Timeless
Chapter One of Two
"Scott, wake up."
An eyelid struggles to move.
"Scott-"
The eyelid remains closed. A smile slides across Scott Lang's face as he pulls Hope Van Dyne under the comforter.
"Scott!"
Scott Lang sinks beneath his sheets and joins her, cheesing along the way. He rolls to the side, sliding his face through a tunnel of 200 thread-count knock-off Egyptian cotton, and emerges through a portal of poorly stitched floral designs to meet Hope's gaze. He wishes he could've bought the better comforter.
"You idiot," she growls.
Scott slides his fingers across her cheek and tucks them through the strands of her blonde hair. He looks at her as if it was the last time. He leans forward. Hope presses the palm of her hand on his lips.
"Absolutely not," a sly smile breaks across her face.
"Why not?" Scott's question is muffled.
Hope slides her fingers down, still smiling, and pinches his nose.
"Because you're a goofball. I don't kiss goofballs."
"Would you kiss an Avenger?" Scott responds back rather nasally.
She scoffs and lets go of her grip. "What makes you think I like the Avengers?"
"Because we can save the world."
Hope rolls her eyes "Can YOU save the world?"
"Totally." Scott flashes her a grin. She blushes.
"You can," Hope'smile speaks volumes.
"I can save your world." Scott leans in and finally plants a kiss on her neck.
Hope's head rolls up, giving him permission to continue. "Oh yeah?"
"I can rock your world too." He plants another kiss.
She shuts her eyes and wraps her hand around the sheets one finger at a time. "Show me."
A bright flash of blue light tears the darkness into two. Scott, in his Ant-Man gear, spins violently into the abyss before colliding with an otherworldly pillar of rock. He descends from a purple cloud of dust and lands on something hard. Scott, swinging his arm around for something to grab onto, sees a blue light growing brighter. He immediately shrinks as the light strikes the pillar behind him. An explosion of light and dust sends debris shooting everywhere. Scott bounces safely to the side and returns to his previous size. He sees a yellow cloud, a refraction of light, splintering the darkness above him.
"There!" Scott gasps.
Another flash of blue light sends Scott hurling against a multi-color boulder. The impact cracks his helmet's visor. One hand reaches over the top of the split boulder and then another. Slowly, Scott ascends the boulder with shaking arms. They ultimately give out and he rolls over the side of the large rock. Above him, Scott sees the pulsing of the yellow light. He reaches out for it with a dusty glove.
A shadow standing at the top of the boulder breaks his sight of the light.
"I'm ending this now, Ant-Man." A gentle but firm voice calls out from the top. "No more."
Scott wheezes from inside his helmet and nods. "Yeah, sure-sure."
"So you concede."
"Oh yeah. Absolutely."
"No games?" The shadow tilts its head to the side. Behind the silhouette, Scott can make out a ray or two emanating from the light source.
"Not really a gamer," a cough interrupts his bit, "my daughter's more of a gamer but I'm more of a checkers kinda guy, Old school and all."
"You're a clown, Ant-Man. Not an Avenger."
As Scott smiles a bit of blood pools out from his bottom lip. "Por que no los dos?"
"What?"
"Bad joke. You see there's a meme where I'm from-" Scott tucks his right arm behind his back. He reaches for something.
Two blue eyes flare out of the shadow like sunbursts. "DO YOU CONCEDE?"
"Totally, but first do you know what rhymes with Kang?"
The shadow remains still. Scott smiles victoriously.
"Cowabunga."
"What?"
In a split-second, Scott's suit expands to its largest size and sends a shockwave in all directions. The shadow jumps away from the boulder and evades the force from the sudden transformation. As the suit stretches out, Scott is ejected out of his suit and is sent hurling upwards toward the pulsing yellow light.
"Gotta touch it, Gotta touch it, Gotta touch it, Gotta touch it."
Scott, suitless and weakened, cuts through the atmosphere of the alien wasteland like a rocket. He reaches out with an open hand and stretches every fiber in his body as he nears the light.
"Just one more second with you!" Scott ascends higher and higher until the tip of his index finger grazes the source of the light.
Hope yanks Scott into an aisle of a department store. He sways where he stands and rubs his eyes.
"Scott!" Hope scowls.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Where's your head at?"
"I was-" Scott began.
Hope pulls a plush doll out of his hands. "Scott, we talked about this. Nothing until we find out what the sex is."
