When General Thaddeus Ross arrived at Quantico Military Base, the invasion alarm had already been lifted.
Well.
This time, it had truly been lifted.
But that did not mean the matter was over. On the contrary, the base command center was brightly lit at this very moment.
They had been humiliated beyond measure.
Someone had not only infiltrated their base with ease, but even destroyed one of their buildings, then gotten away completely unscathed.
Most importantly—
They had fucking lost track of the intruder.
"What do you mean, you lost him?"
"We lost him in the dense forest twenty kilometers south of the base."
"What about our helicopters?"
"At night, in dense forest, our helicopters can't descend to a lower altitude at all."
"Shit!"
The lieutenant colonel slammed a fist onto the table irritably. "Send out all our men. The helicopters too. We have to find that damn bastard."
His deputy promptly acknowledged the order and jogged away.
Just as the lieutenant colonel stood with his hands on his hips, watching the first-person feeds from the helicopters and search teams dispatched on the large screen, a deep voice came from behind him.
The lieutenant colonel jolted and instinctively turned around, only to see General Ross standing there with a face as dark as ink.
"G-General..."
"The intruder was just one person, and you still lost him. Impressive."
General Ross spoke with a smile that did not reach his eyes.
The lieutenant colonel opened his mouth but said nothing. Instead, he had the soldier at the computer pull up footage of the intruder's escape.
General Ross looked toward the large screen.
There—
The intruder standing amid the smoke was completely indistinguishable beneath the floodlights. Then, with a single leap, he shot into the forest and swiftly vanished from sight.
General Ross was stunned by the sight.
The next second—
He looked at the lieutenant colonel. "You just said only the Gamma Building was infiltrated?"
The lieutenant colonel hurriedly nodded.
"Yes, General. Not long after the intruder entered, the Gamma Building collapsed. We originally thought he was a bomber, but who would have thought that just as I was reporting the latest situation to you, that guy suddenly burst out from beneath the rubble again."
"..."
General Ross said nothing. As he quietly listened to the lieutenant colonel's report, he had someone replay the surveillance footage of Hawk leaping out of the base.
Alone. A clear target: the Gamma Building. Inhuman evasive ability. Astonishing jumping ability.
General Ross's gaze flickered.
"Did any other cameras capture the intruder?"
"The technical team is reviewing the surveillance footage."
"Have you located the intruder?"
"...No."
The lieutenant colonel instinctively looked at the deputy who had just returned. Seeing him shake his head, he fell silent for a moment before forcing himself to report to General Ross. "He disappeared in the dense forest twenty kilometers south of our base. We're still searching."
Upon hearing that, General Ross nodded.
The next second—
Without another word, he headed outside. "Send people to dig out the Gamma Building as quickly as possible."
The lieutenant colonel shuddered and immediately stood at attention. "Yes, sir!"
But although that was easy to say, by the time the heavy machinery arrived, cleared the rubble, and pulled out the bodies buried beneath it, dawn had already broken.
The helicopters that had flown all night had also returned to the base.
But while the pilots rested, the helicopters did not. After new pilots took over and the tanks were filled, the helicopters took off once more, fanning out in every direction from the base in an attempt to find the trace of the intruder who had been so outrageously arrogant last night that he might as well have taken a shit on the Quantico Marine Corps.
The soldiers at the base did the same.
The soldiers who had returned last night rested, while another batch was sent into the dense forests surrounding the base.
They looked ready to conduct a massive three-day search.
However...
General Ross had not gone back to rest either. He simply remained in his car near the ruins of the Gamma Building, leaning against the back seat with his eyes half closed.
Just then—
The adjutant in the driver's seat received a call. After responding with a few murmured acknowledgments, he turned to General Ross, who was resting in the back seat.
"General, the S.H.I.E.L.D. Director is calling."
"...Mm."
General Ross slowly opened his eyes, took the phone his adjutant handed him, and put it to his ear.
"This is Ross!"
"General Ross, I heard Quantico was quite lively last night."
"..."
The unmistakable gloating in the voice on the other end made General Ross's head ache. "Get to the point, Nick!"
At S.H.I.E.L.D. Triskelion headquarters, Nick sat at his desk in a black trench coat and black eyepatch, admiring the footage on his computer screen of Hawk vaulting out of the base. Hearing General Ross's words, he laughed heartily.
"A joint operation. What do you say?"
"You're dreaming."
General Ross gave a cold laugh. "This is a military case. I'm warning you, Nick, don't meddle. And if I remember correctly, your operational authority has been frozen, hasn't it?"
After saying that—
General Ross could not even be bothered to listen to Black Egg's response. It was bound to be nonsense anyway, so he simply hung up, handed the phone back to his adjutant, then sat upright and rubbed his brow. "Any trace of him?"
The adjutant shook his head.
"No, sir."
"Heh heh."
General Ross seemed wholly unsurprised by the answer. After chuckling twice, he shook his head and changed the subject.
"Has the Gamma Building been excavated?"
"About ten more minutes."
"Let's go."
Hearing that, General Ross pushed open the car door and stepped out. "Let's take a look."
Seeing this, the adjutant hurriedly opened his own door and caught up in a few quick strides.
By now, all the soldiers' bodies buried in the Gamma Building had been dug out and laid in rows nearby.
Their manner of death...
Varied greatly, yet without exception, the expressions on the faces of those whose faces remained mostly intact had frozen in shock, terror, and disbelief.
General Ross swept his gaze across the bodies and said to the adjutant beside him, "Have the base file the report. Maximum compensation. I'll sign off on it."
The adjutant nodded, committing the matter to memory.
Soon—
Ten minutes passed in a flash, and the opening that had been buried beneath the rubble was dug out once again.
The base researchers who had long been waiting nearby reentered the underground passage.
"It's gone."
"It's all gone."
"Unbelievable. Did he absorb everything here completely?"
"Jesus Christ, then why didn't he turn into a monster like Hulk and Abomination?"
Before long, waves of incredulous cries came from inside.
General Ross's eyes lit up.
"Adjutant!"
"Sir."
"Find him, whatever it takes!"
"Understood!"
"..."
Before you continue