 The Ant-Man March
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May. 21st, 2009 @ 11:29 am 
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There was no doubt that Henry Pym was a brilliant young man, gifted in great intelligence and ingenuity. Along with his industriousness, or more accurately, his obsession with work (“busy as an ant” his parents would say), he could achieve great things. The highest hopes of his mentors were dashed when Pym focused not on a cure for cancer, diabetes, or (as some hoped) making the next new weapon to give them an edge in the cold war, but on ludicrous theories regarding growing and shrinking molecules with each new theory more ridiculous, more insane, than the last. At least so it seemed to the world.
But there was one woman who understood him, Maria Trovaya. She was intelligent and beautiful, graceful and collected in a way Hank had never been. Maria’s father had been less than thrilled when the young eccentric courted, and worse yet, won his daughter’s hand. Although by the time of the wedding he’d warmed up to young Pym, somehow, certainly not through any of Hank’s social graces but perhaps out of pity for his lack of them. Or out of recognition that his daughter deeply loved the man and he loved her just as much.
Neither Henry nor Maria’s father were happy when Maria suggested a trip to her native country for a honeymoon. Her father and she had moved to America for a reason but she was persistent and Hank was in love. It was only a matter of time before he acquiesced.
If only he hadn’t yielded to her wishes. It wasn’t long before they were surrounded at gunpoint. Maria was forced into a car and when Hank tried to fight back, to save his wife, he was rewarded with a blow to the back of his head. He awoke in a hospital. As soon as he could he reached the American Embassy and after days of endless worry, of clinging desperately to any shred of hope, the ambassador himself came to Henry Pym. His quiet, closed expression filled him with dread but even then Henry could not believe his words. When he saw her body he still did not believe. She had been beaten so badly he did not recognize her. They had to use her dental records to ID the body.
For his own safety, Henry was sent back to America. Not a few days later Maria’s father died under suspicious circumstances. Eventually the death was ruled a suicide but Henry did not believe the coroner’s report.
Henry buried himself in work more deeply than before. No one was willing to fund his research so he used what money he inherited from his late wife. But it was not enough.
Struggling to cover the costs of operating his own lab housed in his tiny apartment, Pym turned to quick inventions in the hopes of earning quick money. But it seemed no one was interested in communicating with ants, even if it meant getting them out of the house without resorting to a pesticide and other noxious gases in their home. And no one was interested in ant bite proof gloves when normal ones would work just fine. He finally managed to sell a tiny marble catapult (in truth, really a miniature cannon) as a child’s toy— that is until one of the marbles hit a child in the eye.
Eventually he learned that while others didn’t want to buy an ant-helmet, he could use it to his advantage. He marketed his ant-specific exterminating services and it brought in enough money to pay the rent— usually. The job had other benefits. Curious about such complex creatures, Pym would rescue the ant colonies he drove out of homes and buildings and take them home to study them in his “spare time.”
But now the rent was due again and again his job hadn’t brought in enough money to pay it. If only he hadn’t bought so many chemicals but he knew he was close to a breakthrough and he couldn’t bring himself to wait, not after working for so long.
And now, finally, the time had come to test his discovery. But had he succeeded? Would the pym particles work?
With shaking hands, he did something entirely unprofessional and utterly mad. He tested the solution on himself.
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| From: | ![[info]](https://www.scribbld.com/img/userinfo.gif) big_pympin |
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| Date: |
May 24th, 2009 12:12 am (UTC) |
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The Man in the Ant Hill
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The change was immediate. Henry Pym was shrinking rapidly, too rapidly. In his excitement he'd forgotten to have the foresight of ensuring that once he had shrunk he would have a way of getting back to the growing solution.
He cried out as he saw the bottle receding from sight. The room got much, much bigger. When finally he stopped shrinking he couldn't estimate how small he really was- he had never before seen the world from this point of view.
"There's no way back now! I'm trapped like this forever. No one could possibly hear me." There had to be a way to get to the window ledge and the enlarging serum.
