Okay, kind of offsetting the last two long chapters, this one is much shorter. I wanted to just touch that the Avengers were aware of strangeness happening with Pym Tech and it made sense to me that Izzy would have looked in to Howard's activity in SHIELD. Also at the end I wanted to throw in some happy fluff before it all crashes.
As always, please review :)
The police tape was still up surrounding what looked to be an empty lot. There were cracks in the cement, and signs of fires that had managed to catch but were quickly extinguished. The only thing remaining on the lot to indicate that something had stood there once was the sign closer to the street that said Pym Tech.
Izzy took her sunglasses off as she stared out the window of her car. The Avengers had been alerted to a strange occurrence at the research facility in San Francisco and since Izzy had been the closest Steve asked her to go survey the scene.
She was instantly curious because Pym Tech was a constant presence that Stark Industries kept an eye on for competition purposes, but also because Hank Pym had worked with Howard Stark and Peggy Carter in their SHIELD days. Hank Pym also seemed to have a deep hatred for Starks, which Izzy didn't understand but figured it had something to do with Howard.
Though Steve didn't know about the breach, Izzy had found out about an incident that Sam hadn't been able to handle involving some stolen equipment from the Avenger's compound in New York. What Sam had described had sounded similar to the Ant-Man suit that Hank Pym was famous for in SHIELD.
There weren't many records of it because Hank had taken most of it when he left SHIELD, but Howard had documented some of what he knew, and Izzy had been able to salvage those records.
As she sat there, she noticed someone walking up to the car. Putting her sunglasses on and checking her reflection in the mirror quickly, adjusting her hair casually, she rolled the window down and turned to face the man. She took one look at him and knew: cop.
"Miss, this is an active crime scene I need you to move along." He said.
She took note of his detective badge at his waste and she offered a charming and confused smile. "I'm sorry sir, can you tell me what happened?" She asked. "I was supposed to have a meeting with Darren Cross today and…well there is no building…"
"I'm sorry Miss, I can't talk about our investigation." The man said. "I need you to move along okay?"
"Sure." She said. "Thank you, officer."
The officer stepped back, and she rolled up the window pulling away from the curb and down the street. "FRIDAY, call the compound." She said as she drove.
"What did you find?" Steve asked.
"I'm not sure." Izzy said. "It's almost as if the building was just sucked in to nothing."
"It's not something like the black hole from a couple months ago was it?" Steve asked.
"No…" She said frowning. "That would have kept growing and sucked in part of the ground too. It's like the building shrunk until it became too small to see."
She could hearSteve frowning. "For what it's worth, I don't think it's something that we need to worry about right this minute." She offered.
"Okay." Steve said. "We'll monitor it. How soon can you be back at the compound?"
"I'll be there in a couple hours." She said. "I have to stop at Star Industries before I come back."
It was late afternoon when she arrived back at the compound. She disembarked the helicopter and walked inside, stifling a yawn. It had been a long day and it was still eating at her brain the mystery of the missing building.
Wanting food, she diverted to the common area. She could have sworn she felt Pietro race past her, but he didn't stop so she shrugged. As she got closer, she saw all the lights on and there was a buzz of noise coming from the room. Raising her eyebrows, she curiously followed the sound.
Walking in she heard a loud chorus of "Happy Birthday!" and she stared in shock at the Avengers, along with Tony, Pepper, Clint, Johnny, and Sue. They had decorations, there was a massive cake and tons of her favorite foods.
"Oh my god." Izzy said with a laugh. "You guys didn't have to do this."
"Of course, we did." Pepper said. "It's your sixteenth birthday."
Tony walked over and hugged her tightly. "Happy birthday baby." He said.
Izzy hugged him back, joyful tears coming to her eyes. "Thank you everyone." She said.
Everyone converged on her for hugs and celebrations when Tony stepped back. Izzy smiled and blushed and laughed as the party went on. She smiled at Tony and he looked back at her, understanding her feeling, their family had gotten much bigger in the last seven years.
