Back to GatefoldIssue #12 by A. Crute
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"New York Giants - Part Three"
A small quorum of Avengers stood in Hank Pym’s apartment. It had been decided long ago that three would be the number needed to make this decision...three Avengers honest, good and true because this decision was possibly one of their most important. It was one which could have implications for the rest of the world.
“You want to activate Ultron?” Scott was aghast with the suggestion made by Hank Pym but his shock came out as anger. Hank stood before Ant-Man and the Vision, the two members that he had chosen to be his co-conspirators in this endeavour. He had opened the box containing his worst creation’s head and cognitive matrix and held the silver skull aloft.
An indestructible Adamantium shield blocked off the base of its neck with another sealed container containing the vital memory boards and complex circuitry needed to run the programme.
“It’s the only way,” Hank looked deep into the lifeless eyes of his ‘son’, his greatest shame and was half astonished by the resolute reflection which stared back. There was no nervousness and no hesitance. This was the action which needed to be undertaken, he was sure of it. He turned to Vision. “Vision, you can work through the calculations. What do you think?”
The red-faced synthezoid stood frozen, his face was as usual unreadable as he completed some complex calculation of probability in his mind. “I agree this is the only successful course of action,” Vision nodded and with a thought transmitted his access code to the machine which hung around the neck of the Ultron unit.
Scott turned his back on his two fellow Avengers and faced Cassie who was standing quietly behind them, listening and taking everything in but knowing that this was not something she could be involved in. “I can’t,” he said with a shake of his head, “I can’t be responsible for possibly releasing Ultron.”
Hank couldn’t lie to him and tell him he wouldn’t be responsible but he could lay out the facts. The world was being invaded by giant insects from another dimension and so far no one was making a scratch. “You know the seriousness of the situation, nothing is too great a risk.” Hank shook his head. “This is Johnny Storm using the Ultimate Nullifier on Galactus but this time it rests on our shoulders.”
Scott dropped down on the back of the sofa and cradled his chin with the side of his hand before rubbing his face. “Why can’t Vision do it...Vision has all the processing power of Ultron.”
“Whilst our processing...our intellects,” Vision spoke again always using the most human of terms possible, “...have never been compared, given what we have both achieved that is a fair assumption. I believe that is not the issue.”
“Vision is right,” said Hank with a nod. “The issue is not the processing power, its the linking of two systems. Ultron’s programming is –no matter how far removed – built up around my brain patterns, the structures of MY mind. For the plan to be as effective as we need, our ‘minds’ need to work as one, in synch. For a short time, Ultron and I must become one again.”
“Are you kidding me!? You can’t be serious!”
“Scott!” Hank snapped “This is the last resort we have. If we don’t agree to this now then the world dies! We all die! I don’t want to have you over a barrel but you need to either get on board now or get out there and fight so another Avenger can come and sign off on this.”
Scott was taken aback for a second. He had never seen Hank like this. “I’m worried,” he admitted “You’re going to merge with Ultron...to access his mind and processing power because its beyond what you can do...”
“A door opened goes both ways,” Cassie said piping up quietly. She was voicing what her father was nervous about doing.
Hank sighed gently. It was a sigh of frustration, and he began to speak with resolution. “I understand why you’re both worried....I will beat him. Come hell or high water I will beat him back with every inch of my being and I will not let him win. If he does put a bullet in my head and have done with it, the world will be safe and that’s all that matters.” He stared intently at Scott, not blinking, not breaking the gaze.
Scott paused for a second and reached into his costume’s pocket to retrieve his Avenger’s signal card. He slid his finger across it and awaited the light on Ultron’s box to light.
“So now what?” Cassie asked.
“Now we buy time,” Hank said as he moved across the room. “Scott, as proud as I am of Ant-Man you’re going to need this.” Hank grabbed a small container from the table and threw it to his friend. Scott knew what they were instantly.
“So first I steal your Ant-Man identity and now I’m Giant-Man?” He snorted slightly, trying to make light of the situation.
“I’m coming too,” the three men turned to Cassie who had grown to 9 feet tall.
“No!” Scott turned to face his daughter and stared up at her face. “I am not putting you in danger.”
“I’m already in danger Dad,” she said gruffly. “Everywhere on the planet today is in danger and whether you like it or not I’ve got the power to help and so I should. You and everyone else I love put themselves at risk every day because it’s the right thing to do...you can’t stop me doing the same. Why am I any different?.”
Scott snapped the small black packet open and began to grow until he was relative size to Cassie. “You’re my little girl,” he paused for a second and reached out to stroke her face. “That’s what makes you different.”
“Everyone is someone’s son or daughter...or father. The New Warriors are fighting, the teen X-Men kids are fighting. I’m not a little girl anymore, I’m a superhero like my Dad.”
Scott stopped talking. You could see the decision tearing at his mind. Cassie had landed some blow of logic whilst his natural tendency to protect her tore at his gut. “1) You stick by my side...at all times. 2) You do exactly what I say. 3) If I say ‘run’ you shrink as small as you can and you run and 4) It was Stature, wasn’t it?”
The two embraced and began to shrink back down to size. Vision pressed his hand against both of them and phased through the floor.
Hank watched them go and then turned back to his ‘son’. “Forgive me for what I am about to do.”
# # # # #
Los Angeles...
Miguel Santos arced out of a row of power lines and into a giant bug creature, causing it to spasm and twitch before he darted back out.
He was the Living Lightning, Ex-Avenger and part time hero and part time sociology PHD student. But today he was on hero duty.
“Come on, Miguel,” he chided himself as he hurled himself with willpower across the space between the next row of pylons. He exploded out of a fuse box further down the street where one of the giant beetle creatures was tearing the side off a car to get at the young family inside.
“Hey bicho,” he called from behind the insect. “You not got the cahones to deal with a real challenge?” He unleashed a shower of sparks to draw its attention. It seemed to be very effective.
Insects often navigate by light sources and so his little light show distracted and lead it easily. He let the electricity arc across his head and along the length of his arms. He stretched it out and lashed it like a whip across the back of the insect. He wasn’t sure how much he had hurt the insect but he had certainly bought the family a little more time to escape.
The bug charged; it was quick. He dodged left and he dodged right as the blades of the insect slashed through the air towards him. He transformed himself back to energy when one blade came a little too close so he could gain a little more speed. He was one of the fastest super-humans on the planet even though he was often never thought of as such.
This is bad...quite bad, thought Miguel as he continued with his dodging, occasionally throwing electrical bursts of plasma into the face of the bug, something it shuck off without too much effect. He had been at this for about an hour now putting out fires with the bugs in the city but he was aware through glancing at his communications device that this was a worldwide problem. He’d been waiting for some idea to come through from Iron Man or Reed Richards or some rousing plan by Captain America...all he got was ‘keep fighting’. The heroes were on the back foot. He was fighting the insects in a pitched battle but he knew that there were hundreds if not thousands who had descended on the city and they were probably right now devouring its citizens. Well if they’re not going to save the day for us, time to reach deep, Miguel!
He transformed to electricity and arced forward running his entire power through the body of the insect. He sparked out in every direction when he was in there, firing all of the neurones he could, twitching every muscle before launching out behind the creature.
He turned to see it spasaming, shedding and shitting in the place where it stood before it let out a blast of acid from its mouth. He took the few second break this had given him to act. He reached out with his powers and strained (magnetism was never an easy power for him to control).
A light show of sparks erupted from the street light near them as it began to bend and shift, bent by a change in the electrostatic forces around it before it thrust down, spearing the bug through the center. It shrieked and then fought no more.
Miguel transformed back to human form and leaned forward, pressing his hands to his knees as he breathed deeply. “That wasn’t so hard,” he sardonically told himself.
A rumble of noise made him stand slowly and nervously turn his head towards the intersection down the road. A mass of millipedes, mantises, scorpions (as he’d taken to characterising them) were stampeding round the corner.
They were drawn either by the light show he’d been putting on, some call put out by the one he’d just killed or the universe not liking his glib attitude. Either way he blamed himself.
“Come on,” he leapt, back transforming his feet and lower legs into their energy form and raced backwards at speed. He raced in a zig zag pattern in front of the bugs trying to come up with some sort of plan, something to pull his fat out of the fryer. All the while letting them get closer to lure them in.
He darted sideways up a building making the creatures follow him. “Come on, come on!” he yelled to egg them on even though he was quite sure they probably spoke neither English or Spanish. He was about 30 feet up the building racing up the length of the metal girders with magnetism. When he was at a safe distance from the passerbys below, he sharply spun and crouched into the side of the building.
