Chapter 104: Hank Pym

A/N: Hank Pym POV.

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When Darren Cross stole his company out from under him, Hank could have gone scorched earth. He could have burnt everything to the ground and left them both with nothing. It wouldn't have even been particularly difficult, though doing so through legal channels without breaking the law WOULD have been harder.

He'd refrained, not necessarily out of any great love for Darren despite having once viewed him as the son he'd never had… but because of Hope. His own daughter had teamed up with his protégé against him and been the deciding vote that had seen him kicked out of his own damn company.

That, Hank had to admit, had left him reeling. And so he'd backed off, leaving with his tail tucked between his legs. Of course, he'd still had the last laugh, or so he figured. They might have Pym Technologies, but they would never have Pym Particles. Hank figured he would make sure of that.

In hindsight, perhaps he should have gone scorched earth. Given everything that had come out about Darren's criminal activities, Hank really had dropped the ball when he'd let the man essentially get away with taking Pym Technologies. Things could have turned out far worse than they ultimately had, that was for sure.

Innocent men and women of science could have been kidnapped and forced to work for Darren. Hope could have been drawn further into the man's web instead of just being an unwitting patsy. And while Hank liked to think nobody in particular was smart enough to crack his Pym Particles, a whole bunch of brilliant people working in conjunction, even unwillingly, might have been able to do the trick.

All in all, Hank was glad that Darren and his coconspirators had been taken down, along with this 'Hand' organization. Even if it was obviously SHIELD who had done the taking down. SHIELD… and Stark. Tch. Howard Stark had been dead for over twenty years, and yet Hank still found himself dealing with a Stark-shaped thorn in his backside.

With Darren's crimes coming to light, the board should have had no choice but to come crawling back to him to save them. Hank Pym, the exiled CEO kicked out by that no-good son of a bitch, was the obvious choice for rehabilitating Pym Technologies' image. Unfortunately, the board weren't interested in rehabilitating the company's image. Nor were they any longer interested in fighting the losing battle against Stark Industries that had led Darren down his dark path in the first place.

Maybe if Hank had been the one to reach out to his friends on the board the moment that the news about Darren's arrest broke… but no. He'd sat back and waited patiently, figuring they HAD to come to him on their hands and knees and beg for forgiveness.

Instead, the damn sellouts had immediately sold his company to fucking Stark. SI had swooped in and scooped up Pym Technologies, Rand Enterprises, and Hammer Industries for pennies on the dollar, and all three were now poised to become subsidiaries of the impossibly powerful company that had taken the whole world by storm.

But then, it made sense. Hank knew things that others did not. Tony Stark was on the World Security Council, and clearly had his hands on the controls when it came to SHIELD. And with him and SHIELD backing her up, how could Pepper Stark and Stark Industries ever fail?

Hank couldn't even bring himself to be happy about Hope becoming CEO instead of him. As much as he was proud of his daughter in a number of ways, he'd heard all sorts of rumors about what Stark and his wife got up to behind closed doors and he didn't want that for Hope. He didn't want her to fall under their sway.

That was why he'd decided he had to act. He'd begun putting out feelers, doing a little clandestine information gathering here and there. Stark Industries was damn near impenetrable though, so hacking them digitally didn't seem likely to work. He'd just begun toying with the idea of pulling out his old Ant-Man Suit and hacking them PHYSICALLY… when suddenly, he'd gotten a message from Tony Stark himself.

Hank had been rather caught off guard by that, obviously. Especially since the message seemingly had nothing to do with Stark Industries, Pym Technologies, or Hank's current forays into corporate espionage. Instead, Tony wanted to talk to Hank about a research opportunity of all things… concerning quantum technology.

If it had been anything else, Hank would have blown Tony off immediately. But hearing that Stark was looking into quantum tech… that scared Hank. He wasn't completely ignorant of the other man's brilliance. Tony made his father Howard look like a caveman smacking rocks together, quite frankly. If the younger Stark got into quantum, he might just stumble upon Pym Particles by complete accident. And then he'd probably rename them something stupid like Stark Particles or something!

And so Hank found himself stepping into a laboratory, ready for just about anything. He'd try to talk Stark out of quantum research first, and if that didn't work… well, they would have to go from there, wouldn't they?

"Ah, Dr. Pym. A pleasure to finally meet face to face."

