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How long does it take for a building to collapse?
There's no single answer.
But here, on the military base at Quantico, the old gamma lab—already structurally compromised from Bruce Banner's little accident—finally gave way. A massive explosion from underground was the final straw.
In less than five seconds, the three-story building imploded, becoming a heap of rubble and twisted steel.
A thick cloud of dust billowed outwards, slamming against the surrounding metal fence with a deafening clatter.
The Quick Reaction Force that had been about to storm the building scrambled backward. They stared at the ruins, then collectively swallowed hard.
If they had gone in just a few seconds earlier, they would have been buried along with it.
After the initial shock and relief, the soldiers all looked to their captain.
"Coyote One, what are your orders?"
"...How the hell should I know?"
The captain, after a moment of stunned silence, finally found his voice. "Pack it up. We're done here."
His men stared at him.
"Sir?"
"What part of 'we're done' did you not understand? The building's gone. What are we supposed to do, dig the intruder's body out of the rubble?"
The captain rolled his eyes. He had been expecting a firefight.
Instead... he got this. A complete and utter anticlimax.
Just then, a Jeep screeched to a halt nearby. The lieutenant colonel who had called General Ross jumped out.
"Coyote Two, stand down your men," the captain ordered his second-in-command.
"Yes, sir!"
The captain slung his rifle over his shoulder and walked over to the colonel.
The colonel didn't even wait for a salute. He was staring at the still-settling dust cloud over the ruins. "What happened?"
The captain shook his head. "To be honest, sir, we're not entirely sure. But we can confirm, there was only one intruder."
He then repeated what the scientists had told him, and how the building had collapsed just as his team was about to make entry.
Hearing that there had only been one intruder, the colonel's face went blank.
"Are you sure? Just one?"
"Yes, sir."
"Mother of—" The colonel bit back the curse, a look of sheer disbelief on his face. "One man? What kind of maniac pulls something like this?"
It wasn't that Quantico had never been attacked before.
But...
Even foreign agents came in teams. And most of them never even made it past the main gate.
Everyone knew that Quantico was a raid boss, a team effort.
And this guy—
This guy tried to solo it??
What was he thinking?
The colonel couldn't wrap his head around it.
The captain just shrugged. He glanced back at the rubble. "Maybe it was a suicide mission, sir. Maybe the building was his only target. He never planned on getting out."
The colonel considered it for a moment, then nodded.
"It's the only explanation that makes any sense."
"Shit."
"I can't believe I called the General for this. I should have waited." The colonel's face fell as he remembered his frantic call to General Ross.
If he had known it was just a suicide bomber, he never would have made the call.
Well...
At least, not in such a panic. Now he had to call back.
The colonel sighed, told his aide to have the base control room stand down the alarm, and pulled out his phone again.
The call connected instantly.
"Report!"
"General, the intruder is dead."
"Dead?" General Ross, who was still urging his driver to go faster, was taken aback. "What happened?"
"We don't have an ID on the intruder yet, sir, but he was working alone. The gamma lab has collapsed. We're currently assessing it as a suicide mi—"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
"HOLY SHIT!"
Just as the colonel was briefing General Ross, a thunderous explosion erupted from the ruins of the gamma lab.
The next second, he saw it. In the glare of the searchlights now focused on the rubble, a figure shot out from the dust and smoke.
The colonel froze.
The Quick Reaction Force Captain let out a cry of disbelief. But his training kicked in instantly.
"Contact!"
"Light him up! Light him up!"
"RATATATATATA!"
The rest of the Quick Reaction Force, who had been about to stand down, snapped back into action. They raised their rifles and unleashed a hail of automatic fire at the figure standing in the wreckage—a dark silhouette against the swirling smoke.
At the same time, the base-wide alarm, which had just been silenced, began to shriek once more.
The soldiers, who had just been dismissed, looked around in confusion.
What the hell? Didn't they just turn it off?
Just as they were starting to wonder if someone in the control room had hit the wrong button, the sound of gunfire reached them.
"Shit!"
"Move, move, move!"
"BRRRRRRT! BRRRRRRT!"
Hawk's figure flickered in and out of existence on top of the rubble.
Deep beneath the ruins, the last of the Gammanium had been absorbed into his Cosmo.
He looked up at the soldiers firing at him, and at the reinforcements now swarming the area.
And—
The low rumble of tanks rolling into position, and the rhythmic thump-thump-thump of attack helicopters lifting off the ground.
Yep.
He had officially kicked the hornet's nest.
But my work here is done. Now I just need to find a quiet place to digest this meal.
Hawk thought to himself. As the smoke around him began to clear, he raised an eyebrow, then turned, bent his knees, and with a final, explosive CRACK of shattering concrete, launched himself into the sky.
The next second, with the searchlights struggling to track him, he carved a perfect arc through the night sky and disappeared into the forest outside the base.
Right.
Phase one, the lightning raid, was complete. Time for phase two.
Run like hell!
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