The outskirts of San Fransokyo mostly consisted of forests and natural parks, a good place to get away from the technological hustle and bustle of the city, and a perfect place to hide a laboratory. Concealed by bushes and other overgrown plants, this particular lab was supposed to be abandoned, but there was one particular duo who knew otherwise, and they were watching from outside the building. One was a girl in a deep blue body armor, pants, goggles, and lab coat; the other was a larger humanoid lizard in a white, tattered lab coat and tan pants.

"There's no guards." The girl observed.

"She's getting more confident than I thought." The Lizard replied, "And I don't see any cameras either. Ok, Karmi. Go time."

Karmi, now the heroine called Lab Lady, climbed onto Lizard's back, then the Lizard took off for the door. Upon reaching it, he said: "You got this one?"

"Leave it to me," Karmi said, taking out a small disk. As she threw it at the door, it attached and then began discharging its acidic contents, which began eating away at the metal until a large circle remained. The Lizard was impressed.

"Your gadgets are improving, as are your skills." He said stepping through the hole.

"Well, I had a really good teacher," Karmi replied, following him in. The two wound their way through a maze of hallways, Lizard's heightened sense of smell being the one thing keeping them from getting lost. Finally, they came to the entrance to the main lab, which they could tell was active by the glowing light from the other side of the door. They could also hear voices, so they made sure to be extremely quiet when opening this door. As they snuck in, the heard the voices coming from the far left side of the room, and ran to duck behind a pile of crates on the right.

"This is what we came for?" Karmi whispered pointing to the crates.

Lizard nodded: "Inside is the last of that weaponized mutation chemical that Di's supposedly been perfecting here after she escaped prison. All we need to do is grab a few vials to show the cops, and then destroy the rest, just like we did at the other hidden labs."

"Sounds easy enough."

"It might not be this time around. Listen."

As the two listened in on the voices, they realized that it was Di talking to someone over a video screen. The voice was deep and somewhat terrifying.

"I don't want any more delays," it said, "I let you off the hook last time you were caught, but I will not tolerate it any further."

Di spoke next: "All For One, please, I have the serum ready, I just need more time to produce it to the amount you requested, and the Lizard and his new sidekick are not making things any easier by destroying my other labs."

"Still being pestered by heroes, I see."

Here, Lizard and Lab Lady were sneaking out vials from the crates as stealthily as they could.

"What can I say, They're stubbornly persistent."

"True. But it is a persistence we cannot allow. That serum is worth more than you may realize. Now see to it that these heroes are dealt with and the serum is finished, or I finish you."

"I understand, sir."

"I hope so." With that, the screen went dark.

"Hurry, place the charges!" Lizard whispered. Quickly, Karmi placed a few charges on the crates. Then, checking to see if Di's back was still turned, the two turned to run, only to run into two security bots that walked in at the same time. Seeing the two heroes, the robots activated the high-power electro-tazers on their arm and moved forward to intercept. Lizard was ready; knowing this was going to end in a fight, he roared and charged forward. Di turned at the noise, became frightened to see the two heroes, and then yelled: "Stop them, don't let them get away with the serum!"

"I'll get one, you get the other," Lizard said charging one of the bots and proceeding to wrestle with it. Meanwhile, Karmi charged the second bot, but got backhanded into one of the shelves, which knocked over a few of the vials of the mutation serum, soaking the half of her body that was exposed to it. The security bot moved forward, electro-tazer raised. Karmi pulled out her own weapon, a syringe with a knife blade instead of a needle. Rushing forward, she proceeded to stab upwards into the bot's armpit. The blade digs itself in and the bot temporarily short circuits, but it recovers fast enough to grab Karmi and jab her with the electro-tazer, discharging massive amounts of electricity across her body for a few seconds. Screaming in pain, she then drops to the ground, her eyes closed. Lizard hears her scream and looks over to see her fall to the ground.

"No!" he yells, then, his anger building, he throws the first bot to the ground and crushes its head. Then he charges at the second one and grabs it in his jaws, shaking it and ripping it apart. Turning to Karmi's fallen form, he picks her up and slings her over his shoulders, then turns to see Di running out of the lab.

"Oh no you don't!" he yells running after her. However as he bursts out of the building, he looks to see that she had disappeared.

"Dammit." He said, then made sure Karmi was still on his shoulders.

"Don't worry, Karmi," he said, "I'm gonna get you help. I promise"

"Not out here in the middle of nowhere, you aren't." said a voice behind him. Whipping around with a snarl, Lizard saw a man in a red and black outfit with a helmet that resembled some kind of bug; a bee? No, it was an ant.

"Easy, big guy," the man said, "I'm just here to help out."

"Who are you and how did you find me?" Lizard asked.

"Call me Ant-Man. I'm here because you and your friend are needed for something big. I was actually watching you guys as you went in the lab. So, uh, what happened to her?"

"Electrocuted by a security bot. I think she may still be alive."

"Well, lucky for you, the people who need your help also might be able to help her."

"Who's they?"

"Ever heard of S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"What do they want from me and my partner?"

"Let's just say that they found something might requires immediate hero attention and apparently they want you two, along with a few others. I was sent here to come get ya."

Lizard thought for a moment: "And you're sure they can help her."

"Absolutely." Ant-Man replied.

Lizard sighed, "Alright. I'll come."

"Awesome. Jet's this way." Ant-Man said running into the forest, Lizard following close behind. Soon, they reached the S.H.I.E.L.D. quinjet, where a small team of medical agents took Karmi and put her on a medical stretcher. Once Karmi, Lizard, and Ant-Man were on board, the jet lifted off and soared into the night sky. Lizard injected a serum into himself, quickly reverting back into Jake Connors.

"There, now I have more leg room." He said, reclining on one of the seats, "So how long until we get to our destination?"

"Not long," Ant-Man replied, taking out a black datapad and handing it to Jake, "You should probably read that now while we're on our way. It'll tell you everything you need to know about this mission."

Jake flipped through the files on the pad; it showed pictures of an alien attack that occurred a few days ago, and then there was a list of what Jake assumed to be the other heroes that were wanted.

He read through the hero files and raised his eyebrows on surprise: "Oh boy…"