Chapter 23 Ant-Man

Hank's point of view

I was a little concerned that the movie that we were about to watch would not paint me in a very good light. Maybe it's time my true colours were revealed to the world.

"OK Everyone it's time to watch Ant-Man, Serendipity, the synopsis?"

"Forced out of his own company by former protégé Darren Cross, Dr. Hank Pym recruits the talents of Scott Lang, a master thief just released from prison. Lang becomes Ant-Man, trained by Pym and armed with a suit that allows him to shrink in size, possess superhuman strength and control an army of ants. The miniature hero must use his new skills to prevent Cross, also known as Yellow jacket, from perfecting the same technology and using it as a weapon for evil."

"What happened to Janet? I'm not being disrespectful Dr Pym, I just want to know."

"Curiosity is not a crime. She went subatomic in the Quantum Realm, and she didn't come back out."

"Oh… I'm so sorry"

"That's OK"

"Do you think she survived going sub-atomic"
"To be completely honest, I don't know."

Too far

"I'm not surprised by your reaction to what that piece of crap said Hank, but I am a little surprised that you didn't punch me on the nose too"
"Howard, I didn't punch you because you didn't deserve it. You were trying to do what's right. And when that idiot said what he said, you closed your eyes and grimaced. That means I know you weren't thinking the same thing."

"I see"

"He just kicked your ass full-size, you really wanna find out what it's like when you can't see him coming?"

There was raucous laughter in the room.

"That's a good point Howard! I should have pulled the suit out of storage and gave that clown what for with it!" I said

"He definitely had it coming." Howard agreed and Tony nodded.

"Maybe but that wouldn't have improved anything" said Peggy
"Also, that's true actually… Thank you, Peggy" I replied

"That's my missus. Always the voice of reason." Howard said proudly. He saw the expression on my face and winced. "Sorry Hank, that was a bit insensitive of me wasn't it?"

Until that moment, I hadn't realised just how profoundly Janet's disappearance had affected me. I had to swallow hard a few times to keep my emotions suppressed. Never give in to weakness and emotions where you think an enemy can see it. I felt Hope's hand on my shoulder

"You don't have to be so strong all the time Dad, it's OK to show emotions."
"I do show emotions, Hope. I just never do it in public. Being emotional in public is a great way for an enemy to gain an advantage."

and Serendipity said

"Hank, there's someone here who wants to see you"

Metatron opened a portal and Janet stepped through, looking as amazing as ever.

"Hi" I said awkwardly, cringing around at the room full of people. I have never really been a demonstrative sort and Janet knows this. She claims it's her favourite flaw of mine.
"Hi" Janet replied. She pulled me into her arms and said,
"You did a fine job of raising Hope."

I sat down and pulled her onto my lap.
"I wouldn't have been able to do that if it wasn't for Howard and Peggy… and you." I admitted "I'm glad you taught me to look beyond the surface."
"Yes you would. You need to give yourself more credit. You're a better father than you think you are. You did the right thing when Hope rebelled. You were firm with her but when she told you why she had done what she did you gave her the help she needed." Janet replied
"Really?" I asked. I lost a lot of my confidence when I thought Janet had died. In time, I learned to harden my heart to the world and never show any weakness, but on a very rare occasion my mask would falter or crack slightly, and Darren Cross exploited that and used it against me forcing me out of the company."

"Yeah… I turned out OK Dad"
"More than OK. Hope I'm proud to call you my daughter." said Janet

"Thanks Mom"

"As am I. You know what Howard… if it helps when we go to face Thanos I will give you the Pym Particles, I will make more. I will build more suits like the prototype Ant-Man and Wasp suits and heck, I'll even join the fight… I want to thank you and Peggy for helping me raise Hope." "We will train an army of ants to fight him" said Hope "And we will conquer him."

"He's not going to know what hit him… as long as he doesn't have eyes and ears on this room that is" said Tony.
"Much appreciated Hank, thank you… you don't need to thank us for helping you with raising Hope"

I gave Serendipity a look

"That's a very good point Tony. This room is completely secure isn't it?"
"Yes it is."

"Good"

"Let me just check that for you" said Tony. He tried to hack the system, a hatch opened over his head and a hose came down and squirted him in the face with water and confetti while a creepy high-pitched laugh track guffawed and in a voice that sounded like it had been plied with copious amounts of Helium said, "better luck next time… chuuuuuump!" and blew a loud wet raspberry in his face. To add insult to injury a mechanical arm swung up and hit Tony in the face with a pie.

Uproarious laughter broke out. Serendipity handed Tony a towel, and he wiped the splattered pie from his face. He began to laugh.