Perhaps if he could find some object to he could use as a marker to indicate his size...
It was at that moment that an ant came barreling toward him. An ant that happened to be as tall as he was.
Well, at least now he knew how tall he was.
Upon seeing an ant large and powerful enough to rip a grown man in two, Hank did what most humans would. He ran for his life.
"I never should have brought those ants home!" He lamented.
Hank reached the door to outside and squeezed between the cracks. He ran to the edge of the step and waited to see if the ant would follow.
Unfortunately for him the ant hadn't lost interest and appeared once again.
He had no choice. Hank jumped off the step onto the ground and straight into an ant hill.
Life hated him, it was the only explanation.
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| From: | big_pympin |
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| Date: |
May 24th, 2009 12:37 am (UTC) |
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Re: The Man in the Ant Hill
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Hank grunted when he hit the corner of the tunnel. The dirt was soft enough to cushion the fall-- at least well enough that he didn't break anything.
He stood and found himself face to face with an ant. And another ant. And another. Hordes of ants, all intent on protecting their nest. There was no way he could escape.
One of the ants lunged toward him. He ducked below the mandibles but the creature was too fast. It lunged again. Hank waited until the mandibles were closing in around him before running forward and striking the ant's head. He couldn't hope to match the ant's strength, but it was enough to stun the ant. Still, it was hopeless. If only he could...
"Aha!" He spotted a matchstick not far from him. There was a small stone within reach.
Hank seized the pebble and threw it at the match. The match burst into a small flame but it was large enough to distract the ants. He had to act quickly.
Using a piece of string some unwitting ant had dragged back to the nest, Hank created a lasso and hooked it onto a nook further up near the entrance. He pulled himself up as fast as his limbs would allow. He was almost out of the nest when the head of an ant peered down at him, hovering over the entrance.
Hank screamed and the ant skittered back briefly then seized the tiny human with his mandibles.
But instead of snapping him into shreds, the ant carried Hank out of the nest and released him.
Hank scrambled back. "You don't want to hurt me, do you?" He was aware of how stupid talking to an ant was but somehow it calmed him. "Why? When all the other ants are trying to- AAH!"
The match hadn't held off the attacking ants for long enough, and now there were more of them congregating around him.
"I hope you're friendly!" He yelled and jumped on top of the ant that had pulled him out of that accursed nest.
The ant flailed for a moment and Hank tried nudging it in the direction of the ledge.
"This is never going to work. I'll be-"
But then the ant responded and took off. They reached the wall and the attackers seemed to back off once the ant started climbing.
He clung to his savior until they reached the ledge.
"Oh thank you! Thank you!"
Hank jumped off and into the serum. And then he was growing until finally he stopped. He looked around and laughed. "I did it! I'm normal again!" He kept laughing, even as he grabbed the remaining solutions of pym particles and locked them away in a safe. Without proper maintenance they would degrade and be safe to dispose of down the drain.
"Too dangerous, far too dangerous."
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| From: | big_pympin |
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| Date: |
May 24th, 2009 12:52 am (UTC) |
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Re: The Man in the Ant Hill
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The next day there was a knock on Henry Pym's door. He knew who it was and he knew there was no way around this.
"Dr. Pym, I know you're in there!"
Hank unlocked the door and opened it. "Hello Mr. Gomez."
"This is the last time I'm asking."
"I'm very sorry, Mr. Gomez but I don't-"
"Of course you don't have it. You never have it. You have to pay the rent like everyone else, doctor or no, and if you don't I'm throwing you out."
"Yes well, I'm sorry but-"
"But your latest shrinker ray or whatever it was failed and you don't have any money for me."
"Well... I was goingyes. I don't have anything. It didn't work. But-"
Mr. Gomez's face turned red.
"But I'm scrapping the whole idea. I promise Mr. Gomez, from now on I'll stick to more practical inventions."
"Inventions that pay."
"Yes."
Mr. Gomez frowned. "Fine. One more week and if you don't have my money then I'm throwing you out. And no more stories about crazy things like shrinking objects and talking to ants. You work on things that can be done."