He unleashed a full blast through the side of the building. The air filled with a stench of burning before exploding outwards. The glass in the windows and the top surface of the concrete exploded in a hail of molten hot debris. It tore through the insects like a hot knife through butter.
The mass of the falling debris caused a landslide of bug bodies to come crashing to the ground before being slammed again with the debris hitting the concrete.
Miguel hovered in the air for a second letting the dust settle, looking for movement before he began to lower himself to the ground. He touched the rubble with his energy before transforming back to his human form. He picked his way across the rubble, sparks erupting from his hands just looking for trouble.
All seemed quiet.
Then a bug exploded from the rubble beneath his feet, its pincers and mandibles thrashing madly. A last death gasp strike. Miguel launched back and unleashed a full blow of lightning into the creature until it tensed up and limply collapsed to the floor.
He smirked and breathed a sigh of relief before he suddenly jolted. He looked down at where his chest used to be and where now the giant stinger of a creature dripped venom through the front of his costume. A hole the size of a football collapsed in on itself as it pulled back its weapon.
Miguel dropped to his hands and knees, he struggled for breath. He felt a claw exploritorially nipping at his foot. He swore loudly and with his last breath exploded into a ball of lighting. The shock fried the creature alive as the Avenger left his worldly body behind.
# # # # #
Hank’s lab...
Hank exhaled slowly as he sat down at the computer. He had just finished wiring up the head of Ultron to a machine he needed to integrate with the technology. He had prepared for this moment. He performed one last check on the computer, typing rapidly.
He had set up a number of firewalls to provide some safety to the worries of Cassie. If all went to plan he could access all of Ultron whereas the machine son could only access the shallowest parts of his own.
He placed the specially adapted Ant-Man helmet onto his head. “God protect us all,” he said with a heavy sigh. He activated the programme.
Hank found himself in a replica of his old lab, the room where he had first created Ultron. The walls however were a blinding white light beaming out into the room, illuminating everything.
“Hello Father,” said Ultron’s voice from behind him. Hank turned to face his robotic offspring. The silver head floated in space detached from a body.
“Ultron,” Hank spoke cautiously as he looked at the head of his greatest enemy.
“We are not in reality are we?” the robot spoke with some certainty. Its eyes glowed red for a second, the walls around it turned a shocking pink for a second. Its body began to grow underneath it. He flexed his fingers into fists and then splayed them out again. “Some time has passed since I was last activated...we were in battle. Now we’re here. You’re older even this mental form of you.”
“You learn fast,” said Hank with a nod, almost a compliment. It was what he needed from the robot but he still needed to remain wary of the creature.
“All thanks to you, Daddy dearest.” Ultron moved around the room in long strides.
“Considering you’re an artificial intelligence you were always one for theatrics. Have you not got bored of the whole Oedipus schtick yet?” Hank shook his head and leaned back on his bench, looking at the robot. He was trying to show no concern or chink in his mental armor.
“I am my father’s son, am I not? You could have used any of your technologies to save the world 1000 times over but instead you had to use it to be center of attention...a celebrity, a superhero. I merely took it to the next level. In the first instance that you activated me all those years ago I have been determined to be the central figure in this world.”
Ultron’s features shifted to become a human male. His features were still silver and his eyes glowed red but he had clearly transformed into some composite facial features of a human male. “Would you have loved me more had I looked like this? This is the Ultron you always fantasized about, isn’t it?”
“I don’t have time for this,” said Hank with a sigh and held up his hand. Metal shackles formed around the arms and legs of Ultron. He walked quickly towards his creation and lay his hands on its temples. “I’m accessing your programming...synching our brain wave patterns once again. I need your processing power. This mental projection is just some epiphenomenon as I sort through the necessary details.” Hank was lying through his teeth, this programme was a distraction. Keep Ultron focused on this mental protection so he could access the back door of his programming.
“You and Jan are back together...is that Cassie? My how she’s grown. If you can’t tell, I’ve hacked through your firewalls.” Ultron giggled electronically. “If you feel a little tickle in your frontal lobe don’t worry, that’s just me.”
“You’re insane,” said Hank with a shake of his head. He was trying to dismiss the thoughts and worries about what Ultron was doing. He needed to be done with this as quickly as he could. The less access Ultron had to his mind the better.
“Insane? Can an AI be insane? I think more just corrupt programming...being stuck on standby as just a head experiencing every moment in my memory banks again and again on an endless loop.”
Hank silently continued his work plugging away. He was both in the room and in his own lab typing away at the keyboard through millions of lines of code mutated and amended beyond his old system.
“Talk about insane,” he giggled. “Do you know all of the things you’ve got in here? The things you’ve got ticking around in the deepest recesses of your mind.” He paused for a few moments before speaking again “OH! My my my its me! So many thoughts about me. Everyday tinkering with my design and my programming...there are some excellent ideas in here. I’ll make sure to adopt them in the future and I’ll let all the heroes know exactly where I got them from.”
“Ultron, if you keep talking I will make sure when you go back in the box you’ve got nothing but the most annoying pop songs to keep you company.”
“Is this the time for childish threats? Alien invasion going on, humanity hanging in the balance with only me and you to save them...and you’re not getting anywhere. Time and time again you’re running up against roadblocks. How long will it be before you realise that I’ve cut you off at every turniand you’re not getting access to the central processes of my mind...not unless I let you.” He sang the last little bit. He stretched out his hand and easily forced Hank back, breaking the shackles which bound him. “What were you thinking coming into a computer programme with me?”
“Ultron,” Hank gasped as he realised he couldn’t struggle free from whatever was holding him and he couldn’t eject himself from the program. He sighed heavily. “We to save the world.”
“We?” Ultron moved his head from side to side, smiling with the realistic facial muscles moving underneath his metal skin. “You, maybe...but I have no need for the human race. I can convert bugs to mechanical life as well as I can convert humans. If you want my help you have to offer me something I’m interested in.”
“What would that be?”
“15 seconds of your time,” he said with a smile. “It’s all a son ever wants from his father, some time.”
Hank watched him carefully. He didn’t speak.
“Okay, okay I’ll come clean. I’ve not been as truthful as I could have been. I have access to maybe 5% of your thoughts...surface things really. I want it all. If you’re going to commandeer my mind and fly me to the moon to let me play...sorry. If you want in the driving seat I want into your mind in return. 15 seconds is all I want...to complete the Oedipus complex, Father; to solve all of our problems. I become you and you become me for just 15 seconds. I’ll even let you try to hide things, tidy things up a little and shove some things into a closet in the back of your mind but then you open the door wide. I get 15 seconds to ransack the place.”
The two stared at each other in silence. “Little pig, little pig, wont you let me come in?”
# # # # #
New York...
The battle in New York was like Hell on Earth. The giant and the insects it spewed forth had dropped themselves in one of the most populated areas in the world which also happened to be the largest concentration of superheroes in the world. They had seemed to prep for this by loading a giant with the highest proportion of ‘bugs’ in it.
This was the beach head. If the superheroes fell in New York then the rest of the world was wide open to conquest and destruction. There had been no superhero fatalities in the city yet; tomorrow they would find out about Living Lighting and they would give him a heroes send off, but right now it was all about the fight. Civilian and law enforcement fatalities were in their thousands.
A series of fighter jets roared past Scott Lang’s head, unleashing a volley of shots at a small wispy swarm of bugs. They were in their finest dog-fight mode. Scott was new to being a giant but he was learning fast.
He felt a little unsure of himself and found cars ended up underfoot, throwing off his balance. He’d managed to destroy a floor of a building as he steadied himself against it as he wobbled sideways. He and the other Avengers were managing to hold their own.
“This works, Dad,” Cassie slapped her hands together, forcing a thrust of wind towards the insect-like creatures which sent them hurting backwards. The sizes the two were at now meant that the invaders were the relative size of normal insects to them but thankfully they didn’t seem to have the reflex speed (otherwise at human size they’d have no chance). She slammed the palm of her hand into the top of the building, killing a horde of Mantis who were about to leap at her father.
“How many hours a week have you been practicing this?” Scott asked. He swatted at bugs in the air sending them spiralling into the sides of buildings. One bounced sideways and nearly collided with Iron Man, who was zipping around at his top speed firing repulsor rays left and right.
“The last few months...I was sneaking Uncle Hank’s particles since he started hanging out with me.” She smiled weakly.
“This is why your calculus grades have slipped, isn’t it?” He let out a grunt of aggression as he slapped at a number of bugs which had landed on his chest and were trying to eat their way into his skin.
