General Thaddeus Ross arrived at the Quantico Military Base just as the intrusion alarm was deactivated.
Hmm.
This time it was truly deactivated.
But the matter was far from over. On the contrary, the base's command center was brightly lit at the moment.
This was a huge embarrassment.
Not only did someone effortlessly infiltrate their base, but they also destroyed one of their buildings and then managed to escape unscathed.
The most crucial point.
They have now lost track of the intruder.
"What do you mean you lost them?"
"Lost them in the dense forest twenty kilometers south of the base."
"What about our helicopters?"
"At night, in the dense forest, our helicopters can't lower their altitude."
"Shit!"
The lieutenant colonel slammed the table in frustration: "Dispatch all our personnel, helicopters too, we must find this damned guy."
The aide quickly responded and ran out.
As the lieutenant colonel was standing with hands on his hips, watching the first-person views of helicopters and search teams on the big screen, a low voice came from behind.
The lieutenant colonel shivered and instinctively turned around, seeing General Ross with a face as dark as ink.
"Gen-General..."
"The intruder was only one person, and you lost him, impressive."
General Ross said with a sardonic smile.
The lieutenant colonel opened his mouth but said nothing. Instead, he gestured for a soldier at the computer to pull up footage of the intruder's escape.
General Ross turned his gaze to the big screen.
What met his eyes.
The intruder stood amidst the smoke, completely obscured in the glare of the searchlights. Then, in one jump, he disappeared into the forest and vanished rapidly.
General Ross was stunned by the scene.
The next second.
He looked at the lieutenant colonel: "Did you just say only the Gamma Building was infiltrated?"
The lieutenant colonel nodded quickly.
"Yes, General, shortly after the intruder entered, the Gamma Building collapsed. We originally thought he was a bomber, but just when I was updating you, he suddenly emerged from the debris."
"..."
General Ross said nothing, listening silently to the lieutenant colonel's report while having the escaping footage of Hawk replayed on the monitor.
Single person, clear objective, Gamma Building, inhuman evasive abilities, astonishing jumping power.
General Ross's eyes flickered.
"Did any other cameras capture the intruder?"
"The tech team is reviewing the surveillance."
"Have we located the intruder?"
"...No."
The lieutenant colonel instinctively looked at the aide who just returned. After seeing the aide shake his head, he paused and reluctantly reported to General Ross: "He disappeared in the dense forest twenty kilometers south of our base. We're still searching."
Upon hearing this, General Ross nodded.
The next second.
He said nothing, just walked outside: "Send people, excavate the Gamma Building as fast as possible."
The lieutenant colonel trembled all over, hurriedly straightening up: "Yes, sir!"
But, despite saying so, by the time heavy machinery arrived and cleared the debris, uncovering the bodies buried beneath, it was already dawn.
The helicopters flying all night also returned to the base.
However, the pilots rested while the helicopters did not. After switching to new pilots and refueling, the helicopters took off again from the base, spreading out in all directions, trying to locate the audacious intruder who practically crapped on their Quantico Marine Corps.
The base soldiers did the same.
The returning soldiers from last night rested, replaced by another batch who were sent into the surrounding dense forests of the base.
It seemed they planned a large-scale search over the next three days.
However...
General Ross did not rest either. He sat in a car near the Gamma Building ruins, leaning back and closing his eyes slightly.
At this moment.
The adjutant in the driver's seat received a call, nodded a few times, then turned to General Ross who was resting in the back seat.
"General, it's the S.H.I.E.L.D. Director on the line."
"...Alright."
General Ross slowly opened his eyes, reached for the phone handed over by his adjutant, and placed it to his ear.
"This is Ross!"
"General Ross, I heard it was quite lively at Quantico last night."
"..."
The somewhat gloating voice on the other end made General Ross' head throb: "Get to the point, Nick!"
At the S.H.I.E.L.D. Three Feathers Headquarters, dressed in a black trench coat and wearing an eyepatch, Nick sat at his desk, watching the computer screen showing Hawk leaping out of the base, and laughed at General Ross's words.
"How about a joint operation?"
"Dream on."
General Ross chuckled: "This is a military affair, and I warn you, Nick, don't interfere. Also, if I'm not mistaken, your operational authority is still frozen."
With that.
General Ross didn't bother listening to the bald curmudgeon's response, knowing it would be useless chatter anyway. So he simply hung up, handed the phone back to his adjutant, straightened up, and rubbed his brow: "Any sign of him yet?"
The adjutant shook his head.
"No, sir."
"Heh."
General Ross didn't seem surprised by the response, chuckling twice before changing the subject.
"Has the Gamma Building been excavated?"
"About ten more minutes."
"Let's go."
Upon hearing this, General Ross immediately pushed open the car door and stepped out: "Let's take a look."
The adjutant quickly got out as well, nearly breaking into a run to catch up.
At this moment, the bodies of the soldiers buried in the Gamma Building had been entirely dug out, laid out in a neat row not far away.
The way they died...
Varied, but without exception, those with mostly intact faces had expressions frozen in shock, terror, and disbelief.
General Ross scanned the bodies and said to his adjutant: "Have the base file a report, authorize the highest compensation, I'll approve it."
The adjutant nodded, noting the matter.
Soon.
The ten minutes passed quickly, and the entrance that had been buried under the rubble was reopened.
The base experiment team, on standby nearby, immediately re-entered the underground tunnel.
"Gone."
"All gone."
"Incredible, did he absorb everything here?"
"Jesus Christ, why didn't he turn into a monster like Hulk or Abomination?"
Not long after, incredulous exclamations emanated from within.
General Ross's eyes brightened.
"Adjutant!"
"Sir."
"Find him, at all costs!"
"Understood!"
"..."