#489 - Thunder Force

The warning from Ben echoed harshly in the deserted street, clear to everyone present.

Although Reed spent most of his time in the lab, Ben always pushed him to exercise. Plus, scientific experiments required a good physique, so he wasn't as weak as the average bookworm.

Almost as soon as Ben finished speaking, Reed reacted. He immediately pulled the slow-to-react Susan towards him, and they both ducked down in the front of the car.

Seeing Reed and Susan hidden, Ben couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. At the same time, he couldn't help but wonder, why did gunshots suddenly ring out? And with a silencer, no less?

'Not good!' Ben's expression changed. The situation was too urgent just now, and he had forgotten about Robert, who had just joined them.

Remembering Robert, Ben carefully picked up the rearview mirror shard from the ground. After adjusting it to the right angle, Ben saw Robert lying in a pool of blood.

Looking at the blood-red hole in Robert's back, Ben used the direction Robert fell and the location of the gunshot wound to deduce where the bullet came from. Finally, with the help of the rearview mirror shard, he roughly pinpointed a target.

It was an apartment building painted red. Ben saw a dark gun barrel through one of the windows on the sixth floor. After killing Robert, the shooter didn't fire again, and Ben didn't know what they were thinking.

Although he didn't know why, if they wanted to kill everyone, they should have fired again after killing Robert. There was no need to wait until the rest of them hid behind cover.

Obviously, the shooter wasn't some crazy murderer, but someone with a clear target, and that target was likely Robert, or someone who looked very similar to Robert.

But that didn't mean they wouldn't kill him and Reed. So, Ben didn't dare to act rashly, even though he knew they should leave the scene immediately, because something they shouldn't know about was likely to happen next.

He had seen similar things many times in the military.

…

"Target down."

Just as Ben had discovered, there was indeed a fully armed and well-equipped man standing in front of the apartment window. After taking down Robert, the man didn't leave the sniper rifle, but continued to observe the target's reaction through the scope.

"Oh?"

The man let out a questioning murmur, piquing the curiosity of his companions.

"What's wrong, John?" A slightly aged voice came from the earpiece. "Has the target changed?"

"No, Captain," John said with a hint of surprise after confirming again with the sniper scope.

"I've been discovered, Captain. Someone among the four people with Target 1 has discovered me."

"That's not surprising," the aged voice said again. "It's the strong man carrying the injured person, Anthony already reported it to me. The strong man's every move has the air of a soldier. Apparently, he is a retired veteran."

"But no one can call you old, Captain," John said jokingly, met only by an amused hum from the aged voice.

GW Bridge stood on a tall building, observing Robert lying lifeless on the ground with a telescope. This place had a wide field of vision and was opposite the red apartment building where John was located, perfectly sandwiching Reed's group in between.

"Since he discovered you, it means he has some skills. Anthony?"

"Found it, Captain," Anthony's calm voice sounded in the earpiece. "The strong man's name is Ben Grimm, a former Marine, an excellent pilot, and was selected as a NASA astronaut a year ago. He has just passed various professional training."

"Quite the elite," Bridge said, emphasizing the word 'elite,' eliciting chuckles from others in the communication channel.

Indeed, Ben was not only a Marine, but had even been selected as an astronaut. In the eyes of ordinary people, he was indeed a remarkable elite, but compared to the members of the Thunderbolts, he paled in comparison.

Although seriousness should be maintained during missions, appropriate jokes could adjust the mentality of subordinates. The old Bridge's experience was not only reflected in his hand-to-hand skills, but also in his handling of his subordinates.

"Flash, report the status of Target 1." After the jokes, Bridge returned to the main topic. Thompson, who had laughed the loudest just now, became his target for a reprimand.

"Yes, Captain." Although Thompson was the youngest, he didn't hold back at this time, reporting truthfully what he saw on the instrument.

"Target 1's body temperature has not decreased, but has increased, rising to 40°C, but there is still a considerable distance from mutation."

'That's strange?' Bridge wondered. He had felt strange ever since Robert fell. According to the information given by those nerds, these monsters would immediately transform into giants when they received life-threatening danger.

This was like a person's body temperature gradually rising after catching a cold, a kind of body protection mechanism, but Target 1 had no changes at all. If it weren't for Flash's report, Bridge would have thought they had killed the wrong person.

"Everyone stand by for three minutes," Bridge ordered after a brief moment of thought. "Observe the status of Target 1. If there are no changes in three minutes, we'll pack up and go home."

"Roger!" ×4.

The three minutes passed quickly for Bridge and the others, but it was an ordeal for Reed and the others who faced unknown life-threatening dangers.

Reed looked at Susan lying on top of him. Even with such a fragrant beauty in his arms, he didn't have a single lascivious thought. Reed was definitely not the kind of person who could have his mind full of dirty thoughts while being pointed at with a gun.

"What do we do now?" Susan asked, leaning on Reed's chest.

"To be honest, I don't know," Reed said helplessly. They couldn't move at all now. No matter how smart Reed was, there was nothing he could do. He had to find a way to know the sniper's position first.

He could only place his hopes on Ben, Reed sighed helplessly.

Ben was also helpless at this time. He couldn't even leave the cover. Reality wasn't a movie. He couldn't have the special physique of a movie protagonist that bullets couldn't hit. That was a sniper rifle, impossible to dodge.

"Ben, do you smell something burning?" Johnny, who hadn't spoken for a long time, suddenly spoke, constantly sniffing his nose.

After Johnny said that, Ben also noticed an unusual burning smell. Just as he was searching for the source of the smell, a beast-like roar suddenly came from behind him.

"Roar!"

"Target 1's body temperature is rising sharply, the target is mutating!"

Faced with Thompson's urgent report, Bridge, still holding his telescope, replied calmly.

"I see it, I'm not blind yet."