AN: In a review, Jelsemium mentioned that Scott Lang quotes a lot of classic movies. So I decided to have a little fun with that. Ant-Man makes four (intentional) movie references in this chapter. The references are to the actor that I would like to see play Scott Lang. The one other hint I will give you is that the actor has worked with Joss Whedon on multiple occasions. Guess away in the reviews!
As soon as he felt his hands getting a grip around the bus' rear axle, Luke Cage planted his feet and pulled backward with all his might. His muscles strained as he let out a pained grunt at the weight fighting against his grip. Power Man took several careful steps backward until only about two-thirds of the bus was dangling in the hole and slowly levered the bus downward so that the rear exit was only a few feet above the ground.
"Move as close to the back of the bus as you can!" he shouted at the terrified passengers, strain evident in his voice.
An off-duty police officer on the bus quickly took charge inside the bus, pushing everyone toward the back door. The man closest to the back opened the rear door, leapt out, and held out his arms to help the other passengers out. Another man near the door took over the evacuation inside the bus. He started by passing the youngest children in the bus down to the man on the ground. Once all the children were out of the bus, he jumped down and the two men began helping the rest of the passengers out. After several agonizing minutes, Cage felt the weight in the bus starting to shift and lessen as the people moved toward the back of the bus and exited.
As soon as the last person in the bus—the police officer—had jumped down from the bus, Power Man felt the bus' center of gravity shift very suddenly to the front of the bus. He let go as soon as it did and fell backward into the crowd of people as the bus finally tumbled through the opening and into the water below. The police officer gratefully helped him to his feet and clapped him on the back.
Before Luke could say anything, however, another alien speeder flew overhead. Before it had a chance to turn and fire, Luke grabbed a massive piece of macadam from the bridge and hurled it at the speeder with a grunt. The chunk of paving material hit the speeder's rear, pushing the back higher than the front, knocking one of the alien's off, and sending the speeder hurtling downward where it splashed into the river. Cage grabbed another piece of rubble to throw at the other alien, but it fell with two holes in its chest and one in its head before he got the chance.
Cage glanced over and saw the off-duty police officer with his gun still smoking and pointed at the alien. "Nice shooting," he told him.
"Thanks," the officer said, picking up his casings and dropping them in his pocket. "I knew all that time in the range would pay off sometime."
After shaking the officer's hand, Cage turned to look for his partner.
Iron Fist closed the remaining distance between himself and the Chitauri in a flash, and watched almost in slow motion as the alien spear stabbed downward at the young father's chest. He ducked as the other alien, the one facing him, shot another beam of energy at him. He shouted as he delivered a powerful upper cut into that alien's jaw with his left fist. Its jaw broke and its head snapped backward with a violent crack, its feet leaving the ground as it did so. Iron Fist twisted his body around, planting a roundhouse kick into the dead alien's chest. The body rocketed backwards and collided with the alien threatening the young family seconds before it was going to kill the man. The two aliens tumbled to the ground at the stunned father's feet. Danny ran over to the two bodies and snapped the second alien's neck to kill it.
Danny glanced over at where the bus had been and caught Luke's eye. Cage gestured toward the motorcycle with his head, and Danny nodded in understanding. Before resuming their trip, however, Danny felt he had one more thing to do. Turning back toward the young family standing in front of him in shock, Danny said to the father, "You be careful now. Keep your family safe and get out of the city as fast as you can. And watch out for homicidal aliens."
He looked down at the little boy, who stared back up at him in awe. He put his hand in his pocket and felt around for something. Pulling out a yellow bandana with his dragon symbol on it in lime green, he tossed it to the boy and said, "Here you go, kid. Listen to your dad; he'll protect you. Good luck."
The boy looked at the bandana in his hand and looked back at Danny with glee. "Thanks! Are you a superhero, Mister…"
"The name is Iron Fist," Danny said with a shrug as he turned to run over to where Luke was waiting for him with the motorcycle. He called over his shoulder, "And I guess I'm sort of a superhero after all this."
As soon as Danny got to him, Cage asked him, "What took you so long?" with a quizzical glance at Danny's rapidly-healing shoulder.
"Nothing. Just a little boy in trouble," Danny brushed off the question. "What about you? Why did you suddenly decide to stop?"
"Just… thought I could help. Well, we'd better stop wasting time and get to the meeting point," Luke said awkwardly. "Those S.H.I.E.L.D. guys won't be too happy if they have to wait for us too long."
Danny climbed on the bike behind him, and they raced back along the bridge the way that they'd come.
Lt. Col. James Rhodes sighed and looked around the jet's main cabin at the three other members of his team who were present. He began pacing, his metal boots clunking with every step as he said, "So, let's summarize what's going on right now. Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow are out there fighting against an alien army in the middle of Manhattan. They're getting beaten to a pulp and still have no idea how to close the portal. Black Widow's flying around Manhattan hanging onto an alien speeder for dear life, Hulk is indiscriminately smashing buildings and aliens to pieces, Iron Man is flying around like a maniac like he thinks the suit is indestructible, and they're all trying as hard as they can to get themselves killed. Meanwhile, we're sitting here, fresh and ready to go less than 5 miles from the battle, waiting for a couple 'super mercenaries' to show up and join us. Our friends are out there risking their lives, and we're doing nothing. Anything I'm missing?"