Scott blinks. He looks at Hope who is staring right back at him. He looks at the aisle that they're in. They're surrounded by baby carriages and strollers. He then looks back at Hope before letting his eyes fall downwards. Hope has a hand on her belly.
"Eyes up here, I hate it when you gawk at me."
"You're pregnant."
"Even more so."
"Um."
"Um?"
Scott doesn't hesitate to sit on a wagon. It creaks beneath his weight.
"I don't think that's meant for you-" she covers her mouth with her right hand. A smile almost sneaks through. Almost.
A flurry of sounds escapes his mouth, none of them words.
"What's with you?' The smile finally emerges.
Scott looks up and shakes his head. He's speechless.
Hope gets down to his level, with some difficulty. "Hey," she says softly, "what's the matter?"
"Is this real?" Scott's eyebrows furrow.
Hope studies him carefully. "Scott-"
Scott immediately wraps his arms around her. His eyes begin to water. "He's going to take me away from you again."
Hope gently removes his arms. "I don't understand."
"Hope," he begins with a heavy breath, "Kang is torturing me."
"Who's Kang?" Hope's voice lowers as if gravity itself was suggesting something was wrong. She places her hands on both sides of his face and notices something that makes her blood run cold. "Scott?"
Scott doesn't answer back. He simply watches her watch him, sending her reflection back through blue eyes. That's when she knows that his eyes are all wrong. She lets him go and steps away. Scott, knowing this revelation, slumps down on the ground.
"You're eyes aren't green. Why aren't they green?"
Scott looks back up at her smiling with tears welling in his eyes. "All of these universes and I keep getting the good ones."
Hope is horrorstruck. "Who are you?" Her throat barely lets out a squeak.
Scott stands back up and lets his arms fall to his side. He looks defeated. "I'm Ant-Man."
Suddenly the overhead department lights begin to flicker. Scott sees this and shrugs. "Gotta save the world again." His voice wavers.
"Scott," she struggles to say, "who is Kang?"
"He is coming, for all of us."
The lights flicker again.
"Hey," he begins, "if it's a girl would you consider Cassie?"
"That's what I was going to name her."
"You know, don't you?"
Hope nods.
"And he, the other Scott, doesn't?"
"That it's a baby girl? He'd fall into pieces, are you kidding me?" Hope smiles and wipes her right eye with her sleeve.
Scott smirks. "You know us too well."
Hope shrugs. "Don't we all."
Scott nods. "We're lucky guys."
The light flickers again and Scott disappears.
"Hey Hope, what's the difference between water wipes and baby wipes?" A voice calls out from the other end of the aisle.
Hope spins around and sees Scott, her Scott, holding two boxes of baby wipes.
"You OK babe?" Scott immediately darts for her, dropping the boxes into random baby carriages.
Hope nods and cleans her face again. "Stupid hormones-"
Scott listens attentively.
"-that's all," She whispers.
He then embraces her without asking for an explanation.
Scott is hurled from the yellow light. He reaches for the light, anything really, as he catches himself spinning wildly towards the wasteland again. He reaches for his belt. His eyes widen with terror as he realizes he sacrificed his suit for a last chance at portal hopping.
"Welcome back Ant-Man," a familiar voice calls out from the abyss. "How was your visit?"
Scott catches brief glimpses of the voice, the shadow, as he spins wildly.
"Here," the voice nears him, "let me help you."
Scott is caught in mid-air by the throat and pulled vertically. He grunts as he feels a purple-gloved hand squeeze the air out of his body. His eyes roll downward and catch glimpses of the colorful wasteland sweeping beneath them. They are flying, hovering actually. His eyes then roll back up to witness a purple and green armored man behind a blue visor.
"Kang," Scott grunts.
"Scott," Kang answers back.
"Do… it."
"Do what?"
"Kill me." Scott's eyes roll back into his head as Kang applies pressure to his throat.
"Warn them first, I want you to warn them all!"
Kang sees a yellow crystal floating in the atmosphere and strikes it with a blue beam of light. The crystal explodes, leaving another pulsing yellow cloud in its wake.
"They were your portals?" Scott groaned.
Kang smiles without responding. The disc carrying both of them suddenly stops shy of the cloud. Scott hurls forward headfirst into the light. As he crosses the threshold his body is replicated into an endless array of fractals, each one screaming. From anger. From angst. From the futility of salvation.
Story concludes in Chapter Two