By the time General Thaddeus Ross arrived at Quantico Military Base, the invasion alarm had already been deactivated.
Indeed.
This time, it was truly deactivated.
But the matter was far from over; on the contrary, the Base command center was brightly lit at this moment.
They had lost face big time.
Someone had not only easily invaded their Base, but even destroyed one of their buildings, and then, to top it off, escaped unscathed.
The most important point?
They had now completely lost track of the invader.
"What do you mean 'lost track'?"
"Lost in the dense forest twenty kilometers south of the Base."
"Where are our helicopters?"
"At night, in a dense forest, our helicopters simply can't lower their altitude."
"Shit!"
The Lieutenant Colonel angrily slammed his fist on the table: "Send out all our people, and the helicopters too. We must find this damned guy."
His adjutant quickly responded, jogging away.
Just as the Lieutenant Colonel stood with his hands on his hips, watching the first-person view from the helicopters and search teams dispatched on the large screen, a low voice came from behind him.
The Lieutenant Colonel jolted, instinctively turning around, and then saw General Ross, whose face was as dark as ink at that moment.
"Gen-General..."
"There was only one invader, and you managed to lose him. Impressive."
General Ross said with a fake smile.
The Lieutenant Colonel opened his mouth but said nothing, instead instructing the soldier at the computer to pull up the footage of the invader's escape.
General Ross looked towards the large screen.
What he saw.
The invader standing in the smoke, under the glare of the searchlights, was completely indistinguishable, followed by a sudden leap that instantly carried him into the forest, quickly disappearing from sight.
General Ross was stunned by this scene.
The next second.
He looked at the Lieutenant Colonel: "You just said only the Gamma Building was invaded?"
The Lieutenant Colonel nodded quickly.
"Yes, General, shortly after this invader entered, the Gamma Building collapsed. We initially thought he was a bomber, but unexpectedly, just as I was reporting the latest situation to you, this guy suddenly burst out from under the rubble."
"..."
General Ross said nothing, but quietly listened to the Lieutenant Colonel's report while having someone repeatedly play the surveillance footage of Hawk's single leap leaving the Base.
Single person, clear target, Gamma Building, inhuman dodging ability, astonishing leaping ability.
General Ross's eyes flickered.
"Have other cameras captured the invader?"
"The technical team is currently reviewing surveillance."
"Has the invader been located?"
"...No."
The Lieutenant Colonel instinctively looked at his adjutant, who had just returned, and seeing him shake his head, fell silent for a moment before biting the bullet and reporting to General Ross: "He disappeared in the dense forest twenty kilometers south of our Base. We are still searching."
General Ross nodded upon hearing this.
The next second.
He said nothing, just walked outside: "Send people to excavate the Gamma Building for me as quickly as possible."
The Lieutenant Colonel shivered and quickly stood at attention: "Yes!"
However, despite saying so, by the time the heavy machinery entered, cleared the rubble, and dug out the bodies buried within, 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 were swapped in and the fuel tanks topped off, the helicopters took off once again, radiating outwards from the Base in all directions, attempting to find any trace of the invader who had been so arrogant last night, practically defecating on their Quantico Marine Corps.
The soldiers at the Base were doing the same.
The soldiers who had returned last night rested, replaced by another batch of soldiers, who were also spread out into the dense forests surrounding the Base.
It was as if they were preparing for a three-day extensive search.
However...
General Ross also did not go back to rest. Instead, he sat in his car, near the Gamma Building's ruins, leaning against the back seat, his eyes slightly narrowed.
Just then.
His adjutant, sitting in the driver's seat, after a phone call came in and he uttered a few affirmations, turned to look at General Ross, who was resting in the back seat.
"General, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s call."
"...Hmm."
General Ross slowly opened his eyes, reached out, took the phone his adjutant handed him, and put it to his ear.
"This is Ross!"
"General Ross, I hear Quantico was quite lively last night."
"..."
The somewhat gleeful voice on the other end of the line made General Ross's head ache: "Get to the point, Nick!"
Nick, wearing a black trench coat and a black eye patch, was sitting at his desk at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Triskelion headquarters, also enjoying the footage on his computer screen of Hawk leaping out of the Base. Hearing General Ross's words, he laughed heartily.
"Joint operation, what do you say?"
"You're dreaming."
General Ross scoffed: "This is a Military case, I warn you, Nick, don't meddle. And if I recall correctly, your operational authority seems to have been frozen, hasn't it?"
With that.
General Ross couldn't even be bothered to listen to the Black Director's reply on the other end of the phone, knowing it would be nonsense anyway. He simply hung up, handed the phone back to his adjutant, sat up straight, and rubbed his temples: "Have you found his whereabouts?"
The adjutant shook his head.
"No, Officer."
"Heh heh."
General Ross seemed to show no surprise at this result. After a couple of light laughs, he shook his head and changed the subject.
"Has the Gamma Building been excavated?"
"Estimated ten more minutes."
"Let's go."
Upon hearing this, General Ross directly pushed open the car door and stepped out: "Let's go take a look."
Seeing this, the adjutant also quickly opened his car door and rushed to catch up in a few quick steps.
At this moment, all the bodies of the soldiers buried in the Gamma Building had been excavated and were laid out in rows nearby.
Their deaths...
Varied, but universally, the expressions on the faces of the largely intact bodies were frozen in shock, terror, and disbelief.
General Ross scanned these bodies and said to his adjutant beside him: "Have the Base write a report for the highest compensation. I'll approve it."
The adjutant nodded, indicating he had noted the matter.
Soon.
Ten minutes passed in a flash, and the entrance that had been buried under the rubble was re-excavated.
The Base's research personnel, who had been waiting nearby, re-entered the underground passage.
"It's gone."
"It's all gone."
"Unbelievable, did he absorb everything here?"
"Jesus Christ, but why didn't he turn into a monster like the Hulk and Abomination?"
In a short while, gasps of disbelief echoed from within.
General Ross's eyes lit up.
"Adjutant!"
"Officer."
"Find him, at all costs!"
"Understood!"
"..."
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