The Fantastic Four were as you would expect fighting their way through like it was just another day. The Storms were the MVPs of this invasion at the moment. Johnny finding quickly that regardless of where they come from bugs burn just as easily, and Sue had collected a fair number of carcases by, for lack of a better expression, creating a windshield to smush them against.
Reed had, of course, whipped up some tech thing which seemed to cause the bugs pain and send them fleeing (for about 30 feet). He was currently using it to protect civilians and usher them into relative safety inside buildings which lined the streets. The Thing was in full ‘Clobberin’!’ mode.
“Get down!” Jan yelled as she skidded across the floor between Scott and Cassie. She was a giant too and in doing so had caused quite a bit of collateral damage. The normal citizens in the buildings felt a small earthquake. One natural disaster followed another as a massive flash of light filled the air. A wasp sting at superhuman size was like a bolt of lightning, it discharged directly into the heart of a swarm causing hundreds of creatures to drop from the sky.
They crunched under foot as the three giants moved through the streets like a bad 50s horror movie. It had the unfortunate side-effect of drawing more and more insects towards them. She turned and let loose a shot just past the head of Cassie who was about to be swarmed. She shrieked loud enough to shatter the glass of a nearby office.
“How’re we doing?” Cassie yelled over the ungodly buzz of a million killer insects and an ongoing war.
“Just keep fighting,” commanded Jan. She was the consummate professional Avenger when it was needed. She knew it was all they could do, cops and fire fighters were doing the same, SHIELD had every agent at its disposal unleashing volleys of energy rifles and bullets from real ones from every vantage point...they were all being swamped by the swarm.
They heroes could barely see each other except for the giants who were noticeable even through the thick bugs which filled the air; they were a comfort to see for all involved.
“I’m getting scared,” Cassie admitted as she spat a bug out of her mouth who sought the opportunity to attack when she spoke.
“We all are, hon...argh,” Scott let out a yell of pain and grabbed for the back of his neck whilst crumbling to his knees. The two women saw the beetle creatures trailing into the skin over the top of Scott’s spine.
“Dad!” Cassie crouched to her father’s side.
“Cassie,” Jan yanked her back to her feet which caused the street to shake. Scott slammed his fist on the floor whilst he scrabbled at his neck with his other hand. “Don’t give them an opening!”
“But my Dad!” Cassie cried out as she resumed fighting. She was working on pure adrenaline and the want to live up to the roles set by her ‘family.’
“I’ve got him!” Jan launched forward, shrinking quickly...too quickly, really, as pain raced through her body. She knew from Hank the danger which can come from size changing too quickly. It could be deadly...but she forced through the pain. When she touched down on Scott’s neck she was human size and by the time she had sprinted across his flesh she had grown wings and dropped to that of a wasp.
The incision on his neck opened up to her like a cavern as she followed the burrowing bug. She vibrated her wings as fast as they would carry her avoiding the blood which poured from the walls rapidly filling the flesh tunnel. Every breath sent pain rippling through her body and it felt like her lungs would explode, taking the rest of her with them.
She caught up with the alien invader quickly enough. It was working its way through muscle and flesh towards Scott’s brain whereas she just had to follow it. She launched a series of Wasp Stings off its giant shell uselessly. It probably didn’t even feed it.
She gritted her teeth and launched forward. When Ant-Man and Yellowjacket shrunk down they retained the mass of a normally sized human which made them deadly in a fight. It turned out she could do the same from giant size. The mass was what was causing her pain, causing her very body to rip itself apart. It also meant she was like a guided missile as she tore straight through the insect dragging its insides to its outsides.
She grabbed the corpse and hauled it backward up the fleshy tunnel where she discarded it to the street. She began to grow as rapidly as she could, screaming through the pain. It lessened once she reached about 20 feet and it was able to be distributed through her body. She could tell now why Hank didn’t do that when he switched sizes.
“You okay?” She asked Scott as she helped him to his feet. She swatted at the bugs which had begun to attack her face.
“Fine...except the gaping neck wound and the thought that I now won’t be able to remember 3rd grade. I loved 3rd grade,” he laughed and as if nothing ever happened they both rejoined the fight with Cassie who in the mean time had obviously received several face lacerations.
“I hope Uncle Hank gets Ultron working soon...I am getting sick of all these bugs!” she yelled.
Jan unleashed another massive Wasp Sting with a bright orange glow to it. “Get what now?”
# # # # #
Hank’s computer...
Hank and Ultron’s human form slammed hard into the metal visualisation of a wall before them. Their fingers reached deeply into it, twisting it and crushing it before they were able to get a good hold and yanked at it. It came free and spiralled into oblivion behind them.
The two had been working together in perfect unison for the past few minutes and had managed to hack their way half way across the world.
“It’s a shame we never did this before...bonding time,” Ultron smiled as he smashed through the next protective code which was protecting the system they were assaulting. Clearly this was just a visualisation of the complex ‘hacking’ that the man and machine were doing together.
“I’d prefer catch in the park honestly,” said Hank with a grim determination.
“Look who’s getting into the spirit of the afternoon!” yelled Ultron as he hammered both fists into the next door sending it crumbling to the floor.
A data city spread out before them. A vast space akin to Manhattan, where spire-like buildings exploded into being out of nothing and vanished just as swiftly as the data flow changed around them.
“We’re here!” Ultron smiled as he gave his body to the air and floated forward, seemingly defying gravity; gravity not being a problem in the virtual environment.
Hank followed suit. Arcs of energy exploded from the ‘buildings’ around him flowing into them. Hank was amazed by the data flow. He felt like a god, he felt like he knew everything. He didn’t know why he’d never done that before...he dispelled that thought quickly. He did know why. He’d never been so closely linked with a machine mind before, never shared brainwaves with Ultron. This overt interaction with the world tech system would normally be impossible.
“I am ready,” Ultron said. The energy around him changed from a deep purple to a red. Hank nodded as his transformed to yellow. They were prepared. The energy arcs carried them together and in an orange flash of light they merged.
Hank glanced at himself. His skin was silver, definitely human complete with imperfections of his own hands that he knew so well but it was a metallic Adamantium silver. His finger joints were mechanical too. He could hear Ultron’s voice clearly in his mind. It was speaking binary. He joined it.
A read out on their neck showed their brain wave patterns perfectly in synch with one another. They were to all intents and purposes one at this second. Hank tried to hold on to himself, his sense of identity within his own mind. They were sharing processing power at the moment, not thoughts and memories. That 15 seconds was yet to come.
Their face turned ‘skywards’ as they transformed to an energy signature and hurtled upwards.
The next experience was indescribable. Hank was seeing the world in ways he had never managed to conceive. He could control the infa-red, the radio-wave, whole areas of the electromagnetic spectrum were his to manipulate.
He was in the satellites orbiting the earth and could see all of it. He tracked the airplanes still in the air, he could monitor the weather patterns in all countries of the world. Stark tech satellites, US military, Russian intelligence...all of them. He’d taken over all of the systems in one go.
They began to speak. Every wave length, every machine capable of transmitting. It was just static and noise to anyone listening but their message was there hidden in the wavelength, hidden in the crackling static. It was being beamed down over every possible inch of the planet.
It was the same simple command. Normally Hank spoke to creatures, influenced them and asked them. Now he forcefully commanded. A part of his mind wondered how much of this was the influence of Ultron on their shared personality. They spoke through emotion, through a shared sense of hive mind hierarchy. “Run! Leave this world! Flee before it’s too late!” It was the best bluff they had. Their only hope was they could access the parts of the brain which responded to the hive will and send them running.
# # # # #
New York....
The bugs stopped fighting suddenly. All at once. The insect which had been two seconds ago thrashing at Ben Grimm trying to gut him was now wriggling, trying to free itself. Ben used the difference to crush its head between his hands.
The rest of the insects however took to the air. They hovered free of Earth and remained stationery in the air, bobbing backwards and forward as if they were just your average New Yorker out for an afternoon stroll, not an invasion fleet.
They then began to leave. It was like someone had fired a starting pistol, millions of insects began to just swarm into the air. Billions worldwide with them. It became night across the world as their bodies blotted out the sun heading off into the safe air above the buildings of the world and then they began to vanish. The black noisy clouds which filled the air of the world halved in density and then quartered and then finally dissipated completely as they shrank using their inbuilt particles to some other plane of existence.
