General Ross

"Fill it up."

At a bar on the street, General Ross downed his drink in one go, called the bartender over for another, then took a drag on the cigar in his hand. As they said, fine wine and cigarettes made for a life of pleasure.

But there was no happiness on General Ross's face. He was only there to drown his sorrows.

The investigation into the battle on Fifth Avenue had concluded. The total number dead, injured, or missing had reached 612, and the direct economic losses ran into hundreds of millions of dollars. The aftermath was even more serious.

But through a series of exchanges of favors with the military bigwigs and politicians behind him, along with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s careful fabrication, what had clearly been a man-made disaster was recast as a fierce battle between the military and a mutated monster. Not only was he, the culprit, not blamed, he was credited with a service.

After all, no one could know how Abomination had come into being unless he told them. Anyone with even a little inside information knew that Hulk had emerged from the Super Soldier Program under his command, and it was obvious that the Abomination that night was a villain straight out of a Hollywood popcorn movie.

Ross had witnessed Abomination's brutality with his own eyes. With a casual motion, as if sweeping aside some clutter in his way, Abomination had smashed two passersby who couldn't dodge in time into a pulp. There had even been children in the cars he overturned...

The United States had seen one war after another, large and small, ever since its founding. Having risen to the rank of general, Ross didn't consider death to be anything special. But this time, he felt guilty and blamed himself... after all, the people