Pym narrows his eyes as Tony gives him a smile and offers a hand. He wants to say something pithy and reject the handshake, but that goes against his current goals of convincing the other man that quantum technology is too dangerous a field for him to get into. So instead, he forces a smile on his face and tries to play nice, accepting the handshake… and slipping a shrunken electronic bug onto the skin of Tony's wrist in the process. Too tiny to even be noticed by the human eye, of course.

"Dr. Stark. You certainly knew how to get my attention. I wonder, was it your father who told you about me?"

Ah, it seemed he couldn't quite keep the pithiness entirely at bay. Fortunately, Stark doesn't seem to take it personally. In fact, Tony chuckles as he pulls back.

"My father mentioned you were a brilliant man… but actually, it was SHIELD's files that told me everything I currently know about you, Dr. Pym. Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, I know you and my father didn't always see eye to eye."

Of course. Though Hank does find himself a little surprised that Tony was willing to admit he had control of the organization. From what Hank had been able to find out, Howard hadn't told his son anything about SHIELD. It wasn't until after the incident in 2008 that the younger Stark and the spy agency wound up on each other's radar. Said a lot that in seven years, Tony had basically taken over though.

"Right, well when you throw around words like quantum… you catch my attention, like I'm sure you knew you would. I'm hoping you're going to be more reasonable than your father was, Stark. Quantum Technology is dangerous. The Quantum Realm isn't the kind of thing you want to mess around with. You should reconsider this line of research and preferably shut it down altogether."

There. He'd been as polite as he could be. Upfront and honest too. At least if Tony shot him down now, Hank could say he'd done everything he could, right?

Tilting his head to the side, Tony's smile becomes tinged with sadness.

"I'm afraid that's not a possibility, given the circumstances. I know your fear of the Quantum Realm comes from a healthy place considering you lost your wife to it… but there's someone who needs our help all the same. And your expertise in particular."

What? Before Hank can figure out what the hell Tony is talking about, someone… or something suddenly walks into the laboratory. Not through the sealed doors however, but through the damn wall. Clad in a white bodysuit with an imposing hood and helmet that has five intimidating red eyes on it, the newcomer stalks forward. Hank quickly realizes they're female, whoever they are, even as they get ever closer.

He's just getting ready to deploy one of the many contingencies he's brought with him today when Tony abruptly holds up a hand, stopping the newcomer in her tracks.

"Careful now. Dr. Pym is a little jumpy, I'm afraid. We wouldn't want to scare him. Dr. Pym, this is Ghost. A former SHIELD Operative."

Former? Hank furrows his brow as he looks between the now-named 'Ghost' and Tony Stark. Ghost stands silently, seeming unwilling to speak up. This leaves Tony to do the explaining, which he does with a sad smile.

"Ghost here suffers from a very rare issue… specifically, she suffers from molecular disequilibrium. This causes her to randomly phase in and out of reality. When SHIELD first got their hands on her, she was just a little girl who had no control of her abilities. They told her they would help her… and then turned her into a weapon instead. The suit she wears allows her nominal control over her phasing, which as you can imagine, made her a very lucrative operative for their purposes."

As Hank is processing all of that, Tony proceeds to drop even more bombshells on him.

"Unfortunately, I just recently found out she even existed. There was a lot that certain… elements of SHIELD were hiding from the World Security Council that has come to light in the past year. Ghost here was just one item on a laundry list of amoral actions I've uncovered since those elements of SHIELD were dismantled and the WSC was able to get access to the things being kept from us."

Hank narrows his eyes, even as Tony glances at Ghost and then looks back at him.

"The molecular disequilibrium is getting worse and while I've already managed to design several upgrades to her suit, it's not enough. She needs your help, Dr. Pym. Plain and simple. Her lifespan can be measured in years at this point, if not months."

Slowly, Hank lets out a shuddering breath. Stark sounds earnest, but then so did Howard the day that Hank resigned from SHIELD all those years ago.

"Hank, we need you. The Pym Particle is a miracle. Please, don't let your past determine the future."

Howard's words from all that time ago echo through Hank's head for a moment before he huffs at the expectant look the man's son is giving him.

"Of course I'll help. But I don't see what this has to do with Quantum Research, Stark. And I still stand by what I said before. Forget about Quantum Technology and the Quantum Realm. We shouldn't need either to try and assist Ms. Ghost here with her problem."

Indeed, he was confident that he could help Ghost out with the molecular disequilibrium without touching the Quantum Realm. His Pym Particles also functioned on a subatomic molecular level, after all. He would just need to- why was Stark shaking his damn head?!