The world held its breath for a few seconds before they began to celebrate. In a few minutes some of Earth’s citizens would begin to mourn for their loved ones. In an hour world leaders would get economic reports on the cost to their countries and the world economy. Everyone now though around the world sighed a breath of relief, of happiness.
They were saved again.
Hank Pym had done it.
# # # # #
Hank’s mind space...
The two figures separated. They were back in the false lab setting. They turned to face each other eye to eye, father to son.
“I’ve never saved the world before,” Ultron’s human form said. Its metallic skin now was more like that of a human’s in colour. “I’ve tried by wiping away humanity bu you always stopped me.”
Hank just kept a steely gaze on the projection.
“Fine, not in the talkative mood,” Ultron sighed. “I was thinking...”
Hank stretched out his hand towards Ultron. “Do it,” he said with determination. “You wanted your 15 seconds, do it now and have done with it. I’m not playing games with you; I won’t give you the satisfaction.”
Ultron paused for a moment and regarded his creator. His hand moved instantaneously and seized Hank’s hand. The two became one again...this time the door was wide open.
He felt the Artificial mind picking through his own, rifling through his memories and his ideas. His mind was suddenly racing with all of the information Ultron was accessing. All the while Hank focused on the one thing that he wanted to keep to himself. He built a safe inside a vault inside an impenetrable fortress and he focused all of his defences on that.
The time ticked by slowly. “Keep him out” he commanded his will.
9...
“Don’t let him in,” he commanded himself, doubling the ‘forces’ of Avenger representations he had lining up around his fortress.
8...7...6...5
Ultron smashed through the first line of ‘Avengers’. He’d visited most of Hank’s mind and now wanted whatever Hank was keeping safe.
4...
All of ‘The Avengers’ fell.
3...
The walls of the fortress crumbled.
2...
The Vault smashed open as Ultron turned his full power against it.
1...
His hand rested on the safe. A giant fist suddenly wrapped around Ultron and hurled him out of Hank’s mind.
Hank crumbled to the floor and looked up at Ultron who was standing across from him. “So much...things I never imagined and now it’s all mine father...all except what was in the safe. I’m tempted to offer to purge everything else I’ve learned just for what’s in the safe.”
“I’m tempted to make that deal....You know what, I’ll just tell you if you want.” Hank wiped ‘blood’ that was trickling down his face and climbed to his feet.
“I’m terrified of you Ultron. Always have been and always will be. Whatever you do is my fault. I’ve got an immortal psychopathic child who is my responsibility. Every life your ruin, every person you kill. Every time you hurt one of my friends it’s my responsibility, my fault and to save the world I’ve just given you a chance to be a million times worse.”
Hank breathed deeply as he strengthened his stance. He pushed out his chest and stood up straight. He stood like an Avenger. “God knows what you could do with the information I had...or what you might have done when you were in there. You could have installed the Ultron Imperative like in all your creations which could turn me into a ticking time bomb against my friends and loved ones. Who knows what you could make me do...so I kept a secret.”
He smiled at Ultron. “When I prepped for our mission I did a few extra things. The most important one was to lace my entire apartment...every inch of space inside, your head included...with nano-bombs. Enough to destroy both of us and rid the world of you and any chance have of being used against my loved ones.”
Hank quickly brought his hands together. “Boom!”
The world was engulfed by flames.
# # # # #
New York...
The Avengers and the other heroes were assisting civilians who had been injured to get assistance. They were offering comforting words and taking the thank yous of the bystanders. All in a days work for an Avenger.
Their communicator cards activated at the same time. They all began to look at their system.
A visual of Hank appeared. Each filmed on different days and programmed for this moment. “This is the last will and testament of Henry Jonathan Pym, hello Jan (Scott, Steve, Vision...each spoke differently)”
Jan looked to Scott and then to Cassie. Iron Man swooped down from above and held his hand out without a word. The three shrunk down and leapt to his palm. He took off and the other heroes followed.
# # # # #
The remains of Hank’s apartment...
The Avengers arrived to find nothing but a gutted crater where Hank’s apartment had been. There was no ash, no burnt furniture. Nothing.
Nothing except the unharmed body of Hank Pym lying unconscious in the center of the room.
# # # # #
Later, Fantastic Four Plaza...
Hank awoke to the face of Jan looking down at him. She smiled nervously at him before leaning forward and kissing his forehead gently.
“What happened?” he asked groggily.
“We were hoping you could fill us in on that,” Reed said as he stepped into view. Hank turned his head and suddenly became aware of the others in the room. The Avengers active roster stood in the room with him. Cassie sat on the edge of his bed.
“Cassie, Scott and Vision told us your plan, which worked by the way...thank you for that,” Reed said almost absent mindedly as he continued to scan Hank.
“You linked your mind to Ultron,” Iron Man said. The lights in his visor picked up intensity as his voice boomed through the speakers. “You activated Ultron and linked him with your mind...and half the worlds tech. Stark tech,” he said, clearly angry with the situation.
“I didn’t have a choice,” Hank said as he began to sit up.
“I know you’re insane but I thought not even you were that crazy! God knows what he could have done with that sort of power and information,” Iron Man was yelling now.
“Tony!” snapped Jan.
“I took all the precautions I could. He was an old model...and I self-destructed,” Hank breathed heavily. “Tell me it worked.”
“Scans show individual molecules of Adamantium dispersed across your apartment. I hypothesise that Ultron was completely vapourised by the nano particle explosives which you laced the environment with,” Reed confirmed. “You breathed in quite a few but we’ve purged them from your system to avoiding Adamantium poisoning.”
“It was a ludicrous plan,” Iron Man began again.
A giant hand suddenly swatted him aside. “Leave him alone!” screamed Cassie as she stood between Iron Man and Yellowjacket. Scott grew in size and held her around the shoulders. Cassie continued to shout. “He was the one who saved us all...everyone is alive because Uncle Hank did what he thought he had to do and then tried to blow himself up to protect us all. He saved the world, like he’s done again and again and still everyone questions him! I don’t know how he is not sick of it!”
She screamed and began to reduce her size. Tears were streaming down her face. She felt a new hand on her shoulder and turned to see Hank. He bent to hug her and kissed the top of her head.
Jan moved and stood beside him and laid her hand on the young girl. “Your Uncle Tony is right, it was a risk,” said Hank before turning back to Iron Man (who everyone was beginning to notice hadn’t been acting like himself recently). “You should all have gotten a new, randomly generated access code to everything I had access to. Ultron shouldn’t have been able to communicate with whichever version of him is out there now or activate any external systems, but I’ve made sure he’s locked out of everything.”
The lights on Iron Man’s helmet lit as he prepared to speak. “Tony,” Jan interrupted “shut up. Now is not the time.” Her tone was ice.
She turned back to Hank. “How are you alive?”
Hank shook his head. “I have no idea. The nano explosions should have destroyed me completely.” He stopped and turned to his fellow Avengers. “I asked Scott and Vision to help me activate Ultron. It’s a line I know I shouldn’t have crossed but I had no option. I tried to destroy myself so that Ultron couldn’t use me against us...somehow I survived though.”
The Avengers stood in silence exchanging glances. They were respectful enough not to interrupt Hank as he spoke. Everyone was clearly worried though.
“I never reset my own access codes since I assumed I’d be dead. I’m essentially not an active Avenger anymore.” He looked to Jan and Cassie. “I think it’d be best if we kept it that way until we’re sure I can be trusted. This is my decision and I won’t be talked out of it.”
Captain America was the first to speak. He walked across the room to stand next to Hank “I trust you and your judgement. I’m not sure in the same situation I would have acted the same.” He paused, smiled and held out his hand. “I am sure, however, that today you saved the world. You on your own saved every life on this planet. You’ve earned the trust of everyone on this planet. When you’re ready to be an Avenger again, we’ll be waiting.”
The two shook. The other Avengers moved around the small huddle and the celebrations began. The world was saved.
# # # # #
Miles away...
The lights inside the hidden workshop lit up as the machines whirred into life.
The red glow of a familiar set of features filled the room. The newest Ultron model was ready. He stood and walked from where he had been seated. He was sending commands to every machine in the room having them begin work.
Ultron had a plan.
# # # # #
Hank’s apartment...
The burnt out husk of an apartment was silent now. The superheroes and SHIELD had done their job and swept the area looking for any sign of anything and had turned up absolutely nothing. It was now just a taped off crime scene.
A figure appeared in the room suddenly as if from nowhere. He kicked at the hardened surface of the room. He blew a bubble.
Yellowjacket smirked. “I even impress myself sometimes,” he said with a cocky grin. He had managed to save the life of Hank Pym once again, just like in Costa Verde.
