47 CHAPTER 47 - CORPORATE ESPIONAGE AT ITS FINEST

I had a feeling that, sooner or later, something was about to blow up and since this was Marvel, yeah, that means every Tuesday.

As much as Hank Pym didn't trust me, he actually relented to accept my help just when Darren Cross arrived at his house. 

It was actually funny seeing them holding their breaths the entire time Darren Cross was here and couldn't believe their eyes when the man didn't even notice their presence. 

A little hard light manipulation and the man thought he was alone with Hank Pym and a neighbor who came over for the baseball game. 

I could feel that he wanted to kill Hank Pym then and there but a little nudge from me was all that was needed for him to scrap that plan. I put the thought that it'll be much better if Hank Pym lives to see everything he's ever cherished be completely taken by Cross and then die. 

Normally I'd be done with something like this but the call was Hank's to make. He still wanted to go the route of corporate sabotage and have Scott steal the Yellowjacket but it was a little boring for me so I decided to add a little spice. 

Wouldn't it be better for him to lose everything he's ever worked for on the day he thought he'd finally make it to the top of the world? 

It only took a few minutes for the database of Cross Technologies to be as open to me as Hell's gate is to a sinner. It was filled with all the illegal protocols the man had taken in his endeavor to perfect his own version of the Pym Particles. 

The database of Cross Technologies was quite secured due to the high number of cyber attacks they get in a single day and if I had tried hacking it then no doubt they would have been alerted but I'd fractioned a part of my mind into a few kilobytes of data and filtered myself into their internet connection and from there I download a larger part of my consciousness that was sufficient for the task into their software as cache data and went unhindered from there. 

"So how are we going to do this?" An all too excited Scott asked. 

"I'll get you inside without anyone knowing and all you have to do is get the Yellowjacket out of there as fast as you can. Pietro will clear out the civilians in the event that a fight breaks out." I explain to them while slowly drinking the tea the old man had been so gracious to make for me. 

I managed to pick up on the range of frequencies he used in controlling the ants but I wasn't able to find out how he had interwoven them to form some sort of imperial language that the ants couldn't reject. Well, I'll crack it soon but I wasn't interested in it. 

"And what will you be doing?" Hope asked with apparent skepticism. 

"Me?" I pointed to myself then shrugged. "I promised Laura's mother that she won't be fighting so I'll be on babysitting role, I'm afraid. But don't worry, I have the entire building under watch, nothing can get past me without me knowing as long as I'm watching."

Perhaps having seen my previous display, she didn't argue too much left for the company since she had to welcome some bigshots and potential buyers. 

"How about we get this quickly sorted out so everyone can go home early?"

Hank grunted, cursing under his breath in incomprehensible words while Scott looked hyped up. 

I could feel Laura's eagerness rising but I only shook my head at her and doused any bubbling excitement she was feeling. It irked me a little how much she liked fighting, which she actually didn't. It was more like her body's natural reaction to any visible conflict.

It was an animalistic tendency that I wanted her to gain control over. Logan suffered the same thing along with his brother, Victor Creed, which made them quite the bloodthirsty duo during their younger years. To satiate their thirst for battle was also the reason why they scripted to fight in the world war. It only got better for Logan after he had his adamantium implant which dulled his animalistic side quite a bit, but not completely. 

I received a status update request from Steve along the way to Cross Technologies which I replied to give him the heads up of what was about to happen. 

"So how do I get in?" Scott asked as we parked in front of the huge building. 

"Easy, we walk in." They were all stunned and before any of them, Hank and Hope, could voice their objection, I was already inside the building after going through security with Laura without it triggering a beep. 

"Get moving." I said and made my way towards the room for the secret presentation. 

It was obvious that the Yellowjacket presentation was something only a few knew of, so the rest of the people here were for the unveiling of other projects his group had completed. 

"How did you do that?" I heard Hope's voice in my head as Laura and I calmly walked behind Darren Cross as he talked to some key figures and a few of their identities were interesting to say the least. 

"I hacked into your company's systems, that's also how I included both mine, Laura's and Pietro's invitation in their registry." I answered nonchalantly as we entered the dark room with little lights before Cross started his presentation. 

I have to give it to the guy that he definitely had a sense of aesthetics because the Yellowjacket's design looked good. 

Somewhere during the middle of Cross' presentation, I became aware that I was being observed which shouldn't have been possible since apart from not using my real human face, I was in a psychic zone that diminished any precognitive senses that focused on me or in the perimeter of the zone. 

It made people naturally forget my presence, making me easily blend into the background. The only way someone can intently look at me was if they were immune to this level of telepathy. 

Without giving away that I was aware of their stare, I subtly registered the number of presences here with only my telepathic senses and found that the owner of the stare was quite subdued as opposed to the rest here. 

I looked through the cameras here and saw that it was some middle-aged man. Crossing his face through the registry of this event, I found out that he was called Jonathan Drane, no records whatsoever. Most likely a fake identity. 

I refocused my attention to Darren Cross who was about to have his life's work stolen before his eyes and the eyes of his buyers. 

"Gentlemen, I give you – The Yellowjacket."

The toy-sized yellow armed suit was revealed while inside a reinforced glass tube that was protected by lasers blocking the only open vent that was connected to it.

I knew he was hoping Scott Lang was trying to steal it and he'd already taken countermeasures to make sure that the smaller man couldn't escape. 

Under the astonished gaze of every one, including Darren Cross, something like a fly hit the suit and it fell down the tube it came up on. Darren was quick to tap a few buttons and had a small smile on his face that was threatening to burst out as he waited expectantly for the now closed off tube to bring the Ant-Man suit back up. 

The audience calmed down since Darren looked as if he knew what was going on but after a few seconds the room slowly became awkward as the man started breathing roughly and his face turned ashen as he frantically tapped on the tablet in his hands. 

"No, no, no, no… This can't be happening…" He muttered chaotically to himself which affirmed the audience that something had gone majorly wrong. 

While some didn't see it due to how fast it happened, some with more acute eyesight caught the man-like tiny shadow that grabbed the Yellowjacket under the microscope. 

As they were about to leave, Darren pulled out a gun and pointed it at his former mentor, Hank Pym. "It was you, wasn't it? He's still in the building and there's no way he can escape."

I looked at Laura who calmly watched everything with sharpened eyes and a steady heartbeat. She looked ready for an assault if anything attacked. "It got boring pretty quick, right?" 

"Yes." She simply said. She really was a person of few words. 

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