Hank Pym couldn't help but smile. "Yes sir, of course."
Henry closed the door and started for his desk again but he stopped suddenly. There was one ant walking along on the floor right across his path. It kept pausing and looking around like it was lost.
Pym bent down and placed his hand in front of it, letting it walk up onto him.
"Hold on little guy, I'll get you back outside where you belong."
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| From: | big_pympin |
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| Date: |
May 25th, 2009 04:54 am (UTC) |
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The Return of the Ant-Man
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Since discovering (and nearly getting killed from) pym particles, Hank's life was looking up. He had taken a job at a university, some teaching but mostly researching and had managed to publish his first paper in years.
Hank Pym didn't know how he'd caught the government's attention. Perhaps it was his crazy ideas yet credible background. He was ordered to research a promising lead on radiation treatment. It was hardly his specialty but you didn't just tell those sorts of people "No thanks." At least not after they insisted emphatically that you didn't have much of a choice in the matter.
What Hank hadn't know was that accepting the job would lead to him and his assistants being held at gunpoint by men with guns. He didn't want to know how they got past the guards at this facility.
Hank raised his hands in the air. "Can I help you, gentleman?"
"Very cute. Dr. Pym, I presume?"
"Yes."
"You will give us your anti-radiation formula."
Oh joy. Hank had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. "I don't have it."
"Do not play games with us, Dr. Pym! We know-"
"You've been misinformed. Research is a very tricky science. What little progress we made was ruined when we discovered that the second trial had not-"
"The formula now, Pym! Or we shall kill your assistants."
It was time to get creative. "Very well. I will show you how to make the formula but the ingredients are stored in my safe."
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| From: | big_pympin |
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May 28th, 2009 09:49 pm (UTC) |
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Re: The Return of the Ant-Man
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The majority of the gunman had to remain in the one room to deal with the assistants. One gunman followed behind Hank on the way to his office and to the safe. Hank entered the combination code and the safe clicked open.
Hank removed the formula.
“Is that it? Give it to me.” The gunman leaned forward, his gun lowered slightly and that was when Hank struck the man’s hand. The shock caused him to lose his grip on the gun and it clattered to the floor.
“Hey-” Another blow to the man’s neck and he lost consciousness before he could say more.
“I had a feeling learning Judo would come in handy.”
He didn’t have long so he worked fast. He grabbed the helmet he had developed for ant communication and put it on. He knew there were more than a few ant hills nearby and it was time to put them to work.
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| From: | big_pympin |
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| Date: |
May 28th, 2009 09:50 pm (UTC) |
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Re: The Return of the Ant-Man
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In the other room the gunmen stood guard, their guns at the ready.
“He should be back by now.”
“What should we do?”
“One of us should go after him. Two of us can handle these frail scientists.”
“No, we shouldn’t split up!”
While the guards bickered Ant-Man set to work. Though he was no smaller than an ant he retained his human strength and the ropes binding his fellow researches were soon untied, with a little help from his ant friends too.
Then for a diversion he sent a swarm of ants over to the men, both from the ground and from the air as the breeder ants took flight. In panic the assailants made the mistake of dropping their weapons and soon the “frail” scientists over powered them.
Hank quickly slipped away and back to his office. He had just finished donning his lab coat when his coworkers opened the door, guns at the ready.
“Hank! Thank God you’re all right.”
“It took me minutes to deal with our friend here.” Hank nudged the unconscious assailant with his foot. “I was about to come rescue you!”
“We had some help from some very unusual friends.” His assistants told him the story Hank all ready knew of how they had turned the tables on their kidnappers.
“Hah, without their weapons they were a pushover.”
Hank rubbed his chin. “Ants, huh? You don’t say. We’re fortunate it turned out all right. It could have been big trouble, not only for us but for the world.”
The police arrived and no one asked very many questions about why the ants had swarmed the intruders. After answering all of the questions Hank returned to his lab and put the pym particle solutions back into his vault. He couldn’t help but wonder just when he would need his discovery once more.
