There was no one at home at Avenger's Mansion. At least, that's what the mansion's mechanical steward, Jocasta, assured Mary Jane in a voice that sounded all too similar to Janet Van Dyne's.
"You don't mind if I come in and have a look for myself?" MJ asked.
Jocasta seemed to consider a moment. "You do have level 8 security privileges," the robot said. "But I will be required to escort you around the premises."
"Fine," Mary Jane said. "Please take me to the lab of Dr. Hank Pym."
The robot obliged, leading her up an elevator, past innumerable security checkpoints, and through twisting, winding corridors. She finally a came to a laboratory that put any of Peter or Tony's to shame. Coiled around a large machine at the center of the lab was an impossibly large man, turning a wrench and paying no mind to anything but his work.
Before her eyes, the giant man shrunk down to human size and, without missing a beat, continued working on the machine.
"Doctor Pym?" she said. "I'm Mary Jane Watson Parker."
No response.
"Doctor Pym?" said Jocasta. "You have a visitor."
After a few seconds, Pym blinked and seemed to notice the robot. "Ahh, Jocasta, glad you're here. Can you find the tertiary quantum spike detector?"
"Doctor Pym," Jocasta repeated. "You have a visitor."
"Oh." Pym blinked and noticed her for the first time. "Hello, Mary Jane."
"Hank," Mary Jane said chidingly. "I'm surprised you remember me."
Pym flashed a smile. "But, of course I remember you, my dear." He accepted a tool from Jocasta and applied it to his task. "How is your lovely daughter?"
Mary Jane bristled. "We don't have children, yet, Hank."
"Oh, right," Pym said absently. "Must have been a parallel universe."
Mary Jane laughed vivaciously. "Hank, you're so funny. But sometimes, I wonder if you're really joking."
"What?" the Doctor said without looking up. "Of course I am."
"No, Hank. Peter has told me stories about going to different dimensions. Like Limbo. He says it's a real place."
"Well, sure," Pym doubled back. "I mean, there are what you might call different planes of existence that are separated from our universe only by the quantum foam. Some of them fit the descriptions of what Human myth would call Limbo."
"Or Hell," MJ prompted.
"Well, not Hell. Well, yes, there is one called Hell. But it's not really Hell."
MJ hesitated. "They call it Hell?"
"Well, yes."
"And there are demons there?"
"Well, there are races of demon-like creatures."
"And souls of people like us."
For the first time, Hank stopped working and looked up at her. "What are you asking, Mary Jane?"
"Wong told me that Hell was a real place. But he made it sound like it was only accessible through magic."
Pym visibly scoffed. "Well, Mister Wong would say that."
"So you can get there with science?" MJ asked.
"Of course I could. I've been there dozens of times. All one has to do is shrink down to a size small enough to permit's one's physical form to pass between the quantum foam."
"The walls between dimensions," Mary Jane said.
"Precisely. Hell is only a few jumps past the Microverse."
"So you could take me there?" Mary Jane said.
"I certainly could," Hank said, resuming his work. "But why would I want to?"
Mary Jane tried. "Because I'm a friend and I'm asking you to?"
"So I should expose a friend to mortal danger on a whim? Moreover, a friend who is the beloved wife of another friend. A man who, by the way, has a strength factor of ten times peak Human strength, who could theoretically crush my head between his two hands like unripe fruit."
"Peter would never do a thing like that."
"Really? Let me paint you a picture. 'Hello, Hank.' 'Why, hello, Peter.' 'Have you seen my wife?' 'Why yes, I have. The last time I saw her, her flesh was being devoured by demon-like creatures.'"
"Oh, Hank. Can't you imagine that I would never even ask such a thing if it wasn't incredibly important?"
"Then what, pray tell, is the reason behind your request?"
She told him about the dream.
To her surprise, Pym didn't outright refuse, or offer any condescending comments, lies, or excuses. "I see. Will you follow me to the blackboard, my dear?" He shrunk down abruptly, landing on the back of a flying ant that zipped its way across the lab. At a chalkboard on the far wall, he resumed normal size and began scrawling white lines.
As she walked up, Pym began speaking. "These, Mary Jane, are the Hell dimensions." He drew a tiny bubble in the bottom corner of the board. "This is Limbo, a pocket universe rules by a sorceress. Waaay up here…" He drew two larger circles in the top right corner. "Is Niffleheim, the Asgardian realm of the dead. And Hades, the Olympian hell."
He returned to the main part of the board, filling in the long, parallel lines. "Those realms are far away from the ones ruled over by the Hell Lords."
"Hell Lords?" MJ said dubiously.
"According to myth, the Universe was once presided over by the Elder Gods, until they were destroyed by the Demagorge. The resulting explosion contained a great deal of negative energy that eventually manifested itself into what universal anthropologists call Class 2 Demons."
"Oookay. Hank, I'm not going to pretend that I followed all of that. But can I assume that Class 2 Demons are the big, mean ones?"
"That would be correct. Some of them have names you might recognize. Like Beelzebub, Lucifer, Mephisto, Dormammu. Whether Human legend was influenced by their actions, or they purposely took the names of creatures from Earth myth is a subject of debate. But separating fact from fiction is an academic exercise when it comes to such beings. The only pertinent fact is that they are just as nefarious as any of the stories suggest. Perhaps more so. The fact of the matter is that while science could afford an easy entry into their realms, our arrival would instantly attract their attention. We would then be on the radar of extremely powerful beings. Even were we to escape their kingdom unharmed, their power extends into our own dimension."
"I understand that, Hank. But doesn't Doctor Strange prevent those types of creatures from coming here?"
"Yes," Pym said. "From direct incursions. But a direct invasion is not necessary for them to exert their influence on events on Earth."
"You're saying that they might come after us once we're home?"
"They would be foolish to attack me," Pym said. "But your home is hardly as secure as Avenger's Mansion."
She jutted out her hip. "Mary Jane Parker is not afraid of demons."
Hank Pym, who was used to strong women, assented.
"I'll admit, the idea of using science to subvert the rules of religion and mysticism is a compelling experiment subject. And the amount of data I could potentially gather would more than justify the expense. But why would Peter not want to be part of this?"
"Didn't you hear about Kravinoff?"
Hank shook his head and MJ briefly explained how her husband had been interred and returned to the land of the living.
Pym was nodding. "Such a harrowing experience is sure to wreak havoc on his mental health. You're hoping to aid in the recovery process by bringing back the best friend he lost. A touching sentiment. But you must prepare, like any scientist, for the possibility that your experiment might fail."
"I'm prepared," MJ said. "For any outcome."