The Month Peter Parker Learned Humility
Chapter 16: Sunday September 16th
12:45am. Avengers Mansion.
As the star-filled night consumes the Manhattan skyscrapers, Hank Pym tosses and turns in his solitary confinement bed countless stories above New York's streets. "God damnit Hank! Why'd you shove that blue asshole inside that tube so haphazardly?", he slurred to himself. "You could've saved the day just fine without killing. That's how Hulk deals with his life, but me? I just hit my way outta it. That's all I do, I just hit my way outta it." Hank then sits up in his cot of a bed, and begins to cry, realizing how much of a hero he hasn't been this month.
In the middle of his tear time, a knock on his Hulk-proof window startles him. "Hiya, Hank!", shouts a deep, raspy, sultry Scarlett Johansson-esque voice with no body to attach it to."W-who said that?", stutters a confused, concerned and ready to fight Hank, grabbing his shrinking belt. "You know EXACTLY who I am; you tried to kill me not too long ago", replies the scary, seductive voice, now revealing itself slowly under a black silhouette having fire red hair. "…my God, y-y-you're a monster!", Hank stammers, as the fatal female reveals her true, full form.
At an intimidating height of 6'8", this oily, gray and black, monstrous, noseless woman with the jaws of a shark, a tongue that rivals Gene Simmons' own, freckled face, quite curvaceous young adult with a large white arachnid like creature emblazoned on her chest struck fear into the heart of Hank Pym this dark, contemplative night. "What's the matter, Tiny Boy? Did I scare you?!", she giggled mockingly, clinging onto the extremely durable glass just like Peter would with her gray and white single-striped arms. "I um,.. I thought that the damn Spider kid lost that alien goo back at the bell tower." "He did. But you can't keep a good goo down, can't ya?" "How can you talk, though? I thought—"
"You and Reed called me a parasite. My time in Peter gave me the gift of basic speech. This big breasted beauty gave me the gift of persuasion and strategy. Let's think together for a moment; ok, big man?", she gleefully asked. "I, I don't deal with terrorists—" "Do I look like some run-of-the-mill mall bomber to you?! I don't give a shit about this planet, I just hate Spider-Man! I know for a fact you do, too, Hank", she stated in an almost seductive manner, circling the glass with her left pointer finger/claw.
"Don't call me Hank like that, kid. I'm not ready to go to jail, especially because of you." "Like you really care about Janet like that. You want to hit her just like you want to hit some sense into Spider-Man. I want to do more than just smack some sense into him; a lot more. I want him dead."
"Dead? Yeah, he's a rotten and spoiled kid, but I don't know if he needs to die." "Who calls you Tiny more than anyone? Who made you look like a fool when he could cooperate with alien life peacefully, right when you said we were 'the enemy'? Who did those awful, embarrassing things to YOU?" "…Spider-Man." "That's right! Who made you hit Janet in front of all your Avengers teammates?" "S-Spider-Man did." "Ya damn right he did! Who made you go to Times Square and end up in this cell, huh? Was it Iron Man?" "No, it wasn't!" "Was it Thor, or Hulk, or Captain America?" "No! No they didn't!" "Then who did, Hank? Who made you end up sleeping in a jail cell above 5th Avenue, huh?" "Spider-Man!"
"That's right, Ant-Man! Spider-Man did all those things to you. He ruined your entire September. He did this to fully fuck with YOU AND YOU ALONE!" "He did! He thinks he's hot shit, and I oughtta send this spider down the water spout!", Hank bellowed in his hollow, near empty cell. "You can't, tho, Hank." "W-what? I'm Ant-Man, I can do whatever I want!" "You can't kill a fellow hero, Hank. Tell me, Hank, how well do you think heroes killing heroes is gonna look to the press, especially with your fists holding our hated enemy?" "…damnit, you're right. I'd start a whole Supers civil war with that. There are some Supers I wouldn't mind dying, though." "We don't need to get rid of every Super, Hank. We just need to squash the spider!"
"Right, I.. I can't lose focus here." "Correct. I want to kill the spider, and I know all of his secrets and greatest fears. You want to kill the spider, and you found a way to shrink anyone and anything. Give me the Pym Particles, and I'll break the boy's spirit first, making him easier to trigger a fight he'll lose to you, where I come in later for the killing bite." "Wait, 'killing bite'? You're gonna,… eat him?" "I need to eat, and I like my meals extra fresh", she replied, licking the glass with her long, pink, snake-like tongue, leaving green saliva sliding down the glass reflecting her yellowed teeth. "So, do we have a deal, Hank?" Hank, terrified and slightly turned on, took little time to finalize his decision. "No. Only I can use these Particles responsibly, and people from the press would catch on. I'm sorry, but you're gonna have to kill Spider-Man on your own, my not-so-little lady."
"You what?!", she shouted. "…you are an IDIOT! You useless, pathetic slithering SLIME!" She then punches the glass window with all her might, cracking the Hulk-proof window and setting off an alarm. The blaring siren triggered the goo's sensitive hearing, forcing it to flee and scatter like a rat family in a West Village restaurant. She swings back to Anna's, hoping to hide inside her and take time to plot in silence.
Back at the Avengers Mansion, Captain America and Dr Banner burst into Hank's private cell. "Who or what broke that damn glass, Hank?", interrogated Cap. "I don't know, I was asleep until that alarm rang! How many more times do I have to tell ya that, Steve?!" "I need to know the truth,—" "And you got it! Some mystery caused that there glass to crack, and I can't figure it out for the life of me right now!" "We'll talk about this in the morning. Keep an eye on anything that wants to finish what it started." "Will do, Boy Scout. Now lemme sleep for God's sake!"
END OF CHAPTER 16