Here's part 2 from 459! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. I own only my characters, my plot and my settings.
Once we were driving towards the crash site, Carol broke the awkward silence, "You're being kind of horrible to him, you know that right?"
"What?" I said in confusion.
"Not you Jen, Janet."
"Who?" Jan asked.
"Hank, genius. You can tell he's upset," Carol replied.
Janet scoffed, "Oh no, see, you actually have to have emotions before you can get upset."
"Jan, you have to know you have him wrapped around your finger," Carol offered as she raised hand.
"Whatever," she huffed. "From day one, it's been strictly business. Well, strictly science."
"Yeah, well, if you keep playing your jealousy games with him, he's going to strictly hate you."
"That would be better than not getting noticed at all," Janet glared out the window.
"Would it?" I said softly with my chin in my hands. "I understand you want his attention, but do you really want that negative attention?"
She ignored my question. Her face suddenly lifted as she glanced back at me and Carol, "Call me silly, but I'm thinking we're close."
Carol pressed the brakes until the jeep stopped. She then passed me a gun and hopped out the jeep; all too eager. Jan and I climbed out behind her and gathered in front of the vehicle. We stared at the empty pit cautiously, all that remained was the eery purple aura that had surrounded the object.
Hank grew to his average size beside us, "That's kind of disappointing."
Carol lowered her weapon. I mimicked her action, only I kept mine braced in my arms.
"Are you sure this isn't aliens?" Jan asked.
"There was no biological component, that means no life. No aliens," Hank explained and looked around the small clearing the crash had created.
"Think we should call in the other avengers?" Jan asked worriedly.
I had a bad feeling about this whole situation, it didn't feel right. Something was here. I looked around in the shadows but couldn't identify anything out the ordinary.
"For what?" Carol replied with her own question.
Hank walked over to the base of a tree where and small pile of ash lay undisturbed. I narrowed my eyes, it was fresh; erosion hadn't ruined its form and I could see steam slowly rising from the pile.
Hank crouched down and ran a hand through the ash, "Hm."
Carol walked up behind him, "Alright Hank, talk to me. "
"There's something here," he frowned and stood.
Carol raised her gun a ways.
"Tell me about it," I grunted.
Jan whimpered, "Aliens."
"Let's keep moving. And it's not aliens," Hank rolled his eyes.
The sudden crunching of branches startled us, I raised my weapon, but still couldn't see anything. Jan shrunk to her "bee" size and began to fire wildly into the darkness the trees provided.
"Down!" Hank shouted as a green energy bolt appeared.
"Where is it?!" Jan cried as she stared hard into air.
A distortion in the moon's light caught my eye. I turned to see Jan shoot at the trees again.
"Hank!" Jan shouted, frightened, and turned to face him.
"Alright, I change my mind. Call your team in. Especially invisible monster detector man," Carol said while looking through the scope of her rifle. Hank stood, pressed his helmet and narrowed his eyes.
I stiffened as I felt an odd vibration signal come from his helmet. I yelped and dove for cover as the purple robot fired again. Hank shrunk down and disappeared, Carol landed next to me. I groaned in pain, I had landed heavily on my elbow which jarred my shoulder.
"You okay?" Carol asked and got to her knees. I shook my head, "I don't know."
Jan flew through the smoke shooting wildly, "Okay, we're officially in trouble."
"You think?" Carol snapped as ants crawled up behind us. I jumped out of their way, I hated bugs.
Carol made to fire at them, but Janet interrupted, "No, wait. It's Hank." The ants crawled up on each other to reveal a robotic form with long arms and legs and a small head. The robot glanced at its ant-covered fingers.
Hank showed up beside Carol and Jan, "Invisible monster detector man has the day off."
Jan pointed at Hank, "This is probably your idea of having a good time, isn't it?"
"Except for the shooting, yes," he cocked his head.
"Guys?" I called for their attention. "What is that?" The ants finished covering the robot, its "eyes" glowed green as it prepared to fire. It shot at us, knocking me, Hank and Carol onto our backs. The wind was knocked from my lungs, Janet was thrown backwards but she remained air-born. I flinched in surprise as the robot turned its head, letting out a baritone ring.
"Ow!" Hank gasped. Janet had elbowed his shoulder.
"I thought you said that it wasn't aliens!" Jan pointed, freaked out, at the robot.
It approached with slow even strides.
"I never said it wasn't an alien robot," Hank defended himself.
As the robot got closer, my body tensed up; frozen. I noticed every one else stiffen.
Hank looked at us fleetingly as he ordered, "No sudden moves."
"What? Are you on its side or something? It's an evil robot!" Jan exclaimed while pointing at the purple machine.
"I'm going to shoot it now, if that's okay with you two," Carol put the scope to her face.
"No!" I said in a slight panic and shoved the rifle down, "it might have been acting in self defense "
"It may not even understand what's happening here. So don't make any threatening moves!" Hank continued. I watched, still, as the machine zeroed in on Carol and I's rifles. It appeared to charge before firing an energy blast. I gasped in shock as I ducked in front of Carol to avoid injury. Carol rolled to my right, out of the line of fire. Jan charged the alien robot; firing. It almost fired at Janet, but Carol distracted it by shooting its chest and head. She gained its attention, for better or worse.
"You may want to stop that, I think it's focusing on your weapon, " Hank hovered by Carol's shoulder on a flying ant.
"I'll give it a better look!" she shouted in defiance. While Carol wasn't paying absolute attention, it hit her with its "eye" blaster. Jan's clenched fist heat up and began to power up.
"Jan! Stop! Stop attacking it!" Hank flew up beside Jan.
Jan ceased her advance, "It attacked us first! " "Jan!" he insisted. She lowered her hands and the energy faded after a moment's hesitation. The robot turned its head and focused in on the observatory. It turned and slowly begun its way to the mountainside building.
I swore.
"Well, that was embarrassing," Janet stated.
"You think?" I snapped in annoyance. Her little jabs and constant comments were beginning to drive me mental.
"It has to be heading toward the observatory, Carol, drive ahead and evacuate everybody. We'll by you some time," Hank ordered.
"Who's we?" I asked.
"Jen, with me!" Carol called from the jeep. She looked at Hank and Jan, "You guys better be alive when I get back. "
I ran over to the vehicle and hopped in the passenger seat.
As we drove away with the windows down, I heard a small bit of the conversation between Pym and Van Dyne, "Buy some time? Let me guess, you're gonna try to talk to it," Jan scoffed with her hands on her hips.
"Well, yes," Hank looked at Jan. "But I'm going to be very firm."
I watched Hank grow to be ten times the normal human size in the side mirror. Oh, boy.