Bursts through wall

"He's there already," the analyst said. "He's
slowing down. Estimated arrival time is thirty
seconds."

Lois glanced at the men around her. Thirty
seconds wasn't a lot of time to assess the situation,
break in and stop the collider. The tension in the room
was palpable, and it was rising.

The screen switched back to the satellite picture of
CERN, where the debris of what appeared to be an
explosion was rising up from the side of one of the
main buildings.

***

The explosion of the wall behind them caught
them all by surprise, the terrorists as much as any of
them.

For the space of a single instant they all froze, and
that instant was enough to make all the difference.
Lars couldn't see much of what was happening, as his
view was blocked by the lap of the woman who was
holding him.

If he wasn't in so much pain, he'd have laughed.
Piers was an ass. Sometimes he wasn't sure why they
were friends. The man was jealous and judgmental. He
was a small man with a Napoleon complex, and
somehow he always seemed to fail with the women.

Lars didn't actually believe that the Large Hadron
Collider was causing the rifts any more than Piers did,
but he hadn't been willing to take the risk. Piers had,
gambling the world on the idea that he was right.
The blue and red clad figure standing amid the
rubble suggested strongly that Piers had made the
wrong choice.

Lars groaned slightly as he tried to sit up.
The terrorists were on the ground, groaning and
holding what looked like broken hands. The guns were
nowhere in sight.

It did explain one of the questions Lars had always
had about the American superhero: With all his powers
and skills, why didn't he use the door?

It was clear to Lars now. That moment of horrified
disbelief as the wall shattered bought him time, time to
grab guns and stop bullets and do so with minimal
harm to others.

Pg. 137