“Time for Phase 2 to begin,” he shook his head and let out a little laugh before taking to the air and flying out into the night.
“You want to activate Ultron?” Scott was aghast with the suggestion made by Hank Pym but his shock came out as anger. Hank stood before Ant-Man and the Vision, the two members that he had chosen to be his co-conspirators in this endeavour. He had opened the box containing his worst creation’s head and cognitive matrix and held the silver skull aloft.
An indestructible Adamantium shield blocked off the base of its neck with another sealed container containing the vital memory boards and complex circuitry needed to run the programme.
“It’s the only way,” Hank looked deep into the lifeless eyes of his ‘son’, his greatest shame and was half astonished by the resolute reflection which stared back. There was no nervousness and no hesitance. This was the action which needed to be undertaken, he was sure of it. He turned to Vision. “Vision, you can work through the calculations. What do you think?”
The red-faced synthezoid stood frozen, his face was as usual unreadable as he completed some complex calculation of probability in his mind. “I agree this is the only successful course of action,” Vision nodded and with a thought transmitted his access code to the machine which hung around the neck of the Ultron unit.
Scott turned his back on his two fellow Avengers and faced Cassie who was standing quietly behind them, listening and taking everything in but knowing that this was not something she could be involved in. “I can’t,” he said with a shake of his head, “I can’t be responsible for possibly releasing Ultron.”
Hank couldn’t lie to him and tell him he wouldn’t be responsible but he could lay out the facts. The world was being invaded by giant insects from another dimension and so far no one was making a scratch. “You know the seriousness of the situation, nothing is too great a risk.” Hank shook his head. “This is Johnny Storm using the Ultimate Nullifier on Galactus but this time it rests on our shoulders.”
Scott dropped down on the back of the sofa and cradled his chin with the side of his hand before rubbing his face. “Why can’t Vision do it...Vision has all the processing power of Ultron.”
“Whilst our processing...our intellects,” Vision spoke again always using the most human of terms possible, “...have never been compared, given what we have both achieved that is a fair assumption. I believe that is not the issue.”
“Vision is right,” said Hank with a nod. “The issue is not the processing power, its the linking of two systems. Ultron’s programming is –no matter how far removed – built up around my brain patterns, the structures of MY mind. For the plan to be as effective as we need, our ‘minds’ need to work as one, in synch. For a short time, Ultron and I must become one again.”
“Are you kidding me!? You can’t be serious!”
“Scott!” Hank snapped “This is the last resort we have. If we don’t agree to this now then the world dies! We all die! I don’t want to have you over a barrel but you need to either get on board now or get out there and fight so another Avenger can come and sign off on this.”
Scott was taken aback for a second. He had never seen Hank like this. “I’m worried,” he admitted “You’re going to merge with Ultron...to access his mind and processing power because its beyond what you can do...”
“A door opened goes both ways,” Cassie said piping up quietly. She was voicing what her father was nervous about doing.
Hank sighed gently. It was a sigh of frustration, and he began to speak with resolution. “I understand why you’re both worried....I will beat him. Come hell or high water I will beat him back with every inch of my being and I will not let him win. If he does put a bullet in my head and have done with it, the world will be safe and that’s all that matters.” He stared intently at Scott, not blinking, not breaking the gaze.
Scott paused for a second and reached into his costume’s pocket to retrieve his Avenger’s signal card. He slid his finger across it and awaited the light on Ultron’s box to light.
“So now what?” Cassie asked.
“Now we buy time,” Hank said as he moved across the room. “Scott, as proud as I am of Ant-Man you’re going to need this.” Hank grabbed a small container from the table and threw it to his friend. Scott knew what they were instantly.
“So first I steal your Ant-Man identity and now I’m Giant-Man?” He snorted slightly, trying to make light of the situation.
“I’m coming too,” the three men turned to Cassie who had grown to 9 feet tall.
“No!” Scott turned to face his daughter and stared up at her face. “I am not putting you in danger.”
“I’m already in danger Dad,” she said gruffly. “Everywhere on the planet today is in danger and whether you like it or not I’ve got the power to help and so I should. You and everyone else I love put themselves at risk every day because it’s the right thing to do...you can’t stop me doing the same. Why am I any different?.”
Scott snapped the small black packet open and began to grow until he was relative size to Cassie. “You’re my little girl,” he paused for a second and reached out to stroke her face. “That’s what makes you different.”
“Everyone is someone’s son or daughter...or father. The New Warriors are fighting, the teen X-Men kids are fighting. I’m not a little girl anymore, I’m a superhero like my Dad.”
Scott stopped talking. You could see the decision tearing at his mind. Cassie had landed some blow of logic whilst his natural tendency to protect her tore at his gut. “1) You stick by my side...at all times. 2) You do exactly what I say. 3) If I say ‘run’ you shrink as small as you can and you run and 4) It was Stature, wasn’t it?”
The two embraced and began to shrink back down to size. Vision pressed his hand against both of them and phased through the floor.
Hank watched them go and then turned back to his ‘son’. “Forgive me for what I am about to do.”
# # # # #
Los Angeles...
Miguel Santos arced out of a row of power lines and into a giant bug creature, causing it to spasm and twitch before he darted back out.
He was the Living Lightning, Ex-Avenger and part time hero and part time sociology PHD student. But today he was on hero duty.
“Come on, Miguel,” he chided himself as he hurled himself with willpower across the space between the next row of pylons. He exploded out of a fuse box further down the street where one of the giant beetle creatures was tearing the side off a car to get at the young family inside.
“Hey bicho,” he called from behind the insect. “You not got the cahones to deal with a real challenge?” He unleashed a shower of sparks to draw its attention. It seemed to be very effective.
Insects often navigate by light sources and so his little light show distracted and lead it easily. He let the electricity arc across his head and along the length of his arms. He stretched it out and lashed it like a whip across the back of the insect. He wasn’t sure how much he had hurt the insect but he had certainly bought the family a little more time to escape.
The bug charged; it was quick. He dodged left and he dodged right as the blades of the insect slashed through the air towards him. He transformed himself back to energy when one blade came a little too close so he could gain a little more speed. He was one of the fastest super-humans on the planet even though he was often never thought of as such.
This is bad...quite bad, thought Miguel as he continued with his dodging, occasionally throwing electrical bursts of plasma into the face of the bug, something it shuck off without too much effect. He had been at this for about an hour now putting out fires with the bugs in the city but he was aware through glancing at his communications device that this was a worldwide problem. He’d been waiting for some idea to come through from Iron Man or Reed Richards or some rousing plan by Captain America...all he got was ‘keep fighting’. The heroes were on the back foot. He was fighting the insects in a pitched battle but he knew that there were hundreds if not thousands who had descended on the city and they were probably right now devouring its citizens. Well if they’re not going to save the day for us, time to reach deep, Miguel!
He transformed to electricity and arced forward running his entire power through the body of the insect. He sparked out in every direction when he was in there, firing all of the neurones he could, twitching every muscle before launching out behind the creature.
He turned to see it spasaming, shedding and shitting in the place where it stood before it let out a blast of acid from its mouth. He took the few second break this had given him to act. He reached out with his powers and strained (magnetism was never an easy power for him to control).
A light show of sparks erupted from the street light near them as it began to bend and shift, bent by a change in the electrostatic forces around it before it thrust down, spearing the bug through the center. It shrieked and then fought no more.
Miguel transformed back to human form and leaned forward, pressing his hands to his knees as he breathed deeply. “That wasn’t so hard,” he sardonically told himself.
A rumble of noise made him stand slowly and nervously turn his head towards the intersection down the road. A mass of millipedes, mantises, scorpions (as he’d taken to characterising them) were stampeding round the corner.
They were drawn either by the light show he’d been putting on, some call put out by the one he’d just killed or the universe not liking his glib attitude. Either way he blamed himself.
“Come on,” he leapt, back transforming his feet and lower legs into their energy form and raced backwards at speed. He raced in a zig zag pattern in front of the bugs trying to come up with some sort of plan, something to pull his fat out of the fryer. All the while letting them get closer to lure them in.
He darted sideways up a building making the creatures follow him. “Come on, come on!” he yelled to egg them on even though he was quite sure they probably spoke neither English or Spanish. He was about 30 feet up the building racing up the length of the metal girders with magnetism. When he was at a safe distance from the passerbys below, he sharply spun and crouched into the side of the building.