"Daddy," Janet Van Dyne sighs. "Do we have to look at your investments now?" She adjusts her sunglasses as they pull in to the driveway of Dr. Pym's lab. "It's Fashion Week for this fall's fashions! I don't want to be too late."
Vernon Van Dyne shakes his head as he puts the car in park and gets out of the car. His daughter was smart, but he could never understand why she never grasped the importance of his scientific funding. "Janet, darling, this won't take long. I just want to see how Dr. Pym's research is coming. I give him a great deal in grants, and I..."
"...want to verify that his work is as exciting as his grant proposals claim," Janet completes her father's sentence with a sigh. "It's just so boring, Daddy." She gets out of the car and looks up at the lab through her perfectly placed sunglasses. "These stuffy old geeky-looking scientists, sometimes having forgotten to bathe for a week, and you discuss all kinds of scientific jargon with them, and what am I left to do? Sit and listen. You promised me you'd come with me to Fashion Week!" She goes to his side and playfully flips his tie. "I'd like to find something that you'll wear that's a little more stylish than... well... this."
Vernon chuckles at his daughter. "I won't be long. I promise."
Janet rolls her eyes. "That's what you said last time..." But she dutifully follows as Vernon comes to the door of Pym's lab and knocks.
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| From: | big_pympin |
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| Date: |
July 10th, 2009 07:24 pm (UTC) |
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Re: Weeks later
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Henry Pym cursed and hastily put away the beakers and solutions from the project he was working on. It was fortunate he wasn't working with very delicate, very explosive chemicals today. He really should have brought an alarm to remind him of the time, it was too easy to lose oneself in the experiment.
Pym removed his latex gloves and opened the door. "Mr. Van Dyne," He said, forcing a smile onto his face. "Welcome. I am Dr. Henry Pym."
He did his best not to look at the beautiful young woman beside Vernon Van Dyne. It was likely she was either a relative or a very young love interest and in either case he didn't want to upset the source of his funding."
"Dr. Pym," Vernon greets. He gestures to his daughter. "This is my daughter, Janet."
"Charmed," Janet smiles at him. Huh. This nerd-boy is actually cute! Boring, obviously, but cute.
"I trust I'm not interrupting anything important," Vernon says, stepping inside. "I don't wish to take too much of your time..."
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| From: | big_pympin |
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| Date: |
July 11th, 2009 02:30 am (UTC) |
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Re: Weeks later
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"Not at all." Pym said, lying through his teeth. "Is there anything in particular you would like to see or should I walk you through the whole lab?"
Jan was uncharacteristically quiet all the way to Fashion Week, and even during the show itself. She barely selected any things out for her father to wear, and she seemed deep in thought. Vernon, for his part, merely suspected his young daughter was smitten.
It was a week later, however, that things went awry.
Hank Pym was not the only scientist that Vernon Van Dyne funded. Dr. Jerold Morgan was a genius biologist and chemist, but more than that... he had managed to recover something from a recent crime scene.
Jerry Morgan had a canister of odd particles left behind by Ant-Man.
His experiments revealed that the particles exhibited unusual behaviors, and Dr. Morgan believed that their properties broke several laws of quantum physics. Morgan hypothesized that the particles could act as a portal to a parallel universe, allowing size alteration by shunting matter into another universe. And he wanted to prove it.
Unfortunately, Jerry had debts, in part due to his step-brother Sam's racketeering business. As such, he knew he had to act quickly with his findings.
Vernon Van Dyne, however, can sense panic. Knowing that Dr. Morgan was behaving without necessary caution, he knew he needed to cut funding. But such an announcement had to be done in person.
"You can't!" Morgan argues. "No, not when I'm so close to a breakthrough!"
"I'm sorry, Dr. Morgan," Vernon tells him. "I'm afraid that I'm just not comfortable continuing this funding."
"No! Look!" He grabs the tiny canister. "This is the key! Look!"
