August 2015, Avengers Tower, New York
Summer had come and gone, SHADE continued to expand and recruit, and the new members of the Avengers were adapting well. Harry and Tony had taken a step back during this period and didn't see as much field time as they used to. Tony spent more time in the lab working with Jarvis on developing coding for quantum processors and Harry was nearing the end of his research on a cure for Natasha.
Today Tony and Harry were both testing a new prototype quantum computer. Sitting in a large room, they were both interacting with a display attached to a large box, around 15 cubic ft, covered in glowing runes and dotted with mini arc reactors.
"Hmm, it seems like the new programming is seeing significant lagging." Tony mumbled from the side as he was running test programs.
"Even if it's lagging, the speed in which it's running is still much faster than the fastest computers on the market." Harry said from the side as the machine in front of him was spewing out complicated equations at a pace so quickly the lines were blurred. "We might need to develop new screens to go with it. The refresh rate on these monitors are too slow to keep up."
"Don't worry about that. Once we have a working version I'll create a new holo display that will run off the new processors. It should be able to display as fast as the processor can function." Tony said with a wave of his hand. He continued to put in new parameters and check over outputs. Harry wasn't really doing much, his expertise in computers could barely be called basic compared to the level Tony was currently working at.
"How is the hardware holding up?" Harry asked as he moved to Tony's side. The quantum computer required them to build every piece of hardware from the ground up, as nothing on the market was compatible. Tony pulled up a series of measurements and they both studied them.
"The temperature is holding steady .1 to .15 Kelvin or right around -273 Celsius." Tony said with a smile, "So far no warning signs of hardware failure. Using the M Vibranium was a good call." Tony then frowned, "Unfortunately the memory disks are already reaching max capacity with the sheer volume of equations and solutions being generated. Just 1 week of constant output has already written nearly 20 petabytes of data."
"We'll need to refocus our memory crystals and find a way to rewrite them rather than permanent memory." Harry said as he looked over the various stats being displayed. While they had developed memory crystals that could hold 10 petabytes of information on a standard HDD size crystal. They were unable to allow the ability to rewrite on this medium.
Tony was just about to reply when both of their phones went off. Sharing a look they pulled out their phones only to be alarmed about a break-in at the Compound. Tony sighed as Harry made a portal, he gave a longing look at his prototype before leaving the room.
It didn't take long before most of the team was landing at the front of the Compound upstate. Sam was sitting on a nearby bench looking frustrated while Steve was giving him a sympathetic look.
"What's up with wings?" Tony asked as his helmet receded into his armor.
"He got his butt kicked." The unexpected rebuttal came from Bucky who was standing to the side. Tony smirked as Harry looked at Sam questioningly.
"I got a warning about someone breaking in so I came to check. It was some guy who could shrink, said he was looking for something called a 'signal decoy'." Sam said. Tony was already going through the storage records.
"Signal Decoy, SHIELD property, developed by Hank Pym." Tony said as he read from his display. "It's a jamming transmitter prototype from the 70's." Tony finished with a raised brow.
"Did your suit record his face?" Harry asked as he looked at Sam. Sam nodded so Tony pulled up the recording and displayed it from his suit. They watched the short confrontation causing them to be surprised at the man's abilities and the fact that he introduced himself.
"Doesn't seem malicious. What did he mean by saving the world though?" Steve asked with a frown. Harry looked at Tony who was already matching the face of the infiltrator to government records.
"Scott Lang, recently released convict, lives in San Francisco." Tony read out. "Looks like we're taking a trip to California." Harry looked at everyone and shrugged. The possibility that whatever was happening wasn't that big a deal crossed their minds. On the other hand, if it was a major threat, showing up full force would be a much safer bet.
Soon enough everyone was geared up and moving out. Harry and Tony were talking about their prototype while Sam and Steve were piloting the quintet. Bucky was quietly sitting to the side while Bruce and Natasha chatted about Betty and her work. Clint and Thor were both not here, as Clint was spending time on the farm and Thor was off-world. Within the hour they were landing at a SHADE base.
"Get me all the information you can on the current whereabouts of Scott Lang." Harry said to a nearby Agent. "Figure out where he's staying and who he's interacting with." Harry led his team to a conference room while he waited for SHIELD and SHADE agents to gather information.
Tony ended up getting a call from Maria asking what was going on before giving her a rundown. 15 minutes later the team was looking over the gathered information.
