He was a thirteen-year-old boy.
A thirteen-year old boy captivated with his family's achievements, his starry eyes steering towards the Quantum Tunnel. And when it flickered, the eyes of the boy were fixated, taken back by his grandfather's conscious word's.
"A reality where all concepts of time and space become irrelevant as you shrink for all eternity." – These were the words from a grandfather, plagued by the horrors of loss and tragedy. His voice shaken with grief and pain, as he lost his charismatic charm for his work. Years have passed, and endless possibilities became simply mere whispers in the lab. Yet it was the voice of his concerned mother that snapped this thirteen-year-old boy's consciousness back to the Sans Francisco rooftop.
"The collection unit activates when you decouple it. It should automatically start absorbing quantum healing particles."
Stood next to Scott, the mother of the boy, Hope Van Dyne, clenched the device in her fingers. Her hair was up in a classic pony-tail fashion, finished with her casual hoodie and jacket. Her face remaining stern. She kept hurdling around the van and resumed her thorough and intense checks. Her eyes often drawn towards the boy in the chair opposite the van. He was calm, holding a vintage-looking stopwatch that matched the brown color of the van. His hands just clutching the buttons, as he looked around him with the repeated pattern of the four adults – first Scott, then his mother, then Janet, and ending with his grandfather, Hank.
"Also make sure you stay out of the tardigrade fields." The slightly elderly woman warned him. Her voice sounded calm, but she smiled almost as if she created a joke in the same sentence "They're cute but they'll eat you. And don't get stuck in a time vortex, we won't be able to save you."
Janet then brushed her grandson's hair. Her own hair, silver and white, flickered like webs of silver yarn in his face. She wore an old tattered beige coat, which was flowing beyond her knees just to the top of her boots. Her face wasn't wrinkled; only the occasional line on her forehead. A sweet but subtle scent of lavender fragrance followed Janet around her, and the machines set up. This gave the boy something else to notice as his mother stood before him, mentoring Scott. Quickly his eyes started to go back and forth. They slowly shut closed, and in his seat the boy, sloped down.
But the tired eyes of the young boy opened quickly, feeling a hand at the back of his head. Before it was apparent again, his vision was clouded in black dots, and as he returned, he witnessed the picture of his shadowed grandfather over him. The pain of the collision causing a little more grief and annoyance.
"Rise and shine."
"Oi!" The boy shouted, now screaming at Hank. His leg swinging with strength to demonstrate how irritated he was. The old man simply smirked. "Not as if we need as much sleep anymore. We're always moving about. When are ..."
Just as the boy began to question what the adults were doing; his mother gave him a disappointing look and snapped the words "Jack van Dyne!"
And the boy's head dropped down to the floor with the announcement of his name. His face, annoyed and shocked as his hands closed over his face. The boy's actions reflecting the attitude of an infant. All the adults now gazed at him. However, Scott was the only one without a concerned look. "Respect." His mother echoed to him.
She was still looking at him, shuffling between the equipment as she did so. Her arm moving multiple hair strands, before pulling them behind her ear. Then she turned, taking a glance at Janet's computer screen, before repositioning her posture, but yet she never stood still. Giving the feeling that something had been incorrect or incomplete.
"Okay. Going subatomic in Five..."
Scott locked the mask of the suit and waited.
"Four. Three. Two. One."
With that, Hope threw the clutch forward with her last number. Her partner shrinking before them, before Scott had completely disappeared towards the van's direction. The tunnel also shutting down. Five became four. The remaining four clouded by fields of doubt. Hank moved towards the radio, grabbing it and then drawing it to his mouth.
"Alright Scott. This is a Mic Check."
They waited for a response. But nothing happened. Everyone suddenly becoming tense and agitated as they waited. Their faces becoming evident to looks of worry and concern. Something had gone wrong, even the thirteen-year-old knew this. Then the sound came through.
"Mic Check. Check one. Check two. How's everybody doing tonight in the Quantum Realm.?"
The witty attitude of Scott came crashing through the radio's speakers. Hope delivering a sigh, as she knelt over the equipment. Her eyes even closed, from the relief. Her father didn't carry the same emotions. His voice became sharp and quick, clearly annoyed and disturbed from the joke.
"Scott, we read you."
"I just want to make sure."
A few more moments passed before he answered again. Only this time he was serious. "Okay. Healing Particles secured for our new ghost friend."
"Alright, preparing for reentry in…"
As Hope continued to speak to Scott, counting down, the cold air appeared to be mild but then intensified with the passing of time. The sky turning grey with almost a vacant appearance. No clouds in sight and no wind moved the air. No weather at all. It was cold, even present in the sun. And while on the rooftop, the streets of San Francisco should have been flooded with people. It sounded almost barren. Just like everybody stood still. The silence and the air sent shivers down the young boy's spine. This was truly the worst of all atmospheres. Hope's voice became coarse and frightened. She looked at her son, her terrified and fearful look not hiding. She started to hear sudden echoes of screams, and it was the catalyst for something awfully wrong. She turned to Janet again, seeing the body crumble to pieces. It was tearing down into specks of dust. And when she finished saying three, Hope dropped her earpiece, preparing to jump towards her mother and her son. That was when Scott heard the radio crackle in the Quantum Realm.
The boy was now standing upright. Jack's eyes tearing as he screamed his mother's name. Hope's hand now repeating the same process of what had happened to his grandma. The hand, which was on the clutch, not present anymore. The clutch moved forward before snapping back to its resting position. This was it all took to turn the machine on for a split second. And at the end of his finger, Jack's last sense of his mother was her hand vanishing. The machine causing him to absorb floods of energy, the boy not yet releasing this.
Then Hank should have been there. But he was gone already. Into the abyss of nothingness. The dust now clouding around his equipment, with spots on the floor from where he should have stood. The radio part swinging side by side, expressing the pleas of Scott.
"Hello? … Ha-ha very funny… Hank stop screwing around… Hank. Hope. Janet… Guys… Guys, seriously, bring me up. Let's go."
But with the last cry of "Guys", the boy looked up, assuming Scott had gone too.