How many seconds did it take for a building to collapse at fastest?
The answers varied.
But here, within Quantico Military Base, the Gamma Lab Building, already damaged by Bruce Banner's Gamma Ray Explosion, could no longer hold on after a massive explosion suddenly erupted underground and began to collapse.
In less than five seconds, the three-story Gamma Lab Building had been reduced to ruins.
Smoke and dust howled through the air, slamming against the metal sheets surrounding the area with loud clangs.
The metal sheets rumbled from the impacts.
After quickly retreating, the Emergency Response Team soldiers who had just been about to rush in and kill the intruder stared at the laboratory building that had become rubble in the blink of an eye. After a moment of silence, they all swallowed.
There was no other reason.
If they had gone in a few seconds earlier, they probably would have been buried along with the Gamma Lab Building.
But after the shock and relief faded, the team members all turned their eyes to their Captain.
"No. 1, what do we do now?"
"...How the hell would I know?"
After a moment of silence, the Emergency Response Captain said helplessly, "Pack it up."
The team members froze.
"Huh?"
"Huh my ass. It already collapsed. What can we do, dig out the intruder's corpse?"
The Emergency Response Captain rolled his eyes.
He had thought there would be a hard fight.
Instead...
Unexpectedly, it had ended with a whimper.
Just then, the lieutenant colonel who had called General Thaddeus Ross to report the situation arrived in a jeep.
"No. 2, pack it up."
"Yes!"
The Emergency Response Captain spoke to his second-in-command, then adjusted the assault rifle slung across his chest with both hands and walked toward the lieutenant colonel.
Before the Emergency Response Captain could salute, the lieutenant colonel's gaze fell on the Gamma Lab Building, now reduced to rubble and still sending dust drifting in all directions. "What happened?"
The Emergency Response Captain shook his head. "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. But one thing is certain: there was only one intruder."
He then repeated what the laboratory personnel who had escaped the building knew, before recounting how the building had collapsed just as he was about to lead his team inside.
When the lieutenant colonel heard that there had only been one intruder, his expression became blank.
"You're sure there was only one?"
"Yes."
"Motherf—"
The lieutenant colonel reflexively cursed, feeling the whole thing absurd. "No, just one guy? How the hell did he dare?"
Quantico Military Base had not never encountered intrusions before.
But...
Those foreign operatives always came in groups, and most of them did not even make it past the actual gate inside the base before being wiped out.
But no matter what, they at least knew Quantico Base was a team raid.
Good Lord.
You came to clear it solo?
What the hell were you thinking?
The lieutenant colonel could not understand it.
The Emergency Response Captain spread his hands, then glanced at the collapsed Gamma Lab Building and thought of a possibility. "Maybe it was a suicide mission. The target was this laboratory building, and he never intended to leave alive."
Hearing that, the lieutenant colonel thought for a moment and nodded.
"That's the only explanation."
"Damn it!"
"I even notified the general. If I'd known the intruder came here to kill himself, I never would've called."
After nodding, the lieutenant colonel's expression suddenly stiffened as he remembered the frantic call he had made to General Ross on his way over. He felt awful.
If he had known the intruder was here on a suicide mission, he would never have made that call.
Uh...
At the very least, he would not have called so urgently. Great, now he had to call again.
Sighing internally, the lieutenant colonel instructed the aide beside him to notify the base control room to lift the alarm while taking out his phone again and calling his superior, General Thaddeus Ross.
The call connected quickly.
"Report!"
"General, the intruder is dead."
"Dead?"
General Thaddeus Ross, who was urging his driver to hurry toward Quantico, froze again.
"What happened?"
"The intruder's identity is currently unknown, but he was alone. The Gamma Building collapsed. At present, we believe he was carrying out a suicide mis—"
BOOM!
"Holy shit!"
Just as the lieutenant colonel was organizing his thoughts while reporting to General Thaddeus Ross, another earthshaking blast suddenly erupted from the ruins of the Gamma Building.
The next second.
Under the searchlights now trained on the ruins, he went completely blank at the sight of a figure shooting out from the rubble after that explosive roar.
The Emergency Response Captain standing nearby cried out in disbelief.
But he quickly came to his senses.
"Enemy attack!"
"Fire, fire!"
Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!
After the Emergency Response Captain reacted first, the rest of the response team members who had been preparing to leave also snapped out of it. They instantly aimed their guns at the figure standing amid the rubble, flickering in and out of view through the smoke, and pulled their triggers.
At the same time.
The intrusion alarm that had just been lifted throughout the base began blaring once more.
The piercing alarm left the soldiers who had just assembled and just dispersed with a flicker of confusion in their eyes.
What was going on?
Hadn't the alarm just been lifted? Why was it sounding again?
Just as they began wondering whether the base control center had pressed the wrong button, the sudden gunfire made them realize something.
"Shit!"
"Another intrusion!"
"Move, move, move!"
Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!
Hawk's figure flashed back and forth across the ruins of the Gamma Lab Building.
Beneath the rubble, the final wisp was drawn into his possession under the pull of his own Cosmo.
Hawk then looked ahead at the soldiers continuously firing at him, as well as the soldiers rushing over from not far away.
And...
The tanks rumbling toward him, along with the armed helicopters beginning to slowly lift off amid the sound of spinning rotors.
Clearly.
He had thoroughly stirred up a hornet's nest.
However...
My business here is done. Next, I just need to find somewhere to consume this haul.
Thinking that, Hawk watched as the dust around him gradually dispersed and raised an eyebrow. Without lingering, he turned and bent his knees. As the rubble beneath his feet cracked apart once more, his entire body shot into the sky like a cannonball.
The next second.
Tracked by the searchlights, he traced a graceful arc through the air before landing in the forest outside the base with a whoosh.
All right.
The quick mission was complete. Time for the next one.
Run for it!!!
Before you continue