"Oh hell." Tony said suddenly
"What?" Harry asked looking up.
"Hank Pym, real pain in the ass. Had some beef with my father back in the 60's and 70's. This Scott has been hanging around him for the last few weeks." Tony said as he sent the images and information to the screen on the wall.
"What's with all the redacted SHIELD files?" Harry asked as he pulled them up on his tablet. Putting in a few passwords he got some unreacted versions. "Ant Man?" Sending a few video files over the team watched as a man in a suit was shrinking and enlarging himself as he took out a Russian communist cell.
"Impressive." Steve said as he watched the fight. "Should we contact them?"
"No. One word about us being in town for them and they might fall off the radar." Harry said as he looked at Tony. "Home visit?"
"Sounds good. You and Natasha want to take this one?" Tony asked. Harry looked at Natasha and received a nod.
"Good. Let's go. We'll update you, so stay ready." Harry said as he switched to his street clothes and led Natasha through a portal to the front of Hank Pym's house. As soon as they stepped through they were greeted by a two story house on a quiet street. Looking around they didn't see anyone and walked up to the door before knocking.
"Can I help you?" a young woman asked as she opened the door until she recognized Natasha. Her relaxed demeanor immediately changed and suspicion in her eyes deepened.
"Are you going to let us come in? This isn't really a conversation for the front porch." Harry said with a smile. She reluctantly let them inside and led them to the kitchen. Walking through the front hall Harry could see small little ants in the various corners. He gave Natasha a look who just shrugged as they finally walked into the dining room.
"Who was at the door?" An older man's voice sounded out as they walked into the room. There were two more people sitting at the table, a younger man, who they recognized as Scott Lang, and an older man who they assumed was Hank Pym.
"We have company." The woman said as she gave Scott a slight glare. Scott was nonplussed until he too recognized the Black Widow. Hank wasn't far behind and he stood up.
"What are you doing here?!" He asked angrily. "Did that thief Stark send you? You can't have my suit!" Harry and Natasha each raised their brows in surprise.
"Tony didn't send us." Harry said as he gave a meaningful glance towards Scott. "We had a recent break-in at one of our facilities and decided to investigate the culprit."
"Look I'm sor-" Scott was cut off by the younger woman elbowing him in the ribs. He wheezed for a moment as he looked sheepishly at her.
"We just want to know what's going on." Harry said, trying to cool the hostility he could feel from the trio. "Scott here said something about saving the world and that isn't something we can ignore." Scott seemed to shrink into himself as the other two glared at him. "Why don't we start over. My name is Harry, you may know me as Summoner. This is Natasha also known as the Black Widow."
All three seemed stumped when the Harry introduced himself. Natasha was very recognizable, as she never wore a mask, but no one knew who Summoner was.
"You're Summoner?!" Scott looked with glee at Harry, "Oh this is so cool. Would you sign something for my daughter? She's a huge fan!" Scott said as he gushed.
"Ignore him. My name is Hope Van Dyne." Hope said as she introduced herself. When Hank didn't seem keen on saying anything she continued, "You both are probably aware of my father, Hank Pym." She said waving towards the surly old man.
"See, isn't this much better?" Harry asked with a smile. "Now that we've all introduced ourselves, let me ask about the reason for breaking into the compound and stealing the signal decoy."
"We didn't steal it. I developed that signal decoy, it's my property." Hank said with a huff. Hope rolled her eyes from the side while Scott seemed unsure of what to do.
"Dr. Pym, we realize that you worked on that signal decoy, but SHIELD still owns it. We aren't here to make trouble, just get a read of the situation and how damaging it could be." Natasha said from the side.
Hank was about to open his mouth again when he got sent a baleful glare from his daughter causing him to huff and fold his arms. Hope sighed as she started to lay out the situation.
"He's completed the development of this new suit and plans to sell it to the highest bidder. I don't have to tell you how dangerous something like this in the wrong hands could be." Hope said. Harry and Natasha both shared a look for a few moments before Harry nodded.
"Alright you've got Avengers support." Harry said easily. He could already imagine the amount of armaments that could be stolen across the globe with a unit of shrinking soldiers. If it wasn't for Stark Tech being the best of the best, Scott would have been completely unobstructed when breaking into the compound's warehouse.
"This is so cool!" Scott once again gushed before getting a smack to the back of the head by Hope. "I mean cool, whatever." Scott said as he leaned back in his chair. Harry chuckled at his antics while Natasha barely curved up her lips.
