A/N: Do not read this if you haven't seen the post credits sceneof "Ant-Man and the Wasp" or if you haven't seen "Infinity War."
Quantum Entanglement
Floating in the quantum realm with the healing quantum energy he'd collected for Ghost, Scott Lang called for his friends to bring him back through the quantum tunnel. But their voices cut off in mid-word.
He couldn't know that Hank, Janet and Hope had turned to ash blowing in the brisk San Francisco breeze, but Scott gradually realized something terrible had happened.
First he scolded them for fooling around, then he joked, then he begged and demanded they bring him back long after he'd realized they couldn't hear him. He flailed in momentary panic, then forced himself calm, forced himself still.
"All right, Scott. Think," he ordered himself. "You were her before. You didn't need a quantum tunnel to get out. You did it all on your own. You can get back and find out what happened to your friends."
But deep in his sinking heart, he knew it wouldn't be the same as last time. Last time he had entered the quantum realm from his daughter's room. He had still been connected to her, entangled with Cassie out of fear for her safety. When he returned, he had somehow followed her voice, followed that connection, back to the "real world."
The suit could take him back, but this time they had been counting on the quantum tunnel to bring him back. He wasn't connected with Cassie. He was not still quantum entangled with Janet, who didn't seem to be on the other side of the tunnel any more.
Scott could grow to proper size in the suit, but he needed to know where he was growing.
Scott took a deep breath. "Gotta try. Everyone's counting on you. Gotta find a connection."
He tried Cassie first, but he couldn't sense her presence, couldn't hear her voice. She wouldn't be calling him. She didn't know he was lost.
He tried Hope, Janet, Hank, but nothing happened. In desperation, he even focused on Luis, struggling to make a mental connection. Nothing.
"Anyone," Scott thought frantically. "Anyone I know. Come on, quantum entanglement! Anyone?"
And then he felt something, a faint tug, a pull that made him move. Someone was within reach. Someone he knew, though he couldn't tell who. Scott picked up speed, as if he was being towed behind a speedboat. Quantum space rushed past with sickening speed. Was he growing or sampling traveling? He couldn't tell.
The quantum realm was weird.
Scott closed his eyes, which calmed his nausea. He couldn't sense the motion without the visual clues. But when he opened his eyes again, he was rushing along, everything blurring around him, until he had to close his eyes again.
"Hey, Tic-Tac."
Scott's eyes flew open. The motion had stopped. Now he seemed to be lying on his back on a solid surface looking up at a familiar but unexpected face.
"Wilson?"
Sam Wilson offered a hand to help Scott sit up. Sam crouched beside him as Scott cautiously removed his helmet, keeping a tight grip on it and his container of healing energy.
Scott looked around, seeing quite a crowd. A lot of strangers, but a few familiar faces, Wilson, Barnes, Miss Maximoff from Team Cap plus the King Cat guy and the spider kid from the other side of the battle at the airport.
"Where are we?" Scott asked. "Better yet, why are we here?"
"We lost," Wanda said glumly. "Thanos collected all the Infinity Stones, snapped his fingers and turned half the population of the galaxy into dust. Including us."
Scott didn't understand half of what she'd said, but he knew he hadn't been turned to dust.
Sam patted his shoulder. "I had my bell rung during the battle. I didn't know what happened either."
"No," Scott insisted firmly. "Maybe… Oh, god, maybe that's what happened to Hope and her parents. Maybe that's why they didn't pull me out, but I wasn't in this universe. I was in the quantum realm when they suddenly stopped talking over the comms. I came her on my own directly out of the quantum realm, or maybe we're not out of the quantum realm at all."
"Someone get Strange," Sam ordered.
"Is that like 'get funky'?" Scott asked, really puzzled.
"Ah, Mr. Lang," drawled a voice in his ear. Scott looked around to see a man floating cross-legged six inches above the ground. Scott crab-walked backwards until he ran into Sam who put calming hands on Scott's shoulders.
"We've been waiting for you," Dr. Strange continued. "Now that everyone's here, we can begin."
A/N: Yes, this connects with my "Infinity War" tag "Elsewhere." No I don't have any plans to continue this story. That will be up to the still untitled Avengers 4. I was just wondering if Scott being in the quantum realm would turn out to be a plot point in Avengers 4. And I love Strange being cryptic.
I'm still working on Bought the T-Shirt, but RL is stressful right now and I'm trying to write a tour of New York City when I've never really been there. So it's slow going.