Revamped!
[This chapter gave me so many emotions while writing it. Oh my god…] [2020: … I had a feeling this would fuck me up in the revamps].
Chapter 46: Pym Particles Part Five
Twenty-Seven Years Ago - St. Joseph's Hospital - 19:23 PM
The news of Janet's pregnancy was the best thing to happen to the them ever since they met. Just the idea of the two of them having a baby they didn't plan on having indicated that this was meant to happen for them, that they were meant to be parents together. It all seemed to be getting even brighter for them as the months passed, especially when they learned that they would be having twins - a boy and a girl.
Little did they know at the time that when they thought they would have two babies, they would only come home from the hospital with one baby.
Shaken by the worst news of his life, Hank approaches his sleeping wife who wakes up at his entrance into her delivery room. She's happy, she's overjoyed which she should be since she just delivered twins. Little does she know the fate of her kids.
"Why do you look like that?" Janet asks softly, raising a tired arm to point at his worn-out face.
"Janet…" Hank starts. The rest of that statement is too hard for him to finish but he has to tell her. "Jan, we lost the first one. We lost our girl."
Hank couldn't stand to watch Janet's face fall apart as he told her the heartbreaking news. She keeps on shaking her head, denying it from happening until Hank wraps his arms around her and she just sobs.
-o-
Present Day - Pym Technologies - 4:27 AM
It's been six days since Puerto Rico and Janet's disappearance into the subatomic world.
Hank and James have been thinking of what they could do to get Janet back. They have been running simulations on what would happen if one of their plans were to happen and it would result in either someone dead or inconclusive - well, one of them was inconclusive. Neither could sleep because it meant they would waste more time.
"This is what we have to do," Hank explains. "I have to get in there, find your mother, and grow out of it."
"Dad, that's as much suicide as whatever happened to Mom!" James yells for the fifth time. "Besides, what are the chances of you even finding Mom while you're in there?! It's been six days!"
Hank tenses with rage but doesn't lash out nor does he have an answer for his son. James just turns back and slumps against the wall. Then, he lifts his head.
"I should go in," James says.
"No," Hank immediately states. "Besides the obvious reasons, you can't grow."
"I can grow I've just never done it."
"Now's not the time to test that theory out."
"I'm sure I'll manage to keep myself stable in the world of instability."
"I won't lose you."
"Oh, so it's perfectly fine if I lose you?"
"James, it's different. I already lost Hazel and I'm not going to lose you or your mother."
James finds himself lost for words at the mention of his late twin sister who was stillborn. Sure, he never knew her but out of him and his parents, he felt the closest to her since they shared the womb for nine months. Despite her not being around, he still felt like the one half of him that is a twin is empty.
"I'm getting air," James says, excusing himself.
James stands outside and tries his best to breathe. He would pick himself to jump into the subatomic world since his lifeline is longer and he could survive in there for more time, but he has never grown larger than his current size before. In retrospect, his dad has grown bigger and has a better understanding of the subatomic world.
Aside from him, that was his life's work.
The real questions at this point are: who is best suited to enter the subatomic world and get back out, and who has less to lose if there is no return?
James is suddenly taken away from his thoughts when he hears something drop from the lab he and his dad were in. He turns around on his heel and starts running back to the lab. When he arrives, all that he sees in there is a fallen storage gun to the subatomic world with his father out of sight.
-o-
James can't stand still nor can he breathe. This was the one indecisive plan they thought of and it was still possible that it would result in death. Both of his parents are in there and his entire body is trembling because he has no idea what to do or what will happen next. He can't call anyone because nobody knows anything about this. He barely understands all this as is.
This is it. This is up to him.
"I can't believe he did that!" James exclaims, slamming his fists against the lab counter with all his might (then getting mad at himself because that hurt a lot).
"I can," a different female voice says.
James turns around and sees the girl whom he assumes to be his conscious in the appearance of a hallucination - his late twin, Hazel - just to give him someone to have a conversation with. It is her. Britney conjured her up when he wanted to know what she would look like. She's personified as his age with a sandy-brown pixie haircut like his - or their - mom. She's his height with a skinny frame and lanky limbs. Her outfit was a crop top and short overalls that have a pink heart patch ironed on one of the legs and wedge boots.