"I'm sorry," Vernon says, shaking his head and turning to go.
"Wait!" Morgan spits. "Wait!" Before Vernon can leave, Jerry Morgan pulls a syringe and stabs it into the canister. "Watch what it can do!"
He jabs the syringe into his arm and pushes the plunger in... and immediately let out a pained scream.
Vernon watches in horror as Morgan's skin begins to sag, as Morgan screams, as his bones only began to shrink. Vernon pulls his phone out and calls for immediate medical help.
Ultimately, however, Jerry Morgan was correct. The particles were a key to another plane. Unfortunately, the manner in which Dr. Morgan had studied the particles caused alteration to the particles... specifically in that his particles still provided a link to that other plane, but in his particles, the door swung both ways.
While Morgan screams in agony, a mist began to pour of of his nose and mouth. The mist begins to coalesce, until it gains a face and limbs...
The yellow misting creature moves behind Vernon, even while the philanthropist attempts to assist Dr. Morgan. The misting form grabs Vernon and wraps its tendrils around him... and Vernon Van Dyne screams in agony as the misting form begins to digest his body.
Jan, waiting in the car, heard the sound of screaming, and rushed in to the lab. The horror in the lab assaulted her senses: her father, his body melting into a gaseous form; a scientist lying on the floor, his skin sagging around his shrunken skeleton; and a yellow misting form growing in size even as Jan's father dissolves.
Jan screams.
The gaseous form looks up at Jan, and she can see its eyes... eyes that betray a cruel intelligence. It drops the few remains of her father and it moves towards her.
That's when two police officers, responding to Vernon's 911 call and spurred on by Jan's scream, burst into the lab. They open fire on the alien being. More startled than in pain, the being turns to flee.
Jan rushes to the remains of her father, ignoring the swearing officers behind her. But it is too late. Vernon Van Dyne is dead.
As she weeps, holding the remains of her father, she glances over and spots the small canister that started Morgan's experiments... a canister she recognizes as being from Ant-Man's costume.
Twenty minutes later, Jan has lost the police officers who wanted to question her. Her father's killer is on the loose, killing and growing. She needs to put a stop to it.
She stands in front of the lab door of Dr. Henry Pym, and pounds relentless on the door.
Why did he have to be interrupted when he was in the middle of important, delicate experiments?
Ah wait, all his experiments were delicate and important.
Once again Hank stored his project away as quickly as safety allowed. He was about to yell at whoever was banging on the door but when he opened it he saw a distraught, somehow familiar, young woman.
"What's wrong? Can I help you?"
He tried to remember where he'd seen her before. Of course! It was Van Dyne's daughter!
"You can and will," she tells him imperiously. Anger made such a good cover for grief. "You're going to give me Ant-Man's powers."
How did she know that?!
Hank cleared his throat. "What," He paused and blinked. "What makes you think I can do that?"
The being had fed since killing Vernon Van Dyne. Fed... and grown. It now was several stories tall, and it moved through the city, looking for more prey.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had mobilized. They had evacuated the people they could, and now they had the street barricaded. The being would have to go through them before it got to any more civilians.
Sharon was with the squad that had been mobilized to deal with the threat.
"Keep it from getting to the civies!" she yelled into the comms. "We don't need any casualties!"
Flying overhead, too small to notice, Janet Van Dyne flies, like a small wasp.
"My god..." she mutters to Ant-Man. "...it's grown so much..."
"Stay back. Don't go closer unless it threatens anyone. I need time to study it."
Fascinating creature, clearly alien.
Ant-Man and Wasp returned, and this time with a solution. He hoped.
One shot gun loaded with a base.
"Jan, if this doesn't work... well, pray it does."
"What exactly is this thing supposed to do?" she asks.
Hank nearly went into a long, detailed explanation of acid and bases but they did not have time for that.
"Uf all goes well, dissolve him." He paused. "Would you care to do the honors?" After all, it was her father who was killed.
"I'm probably the better shot," she nods, taking the gun. She takes aim...
and fires.
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