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𝑰𝑻 𝑻𝑨𝑲𝑬𝑺  𝑻𝑾𝑶
-𝒔𝒆𝒃𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏
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          OUTSIDE THE appointed location, Scott stuck his head between Hank and Hope. He pursed his lips, nodding at it. "This seems right."

Christina let out a small sigh to herself, slipping on her glove. Soon enough, Scott was wearing his Antman uniform smiling at her. "Look at us, teaming up twice in one day."

"Makes you think, huh?" Hope called from the passenger seat, turning her head. Scott glanced over her shoulder.

"About what?"

"Germany." She replied before looking at her father. Scott then turned to Chris, who nodded in agreement. "We were all working together..."

A smile crept back on Scott's lips. He bent his head slightly to talk directly at Chris. "If I'd asked you to come, would you?"

Christina slowly turned her wrist, testing for any tightness in the leather glove. She glanced back up at him with a smirk. "Guess we'll never know, huh?"

Giving her head a sharp nod, her mask flipped over her face before she shrunk down and flew out of the van's window. Scott huffed, shaking his head.

"If she had gone with you..." Hope spoke up again, catching his attention. "You would have never been caught."

Scott kept quiet, thinking their words over. After a moment, he shrunk down as well, jumping on a flying ant and following Christina. Hank and Hope sat back in their seats, watching the two from their laptops.

"You know, I thought of a new name for my ant," Scott said as they dove through a crack in the front door. "I'm thinking Ulysses S. Gr-Ant. You like it?"

Christina scoffed at him, shaking her head. "You and your names, Scott..."

"I'm not getting anything on the monitors," Hank commented as they flew through the house's entrance. "There's some kind of electronic disturbance."

"Be careful, you guys," Hope added.

"You know me, Hank. I'm always careful—agh!" He cried out when he almost hit a white suit with a mask.

Christina hovered beside him, holding out an arm. "It's fine, it's just the suit."

"How do you know?"

Her head craned to the side as her eyes caught another room. "Cause, look."

They slowly made their way across the room, staring at a young woman who was inside a glass chamber. Radiation seemed to wave across her body as she was asleep.

"That's Ghost?"

"What is she doing?" Hope asked quietly in their comms.

"You think the suit is a way for her to go through walls and stuff?" Scott asked.

"Just get the lab before she wakes up." Hope reminded as Christina spotted it in the corner. She landed swiftly on the table as Scott jumped off his ant.

They both peered up at it. "Now, you're sure this is our shrunken building and not somebody else's, right?"

Christina softly scoffed at him, giving his shoulder a light smack. "Scott, c'mon."

In unison, they both jumped back and switched to their normal sizes. Scott nodded at her as their masks flipped back. "I'll get it."

Sighing again, Christina cast a curious glance over her shoulder at Ghost, only to find her gone. Her brows furrowed. "Where did she—?"

Before she could finish her sentence, she was hit bluntly in the back of the head. Her body limply fell forward, and her vision went black.

          SCOTT AWOKE with a groan, his head throbbed with pain. When he tried to move his arms, he noticed his wrists tied to the back of the chair he was sitting in. His head turned, finding Christina, Hope and Hank all tied up too.

"Christina? Hope. Hank!" He whispered at them. "Guys."

Suddenly, Ghost appeared before Scott, scaring him. "I don't think they can hear you." She spoke with an accent. She fidgeted with the sleeves of her shirt. "Hi. I'm Ava."

"Scott," he replied back, blinking. "So...you don't need the suit to..." He trailed off and Ava gave him a weird look. "You know, go through things."

She smiled at him, shaking her head. "No. It just helps me control it. And the pain, supposedly."

Scott nodded at her, stilling eyeing her warily. "You're not gonna reach into my chest and crush my heart, are you?"

Ava laughed softly before stepping forward. "You're funny." She slowly lowered to her knees in front of him. "I'm not gonna hurt you, Scott, unless I have to." Ava's hands reached up, stopping in front of his face. "I need...what's in your head."

Scott gasped softly, trying to prepare himself for any torture or pain she would give him. But after a moment, she frowned a pulled away her hands. She watched as they phased around, not going still as she wanted.

Ava deadpanned at Scott before standing back up. "Let's wake up the rest of the gang and get this over with, shall we?"

She moved around Scott, kicking the rest of the people's chairs. "Get up! Come on!"

Hope looked around in panic. "Dad?"

Christina grunted, moving her neck stiffly. "Ugh, my head."

Hope glared up at Ava. "Don't ever touch him again."

"Now, now, Hope," Ava said back with an equal glare. "I think I'm being rather gentle with your father, all things considered."

Hank blinked in confusion at her. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Another casualty of Hank Pym's ego."

The four heads turned to watch Bill walk into the room.

"Bill," Hank said venom. He glanced at Ava, "What have you done?"

"It's what you've done, Doctor Pym." Ava shot back at the man. Bill joined her side.

"You with her?" Scott asked, nodding up at Bill. He shook his head. "Oh, man. I thought you were cool."

"What the hell is going on here?" Hope asked, glancing at Hank again.

"Can someone please fill us in? Cause I really hate when people let things go on and on..." Christina opened groaned in annoyance, which was unlike her character.

"I doubt Hank has ever mentioned my father." Ava started, continuing to stare at said person. "Why would he? Elihas Starr. They were colleagues at SHIELD. Quantum research. Until my father dare disagree with the great Hank Pym."

Chris narrowed her eyes in confusion.

"You had him fired. Oh, and discredited for good measure." Ava looked at Hope, nodding. "My father tried to continue his research on his own. Desperate to restore his name, so he took risks. Too many.

"Until something went wrong. He told us to run. I could tell he was scared. I didn't want him to be alone..." She paused, pained by the memory. "When I woke up, my parents were dead. I wasn't so lucky. They call it molecular disequilibrium. A rather dull name, I think. Doesn't quite do justice to what it means. Every cell in my body is torn apart and stitched back together. Over and over. Every day."

Hank and Hope shared a look.

"I was still at SHIELD when I got the call," Bill continued the story. "Got a call about a quantum anomaly in Argentina."

"Doctor Foster did his best to keep me safe. But others at SHIELD saw an opportunity in my affliction." Ava looked at each one as she spoke. Christina bowed her head in sympathy, knowing the dark secrets SHEILD had with Hydra after the fall of it.

"They built me a containment suit, so I could control my phasing. And trained me to be a stealth operative. They weaponized me. I stole for them. Spied for them. I killed for them. And in exchange for my soul...they were going to cure me."

Ava blinked as tears formed in her eyes. "They lied."

"When SHIELD collapsed, I took Ava in. I built the chamber to slow her decay, but her condition was progressive. I didn't know how to cure it—"

The sudden sound of ducks quacking interrupted him. Scott's eyes widened, knowing it was his ringtone for when someone was texting him.

When the noise paused, Bill continued. "—She wanted to kill you, Hank. But I told her no. And that she should watch you instead. Sure enough, she discovered that you were building a tunnel."

The phone went off again. Bill glared at the phone.

"Then she told me about Lang. And the message from Janet inside his head." Bill stepped towards Scott, causing Christina to straighten her back defensively. "That's when I—"

Scott's phone chimed again, wearing off the heaviness of Bill's words. Chris couldn't help but snort.

"Christ's sake!" Bill exclaimed, stalking over to his phone.

"That's me, I'm sorry." Scott leaned his head back, watching him. "Look, can you tell me who's texting me?"

Bill held the phone, squinting at it. "Cassie, 911."

Christina glanced at Scott with concern. "Oh shit."