"While I understand why you might think that Dr. Pym, it's incorrect. Quantum Technology is exactly what Ghost needs… because Quantum Technology is what put her in this situation in the first place. And now she needs Quantum Energy in large quantities if she's ever going to be stabilized."

Wait, what?

Hank's brow furrows, even as Tony explains.

"You didn't think to question WHY Ghost suffers from this issue. She wasn't born with it or anything and you can't just develop an 'intangibility disorder' on a whim either. No, she was involved in an accident… an accident connected to an attempt at creating a Quantum Tunnel."

Hank's eyes widen, damn near bulging out of his head at that. A Quantum Tunnel? But that… as far as Hank knew, only one group had ever tried to get a Quantum Tunnel up and running. He'd been part of it, fairly early on. Him, Bill Foster… and Elihas Starr. The three men had been researching Quantum Energy right up until Elihas got greedy and tried to steal Pym's work for himself.

Afterwards, Elihas hadn't left well enough alone. He and his family had moved to Argentina, where he'd managed to create another unstable Quantum Tunnel using what he remembered of Pym's work. Hank and Janet had been forced to go there and stop him, as Ant-Man and the Wasp.

But that had been decades ago. For Ghost to be involved as a little girl, it would mean…

Suddenly, the masked woman reaches up and pulls back her hood. Then, she carefully reaches under her mask and unseals it, before pulling it off her face. Hank's breath hitches, because… because she's the spitting image of her mother, Elihas' wife. Her voice, seemingly raspy and quiet from lack of use, fills the suddenly silent laboratory.

"My name is Ava Starr. My father was Elihas Starr. After you fired him and had him blacklisted, he tried to continue his research on his own. He took risks and something went wrong. We couldn't run in time. When I woke up, my parents were already dead. I wasn't so lucky."

Hank stands there, frozen in place. He… he hadn't known either of Elihas' family members were there that day. When he and Janet had confronted the man, he'd been alone save for his armed goons. When they'd fled the scene before the Quantum Tunnel could explode, his wife and daughter must have run in while Elihas was trying to salvage the damn thing. If they'd known… Hank liked to think he and Janet would have gone back in to try and save them if they could. But ultimately…

Judging by the not-so-murderous look in Ava Starr's eyes, she doesn't know the part Hank played in the failure of her father's Quantum Tunnel. Judging by the comment Stark made about 'everything he knows' about Hank coming from SHIELD files… he does. That had been a SHIELD mission, after all. So of course Tony fucking Stark would know.

He hadn't told Ava though. Presumably to keep her from trying to murder Hank for his role in getting her parents killed. Hank hated feeling grateful to a Stark for anything, but he throws a nearly imperceptible nod Tony's way all the same. And yet, despite that…

"I'm sorry for what happened to your father and mother, Ava. It was a tragedy. But… their deaths are exactly why the Quantum Realm is too dangerous to toy around with. There is no way to create a safe or stable Quantum Tunnel. It's impossible."

Ava's face immediately furls into a full-blown frown, her brow furrowing as her lips turn downwards in displeasure. It's obvious she's spent a LOT of time in that mask of hers, because the young woman has absolutely no poker face whatsoever. Tony Stark on the other hand…

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, Dr. Pym. While we definitely need your help, I had some free time last night to whip something together before we saw you today. Here, take a look at this."

It was his turn to frown as Stark hands him a tablet. Putting on his glasses, Hank begins to look through the information on the screen in front of him… and then peers more closely at it as he begins to truly dig into what's there. This was…

"You wrote this all up yourself, Stark?"

"Mm, yes. Why?"

Looking up from the frankly incredible work with a growing sense of incredulity, Hank stares Tony Stark in the eyes.

"And when exactly did you become an expert on Quantum Mechanics?"

Tony just smiles benignly.

"Didn't I already say? Last night."

… The younger Stark was going to give him just as many headaches as the older one did, Hank can already tell. And yet… there's something here. Damn it all, but there really is something here. And if Hank can do something for Ava, for Elihas' daughter… then maybe, just maybe, it's his duty to try.

More than that though, if this works out like it seems it could and it turns out creating a proper Quantum Tunnel is possible… could Janet still be out there? Could she be brought back? He doesn't dare to dream, doesn't dare to even begin to hope, and yet…

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A/N: Probably should have handled Ava Starr back during the fall of SHIELD, but better later than never!

Tomorrow, Ava POV~

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