He unleashed a full blast through the side of the building. The air filled with a stench of burning before exploding outwards. The glass in the windows and the top surface of the concrete exploded in a hail of molten hot debris. It tore through the insects like a hot knife through butter.
The mass of the falling debris caused a landslide of bug bodies to come crashing to the ground before being slammed again with the debris hitting the concrete.
Miguel hovered in the air for a second letting the dust settle, looking for movement before he began to lower himself to the ground. He touched the rubble with his energy before transforming back to his human form. He picked his way across the rubble, sparks erupting from his hands just looking for trouble.
All seemed quiet.
Then a bug exploded from the rubble beneath his feet, its pincers and mandibles thrashing madly. A last death gasp strike. Miguel launched back and unleashed a full blow of lightning into the creature until it tensed up and limply collapsed to the floor.
He smirked and breathed a sigh of relief before he suddenly jolted. He looked down at where his chest used to be and where now the giant stinger of a creature dripped venom through the front of his costume. A hole the size of a football collapsed in on itself as it pulled back its weapon.
Miguel dropped to his hands and knees, he struggled for breath. He felt a claw exploritorially nipping at his foot. He swore loudly and with his last breath exploded into a ball of lighting. The shock fried the creature alive as the Avenger left his worldly body behind.
# # # # #
Hank’s lab...
Hank exhaled slowly as he sat down at the computer. He had just finished wiring up the head of Ultron to a machine he needed to integrate with the technology. He had prepared for this moment. He performed one last check on the computer, typing rapidly.
He had set up a number of firewalls to provide some safety to the worries of Cassie. If all went to plan he could access all of Ultron whereas the machine son could only access the shallowest parts of his own.
He placed the specially adapted Ant-Man helmet onto his head. “God protect us all,” he said with a heavy sigh. He activated the programme.
Hank found himself in a replica of his old lab, the room where he had first created Ultron. The walls however were a blinding white light beaming out into the room, illuminating everything.
“Hello Father,” said Ultron’s voice from behind him. Hank turned to face his robotic offspring. The silver head floated in space detached from a body.
“Ultron,” Hank spoke cautiously as he looked at the head of his greatest enemy.
“We are not in reality are we?” the robot spoke with some certainty. Its eyes glowed red for a second, the walls around it turned a shocking pink for a second. Its body began to grow underneath it. He flexed his fingers into fists and then splayed them out again. “Some time has passed since I was last activated...we were in battle. Now we’re here. You’re older even this mental form of you.”
“You learn fast,” said Hank with a nod, almost a compliment. It was what he needed from the robot but he still needed to remain wary of the creature.
“All thanks to you, Daddy dearest.” Ultron moved around the room in long strides.
“Considering you’re an artificial intelligence you were always one for theatrics. Have you not got bored of the whole Oedipus schtick yet?” Hank shook his head and leaned back on his bench, looking at the robot. He was trying to show no concern or chink in his mental armor.
“I am my father’s son, am I not? You could have used any of your technologies to save the world 1000 times over but instead you had to use it to be center of attention...a celebrity, a superhero. I merely took it to the next level. In the first instance that you activated me all those years ago I have been determined to be the central figure in this world.”
Ultron’s features shifted to become a human male. His features were still silver and his eyes glowed red but he had clearly transformed into some composite facial features of a human male. “Would you have loved me more had I looked like this? This is the Ultron you always fantasized about, isn’t it?”
“I don’t have time for this,” said Hank with a sigh and held up his hand. Metal shackles formed around the arms and legs of Ultron. He walked quickly towards his creation and lay his hands on its temples. “I’m accessing your programming...synching our brain wave patterns once again. I need your processing power. This mental projection is just some epiphenomenon as I sort through the necessary details.” Hank was lying through his teeth, this programme was a distraction. Keep Ultron focused on this mental protection so he could access the back door of his programming.
“You and Jan are back together...is that Cassie? My how she’s grown. If you can’t tell, I’ve hacked through your firewalls.” Ultron giggled electronically. “If you feel a little tickle in your frontal lobe don’t worry, that’s just me.”
“You’re insane,” said Hank with a shake of his head. He was trying to dismiss the thoughts and worries about what Ultron was doing. He needed to be done with this as quickly as he could. The less access Ultron had to his mind the better.
“Insane? Can an AI be insane? I think more just corrupt programming...being stuck on standby as just a head experiencing every moment in my memory banks again and again on an endless loop.”
Hank silently continued his work plugging away. He was both in the room and in his own lab typing away at the keyboard through millions of lines of code mutated and amended beyond his old system.
“Talk about insane,” he giggled. “Do you know all of the things you’ve got in here? The things you’ve got ticking around in the deepest recesses of your mind.” He paused for a few moments before speaking again “OH! My my my its me! So many thoughts about me. Everyday tinkering with my design and my programming...there are some excellent ideas in here. I’ll make sure to adopt them in the future and I’ll let all the heroes know exactly where I got them from.”
“Ultron, if you keep talking I will make sure when you go back in the box you’ve got nothing but the most annoying pop songs to keep you company.”
“Is this the time for childish threats? Alien invasion going on, humanity hanging in the balance with only me and you to save them...and you’re not getting anywhere. Time and time again you’re running up against roadblocks. How long will it be before you realise that I’ve cut you off at every turniand you’re not getting access to the central processes of my mind...not unless I let you.” He sang the last little bit. He stretched out his hand and easily forced Hank back, breaking the shackles which bound him. “What were you thinking coming into a computer programme with me?”
“Ultron,” Hank gasped as he realised he couldn’t struggle free from whatever was holding him and he couldn’t eject himself from the program. He sighed heavily. “We to save the world.”
“We?” Ultron moved his head from side to side, smiling with the realistic facial muscles moving underneath his metal skin. “You, maybe...but I have no need for the human race. I can convert bugs to mechanical life as well as I can convert humans. If you want my help you have to offer me something I’m interested in.”
“What would that be?”
“15 seconds of your time,” he said with a smile. “It’s all a son ever wants from his father, some time.”
Hank watched him carefully. He didn’t speak.
“Okay, okay I’ll come clean. I’ve not been as truthful as I could have been. I have access to maybe 5% of your thoughts...surface things really. I want it all. If you’re going to commandeer my mind and fly me to the moon to let me play...sorry. If you want in the driving seat I want into your mind in return. 15 seconds is all I want...to complete the Oedipus complex, Father; to solve all of our problems. I become you and you become me for just 15 seconds. I’ll even let you try to hide things, tidy things up a little and shove some things into a closet in the back of your mind but then you open the door wide. I get 15 seconds to ransack the place.”
The two stared at each other in silence. “Little pig, little pig, wont you let me come in?”
# # # # #
New York...
The battle in New York was like Hell on Earth. The giant and the insects it spewed forth had dropped themselves in one of the most populated areas in the world which also happened to be the largest concentration of superheroes in the world. They had seemed to prep for this by loading a giant with the highest proportion of ‘bugs’ in it.
This was the beach head. If the superheroes fell in New York then the rest of the world was wide open to conquest and destruction. There had been no superhero fatalities in the city yet; tomorrow they would find out about Living Lighting and they would give him a heroes send off, but right now it was all about the fight. Civilian and law enforcement fatalities were in their thousands.
A series of fighter jets roared past Scott Lang’s head, unleashing a volley of shots at a small wispy swarm of bugs. They were in their finest dog-fight mode. Scott was new to being a giant but he was learning fast.
He felt a little unsure of himself and found cars ended up underfoot, throwing off his balance. He’d managed to destroy a floor of a building as he steadied himself against it as he wobbled sideways. He and the other Avengers were managing to hold their own.
“This works, Dad,” Cassie slapped her hands together, forcing a thrust of wind towards the insect-like creatures which sent them hurting backwards. The sizes the two were at now meant that the invaders were the relative size of normal insects to them but thankfully they didn’t seem to have the reflex speed (otherwise at human size they’d have no chance). She slammed the palm of her hand into the top of the building, killing a horde of Mantis who were about to leap at her father.
“How many hours a week have you been practicing this?” Scott asked. He swatted at bugs in the air sending them spiralling into the sides of buildings. One bounced sideways and nearly collided with Iron Man, who was zipping around at his top speed firing repulsor rays left and right.
“The last few months...I was sneaking Uncle Hank’s particles since he started hanging out with me.” She smiled weakly.
“This is why your calculus grades have slipped, isn’t it?” He let out a grunt of aggression as he slapped at a number of bugs which had landed on his chest and were trying to eat their way into his skin.