"Damn! Whoever built this system put in pranks as a fail-safe"
"When I found out Hope was being bullied at school at first I was furious with her, I grounded her and confined her to her room. Then, Ms Fletcher - the lady I hired to look after Hope when I was at work or away on business - pointed out that Hope was the victim of an education system which is ill-equipped to cater for smart children."
"Well Jessica was a teacher before she became a nanny, so she would know the intricacies of the school system intimately"
"Right. That's precisely why we set up the homeschool cooperative when we did. Tony's intelligence is off the charts and he was bullied in pre-school for being as smart as he is. If that's how he was treated in preschool it doesn't take a Tony Stark level genius to figure out that sending him to public school or boarding school would have been a lot worse. It's almost the reverse of having a special needs child, there are emotional, educational, physical and psychological needs to consider for such children."
"I sent Hope to boarding school when Janet vanished because I didn't want to have to face my responsibilities and deal with my grief. Hope was 5 years old when I did that. When she was 7 she rebelled, she packed up all of her belongings, yelled at her head of year and the principal for 20 minutes each, called my driver and had him get her from school. When I found out, I was furious and that's when she unleashed everything upon me. She lost her temper and told me everything. She said that the kids were talking about Janet's disappearance. Some of the girls in her year called her a fool for not questioning me. That and she was being bullied, she wasn't being challenged, that she missed being able to take dance classes and playing basketball, which I have to admit, she was fantastic at. I realised that by sending her away I was hurting her very badly, so I hired Mrs Fletcher and started teaching Hope myself, but the problem was I didn't have a lot of time to teach her because I was so busy with the business. So, when I found out what you'd done for Bruce and Jay and Clint, I decided to end our enmity and ask if you would teach her."

"Well I'm glad you did because Hope was a joy to teach. Obie and I loved teaching her. She was precocious but not showy. She worked very hard. She was willing to help others and eager to please. When it came time for her and the others, except Clint, to go to Hogwarts, it hurt me a lot. Hope was the one who pointed out that I should spend more time with Clint. It was another year before we found a suitable military school that would accept Clint, so I took Hope's advice. We still held no-maj school sessions in the summer holidays - again on Hope's suggestion. She wanted to ensure that if she and the others didn't want to pursue a magical career field, they had options in the no-maj world. Hope was the first on the scene when Bruce had his accident, she helped by giving the other children things to do. She asked Tony to stay with Bruce and to keep him calm and still. She had Jay find me, when I came to the lab, she had Clint ask Ana to call an ambulance. She suggested that we should teach first aid as part of our no-maj lessons, and she'd asked Madam Pomfrey - the Hogwarts nurse - to teach healing at Hogwarts, but Professor Dumbledore refused to allow that."

"I told you being homeschooled was better than going to boarding school. I learned everything I know about no-maj first aid from going to Girl Guides."

"Well you were right about being homeschooled being better. Mrs Fletcher enjoyed teaching English and creative writing to you… she said you have a flair for it."

"Hogwarts was an experience I will never forget!" Hope muttered.

"There are things you didn't share with me about your time at Hogwarts?"
"Yeah"
"Would you prefer to share them with your mom?"
"Actually, yes"

Serendipity cleared her throat and turned to me.

"Hank, this movie will not be easy to watch for you. I would ask that you just remember how much the others have aided you when we come to watch the movie that's the 4th last movie we're going to watch on this mission… at least… I think it's the 4th last…" She checked the schedule

"no, wait, it's the 5th last, my mistake"

"I'll try to be open minded… let me guess, the team travelled back in time and bamboozled me?"

"You could say that"
"If it was for the greater good, I'm all for it"

"Who are you and what did you do with the real Dr Henry Jonathan Pym?" Janet asked.

"It's really me… honest Janet."
"Prove it. Tell me something only you and I would know."
"When we had our last big fight before The Quantum Realm, you suggested that we wrestle, and I said no so you back-heel tripped me and knocked me on my butt… I seem to remember giving you a rather sound spanking for that. Afterwards we…"

Janet blushed while Hope looked utterly horrified.

"OK it is you"

Bad dad

"You weren't a bad dad, you were dealing with a lot, and it wasn't easy." said Hope

Thwarted by my protégé

"Yeah he really did a number on us, and I was too naive to see it at first."

Trouble brewing

"I'm sorry I did that Hank"
"I'm not, you were willing to risk going back to prison just to prove a point to the world. I admire that. Just like I admire Howard for not being afraid to stand up for the little guy."

"You do that a lot better than I do"

Stealing for Hank

"And that's when you realised that you needed my help"

Army of Ants

"Yeah that was creepy"

Cassie

"She's going to Hogwarts this year. I can't believe it. My baby girl is all grown up."

Trust the Ants

"Ant-ony?" Said Tony, raising an eyebrow and looking exactly like Howard. "Are you being funny, naming an ant after me?"
"Don't flatter yourself Tony, I was actually naming him after my grandfather."

"Oh"

Ant-Man?

"So I'm the new Ant-Man?"

"If you want to be"

Hope

Scott blushed, Hope laughed then she said

"You know what to do"
"In the next break, OK?"
"OK"

Yellow jacket

"That son of a bitch!"

"Language!"

"Aw come on Rogers, don't be an old stick in the mud"

"It's in his nature, he can't help it can ya Capsicle?" Tony teased "Chip off the old iceberg that one!"

"Actually Tony the reason I don't like cussing is that I'm catholic."

Cassie in danger

"I can't believe that idiot did that"

"Nor can I. I can't believe I ever trusted or liked him"

Good dad

"I do my best. Maggie says I'm still learning"
"That's being a parent though, you're always learning" Said Howard. "Screwing up is part of the process… as long as you learn from your mistakes."

Joining the team

"I got the call from Maria Hill. I went to boot camp at Avengers HQ. I was one of the selected. Those who weren't selected went to be agents for The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division."

"OK next… is Captain America Civil War, AKA the reason we're all here"

AN: this is Chapter 23 the entire novel is around 64 chapters so there's quite a way to go before the end of this behemoth. I hope you're enjoying it so far.