Hey! So, I figured, since I have Ant-Man very fresh in my mind, still. I'll write this story as quickly as possible, then get back to my older stories. It's just so fun to write!
In this chapter, we get our first look at antagonists, and at the larger plot of this fic. Hope you enjoy!
Flying atop Ant-tony (and boy, how he enjoyed having his favorite ant back), Scott couldn't help but think of what a shame it was that such a beautiful place as Yellowstone had a bit of a HYDRA infestation.
-"Approaching entry point in five." -said Hope, surprisingly nervous.
-"First mission jitters, huh?" -asked Scott, knowingly.
Hope hummed shakily. "The Pym Tech job involved only a handful of guards and a deranged CEO. Or, at least, it was supposed to be. This is...a little different, to say the least."
Scott chuckled. "Replace the CEO part with a green-haired neo-nazi woman. And add to the number of guards, maybe. Probably."
The Wasp shook her head, incredulously. "Are you telling me you're not the least bit nervous?"
-"Oh, I am. Loads, in fact. But, after fighting Cross for the sake of Peanut, I learned that outrageously crazy things like the one we're about to do get a little bit easier to bear if you add dry wit to the equation." -he said.
Hope snickered. "Still full of shit, I see." -she said, then she cocked her head after a couple of moments of silence. "Peanut?"
Scott smiled under the helmet. "Cassie's nickname. Y'know, since she's small as a pea, and the daughter of a nutjob."
The Ant-Man narrowed his eyes in satisfaction when he heard the fit of laughter over the radio. Distraction, accomplished.
-"Scott, you're over the entry point. Couple of guards, so stay alert." -said Hank on the comlink.
Commanding Ant-tony to hover, Scott surveyed the area. It was a rather large ledge on the side of one of the many mountains in the park, where a simple log cabin was being guarded by two men, dressed as park rangers, yet heavily armed. Scott raised an eyebrow at the odd image, wondering how nobody had figured what was wrong.
-"Two men, armed with M16's. I think I see underslung grenade launchers, too." -he said.
-"Noted. Luis and Dave will arrive in 30 minutes, so set your timers accordingly." -said Pym. Scott did so, then turned to Hope. "You ready?"
She nodded, diving forward. Scott followed close behind, sticking close to the ground. They passed the massive form of one of the guards between the feet, and arrived at the door, slipping easily underneath. The two walked to a nearby shadow, cast by a coat hanger by the entrance.
The large room was mostly devoid of furniture, save for a pretty, blonde young woman typing idly at a computer behind a counter, who probably controlled the secret door to the secret base. Villains were predictable, that way. Scott nodded to Hope, and they flew closer, landing at the girl's feet. Under the keyboard, there was a gun, fully loaded and ready to fire.
-"Look. A fingerprint lock leading underground." -pointed out Hope, noticing the cable and the opening on the floor they could use to sneak inside. Scott nodded, and asked Ant-tony to follow behind.
Crawling around the cabling was awkward (someone hadn't done a very good wiring job), but eventually they reached the ceiling of the next level. The first true floor of the facility looked rather typical of an evil organization, thought Scott: gray, drab, and devoid of any personality whatsoever. Ant-Man had half a mind to blow it up, and he was sure Hope had the other half, hearing her disgusted snorts over the comms. Still, they weren't here for that. Hopefully, they'd be able to get in, grab the vial, get out, and anonymously tip off the Avengers to the location of the HYDRA base, no weapons fired.
Scott brought up the nearby ant numbers on his HUD; two relatively small colonies had set up shop around the base. He smiled, and caught their attention, asking them to come. That's how he'd found them willing to help - instead of ordering them around, he simply requested their assistance, gave them the general idea, and they filled in the blanks. Soon enough, ants started to swarm all around him, and he directed them towards every security camera, careful not to make the massive ant march too obvious.
Hope smirked at Scott's mastery of the fine art of ant wrangling, and flew beside her, having done some scouting work ahead.
-"Hey. I found a way into the Vault room. Ran into a spider, though, it scared the hell out of me." -she said, idly fingering her wrists.
Scott grimaced. "Oh, yeah. Ants are cute, but spiders? Those are just...creepy. They don't even growl, or anything. Just, absolute silence. And those beady eyes…" -he said, recalling his own experience with a Daddy Long-Legs during his training, which he was still particularly embarrassed about.
