked like it had been electrocuted.
Sparks erupted, lights flickering wildly—then it spiraled downward and exploded on the ground like a firework.
Lucas blinked.
"…What the hell? Tony, did you do that?"
He stared over at Tony, who was weaving between missiles.
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