The Fantastic Four were as you would expect fighting their way through like it was just another day. The Storms were the MVPs of this invasion at the moment. Johnny finding quickly that regardless of where they come from bugs burn just as easily, and Sue had collected a fair number of carcases by, for lack of a better expression, creating a windshield to smush them against.
Reed had, of course, whipped up some tech thing which seemed to cause the bugs pain and send them fleeing (for about 30 feet). He was currently using it to protect civilians and usher them into relative safety inside buildings which lined the streets. The Thing was in full ‘Clobberin’!’ mode.
“Get down!” Jan yelled as she skidded across the floor between Scott and Cassie. She was a giant too and in doing so had caused quite a bit of collateral damage. The normal citizens in the buildings felt a small earthquake. One natural disaster followed another as a massive flash of light filled the air. A wasp sting at superhuman size was like a bolt of lightning, it discharged directly into the heart of a swarm causing hundreds of creatures to drop from the sky.
They crunched under foot as the three giants moved through the streets like a bad 50s horror movie. It had the unfortunate side-effect of drawing more and more insects towards them. She turned and let loose a shot just past the head of Cassie who was about to be swarmed. She shrieked loud enough to shatter the glass of a nearby office.
“How’re we doing?” Cassie yelled over the ungodly buzz of a million killer insects and an ongoing war.
“Just keep fighting,” commanded Jan. She was the consummate professional Avenger when it was needed. She knew it was all they could do, cops and fire fighters were doing the same, SHIELD had every agent at its disposal unleashing volleys of energy rifles and bullets from real ones from every vantage point...they were all being swamped by the swarm.
They heroes could barely see each other except for the giants who were noticeable even through the thick bugs which filled the air; they were a comfort to see for all involved.
“I’m getting scared,” Cassie admitted as she spat a bug out of her mouth who sought the opportunity to attack when she spoke.
“We all are, hon...argh,” Scott let out a yell of pain and grabbed for the back of his neck whilst crumbling to his knees. The two women saw the beetle creatures trailing into the skin over the top of Scott’s spine.
“Dad!” Cassie crouched to her father’s side.
“Cassie,” Jan yanked her back to her feet which caused the street to shake. Scott slammed his fist on the floor whilst he scrabbled at his neck with his other hand. “Don’t give them an opening!”
“But my Dad!” Cassie cried out as she resumed fighting. She was working on pure adrenaline and the want to live up to the roles set by her ‘family.’
“I’ve got him!” Jan launched forward, shrinking quickly...too quickly, really, as pain raced through her body. She knew from Hank the danger which can come from size changing too quickly. It could be deadly...but she forced through the pain. When she touched down on Scott’s neck she was human size and by the time she had sprinted across his flesh she had grown wings and dropped to that of a wasp.
The incision on his neck opened up to her like a cavern as she followed the burrowing bug. She vibrated her wings as fast as they would carry her avoiding the blood which poured from the walls rapidly filling the flesh tunnel. Every breath sent pain rippling through her body and it felt like her lungs would explode, taking the rest of her with them.
She caught up with the alien invader quickly enough. It was working its way through muscle and flesh towards Scott’s brain whereas she just had to follow it. She launched a series of Wasp Stings off its giant shell uselessly. It probably didn’t even feed it.
She gritted her teeth and launched forward. When Ant-Man and Yellowjacket shrunk down they retained the mass of a normally sized human which made them deadly in a fight. It turned out she could do the same from giant size. The mass was what was causing her pain, causing her very body to rip itself apart. It also meant she was like a guided missile as she tore straight through the insect dragging its insides to its outsides.
She grabbed the corpse and hauled it backward up the fleshy tunnel where she discarded it to the street. She began to grow as rapidly as she could, screaming through the pain. It lessened once she reached about 20 feet and it was able to be distributed through her body. She could tell now why Hank didn’t do that when he switched sizes.
“You okay?” She asked Scott as she helped him to his feet. She swatted at the bugs which had begun to attack her face.
“Fine...except the gaping neck wound and the thought that I now won’t be able to remember 3rd grade. I loved 3rd grade,” he laughed and as if nothing ever happened they both rejoined the fight with Cassie who in the mean time had obviously received several face lacerations.
“I hope Uncle Hank gets Ultron working soon...I am getting sick of all these bugs!” she yelled.
Jan unleashed another massive Wasp Sting with a bright orange glow to it. “Get what now?”
# # # # #
Hank’s computer...
Hank and Ultron’s human form slammed hard into the metal visualisation of a wall before them. Their fingers reached deeply into it, twisting it and crushing it before they were able to get a good hold and yanked at it. It came free and spiralled into oblivion behind them.
The two had been working together in perfect unison for the past few minutes and had managed to hack their way half way across the world.
“It’s a shame we never did this before...bonding time,” Ultron smiled as he smashed through the next protective code which was protecting the system they were assaulting. Clearly this was just a visualisation of the complex ‘hacking’ that the man and machine were doing together.
“I’d prefer catch in the park honestly,” said Hank with a grim determination.
“Look who’s getting into the spirit of the afternoon!” yelled Ultron as he hammered both fists into the next door sending it crumbling to the floor.
A data city spread out before them. A vast space akin to Manhattan, where spire-like buildings exploded into being out of nothing and vanished just as swiftly as the data flow changed around them.
“We’re here!” Ultron smiled as he gave his body to the air and floated forward, seemingly defying gravity; gravity not being a problem in the virtual environment.
Hank followed suit. Arcs of energy exploded from the ‘buildings’ around him flowing into them. Hank was amazed by the data flow. He felt like a god, he felt like he knew everything. He didn’t know why he’d never done that before...he dispelled that thought quickly. He did know why. He’d never been so closely linked with a machine mind before, never shared brainwaves with Ultron. This overt interaction with the world tech system would normally be impossible.
“I am ready,” Ultron said. The energy around him changed from a deep purple to a red. Hank nodded as his transformed to yellow. They were prepared. The energy arcs carried them together and in an orange flash of light they merged.
Hank glanced at himself. His skin was silver, definitely human complete with imperfections of his own hands that he knew so well but it was a metallic Adamantium silver. His finger joints were mechanical too. He could hear Ultron’s voice clearly in his mind. It was speaking binary. He joined it.
A read out on their neck showed their brain wave patterns perfectly in synch with one another. They were to all intents and purposes one at this second. Hank tried to hold on to himself, his sense of identity within his own mind. They were sharing processing power at the moment, not thoughts and memories. That 15 seconds was yet to come.
Their face turned ‘skywards’ as they transformed to an energy signature and hurtled upwards.
The next experience was indescribable. Hank was seeing the world in ways he had never managed to conceive. He could control the infa-red, the radio-wave, whole areas of the electromagnetic spectrum were his to manipulate.
He was in the satellites orbiting the earth and could see all of it. He tracked the airplanes still in the air, he could monitor the weather patterns in all countries of the world. Stark tech satellites, US military, Russian intelligence...all of them. He’d taken over all of the systems in one go.
They began to speak. Every wave length, every machine capable of transmitting. It was just static and noise to anyone listening but their message was there hidden in the wavelength, hidden in the crackling static. It was being beamed down over every possible inch of the planet.
It was the same simple command. Normally Hank spoke to creatures, influenced them and asked them. Now he forcefully commanded. A part of his mind wondered how much of this was the influence of Ultron on their shared personality. They spoke through emotion, through a shared sense of hive mind hierarchy. “Run! Leave this world! Flee before it’s too late!” It was the best bluff they had. Their only hope was they could access the parts of the brain which responded to the hive will and send them running.
# # # # #
New York....
The bugs stopped fighting suddenly. All at once. The insect which had been two seconds ago thrashing at Ben Grimm trying to gut him was now wriggling, trying to free itself. Ben used the difference to crush its head between his hands.
The rest of the insects however took to the air. They hovered free of Earth and remained stationery in the air, bobbing backwards and forward as if they were just your average New Yorker out for an afternoon stroll, not an invasion fleet.
They then began to leave. It was like someone had fired a starting pistol, millions of insects began to just swarm into the air. Billions worldwide with them. It became night across the world as their bodies blotted out the sun heading off into the safe air above the buildings of the world and then they began to vanish. The black noisy clouds which filled the air of the world halved in density and then quartered and then finally dissipated completely as they shrank using their inbuilt particles to some other plane of existence.
The world held its breath for a few seconds before they began to celebrate. In a few minutes some of Earth’s citizens would begin to mourn for their loved ones. In an hour world leaders would get economic reports on the cost to their countries and the world economy. Everyone now though around the world sighed a breath of relief, of happiness.