-"Shut it, Lang." -she threatened. Scott put up his hands in surrender, then mounted up on Ant-tony, who'd merely been watching the exchange.
Wasp flew point, Ant-Man trailing close behind her. Hope took him to what looked like a server room, then to a light socket which had fallen slightly into disrepair, evidenced by the snapped plastic. "This is our way in. It leads to an armory right beside the vault room." -she said, then squeezed inside. Scott followed, kicking the opening a little bit wider so that Ant-tony could pass as well.
Another short trip through shoddy wiring later, the shrinking duo found themselves at a grate, where they could see about six soldiers in combat gear with the tentacled skull symbol, and an unknown individual wearing a navy blue hood and dull gray armor over more cloth of the same color as his hood. He was strapping a combat knife to a well hidden compartment in his shoulder plate - the guy screamed dangerous.
The soldiers were mostly silent, checking their weapons, but one of them, looking younger and inexperienced, nervously asked the man in the hood. "Sir, what do you think is happening? It's not the Avengers, is it?"
The hooded man pulled what looked like a sword of all things from a locker, then a couple of pistols, and a crossbow he strapped to his back. He chuckled dryly, which made Scott notice the man used a voice distorter, because that voice sounded way too otherworldly and cold to be his own.
-"It's not the Avengers, no. No Quinjets have departed the Manhattan area in the last thirty minutes, so we're safe from them, kid. Most likely an impending attack by S.H.I.E.L.D. I wouldn't worry about them. You've got me, so if it's at all unfair...it's for them." -he said, patting his shoulder. The young man relaxed, but the heroes were left looking at each other, deeply unsettled.
-"Just who is that guy?" -Scott asked. Hope shook her head, clearly at a loss. "Another enhanced, possibly?. He certainly seems to think a lot of himself. Dad, you got this?" -she asked, tapping the side of her head.
-"I did. The man in the hood sounds familiar. And that means he must be very dangerous. Steer clear of him. The Wombat Crew has been advised as well." -Hank replied.
Hope breathed. "Right. On with the mission."
The duo flew, all the way to the top of one of the lockers, behind which there was a crack wide enough for Wasp and Scott to pass through, but not Ant-tony. "I'll go on ahead. You keep me posted on what the Hood over there does." -said Hope. Scott pursed his lips but ultimately gave her a thumbs-up.
While Scott got busy monitoring the situation, Hope passed through the crack, amusedly reminded of countless sequences in adventure movies where the protagonists scrape against the walls of a tiny passage. After a considerable amount of huffing and puffing, Wasp got to the other side, finding the vault room empty. As there were no cameras or any sensor equipment inside, she shifted back to full size, then signalled her father so that the distraction outside could commence.
Outside the base, dozens of tiny packets of C4 had been placed on the bases of trees surrounding the log cabin, which began turning full size and detonating in a random pattern so that the base's commander would think it was under attack. Dull boom sounds made it through to Hope, who smirked to herself listening to the muffled cries of alert inside the base, then got to work on the vault.
Ironically enough, she had to input a wrong code three times, after which the system would hard lock. Then, to access the DNA testing mechanism, she had to use a specific sequence within a set time frame. Doing it perfectly (of course), she opened the vial of blood, then poured a few drops on the needle that popped up. Binary code streamed through the old fashioned display, and then the vault door opened.
As soon as Hope opened the vault, Scott noticed that the hooded man had just turned and was looking in his direction...and that he not only had a cool hood, but a wicked, skull-themed white mask with glaring yellow 'eyes'...currently staring right at his own dull red lenses.
-"Oh crap." -said Scott and Hope, at the same time.
While Scott was having the mother of all staring contests with creepy-mask dude, Hope had found what the vault contained: the vial of Cross serum, a second Yellowjacket suit...and a damaged robot, hanging from wires like a puppet.
Hope's stomach dropped. What HYDRA wanted with an Ultron drone, she had no idea, but she had a feeling it might be slightly out of her and Scott's league.
I always thought it was a little unlikely that every Ultron drone was eliminated. He made loads! And since Ultron is perhaps my favorite villain in the MCU (right up there with Loki), I thought including a nod to him would be the coolest. As for Viper, well, she's one of the HYDRA lieutenants. I mention her in First Contact, where Cap captures her, which is referenced in this chapter. Just for cohesion's sake!
Alright! On to chapter 4! Any questions or suggestions? - Darthkvzn