"That pretty much sums it up, sir," Lang responded with a shrug.
"So where are those two 'super mercenaries,' anyways?" Morse asked, looking around.
At that moment their onboard communicator chirped and Luke Cage's voice came through. "Power Man calling S.H.I.E.L.D. team in Battery Park. Is anyone there?"
Rhodey tapped his communicator and said, "Power Man, this is War Machine. Our jet is cloaked and resting in the stand of trees west of the main entrance. When you get closer you'll see that our entry ramp is lowered."
Three minutes later, Luke Cage drove up onto the ramp, and Daniel Rand hopped off the seat behind him.
"Lukey!" Lang exclaimed, running over to Cage, grabbing his hand, and pulling him into a bear hug. "So you guys are the ones we've been waiting for! Man am I glad to see you! And Danny!" he said, shaking Rand's hand.
"Guys, these are the Heroes for Hire, Luke Cage and Daniel Rand," Scott said enthusiastically. "Luke and I were cellmates for 18 months at Seagate down in Georgia. Lukey here was the strongest man in the whole prison, the only man there whose daily workout involved bench pressing the bench press while someone else was bench pressing on it (meaning me). He's like a stronger and less annoying version of Captain Hammer. And Danny here's the best martial artist I've ever known—word to the wise: You don't want to try boxing against him!"
"You were in prison, Scott?" Danvers asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It was a long time ago," Scott defended. "When I got out, I decided to go straight, or at least I did until Cassie got sick. I knew Professor Pym from my security work at Stark Industries, and I kind of… borrowed… the suit to save her life. Fortunately, the Professor decided to go easy on me and not send me back to the clink. And anyways, not all of us can be decorated ex-Air Force pilots, Carol."
"Fair point," Carol said, placated.
"So what's the deal?" Cage asked, looking around at the other people in the plane.
"James Rhodes, or War Machine. I'm the team leader," Rhodes answered. "Our orders for now are to wait here until S.H.I.E.L.D. sends us into the fight. We are not to reveal our presence to either the team currently fighting or the bad guys until that time."
"We were almost compromised soon after we arrived," Danvers broke in, "but I took care of the problem."
"So that smoldering carcass on the path was your work?" Rand asked appreciatively. "I didn't know that S.H.I.E.L.D was issuing energy weapons on a regular basis."
"They're not, but," Carol's fist started to glow, "I am an energy weapon," she quipped.
"Danny, this is Agent Carol Danvers from Minnesota, also known as Ms. Marvel because of her marvelous flying skills. She's our pilot, but she doesn't really need a plane to fly; there was a… foul-up last year. And now she can fly. And shoot energy," Lang said.
"The other woman on our team is Agent Barbara 'Bobbi' Morse, codename Mockingbird. She doesn't have any superpowers, but she's still quite the Wonder Woman to me. Smartest woman I ever met: She has a Ph.D. in biology and also has medical training so she can be our team medic. Of course, she can also use that knowledge to take a bad guy apart with her batons. You should see her in action," he added.
"A super twirler? Now that, I would love to see," Luke said dubiously.
"What, you don't think I can fight because I don't have powers? Or is it because I'm a woman without superpowers?" Bobbi asked venomously. Without waiting for a response, she gave Ant-Man a nod. Lang closed his eyes and concentrated. A couple lights on his helmet started to blink.
At that moment three hornets flew into the jet straight at Mockingbird. When they were about four feet from her, she started to move almost faster than you could blink. A black metal baton shot out of her right sleeve and telescoped out to its full length. She caught it as soon as it was fully extended. The baton cracked through the air in three deft movements, leaving three stunned hornets lying on the floor. Mockingbird quickly collapsed the baton and returned it to the hidden pocket in her sleeve. The three insects immediately took to the air and flew directly out of the jet.
"Cool trick," Cage said. "Can't wait to see it in action."
"I sure hope you'll get that chance," Morse responded acidly.
Scott broke in at that moment. "Anyways, what took you two so long? It's less than five miles from your office to the park. That's 15 minutes or so; five with the way you drive," he added with a glance at Luke. "How did it take you over 45 minutes?"
"Oh, we just ran into some trouble on the way," Cage said evasively.
Danny broke the awkward silence by asking, "So now that we've all been introduced, what do we do now?"
"Nothing. Now, we sit on our heels and wait," Rhodey answered.
"But I hate waiting," complained Danny.
"What a whiner," Scott joked quietly to Luke.
Marc Spector walked up to Director Fury's office, nodded to the Director's secretary, and stepped inside. "You wanted to see me, sir?"