From there it was pretty straight forward. Harry, Natasha, and Hope decided to keep the plans for the heist, as Natasha helpfully pointed out that the buyers would all be high level governments or criminals. Harry gave an update to the team and allowed them to all return to base, as this wouldn't be an overly difficult mission. Harry had to get Wanda and Pietro to babysit Teddy and let them know they would be home in a few days.
During one of the days leading up to the sale, Darren Cross stopped by. Harry sent him off with altered memories and Harry learned of his plans to kill Hank. Cross didn't think anything of his meeting with Hank and the next day the sale was happening.
With everything going to plan Harry and Natasha disguised themselves with Magic and joined the sale. They were led into a room with several other buyers as Cross started his pitch. Harry sent out pictures of each buys and Maria gave him the details on each. They were all surprised when a few remnants connections to HYDRA were in the group. Once they had an idea of everyone's identity Harry subdued them all and Cross wasn't an exception.
Hank came in once they were all down and kicked an older man in the side as he passed him by. Harry just raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything as he was one of the HYFRA remnants. Packing up the suit Hank deleted all data on the servers with anything related to the yellow jacket project before they all left the building. Entering behind them was a group of SHIELD and SHADE agents who detained them all.
Not wanting another shrink tech suit out there had already removed the memories from Cross' mind. With the yellow jacket being destroyed by Hank and all the data gone Harry and Natasha left for home. Before they left Scott was invited to SHADE and the Avengers training while getting Maria to expunge his record.
Harry wrote a report, which he whined about to Natasha, and submitted it to Maria for record keeping. The Ant Man YellowJacket situation was at an end and the Avengers had a new prospective member.
/OO-HP•SoS-OO\
Walking into his home with Natasha Harry wasn't surprised to see the house quiet, as it was nearly 4 AM. Walking into the kitchen Harry was greeted by a massive pile of dishes and a nearly empty fridge. Chuckling wryly he waved his hands at the dishes, causing them to wash themselves, as he made a shopping list.
"Looks like we need to go shopping tomorrow." Natasha said as she looked over the trash piling above the rim of the trash can. She picked up an empty bottle of ketchup and gave Harry a questioning look. Harry sighed as he took it from her and put it back in the trash.
"Teddy loves ketchup. When he was younger he used to crave the little packets. I try to keep him from eating it but with me not in the house and Pietro being a pushover, I bet he chugged it." Harry said with a small chuckle. Natasha looked at the empty container and smirked at the image.
It didn't take long for Harry to clean up the kitchen and they both went upstairs to check on the kids. Wanda was asleep like normal but Pietro was hanging halfway off his bed as Teddy, in wolf form, was lightly kicking his feet into Pietro's side. Natasha was quick to whip out her phone and take several pictures before she moved over and adjusted their sleeping positions.
Harry watched Natasha as she adjusted his sons and couldn't help but feel a sense of overwhelming love for this woman. Not even 3 years ago she was the ultimate spy, few friends, no want or desire for family, but now here she was, taking pictures of his kids, tucking them in, talking about groceries. When she approached him he couldn't help but look at her with all the love he held causing her to stop right in front of him.
"What?" She asked as she looked into his eyes.
"I just love you so much." Harry said quietly. Natasha smiled as she hurriedly tugged him from the room back to their own.
AN: Just a quick note here. A few new readers have left reviews about the early parts of the story and I feel like I should state my reasons here.
The Ancient One has been watching the timeline for decades, maybe even centuries. She ensures that it follows the best possible future as far as she can tell.
She isn't omniscient or all powerful and can only do the best she can. Harry is an unknown variable tossed into the pond she's watched since she became the Sorcerer Supreme. The points in the timeline she warns him about are mainly origin stories. If he stops the abduction of Tony Stark will he still be Iron Man? If Thor can't redeem himself is he still the Thor in the Avengers? There are somethings I did change, but I did so under the impression that the changes would be positive for whoever they affect. Not allowing Bruce Banner to exile himself and instead create a dialog between two halves of a whole. Improvement. Giving Tony a bit more time and befriending him while he thought he was dying? Improvement.
Do I think it's all perfect and as well written as I'd like it to be? No. I'm still learning everyday, this is my first story and I'm hoping ot learn more as I write.
Anyways for most everyone who's read up to this point this isn't anything you should worry about I just wanted it out there to give everyone a view into my thought processes.
Hope everyone liked the chapter. Cheers!