Hazel shrugs at him. "I mean, he entered the subatomic world to save his wife and the mother of his children. You would do the same if it was Angela in there hell, you wanted to do it for our mom."
"No, I wouldn't do it for my girlfriend," James argues. "Angela would be long gone and I'm pretty sure that Xavier would jump in first."
Hazel rolls her eyes. "Say what you want but you saw this coming. You knew that when you left that room, he would jump into the subatomic world. You just didn't want to watch him after failing to stop him."
James sighs because not only does he want to pick an argument with his conscience, he doesn't want to admit that he's wrong. As if he could stop his father and watch him go on a suicide trip.
He leans against the wall as Hazel shuffles in front of him.
"I don't know what to do, Hazel," James says. "I knew Dad would jump in with this inconclusive plan because he assumed that he would either think of a solution in there if death doesn't eat him first or hope that I come up with something. The thing is, Dad knows that he has to grow out of the subatomic world but that world is endless and where time and size are irrelevant so he'll just keep on growing and growing with no purpose - and what if he doesn't even find out mom who's been in there for days!"
"Here's the thing," Hazel says, "if they got in, they should be able to get out."
"Wow, why didn't I think of that?" He questions sarcastically with an eye roll.
"You're an ass," Hazel tells him.
"You're an ass," James mimics with a squeaky rendition of her voice.
Hazel rolls her eyes.
"Hey, I have an idea!" She exclaims. "What about that quantum crap you've been endlessly bragging about to people who don't understand so they don't care. You haven't looked at it since MojoWorld since it got fried but why not kickstart it?"
James thinks it over and realizes that it could work. For the MojoWorld incident, it was a teleport. It got him and his friends from Earth to space and vice versa. If he was lucky, he could maybe open a portal to the subatomic world.
"Hazel, you're a genius!" James exclaims.
"I only know what you know because I'm your conscious," she responds.
"You're right… I'm a genius!"
Hazel rolls her eyes again as she watches James get to work. Again, his fraction of an incomplete dissertation is the saving grace. Who would've thought? He has breezed through his dad's journals, articles, messy notes over the past six days so he could handle this … or so he believes. If Hazel barely has faith in him, what does that say about himself?
"Wait, what was that alien code thing again?" James asks her.
Hazel laughs to herself. She recites it as James plugs it into a computer that he connected to the particle storage gun. The computer frizzes due to the unfamiliarity of the quantum entanglement. James immediately takes cover since he thinks it'll blow which it does, but in the way that he hoped for. It opened a door and thirty seconds later, his dad grows out of it. James gratefully closes the door and sighs of relief at the sight of his dad.
"Where's Mom?" James asks with a crack in his voice.
Hank pants as he opens his cupped hands and shows Janet in her small form, alive but unconscious.
"You did it…" Hank mutters, holding the back of James's head with one hand, keeping Janet in the other. He leans James forwards and hugs him tightly. "I've never been more proud of you."
James holds those words to heart. He'll likely never hear them again.
Janet slowly stirs awake and grows to her normal size. She stretches, unaware of the time that has passed or that she entered the subatomic world since the last thing she remembers is getting shot down after putting the storage implosion device on the wall of the laboratory. Janet looks at her two boys and sees their eyes filled with tears.
"What?" Janet asks them. "Are you happy that all our work is done or just proud of my success?"
Without words as an answer, James and Hank immediately sandwich Janet in a tearful yet joyous hug. Janet just goes along with it since she has yet to know that it's been six days since Puerto Rico.
James feels Hazel stand behind him. She rubs his shoulders before fading and leaving the three of them to rejoice in their reunion.
[I just noticed this - Hank and Janet. Hazel and James. H and J. *applauds 12 y/o me for being a freaking genius without knowing it at the time.* I'm pretty sure the name Hazel came from my TFIOS phase and if Ant-Man was out at the time, I would've named her Hope.
If Scott Lang can get out of the subatomic world in his movie, then Hank and Janet can escape it in my story!
And before you ask, yes, James will grow big in this story. (Spoilers but it'll be the next arc)].
[2020: I'm surprised I didn't have more ANs like that in this story].
