Summary: While the Avengers struggle to hold the line against the Chitauri, Garou's containment cell registers motion. His heart rate rises—not from fear, but from readiness. When the facility suffers a power fluctuation, Garou doesn't escape—he simply walks out. What follows isn't a breakout. It's a calculated entrance.
Avengers Tower trembled as another Leviathan swept low across the skyline. Steel groaned. Glass split. Lights flickered across sublevels like a heartbeat struggling to hold rhythm.
In Sub-Basement 03, Garou stood still in his chamber.
The reinforced walls—eight inches of titanium composite and vibranium mesh—weren't built for him. They were built for something unpredictable. Explosive. Wild.
He was none of those things.
He simply waited.
Above, emergency klaxons shrieked and died as the secondary generator kicked in. S.H.I.E.L.D. security rerouted to street-level defense. Most didn't even realize that Sub-Basement 03 had been left unguarded.
His breath fogged the inside of the glass partition once.
Then again.
Then stopped.
The camera feed trembled. Just for a frame.
In the observation room adjacent, the monitor went black. The system rebooted automatically, ran a diagnostics loop, and pinged the chamber status.
SUBJECT: CONSCIOUS
VITALS: ELEVATED
MOTION: MINIMAL
STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY: INTACT
False.
Because as the screen refreshed, the chamber door stood open.
No alarms had gone off. No blast detected. No breach in the system.
Just… open.
The hallway beyond was lit by red emergency strips.
Garou stepped out.
No fanfare. No flourish. No broken glass or shredded bulkheads.
He simply walked.
The tower trembled again. This time not from impact—but from something deeper.
A change in gravity.
A shift in pressure.
As if the building itself recognized that something unnatural had reentered the world above.