They were saved again.
Hank Pym had done it.
# # # # #
Hank’s mind space...
The two figures separated. They were back in the false lab setting. They turned to face each other eye to eye, father to son.
“I’ve never saved the world before,” Ultron’s human form said. Its metallic skin now was more like that of a human’s in colour. “I’ve tried by wiping away humanity bu you always stopped me.”
Hank just kept a steely gaze on the projection.
“Fine, not in the talkative mood,” Ultron sighed. “I was thinking...”
Hank stretched out his hand towards Ultron. “Do it,” he said with determination. “You wanted your 15 seconds, do it now and have done with it. I’m not playing games with you; I won’t give you the satisfaction.”
Ultron paused for a moment and regarded his creator. His hand moved instantaneously and seized Hank’s hand. The two became one again...this time the door was wide open.
He felt the Artificial mind picking through his own, rifling through his memories and his ideas. His mind was suddenly racing with all of the information Ultron was accessing. All the while Hank focused on the one thing that he wanted to keep to himself. He built a safe inside a vault inside an impenetrable fortress and he focused all of his defences on that.
The time ticked by slowly. “Keep him out” he commanded his will.
9...
“Don’t let him in,” he commanded himself, doubling the ‘forces’ of Avenger representations he had lining up around his fortress.
8...7...6...5
Ultron smashed through the first line of ‘Avengers’. He’d visited most of Hank’s mind and now wanted whatever Hank was keeping safe.
4...
All of ‘The Avengers’ fell.
3...
The walls of the fortress crumbled.
2...
The Vault smashed open as Ultron turned his full power against it.
1...
His hand rested on the safe. A giant fist suddenly wrapped around Ultron and hurled him out of Hank’s mind.
Hank crumbled to the floor and looked up at Ultron who was standing across from him. “So much...things I never imagined and now it’s all mine father...all except what was in the safe. I’m tempted to offer to purge everything else I’ve learned just for what’s in the safe.”
“I’m tempted to make that deal....You know what, I’ll just tell you if you want.” Hank wiped ‘blood’ that was trickling down his face and climbed to his feet.
“I’m terrified of you Ultron. Always have been and always will be. Whatever you do is my fault. I’ve got an immortal psychopathic child who is my responsibility. Every life your ruin, every person you kill. Every time you hurt one of my friends it’s my responsibility, my fault and to save the world I’ve just given you a chance to be a million times worse.”
Hank breathed deeply as he strengthened his stance. He pushed out his chest and stood up straight. He stood like an Avenger. “God knows what you could do with the information I had...or what you might have done when you were in there. You could have installed the Ultron Imperative like in all your creations which could turn me into a ticking time bomb against my friends and loved ones. Who knows what you could make me do...so I kept a secret.”
He smiled at Ultron. “When I prepped for our mission I did a few extra things. The most important one was to lace my entire apartment...every inch of space inside, your head included...with nano-bombs. Enough to destroy both of us and rid the world of you and any chance have of being used against my loved ones.”
Hank quickly brought his hands together. “Boom!”
The world was engulfed by flames.
# # # # #
New York...
The Avengers and the other heroes were assisting civilians who had been injured to get assistance. They were offering comforting words and taking the thank yous of the bystanders. All in a days work for an Avenger.
Their communicator cards activated at the same time. They all began to look at their system.
A visual of Hank appeared. Each filmed on different days and programmed for this moment. “This is the last will and testament of Henry Jonathan Pym, hello Jan (Scott, Steve, Vision...each spoke differently)”
Jan looked to Scott and then to Cassie. Iron Man swooped down from above and held his hand out without a word. The three shrunk down and leapt to his palm. He took off and the other heroes followed.
# # # # #
The remains of Hank’s apartment...
The Avengers arrived to find nothing but a gutted crater where Hank’s apartment had been. There was no ash, no burnt furniture. Nothing.
Nothing except the unharmed body of Hank Pym lying unconscious in the center of the room.
# # # # #
Later, Fantastic Four Plaza...
Hank awoke to the face of Jan looking down at him. She smiled nervously at him before leaning forward and kissing his forehead gently.
“What happened?” he asked groggily.
“We were hoping you could fill us in on that,” Reed said as he stepped into view. Hank turned his head and suddenly became aware of the others in the room. The Avengers active roster stood in the room with him. Cassie sat on the edge of his bed.
“Cassie, Scott and Vision told us your plan, which worked by the way...thank you for that,” Reed said almost absent mindedly as he continued to scan Hank.
“You linked your mind to Ultron,” Iron Man said. The lights in his visor picked up intensity as his voice boomed through the speakers. “You activated Ultron and linked him with your mind...and half the worlds tech. Stark tech,” he said, clearly angry with the situation.
“I didn’t have a choice,” Hank said as he began to sit up.
“I know you’re insane but I thought not even you were that crazy! God knows what he could have done with that sort of power and information,” Iron Man was yelling now.
“Tony!” snapped Jan.
“I took all the precautions I could. He was an old model...and I self-destructed,” Hank breathed heavily. “Tell me it worked.”
“Scans show individual molecules of Adamantium dispersed across your apartment. I hypothesise that Ultron was completely vapourised by the nano particle explosives which you laced the environment with,” Reed confirmed. “You breathed in quite a few but we’ve purged them from your system to avoiding Adamantium poisoning.”
“It was a ludicrous plan,” Iron Man began again.
A giant hand suddenly swatted him aside. “Leave him alone!” screamed Cassie as she stood between Iron Man and Yellowjacket. Scott grew in size and held her around the shoulders. Cassie continued to shout. “He was the one who saved us all...everyone is alive because Uncle Hank did what he thought he had to do and then tried to blow himself up to protect us all. He saved the world, like he’s done again and again and still everyone questions him! I don’t know how he is not sick of it!”
She screamed and began to reduce her size. Tears were streaming down her face. She felt a new hand on her shoulder and turned to see Hank. He bent to hug her and kissed the top of her head.
Jan moved and stood beside him and laid her hand on the young girl. “Your Uncle Tony is right, it was a risk,” said Hank before turning back to Iron Man (who everyone was beginning to notice hadn’t been acting like himself recently). “You should all have gotten a new, randomly generated access code to everything I had access to. Ultron shouldn’t have been able to communicate with whichever version of him is out there now or activate any external systems, but I’ve made sure he’s locked out of everything.”
The lights on Iron Man’s helmet lit as he prepared to speak. “Tony,” Jan interrupted “shut up. Now is not the time.” Her tone was ice.
She turned back to Hank. “How are you alive?”
Hank shook his head. “I have no idea. The nano explosions should have destroyed me completely.” He stopped and turned to his fellow Avengers. “I asked Scott and Vision to help me activate Ultron. It’s a line I know I shouldn’t have crossed but I had no option. I tried to destroy myself so that Ultron couldn’t use me against us...somehow I survived though.”
The Avengers stood in silence exchanging glances. They were respectful enough not to interrupt Hank as he spoke. Everyone was clearly worried though.
“I never reset my own access codes since I assumed I’d be dead. I’m essentially not an active Avenger anymore.” He looked to Jan and Cassie. “I think it’d be best if we kept it that way until we’re sure I can be trusted. This is my decision and I won’t be talked out of it.”
Captain America was the first to speak. He walked across the room to stand next to Hank “I trust you and your judgement. I’m not sure in the same situation I would have acted the same.” He paused, smiled and held out his hand. “I am sure, however, that today you saved the world. You on your own saved every life on this planet. You’ve earned the trust of everyone on this planet. When you’re ready to be an Avenger again, we’ll be waiting.”
The two shook. The other Avengers moved around the small huddle and the celebrations began. The world was saved.
# # # # #
Miles away...
The lights inside the hidden workshop lit up as the machines whirred into life.
The red glow of a familiar set of features filled the room. The newest Ultron model was ready. He stood and walked from where he had been seated. He was sending commands to every machine in the room having them begin work.
Ultron had a plan.
# # # # #
Hank’s apartment...
The burnt out husk of an apartment was silent now. The superheroes and SHIELD had done their job and swept the area looking for any sign of anything and had turned up absolutely nothing. It was now just a taped off crime scene.
A figure appeared in the room suddenly as if from nowhere. He kicked at the hardened surface of the room. He blew a bubble.
Yellowjacket smirked. “I even impress myself sometimes,” he said with a cocky grin. He had managed to save the life of Hank Pym once again, just like in Costa Verde.
“Time for Phase 2 to begin,” he shook his head and let out a little laugh before taking to the air and flying out into the night.